In a parallel universe, England and Imperial Russia have fought the Crimean War for more than a century; England itself is a police state run by the Goliath Corporation (a powerful weapon-producing company with questionable morals); and Wales is a separate, socialist nation. The book''s fictional version of Jane Eyre ends with Jane accompanying her cousin, St. John Rivers, to India in order to help him with his missionary work. Literary questions (especially the question of Shakespearean authorship) are debated so hotly that they sometimes inspire gang wars and murder. Single, thirty-six, Crimean War veteran and literary detective Thursday Next lives in London with her pet dodo, Pickwick. As the story begins, Thursday is temporarily promoted to investigate the theft of the original manuscript of Charles Dickens''s Martin Chuzzlewit because she is one of the few people able to identify the thief, Acheron Hades. She comes close to capturing him during a stakeout, but is badly injured, saved by a copy of Jane Eyre that stops Hades'' bullet. A mysterious stranger aids her until the paramedics arrive, leaving behind only a monogrammed handkerchief and jacket. Next recognizes these items as those of Rochester, a character from Jane Eyre, because she entered the novel as a child and briefly became acquainted with Rochester himself while she was there. While recovering in hospital, Thursday is instructed by her future self to take the LiteraTec job in her home town of Swindon. There, she discovers that her Uncle Mycroft has created the Prose Portal, which allows people to enter works of fiction. Next also renews an acquaintance with her former fiancé Landen Parke-Laine (a reference to the British version of the board game Monopoly). Hades kidnaps Mycroft, Polly, and the Prose Portal in order to blackmail the literary world; any changes made to the plot of a novel''s original manuscript will change all other copies. When his demands are not met, Hades kills Mr Quaverley, a minor character from the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit. Next and a Goliath Corporation operative named Jack Schitt trace Hades to Wales and rescue Mycroft and the Prose Portal, but find that Polly is stuck in one of Wordsworth''s poems and Hades has gone into the original text of Jane Eyre. Next pursues Hades, and after much trouble, succeeds in killing him. In the process, Thornfield Hall is burned, Rochester''s mad wife Bertha falls to her death, and Rochester himself is grievously injured (in other words, she alters the ending of the book to match the actual ending to Jane Eyre). Returning to her own world, Next uses the Prose Portal to release her Aunt Polly and imprison Jack Schitt in the text of Edgar Allan Poe''s "The Raven". She shows up at the church where Parke-Laine is about to be married to another woman, but a lawyer interrupts the wedding and Next and Parke-Laine are reconciled and marry instead. Next''s father, a renegade agent from SpecOps-12, the ChronoGuard, turns up to dispense some fatherly advice to his daughter. The novel ends with Next facing an uncertain future at work: public reaction to the new ending for Jane Eyre is positive, but there are other repercussions.

The Eyre Affair

It follows The Queen, The Prince of Wales and his new wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, who, at the start of the novel, have been living for the last 13 years on the Flowers Estate, now called the Flowers Exclusion Zone or ''The Fez''. The Fez is the private fiefdom of scaffolding magnate Arthur Grice, Prince William''s employer. Grice fancies himself a grand-scale public benefactor; he often wonders why most Fez residents dismiss him as little more than the self-aggrandising businessman he is. He lobbies the Queen for a knighthood, which she cannot grant him, all honours having been abolished. The Exclusion Zones are the worst sign of the authoritarian country Britain has become, with almost lock-down security in the Fez. Jack Barker, Cromwell (formerly Peoples'' Republican) Party leader and Prime Minister, is exhausted after 13 years in office, and wants out. The New Conservative ("New Con") Party elects "Boy" English as its new leader; Boy promises to restore the monarchy. The Queen, now 80, does not want to return to public life; she tells her family she has decided to abdicate. One reason: The Duke of Edinburgh, her husband, suffered a debilitating stroke 2 years earlier, and is now being (badly) cared for in a residence just outside the Fez. With The Queen''s abdication, The Prince of Wales will now become King Charles III - but Camilla will only be his consort, not his Queen. Charles refuses to become King unless Camilla is his Queen. Prince William then offers, too eagerly for the Queen''s liking, to reign in his father''s place. Charles consults his friend, MP Nicholas Soames, who tells him there is no constitutional reason Camilla cannot become his Queen. Enter Graham Cracknall, who claims to be the son of Charles and Camilla, born in 1965. His adoptive parents revealed his biological parentage in a codicil to their will, opened only after both had died. Graham visits Charles and Camilla; the whole family takes an instant dislike to him - particularly after he claims that he, not Prince William, is second in line to the throne after Charles. Graham then attracts the online attention of a mysterious lady named Miranda - who, unknown to him, is a New Con operative in the General Election that is finally called. On learning of the New Con ruse, the enraged Graham goes to the Daily Telegraph with his story; he is not believed, causes a disturbance when thrown out, and ends up in Rampton Hospital. The New Cons win the election, restoring the monarchy as promised, but the Queen follows through on her decision to abdicate, and Charles becomes King. The other members of the Royal Family, including Queen Camilla, spend part of each day talking with tourists.

