“We found the woman floating facedown in an eddy where Crooked River made a slow bend north, just a stone skip away from the best swimming hole this side of anywhere.” Crooked River Valerie Geary Read more

“Behold Tommy Arney: six-one, two-forty, biceps big as most men’s thighs and displayed to maximum effect in the black wifebeater that is his warm-weather fashion essential.” Auto Biography: A Classic Car, an Outlaw Motorhead, and 57 Years of the American Dream Earl Swift Read more

“Leroy Kervin opened his eyes to see a woman in a blue-and-white-starred bikini holding a pneumatic drill.” The Free Willy Vlautin Read more

“They buried my wife in a shoe box in Central Park.” Spoiled Brats: Stories Simon Rich Read more

“On a very cold and lonely Friday last November, my father disappeared from the Dictionary.” The Word Exchange Alena Graedon Read more

“On the steps of the old mission house, the sergeant sat with the boy who called himself Robin, and watched a pigeon being swallowed by a pelican.” Tigerman Nick Harkaway Read more

“They never found his hands.” The Forgers Bradford Morrow Read more

“A girl always remembers the first corpse she shaves.” Smoke Gets in Your Eyes Caitlin Doughty Read more

“Where’s Papa going with that axe?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. Charlotte’s Web E.B. White Read more

“The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years – if it ever did end – began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.” It Stephen King Read more