hedgehogreads

[hedgehogreads]

Daja went back to her room, feeling decidedly grumpy. For one thing, changing clothes for the evening meal was the kind of folly practiced by wealthy people who had too many clothes they didn’t have to wash. Since it was the custom in wealthy houses Daja changed her garments, but it chafed at her spirits.

 - Cold Fire, Tamora Pierce

#clothes #Cold Fire #The Circle Opens #tamora pierce #culture

[hedgehogreads]

It all would have made me feel like Marion Cunningham on Happy Days but for the fact that I would be the one ultimately deciding where we would live. It was a woman thing, the home sphere. That’s why all the brokers and potential buyers were women. The men were there to provide gravitas and a bit of frisson, and then disappear, and then sign off. Or not. After which we would do whatever we wanted.

 - Primates of Park Avenue, Wednesday Martin

#women #home #Primates of Park Avenue #Wednesday Martin #men

[hedgehogreads]

I am, of course, homo sapiens, at least on paper.

Heavy, Jeanette Winterson

#humanity #humans #jeanette winterson #Heavy #humour

[hedgehogreads]

“Tell me your tale, then. Or tell me the version you want me to hear.”

“Not . . . the truth?”

“No one ever tells the truth about himself.”

~ Phyllis Eisenstien, “The Caravan to Nowhere”, from Rogues

#truth #stories #Phyllis Eisenstein #rogues #The Caravan to Nowhere

[hedgehogreads]

It would have been good to have lain down there and made love under the moon but the truth is that, outside of the movies and Country and Western songs, the outdoors is an itchy business.

 - Written on the Body, Jeanette Winterson

#sex #outdoors #jeanette winterson #Written on the Body #practicality #reality

[hedgehogreads]

“You’re just making this shit up,” says Yunakov, but by that point someone’s looked up the answer on their phone and discovered that the story is true, or at least true on the Internet. Which is not always the same thing.

 - Walter Jon Williams, “Diamonds from Tequila”, from Rogues

#truth #internet #Diamonds from Tequila #Walter Jon Williams #rogues

[hedgehogreads]

The phrase “Rest in peace” seems incredibly self-serving. It basically means “Stay in your grave. Don’t haunt me.” The opposite would be”Fitfully toss” or “Go jogging.”

 - Jenny Lawson, Furiously Happy

#Furiously Happy #Jenny Lawson #death #humour

[hedgehogreads]

“Just be careful not to lose it.”

“Do I strike you as the kind of man who loses important things?”

You lost me. The thought popped into her head and there was nothing she could do to get rid of it.

 - Dogs and Goddesses, Jennifer Cruise, Anne Stuart, Lani Diane Rich

#Dogs and Goddesses #Jennifer Crusie #Anne Stuart #Lani Diane Rich #loss #importance #love

[hedgehogreads]

“Your shirt is ripped,” she said disapprovingly. “And you’ve got grass stains on your pants. Your mam is going to give you a hiding.”

“No, she won’t,” Bast said smugly. “Because I’m all grown, and I can do whatever I want with my pants. I could light them on fire and I wouldn’t get in any trouble at all.”

The little girl stared at him with smoldering envy.

 - Patrick Rothfuss, “The Lightning Tree”, from Rogues

#Patrick Rothfuss #The Lightning Tree #Rogues #clothes #adults #growing up #envy

[hedgehogreads]

It was Halloween and I was spending what might be my last night alive in America chasing after a nine-year-old, sugar riddled zombie Red Riding Hood while my storm trooper husband hopped through the neighbourhood with us. At the last moment I’d surprised him by dressing up as Darth Vader so that when he was suited up I could jump out and scream, “Victor . . . I am your . . . boss!” He was not amused. I tried the death grip but he refused to lean backward in the invisible choke. It was probably because after I got Victor dressed in his twenty-seven-pieces outfit he found that he was unable to sit, lean, bend over, or even put on his own shoes without help. It’s really not that different from how most women feel after getting Spanxed up on date night, but as a man, he was utterly out of his element. He was like a knight, but wearing PVC and a unitard instead of a suit of armour. Honestly, if the rebels knew what I knew, they would have just pushed all the storm troopers over like dominoes, leaving them to awkwardly rock like turtles who’ve accidentally rolled over on their backs. I suspect the storm troopers’ wives (who obviously had to help them completely dress and undress every day) went into their marriages knowing that they were likely going to be young widows. It’s sad, but I’m betting the dark side had good life insurance plans. The dark side always seemed very organized and vaguely Republican.

