“In March 1939, as the world hurtled toward a catastrophic war, the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church gathered to elect a new supreme pontiff.” David I. Kertzer, The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler.

“All the Venables sat at Sunday dinner.” Edna Ferber, Cimarron.

“As the scientific world prepared to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species in 1909, an amateur English geologist named Charles Dawson made a momentous find thirty miles from Darwin’s country home in southern England.” Edward J. Larson, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion.

“They found the corpse on the eighth of July just after three o’clock in the afternoon.” Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (translated from the Swedish by Louis Roth), Roseanna.

“By September 1986, after four years as secretary of state, George Schultz had grown accustomed to presiding over official dinners for foreign dignitaries visiting Washington: the rigorous protocol, the solemn oratory, the contrived cordiality.” Stanley Karnow, In Our Image: America’s Empire in the Philippines.

“Today, on this island, a miracle happened: summer came ahead of time.” Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Invention of Morel.

“The unlimited money unleashed into politics by the Citizens United decision in 2010 powered up the influence of the fossil fuel industry, which went to work hiding its political mischief behind an array of phony front groups and co-opted trade associations.” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse with Jennifer Mueller, The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court.

“I drove to the Crossroads with the windows rolled down, the radio off, scanning the flat, packed earth in the glare of the afternoon light, the land broken up by clumps of creosote and rabbitbrush.” Ruchika Tomar, A Prayer for Travelers.

“I have done things the wrong way round all my life.” Andrea Wulf, Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of Self.

“It was the coldest winter for forty-five years.” Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle.

“The Middle East, as we know it from today’s headlines, emerged from decisions made by the Allies during and after the First World War.” David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East.

“You wake up with the answer to the question that everyone asks.” Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.

“The stories of Rondon do Pará had prepared me for a dodgy, crime-ridden place, but when I first visited the little Brazilian town on the eastern edge of the Amazon, it didn’t look particularly threatening to me.” Heriberto Araujo, Masters of the Lost Land: The Untold Story of the Amazon and the Violent Fight for the World’s Last Frontier.