The novel begins with the Madden sisters and their childhood friend in Clevedon. After various travails, the adult Alice and Virginia Madden move to London and renew their friendship with Rhoda, an unmarried bluestocking. She is living with the also unmarried Mary Barfoot, and together they run an establishment teaching secretarial skills to young middle-class women remaindered in the marriage equation. Monica Madden, the youngest and prettiest sister, is living-in above a shop in London. She is, in modern parlance, "stalked" by a middle-aged bachelor Edmund Widdowson, and he eventually brow-beats her into marriage. His ardent love turns into jealous obsession suffocating Monica''s life. Meanwhile Mary Barfoot''s rakish cousin Everard decides to court Rhoda initially as a challenge to her avowed dislike of love and marriage, but he later falls in love with her for her intellectual independence, which he finds preferable to the average uneducated woman''s inanity. Despite being virulently anti-marriage, she decides to indulge him with a view to turning down any marriage proposal to show her solidarity with her "odd women". Ironically, she in turn falls for him. Married Monica meets Bevis, a young, middle-class man who pursues her and represents for her the romantic ideal from popular novels. Crucially, Bevis lives in the same building as Everard Barfoot. Monica, determined to elope with Bevis, goes there. Unbeknownst to her, her husband has hired a detective to follow her. She hears someone follow her up the stairs and, to appear innocent, she knocks on Barfoot''s door. This is reported back to Widdowson, and he feels his suspicion has been justified and informs Mary Barfoot of her cousin''s blackguardly ways. Rhoda, on the other hand, is on a holiday in Northumberland, and Everard goes to see her there. He woos her and at first suggests they enter a free-union (i.e. live together out of wedlock), which would appear to be consistent with her principles. However, she gives him a conventional "womanly" response and agrees to be with him only in a legal union; Barfoot, somewhat disappointed in her surprising conventionality, proposes marriage, which she accepts. She then receives a letter from Mary telling of Everard''s supposed affair with Monica. Rhoda then breaks off the engagement, after Everard proudly refuses to give an explanation but insists he is innocent. After Widdowson confronts Monica over her infidelity, she leaves him but lives at his expense and even moves, together with her sisters, to his rented house in Clevedon. Virginia has become an alcoholic (her way of dealing with being an ''odd woman''). Monica is pregnant by her husband, but her pride will not let her reunite with him. To salve her conscience, she visits Rhoda and shows her a love letter from Beavis and also exonerates Everard over the alleged affair. Then, months after they last saw each other, Everard visits Rhoda, asks her if she still believes him to be guilty, and repeats his offer of marriage. Even though Rhoda assures him that she believes him innocent, she refuses his proposal, intimating that in his professions of love he was "not quite serious," but was partially testing her principles. It is too late for them to reunite. Barfoot soon gets married to a conventionally educated young woman. Monica gives birth to a girl, then dies soon after. The novel ends with Rhoda holding the baby, crying and murmuring, "Poor little child!"

The Odd Women

Returning to Wild Cat Island for their second summer holiday by the Lake, the Swallows find the Amazons and Captain Flint suffering from "native trouble". Great Aunt Maria has come to stay, and she is a stickler for "proper" behaviour; demanding that the Amazon pirates act like "young ladies", and restricting their time. Despite this, Nancy and Peggy escape the Great Aunt and arrange a rendezvous, but on the way the Swallow hits Pike Rock and sinks. All are saved and the boat salvaged, but she needs repairing, so camping on the island is impossible."Captain" John of the Swallows learns some valuable life lessons about following his instincts while commanding a ship, and has time to reflect on the accident while he fashions a new mast for Swallow. Fortunately an alternative appears to replace camping on Wildcat, as Roger and Titty find a beautiful hidden valley, Swallowdale, up on the moors above the lake. The Swallows discover a secret cave in Swallowdale, a trout tarn, the "knickerbockerbreaker", and enjoy new adventures of lakeland life. They meet local woodcutters and farmers, see a hound trail, and trek across the moors. The Amazons are only able to escape at intervals, and are punished for getting home late by being made to memorize and recite poetry. Eventually the Great Aunt leaves and the Swallows and Amazons mount an expedition to sleep under the stars on the "summit" of nearby commanding hill "Kanchenjunga". Next morning, Roger and Titty return to Swallowdale following trails through the bracken across the moor, while the elders ferry the Amazons'' camping gear by boat. Both parties get lost in a thick and sudden fog. After it lifts the elders arrive only to find an empty camp. Titty arrives late after hitching a ride with some woodsmen, and explains that Roger sprained his ankle, and will be spending the night with Old Billy, the charcoal burner. The next day the injured Roger is carried back to the camp on a stretcher. The Swallow is finally repaired, and the book ends with a race and a feast, followed by a return to Wild Cat Island.

