This story begins the day before Mia goes back to school to begin her sophomore year, which she feels is completely pointless, because Michael is now a freshman in college. The only thing that seems good about school this year is the arrival of a new English teacher, who both Mia and Lilly feel they will love. The first day of school begins, and Lilly does not make an effort to look nice because she has lost her boyfriend, Boris Pelkowski, to one of her and Mia''s closest friends, Tina . Once Mia and Lilly arrive in school, they are shocked to discover that Boris has gotten ''hot'' over the summer, making dramatic changes to his appearance so he can play violin better. The first English lesson of the year begins, and Mia, Lilly and Tina pass notes saying how great they think their new English teacher, Ms Martinez, is. Everything is going well until lunchtime, when, in the Jet Line, Lana, Mia''s arch-enemy, tells Mia that college boys expect their girlfriends to Do It with them. This freaks Mia out because she is positive that she is not ready to sleep with anyone. Mia, thinking she has suffered enough for one day, receives another blow as Lilly nominates her for student-council president and Lana Weinberger, hearing this, immediately puts herself into the race, and Principal Gupta schedules the votes for president to be cast on the following Monday. Grandmere is delighted that Mia is running for president, because it will distract the media from Mia dumping snails into the bay back at Genovia to eat the killer algae that Monaco have dumped in, destroying the natural balance of the seas. Unfortunately, the snails don''t seem to be doing anything, and some countries want Genovia to be kicked out of the EU. Lilly and Grandmere team up and organize Mia''s campaign for student council president, putting posters up in the school, organizing televised interviews and handing out pens to promote Mia. Lilly confesses to Mia that she just wants Mia to run for president so that Mia can name her as her vice-president, and, after a few days, step down because of her hectic schedule and name Lilly as her successor, as Lilly is not popular enough to become president herself. A stressful school week ends and Mia visits Michael''s dorm on Saturday (after a big sleepover at the Plaza with her friends, Lily Moscovitz, Tina Hakim Baba, Ling-Su Wong and Shameeka Taylor, where Mia stayed up until three o clock and was woken early because Lilly forced her to go to a soccer game to promote her campaign) and meets his roommate, Doo Pak, where she discovers condoms in Michael''s bathroom. Shocked by this discovery, Mia has The Talk with Michael, who says he knows Mia isn''t ready because she invited her friends for a sleepover once she found out she had a hotel room to herself, and not him. Michael tells her he understands, but is not going to wait forever and Mia begins to think that Michael is going to break up with her, a theme that is repeated in almost every book where Mia and Michael are in a relationship. On Monday, Mia debates against Lana (a debate which is also televised), and provides a much more convincing argument than Lana and gets the majority of the vote. Mia realizes that she wants to be president herself, when Michael shows up at school and Mia leaves with him. They go out to a restaurant and talk, and they agree to see if Mia is ready to do it every 3 months. Their relationship is strong once again, and the story ends. This book is a successful hit being one of Meg Cabot''s most mature books.

