Peace Talks (The Dresden Files, #16)

by Jim Butcher

The sound was less like noise than it was like being thrown into an enormous vat of petroleum jelly.

Home is where you embrace the present and plan the future. It’s where the books are.

I didn’t recognize the composer of the little chamber orchestral piece, but that mostly meant that it wasn’t Vivaldi.

“And yet, if you see little hope, then a little must be there. Perhaps a little hope is a good place to begin.

When someone has ahold of you, there’s a basic rule of thumb to follow, which Murphy had taught me a while back. I called it the Rule of Thumb. The idea is to twist whatever part they’ve got hold of toward their thumb in a circling motion. The basic principle is that it’s easier to overcome the power of one thumb than it is four fingers supported by the thumb.

I opened an eye and gave him an annoyed look that was, by necessity, at only half strength. It didn’t seem to damage him.