Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and Bookish and hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl where we get a new topic for a top 10 list.

This blog has done quite a few favourite quotes post so to stop this writer from using the same quotes from the same books, we’re going to be spotlighting the most memorable quotes from books that have been read in 2020 alone. Now, shockingly this reader has only read 6 books so far this year, but the benefit of reading less is that you’re likely to pick books you know are going to be a hit. Therefore, this post has compiled a number of quotes taken from these beautiful books.

1. Beartown by Fredrik Backman

The first book read in 2020, Beartown explorer the relationship between sports culture and community. It’s a character-driven tale that explores the best and worst of people in a town that gave a voice to silence. These quotes have stuck with me ever since.

“If you are honest, people may deceive you. Be honest anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfishness. Be kind anyway. All the good you do today will be forgotten by others tomorrow. Do good anyway.”

“What an uncomfortable, terrible source of shame it is for the world that the victim is so often the one left with the most empathy for others.”

“Difficult questions, simple answers. What is a community?
It is the sum total of our choices.”

2. Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

The spellbinding sequel to Strange the Dreamer, Muse of Nightmare explores the desperation of vengeance and the magical hope of dreamers.

“Once upon a time there was a silence that dreamed of becoming a song, and then I found you, and now everything is music.”

“For an instant, at least, they seemed one and the same, as though all anguish exists in the same deep well, no matter what loss or misfortune leads us to it. We might be at odds, hate each other, and desired each others destruction, but in our despair, we are lost in the same darkness, breathing the same air as we choke on our grief.”

3. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The greatest love story overshadowed by Greek mythology’s greatest tragedy. The Song of Achilles spotlights the unconventional hero, the man behind the legend, and a love story that dared to defy fate.

“I am made of memories.” 

“In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”

“He is half of my soul, as the poets say.”

4. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

This romance will sweep you off your feet. It’s a tender and beautiful romance with plenty of chemsitry between Michael and Stella, one that demonstrates their strengths as individuals and as a couple.

“If you can’t stand being with a woman who’s more successful than you, then leave her alone. She’s better off without you. If you actually love her, then know the value of that love and make it a promise. That is the only thing she needs from you.”

“This crusade to fix herself was ending right now. She wasn’t broken. She saw and interacted with the world in a different way, but that was her.”

5. Nocturnal by Wilder Poetry

Poetry is about as subjective as it gets, but there’s something intimate about the collection of poems in Nocturnal that’s raw and relatable.

“they call me colour blind
because I love in shades of grey,
but my heart feels like sunset –
golden, steady, and always on the edge
of an ocean that keeps giving the sky
a reason to be blue

they call me sad
because i carry storms inside my chest,
but what they don’t see is that luck
has always been on my side and rain
will always be my favourite colour.

6. Jade City by Fonda Lee

An immersive and heart-stopping fantasy epic that bolsters an impressive cast of flawed characters, sensory enhancing gemstones, and gives weight to the consequences of choice and vengeance.

“Expectations are a funny thing,” Wen said. “When you’re born with them, you resent them, fight against them. When you’ve never been given any, you feel the lack of them your whole life.”

“Possibilities that lay in the past were illusions, closed doors, as meaningless as unfulfilled intentions.”

“Screw you, Hilo,” she snapped.
“I can kill my ex-boyfriends myself.”

“The Horn placed his hands on her shoulders, and pulled her close, and laid his cheek against hers.
“Heaven help me, Shae,” he whispered into her ear.
“I’m going to kill them all.”

What are some of your favourite book quotes?
Have you read any of these books?