title
stringlengths 1
220
| author
stringlengths 4
59
⌀ | pub_year
int64 398
2.01k
⌀ | summary
stringlengths 11
58k
|
|---|---|---|---|
Pandora's Curse | Jack Du Brul | null | During World War II, at a secret Nazi submarine base, containers crafted entirely from looted wartime gold were hidden away. The treasure was not the solid-gold chests, but the cargo they carried - an artifact so lethal that whoever possessed "Pandora's Boxes" held the power to unleash hell upon earth.... In the unforgiving wastes of Greenland, geologist Philip Mercer uncovers a long - abandoned U.S. Army base buried under the ice - and a long-dead body still hot with radiation. Before Mercer and his colleague, the seductive Dr. Anika Klein, can investigate further, a flash fire engulfs the base, and they are ordered to evacuate. But their plane is forced to land when a bomb is discovered on board, and they must seek shelter from the murderous weather in a hidden ice cavern. That's where they learn the startling truth. A powerful German corporation has launched an operation to destroy evidence of its Nazi past. But one of the corporate mercenaries knows what's inside the Pandora boxes, and he plans to hold the entire world hostage - unless Mercer can find a way to stop him.... |
The Knight | Gene Wolfe | null | The story opens with an older narrator recounting a great adventure. He is left alone in a cabin in the wilderness by himself for a few days. He goes for a hike and ends up chasing a flying castle he sees in the sky until he is abducted by "a lot of people". He awakens to find himself at the mouth of a cave by the sea. He is greeted by a fortune teller who calls him Able of the High Heart and turns his walking stick into a bow. He soon after discovers his chivalrous destiny and embarks on a quest to travel this strange new land. |
Ice Claw | David Gilman | 2,008 | Max Gordon is participating in an X-Treme sports challenge, where he witnesses the final moments of a mysterious Basque monk, who screams a cryptic clue before plummeting to his death. The clue is a prophecy that predicts an ecological catastrophe that will kill millions around Europe. When he is blamed for the monk's death, Max and his best friend Sayid follow the clues and discover betrayal and murder around every turn before meeting the man behind it all: the insane billionaire Tishenko. |
The Lollipop Shoes | Joanne Harris | 2,007 | Living in a tiny chocolaterie in Montmartre, Paris, Vianne and her daughters Anouk and Rosette have forsaken magic and adventure for a stable, if unhappy life. Vianne has now become the widow Yanne Charbonneau, mother of 'Annie'. Hiding her magical nature, she feels she is doing the right thing by her daughters, but she herself is dissatisfied: there is friction with Anouk; money is short; there is pressure from her landlord, Thierry le Tresset, to marry him and she no longer has time to make hand-made, quality chocolate, but is forced to sell the ordinary, factory-made kind. Anouk is equally unhappy. She is bullied at school and made to feel like a freak; her mother seems to have changed beyond recognition and she hates living in Paris. She misses Roux, Rosette's father, with whom Vianne is still in love, but whom she left because of his inability to settle down. The situation seems hopeless and set to deteriorate. And then, on All Hallows' Eve, Zozie de l'Alba blows into their lives, bringing back magic and enchantment. She seems to be exactly what Vianne herself used to be; a benevolent force, a free spirit, helping people wherever she goes. But Zozie is a thief of identities, maybe even a collector of souls. She has her eye on Vianne's life, and begins to insinuate herself into the family. She is soon working at the chocolaterie, helping and understanding everyone as Vianne used to do. She helps Anouk to deal with the bullies who torment her at school. The shop begins to prosper under her guidance, much to Thierry's displeasure. When Roux, Vianne's former lover, re-appears on the scene, Zozie helps Vianne to decide between a stable life with Thierry and a loving relationship with the man she loves. But as Vianne's life begins to improve little by little under Zozie's influence, it becomes clear that all this must come at a terrible price. Finally, Vianne is forced to confront Zozie on her own ground, to reclaim her magic and her identity and to fight back - but is it too late?http://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/v3site/books/lollipop/index.html |
Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi | null | 1,991 | After a brief flashback to 1920, with a glimpse of Indiana Jones as a college student in Chicago, the novel moves to its main setting. The year is 1922. Indy is a graduate student in Paris, studying linguistics and Greek archaeology. Although his greater talent currently seems to be for the former, he begins to wonder if he might be better suited for a different career after he receives a surprising invitation from his professor. Following an archaeology lecture to her class on the Greek city of Delphi, Professor Dorian Belecamus announces that she will be leaving the university for the rest of the semester in order to return to Delphi to oversee the recovery of an archaeological find, discovered recently in the wake of an earthquake in the region. After class, to Indy's surprise, she privately invites him to join her on the journey as her assistant, telling him that he is her best student and that she feels he could be very helpful on the expedition. After some consideration, Indy decides to accept the professor's offer in the hopes that assisting in such an exciting undertaking may very well lead him to a more intriguing and adventurous career than world of linguistics may have to offer. He, of course, has no idea exactly how true those ideas will prove to be as he embarks on a journey filled with mysterious figures, deceptive intentions and a lot more waiting for him Delphi than he ever expected. |
The Greeks Have a Word For It | Barry Unsworth | null | Two men arrive in Athens on the same boat. Kennedy an Englishman intends to make a living teaching English and devises a scam to make money fast. Mitsos is returning to Greece after many years away but finds it impossible to escape the memories of the brutal deaths of his parents at the hands of fellow Greeks during the war and an opportunity arises to take revenge. The two men meet briefly as they disembark the boat but their stories then diverge only to come together at the end of the book with fatal results. |
Union Now | null | null | Streit argued that, in a globalizing world, the trend towards growing domestic exposure to "external" problems had led many to embrace a reactive posture. In parts of Europe, this meant an increasingly belligerent nationalism that sacrificed freedom for security; in the United States, it meant an isolationism that sought to defend against global conflicts rather than working to prevent them. With freedom within nations and peace among them at risk, internationalist proposals such as the League of Nations fell short: in addition to lacking effective decision-making and enforcement mechanisms, they placed too much emphasis on sovereign governments, marginalizing the individuals they represented. Streit proposed a Union that, along the lines of American federalism, brought together the democracies of Europe, North America and the former parts of the British Empire under a single government with the power to grant citizenship and wage war; its membership would expand as more nations joined the democratic camp. This Union would honor individual rights while combining the economic and military power of the world’s democracies against autocratic regimes. Streit argued that the centralization of certain government services and the removal of tariffs would also increase economic efficiency. As a federalist, however, Streit also supported considerable autonomy and home rule for the formerly sovereign nation-states. |
Brother Cadfael's Penance | Edith Pargeter | 1,994 | In the spring of 1145, Hugh Beringar receives an intelligence report from Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, that, at the urging of the Church, the two factions in the civil war have agreed to meet for a peace conference at Coventry. Privately, the Earl's hopes for the conference are not high, as recent events have led both sides to believe that they can be ultimately victorious. On the one hand, the Empress Maud has finally convinced her young husband, Geoffrey of Anjou, to bring his military forces to bear on Normandy, where many of Stephen's barons hold land. On the other, King Stephen has recently gained valuable allies in England: after much waffling between the two sides, the powerful Earl of Chester has joined Stephen, while in the Thames Valley, two of the Empress's castellans have defected to Stephen, bringing their castles and garrisons in Faringdon and Cricklade with them. One of them, surprisingly, is Phillip Fitz Robert, son of Robert of Gloucester, the Empress's right-hand man. Among the reports, Hugh finds a troubling piece of information: among the garrison of Faringdon were several knights who remained loyal to the Empress and were imprisoned. Some of them have been offered for ransom, while others are being held captive, but one's whereabouts are unknown: Olivier de Bretagne, whom Hugh knows is Cadfael's illegitimate son. Cadfael confesses to Abbot Radulfus that he feels it is his duty to find and rescue Olivier. Radulfus gives him permission to accompany Hugh to Coventry, but warns him that he must return to the Abbey afterward, or risk expulsion from the Order. In Coventry, Cadfael is surprised to recognize Yves Hugonin (last seen in The Virgin in the Ice), Olivier's brother-in-law. Barely have they exchanged greetings when Yves draws his sword and flies at another man in a rage: Brien de Soulis, the turncoat castellan of Faringdon. Order is restored by Bishop Roger de Clinton. Yves is called to a private audience with the Empress Maud, who, officially, rebukes him for disturbing the peace, but, privately, hints that she would be delighted if de Soulis were to be killed. As expected, the peace talks come to nothing. Maud is intractable in her claim to the throne, while Stephen is conscious of his superior position in England and is loath to surrender it. Before the talks end, Yves asks Stephen to reveal anything his men know about Olivier's whereabouts. De Soulis claims to know nothing. But that evening, as the two sides are exiting the chapel after mass, de Soulis's dead body is discovered on the chapel steps. Phillip Fitz Robert accuses Yves of murder, and takes him into custody. With permission from the Bishop, Cadfael examines de Soulis's body and belongings, and discovers several important clues: de Soulis was stabbed from the front with a dagger, not a sword - indicating his killer was someone he knew and trusted, and allowed to approach him. The other strange clue is that, in de Soulis's bag, Cadfael finds a seal ring that does not belong to him, though no one in Coventry can identify it. Now, Cadfael must decide whether to continue searching for Olivier, or return with Hugh to Shrewsbury. He chooses the former. Traveling to Faringdon, Cadfael meets a mason's assistant, lamed by a badly-broken leg, who says that he was a man-at-arms with the garrison. He identifies the seal as belonging to another captain of the garrison, Geoffrey FitzClare. FitzClare was the most popular captain in the garrison, and also the most steadfastly loyal to the Empress - yet de Soulis showed the men a document signed by him and the other captains, agreeing to surrender to the King. The day after the surrender, FitzClare was sent out on some errand, and later brought back dead, apparently killed by a fall from his horse. Armed with this knowledge, Cadfael tracks down Phillip Fitz Robert at his castle of La Musarderie in Greenhamsted, and manages to convince him that Yves is innocent: de Soulis must have murdered FitzClare and stolen his seal, in order to convince the remaining captains to agree to the surrender - which makes it more likely than not that plenty of other people wanted him dead, and Yves is ruled out by the fact that de Soulis allowed his killer to approach close enough to stab him. Repulsed by de Soulis's treacherous actions, of which he knew nothing, Phillip agrees to release Yves. Phillip also admits that he is holding Olivier in the castle. Cadfael pleads with Phillip to release him, going so far as to reveal that he is Olivier's father. Phillip is not unmoved, but refuses: he and Olivier were the closest of comrades, like brothers, but, ultimately, Olivier refused to follow his friend in defecting to Stephen - which, Cadfael realizes, Phillip did not out of any love for Stephen or enmity towards Maud, but in the hopes of breaking the stalemate between the two sides and allowing one to triumph, finally ending the war. Yves returns to the Empress's court in Gloucester and begs her to lay siege to La Musardarie to rescue Olivier, who has been imprisoned just for remaining loyal to her. She refuses, but instantly changes her mind when Yves mentions that Phillip himself is there - in other words, she would not lift a finger to rescue Olivier, but will move heaven and earth to capture Phillip and revenge herself on him for his disloyalty. Yves is dispirited at this, but he and several of the Empress's advisers become alarmed when she announces that she does not mean to just capture Phillip, but to execute him - thus driving a wedge between herself and many of her allies, especially Earl Robert. Dismissing all their warnings, the Empress assembles an enormous army and throws it at Phillip's castle. Phillip's garrison puts up a tough defense, but Phillip suffers a near fatal head wound from a missile thrown into the courtyard. Cadfael ministers to him, and Phillip, believing he is dying, gives his final orders: his deputy shall surrender the castle, and trade Phillip to the Empress for the best terms he can get; he also gives Cadfael the keys to Olivier's cell. Released, Olivier learns the truth of his parentage, and he and Cadfael arrange a plan to get Phillip out of the castle and save him from the Empress's vengeance. The chivalrous Olivier, bearing no grudge for his long imprisonment, throws himself into the effort to save the life of Phillip, whom he still considers his friend. The plan works, and Phillip recovers in the nearby Augustinian abbey of Cirencester. Earl Robert himself arrives at the abbey, reconciling with his son and placing his protection over him. Before leaving La Musardarie, Cadfael discovers who de Soulis's killer was: one of the Empress's ladies-in-waiting, who was Geoffrey FitzClare's mother (ironically, de Soulis had designs on the lady's young niece, and allowed her to approach him in the mistaken belief that she was that niece). Cadfael, recognizing in her a kindred spirit who had acted to avenge her son in much the same way as Cadfael had acted to save his own son, keeps her secret. Olivier asks Cadfael to return home with him, as his family would welcome him with open arms. Cadfael declines, saying he wants nothing more now than to return to Shrewsbury, even if there is a chance that he may not be allowed to. Returning to Shrewsbury, Cadfael spends the night lying on the floor of the chapel as a penitent. In the morning, when the rest of the monks enter, Abbot Radulfus informs him that word of his actions has reached the Abbey: that he has helped to solve another murder, exonerate Yves, release Olivier, and mend the rift between Phillip and Robert. He also informs Cadfael that Phillip has renounced both sides in the war and enlisted in the Second Crusade. He then declares "it is enough!" and invites Cadfael to take his old place among his brothers. |
LaBrava | Elmore Leonard | 1,983 | Joe LaBrava gets involved with former movie star Jean Shaw, whom he admired as a twelve year-old boy staring at a movie screen, when he discovers that she is being harassed by thug Richard Nobles and his partner Cundo Rey. |
The Broken Compass: How British Politics Lost its Way | Peter Hitchens | 2,009 | In Chapter 1, "Guy Fawkes Gets a Blackberry", Hitchens claims that opinion polls are a device for influencing public opinion and not measuring it, and that political parties and newspapers are responsible for this manipulation, whose purpose is to "bring about the thing it claims is already happening". The author cites contemporary examples of the media attacking Gordon Brown and the expected win of the Conservative Party at the 2010 general election. Hitchens begins Chapter 2, "The Power of Lunch", by asserting, based on his time as a reporter at Westminster, that political journalists are uninterested in serious political debate; propagate received centre-left standpoints on issues; and consult with each other and politicians about media stories. Chapter 3, "Time for a Change", describes how a media reporting bias is attempting to facilitate a Tory general election win. Hitchens states one of his motivations in writing the book was to frustrate this exercise. Hitchens claims in Chapter 4, "Fear of Finding Something Worse", that Labour has reached "the most significant moment in its history – the complete acceptance of its programme by the Conservatives". The author invokes the closing image of George Orwell's Animal Farm to illustrate how close the two parties have become. Chapter 5, "The Great Landslide", discusses how a number of left-wing writers and newspapers have begun describing the Conservatives in favourable terms, and how this no longer constituted "a form of treason". Chapter 6, "Riding the Prague Tram", describes Hitchens's experience of travelling in Communist Bloc countries before the fall of the Soviet Union and how this, combined with the behaviour of certain left-wing organisations in the UK, led to his becoming disillusioned with the British Left. He also carries out a lengthy critique of the Western Left's apologist stance towards Soviet Communism, including views held by Fabian Society members Beatrice and Maurice Webb; the attempt to exonerate and romanticise Lenin and Trotsky; and intellectual resistance to the works of Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Robert Conquest. In Chapter 7, "A Fire Burning Under Water", Hitchens describes the final stage in his becoming disenchanted with the British Left – the British Trades Union Congress's (TUC) failure to support the Gdansk shipyard workers challenging their communist government. Chapter 8, "Racism, Sexism and Homophobia", examines how the modern ideology of race and the term racist differ from the previous concept of "racialism", and how the sexual revolution represents "seeking the existing order's permission to pursue pleasure at all costs", which undermines Christian principles of marriage, and has its roots in events in 1968. In Chapter 9, "Sexism is Rational", Hitchens states that the Left's taking up feminist causes since the 1960s has led to the damage and exploitation of women, as well as a decline in marriage. Hitchens says this process is part of revolutionaries' seeking to "destroy and expunge the restraints placed on human selfishness by the Christian religion. The permanent married family is the greatest single obstacle to this". Hitchens concludes that in Britain there is an emerging citizenry "prepared for enslavement, ignorant of its origins, past, rights, traditions, and duties" and that "only in a wholly broken political system could there be such a need for reform, and no reformers ready to address it". In Chapter 10, "Equality or Tolerance", Hitchens examines how the Left have since the 1960s taken up the cause of equal rights for homosexuals. Hitchens says supporters of Leo Abse's 1967 law reform on homosexuality are now accused of intolerance if they do not support homosexual civil partnerships or discrimination on the grounds of homosexuality. Hitchens concludes by stating, "the atrophy of religion and patriotism in the Labour party, like the atrophy of the same things in the Tory Party, is the deep problem beneath all others". Chapter 11, "The Fall of the Meritocracy", examines falling standards in British education. Hitchens cites the abolition of grammar schools as one of the main causes, which has also resulted in a decline in social mobility. Hitchens claims egalitarians deny these consequences and that comprehensive education has failed. Hitchens also quotes a 2000 study, which asserted that "the general lowering of standards and rigour since the end of selection is one of the main reasons behind the current drive to devalue examinations". Hitchens asks why, "the educated, conscious servants of the state should seek to pretend that educational standards are rising when the opposite is true. The answer is that they have put equality before education". Chapter 12, "'The age of the train'," outlines how the Conservative and Labour parties facilitated the dismantling of much of Britain's rail network. Hitchens asserts this is evidence that the "Tory Party does not love Britain, any more than the Labour Party loves the poor". In Chapter 13, "A Comfortable Hotel on the Road to Damascus", Hitchens explores how since the 2001 September 11 attacks and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, certain commentators on the Left realigned with an American Neoconservative position, which, "delivers him [the leftist commentator] to another portion of the 'centre ground', one where foreign policy is the only thing worth discussing, and where former conservatives and former Leftists can mingle in happy communion", and allows "political conservatism to soothe its tribal base by appearing strong overseas, while failing to be anything of the kind at home". Hitchens asserts that political mismanagement, facilitated by an abandonment of the adversarial system, has resulted in an overall decline in British society. He identifies the end of the Cold War (which "made many of the old political positions meaningless overnight") as one cause of this, as well as the implementation of the ideas of Fabian social democracy and the ideology of the 1960s. |
Matari | null | null | The story is set in 18th century Japan, and features a conflict between four very different characters - Oboko (nb, Obaku is a form of Zen), a poet of the wind and Buddhist monk; Izzi, court poet and extrovert; Lord Arishi, samurai and lord of the realm; and finally Matari, beautiful, intelligent, and on the run for her life. The story might be described as a love story - all three of the men are, in their own way, in love with Matari. Yet they each have their own outlook on life, and their own sense of honour and morality. While individually we might applaud them as good men and true, the meeting of the three results in tragedy. This is a comparatively traditional novel; the story runs in a linear fashion, and the plot is such as you might find in any other book. George Cockcroft uses his knowledge of Zen well, though, and the book gives an insight into the thinking of both Buddhist and Samurai thinking that feels well-rounded. Oboko survives the story and is later mentioned in The Book of the Die by the same author. The various ISBNs of the different editions are: * ISBN 0-246-10811-8 – January 1975 (Matari, hardcover) * ISBN 0-586-04116-8 – September 2, 1976 (Matari, paperback) * ISBN 1-4033-4796-4 – 27 November 2002 (White Wind, Black Rider, hardcover) * ISBN 1-4033-4795-6 – 27 November 2002 (White Wind, Black Rider, paperback) |
Divine Misdemeanors | Laurell K. Hamilton | 2,009 | Divine Misdemeanors follows the character of Meredith NicEssus, princess of faerie, also known as Merry Gentry. Having succeeded in her goal to become pregnant before her cousin Cel, Merry has declined the Unseelie throne and is attempting to live peacefully with her men and court while dealing with continued court intrigue and the paparazzi. This is made more difficult when a series of brutal murders rips through the area, with the Grey Detective Agency being asked to take part in the investigations and to send Merry in particular. Meanwhile Merry is having to deal with the stress of leading a large group of fey outside of the Seelie and Unseelie courts. |
The Last Song | Nicholas Sparks | 2,009 | Veronica “Ronnie” Miller’s life was turned upside down when her parents divorced and her father, Steve, moved to Wrightsville, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains distant from her parents, particularly Steve, until her mother decides it would be everyone’s best interest if she and her brother spent the summer with him. Resentful and rebellious, Ronnie rejects Steve’s attempts to reach out to her and threatens to return to New York before the summer’s end. But soon Ronnie meets Will, the last person she thought she’d ever be attracted to, and finds herself falling for him, opening herself up to the greatest happiness – and pain – that she has never known. Ronnie finds out that Steve has stomach cancer. She and her brother, Jonah, finish the window that Jonah started with Steve for the church. Jonah goes back to New York with their mother, but Ronnie stays back with Steve until his death. She completes the song on the piano that he began to write. She and Will part after the funeral and she believes that they will never meet properly again, she thought it was over, but after Christmas, he transfers and goes to college in New York, near where Ronnie goes to college, so he can spend more time with Ronnie. |
Kingdoms of the Wall | Robert Silverberg | null | The story's protagonist is Poilar Crookleg, member of a humanoid race with a pastoral civilization at a level roughly corresponding to that of the Iron Age of human civilization. Only as the story develops it becomes apparent that these people are not humans; their hands have an additional opposing thumb, and they have limited shapeshifting abilities which allows them to loosen their joints, to adapt their skin and inner organs to environmental changes, and to extrude suction cups for climbing. Shapeshifting is also an intrinsic part of their sexuality, for in the absence of sexual arousal both sexes maintain a neuter form without overt gender characteristics. The planet is located in a binary star system where it seems to be in orbit around the major white and luminous component, Ekmelios (probably an F-type star) while reddish Marilemma (apparently an M-type red dwarf) is much more distant. As the plot takes off Poilar is a youngster in his village, Jespodar, which is situated at the rim of a lowland (extremely hot and humid with a very dense atmosphere by earthly standards, as can be deduced) immediately at the foothills of The Wall, a huge mountain range complex that rises to an unseen summit. The peoples' religion revolves around The Wall since thousands of planet-years ago the semi-mythical First Climber ascended to the summit where he met The Gods who introduced him to the basics of civilization. From this time onward, the people of Jespodar (as well as those of numerous other villages) pledged themselves to an annual pilgrimage of twenty men and twenty women who are supposed to re-enact the First Climber's achievement. The selection mechanisms for those aspiring to the pilgrimage are rigid and the three-year training is extremely challenging both physically and mentally; each team of forty pilgrims that sets out for The Wall is the best the community can muster. However, for times unknown only a very few stragglers have returned to Jespodar at irregular intervals and these Returned Ones are mentally disturbed or in any case would not tell coherent stories of their experiences on The Wall. All that can be deduced is that on the various levels and segments of the huge mountain range there are distinct domains (the "kingdoms") populated by beings of variegated and extreme strangeness. Although nothing useful has been brought back from The Wall for times beyond remembrance, the annual pilgrimages continue with religious fervor. Poilar, whose father and grandfather had been pilgrims who never returned, is also pledged to The Wall. Together with his friend Traiben, a penetrating intellectual and skeptic, he is selected for the pilgrim group as he reaches the proper age. When they set out for The Wall, Poilar is elected leader of his Forty. As the pilgrims ascend they find that the fabled kingdoms are dwellings of former pilgrims who, by account of their various character flaws, have abandoned their pledge for the summit and have succumbed to one or the other specific enticement created by the "Change-Fire" forces emanating from the mountain. These stimulate and de-regulate their shapeshifter ability, turning their victims into grossly distorted beings - "Transformed Ones." Each domain the pilgrim band traverses teaches them a personal lesson. As the pilgrims approach the last third of their journey they meet a totally exhausted alien being who - for all the strange set of his bodily frame, the fact that he has only one thumb on each five-fingered hand, and permanently extruded male genitals - does not seem to be a Transformed One. Speaking through a small translator box, he reveals that he has descended from the summit to reconnoiter; now he is in no physical shape to return to his colleagues, who in turn cannot retrieve him because of unspecified problems at the summit. When asked whether he has seen the gods who are supposed to reside there, the Earthman becomes very evasive. The human alien soon dies, and because Poilar had given his solemn promise to take him to the summit he orders the corpse to be eviscerated and preserved so that it can be carried onward. As the band proceeds, its members dwindle away fast. Immediately below the cloud sheath veiling the summit, Poilar and his tattered and decimated team stumble upon an Arcadia-like domain whose inhabitants are not transformed but ageless - they have discovered a Fountain of Youth. The local king turns out to be Poilar's grandfather who begs him not to proceed to the summit because there is only grief to be found there. He reveals that his own son (Poilar's father) did not heed this advice, and together with all his surviving companions had sought obliteration in the Fountain of Youth on the return trip. Indeed the kingdoms on the highest level of the mountain seem to be populated mostly by those who had been to the summit. Nevertheless Poilar takes the remainder of his team to the summit plateau, where the pilgrims break through the clouds to arrive under a strange sky (blue instead of the accustomed white), totally exhausted from physical exertion in what for them is air of unbearable coldness and almost too thin to support respiration, in spite of all shapeshifter adjustments they are capable of. Having achieved the sworn objective of their lives, they are utterly shattered by what they see: no palaces with gods blissfully ambling around, but a horde of ape-like savage creatures laying siege to three Earthmen in a small spaceship. The decayed ruins of another, much larger and very old, spaceship hull can be seen in the distance. In their despair and disgust, Poilar and his pilgrims decide to purge the summit; they throw every single one of the debased creatures into the abyss. The besieged humans then emerge from their spaceship and relate, in terms that Poilar and his people can comprehend, that they are a survey team from Earth that is charged with checking the status of human colonies with which contact has been lost. The members of the colony that had been established on the summit of The Wall (the only place on the planet where conditions seemed Earth-like) had been the gods whom the First Climber had met. Apparently, they degenerated quickly under the radiation of the planet's sun and the emanations from the mountain range to become the ape-like creatures Poilar's team has slaughtered. Having assured the pilgrims that no Earthmen would ever intrude on them again, the patrol ship takes off. Poilar and his team return to his village and relate the truth about their "gods" to their people, thereby ending all pilgrimages and putting their race on a new track of civilization that could ultimately make them into something like their gods of old: "It will be our task to build wagons to carry us between villages, and then sky-wagons, and then star-wagons, and then we will meet the gods again; but this time it will be as equals." |