Queen Camilla

Will Fuller, a grade nine student, is in history class with his best friend James Bennett. As the class comes to an end, James tells the class how he will be going with his dad, a firefighter, to work tomorrow while Will is dreading tomorrow as he must go with his distant dad, John Fuller, who he describes to be never home due to work, to his office on the 85th floor at the South World Trade Centre Tower. Early next morning, Will finds himself commuting to his dad''s office via car and subway. They meet some of John''s friends there. Will later learns that everyone had their own "seat" that they sit in the same place every single day. When they finally arrive, Will is overwhelmed by the sight of the World Trade Center, but is still unsure of the day ahead of him. To his surprise, him and his dad first visit the Observation Deck before returning to their office a few stories down. Upon arriving at the office, Will is left with John''s secretary, Suzie, where he is introduced to a colleague of his dad, Phil. Afterwards, he returns to his dad''s room, where a sudden, loud noise rocks them. To their surprise, the North Tower has been hit by an airplane, and John, the fire Warden of the floor, orders the floor to evacuate despite their tower being intact. Reluctant at first, the employees eventually begin their way down the tower. As their office leaves, John goes around to other offices on the floor to evacuate the floor, but, one of the managers of one of the offices refuses to leave. As the argument between them become heated, an announcement states that it is not necessary for the tower to evacuate, and that workers may return to their offices. John and Will leave the office, and, despite the announcement, John decides to evacuate anyways. As they head towards the stair case, another sudden, loud noise rocks the building. Running back to the office, they realize that a plane has hit the South Tower. Realizing the danger of fire, John returns to his office and soaks a tie for both of them to use when they reach the stories with fire in the stair case. John also gives Will a whistle to use in case they''ll become separated and instructs Will to blow the whistle should it ever happen. As they begin their journey down once again, they are suddenly stopped by a group of people heading up, instead of down, as they tell them that the stair case has been blocked, since the plane hit the levels beneath them, and that they will be heading up to await rescue. Not wanting to risk it, John decides to use another staircase, which is farther away from the crash site, to descent the building. As they descend down, the reach the stories where the crash happened, and finds it extremely difficult at it is extremely hot. Eventually making it through, they come across a level where they find an injured and trapped woman who speaks very little English. Although Will is reluctant at first to carry her down, and instead wants to leave her in the stair case after freeing her, John believes otherwise and carries her down the stairs. As Will realizes his father is becoming red a tired of carrying the woman, named Ting, he offers to alternate the job of carry her down. As they continue down, they eventually come across groups of firefighters, in which one of them they see James'' dad. James'' dad ask them to take his son home, as he does not want him to go home alone from the station, and they agree to do so. Afterwards, John admits that he did not spend enough time with Will and that he should have put his business aside to spend more time with Will and his mother. Eventually Will, John and Ting make it down the lobby, where paramedics attempt to take a look at Ting. Ting, however, scared, backs away from the paramedics and holds onto John. John says that he''ll stay with Ting while she is looked at and will rendezvous with Will outside the tower near at the ambulances after the paramedics make an assessment of Ting''s injuries. As Will leaves the building with an officer, he is suddenly blown to his feet on the streets outside the tower by a sudden force. Struggling to regain balance after failing and injuring his arm, he is suddenly taken back by the police officer, explaining that the South Tower has collapsed and they must leave for safety. Realizing that his dad is still in the building when the building collapsed, he turns and runs towards the building, only to be stopped by the police officer again. Suddenly remembering the whistle his father gave him, he frantically blows on it. In the distance, he sees figure resembling his dad and runs toward the figure. As he becomes closer, he confirms that it is in fact his father with Ting still on his back. Upon reuniting, John explains that they just stepped out of the building when the building collapsed. The story ends with Will stating "This is my father, now we can go."

