Monday, February 8, 2010

Grab-A-Line Monday


Happy Monday!

Nandini's and Bish's comments last week made me decide to clarify something about GALM, specifically about being "late" to share their lines.

There is no "late."

Come on over any time of the week and post your comments on the week's GALM and I'll re-post it the following Monday.

Last week we had three short, deceptively simple, and lovely quotes from kid lit.

Sherrie shared this simple, yet memorable line from Home of the Brave,in which a young boy from Africa describes someone laughing on a cold day:


His laughter makes little clouds.

Brought a smile to me.


Bish enjoyed this from Evolution of Calpurnia Tate:

There was my whole life for you, socks stretching all the way to the infinite horizon, a yawning valley of knitting tedium. I felt sick.

I can certainly feel the narrator's sense of hopelessness. Poor Calpurnia.


Nandini has a line from STARGIRL by Jerry Spinelli.

She was bendable light: she shone around every corner of my day.

There is a boy in love.

My line this week is from Tana French's In The Woods again.

We think about mortality so little, these days, except to fail hysterically at it with trendy forms of exercise and high0fiber cereals and nicotine patches.

Maybe it is because I am thinking of mortality in this way a lot these days, specifically about how when you have children late in life, you have to work extra hard to keep healthy so you can be there for the important things in your children's lives. And if you see me exercise, you'll agree that my form of exercise, while not trendy, is very much of the flailing hysterically sort.


What caught you this week?

9 comments:

lotusgirl said...

I love that line from Stargirl. What a great book. The 2nd one is wonderful too.

Sarah Stevenson said...

Great lines, everyone! Very striking.

Davin Malasarn said...

I started reading Alice Munro's latest collection, Too Much Happiness. There are so many great lines in there. Here's one, that probably isn't her best, but was one I just happened to be able to find again:

Her graying hair was cut short and she had a mole riding on one cheekbone.

Here's another section that I thought was also breathtaking:

Doree was pretty sure that these people weren't as bad as Lloyd thought, but it was no use contradicting him. Perhaps men just had to have enemies, the way they had to have their jokes. And sometimes Lloyd did make the enemies into jokes, just as if he was laughing at himself. She was even allowed to laugh with him, as long as she wasn't the one who started the laughing.

Bish Denham said...

Thanks for clarifying Yat-Yee. I'm glad to know there is no late, only participation. (Sounds kind of Yoda-ish....)

Corey Schwartz said...

Hi Yat-Yee,

No lines, but wanted to respond yto your comment... Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was incredibly hard to get into. The hook wasn't until page 120! (I almost didn't make it) That is a huge investment, BUT there was NO investment for Book 2. I was in it before I even opened it up. So, it averaged out to 60 pages, which made it worthwhile :)

Yat-Yee said...

Thanks for your comments everyone. And I hope to see you back throughout the week if you find something that grabs you.

Davin: I love Alice Munro but I do have to space out reading her books a bit, because she writes with such heart-breaking clarity and honesty.

Corey: 120 pages! Wow. I gave up at page 25, I think.

Nandini said...

I have the first line from The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan. The kids and I are having a Percy Jackson marathon in honor of the movie. Can't wait to see it!

The Friday before winter break, my mom packed me an overnight bag and a few deadly weapons and took me to a new boarding school.

Yat-Yee said...

Bish: Yes, speak Yoda, I do.

Nandini: my daughter has finished reading the whole series a second time in anticipation of The Big Day, AND she got invited to a birthday party of a buddy whose birthday is ON The Big Day. Lucky girl!

Tabitha said...

I loved Calpurnia Tate! And Stargirl, too.

I have had the opening lines to Jenna Fox stuck in my head lately.

"I used to be someone.
Someone named Jenna Fox.
That's what they tell me. But I am more than a name."

It gets me everytime. :)