“Fourteen million and fifteen percent of the gross? For Michelle Beck? You’re out of your fucking mind, Tom.”
Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi (2005)
“We are at rest five miles behind the front.” All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
“Rahl stood on the port wing of the fast frigate’s bridge, looking out at the seeming endless gray-blue waters of the Eastern Ocean.”
–L. E. Modesitt, Jr, Mage-Guard of Hamor
“The firm close of the door, despite not having been remotely slammed, nevertheless reverberates through the profound emptiness of my house.”
Good Enough to Eat, by Stacey Ballis
“Every few months I get a call from some media person wanting to interview me about Florida, where I have lived for three decades.”
Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland, by Dave Barry
“‘She’s a goddamned whore,’ Harry Kyle said. ‘And I don’t want her in this house again.’”
Ceremony by Robert B. Parker (1982)
“The man who entered the airport washroom had light hair, cut neatly to collar length.”
- License Renewed * by John Gardner.
“The gun barrel pressed to my head was cold. It was dark, it was raining, and Bill Walton was singing the Grateful Dead.”
Friend of the Devil by James Kirkland. First of the Bill Walton Mysteries.
“Thundershowers hit just before midnight, drowning out the horn honks and noisemaker blare that usually signalled New Year’s on the Strip, bringing 1950 to the West Hollywood Substation in a wave of hot squeals with meat wagon backup.”
– The Big Nowhere, by James Ellroy
“History has taught us that artists are often decades ahead of engineers and scientists in imagining the future, and so it was with the idea of voyaging to the moon.”
American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race by Douglas Brinkley (2019)
“The wintry gale was coming in fast and furious, whipping the water around Lime Rock Lighthouse into a roiling frenzy, and sending icy blasts of wind against the house, clattering the windows of the kitchen.”
The Keeper of Lime Rock: The Remarkable True Story of Ida Lewis, America’s Most Celebrated Lighthouse Keeper, by Lenore Skomal
“I tried to get a straight answer from his grandson and granddaughter-in-law as to why their grandfather had been tied with a hundred feet of nylon rope to the rear bumper of the 1968 Oldsmobile Toronado.”
Junkyard Dogs by Craig Johnson
“There was something about the man, that was all there was to it.”
109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos by Jennet Conant
“I heard it said God moves on the water.”
-Whiskey When We’re Dry, John Larison
“We need you to kill a man.”
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, Heinlein.
"Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John. "
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut.
“No one saw them.”
From new thriller – publ. 2018 – The Fox, by Frederick Forsyth. For me, Forsyth always manages to deliver a gripping read; even if the premise is ridiculous, or the content is recycled from earlier stuff of his.
“The Army of Northern Virginia was breaking camp.”
How Few Remain, by Harry Turtledove
“One warm, spring day in May of 2007, the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Vancouver Giants met for the Memorial Cup hockey championships in Vancouver, British Columbia.”
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
But he’s Canadian so everything eventually gets around to hockey. He just got to it more soonly.
“If you’re looking to claw your way up the corporate ladder, succeed beyond your wildest dreams, and amass an enormous fortune, you’ve got the right book in your hands.”
None of My Business: P. J. Explains Money, Banking, Debt, Equity, Assets, Liabilities, and Why He’s Not Rich and Neither Are You, by P. J. O’Rourke.