The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall

★★

"Now she knew that you didn't survive on your own.  Everyone who touched your life sent a ripple effect through you and all the ripples interconnected.  She could sense them inside her, surging and flowing, doubling back and overlapping, all the way back to the beginning."

The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory

★★★★

" 'Yes, Your Grace,' I correct her.  'I am My Lady, the King's Mother, now, and you shall curtsey to me, as low as to a queen of royal blood.  This was my destiny: to put my son on the throne of England, and those who laughed at my visions and doubted my vocation will call me My Lady, the King's Mother, and I shall sign myself Margaret Regina: Margaret R."

Cousins' War #1 - The Lady of the Rivers
Cousins' War #2 - The White Queen 

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

★★★★★

"Your house's emblem should not be the white rose but the old sign of eternity...the snake which eats itself.  The sons of York will destroy each other, one brother destroying another, uncles devouring nephews, father's beheading sons.  They are a house which has to have blood and they will shed their own if they have no other enemy."

"Poor Mulusina, who tried so hard to be a good wife had to leave the man who loved her and go back to the water, finding the earth too hard.  Like many women, she was unable to fit exactly with her husband's view.  her feet hurt: she tried to dance to please him, but she could not deny the pain.  She is the ancestress of the royal house of Burgundy, and we descendants, still try to wake in the paths of men, and sometimes we too find the way unbearable hard.

Cousins' War #1 - The Lady of the Rivers

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

★★★★★

" 'One more time?  For the audience?' he says.  His voice isn't angry.  It's hallow, which is worse.  Already the boy with the bread is slipping away from me.  I take his hand, holding on tightly, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go."

"Happy Hunger Games!  And many the odds be ever in your favor."

Blankets by Craig Thompson

★★★★

"How satisfying it is to leave a mark on a blank surface.  To make a map of my movement-no matter how temporary."

This graphic novels tell the coming-of-age story of a boy named Craig growing up in Wisconsin.  Throughout the book, he struggles with family, religion, belonging, and his first love.

I normally don't read too many graphic novels, but this was chosen for a book club and I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  Many of the themes of the story are the the same ones that young adults struggle with on a daily basis.  It was very realistic and I loved the drawings.

This was one of my favorites:

This book was #9 on my top ten list of 2012.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

★★★★

"My yesterdays are disappearing, and my tomorrows are uncertain, so what do I live for?  I live for each day.  I live in the moment.  Some tomorrow soon, I'll forget that I stood before you and gave this speech.  But just because I'll forget it some tomorrow doesn't mean that I didn't live every second of it today.  I will forget today, but that doesn't mean that today doesn't matter."

A Respectable Trade by Philippa Gregory

★★★★

"This is our last time together, Frances.  I will not ask, and you need not refuse.  Let us just be together for this afternoon.  At least we have these hours and the sun is warm, and you are well, and I am going to be free."