Welcome back to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!
NEW! Thursday Quotables is now using a Linky tool! Be sure to add your link if you have a Thursday Quotables post to share.
The Expats by Chris Pavone
(published 2012 )
I had a total blast reading this spy thriller this week, not least because it touches on all sorts of issues about marriage and motherhood. As the main character settles into the life of a stay-at-home-mom (after a secret career as an agent), there’s quite a bit of adapting to do:
They did this every Wednesday. Or they will do this every Wednesday. Or this was the second Wednesday they were doing this, with the plan that this is what they will do, on Wednesdays.
Maybe there already was a routine, but she just didn’t recognize it yet.
I like this bit too, maybe because it hints at how I sometimes feel:
Kate was taken aback by this excessive garrulousness. People who were too outgoing made her suspicious. She couldn’t help but presume that all the loud noise was created to hide quiet lies. And the more distinct a surface personality appeared, the more Kate was convinced that it was a veneer.
And finally… on the realities of being an agent:
There were so many people to be assassinated for so many reasons.
What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!
If you’d like to participate in Thursday Quotables, it’s really simple:
- Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now. And please be sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com), if you’d be so kind!
- Click on the linky button (look for the cute froggie face) below to add your link.
- After you link up, I’d love it if you’d leave a comment about my quote for this week.
- Be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!
Bookshelf Fantasies 
Oh I really like this bit: “And the more distinct a surface personality appeared, the more Kate was convinced that it was a veneer.” As an expat myself, I have been tempted to pick up that book a couple of times. Though I am not necessarily easy to catch with a spy thriller, which I think is what has kept me back. But now hearing that it is about motherhood in a lot of ways, I may give it a chance next time it lands in front of me.
I wrote about a really weird but beautifully written book this week for the hop: http://www.bookpunks.com/so-it-begins-the-beauty-by-aliya-whiteley/
Thanks for sharing your link! I don’t often read spy thrillers, but I really liked the combination of thriller with the focus on family, marriage, and motherhood. If you read it, let me know what you think!
Hey Lisa 🙂
Great post! 😀 the differences being a spy and adapting to being a stay at home mum rally come through., especially the second quote. It makes her sound quite paranoid (probably rightly so!) in case someone is coming to get her. The first quote was quite quirky though, made me giggle a bit. It has that “hell, is this going to be a routine?” feeling ha ha.
Have a great day!
Amy x
So true — there is a lot of paranoia, which of course would be ridiculous for most moms dropping their kids off at preschool, but in this case…
This sounds so interesting! I wasn’t expecting a book with such a serious cover to have such snarky humor! Before I wouldn’t have given it a second glance, but after reading these I’m definitely interested. I guess that’s the point of TQ’s though, right?
Ha, absolutely! You never know what you’ll find! 🙂 I really liked that this is a spy thriller from the perspective of a woman who in some ways just wants an ordinary life. Quite fun! Just polishing off the review now…
Great quote. The first is so weird, btu in a good way, and I just love the second. I think that’s quite true 😉
This is my quote this week
http://theoldshelter.com/thursday-quotables-the-wise-man-says/
Thanks! I know what you mean about the first quote — the weirdness really appealed to me!