We All Fall Down

The main story of He, She and It is situated in North America in the near future of the year 2059. At that time, the economic and political power is held by few multis -- huge multi-national enterprises with their own social hierarchy that have produced an affluent society. The main part of the population, however, lives in the glop outside of the multis'' enclaves within an environment that has mainly been destroyed. Here, the life is dominated by poverty, gangs and the law of the stronger man. An exception from this are the so called free towns that are able to sell their technologies to the multis but remain autonomous. Communication is handled via a network which allows the participants to project themselves into Cyberspace. When the protagonist Shira loses custody of her son Ari to her ex-husband Josh, she returns from her multi Yakamura-Stichen (Y-S) to her hometown Tikva (Hope in Hebrew) - a Jewish freetown. There, she starts working on the socialization of the cyborg Yod (the tenth letter in Hebrew and a symbol for God in Kabbalah), who has been created illegally by Avram to protect the city. Yod is the tenth cyborg (a robot with human appearance and programmed human characteristics) in a row of previously failed experiments whose programming has partially been completed by Malkah, Shira''s grandmother. While Shira and Yod build up a (sexual) relationship, Shira''s childhood sweetheart Gadi, Avram''s son, also comes back to Tikva. Gadi returns due to his banishment for sleeping with a young girl. When Malkah is working on a chimeara (security software) to protect the city from online attack, she is attacked by Y-S. Yod, however, is able to prevent the attack. Eventually, Y-S invites Shira to a new hearing concerning the custody of her son. Shira is accompanied by Yod, her mother Riva, and Nili, a biotechnologically enhanced woman from a nuclear-devastated Palestine, when the situation escalates. The Y-S delegation and Riva die in the fight. Thereupon Shira, Malkah and Yod decide to infiltrate the Y-S network base. They manage to get hold of personnel files revealing a conspiracy against Shira and Tikva. As next step, Shira and Yod are accompanied by Nili and Gadi into the Glop. Here, they get in contact with an organized underground group in which they discover Riva still alive and participating in resistance activities. From the Glop they travel into the Y-S enclave in Nebraska to kidnap Ari. There, Josh is killed by Yod. Back to Tikva, Shira''s family spends some quiet time until Y-S invites them to a further meeting in the net. Y-S demands that Yod be handed over, for Y-S to acquire its technology. Avram agrees to the deal with the hope of creating another cyborg. So, Yod agrees to destroy him/itself when sent to the enclave. However, Yod made sure that his own explosion would cause a synchronous explosion in Avram''s lab. As Avram dies in this accident and all his notes are destroyed the creation of a further cyborg becomes impossible. Finally, Malkah leaves Tikva with Nili to visit to a secret town in post-nuclear holocaust Israel and to profit from the possible biotechnological enhancements. Shira is integrated into Tikva''s society further. When she discovers copies of the notes concerning Yod, she initially plans on recreating Yod; ultimately she respects Yod''s wishes and destroys them. The main plot is interwoven with a story Malkah tells Yod that deals with Rabbi Judah Loew who Malkah depicts as her ancestor living in the ghetto of Prague around 1600. To protect the Jewish community from the Christian mob, Loew uses the knowledge of Kabbalah to create the golem Joseph from clay. His granddaughter Chava, a very educated woman, teaches Joseph to read and to write. Joseph successfully protects the ghetto and begins to think of himself as human and makes a plea for his right to a human existence. However, when the pogrom climate calms down, Loew returns Joseph to clay. The two stories are mutually illuminating, both asking what it means to be human both from the perspective of the man-made life and that of those who love the artificial lives.

