Shark fin soup was always about the different flavours and textures, in particular the addition of a small final splash of black vinegar before tucking in. It was essentially luxury hot and sour soup!
How to Walk Away, Katherine Center
And voila! An internal motivation! Doing something that would make my parents happy or give Ian job fulfillment might blur my newly drawn lines, but there was nothing blurry about getting the fuck out of here.
Cook Like a Local, Chris Shepherd
Little-known fact: Hang out in a dive bar in Houston around midnight, and you might see a couple walk in with tamales, either on a tray or in a warming bag. They'll pass from guest to guest, uttering "Tamales? Tamales?" until they get a taker who will trade them six bucks for a dozen....Nobody really knows where they come from, and it's probably not something the health department has signed off on, but it's part of the fabric of the city, as normal as a hot dog cart on a New York City corner.
Yours Truly, Abby Jimemez
First of all, if you think for one second that I can be flipped with cupcakes and handwritten apology letters, then you are absolutely correct.
The Nordic Baking Book, Magnus Nilsson
If you are interested in baking pine bark bread, the first step is to chop down a pine tree in early spring.
This is, by the way, normal procedure in Sweden. You are not given cake by your colleagues for your birthday, you instead give them cake. I think this is an expression of the collective Swedish passion for practical arrangement aimed at avoiding awkward situations. By bringing the cake yourself you always get your favourite cake on your birthday, and you collectively defuse any pressure for others to remember everyone's separate birthdays.
Fray, Joss Whedon, Karl Moline, & Andy Owens
URKONN: Did not one come to you, call you the Chosen One?
MEL: Nobody ever called me any OH MY GOD you mean that guy that one that set himself on FIRE!
URKONN: As I said, fanatics.
MEL: But he set himself on fire!
URKONN: Centuries of useless, obsessive waiting. Makes a human--
MEL: HE SET HIMSELF ON FIRE!
URKONN: Maybe he was cold.
Lone Women, Victor LaValle
That's twice she'd contemplated killing him. There were people who would judge her harshly for her thoughts. Those people, she felt, could fuck themselves.
The Light Pirate, Lily Brooks-Dalton
The hurricane takes what yields. Nothing more; nothing less.
This is survival. This is how the vessel protects the mind, how the mind protects the heart, how the heart goes on forgetting that its calling is to be undefended, that being broken is part of being whole.
Wayward, Chuck Wendig
"They always ask the question, what if you could go back in time and kill Baby Hitler. Right? That's the ethical twist. If you went back and killed the baby, you'd undo so much of the pain that would come. "But nobody ever asks: Would you go back in time and raise the child as your own? Would you be kind where others would not?"
That Kind of Guy, Talia Hibbert
He was in dragon mode. He'd start breathing fire in a second; then he'd catch her in a cage of his sharp teeth and fly her away to his lair. Maybe in a hundred years some knight would come to rescue her, and she'd say, "Oh, sorry for the misunderstanding, but I actually like it here."
All Together Dead, Charlaine Harris
Was it possible for anyone in the world to be as detached as Pam over the whole "I was murdered" issue?
The Last Olympian, Rick Riordan
The goddess tilted her head. "I am the least of the gods. Why would you trust me with this?"
"You're the last Olympian," I said. "And the most important."
"And why is that, Percy Jackson?"
"Because Hope survives best at the hearth," I said.
The Guest Cat, Takashi Hiraide, translated by Eric Selland
Chibi stared intently with her deep green eyes at the clear liquid flowing from my wife's eyes and rolling down her cheeks--these human things called tears.
"The Qallupiluk: Forgiven," Sean and Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, from Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection, Volume 1, edited by Hope Nicholson
But how pretty I am, the Quallupiluk thought, and it laughed with the sound of sundered ice.
The Fortunes of Jaded Women, Carolyn Huynh
It had been another unremarkable, sticky, summer evening in the southernmost tip of Vietnam, and the wind never traveled this far down the coast because it often got tired before it could ever reach it. But this time, the wind made the taxing journey south, braving the humidity, just for Lý. It came to help dry her tears.
I Dream of Dinner (So You Don't Have To), Ali Slagle
What's in season tastes good, but what you want to eat tastes better. No matter the time of year, I still crave the same things (lemon pasta, arugula salad, fried egg on toast).
The Wishing Game, Meg Shaffer
"Poetry doesn't solve my problems," Hugo said, almost shouting over the clacking of the keys.
Finally, Jack dropped his hands from the keys. The silence was heaven.
"Why would anyone have problems poetry couldn't solve?" Jack demanded.
The London Séance Society, Sarah Penner
Here, Lenna noticed an inconspicuous inscription at eye level: The London Séance Society, Est. 1860. How ironic, she thought, the mention of séance etched into this fossil-studded stone. Two sides of the dead, the illusory and the tangible.
