“‘Jamie Gray!’ Rob Sanders popped his head out of his office door and waved at me, grinning."
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
“Wow, folks.”
WhoDunit, edited by Dina A. Leacock. (Note that this an anthology, so the above sentence is from the initial story, “The Case of the Bath Blogger”, by Philip K. Booker.
“Before we kick off this journey of self-discovery, I think it’s only fair that I quickly prove my working-class credentials.”
A Class Act: Life as a Working-Class Man in a Middle-Class World, by Rob Beckett.
“Now all my life forces my flight through the streets of Lowell, and I run from alley to commons to alley like a rat pursued through a maze.”
The Memory of Whiteness, by Kim Stanley Robinson
“I am Chares of Lindos, who built the Colossus of Rhodes.”
The Bronze God of Rhodes by L. Sprague de Camp.
“Death watched the city sleep.”
Dave Turner, How to Be Dead.
“The Inland Sea of Japan was still veiled in darkness when the anchorage at Hashirajima began to awaken.”
Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony P. Tully
“I sat on the couch, lit a cigarette, and waited for T to come in from the back room with my eightball of cocaine.”
Bird Brother: A Falconer’s Journey and the Healing Power of Wildlife, by Rodney Stotts with Kate Pipkin
“At three-thirty A.M. on the night of June 5, 1992, the top telepath in the Sol System fell off the map in the offices of Runciter Associates in New York City.”
Ubik by Philip K. Dick
“Roger Waters only deigned to speak to me after we’d spent the best part of six months studying at college together.”
Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, by Nick Mason
“Even severed as it was from the rest of the body, the hand was majestic.”
Destiny of the Republic - A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
It was a dark and stormy night.
And no, it is not Bulwer-Lytton.
Madeleine L’Engle?
Obviously Snoopy.
“Ballard and Jenkins rolled up on the house on El Centro shortly before midnight.”
The Late Show by Michael Connelly.
Yes, indeed. 
I should have known you’d get it.
I’ve read that one but not Bulwer-Lytton
I don’t think anyone modern has read Bulwer-Lytton. From what I recall reading about him, though, he was a singularly bad writer.
Hecwas hugely popular though - people had conventions to celebrate his works
Could just be a matter of what I’m accustomed to. They did tend to be long-winded back then, and all my writing training has been of the “keep it short” variety.