Daniel X: Watch the Skies | James Patterson | 2,009 | Daniel X is a boy who is an alien hunter assigned to earth replacing his parents' duty after their death. Fresh after his defeat of the 6th top alien on the List of Alien Outlaws, Daniel X is now facing the 5th; An electric fish that is using a town full of people as characters for his own reality show and is making a army of mini number 5s through them by feeding them caviar. Daniel tracks him down with his powers and "imaginary" friends and destroys him with his own electrical medicine. |
Dangerous Girls | R. L. Stine | null | During summer break, at Camp Blue Moon, the vampire Lorenzo "Renz" Angelini sinks his fangs into the throat of sixteen-year-old Destiny Weller. Afterwards, she and her twin sister Livvy return home in Dark Springs with a craving for blood; they feed on a rabbit's blood and Destiny sucks blood from a package of liver. While at the house of a family friend, Coach Bauer, the sisters meet Marjory Bauer, another vampire. Marjory says she is undead and the Restorer can restore their life. At Dark Springs High School, in Renz's office, Destiny talks with him and decides he is the Restorer. She asks him if he will help her and her twin. He says that he will come and take care of her at the senior overnight. Back at her house, Destiny greets her friend Nakeisha Johnson, who tells her Renz was left out of the camp yearbook and there are no photos of him. From this, Destiny determines that Renz is actually a vampire and not the Restorer. During the senior overnight, Destiny meets Renz, shoves a wooden tent pole through his body and kills him. Her father appears, and tells her that he is the Restorer. He cures her, and they go and find Livvy and her friend Ross Starr at the edge of a grassy clearing. Livvy tells Destiny and her father that she has been immortal since camp, and that she and Ross exchanged blood. Livvy and Ross change into blackbirds, and fly off into the black sky. |
A Stranger to Command | Sherwood Smith | 2,008 | In this much-anticipated prequel to Crown Duel, Vidanric Renselaeus, fifteen-year-old Marquis of Shevraeth, finds himself sent across the continent to a military academy in Marloven Hess, a kingdom known for its violent history. Vidanric is used to civilized life in pleasant Remalna—except that the evidence is increasingly clear that the civilization is only on the surface. Too many young, smart heirs have suffered accidents of late, and the evidence is beginning to point to the king, Galdran, who has grandiose plans for expansion. In Marloven Hess, no one can pronounce his real names, and they assume his title is his name. He becomes Shevraeth—discovering that there are no marquises or dukes or barons in this kingdom, and no one has the slightest interest in Remalna. Or in foreigners. Until very recently, the academy was closed to outsiders. But the king—also fifteen, and recently come to his throne after a nasty civil war—wants him there. Learning about command turns out to be very different than Shevraeth had assumed, and the Marlovens, who are going through political and social change at all levels, are not at all what he expected. He makes friends as well as enemies; experiences terror and laughter as well as challenges on the field and off. He discovers friendship, loyalty—and love. All the while greater events in the world are moving inexorably toward conflagration, drawing the smartest of the young people into key positions—whether they want it or not. They're going to have to be ready. |
On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God | Louise Rennison | 2,000 | In the previous novel, Georgia has landed the "Sex God", her longtime crush Robbie Jennings, for a boyfriend. Georgia's dad has gone to New Zealand for a few months. While he is gone Libby is ill and Georgia's mother takes her to the doctors. When they return, "Gee's" mum has seen a new doctor and rather likes him; she begins finding any excuse she can to make an appointment with him. After a while, Georgia's mother announces that the family are off to New Zealand for a month, but Georgia feels she cannot possibly leave as she has just got the boy of her dreams and cannot leave him. Georgia does not leave for New Zealand, but Robbie says she is too young for him and leaves her. Georgia decides to use Dave the Laugh as a red herring to make Robbie jealous and come back to/for her. Georgia feels guilty for using Dave the Laugh and she breaks up with him. Georgia feels extremely awful about it, until she learns that Dave has started dating her friend Ellen (one of her best mates out of her "Ace Gang"). In the end Robbie admits he can't stop thinking about Georgia and really misses her. He asks her to be his girlfriend again. In a subplot, Georgia's cat Angus becomes interested in a pedigree cat named Naomi belonging to new neighbors across the road. |
Ratha's Courage | Clare Bell | 2,008 | Ratha and her clan, the Named, are sentient prehistoric big cats. In Ratha's Courage, the fifth book in the Named series, Ratha extends the use of the Red Tongue fire to a hunter tribe. One of the hunters ignites a blaze that sets off a devastating conflict between the two clans. |
Heroes of the Valley | Jonathan Stroud | 2,009 | Halli loves to hear stories from the days when the valley was a wild and dangerous place, besieged by the bloodthirsty Trow. Now farming has taken over from fighting Trows, and to Halli's disappointment heroics seem a thing of the past. But when a practical joke rekindles an old blood feud, he sees a chance for a daring quest of his own. The Story starts with the Battle of the Rock being told to a child. This is where twelve heroes of the valley join together to fight the ruthless Trows (man eating monsters) that devastate the land. They form a battle plan and wait for the Trows to come. They take up positions on a large rock and are finally attacked by the Trows, which they fend off all night. In the morning, when the people check to see what happened all are dead, Trows and Heroes, including the main hero Svien. The heroes are buried under cairns along the borders of the valley with their swords, so that, even in death, they can guard the boundaries from the Trows. As long as no one crosses the cairn border, the legends say, no Trows can enter the Valley. Many years later Halli is born. He is a very short, stout, young, and headstrong boy who longs for the days of the Heroes, when a man could fight for what he wanted and take what he could win. He longs to leave the valley, which is now ruled by a Council of women who demand peace and equality in the land. They have outlawed swords and other weapons to discourage wars. Halli looks very much like his uncle, Brodir, whom he adores. He is the third and last child in his family. His family are Arnkel, his father and Arbiter of Svien's House, Astrid, his mother and Law-Giver of Svien's House, Lief, his older brother who is immediately in line for the Arbiter after Arnkel, Gudny, his sister and Brodir his uncle, who is the only member of his family that seems to get along with him. When his uncle is murdered by a rival house, the house of Hakon, Halli sets off to avenge his uncle. Finally, he thinks that he will have a hero's quest of his own. Along his journey, Halli realizes that he isn't the guiltless avenging murderer that he thought he could be. His interference and thirst for revenge leads two men to their deaths, and he becomes sick with guilt. He returns home to his relieved yet angry family, and his distrusting and fearful fellow villagers. His actions eventually lead to an attack on his house by the House of Hakon, and he alone can accept responsibility and take charge of his defenseless village. He proves that he is a great leader. When the enemy arrives, they have an obvious advantage... swords. Halli realizes that his people's only hope is if he leads the enemies obliviously past the cairn boundaries. He does so with the help of his friend and crush, Aud, and to his relief, it works. The Hakonssons are eaten by monsters in the moorlands. However, Halli and Aud come under attack from the unknown enemy. Much like the heroes of old, they take their last stand on a large rock and wait to discover the identity of the monsters. When the nature of the attackers becomes clear, Halli and Aud face something far worse than the Trows of legend... and they will be lucky to survive the night. |
The Last Valley | null | 1,959 | The story opens with a man named Vogel, starving and exhausted, running from a burnt-out, plague-ridden village. After several days, he stumbles into the Valley. At its center, Vogel discovers a well-maintained, obviously inhabited village but with no people or domesticated animals. He falls asleep in an abandoned home but is awakened by the sound of horses and instinctively flies out of the home, only to be quickly tackled by two soldiers. The two prove to be of a company of mercenaries that arrived in The Valley while Vogel slept. Vogel is dragged to the leader of the group, a man identified as the Captain. It is the Captain's intention to pillage the Valley, burn the village to the ground, and return the plunder to the Protestant army of Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimar for whom they are working. Vogel intuitively senses that the Captain is battle fatigued and hastily thinks-out a plan to save the Valley. Accompanied by a man named Korski, his main rival within the group, the Captain draws Vogel aside from the other mercenaries who have begun to break into the buildings. Vogel convinces the Captain to spare the Valley and guard its existence from other soldiers in order to survive the coming winter. "Live well," he tells him, "while other villages are trampled flat." The Captain quickly surmises the rationality of Vogel's suggestion and, with equal quickness, kills the unsuspecting Korski. He then proceeds to inform the company of the change in plans and arranges the elimination of several other troopers who might object (allies of Korski and those with women back at the army's encampment). Vogel insures his own survival in this arrangement by offering to be a type of buffer between the peasants and the soldiers as he is a member of neither group. Believing the mercenaries have departed, the villagers eventually return from their hiding place only to be surprised when the soldiers spring from their own places of concealment. Vogel discovers that the leader of the village is a man named Gruber who has yet to arrive. The Captain orders another peasant leader to take Vogel to Gruber to negotiate. Vogel accomplishes his mission: Gruber agrees- over the objection of the village priest, Fr. Wendt- that the soldiers are to be fed and quartered in return for their protecting the Valley. Sick and still suffering from his years of wandering the devastated countryside, Vogel promptly collapses. While recovering, Vogel and the Captain discuss the situation in the Valley- the internal rivalry between Gruber and Fr. Wendt, the status of the peasantry- and the outside world in general. Through a series of intellectual conversations- and arguments- the two slowly begin to form a bond of mutual respect and, by the end of the story, friendship. Vogel is quartered on Martin Hoffman, another leading peasant in the village whose young, strong-willed daughter, Inge, develops an attraction for him that he finds painful to resist. An immediate point of contention erupts when both Gruber and the Captain agree that the village's beloved shrine should be moved in order to prevent other roving patrols from finding the Valley. Fr. Wendt is diametrically opposed to this as a direct threat to the authority of the church. The peasantry are hostile to the idea believing that the shrine has protected the Valley exactly where it is. Even some of the Catholics among the mercenaries express misgivings, in particular, Pirelli, one of the Captains chief lieutenants who tells Gruber at one point: "Other villages have mountains. Mountains didn't save them. You have the shrine, and this village has been spared." To which Gruber retorts: "Other villages have shrines." The following day the shrine is moved. Vogel and Graf, the Captain's right-hand man, intercept Fr. Wendt who is on his way to see what has happened with the shrine, accompanied by a few peasants including a young hothead, Andreas Hoffmeyr. The confrontation turns physical as Andreas unsuccessfully attacks Graf. Vogel prevents Graf from killing the youngster who flees along with the others. During this fight, the raging Wendt is revealed as a former Calvinist minister. Vogel then must act quickly to prevent a massacre between a large group of peasants enroute to the shrine and the soldiers who have arrived to block their path. By relating a dream that he claimed he had but in actuality made-up on the spot, Vogel convinces them that the move had divine sanction. A disheartened and disillusioned Fr. Wendt storms off. With the peasantry mollified, the Captain, Vogel, and Graf go after Wendt but at that moment an attempted assassination of the Captain takes place by Svensen, a partisan of Korski. Svensen's shot goes awry and the priest is killed. As the Captain and Graf set off in pursuit, Vogel drags Wendt's body into a nearby barn. He is there confronted by a gleeful Gruber who believes Vogel has killed him- an action Gruber had himself earlier urged upon Vogel ostensibly to help maintain peace with the soldiers but in actuality to eliminate his own main rival in the Valley (Vogel, as an outsider, was the only person capable of committing the deed without arousing a general uprising against the soldiers or Gruber). Gruber tells Vogel that he must now flee to escape the wrath of the peasants, a suggestion that the Captain later regretfully backs although he knows the truth of the situation. During his flight from the Valley, Vogel comes across a wandering priest whose own village had been destroyed and immediately comes up with a new plan. He intends to take this priest back to the Valley to atone, in the eyes of the peasants, for the death of Fr. Wendt. "I owe the valley a priest for a priest," he reflects. However, back en route to the Valley, the pair encounter a patrol of 'Croats,' the irregular cavalry of the Imperialist forces. Realizing that the Croats would destroy the village despite being Catholic, Vogel instructs the priest to take his own horse, ride to the Imperialists, and lure them away to a nearby abandoned village while he goes back to warn the Captain. He is then to slip away and rejoin Vogel in the Valley. The priest hesitantly agrees. In the meantime, Vogel comes across Andreas, still in exile after his confrontation with Graf, and likewise urges him to act on behalf of the Valley, spy out the Croats, and report back. Vogel is then picked up by one the Captain's roving patrols and brought back to the Valley where he learns that the truth about Fr. Wendt's death is known to the peasants and that he is not a wanted man after all. He warns the Captain about the Imperialist patrol. The Croats still arrive at the Valley, but its inhabitants are waiting. Acting as the bait, Vogel lures the Imperialists into an ambush where they are entirely destroyed. Andreas, having been captured, bound, and tortured by the Croats, is recovered and forgiven his earlier transgression. Peace returns to the Valley and an admiring Captain makes Vogel a judge of all incidents between soldier and peasant- a position unwanted by Vogel. His first case, however, concerns the wandering priest who turns up in the Valley after the battle with the Croats. Vogel accepts the priest's story that he attempted to do as Vogel had suggested and had not betrayed the Valley. He becomes the new priest for the villagers after agreeing to remain apolitical. The Captain also agrees to Vogels suggestion of training some of the villagers as a type of militia to assist with protecting the Valley after the defection of Hansen, another of Korski's partisans, along with two other mercenaries. Tension begins rising again in the Valley and Vogel narrowly prevents the rape of Inge. Andreas tells Vogel that some of the militiamen are conspiring with Hansen and leads him to a place where they transact business. Instead, Andreas attempts to kill Vogel, jealous of Inge's infatuation with him and the general situation of the mercenaries presence in the Valley. At the last minute, however, he changes his mind, realizing the futility of his action, and saves Vogel. Vogel proceeds to inform the Captain of the plot only to discover that it is already known to him and that Graf has been feeding disinformation to the traitors. Based on what they perceive to be Hansen's plan, the Captain and Graf plan accordingly, assigning three mercenaries to Vogel to protect the villagers in a hidden hedge while the rest set an ambush. Hansen's attack is thwarted but several mercenaries are killed and many are wounded. Peace returns again to the Valley- the soldiers become more peasant-like, the peasants grow to accept the soldiers, and one mercenary marries a local girl. The reverie is interrupted by a travelling merchant who warns that the warring parties, Prince Bernard and Imperialist general Johann von Werth, are drawing closer to their location. Finally, a local man informs a patrol that the armies have arrived at the Rhine, two days away. Faced with impending doom, the Captain and Gruber agree that the company will leave the Valley and rejoin the Protestant army in order lure away other patrols and keep the Valley safe. Taking with him the remains of his original force as well as the bulk of the peasant militia, the Captain and company head off to the army encampment at Rheinfelden. He leaves behind Vogel and two wounded mercenaries to maintain order. Gruber immediately plots against the Captain's plans. He arranges the death of the two remaining soldiers, has Vogel confined, and, expecting his imminent return, sets up an ambush for the Captain after learning of the Protestant victory at Rheinfelden. Warned by Andreas via the new priest, Vogel escapes in the night in an attempt to warn the Captain but is shot and mortally wounded. As he lay dying, the Captain approaches alone, likewise mortally wounded, slips from his horse, and lies next to Vogel. The Captain reveals that in the confusion of the battle, his company had joined the wrong side in the conflict and had been wiped out, leaving him as the sole survivor. The two contemplate the final irony of the war in which Catholics and Protestants fought on both sides of the war, changing sides frequently, and the overall futility of warfare: "You might put it that in the confusion we joined the wrong army," the Captain says. "You might put it that one always does join the wrong army," Vogel replies. In the morning, the ambush party finds the two dead. |
The Forest King | Paul B. Thompson | null | After the trial of Vedvedsica, General Balif is sent on a mission to ascertain the true danger of a new race of small humanoids infiltrating the eastern boarders of Silvenesti. He travels east with an unlikely group. His two loyal servants, Lofotan and Artyrith, both formidable warriors, and Mathi, and Treskan unsure where their loyalties lie. |
Indiana Jones and the Seven Veils | null | 1,991 | After barely escaping an archaeological dig in Tikal, Guatemala with his life, Dr. Henry Jones Jr. makes his way back to New York. Upon his return, he learns of the recent discovery of the mysterious writings of a missing British explorer, Colonel Percy Fawcett. Though Colonel Fawcett himself still remains missing, his rediscovered work tells a story that could drastically change history and challenge several firmly held scientific beliefs. Within those pages, an incredible picture begins to take shape of a long lost city in the jungles of Brazil and the apparently true legend of a red-headed race, possibly descended from ancient Celtic Druids. Fascinated by such a prospect, and with the lovely Deidre Campbell at his side, Indiana Jones sets out for the Amazon. However, as usual, getting there will prove to be the true adventure. And if he does manage to survive the journey, who can tell what dangers await within the mythical city itself. |
Kapitan Sino | Bob Ong | 2,009 | Kapitan Sino is about an electrician, Rogelio Manglicmot, who has a special ability. Other characters include Bok-bok, Rogelio's best friend. He occasionally insults Rogelio, and Tessa, designer of Rogelio's suit. Though she is blind, she is quite talented and intelligent, and Rogelio cares for her. As the story progresses, Rogelio learns how to control his ability, and he then decides to become a hero. He was given the nickname "Kapitan Sino" by the people. He soon discovers the town Mayor's secret, and Rogelio defeats his son, who had become a giant worm-like monster which lives off human blood. Tessa is the monster's final victim, and after her death, Rogelio slowly begins to lose all reason to continue in becoming a hero. After the said event, an epidemic spreads, and everyone becomes desperate to find a cure. Rogelio, blamed for a crime he did not commit, is caught and imprisoned, along with his friend Bok-bok. Medics discover that Rogelio's blood may be a cure for the mysterious virus. In the end, Rogelio saves the people by donating his blood. They had tents outside the Church of Pelaez, where they had their medical mission, but things got out of control, so they decided to get some of Rogelio's blood in the Church. He was able to stand and walk out of the Church, looking for his parents, still not fully recovered from the blood donation. Outside, a man carrying a child asked him if his blood was the cure. The man stabbed him, and he fell to the ground, the man dipping his hand unto Rogelio's wound. After his death, Pelaez becomes peaceful, and Rogelio is given a commemoration. |
Audition | Ryu Murakami | 2,009 | Aoyama is a documentary maker who hasn't dated anyone since the death of his wife, Ryoko. He lives a placid existence with his teenage son, Shige, dreaming of remarrying. One day, his best friend Yoshikawa comes up with a plan to hold fake film auditions for young women looking for a breakout role. Of the thousands who apply, Aoyama only has eyes for the young, beautiful Yamasaki Asami - a shy, modest girl whose dreams of becoming a ballerina were cut short by an accident. Aoyama is infatuated by her and instigates several dates with her after the audition. Despite learning about her troubled past, which included consistent abuse as a child by her crippled step-father, Aoyama believes he is falling in love with her. He is given warnings by Yoshikawa that Asami may not be all that she seems, but Aoyama ignores him, seeing only the perfect woman he imagines Yamasaki Asami to be. It is only when it is possibly too late, that Aoyama discovers the horrifying truth about his new girlfriend... |
Fight Club | Chuck Palahniuk | 1,996 | Fight Club centers on an anonymous Narrator, who works as a product recall specialist for an unnamed car company. Because of the stress of his job and the jet lag brought upon by frequent business trips, he begins to suffer from recurring insomnia. When he seeks treatment, the Narrator's doctor advises him to visit a support group for testicular cancer victims to "see what real suffering is like". The Narrator finds that sharing the problems of others -- despite not actually having testicular cancer himself -- alleviates his insomnia. The narrator's unique treatment works until he meets Marla Singer, another "tourist" who visits the support group under false pretenses. The possibly disturbed Marla reminds the Narrator that he is a faker who does not belong there. He begins to hate Marla for keeping him from crying, and, therefore, from sleeping. After a confrontation, the two agree to attend separate support group meetings to avoid each other. The truce is uneasy, however, and the Narrator's insomnia returns. Whilst on a nude beach, the Narrator meets Tyler Durden, a charismatic extremist of mysterious means. After an explosion destroys the narrator's condominium, he asks to stay at Tyler's house. Tyler agrees, but asks for something in return: "I want you to hit me as hard as you can." Both men find that they enjoy the ensuing fistfight. They subsequently move in together and establish a "fight club", drawing countless men with similar temperaments into bare-knuckle fighting matches, set to the following rules: Later in the book, a mechanic tells the Narrator about two new rules of the fight club: that nobody is the center of the fight club except for the two men fighting, and that the fight club will always be free. Marla, noticing that the Narrator hasn't recently attended his support groups, calls him to claim that she has overdosed on Xanax in a half-hearted suicide attempt. Tyler returns from work, picks up the phone to Marla's drug-induced rambling, and rescues her. Tyler and Marla embark on an uneasy affair that confounds the Narrator and confuses Marla. Throughout this affair, Marla is unaware both of fight club's existence and the interaction between Tyler and the Narrator. Because Tyler and Marla are never seen at the same time, the Narrator wonders if Tyler and Marla are the same person. As fight club attains a nationwide presence, Tyler uses it to spread his anti-consumerist ideas, recruiting fight club's members to participate in increasingly elaborate pranks on corporate America. He eventually gathers the most devoted fight club members and forms "Project Mayhem," a cult-like organization that trains itself as an army to bring down modern civilization. This organization, like fight club, is controlled by a set of rules: While initially a loyal participant in Project Mayhem, the Narrator becomes uncomfortable with the increasing destructiveness of its activities. He resolves to stop Tyler and his followers when Bob, a friend of his from the testicular cancer support group, is killed during one of Project Mayhem's sabotage operations. However, the Narrator learns that he himself is Tyler; Tyler is not a separate person, but a separate personality. As the Narrator's mental state deteriorated, his mind formed a new personality that was able to escape from the problems of his life. Marla inadvertently reveals to the Narrator that he and Tyler are the same person. Tyler's affair with Marla -- whom the Narrator professes to dislike -- was actually his own affair with Marla. The Narrator's bouts of insomnia had actually been Tyler's personality surfacing. Tyler would be active whenever the Narrator was "sleeping." The Tyler personality not only created fight club, but also blew up the Narrator's condo. Tyler plans to blow up a skyscraper using homemade bombs created by Project Mayhem; the actual target of the explosion, however, is the nearby national museum. Tyler plans to die as a martyr during this event, taking the Narrator's life as well. Realizing this, the Narrator sets out to stop Tyler, although Tyler is always thinking ahead of him. The Narrator makes his way to the roof of the building, where he is held at gunpoint by Tyler. However, when Marla comes to the roof with one of the support groups, Tyler vanishes, as he "was his hallucination, not hers." With Tyler gone, the Narrator waits for the bomb to explode and kill him. However, the bomb malfunctions because Tyler mixed paraffin into the explosives. Still alive and holding Tyler's gun, the narrator makes the first decision that is truly his own: he puts the gun in his mouth and shoots himself. Some time later, he awakens in a mental hospital, believing that he is in Heaven and imagines an argument with God over human nature. The book ends with the Narrator being approached by hospital employees who reveal themselves to be Project members. They tell him that their plans still continue, and that they are expecting Tyler to come back. |
