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The Princess Diaries Volume III: Princess in Love | Meg Cabot | 2,002 | In this volume, Mia struggles to decide how to break up with her boyfriend Kenny. In The Princess Diaries, Volume II: Princess in the Spotlight Kenny, Mia's biology partner at school, sent anonymous love letters to Mia expressing his feelings for her, resulting in Mia and Kenny dating. Mia does not love Kenny, but cannot bring herself to break up with him. Mia likes Michael, her friend Lilly's older brother, and feels she is leading Kenny on. Mia begins to send Michael anonymous love letters, similar to that of Kenny's. Unknown to her, Mia's friend Tina, whom Mia confided in about the letters, has told Lilly about said letters. Lilly eventually tells Michael that it was Mia sending the letters. At the school Winter Carnival, Michael shows her a message on his computer revealing he knows she sent the love letters, and he returns her feelings. Mia, not knowing how to respond and thinking Michael may be playing a joke on her, runs from her chair. Mia runs into Kenny, who mistakenly believes Mia is in love with Lilly's boyfriend, Boris, and they break up. Mia returns home, is devastated and does not want to go to the dance following the carnival, and decides to move to Genovia. Mia's grandmother convinces her to go to the dance, where Mia sees Michael, and they share their first kiss together. |
Stormblade | Nancy Varian Berberick | 1,988 | Stormblade chronicles Stanach the dwarf's quest to retrieve the powerful stormblade. The stormblade is a kingsword, a blade which is intended to break the deadlock among the council of thanes, and bring a new king to Thorbardin. Unfortunately, the blade is stolen, but when it turns up, only one dwarf is brave enough to go after it. Stanach was an orphan. He grew up like any other dwarf, but was lucky enough to be taught the basics of smithing. Without the blade, his teacher becomes depressed, and eventually mad. Stanach sets out to find the blade for both his teacher and just to restore it. Firstly, he meets Lavim, a stereotypical kender. Together they travel, eventually being joined by the human Kelida and the elf ranger Tyrol. They end up meeting one of the mystical Irda, who informs them of their quest. After many wrong turns, fights and misfortunes, they eventually make it back to Thorbardin, where the Theiwar thane is attempting to murder Hornfel, the hylar thane to gain power over the thanes so he can rule. After a long fight, the Theiwar thane is killed and the stormblade is restored to its rightful place. Unfortunately, Tyrol is mortally wounded in the process, and dies. As a mark of honor, they allow him to be buried in the garden of thanes (a great honor for dwarves, even more for an elf) |
The Doom Brigade | Don Perrin | 1,996 | The Doom Brigade chronicles the former First Dragonarmy Engineering Regiment’s quest to recover the first female draconians on Krynn after the War of the Lance. The brigade has left the dragonarmies in search for a new life, and led by Commander Kang, a Bozak, and Subcommander Slith, they have set up a small town in the valleys below the Kharolis Mountains. Unfortunately, their neighbors are hill dwarves in the town of Celebundin, who aren't very receptive to the idea of Draconian neighbours. For the last twenty five years, raids have occurred every couple of weeks, whether the draconians are short on dwarf spirits, or the dwarves are short on other supplies. However, they have grown to respect each other, and so have made a silent pact to only use blunt weapons, so that the victim is only knocked out or stunned. While en route to raiding the dwarves one day, one of Kang’s scouts reports a pair of red dragons on the horizon. Kang, curious, leads his troops to a pass on the outskirts of the Plains of Dust, where he meets Talon Leader Huzzud. Huzzud, a Knight of the Lily, is a talon leader for the Fifth Dragonarmy, which is led by General Ariakan. She proposes that Kang and his regiment join their army to retake Ansalon, but Kang decides to inspect their camp first. After inspecting the armies' camp and speaking to their commander, Kang realizes that this force doesn't consist of untamed goblins like in the previous war, but a well-trained and deadly force of knights. He realizes that since draconians can't breed, it would be better to die fighting then to just slowly fade away. On that note, he signs himself and his regiment up. Soon after, they are called to assist the dragonarmy in the conquering of Qualinost. Once they arrive, they are ordered to report for latrine duty. Disgusted, Kang’s regiment revolts, and returns to their town. On their return, however, they find their village in flames. They slaughter any dwarves that they can find in their village, and nail their bodies to posts. Meanwhile, four dwarves who regularly make trips to search for riches, Pestle, Mortar, Auger and Selquist discover a map leading to the lost treasures of Neraka while raiding Thorbardin through a secret passage. Plotting revenge, Kang orders a small group of five draconians, including himself and Slith, to enter the dwarven town to find out who burned down their village. Slith and the other three shape shift into dwarven guards, while Kang turns invisible. However, when the dwarves discover one of the draconians, the five beat a hasty retreat. Slith managed to steal a book with the map secreted within it from Selquist before they retreated; however, Selquist now pursues the draconians. After he catches Kang, he drives a knife into Kang's leg, temporarily crippling him. The dwarf and the draconians squabble over the book, ending up with the dwarf regaining the book, but the draconians keeping the cover, which has the map hidden inside it. The draconians retreat into their camp, unbeknownst to the fact they have the map to the Nerakan treasures. A few days later, Selquist appears at the draconian camp, begging Kang to remove a curse which he believes has been put on him. Kang does so after being told that the map leads to unhatched draconian females. Knowing that "rescuing" the females is the only way to continue their own race, Kang and twenty-four other draconians set out to retrieve the eggs. Unfortunately, the four dwarves decide to destroy the eggs and steal the treasure. Joined by a retinue from Moorthane, the dwarven war chief, and twenty guards, the dwarves set out. For many days and nights, Kang’s regiment follow the dwarves. Just before entering Thorbardin, however, Kang is visited by Huzzud, who warns him that the Dark Queen wishes him to complete some great task before he gains the eggs. Unable to be told more, Kang leaves Huzzud. After traveling for a long while in the tunnels of Thorbardin, the dwarves stumble upon a grell. Grells are large, green octopus-like creatures that float above the ground who live underground. Unfortunately, this one has a wand of The Dark Queen. After a long battle, the draconians join in, slaying the grell and taking the wand. Later, just before reaching their goal, they stumble on a lair of rock and molten lava. Out of the lava rises a massive fire dragon, made out of chaos, which if unstopped, would destroy all of Krynn. Kang realizes that this was the grand test that he had been assigned, and orders his regiment back. Kang almost dies battling the dragon, until he uses the wand to create water to cool himself and solidify the creature. He then creates mud to bury it, gaining himself and his regiment precious time; unfortunately, there's actually an entire nest. While the draconians (who join Kang) are battling the dragons, the dwarves move into the treasure room. After losing a good number of men to the dragons, Kang realizes the only way to defeat them. He orders his regiment back, and commands the wand to cause the stalagmites from the roof to fall into the nest. The wand obeys, and Kang rushes for the exit. He barely makes it, but weak and injured, he falls unconscious. After waking, he discovers he’s trapped, until he hears Slith’s voice through the rocks. Heartened, the draconians dig through the rocks to rescue Kang. It is then they realize that they are only 100 odd meters away from the eggs. After realizing this, they rush forward, only to find the dwarves about to kill the young. After negotiating, they reach an agreement. Kang’s regiment shows the dwarves the way out of Thorbardin and the draconians keep the young and move out of the valley. The novel ends with Selquist, too injured carry his treasure, bargaining with Gloth ( a draconian subcommander ), over a map to an abandoned city just south of Nordmaar. |
Beasts | John Crowley | null | Beasts describes a world in which genetically engineered animals are given a variety of human characteristics. Painter is a leo, a combination of man and lion. Reynard, a character derived from medieval European fable, is part fox. Political forces result in the leos being deemed an experimental failure, first resigned to reservations, and later to be hunted down and eliminated. A central element of the story is the relationship between Painter and Reynard, who acts as a kingmaker behind the scenes. |
Darkest Hour | V. C. Andrews | 1,993 | Darkest Hour is a prequel to Dawn. The last book in the Cutler series goes back in time to focus on Dawn's grandmother, Lillian. This book is about Grandmother Cutler's childhood and adolescence. Most of the book takes place at the Booth Plantation, "The Meadows". Lillian Booth is the middle daughter of an overbearing plantation owner known as the Captain and a delicate Southern woman who lives in a dream world of sorts. Her older sister, Emily, is devoutly religious and often hostile to Lillian; her younger sister, Eugenia, is sick with cystic fibrosis. One day after school, when Lillian is just five, Emily tells her that she is not her real sister and that Lillian's real parents died because she is a Jonah and everything she touches will die. Distraught, Lillian runs to their mother, only to find out that she is actually the daughter of her mother's younger sister Violet, whose lover who was tragically killed before Lillian's birth. Violet died during childbirth and Lillian was taken in by her aunt and uncle to be brought up as their own. Emily constantly brings up the theme of Lillian being a curse throughout the book: she locks her in the shed with a skunk, and murders Cotton, Eugenia and Lillian's kitten (though she makes this look like an accident). She even claims that Lillian's first period is a sign of her evil nature, due to her young age. Emily also blames Lillian for Eugenia's death, saying that Eugenia was born after Lillian brought Satan into the Meadows and that was how Eugenia became sick in the first place. Eugenia dies from smallpox as a complication of the cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that is not understood at the time that the novel takes place. Therefore when Lillian asks for Dawn to be renamed Eugenia many years later, it may be an attempt to get back the little sister she lost so early and loved so much. Lillian's mother is traumatized by the death of her youngest child and goes into a deep depression. With her mother lost in depression, Lillian becomes increasingly isolated at home. Although she is growing into a young woman, her father makes no preparations for her coming out party or for her impending adulthood. When Emily sees Lillian and Niles Thompson, a boy from a neighbouring plantation, coming out of the woods on the way back from school, she uses this against Lillian to make sure she is placed under a sort of 'house arrest', not to go further than the house grounds. On the night of his twin sisters' big party, Niles climbs up to Lillian's bedroom window because Lillian was forbidden to go to the party. Although they dance and kiss, Lillian sends Niles home before things go too far. She goes to sleep happy but when she wakes up, she is told that Niles was found dead on the ground by her window. Emily blames her for Niles's death and Lillian accepts this guilt. With Niles dead, she has lost her last confidante. As the Great Depression arrives, the Meadows begins to slip into debt. Emily blames Lillian for this. Not knowing how to restore the Meadows, Captain Booth begins to drink heavily and more often, which results in him falling down the stairs and breaking his leg. He tells Lillian that she must move into his quarters and take care of him until he is well. This ends in Lillian being repeatedly raped by her father while he is drunk. Lillian becomes pregnant at the age of 14. She is in her father's office reading up on pregnancy when the Captain catches her. She reveals that she is pregnant with his child. At this point, her father makes it seem as if Niles is the father of her child and puts Lillian in the hands of Emily, who sets out to cleanse Lillian's soul of Satan. The pregnant Lillian is locked away in her room, which has been stripped of all comforts, while the Captain tells everyone that his ailing wife is the pregnant one. About a month before Lillian gives birth her mother passes away. Not wanting Lillian to give birth prematurely, the Captain and Emily tell Lillian she is no longer allowed to see her because it upsets her mother. Lillian later finds out that her mother had been dying of stomach cancer the entire time. The death is blamed on childbirth and her mother is buried right after Lillian gives birth to a baby girl, which she names Charlotte. Lillian is told not to refer to Charlotte as her baby, as Emily and the Captain have told everyone the baby is her sister. The Captain's only regret over the whole affair is that Charlotte is a girl and not the son he always longed for. The Meadows continues to fail as a plantation. While trying to win money, Captain Booth loses the plantation to Bill Cutler, the owner of the luxury Cutler Hotel Resort. When Bill visits the plantation to see what he has won, he becomes very taken with Lillian, despite her disdainful treatment of him. Having seen that the plantation will make him no money, he tells the Captain that instead of the Meadows, he will take Lillian. After many tears, Lillian agrees to marry a man whom she does not love or even really like, thinking that at least she can leave the Meadows behind. Although she wants to take Charlotte with her, the Captain refuses, thinking that someone may find out Lillian is really her mother, so she has to leave her baby behind. Bill and Lillian marry and she becomes the new mistress of Cutler's Cove. Determined that no man will ever control her again, she gradually becomes the brains behind the management of the hotel, though Bill remains the public face. She also becomes pregnant and has a boy, Randolph. Despite Bill's complaints that he will grow up to be a "mama's boy", Lillian takes Randolph everywhere with her, letting him play in her office while she conducts her business negotiations. She goes back to visit the Meadows only a few times, as she finds it hard to deal with how dilapidated and dingy it has become, and also to see Charlotte growing up without really knowing her. The Captain dies soon after Randolph's birth, having gambled away nearly everything in drunken attempts to get back all the money he lost. Emily never changes. Lillian sends her money for Charlotte and the upkeep of the plantation but knows that there will never be enough. Despite the fact her husband has affairs and is never half the family man he promised to be, she is satisfied that nobody will take her son from her and that she is secure as the mistress of Cutler's Cove. |
Reading Like a Writer | Francine Prose | 2,006 | * Chapter One: Close Reading Prose discusses the question of whether writing can be taught. She answers the question by suggesting that although writing workshops can be helpful, the best way to learn to write is to read. Closely reading books, Prose studied word choice and sentence construction. Close reading helped her solve difficult obstacles in her own writing. * Chapter Two: Words Prose encourages the reader to slow down and read every word. She reminds the reader that words are the "raw material out of which literature is crafted." Challenging the reader to stop at every word, she suggest the following question be asked: "What is the writer trying to convey with this word?" * Chapter Three: Sentences Prose discusses how "the well made sentence transcends time and genre." She believes the writer who is concerned about what constitutes a well-constructed sentence is on the right path. Prose mentions the importance of mastering grammar and how it can improve the quality of a writer's sentence. In this chapter, she also discusses the use of long sentences, short sentences, and rhythm in prose. * Chapter Four: Paragraphs Prose discusses that, just as with sentence construction, the writer who is concerned about paragraph construction is stepping in the right direction. She states that the writer who reads widely will discover there are no general rules for building a well-constructed paragraph, but "only individual examples to help point [the writer] in a direction in which [the writer] might want to go." * Chapter Five: Narration When determining point-of-view, Prose says audience is an important factor. She gives examples from literature of point-of-view variations. First-person and third person are discussed, and even an example of writing fiction in second person is given. * Chapter Six: Character Using examples from the works of Heinrich von Kleist and Jane Austen, Prose discusses how writers can develop characterization. She mentions that Kleist, in his "The Marquise of O—" ignores physical description of the characters, but instead "tells us just as much as we need to know about his characters, then releases them into the narrative that doesn't stop spinning until the last sentence . . ." Excerpts from other pieces of literature are used to show how action, dialogue and even physical description can help develop characterization. * Chapter Seven: Dialogue Prose begins this chapter by dispelling the advice that writers should improve and clean up dialogue so it sounds less caustic than actual speech. She believes this idea on dialogue can be taken too far and that dialogue can be used to reveal not only the words on the surface, but the many motivations and emotions of the characters underneath the words. * Chapter Eight: Details Using examples from literature, Prose explains how one or two important details can leave a more memorable impression on the reader than a barrage of description. * Chapter Nine: Gestures Prose argues that gestures performed by fictional characters should not be "physical clichés" but illuminations that move the narrative. * Chapter Ten: Learning from Chekhov Prose gives examples of what she has learned from reading Anton Chekhov. As a creative writing teacher, she would disseminate advice to her students after reading their stories. As a fan of Chekhov, she would read his short stories and find examples of how he would successfully break the "rules" of fiction writing, contradicting something she recently told her students to do in their writing projects. Prose also discusses how Chekhov teaches the writer to write without judgement; she tells how Chekhov practiced not being the "judge of one's characters and their conversations but rather the unbiased observer." * Chapter Eleven: Reading for Courage Prose discusses the fears writers may have: revealing too much of themselves in their writing; resisting the pressures that writers must write a certain way; determining whether or not the act of writing is worth it when one considers the state of the world. She concludes her book by stating that the writer may fear creating "weeds" instead of "roses." Continuing the metaphor, she says reading is a way for the writer to see how other gardeners grow their roses. * Books to Be Read Immediately Prose includes a list of book recommendations, many of which have selections from those that are used as examples for the concepts she discusses. |
White Snow, Bright Snow | Alvin Tresselt | null | At the first snowfall of the year, all the grown-ups do their usual things when a snowstorm comes, while the children are filled with wonder. |
Madeline's Rescue | Ludwig Bemelmans | null | Madeline does her trick of frightening Miss Clavel and falls into the Seine River and is saved by a dog. Miss Clavel allows the girls to keep it, until they find her real owner. When they bring her home, they name her Genevieve. But problem starts to rise when other girls want to spend time with Genevieve. Big trouble arrives in front of their animal-loathing Landlord Cucuface, who takes one look at poor Genevieve and has his driver throw her out into the countryside, causing the girls and Miss Clavel to look for Genevieve, only to be broken-hearted of not finding her. Late that night, Miss Clavel wakes up and finds Genevieve in the light of the doorway. Everyone rejoices Genevieve's return. That night, the girls fight about Genevieve again, causing Miss Clavel to take Genevieve to her own room. Even later that night, Madeline and the girls, with Miss Clavel find that Genevieve has given birth to 11 puppies, giving enough hound to go around. |
The Ramsay Scallop | Frances Temple | 1,994 | The Ramsay Scallop has two main characters, Thomas of Thornham and Elenor of Ramsay. They were betrothed to each other when they were young. When Thomas returns broken and disillusioned from the Crusades, he finds the idea of marriage and lordship overwhelming. Elenor dreads the idea of marriage to Thomas, both because she barely knows him and because she is afraid of bearing children, as she is too small to give birth easily. Father Gregory sends both of them on a religious pilgrimage to Santiago, Spain, to put the record of Ramsay's sins on the shrine of Saint James. Both of them are relieved because the pilgrimage means the delay of their marriage and a last chance for adventure. On their special pilgrimage, they meet different people, and discover the glorious possibilities of the world around them and within each other. *Elenor of Ramsay *Thomas of Thornham *Father Gregory *Etienne *Marthe *Friar Paul *Carla *Guilliamette *Pipeau *Martin |
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses | Paul Goble | null | The story tells of a Native American girl who feels such a kinship with the wild horses grazing near her village that she eventually becomes one of them. |
Hey, Al | Arthur Yorinks | null | "Hey, Al" is the story of a janitor named Al and his dog, Eddie. Al and Eddie had hard lives, but one day a bird offered to carry them to a magnificent island in the sky. When they arrived, Al and Eddie found it to be a paradise. However, strange things began to happen. Al and Eddie began to resemble birds and they realised the paradise was not all it appeared to be. Al and Eddie wished to return home so they decided to escape by using their newly acquired wings to fly home. Their flight did not go to plan as Eddie crashed into the sea and was lost. Fortunately, Eddie was able to swim home to Al. Al and Eddie were happy to return home. |
Grandfather's Journey | Allen Say | null | A young man from Japan, during the Meiji era, crosses the Pacific Ocean and explores the United States. He finds that of all the places he has seen, he likes coastal California best because of the beautiful Sierra Mountains. Eventually, he returns home to Japan and marries his childhood sweetheart. The young man takes his new bride across the sea and they settle in California, where they have a daughter. As he watches his daughter grow up, the man is filled with nostalgia for his own childhood. He eventually decides to take his family back to Japan when his daughter is nearly grown up. The man is happy to see his old friends again, but moves from the village where he grew up to a city nearby in order to satisfy his daughter, who has spent her entire life living in a city. She eventually marries and has a son, who is the narrator of the story. The man, now the titular grandfather of the story, finds that once again he misses California. He plans a trip to see his adopted country again with his grandson, but never gets a chance to see California again as a result of World War II. His grandson eventually grows up and follows the same journey as his grandfather, understanding his grandfather's feelings towards two places he called home. |
The Beasts of Tarzan | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,916 | Not long after Tarzan claims his hereditary title of Lord Greystoke and marries Jane, their infant son, Jack, is kidnapped in London by his old Russian enemies, Nikolas Rokoff and Alexis Paulvitch. Following an anonymous call about the whereabouts of Jack, Tarzan himself falls into Rokoff's trap and is imprisoned aboard a ship carrying Jack. Jane, fearing Tarzan was entering a trap, follows him and also finds herself in Rokoff's clutches aboard the ship. Rokoff sets sail to Africa, eventually exiling Tarzan on an island near the African coast and telling Tarzan that Jack will be left with a cannibal tribe and raised as one of their own. Using his jungle skill and primal intelligence, Tarzan wins the help of Sheeta, the vicious panther, a tribe of great apes led by the intelligent Akut, and the native warrior Mugambi. With their aid, Tarzan reaches the mainland, kills Rokoff, and tracks down his wife and son. Paulvitch, the other villain, is presumed dead, but manages to escape into the jungle. |
The Son of Tarzan | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,917 | Nikolas Rokoff, a henchman of Tarzan's now-deceased enemy, Alexis Paulvitch, survived his encounter with the ape-man in The Beasts of Tarzan and wants to even the score. He lures Jack, Tarzan's son, away from London and into his clutches, but the youngster escapes with the help of the ape named Akut. The pair then flees into the deep African jungle where two decades earlier Tarzan himself had been raised. Jack Clayton, now on his own, becomes known as Korak the Killer and builds a reputation for himself in the jungle. Like his father before him, he finds his own place among the great apes, and also like his father, meets and rescues a beautiful young woman, Meriem, the daughter of a Captain in the French Foreign Legion, who was also a Prince (Prince de Cadrenet), named Armand Jacot. Arguably, the book is as much about Meriem, wife of Korak, as it is about Tarzan's son. |
