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7844864 | /m/02pcx5w | La jeunesse de Spirou | null | 1987 | null | Spip comments on articles left in the press about Spirou and Fantasio. *The youth of Spirou (1983) Uncle Paul, one evening of festival sprinkled well, tells an eccentric and more or less truthful version of the youth of the hero and his companions. *Unpleasant forger! (1983) Spirou inquires into a forger who publishes a Gaston Lagaffe n°5 pirate comic book. It finds its cushy job quickly but the gangster succeeds in fleeing by setting fire to the building. *The groom of the president (1982) One evening of midnight supper, Spirou, as usual wearing the clothes of a groom, or bell boy, is commanded by the hotel director who mistakes Spirou for one of his employees, making him operate the elevator at the moment when the American president arrives in the hotel. As the president is eager to spend a night without his bodyguards, he offers Spirou an occasion to flee. The US President is a cartoon of former POTUS Ronald Reagan as the book was published in the eighties. *Incredible Burp! (1984) The Count of Champignac discovers during an experiment that one of its products causes horrible changes on an alive body in contact with alcohol. Dupilon swallows some inadvertently, with the result that a monster is released on Champignac. However, the attention of Spirou and Fantasio are taken by gangsters who direct the post office of the village. The gangsters are finally overcome and nobody will recognize Dupilon, quickly cured, in the monster. *Park with the stereotype! (1981) The Count of Champignac meets with former comrades in order to present inventions at strictly humane goal, with the castle at Champignac. However, a spy was introduced among the guests. Spirou and Fantasio are charged to uncover it. Actually, it proves quickly that they are two, but that does not prevent the two heroes from neutralizing them <!-- |
7850799 | /m/026g6dt | Benny and Omar | Eoin Colfer | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | An Irish boy, named Benny, who is in an all-Ireland hurling team, journeys to Tunisia because of his father's new oversea job. He is determined to hate and find fault with the country and annoys everyone. Then he meets another boy called Omar. They develop a friendship, through Omar's "telly-speak" English. Benny's father bans Benny from seeing Omar because he thinks that Omar is a bad influence, and because Benny went off with Omar when he was supposed to look after his brother. Benny endures punishment for being with Omar but that doesn't stop him from running away with him the second his parents trust him again to rescue Omar's drugged and hospitalized sister Kaheena. Benny is exposed to real life in Tunisia, actual pain and suffering bigger than losing a sports match, and realizes just how lucky he is after Omar drowns in a flood (although, this is, in fact, arguable, as the bracelet Benny gave to Omar was recovered, but Omar had "vanished"). |
7854960 | /m/026gd78 | The Death of Artemio Cruz | Carlos Fuentes | 1962 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel", "/m/0127jb": "Magic realism"} | Artemio Cruz—soldier, politician, journalist, tycoon, lover: all corrupt—lies on his deathbed, recalling the shaping events of his life, from the Mexican Revolution through the development of the PRI—the Party of the Institutional Revolution. His family crowds around, pressing him to reveal the location of his will; a priest provides extreme unction, angling for a deathbed confession and reconciliation with the Church (while Artemio indulges in obscene thoughts about the birth of Jesus); his private secretary has come with audiotapes of various corrupt dealings, many with gringo diplomats and speculators. Punctuating the sordid record of betrayal is Cruz's awareness of his failing body and his keen attachment to sensual life. Seventy-one-year-old Artemio Cruz is dying. He is a very rich and powerful man, made ruthless, godless and corrupt by his hard childhood and his soldiering during the Mexican revolution during which he had cheated death several times and had done, and suffered, betrayals. After the revolution, through corrupt wheeling and dealing and use of force for self-aggrandizement he became extremely rich. He now owns vast tracks of land, companies, a newspaper and, by himself, he is a major political player. He has a wife and a daughter whom he hates and who he knows hate him. His wife blames him for the death of their only son whilst fighting in the Spanish civil war, perhaps trying to imitate his father's (fraudulent) heroisms during the Mexican civil war but wasn't able to duplicate his survival. Artemio Cruz loved his son. He had another love: a prostitute, during the civil war, whom he had kidnapped yet she learned to fall in love with him. He valued his memory of her because it was a love given to him when he was still a nobody. It is not made clear what struck him (perhaps a stroke or cancer). Artemio Cruz hears, recalls and vaguely see images. But he's in pain, can't talk and is immobilized. The narrator is in a state of perpetual delirium, like mutterings of a brilliant poet with a soaring fever, hovering between life and death, describing glimpses of heaven and hell. Finally his thoughts decay into a drawn-out death. The Death of Artemio Cruz is dedicated to sociologist C. Wright Mills, who Fuentes calls "the true voice of North America and great friend in the struggle for the people in Latin America." |
7856096 | /m/026gfq0 | Peeps | Scott Westerfeld | 2/8/2005 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Two days after arriving in New York for college, Cal loses his virginity to a girl who picks him up. From this encounter Cal picks up an STD, but this is an unusual one: it turns its victims into "peeps" -- parasite positives—raving cannibalistic monsters with unusual strength, night vision, heightened senses, and an affinity with rats. Cal himself turns out to be immune, but he's a carrier—he gets the strength and senses without the nasty side effects. But before he knows it he has infected others. Cal is recruited by the Night Watch, a secret government organization that has existed for centuries to contain the disease and its victims. His first assignment is to capture all the girls he's infected. But soon Cal realizes that there is more going on than he has been told: the disease is changing in response to mysterious forces from under the earth that are waking up after centuries of slumber. |
7857212 | /m/026gh1b | The Collectors | David Baldacci | null | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/08sdrw": "Adventure novel"} | The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and the curator of the rare books collection of the Library of Congress both are found dead. The Speaker has been killed by a sniper at a party while the head of the rare books collection dies from "unknown circumstances." Oliver Stone and the Camel Club become suspicious, although initially they indulge what they believe is his overactive imagination. Stone and his cohorts discover that Seagraves had been selling American intelligence secrets to terrorists in the Middle East, compromising intelligence efforts in the region. However, when they are followed and ask the Secret Service for help, the followers disappear, and the Camel Club becomes interested in their activities. Seagraves kidnaps and subsequently tortures Stone for information. Annabelle Conroy is introduced as a con artist, who after pulling off a 40 million heist against an Atlantic City Casino owner (Jerry Bagger) is on the run for her life. Bagger wants to find and kill Annabelle and her con team. Alex Ford from the previous novel reappears, and in the climax Seagraves is killed by a knife thrown at his carotid artery by Stone who turns out to be an ex-CIA killer. Alex Ford and his agents take Seagrave's remaining collaborators into custody. One of Annabelle Conroy's collaborators in the heist is tortured for information by the angry casino owner, who finds out the general area in which she is living (Washington, D.C.). The novel ends with a set-up for Stone Cold, the next novel of the Camel Club. |
7858816 | /m/026gk18 | The Cellar | Richard Laymon | 1980 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03npn": "Horror", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Donna, the book's protagonist, goes on the run with her daughter Sandy when she learns that her ex-husband, who molested Sandy for years, has been released from prison. After a car accident leaves them stranded in the small California coastal town of Malcasa Point, Donna and Sandy cross paths with Judge, a mercenary hired to track down and kill the murderous creature that supposedly haunts a local tourist attraction, the Beast House. Judge's employer, Larry, is an elderly man who had a traumatic encounter with the Beast as a child. Meanwhile, Donna's ex-husband, Roy, follows Donna to Malcasa Point after killing Donna's sister and brother-in-law. Along the way, he also abducts and repeatedly rapes a nine-year-old girl and murders the girl's parents. In the end, Roy, Larry and Judge fall victim to the carnivorous Beasts, several of which roam the underground tunnels beneath the Beast House at night, and Donna and Sandy become prisoners of the murderous Kutch family, the owners of Beast House. |
7864859 | /m/026gs0t | My Louisiana Sky | Kimberly Willis Holt | null | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | The novel is set in 1957, in the small town of Saitter, Louisiana, where twelve-year-old Tiger Ann Parker lives with her mentally challenged parents. When her beloved grandmother suddenly dies, Tiger faces the choice of either staying with her parents or moving in with her rich, glamorous aunt in Baton Rouge. |
7866817 | /m/026gv46 | Ethel and Ernest | Raymond Briggs | 10/7/1999 | {"/m/017fp": "Biography", "/m/0py0z": "Graphic novel"} | The story is simply a progression through the lives of the titular couple, from their courtship in the late 1920s to their deaths in the early 70s. Ethel is a lady's maid with middle-class aspirations and firm notions of respectable English behaviour; she becomes a housewife when she marries. Ernest, five years younger, is an easygoing milkman with socialist ideals and an enthusiastic interest in modern progress and technology. They live with their only child, Raymond, in a London suburb through the Great Depression, World War II, the advent of television and other events. The book richly illustrates London working class life and concerns during some of the most momentous social and political developments of the 20th century. |
7868414 | /m/026gwsv | Vital Signs | Robin Cook | 1991 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Dr. Blumenthal finds out that she cannot conceive as her fallopian tubes are blocked due to a case of TB, which she feels is extremely rare in current times. She tries to conceive through a modern technique called in vitro fertilization from a very well known fertility clinic, but after four unsuccessful cycles she and her husband start to have differing opinions about continuing their quest for child. This starts to take a toll on their relationship, as Marissa is adamant to go on for the next cycle and her husband thinks that it would be another $10,000 down the drain. Marissa joins a counseling group for such in vitro couples, and meets up with her medical school friend Wendy, who also shares that same medical condition as her. Soon the two women discover that the specific condition is found in numerous women being treated in the clinic where they are getting treated. A suicide (suggested to be a murder) of fellow woman patient in the clinic also add to their curiosity. They break into the clinic and try to read their medical records, which are kept in a highly confidential status in the clinic. They find out that a pathologist, Dr. Tristan Williams, from a clinic with similar name in Australia, has written a paper about a condition similar to theirs. On the spur of moment, they decide to go to Australia to visit the author. When they inquire about him at the facility, they get negative responses and are made to believe that they have made a wasted trip. When Wendy is killed in an unexpected accident involving shark, Marissa feel that her death is more than an unfortunate accident. After few fruitless efforts to find Dr. Williams, Marissa meets him in his current assignment. From him she learns about a practice where pairs of Chinese citizens who were smuggled into Australia work in the clinic regularly. Tristan tells Marissa that due to the paper he wrote, the FCA has taken retaliatory steps against him, like branding him with drugs and killing his wife two years ago. He has had to be constantly on the run, which made him send his only son to live with his in-laws to keep him safe. Marissa and Tristan team up together to get to the bottom of the mystery. Tristan suggests that there had to be a drug trafficking involved since the illegal Chinese workers were transported from the Republic of China and moved into Australia through Hong Kong. They decide to visit Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, as they try to get information on how they are able to transport people from China to Hong Kong, there are two more attempts to kill them. Both the attempts fail. During one attempt, Marissa's husband, who comes to Hong Kong to take Marissa back home, is killed by mistake. Finally, they get to meet one such pair who is to be transported from China to Hong Kong in a boat for the FCA. Marissa discovers that one of the pair was a martial arts expert, and his sole duty was to protect the other. The other person was a rural doctor from China. Marissa and Tristan question the pair about the drug business, but all their answers are negative. Soon, Marissa, Tristan and the Chinese doctor get stranded due to border patrol force. Marissa discovers that the rural doctors are trained to sterilize women as mitigation by the government to control the population. This sterilization is a simple remedy that can be done without making the patient unconscious. This comes as a shocking revelation, and helps Marissa put together all the things she has gone through. She finds out that the clinic is sterilizing its women patients who are coming in for regular check up. They also fail their initial in vitro cycles by making the fertilization medium more acidic. After 5 or 6 cycles, they let the couple have children. After this discovery, the CDC and FBI get involved to close up these clinics and take legal action. In the end, Marissa marries Tristan and the couple plan to adopt a Chinese baby from Hong Kong. nl:Embryo (boek) |
7870564 | /m/026gzfs | Charlotte Temple | Susanna Rowson | null | null | The book tells of the seduction of a British schoolgirl by a dashing soldier, John Montraville, who brings her to America and there abandons her, pregnant and ill. As such, it belongs to the seduction novel genre popular in early American literature. The novel opens upon an unexpected encounter between the British Lieutenant Montraville and Charlotte Temple, a tall, elegant girl of 15. Montraville sets his mind on seducing Charlotte and succeeds with the help of his libertine friend Belcour and Mademoiselle La Rue, a teacher at the boarding school Charlotte attends. Mademoiselle La Rue had herself eloped from a convent with a young officer and "possessed too much of the spirit of intrigue to remain long without adventures." Montraville soon loses interest in the young girl and, being led by Belcour to believe in Charlotte's infidelty towards him, trusts Belcour to take care of Charlotte and the child she expects. Following the advice of her new-found friend and neighbor Mrs. Beauchamp, Charlotte writes home to her mother. Her parents decide to receive her, her father even goes to New York to come get her. Without any financial support - Belcour does not give her the money Montraville put into his hands for her - Charlotte has to leave her house and, having walked to New York on a snowy winter's day, asks the former Mademoiselle La Rue, now Mrs. Crayton, for help. But the now wealthy woman pretends not to even know her for fear of her husband discovering the role she played in the girl's downfall. Charlotte is taken in by Mrs. Crayton's servant and soon gives birth to a child, Lucy. The doctor, however, has little hope of her recovering and asks a benevolent woman, Mrs. Beauchamp, for help. Mrs. Beauchamp is shocked when she recognizes Charlotte Temple in "the poor sufferer". The following day, Charlotte seems "tolerably composed" and Mrs. Beauchamp begins "to hope she might recover, and, spite of her former errors, become an useful and respectable member of society", but the doctor tells her that nature is only "making her last effort" Just as Charlotte is lying on her deathbed, her father arrives and Charlotte asks him to take care of her child. Upon returning to New York, Montraville goes in search of Belcour and Charlotte. Learning of her death and burial from a passing soldier, Montraville is filled with remorse for his part in her downfall, and angrily seeks out Belcour, killing him in a fight. Montraville suffers from melancholy for the rest of his life. Mr. Temple takes Charlotte's child back to England. The novel ends with the death of Mrs. Crayton (the former La Rue), who is discovered by Mr. Temple in a London doorway, separated from her husband, living in poverty, and repentant for her involvement in Charlotte's downfall. Mr. Temple admits her to a hospital, where she dies, "a striking example that vice, however prosperous in the beginning, in the end leads only to misery and shame." |
7872335 | /m/026h13c | Dead Famous | Ben Elton | 2001 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The novel is about a murder that occurs on a reality television programme called House Arrest, and the efforts of three police officers to identify the killer by watching all the video recordings of the ten housemates while the remaining housemates continue the reality television show. The novel jumps back and forth in time to show the events in the live video recordings, leading up to the night of the murder, where the remaining eight housemates at the time had to remain in an Indian sweat box- an old-style sauna with a pitch-black interior, the intention being to prompt the housemates to have sex-; the victim left the box to go to the toilet and the killer apparently left the box wrapped in a sheet to conceal their identity and stabbed the victim twice in the neck and head. Later, a note is found in an envelope that had been sealed weeks previously that says that the victim will be dead by the time the housemates read the note and that one of the three remaining housemates will be murdered. The police have to catch the killer before he or she strikes again. The killer is revealed on the final night of the show to be the show's producer, who had set up the murder to attract increased ratings for the show, faking the video footage of the killer leaving the sweat-box with the aid of her deputy producer; Detective Coleridge, an amateur actor, provokes a confession by creating fake video evidence of the producer's rehearsal murders. |
7873248 | /m/026h2d_ | Gossamer | Lois Lowry | null | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | The book's omniscient point of view, Littlest One, affectionately called Littlest, is out on a dark night. As she and her mentor, Fastidious, stealthily sneak into a woman and her dog's home and collect memories. At their home, the Heap, Fastidious complains about her curious student to Most Ancient. Thin Elderly and Fastidious decide that Thin Elderly will become Littlest's mentor, while Fastidious is assigned to a modern house. Littlest is part of a small sub-colony of dream-givers. Through touching, they gather fragments such as colors, words, sounds, and scents. They then combine the fragments to become dreams, and give the dreams to humans, and sometimes pets. The giving of dreams is called the bestowal. The next night, Thin Elderly and Littlest go back to the woman's house. On the way, Thin Elderly explains to be gentle in the touching, and not to delve, on the grounds that a dream-giver who picks up menacing fragments of the memory's "underside" becomes a Sinisteed, a horselike creature, which are transformed dream-givers who inflict nightmares. Thin Elderly gladly discovers that Littlest has the "gossamer touch"; the ability to gather and bestow with great subtlety. The woman reveals that she is to take an angry 8-year-old boy named John into her household and must learn to deal with the troubles in his life. A young dream-giver named Strapping is introduced. His home, assigned as a mild punishment, is a dilapidated and messy apartment owned by an unhappy occupant, a thin, sad woman who lived there alone. As he bestows a dream on the lonely woman, she cries out her son's name, John, which reveals that she is John's mother. When John arrives at the woman's home, he displays his anger by acting contemptuous of his surrounding. The caretaker, for her part, displays only kindness. At the dream-givers' Heap, Most Ancient reports that the Sinisteeds are gathering, intent on a particular victim. That night, Littlest and Thin Elderly experience a Sinisteed at work. It inflicts John with a nightmare. He cries out in his sleep, whereupon the woman calms him by reminding him of a happy moment of his past. Littlest and Thin Elderly then gather comforting fragments to help strengthen him after the nightmare. During the day, Strapping's assignment, the young woman, speaks on a telephone, asking to have a receptionist's job and salary. She tells the listener to tell her son that he will be back home soon; that she loved him; and that she dreamed of him last night. Littlest, that night, decides she must touch the dog, seeking to derive fragments from him. Thin Elderly protests, as they are advised not to touch living creatures, but allows her to do so. Littlest notices how tender John was to a pink seashell, to Toby, and to a chrysalis he had found, in which is growing a butterfly. She gathers fragments from Toby, and bestows them as part of a dream. The young woman (Strapping's assignment) begins working in a school. She reflects on how bad her old life was for her son, John, because of her abusive husband, Duane. She now has hope of making friends, which Duane had not allowed her to do. Thin Elderly is proud of Littlest's bestowal, because John is happy in his dreams. Littlest explains that the fragments she collected had a bit of a story in each one, which she put together in her mind. Strapping is satisfied with his work. Strapping discovers he has a liking and a hope for the woman. Accordingly he gives her dreams of hope, and of a better future with her son. John tells a story to the old woman about a young boy who ate dog food, having been ordered to do so by his father, who had seen the boy run naked through the house and urinate on the floor. The father had accused the son of behaving like a dog, and so given him dog food for all his meals. The woman realizes that John is telling a story about himself, explaining his past abuse and his own harsh behavior. That night, Littlest and Thin Elderly discover that a Horde of Sinisteeds intend to inflict nightmares on John and his caretaker. The two dream-givers respond by bestowing strengthening dreams. They are nearly killed in the stampede of the Horde, but are able to counteract the nightmares and strengthen the humans. This is the story's climax. John enters school, and has become a much happier child. Littlest's dreams and the old woman's care have helped him begin to heal. Littlest is commendeded for her work. She learns that she is to be reassigned; a possibility not hitherto considered. She wishes to remain assigned to John, whom she has come to love and cherish, but is told by Thin Elderly that dream-givers are not permitted to generate human emotions. Littlest One's experience with the boy have helped her grow more mature, and as a result she is given the name Gossamer and given a new dream-giver, New Littlest One, to train. |
7873810 | /m/026h2y4 | What my Mother Doesn't Know | Sonya Sones | 2001 | {"/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | At the start of the novel, Sophie finds herself dumped by her current boyfriend Lou, then immediately falls into a new relationship with Dylan, a boy considered the height of masculine beauty by her friends. As they date, Sophie discovers she does not really love or even like Dylan all that much and ends their relationship in favor of not actually liking his personality. She then forms a secret romance with an internet chat-room boy named Chaz. Before she meets Chaz in person, Sophie discovers he is a pervert and ends the relationship quickly. Now on her own, in real life, she encounters an outcast classmate, Robin Murphy, at the local art museum and is astonished to realize that while he is not physically attractive or liked by her friends, she falls in love with him. The book ends with Sophie choosing to sit with Robin in the cafeteria instead of her friends, knowing that revealing her secret relationship to her friends and classmates would be okay. The companion book What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know, written from the perspective of Sophie's boyfriend Robin (Murphy), was published in 2007. |
7879672 | /m/026hbxl | Fury | Aaron Allston | 11/27/2007 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | After the Hapans, led by Tenel Ka, decide to leave the Galactic Alliance, Jacen Solo/Darth Caedus devises a plan and kidnaps Allana to force Tenel Ka to continue supporting the government. Meanwhile, a Jedi strike team, led by Jedi Master Kyle Katarn, tries to take on Darth Caedus on Coruscant, but Caedus prevails with the help of some guards, ending with the decapitation of Mithric, a Falleen Jedi. However, the team successfully places a tracking beacon on Caedus. Later, the team of Han, Leia, Jaina, Jag and Zekk slips aboard the Anakin Solo to get information on Dark Jedi Alema Rar, and with it they track her down to Lumiya's asteroid home and kill her with Jag's Mandalorian crushgauntlets. Also, Zekk sets Ship free with the use of the dark side of the Force, and Jaina helps him back to the light side afterwards. Jacen also decides to tell Allana that he is her father after she discovered that he kidnapped her rather than legitimately taking care of her. The climax begins with the Jedi interfering in the midst of a battle between the Galactic Alliance and the Confederation over Centerpoint Station in the Corellian system. A Jedi team, led by Kyp Durron with Valin Horn and Jaden Korr, sneaks aboard Centerpoint Station in an attempt to destroy it. The Jedi team rescues Allana from Caedus (using Luke, Ben and Saba Sebatyne as a distraction). Kyp and the others have a code installed set to destroy Centerpoint Station in order to prevent anybody else from using it again. Han, Leia, Luke, Ben, and Saba make it back to the Millennium Falcon, being piloted by Jag and Kyle who rescue them. As they escape, Centerpoint Station explodes due to sabotage, taking with it much of the Corellian Fleets, Commenorian Fleets, and the GA Fifth Fleet. Kyle remarks that the destruction of Centerpoint station left a void in the Force. The story ends with the revelation of Allana's parentage to Han and Leia. Jaina then hints to Jag that she is going to seek out Boba Fett in order to learn some skills for the final showdown between her and her twin brother. The book was also available in the audiobook and E-Book formats. Abridged Compact Disc Read by Marc Thompson On Sale: November 27, 2007 ISBN 978-0-7393-2400-4 Published by: Random House Audio Abridged Audiobook Download Read by Marc Thompson On Sale: November 27, 2007 ISBN 978-0-7393-5695-1 E-Book On Sale: April 29, 2008 ISBN 978-0-345-51054-9 Published by: LucasBooks |
7882343 | /m/026hfj3 | Anastasia At Your Service | Lois Lowry | 1982 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | A long, boring summer—that's what Anastasia has to look forward to when her best friend goes off to camp. She's thrilled when old Mrs. Bellingham answers her ad for a job as a Lady's Companion. Anastasia is sure her troubles are over—she'll be busy and earn money! But she doesn't expect to have to polish silver and serve at Mrs. Bellingham's granddaughter's birthday party as a maid! As if that isn't bad enough, she accidentally drops a piece of silverware down the garbage disposal and must use her earnings to pay for it! Is the summer destined to be a disaster? |
7882430 | /m/026hfrp | Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst | Lois Lowry | 1984 | {"/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | Feeling in desperate need of psychotherapy, seventh-grader Anastasia buys a plaster bust of Sigmund Freud at a garage sale and consults him as her life takes a series of twists and turns. Freud remains enigmatic and unjudgmental as Anastasia's science project goes hopelessly awry and even her usually unflappable mother, Katherine Krupnik, loses her cool. |
