You will fall in love with Vera! She takes poking her nose into other people's business to another level. Magically, her meddling brings people together in the best versions of themselves. I would very much love to be invited to have a cup of tea with her!

“Vera Wong Zhuzhu, age sixty, is a pig, but she really should have been born a rooster.” p1

“They never tell you these things about motherhood. Things like your toddler having the ability to literally wrap herself around your leg and cling on like a little octopus as you hobble around the house, grabbing trash bags stuffed full of your dead husband's things and shoving them in the home office.” p93

“People always say that your wedding day is the happiest day of your life, but honestly, people should try solving murders more often.” p113

“Even the way Julia stands is somehow sad, like a flower that's trooping gently.” p163

“The smell that wafts from the tea is so comforting. It's like a hug.” p184

“For a few precious weeks, Vera experienced a renewed purpose in life. Received multiple hugs throughout the day, little arms around her neck and a little sticky face, kissing her cheeks. She had been brought back into the sunlight, and now, through her own doing, she has been cast back out into the darkness. And now that she has experienced the warmth of the sun, the darkness seems more bleak than before.” p300

These 185 pages are packed with the tumultuous reality of human existence. The characters are faced with tough decisions and I admire their bravery in choosing love over expectations. A very hard thing to do in 1843 Scotland.

“As the waves gathered toward the shore, they resemble veins raised beneath the skin of the sea, moving in a shifting line that altered and broke like a line of geese heading north, but they brought nothing with them. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth, to hear better, but there was nothing than either - nothing he wouldn't have expected to hear.” p23

“He wished the old horse would speak and tell him what to do…” p34

“There were days when the mist fell like a cloak onto the island’s shoulders; when rain fell in big, coarse drops, melting the soil into a soft brown soup; when a cold, light wind blew over the ground, making the bogs shiver.” p109

“Looking ahead and behind and all around her, Mary thought that if the sea here had ever touched land, it must've forgotten what that was like.” p118

“Another word with a double meaning was for when you felt a fish nudging the end of the line, which could also mean, if John Ferguson had understood Ivar correctly, a slight impression, or feeling, of something.” p157

“Where the music came from, Ivar couldn't have said - his memory of any sort of music was as distant as anything he’d experienced when he was young, but the fragment of a tune came back to him as he sat that night with John Ferguson in the firelight.” p161

This book is bursting with beautiful prose and I wanted to dog-ear every page! It is a story about hardship and friendship and power art and the gift of loyalty. Proving life is more manageable and enjoyable with quality friends by our side.

“They’re painted as if the artist saw them so intensively and dreamed them so beautifully that he learned how to whisper in color.” p17

“Cats may not know much about prison, but this one knows enough, it's an outdoor cat and has no intention of becoming a locked up cat. Besides, it knows that people will like the man more when they find out he's a world-famous artist, but they'll like the cat less when they find out it isn't homeless.” p47

“He turns away again, so weighed down by the demons of adult life that his feet scrape the ground. Grief is a selfish bacteria, it demands all our attention.” p69

“I knew him since we were little, I've… always known him, he replies, because with the sort of friendship they had, there was never a before.” p71

“He refused to eat cilantro because some people love cilantro and some think it taste of soap. It didn't taste like soap to Joar, he just refused to eat something that was so damn unfair.” p100

“His mom grew plants that were a small revolution every day, an armed resistance of tenderness in an apartment besieged by hatred and violence.” p102

“Bullies always have small hearts but good memories, she replies.” p172

“Art needs friends, with our bodies against the wind and our hands cupped around the flame, until it's strong enough to burn brightly with its own power. Until it's an inferno. Unstoppable.” p212

“You can't trust them, have you ever seen the floor of a men's bathroom? And those creatures are actually allowed to make political decisions? And drive cars? Do we really want to put people who can't even piss straight in charge of all the horsepower in the world?” p229

“In a library. You don't have to put up with reality there. It's as if thousands of strangers have given away their imaginary friends, they're sitting on the shelves and calling to you as you walk past.” p306

“… when a hard man tries to stifle a sob. His brother didn't cry any tears, just let out a long, ragged exhalation.” p319