The Forest of Hands and Teeth | Carrie Ryan | 2,009 | Mary lives in a town ruled by the Sisterhood and the Guardians. The village is surrounded by fences; beyond lies only forest. There are only three ways through the fence: gates that open on paths that are themselves enclosed by fencing, expelling those who've been infected. Where the two paths lead, no one knows, for the Sisterhood says the village is the only human habitation left on Earth. Mary has been raised on stories passed down from her great-great-great-grandmother about life before the coming of zombies. She is especially fascinated by the ocean and believes if she could reach it, she would be free. Her adventure starts when there is a breaching in the fence. Mary must escape, find true love, and friendship while figuring out the mystery behind the other gates and fences. |
Freedom | Jonathan Franzen | 2,010 | Freedom follows several members of an American family, the Berglunds, as well as their close friends and lovers, as complex and troubled relationships unfold over many years. The book follows them through the last decades of the twentieth century and concludes near the beginning of the Obama administration. Freedom opens with a short history of the Berglund family from the perspective of their nosy neighbors. The Berglunds are portrayed as a quintessential liberal middle-class family, and they are among the first families to move back into urban St. Paul, Minnesota, after years of white flight to the suburbs. Patty Berglund is an unusually young and pretty homemaker with a self-deprecating sense of humor; her husband Walter is a mild-mannered lawyer with strong environmentalist leanings. They have one daughter, Jessica, and a son, Joey, who early on displays an independent streak and an interest in making money. Joey becomes sexually involved with a neighborhood teen named Connie and begins to rebel against his mother, going so far as to move in with Connie, her mother, and her mother's boyfriend Blake, making Patty and Walter increasingly unstable. After several unhappy years the family relocates to Washington, D.C., abandoning the neighborhood and house they worked so hard to improve. Walter takes a job with an unorthodox environmental project, tied to big coal. The second portion of the book takes the form of an autobiography of Patty Berglund, composed at the suggestion of her therapist. The autobiography tells of Patty's youth as a star basketball player, and her increasing alienation from her artistically inclined parents and sisters. Instead of attending an East Coast elite college like her siblings, she gets a basketball scholarship to the University of Minnesota, and adopts the life of the athlete. She meets an attractive but unattainable indie rock musician named Richard Katz, and his nerdy but kind roommate, Walter Berglund. After her basketball career-ending knee injury, Patty suddenly becomes desperate for male affection, and after failing to woo Richard, she settles down with Walter, who has been patiently courting her for more than a year. We learn that Patty retained her desire for Richard and eventually had a brief affair with him at the Berglunds's lakeside cabin. The novel then jumps ahead to New York City in 2004 and shifts to the story of Walter and Patty's friend Richard, who has finally succeeded in becoming a minor indie rock star in his middle age. His hit album Nameless Lake tells the story of his brief love affair with Patty at the Berglund's lakeside cabin in Minnesota. Richard is uncomfortable with commercial success, throws away his new-found money, and returns to building roof decks for wealthy people in Manhattan. Walter calls him out of the blue to enlist his help as celebrity spokesman for an environmental campaign. Walter has taken a job in Washington, D.C. working for a coal mining magnate who wants to strip mine a section of West Virginia forest before turning it into a songbird preserve of future environmental value. Walter hopes to use some of this project's funding to hold a concert to combat overpopulation, the common factor behind all his environmental concerns, and he believes that Richard will be able to rally well known musicians to his cause. Meanwhile, Walter's marriage to Patty has been deteriorating steadily and his pretty young assistant Lalitha has fallen deeply in love with him. In parallel, the Berglunds's estranged, Republican son Joey attempts to finance his college life at the University of Virginia by taking on a dubious subcontract to provide spare parts for outdated supply trucks during the Iraq War. While at college, he marries his childhood sweetheart, but dare not tell his parents. After visiting his roommate's family in the DC suburbs, he also pursues his friend's beautiful sister Jenna and is exposed to her father's Zionist, neoconservative politics. After months of pursuing Jenna, when she finally wants him to have sex with her, he cannot maintain an erection. Later he becomes conflicted after making $850,000 selling defective truck parts to military suppliers in Iraq. In the end Joey gives away the excess proceeds of his profiteering, reconciles with his parents, settles down with Connie, and moves into a sustainable coffee business with the help of his father Walter. Now, Richard's re-appearance destroys Walter and Patty's weakening marriage. Richard tries to convince Patty to leave Walter, but she shows Richard the autobiography she wrote as "therapy", trying to convince him that she's still in love with Walter. Richard deliberately leaves the autobiography on Walter's desk, and Walter reads Patty's true thoughts. Walter kicks Patty out of the house and she moves to Jersey City to be with Richard, but the relationship only lasts six months. Later, she moves to Brooklyn alone and takes a job at a private school, discovering her skill for teaching younger children. When Patty leaves him, Walter has a catharsis on live television, revealing his contempt for the displaced West Virginian families and his various commercial backers. Local rednecks respond by dragging him from the platform and beating him up. He is promptly fired by the environmental trust, but his TV debacle makes him a viral video hero to radical youth across the nation. He and his assistant Lalitha become lovers and continue their plans to combat overpopulation through a concert to rally young people in the hills of West Virginia. Lalitha is killed in a suspicious car accident a few days before the concert is due to take place. Shattered, and having lost both of the women who loved him, Walter retreats to his family's lakeside vacation house back in Minnesota. He becomes known to a new street of neighbors as a cranky old recluse, obsessed with house cats killing birds nesting on his property. After a few years living in Brooklyn, Patty's father dies and she is forced to settle the fight that erupts within her family of spoiled bohemians as they attempt to split up the much-diminished family fortune. This experience helps Patty to mature. After a few years of living alone, she appraises the emptiness of her life and honestly faces her advancing age. She decides to hunt down Walter, the only man who had ever really loved her. She drives to the lakeside cabin in Minnesota, and despite his rage and confusion, he eventually agrees to take her back. The book ends in 2008 as they leave as a couple to return to Patty's job in New York City, after turning their old lakeside vacation home into a cat-proof fenced bird sanctuary, named in memory of Lalitha. |
Uncle | null | 1,964 | The book introduces the main characters in the series; Uncle, his helpers, including the Old Monkey, Cloutman, Gubbins and the One-Armed Badger, and his enemies, the Badfort crowd, including Beaver Hateman, Sigismund Hateman, Nailrod Hateman, Filljug Hateman, Jellytussle, Hootman and Hitmouse. |
Bazaar-e-Husn | Munshi Premchand | null | Bazaar-e-Husn is a tale of an unhappy housewife who is beguiled away from the path of domestic virtue into becoming a courtesan but then reforms herself and atones by serving as the manager of an orphanage for the young daughters of courtesans, the seva-sadan of the Hindi title. While the Urdu title highlights the fall of the heroine, the Hindi title highlights her redemption, and it is tempting to see the two titles as widely symptomatic of their respective literary cultures. |
Christina's Ghost | null | 1,985 | The book centers around 10-year old tomboy Christina who, to her displeasure, has to spend her summer with her grumpy uncle after her grandmother becomes ill. Uncle Ralph is house sitting for a friend in an old, spooky, and isolated lake-side Victorian mansion. Once she gets there she, finds a room that looks as if it had once belonged to a little boy. There she sees, for the first time, a little boy in a blue sailor suit, who disappears before Christina can talk to him. She also finds out that whatever she does, she cannot get inside the attic even though she hears noises coming from there. Christina decides she wants to know why the little boy is there. On a trip to the nearby city, Christina looks for old newspapers to see if she can find any information about the house. She finds a newspaper dated 30 years ago. It says that a murder took place in the house after a man stole some valuable stamps. The men whom he stole from found out where he was staying and went to kill him. The little boy was killed simply because he had witnessed the murder. One of the murderers confessed and said that they never found the stamps. When Christina gets back she finds the stamps inside an old comic book in the boy's room. Suddenly she hears something descending from the attic. Once again she sees the boy, but his time his expression is of terror, pointing at the attic door where the ghost of his sitter is about to come out. Christina and her uncle flee the house after the ghost of the sitter causes chaos. They manage to escape and spend the night in a nearby town. They turn the stamps in to the local sheriff's office the next morning. When they arrive back at the house, that morning, they find the doors and windows all open from the previous night. Upon further investigating, Christina concludes the ghost of the little boy is finally at peace now that the mystery surrounding his untimely death has been solved. |
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters | Ben H. Winters | 2,009 | The story follows the plot of Sense and Sensibility, but places the novel in an alternative universe version of Regency-era England where an event known as “The Alteration” has turned the creatures of the sea against mankind. In addition, this unexplained event spawns numerous “sea monsters,” including sea serpents, giant lobsters, and man-eating jellyfish. The wealthy Henry Dashwood lives on his estate, Norland Park, with his second wife and their three daughters - Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret. Dashwood embarks on a journey to discover the source of The Alteration, but is fatally mauled by a hammerhead shark. Upon his death the estate passes not to Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters but rather to Mr. Dashwood’s son John, the child of his first wife. Before expiring from his shark wounds, the elder Dashwood asks John to take care of his stepmother and half-sisters. John initially agrees to do so but is soon swayed by his greedy wife Fanny into giving the girls nothing at all. John and Fanny move into Norland, prompting the scorned Dashwood women to seek living space elsewhere. Mrs. Dashwood’s cousin Sir John Middleton invites her to stay at a cottage situated on an archipelago off the coast of Devonshire. Although Devonshire is considered to have England’s highest concentration of sea monsters, Mrs. Dashwood accepts the offer and the four women relocate to a windswept shanty known as Barton Cottage. Here they are treated kindly by Sir John, who invites them to dine at his heavily-fortified manor house on nearby Deadwind Island. They are soon introduced to Sir John’s family and friends, including his wife (a former island princess whom Sir John kidnapped and carried back to England and makes an escape attempt every couple of weeks), her mother (also kidnapped by Sir John and now calling herself “Mrs. Jennings”), and Colonel Brandon, a quiet and reserved gentleman who is also a part-man, part-squid mutant. The move to Barton Cottage serves to separate Elinor from Fanny’s brother Edward Ferrars. The unassuming and somewhat unremarkable Edward is clearly attracted to Elinor, and she to him, but Fanny makes it clear that their wealthy mother would never tolerate a marriage between Edward and the poor Elinor, insisting instead that he be married off to a woman of high rank and great wealth. Edward visits Elinor at Norland just before the move, and his reserved behavior makes her wonder if he is truly interested in her. His subsequent failure to visit her at her new island home only reinforces this suspicion. In contrast to Elinor’s woes, Marianne soon finds two suitors. Colonel Brandon is smitten with her, but she finds his age (35) and his tentacle-covered face to be repulsive. While out for a walk, Marianne falls into a rain-swollen creek and is attacked by an octopus. She is saved by the handsome John Willoughby, a dashing adventurer and deep-sea diver who has come to the archipelago to visit his aunt. The two of them are soon inseparable and Elinor begins to suspect that the two are planning on getting engaged. Unfortunately for Marianne, Willoughby is suddenly called away to the undersea city of Sub-Marine Station Beta, leaving her heartbroken and alone. Edward Ferrars finally pays a visit to the Dashwoods at Barton Cottage, but his continued unhappiness and reserved nature lead Elinor to decide that he no longer has feelings for her. Given her mother’s sorrow at being banished to the forlorn Devonshire coast and Marianne’s sorrow at being abandoned by Willoughby, Elinor decides that she must hide her own sorrow for the good of the family. Elinor is soon dealt a double shock when Lady Middleton’s cousins, Anne and Lucy Steele, come to visit. While out rowing, Elinor and Lucy are attacked by a fearsome sea serpent known as the Devonshire Fang-Beast, and the two barely escape with their lives. In the middle of the desperate struggle, Lucy informs Elinor that she has been engaged to Edward for more than four years. Elinor again hides her true feelings and wishes Lucy the best; secretly, she believes that Edward is only engaged to Lucy out of a sense of honor and duty and hopes for the two of them to somehow break the engagement. To cheer up the two elder Dashwood sisters, Mrs. Jennings offers to take them to Sub-Marine Station Beta. (There was an earlier Sub-Marine Station Alpha located in the Irish Sea, but it was destroyed by a treacherous merman.) The Station is a massive iron and glass undersea dome housing a large city, public gardens, shops, and a research laboratory where scientists plot new ways to defeat their aquatic enemies. Here Marianne attempts to renew her courtship with Willoughby, only to find him cold and unresponsive to her advances. When Willoughby leaves Marianne to fend for herself against an attack of giant lobsters, she demands an answer from him, and gets one: she learns that he is engaged to the very wealthy Miss Grey, news which leaves Marianne devastated. She admits to Elinor that she and Willoughby were never officially engaged, but his attentions towards her led her to believe that he loved her and would eventually marry her. Meanwhile, the truth about Willoughby's real character starts to emerge; Colonel Brandon tells Elinor that Willoughby had seduced Brandon's ward, fifteen-year-old Eliza Williams, and then abandoned her in a most cruel way - playfully burying her up to her neck in sand, then leaving her. Colonel Brandon was once in love with Miss Williams' mother, a woman who resembled Marianne and whose life was destroyed by an unhappy arranged marriage to the Colonel's brother. The Steele sisters arrive at Sub-Marine Station Beta along with John and Fanny Dashwood, Edward, and Edward’s mother. Lucy is overjoyed when Edward’s mother prefers her to Elinor, but her happiness is soon ruined when Anne lets it slip that Edward and Lucy are engaged. Edward is immediately disinherited and his fortune passes to his brother; however, Elinor and her friends respect Edward’s choice of love and honor over money. Colonel Brandon offers Edward a modest income as a lighthouse keeper to help him get started on a new life. The vacation at Sub-Marine Station Beta is abruptly ended when schools of swordfish begin ramming the glass dome in the hopes of breaking it. They eventually succeed with the help of a narwhal and other sea creatures; the Dashwood sisters and their friends barely manage to escape before the dome breaks and floods. While riding an emergency ferry to the surface, Elinor encounters Edward’s brother Robert and is disheartened to see that Robert cares more for his newfound inheritance than for the fate of his brother. The sisters and Mrs. Jennings retire to the Cleveland, a houseboat owned by Mrs. Jennings’ son-in-law (and Sir John’s fellow mercenary) Mr. Palmer. Soon after arriving, a depressed Marianne is attacked by mosquitoes and develops malaria. The Palmers leave for their own safety, and only after they are gone does Elinor realize the sudden danger they are in; the area around the Cleveland is home to the bloodthirsty Pirate Dreadbeard, and Dreadbeard’s friendship with Mr. Palmer is the only thing keeping them safe. Without Palmer, the Cleveland and the Dashwood sisters are at the mercy of the pirates. As Marianne is deathly ill and unable to move, Colonel Brandon volunteers to swim to Barton Cottage and return with Mrs. Dashwood. This leaves Elinor and Mrs. Jennings to defend the Cleveland. Hearing of Marianne’s illness, Willoughby journeys to the Cleveland and helps Elinor booby-trap the vessel; he also explains that when torn between love of Marianne and the lure of Miss Grey’s wealth, he chose the latter and was deeply regretful about it. Willoughby departs just as Pirate Dreadbeard and his men arrive. Elinor and Mrs. Jennings bravely defend their ship, and Elinor summons a swarm of octopi using a special whistle that she has obtained from Willoughby. Dreadbeard’s men are soon massacred by the tentacled monsters, while the Pirate himself is killed by the returning Colonel Brandon. Marianne recovers from her malaria. Elinor passes along Willoughby’s confession, and Marianne admits that she could never have been truly happy being married to such a selfish man. She points out that the combination of her wish for death and her deadly illness was morally equivalent to attempting suicide, and resolves to model herself after Elinor. A servant reports to the Dashwoods that Mr. Ferrars has married Lucy. Elinor is overcome by pain and visions of a five-pointed star; upon reflection, she realizes that the pain and visions have been with her (and always appear most forcefully) whenever Lucy is around. Sir John surmises that Lucy must be a sea witch - a monster that seduces human men and sucks the marrow from its victim’s bones. Before Elinor can form a plan to save Edward, he arrives at Barton Cottage. The Dashwoods learn that it was Robert Ferrars, not Edward, that married Lucy. They resolve to leave Robert to his terrible fate, feeling that he deserves it. The happy occasion is literally upended when the island upon which Barton Cottage rests suddenly rises from the ocean; it turns out to be not an island at all, but rather a monstrous sea-beast known as Leviathan, awakened from a long slumber and hungry for all sorts of marine life. The characters survive their sudden upheaval from their former island home. Edward reconciles with his mother and asks Elinor to marry him; and she agrees. The couple begin a simple new life tending to the lighthouse at Delaford. Marianne resolves to become a marine engineer so that she can design a new Sub-Marine Station Gamma dome. Despite herself, she comes to fall in love with Colonel Brandon, and the two eventually marry. Willoughby, somewhat to his dismay, is forgiven by his aunt for his treatment of Eliza and reclaims his inheritance. He realizes that had he married Marianne for love instead of Miss Grey for money, he would have eventually attained both love and money. Instead he is left to ponder what might have been. |
Thirteen Reasons Why | Jay Asher | null | Clay Jensen, a somewhat shy high school student, returns home from school one day to find an anonymously-sent package sitting on his doorstep. Upon opening it, he discovers that it is a shoebox containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by the late Hannah Baker, his classmate and emotionally damaged crush who recently committed suicide by taking a handful of pills. The tapes were initially mailed to one classmate with instructions to pass them from one student to another, in the style of a chain letter. On the tapes, Hannah explains to thirteen people how they played a role in her death, by giving thirteen reasons explaining why she took her life. Hannah has given a second set of tapes to one of their classmates, the identity of whom Clay later discovers, and warns the people on the tapes that if they do not pass them on, the second set will be leaked to the entire student body. This could lead to the public embarrassment and shame of certain people, while others could face physical harassment charges or jail time. Through the audio narrative, Hannah reveals her pain and suffering and her spiral into depression that ultimately leads to her death. She lists her first crush,a former friend, a peeping Tom, a liar, a goof who takes advantage of her, a hater, a thief who steals her poems, a member of the list that already passed, a cheerleader who crashes into a stop sign, a guy she had a sexual encounter with, the guidance counselor, and Clay himself. They all thought their actions were harmless, but they were wrong. Hannah's tapes will haunt them forever. |
Green | Ted Dekker | 2,009 | The book starts ten years after White, where, once again, Thomas' Circle is threatened not by the diseased Scabs inhabiting the forests, but from the inside. Thomas' son, Samuel, born of his first wife before Red, is trying to turn the Circle back to their war-making ways and lead them in a fight against the diseased ones. He forsakes Elyon's words to not fight, and denys that he even exists. When Thomas and others stand against his attempts to change them at one of their Gatherings, he challenges Vadal, who is betrothed to Thomas' daughter, Marie, in a fight to the death. He accepts, but Marie forces him down by offering herself as the fighter. They fight while Thomas watches, his reality unwinding with the thoughts that Elyon had forsaken them. The book shifts to the past, to our reality, where a man named Billy, who can read minds with eye connections by writing in the books of history years ago, is entering a Raison laboratory. He has an audience with Kara Hunter (Thomas' sister), and Monique De Raison, the newest operator of Raison Corporations. He slyly talks to them—they wearing glasses so he cannot connect eyes—and tries to get the sample of Thomas' blood, taken in White. They do not tell him much, but allow him to stay at the mansion as a guest until they can figure out what to do with him. Billy immediately places Monique's mid-twenties daughter, Janae, as a target for questioning. Kara and Monique then tell Janea that there was a blood sample, but it was destroyed when an Indonesian lab was destroyed, where it was sent for safekeeping. Back in Other Earth, the fight between Marie and Samuel is ended by Thomas, who decides to conduct his own challenge. He challenges Qurong and the power of Teleeh with the power of Elyon. They travel to Ba'al Bek, a crater of unknown origin outside the forest. Thomas, accompanied by Jamous, Mikil, and Samuel find themselves facing Qurong, the leader of the church, Ba'al, and a group of over 200 priests and forty soldiers. Thomas lets Ba'al choose the challenge. Ba'al forces Samuel to be used as a sacrifice to Teeleh and that Elyon may save him if he wishes. Two-hundred priests sacrifice themselves by blood-loss after cutting their wrists to bleed on the tied-down Samuel. Shaitaki fly overhead. Ba'al starts to do it himself when he is possessed by Marsuuv, Teeleh's queen. Marsuuv lets the Shaitaki feed, but they are stopped by a green mist lowered from the heavens, reminiscent to the green waters of Black. Samuel, dead by Marsuuv's sword, is brought back to life and they escape, leaving Qurong's forces in pursuit and the leader himself with words of his daughter still loving him (her father). While this is happening, Marie and Chelise are heading to save Thomas from Ba'al. They arrive when the challenge is finished and only the dead are left. Chelise, believing Thomas captured, decides to enter the forests and beg his release from Qurong. She sends Marie back to the Circle. Thomas and the others, though, have left the pursuit behind and stop to decide their next move. An argument between Thomas and Samuel begins and Samuel leaves them to join the Eramites, a group of "half-breeds," the forest people who became scabs and treated like lowers in a caste system, who fled the forests and went deep into the desert. On Earth, Janae and Billy decide to inject themselves with an evolution of the Raison Strain, Raison Strain B, which is not airborne, but only takes a day to kill instead of thirty, and a strong bit of knockout pills. They do so under the belief that Monique and Kara will save them with the vial of Thomas' blood (they also believe that it was not destroyed), which will send them to Other Earth. At first the two women decide not to save them, in fear that they may bring back information that could cause a global disaster, like Thomas did, or they may find the Books of History and change something drastically. But, a few hours later, they decide to call in the blood, which still exists, and try to save them—Janae, at least. Billy and Janae are injected with the blood and wake up as Ba'al and his lover respectively. Janae's inhabitant refers to Ba'al/Billy as Billos, meaning he was one of the Chosen in the Lost Book series, who's life was sold to Teeleh in Renegade. They don't get very far into their dreams before they are woken up. Thomas and Qurong travel to Earth with the books, though Qurong believes that Thomas is using magic to put visions in his head. Thomas wakes up the dreaming Billy and Janae, with Kara and Monique watching. Qurong, Billy, and Janae all turn against Thomas, but he is too fast and locks them in the room together with no escape. Janae looks at Qurong's skin under a microscope and finds that the disease is caused by millions of Shataiki larvae on their skin. Qurong breaks the door, Janae steals the vial of Thomas' blood and a vial of the Raison Strain B, which, she believes, will make the worms on infected skin act violently, but not those who have touched Thomas' blood, those who had drowned, or the half-breeds who used to bathe. They steal the Books of History and all three escape back to Other Earth, leaving Thomas. Janae and Billy arrive back in Ba'al's thrall and are captured. They break free of Ba'al's prison and pursue him to the Black Forest where one of Teeleh's twelve queens, Marsuuv, is waiting. They are accepted as lovers and Janae is given the task of seducing Samuel and helping end all humanity. Samuel and Eram are taken by Janae's words and accept her help. They and Eram's forces join the Circle and, with Janae showing the effects of the Raison Strain B—which she calls Teeleh's Breath—about 5000 Circle members join in to help fight a battle against Qurong and his forces. They leave just a few hours later to strike, after Janae beats Chelise in a challenge. Chelise wakes and journeys to find her father and try to have him drown once more. Billy meets Teeleh with Marsuuv, who gives him an objective. He takes his eyes and uses them to create a clone. He names the original Bill and the clone Billy. Billy is tasked with returning to Earth in the current time and be the anti-christ. Bill is tasked to travel to right before Thomas first dreamed and kill him—that is, in the beginning of Black. They both travel with the books and arrive at different times, where they need to be. Billy is the one left holding the books, and phases into the very room where Thomas is. Billy leaves with confused talk. Thomas and Kara take the books back to Other Earth. Chelise finds Qurong just after he decapitates Ba'al. The Shaitaki inferno above, now seen to all, has plummeted, devouring anybody, now that the Circle has broken, and Elyon's vow broken as well. She cries for him to drown for her, but he refuses again. Samuel, now infected with the disease and almost fully Horde after breaking Elyon's vow, decapitates her without realizing it was his half-mother. Qurong then kills Samuel. Thomas is met by the boy Elyon, who quickly shows him the battlefield, where the Horde are being dreadfully slaughtered with Teeleh's Breath affecting them, making it hard for them to move their joints. Elyon and Thomas jump through a lake and pop outside the Circle camp, where some 7000 still remain, including Mikil, Jamous, and Johan. They all travel, following the Warrior Elyon to the battlefield. Elyon creates a new lake, red with a green center, in the battlefield while Roush hold back the shataiki. All but Thomas dive, who is looking for Chelise and Samuel. He finds Qurong and asks where Chelise is, and he shows him Chelise's clothing, with no body. He asks for Samuel and is shown the Horde body that still exists. Thomas realizes that Samuel was not saved by Elyon (as was Chelise) and cries out for mercy. He disappears. Qurong, stricken, finally drowns, crying out for Elyon. Thomas is with Elyon. He is given a second chance on the terms that he will not know it and is placed at any place/time that Elyon chooses, and without knowledge of anything that happens after that. Thomas accepts and finds himself in a shower. Kara is just leaving their apartment. Thomas goes to work, leaves after closing, and the start of Black is repeated, ending with him getting shot in the side of the head by Billy, who then follows him into his dream. The final words say that Thomas dreamed and nothing would be the same, creating a Circle. The story continues in Black. |