The Princess Diaries, Volume VI: Princess in Training

Lucien Chardon, the son of a lower middle-class father and an impoverished mother of remote aristocratic descent, is the pivotal figure of the entire work. Living at Angoulême, he is impoverished, impatient, handsome and ambitious. His widowed mother, his sister Ève and his best friend, David Séchard, do nothing to lessen his high opinion of his own talents, for it is an opinion they share. Even as Part I of Illusions perdues, Les Deux poètes (The Two Poets), begins, Lucien has already written a historical novel and a sonnet sequence, whereas David is a scientist. But both, according to Balzac, are "poets" in that they creatively seek truth. Theirs is a fraternity of poetic aspiration, whether as scientist or writer: thus, even before David marries Ève, the two young men are spiritual brothers. Lucien is introduced into the drawing-room of the leading figure of Angoulême high society, Mme de Bargeton, who rapidly becomes infatuated with him. It is not long before the pair flee to Paris where Lucien adopts his maternal patronymic of de Rubempré and hopes to make his mark as a poet. Mme de Bargeton, on the other hand, recognises her mésalliance and, though remaining in Paris, severs all ties with Lucien, abandoning him to a life of destitution. In Part II, Un Grand homme de province à Paris, Lucien is contrasted both with the journalist Lousteau and the high-minded writer Daniel d’Arthez. Jilted by Mme de Bargeton for the adventurer Sixte du Châtelet, he moves in a social circle of high-class actress-prostitutes and their journalist lovers: soon he becomes the lover of Coralie. As a literary journalist he prostitutes his talent. But he still harbours the ambition of belonging to high society and longs to assume by royal warrant the surname and coat of arms of the de Rubemprés. He therefore switches his allegiance from the liberal opposition press to the one or two royalist newspapers that support the government. This act of betrayal earns him the implacable hatred of his erstwhile journalist colleagues, who destroy Coralie’s theatrical reputation. In the depths of his despair he forges his brother-in-law’s name on three promissory notes. This is his ultimate betrayal of his integrity as a person. After Coralie’s death he returns in disgrace to Angoulême, stowed away behind the Châtelets’ carriage: Mme de Bargeton has just married du Châtelet, who has been appointed prefect of that region. Meanwhile, at Angoulême David Séchard is betrayed on all sides but is supported by his loving wife. He invents a new and cheaper method of paper production: thus, at a thematic level, the commercialization of paper-manufacturing processes is very closely interwoven with the commercialization of literature. Lucien’s forgery of his brother-in-law’s signature almost bankrupts David, who has to sell the secret of his invention to business rivals. Lucien is about to commit suicide when he is approached by a sham Jesuit priest, the Abbé Carlos Herrera: this, in another guise, is the escaped convict Vautrin whom Balzac had already presented in Le Père Goriot. Herrera takes Lucien under his protection and they drive off to Paris, there to begin a fresh assault on the capital.

Les Illusions perdues

The story starts with Chamberlain’s 1938 triumphant return to 10 Downing Street, a public hero after the signing of the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler, declaring "peace in our time." The story ends with the fall of the Chamberlain Government, and the appointment of Churchill as Prime Minister. Churchill, relegated to the periphery of British politics by the late Thirties, lashes out against appeasement despite having almost no support from fellow parliamentarians or the British press. The novel includes many of the momentous historical personages of the day: Chamberlain, the ailing and pacifist Prime Minister; Churchill, the political outcast, whose pugnacity created opprobrium in the public eye; Joseph Kennedy, the U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James''s; Guy Burgess, an alcoholic BBC journalist of later Cold War infamy; the machiavellian newspaper mogul, Max Aitken, (Lord Beaverbrook), and the stuttering and insecure King George VI, who personally detests Churchill and tries to persuade his good friend, Lord Halifax, to take the reins of leadership. Winston''s War is the first in a series of novels by Dobbs about Churchill''s wartime leadership. The sequel Never Surrender continues the storyline over the first few weeks of Churchill''s premiership.

Winston''s War

Scully Christopher Crockett La Cruz is an actor, fortune seeker and adventurer from the long isolated orbital technocratic democracies of Circumluna and the Bubbles Congeries. He lands in what he believes to be Canada to reclaim family mining interests only to discover that Canada is now North Texas and what is left of civilization in North America is ruled by primitive, backslapping, bigger than life anti-intellectual "good ole boys" convinced of their own moral superiority. In the tortured version of history known to the giant hormone-boosted Anglo-Saxon inhabitants who rule a diminutive Mexican underclass, the original Texas, or Texas, had actually secretly ruled the pre-nuclear war United States since 1845. Texas escaped the nuclear destruction of the rest of the United States because of the foresight of Lyndon the First. An enormous bunker then known as the Houston Carlsbad Caverns-Denver-Kansas City-Little Rock Pentagram and now referred to simply as the Texas Bunker had saved the heartland during a war that destroyed both American coasts, Europe, Russia, China, and Africa. Texas then conquered the rest of the continent, although Hawaii and Cuba remain stubbornly "unconquered".

