arcturos books

[aarcturos]

ALL EYES FORWARD!

DO YOU CLAIM THIS GOD?

"The wolf shoved past me and went racing across the clearing. Arcturos, we called her. Most of the animals did not have names, but she had been Telegonus’ favorite."

CIRCE, Madeline Miller

ABOUT | Just a silly little adult with a silly little blog for silly little quotes, including my own (affectionate). And also for book reviews. A little bookblr, if you will.

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ENFJ | 9w1 | Aquarius Sun, Leo Moon, Virgo Rising

This scroll was last updated: 12/29/2023

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THE BOOK SHELF | just finished, currently, and up next info

Just Finished:

MANACLED, SenLinYu

THRONE OF GLASS, Sarah J. Maas

THE SALT GROWS HEAVY, Cassandra Khaw

Currently Reading:

LITTLE WEIRDS, Jenny Slate

CROWN OF MIDNIGHT, Sarah J. Maas

DEAD VOICES, Katherine Arden

Reading Next:

DARK WATERS, Katherine Arden

HEIR OF FIRE, Sarah J. Maas

THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE, Katherine Arden

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[ashstfu]

reading a good interesting book after a horrible reading slump and suddenly you can feel the sun shining again and the sky is more beautiful than ever and birds are all singing songs to you

[aarcturos]

I have become so accustomed to Pantoufle—and to the rest of the strange menagerie that she trails in her bright wake—that at such times I can almost see him clearly, Pantoufle with his gray-whiskered face and wise eyes, the world suddenly brightening as if by a strange transference I have become Anouk, seeing with her eyes, following where she travels. At such times I feel I could die for love of her, my little stranger, my heart swelling dangerously so that the only release is to run too, my red coat flapping around my shoulders like wings, my hair a comet's tail in the patchy blue sky.

CHOCOLAT, Joanne Harris

[aarcturos]

"Sometimes," grumbled Chade, "it is better to be defiantly wrong than silent."

ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE, Robin Hobb

[aarcturos]

I'm stuck here in a cycle and I am getting older but I am not growing up and my heart is getting soft dark spots on it like a fruit that has gone bad or is soft because too many hands have squeezed it but then put it back down not because I am not ready but because they were not ready for my type of fruity flesh. I felt so ripe and sweet--what was off? The truth is, I was forcing myself into people's mouths. I jumped out of their hands and into their mouths and I yelled EAT ME way before they even had a chance to get hungry and notice me and lift me up.

LITTLE WEIRDS, Jenny Slate

[aarcturos]

When people get a glimpse of me I'd like them to feel like it is a good omen.

LITTLE WEIRDS, Jenny Slate

[aarcturos]

I want out look out a window at something bright and wide, and at that point accept my nature and understand my intended use and have a clean shirt and clean hands and feel similar to a small planet.

I want to be in a fine wooden house by the sea and to have a big sweater.

LITTLE WEIRDS, Jenny Slate

[aarcturos]

The structure of what I wish for and the images that usually come together for me to be happy have to change now. But what am I supposed to do with all the parts of my heart that are only there to be given? What am I supposed to do with all of this nothing that I see? Those parts of the heart, they really aren't for me, they are not for my home or my body or my self-love. They are for you, and wherever you are, the are too unknown to be in my day dream. You are on the fringe of my wish for someone to wish for. You are in another country of the heart. You are on the very outskirts of the edge of where my waves hit. You are on a beach on the other side of another world.

LITTLE WEIRDS, Jenny Slate

[aarcturos]

Not for the first time, I realized he considered me slightly slow. My silences he mistook for a lack of wit rather than a lack of any need to speak.

THE ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE, Robin Hobb

[aarcturos]

"Then why did you do that for me?"

"Because you are so full of wonder. [...] That seems very precious to me now. How could I not give you such a small thing?"

