First sentences from new books, Nov. 21

It's early, not yet seven A.M., and once again I'm waking up beside my adoptive sister.

"Heliopolis," a novel by James Scudamore

"Hello?" the very, very old black man said into the receiver.

"The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey," a novel by Walter Mosley

Suppose it's October, October or November, let's say, in 1960 or 1961, October, maybe the fourteenth or sixteenth, or the twenty-second or twenty-third maybe - the twenty-third of October in 1961 let's say - what's the difference.

"The Sixty-Five Years of Washington," by Juan José Saer

For Mr. Shorr, it wasn't a good lesson until he made me cry.

"My Nine Lives: A Memoir of Many Careers in Music,"

by Leon Fleisher and Anne Midgette

In the predawn darkness of August 26, 1929, in the back bedroom of a small house in Torrance, California, a twelve-year-old boy sat up in bed, listening.

"Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption," by Laura Hillenbrand

This article appeared on page FE - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle