Great lines from Olive Kitteridge

From "Incoming Tide":

When he got his medical degree from Chicago, attending the ceremony only because one of his teachers-a kind woman, who had said it would sadden her to have him not there-he sat beneath the full sun, listening to the president of the university say in his final words to them, "To love and be loved is the most important thing in life," causing Kevin to feel an inward fear that grew through him, as though his very soul were tightening. But what a thing to say--the man in his venerable robe, white hair, grandfatherly face--he must've had no idea those words could cause such an exacerbation of the silent dread in Kevin. Even Freud had said, "We must love or we grow ill." They were spelling it out for him.  Every billboard, movie, magazine cover, television ad--it all spelled it out for him: We belong to the world of family and love. And you don't.

(I just now noticed that awkward repetition of "spell" there. The passage is so beautiful I missed it the first time.)

From "Basket of Trips" (Olive observing an act of affection from a girl toward her mother at the wake for her father's funeral):

And Olive, watching all this, feels--what? Jealousy? No, you don't feel jealous of a woman whose husband has been lost. But an unreachability, that's how she'd put it. This plump, kind-natured woman sitting on the couch surrounded by children, her cousin, friends--she is unreachable to Olive. Olive is aware of the disappointment this brings.

From "Security":

Stepping into the little closet of a bathroom, she flicked on the light, and saw in the mirror that across her blue cotton blouse was a long and prominent strip of sticky dark butterscotch sauce. A small feeling of distress took hold. They had seen this and not told her. She had become the old lady her Aunt Ora had been, when years ago she and Henry would take the old lady out for a drive, stopping some nights to get an ice cream, and Olive had watched as Aunt Ora had spilled melted ice cream down her front; she had felt repulsion at the sight of it. In fact, she was glad when Ora died, and Olive didn't have to continue to witness the pathetic sight. 

And now she had become Ora. But she wasn't Aunt Ora and her son should have pointed this out the minute it happened...Did they think she was just one more baby they were carting around? 

 
From "River" (the closing lines and the last story in the collection):

They were here, and her body-old, big, sagging-felt straight-out desire for his. That she had not loved Henry this way for many years before he died saddened her enough to make her close her eyes.

.......

And so, if this man next to her now was not a man she would have chosen before this time, what did it matter? He most likely wouldn't have chosen her either. But here they were, and Olive pictured two slices of Swiss cheese pressed together, such holes they brought to this union--what pieces life took out of you.

Her eyes were closed, and thought her tired self swept waves of gratitude and regret. She pictured the sunny room, the sun-washed wall, the bayberry outside. It baffled her, the world. She did not want to leave it yet.

First and last for Mockingjay

Did not like as much as the first two.

First line:

I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather.

Last line:

But there are much worse games to play.

First and last for State of Wonder

First:

The news of Anders Eckman's death came by way of Aerogram, a piece of bright blue airmail paper that served as both the stationery and, when folded over and sealed along the edges, the envelope. Who even knew they still made such things?

Last:

She didn't see Karen open her door but there she was, flying into his arms, her feet never touching the lawn. She was as small and golden as a child herself. It was as if they had waited for him everyday he had been gone, holding their burning sticks above their heads, pouring their souls up to heaven in a single voice of ululation until he came back. And Marina brought him back, and without a thought that anyone should see her, she told the driver to go on.

What I've looked up thus far for State of Wonder

Marina mentions how she had horrible nightmares whenever she went to India as a child and didn't realize until she had to go to Brazil and start anti-malarials again, what was the cause. The drug Lariam. When I was on malaria meds (less exotic than this sounds), I took plain old chloroquine and if they had adverse affects I didn't notice them between the dysentery and general craziness of being in a foreign country.

Chloroquine is a 4-Aminoquinoline and for the most part, its side effects seem benign. Itchy skin, unpleasant taste in the mouth, headache. All pretty generic and if you are in a place where malaria is prevelent, you probably feel all of the above regardless. Along with an unceasing fear you are at any minute going to shit yourself.

Lariam, or Mefloquine, was created by the army in the 1970's. It's a synthetic form of quinine, the original Malaria remedy that comes from cinchona tree bark. According to Wiki, as of 2009 Roche no longer manufactures it but you can get generic analogs still.

Although, why the hell would you want to. Take a look at these side effects: psychosis, seizures, pneumonia and abnormal heartbeat. In fact in {the website in the link says 2008 but it appears this happened in 2002}, within 6 weeks time 4 soldiers at Fort Bragg murdered their wives. Two later killed themselves. Lariam was mentioned as a possible cause.

