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The Anatomy Lesson | Philip Roth | 1,983 | Having buried his father in the previous novel Zuckerman Unbound, Zuckerman finds himself facing middle age and an undiagnosable pain. The mysterious ailment has him laid up and keeps him from his regime of writing. Barred by pain from writing and bored by inactivity, Zuckerman's mind is free to wander anxiously over the memories of his failed marriages and relationships with family members. In a desperate burst of nostalgia and ambition, Zuckerman resolves to return to the University of Chicago, his alma mater, in order to pursue medical school. |
Moominpappa at Sea | Tove Jansson | 1,965 | Moominpappa is dissatisfied with his life in Moomin Valley, so he organises the family to set off on a journey to find a lighthouse in the sea. This will also be the perfect backdrop for a novel about the sea. Once arriving there, they find it a desolate and lonely place, inhabited only by a very unfriendly fisherman. Moomintroll also befriends The Groke and the sea horses. Moominmamma misses home so much that she starts painting the Moomin house with lots of flowers since none can be grown on the lighthouse island. Later they find out that the fisherman is actually the lighthouse keeper who fled from the loneliness. Nature and the sea play a big part of the novel as Moominpappa tries to understand it, and there are many strange things happening on the island that seem to be inexplicable. |
Moominvalley in November | Tove Jansson | 1,970 | Set in the final days of autumn and the approach of winter, various characters begin to experience a change within themselves and decide to travel to Moominvalley where they can visit the Moomins. First amongst them is Toft, a small orphan who lives alone in a docked boat under the tarpaulin, and who has often dreamed about the Moomins despite the fact that he has never met them. Secondly is Fillyjonk, a woman who is usually obsessed with everything being neat and tidy, but who has an epiphany after suffering an accident and decides to "see people. People who talked and were pleasant and went in and out and filled the whole day so that there was no time for terrible thoughts". The Hemulen similarly begins to question his lifestyle, realising that his life as a collector and organiser of things simply isn't necessary, whilst a senile old man who cannot remember his own name but who calls himself Grandpa-Grumble decides to go to the "Happy Valley" that he remembers from the past.Jansson, Tove. (1974). Moominvalley in November. London: Penguin Books. Chapter Seven Alongside these figures, Mymble also decides to visit the Moomins in order to see her younger sister Little My whom they have adopted, and Snufkin also returns, realising that the valley is the place where he can gain inspiration to write a song. When they all arrive, they discover that the Moomin family have left their house, and so they all settle in to wait for their return. Soon, their conflicting personalities begin to cause friction, with the Fillyjonk trying to tell the others what they should do: :Suddenly Fillyjonk shouted: 'You musn't touch old leaves! They're dangerous! They're full of putrefaction!' She dashed to the front of the veranda with the blankets trailing behind her. 'Bacteria!' she screamed. 'Worms! Maggots! Creepy-crawlies! Don't touch them!' The Hemulen went on raking. He screwed up his stubborn, innocent face and repeated loudly: 'I'm making the place look nice, for Moominpappa.'Jansson, Tove. (1974). Moominvalley in November. London: Penguin Books. Page 54. Toft finds an old microbiology textbook, and misinterpreting it as a story, creates a monster in his imagination known as the Creature, which appears to develop a life of its own. Meanwhile Grandpa-Grumble becomes obsessed with both fishing in a nearby stream that he insists is actually a brook as well as with meeting the Ancestor, a three hundred year old Moomin who he is told by Mymble hibernates in the stove. After becoming terrified that there are insects in the house, Fillyjonk locks herself in the kitchen and, in an attempt to be more like Moominmamma and therefore liked by the others, cooks for them and tries to look after the motherless Toft,Jansson, Tove. (1974). Moominvalley in November. London: Penguin Books. Chapter Fourteen and Fifteen. who is enlisted by the Hemulen into helping build a treehouse for Moominpappa, whom he is increasingly admiring. Grandpa-Grumble gets a stomach ache and refuses to take his medicines till the others throw him and the Ancestor a party. At the party, each of the characters performs an act of entertainment; the Hemulen recites a poem that he has written, Toft reads from his book, Mymble dances accompanied by Snufkin's music, and Fillyjonk cooks Welsh rarebit and performs a shadow puppet show about the Moomin family returning home. However, the Ancestor does not appear, annoying Grandpa-Grumble, until he mistakes his own reflection in a mirror upstairs for the Ancestor, to whom he makes everyone give a toast.Jansson, Tove. (1974). Moominvalley in November. London: Penguin Books. Chapter Eighteen. The morning after the party, Fillyjonk organises the cleaning of the house, though it soon begins to snow, and she decides to leave, finally on good terms with the Hemulen. Meanwhile, Grandpa-Grumble comes to the conclusion that the winter ages people and so decides to go into hibernation in the clothes cupboard like the Ancestor.Jansson, Tove. (1974). Moominvalley in November. London: Penguin Books. Chapter Nineteen. The treehouse that the Hemulen was building collapses, and so instead Snufkin takes him sailing in his boat, though the Hemulen realises that he gets sea-sick, and after the trip leaves to go home.Jansson, Tove. (1974). Moominvalley in November. London: Penguin Books. Chapter Twenty. After discovering the last five bars he needed to write his song, and finding them to be "more beautiful and even simpler than he ever hoped they would be", Snufkin packs up his tent and leaves the valley. Toft, left alone to wait for the return of the Moomins, finally realises how the view of the family which he had developed in his imagination is too perfect to be real, and comes to accept that even Moominmamma, who he hoped will be his mother, has problems and times of anger just like everybody else. Seeing that "the boat [upon which the Moomins are returning] was a very long way away", he walks down to the jetty to wait for them.Jansson, Tove. (1974). Moominvalley in November. London: Penguin Books. Chapter Twenty-One. |
The Poorhouse Fair | John Updike | null | The setting is a fictional location in New Jersey. At the Diamond County Home for the Aged, the inmates prepare for the ritual of the Poorhouse Fair; a summer celebration at which the old and infirm sell their produce to the people of the nearby town. The elderly residents at the home, full of memories and complaints, take pride every year in the excitements of this one day. But when the fair goes less well that the old folks had hoped, they are in no doubt who to blame: Conner, the new prefect of the home. Together, they begin to revolt against the younger man, and enact an ancient rite of protest. |
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane | Kate DiCamillo | 2,006 | The theme can be summarized by a quote from the book: "If you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless." (p. 199) Edward Tulane is a china rabbit given to a ten-year-old girl named Abilene by her grandmother. He enjoys a pleasant but vain life with his young mistress, who treats him with the utmost love and respect, until an unfortunate incident finds him falling overboard while vacationing on an ocean liner. Edward spends 297 days in the ocean's depths, until a passing fisherman and his buddy pulls him free. The man takes him home to his wife where he is renamed and forced to wear dresses. Edward is passed from hand to hand of a succession of life-altering characters, such as a hobo and his dog and a girl with pneumonia and her brother. Edward's journeys not only take him far from home, but even farther from the selfish rabbit he once was. Edward is eventually cruelly broken against a counter top edge and then repaired and offered for sale in a doll store for several years, and is finally bought by the same mistress he once knew, but now older and more mature, with a daughter of her own. |
Gallows Thief | Bernard Cornwell | 2,001 | ;Prologue: The book describes, in meticulous detail, the hanging of four condemned criminals on the public scaffold outside Newgate Prison in London. One of the attendees in the “prize” seats is Sir Henry Forrest, a financier and city alderman. He is sickened by the spectacle, but the crowd and his fellow attendees treat it as a public entertainment. ;Day One: Captain Rider Sandman, formerly of His Majesty’s 52nd Regiment of Foot, arises in his attic room above the Wheatsheaf Tavern in Drury Lane. Sandman is a gentlemen, but is hurting for cash. His father, a rich but dishonest speculator, recently committed suicide after his finances collapsed, and Sandman has assumed a large debt owed by the estate and is supporting his mother and sister. Sandman is a star cricket player, and makes occasional earnings from playing games on commission. Sandman was a good soldier, but is naïve about the other side of life in England. He’s only belatedly realized that the Wheatsheaf is a “flash” tavern – a regular haunt of pickpockets, highwaymen, and other petty criminals. Sally Hood, an actress who lodges at the Wheatsheaf with her brother, brings a letter summoning Sandman to the office of the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth. A man named Charles Corday has been sentenced to death for the murder of the Countess of Avebury. As usual, a condemned man’s family and friends may petition the Crown for clemency or a pardon. Most petitions are rejected, but Corday’s mother happens to be one of Queen Charlotte’s seamstresses, and the Queen has taken a personal interest. Occasionally the Home Office will appoint an investigator to look into a case, and Sandman was recommended by his former commanding officer, Sir John Colborne. Lord Sidmouth makes clear that he has no doubts that Corday is guilty, and regards Sandman’s job as an empty formality. His task should be simple, to visit Corday and obtain a confession. Corday is due to hang in one week. Sandman visits Newgate Prison. Corday, who is only eighteen years old, is physically unprepossessing, even effeminate, and Sandman, though repulsed, admits that Corday doesn’t seem capable of raping and killing a woman. He asks Corday to confess, but Corday insists that he’s innocent. Corday is an apprentice portrait painter, and the Countess’s husband, the Earl of Avebury, commissioned a boudoir painting of his wife (after the style of Canova’s famous sculpture of Pauline Bonaparte). The Countess was sitting for Corday in her London house. He says he was ordered out of the house when another visitor knocked, and the next thing he knew, he was arrested at his master’s studio. He also says that the Countess’s maid, Meg, was in attendance, but did not appear at his trial. Corday then bursts into tears, thinking Sandman doesn’t care. Embarrassed, Sandman promises to make inquiries. Sandman goes to a cricket game to meet his old school friend, the Reverend Lord Alexander Pleydell. A marquess’s son, Alexander is rich, intellectual, and radical in his political views. When Sandman asks his advice, Alexander is scathing about the criminal justice system in England, saying that justice is impossible in the Old Bailey, where four judges adjudicate more than a hundred cases a week, and as often as not the accused is not defended by a lawyer. Alexander’s theory is that the estranged Earl killed his wife, or had her killed. The Countess was an actress, and probably a high-class prostitute, before she married the Earl, after which she was a notorious adulteress. ;Day Two: Sandman reads a newspaper account of the murder. The Countess was found brutally stabbed to death, and her clothes were torn off, suggesting that she had been raped. Corday’s palette knife was found on her body. The Countess’s house is abandoned, but a neighbor confirms the existence of the maid, Meg. Sandman visits the studio of Sir George Phillips, Corday’s master. He is embarrassed to find Sally there, posing nude. Sir George admits that “Charlie” isn’t likely to have raped and murdered the Countess – for one thing, he’s homosexual – but frankly doesn’t care if he’s hanged, apparently jealous of his apprentice’s talent. Over lunch, Sally, like Alexander, is scathing about “justice” in the courts, and informs Sandman that the judge who sentenced Corday is a notorious hanging judge. She knows Charlie from the studio, and confirms that he’s a “pixie.” She also overheard that it wasn’t the Earl who commissioned the portrait of the Countess, but instead a men’s club in London – the Seraphim Club. At the Club’s premises, Sandman is admitted by a club servant, an ex-Army sergeant named Sam Berrigan. Sandman is met by the young Marquess of Skavadale. Skavadale claims to have no idea what Sandman is talking about. Before Sandman leaves, another member, a hot-head named Lord Robin Holloway, angrily declares that he is one of the elder Sandman’s creditors, and challenges Sandman to a fencing duel. Sandman wins easily. Sandman reluctantly visits the home of Sir Henry Forrest. Sandman was engaged to Sir Henry’s daughter, Eleanor, but his father’s suicide and financial ruin intervened, and Lady Forrest insisted that the engagement be broken off. Because the Forrests’ home is close to the Countess’s, Sandman asks to question the servants, to see if any of them know Meg. Eleanor eagerly offers to question her own maid. At the Wheatsheaf, two of the Seraphim’s Club’s servants enter with pistols to try and kidnap Sandman. Rider bests them easily, but is then held at gunpoint by Sam Berrigan. Berrigan tells him that Lord Robin sent the two thugs, but Skavadale sent him. Sally enters and Berrigan is instantly taken with her. He puts away his pistol. Berrigan served with the 1st Foot Guards at Waterloo, in the same battalion as Sandman’s regiment. He warmly shares his memory of Sandman’s courage with Sally, though Sandman is embarrassed. Berrigan would rather warn Sandman off than kill him. He tells Sandman that the Seraphim Club is made up of young, aristocratic rakes who commit robbery, rape, and even the occasional murder, just for the fun of it. Servants like Berrigan clear up after them, which is why Berrigan doesn’t think one of the Club killed the Countess. Alexander introduces Sandman to Lord Christopher Carne, the Earl of Avebury’s son. Christopher, a bookish young man with a stammer, says that he hardly knew his stepmother, but fully supports the theory that his father did the murder, as he was jealous and spiteful. His father, he confides, hates him because Christopher’s grandfather decided to pass over his son and entail his estate onto Christopher, meaning he will inherit a vast fortune when his father dies, while his father is merely living off the income. ;Day Three: Sandman feels there is a chance that the house’s servants were moved to the Earl’s estate in Wiltshire. Before leaving, Sandman meets Sally’s brother, Jack, who is in fact the notorious “Robin Hood,” a wanted highway robber. Jack tells Sandman that someone has posted a large bounty on Sandman’s head, but he doesn’t know who. Sandman meets the Earl, an elderly and shameless lecher (he openly fondles his housemaids in front of Sandman). He is also a military enthusiast, and is working on a huge model recreation of the Battle of Waterloo when Sandman enters. Since Sandman belonged to the regiment that drove off the advance of the Imperial Guard in the battle’s climax, Sandman can tell the Earl exactly how it happened – or he can make sure that no other veteran will talk to the Earl if he doesn’t answer Sandman’s questions. The Earl grudgingly shares what he knows. He didn’t kill his wife, and doesn’t know who did, but he hated her all the same. He was captivated enough by her to give in to her demand that he marry her before she would sleep with him. She spent all his money, and was unfaithful to him, so he turned her out of the house and ordered her allowance cut off. She laughed it off, telling him she was supplementing her income through blackmail of her various lovers – usually when they became engaged to wealthy or aristocratic heiresses. When pressed for details, the Earl admits, with a glimmer of shame, “I didn’t want to know names.” ;Day Four: Returning to the Wheatsheaf, Sandman finds Skavadale and Lord Robin waiting. In the most genteel terms, they offer him an enormous bribe to stop his inquiries. Skavadale gently points out that Sandman has discovered no proof of Corday’s innocence, and has no other conceivable source of income. Tempted though he is, Sandman refuses. Alexander brings Sandman to the theater, where a rich lord is mounting a private show in an attempt to launch his mistress as a “serious actress.” Sally is performing in the chorus. The show quickly descends into chaos when a rowdy section of the audience starts yelling for the lead performer to strip. In the chaos, a hidden sniper fires a rifle at Sandman, missing narrowly. Sandman jumps down onto the stage, and flees back to the Wheatsheaf, with Sally following. Berrigan is waiting for him. The Club has ordered Sandman killed, but Berrigan swears that he is the only one the Club sent, and has no idea who the sniper in the theater was. Berrigan has decided to leave the Club and work with Sandman. He respects Sandman as a soldier, and also has been captivated by Sally. A theory has begun to form in Sandman’s mind: one of the Seraphim Club killed the Countess. The Club as a whole decided to buy him off, but Lord Robin, who was putting up most of the money, privately decided to have him killed. ;Day Five: Sandman and Berrigan meet Corday at Newgate, where he draws them a portrait of Meg. A letter comes from Eleanor, telling Sandman she has news. They meet in an ice cream parlor, and she tells him that her maid saw Meg taken away from the house in a coach belonging to the Seraphim Club. When Sandman mentions Skavadale, Eleanor excitedly tells him that Skavadale’s family is close to bankruptcy, but, as the heir to a dukedom, he has managed to become engaged to the wealthiest heiress in England. To both of them, it seems obvious: Skavadale was one of the Countess’s many lovers, and he killed her when she attempted to blackmail him – in which case he has probably killed Meg. Eleanor tells Rider she is still in love with him. He says the same. He says he will ask Sir Henry for her hand once more, and if her mother objects, they will elope. Sandman and Berrigan return to Sir George Phillips’s studio. Phillips confesses that it was the Club, not the Earl, who commissioned the portrait, but he doesn’t know the one person it was for. Berrigan confirms that it is a Club tradition to commission a portrait of any woman that three or more members have slept with, and hang it in the Club’s gallery as a trophy. That evening, Sandman, Berrigan, and Sally sneak into the Seraphim Club. The coachman confirms that the coach has been driven to Skavadale’s estate in the country. ;Day Six: The trio quickly rides out of London. Skavadale's estate is a good day's journey away, which means they have just enough time to reach there, find Meg, and travel back to London in time to meet the Home Secretary on the morning of Corday's execution. While camping, Berrigan mentions that a good number of people have developed a taste for Spanish cigars, which are exceptionally hard to come by in England. He has a source for them in Spain, but doesn’t speak the language. Sandman does, and could obtain financing from Sir Henry. They agree to be partners. ;Day Seven: At Skavadale’s estate, they break in and find Meg, still alive. She is surly and uncooperative, and refuses to answer any questions. She has two strange characteristics: a fondness for raising chickens, and an overwhelming terror of wasps. Skavadale has offered her a comfortable position on his estate, raising a large brood of hens. The heroes force her to travel back to London. On the way, Meg still insists she knows nothing. She challenges Sandman to explain why Skavadale would leave her alive if he was the killer. Sandman admits he can’t. But after badgering, Meg admits that the Countess was still alive when she saw Corday out of the house; that is enough. ;The Last Day: On the morning of the execution, the heroes present Meg to Lord Sidmouth. She refuses to talk, and screams that she’s been kidnapped. Sidmouth prepares to dismiss them all, but then Sally mentions obstruction of justice, punishable by transportation to Australia, where the wasps have “stingers like hatpins.” In the presence of the Home Secretary, the threat becomes frighteningly real to Meg. She confesses, and Sandman is wrong: Lord Christopher is the killer. His own stepmother seduced him and then blackmailed him, with her eye on the earldom’s vast fortune. He came to the house, begging her to return his love letters; she mocked him, and he lost control and stabbed her with his pocketknife. Meg discovered him, as did Skavadale when he arrived shortly thereafter. He concealed Meg at his estate, preparing to blackmail Christopher once he inherited the earldom. It was also Christopher, not the Seraphim Club, who put out the bounty on Sandman’s head. Lord Sidmouth, for all his sour complacency, acts quickly: he writes a hasty pardon while ordering horses and a police escort to speed Sandman to Newgate. He reminds them that, unfortunately, they have no proof to take action against Skavadale. Sandman rushes to the gallows while the execution unfolds in the same meticulous detail as in the prologue. Alexander and Lord Christopher are sitting in the prize seats. Sandman arrives just as the trap doors are opened, and manages to save Corday, while his police escort seizes Lord Christopher. Sandman limps away, on his way to Sir Henry’s house, to ask him for a loan and his daughter’s hand. |
In the Grip of Winter | Colin Dann | 1,981 | As winter approaches Toad, Adder, and the hedgehogs go into hibernation, while the rest of the animals prepare for winter. However the winter is harsh and kills most of the field mice and voles, while making it difficult for the rest of the other animals to find food. Whistler and his mate help Fox, Vixen, Weasel, and Badger by bringing them fish; while the Great White Stag brings hay for the rabbits, hares, field mice, and voles. Badger decides to go seek out other animals in White Deer Park to see if they know how to cope with the cold. On the way Badger meets a hungry stoat eating a rabbit who tells Badger that this winter is likely to half the population of White Deer Park. Badger then decides to meet with the Great White Stag but falls and injures his leg. Fortunately the Warden finds him and cares for him while he is injured. While in the Warden's cottage Badger convinces the Warden's cat Ginger to send a message to his friends so that they know he's not in any danger. Ginger finds Mole and relays Badger's message, unfortunately Kestrel thinks Ginger is trying to attack Mole and attacks Ginger with his talons. Though Fox and Vixen care for the injured Ginger he leaves while Fox and Vixen are out hunting so he can get home sooner. When Badger is well he leaves the Warden and tries to convince the rest of his friend that the best way to survive is to live with the Warden. When they reject this idea Badger return to the Warden alone. When the Warden refuses to let Badger back into the cottage Ginger explains that the Warden only looked after Badger while he was injured and now that Badger is well the Warder expects Badger to live in his natural environment. Badger then returns to his friends feeling very foolish. On the way back Badger meets Kestrel and saves him from Ginger who wants revenge for Kestrel's earlier attack on him. Once Badger returns the animals then decide to search for food by human houses. While out foraging they witness two foxes steal two chickens. However the owner of the chickens chase and shoot both foxes, along with the injured chickens. They then put the dead chickens in a shed. Fox then steals the chickens from the shed but wakes the dog while doing this. Fortunately the humans only check the chicken coop for foxes and assume that because it's undamaged the fox was scared off. While returning to the park Fox comes across the two dead foxes and realises that he only has the chickens because the two other foxes died. By having Tawny Owl, Kestrel, and Whistler bring waste food from the houses to the park the animals are no longer at risk from starving to death. One night while eating this food they hear the cry of a hare and find that the stoat badger met earlier has killed one of Hare's leverets. Though unhappy about this they accept that this is the law of nature and don't punish Stoat. During the winter the Warden becomes ill so both he and his cat leave the park. However in his absence two poachers with shotguns enter the park and start hunting the white deer. Fox is able to defeat the poachers by 'chasing' the deer near a frozen pond, when the poachers run onto this pond the ice breaks and they lose their shotguns while trying to climb out. However the poachers return with pistols and start shooting every fox they see. This time the deer save the foxes by charging en masse at the poachers. When the Warden returns to his cottage the animals assume that the poachers will not return, unfortunately the poachers are unaware the Warden is back and decide to hunt foxes in areas where the deer are not present. Fox then lures the poachers to the Warden's cottage while Tawny Owl tells the Great White Stag about the poachers. The deer then prevent the poachers escaping while the Warden and his guest the Vet detain them. Spring arrives causing Toad, Adder, and the hedgehogs come out of hibernation. Due to his mating instincts Toad tries to return to Farthing Wood pond but he and another toad are captured, and put in a jar by some boys. Though Whistler is able to break one jar and free the toad inside Toad is still trapped inside another jar. Vixen recommend that Whistler takes the jar to the Warden, who opens it and frees Toad. Kestrel learns that the toad that Whistler freed is a female called Paddock who is returning to White Deer Park to breed. She is introduced to Toad and the two of them go off to mate. Fox wonders if Vixen would have been impressed if he had been so direct with her. At the end, the surviving animals of Farthing Wood all gather together and celebrate still being alive. |
An Acquaintance with Darkness | Ann Rinaldi | 1,997 | An Acquaintance with Darkness is the story of 14-year-old Emily Pigbush, who lives with her mother in Washington, D.C., in 1865. Emily's father died during the Civil War while fighting for the Union. Now the Pigbushes' final servant, Ella May, has left because she was freed, leaving Emily to care for her mother alone. However, Emily sometimes has the help of her close friend, sixteen-year-old Annie Surratt, whose mother runs the boarding house across the street. Emily's mother is near death, and Emily hopes to go live with Annie afterward her mother dies. Emily's mother's only wish is that Emily at all costs not live with her uncle, Dr. Valentine Bransby, after her death. Soon, Emily's mother dies after hearing that the Civil War was over. But then, on April 15, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in Ford Theatre. Mrs. Mary Surratt, Annie's mother, comes under suspicion of the authorities, as she may have harbored Booth; Johnny Surrat is also wanted by the police for possibly being involved in the assassination. On Annie's advice, Emily reluctantly goes to live with her uncle, Dr. Valentine Bransby. Living with Uncle Valentine, Emily learns that Valentine is actually quite a talented doctor who strives for more discoveries in the medical field with the changing times. Emily meets Valentine's assistant, Marietta, his housekeeper, Maude, and Maude's dwarf husband, Merry. She also meets Robert deGraaf, Valentine's medical student. As Emily later figures out, Valentine, Marietta, Robert, and Maude are involved in "body snatching" (cadaver theft) in Washington. Emily is at first disgusted by Valentine's deeds. However, after helping obtain an illegal body for her uncle for medical purposes, Emily realizes that her uncle is stealing bodies with the purpose of helping advance the medical field and save more lives. Meanwhile, Mrs. Surratt, is publicly hanged along with several other accomplices, and Valentine, Robert, Annie, and Emily attend the execution. Annie sells her house and flees Washington, changing her name, and leaving Emily behind. In the end, Emily tells Robert that she would like to become a nurse one day and he replies that she can not only become a nurse, but a doctor instead. |
Cast Two Shadows | Ann Rinaldi | 1,998 | It is 1780, in the midst of the American Revolution, in Camden, South Carolina, and fourteen-year-old Caroline Whitaker, her step mother Sarah,and her bratty older sister Georgia Ann are confined to one small room of their spacious Southern plantation home. British soldiers, led by Colonel Rawdon are occupying the place. The Colonel is also courting Georgia Ann. Caroline and her Negro caretaker, Miz Melindy, travel to get her 'almost' brother Johnny. It turns out he is an American patriot, which causes conflicting emotions in Caroline. Her emotions over Kit's death are still a sore wound throughout the novel. |
A Ride into Morning | Ann Rinaldi | 1,991 | In the midst of the American Revolution, fourteen-year-old Mary Cooper moves in with her twenty-two-year-old cousin, Tempe Wick, and Tempe's elderly mother, Mary Wick, after Mary's Tory family discovered that she was participating in the Patriot cause. Her brother, Abraham is also a Patriot soldier. Mary's cousin lives near where the American soldiers have camped for the winter. Two of Mary's young friends, David Hamilton Morris and Jeremiah Levering, are stationed here too. Mary has fallen in love with General Anthony Wayne. The Patriot soldiers and all those who live on farms near the magazine are now facing an incredibly cold winter. A mutiny is imminent. Tempe befriends Billy Bowzar, a Patriot soldier and probably leader of the mutiny. Tempe lends Bowzar her beloved white horse. Mary learns of Bowzar's plans and discovers that Tempe is growing hesitant as well. The cousins stop fighting so they can keep Aunt Mary safe, a plan that involves keeping Tempe's horse, Colonel, in the house overnight. The mutiny is unsuccessful and Mary realizes that her love for General Wayne was a silly little crush. Lieutenant Enos Reeves, a colleague of Wayne's that Mary suspected of being in love with Tempe, was actually in love with her, and Mary discovers she feels the same way. |
The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My | Tove Jansson | 1,952 | Moomintroll is taking milk back home to his mother, Moominmamma when he meets The Mymble who is searching for her missing sister Little My. Together the pair go looking for her. |
