Shelia

“And knowing what happens on average is a good place to start. By so doing, we insulate ourselves from the tendency to build our thinking - our daily decisions, our laws, our governance - on exceptions and anomalies rather than on reality.”
― Steven D. Levitt, SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

“She's called the secretary, but as far as I can tell she basically runs the school.”
― Rebecca Stead, When You Reach Me

“Now all white Southern women keep as a weapon against uncouth world a certain smile that can be whipped out of storage and tacked up, in an instant, covering over a multitude of too-candid moments. My mother's face, whose upturned mouth never moved, registered confusion, then fear-then landed where I expected that steely doggedly cheerful resolve of a smile.”
― Joy Jordan-Lake, Blue Hole Back Home

“Common sense is just a name for the way we’re used to thinking.”
― Rebecca Stead, When You Reach Me