Swallowdale

The book opens with Vampire$, Inc. cleaning out a nest of vampires, introducing the main characters and setting the tone for the book. The team has some difficulty collecting their payment for dispatching said vampires, but ultimately collects their fee and hosts a wild party at a local motel where all of the team and some townsfolk engage in epic-level drinking and carrying on. The party is interrupted by a ''master'' vampire who essentially slaughters everyone at the party with the exception of Jack Crow and his second in command "Cherry Cat" Catlin. The shaken Jack Crow begins to plan the formation of a new team, aided by Father Adam, a knowledgeable young priest sent to him by the Vatican. Events at the motel slaughter lead Jack to realize that silver, particularly blessed silver from a cross, can be used as a weapon against vampires. He has his weaponsmith Carl begin creating silver bullets and he recruits a skilled gunman named Felix, that Jack met while working as a government agent in Mexico. Felix proves to be as deadly with a pistol as Jack hoped and they seem to have a new and powerful resource to use against the vampires. In addition to the silver bullets, Carl also develops a "vampire detector" for use by the team, which proves to be a useful tool against the vampires (which are portrayed as fantastically fast and powerful compared to humans, particularly the ''master vampires''). A series of battles ensues, using these silver bullets against the vampires, but key members of Jack''s team are killed by the vampires, including Annabelle, the office manager of the team''s residence, and the aging weaponsmith Carl. Jack, depressed and beaten, suicidally returns to a known favorite hotel where the vampires are sure to find him. Felix, Cat and Father Adam stage a rescue attempt but it ends with Father Adam dead and Jack spirited away by the vampire. The novel closes with Felix taking a leadership role within Vampire$ Inc., after thwarting an attempt by the (now a vampire) Jack Crow to attack the Pope.

Vampire$

Moscow, 1882. When Fandorin returns from Japan with his manservant Masa, he enters the service of Moscow governor Prince Dolgorukoi. Later that day, the White General Mikhail Sobolev, nicknamed the Russian Achilles and an old friend of Fandorin''s, is found dead in the same hotel. Officially, he died of a heart attack, but Fandorin becomes suspicious when he talks with the body guards of the general. Fandorin had befriended these cossacks when he rooted out a Turkish spy during the siege of Plevna (see The Turkish Gambit). But the same cossacks now treat him with hostility. Fandorin finds out the reason for their hostility as he discovers that the general had not really died in the hotel, but was moved there from the apartment of his mistress. Found dead in a compromising situation, the cossacks tried to prevent a scandal and protect the reputation of the general. But Fandorin looks even deeper and finds out that a large sum of money is missing. He learns that Sobolev is trying to raise funds to begin a political campaign, and Fandorin begins to suspect foul play. He finds that the general has been poisoned in a very clever manner, and the killer anticipated the cover up, which would ensure his safe getaway. Fandorin further discovers that the plot leads up to the highest levels of the Tsar''s government, and that he himself is now viewed as an enemy of the state for his efforts to catch the killer. The killer is Achimas Welde, a hired assassin, who has only failed three times in his career. One of those times was his assignment to kill Fandorin, when he just managed to kill Fandorin''s wife, as Fandorin himself was chasing him (see The Winter Queen). The second half of the novel is told from Achimas'' point of view and recounts his life story, up to the plot to kill Sobolev and the investigation. By chance, Achimas discovers that the man who hired him to kill Sobolev was Grand Duke Kirill Alexandrovich, the younger brother of Tsar Alexander III. In the concluding chapters of the novel, Fandorin kills Achimas, and prepares to flee Moscow (believing himself to be a target of the plotters), but Prince Dolgorukoi''s assistant meets him at the train station and tells him that everything has been covered up and he can continue in the service of the state.

