I like terrific writing, but I also like a terrific story. My favorite books have both, and they’re by contemporary, commercial American writers.
Katie had said that motherhood had no expiration date, and Jill had agreed, believing to the bone that that it transcended everything – biology, law, even time and space.
What got you into rowing?” Declan covered.
She always tried to be professional, but she’d been so professional that she’d almost killed someone.
Psychiatrists, psychologists, and mental health workers in hospitals had an assault rate of 60 percent, six times higher than other healthcare professionals.
Bennie tried to keep her face forward.
The Marcellus Shale is one of the largest deposits of natural gas in the country, and it’s one of the major fracking sites. In fact, the most fracking sites in the entire country are in Pennsylvania, on the Marcellus in Susquehanna County and a bunch of others. Towns like Dimock, Montrose, Springville, Headley. As you know, the gas companies use explosives to drill and they have the FELs.
Lou had to believe he’d find something on Winchester if he just took it methodical. Half a mil. Lou thought about knocking again, then lowered his arm and stood there like a stupid ass. Couldn’t even decide whether to knock. Half of him wanted to know what was going on; the other half would just as soon let it lie. The neighbors had IDed.
That at certain times, everything will fall surprisingly into place, even on a humid summer afternoon, with her feet in a baby pool. And in those times, justice and love will look so much alike that they will become the very same thing.
Judy woke up on her back in the parking lot.
We may not be perfect, but we’re good, and good people can’t imagine evil. It catches us by surprise, and it always will. We don’t know the first thing about the kind of evil that would sacrifice a child.
Judy felt dismayed. A half hour? She couldn’t learn much about the gym in half an hour.
The way it works in real life is that guilt is proportionate. In other words, there are degrees of guilt.
How can litigation not be adversarial? That’s the fun part.
Love transcends blood ties, it pays no heed to time or space, much less mere geography.
Her father had grown up with The Tonys; Tony “From-Down-The-Block” LoMonaco, “Pigeon” Tony Lucia, and Tony “Two Feet” Pensiera, which got shortened to “Feet,” so even his nickname had a nickname.
The human body was a thing of beauty because so many structures protected the heart, but she realized that the human heart simply could not be protected, not by muscle, not by bone, not by anything.
War was eternal, but so was peace. Death was eternal, but so was life. Darkness was eternal, but so was light. Hate was eternal, but above all, so was love.
So every day, before every meal, my question is the same. What can I make with what I have?
That’s grief, man. It gets in you. Your body carries it. It’s embedded.
Tears came to my eyes and grief ambushed me, as if it had been lying in wait all along.