“His face got redder and redder as Joar picked up more and more things, and when they approached the shop assistant behind the counter, the artist’s whole body was shaking so badly that if he had been holding milk, it would have been butter.” p344

“The world is full of miracles, but none greater than how far a young person can be carried by someone else's belief in them.” p361

“Disappointment is a powerful thing. Used correctly, it is stronger than fear, more terrible than physical pain, if you see it in the eyes of the one you love, you'll do almost anything to make it stop.” p399

“It's art that helps me cope. Because art is a fragile magic, just like love, and that's humanities only defense against death. That we create and paint and dance and fall in love, that's our rebellion against eternity.” p417

This Obama Biden Mystery had me giggling out loud. Their playful friendship, crazy ideas, and clever one liners are the frosting on what turned out to be a fairly complex mystery. Fast and fun, I recommend to anyone with a sense of humor.

“Dressed in a maroon leather jacket and blue jeans, the same outfit he'd been wearing since the early seventies. Thes…

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This story is about a provocative book club in a women’s prison led by a volunteer retired teacher. And if that’s not enough to peak your interests… you’ll likely be sucked in by the intertwined stories of crime, romance, family drama, or talking parrots.

“Everything here is designed to murder your privacy.” p1

“He was standing on a ladder, hijacked by happiness, tapping nails into a frame he’d built for the perfect pane of glass, snapped up at Marden’s for a song.” p49

“These words do not fly off my tongue. These words step out one by one, wearing shoes.” p92

“Perhaps it's an oddity of human nature to judge women more harshly. Or maybe we expect so little of men, their transgressions don't register the same.” p150

“The drive to Abbott Falls took an hour and a half, a passage of time that, to Frank, felt edged with magic, plucked from the normal course of events, as if they were traveling not by car but by snow globe.” p179

“Tomorrow, though: tomorrow was already a wonder in progress, a gift unwrapping, as if Frank, too, had just been released from prison.” p190

“She took in the scents and colors, the celebrating birds, the alternating pleasures of stillness and motion. Clumps of daisies erupted here and there, cutting drunken paths through the waving grass.” p207

“I can think of no occasion, Harriet said, including funerals, nuclear summits, and parent-teacher meetings, that could not be vastly improved by a full-body red.” p239

My head is spinning with so many questions after finishing this story. An adventure thriller with endless twists and so brilliantly told that I’m still not sure who the guilty are.

“Margaret asks a question about rock drawings, and Brooke finds her mind drifting to the sounds coming at her from all directions - the waves in the distance, the buzzing flies in her ears, and, in stereo, birds, all making exotic caws and chirps, recognizable yet enticingly different.” p30

“Jane is hands-on in the literal sense, always touching those around her in intimate ways - curling a finger through a lack of hair, removing a piece of fluff from a shoulder - as though they were her lovers or her children. p57

“She looks down at the counter and sees that she has prepared nearly the entire meal without realizing it, as if hypnotized. This both reassurance her and terrifies her, that she is capable of this - of doing what she needs to do, of so clearly separating her mind from her body, of living without even being aware of the moments ticking by.” p87

“Americans. They always talk twice too fast and listen half too slow.” p145

“With each step it feels as if they are emerging into light, and the faded glow of sun behind bruised clouds gives Kerry a false hope she doesn't dare embrace.” p196

“So I moved to LA, the perfect place to reinvent yourself, a place where it seems that every few months, people shed their old lives like a molting skin and emerge completely new.” p231

“And that's when I realized that acting isn't just something you do in theaters or sound stages – it's about survival. It's about getting through your own damn life. I think maybe the most successful people in life are simply the best actors.” p285

I am a huge fan of Carl Hiaasen books and they are my go to whenever I need a good laugh. He develops characters like no one else and his sense of humor is right up my alley! As always, this story involves a threat to the environment, crooked politicians, hysterical characters, and lots of laughs!

