A Tyranny of Petticoats

I never knew how easy it is to escape if you don't mind leaving nearly everything behind.

I suppose even monsters can be afraid of the dark.

I know I'm supposed to be a good girl. I know I'm supposed to be happy doing needlework samplers and baking potatoes in coal and whatnot. But Lord, I love running from the law.

I think all women should be able to make it on their own,” Frankie said. “It’s not about needing a man or not — it just means she knows she can do whatever she sets out to do.

Up here it seems we have only the stars, but even they seem small in the midst of that terrifying night sky...I suppose even monsters can be afraid of the dark.

Am I wrong about love? Is it founded on mutual respect, on like meeting like, not on heart-pounding, stomach-churning nervousness and petty compliments?

He deserved someone better than me--but no, I told myself, that wasn't quite right. He'd deserved someone different from me. Someone who could love him fully. Didn't we all deserve that? I wanted to believe so.

Dinner was fried chicken, collard greens, and silence.

Only the greedy and stupid attempt the White Pass. They try by the hundreds each week.

I can't speak. There are too many negatives. Too many questions...And all the things these hard times have taken from me. All the things I've had to give up. Except, perhaps, my dreams.

Nobody can go back to how it was. The dust bowl dried us all up bitter as seeds and spat us out all over the land and none of us yet has taken root.

Folks around here call us el destinos. They like to say we came from the stars. And when I stare up at the infinite heavens stretched out above us like a shroud, it's hard to imagine we came from anywhere else.

Folks around here like to say we came from the stars. Perhaps it's simpler to think of us not as human but as creatures made of stardust--that if you cut us, not blood but constellations will pour from out wounds.

Researching Alaska, I loved the blurred line between history and Inuit folklore. This is an old land where the sun permanently sets for months on end, where dogs pull sleds across hundreds of miles of snow and ice, and where colorful sheets of light dance in the sky--the facts already feel magical.

I think you’re right: we’re going to lose the saloon. But we’re going to leave it on our terms.

You were very specific about where they should start digging. Where do you have them coming up?” Her eyes sparkle. “Well, it’s hard to be precise when you’re that far underground.” “But?” “If they dig straight up?” Her lips twitch. “They should surface pretty much in our outhouse.

We’re forever part of Skaguay’s history now. You and me, Lil. We’re going down in legend. The infamous Garrett sisters.

The world grows smaller,' she finally said. 'And small worlds cultivate greed. It is a grievous sin... We are not all like them. I am sorry, child, for your loss, and I am sorry for them, for seeing such a small world.

History wasn't just a collection of dates I memorized from textbooks; it was tactile and ever present