7882483 | /m/026hfx4 | Anastasia on her Own | Lois Lowry | 1985 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | Anastasia's mother, who is a children's book illustrator, finds out that she is being flown to California to act as a consultant for a film being made from a book that she illustrated. At first, Anastasia thinks that being in charge of the house in her mother's absence will be a snap, particularly when she and her father make up an easy to follow, super-organized housekeeping list. Unexpected events, however, keep shaking up Anastasia's domestic bliss. First, her younger brother Sam gets the chicken pox, and Anastasia has to stay home from school to take care of him. Then her boyfriend, Steve, asks her out on their first real date—but she finds out she can't go out with him because she has to stay home to chaperone a meeting between her father and Annie, one of his ex-girlfriends. Anastasia wants to plan a romantic dinner for herself and Steve, but worries that the romantic setting will affect her father and Annie. Numerous disasters—small and large—strike, but luckily Anastasia won't be on her own for long, as her mother is able to come home early and straighten things out again. Her mother's arrival brought her peace and happiness. |
7882578 | /m/026hg2b | Anastasia at this Address | null | 1991 | {"/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | Just when her three best friends vow to give up boys, Anastasia Krupnik begins a secret kissing boy club with her ideal man, carefully selected from the personals column in her father's magazine. "SWM, 28, boyish charm, inherited wealth, looking for tall young woman, nonsmoker, to share Caribbean vacations, reruns of Casablanca, and romance." Sure, Anastasia is only thirteen, but a difference in age is a small obstacle when two people are on the same wave length. And she, a tall, young movie buff who hates smoking, is certain that SWM (a.k.a. single white male) is on her wavelength. Heaven knows, she is definitely ready for romance. When she actually receives a reply from her SWM, it is the start of another hilarious and ever original episode in the eventful life of our heroine extraordinaire, the outspoken, irresistible Anastasia Krupnik. |
7883262 | /m/026hgx4 | Fatal Cure | Robin Cook | 1993 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Fatal Cure tells the story of two young doctors, with their 9-year-old daughter who suffers from a chronic disease, cystic fibrosis, who are lured to a small town in Vermont to start a career. David gets a job as an internist with the local HMO, while Angela gets an offer from the local hospital as a pathologist. The story takes aim at managed care and health maintenance organizations. David and Angela quickly find out that their idyllic town harbors dark secrets. Patients at the local hospital keep dying prematurely. The hospital grounds are terrorized by a rapist, and the young family is shocked to find a dead body in their basement. Angela is faced with sexual harassment and David soon experiences the wrath of the HMO administrators for spending too much time with his patients and ordering too many tests and hospital stays. David and Angela end up not just getting fired from their jobs -and deeply in debt, but their lives are threatened as well. The novel ends with a dénouement somewhat similar to Silence of the Lambs. nl:Fataal (boek) pl:Zabójcza kuracja |
7883543 | /m/026hh5f | The Artist's Way | Julia Cameron | 1992 | null | * History Starting as a collection of tips and hints from different artists and authors, The Artist's Way was collected into a single book and self published by Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan as a set of helpful methods for maximizing the creativity and productivity of artists. The book was originally titled, Healing the Artist Within, and was turned down by the William Morris literary agency, before being self-published. After the book began to sell widely, the title was then changed, when the book was published by Jeremy Tarcher (now The Penguin Group) in 1992. The book went on to reach the Top 10 best seller list and onto the list of the Top 100 Best Self-Help Books of All Time. The book was eventually put into the "Self-Publishing Hall of Fame" after selling millions of copies worldwide. Cameron maintains throughout the book that creative inspiration is from and of a divine origin and influence, that artist seeking to enable creativity need to understand and believe in."God is an artist. So are we. And we can cooperate with each other. Our creative dreams and longings do come from a divine source, not from the human ego." |
7884360 | /m/026hjgc | Acceptable Risk | Robin Cook | 1995 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The book begins with the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 where Elizabeth Stewart is prosecuted on suspicions of being a witch. This occurs on the insistence of witnesses who see children acting strangely after eating rye bread. Despite the pleas of her husband who happens to be a wealthy shipbuilder, she is executed at the insistence of Reverend Increase Mather, who convinces her husband with a mysterious evidence. Three hundred years later, the Stewart family fortune is inherited by Kimberly Stewart(a nurse). Kim is introduced to the brilliant scientist Edward Armstrong by their mutual friend Stanton Lewis. The two immediately fall in love. A casual visit to her old family house in Salem proves to be a turning point in the story. In the basement of the old house, Edward finds a new strain of Claviceps purpurea which induces a great sense of calmness, sexual drive, confidence, etc. Edward immediately assembles a team and begin working on developing the new drug with help from Stanton.To save time Edward and his team starts taking the drug themselves. During this time Kim is working on finding out about the evidence that was used to convict her ancestor. Finding out that the evidence is in the possession of Harvard University, she makes enquiries in that direction. Soon strange things begin happening in Salem Town. The town begins experiencing acts of vandalism, and even murder. Meanwhile Kim finally locates the evidence mentioned in the letter. It turns out to be the fetus of a deformed baby which was given birth by Elizabeth. The fetus is taken as evidence by the clergy of her covenant with devil. Kim rushes home to inform Edward that the drug they are taking has teratogenic effects. However at home she is attacked by Edward and his team who are in a kind of trance. In the ensuing pursuit the house is set ablaze killing all but two of the researchers. |
7887222 | /m/026hp8t | All About Sam | null | null | {"/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | Sam is a mischievous little boy, but mostly curious. He is very smart, and from the day he was born, Anastasia was jealous. |
7887281 | /m/026hpdy | Attaboy Sam! | null | null | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | Why won't Sam Krupnik allow his mother to enter his bedroom? Why has he started calling his toy box The Lab? And why does he carry a Ziplock bag in his pocket at all times? What's the big secret? Well, his mother's birthday is approaching, and she has told her family that what she really wants are homemade gifts. Sam has decided to invent a special, surprise perfume just for her - a concoction that will combine all of her favorite smells. Now the question is: Exactly how does one go about bottling the quirky collection of scents on Mrs. Krupnik's list of favorites? If anyone can find a way - or at least have loads of fun trying - it's Sam, Anastasia's precocious younger brother.On summer reading list. |
7887336 | /m/026hphp | See You Around, Sam! | null | null | null | Anastasia Krupnik's little brother, Sam, wants fangs more than anything in the world. But there is one big problem. Sam's mother, Mrs. Krupnik, has fangphobia and forbids Sam even to touch his plastic vampire fangs in the house. How can she not see how cool fangs really are? Sure, they make it hard to eat hot dogs, but they make him look disgusting - and Sam loves to look disgusting. So Sam decides to run away to Alaska, where "fanged" walruses lie around in a pile and sharp teeth are generally accepted. He packs his mittens and bear in his father's Harvard University gym bag and sets off, but just down the block, Lowell Watson, the mailman, reminds him he will need food for Alaska. Neighbor Gertrude Stein's homemade chocolate chip cookies are just the thing. And how can he leave without saying goodbye to the Sheehans' baby, Kelly? He needs a glass of water, and there really isn't any reason to hurry to Alaska ... In See You Around, Sam!, Lois Lowry continues to give Anastasia's brother a voice of his own. As the quirky characters on his block welcome him into their homes one by one, he discovers the true meaning of community. |
7887362 | /m/026hpl2 | Zooman Sam | Lois Lowry | 1999 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | It's Future Job Day at Sam's nursery school, and Sam, who has zookeeping aspirations, is thrilled when his teacher says he can tell the other children about a series of zoo animals: "For six weeks he could stand in front of the circle and feel that feeling of being the most interesting person in the room." As always, the patient and loving Krupnik family stands by as Anastasia's irrepressible little brother struggles with a set of almost impossible goals. |
7887818 | /m/026hq4_ | The Report Card | Andrew Clements | 2004 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Since a young age, Nora has been secretly hiding her extraordinary intelligence from her parents and teachers, and still trying her best to do badly in school to prove to herself as "nothing more than average." She shows no concern over it and gets grounded by her parents. However, after researching things over the Internet in the school's library, Nora accidentally exposes herself and is forced to tell the truth to the librarian, Mrs. Byrne, who is fascinated by her intelligence. Then, she meets Dr. Trindler, who gives her an I.Q. test, on which she receives a score of 188. After that, Nora unintentionally throws a tantrum before her classmates, her talents finally uncovered. She is forced to discuss and give good ideas during P.E. class, though she has trouble doing so. Things take a turn when her results get released. She has to face Ms. Hackney, the principal of Philbrook Elementary, to explain herself for scoring a zero on three tests. She explains that she dislikes the tests for being too knowledge-based, but her actions soon cause a great commotion in school when her best friend, Stephen, starts a campaign to call upon all students to follow her act and start a rebellion - to score zero in the next examination. In the end, after a school meeting, Stephen and Nora apologize on behalf of the involved students before the whole school. She rejects any offer from her parents and the school to promote her to middle school for higher education, as she prefers to stay normal. Nora Rose Rowley: The main character of the story and secretive genius. Her appearance is described as being short with reddish-blond hair. Researching is her favorite hobby. She was so intelligent by kindergarten, that she taught herself to understand Spanish by watching the Univision channel and to read National Geographic. Nora loves astronomy, Latin, archaeology, and soccer. Her mother describes Nora as thoughtful, kind and caring. She has two siblings: Ann and Todd. Her best friend is Stephen who has average intelligence but still gets better grades than Nora. Stephen: Nora's best friend. He has been struggling with school for a long time. His self-confidence is poor due to low grades. His favorite subject is English. He has never said one mean or angry thing. Ms. Hackney: The principal at Nora's school. She is one of the people in the meeting to explain her low grades. Mrs. Byrne: The librarian at Philbrook Elementary School. She was one of the first to find out about Nora's unusually high intelligence and played a large role in carrying out her plan. Mrs. Lake: Her Teacher. Dr. Trindler: The guidance counselor. Ms. Noyes: Nora's Social Studies and English teacher. Mrs. Zhang: Nora's Science and Math teacher. Ms. Prill: Nora's art teacher. Mrs. Card: Nora's music teacher. Mr. McKay: Nora's PE (gym) teacher. Mrs. Rowley: Mother Tyler: A very unusual kid. Todd: Nora's older brother Ann: Nora's older smart sister |
7888165 | /m/026hqm2 | The Courts of the Morning | John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir | null | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The book opens with a prologue narrated by Hannay, describing how Hannay is approached by the American military attache in London to covertly solve the mystery of Blenkiron's disappearance in South America. Hannay seeks out his friend Sandy Arbuthnot for help, but Sandy soon disappears, sending Hannay a mysterious letter saying to lie low and keep quiet. The action next moves to Olifa, where Archie and Janet Roylance are honeymooning. The Roylances are intrigued by two sets of people they meet: a party of boorish American tourists and the strange, half-sleepwalking copper miners from the city of Gran Seco, which is ruled by a powerful mining tycoon, Gobernador Castor. As Archie and Janet explore and befriend Castor, it becomes clear that the Americans are using their apparently innocent curiosity as a cover for spying on Castor, and that one of them may by Sandy in disguise. Sandy meets Archie and Janet in secret and tells them they are in danger, but they insist on staying and helping him uncover Castor's plot. At the hacienda of Olifan Don Luis, Sandy explains what he and Blenkiron have uncovered: Castor enslaves Indians, pulls the strings of the government, controls his followers using a local drug, astura, and is a megalomaniac out to destroy democracy by causing civil war in America. Sandy and Don Luis plan to lead an Indian uprising that will not fight Castor but call him leader, embarrassing him. Everyone agrees to help, and Archie and Janet use their friendship with Castor to kidnap him, while Sandy and Blenkiron begin the revolution by seizing the copper mines. Sandy has a close shave with death in which he discovers his old school pal Lariarty is one of Castor's addicted minions. The second part of the story is set at the titular Courts of the Morning, the rebel's secret base in the north of Olifa. Here, Janet and Barbara Dasent, Blenkiron's niece, try to reform Castor into a decent human being. Meanwhile, Sandy and Don Luis engage in guerrilla warfare against the superior Olifa army. Castor's closest confidants, lost without their supply of the drug, make at attempt to rescue Castor but capture Janet instead, kidnapping her. This incident wins Castor entirely to the rebel cause, but a distraught Archie flies into the wild Indian territory to search for Janet, crashing his plane and wandering through the jungle. In the Indian country, Janet is held prisoner for seven days, finally escaping with the help of Archie and Don Luis. In the concluding section, Don Luis reveals that he has been planning a general revolution for three years and the country is ready to rise. Castor, a man reborn, takes the command from Sandy. The Olifa army remains a threat until Sandy daringly blows up a mountain pass, cutting the huge army in two and allowing the rebels to take enough prisoners to force the government to surrender. At the moment of victory, however, the drug addicts make one final revenge attempt, killing Castor and Lariarty, although Janet and Barbara survive. Don Luis is elected the new president, and Sandy refuses a prestigious post in favour of returning home to Scotland and marrying Barbara. |
7888735 | /m/026hr38 | Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy | Gary D. Schmidt | 2004 | {"/m/02p0szs": "Historical fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | This book is set in 1912. Turner Buckminster, the son of Reverend Buckminster (Preacher in Phippsburg, Maine), has just moved from Boston, Massachusetts to Phippsburg, Maine and is constantly being teased for simple misunderstandings, not to mentioned being automatically disliked by the boys of Phippsburg for playing baseball differently. Turner meets an african-american girl, Lizzie Bright Griffin, befriends her, despite his difficulty with social situations. Turner has to save Lizzie's family and friends before they all must leave Malaga Island. But that means standing up to the authorities, including Turner's father. |
7889378 | /m/026hrx0 | In the Heat of the Night | John Ball | 1965 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction"} | Virgil Tibbs is an experienced Pasadena homicide investigator passing through Wells, a small town in South Carolina. When local police officer Sam Wood chances upon him waiting for a connecting train, he swiftly takes him into custody where Tibbs is questioned about a murder solely because he is black. This, in the first two chapters of the novel, sets the mood for the story: about the struggle and the prejudice that even the educated Tibbs experiences in the South. Despite these obstacles, Tibbs reluctantly agrees to help the local police force, commanded by Chief Bill Gillespie, in their murder investigation. Tibbs constantly shoots down any murder accusations brought forth by Gillespie and is eventually accepted by Wood and Gillespie as he solves the murder case. |
7889688 | /m/026hs9s | Frostbite | David Wellington | null | {"/m/03npn": "Horror"} | Frostbite takes place in the remote wilderness of Alberta. The setting is similar to the real world, but where werewolves (and possibly other supernatural phenomena) are rare but known phenomena. The novel opens with Cheyenne "Chey" Clarke parachuting into the wilds of Alberta, provisioned with extensive hiking supplies, most of which are immediately lost. Chey is soon attacked by a werewolf (it is indicated to the reader that the creature is obviously not a normal wolf), but survives with only a scratch, which is enough to curse her with lycanthropy. In wandering the wilderness, she meets the enigmatic Dzo, who introduces her to Monty Powell, a werewolf (presumably the one who attacked Chey). After their meeting, it is revealed that Chey has secretly come looking for the werewolf, and is working with outside parties who want him removed. After a failed attempt to kill Powell, Chey is left in the care of her backers, and used as bait to lure Powell while her own future at their hands remains questionable. |
7889877 | /m/026hsh8 | Hammered | Elizabeth Bear | 12/28/2004 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Story of Canadian Master Warrant Officer Jenny Casey an ex-soldier who has cybernetic replacements for an arm and an eye that she lost during combat. Jenny's former commander, who was responsible for replacing her limbs, contacts her to bring her into a secret government/corporate project that she is uniquely qualified to participate in. |
7893412 | /m/026hygv | The Secret of the League | Ernest Bramah | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/026ny": "Dystopia"} | In the fictional British history depicted in the book the Labour Party wins an overwhelming majority in general elections and sets up a government. They do not institute a full Socialist economy, but they do constantly raise wages, heavily tax the upper classes and create a large government bureaucracy. In foreign policy, the Labour Government takes a conciliatory policy towards other powers and curtails military spending. A powerful upper-class cabal (the "League" of the title), whose members feel that "the country is going to the dogs", makes careful secret preparations for overthrowing the government. Over two years they secretly hoard large quantities of fuel oil and convert coal-burning plants to oil-burning. Then, they suddenly announce a consumer strike against the coal industry - at the time, a central pillar of the British economy - and cause large-scale unemployment and distress among coal miners and secondary industries dependent on coal. This culminates in civil war, in which the upper class conspirators gain foreign help and emerge victorious. Once in power, they forcibly dismantle the trade unions and institute a "strong" non-parliamentary regime in many ways resembling the Fascist regimes which arose decades after the book's publication. As mentioned, the "League" members are the Good Guys of the story and their acts are depicted as positive and worthy. The policies which Bramah attributed to his fictional Labour Government proved a good prediction of those actually enacted by the Labour Government of Attlee which swept to power following the British 1945 elections. Bramah's fictional scenario bears considerable resemblance to the way that the Socialist government of President Salvador Allende in Chile (1970–1973) was "destabilised" and eventually overthrown with the help of the United States. |
7895098 | /m/026j02d | The Kalahari Typing School for Men | Alexander McCall Smith | 2002 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/028v3": "Detective fiction"} | The book starts out with Mma Ramotswe talking to her fiance, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, about the future of her assistant, Mma Grace Makutsi, who seems to have difficulty finding suitable men. When Mma Ramotswe talks to Mma Makutsi about this, the latter takes on a demeanor of defeat, and the conversation ends at that. The focus shifts to Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's garage, and more specifically, the apprentices, formerly described as lazy young men "always looking at girls." However, there is quite a change in the younger apprentice, who seems to have found religion and is now uninterested in discussing girls, to the chagrin of his fellow apprentice. When Mma Ramotswe arrives at home, both of her foster children seem down, with Motholeli and Puso being the subject of mainly verbal bullying. Motheleli seems to get over this, however Puso projects his anger at his foster parents and says that he "hates them." To increase her income, Mma Makutsi decides to open a typing school just for men, because, in her view, men usually cannot or don't want to type because they don't want to be bettered by women or do not want to be seen doing "woman's work". She manages to procure typewriters from her alma mater, the Botswana Secretarial College, and finds a place to teach at the younger apprentice's church. This business is very successful. Mma Makutsi then gets involved with one of her students, a Mr. Bernard Selelipeng, a married man passing himself off as divorced. Consequent to parallel developments involving Mma Ramotswe, Mr. Selelipeng is forced to break off with Mma Makutsi (See below) To solve the current problem with Puso, Mma Ramotswe goes to the orphanage to consult the matron, Mma Silvia Potokwane, about him. Mma Potokwane's advises having Mr J.L.B Matekoni act as more of a father to the boy. Mr. J.L.B Matekoni does this, with apparently favorable results. The story ends with a picnic, attended by the apprentices, Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, Rra and Mma Potokwane, Mma Boko, and Mr. Molefelo and his family (see below). A rival detective agency, called the Satisfaction Guaranteed Agency has come to town. The business is owned by Cephas Buthelezi, "Ex-CID, Ex-New York, Ex-cellent!". Whether he has actually been to New York is questionable, since he never answers Mma Makutsi's questions about it directly. He is of Zulu origin. His advertising is extremely derogatory about the No. 1 agency in a somewhat sideways manner; he implies that you need a man to do detective work properly. However, his hubris is repaid and at the end of the book, he comes into the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and says he is giving up the business. The Molefelo Case: Mr. Molefelo is a prosperous civil engineer in Lobatse who is also the proprietor of a hotel and landowner with an ostrich ranch. As a young student at the Botswana Technical College in Gaborone, he had a girlfriend whom he had made pregnant. In order to pay for an abortion (which is illegal in Botswana) he had to pay 100 pula (about $20). Since he had no way to get money, he stole a radio from his host family, the Tsolamoseses. After the abortion, he got angry with his girlfriend and broke up with her. After nearly getting killed by ostrich rustlers, Molefelo wants to set his life straight and apologize to both his girlfriend (named Tebogoå Bathopi) and the Tsolamoseses, and enlists Mma Ramotswe's help in finding them. The Selelipeng Case: Mma Selelipeng comes to the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency to confide in Mma Ramotswe that her husband is probably cheating on her. She also says that she tried Mr. Buthelezi's agency, but they did a most "unsatisfactory" job. Mma Ramotswe must now do a balancing act between satisfying the client and protecting Mma Makutsi. sv:Kalaharis skrivmaskinsskola för män |
7895763 | /m/026j0vh | The Butterfly Revolution | null | null | null | Set in an American summer camp for boys, Camp High Pines, the novel is written as the diary of thirteen-year-old protagonist Winston Weyn. Winston, an intelligent and somewhat bookish boy, is sent to Camp High Pines as a gift for his birthday. Winston's father, who is concerned by his son's lack of interest in "normal" activities such as sports and playing outside, feels attending camp will be a healthy activity for his son. The campers at High Pines are categorized in three groups: the smallest boys (roughly 9–11 years old), the medium-sized boys (roughly 12–14 years old), and the older boys (somewhere between 15 and 17 years old). Winston, who falls into the middle category, attends camp along with his older brother, Howard, who falls in the latter. Because Winston initially believes he will not like the camp, he brings a few books and the diary his uncle gave him for his birthday. Upon arrival, Winston actually finds the camp to be bearable, and gets along with most of the other boys in his cabin. He is even elected cabin leader, a position he takes quite seriously. Winston also meets a strange, charismatic older boy named Frank Reilley, who is somewhat influential among the older boys and seems to take a liking to Winston's intelligence. Conflicts begin to appear at High Pines soon after the boys arrive. One of the first is between Winston and some of the boys in his cabin after he creates a cabin rule that puts a fine on swearing. Later, it begins to become obvious that some of the older boys, most of whom are more or less apathetic about attending the camp, resent the authority of Mr. Warren, the camp director, and some of the members of his staff. When the older boys are forced to go on a butterfly hunt, they are mortified and resist participating in such a juvenile activity. These older boys, led by Frank Reilley and another boy named Stanley Runk (also known as "Runk the Punk"), begin to plot a revolutionary takeover of the camp. Also privy to this process are Winston and a couple of friends of his from the middle age group. The only older boy to voice dissent to the idea is Don Egriss, a thoughtful and introspective African-American boy who is one of the only minorities present at the camp. Stanley Runk, armed with a large hunting knife, overpowers Mr. Warren and, using him as a hostage, the other boys round up the rest of the teachers. After having thrown the adults into The Brig, the camp's "jail", the boys plot to and succeed in taking Low Pines, the sister camp for girls nearby, and capturing the adults there as well. At first, the Revolution goes smoothly, with little resistance from the younger campers or the girls. Various teenage and preteen boys and girls are made "officers" and given charge over various aspects of the Revolution. Winston is put in charge of propaganda. In addition, a "Supreme Revolutionary Committee", or "SRC", consisting of Frank Reilley and some of his more trusted cohorts, makes all important decisions. Winston, as "Chairman of the Propaganda Committee", soon becomes part of the SRC. Several campers begin to question the revolution, however. One of the first, Frank Divordich, is beaten for being a "traitor" to the revolution after he tries to leave the camp. Winston becomes uneasy at the level of totalitarian control beginning to become evident in the camp's operations. He reads about the ideas of philosophers such as Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Thoreau, and these readings only serve to deepen his uncertainty in regards to the morality of the revolution. When he voices these concerns, a boy named George Meridel tries to denounce him as a Communist. At the same time, the revolution faces other internal conflicts as Reilley finds himself in a power struggle with co-revolutionary leader Stanley Runk and discovers that John Mason, another "officer", sexually assaulted one of the girls at Low Pines. Both Runk and Mason are thrown in The Brig, and Winston learns that Reilley has in his possession a gun that belonged to Mr. Warren. Winston then enters a conflict with the SRC by refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance each morning, and Don Egriss tries to escape the camp but is captured. Winston is demoted to a militiaman in the defensive army formed by the SRC, and placed under the control of his enemy, Bob Daly. When he hits Bob Daly with a wooden lance, he is jailed temporarily, but released. Soon after his release Don Egriss and John Mason get into a fight in The Brig. Mr. Warren's gun is thrown into the cell and Egriss, fearing for his life, shoots Mason in self-defense, killing him. Meanwhile, the girls at Low Pines have been actively calling for John Mason's blood due to the rape he committed. Reilley has tried to hold the girls off, because he does not want to let them take the law into their own hands. With Mason dead, the girls threaten violence and are given Don Egriss instead. They lynch Egriss, hanging him from a tree, and then leave his body to rot in the woods. Winston, saddened by the death of his friend and convinced that Reilley is crazy, buries Don. Soon after, the revolution ends with the police invading High Pines and taking several children, including Winston, into custody. The police interrogate Winston about his activities on the SRC and ask if he really read Communist books and refused to say the Pledge, which he does not deny. Winston is then released to his parents. It is also revealed that Mr. Warren, the camp director, was killed by Reilley and some of his cohorts, who had hidden Warren's body in a cave by the lake near High Pines. Winston, who feels he has lost his innocence, is comforted by his uncle, who appears proud of Winston for surviving the incident and learning to think about ethical and moral issues in the process. |
