“As the fist in her belly pulled tighter, she bit her bottom lip. Ignoring the pain that rippled and receded, she tiptoed barefoot into the night."

"For years, Allina had begged her aunt and uncle for more information about her real parents. Your mother and father loved you very much, they’d always reply, but it’s best to keep the past in the past.”

“One of the first bullets comes in through the open window above the toilet where Luca is standing. He doesn’t immediately understand that it’s a bullet at all, and it’s only luck that it doesn’t strike him between the eyes."

“And in northern Wisconsin, in the middle of the middle of nowhere, John Sawtelle and his new pup walked down a dirt road toward a farm that would turn out to be unoccupied and for sale."

“June sunshine poured over the street, the sounds of a jazz saxophone drifted over from next door, somewhere on Capitol Hill Senator McCarthy was waving lists of card-carrying American Commies, and a new guest had come to the Briarwood boardinghouse.”

“The Korowai Pass had been closed since the end of the summer, when a spate of shallow earthquakes triggered a landslide that buried a stretch of the highway in rubble."

Full disclosure…this week’s book is very different than my usual selections. It might help to know that I have always loved a good action movie.

“Jackie is a novel, a work of fiction inspired by the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It is the story of a woman who projected a myriad of selves and who was, at her core, a deeply private person, with a nuanced and formidable intellect."

“1943. 'It’s a lie.' The large man’s voice was deep and hoarse. 'What’s a lie?' Someone whispered. 'Where we’re going.' 'They’re taking us North.' 'They’re taking us to die.'"

“These pages are my obsession with birds."