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.

Rush Oh! by Shirley Barrett
(published 2016)

I reviewed this wonderful book last week (check out my review here). It’s about a whaling community in Australia in 1908, and if that sounds a bit odd or dry — well, I promise you won’t think so once you start reading it! Here’s a lovely little moment that captures the tone of the narrator’s voice:

He was smiling at me and his eyes were shining in the darkness, and at that point, I’m afraid that something within me seemed to seize up in a kind of panic. Any girlish gaiety that I had been blessed with at birth had stiffened and stuck from lack of use, and although I was only nineteen years of age, I felt unable to rise to the obvious demands of the occasion.

“I’m sorry. I’m no good at this. I can’t do it,” I said, lurching abruptly to my feet.

Swiftly he reached up and pulled me back down again.

“Do what?”

“This light-hearted banter between the sexes that you are obviously hoping for.”

“Of course you can do it! You’ve been doing it extremely well up to this moment.”

“That is kind of you to say, but I am only too aware of my shortcomings…”

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!