Love on the Brain, Ali Hazelwood
I read the email for the seventh time, and for the seventh time I marvel that I was given credit for my idea. Goes to show how low the bar is for cis dudes in STEM, doesn't it? Thank you, Oh Penised Overlords, for the recognition I deserve.
"I promise I don't bite."
He reaches over to take my hand, his skin warm and rough against mine. He smiles back. Just a little.
"You could rip me to shreds, Bee."
We are silent for the rest of the drive.
Lady Tan's Circle of Women, Lisa See
"I'm not angry at you," she says. "I'm irritated with men. I'm lucky to love your grandfather, but most men--other doctors, especially--don't like to see us succeed. You must always show them respect and let them think they know more than you do, while understanding that you can achieve something they never can. You can actually help women."
The Love Hypothesis, Ali Hazelwood
Olive and Anh had even made a pact that if Olive was ever on the verge of losing her visa, Anh would marry her. In hindsight, this entire fake-dating business with Adam was going to be great practice for when Olive leveled up and started defrauding the Department of Homeland Security in earnest.
The Impossible Fortress, Jason Rekulak
"I've brought everything we need," Alf said. He unzipped his backpack to show us its contents: binoculars, walkie-talkies, wire cutters, and a solar-powered calculator.
"What's the calculator for?" I asked.
"Math problems," he said. "I forgot to take it out of my bag."
Love, Theoretically, Ali Hazelwood
Have I been doing it all wrong? Maybe instead of getting people to think I'm worth their time, I should stop giving a shit about them? Hmm. Food for thought.
Shorefall, Robert Jackson Bennett
"I'm going to chance it," said Sancia. "But if I start screaming or something--"
"Run like hell," said Orso. "Got it."
"No, I meant come and get me, asshole!" said Sancia. "God!"
Sourdough, Robin Sloan
I looked out across the depot, awash in pink light, the tang of tube-fish rising, and realized it was the hidden root of something interesting and maybe important, and I, improbably, was part of it.
Murder by Other Means, John Scalzi
"I'm not comfortable with the 'coward' part of this."
"I am. As a police detective, I want you to be a coward. Heroes make crime scenes messier."
Future Home of the Living God, Louise Erdrich
The wind is whipping past us. We are so brief. A one-day dandelion. A seedpod skittering across the ice. We are a feather falling from the wing of a bird. I don’t know why it is given to us to be so mortal and to feel so much. It is a cruel trick, and glorious.
Bloodmarked, Tracy Deonn "You brought honor to your Line, and I don't mean Arthur's. You don't need the sword, Bree. You are the sword. Their sword. Our sword."
Sunshine, Robin McKinley, x3
I was tired, I was scared, I was stupefied, I'd just done an important piece of magic, I was tranced out. I thought I heard a wind in the leaves of my tree, and the wind had a voice, and it said yesssssssssss.
The Reunion, Kayla Olson
Being thisclose to him now is like cotton fused to a raw wound, comforting so long as it isn't ripped away.
The Golden Enclaves, Naomi Novik
I imagine it's always easier to do something monstrous if you can convince yourself you aren't going to, up to the last minute, until you do.
Not That Kind of Ever After, Luci Adams
"People don't just need to have one fairy tale in their lifetime. If the books have told us anything it's that there are plenty of Prince Charmings in plenty of stories. There's no quota for how many stories you get to be part of in life."
Where the Drowned Girls Go, Seanan McGuire
"My name is Lord of the Forest," said the stag.
Regan nodded. Every stag she'd ever met had been named Lord of the Forest, even when there was another stag only a few feet away. Deer didn't understand irony.
Locklands, Robert Jackson Bennett
Empires are simple to run, she'd said once. One person, one throne, one vote. But Giva is goddamn hard.
And how, Berenice had asked, is that to be a comfort?
Because power and cruelty are easy, Sancia had said. What we're making takes a shitload of work. So we must be doing the right thing.
"Well," said Diela. "I guess he can fly now."
The Charmed List, Julie Abe
"We can make our own names for things." Suddenly he sounds more serious than ever. "We can, can't we? Just because something had one name for a while, it doesn't mean the stars can't move, that things can't change."
When Sorrows Come, Seanan McGuire
"I am shocked, shocked that you have managed to involve yourself so quickly in an apparently ongoing crisis of the monarchy," said Tybalt dryly.
Star Wars: The Mighty Chewbacca and the Forest of Fear, Tom Angleberger
Look, I know you're not reading this to hear about hugging. But what do you want me to say? Wookiees like to hug.
Be the Serpent, Seanan McGuire
There was a distant, primal menace in his expression, something older than I was by such a vast degree that the part of my mind responsible for registering fear and transmitting it to the rest of the committee barely even recognized it as a threat. That was nice.
Thurston County: Water, Woods, & Prairies, Sandra A Crowell & Shirley A Stirling, eds.