He, She and It

This story introduces Gavner Purl, a full vampire and an old friend of Mr. Crepsley. Gavner Purl is a Vampire General. Gavner Purl is shocked to discover Darren a half-vampire. Mr. Crepsley wants to talk to Gavner Purl alone in secrecy. After the meeting, Gavner walks with Darren for a while, revealing to him that Mr. Crepsley was a Vampire General and was about to be invested as a Vampire Prince, who is a leader of the Vampire Clan. He also lets slip that Mr. Crepsley is going to leave the Cirque and finally binds Darren to secrecy regarding all these facts. A day or so later, Mr. Crepsley does inform Darren that he must leave and Darren has to accompany him to some place. He suggests that Evra can come with Darren as if on a "vacation" and to help him keep Darren out of mischief as Mr. Crepsley pointed out incidents regarding Madam Octa and Sam Grest. They go to the city and get a disguise made for Evra and in the night while Mr. Crepsley goes out on mysterious excursions, in the day, Darren and Evra enjoy themselves. When looking for a Christmas gift for Evra, Darren comes across Debbie, a girl from the Square, where they were staying. The two begin dating and like each other very much. After a date and a "kiss" with Debbie, when one night Darren reaches back to the hotel, he and Evra are disturbed by a news report saying that human bodies were found in a basement, drained of blood. Darren and Evra fear that it may be Mr. Crepsley, and decide to track him at night to see where he goes. When Darren thinks that he is about to go and kill a man, Darren attempts to face Mr. Crepsley and tries to stop him, but discovers that it was actually a work of a mad vampaneze named Murlough. Murlough runs away, managing to kidnap Evra with him. Mr. Crepsley tells Darren about the Vampaneze and Murlough. Mr. Crepsley and Darren discover Evra kidnapped when they come out of the abattoir where the man Murlough intending to kill was. Mr. Crepsley declares that Evra has been or would be killed by Murlough. Darren takes the loss of Evra pretty badly. Darren goes over to Debbie to seek some comfort. He gets invited over to her house for Christmas Eve. Debbie almost cries when she realizes that Darren might have to leave suddenly and gives him a hug. Murlough spots Darren with Debbie and sneers him about, demanding for Mr. Crepsley and a release for Evra. Darren refuses. On returning, Darren tells Mr. Crepsley about Debbie, his talk with Murlough and his refusal to sell Mr. Crepsley for Evra. Mr. Crepsley is highly impressed and they begin making plans to save Evra before 25 December, the day when Murlough has promised to kill Evra. The two venture down the sewers and Darren gets caught by the vampaneze. Darren gives Murlough a piece of his mind by telling him about the vampire laws. He then decides to trade Debbie''s life for Evra''s. They reach Debbie''s home and room where Mr. Crepsley slays Murlough, who is tricked into killing a goat, according to Darren''s plan. The dying vampaneze whispers to Darren, ''Cluh-cluh-clever buh-buh-buh boy, hmmm?''. Afterwards, Darren decorates Debbie''s Christmas tree and kisses Debbie on her forehead and wishes, ''Merry Christmas, Debbie''.

Tunnels of Blood

Cal Lavender is perfectly happy living her anonymous life, even if she does have to play mother to her own mother a whole lot more than an eleven year old should have to do. But when Cal''s mother has one of her “unfortunate episodes” in the middle of the public library, she is whisked off by the authorities, and Cal is escorted to a seat in the back of a police car. On “just a short, temporary detour from what I call life,” Cal finds herself in a group home with four other girls, watched over by a strange old woman that everyone refers to as the Knitting Lady. At first Cal can think of nothing but how to get out of this nuthouse. She knows she does not belong there. It turns out that all the girls, and even the Knitting Lady, may have a lot more in common that they could have imagined. Cal is constantly thinking that her mother is coming to get her quite soon, but, as it turns out, it takes quite a while for her mother to come and "free" Cal from the group home. The four other girls at the group home are: Amber- The quiet, and almost bald shy one who does not talk for the whole beginning of the book; Monica- The whiny, annoying one of the bunch; Fern- The one who laughs at almost anything Whitney says; and Whitney- the girl who has had so much done to her, she made a list. For example, # 14.: Got dropped on head by Santa at a group home party. Whitney is probably the most important girl living in the group home with Cal. The five of them go off to find Whitney''s sister, but, in the end, Cal discovers that this "sister" doesn''t exist at all, and the only other ones who know about it are Amber & Whitney herself. Whitney also has a pet pillbug named Ike Eisenhower the 5th, Whose brother Mike the 5th died already. Through the rest of the book, the Knitting Lady (whose name is revealed in the very end) tells them a story about Lillian as a young girl. Then, she finally tells them that Lillian grew up, and had Brenda; Brenda is dropped off at a group home, just like Cal. Eventually, Betty (Cal''s mother) comes and takes Cal back home, And then, Cal never hears from Whitney, Amber, Monica, Fern nor the Knitting Lady again..

