Posted on by rjonakait

First Sentences

“At high tide on the clear morning of January 10, 1926, to the squalling of circling gulls, the Prinz Valdemar, a five-masted steel-hulled barkentine, weighed anchor.” Christopher Knowlton, Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression (2021).

“With eyes fixed thoughtfully on the slow-moving muddy stream of the River Darling, William Clair lounged in the golden light of the setting sun.” Arthur W. Upfield, The Barrakee Mystery (1929): An Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte Mystery.

“‘Save Your Soul, Turn Back Now’ proclaimed a protest sign at the entrance of the pop-up vaccination clinic at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on January 30, 2021.” Kira Ganga Kieffer, Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America (2026).

“Her feet were as purple as calf liver.” Douglas Stuart, John of John (2026).

“The brothers smoothed a map on the table in front of them.” Nathalia Holt, The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers’ Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda (2025).

“When Augustus came out on the porch the blue pigs were eating a rattlesnake—not a very big one.” Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove (1985).

“On Wednesday, July 20, 1910, as a light fog drifted along the River Scheldt, Capt. Henry George Kendall prepared his ship, the SS Montrose, for what should have been the most routine of voyages, from Antwerp direct to Quebec City, Canada.” Erik Larson, Thunderstruck (2006).

“Vera Stanhope climbed out of Hector’s ancient Land Rover and felt the inevitable strain on her knees.” Ann Cleeves, The Glass Room (2012).

“No one had any doubt that the bombers would come.” Erik Larson, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz (2020).

“The city was hers for a single hour, just the one magic hour, only hers.” Robert Crais, The Watchman: A Joe Pike Novel (2007).

“The year my sister Amy was invited to play Mrs. Claus in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was the same year Hugh had his hip replaced.” David Sedaris, The Land and Its People (2026).

“It was a city within a city, a textile mill to weave the gossamer of fantasy on looping looms of celluloid.” Elizabeth Letts, Finding Dorothy (2019).

“Huie Kin grew up in Wing Ning, a tiny village of about seventy people, all from the same clan, tucked away in the hell of Taishan, an impoverished, mountainous county in the Pearl River Delta.” Michael Luo, Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America (2025).

Posted on by rjonakait

First Sentences

“Many years have gone by, years of war and of what men call History.” Carlo Levi, Christ Stopped at Eboli.

“Arrive finally at about three. The place has the feel of a 1970s health resort or eco-commune, but is not welcoming.” Charlotte Ward, Stone Yard Devotional.

“The images endure. In his twelve years as the greatest mayor of the world’s greatest city, he smashed slot machines with a sledgehammer, donned a fireman’s raincoat at the first whiff of smoke, and, most famously, narrated Dick Tracy’s exploits on the radio when a newspaper strike deprived youngsters of their comic strips.” Richard Goldstein: Helluva Town: The Story of New York City During World War II.

“It is nowhere you choose to be, and yet you are here.” Karen Russell, The Antidote.

“Hortense could never forget the first dress she bought in New York City.” Julie Satow, When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion.

“Mrs. Blossom had never been upgraded before in her life.” Laura Lippman, Murder Takes a Vacation.

“The first time I heard Forbes Smiley’s voice was at six o’clock on a summer Friday as I was drinking a martini at a Boston bar.” Michael Blanding, The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps.

“Why am I in this car?” Daniel Kehlmann (translated from the German by Ross Benjamin), The Director.

“In 1918, a fever gripped Boston.” Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith, War Fever: Boston, Baseball, and America in the Shadow of the Great War.

“Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, of the Queensland police, was walking along a bush track on his way to Windee Station.” Arthur W. Upfield, The Sands of Windee.

“I’m standing on the red railway car that sits abandoned next to the barn.” Tara Westover, Educated.

“My first word was ‘mother,’ spoken out loud and with texture.” Tayari Jones, Kin.

“This is a very weird way to begin an investigation, David Clurman thought as he listened to the anonymous caller on the other end of the line.” Michael Riedel, Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway.

Posted on by rjonakait · 2 Comments

Snippets

I enjoyed TV’s “Dark Winds” featuring Navajo Nation policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. The streaming show is based on Tony Hillerman’s novels, a few of which I have read and enjoyed. Hillerman said that he was indebted to British-born Australian novelist Arthur W. Upfield, a name unfamiliar to me. Upfield’s mysteries featured a “half-caste” Aboriginal-Australian detective who was found in his dead mother’s arms shortly after birth. Raised in a Christian orphanage, he is given the name Napoleon Bonaparte but nicknamed Bony. I decided to try Upfield. I could not find the first in the series at my libraries, The Barrakee Mystery (1929), but I did manage to get the second one, The Sands of Windee (1931). It was outstanding. I now understand Hillerman’s praise. Upfield and Bony should not be lost in the sands of time.

I miss some things from my previous neighborhood. At this time of year, the local movie theater played Oscar-Nominated Live Action Shorts and Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts in separate programs. I tried to see them before the awards and make my own judgments about which should win. The live action movies are always well made with excellent production values. The credits seem just as long as for a full-length movie. I wonder each year who the audience is for these shorts. I am not aware that such shorts are shown commercially, or at least not often enough to recoup the amount of money that it must take to make them. Almost uniformly the five or so films are interesting, often with innovative stories. There is, however, one problem with the programs. I used to see movie shorts as a kid, sometimes in a theater as an interlude between the double feature. More often, though, I saw them on TV as local stations tried to find content to fill out their airtime. Often they were, or at least meant to be, humorous, such as instructional videos by Robert Benchley or “The Fatal Glass of Beer,” featuring W.C. Fields. (Everyone should see “The Fatal Glass” at least several times in their life.) Humor, however, in the nominated live action shorts is in short supply. I guess to be nominated a film must be serious business. Although there might be a quirky film, most explored grief, tragedy, abortion restrictions, teenage suicide, and so on. Almost all were remarkably good in writing, directing, and acting. They were affecting—so much so, that I often had troubled sleep the night after I went to the theater. The animated shorts were often the reverse—mostly light and humorous but with an occasional dark one. One year, before the final animated short was shown, a theater manager came out and said that all children should be taken out of the auditorium. The film was too disturbing for the youngsters. He was right. It had graphic nudity and graphic violence. This year I have only seen one of the nominated films, a live action movie that was shown on Netflix entitled “Singers.” It was both dark and uplifting…an interesting combination.

There are movements to get rid of daylight savings time, although proposals differ. Some want to return to God’s time when at noon the sun is overhead. Others want to have permanent daylight savings time without the twice-yearly shift. (No more Spring forward, Fall back.)  But what we should really remember is what a wise person said: “The best way to save daylight is to use it.”