A Specter is Haunting Texas

The story follows a number of Jewish partisans and resistance fighters as they struggle to survive and sabotage the German war machine behind Nazi lines during World War II, starting in the western Soviet Union (Byelorossiya) and ending in Milan. The book''s chief protagonist, Mendel Nachmanovich Dajcher, worked as a watch repairer before joining the Red Army, where he fought in the artillery. While he is at war, his wife and shtetl are massacred by a German Einsatzgruppe. In the midst of battle, he loses his regiment, becomes disoriented and is overtaken by the front, separated from and unsupported by Soviet forces. His life thereafter is an odyssey through the "partisanka", the motley partisan movement, which includes Russians, Jews, Lithuanians and Poles. About halfway through the book, Mendel and his companion from the first chapter, Leonid, fall in with a group of Jewish resistance fighters called the gedalistas, after their leader: Gedale. With them, Mendel traverses Poland and, overtaken by the victorious Soviets, enters defeated Germany. From there, the group aims for Italy, dreaming of making the aliyah to Palestine to take part in the Zionist project of reclaiming a Jewish homeland.

If Not Now, When?

The novel is about Peter''s relationship with his younger brother, Fudge, who always causes trouble for Peter and his family. Four-year-old Fudge has gained a high vocabulary for his age owing to his curiosity. He also knows where babies come from and plans to be a bird when he grows up. According to his older brother, Peter, he is the biggest pain ever invented, but is loved all the same. When Peter''s mother, Anne, announces that she is pregnant for the third time, Peter decides to run away from home. He worries that the baby will be like a carbon copy of Fudge, but when Anne gives birth to a beautiful baby girl they name Tamara Roxanne, who soon comes to be called "Tootsie," he finds that his fears are unfounded. Fudge, however, becomes jealous of all the attention she is getting and acts out. Fudge''s father (Warren) decides to take a leave of absence from his advertising agency job to write a book. Anne decides to return to university in order to pursue art history courses. Peter''s parents announce that they are moving to Princeton, New Jersey for a year in order for his parents to pursue their respective goals. Peter unenthusiastic about the idea. Furthermore, when he learns that Fudge is enrolled at the same school as Peter, he feels even worse. His best friend, Jimmy Fargo, however, tries to see the bright side: Peter will be far away from his nemesis, Sheila Tubman, and Jimmy promises that he will visit Peter in Princeton. Princeton proves boring for Peter until he meets a local boy named Alex Santo. Discovering that they will be in the same class at school, they become friends. Fudge makes a new friend of his own, a self-proclaimed bird expert named Daniel Manheim, who is Jewish. At school, Peter (who is 11 years old at the start of the book) is in sixth grade, while Fudge is in kindergarten at the same elementary school. Fudge resents his assigned teacher because she refers to him by his legal name, Farley (the teacher disapproved of the nickname "Fudge") and acts out by climbing to the top of the cabinetry in his classroom and refusing to budge; Fudge is eventually moved to the other class, whose teacher accepts the nickname. Over the course of the following year, Peter and Fudge each experience their own highs and lows: *Fudge gets a myna bird he names Uncle Feather and then decides that he wants to be one when he grows up. *Peter develops a crush on a local girl named Joanne McFadden. *Jimmy comes to visit Peter, but when he and Alex meet and become fast friends, Peter can''t help feeling left out and resentful. *Fudge receives a new bike for Christmas, then tells Peter a shocking secret—that he''s always known Santa isn''t real. *Fudge meets his favorite author, Brian Tumkin, and causes an awkward moment for Peter at a school assembly. *After Fudge plays a practical joke on Peter, he refuses to bring him to a picnic he is having with Alex. Afterwards, Fudge goes missing and Peter thinks he is to blame, until he and Daniel are found at a local bakery. At the end of their time in Princeton, Warren and Anne talk about moving back to New York City. Although Peter has gotten accustomed to life there, he looks forward to going back to his "normal" life in the big city. The timeframe for this story is presumably 1978, as the book talks a lot about Superman, which was the year the film debuted. Peter says how he had seen it when he was still in New York City, but it had not yet played in Princeton, so the friends he made there have not yet seen it. Jimmy Fargo claims to have already seen it twice; to which the second time he saw it was better. The story also mentions a coming of age event for Peter. Fudge pours ice down Peter''s shirt in the onscreen shot of Superman kissing Lois Lane, and Joanne sits with him and offers him napkins to dry off the cold water. Jimmy and Alex have not yet gotten into girl-boy relationships and tease him for it. Fudge is also inspired by the film, believing it may be possible he was born on Krypton and can become like Superman. Later (post-2003) reprints contain edits to the book, including a different Christmas list for Peter, references to record players replaced with CDs, MP3 Players and tapes, and making Anne only allergic to tree nuts instead of all kinds (resulting in her unable to eat peanut butter in the original). Fudge also mentions at one part that he likes to watch The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and The Electric Company. This was edited so he says that he likes to watch Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