What I Call Life

The action occurs between December 2 and December 29, 1170, chronicling the days leading up to the martyrdom of Thomas Becket following his absence of seven years in France. Becket''s internal struggle is the main focus of the play. The book is divided into two parts. Part one takes place in the Archbishop Thomas Becket''s hall on December 2, 1170. The play begins with a Chorus singing, foreshadowing the coming violence. The Chorus is a key part of the drama, with its voice changing and developing during the play, offering comments about the action and providing a link between the audience and the characters and action, as in Greek drama. Three priests are present, and they reflect on the absence of Becket and the rise of temporal power. A herald announces Becket’s arrival. Becket is immediately reflective about his coming martyrdom, which he embraces, and which is understood to be a sign of his own selfishness—his fatal weakness. The tempters arrive, three of whom parallel the Temptations of Christ. The first tempter offers the prospect of physical safety. :Take a friend''s advice. Leave well alone, :Or your goose may be cooked and eaten to the bone. The second offers power, riches and fame in serving the King. :To set down the great, protect the poor, :Beneath the throne of God can man do more? The third tempter suggests a coalition with the barons and a chance to resist the King. :For us, Church favour would be an advantage, :Blessing of Pope powerful protection :In the fight for liberty. You, my Lord, :In being with us, would fight a good stroke Finally, a fourth tempter urges him to seek the glory of martyrdom. :You hold the keys of heaven and hell. :Power to bind and loose : bind, Thomas, bind, :King and bishop under your heel. :King, emperor, bishop, baron, king: Becket responds to all of the tempters and specifically addresses the immoral suggestions of the fourth tempter at the end of the first act: :Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain: :Temptation shall not come in this kind again. :The last temptation is the greatest treason: :To do the right deed for the wrong reason. The Interlude of the play is a sermon given by Becket on Christmas morning 1170. It is about the strange contradiction that Christmas is a day both of mourning and rejoicing, which Christians also do for martyrs. He announces at the end of his sermon, "it is possible that in a short time you may have yet another martyr". We see in the sermon something of Becket''s ultimate peace of mind, as he elects not to seek sainthood, but to accept his death as inevitable and part of a better whole. Part II of the play takes place in the Archbishop''s Hall and in the Cathedral, December 29, 1170. Four knights arrive with "Urgent business" from the king. These knights had heard the king speak of his frustration with Becket, and had interpreted this as an order to kill Becket. They accuse him of betrayal, and he claims to be loyal. He tells them to accuse him in public, and they make to attack him, but priests intervene. The priests insist that he leave and protect himself, but he refuses. The knights leave and Becket again says he is ready to die. The chorus sings that they knew this conflict was coming, that it had long been in the fabric of their lives, both temporal and spiritual. The chorus again reflects on the coming devastation. Thomas is taken to the Cathedral, where the knights break in and kill him. The chorus laments: “Clean the air! Clean the sky!", and "The land is foul, the water is foul, our beasts and ourselves defiled with blood." At the close of the play, the knights step up, address the audience, and defend their actions. The murder was all right and for the best: it was in the right spirit, sober, and justified so that the church''s power would not undermine stability and state power.