Servant of the Dragon | David Drake | 1,999 | In the introduction, seven wizards use a mummified reptilian creature to cast a spell to raise Yole from the depths. Meanwhile, the main characters are in Valles, where a magical blue bridge has appeared where there hasn’t been a bridge for hundreds of years. Upon seeing it Tenoctris ascertains that while it is dangerous, it is not associated with the evil Throne of Malkar. While investigating the bridge and the mysterious happenings associated with it, a massive bird appears, snatches up Sharina, and disappears with her. Cashel immediately determines to find Sharina and rescue her. Tenoctris uses her art and determines that whoever sent the bird to kidnap Sharina means her no harm. She sends Cashel to Landure, a wizard on another plane who can help him. Cashel arrives next to an ajar door; a beautiful woman rushes out, pursued by an angry wizard. Cashel fights the wizard, using his quarterstaff, and kills him. The woman, Colva, takes Cashel to Landure’s castle where she puts him into a drug-induced stupor through which he discovers that she is actually a demoness. When Cashel recovers, he returns to the body of the wizard, who was in actuality Landure. Cashel discovers that Landure’s sapphire ring contains a powerful demon, named Krias. Krias informs Cashel that he must take a small wafer from Landure’s body which can be used to animate a new body and bring Landure back—but he must travel through the Underworld to reach Landure’s extra bodies. Cashel takes Krias with him. Eventually Cashel reaches the entrance to the third level of the underworld where Colva originally stayed. While there, Cashel eats some of the fruit of the Tree of Life. At Krias' suggestion, Chashel puts one of the fruit in his satchel. Cashel comes to Landure's castle where he puts the wafer under the tongue of one of the paintings of Landure. Cashel gives Krias back to Landure. When Landure begins insulting Cashel, Krias refuses to serve him anymore, prompting Landure to give Krias back to Cashel. In exchange for his freedom from the sapphire, Krias helps Cashel to cross the Chasm and reach Sharina. Garric, Liane, and Tenoctris stay in Valles to deal with the problem of the bridge. Garric also faces possible rebellion from several lords and bickering among others. Hoping to kill two birds with one stone, Garric assigns Lord Tadai to be ambassador to Sandrakkan. Garric has several dreams about Klestis, a city destroyed at the same time Yole was, and the wizard, Ansalem. Ansalem possessed many objects of power, including a mummy of a reptilian creature, a foot-wide fossilized ammonite, and a powerful amphisbaena. King Carus reveals that he once sought Ansalem’s help in unifying the isles, but Ansalem refused. Ansalem had seven acolytes (the most dangerous of which was Purlio) who used the ammonite to imprison him while he was weak after rescuing Klestis from the destruction of Yole. Anselm reveals that he has nothing to do with the bridge, but if he can get his amphisbaena back, he can repair it. Tenoctris determines that she needs to visit a wizard named Alman and borrow his viewing crystal. Katchin the Miller, who raised Cashel, appears begging Garric for a job, but Garric turns him away (and he is later captured by Colva). Tenoctris takes them to the end of time. They find Alman in a ruined city and he discovers that his viewing crystal has been stolen from him. The group returns to their own time, leaving Alman in his solitude. After spending a few days tending to matters of state in Valles, Garric receives news that his uncle has helped someone to kidnap Tenoctris. Garric and some of the Blood Eagles cross through a portal to ancient Klestris, to retrieve her but are thwarted. Before returning to Valles, they rescue a woman who claims that she is Colva, wife of Landure, the Guardian, and warns them that seven necromancers intend to do battle with them. She opines that they have kidnapped Tenoctris in order to sacrifice her and increase their own magical powers. At midnight they cross the bridge which showed up at the beginning of the story, to attack the seven necromancers on Klestis. They are confronted with an army of undead under the control of three necromancers, whom they slay. They find Tenoctris unconscious in Ansalem's chambers. Purlio and another of the acolytes are casting spells on her. Purlio takes the fossil ammonite and merges it with himself, replacing his head with it. Armies of undead begin entering Klestis, coming across bridges similar to the one that first set these events in motion. Ilna determines that she can be of no further help in Valles, so she negotiates passage to Sandrakkan with Lord Tadai. Ilna reluctantly makes friends with Lord Tadai’s niece, Merota. The first night on the ship, Ilna and a tough-looking sailor named Chalcus, witness the beginnings of a mutiny. Ilna tries to warn the captain and Lord Tadai of the imminent mutiny, but they ignore her. The mutiny takes place, as Ilna had warned, and the sailors put everyone except Merota and Ilna ashore on an island. Eventually they arrive at Yole and put ashore. That night they are attacked by a monster. Frightened, the sailors put Ilna, Merota, and Chalcus ashore to reconnaissance. In the interior of the island they discover a harbor bordered by a polis full of reanimated dead people. As they watch, a swarm of Great Ones tow their now-empty ships into the harbor. As they make their way around the island, a creature called the Tall Thing (which was once Ansalemn's child) kidnaps Merota. While pursuing it, Ilna is captured by a wizard named Ewis (one of Ansalem's apprentices) who has the Lens of Rushila. In trying to escape, Ilna releases the Tall Thing which kills and eats Ewis. They meet back up with Chalcus and make their way to the harbor. There they discover that the crews of their ships have been murdered and then reanimated. They flee and spend the night in a cavern. They come to a chasm with a bridge which takes them to a frozen Klestis. There they find Purlio (with his ammonite head) performing incantations using the Dragon. A second necromancer attacks them with three ice beetles. Chalcus defeats the ice beetles while Ilna subdues the necromancer long enough for Merota to bash in his head with a rock. Then they attack Purlio. Sharina is carried by the bird through several planes of existence, including some which are disturbing and grotesque. Finally it deposits her on a beach next to a forest and promptly disappears. Inside a broken-down temple covered with images of serpents she meets a reptilian creature, the Dragon. He reveals that he has brought her back to the past to send her on a mission to recover his mummy which is being used to raise Yole and reanimate the dead. He gives her a snakeskin which she is to take with her back to her own time. Then she goes through a portal and finds herself centuries into the future. She hires a graceful, large bird-like being, named Dalar, as her bodyguard. The pass through several more portals. The last takes them to Klestis at the time when Ansalem was rescuing it during the destruction of Yole. They climb to Ansalem's chambers where they find his seven acolytes and the Dragon. Ansalem is bound and his son has been vivisected and is being transformed into the Tall Thing. Sharina and Dalar are locked out, but at that moment Cashel appears and uses his quarterstaff to punch open the door. When they come through, though, instead of the seven necromancers, they find Garric and Tenoctris. Purlio has escaped. Tenoctris casts a spell which takes them to the frozen time where they encounter Purlio as well as Ilna and her companions. Together they defeat Purlio, but he flees and takes refuge in the land of the dead. The companions are whisked back to Ansalem's chambers. There Sharina burns the mummy and gives the snakeskin to Tenoctris—it is from an amphisbaena. While everyone is distracted, Colva attacks and kills Garric. Liane then kills Colva. In the land of the dead, Garric encounters Purlio and severs his connection to the living world, thus killing him completely. Cashel revives Garric using the fruit from the Tree of Life in his satchel. Using the amphisbaena snakeskin, Tenoctris frees Ansalem from the cyst he was trapped in. Ansalem returns everyone to their homes—including Dalar—and then destroys the bridges that connect the different planes of existence. Garric—the Prince of Haft and future Lord of the Isles. His ancestor, King Carus, has taken up residence in his head and aids him in matters of sword and state. Sharina—Garric’s half-sister. The Dragon seeks her help in escaping bondage to seven necromancers. Cashel—a large, simple shepherd who would be content to be just a sheepherder. He is half human, half sprite. His power is manifest through his use of an iron-ferruled quarterstaff. Liane—a noblewoman who has some magical abilities and is romantically involved with Garric. Ilna—Cashel’s sister who doesn't feel she fits in with the others due to her past and her unrequited love for Garric. She is half human, half sprite. Her power is manifest through her use of thread and fabric. Tenoctris—a wizardess from King Carus’ day who accidentally sent herself forward in time when Yole was being sunk into the ocean. Her power comes not from strength in magic, but from careful study and exact execution of spells. She is an atheist. Alman—a wizard who prefers to live a life of solitude at the end of time Ansalem the Wise—a powerful wizard from the time of King Carus Lord Attaper—commander of the Blood Eagles Celondre—a historical poet, philosopher, and aristocrat (modeled after Horace) Chalcus—a chanteyman and former pirate who allies himself with Ilna Colva—a demoness who escapes the Underworld with Cashel’s unwitting help Dalar—a member of the Rokonar and Sharina’s bodyguard Elfin—a human boy kidnapped by the People and taken to the Underworld Ewis—one of Ansalem's apprentices Harn—a spider-like creature which guards a bridge on Yole Katchin—Cashel’s sycophantic, self-serving uncle Krias—a powerful demon imprisoned inside Landure’s sapphire ring Landure—a wizard on another plane, guardian of the Underworld Count Lerdoc—ruler of Blaise Merota—Lord Tadai’s niece Mykon—a prince who lived on Cordin before the sinking of Yole Purlio of Mnar—principle acolyte of Ansalem the Wise and a powerful wizard in his own right who surrenders himself to one of the Great Ones Reise—Garric's adoptive father Lord Royhas—Garric’s royal chancellor Lord Tadai—Garric’s Royal Treasurer and later Ambassador of the Prince to Sandrakkan Tiglath—the captain of a brothel-barge King Valence—current Lord of the Isles Vonculo—sailing master of The Terror and a mutineer Earl Wildulf—ruler of Sandrakkan * ammonites * demons * dragons—an ancient variety of reptilian humanoids which are apparently different from the Scaled Men of the previous novel * fauns * ghouls * harpies * hippogriffs * ice beetles * mammoths * man-eating trees/dryads * The People—a beautiful but conniving race which resembles some descriptions of elves * The Rokonar—bird people that live somewhere beyond the Isles and were destroyed at the end of the Third Age * Sea wolves—reptilian sea creatures whose description resembles that of a Mosasaur * zombies |
The Cater Street Hangman | Anne Perry | null | In an upper class salon on Cater Street several women discuss, in oblique terms, the death of a local girl. Even though Susannah has recently been out of town and is unaware of the murder, it is bad form for proper women to talk about such matters and so they are careful not to say anything too direct about the way the daughter of a friend was garroted and cut open. Finally, tiring of the game, Charlotte comes out and tells her aunt what she has heard about the murder. Although the victim was of the upper class she quickly gains a reputation as having been a bad seed. A second death occurs, this time a servant. Again the idea that these women did something to deserve this end is easier to accept than the knowledge that it could happen to anyone else. Only when the third murder happens to a member of the Ellison household do they believe that these crimes might not be a simple case of robbery or jealousy. A young police inspector, Thomas Pitt, has been investigating these crimes and soon arrives to question the Ellison household. Pitt is the educated son of a gamekeeper and cook. His education and manners let him wander in upper-class circles, while his dress and impolite tactics keep them from becoming entirely comfortable with him. Although Pitt aspires to higher social standing, he requests that he be treated as a middle class working man. None of this endears the inspector to Caroline Ellison, the lady of the house and mother of Sarah, Emily and Charlotte Ellison. Pitt uses pointed questions and little tact to find the information he needs. He often knows the answers to questions before he speaks and so puts everyone off-guard as they attempt to keep their secrets hidden. Before long, every female suspects every male of being the hangman, much to the detriment of long standing marriages and relationships. As the investigation into who is killing the young women progresses, Thomas falls in love with the unconventional Charlotte. Outwardly, Charlotte is a model of Victorian society, but she does not wish to become one of the mindless women she sees everyday. Instead, she reads newspapers that are smuggled out of her father's sight and speaks her mind on all manner of subjects. She finds out more about the world beyond her door when she meets Thomas and finds that he will engage her in useful and interesting discussions. Anne Perry wrote The Cater Street Hangman as a single, stand alone, novel. She had not intended for it to become a series and so there are elements in this book which do not blend smoothly into the series. |
Tricks | Ellen Hopkins | 2,009 | In the novel Tricks, the story begins with five teenagers, all residing in various parts of the United States. The first character, Eden Streit, lives with her father, mother, and younger sister, Eve. Being a daughter of a minister also comes with expectations, such as not dating until marriage and marrying men within the Christian faith. But for Eden, that doesn’t matter with Andrew, her boyfriend. Her only problem is trying to keep their relationship a secret from her parents. The second character, Seth Parnel, lives with his father after his mother dies from cancer a year and a half ago. Seth struggles with identifying his sexuality after he breaks up with his girlfriend, Janet Winkler. He meets Loren and is catapulted into a new kind of relationship. The third character, Cody Bennet, doesn’t know who his biological father is and spends his time with his step-father Jack. Jack hasn’t been feeling well, and Cody starts to drink. The fourth character, Whitney Lang, lives with her mother, while her father works and lives in another city nearby and her sister, Kyra, attends college. Whitney is disconnected with her mother and likes when her dad is home since she sees him as her hero. Whitney hooks up with Lucas at one of Kyra’s performances and they hit it off, but she still worries about committing to the relationship with him. The fifth character, Ginger Cordell, encounters rape from an early childhood and deals with keeping these secrets from her family. Ginger’s only friend is Alex, and she has begun questioning how she feels about her. Eden’s parents finds out about her relationship with Andrew, and assumes that she is being controlled by the devil, and so she is sent to Tears of Zion. There, she is being kept in captivity and forced to do work that would supposedly rid her of evil. She starts giving a worker named Jerome sex in exchange for food, shampoo, and other treats. She hopes that Jerome can be the key to her escape. Loren moves away and leaves Seth, and Seth’s dad finds out he is gay, so he kicks him out of the house. He goes to live with Carl, an older man he met at a bar, and moves with him to Vegas as his companion. Lucas leaves Whitney by dumping her after taking her virginity, and she turns to Bryn for support. She gives herself to him, and leaves her family to move with him to Vegas for his photography business. Ginger’s brother, Sandy, is run over by a motorcycle, and Gram goes with him to the hospital. Ginger is raped again by one of her mother’s boyfriends, and she finds out that Iris is charging them to have sex with her. She takes her mother’s money and leaves with her friend, Alex, and they go to stay with Alex’s aunt, Lydia, in Vegas. Cody’s step-father, Jack, dies from cancer, and Cody takes on the responsibility of paying for bills. He gets deep into online gambling, drifting away from Ronnie, whom he believes he loves. Eden manages to escape with the help of Jerome and decides to ditch him at a gas station. She succeeds, and gets rides from truck drivers to Vegas. She uses sex for money and means of survival until she finds a place that helps young people in similar situations. She finds Andrew’s mother’s e-mail, and sends her a message. Andrew’s mother replies, and Andrew sends a message shortly after. They both express relief that she is alive, and hope to see her again soon. Seth becomes attracted to Jared, a man he meets in the gym, and they have sex. Carl reveals that he had paid Jared to act as bait, and kicks Seth out. Seth goes online and looks for a new man to stay with. Bryn is revealed to have acted a certain way to get Whitney to fall in love with him. He cheats on Whitney, forces her to record their sex and have sex with other people, and gets her addicted to drugs. Toward the end of the book, the author seems to make Whitney to be losing more of herself. One night, she takes an overdose and ends up in the hospital with her family around her. Her mother cries for her and says that she wants them to have a better relationship now, and that she does care about her. Whitney’s father is angry, and her sister is said to be angry that Whitney stole all of the attention. Lydia sets up Alex and Ginger in the stripping business, and that becomes how they get money and a place to stay. Sex becomes less about love and more about surviving. They get arrested because they were discovered by Vegas Vice, and they are sent to a place that was supposed to help them get their life back together. Ginger calls Gram and finds out that Iris is dying from an STD. She decides to go back home and take care of her siblings. Alex stays. She is revealed to be pregnant, and she says that she will be a better mother to her child than Ginger or Alex’s mothers were to them. Cody gets into business with Lydia, partnering up with Misty occasionally in having sex with men. He does not believe himself to be gay, but he is described as feeling that he has to do anything to get money and support the rest of his family. His relationship with Ronnie becomes distant, and he hopes that she would find a better man who deserves her. On one of their “dates”, Misty’s boyfriend, Chris, finds them almost naked with their client. He is expressed as being very angry with Misty, and he attacks them, putting them in the hospital. Cody wakes up occasionally there, and Misty and their client are revealed to be dead. Cody hears voices while he is partially conscious. He hears his mother speaking to him, comforting him, and begging him not to leave her. |
Vampire Academy | Richelle Mead | 2,007 | Guardian in training Rosemarie "Rose" Hathaway and Moroi princess Vasilisa "Lissa" Dragomir are brought back to their school, St. Vladimir's Academy, after running away two years previously. On returning, Guardian Dimitri Belikov, who was the leader of the team of guardians sent to retrieve the two, is assigned to be Lissa's guardian. He offers to mentor Rose in her guardian training as he feels she has potential and with training can make up for the years she has lost. He also believes Rose can be an excellent guardian to Lissa due to the presence of a rare one-sided psychic bond to Lissa which allows her to know the latter's emotions, thoughts, and whereabouts. Rose agrees, knowing this is the only way she will be allowed to remain, and on graduation be Lissa's guardian. Though they soon fall into the academy life, they find that Lissa has lost her social standing among the other Moroi royals owing to her running away. They decide to keep company with Lissa's "cousin" Natalie Dashkov, who is the daughter of sick and dying Victor Dashkov. On the very first day back they find that another Moroi student, Mia Rinaldi, who is dating Lissa's ex-boyfriend Aaron, holds a grudge against Lissa (and by default Rose). Mia finds every opportunity to insult Lissa and is in turn insulted and threatened by Rose. Lissa finds a friend, Christian Ozera, much to the ire of the ever protective Rose. Christian's parents had turned Strigoi (undead vampires) of their own will for immortality and had been killed by guardians. Rose mistrusts Christian because of his family history. It is also implied that she is jealous of Lissa's interest in him. Rose, in turn, starts falling for Dimitri. Things start getting worse when Lissa finds dead animals in her room along with threatening letters. Lissa starts going into depression and engages in self mutilation. It is revealed that though she has not specialized in any elemental magic (Air, Water, Fire, and Earth), she has a miraculous ability to heal, which was witnessed by Rose and their teacher Ms. Karp two years back. Rose finds out that this gift is shared by Ms. Karp, who is then taken to a mental institution. They find out that Lissa has affinity for Spirit, that might just be dangerous for her and Rose. This incident along with her increasing depression was what had caused Rose to run away with Lissa. While attending Sunday service, Rose hears that the Moroi saint St. Vladimir could heal people, and suffered from some form of depression. Also, he was protected by his loyal companion the "shadow kissed" Anna with whom he shared a bond. On returning from a shopping trip with Lissa, Victor, and Natalie, Rose has an accident and on waking up deduces from what Dimitri tells her (that she had a miraculous recovery) that Lissa had healed her. She reaches into her bond and finds that Lissa is lying on the attic of the Church bleeding from self-inflicted cuts. Her reporting this incident causes a slight break in their friendship. Somehow discovering this, Mia insults Lissa, calling her unstable, causing Rose to punch Mia and break her nose. Detained by teachers and guardians, Rose is unable to follow Lissa; she reaches through her bond while confined to her room and finds that Lissa is being kidnapped by some guardians who assault Christian when he tries to save her. Rose tries to go and warn Dimitri and instead ends up nearly having sex with him. They stop when Dimitri unclasps a locket gifted by Victor from her neck and he manages to throw it away. It is later revealed that Victor had charmed the locket with a lust charm which causes people to act on already existing attraction, letting go of inhibitions. Through the bond Rose finds out that Victor is the one who kidnapped Lissa and plans to use her to heal his genetic disease. He reveals that Natalie was the one who left the animals in Lissa's room to see her heal them after accidentally catching her doing so. He also reveals that Lissa had specialized in the rare fifth element Spirit, and that her bringing back Rose from the dead after the accident was what caused them to have a bond. Using Spirit is what was causing Lissa's depression. Though Lissa heals Victor for the time being, the school guardians are able to reach the place and rescue her. On returning, Victor convinces Natalie to turn Strigoi by killing while feeding and gets her to break him free. She injures Rose who was visiting Victor, but is killed by Dimitri. Dimitri reveals that he too feels for Rose but cannot have a relationship with her because of their age difference and because he won't be able to guard Lissa wholeheartedly if she is near him. |
The Business of Dying | Simon Kernick | 2,002 | It is 9:01 pm on a cold November night, Dennis Milne and his friend Danny are waiting at the Traveler's Rest Hotel car park to kill three unarmed men they think are drug dealers. A black Jeep Cherokee drives into the car park and comes to a halt. Dennis Milne goes up to the drivers side and shoots two of the men dead the third tries to get out the car and run, but does not make it. Dennis is then seen by a girl at the back door of the hotel, but Dennis just walks away. They drive away and when they are away from the scene they set the car on fire and go their separate ways. Dennis Milne then gets stopped at a road block by the police and he has to show his ID and it turns out he is a police officer. At home he acts normal and starts a new case on a murder of a prostitute. He then finds that he killed two customs officers and an accountant on the news. When he asks the guy who hired him to do the kill (Raymond Keen) he says they did something terrible and had to die for it, but does not say what it was. It gets worse when the police working on the hotel killing show a efit of Dennis. Danny then calls him to say he was being followed but Dennis does not think anything of it and says he should go on a holiday. While trying to question a woman on the prostitute case, thinking that it might be involved in what is going on, she runs away and he chases her but she gets away and he is left by himself, two people with hoodies walk up the street towards him and they have guns and try to kill him. After a chase, he kills one and hurts the other. He finds out who killed the hooker and wraps him up in a chair and tortures him to talk before setting him on fire. He goes up to Raymond Keen's house and kills his guards after almost being killed by them and shoots Raymond Keen and makes him talk. At the end of the book he is flying off to the Philippines with a fake passport and a different appearance. |
The Infinities | John Banville | 2,009 | The book involves a reunion of the Godley family as the family patriarch, Adam, lies in a coma on his deathbed. The book takes place in an alternative reality with the world powered by cold fusion and steam trains are still in use. His family, consisting of Adam his son (and Adams wife Helen), his daughter Petra and his wife Ursula are present at this reunion. The story is narrated by the god Hermes, who dictates how the story will unfold along with his father Zeus and his mother Maia. |