Superfudge

In a town haunted by a deadly mine explosion that took the lives of almost half the male population thirty years earlier, the reverberations are still being felt in the current generation of survivors, among them the narrator Ivan Zoschenko, the local deputy and fallen football legend, "the Great Ivan Z," whose father died that day. His pro career sidelined by an injury, Ivan now spends his days dispensing his own unique form of occasionally wise, usually comic, almost always dangerous justice and his nights drowning his regrets and guilt in a bottle. His story takes place during a week''s time while Ivan is seemingly preparing for an old teammate''s imminent release from prison. In doing so, he introduces a rich cast of characters – his fiercely independent single-mom sister, the long-absent Vietnam vet he idolized as a child, the town''s no-nonsense pediatrician who brandishes vaccinations on the doorsteps of neglectful parents like a Wild West sheriff, and the old friend and onetime mirror image of himself who now lives the kind of simple life Ivan both admires and pities. During the events of this week, Ivan confronts his demons and reveals himself to be a man whose conscience is burdened by a long-held and shocking secret involving the ruined life of a young girl that must be finally reckoned with.

Coal Run

In the twelfth year of the reign of Rodric the Fourth, an orphaned kitchen boy named Pug is made an apprentice magician to the magician Kulgan in Crydee. An indifferent student of magic, he rises to high station by saving Princess Carline, Duke Borric’s daughter, from mountain trolls and becomes a squire of the Duke''s court. Following the discovery of a foreign ship wrecked after a storm and reports of bizarrely dressed warriors appearing in the forests, Pug’s liege, Lord Borric sets out for Krondor, the capital of the western realm of the kingdom, to convey the news and ask for aid. Their party is attacked, however, by dark elves and they are rescued by dwarves and their leader Dolgan who leads them through a series of mines to the coast. Shortly after arriving in Krondor Lord Borric’s band are instructed to carry on to Rillanon, the capital of the kingdom. Once there, however they are refused any help from the King Rodric, who suffers from madness and delusions, and they are turned away. War erupts between the Midkemians and the otherworldly Tsurani. The Duke''s troops engage in a fierce battle in an effort to locate and destroy the rift in spacetime which gives access to the Tsurani, but Pug is captured and taken back through the rift to Kelewan, the Tsurani homeworld, as a slave. After years of stalemate fighting on Midkemia by the two opposing forces, Pug returns as a magician, a Great One, the Tsurani name for master practitioners of magic. Meanwhile, a fellow slave, Laurie, along with a Tsurani warrior, Kasumi, embark on a secret errand of peace from the Tsurani Emperor to King Rodric in Rillanon, but also fail to persuade the mad king. Discovering that Pug is alive and prospering as a magician, the dying Duke Borric reveals that he has adopted Pug into his family, also giving him an island – Stardock, where Pug is to begin an academy of magic. Duke Borric also reveals that Martin is his son and the older brother to Lyam and Arutha. Upon Borric’s death, Lyam becomes Duke of Crydee and commander of the Armies of the West. Shortly after, King Rodric appears at the camp after hearing the news of Borric''s death. King Rodric himself then leads a charge against the Tsurani, breaking their ranks and driving them back, but suffering a mortal wound. While dying, the King''s sanity seems to return and he apologizes to Lyam and names him heir to the throne. With Rodric''s death, Lyam assumes command and sues for a peace treaty with the Emperor Ichindar. During the peace conference, the two rulers, with Pug as the interpreter, begin on good terms by exchanging gifts. Due to the interference of powerful and mysterious sorcerer Macros the Black, the elves and dwarves mistakenly perceive treachery, and the truce dissolves into an all-out conflict. Macros enlists Pug''s help to close the rift once and for all, and the connection between the two worlds is severed, leaving numerous stranded Tsurani soldiers in Midkemia, including Kasumi. The Tsurani, who expect to be put to death as is custom on their world, are instead granted freedom in return for their pledge of service to the Kingdom, and are stationed in LaMut with Kasumi made Earl and given command. Lyam chooses to reveal Martin''s birthright on the eve of his selection and coronation, threatening to throw the Kingdom into turmoil and potential civil war, but Martin relinquishes his claim, making Lyam the rightful king and ending any possibility of dispute.

