Al Matava

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Al’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (21)

currently-reading‎ (0)

read‎ (75)

did-not-finish‎ (0)

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Al’s Quotes

“Americans have a love affair with weak coffee.’ ‘And you’re a coffee expert, too,’ Gwen said, cutting a thick slice of apple pie.”
― Gary Clemenceau, Banker's Holiday: A Novel of Fiscal Irregularity

tags: characterdynamics, dialoguegold, literarysatire, sharethis, smalltowndiner, wryhumor

128 likes

“Mary stared at the dreamlike happenings on the page. Human figures faced each other; the man’s head was a golden ball with rays reaching up to huge stars and out to the distant mountains; the woman’s silver head was sickle-shaped and surrounded by birds like eagles with white beaks. Some of the black letters glowed because they had tips like tiny flames.”
― Susan Rowland, The Alchemy Fire Murder

tags: fiction-novel, murder, past-experiences, personal-relationships, power, psychological, tense, thriller

507 likes

“Daring to raise my eyes,
I call out, a bird-like sound,
giving myself to this day,
abandoning desire
for all except you.”
― Don Hynes, Something Will Change Me: Poems of Hope, Healing, and Personal Transformation

tags: acceptance, accomplish, ambition, be-happy, believe, change, cherish, inspirational-attitude, inspirational-life, leadership

40 likes

“The third story is told in a long and detailed letter written to a friend by Sergeant Benjamin Katz, an orderly in the Royal Army Medical Corps. … This letter is completely different from the other accounts, emotional, shocking, heartbreaking, funny and unforgettable.”
― Elizabeth Tebby Germaine, EXTRAORDINARY TRUE STORIES OF SURVIVAL IN BURMA WW2: tens of thousands fled to India from the Japanese Invasion in 1942

tags: appalling-conditions, british-soldier, desperate-refugees, disease, facts, lies, literature, secrets, starvation, true-accounts

39 likes

“The filigreed iron gates of the Navy Yard were open wide between two pillars that featured large spread-winged eagles on orbs. Men were standing around as women came out together in their overalls after their shifts. Before the war women didn’t work at the Navy Yard, but with men joining up or drafted and a new campaign with a poster of 'Rosie the Riveter' it did its job encouraging woman to work outside the home for the war effort.”
― A.G. Russo, The Cases Nobody Wanted