The Millionaire Mind | Thomas J. Stanley | 2,000 | Following up the bestseller The Millionaire Next Door, The Millionaire Mind analyzes the common environmental and lifestyle factors that preceded and resulted in this researched segment's ability to accumulate wealth. The book raises the following questions: What success factors made them wealthy in one generation? What part did luck and school play? How do they find the courage to take financial risks? How did they find their ideal vocations? What are their spouses like and how did they choose them? How do they run their households? How do they buy and sell their homes? What are their favorite leisure activities? Dr. Stanley's research on how the average American millionaire attained financial success are based on in-depth surveys and interviews with more than 1,300 millionaires. Personal details from this research are shared in the book include memories from their school days, personal thoughts on being "the smart kid in the dumb row," making difficult financial decisions, selecting a vocation and spending habits. |
This River Awakens | Steven Erikson | 1,998 | The novel starts in the spring of 1971 and ends a year later, with the changing seasons being used to illustrate changes in the themes of the novel. The novel is set in the fictional town of Middlecross, Canada, a small town not far from the city. Owen Brand and his family move to Middlecross in an attempt to escape poverty. Twelve-year-old Owen falls in with a gang of three boys and forms a strong bond with Jennifer, the rebellious daughter of a violent alcoholic. In the summer break from school, Owen and his friends find a body washed up on the riverbank. The discovery sends reverberations through the small community. |
A Dubious Legacy | Mary Wesley | 1,992 | While stationed abroad during World War II Henry Tillotson has married a complete stranger at his father's request. When the war is over, and his father has died, Henry brings his bride with him back to his estate, Cotteshaw, in the West Country. The first thing the bride does on their arrival is to give her husband a black eye and without a word march upstairs to her bedroom where she will reside for the best part of the rest of her life. Two young couples, Antonia and Matthew, and Barbara and James, begin to visit Cotteshaw frequently. Unwilling to admit it, the two young ladies are attracted to the fifteen years older Henry Tillotson, and fascinated and frightened by his mysterious wife, Margaret, who will endure their visits in her bedroom with bored superiority. Margaret Tillotson is beautiful - but mad. She likes to make up malicious stories about everyone at Cotteshaw and enjoys inflicting pain on everyone who comes into range, preferably without lifting her head from the pillow. Her husband reacts to her fancies with indulgence and nauseating kindness while he tries to be a host to his guests. The nature of his wife means that Henry Tillotson is in need of an heir, and Margaret refuses to divorce him. However, the two couples keep returning to Cotteshaw throughout the years, and every time Henry is the perfect and attentive host, especially to Antonia and Barbara. |
The Rehearsal | Eleanor Catton | 2,008 | In the aftermath of a local scandal involving a young female student, Victoria's affair with her music teacher Mr Saladin, the novel follows the effects on several different characters using a non linear plot. Isolde, Victoria's sister, tries to resume normal life at school and becomes intrigued by fellow student Julia who in the counselling sessions provided by the school deliberately provokes the counsellor by defending the affair. Isolde and Julia both are taught by a private Saxophone teacher who obsessively follows their lives while regretting her own failed love affair with her friend Patsy. Bridget a depressed and awkward teacher is also taught by the Saxophone teacher who openly declares Bridget her least favourite student. Consecutive with this story is local boy Stanley who enrols in the prestigious Institute (a drama school) and soon becomes obsessed with proving himself. Their final piece is to be improvised and the students decide to base their performance on the local scandal, unaware of Isolde's true identity Stanley and Isolde begin to develop a relationship. Bridget dies in a sudden car accident but she is swiftly forgotten when Victoria returns to school. The Saxophone teacher tries to sabotage Stanley and Isolde's relationship by informing the Institute who quickly make the connection between the final piece and Isolde's identity. The Head of Acting has to reveal to a horrified Stanley who Isolde really is but it is too late to stop the performance. Skipping out on her own saxophone recital and abandoning Julie, Isolde comes with her family to surprise Stanley on his first night. The novel ends with Victoria and Julia talking in their common room, and Victoria suspiciously questions Julia about what went on between her and Isolde, finishing by 'I'd be happy if you told me just enough of the facts so I could imagine it. So I could recreate it for myself. So I could imagine I was really there'. |
Second Fiddle | Mary Wesley | 1,988 | Twenty-three years old Claud Bannister has just failed his exam to be an accountant and is determined to give up his studies and become a writer. He is introduced to Laura Thornby at a concert. Laura is forty-five, single and a notorious meddler. When she hears about Claud's plans, and learns that he is living with his mother, Laura immediately starts rearranging his life. In no time Claud finds himself installed in a rented loft and making a living by selling antiques from a stall in the market. Laura becomes so interested in Claud's welfare, and her own, that she even ends up in bed with him. When Laura isn't visiting Claud in his loft, and he isn't working in the market, he is busy working on his novel, just as Laura had planned. But even Laura Thornby cannot foresee everything. Her affairs have always been brief and she has always been in total control, but with Claud she begins to lose control. When she sees what Claud has written, she realizes that he has a talent, and that she herself merely is playing second fiddle to his fictional characters. |
Freddy Rides Again | null | null | John the fox is not frightened by new neighbors, the Margarines, holding foxhunts! So, still enjoying their Western roles from Freddy the Cowboy, wearing cowboy hats, neckerchiefs and boots, Freddy the pig and Jinx the cat saddle their mounts to follow the hunt. The fox leads it through a neighbor's house. It seems the fox's plan to anger neighbors about foxhunting will succeed until Mr. Margarine hands the neighbor a generous amount of money for damages. Riding with Mr. Margarine is his son Billy, who was rude to the animals as soon as he met them. But he was not a coward during the confrontation, prompting Freddy to speculate: :"I was just getting so I hated him, and then he has to go do something I admire him for. I wish people would be good all over or bad all over." The Margarines' cat takes refuge at the Bean Farm, suspiciously claiming he was not given enough food at home. Freddy and Jinx decide to observe his actions, and in the process discover a rattlesnake in the neighborhood. After hearing the snake's plans to eat his friends, Freddy seeks the help of the sarcastic and intelligent owl, Old Whibley. After gibes, Whibley advises the animals to stay away until he catches the snake during his usual hunting. However Freddy traps the snake with bait made of chewing gum. Billy comes to taunt the animals at the farm, but is driven off by their laughter. Later, Mr. Margarine appears, and the animals attempt to laugh him off, too. However Mr. Margarine hits Mr. Bean, enraging the animals, and they attack. Mr. Margarine has the sheriff issue an arrest warrant for Freddy and Charles the Rooster, so they go into hiding. From there they launch a series of raids on the local farms, intending to put the blame on the Margarines. As a result Mr. Margarine advertises for a detective. Freddy dons a disguise as the unsavory "Commanche Kid", and answers the ad. He is hired to track down himself! The news of Billy being driven from the Bean Farm spreads to the countryside, and animals laugh as he rides by. Wisely, he realizes that there are people who are liked for themselves, not what they own. He finds the Commanche Kid for advice, and Billy is coming to an appreciation of his situation when news reaches the farm that Mr. Margarine has taken a Bean cow, Mrs. Wiggins, captive. When the small farm animals discover they cannot free her from her stall, they instead scare Mrs. Margarine in with the cow. The two come to amicable terms: :"Mrs. Margarine looked angry; then she laughed. 'I daresay you're right. I can hardly imagine myself keeping a promise to a cow.' :'A cow or a man — what's the difference,' Mrs. Wiggins said. 'It's you that makes the promise.'" Freddy is now Billy's friend, and outfits him with similar cowboy clothes. A policeman arrests Billy, thinking it is Freddy. Freddy goes to the jail to correct the mistake, but while there, he and Billy are caught by Mr. Margarine, who threatens to shoot Freddy later on sight. After some time Freddy cannot bear living under threat, and challenges Mr. Margarine to a duel. However Freddy rigs it to make Mr. Margarine look a fool in front of witnesses, and Mr. Margarine finally admits defeat. The Bean animals throw their longest party. The next day, as Freddy and Billy ride off together, Billy announces that the Margarines have given up foxhunting. |
Death of a Hussy | null | null | Maggie Baird, the hussy of the title, has decided she wants to get married again. She invites four of her previous lovers to her home in Lochdubh for a holiday and informs them that she will marry one of them. Maggie is forthright. She's rich and she has a serious heart condition and she will leave her money to the man she decides to marry. Maggie's death at first appears to be an unfortunate accident. But Hamish Macbeth, Lochdubh's local policeman has his doubts. |
Freddy and Mr Camphor | null | null | When Freddy needs a change from running the animal newspaper and the animal bank that he established in earlier books, and he sees an offer to work as a caretaker on a local estate. He meets the eccentric Jimson Camphor and his proper butler, Bannister, who, Camphor explains, is "dignified for both of us". They have a running game reciting proverbs to match a situation, then arguing about whose is more appropriate. After they leave Freddy settles comfortably into caretaking. Meals are served in the main house, while he lives on a luxury houseboat. The restful circumstances are interrupted by two sorts of trespassers, a gang of rats led by the malicious Simon, and a human criminal, Zebedee Winch, accompanied by his dirty-faced son. The rats are destroying everything that displeases them in Camphor's attic, while Zebedee and his son, finding that the cook is Zebedee’s runaway wife, take advantage by moving in to "visit" her. When Camphor returns for a weekend, Zebedee frames Freddy by stealing Camphor's things. Freddy is fired, and returns to the Bean Farm. The animals are undecided how to respond. Meanwhile, since the United States is fighting World War II, the President is encouraging people to grow food in their own Victory Gardens. The farm bugs and insects throw a party where they patriotically decide to stop eating farm vegetables. The party is dampened when the rooster Charles starts one of his long-winded speeches. After he is forced to stop, the horsefly Zero crashes the party, telling everyone the war is somebody else's problem. Freddy drives Zero away, but now he has another enemy threatening revenge. Mrs. Wiggins the Cow and Freddy are discussing Zebedee when they hear Jinx the Cat yowling. Instead of a problem, they discover the other animals playing Camphor and Bannister's game, but testing proverbs. Jinx, having tipped his milk dish over, howls until Mrs. Bean refills it, proving that it is useful to cry over spilt milk. Jinx tells the dog that "Any stick is good enough to beat a dog with". The dog replies that there are more ways than one way to skin a cat. Freddy joins the game, but attention soon turns to his problems. The animals decide that Freddy, Jinx and the mice will sneak into Camphor’s house to implicate the Winches as thieves. However they are trapped inside when a door locks shut behind them. Freddy disguises himself in human clothes, and manages to fool Bannister long enough for Jinx and the mice to arrange his escape. The Winches recognize Freddy, but by this point nobody believes them, and the sheriff is called. Zebedee Winch tries to escape, but the sheriff catches him when Freddy's friend eagle forces his car off the road. The sheriff drives to Zebedee's house, and discovering Camphor's stolen property, arrests him. To get Simon and his relatives out of their holes in Camphor's attic, Freddy employs fleas, but there still is a fight before he forces them to leave. Camphor forgives the Winches and allows them to work on his estate. Freddy goes to a patriotic bug meeting, where the horsefly Zero is allowed to debate Charles the Rooster. Losing the debate, he physically threatens Freddy, who has prepared by bringing friend toads; when the fly comes to sting, he is eaten. Having been forgiven by Camphor, and helped restore his damaged portraits, Freddy tells Camphor the whole truth about what has happened. When Camphor thinks Freddy should write a book about it, Bannister produces the proverb, "There's no friend like a good book". |
Freddy and the Men from Mars | null | null | Freddy reads an article announcing that Mr. Garble encountered a flying saucer and that Martians are displayed at Mr. Boomschmidt's circus. Since Garble is an old enemy, while Mr. Boom is a friend, Freddy visits the circus to warn him. Garble allows limited viewing of the Martians, so he must be lured away while Freddy's cohort Mrs. Peppercorn sneaks in. She finds the bearded Martians dressed in red costumes with gloves, and oddly "like a dog walking on its hind legs". The Martian introduces himself, spelling his name S-i-m-g-h-k (with a silent "i"). Inexplicably, Simghk is familiar with Freddy's poetry. He flatters Peppercorn, who eagerly explains she can do better: :"No, sir, my idea of poetry is something that everybody ain't done before. You don't use the old rhymes, like 'love' and 'dove' and 'eyes' and 'sighs.' You make words rhyme that nobody has ever rhymed before." She recites her several thousand line poem, starting, "Some stars are large, some stars are small / And some are quite invisiball". The Martians are bored asleep. Later, Freddy is successful investigating: in getting the "Martians" to agree that Mars is nearer the sun than the Earth, he realizes they must be fakes. However, as the reputation of Boom's circus would be at risk, Freddy does not tell the owner what they discovered. Willy, the circus boa constrictor, is sleeping over at Freddy's. They are awoken by the chickens Charles and Henrietta, who accuse the snake of abducting their chicks. This sends Freddy into detective mode. In confirming that the revolving chicken house door cannot be entered by the large snake, he is stuck, squeals loudly, and rouses the barnyard. Dogs, tracking rat smell, find a hole. Willy slithers in, retrieving Simon the rat, Freddy's longstanding foe. Shortly after they hold Simon captive, Garble announces that one of his Martians is missing. Garble reveals that he purchased the Grimsby property next to the Bean farm, and is demanding Uncle Ben Bean remove his space ship (built in Freddy and the Space Ship). Freddy deduces that Garble's false Martians are actually rats and threatens to reveal Garble's hoax unless the space ship is allowed to remain. Besides, they cannot expose the fake Martians without embarrassing the circus. However Freddy's philosophy is "When everything seems hopeless, the thing to do is stir it up good." Freddy devises a plan to use a rabbit to replace the fake Martian rat that was captured. The rats remaining in the circus are not fooled, but Jinx the cat remains in their cage, forcing them to cooperate. When the crowd does not notice the difference, Freddy has all the "Martian" rats replaced with his "Martian" rabbits. Freddy investigates the Grimsby property with the help of an ex-burglar, however they are confined by Garble in his cellar. Wholly unexpectedly, real Martians land, having come to examine the fake Martians, and to look at Uncle Ben's space ship. They are pear-shaped, have three eyes and four arms, and are entirely friendly. There are at an impasse communicating until it is discovered that spiders such as the elderly Mr. and Mrs. Webb can speak with them. Freddy discovers the missing chicks are in the Garble cellar. As a ruse, Freddy spreads strawberry jam on the burglar and shouts for help. The burglar escapes, believing Freddy has too. The Martians take the first of several joy rides, landing finally at the circus, where they are amused by the false Martians. After a time they realize Freddy still needs rescuing, so the sheriff, the Martians, and circus folk overwhelm Garble's house, freeing Freddy and the chicks. Garble escapes to join his confederates, the rats. Rats being difficult to dislodge, Freddy makes use of ten sacks of rotten onions to taint the food at the Garble place. The rats retaliate by invading the space ship, and eating the stores. The Bean farm animals surround the space ship, but the rats unintentionally cause it to lift off; the rats are rescued from space only much later, although Uncle Ben's space ship is lost. The Martians stay with the circus, giving saucer rides and enjoying themselves. |
The Virgin in the Ice | Edith Pargeter | 1,982 | In November 1139, the Empress's armies have attacked and pillaged Worcester. Among the many who fled the city were two noble children in the Benedictine Order's care: Yves Hugonin and his sister Ermina. A young nun, Sister Hilaria, who was Ermina's tutor, was with them. They have since vanished. The children's uncle, Laurence d'Angers, who has recently returned from the Holy Land to enter the Empress's service, seeks leave to enter the King's lands to search for them, but he is refused permission by the King's officer in Shrewsbury, Sheriff Gilbert Prestcote. Prestcote promises instead to find them and send them to safety. As the first snowstorms of winter sweep the countryside, Prior Leonard of the Benedictine Priory at Bromfield near Ludlow asks for Brother Cadfael of Shrewsbury Abbey, a worldly-wise monk who has been on Crusade and lived for years in Syria and who is a skilled physician and apothecary, to tend a monk who has been waylaid by robbers, beaten and stabbed and left for dead in the snow. At Bromfield, the injured man, Brother Elyas, babbles about a party of refugees which might well be those sought. Cadfael rides out into the snow-covered countryside to search for them and finds one of the children, thirteen year old Yves, sheltering with a forester. As they ride back to Bromfield through the evening, Yves tells Cadfael that he, Ermina and Sister Hilaria, had been staying at the smallholding of John Druel, a relative of Ermina's childhood nurse. The headstrong Ermina eloped with a lover some nights previously. When Yves tried to pursue them, he became lost in the woods. Sister Hilaria is presumably safe with Druel. Cadfael dismounts to lead the horse across a frozen stream, and sees the body of a young woman frozen into the ice. Fearing it is that of Ermina, he conceals his discovery from Yves. At Bromfield, Cadfael finds that his friend, Deputy Sheriff Hugh Beringar, has arrived to help search for the missing children, and reports his distressing find to him. The next morning, the body is retrieved from the ice and brought to the chapel at Bromfield. As the body thaws, Cadfael sees that it is not dark of hair and eye, as Ermina was described, but fair. There is blood on the corpse, from whoever presumably ravished and smothered her. Yves enters the chapel unexpectedly, and to his horror, recognises the corpse as that of Sister Hilaria. Cadfael and Beringar go to Druel's smallholding and find that it has been looted and burned by brigands, though Druel escaped to the nearby village of Cleeton. He relates that his place was attacked on the night of the first blizzards, but Sister Hilaria had left in Brother Elyas's company a few hours before. The villagers also tell Beringar that a stranger, dressed as a common woodsman but with a sword concealed under his cloak, later came to Cleeton, asking after the children and the nun. Beringar hears from Ludlow that on the night Druel's place was sacked, the brigands attacked other settlements, committing indiscriminate murder. Cadfael surmises that they met Elyas and Hilaria on their way, murdered Hilaria and left Elyas for dead. Yet another settlement which was attacked even before that night was the manor of Callowleas, which belonged to Evrard Boterel, Ermina's lover. Most of its inhabitants were killed, but Beringar finds evidence that Boterel and Ermina were able to escape to the manor of Ledwyche, which Boterel also holds. At Ledwyche, Boterel tells Beringar, Cadfael and Yves that after their flight from Callowleas, Ermina was frantic with worry for Yves and left Ledwyche in the snowstorm to search for him. Boterel rode out after her into the blizzard, but already had a knife wound in the shoulder and collapsed from the wound. That night, another snowstorm blows up. While Cadfael and the brothers of Bromfield are at Compline, Yves stays with Brother Elyas, who is recovering, although disoriented. When Yves tells him that Sister Hilaria is dead, Elyas becomes distressed and walks purposefully out of the priory, into the storm, wearing only his habit. Yves pursues him, but cannot turn him back. They reach a shepherd's hut, where Elyas appears to confess in a fit of grief to despoiling and murdering Hilaria. As dawn breaks, Yves hears noises nearby and goes to seek help, but runs into the arms of the brigands. As he is obviously noble and worth a ransom, they take him prisoner, tied by a halter to a pack horse laden with plunder from yet another village they have destroyed. Yves leaves a trail in the new-fallen snow for others to follow, by puncturing a skin full of red wine and letting it drip slowly. That same dawn, Ermina Hugonin arrives at Bromfield Priory, escorted by the handsome stranger, who vanishes before anyone but Cadfael sees him. Ermina quickly learns of Sister Hilaria's death, and is stricken with guilt that her reckless conduct led indirectly to it. Cadfael tells her that Hilaria's ravisher and murderer alone must bear the guilt and penalty of the act. Ermina recovers and also tells Cadfael that the stranger who helped her is Olivier de Bretagne, a Syrian-born squire in her uncle's service, masquerading as a local forester's son. She no longer loves Boterel, and is clearly smitten with Olivier. As the search for Yves and Elyas begins, Cadfael wonders what purpose Elyas had in mind when he walked into the blizzard, and asks to be taken to the spot where Elyas was first found injured. He then goes to where Sister Hilaria's body was found, more than a mile away, and is puzzled that anyone, least of all bandits who have left their other victims where they fell, should carry a corpse so far to conceal it. He finds the nearby hut, where there are signs that Yves and Elyas sheltered there during the night, but are now gone. Inside, concealed under a heap of straw, Cadfael also finds Hilaria's wimple and habit, which are stained with blood from her attacker, and Elyas's cloak. Casting about for Yves's or Elyas's tracks, he finds those of the brigands, marked by the trail of wine drops left by Yves. He follows the trail, and discovers that the brigands have built a rough fort on top of Titterstone Clee Hill. The next morning, Cadfael guides Hugh Beringar's armed men to the fort. They attack, but the brigands' leader, who is recognised as a mercenary named Alain le Gaucher, forces them to draw back by holding a knife to Yves's throat. Yves is left on top of the fort's tower. As night falls, Olivier de Bretagne makes his way to the tower by stealth and overcomes the brigand guarding Yves. When he and Yves try to escape, they are detected and forced to return to the tower. Yves realises that Beringar and Cadfael cannot be far away, and beats a helmet and sword together to alert them that he is no longer menaced by Le Gaucher. Beringar and his men attack again, and set fire to the fort. As the fire threatens Yves and Olivier, they try to break out, but Yves collides with le Gaucher and is taken hostage again. Brother Elyas wanders into the battle and confronts le Gaucher who, unnerved by the sight of a man he thought he had left dead, lets go of Yves. Olivier then kills le Gaucher in single combat before disappearing. Cadfael takes the wounded back to Bromfield. Yves tells him of Elyas's apparent confession. With his knowledge of men and the discovery of the hidden cloak, Cadfael establishes that when Elyas and Hilaria sheltered together in the hut, Elyas, tormented by desire, left her alone but with his cloak for warmth. He was himself attacked by le Gaucher's men a mile away. Elyas is now wracked with guilt for abandoning Hilaria to her fate, unable to fully protect her or to master himself. Evrard Boterel arrives at Bromfield to reclaim a stolen horse. Cadfael invites him into the chapel to pray for the dead. Inside, Ermina confronts him, dressed in Hilaria's wimple and habit, and frightens him into confessing to Hilaria's murder. She then tells Cadfael and Beringar that she turned against Boterel when he fled in terror from Callowleas rather than defend his people against the brigands. When Boterel then tried to take her by force rather than lose the lands she would bring him as a wife, she wounded him with a knife, and hid in the woods. She saw Boterel ride out to search for her and return, and now knows that it was he who came upon Sister Hilaria alone in the hut and raped and murdered her in a rage against Ermina herself. Her realization is confirmed by Cadfael's observations, matching the blood stains on Hilaria's body with Boterel's wound. Ermina has let Cadfael know that Olivier will come for her and Yves after Compline. When Olivier arrives, Cadfael suggests waiting until Matins, when they can leave undetected. While Cadfael and Olivier wait together, Olivier tells of his early years in Syria and of his mother, Mariam. Cadfael realises that Olivier is his own son. Elyas is recovering his peace of mind, Hilaria's murderer is in prison, the brigands are exterminated and Yves and Ermina are on their way to their uncle's care. With their respective tasks accomplished, Beringar and Cadfael return to Shrewsbury, with Cadfael in a daze. |
Undone | null | null | Faith Mitchell is walking across the parking deck at the courthouse when she passes out. She wakes up in the emergency room of Atlanta’s Grady Hospital, where she was taken by her partner, Will Trent, who was with her when it happened. It turns out Faith has two serious medical conditions, one she knew about and one she didn’t; both could end her nascent career as a special agent with the GBI almost before it’s gotten started. At the hospital Faith and Will meet Sara Linton, the doctor who examines Faith. Sara’s moved to Atlanta to recover from the explosive ending of Beyond Reach and now works in Grady’s ER. Right after seeing Faith, Sara rushes to the aid of a woman who was hit by a car after wandering naked onto a highway out in the middle of nowhere, and is peeved to find Will trying to question the victim. Sara quickly becomes aware of the same thing that caused Will to involve himself— the woman has suffered abominably cruel torture at the hands of a sadistic man. Will and Faith take over the case and find themselves hobbled from the start by the local yokel law enforcement which seems more interested in grudge-bearing than in catching a deranged killer, and Sara eventually becomes involved by dint of her previous experience as one of the state’s top-notch coroners. |