The Death of Achilles

The book starts off with Tandy the half-nymph being harassed by the nasty demon Fiant while trying to sleep. She has the talent of throwing tantrums that can stun or destroy, but her talent is ineffective against the demon, so she decides to visit her father Crombie at Castle Roogna to see if he can help. Having no means of travel, however, she decides to catch a night mare to take her there. She succeeds, at the price of being battered, except the mare takes her to the Good Magician''s castle instead, where she is admitted without challenges due to the difficulties she went through riding the mare. Cut to a year later, we find Smash the half-ogre traveling to the Good Magician Humfrey seeking to solve a vague dissatisfaction about himself. Using the best of his ogre qualities (strength and naive stupidity), plus his clumsy knowledge of human customs, as well as the occasional bright flash of human intelligence, he navigates his way into the Magician''s castle passing various obstacles such as a basilisk and a pond of firewater. Once Smash gains entrance, though, he forgets all about his question. Magician Humphrey gives him an answer anyway, telling him to travel to the Ancestral Ogres and take Tandy with him, and guard her. On their travels, Smash and Tandy blunder into an Eye Queue vine, which embeds itself into Smash''s head and provides him with human intelligence so he converses in the human way instead of spouting simple ogre rhymes. He soon discovers that the vine also helps give him good ideas, as not all the problems he and Tandy encounter can be bashed to pieces. After the vine, they encounter an assortment of females of various magical races each needing to fulfill a personal quest...a dryad who needs to protect her tree from woodsmen, wingless fairy John looking for her similarly incorrectly named counterpart to switch back, Centaur Chem, a longtime friend with the talent of magic mapping who wants to chart more of Xanth, Blythe Brassie who wants to leave her hypnogourd homeworld to come to the real Xanth, a mermaid looking for love, and others. Unfortunately also during their travels, Tandy gets trapped in the hypnogourd world and has her soul wrenched from her, though she is later freed by the others. Smash enters back into the gourd and forages a deal with the world spokesperson (in the form of a coffin): Smash will give his soul to the gourd under a 90-day lien in exchange for Tandy''s soul. He then has 90 days to find the dread Night Stallion, ruler of the gourd world, and negotiate to void the lien. As the travels continue, each female does find what she is looking for, eventually, although Smash''s strength saps out of him a little at a time as his soul is gradually recalled as the days pass. Smash makes periodic forays into the gourd world, with the help of a magical and infinite ball of string to mark his way, in search of the Night Stallion, overcoming various world challenges, most of which require both his ogre strength and human intelligence to solve. Finally, when only Chem and Tandy are left with Smash, they come upon the dread Elements region and face a flood in the water region that washes off the Eye Queue vine from Smash''s head, right before they enter the most dangerous Void region. As they enter the void, they come to realize that they are trapped and must find a way to get out, which they can''t do without Smash''s useful intelligence. Smash, using the Void''s properties, manages to get his illusion of intelligence back (though at this point it is no longer illusory), and enter the gourd one last time, where he finally finds the Night Stallion and faces new challenges that require all his newfound human intelligence as well as his ogre strength and stubbornness to overcome. Once Smash conquers the Night Stallion''s challenges and wins back his soul, he realizes his human side and falls in love with Tandy, putting his own soul in jeopardy again in order to save her, but through another deal ends up with only half a soul and half his ogre strength. He finally does arrive at the home of the Ancestral Ogres but notes how stupid and ugly they really are and decides he does not want to stay with them, though when they threaten Tandy he commits to fighting to save her. After Tandy sacrifices her own soul mid-battle to save Smash (giving him full ogre strength) so he can defeat the ancestral ogres, Smash finally comes to true terms with his human side, even transforming himself into a human so he can make love to Tandy properly. As Smash and Tandy journey home, they again run into Demon Fiant. As a man, Smash is no match for the demon, but manages to transform back to ogre form and is able to defeat Fiant permanently, though again his human intelligence is needed to win this battle. ru:Огр! Огр! (книга)