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,918 | In the previous novel Tarzan and Jane's son, Jack Clayton, a.k.a. Korak, had come into his own. In this novel Tarzan returns to Opar, the source of the gold where a lost colony of fabled Atlantis is located, in order to make good on some financial reverses he has recently suffered. While Atlantis itself sank beneath the waves thousands of years ago, the workers of Opar continued to mine all of the gold, which means there is a rather huge stockpile but which is now lost to the memory of the Oparians and only Tarzan knows its secret location. A greedy, outlawed Belgian army officer, Albert Werper, in the employ of a criminal Arab, secretly follows Tarzan to Opar. There, John Clayton loses his memory after being struck on the head by a falling rock in the treasure room during an earthquake. On encountering La, the high priestess who is the servant of the Flaming God of Opar, and who is also very beautiful, Tarzan once again rejects her love which enrages her and she tries to have Tarzan killed; she had fallen in love with the apeman during their first encounter and La and her high priests are not going to allow Tarzan to escape their sacrificial knives this time. In the meanwhile, Jane has been kidnapped by the Arab and wonders what is keeping her husband from once again coming to her rescue. A now amnesiac Tarzan and the Werper escape from Opar, bearing away the sacrificial knife of Opar which La and some retainers set out to recover. There is intrigue and counter intrigue the rest of the way. |
Jungle Tales of Tarzan | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,919 | Tarzan's First Love. Tarzan's courtship of the female ape Teeka ends in failure when her preference turns to their mutual friend, the male ape Taug. Tarzan wrestles with his humanness versus his ape-ness. The Capture of Tarzan. Tarzan is taken captive by the warriors of a village of cannibals which has established a village near the territory of the ape tribe. He is saved from them by Tantor, the elephant. The Fight for the Balu. Teeka and Taug have a baby (balu, in the ape language), which Teeka names Gazan and will not allow Tarzan near. She changes her mind after Tarzan saves the baby from a leopard. The God of Tarzan. Tarzan discovers the concept of "God" in the books preserved in the cabin of his dead parents, to which he pays regular visits. He inquires among members of his ape tribe for further elucidation without success, and continues his investigation among the cannibals of the nearby village and the natural phenomena of his world, such as the sun and moon. Eventually he concludes that God is none of these, but the creative force permeating everything. Somehow, though, the dreaded snake Histah falls outside this. Tarzan and the Black Boy. Jealous of Taug and Teeka's relationship with their baby, Tarzan kidnaps Tibo, a little boy from the neighboring village to be his own "balu." He tries with indifferent success to teach the terrified and homesick child ape ways. Meanwhile, Momaya, Tibo's mother does everything she can think of to find and recover her son, even visiting the hermit witch-doctor Bukawai, a terrible, diseased exile who keeps two fearsome hyenas as pets. He names a price for recovering Tibo she cannot afford, and she leaves disappointed. Afterwards, however, Tarzan, who is moved by Tibo's distress and his mother's love, returns the boy to her. The Witch-Doctor Seeks Vengeance. Bukawai attempts to claim credit for Tibo's return and extort payment from the boy's mother, but is rebuffed. He plots vengeance against the native family and Tarzan, but is thwarted by the ape man. The End of Bukawai. Bukawai, finding Tarzan unconscious after a storm, takes the ape man captive and stakes him out for his hyenas to devour. Escaping, Tarzan leaves the witch doctor in the same trap, in which Bukawai suffers the very fate he had intended for his enemy. The Lion. Tarzan vainly attempts to impress on his ape tribe the necessity of maintaining a strict watch against the hazards and perils surrounding them. To drive home the lesson, he dons a lionskin he has taken from Mbonga's village and suddenly appears among them, only to find them more vigilant than he had thought, as they mob him and nearly beat him to death. He is saved only by the courage of his monkey friend Manu, which he had also previously under-rated, who risks all to reveal to Teeka and Taug that the "lion" is actually Tarzan. The Nightmare. Having been unsuccessful hunting, Tarzan robs the native village of some rotten elephant meat, which he eats. Becoming ill from the tainted meal, he has a horrible nightmare, in which he dreams himself menaced by a lion, an eagle, and huge snake with the head of a village native. He is carried off by a giant bird but wakes in the fall from its graps, finding himself back in the tree where he'd gone to sleep. He realizes the incidents were not real. Subsequently attacked by a gorilla, he assumes that this too is a product of his fevered imagination, until actually wounded and hurt. He kills the beast, but is left to wonder what is real and what is fantasy. The only thing he is certain of is that he will never again eat the meat of an elephant. The Battle for Teeka. Discovering bullet cartridges in his deceased father's cabin, Tarzan takes them with him as curios. Subsequently, Teeka is taken by an ape from another tribe, and Tarzan and Taug join forces to trail the kidnapper and rescue her. When they catch up, they are surrounded by the enemy tribe and nearly overwhelmed, until Teeka throws the cartridges at their foes in an apparently futile effort to help. When some of them hit a rock, they explode, frightening the hostile apes and saving her "rescuers." A Jungle Joke. As part of his campaign of torment and trickery against the native village, whose members he holds responsible for his ape foster mother's death, Tarzan captures Rabba Kega, the local witch doctor, and puts him in a trap the natives have set to catch a lion. The next day the warriors find they have caught the lion, but it has killed the witch doctor. They take the lion to the village. Tarzan secretly releases it and appears among them dressed in the lionskin he had previously used to trick the apes. Dropping the disguise, he reveals himself and leaves. When the natives muster enough courage, they follow, only to encounter the real lion, which they assume is Tarzan in his disguise again. They are quickly disabused. Tarzan Rescues the Moon. Tarzan frees a native warrior the apes have caught on being impressed by the man's bravery, angering the rest of the ape tribe. Alienated, he exiles himself to his parents' cabin. Later, frightened by an eclipse in which darkness appears to devour the moon, they summon him back. Tarzan reassures them by shooting arrows at the "devourer," and as the eclipse passes is given credit by the creatures for the "rescue." According to Tarzan Alive, Philip José Farmer's study of the ape man's life and career, the incidents of this book occurred from February, 1907-August, 1908 (aside from the eclipse incident, there apparently having been no such eclipse visible from equatorial Africa during this period). |
Tarzan the Terrible | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,921 | In the previous novel, during the early days of World War I, Tarzan discovered that his wife Jane was not killed in a fire set by German troops, but was in fact alive. In this novel two months have gone by and Tarzan is continuing to search for Jane. He has tracked her to a hidden valley called Pal-ul-don, which means "Land of Men." In Pal-ul-don Tarzan finds a real Jurassic Park filled with dinosaurs, notably the savage Triceratops-like Gryfs, which unlike their prehistoric counterparts are carnivorous. The lost valley is also home to two different races of tailed human-looking creatures, the Ho-don (hairless and white skinned) and the Waz-don (hairy and black-skinned). Tarzan befriends Ta-den, a Ho-don warrior, and Om-at, the Waz-don chief of the tribe of Kor-ul-ja. In this new world he becomes a captive but so impresses his captors with his accomplishments and skills that they name him Tarzan-Jad-Guru (Tarzan the Terrible), which is the name of the novel. Jane is also being held captive in Pal-ul-don, having been brought there by her German captor, who has since become dependent on her due to his own lack of jungle survival skills. She becomes a pawn in a religious power struggle that consumes much of the novel. With the aid of his native allies, Tarzan continues to pursue his beloved to rescue her and set things to right, going through an extended series of fights and escapes to do so. In the end success seems beyond even his ability to achieve, until in the final chapter he and Jane are saved by their son Korak, who has been searching for Tarzan just as Tarzan has been searching for Jane. |
Tarzan and the Golden Lion | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,923 | In the previous novel, Tarzan rescued Jane after he discovered that she was alive, and was reunited with his son Korak. In this story he and his family encounter and adopt an orphaned lion cub, whom they name Jad-bal-ja ("The Golden Lion" in the language of the lost land of Pal-ul-don, which they have recently left). They then return to their African estate, gutted by the Germans during the course of World War I in Tarzan the Untamed. They find it already being rebuilt by Tarzan's faithful Waziri warriors, including old Muviro, who first appears in this novel after a previous mention in Tarzan the Untamed. Muviro reappears in a number of later novels as sub-chief of the Waziri. Back at home, Tarzan raises Jad-bal-ja, who in adulthood is a magnificent black-maned golden lion devoted to the Ape Man. Later Tarzan is drugged and delivered to the priests of Opar, the lost colony of Atlantis that he had last visited in Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar. Once again La, the High Priestess of the Flaming God, who is consumed by her hopeless infatuation with Tarzan, rescues him. But when her people discover that she had betrayed them, she flees with Tarzan into the legendary Valley of Diamonds, where savage gorillas rule. The good news is that Tarzan and La are followed by the faithful Jad-bal-ja. The bad news is that they are also being trailed by Esteban Miranda - who happens to look exactly like Tarzan - who hopes to locate and loot Opar. |
Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,928 | Tarzan finds an outpost of European knights and crusaders from a "forbidden valley" hidden in the mountains. His lion ally Jad-bal-ja puts in an appearance late in the book. |
Tarzan and the Lost Empire | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,929 | Tarzan and a young German find a lost remnant of the Roman Empire hidden in the mountains of Africa. This novel is notable for the introduction of Nkima, who serves as Tarzan's monkey companion in it and a number of later Tarzan stories. It also reintroduces Muviro, first seen in Tarzan and the Golden Lion, as sub-chief of Tarzan's Waziri warriors. |
Tarzan at the Earth's Core | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,930 | In response to a radio plea from Abner Perry, a scientist who with his friend David Innes has discovered the interior world of Pellucidar at the Earth's core, Jason Gridley launches an expedition to rescue Innes from the Korsars (corsairs), the scourge of the internal seas. He enlists Tarzan, and a fabulous airship is constructed to penetrate Pellucidar via the natural polar opening connecting the outer and inner worlds. The airship is crewed primarily by Germans, with Tarzan's Waziri warriors under their chief Muviro also along for the expedition. In Pellucidar Tarzan and Gridley are each separated from the main force of the expedition and must struggle for survival against the prehistoric creatures and peoples of the inner world. Gridley wins the love of the native cave-woman Jana, the Red Flower of Zoram. Eventually everyone is reunited, and the party succeeds in rescuing Innes. As Tarzan and the others prepare to return home, Gridley decides to stay to search for Frederich Wilhelm Eric von Mendeldorf und von Horst, one last member of the expedition who remains lost (The missing Von Horst's adventures are told in a sequel, Back to the Stone Age, which does not involve either Gridley or Tarzan). |
Tarzan the Invincible | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,931 | Tarzan, his monkey friend Nkima, and Chief Muviro and his faithful Waziri warriors prevent Soviet communists from looting the lost city of Opar. The story also prominently features Tarzan's lion ally Jad-bal-ja. This book marks the last appearance of Opar and La in the Tarzan series, aside from the juvenile piece Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins with Jad-Bal-Ja the Golden Lion (1936), which was published later but is chronologically earlier. |
Tarzan Triumphant | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,932 | Backed by Chief Muviro and his faithful Waziri warriors, Tarzan faces Soviet agents seeking revenge and a lost tribe descended from early Christians practicing a bizarre and debased religious cult. |
Tarzan and the City of Gold | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,933 | After encountering and befriending Valthor, a warrior of the lost city of Athne (whom he rescues from a group of bandits known as shiftas), the City of Ivory and capital of the land of Thenar, Tarzan is captured by the insane yet beautiful queen Nemone of its hereditary enemy, Cathne, the City of Gold, capital of the land of Onthar. This novel is perhaps best known for two scenes; in the first, Tarzan is forced to fight Cathne's strongest man Phobeg in its arena. While an ordinary man might have been in trouble, Tarzan easily overpowers Phobeg. The second scene, in which Tarzan is forced to fight a lion, starts with the ape man being forced to run away from a hunting lion, Belthar, which will hunt him down and kill him. Tarzan at first believes he can outrun the beast (lions tire after the first 100 yards at top speed). This lion, however, is of a breed specifically selected for endurance, and ultimately Tarzan must turn to face him, though aware that without a knife he can do little but delay the inevitable. Fortunately his own lion ally, Jad-bal-ja, whom he had raised from a cub, arrives and intervenes, killing Belthar and saving Tarzan. Nemone, who believes her life is linked to that of her pet, kills herself when it dies. Unusually for lost cities in the Tarzan series, which are typically visited but once, Cathne and Athne reappear in a later Tarzan adventure, Tarzan the Magnificent (the only other lost city Tarzan visits more than once is Opar). |
Tarzan and the Lion Man | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,934 | Tarzan and his lion companion Jad-bal-ja discover a mad scientist with a city of talking gorillas. To create additional havoc, a Hollywood film crew sets out to shoot a Tarzan movie in Africa and brings along an actor who is an exact double of the apeman, but is his opposite in courage and determination. Later, as John Clayton, Tarzan visits Hollywood to find himself in a screen test for a role in a Tarzan movie. He is deemed unsuitable for the lead role because he is "not the type." |
Tarzan and the Leopard Men | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,935 | An amnesiac Tarzan and his monkey companion Nkima are taken by an African warrior to be his guardian spirits, and as such come into conflict with the murderous secret society of the Leopard Men, led by Gato Mgungu. From America, a young woman arrives in the territory in search of a loved one presumed missing, and two young men (also from that country) come in search of ivory. |
Tarzan's Quest | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,936 | Tarzan's wife Jane (her first appearance since Tarzan and the Ant Men and also her last as a major character in the series), becomes involved in a search for a bloodthirsty lost tribe reputed to possess an immortality drug. Also drawn in are Tarzan and his monkey companion, little Nkima, and Chief Muviro and his faithful Waziri warriors, who are searching for Muviro's lost daughter Buira. Nkima's vital contribution to the adventure is recognized when he is made a recipient of the treatment along with the human protagonists at the end of the novel. |
Tarzan and the Forbidden City | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,938 | A young man named Brian Gregory has disappeared in Africa, looking for the fabled Father of Diamonds; his father and sister want to go rescue him, and they can only enlist Tarzan's help because they know Captain Paul D`Arnot. By chance, Tarzan and Brian are lookalike, thus making some vile scoundrels to think Tarzan is Brian. They are also heading out after the big old diamond. The Forbidden city is again in a secret valley, with two cities Ashair and Thobos in war, because of the Father of Diamonds. Tarzan has to fight many times against different foes, once even a mansize unicorn seahorse! |
Tarzan the Magnificent | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,939 | Tarzan encounters a lost race with uncanny mental powers, after which he revisits the lost cities of Cathne and Athne, previously encountered in the earlier novel Tarzan and the City of Gold. As usual, he is backed up by Chief Muviro and his faithful Waziri warriors. |
Tarzan and the Foreign Legion | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,947 | While serving in the R.A.F. under his civilian name of John Clayton, Tarzan is shot down over the island of Sumatra in the Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies. He uses his jungle survival skills to save his comrades in arms, and they fight the Japanese while seeking escape from enemy territory. Tarzan also reveals to his companions how in his youth, after saving the life of a witch doctor, he was rewarded by treatment that gave him immortality. According to Tarzan Alive, Philip José Farmer's study of the ape man's life and career, the incident related occurred in January 1912. |
Tarzan and the Madman | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,964 | Tarzan tracks down a man who has been mistaken for him. The man is under the delusion that he is Tarzan, and he is living in a lost city inhabited by people descended from early Portuguese explorers. The plot devices of a lost city and a Tarzan "double" or impostor had been used by Burroughs in some previous Tarzan novels. |
The Ice House | Minette Walters | 1,992 | Mrs Phoebe Maybury, a widow in her late thirties, lives in Street Grainge with her two companions Diana and Anne. One day her servant Fred finds a rotting corpse in their ice house, a storage room inside a hillock that hasn't been used for years. DCI George Walsh thinks it may be the corpse of Phoebe's husband David, who went missing ten years ago. Back then Walsh suspected her for killing her husband, but this was never proven. Inhabitants of the village believe that the three women are dykes and that Phoebe did not only kill her husband but also her parents. They died in a car crash after garage owner KC neglected to check their brakes. One of the villagers, Dily Barnes, has forbidden her children Peter and Emma to play with Phoebe's children Jonathan and Jane. The grounds are searched and the three women and Phoebe's grown-up children are questioned. Jane used to have anorexia nervosa and underwent psychotherapy. DS Andy McLoughlin, whose wife has just left him for another police officer, gets romantically involved with Anne and believes the three women are innocent. Medical examiner Webster says the corpse can only be between two and three months old. A list of missing persons includes the names Keith Chapel and Daniel Thompson. Thompson's wife is interrogated. It turns out he collected money from investors to produce see-through radiators. One of the duped investors was Diana. One night a burglar in Street Grainge smashes Anne's skull. She recovers in hospital, but doesn't remember who attacked her. Wally Ferris, a tramp who was seen in the environment, confesses he's been in the ice house and stole the clothes of a dead man. The dead man is finally identified as Keith Chapel or KC, the former garage owner who went bankrupt. Chapel died from the cold and part of his flesh was eaten by rats after Wally left open the door of the ice house. Daniel Thompson is still alive. He was hiding from the angry investors and wanted to move to France with his wife. A group of burglars is caught at Street Grainge. After Jonathan fires a gun between Peter Barnes' legs he confesses that he smashed Anne's skull. Peter was instigated by the nasty gossip of his mother and other villagers. When the three women are left in McLoughlin's company they talk openly about how Phoebe killed her husband ten years ago. She did it after she caught him abusing Jane. She buried his corpse behind a wall in the cellar. McLoughlin approves of revenge and makes plans to start a new life with Anne. |
Messiah | Gore Vidal | 1,999 | The novel opens with the discovery of the body of Philip Rhodes, a London caterer, who is found hanging in his underwear from his banister, his tongue cut out and a silver spoon in its place. When the body of the Bishop of Wandsworth, James Cunningham, is found beaten to death, but with his tongue replaced by a silver spoon, DCI Red Metcalfe and his team must discover the pattern behind these killings and save the rest of the men who are destined to be murdered. The novel has many twists and turns and it describes the killings in great detail adding to the intense atmosphere. Starling manages to create a novel which is difficult to put down and which explores the mind of a man who has thoughts of a higher being. |
Tommy Storm | A.J. Healy | null | Earth's President (Guttly Randolph) and the Grand Council receive an invitation from the MilkyFed, a federation in the centre of the Milky Way. They want 5 Earth children (of the Grand Council's choice) to come across space to a training centre. The training will prepare the participants for a dangerous and secret mission. Elsorr Maudlin, Earth's Deputy President, believes the MilkyFed are up to no good, so he threatens to delay the decision until after the deadline. He agrees not to delay it on two conditions. One, he can choose the Grand Council Elder to accompany the Five children. Second, he can choose one of the five children. For his first condition, Maudlin chooses Randolph, so he can be the President, in full power. For his second condition, he chooses a boy who is thought by all a loser. The boy's name is Tommy Storm. Meanwhile, at The Wilchester Academy for Younger Adults, Tommy Storm, a boy of 11, is being bullied by a stronger, more popular boy named Felkor Stagwitch. In self-defence, Tommy ends up being grounded to his room. Later, Mr Withers, the headmaster, announces that Felkor Stagwitch is going on to a training school far away in the centre of the Milky Way. Afterwards, in Tommy's room, Mr Withers tells Tommy privately that he was also chosen. After some tests, the Earthlings are ranked from 1 to 5, Felkor first, Tommy last. According to their rank, they're put in groups of 5 with other species from other planets. During his time at the training school, Tommy Storm encounters many new things, and learns the history of his life. -The 25 students at the training school soon learn they are here because the Milki Masters know of an appending apocalype - the end of the universe, referring to the apocalypse only as the TFC (Terrible Future Calamity). At the end of the training schools period, one of the groups will be chosen to go on a mission to find out what will cause the TFC, and try to stop it. In order to win, the group must win competitions in different categories to earn points. -Each time he meets one of the Milki Masters, they seem to recognise something about him. At the end of his stay, Lord Beardedmoustachedwiseface-oh (the leader of the Milki Masters) reveals that Tommy's parents had been abducted by the Milki Masters long ago because Lord Beardedmoustachedwiseface-oh had found out about a meteor heading towards Earth - one so big, it was set to destroy Earth. One of the Milki Masters then fires another meteor at the meteor going to Earth to try and destroy it. She misses and Earth is destroyed. Tommy's parents (who had said they're name's were Bonny and Clive) then allowed themselves to die so they could turn back time. A different Milki Master takes the shot this time - and hits. Each Milki Master had recognised him because he looks so like his parents. -The winning group will be sent to learn about the TFC on a spaceship known as Swiggy. To get going Swiggy must leave the runway at SickoWarpo Speed (faster than the speed of light). They only have enough room for three courses - each course must go through a planet and destroy it. Earth is one of the planets that could be destroyed. Eventually, Earth is chosen to be obliterated. -One Milki Master brings Tommy and his group to an abyss. A plank of wood is attached to the side of the abyss, like a divingboard. The Milki Master tells them that it takes eight steps to walk the plank, and for every step you take, you will see something different in the Abyss. He tells them of a legend - if you come to the end of the plank, turn around, cross your arms and fall in to the abyss, someone who loves you will catch you and bring you back to the top. He also tells them that no one has taken more than four steps. They each try to walk the plank, until they are interrupted by another group's arrival, just as Tommy is about to take a fifth step. Tommy returns one night to try to walk the plank again. As he enters, two of his group follow. Tommy doesn't notice them, and locks the door behind him. The room is soundproof, so he doesn't hear them banging on the door. Tommy walks the plank, each step seeing terrible things - such as Earth burning along with its people. Finally, he takes his eighth step, turns around, crosses his arms, and falls back. Nobody knows exactly what he saw or did in the abyss, but it is believed his parents caught him, and talked to him, and adored him until he returns to the top. -Meanwhile, on Earth, Elsorr Maudlin is abusing his power as president. He killed two Grand Council members, and sent one to a prison. When Guttly Randolph has a heart attack and dies, Tommy brings him to Earth to be buried. Maudlin forces him to bring the coffin - with Randolph inside - to the Grand Council. While Maudlin is extremely happy that he is dead, Randolph stands up. It is revealed that MilkyFed doctors are far more advanced, and were able to bring him back to life - thought they cannot do that to people who are really dead. Randolph pretended to be dead to get to the Grand Council. Maudlin stabs Randolph with his sword. Tommy draws his own sword and they fight. Just as Maudlin overpowers Tommy, Randolph brings an elevator shaft down on top of him, killing him. Randolph then dies from the stab wound, even though he could have been saved by the MilkyFed doctors, stating he is ready to be with Gerty (his late wife). -Upon returning to the training school, Tommy learns of the final score of points between the groups - Felkor's group first and his group last, although his group should have been first. Lord Beardedmoustachedwise-face-oh announces that someone in Tommy's group did something against the rules (Tommy knows that he is the person, and the rule he broke was getting up at night, and entering the abyss), so his group is disqualified from the competitions after he broke the rules. Medals are awarded to the other 4 groups (surprisingly, the same medal is given to each person in every group). Lord Beardedmoustachedwiseface-oh then tells his favourite poem; "'Tis not what you do, 'tis how you do it. 'Tis not what you say, 'tis how you say it. First shall be last, gibbledibble-blast." He then announces that Tommy's group has won, regardless of points. Tommy's group then boards Swiggy. When they have left, it is revealed that the Milki Masters have no clue about the TFC. Swiggy approaches Earth, faster than the speed of light. When they collide, it seems they are in darkness for a long time. Then everything returns. But, as one of the group notices, Earth is still there. Tommy then reveals how he stole two wigholes from the training school and placed them on either side of Earth, in perfect rotation so that when Swiggy almost collided with Earth, it really entered a wighole. Rumbles and Woozie decide to try out an old legend. It was believed by MilkyFed folk that if a person crossed their arms, closed their eyes, and fell backwards without bending their legs, someone who loves them would catch them. This was known as the Inner-Lath Catch. Rumbles and Woozie cannot do this without bending their legs, and so it doesn't work. They give up when Rumbles knocks open a cabinet, covering him/her in Grow-sss-goo. Marielle watches them try after her bath. She then decides to try it herself. The book ends, saying she managed not to bend her legs. |
