β
For there are no limits to the stars; their numbers are infinite. Which is precisely why I measure my love for you by them. An amount too boundless to count.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Catch me if I fall, all right?β
A smile curved his lips in a most delightful manner. βIβve already fallen hard, Wadsworth. Perhaps you should have warned me sooner.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Monsters are only as real as the stories that grant them life. And they only live for as long as we tell those tales.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
You are not mine to take.β He brushed his lips against mine. Softly, so softly I might have imagined them there. My eyes fluttered shut. He could persuade me to build a steamship to the moon when he kissed me. We could orbit the stars together. βYou are yours to give.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
I will gladly accept any and all books, however. A person can never have too much reading material. Especially on a fall or winter evening. If youβre feeling extra generous, you may include tea. I love a unique blend.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
I refuse to believe you've misinterpreted my affections. I am wholly in love with you. And it is permanent.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
I felt his other hand sear hot against my cheek. He bent his head, and in a voice that Jack couldnβt hear, said, βWhen you came down the stairs, and fell into me, that was the moment.β Then his lips pressed against mine.
β
β
Sarah Alderson (Hunting Lila (Lila, #1))
β
Monsters were in the eye of the beholder. And no one wanted to discover their hero was the true villain of the story.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
The world is vicious.'
Thomas brushed a lock of hair back from my face, his gaze thoughtful. 'The world is neither kind nor is it cruel. It simply exists. We have the ability to view it however we choose.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Humans were the true monsters and villains, more real than any novel or fantasy could invent.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
We were all here to learn. He was the one who had a problem, not I. Perhaps it was time for fathers to teach their sons how to behave around young women. They were not born superior, no matter how society falsely conditioned them. We were all equals here.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Mr. Thomas Cresswell might not truly hold the title of prince, but the was perfectly fine. To me, he'd always be the king of my heart.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
You're dressed for sneaking about Dracula's castle. Be still my thawing, dark heart. You certainly know how to make a young man feel alive, Wadsworth.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Hearts were beautifully fierce yet fragile things.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Love strangles intelligence, even in the best of us.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Antique pages were a scent that should be bottled up and sold to those who adored the aroma.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Thereβs something powerful in that kind of love, something that deserves to be kindled and tended to, even when its embers are flickering dangerously close to darkness.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Monsters could wear the smiles of friends while secreting away the rotten soul of the Devil in the darkest crevices of themselves.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Mistakes were a learning experience, not the end of the universe.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
It is a principle of diplomacy that one must know something of the truth in order to lie convincingly.
β
β
Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan, #3))
β
You would miss me terribly and know it. Just as I would miss you in ways I cannot fathom, should we ever part.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
It was one thing to use computers as a tool, quite another to let them do your thinking for you.
β
β
Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan, #3))
β
Dear Miss Independent,
I've decided that of all the women I've ever known, you are the only one I will ever love more than hunting, fishing, football, and power tools.
You may not know this, but the other time I asked you to marry me, the night I put the crib together, I meant it. Even though I knew you weren't ready.
God, I hope you're ready now.
Marry me, Ella. Because no matter where you go or what you do, I'll love you every day for the rest of my life.
βJack
β
β
Lisa Kleypas (Smooth Talking Stranger (Travises, #3))
β
What if" were the two most tragic words in existence when paired together.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Being a victim is more palatable than having to recognize the intrinsic contradictions of one's own governing philosophy.
β
β
Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan, #3))
β
It's Lila--come on, Jack. She might be a little impulsive but that doesn't make her a sociopath.'
I swivelled my gaze to Jack, trying my best not to look like a sociopath.
β
β
Sarah Alderson (Hunting Lila (Lila, #1))
β
He was chugging brown pop from a can Jack had handed him while he stuffed nacho cheese Doritos in his face. I was glad to see he looked lots better, almost completely like himself, which proves Doritos and brown pop really are health foods.
β
β
P.C. Cast (Hunted (House of Night, #5))
β
Everyone makes mistakes, Wadsworth. There's no shame in that. It's how you go about mending them that truly counts.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Curiosity was a disease that plagued me, and I'd yet to find a cure.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
We don't ignore bigotry, Jack. That's how cowardly bigots turn into brave bigots.
