Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the lovely Bionic Bookworm.
This prompt was a struggle for me! I can never remember quotes even if I thought them super profound at the time. So, basically, I went through some of my favorite books looking for quotes…which is to say that these are not especially comprehensive. They don’t cover the range of every single quote I’ve appreciated because I simply cannot remember and I certainly did not go through all my books on Goodreads. Alas.
Unsurprisingly, N.K. Jemisin features quite a bit. Also, there’s actually 6-8 quotes here because that’s just how I roll (it was really hard to pick okay). Oddly enough, a lot of these seem to tie in with the current political situation in some way or another. That was not planned.
“Do not lose that hunger. You will always have to fight for everything. Even when you already have it, you will have to keep fighting to maintain it. You will have to be more ruthless, more brutal, more everything. Any weakness will undo everything you have accomplished. They will see any crack as evidence that they were right that a woman cannot do what you do.”
— Kiersten White, Now I Rise
“There was no peace in continuing to do what had already proven unworkable. Sometimes tradition itself disrupted peace, and only newness could smooth the way.”
— N.K. Jemisin, The Shadowed Sun
“But if you stay, no part of this comm[unity] gets to decide that any part of this comm[unity] is expendable. No voting on who gets to be people.”
“Everyone shouldn’t have a say in whose life is worth fighting for.”
— N.K. Jemisin, The Obelisk Gate
“In a child’s eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.”
— N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
“Freedom granted by your rulers is just a chain with a little slack.”
— Seth Dickinson, The Traitor Baru Cormorant
“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”
— Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad
“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
— Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
I discovered Jemisin almost by chance when stumbling through fantasy recommendations one day. I read the first book in the Inheritance Trilogy but did not continue for some reason. Then Jemisin started blowing up (this was even before The Fifth Season was published) so I went back and decided to keep reading. I liked the second book a bit less and hated the third (the only one of Jemisin’s books I adamantly do not like). Then I read the Dreamblood Duology, a spectacular work of Egyptian-inspired fantasy which is actually my favorite writing of hers. And of course, her magnum opus to date, the twice-Hugo Award winning Fifth Season.
This is where things may start to get a little embarrassing. As you will soon realize, I was absolutely obsessed with vampires and all things supernatural when I was a teen. I started reading Anne Rice at eleven years old, which is what happens when no one supervises your reading choices. I definitely would not give these books to an eleven year old, or even a young teen, to be honest. Part of the reason I’m not sure how many books I read is that at some point they all blurred together, a hazy vision of blood and sex and strangeness that made very little sense to me as a youngster. I barely understood most of what I was reading, but there were vampires, so I kept reading anyway.
I worshiped Amelia when I was a teen. Incredibly, she published her first novel at fourteen freaking years old! And it’s actually a decent, mature read about vampires! But Amelia doesn’t only write vampires; for me, her claim to fame is her Kiesha’ra series, about shapeshifting humanoids who have been at war for decades. Not only was this series rich in worldbuilding and characterization, it also introduced me to the concept of same-sex attraction and featured the first f/f romance I had ever seen. Needless to say, she was very formative for me (Amelia herself is a lesbian and I remember being fascinated with that as a kid, which makes sense to me now). I’ve been meaning to pick up some of her newer works!
I wasn’t even sure if I should include Tiernan; the only reason I’ve read so much of her is because the Sweep series is made up of fourteen teeny tiny novels coming in at less than 200 pages each! However, if we’re talking formative authors (which…I’m not sure that we are but I guess this is what this turned into) then I have to mention her. The Sweep series changed me as a person. It’s about a young girl coming into her powers of witchcraft. Tiernan seamlessly blends real-world religion Wicca with her own fantasy version. I remember being fifteen and so damn disappointed when I realized that Wicca as an organized faith only stretched back into the ’60s! I still have the Sweep series on my shelf and every now and then I re-read it. It brings me so much joy.
Clocking in at #2 is Darren Shan, of all people, famous for his Cirque du Freak series about vampires (are you seeing the pattern?). But the more formative for me was his second series, the Demonata, about a world adjacent to ours that holds bloodthirsty demons who are fighting to come into our world and kill us all. I read these books during my emo phase, when I was really into things being as gory and bloody as possible. And let me tell you, these books are hella gory.
Oh, boy. This one is really embarrassing, but talk about formative! I started Andrews’ work with her Flowers in the Attic series, infamous for its many incestuous relationships, including the central one between brother and sister. This is probably where my obsession incest ships began, to tell you the truth. Known for combining Gothic horror and family saga, V.C. Andrews is an interesting case because the actual Cleo Virginia Andrews died in 1986, in the midst of writing her second major series. However, her books were so successful and drew in so much cash that her estate hired a ghost writer by the name of Andrew Niederman to continue writing in her name. There is a noticeable change in quality between Anrews and Niederman. All the books are addictive trash, but I actually highly recommend the Dollanganger/Flowers in the Attic series just for how utterly disturbing it is. Andrews is another one I started reading very young, so I don’t remember how much of her work I read, but I definitely had a lengthy Andrews phase and I remember committing to reading everything under her name.
Truthwitch by Susan Dennard: Truthwitch walks the fine line between YA fantasy and adult fantasy. It’s about two young women, best friends, who find themselves caught in political machinations beyond their control. From the first page Dennard sucks you into a harrowing crisis, and from then on the fun never stops. Dennard is fantastic at writing action scenes; she draws you in and doesn’t ever let go. The characters are all super-well developed and the world-building is rich and detailed.
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon: This book is hilarious and so much fun. It’s about two Indian kids whose parents decide to set them up – only one of them is unaware she is being set up. It’s such a sweet story about falling in love and family and cultural expectations. It’s super light-hearted and ends happily in perfect romcom fashion.
Everything You Want Me To Be by Mindy Mejia: Attempting to solve the mystery of a teenage girl’s murder in a small town, this book is your classic murder mystery/small town with secrets book. I literally could not put it down. I think I stayed up until like 3AM reading it because I just could not stop and had to know who the killer was. The end was not shocking, but satisfying because it made sense.
Monstress by Marjorie M. Liu: I’m not generally a graphic novel reader, but I’d heard such good things about Monstress that I had to check it out. This is a whirlwind of a graphic novel, pulling in from so many different genres – horror, steampunk, high fantasy, science fiction – all blending seamlessly together in a matriarchal world filled with diversity of all kinds. It’s definitely a lot to take in, but it’s really worth the investment, and it will keep you hooked. From the intricate story to the beautiful artwork, you will not be able to put this down.
Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States by Joey L. Mogul, Andrea K. Ritchie, and Kay Whitlock: I’m a frequent non-fiction reader myself, so I had to recommend something in this category. I actually read this book a few years back for a class in college, and I didn’t expect to like it so much. It’s rare to come across a non-fiction book that is legitimately a page turner! This book details the treatment of LGBT people from when they are unjustly arrested and profiled to their treatment in the court and prison system. It focuses heavily on intersections of race and class and is an absolutely eye-opening read for anyone with a rosy view of the US prison system.
Hadeer Elsbai 