Travail and Triumph by Michael Phillips and Judith Petta

★★★★

A House Divided by Michael Phillips and Judith Pella

★★★★

The Crown and the Crucible by Michael Phillips and Judith Pella

★★★★★

"Though most said there was not a word of truth to it, country peasants in Russia were always fond of turning whatever they could into a fairy-tale."

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niggenegger

★★★

"Listen, sometimes when you finally find out, you realize that you were much better off not knowing."

The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant

★★★

"One night, alone in her Dogtown bed, Judy finally admitted to herself that she had been in love with Cornelius.  'In love' precisely as it was described in the novels and poems she had read with Martha; love as a kind of sweet madness that colored everything."

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

★★★

"It had been a good day, all things considered.  I had managed rather well on my own.  I opened Grandfather's Bible.  That is what it would be like when I had my own shop, or when I traveled abroad.  I would always read before sleeping.  One day, I'd be so rich I would have a library full of novels to choose from.  But I would always end the evening with a Bible passage."

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

★★★★★

"I wanted this one to be different.  I wanted to give a sense of the people of the book, the different hands that made it, used it, protected it."

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

★★★★★

"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

"Not my daughter, you bitch!"

" 'Albus Severus,' Harry said quietly, so that nobody by Ginny could hear, and she was tactful enough to pretend to be waving to Rose, who was now on the train, 'you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts.  One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling

★★★★★

"You must be wondering why I brought you here."

"Actually sir, after all these years, I just sort of go with it."

"Ah, Harry, how often this happens even between friends!  Each of us believes that what he has to say is much more important than anything the other person might have to contribute!"

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling

★★★★★

"We've all got both light and dark inside us.  What matters is the part we choose to act on.  That's who we really are."

"Just because you have the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have."

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

★★★★★

"Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort.  Remember Cedric Diggory."

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

★★★★★

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling

★★★★★

"It s our choices, Harry, that show us what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling

★★★★★

"It takes much bravery to stand up to our enemies but we need as much bravery to stand up to our friends."

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."

"Ah music!  A magic far beyond all we do here!"

The Sorcerer's Companion: A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter by Allen Zola Kronzek and Elizabeth Kronzek

★★★

The Waste Lands by Stephen King

★★★

"Jake went in, aware that he had, for the first time in three weeks, opened a door without hoping madly to find another world on the other side.  A bell jingled overhead.  The mild, spicy smell of old books hit him, and the smell was somehow like coming home."

The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

★★★

"What was like to think of ourselves and what we really are rarely have much in common..."

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

★★★★

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

"Go then, there are other worlds than these."

Drift House by Dale Peck

★★★★

Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah

★★★★

"That was the thing about best friends.  Like sisters and mothers, they could piss you off and make you cry and break your heart, but in the end, when the chips were down, they were there, making you laugh even in your darkest hours."

Maus I: My Father Bleeds History

★★★★★

"To die, it's easy.  But you have to struggle for life."

The River by Gary Paulsen

★★★

Push Not the River by James Conroyd Martin

★★★

"What is past, one cannot change, so each backward glance is a bit of the present slipping away."

Dolphin Song by Lauren St. John

★★★

Aquamarine by Alice Hoffman

★★

Flush by Carl Hiaasen

★★★

Fish by L. S. Matthews

★★★★

Summerhouse Time by Eileen Spinelli

★★★

Stowaway by Karen Hesse

★★

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

★★★★★

"Below me Rontu was running along the cliffs barking at the screaming gulls.  Pelicans were chattering as they finished the blue water.  But suddenly I thought of Tutok, and the island seemed very quiet."

Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson

★★★

"One of the sisters started shaving her legs and marrying tax inspectors, so she was no good."

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy

★★★★

"God didn't come down and kill us.  I don't see God shooting children and priests.  None of us met God beating up Jew and shoving them into railroad cars.  This is men doing the murdering.  Talk to men about their evil, kill the evil men, but pray to God. You can't expect God to some down and do our living for us.  We have to do that ourselves."

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

★★★★★

" 'I had my chance.'  He said it, retiring from a lifetime of wanting. 'I had my chance, and sometimes in life, there are not second chances.  You look at what you have, not what you miss, and you move forward."

"The hardest choices in life aren't between what's right and what's wrong but between what's right and what's best."

"Hope can get you through anything."

The Shake by William P. Young

★★★★★

"Forgiveness if not about forgetting.  It is about letting go of another person's throat...Forgiveness does not create a relationship.  Unless people speak the truth about what they have done and change their mind and behavior, a relationship of trust is not possible.  When you forgive someone you certainly release them from judgement, but without true change, no real relationship can be established...Forgiveness in no way requires that you trust the one you forgive.  But should they finally confess and repent, you will discover a miracle in your own heart that allows you to reach out and begin to build between you a bridge of reconciliation...Forgiveness does not excuse anything...You may have to declare your forgiveness a hundred times the first day and the second day, but the third day will be less and each day after, until one day you will realize that you have forgiven completely.  And then one day you will pray for his wholeness."

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

★★★★

"It can be very dangerous to see things from somebody else's point of view without the proper training."

"Everybody has their moment of great opportunity in life.  If you happens to miss the one you care about, then everything else becomes eerily easy."

The Next Thing on my List by Jill Smolinski

★★★

"People are living too much or too little, and I wondered if anyone out there is living the right amount."

Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas

★★★★

"When it's raining puddling, hold up your bowl."

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

★★★★★

"If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing."

"If you're good at it, and you love it, and it helps you navigate the river of the world, then it can't be wrong."

"If you care about something enough, it's going to make you cry.  But you have to use it.  Use your tears.  Use your pain.  Use your fear.  Get mad.  Arnold, get mad."

The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

★★★★

"The truth is, we all thought of giving up at some point that winter, more often than you could imagine.  And maybe we would have, if we hadn't had each other, but it was something, having the five of us, knowing we weren't alone."

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

★★★★★

"For you, a thousand times over."

"It was only a smile, nothing more.  It didn't make everything right.  It didn't make ANYTHING all right.  Only a smile.  A tiny thing.  A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a startled bird's flight.  But I'll take it.  With open arms.  Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting."

The Wise Woman by Philippa Gregory

★★★

The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory

★★★★

"For most of my life I have been adored by fools and hated by people of good sense, and they all make up stories about me in which I am either a saint or a whore.  But I am above these judgements, I am a Queen."

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

★★★

"With everything so perfect, reality seemed somehow fragile, as if the slightest interruption could imperil her pretty future...all of it felt as tenuous as a soap bubble, shivering and empty."

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

★★★★

"Sometime.  Mostly, no.  It's like the people who believe they'll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn't work that way.  Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.  If you see what I mean."

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

★★★★

"I'm lonely.  Why do you think I had to learn to act so independent?  I also get mad too quickly, and I hog the covers, and my second toe is longer than my big one.  My hair has it's own zip code.  Plus, I get certifiably crazy when I've got PMS.  You don't love someone because they're perfect.  You love them in spite of the fact that they're not."

Whistling in the Dark by Lesley Kagen

★★★

"Life, it is not simple like a garden, where flowers are always flowers and weeds are always weeds."

The Host by Stephanie Meyer

★★★

"Perhaps there could be no joy on this planet without and equal weight of pain to balance it out on some unknown scale."