Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

★★★★★

"It makes you wondering.  All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how."

"Some people are born to make great art and others are born to appreciate it...It's a kind of talent in itself, to be an audience, whether you are a spectator in the gallery or you are listening to the voice of the world's greatest soprano.  Not everyone can be an artist.  There have to be those who witness the art, who love and appreciate what they have been privileged to see."

Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah

★★★

"Don't trust anyone.  Be a cold fish.  I hurt no one.  And no one can hurt me."

The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory

★★★★★

" 'The truth is the last things that matters,' she said.  'And you can believe one thing of the truth and me: I keep it well hidden, inside my heart.' "

Mirabilis by Susan Coral

★★★

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

★★★★

"Gradually, they began to talk.  Overflow succeeded into silence, which is fulness...They confided to each other in an intimacy of the ideal, which even now nothing could have increased, all that was most hidden and most mysterious of themselves...These two hearts pored themselves out into each other, so that at the end of an hour, it was the young man who had the young girl's soul, and the young girl who had the soul of the young man."

Hiroshima Dreams by Kelly Easton

★★★

Coraline by Neil Gailman

★★★★

"The names are the first things to go, after the breath has gone, and the beating of the heart.  We keep our memories longer than our names."