Ogre, Ogre

Birthright takes place before the games Diablo and Diablo II take place. It tells the story of Uldyssian ul-Diomed, a farmer whose only remaining family is his brother, Mendeln. Initially the story starts out with some background information. Uldyssian''s family falls victims to a plague, which only he and his brother survive. Not too far into the novel, a terrible murder is unearthed in the woods near his home village, Seram. In this time he has already become infatuated with a stranger to the town named Lylia, and he has started to possess eerie powers, like a thunderstorm that left many dead, including the men of the Cathedral of Light who accused him of the murder and were there to arrest him. Uldyssian and Lylia, along with Uldyssian''s brother Mendeln, a woman from their village named Serenthia, and a skilled hunter named Achilios, escape under cover of the storm for the nearby forests. Once there, Lylia explains to Uldyssian that his power is a gift and he accepts this, and comes to awaken the same power in Serenthia and Achilios. Not long after their escape, they are set upon by Peace Warders and a priest from the Temple of the Triune, which stands in opposition to the Cathedral of Light, but Uldyssian easily routs them with the help of Lylia and they continue on to her desired destination. Meanwhile, the priest of the Triune who led the attack against Uldyssian--Malic--returns to the Primus of the Triune, Lucion, who tortures him for his failure. The torture ends with Lucion''s gifting Malic with a demonic arm and several vicious morlu to aid his second chance at capturing Uldyssian and bringing him back to the main Temple.

Birthright

Immediately following The Letter of Marque, the narrative picks up with Jack Aubrey getting the Surprise underway for a mission to South America. Upon reaching Lisbon, however, Dr Maturin is intercepted by Sir Joseph Blaine and told that he and Aubrey will be required to first go on a mission to the Sultan of Pulo Prabang, a (fictictious) piratical Malay state in the South China Sea. They are to transport Fox, the envoy who will lead the mission to persuade the Sultan to become an English rather than French ally. The French are being openly assisted by the same English traitors - Wray and Ledward - who were responsible for Aubrey''s former disgrace. With the Surprise now commanded by Captain Pullings, they return with Blaine to England where Jack Aubrey is reinstated with his former seniority as a Post-Captain in the Royal Navy by Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty. He is also given command of the recently captured French ship Diane for the mission ahead. Fatefully, the Diane is the very ship Jack Aubrey had just captured from the French and which had secured his reinstatement, along with appointment to Parliament as member from Milport. Captain Aubrey''s orders to the Diane are mentioned as occurring in the "fifty-third year" of the reign of King George III, thus fixing the year at around 1813 which, due to the mental illness of the king, was the third year of the Regency. A recurring sub-plot is the hostility between the Regent (later George IV) and his brother, the Duke of Clarence (later William IV), a patient and ally of Stephen Maturin. This hostility was, in part, responsible for the delay in re-instating Captain Aubrey to the Navy List and it was appointment to Parliament that tipped the scales. Stephen''s work keeps him undercover as a naturalist as he engages in a political duel for influence at the Sultan''s court. Although his activities are to go unknown, they prove to be invaluable in both undermining the French efforts and finally exacting his revenge on his enemies, the French agents, Ledward and Wray. Ledward is caught in bed with Abdul, a boy who is the Sultan''s cupbearer and catamite, the Sultan having pederast tendencies, though married and fathering a son by his queen. Abdul is gruesomely executed in a bizarre sanctioned execution via "peppering," in which a bag of pepper is placed over the head. The executioners, often the victim''s family, then beat the bag, resulting in inhalation of the pepper and painful asphyxiation. Wray and Ledward are banished from the court for their indiscretions, effectively ending the French mission. Wray tries to change sides in exchange for protection but he and Ledward are later assassinated. Maturin dissects their bodies with a fellow natural philosopher and intelligence agent, the Dutchman van Buren. After a long drunken feast, at which Fox and his retinue behave grossly, the Diane makes for Batavia and to rendezvous with the Surprise off the False Natunas. Fox behaves with increasing arrogance during the return voyage, the success of the treaty having gone to his head. Jack has words with him, Stephen turns against him for his incivility, and the rest of crew of the Diane loathe him. One night the frigate strikes a hidden reef and her captain and crew are shipwrecked on a desert island. Fox and his colleagues decide to sail for Batavia in Dianes pinnace, but are caught in a typhoon and presumed killed. During the same typhoon, the marooned Diane is destroyed but Aubrey''s crew are able to begin to build a fair-sized schooner from what remains of the frigate - her starboard bow and hull. The title refers to the honour, a thirteen-gun salute, that is due to Fox as an official envoy and representative of the King.