As to why the character was taking Lariam at all, I found this on a travel website:

Generally, chloroquine is not prescribed for areas where chloroquine-resistent malaria is thriving - mainly in tropical climates. In more temporate zones, such as Argentina, chloroquine is sufficient as most areas are of no risk.

There are other options but they have other side-effects, such as doxycycline which causes photo-sensitivity (and is an antibiotic. I'm surprised it's in this list.) 

Marina mentions she is going to Manaus. Manaus is the capital of the state of Amazonas, which is the largest state in Brazil. Look where this place is:

It's 2674 miles from Rio de Janeiro. It's 1200 miles from Brasilia. It's not a tiny backwater though. The population is 2 million. It looks very pretty , more than I expected, in pictures.

First and last for Boneshaker

But first a word on Spencer Rifles, like Briar used.

The Spencer was invented in 1860 for use by the Union Army. I'm not certain that it would therefore have made it into the hands of a Seattle lawman (Briar's father) by 1863 but it's alt history anyways so, of course it would. Unless you are a rifle buff perhaps (I'm not), there isn't anything that distinguishing in its looks:

It could fire 20 rounds a minute which made it a huge advantage for the Union in combat. The South did capture a few but lacked the raw materials to manufacture new cartridges.

And, here's a sequence I particularly liked between Angeline and Zeke on the death of possible deserter and tragic but rightfully doomed figure Rudy:

"We should do something," he said weakly.

"Like what? Like help him? Boy, he's so far beyond help that even if I wanted to, there's nothing to be done for him. Hell. The kindest thing we could do is shoot him in the head."

"Angeline!"

"Don't look at me like that. If he were a dog, you wouldn't let him suffer. Thing is, he ain't a dog, and I don't mind him suffering. You know what's in that bottle? The one that he's holding there, like it's his own baby?"

{it's a bottle of Blight made to be drinkable-not sure how it differs from the distilled Blight beer that is safe to drink}

....

"This miserable poison was bound to kill him one day, and I think today will be that day."

"We should help him," Zeke said, protesting the man's death as a matter of formality.

"You want to shoot him after all?"

"No!"

"Me either. I don't think he deserves it...Cover him up if you think that's polite."

Ok, first line:

She saw him and she stopped a few feet from the stairs.

Last line:

Hale Quarter jabbed a pen against his tongue to moisten it, and began to write.

First and last for The Hunger Games

Ok, it was mad entertaining and not something I'd feel horribly guilty about reading like Twilight (not that I've read it but I hear it has that affect on people and frankly, if I found myself loving that Mormon purity fable I'd have to re-evaluate my life.)

Also, check out:

http://aimmyarrowshigh.livejournal.com/32461.html

A map of Panem rendered in obsessive geographic detail.

First:

When  I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.

Last:

I take his hand, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go.

First and last for In the Miso Soup

I think I'll have to think about this book for a few days before I can decide what I think of it (or even if I liked it-which usually means I did but it's complicated. This book is like meeting a married man in a hotel room. Who might follow you home and tape human skin to your door.)

First, here is the section that gives the book it's title and is my favorite part:

"There's just one thing I was hoping we could do that we never got around to. I wanted to have some miso soup with you, bit it's too late now. We won't be meeting again."

"Miso soup?"

"Yeah. I'm really interested in miso soup. I ordered it at a little sushi bar in Colorado once long ago, and I thought it was a darned peculiar kind of soup, the smell it had and everything, so I didn't eat it, but it intrigued me. It had that funny brown color and smelled kind of like human sweat, but it also looked delicate and refined somehow. I came to this country hoping to find out what the people who eat that soup on a daily basis might be like. So I'm a little disappointed we didn't get to have some together."

I asked him if he was going back to America right away. No, not right away, he said, so I suggested we could still have miso soup together sometime.....

"I don't need to eat the stuff now because now I'm here-right in the middle of it! The soup I ordered in Colorado had all these little slices of vegetables and things, which at the time just looked like kitchen scrapings to me. But now I'm in the miso soup myself, just like those bits of vegetable. I'm floating around in this giant bowl of it, and that's good enough for me."

I'd never say this to anyone who had never had miso but that's actually an excellent, indeed elegant, description. Smelling sort of like sweat but delicate.

Anyways, first and last.

First line:

My name is Kenji.

Last line:

"The feather of a swan," I said.