The Tiger Who Came To Tea | Judith Kerr | null | A little girl named Sophie is having tea with her mother in their kitchen. Soon they are joined for tea by a tiger who drinks all the tea, eats all the food in the house and drinks everything, even draining the water from the taps, so that Sophie cannot have her bath. Then he leaves. Sophie's father comes home and suggests that they all go out and have a lovely meal in a cafe. The following day Sophie and her mother go out to buy some more food, including a big tin of tiger food. But the tiger never returns. |
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit | Judith Kerr | 1,971 | The story starts in Berlin, March 1933, when nine-year-old Anna, the main character in the trilogy, finds out her father is missing one morning. She and her brother, Max, discover that Papa thinks that Hitler might win the elections, and has fled to Prague. Because the family is Jewish, and Papa is also a well-known Jewish author, this is important. If Hitler was to win the elections, Mama, Max and Anna would join him in Switzerland. If he was to lose, then Papa would come back home to Berlin. However, the plan goes wrong, and Mama and the children are rushed into Switzerland in alarming secrecy. It is at this time that Anna has to choose which toy she wishes to take with her. She opts to take her new woolly dog, and leave behind her pink rabbit toy, believing she will return to Berlin after a short time. It is from this that the title is derived as she considers that Hitler and the Nazis have "stolen" her toy. There, they settle in a Swiss boarding house, and the family stay there for a few months. But soon, Papa thinks that they should move to Paris, and goes there to find out about accommodation. Papa comes back and wants Mama to come back with him as a prospective buyer. So Max and Anna are left on their own for a little while. The Nazis find out about Papa as he travels, and a price of one thousand marks is put on his head. This really scares Anna and she is afraid that it means that Papa will be put in a room with one thousand coins being dropped onto his head, suffocating him. She goes on believing this until Max tells her what it really means. When Papa soon comes back to collect them, (Mama stays in Paris to settle into the apartment they have bought) a porter tries to put them on the wrong train, one that would send them back to Germany, so that he could be imprisoned by the Nazis. Fortunately, though, Anna notices the label just in time, and they manage to get back on the correct train to Paris. There, Max attends a boys' school, and it takes a long time but Mama finally finds an elementary school for Anna. Anna finds French hard for a little while, but one day it clicks and she finds herself able to speak it fluently. After two years in Paris (in 1936), the family decide to move again, this time to London after Papa thinks the BBC might buy a biographical film script on Napoleon, inspired by a talk he had with the children. The story ends as Mama, Papa, Max and Anna get off the train in England, to be greeted by Mama's Cousin otto |
Ribsy | Beverly Cleary | 1,964 | Like most of the Henry Huggins books, the incidents in this book follow an ongoing plot line. In this book, the Huggins have a new car, and go out shopping; Ribsy, denied a ride, chases the car at up to 25 miles per hour, and is finally allowed in. At the shopping mall, Ribsy is left in the car, and lowers the electric window with the button. Ribsy eventually wants to return to the car to await Henry, and gets into the first new-smelling car he finds, but a different family, with several daughters and one toddler son, gets in and takes Ribsy home with them. Ribsy endures a bubble bath and escapes, wandering in search of Henry. Ribsy finds an old lady named Mrs. Frawley who is telling him to go away when Ribsy raises his paw in greeting and Mrs. Frawley invites him in. With dinner in his stomach, Ribsy sleeps while Mrs. Frawley goes out to shop for her new pet. Ribsy chafes at a coat and colorful leash, then escapes. He, soon after, finds himself becoming the unofficial mascot for a class of elementary school students until he is kicked out over an incident with a squirrel. Later, Ribsy sneaks into a high school football game and inadvertently makes the game-winning tackle. He is caught by a boy who, pleased at the attention he gets for people thinking it was his dog who won the game, takes Ribsy in. The story of the game gains the attention of the Huggins family who attempt to retrieve Ribsy. Ribsy, however, escapes again after hearing Henry's voice on the phone and running off in search of his beloved owner. Later, Ribsy is found by a boy with a tennis ball who lives in an apartment building. The boy decides to adopt Ribsy, but panics when confronted by his landlady and hides Ribsy on a fire escape where, fortunately, he is spotted by the Huggins family as they drive through the neighborhood in search of him. Mr. Huggins manages to retrieve Ribsy from the fire escape with the help of some nearby workmen and the mutt is happily reunited with Henry. The family offer the boy, Larry, a portion of the reward and help him deal with his landlady before getting back in the station wagon where Ribsy sits beside Henry on the seat as they drive home, finally reunited. |
The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography | Sidney Poitier | 2,000 | In this memoir, Sir Sidney Poitier, K.B.E., an 'icon' in the United States, looks back on his celebrated life and career. He explores elements of character and personal values to take his own measure as a man, as a husband and a father, and as an actor... Poitier credits his parents and his childhood on tiny Cat Island in the Bahamas for equipping him with the unflinching sense of right and wrong and of self-worth that he has never surrendered and that have dramatically shaped his world. "In the kind of place where I grew up," recalls Poitier, "what's coming at you is the sound of the sea and the smell of the wind and momma's voice and the voice of your dad and the craziness of your brothers and sisters...and that's it." Without television, radio, and material distractions to obscure what matters most, he could enjoy the simple things, endure the long commitments, and find true meaning in his life. Uncompromising as he pursued a personal and public life, Sir Sidney aimed to honor his upbringing and the invaluable legacy of his parents. Just a few years after his introduction to indoor plumbing and the automobile, Poitier broke racial barrier after racial barrier to launch a pioneering acting career. Committed to the notion that what one does for a living shows who one is, Poitier chose to play forceful and affecting characters who said something positive, useful, and lasting about the human condition. Poitier explores the nature of sacrifice and commitment, price and humility, rage and forgiveness, and paying the price for artistic integrity. What emerges is a picture of a man in the face of limits; his own as well as the world's. The translation in complicated Chinese (ISBN 9570484969) of this autobiography was done by Fongfong Olivia Wei, and published by Triumph Publishing Company in Taipei, Taiwan, in the year 2002. |
Fatherland | Robert Harris | 1,992 | The story begins in Nazi Germany, the Third Reich in April 1964, in the week leading up to Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday. The plot follows detective Xavier March, an investigator working for the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo), as he investigates the suspicious death of a high-ranking Nazi, Josef Buhler, in the Havel, on the outskirts of Berlin. As March uncovers more details he realises that he is caught up in a political scandal involving senior Nazi Party officials, who are apparently being systematically murdered under staged circumstances. In fact, as soon as the body is identified, the Gestapo claims jurisdiction and orders the Kripo to close its investigation. March meets with 'Charlie' Maguire, a female American journalist who is also determined to investigate the case. They both travel to Zürich to investigate the private Swiss bank account of one of the murdered officials. Ultimately, the two uncover the horrific truth behind the staged murders. The Gestapo is eliminating the remaining officials who planned the Holocaust (of which the German people are not generally aware) at the Wannsee Conference of 1942. This is being done in order to safeguard an upcoming meeting of Hitler and President Joseph P. Kennedy by ensuring that the crimes of the Nazi regime are not revealed. Maguire heads for neutral Switzerland with the evidence, hoping to expose it to the world. March, however, is denounced by his ten-year-old son and apprehended by the Gestapo. In the cellars of Gestapo headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, March is tortured but does not reveal the location of Maguire. Kripo Chief Artur Nebe stages a rescue, intending to track March as he meets with Maguire at their rendezvous in Waldshut-Tiengen on the Swiss/German border. March realises what is happening and heads for Auschwitz, leading the authorities in the wrong direction. The Gestapo catches up with March at the unmarked site of Auschwitz's completely dismantled extermination camp. Knowing that Maguire has had time to cross the border into Switzerland, March searches for some sign that the death camp was real. As the Gestapo agents close in on him, March uncovers bricks in the undergrowth. Satisfied, he pulls out his gun while leaving the readers to draw their own conclusions. |
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? | Horace McCoy | 1,935 | The story follows the narrator, Robert Syverten, a naive young man from Hollywood who dreams of being a film director. The story begins with Robert's sentencing for murder. He confesses that he "killed her," and that he doesn't "have a leg to stand on." He is advised to beg for mercy from the Court. The story of his relationship with the girl he killed, Gloria Beatty, is thereafter intercut after every few chapters with short excerpts from the judge's sentencing. The excerpts of the judge's words are written in larger and larger type until the last page of the book concludes with the words written in small print: "And may God have mercy on your soul". Robert meets Gloria on a morning when they have both failed to get parts as extras. She talks him into participating in a marathon dance contest. Like Robert, she is struggling to find work in Hollywood, and believes the contest may be a way to get noticed by studio producers or movie stars. Gloria and Robert enter the dance contest, which is held at a large amusement pier on the beach, somewhere near Hollywood. The contests are long and grueling affairs, taking place over several weeks. Contestants dance for an hour and fifty minutes, then receive a ten minute break. One hundred and forty four couples start the contest. Robert and Gloria, like most of the contestants, are young, jobless, and drawn as much by the free food as by the $1,000 prize money. From the start, Gloria tells Robert that she wishes she were dead, a point she repeats in most of their conversations. Her parents are dead. She ran away to Dallas from a farm in West Texas where her uncle always made passes at her. In Dallas, she tried to commit suicide, then ran away to Hollywood with dreams of being in movies, but is finding only rejection. Robert considers her plain-looking and unlikely to find work as an actress. She tells Robert frequently that she doesn't have the courage to kill herself. The promoters of the contest try various schemes to increase attendance. They publicize the arrest of a contestant for murder. Every evening, they stage an elimination race, called a derby, in which the couples speed-walk around a track, the last-place couple being disqualified. The promoters stage a marriage of two contestants, who then lose a derby and should be eliminated. Instead, the promoters disqualify another couple. As the dance goes on, into the second and third week, the crowds grow larger. Newspapers cover the contest. Some couples receive sponsorships from local businesses, usually in the form of clothes. Hollywood personalities arrive to watch and are announced by the promoters. Gloria goads Robert into speaking with a famous director he recognizes in the crowd. A woman named Mrs. Layden attends the contest regularly and tells Robert that he and Gloria are her favorite couple. She later gets Robert and Gloria a sponsorship. As the contest grinds on, couples break down physically and drop out. Robert is consumed with claustrophobia and a desire to get outside into the sun. Gloria is tiring and having difficulty walking for the derby without Robert's help. Gloria is revealed throughout as angry, bitter and outspoken. She curses another male contestant because he won't allow his pregnant partner to get an abortion. Robert learns indirectly that Gloria is having sex with one of the promoters, presumably to gain an advantage in the event the fix should be put in again. When Robert tells her of his suspicions, Gloria tells him she doesn't feel she is worthy of doing anything else. When two elderly women from the local morals society threaten the promoters with shutting down the dance, Gloria is asked to witness the meeting and curses the women as spoiled, interfering hypocrites. After 879 hours of dancing and with 20 couples remaining, the contest is shut down when there is a murder at the dance hall's bar. A stray bullet from the shooting hits and kills Mrs. Layden. The promoters decide to give the remaining dancers $50 each for their efforts. Robert and Gloria go outside for the first time in five weeks and sit on the pier looking at the ocean. Gloria takes a pistol out of her bag and asks Robert to shoot her, which he does. He remembers when he was young, and his grandfather shot the beloved family horse, which had broken its leg. The police ask Robert why he shot Gloria, and he answers, "Because she asked me to." The policeman persists. Robert answers, "They shoot horses, don't they?" |
The Story of the Little Mole Who Went In Search Of Whodunit | Werner Holzwarth | null | A mole who is just getting out of his hole gets pooped on his head by an unidentified animal; he is certain that it doesn't belong to him and sets out on a mission to discover whom it does belong to. The animals he runs into all poop to show what theirs looks like, and finally the mole receives some assistance from some flies who help him identify whodunit: the butcher's dog. The mole exacts his revenge by pooping on the dog's head, and returns to his hole happily. |
Cut | Patricia McCormick | 2,000 | Fifteen-year-old Callie isn't speaking to anybody, not even to her therapist at Sea Pines (nicknamed "Sick Minds"), the residential treatment facility where her parents and doctor sent her after discovering that she self-mutilates. At some point, Callie does begin speaking to her therapist/doctor, and she helps Callie understand why she self-harms. As her story unfolds, Callie reluctantly becomes involved with the other "guests" at Sea Pines—finding her voice and confronting the trauma that triggered her behavior. Callie gets better with the help of Sydney (her roommate), Claire, Debbie, Becca, Tara, Amanda, and Tiffany. Only with the loving support of her family does she learn why she cuts herself. |
The Witches and the Grinnygog | null | null | When an ancient English church is moved to a new site, one stone – a strange statue, the Grinnygog of the title – is found to be missing. Its accidental rediscovery (by a woman who, not realising its significance, gives it to her elderly father as a pseudo garden gnome) coincides with the arrival in the same town of three eccentric old women who seem to be looking for something lost or hidden many years before, and a nervous, "other-worldly" child. The townsfolk find themselves looking into their collective past but it takes a group of children to put the pieces of the puzzle together and make amends for an ancient injustice. The story is notable in modern popular culture for its portrayal of witches as something other than evil old hags. |
World's End | null | null | Jack 'Church' Churchill – a man still tormented by the suicide of his girlfriend Marianne two years previously – and Ruth Gallagher – a lawyer increasingly disillusioned with the way her life has turned out – are brought together early one winter morning by a shared experience: walking by the Thames, they witness a horrific attack. A giant of a man with a face that runs like water attacks a smaller man (Maurice Gibbons) underneath Albert Bridge, and the experience is so horrific that it causes them both to pass out. When Church and Ruth awake, the small man is dead, and the police are reluctant to view the crime as anything other than a simple mugging. While Ruth is suspended from work, Church discovers that similar odd events are happening all across Britain, and finds a mysterious message from a woman called Laura who claims to know how all these events are linked. Their memories fractured by the experience, Church and Ruth decide to undergo hypnotic regression in an attempt to find out what happened to them; this is only a partial success as the experience is so horrific it terrifies them both, unlocking the memory of the true horror of what they witnessed. Ruth tracks down Maurice's widow and they discover that prior to his death he visited both the local vicar and a UFO enthusiast. Meanwhile, Jack's correspondence with Laura takes an intriguing turn when she mentions Marianne in one of her E-Mails. While Ruth visits the vicar and discovers that Maurice was concerned about demonic possession, Church's visit to the UFO enthusiast frustrates him. Deeper investigation leads them to discover that Maurice was frequently visiting a bedridden man named Kraicow, who claims that there are demons among us and that everyone is in danger. He gives Church and Ruth the key to his studio, where they discover a sculpture of the same horror that they saw under Albert Bridge. Church and Ruth decide to visit Laura to see what information she has, Church experiencing a series of odd occurrences which make reference to 'one of five'. On the way to Bristol, they stop off at a service station for a break, but on a visit to the toilet Ruth is attacked by one of the creatures and almost taken – rescued only by the intervention of an ageing hippie named Tom, who aids Church in her rescue and their eventual escape. On the drive away, Church is contacted by a friend who informs him that his apartment has been gutted by a mysterious fire. As they continue to drive towards Bristol, their journey takes a horrifying turn – unbelievably, a dragon, referred to by Tom as a Fabulous Beast, attacks the M4, incinerating several vehicles and causing untold damage to many more. Church, Ruth and Tom barely escape, but the Beast follows them as they continue their journey, only abandoning the hunt when Tom ferries them into the ancient stones of Stonehenge – which, according to Tom, offers them protection. They make camp, and Tom explains that once, long ago, the world was full of the creatures of myth and legend. For some reason, they all abandoned this world, but now they are returning in full force. He also explains the secret of Stonehenge: a nexus point of a mysterious energy called the Blue Fire, the lifeblood of the planet, it offers strength and protection. Church and Ruth are startled to learn that they have developed the ability to see this Blue Fire. Later, ignoring Tom's warnings not to set foot outside the stone circle, Church follows a vision of Marianne, and finds a gift – a black rose, called the Roisin Dubh. The next morning, they make their way to Salisbury in order to prepare for their meeting with Laura the next day. Splitting up to allow themselves some time to recuperate, both Church and Ruth have odd experiences – Church is stalked by a giant black dog, while Ruth has an encounter with a being who appears as both an old woman, a woman her own age, and a teenage girl, imploring her to find 'him' and then to 'join them'. Tom, attempting to scout the land, is attacked by a being known as a Baobhan Sith, and barely escapes with his life. When they reunite, he is horrified to learn of the black dog – known as Black Shuck, it is the vanguard of the Wild Hunt. Their evening takes a merrier turn when they are joined by a rogue calling himself Callow, who shares several drinks with them and is intrigued by Church's assertion that the world is changing. Having left him in the hotel bar, however, they have a terrifying night in which the Baobhan Sith invade the hotel room and search for them. The next day, they make their meeting with Laura, who explains that she was walking near an industrial estate when she was pulled to 'somewhere else' and told that the world was going to change forever. She offers to take them to the place it happened. When they arrive, Church and Laura are pulled into a hole in the air; no sooner have they disappeared than Ruth and Tom find themselves surrounded by the same creatures that tried to take Ruth at the service station. In their attempts to escape, Ruth and Tom become separated; Ruth's last glimpse of Tom is as he limps towards her, seconds before an entire warehouse is destroyed by an explosion caused by the lorry they were trying to escape in. Meanwhile, Church finds himself in what appears to be a tower, floating in space. As he makes his way through its depths, he opens a door and finds his childhood bedroom – he watches as a woman sits on his bed and greets his younger self as Brother of Dragons, and suddenly remembers the dreams which plagued him as a child. He also finds a door which opens on a vision of him sitting on a hillside, holding an ornate sword and watching as a city that looks like London burns, and one which shows him lying dead in a stream. He eventually encounters a beautiful, otherworldly woman, who explains that Church has been brought to the Watchtower, and that her people – the Golden Ones – used to live on Earth, but after a terrible war with the Night Walkers – the creatures that are hunting Church and Ruth – they retreated to a place called the Far Lands in accordance with a 'Covenant' which removed all magic from our world – but the Night Walkers recently unleashed something called a Wish-Hex which scattered or tainted the Golden Ones, before returning to our world. She names Church as one of the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, and implores him to gather the five Brothers and Sisters of Dragons and find four mystical items – a stone, a sword, a spear and a cauldron – which will return her people to power and help them fight the Night Walkers, gifting him with a lantern called the Wayfinder that will help point him to the objects he seeks. Laura arrives, and Church realises that she led him here on purpose, under the orders of the mysterious woman, who tells him that he will learn her name in time. Church and Laura return through the hole in the air, and find the industrial estate in ruins in the aftermath of Ruth and Tom's escape attempt. They reunite with Ruth, and reluctantly leave without Tom, who appears to have vanished. Church deduces that Ruth and Laura are both Sisters of Dragons, and they follow the Wayfinder to their next destination. The Wayfinder leads them to Avebury, where they encounter a man called the Bone Inspector, who tells them that it is his job to guard the old places of the land, keeping their secrets hidden. Although he appears to believe that they are Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, he seems reluctant to help them – but after seeing a man-shaped murder of crows on the horizon, he helps them to unlock the protections around the land and leads them into a cave in the depths of Avebury, where they discover a lake of the Blue Fire, in which lies a sleeping Fabulous Beast. Laura makes her way across the lake, alone – the Bone Inspector warns that the Beast will only allow one person to cross – and after passing a test which traps her in an enclosed space, Laura discovers a smooth, polished Stone. She returns to the others, and they are surprised to discover that while Church sees it as a lump of rock, Ruth instead sees a diamond. The Bone Inspector explains that the items are too powerful to hold a form, and that their minds instead see whatever they want to. He leads them out of the cave – using a different exit to bypass the Night Walkers – and leaves them to continue on their journey alone, telling them that there are other places which need him more. Their journey is interrupted once again when the car fails. A local mechanic tells them that it's been happening often recently – cars dying for no reason then suddenly starting again. Science is failing as magic returns to the world. Church, Ruth and Laura set up camp nearby while they wait for the car to be fixed, and Church meets a young girl named Marianne, who seems older than her years and helps him to gather some wood. That night, the trio are disturbed when the Stone retrieved from Avebury screams when touched by Ruth – the woman in the Watchtower told Church that it would react to the 'true king of the land'. Shortly afterwards, Ruth, reacting on instinct, walks alone into the woods, where she finds the woman from Salisbury, who once again begs her to find 'him' and then join them as their 'champion'. Although Ruth is scared and disturbed by the conversation, the woman gifts her with an owl, telling Ruth that it will act as her 'familiar' – a word which disturbs Ruth with its various connotations. The next morning, they retrieve the car, but are stopped by Marianne's hysterical father – she has been living with a blood clot on her brain for several years and collapsed that morning while preparing to bring them milk. They rush her to the local hospital, but shortly after she enters the operating theatre, another of the blackouts strikes, cutting power to the hospital. Marianne, filled with light, wakes – despite being halfway through surgery – and walks among the cancer ward, healing the entire ward before collapsing, dead. Although her sacrifice gives Church the realisation that there is good magic as well as bad, he still takes her loss badly – the devastating effect of the power cut on the hospital serving as a reminder of what's truly at stake. They continue their journey, stopping at a service station – but while they're there, Ruth and Laura encounter Black Shuck in the car park, and are nearly killed, but saved at the last moment by an owl which appears from nowhere and gives them enough time to run into the services. Chased by the dog, they grab Church and lock themselves into the kitchen, where they spend a terrifying night listening to the sounds of the Wild Hunt arriving outside, but the Hunt is forced away at sunrise, allowing them to continue – but they discover that the car has been ransacked in the night. Someone has been searching for the Stone. They continue driving, accompanied the whole way by an owl, before deciding to stop in the midst of a storm at an inn called The Green Man, run by a gay couple who were forced out of Leeds by homophobic Christian neighbours. They spend a pleasant evening there, but are punished for their reticence when the Wild Hunt attacks the pub in full force, laying waste to the drinkers as they leave. Realising that it's their fault the Hunt has attacked, Church, Laura and Ruth determine to distract it – Church escaping on a dirt bike while Ruth and Laura make a run for the car. Church is pursued across the moors by the Hunt, and manages to evade them for a while, but eventually his luck runs out and he plummets into a mineshaft. He wakes much later to find that he has been captured by the Night Walkers, who have infested the area under the moors. He is soon joined by a Londoner called Ryan Veitch, who has been held captive for the last week. Veitch is covered in tattoos, visual references to vibrant dreams Veitch has suffered from since childhood. Many of the images speak to Church – particularly one of the Watchtower – and he recognises Veitch as a Brother of Dragons. He fills Veitch in on the current situation, but they are soon interrupted by a thing called Calatin – a Night Walker who is much more beautiful than the others, and much more dangerous. He tortures Church for information on the Stone, but is furious when Church reveals nothing. Church and Veitch are later joined by Tom, who was captured by the Night Walkers shortly after the explosion at the industrial estate and has been held here ever since. He names the Night Walkers as Fomorii, and seems as contemptuous of the Golden Ones – also called the Tuatha dé Danann – as he is of the Night Walkers – partially explained by his revelation that as a young man, he visited the Far Lands, and was horrified by what he found there. He also warns them that Calatin isn't all that's after them – the crow-man, called Mollecht, is also striving to destroy them. Soon after, Church is visited once again by the woman from the Watchtower, who admonishes him for allowing himself to be caught and the Wayfinder taken from him, but offers her assistance by using her power to unlock every door before Church. He wakes Veitch and Tom and they make their escape, stealing back the Wayfinder as they go, and also discovering several barrels filled with a hideous black fluid, and, climbing to safety, wrenching the ladder that helps their escape from the wall to ensure that the Fomorii can't follow, before following the light of the Wayfinder across Dartmoor. Ruth and Laura, meanwhile, escape in the car, certain that Church is dead, but as they drive, they notice a van on the side of the road. Something instinctive urges them to stop, and they find that the van is driven by an Indian man named Shavi, who they recognise instantly as a Brother of Dragons. He tells them that he has had vivid dreams all his life, and recently one urged him to make his way to this place. As they finish repairs on his van, the Wild Hunt – denied their quarry of Church – appears on the horizon, and they make their escape in Shavi's van, which has several turbo modifications. Although they make good headway, the Hunt has soon caught up to them, ripping the back off the van and nearly killing Laura, but they manage to hold the Hunt off long enough to be saved by the dawn. As the Hunt falls away, they follow Ruth's owl, which leads them to Glastonbury, where they find a peaceful, restful atmosphere that puts them instantly at ease. Resting, they discover that Shavi comes from a Muslim family, but his interest in other religions led to him being forced from the family home. Bisexual, he suffered a tragic loss two years ago – leaving a gay club in London, his boyfriend was brutally murdered. Later that day, they make camp and, although Ruth goes to sleep, Laura and Shavi stay awake and ingest some psychedelic mushrooms, prompting Laura to reveal her darkest secret to Shavi – her fundamentalist mother scarred the words 'Jesus loves you' into Laura's back, and in her desperation to escape, Laura accidentally murdered her mother. The revelation creates a bond between the two, and they sleep together. Church, Veitch and Tom make their way across the moors, as they go encountering the worst of what the new word has to offer – a desolate farmhouse inhabited by a desperate man who is being mentally tortured by some kind of gremlin. They stay to investigate, and soon enough the creature begins its torment, but Tom reacts confidently, appearing to have some knowledge of the demon. He fights it with iron, and it appears to recognise him, speaking of his 'royal gift'. While Tom distracts it, offering to 'read its future', Church uses the Wayfinder as a weapon, the blue flame burning within terrifying the creature. Tom orders the thing to leave the farmer alone, and it swears to, but leaves each of them with a well-aimed barb – telling Church 'You will never find out why she died', Veitch 'There is no redemption for murder, and Tom You carry your suffering with you.' They leave the next morning, and Veitch explains the creature's barb – in a bungled building society raid where his brothers convinced him to take part, he panicked and accidentally killed a man. His brothers took the blame and are now in prison because of him. Although Church tries to ask Tom what the creature's comment to him meant, Tom doesn't reply – although he works his mouth as though he's trying. Meanwhile, in Glastonbury, Shavi attempts a communion with the spirits, acting on an instinct which tells him he has the power to talk to them. They reveal that one of the objects the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons are looking for is hidden in Glastonbury, and direct him to the Abbey in a search for more clues. He manages to discern a pointer in the broken tiles, that seem to point to Glastonbury Tor. The shadows also seem to spell something: the words aqua fortis, which Shavi translates to mean 'strong water'. They are approached the following day by a priest, who surmises that they have discovered the message. He introduces himself as James, a member of a group called the Watchmen, a group similar in theory to the Bone Inspectors, but guarding the knowledge of the Church. He helps them to realise they need to take some water from the well to the tor, where he says that the 'Grail' is waiting – which they realise refers to the cauldron that the woman for the Watchtower spoke about. He warns them that where they are going, many dangers await, mentioning in passing that in legend it is spoken of as the home of the leader of the Wild Hunt, but that they must take the water to the tor at first light if they want what they seek. |
Tread Softly in this Place | Brian Cleeve | 1,972 | A year before the novel opens, Peadar and Matty Power, two elderly bachelor brothers, sold a portion of their land to Norwegian fish farmers. However, they resent no longer being able to use the land in question and, one night, they release the entire stock of fish into the sea. In doing so, they set in train a series of events that lead to tragic consequences. For several years, rumours have been rife in the locality that a major industrial project might be located in Ross. This would be very welcome as there is little local employment there. Now, as news of the act of sabotage at the fish farm spreads through the community, fears grow that subversive elements were behind it and that outside investors will be discouraged. The local policeman, Sergeant McMenamin, suspects that the Powers released the fish. However, as concern among the locals about a Republican plot develops into virtual paranoia, he is pressured into changing the focus of his investigation. He turns his attention to a small band of local extremists known as The Sons of Ireland. Their leader is a young man who, for patriotic reasons, has 'gaelicised' his name from Johnny Conroy to Seagrun Ó Maelchonaire. Several years earlier, Ó Maelchonaire had been part of another Republican group along with a school friend, Michael Carmody. When their activities began to attract police attention, Michael fled to England where he became involved in radical student politics. Now, older and wiser, he has returned to Ross to live a quiet life. He has found a job as a handyman at a local hotel owned by Hubert Kershaw, one of the diminishing number of Protestants still living in Ross. Jenny Kershaw, Hubert's daughter, is in love with Michael and they are developing a relationship, much to her parents' disapproval. The day after the fish were released, Ó Maelchonaire visits Michael at the hotel to persuade him to join The Sons of Ireland. Michael refuses and the two part on bad terms. Sergeant McMenamin arrests Michael on suspicion of involvement in the fish release. Anxious to establish his credentials as a serious Republican, Ó Maelchonaire and his followers stage an attack on the local gaol in order to free Michael. They take the reluctant escapee to a hiding place in a local wood. As darkness falls, it is clear that Ó Maelchonaire has no idea what to do next and everyone's nerves become fraught. In the late evening, Sir Philip Eagan, a local Protestant aristocrat, stumbles upon the small group while out walking his dog. Thinking that the police have found them, Ó Maelchonaire fires his gun into the darkness, mortally wounding Sir Philip. Michael manages to escape and makes his way to the hotel and Jenny's room. He tells her what has happened and explains that he must flee Ireland. In the final chapter, a year has passed, and we learn how the events of those few days have affected all involved. Michael is living in Paris and earning a living as a folk-singer. Ó Maelchonaire is dead, shot by a British soldier on the streets of Belfast. The hotel has been sold to Benedict Mulcahy, a local politician and Government minister. Sir Philip Eagan's estate has been turned into a stud farm. |
The Scold's Bridle | Minette Walters | 1,994 | Mathilda Gillespie, an eccentric recluse known for her incredible meanness of nature, is found dead in her bathtub, her wrists slashed and her head locked inside a so-called 'scold's bridle', a rusted cage built with tongue clamps which was used as a torture device throughout the middle ages. The dead woman's only friend, Dr. Sarah Blakeney, becomes prime suspect in her murder after police discover that she's been left a great deal of money in the will. To clear her name, Sarah delves deep into Mathilda's mysterious past, and subsequently unravels an intricate web of greed, abuse and depravity. |
The Echo | Minette Walters | 1,997 | Homeless man Billy Blake dies of starvation inside wealthy architect Amanda Powell's garage, leading her into a strange obsession with discovering how he came to be there and why he didn't call for help. Her inquiries lead her to journalist Michael Deacon, who slowly becomes suspicious of Amanda's motives and the fact that she only became rich following her husband's death. |
The Tinder Box | Minette Walters | null | Following the savage murders of Lavinia Fanshaw and her personal nurse, Dorothy Jenkins, in the small Hampshire village of Sowerbridge, Irish labourer Patrick O'Riordian is arrested for the crime, stirring up violent racial hatred from the other residents against his family. Friend and neighbour Siobhan Lavenham suspects that Patrick was the victim of an already prejudiced investigation, and defies her community so she can prove him innocent. However, after learning of some terrible secret's from the O'Riordian's past, she begins to question her loyalties. |
The Shape of Snakes | Minette Walters | 2,000 | In 1978, a black woman known as 'Mad Annie' by her neighbours was found dead in a west London gutter, her body discovered by Mrs. Ranelagh who, despite supposedly not knowing the dead woman, spends the next twenty years trying to convince the police that she was murdered. However, those once familiar with Annie despised her as a mean old eccentric and animal abuser, whilst Ranelagh's husband seemingly disdains any mention of the case. |
Disordered Minds | Minette Walters | 2,003 | In 1970 Harold Stump, a mentally challenged young man, was arrested for the murder of his grandmother - the only person who ever understood him - based on scant evidence and a retracted confession; three years later, having been found guilty by a jury, he kills himself in prison. However, Jonathan Hughes, an anthropologist specialising in social stereotypes, decides to re-examine the case and, in doing so, uncovers a plethora of dark secrets that could lead him into a confrontation with a psychotic killer. |
The Devil's Feather | Minette Walters | 2,005 | Connie Burns is a British-Zimbabwean journalist working as a war correspondent for the Reuters agency. While stationed in Sierra Leone in 2002 she reports on the case of five women who have been brutally murdered. Burns suspects a British mercenary, who is known throughout the expatriate community for his brutality and violence. She encounters the mercenary again two years later while based in Baghdad to cover the Iraq conflict. She begins to make discrete enquiries about him, but is frightened off by a series of incidents in which her hotel room is repeatedly ransacked. Deciding to return to the United Kingdom, Burns is kidnapped on her way to the airport, but released three days later. Upon her release, Burns returns to England, avoiding reporters (including her former Reuters colleagues) who are keen to hear about her ordeal. Leasing a remote house on the Dorset coast she sets about trying to guard her privacy and her security. But escaping her past proves to be more difficult. She befriends a loal woman named Jess Derbyshire, a reclusive woman who has isolated herself from her community following a family tragedy. Seeing parallels between herself and Jess, Burns borrows from the other woman's strength and makes the hazardous decision to take on her adversary for a third time. |
Chickenfeed | Minette Walters | 2,006 | Based on the real life case of Elsie Cameron, a pregnant woman supposedly killed by her boyfriend, chicken farmer Norman Thorne, who was hanged for the murder in 1924, Walters re-creates the events leading up to the crime and writes from the perspective of both Elsie and Norman, as their relationship slowly turns sour and Norman yearns to be free from his former lover. |
The Dragon and The George | Gordon R. Dickson | 1,976 | The book tells the story of Jim Eckert, who is whisked from this world into an alternate world where magic is real and deadly. There he finds himself in the body of the dragon Gorbash, and must learn to deal with a dragon's-eye view of the world. He must also deal with both the friends and foes that Gorbash has already made. In this world, dragons universally refer to humans as "georges," based upon the past experience of St. George with one of their kind; hence the title. Jim is on a quest to rescue his fiancee, Angie, who had preceded him in transportation to the magical world, but is being held hostage by Dark Powers. On the way, Jim and his companions must fight a band of "georges" and the rogue dragon Bryagh, who have sold their services to the Dark Powers and their creatures. The Dark Powers are ultimately planning an attack upon England (and eventually the entire world). Jim must also realize that the world to which he has been transported is real, not simply a game, and that what he does may have major effects, for good or ill, on the people of that world. At the end of the book, Jim (or Sir James, as he has come to be called in the alternate world) regains his human form and must decide whether to remain in the alternate world or return to our world and the life of an underpaid junior academic. |
The Dragon Knight | Gordon R. Dickson | 1,990 | Jim and Angie are adjusting to their new life within this parallel dimensional version of 14-century medieval England or as well as any 20-century persons might do in a 14-century medieval environment. Jim, the now Sir James, Baron of Malencontri et Riveroak is making an attempt at being a good English Lord, however, fate is conspiring against him and will set him on an adventure to recover the Prince of England who is being held captive in France. Little does Jim know that he'll be going up against the interests of the "Dark Powers" who are already at work to thwart Jim's mission. This will cumulate with Jim squaring off against the evil and powerful sorcerer Malvinne. |
The 6th Target | James Patterson | 2,007 | When a horrifying attack leaves one of the four members of the Women's Murder Club struggling for her life, the others fight to keep a madman behind bars before anyone else is hurt. And Lindsay Boxer and her new partner in the San Francisco police department run flat-out to stop a series of kidnappings that has electrified the city: children are being plucked off the streets together with their nannies - but the kidnappers aren't demanding ransom. Amid uncertainty and rising panic, Lindsay juggles the possibility of a new love with an unsolvable investigation, and the knowledge that one member of the club could be on the brink of death. And just when everything appears momentarily under control, the case takes a terrifying turn, putting an entire city in lethal danger. Lindsay must make a choice she never dreamed she'd face—with no certainty that either outcome has more than a prayer of success. |
Everyone Worth Knowing | Lauren Weisberger | 2,005 | Shaken by the news that her best friend Penelope has gotten engaged to Avery, who neither she nor Penelope's other friends think is right for her, Bette Robinson suddenly quits her job at UBS, the investment banking firm where she has worked in the five years since she and Penelope graduated from Emory. However, she does little to find a new direction in life until her uncle Will, an aging nationally syndicated entertainment columnist, introduces her to event planner, Kelly. Shortly thereafter, Bette finds herself working for Kelly's firm, Kelly & Co., planning parties, eating and drinking at the city's most fashionable night spots ... and becoming a regular subject of a popular online gossip column, whose anonymous author seems determined to link her romantically to wealthy playboy Phillip Weston. While she does find Phillip somewhat attractive, much like the heroines of the romance novels she secretly indulges in, and the association becomes of great benefit to her in her new job, she is later drawn to Sammy, a bouncer at Bungalow 8 who turns out to be from her hometown of Poughkeepsie and harbors ambitions of being a chef. The two connect on a trip to Istanbul, and Sammy's culinary skills impress Bette's parents, former 1960s radicals, on a Thanksgiving trip back to Poughkeepsie. But he, too, is tied to a wealthy socialite, and dreams of escaping the high life to open a small restaurant. Bette, meanwhile, finds herself growing distant from Penelope and her other friends, and must choose between the person she once was and the one she is becoming. |
I Know What You Did Last Wednesday | Anthony Horowitz | 2,003 | Tim Diamond receives a letter from his old school friend, the millionaire Rory McDougal. It invites him to the remote Crocodile Island, off the coast of Scotland, for a high school reunion, promising him £1000 if he attends. Nick invites himself along. There they meet Sylvie Binns, Janet Rhodes, Libby Goldman, Brenda Blake, Mark Tyler and Eric Draper, all of Tim's old classmates except for the popular Johnny Nadler. They are taken over to Crocodile Island by Captain Horatio Randle, on his small boat named the Silver Medal. He says he'll be back in a week. Upon arriving on the island, they find Rory dead, cut to pieces with a sword. With the boat not returning for three days, the phones in the house gone, and all mobile phones signal less, the horrified group is trapped in the middle of a murder mystery. Later in the same day Sylvie is poisoned by a cyanide-laced chocolate bar in her room, and during the night Janet Rhodes is stabbed by a model Eiffel Tower. During the night Nick sees a Skull mask outside his room, but a few moments later it is gone. Brenda also claims to have seen it. The remaining guests proceed to search the island, but discover no one. Paranoid, they begin to distrust each other. Before long Libby Goldman is crushed by a heavy globe when she goes outside. Nick finds out that the hate in the school disliked each other. Tim once broke three of Mark's fingers with a conker, and on the last day of term Eric Draper was thrown into the canel by the other students and had to spend six months in hospital due to the pollution. With just five of the group left, they agree to stay in the hall and watch each other. Nick points out that everybody came first in a subject at school and all the people who have been killed have been killed in a way that shows that person's subject. The lights go out suddenly, and when they come back on, Brenda Blake is dead, hit on the head by an organ pipe, and Eric Draper has been shot by an old-fashioned pistol, which lies smoking on the floor. Mark Tyler is missing, and Tim claims he always thought he was the Killer, but the brothers find him outside, impaled by a javelin. The next day Nick works out who the Killer is, but Tim becomes paranoid and accuses Nick as the murderer and runs for his life towards the cliffs. As an explosion causes the cliff edge to collapse beneath him, he falls down towards a bed of sharply pointed rock "needles", but Nick manages to pull him back just in time. Captain Randle arrives, and Nick accuses him of being the missing classmate Johnny Nadler and the perpetrator of the murders. He uses the fact that 'Randle' is an anagran of Nadler and that 'The Silver Medal' was because he had always come second. He admits the crimes, explaining his motive: he was always in second place, originally at school, where he came second in all subjects, and then in life, second place with patents, in job interviews and so on. He traces it back to his time at school, and set up cunning traps to kill all his classmates appropriately. Rory, 1st in Maths, was "divided"; Sylvie, 1st in Chemistry was poisoned; Janet, 1st in French was stabbed with the French icon, the Eiffel Tower; Libby, 1st in Geography was killed by a model globe; Brenda, 1st in Music was killed by an organ pipe; Eric, 1st in History, was shot by an old pistol, Mark, 1st in Sport, was impaled by a javelin; and Tim, 1st in Needlework, should die on the rock needles. Johnny is about to kill them both, and Tim rolls of the Cliff but then in the nick of time Eric Draper, who survived the shot, hits him with a blunderbuss. It is then revealed Tim was caught in a gorse bush and survived. The Diamond brothers, Eric and a well tied up Johnny sail the ship back to the mainland, having radioed the police to pick up Johnny. Tim apologizes for suspecting Nick, who forgives him. Tim then says he can't sit down, as the Gorse bush means his bottom is full of needles. |
