“The snow started two days before.”
Ten Little Fen: A Spade/Paladin Conundrum, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“Jack Holloway found himself squinting, the orange sun full in his eyes.”
Little Fuzzy, by H. Beam Piper
“It was only a duckpond, out at the back of the farm.”
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
“Hi, my name is Mandy,” the waitress said, leaning over and crossing her arms for a cleavage flash.
Beyond the Ranges - John Ringo with James Aidee.
A planned series which I will not be reading. It’s utter tripe. I made it 60 pages before I deleted it from my phone and Kindle. Thank Og a tree didn’t die for me to have read such garbage.
First sentence from “author’s note”:
“A conversation about earthquakes made me decide it is time I tell the truth.”
First sentence:
“I got my driver’s license on February 11th, 1999.”
Lost Man’s Lane, by Scott Carson
“If you ask me why I love my job as a scientist, I can’t help but think of the first scene in The Princess Bride.”
Great Adaptations: Star-Nosed Moles, Electric Eels & Other Tales of Evolution’s Mysteries Solved, by Kenneth Catania"
“Many years ago, toward the end of an arduous walking tour of the French Pyrenees, my brother and I stumbled across an engineering feet that had helped change the course of human history and shape the modern world.”
The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization, by Roland Ennos.
“You see, I had this space suit. How it happened was this way.”
Have Space Suit - Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein
“Self-evident truths are especially alluring because, by definition, no one needs to explain why they are true.”
American Dialogue by Joseph Ellis
“My father – my famous father – died in 2023 at the age of ninety.”
You Like It Darker, Stephen King
From the first story, Two Talented Bastids.
“April 24, 1990, found us right back where we had been fourteen days earlier: suited up, strapped in, and ready to go, with the countdown clock stopped at T-31 seconds.”
Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut’s Story of Invention, by Kathryn D. Sullivan.
Theo Hossbach lay on a cot in a military hospital in Cambrai.
West and East, second book in the ‘The War that Came Early’ series by Harry Turtledove.
‘Tipsified Pumgirdles Germany Novel’ was the wording of the telegram which had Mr Webb reaching for his codebook on 5 August 1914.
World War I: The African Front, by Edward Paice
“Hello. We’re Round Peg/Round Hole Recruitment.”
Halting State, by Charles Stross
“When Sean Devine and Jimmy Marcus were kids, their fathers worked together at the Coleman Candy plant and carried the stench of warm chocolate back home with them.”
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
“A fuse had blown in Swindon, so the south-west network ground to a halt.”
Dead Lions, Mick Herron
“If you ask six different monks the question of which godly domain robot consciousness belongs to, you’ll get seven different answers.”
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
“To be human is to be a survivor.”
Eager by Ben Goldfarb
“Come to bed, Mouse. I know how to cheer you up,” he says.
Annie Bot, by Sierra Greer
“A cool spring breeze swept over the Camden and Philadelphia Steamboat ferry as it chugged its way across the Delaware River toward the city of Philadelphia.”
The Thousand Dollar Dinner: America’s First Great Cookery Challenge, by Becky Libourel Diamond
“The hustle has always been with me.”
Wolf Hustle: A Black Woman on Wall Street, by Cin Fabre’
“I buried Ramon today, after losing him last week to his Tantalus 3 addiction.”
Broadway Revival, by Laura Frankos
“Who are the humans?” Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
“Barefoot, I’ve walked this path by night for nearly twenty years, most of my life it seems, the earth pressing up against the arch of my foot.”
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, by Robin Wall Kimmerer.