Murder in the Cathedral

The novel revolves around the legend of Atlantis, mentioned as an ancient city or continent which was drowned by the sea due to divine intervention. The novel is narrated by Headley who first writes a letter to his friend Sir John Talbot. On his subsequent rescue, he completes his story giving details on his escape and how they fought off possibly the greatest danger to humanity, the Devil himself. The novel begins with preparations for the dive, off the coast of Africa. Prof. Maracot claims to have located the deepest trench in the Atlantic and is vehement that he shall go down in the specially prepared submersible actually a bathysphere along with Headley and Scanlan. On reaching the edge of the trench, a description of the undersea world is presented. The team comes face to face with a giant crustacean who cuts off their line and hurls them down into the trench. Down in the trench, the team is rescued by the Atlanteans who are the last survivors of the land that was Atlantis. Although the description of Atlantis may not sound quite futuristic and may seem fantastic, the fact that the novel was written in 1929 should be taken into account. One device in particular is often made use of. This is a thought projector which visualizes the thoughts of a person for others to see. This helps the team and the Atlanteans to communicate. Descriptions of work habits, culture and various sea creatures are provided. The Atlanteans forage for their food from the sea bed and their slaves, Greeks who are the descendants of the original slaves of the kingdom of Atlantis work in undersea mines. This is made possible thanks to an exceptionally strong and light transparent material which is fashioned into helmets to enable people to work underwater. The team eventually uses the levity of these spheres to escape to the surface. Headley elopes with the daughter of Manda, leader of the Atlanteans. In the later part of the novel, Headley describes the encounter with the Lord of the Dark Face, a supernatural being who led the Atlanteans to their doom and was the cause of untold miseries to humanity ever since. This being is likened to the Phoenician god Baal who was demonized by later religions and cultures. The being is defeated by Prof. Maracot who becomes possessed by the spirit of Warda, the man who managed to convince a handful of Atlanteans to prepare for the worst and thus built an Ark which saved them from the cataclysm which destroyed their land.

The Maracot Deep

On a cold March morning, Charles the rooster malingers about going outside to crow. His attempts to avoid work actually make him too sick to do work. Freddy convinces the Bean animals to join in the neighborhood scrap drive contest, finding unneeded metal to help win the war. Freddy takes news input to the newspaper offices of the Guardian to discover that his friend, the editor Mr. Dimsey, has been fired. The owner of the paper, Mrs. Underdunk, put her nephew Mr. Garble in charge. With Dimsey’s help, Freddy starts another paper The Bean Home News, for the animals. The Bean animals work on Dimsey’s farm to pay for his time. Unexpectedly, several people in town have subscribed. This prompts the pig to hire reporters to collect the news from town. The newspapers come into confrontation when Freddy is accidentally bumped into by Underdunk on the sidewalk. When the sheriff refuses to arrest the pig, Underdunk threatens to use her influence to put him out of office. She comes to the Bean farm, proclaiming that she will have Freddy shot. A joke meant for Charles backfires, further infuriating her. The city reporter for the Bean Home News is collecting great material: :"''Where in tunket did you get that item about Mr. Weezer and Miss Biles being engaged to be married? There wasn’t a soul in town knew about it. I ain’t even sure they knew about it themselves.''" (p. 88) The Guardian calls Freddy a ferocious wild pig. Freddy responds in his paper with the true version of events. Citizens believe Freddy, drawing more threats from Underdunk. Charles the rooster is infuriated, and meeting his reputation from an earlier book, single-handedly attacks Garble. That leads Underdunk to demand Freddy’s arrest as being the head of an animal gang. Freddy hides in his friend the sheriff’s jail, which proves lucky, since when they come to arrest him, the sheriff points out that the pig is already "in custody". When Freddy visits Old Whibley for advice, the owl determines to be Freddy’s lawyer. He instructs Freddy to demand a jury trial, so that his friends will be on the jury. The animals constantly interrupt Garble’s sleep, so that in the courtroom he is on the edge of falling asleep. Underdunk’s case is unconvincing: :"''Did he bite you?'' :''No.''.... :''...you immediately called upon the sheriff to lock him up. Why?'' :''...That pig cannot be trusted to behave himself." :''Why? Because he did not bite you?''" (p. 156) Garble falls soundly asleep, losing his chance to testify. The jury votes Freddy innocent. When Underdunk throws a gala party including a senator, the Bean animals cannot resist sneaking into the grounds to watch. When they are found, Freddy flees into the house just as a war blackout is called, and the house goes dark. Pretending to be the senator, Freddy announces that Underdunk is donating her prize lawn ornament to the Bean’s scrap drive. In the chaos that follows when the lights come on, Freddy is captured and imprisoned. However the animals find him, and the authorities are notified. The police, sheriff and judge and many from town arrive in a loud mob. :"''Another interruption of that kind,'' said the judge severely, ''and I will have this barnyard cleared.''" (p. 208) Having been publicly caught, Underdunk and Garble agree to stop harassing Freddy. Her lawn ornament is given up, and the Bean animals win the scrap drive.

