“to whatever extent the Hell’s Angels may or may be latent sadomasochists or repressed homosexuals is to me--after nearly a year in the constant company of outlaw motorcyclists--almost entirely irrelevant. There are literary critics who insist that Ernest Hemingway was a tortured queer and that Mark Twain was haunted to the end of his days by a penchant for interracial buggery. It is a good way to stir up a tempest in the academic quarterlies, but it won’t change a word of what either man wrote, nor alter the impact of their work on the world they were writing about. Perhaps Manolete was a hoof fetishist, or suffered from terrible hemorrhoids as a result of long nights in Spanish horn parlors…but he was a great matador, and it is hard to see how any amount of Freudian theorizing can have the slightest effect on the reality of the thing he did best.”
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“In a weird way I must have loved my little collection of hurts and wounds. They provided me with some real nice sympathy, with the feeling I was exceptional...What a special case I was.”
― The Secret Life of Bees
― The Secret Life of Bees
“Every night I dream a lot. Every day I live a little.”
― Get Rich or Get Lucky
― Get Rich or Get Lucky
“ In 1658, Francis Andrew Ransome stole the Alchemy Scroll from St. Julian’s college, my present employer. Ransome was a member of a transatlantic group called The Invisible College. They were alchemists, meaning they worked with matter and spirit together.”
― The Alchemy Fire Murder
― The Alchemy Fire Murder
“Be patient with him. If the same quality did not exist in you, you wouldn’t notice it in him.”
― Brainwalker
― Brainwalker
Chaya’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Chaya’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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