A Escrava Isaura | Bernardo Guimarães | null | Isaura, daughter of a Portuguese worker and a freed black woman, is an enslaved girl that endured hard times before she was freed and finally married her star-crossed lover, Álvaro. Meanwhile she suffered greatly at the hands of Leôncio Almeida, the landlord of a plantation and main antagonist in the plot, who wanted to make her a concubine. She even became briefly engaged to the humpback dwarf Melchior and almost married him to avoid prostitution, before Álvaro came in her aid. |
Menino de engenho | José Lins do Rego | null | Carlos Melo, or Carlinhos, narrates in first person, in a nostalgic manner, the childhood spent in the plantation Santa Rosa. When his father was sent to a mental house after killing his mother, Carlinhos moved from Recife to Santa Rosa, in the plantation that belonged to his grandfather, Coronel José Paulino. Carlinhos' childhood was divided between "good" and "evil": in the company of his aunt his behavior was more gentle (the "good"); living with his cousins, he was extroverted and libertine (the "evil"). Living in the plantation, Carlinhos became familiar with the social inequalities between the plantation masters and their employees; in addition, he almost joined the Cangaço (he even asked the bandit Antônio Silvino to let him follow the group). There Carlinhos also came to know love, first with his cousin Lili, who died as a child and later with another cousin, Maria Clara, who lived in Recife and spent a few days visiting the plantation. Maria Clara was a little older than Carlinhos and told him about all the fun and new things that happened in the city. But the romance didn't last long, as the cousin went back to Recife. Soon after, Carlinhos lost his "second mother": his aunt Maria got married and the boy was left to the care of his cold and strict aunt Sinhazinha. However, aunt Sinhazinha's austerity made Carlinhos even more libertine: the boy, only twelve years old, caught gonorrhea. His relatives then decided to "set him straight" by sending him to school. pt:Menino de Engenho |
The Paper Bag Princess | Robert Munsch | 1,981 | Princess Elizabeth plans on marrying Prince Ronald, who is practically perfect. However, a dragon arrives who destroys her kingdom, kidnaps Ronald, and burns all her clothes so that she has no choice but to wear a paper bag. Elizabeth follows the dragon and Ronald, and seeking to rescue her fiancé, challenges the dragon to burn forests with fire and to fly around the world. The dragon completes the tasks but after flying around the world a second time becomes tired and falls asleep. Elizabeth rescues Ronald, who is ungrateful and tells her to return when she looks more like a princess. Elizabeth realizes that she is better off without Ronald and sets off into the sunset to live her own life. |
Afternoon Men | Anthony Powell | null | Afternoon Men is divided into three sections: "Montage," "Perihelion," and "Palindrome." In the first, we are introduced to Atwater and his circle of acquaintances. We are also given a comically restrained view of the trials and tribulations of a museum clerk’s working day. In the middle section, Atwater seems to make headway with his courtship of Susan Nunnery. Highlights in this section include the mechanical seduction of Lola, and the attendance of a boxing match by Atwater and Susan. The final section centers on a retreat to the country by a number of the principals during which several unexpected physical consummations occur and much humour is drawn from the apparent absurdity of many conventions of polite manners and proper behaviour. The novel ends in a kind of ricorso leaving Atwater in more or less the same emotional state in which he began, as suggested by the subtitle, “Palindrome.” All information in this article has been vetted by members of The Anthony Powell Society (http://www.anthonypowell.org). |
From a View to a Death | Anthony Powell | null | Arthur Zouch, portrait painter and self-declared "superman," comes to stay at Passenger Court, ostensibly to paint the portrait of the younger Passenger daughter, Mary, but in no small part on the lookout for any opportunity he can find to improve either his social, financial, or sexual satisfaction. At Passenger court, he finds opportunity for all three, but he also finds unanticipated conflict in the person of Vernon Passenger, also a self-proclaimed "superman." Meanwhile, the neighboring Fosdick family – the Major, his sons Torquil and Jasper – carry on a seemingly perpetual feud with the Passengers that is as often characterized by displays of better manners and more proper etiquette as it is by bad temper and argument. Joanna Brandon, a local young woman, further complicates the lives of several of the principals; she may be Powell’s most sensitively rendered female character. The novel moves through ten chapters toward an inescapable denouement, though never tipping its hand as to precisely how the foreshadowing of the title shall be brought to fruition. The parallel plots (at times almost Lear-like in the development of the neighbouring families) reach a double climax from which only one ‘superman’ can emerge. |
Agents and Patients | Anthony Powell | null | Blore-Smith, a young Londoner with more money than sense, feels himself to be living a dull life. A chance meeting with Peter Maltravers (an aspiring filmmaker) and Oliver Chipchase (an amateur psychologist) sends Blore-Smith on a voyage, ostensibly of self-discovery, during which he is analyzed by Chipchase and becomes a patron of the arts by funding a Maltravers film. The “two knaves” bring Blore-Smith to art galleries, to restaurants, to Paris—at each stage extracting both money and entertainment from their ‘patient’. Blore-Smith falls in love with Maltravers’ wife, Sarah (a motoring enthusiast), becomes entangled with Mrs Mendoza (Mendie), whose flower shop, la cattleya, evokes Proust, and eventually travels with Maltravers and Chipchase to Berlin, where he observes first-hand the workings of the cinema. A film is being prepared with several different endings, each catering to the self-perception of the nation in which it will be shown. The novel returns to a country estate for its conclusion. The end of Blore-Smith’s saga is ambiguous: perhaps he has gained something valuable from his experiences; perhaps he has not yet reached the point of intellectual development at which he can recognize his gains. The novel remains Burtonesque, clearly showing that the persistent belief that life does have something else to offer, no matter what one may currently have, is the essence of melancholy. |
What's Become of Waring | Anthony Powell | null | The novel is narrated by an anonymous publishing firm employee, who is himself working on a book about Stendhal and violence. At a seance, an apparent warning is received that something is wrong with bestselling travel writer, T.T. Waring. Waring, anticipating Thomas Pynchon in his insistence on privacy and anonymity, is soon confirmed dead. Through various efforts to bring out an official life of Waring, many secrets are slowly revealed, especially concerning Waring’s identity and the sources of his travel literature. The inner workings and tensions of the publishing business (in which Powell was himself employed for about a decade) and the assortment of individuals brought together through a shared interest in spiritualism provide many opportunities for developing conflicting personal desires amongst the various characters. The novel ends with a series of comic reversals, not untinged with melancholy, and the narrator’s realization that most of life involves the pursuit of power. |
The Driver's Seat | Muriel Spark | 1,970 | Lise is a spinster, working in an accountancy firm somewhere in Northern Europe, probably Denmark (the location is not explicitly specified). Spark described The Driver's Seat as a 'whydunnit' (and she uses the term in the novel). This is because in the novel's third chapter it is revealed that Lise will be murdered. Hence Spark's novel is an examination, not of what events take place but why they do so. Lise's strangeness and her isolation is mirrored in Spark's detached narrative. It is eventually revealed that Lise has suffered years of illness; her erratic and often confrontational behaviour and her garishly clashing, provocative clothing continually alert the reader of this. Lise travels to a South European city, apparently Naples, ostensibly to meet her illusory boyfriend. But her quest is more complex: it is not merely for acknowledgement, but also annihilation (she admits that I wish my parents had practised birth control) and ultimately the story is about a woman seeking to control her own death. The Driver's Seat is a study in the alienation and isolation of modern life, in which trendy New Age "lifestyles" replace genuine spirituality and in which chaos and absurdity replaces the moral certainty of the God-ordered world. Deprived of these values and existing in a small, sterile, impersonal world (reflected in her blandly expensive, utilitarian flat), Lise is driven to search not for her ideal lover but her ideal death. Spark perverts the traditional fairy tale romance, denying the reader the comfort that the perfect love affair is the antidote to the empty isolation of modern life. In its place she raises a series of thought-provoking, disturbing questions about the nature of female victimisation and empowerment and the debasement of social and spiritual values in modern society. |
The Fairy Godmother | Mercedes Lackey | 2,004 | It is about a young woman named Elena, the daughter of a wealthy gentleman. After the death of her mother, her father married a devious social climber with two daughters of her own. Not long after the marriage, Elena's father dies and her stepmother relegates her into the position of a house servant. She seems to be the perfect Cinderella candidate, except the prince of the land is many years younger than she - he is eleven. Also, she is 21, when most fairy-tale endings for girls normally happen at 16 or 18. One day, Elena's stepmother and stepsisters plan a temporary excursion out of town, for the purpose of ensnaring a new rich husband so they can pay the numerous debts they owe. Left alone in the house, Elena goes to the hiring fair in hopes of finding work as a servant. At the end of the day, a fairy godmother appears and offers to take Elena on as her apprentice. Elena accepts and moves to the godmother's cottage, where she meets the four brownies that help with household duties. The latter half of the book deals with Elena's time as a full-fledged godmother and her problems with turning an arrogant prince named Alexander into a decent person. |
Affinity | Sarah Waters | 1,999 | Margaret Prior (also called "Peggy" and "Aurora"), an unmarried woman from an upper-class family, visits the Millbank Prison in the 1870s Victorian era England. The protagonist is an overall unhappy person, recovering from her father's death and her subsequent failed suicide attempt and struggling with her lack of power living at home with her over-involved mother despite being almost 30. She becomes a "Lady Visitor" of the prison, hoping to escape her troubles and be a guiding figure in the lives of the female prisoners. As she peers through a flap in the door, entranced by the sight of a young woman with a flower, she is reminded of a Carlo Crivelli painting. Of all her friendships with prisoners, she is most fascinated by this woman, who she learns to be Selina Dawes, medium of spirits. |
The Millstone | null | null | Set in not-yet-quite Swinging London, The Millstone focuses on the life of Rosamund Stacey, an attractive Cambridge graduate who is writing her thesis on early English poetry while living alone in the spacious flat of her parents, who have gone to Africa for a year on a philanthropic mission. While Rosamund is convinced of both her qualities as a literary historian and her Socialist—and in particular Fabian—ideals, she is rather reluctant when it comes to sex. To avoid being considered old-fashioned or priggish, she has managed to make her small but intimate circle of friends believe that she is carrying on with two men at the same time whereas in fact she is still a virgin and only enjoys her two male friends' company. Each of the men also thinks that she is sleeping with the other one so neither of them presses her to have sex with him. In a pub Rosamund meets George Matthews, a newsreader for BBC Radio, and at once feels attracted to him although she is quite sure right from the start that he is gay. They end up in her flat and eventually have sex. As George is also under the impression that she has two lovers, Rosamund has no need to hide the fact that this is in fact her first time. Too shy to tell him that she has fallen in love with him, and now believing that he is bisexual, she lets George vanish from her life as quickly as he entered it, in the ensuing months only occasionally listening to his voice on the radio. When she learns that she is pregnant, a whole new world opens up to her. While she decides against telling George or writing to her parents in order not to unnecessarily upset them, she hopes she will get moral support from her sister Beatrice and her husband, who have three small children themselves. However, in a letter to her sister Beatrice expresses her shock and disbelief and urges Rosamund either to have an abortion or to give birth to the baby and put it up for adoption immediately afterwards, and then carry on with her life and academic career as if nothing had happened. After a half-hearted attempt at inducing a miscarriage, she decides to have the baby and be one of the women Bernard Shaw refers to as "women who want children but no husband". Her friends take the news well and without asking too many questions about the identity of the father, who, they secretly assume, must be one of her two lovers. Rosamund, however, stops seeing the two men and focuses on her work and her pregnancy. She finds a true friend in Lydia Reynolds, a young novelist who happily takes her up on her offer to share her flat with her in return for the occasional babysitting job once her child has been born. For the first time in her life Rosamund has to deal with the National Health Service and all its inadequacies. When her daughter is born, she decides to name her Octavia after Octavia Hill. When she is only a few months old, Octavia is found to have a serious condition of the pulmonary artery, and surgery is unavoidable. However, the operation turns out to be successful, and Rosamund is allowed to take her daughter home after weeks of anxiety. Lydia, who is now having an affair with one of Rosamund's former "lovers," still lives with her even after Octavia, just for a few minutes left to her own devices, has crawled into Lydia's room and partly ripped, partly chewed up a major part of the typescript of her new novel. Rosamund's parents are informed about the existence of their grandchild through a letter from Octavia's surgeon, who happens to be an old acquaintance of theirs, but they tactfully decide not to disturb their daughter's new life and stay abroad for another year rather than return for Christmas as planned. The final scene of the novel takes place late at night on Christmas Eve, when Rosamund has to go to an all-night chemist's near her flat to get some medicine for Octavia. There, she has a chance meeting with George, and again invites him up to her flat. Rosamund lies about the age of Octavia, so that George will not suspect that she might be his. Reluctantly, George is persuaded to have a look at the sleeping Octavia, pronounces her a beautiful baby, and leaves again. |
Coroner's Pidgin | Margery Allingham | 1,945 | Just returned from years overseas on a secret mission, Albert Campion is relaxing in his bath when his servant Magersfontein Lugg and a lady of unmistakably aristocratic bearing appear in his flat carrying the corpse of a woman. At first Campion is unwilling to get involved, but he is forced to bring his powers of detection to bear on the case, and to solve not only the mystery of the murdered woman but also the alarming disappearance of some well-known art treasures. Campion discovers the clue to the mystery by tracing two bottles of a very rare wine. |
The Tiger in the Smoke | Margery Allingham | 1,952 | Jack Havoc, ex-army, jail-breaker and knife artist, is on the loose on the streets of London once again. In the faded squares of shabby houses, in the furtive alleys and darkened pubs, the word is out that he is back in town, more vicious and cunning than ever. It falls to Albert Campion and Inspector Charles Luke to pit their wits against the killer and hunt him down through the city's November smog before it is too late. Havoc's pursuit of a "treasure" leads him from London ("the Smoke") to Normandy. There Havoc discovers that the treasure is not what he thought it was. The book climaxes in his death. |
The Eye of Night | null | null | The narrative concerns the adventures of Jereth, a self-doubting priest, and Hwynn, the young woman who protects the Eye of Night, a jewel that is connected with what appears to be an impending apocalypse. The story is woven with themes of Daoist balance and Christian Resurrection. |
The Beckoning Lady | Margery Allingham | 1,955 | Campion’s glorious summer in Pontisbright is blighted by death. Amidst the preparations for Minnie and Tonker Cassand’s fabulous summer party a murder is discovered and it falls to Campion to unravel the intricate web of motive, suspicion and deduction with all his imagination and skill. |
The Spear | null | null | The book deals with a neo-Nazi cult in Britain and an international conspiracy which includes a right-wing US general and a sinister arms dealer, and their obsession with and through the occult with resurrecting Heinrich Himmler. |
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Volume 1: The Pox Party | Matthew Tobin Anderson | 2,006 | The greater part of the story is told by a boy named Octavian, who grew up with his mother Cassiopeia, an African princess, in a house full of philosophers and scientists in colonial Boston. Under the watchful eyes of Mr. Gitney, also known as 03-01, Octavian has received a classical education as well as a musical education which has made him into an extremely skilled violinist. Octavian eventually comes to understand the price of his powdered wigs and education: he is not only the "property" of Mr. Gitney, but he is also being used as an experiment to test whether the African race is inferior to the European race. In time, Cassiopeia angers the scientists' benefactor and the Society loses its monetary support. The two are forced to go under the new watchful eye of Richard Sharpe, who cuts Octavian off from his books. It is later revealed that Richard Sharpe works for a group of colonial businessmen, who now fund the house where Octavian is held. These businessmen own slaves, and it is strongly implied that Sharpe is attempting to bias the experiment with Octavian in order to prove that Africans are inferior. He does this by stopping most of Octavian's education and making him work in the house. When the political unrest that would later spur the American Revolution begins to seep into the Gitney household, Gitney decides to move into the countryside outside of Boston, and then hold a Pox Party. Each attendee is infected with the pox, with the hope that under this controlled circumstance they will have only benign cases. Gitney also wants to both weaken and quarantine his slaves when he begins to hear talk of a slave revolt. Cassiopeia, however, is killed by the pox, and after her death is dissected by the scientists in the house. Octavian discovers what the scientists are doing and in his anger flees the house, and ends up in the Colonial Army. Octavian's military adventures are narrated mostly in epistolary form by Private Evidence Goring in letters to his sister Fruition. Octavian is eventually recaptured, and back at the Gitney house he is kept chained and completely alone. When Sharpe and Gitney, as well as his former classics teacher Dr. Trefusis, eventually decide to speak with him, Octavian is furious to discover that, with many of their funds coming from plantation owners in Virginia, they are counting on Octavian to fail, and to prove the "inferiority" of the African race. |
The Night Watch | Sarah Waters | 2,006 | Kay Kay Langrish is a woman in her mid-thirties who dresses in trousers and spends her days locked in her room in London, watching her landlord's patients arrive and leave at precisely the same hours every day. She stops to notice an elderly gentleman and his young companion, a boy who seems no older than twenty five. She spends her days watching in this manner, assuming that nobody sees her watching. During a visit with one of her war-time friends, Mickey, it is revealed that Kay is wealthy and her residence in Lavender Hill is both a surprise and a disappointment to Mickey. They vaguely refer to what happened in the war and how difficult it was for Kay to overcome a potential challenge. Mickey is extremely kind and considerate, even when Kay tells her how she spends her evenings since emerging from her self-imposed exile: going to the cinema and watching back-to-back reels. She begins to share an illicit encounter with a drunken woman, but stops herself in fear of Mickey's disapproval and out of disgust for her own self. One night, while waiting for the cinema doors to open, a woman from her past appears and hands to her a gold ring. The exchange takes no longer than a minute or two, but Kay has enough time to notice how thin she has become. Helen Helen and her assistant Viv run a match-making agency for individuals who have either lost their loved one or were disappointed to see how much their sweethearts had changed after the war, and are now in search of someone new. The work itself is not very fulfilling, but their friendship keeps them entertained. On their breaks, Viv often begins to tell Helen something revealing about her past, but stops abruptly. For example, Viv casually mentions her brother, but stops before she divulges anything else. Likewise, Helen neglects to tell Viv about Julia, the woman with whom she is romantically involved. Julia is a published author, and is an upper-class woman, which Helen is not. Helen is also jealous of Ursula, another lesbian who reviewed Julia's latest work on the newspaper, because Julia has been spending a lot of time with her. That night, Helen comes home and finds the house empty. Over the hours that Julia doesn't come home, Helen works herself into a frenzy, until her lover finally arrives cheerful and a bit drunk. Helen picks a fight with Julia, and Julia hashes out her frustration at Helen's incessant jealousy, revealing that she hasn't been able to maintain friendships with any other women because of Helen's jealousy. Julia then asks her rhetorically whether cheating is strictly a concern of those who have cheated in the past. Helen doesn't argue and leaves the room, upset. She goes into the bathroom, cuts her skin with a razor and returns to bed by Julia's side. As the two make up, and Julia drifts into sleep, Helen remembers silk pyjamas she once had in the war. Viv After work, Viv sets off to meet her brother Duncan, who lives with a much older gentleman named Mr Mundy. The three of them meet on a weekly basis for dinner at Mr Mundy's, and Viv always brings a tin of meat for them to share. Their father never attends, although he is aware of their dinners. Duncan shrugs off news of their father, and proceeds to show Viv the latest addition to his antiques collection. He is amused by the history behind the antiques and likes to brag about how he managed to bring the cost down from its original price. Viv politely ends the night and heads for the railway station, but she doesn't go home to her father's. She instead hops inside a car and kisses Reggie. The two are seen together in a car, on a clear day, driving somewhere secluded and out of the city. They have a picnic where they can’t be seen. On the way back, while navigating through atrocious city traffic, Viv spots Kay waiting in the cinema queue and panics. She quickly ducks, makes Reggie manoeuvre like a madman, and finally stops at a quiet street. Viv explains that she saw someone she knew and gets out of the car. Reggie hands her two tins of meat and, irritated, she heaves them back at him and tells him to take them to his wife and children. On the same day that Helen wanted to confide her love for Julia to Viv, the two women receive an unexpected visit from Robert Fraser, Duncan’s old cellmate. He asks to speak with her regarding Duncan, and his present condition: collecting antiques (which Robert finds morbid), living with Mr Mundy, whom both men knew at the prison, and working at a candle factory. It is clear he thinks Duncan ought to be doing more with his life, and wants Viv’s help in getting Duncan out of his shell. Viv dismisses Fraser, feeling as though he thinks she and her father haven’t done enough to help Duncan’s situation and explains that he simply doesn’t know everything. Fraser tags along with Viv, who after first spotting Kay outside the cinema has been coming back to the cinema for a whole week, hoping to see Kay again. The two wait at a café, and when Viv spots Kay, it is Fraser who convinces her to run to Kay. It doesn’t take Viv long to hand Kay a gold band and return to the café. She suddenly feels free, and starts to think of breaking off her affair with Reggie, leaving her job, and living somewhere else by herself. Duncan Duncan accompanies Mr Mundy, or "Uncle Horace," as he referred to him in public, every Tuesday to his Christian Science