Tender young meats, deliciously grilled; bright-coloured vegetables, fresh, plump, and succulent with their own juices; salads crisp yet suave, aromatic with herbs; nutlike breads made from freshly ground whole-grain flours - what cook does not aspire to serve such meals?
-The Gayelord Hauser Cookbook (1946)
“For the first time in years, the sun broke through the darkness.”
The Rise and Reign of the Mammals
Steve Brusatte June 7, 2022
“I’ll take Batman.”
Last Night, A Superhero Saved My Life: An All-Star Roster on the Caped Crusaders That Changed Their Lives, edited by Leisa Mignogna. (The sentence is from “Me and Batman and You”, by Austin Grossman.)
“On the day the Peregrine-woman made her announcement, all of Eleutheria burst into a delighted uproar.”
Fortune’s Fantasy: 13 Excursions Into the Unexpected, by Ken Altabef (The sentence is from “Castles in the Air”.)
“Omar Ballard’s mother was a black prostitute and drug addict who worked the mean streets of Newark, New Jersey.”
Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey
“Samuel Spade put his telephone aside and looked at his watch.”
A Man Called Spade by Dashiell Hammett (A collection of three short stories he wrote about that character. This sentence is from the title story.)
“According to ancient folklore, the guinea fowl is the only wild bird of West Africa that cannot be held in captivity.”
The Return of the Guinea Fowl: An Autobiographical Novel of a Liberian Doctor, by Henry Nehemiah Cooper, M.D., with Izetta Roberts Cooper, Dawn Cooper Barnes, Ph.D., and Kyra E. Hicks
“This may look like a moviegram of Brownian Movement but no such luck: it is Russett Interplanetary College of Humanities Opening Day, four thousand three hundred twenty-seven other freshers milling around and me in the middle with a little ticket on my chest that says Lee, L., because my given name is not something to mention; they say these kids come from 424 planets just to study at Russett but personally of all points in the known continuum this is the one I would rather be any place But.”
Unwillingly to Earth, by Pauline Ashwell
“She liked waiting for the wave more than riding the wave.”
– The Waiting, by Michael Connelly
It is important when killing a nun to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size.
Red Sister, by Mark Lawrence
“It was about ten o’clock on a Friday in mid-July, the Los Angeles night warm and dry, the only wind rising from the whoosh and zoom of traffic on Rossmore.”
Follow Her Home by Steph Cha
“The eleventh apartment had only one closet, but it did have a sliding glass door that opened onto a small balcony, from which he could see a man sitting across the way, outdoors in only a T-shirt and shorts even though it was October, smoking.”
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
“Each man in the squadron carried, along with a sea chest, his own burdensome story. Perhaps it was of a scorned love, or a secret prison conviction, or a pregnant wife left on shore weeping.”
The Wager by David Grann
“Macbeth was the reason I went into the theatre. I saw my brother Peter play King Duncan in a school production. He had to say ‘What bloody man is that?’ and I thought: My God – swearing! If this is Shakespeare this is for me.”
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea
“In an office on the bright sharp edge of New York, glass tower, Alexandra Broden was listening to a telephone conversation. The recording lasted no longer than ten seconds, but she listened to it five or six times before she took off her headphones.”
The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel
“We make a lot of mistakes, and often we take the wrong path.”
Serendipity: A History of Accidental Culinary Discoveries, by Oscar Farinetti, translated by Barbara McGilvray.
“Glory Broussard was tired of waiting.”
Glory Be by Danielle Arceaneaux
“You frighten me,” the gypsy said.
A Red Herring Without Mustard, the third Flavia de Luce mystery, by Alan Bradley
“About half way between Little Misfit and High Rising the pleasant village of Hatch End, close under the steep downland, straggles along one side of the river Rising, separated from it by the road and the water meadows.”
Peace Breaks Out, by Angela Thirkell
“I was friends with Mike Nichols for fifteen years before Bill Haber asked me who I wanted to direct Spamalot.”
The Spamalot Diaries by Eric Idle
“I turn I turn I turn before I lie to sleep and I rise before the Sun.”
The Eyes & the Impossible, by Dave Eggers
“Cardinal Lomeli left his apartment in the Palace of the Holy Office shortly before two in the morning and hurried through the darkened cloisters of the Vatican towards the bedroom of the Pope.”
Conclave by Robert Harris
The Maffetone Method by Dr. Philip Maffetone. “The Maffetone Method is a cycle of health and renewal: Assess yourself, set goals, then select plans to reduce stress, build your aerobic base, and improve your diet.”
“My plan was this: I wanted to go work at a gallery, the snootier and more influential the better.”
Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See, by Bianca Bosker
“The young woman labors in a chamber above the gatehouse of Monmouth Castle, a squat stronghold at the confluence of two rivers in the lush, green borderlands between England and Wales.”
– Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England’s Greatest Warrior King, by Dan Jones
“There was a house made of dawn.”
House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday
“I arrived at Canterbury Shaker Village, about twelve miles north of Concord, New Hampshire, in late afternoon at the end of May `972, with Mom and Grandma in the old blue station wagon.”
Simple Gifts: A Memoir of a Shaker Village by Jane Sprigg
“Major Picquart to see the Minister of War…”
An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris