“For years a visit to Stanford University has involved crossing paths with tours led by undergraduates who, walking backward, face a trailing audience of prospective students and their families.”
Who Killed Jane Stanford? by Richard White
“When I was young I lived in a place called Timber Town.”
Totalitopia Plus…, by John Crowley (This is a story collection; this quote is from “This Is Our Town”.)
“Captain Ben Gibson had risen at four a.m., or at least as close as the U.S. Army could estimate four a.m. in Va’Sh’s 26-hour day and had started the morning with physical training.”
Holdouts, by Thomas J. Doscher
Nights didn’t come much darker, Merlin Athrawes reflected as he stood gazing up at the cloud-choked, stormy sky.
How Firm a Foundation, by David Weber
“Some men enter a woman’s life and screw it up forever.”
Twisted Twenty-six, Janet Evanovich
Gunnar Heim halted in midstride.
The Star Fox by Poul Anderson
“On Thursday 28 June 1781, two officers and their escort of green-coated cavalry rode along a narrow peninsula in eastern Virginia, towards Chesapeake Bay.”
Yorktown 1781 by Brendan Morrissey
“Death was coming. There was nothing the old librarian could do about that.”
- Ramy Vance
“In 2001, I was about to start a new chapter in my life as an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside.”
Close Encounters with Humankind: A Paleoanthropologist Investigates Our Evolving Species, by Sang-Hee Lee with Shin-Young Yoon
“When I see a brave building/straining high and higher,/hard and bright and sassy in the seasons,/I think of the hands that put that strength together.”
Children of Promise: African-American Literature and Art for Young People, edited by Charles Sullivan. (Quote is from the poem “Building” by Gwendolyn Brooks.)
Snow veils hung in the clear, icy air, dancing on the knife-edged wind that swirled across the snowpack, and the highest peaks, towering as much as a mile higher than his present position, cast blue shadows across the snow.
Midst Toil and Tribulation, by David Weber
“The corpse was suspiciously fresh.”
The Cadaver Princess, by Chuck Rothman
“Josiah heard the knock on the front door and shuddered.”
Arch of Bone, by Jane Yolen.
“Don’t call me Abraham: Call me Abe”
The Fisherman by John Langan
“The Grand River defines the city it divides, with a ragged symmetry little changed in the two centuries since rival entrepreneurs of faith and commerce staked their claims to opposite shores.” – An Ordinary Man: The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford by Richard Norton Smith
The listening device deployed onto the shoulder of Bishop Militant Cahner Kaitswyrth’s tunic was far too small for the unaided human eye to see, but it was capable of remarkable sensitivity, and Merlin Athrawes leaned back in his chair in far-off Siddar City, where darkness had already fallen, listening to its take.
Like a Mighty Army (Safehold #7), by David Weber
Ed Greenfield collected people the way other men collected comic books or old stamps or vintage cars.
If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Jill Lepore
“The courtship and remarriage of an old widower is always made more difficult when middle-aged children are involved–especially when there are unmarried daughters.”
A Summons to Memphis, by Peter Taylor
“Even the most fortunate circumstances contain the seeds of their own destruction.”
A Phule and His Money, by Robert Asprin with Peter J. Heck
“We the People. The Constitution of the United States is made of things that are born, live, thrive, decay, and die: insects, animals, plants, ideas.”
We the People by Jill Lepore
“It was a great temptation, when invited to write a book with this title, to submit a three and a half word draft that read: ‘There wasn’t much.’”
War at Sea in the Ironclad Age by Richard Hill
“It was all vaguely reminiscent: the hard lurch of the arrested landing, the wind and din of the flight deck, the orderly violence of the catapults hurling jets off the bow.”
Bogeys and Bandits: The Making of a Fighter Pilot, by Robert Gandt
“Mr. Martin bought the pack of Camels on Monday night in the most crowded cigar store on Broadway.”
Thurber on Crime, by James Thurber (Note: This is from the first story, “The Catbird Seat”.)