β
β
Jessica Townsend (Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor, #3))
β
Society at large is staggeringly obtuse. If one simply looks to others for their opinions, they lose the ability to think critically for themselves. Progress would never be made if everyone appeared and thought and loved in the same manner.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
However, grieving or being affected by something doesn't make you weak, Wadsworth. Sometimes strength is knowing when to tend to yourself for a bit.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
There is a patience of the wild--dogged, tireless, persistent as life itself--that holds motionless for endless hours the spider in its web, the snake in its coils, the panther in its ambuscade; this patience belongs peculiarly to life when it hunts its living food;
β
β
Jack London (The Call of the Wild)
β
I adore her in every possible way. Have you ever looked upon someone and felt a spark within your core? She makes me want to accomplish grand things. That's the beauty of love, though, isn't it? It brings out the very best within yourself.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Do not turn your back on a love that could jump the barrier between life and death.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
If we weren't about to face another terrible passageway filled with life-threatening danger, I'd take you in my arms this instant.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Focus on how handsome I am. How much you want to press your lips against mine. And definitely do not panic, Wadsworth. If you scream, I'm going to join you, and then we're both in trouble.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
In the Soviet Union every worker is a government worker, and they have a saying: As long as the bosses pretend to pay us, we will pretend to work.
β
β
Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan, #3))
β
I wondered how I could appear so whole and serene on the outside when inside I was thrashing with turbulence.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
I wandered over to the motorbike and read the work Triumph on the side. 'How long has he had it?' I asked Jack.
'No. Over my dead body.' Jack's expression was hard.
[β¦]
'[β¦] I told Dad I'd keep you safe and the Alex you know is not the Alex who drives that bike. He's not known to respect the speed limit.'
Now I definitely wanted to go on it.
β
β
Sarah Alderson (Hunting Lila (Lila, #1))
β
I couldn't bear the thought of Alex looking at me like I was a freak. It was bad enough that the looked at me as Jack's sister.
β
β
Sarah Alderson (Hunting Lila (Lila, #1))
β
Passion and annoyance were fire, and fire was alive and crackling with power.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
The world is neither kind nor is it cruel. It simply exists. We have the ability to view it however we choose.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
You've stared Fear in its nasty face and made it tremble. You will make it through this, Wadsworth. We will mange it through this. That is a fact more tangling than any dream or nightmare. I promised I'd never lie to you. I intend to honor my word.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Life was beautiful even during the darkest hours.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
BONE WHITE, BLOOD RED. ALONG THIS PATH YOU'LL SOON BE DEAD.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Flesh-and-blood men were the real monsters, and they could be cut down easily enough.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Love makes fools of the wisest.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Danger confronted properly is not something a man must fear.
β
β
Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan, #3))
β
No matter how much death and horror existed, there were still things of beauty left to find.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Our hearts are curious things. So sentimental and easily misguided. Pull the right strings or snap the correct cords, and poof! Love strangles intelligence, even in the best of us.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Youβre right. You keep saying Jacks is the villain. Yet you just let a man attack me with his pet bird in order to hunt another man down and kill him. You also told my guardsβwho arenβt very nice, by the wayβnot to let me leave the castle, despite promising me youβd never lock me up. So, no, I donβt know how much of a threat Lord Jacks is, but Iβm starting to see you as one.
β
β
Stephanie Garber (A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart, #3))
β
Rules are restrictions given by other privileged men. I enjoy making up my own mind. Everyone ought to have the same human right.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
There were only the two of us left standing in a star-filled sky oblivious to anything but the way our bodies fit together like constellations. He was my match in all ways.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
every sailor needs someone to return to, that every woman needs someone to wait for.
β
β
Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan #3; Jack Ryan Universe #4))
β
We wait. No sense spooking him. We let him come in nice and close while we do our famous imitation of a hole in the water,
β
β
Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan #3; Jack Ryan Universe #4))
β
I do agree that love is wonderful, I began slowly, not wanting to offend, but there's also a certain magic in being perfectly content with one's own company. I believe greatness lies within. And is ours to harness or unleash at will.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
The only people Ryan needed to impress were those who knew him; he cared little for the rest.
