1. Murder at the Book Group

• "This book sucks. There should be a law protecting the reading public from such trash." (2)

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2. So You've Been Publicly Shamed

• "He looked as if he felt he were taking a risk even mentioning to me the existence of the terror. He meant that we all have ticking away within us something we fear will badly harm our reputation if it got out... I think he was right. Maybe our secret is actually nothing horrendous. Maybe nobody would even consider it a big deal if it was exposed. But we can't take that risk. So we keep it buried." (31)

• "I suppose that when shaming are delivered like remotely administered drone strikes nobody needs to think about how ferocious our collective power might be. The snowflake never needs to feel responsible for the avalanche." (56)

• "I suppose it's no surprise that we feel the need to dehumanize the people we hurt - before, during, or after the hurting occurs." (80)

• "The day when...women leave the home and take part in our battles; on this day a social revolution will begin, and everything that maintains the sacred ties of the family will disappear." (95)

• "And his second message was that a smart orator could, if he knew the tricks, hypnotize the crowd into acquiescence or whip it up to do his bidding... A crowd is only impressed by excessive sentiments. Exaggerate, affirm, resort to repetition, and never attempt to prove anything by reasoning." (97)

• "A lot of people move around in life chronically ashamed of how they look, or how they feel, or what they said, or what they did. It's like a permanent adolescent concern. Adolescence is when you're permanently concerned about what other people think of you." (158)

• "And a religious broadcaster bemoaned to me how the loosening of religious morality has created a shameless society." (187)

• "But we know that people are complicated and have a mixture of flaws and talents and sins. So why do we pretend that we don't?" (255)

• "We were creating a world where the smartest way to survive is to be bland." (266)

• "We're creating a culture where people feel constantly surveilled, where people are afraid to be themselves." (269)

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3. Cheaper by the Dozen

• "The intermediate children, Frank, Bill, Lill, and Fred, were considered old enough to look out for themselves, but not old enough to look after anyone else. Dad, for the purpose of convenience (his own), ranked himself with the intermediate category." (ch 3, pg 2)

• "Mother saw her children as a dozen individuals, a dozen different personalities, who would eventually have to make their ways separately in the world. Dad saw them as an all-inclusive group, to be brought up under one master plan that would be best for everybody." (ch 7, pg 1)

• "Just because other parents won't face up to their responsibilities is no reason for your father or me to forget ours." (ch 18, pg 1)

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4. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

• "Do you think that I would have made such a success of my life if I hadn't learned when to argue and when to keep my mouth shut and follow orders?" (25%)

• "Grandfather was almost seventy-three years old which, as far as Bruno was concerned, made him just about the oldest man in the world. One afternoon Bruno had calculated that if he lived his entire life over and over again eight times, he would still be a year younger than Grandfather." (42%)

• "Of course all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again. Not in this day and age." (99%)

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5. The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street

• "Uncle Arthur declared that if Oliver was to survive being the only boy among many sisters, he needed two things: an imagination and a place of his own to escape to. His uncle proceeded to install bookshelves on every inch of available open wall space in the room while Papa looked on in wonder at the blur of construction. From that day on, Uncle Arthur sent Oliver books on a monthly basis - books about superheroes and Greek mythology and pirates and space exploration and presidents. Now walking into Oliver's room was like entering a miniature library that someone happened to live in." (45-46)

• "And there they sat for a precious few minutes, Papa and his two youngest children, while the rest of the family awoke and the sounds of the city began its crescendo all around them." (68)

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6. The Penderwicks

• "She was the practical Penderwick. And practical people, she thought, shouldn't go all silly and forgetful around handsome teenage boys. She knew what her friend Anna would say about it: The cuter the boy, the mushier your brain." (41)

• "...if there could be anything worse than having a parent die, it would be having a parent who never bothered to meet you." (93)

• "People sometimes make unexpected choices when they're lonely." (152)

• "For parents almost always want what's best for their children. They just don't always know what that is." (208)

• "This is what made a book great, she thought, that you could read it over and over and never get tired of it." (213)

 

7. The Penderwicks on Gardam Street

• "...Rosalind, who thought that holding babies was one of the great joys of life, even when the baby was asleep and didn't know she was being held." (1%)

• "Rosalind was happy. Not the kind of passionate, thrilling happy that can quickly turn into disappointment, but the calm happy that comes when life is steadily going along just the way it should." (3%)

• "Grown-ups sometimes need the company of other grown-ups... No matter how wonderful their children are." (8%)

