Asian girl, 15-16, with a red stripe in her hair, pink iPod jelly case and “LIVE” bracelet.

Dead Money, Grant McCrea (Vintage Canada)

Page 131:

I was game for a challenge. I knew it was foolish. Poker isn’t like highjumping, or tennis. You don’t draw on extra resources of energy and suddenly transcend your opponent’s performance. There’s too much luck involved.

Each night after dinner, she sits in the dip of the bed, watches as her older sister changes into a black turtleneck and, illuminated by a make up mirror, runs liquid liner against the edge of her lashes while the hair iron heats. She palms her sister’s practice deck, cuts it down the middle and flutters the cards into a near perfect shuffle. Her sister turns in her chair.

“Easy now. You’ll put me out of a job.”

Caucasian woman, 40s, with long blonde hair tucked behind her ears, wearing black, head to toe. She tugs at the bottom of her shirt while, behind her, relaxed after her own reading, A.L. Kennedy listens.

Long Story Short, Elyse Friedman (House of Anansi Press)

Page 159:

He glanced at the menu about the counter. “I’m too cheap to pay more than a buck for a cup of coffee. Besides, I’m already buzzing. Just had two cups with another prospective partner at the doughnut shop around the corner.”

“Oh.” She frowned. “How did it go?”

The woman beside me laughs throughout the reading, her fingers resting in the palm of her other hand as if waiting for just the right moment to clap in appreciation. She, too, has been on blind dates, ready to leave within the first five minutes then rocking in the back seat of a cab that directs her away from the stillness of her own bed.

Caucasian woman, mid 20s, with long brown hair tucked into a knitted cap. She leans against the window, breaking into frequent smiles. Is it the text or that certain thing she can’t get off her mind?

The City of Words, Alberto Manguel (House of Anansi Press)

About page 126:

Not only through censorship of whole languages do totalitarian governments enforce restrictions on thought: by using certain words in specific contexts and by making up words to denote assumed rights and privileges, the impression can be created that what is being said in this new vocabulary is intrinsically true simply because words exist to say it: the words democracy, freedom of speech, equality, liberal are all good examples.

When she was 10, she sat with her best friend, cross-legged inside the mid noon glow of a blue pup tent, placing the first syllable at the end of each word, an “ay” tacked to the beginning, encoding a long list of all the boys they’d let kiss them on the mouths.

Caucasian woman, early 30s, with blonde hair. Wearing a tan suede jacket with black sandals and painted toenails, a metal thermos shade of aluminum red.

Exit Music, Ian Rankin (McArthur & Company)

Page 362:

And she’d allowed herself a smile. If there was any dancing to be done, she’d be doing the leading.

It was in the moment that she reasoned she couldn’t take rhumba lessons–because he’d said it would be fine–without wondering if she’d fall for her partner that she knew it was over.

Caucasian male, early 40s, purposefully fit in fitted tee in unseasonably warm weather, his biceps effortlessly strained against the pole, freckled and tanned by a late autumn, high noon bike ride along the DVP.

LISTEN: Twilight Of The Superheroes, Deborah Eisenberg (Picador)

Page 26:

For months afterward, Madison kept everyone awake late into the night repudiating all his former beliefs, his beautiful blue eyes whirling around and his hair standing on end as if he’d stuck his head into a socket.

It’s always a bit of a stretch, to get out this early. But the pavement is so smooth; he blasts by roller bladers, Tai Chi back walkers, and Riverdale dog owners. Yes, today, he could just keep riding. Miles upon miles upon kilometres, whatever he’s supposed to be clocking. It’s all the same. Just one more rotation away from the funeral of his dead lover.