“He was a spoiled brat, Joseph, the eleventh brother.”
Sold Into Egypt: Joseph’s Journey Into Human Being, by Madeleine L’Engle
It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times.
“Night. District Three of the Ho Chi Minh Autonomous Trade Zone. The plastic awning of the cafe streamed with rain.”
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
“At first glance, the tunnel painted on the side of the cliff looked realistic.”
Noir, edited by David B. Coe and John Zakour. (It’s a story collection. The above sentence is from “I Am the Ink” by Hal Bodner.
“This book posed a particular challenge for me.”
Inspired: Understanding Creativity–A Journey Through Art, Science, and the Soul, by Matt Richtel
“This is Ares Launch Control, Jacqueline B. Kennedy Space Center.”
Voyage, by Stephen Baxter
“This is the story of a man who went far away for a long time, just to play a game.”
The Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks
“Bosch had the pills lined up on the table ready to go.”
Desert Star by Michael Connelly
“One Saturday in 2000, some unsuspecting moviegoers showed up at a suburban theater in Chicago to catch a 1:05 p.m. matinee of Mel Gibson’s action flick Payback.”
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.
“I was leaning against the bar in a speakeasy on Fifty-second Street, waiting for Nora to finish her Christmas shopping, when a girl got up from the table where she had been sitting with three other people and came over to me.”
– The Thin Man, by Dashiell Hammett
“There was something about the coast town of Dunnet which made it seem more attractive than other maritime villages of eastern Maine.”
The Country of the Pointed First and Other Stories by Sarah Orne Jewett
“Since it was the deciding factor, I might as well begin by describing it.”
The Doorbell Rang, by Rex Stout
“This is a book by a grown-ass woman written for other grown-ass women.”
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper
“The rattlesnake was the final straw.”
Muslims of the Heartland: How Syrian Immigrants Made a Home in the American Midwest, by Edward E. Curtis IV.
“Through my binoculars, I could see this nice forty-something-foot cabin cruiser anchored a few hundred yards offshore.”
Plum Island by Nelson DeMille
“Back in 1961, when women wore shirtwaist dresses and joined garden clubs and drove legions of children around in seatbeltless cars without giving it a second thought; back before anyone knew there’d even be a sixties movement, much less one that its participants would spend the next sixty years chronicling; back when the big wars were over and the secret wars had just begun and people were starting to think fresh and believe everything was possible, the thirty-year-old mother of Madeline Zott rose before dawn every morning and felt certain of just one thing: her life was over.”
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
“The Japanese Carrier Task Force charged with the destruction of the United States Pacific Fleet began launching aircraft approximately 305 nautical miles north of Pearl Harbor.”
Counterattack - W.E.B.Griffin
“Dear Cami,
We couldn’t breathe the air.”
Clean Air by Sarah Blake
“Identities form specifically.”
Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent, by Dipo Faloyin
“Enter Eteocles.”
“The Seven Against Thebes” by Aeschylus