Hurricane Punch | Tim Dorsey | 2,007 | Serge is in therapy, coping with the fact he has turned 44. At first he goes on a religious awakening, but then decides to make a comeback...by killing as many people as possible in unusual and disturbing ways. As he does this, hurricane season is in full force, and Serge follows hurricanes like others follow sporting events. Unfortunately for him, another serial killer calling himself "The Eye of the Storm" is following him, and trying to upstage him. The newly freed Agent Mahoney doesn't believe that the killings are the work of two serial killers, but that Serge's unstoppable zeal for life has caused him to snap in two. But that won't stop Serge, and his brain dead friend Coleman, from enjoying every minute of hurricanes A-I. |
The Tale of Two Bad Mice | Beatrix Potter | 1,904 | Two Bad Mice reflects Potter's deepening happiness in her professional and personal relationship with Norman Warne and her delight in trouncing the rigors and strictures of middle class domesticity. For all the destruction the mice wreak, it is miniaturized and thus more amusing than serious. Potter enjoyed developing a tale that gave her the vicarious thrill of the sort of improper behaviour she would never have entertained in real life. The tale begins with "once upon a time" and a description of a "very beautiful doll's-house" belonging to a doll called Lucinda and her cook-doll Jane. Jane never cooks because the doll's-house food is made of plaster and was "bought ready-made, in a box full of shavings". Though the food will not come off the plates, it is "extremely beautiful". One morning the dolls leave the nursery for a drive in their perambulator. No one is in the nursery when Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca, two mice living under the skirting board, peep out and cross the hearthrug to the doll's-house. They open the door, enter, and "squeak for joy" when they discover the dining table set for dinner. It is "all so convenient!" Tom Thumb discovers the food is plaster and loses his temper. The two smash every dish on the table – "bang, bang, smash, smash!" – and even try to burn one in the "red-hot crinkly paper fire" in the kitchen fireplace. Tom Thumb scurries up the sootless chimney while Hunca Munca empties the kitchen canisters of their red and blue beads. Tom Thumb takes the dolls' dresses from the chest of drawers and tosses them out the window while Hunca Munca pulls the feathers from the dolls' bolster. In the midst of her mischief, Hunca Munca remembers she needs a bolster and the two take the dolls' bolster to their mouse-hole. They carry off several small odds and ends from the doll's-house including a bird cage and a bookcase that will not fit through the mouse-hole. The nursery door suddenly opens and the dolls return in their perambulator. Lucinda and Jane are speechless when they behold the vandalism in their house. The little girl who owns the doll's-house gets a policeman doll and positions it at the front door, but her nurse is more practical and sets a mouse-trap. The narrator believes the mice are not "so very naughty after all": Tom Thumb pays for his crimes with a crooked sixpence placed in the doll's stocking on Christmas Eve and Hunca Munca atones for her hand in the destruction by sweeping the doll's-house every morning with her dust-pan and broom. |
The Story of Miss Moppet | Beatrix Potter | 1,906 | The tale opens with an illustration of a wide-eyed kitten: "This is a Pussy called Miss Moppet, she thinks she has heard a mouse!" The following illustration depicts a mouse wearing a pink bowtie and green jacket "peeping out behind the cupboard, and making fun of Miss Moppet. He is not afraid of a kitten." Miss Moppet darts at him, but misses and bumps her head on the cupboard. She thinks the cupboard very hard and rubs her nose. The mouse scurries to the top of the cupboard and watches her. Miss Moppet ties a duster about her head and sits before the fire on a red hassock. The mouse's curiosity is piqued; he thinks she looks very ill and comes sliding down the bell-pull. "Miss Moppet looks worse and worse." The mouse creeps nearer. Miss Moppet holds her head in her paws and peeks at the mouse through a hole in the duster. "The Mouse comes very close." Miss Moppet jumps and snags him by the tail. "And because the Mouse has teased Miss Moppet—Miss Moppet thinks she will tease the Mouse; which is not at all nice of Miss Moppet." The kitten ties the mouse up in the duster then tosses it about like a ball. The mouse peeks from the hole in the duster. In the last illustration but one, Miss Moppet is seated upright on her rump and staring at the reader. The duster lies opened and empty in her paws. "She forgot about that hole in the duster", and the mouse has escaped. He dances a jig safely out of Miss Moppet's reach atop the cupboard. |
Who will Comfort Toffle? | Tove Jansson | 1,960 | The lonely Toffle leaves his home to look for friends, eventually finding the Miffle and rescuing her from The Groke. |
Cold Tom | Sally Prue | 2,002 | Tom is soon discovered by a young "demon" named Anna. Tom begins to quickly resent the girl, thinking that she is stubby, loud, and stupid. Also, he cannot understand Anna's attachment to her family and pet, Sophie. In essence, Anna represents everything the elves are not: ungraceful and loving. Tom, like all of the other elves, does not care about other people or animals, but simply about surviving. Later, when Tom meets Anna's half brother, Joe, things grow worse. The emotionally hardened and distant Joe sees to testing Tom's abilities. At first, Joe just tests Tom's weight and body temperature, which is under freezing. But, Joe then becomes fascinated with Tom's elfin ability to become invisible by calling on the stars. When Joe forces Tom to try and become invisible while Tom is in a weakened conditions, the tool shed Tom has been living in bursts up in flames. Tom flees, but does not get far. He is found by Anna and Joe's snooping neighbor, Edie. Edie takes Tom into her home, though he resents her help. She puts up charms to keep the murderous Tribe from Tom. Despite her protection, Tom still feels that he is going to die. Each day he finds himself growing weaker and more unlike himself. With help from Anna and Joe, Tom is able to escape from Edie's home, but he then feels back into the forests of the elves. He is met by his elfin father, Larn. Larn pierces him with a spear. Anna, Joe, and Edie find Tom dying in the woods. Edie seems aloof to this fact and tells Anna and Joe to forget about him. Joe, fascinated by an elf woman nearby, does nearly this. Anna, on the other hand, stays by Tom and tries to help him get better. It is her persistence that saves Tom from dying and helps Tom turn completely human. In the end, Edie turns out to be Tom's once-elfin aunt, Edrin. She was an outcast just as Tom was and tries to help him understand why he was different from the other elves. Anna and Joe also stay by and try to help Tom learn to be human. In the end, Tom seems accepting of the fact that he has given up the beauty of the elf world for the closeness of the human world. |
The Constant Princess | Philippa Gregory | 2,005 | ;Childhood: The book starts at Alhambra Palace, when Catalina is five years old. Her family is constantly traveling and fighting battles against the Moors, or African Muslims, whom they are trying to drive out of Spain. Katherine, or Catalina as she is called in Spanish, faces the dangers to which she is exposed bravely and learns the skills and tactics needed to be a strong military leader. Even as a young child, Catalina expresses pride in her titles of Infanta of Spain as well as Princess of Wales (this title resulting from her betrothal to Prince Arthur of England.) Her mother, Queen Isabella I of Castile, is an outstanding commander, with a great ability to make wise tactical decisions as well as effectively rally her troops. The Moors are being persecuted because they will not accept the Catholic religion. ;Marriage: The book then skips over to Dogsmerfield, England when she meets Henry VII and her fiance, Arthur Tudor. King Henry VII is strongly attracted to her, but keeps his feelings under control, exhibiting a very gruff manner towards her. Arthur does not appeal particularly to Catalina, as he is uncomfortable and quiet. On their wedding night, Arthur is almost too nervous to consummate their marriage, but Catalina knows they must and strongly encourages him. The tension, awkwardness, and lack of understanding between the two causes them to have a very discordant and cold relationship for a few months. Finally, Arthur becomes so angry that he orders Catalina to accompany him to Ludlow Castle in the freezing weather without showing much care for her safe travel. She is miserably cold in a litter on the way and almost becomes ill. She is so upset that she angrily and sadly reproaches him and cries, and he realizes his ability to make her unhappy, and decides that he must be a better husband. He apologizes for his unkind behavior and she does the same, and he cares for her tenderly when they reach the castle. That night, she prepares a special meal for them and wears beautiful Arabic dress that she has brought with her. She tells him about her country and how the Spanish follow many Arabic/Moorish customs (in the areas of food, dress, decorating, but not religion). (However, the real Katherine was rigidly Catholic, and to even consider any type of tolerance towards the Muslims would have been seen as a sin to her.) They share an intimate and honest conversation, leading to the beginning of a truly happy relationship. They begin to discuss things they plan to put in place when they are king and queen to help England prosper. Catalina and Arthur share a wonderful life for several months. They discuss their families, their past, their cultures, and their future together. Arthur tells Catalina that his brother Henry is very jealous of him and will always be spoiled and greedy. However, their happiness ends when Arthur suddenly becomes ill with the sweating sickness. Arthur begs Catherine on his death bed to promise that she will marry his younger brother Henry VIII, become Queen of England, and carry out their vision for the kingdom. In order to do so, she had to deny that their marriage was consummated, which the novel depicts as one of the most audacious lies in the history of England. At first, King Henry VII proposes to Catalina, but she rejects him, making him angry. He ignores her for the next few years and does not marry her to his son Prince Henry though both young people desire to marry. ;Second Marriage: When Henry the VII dies, Henry becomes king and marries Catalina. She changes her name to the English "Katherine" when she becomes queen. She is a bit manipulative to Henry, tricking him on their wedding night by pretending that she is a virgin, but this is unlikely to have happened in real life, and using his naivety and adoration of her to accomplish things she wants (though these things usually are to the benefit of the kingdom). Her first pregnancy results in a miscarriage, and in desperation she consults a Moorish doctor who is more knowledgeable than the English doctors. While she is away having her baby, Henry has an affair with a woman named Anne (not Boleyn) who unknowingly convinces him that Katherine was not a virgin. The book ends with the start of Henry VIII's relationship with Katherine's lady-in-waiting, a Boleyn girl, Anne. Anne later does become Queen of England in Katherine's place, as depicted in another novel by Gregory, The Other Boleyn Girl. |
Peter and the Secret of Rundoon | Dave Barry | 2,007 | The story starts at Stonehenge, where Lord Ombra was seemingly destroyed in Peter and the Shadow Thieves. Though weakened, he uses his power to possess others to gather himself together so that he can return to Rundoon. Meanwhile, warriors of the Scorpion tribe plan to invade Mollusk Island. Warned by the Lost Boys, Fighting Prawn prepares for war. Eventually, however, he is forced to surrender to the overwhelming force of the invaders and the Mollusks are enslaved. Molly and George travel to Oxford, where they discover some vital information about Peter's parents which suggests Peter himself is in danger. And indeed Lord Ombra and his fellow shadow creatures have decided that capturing Peter could help their plans. Lord Aster sails to Mollusk Island to warn and protect Peter, unaware that Molly and George have stowed away aboard his ship. Peter, wounded by the Scorpions, is kidnapped by Captain Hook along with the Lost Boys, but soon they are all captured by Lord Ombra and taken to Rundoon. There they are imprisoned in the dungeons of King Zarboff III, a cruel and vain despot in cahoots with the shadow beings. Tinker Bell joins Lord Aster in a rescue mission, but he is captured by Zarboff's men. Tink returns to the ship to warn Molly and George, but finds them trying to steal a camel and being chased by the owners. She tells Molly to use the starstuff in her locket to make the camel fly, and so they escaped and went on to find Peter, Lord Aster, and Bakari on their flying camel. Zarboff reveals his plan - to shoot rockets into space to make starstuff fall. The first attempt is successful, and he plans another, using the new starstuff to send the rocket even further. He does not know that the shadow beings intend the second rocket to rupture the fabric of the universe and cause it to collapse into nothingness. It falls to Peter to prevent the rocket from reaching its destination. By chance that load of starstuff falls onto a ship stolen by George and the Lost Boys, causing it to float. The flying ship, expertly handled by Captain Hook, takes the whole party back to Mollusk Island, when Shining Pearl, Fighting Prawn's daughter, has joined forces with the pirates to repel the invaders. The book ends with the Lost Boys deciding to return to London and some new boys, former St. Norbert's orphans enslaved by Zarboff, taking their place. |
Macao | null | null | Princess Morgan de Gama is an addict, a whore, and a deadbeat. As the story begins, a film of her sexual exploits is being auctioned off to three international buyers. The Portuguese government would like her locked in an asylum. Meanwhile, an Angolan rebel needs her to keep an old French general in his service, and has told the Red Chinese that acquiring her is a part of any deal they may want to make with the rebellion. David Hawk, head of AXE, has a plan to use her to eliminate the head of Chinese counterintelligence. He sends Nick Carter with her to Hong Kong, and from there to Macao, knowing that Colonel Chun Li would have a trap ready for them. The two do end up in the trap, and face a sticky end chained up in a dungeon with mutant killer rats. However, in the end, Colonel Li is killed, the Angolan rebel leads his forces to the rescue, and the Princess ends up marrying the head rebel, Prince Askari. |
The Fur | null | 2,004 | The Fur follows the late high school and early university years of the protagonist Michael Sullivan in an Alternate Reality version of Western Australia in the late 1990s following a meteor strike carrying an infectious and lethal fungus-like plague ('The Fur'). The entire state is under forced quarantine by Commonwealth and UN military forces. The novel revolves largely around Sullivan's struggles with his religious beliefs and dilemma on whether or not to attempt to break quarantine and start a new life in the uninfected Eastern States of Australia, at the risk of death and certain cost of abandoning his family and friends forever. |
A Taste for Death | P. D. James | 1,986 | In the dingy vestry of St. Matthew's Church, Paddington, two bodies have been found with their throats slashed. One is an alcoholic vagrant, whereas the other is Sir Paul Berowne, a baronet and recently resigned Minister of the Crown. Poet and Commander Adam Dalgliesh investigates one of the most convoluted cases of his career... |
In Evil Hour | Gabriel García Márquez | 1,979 | In Evil Hour takes place in a nameless Colombian village. Someone has been placing satirical pasquinades about the town, outlining the locals' shameful secrets. Some dismiss these as common gossip. However, when a man kills his wife's supposed lover after reading of her infidelity, the mayor decides that action is called for. He declares martial law and sends soldiers (really just armed thugs) to patrol the streets. He also uses the 'state of unrest' as an excuse to crack down on his political enemies. |
Surviving the Applewhites | Stephanie S. Tolan | 2,002 | E.D.'s father Randolph is directing the local production of The Sound of Music, but is disheartened by the lack of genuine talent in the town. However, he hears Jake singing, and asks him to audition. Ultimately, Randolph casts the play, with Jake in the role of Rolf. However, Randolph is so bossy and demanding that the entire stage crew quits, leaving his family of artists to pool their collective talents to keep the show running. E.D. feels left out because she isn't creative, but her father makes her the stage manager because of her ability to organize. Resentful because her daughter wasn't cast as one of the Von Trapp children, the head of the theater ultimately cancels the show because of a small incident. E.D. proposes to continue the show in the family barn, and soon everyone is helping out to convert it into a theater. The night of the show arrives, and everything is going well. E.D. begins to believe that the play will be a success, but in the middle of the performance, the sound of rain and thunder become very loud. The performers stall until the weather lets up. They begin to sing and encourage the audience to join them. Soon after, the rain had calmed down and they continue the play. Just before the final scene, as the actors are about to head onstage, there is a blue and white flash and the electricity goes out. E.D. thinks the play is over until she thinks of an idea to save it. She tells the actresses playing the roles of nuns to hold candles so the audience can see what the actors are doing. Thanks to E.D. the show is a complete success. The next morning the family sits in the living room and reads the reviews. They say the play was outstanding, unlike any other. Because of what a report has written about Jake, he is now determined to be back onstage singing and acting again. |
The Africa House | Christina Lamb | null | The Africa House is an account of the life of soldier, pioneer white settler, politician and supporter of African independence Stewart Gore-Browne in relation to the building of his estate Shiwa Ngandu in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. Originating with a chance encounter in 1996 with Gore-Browne's grandson in Lusaka, the book uses Gore-Browne's diaries, letters, personal papers and photographs as well as those of his family, and interviews with family and friends, as its sources. |
The Last Days | Scott Westerfeld | 2,007 | The narrative focuses around Moz, Zahler, Pearl, Alana Ray and Minerva, in an apocalyptic New York. Odd occurrences are taking place, the sewers are gushing black water, the earth shakes, and people are inexplicably going mad. In the midst of it all, two friends begin to see their dreams realized. Moz and Zahler have been friends for six years, playing their guitars without any clear direction. They have always dreamed of forming a band, but have never managed to quite get it done. Moz meets Pearl, a mysterious girl with a knack for music, who he teams up with to save a guitar that a crazy woman throws out of her window. When they begins learning more about one another, the image of a band becomes clear. With Pearl at their head, the band begins to recruit new members and take form. As the band becomes more and more real, new members join. Alana Ray, a skilled drummer and street performer with a mysterious condition that is never quite made clear (although is most likely to be some advanced form of synesthesia), joins them under the condition that Moz pays her. However, Moz keeps this deal secret from Pearl to gain something resembling control over the band. Alana Ray has the ability to see colored lights, which she considers to be hallucinations at times, and realistic at others. She often mentions that she is able to "see" the music they play. Pearl also convinces Minerva, her long-term friend, to join the band as their lead singer. Minerva was in a band with Pearl previously, but they broke up when Minerva contracted the parasite causing the madness in the city and begins to hate all the people she once loved, and she begins to hate her boyfriend, another member of the band, causing her to break up with him, thus breaking up the band. Minerva's parents have hired a woman, Luz, who believes in natural means to fight the parasite instead of the artificial means of modern doctors. Minerva uses these traditional methods such as garlic and rosemary to keep off the worst effects of the parasite, taught to her by Luz. Zahler eventually changes over from his position as lead guitarist to playing the bass, due to the fact he normally plays lower parts regardless and his fingers are suited for the larger instrument. Initially, he is unhappy that Pearl and Moz had devised this plan without his consent. However, he soon grows used to the bass. Meanwhile, Moz and Minerva begin to date in secret, causing the parasite to be passed on from Minerva to Moz. The band soon receives a recording contract with Astor Michaels, a man who is a carrier, who is known for having discovered a new type of music called "New Sound". He has been searching for a new type of music which involves a member of the band being infected, creating quite a unique effect. Because of Minerva, and soon the newly infected Moz, Astor Michaels soon believes to have discovered the perfect band. The five are still struggling to agree on a name for their band, but otherwise their band seems to be making its way quickly to fame. Moz begins playing in the subway to help raise money for the band, until things turn strange one night. A giant worm lurks in the nearby tunnels, and Moz is instinctively drawn to it, all of his instincts screaming to kill it. Before he gets the chance to attack it, the "Angels", seemingly defenders of the city against the people who have lost their minds, jump down to fight the worm. They soon reveal themselves to actually be carriers of the parasite from the New Watch (featured in Peeps), including Cal and Lace from Peeps. They attempt to bring Moz to New Jersey to treat his parasite, but he runs away, fearing letting down the band by missing their first gig. The band plays for its first time in a club at night, but it does not go perfectly as planned. Zahler freezes up in the beginning, although he eventually overcomes his stage fright and starts the song. But Minerva's song causes another giant worm to break through the ground, killing many people in the process. The New Watch comes to defeat the worm, and rounds up the whole band to take them to the New Jersey lab, but not before Moz smashes his beloved guitar because of the parasite. Moz receives treatment for the parasite in New Jersey, and when he has almost completely recovered, he and the rest of the band members visit the Shrink, a character included in Peeps. The Shrink believes that Minerva's singing has called up the worm, and that she can use this ability to help defeat them. Even the Nightmayor, centuries old, can barely remember this ancient talent as it was used in the previous resurfacing of the worms. None of the previous bands employed by Astor Michaels were able to achieve this same result because one member was infected, but not the lead singer. The New Watch recruits the band to sing to cause the worms to surface all around the country, thus allowing the New Watch to fight them on their own terms. The band goes on tour, travelling wherever they are needed, and Pearl finally comes up with the perfect name for the band: The Last Days. They become heroes of sorts, and finally achieve their dreams of fame, although not in the way that they originally planned. In the end, the worm attacks have ended, and civilization is rebuilding itself. Moz and Minerva are revealed to still be together, although they have broken up and gotten back together numerous times. Pearl has turned into a politician and is running for mayor of New York "again", leaving the fate of the rest of the characters unknown. |
The Family Reunion | T. S. Eliot | null | The play is in two acts, set in Wishwood, a stately home in the north of England. At the beginning, the family of Amy, Dowager Lady Monchensey are assembling for her birthday party. She is, as her doctor later explains, clinging on to life by sheer willpower: :...........I keep Wishwood alive :To keep the family alive, to keep them together, :To keep me alive, and I keep them. Lady Monchensey's two brothers and three sisters are present, and a younger relation, Mary, but none of Lady Monchensey's three sons. Among other things they discuss the sudden, and not to them wholly unwelcome, death at sea of the wife of the eldest son Harry, the present Lord Monchensey. Neither of the younger sons ever appears, both being slightly injured in motoring accidents, but Harry soon arrives, his first appearance at Wishwood for eight years. He is haunted by the belief that he pushed his wife off the ship. In fact Harry has an alibi for the time, but whether he killed her or not he wished her dead and his feelings of guilt are the driving force in the rest of the play. Lady Monchensey decides that Harry's state warrants the discreet observation of the family doctor, who is invited to join the party, ostensibly as a dinner guest. Mary, who has been earmarked by Amy as a future wife for Harry, wishes to escape from life at Wishwood, but her aunt Agatha tells her that she must wait: :...........You and I, Mary :Are only watchers and waiters, not the easiest role, Agatha reveals to Harry that his father attempted to kill Amy while Harry was in her womb, and that Agatha prevented him. Far from being grateful, Amy resented and still resents Agatha's depriving her of her husband. Harry, with Agatha's encouragement, announces his intention to go away from Wishwood, leaving his steady younger brother John to take over. Amy, despairing at Harry's renunciation of Wishwood, dies (offstage), "An old woman alone in a damned house", and Harry and his faithful servant, Downing, leave. |
North Amerikkkan Blues | Evan X Hyde | null | Evan Anthony Hyde tells the story of his last few months at St. John's College Sixth Form (now Junior College) in which he receives a scholarship from the local embassy to study at Dartmouth. After enduring threats from a Jesuit teacher who dislikes Hyde and wants to take his scholarship away despite his academic performance, the eighteen year old leaves Belize for Dartmouth. While there, he makes new friends and learns much more than he would have wished about the world outside of Belize. After two years and many adventures, Hyde makes a decision that affects his life irrevocably. |
Politian | Edgar Allan Poe | null | The play takes place in 16th century Rome. A man named Castiglione becomes engaged to a woman named Allessandra, inciting the jealousy of the orphan Lalage. Lalage meets a man named Politian and, after some flirtation, convinces him to take revenge on Castiglione. In the drama, Politian recites the poem "The Coliseum," which Poe had previously published in 1833. |
Undead and Unwed | MaryJanice Davidson | null | Betsy Taylor—former model, newly unemployed secretary, 30, and still single—wakes up after being flattened by a Aztek Pontiac in a tacky coffin wearing cheap knock-off shoes. Her mother is glad she is back, albeit as a vampire, but her stepmother is enraged that Betsy has reclaimed her designer-shoe collection. With a wealthy best friend and a newly acquired doctor pal who is not susceptible to her formidable allure, she sets out to right wrongs but is abducted by Nostro, a tacky 500-year-old vampire who rules the undead roost. It seems that Betsy is an anomaly: a vampire who doesn't burn in sunlight, can fight the urge to feed, and is not repulsed by religious articles, all of which may make her the prophesied Queen of the Vampires. Teaming up with gorgeous vampire Eric Sinclair, who is in her opinion a major pervert, she takes on Nostro and his minions. |
Undead and Unemployed | MaryJanice Davidson | null | Nothing can make Betsy Taylor give up her shoe fetish- even dying and rising as the new Queen of Vampires. Only being royally undead doesn't mean that there aren't credit card bills to be paid. Luckily, Betsy lands her dream job selling designer shoes at Macy's Department Store. But then there's a string of vampire murders in town and Betsy has to enlist the help of the one vamp who makes her blood boil: the oh-so-sexy Eric Sinclair. Only the last time she ran into Sinclair she accidentally fulfilled an ancient prophesy- and ended up married to him... |
