Best Kisses in Literature!

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme over at The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is a FREEBIE!

So, in light of my recent 7 Favorite YA Romances post, I decided to blog about my

TOP TEN* BEST KISSES IN LITERATURE.

*Blogger reserves the right to include more than ten. Also, she may change up the format a little.

FUNNIEST DESCRIPTION: Lennie and Joe
“Our tongues have fallen madly in love and gotten married and moved to Paris.”
Jandy Nelson, The Sky is Everywhere

MOST CONTROVERSIAL KISS: Jace and Clary
“He bent down, his lips against her cheek, brushing it lightly—and still that light touch sent shivers through her nerves, shivers that made her whole body tremble. ‘If you want me to stop, tell me now,’ he whispered. When she still said nothing, he brushed his mouth against the hollow of her temple. ‘Or now.’ He traced the line of her cheekbone. ‘Or now.’ His lips were against hers.

‘Or—’

But she had reached up and pulled him down to her, and the rest of his words were lost against her mouth. He kissed her gently, carefully, but it wasn’t gentleness she wanted, not now, not after all this time, and she knotted her fists in his shirt, pulling him harder against her. He groaned softly, low in his throat, and then his arms circled her, gathering her against him, and they rolled over on the grass, tangled together, still kissing.”
Cassandra Clare, City of Glass

BEST PROSE DESCRIPTION: Ky and Cassia
“Lightning. Once it has forked, hot-white, from sky to earth, there is no going back. It’s time. I feel it, I know it. My eyes on him, his on me, and both of us breathing, watching, tired of of waiting. Ky closes his eyes, but mine are still open. What will it feel like, his lips on mine? Like a secret told, a promise kept? Like that line in the poem– a shower of all my days– silvery rain falling all around me, where the lighting meets the earth?”
Ally Condie, Matched

BEST THIRD-PARTY OBSERVED KISS: Finnikin and Evanjalin
“He just watched the way Finnikin’s hands rested on Evanjalin’s neck and he rubbed his thumb along her jaw and the way his tongue seemed to disappear inside her mouth as if he needed a part of her to breathe himself.”
Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock

BEST LEAD-UP TO THE KISS: Froi and Quintana
“Our bodies aren’t strangers,’ he said, his voice ragged. ‘Our spirits aren’t strangers’. He held her face in his hands. ‘Tell me what part of me is stranger to you and I’ll destroy that part of me.’
Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn

BEST KISSING QUOTE (MALE): Jonah and Taylor
“What do you think would happen if we kissed right here, right now?” he asks, digging his hands into the pockets of his khaki pants, grinning right back at me.
“I think it would cause a riot.”
“Well, you know me,” he says, lowering his head towards me. “Causing a riot is what I do best.”
Melina Marchetta, Jellicoe Road

BEST KISSING QUOTE (FEMALE): Frankie and Will
“Will Trombal sees me from the other side of the room and he grins and he makes a beeline for me and my mind is buzzing with the best opening. Hi. Hey. How’s it going? Great party. Love your shirt. Great music. Crap music. And he’s coming closer and closer and the way he’s looking at me makes me think that I’m going to have the most romantic night in the history of my life. I open my mouth to say something and he sticks his tongue down my throat. We’re in a corner, pashing, and I don’t even know what’s got me to this point. A look in a corridor? A flirt outside my nonna’s house? All I know is that no one exists around us. I don’t know whether we’re kissing for five minutes or five hours and my mouth feels bruised, but I can’t let go. Because it feels so good to be held…Will’s arms tremble as they hold me and his heart beats hard against me and I know that whatever I’m feeling is mutual. For a moment I taste the alcohol on his breath, and it brings me back to reality. ‘Do that sober and I’ll be impressed,’ I say before walking away.”
Melina Marchetta, Saving Francesca

SADDEST KISS: tie between Liesel and Rudy and Lir and Amalthea
“She leaned down and looked at his lifeless face and Leisel kissed her best friend, Rudy Steiner, soft and true on his lips. He tasted dusty and sweet. He tasted like regret in the shadows of trees and in the glow of the anarchist’s suit collection. She kissed him long and soft, and when she pulled herself away, she touched his mouth with her fingers…She did not say goodbye.”
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“The unicorn bowed her head, and her horn glanced across Lir’s chin as clumsily as a first kiss.”
Peter Beagle, The Last Unicorn

