I'm so bad at remembering the beginnings to things, but I just went through a number of my book reviews to remind me, and some with particularly compelling-to-me openings include:

- When the Angels Left the Old Country, by Sacha Lamb

- Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding

- All the Horses of Iceland, by Sarah Tolmie

- She Who Became the Sun, by Shelley Parker-Chan

- Beowulf: A New Translation, by Maria Dahvana Headley

- Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke

- The Door in the Hedge, by Robin McKinley