Books 2009--#1

FYI--I finished this book in early January, but loaned my copy out before I could type up these quotes.

This book is the 3rd installment of the Sarah Prine series. My favorite is still These Is My Words, but I have enjoyed all the books. I love the character of Sarah. I admire her strength, integrity, work ethic and love for her family. I wonder how her character would translate into today's society (as opposed to early 1900's)?


28--"I wish I knew a word for that kind of righteous ache that weighs down my insides when I do what I know is the right thing to do, though it goes against all my normal leanings. I suppose I could quit aching if I quit trying to do right."

29--"No one has ever been my strength and shield. Nor even wanted to. I've stood on my own feet and fought my own fight. Even Jack, who I loved with those same iron bones, was never content to stay put and let me lean on him."

73--"I've been thinking long and hard about my life, and what I'd do over. It's no good to go away from things. It's better to go toward things."

100-"Then I got right down to my sore spot, and pressed it. If I were a man, I might just leave. Strange what a man can do that a woman would break apart doing. Maybe there's more to being a woman--other lives were intertwined with mine like the bougainvillea that had long ago become part of Albert and Savannah's front porch."

184--"He's just a boy trying to figure what boots to fill."

255--What I want. I dream of land, cut only where streams glistened with birdsong wander through quiet hills burnt hard by the scrape of wind, and of a porch from which a single road leads only homeward."

255--"It started with a whole list of things. Then pretty soon it was about folks, health, and money, and good marriages and friendship, and all, and then it changed. The harder things got at home, the shorter the list went. Reckon you can take anything away, even happiness. In the end, this is all I want from the world. The rest, a person's got to make for themselves."

255--"I'd passed a class. I'd gone to college and done it. Not everything, not like a girl might do with the world at her feet, but I'd done one. I held my shoulders and squeezed. A Powerful joy filled me. A single class was something. A little piece of a dream was still a dream. No one could ever say I hadn't learned a trainload of things, most of it not from the books. I'd gone to school at last. And I'd made it."

262--"I--I couldn't hurt Rachel. It is her beautiful day. I couldn't spoil it by being a fool in front of her. I tried to be happy for them, but I just couldn't.

Don't, then. No one requires you to feel happy about someone else's life. Just brave about your own."

**Did you like this book?
Do you like the character of Sarah?