MOST (LITERALLY) MAGICAL KISS: Celia and Marco
“As he kisses her, the bonfire glows brighter. The acrobats catch the light perfectly as they spin. The entire circus sparkles, dazzling every patron.”
Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

BEST MAKES-MORE-SENSE-IN-CONTEXT KISS: Perry and Aria
“He kissed her slowly. Everything went slowly so he could follow her temper, and search into her eyes. When they joined, her scent was brave and strong and certain. Perry took it into himself, breathing her breath, feeling what she felt. He’d never known anything as right.”
Veronica Rossi, Under the Never Sky

SWEETEST KISS: Eleanor and Park
She didn’t move, so he thought it was probably okay to touch her face. Her skin was as soft as it looked, white and smooth as freckled porcelain.
“I’ll just say, ‘Eleanor, follow me down this rabbit hole…'”
He laid his thumb on her lips to see if she’d pull away. She didn’t. He leaned closer. He wanted to close his eyes, but he didn’t trust her not to leave him standing there.”
Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor and Park

Royalty

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

ROYALTY

Autumn in the year
we turned sixteen,
we met at midnight
in a field of white crocuses.

The darkness was deep
but perforated.

It was August,
and we were in love—
the two of us royalty,
the stars at our feet.

Do I have OCD?

Posted on May 26, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

Before my diagnosis and, hence, before I’d done a lot of personal research on obsessive compulsive disorder, I thought of OCD as “that disorder where you wash your hands a lot” or “the one where people tap the doorknobs” or “when you’re a really big neat freak.” In some ways, my diagnosis was a surprise to me because I didn’t do any of those things. But on the other hand, just the term obsessive sounded so much like my situation that I was willing to listen.

Maybe a year or so into my original search for medication (I ended up taking a year-long hiatus from the search after Luvox stole all my energy), I suddenly started worrying (or maybe even obsessing) that what I had wasn’t really OCD. I seem to talk to a fair amount of obsessive-compulsives who also reach this point, worrying that maybe someone has plastered a name on them that is incorrect. The interesting thing about this is that the OC usually feels guilty about it– as if they are receiving compassion and medical advice and help from friends and family for nothing, or what they are worried is nothing.

Interestingly, such a huge worry and incredible guilt only point to OCD all the more.

The more I have learned about OCD, the easier it is for me to see it in others. Though I am by no means a doctor, I now believe that OCD is pretty easy to diagnose.

It’s all in the name.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder.

1) Do you have obsessions? Basically, do you have intrusive thoughts that you find ugly or disturbing but that you can’t seem to stop thinking about? Common themes center around questioning your sexual orientation or if you really love your significant other, thoughts about harming yourself or others (even children), blasphemous or sinful thoughts, worries that you or people you love are going to die, sexual obsessions, intense fears about contracting a disease. Ask yourself, do I have intrusive thoughts that cause me serious anxiety?

2) Do you have compulsions? The answer to this question might not come as easily, but what it is really asking is this: when I have those intrusive, anxiety-causing thoughts, what do I do to attempt to relieve that anxiety? Maybe your fears about germs cause you to wash your hands, making you temporarily feel a bit of relief about that possibility. Maybe your fear about harming a child means that you won’t allow yourself to hold your baby girl. Maybe it even means that you avoid driving down the street where a lot of children play. If you have blasphemous thoughts, perhaps you repeatedly ask God for forgiveness or you’ll ask other people if you think that means you are now going to hell. Sometimes compulsions seem a little “magical” too– for example, you relieve the anxiety caused by your intrusive thought by tapping your foot a certain number of times or by avoiding stepping on cracks. Even if it doesn’t logically make sense, it’s still something providing you some temporary relief. Seeking reassurance is a huge compulsion for a lot of different kinds of obsessions: we glimpse relief when friends reassure us, No, you’re not gay. No, you’re not going to get sick. No, you would never hurt a child. No, you’re not going to hell for that.