“He was tall and long-necked, with wide-set eyes, a sharp chin, a high-cliffed brow, and jet-black hair spiked sharply in the front. The effect was that of an anime woodpecker in a pinstripe suit.” p24

“When Noel Kristiansen said that he didn't care about getting any money, that this was a battle of good versus evil, right versus wrong, darkness versus light, Fred Brillstein Jr. gave him a pitiful look, like Noel was a grown man who still believed in Santa Claus and flood insurance?” p53

“A few of the mothers stopped to tell Onus how much they liked his beard, but they weren't his type. No ink, no piercings, no fun. Plus, the last thing he needed was another fertile womb in his life” p172

“Dale’s not slow. He’s just empty.” p199

“A loosening of laws had made Florida second only to Texas in the push to make firearms more readily available to the impaired, incompetent, and unstable.” p350

In the spirit of the US hosting World Cup Soccer matches this summer, and since I can’t afford to attend in person, I picked up this book. If you love soccer, music, poetry, art, history… you will love this story.

“When football fans in the world outside America say the word, football becomes mystical, part child's play, part religion, a dreamy pleasure, an enchantment, the word football itself becomes an incantation, a magical theater of feet and a ball, gravity and grass, head, hips, torso, and speed and balance, most unnatural combinations, but these skills have fascinated the world since the sports conception in China in the fourth century Before Christ, and definitely since it's been popularized by England via its empire, such skills, timing, and intelligence seem otherworldly, full of burst of supernatural grace.” p5

“Jackie and Gil's father, Thomas, was the same weak and careless man. He had a soft chin, flaccid morals, and a limp hand shake” p16

“Her sadness was naked and pure, buckling my knees.” p50

“Jazz is so intense, seemingly ripped from the musicians’ ribs.” p86

“I stared straight ahead. Spent. My body was adapting to the strength that comes after the bone-deep exhaustion of pretending life is okay.” p178

“He radiated good health, fresh sunburns, and the excitement of being in a land of sweltering heat, good music, food, and dangerous people, the elixir of the Caribbean that has charmed visitors for centuries.” p194

“She wore a slinky black pant suit and held a grudge the size of a mini bus.” p207

This is a survival story based on the historical accounts of a sixteenth century french woman named Marguerite. It was an era in which women were encouraged to hold their tongues and were at the mercy of their male guardian. I am so glad to know her story and also to have been born 500 years later!

“Everything we treasure has a price. And everything we have will slip away.” p24

“I felt foolish not knowing where I was - but there were no towers here. I had no vantage point.” p71

“His face, his foxlike beard, his icy eyes, his map of waves and jagged islands, I saw all this as I dropped my knees.” p91

“But I had come to fear approval as much as anger. Gentle or berating, kind or cruel, in all his moods he exercised his power over me.” p112

“Our isle was both beautiful and strange. In morning light, the waves were liquid silver. Mist clung to us so that we walked in a white cloud. Offshore, seabirds circled and dove into the sea for fish. With perfect faith, the birds plummeted headfirst, dropping from such height, so hard and fast, that water flew up around them. Again and again the sea birds plunged, and we stood upon the rocks, entranced to watch them fall. All around our knees, the wild grass rustled and hissed sibilantly. Everywhere we stepped, we heard that sound.” p181

“I am like you, I told myself, because I kill to eat. But I could not fly or dive, and this was my disadvantage - that I must shoot to live.” p240

“At that moment, I forgot my royal audience. I no longer sensed the court surrounding me. I thought of the white fox and the five-petalled flower. The stars at night. The shattering waves. I considered offering these visions, but I held them close.” p328

This story is unique, thought-provoking and creative. It is the story of a native Hawaiian family negotiating the hard knocks of life. It is also a statement about culture and poverty and a love of nature.

“I remembered us sprinting through Hapuna Beach big wave advisories, surf booming to our knees, then our chests, we’d dive right under the foaming whitewater. We'd feel the rip pull us sideways along the beach, see who could get deeper under each wave, let the sucking current of the coming set drag us along, the grains of sand gathering and bouncing over our spines, and we'd feel the water start to bend and stand up, tugging on our board shorts, and when the wave crested and tossed its full force directly on top of us, we’d push deep and open our eyes and grin at the yawning curl of gold sand and blue ocean that couldn't touch us.“ p30

“I bounced the ball a few times, listened to the ringy pound. The wind came on and the trees clattered like applause.” p65