Freddy and the Bean Home News

Kristina thinks that now she has a baby to care for and love, she can let go of the old addiction. But she finds herself searching for Robyn, her old contact for the "street crank". While over at her house she meets a boy named Trey and starts to crave for people to look like they want or need her. Once she gets home, she begins to work at a 7-Eleven to get the money to buy more crank. The manager there is a porn dealer and offers her a job as a prostitute, but she declines. After learning that her father is coming to her mother''s home to be at the christening of her new baby, Hunter Seth, she begs her mother to let him come and she agrees, on the condition that Kristina has to be the one to tell her older sister. Once her father comes, he takes her to casinos for her eighteenth birthday party and they snort some lines while there. This causes Kristina to be almost late for Hunter''s christening, but she manages to make it on time. Meanwhile, Kristina has started dating Trey and began smoking "glass", which is much more harmful than smoking crank because it is pure meth in rock size quantities. Kristina begins to smoke it every day, becoming skinnier and crashing more often. After crashing one day, her mother kicks her out of the house because she didn''t even try to wake to save Hunter, who had rolled himself under a chair and couldn''t get out. Kristina then moves in with Brad, Trey''s cousin, while serving as the babysitter of Brad''s two young daughters, Devon and LeTreya. She quits working at 7-Eleven by using blackmail and gets a call from Robyn. After finding out that Robyn now works at a "whorehouse", Kristina goes over and is able to sell the girls ice, instead of street crank, which was the only meth they''d had access to. Trey leaves for college and Kristina soon finds herself becoming attracted to Brad. After Trey comes home, she asks him why he hadn''t been answering the phone and he responds with that he had been seeing a girl for sex only and that he still loved Kristina. She passes out and finds him gone. This saddens Kristina and she begins to have sex with Brad. When Trey comes home, he finds Kristina sleeping in the same bed as Brad but instead of getting mad at her, he starts having sex with her while Brad is sleeping. Brad''s estranged wife Angela comes back because she wants another try to be together with Brad. So, Brad kicks Kristina out. Thus, Kristina is forced to move out and into a motel nearby. She is also able to meet the man that gives Brad the crystal meth, Cesar. Once Trey comes back, he confesses to Kristina that the girl he had been sleeping with was Angela until she came back to Brad. So, he was also forced to move out. She agrees to him moving in and they soon begin to live together. They then move to an apartment together. Kristina asks her mother if she can bring Hunter over to her apartment so Hunter could stay with his mother and stepfather. But Kristina gives him back when she finds Hunter on the ground after having fallen from his high chair. She realizes that her mother was right and that she is not ready to raise Hunter. Kristina, desperate for some money, steals most of her mother''s jewelry and check books. When Kristina gets a court order because her mother thinks that Kristina is an unfit mother, she and Trey decide to make a run for it after a picture of her is put in the newspaper asking for people to turn her in. They soon arrive in California with only a few pairs of clothes, all their meth, and money. They fall asleep in the car after a meal at McDonalds and are awakened by a cop. He asks them to step outside and he finds the half pound of crystal meth. They are arrested and taken to jail. They have to stay the entire weekend and during this time Kristina detoxes from the meth. Because Kristina had a history in Nevada, she and Trey are put behind homestate bars. They are offered the chance of ratting on Cesar to shorten their jail sentence to six months which they agree to. During her checkup, Kristina finds out that she is pregnant with Trey''s baby and hopes the baby is a girl so that Kristina will be able to love the baby like she should have done with Hunter. She hopes she can stay in touch with Trey and if not she knows she will with Quade. The novel ends with Kristina hoping that things will get better in her life even though she has no reason to be hopeful.

