andreareads
St. Albert Public Library
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andreareads's rating:
Added Mar 07, 2024
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andreareads's rating:
Added Feb 20, 2024
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- Intimacy and conversations about feelings did not come easily to her and, after a few sessions with a psychologist before she met me, she had decided that therapy created more problems than it solved. She had made a strength of her emotional detachment, built a career on it, and was not going to tamper with that foundation. Intimacy and conversations about feelings did not come easily to her and, after a few sessions with a psychologist before she met me, she had decided that therapy created more problems than it solved. She had made a strength of her emotional…
- I knew her family history, as Angelina knew mine. No skeletons of note, beyond the younger sister, Jacinta, being ‘troubled’, which in the Brown family could mean not studying law.
andreareads's rating:
Added Feb 20, 2024
Tags (15)
Quotations
- I don’t know, I tell Frank in the courtyard, if we can ever relate this experience, if we can ever express it without the tight grip of a handshake, the tang of cherries, the thickness of honey, and he says, “That’s why we have writers.”
- I dream of the language of ancient Shakhrisabz, that clement place. I read that slavery was never legal there, even at the height of the Silk Road trade. The mountains around the city glimmered with porcelain snow, reported the traveling monk Xuanzang, and the gates were reinforced with iron and hung with bells. I dream of the language of ancient Shakhrisabz, that clement place. I read that slavery was never legal there, even at the height of the Silk Road trade. The mountains around the city glimmered with porcelain snow, reported the traveling monk…
- We shake hands with a descendant of a nineteenth-century imam. Once, this man’s forebear welcomed a group of desperate strangers into this place. Now he clasps our hands, he pulls us eagerly close to him, he beckons toward our dusty group, some of whom may only exist because his ancestor met theirs with the same gesture. We shake hands with a descendant of a nineteenth-century imam. Once, this man’s forebear welcomed a group of desperate strangers into this place. Now he clasps our hands, he pulls us eagerly close to him, he beckons toward our dusty group, some of…
- We step down from the bus into a corridor of heat between henna-colored mud-brick walls. Sparks of blue stand out against this background with striking clarity, a saturation of color that makes me blink. A blue door, an overturned blue stool. A boy on a bicycle dressed in blue, like a speeding flake of ultramarine. Blue speaks a language of coolness and relief; I long for it as if the sight of the color alone is a form of water. We step down from the bus into a corridor of heat between henna-colored mud-brick walls. Sparks of blue stand out against this background with striking clarity, a saturation of color that makes me blink. A blue door, an overturned blue stool. A boy…
- I remember, after my father’s death, going into his basement office and finding the papers recording his sponsorship of my uncles’ visa applications: the documents that brought our family out of a Somalia wracked by war, out of the holding pens of the refugee camps. The grainy paper in my hands, under fluorescent light. The stamps, the signatures, the official look that evokes a distinct variety of fear, the silent panic of people in waiting rooms, squatting in hallways, pressed in long lines at fences, who find themselves at the mercy of obscure laws. Death behind, and before them someone just doing a job, maybe tired today, maybe bored. The photographs of my uncles stapled through the forehead, hair, or throat. I remember, after my father’s death, going into his basement office and finding the papers recording his sponsorship of my uncles’ visa applications: the documents that brought our family out of a Somalia wracked by war, out of the holding pens of…
- Czeslaw Milosz writes, “Language is the only homeland.” Yet for so many of us, home lies on the other side of a language barrier. Archives document your history in letters you can’t read. Your elders converse in the next room, softly, in foreign tongues. All right, then: make your home in the language where you are. Czeslaw Milosz writes, “Language is the only homeland.” Yet for so many of us, home lies on the other side of a language barrier. Archives document your history in letters you can’t read. Your elders converse in the next room, softly, in foreign…
- Here are the hunters, one on a black horse, a pair of white hawks on his arm. The other lounges on the ground beside a dog. Patches of light and darkness form a pattern: dark hat, pale beard, pale coat, dark horse. The embroidered caparison adds a hint of luxury. This picture gives me a feeling of wandering far on a long day, but all I know for sure about these beings, these people and animals, is that they were. And this fact shakes me: the incontrovertible fact of a body, now lost, that imposed itself for an instant in front of the light. Here are the hunters, one on a black horse, a pair of white hawks on his arm. The other lounges on the ground beside a dog. Patches of light and darkness form a pattern: dark hat, pale beard, pale coat, dark horse. The embroidered caparison adds a…
The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop and CaféThe Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop and Café, BookA Novel
by Simses, MaryBook - 2013Book, 2013
andreareads's rating:
Added Jan 29, 2024
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- “I thought they were going to get a divorce.” Mom twirled one of her bracelets around her wrist. “Yes,” she said cheerfully. “They were. But they decided to get a new house instead.” I nodded, trying to understand that logic . . .
