First Lines: In Sunshine or In Shadow

In Sunshine or In Shadow: Stories for Irish Women

"This book marks the introduction of divorce in Ireland" (from the Foreward).

"'Forty is the beginning of death,' Aunty Sonia says" (from the first short story, "What Big Teeth" by Ivy Bannister).

Published in 1998
Edited by Kate Cruise O'Brien and Mary Maher

First Lines: The Bond

The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals,

Our Call to Defend Them

"We all have our own ideas about how to make the world a better place -- and that's a good thing" (from the Preface).

"The east Texas summer sun was bearing down as I rumbled across the cattle guards at the front gate of America's  largest animal sanctuary, the thirteen-hundred-acre Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch" (from the Introduction: Sanctuary).

"I'll never forget an encounter I witnessed, as a teenager, between my mother and a mouse" (from Chapter One: The Ties That Bond).

Written by Wayne Pacelle
Published in 2011

First Lines: A Rumpole Christmas

"Christmas had come again" (from the first short story in the book, "Rumpole and Father Christmas").

Written by John Mortimer
Published in 2009

The Four Loves

"Most of my generation were reproved as children for saying that we 'loved' strawberries, and some people take a pride in the fact that English has the two verbs love and like while French has to get on with aimer for both."

Written by C. S. Lewis
Published in 1960

Dedication: To Chad Walsh

First Lines: Christmas Chronicles

Christmas Chronicles: The Legend of Santa Claus

"I could clearly hear the sound, even through the raucous wind that had suddenly kicked up" (from the Prologue).

"The man whom legend calls Santa Claus was born simply Klaus" (from Chapter One).

Written by Tim Slover
Published in 2010

Dedication:

For my sons

Thank you for listening;

thank you for believing

First Lines: Lost December

"A certain man had two sons" (page one).

"There are those who share their stories of waywardness with false shame and fond recollection -- a misplaced pride in past misdeeds" (from the Prologue; after a joke).

"Some mistakenly believe that 'prodigal' means lost or wayward" (from Chapter One).

Written by Richard Paul Evans
Published in 2011

Dedication: To my Father, with love.

First Lines: A Grief Observed

"No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear."

Written by C. S. Lewis

Published in 1963

First Lines: The Great Gatsby

"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since."

Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Published in 1925

Dedication: Once Again to Zelda

First Lines: A Cup of Tea

"A young woman stood under a street lamp."

Written by Amy Ephron
Published in 1997

Dedication: For Nora, Delia, and Hallie