In 1895, Vanderhoef lost his wife overboard in Colvos Passage but did not notice she was missing until he reached Seattle. She was shaking out a tablecloth and fell overboard. He retraced his route and found she had drifted near shore, kept afloat by air trapped in her voluminous skirts.
Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema, Lindy West
He has a little counter on his Terminator Google Glass that tells him "Human casualties: 0.0," so he can make sure he doesn't violate John's no-murdering rule. But why is there a decimal, though?
I forgot that American Pie popularized the term MILF, and that they made John Cho do it, which is a microaggression.
"When Words Fail to Save," Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Bridging Worlds: Global Conversations on Creating Pan-African Speculative Literature in a Pandemic, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, ed.
Afrofuturism is a praxis of radical faith. Storytelling makes possible the worlds that seem impossible given the limitations history has prescribed over black experience. I think the only way to survive the world burning is to build alternate ways of being alive, breathe into reality worlds of living possibility.
Binti: The Night Masquerade, Nnedi Okorafor
"What reason does a man have to be beautiful?" Chief Kapika asked as he watched me spread the leaf on the dry dirt.
"Beauty does not need a reason," Okwu responded.
Junior High, Tegan Quin, Sara Quin, & Tillie Walden
Famous Last Words, Catherine Pierce
This is not
an elegy because I cannot bear
for it to be. It is only a tree branch
against the window. It is only a cherry
tomato slowly reddening in the garden.
I will put it in my mouth. It will
be sweet, and you will swallow.
The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
"So, Elizabeth. Have you had a bag stolen?"
"No, dear," says Elizabeth. "Good luck to anyone trying to steal my bag. Can you imagine?"
Witch King, Martha Wells
He hesitated, and Kai wondered what he was going to say. No one was expecting Kai to be successful, including Kai. No one was expecting to survive this battle. The Saredi had never been much for speaking empty platitudes, like some of the lesser borderlander leaders. Then Bashasa squeezed his arm and said, "Make them pay for it."
The Swimmers, Julie Otsuka
She does not remember saying to you, the other night, right after your father left the room, He loves me more than I love him. She does not remember saying to you, a moment later, I can hardly wait until he comes back.
The Archive Undying, Emma Mieko Candon
But divine convergence, right? Sunai is as faithful as someone personally ghosted by space-time can be, and if Veyadi is the intersection of happenstance he has luckily tripped over, it would be nigh blasphemous not to act.
Black Cake, Charmaine Wilkerson
The oceans are a challenge, Mr. Mitch thinks. And what about a person's life? How do you make a map of that? The borders people draw between themselves. The scars left along the round of one's heart.
Soul of the Deep, Natasha Bowen
"So, you would rather bargain with Esu and risk the lives of thousands more. If redemption is what you are seeking, then this is not the right way to go about it."
"Redemption takes too long!" Olokun's eyes harden, his nostrils flaring.
Patriarchy Blues, Rena Priest
The first word on the page she read
was one she'd never seen before
and can't remember, anymore.
It was a verb that meant to bend
toward moonlight.
Fugitive Telemetry, Martha Wells
Aylen did not make it clear that she didn't like the fact that I was invited. It would have been easier if she had, because then I would have known where I stood, and if I should be an asshole or not.
Osmo Unknown and the Eightpenny Woods, Catherynne M Valente
"It's on the city seal. Nemo Nancit Desiderium Eorum. Nobody gets what they want. The fix is baked into the stones of the street and the wood of the houses." Osmo gritted his teeth. "The game is fixed. But one time, just one time...I won anyway."
Love in Color: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold, Bolu Babalola
I really cannot fantasize about a guy who hooks up with a girl who wears anklets with what seems to be butterfly charms on them; my imagination simply does not have the ambit for it.
The Five-Star Weekend, Elin Hilderbrand
The woman next to Gigi has ordered a plate of French fries and an entire bottle of champagne just for herself. Not all superheroes wear capes, Gigi thinks.
Trese, Volume 3: Mass Murders, Budjette Tan & KaJo Baldisimo
TRESE: Is Jobert here?
DAR: Yup, he manifested here as soon as the game went online.
DARRA: Boys will be boys, even when they're already dead.
The Last Party, Clare Mackintosh
"Maybe he had an argument," he says.
"For seven hours?"
"He could have been shagging."
"I refer my learned friend to my earlier rebuttal."
Banyan Moon, Thao Thai
I stir sugar into my coffee with a spoon, scratching the edges of the Styrofoam as I do, blooming the dark liquid into something more palatable. There are unbearable things about dying, but sometimes, the things that pull out the most longing are the quiet rituals you never thought you'd miss.
Hello Stranger, Katherine Center
I stayed in the hospital for the full four days after surgery, which made me feel like I was getting my money's worth.
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