“Blast! You scared it away!”
Dashing Through the Snowbirds, by Donna Andrews
“My death won’t bring out the banner headlines.”
Vectors by Charles Sheffield (a collection of stories – the quote is from the first story “What Song the Sirens Sang”)
“At ten o’clock in the morning on the last day of 1941, fifty-six-year-old Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, wearing the dress white uniform that Navy officers still call a ‘choker,’ stepped forward on the small deck of the American submarine Grayling, tied up to a wharf at the submarine base on Southeast Loch in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and prepared to read his orders aloud.”
Nimitz at War, by Craig L. Symonds, an excellent biography.
“This is not a work of scholarship.”
Reflections on the Psalms, by C. S. Lewis
“One time between a breakup and a shackup, I went home for a visit.”
A Calm & Normal Heart, by Chelsea T. Hicks (Note that this is a story collection, and the above quote is from the first, “Tsexope”.)
“Enlightenment came to Patera Silk on the ball court; nothing could ever be the same after that.”
Nightside the Long Sun, by Gene Wolfe (not my first time)
“We’ll begin our journey into English’s past with the set of words which name what the Georgian moderniser of Chaucer’s “Miller’s Tale” called the particulars distinguishing male and female anatomy.”
Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women’s Words, by Jenni Nuttall.
“In the late 1950s, the Royal Canadian Air Force produced a booklet on isometrics, a form of exercise that enjoyed a short but devoted vogue with my father.”
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, by Bill Bryson
Oh man, that’s a good book. 
Yes, I’m excited to be reading it. I think this is my 4th Bryson, I’m a fan.
mmm
“Midnight in Golden Gate Park was mostly quiet, just the distant sounds of city traffic and my grunts of exertion as I dragged the yeti corpse to my Jeep.”
Ebony Gate, by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle
“O Mighty Caliph and Commander of the Faithful, I am humbled to be in the splendor of your presence; a man can hope for no greater blessing as long as he lives.”
Nebula Awards Showcase 2009: The Year’s Best SF and Fantasy Selected by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, edited by Ellen Datlow (Note that the above sentence is from the first story, ““The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate”, by Ted Chiang.”)
“My name is R. It’s not much of a name, but someone I love gave it to me.”
The Burning World by Isaac Marion
“I love a painting that hangs in the National Gallery in London.”
Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life & Sudden Death, by Laura Cumming. (The painting is A View of Delft, with a Musical Instrument Seller’s Stall, by Carel Fabritius.)
“It was the man from Records who began it, him all unknowing in his prim, grim way, his above-it-all, oldthink way.”
Julia, by Sandra Newman
Did you get an advance copy? Amazon says this book has a release date of July 9, 2024.
Once upon a time in what would one day come to be known as the month of August, many, many years ago, in a place that would one day be known as Manitoba, a herd of mammoths came over the low hills to the south and into a gentle green valley rich with the scent of water.
Mammoth by John Varley
I’ve been re-reading a lot of science fiction lately.
“In April, millions of tiny flowers spread over the blackjack hills and vast prairie in the Osage territory of Oklahoma.”
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
No. It was on the local public library’s new books shelf.
Back to first sentences:
“Starr Lewis hated to return home a failure, but at least she had the cover of the holiday season to hide her embarrassment.”
You Make It Feel Like Christmas, by Toni Shiloh
Huh. I didn’t think it was out yet. I’ll have to find a copy.