Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.
This week on Top 10 Tuesday, we're calling out some of our favorite book passages. I thought I might make mine themed, but ultimately I just picked some fantastic lines from some gorgeous books. (If you read last week's Top 10 Tuesday on Books I Could Read Forever, many of these titles will feel familiar.) Some are funny (at least to me), some are fierce, some are beautiful, and some are totally nostalgia-city for me.
I made every effort to pick quotes that wouldn't spoil anything. Would any of these books or quotes make your list?
From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived. ― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Nothing as singular or as important had happened since the day of his birth. She returned his gaze, struck by the sense of her own transformation, and overwhelmed by the beauty in a face which a lifetime's habit had taught her to ignore. She whispered his name with the deliberation of a child trying out the distinct sounds. When he replied with her name, it sounded like a new word - the syllables remained the same, the meaning was different. Finally he spoke the three simple words that no amount of bad art or bad faith can ever quite cheapen. She repeated them, with exactly the same emphasis on the second word, as if she had been the one to say them first. He had no religious belief, but it was impossible not to think of an invisible presence or witness in the room, and that these words spoken aloud were like signatures on an unseen contract. ― Ian McEwan, Atonement
“I have your back. I didn't mean only when it's easy. All the time.” ― Ann Aguirre, Enclave
“Did I tell you I finally found the perfect page-cutter? It's a pearl-handled fruit knife. My mother left me a dozen of them, I keep one in the pencil cup on my desk. Maybe I go with the wrong kind of people but I'm just not likely to have twelve guests all sitting around simultaneously eating fruit.” ― Helene Hanff, 84, Charing Cross Road
“Well, are you ready, Lada Dragwlya, daughter of the dragon?" Fire burned in her heart, and her wounded soul spread out, casting a shadow like wings across her country. This was hers. Not because of her father. Not because of Mehmed. Because the land itself had claimed her as its own.
"Not Dragwlya," she said. "Lada Dracul. I am no longer the daughter of the dragon." She lifted her chin, sights set on the horizon.
"I am the dragon.” ― Kiersten White, And I Darken
"You could rattle the stars. You could do anything, if you only dared. And deep down, you know it too, and that's what scares you the most."
—Sarah J. Maas, Throne of Glass
“You’ve read the books?” “I’ve seen the movies.” Cath rolled her eyes so hard, it hurt. (Actually.) (Maybe because she was still on the edge of tears. On the edge, period.)
“So you haven’t read the books.” “I’m not really a book person.” “That might be the most idiotic thing you’ve ever said to me.” ― Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl
“I am tired of caring,” I say. “Why should I?” “Because they could kill you!” “They better,” I say to her. “Because anything less than that isn’t going to work.” ― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince
“Follow me," said Karou. As if he could have done anything else. ― Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone
“They had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things--if love can ever be called that.” ― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising