Pick-a-Shelf discussion

Don't be caught short....leave a quote from your novella here. It doesn't matter whether it is short, like the novella, or long. It doesn't even matter if it is from page 46, although that is a good place to go if you are stuck.

from Lyra's Oxford

I decided p. 46 is too far in for most novellas, so arbitrarily choosing p. 13

"I understand, Lyra Silvertongue, you must guide me to a house in this city -- I can't find the house, I don't know cities --"

"Stop," she said, ""slow down, wait. What is your name, and your witch's name?"

"I am Ragi. She is Yelena Pazhets. She sent me -- I must find a man who --" ...

The daemon fluttered anxiously to the window-sill, and then to the back

I agree, Susan. By the time that you get to page 46 on most novellas, you are at least half way through. I like your quote. :)

From The Summer Before I Met You

“They were the town’s leading family. Until the two Lynburn sisters disappeared,” Kami said with satisfaction. “It’s a mystery. Aurimere House has stood empty for years.”

“Except for miscreants who break in,” said Angela.

“Angela, I would never,” Kami exclaimed. “I tested a few doors and looked in a few windows. There are no laws against that, I am pretty sure.”

From The Spring Before I Met You

“The Three Musketeers,” said the boy, his voice rough and adult.

“Oh,” said Mariel. “For class?”

“Yeah,” Jared said slowly, as if he were imparting state secrets. “I’m finding it really rough going. Too many long words, you know what I mean? But I’m hoping things will get better when the musketeers
show up.”

“The musketeers?” Mariel asked. She hadn’t read the book, but she was fairly certain that the guys were in it from the start.

“Yeah,” Jared said again, this time speaking a little more rapidly, as if he were confident on the subject. “I’m pretty sure they’re weapons, right? Musketeers? They sound like weapons. I’m kinda
hoping that they’ll blow stuff up.”

from The Pact, p. 33

As I screamed, he smacked my head. I fell back away, down into a patch of bramble that pierced my clothing. With so many bramble needles stuck to my skin calling me down to sleep, it was enough to easily throw me away from the world.

from Stupid Perfect World:

I took Kieran straight to my Bio classroom, which had both a hamster and a customizing engine for bioframes. I already had the program that would shut down my hormone balancers -- those little widgets that keep us calm and collected and boring all the time.

Teen angst, here I come.

A few other people from Scarcity were already there, needing the engine to switch off immune defenses and organ repair. The machine's AI was taking forever, checking permission slips and running simulations to make sure no one altered their bioframe in a lethal or illegal way.

from The Typist, page 46:

"It's Arthur's birthday," Mrs. Bunny said. "He's a little boy and he'll be eight years old and you'll just have to deal with the Russian ambassador when the time comes."

(Note: Bunny is the nickname of General MacArthur.)

The Sense of an Ending is a book full of quotes, little snippets of "wisdom." In fact, that's almost all there is to it. I kept reaching for bookmarks as I read it. Here are a few:

If I can't be sure of the actual events any more, I can at least be true to the impressions those facts left. (p. 4)

In those days, we imagined ourselves as being kept in some kind of holding pen, waiting to be released into our lives. And when that moment came, our lives -- and time itself -- would speed up. How were we to know that our lives had in any case begun, that some advantage had already been gained, some damage already inflicted? Also, that our release would only be into a larger holding pen, whose boundaries would be at first undiscernible. (p. 10)

History isn't the lies of the victors, as I once glibly assured Old Joe Hunt; I know that now. It's more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious nor defeated. (p. 61)

Not replying was the only way to keep my temper. (p. 56)

It strikes me that this may be one of the differences between youth and age: when we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different pasts for others. (p. 88)

Love is Hell, p. 177 (in "Fan Fictions")

She decides to take it slow. It's like reading a really good book -- a pretty good book you want to rush through, but a really good book you want to read slowly, delaying the moment when you will reach that last page, sentence, word as long as possible. She believes... no, she knows she will see him again. Or he will see her. She just has to be patient.

The Hangman

As she looked at the picture, her face became pained, as though he'd hit her.
"Are you all right?"
It was, he knew, a stupid question. Of course she wasn't all right. She'd just seen the face of a man strangled to death.
"I'm sorry," she kept saying, as if she had something to be sorry for.

Prism, p. 45

We waited a brief moment before charging ahead. Not walking but running. Racing. The light grew as we progressed farther, becoming wider and brighter until it was blinding. But we didn't stop. We kept running. A deafening buzzing started to sound, like radio static; no, more like the obnoxious kind of feedback that comes when a microphone is held too close to a speaker. I couldn't hear the sound of my own feet. I couldn't feel my feet moving. Because they weren't moving.

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, p. 32

McAllister didn't let Pete sit alone by the Shell wall for very long ...
"Go away."
"No." She didn't put her arms around him; she knew better, after last time. He had hit her. From frustration, hurt, anger, hate. Never had he regretted anything so much in his short life.
"Then don't go away. I don't care."
She smiled. "Yes, you do. And I have something good to tell you."
Despite himself, he said, "What?"
"The two little girls you brought us a week ago are doing fine."


The Rose of Fire, p. 10

When Sempere had finished translating the notebook, the first light of dawn peered through the clouds. Shortly afterwards, the inquisitor, without uttering a word, left the room and two sentries came into fetch Sempere and lead him to a cell from which he felt sure he would never emerge alive. While Sempere was being flung into the dungeon, the grand inquisitor's men were sent to the ship's hulk where, hidden in a metal coffer, they were to find the scarlet phial.

My pages numbers are from Wool Omnibus

Wool, p. 15:

"And what makes you think it was us, that it was the good guys who wiped the servers?"
She half turned and smiled grimly. "Who says we are the good guys?"
Holston stiffened. He pulled his hand away from Allison's neck. "Don't start. Don't say anything that might -- "
"I'm kidding, "she said, but it wasn't a thing to kid about. It was two steps from traitorous, from cleaning.

Proper Gauge, pp. 66-67

On the thirty-fourth, she slipped off onto the landing. Marnes joined her, his canteen in hand. Jahns realized she'd been drinking out of his all day while hers stayed strapped to her back. There was something childlike and romantic about this, but also something practical. It was more difficult to reach one's own water than it was to grab that of the other from their pack.

Casting Off, p. 147

As she reached his hall, two kids ran by holding hands, late for school. They giggled and squealed around the corner, leaving Juliette alone in the hallway. She wondered what she would say to Marnes to justify coming down, to explain her worry. Maybe now was a good time to ask for the folder that he couldn't seem to be without.

The Unraveling, p. 251

"What is it?" she asked. She waved sown the others so she could hear. She leaned close to Walker.
"Walk," tell me, what is it? What is this? What're you trying to say?"
"This is how it starts," he whispered, the room quiet once more. He looked up at all the faces, scanned them, seeing in their fury, in all the exploded taboos, that he was right to worry.
"This is how the uprising begins -- "

The Stranded, pp. 405-406

"And this -- " Lukas turned and rested one hand on the thick book. He continued, unbidden, " -- the Order. This is a roadmap for how to get through all the bad that's piled up between our past and the future's hope. This is the stuff we can prevent, that we can fix."