Freddy the Magician | null | null | When a storm damages Centerboro, the Bean farm animals volunteer to help Mr. Boomschmidt clean his circus grounds. Freddy is thrilled to meet Zingo, the circus magician — until Zingo is unnecessarily rude about Freddy's friends. When the magician's rabbit Presto is fired, Freddy takes him to the farm to learn his magic tricks. Though this seems to work well, and Freddy masters many tricks, sometimes the rabbit is rude, like his ex-master. The zoo lion Leo visits Freddy at the farm, his mane sheered on account of hopeless tangles after his last visit to a beauty parlor. He warns that Zingo has used Presto in shady deals, and relates that Zyngo is fired, and is staying at Mr. Groper's hotel. Freddy has become accomplished at simple tricks involving hidden pockets and wants to saw a girl in two. Jinx, the cat, suggests he and his sister do the trick, since it uses the front of one animal, and the back of the other. During the storm the magician's hat was lost; Zyngo will not let Presto back until it is found. Presto claims that, unlike the magician's other tricks, the hat is magical, and really does make him invisible. Freddy considers, and is both sure it does make the rabbit vanish, and sure that it does not. "It's funny how you can have two opinions in your head like that at the same time," he thinks. The hat is recovered, and placed into the animals' bank vault, where Freddy discovers its secret bottom. Yet Presto shows no hurry about returning to Zyngo. Freddy goes to town to rent the theater to present a magic show. He visits the jail, where the sheriff and the inmates are his friends. It is effectively a friendly country club. When Freddy finds a thief among the inmates the sheriff says "...he will have to go. Can't have a thief in my jail." Jinx's sister Minx arrives, as talkative and boastful as ever. While setting up the show, Freddy learns that Presto has been recently seen with Zyngo. The show opens, and without warning the rabbit Presto introduces an offer to pay five dollars to anyone if they can explain a trick. Zyngo is in the audience, and explains many. Luckily, some of Freddy's tricks are new and cannot be explained. Presto is captured by the Bean animals, and reveals that he only came to the farm to get the animals' help retrieving the magician's hat. In the process of being quizzed, the rabbit mistakenly gives Freddy the information needed to deduce that Zyngo stole Boomschmidt’s money and was fired for it. Minx believes the hat makes her invisible, so they play a pointed joke on her. They place her in the hat, then pretend she cannot be seen or heard. The farm animals are instructed to pretend she's not there, and also to make comments about how nice it is to have her gone. Convinced of her invisibility, she boldly eats food from the Bean's table; Mrs. Bean throws her off and drives her out of the house with a broom. Minx vows revenge. Zyngo announces his own magic show, which will challenge anyone to explain his tricks. When Freddy visits the sheriff, he learns that Zyngo is staying at the hotel, refusing to pay bills on account of bugs in his food (that he has obviously placed there, himself). Freddy determines to check into the hotel in disguise as Grouper's nephew, carrying with him a suitcase of mice, spiders and Jinx to spy on Grouper. In this way they watch the magician's activities, and learn that Minx will help Zyngo rob the animal bank. Well-warned, the animals trap Zyngo in the bank, but he shows his villainy by shooting his way out. Freddy's hotel role now makes Zyngo suspicious, and they play dirty tricks on one other. Zyngo frames Freddy in a department store by stuffing the pig's pockets with unpaid items. Zyngo's insistence that he will forgive Freddy only if he gets his hat back rouses suspicion; on examination Boomschmidt's money is found in it. Freddy and his team go into hiding in rooms under the stage where Zyngo will perform, and make modifications to his equipment. During the show, one trick after another goes wrong. Some that do not, Freddy exposes. They repeatedly make fools of each other, until Zyngo loses his temper and physically attacks. To settle their dispute on stage, Freddy challenges Zyngo to an ESP contest, guessing what objects assistants in the audience are holding. Freddy uses insects to bring accurate and detailed information. The audience decides that Freddy wins. ("'...you're three times the magician Zing is — I don’t know but four times, eh, Leo?' 'You work it out, chief,' said the lion, 'I was never any good at figures.'") Since the jail is too nice a place for him, to force Zyngo out of the hotel and out of town, they turn his dining room tricks against him. Friendly bugs appear in his food, and when Zyngo complains, disappear before others see them. Defeated, Zyngo goes to the bus station, where the citizens and animals force him to return the rest of the stolen money. Zyngo apologizes, but unlike most books, this time Freddy does not believe his adversary is really sorry. Grouper thanks Freddy at length for ridding his hotel of his problem. |
Bluestar's Prophecy | Cherith Baldry | null | Bluestar's Prophecy tells the story of Bluekit, a blue-gray female she-cat born into ThunderClan along with her white sister, Snowkit. A few moons (months) after becoming an apprentice (with her name being changed to “Bluepaw”), ThunderClan attacks another Clan called WindClan on account of stolen food, and Bluepaw’s gray tabby mother, Moonflower, is killed during the raid. Later on, at a Gathering, Bluepaw meets a tabby apprentice named Crookedpaw (later Crookedjaw and then Crookedstar), an apprentice from RiverClan, and they quickly become friends. But their friendship doesn’t last long when the two angry Clans battle over territory, and Bluepaw defeats Crookedpaw. Bluepaw later goes on a hunting patrol with Snowpaw. Bluepaw chases a rabbit into a hole, along with Snowpaw (Snowkit), and they ended up at a place called Snakerocks, where a fox had already killed the rabbit. Bluepaw runs toward the camp with Snowpaw ahead of her, but realizes that she is leading the fox directly to her Clanmates. Bluepaw then faces the fox and was interrupted when a lightning bolt strikes a branch above her, which set it on fire. Goosefeather, the Clan's medicine cat, receives a prophecy about Bluepaw being a fire that blazes through the forest, but water may destroy her. Bluepaw and Snowpaw eventually receive their warrior names, Bluefur and Snowfur. Snowfur's relationship with her sister is later damaged when she falls in love with another warrior, a spiky-furred dark gray-and-white cat named Thistleclaw, whom Bluefur feels is arrogant and untrustworthy. Later, Thistleclaw and Snowfur have a son, Whitekit, later known as Whitepaw, and then Whitestorm. Bluefur later meets a famous RiverClan warrior named Oakheart, a handsome reddish brown tom; although she does not seem to like him at first, they eventually fall in love. Meanwhile, Pinestar, Bluefur's leader, leaves ThunderClan to become a kittypet (house cat). Sunfall, Pinestar’s deputy, takes his place as ThunderClan’s leader, and his name is changed to Sunstar. Not long after this, Snowfur is killed, hit by a speeding car while chasing ShadowClan intruders from their territory, leaving a heartbroken Bluefur to care for Whitekit. Many seasons pass, and a few days after Whitestorm receives his warrior name, Bluefur decides to meet with Oakheart one evening. They meet at the usual Clan Gathering place (“Fourtrees”), and have a lot of fun together, later deciding to spend the night there together, but agreed when it was over that they would never meet like this again, for the good of their Clans. One moon later, Bluefur is horrified to find out that she is expecting kits. Thrushpelt,a sandy gray ThunderClan warrior who has a crush on Bluefur, offers to help her take care of the kits, to which she accepts, allowing the rest of ThunderClan to believe that he is the father, since Bluefur was determined to keep the father's identity a secret. Sunstar tells Bluefur that he was planning to make her ThunderClan’s new deputy, on account of the current deputy deciding to retire, but since she was having kits, he was thinking about letting Thistleclaw become the deputy instead. Bluestar knew that allowing Thistleclaw to become deputy and then leader would be extremely deadly to the Clan (she saw him in a vision dripping with blood), Bluefur takes her three kits to Oakheart, where they would be raised in RiverClan, but on the way, one of them, Mosskit, a gray-and-white she-kit, dies because of the freezing snow. When she returns, she pretends that a starving predator had taken her kits. Bluefur is made deputy, and learns that Sunstar only received eight lives from StarClan because Pinestar had not died yet. After Sunstar loses his final life, she becomes leader, receiving her own nine lives and leader name (Bluestar). After successfully leading ThunderClan for several seasons, she receives another prophecy from the current ThunderClan medicine cat, Spottedleaf: “Fire alone can save our Clan.”, which puzzles Bluestar. She later goes on patrol with Whitestorm and her deputy, Redtail, and while nearing the twoleg (human) nests (houses), she catches sight of a bright ginger kittypet named Rusty, who she later invites to join the Clan, believing that he is the destined cat from Spottedleaf's prophecy, and invites him to the Clan and names him Firepaw, and eventually Fireheart. The story ends with Bluestar thanking StarClan for everything they had done, and happily picturing the gorgeous future of Fireheart one day "blazing through the forest", as Firestar, the next leader of ThunderClan. In the prologue it shows Bluestar, on her last life, watching as Fireheart leads a pack of vicious dogs to the gorge and hopefully off. She sees him in the clutches of the pack leader and knows he can't be the one to die. She attacks the dog who drops Fireheart and follows her off the gorge. Fireheart rescues her and with the help of her kits (Mistyfoot and Stonefur) is pulled a shore. In her dying moments her kits forgive her for giving them up to RiverClan. |
The Castle of Adventure | Enid Blyton | 1,946 | Jack, Lucy, Dinah and Phillip attempt to figure out what is behind the strange goings-on at a ruined castle near Spring Cottage in Scotland where they are on holiday with Dinah and Phillip's mother, Aunt Allie. The four youngsters make friends with Tassie, a mysterious gypsy living in the woods with her mother. Along with Bill Cunningham, who appears later in the book, the children manage to expose a ring of spies led by the threatening Scar-Neck who are working against the UK Military service. |
Matters of the Heart | Danielle Steel | 2,009 | Hope Dunne lives in a chic SoHo loft, content with her life as a top photographer. So when she accepts a London assignment at Christmas to photograph a world famous writer, she never expected to fall in love. Finn O’Neill is taken aback with Hope and they have a windswept romance with Finn whisking her away to his palatial, Irish estate. Though divorced, Hope loves her ex-husband Paul very much. Paul, a retired surgeon,divorced her only because he didn't want to pull her along with him as he dies slowly from illness. Hope begins to fall in love but soon finds that Finn and his life are not what she expects. Hope is madly in love with Finn but he is also the source of her fears. Finn' lies and hurt begin to unnerve Hope and she becomes scared and alone miles away from home with no-one to support her as she tries to deal with all matters of the heart. |
Underground to Canada | null | null | A young, strong slave girl, Julilly, is sold from a plantation, the Hensen plantation in Virginia and taken to the Riley plantation Mississippi in the Deep South. There she meets Liza, another slave girl. Pursued by their master, the two girls and their friends, Lester and Adam, begin their escape from slavery. They make their way through the United States to Canada on the Underground Railroad with the help of Alexander Milton Ross, a Canadian abolitionist, eventually arriving safely, apart from Adam who dies of blood poisoning caused by his slave chains. |
Blue Moon | Alyson Noel | 2,009 | Just as Ever is learning everything she can about her new abilities as an immortal, initiated into the dark, seductive world by her beloved Damen, something terrible is happening to him. As Ever’s powers are increasing, Damen’s are fading—stricken by a mysterious illness that threatens his memory, his identity, his life. Desperate to save him, Ever travels to the mystical dimension of Summerland, uncovering not only the secrets of Damen’s past—the brutal, tortured history he hoped to keep hidden—but also an ancient text revealing the workings of time. With the approaching blue moon heralding her only window for travel, Ever is forced to decide between turning back the clock and saving her family from the accident that claimed them—or staying in the present and saving Damen, who grows weaker each day... |
Dragons of the Hourglass Mage | Margaret Weis | null | Dragons of the Hourglass Mage reveals the motivations behind Raistlin's aspirations to godhood. After Raistlin Majere became a wizard of the Black Robe, he travels to Neraka, the lord city of the Dark Queen, under the excuse of joining her forces, but in reality, he plots his own rise to power. When Takhisis discovers that the dragon orb has entered her city, she dispatches Draconians to find it and to destroy the wizard who protects it. However, Raistlin uncovers Takhisis' plot to seize control of all magic, and he moves to stop her. Meanwhile, Kitiara uth Matar, Raistlin's older sister, follows Takhisis' orders to set a trap for the Gods of Magic on the Night of the Eye. |
Love, Aubrey | Suzanne LaFleur | 2,009 | The novel tells the story about how an 11-year old girl named Aubrey Priestly recovers from losing her little sister (Savannah) and her father in a car crash. The first main event was when Aubrey’s mother runs away and leaves Aubrey alone in their house. Aubrey soon has to go shopping and buys a fish which she names Sammy. For a week, Aubrey lives on Spaghetti-Os and cheese and crackers. Eventually, Aubrey’s grandma shows up because Aubrey wasn’t answering the phone. Aubrey decides to lie to her grandma about her mother being missing, saying she would come for dinner, but Aubrey's grandma soon finds out that Aubrey's mother is missing. Grandma decides that she will take Aubrey with her to her house in Vermont. While in Vermont, Aubrey makes a new friend (Bridget) and has fun with her and her sister (Mabel). Mabel reminds Aubrey of Savannah and a few times Aubrey freaks out. When the school year begins, Aubrey has to go see the school counselor, Amy, who gives Aubrey an assignment to sit by someone new at lunch. She decides to sit by Marcus, another boy under Amy's guidance. At first he was kind of nervous. Then after a while he loosens up and they become friends. Aubrey’s mother finally arrived at night, waking Aubrey up by the sound of her voice in the house. At first she thought it was a dream, then she thinks it’s too clear to be a dream. She goes down stairs to see her mom and grandma arguing in the kitchen. For a while, Aubrey’s mother lives with Aubrey and her grandma, trying to recover from all she’s been through. After she gets better she goes back to her house in Virginia without Aubrey. After a few months, Aubrey’s mother decides that she is ready for Aubrey to come home. The choice of returning is left to Aubrey, who is very excited at first but realizes she has a difficult decision to make. She decided to stay with her grandmother and will visit during the summer. In conclusion Aubrey realises that it would be best if she stayed with her grandma as she would miss her too. |
A Catskill Eagle | Robert B. Parker | 1,985 | Spenser receives an enigmatic letter from his lover, Susan Silverman, who has relocated to the West Coast. His sometime friend, Hawk, is in prison and she believes that she too is in some sort of trouble. |
Death Troopers | null | 2,009 | The Imperial prison barge Purge, temporary home to five hundred of the galaxy's most ruthless killers, rebels, scoundrels and thieves, breaks down in a distant, uninhabited part of space. Its only hope appears to lie with a Star Destroyer drifting nearby, derelict and seemingly abandoned. When a boarding party from the Purge is sent to scavenge for parts, only half of them come back, bringing with them a contagion so lethal that within hours, almost all aboard the Purge are dead - the half-dozen survivors are two teenage brothers, Kale and Trig Longo, a ruthless captain of the guards, Jareth Sartoris, and the chief medical officer, Zahara Cody, all of whom seem to possess natural immunity. The Purge's onboard computer informs Cody that there are also two survivors in isolation, and Cody leaves the medibay to release them and administer an antidote synthesized from her blood by the incumbent 21B medical droid "Waste". The isolated prisoners are Han Solo and Chewbacca who initially are sceptical of the situation, however allow her to immunize them, and make their way back to medical. Upon returning to medical they find it empty, and Waste destroyed. The dead have become undead and begin to hunt the survivors who are forced to abandon Purge and take shelter in the Star Destroyer, unaware that the Destroyer is not the better place to be. All the survivors are separated: Sartoris faces the few living survivors who have become cannibalistic, and are hiding in an Imperial Assault shuttle previously captured by the Star Destroyers tractor beam. Solo & Chewbacca make their way to the bridge in an attempt to either fly the Destroyer, or at least turn off the tractor beam. Kale dies from an infected wound, returns to life as a zombie, and is subsequently killed again by Trig. Cody finds herself in the Destroyers medbay, and with the aid of the destroyers own 21B discovers the cause of the contagion: Codenamed Blackwing, it is an artificially created virus - intended to slow the onset of decay and rigor mortis, and increase the healing capacity of the human body prior to death. The Destroyer was taking it to an isolated outpost for testing. However, the contagion - characterised by a grey goo - leaked from its containers and infected the entire ship, converting its 8,000 crew into the undead. Cody observes from her vantage point that the remaining ships in the docking bay are being filled with the zombies - they are attempting to leave the Destroyer and spread their contagion throughout the galaxy. After escaping from the shuttle, Sartoris meets up with Solo, Chewbacca & Trig, then sacrifices himself to allow them to escape, after revealing he has been bitten by an undead and is himself turning into a zombie. They return to the shuttle and successfully leave the destroyer, but discover a zombie has made it aboard the shuttle, and has killed the two remaining original survivors. The zombie is shot by Cody - who they had previously thought killed when the shuttle ready room she was hiding in was destroyed by the zombies - and she points out that the rest of the escaped ships are no longer controlled - as they watch two infested Tie fighters collide with each other and explode. Cody theorises that Blackwing is only effective when in range of the original contagion source on the Destroyer, and that now removed from the source the zombies have again "died". The four survivors leave the Destroyer and now-derelict ships, and find a planet where they sell the shuttle to a pirate group. Solo and Chewbacca leave to re-buy their impounded ship, while Cody and Trig use their share of the sale to visit a distant planet - home to one of the dead prison guards, and deliver a note he was in the process of writing when Blackwing took him. |
A Wizard of Mars | Diane Duane | 2,010 | Young Wizards Kit Rodriguez and Nita Callahan become part of an elite team investigating the mysterious, long-sought 'message in the bottle' that holds to the first clues to the long-lost inhabitants of Mars. But not even wizardry is enough to cope with the strange events that start to unfold when the 'bottle' is uncorked and life emerges once more to shake the Red Planet with its own perilous and baffling brand of magic. The good news is that the Martians seem friendly. The bad news is that now they're free to pick up where they left off on a long-dormant plan that can change the shape of more than one world... and they don't mind using their well-intentioned rescuers to achieve their goals. Kit's long-standing fascination with all things Martian unexpectedly enmeshes him in a terrible, age-old conflict—turning him into both a possible key to its solution, and a tool that in the wrong hands shortly threatens the whole human race. Only Kit has a shot of defusing the threat. But when he vanishes unexpectedly from Mars of here and now, his fellow wizards are left uncertain of where his true loyalties lie. Nita's determination to find the truth - and Kit - soon sends her into a battle against an implacable enemy who may not be conquerable except by violating wizardry's most basic tenets. As the shadow of interplanetary war stretches ever more darkly over both worlds, Kit and Nita must fight to understand and master the strange and ancient synergy binding them to Mars and its last inhabitants... or the history that left Mars lifeless will repeat itself on Earth. |
Blood Ties | Sophie McKenzie | 2,008 | Theo gives [his] bodyguard the slip once too often. Rachel receives a weird text from her father. So begins a highly dangerous search to unravel unanswered questions about their past. So together, Theo and Rachel go into an emotional rollercoaster, finding out things about their pasts, presents and future. But as they meet new people and lose contact with others they always know they have each other; especially because of their connections - Blood Ties. The book begins with Theo's narrative. He is running away from school and onto the high street in order to catch a movie, as he is tired of having his bodyguard, Roy, escorting him everywhere. His plan fails, and Roy brings him back home, where his mother is waiting for them. Theo and his mother have an argument, in which Theo accuses his mother of imagining a threat, which is why he has a bodyguard. Theo attempts - for the second time in the day - to run away, only to be stopped by Roy. His mother reluctantly agrees to tell him who is threatening his life. Meanwhile, Rachel Smith, after returning from another hard day at school, is reading a text from her father that says, "Goddess still safe in Heaven. Richard." She asks her parents about it at the dinner table, only to be brushed off. Rachel also notes how annoying her beauty-obsessed mother is, and how her mother is constantly comparing Rachel to her dead sister Rebecca, who was a star student and daughter. Back in Theo's house, Mrs. Glassman - Theo's mother - reveals to Theo that his father, whom she had previously told her son was dead, is actually alive and in hiding. With the information he received from his mother, Theo searches for his father - James Lawson - on the internet with the help of his best friend, Jake. He comes across an article that describes a bombing of a genetic research clinic, which is where Theo's father worked. The bombing was carried out by a highly aggressive group called RAGE (Righteous Army against Genetic Engineering). The article also mentions Elijah 'the Gene Genie' Lazio and Richard Smith. It said Richard Smith was at the birth of his daughter and saw the bombing from the hospital window. Theo and Jake are able to work out that Richard Smith had a daughter and that as the article was published fifteen years ago, his daughter would now be fifteen. They are able to work out which school she goes to and Theo decides to find Rachel and see if he can get any information from her father about his father. As Rachel leaves school the next day, a classmate of hers tells her that a boy is looking for her. Rachel thinks that it is some sort of setup and she makes for the other direction. But her classmate stops her in her tracks by saying "He's really fit." Rachel then decides to go have a look. As they near the bus stop, Rachel sees Theo and says that he is indeed fit. Theo approaches Rachel and asks her if her father is named Richard Smith. Rachel says that he is. Theo goes on to tell Rachel that her father may have worked with his father and then Theo lies and says that as his father is now dead, he would like to see if Richard knew him. Rachel feels sorry for him so they both go to Rachel's house, where he asks her father about the bombing of the research clinic and whether he knew anything about it. He denies it and looks terrified. After an awkward dinner, Theo gives Rachel his number and tells her to contact him if she gets anymore details. Later on, Rachel hears his parents talking and they are saying things like "we can't let Rachel find out" and "it was him. i could see it" and she wonders what is going on. As we switch back to Theo's point of view, he contacts his childhood-friend Max, who is a hacker and says she is happy to help if needed. Rachel, in the meantime, is cornered by a gang of girls who demand to know what relation she has to Theo. Rachel lies and says that he is her boyfriend. The leader of the pack, Jemima says that she expects to see him at the school dance as her date. Rachel realises that she has just gotten herself into even deeper trouble. Later on, Theo rings Rachel asking her if she can get hold of her dad's laptop. Theo's plan is to get Max to hack into her dad's email account and see if he sent any interesting emails lately. Rachel has fallen for Theo and is thrilled at the thought of seeing him again. She quickly takes the laptop and hides it in a backpack. She hastily says goodbye to her mother and goes to Max's house. When Rachel arrives at Max's house she gives Max her dad's laptop and Jake (who happened to be at Max's house) tries to flirt with her. Theo is embarrassed and tells Jake to back off. Max hacks into Rachel's dads' laptop and discovers an email sent to Rachel's dad from a certain Lewis. Later, the truth comes out and Rachel learns that Theo lied about his father's death. Rachel, feeling hurt and angry grabs the laptop and leaves. Theo is forced to apologise. Rachel accepts the apology and comes back to Max's house. The email that Max hacked talks about a business trip to Germany. Theo suspects that his father could possibly be there. He plans to go to Germany and find out. Rachel says that she will come with him as her dad is involved. They arrange to meet up at Rachel's school disco and leave together. Rachel then leaves. On the night of the disco as Rachel struggles to find a suitable outfit, she thinks about what she is about to do and whether she can trust Theo or not. Theo arrives at Rachel's school disco, and he reflects on how she looks nice. As Theo and Rachel stand together awkwardly, Rachel asks Theo to dance. Theo uncomfortably agrees, even though he doesn't seem to have any feelings for her. As they dance awkwardly, Jemima comes up to Theo and asks him why he's here with her. Rachel steps in and tugs on the neckline of her already extremely low shirt. Jemima screams and everyone gathers around to see what's going on. Rachel pulls Theo away and says that she had to make a diversion. As sneak out through a side door and start walking towards the train station, they are suddenly attacked by two men in masks and dark clothing. One man puts his hand over Rachel's mouth to muffle her screams and the other takes out a gun and aims at Theo's forehead. Just as Theo braces himself for death, the other man punches the man holding the gun and knocks him out. The man tells them that his name is Lewis and to back into the school and meet him in the headmistress's office. Theo takes a shaky Rachel to the office and Rachel sits down and sobs her heart out. Theo uncomfortably pats her back. Rachel wonders how he is so calm when he had just been so close to death. Lewis appears once more and he convinces them that he is safe by saying that he knew Theo's father. He bundles them into a car and they both sit on opposite ends of the backseat. Theo begins to start shaking violently as he remembers the feel of the cold gun against his head. Lewis looks over and tells him to let Rachel hold him as he will feel better. He shakily hugs Rachel and she strokes his hair as he "cries and cries and cries." After a little while Theo feels better yet slightly embarrassed as Rachel has witnessed his breakdown. He pulls away and asks where they are going. Lewis tells them that they are going to meet Theo's father. Theo wakes up in the car on the motorway to Scotland. He is covered with a blanket and has a pillow behind him. Rachel - who has been awake the entire journey - strokes Theo's face tenderly to wake him up. Lewis - the man who 'rescued' them - assures them they've got another hour in the car. When Theo groans he is hungry, Rachel hands him a ham-and-mayonnaise sandwich which he eats gratefully. Two hours later, they arrive at their destination. Theo and Rachel are offered beds for the night by Lewis' girlfriend and colleague, 32 year old Mel. Theo falls asleep and Rachel goes soon after. The next day, they are given clothes, magazines and bacon butties by Lewis, while Mel gives them some combat training. That evening, Theo is introduced to Elijah 'the Gene Genie' Lazio and Elijah explains everything. He explains how Theo and Rachel are both clones: Theo a clone of Elijah and Rachel a clone of her dead sister Rebecca. Elijah also does his best to comfort Theo whom he calls 'his son,' but later shows his true colours when he abducts Theo along with Mel and ties them up on a plane bound for America, leaving Rachel distraught and Lewis horrified. What will become of Theo, Mel and Elijah? Theo is sedated by Elijah after he witnesses him hit Mel. After spending a couple of months at Elijah's house in D.C, Lewis and Rachel arrive to rescue Theo and Mel. RAGE attack Elijah who kidnaps Theo, Rachel and a younger clone of himself, Daniel. Elijah holds them hostage in his now-deceased ex-wife's house. It is revealed that Elijah is in need of a heart transplant and intends to use Theo's heart because of him being a complete genetic match. Realizing they have to escape Theo who is locked in his room cuts himself so that Elijah will come in to help. Theo locks Elijah in his room and escapes the house with Rachel and Daniel. They meet Lewis and Mel in the town and Elijah turns up and captures them, holding them in an abandoned park. Elijah kills Mel, and shoots Lewis in the chest. Ambulance crew turn up and tend to Lewis and Rachel and Theo. The three are transported to hospital. Elijah abducts Daniel and goes on the run with him. Theo wakes up in hospital and his mother is distraught over her lies that led to her son being nearly killed. Mrs. Glassman convinces her son that he's safe and she will never, ever let him be in danger again. Theo refuses to listen until his mother shocks him by calling him 'sweetheart,' for the first time in his life. She later goes on to explain about the relocation and allows him to call Jake and Max to say goodbye. Theo comes to forgive his mother and after a reluctant moment, the two hug each other fiercely, ending with Theo breaking down in sobs and his mum comforts him and reassures him. Rachel eventually comes to - her father is delighted and does his best to comfort her - and her mother is angry. She refuses to accept Rachel's protests about Theo and blames her for running away. Her mother goes onto compare her to Rebecca, until Rachel stops her and shouts at her that she is not Rebecca. Her mother is shocked by her outburst and coldly tells her to get back into bed before convincing her husband to leave with her. Theo says his goodbyes to Rachel and her father - having left her mother to go home to London - and kisses Rachel softly before departing for a new life with his mum. Rachel and her father do the same and leave the hospital. Months later, Rachel comes home from a taster day at a new school and goes online to chat with Theo. They have a friendly conversation before ending telling each other the hope to see each other again...soon. |
