Posted on by rjonakait

First Sentences

“I must confess that I did not witness the ship strike the rocks or the crew tie up the captain.” David Grann, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder.

“It was one of those Tuesday afternoons in summer when you wonder if the earth has stopped revolving.” Benjamin Black (John Banville), The Black-Eyed Blonde: A Phillip Marlowe Novel.

“I found Gotham City one night when I was about seven years old.” Maya Phillips, Nerd: Adventures in Fandom from the Universe to the Multiverse.

“It started with a phone call, deceptively simple and easy to ignore.” Megan Miranda, All the Missing Girls.

“History books will teach that the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion on June 24, 2022.” Stephen Vladeck, The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic.

“Two young women climbed a narrow set of stairs toward the sound of laughter and music, Florence Darrow in front, dragged her hand along the blood-red walls.” Alexandra Andrews, Who Is Maud Dixon?

“The number lay there, brazen, taunting me from the tatty piece of paper that sat neatly on the ancient oak table: zero.” Antonio Padilla, Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity.

“’The thoughts of all present tonight,’ said Mr. Birley, ‘will naturally turn first to the great personal loss—the very personal loss—so recently suffered by the firm, by the legal profession and, if I may venture to say so without contradiction, by the British public.’” Michael Gilbert, Smallbone Deceased.

“On 20 July 1794 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe heaved himself into the saddle and rode from his house in the centre of Weimar to Jena, where he planned to attend a botanical meeting of the recently funded national historical society.” Andrea Wulf, Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of Self.

“O Mighty Caliph and Commander of the Faithful, I am humbled to be in the splendor of your presence; a man can hope for no greater blessing as long as he lives.” Ted Chiang, Exhalation.

“It’s hard to say exactly when PG&E Corporation began its fall.” Katherine Blunt, California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America’s Power Grid.

“Everyone who knew Benjamin Ovich, particularly those of us who knew him well enough to call him Benji, probably knew deep down that he was never the sort of person who would get a happy ending.” Fredrik Backman, The Winners.

“You learn to live with shame.” José Carlos Agüero, The Surrendered: Reflections by a Son of Shining Path.

“The Jebel es Zubleh is a mountain fifty miles and more in length, and so narrow that its tracery on the map gives it a likeness to a caterpillar crawling from the south to the north.” Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

Posted on by rjonakait

First Sentences

“A brilliant flash broke the morning darkness on November 8, 2018, as strong winds pummeled a PG&E power line scaling the Sierra Nevada ninety miles north of Sacramento.” Katherine Blunt, California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America’s Power Grid.

“The Korowai Pass had been closed since the end of the summer, when a spate of shallow earthquakes triggered a landslide that buried a stretch of the highway in rubble, killing five, and sending a long-haul transport truck over a precipice where it skimmed a power line, ploughed a channel down the mountainside, and then exploded on a viaduct below.” Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood.

“On April 3, AD 33—or perhaps three years before that—a quite dramatic event took place in the holy city of Jerusalem.” Mustafa Akyol, The Islamic Jesus: How the King of the Jews Became a Prophet of the Muslims.

“I stood in the sally port while the steel door rolled back with a clang and then I stepped through into the jail.” Michael Nava, The Little Death.

“Five years before a pair of bullets tore through his gut, Billy Joe Aplin reached over the silt-smeared water of the tidal flats with a boat hook to snare a small buoy bobbing near the grassy shoreline.” Kirk Wallace Johnson, The Fisherman and the Dragon: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast.

“Geneva Sweet ran an orange extension cord past Mayva Greenwood, Beloved Wife and Mother, May She Rest with Her Heavenly Father.” Attica Locke, Bluebird, Bluebird.

“The history of Cuba begins where history begins.” Ada Ferrer, Cuba: An American History.

“Maurice Oulette tried to kill himself once but succeeded only in blowing off the right side of his jawbone.” William Landay, Mission Flats.

“One of the biggest complaints about motherhood is the lack of training.” Erma Bombeck, Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession.

“The train had left Sacramento some distance behind, and was now bravely beginning the long climb that led to the high Sierras and the town of Truckee.” Earl Derr Biggers, Keeper of the Keys.

“On the pivotal day of his presidency, Woodrow Wilson tried to clear his mind by playing golf.” Adam Hochschild, American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis.

“Mr. Bowling sat at the piano until it grew darker and darker, not playing, but with Tchaikovsky’s Concerto in D Flat Minor opened before him at the First Movement, rubbing his hands nervously, and staring across the shadowy room to the window, to see if it was dark enough yet.” Donald Henderson, Mr. Bowling Buys a Newspaper.

“There is a scheme afoot.” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse with Jennifer Mueller, The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court.