Princess of the Silver WoodsPrincess of the Silver Woods, Book
by George, Jessica DayBook - 2012Book, 2012
andreareads's rating:
Added Jan 14, 2024
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Quotations
- Black, purple, blue, silver, black, purple, blue, silver. An entire palace of bruises and darkness and nothingness, night after night, always the same.
andreareads's rating:
Added Dec 29, 2023
Tags (19)
Quotations
- Rahul had strong opinions, even on things that you wouldn’t think warranted such fervor—such as the choice between wood flooring and carpet. Everything was right or wrong, authentic or “trying too hard.” I glanced at the hemp necklace dipping between the V of his distressed T-shirt, the twisted tuft on the top of his head that very nearly fell into man-bun territory, and wondered which category Rahul fell into. Rahul had strong opinions, even on things that you wouldn’t think warranted such fervor—such as the choice between wood flooring and carpet. Everything was right or wrong, authentic or “trying too hard.” I glanced at the hemp necklace dipping…
- Nani rarely spoke about the past, and I thought about pressing her. How had she felt about leaving her parents, one day suddenly packing her things and moving in with a husband she barely knew? What was it like getting on a plane for the first time in her life, crossing into a new country—cold, barren, and raising children in a land you knew nothing about? Nani rarely spoke about the past, and I thought about pressing her. How had she felt about leaving her parents, one day suddenly packing her things and moving in with a husband she barely knew? What was it like getting on a plane for the first time…
- She plays their breakup scene over and over again in her mind, rewinding and fast-forwarding. Agonizing over every word, every look, every pause.
- His jeans and faded leather jacket had been replaced by khaki trousers and a white button-down shirt, like he’d been dressed by the brunette beside him: petite and rail thin, wearing a white silky dress that stopped right below the crotch. They stood in the entranceway talking to each other, her hand on the base of his spine, and as she leaned up and whispered something in his ear, he caught my eye. His jeans and faded leather jacket had been replaced by khaki trousers and a white button-down shirt, like he’d been dressed by the brunette beside him: petite and rail thin, wearing a white silky dress that stopped right below the crotch. They…
andreareads's rating:
Added Dec 17, 2023
andreareads's rating:
Added Dec 06, 2023
Quotations
- Fireworks, two streets over. Something’s burning somewhere, or did burn, once. A torn silk veil, a yellowing letter: _I’m dying here._ Love on a skewer, a heart in flames. [from “Frida Kahlo, San Miguel, Ash Wednesday"
- Still, sing what you can. Turn up the light: sing on, sing: On. [from “Late Poems”]
- the key that opens the vacant room with its scored linoleum floor a blear-eyed yellow its flowery couch and wilted cushions its swaybacked bed, smelling of bleach and mildew its stuttering radio its ashtray that was here seventy years ago. This room has been static for me so long: an emptiness a void a silence containing an unheard story ready for me to unlock. Let there be plot. [from “If There Were No Emptiness”] the key that opens the vacant room with its scored linoleum floor a blear-eyed yellow its flowery couch and wilted cushions its swaybacked bed, smelling of bleach and mildew its stuttering radio its ashtray that was here seventy years ago.…
- What is a Polaroid? asks the newborn. Newborn a decade ago. How to explain? You took the picture and then it came out the top. The top of what? It’s that baffled look I see a lot. So hard to describe the smallest details of how-- all these dearly gathered together-- of how we used to live. We wrapped up garbage in newspaper tied with string. What is newspaper? You see what I mean. [from “Dearly”]What is a Polaroid? asks the newborn. Newborn a decade ago. How to explain? You took the picture and then it came out the top. The top of what? It’s that baffled look I see a lot. So hard to describe the smallest details of how-- all these…
andreareads's rating:
Added Dec 06, 2023
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Quotations
- Yoga had become so on trend, so over-the-top, sometimes she didn’t even recognize it. Anu didn’t need an Ayurvedic juice bar or an in-house naturopath or for the Hindu Om to be spray-painted on the bathroom wall like some appropriated decoration and not the sacred mantra that it was. Yoga had become so on trend, so over-the-top, sometimes she didn’t even recognize it. Anu didn’t need an Ayurvedic juice bar or an in-house naturopath or for the Hindu Om to be spray-painted on the bathroom wall like some appropriated decoration and…
- “You know that grown-ups don’t appear out of thin air, right? You have to actually _grow_. That means making mistakes . . .”