β
β
Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan #3; Jack Ryan Universe #4))
β
One thing about flying that he never got used to was that no matter how awful the weather was on the ground, if you flew high enough you could always find the sun.
β
β
Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan, #3))
β
Had the cub thought in man-fashion, he might have epitomized life as a voracious appetite, and the world as a place wherein ranged a multitude of appetites, pursuing and being pursued, hunting and being hunted, eating and being eaten, all in blindness and confusion, with violence and disorder, a chaos of gluttony and slaughter, ruled over by chance, merciless, planless, endless.
β
β
Jack London (White Fang)
β
Roman numerals weren't built in a day, Wadsworth.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Sometimes they went hungry, sometimes they feasted riotously, all according to the abundance of game and the fortune of hunting.
β
β
Jack London (The Call of the Wild)
β
Anger was a wall to hide grief behind.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
How did you know?β
βIβ¦β Thomas swallowed hard, his attention fixed on the painting. βThe truth?β
βPlease.β
βYouβve got a dress with orchid blossoms embroidered on it. Ribbons in the deepest purple. You favor the color, but not nearly as much as I find myself favoring you.β He took a deep breath. βAs to the stars? Those are what I prefer. More than medical practices and deductions. The universe is vast. A mathematical equation even I have no hope of solving. For there are no limits to the stars; their numbers are infinite. Which is precisely why I measure my love for you by them. An amount too boundless to count.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
I did not believe there was any line one wouldn't cross when it came to those one loved. Morals crumpled when faced with heartache. Some fissures within us would forever remain irreparable.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
We both knew that sometimes stories and reality collided, with devastating effects.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Grief doesn't equate breaking.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
A wise man knows his limitations.β And a bold one seizes opportunities.
β
β
Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan, #3))
β
Surely it's prudent to plan for different possibilities for the future. Shouldn't one have some sort of goal to work toward, even if the path they take is unknown?
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Progress would never be made if everyone appeared and thought and loved in the same manner.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
As to the stars? Those are what I prefer. More than medical practices and deductions. The universe is vast. A mathematical equation even I have no hope of solving. For there are no limits to the stars; their numbers are infinite. Which is precisely why i measure my love for you by them An amount too boundless to count.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
I want in,β the boy said.
βIn on what?β
βYouβre the Hunter. Youβre hunting the slavers. I want in.β
βAnd how would you know that?β If someone had opened their mouth, he would be really put out.
Jack gave a one-shouldered shrug.
βWe overhead you and Declan talking.β
βDeclanβs study is soundproof.β
βNot to reanimated mice,β Jack said.
β
β
Ilona Andrews (Steel's Edge (The Edge, #4))
β
Flowers need plenty of water and sunshine to grow. Love, too, needs attention and affection, or else it slowly withers away from neglect. Once loveβs gone, itβs as brittle as a dried-out leaf. You pick it up, only to discover that itβs turned to ash beneath your oncecareful touch, gone on a swift wind forever.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
To help those he loved, he'd rear apart the world.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Though I knew there were many sides to each person if one searched hard enough. No one was entirely good or evil.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Do not let your bountiful garden turn to ash.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Andrei swung his scalpel as if it were a sword and he the most inept defender the kingdom had ever known.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
One of the compensations for wearing a uniform and earning less money than an equally talented man can make in the real world is the off chance of being killed.
β
β
Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan, #3))
β
If one simply looks to others for their opinions, they lose the ability to think critically for themselves.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Sometimes strength is knowing when to tend to yourself for a bit.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Power often corrupts. It is a wise man -or woman- who accepts their role as one part of a whole.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Tonight is fall asleep to the image of gold-flecked eyes and a wicked mouth. And all the wonderful ways I might one day explore those lips in dark, empty rooms. Our passion burning brighter than all the stars in the sky. Saints drag me to hell.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Sunday was the normal day for the political awareness session at sea. Ordinarily Putin would have officiated, reading some Pravada editorials, followed by selected quotations from the works of Lenin and a discussion of the lessons to be learned from the readings. It is very much like a church service.
