“I stopped in front of a shop with a small wooden sign which hung from a wrought-iron spear projecting from the weathered stone wall.”
Worlds of the Imperium by Keith Laumer
“Usain Bolt is the best human sprinter there has ever been.”
Mathletics: A Scientist Explains 100 Amazing Things About the World of Sports, by John D. Barrow
“There will be bodies. It is only fair to warn you”, my husband told his workmen.
There Will Be Bodies, the 13th Flavia Albia mystery by Lindsey Davis
“Matthew Kappler is my brother-in-law, and we’re very different, and one of the biggest differences between us is that if I lived like him I would die.”
It’s Only Drowning by David Litt
“When I was a kid, I had no great awareness of firemen.”
Dennis Smith, in Firefighters from 1988 (a, so far from what I’ve read of it, very intriguing and interesting look at what it means to be that kind of American hero)
“But who?” said Lyra. “Who is waiting?”
The Rose Field by Philip Pullman
“It was a quiet Sunday afternoon, with a brisk spring breeze ruffling the air off Narragansett Bay.”
Expect Great things! How the Katharine Gibbs School Revolutionized the American Workplace for Women, by Vanda Krefft
“This stupid peace and quiet is killing me!”
Rockin’ Around the Chickadee, by Donna Andrews.
“A man stands on a windswept island, staring up at the sky.”
October by China Mieville
“The rue du Coq D’or, Paris, seven in the morning.”
– Down and Out in Paris and London, by George Orwell
“We’ve got movie sign!”
Mystery Science Theater 3000: A Cultural History, by Matt Foy and Christopher J. Olson
“Outside the picture window of the cafe’, snow drifted to the sidewalk in big fluffy flakes.”
Love You a Latke, by Amanda Elliot
“What’s two plus two?”
Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
The theatre critic Friedrich Luft experienced the end of the war in a basement.
Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955, by Harald Jähner
A few summers ago I visited two dairy farms, Huls Farm and Gardar Farm, which despite being located thousands of miles apart were still remarkably similar in their strengths and vulnerabilities.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond
“One afternoon in March of 1855, in his college office, whose austerity reflected his own lack of pretense and an honesty bordering, at times, on the severe, C. Thomas Ridgeley, the Dean of Men, considered the request of the stocky, auburn-haired sophomore who stood formally at attention, as was required of a student appearing before an officer of the college.”
A Different Kind of Christmas, by Alex Haley
“When I was an undergraduate, a story went around among students at my college that a fellow called Harris had refused to teach translation classes on the grounds that he did not know what ‘translation’ was.”
Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything, by David Bellos
“This is the first volume of my collected short stories.”
– Collected Short Stories, Volume 1, by W. Somerset Maugham
A jerk, and a sudden rumbling vibration jolted Culihan O’Rourke When out of the pain-laced fog enfolding him.
None But Man by Gordon R. Dickson
“More and more people each year are going abroad for Christmas.”
A Highland Christmas, by M. C. Beaton
" ‘You’re getting to be such a pro with those chopsticks,’ my grandmother said."
Let It Glow, by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy
“It’s funny, Vasher thought, how many things begin with my getting thrown into prison”
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
I sorta think the first paragraph might entice people to find out more.
AMUR TIGERS, popularly called Siberian tigers, are paradoxes of grace and violence.
vs
AMUR TIGERS, popularly called Siberian tigers, are paradoxes of grace and violence. These lithe, elegant creatures regard their surroundings with the dispassionate air of royalty. They are also predators, evolved to slip unnoticed across the landscape; to insert themselves like puzzle pieces among rises, rocks, shadows, and trees; to position themselves as close as possible to a grazing deer or a resting boar before showing a burst of speed and force to incapacitate their target. Tigers rely on discretion for survival, which means that these cats of the north are almost impossible to see, much less study.
Tigers Between Empires
“The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at the time as ‘The Styles Case’ has now somewhat subsided.”
— The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie.
“What Are the Top 10 Most Coveted Trophies in Sports?”
Got Your Answers: The 100 Greatest Sports Arguments–Settled, by Mike Greenberg with Paul “Hembo” Hembekides
“More years ago than I care to reckon up, I met Richard Feynman.”
The Language God Talks: On Science and Religion, by Herman Wouk