#book twenty-two

[maryannmackey]

'May I ask you something?' 'Go ahead.' 'What did you study?' The question seemed to irritate Nadia, who broke in: 'Mamma, Lina has to go.' For the first time Lila noticed some nervousness in the child's voice, and it pleased her. 'Will you let me have two words?' Professor Galiani snapped, in a tone no less nervous. Then she repeated to Lila, but kindly, 'What did you study?' 'Nothing.' 'To hear you speak - and shout- it doesn't seem so.' 'It's true, I stopped after fifth grade.' 'Why?' 'I didn't have the ability.' 'How did you know?' 'Greco had it, I didn't.' Professor Galiani shook her head in a sign of disagreement, and said, 'If you had studied you would have been as successful as Greco.' 'How can you say that?' 'It's my job.' 'You professors insist so much on education because that's how you earn a living, but studying is of no use, it doesn't even improve you- in fact it makes you even more wicked.' 'Has Elena become more wicked?' 'No, not her.' 'Why not?' Lila stuck the wool cap on her son's head. 'We made a pact when we were children: I'm the wicked one.'

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Elena Ferrante 

[maryannmackey]

Back in town, none of the people I talked to seemed a bit surprised. The thing is, though, they really believed. The whole town believed. You're not from here, but you will have to learn the folklore to really understand these people. This case. You have to learn about the Ol'Hige. It's a Caribbean version of a vampire story. She's an old lady who sheds her skin like a snake and drains the blood from newborn babies. Or sometimes she steals their breaths makes mothers believe their babies died of natural causes.

No one ever claimed to have seen these girls do any of these things. They did say they stole a woman's baby but left it unharmed. Don't listen to the crazy stories people will tell you about them. How does that story even apply to them? They were little girls. But it still didn't stop all the talk. In reality, they were just a little bit feral. I understood. They were isolated and left to fend for themselves for a while before they found this town. And even then, they were never formally adopted. They bounced from house to house in Harold Town, taking scraps like stray dogs. I understood why it would make them angry. If I had been through what they'd been through, I'd want to hurt things too.

-These Ghosts are Family, Maisy Card

[maryannmackey]

'Come on, Lizzy,' Andrew said. 'We were totally cool a few minutes ago, weren't we?'  Elizabeth looked at her husband. There were so many pieces of advice she'd heard over the years: not to marry someone she wouldn't want to be divorced from, not to marry someone who she wouldn't want to bee, not to marry someone who didn't treat her as an equal if not a superior being, not to marry someone for sex, to marry for friendship, not to marry for companionship. They'd been together for so long that Elizabeth didn't know which of those rules she'd followed- she certainly hadn't known when they got married. Those guidelines were all for people like Ruby and Harry, city kids who probably wouldn't get married until they were thirty and wouldn't have kids until they were thirty-five. Somehow, though they hadn't meant to, she and Andrew had behaved like they lived in the 1950s, rushing into adulthood with no sense of themselves as individuals.  Dr. Amelia stuck the tip of her pen into the hollow of her cheek, leaving a small blue polka dot. 'What do you think about that, Elizabeth? Are you cool?'  The air-conditioning clicked on, sending a sudden blast of freezing cold air onto Elizabeth's right side. Andrew gave an involuntary shake, and she saw a path of goose bumps pop up on his bare forearms.  "I don't think we know the answer to that yet, Dr. Amelia,' she said. She tugged a pillow from behind her back and laid it on her lap. 'I think we're really just getting started here.'

Modern Lovers, Emma Straub

[sleepingspirits]

One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

[magicalreadingadventure]

Read April 28th. A deliciously dysfunctional family comedy.