7896162 | /m/026j1b9 | Terrier | Tamora Pierce | 2006-10 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The story is told in the form of a series of journal entries made by Beka Cooper as she trains to become a Dog, a nickname for the guards in the employ of the Lord Provost of Tortall, with a prelude taken from Eleni Cooper's diary in which she relates Beka's story to her son George. Beka is also the surrogate daughter of the Provost, having helped him capture a band of dangerous criminals when she was only 8 years old. Lord Gershom adopts her, her mother, and her brothers and sisters from the "scummer" life of Mutt Piddle Lane, where the very poor lived. Beka begins her training assigned as a Puppy, or a Dog in his or her first year of training, to two revered senior Dogs in the Lower City: Clara "Clary" Goodwin and Matthias "Mattes" Tunstall. Though the Dogs are initially unsure of their new charge, Beka proves to be a valuable resource, although she is extremely shy and has a hard time speaking in front of people. Through Beka's unusual magical abilities, she is able to hear the voices of ghosts who ride the backs of pigeons until they are ready to enter the Peaceful Realms of the Black God (the god of death,) and hear snippets of conversations that may contain valuable information caught by "dust spinners", swirls of breeze and dirt mixed from the city streets. From these sources she learns of two grave threats to the Lower City. One is the Shadow Snake. Old bedtime tales featured the Shadow Snake as something to instill good behaviors into children. However, a ruthless killer who abducts children has taken on the name, and uses the threat of harming the children to force their parents to give up their most prized valuable possessions, killing the kidnapped children if the price is not paid. The other threat is an unknown party who keeps hiring digging crews to search for fire opals,(rare and extremely expensive stones that not only have irresistible beauty, but supply mages with a certain power) swearing the workers to secrecy, and killing them when the job is done. Beka's determination to see both parties brought to justice will place her in the middle of a power struggle in Tortall's underworld. Beka's cat, Pounce, helps Beka throughout the book. Pounce has purple eyes and is it has been observed that he may be god marked. Tamora Pierce has noted in her blog that Pounce is the same character known as Faithful, Alanna's cat in the Song of the Lioness quartet. It is worth noting that the first name that is suggested for Faithful was "Pounce." However, in the second novel in this series it is revealed that Pounce is actually a constellation, not a god. However, he has the ability to speak, hear Beka's thoughts at close range when she wishes, and perform tasks most cats cannot. Crookshank's (Crookshank being a landlord who owns most property in the Lower City and is hated by everyone for his unfairly high rates and his cruel retaliation when rent cannot be paid) grandson, Roland, is killed by the alleged Shadow Snake. Beka is best friends with Tansy, Crookshank's daughter-in-law, which helps Beka gain extra information about what is going on in the household. Through her training as a Dog, her time spent with pigeons and Dust Spinners, and with the help of her friends Kora, Rosto, and Aniki (a mage, rusher, and a sword fighter who work for the Rogue, the king of crime in the city) Beka gains information about the opals and the Shadow Snake. She soon discovers that it is Crookshank who has been hiring the diggers to be murdered, and the Shadow Snake is demanding a large number of fire opals. After Crookshank's son has also been taken by the Snake, and he still refuses to pay up, Beka and her Dogs discover the culprit- or at least who they think is the culprit. The son of Mistress Noll, a local baker, who suicides instead of allowing himself to be captured. Beka goes to tell Mistress Noll the news and discovers it was not her son, but the mother who was the Snake, and the angry baker woman sends a curse flying at Beka. However, Pounce gets in the way and swallows the curse, giving Beka time to arrest Mistress Noll, who is later brought to justice for her crimes. Crookshank later dies in a riot, and Rosto, Beka's rusher friend, becomes Rogue. |
7896588 | /m/026j1sd | The Elves of Cintra | Terry Brooks | 8/28/2007 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Beginning where Armageddon's Children ended, Knight of the Word Logan Tom races to save the gypsy morph Hawk and his girlfriend Tessa from being thrown to their deaths from atop Safeco Field. He is too late but learns that a brilliant white light enveloped the two as they fell, apparently saved by an unknown magic. Logan doesn't know where they have gone, but sees a demon invasion force preparing to land at Seattle's waterfront. Meanwhile, the Ghosts head toward the agreed upon rendezvous point and Logan Tom goes to find them. While evacuating the city, Panther and Sparrow are separated from the Ghost tribe. The Ghosts encounter a group of mutant children on the freeway, and escape them but not before Squirrel is killed. Logan runs into Panther and Sparrow, helping them fight off Croaks and reunite with the tribe. They leave the city in Logan's all-terrain vehicle as they see the demon hordes besiege Safeco Field. Owl realizes their dog Cheney has gone missing. The Lady of the Word appears to Logan and tells him to head south to the Columbia River where Hawk will meet them with many followers. He is also told that another Knight of the Word will bring the Elves and their magic, upon which humankind's future depends. She tasks him with protecting them all, no matter the cost. As he and the Ghosts travel south, the Weatherman succumbs to plague, and they pick up two new companions, a partially mutated Lizard named Cat (for Catayla) and her pet cat named Rabbit. They also have a run-in with killer robots at Oronyx Experimental Robotics Systems. Later they are ambushed by followers of Krilka Koos, a rogue Knight of the Word that Logan had once heard about (from the Spiders in the mountains when trying to reach Seattle in Armageddon's Children). near Longview. In exchange for the children's safety, Logan agrees to go with them to meet Krilka. Krilka, having fallen from the Word, asks Logan to join his own crusade. Logan refuses and is forced to fight the Knight of the Word surrounded by Krilka's army. Logan Tom narrowly wins, but refuses to kill Krilka, who vows to hunt down and kill Logan and the Ghosts. He then plunges a poison dart into Logan's leg. Delirious, Logan shoots fire from his staff at the crowd, causing them to panic and flee. The ghosts manage to extricate Logan and escape in the ATV. In the Elven city of Arborlon, Kirisin and Erisha are caught in the library by Culph, the King's historian. Culph offers to help them find the seeking Elfstones, revealing that they were buried with the powerful Elven Queen Pancea Rolt Cruer. However, they are unable to find her grave. The Knight of the Word Angel Perezand the tatterdemalion Ailie arrive in the Cintra shortly afterward, escorted by a group of Elven Trackers, including Kirisin's sister Simralin. Angel and Ailie are given an audience with the High Council and the King, while Culph lead Kirisin and Erisha to a vantage point where they can eavesdrop on the meeting. Angel and Ailie tell the Council that they have been sent by the Word to help them take the elves and the Ellcrys to a safe place. Angel has been tasked with helping the Elves to find the Loden Elfstone, and is dismayed to learn that the Elves retain almost no knowledge of the Elfstones. The Council is astounded. The King confirms that Kirisin told him of a warning from the Ellcrys, but didn't inform the Council. The King remains skeptical and orders a more extensive search of the histories and they will reconvene in two days. Kirisin, Erisha, Simralin, Angel, and Ailie meet later that night to share information on the Elfstones and theorize as to why the King seems unwilling to help them. Ailie makes a startling revelation, that she sensed a demon at the Council meeting. At the same time, the demon Delloreen (who has now mutated to have an animal-like, scaly form, with virtually no vestiges of any human-like qualities), who had been tracking Angel, enters the Cintra. To her surprise, she finds a fellow demon disguised as an elf. The two become allies with the disguised demon taking command. The following evening, Kirisin, Erisha, Simralin, Angel, and Ailie follow clues to another part of the graveyard and find the Elf Queen's grave. They encounter the shade of the Queen, who nearly kills the party in anger for allowing Elven magic to fade. Instead she forces Kirisin to promise to persuade the Elves to rediscover their magic and to begin using it again. She says that Kirisin has magic that he is currently unaware of and that what he must do, he must do alone. She gives Kirisin the Elfstones and disappears. Delloreen attacks the party in the graveyard, killing Ailie and Erisha. Simralin stabs the beast in the eye with an Elven blade and Delloreen flees. They find they are pursued by the Elven guard and flee the city to seek the Loden. Once clear of the city, Kirisin uses the Elfstones, which direct them to Syrring Rise (current day Mt. Rainier). They head north, still pursued by the two demons. At the Columbia River they find a blind elven ex-tracker named Larkis Quill, who ferries them across as the bridges are all occupied by militias. The three leave Larkis and travel by a secret elven hot air balloon to Syrring Rise. While ascending the snowy peak, Angel senses Delloreen's presence and stays behind. She confronts the demon and blinds it by clawing out its remaining eye. Delloreen is finally killed, but not before savagely injuring Angel. She later awakens from unconsciousness fearing internal injuries, but resumes her climb up the mountain's face. Within the ice caves on the mountain's peak, Kirisin and Simralin find a frozen, life-size statue of a dragon. Deep within the statue's cavernous throat, Kirisin finds the Loden. As he exits the dragon's mouth, however, he and Simralin are assaulted by Culph, who reveals himself as the demon. Simralin is seriously wounded by Culph, and is lying on the floor nearly unconscious. Culph explains that he had been lying to the king but still aiding in the search for the Loden, because the demons believe they can eliminate the elven threat to them by imprisoning them in the Loden. Needing an elf to wield the Loden, Culph tries to cast a mind-controlling spell on Kirisin. However, he lets slip that seeking Elfstones can also be used as weapons in time of great need. Although greatly weakened, Simralin is able to stab Culph in the leg, distracting him. This frees Kirisin from the spell that Culph was just about to complete. Kirisin is then able to direct the seeking Elfstones towards Culph, disintegrating him in blue fire. After disappearing from Safeco Field, Hawk was transported to a strange garden where he meets a mystical old man called the King of the Silver River, who tells him Tessa is safe and sleeping. As they walk through the garden, the old man tells of Hawk's origins and reveals that it was his magic that saved Hawk at the Safeco Field. Finally, the old man tells Hawk that his purpose is to save the human race and that he will lead several thousand Humans, Elves, and others to a Promised Land. As Hawk falls asleep next to Tessa, the old man reveals that Hawk will awaken in his own world with Tessa and Cheney, and that several weeks will have passed. Hawk, Tessa, and Cheney awake to find themselves near the Columbia River. They head upstream and encounter the survivors of the Anaheim Complex that Angel had previously rescued. The survivors are now led by a woman named Helen Rice, who is skeptical that Hawk was sent to guide them to safety. As the group approaches a bridge controlled by militia, Hawk discovers some of his innate magic. He touches some nearby flora, and within minutes, vines and plant life erupt from the ground and subdue the militia. The survivors cross the bridge when Hawk learns that an army led by Findo Gask is approaching from the south. Unknown to Hawk, Findo has sensed the gypsy morph (Hawk) once again and entreats a monstrous demon called "the Klee" to find and destroy it. Despite the approaching danger, Hawk leaves the party with Tessa and Cheney to search for the Ghost tribe, instructing Helen to take in any other refugees she finds. Finally, they find the Ghosts and Logan Tom, who has been in a coma for two days. |
7896770 | /m/026j1zy | So Much To Tell You | John Marsden | 1987 | {"/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | So Much to Tell You, based on a true story, is presented as a diary written by a 14-year-old girl known as Marina. Marina has a scarred face because she was the unintended victim of an incident involving a vial of acid which was thrown by her father. She refused to talk to anyone during her long recovery period in hospital, so she was sent to Warrington, a girls' boarding school, because nothing else appeared to be working. But even after her arrival, she maintains her silence. Then, one day, her English teacher Mr. Lindell encourages the class to keep a journal. Despite the fact that Marina is determined not to make use of her diary, she cannot resist writing about some of the seemingly trivial events of her day. However, the content of her entries becomes more and more revealing over time, and readers are able to better understand Marina's world: how her friends, teachers and families create profound and lasting impressions on her psyche. Marina goes from not interacting with others at all, to opening up and socialising, and eventually finding non-verbal ways of communicating. However, as the book continues, Marina's negative feelings towards her father fade away, and by the end of the book she devises a plan which enables her to see him again. When she speaks for the first time, in such a long time, she utters her only words for the entire novel: "Hello, Dad... I've got so much to tell you..." |
7901786 | /m/026jbl4 | Kingdom of the golden dragon | Isabel Allende | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | The story begins with the monk Tensing and his disciple, the Prince Dil Bahadur, traveling in a remote part of the Himalaya, on a journey to the Valley of the Yeti, in search of rare plants found only there, for use in medicines and balms. When they arrive they find the valley is beautiful, and they stay the night. In the morning they awake to many Yetis around them with clubs and other weapons, yet the monk and his disciple remain calm but then in the distance they see a slow moving, bigger Yeti, the ancient matriarch of the Yeti, Grr-ympr. She calls off the Warriors, and soon the lamas learn the sad story of the last of the Yeti. Grr-ympr is very old, from a stronger generation of Yetis, but with each generation of Yeti, they grow smaller, weaker and animalistic, in contrast to the great human-like Yeti of the past, whose society was nearly as complex as that of the humans. They believed this was due to the wrath of the gods, and that the lamas were the gods themselves, arriving to save the Yeti. After observing the Yeti, they find that the Yeti breastfeed their young, but as it gives little nourishment, the milk does not strengthen the babies, which is why they are all so sickly and weak, and often die. Further investigation also shows all the Yeti have purple, diseased tongues, which seems to be a sign of something in their environment weakening them. The lamas teach the Yeti to milk the Chegnos, the only domesticated animal the Yeti have, to feed the milk to the babies, who then show improvement from the diet. They also soon discover the water from the thermal springs that the Yeti drink from is contaminated with toxic minerals, and is the cause of the weakness of the Yeti and their purple tongues. After the tribe ceases to drink from the springs, their energy and health rapidly improves, and in return for what the lamas have done, they help them collect the plants and show them a short cut tunnel that cuts the journey back a great deal. The novel then shifts to Kate Cold, a writer for International Geographic, and her grandson Alexander Cold, arriving back in the New York from their adventures in Brazil from the previous novel. Alexander gives his Grandmother three large diamonds that Nadia had found in the Amazon, and tells her to use them to fund an Organization to protect The People of the Mist, and other Indians in South America. Although initially doubtful to the large eggs being diamonds, Kate goes to her jeweler friend Isaac Rosenblat, who immediately tells her that they are the largest diamonds he has ever seen and worth a fortune. The scene shifts six months and in that time the Diamond Foundation has been started, along with the help of Kate's old nemesis, archaeologist Ludovic Leblanc. Kate has also been assigned by International Geographic to travel to the Kingdom of the Golden Dragon to write an article. A call from Alexander asking to be able to come along and bring Nadia convinces her to have them come as well. The scene shifts to the second richest man in the world, known as the Collector, talking with the Specialist, talking about acquiring the Golden Dragon, an artifact from the Kingdom of the Golden Dragon which allows people to see into the future, as well as instructions on how to use it. The Collector seeks this item to be able to foresee the stock market, and to use it to make himself much richer, and no longer be the second richest man in the world. Once at Kingdom of the Golden Dragon as it's called, they get involved in a sinister plot to kidnap young girls and force them to be their slaves. Nadia who is mistaken as a girl from the kingdom is kidnapped along with Pema and a few other girls. Now it is up to Alexander and his annoyed grandmother to save the girls along with a little help from the country's forces, a lama, his disciple, and of course Boroba's keen senses to find Nadia. |
7903158 | /m/026jd_x | A Rebel In Time | Harry Harrison | 1983 | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/07s2s": "Time travel"} | The book centers around a racist colonel, Wesley McCulloch and his black pursuer, Troy Harmon. McCulloch and Harmon both originate from the modern era, the book opening with Harmon called in by a special military watchdog organization to investigate why McCulloch has been buying large quantities of gold. The case worsens when it is discovered McCulloch also murders three people to cover his plans. The theft of an antique Sten gun and the plans for such also add to the mystery about what McCulloch is up to. Before long, Harmon comes to the conclusion McCulloch has used a secret experimental time machine to try to change the outcome of the American Civil War, giving victory to the Confederacy through the introduction of the easily produced Sten gun (which had yet to be invented). Harmon determines he must follow McCulloch into the past to bring justice. During the ensuing chase, Harmon discovers first-hand the prejudices of the people at the time. |
7903209 | /m/026jf29 | Prester John | John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir | 1910 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/05hgj": "Novel", "/m/08sdrw": "Adventure novel"} | The setting is contemporaneous with publication: the beginning of the twentieth century. Crawfurd grows up in Kirkcaple, by the North Sea, where he first encounters the antagonist, Laputa, performing a ritual on the beach. Crawfurd's father dies, and he goes to work as a shopkeeper in a place called Blaauwildebeestefontein. Crawfurd comes into contact with a Portuguese man, Henriques, and again with Laputa, and he gradually learns of illegal diamond smuggling and of a planned rising of the native people of the region, including the Zulu people and the Swazi people, led by Laputa. Laputa's skill as a preacher allows him to inspire many tribes across the region to follow him, and he invokes the legend of Prester John and positions himself as the rightful heir and leader who can rise up against colonial rule. Crawfurd learns more about this after meeting Captain Arcoll, who leads the colonialist army and police. Using information learnt from having overheard the conversation of Laputa and Henriques, Crawfurd infiltrates the cave where the tribal leaders are gathering and witnesses Laputa commencing the rising, wearing the necklet of Prester John, which legitimises his leadership. Crawfurd is captured, but having managed to relay a message to Captain Arcoll, escapes during an ambush and steals the necklet from the hands of Henriques, who is trying to steal it for himself. After running all night, Crawfurd is climbing a ravine in the escarpment up to the plateau above the berg when he is captured again. But he manages first to hide the necklet, which is made of priceless rubies. After being taken to Laputa's new base, Crawfurd escapes immediate punishment by offering Laputa his knowledge of the location of the necklet in exchange for sparing his life. Laputa, who needs the necklet in order to convince his followers, but has not told anyone of its loss, goes alone with Crawfurd to search for the necklet. In the ravine, Crawfurd narrowly escapes once again and steals Laputa's horse to take him to Arcoll's headquarters. With Laputa separated from his army, Arcoll's forces are able to quell the leaderless uprising. Meanwhile Crawfurd returns to the cave, where he finds the treacherous Henriques dead outside, having been strangled by Laputa. Entering the cave, Crawfurd meets Laputa, who by now knows that all his plans have failed. Laputa destroys a rock bridge giving access to the cave, and then commits suicide by jumping into an underground river chasm. Crawfurd makes a daring escape by climbing a cascade up and out of the cave. He rejoins Arcoll and is instrumental in bringing about the disarmament of the native uprising and the subsequent peace. With Arcoll's help he is rewarded with a large portion of the treasure hidden in the cave and eventually returns to Scotland a rich man. |
7903495 | /m/026jfjr | The House of the Four Winds | John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir | 1935 | null | At the beginning of the novel several characters formerly seen in Huntingtower and Castle Gay are about to go to Europe for the summer, for a number of different reasons: Mr McCunn going to a German Kurhaus for his health, Alison to join her parents in the Tirol, the Roylances to attend a dull conference in Geneva, Jaikie on a walking tour, Dougal on a mission for his newspaper. Jaikie meets Randal Glynde who encourages him to visit Evallonia, which is on the verge of a revolution, and arranges for him to meet Prince Odalchini at his castle, "The House of the Four Winds". On the way he meets Ashie, a friend from Cambridge who is now a leader of the third element in the Evallonian political scene, Juventus, a cross between a youth group and a national revival movement. The Juventus people, like the Monarchists, want to overthrow the corrupt and unpopular government, but see young Prince John as a puppet of the conservatives, "the old gang". Jaikie eventually agrees to act as a secret liaison between the two groups. Meanwhile Alison and the Roylances have rescued Prince John from Mastrovin. They bring him into Evallonia in disguise. Dickson McCunn, informed of the situation by Dougal and feeling obliged by his promise to Prince John to lend a hand, joins the Monarchists and proposes a shrewd scheme for inducing Juventus to back Prince John. Mishaps and the machinations of Mastrovin lead to dangerous complications before the prince attains the throne. |
7903634 | /m/026jfs_ | Sick Heart River | John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir | null | null | The plot is particularly poignant, since it discusses a terminally ill man, Edward Leithen, going off to die in a hidden valley in the Canadian wilderness. Buchan wrote this while Governor General of Canada and it was published posthumously following his death as a result of a fall and stroke. It is one of Buchan's most spiritual novels, talking about death and redemption. |
