I, too, prefer to use the more interesting of the two.
“Peaches, Michael Rosario thought.”
The First State of Being, by Erin Entrada Kelly
“I was supposed to be looking for T. Rex.”
When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution’s Greatest Romance, by Riley Black
Nezam stacked a few bricks and squirted lighter fluid on some wood chips.
Operation Pineapple Express: The Incredible Story of a Group of Americans Who Undertook One Last Mission and Honored a Promise in Afghanistan, by Lt Col Scott Mann (Ret.)
“It was the start of a very important year - 1776 - and James Cook had become a very important figure, a celebrity, a champion, a hero.”
The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides
“They’re at it again.”
Between a Flock and a Hard Place, by Donna Andrews
“Dorothy Parker didn’t like films.”
Dorothy Parker in Hollywood, by Gail Crowther
“I’m going to tell you about a year. This year. 1978. A lot of shit is happening and I think somebody had better write it down before we all forget.”
The Lesser Dead, by Christopher Buehlman
(yes, well, they were short sentences)
“To be the skipper of the only boat on the Moon was a distinction that Pat Harris enjoyed.”
A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke
“Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D., paced back and forth in her drab Lower West Side apartment, stopping occasionally to glance through her parlor window at the blizzard swirling outside.”
The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women’s Lives Forever, by Lydia Reeder.
“The golden gates of Anadawn Palace glittered in the setting sun. each spike as sharp as a dagger.”
Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber
“It’s another Iraqi town, nameless to the Marines racing down the main drag in Humvees, blowing it to pieces.”
Generation Kill, Evan Wright
“Helen Gibson stood on the roof of the train depot and felt the rumbling in her bones.”
Daughter of Daring: The Trick-Riding, Train-Leaping, Road-Racing Life of Helen Gibson, Hollywood’s First Stuntwoman, by Mallory O’Meara
“She reached for her mother’s hand, excited and just a little bit afraid.”
Gilt, by Jamie Brenner.
The secret war started long before the shooting did.
The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas 1939-1945 , by Max Hastings
“Alexander Calder was an alchemist, transmuting simple industrial metals into exquisite constructions.”
CalderScuplture, by Alexander S. C. Rower
“It was in my hair, Severian,” Dorcas said.
The Sword of the Lictor, by Gene Wolfe
“The first essential value of the detective story lies in this, that it is the earliest and only form of popular literature in which is expressed some sense of the poetry of modern life.”
Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards. (Note that this is an anthology, and the above quote is from the first essay, “The Value of Detective Fiction” by G. K. Chesterton.)
“This is how I always start: ‘I am the prosecutor. I represent the state. I am here to present to you the evidence of a crime.’”
Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow
“Isabella hears the unmistakable vibration of a rattlesnake tail, freezing her in a cold chill.”
The Texas Murders by James Patterson
“There was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid.”
The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Became Real, by Margery Williams
“Blue is one of nature’s rarest colors.”
Indigo: In Search of the Color That Seduced the World, by Catherine E. McKinley
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
An Easter Sourcebook: The Fifty Days (Gabe Huck et al, editors. Note that this is an anthology of works relating to Easter and Pentecost.)
“Basit Deniau’s greatest architectural triumph is the house he died in.”
Rose/House, by Arkady Martine
“The walls of the estate emerged from the morning fog before me, long and dark and rounded like the skin of some beached sea creature.”
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
“When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.”
Circe by Madeline Miller
“We should start back,” Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them.
Song of Ice and Fire George R R Martin
Brussels
July 1636
Every morning, César, duc de Vendôme, attended to his personal toilet.
1637: The French Correction, by Eric Flint and Walter H Hunt
Japanese-Occupied Manila, Philippines, January 1, 1943
The woman they called Madame Tsubaki sashayed onto the nightclub floor after dark in a spotlight that cast her exotic silhouette against creamy drapes.
MacArthur’s Spies: The Soldier, the Singer, and the Spymaster Who Defied the Japanese in World War II, by Peter Eisner
“When I turned back to the house, my father called after me and asked me did I figure that I was finished.”
April Morning by Howard Fast
“At the earliest edges of my memory, my father is plowing, and I am running behind him.”
Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting, by Michael Perry.