IN THE FORESTS OF SERRE, Patricia A. McKillip

[aarcturos]

I guess a fire will make you stupid if you let it. Because I keep standing there like a fool, watching the fire come running right up the ridge at me, burning so quick and hot that clumps of dirt are exploding just ahead of the flames, and all I can think about is this: What does Joe see inside the fire? Can he hear that fire wind singing to him? Can he see the river inside the flames, or the fluttering wings? Can he feel the way it has to keep moving or die?

THE FIRE PONY, Rodman Philbrick

[aarcturos]

I ask Mr. Jessup, can Lady stay in the tent with us, but he don’t take me serious. “Now, you want to sleep in the horse trailer, you can,” he says. Then he goes to Rick, “They ever open this boy up, they’re going to find he’s made of hay and oats and saddle trees.”

THE FIRE PONY, Rodman Philbrick

[aarcturos]

He has packed his toothbrush. It feels like pleasure to him but also too urgent, it feels like starving as he thinks about how full he would feel, how filling it would be to stand next to me in his pajamas and me in my pajamas and us both using our toothbrushes, looking at ourselves and each other in the mirror.

He thinks that it is so precious that he knows that it would be a privilege to be allowed in to my evening. He thinks in layers when he thinks about how he loves me.

He travels all the way to my edge of the country. He touches down, speeds forward until he stands at the gate to my house and sees me doing something dear and useful but related to my belief in adornment, like watering my geraniums or talking to the dog and saying something to the dog like "Aren't you happy about the softness in the air today? That's what they call balmy." And he sees as I bend closer to the dog and he sees down my shirt and I touch the dog's velveteen ear and I say very softly and in a very rich tone, "Balmy."

Or he sees me pay no mind to anyone but myself as I carry my groceries. He sees me being satisfied and self-sufficient. He sees me as myself when nobody is watching, except that he is watching.

LITTLE WEIRDS, Jenny Slate

[aarcturos]

And in the aftertaste of what my mother says, I know she means, "Well, you were the person who planted the tempting grapes and then moved to New York and didn't get a home phone and makes us call your cell phone, which is only supposed to be for emergencies. You did that."

There is a feeling that by doing the natural thing of growing up, I have carelessly waltzed away from a mess. It feels that I have disowned my tribe by choosing to believe that the world is full of creatures and spirits rather than predators and ghosts.

LITTLE WEIRDS, Jenny Slate

[aarcturos]

The house in Massachusetts is big, surrounded by big lawns, which are surrounded by big woods. The house is a yellow colonial with smart green shutters, it has a large front porch, it has no air conditioning, and inside, my parents are in there, living with ghosts.

LITTLE WEIRDS, Jenny Slate

[aarcturos]

When I imagine my ingredients, I imagine that my muscles are made of plums, that my heart is a giant ruby with a light bulb in it, that my blood is goldenrod yellow, and the bones inside my body are made from lions' bones and shells, and that my brain is made of steak and silk and Hawaiian Punch, I don't have a problem with myself, really, I'm just afraid of ghosts[...]

LITTLE WEIRDS, Jenny Slate

[aarcturos]

The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑻𝑺

Start Date: N/A

End Date: 3/1/22

ISBN: 9780679734772

Rating: ★ ★ ★★★ out of ★★★★★

Content Warnings: metaphors/allusions to sexual assault, mentions of domestic violence, mentions of death

Note: Started this book last year, finished this year.

𝑳𝑰𝑵𝑲𝑺 | home / my rating system / my goodreads / tags

𝑻𝑯𝑶𝑼𝑮𝑯𝑻𝑺 | I hardly ever read fiction, let alone even look in the direction of non-fiction. Which is why the fact that this book took me by the shoulders and shook me around a little bit surprised me so much. I cannot relate culturally to Sandra's experience growing up Latina but I could relate to her experience as a girl and now a woman, on the basest human level. Sandra paints an incredibly rich and captivating picture of her life growing up in Chicago. Her story is one that includes a lot of strife, both for herself and people she knew so please heed my content warnings if you're going to read but once again, it is one that I will always recommend from here on out. I also look forward to reading more of her writing in the future.