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As the arrow endures the bowstring's tension, so that gathered in the snap of release it can be more than itself.

this book is about an important issue, but I could do without the bitchy Jezebel snark.

"Peter's cover was blown almost immediately when he was recognised by Peter." I swear to God, every person in this book is named Peter or Roger or Raymond or Roger Peter or Raymond Roger.

"When Fredrick did finally set off for the Sixth Crusade in 1227, [Pope Gregory IX] excommunicated him again for going on Crusade while excommunicated." He was excommunicated the first time for not going on Crusade.

thinking about the amount of classic novels about married women falling in love with dangerous men: The Princess of Cleves, The Awakening, Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina, Lady Chatterley's Lover

"Africa is all about freedom," says the white people stealing tribal lands. Does McLain understand colonialism?

"The military is likely to play a key role for years to come, at least in Egypt, as it did during democratic transitions in South Korea, Indonesia and Chile."

Lol, is this guy referring to the Chilean military coup that overthrew a democratic government with the help of the CIA? Yeah, in military dictatorships the military tends to play a large role. Stop taking Uncle Sam's cock; he doesn't give reach arounds.

Describing why he no longer finds the artistic live attractive: "The religious life, even at its most 'stuck up', does involve the adherent in some practical contact with others [...] The art life encouraged an elevated distancing of the adherent from others. A field was not something to enter and do things but a landscape to be stood outside of and observe, similarly with people and their occupations."

"The revolutionary posters were everywhere, flaming from the walls in clean reds and blues that made the few remaining advertisements look like daubs of mud. Down the Ramblas, the wide central artery of the town where crowds of people streamed constantly to and fro, the loud-speakers were bellowing revolutionary songs all day and far into the night."

This is a beautifully written book.

Take a drink every time Ballard uses the word "pubis."

She's a Strong Female Character (TM). You know she's a Strong Female Character (TM) because she uses words like "goddammit" and "piss." Only a Strong Female Character (TM) is capable of using such naughty words. But even though she's a Strong Female Character (TM), all she really wants is to be sexually submissive to a Real Man (TM). Is that too much to ask?

There are two types of women the the world: uptight, vegan librarians, and scotch-swilling temptresses. Some times all a woman has to do to go from one to the other, is release her raven hair from her schoolmarm bun.

I was pretty excited about this book, but so far it has just been neoliberal bullshit about how corrupt dictatorships can tempered with free trade agreements.

"The starlings rose and fell, rose and fell. They reassembled themselves into a new shape. Gladys's brow furrowed. It was as though they were spelling out a word. She squinted. Yes, she thought. Yes, they were spelling out a word.
"She read the black letters in the sky.
"Doom."

This book is awesome.