The receptionist looked us over, then went back to typing something incredibly urgent—like her résumé́ for another job.

Some kids get called "bundles of joy" or "slices of heaven" or "dreams come true." We got "the fifty-fourth generation of DNA experiments." Doesn't have the same warm and fuzzy feel. But maybe I'm oversensitive.

This is not a democracy," I said, understanding he fear but unable to do anything about it. "It's a Maxocracy.

The writing in Mission to Paris, sentence after sentence, page after page, is dazzling. If you are a John le Carr fan, this is definitely a novel for you.

This time I wouldn't forget him, because I couldn't ever forgive him - for breaking my heart twice.

On the other hand, even a big, '80s love van was less noticeable than six flying kids and their talking dog. So there you go.

It sucked, but it was way cool at the same time," Gazzy said. "I felt like the Blue Angels!" "Yeah, except the blue Angels are an extremely well funded, well equipped, well trained, well fed, and no doubt squeaky-clean group of crack navy pilots," I said. "And we're a bunch of unfunded, unequipped, semitrained, not nearly well fed enough, and filthy mongrel avian-human hybrids. But other than that, it's exactly the same.