The Thirteen-Gun Salute

After collecting a bounty, Jonah Hex takes up in a saloon for the night while acquiring the services of prostitutes. Two lawmen arrive at the saloon and give a prostitute a wanted poster to deliver to Hex showing that his mother, Virginia "Ginny" Dazzleby, is wanted for murder. In a flashback, it revealed that Hex has not seen his mother since childhood when she ran off and left Hex with his abusive father. Two days later, Hex''s horse is shot out from under him by two bandits and he briefly lies on the ground playing dead before shooting both bandits. Against Hex''s initial wishes, the bandits'' dog, which Hex calls Dag, decides to accompany Hex. Hex arrives at saloon to inquire about his mother and shoots a man who pesters him about his gunsmanship. The bartender directs Hex to the tent town located behind the town proper, where Hex encounters three men stealing diseased blankets to trade to Indians who settled on land they purchased. When the men try to rob Hex, he shoots one in the arm and dodges gunfire from the other two so that they shoot each other. A small boy who overheard Hex questioning the men about his mother steps forward saying she was kidnapped by a group of Mexicans heading south. While on their trail in Arizona, Hex comes across a Navajo village razed by the Mexicans so they could pass off the Navajo scalps as Apache and sell them. Hex catches up with the Mexicans in a saloon and kills them all. He finds his mother upstairs dying of tuberculosis. Hex''s mother mistakes him for the devil come to claim her soul. Before dying, Hex''s mother reveals that the Mexicans that captured her were working for El Papagayo and that she had another son by Dazzleby named Joshua. A woman at the bar named Edna reveals that Hex''s mother was taken as bait for Hex. Hex travels to Heaven''s Gate, Colorado to deliver his mother''s corpse to his half-brother and is informed upon arrival that Joshua is both the preacher and sheriff of the town and that the town has no saloon or whorehouse. Hex initially wants to leave right after delivering the body, but Joshua convinces him to stay for the funeral and to give up his guns while in town. Meanwhile, El Papagayo shows up at the saloon where Hex killed his men. He ties up and severely beats the bartender, his daughter and Edna and shoots Edna after she bites his hand. He then reveals that Hex''s father destroyed his village when he was a child and he swore revenge on Hex''s family. Back in Heaven''s Gate, Joshua tries to make peace with the differences between him and his half-brother, but Hex makes good on his promise to ride out after the funeral. However, shortly after leaving town, Hex spies El Papagayo with around fifty men riding towards the town. Hex returns to town and suggests that they run, but the townspeople decide to say and fight. The next day El Papagayo men ride into town and find Hex''s dog. El Papagayo orders one of his men to shoot it to prove his aim. They find the town otherwise deserted. The men arrive at the hot spring outside Heaven''s Gate and find the women of the town bathing in it. One of them claims that the town is populated only by women. When El Papagayo''s men jump into the water, the townsmen spring out of the water armed with various weapons. The townsmen win the initial skirmish, but Papagayo is not among the dead. Papagayo mows down some men with a Gatling gun and promises to spare the town if they turn Hex over. The townsmen over power Hex and attempt to hand him over, but when Papagayo hears Joshua refer to Hex as his brother, he shoots him, only hitting his arm. Hex breaks free, and Papagayo shoots him in the shoulder before Hex knocks the gun out of his hand. Papagayo reveals a knife hidden in his pants leg and stabs Hex through the arm. The fight continues until Hex pinned Papagayo and slits his throat with the knife still in his arm. Seeing their leader dead, El Papgayo''s men retreat. The story cuts to months later when Hex leaves Heaven''s Gate after staying with his brother to heal. On his way out, Hex stops by his mother''s grave, with Dag buried next to her, and tells her he doesn''t blame her for leaving.

