“Late on a hazy night in 2008, Lin-Manuel Miranda told me he wanted to write a hip-hop concept album about the life of Alexander Hamilton. For a second, I thought we were sharing a drunken joke. We were probably drunk, but he wasn’t joking.”
Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter (2016)
“As long as Freeman Dyson can remember, his thoughts have been on the stars.”
The Starship and the Canoe, by Kenneth Brower (1978)
Full Disclosure, Stormy Daniels with Kevin Carr O’Leary (2018)
“They crossed the border into Brittany at noon, soon afterward found themselves in an eerily silent landscape, shrouded in dense, spectral fog.”
– Falls the Shadow, by Sharon Kay Penman
“I know that some of you reading this are convinced humans are a myth, but I am here to state that they do actually exist.”
The Humans, by Matt Haig. (2013)
“Looking out over the East River from my jail cell and still running for public office, I realize that I have taken several actions in my life for which I owe public apologies.”
Pure Drivel, by Steve Martin (1998)
“When people ask me what I do–taxi drivers, hairdressers–I tell them I work in an office.”
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman
“I am going to try to start at the beginning, even though I know you won’t believe me.”
The Twisted Ones, Ursula Vernon writing as T. Kingfisher
For the KGB’s counterintelligence section, Directorate K, this was a routine bugging job.
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre
“Do not try any of this at home.”
The rest of the first para:
The author of this book is an internet cartoonist, not a health or safety expert. He likes it when things catch fire or explode, which means he does not have your best interests in mind. The publisher and the author disclaim responsibility for any adverse effects resulting, directly or indirectly, from information contained in this book.Randall Munroe’s new book How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems.
Mini review:Not that great. Boring and repetitive at times. Best read a chapter once in a while. The best chapter is the Serena Williams vs. a drone one which he posted online.
“The women came to Yale in buses, peering out the large glass windows at the men who had gathered on the sidewalk below to await their arrival.”
Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant, by Anne Gardiner Perkins.
“The kidnapping of Patricia Hearst is very much a story of America in the 1970s, not the 1960s.”
American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst by Jeffrey Toobin (2016)
“Thomas dreamed he walked a familiar forest, following a time-worn path of the Tuscaroras.”
The House of Dies Drear, by Virginia Hamilton
“One early December afternoon in 1980 my friend Angie and I were in the little bistro we ran in north Wales, putting up the Christmas decorations.”
John, by Cynthia Lennon
“‘Paul Laurence Dunbar. That’s a mighty high-sounding name,’ whispered the Howard Street neighbors.”
Paul Laurence Dunbar: A Poet to Remember, by Patricia C. McKissack.
“The temperature of the Refuge varied from 99 degrees to 101 degrees Fahrenheit.”
The World Jones Made, by Philip K. Dick
“My longest relationship has been with chairs.”
The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love with Me, by Keah Brown
“In the morning’s platinum light he raised his leaden head.”
The Parade, by Dave Eggers
“On the second day of January, windswept and bright, a half-blood Seminole named Sammy Tigertail dumped a dead body in the Lostmans River.”
Nature Girl, by Carl Hiaasen.
“While I was still in Amsterdam, I dreamed about my mother for the first time in years.”
The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt (2013)