“Crouching in the aero position on his Kestrel bike, Jeff Paris was flying fast down the hill.”
– Land Sharks, by Katharine M. Nohr
“On, or about, January 2017, the global economy changed guard.”
The Retreat of Western Liberalism by Edward Luce (Yes, the Ed Luce from the Deep State Radio podcast.)
“Four miles from the lines, heavy guns sounded as a constant rumble.”
- Anno Dracula 1918: The Bloody Red Baron by Kim Newman
“At the start of the twentieth century, the United States had close to five thousand vaudeville theaters.”
The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels and the History of American Comedy by Kliph Nesteroff
" ’ Where do you get your ideas? ’ "
A Different Flesh by Harry Turtledove
“‘I’m dying, Spenser,’” the old man said.
Robert B. Parker’s Old Black Magic by Ace Atkins.
“Just before dawn on a cool April day in 1989, a lone man climbed a hill a few miles outside of Kirtland, Ohio, a village of six thousand, located directly east of Cleveland.”
-Pete Earley, Prophet of Death, the Mormon Blood-Atonement Killings
“I’m lying on the hood of my car, my back reclined against my windshield, knees bent, fingers laced together on my stomach, my breathing relaxed to ease the throb of pain.”
The Shadows We Hide, Allen Eskens
“The maesters of the Citadel who keep the histories of Westeros have used Aegon’s Conquest as their touchstone for the past three hundred years.”
Fire & Blood by George R. R. Martin
“The end of the year brought the usual holiday festivities, though around the Frazier house there was little to cheer.”
– The Rooster Bar, by John Grisham
“One may as well begin with Helen’s letters to her sister.”
Howards End by E.M. Forster
“Lost in the shadows of the shelves, I almost fall off the ladder.”
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan.
“I was born in the Year 1632, in the City of York, of a good Family, tho’ not of that Country, my Father being a Foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull: He got a good Estate by Merchandise, and leaving off his Trade, lived afterward at York, from whence he had married my Mother, Relations were named Robinson, a very good Family at Country, and from whom I was called Robinson Keutznaer; but by the usual Corruption of Words in England, we are now called, nay we call our Selves, and writer Name Crusoe, and so my Companions always call’d me.”
That’s worthy of a Bullwer Lytton award, there…
“Years later Lenson Ornill would reflect on the irony that his time as a religious man would be bracketed by a single and particular word.”
The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi (2018)
nm
In these pages, our chief concern is with a region triply burdened, by geography, mineral riches, and its presumed sanctity.
Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac
“In the year 1878, I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army.”
Conan Doyle A Study in Scarlet - I was given a new collection of Sherlock Holmes stories as a Christmas present, and it’s kept me busy since.
“When I was a kid, my aspirations were simple.”
Becoming by Michelle Obama (2018)
“Freddie was a liar.”
Smoke, by Donald E. Westlake
“In 1902 Father built a a house at the crest of the Broadview Avenue hill in New Rochell, New York.”
– Ragtime, by EL Doctorow