Freddy and the Baseball Team from Mars | Walter R. Brooks | null | Freddy's ice skating with the animals on the Bean farm is interrupted by a request from Mr. Boomschmidt, the circus owner, to find a kidnapped Martian. "Mr. Boom", already anticipating that Freddy will solve the case with his detective skills, muses that the Martians could use a more interesting activity than being a circus sideshow. Since they are fast and accurate throwers, the pig suggests a baseball team. The immediate problem is finding the missing Martian, Squeak-squeak. A suspect is the criminal Anderson, whom Freddy has thwarted before, and who loiters around the circus. Since Freddy must remain unknown during his investigation, he dons the disguise of an old baseball coach with glasses, an overcoat and large beard, and moves to town. He cautiously lures Anderson into friendship. Freddy is puzzled when the Martians, at first eager for his help, now refuse to discuss Squeak-squeak. Mr. Boom is certain they are in trouble, and encourages Freddy to investigate, anyhow. The Martians are enthusiastic about baseball, especially after learning that the purpose of baseball is not, as they thought, to hit the batter and knock him unconscious. Practice begins on a muddy Bean farm field. There are four Martians; most of the rest of the team are circus animals. Freddy sets the robin Mr. J. J. Pomeroy, the head of the A.B.I. (Animal Bureau of Investigation), to watch the Martians and Anderson. Apparently unrelatedly, his rich friend Mrs. Church asks Freddy to investigate a burglary and a ghost in her house. Since the stolen necklace is costume jewelry worth only 25 cents, Freddy suggests a reward for "one third the value". The team practices for a month, and spectators watch. Freddy (in his disguise as the old man coach) tells the Martians to swing at every pitch, no matter how wild. Freddy will not explain, but apparently it is to do with the trick planned for the manager of the Tushville team, Kurtz, who used professionals the previous year in an amateur game. Somewhat frightened, Freddy and Jinx the cat stake out Mrs. Church's house at night to confront the ghost. The burglar ghost proves human, but it escapes. The first practice game draws many spectators, and Kurtz reckons that the game against his Tuskville team will get a thousand paying tickets. He offers Mr. Boom a deal where the winner takes two-thirds of the receipts. The strange Martian pitching proves effective, but at bat, Freddy has them swing at any pitch. The other team members do the hitting and scoring. Anderson returns the stolen necklace to Mrs. Church, claiming he is acting for another. As his house is watched by the A.B.I, Freddy knows there is not another person, that Anderson is the thief. When Freddy notices house paint on the Martian's flying saucer, he deduces that Anderson holds Squeak-squeak prisoner, and is forcing the Martians to help steal. An investigation of Anderson's house shows that Squeak-squeak was moved, probably to the house of accomplice Mr. Garble. Squeak-squeak is not there, but they find jewelry from recent robberies. The game with Tuskville starts reasonably, for example with an elephant sliding into third base ("...when an elephant slides, something has to go.") With the elephant on third, Freddy reveals his plan, telling the two-foot Martians not to swing at anything. With the strike zone reduced to eight inches, the Martians walk every time at bat. They take the lead until the crook Anderson whispers something to them. The Martians disobey coach Freddy, start swinging, and lose the game. Mrs. Peppercorn — from whom Freddy is renting in town — cheers him with her improved version of a Longfellow poem, for example changing: :"As a feather is wafted downward / From an eagle in his flight." to :"As a brick comes hurtling downward / From a rooftop, in a fight." The poet-pig is not enormously impressed, but is shaken out of his funk and soon realizes that coach Kuntz and crook Garble are the same. Anderson approaches Freddy in his coach disguise, asking to help with a burglary. Since then Freddy will have proof, he agrees. When the flying saucer drops Anderson in a wealthy home, Freddy leaves and calls the police. Knowing where to look for Squeak-squeak the Martian allows Freddy to infiltrate that house in yet another disguise, however the Martian is securely locked away. He is freed right in the middle of the next game. The Martians can now play ball without fear, and after a hard fight, the game is won. |
The Man from Pomegranate Street | Caroline Lawrence | 2,009 | The main story is introduced by a framing sequence set three years later, at the time of Flavia's wedding. Her friends Nubia and Pulchra and her stepmother help her to prepare, while she explains to Pulchra why she stopped being a 'detectrix'. Still under the shadow of the imperial edict, Flavia, Nubia and Lupus follow Jonathan to Italia, hoping to help him warn the Emperor Titus that his brother Domitian is trying to kill him, and to clear their names. In Rome the children and their tutor Aristo discover Titus has died of a headache and fever whilst on his way to his villa in the Sabine Hills, and that Domitian has been proclaimed emperor. The children meet Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, once betrothed to Flavia, with his new tutor, Hilario. Tranquillus helps them investigate Titus's death. On the road, they find some clues and Flavia contracts a fever. Flaccus arrives to tell them that Domitian has issued a decree saying he will give pardons to any who go and ask for his forgiveness. They go to Domitian's villa on Lake Albanus and obtain a pardon. They run into old acquaintance, Ascletario, Titus's Egyptian soothsayer. He tells them where to find Jonathan who has been starved and beaten by the emperor's blind torturer Messallinus, but a trap has been set and the children are captured. While Nubia is forced to recline beside Domitian, Flavia bravely stands up to him, fuelled by her anger at Flaccus's apparent indifference toward her. Aristo declares his love for Nubia but is led away to fight in the arena, while Nubia and the emperor watch. However, it is learned that the beast Aristo is supposed to fight is actually a small black rabbit. When he succeeds, Domitian gives him his reward: Nubia. The two marry in the arena that same day. Meanwhile, Flavia, Jonathan and Lupus disagree on whether the truth is always a good thing. When Jonathan confesses to Titus's murder, Flavia is stunned, but she soon guesses that the true culprit is Jonathan's father, Mordecai ben Ezra. Domitian overhears her declaration, and gives them all 24 hours to leave Italia never to return. After Jonathan runs away, disgusted that Domitian knows about his father whom he was trying to protect, Flaccus meets the group and offers them his assistance, driving them to Rome in an ox cart. He is shocked to hear they have been exiled, and explains to Flavia that although he loves her he cannot give up his family name, his wealth and status to join her. Heartbroken, Flavia returns with the others to Ostia. Flavia and the other three go to Jonathan's house after finding Flavia's house locked up. Susannah and Hephzibah are tending Jonathan who returned home, and Flavia finds out that her father has just married Diana Cartilia Poplicola. Titus's doctor, Pinchas ben Aruva, tells them that Titus actually died of a tumour in his brain, revealed by an autopsy, and that Mordecai is no longer being sought for his murder. On their final journey through Ostia to the Delphina, crowds of people whom the children have helped wish them farewell, including a coolly ironic Marcus Artorius Bato. As the Delphina sails out of the harbour, a boat approaches the ship with a man, his servant and a dog on it. Recognizing Flaccus, Flavia faints. Flaccus helps her up and he tells her that he has given up his name and his wealth to be with her, protecting his family from disgrace by feigning his own death. The novel's final chapter returns to the wedding preparations. It is revealed that Flavia, Nubia and Aristo are now living at the Villa Vinea in Ephesus, given to them in The Prophet from Ephesus. Lupus has joined a pantomime troupe for which he plays the drums and Jonathan is a practicing doctor in Ephesus, though taking time out to search for his missing nephew, Popo (Philadelphus). Flaccus remains a lawyer, helping the poor as well as the wealthy in Ephesus. Flavia tells Pulchra they have recently learned that although Mordecai did not actually kill the Emperor, he was about to when he saw a boy that looked exactly like Jonathan, and could not go through with it. So her deductions had not been completely wrong after all. As the groom's party approaches, Pulchra is surprised to see that Flavia's husband-to-be Jason is actually Gaius Valerius Flaccus whom all Rome believes died in a shipwreck. She promises not to reveal the secret, but asks Flavia in return to investigate a mystery in Samos. |
Southern Lights | Danielle Steel | 2,009 | Alexa Hamilton left the South behind after her husband's betrayal and his family's cruelness. As an assistant D.A. in Manhattan, Alexa is a top prosecutor and a single mother to a teenage daughter. But when her latest case brings threatening letters to her seventeen-year-old daughter, Savannah, Alexa is certain that her client, Luke Quentin is behind it. Making the most painful decision of her life she sends her daughter back to her southern roots to protect her from harm. Savannah settles into the southern life, enjoying her father and family again as her mother battles in Manhattan. Alexa and Savannah come to heal old wounds and find love again under the southern lights. |
Amazing Grace | Danielle Steel | 2,007 | At a charity dinner in San Francisco, the Ritz-Carlton ballroom is ravaged by an earthquake. In the aftermath, four stranger's lives are entwined forever. Sarah Sloane's perfect life falls apart when her husband is exposed as a fraudster. Grammy winner Melanie Free realises what is important in life. Photographer Everett Carson finds a new purpose to live and nun Sister Maggie Kent, frantically works to rebuild the city and try to hide her feelings of love from her new friend. At a refugee camp, all four come together and become a support system for the others as life starts to resemble normality and the world blesses them with amazing grace. |
Bungalow 2 | Danielle Steel | 2,007 | Writer Tanya Harris loves her life as a mother and wife living in Marin County but has always wanted the chance to write a major Hollywood screenplay. When the chance arises, although initially turning it down, her husband encourages her to take the once in a lifetime offer. Working in Hollywood with the Oscar winning producer Douglas Wayne is intoxicating for Tanya, especially when her sets his sights on her. Struggling to cope with the movie and her family, Tanya feels her family need her less and so as one opportunity after another leads her away from her old life and into this new world, Tanya finds life is full of twists and turns whilst at Bungalow 2. |
Sisters | Danielle Steel | 2,007 | Candy, the supermodel, Tammy, a successful TV producer, Sabrina, an ambitious lawyer and Annie, the artist are four sisters who leave their successful lives to care for one another and their father after their mother is killed in a car accident and Annie' sight is taken from her. The sisters move into a brownstone and try to rebuild their lives out of the ashes of a painful death. As each sister finds new purpose and new loves, they begin to learn that family is the most important thing in life and this revelation cements their bond forever. |
H.R.H. | Danielle Steel | 2,006 | Princess Christianna, the only daughter of the Reigning Prince of a European nation has secure plans for Christianna's life, a burden almost unbearable. After years at Berkley in America, Christianna returns home and can not suffer the ravages of terrorism and disease in her country. With a purpose to change the ways of the world, she volunteers for the Red Cross in East Africa. At an international relief camp, she finds her calling and a new love in the form of Parker Williams, a doctor from Doctors Without Borders. As they work together, she tries to hide her feelings and identity from him until in one shocking moment, her life changes forever. |
Coming Out | Danielle Steel | 2,006 | Olympia Crawford Rubinstein, lawyer, wife and mother to twin daughters, a son in college and one in kindergarten, Olympia' life is perfect. Until she opens an invitation for her daughters to attend the most exclusive coming-out ball in New York–and chaos erupts all around her. One twin is outraged whilst the other is ecstatic. Her husband is appalled and as her family is thrown into disarray, the ball turns out to be a blessing in disguise as old wounds are healed and the family learn acceptance and love are all they ever needed. |
The House | Danielle Steel | 2,006 | Overlooking San Francisco, a huge mansion in need of repair is viewed by Sarah Anderson, an estate lawyer, who has just inherited a huge fortune from a deceased client with the intention of spending it on something that she desires. Sarah restores the mansion, drawn to its grandeur and beauty with the help of architect Jeff Parker, who is as passionate about the house as she. As the two work together, they fall in love with the house and then each other as the house touches both of them and opens their hearts once more. |
Black and White | null | null | The main story takes place in 2112 with five sections covering earlier events, starting ten years ago, and moving up to as five, with each year covering one of the school years at the academy. Iridium and Jet are two new students starting their first year at the academy, both having events in their past and being assigned to roommates together. The two eventually become friends, making enemies with Hornblower and Twilight Dawn, and friends with Frostbite, Samson, and some of the other students. Jet especially develops more of a relationship with one of their teachers, Night, and enemies with another, Lancer. Later on the two are assigned as partners to each other to work together. When Jet's boyfriend Samson is killed by The Everyman Society on what was supposed to be a safe training exercise, the two start to drift apart as Jet gains early sponsorship from New Chicago for her funeral speech and immerses herself in her school work. The two finally start to patch things up when Jet is sent to talk to Iridium who is upset because Frostbite has been sent to therapy for being a homosexual and in a relationship with his partner. During their final exam, where the teams have to collect gang flags from certain points through a town, Iridium falls from the vehicle and Jet is ordered back to fill the report in person. As Iridium starts to walk toward a place she can get back to the academy, she comes across a rapist attacking a prostitute who is off duty and refusing. Iridium interrupts, letting the prostitute escape, and is attacked by the rapist, who she kills, then turns the body over to the police. After Iridium's actions, it is decided that the young woman will be sent to therapy. Jet, hearing this, fears for what it will do to her friend and does not think she will survive it. She stops the people and makes a deal, having Iridium sent to Blackbird penetentary instead. Just before the transfer, Jet sneaks in to talk to Iridium, who attacks her friend, feeling Jet betrayed the friendship, and escapes. Iridium is labeled as a Rabid as she disappears, working toward her own goals in a section of New Chicago called Wrecked City. Jet graduates, becoming the official superhero of New Chicago. Five years later, Iridium is spotted after robbing a bank, and Jet goes after her. The two fight, ending in Iridium escaping with the money. Jet ends up fighting a street gang when her new runner, Bruce Hunter, arrives. Jet finds herself attracted to him and scolds herself some for thinking like that. After an embarrassing appearance on the Jack Goldwater show, Night contacts Jet and asks her to look for Lynda Kidder, as a favor, implies that Corp-Co may not want the reporter found, which Jet has a hard time believing. After dealing with a local gangster who is not playing by her rules, Iridium meets with the leader of a gang called the Undergoths and learns of a vigilante working in her area who she confronts. After fighting, she ends up concluding to partner with him as he seems to be of use in her plan to take down the Ops computer system. As Jet is led down into the underground to find Lynda Kidder, Irridium and the vigilante, Taser, enter the underground to find access to the building where the blueprints of The Academy would be kept. The pair come across Jet fighting Lynda who had been turned into a heavily muscled monster with a simple mind. After defeating the monstrous Lynda, Jet attacks Iridium, believing that the former friend was somehow involved in what had happened to the reporter. Iridium tries to talk sense into Jet, who won't listen, then ends up knocking the hero out and getting away. Jet is shortly found by Bruce and taken to a hospital. Her injuries are healed rapidly by a faith healer, but she is forced to spend two weeks having bed rest. A prospect she does not fully enjoy. Two days before she would be cleared, Jet is caught by Bruce at the window after stopping a purse snatching, and the two end up sleeping together. Jet tries to tell Night the truth about Iridium not being involved in what happened to Lynda, but the former mentor will not listen, and mentions that Corp-Co has a deal with the Everyman Society. Jet ends up realizing that somehow, Corp-Co has managed to brainwash her some without her knowing. After warning a friend of hers, Iridium, along with Taser, shuts down the back up power, then head to the headquarters for the superheroes. The two shut off the power, then head up to the Academy, working through until they reach Ops. They look at the computer a moment, notiicing a strange signal that's always broadcast, the shut down Ops and destroy the computer. When they finish, Taser knocks out Iridium. In her apartment, Jet worries when Bruce is late, then dons her costume. The power goes out and the heroine ends up being attacked by Taser, who sedates her. Jet wakes up in a small area with power inhibiting bonds next to Iridium. The two argue a moment before finally starting to talk and begin patching things up between them again. Iridium tells Jet her plan, who in turns tell about the brainwashing, which Iridium realizes is what the frequency on the Ops computer was sending through all the superhero ear pieces all along. After the two speak and start working things out, Taser enters, revealing that he is a mercenary who was hired to get close to them both, as well as that he is Bruce Hunter, much to Jet's shock and sadness. It turns out that Taser had been working for Night, who had been planning for years to have Jet blanket the world in absolute darkness. He had tried to have Iridium killed but when it did not work, Night has Jet draw the light power from Iridium to create shadows that will block out the sun. Taser overhears the plan and is not happy about the matter, attacking Night. Eventually Jet is stopped from draining Iridium, freed from the machine and Night is defeated. In a moment of insanity, Jet tries to kill Taser, but Iridium manages to stop her. The two leave, going their own ways some. Jet tells of the brainwashing to one of the other extrahumans, who works at ops and reports that when the computer went down, only three heroes stayed heroes, with the rest either turning rabid or just standing around. Iridium meanwhile is back her the area she has claimed as her own and believes that soon Jet will join their side. |
Toxic Bachelors | Danielle Steel | 2,005 | Charlie Harrington, a philanthropist with high expectations in women, Adam Weiss, a celebrity lawyer who likes young, fun women for short-term purposes and Gray Hawk, an artist who is drawn into troubled relationships. Every year they cruise the Mediterranean on Charlie's yacht together until they each find love. Charlie falls in love with a social worker who is far from his ideal woman. Adam gets involved with a young but smart woman whilst Gray falls for a businesswoman and mother. As their next cruise together approaches, each man finds himself in a position far from the previous year with new loves and events which will turn the toxic bachelors into loving, caring men forever. |
Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years | Sue Townsend | null | Adrian Mole is 39 and a quarter. Unable to afford the mortgage on his riverside apartment, he has been forced to move into a semi-detached converted pigsty next door to his parents, George and Pauline. His ravishing wife Daisy loathes the countryside, longs for Dean Street and has yet to buy a pair of Wellingtons; they are both aware the passion has gone out of their marriage, but neither knows how to reignite the flame. To cap it all off, Adrian is leaving his bed numerous times a night to go to the lavatory and has other alarming symptoms, leading him to suspect prostate trouble. Meanwhile, his mother thinks that an appearance on the Jeremy Kyle show might solve the mystery of her daughter's paternity. Adrian also discovers that the assumption that he is George and Pauline's offspring might be a fallacy. To add to his misery,he is already impaired further with his prostate trouble. As Adrian's worries multiply, a phone call to his old flame Dr Pandora Braithwaite ignites memories of a shared passion and makes him wonder - is she the only one who can save him now? |
Miracle | Danielle Steel | 2,005 | On New Year’s Eve, a wild storm hits northern California. In San Francisco, amongst the chaos and damage, three people's worlds collide. Quinn Thompson will allow his barriers to fall, built so carefully following his wife’s death. Maggie Dartman finds friendship amongst the wreckage and for Jack Adams, a carpenter who repairs their homes, the chance to unburden his secrets. In the aftermath, Quinn builds a 180-foot yacht which he plans to sail around the world and escape the pain. But with his new friends beside him and the outlook on life brightening, Quinn begins to feel hope once more and that miracles really do happen in all different kinds of ways. |
Impossible | Danielle Steel | 2,005 | Sasha's husband suddenly dies leaving her widowed without the man she loves. Liam's marriage is falling apart. Sasha has worked her father's art gallery into an intercontinental success, whilst Liam has become one of the most striking artists of his time. So when the two meet and fall in love, Sasha and Liam must protect one another’s reputations and hearts from getting hurt again. Sasha commutes from New York where her grown children Xavier and Tataina live, and Paris and her two thriving galleries. Then a family tragedy changes his life forever making him sacrifice his love for Sasha to help his family heal. But their love is so strong that they are drawn together once more into a love that seemed impossible. |
Echoes | Danielle Steel | 2,004 | In the summer of 1915, Beata Wittgenstein falls in love with a young Catholic French officer and follows her heart to be with him against the wishes of her Jewish Orthodox family and decides to live with him in Switzerland till World War 1 ends. After the war gets over, she goes back to Germany with her husband Antoine and her 2 year old daughter Amadea. They begin a peaceful life and after 8 years, she has her second daughter, Daphne. Antoine dies soon after his father's death and his fortune as a Count is passed on to Beata, allowing her to take care of her family for years. However, after the death of her husband, she drifts away from her daughters and it is only when Amadea decides to become a nun, that she realizes her duty. As the war threatens her daughters, Beata's views of the future change. She is not discovered as a Jewish-born, but when a woman from her past recognizes her, Beata and Daphne are arrested and die in a concentration camp. Amadea, a Carmelite nun is saved as she had stayed in the convent but is still forced into hiding as her friends disappear without a trace. She is sent to a concentration camp and escapes with the help of a German soldier. But, when he tries to rape her, she kills him and flees the country with the help of Partisans. As she flees and crosses the country ravaged by war, she decides to become an agent and falls for a British secret agent Rupert Montgomery. In love, Amadea begins to understand the ways of life and how love can echo through the generations. |
Oceans of Kansas | null | null | In Oceans of Kansas Everhart discusses the state of the land during the Late Cretaceous and earlier, when the area was covered with water. The geologic record shows that ancient lifeforms such as marine reptiles, pteranodons, and toothed birds inhabited the general area both in and out of the water. Everhart also covers the discovery of the fossils and geographic records as well as the competition between E. D. Cope and O. C. Marsh to collect them. |
Ransom | Danielle Steel | 2,004 | Peter Morgan is released from a Californian prison after four years with plans to make up to the daughters he left behind. Carl Waters, a convicted murderer, is also freed at the same time. In San Francisco, a police detective Ted Lee arrives home to a wife he no longer loves. In the Pacific Heights neighbourhood, Felicia Barnes cries at the amount of debt her husband has left her and his children in after his death. Soon, all their lives are connected as Felicia' child is kidnapped and held for the ransom of a fortune that she does not have. As she and the police fight against time to get her child back safely, something happens that will change their lives forever when their lives are held for Ransom. |
Safe Harbour | Danielle Steel | 2,003 | At eleven, Pip Mackenzie has experienced such tragedy leaving her mother inconsolable. As she wanders the beach while her mother is shut up indoors, she stumbles upon Matt Bowles. An artist and divorcee, Pip reminds him of his daughter and they strike up an unusual friendship. Her mother,a French woman named Ophélie, is sceptical at first but soon discovers that Matt has lit up both of their lives. When the summer comes to an end, Ophélie and Pip leave for the city but find life without Matt painful. As Ophélie begins a volunteer job at a city outreach program for the homeless, she tries to begin the long process of healing. But as she is betrayed in the worst way, Matt appears and allows her to be herself and finally see a way through the mist of Safe Harbour. The novel ends with Matt and Ophélie's wedding in the beach with Pip as the witness at Safe Harbour. |
Grace and Truth | Jennifer Johnston | 2,005 | On returning to her home in Goatstown, Dublin after a successful European stage tour, actress Sally is shocked when her husband Charlie announces he is leaving her. Sally finds herself alone and determines to discover the truth about her family... |