- The jealousy grew unbearable, deep and cutting. Anu had married the Neil who hadn’t known yogurt needed to be refrigerated, and this other woman was getting someone entirely different. A man who put effort into his relationship and didn’t become as useless as putty as soon as he got home from work. The jealousy grew unbearable, deep and cutting. Anu had married the Neil who hadn’t known yogurt needed to be refrigerated, and this other woman was getting someone entirely different. A man who put effort into his relationship and didn’t become as…
andreareads's rating:
Added Nov 30, 2023
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Quotations
- the little teacher guy, who had on a super-clean white apron over his shirt and vest, did yoga push-ups right on the chip path. After each push-up, he arched his back, shot up to his feet, touched his toes, touched his knees, then put his hands in the air like he was trying to flag down a cloud. It seemed like a lot of work. the little teacher guy, who had on a super-clean white apron over his shirt and vest, did yoga push-ups right on the chip path. After each push-up, he arched his back, shot up to his feet, touched his toes, touched his knees, then put his hands in…
- She exuded drama and not in a good way. Energy, Helen had long ago learned, could be quiet or loud. Meredith had deafening energy.
- The Sutil Island public dock was a popular spot for boaters, wiccans, and people who liked to smoke pot under the stars, which meant everyone on the island.
- a dance club filled with music that sounded like multiple emergency vehicles converging on a construction site
andreareads's rating:
Added Nov 07, 2023
Comment:
Gimlet, the Westie service dog, is the most realistic fictional dog I've ever encountered: highly intelligent and well trained, but still a normal dog who likes to say hi to people and get belly scritches.
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Quotations
- She’d seen her spouse yell at too many films when detectives wandered off on secret missions, followed by rants about how many missing persons cases would be solved while people were still alive if they would Just Tell People Where They Were Going.
- When she had been a teenager, she’d been—charitably—a handful, and her father had sent her to boarding school. During the course of her year and a half there, she had learned to hack every system that the school had for containing troublesome youth. They thought they could keep her out with a key-fob lock? Ha. When she had been a teenager, she’d been—charitably—a handful, and her father had sent her to boarding school. During the course of her year and a half there, she had learned to hack every system that the school had for containing troublesome youth.…
- When she was off duty, the Westie was . . . opinionated, but when Tesla was hurting? She was the best-behaved dog and slipped into her harness as neatly as if her trainer were in the room.
- There was a special quality to hold music that, generally speaking, made Tesla want to murder people.
- All of the frustration and rage at the ship and herself boiled up and over, and Tesla had to hold perfectly still to keep from shouting at the man. There were many things she could do, but shouting at staff was never, ever one of them.
Jasmine and Jake Rock the BoatJasmine and Jake Rock the Boat, BookA Novel
by Lalli, SonyaBook - 2023Book, 2023
andreareads's rating:
Added Oct 25, 2023
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Quotations
- As far as ‘sorting out your s-h-i-t,’ that project will never end. It takes a whole lifetime. The trick is finding a partner where you can both work on yourselves side by side and support each other.