“I believe none of this would have happened if we’d stayed on the Big Island, where the gods are still alive. Fire goddess Pele with her unyielding strength, birthing the land again and again in lava, exhaling her sulfur breath across the sky.” p67

“Way I figure, before the first Hawaiians became Hawaiians, it was them back in Fiji or Tonga or wherever and they had too many wars with too many kings and some of the strongest looked at the stars and saw a map to a future they could take for themselves.“ p79

“She had this hacked bob haircut and eyes that were both bored and ready to start a fire.” p82

“I was an engineer at school, or anyway studying to be one. There were books, doorstop books with page long equations. They chewed into my spine when I set them in my backpack and the titles were profound and sexy, right, like Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics.” p94

“She tried to say the last part in a deep voice, but it came out sounding ridiculous, there was a joke in there somewhere, normally it would have come to me easily, but humor had become a foreign language I'd once been fluent in and was now left searching for the simplest nouns and verbs: it was all there somewhere, just out of reach.” p163

“When what's in my mouth hits my tongue it blooms, dark and sweet and barely bitter.” p189

“I asked Mom if love ever made her feel alone. If it ever made her feel like she was starving in a room full of food.” p347

“Scrape all the sound from the sky, and this is what is left. The sound of now.” p371

Even though books about AI terrify me, I had to read this one because I'm a loyal Louise Penny fan and I love a good mystery. This story reminded me of an Indiana Jones adventure and is just fantastical enough to feel safely unbelievable. Or maybe… I don’t want to believe the truths within?

“The weapons of the New World war are invisible and almost impossible to detect until it's too late.” p28

“Social media was now the loudest voice in the room. Untrained, undisciplined, filled with agendas and anger and misinformation.” p63

“You'd have thought we'd grow out of it, this tendency to do foolish things,” he said. Despite the lines down his face, his voice was calm, musical. "Though I do wonder what would become of the world if young people didn't do foolish things.” p153

“This shift to the far right wasn't limited to Moscow. It was increasingly common internationally, as allegiances strained, has trade deals collapsed, as immigrants flooded in, changing the culture, the demographics. Nations began pulling in on themselves. Began to appeal to the worst part of human nature.” p164

“Those who control, cyberspace control people’s thoughts, which control emotions, and emotions dictate actions. In cognitive hacking, you have the ultimate weapon.” p172

“Pardington was reminded of Darwin's famous line, so often mis-quoted. It was not the fittest that would survive, it was those that could adapt. Which was what made adaptive predictive AI so very dangerous.” p284

“Over delicate finger sandwiches, their crusts cut off, of cucumber, and smoked salmon, and egg. Over pastries, they told them the story. Of hubris, of desperation, of a good, even noble plan for democracy that went sideways. Then south. Before descending into madness.” p482

If you have ever felt a little fearful of AI or terrified that the oligarchs of the world control everything… this book will scare the shit out of you! I love Reese for encouraging literacy in adults and kids and if you haven’t read a novel in a long time this story will surely hook you.

“You wonder what makes a hero? There’s altruism, sure. But there's also ego and recklessness and thrill-seeking.” p3

“Mom and Dad didn't care about the dated wallpaper or the worn shag carpeting. Her parents were wonderful and kind and distracted; they were readers and healers and academics. They spent their money on books and experiences, not upholstery or decor.” p24

“His jeans are skinny jeans, in the sense that they seem much too small. His hairline is somewhere between receding and surrender...” p69

“… this isn't atypical with Sharon. Her mouth is always trying to keep up with her brain, and that's an impossible task.” p246

“If you are one of those people who want to make sure you get your ten thousand steps in every day, Maggie suggests you fly into Heathrow. You walk left and right. You go upstairs and down. You use escalators and moving walkways. It's also a tease walk - every time you think it's over, there's just one more turn, one more set of stairs, one escalator, one more moving walkway to go.” p282

“Lots of powerful men have had doubles. Stalin. Noriega. Saddam Hussein. Some say Putin, but I think he's too paranoid to allow someone who looks like him that close.” p300

“The shower’s jet stream is powerful. Marc always liked that in a shower, maybe more so because the showers during any kind of humanitarian mission were set on what Mark called, light urination.” p316

If you have ever felt a little fearful of AI or terrified that the oligarchs of the world control everything… this book will scare the shit out of you! I love Reese for encouraging literacy in adults and kids and if you haven’t read a novel in a long time this story will surely hook you.