Glass

The book begins with a quote from Melissa Etheridge, saying: "The story you are about to read is the story of a light-bringer....Salman Ahmad inspires me to reach always for the greatest heights and never to fear....Know that his story is a part of our history." The book tells a life story of Pakistan-born Salman Ahmad, who pioneered &#34;Sufi rock&#34; by marrying his teenage love of Led Zeppelin&#39;s sinuously behemoth riffs to the ecstatic vocal acrobatics of the millennia-old qawwali style of singing common to Pakistan, fronts Junoon (&#34;passion&#34;), the most revered rock band in all of South Asia for the past two decades. Facing down angry mullahs and oppressive dictators who wanted all music to be banned from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Salman Ahmad rocketed to the top of the music charts, bringing Westernstyle rock and pop to Pakistani teenagers for the first time. His band Junoon became the &#39;U2 of Asia&#39;, a sufi rock group that broke boundaries and sold a record number of albums. But Ahmad&#39;s story began in New York, where he spend his high school years rocking out in Tappan, New York. That dream seemed destined to die when his family returned to Pakistan and Ahmad was forced to follow the strictures of a newly religious. After finishing medical school he devotes his life to peace, love, and power chords as the first true Muslim rock star. &#34;Mine was a sort of Sex Pistols situation in reverse,&#34; he writes. &#34;I wanted to unite and heal the divisions in the Third World,&#34; not &#34;punch conservative British nationalism and the First World Order in the gut.&#34; It didn&#39;t hurt that the process included random encounters with Mick Jagger, Bono, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who later named Ahmad UNAIDS Goodwill ambassador. Today, Ahmad continues to play music and is also a UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador, traveling the world as a spokesperson and using the lessons he learned as a musical pioneer to help heal the wounds between East and West; lessons he shares in this illuminating memoir.

Rock & Roll Jihad: A Muslim Rock Star''s Revolution

The death of their parents, when Kate is 7 years old, Bo a toddler, and her brothers in their late teens, threatens the family with dispersal and seems to spell the end of their parents'' dream that they should all have a college education. Luke, the oldest but not the most academic, gives up a place at a teachers college in order to look after the two youngest and allow Matt, academically brilliant and idolised by Kate, to complete his schooling and compete for university scholarships. This sacrifice leads to much tension between the brothers. Both work intermittently for a neighbouring family, the Pyes, who for several generations have suffered from fierce conflicts between fathers and sons. In the final crisis, Matt, after winning his scholarships, discovers that he has made the meek and distressed daughter of the Pye household, Marie, pregnant; she also reveals that her father, Calvin Pye, has killed her brother, who was thought to have run away from home as several other Pye sons had done. Calvin Pye kills himself, and Matt has to give up his plans for education to marry Marie. Kate sees the loss of Matt''s potential academic career as a terrible sacrifice, and is unable to come to terms with Marie or Matt thereafter. The dénouement of the adult Kate''s story comes when she returns to Crow Lake for Matt and Marie''s son''s eighteenth birthday, introducing Daniel to her family for the first time. In the course of this visit, she is made to realise - first by Marie and then by Daniel - that Matt''s loss though real was not the total tragedy she had always considered it, and that it is her sense of it as tragic that has destroyed her relationship with him. The book ends with her struggling to come to terms with this view of their past and present relationships; the struggle is left unresolved but the final tone is optimistic. The book is essentially a double Bildungsroman, in that the development of both Matt and Kate is charted; but whereas we see the key events in Matt''s young adulthood more or less in sequence, the key events in Kate''s are sketched in from both ends, towards a crisis that in terms of events is Matt''s but psychologically is more significant for Kate. The mixture of perspectives involved in Kate''s story allows the author to relate violent events and highly charged emotions in a smooth and elegant style, a quality for which the book has been widely praised by reviewers.

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