• "...soon she was sinking to her bed, lost in the story, which all too quickly came to an end. Jane closed the book and put it back on her bookshelf. She hated finishing one of her favorite books, because she knew she'd have to wait at least a few months before she could read it again. It was a rule she imposed on herself after reading The Various twice in one week - a disaster, like eating three large slices of chocolate cake at one sitting." (53%)

• "...and there they sat at the tops of the steps, father and oldest daughter, at peace with their world and with each other." (92%)

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8. The Penderwicks at Point Mouette

• "Daddy say the best revenge is to be better than your enemy." (4)

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9. The Penderwicks in Spring

• "For Batty, though, reading was like having a private conversation with the book's characters. Writing a report - making it all public - wrecked that. She'd tried reading books she didn't like just so they wouldn't be ruined when she had to write about them, but she never could get past the first few, awful pages." (38)

• "Batty wished she was learning work skills at school, instead of coups and exponents. Fixing shoes, for example, might not be a bad job." (80)

• "Some secrets buried away in boxes are peacefully forgotten, just as we hope they'll be. Bot some refuse to stay in their boxes, popping out at the worst possible times. And then there are those - Batty's was one - that linger and fester, gnawing away from the inside out." (208)

• "With that, the secret was released from its box, dissipated, confessed, its power stripped away." (298)

• "We knew that waiting until you were born before treating the cancer would be a gamble, but it was a gamble Lizzy needed to take. She already loved you, you see.. You must believe me, Batty - if Lizzy had been given the chance to do it again, she'd have made the same decision, taken the same risk, over and over until the end of time. She told me so the day you were born... No, I never once for an instant resented you. You were a gift, a part of your mother left behind. You must understand that there are no guarantees with a disease like cancer. Lizzy could have undergone every treatment available and still died. And then we wouldn't have had you, either." (304)

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10. Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes

• "He knew better than to talk back, but words, as you know, sometimes have a way of slipping out." (11)

• "Being wise, Professor Cake knew that any relationship not beginning with a punch or two would most assuredly fade over time: it is a well-known fact that brawling begets friendship." (55)

• "In my experience, heroes are no more good than you or I. And though occasionally noble, they are just as often cunning, resourceful, and a little brash." (65)

• "Peter tried, but all he could hear was the voice of Mr. Seamus calling him 'worthless', 'filthy', and 'worm'. And with each remembered insult, his faith in himself grew less and less." (66-67)

• "There is something wonderful that happens between true friends when they find themselves no longer wasting time with meaningless chatter. Instead, they become content just to share each other's company. It is the opinion of some that this sort of friendship is the only kind worth having. While jokes and anecdotes are nice, they do not compare with the beauty of shared solitude." (74-75)

• "Now, there is a wonderful thing in this world called 'foresight'. It is a gift treasured above all others because it allows one to know what the future holds. Most people with foresight end up wielding immense power in life, often becoming great rulers or librarians." (181)

• "You may have observed in your own lives that there is a great power in storytelling. A well-spun tale can transport listeners away from their humdrum lives and return them with an enlarged sense of the world." (218)

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11. If You Find Me

• "I answer her with my silence, understanding the full power of it for the first time. Words are weapons. Weapons are powerful. So are unsaid words. So are unused weapons." (24)

• "...something that seared deeply and left the worst kind of scar: the inside kind." (36)

• "Each vehicle is like its own bubble world hurtling toward realities so unknowable, yet so personal, it hurts to look at them." (51-52)

• "She'll take my lead on things, mimicking my reactions, comfortable when I'm comfortable, confident when I'm confident. THat's what little kids do when they trust people." (56)

• "Fake it through until you make it true." (81)

• "'What do you mean you got nothin'? You have these books, for one. Books are like whole new worlds,' I say, my voice reverent." (117)

• "I recite one of her favorite Poohisms. 'If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together... there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But, the most important thing is, even if we're apart... I'll always be with you.'" (165)

• "Folks don't do the right thing because it's easy. They do it because it's right." (216)

• "Funny how we can't hold on to time, even when it's strapped to our wrists." (234)

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12. Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard

• "It has often been said that one should never judge a book by its cover. As any serious reader can tell you, this is terrible advice. Serious readers know the singular pleasure of handling a well-made book - the heft and texture of the case, the rasp of the spine as you lift the cover, the sweet, dusty aroma of yellowed pages as they pass between your fingers. A book is more than a vessel for ideas: It is a living thing in need of love, warmth, and protection." (3)