“You wonder what makes a hero? There’s altruism, sure. But there's also ego and recklessness and thrill-seeking.” p3

“Mom and Dad didn't care about the dated wallpaper or the worn shag carpeting. Her parents were wonderful and kind and distracted; they were readers and healers and academics. They spent their money on books and experiences, not upholstery or decor.” p24

“His jeans are skinny jeans, in the sense that they seem much too small. His hairline is somewhere between receding and surrender...” p69

“… this isn't atypical with Sharon. Her mouth is always trying to keep up with her brain, and that's an impossible task.” p246

“If you are one of those people who want to make sure you get your ten thousand steps in every day, Maggie suggests you fly into Heathrow. You walk left and right. You go upstairs and down. You use escalators and moving walkways. It's also a tease walk - every time you think it's over, there's just one more turn, one more set of stairs, one escalator, one more moving walkway to go.” p282

“Lots of powerful men have had doubles. Stalin. Noriega. Saddam Hussein. Some say Putin, but I think he's too paranoid to allow someone who looks like him that close.” p300

“The shower’s jet stream is powerful. Marc always liked that in a shower, maybe more so because the showers during any kind of humanitarian mission were set on what Mark called, light urination.” p316

I picked up this book because I thought it would be a quick page turner to distract me from all the yuck right now. It turned out to be so much more! Although set in present day Philadelphia, the humor is very British like and had me laughing out loud. Also, I was confident that I had it all figured out by chapter three… but boy was I wrong!

“She was a redhead, which is a blonde with poor impulse control.” p3

“The gym was deserted except for a muscleman on the leg-lift machine, watching himself in the mirror, Narcissus on Nautilus.” p20

“She'd always had a hard time talking to women. Men were so much easier; to talk to a man, all she had to do was listen, which they counted us the same thing.” p22

“I shop. It takes stamina. I train by eating Cocoa Krispies.” p143

“It filled Anne with a warmth she had never experienced. Mental note: Girlfriends are more necessary than underwear.” p168

“Then get over the fact that he lied to you. Clients lie. People lie. They want others to think better of them than they are.” p286

“You can ask questions, and you can certainly doubt, but you may not judge. Lawyers don't get to judge, only judges get to judge..” p306

This story has many layers and the hurts are real and big. The characters are brave; making hard decisions and learning how to be accepting and when possible forgiving. It is a western, a drama, a mystery, and a love story. If you are a Yellowstone fan, more specifically a fan of Rip, you are sure to fall for Cal!

“The house had once been a farmworkers's cottage on to which his parents had built an ugly extension. Despite a unifying coat of whitewash, the place seemed at odds with itself.” p12

“Her mother, crying uncontrollably in the kitchen, pouring yet another gin and tonic, howling on about the shame of it all, the shame; her father hunched over the telephone every evening, conducting hushed conversations, making arrangements of which Diane as yet had no inkling, then retreating to his workshop to piece together the porcelain fragments of someone else's shattered happiness.” p97

“What’s a mortal sin?” “I don’t know. One that’s more fun, I suppose.” p102

“The capacity to forgive was one of life's most mysterious miracles. Tom only wished he could find more of it in his own heart, for grievances infinitely more trivial.” p116

“He'd never understood what the big deal was about telling the truth anyhow. People got enough of it in their everyday lives. It was what made them so goddamn miserable most of the time. What they really wanted was lies. That was what Hollywood was all about. It peddled lies that fed people’s fantasies and made them feel better. “ p177

“That was the thing with lies. Like the gnarled and twisted pine trees that grew along the Front Range, the longer they lived the stronger they became.” p209

“Cal’s house stood condemned in an ocean of dried mud, its contents already loaded into the truck that stood by the front porch. There wasn't much to be said and Tommy said nothing. His eyes kept wandering away to where the corrals had once stood and where now the last of the rails lay charred and smoldering on a bonfire. The smoke drifted away across the hillside like the aftermath of some lost and pointless war.“ p277