7904136 | /m/026jglf | Icefire | Chris D'Lacey | 10/1/2003 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | David is frustrated that none will publish his book and Lucy is making a dragon David to name it then Lucy asks her mom if she can wish for something and saying that it is Davids dragon since he named it.He tells them the name Gadzooks wrote, G'reth and according to Liz it is a wishing dragon. Then He reads the clock and he says he is late for his lecture so Liz offers to drive him in. He later tells her he thinks Sophie is going to allow him to move in with her. Dr. Bergstrom gives David an assignment on dragons and says the prize is a trip to the Arctic and gives him a talisman to hold and says it will show him his true path he sees Gadzooks and he writes the name Lorel. Later Lucy having wished for snow on G'reth is playing in the snow making a snowman (looking some what like a bear)comes in and looks in the freezer. David comes in and says Sophie left her a book. feeling curious finds Gruffen on a small container he tries to pick Gruffen up but he gets stuck on Davids hands, Liz saves Gruffen ( just in time)and shows him what is in a box it was only a snowball. David goes up to his room he falls asleep dreaming about the Arctic and when a polar bear walks up to him he says...You have email! Or rather his computer said it was a message from Zanna, a goth girl in his class. She comes over later while Liz and Lucy are at the Craft Fair then they goes up to the dragons den and she is mesmerized by a bronze clay egg. David then makes a wish to find Gawain's fire tear which then calls Gwilanna. Gretel Gwilanna's dragon puts David under a spell and goes with David to a publishing meeting and Snigger is published. At home Gwillana says that Liz is having a baby that Zanna kindled she says its the fist boy in 900 years. Later Gwillana traps David under the floor boards but he breaks free using the Tooth of Ragnar a tooth that came from one of the first white bears. Liz has the baby but the baby is a dragon that Gwillana enchants when Zanna bursts in she is branded with a make that is a blessing and a curse. David goes to the baby dragon with Zanna reviling (if not earlier in the book) that she is a sibyl and has the mark of Oomara and Gretel becomes her dragon. The baby flies to Bergstrom and the party of three follow not far behind. In Bergstrom's office Zanna finds the baby and decides to name him Grockle. David talks to Bergstrom reviling the full story of Gawain. and Grockle turns to stone like Gawain. After the clean up Davids first girlfriend, Sophie moves to Africa and breaks up with David. He tries to find Zanna thinking she is not going to the Arctic he also begins a new book Bergstrom comes to pick him up he sees an extra bag and reads the tag and it says Suzanna M. Zanna comes out of the car and after a short conversation she is now his girlfriend. Elizabeth Pennykettle (Liz) - The landlady and the maker of the mysterious clay dragons that come to life. Her special dragon is Guinevere. Lucy Pennykettle - Liz's daughter, an 11-year-old girl who strongly believes in dragons but can be very mischievous. She also loves squirrels and hedgehogs and tries to find them. She can also make dragons. Her special dragon is Gwendolen. She also encourages, or "pushes" David to write stories on what animals are doing with their lives. David Rain - The main character of the series. David is Liz's tenant and he goes to Scrubbley College. He has written a book called Snigger and the Nutbeast and tries to publish it in this book. He has a writing dragon named Gadzooks and gets a new wishing dragon named G'reth. David has a girlfriend named Sophie who has job in Africa and seems to have a love interest with Suzanna "Zanna" Martindale. David is very curious about Gawain's fire tear in this book and uses G'reth to try and find out about the tear and gets his help by Hamza Nouh Mohamed Ges Suzanna Martindale (Zanna) - Zanna is a Goth college student that falls in love with David and knows a great deal about dragons. She is a descendant of Gwendolen, and a girl with the markings of a sibyl (the Mark of Oomara). She becomes David's girlfriend. they both figure out things together piece by piece. She is also a desendent of Gwendolen. Guinevere - Guinevere caught Gawain's fire tear and she is from ages long past. David learns about her when Liz tells him a story about her. and left one daughter who caries the original fire and passes it down through the years. Ancestor of Liz Pennykettle and Lucy Pennykettle. Gwendolen - Guinevere's child, made from clay, flesh, and blood. Doesn't tell who her mother is, and is the ancestor of Suzanna Martindale. Gwilanna - An evil sibyl who helps Guinevere and conjures Gwendolen for her. Gwilanna also bewitches Grockle to become a dragon. She is always trying to bring back the dragons in some devious way. She first appears using the alias "Aunty Gwyneth." Dr. Bergstrom - David's college professor. Has the ability to turn into a fantastic polar bear; also known as Thoran (in polar bear form). and was originally thought of as a ghost. Sophie - David's girlfriend who helped Lucy in the first book, The Fire Within, when they caught a couple of squirrels. In this book, she is away on a job at an African game reserve. Henry Bacon - Henry is the Pennykettle's next door neighbor. David has to stay with him while Gwilanna is staying in his room. and keeps a room full of stuff on polar bear and later becomes an allied character Gawain - The last real dragon of the world. and the father of Grockle . Grockle - The "son" of Suzanna Martindale and Gawain the dragon, originally intended to be a human boy; bewitched by Gwilanna to become a dragon. and born with no fire . G'reth - The wishing dragon. Puts David's wish out to the universe. and wishes people wouldn't use the word wish or wishes after their aftermath Gretel - The potions dragon and servant of Gwillana.until becoming Zanna's dragon Gadzooks (Zookie) - David's story writing dragon. They seem to share a powerful connection to the universe. Gadzooks was the first one to discover Lorel's presence. and tells David things on his pad helping him to write stories Grace - Sophie's listening dragon, who plays an important part in this book. and is traumatized in the near end. Gruffen - A guard dragon of the Dragon's Den. always not where he is supposed to be . Gwillan - A puffler dragon, he also enjoys cleaning, and watering plants for Liz. Spikey - An albino hedgehog. Ragnar - One of the legendary polar bears who has fighting scars all over him. He is said to have roared so loud that a tooth came out of his mouth, and he pounded it into the ice and it formed the island called the Tooth of Ragnar. Lorel - The Teller of the Ways. Tries to make contact with David to give him information. He is a polar bear. Ingavar - great descendant of Ragnar who takes the tooth of Ragnar and fuses with it so he may become the ancestor before him. Bonnington - the Pennykettles' cat who inherits a few dragon skills after drinking some of the melted icefire. and a mischief maker |
7904162 | /m/026jgmh | The Gap in the Curtain | John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir | 1932 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | At a country house, five guests gather and are chosen by a brilliant scientist to take part in a shocking experiment which will let them glimpse one year into the future. However, when the experiment takes place, two of the guests see their own obituaries in The Times one year after. Will they be able to change their destinies? Part of the action is clearly autobiographical, including featuring the agonies of a contemporary up and coming politician. |
7904935 | /m/026jhm3 | The Killing Joke | Anthony Horowitz | null | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | Guy Fletcher is an actor who overhears a builder telling a joke in his local pub about his mother (although very few people know that he is her son), a famous and much loved actress called Selina Moore, who died in a plane accident in France. The joke was "Why is Selina Moore like Ferrero Rocher? Because they both came out of France in a box." This was originally a real joke about Princess Diana's death, a fact which is mentioned in the book. The next day he wonders where jokes come from and, despite being discouraged by his agent Sylvie, goes on a mission to track down the joke. On the way, he meets a variety of people, most importantly a woman called Sally, who he falls in love with. After investigating various dead-ends and multiple paths that the joke has followed, he is noticed by a mysterious company, led by a man called Rupert Liddy, who has a perfect memory. This company then attempt to stop Guy by using characters from jokes (e.g. an Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman), and stereotypes of character groups. Eventually, they frame him for his neighbor's murder, at which point Guy goes into hiding. He goes back to Sally, believing her to be the last chance he has of finding out what was going on. However, when he gets there, her house is blown up. Sally herself is not in, but her mother, who has elephantiasis, is. Sally decides to go with Guy to track down the joke. His only lead is a company called Sphinx, that apparently create vacuum cleaners, as that was where he ended one of the trails of the joke. He tries to track down Sphinx, but cannot, and when he rings their number is left holding for an hour, before being redirected. At another attempt, he plots where he traced the joke on a map with three of the trails that he followed, and found they crossed near the coast of Suffolk. They travel there, stopping in an abandoned fairground overnight to sleep, and end up having sex. After investigating various towns in the area, they stop at a village called Kelford. As they investigate, they find that everyone there is almost completely humourless, and that it has something to do with a small island just off the coast. At night, they steal a boat and travel there. They soon get captured and brought to speak with Rupert Liddy. He puts them in cells and, during a long speech about jokes, what makes a joke funny, and why they are essential, reveals that Sphinx are set up to create and distribute jokes so that people do not take things, like politics, too seriously. He also explains that their identity must be kept secret because if someone found out that jokes were created by a company, people wouldn't find them funny any more. Rupert then tortures Guy, to find out who sent him and who else knows he is there, by tickling his foot with a feather. He then places Guy and Sally in a cell together that fills up with poisonous gas. There is a light bulb in the room that is switched on, and turns off when there is a fatal level of gas in the room. Guy and Sally breathe in the gas and go unconscious. They then wake up on a small boat, and knock the captain unconscious. It is revealed that the light bulb in the gas chamber was broken, turning off too early, and so the gas had been turned off before it became fatal. The light bulb had not been repaired by maintenance because they were short staffed, causing Mr. Liddy to shout out the punchline of the book 'How many top-secret government technicians does it take to change a light bulb?' In the penultimate chapter of the book, it clumsily describes how Guy and Sally went to France and started a new life, written as if being spoken by someone who is badly describing a joke. At the end, when this mystery narrator has realised he has ruined the joke, they decide to start again, and the final words are the same as the first ones. fi:Joka leikistä suuttuu |
7906245 | /m/026jkxp | Scorched: South Africa's Changing Climate | null | null | null | Scorched is a popular narrative which takes its readers on a vivid journey through southern Africa’s mesmerising landscapes as climate change sets in. It delivers an accessible account of the often complex modelling produced by scientific institutions, and gives powerful local colour to a global problem. Scorched ponders the morality of the changes humankind has wrought, and the future of life as we know it. |
7906594 | /m/026jlk9 | The Sea of Monsters | Rick Riordan | 2006 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/08sdrw": "Adventure novel", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The story begins with Percy having a nightmare about Grover being chased by a cyclops. The nightmare ends with a big voice booming, "MINE!" It is the last day of school at Meriweather Prep, and Percy's only friend, Tyson, is being teased by bullies, though there are more of them that day than usual. In gym class, the extra bullies reveal themselves as Laistrygonians (cannibal giants) and attack Percy. Annabeth appears to have been following Percy to talk to him about her own nightmares. She helps Percy and Tyson defeat the Laistrygonians, and the three of them return to camp in the Gray Sisters Taxi. In the taxi, the Gray Sisters tell Percy that "the location [he] seeks" is 30, 31, 75, and 12. Though Percy is confused and asks them what they mean, he is not informed, because they find the camp is under attack by the Colchis Bulls, from which Clarisse and some of her cabinmates are trying to defend. With help from Tyson, Percy and Annabeth manage to defeat the monsters, but Percy finds out that Tyson is a Cyclops. Clarisse tells them that Thalia's tree, which protects the camp, has been poisoned by an unknown intruder and is dying. The magical borders that protect the camp are also failing. She also informs them that Chiron, the activities director, has been fired because he is suspected of poisoning the tree, and is replaced by Tantalus, a prisoner who has been brought from the Fields of Punishment. Poseidon claims Tyson as his son at dinner. Percy has another dream of Grover, and this time Grover and Percy talk to each other (Grover had earlier had made an empathy link, allowing them to communicate sometimes while Percy is sleeping) and Grover reveals that he is trapped in The Sea of Monsters by a Cyclops named Polyphemus. Grover says that "it" is here, but Percy wakes up before he can ask what Grover means. The day after, Percy asks Annabeth if she understands what the dream about Grover means. Annabeth tells him that Grover may have found the Golden Fleece, and they both realize that the Golden Fleece can cure Thalia's poisoned tree. That night at the campfire, Annabeth and Percy ask Tantalus to send somebody on a quest to find the Golden Fleece, which he does, sending Clarisse. Percy gets angry with Tantalus, but doesn't know what to do. Later that night, when everyone else is asleep, Percy sneaks out to the beach and is met by Hermes, who gives him three duffel bags full of money and clothes, a magical thermos that holds the four winds, and a box of Minotaur-shaped multivitamins. He tells him that he must choose to board a passing cruise ship. Annabeth and Tyson arrive, and they decide to go to the cruise ship before security harpies consume them. Percy receives help from Poseidon, who sends them three hippocampi, and together with Annabeth and Tyson, end up on the cruise ship, the Princess Andromeda, which is revealed to be owned by Luke. They are captured and learn that Luke is trying to reform Kronos, the lord of the Titans. They manage to escape on a lifeboat and go to Chesapeake Bay, where Annabeth leads them to a hideout that she had created a few years earlier when running away with Luke and Thalia. Tyson gets a box of donuts which he got from a nearby donut shop (Monster Donut). They are attacked by a Hydra, which is killed by Clarisse who has a boat of her own that was given to her by her father Ares. The boat is an ironclad from the Civil War. They sail for the Sea of Monsters (which has now moved to the Bermuda Triangle) and Clarisse plans to destroy Charybdis and also encounters Scylla, who devours the captain of the ship as well as a few others of the crew. The engine overheats and explodes, and Clarisse's boat is destroyed and eaten by a monster. Percy and Annabeth make it out (Tyson is presumed dead), but lose their duffel bags; plus, the thermos has been emptied because Annabeth opened it "a little too far." They eventually find an island where Circe lives, and dock at her island, which turns out to be a spa. However, Percy is turned into a guinea pig and is put in a cage with six others. Annabeth frees him by using the multivitamins to become resistant to magic, and gives some to Percy and the others, who become human again. It turns out that the other six guinea pigs were Blackbeard (son of Ares) and his crew, and Percy and Annabeth use Blackbeard's ship to get away. As they are sailing, they pass the land of the Sirens. Annabeth, who knows that the Sirens tell of their innermost desires, decides that she wants Percy to tie her to the mast and have her listen to the Sirens' songs. However, Percy forgets to remove her knife, and she manages to free herself, almost reaching the island, but Percy manages to save her; in doing so, he learns that the Sirens' song made Annabeth see what she wanted most: her parents reunited and Luke converted back to the side of the gods, all having a picnic, in front of a brand new Manhattan, rebuilt by Annabeth. He grabs her before she can get out of the water and gets her back under, creating a giant air bubble so that she can breathe, and they make it back to their ship. On board, Annabeth tells Percy that her fatal flaw is hubris (deadly pride). They reach the island of Polyphemus – where they find Tyson safe and alive – and save Grover with the help of Tyson and Clarisse, recovering the Fleece in the process. They make their way to Florida, and Percy sends Clarisse, with the Fleece, back to camp. Percy, Annabeth, Grover and Tyson are captured by Luke, and are taken to the Princess Andromeda. Percy manages to contact camp with an Iris-message, tricking Luke into admitting he poisoned Thalia's tree. In a duel with Luke, Percy is nearly killed. He is saved by Chiron and his relatives, the "Party Ponies". Chiron is rehired after being proven not guilty, and the Fleece cures Thalia's tree of its poison; however, Thalia herself is spewed out of the tree. Chiron realizes that everything that had happened had been to bring back Thalia, just to "put another chess piece into play". |
7908572 | /m/026jnd3 | Gooney Bird Greene | null | null | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | Gooney Bird Greene has just transferred to Mrs. Pidgeon's second grade class in Watertower. She is unusually self-confident, likes to be the center of attention, has an eccentric flair for style, and an exciting, almost magical past. When Mrs. Pidgeon suggests storytelling lessons, instead of well-worn Christopher Columbus, the class demands Gooney Bird as the main character of the story. So begins Gooney Bird's series of autobiographical tales, outlandish in theme but "only absolutely true": "How Gooney Bird Got Her Name","How Gooney Bird Came from China on a Flying Carpet", "The Prince, the Palace, and the Diamond Earrings", "Why Gooney Bird Was Late for School Because She Was Directing a Symphony Orchestra", and "Beloved Catman Is Consumed by a Cow". Along the way, the class learns not just about Gooney Bird, but how to tell a story, and how everyone has a story to tell. |
7910922 | /m/026jqd2 | High Stakes | Meg Cabot | 11/5/2004 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | Ninth Key begins with Suze contracting a poison oak rash on her hands after falling into a clump of it at a pool-party of one of her peers, Kelly Prescott. At the party, Suze meets and dances with 'Tad', a student at a local school, Robert Lewis Stevenson. Later that night,when Suze is asleep, a ghost woman starts yelling, hysterically. The woman asks Suze to tell "Red" that he did not kill her. Suze does not know who this woman is, or who "Red" is, but the ghost disappears before she has the chance to ask. Suze asks around to see if anyone knows who Red might be and is informed by her friend, Cee Cee, that a local businessman called Thaddeus Beaumont goes by that name. Suze tries and fails to get in contact with Mr Beaumont. While scheming over how she might get a conversation with him, she encounters the spirit of a young boy named Timothy, who tells her his parents abandoned his cat, Spike. Suze promises to find the animal and get him a good home. With the pretense that she is there as a reporter for the school paper, Suze goes to Mr. Beaumont's mansion and meets him. In his office, she delivers the ghost's message, saying the woman appeared in a dream. Mr Beaumont doesn't have the reaction Suze expected, seeming only interested that he wasn't the cause of the woman's death, and that Suze was able to speak to her. Mr Beaumont is very eager to get Suze to summon the spirits of other people he says he has killed. Feeling disconcerted, Suze tries to leave, only to find that the elevator won't open and the windows are barred with heavy shutters. Just as Suze is beginning to become nervous, Mr Beaumont's brother Marcus arrives and escorts her out, looking anxiously at her throat and asking if Mr Beaumont harmed her. On the way out of the mansion, they encounter Tad, Mr Beaumont's son. Recognizing her from the pool party, Tad offers to give Suze a ride home. As Suze leaves the estate, Tad invites her to go have a coffee. Suze agrees and when he drops her off they start kissing in the car. Jesse purposefully shows up in the backseat to prevent Suze from going even more "forward" with Tad. Suze screams when she sees Jesse and tears into the house, leaving Tad alone in the car to drive away. When Susannah explains what happened to Father Dominic, her principal and fellow mediator, he thinks that the strangeness of Mr Beaumont's behavior could be that he is a vampire. Suze disagrees with this at first, but Father Dominic says that they both know ghosts exist, so perhaps vampires do too. Several days later, Suze retrieves Spike, Timothy's cat, from a field and will, for the time being keep him in her room. Cee Cee, who researched Mr. Beaumont after Suze asked her to, discovers disappearances linking to the production comanpies of Mr Beaumont. The disappearances are of people who opposed or tried to stop Beaumont Industries expanding their land and business. Cee Cee finds a picture of one of them, called Mrs Fiske, and Suze thinks it looks like the woman who appeared in her bedroom. Adam, a mutual friend of CeeCee and Suze, takes them all to Cee Cee's aunt's house. Cee Cee dislikes "Aunt Pru" as she is a fortune-teller. Adam tells Aunt Pru of Suze's "dream" and so Aunt Pru tries to summon one of the victims of Mr Beaumont, Mrs Fiske, using Tarot Cards. Mrs Fiske does show up in spirit form and confirms to Suze that "Mr Beaumont" killed her. However, Suze realizes Mrs Fiske is not the woman who asked her to pass on the message. Mr Beaumont and Tad invite Suze over for dinner at the house. Suze tries to avoid the invitation but can't, because her mother is so happy she has finally found a boyfriend. At the house, Mr Beaumont drugs Tad and tries to talk to her more about her alleged phsycic abilities. Suze, frightened because she believes Mr Beaumont is a vampire, stabs him in the chest with a pencil (similar to a stake in the heart), however fails to kill him. Marcus tells Suze to never return and not speak of Mr Beaumont's so-called vampirisim, that he says is an illness. Suze later receives a phone call at home from Tad and gets in a fight with him. She tells Tad about his dad's illness, but Tad denies this. Suze suggests he ask Marcus where all his money comes from, implying she knows something about the disappearances of the people who opposed Beaumont Industries. The next morning, Suze is sent home from school to change her outfit, a miniskirt, boots, and leather jacket, and is captured by Marcus and two thugs on the way. She fights hard to escape but Marcus forces her into Mr Beaumont's office, telling her to change into a swimsuit and leaves; him planning to kill her by sending her and Tad into the ocean on a boat during a storm and make it appear as though they drowned. Suze smashes the glass wall of the aquarium in the office when Marcus returns to check on her. Suze pulls the bulb out of one of the aquarium lights, and throws the cord with frayed wires into the water Marcus is walking through, electrocuting him. As the building catches fire, because of Suze overloading the circuit panel, Jesse, the ghost who often inhabits Suze's bedroom, appears, claiming Susannah "called" him, and breaks the window shutters to allow Tad and Suze escape the burning building. Marcus is said to be missing after the incident. Suze returns home safely, but is grounded by her parents as she is unable to tell them the full story, and just says that Marcus offered her a lift to his place for her newspaper report, and that the house caught fire. Red turns out to be the nickname of Suze's step brother Doc. The ghost turns out to be Doc's mother. Suze fulfils her duty and tells Doc what his mother wished for him to know, as well as telling him that she is a mediator. The story ends as Brad walks into his step-sister's bedroom discovering Spike, the cat, and tells her she is "busted" because Suze is not allowed to have a cat. |
7910982 | /m/026jqgv | Il y a un sorcier à Champignac | André Franquin | 1951 | null | In There is a Sorcerer in Champignac, Spirou and Fantasio go on a bicycle camping trip to the country and end up near the village of Champignac-en-Cambrousse. They meet its pompous mayor and rustic inhabitants, and an aloof local landowner, the Count of Champignac. Strange phenomena are affecting farm and wild animals, and the frightened villagers blame a gypsy who is passing through. Spirou and Fantasio, however, discover that the real culprit is the Count, deeply involved in creating strange concoctions from mushrooms, and they rescue the vagabond from a lynch mob. Later, the Count creates a drug that within a limited time will endow superhuman strength, which a gangster steals to create mayhem. |
7911113 | /m/026jql_ | Reunion | Meg Cabot | 2001-07 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The story starts with Suze’s best friend from New York, Gina, coming to visit her in Carmel, California. Suze's stepbrothers Brad and Jake (aka Dopey and Sleepy) suddenly start fighting over Gina's attention. (Sleepy ends up winning and Dopey gets egotistic about it). Gina and Suze were hanging at the beach and decide to go get more drinks because it was warm. At the market, something catches Suze's attention, four people in formal wear. Upon further inspection, she notices something else, they are all dead or otherwise known as ghosts. Suze finds that they were called the RLS Angels because they were all brilliant and leaders. Suze learns in one of her classes that it was Michael Meducci who had accidentally rammed the Angels. The Angels are furious at Michael for what he did to them, so they will not stop at anything to kill him. One problem though is that Michael thinks Suze is in love with him so he tries to pursue a relationship with her. The Angels go after Michael but Suze is usually there. Father Dominic and Suze investigate the scene of the accident. Jesse tags along while at home, Gina is covering for Suze. Jesse is able to calm the Angels down so that Father Dominic and Suze can talk to them. Suze discovers the truth that Michael killed the RLS Angels on purpose to get revenge on them because his sister is in a coma after drinking too much and almost drowning at a party at one of the Angels’ house. When Suze's mother finds out she forbids Suze to get anywhere near Michael, but Suze doesn't listen. Suze asked Michael to pick her up and they go out to the spot where the murder happened. Suze tricks Michael and he confesses but realizes Suze is going to expose him for what he did and he tries to kill Suze. Suze summons the RLS Angels saying the okay to kill Michael but see's she made a mistake and tries to call it off but the Angels are furious. The Angels go after Jesse (who was watching the Angels) and Suze. When the ambulance came Suze is pretty beat up and taken to the hospital after finding out Michael confessed to the police and is going behind bars. The day after Michael’s arrest, his sister woke up from her coma. Everyone visited Suze in the hospital except Jesse, which made her sad. Suze caught Jesse trying to dematerialize and felt hurt by that. Jesse came back looking sheepish and Suze explained that she couldn't have anybody hurting her family so she had to do what she did. Jesse calls her querida again and grazes her cheek. Suze stops denying that she loves him and surrenders to her feelings. |
7911315 | /m/026jqvx | Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern | Anne McCaffrey | 1983 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The story involves a deadly disease that nearly wipes out the Pernese population. Moreta is a weyrwoman at Fort Weyr who sets out to save the human population, racing against time itself. The follow-up novel, Nerilka's Story, tells the tale of the same event from a different perspective. |
7911625 | /m/026jr2v | Dragonsdawn | Anne McCaffrey | 1988-11 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The planet Pern seemed a paradise to its new colonists—seeking to return to an agrarian-based simpler way of life, Admiral Paul Benden, Governor Emily Boll and the rest of the colonists had selected Pern as a place to leave their recent wars and troubles behind. Shortly after arriving on the planet, however, a new threat appeared – Thread. With time running out and the colony's destruction imminent, geneticist Kitti Ping Yung and her granddaughter Wind Blossom set out to bio-engineer Pernese lifeforms that appear to instinctively react to the Thread – the dragonets that colonists have adopted as pets. In order to ensure the survival of the newly designed species, as well as reduce the possible threat they may have to the colonists by going rogue, they are created with an ability to bond with humans. By the end of the book, Sorka Hanrahan and Sean Connell and a few other young colonists become the first of the dragonriders. |
