What could be more perfect than marrying the person you love.

I've heard it said that children born to stressful times never shake the air of woe . . . .

After all, it's the librarian's sworn purpose to bring books together with their one true reader.

There’s something about hospital walls; though only made of bricks and plaster, when you’re inside them the noise, the reality of the teeming city beyond, disappears; it’s just outside the door, but it might as well be a magical land far, far away.

. . . companions were to be valued, wherever one found them.

A girl expecting rescue never learns to save herself. Even with the means, she will find her courage wanting.

I sound contemptuous, but I am not. I am interested--intrigued even--by the way time erases real lives, leaving only vague imprints. Blood and spirit fade away so that only names and dates remain.