You Had Me at Page One

After reading Jenny's post about first sentences in books, I thought it would be fun to go through some of the books I've been reading lately and see what their first sentences are. The following first sentences are taken strictly from fiction that I have read in this last year, and it does not mean that these are favorite books, by any means, although many of them are good.

                          Source: lady-endy.tumblr.com via Eyebright on Pinterest

Listen!
~Chris Walley, in The Shadow and Night


Nekonkh, captain of the Nile boat Silver Beetle, paused for the fiftieth time beside his vessel's high beaked prow and shaded his eyes to peer anxiously across the wharfs. 
~ Eloise Jarvis McGraw, in Mara, Daughter of the Nile

"Galwyn's feeding the fishes again," the mate called as I emptied the odorous bucket overboard. 
~ Anne McCaffrey, in Black Horses for the King

"Well, if there be any truth in the old adage, young Herman Brudenell will have a prosperous life; for really this is a lovely day for the middle of April - the sky is just as sunny and the air as warm as if it were June," said Hannah Worth, looking out from the door of her hut upon a scene as beautiful as ever shone beneath the splendid radiance of an early spring morning. 
~ E.D.E.N. Southworth, in Ishmael

Awful as the anguish of his parting with Claudia had been, it was not likely that Ishmael, with his strength of intellect and will, would long succumb to despair. 
~ E.D.E.N. Southworth, in Self-Raised (Ishmael's sequel)

The dreary March evening is rapidly passing from murky gloom to obscurity. 
~ Edward P. Roe, He Fell in Love with His Wife

Peter Blood, bachelor of medicine and several other things besides, smoked a pipe and tended the geraniums boxed on the sill of his window above Water Lane in the town of Bridgewater. 
~ Rafael Sabatini, in Captain Blood

Taran wanted to make a sword; but Coll, charged with the practical side of his education, decided on horseshoes.
 ~ Lloyd Alexander, in The Book of Three

Rose sat all alone in the big best parlor, with her little handkerchief laid ready to catch the first tear, for she was thinking of her troubles, and a shower was expected. 
~ Louisa May Alcott, in Eight Cousins

Abbot Bernard folded his paws deep into the wide sleeves of his garb. 
~ Brian Jacques, in Mariel of Redwall

Tor raised his eyes toward the very top of the high hill where the Castle of Camelot stood. 
~ Eugenia Stone, in Page Boy of Camelot

Now, if you read all of those (double points if you did!), tell me in the comments which ones you liked, or ones that made you want to know more, or ones that you thought were exceptionally good first sentences, and tell me why!