One of my favorite blogs shares great quotes from the author's vast book collection.  Since there are, so very often, poignant lines in the books I read, I have decided to steal the idea from him.

This is the first time in a long time that I've been able to read a few books in one weekend. I've been so uncomfortable, physically, that it's taking me a week to read what I used to read in two days.

From The Hunt Ball:

"...It's only been in the last two decades that a recognition of preservation for black folks has taken route."

"And there's not a damned thing to preserve for women."

"Women's work perished in the using," Sister said with a shrug. "So it was. And in many ways so it is. I can't be bothered getting angry or feeling shoved aside. I remember the protests in the seventies. I wasn't against them but it was alien to me. I figure you make hell with what you have. I may be on the shorter end of the stick than the white man, but I've still got some say-so, some ability to relish this life."

and

"I totally agree, but I'm not going to a lab and blowing up people in white lab coats. you can make cange out of the barrel of a gun -- thank you, Chairman Mao, another hypocrite for you -- but it doesn't stick. Sooner or later, when the people have the ability, they sabotage or organize against the change. Or they try to turn back the clock. The only way change can work is with consensus, and that takes time, talking to people, listening to people, respecting the differences. it's the longer route, the seemingly harder route, but, ultimately, the successful route, and Betty, there is no other way. We have all of history to prove that point."

--Sister Arnold, Master of the Hunt

It's odd that I'd read a book with "hunt" in the title. This is a book primarily about foxhunt. The way it's written, with the animals' points of view, one can believe that they enjoy the game. I'd love to know what they really think: do the foxes like to run like the hounds do, enjoying the thrill and playing with the people who, in this book, take care of them (worming them, moving them to better foxholes for their own safety and not for the humans), or do they despise it, having to run for their lives to humor humans? I'll never know, but this was beautifully presented, nonetheless. I've read this and Outfoxed and should look for the rest of them (used, of course - I love Rita Mae and don't begrudge her her commission! but hell, new books? beyond my budget).

(cross-posted)