doctor at Lavender Hill. Upon not seeing Kay standing at the window watching the streets, they comment that "Colonel Barker" isn't there, and proceed inside. Mr Leonard, Kay's landlord, begins the session by soothingly telling Mr Mundy that his arthritis doesn't exist. After having dinner with his sister, Duncan works at the candle factory. It is implied that the boss adores him, and he shies away when a younger co-worker brags about his latest indiscretion and invites Duncan to join him. His boss brings to him a reporter who was doing a story on factories and is surprised to see it's Robert Fraser, his old cellmate, though neither of them explain to the others how they know one another. Before proceeding on his tour of the factory, Fraser hands Duncan his address and asks that he come visit him sometime, which Duncan trashes some time later. When he leaves work, Duncan is surprised to see Fraser waiting for him at the gates. He invites Duncan to a pub by the water, and Duncan reluctantly agrees, mainly because he doesn't want Mr Mundy to worry. The two share two pints of beer, and while Fraser goes off to the bathroom, Duncan suddenly sees two familiar faces looking at him scornfully. Knowing what they’re thinking, he begins to panic, and when Fraser returns, he sees Duncan's state and explains to Duncan that nobody’s looking at him. It is implied that the figures he imagined were related to Alec, a boy he knew before going to prison. Fraser makes several calls at Duncan's for dinner. One night, however, he doesn't show up, and Duncan is quite upset, while Mr Mundy is relieved. Duncan decides to sneak out that night to go to Fraser's, regardless of Mr Mundy’s disapproval. He arrives at Fraser's window, and the two chat. He learns that Fraser didn't come to see him because he'd got caught up with his "date" with Viv. Duncan Duncan has been in prison for three years now, and Viv and her father visit him once a month. Duncan's time is juxtaposed between prison guard Mr Mundy's kind and defeatist demeanor and Fraser's free-thinking, free-acting attitude. Although it is unclear why Duncan's there, his father comments that it should be "that other boy" in there, not Duncan. He is referring to Alec, whom the other prisoners have termed Duncan's "boyfriend." When Fraser asks Duncan about his "boyfriend," Duncan snaps and tells him that Alec was nothing more than his only friend, someone who appreciated the arts just as much as he did. Duncan constantly shrugs off implicit suggestions that he might be gay, even though one night, when Fraser is masturbating, Duncan joins in silently. Despite this, whatever suspicions Fraser has about Duncan's sexuality don't bother him, as the two seem to have a special connection. Towards the end of the chapter, there are indications that Duncan was imprisoned following an attempted suicide. Viv Viv is working as a typist, along with many other girls, and lodges at a boarding house with some of her co-workers. She meets Reggie, who is married, at anonymous hotels once every five weeks, whenever Reggie is permitted leave from Wales. One day she finds her period is one month late, and realizes she is pregnant with Reggie's baby. After she telephones him, she has to wait two weeks for him to take off leave, and when he does he brings her to the office of a dentist who performs clandestine abortions on the side. As a result, Viv suffers a massive haemorrhage and Reggie calls the ambulance. Kay arrives with Mickey. Before they put Viv in the ambulance, Reggie apologizes, and later on, the women realize that he's fled. On the way to the hospital, Viv explains to the women her situation and begs them to remain silent. Upon arrival, Viv becomes afraid that the doctors will learn about the abortion and scorn her for being an unmarried woman. Kay slips her pinkie ring, which she never took off, on to Viv's finger and leaves. She tells the nurses that Viv suffered a miscarriage during one of the air raids and her womb might have been punctured as a result. This is the last time Viv will see Kay for four years. Kay Kay works as an emergency response ambulance worker along with Mickey. She spends long nights cleaning up after air raids, sometimes collecting corpses, at other times rushing victims to the nearest hospital. She lives with her lover, Helen, who she sees as someone she must protect and shelter from the horrors of war. For Helen's birthday, she spends a fortune, about thirteen pounds, buying her silk pyjamas, coffee and an orange. Mickey is stupefied at how much Kay's spent, but Kay responds that someone must spend the Langrish fortune. One night a call comes in to an air raid that has occurred on her street. She assumes Helen's been asleep throughout the entire raid and panics. She runs to the rubble to where her flat used to be and weeps at her loss. One of her co-workers then point out Helen walking with Julia, and she runs to Helen ecstatic and crying. She exclaims, "Oh, Julia! Thank God! I thought I'd lost her." Helen Helen works for the government in a division that assists those who've lost their belongings in the war. By chance she runs into Julia, a woman who was once acquainted with Kay. Julia invites her to tea, and Helen begins to fall in love with her. They discuss how loving, protective, and yet tiresome Kay can be. Julia mentions that Kay wants a wife, and Julia simply couldn't be that wife for Kay. One night Helen is unable to sleep and leaves for Julia's flat. They take a walk around the ruins, and when another air raid alarm is sounded, they run amongst more ruins and hide from the chaos. It is there they kiss and make love for the first time. Their affair continues for some weeks, thanks to Kay's late hours. They are in Julia's flat, and it is then that Helen decides she must tell Kay and break things off with her. She finds she is entirely in love with Julia, and while she cares for Kay, she doesn't love her in the same manner she once used to. It is also then that Julia straightens out her past for Helen: it was Julia, not Kay, who was in love with the other, while the latter didn't feel the same. Julia attributed Helen's misconception to Kay's gallantry, and Helen suddenly feels used, but still finds she can't help her love for Julia. They reconcile and, while they are making love, an air raid hits close to her flat. They dress and make their way to her place, and find Kay sitting on the rubble, weeping. Viv is on a crowded train, filled with civilians and military men. By chance, she meets a soldier named Reggie. They engage in a conversation under awkward circumstances, and he reveals to her that he is stuck in an unhappy marriage, and has had a very limited time to go home and meet his newborn daughter before leaving for overseas. In her earnestness and honesty she falls in love with him. Duncan is asleep in Viv's room when Alec taps on his window. Alec is frantic and panicked, as he has just received his call-up that day. He's argued with his parents earlier over this: he refuses to fight in a war he does't believe in and his "brute" father struck him on the face. Convinced his father will never understand his beliefs, or his appreciation for the arts, he resolves to make a statement by killing himself. He easily convinces Duncan to do the same, since Duncan can't imagine a life without him. Alec writes a suicide note, and decides to slash his throat. He goes before Duncan, who all the while is wishing his father will come into the kitchen and interrupt the entire thing. Alec bids farewell and cuts himself. It is implied that Duncan follows suit, but his father interrupts before much damage is done. Kay is responding to an emergency call along with Mickey. They arrive at the scene and find one woman dead, another young woman caught underneath rubble, and two others trapped behind more debris. Kay helps the young woman, and after a brief exchange, she soon finds herself displaying much care towards her victim. They share a cigarette and Kay finds she's smitten with her. She asks for her name and she tells her it's Helen. |
Savage Night | null | null | The action is narrated by Charles Bigger, who spends most of the novel operating under the alias Carl Bigelow. Bigger has been sent by a mob boss, known simply as The Man, to the small town of Peardale, New York. His mission is to avenge the mistakes of Jake Winroy, a former member of The Man's crime establishment. |
Grotesque | Natsuo Kirino | 2,007 | The book is written in the first person for all parts and follows a woman whose sister and old school friend have been murdered. The narrator of Grotesque is unnamed and forever lives under the shadow of her younger-by-a-year sister Yuriko, who is unimaginably beautiful and the center of all attention. The narrator hates her sister for reasons which remain more-or-less unclear throughout the novel and the writer leaves it to the reader to decide if the narrator's hatred is a product of jealousy or because Yuriko has turned to prostitution and disgraced the family name. While the narrator is smart, responsible and plain looking, Yuriko is strikingly beautiful but flighty and irresponsible. Despite this, everyone is automatically drawn to Yuriko, who, as soon as she is old enough to realize her power on men, starts toying with one man after another, subsequently turning into a full time prostitute. As the novel progresses, the reader is introduced to many other characters with whom the narrator comes in contact at her highly prestigious Q High School. With time, the narrator grows to hate everyone including all her classmates, her parents and all her co-workers. She is particularly spiteful when it comes to Yuriko and one of her classmates Kazue Sato. When both Yuriko and Kazue turn into prostitutes, are murdered less than a year apart and in the same gruesome fashion, and the narrator comes in possession of their personal journals, her life is entwined with theirs and she uncovers truths which she never thought existed. The journals take her on a journey of self discovery where she finally realizes what she wants. She also adopts Yuriko's handsome but blind son, Yurio. In the end, the narrator is seen treading the streets of Japan, looking for a customer as she delves into the mysterious and dark world of prostitution. |
The King of Attolia | Megan Whalen Turner | 2,006 | Eugenides, the one-handed former Thief of Eddis, has married the Queen of Attolia, bringing peace to the two countries and becoming King. But what kind of a king is he? He slouches on his throne, appears to sleep during important briefings, makes snide remarks, wears ridiculous clothes, and refuses to be more than a figurehead, letting the Queen rule as she has always done. The Attolian court resents him as a foreigner, an upstart, and an ineffectual fool. The story is told largely from the point of view of Costis, a young soldier in the Queen's Guard. When the King insults Teleus, captain of the Guard, Costis loses control and knocks the King down. He expects to be executed, but the King spares his life and makes him his reluctant confidant. Costis finds the King maddening, obnoxious, and conniving, but slowly he begins to have some sympathy for Eugenides – a very young man, far from his mountain home in Eddis, married to the beautiful but ruthless Queen. The plot twists and turns through an assassination attempt and various political intrigues involving the traitorous Baron Erondites and his sons; Relius, the Queen’s master of spies; and Eugenides's old enemy, Nahuseresh of the Mede Empire. Costis begins to realize that there is much more to the King than meets the eye. He gains a clearer understanding of the King's abilities, motives, and complex relationship with the Queen. With this knowledge, Costis finds his own life and reputation at risk. Surprising revelations continue throughout the book, as the fate of three nations hinges on Eugenides's internal struggle to accept his own destiny and truly be the King of Attolia. |
Sons | Pearl S. Buck | 1,933 | As Wang Lung lies near death, his family prepares for his funeral, including the first two of his three sons. They send for their brother and are surprised to see him leading a band of soldiers into the town. After he left home near the end of The Good Earth, he joined the army of a warlord and quickly rose in the ranks. Once Wang Lung is dead and buried and his land divided among the sons, they find themselves drawn together in unusual ways even as they drift apart. Wang the Third (“The Tiger”) demands that his brothers (Eldest, Nung En, “The Landlord,” and Second, Nung Wen, “The Merchant”) sell his share and give him his inheritance in silver, and also asks to borrow as much money as they can lend him. He needs the funds in order to break away from the warlord and set himself up with an army of his own. Since he has no sons, he asks his brothers to send him some of theirs, receiving one from each of them. The Merchant’s smallpox-scarred oldest son quickly proves himself a useful aide, but the Landlord’s dainty second son hates life as a soldier and hangs himself during a visit to the family home. As time passes, the Landlord is forced to sell much of his share of the land in order to support his family’s lavish lifestyle, with the Merchant buying the best tracts for himself. The Tiger leads his men north, into the territory of a cruel warlord known as the Leopard, and kills him with the help of a trap prepared by the county magistrate. His men take over the Leopard’s large army, which begins to collect taxes from the local population. The Tiger also captures a hostile young woman who had been the Leopard’s consort and imprisons her for a time, then releases her after putting an end to the corruption in the magistrate’s courts. He is surprised when she – now greatly calmed – decides to remain with him and become his wife. At the same time, power struggles have begun to grow between the Chinese ruler and local warlords, some of whom want to depose him. The Tiger calls on the Merchant to smuggle guns into the country for his growing army, but his wife tries to divert them to a band of robbers, for which he kills her. He later takes two new wives and leads his forces southeast to lay siege to the capital of a coastal territory and unseat its warlord. Upon returning to his first stronghold, he discovers that his wives have given birth to his first two children, a son and a daughter. The death of old Lotus, the concubine Wang Lung took decades ago, coupled with the Tiger’s disgust at his brothers and their sons, prompts him to try to do better by his own son. The Tiger begins to introduce him to military life with the goal of eventually putting him in command of the army, but the boy shows more interest in farming as Wang Lung did. Upon learning that one of his top aides is plotting to rebel against him, the Tiger storms the coastal capital to kill him, but the man commits suicide first. A severe famine strikes much of the countryside, and the Tiger is forced to deal harshly with his hungry men and turn to his brothers for help. At this time, Wang Lung’s mentally retarded daughter (the “Poor Fool”) dies, further fueling the Tiger’s son’s interest in the land on which she had lived. The rift between the two grows when the boy turns fifteen and his father sends him to a military school; four years later, the Tiger is shocked to see him wearing the uniform of an army that is fighting a revolution against the government and the warlords. However, the young man does not intend to battle his father as an enemy, but rather to hide among the rural farmers until the upheaval has ended. The Tiger is left to reconcile himself to the fact that both his life and his son’s have turned out far differently than he had planned. ja:息子たち |
A House Divided | Pearl S. Buck | 1,935 | Shortly after the confrontation between Wang the Tiger and his son Wang Yuan at the end of Sons, Yuan travels to the old earthen house where his grandfather Wang Lung had lived. He intends merely to hide here for a while and wait out the revolution in which he had been fighting. However, the local farmers believe that he will bring trouble from either his father or his uncles, whose high rents leave them in near-poverty. Yuan’s mother persuades him to return home with a claim that the Tiger is deathly ill; in reality, this is a ploy to lead him into marriage. He flees to a coastal city where his sister Ai-lan – now a young woman who has thrown off traditional Chinese customs – is living with her mother, who asks Yuan to consider her his foster mother. Here he befriends two of his cousins, the aspiring poet Sheng and the activist Meng, and starts to keep watch on Ai-lan since his foster mother worries that her carefree lifestyle may lead her into trouble. Yuan enrolls at a school in the city and soon discovers that many of its students are activists like Meng, who tries to recruit him to the same revolutionary cause that he fled earlier. The following spring, he takes an agriculture class, for which he has to tend a plot of land in the countryside. Here he gets his first real taste of farm life, trading knowledge and tips with a farmer to the benefit of both. As the term continues, he becomes attracted to a female student, one of the activists, and struggles to reconcile these feelings with his strict upbringing at the Tiger’s hands. The Tiger’s determination to have Yuan married drives him to rejoin the revolution. As his relationship with the female activist deteriorates due to her jealousy, the uprising spreads through China and the government begins to crack down in every city. When she is caught, she readily betrays Yuan, leading to his arrest as Meng flees for his life. After three days in custody, he is released thanks to large bribes paid by his family; he and Sheng then travel by ship to the West Coast of the United States, having received word from Meng that he is safe. Yuan spends the next six years in America, throwing himself into his studies to earn an agriculture degree from a prestigious college. Almost as soon as he arrives, he is struck by differences between Americans and Chinese, especially in their attitudes toward the land on which they live. Scattered instances of racism, prejudice, and class discrimination combine with Yuan’s pride in his heritage to breed within him a subtle hatred of American culture. One of his teachers, Dr. Henry Wilson, befriends Yuan and introduces him to his wife and his daughter Mary. The elder Wilsons try to convert him to Christianity, unsettling him greatly, but he finds common ground with Mary, who respects her parents’ faith even though she does not share it. Their relationship grows closer for a time, but falls apart when Mary kisses Yuan, whose pride will not allow him to tolerate physical relations between Chinese and non-Chinese. Soon afterward, he receives news that the revolution in his country has started to claim innocent victims, and he sets out for home once he has completed his degree. Upon his return, Yuan finds that six years have greatly changed both the country and his family. Ai-lan is about to marry a divorced man whose baby she is carrying, while Meng has become a captain in the revolutionary forces. While traveling by train to visit the Tiger, he is revolted by the squalor that still persists in poor and rural areas. The meeting itself delivers a new shock: the Tiger financed his release from jail and his studies abroad with large sums borrowed from Wang the Merchant, Yuan’s younger uncle, and has little hope of paying him back. Yuan is expected to find a good job for himself and the Merchant’s sons and repay the debt from his wages, but he rebels at the idea even as part of his nature accepts this duty to the older generation. Mei-ling, a foundling girl taken in by Yuan’s foster mother years ago, has grown into a beautiful young woman and is studying medicine. She turns down his offer of marriage, explaining her determination to become a doctor; this rejection prompts him to move to the country’s new capital and become a schoolteacher. However, the school building is falling apart and Yuan is poorly paid, making it difficult for him to work off his father’s debt. In addition, Meng brings news that some of his colleagues are planning to rebel against their commanders and start a new revolution, one that will truly sweep away the distinctions between rich and poor. Yuan visits the family for the New Year celebration, during which Sheng returns from America and Ai-lan delivers a son. During the festivities, Mei-ling sees him carousing as Sheng often does and berates him sharply, saying that he has become as decadent as the idle rich before the revolution came. Not long after the holiday, the Merchant’s son comes to Yuan badly injured and bearing terrible news: robbers and peasants have banded together, tortured the Tiger, and looted the great town house that Wang Lung bought when he became rich. Yuan travels to Wang Lung’s earthen house, where he finds the Tiger slowly dying from his wounds. Mei-ling soon arrives, accompanied by Yuan’s foster mother, to make the old man as comfortable as possible in his final hours. Yuan and Mei-ling reconcile, share a kiss, and realize that they are free to follow ancient traditions or foreign customs as they see fit. As they stand at the doorway of the house, Yuan in the same kind of coarse blue cotton clothing his grandfather always wore, he muses, "We two—we two—we need not be afraid of anything." ja:分裂せる家 |
The 13th Spy | null | null | The story takes place in summer 1965. A missing American CIA agent is drugged and crashes his car into the GUM shop in Red Square, Moscow. He is carrying verbatim transcripts of top secret meetings held in Russian and Chinese Government offices and embassies around the world. The Russians accuse the US of stealing official secrets and passing them to the Chinese to destabilize USSR-China relations. The Russians agree to let AXE investigate the security leak in Moscow. Secret agent Nick Carter posing as a US government electronics expert, Tom Slade, is sent to investigate. Knowing that Russian agents will be shadowing Slade at all times, Carter arranges to switch identity with another AXE agent already in Moscow who is undercover posing as a Russian literature student, Ivan Kokoschka. Disguised as Kokoschka, Carter stakes out the headquarters of the Russian intelligence service trying to work out how it had been bugged. He notes that the building is under constant surveillance by men parked outside the building. He follows them to a Chinese antiques shop. Carter is captured and tortured in the basement under the shop by members of the Brothers Twelve – a Chinese spy ring operating in Moscow. Carter is drugged, given a dossier of confidential information, and released close to the US Embassy in Moscow. The Russian secret police are tipped off, apparently by Chinese embassy staff, that a US spy is on his way to the US Embassy for protection and that they should act quickly if they want to catch him and recover the secret documents in his possession. The Russians capture Carter and interrogate him discovering that he is Slade/Kokoschka. Carter is informed that the Chinese antique shop and basement have been searched without finding anything suspicious. Carter and Dimitri Smirnov (chief commissar of Russian intelligence) search the meeting room of the Russian intelligence services and discover that a recently renovated painting has had a miniaturized microphone and transmitter embedded into it. Carter and Smirnov discover that other renovated fittings have been tampered with and trace suspects to a warehouse in Moscow. Carter and Valentina Sichikova (chief assistant commissar of Russian intelligence) follow the suspects to the warehouse. Carter finds the remaining members of the Brothers Twelve packing their secret documents and tapes and preparing to depart. Chou Tso-Lin, leader of the Brothers Twelve, escapes after rigging the warehouse to explode with Sichikova still inside. During a car chase through the outskirts of Moscow Carter forces Chou's car off the road and into the Moscow River. Carter returns to the burnt-out warehouse to find that Valentina has survived the explosion. |
Elizabeth and After | Matt Cohen | null | Story is about the lives of a few people living in a small town north of Kingston, Ontario. Carl McKelvey, a "white trash male" as he describes himself, returns to the town after a three-year absence in the hope that he can live with his daughter again, and maybe even renew his relationship with his ex-wife, Chrissy. He carries deep in his heart his guilt of having driven his car into a tree, killing his mother, Elizabeth, many years ago. Elizabeth's sudden death ended not only an unhappy marriage she had with William McKelvey, a failed farmer, but also a secret relationship she had with Adam Goldsmith, Carl's real father. Elizabeth might have felt that the uncultured McKelvey ruined her life, or she might be too frightened to ruin her life herself by leaving him. In any case, her life has affected McKelvey, Adam and Carl so deeply that her influence is still felt eleven years later. When Carl is attacked by Fred (Chrissy's boyfriend), Adam, even though reserved and gentle-natured, decides to do something for his son. Adam takes Fred in his car and drives him into the same tree that Elizabeth's car crashed into eleven years earlier. Both Adam and Fred are killed instantly. Carl learns about his relationship with Adam in a letter Adam left for him. |
Fall from Grace | Andrew Greeley | 1,993 | Kathleen meets a former lover and he is her only chance of salvation. Kieran O'Kerrigan is a psychiatrist and Kathleen asks him to undertake AIDS tests on her and her three children. Kieran starts to uncover the abuse that Kathleen is receiving from her husband and the two start to fall in love. Kieran also gets drawn into the child sex abuse scandal. Gerry Greene is a popular parish priest and school principal. He was implicated in a police report from several years earlier concerning the sodomy of two twelve-year-old boys in a Chicago suburb by a priest. He was never prosecuted but was just moved to another parish. New allegations have surfaced concerning the assault and attempted rape of two fourth graders. One boy's parents were paid off and moved away, but Kevin and Helen O'Malley were determined to seek justice for their abused son Jack. Jack was repeatedly abused, physically and sexually, by Greene, yet the Church's lawyers try to bully his parents into withdrawing the charges. Kieran visits the O'Malleys and finds Jack an 'adorable little boy' and believes him and his parents. Kieran learns that Jack only told when Greene demanded that he bring in other children he fancied. A janitor is then found who claims to have witnessed Greene raping boys in the basement. Kieran also learns that the boy whose family was paid off has developed serious behavioral problems. |