Undead and Unappreciated | MaryJanice Davidson | null | The novel has two prologues. The first prologue relates how the devil, out of boredom, possessed a "not very nice" woman and gave birth to a daughter; however, the devil soon returned to Hell, since she preferred it to living with a newborn. The devil's daughter, Laura, was given up for adoption by her biological mother, Antonia, for whom the possession was like a fugue state. Ironically, Laura is adopted by a Presbyterian minister and his wife, the Goodmans. The second prologue introduces the recently turned vampire Betsy Taylor, the heroine of the Undead series of paranormal romance novels, as she crashes a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, where she hopes to learn techniques to control her thirst for blood. The two prologues are related because Laura is Betsy's half-sister, sharing the same father; the not-very-nice Antonia is Betsy's stepmother. This third novel of the series has thirty-five chapters and, as usual, is told from the point of view of Betsy (first-person narrative). The early chapters introduce Betsy, who has become the Queen of the Vampires through odd circumstances, and her circle of friends/roommates. Her best friend is the very cool and very wealthy Jessica, whom she's known since the seventh grade; Jessica is patient with Betsy and supportive. Another close friend and confidante is Marc Spangler, an emergency-ward physician. Other major human characters include Betsy's father and stepmother Antonia ("the Ant"), who are expecting a baby, Betsy's professor mom Elise (a Civil War historian) and a policeman, Nick Berry. On the vampire side, Betsy is betrothed to the earnest Eric Sinclair, now King of the Vampires; although Eric is smitten with her, Betsy is not enthusiastic. The novel is framed by a minor story, a wedding between a vampire and a human, Andrea Mercer and Daniel Harris, who are friends with Betsy. Such marriages are almost unheard-of because vampires had traditionally viewed human beings as "sheep", that is, as food rather than romantic partners. In an early chapter, Betsy is asked to preside at the wedding; she does so in the final chapter, quoting from Romeo and Juliet: "what love can do, that dares love attempt". Throughout the novel, Betsy reminds herself that she needs to prepare for the wedding; Betsy's distractions are also highlighted by noting when she forgets about the upcoming wedding. The plot begins in earnest when Betsy receives a non-invitation to her stepmother's baby shower; the shower is scheduled for daylight hours, making it impossible for vampires to attend. To reinforce the snub, Betsy's weak-willed father visits Betsy at home to ask her to stay away, where he lets slip that the new baby is Antonia's second child. Betsy and her friends confirm this revelation from Antonia herself, who describes unwillingly how she woke up with no memories of the preceding ten months, and dropped the baby girl, Laura, off at the hospital. Much of the novel revolves around the search for Laura and getting to know her. Laura turns out to be a beautiful but bashful girl just beginning college, and eager to do the right thing for everyone. She's very sweet-natured and wholesome, always seeking peaceful solutions, and making friends with everyone, even people with difficult tempers. Getting to know Laura, Betsy likes her (although she envies her beauty) and can't bring herself to tell her about her sordid vampiric life or that Laura herself is the "spawn of Satan" and destined to conquer the world. Before finding Laura, Betsy is frustrated by not knowing enough and resolves to read the Book of the Dead, a holy relic for vampires analogous to the Bible. The Book was written by an insane vampire who could see the future; unfortunately, it also drives anyone reading it insane. Throwing caution to the wind, Betsy reads the Book for several hours. The Book describes Betsy's ascension to Queen of the Vampires and her marriage to Eric, and also predicts that her half-sister Laura is fated to take over the world. Unfortunately, the book drives Betsy insane or, rather, changes her into a traditionally thinking vampire, as shown by the novel's first-person perspective. In that state, she attacks her human friends Jessica and Marc, indulges unbridled passions with her consort Eric, and tries to kill his vampire assistant Tina, who defeats her handily. She wakes up with a bruised head, a recovered sanity and much remorse – and also a new power, to awaken before sunset, which she uses to take Laura to Antonia's baby shower, so that Laura can meet her birth mother. Throughout the remainder of the novel, she tries to recover her friends' trust, particularly Jessica's, and also make amends with Eric. The novel's climax occurs in a nightclub, Scratch. Betsy inherited the club, but the vampire staff are unhappy with her non-traditional changes, including not allowing them to drink blood from humans or kill them. The staff form a union and strike to demand better "working conditions". As their bargaining chip, the staff kidnap Betsy's half-sister Laura, mistaking her for an ordinary human girl. Unfortunately for them, they handle her too roughly and, despite her dislike of violence, Laura begins killing them with weapons formed from hellfire. Eric joins them and the three together win the fight with the vampires. Laura reveals that she'd known all along about Betsy and about herself, but she was waiting for Betsy to trust her enough. Laura is convinced that she can overcome her demonic heritage and be a good person, although she also displays a touch of temper. Later, Betsy meets the Devil herself—resembling a wonderfully dressed Lena Olin—who reveals that Laura will indeed take over the world. The novel is also marked by several minor stories that contribute to characterizing Betsy and her friends. It opens with a semi-serious discussion between Marc and Betsy about his recovery from alcoholism. Also near the beginning, Eric and his long-time assistant Tina return from a trip to Europe; Eric gives Betsy a little shoe necklace, playing on Betsy's well-known weakness for shoes and characterizing how much he cares for her. Betsy's compassion is highlighted by her treatment of "George", one of the Fiends she inherited from another vampire vanquished in an earlier novel. Fiends are vampires that have been driven insane, unable to speak or reason, by denying them blood. Most of the Fiends are being tended to by Betsy's vampire friend Alice, but George continually escapes and makes his way to Betsy's house. Betsy begins to feed him her own blood, and George begins to recover his sanity by learning to crochet. |
Undead and Unreturnable | MaryJanice Davidson | null | It's Christmastime in the Kingdom of the dead (Minneapolis), which is complicated as it sounds. Betsy Taylor isn't going to let a little thing like death and blood-drinking stop her from enjoying the holidays or planning her upcoming spring wedding to drop-dead gorgeous vamp Eric Sinclair. But all is not merry and bright-Betsy is plagued by ghosts who demand her help in rectifying their past mistakes, and a serial killer is on the loose. With his victims all being, blond women. Besty fits the profile exactly... The book starts out with the knowledge that Betsy is technically dead, however everyone but close family and friends think that she is still alive. In Betsy's life she has a stepmother, Antonia (the Ant) who gives birth to a younger brother, Jon, and her best friend, rich Jessica, and Laura, is technically her half-sister but also the devil's daughter after Satan possessed her stepmother (The Ant who gave her up to adoption to, ironically, the Goodman's) and produced a daughter. She also receives attention from a human boy who is a past member of a gang of vampie slayers. She also has a gay human friend called Marc, a doctor she saved in the first novel from suicide and a human policemen who is a former flame called Nick Berry. Aside from all of this she has vampire servants who work for her and a hostage wild vampire dubbed George the Fiend. George is a wild vampire created by a 500 year old vampire Betsy killed. She feeds him with her blood to make him stronger and Jessica teaches him different things such as crocheting. Laura later attacks George the Fiend thinking her mother (Satan) is using him to annoy her and meddle in her life. After Betsy tries to break up the fight Laura stabs her with a sword forged by Hellfire that kills magical creatures, however it doesn't kill her. After this Laura is sent to feed him. Eric and Betsy fight after she reveals she can hear his thoughts during sex. Eric is hurt she doesn't tell him earlier and goes back to his room which causes Betsy to point out that he hasn't fully committed to their relationship. Also, in an attempt to connect with her people Betsy starts an advice column intended for new vampires which others deem as stupid. Also, the human boy, with the decidedly shady past as an ex-vampire slayer, decides to write her life story as a fiction story and publish it through his university course, however Sinclair and his best friend Tina wipe his memory of it to save Betsy from exposure. After a serial killer known as the "Driveway Killer" kills her stepmother's next door neighbor a ghost starts plaguing Betsy. Laura and her set out to find him and discover him in a rundown house with a hostage. Laura kills him and the two set the hostage free. Betsy finds herself somewhat frightend of Laura doing the fight scene in which the overtake the serial killer and set the hostage free. In this novel it seems that Antonia knows that Laura is her daughter. |
Undead and Unpopular | MaryJanice Davidson | null | Betsy Taylor, Queen of Vampires, is celebrating her 31st birthday and her 1st anniversary of being dead (or perhaps that should be undead.) She has told her friends that she doesn’t want a party but she is sure that they are planning a surprise party for her. She is trying to plan her summer wedding to Sinclair but it doesn’t help that he is avoiding having anything to do with it and deciding to give up drinking blood in honour of her birthday is just making her cranky. And nobody likes a cranky vampire. Jessica her best friend since childhood has been diagnosed with cancer and this leads Betsy to think that maybe converting her friend to become a vampire might be a good idea. With a delegation of European vampires arriving to pay their respects to her, a baby brother to baby sit, unexpected guests dropping by and a phone that just won’t stop ringing she has plenty to keep her occupied. And that’s before she deals with the zombie in the attic…. |
Undead and Uneasy | MaryJanice Davidson | null | In the days leading up the The Big Day, Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor seems to have a full house - and the wedding guests have yet to arrive. Along with her human buddies, there's a ghost, a werewolf, and a Fiend crashing at her place. And though her fiance, Vampire King Eric Sinclair, conveniently disappears when the conversation turns to seating charts and flower arrangements, he does manage to make his oh-so-sexy presence known at other moments. Betsy knows the next few weeks won't be smooth sailing - but she never expects just what's in store for her. Cold feet are no surprise, especially with an undead groom. But when Sinclair truly goes missing - and not just to avoid wedding preparations - along with most of her friends and loved ones, Betsy is frantic. Alone and afraid for the fate of everyone she loves, Betsy can't trust anyone as she tries to find them and whoever is behind all the disappearances. And what happens next will shake the foundation of the vampire world forever in the bestselling series that "breath(es) new life into conventional vampire lore."* |
A Cage of Butterflies | Brian Caswell | 1,992 | The story is set in a research facility (known as the "farm") involving two groups of people. The first group contains several teenagers with IQs above 150. These teenagers (Greg, Mikki, Lesley, Gordon, Gretel, Katie and Chris) call themselves the "Think Tank". However, this group is merely a smokescreen for the real subjects of the research - five seven year-olds who are able to communicate telepathically, known as the "Babies". The Babies are called Pep, Ricardo, Ian, Rachael and Myriam. The Babies were all born around the same time in the same hospital. When the members of the first group are "contacted" by the Babies, they learn of the researchers' exploitation, and, with the help of compassionate workers at the facility (Susan and Erik), investigate the reason for the Babies' condition. The Babies need help as the head researcher, Larsen, will stop at nothing to solve the mystery. The Think Tank, as well as researcher Susan and young orderly Erik provide this help. They trick the head researcher, John Larsen, so they can escape. The story ends with the Think Tank six years into the future. They turned the think tank into 'Think Tank Inc.', a company worth three million dollars. The Babies, Think Tank and newly married Erik and Susan all live together. The title, 'A Cage of Butterflies' refers to the fact that Larsen and the research staff keep both the Babies and the think tank under constant supervision and keep them 'caged' or 'prisoners', since they do not allow them to move around freely. |
The Girl Next Door | Jack Ketchum | null | The story takes place in 1960s suburban United States, and is told in flashback form by the narrator, David. After giving the reader a quick tour of his neighborhood and childhood friends, David introduces Ruth, a single mother and alcoholic, amongst other things. Ruth has, over time, gained the trust of the neighborhood children by allowing them to come freely into her home, play as rough as they wish, and even drink an occasional beer with her. Fast forward to Meg and Susan, Ruth's nieces, who come to live with their aunt after the death of their parents. All seems well at first: the girls make friends with the other children and David begins to develop feelings for the sweet and innocent Meg. However, Ruth's mental state has been deteriorating over time, and the burden of having two more children to care for seems to accelerate her descent into madness. Ruth begins verbally, then physically, abusing the two girls, often while the other neighborhood children are watching. Then she allows the other children to abuse them, making them feel that because they have the permission of an adult, their actions are okay and will not be punished. Finally both Meg (who is severely injured and near death) and Susan find themselves locked up in the bomb shelter in Ruth's basement, and David realizes that he must do something before time runs out and he loses the first girl he ever loved. However, despite his efforts, his plan to rescue the girls is foiled by Ruth and the neighborhood children under her control. Ruth allows the neighborhood boys to toy with her. Ruth then feels that no man should ever have her and she should never have any man so she decides to end her desires. David decides to create a plan to get Meg, Susan, and himself out of the house alive. He lights some fireworks so the smoke will travel up the stairs. One of Ruth's sons warns her and as she heads downstairs, David beats her with Susan's crutches. The police then show up and David tells them what had happened so he does not get prosecuted. As he grows up he tracks the whereabouts of the other children who helped to torture Meg, discovering that they have either died young as a result of reckless lifestyles or have gone on to lives of poverty and crime. After reading of a brutal crime spree perpetuated by one of the now grown children, David is left to wonder what has become of the children he was unable to track. |
Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries | Neil deGrasse Tyson | 2,007 | Death By Black Hole is divided into seven sections: The Nature of Knowledge, The Knowledge of Nature, Ways and Means of Nature, The Meaning of Life, When the Universe Turns Bad, Science, and Culture and Science and God. |
Don't Go Near the Water | William Brinkley | 1,956 | Don't Go Near the Water is an episodic novel broken into ten chapters dealing with the various Public Relations officers stationed on the island, with six numbered interludes, entitled "Melora" with a sequential number after them, developing an additional storyline of the romance between Melora Alba and Ensign Max Siegel, an ugly but educated former investment broker "afflicted with a monstrous body but a beautiful soul." Lieutenant Commander Clinton T. Nash, executive officer of the large Public Relations Headquarters and known as "Marblehead" to his men, is a pompous former stock broker who aspires to be nautical. Nash's futility in achieving this aim is symbolized by a running gag of failing to master the use of a sextant. When Lieutenant (jg) Ross Pendleton is frustrated by the native islanders on adjacent Gug-Gug island refusing to dress and behave stereotypically during a publicity visit by Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs, the exec sends Ensign Siegel to assist the former radio soap opera producer and self-important huckster. Siegel is the ace Sightseeing Officer among the Correspondent's Aides, known for his lavish if tongue-in-cheek VIP treatment. Siegel succeeds in gaining the cooperation of the Gug-Gug islanders but the film is never used by the Navy. ;;Melora 1 The Passionate Sailors of Mendoza :While escorting two congressmen on a tour of the island, Ensign Siegel encounters a beautiful native girl speaking to Mr. Seguro, a native man. The politicians are anxious to socialize with her at a traditional Tuluran dinner, but Siegel tries to protect her by warning of the risk of social diseases among native women. All three are horrified when the girl (Melora) turns out to be sophisticated and fluent in English. Vice Admiral D.D. Boatwright, a logistics genius and "veritable naval Clauswitz," considers Public Relations a collection of "oddballs and freaks." Despite his great merit, because he is without glamor he has become the target of attacks in the press, particularly by war correspondent Gordon Ripwell of the Chicago Gazette, who boasts of a readership of two and one half million. The admiral reluctantly acquires a small dog from a native boy to protect him during his morning exercise walks, and when the dog runs away, distributes handbills around the island seeking information on the dog. When it turns out the dog returned to the boy, the admiral happily reunites them permanently, a story picked up by the media from the handbills. The admiral becomes a public relations hero almost overnight, known as "Bow Wow Boatwright," assuring the Navy the benefit of his genius for the rest of the war. ;;Melora 2 Never Mind the Frangipani :Siegel interrogates Mr. Seguro as to the identity of the girl. Mr. Seguro is evasive, but finally discloses that the girl is not only the daughter of a wealthy family, the Albas, but is the village schoolteacher. Ensign Siegel immediately heads towards the schoolhouse. Commander Nash, in a bid to glamorize the enlisted man, establishes the Home Town News Department and has "Joe Blow" officers installed aboard every ship in the fleet. When the fleet fails to show any interest in participating, he revises the system to mass produce filler copy about the civilians in uniform to mail to stateside newspapers, appointing meek and inconspicuous Lieutenant Noah Pratt to run it. Lieutenant Pratt's dedication to the task embarrasses the other Public Relations officers, especially Lieutenant Morey Griffin, the "idlest man on Tulura, which is saying something," whose ambition is to be the Navy's "boudoir liaison" in Sydney, Australia. When he and his roommate Ensign Siegel poke through ships' rosters looking for news of old friends, they encounter the name of Farragut Jones, Boatswain's Mate Second Class on the APA USS Ankletooth. Amused by a sailor named for two naval heroes, they create copy for the sailor and send unauthorized stories to his hometown newspaper in Appleton, Nebraska. Their amusement turns to horror when the editor contacts the Department of the Navy, suggesting that Jones be returned to the States as a hero. Nash is outraged that someone has bypassed the Home Town News Department. The two confess and the exec confines them to quarters "pending the court martial." Nash promptly forgets them; Siegel and Griffin enjoy days of room service exceeding that of The Greenbrier. However, Admiral Boatwright loves the editor's idea, and the two are freed. Jones is ordered to Tulura before the hero's tour of the States. ;;Melora 3 Hydroz to Jerem :Ensign Siegel has established a formal relationship with Melora, helping out in the temporary island one-room schoolhouse after school, and researching questions the teacher is unable to answer without benefit of a library. He breaks down the formality by purchasing an Encyclopædia Britannica for the school- the one gift that the formally brought-up teacher would accept. Lieutenant (jg) Pendleton is a married womanizer with a penchant for the Navy nurses stationed on Tulura. Ensign Siegel's yeoman, Adam Garrett (who wants to be transferred to sea duty), is recruited by Pendleton to be his driver, instead of another officer as required by regulations, so that he can consummate a relationship with his latest conquest, Ensign Alice Thomas. Garrett's frequent nocturnal proximity to the attractive (and willing) nurse combines with two years of forced celibacy to compel him in enlisting Siegel to help arrange an affair between Garrett and Thomas in violation of Navy Regulations forbidding "fraternization" between officers and enlisted personnel. Using his Tuluran friends, Siegel stages a phony attack by Japanese hiding out on the island to kidnap Pendleton, leaving Garrett and Ensign Thomas alone together. The pair carry on a protracted affair, during which Garrett discovers he had, as Siegel had warned him, been merely obsessed with Alice because of sexual deprivation. Unexpectedly, Garrett then falls in love with Alice and indiscreetly sees her during daylight. Commander Nash finds out about the affair and breaks it up, but is persuaded by Siegel to forgo disciplinary action against Garrett for fear of having adverse stories written by correspondents on Tulura (mainly Gordon Ripwell) sympathetic to the enlisted man. Correspondent "Rip" Ripwell enjoys throwing his weight around with the fearful Commander Nash and the other officers. Ensign Christopher Tyson III, a young tennis-playing Princeton man with a noticeable stammer, is the most junior ensign in Public Relations and given the duty no one else wants: correspondent's aide to Ripwell. Tyson is particularly burdened, tasked with personally hauling Ripwell's dirty sheets to the base laundry daily and most recently told by the correspondent to find him a woman. Rewarded by his puritanical publisher with an inscribed thousand dollar bill as a souvenir of flying on a bombing raid of Japan, which the Public Relations officers note "some of those PFC B-29 crewmen...make...ten times a month for a hundred bucks," Ripwell's boorish personality makes him the target of Ensign Siegel, Melora, and Tyson, who combine to blackmail the reporter out of the money. Tyson wants only to be relieved of his odious and undignified laundry duties, but Siegel plans to use the money to rebuild the island's schoolhouse, destroyed in the war, forcing school to meet in a one room shack. Ripwell is hailed as a hero for his philanthropy, and his publisher sends him another souvenir bill. Boatswain's Mate Second Class Farragut Jones arrives on Tulura en route to the United States, where a tour from New York to Washington to Hollywood has been arranged. Commander Nash dubs Jones the Typical Young Navy Man and orders Ensign Siegel to give the sailor Siegel's "complete red-rug, big-wheel, VIP treatment." However Jones proves to be utterly uncouth, grossly tattooed, has a predilection for using the coarsest language, despises civilian war workers, and is suspicious of the Navy's intentions. The alarmed and desperate exec assigns Siegel to room with the sailor and "freshen him up." In ten days, Siegel does a reasonable job by conditioning Jones using whiskey and the allure of sex in Hollywood. Chaperoned by Lieutenant Noah Pratt, Jones has a successful tour of the United States, and is asked to stay on in Hollywood as a technical advisor. Siegel gets a daily letter from Jones detailing his personal success with the ladies of Hollywood. ;;Melora 4 I Went to Harvard College, Sir :Melora brings Ensign Siegel home for tea with her father, a sometime European expatriate and Tulura's chief banker, stranded on his native Tulura by the war. After the tea, and without ever deviating from a pleasant and polite tone, Mr. Alba thoroughly dissects Siegel, and despite Siegel's Harvard background, finds him wanting in education and breeding. A lavish officer's club is planned to replace the Quonset hut currently in use, while the enlisted men find their beer allowance strictly rationed to two beers per day. Led secretly by Yeoman Garrett, distributing outraged missives written using Public Relations mimeograph equipment, the enlisted men protest by cancelling their war bond allotments. When Naval Intelligence investigates and the correspondents begin writing stories sympathetic to the enlisted men, Commander Nash fears adverse consequences for Public Relations Headquarters, and responds with a disastrous attempt to have the officers to build the club themselves. The effort is a complete disaster by mid-afternoon of the first day when six of the inexperienced officers become casualties to work injuries, including the exec, who falls head first into a wheelbarrow of wet cement. Ensign Siegel defuses the situation by the simple expedient of allowing the men to consume their weekly beer ration at one sitting. Nash learns of Garrett's involvement from Naval Intelligence, but recalling his earlier fraternization episode and still fearing the consequences from the correspondents, rules out a court martial and instead punishes the yeoman by transferring him to the worst duty of which he can conceive: sea duty aboard a destroyer. ;;Melora 5 Queen's Pawn Opening :The new schoolhouse is going up nicely, and Melora again invites Ensign Siegel for tea. Despite Mr. Alba's courteous pleasantries, Siegel is uncomfortable until he shows an educated appreciation of Mr. Alba's collection of excellent chess sets. Mr. Alba learns that Siegel is a also skilled player—there are no others on Tulura. He invites Siegel to play a game, and to remain for dinner. Debbi Aldrich, the "aloof, tantalizing and beautiful" correspondent for the women's magazine Madame, hits Tulura, where she creates a major upheaval, especially with Ensign Tyson, by always displaying a half inch of black brassiere in the V of her uniform shirt. Using her wiles on Admiral Boatwright's assistant, Debbi arranges assignment to a warship going into combat, the heavy cruiser U.S.S. Seattle, escorted by Tyson, who has yearned for sea duty. The crew of the Seattle, noting the half-inch of bra, asks Debbi for a pair of her lacy black panties to fly as a pennant during the bombardment of the Japanese-held island of Nanto Shima. Two days after the landing, she slips away from her quarters and goes ashore where the battle still rages, and stays at the front with the Marines for four days. She returns at the end of the week, after Naval Intelligence has begun an investigation into her disappearance, and is sent back to the States. Curiously, after the combat operation Tyson's stammer has disappeared. ;;Melora 6 New York is a Very Great Excitement :Ensign Siegel's and Melora's relationship has become close, especially as her father has found much common ground for conversation with Siegel and grown to like him. Matters are dampened, however, when Melora tells Siegel that as much as she loves other places, she has a duty to Tulura and could never live anyplace else. News of the bombing of Hiroshima reaches the island. Lieutenant Woodrow Wilson Shoemaker, a lean, pale "thinking man with a sense of history" and formerly an editorial writer, is in charge of the Historical Section of the Public Relations branch. The reactions of others in Public Relations dismays him when it appears that he is the only person on Tulura concerned about its implications. Commander Nash worries only that the Air Force has achieved a Public Relations coup that the Navy will not be able to match. Lieutenant (jg) Pendleton sees it as a quick opportunity to return to Radio City Music Hall to produce a new soap about a "hotpants" Navy nurse suspiciously similar to Ensign Alice Thomas. Gordon Ripwell's reaction is to be miffed that President Truman didn't inform him ahead of time. Shoemaker decides to resign his civilian position in order to work to prevent future wars. Ensign Siegel bets him a month's liquor rations that in a cross section of views on Tulura, Shoemaker's would be the only apocalyptic concerns. In an all-night drinking and interviewing binge, Siegel wins the bet. Instead of writing out his resignation as an editorial writer, however, a chastened Shoemaker decides to sleep all day, unaware that Siegel has been affected, helping him to make a crucial decision about his own post-war life. A wild party in the new officer's club celebrates the end of the war and the impending return of most to civilian life. Melora and Mr. Alba accept invitations, and Mr. Alba finds the behavior of the American officers anthropologically fascinating. Lieutenant Griffin is unexpectedly ordered to Sydney—after the conclusion of the war has ended its high female-to-male ratio—but lifts his depression by tossing a taunting Lieutenant (jg) Pendleton into the swimming pool. Ensign Tyson wanders the club with his tennis racket swatting higher-ranked officers on the buttocks while yelling, "Mind your rudder," in imitation of Commander Nash. Yeoman Garrett enters the club "like a Viking come to raid" to claim Ensign Thomas. Ensign Siegel, in a "spontaneous" gesture orchestrated to resemble a media awards ceremony, informs the exec that he has been awarded the Legion of Merit. Admiral Boatwright, a close friend of Mr. Alba's, announces Melora's engagement to Siegel. (After his night with Shoemaker, Siegel had driven directly to the Albas to ask for her in marriage, after which Mr. Alba invited him to work as an investment broker in the bank on Tulura.) At dawn the next morning, with the party still in full session, Siegel succeeds in demonstrating to the grateful Nash how to use the sextant. "'So that's how it's done,' Nash said. Abruptly the exec gave a superior little laugh. 'Really it's very simple, isn't it, Siegel—unlike Public Relations. Why, any meathead could be a seagoing officer.'" |
Ratking | Michael Dibdin | 1,988 | Police Commissioner Aurelio Zen has crossed swords with the establishment before - and lost. From the depths of a mundane desk job in Rome counting paperclips, to which he has been exiled through political fallout from the Aldo Moro kidnapping and murder, he is unexpectedly transferred to Perugia. Unbeknownst to him, favours have been called in and words have been whispered into ears. He is to take over a kidnapping case involving one of Italy's most powerful families, with control of a business empire at stake. The missing head of the family is a major benefactor of one of Italy's major political parties and pressure is being applied. Zen contends with local power politics and troubled relationships with his mother and girlfriend, while employing some distinctly unorthodox methods and skirting the borderline of the permissible in a race to get results before he is removed from the case through political pressure. |
A Long Finish: An Aurelio Zen Mystery | Michael Dibdin | 1,998 | After his adventures under sun-drenched Neapolitan skies in Cosi Fan Tutti, Aurelio Zen finds himself reluctantly back in Rome, sneezing in the damp wine cellar of a retired but still powerful and connected mover and shaker. Strings are pulled and he is given another unorthodox assignment: find evidence that clears the jailed scion of an important wine-growing family, who is accused of brutal murder, in time to harvest what is anticipated to be a great vintage. Zen is confronted with the closed ranks and closed mouths of a small, remote rural town, where everyone knows the secrets of everyone else. Grappling with tangled relationships, bitter resentments and grudges reaching back to the immediate post-war years, his investigations are further distracted by meeting the young woman who thinks she is his daughter. |
Blood Rain | Michael Dibdin | 1,999 | Aurelio Zen has got the posting he always dreaded--he has been sent to Sicily, home of the Mafia, albeit in a nondescript liaison job. The woman who might be his daughter is there too, fixing police computers and worried that someone has a backdoor into data; she is enjoying a flirtation with a woman magistrate whose pursuit of the Mafia is based on quite personal agendas. Someone died nastily, left to cook in a locked metal wagon in a railway siding--the Limoni family deny, as local Mafia chieftains anxious to retain prestige would, that it was their missing son; but someone will end up paying in blood for this murder that never happened. Zen is thrown into what he recognises as a 'fugue state', following some emotional hammer blows and exhibits some odd and obsessional behaviour before eventually returning to Catania for a confrontation with a powerful Mafia Don in which his life is at stake. With a personal interest in getting to the bottom of things, Zen adds up the clues and realises murky political forces are involved that are bigger than both of them. Dibdin's picture of a Sicily full of death and confusion is evocative and plausible; Zen's initially reluctant pursuit of at least some part of the truth, some vestige of honour, is moving and powerful. This is an emotionally complex thriller in which the starkest of tragedy is counterpointed by outbreaks of bizarre comedy as Zen finds himself allies in unlikely places and the internal squabblings of the Mafia clans would be hilarious if they were not so blood- curdling |