Jonah Hex: No Way Back

On a snowy February 14, Freddy learns his friend Mr. Boomschmidt ran out of money for his circus during the war years, when performances were restricted. The animals scattered a year previously to manage for themselves. Freddy gets an appeal to reassemble them and find a way to finance restarting the circus. Valentines and Jinx the cat’s painting aside, Freddy and Jinx go to Centerboro for advice. The bank will not loan money without collateral: “Chickens are off two cents, and lambs very weak. But rhinoceroses—not a very active market in them”. On a different matter, on Freddy’s advice, the bank puts out cheese so the mice will not eat the money. Freddy learns that the circus lion Leo is 200 miles away. He is lucky to catch his rich friend Mrs. Church driving that direction. She pays for a hotel while he and Jinx investigate. At Mrs. Guffin’s pet shop Freddy buys a canary that winks at him while he is questioning. The canary turns out to be a chickadee dyed yellow; he gives Freddy enough information about Leo to confront Mrs. Guffin. They manage to free him, but are now fugitives, since Mrs. Guffin claims she owns Leo. She tries to reclaim him, but is held captive until Mrs. Church arrives to take them home. Freddy’s plan to solve the bank’s mouse infestation attracted even more mice. Since the townspeople are also infested, he decides to go into business with cat acquaintances removing them. Soon they are earning good money toward restarting the circus, but Old Whibley the owl has a better plan: to rent a place for the town mice to stay the winter. The mice are won over. Freddy decides to stage a little theater, and the move into the new place is done in a parade with the pig leading as the Pied Piper. Freddy decides to take the money earned and travel with Jinx and the circus animals to Mr. Boomschmidt. They almost reach him when they come across a race track. Some animals join a race. The rhinoceroses carrying the money is waylaid by a man from the track, and the money is stolen. They arrive at Mr. Boomschmidt’s empty handed, but are welcomed just the same. While there, Freddy gets a tip from a buzzard they met on their journey, and the animals recover their money. To save Mr. Boomschmidt’s pride, Freddy concocts a séance reading where the money he earned is discovered as hidden treasure. Satisfied, but not fooled, Mr. Boomschmidt restarts the circus.