7911644 | /m/026jr3w | The Memory Keeper's Daughter | Kim Edwards | 2005 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | In 1964, during an unusual Kentucky blizzard, Dr. David Henry is forced to deliver his and his wife Norah's first child, with the help of a nurse; Caroline Gill. Their first child, a boy they name Paul, is born a visibly perfect child, but it then becomes apparent that Norah is giving birth to twins. When the second baby, a girl, is born, David notices immediately she has Down syndrome. David, recalling the possibility of heart complications, and thinking of his sister, June, who died young due to a heart defect, decides that the baby girl will be placed in an institution to spare Norah the suffering June's death caused his own mother. Caroline, the nurse — who has been in love with David since the moment she met him — is charged with the task of carrying the infant to the institution. After assessing the wretched conditions of the place, however, she decides to keep and raise the baby herself. Remembering Norah's mention of the names she had chosen for her baby, both for a boy and a girl, Caroline names the baby Phoebe. While Caroline is at the store buying baby supplies, her car battery dies and she is stranded in the snow with Phoebe. She is picked up by a truck driver, Albert "Al" Simpson, who lets her shelter with Phoebe in his truck before driving them to Caroline's home in Lexington, and eventually staying there for the night. Meanwhile, David lies to Norah and tells her that their daughter died at birth; leaving his passive wife plagued by post-natal depression as those around her refuse to let her talk about the daughter she lost, treating her as if she should be satisfied with Paul and forget about Phoebe's 'death'. She decides to hold a memorial for Phoebe and places an announcement in the paper without David's knowledge—astonished, Caroline seeks David out after reading it, and after hearing that she had kept the baby rather than take her to the institution, he bids her to do what she thinks is right. Caroline refuses the money he offers her and leaves for Pittsburgh to make fresh start with Phoebe. The 'death' of their daughter has caused a distance between David and Norah, even after they move to a new home, as they now find it difficult to connect with one another. Phoebe had a surviving healthy twin, Paul, but Norah wants another child; David says no, telling Norah that to have another child would be her way of replacing Phoebe. David thinks a lot about his childhood—the struggles with poverty (he had to catch snakes to pay his way through high school), his younger sister June and her death at the age of twelve, and his parents. Norah drinks too much for the first time, and crashes her car on the night of her and David's anniversary. Norah buys David a camera as an anniversary gift, which rapidly becomes an obsession for him. Caroline is in Pittsburgh and is hired by a woman named Dorothy "Doro" March, to work as a private nurse for her father, Leo; an oft disagreeable elderly physicist, whose brilliant mind is slowly failing him. Caroline and Phoebe live with Doro and Leo, with Caroline working for room, board and pay. Caroline claims that Phoebe is her daughter, and cares for her as such; staying up all night with Phoebe in a steamy bathroom to relieve her croup. Doro notices Phoebe's slow development, and Caroline tells her that Phoebe has Down Syndrome; claiming she ran away from Phoebe's father as he wanted to put Phoebe in an institution: a half-truth. Caroline sends letters and pictures of Phoebe to David. David sends money to Caroline through a PO Box address, and then makes a half-hearted attempt to find out where Caroline and Phoebe live. Al, the truck driver who assisted Caroline on the night of Paul and Phoebe's birth, discovers their whereabouts and begins visiting regularly. The distance between the Henrys has grown even further. David is now an aspiring photographer with his own darkroom, where he keeps Phoebe's pictures and Caroline's letters hidden; he retreats further into himself, immersing himself in his work - whilst Norah, still drinking secretly, is overprotective of Paul and has taken to throwing herself into time-consuming projects and activities to distract herself and fill up her days, including applying for a job with a travel agency in an attempt to build a life of her own. Paul, however, is oblivious to this - a happy six-year-old, doing well at school, seems to have an aptitude for music and singing, as well as a severe allergy to bees and a broken arm which he sustains falling out of a tree. In Pittsburgh, contrary to the prediction David made at her growing up a healthy child- she loves butterflies and singing, and attends preschool. Caroline and a group of other women - the Upside Down Society - are petitioning to let their children go to public school. Leo March has died, but Doro - used to Caroline and Phoebe's company - asks her to remain living with them. Al still visits Caroline regularly, and has twice proposed to her - however, she has turned him down both times, doubting not his love for her but his love for Phoebe. Each time he visits, he brings small gifts for her or Phoebe, and her letters - containing money - from David Henry. While playing, Phoebe is stung by a bee, and Phoebe also turns out to be allergic. Al helps get Phoebe to a hospital, and steps in when a nurse's comment about Phoebe's condition makes Caroline see red. At this, Caroline realizes that he really does love Phoebe. Following this incident, Caroline says yes to marrying Al without him having to ask. Paul and Phoebe are now aged thirteen, and Caroline and Al have been married for five years. Phoebe has been confirmed and Doro has retired to leave on a year-long cruise with her lover, Trace. Over the years, Caroline has saved the money David Henry has sent her and kept it a in trust for Phoebe. David sends Caroline a letter, asking her to let him meet Phoebe and to let Phoebe know her twin brother, Paul. Phoebe disappears briefly, panicking Caroline, who finds her rescuing a kitten from a water drainage pipe. Caroline decides not to contact David again, worried that David might unknowingly hurt Phoebe (as he hurt her, by either not noticing or ignoring her love for him) and feeling that he wants too much from her, too late. Paul is becoming an accomplished musician, playing the guitar and the piano and dreaming of attending Juilliard, while also behaving like a daredevil teenager - experimenting with cannabis and walking on rail tracks. David and Norah, now living almost separate lives, have differing views on what Paul should do when he's older - Norah simply wants her son to be happy, while David pushes for his son to take an interest in basketball and to follow a career path that will guarantee him stability, money, and success. Norah Henry is excelling in her work at the travel agency, though she is still frustrated by the distance between her and David, and his apparent lack of love and interest in her. While on vacation, in Aruba, she has an affair with Howard, a divorcee. Both David and Paul realize what she has done, but neither of them talk about it. David blames the affair on himself and continues to spend more and more time in his darkroom with his photographs. Phoebe and Paul are now both 18. David has an arts show in Pittsburgh. Caroline turns up and shows him pictures of Phoebe. He has to stop the conversation briefly to answer an art critic. When he returns he inquires about his daughter and is chastised by Caroline who then leaves. . David is devastated and goes to his parents' abandoned house, where he falls asleep and wakes up to a girl named Rosemary in the house. She is 16 years old and pregnant. He tells Rosemary his secret. He asks her to come and live with him. Paul and Norah can't believe the way he's behaving, and believe that there is a sexual relationship between David and the girl. Paul and Rosemary bond, and Paul understands the truth but is still furious with his father. Paul overhears a conversation between his mother and another man and realises that his mother is having another affair. Paul steals a neighbors car and runs away for a couple of days. he is then arrested for shoplifting as his parents have to come get him. Paul has been accepted at Juilliard. Rosemary and her son Jack move back to live with her family. Norah and David are now divorced and Norah is dating. Paul is traveling and studying music in France. Phoebe is in love with Robert, also an individual with Down syndrome, and wants to get married and live in a group home with more independence. Caroline worries about the future and is scared about letting Phoebe live her own life. David dies of a heart attack after fixing a leak in the old family's home. When Norah sorts through David's photographs she understands David in a way she never did when he was alive. Caroline comes to visit Norah and explains that Phoebe never died, but is living with her in Pittsburgh. She becomes angry and throws all of her ex husband's photographs out darkroom window and burns pictures of girls that David photographed, upset that he has betrayed her. She and Paul decide to go to Pittsburgh. Norah explains to Phoebe that she is her mother and then introduces Phoebe to her brother Paul. Norah invited Pheobe to come live with her in Kentucky, but Pheobe says no. She then takes Paul on a tour of her house. Paul and Phoebe are both in Norah's wedding. Then they visit David's grave and begin to drive back home to Pittsburgh |
7913447 | /m/026jtc2 | The Curse of Yig | H. P. Lovecraft | null | null | Based in Oklahoma around 1880, a newly arrived couple learn about the local legends surrounding a "Snake God", Yig, who takes vengeance on anyone who kills a serpent by killing them or turning them into a half-snake monster. The husband has a snake phobia which isn't helped by the wife disturbing a nest of rattlesnakes. The husband and wife go through rituals to keep Yig away, but in the end it fails and in fear the woman kills her own husband in the dark, thinking he is Yig. She is taken to an asylum, and dies there... But not before giving birth to a half-snake creature. |
7916503 | /m/026jyxw | Brother in the Land | Robert Swindells | 1984 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/0hc1z": "Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The novel which introduces Danny, who lives with his parents and younger brother. Danny, wanting some time away from his parents' shop, takes his bike out onto the moors; while there, he notices that a storm is brewing, and is just heading for home when he spots a concrete pillbox left over from World War II. He takes shelter inside and, moments later, sees a bright flash, which he initially thinks is a lightning strike. But, when he peers out, he sees a mushroom cloud, and realises what has happened. For the following night he hides in the pillbox, expecting to die at any time, but, in the end, he crawls out and decides to search for his family. On the hillside, Danny encounters a man in a radiation suit, who confiscates his bike, and orders him to "get back to town". Arriving in Skipley, Danny finds the town in ruins, and learns that his family's shop has collapsed, killing his mother. His father and Ben have survived, as they were in the cellar, which the Lodges use as a stockroom. With so much food in their stockroom, the Lodges have plenty to live on, but the other survivors are not so lucky, and, as the weeks pass, people begin fighting over food. Shortly after the war, Danny meets a girl named Kim Tyson, who sums the situation up in the following words: "Cavemen versus gentlemen is no contest." Shortly after Danny meets Kim, the local Commissioner issues an order that "all burned, sick and badly injured persons" should be taken out of the ruins and placed at the roadside so they can be taken to hospital; in fact, the "hospital" is a front for his plan to kill off the worst of the bomb-casualties. Later, the Commissioner implements a system of food and fuel rationing, with severe penalties introduced for hoarding. The injured, elderly, and people driven insane by the nuclear attack (known as "Spacers") are given poisoned rations. But Mr. Lodge refuses to hand over his stock and, though Danny and Ben do register for ration-cards, they only visit the local feeding centre once. Presently, the Commissioner's men come to the Lodges' shop and arrest Mr Lodge. Moments later, the truck bearing Mr. Lodge is blown up, killing everyone on board, and leaving Danny and Ben orphans. The brothers seek sanctuary at the home of Sam Branwell, a smallholder who, along with several other survivors, has formed a resistance movement called Masada (an acronym for "Movement to Arm Skipley Against Dictational Authority); their aims are to overthrow the Commissioner and prevent him from creating a feudal society. Other members of Masada include Danny's former P.E. teacher, Keith Rhodes (the one responsible for blowing up the truck) and Kim, who helps out during the day. It is discovered that a virtual concentration camp has been erected outside of Skipley, on the grounds of the Kershaw Farm, with the remaining able-bodied population of the town being used as slave labor under the Commissioner's rule. From a series of defectors, Danny learns that conditions at the camp are reminiscent of those at Belsen. As a result, the members of Masada are forced to step up their campaign of resistance, and, one night, launch a raid on the camp. After a battle, the Commissioner is overthrown, and Branwell is established as the new leader. However, in the months that follow the raid, all of the newly-planted crops fail, due to the effects of radiation poisoning. Meanwhile, Kim's sister (Maureen) is pregnant, and Kim is worried that the baby may be deformed; in the end, it is born without a mouth, and dies not long afterwards. Foreign troops arrive via helicopter, revealing there were communities all over Europe like Branwell's, which he terms a "commune" or "communist" society. Believing the Swiss troops would rescue them, the camp foolishly eat many of their rations. In fact, the Swiss confiscate their weapons, and disable the few vehicles they have. By now, the camp's food supplies are exhausted, forcing the people to scavenge for whatever they can find, and many are dying. Gradually, people start to leave in small groups to fend for themselves. Shortly after Branwell dies from exhaustion during the second winter after the war, Danny, Kim, and Ben leave the camp and head to Holy Island, where Danny hopes they will be safe. During the journey to Holy Island, the three encounter a group on motorbikes (Rhodes being one of them) in the village of Osmotherley. Rhodes is about to shoot Danny for the food that he'd found down the side of a sink in a café, but Kim intervenes with a gun, and Rhodes and his buddy are killed. Ben becomes ill with radiation sickness — otherwise known as a "creeping dose" — and dies. Danny and Kim bury him in the garden of an empty house. In the house, Danny finds a ledger, and starts writing an account of his experiences after the war. He ends by saying that he plans to leave his account behind for future generations to read; he hopes it will warn them not to go down the path which led to the war. Finally, Danny dedicates his story to Ben, his "brother in the land." In 1994, the book was reprinted with a "new final chapter." In this revised ending, Ben still dies, but, rather than leave his account behind, Danny takes the ledger with him to Holy Island, and Kim is expecting a baby, the third of Holy Island, with Danny being the father. If the baby survives, it will be named "Ben." |
7917328 | /m/026j_fp | The Farming of Bones | Edwidge Danticat | 1998-09 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Set in the Dominican Republic in the 1930s, The Farming of Bones tells the story of a young Haitian girl named Amabelle Desir. Orphaned by the age of 8, Amabelle works for Don Ignacio and his daughter. Although Don Ignacio and his daughter are important figures in Amabelle’s life, it is evident that Amabelle’s life revolves around her lover, Sebastien Onius. After the accidental death of one of Sebastien’s fellow cane workers, the Haitian’s distrust of the Dominican government grows, but this distrust is warranted. With news of the Generalissimo’s intentions to “cleanse the country,” Haitian workers attempt to return to their home country. When complications separate Amabelle and Sebastien during their attempt to flee, Amabelle is desperate to find what has become of Sebastien. Accompanied by Sebastien’s friend, Yves, Amabelle makes her journey with the help of fellow survivors she encounters along the way. While escaping, the group must divide for their own safety. Upon reaching the town of Dajabon, Amabelle is disappointed to find that Sebastien is not there. While in Dajabon, Dominicans beat and torture Amabelle, Yves, and a fellow Haitian, Tibon, after recognizing their inability to pronounce “perejil” correctly, one of the most prevalent ways that the Dominicans determine the segregation of Haitians. On the verge of death, two remaining members of their group rescue Amabelle and Yves and bring them to the river that they must cross. Unfortunately only Amabelle and Yves survive the dangerous crossing, where they are met at the other side by nuns who nurse them back to health. During the recovery process, Amabelle learns of the other survivors’ story of “kout kouto,” what the Haitians call the massacre. Once Amabelle and Yves have healed, Yves offers to take Amabelle to his home. Upon arrival of the city, Amabelle and Yves settle in his home and try to rebuild their lives. While Yves finds solace in working in his father’s fields and becomes a successful landowner, Amabelle continues her search for Sebastien. After finding Sebastien’s mother and learning of the truth about Sebastien’s fate, Amabelle returns to her life with Yves. Although Yves and Amabelle try to find comfort in one another, they are unable to fulfill each other’s needs. Twenty years after her escape from Alegria, Amabelle decides to search for a connection to Sebastien by reliving old memories in places of the past. Despite reuniting with Senora Valencia, Amabelle is dissatisfied with the results of her search. Unable to find further reason to live, Amabelle succumbs to the Massacre River, looking for a new beginning. |
7918996 | /m/026k1p6 | Les voleurs du Marsupilami | André Franquin | 1954 | null | In The Marsupilami's Thieves, Spirou and Fantasio regret giving the magnificent animal they brought back from the Palombian jungle, the Marsupilami, to a zoo, and decide to free the animal again and return it to its original home. This plan fails because someone else beats them to the abduction, and another quest to find the Marsupilami begins. This journey brings them to the city of Magnana, and the fiendish Circus Zabaglione. |
7919109 | /m/026k1s_ | Le dictateur et le champignon | André Franquin | 1956 | null | When the Marsupilami causes chaos all over town, Spirou and Fantasio decide that it is time to take him back to his home in the Palombian jungles. After an eventful journey by cruise ship, they find that Fantasio's shady cousin Zantafio has reinvented himself as General Zantas and become the country's ruthless dictator. The now power-mad Zantafio, intent on invading a neighbouring country, offers them top positions in his army, and when they indignantly refuse throws them in jail. The pair decide to feign a change of heart, and plan to foil the invasion using one of The Count of Champignac's curious inventions... |
7919114 | /m/026k1tb | Le repaire de la murène | André Franquin | 1957 | null | In The Moray's Keep, shipping magnate Xénophon Hamadryas offers a $ 6000 prize to the makers of a submarine innovation in order to find his sunken ship Le Discret off the French Mediterranean coast. The Count of Champignac's mini-sub invention is so spectacular that the competition must resort to sabotage. A chain of secrets need to be exposed while the maritime criminal John "the Moray" Helena lurks in the deep. |
7919582 | /m/026k2cx | Wormwood | Graham Taylor | 2004 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The story takes place in London, where Dr. Sabian Blake is sitting in his attic at the top of his house in Bloomsbury Square, looking out to space through his telescope, in search of a special star. He is told about this star by The Nemorensis, an ancient book that holds many old and powerful secrets. It has predicted that the comet Wormwood, which was foretold in the book of Revelation, is hurtling towards the earth, and would spell certain doom for London and all other lands around her. As Blake is observing this, a series of cataclysmic and destructive events, referred to as a 'sky-quake', hits the city, the aftermath of which involves horses and dogs going completely mad and attacking everyone in sight. The reason for these happenings was that the power of the Keruvim was being used in the north by the evil Pyratheon, in his vain attempt to overthrow Riathamus. We are then introduced to Agetta Lamian, Blake's servant-girl, whose father Cadmus Lamian owns a lodging house on Fleet Street. Eventually it transpires that Pyratheon's evil sister, Yerzinia, is using the Nemorensis to call down the comet and reshape the devastated London in her own, dark image. |
7921592 | /m/026k5nd | Lips Together, Teeth Apart | Terrence McNally | null | null | A gay community in Fire Island provides an unlikely setting for two straight couples spending the Fourth of July weekend in a house inherited by Sally from her brother who died of AIDS. Through monologues unheard by the others, the characters reveal a desperate sense of individual isolation. The only people these four characters find more alien are the unseen gay men partying in the houses on either side of them. As they divert themselves from their own mortality with food, cocktails, the New York Times crossword puzzle, fireworks, charades, and biting jabs at each other and the boys next door, the two couples find little to celebrate about themselves or their country on its birthday. |
7921816 | /m/026k60s | The Final Key | Catherine Asaro | 11/28/2006 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Eldrinson Valdoria took over a year to heal from serious injuries inflicted on him by the Aristo Vitarex. He is happy to reconcile with his daughter Sauscony (Soz) whom he disowned for leaving home to become a Jagernaut. But he can't do the same with his son Althor, who is lying near death in a military hospital after sacrificing himself to save billions of Skolian citizens during a battle with the Eubian Traders. As part of her military training, Soz is assigned to the battlecruiser Roca's Pride, named in honor of her mother Roca Skolia. The training, however, turns out to be hard reality after her half-brother Imperator Kurj is nearly assassinated and falls into a coma. Traders simultaneously launch an attack against the planet Parthonia, seat of the Skolian government. This brings the psiberweb, the most important part of Skolian defence, to a collapse. Using an ancient device called Dyad Chair, Soz struggles to keep at least parts of the psiberweb intact. To repair psiberweb and save Skolia from Eubian invasion, Soz’s father Eldrinson has to join the Dyad, expanding it to a Triad with the risk that this could kill either him or one of the other Triad members. The book also shows the fates of other Ruby Dynasty family members: Soz's brother Shannon dealing with the mystic Blue Dale archers, their mother Roca captured by Traders and Ruby Pharaoh's husband Eldrin who leaves Parthonia on a ship with Skolian refugees while making a withdrawal from the addictive medicament phorine. |
7922306 | /m/026k6wl | La corne de rhinocéros | André Franquin | 1955 | null | In The Rhino's Horn, Spirou and Fantasio rescue their friend the racecar driver Roulebille (from Spirou et les héritiers) who has been wounded by murderous thugs. Roulebille's employers, Turbot, have designed a car so spectacular that competitors will stop at nothing to steal its revolutionary plans. In order to find Roulebille's partner Martin and retrieve the car's blueprints, the two reluctantly team up with another journalist, an initially irritating but ultimately priceless young woman called Seccotine. The search for Martin takes them to several regions of Africa - complete with rather dated portrayals of the natives. After retrieving the missing blueprints from the titular body part, Spirou and Fantasio are given the very first prototype of the car, baptised Turbot-Rhino to celebrate their adventure. |
7923835 | /m/026k8mm | A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears | Jules Feiffer | 1995 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears is a fantasy story about a young prince named Roger who has never seen a sad thing in the course of his life. As a result, he is always happy. He also emits a happy radiance that causes people near him to laugh. Determined to have his son sober up to prepare to rule the kingdom, Roger's father, King Whatchimacallit, orders his wizard to train Roger. The wizard sends Roger off on a very mysterious quest (Roger doesn't even know what to look for), leaving him with a bottomless bag of magic powder, used to turn Roger into a random object to keep him from making people helpless with laughter. Roger sets off into the Forever Forest which, true to its name, is unending. The forest is filled with people who are lost from years of wandering and Roger forgets his quest to amuse them. In this way, he befriends a peasant named Tom, who does not get along well with the book's narrator. The wizard, in an effort to encourage Roger to leave the forest, causes the supply of magic powder to decrease. Roger, in an effort to restart his quest, tries to think of a way to escape the forest and attempts to walk out backwards which, strangely enough, works. Out of the forest, he becomes trapped in the Dastardly Divide, a barren, rock-filled land. He meets a woman called Lady Sadie who is a servant to the Princess Petulia, a woman so beautiful that all who look at her turn to stone, who has been kidnapped by a lonely giant named Philip. After weeks of starvation, Roger finally uses the last two pinches of powder on himself and Lady Sadie, turning her into a leaf and himself into an egg. He leaps off a cliff and breaks open, turning into an Eagle. Roger believes that Princess Petulia is his quest so he sets off to find her, surviving the terrible Sea of Screams along the way. When he passes through the Valley of Vengeance where, as the name suggests, every one of the inhabitants are constantly seeking revenge against each other, Roger exercises his ability to amuse people to turn the valley into the Valley of Vengeance. After a while, he sees a man attacking another. He is shocked to find that the attacker is Tom, who is angry at Roger for abandoning the people of the Forever Forest. Roger takes Tom (who refuses to accept any apologies) to the Dastardly Divide for a short time and leaves to find Princess Petulia. As he passes through a mountain range, the mountain throws rocks with messages on them at him. The messages contain various insults, such as insisting that Lady Sadie is dead, Princess Petulia was rescued by someone else, and that Tom would kill him. Roger becomes extremely depressed, however, he uses his power of flight as an eagle to rescue the people trapped in the Forever Forest. He then sets off to rescue the Princess. As he fly along, he turns back into a man over a body of water. He nearly drowns, but is rescued by none other than the Princess who explains how the giant fell sick and that in her grief for Philip's health, she cried so much that she created a vale of tears. She tells Roger that she was reunited with Lady Sadie, but a strange man seeking revenge showed up to kidnap her. Sadie, in disguise as the Princess, was kidnapped instead. Roger sets off to rescue Sadie and finds her in the clutches of Tom. A boring fight ensues and Sadie finally ends the fight by pretending to remove her mask. Tom is so certain that he'll turn to stone, that he freezes for months, while Roger and Sadie escape. When Tom realizes that he's not a statue, he believes that he escaped turning into a statue by his own power and, having finally scored a goal over Roger, leaves for good. Roger, having fallen in love with Sadie, marries her, realizing that he no longer makes people laugh all of the time. Petulia, who no longer turns everyone to stone, falls in love with Philip and marries him. The wizard shows up at the wedding and tells Roger that the quest was intended to be something entirely different, however Roger ends up with a happy ending anyway. |
