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

“In the corner of the small living room of the small country house at the end of the dirt road beneath the blue Carolina sky, the dark-skinned five-year old boy sat with his knees pulled to his chest and his small, dark arms wrapped around his legs and it took all that he had to contain the laughter inside the thrumming cage of his chest.” Jason Mott, Hell of a Book.

“We all want to know how it was in the beginning.”Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea.

“Well, the sun was shining.” Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind.

“The silence was excruciating, the minutes ticking by thick and heavy, time itself gorging on the tension in the humid air.” Ben Mezrich, Once Upon a Time in Russia: The Rise of the Oligarchs—A True Story of Ambition, Wealth, Betrayal, and Murder.

“Mayya, forever immersed in her Singer sewing machine, seemed lost to the outside world.” Jokha Alharthi, Celestial Bodies.

“English rule of Ireland was achieved by force, maintained by force.” Wayne G. Broehl, Jr., The Molly Maguires.

“I was born to be a wanderer.” Maggie Shipstead, Great Circle.

“On the third day of October 1901, Abram S. Hewitt was a happy man.” Clifton Hood, 722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York.

“Still hours of dark to go when I left home that morning.” Emma Donoghue, The Pull of the Stars.

“Senior Lieutenant Alexander Logachev loved radiation the way other men loved their wives.” Adam Higginbothan, Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster.

“Simon the Fiddler had managed to evade the Confederate conscription men because he looked much younger than he was and he did everything he could to further that impression.” Paulette Jiles, Simon the Fiddler.

“Texas, perhaps more than any other state in the Union, lives in the public imagination as a place of extremes.” Annette Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth.

“On Saint Patrick’s Day, Daniel Coleman, an agent in the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation handling foreign intelligence cases, drove down to Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, to report for a new posting.” Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.

“The day was flat.” Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain.

“On October 5, 1936, thousands of people packed the unpaved roads of Van Meter, Iowa.” Luke Epplin, Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series that Changed Baseball.