“Portia always knew that there was going to be something special about her life.”
Portia: The Life of Portia Washington Pittman, the Daughter of Booker T. Washington, by Ruth Ann Stewart
“It was the devil’s hour on Aventum Angelorum, Goetia’s own high holy da y, and there was a black wind blowing off Tabor’s mine.”
Tread of Angels, by Rebecca Roanhorse
“It’s Job Offer Day at EvilCorp.” The World We Make by N. K. Jemisin
“When John and Caroline Proctor paid the princely sum of $2,600 in 1850 to have the Greek Revival-style house my family and I now live in built, they made sure the architect included a front porch–not a large affair, one just big enough for wo rocking chairs and a small table.”
A Walk Around the Block: Stoplight Secrets, Mischievous Squirrels, Manhole Mysteries & Other Stuff You See Every Day (And Know Nothing About), by Spike Carlsen
“He stood on the edge of a dark expanse.”
– There are Still Unknown Places, by Ron Morris
“The muted thunder of wagon wheels wakes me from shallow sleep.”
Boys in the Valley, Philip Fracassi
“I shall begin with the hanging of Leon Mendelssohn.”
When the Sparrow Falls, by Neil Sharpson
“Once upon a time there was a man who built two enormous machines, and he loved them very much.” Metal Like Blood in the Dark, by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon). Her “Red Wombat” website has been changed. It’s completely an author’s website now. That includes links to short stories that are online. I’m still reading this one.
Hey, so am I!
Well, I am now…
An hour after dawn on Christmas morning in 1941, a lone PB2Y-2 Coronado flying boat circled slowly over the fleet anchorage at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, at the end of a seventeen-hour flight from San Diego.
The Battle of Midway, by Craig L Symonds
My father survived the horrors of the First World War, where he served in the Royal Garrison Artillery, and returned home from France in 1919, which was very fortunate for me because I was born in 1920.
Once a Hussar: A Memoir of Battle, Capture, and Escape in World War II, by Ray Ellis
Several good stories there. The Narnia one was killer.
“A hundred years ago, Biloxi was a bustling resort and fishing community on the Gulf Coast.”
The Boys From Biloxi by John Grisham
“It was an unmarked car, just some nondescript American sedan a few years old, but the blackwall tires and the three men inside gave it away for what it was.”
– The Outsider, by Stephen King
“I’m looking at myself in the bathroom mirror and thinking about love, because I plan on falling in love this summer.”
Looking Glass Sound, by Catriona Ward
“The U.S. Space and Rocket Center announces itself from miles away, with a needle against the sky that orients, at a glance, anyone in Huntsville, Alabama: if you can see the Saturn V, you can place where you are.”
Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings by Earl Swift
“In 2006, a U. S. Census worker named Elizabeth Martin devised an experiment.”
The Deadline Effect: Inside Elite Organizations That Have Mastered the Ticking Clock, by Christopher Cox
“Dawn broke that day on a new epoch, one that would carry the name of a man whose ideas and ideals would extend well into the next century.”
Wilson , by A. Scott Berg
“A gentleman friend and I were dining at the Ritz last evening and he said that if I took a pencil and a paper and put down all of my thoughts it would make a book.”
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, by Anita Loos.
“We see that bucket list of yours (dog-eared with time and filled with faraway places) and we raise you: one alternative travel list.”
Go Here Instead: The Alternative Travel List, edited by Rada Radojicic et al.
“So you’re off to QualityLand for the first time ever. Are you excited? Yes? And quite rightly so!”
QualityLand by Marc-Uwe Kling