7924540 | /m/026k99b | My Side of the Mountain | Jean Craighead George | 1959 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | The book is about Sam Gribley, a 12-year-old boy who intensely dislikes living in his parents' cramped New York City apartment with his eight brothers and sisters. He decides to run away to his great-grandfather's abandoned farm in the Catskill Mountains to live in the wilderness. The novel begins in the middle of Sam's story, with Sam huddled in his treehouse home in the forest during a severe blizzard. The reader meets Frightful, Sam's pet peregrine falcon, and The Baron, a weasel that Sam befriends. Roughly the first 80 percent of the novel is Sam's reminiscences about how he came to be in a home made out of a hollowed-out tree in a terrible snowstorm, while the remainder of the novel is a traditional linear narrative about what happens after the snowstorm. The second chapter opens with Sam remembering how he came to dislike living in New York City; how he learned of his grandfather's abandoned farm near Delhi, New York; how he learned wilderness survival skills by reading a book at the New York City Public Library; and about his trip to the small town of Delhi using $40 he earned by selling magazine subscriptions. Realizing his son will run away from home no matter what he does, Sam's father permits him to go to Delhi so long as Sam lets people in the town know that he is staying at the farm. Sam enters the forest near the town, builds a tent out of hemlock evergreen tree branches, and catches five trout in a nearby stream. But his survival skills are incomplete, and he is unable to build a fire. The next day, Sam searches for his grandfather's farm and fails to find it. However, he does meet Bill, a man living in a cabin in the woods. Bill teaches him how to make a fire. Sam is forced to go into town to learn where his grandfather's land is. He tells a person at the post office who he is and where he is going, then journeys to the farm. Sam discovers the stone foundation for the long-destroyed farmhouse, but little else remains of the homestead. Over the next several chapters, Sam continues to reminisce about how he came to be self-sufficient by living off the plants and animals he finds on his grandfather's abandoned farm. He finds a hollow tree and decides to make it his home. Remembering how Native Americans used fire to create dugout canoes, he uses fire to make the interior of the hollow tree bigger. One day, while Sam is chopping an ash tree to make a bed, an old woman named Mrs. Thomas Fiedler forces him to help her pick strawberries. Seeing a peregrine falcon hunting for its prey, Sam decides he wants a falcon as a hunting bird. Sam returns to town to get a haircut, and reads up on falconry at the local public library. He camps near a cliff for several days to learn the location of a peregrine falcon nest, and steals a chick from the nest while the mother bird attacks him. He names the bird Frightful, because of the difficult time he had getting the nestling. A short time later, Sam is forced to hide in the woods for two days. A forest ranger, spotting the smoke from Sam's cooking fire, came to investigate what he believed was a forest fire. The ranger lingers near Sam's home overnight, but leaves after believing that whoever started the fire must have left the place. Sam also relates to the reader his memories about his adventures in the fall. He makes a box trap to catch animals to eat, but ends up catching a weasel instead. Sam calls the weasel The Baron for the regal way the animal moves about the hollowed-out treehouse. Realizing winter is coming, Sam wants to kill a deer so he can make a door for his home. He learns how to smoke meat to preserve it for winter, and how to tan hides. When a poacher illegally kills a deer, Sam hides the carcass from the hunter so Sam can use it. Sam remembers how he tanned the hide using a hollow tree stump and various plants. He also avoids townspeople who wander near his home by hiding in the woods. Sam trains Frightful to hunt, and the bird proves very good at it. Sam prepares for winter by hunting frogs, pheasants, rabbits, and sparrows; preserving wild grains and tubers; smoking fish and meat; and preparing storage spaces by hollowing out the trunks of trees. Finding another poached deer, Sam makes himself deerskin clothing to replace his worn-out city clothes. Sam notices a raccoon digging for mussels in the creek, and he learns how to hunt for shellfish. Sam names the raccoon Jesse Coon James, because it looks like a bandit and reminds him of the legendary outlaw Jesse James. Shortly after befriending the raccoon, Sam hears sirens nearby. When he returns to his treehouse home, he finds a man there. At first, Sam believes the man is a criminal, and nicknames him "Bando" (a shortened version of "bandit"). But the man is a professor of English literature, and is merely lost. He is surprised to find Sam, and gives Sam the nickname "Thoreau". Bando spends 10 days with Sam, building a raft to take them downstream to catch fish. He gives Sam 10 pounds of sugar and teaches him to make jam. He also shows Sam how to make a whistle out of a willow branch. Bando also tries to make clay pots. Bando departs, and they agree that Sam will come to town at Christmas to visit with Bando. Sam remembers how, as winter came closer, he realized he needed to make a clay fireplace to keep his home warm. Sam steals two more dead deer from local hunters to make winter clothes, begins rapidly storing as many fruits and nuts as he can (trying desperately to get to them before the squirrels do), and builds his fireplace. Sam almost dies, however, after he insulates his treehouse home too well. His fire generates too much carbon dioxide and not enough oxygen can get inside the treehouse. Frightful becomes sick with carbon dioxide poisoning and warns Sam, who barely gets out alive. Sam puts air holes in the walls of his treehouse to admit more oxygen. Sam feels lonely during Halloween, and makes a party for his animal friends—which goes badly when the animals start stealing his provisions. He tries to go into town to visit the library again, but is forced to climb a tree and stay there all day to avoid being discovered by hunters. He obtains two more deer; their carcases freeze in the winter cold, so he does not need to smoke them. Sam remembers how he went into town just before Christmas to meet Bando again. Sam gets a haircut, meets another teenage boy (Tom Sidler) who ridicules Sam's appearance, observes the townspeople shopping for Christmas, and reunites with his friend Bando. Bando shows Sam many newspaper articles about the "wild boy" living in the forest. Sam returns to his treehouse home. On Christmas Day, Sam gets a surprise: Sam's father has come to visit. Sam is overjoyed to see his father again, and the two have a Christmas dinner of venison together. Sam's father is greatly relieved to find that Sam is doing just fine. The novel ceases to be a flashback in Chapter 18, and becomes a straightforward narrative. Sam learns many things about how animals behave in winter, even during terrible storms. After the blizzard ends, Sam must still forage for food. He is happy that a Great Horned Owl has taken up residence on the farm, for it means that no people or building developments are nearby. Sam learns how Frightful and The Baron manage to survive during winter, helps the local deer find nourishment by cutting down tree branches for them to eat, and overcomes his own vitamin deficiency by eating the right foods. After spring arrives, Matt Spell, a teenager who wants to become a reporter for the local newspaper, arrives at Sam's treehouse home. Matt wants to write about Sam's presence on the Gribley farm. At first, Sam lies to Matt and says the "wild boy" is someone who lives in a nearby cave. But Matt doesn't believe him. Sam then offers Matt a deal: Matt can come live with him for a week during school spring break, if Matt will not reveal his location. Matt agrees. After Matt leaves, Sam realizes he is very lonely and debates with himself whether he wants to be "caught" or not. A few weeks later, Sam encounters Aaron, a Jewish song writer who is visiting the forest for inspiration and singing a song. He tells Sam it is close to Passover, which makes Sam realize Matt will be visiting soon. Bando visits Sam at the farm, and they build a guest house for Matt together. Matt spends a week with Sam, mostly gathering food during this time. Matt is thrilled to be there, but Sam is sad because he realizes he is beginning to replicate his old life in New York City. Matt makes Sam even more unhappy by confessing that he told newspaper photographers where to find Sam. A short time later, Tom Sidler discovers Sam living at the farm. Sam calls him "Mr. Jacket," and the two boys play for a while. Tom's visit makes Sam realize he is desperate for human companionship. Bando returns to check on Sam, and Sam asks Bando to bring him some jeans and a shirt next time. Sam reveals that he intends to go back to New York City to visit his family. In June, Sam is surprised one day to find that his father, mother, and all his siblings have arrived at the farm. His father announces that the entire family is moving to the farm. At first, Sam (now 13 years old) is overjoyed that his family has come to see him. But he is also upset, because it means the end of his life living off the land alone. Sam argues with his father about the family's decision. But his father says the family is as loyal to Sam as Sam has been to them, and that he will build a proper house for the family on the farm. Sam is especially upset about the decision to build a traditional home. The novel ends as Sam meditates on the fact that, even if he went across the Pacific Ocean to get away from people, he still craves friendship and family. His journey in life, he decides, is about balancing his desire to live off the land with his desire to be with the people he loves. |
7928449 | /m/026kdbc | Beyond The Chocolate War | Robert Cormier | 1985 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The story continues a few months after The Chocolate War ends. As the school year draws to an end, many students look forward to leaving for the summer but Carter and Obie, leading members of the ruthless secret society, The Vigils, can't contemplate the future until they have destroyed the leader, Archie Costello. Obie has seen his relationship with the beautiful Laurie Gundarson ruined by one of Archie's Vigil exploits and is out for revenge. But his plan involving a trick backfires and Archie hands over the leadership of the Vigils with his ruthlessly cool reputation still intact. During all of this, it's also revealed what happened to Jerry Renault after the conclusion of the last book, that he had stayed in Canada, and even after a second scuffle with Emile Janza decides to return to Trinity High School. The story ends with Archie giving the role of the "Assigner" to his underling, Bunting, but only on one condition: Emile Janza becomes the Vigil's second-in-command. At the end of the year, Janza suggests to Bunting many changes to the way Archie ran the Vigils, including the use of physical force rather than psychological force, taxing students, and the selling of marijuana and pills. Bunting agrees, not knowing that it was Archie recommending all of the various illegal activities. Archie thus engineers the "ruin" of Trinity in coming years. A side story is David Caroni's pursuit of Brother Leon and in the end committing suicide after a failed murder attempt. The sequel was as well received as its predecessor, but notably darker undercurrents stream beneath its main plot. Principal among those is the spectre of sexual frustration in single sex schools, a sparsely explored theme of both "Chocolate War" books. Critics have argued that Cormier was alluding to Trinity being destroyed by the perversion of simple teenage urges, as the protagonists are frustrated by the compulsory all male environment. Cormier has never made any comment in relation to this claim. |
7930528 | /m/026kg5v | La Joie de vivre | Émile Zola | 1884 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The novel opens in 1863 and covers about 10 years. Ten-year-old Pauline's parents have died, and she comes to live with the Chanteaus, relatives on her father's side, in the seaside village of Bonneville, some 10 kilometers from Arromanches-les-Bains in Normandy. Zola contrasts Pauline's optimism and open-heartedness with the illness, resentment, and depression prevalent in the Chanteau household. In particular, the 19-year-old son Lazare, a student of the writings of Schopenhauer, is convinced of life's futility and infused with pessimism and nihilism, which he attempts to express in an unfinished Symphony of Sorrow. Over the course of several years, a series of financial setbacks causes Mme. Chanteau to "borrow" from Pauline's inheritance. Lazare's investment in a factory to extract minerals from seaweed and his project to build a series of jetties and breakwaters to protect Bonneville from the pounding waves — and the subsequent failure of both these enterprises — reduce Pauline's fortune even further. Through it all, Pauline retains her optimistic outlook and love for Lazare and his parents. Eventually, that love extends to the entire town as Pauline provides money, food, and support to Bonneville's poor, despite their evident greed and degeneracy. Gradually, Mme. Chanteau grows to resent Pauline, blaming her for the family's bad luck and accusing her of being miserly, ungrateful, and selfish. Even on her deathbed, Mme. Chanteau is unable to get past her resentment, and accuses Pauline of poisoning her when she attempts to nurse her. Though Lazare and Pauline are tacitly engaged, Pauline releases him so that he may marry Louise Thibaudier, a rich banker's daughter who spends her vacations with the Chanteaus. Their marriage is an unhappy one, as his obsessive-compulsive behaviors escalate and he infects her with his fear of death. His inability to maintain gainful employment and his palpable apathy add to their unhappiness. Louise gives birth to a stillborn baby boy, but Pauline saves his life by breathing air into his lungs. The novel ends 18 months later. The baby, Paul, is healthy and growing, though Louise and Lazare maintain a tense relationship. Bonneville is all but destroyed by the waves. The suicide of the family servant brings the novel to a close, with M. Chanteau, wracked with gout and in constant agony, railing against suicide and praising the joys inherent in the ongoing fight for life in the face of sorrow and unhappiness. |
7930910 | /m/026kgk5 | City of the Chasch | Jack Vance | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | A human starship intercepts a mysterious signal and tracks it back to Carina 4268, a star system 212 light years from Earth. Two elite scouts, Adam Reith and Paul Waunder, are dispatched in a small scout-boat to investigate the planet whence it came. Seconds later, a missile destroys their mothership. The two survivors nurse the severely damaged scout-boat to the planet before ejecting into a forest. The crash site is first discovered by a band of technologically primitive humans. Reith is amazed to find men on a heretofore unknown, distant planet. One of them casually kills Waunder; Reith remains undetected. A second party approaches in a large sky-raft, sending the humans scurrying into hiding. It is manned (as Reith later learns) by massive, alien Blue Chasch and their human Chaschmen servants. Their investigation of the wreckage is interrupted by a third group, belonging to the Dirdir. The Chasch ambush the tall, pale Dirdir and their human Dirdirmen, driving them off. The Chasch then haul the scout-boat away. Injured and helpless, Reith allows himself to be taken captive by Traz Onmale, the grave, mature boy-chieftain of the tribe. While his wounds heal, Reith incurs the wrath of the "magicians" who are actually in charge. Before he can be castrated to make him more docile, he escapes, taking Traz with him. The teen is not unwilling to go, since he would be expected to sacrifice himself to the gods if the tribe did not prosper. On their trek, Reith rescues an outcast Dirdirman, Ankhe at afram Anacho, from a Phung, an extremely dangerous native. With no plans of his own, he joins them. From Anacho's explanation of Dirdirman theology, Reith deduces that the Dirdir were responsible for bringing humans to Tschai tens of thousands of years ago. His mission is now clear - he must alert Earth to the possible threat of the Dirdir. The mismatched trio join a trade caravan. Among the other passengers is a group of priestesses, taking a beautiful female captive, Ylin-Ylan, home to participate in an important rite. On the lawless steppes, the woman is stolen by the caravan's scouts. Reith rescues her and learns that the mysterious signal originated from her people. The caravan is attacked by Green Chasch just outside the run-down city of Pera, but Reith's group manages to reach safety. The town is ruled by Naga Goho and his brigands. Ylin-Ylan attracts his attention; she and Traz are taken prisoner, forcing Reith to organize a revolt to overthrow the tyrant. Reith's locator indicates his scout-boat is in the nearby Blue Chasch city of Dadiche. He sneaks in and finds his ship, apparently intact, but is spotted before he can make a closer inspection. He barely escapes with his life. When he returns to Pera, he finds to his chagrin that he has been elected the new chief of the city. A group of Blue Chasch arrives in Pera, demanding Reith's surrender. When he refuses, a battle erupts, which the humans win. The Blue Chasch then send their entire armed might, but Reith arranges for the Green Chasch, the mortal enemies of the Blue Chasch, to ambush and wipe them out. With Dadiche now defenseless, Reith and the men of Pera take charge. He frees the Chaschmen and gives them the city, after revealing that they had been duped. The Chaschmen had been told they were transformed at death into Chasch. Baby Chasch were implanted in their corpses in secret, to emerge before Chaschmen witnesses. When Reith checks his scout-boat, he discovers to his dismay that it has been gutted. Ylin-Ylan convinces him to take her back to technologically advanced Cath, where he might be able to build a ship with the backing of her wealthy father. |
7930981 | /m/026kgmy | Servants of the Wankh | Jack Vance | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | After his starship and crewmates are blown up, Adam Reith is marooned on a planet inhabited by four advanced, mutually hostile, alien species, the Chasch, Wankh, Dirdir and native Pnume, as well as various groups of humans. In his quest to return home, he acquires three human companions (as detailed in City of the Chasch): Traz Onmale, a taciturn teenage barbarian chieftain, Ankhe at afram Anacho, a flamboyant, fugitive Dirdirman, and Ylin-Ylan, a beautiful young Yao woman whom he rescued from a man-hating religious sect. Ylin-Ylan persuades Reith, her lover, into taking her back to Cath. With her wealthy father's backing, Reith hopes to be able to build a spaceship. As the voyage progresses however, their relationship cools. Anacho explains that Yao society is extremely status conscious, and the closer they get to her homeland, the more Ylin-Ylan dreads being associated with (to her) gauche, uncouth companions. Her attempts to separate herself from them all fail disastrously. Finally, unable to bear the shame any longer, she takes refuge in awaile, a murderous rampage not uncommon among her people, which ends with her throwing herself into the sea. Reith and his friends continue on to Cath, to notify Ylin-Ylan's father of her demise. They are coolly received, but are eventually given 50,000 sequins (the universal currency of Tschai) as a reward. Unimpressed with Yao engineering, Reith recruits a crew from those who had worked for the Wankh, to try to steal a Wankh spaceship. The attempt almost succeeds, but the ship is damaged and sets down on a lake due to their unfamiliarity with the controls. They are captured by human Wankhmen, who handle all communication with their Wankh masters. About to be executed out of hand, the would-be thieves are reprieved when a high Wankh leader, who had been aboard the stolen ship, decides to investigate further. Reith is able to tell it what he has surmised. The Wankhmen have been deliberately misleading the Wankh; the Dirdir have not been a threat to them for centuries, but have been made to appear so, in order to safeguard the Wankhmen's comfortable status quo. Furthermore, they destroyed Reith's ship for the same reason. As a result of these revelations, the Wankhmen are expelled from the Wankh cities. Reith and his party creep away unnoticed. |
7931065 | /m/026kgr0 | The Dirdir | Jack Vance | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | Adam Reith is stranded on Tschai, a distant planet shared by four alien, mutually hostile, advanced species (the Chasch, Wankh, Dirdir and native Pnume). On his quest to get home, he acquires two human companions, Traz Onmale, a teenage barbarian chieftain, and Ankhe at afram Anacho, an outcast Dirdirman. Reith has failed twice to acquire a spaceship (as recounted in City of the Chasch and Servants of the Wankh). His exploits bring him to the unwanted attention of the Dirdir. As Anacho explains, his former masters are rarely subtle: they want to question and then kill him. Reith manages to wipe out the first "Initiative" sent after him, but sooner or later, there will be a second. He decides to build a ship from scratch, a task requiring vast amounts of sequins, the universal currency of Tschai. The only way to raise that much quickly is to brave the Carabas, the Dirdir hunting preserve, where sequins grow as crystalline nodes. Men prospect for the nodes, while the Dirdir hunt the men. Those they catch, they eat. Reith turns the tables on the Dirdir. He ambushes their hunting parties and takes the sequins they acquired from their victims. When the Dirdir finally take notice, Reith and his friends barely manage to escape, but they have amassed a fortune; in fact, they have so many sequins, they are forced to leave behind a substantial hidden cache. They journey to the cosmopolitan city of Sivishe, where there are shipyards. They find that they must deal with Aila Woudiver, an enormously obese man with monstrous appetites. The construction of the spaceship progresses satisfactorily, but Woudiver demands ever more money, threatening to turn them over to the Dirdir if he is not paid. Finally, Reith has no choice but to go back to the Carabas to retrieve the hidden sequins, leaving Traz and Anacho to keep watch. When he returns however, he finds that Woudiver, who desires above all else to be a Dirdirman, has betrayed Anacho to the Dirdir. Reith risks his life rescuing Anacho. Then he goes to confront Woudiver, but the arch-criminal is too clever for him and all three are handed over to the Dirdir. However, Reith demands arbitration, invoking a tradition too strong for the Dirdir to ignore, even from a "subman". When the judgment goes against him, he challenges the Dirdirman arbitrator. By Dirdir custom, the victor of hand-to-hand combat wins the case. Reith dispatches his foe, only to face a second set of charges. This time, he has to fight a Dirdir. When he forces the creature to concede, Reith and his friends are absolved of all crimes and freed. Needing Woudiver to complete the ship, they do not kill him, but take him captive. |
7931076 | /m/026kgrq | The Pnume | Jack Vance | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | After many false starts and real tribulations, Adam Reith has nearly finished building a spaceship to take him home. He and his two trusted companions had been betrayed by Aila Woudiver, the underworld kingpin who had provided the necessary men and equipment in return for an extortionate amount of money. However, Reith was able to turn the tables and take Woudiver captive (as described in The Dirdir). Even as a prisoner though, Woudiver is a dangerous enemy. Somehow, he manages to interest the Pnume in Reith. The Pnume are the sentient native race of Tschai. Driven underground by three separate alien invasions (by the Chasch, Wankh and Dirdir), they view the other species as welcome additions to the pageantry unfolding on their world stage. In the same light, they are intrigued by the Earthman, abducting him to become a specimen in their museum. Reith is lowered into the vast Pnume underground. He manages to free himself and hide before he can be taken by human Pnumekin, servants of the Pnume, to the Museum of Foreverness. Perplexed at finding an empty bag, they summon a Pnume Sector Warden, who consults its Master Charts, detailing all the various tunnels and hidden adits. Determining that there is one possible escape route, they leave to check it. Before it departs, the Sector Warden hides its maps in a secret compartment, but Reith is a witness. He steals them, but is unable to decipher their contents. He kidnaps a young Pnumekin woman to interpret for him. Once Reith forces her to look at the Master Charts, she realizes her life is now forfeit if she is captured, so she cooperates. Upon questioning, Reith learns that she has no name; she simply belongs to the Zith group in the Athan area of the Pagaz zone, with a rank of 210, so he names her Zap 210. After a journey of indeterminate length, mostly spent on a barge, they finally escape to the surface. They make their way toward the city of Sivishe, where the spaceship is being built. As their trek continues, Zap 210's colorless personality begins to change, free of the peculiar constraints of Pnumekin society and the diko she had been fed to keep her body from developing normally. Eventually, she and Reith become lovers. When they reach the city, Reith finds Anacho waiting for him. He learns that, shortly after Reith's abduction, Woudiver had been taken to be prey for a Dirdir hunt. The ship had been seen, so Traz moved it to a location known only to Reith. However, when they prepare to leave, they find Zap 210 missing, captured by the Pnume. Despite Anacho's protestations, Reith gives himself up to the Pnume (after making certain preparations). He bargains with them, threatening to give copies of the Master Charts to the Dirdir unless they release Zap 210. He also demands that they free all the Pnumekin from their freakish existence. The Pnume have no choice; they agree to his terms. Reith and Zap 210 return to the surface, link up with Anacho and Traz, and finally depart for Earth. |
7931793 | /m/026khgg | Stopping at Slowyear | Frederik Pohl | 1991 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | Stopping at Slowyear tells the story of an interstellar cargo vessel which runs between out-of-the-way worlds, as it visits a planet called Slowyear after its 19-year-long revolution around its star. The crew explore the local culture and find several odd customs. Among these is of a sort of death lottery as a punishment for crimes. If someone commits a crime, they are sentenced to take a pill, which depending on the severity of the infraction will have a different probability of being lethal poison. Slowyear's principal industry is raising sheep. During their isolation, their sheep have developed a form of scrapie which is lethal to humans without immunity, such as the crew of the interstellar cargo ship. The crew die from the disease and the story ends. Stopping at Slowyear is interesting in that it addressed prion diseases years before public awareness of mad cow disease was widespread. |
7932852 | /m/026kjx6 | Lavender and Old Lace | Myrtle Reed | 1902 | null | Miss Jane Hathaway is an astute pillar of a quaint coastal community, where her house sets atop a hill. She has long overcome the scandal created by her elder sister’s elopement, though the sister died without her forgiveness. She’s also aware of a child, although she’s never met her niece. When she receives a letter from Ruth Thorne, her 34-year-old niece, suggesting an invitation to visit, she accepts, but leaves before Ruth arrives. At Miss Hathaway’s house, Ruth is given a mysterious letter. The letter, from Aunt Jane, does not explain her sudden trip abroad, but insists that Ruth light an oil lamp in the attic each night. In the attic, Ruth stumbles upon some mementos and keepsakes in an old trunk. Among the items is her aunt’s wedding dress, made long ago and never worn. There’s also some newspaper clippings; an announcement of marriage between Mr. Charles G. Winfield, Capt. of the Schooner Mary, and Miss Abigail Weatherby. Ruth imagines that perhaps he was the man to whom her aunt’s wedding dress was intended. Later, she finds a death notice of Mrs. Abigail Winfield, aged 22. Ruth feels ashamed and puts everything back, forcing it from her mind. In the village, Ruth notices a young man, but does not make his acquaintance. Instead, she visits her aunt’s childhood friend, Mary Ainslie, whom the locals call “peculiar,” because she never leaves her house. Ruth is immediately taken with Miss Ainslie’s saintly demeanor and quickly forms a friendship with her. Ruth, who has resisted the urge to pillage her aunt’s love letters, unwittingly stumbles onto a partial letter, which states, “At Gibraltar for some time, keeping a shop, but will probably be found now in some small town on the coast of Italy. Very truly yours.” The signature has been torn. Ruth's solitude is broken by Carl Winfield, a fellow journalist, who is staying in town at the suggestion of their mutual boss. She recognizes him as the young man she noticed earlier and finds him roguishly young and handsome; a great match for her. Mr. Winfield suffers from an ocular ailment and taking a reprieve from reading and writing. He's lodging at the Pendletons, and confides to Ruth that Joseph Pendleton and Hepsey, her aunt’s maid, are courting. He asks Ruth to read the newspapers to him, and she agrees. Their time is well spent and on one of their many walks, they fall in love. Mr. Winfield is also curious about Miss Ainslie, though Ruth is uncertain to introduce them. She inquires first and, out of curiosity for his surname, Miss Ainslie agrees to meet him. Carl Winfield is transformed by Miss Ainslie and confides that his own mother died when he was young. Although he does not remember her, he’s been told awful stories about her vices, mainly alcoholism. Despite that Miss Ainslie is unmarried and has no children, he believes she’s the vision of a perfect mother. Mr. Winfield proposes to Ruth, and she accepts, although no date is set, then Joseph Pendleton proposes to Hepsey, and she accepts. With this much excitement, it's difficult to imagine the surprise when Aunt Jane returns, a married woman! Not trusting the “heathen laws" with which she was married, Aunt Jane rushes to put forth a Christian union with one priest and two witnesses, Ruth and Carl. The bridegroom, James Ball, is all but thrilled. He has lived a long sailor’s life and enjoyed his bachelor days up to no end. He also fancies younger women… like Ruth and Hepsey! To his credit, he is there upon his word, having proposed to Miss Hathaway 30 years ago! It turns out that he was the purpose of her trip to Italy. When Aunt Jane, now Mrs. Ball, discovers her husband’s roving eye, she fires Hepsey and sends Ruth away, using her honeymoon as an excuse. Hepsey and Joe’s wedding is immediately put forth. Ruth, on the other hand, isn’t ready to rush into marriage. She heads for Miss Ainslie’s house instead. There, she knows, she will be comfortable for the duration of her holiday. Linens, china, and furniture make up the wedding gifts. While Ruth is staying with Miss Ainslie, the woman makes changes to her will, leaving everything to Ruth and Carl. Both insist they would rather have her, Carl especially. Strangely, Miss Ainslie and Carl share a dream about Carl’s father. They confide it to Ruth, but she is unwilling to believe it is anything more than a coincidence. Nonetheless, it has changed Miss Ainslie and she has lost her will to live. In the end, Ruth and Carl discover the truth: that Mary Ainslie was engaged to Charles G. Winfield, Capt. of the Schooner Mary, but that he married Carl’s mother, Abigail Weatherby instead. After his wife died, he was too proud to come forward with his son, so he stayed away all those years. And all those years, Miss Ainslie was waiting for him. Her friend, Jane, knew this, but hadn't the heart to tell her. Instead, she lit the lamp in her attic for hers and Miss Ainslie's sailors to make their way back to them. |
