Hey, all! It’s Wednesday links time!
How was your weekend? I finally moved the last of my furniture from my old apartment and I feel such relief. There are a few things to wrap up still, like donating other pieces of furniture left behind and cleaning, but the most stressful part is done. Now I can unpack my extensive candle collection and get to burnin’.
(Also…the books. Dear god, the books.)
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From Nakia at WildStarFibers.com:
I wanted to send over a message to let you know I am releasing Romancelandia Vol 2 on Saturday June 3rd @ 10am PT/1pm ET.
This round of the collection is inspired by the covers of some of the novels I’ve read over last few months.
Nakia joined Sarah on the podcast to talk about her romance-inspired yarn in Episode 529. The Romancelandia Yarn Collection with Nakia from Wild Star Fibers.
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People on Twitter were sharing their favorite lines in literature! I love when the book community comes together for things like this.
It originated here (@bibliogato) and I recommend looking through the replies and quote tweets. Feel free to share your own in the comments.
Without spoilers, what's a line from a book that has stuck with you for years? And what book is it from?
For me,
"Fly the plane, Maddie." – Code Name Verity
— Katherine Locke (@Bibliogato) May 28, 2023
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This post on the gendering of eroticism from romance author Lana Ferguson was a great read, but something we’re still (STILL?!) reckoning with in the year of our lord 2023. Definitely bumping up her book on my TBR pile.
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I know cozy gaming is very much in our house of wheels, which is why I will definitely be tuning in to this showcase!
https://twitter.com/_wholesomegames/status/1658123609506824196
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Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
Well, there are some great lines in all kinds of books. One I came across recently was, “it is better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.”
And, years ago, I asked a co-worker what he was reading and he sort of hemmed and hawed, saying it was on old book and I’d probably never heard of it, but he eventually told me the title, at which I recited its first line: “He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.” (Scaramouch by Rafael Sabatini)
It’s two sentences, but my favorite quote is the opening of Silent in the Grave, by Deanna Raybourn:
“To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband’s dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.”
Two really excellent non-fiction non-romance books I read this week:
ALL THE BEAUTY IN THE WORLD by Patrick Bringley
Bringley was working at the New Yorker when his brother’s fatal cancer diagnosis made him decide to take a break. He then took a job as a guard at the Met & spent a decade immersing himself in the cloistered world of great art, far, as they say, from the madding crowd.
MONSTERS: A FAN’S DILEMMA by Clare Dederer
How do we reconcile enjoying great art with the knowledge that its creators have done terrible things? Can we?
The title sequence for Good Omens season 2 dropped this morning & it is utterly delightful. Lots of hints at this season’s storyline. Drops July 28. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiGqWuSHW80
From Sarah Addison Allen’s The Peach Keeper “Happiness is a risk. If you’re not a little scared, then you’re not doing it right.” It’s one of my favourite book quotes.
…what is essential is invisible to the eyes.
“green silk rooms”
“how long have you been dead, my lord?”
“Shopping! Want to see what I bought?”
“You looked a GOD in the eye and spoke for me.”
“Stands to reason”
“It’s only Crane”
“I am angry nearly every day of my life, Jo”
“Baskng in the warm glow of calories” from Doris Egans Gates of Ivory series. I think it’s a paraphrase, though. Now I need to reread them.
This is the most important line of the classic, (very) short story “The Open Window” by Saki (H. H. Munro):
“Romance at short notice was her specialty”
The character-building Saki pulls off in a very few pages is nothing short of pithy brilliance and that line epitomizes it. Vera has been one of my few heroes for decades (bonus points for making a ten-year-old me look up what “self-possessed” meant [and did NOT mean], and aspire to be it forevermore).
(If this link doesn’t work, there’s plenty of other options online)
https://www.vma.is/static/files/enska/Bokmenntir/Short%20Stories/TheOpenWindowSaki.pdf
“I will be calm. I will be mistress of myself.” Eleanor from Sense and Sensibility.
@Betsydub, isn’t it interesting to recall precisely when one learned a particular word for the first time?
The Legend of All Wolves series by Maria Vale is one of my favourites and the pining and heartache of Elijah in A Wolf Apart is so well done. He’s a lawyer and has a huge vocabulary but his constant mental refrain of “Please, Thea” is just SO GOOD. Two words, but it gets me in all my feels every time.