And Then You Die | Michael Dibdin | 2,002 | Aurelio Zen is back, but nobody's supposed to know it...After months in hospital recovering from a bomb attack on his car, Zen is lying low under a false name at a beach resort on the Tuscan coast, waiting to testify in an imminent high profile Mafia trial. He has clear instructions: to sit back and enjoy the classic Italian beach holiday. But Zen is getting restless, despite a developing romance with a mysterious and alluring occupant of a nearby sunbed, as an alarming number of people seem to be dropping dead around him. Abruptly, the pleasant monotony of beach life is cut short as the word comes and he finds himself transported to a remote and strange world far from home...where he belatedly comes to appreciate both the reach of those who want him dead and that the corpses were all supposed to be his. As ever in the Zen chronicles, the real story turns out to be much more complex. Confronted by an unexpected and unconsidered adversary, he resolves the immediate situation at the cost of involving his new girlfriend in a plot to dispose of an inconvenient corpse. |
Medusa | null | 2,003 | When a group of Austrian cavers exploring in the Italian Alps comes across human remains at the bottom of a deep shaft, everyone assumes the death was accidental. But then the body is removed from the morgue and the Defence Ministry puts a news blackout on the case. Smelling a rat, and seeing an opportunity to embarrass their political rivals in the run-up to a cabinet change, the Ministry of the Interior puts Aurelio Zen onto the case. The search for the truth leads him into the turbulent political history of Italy during the seventies and also into obscure corners of modern-day affluent society, exposing the sordid details of a crime that everyone else had forgotten. The story is told from the view points of several of those involved and the action moves between Rome, the extreme northern province of Alto Adige, an Italian enclave and tax haven in Switzerland, and several provincial Italian cities. The focus is on movement, rather than the methodical application of the police process; Zen takes short cuts with the latter and arrives at the solution in a rush. |
Back to Bologna | Michael Dibdin | 2,005 | Zen is on sick leave after a stomach operation and is feeling a shadow of himself. His relationship with his partner, Gemma, is also not going well. She is about to leave for Bologna to meet her son who has something important to tell her. Meanwhile, Zen is recalled to duty and is sent to be the liaison officer for a high profile murder investigation - in Bologna – where the local football team owner has been shot, as well as stabbed with a Parmesan knife. Whilst in Bologna, Gemma manages to get tickets to watch a live cook-off between local academic celebrity Edgardo Ugo and singing TV chef Romano Rinaldi, 'Lo Chef Che Canta e Incanta', provoked by Ugo suggesting, in a newspaper article, that Lo Chef can't cook. A series of coincidences leads to Zen being arrested when Ugo is found shot in the wake of the hilariously disastrous event. The other main characters include a couple of flatmates – a rich kid student of Ugo's who fancies himself an 'Ultra' football fan, the student's illegal immigrant girlfriend, who calls herself Princess Flavia of Ruritania and the worlds worst private detective, who fancies himself a Chandleresque Private Eye. This is Zen at the centre of a black comedy. |
The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes | Beatrix Potter | 1,911 | The tale is set in a forest and begins with "once upon a time". Timmy Tiptoes is "a little fat comfortable grey squirrel" living in a nest thatched with leaves in the top of a tall tree with his little wife, Goody. Over the course of several days, the two collect nuts in their little sacks for the coming winter and spring, and store the nuts in hollow tree stumps near their home. Timmy wears a red jacket he removes while working, and his wife wears a pink dress and apron. When the stumps are full, the couple make use of a tree-hole that once belonged to a woodpecker. The nuts rattle "down – down – down inside", and Goody wonders how they will ever retrieve them. Timmy reminds her he will be much thinner by springtime and will be able to pass through the little hole. In an aside, the narrator tells the reader that the couple had great quantities of nuts because they never lost them, noting that most squirrels lose half their nuts because they cannot remember where they buried them. Silvertail is the most forgetful of squirrels in the wood, and, while trying to find his nuts, digs up another squirrel's hoard. A commotion erupts among the nutting squirrels, and, as ill luck would have it, a flock of birds fly by singing "Who's bin digging-up my nuts?" and "Little bit-a-bread and-no-cheese!" One bird finds a perch in the bush where Timmy is working and continues to sing about digging up nuts. The other squirrels take notice, suspect Timmy of robbing others of their hoards, rush upon him, scratch and cuff him, chase him up a tree, and stuff him with great difficulty through the woodpecker's hole. Silvertail suggests they leave him there until he confesses. Timmy lays "stunned and still" on the peck of nuts he has stored in the hollow tree while Goody searches fruitlessly for him. Eventually, Timmy stirs and discovers himself in a mossy little bed surrounded by ample provisions. Chippy Hackee, a small striped chipmunk, tends him with kindness, mentioning that it has been raining nuts through the top of tree and he has also "found a few buried". The chipmunk coaxes Timmy to eat the nuts and Timmy grows "fatter and fatter!" Goody is very concerned about her husband's disappearance, but has gone back to work collecting nuts and hiding them under a tree root. Mrs. Hackee, Chippy's wife, emerges from beneath the root to demand an explanation regarding the shower of nuts into her home. Eventually, the two ladies complain about their runaway husbands, but the chipmunk knows where her husband is camping-out because a little bird has told her. Together, they hurry to the woodpecker's hole and hear their husbands deep within the tree singing: :"My little old man and I fell out, :How shall we bring this matter about? :Bring it about as well as you can, :And get you gone, you little old man!" Mrs. Hackee refuses to enter the tree because her husband bites, but Goody calls to her husband and he comes to the hole with a kiss for her. He is too fat to squeeze through the hole, but Chippy Hackee (who is not too fat) refuses to leave and remains below chuckling. A fortnight later, a big wind blows off the top of the tree, and Timmy makes his escape. He hurries home through the rain, huddling under an umbrella with his wife. Chippy Hackee continues to camp-out in the tree stump for another week, but a bear-looking creature comes lumbering through the neighbourhood (looking for nuts perhaps?) and Chippy decides it's time to hurry home. He suffers a cold in his head and is quite uncomfortable. Timmy now keeps the family nuts "fastened up with a little padlock", and Goody is seen in the accompanying illustration sitting outside the nest tending three tiny babies. "And whenever that little bird sees the Chipmunks, he sings – 'Who's-been-digging-up my-nuts? Who's been digging-up my-nuts?' But nobody ever answers!" Chippy Hackee and his wife are seen in the last illustration trying to drive the little bird away with their tree-leaf umbrella. Potter's idea to make the squirrel grow so fat he cannot escape the tree was imitated by A. A. Milne in Winnie the Pooh. |
Mr. Tinker in Oz | James Howe | 1,985 | One night in Kansas, Dorothy meets Ezra P. Tinker, the inventor of Tik-tok the Clockwork man and he tells her the thousand year guarantee has just run down. With the help of Mister Tinker's speckoscope and Julius Quickscissors they return to Oz. They encounter a group of babies called the Widdlebits and trek across the bottomless swamp. Finally, they make it to the Emerald City, where Dorothy is able to be sent home once again. |
Up from Jericho Tel | null | null | The book is about an eleven-year-old girl, Jeanmarie Troxell, and a boy, Malcolm Soo, who bury dead animals in a "graveyard" they make out of an abandoned place with many trees behind their trailer park. One day they find a dog who they think deserves a very special plot in the "cemetery", so they find the exact center of the yard and start digging, but they suddenly fall down into a hole that leads to a dead woman, former movie star Tallulah, and her dog (the dead dog they found on the street). She sends them on missions for special people and things, especially her lost necklace, the Regina Stone, but always for a pack of cigarettes. On their way, they find more than just objects. They find the meaning of friendship and what it takes to be a star. |
The Royal Mess | MaryJanice Davidson | 2,007 | Jeffrey Rodinov is a descended from one of the oldest families in Alaska, and a Rodinov has been protecting a Baranov for generations. It's a job Jeffrey takes VERY seriously. Six feet four inches, 220 fatless lbs., black hair and blue eyes; weapon of choice: the 9 mm Beretta. In a pinch? His fists. IQ: 157. No one ever sees Jeffrey Rodinov coming, and no one—not even a mouthy, illegitimate princess—is going to keep him from playing bodyguard when his decrees it. Right. But no Rodinov ever had to protect Princess Nicole Krenski. Her credentials? Hunting guide in the Alaskan wilderness. Smart. Stubborn bordering on exasperating. Five-seven. Blue eyes. Very kissable mouth. Very kissable neck, back, legs, wrists, earlobes. The lady says she doesn't need a bodyguard, but that's where she's wrong. Someone needs to watch her and show her the royal ropes (and cuffs...and scarves...). Someone who can make her feel like a queen—in and out of bed. And that's a job Jeffrey Rodinov takes very seriously as well... |
The Royal Treatment | MaryJanice Davidson | 2,004 | Christina Krabbe is trying to find where she belongs after being fired from her job when she meets "Al", a man who has a fondness for fishing. It turns out that Al is the King Alexander II and is looking to set his son up with a woman to be his wife. His son, David seems more interested in his collection of penguins to take the time to meet Christina. He eventually begins to become attracted to Christina's bluntness and candor. The two eventually wed. In order to let Christina work through her added stress as becoming a member of the royal family, she begins to see a family therapist. Eventually, the royal family is part of a kidnapping plot that results in the king being shot and Alexandria killing one of the kidnappers with a chair. During the next months, prince David becomes king while his father is recovering. David and Christina's relationship is stressed but they remain together. In the end, it is revealed that Christina is pregnant. |
The Executioners | null | null | The Australian armed forces have been messing up badly. One of their carriers rams and destroys an American cruiser. A pilot accidentally drops live bombs during war games. An out-of-control tank sets off an explosion that decimates a British army contingent. Nick Carter is sent to investigate, working alongside Major Rothwell and his assistant, Mona Star. After a few near misses with death, and the deaths of the men who were at the hearts of the accidents, Nick uncovers a Chinese plot to drive off Australia’s allies, an underwater base on the Great Barrier Reef, and the shocking secret that the plot is not truly Chinese, but the brainchild of a bitter woman whose father was ruined by the Australian army – and who killed and took the place of the real Mona Star, years ago. The plot is ended by a couple of navy torpedoes and a school of sharks. |
Derik's Bane | MaryJanice Davidson | null | Starting out in the Wyndham Mansion, Werewolf Derik is ordered by his alpha, Michael Windham, to go to California and find the reincarnation of a powerful sorceress - Morgan LeFay, half sister of King Arthur - and stop her from what ever she is doing by "taking care" of her. Because if he doesn't, the world will end in six days. This prediction from psychic werewolf Antonia is a lucky diversion for Derik, who has recently become an alpha wolf, and would otherwise likely have gotten into a fight with Michael over alpha status in the Pack, a fight only one of them could have possibly survived. Upon his arrival in Monterey, California, Derik discovers that the reincarnation of Morgan LeFay is a gorgeous but benign medical doctor named Sara Gunn, who has had a string of the most unlikely luck since the day she was born, but has no intention whatsoever to destroy the world. Derik, posing as car mechanic, tries to kill her but fails miserably several times, as do others, namely an odd group calling themselves Arthur's Chosen, whose goal is the resurrection of King Arthur. After realizing he can't possibly kill Sara, and convincing her that her string of luck is not pure coincidence, they team up and visit Doctor Cummings, Sara's mentor, who, as it turns out has known of Sara's predicament since before she was born and who points them towards the lair of the Arthur's Chosen in Salem, Massachusetts. During the trip across the country, Michael tries and succeeds to cajole Sara - who is initially rather not very fond of Derik because he has tried to kill her, but adores his gorgeous body - into sleeping with him by means of several lies and half-truth. Over the next days during the trip, Sara falls under Derik's spell, and when he finally tells her that he has cheated her into sleeping with him, she rejects him at first, but shortly after, they confess their love to each other. Upon arrival in Boston, Mass., they both put off seeking out the Arthur's Chosen, not wanting to end the trip and the romance that has developed between them. Sara however is captured by the Arthur's Chosen shortly after, brought to a warehouse and forced to give them some of her blood, which they need to resurrect King Arthur through Black Magic. Derek barges into the warehouse, after having been warned by Antonia that he will die if he enters the warehouse. The Arthur's Chosen release Sara after draining some of her blood and start working on the resurrection, which they can't finish however, because Derik and Sara interfere. The interrupted spell sets free a demon who immediately starts to kill everyone, and would - as Sara sees in a vision - have extinguished all life on earth. After the demon has killed all of the Arthur's Chosen, he severely wounds Derik, breaking his neck, but is attacked by Sara, who, in another nearly-impossible lucky event kills it by simply kicking it with her foot, thus saving the world. Sara then tends to Derik, who is clinically dead, and tries to reanimate him with CPR. Within minutes, Derik is alive again, and almost completely healed due to his werewolf healing abilities and Sara's magic. Having successfully saved the world, the couple returns to the Wyndham Mansion and is greeted by all Werewolves. After Dinner with Michael and his wife Jeannie, Derik proposes to Sara by simply answering Michael's question of what will happen next with "We will marry, and you will give us an RV so we can travel the country". Sara, initially reluctant because Derik did not ask her in private first, eventually accepts the proposal. This ends Derik's struggle to prove his alpha status, because he is now married to the most powerful sorceress in the world, more or less cementing his status for everyone to see. It is then also revealed by Antonia that by "taking care" of Sara, she didn't mean "kill", but literally "keep safe", and that Derik was fated to Save the world not by killing Sara but by loving her, and that she couldn't tell him before or he would have screwed it up. |
Milkweed | Jerry Spinelli | null | Milkweed is set in Warsaw, Poland, during World War II. The main character Misha--who acquires multiple last names throughout the plot--is introduced to a band of thieves when he meets Uri, a fellow thief who act as his guardian. Peter D. Sieruta noted, “Misha’s early days with Uri are almost carefree”. While out stealing with Uri, Misha witnesses German invaders “Jackboots” capture Poland. He describes the Jackboots as “magnificent” and later states that he wants to become a Jackboot. Shortly after Poland is captured, Uri decides to create a false identity for Misha, “which Misha gratefully adopts to fill the void that is his past”. This fabricated background states that Misha is a Gypsy born in Russia to a large and old family. His mother was a talented fortune teller, he had “seven brothers and five sisters,” and a beloved “speckled mare” named Greta. In this story bombs and hateful, polish farmers separate Misha’s family until he winds up as a orphan in Warsaw. After running away from a Jackboot, Misha ends up in a garden where he meets Janina. Misha describes Janina as a “little girl,” who reveals she is also Jewish. Janina invites Misha to her seventh birthday party and without knowing what birthday cakes are, Misha panics- thinking that they were trying to “burn down the cake”- and blows out the candles and runs away with a part of the birthday cake. With Jackboot control over Warsaw tightening, a curfew is established and “stupid” Misha ends up getting his earlobe shot from being out past curfew. City conditions worsen with low food supplies, people losing their houses including Janina and her family, loss of electricity, and Jews are being harshly prosecuted. Eventually all Jewish people in Warsaw including Misha, Janina, and the gang of boys are moved into the ghetto. Janina's uncle Shepsel describes their new living conditions as if living in a "closet". News goes out that Himmler, a prominent Jackboot, is coming. One day, a parade of Jackboots passes, and Misha tries to catch the attention of the ugly, unresponsive man who he thinks is Himmler, but instead is knocked to the ground by Buffo, a man who enjoys killing Jewish children. Once Uri reassures Misha that the man he saw was in fact Himmler, Misha decides that he no longer wants to be a Jackboot.Each night Misha steals by slipping through a hole in the wall that is “two bricks wide”. His friend Janina wants to mimic him, so she begins following him on his stealing expeditions. As time passes, the conditions of the ghetto worsen. One day as Misha is “walking along,” Uri appears. Uri, who has been gone for a long time, warns Misha that deportations are coming, and that all of the people will be cleared out of the ghetto. Some time later, an old man appears advising the people that there is no resettlement, and instead the Jews are going to be taken away and killed. That night, Janina’s father Mr. Milgrom tells Misha that when he and Janina go out to steal, they need to run away. Janina and Misha stay in Poland though because Janina refuses to leave and kicks Misha when he tries to convince her to leave the ghetto. Since the Jews are being taken away street by street, it takes some time to clear all of the people out of the ghetto. One night when Misha and Janina return from stealing, the hole in the wall is gone. Without a way into the ghetto, Misha dashes through the crowd of Jackboots and Jews who surround the train station Stawki Station with Janina behind him. They make their way into the ghetto to find the room where they had lived deserted. Janina runs in desperation to find her father, and Misha loses sight of her in the crowd of people. Following, he sees her thrown into a boxcar by a Jackboot. Misha is hit with a club, and kicked before Uri, who appears to be a Jackboot, shoots him. Misha awakens near the train tracks in a state of confusion. A farmer finds him and takes him to a farm where Misha stays for three years working and sleeping in a barn with the animals and eventually runs away. Not knowing what to do next, he rides on trains, and ends up back in Warsaw where “there [is] rubble and there [is] nothing”. He removes his armband leaving it on the sidewalk. Jack (Misha changes his name when moving to America) talks wildly about his past in the streets for years. Most people try to ignore him, except for a woman named Vivian who stops to listen to his stories. She marries him, but leaves after five months; pregnant. Many years pass, and we find Jack working in a Bag ‘n Go market where he meets his daughter Katherine for the first time. She has her own little girl, Wendy, who calls Jack, her new grandfather, Poppynoodle. Katherine takes him to her home where he lives for the remainder of the novel. Jack still thinks of Janina, although he will tell nobody, and he digs up the milkweed plant and plants it in his own back yard. |
The God Beneath the Sea | Edward Blishen | 1,970 | The God Beneath the Sea is divided into three parts. Part one begins with the image of the infant Hephaestus plummeting from Olympus to the ocean. Thetis saves the baby and takes him to the grotto she shares with Eurynome. They raise the baby, telling him stories of Greek myths and giving him a hammer and anvil to play with. Part one concludes with Hermes inviting Hephaestus back to Olympus at Hera's bequest, and Hephaestus claiming Aphrodite for his wife. Part two tells the myths of Prometheus and Pandora, and part three tells various myths of gods interacting with mortals. The novel concludes with the Olympians unsuccessfully attempting to overthrow Zeus, and Hephaestus returning to Olympus from Lemnos, having been cast down from Olympus for a second time after reproaching Zeus. In Part I, "The Making of the Gods", Thetis and Eurynome tell Hephaestus stories of the Titans and Olympians, in hopes of quelling his restless nature. They begin with the myths of the Titans emerging from Chaos, then tell of the birth of the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires, and the overthrowal of Uranus by his son Cronus. They tell of Cronus' ascension to the throne with his queen Rhea, and his descent to madness after the Furies torment him nightly with prophecies that he, like his father, would be overthrown by his son. Hephaestus grows uglier and more violent with age. Thetis and Eurynome give him a hammer, anvil and forge to vent his fury and discover he is a gifted smith. Hephaestus' most beautiful creation is a brooch depicting a sea nymph and her lover; he threatens to destroy the brooch unless Thetis tells him who he is and how he came to live in the grotto. The goddesses resume their tales: Rhea and Zeus conspire to overthrow Cronus. The avenging children of Cronus defeat and imprison the Titans, sparing Rhea, Prometheus and Epimetheus. The gods fashion their home on Olympus, and Zeus seduces Hera by transforming himself into a cuckoo. Their child is hideous and misshapen, and Hera throws the child out into the sky. At the revelation of his parentage, Hephaestus breaks the brooch, and half is washed to sea. His desire for vengeance are tempered by the realization of Zeus' immense power. The narrative then shifts from Hephaestus and the goddesses to recount concurrent events amongst the Olympians, including the arrival at Olympus of Apollo, Artemis, Athene and Hermes. Pregnant again, Hera overlooks Zeus' infidelities, resolving to remain calm to avoid another monstrous child. Hera gives birth to her second son, Ares, and the immortals come to Olympus to honor the newborn god. Zeus commands Hermes to find a gift for Ares. Hermes finds the lost half of Hephaestus' broken brooch and returns it to Zeus as a gift. Zeus creates Aphrodite in the image of the brooch's nymph. Hermes then reunites the broken half of the brooch with the other half, which is worn by Thetis. Hera, struck by the beauty of the brooch, demands to know who fashioned the brooch, then dispatches Hermes to fetch Hephaestus. Hermes returns Hephaestus to Olympus; Hephaestus forgives Hera and asks Zeus for Aphrodite as a wife. Ares demands a birthright from Zeus, and Zeus makes him god of hatred, discord and war. In Part II, "The Making of Men", Prometheus makes men out of clay and the substance of Chaos to inhabit the earth, fearing that Zeus will give the earth to one of his children as a plaything. At Zeus' behest, Hermes commands Prometheus to destroy his creations. Instead, Prometheus teaches his creatures to sacrifice and worship Zeus. Prometheus offers Zeus the choice of two portions as sacrifice; Zeus mistakenly chooses the poorer portion, and in retribution forbids mankind the use of fire. Prometheus steals fire for them in defiance of Zeus. He continues to watch over mankind, finding strange impurites in the substance of Chaos he'd used to create them. These he scrapes away and hides in a sealed jar. Zeus commands Hephaestus to make a woman. The Olympians bless her with gifts, and Zeus names her Pandora. Hermes gives Pandora to Epimetheus as a wife. Zeus punishes Prometheus by chaining him to a pillar in the Caucasus, where a vulture eats his liver daily. At night his wounds heal, so that his punishment can begin anew the next morning. Pandora eventually finds Prometheus' hidden jar. Opening it, she releases malignant furies on mankind: madness, old age, vice and sickness. All that is left in the jar is a chrysalis that works as a healing balm. Hermes consoles the despairing Prometheus that hope was left behind for mankind, "for who knows what may unfold from a chrysalis?" Part III, "Gods and Men", begins with the tale of Lycaon turned to a wolf by Zeus after treating him with disrespect. Zeus begins a deluge. Prometheus shouts a warning to Deucalion, who makes a sea vessel to survive the storm with his wife, Pyrrha. They land at Mount Parnassus, and after praying they repopulate the earth by casting stones over their shoulders. The stones transform to people when they land. The novel then tells of Persephone's abduction by Hades, and Demeter's search for her. After learning of Persephone's abduction from a shepherd, Demeter swears to Zeus that she will withdraw her blessings from the earth unless Hades returns Persephone. Zeus agrees to let Persephone return if she has not tasted the food of the dead. Ascalaphus, a gardener in the underworld, remembers that Pandora ate seven pomegranate seeds in Hades, and Demeter turns him into a screech-owl. Rhea intercedes and Demeter agrees to let Persephone live with Hades for three months of the year. The novel tells myths of Autolycus, the son of Hermes and Chione, and Sisyphus. Autolycus steals the cattle of his neighbor Sisyphus; Sisyphus gains revenge by raping Autolycus' daughter Anticleia. Autolycus sends Anticleia to Ithaca to marry Laertes, who raises Odysseus, the son of Sisyphus and Anticleia, as his own. Sisyphus spies Zeus ravishing the daughter of the river god Asopus and tells Asopus where he had seen them in return for a gift of an eternal spring. He tricks death by trapping Hades in his own manacles. Hades is freed by Ares, but Sisyphus escapes death a second time by deceiving Persephone. At last Hermes takes Sisyphus to Tartarus, to be condemned to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity. Meanwhile, Hera and the Olympians conspire to imprison Zeus in a net while he is distracted raining thunderbolts on Asopus. Thetis fetches Briareus to free him. Zeus punishes Hera by hanging her in the sky, and sets Poseidon and Apollo the vain task of building the doomed city of Troy. Hephaestus, seeing Hera's punishment, berates Zeus, and Zeus throws Hephaestus for a second time from Olympus. Hephaestus lands on the isle of Lemnos and is nursed to health by the locals. He returns to Olympus and is greeted by Hermes. At the novel's conclusion, Autolycus muses in a letter to his daughter that his grandson Odysseus may one day visit the new city of Troy. |