The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing | Michael A. Martin | 2,009 | At the start of the twenty-first century, unconditional war swept across Earth - a war that engulfed the great and the small, the rich and the poor, giving no quarter. Each side strove for unconditional victory, and as battle built upon battle, the living began to envy the dead. Chastised by the cataclysm that they had unleashed, the governments of Earth came together. Humanity vowed to put an end to war and to strive for the betterment of every living creature. A united Earth created Starfleet, an interstellar agency whose mission was to explore the cosmos, to come in peace for all mankind. It was a naïve wish that was battered by interstellar realities, yet man persists in the belief that peace is the way. Banding together with other powers to form a Coalition of Planets, humanity hopes that the strength each can offer the other will allow for peaceful exploration. However, the rise of the Coalition strikes dread within the Romulan Star Empire. They feel its growing reach will cut them off from what is rightfully theirs. The Romulans know that the alliance is fragile and that the correct strategy could turn allies into foes. Perfecting a way of remotely controlling Coalition ships and using them as weapons against one another, the Romulans hope to drive a wedge of suspicion and mistrust between these new allies. One Starfleet captain uncovers this insidious plot: Jonathan Archer of the Enterprise. Determined not to lose what they have gained, outmanned and outgunned, the captains of Starfleet stand tall, vowing to defend every inch of Coalition space until the tide begins to turn. The Romulans now plan to strike at what they see as the heart of their problem. With nothing left to lose, the Romulan Star Empire engages in all-out war against humanity, determined once and for all to stop the human menace from spreading across the galaxy. |
Kobayashi Maru | Michael A. Martin | 2,008 | To protect the cargo ships essential to the continuing existence of the fledgling Coalition of Planets, the captains of the United Earth's Starfleet are ordered to interstellar picket duty, with little more to do than ask "Who goes there?" into the darkness of space. Captain Jonathan Archer of the Enterprise seethes with frustration, wondering if anyone else can see what he sees. A secret, closed, militaristic society, convinced that their survival hangs by a thread, who view their neighbors as a threat to their very existence -- the Spartans of ancient Greece, the Russians of the old Soviet Union, the Koreans under Kim Il-sung -- with only one goal: attain ultimate power, no matter the cost. The little-known, never-seen Romulans seem to live by these same principles. The captain realizes that the bond between the signers of the Coalition charter is fragile and likely to snap if pushed. But he knows that the Romulans are hostile, and he believes they are the force behind the cargo ship attacks. If asked, Archer can offer no proof without endangering his friend's life. To whom does he owe his loyalty: his friend, his world, the Coalition? And by choosing one, does he not risk losing all of them? What is the solution to a no-win scenario? |
The Good That Men Do | Michael A. Martin | 2,007 | Over two hundred years ago, Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III died in the line of duty...or did he? It's now early in the 25th Century, Where an older Jake Sisko gets a friendly social call from Nog with a Holo-imager containing a story that goes against everything they were raised to believe about the Pre-Federation Coalition of Planets, and a possible conspiracy to re-write history. |
Broken Bow | Diane Carey | null | The book is a novelization of the pilot episode of the same name. |
Shockwave | Paul Ruditis | null | The Starship Enterprise NX-01 makes contact with the Paraagan deep-space colony. It is a matriarchal society with an unusually volatile gas. The Enterprise crew understands the danger and makes the precuation to their shuttle as they land, closing the plasma vents so nothing dangerous can escape. An explosion occurs, vaprozing thirty-six hundrec colonosts. The entire surface is destroyed. The Enterprise is recalled and Captain Archer must convince his superiors and the Vulcan high command that despite this incident, humans are still ready and able to explore space. And yet, this is not the events history records. The mysterious time traveling Enterprise crewman, Daniels, offers information suggestion the timeline is altered. Captain Archer sets out to do what he can to prove the Enterprise innocent. |
What Price Honor? | null | 2,002 | The second original novel to be based on the brand new Star Trek series Enterprise, currently wowing audiences on both Sky and Channel 4, poses a tense and gritty dilemma for one member of the crew. The Starship Enterprise NX-01 is Earth's flagship - the first vessel to embark on a systematic exploration of what lies beyond the fringes of known space. Led by Captain Jonathan Archer, eighty of Starfleet's best and brightest set forth to pave humanity's way to the stars. Tempered by a year of interstellar exploration, the crew has become a disciplined, cohesive, unit. And now, for the first time, they have lost one of their number. As they deal with the death, Archer, Reed and the rest of the crew find themselves caught squarely in the middle of another tense situation - a brutal war between two alien civilizations. But in the Alpha System nothing is what it seems. |
Surak's Soul | Jeanne Kalogridis | 2,003 | Illogical! The teachings of Surak emphasise the sacredness of life. Must they be abandoned when the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? T'Pol is forced to confront this dilemma: take a life to save her crewmates, or stay true to her Vulcan nature...From the successful new Star Trek franchise comes the story of its most popular character - the brilliant Vulcan science officer T'Pol. Pulled, once again, into one of Captain Jonathan Archer's headlong rushes for first contact, Sub-commander T'Pol believes her life -- and those of her colleagues -- is threatened. Instinctively she reacts, draws her phaser and kills. A simple act of self-defence. Or was it? As a Vulcan, an alien race under the strictest of self-imposed philosophical regimes, has T'Pol committed the ultimate act of self-betrayal? Has she forsaken the nonviolent teachings of Surak? Captain Archer, T'Pol's superior, believes her new-found pacifism is endangering the entire ship. |
The Expanse | Jeanne Kalogridis | 2,003 | High above the planet Earth, an alien probe appears -- and in an unspeakably horrific instant, releases a deadly blast that strafes the planet's surface, leaving a miles-wide, smoldering crater of destruction in its wake. Millions die in Florida, Cuba, and Venezuela, their lives blotted out in a blazing millisecond. Just as swiftly, the probe implodes and crashes on the planet surface, but the remnants provide no clue as to its origin. Who are the attackers, and what provoked them? Aboard the Starship Enterprise, Captain Jonathan Archer learns of the destruction. His ship is called home; it is uncertain whether its mission of space exploration will continue. But before Enterprise reaches Earth, Archer is abruptly kidnaped from the bridge by the time-traveling enemies he has encountered before. He finds himself aboard a Suliban vessel, face-to-face with his old nemesis, Silik, a high-ranking individual in a battle known only as the Temporal Cold War. Silik leads him to his master, a mysterious humanoid from the far future. The humanoid claims that the attack on Earth was just a test; and the next attack will destroy Archer's home planet...unless he and the Enterprise crew stop it. To do so, they must enter a region of space called The Expanse - an area so dangerous that no ship has ever emerged from it unscathed. Vulcan crews were driven to bloodthirsty madness, Klingon crews were anatomically inverted, their internal organs exposed outside their bodies...while they still lived. Many vessels were lost, never to be heard from again. Archer faces the greatest crisis of his career: Should he believe Silik's time-traveling master, and expose his ship and crew to the perils of The Expanse, in hopes of saving Earth from destruction? And can he convince Starfleet Command and the Vulcan High Council to let Enterprise go to face her biggest challenge? |
Daedalus | null | 2,003 | October 5, 2140. After a half-dozen years of research and testing, Starfleet prepares to launch its first warp 5 vessel -- Daedalus. Propelled by a radical new engine designed by Earth's most brilliant warp field theorist, Victor Brodesser, the new ship will at last put the stars within mankind's reach. But on the eve of her maiden voyage, a maintenance engineer, Ensign Charles Tucker III -- "Trip" to his friends -- discovers a flaw in Daedaluss design. When he confronts Brodesser, the scientist -- as charismatic as he is brilliant -- eases Trip's concerns. The ship launches on schedule, and as Trip watches in horror, it explodes in a catastrophic ion cascade reaction, killing all aboard. Thirteen years pass. Still haunted by memories of that disaster, Trip now serves as chief engineer aboard Enterprise. When a freak explosion cripples his vessel, leaving her helpless before a surprise attack, Trip is forced to abandon his ship -- and his shipmates. As he is on the verge of mounting a desperate rescue attempt, however, a shocking turn of events forces him to confront the ghosts of Daedalus one final time. |
Daedalus's Children | null | 2,003 | Crippled by a freak accident, Enterprise has crossed over into an alternate universe—and into the middle of a civil war set off by a brutal warlord who has used technology stolen from the Daedalus to enslave his people. Forcibly removed from their ship, imprisoned and brutalized by their captors, Captain Archer and crew soon find themselves confronting an even more immediate challenge than escape—subtle biochemical differences in this universe that make their continued survival an impossibility. Every hour they spend in this parallel continuum brings them closer to death. Yet Archer discovers that in order to recapture Enterprise, he may have to cripple his ship once again. And even if he manages to find a solution to that dilemma, one last survivor of the doomed flight of the Daedalus stands between Enterprise and her safe return home.... |
Rosetta | null | 2,006 | Captain Jonathan Archer and the crew of the Starship Enterprise find their way forward blocked by a mysterious alien vessel, piloted by a race they will soon come to know as the Antianna. Unable to decipher the alien ship's transmissions, unwilling to risk a battle, Enterprise is forced to veer from its planned course. Almost immediately, they find themselves in the heart of space ruled by the Thelasian Trading Confederacy, who have also had dealings with the Antianna. The Thelasian leader, Governor Maxim Sen, is in fact in the middle of organising a war against the Antianna, to eliminate the threat they pose to the Confederacy's trading routes. Archer suspects Sen has other motives as well. He also suspects that there is a reason for the Antianna's seemingly hostile posture. But, with the assembled races of an entire sector against him, he needs more than just suspicions. He needs facts. And, only one woman can give them to him: Ensign Hoshi Sato. If she can translate the Antianna language, peace may just be possible. If not, war - a devastating sector-wide war - will soon result. |
Ursule Mirouët | Honoré de Balzac | 1,842 | Ursule is the legitimate daughter of the widower Dr Denis Minoret’s deceased illegitimate brother-in-law by marriage, Joseph Mirouët; not only is she the doctor’s niece, she is also his goddaughter and ward. Fifteen years old when the novel begins, she has been brought up by the doctor. Dr Minoret, an atheist rather than an agnostic, and a devoted student of the Encyclopédie, has persisted in his rationalistic atheism for most of his eighty-three years. At the beginning of the novel he is, however, converted to Christianity – emotionally by the example of Ursule’s piety, and intellectually by his experience of animal magnetism, or the paranormal, and by his longstanding friendship with Abbé Chaperon. Dr Minoret is determined that Ursule shall inherit all the savings he has accumulated during his lifetime. He intends, on the other hand, to bequeath the remainder (approximately half) of his total fortune of about 1,500,000 francs to his “héritiers”, nephews and cousins of his own bloodline who are members of the Minoret, Crémière and Massin families. Discontented with their inheritance prospects, the “heirs” seek to grab the whole of their wealthy relative’s fortune, enlisting the help of the notary’s clerk Goupil. The doctor conceals a letter of testamentary intention in a legal volume in his library. This, together with three bearer bonds, is stolen by one of the doctor’s nephews, the postmaster François Minoret-Levrault, who, in the era before railways, owns and manages the carriage and postchaise services in and out of Nemours. The doctor dies, leaving Ursule much poorer than he had intended, for her inheritance would have become her dowry. Despite their best efforts – ransacking all the books in his library – the “heirs” (or “family”) cannot find the clue to the money. But remorse strikes Minoret-Levrault, and the doctor, appearing to him in a vision, instructs him to make good his theft. By an act of poetic justice the postmaster’s dandyish son Désiré Minoret-Levrault is killed in a stagecoach accident. Ursule marries the man of her dreams, the young Army officer Viscount Savinien de Portenduère. |
Hot Springs | Stephen Hunter | 2,000 | Right after the official ceremony of receiving the Medal of Honor in United States capital Washington, D.C., 1stSgt Earl Swagger (retired) is being approached by district attorney of Polk County Fred Becker and ex-FBI agent D. A. Parker. The two men propose him a new job in Hot Springs, Arkansas to fight against organized crime and finally end the gambling and corruption of the city. Swagger's mission is to train twelve young policemen into a "dream team" and instruct them during operations in city casinos. The mission is to close down all gambling places, preferably without hurting people. If violence becomes necessary, they are outfitted with custom .45 automatics, Thompson submachine guns, and Browning automatic rifles. Soon after accepting the new job, Earl finds out that his wife June is pregnant. She doesn't support Earl's idea to work in Hot Springs and is afraid of him being killed. One of the "dream team" members, a young policeman Frenchy Short (who also has a critical but unseen role in Black Light) is a smart young man, who feels that he can be above and better than the others in the team. Several times he tries to do something better than the others but in the end fails. That way he once killed two men during an assassination on the casino. Luckily for him, these two men were known bandits and Frenchy became sort of a hero. Next time, while supposedly on vacation, Frenchy finds the central office of the gambling network and reveals his research results to Swagger and Parker. This results in Becker firing him from the team because of illegal way of gathering evidence (as Frenchy, in fact, broke in to a telephone office to search the maps). An enraged Short promptly goes over to the other side. For a little favour, he informs the city boss Owney Maddox of everything related to the "dream team". On the other hand, during the holiday Short's "dream team" partner Carlo Henderson (later seen in Dirty White Boys) is asked by D. A. Parker to investigate Swagger's past and find out, how is Swagger so familiar with Hot Springs's landscape. Swagger has shown knowledge of the city for several times, pointing out important nuances during the operations, however claims that he's never been to Hot Springs before. Parker suggests that Swagger has the death instinct, because Swagger always tries to get into action himself, without wearing the bulletproof vest. During the investigation, Henderson finds out that Swagger's brother was beaten a lot by their father, Charles Swagger, former sheriff of Polk County. Carlo's investigation ultimately leads him to the belief that Earl was responsible for his father's death. When he finally questions him on the subject, Earl reveals that he did not kill his father, but found him dying in Hot Springs. He took him out of there and faked the robbery that supposedly got him killed to protect his father's reputation (and his own as well). Sam Vincent, who at the time is assistant of attorney in Garland, Arkansas. briefly assists Henderson with the investigation. Vincent also appears in other Hunter's novels, such as Point of Impact and Black Light. In the meanwhile, the governor of Arkansas orders Parker to confiscate all heavy weaponry and bulletproof vests from the team, leaving them only with their handguns. Several members decide to leave, leaving only seven men. Short suggests Maddox to make a trap for the "dream team", which results in seven of them dying, including old D. A. Parker. The sole survivors are Earl Swagger and Carlo Henderson. They are then being arrested by the police and later let go home, with no money paid and with the condition, that they never, ever return to Hot Springs. Soon after, Maddox is being arrested with the accusation of owning stolen artwork. He's freed from prison by the crew of assassins who killed his men, but Swagger finds them and kills all of them in a savage protracted gunfight, including Owney Maddox. Swagger also finds out that Owney was the actual murderer of his father. In the meantime, Earl's wife, June is in hospital giving birth to their son, which doesn't appear to be easy because of an unusual position of the baby. The local doctor can't rescue both, the mother and the child, so Earl brings another doctor with him, who is black. The locals in the town, outraged that a black doctor has entered a white hospital and is assisting a white patient, form a lynch mob and approach the hospital. Earl, carrying three loaded .45's, confronts them and warns them that if a fight occurs, a lot of them will die. The mob backs off. June survives, and successfully gives birth to their son, Bob Lee Swagger. |
Martian Time-Slip | Philip K. Dick | 1,964 | Jack Bohlen is a repairman who emigrated to Mars to flee from his bouts of schizophrenia. He lives with a wife and a young son. His father Leo visits Mars to stake a claim to the seemingly worthless Franklin D. Roosevelt mountain range after receiving an insider tip that the United Nations plans to build a huge apartment complex there. The complex will be called "AM-WEB", a contraction of the German phrase "Alle Menschen werden Brüder" (All men become brothers) from Schiller's An die Freude (Ode to Joy). Bohlen has a chance encounter with Arnie Kott, the hard-nosed leader of the Water Worker’s Union, when both Bohlen’s and Kott’s helicopters are called to assist a group of critically dehydrated Bleekmen, the "original" inhabitants of Mars who are thought to be genetically similar to the African Bushmen of Earth. Bohlen rebukes Kott for his hesitance to help the Bleekmen, an act that angers Kott. After visiting with his ex-wife Anne Esterhazy about their own "anomalous" child, Kott hears of the theories of Dr. Milton Glaub, a psychotherapist at Camp Ben-Gurion, an institution for those afflicted with pervasive developmental disorders. Glaub believes that mental illnesses may be altered states of time perception. Kott becomes interested in Manfred Steiner, an autistic boy at Camp B-G in the hopes that the boy can predict the future - a skill Kott would find useful to his business ventures. Since Camp B-G is scheduled for closure, Kott offers to take Manfred off Glaub's hands. Manfred in turn is afraid of a future only he can see, in which Mars is derelict and the AM-WEB is a dumping ground for forgotten people like him, where he will eventually be confined as a decrepit old man to a bed on life-support. Kott leases Bohlen’s contract from his current employers and hires him to build a video device that can help Manfred perceive time at a regular pace (Kott is also ultimately intent on getting revenge on Bohlen). Bohlen takes a liking to Manfred but the assignment stresses him out because he fears that contact with the mentally ill may cause him to relapse. Bohlen also begins an affair with Kott’s mistress. One of Bohlen's regular jobs is to service the simulacra at the International School, where lessons are taught by robotic simulations of historical figures. These figures are deeply disturbing to Bohlen as they remind him of his own schizoid episodes where he perceived people around him as non-living mechanisms. When he takes Manfred to the school during an assignment, the simulacra begin acting strangely, as it seems Manfred is altering their reality. Eventually Bohlen is asked to take Manfred away. In light of other events it isn't entirely clear, however, whether Manfred is actually affecting the simulacra or whether he's merely influencing Jack Bohlen's perception of them. Only Heliogabalus, Kott's Bleekman servant, is able to connect with Manfred. From Manfred's point of view, humans are strange beings who live in a world of fractured time where they disappear from one place and reappear in another and otherwise move in a jerky, uncoordinated manner. Heliogabalus, to Manfred, moves smoothly and gracefully. He seems to talk to Manfred without words. The precipitating event of the story is the suicide of Manfred Steiner's father Norbert which has the effect of connecting Kott to Manfred and thereby depriving Otto Zitte, a colleague of Norbert's, of his livelihood. The crux of the story is a meeting between Kott, Bohlen and Kott's mistress, Doreen Anderton, at Kott's home, with Manfred in tow. This episode is previewed three times before it actually occurs, apparently through Manfred's eyes but with participation by Bohlen. Each time the events are more surreal, the perceptions more hallucinatory. When the events of the story finally reach the crucial point, which Bohlen fears after having foreseen the outcome, Bohlen himself does not experience it. His awareness stops as he and Doreen arrive at Kott's home and picks up after they leave. He only knows that he and Kott parted ways, superficially friends but actually enemies. Pressured by Kott, Heliogabalus reveals that the Bleekmen's sacred rock, "Dirty Knobby", can be used as a time travel portal that Manfred may be able to open. Kott centers his interest in altering the past on two goals: Revenge on Jack Bohlen and claiming the FDR mountains before Leo Bohlen does. Somewhat predictably, the scheme goes badly awry. Returned in time to the point where he first appeared in the novel, emerging from the sybaritic bath-house run by the Union, Arnie Kott finds himself repeating the actions which led him to meeting Bohlen while simultaneously dealing with perceptual distortions which seem to be emanating from Manfred's mind. He is unable to get to the FDR mountains to plant his stake, being compelled by law to go the aid of Bleekmen just as he did before. He encounters Bohlen, as he did originally, but in attempting to shoot him he is "killed" by a Bleekman's arrow. Waking from the vision, Kott realizes he has failed. He decides to give up on his schemes, abandon Doreen and let Bohlen get on with his life. He still desires to help Manfred who has wandered off during the purported "time-travel" episode. Leaving the cave in Dirty Knobby where they performed Heliogabalus's strange ritual, he encounters Otto Zitte. After the suicide of Norbert Steiner, Kott, his best customer, elected to take over Norbert's business. Zitte was competing, so Kott's men destroyed the smuggler's storage facility and the adjacent property, leaving a message that "Arnie Kott doesn't like what you stand for". Zitte has pursued Kott, following his helicopter to Dirty Knobby. He shoots Kott, who thinks he might still be stuck in another one of Manfred's hallucinations. Bohlen and Doreen land in Kott's own helicopter and take Kott back to Lewistown. Kott dies, believing to the last that he was only experiencing another hallucination. Bohlen returns to his wife, Silvia, who had been seduced by Zitte on his sales round. Despite both admitting to infidelity, Jack with Doreen and Silvia with Zitte, they decide to maintain their marriage. There is a disturbance in the Steiner home, and Steiner's widow runs screaming into the night. Barging in, Bohlen and his father see Manfred, old and in a wheelchair, festooned with tubes, accompanied by Bleekmen. Manfred joined a group of Bleekmen after leaving Dirty Knobby, and has saved himself from AM-WEB. He has come back through time to see his family and thank Bohlen for saving him. In a subdued final scene, Bohlen and his father are out searching for Steiner's widow in the darkness, with voices "business-like and competent and patient." |
Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders | Samuel R. Delany | null | The novel begins in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 6, 2007, where we meet Eric Jeffers some six days before his seventeenth birthday. Eric is living with his adoptive father, Mike. The story follows Eric as he goes to live with his mother, Barbara, in the fictive "Runcible County" on the Georgia coast. There, living in the town of "Diamond Harbor", Eric learns that a black, gay philanthropist has established a utopian community for black gay men in a neighborhood called the Dump. Eric takes a job with the local garbage man, Dynamite, and his nineteen year old helper, Morgan. The two boys become life partners, and the novel follows them—through job changes (from garbage men, to managing a pornographic theater, to handymen), changes of friends, and changes of address (from a cabin in the Dump, to an apartment over the movie theater, to another cabin out on Gilead, a nearby island)—into the twilight of their years. |
The Art of Keeping Cool | Janet Taylor Lisle | null | The Art of Keeping Cool deals with the difficulties of childhood during WWII. in 1942, making sense of his family is especially difficult for thirteen-year-old Robert, whose father has been deployed in Europe with the Royal Canadian Air Force for more than six months. After Pearl Harbor, Robert and his family moved from their farm in Ohio to live with his father's parents in Rhode Island. This living situation is strange to Robert, who has never met his grandparents or his cousin Elliot who also lives in Rhode Island. He finds it even more odd that neither his mother or his extended family ever discuss his father. Robert must search to find reason for the unexplainable family dynamic. With the help of Elliot and an exiled German painter named Abel Hoffman, Robert uncovers with the dark history of his father's family. After a little time elliot starts going to abel hoffman's house to sketch.One day when elliot didn't go to abel's Robert asks why.Elliot said abel was beat up by some people just because he was German. *Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, winner, 2001 *Riverbank Review Book of Distinction, winner, 2001 *ALA Notable Children's Book *Horn Book Fanfare *Junior Library Guild Selection *Scholastic Book Club Selection |
The Magicians | Lev Grossman | 2,009 | The book follows the adventures of Quentin Coldwater, a high-school graduate from Brooklyn with above-average intelligence and below-average social skills, as he is accepted to Brakebills Academy, an exclusive college for magicians. As he goes through the five years of schooling, he realizes that, just because his fantasy came true, it does not mean that all of his problems are solved. He is forced to deal with his own sullenness and anti-social behavior along with similar issues with the other students. Magic, it turns out, is boring and tedious to learn. Upon graduation, he discovers that Fillory, a fanciful land that is the setting of his favorite book series, is real. |
A Sensible Life | Mary Wesley | 1,990 | In 1926 Mr and Mrs Trevelyan from England are holidaying in Brittany with their ten-year-old daughter, Flora. The two parents openly despise and neglect the young girl, who is left to occupy herself whilst they prepare to depart for a life in colonial India without her. Left to herself Flora gradually befriends the locals and the other guests at the hotel, who show her more attention and kindness than she receives from her parents. Flora soon falls helplessly in love with no less than three young men (Cosmo, Blanco and Felix) who are also staying at the hotel, and she is crestfallen when the holidays are over and they have to leave. When her parents leave for India Flora is left at a boarding school in England where she will spend the following seven years. Only once is Flora invited to spend her holidays with the Leighs, whom she met in Brittany, and in the years that follow she is only in casual contact with the Leighs and Cosmo, Blanco and Felix. When Flora is seventeen she is supposed to go to India to meet her parents who then will find her a suitable husband, but Flora decides to get off the ship in Marseilles and return to England. Back in England she has to make a living on her own and becomes a housemaid for a family in London and later in the West Country. She begins to live an independent and sensible life. |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.