"At some point, all of this, everything and everyone, became memory."

I loved this. Different from Rules in Civility, yet with the same great sense of time and place in addition to flushed out characters. The characters in this, both the main and supporting ones, are so fantastic and quirky. The writing is snappy without being trite or annoying. There is also depth in the premise of a man watching the changes in Russia and in himself while exiled to a hotel.

"One must make ends meet...or meet one's end."

"We said We love you...Always and all ways."

"History is the business of identifying momentous events from the comfort of a high-back chair."

"I know now that what is tragic isn't the moment. It is the memory."

"And as she talked, the Count had to acknowledge once again the virtues of withholding judgment."

"Suddenly all that has passed comes into focus as a necessary course of events, and all that promises to unfold has the clearest rhyme and reason."

"If only I were there and she were here," she sighed. And there, thought the Count, was a suitable plaint for all mankind.

"...a perfect expression of dill--that harbinger of summer which brings to mind the songs of crickets and the setting of one's soul at ease."

"Once you bring forth a baby into this world, God help you, the terror instinct takes up residence in your blood, like a chronic disease, and never leaves."

"The Drowning Game goes like this: If Mom and Dad were drowning, who would we save first?...and there's the other variation:If we were drowning, who would Dad save first? (Jude.). For thirteen years, Mom's stumped us..."

This book just completed captivated and entranced me. I couldn't stop reading.

Love books like this, and ¼ of the way through this, I am really enjoying. It's interesting and entertaining!

A fantastic end to the trilogy. I really enjoyed this, and the manner in which Cronin wraps up the storylines was really satisfying. I could have done without the last section, but I understand why he wrote it.

"...researchers tell us that human beings have more physical energy at the age of three than at any other time in their life span..." Well-that explains A LOT!

"It is possible for the same@circumstances that draw two souls together to keep them forever at arm's length. Herein lies the truth of love, and the essence of all tragedy."

So excited to start this, yet sad this is the end...

I read this book in 48hrs. The descriptions of mental illness are so spot on. After the reviews I had read, I wanted to like it more than I did, but I would still recommend it and did love it.

"'I love you, Willie," he'd whisper, and somehow that love hurt, too, made her cry even harder because she didn't want to believe that anything good could still be in the world when her parents had left it."

"For once there was nothing to be disappointed in. Which left me with just the feeling of the disappointment itself."

"Finding him is such relief."

"Hell was a place of remembering, each beautiful moment passed through the mind's eye until it fell to the ground like a rotten mango, perfectly useless, uselessly perfect."

"The need to call this thing 'good' and this thing 'bad,' this thing 'white' and this thing 'black,' was an impulse that Effia did not understand. In her village, everything was everything. Everything bore the weight of everything else."

Two new books for the TBR pile!

An interesting look at the history of Pit Bulls that is even-handed. As the author concludes, "A pit bull is just...a dog." The author investigates the history of dog fighting, our relationships with dogs, genetics, the animal rights response, and the current climate. More than just a dog book!

"That's the difference between me and other people. I refuse to face an uncertain future with a f**king Labradoodle."