“Our meeting was not contrived.”
– Agent Running in the Field, by John Le Carre
“Art is universal.”
The Arts by Hendrik Willem Van Loon
Almost two years before the Arduino funerals in Turin, at 5.15 on Saturday 24 July 1943, a hot, still, sultry Roman afternoon, the Fascist Grand Council gathered in the Sala del Pappagallo in the Piazza Venetia.
A House in the Mountains: The Women Who Liberated Italy from Fascism, by Caroline Moorehead
“‘Linnet Ridgeway!’
‘That’s her!’ said Mr. Burnaby, the landlord of the Three Crowns. He nudged his companion.”
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
"Stephen Grover Cleveland was born on March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey, the son of Richard F. Cleveland, a Presbyterian pastor, and Ann Neal Cleveland, the daughter of a Baltimore law book publisher.”
The Forgotten Conservative – Rediscovering Grover Cleveland , by John M. Pafford
When he lies down to sleep, this landscape is always on his mind: A pine forest covers the hills, as thick as the fur on a bear’s back.
The Hammer of Eden, by Ken Follett
“My friend Patsy was telling me a story.”
When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris
“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.”
– The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“The dinosaur looked more like a squashed chicken than like the fanged killers of the American movies.”
Living Memory by David Walton
Chatham is a bump in the road in the southern part of Virginia: a small, picturesque town of just over a thousand people, with well-tended Victorians and a downtown known for its handsome redbrick Greek Revival courthouse.
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II, by Liza Mundy
Looming is an old sea term – it describes the result of peculiar atmospheric conditions that occur rarely, but most often at sea, in which ships far beyond the furthest horizon may be clearly seen long before they are within visual range.
Danger’s Hour: The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her, by Maxwell Taylor Kennedy
Dawn was beginning to soften the edge of the night as the Buick convertible cruised through the Essex countryside.
Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson
“To my mind, the problem with asparagus is the planting instructions, which begin “Dig a trench.”
How Carrots Won the Trojan War: Curious but True Stories of Common Vegetables by Rebecca Rupp
“My name is Dovey Coe and I reckon it don’t matter if you like me or not.”
Dovey Coe by Frances O’Roark Dowell
“The bells seemed louder than usual this evening.”
The Kew Garden Girls by Posy Lovell
"A few days after Truman’s swearing-in, Eben Ayers, a former newspaperman who’d come to work in the White House press office just before Roosevelt’s death, told his diary, “Confusion and uncertainty prevail.'”
The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of an Ordinary Man, 1945-1953 by Jeffrey Frank
The flight deck of USS Enterprise (CV-6) echoed with the command over the loudspeaker from the bridge: “Pilots! Man your planes!”
I Will Run Wild: The Pacific War from Pearl Harbor to Midway, by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
One of the world’s most beautiful countries, Japan is so crowded she has developed both a unity of social grace and a national impulse of exceeding kindness to strangers.
Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness, by Craig Nelson
“So, then, I have to go downtown to the University and forage for dollars again.”
Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg
It was the most romantic plane ever made.
Night Over Water, by Ken Follett
“Is it a hanging?” an eager newspaper delivery boy asked no one in particular.
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
A most excellent read by Follett. You will enjoy this one.