Opening Sentence of the Day: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood.

-- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. This is a crazy weird book. Very funny in a creepy way.

This is on Erica Jong's list of Top 100 20th Century Novels by Women.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Locations

It is a truism that the world grows smaller, and a truism especially obvious to anyone like me, who earns a living by perpetual wandering and writing.

-- Locations by Jan Morris.

Her book on Venice, The World of Venice: Revised Edition, is my favorite armchair travel book of all times.  Oxford was also quite good.

This, instead of Morris's usual exhaustive analysis of one city, is a collection of pieces about 13 separate places.  Her unrivaled eye for detail and willingness to render judgment make each essay a treat.