When I am browsing for a book to read, the first line determines if I will read any further (although once I bought a book based only on its title--The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers [Harper Voyager, $17.99]--and was delighted with my recklessness). Lately I've found some books whose first lines intrigued me enough to keep going.
"I am your maid.... I know so much about you. But when it comes down to it: what is it you know about me?" --The Maid by Nita Prose (Ballantine, $27)
"On the long bus journey out, she doesn't cry or even have a single thought that she can name. She watches the dark impossibility of the road instead." --Tides by Sara Freeman (Grove, $26)
"On October 24, 1960, a composer named Charles Dumont arrived at the posh Paris apartment of Edith Piaf with fear in his heart and songs in his briefcase." --The Power of Regret by Daniel H. Pink (Riverhead, $28)
And a sneak peek at a couple of titles coming soon that you'll want to pre-order:
"They say that death comes like a thief in the night. Lesser vandals have the same MO. The affliction that stole my vision, or at least a big chunk of it, did so as I slept. I went to bed seeing the world one way. I woke up seeing it another." --The Beauty of Dusk by Frank Bruni (Avid Reader, $28, March 1)
"When I am kidnapped, it does not happen in an alleyway. It does not happen in the middle of the night. It does not happen when I am alone." --Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang (Flatiron, $27.99, April 5)