Here’s a collection of my favorite phrases/sentences/paragraphs from last month that I haven’t already used for something. (I will skip most audiobooks, my transcription skills aren’t what they should be. But when I try, the punctuation is just a guess).
Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
“I like land,” I said. “I don’t drown there.”
“You know we’re an animal rights organization.”
“Right.”
“It’s a little like saying the CIA is a data services company.”
“Any dietary restrictions?”
“I tried being a vegan for a while, but I couldn’t live without cheese.”
“They have vegan cheese.”
“No, they don’t. They have shredded orange and white sadness that mocks cheese and everything it stands for.”
“That thing looks like H. P. Lovecraft’s panic attack.”
Citizen K-9 by David Rosenfelt
Pete and Andy, along with their other friend Vince Sanders, basically limit their conversations to throwing insults at each other. They never get offended; I think it’s more of a competition. They’re like high school kids without the potential for future growth and maturity.
We make our plans, which are not particularly complicated, Basically Marcus and Laurie will shoot anyone who tries to shoot me first. We are quite the strategists.
I tell Dani that I’m taking Simon for a quick walk. I don’t tell her that we’ll be back in a couple of minutes or not at all. It seems like I spend half my time not telling Dani about life-threatening things that I’m doing; maybe that’s a sign that I should adjust my lifestyle.
Under Lock & Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian
Fiction gets at the truth of life precisely because it can get at the most meaningful elements of true human experience.
Constance Verity Destroys the Universe by A. Lee Martinez
She projected a 4D holographic equation. Just looking at it gave Tia a headache.
Reynolds said, “Hey, I think you missed a zero there.”
Bonita smirked. “I won’t be taking math advice from a species that still believes in the existence of the graviton.” She zoomed in on the equation and frowned. “Well, damn it.”
She started making corrections.
Amongst These Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch
By now my Latin was getting quite good, proof positive that if you bang your head on a copy of Pliny the Elder eventually the Romans will seep in.
According to my therapist, attaching conditionals to your past is a classic distancing technique indicating an unwillingness to face your memories directly. Or, I pointed out, it could be a rhetorical device designed to add a humorous note to enliven a story. To which she said, “Or both.” You can’t win with therapists, you know. And even if you do, they just tell you it’s part of the process.
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
I was a Boy Scout. Not a good one. I liked the general idea of being trustworthy and loyal and thrifty and brave and clean and reverent but the effort it took to hang in there with all those weighty virtues was usually more than I cared to muster. I learned some pretty good stuff though. Like how to sew onto my uniform the patches that went along with being a scout. I wielded a mean needle.
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by Author
One of those here-today-gone-tomorrow freak cults you get in the City says that the way to virtue is loving your enemies. I have no problem with that. My enemies have always come through for me, and I owe them everything. My friends, on the other hand, have caused me nothing but aggravation and pain. Just as well I’ve had so very few of them.
I rarely ask for suggestions, because, when I do, people tend to make them.
Of the people, by the people, for the people. I can’t remember offhand where that quote comes from; it was something to do with some bunch of wild-eyed idealists overthrowing the tyrant so they could become tyrants themselves. No good will have come of it, you can be sure. The people; God help us.
(Image by DaModernDaVinci from Pixabay)
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