There were few places lovelier in Nazi-occupied Europe that May than Normandy in north-west France.
*Normandy '44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France, by James Holland
“At the corner drugstore my neighbors and I can now buy a line of romantic novels written according to a formula developed through market research.”
The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World, by Lewis Hyde
“Abner Marsh rapped the head of his hickory walking stick smartly on the hotel desk to get the clerk’s attention.”
Fevre Dream, by George R. R. Martin
“Until the early nineteenth century few tools existed to detect a toxic substance in a corpse.”
The Poisoner’s Handook by Deborah Blum.
Excellent book. Highly recommended. I’d like to see this as supplemental reading for American history courses.
Seconded, an excellent read.
“There is dust, and then there is dust.”
Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975, by Richard Thompson
Ooo, I missed that he’s done an autobiography. And Beeswing is my favorite of his songs. Perfect.
Yeah, Beeswing is my favorite too. I highly recommend the book. My only complaint is that it ends in 1975.
Let me know what you think.
mmm
Maybe he’ll do a follow-up?
That’s what I thought. But then, he just wrote “Beeswing” in 2021, so I think it’s unlikely.
Hope I’m wrong.
mmm
Yeah, I did notice the publication date. Maybe he felt he said all he had to say.
“As you may know, there is an academic body called the Science Fiction Research Association.”
Benchmarks Revisited: F&SF “Books” Columns 1983-1986, by Algis Budrys. (This sentence comes from the first review, of Bridges to Fantasy, Slusser, Rabkin, and Scholes, eds.)
“An ant and an elephant shared a romantic night together, but the next morning the ant awoke to find the elephant dead.”
A Seal Walks Into a Club - Nick Harris
““Damn”, said the ant. One night of passion and I spend the rest of my life digging a grave!”
“There were no windows in the Brin 2 facility - rotation meant that ‘outside’ was always ‘down,’ underfoot, out of mind.”
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
“Marion Adamopoulos.”
Terminal Alliance: Book One of the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse by Jim C. Hines
Beth Cummings sat upright, lifted suddenly from sleep, and not sure why.
Miracles on the Water, by Tom Nagorski
(She was awakened by the torpedo that hit the ship she was on.)
That’ll do it.
“‘I would like to be on good terms with all animals,’ remarked the woman, to her daughter.”
Grand Union by Zadie Smith (This is a story collection, and this sentence comes from “The Dialectic”.)
“It’s hard to think of a place in Wyoming where the wind doesn’t reign supreme; where the sovereignty of sound doesn’t break through the parks of the Bighorns with a hoarse-throated howl.”
Land of Wolves by Craig Johnson
“Imagine learning to talk from recordings rather than people.”
Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, by Gretchen McCulloch
"Once upon a time on a small, watery, excitable planet called Earth, in a small, watery, excitable country called Italy, a soft-spoken, rather nice-looking gentleman by the name of Enrico Fermi was born into a family so overprotective that he felt compelled to invent the atomic bomb. " Space Opera by Cat Valente (rereading for book club)