Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Ifemelu's reply came an hour later, a rush of heartbroken words. I am crying as I write this. Do you know how often I wished that she was my mother? She was the only adult--except for Aunty Uju--who treated me like a person with an opinion that mattered. You were so fortunate to be raised by her. She was everything I wanted to be. I am so sorry, Ceiling.

Out of my Mind, by Sharon Draper

Words have always swirled around me like snowflakes--each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands. Deep within me, words pile up in huge drifts. Mountains of phrases and sentences and connected ideas. Clever expressions. Jokes. Love songs...But only in my head. I have never spoken one single word. I am almost eleven years old.

Lockdown: Escape from Furnace, by Alexander Gordon Smith

The figure stalked like a bird, taking huge, sweeping steps forward, its legs lost in the tails of its leather coat. The body seemed to twitch and shake as it progressed, the head jerking upward every five or six steps, the gloved hands clawing at its own face as if trying to remove the ancient gas mask that hung there. There was something very wrong with the way it moved its limbs, but the heavy crimson light stopped me working out what it was.

Wives and Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskell

"But--you must let me say it--I couldn't go on when I saw your distress. Has anything happened?--anything in which I can help you, I mean; for, of course, I've no right to make the inquiry, if it is any private sorrow, in which I can be of no use."

48-Hour Book Challenge Finish Line

For this year's 48-Hour Book Challenge, I managed:

• 22 hours of reading
• 3 hours, 20 minutes of listening to an audiobook
• 1 hour of blogging and social media

For a total of 26 hours and 20 minutes!

I read 7.5 books--2,253 pages!--plus 3 stories from my audiobook, Dark and Stormy Knights.

And now, I am so tired...

Earth Girl, by Janet Edwards

On the surface, none of that seemed to have the slightest connection to my unknown parents, but of course it did. Everything did. Everything in my life was because of them and their decision. Everything kept coming back to the shadowy figures who'd handed their ape kid over to Hospital Earth and walked away. If they hadn't done that, my entire life would have been different, and I wouldn't be telling a bunch of lies to an off-world class.

Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan

Esperanza smiled and reached over and gently pulled the yarn, unraveling the uneven stitches. Then she looked into Isabel's trusting eyes and said, "Do not ever be afraid to start over."

The Fire Horse Girl, by Kay Honeyman

I was lost and trapped inside the story at the same time. I wanted my own story. Why didn't they believe that if I had left my home and traveled over the ocean, I needed to be here? Why couldn't I tell them how hard it was to live in China, how people broke off pieces of you to make you fit? Why didn't they want to know what it was like being a Fire Horse, full of a strength and power that only destroyed everything I touched?

The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent, by Marie Brennan

Some years later--after stories of my exploits aboard the Basilisk began to filter back home, and the outrage over my Erigan deeds had faded somewhat--there were those in Scirland who romanticized me as some kind of champion of the Moulish, nobly aiding them with no desire for my own gain. This is entirely false, and I cannot decide if its falsity is too flattering to me, or perversely insulting, to myself and the Moulish both. One could imagine that I approached my research the way I did out of respect for our hosts and their traditions, but insofar as that is true, I cannot claim credit for it. It was the accidental consequence of my true reasoning, which was concerned with how to achieve the best results with a minimum of fuss.

Thirteenth Child, by Patricia C. Wrede

"This is the most important lesson you must learn about magic," Miss Ochiba went on. "There are many ways of seeing. Each has an element of truth, but none is the whole truth. If you limit yourselves to one way of seeing, one truth, you will limit your power. You will also place limits on the kinds of spells you can cast, as well as their strength. To be a good magician, you must see in many ways. You must be flexible. You must be willing to learn from different sources. And you must always remember that the truths you see are incomplete."

Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer

 I parrot: Grandfather is not a bad person, Jonathan. everyone performs bad actions. I do. Father does. Even you do. A bad person is is someone who does not lament his bad actions. Grandfather is now dying because of his. I beseech you to forgive us, and to make us better than we are. Make us good.

Guilelessly,
Alexander

Bamboo People, by Mitali Perkins

"A man full of hatred is like a gun, my son," Peh says. "He can be used for only one purpose--to kill."

The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green

Who am I to say that these things might not be forever? Who is Peter Van Houten to assert as fact the conjecture that our labor is temporary? All I know of heaven and all I know of death is in this park: an elegant universe in ceaseless motion, teeming with ruined ruins and screaming children.

Starting the 48-hour book challenge...

Now!

Thank you, Mother Reader!

William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back, by Ian Doescher

C-3PO:
My R2 small, pray be thou safe, good friend,
And take especial care of Master Luke.
Farewell, farewell! parting is such sweet sorrow
That I shall say farewell till thou hast left.

R2-D2:
[aside] "Till thou hast left"? No poet he, indeed.
Alas, it seems that romance is not one
of 3PO's six million forms of speech.