- There were two pairs of lips involved in that kiss last night, yet I was the only one getting blamed, being made to feel that biological human urges were something to be ashamed about. No one cared about his role in all of it. No one was going to say shit about Suresh, a _college_ guy, who had been the one to kiss a fifteen-year-old in the first place. There were two pairs of lips involved in that kiss last night, yet I was the only one getting blamed, being made to feel that biological human urges were something to be ashamed about. No one cared about his role in all of it. No one was going to…
- I didn’t even really know what Vaisakhi was, honestly. We hadn’t been in years. Mom and Dad were usually too busy working for these kinds of events, but then last year they caught me smoking at the mall and decided I wasn’t Indian enough. That I needed to be more “community minded” and good, like the other girls at _gurdwara_. As if. I bet all of them had tried smoking, too. They just hadn’t gotten caught. I didn’t even really know what Vaisakhi was, honestly. We hadn’t been in years. Mom and Dad were usually too busy working for these kinds of events, but then last year they caught me smoking at the mall and decided I wasn’t Indian enough. That I…
andreareads's rating:
Added Oct 25, 2023
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Quotations
- . . . I suppose he’d come to rely so much on his magic that he’d never learned to think. The only thing that had ever done me any good in my father’s house was thinking: no one had cared what I wanted, or whether I was happy. I’d had to find my own way to anything I wanted. I’d never been grateful for that before now, when what I wanted was my life. . . . I suppose he’d come to rely so much on his magic that he’d never learned to think. The only thing that had ever done me any good in my father’s house was thinking: no one had cared what I wanted, or whether I was happy. I’d had to find my own…
- My people didn’t make a special virtue of dying for our religion—we found it unnecessary—and you were supposed to break Shabbat to save a life, including your own.
andreareads's rating:
Added Oct 04, 2023
Comment:
Interesting African inspired setting, disappointing "to be continued" ending.
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This Is How You Lose the Time WarThis Is How You Lose the Time War, Book
by El-Mohtar, AmalBook - 2020Book, 2020
andreareads's rating:
Added Sep 13, 2023
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Quotations
- London Next . . . is the kind of London other Londons dream: sepia tinted, skies strung with dirigibles, the viciousness of empire acknowledged only as a rosy backdrop glow redolent of spice and petalled sugar. Mannered as a novel, filthy only where story requires it, all meat pies and monarchyLondon Next . . . is the kind of London other Londons dream: sepia tinted, skies strung with dirigibles, the viciousness of empire acknowledged only as a rosy backdrop glow redolent of spice and petalled sugar. Mannered as a novel, filthy only where…
- Summer settles like a bee on clover – golden, busy, here then gone.
Suitability
Contains Violence
andreareads's rating:
Added Sep 10, 2023
Comment:
Weird slice of life.
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Quotations
- The Oliemens and the Roccos and all their kids and Ruby arrive at the same time. They’ve come across from the Roccos’ cabin, so the adults have probably been in there preloading on cocktails, building their strength to join those of us who don’t own boats. The adults carry real wine glasses, and they are filled with red wine. Good wine, I imagine. There’s not supposed to be glass at the beach – their wine should be in plastic cups – but it’s not my job to police that. It’s not my job to judge them on that either. But, oh, well, judging is in my DNA. The Oliemens and the Roccos and all their kids and Ruby arrive at the same time. They’ve come across from the Roccos’ cabin, so the adults have probably been in there preloading on cocktails, building their strength to join those of us who don’t own…
andreareads's rating:
Added Aug 31, 2023
Quotations
- Pretty hard to learn to be “one of the guys” when your entire experience with men growing up was either 1) them making your mother cry or 2) your mother’s dancer friends teaching you how to step-ball-change. I can be one of the guys, as long as the guys in question have a favorite song from _Les Mis_. Otherwise I’m hopeless. Pretty hard to learn to be “one of the guys” when your entire experience with men growing up was either 1) them making your mother cry or 2) your mother’s dancer friends teaching you how to step-ball-change. I can be one of the guys, as long as the…
- “Oh.” Someone get me a public speaking trophy, I’m on fire. . . . “Oh, wow, hi!” I say, once again hoping I come across as a human, raised by other humans.