Year of Wonders | Geraldine Brooks | 2,001 | At the opening of the novel, everyone is desolate, and Anna Frith, the narrator and the housekeeper of the rectory of Eyam, reflects on her marriage at age fifteen during the Puritan years, and her widowhood of two years due to a mining accident after three years of marriage and two sons born. When she next reports to work, she is greeted by the daughter of the local landed gentry of the village, Elizabeth Bradford. Miss Bradford tells Anna that her mother is dying and seeks the Rector Mr. Michael Mompellion's counsel, but the rector directs Anna to tell Miss Bradford to go to Hell. Eventually, he himself confronts Miss Bradford and tells her that he will not see her, or any member of her family, due to their refusal to offer support to the village during their self-imposed quarantine. When he returns to his quarters, Miss Bradford collapses in tears in the rectory's kitchen and is comforted by Anna, who is told that her mother is grievously ill with what was suspected to be a tumour but is now known to not be, but she does not elaborate upon this. She presently leaves and Anna returns to the rector, to read him the 103d Psalm, who is impressed by her literacy as taught by the rectoress, Elinor, before her death. He then asks why she did not choose one he finds more ironic – the 128th Psalm. He then desecrates the Bible by dropping it to the floor, an action which shocks her. She leaves the rectory and the plot then fully begins. The novel reverts to a year and a half before, when Anna Frith, then a widow of less than a season, is offered the opportunity to take a boarder, George Viccars, from Peakrill near Kinder Scout, a journeyman tailor who had apprenticed in Plymouth and worked in London, York, and most recently, Canterbury. He quickly ingratiates himself with the Widow Frith's sons, and by the summertime, when he receives a box of fabric from London, he is fully a part of the household. A few days later, Anna comes home to find a woolen dress of green trimmed with Genoese lace. She models the gown, her first since leaving Puritan Sadd colours, for Mr. Viccars and comes to him in an embrace, but immediately sends him to rest as he is fevered. The next day, she mulls on the possibility of marrying Mr. Viccars and the ethics of accepting such a fine gown during her morning's work at the rectory, but completely forgets Mr. Viccars' suggestion that she discuss the matter with her rector or possibly the rectoress. She returns home to find Mr. Viccars abed with acute bubonic plague, and immediately offers him water and fresh bedding, and dismisses his pleadings that she flee for the sake of herself and her sons. He begs her to burn all he brought with him to stop the spread of contagion. She refuses this, thinking him delirious and instead brings the rectors, the Mompellions, to ease Mr. Viccars' illness through prayer. As Mr. Viccars dies, she washes and shrouds him and turns him over to the sexton for burial. The rector recommends that she do as he asked and burn his belongings, but as news of the death spreads, Mr. Viccars' clients come to pick up their work and disregard the warning. The Widow Frith has a few weeks' respite, and then her next door neighbour, Mr. Viccars' employer, falls ill with the plague as well. Within a day, her infant son Tom is ill and dies in less than 24 hours, for which her stepmother, Aphra, rebukes her for her folly in naming and loving a child before it was old enough to walk, whereas the rectoress Elinor Mompellion reads to her of Jesus' love of little children. Within a week, her 3 year old son Jamie dies as well, despite a large variety of remedies being tried. People all over the village begin to fall ill. The spate of deaths is blamed on a widow, Mem Gowdie, and her niece, Anys Gowdie, who are the village's herbalists and midwives. To test Widow Gowdie for being a witch, they throw her into a flooded mine shaft. Once she drowns, they immediately begin to repent and call themselves murderers. Her niece is summoned from the village, and being more practical and skilled in physick understands the situation, and immediately begins to perform insufflation. After three breaths, Mem awakens, and Anys, having raised the dead, is dragged away and asked to confess to her consort with the devil, and in attempting to distract the mob, she confesses and accuses the questioners of having themselves cuckolded by the devil. Her ploy causes great confusion and furthers their hysteria, but does not work – she is lynched moments before Rector Mompellion appears. Anna comments at the time that this incident (as Mem Gowdie dies of pneumonia five days later) led the village into a time of great illness and no one skilled in physick to help them, nor midwife their women through their confinements. The rector consults with the former priest displaced after the fall of the Puritans for advice and formulates a plan, which he shares in the parish on Sunday. He proposes a quarantine, with the town being provisioned in full by the earl of Chatsworth House. The village, with the exception of the Bradfords, its landed gentry, choose to self-quarantine to avoid spreading "Plague seeds" further north. Word of the plague in the village had spread and when a few not held by the Oath (who had been working that Sunday and were not part of the decision) attempt to go to relatives at Bakewell, they are pelted by rocks and rotten fruit from the town market to drive them out of the village. They return to Eyam with this report. They are in turn sheltered by the poor of the town, who house them in their already crowded quarters. During the course of the novel, not only do Anna and the rectoress Elinor Mompellion attempt to learn the uses of the contents of the Gowdies' physick garden, with the help of the works of Avicenna, they also take on the duties of the Gowdies in midwifing births. At one point, a Quaker orphan child is dependent upon them to bring out enough lead to allow her to keep her claim upon her family's mine, her only source of income. These problems bring them closer, with an unspoken agreement that Mrs. Mompellion and Anna should take care of the needs of the living, and Mr. Mompellion should take care of the spiritual needs of the dying. In token of that understanding, Mrs. Mompellion directs Anna to stop addressing her as a superior but instead by her Christian name, and tells her of her own girlhood in Derbyshire after her mother's death, where she was given an excellent education by a governess which included study of Latin, Greek, history, music, art and natural philosophy, but at the age of fourteen, she was courted by the heir to a duchy, with whom she eloped to the Fleet in London to marry without licence. But once they arrived in London, her suitor suggested entertainments and excursions and delayed the consecration of their marriage while not delaying the consummation. He abandoned her after two weeks and she sent to her father for aid. Her father and brother, who had been searching desperately for her, brought her home, forgave her and agreed to not tell anyone of what had happened. Upon discovering that she was with child, she, "desperate and deranged", "violated her own body with a fire iron." She survived the incident but was left barren due to the extensive scarring in her womb. She concludes this story by explaining that it was Mr. Mompellion who ministered to her spirit and introduced her to the lives of others less fortunate, and helped her to repent her own sins, and married her in full knowledge of her barrenness. After the sexton dies of heart failure from digging so many graves, Anna persuades her father, Josiah Bont, to take up the work of gravedigging, but this is an error of judgment. She knew her father to be a physically abusive drunkard who had placed her mother in branks for small offences, and her stepmother, Aphra, to be a selfish, superstitious woman, but she was not prepared for the scope of her father's greed, as he helps himself to most of the contents of the homes for each grave to be dug. Eventually, he attempts to murder a man so as to dig his grave and help himself to the goods of the house, and this final insult leads the villagers to hold a Barmote Court, where he is taken to the victims' mine and impaled there by a dagger through the hands and left unguarded so that his wife may free him – a painful punishment but not fatal. However, Aphra blames him for the plague that has fallen down upon her household that day and does not free him; Anna mistakenly thinks she would comply with the local custom and do so to avoid the horrors of a death by impalement and exposure. Three days later, they find him still impaled at the mine, long dead, and partially consumed by wild animals. Anna offers to help Aphra bury him in the churchyard – however, Aphra argues that he should be buried where he died, and thus they build a cairn, over which Aphra pronounces a curse as Anna recites the Lord's Prayer. Aphra quickly descends into complete madness upon the death of all of her children from plague and is only brought into the community once it is found that she has been selling charms and spells against the plague for extortionate prices. Mr. Mompellion bade her be kept overnight by those that found her – in their anger, they cast her into a disused well that now serves as a manure pit, in which she nearly drowns. She is completely incoherent and in a catatonic state by the time she is brought out in the morning, and the rector postpones dealing with her until the plague is over. The rector suggests that a cleansing fire should happen, particularly of bedstraw and other small things that might carry "Plague seeds". The villagers, who had already sacrificed much, now sacrifice all of their worldly possessions to a great bonfire, and this ceases the plague. During a celebration that the plague has ended, Aphra reappears with the skeleton of her youngest child (which she had demanded be left unburied) and murders Elinor, whom Anna had come to view as a surrogate mother, by stabbing her, after which Aphra commits suicide. Mr. Mompellion dictates two letters to the neighbours in the next town. One is to thank the earl of Chatsworth House, inform him of the end of the plague and ask that the road be opened. The other is to inform his father-in-law of Elinor Mompellion's death. After that, he leaves his rooms no more. It is at this point that we entered the novel, where Anna is trying to get the rector to leave his rooms occasionally and cope with his parish. The encounter with Elizabeth Bradford did reawaken his mind and he and Anna seize on each other and fornicate, which they do for the next day and night. In quiet pillow talk, she asks if he is greatly reminded of Elinor. And he answers no, as he had never slept with her. Anna is shocked but asks why. Micheal Mompellion reminds her that Elinor was guilty of the sin of fornication with another man, and he wanted to assure that not only had she been punished for her sin but that she had fully atoned for it so that he would be assured of meeting her in Heaven. Horrified at his selfishness and her own disloyalty to Elinor – as Anna views herself as having taken away the consummation of her marriage, she flees to the church where she again meets Elizabeth Bradford. Elizabeth confesses that her own mother is close to death, and now reveals the reason why – she is in labour with an adulterine bastard. Anna offers her assistance, as during the Plague quarantine she midwived a number of births. Once she arrives at the family seat, she at first does not understand why the woman was to die – the birth is a simple breech. She quickly realises, however, that the doctor sent by Elizabeth's father was told to be as incompetent as possible. Anna delivers the baby, a little girl, and leaves for her own cottage, only to see Elizabeth attempting to drown the baby. She rescues the little girl and asks why Elizabeth would do such a thing – Elizabeth said that there is no satisfactory way the child can live. The child was born from another man other than Elizabeth's father. The father had ordered Elizabeth to drown the newborn baby without his wife knowing. Anna, in seeing a way out of the village that had been her prison for the previous year, offers to take the child away from the village, "and you and your mother can say whatever you choose." Elizabeth's mother cries with joy on knowing that her newborn daughter, despite the circumstances of her birth, will be able to live. She gives Anna some emerald jewellery for her and Elizabeth gives her a heavy purse of gold to aid in her flight. Once she leaves Bradford Hall with the baby, jewellery and purse of money, she meets Rector Mompellion. She asks that her sheep flock and croft be given to the Quaker girl she helped in the mines, but says she no longer wants to see him. He accepts this but informs her that she absolutely must flee – for they will eventually realise that to allow Anna and the baby to live is an unacceptable risk, and that killing her would keep her from testifying to Elizabeth Bradford's attempted infanticide. He offers her a letter of introduction to his wife's family and his own horse so that she may go to them. She accepts them and waves goodbye. In the epilogue, she briefly narrates the three years since she left Eyam. Once on the road, she tears up the letter of introduction, wishing to be completely estranged from her previous life and all its connections. When she reaches the port of Plymouth, she stays at an inn for several days and hires a wetnurse for the Bradford baby. Several days after her arrival, the innkeeper tells her that the Bradford son, Elizabeth's brother, is in town and looking for her, accusing her of thievery, and particularly keen on finding "her" baby. The innkeeper has no knowledge of the circumstances, but informs her of the Bradford son looking for her and he wisely advises her to leave on the next ship regardless for which port it is bound. She boards a carrack fittingly carrying Peak-mines pigs, which is destined for the ports of Oran and Venezia for the production of Venetian glass. Throughout the sea voyage, she does not name the Bradfords' baby girl, taking heed of her stepmother's words about her mourning her infant son, as she fears a possible shipwreck and wishes to avoid that omen until she is assured of her and the child's survival. Upon arrival in Oran, she decides to disembark and seek out one of the Muslim doctors whose writings she and Elinor studied, as she found physick and midwifery to be her vocation. He agrees to take her in, due to his despair at Sex segregation in Islam keeping women and their husbands from seeking his aid during medical emergencies and labour. To satisfy the customs of the Al-Andalus Arabs, he takes her as one of his wives in name only so that she may continue her study and work with him freely. She is especially pleased with the custom of Kunya which leads her to be addressed not as Anna Frith or the Widow Frith, but by the name of her firstborn and now four years' dead son — umm Jam-ee (mother of Jamie). The book closes with her taking her two daughters by the hand before going into the city – the Bradford child, who is now named A'isha, for the sustainment she gave Anna during their sea voyage to Oran, and her birth daughter, conceived with Michael Mompellion – Elinor. |
The Story of A Fierce Bad Rabbit | Beatrix Potter | 1,906 | A bad rabbit finds a good rabbit sitting on a bench eating a carrot. Wanting the carrot, he takes it from the good rabbit and scratches him. The good rabbit escapes and hides in a nearby hole. Meanwhile, a hunter notices the bad rabbit sitting on the bench and mistakes him for a bird. He fires at the bad rabbit, but finds nothing but a carrot and a rabbit tail on the bench. The good rabbit then sees the bad rabbit running away without his whiskers and tail. |
Beasts | Joyce Carol Oates | 2,002 | Set in an apparently idyllic New England college town in the 1970s, Beasts is the story of Gillian Brauer, a talented young student obsessed with her charismatic anti-establishment English professor Andre Harrow. Knowing that other girls preceded her does not deter Gillian from being drawn into the decadent world of Professor Harrow and his wife, Dorcas, the outrageous sculptress of primal totems. Gillian soon tumbles into a nightmare of carnal desire and corrupted sexual innocence. |
If Rock And Roll Were a Machine | Terry Davis | 1,993 | Ben, a high school junior, is still suffering from the lack of self-esteem he developed following criticism from his fifth-grade teacher. However, a developing interest in writing and racquetball and a new motorcycle, as well as support from understanding adults, help him discover who he really is. The novel is set in the same high school as Vision Quest, but twenty years later. |
The IQ Controversy, the Media and Public Policy | null | 1,988 | Respondents on average identified themselves as slightly left of center politically, but political and social opinions accounted for less than 10% of the variation in responses. Snyderman and Rothman discovered that experts were in agreement about the nature of intelligence. "On the whole, scholars with any expertise in the area of intelligence and intelligence testing (defined very broadly) share a common view of the most important components of intelligence, and are convinced that it can be measured with some degree of accuracy." Almost all respondents picked out abstract reasoning, ability to solve problems and ability to acquire knowledge as the most important elements. Regarding the role of heritability of intelligence almost all (94%) felt that it played a substantial role. Half of those that felt qualified to reply in this section stated that there was not enough evidence to estimate heritability accurately. The 214 who thought there was enough evidence gave an average estimate of .596 for the US white population and .57 for the US black population. The study also revealed that the majority (55%) of surveyed experts believed that genetic factors also help to explain socioeconomic differences in IQ. The role of genetics in the black-white IQ gap has been particularly controversial. The question regarding this in the survey asked "Which of the following best characterizes your opinion of the heritability of black-white differences in IQ?" Amongst the 661 returned questionnaires, 14% declined to answer the question, 24% voted that there was insufficient evidence to give an answer, 1% voted that the gap was "due entirely to genetic variation", 15% voted that it "due entirely to environmental variation" and 45% voted that it was a "product of genetic and environmental variation". According to Snyderman and Rothman, this contrasts greatly with the coverage of these views as represented in the media, where the reader is led to draw the conclusion that "only a few maverick 'experts' support the view that genetic variation plays a significant role in individual or group difference, while the vast majority of experts believe that such differences are purely the result of environmental factors." In their analysis of the survey results, Snyderman and Rothman state that the experts who described themselves as agreeing with the "controversial" partial-genetic views of Arthur Jensen did so only on the understanding that their identity would remain unknown in the published report. This was due, claim the authors, to fears of suffering the same kind of castigation experienced by Jensen for publicly expressing views on the correlation between race and intelligence which are privately held in the wider academic community. Snyderman and Rothman stated that media reports often either erroneously reported that most experts believe that the genetic contribution to IQ is absolute (~100% heritability) or that most experts believe that genetics plays no role at all (~0% heritability). As they wrote: News reports made mistakes of the same proportion when reporting the expert view on the contribution of genetics to racial-ethnic group differences in IQ. News reports also tended to cite the opinions of only very few experts, such as Arthur Jensen, Richard Herrnstein, and William Shockley, to whom they often erroneously attributed a variety of views, including that Blacks are 'inherently or innately inferior' to Whites, that their views have adverse implication for education policy or adverse political implications, or that they are racist. Snyderman and Rothman speculated that the misattribution of views to these individuals is fueled by the attacks made on them by public intellectuals, such as psychologist Leon Kamin. The study also found that the media regularly presented the views of Kamin and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould as representative of mainstream opinion among experts, whereas those who publicly state that individual and group differences are partly genetic, in particular psychologist Arthur Jensen, were characterized as a small minority. According to Synderman and Rothman, their survey of expert opinion found that the opposite is actually true. In particular, the surveyed experts reported that they hold the scientific views of Kamin to be of only marginal importance. The survey confirmed that IQ tests had been misused but that nevertheless most respondents strongly supported their continued use: Snyderman and Rothman suggested that the personal views and preferences of journalists and editors influenced their reporting, especially their selection of which views to present and how to present them. They suggested that the desire of the journalists and editors to advance liberal political goals, which are seen by many as incompatible with a substantial genetic contribution to individual and group differences in IQ, caused them to preferentially report the views of experts who reject the heritability of IQ. |
Break No Bones | Kathy Reichs | 2,006 | The plot centers around her students working on a site of prehistoric graves on Dewees, a barrier island, when a decomposing body is uncovered in a shallow grave off a lonely beach. Brennan (nicknamed Tempe) is then called upon to discover what is happening when other bodies begin showing up all around the Charleston area. The story also features a romantic subplot, where Brennan must choose between two men, Andrew Ryan and Pete Peterson, deciding where her heart lies. She also deals with Emma Rousseau, friend and local coroner, who has terminal cancer. |
The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie | Jaclyn Moriarty | 2,006 | Bindy Mackenzie is a Year 11 student at Ashbury High, a prestigious private school in Sydney. She is a perfectionist and a high-achiever, focussing obsessively on her studies. When Bindy begins Year 11, she is horrified to discover that she must take part in FAD -Friendship And Development- a mandatory course aimed at helping teenagers deal with the issues that face them. Her teacher, Try Montaine, an American English teacher, takes a strong interest in each of the members of Bindy's FAD group. The FAD course presents Bindy with a rather shocking scenario- she discovers that she is widely disliked by most of her peers, due to her arrogant and precocious attitude. Bindy begins a mission to seek revenge on her classmates, resulting in her becoming even more disliked. For Bindy, everything goes downhill from here. Her school life becomes miserable, her jobs become a struggle and her all-important grades suffer. Bindy also falls ill from a strange illness that only contributes to these problems. Bindy slowly realises the error of her ways and tries to make amends with her FAD group, her new attitude helping her peers to gradually learn to enjoy Bindy's company as she changes as a person. In the meantime, Finnegan Blonde, Bindy's partner from her FAD group, presents a possible love interest for Bindy as one of the first people to recognise her friendly and likable characteristics. However, as Bindy's personality grows and adapts to make her a better person, her illness becomes increasingly worse, until she falls unconscious one night in an office at her school. Bindy is suffering from arsenic poisoning from a central character in the novel, and a complex mystery unfolds as to the character's motives. |
Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army | Jeremy Scahill | 2,007 | The book details the rise of Blackwater USA, a private military company, and the growth of security contracting in the Iraq War and the War on Terrorism. In the book, Scahill contends that Blackwater exists as a mercenary force, and argues that Blackwater's rise is a consequence of the demobilisation of the US military following the Cold War and its overextension in Iraq and Afghanistan. He describes further how Blackwater (at the time of writing) serves in Iraq and Afghanistan like, in his judgement, a Praetorian Guard, protecting top authority figures and enjoying immunity from the usual constraints and regulations on traditional armies. Scahill argues that Blackwater's leadership was motivated by a right-wing Republican ideology, and that its founder, Erik Prince, has provided significant assistance in that venue. Blackwater is also present in some parts of Pakistan. |
Lola Rose | Jacqueline Wilson | 2,003 | In the beginning, Jayni's mum, Nikki Fenton, wins £10,000 on a scratchcard. They decide to not tell Jayni's father, Jay, who she fears will spend it on his friends on drinks at the pub or losing it by going to a betting shop. However, Nikki decides to tell Jay anyway because he reveals he has left his job and is joining a mini-cab firm but needs to provide the car. Jay, Nikki, Jayni and her brother, Kenny, go out to T.G.I Fridays spending around £50 on the meal. Jayni fears for herself because as Nikki and Jay 'drank lots' it would almost always 'end in a fight'. Jay gets angry at Nikki for becoming drunk and when they return home, he starts shouting at her. As Jay goes to hit Nikki, she tells Jay to let her put the kids to bed first. However Jayni refuses to go to bed and as a result, Jay gets angry and hit both Jayni and Nikki, he then leaves the house. This was the last straw for Nikki. She had previously put up with the violent nature from her husband, but now he had turned to violence against Jayni, Nikki felt they had to leave. One night, Nikki goes to the pub to buy a packet of cigarettes from the machine, and does not return home until after midnight, but consolingly she has found a new job (bar work), which means working set afternoons, and evenings if she is needed. The next thing to do is to get the children into school. Once achieved,Nikki starts to fall in love with an art student named Jake. Lola Rose doesn't like him. She is also jealous because Kendall prefers Jake to her.One day, Jake reveals "Mum's got a lump," which had been growing in her breast for several months while she hoped it would clear up on its own. Meanwhile, Jake moves out because Nikki has run out of money. She has to go to hospital, but believing she will be back the next day, she leaves only a day's food and a little money. The children soon run out of money and food. Jayni finds out where her mother's obese sister Barbara lives, and telephones her. She comes to stay and provides the children with food. Meanwhile Nikki is becoming worse because of an infection following the surgery. Nikki has stupidly telephoned Jay, thinking he will be shocked to discover she has been so ill and never touch her again. Jay comes to their flat and is nice at first though he doesn't want Lola Rose anymore because she is too old to be his little girl . He finds a pair of Jake's boxer shorts, then, calling Nikki a slag, balls up a fist to punch her. Barbara raises her fists as if to punch him, then slyly kicks him in the crotch. He proceeds to attack her with a broken mug, so she smacks him on the shoulder taking out the tendon, so that he drops the mug. She then shoos him out, threatening to kill him if he comes back again (though she later admits she didn't mean it). Jayni, Nikki and Kenny feel safe with the protection of Barbara and the book ends on a positive note. Barbara asks the children and finally Nikki whether they would like to come to her pub to live, while they redecorated it (as Barbara likes the job they have done on the house) and did a karaoke act by her and Nikki. Jayni remembers children's stories in which the hero has to perform a terrifying but menial task. She envisions that to get her mother better she has to stand by the shark tank and count sixty seconds, sixty times. This she does. An aquarium worker sees this and says she must be a shark enthusiast. They chat about sharks for a few minutes and he gives her a shark's tooth, which is meant to bring good luck. She goes to the hospital and presses it into her mother's hand. Eventually she gets better and returns home. Jayni knows it has nothing to do with the tooth but it is comforting. |
The Last September | Elizabeth Bowen | 1,929 | Preface Although The Last September was first published in 1929, a preface was written for this text decades later to be included in the second American edition of this novel. Concerned that readers unfamiliar with this particular chapter of Anglo-Irish history would not fully comprehend the anxieties of these times, Bowen takes great pains to explain the particulars of both her writing process and the political reasons for the unsettled atmosphere felt throughout the text, palpable even in its most seemingly serene moments. Of all her books, Bowen notes, The Last September is “nearest to my heart, [and it] had a deep, unclouded, spontaneous source. Though not poetic, it brims up with what could be the stuff of poetry, the sensations of youth. It is a work of instinct rather than knowledge—to a degree, a ‘recall’ book, but there had been no such recall before.” While Bowen’s own beloved family home, Bowen’s Court, remained untouched throughout “The Troubled Times” this preface explores the ramifications for witnesses of “Ambushes, arrests, captures and burning, reprisals and counter-reprisals” as “The British patrolled and hunted; the Irish planned, lay in wait, and struck.” “I was the child of the house from which Danielstown derives” Bowen concludes, “nevertheless, so often in my mind’s eye did I see it [Bowen’s Court] burning that the terrible last event in The Last September is more real than anything I have lived through.” Part One: The Arrival of Mr. & Mrs. Montmorency The Last September opens in “a moment of happiness, of perfection” as Sir Richard and Lady Naylor welcome their long-awaited guests, Hugo and Francie Montmorency, to their country estate, Danielstown, in Cork, Ireland. Despite—or, in some characters’ cases, in spite of—the tensions produced by what Bowen obliquely refers to as “The Troubled Times,” the Montmorencys, the Naylors, as well as the Naylors’ niece, Lois, and nephew, Laurence, attempt to live their lives in the aftermath of The Great War while coping with the occasionally conflicting dictates of their class’s expectations and personal desires. Preoccupied with the concerns of social obligations which must be met even as they are enacted against a backdrop of uncertainty and national unrest, the residents of Danielstown occupy themselves with tennis parties, visits, and dances, often including the wives and officers of the British Army who have been assigned to this region. The people of Danielstown all share a particular interest in the shifting relationship between Lois and a young British officer, Gerald Lesworth, as Lois struggles to determine precisely who she is and what it is she wants out of life. Part Two: The Visit of Miss Norton Lois’s confusion regarding her future and the state of the bond she shares with Gerald is temporarily sidelined by the arrival of yet another visitor to Danielstown, a Miss Marda Norton whose connection to the Naylor family remains strong even in the face of perpetual inconvenience and Lady Naylor’s long-standing polite aversion to the younger woman. Marda’s presence is, however, as much of a blessing for Lois and Laurence as it is an annoyance for Lady Naylor and Hugo Montmorency—the latter having developed a one-sided fixation on the soon-to-be-married Marda. While Lois and Marda’s friendship deepens, readers are also made aware of escalating violence as the fragile status quo established between the British Army, the Black and Tans, and local Irish resistance is threatened by Gerald’s capture of Peter Connor, the son of an Irish family friendly with the Naylors. Unbeknownst to the residents of Danielstown (with the single exception of Hugo), Lois and Marda’s acquaintance with Ireland’s national turmoil is expanded firsthand as they are confronted by an unknown individual while on an afternoon stroll through the countryside of County Cork. Although permitted to depart with only a trifling wound to Marda’s hand and Lois’s promise that they will never speak of this encounter in the ruins of the old mill, this meeting and Marda’s subsequent return to England signal a shift as the novel’s characters’ attention return to the various topics occupying their thoughts before her arrival. Part Three: The Departure of Gerald After Marda Norton’s departure, Lois’s attention is once again firmly fixed upon both Gerald and the activities organized by the British officers’ wives. But despite Lois’s determination to finally come to a firm conclusion regarding her future, her relationship with Gerald is first delayed by Lady Naylor’s machinations and then left forever unresolved by Gerald’s death—which may have been at the hands of Peter Connor’s friends. Not long after Gerald’s death Laurence, Lois, and the Montmorencys leave Sir Richard and Lady Naylor, but the Naylors have little time to enjoy their solitude at Danielstown. The Naylor family estate and the other great houses are put to the torch the following February—likely by the same men who organized the attack on Gerald—their destruction reinforcing the fact the lifestyle once enjoyed by the landed Anglo-Irish gentry has been brought to an end. |
Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes | Beatrix Potter | 1,917 | The book opens with a three-stanza rhyme about Appley Dapply, a mouse who raids cupboards for treats, and is accompanied with three illustrations, one which depicts a little mouse running away from a cupboard with a tray of pies: : Appley Dapply :: has little sharp eyes, : And Appley Dapply :: is so fond of pies! The following rhyme tells of Peter Rabbit's sister, Cotton-tail, and her implied courtship by a little black rabbit who leaves a gift of carrots at her door. In The Tale of Mr. Tod, Cottontail is married to the black rabbit. Like the first rhyme, the little black rabbit rhyme is of three stanzas accompanied by three illustrations. The third rhyme tells of Old Mr. Pricklepin, a hedgehog, who, elsewhere in Potter is identified as Mrs. Tiggy-winkle's uncle. His shining eyes, his wrinkled paws, and his human shoes emphasize their relationship. The single stanza is accompanied by an illustration Potter believed to be the finest she ever produced. As early as 1893 Potter illustrated and made a booklet of "There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe". There, the Old Woman's children are depicted as scampering mice, and their mother as a mouse whipping her children in a shoe in the background. In Appley Dapply however, the author speculates upon the identity of the old woman in two stanzas, believing she was a mouse. In the first illustration, the mouse and her children tumble from an elaborately beaded turquoise-blue shoe, and, in the illustration accompanying the second stanza, the mouse knits peacefully – presumably while the children are in bed. The fifth rhyme tells of Diggory Delvet, the first mole in Potter's work. He may have been inspired by the mole in Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina or possibly Moley in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. "Diggory Delvet" and the last rhyme in the book about a guinea pig are two of the few limericks written for children by someone other than Edward Lear. The sixth rhyme is a single stanza and accompanied by an illustration depicting a pig in a dress sitting in a high-backed chair and peeling potatoes: : Gravy and potatoes :: In a good brown pot — : Put them in the oven, :: And serve them very hot! The seventh and last rhyme is a limerick about an "amiable guinea-pig" (the first guinea pig in Potter's work) who brushes his hair back like a periwig and dons a blue tie. The verse is accompanied by three illustrations depicting the guinea pig in various stages of coiffing and dressing. Guinea pigs would have their own story told in the tale of Tupenny in Potter's The Fairy Caravan of 1929. Ruth K. MacDonald of the New Mexico State University observes in Beatrix Potter (1986) that Potter recommended to Warne that Appley Dapply be printed in a format similar to Miss Moppet, which had originally been printed in a panorama style but, in 1916, had been reprinted in a format slightly smaller than the other books in the Peter Rabbit collection. Miss Moppet was intended for babies and very young children, and MacDonald believes Potter's suggestion indicated she also intended Appley Dapply for the very young who are satisfied with vignettes and the sorts of simple, isolated incidents nursery rhymes present, rather than longer, more complex plots. |
Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes | Beatrix Potter | 1,922 | == Merchandise |
The Suitcase Kid | Jacqueline Wilson | null | Andrea, known as Andy in the story, is a tall, awkward ten-year-old whose parents have recently divorced, much to her dismay. Her mother remarries Bill, who Andy takes a very strong dislike to, as well as his other three children (especially Katie,a girl her own age but is five days older). Her father remarries Carrie, who has twins Zen and Crystal and is pregnant with her dad's new baby. Andy doesn't mind Carrie and her kids as much as Bill and his, but she still wishes she could have her dad to herself. Throughout the book, Andy wishes that her parents would get back together and move back into their little house called Mulberry Cottage. Andy loses focus at school, getting poorer results, and loses touch with her previous best friend. As she becomes more and more isolated, she draws support from her spotted Sylvanian Families rabbit, Radish, often playing imaginary games with her. One day she finds a secret garden with mulberries growing in it, and she begins to go there after school. She accidentally drops Radish down a tree and can't get her out. Andy runs away in the middle of the night to get Radish. Her parents are distraught but soon find her. Andy insists that she must go and retrieve Radish, and they meet the owners of the garden, Mr and Mrs Peters, who soon befriend Andy, acting as honorary grandparents,She makes new friends and they are friendly giving kind gifts, By the end of the book, Andy has befriended her step-siblings, (including Zoe, her father and Carrie's new baby daughter) and accepted that her parents are not getting back together. |
The Bed And Breakfast Star | Jacqueline Wilson | 1,994 | Elsa is a bright and lively young girl who has dreams to become a comedienne. When her stepfather loses his job, her family, including her baby half-brother Hank and half-sister Pippa, are forced to move into a rundown bed and breakfast hotel that is used as accommodation for poor families. She doesn't get along with her stepfather, as he often loses his temper with her and hits her, so takes to spending time with her friend Naomi, with her little sister usually tagging along. Eventually her mother makes her attend the nearby school. Elsa has a hard time adjusting to the new circumstances and doesn't enjoy her new school, as she is behind in lessons so has to take extra classes. She frequently plays truant from school with boys from the hotel. One night Elsa awakes to the smell of smoke, and upon investigating she discovers the hotel kitchen is on fire. Using her loud voice, she runs from to door to door, yelling to wake up all the residents. Everyone in the hotel makes it out safely, and Elsa has a chance to appear on television when a news reporter asks her how she woke up everyone up. As much of the hotel is damaged, Elsa's family and many others are given temporary accommodation in a much nicer hotel. Elsa finally has a chance to star on television when she is invited on a programme about courageous children. |
Double Act | Jacqueline Wilson | 1,995 | The book takes the form of the twins alternately narrating the story of their life in an Accounts book. Ruby and Garnet are ten-year-old identical twins living with their father and grandmother since their mother, Opal, died. The two have always been close despite their differences- Ruby is social, and keen to let her opinions be heard, while introverted Garnet is content to let Ruby dominate their relationship. When their father gets a new girlfriend [Rose] and a new job, their once stable relationship is thrown into turmoil, as the relationship leads to feelings of betrayal from their father to their late mother, and it comes with a big price- leaving their grandmother behind for a house in the country. As Ruby is very dominating, she insists that the girls shouldn't stand for their new lifestyle. She and Garnet start off well in school, but once Garnet makes a new friend, Ruby sulks and Garnet quickly changes to stop her feeling upset. After this, they do not behave properly in school and do not talk to anyone else. The twins find an article about auditions for a TV adaptation of The Twins at St. Clare's, and Ruby is keen to go ahead and audition, even though Garnet and their father do not agree. Surprisingly, Rose is supportive, although her efforts are for nothing, as Garnet and Ruby have to run away to London to audition. Although Garnet isn't keen on the idea, she is about to deliver a good audition but the twins father appears just as she is about to begin, making her feel terrible for messing up the audition. Near summer, Ruby, realizing that the school where the TV movie is being filmed at is a prestigious boarding school for girls, Marnock Heights, decides that the pair ought to sign up for scholarships- of which there is only one. Despite their father's early hesitation to the idea, he encourages Garnet to go ahead with the school after it is revealed that she won the scholarship. (Ruby was confident that she would win it if they both couldn't 'wangle one' together). Garnet is torn between pleasing her sister and doing something different, for once. Meanwhile, Ruby refuses to talk to her, and often wanders off on her own. She is determined to be different from Garnet, and ends up cutting off her hair. She does not let herself be around Garnet for the whole summer, and even though they both feel as though they are missing something, Ruby is too proud to apologize while Garnet wishes she was able to. After making friends with someone she previously considered rather a bully, Ruby starts to realize that she and Garnet don't need to be the same, and don't have to do the same things, to be happy. She also realizes, alternately, that being together would have helped Garnet feel better about leaving. Ruby finds a friend in Rose, also, who encourages her to say sorry to Garnet. In the book, Ruby writes in a notepad she calls a MEMORANDUM. In the end, Ruby apologizes to Garnet, and they both realize that they can still be together while apart, as long as they remember each other. Garnet leaves for school, and writes a letter about how much she is enjoying it. |
The Diamond Girls | null | null | The Diamond Girls is about 4 girls (later 5) called Martine, Jude, Rochelle and Dixie. Their mother, Sue, is heavily pregnant with her 5th child and believes it is a boy since she reads tarot cards and peers into a crystal ball. They live in a 3-bedroom apartment in the North Block in Bletchworth which was their best flat ever. Sue decides to move to a proper house on the Planet Estate. Judging the pictures, Sue and the kids think it's a great house but when they arrive, it's the opposite. As they move, they hire Dixie's dad's friend Bruce to help move the furniture. However, the day they move in, Sue goes into labour. Bruce and Martine go with Sue to the hospital and the others are left alone. Dixie then explores the garden and meets a shy girl called Mary who has been abused by her mother. When the girls need candles, they go to Mary's house and Dixie hears Mary's mother slapping her. Sue comes home a day later with Sundance, a baby boy. However, when Dixie changes Sundance's nappy, she sees that Sundance is a girl. She keeps this secret to herself and confronts Sue about him. Sue begs Dixie to keep it a secret so she does. Meanwhile, Rochelle gets a boyfriend who is quite a few years older than her. Jude then learns kung fu from Bruce and Martine, unable to cope with the house and moving, runs back to her boyfriend after Sue finding out that Martine's pregnant.When Dixie is playing with Mary, Mary tells Dixie that her mother threw her teddy out. Dixie offers to lend her toy budgie for the night but then regrets it. Dixie later goes to Mary's house to get him back and ends up getting badly injured when Mary jumps out of the window, after Dixie told her to jump off the garden wall. Martine comes back after breaking up with her boyfriend because his mother and him kept badmouthing the Diamonds, despite her pregnancy. After Dixie woke up in hospital with both legs broken, she saw lots of people with a sickly scent, and is informed that Mary's mother is getting help and Mary is staying with other relatives. Sue then tells everyone that Sundance is a girl, not a boy. |
Vicky Angel | Jacqueline Wilson | 2,000 | Vicky and Jade are best friends. Vicky is a flamboyant and outgoing girl while Jade is shy and timid and usually follows Vicky's lead. After fighting about which extra-curricular activity to take together and arguing as Jade finally sticks up for herself, Vicky dashes out on to the road without looking and is struck by a car. Jade travels to the hospital in the ambulance with Vicky, however Vicky dies from her internal injuries in hospital. Distraught and in shock, Jade runs from the hospital. However, just an hour after her death Vicky appears to Jade as a ghost, although she is the only one who can see or hear her. Jade attends Vicky's funeral, and afterwards is revisited by Vicky's ghost. When Jade returns to school, she is encouraged to attend the fun-running activity Vicky had signed them up for. There, she makes an unlikely friend in Fatboy Sam, who Jade originally assumed had a crush on Vicky; he later reveals it was Jade he had a crush on. However, Vicky is snide about her friendship with Sam, influencing Jade into saying cruel things to him, although he forgives her. As Jade tries to get used to life without Vicky, or at least without a Vicky that other people can see, Vicky's spectre becomes more and more controlling. Jade is forced to do as Vicky wishes, and can't get on with her life and make new friends. Jade finally goes to a bereavement counsellor and discovers how to control Vicky. Eventually she must attend the inquest into Vicky's death. During it, she is overcome with guilt and emotion when trying to recall Vicky's death and she flees the court building, running down the street and into the road where she is nearly hit by a car. Vicky appears and pulls her back. Vicky tells Jade that the accident was not her fault, freeing her from her guilt. After saving Jade's life, Vicky grows angel wings and can finally move on, floating into the sky and leaving Jade to move on with her life. |
Clean Break | Jacqueline Wilson | 2,005 | The main character is a young girl called Emily, or Princess Emerald to her imaginative Dad, who lives with her mum Julie, her half sister Vita and her half brother Maxie in their grandmother Ellen's house. Although her dad is technically only her Step-dad, Em and her siblings all love him completely. Emily is highly sensitive (as a lot of characters are), and is very insecure about her weight. On Christmas Day Emily and her sister Vita receive their presents and get a special reindeer hand-puppet which they name dancer. Emily overhears a conversation her dad is having and realizes that he is having a secret affair. Emily confronts her father, and he owns up to his cheating, and by the next morning he has left. After Emily's step-dad walks out, the rest of the family struggle to get along without him. Emily takes up swimming, where she becomes more fit, loses weight and gains confidence within herself. The children go and visit Frankie at the home of his new partner Sarah, but she is rude, selfish and obnoxious. On a visit they take to a park, Em, Vita and Maxie are astounded to find their Dad passionately kissing Sarah, in a way that he would never do to their mum.Sarah is an aspiring actress and both she and Frankie move to Scotland quite soon into their relationship. When they arrive home, they all reject their Dad's goodbyes. The children all tell their mother that Sarah and their Dad don't get on very well, and will be home soon. Their Mum is quite depressed, and dependent on Frankie for emotional support. Their grandmother does not understand how much the family all love him and would take him back if he ever returned. Em's Gran decides to take them on a holiday and gets a boyfriend herself. Emily runs into her real dad at a fair, and was scared because he had always abused her mother when she was young. When Emily travels to London to meet her favorite author, the family runs into Frankie again, as he has apparently broken up with Sarah and found a new girlfriend, Hannah, before moving back to London. Emily runs after Frankie, falls and breaks her arm and Dancer(her reindeer puppet), but her dad stops and takes her to the hospital. The story ends on Christmas Eve just under one year after Frankie left, with Frankie sending dancer back to them as a Christmas present. It is implied that he doesn't return to the family but does visit them often. |
Death of a Monk | Alon Hilu | null | The plot occurs in Damascus, 1840. Aslan is a 15 years old religious, Jewish teen, one of the outwardly pampered sons of the Farhi family. Additionally, he is gay. Behind closed doors, he is abused and beaten by his siblings, mother and father; at school the other kids make fun of him, especially when he and Moussa, another delicate lad, are caught holding hands. The outcome of this tender incident speaks volumes about the power of Aslan's father in the community: when this news gets out, Moussa simply vanishes. But there's even more going on behind the Farhi household doors. When his father is away, Aslan's mother dresses her son in her clothes, shoes and make-up - and these are their most (and maybe the only) intimate moments together. At any other time, she sides against him with the rest of the family. Miserable, Aslan grasps at anything he can to put himself out of his misery, including trying to become fatally infected when there's an outbreak of the plague. When his father marries him off at the age of 15 to a rabbi's daughter, things go from bad to worse as Aslan is unable to consummate the marriage. His solution involved succumbing to passions of his own, a tremulous step that takes him down a secretive road of pleasure mixed with fear. As he becomes bolder in his forays to explore and enjoy the forbidden nightlife of the city, Aslan becomes enamoured with a young woman singer, Umm-Jihan, and catches the eye of Father Tommaso, an Italian monk. Aslan's meeting and further interaction with the monk spur on the plot, when the monk has a heart attack and dies, while Aslan's secret makes him hide the body. That leads to a blood libel against the Jews, blaming them, with no evidence, for the murder of the monk, in a vicious trial with grim results. Aslan observes his family's long-standing feud with a rival merchant family, and the blaming of all the community because of his secret and of his being in the closet. One of the memorable things he says is: "why is it that men cannot love one another more, instead of beating and striking, oppressing and debasing, despoiling and destroying?" Ultimately, his attempts to assert himself to his father prove terrible and tragic. |
The Magic School Bus In the Time of the Dinosaurs | Joanna Cole | 1,994 | The kids are turning their classroom into Dinosaur Land for Parents Night, as they are studying dinosaurs. Ms Frizzle then gets a letter from an old high school friend who is now a paleontologist and she decides to take the class on a trip to the dig. When she discovers that they are missing the bones of some Maiasaurs, she turns the bus into a time machine to travel back to the age of dinosaurs to find the bones. The class sees dinosaurs and learns the name of the different periods of the era and other information. |
Tryst | null | null | After Hilary Shenstone died in the war, his spirit had a hard time with the thought of leaving England behind forever. Through some twist of fate, he finds his way back to his home of Nuns Farthing, only to find that the old house has some new tenants. Sabrina Archer, a lonely girl of 17, moved with her father and aunt away from their city flat to the lavish summerhome of Nuns Farthing for her father's work. Finding a locked room at the top floor of the house, Sabrina picks the lock one afternoon and subsequently spends many days trying to find the identity of the man who used to enjoy the personal study. |
Extras | Scott Westerfeld | 2,007 | Three years after the events of Specials freed the world from the pretty lesions which forced them to be obedient, society is beginning to settle into a new form. Each city has been forced to find a way of dealing with the new pressure on its resources, caused by the freed creativity of the inhabitants. In Japan, one city has chosen a "reputation economy", rewarding citizens either with merits for productive tasks which help the city, or with face rank, a measure of popularity. Every inhabitant has their own feed and obsessively tracks their face rank, hoping to gain fame and lose their status as an "extra". Aya Fuse tries to win fame as a "kicker", or amateur journalist, filming stories with her modified hovercam Moggle and posting them for the city to see. |
Summer of Aviya | Gila Almagor | null | Aviya's Summer is set in the summer of 1951, in the newly established state of Israel. The film chronicles the life of ten-year-old Aviya, whose warm, loving, and fiercely independent mother, Henya (played by Almagor herself), is tortured by periodic mental breakdowns. Henya's psychological and emotional scares stem from her horrid experience during the Holocaust, and from the loss of her husband during the war. Henya was once considered to be a beautiful and courageous partisan fighter, yet now she is constantly mocked by native Israelis for her erratic behavior. She walks the thin line between sanity and madness, attempting to forge a life for herself and her daughter in the new realities of Israel. Aviya is a bright girl with a vivid imagination, yet she is mocked by her peers. Her relationship with her mother is complex, at times affectionate, but also fragile. Aviya fantasizes that if she could only find her father, all her/her mother's problems would cease and her family would be whole again. Aviya's wild imagination regarding her quest to find her father leads to the climax of the film. The film ends with Aviya coming to terms with the realities of her life and reaching a maturity beyond her years. |
Cathy's book | null | null | In a framing device, young and artistic Cathy left the book for Emma, her best friend, so that the latter can use the clues provided and figure out where Cathy went. The story begins when Cathy is dumped by her boyfriend, Victor. The next morning she notices a strange mark on her arm, but sets it aside as a spider bite. She and Emma later determine that the mark on her arm is in fact a needle mark from a blood test Victor performed on Cathy. While trying to confront Victor about the blood test, she encounters various members of the mythical, immortal, Chinese Eight Ancestors, as well as adventure and mystery. It also includes phone numbers which readers can call in order to leave a message for Bianca, Cathy, Victor, Emma, and even Tsao's business, Airwell Organisation. |
Sail South till the Butter Melts | Geoffrey Stewart | null | The main theme relates his adventures while crossing the Atlantic ocean alone in an open boat. The voyage took place in 1973 but the book wasn't published until 2005. In addition, the book covers earlier experiences voyaging along the French canals and down the Mediterranean coast to Gibraltar as well as a 21-day voyage to the Canary Islands. He finishes by describing his life after sailing and the continuing desire to set out again. The author is also a bit of a poet and dedicated the following poem to Kerstin, his Swedish muse. "Through this life I wander, Watching all the time, Checking with my inmost self, Should this one be mine. I don’t want the make up, Or silly pouting games, Or giggling insignificance, These birds are all the same. My search is for my woman, A person whole and real, A living loving adult, Not merely sex appeal. Perhaps you are the one my love, I would that it was so, If we can find that this be true, I’ll never let you go." |
Elsewhere | Gabrielle Zevin | 2,005 | Elsewhere tells the story of a fifteen year old girl, Elizabeth 'Liz' Hall, who dies in a bicycle accident and wakes up to find herself traveling on a boat called the SS Nile. There, she meets a girl who had been shot and a famous musician who had died of a drug overdose. After watching her own funeral through Binoculars on the Observation decks, Liz realizes that she is truly dead. Soon afterward, she and the other passengers arrive in what is known as "Elsewhere". She meets her grandmother, Betty, who had died before Liz was born, and Liz begins to live with her. In Elsewhere, Liz learns everyone ages backwards from the day they die until they turn 7 days old, and then they are placed in the river and return to Earth as babies to begin a new life. Liz misses life on Earth, and becomes obsessed with watching her family and friends through binoculars situated on the Observation Decks. She tried to make contact with her family a few times, but gets caught by Owen with whom she falls in love. She is depressed, but in time she makes new friends in Elsewhere who help her come to terms with the fact that she has died. She gets a job working with dogs arriving from earth and realizes she can speak canine. Gradually, she learns that a life lived backwards is not much different to a life lived forwards. |
Gabriel's Gift | null | null | Rex Bunch, Gabriel's father, is a musician who, for a short time back in the 1970s, played in pop icon Lester Jones's band. However, while (the fictitious) Lester Jones is still going strong almost thirty years later, Rex has been leading a quiet and modest life without a regular income together with his live-in partner, Christine, Gabriel's mother, who back in the good old days designed trendy clothes for various rock stars. Gabriel's twin brother Archie died while still little, and in many ways the family of three still live and think according to the unwritten laws of the late 1960s and 1970s, despising anything remotely connected with middle class mentality, advocating universal freedom, and smoking the occasional joint. When Christine has had enough of Rex and his lazy, good-for-nothing ways, she throws him out of the house, and for the first time in decades Rex has to fend for himself. While Christine herself gets a job as a waitress in a bar and hires an au pair from some Eastern European country to look after Gabriel, Rex, left to his own devices, ends up in a shabby bedsit a few blocks away from his former home but even there has difficulty paying the rent. A meeting with Lester Jones renews Rex's hopes of becoming a sought-after musician again, but when Rex and Gabriel visit him at his hotel it soon turns out that all he wants is listen to Rex's reminiscences of their days together for his intended memoir. To Rex's dismay, he does not even pay him for it; however, on parting he presents Gabriel with one of his drawings. A talented creative artist himself, Gabriel is impressed by this gift, but it soon becomes clear to him that both his parents are after the picture: Christine because, for the time being, she wants to keep it in a safe place; and Rex because he wants to sell it immediately. In order to prevent yet another argument between his mum and dad, Gabriel secretly makes two copies of the drawing—in doing so he has to forge Lester Jones's signature twice— and hands one copy to each of his parents while keeping the original for himself. Unfortunately, each parent independently has the same idea of presenting the drawing to Speedy, an old friend of theirs who runs a hamburger restaurant full of 1970s memorabilia—a place occasionally even visited by Lester Jones himself—so that the picture can be exhibited there: '[...] It's me, me, me, with you lot. People don't know, or won't say, how much they hate their children.' He was hardly listening. She [Christine] wanted him to be a lawyer. He was, he reckoned, already sufficiently engaged with the Law. In the next few days his mother would have her forged copy of Lester's picture framed and presented to Speedy, who would have been presented with two forged copies of the same picture by two members of the same family. Gabriel's prison sentence, already long enough, would surely be increased. [...] (Chapter 10) At Speedy's hamburger joint, a chance meeting with film producer Jake Ambler (also fictitious) sets off Rex's teaching career. Looking for someone to give his spoiled teenage son private guitar lessons, Jake offers the job to Rex who, encouraged by Gabriel to do something useful and earn some money at the same time, reluctantly agrees ("We're not so desperate that we're going to start working for a living") and eventually, after word of mouth has spread and he is teaching not just one but several kids, quite enjoys being seen as an authority on music by his pupils. Before the truth about Lester Jones's drawing is found out, Gabriel strikes a deal with Speedy, regains possession of the picture in exchange for a painting of Speedy he has to paint himself, and destroys the two copies. Seeing her ex-partner's reformation, Christine reconsiders her decision to spend the rest of her life without him and does not mind the end of her affair with George, a young artist and a regular at the bar where she is waitressing. At the end of the novel Rex and Christine get married, and in the following summer, under Jake Ambler's supervision, Gabriel starts shooting his first film. As opposed to other protagonists created by Kureishi, Rex, Christine and Gabriel are white. |