There is a third question to ask too, although this one may or may not be reached immediately, which is
3) Have your compulsions gotten out of control?
Most obsessive-compulsives reach a stage where the compulsions (that began as an anxiety-reliever) become too much and begin to add to the anxiety: you can’t stop washing your hands, you ask for reassurance so constantly that your friends are annoyed, you are driving a long way out of your way to avoid the street with children, you are tapping doorknobs and counting and repeating phrases in your head to the point that you’re starting to look a little silly.

Like I said, I’m no doctor, but when I talk to someone who wonders if they have OCD, these are the three simple questions I ask. If you can answer yes to the first two, then you have OCD.

So, what next?
1. Get an official diagnosis from someone who went to school for it. 🙂
2. Skip the talk therapy and go right for cognitive-behavioral therapy. This is treatable.

Words I Love

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

He paused, then said, “Gahhh, I love the word crux. How could anyone not love that word?”

I giggled.

He continued, “The word even looks like what it is, like this important little block, this core.”

“Mmm,” I said in agreement. “How about cavalier? Rolls right off your tongue.”

“Applause,” he said.

“Callous.”

“Archaic.”

“Valor,” I said. “Doesn’t it just make you want to storm a castle?” I pushed up my sleeve. “Look, I have goosebumps!”

Other favorites:

intrepid

sentinal

civic

rogue

What are yours?

I don’t understand people who don’t re-read.*

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

To me, re-reading my favorite books is like spending time with my best friends.

I’d never be satisfied to limit myself to just one experience each with my favorite people.

* Please note that I’m not judging these people. I just quite literally do not understand.

Timing, a poem

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

TIMING

In Prague,
Tuesday takes his hand,
dragging him into the
streets of orange-tiled roofs.

In Minneapolis,
Monday bars my way.

What new secrets
have stubbed his toe?

When I wake,
the sunlight on my face
is already ancient.

Let’s Get Lost by bluecoloursofnature

She’s always writing.

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

… and maybe you don’t care. That’s fine too. 🙂

But if you want to know and understand me, you’d have to read my creative work. I invite you to click a link below!

Drops of Jupiter, Revisited | Do you know the Train song? These jottings take place in the years before the song.

Valuing the Arts | Flash fiction satire.

Nine Names | Flash fiction I wrote to help myself sort through “The Problem of Susan.”

Date a Girl Who Writes | An essay I wrote as a companion essay to Rosemarie Urquico’s brilliant “Date a Girl Who Reads.”

Seeing Saturn | An excerpt from my work-in-progress.

Rooster | A short story about holding on and letting go during those crazy college years.

The Call | A poem inspired by jealousy and a friend’s phone call.

Madam, Meet Adam | A short story about Adam meeting Eve for the very first time.

Susan of Narnia | This poem also helped me to explore “The Problem of Susan.”

Which Education? | A poem … kinda fan fiction … about my own story.

Why Christians Should Write | Some thoughts on the matter.

Gala at Death | A poem about the death of my poems.

What I Want to Say | A poem from college, recently revised.

On the Shore | A poem about the disciples seeing Christ after His resurrection.

Grace Beneath the Line | Creative non-fiction I wrote for my senior capstone in undergrad.

Edmund | A poem about Edmund Pevensie, my favorite character from the Narnia series.

The Colors | Jottings about my favorite colors.

writer girl3

Half-Mast | Speculative fiction set in the distant future. Satire.

Why Write? | Thoughts on why I love writing.

Brought to You by the Letter V | Jottings on letters.

Invitation | A poem I wrote in college about a summer love/fall heartbreak.

Scenery Matters | A brief poem inspired by the accompanying photo.

Tall, Dark, and Handsome | A poem about a boy.

Castle | A short poem about Cair Paravel in ruins.

Knit | A poem about my bestie.

Her Life in Red | Flash fiction.

i ♥ e.e. cummings

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Jackie Lea Sommers

Edward Estlin Cummings is a genius, and he wrote this poem:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)