We know how it ends practically before it starts. That's why stories appeal to us. They give us the clarity and simplicity our real lives lack.

For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.

The cow-shaped cookies have a beef flavoring, the turkey-shaped cookies have a poultry flavoring, and..."

Jane held up one of the cookies. "Human-flavored?"

Meg stifled a sigh. That would be the first thing on her feedback list: don't make people-shaped cookies. The Wolves were way too interested and all of them leaped to a logical, if disturbing, expectation about the taste.

He gently kissed that scar and felt something changing inside him - just a flutter of change, there and gone, but leaving its mark.

A woman with an education may be able to spend more time sitting in a chair instead of lying on her back. A sound advantage, I should think.

When honor and the Law no longer stand on the same side of the line, how do we choose[?]