The Six Sacred Stones | Matthew Reilly | null | This novel is a sequel to Matthew Reilly's previous novel, Seven Ancient Wonders, which ended with the Golden Capstone reassembled atop the Great Pyramid at Giza, and the ritual of power performed to grant one nation a thousand years of unchallenged power - invincibility, as shown by the end of the book, which is won, unknowingly, by Australia. The Six Sacred Stones picks up eighteen months later - 20 August 2007 - on Easter Island, the geographical opposite of the Great Pyramid, when seven men use a second Capstone to nullify the power of the Tartatus sunspot and remove Australia's invincibility. In China, Professor Max Epper (known as Wizard) is investigating the tomb of Chinese Philosopher Laozi, owner of the Philosopher's Stone. With his research partner, Yobu 'Tank' Tanaka, Wizard discovers the cryptic message referring to the Tartarus Sunspot and the use of the Sa-Benben, or Firestone, the top piece of the Capstone from the previous book. They find another message, saying that the first pillar must be laid 100 days before the Return. Wizard sends a coded message to Jack West in Australia, just before a contingent of Chinese military arrive to capture them, intended to use Wizard's knowledge to find the Six Sacred Stones. Jack West receives Wizard's message, just before the farm is attacked by the Chinese army, participating in the Talisman Sabre military exercises. West escapes to the Halicarnassus, his private plane, with Lily, whom he adopted at the end of the previous book; Alby Calvin, Lily's friend; Zoe and Sky Monster, who are visiting the farm. As they leave, Jack grabs the Firestone from its hiding place, along with Wizard's research journal, and reads it whilst travelling to Dubai. In the city the group travels to the Burj al Arab tower and call a meeting of nations. The surviving team members from Seven Ancient Wonders return, with the exception of Fuzzy from Jamaica. At the meeting, Jack informs them that the end of the world is nigh, due to a zero-point field (the 'Dark Sun') entering our solar system, which could destroy the entire world. However, in order to save the world, the 'Machine' must be rebuilt by placing six oblong diamond pillars in their respective locations around the globe. However, almost nothing is known about the Machine, but the knowledge can be found using the Six Sacred Stones - the Philosopher's Stone, the Altar Stone at Stonehenge, The Twin Tablets of Thutmosis, The Seeing Stone of Delphi, the Killing Stone of the Maya, and the Basin of Ramses II. Then Fuzzy's severed head arrives in a hatbox, and an aeroplane is sighted heading to crash into the tower. Everyone escapes the crash one way or another and the team splits at the airfield. Jack, Pooh Bear, Stretch, Astro (a US Marine), Scimitar (Pooh's brother) and Vulture (Scimitar's companion) head into China to rescue Wizard, whilst Zoe takes Lily and Alby to England. They meet up with twin Scottish Maths geniuses Lachlan and Julius Adamson, and use the Firestone in conjunction with the altar stone at Stonehenge to reveal the locations of the Six Vertices where the Pillars must be placed. However, the locations are slightly inaccurate as the continents have changed in the ages since the maps were drawn. Meanwhile, West's group rescue Wizard and Tank successfully, and retrieve the Philosopher's Stone from Laozi's trap system. Arriving in Britain, the location of the second meeting, the Americans have brought the Killing Stone of the Maya, recovered from Mexico; Vulture brings one of the pillars, from the treasury of his family, the Royal House of Saud; and a representative of the British Royal Family, Iolanthe Compton-Jones, brings the pillar kept by her family. The pillars are cloudy diamond bricks with a liquid-filled void in the centre. After being 'cleansed' by the Philosopher's Stone, the pillars become clear and the liquid silver. It is also discovered that the pillars' markings reveal Iolanthe's as the fourth, and Vulture's as the first. The Killing Stone of the Maya is united with the Firestone, and it reveals the dates by which the pillars must be laid - the first on the next day, and the second some seven days later. The Adamson twins have correlated the data from Stonehenge, and found that the first Vertex is underneath Lake Nasser in Egypt, close to Abu Simbel. The team starts out, accompanied by Astro and Iolanthe, leaving the Adamson twins with Tank to continue their calculations and find the other Vertices. At the Vertex, the first pillar is inlaid and the reward mentioned in Wizard's notes - 'Knowledge' - is revealed in the Word of Thoth on its sides (in the form of a batch of complex equations relating to the laws of physics and the universe, much of which modern scientists hadn't figured out yet). However, Iolanthe betrays them and a large number of Egyptian and American military vehicles arrive. Iolanthe, Jack, Pooh, Vulture, Scimitar, Astro and Stretch are captured by American forces, whilst the others escape in the damaged Halicarnassus. West recovers to find himself immobilized in a pit in a large underground mine somewhere in Ethiopia. The leader of the American forces is revealed to be his father, Jack West Sr - known as 'Wolf' - who leads a rogue CIEF force. He informs Jack that the ritual to counter Tartarus was the work of the Japanese Blood Brotherhood (as was the plane attack in Dubai), a group determined to avenge Japan's humiliation at the end of World War II by destroying the world. He then drops an enormous stone slab into the pit on top of Jack. Wolf's co-conspirators Vulture and Scimitar are allowed to send Stretch to the Mossad, who have put an enormous price on his head in revenge for his disobeying their orders at the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (see Seven Ancient Wonders). Scimitar leaves Pooh Bear locked in a cage to be sacrificed by the Ethiopian Christians who guard the mine. It is also revealed that Iolanthe is cooperating with Wolf. Meanwhile, on the Halicarnassus Lily mentions she overheard Iolanthe telling Jack that the second pillar was guarded by the Neetha tribe in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, the damaged plane will not be able to reach the DRC, so Sky Monster (the New Zealand pilot) puts it down in Rwanda, and Zoe, Wizard, Lily and Alby head out to meet with an old friend, Solomon Kol, who will take them into the Congo. After a few days, they locate the place where explorer Henry Morton Stanley claimed he located the Neetha, and are promptly captured by the lost tribe. Imprisoned in the Neetha village, a city built by the same civilisation that built the Machine, they discover that the tribe possesses the Second Pillar and the Seeing Stone of Delphi. The first pillar (which had been returned to the Halicarnassus before Jack's capture), the philsosopher's stone and Firestone are confiscated by the tribe's warlock. He uses them to cleanse the second pillar, and to use the Delphic orb to see the Dark Sun. They also encounter Dr Diane Cassidy, a long-missing anthropologist who had been enslaved by the Neetha for years, and Ono, Cassidy's student, a young but kind man who is oppressed in the tribe. Following the transponder signature of Zoe's group's helicopter, Wolf follows behind them into the valley with a large force of Congolese mercenaries and launches an attack on the Neetha tribe. Solomon is killed shortly before the attack, in which Zoe, Wizard and Lily escape with the First Pillar and the Delphic orb. However, Alby is captured by Wolf, as are the Second Pillar, the Firestone and the Philosopher's Stone. In the aftermath of the battle, the Neetha warlock reveals to Wolf that he can lead the American force to the Second Vertex. Around this time the Adamson twins locate the second Vertex as well, close to Table Mountain, South Africa, and send the message to the Halicarnassus shortly before the Japanese Blood Brotherhood arrives to take them captive. Tank is revealed to be their leader. Upon realizing that their captors' mission is to sabotage the mission and thus destroy the world, the twins manage to fool their electronic surveillance and escape the complex. Zoe, Wizard and Lily are picked up by Sky Monster in his repaired plane, but despite knowing the location of the Second Vertex, they cannot reach it due to aerial patrols sealing off South Africa (organized and funded by Wolf and his Saudi allies in order to seal off the area for their mission). It's revealed that four days earlier, Jack West escaped from the Pit in the Ethiopian mine, rescued Pooh Bear from sacrifice and freed the Jewish slave-miners. In gratitude, the miners give him the sacred stones that Wolf had been using them to dig for - the Twin Tablets of Thutmosis, which contain the final incantation to activate the Machine when all the pillars are placed. Jack and Pooh travel to their old farm in Kenya, finding Horus (Jack's falcon) and the Adamson twins waiting; they'd come to the farm because it seemed like the best isolated safe place. They share with Jack the news that the Brotherhood has a mole in Wolf's unit, a marine code-named Switchblade, who plans to sabotage Wolf's effort to place the Second Pillar. Jack and the Adamsons head to Zanzibar, where an old friend of Jack's is hiding out, making a career after deserting the US army to attack gun-runners in Africa. Pooh leaves them at the airport to go north and rescue Stretch from the Mossad's torture chambers. Before he leaves, Jack gives him a GPS locator with which to signal Jack if he needs help. Jack's old friend is J.J. Wickham, known as the 'Sea Ranger' due to his use of an old Russian submarine. After a lengthy explanation he takes Jack to the Second Vertex, arriving just as Wolf does. Switchblade attempts to sabotage the mission by dropping the Second pillar into the bottomless abyss beneath the Vertex before it is inlaid, dooming the world and depriving the Americans of its reward, 'Heat' (believed to be a limitless power-source). However, Jack swings across the pit at the last moment, catches the pillar, and manages to place it in the Vertex just before Switchblade drops himself and Jack into the abyss. Wickham and the Adamsons escape, with Horus diving into the abyss after Jack. Wolf leaves with the Second Pillar, leaving Alby, who was brought with them, alone at the Vertex. Zoe, Sky Monster, Lily and Wizard, on board the Halicarnassus on an airfield in Botswana, had been in phone contact with Jack to help him avoid the traps at the Vertex and see the whole thing happen on the videophone. The surviving team members realize they must face the placing of the last four pillars and the arrival of the Dark Sun, three months away, without Jack. |
The Fifth Horseman | null | null | The bomb and Kamal Dajani arrive in New York City by freighter. The bomb was built by his brother Whalid, a nuclear scientist, in Libya. Although Whalid and Kamal made a Muslim vow on pain of death to avenge their father's loss of their West Bank home, Whalid had originally dedicated his life to peaceful nuclear energy at Cadarache. That was until Kamal was ready to enforce the vow. French police subsequently arrested Kamal, Whalid, and their sister Laila and deported them to Beirut so as not to jeopardize politics of nuclear energy. When the police questioned Whalid's French wife, she committed suicide. Kamal and their mother exploited the event for Whalid and she bid them to help Gaddafi in Libya. Laila, in disguise, personally delivers the written threat by Gaddafi to the White House, with instructions on how to retrieve technical designs as proof from an airport locker. The President (resembling Jimmy Carter in age, religiosity, Navy service, etc.) and his team agonize over the bomb design and the threat to the final assessment by the Department of Energy that it is a three megaton H-bomb. The nuclear search team NEST is activated, travelling on Starlifter cargo plane from Nevada to McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey. Meanwhile, combined teams of New York City police and FBI, including New York police detective Angelo Rocchia and FBI agent Mike Rand, conduct shoe-leather field research on the incoming shipment, the false and stolen documents, and the three terrorists, moving ever closer to the truth in a logical progression, to look for "a barrel of chlorine gas." It looks bleak for NEST. Its equipment can only look so far down from the air and only so far up from the street. Even a water bed could neutralize the radioactive emissions of the bomb. Also, other terrorists help to confuse NEST, by attaching plutonium pellets to the legs of pigeons and setting them loose. It also looks bleak for New York City, whose mayor, Abe Stern, was summoned to the White House under false pretenses and told face-to-face by the President of the nuclear threat. Not only is evacuation ruled out by Gaddafi, but some fallout shelters are loaded with junk, susceptible to flooding, or badly stocked with no supplies or rotten supplies. New York City's air raid sirens were literally falling down. New York City did have a good radio-TV public address system for the mayor, but it was unmistakably clear that up to eight million people in and around the city would die of burns, blast, flying debris, or radiation, and New England would get the fallout immediately after. New York City officials contemplate evacuation plans but scrap them because few people have cars and train operators cannot be counted on to work in a crisis. Israel's military leaders do not trust the President during this crisis. Israel almost successfully launches its own nuclear strike against Libya, using F4 Phantoms and their plutonium atom bombs, and an electronic countermeasures plane, until the French ambassador warns Israel that the Soviets will launch a nuclear strike against Israel unless they desist. Begin horrifically deduces that the President asked the Soviets to keep Israel in line, and backs down. Begin will not vacate the West Bank settlements as demanded by Gaddafi: in fact, the Israeli Army could mutiny if ordered to vacate the settlements. Rand and Rocchia make progress: first, checking bills of lading from the harbor, and questioning longshoremen about unusual activity. Further checking determines a discrepancy between what was listed on the manifest and what actually made it to the destination. Rand and Rocchia check the rental vehicle involved and discover it was rented with a stolen driver's license. The pickpocketing victim, Mr. Gerald Putman, reviewing photographs, identifies Carmen, a Colombian whose large breasts help distract her victims. Rocchia makes up a criminal incident to get an Italian woman to tell her where Carmen lives. Capturing her and her associate Pedro Torres leads them to a Jewish document forger, Benny Muscowitz. Rocchia's aggressive manner makes Benny finally invoke his right against self-incrimination, but Rand is able, without giving too many details about the Israeli crisis, to encourage Benny to talk. A French nuclear scientist who worked in Libya, Paul-Henri de Serre, turned out to be an art thief whom the Libyans set up. Paul-Henri identifies Whalid and Kamal and the French fax the records of Whalid, Kamal, and Laila to the CIA. A short time later, Rand and Rocchia arrest Nabil Suleiman, who was wanted by Israel for a terrorist attack, and threaten to deport him, for lack of a U.S. visa, directly into the custody of a Mossad agent waiting outside, unless he becomes a witness in the case. Nabil is able to identify Laila and Kamal based on the French photos. Further questioning of New York citizens establishes that the same rental truck was in the location in question at the time in question. The President has briefed the Rapid Deployment Force, in transit to Lebanon, with options to invade the West Bank. Rocchia is very upset when he asks a nuclear technician what he is carrying and the technician honestly indicates, "Geiger counter". He feels betrayed that the FBI would be told, but not the New York City police like himself. Rocchia's superior manages to calm him down. Rocchia had delivered good leads, he wants to take his daughter with Down's syndrome far north from the city. Rocchia is free to go, on the condition that he remain silent. He tries to ask the Catholic school for children with disabilities for permission to take her "to see relatives". The nun accedes, but in the meantime, Rocchia has to look at dozens of other children, all with disabilities, who will be incinerated if the bomb goes off. She does not see Rocchia any more when she returns with the daughter and his car is gone. The President consults his advisors again. One finally says that during the oil embargo and the Iranian hostage crisis, when the Europeans wavered, it was Israel that had stood by the United States. Also simultaneously, a crucial deadline passes and the nuclear bomb does not explode. Now some distance safely away from the bomb, Whalid finally tells his brother Kamal, he did not build the bomb to incinerate New York City residents, he did it to make Libya parallel with Israel, the Soviets, France, China, Britain, and America. Whalid had fed the wrong tape deliberately to the computer while his brother and sister had been working on the antenna on the roof. Whalid, in self defense, tries to shoot his brother and misses, Kamal breaks Whalid's trachea with an expert martial arts maneuver, causing Whalid to slowly suffocate to death. Kamal grabs the detonation checklist and Laila and drives back to the bomb to detonate it manually by himself. The President makes a decision. He is not merely the President of people in New York City: he is the President of all Americans, and America is being bullied to invade an ally. This is an act of war, not just a crime. Finally, he orders two nuclear submarines to position their SLBMs on Libya, and orders his admiral to launch them unless the bomb is found and defused, or unless Gaddafi extends his latest ultimatum. Gaddafi reports that the President's acceptance of the original terms is not acceptable. One of Gaddafi's own ministers protests, America has capitulated. Gaddafi replies that the Americans are stalling for time. The President finally levies his nuclear threat. Gaddafi is the only cool head as the minister panics. Meanwhile, a suspicious neighbor hears the gunshot and calls police, who identify Whalid based on a tattoo. The New York City police and FBI absolutely know who they are looking for. Kamal gets out of the car and tells Laila to drive to Montreal. He then steals an ambulance to finish his drive to the bomb. Rand and Rocchia hear about the ambulance on the radio, see it, and chase it. Rocchia cautiously enters the building where Kamal is with the bomb. "Police! Don't move!" Kamal expertly fires a succession of shots from an automatic pistol. Rocchia drops to the floor, safe, but silently. Rand tries to enter the building, thinking Rocchia is wounded. Rocchia can't warn Rand because he'd betray his position. Rand ultimately becomes Kamal's target, fatally wounded, but Rocchia is able to kill Kamal with two shots. The nuclear scientists review their options. After determining that the case is safe to open, they choose ultraviolet radiation to burn out the microprocessor, and New York is safe. That leaves Laila. Not surprisingly, she is eager to get to Canada, she is speeding ever so slightly. A police car gives chase, Laila manages to almost lose the police car, but she hits a stretch of black ice, she loses control, crashes in the opposite lane, and the car's gas tank explodes, burning her alive. "What ever got into her?" the officer asks. "All I had her for was seven miles over the limit." By the end of the story, Libya's east coast has nuclear-armed SCUDs facing Israel, both countries facing "the prospect of mutual suicide." |
Indulekha | Oyyarathu Chandumenon | 1,889 | Indulekha is a graceful Nair girl with good intelligence, artistic talent. She is a young and educated, knowledgeable woman with education in English and sanskrit, who is in love with another young man, Madhavan, the hero of the novel, who was also presented in ideal colours, a member of newly educated class of nayar class graduated from University of Madras.He dressed in western clothes,but,at the same time,he kept along turf of hair,according to the nayar cusyom. The story details how the matrilineal society of those times, encourages Namboothiris to start a relationship with Indulekha. Indulekha promptly snubs the old Nambudiri man, but Madhavan in haste runs away from the household, to Bengal. There he makes a lot of good friends. In the end, he arrives back and is united with Indulekha. They then leave to Madras, present day Chennai.The story emphasizes inter caste marriage. The old Namboothiri represents the decadence of feudalism and its polygamous practices. Indulekha, the novel's educated heroine, dramatises the resistance of a progressive Nair woman. She refuses to succumb to the oppression of the Namboothiri and marries Madhavan, who stands up to the social evils of the period. * Madhavan * Soori Namboothiri * Indulekha's Mother Lakshmikkutti Amma * Panju Menon |
1824: The Arkansas War | Eric Flint | 2,006 | The story, takes place in 1824–25, ten years after 1812: The Rivers of War. The United States, under the influence of Sam Houston, a Special Commissioner for Indian Affairs, has signed a treaty with the southern Indian tribes, establishing a Confederacy of chiefdoms in the territory that in our time line is composed of the State of Arkansas west of the Red River, and the State of Oklahoma without the Panhandle, roughly the boundaries of the historical Arkansas Territory. As a result, the tribes of the southern US, particularly the Cherokee, have willingly left the southeastern U.S. with their wealth and power intact (as opposed to their eventual and devastating forced removal in 1838 in actual history). Shortly thereafter, in Louisiana, Henry Crowell, a free black man and one of the officers of the Iron Battalion who won the Battle of the Mississippi (which in this time line was the battle that saved New Orleans from the British in January 1815), offended the local Creole leadership by courting a Creole woman. Slave-catchers waylaid Crowell and castrated him. In revenge, the Iron Battalion mobilized and destroyed the homes of the Creole leadership, then smashed the Louisiana militia who came after them to suppress "servile rebellion". (This is referred to later as the "Algiers incident".) Shortly afterwards, Crowell and the Iron Battalion moved to Arkansas. The easternmost chiefdom, Arkansas, is ruled by Patrick Driscol, nicknamed the "Laird of Arkansas" who was formerly the brigade master sergeant under Winfield Scott during the Niagara Campaign. Arkansas banned slavery and quickly became a magnet for freedmen throughout the United States, who are forced to leave their home states when, under the influence of men like Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, the states pass Freedmen Exclusion Acts. As the book begins, one such family, the Parker family, leaves Baltimore, Maryland, after the head of the household is killed by a mob of whites. They are stopped on the Ohio River by slave-catchers, who plan to take them before a partial judge, have them declared runaway slaves, and sold into bondage. However, before the slave-catchers can haul the Parkers away, a party of abolitionists led by John Brown and his brother Solomon Brown intervenes and the family is able to continue their journey. When the Parkers arrive in New Antrim, the capital of Arkansas, they learn that Crowell's bank will loan the family money to start again if the men join the Arkansas Army. Sheffield Parker and his uncle Jem enlist and undergo a rigorous training regimen. Meanwhile, Henry Clay secretly finances an expedition led by Robert Crittenden to attack Arkansas. The expedition fails, but Clay uses this failure as a lever to become the new president of the USA following James Monroe. Shortly thereafter, Sam Houston's wife Maria gets accidentally shot by an assassin from Georgia who was aiming for Houston himself in retaliation for his liberal views on race, and he and his son Andrew Jackson Houston leave for Arkansas to aid Driscol and Ross in coming war with the USA. The novel ends in 1825, with the USA going to war with Arkansas (as an AU of the real history American Civil War). At the same time, a varied group of politicians led by the losers in the election of 1824, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, meet to create a new political party that will both oppose and defeat Henry Clay and work for an eventual end to slavery in all states when Clay's presidential term is finished. |
Infernal Devices: A Mad Victorian Fantasy | K. W. Jeter | 1,987 | The novel takes place primarily in Victorian London. The story begins as a mysterious Brown Leather Man enters George's watch shop with a strange device in need of repair, claiming it was made by George's father, a brilliant watchmaker skilled in all forms of clockwork devices. George, who has inherited his father's shop, but not his father's talent, agrees to look at the device, although he knows his chances of repairing it are slim at best. George is quickly dragged into an ongoing conflict involving the Royal Anti-Society, the Godly Army and the Ladies Union for the Suppression of Carnal Vice. His investigation leads him to a strange neighborhood in London, Wetwick, which is inhabited by denizens who are a hybrid of humans and fish. Another of George's customers is an impatient man who wears blue-glass spectacles and uses a slang which is strange to George as a Victorian Englishman but which modern readers will recognize as twentieth-century American vernacular. (The stranger is not a time traveler but a Victorian Englishman who possesses a device which enables him to view what is, for him, the future; he has learned late twentieth-century slang through lip-reading.) As the story develops, George realizes that his father was more skilled than even he knew; his father had begun experimenting with building clockwork humans, finishing with an automaton who is an exact double of George himself, but which possesses superior sexual abilities and a skill with the violin comparable to Paganini. Inevitably, a woman abducts George in the mistaken belief that she has captured his clockwork twin. |
The Pirates of Pompeii | Caroline Lawrence | 2,002 | Flavia and Nubia look over the devastation of Mount Vesuvius. Their friend Jonathan ben Mordecai is in a coma, and Nubia and Flavia search for a flower that his father who is a doctor needs for medicine. Scuto, Flavia's dog finds the precious flower, as well as a little girl, Julia who says that her big brother Rufus was kidnapped by some “scary men” and told her to hide in the cave while he drew them off. Returning to the refugee camp, Flavia and Nubia help to medicine Jonathan, who awakes from his coma. While he is recovering, Nubia meets a runaway slave named Kuanto, from the same region of Africa as she. He asks her to run away and be free with him, but she hesitates. The four friends learn that children are disappearing everywhere, and Flavia guesses that some kind of organized kidnapping racket is going on. Hearing one of the refugees mutter “Felix just got luckier” with news of another disappearance, Flavia suspects the powerful local landlord Publius Pollius Felix, who happens to be her uncle Gaius’s patron. Felix is in the refugee camp, ostensibly helping the Emperor organize supplies for the refugees. By playing up Jonathan’s infirmity, Flavia contrives to have herself and the three friends invited to Felix’s villa to recover while the refugees are being sorted out. There they meet his beautiful but spoiled daughter Pulchra, his wife Polla, and his two younger daughters. Pulchra takes an instant liking to Jonathan. The four friends live at Felix’s house for a while, slowly being taken in by its luxuries and Felix’s charisma. Flavia is initially appalled at seeing how Pulchra treats her own slave girl, Leda (including flogging her with a birch stick and making her stay huddled in a locked chest as punishment), but before long, she begins treating Nubia almost as poorly – Flavia does not abuse Nubia, but, in an effort to fit in with the way things are done at the house, begins ordering her around like a servant and then ignoring her like a piece of furniture. Spying on various parts of the house, they notice suspicious signs; shortly after one of Felix’s clients comes begging the patron to help find his missing daughter, Lupus sees two men near the villa conferring on how to return her. On the night of a sumptuous dinner party, Flavia tries to be a good guest by ordering Nubia to play her flute. The next day, she sees that Nubia has run away, after Pulchra beat her, stole her puppy, and broke her lotuswood flute. Flavia goes running to Felix to ask for his help, but Felix refuses, saying that, if Nubia were caught, the law would require her to be crucified as a runaway. Sickened at how she and the others have been taken in by the house and its seductive ways, Flavia is determined to find Nubia herself. She, Jonathan, and Lupus retrace her steps to a small shrine on a hilltop where they had a picnic, and find signs that Nubia has run away with Kuanto, who has followed her to the villa. Flavia then catches Pulchra and Leda, who have followed them, and the two girls begin fighting. Just then, all the children are seized by the kidnapping gang, who call themselves “The Pirates of Pompeii.” Lupus manages to get away without being seen. Flavia, Jonathan, Pulchra, and Leda are taken to a seaside grotto, where they join a band of almost fifty kidnapped children. All of them receive a severe beating to keep them subdued, but Jonathan and Flavia tell the children jokes to keep their spirits up. Lupus runs back to the house, but Felix is nowhere to be found. His wife, Polla, does not seem to comprehend Lupus’s urgent appeals for help. Polla tells Lupus that Felix is away at Rome, and Lupus runs back to the grotto to free the children himself. When he communicates this, Pulchra confides shamefully that her mother has spells of mental illness, and her father rarely leaves the house for that reason. Lupus cuts the children free, but just as they are about to escape, the pirates find them and seize Flavia, threatening to kill her if they don’t stand still. Lupus manages to get away again, and runs back to the villa, praying that Felix is there. The pirates pour cold sea water all over Flavia as punishment for trying to escape. Flavia and Jonathan are then forced to lye on their backs on the floor of the grotto, and are tied up so that they cannot sit up. Meanwhile, Nubia has joined Kuanto and several other runaway slaves, all of whom are fleeing abusive masters. Kuanto says he has hired a ship to take them to Alexandria. But as soon as they board the ship, the crew are revealed to be the kidnappers, in league with Kuanto. The runaway slaves are taken prisoner and put with the children, except for Nubia, whom Kuanto says is with him. Acting as though she does not recognize Flavia - she and Jonathan have been untied so that they would be able to walk to the ship and are now bound upright to the mast - and the others, she talks with Kuanto, who explains that he is a freedman of Felix’s whose job for the patron was leading posses to track down runaway slaves. Kuanto had the idea of selling the slaves instead of turning them into the law, and one of the other “pirates” suggested expanding into kidnapping after the volcano erupted, since there would be so many runaway slaves and lost children in the chaos. Felix doesn’t know anything about it; the pirates just use his name to intimidate the locals into doing what they want. Playing along, Nubia serves the pirates cups of wine, drugged with a packet of sleeping powder that Jonathan brought with him. The next morning, when the ship is at sea, on its way to meet a buyer for the slaves, the pirates begin sorting the children, picking out those with families who can pay a ransom for them. But then Kuanto recognizes Pulchra, and panics, knowing that Felix will hunt every last one of them down. Torn between selling the entire group of children as slaves, or throwing them overboard, the pirates suddenly begin to hallucinate. Seeing terrible visions, they lose control of the boat and the children manage to overpower them. Jonathan ruefully realizes that he took the wrong powder from his father’s stores. Two of the pirates are badly injured by their hallucinations – one of them jumps from the crow’s nest to the deck, believing he has wings – and two jump overboard and drown. As the children try to gain control of the boat, they spot the pirate ship Vespa coming, and on it the children's hated enemy, the slave-dealer Venalicius. The children and runaway slaves hatch a plan, and the slaves pretend to be the pirates trading the children. When the slave traders board the ship, the children spill chickpeas onto the deck, causing them to slip and fall, while Jonathan and Nubia use gold coins as sling stones to knock them unconscious. When Venalicius tries to seize Nubia, Pulchra saves her by plowing her head into his stomach. A short time later, Felix arrives in his racing yacht, accompanied by Lucius and a gang of his bodyguards. They take the pirates and slave traders into custody, but Lupus shocks them all by trying to stab Venalicius to death with a knife. Felix stops him, and Lupus bursts into tears. At the villa, Felix thanks Flavia and her friends for rescuing his daughter. He has arranged to return all the stolen children to their families, and has given the runaway slaves a place on his estate. To Nubia, Pulchra gives back her dog and a brand-new flute. Flavia decides to free Nubia. At first Nubia is afraid that being free means she will have to leave her friends; when she is assured otherwise, she accepts. Just then, the first rainstorm since the volcanic eruption begins, and the rain washes away the layer of ash covering everything. |