Freddy the Pied Piper

The story begins on Wang Lung''s wedding day and follows the rise and fall of his fortunes. The House of Hwang, a family of wealthy landowners, lives in the nearby town, where Wang Lung''s future wife, O-Lan, lives as a slave. As the House of Hwang slowly declines due to opium use, frequent spending, and uncontrolled borrowing, Wang Lung, through his own hard work and the skill of his wife, O-Lan, slowly earns enough money to buy land from the Hwang family. O-Lan delivers three sons and three daughters; the first daughter becomes mentally handicapped as a result of severe malnutrition brought on by famine. Her father greatly pities her and calls her "Poor Fool," a name by which she is addressed throughout her life. As soon as the second daughter is born, O-Lan kills her to spare her the misery of growing up in these hard times, and to give the remaining family a better chance to survive. During the devastating famine and drought, the family must flee to a large city in the south to find work. Wang Lung''s malignant uncle offers to buy his possessions and land, but for significantly less than their value. The family sells everything except the land and the house. Wang Lung then faces the long journey south, contemplating how the family will survive walking, when he discovers that the "firewagon" (the Chinese word for the newly-built train) takes people south for a fee. While in the city, O-Lan and the children turn to begging while Wang Lung pulls a rickshaw. Wang Lung''s father begs but does not earn any money, and sits looking at the city instead. They find themselves aliens among their more metropolitan countrymen who look different and speak in a fast accent. They no longer starve, due to the one-cent charitable meals of congee, but still live in abject poverty. Wang Lung longs to return to his land. When armies approach the city he can only work at night hauling merchandise out of fear of being conscripted. One time, his son brought home meat he had stolen. Furious, Wang Lung throws the meat on the ground; believing that if they kept stealing, his sons would grow up as thieves. O-Lan, however, calmly picks up the meat and begins cooking it again; representing that she preferred health to honesty. When a food riot erupts, Wang Lung unwillingly joins a mob that is looting a rich man''s house and corners the man himself, who fears for his life and gives Wang Lung all the money he has in order to buy his safety. Meanwhile, his wife finds jewels from a hiding place in another house, hiding them between her breasts. Wang Lung uses the money to bring the family home, buy a new ox and farm tools, and hire servants to work the land for him. In time, the youngest children are born, a twin son and daughter. Using the jewels O-Lan looted from the house in the southern city, Wang Lung is able to buy the House of Hwang''s remaining land. He is eventually able to send his first two sons to school and apprentice the third one as a merchant. As Wang Lung becomes more prosperous, he buys a concubine named Lotus. O-Lan dies, but not before witnessing her first son''s wedding. Wang Lung and his family move into town and rent the old House of Hwang. Wang Lung, now an old man, wants peace, but there are always disputes, especially between his first and second sons, and particularly their wives. Wang Lung''s third son runs away to become a soldier. At the end of the novel, Wang Lung overhears his sons planning to sell the land and tries to dissuade them. They say that they will do as he wishes, but smile knowingly at each other.

The Good Earth

The Autobiography of Malcolm&nbsp;X is an account of the life of human rights activist Malcolm&nbsp;X, born Malcolm Little (1925–1965). It begins during his mother''s pregnancy and describes his childhood in Michigan, the death of his father under questionable circumstances, and his mother''s deteriorating mental health that resulted in her commitment to a psychiatric hospital. Little''s young adulthood in Boston and New York City is covered, as is his involvement in organized crime that led to his arrest and subsequent eight- to ten-year prison sentence, of which he served six-and-a-half years (1946–1952). The book addresses his ministry with Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam (1952–1963) and his emergence as the organization''s national spokesman. It then documents his subsequent disillusionment with and departure from the Nation of Islam in March 1964, his conversion to orthodox Sunni Islam, his pilgrimage to Mecca, and his travels in Africa. After Malcolm&nbsp;X was assassinated in New York''s Audubon Ballroom in February 1965, the book''s coauthor, journalist Alex Haley, summarizes the last days of Malcolm&nbsp;X''s life, and describes in detail their working agreement, including Haley''s personal views on his subject, in the Autobiography''s epilogue.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

