“I put the books I was returning on the appropriate desk, and I began looking at the shelves of new arrivals. Most of them were some permutation on self-help. Going by how popular these books were and how often they were checked out, everyone in Bon Temps should have become perfect by now.”

“But in my book, it was basically bad taste to stare at someone's assets, no matter how much on display they were.”

“I am self-educated from genre books.”

“Manfred,” I began, exasperated, “I just don’t know what to do with you.”“I have some very good ideas,” he said. He waggled his eyebrows.He was making it funny, but he was serious. I never doubted that at my slightest response, Manfred would be booking us into the nearest hotel as fast as he could whip out his wallet.”

“As it was, I couldn't escape the feeling that I was out of my element. I found myself thinking of a book I'd left half-read at home and wishing I'd stuck it in my purse so I could pull it out now.”

“Most humans were on one big island, to the fairies, and that island was adrift on a sea called I Totally Don’t Care.”

“I kicked off my sandals, put my ice-tinkling glass on the small table by my current book.”