Rival Lovers | null | null | The rival erastai of the title are a devotee of wrestling and athletics, who disparages philosophy as shameful nonsense, and a young man who cultivates mousikē (a term embracing music, poetry, and philosophy). As the dialogue opens, they are quarrelling, at a grammarian's school in the presence of the boy they love and of other boys and young men, over the question whether philosophizing is noble and admirable (kalon). Socrates inserts himself into the quarrel. When he begins by questioning the musical rival's claim to know what philosophizing is, he gets the answer that philosophy is polymathy. With the help of the athletic rival, who knows that the good of exercise depends on being done in the right amount (not the maximum amount), Socrates points out that the same is true of most good things, and turns to asking what kind of things the one who philosophizes (loves wisdom) ought to learn, if the object is not simply to know all or many things (135a). The musical rival suggests that the philosopher, while not needing to bother himself with the hands-on practicalities (cheirourgia, 135b), should aspire to a level of understanding in all the arts (technai) such that he is second only to the expert in that particular field—still a kind of polymathy. Socrates challenges this suggestion by forcing the would-be philosopher to admit that, in any conceivable particular circumstance, the philosopher would be useless in comparison to a true expert on the matter (e.g., a physician or a ship's pilot). Accordingly, Socrates develops an alternative account of the philosopher's proper interest, based on the premise that goodness (which the interlocutors have agreed in ascribing to philosophy) depends critically on the knowledge how to make good and to tell good from bad, which is also the knowledge needed to deal out punishments. This knowledge, the musical rival agrees, is the knowledge of the one who serves as judge (hē dikastikē epistēmē, 137d). Socrates goes on to argue that this knowledge can be identified with justice, self-control, and self-knowledge, and with the arts practiced by the statesman, the king (or tyrant), and the head of a household (or master). The conclusion is that these are all in fact just one art (138c), one of paramount importance, in which the philosopher must be supreme. When Socrates first met the rival lovers, he put little hope in conversation with the athletics enthusiast, who professed experience "in deeds (erga) and not in words (logoi)" (132d). But at the end he wins the crowd's applause by having shut up the "wiser" young man, so that it is the athletic rival who agrees with Socrates' conclusions (139a). The entire story of the discussion is told in the first person by Socrates, without any interruption or indication what audience he addresses. At just over seven Stephanus pages, Rival Lovers is one of the shortest dialogues in the Thrasyllan canon of Plato's works (about the same length as Hipparchus, with only Clitophon being shorter). |
Crooked Little Vein | Warren Ellis | 2,007 | Michael McGill, a burned-out private eye is hired by a corrupt White House Chief of Staff to find a second "secret" United States Constitution, which had been lost in a whorehouse by Richard Nixon. What follows is a scavenger hunt across America, exposing its seedier side along the way. McGill is joined by surreal college student side-kick, Trix, who is writing a thesis on sexual fetishes. McGill has to deal with strange events sometimes unrelated to his adventures – he describes himself as a 'shit-magnet', with weird phenomena following him wherever he goes. |
Keeper | Mal Peet | 2,003 | Paul Faustino, a journalist for La Nación, is interviewing El Gato about his recent World Cup win. During the interview, El Gato tells Faustino about his teenage years and his entry into soccer. When El Gato tells Faustino that he is coached by a ghost known to El Gato as "the Keeper," Faustino thinks El Gato is lying to him. However, El Gato seems honest and looks like he is telling the truth. El Gato continues to tell the interviewer his story. As a teenager, he secretly trains with the Keeper in an abandoned soccer field hidden in the rainforest. The young El Gato convinces his parents his time in the rainforest is the result of his fascination with nature. His family takes him for a naturalist, buying him collection materials and calling him "Professor." The charade continues until El Gato turns 15, when he is expected to start working in the logging industry with his father. He does not tell the Keeper that he will no longer come to practice. His first Saturday at work he finds out that his co-workers play a game of soccer after work. His co-workers invite him to play as the goalkeeper and, in his first game since his training with the Keeper, he helps his team win. The next Saturday, he plays with a new player who the others call "El Ladron", meaning "the thief." In reality, El Ladron is a director for a soccer camp named DSJ. He also brings the owners of the team, Mr. and Mrs. DaSilva to the games. They want to sign El Gato for a two year contract and give him 10,000 dollars. This begins his professional soccer career. Finally, El Gato reveals to Paul Faustino that he cheated in the second last penalty shot of the World Cup. El Gato tells Faustino that he wants the interview to be a book. Faustino hesitates because he has to give this interview to his boss. However, he changes his mind and helps El Gato turn his interview into a book. El Gato eventually quits soccer and becomes a naturalist, just as his parents had always imagined. At the end of the novel, El Gato explains the Keeper's history as a real player. |
Mr. Fairlie's Final Journey | August Derleth | 1,968 | The book concerns the investigation into the death of Jonas Fairlie, who was murdered on a train while on his way to consult Solar Pons. To solve the mystery, Pons and his companion, Dr. Lyndon Parker, travel to Fairlie's home town of Frome, Somerset and from there to Scotland (Pons only), Cheltenham in Gloucestershire and finally to a remote area on the coast of Wales. |
La Anam | Ihsan Abdel Quddous | null | The novel's main character, Nadia, is a spoiled young woman, whose parents are divorced. Their divorce has led to a strong relationship between Nadia and her father. Her father tries to move on with his life and meets a new woman, Safia, who he quickly falls in love with. Nadia, who feels the loss of her father's love, deliberately tries to ruin his relationship with Safia. Nadia is willing to control others lives and change them just to keep her life the way she wants it. She decides to set up her father with one of her friends, a seductive and promiscuous woman. Her father falls in love with the lady, who is actually having an affair. Meanwhile, Nadia is stuck with a man who is older than she is. |
Tamar | Mal Peet | 2,005 | Part of the book takes place In 1945 Holland, during the last part of World War II. The story centers on two Dutch men codenamed Tamar and Dart, who are agents of a covert military group called the Special Operations Executive, or SOE. In this point in time Holland is occupied by the Nazis, and the Dutch resistance is “a bloody shambles”. Tamar and Dart, his WO (wireless operator), are sent into Holland to organize the different resistance groups into a more cohesive unit. This is Tamar’s second time in Holland as an SOE agent, and he is sent to recover his old alias, Christiaan Boogart. When he arrives he reunites with the woman he fell in love with the first time he was in Holland, Marijke. As the novel continues Dart begins to spend more time with Marijke, and begins to fall in love with her, oblivious to the fact that she and Tamar are in love. After realizing that Tamar and Marijke are involved Dart is described as feeling furious and comes to the conclusion “that it was not her fault. She had been seduced, cynically and deliberately, by the man [Tamar] who should have been protecting her.” Slowly he begins to hate and distrust Tamar. Meanwhile, a group of the resistance led by Koop de Vries open fire on a Nazi vehicle. One of the men they shot turns out to be the head of Nazi internal security in Holland, SS Lieutenant General Hanns Albin Rauter. Rauter is rushed to a hospital and dispatches his deputy to execute the number of Dutch prisoners as there are bullet holes in his car, 243. When Tamar hears about this, and the executions begin, he tracks down Koop and confronts him, telling him “I know where to find you.” As the story continues, Koop and his group are ambushed by the Nazis at their hideout, and everyone is killed except for Koop, who manages to run. At the asylum where Koop receives medical treatment he reveals to Dart that he believes Dart and Tamar have betrayed the resistance. Dart believes he gains Koop’s confidence by telling him “I believe you. I think Tamar betrayed your group.” The two create a plan to get rid of Tamar. Their plan goes smoothly, they kill Tamar, but Koop attacks Dart, and is shot by Marjke. When she sees Tamar’s body “she [throws] her head back and [begins] to howl like an animal.” Eventually Dart convinces Marijke that it is too dangerous to stay in Holland, and the two flee to England. In the prologue of the novel, before Tamar is born, her grandfather, William Hyde, requests her father Jan to name her Tamar. The novel then fast forwards to when Tamar is fifteen-years-old in London, 1995 and lives with her mother after her father, Jan, disappears. Her grandmother, Marijke, is slowly going mentally downhill, and speaks more Dutch than English. Tamar and her mother accompany her grandfather to the assisted living center where her grandmother will be staying. Her grandmother rejects the company of her grandfather and insists on riding only with Tamar “I’m not going with you! I’m staying with Tamar, here with Tamar.” Shortly after her grandmother is sent to the living center her grandfather commits suicide. Tamar takes his death hard, and waits months to go and visit her grandfathers flat with her mother. Once at the flat she finds a box laying on her bed labeled Tamar. Inside the box lay many clues leading to her grandfather’s past. She takes the box to her distant cousin Yoyo (Johannes van Zant) who decides they should follow the clues and see where they lead. In the middle of the plot, during Tamar and Yoyo’s adventure along the Tamar river they slowly start to fall in love with each other, despite their age differences. As the novel continues Tamar and Yoyo explore the river just as Tamar’s father happens upon them, “And I couldn't look at him, because I was watching the other man’s face and he was watching mine,” and invites them into his home. After settling everyone down Tamar’s father begins to unravel the secret he has kept hidden since the day he left Tamar and her mother. He tells Tamar and Yoyo that her supposed grandfather, William Hyde, is not actually her grandfather. Her real grandfather is Tamar (Christaan Boogart) who was killed in World War II by a man named Koop de Vries, and was led to do so by William Hyde, or Dart as he was known during that time. It takes Tamar awhile to take all this in; “I couldn’t imagine how he could have kept all that stuff dammed up inside him all this time without being at least three parts crazy,” and she even forgives Hyde. In the epilogue she ends up marrying Yoyo. |
Letters of Insurgents | Fredy Perlman | 1,976 | The novel is a subtle and complex narrative which takes the form of fictional letters between two Eastern European workers, Yarostan Vochek and Sophie Nachalo, who are separated after a failed revolution. Yarostan spends twelve years in statist jails, while Sophie escapes to the West. After twenty years without contact, they begin to write each other about their experiences, their lives, their hopes, and their memories of the past. |
The Case of Miss Elliot | Baroness Emma Orczy | 1,905 | Despite his vanity about his own talents, Bill Owen is a nondescript armchair detective. A balding, watery-eyed, mild-mannered little man in violently checked tweed, he haunts a corner of the ABC Teashop on the corner of Norfolk Street and the Strand. His listener and protégé is the attractive young journalist Polly Burton. Polly brings him details of obscure crimes baffling the police, which he helps her to solve. She is fascinated by the unlikely unravelings she hears, but despite her sarcasm and pride in her own investigative talents she remains the learner, impressed in spite of herself. Although The Old Man does not hide his upper class attitudes, he sometimes feels sympathy for the criminals. The Old Man's cases include a wide range of sensational and complex detective puzzles: * murder ("The Tremarn Case"), * blackmail ("The Murder of Miss Pebmarsh"), * perfect alibis ("The Case of Miss Elliott"), * and thefts ("The Affair at the Novelty Theatre"). |
The Divine Folly | Baroness Emma Orczy | 1,937 | Two English brothers travel across Europe as members of a secret society that is plotting the assassination of Napoleon III. |
The Wailing Wind | Tony Hillerman | null | When Navajo Tribal Police Officer Bernadette Manuelito investigates an abandoned vehicle in Apache County, Arizona and discovers a body, the available evidence indicates the death is due to natural causes. While awaiting personnel from the medical examiner's office, Officer Manuelito indulges her interest in botany and collects seeds, placing them in an old tobacco tin she finds nearby. But when the body is removed from the vehicle several hours later by medical personnel, it is discovered that the death is a homicide and Officer Manuelito realizes she has inadvertently contaminated or destroyed evidence. Navajo Tribal Police Sergeant Jim Chee, Officer Manuelito's superior officer, contacts retired Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn for advice on how to resolve the destroyed/contaminated evidence problem. This renews Leaphorn's interest in an old case involving Wiley Denton, a Gallup oil and gas magnate who shot and killed, in self-defense it was claimed, Marvin McKay who claimed to have found the famous Golden Calf lost gold mine. When Denton, recently released from prison after serving a short sentence, contacts Leaphorn to find Denton's wife, a friend of Marvin McKay who disappeared the day of the shooting and has not been heard from since, the stage is set for a mystery involving forest fires, protection of Navajo religious sites, lost gold mines, and moth-balled munitions bunkers. |
The Avalon Collection | null | null | Emily Fletcher, Adriane Charday, and Kara Davies, three very different girls-turned-mages (mages are "magic users"), band together to protect and find Avalon, the source of all magic. Each girl has a bonded animal and magic stone; their animal friends help them on their magical journeys through the different worlds along the Magic Web. The safety of the Magic Web, and the worlds it connects, hinges on their success as they battle two main antagonists, the Dark Sorceress and the Spider Witch, who wish to harness the magic of Avalon and distort the Web for their own evil ends. The titular Web of Magic is a web on the magical plane of existence, connecting all worlds with each other through portals. ;Circles in the Stream: Emily, Adriane, and Kara are all drawn to a secret place deep in the woods. It is much harder than it would because Kara will not cooperate! There they discover a portal to another world through which strange and wondrous animals have emerged, searching desperately for the magic that will keep them alive. The animals are peaceful and good, but what follows them through the portal is pure evil. The girls have been chosen by magical beings called Fairimentals to protect the magical animals, though they don't know why. To save them and their world, the three girls must begin a quest to find the lost home of legendary magic, Avalon, or to perish trying. ;All That Glitters: Emily and Adriane have one thing that Kara doesn't—a magic gem. But when Kara finally finds a magic stone of her own—a diamond unicorn horn—it brings more trouble than anyone can handle. Pesky dragonflies start showing up everywhere and new Fairimentals warn of danger. While trying to use the jewel to make her hair stop growing uncontrollably, her hair turns rainbow (See the front of All that Glitters) Worse, a band of terrifying monsters stalk Kara. That and signs of a sorceress keep appearing before Kara! All these creatures come from another world. And all want something from her. Finding out may take Kara, Emily, and Adriane a step closer to Avalon, the source of all magic. But it may also cost one of them her life. ;Cry of the Wolf: Adriane and Stormbringer, the mistwolf, have a unique bond. But is it strong enough to save them when Storm is lured through the portal to Aldenmor, the another world much like Earth where magic still thrives? Adriane thinks it is, and follows Storm to the magical world. There, Adriane faces the challenge of her life as she confronts Moonshadow, the pack leader and the entire mistwolf pack and tries to bring Storm home. The strange boy she meets, Zach, may be able to help her, but she'll need Emily and Kara's magic to survive this battle. ;The Secret of the Unicorn: Aldenmor's problems are worsening. Many new creatures are arriving in Ravenswood through the portal and they report that the Fairy Glen, home of the fairimentals, has vanished. A frightened and wounded unicorn is among the new refugees to Ravenswood. Can Emily communicate with her to offer help? The future of the Magic Web depends upon the dark secret the unicorn carries. All the while, a new terror, a harpy, stalks Emily as she tries to find out about the injured creature. ;Spellsinger: The first benefit concert for the Ravenswood Wildlife Preserve is on and everyone is depending on the event to ensure the Preserve's survival. Kara has booked hottie pop idol Johnny Conrad. But Conrad may be hiding a dangerous secret that threatens the animals, Ravenswood, and the girls themselves. This time, the magic is in the music, and if Emily, Adriane, and Kara can't perform, their chance to find Avalon may be gone forever. ;Trial by Fire: The road to Avalon is about to be revealed. The path is on the fairy map, a sparkling globe of wondrous power. Kara holds the fairy map in her hands, and must use it for the good of all worlds and all animals. But evil stalks Kara. The Dark Sorceress is after the map, too. If she finds Avalon first, people and animals from all worlds are doomed. The time has come for Emily, Adriane and Kara to be the healer, the warrior and the blazing star they were meant to be. They must win this battle—even if it means sacrificing a beloved friend. ;Song of the Unicorns: Emily's dad wants her to vacation with him and his new wife—Emily's new step mom—at a horse ranch in New Mexico. Emily convinces her two friends to accompany her. But along the Magic Web, a dangerous magic tracker is hunting down unicorns, the one magical creature that can control the flow of magic. In the desert, the mages discover an entire herd of baby unicorns. Emily, Adriane, Kara, Ozzie, Dreamer, and Lyra must find a way to hide them and fight the dark hunter. ;All's Fairy in Love and War: Kara can't control her magic. So she goes back to doing what she does best—being pretty and popular, and performing in the school play. The other mages, Emily and Adriane, continue without her. But the magic has other plans for Kara, the Blazing Star. Whisked into the Fairy Realms through a magic mirror, Kara falls smack into the middle of an impending war, and meets a mysterious boy with a dark secret. Kara may be the only one who can restore peace between the Fairies and the Goblins, but she must first tame her unstable powers, her wild heart, and a stallion made of fire. If she fails, it could mean the destruction of the Fairy Realms, the unraveling of the Magic Web... and the end of Avalon. ;Ghost Wolf: Adriane, the Warrior, knows what it's like to lose a friend. And now she's on the verge of losing everything she loves. The Spider Witch and the Dark Sorceress will stop at nothing to capture the power crystals of Avalon. This time, they've launched an attack directly at Ravenswood, the sanctuary for magical animals and Adriane's home. The fight to save Ravenswood will take Adriane to places she never imagined, into the very heart of mistwolf magic where a friend she thought she lost forever lives on. Is Adriane brave enough to walk the ghostly spirit path? She'll have to rise to a whole new level of magic in order to save her friends, her pack-mates, and Avalon itself, or risk losing everything... again. ;The Heart of Avalon: A mysterious sickness threatens the sea dragons of Aldenmor. But Emily the healer can't find a cure unless she can bond with one special animal and advance to a Level Two mage like her friends. A strange, shape-shifting creature whisks her away and Emily meets perilous monsters, salty sea elves, and a hidden treasure hold the secrets to evolving her healing magic and finding the path to Avalon. To save the animals, Emily must face her deepest fears, and discover the truth about her uniquely powerful mage powers and abilities... but she won't be alone. ;Dark Mage: In the heart of the magic, darkness is growing. Time is running out as Emily, Kara, and Adriane must retrieve the last remaining power crystals to open the Gates of Avalon and save the Magic Web. No one told the girls the real secret of the Prophecy—like their enemies, the Spider Witch and the Dark Sorceress, one mage is destined to bond with dark magic. In their most dangerous adventure yet, each mage will be called upon to face her darkest fears. Their friendship is pushed to the limit—and one will become the Dark Mage, while one is sacrificed. ;Full Circle: Emily, Adriane, and Kara became mages, but failed to discover the secrets of Avalon and save their animal friends. Now, the Gates of Avalon are locked, beloved friends are doomed, and the Dark Sorceress reigns supreme. There may be one final chance to fulfill their destiny. The mages must put everything they love on the line—and be prepared to sacrifice all as the final battle for Avalon begins. |
Fairest | Gail Carson Levine | 2,006 | Aza, the adopted daughter of innkeepers in Ayortha, has always hated her appearance. Her prodigious size and her odd coloring – milk-white skin, blood-red lips, and hair that seems to be sooty black – often make her the target of stares and rude comments. However, Aza's voice garners as much attention as her looks, for Ayortha is a land of song, and Aza is an amazing singer. Besides being skilled at singing, Aza can also flawlessly mimic people and throw her voice without moving her mouth, a form of ventriloquism she calls "illusing". Still, Aza is flattered when a frequent visitor to the inn, a gnome named zhamM, tells Aza that her hair is the most beautiful hair he's ever seen. While her hair looks black to humans, it is the lovely color htun, a dark purplish color, to gnomes. When Aza's sister, Areida, goes to finishing school, the Duchess of Olixo, an irritable guest at the Featherbed Inn, requests that Aza accompany her to the royal wedding because her companion has fallen ill. The new queen, Ivi, discovers Aza's gift and manipulates her. As Ivi cannot sing well, she offers to reward Aza with land and riches for her family as well as elevation to the rank of lady-in-waiting in exchange for Aza illusing a voice for her when she needs to sing; when Aza tries to refuse, Ivi threatens to imprison her and close her family's inn. Soon after Aza reluctantly accepts Ivi's offer, the castle is thrown into turmoil when King Oscaro is terribly wounded during a sporting event with centaurs. Aza is caught in the midst of Ivi's power-hungry plotting, the affection of the king's nephew Crown Prince Ijori, the suspicions of the choirmaster Sir Uellu, and her own increasing desperation to become beautiful, a desire which grows so strong that she ultimately drinks a beauty potion created by Skulni, the mysterious, evil creature living in Ivi's magic mirror. With the country on the verge of revolt, the inevitable discovery of Aza and Ivi's singing deception leaves Aza fleeing for her life when a jealous Ivi leads to Aza being branded as a dangerous ogre. Exiled, Aza is welcomed by the gnomes; zhamM provides her with food, shelter, and a sense of heritage. He assures her that while she is certainly not part ogre, he believes one of her ancestors was a gnome, explaining her strange appearance and htun hair. After she has spent some time with the gnomes, a sinister scheme forces Aza to fight for her life, discover her true source of strength, and ultimately, learns to accept herself. She marries the prince, King Oscaro recovers, Ivi turns from her evil ways, and Aza becomes queen of Ayortha, alongside her husband, King Ijori. She bears three children, all of whom resemble their father but have htun hair just like their mother. |