- That’s the thing about women. There’s no good way to be one. Wear your emotions on your sleeve and you’re hysterical. Keep them tucked away where your boyfriend doesn’t have to tend to them and you’re a heartless bitch.
- We are either too good or too bad at fighting. We are _viciously_ trading support for each other’s romantic lives.
Suitability
Contains Sexual content
andreareads's rating:
Added Aug 22, 2023
Tags (10)
Quotations
- you might think that love is just a matter of leaping out of the frying pan of yourself into the fire of someone else (from “Adage”)
The Sinister Booksellers of BathThe Sinister Booksellers of Bath, Book
by Nix, GarthBook - 2023Book, 2023
andreareads's rating:
Added Aug 22, 2023
Quotations
- He climbed the stair in the corner, instinctively ducking his head at the turn. The farmhouse had originally been built in medieval times and though updated in various parts, the low ceilings on the stairs were a danger to anyone of even medium height. He climbed the stair in the corner, instinctively ducking his head at the turn. The farmhouse had originally been built in medieval times and though updated in various parts, the low ceilings on the stairs were a danger to anyone of even medium…
- He was quite drenched, but unlike a normal person, he did not look woebegone and miserable, more as if he’d intentionally gone swimming in his clothes, and had a great time and would do it again.
- He took the steps up and out of the park without slowing and vaulted the locked gates at the top without pause, heading towards the Abbey because he knew with absolute conviction that whatever was after him was not human, and though he had never thought of himself as religious before and had stopped going to church with his mum when he was twelve, he had experienced a sudden resurgence of faith. He took the steps up and out of the park without slowing and vaulted the locked gates at the top without pause, heading towards the Abbey because he knew with absolute conviction that whatever was after him was not human, and though he had never…
- Who could have been so skilled, and yet unknown, at that time? It was probably a woman.
andreareads's rating:
Added Aug 13, 2023
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- Scout. A mutt. Black and white coat, strong legs, built for running. There was probably some border collie in him: he had the loyalty and the focus, but not the brains. Definitely not the brains. Scout was one dumb dog. . . . There was plenty for him to do. Scout was a small-town dog. He had a full life. Mostly he hung out with the other dogs and barked. Scout. A mutt. Black and white coat, strong legs, built for running. There was probably some border collie in him: he had the loyalty and the focus, but not the brains. Definitely not the brains. Scout was one dumb dog. . . . There was plenty for…
- That night after supper, as the boys washed the dishes, they argued about whether gerbils were more fun than hamsters, if sasquatches existed in Canada or just in Russia, and what it would be like if Martians landed and they barked and dogs could understand them but not humans. That night after supper, as the boys washed the dishes, they argued about whether gerbils were more fun than hamsters, if sasquatches existed in Canada or just in Russia, and what it would be like if Martians landed and they barked and dogs could…
- As wet and cold as day one had been, day two felt blessed. In fact their second morning was so different from the morning before that Carl found it hard to believe he was in the same world, at the same place, doing the same thing.