7932985 | /m/026kk3f | Old Rose and Silver | Myrtle Reed | 1909 | null | The novel follows the lives of Rose and her widowed Aunt, Madame Francesca Bernard, along with young visitor and cousin Isabel, whose lives are changed by the return of an old friend and neighbour Colonel Kent, and his grown son, Allison. Other characters that help shape their lives in significant ways are the Crosby twins, unconventional and uninhibited youths that set society at naught, and an unconventional doctor who specializes in the impossible. Through the limited "wide-scope" descriptions the reader is not sure of the historical setting or even in which decade it's set, but it helps to understand the focus of the story; after all it's about their own little world, and how their own hearts and lives fit together in the tight confines of their town, their garden, their friendships and lives. |
7933338 | /m/026kkl6 | Once Upon an Island | null | null | null | David Conover and his wife risked everything they had and even went into debt to pursue their dream. In spite of countless warnings and predictions of disastrous outcomes, the southern Californian couple purchased an uninhabited island off the British Columbian coast and set out to turn it into a summer resort. Equipped with absolutely no know-how or experience, but with a supply of tools and books purchased before leaving Los Angeles and a resolute determination to realize their dream they went to their home in the wild which, on more than one occasion in their first year almost left them defeated. The book is an account of an earnest but amateurish effort to perform plumbing, carpentry, well digging, and boat navigation, which produced nearly fatal results and financial ruin. The story is told with a good humor, sensitivity, and insightful philosophy. Mrs Conover earned money to help the family income by drawing pictures of the animals and birds she saw all over their island and selling them to the greeting card companies. Also, they were able to build a few small cabins to rent out and that too helped them financially. They declared the island a sanctuary in that no animal would have to fear for its life. All wildlife was allowed to roam free from all human interference and because of that the island was soon a haven and breeding place for all the wildlife who eventually became unafraid of humans. |
7935431 | /m/026knz6 | The Search for the Snow Leopard | Franklin W. Dixon | null | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/028v3": "Detective fiction"} | Frank and Joe, with their best bud Chet Morton, solve the case of a princess's missing snow leopard.The Hardys face a kidnapper who is to hunt them. |
7935589 | /m/026kp5f | The Children of the New Forest | null | null | null | The children of Colonel Beverley, a Cavalier officer killed at the Battle of Naseby, are believed to have died in the flames when their house, Arnwood, is burned by Roundhead soldiers. However, they escape and are raised by Jacob Armitage, a gamekeeper in his cottage in the New Forest. The story describes how the children adapt from an aristocratic lifestyle to that of simple foresters. The children are concealed as the grandchildren of Armitage. Eventually after Armitage's death, Edward Beverley leaves and works as a secretary for the sympathetic Puritan placed in charge of the Royal land in the New Forest. He then joins the army of the future King Charles II and after the Royalist defeat at the Battle of Worcester, he escapes to France and lives in exile until the Restoration. His sisters are sent to be brought up as ladies and his brother continues to live in the New Forest until they are reunited on the King's return. |
7939358 | /m/026ktrn | Falling Man | Don DeLillo | 5/15/2007 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Falling Man concerns a survivor of the 9/11 attacks and the effect his experiences on that day have on his life thereafter. As the novel opens, Keith Neudecker, a 39-year-old lawyer who works in the World Trade Center, escapes from the building injured slightly and walks to the apartment he previously shared with his son Justin and estranged wife Lianne. After a period of convalescence recuperating from the physical and mental trauma experienced in the attack, Keith resumes his domestic routine with Lianne while at the same time broaching a romantic relationship with a woman named Florence, another survivor, whose briefcase Keith absently took with him from a stairwell upon exiting the tower. Lianne meanwhile grows frustrated with a neighbor in her building who loudly plays middle-eastern sounding music, witnesses the dissolution of a writing group she ran for Alzheimer's patients, and spends time with her elderly intellectual mother Nina and her boyfriend Martin (an art dealer who was involved in Kommune 1 in Germany during the 1970s). In the second half of the novel, Keith eventually abdicates his partially resumed domestic life and begins touring the world playing in professional poker tournaments full-time, recalling his weekly poker nights with co-workers, one of whose deaths he witnessed on 9/11. Throughout the book, Lianne sees a performance artist dubbed "Falling Man" in various parts of the city. Wearing business attire, he suspends himself upside-down with rope and a harness in the pose of the man in the famous photograph of the same name by Richard Drew. |
7943220 | /m/026ky7t | Almanac of the Dead | Leslie Marmon Silko | 1991 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Almanac of the Dead takes place against the backdrop of the American Southwest and Central America. It follows the stories of dozens of major characters in a somewhat non-linear narrative format. Much of the story takes place in the present day, although lengthy flashbacks and occasional mythological storytelling are also woven into the plot. The novel's numerous characters are often separated by both time and space, and many seemingly have little to do with one another at first. A majority of these characters are involved in criminal or revolutionary organizations - the extended cast includes arms dealers, drug kingpins, an elite assassin, communist revolutionaries, corrupt politicians and a black market organ dealer. Driving many of these individual storylines is a general theme of total reclamation of Native American lands. |
7945123 | /m/026k_d7 | Autumn Street | Lois Lowry | 1980 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | There were things to be afraid of in the woods at the end of Autumn Street. But the year she went to live in her grandfather's big house - when her father went off to fight in World War II- Elizabeth couldn't put a name to those dark, shadowy fears. She was grateful for the reassurance of Tatie's strong, enveloping brown arms which held her when she needed comforting, and she relished her friendship with Tatie's grandson, feisty and streetwise Charles, who called her dumb old Elizabeth but didn't mean it, and who taught her to take risks. Together the two lonely children tried to interpret for each other an adult world -which was always puzzling and often cruel. Together, finally, on a day when snow obscured everything but terror, they left that world behind them and entered the world that was waiting in the woods. |
7948395 | /m/026l2f5 | Imre: A Memorandum | Edward Irenaeus Prime-Stevenson | 1906 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | It was described by the author as "a little psychological romance". The narrative follows the lives of two men, who by chance meet at a cafe in Budapest, Hungary. Over the course of several months they forge a friendship that leads to various revelations and disclosures, each of which are carried out with the greatest of subtlety. |
7948709 | /m/026l2zr | Rudin | Ivan Turgenev | 1856 | {"/m/05qt0": "Politics", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel"} | The novel begins with the introduction of three of the characters – Aleksandra, Lezhnev, and Pandalevskii. Pandalevskii relates to Aleksandra Dar’ya Mikhailovna’s invitation to come and meet a Baron Muffel’. Instead of the Baron, Rudin arrives and captivates everyone immediately with his intelligent and witty speeches during the argument with Pigasov. Interestingly, Rudin’s arrival is delayed until Chapter Three. After his success at Dar’ya Mikhailovna’s, he stays the night and the next morning meets Lezhnev who arrives to discuss some business affairs with Dar’ya Mikhailovna. This is the first time the reader finds out that Rudin and Lezhnev are acquainted, and studied together at university. During the day that follows Rudin has his first conversation with Natasha; as she speaks of him highly and says he “ought to work”, he replies with a lengthy speech. What follows is a description quite typical of Turgenev, where the character of Rudin is shown not through his own words, but through the text which underlines Rudin’s contradictory statements: :“Yes, I must act. I must not bury my talent, if I have any; I must not squander my powers on talk alone — empty, profitless talk — on mere words,’ and his words flowed in a stream. He spoke nobly, ardently, convincingly, of the sin of cowardice and indolence, of the necessity of action.” On the same day, Sergei leaves Dar’ya Mikhailovna’s early and arrives to see that Lezhnev is visiting. Lezhnev then gives his first description of Rudin. In two months, we are told, Rudin is still staying at Dar’ya Mikhailovna’s, living off borrowed money. He spends a lot of time with Natasha; in a conversation with her he speaks of how an old love can only be replaced by a new one. At the same time, Lezhnev gives the account of his youth and his friendship with Rudin, making for the first time the point that Rudin is “too cold” and inactive. On the next day, Natasha quizzes Rudin over his words about old and new love. Neither she, nor he confess their love for each other but in the evening, Rudin and Natasha meet again, and this time Rudin confesses his love for her; Natasha replies that she, too, loves him. Unfortunately, their conversation is overheard by Pandalevskii, who reports it to Dar’ya Mikhailovna, and she strongly disapproves of this romance, making her feelings known to Natasha. The next time Natasha and Rudin meet, she tells him that Dar’ya Mikhailovna knows of their love and disapproves of it. Natasha wants to know what plan of action is Rudin going to propose, but he does not fulfil her expectations when he says that one must “submit to destiny”. She leaves him, disappointed and sad: :“I am sad because I have been deceived in you… What! I come to you for counsel, and at such a moment! — and your first word is, submit! submit! So this is how you translate your talk of independence, of sacrifice, which …” Rudin then leaves Dar’ya Mikhailovna’s estate. Before his departure he writes two letters: one to Natasha and one to Sergei. The letter to Natasha is particularly notable in its confession of the vices of inactivity, inability to act and to take responsibility for one’s actions – all the traits of a Hamlet which Turgenev later detailed in his 1860 speech. Lezhnev, meanwhile, asks Aleksandra to marry him and is accepted in a particularly fine scene. Chapter Twelve and the Epilogue detail events of over two years past Rudin’s arrival at Dar’ya Mikhailovna’s estate. Lezhnev is happily married to Aleksandra. He arrives to give her news of Sergei’s engagement to Natasha, who is said to “seem contented”. Pigasov lives with Lezhnevs, and amuses Aleksandra as he used to amuse Dar’ya Mikhailovna. A conversation which follows happens to touch on Rudin, and as Pigasov begins to make fun of him, Lezhnev stops him. He then defends Rudin’s “genius” while saying that his problem is that he had no “character” in him. This, again, refers to the superfluous man’s inability to act. He then toasts Rudin. The chapter ends with the description of Rudin travelling aimlessly around Russia. In the Epilogue, Lezhnev happens by chance to meet Rudin at a hotel in a provincial town. Lezhnev invites Rudin to dine with him, and over the dinner Rudin relates to Lezhnev his attempts to “act” – to improve an estate belonging to his friend, to make a river navigable, to become a teacher. In all three of this attempts Rudin demonstrated inability to adapt to the circumstances of Nicholas I’s Russia, and subsequently failed, and was in the end banished to his estate. Lezhnev then appears to change his opinion of Rudin as inherently inactive, and says that Rudin failed exactly because he could never stop striving for truth. The Epilogue ends with Rudin’s death at the barricades during the French Revolution of 1848; even at death he is mistaken by two fleeing revolutionaries for a Pole. |
7950296 | /m/026l54j | Burger's Daughter | Nadine Gordimer | 1979 | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | The novel is set mostly in Johannesburg in the early- to mid-1970s during Apartheid. Rosa is the daughter of Lionel Burger, a white Afrikaner anti-apartheid activist, who is standing trial for treason. The court finds him guilty and sentences him to life in prison. Rosa visits him regularly, just as she visited her mother, Cathy Burger when she was imprisoned some ten years previously. Cathy died when Rosa was still at school. Rosa grew up in a family that actively supported the overthrow of the apartheid government, and the house they lived in opened its doors to anyone supporting the struggle, regardless of colour. Living with them was "Baasie", a black boy Rosa's age the Burgers had "adopted" when his father had died in prison. Bassie and Rosa grew up as brother and sister. Both Rosa's parents were members of the outlawed South African Communist Party (SACP), and she was told from an early age that they could be detained by the authorities at any time. When Rosa was nine, both her parents were arrested and she was sent to stay with her father's family in a rural farming community. Baasie was sent elsewhere because, she was told, he would not be accepted there. It was here that Rosa experienced apartheid for the first time and the way black people were mistreated. In 1974, after three years in prison, Lionel succumbs to ill-health and dies. At 26, Rosa sells the Burger's house and moves in with Conrad, a post-graduate student who had befriended her during her father's trial. Rosa is not in love with Conrad, but their relationship is convenient during this difficult time. Conrad questions her role in the Burger family and the fact that she always did what she was told. He questions whether she has her own identity, because everyone sees her as Burger's daughter, not Rosa. Later Rosa leaves Conrad and moves into a flat on her own and works as a physiotherapist at a hospital. While some of Lionel's former associates are banned or under house arrest, Rosa is "named", meaning that she is labelled a Communist and is under surveillance. In 1975, despite her restrictions, she attends a party of a friend in Soweto, and it is there that she hears a black university student dismissing all whites' help as irrelevant, saying that whites cannot know what blacks want, and that blacks will liberate themselves. Realising she needs to be somewhere else, Rosa manages to get a passport, and flies to Nice in France to stay with Katya, her father's first wife. Rosa spends several months there and is able to be herself for the first time in her life. She meets Bernard Chabalier, a visiting academic from Paris, and they become lovers. He persuades her to return with him to Paris, where he says the French Anti-Apartheid Movement will be only too happy to organize a flat for Lionel Burger's daughter. Before joining Bernard in Paris, Rosa stays in a flat in London for several weeks. Now that she has no intention of honouring the agreement of her passport, which was to return to South Africa within a year, she openly introduces herself to others as Burger's daughter. This attracts the attention of the media and she attends several political events. At one such event, Rosa sees Baasie, but he is reluctant to talk to her. She gives him her phone number, and he later contacts her and starts criticizing her for not knowing his real name (Zwelinzima Vulindlela). He says that there is nothing special about her father having died in prison as many black fathers have also died there, and says he does not need her help. Rosa is devastated by her childhood friend's hurtful remarks, and overcome with guilt, she abandons her plans of going into exile in France and returns to South Africa. Back home she resumes her job as a physiotherapist in Soweto. Then in June 1976 Soweto school children start protesting about their inferior education and being taught in Afrikaans. They go on the rampage, which includes killing white welfare workers in Soweto. The police brutally put down the uprising, resulting in hundreds of deaths. In October 1977, many organizations and people critical of the white government are banned, and in November 1977 Rosa Burger is detained. Her lawyer, who also represented her father, expects charges to be brought against her of furthering the aims of the banned SACP and ANC, and of aiding and abetting the students' revolt. *Lionel Burger – a white Afrikaner born 1905 in the Northern Transvaal; a medical doctor, anti-apartheid activist and a member of the banned South African Communist Party (SACP) *Cathy Burger (née Jansen) – Lionel's second wife, a trade unionist and later a member of the SACP; married Lionel in August 1946 during the African Mine Workers' Strike while they were out on bail after having been arrested on a charge of orchestrating the strike *Rosemarie Burger (Rosa) – Lionel and Cathy's daughter, born May 1948; her name was derived from Rosa Luxemburg (a Polish Marxist) and Marie Burger (Lionel's mother); a physiotherapist by profession *Zwelinzima Vulindlela ("Baasie") – a black student, taken in and "adopted" by the Burger family when he was a child after his father had died in prison; the same age as Rosa, she treated him like her brother, but never knew his real name as the family simply called him "Baasie" (little boss) *Colette Burger/Bagnelli (née Swan) (Katya) – Lionel's first wife, married in London and returned to South Africa with Lionel in 1930; divorced in the 1940s; moved to France where she married a captain in the French navy, Ugo Bagnelli; widowed after Bagnelli died *Conrad – a post-graduate student and Rosa's first live-in companion; he is her conscience who questions her identity and role *Bernard Chabalier – a French academic in Paris working on his doctoral thesis; married with two children; Rosa's first lover |
7951122 | /m/026l655 | La Clé sur la porte | null | null | null | A forty-year old woman describes her life living in an apartment in Paris with her three children and their friends. As a community experiment based on total freedom the key lives permanently over the door and everyone comes and goes as they please. She contrasts her formerly strict and closed world against the free one of today; obedience to values against wavering anarchy; alacrity and faineance; hard loneliness versus warm fraternity. Marie Cardinal invites us to question these themes in this personal and passionate book, rich in humour and emotion. La Clé sur la porte is a serious and picturesque novel of today's youth, written by an elder who knew how to commingle. |
7951656 | /m/026l6xk | Manga Kenkanryu | null | null | null | The main character of story, Okiayu Kaname, a Japanese high school senior, learns about alleged game-fixing scandal that kept winning streak of South Korean soccer team during 2002 FIFA World Cup and ugly behavior by their supporters. Okiayu becomes a college freshman, and he and his female classmate Aramaki Izumi joins “Far East Asia Investigation Committee” (極東アジア調査會), an extracurricular group led by Sueyuki Ryuhei (a junior) and Soeuchi Tae (a sophomore). The group is mainly devoted to the study of historical issues between Japan and Korea and very critical of Korea. Okiayu and Aramaki learn many ugly sides of Koreans. The group participates in debates with a pro-Korean study group and a visiting students group from South Korea – both ignorant with historical knowledge and unable to make logical arguments – and completely rebuts their pro-Korean opinions, humiliating them. The main topics of book includes alleged 2002 FIFA World Cup game scandal, Japanese compensation to Korea for colonial rules, Opposition to Zainichi Koreans suffrage, Korean plagiarism of Japanese culture, criticism of pro-Korean mass media in Japan, criticism of Hangul (Korean alphabet), Japan–Korea Annexation, Liancourt Rocks dispute, and criticism of Korean Wave in Japan. |
7953967 | /m/02vklkn | Meridian | Alice Walker | 1976 | null | Set in the 1960s and 1970s, Meridian centers on Meridian Hill, a student at the fictitious Saxon College, who becomes active in the Civil Rights movement. She becomes romantically involved with another activist, Truman Held, and though he impregnates her, they have a turbulent on-and-off relationship. After Meridian has an abortion, Truman becomes far more attached to her and longs to start a life together. Later Truman becomes involved with a white woman, Lynne Rabinowitz, who is also active in the Civil Rights struggle, though perhaps for the wrong reasons. As time goes by, Truman attempts, unsuccessfully, to achieve personal and financial success while Meridian continues to stay involved in the movement and fight for issues she believes deeply in. |
7956168 | /m/026lcx6 | The Kitchen God's Wife | Amy Tan | 1991 | null | The Kitchen God's Wife opens with the narrative voice of Pearl Louie Brandt, the American-born daughter of a Chinese mother and a Chinese-American father, who is a speech therapist living in San Jose, California. Pearl's mother, Winnie Louie, has called Pearl to request that she and her family attend the engagement party of Pearl's cousin Bao-Bao in San Francisco. Pearl is reluctant to oblige her mother, since she is more involved in her American identity. Nevertheless, she feels an obligation to attend the family festivities. Then, two days before the engagement party, Pearl receives another call from her mother telling her that Auntie Du has died and that the funeral will be arranged for the day after the engagement party. With these obligations on her shoulders, Pearl sets out for San Francisco with her young daughters, Tessa and Cleo, and her husband. Upon Pearl's return home, her Auntie Helen, Bao-Bao's mother, who co-owns a florist shop with Winnie, makes a demand: she insists that Pearl must tell Winnie that she has multiple sclerosis, about which everyone else in the family knows. Helen claims that she is suffering from a malignant brain tumor and does not want to die knowing that Winnie is unaware of her daughter's illness. Helen adds that if Pearl will not tell Winnie the truth, she will do it herself. Later, Helen tells Winnie that she must unveil the truth of her past to Pearl because she cannot go to her grave with such secrets. The reader later learns that Helen knows her tumor is benign and is using the threat of her own imminent death as a pretext to force mother and daughter to be honest with one another. At this point, the novel switches to the narrative voice of Winnie Louie, who tells the story of her past to Pearl. Before reaching the United States, Winnie experienced much turmoil, strife, and suffering. She was abandoned by her mother, a lesser wife of her father, as a young child, and did not fully understand her mother's mysterious disappearance. Winnie, whose Chinese name is Weili, was forced to live with her Uncle and his two wives (New Aunt and Old Aunt) and never felt as loved as her uncle's true daughter, Weili's cousin, Peanut. Nevertheless, when the time came, Winnie's aunts arranged a traditional marriage for her, and her father provided a large dowry, since he was an educated and well-established man. The marriage to Wen Fu, who first courted Peanut but transferred his attentions to Weili when he learned of her father's wealth, turned out to be a disaster. Wen Fu was horrifically abusive — physically, mentally, and emotionally, and Weili suffered while also surviving World War II. Weili lost many children along the way, some to early deaths, one that was stillborn, an infant daughter who was corporally abused and emotionally traumatized by Wen Fu and his violence, and one son that she sent away to escape Wen-Fu, who eventually died from a flea epidemic at the age of 6. Throughout the novel, Winnie does many things behind the scenes that her husband takes credit for, and she likens her situation to a Chinese fable about a man who was horrible to his wife no matter how much she did for him, and yet still became known as "the Kitchen god". It was during the War that Weili became friends with Helen, (Chinese: Hulan). Winnie reveals that they were never really in-laws, but only friends. After Weili married Pearl's Chinese-American father, Jimmie Louie, moved to the United States, and took the name Winnie, she lied to sponsor Helen's immigration. Pearl has always been told that Jimmie Louie was her father. He was a good husband, a good father, and a minister in the Chinese Baptist Church, but he died when Pearl was a teenager, a time when Pearl became very angry. Winnie explains to Pearl that she met Jimmy Louie in China, at an American military dance. He was extremely kind and the person who gave all of the Chinese girls attending the dance their "American" names; the two fell in love, and Jimmie began to help her escape her tortured marriage. In Chinese culture, in order to obtain a divorce, the paper had to be signed by two witnesses and Grand Auntie Du and Hulan agreed to sign. Wen-Fu had previously ripped up the papers from her first attempt, and Winnie went to him again to get the papers signed. The greatest secret, however, is that at that last meeting Wen Fu raped her. After receiving notification from China of Wen-Fu's death, Winnie explains that it is only now that she feels truly free of his wickedness and threats. Thinking she is informing Helen of a secret, she states that she has always tried to love Pearl more because she thought she might have been Wen-Fu's daughter, not only when looking into Pearls' face as a child and seeing how much she looked like the little boy who she'd lost in China; but especially when she saw how angry Pearl had become after her Jimmie's death. Helen surprises her by telling her that she always knew about the rape because of the way she arrived home after meeting with Wen-Fu. After Winnie tells her story, Pearl reveals the secret of her disease. By the time the wedding of Bao-Bao comes around, mother and daughter have come to know each other better. Winnie goes into a local shop finds an altar with an unnamed goddess. The shopkeeper gives it to her for halfprice because it is considered bad luck. Winnie names it "Lady Sorrowfree" the wife of the Kitchen god, who has endured all, received no credit for the work she has done, and is still strong. At the end of the novel, Helen reveals that she is planning a trip to China, with Pearl, and Winnie. |
7960436 | /m/026ljn1 | Drawing a Blank | null | null | null | At the beginning of his junior year at Carnegie Mansion, a prestigious private school, Carlton Dunne IV attempts to go through the year without attracting attention to himself as he has done for the past two years. He has a fondness for art and a "secret" identity as a Connecticut comic strip artist. When his father is kidnapped by a Scottish clan exacting revenge for a feud nearly a thousand years ago, Carlton is drawn into the battle. After arriving in Scotland, he meets Aileen, an 18 year-old Scot who plans to become a cop and wants to be on Cops in America. After learning of Carlton’s story she vows to help him on his quest. The pair venture to Northern Scotland where they attempt to solve the mystery surrounding Carlton’s dad. They are gradually drawn into the clan’s mythology, a mythology that both Carlton’s dad and his kidnapper strongly believe is true. |
