“The first person I met in England was a hallucination.”
The Alice Code by Kate Quinn.
Wow, good one.
“People make things.”
Crafted: A Compendium of Crafts: New, Old, and Forgotten, by Sally Coulthard
“This revolution was televised. When the six members of Monty Python embarked on their unique collaboration thirty years ago, they were reacting against what they saw as the staid, predictable formats of other comedy programs.”
Monty Python Speaks! by David Morgan
“The truth is, she was ornery and stubborn, wouldn’t listen to anybody, and selfish beyond selfish, and filthy, caked with mud and dust, and moody; you’d better watch it or she’d knock you flat.”
Moo, by Sharon Creech
“Cheryl Schlitz feels like she’s perpetually falling.”
The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science, by Norman Doidge, M.D.
“Brutus was dead.”
Clean Sweep, by Ilona Andrews.
“Brutus was dead.”
Clean Sweep , by Ilona Andrews.
(Dendarii_Dame and I are in the same book club)
“I should have known something was dangerously wrong long before I did.”
Hollow Kingdom, by Kira Jane Buxton.
“The first sign of trouble was the exodus of young folk, the steady march of rural sons and daughters leaving the countryside for more promising futures in the Big City.”
A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression, by Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe.
“The date was April 14, 1912, a sinister day in maritime history, but of course the man in suite 63-65, shelter deck C, did not yet know it.”
– The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, by Erik Larson
“If you ask six different monks the question of which godly domain robot consciousness belongs to, you’ll get seven different answers.”
A Psalm for the Wild Built, by Becky Chambers.
“Thick weather in the chops of the Channel and a dirty night, with the strong north-east wind bringing rain from the low sky and racing cloud: Ushant somewhere away on the starboard bow, the Scillies to larboard, but never a light, never a star to be seen; and no observation for the last four days.”
The Commodore by Patrick O’Brian
“It was a gray winter Sunday when I came to the bookstore.”
Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co., by Jeremy Mercer
“It all began with a record.”
Fortunate Son - My Life, My Music by John Fogerty
“Sir Joseph Blaine, a heavy, yellow-faced man in a suit of grey clothes and a flannel waistcoat, walked down St James’s Street, across the park, and so to the Admiralty, which he entered from behind, opening the private door with a key and making his way to the large, shabby room in which he had his official being.”
The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O’Brian
“Off there to the right–somewhere–is a large island,” said Whitney." It’s rather a mystery–"
The Most Dangerous Game
by Richard Connell
“There’s one thing to know about me: a man in my line of work grows accustomed to drinking alone.”
Pinebox Collins, by Rod Miller
“Once there was a dragon who lived by a birdbath in a forgotten corner of Michael’s back yard.”
A Closet for a Dragon and Other Early Tales by Allen L. Wold. (The sentence is from the title story, which is the first.)
“Had there been prediction markets in 1939, the odds would have favored Nazi Germany.”
Loonshots: Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries, by Safi Bahcall.