The novel begins with the day of Lynette and her sister Lyonesse''s dual wedding to the brothers Gaheris and Gareth, respectively. After the festivities are over, the two sisters are dragged to their bedrooms and prepared by giggling bridesmaids for the first night of their honeymoons. Lynette is miserable, as she is in fact in love with Gareth, her sister''s groom, and thinks with envy of them in the next room. She is also terrified of what is about to happen, as it is revealed in a flashback that she was raped by a friend of her father''s who was like a mentor to her. She is convinced that Gaheris will know that she is not a virgin, and she will be publicly shamed. However, when Gaheris finally enters the honeymoon suite, he merely comments that he does not want this, either. He sleeps next to her, without touching, and leaves before she wakes. In another flashback, Chapman summarizes the events leading up to the wedding, essentially retelling the corresponding Arthurian legend. In short, the Red Knight, a knight who claims to owe no loyalty to Arthur, attacks Lynette''s home in the absence of any male figureheads, essentially holding the household hostage until her older sister, Lyonesse, consents to marry him and make him Lord. Lynette disguises herself as a servant boy and escapes, going all the way to Camelot and pleading with Arthur himself to help her rescue her sister. With the help of Merlin (who had appeared to her once before, after she was raped), she receives the king''s blessing, but he only sends one man with her - Gareth, who she presumes to be a kitchen boy. She is quite rude to him, feeling very resentful towards Arthur for his choice. However, Gareth soon proves himself and in the course of rescuing Lyonesse, Lynette realises that she has fallen in love with him. Unfortunately, upon the group''s return to Camelot, it is arranged that Gareth shall marry Lyonesse as his reward, and Lynette shall wed Gareth''s older brother, Gaheris. After Gaheris'' departure, Lynette is worried about what will happen to her - abandoned by her husband, and forced to watch the man she loves in the company of her own sister. Again Merlin intervenes, and Lynette manages to convince Arthur to make her his messenger. She is to go alone ahead of the knights to persuade unruly Lords to swear their allegiance to Arthur; it is dangerous, but she has no fear. Lynette acts so bravely and gracefully in the course of this work that she earns the respect of all those who travel with her (including Guinevere''s unlucky admirer, Lancelot). Over the course of the novel, she meets up again with the man who raped her as a teenager and beheads him; she is later haunted by his ghost, but eventually manages to forgive him, thus finally freeing herself from the terrifying black creatures which were released each time she laid a curse upon him. She is also separated from her party in strange lands and kidnapped; she eventually finds her way out through a network of caves with the help of a very peculiar young man named Lucius. Lucius has lived in the dark so long that he is completely blind and very pale, with light blue hair. He was imprisoned along with his mother, who subsequently died, but he met a sort of witch just outside the caves who befriended him, and he is happy with his simple life. Lynette spends a considerable amount of time with the pair, and eventually falls in love with Lucius. She feels simultaneously pleased that he can not see how plain she is, and guilty because she is convinced that he would not want her if he could only see her. Eventually, the witch sadly informs Lynette that Lucius is dying. Lynette is completely horrified, and decides that she will seek out the Holy Grail, so that Lucius can use it to save himself. She sets out with her traveling companions from before, and after a very long and decidedly strange journey, she actually manages to retrieve the Grail. She hurries back with it to Lucius, resolving that she will let him do with it as he pleases. Upon receiving the Grail, Lucius wishes for sight rather than life, so that he can finally see Lynette. Upon opening his eyes, he cries out with delight, telling the startled (and heartbroken) Lynette that she''s beautiful over and over. The pair have a little more time together, which Lynette tries very hard to make the best of. Lucius dies, and she and the witch bury him before she sets out once again, to resume her post as the King''s Damosel.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Odd Women

No Author Listed

Swallowdale

By Arthur Ransome

Vampire$

By John Steakley

The Death of Achilles

By Boris Akunin

Ogre, Ogre

By Piers Anthony

Birthright

By Richard A. Knaak

The Thirteen-Gun Salute

By Patrick O''Brian

Jonah Hex: No Way Back

No Author Listed

Freddy the Pied Piper

No Author Listed

The Good Earth

By Pearl S. Buck

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

By Malcolm X

The King's Damosel

By Vera Chapman