“Once the whole of the island of Castellamare was plagued by a curse of weeping.”
The House at the Edge of Night by Catherine Banner
“When my husband’s ex-wife came offering me work, I knew she was up to something.”
Pandora’s Boy by Lindsey Davis
“A renegade Tatar with the knife of vengeance hidden in his clothes crept toward the camp of Genghis Khan’s elderly mother, Hoelun.”
The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire, by Jack Weatherford
“In the home of my childhood there was a room we called ‘The Little Bookroom’.”
The Little Bookroom, by Eleanor Farjeon.
“Picture the person you love the most.”
Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
“How times and fortunes do change!”
Mr. Revere and I by Robert Lawson
Good book, though Rabbit Hill is my favourite by him.
“The ole ark’s a moverin’, a moverin’, a moverin’
the ole ark’s a moverin’ along.”
“That ancient spiritual could have been the theme song of the United States in 1957.”
The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou
Yes, also very good, as is his classic Ferdinand. And see: Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - August 2022 edition - #49 by Elendil_s_Heir
Haven’t read the Columbus book, but I enjoyed the other two. There’s also The Tough Winter, a sequel to Rabbit Hill.
“It was the warmest it had been in more than a week, but Bostonians turning on their morning radio broadcast woke up to gale warnings along the coast.”
We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper
Shortly after dawn on June 7, Lt. Horace Henderson of the Sixth Engineer Special Brigade landed on Omaha Beach.
Citizen Soldiers, by Stephen E Ambrose
“By the time he graduated from college, John Smith had forgotten all about the bad fall he took on the ice that January day in 1953.”
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
“Alianor de Retteville lay on her bed and looked at Giles who was her lover.”
The Corner That Held Them, by Sylvia Townsend Warner
“June 12, 1954–The drive from Salina to to Morgen was three hours, and for much of it, Emmett hadn’t said a word.”
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
“The lake was enchanted. There was absolutely no doubt about it.”
Sapkowski, Andrzej. The Lady of the Lake (The Witcher Book 7 / The Witcher Saga Novels Book 5) (p. 1). Orbit. Kindle Edition.
“Call me ‘Doc Joe’.”
Medic! How I Fought World War II with Morphine, Sulfa, and Iodine Swabs, by Robert “Doc Joe” Franklin.
“Ganbold steps out from his ger to greet the day.”
My Battery Is Low and It Is Getting Dark, edited by Crystal Sarakas and Joshua Palmatier. Note: This is an anthology, and the above sentence is from the first story, “Ganbold and the Best Drone in Mongolia”, by Dana Berube.
“If Dad hadn’t shot Walt Disney in the leg, it would have been our best vacation ever!”
Vacation '58, John Hughes (short story, not a book, but it’s such a great opening line that I felt it merited sharing)
I knew that the movie “National Lampoon’s Vacation” was based on a story published in said magazine.
To this day, I had never known that John Hughes wrote it!