7960601 | /m/026ljvy | The Curious Enlightenment of Professor Caritat | null | null | null | In the military run country of Militaria, Professor Nicholas Caritat, a secluded Enlightenment scholar, is arrested because he has been giving hope to the Optimists, the nation’s enemies. Once in prison, he is rescued by Justin, a former student and current part of a guerrilla group called “the Hand,” and given a mission: to find the best possible world. The mission leads him through three countries of political extremes that all claim to be the best. Nicholas’s mission begins in Calcula, a city in the forward thinking, Utilitarian country named Utilitaria. The country has two parties: the Rule party, in government and the Act party, in opposition. The Ruler party follows John Stuart Mill’s idea of having society be ruled mainly by the most talented individuals. The Act party encourages democracy as it follows Jeremy Bentham’s ideas of having everyone’s opinions count equally in government. There is a group in the Northern area of the country called the Bigotarians which are focused on the past and want independence. The only thing that matters to the people of Utilitaria is producing the greatest utility, as that will produce the greatest amount of happiness, following the ideas of early utilitarian thinkers. Classes are non-existent. Calculators and computers are used to calculate consequences and utility, despite the limitations and difficulties that occur when trying to do so. Everyone is cared for, provided that they contribute to the well-being of society. Those who cannot contribute are used as organ donors to help the working force. On the third day of his visit, he is kidnapped by the Bigotarians. The group holds him for ransom as they think he is a Utilitarian ideologist. After thirteen days and two letters to the man he had been staying with, Nicolas realizes that Utilitaria, with its lack of regard for human rights, is not the best possible world. He is soon released and finds his way to Polygopolis, Communitaria with the help of Reverend Goddington Thwaite. In Communitaria, society is based on equality and multiculturalism. People are greatly attached to their own ways of life, but recognize and accept others’. Everyone has a place in one of the thirty-four ethnic groups and seventeen religions. People cannot change communities to which they belong, but instead have to conform. The right to practice their culture is balanced by law with the responsibility to never offend another community. Nicholas meets a rock star who is hiding because he had been excommunicated from his communities because he wrote to a “satirical” rock opera. Satire is seen as sacrilegious, which is the worst crime in Communitaria, so he no longer has a place in society. Reverend Goddington Thwaite and the rock star look to Nicholas to help. When he talks to the two communities, though, he finds that individual rights do not exist in Communitaria. The only right that exists is the right the communities have to be respected. Upon visiting the unidiversity (the Communitarians’ university), he is told that his mission undermines multiculturalism. It, according to the professors there, implies that one culture or society is better than another, which is impossible to do if one wants to have multiculturalism. Despite this, he is offered a temporary position lecturing on "Did the Enlightenment have to fail". The intent of this suggested topic is to warn students against ethnocentrism and the idea of civilization and universal reason. They view the Enlightenment as a way for one culture to oppress others, which is unacceptable in their world. One of the professors, Professor Bodkin, is an extreme feminist who argues that there is still oppression in the country on the basis of gender. Her peers avoid her eyes as she speaks of this, as they prefer to believe that there no longer is oppression. When Nicholas meets a group of students, he finds that free speech is a punishable offence for fear of offending someone. He is invited to a secret club by another group of students, though, who argue against that. Through their stories, he finds the problem behind the Communitarian way of life: extreme separation of the communities. Marriage between members of different communities is frowned upon. People who try to change their community are shunned from society and called “rootless cosmopolitans”. While trying to find the washroom, he finds Professor Bodkin in the shower. When she sees him, he stumbles out, making apologies. She mistakes his apologies for insults against her community. She presses charges against him, causing him to flee the country to Freedom. On the train ride to Freedom, he dreams of the perfect world. In the dream, he meets two men who show him around Proletaria. Like Marx’s ideology, the Proletarian class in Proletaria took over the government which caused the state to disintegrate and left complete communism. There are no classes, states, legal systems, wages, rights, or markets. People are free to do as they wish and are not confined to one particular area of labour or activity. Upon waking, he finds himself heading towards Freedom, the capital city of Libertaria. Based on libertarian thinking, “society” no longer exists in the country; all that matters is the individual. People are completely left alone as the government does not believe in social programs. Everything is privatized, so schools and hospitals are closed to those who cannot pay for them. Freedom arises in that people are free to do whatever they like without interference from the government. The market, as once stated by Steven Lukes, reproduces and creates inequalities. This is shown in Libertaria through the difficulties people have living in society. The entire state is built on the privatization and trade of various programs and industries on the stock market. Due to this, it is difficult to find work. People often have to live on the streets, while students do not have enough money to buy books. The only way to make money is through stocks, but it is only the wealthy that have the money to do that, creating inequalities. After limited success in Libertaria, he leaves to Minerva, and then starts to walk to the boarder. On his way, he is confronted by an owl who explains why each country failed to be the best it could be: they were all too focused on a single value. Since this is the Owl of Minerva, it is wise and philosophical. As dusk approaches, the owl flies away, symbolizing, as Prof. Peter Singer argues, that “philosophy understands reality only after the event.” Nicholas, demonstrating this, starts to comprehend all that has happened. His final letter to Justin places his experiences in context with his mission and ideas. He realizes that the best possible world would encompass all values and have its citizens willing to learn and think. |
7965037 | /m/026lpx7 | The Summer Garden | Paullina Simons | 2005 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Four years have gone by since World War II has ended; and Tatiana and her lover, her husband, her Shura, her Alexander - are married and living a life together with their son, Anthony. Yet they are strangers to each other. Having been separated from each other for years, they do not know each other anymore. They live a satisfactory life, with Alexander working as a lobster-man - coming home each day smelling of fish. Tatiana is now known to outsiders as 'Tania'. They move from place to place. After Alexander confesses to why he was so cold to her, they reconcile and move houses. Finally living in a place that they've dreamed of, Tatiana's friend Vikki phones her to say that the USA government is looking for Alexander. Fearing for her husband's safety, she does not tell him. Finding out himself somehow, he goes to Washington to make everything right - also finding out that his supposedly executed mother "is still alive" in a concentration camp. Realising though, that he has been tricked by an enemy, he does not go to search for her. He meets Tom Richter - a lieutenant colonel - and earns himself a job in Yuma as a captain of the Military Intelligence arm of the U.S. Army. Time passes by, and the family moves to Phoenix. Alexander gets a job as a builder/architect in Balkman's company and Tatiana (after persuading Alexander) gets a job as a nurse in the ER terminal care ward in the Phoenix Memorial Hospital. Making friends with Balkman's son, Steve, Alexander has finally found the peace that he has always wanted. Here Phoenix, they can forget who they once were, and nobody would know about them. Steve, when they first meet, talks about a girl that he has met at the hospital when he broke his hand; saying that he's "never met anyone like her". Tatiana when she comes home, is tight-lipped when she hears about Steve. She is initially cold to Steve and never warms up to him. Alexander later figures that his wife was the "not like anyone else" girl that Steve was talking about. After a time, Steve introduces a man named Dudley to Alexander. But Dudley sees the tattoos - the SchutzStaffel Eagle, the blue numbers, the hammer and sickle, the swastika. To make matters worse, he storms into Alexander's house: threatening to rape Tatiana and then kill both of them. With no choice, Alexander shoots Dudley in the head. After revealing what had happened to the police, the doctor, the coroner and the media; Alexander starts his own company and Balkman and Steve were ruined (Dudley had turned out to be an escaped murderer - it was illegal to hire escaped convicts). After years of trying for a second baby (with Anthony once accidentally seeing them trying without knowing about sex - he thinks his mother is getting hurt in the process: "Dad, I don't think Mom wants to have anymore children. Didn't you hear her?"), things have cooled off. Caught cheating on his wife, it is then revealed that Tatiana is pregnant. Tearfully forgiving him, they have a son - Charles Gordon Pasha Barrington. Following Charles are two more children, Harry, about two years later, and Janie. Almost eight years have past and Anthony has made his job choice: he is going to Vietnam to fight. With his parents initially protesting, he goes. Sunday evening, July 20, 1969 - while the family (Tatiana, Alexander, their children - Pasha, Harry and Janie) are watching the man on the moon, a call comes from Richter. Anthony has been reported missing for three days. Weeks go by, and Vikki visits. Tatiana and Alexander find out that Vikki and Anthony have had a romantic relationship since he was eighteen. She shows them a letter Anthony sent her - he is married to a Vietnamese girl called Moon Lai and she is pregnant. Alexander travels all the way to Vietnam to find his son. Using their heads, Anthony's comrades, his father and Richter realise that Moon Lai is a North Vietnam communist who is just a bait for Anthony. Alexander and a group of six (twelve?) people go to rescue him. They first capture Moon Lai who tells them everything. Despite being a trap, she actually loves Anthony. She then tries and sort of fails to stab Alexander and Ha Si (a member of the group), aiming for Alexander's thigh and Ha Si's face. In self defense, they slit her throat. Alexander rescues Anthony (who has had his right arm amputated by the North Vietnamese) losing Richter, Ha Si and others on the way. The novel then skips ahead thirty years to Thanksgiving 1999, Alexander and Tatiana's children are all grown and have children of their own. A very large family. Alexander and Tatiana seem content with their lot. The novel ends one hot day in near their home in Scottsdale, Arizona, Tatiana sitting on the bench eating ice cream, Alexander stands across the street, returning from buying a drink, staring at her, a bus passes and he comes around it, reminiscent of the first time they met all those years ago on 22 June 1941 in Leningrad. |
7965540 | /m/026lqg3 | The Fright at Tristor | null | null | null | The plot of The Fright at Tristor begins with a mention of the brutal murders occurring in the hamlet of Tristor, in the northern reaches of the Theocracy of the Pale. The townsfolk fear that they may be the next target of these attacks. The party has been hired to investigate, a reward being offered if they can stop these murders occurring. Some believe the source of the attacks to be a band of orcs following a mysterious entity known as "The Watcher." When outlying farms are attacked outright, it is up to the adventurers to halt these killings and save the town. |
7967078 | /m/026lsb_ | Imperium | null | null | null | In the first part, entitled First Encounters (1939-1967), Kapuściński writes about the 1939 entry of the Red Army into Pińsk, his home town in the Polesie area, and about the poverty and terror he experienced during the ensuing Soviet rule. He continues to describe his postwar experiences in the Soviet Union, including his travel on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and his trips to exotic Central Asian and Transcaucasian republics of the Soviet Union, today Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The second part of the book, From a Bird's-eye View (1989-1991), makes up over one half of the book, and is a travelogue from his lone trips around the Soviet Union during its collapse. In the European part of the USSR Kapuściński visited, among others, Brest, Moscow and Donetsk, in the Far North - Magadan and Vorkuta, in the South - Tbilisi and Yerevan. During these voyages he traveled over 60,000 km, mostly by plane. The last, shortest part, The Sequel Continues (1992-1993), is a summary. It is also an attempt to analyze the changes in the countries that arose from the disintegration of the USSR. According to the author himself, the whole work does not end with a higher and final synthesis, but with the reverse, because during its writing the subject and theme of the book, the great Soviet Empire, has disappeared. no:Imperiet (polsk bok) pl:Imperium (reportaż) |
7970835 | /m/026lyjs | The Kouga Ninja Scrolls | Futaro Yamada | 2006-12 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | This story is quite similar to Romeo and Juliet. The story centers around two rival ninja clans; the Iga and the Koga; whose no-hostilities treaty is lifted by retired shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu to settle a succession dispute within the government concerning which of Ieyasu's grandsons is destined to become the third Tokugawa Shogun. Due to years of selective breeding, the members of Koga and Iga have all developed inhuman abilities at the cost of several of them being born physically disfigured or otherwise abnormally mutated. At the center of the conflict is Koga and Iga's two young heirs; Gennosuke and Oboro respectively; who had fallen in love in the hopes of not only bringing their clans together in peace but also to mix the bloodlines of their families so as to undo the genetic damage endured by both. The novel traces the course of the conflict as both clans endure heavy losses and ultimately bringing Gennosuke and Oboro to face each other on the field of battle. |
7975778 | /m/026m3fr | Brown Girl, Brownstones | Paule Marshall | null | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The somewhat autobiographical story describes the life of Barbadian immigrants in Brooklyn during the Great Depression and then in World War II. The primary characters include Selina and Ina Boyce and their parents, who suffer from racism and extreme poverty. The book focuses most directly on the growth and development of the character Selina. The book did not gain widespread recognition until it was reprinted in 1981. The action opens on a discussion of the brownstone neighborhood in which the Boyce family lives. Selina Boyce, age 10, fantasizes about the white family that used to live in her house. The rented house is occupied by the Boyce family, frivolous father Deighton, stern mother Silla and Selina's older sister, Ina, as well as Suggie Skeete, a Barbadian woman who rents a room and frequently has male visitors. Additionally, a spinster woman and her mother, Maritze and Miss Mary, both white, live upstairs. In the early pages we learn that Ina, Selina's older sister, has reached puberty and is home sick with what we can assume are menstrual cramps. Understandably, she doesn't want to talk to Selina or entertain her. Selina finds her father, Deighton, working on some accounting books he's studying in hopes of getting a job. Deighton tells Selina that he's been left a plot of land back in Barbados, and he tells her not to tell anyone about it until her mother knows. Selina asks if she can tell her best friend, Beryl, and her dad acquiesces, and gives her some money for candy. On her way to the candy shop, Selina runs into the hyper-sexualized Suggie, as well as another neighborhood woman, Miss Thompson. She also sees Beryl in the park and asks her to stop by later. Seeing her mother coming home, Selina struggles to clean herself up, in fear of being chastised. |
7976669 | /m/026m475 | NP | Banana Yoshimoto | null | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | --> <!-- this content was copied over from "Kitchen," and has been commented out; to be replaced subsequently with specific content about this novel. |
7977859 | /m/026m5j2 | Curse of the Blue Tattoo | null | 6/1/2004 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature", "/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Jacky Faber has just gotten off from being on the Seven Seas fighting notorious pirates and other goons on the 'Dolphin.' At the end of the first book, she is found out to be a girl and since ship codes say that a girl is not to work on a ship or be on one, she is delivered to the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in Boston by the uptight Professor Tilden. She is forced to leave her sea dad, Liam Delaney, and her ships boys including the boy she loves, James Emerson Fletcher. When they get to the school, Jacky is introduced to Mistress Miranda Pimm. She is seen as a very strict and unforgiving lady, soon lashing at Jacky for her wild and outrageous clothing style such as the gold hoop earing that her and Jaimy exchanged. Mistress Pimm can't get any satisfaction or respect so she has her cronie assistant Dobbs come and take off her unsuitable jewelry by force. After their initial meeting, Jacky is sent to meet the other girls. She finds them very different but takes up with one Amy Trevelyne, a bit of an outcast amongst the girls. Amy is from around the Boston/New York area and has a brother that is a renowned womanizer. She is instantly an enemy of the spoiled Clarissa Worthington Howe. She is the leader of all the popular girls in the school and soon Jacky cannot take this different attitude displayed by Clarissa and fights her, both leaving considerable bruises and marks on each other. She takes a horse riding class, an art class, an embroidery class, a class in French and an etiquette class. On Sunday mornings, the girls go to a church off in a desolate area of the school-grounds inhabited by one Reverend Mather. Rather than the preacher that the Deacon was for Jacky aboard the 'Dolphin', Mather is a bit of an unusual man and Jacky soon finds out why. While Amy and Jacky are walking through the graveyard by the church between classes, Jacky spots a man looking through the window of an old shed at the two girls. Jacky is creeped out and as they noticed an unmarked grave, they leave in a hurry. After Jacky is engaged in a fight with Clarissa, Mistress Pimm whips them both on their legs, and Clarrisa is shocked that she is actually getting punished. Jacky is right about Mather as she finds him to be more than a typical "fire-and-brimstone" preacher. And she thinks he has something to do with the unmarked grave, so she intends to find out nonetheless. But after deciding to skip class and roam the streets of Boston, Jacky winds up in the port playing her pennywhistle. Some sailors hear her, and they and she begin to dance. However, her shipman's dancing doesn't pass muster in the streets of Boston, and when a lisping constable comes across her showing her knees to men, she is imprisoned for lewd and lascivious acts. Jacky meets the "lady of the night" prostitute Mam'selle Claudelle de Bour-bon of the New Orleans Bour-bons. She finds Mam'selle to be a bit crazy (her sexual orientation is questionable) but she takes up with Jacky calling her delicate names like 'Precious' and others. Soon after time in jail, Jacky is seen before the feared Judge Thwackham. All is going well, for her lawyer is an excellent one. But when the constable produces her shiv, which is a knife, as evidence to her impropriety, it seems all is lost. Jacky falls to her knees in quite a display of innocent weeping, in which she, quite luckily, mentions the name of Miss Pimm. The judge and his jury are delighted that they have finally got one of "Pimm's girls" in their court, as they have fussy wives and daughters that are very proud of the fact that this has never happened. They are so tickled that they let Jacky off with suspended punishment, confident that the horrified Pimm will do enough. Jacky's lawyer, Ezra, returns Jacky back to the school and before Mistress. Instead of whipping Jacky, she expels Jacky from the school but keeps her to work for the cooks and maids. This horrifies and embarrasses her terribly, but it works out well, because she finally meets some nice girls; the serving maids. They grow a great friendship. But before this happens, Jacky must visit Mather to discuss her behavior in Boston. Jacky is shocked when he lashes out, calling her a whore and a minion of Satan. Mather is about to whip Jacky, but she fights back, telling him he has no right, and finally running out on a shocked Mather after warning him she has a lawyer. She goes to see Ezra one day and talks about Mather. Ezra says that one year ago, a girl by the name of Janey Porter who worked for Mather was found hung in her bedroom from a bedpost (Jacky finds it impossible but Ezra tells her otherwise) and that she died while pregnant. Ephriam Fyffe, Janey's love interest, also explains that Janey Porter was pregnant but it was not his child, though he said he would have raised it as his own. He says that many found her death surprising, as she was generally a cheerful girl. Jacky is convinced Janey did not die from suicide and consults with her friend, Ephriam Fyffe. He confirms that Janey was a very happy girl until the last month of her life, even through the most of her pregnancy. This gives Jacky more to investigate and she finds the Reverend walks the graveyard by night, recalling the events as if he was talking to the spirit of Janey. Jacky sees this a state of mental paranoia and conviction. She is convinced the Reverend Mather killed Janey Porter. She has Amy sneak out and watch the Reverend for herself before they go and tell Ezra and Ephriam about it. Ezra sees it possible now to press charges against the minister. During the time of being a maid, Jacky writes letters back and forth to Jaimy even though a couple were intercepted by Mistress Pimm. She runs with the Mam'selle and a drunk artist by the nickname of Gully, he plays a violin named Lady Lenore and they perform in Boston's taverns. She tries and haunts the paranoid Mather by imitating the voice of the ghost of Janey Porter. It succeeds and causes Mather to lose sleep. She meets back up with Davy from the 'Dolphin' but only for a brief time and she meets Randall Trevelyne, Amy's womanizing brother. A bit of a friendship ensues and a brief, harmless relationship too. Randall soon has to leave Boston though, leaving Jacky alone after Mam'selle leaves back for New Orleans. Gully strikes Jacky after an act goes wrong, in response Jacky hands him to a navy press-gang and holds on to the lady lenore until they meet again. Amy turns against Jacky for a little while when Jacky gets drunk and disgraces her home. Jacky leaves Amy's home without anyone knowing and sets off for New York. She plans to sing and dance along the away to earn money for her journey. The dog follows her. At Amy's behest, Amy's father hires two men to find and bring back Jacky but they sell her to Reverend Mather instead and take her to him at the church. Mather is convinced Jacky is a spirit of Janey, back to haunt Mather or try to. Mather tells his dead Grand-father, a Puritan minister before him that Janey shall be dead and that the punishment he did the first time was not enough. As Mather is carrying Jacky up the stairs inside the church, she kicks over a lamp without him noticing. It starts a fire; which Mather still does not notice. Mather ties Jacky down, spread-eagle, to the posts of Janey's old bed. Ephraim bursts in to rescue her and the Reverend runs away up to the steeple. Ephraim and Jacky escape. Outside, with the "sisterhood" and other friends they watch the church burn, hear the Reverend screaming and watch the bell fall. Jacky realizes that sparks from the church have caused the stable and school to burn. Everyone is galvanized into saving the horses and the schoolgirls and putting out the fire. The horses and girls are saved; but, the buildings continue to burn. Mistress Pimm is seen on the top floor silhouetted by the light of the flames from the church. Jacky enlists help to get to the top floor to rescue her and gets up there to find Pimm trying to save her precious needlework. She saves Mistress Pimm in spite of Pimm's protestations. Constable Wiggins tries to catch Jacky, but Jacky gets on her riding school horse, Gretchen, and they ride out of Boston. Jacky sells her horse and gets aboard another ship to London. |
7982488 | /m/026mb4_ | The Sorrows of Satan | Marie Corelli | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | On the surface the plot follows the story of a penniless, starving author called Geoffrey Tempest. So poor that he is behind on his rent and can barely afford light in his room, he receives three letters. The first is from a friend in Australia who has made his fortune and offers to introduce him to a good friend who might be able to lift him from poverty. The second is a note from a solicitor detailing that he has inherited a fortune from a deceased relative, the third is a letter of introduction from a foreign aristocrat called Lucio, who befriends him and proceeds to be his guide in how to best use his new found wealth. Tempest remains blissfully unaware throughout the novel, despite warnings from people he meets, that Lucio is the Earthly incarnation of the Devil. Over the course of the book, his wealth leads to misery. Eventually, when confronted with the true nature of his companion, he renounces evil and returns to society penniless but content with the chance to purify his soul. Although the plot follows Tempest's fall from grace and redemption, he is in many regards a secondary character to Lucio. Both the title of the work and much of its philosophical content relate to the supreme yearning within Satan to achieve salvation. The book's main contribution to Faustian literature is the introduction of the concept that above all other people it is Satan who most truly believes in the Gospel — and yet he is forbidden to ever partake of it. |
7988684 | /m/026mm4f | Chloe Does Yale | null | null | null | Chloe Is a typical college student. She participates in campus traditions, tries to have some fun between all the tedious coursework of the Ivy League, and is active in the campus newspaper. Her notorious column addresses the dating dilemmas all coeds face and draws much interest. That’s what any young writer wants, right? Not in this case. After dishing the details of her most recent dates or the lack of activity in her love life Chloe finds that men are often intimidated by the possibility that their endeavors may end up in the Yale Daily News. She doesn’t find herself lonely, as there is plenty going on to keep her attention elsewhere. But when a “cybercrush” evolves from her countless online critics its no surprise that Chloe lets herself become engrossed with this developing relationship. |
7989624 | /m/026mn42 | Moon face | Jack London | null | null | The story follows the unnamed protagonist and his irrational hatred of John Claverhouse, a man with a "moon-face". The protagonist clearly states that his hatred of him is irrational, saying: "Why do we not like him? Ah, we do not know why; we know only that we do not. We have taken a dislike, that is all. And so I with John Claverhouse." The protagonist becomes obsessed with Claverhouse, hating his face, his laugh, his entire life. The protagonist observes that Claverhouse engages in illegal fishing with dynamite and hatches a scheme to kill Claverhouse. The protagonist teaches a dog, Bellona, to do one thing and one thing only, retrieval, with emphasis on water retrieving and taking the stick back to the thrower no matter where they were. Claverhouse is presented with Bellona before his upcoming trout fishing trip. The protagonist observes from a distance with glee as Claverhouse lights a stick of dynamite and throws it into the water. Bellona, trained to retrieve, fetches the explosive. Claverhouse runs from the dog in futility until "just as she caught up, he in full stride, and she leaping with nose at his knee, there was a sudden flash, a burst of smoke, a terrific detonation, and where man and dog had been the instant before there was naught to be seen but a big hole in the ground." The death is ruled an accident while engaged in illegal fishing. The protagonist takes pride in killing Claverhouse with no mess or brutality and lives in peace. |
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