β
β
Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan, #3))
β
I had no idea you were also a chiropterologist,β I said blandly. βIs this how you impress all the young ladies?β
He surveyed me with interest. βWell, I had no idea you knew the scientific term for bat study.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Legends are meant to inspire fear. Anastasia stood. They must be larger than the life we lead in order to maintain their lure for generations.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
I cannot predict what the future will bring when tomorrow may not come. Any number of things may happen. God may decide He's had enough of us and wipe the slate clean.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Death is never easy, but there's something... infinitely worse when someone young is taken. Death's not the only thing to fear. Murder is worse.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
I was a gruesome monster wrapped up in delicate lace.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
I was emotionally stronger now. Capable of so much more than I'd ever known.This strike would not force me into compliance; it would propel me into an offensive position. I was no longer the prey, but the hunter.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
The Good of the People was a laudable enough goal, but in denying a manβs soul, an enduring part of his being, Marxism stripped away the foundation of human dignity and individual value. It also cast aside the objective measure of justice and ethics which, he decided, was the principal legacy of religion to civilized life.
β
β
Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan #3; Jack Ryan Universe #4))
β
I found I could not wait to show Thomas and perhaps be like a sudden ray of sun to brighten his spirits in return. Mr.Thomas Cresswell might not truly hold the title of prince, but that was perfectly fine. To me, he'd always be the king of my heart.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
White, red, evil, green. What haunts these woods stays unseen
Dragons roam and take to air. Cut down those who are near his lair.
Eat your meat and drink your blood. Leave remains in the tub.
Bone white, blood red. Along this path you'll soon be dead.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
Always has woman crouched close to earth like a partridge hen mothering her young; always has my wantonness of roving led me out on the shining ways; and always have my star paths returned me to her, the figure everlasting, the woman, the one woman, for whose arms I had such need that clasped in them I have forgotten the stars.
For her I accomplished Odysseys scaled mountains crossed deserts; for her I led the hunt and was forward in battle; and for her end' to her I sang my songs of the things I had done. All ecstasies of life and rhapsodies of delight have been mine because of her. And here, at the end, I can say that I have known no sweeter, deeper madness of being than to drown in the fragrant glory and forgetfulness of her hair.
β
β
Jack London (The Star Rover (Modern Library Classics))
β
I might be the only person on the face of the earth that knows you're the greatest woman on earth. I might be the only one who appreciates how amazing you are in every single thing that you do, and how you are with Spencer, "Spence," and in every single thought that you have, and how you say what you mean, and how you almost always mean something that's all about being straight and good. I think most people miss that about you, and I watch them, wondering how they can watch you bring their food, and clear their tables and never get that they just met the greatest woman alive. And the fact that I get it makes me feel good, about me.
β
β
Mark Andrus (As Good As It Gets: The Shooting Script)
β
Love, genuine passionate love, was his for the first time. This he had never experienced at Judge Miller's down in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. With the Judge's sons, hunting and tramping, it had been a working partnership; with the Judge's grandsons, a sort of pompous guardianship; and with the Judge himself, a stately and dignified friendship. But love that was feverish and burning, that was adoration, that was madness, it had taken John Thornton to arouse.
β
β
Jack London (The Call of the Wild)
β
The proper society girl in me was loath to admit it, but his flirtations kept me afloat in a sea of conflicting feelings. Passion and annoyance were fire, and fire was alive and crackling with power. Fire breathed. Grief was a vat of quicksand; the more one struggled against it, the deeper it pulled one under. I'd much rather be set ablaze than buried alive. Though the mere thought of being in a compromising position with Thomas was enough to make my face warm.
β
β
Kerri Maniscalco (Hunting Prince Dracula (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #2))
β
My intention in writing this book is not to hunt and name the killer. I wish instead to retrace the footsteps of five women, to consider their experiences within the context of their era, and to follow their paths through both the gloom and the light. They were worth more to us than the empty human shells we have taken them for: they were children who cried for their mothers; they were young women who fell in love; they endured childbirth and the deaths of parents; they laughed and celebrated Christmas. They argued with their siblings, they wept, they dreamed, they hurt, they enjoyed small triumphs. The courses their lives took mirrored that of so many other women of the Victorian age, and yet so singular in the way they ended. It is for them that I write this book. I do so in the hope that we may now hear their stories clearly and give back to them that which was so brutally taken away with their lives: their dignity.