Garden of the Purple Dragon | Carole Wilkinson | 2,005 | Chapter 1: Black Dragon Pool Ping is living on the top of Tai Shan mountain trying to raise Kai, the stinking baby dragon. Chapter 2: A Bowl, A Bucket and A Ladle Ping learns that Kai can learn to shape-change and turns into firstly a soup ladle. They are living happily until one day, their goat is found with its throat slit. Hua is also found to be back on a red phoenix's back. Ping and Kai flee but they run into the necromancer. After Hua uses his newfound powers to hold off the necromancer while Ping and Kai escape. Ping, Kai and Hua are later captured by guards and taken to Liu Che, Emperor of China, and Ping's 'friend' who drops all charges against them. Ping stays in the palace and meets Princess Yangxin and the two become friends, and the Princess begins to teach Ping how to read and write, since she is unable to do so already. Ping eventually convinces the Emperor to search for any other Dragon Keepers, she hopes to find her family. She, Kai and Dong Fang Suo (Fatso as Kai had begun to call him) go to a village in search of the next Dragon Keeper. But they do not find Ping's family, instead Jun is taken to be instructed as a Dragonkeeper, Ping becomes jealous when Kai seems to prefer Jun over her. Dong Fang Suo attempts to kill by Liu Che's orders Ping but she survives and returns to the palace for Kai. However the Necromancer is there, bleeding Kai. They duel and Ping, without Kai, escapes to warn the Emperor who reveals he is in league with the Necromancer. She is stripped of her position as Imperial Dragonkeeper and taken off to be sacrificed. During the sacrifice, Dong Fang Suo (who later says it was the Emperor who told him to kill Ping), Jun, Hua and Kai come to her aid and they defeat the necromancer though Dong Fang Suo is sadly killed. While Jun takes his body away, Ping and Kai (Ping had let Hua go free with other rats) escape with Princess Yangxin, with the final destination of the Kunlun Mountains in sight. But Princess Yangxin asks them to come to the Duke's with her, and the two agree. Kai is nearly two by now. Ping is actually the dragon keeper and Jun is a fake. |
Ọba kò so | Duro Ladipo | null | The play tries to revisit history by portraying a stout and space consuming Sango, as a leader mindful of the wishes of the people; in his desire to please them, he set two of his most powerful chiefs against each other. The chiefs, Gbonka and Timi had grown too powerful and were becoming a nuisance to the kingdom. However, the plot ended up dividing his cabinet and many of his advisers, friends and a wife, Oya left him. Shango's friend Mogba, rather than joining the traitors, desired to redeem the battered image of the king. Mogba invoked incantations causing thunder and lightning to damage the homes of Sango's enemies. |
A Breed of Heroes | Alan Judd | null | The first month of the tour is spent in the countryside of Armagh, where Charles’ battalion make their presence felt by ending all British Army contact with the locals and pursuing a deliberately more aggressive stance than the previous garrison unit. The month is mainly boring, with most days spent carrying out menial tasks in barracks or conducting patrols. However, towards the end of the period an anti-vehicle mine meant for Charles’ regular Land Rover patrol to an electricity sub-station destroys an electricity board van minutes before Charles arrives. Seeing his first explosion, as well as finding the scattered body parts of a man who should have been him and his soldiers, brings the realities of his situation home to him and increases his thoughts that he should never have joined the army: something which he must tackle throughout the book. In moving to Belfast for the remaining three months of the tour, things take a turn for the worse – something Charles thought couldn’t happen after the endless boredom and sporadic fear of Armagh. Billeted in a working factory which produces bottles 24 hours a day, his company’s quarters are ridiculed by the entire Belfast garrison as the worst in the city. The floor given over to officers for accommodation, dining and radio watch-keeping consists of ‘rooms’ created only by cardboard separations. As well as the deprivations of the location, Charles finds the customs of army life difficult to understand and get used to, especially as they seem to have no logic behind them. The officers and men of his battalion learn to deal with the pressures and squalor of urban guerrilla warfare by drinking, making mischief and engaging in sexual orgies. Charles, always aloof from his brother officers and institutionally separated from his men, finds it hard not to constantly question his own competency and worth, both as an officer and a human being. Having been involved in two riots, he is moved to Battalion Headquarters after the Press Relations Officer (PRO) has a negligent discharge and shoots himself in the foot. Charles shares his room with the Adjutant, and sets about ensuring that the battalion is seen in a good light by the press. This task is complicated somewhat by his Commanding Officer’s hatred of the press and idiosyncratic way of doing things, but Charles finds living in the police station which houses HQ much more bearable than the grim surrounds of the factory. More escapades follow, with Charles being involved in heart racing riots and close scrapes with members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, as well as comic activities with his brother officers. During this time, Charles begins writing indirectly for The Times. His job as PRO leads him into contact with The Times cowardly and drunkard Northern Ireland correspondent Beazley, who pays Charles and his Lance Corporal photographer to write and send his dispatches, thus allowing himself to avoid danger and sit in his hotel bar. Charles’ slightly more pleasant life at HQ ends abruptly, however, with the bombing of the police station. The adjutant is killed and their room destroyed, leading Charles to be sent back to the Factory but still in his role as PRO. More brilliantly described riots and arms finds occur, while Charles realises that he both enjoys and excels at journalism through his arrangement with Beazley. Charles resolves to leave the army, and eventually amasses enough money to buy himself out of his contract which runs for another few years. His resignation is accepted, and he gains permission to leave on his battalion’s return to England. The climactic scene of the book involves Charles and his CO in a gun battle with some young IRA gunmen. Fighting through an alley, Charles fires at point blank range and misses his target several times, before hitting his mark and killing the teenage boy. Charles’ reaction to his first kill is necessarily short, the battalion is preparing to leave Ireland and return home. The novel ends with Charles, for the first time in the novel, being completely at ease, enjoying a parachute drop into England and revelling in the fact that all he has to worry about is the drop itself. |
City on Fire | Walter Jon Williams | 1,997 | The story begins shortly after the point where Metropolitan left off, with Aiah, the previous novel's protagonist, arriving in "Free Caraqui" to assist Constantine in his ambitions. In Caraqui, Constantine is confronted with intrigues among the other power players from the revolution, counter-coups, and war with the surrounding metropolises. He must also deal with the consequences of enlisting one his more disturbing allies, Taikoen. Centuries previous, Taikoen was a powerful mage whose name passed into legend; he eventually transformed into a "hanged man," an entity of pure plasm whose only remaining drive is to possess other human beings and use their bodies to experience sensual pleasures until his victims die extremely gruesome deaths as a side effect of the possession. Constantine had made a pact with Taikoen to provide him bodies to feed on in exchange for destroying certain of his enemies, but is now wracked with guilt for doing this and is conflicted between his need to use Taikoen to further his ambitions and his worry that he has unleashed a monster he cannot control. Aiah eventually grows to become a minor power in her own right in Caraqui, serving as a government liaison to some Barkazi mercenary units Constantine has hired to defend Caraqui (among many others). Aiah befriends a military mage from one of those units who helps her eventually destroy Taikoen. Despite the conflict still raging, Constantine works to pursue his ultimate plan for the New City - nothing less than the destruction of the Shield that imprisons humanity in the world and the confrontation of whatever powers placed it there. Seeing plasm as the key to humanity's liberation, he enlists the help of Rohder, one of Aiah's old colleagues from the Plasm Authority in Jaspeer (and a minor character in Metropolitan). A centuries-old researcher-mage, Rohder had discovered new geometric properties that could boost the production of plasm in cities, with the unfortunate need to completely reorder their infrastructure at prohibitive cost. Fortunately, Caraqui is a metropolis built on pontoons in the shallows of one of the world's seas, so Constantine enables him to experiment by physically moving parts of the city in concordance with his theory, which proves valid. Aiah also stumbles onto the knowledge that at periodic intervals, a small hole opens up in the Shield through which plasm-based constructs can be sent. At the same time, she has been having dreams in which she sees entities named the Sun and Moon outside the Shield; these celestial bodies are mostly legend in the world, but there is a belief that the tides seen in the world's seas are caused by the effects of their gravity, which is able to pass through the Shield. Aiah learns that her dreams have similarities with the teachings of a mysterious monastic order in Caraqui, the Dreaming Sisters. At the novel's conclusion, Aiah seems to join the Dreaming Sisters in their curious form of meditation as a way of discovering what her dreams mean in the context of freeing the world from the Shield. |
Tarzan: the Lost Adventure | Joe R. Lansdale | 1,995 | In Burroughs' last Tarzan story, left unfinished at the time of his death, the ape man plays guardian to an expedition seeking the lost city of Ur. In addition to Tarzan himself, his animal companions Jad-bal-ja, the golden lion, and Nkima, the little monkey, are also brought back for one last swan song. Burrough's manuscript ends before Ur is reached, but in the novel as completed by Lansdale, Ur turns out to be a society revering a giant and supposedly immortal praying mantis, which is used to slay condemned prisoners in the arena. Tarzan speculates that the creature is originally from the underground world of Pellucidar, to which Ur is connected by a system of caverns and passages. Trapped underground at the end of the story, he seeks escape by seeking out the route to Pellucidar himself. |
Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins | Edgar Rice Burroughs | 1,963 | Two schoolboys, Dick and Doc, are cousins who resemble each other because their mothers are twins. As Dick is also related to Tarzan through his father, they become known as the Tarzan Twins. Invited to visit Tarzan's African estate, they become lost in the jungle and are imprisoned by cannibals, from whom they escape. They are then reunited with their host, who introduces them to his pet lion, Jad-bal-ja. Subsequently, they become involved in an adventure involving exiles from the lost city of Opar, who have kidnapped Gretchen von Harben, the daughter of a missionary. |
World of Warcraft: Tides of Darkness | Aaron S. Rosenberg | 2,007 | The novel explores the events of the Second War (which took place during Warcraft II) when the Orcish Horde, led by Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer, returns to Azeroth to destroy the Human nations. The book writer Aaron S. Rosenberg commented at a public Q&A that among the main characters are Khadgar, Turalyon, Lothar, the sisters Windrunner (Alleria, Sylvanas and Vereesa), Orgrim Doomhammer, Zul'jin and Gul'dan. Places featured are Hillsbrad, Stromgarde, Blackrock Spire, Caer Darrow, Stratholme and Quel'Thalas among others. |
Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush? | Jerry Spinelli | 1,984 | The story alternates chapters between 12-year-old Megin and her 15-year-old brother Greg. The book follows their various arguments and misadventures while exploring the thorny issue of sibling rivalry, giving both sibling's perspective on their disagreements. Megin is a much better hockey player than her older brother which annoys him to no end. Greg is obsessed with body building in an attempt to attract a girl named Jennifer. Between their obsessions the two somehow manage to make time to drive each other nuts. However, their differences are set aside when a crisis erupts showing that even though they might argue and bicker about the smallest matters, they will still come to each others aid when truly needed at certain times. |
River of Gods | Ian McDonald | 2,004 | The sprawling novel follows a number of different characters' viewpoints around the date of August 15, 2047, the centenary of India's partition and independence from the colonial British Raj. This future India has become balkanized into a number of smaller competing states, such as Awadh, Bharat, and Bangla. The global information network is now inhabited by artificial intelligences, called aeais in the novel, of varying levels of intelligence. Aeais higher than level 2.5 (able to pass the Turing test and imitate humans) are banned, and their destruction ("excommunication") is the responsibility of "Krishna Cops", like Mr. Nandha. While some pockets of the subcontinent are still steeped in ancient tradition and values, mainstream culture is replete with aeais in TV entertainment and robotic swarms in defense. During such a time, Ranjit Ray steps down from his control of Ray Power, a key energy company, and the responsibility falls on his son Vishram Ray. The playboy Vishram is struggling to make it on his own as a stand-up comedian in Scotland when he is flown back to Varanasi to assume this role, for which he finds himself terribly ill-equipped but eventually surprisingly effective. He learns that his company is working on harvesting zero-point energy from other universes, and sees the particle collider built by his father with the help of Odeco, a clandestine investment firm. After a prolonged drought, a severe water shortage threatens to jeopardize the peace between the subcontinental states. To avert this crisis, governments are melting glaciers and modifying natural systems. To take advantage of the unrest, a Hindu fundamentalist leader named N.K Jeevanji organises a "rath yatra" on a spectacular juggernaut. He starts releasing key information to the press via Najia Askarzadah, an ambitious Swedish-Afghan reporter with a desire to be part of history as it is being made. Lisa Durnau notices an apocalyptic crisis brewing in Alterre, a simulated evolution of earth created by AI scientist Thomas Lull, who is currently hiding in a South Indian coastal village. While Lisa is sent into space to investigate an asteroid, Thomas Lull runs into Aj, a girl with mysterious powers that allow her to see into people's lives, pasts and futures. He decides to follow her and protect her during her quest to find her own true identity, but it is soon revealed that Aj's powers extend beyond mere mortals, when she brings a robot army to a halt with the raise of a hand. Tal is a beautiful nute (of neutral gender) involved in the designing team of India's greatest 'soapi', Town & Country, some of the main stars of which are not human actors, but aeais. Tal falls prey to a conspiracy that compromises the career of Shaheen Badoor Khan, Private Secretary to the Prime Minister Sajida Rana, leading to her assassination and the fall of the government. All this leads to riots and popular fury against Muslims and transsexuals across Varanasi. Lisa Durnau discovers that at the center of the mysterious asteroid is an 8 billion year old grey sphere, possibly a black hole remnant, or an alien artifact from another civilization. This "Tabernacle" communicates a message to the scientists, and this leads Lisa to India to find Thomas Lull, who alone can explain this phenomenon. |
The Double | José Saramago | null | Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is a divorced high school history teacher who spends his nights reading about Mesopotamian civilizations. One day, at a colleague's suggestion, Tertuliano rents a movie in which he sees a man that looks exactly like him. Tertuliano becomes obsessed with meeting the man and spends weeks discovering the actor's name. He then sends a letter to the production company, from his girlfriend's address, posing as a film student in order to be put in contact with the actor. His relationship with his girlfriend, Maria da Paz, suffers because he refuses to disclose to her his motives. After receiving his phone number and address, Tertuliano stalks his twin, António Claro, eventually calling him. Claro's wife thinks Tertuliano is her husband. When finally the two men talk, they discover their voices are exactly the same and they share identical scars and moles. Initially, António Claro dismisses Tertuliano and refuses to meet, but he later contacts him and agrees. They decide to meet at Claro's country home in a week. Tertuliano buys a fake beard and drives out of town to meet Claro. Upon arrival, the men strip down and find that they are indeed identical, and they discover they were born on the same month, day, and year. Before Tertuliano leaves, Claro asks him to clarify one more thing: the exact time he was born. He wants to know which one of them is the original, and which is the double. Tertuliano tells him that he was born at two in the afternoon. Smugly, Claro informs Tertuliano that he was born a half hour earlier, making him the original. Tertuliano gets up to leave, telling Claro he still has one small compensation in that Claro will be the first to die, thereby making himself, the duplicate, into the original. To this, Claro responds, "Well, I hope you enjoy those thirty-one minutes of personal, absolute, and exclusive identity, because that is all you will enjoy from now on." The men agree that they have no reason to ever meet again, and Tertuliano leaves. Tertuliano sends the fake beard to António Claro, who has not been able to stop thinking about the meeting. Meanwhile, Tertuliano and Maria get engaged to be married. Claro wonders about the circumstances under which Tertuliano was able to obtain his phone number and address. After visiting the production company offices, Claro comes to possess the letter, written by Tertuliano but signed by his girlfriend, Maria da Paz, and bearing her address. Donning the fake beard, Claro stakes out Maria's apartment and, finding her very attractive, he follows her to work. Claro realizes that Tertuliano has not told Maria da Paz about their situation. Soon after, Claro pays Tertuliano a visit at his home. He presents Tertuliano with the letter that he obtained from the production company, with Maria da Paz's signature. Tertuliano tells him to leave and threatens to call the police. Claro responds that he, in turn, will call Maria da Paz and inform her of the whole situation. Tertuliano is stunned and asks Claro what he wants. Claro tells him he intends to spend the night with Maria. In fact, Claro has already contacted her and persuaded her to spend the night with him at his country home of which, posing as Tertuliano, he explains he is a potential buyer. Claro views his actions as revenge for Tertuliano's disruption into his married, stable life. Furious and ashamed, Tertuliano gives Claro his clothes, identification, and the keys to his car in order for Claro to fully sell his appearance to Maria da Paz. After Claro leaves, Tertuliano dresses in the clothes the other man has left behind, gets in Claro's car and drives to his house where he proceeds to make love to Claro's wife, Helena. In the morning, she makes him breakfast while he reads the paper; she never suspects that it is not her husband. Meanwhile, Maria da Paz and António Claro have spent the night together as well. In the morning, Maria wakes first and notices the indentation on Claro's finger from years of wearing a wedding ring. She deduces that the man is not Tertuliano. Hysterical, she demands to be taken home. At first, Tertuliano hopes that Claro will return to find him in bed with his wife, but as time passes, his anxiety concerning Maria da Paz causes him to leave and he rushes to a pay phone to call her house. A colleague of Maria's answers the phone and informs Tertuliano that Maria da Paz died earlier that morning in a car accident. Tertuliano, realizing that his life as he knows it is now over, checks into a hotel and calls his mother to tell her he is alive. She meets him at the hotel and he tells her everything. The next day, he buys a newspaper to learn the details of the accident: a head on collision with a truck. The truck driver, when questioned by police, revealed that the passengers in the car appeared to be quarreling before their automobile crossed the center lane and crashed into the truck. Tertuliano drives back to António Claro's house and reveals himself to Helena, telling her that the man who died was not Tertuliano, but her husband. He presents to her António's identification and asks for her forgiveness, to which she responds, "Forgive is just a word." Helena asks Tertuliano to stay with her and take the place of her husband and he accepts. Three days later, as Tertuliano is reading on Mesopotamian civilization, the phone rings. Tertuliano answers and the voice on the other end exlaims, "At last!" in a voice identical to his own. The man has been trying to reach him for months, and claims to be his double; Tertuliano agrees to meet him in a park nearby that night. Tertuliano changes clothes, loads the pistol he keeps in the house and puts it through his belt; he writes Helena a note, "I'll be back" and goes to meet the man. de:Der Doppelgänger (Saramago) es:El hombre duplicado eu:O Homem Duplicado it:L'uomo duplicato he:האדם המשוכפל pt:O Homem Duplicado sv:Dubbelgångaren (José Saramago) |
Empty Cities of the Full Moon | Howard V. Hendrix | 2,001 | The novel opens in 1999 with a car accident occurring in parallel universes. In Universe A, the universe in which Hendrix's previous novel Better Angels occurs, the accident is avoided allowing 3 of the major characters in that novel to be born. However in Universe A Prime the accident does occur and the resulting deaths prevent those characters from being born. The 3 characters are brothers Jiro and Seiji Ansel Yamaguchi, and their cousin John Drinan. Years later in 2032 the process of Jiro's transcendence, which occurs at the end of Better Angels, results in John being thrown from Universe A to Universe A Prime. Empty Cities of the Full Moon takes place in Universe A Prime after this. When John is thrown between universes he quickly discovers that there is no record of his existence. The trauma of this event causes John to lose himself in depression. After meeting Mark Fornash, John en-rolls himself in a clinical trial of an experimental artificial prion based cure for mental illness, created by Tomoko Fukuda. Soon a drumming and dancing mania begins to sweep the globe, causing a large and increasing portion of the population to drop out of their societies. Due to his interest in shamanism Mark Fornash is the first person to recognize the manias as a single phenomenon patterned after shamanistic practises, and to predict it progression from drumming and dancing to visions, shape-shifting, soul-flying and death. The story follows the progress of the disease through the view points of these characters, as well as: Simon Lingham, ex-husband of Tokomo, and World Health Organization investigator; Sister Vena, a nun in Calcuta who observes extreme stigmata in patients in last stages of the pandemic; Leira Losaba, a police lieutenant in Johannesburg who investigates a series of murders involving shape-shifted people; Cameron Spires, one of the survivors of the car accident at the beginning of the novel, an eccentric billionaire with interests in human longevity and long-term survival. As the pandemic progresses Cameron eventually organizes a conference to pool research, which brings all of the major character together. The pandemic appears to be related to the Tokomo's prion's, but the extreme effects can not be explained. As madness and death consume the world, Cameron uses his enormous wealth to create a bolt-hole in the Bahamas and to bring all of the major characters to safety. However, before Cameron departs to his island he holds a final tele-conference with some powerful allies, who have died but been recorded in a powerful computer system. This system is the "Gödelian Non-standard Optimized Market Evolution Systems" or GNOMES. This organization Tetragammaton and these characters (Dr. Vang, Michael Dalke, and Martin Kong) have appeared in previous Hendrix novels involved in the long-term survival of humanity through the creation of mind-machine interfaces. This conversation reveals that Tetragammaton, was involved in the creation of the pandemic but that it has gone out of control. Dalke and Kong claim that the GNOMES were ultimately responsible for creating the pandemic as a complete defence against extinction and by orders of mysterious entity the Allesseh. The Allesseh is a massive consciousness at the centre of the galaxy, described in Hendrix's novel Better Angels. The pandemic has resulted in the near-extinction of humanity. Some of the survivors where fully resistant to the pandemic and have remained human, called Oldfolk or Urfolk, and some were partially resistant have become Werfolk having some of the madness, drumming, dancing, and shape shifting of the pandemic. Over the past 30 years Cameron Spires has perfected a longevity treatment, created a dolphin-human hybrid species called the Merfolk, kept the islands strictly isolated from the Werfolk, prevented further research into the pandemic and maintained himself as the unquestioned 'founder-ruler'. This has driven all of the major characters, except Simon Lingham, back to the mainland in search of answers. Simon Lingham, leaves for the same reasons soon after the story begins. Cameron's granddaughter Trillia Spires and her lover Ricardo, soon follow him when Ricardo is found to have signs of the plague, and exiled per Cameron's rules. They hope to catch up with Simon in New York City and to discover a cure for Ricardo. Their journey takes them up the American east coast, encountering all of the major characters of the novel who are each dealing with the post-pandemic world in their owns ways. Each character, except Leire who has become a Werfolk-hating warlord, either joins the group or offers some aid. By the time the group reaches New York, Ricardo's symptoms are entering the final stages of the pandemic. Ricardo's plague induced vision lead them to where Simon has connected himself to GNOMES. Simon is learning from and changing the GNOMES. He reveals Cameron's involvement in not preventing the plague, and Cameron arrives with a security team, claiming that he engineered the plague so that he could re-make humanity in his image. However, Ricardo dies and transcends during this conflict preparing the way for John to return to his universe and transmitting full knowledge of the works of the pandemic to every human on the planet. This final knowledge will allow the three types of human, Urfolk, Werfolk, and Merfolk, to choose their own destinies and control the effects of the pandemic. The group exiles Cameron and returns to the Bahamas to begin the process of re-building their world. |
Op-Center | Steve Pieczenik | null | Renegade South Korean soldiers set off a bomb in Seoul during a festival and make it look like it was done by North Korea. Op-Center must prove that North Korea had nothing to do with it before the situation gets hostile. To make matters worse, a rogue general plans to launch some nuclear missiles at Tokyo, Japan intending to start a war against North Korea. |
Duty and Desire | Pamela Aidan | 2,004 | In relation to Pride and Prejudice, on which the novel is based, Duty and Desire takes place between Darcy's initial leaving of Hertfordshire and his reappearance in Prides narrative at Rosings Park. Following on from the events of An Assembly Such as This, the novel opens with Fitzwilliam Darcy preparing for the Christmas season with his extended family. Several events have conspired to trouble him, however; as well as his ongoing self-examination of his romantic feelings towards Elizabeth Bennet (who does not appear in the novel, but remains a significant background presence throughout), his sister Georgiana is swiftly recovering from her ill-treatment at the hands of George Wickham by embracing an interest in religion, something encouraged by her new governess Mrs. Annesley but which bemuses and troubles Darcy. Furthermore, Darcy's well-meaning attempts to dissuade his friend Charles Bingley from what Darcy sees as his ill-fated and unrequited romance with Elizabeth's sister Jane are forcing Darcy to resort to underhanded and deceitful tactics that Darcy considers unworthy of himself. Darcy finally decides that he needs a wife, and resolves to find a woman like Elizabeth Bennet from within his own social sphere, thus banishing any lingering feelings he has for her. To that end, he accepts the invitation of Lord Sayre, an old university friend for a week's stay at Sayre's family estate, Norwycke Castle, hoping to find a suitable wife amongst the party gathered there. Accompanied by his loyal valet Fletcher, he soon discovers that the members of the party he is joining are scheming, unscrupulous and not entirely what they seem, and that Sayre himself is a gambling addict who has almost gambled away his entire family estate. Despite this, he finds himself almost drawn with unusual passion to Sayre's disliked half-sister, Lady Sylvanie, who appears to share many of Elizabeth Bennet's charms and characteristics. During Darcy's stay at Norwycke, however, numerous unusual and increasingly sinister events begin to occur; many of Darcy's possessions are stolen or interfered with within his room, the ritualistically slain body of a baby pig is found at a nearby collection of stones imbued with great supernatural and superstitious importance by the locals, and a local child is kidnapped. Darcy and Fletcher, investigating the unusual circumstances, discover that Sayre (who is almost bankrupt) is desperate to have Lady Sylvanie married to Darcy to inherit the estate of his hated and now-deceased stepmother, and Sylvanie herself - who believes herself able to use charms and spells to direct men to follow her will - is herself eager to gain revenge on Sayre, who ruined her and her mother. Darcy manages to untangle himself from their various schemes and uncovers the culprit behind the recent goings-on - Sayre's stepmother, the former Lady Sayre, who was alive all the time and has been manipulating her daughter in an attempt to destroy her stepson. Revealed, Lady Sayre kills herself, but not before forcing Darcy to face his own darker nature and his deeply-hidden desires for revenge on George Wickham. Even more unsettled than when he started, Darcy swears off trying to find a wife within his own sphere, leaving him once more alone with his complicated feelings for Elizabeth. |
Sharpe's Honour | Bernard Cornwell | 1,985 | This book tells the story of Major Richard Sharpe, during the Vitoria Campaign of the Peninsula War in 1813. Framed for murder, Sharpe must find a way to clear his name to preserve the fragile alliance between Britain and Spain. |
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