“The images were grainy and blurred. But they told a story.”
Open Season by Jonathan Kellerman
“Welcome curious explorer!”
Ripley’s Believe It or Not!: Dare to Discover, edited by Jordie R. Orlando
“Robots were chasing him.”
A Talent for the Invisible by Ron Goulart
“Deputy White House Chief of Staff Alexander Lipsyte walked through the doorway and into the Oval Office and was surprised that the President was not at his desk. ‘Where’s the boss?’ he asked.”
The President’s Brain is Missing by John Scalzi
“Rotating about the earth in their spacecraft they are so together, and so alone, that even their thoughts, their internal mythologies at times, convene.”
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
“The wind came whooping out of eastern darkness, driving a lash of ammonia dust before it.”
Call Me Joe, by Poul Anderson
“Josiah Horatio Titweiler arrived at Wichita Station in Open Range wearing a mask.”
Gunfight on Europa Station, edited by David Boop. (Note that the above is from the first story in the anthology, “Greenhorn”, by Elizabeth Moon.)
Otto Skorzeny was feeling rather pleased with himself as he stood before Adolf Hitler in Berlin on 21 October 1944.
Hitler’s Winter: The German Battle of the Bulge, by Anthony Tucker-Jones
“Bob Barnes says they got a dead body on BLM land.”
The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson
“What many historians call ‘modern times’ began in 1763, when Great Britain forced the French coalition to accept a humiliating peace at Paric, thus ending the Seven Years’ War and initiating the Pax Britannica.”
For Want of a Nail: If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga, by Robert Sobel
Every evening, Sergeant Major Gustav Rothenberger carried out an inspection of the castle perimeter, checking that the sentries were alert at their posts and hoping to catch one napping.
Prisoners of the Castle, by Ben Macintyre
“Children of the Doors know about being mislaid.”
Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, by Seanan McGuire
“I was twelve the first time I saw my dead father cross from the kitchen doorway to the hall that led back to the utility room.”
Mapping the Interior, by Stephen Graham Jones
On the night of March 11, 1942, Douglas MacArthur was preparing to flee the island of Corregidor, headquarters of the Allied forces in the Philippines.
The Ghost Mountain Boys, by James Campbell
"Before she became the Girl from Nowhere - the One Who Walked In, the First and Last and Only, who lived a thousand years - she was just a little girl in Iowa, named Amy. Amy Harper Bellafonte.”
The Passage by Justin Cronin
“It must be that all children are actors.”
Adventures for Readers (Book One), edited by Fannie Safie. (This is an anthology textbook, and the sentence is from the first story, “Stolen Day” by Sherwood Anderson.)
“Making history rarely feels like it in the moment.”
Becoming Spectacular: The Rhythm of Resilience From the First African American Rockette, by Jennifer Jones
“It was there when I woke up, I swear.”
Gun, With Occasional Music, by Jonathan Lethem.
Emilie Michiels van Kessenich snapped awake just after 2:30 p.m.
Remember Us: American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and a Forever Promise Forged in World War II, by Robert M Edsel with Bret Witter
“From Phyllis Neuswanger, my grandmother, I inherited a set of Lenox china, a crate of crystal stemware, and twelve sterling silver table settings.”
The Heirloomist: 100 Treasures and the Stories They Tell, by Shana Novak.
The kitchen smelled of roasting pans and spilled wine.
London Calling, by Sara Sheridan
*The destroyers came from out of the desert."
Catherine Nixey The Darkening Age: the Christian destruction of the classical world
“HEY KIDS! Let’s learn about the moon!”
When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
8 a.m., Monday, 22 June 1953, Brighton
Joey Gillingham got off the train and checked his watch.
England Expects, by Sara Sheridan
“It was a sure conversation-stopper: ‘This year I’ll be researching, observing, and writing about every single Jewish holiday on the calendar.’”
My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew, by Abigail Pogrebin
“This story I am about to share with you takes place in 1931, under the roofs of Paris.”
The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick.
“If you use any search engine to identify the inventor of the black light, and when he did it, you will only find one answer.”
Sandbows and Black Lights: Reflections on Optics, by Stephen R. Wilk
“I shall clasp my hands together and bow to the corners of the world.”
Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart