When you are ten, shame stitches itself into you like a monogram, broadcasting to the world what holds you, what rules your soul.

I’d sooner defend the image of me as a hideous, withered hag, rather than the image of me as coy, quiet, sexualized teenaged girl. It’s appalling that I was trained to behave the way I was when I was younger, and I think of it as a societal betrayal, and a depraved way to treat girls.

Well, you’ve probably ruled some things out. I’m no detective, but it probably wasn’t aliens or Taylor Swift. She’s very busy.

That was the way of grief, I was realizing. It was a barrage of pain that was so unbearable that it made you numb. And then out of nowhere, something made you feel again and the cycle started over from the beginning.

An absurd thing for the murderous state to plead for, but, as always, the massive violence of the state was “justice,” was “law and order,” and resistance to perpetual violence was an act of terror. It would have been funny if there weren’t so much blood everywhere.

People aren’t so bad. They’re just wounded little kids trying to heal.

The surface of love was a feeling, but beyond this thin layer, there was a fathomless, winding maze of caverns offering many paces to see and explore.

They are wired for survival, and perhaps expert at that function, but no other creature here possesses intelligence like mine.

How to apologize for wanting some word, some story, some beautiful thing for my own?

No one keeps every book they read, which means the ones we do keep are important. A person’s library is like a fingerprint.

A mind-bending novella about past, present, and future selves.

When reenacting Iron Age living gets a bit too realistic…

The wonder is that you could start life with nothing, end with nothing, and lose so much in between.

The rest of us have to keep racing along the hamster wheel of relevance.

Wasting talent like yours is like burning a pile of money in front of a poorhouse. It’s cruel and it stinks.

The story of a century of life.

A murder mystery party with friends sparks a hidden set of skills for Pippa Fitz-Amobi in this prequel to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

My bookish friends, Noah and Leslie, decided to compete for "Best Book" each month. This tiebreaker is for all the marbles!

It takes a whole lot longer to dispose of a body than to dispose of a soul, especially if you don’t want to leave any evidence of foul play.

“Why make anything if you don’t believe it could be great?”