Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

‘I like wells, though. Every time I see a well, I can’t resist tossing a rock in. There’s nothing as soothing as the sound of a pebble hitting the water in a deep well.’ (page 10)

‘That’s this: if a person would just make the effort, there’s something to be learned from everything. From even the most ordinary, commonplace things, there’s always something you can learn. ...
Fact is, if it weren’t for that, nobody’s survive.
…
‘I think I see what you’re getting at, but’ - the Rat began, then swallowed the thought. But - the word was on his lips, there wasn’t anything more he could say. So he smiled and stood up, thanked J …’ (page 62)

‘On any given day, something claims our attention. Anything at all, inconsequential things. A rosebud, a misplaced hat, that sweater we liked as a child, an old Gene Pitney record. A parade of trivia with no place to go. Things that bump around in our consciousness for two or three days, then go back to wherever they came from the darkness. We’re always digging wells in our head. While above the wells, birds flit back and forth.’ (page 71)

‘“Good night”, said the Rat
“Good night,” -said J. “Oh, and one last thing. Somebody said it: Walk slowly and drink lots of water.”
The Rat smiled at J., opened the door, and climbed the stairs. Streetlamps brightly illuminated the deserted street. The Rat sat down on a guard-rail and looked up at the sky. And thought, just how much water does a guy have to drink?’ (page 94)

‘Everything was immersed in darkness. Not just a monotone black, but smeared on butter-thick in paints of all colors.
I kept my face glued to the taxi window looking at that darkness. It looked strangely flat, like the cut surface of some unreal material sliced off with a razor-sharp blade. A queer kind of perspective prevailed in the darkness.’ (page 98)

‘It’s like Tennessee Williams said. The past and the present, we might say, “go like this.” The future is a “maybe.”
Yet when we look back on the darkness that obscures the path that brought us this far, we only come up with another indefinite “maybe.” The only thing we perceive with any clarity is the present moment, and even that just passes away.’ (page 118)

‘I brewed coffee. And the whole day through I watched that Sunday pass by my window. A tranquil November Sunday of rare clarity shining through each and every thing.’ (page 119)


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Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

‘Sometimes, when I’d be killing time by reading a book, he’d peek at me curiously like a fly looking at a flyswatter.
- Why do you read books?
- Why do you drink beer?’ (page 9)

‘Whenever I look at the ocean, I always want to talk to people, but when I’m talking to people, I always want to look at the ocean. I’m weird like that.’ (page 16)

‘It’d been a long time since I’d felt the scent of summer. The smell of the ocean, the distant steam whistle, feeling the skin of a girl’s hand, the lemon scent of her conditioner, the evening wind, faint hopes, summer dreams …’ (page 70)

‘This pass us by. Nobody can catch them. That’s the way we live our lives.’ (page 77)


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The Calling by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

‘A shape-shifting witch. Crazy, huh? Except … I was. So were Rafe and Annie, who’d come to Salmon Creek looking for the girl who’d been another subject in an experiment to resurrect the latent skin-walker genes. That girl, apparently, was me.’ (page 22)

‘It wasn’t a stretch to think that the people responsible for this - and for setting the fire that got us out of town - were the scientists my birth mother had escaped sixteen years ago.’ (page 34)

‘Someone had pulled Serena under the water and drowned her. Someone had pulled me under, then and now. Someone had pulled Nicole under, too.
Sam hadn’t liked Serena. She hadn’t liked Nicole. Apparently, she didn’t like me much either, no matter how hard she tried to pretend otherwise.
Who did Sam like? Daniel. Who had been pulled under the water? His girlfriend, his best friend, and a girl who wanted to be his next girlfriend.’ (page 65)

‘I looked down at my hand. It was … wrong. Misshapen. My fingers were thick, my nails almost like claws. There was hair on the back of my hand. Thick tawny hairs. As I stared at it, my hip started to throb again. ‘ (page 88)

‘She planned this. There’s no loss of cognitive function. She’s an intelligent young woman in the body of one of the world’s finest predators. This is what we’ve been working toward. This is everything we’ve dreamed.’ (page 231)

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The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

‘I could feel energy filling me. I inhaled the smells of the forest, the sharp tang of long grass, the sweet perfume of the trees.’ (page 40, location 608)

‘I don’t remember anything else. No, that’s a lie. I remember one more thing. I remember the cougar turning away and I remember what I saw on her flank. A dark patch of fur in the shape of a paw print.’ (page 105 location 1608)

‘Heard the scream of an eagle and my heart beat faster, legs pumping as I ran, the grass lashing me. Then - too late - I smelled it. Humans.’ (page 118 location 1808)

‘Skinwalker are evil witches who cast curses and take on the form of animals, usually canines.’ (page 133 location 2031)

‘Or, I said, turning to Rafe, if you want to skip the whole awkward meet-the-family social event, you could just submit your life story, including your views on politics, religion, and every social issue imaginable, along with anything else you think they might need to conduct a thorough background check.’ (page 148 location 2263)

‘I stopped. He was staring again - this time at the ground behind me. I turned to see what had caught his attention.
Don’t - he began.
Too late. Having stepped away from whatever Marv Had dropped, I could now see it more clearly through the long grass. Or see part of it. Fingers.’ (page 152 location 2329)

‘The cat jumped. Rafe shouted and this time I heard exactly what he said.
Annie!’ (page 178 location 2725)

‘Yee naaldlooshii.
Skin-walker.’ (page 179 location 2737)

‘Real skin-walker, like us, go back to before Columbus -discovered- America. It’s a kind of supernatural race. We’re born into a family of skin-walkers. We can change into mountain lions. We get our energy from nature. We have healing powers and some control over animals.’ (page 184 location 2814)

‘I was, apparently, a member of a formerly extinct race of supernatural beings?’ (page 192 location 2943)

‘Dreams of the forest, - he said - Of running. You wake up with a fever. You need to get outside. …
It’s the Calling. The start of the transformation.’ (page 218 location 3334)

‘I could stand in front of the mirror and mentally refuse to believe a person could change into an animal, but in my heart I knew it was true.’ (page 226 location 3455)

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