The Lover's Melancholy | John Ford | null | The plot of the play possesses an unusually complex backstory (perhaps a symptom of the playwright's relative inexperience), which is revealed through the course of the action. Meleander, a prominent nobleman of Cyprus, is the father of two daughters, Eroclea and Cleophila. The ruler of Cyprus proposes a match between his son Palador and Eroclea — but when Eroclea appears at his court, the ruler becomes violently enamored with her himself. Eroclea is spirited away to protect her virtue, and Palador is stricken with a deep melancholy as a result. Meleander is accused of treason and stripped of his rank and honors for protecting his daughter; in consequence, he too becomes mentally ill. He convalesces in his castle, under the care of the faithful Cleophila. The troublesome ruler of Cyprus dies and is succeeded by Palador — but the whereabouts of Eroclea are unknown. At the start of the play, Meleander's nephew Menaphon has returned from travel abroad; he has undertaken his journey to escape his unhappy love for the haughty Thamasta, Palador's cousin. Menaphon is accompanied by a new friend, Parthenophill, a young man met in the Vale of Tempe. Palador, now the ruler of Cyprus, is still mired in melancholy, a condition his prime minister Sophronos (Meleander's brother and successor), his physician Corax, and his tutor Aretus try in vain to alleviate. In due course, Palador's cure comes about when it is revealed that Parthenophill is Eroclea is disguise — a revelation that cures her father's depression as well. Cleophila, now free of the obligation to nurse her father, marries her devoted suitor Amethus. Thamasta, who had fallen in love with Parthenophill, is shocked out of her self-assured arrogance by the revealed disguise, and in a new spirit of humility becomes the wife of Menaphon. The play's comic relief is supplied by the character Rhetias, "a reduced courtier" who is the servant of Eroclea/Parthenophill, and "two foolish courtiers," Pelias and Cuculus. In portraying the depression of Prince Palador and Lord Meleander, Ford worked in a sub-genre of psychiatric fiction that would only become prominent in the twentieth century. The play is also strongly influenced by the cult of love fashionable at the time. "Ford's characters speak in courtly love-jargon, pen and recite love letters and poems, woo in extravagant conceits, and carry on debates and similitude contests; they become involved in secret loves and disguises and despair over unsatisfied desire." Some of this is clearly satirical: the page Grilla "holds up for ridicule the whining tunes, sighs, and tears of Cuculus, a fool planning to win the love of his mistress through extravagant conceits." |
Sharra's Exile | Marion Zimmer Bradley | 1,981 | Lew and Kennard Alton have already spent two years on Earth since Sharra's awakening (see The Heritage of Hastur). Despite numerous attempts, Terran medics were not able to restore Lew's hand, due to destruction on the molecular level of Lew's DNA by the Sharra Matrix. But with the help of the constant monitoring of his father, Lew is recovering his mental control and escaping Sharra's domination. Lew and Kennard Alton have been away from Darkover for three years without any contact with the Comyn. Regis Hastur is now 18 years old and has recently completed his training in the Guard. He is now being trained in governance of a Domain by attending sessions of the Cortes. His paxman and bredu, Danilo Syrtis, is being prepared to rule the Ardais Domain and has spent the previous winter doing so in the Hellers. Danilo is now the adopted Heir of Lord Dyan Ardais who is no longer molesting him or other cadets. The young men meet in Thendara the day before the new season of the Comyn Council. They spend the evening in a tavern and debate about the future Darkover. Lerrys Ridenow, heir to Ridenow of Serrais and a senior Guardsman, and his two close friends, Rakhal (Rafe) Scott and Marius Alton later join them. Dyan Ardais comes also into the tavern with his new minion, Merryl Lindir-Aillard, the half-brother of Lady Callina Aillard, who wishes to replace her on the Council. Merryl mocks Marius for his Terran blood, but a fight is prevented by the intervention of Gabriel Lanart, a cadet member of the Altons, and who is in charge of the Guard during Kennard's absence. Regis and Danilo finally end the evening with Dyan who informs them that he just had a son with Marilla Lindir (Merryl's twin sister). Danilo will be in charge of the child. Dyan also congratulates Regis about his forthcoming son by Crystal di Asturien. Lew and Kennard have been away from Darkover for five years now. As they arrive on Vainwal (a pleasure planet), they meet by chance Diotima Ridenow, who is there on holiday with two of her brothers, Lerrys and Geremy. The first meeting between Dio and Lew is somewhat awkward, but Kennard is eager to associate with other Darkovans, particularly others with laran, and invites the Ridenow to dine. After dinner, Lew and Dio dance together and they both feel a deep attraction to each other. The day after, they hunt together, using hawks and riding horses. They eventually fall in love and, despite her youth, Dio is courageous enough to bear a full telepathic contact with Lew, understanding and sharing the suffering he has endured since bonding with the Sharra Matrix and Marjorie's death. Lew spends one year on Vainwal with Dio. He had never fully recovered from his ordeal, but Dio has managed to heal him and remind him of his humanity. Moreover, she helps Lew distance himself from his father; due to sharing powerful Alton gifts, and Lew's need for psychic healing, they have been unnaturally and uncomfortably close during their exile. Dio discovers that she is pregnant, and she and Lew decide to keep the child. At the beginning of the pregnancy, everything goes well. Kennard convinces Lew and Dio of the importance of an official wedding, and Dio finally confesses Lew that she deliberately became pregnant, because her brother Lerrys threatened to bring her back to Darkover (and space travel is not allowed for pregnant women). The strange result of a prenatal examination precipitates Lew to try to monitor Dio, but during this attempt he is nearly ensnared again by Sharra. Kennard is now too old and infirm to make an attempt. Forty days before Dio's time, Kennard receives a message from Dyan Ardais: he must go back to Darkover otherwise the Comyn Council will give the Alton Domain to Gabriel Lanart. Kennard asks to Lew to come with him, but Dio gives birth prematurely to a still-born monster (a consequence of Lew's DNA problems). Lew sees the monster, and is unable to keep its image out of his mind when he visits Dio. When she reaches this image, she has a nervous breakdown and medics send Lew away from the hospital. He spends some time with Empire administration in order to make legal arrangement for the cremation of the remains. During this time, Lerrys comes to the hospital and takes his sister away from Vainwal. Lew, thinking that Dio no longer wants to be with him, decides not to follow them. Shortly after, Kennard dies and sends during his last living instant a strong telepathic order, with the full Alton gift, to Lew: "You must go back to Darkover, fight for your brother's rights and for the honor of Alton and the Domain." Regis is woken up very early by Marius Alton. Marius tells Regis some disturbing: his close friend Rafe Scott is staying with him in the Alton house in Thendara and he seems to be suffering from a telepathic sickness related to Sharra Matrix. Regis feels anxious because he has just dreamed about Sharra. He therefore goes to the Alton house and manages to reach Rafe. They three young men begin to wonder about the return of Lew or Kennard: one of them might have brought back the matrix. This is all the more dangerous as Rafe reveals that Kadarin and Thyra are still alive. Regis feels uneasy, as the return of the Altons might be a consequence of the warning he gave to Dyan about the Council's discussion on giving the Alton domain to Gabriel Lanart. The first day of the sixth Council season after the Alton departure happens shortly after these events. Prince Derik, who has still not been crowned due to his mental instability, seems to be unduly influenced by Merryl. The Council proposes to give the Alton Domain to Gabriel Lanart. But two challengers appears: Marius Alton and Jeff Kerwin (née Damon Aillard-Alton and called Ridenow). The situation grows more and more confused, as Derik announces that the Aldaran Domain is going to be reunited to the Comyn by means of the wedding he has arranged between Callina Aillard and Beltran Aldaran. The Council is then interrupted by the arrival of Lew Alton in the Crystal chamber. The Council is recessed for half an hour. Lew uses this time to dress in Darkovan clothes and to announce Kennard's death to his family (Marius, Jeff, and Gabriel). Dyan himself is deeply distraught by the news. When the Council resumes, Danvan Hastur asks to the Council to delay the choice of the Alton Lord for seven days. The Council must now consider the problem of Callina's wedding. Of course Callina does not want to marry to Beltran. But the older and most influential members of the Council (especially Danvan and Dyan) think that this marriage could be a good method to reunite the Comyn in order to face Terran colonialism. In fact, only the youngest members of the Council such as Danilo, Regis and of course Lew seem to remember Sharra's awakening and Beltran's responsibility in these events. Lew also finds it outrageous that a Comynara, a Keeper, and the head of a Domain in her own right should be forced into a distasteful marriage. After the end of the Council, Regis has a debate with his grandfather Danvan about the relationship between the Terran Empire and Darkover. Danvan maintains a parochial outlook and wants to avoid any Terran "contamination" of the Darkovan population. Regis seems far more open minded. The situation caused by Derik's thoughtless acts and Merryl's machinations will be difficult to resolve. Declaring the betrothal void would announce Derik's status as a mere figurehead, and could reopen hostilities between Aldaran and the rest of the Comyn. As the discussion is going on, Javanne and Gabriel rejoin Regis and Danvan for dinner. Despite Danvan wishes, Gabriel does not want to challenge Lew for the Alton Domain. During the evening, Sharra tries to enslave Javanne. But Regis manages to free her, acting based on an intuitive and ancestral knowledge of Sharra's true nature: Comyn's hereditary enemy. Meanwhile, Lew has gone with Marius and Jeff to the Alton House in Thendara. Rafe finds out some raivannin, a laran suppressing drug, for Lew which enables him to silence the voice of his father in his head (constantly repeating his final order "go back to Darkover, fight for your brother's rights"). Lerrys Ridenow comes to order Lew to give Dio a divorce, arguing that she does not want to see him anymore. The next morning, Marius tells Lew that he has spent a summer in Caer Donn, with Beltran. Marius thinks that he has the Aldaran gift, but he was not tested. Upset, Lew goes to the Terran HQ in order to file for divorce from Dio. He meets the new Terran Legate, Dan Lawton who asks him to rejoin the Terran side in the Comyn Council. Lew tells Lawton the story of Sharra's awakening and learns from him that Kadarin is sought by Terran forces and he had been seen a few days ago in Thendara. On his way back home, Lew encounters Dyan who asks him also to rejoin his side in the Council, against the Ridenow who want tighter relationship with the Terran. But the debate between them is quite rough and Lew offends Dyan deeply, when he reminds him that he is not a matrix technician. Regis Hastur visits with Callina Aillard in the Comyn Tower. Callina tries to understand how Regis was able to rescue Javanne from Sharra. Callina asks Regis to convince Lew to bring the Sharra's matrix in the Comyn Tower, under the safe guard of Ashara. But Regis senses something off in her demeanor. Just before Regis' departure, he learns that Beltran has started his journey Thendara at the head of a massive army. Regis encounters Lew on the way to the Alton townhouse. During their talk, Sharra appears to them as a telepathic image. The two men start running toward the townhouse. When they reach it, they have to face a group of soldiers. The group is led by Kadarin and has set fire to the house. They flee, taking away the Sharra's matrix and leaving the dead body of Marius. Lew has been wounded during the fight and Jeff heals him. After that, Gabriel has Marius' body carried to the chapel in the Comyn castle. Marius is buried two days later in Hali. A small procession goes there: Gabriel, Lew, Linnell, Jeff, Andres (an Alton retainer), and rather surprisingly Lerrys Ridenow. Regis and Dyan rejoin them in order to pay homage to Marius. During the ride back to Thendara, Regis tell Lew of a strange rumor among the Guards about an Alton child. Gabriel and Lew have no idea about who could have fathered such a child. Back in Thendara, Lew goes to the Comyn Tower in order to visit Callina. He is looking for a way to destroy Sharra and would like to meet Ashara. During their discussion, Callina enters a brief trance, for a moment, she looks remote and stony. She then states that Ashara will perhaps see Lew. Callina tells Lew about her fears. She is afraid by Ashara and moreover, the Council is trying to pressure her to accept a marriage with Beltran, in order to save the peace. Lew and Callina understand at this moment that they have very strong feelings for each other, beyond the normal rapport of two powerful matrix workers. Regis and Danilo have just spent the night together. Danvan Hastur disapproves this union and behaves toward Regis as if he were a child. Regis leaves his grandfather rather angry and joins Danilo and Dyan for breakfast. They talk about the political situation: Dyan would like to solve the Alton succession. He wants Lew to give up the Domain to the mysterious Alton child. Moreover, Dyan wants to ally with Beltran in order to use Sharra to threaten the Terran and force them to leave Darkover. It is obvious that Merryl Lindir-Aillard, Dyan's minion, has used his influence on Derik in order to force Callina to marry Beltran. Regis leaves Dyan with some fear and anger. On the threshold of the Crystal Chamber, he meets Lerrys Ridenow. They have a quite rough debate: Lerrys thinks he Council is directly responsible for Marius' death. After this talk, the Council begins. Much to Dyan's disappointment, there is no challenge against Lew. Lerrys makes a short speech in which he urges the Council to make Darkover a full member of the Terran Empire and to give more democracy to Darkovans. He gets expelled from the Council. After this strong intervention, a di Asturien wants the Council to discuss about the wedding between Derik and Linnell. He finds that this sort of inbreeding is dangerous for the Comyn. But Danvan rejects his demand. Finally Danvan calls Beltran Aldaran for the seventh domain, much to Lew's indignation. Lew tries to convince the Council that Beltran is dangerous. He says that there is a blood feud between Beltran and him, and forgiving blood feud is not honorable among Comyn. Callina asks Beltran if he has sworn allegiance to the Compact, the most sacred of Comyn laws. He plans to do so as soon as he will be accepted in the Comyn and he plans also to give his Terran weapons to his promised wife, Callina herself. Callina resigns herself to marry with Beltran in order to avoid war between Aldaran and the Comyn. The handfasting will be held at Festival Night. Suddenly, a giant fire form of Sharra appears in the Council: Beltran and several other Comyn lords fly away from the room. After the disappearing of Sharra's illusion, Danvan declares the Council Session closed for the current year.Lew remains alone with Regis in the room. In fact, Sharra's illusion was created by Regis himself, despite the telepathic dampers. Regis has an extremely strong laran, that he does not fully understand. Lew goes back to the Alton apartments in the Comyn Castle, but he feels restless. He cannot refrain thinking of Sharra and he finally decides to go and see Callina in the Aillard apartments. Linnell is there with Callina and Regis. Callina asks Lew to follow her to the Comyn tower to see Ashara. Ashara knows about the Sharra matrix. She explains to Callina and Lew that Sharra is a goddess and the matrix is a door through which she can reach our world. The only way to defeat her is to use the Sword of Aldones, a holy weapon kept in the rhu fead, the holy Chapel at Hali. But in order to get the sword, Callina and Lew need to find someone who is of Comyn blood and was not reared on Darkover, in order to avoid traps that protect the rhu fead. After the meeting with Ashara, Callina and Lew use one of the giant screens built during the ages of chaos in order to teleport people. They bring back to Darkover the perfect twin (the Cherilly duplicate) of Linnell, the young nurse that took care of Dio on Vainwal. On the morning of the Festival, Regis goes to the Terran headquarters in order to meet up with Rafe Scott. On his arrival, Regis has a discussion with Dan Lawton, the Terran Legate. Lawton wants to capture Kadarin and threatens Regis with sending the Spaceforce in Thendara if the Comyn do not manage to catch Kadarin. After this, Regis speaks to Rafe and frees his matrix from the influence of Sharra. Rafe wants to meet with Lew in the Comyn Castle and Regis says that he will try to arrange a meeting. On his way back to the Castle, Regis stops to see Beltran offering his Terran weapons to Callina. In a strong telepathic rapport with Dyan Ardais, Regis manages to destroy all the weapons. He discovers this way that Dyan has the Alton gift. In the Alton apartment of the Comyn Castle, Regis meets Lew. They are soon joined by Rafe. He conducts them to the Aillard apartments where they see for the first time the young Marja, daughter of Lew and Thyra. Marja was conceived during Lew's captivity by Kadarin and Beltran in Caer Donn, while he was drugged and delirious. The six year old child seems to already have had her laran awakened. Lew leaves Marja in Andres's care and goes to seek Callina. They spend a few moments with Linnell's duplicate, Kathie Marshall. She is still very tensed and close to madness. In order to protect her, Lew put a sort of barrier around her mind. During the Festival ball, Lew dances with Kathie who seems to calm down. After this dance, Lew meets again Callina. She is dressed in a black gown which looks like the night flecked with stars. In fact, she is dressed as the legendary Camilla, who was ravished and made an unwilling bride. This is a direct insult to Beltran. Lew has a rather heated debate with Callina because she seems resigned to marrying Beltran. Because of Lew's hatred for Beltran and his objection to Callina being treated as a pawn, he is unable to understand why she would do this. Lew suddenly sees Dio. They quarrel about Dio's departure from Vainwal, and it is discovered that Lerrys lied to her and to Lew in order to separate them. Moreover, Dio is jealous of Callina. She understands that Lew is in love with both of them, but resents that she cannot share the full telepathic rapport of powerful trained matrix workers. The ball continues, and Derik seems completely drunk. Just before the moonlight dance (a dance for pledged couples), Lew sees a strange man dressed as a harlequin. But he forgets him while dancing with Dio. After this dance, he has a talk with Linnell about Derik's public drunkenness. Linnell says that Derik never drinks because of the effect that it has on his already unstable mind, and it seems that someone deliberately put alcohol in a fruit tasting drink so as to have Derik to drink it. Merryl has taken him away from the Ball, to limit the spectacle. After that, Danvan Hastur celebrates the marriage between Callina and Beltran. During the dance that closes the handfasting, Lew suddenly recognizes the woman who is dancing with the harlequin: Thyra herself! The harlequin is in fact Kadarin. At the end of the dance, they attempt to use Sharra in order to compel Lew to follow with them again, but Regis uses his new born gift in order to rescue Lew. Sharra then lashes out and manages to kill Linnell. She also teleports Kadarin and Thyra out of the Comyn Castle. As Gabriel arrests Beltran, Regis goes to seek Prince Derik: the young man is also dead. His shields were weakened by the drinks and he couldn't resist Sharra. Regis is now Heir of the Domains. The next day, Terran forces begin to seek Kadarin in Thendara. Unfortunately, this is not easily accepted by Darkovan and Regis composes a personal message for to Legate Lawton, urging him to withdraw his men. He goes to look for Dyan, believing that he might be a good messenger. He finally discovers him in the Aldaran apartments, where he is having a discussion with Beltran. Dyan reveals his plans: he wants to use Sharra against the Terrans, in order to expel them from Darkover. But in order to do that he needs someone with the Alton gift: Sharra cannot be operated without this gift. Regis flees the Aldaran apartments to avoid revealing to them that Dyan himself has the Alton gift. Lew spends the night after Sharra's attack with Dio who heals him and tells him that Lerrys has fled Darkover. On the next day, he prepares to go to the rhu fead with Kathie and Callina: they need to get the Sword of Aldones, the only weapon able to defeat Sharra. Dio and Regis would like to help them, but Lew refuses arguing this might be to dangerous. They go out of the Comyn Castle through a secret exit starting from the Alton apartment and they ride to the Hali lake. They enter the rhu fead and Lew places Kathie is under his mental domination, allowing her to pass through the Veil. Inside, Kathie is able to reach the Sword of Aldones, a matrix shaped as a sword. But when they exit from the rhu fead, they find Kadarin and Thyra waiting for them. Kadarin tries to get the Sword but he is repelled by it. Thyra becomes completely unhinged as she demands her daughter, and she strikes Lew with her dagger. He is grievously wounded. Dio and Regis are going back to the Comyn Castle when they receive a telephatic scream from Marja. Dyan and Beltran had tried to kidnap Marja, to use her powerful Alton gift to control the Sharra matrix as they had once forced Lew. When they arrive in the Alton apartment, they find Andres's body. The loyal retainer was killed by Beltran when he tried to protect the girl. Shortly afterwards, Regis reaches Dyan's thoughts. Dyan has become aware of his gift and has chosen to serve Sharra. But before doing so, he managed to hide Marja in an unknown place, out of reach from Beltran. Just after that, Regis learns from Danvan that Dan Lawton is looking for him. Regis and Dio go to the Terran Headquarter and Regis authorizes Lawton to send a helicopter to Hali in order to rescue Lew, Callina, and Kathie. When the helicopter comes back, Lew is nearly dead, but Regis gets the Sword of Aldones and turns himself into Hastur, Son of Light. He heals Lew instantaneously. Lawton puts Kadarin and Thyra in jail . After that, Regis tries, with the help of Callina, to clense Lew's matrix but he cannot, the bond with Sharra seems too strong. After this failed attempt, Lawton arrives to tell them that Thyra has disappeared. Suddenly Lew is teleported to the forecourt of the Comyn Castle. The final battle between Hastur and Sharra begins. Regis and Callina are on one side with the Sword of Aldones, while Thyra and Kadarin wield the Sharra Matrix. Lew is torn between them, until Dyan arrives and frees Lew from Sharra. The battle goes on and Regis manages to strike Sharra with the Sword of Aldones. Kadarin and Thyra disappear with Sharra. After the battle, Dyan's dead body lies on the ground of the forecourt. If, in the end, he had chosen to join Sharra, she would have defeated them. Callina is also dead and Lew finally understands that she was almost entirely possessed by Ashara, and that she was willing to marry Beltran to escape her. Regis' hair has turned completely white. After the death of so many Comyn, Darkover needs to change: it is going to become a full member of the Terran Empire. Lew goes into voluntary exile with his wife Dio and his daughter Marja. He is going to be the first representative from Darkover to the Imperial Senate. |
A Theft | Saul Bellow | 1,989 | Clara Velde is a successful fashion writer in New York City and the star of the story. The book's title refers to the disappearance of Clara's prized emerald ring. Clara associates the ring with her love for the Washington, D.C. politico Ithiel and with her own professional and personal power. The ring's apparent theft leads Clara into a series of psychological crises and forces her to confront a long-buried complex of interpersonal issues. |
Zuckerman Unbound | Philip Roth | 1,981 | The novel parallels several real events in Roth's life, including the publication of his 1969 novel Portnoy's Complaint and the hoopla which surrounded Roth in the wake of that novel's fame. By analogy, in Zuckerman Unbound, Zuckerman has achieved meteoric acclaim and notoriety with "Carnovsky", a coming-of-age sex romp that differs remarkably from Zuckerman's previously Jamesian fiction. The extent to which the details of the Zuckerman character can be safely compared to those of Roth has been a subject of zealous debate among Roth's readers. Roth himself has weighed in on the debate, both in interviews and within his fiction. |
Beezus and Ramona | Beverly Cleary | 1,955 | Beatrice "Beezus" Quimby, a close friend of Henry Huggins, is perpetually infuriated by the imaginative antics of her younger sister Ramona, who frequently insists upon exhibiting imaginative habits and eccentricities such as wearing her beloved homemade paper rabbit ears while pretending to be the Easter Bunny, dragging a string along behind her pretending to lead an imaginary lizard named Ralph, and being read an irritating children's book about an anthropomorphic, disgruntled steam shovel called Scoopy. Beezus is also commonly exasperated by actions on her sister's part such as vandalizing a library book, inviting her classmates to a house party without the consent of her parents, and wreaking havoc during Beezus's painting class. Beezus, however, is haunted frequently by the guilt of her animosity towards Ramona and the uneasy sisterhood that they share as opposed to that displayed by her mother and Aunt Beatrice, and is finally prompted to revealing this during her birthday celebration after Ramona has ruined a pair of birthday cakes intended for the party. However, after learning about memories from the childhoods of Aunt Beatrice and her mother, Beatrice accepts that she may not always love Ramona. |
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