Top Ten Tuesday #283

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, mine has been pretty quiet, but I did have a really lovely ride on Wednesday, getting back to riding has definitely helped so much since the lockdown eased, it’s lovely to have something to look forward to!

Anyway, since it’s Tuesday, I have another Top Ten Tuesday for all of you, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week, we’re talking Favourite Book Quotes, so I’m going to share my Favourite Book Quotes From Books I Read This Year, as that narrows it down a bit and I won’t be sharing the same quotes I always do! Here we go:

1. “Most women suffer thorns for the sake of flowers, but we who wield power adorn ourselves with flowers to hide the sting of our thorns” -King of Scars, Leigh Bardugo

I shared this one in my most recent Quarterly Rewind but I wanted to share it again here because it’s one that I really liked from King of Scars.

2. “This is the true core of human nature, when we’ve lost the strength to save ourselves, we somehow find the strength to save each other” -Dry, Neal and Jarrod Shusterman

Most of this book is pretty despairing as the characters struggle to survive with the lack of water, but it does still manage to be somewhat hopeful!

3. “Nothing but a symbol? People die for symbols. People have hope because of symbols. They’re not just lines, they’re histories, cultures, traditions given shape” -The Gilded Wolves, Roshani Chokshi

Honestly, I could have chosen any one of many lines from The Gilded Wolves because Roshani’s writing is gorgeous but as a history nerd and a big lover of Enrique, I had to go with this one!

4. “The living may take strength from hope and love but the dead grow stronger on darker things. On pain and anger and regret” -City of Ghosts, Victoria Schwab

I’m currently reading the second book in this series and it’s definitely one I wish I’d had when I was 11 or 12, they’re so much fun!

5. “Everyone has heard stories of women like us-cautionary tales, morality plays, warnings of what will befall you if you are a girl too wild for the world, a girl who asks too many questions or wants too much. If you set off into the world alone. Everyone has heard stories of women like us and now we will make more of them” -The Lady’s Guide To Petticoats and Piracy, Mackenzi Lee

Can this book be a little on the nose in terms of feminist messaging? Yes. Did I love it anyway? Yes.

6. “Fairytales are more than true, not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten” -Coraline, Neil Gaiman

I finally read Coraline this year, and I definitely now see why Neil Gaiman is such a beloved writer! Definitely looking forward to reading more of his stuff.

7. “Stories were power. And whoever controlled the story controlled everything. A story could bring people together, or it could tear them apart. It could spread like a sickness, infecting people. It could lead them into battle or shake them into seeing what they had refused to see before” -The King of Crows, Libba Bray

Honestly, I wish I’d written down more of the quotes from The King of Crows, because there were so many great ones, Libba Bray really is a beautiful writer!

8. “But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me” -Circe, Madeline Miller

This line definitely took on a new meaning for me after everything that happened in the world this Spring!

9. “There is no greater show of power than continuing to live when you’d like nothing more than to lie down and let the world fade” -Escaping From Houdini, Kerri Maniscalco

Another line from a book that I read in January that’s taken on new meaning since the global pandemic!

10. “The City of Sin was a game and the only way to win was to stack the cards in your favour” -Queen of Volts, Amanda Foody

This quote from the final book in the Shadow Game trilogy very neatly encapsulates what the whole trilogy is about!

So there we go, those are just some of my favourite quotes from books I’ve read this year. Have you read any of these books? Did you enjoy them? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll be back next week with another Top Ten Tuesday, this time we’ve got another Cover Freebie, we’re talking about Book Covers With Autumn Colours/Vibes.