Upside Ann

 In a likely misguided attempt to simplify my life and my possessions, I've decided I must part with my old letters.  But before I can do that, I'm reading them - reading every line - one last time.  I'm reading the letters from friends and family in 1979 and 1980.  You see, I kept them- I kept them all.  I kept the scribbled notes from my mother on her lunch break.  I kept my grandmother's observations of life on her farm...what was blooming and who was singing in the trees. I kept the silly letters written by my crazy, wonderful friends as we started our lives "adult" lives away from "home".  I kept the love letters.  They are all love letters. I kept them all and I'm reading them all.  My heart aches. All those people I loved- with love so intense and pure and fresh like a paper cut.  I'd give anything to go back for just an hour and hold those beautiful people with their hopes and joys and laughter and tears and tell them.  Tell...

 Eventually I ask, "Aren't you afraid?" "Afraid?" Cyril answers.  "Of what? I was dead for billions of years before I was alive." "But... but it means you won't be here anymore.' "You won't get rid of me so easily, lad.  Haven't you heard what people say? We're made of stardust.  We'll all be hanging around for eternity."

 "Tell her that sometimes what seems to be the right thing to do looks diffferent over time."

 He told me he wanted to do work that invigorated him.  He said, "You have to do that, too, Monique,.  When you're older.  You have to find a job that makes your heart feel big instead of one that makes it feel small."

 One of the few reasons that she wasn't trying to run--which every instinct was screaming at her to do-- was that Lord Guantes was having too much fun gloating.  He was trapped in his criminal archetype.  One couldn't gloat at a corpse.   The corpse simply wouldn't appreciate it properly. ...where is Lord Silver's niece?"... "I took her to the Library" "You what?" "That's not very grammatical," Irene said, and earned another slap for it. "Yes, but did you see her scars?" Black Wig demanded. "And her left leg?" "She didn't have a left leg." "Precisely!" Is it obvious yet how much fun I'm having reading The Invisible Library series?  Aghhhh and there is only one more left!  And NOW I've lost my Kindle.   It will show up.  Things always do.  Well, except maybe for that left leg....

 “He was a very bad king, Mom!  He had gone to a very dark place in pursuit of organizational excellence!” Everyone in the Kingdom of Sunshine was cheerful, in that extremely graying way that makes your teeth ache… “Everyone seems very… happy…” said Wilber. “Yep,” said Harriet.  “Not gonna lie.  If I had to live here, I’d go evil in a week.  I’d be building an army of giant spider-chickens and saying things like, “No, Mr. Wilbur, I expect you to fit, muahahaha.”

 *We note that the Library has not had fire drills for the last two hundred years.  This is because we found the two default responses unhelpful.  These being “running away screaming” or “resigning yourself to death while clutching your favorite books.”  Librarians with more useful suggestions should contact Yves via email and attach a full benefit-threat analysis. “It’s not the duel I’m complaining about, it’s the calligraphy challenge that started the quarrel.”… But even here Kai had his sense of aesthetics.  “The choice of ink colors available was completely unsuitable, she should have demanded a steel pen, ands frankly the whole thing ought to have been called off until both parties could get better paper.  No wonder they came to blows instead of competing as planned.  It simply wasn’t possible for either to produce work representative of their skills.” “Jerome…what if we just pay them?” “Seriously?” Jerome seemed personally insulted by the very id...