andreareads's rating:
Added Aug 01, 2023
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Quotations
- There was no going back. The Empire was changed; the world was changed . . . I understood: these things took time to process, to understand the implications, to truly know deep in one’s bones that things had irrevocably changed, that one’s vision of the past didn’t even match reality. There was no going back. The Empire was changed; the world was changed . . . I understood: these things took time to process, to understand the implications, to truly know deep in one’s bones that things had irrevocably changed, that one’s vision of…
- she’d thought it would be a simple matter. She’d always thought that way. If she decided on a thing and put the force of her will behind it, she could make it happen. So far, this was the way her life had worked. Now she found herself thwarted, her will frustrated, diverted onto a path that felt too long and too winding. she’d thought it would be a simple matter. She’d always thought that way. If she decided on a thing and put the force of her will behind it, she could make it happen. So far, this was the way her life had worked. Now she found herself thwarted, her…
- My fear warred with the tired frustration of an adult watching an adolescent do something extremely ill-advised even after being told such a thing _was_ ill-advised. And I couldn’t just sit back and watch. I was not a hero, but maybe – I could still do heroic things. . . . Maybe no one was a hero. Maybe I’d gotten it wrong from the beginning. Maybe there were only heroic moments and decisions and we all had to keep choosing those as best we could. When we could. My fear warred with the tired frustration of an adult watching an adolescent do something extremely ill-advised even after being told such a thing _was_ ill-advised. And I couldn’t just sit back and watch. I was not a hero, but maybe – I could…
andreareads's rating:
Added Jul 03, 2023
The Life-changing Manga of Tidying upThe Life-changing Manga of Tidying up, Graphic NovelA Magical Story
by Kondo, MarieGraphic Novel - 2017Graphic Novel, 2017
andreareads's rating:
Added Jul 03, 2023
Comment:
I didn't learn anything new here, although it is neatly condensed and illustrated. Having read three of Marie Kondo's books now, I will say I don't think tidying up is an accurate description of her approach. Kondo wants you to do a complete inventory of all your possessions, purging much of it. A better description might be the art of choosing what to keep. Kondo is also focused on dividing items into categories and subcategories, no matter where they are in your home, but some of us are spatial thinkers. There's tremendous satisfaction in tackling a drawer, a closet, or even a whole room and setting it to rights, and no, that doesn't just mean moving clutter to a new location. Some of us work better organizing one physical space at a time. It's okay if your brain is different. One size does not fit all.I didn't learn anything new here, although it is neatly condensed and illustrated. Having read three of Marie Kondo's books now, I will say I don't think tidying up is an accurate description of her approach. Kondo wants you to do a complete…
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andreareads's rating:
Added Jun 20, 2023
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andreareads's rating:
Added Jun 18, 2023
Tags (12)
Quotations
- She went to her room and curled into a ball of misery and decided that she would die of a broken heart. Minstrels would write sad songs about how she had turned her face to the wall and died of the false-heartedness of men. She could not quite make up her mind whether she wanted to be a ghost who would haunt the convent or not. It would be very satisfying to be a sad-eyed, beautiful ghost who drifted through the halls, gazing up at the moon and weeping silently, as a warning to other young women. On the other hand, she was still short and round-faced and sturdy, and there were very few ghost stories about short, sturdy women. Marra had not managed to be pale and willowy and consumptive at any point in eighteen years of life and did not think she could achieve it before she died. Possibly it would be better to just have songs made about her. She went to her room and curled into a ball of misery and decided that she would die of a broken heart. Minstrels would write sad songs about how she had turned her face to the wall and died of the false-heartedness of men. She could not quite…
- The man was carrying a shovel. Marra eyed it warily. Shovels were good for burying dead bodies, and also for making bodies dead in the first place.
- _If I were a man, I would fight him. If she were a man, no one would force Kania to try to bear child after child. If I were a man, I would not be the next in line to be married if he kills her. If we were men_ . . . She stared at her fingers curled in the dirt. It did not matter. They were not and the history of the world was written in women’s wombs and women’s blood and she would never be allowed to change it. Rage shivered through her, a rage that seemed like it could topple the halls of heaven, then vanished under the knowledge of her own helplessness. Rage was only useful if you were allowed to do anything with it. _If I were a man, I would fight him. If she were a man, no one would force Kania to try to bear child after child. If I were a man, I would not be the next in line to be married if he kills her. If we were men_ . . . She stared at her fingers…
- Dawn had passed and it was most of the way to morning when the baby emerged into the world, looked around, and burst into tears. “You get used to it,” the Sister told the infant . . .
- Marra admired his diplomacy. When he had said that he was a warrior and a diplomat, she’d given more weight to the part with swords than words.
- “Well, he’s a dog. They don’t have an idea how the world’s supposed to be, so it doesn’t bother them when it isn’t.” Agnes frowned. “Except herding dogs, I think. They have a pretty clear idea in their heads, so they’re always nipping and worrying and trying to get it to fit. Of course, there’s people like that, too.” “Well, he’s a dog. They don’t have an idea how the world’s supposed to be, so it doesn’t bother them when it isn’t.” Agnes frowned. “Except herding dogs, I think. They have a pretty clear idea in their heads, so they’re always nipping and worrying…
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