“The reflections contained herein stem from a deep investment in the American landscape.”
Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land, by N. Scott Momaday
“Right now I’m supposed to be all geeked up because I’m getting ready for a New Year’s Even party that some guy named Lionel invited me to.”
Waiting to Exhale, by Terry McMillan
“The Mississippi is well worth reading about. It is not a commonplace river, but on the contrary is in all ways remarkable.”
Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
“The men called it the Boat Place.”
Dinner on Mars: The Technologies That Will Feed the Red Planet and Transform Agriculture on Earth, by Lenore Newman and Evan D. G. Fraser
“The house stood a little apart from the rest of the block, as if it did not quite fit in.”
Not Quite a Ghost, by Anne Ursu.
“They call him the Prince of Silence and you are in his woods.”
The Secret Life of Hidden Places: Concealed Rooms, Clandestine Passageways, and the Curious Minds That Made Them, by Stefan Bachmann and April Genevieve Tucholke
“Morwenna’s face floated in the single beam of light, lovely and framed in hair dark as my cloak; blood from her neck pattered to the stones.”
The Claw of the Conciliator, by Gene Wolfe.
“I was driving alone, on a moonless night, along the rim of the vast desert known as the Empty Quarter.”
Baghdad Without a Map by Tony Horwitz
“Call me Jonah.”
Cat’s Cradle, Vonnegut. Haven’t read it in a long time. Very progressive for it’s time. But still some questionable bits.
“Wise guests wake early at the Royal Karnak Palace Hotel.”
Havoc, by Christopher Bollen
“This is how I imagine it: Nightfall, early autumn, fog creeping in from the coast, a gibbous moon.”
The Northwomen: Untold Stories From the Other Half of the Viking World, by Heather Pringle
“I watched the playground on the other side of the high, chain-link fence, trying to figure out which of the elementary school children had the gun.”
The Night Dahlia, by R. S. Belcher
“The bearded man in the entryway softly closes the door behind him.”
O Captain, My Captain by Robert Burleigh, illustr. by Sterling Hundley
“Jeff Winston was on the phone with his wife when he died.”
Replay by Ken Grimwood. Heard about it in this thread. Good so far.
In 1999, two of the world’s leading executive headhunters teamed up to write Lessons from the Top: The Search for America’s Best Business Leaders.
Why They Do It: Inside the Mind of the White-Collar Criminal by Eugene Soltes
Lucas Priest, Sergeant Major, United States Army Temporal Corps, was trying to figure out how to stop a charging bull elephant with nothing but a Roman short sword.
The Ivanhoe Gambit by Simon Hawke
That’s a fun little series.
“After writing Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics, we started to hear from readers with all sorts of questions.”
Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
“Mirabelle was in the garden feeding bones to the flowers when Uncle Enoch came for her.”
The Monsters of Rookhaven, a fantasy by Padraig Kenny
“They say that everything that could possibly be invented has already been invented.”
Weird Inventions: Bizarre Gadgets You Can’t Live Without, by Edward Hopper, et al
“Your Excellency: A circumstance has come to the attention of this Ministry, the significance of which I am at a loss to define, but, since it appears to involve matters of State, both here and abroad, I am convinced that it is of sufficient importance to be brought to your personal attention.”
Paratime, by H. Beam Piper (Note that this is a story collection, and the above sentence is from “He Walked Around the Horses”.)
“This is the book of the true practice of Magical Wisdom, passed to me - Abraham, son of Simon, son of Judah, son of Simon - by oral tradition.”
The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, attributed to Abraham von Worms, translated by Georg Dehn and Steven Guth
That is one of the best sf short stories evah! Especially the very last line. Piper nailed it.
That is one of my top ten favorite short stories. It’s told in the form of a series of letters back and forth between government officials. The signature of the last letter, which is the last two words of the story, is absolutely priceless for the irony.
Agreed! There are a few SF/F stories that are enduring gems for me, and that’s one of them.
Yeah, the first time I read it, I was young enough not to recognize the name immediately, but I could tell it was significant, so I made a quick trip to the encyclopedia (DendariiDame is reading my copy, btw)
“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.”