"I could not hear even one of them over the screaming wind. But that is a sight that will never leave me. The waves of earth crashing over the prairie. The sky exhaling all her birds." Karen Russell, The Antidote, pg. 23 Uz, Nebraska, is full of ghosts; ghosts of regrets, of accidents, of mistakes…
"I've seen a body taken by the sea, and the state of it will rid a man of any hubris. We are soberingly weak under its hammer. This woman, delivered by such a sea--one more powerful than most--is clinging on with a bewildering defiance." Charlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark Shore, pg. 5 The sea is many…
'"I host a radio show," Aiden says calmly. "Maya called in to ask for dating advice." My hand clenches around the phone. "Dating advice? She's twelve." "She didn't call for herself. She called for you." He makes a small huff of amusement. "My name is Aiden Valentine and you're live with Heartstrings, Baltimore's romance hotline.”'…
“The whole wreck heaves, and then the two men are lifting something from within. A body in white, soaked through with rainwater, her long chestnut hair streaming free from her limp head like a flag of a wrecked ship. Darkness rises all around me, and I sink to the earth.” Kat Dunn, Hungerstone, pg. 27…
'"You like her too much," Zamena says. Nobles are not like us. Never forget it." "She is different." "Why? Because she was born common? She isn't common now."' Costanza Casati, Babylonia, pg. 173 I'm always one to make sweeping predictions for what the new year will bring, literary-wise. Last year, I predicted that 2024 would…
I'm not much of a winter fan, much to the chagrin of my snow-loving partner. Too much sleet! Too much hidden ice! Even the pigeons under the bridge around where I live are shivering! The only way I can convince myself to go outside between November and February is helping out at my local…
“They stared down at the ground in stony imitation of the graveyard angels, without the blank unblinking eyes or patchy beards of lichen. When they heard Edie’s footsteps round the Drewalt obelisk, they looked up and she looked down and realized that what they were actually staring at was a hole in the ground.” M.L.…
Meet Allie, the newest Reference Librarian at Cook Memorial Public Library District! She and Hannah discuss recent reads, the never-ending debate between hardcover versus paperback, and how Allie got into the library business. https://traffic.libsyn.com/cooklib/Welcome_Allie.mp3 Titles mentioned in this episode: Martina Calvi’s The Art of Memory Collecting; Molly Baz’s More is More; Franz Kafka’s The…
"The girl's shoulders stopped trembling at "friend." Amazing how the word, so common and ordinary among those who practiced plain speech, could lift the spirits unfamiliar with the custom. Slowly, the girl unlaced her fingers and picked up her head. Pearl gasped. Cook had gone quiet. Abby refused to react." Caroline Woods, The Mesmerist, pg.…
“She looked back at the friendly horses and saw that one of them had those eyes—those human eyes. Not blue this time, but somehow possessing a human awareness. It did not look at her. It studied her. The horse raised its head a little and the eyes widened, as if seeing the recognition in her…