“The land around the ranch was flat and scrubby but the view of the Rocky Mountain Front, some 20 miles farther west, took your breath away. It was a giant wall of rock that blazed pink when the sun rose and purple when it's set and Tommy came to think of it as having been placed there to keep all that was bad in the world at bay." p312

“… John sat watching the news on their ancient black-and-white TV. The picture was like driving in the rain without wipers. The signal had to fly fifty five miles from Great Falls and by the time it reached the antenna on the ranch house roof it was too tired to deliver any more than Channel Five with no sound and Channel Three with no picture. It was enough however to give an idea of the rampant paranoia that had seized the world beyond the mountains.” p315

“Secrets such as his were like some sort of malign organism. They thrived on shame and guilt, spawning a fear that gnawed away at your insides.” p348

I can use one hand to count the number of science fictions books I’ve recommended over a lifetime of reading… and this is one. This adventure story is about innovation, science, humanity, and friendship! It stretched my imagination and touched my heart.

“Human suffering is often an abstract concept to kids. But animal suffering is something else entirely.” p67

“Wow. I'm sitting here in a spaceship in the Tau Ceti system waiting for the intelligent aliens I just met to continue our conversation… and I'm bored. Human beings have a remarkable ability to accept the abnormal and make it normal.” p157

“As a rule, we tried to avoid each other. Our relationship had matured from annoyed with each other to very annoyed with each other.” p225

“The vast majority of scientists and trained astronaut candidates are men. It's the world we live in. Don't like it? Encourage your female students to get into STEM. I'm not here to enact social equality. I'm here to do whatever's necessary to save humanity.” p266

“Are all Russians crazy?” “Yes,” he said with a smile. “It is the only way to be Russian and happy at the same time.” p268

“It's a simple idea, but also stupid. Thing is, when stupid ideas work, they become genius ideas.” p299

“Intelligence evolves to give us an advantage over the other animals on our planet. But evolution is lazy. Once a problem is solved, the trait stops evolving. So you and me, we're both just intelligent enough to be smarter than our planets other animals.” p349

“ I am a teacher. I should teach. We need to raise a strong, solid generation of survivors. Right now we're soft. You, me, the whole Western world. We’re the result of growing up in unprecedented comfort and stability.” p392

“People nowadays… they have no idea how good they have it. The past was unrelenting misery for most people. And the further back in time you go, the worse it was” p429

I am drawn to stories with strong female characters. Loved this one… motherhood, romance, imperfect characters, and fair amounts of both tragedy and joy.

“I’ll make you a deal,” she says. “I’ll leave the electric on for two weeks if you take a kitten.” What the hell kind of place in this? … She reappears with a small orange-and-black kitten. She places it in my hands. “There ya go. My name is Ruth if you ever need anything, but try not to need anything.” p4

“I’ve only had one cup of coffee; don’t talk to me.” Roman is twenty-seven, but he and Diem have met somewhere in the middle with their love-hate relationship, because they both act twelve.” p53

“I just wanted my mother to be adequate enough to not have the state intervene in her parenting. That isn’t too much for a child to ask the parent who gave them life. “Just be adequate. Keep me alive. Don’t leave me alone.” p102

It is what it is. A fucked-up situation, with no evil people to blame. We’re all just a bunch of sad people doing what we have to do to make it until tomorrow. Some sadder than others. Some of us more willing to forgive than others. p232

Sometimes I wonder if we're all born with equal amounts of good and evil. What if no one person is more or less malevolent than another, and then we all just release our bad at different times, and different ways?… Maybe some of us expel most of our bad behavior as toddlers, while some of us are absolute horrors during the teenage years. And then maybe there are those who spend very little malice until their adult adults, and even then, it just sees out slowly. A little bit every day until we die. p296

I am always amazed at the resiliency demonstrated by children. Also, a little envious of how they are so much quicker to forgive. This story is both sad and heartwarming… even more so when reality hits that it’s based on true depression era stories.

