First Lines of Recent Bestsellers

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. "Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery." Digital Fortress (Dan Brown) Angels & Demons (Dan Brown) The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) Deception Point (Dan Brown)

2. "It's midnight now. The house is dark. I am not sure how this will turn out. The kids are all desperately sick, throwing up. I can hear my son and daughter retching in separate bathrooms. I went in to check on them a few minutes ago, to see what was coming up. I'm worried about the baby, but I had to make her sick, too. It was her only hope." The Amateur Marriage (Anne Tyler) Prey (Michael Crichton) To Die For (Linda Howard) Cold Fire (Dean Koontz)

3. "On the afternoon of October 12, 1990, my twin brother Thomas entered the Three Rivers, Connecticut Public Library, retreated to one of the rear study carrels, and prayed to God that the sacrifice he was about to commit would be deemed acceptable." Crown Jewel (Fern Michaels) My Sunshine (Catherine Anderson) Dance With Me (Luanne Rice) I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)

4. "OK. Don't panic. Don't panic. It's only a VISA bill. It's a piece of paper; a few numbers. I mean, just how scary can a few numbers be?" Retreat, Hell! (W.E.B. Griffin) Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella) The Bride's Necklace (Kat Martin) Bridget Jones' Diary (Helen Fielding)

5. "My suffering left me sad and gloomy. Academic study and the steady, mindful practice of religion slowly brought me back to life." The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) Life of Pi (Yann Martel) The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) The Other Boleyn Girl (Philippa Gregory)

6. "I was born twice: first as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides) The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd) Three Junes (Julia Glass) Bel Canto (Ann Patchett)

7. "The African-American marine in the gray Mercedes will soon die of bites from Naja siamensis, but we don't know that yet, Pichai and I (the future is impenetrable, says the Buddha)." Siam or the Woman Who Shot A Man (Lily Tuck) To Die For (Linda Howard) Bangkok 8 (John Burdett) Memorial Day (Vince Flynn)

8. "Clare: It's hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he's okay. It's hard to be the one who stays." The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) Much Ado About You (Eloisa James) The Amateur Marriage (Anne Tyler) Reunion (Nora Roberts)

9. "Theodore is in the ground. The words as I write them make as little sense as did the sight of his coffin descending into a patch of sandy soil near Sagamore Hill, the place he loved more than any other on earth." The Last Juror (John Grisham) The Wife (Meg Wolitz) The Alienist (Caleb Carr) The Great Pretender (Millenia Black)

10. "Anyone in the neighborhood could tell you how Michael and Pauline first met." Northern Lights (Nora Roberts) Islands (Anne Rivers Siddons) The Amateur Marriage (Anne Tyler) I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)