 - Jenny Lawson, Furiously Happy

#Furiously Happy #Jenny Lawson #star wars #halloween #costumes

[hedgehogreads]

When I was young we were quite poor, but we never really talked about it. There was no need to. It’s the same reason why hippos don’t talk about being hippos. Or at least, one of the reasons. I did, though, as a teenager, mention to my mom (Nelda) that we were dirt-poor and she promptly stopped drying the dishes, raised an eyebrow in baffled amusement, and said “Nonsense. We have plenty of dirt. Too much if anything. We’re practically buried in it. In fact, we eventually plan to be buried in it. THAT’S HOW MUCH WE HAVE.”

“Semitics,” I harrumphed in that sarcastically bored way that only stupid fourteen-year-old girls can properly master.

“I think you mean ‘semantics’. ‘Semitics’ is . . . I dunno . . . when you really like Jewish people, I think? Get up off the kitchen floor and go look it up.”

“There’s an entire word just for liking Jewish people?” I asked. “That seems strange. Is there a word for people who really like Christians?”

“Yes,” sighed my atheist mother as she side-eyed the pictures of Jesus my father had hung on the wall. “’Tolerant.’”

 - Jenny Lawson, Furiously Happy

#Jenny Lawson #Furiously Happy #Religion #judaism #words #poverty #humour

[hedgehogreads]

“It’s an it, not a she,” protested Tris. She held up the dragon so Niko could see its belly was unmarked by male or female organs.

“Nonsense,” he replied. “So elegant and dainty a creature, with such wonderful eyes, has to be female.”

“You just say that because you like women better than men,” Tris retorted. The dragon climbed up her arm and draped itself across her shoulders, rubbing its head on her braided hair.

“With good reason. Few women spend the first weeks of an acquaintance trying to prove how much more they know than you.”

 - Shatterglass, Tamora Pierce

#tamora pierce #Shatterglass #the circle opens #men #women #gender

[hedgehogreads]

The magnificent pipe organ stood shuttered and dusty, we had an accordion and two guitars. I really wanted to get out but there was a burly beaming farmer standing across the main door who looked as though he might get nasty if I ran for it before the collection.

“Jesus will overcome you,” cried the minister. (God the wrestler?)

“Jesus will have his way with you!” (God the rapist?)

“Jesus is going from strength to strength!” (God the bodybuilder?)

“Hand yourself over to Jesus and you will be returned with interest.”

I am prepared to accept the many-sidedness of God, but I am sure that if God exists he is not a Building Society.

 - Written on the Body, Jeanette Winterson

#tw: rape mention #Religion #God #Christianity #church #humour #Written on the Body #jeanette winterson

[hedgehogreads]

What we take for granted is the success story. The failures have disappeared.

Heavy, Jeanette Winterson

#success #stories #history #failure #Heavy #jeanette winterson

[hedgehogreads]

Inside us, I began to suspect as we held our breath at playgrounds and watched warily for milestones at playgrounds and released tension at girls’ nights out, informing our mothering is this deep truth, this inescapable collective calamity: that forever, we have lost our babies as often as we have kept them. Burying our babies is as much a part of our fundamental, deep, inherited experience of motherhood as is holding and nursing them. Consoling ourselves and others over our lost children is very possibly with us, in there, every time we console our children over a scraped knee.

 - Primates of Park Avenue, Wednesday Martin

#motherhood #loss #children #Grief And Loss #childhood #Wednesday Martin #Primates of Park Avenue

[hedgehogreads]

After the roar of the Intercity train, the slow sway of the branch-line carriage. Nowadays British Rail call me “You the Customer”, but I prefer my old-fashioned appellant, “Passenger”. Don’t you think “I glanced at my fellow passengers” has a more romantic and promising air to it than “I glanced at the other customers on the train”? Customers buy cheese, loofahs and condoms. Passengers may have all those things in their luggage but it is not the thought of their purchases that makes them interesting. A fellow passenger might be an adventure. All I have in common with a fellow customer is my wallet.

 - Written on the Body, Jeanette Winterson

#trains #romance #words #money #travelling #Written on the Body #jeanette winterson

[hedgehogreads]

Studies suggest that being unable to move your face empathetically as you listen to someone speak reduces feelings of connection. In essence, numbing your face very likely numbs your emotions: Botoxed subjects show less brain-scan activity in key emotional regins than do the un-Botoxed. All in the quest for a youthful face for others to gaze upon.

 - Primates of Park Avenue, Wednesday Martin

#science #emotions #plastic surgery #Wednesday Martin #Primates of Park Avenue