“Photography is the art of Observation. It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” Elliott Erwitt p3

“As I drove off, I just kept thinking about those boys. They didn't ask for the bum score they're getting, but somehow they'll make do. Adults, we're all so busy griping about our tough breaks, and kids like them, their lives changed in a split second and you hardly hear a peep.” p28

“The lull that followed didn't survive half a minute. Ellis's mother had long ago honed the art of filling the silence as one would potholes in a weathered road.” p59

“His own apprehension was turning, a slow but relentless motion, as if roasting over a spit.” p200

“She froze. The world around them, which had fallen away, instantly reappeared. The recognition of her mother's presence hit like a slap.” p216

“So, while my characters are entirely fictional, it would be safe to say that the book in your hands was my attempt to give the children in the photo the loving and compassionate outcome that, in my heart, I felt they deserved.” p335

An impulse purchase in the Denver Airport turned out to be a true page turner! The book cover claims it is a suspenseful story about a middle aged hiker who vanishes walking the Appalachian Trail, but it is so much more. The characters are interesting, imperfect and come from vastly different backgrounds. It is a story of life, family, and relationships.

“My height enraged the boys, none of whom had yet hit puberty and felt, I could only assume, that I had stolen something from them, that I had questioned the order of things.” p34

“Lena knew that without books, there was nothing but time.” p47

“I watched the woods darken with less panic than I had the night before. Darkness doesn't really fall. It rises. Shadows fill the woods first. The pale sky darkens last.” p167

“One reason Lena never goes to the dining hall is because she does not want to be asked about her "life story.” How do you tell your whole life story on command? How long should you make it? What should be left out for the sake of politeness? What if the parts of your life that interests you the most are the least interesting to others?” p191

“Perhaps Lena is meant to be dead already. She is still alive due to some clerical oversight. She lingers in a fading body, one that is being erased unevenly. She still has her bowels, her grievances, and her obsessions. But she no longer has her legs, nor any fellow feeling, no patience.“ p196

“A fire is a bedtime story. It starts fierce, in high flame, but it's in the dying down that the fire is most itself, when the heat from the embers enters you and hushes all your intentions, both your goodness and your graft.” p302

What makes this book remarkable is not the harrowing story of a nine year-old boy making his way from El Salvador to the United States, but that it is told in the voice of the nine-year-old boy. The voice is authentic and will tug hard on your heart strings!

“This might be the last time we sit here looking up at the stars for a long time. I pay attention to her breathing. I try to match it. But now, I want to curse, I want to curse so bad that the nuns will make me say a thousand Hail Marys as punishment. But I don't. I stay quiet. I swallow it like a big gulp of cough syrup.” p40

“I'm still mad no one but Carla cared. Patricia tried a little, but to the men, I'm a rock in their shoe. A splinter. I don't like feeling like this, like there's something missing. An unfinished puzzle. A Lego set with pieces missing.” p178

“He's mad. Mad-mad: eyebrows crunched, fists clenched, the veins on the side of his forehead jut out. His jaw, the sharpest it's looked. Nostrils wide open. He blows past us. Across our seat, the passengers look annoyed. They glare at Marcelo like I look at mosquitoes after they bite me.” p188

“Our third and final country is right there. La USA. The EE. UU. Gringolandia. The country of the movies, popcorn, pizza for school lunches, snowball fights, swimming pools, Toys "R" Us, and McDonald's. La Linea is right there.” p198

“I want to melt into the bricks. Squeeze out the other side and be in the sunlight, in the hot air, with the birds. When they fly, their shadows enter our cage. Maybe doves. Maybe crows. They sing. Squawk. Caw. It's cold and dark in here.” p248

“It's almost two A.M. The tops of the trees sway as we walk by, and some of the branch tips rattle like they're alive. Everything is awake. The moon lights the ground silver and blue. Whispy clouds dance in the sky, white ones that look like silk. With this wind and with this lighting – the blue, the grays - it feels like the bottom of the ocean.” p297

“I love looking for the big white moon. Seeing it change. It's better than looking at my watch. The moon has been up there watching me since the dawn I said goodbye to Abuelita, Mali, Lupe, Julia, the dog, the cat, and my parakeet.” p357