β
β
Hallie Rubenhold (The Five: The Lives of Jack the Ripper's Women)
β
It is true that almost everyone in the foothills farmed and hunted, so there were no breadlines, no men holding signs that begged for work and food, no children going door to door, as they did in Atlanta, asking for table scraps. Here, deep in the woods, was a different agony. Babies, the most tenuous, died from poor diet and simple things, like fevers and dehydration. In Georgia, one in seven babies died before their first birthday, and in Alabama it was worse.
You could feed your family catfish and jack salmon, poke salad and possum, but medicine took cash money, and the poorest of the poor, blacks and whites, did not have it. Women, black and white, really did smother their babies to save them from slow death, to give a stronger, sounder child a little more, and stories of it swirled round and round until it became myth, because who can live with that much truth.
β
β
Rick Bragg (Ava's Man)
β
He thrust his hand in the air and summoned his sword of pure white flame. The gods and goddesses cowered. Throwing his head back and laughing, Surt grew to his full giant size. βYou minor, forgotten, pathetic deities! So easy to bend to my will. Not one of you would dare to defy me!β
I chose that moment to shape-shift into a bee, buzz up Surtβs teeny-tiny nose, and jab him with my stinger.
With a howl of pain, Surt dropped his sword and shrank to his previous size. I changed into my true form.
βI dare.β
I whipped one end of my golden garrote around his neck and yanked it tight. Then I snatched up his flame sword and with one upward flick, sliced off his pubescent nose. βJack and Magnus send their regards.β
Surt lunged for me. I transformed into a bighorn sheep and head-butted him right where his nose used to be. Then I changed back to human, tightened the garrote until his eyes bulged, and threatened him with his own sword. βCome at me again,β I warned, βand youβll regret it.β
I surveyed the stunned deities. βIf one einherji can do this, imagine what all of us can do. And will do, come Ragnarok. We are not destined to win, but we will fight with honor. We would welcome you on our side of the fight. But, if you must side with himββI gave the garrote a vicious tug and was rewarded with a gurgle from Surtββknow this: I will personally hunt you down on the Last Battlefield of Vigridr and see that you are sent straight to Ginnungagap. The choice is yours.β
The deities vanished.
β
β
Rick Riordan (9 From the Nine Worlds)
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All Summer in a Dayβ by Ray Bradbury Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo Big Nate series by Lincoln Peirce The Black Cauldron (The Chronicles of Prydain) by Lloyd Alexander The Book Thiefβ by Markus Zusak Brianβs Hunt by Gary Paulsen Brianβs Winter by Gary Paulsen Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis The Call of the Wild by Jack London The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss Charlotteβs Web by E.Β B. White The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.Β S. Lewis Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury The Giver by Lois Lowry Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling Hatchet by Gary Paulsen The High King (The Chronicles of Prydain) by Lloyd Alexander The Hobbit by J.Β R.Β R. Tolkien Holes by Louis Sachar The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins I Am LeBron James by Grace Norwich I Am Stephen Curry by Jon Fishman Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott OβDell Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins Forbes Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson LeBronβs Dream Team: How Five Friends Made History by LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger The Lightning Thief β(Percy Jackson and the Olympians) by Rick Riordan A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle Number the Stars by Lois Lowry The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton The River by Gary Paulsen The Sailor Dog by Margaret Wise Brown Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor βA Sound of Thunderβ by Ray Bradbury Star Wars Expanded Universe novels (written by many authors) Star Wars series (written by many authors) The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann D. Wyss Tales from a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess (Dork Diaries) by Rachel RenΓ©e Russell Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume βThe Tell-Tale Heartβ by Edgar Allan Poe Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine LβEngle
β
β
Andrew Clements (The Losers Club)