Magician

Adam Dalgliesh is brought in to investigate the mysterious death of a famous writer on a remote and inaccessible island off the Cornish coast. Combe Island is a discreet retreat operated by a private trust, where the rich and powerful find peace and quiet. Famed novelist Nathan Oliver, who was born on the island and thus is allowed to visit as he wishes, arrives with his daughter, Miranda and his copy-editor, Dennis Tremlett, who, unbeknownst to Oliver, are having an affair. When he discovers them, Oliver reacts with fury and orders them to leave the island the next day. Several people on the island find Oliver an unpleasant guest. The writer is pressuring the manager of the Combe Island Trust, Rupert Maycroft, to allow him to live in a cottage used by the sole remaining member of the family that owned the island for many years. The manager''s secretary, a disgraced Anglican priest named Adrian Boyde, a recovering alcoholic, was tricked into "falling off the wagon" by Oliver, and many people are disgusted with Oliver for his heartless, evil actions. Oliver is also confronted at dinner by a scientist, Dr. Mark Yelland, who believes himself to be the model for an unpleasant character in Oliver''s upcoming book. The reader is introduced to all the residents of the island, including Jago Tamlyn, the boatman, and Daniel Padgett, a handyman who is planning to leave after the recent death of his mother, who also worked on the island. Oliver is angry at Padgett, who dropped a phial of the author''s blood into the sea while taking it to a doctor on the mainland for some medical tests. The next morning, Oliver is discovered hanging from the island''s historic lighthouse. Dalgliesh and his team arrive to investigate. The pathologist, Dr. Edith Glenister, determines Oliver was throttled to death before a rope was tied around his neck and his body thrown over the side of the lighthouse railing. Dalgliesh learns that a visiting dignitary from Germany, Dr. Raimund Speidel, is the son of a German officer who died under tragic circumstances while visiting the island during World War II. He further learns that Nathan Oliver''s father, Saul, and Jago''s grandfather, Tom, played a role in the man''s death. Dr. Speidel was ill before arriving on Combe Island, and Dalgliesh contracts his illness. Just as the two men are diagnosed with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Dalgliesh discovers that Adrian Boyde has been murdered. Health authorities put the island under quarantine to contain the spread of disease, and all the people on the island are asked by the police to move into Combe House, the main building, to protect them from further attacks. Dalgliesh takes to the sickroom and his colleagues, Kate Miskin and Francis Benton-Smith, are left to work the case. Benton risks his life to climb down a cliff to find the rock used to beat Boyde to death. Surfacing from fever, Dalgleish has a feverish vision that helps him fit the pieces of the puzzle together. Realising that Padgett must have been the murderer, he orders Kate and Francis to search Padgett''s cottage, where they find the phial of Oliver''s blood that he had pretended to lose overboard, a lock of Padgett''s mother''s hair, her and Dan Padgett''s birth certificates, and the destroyed remains of her figurines and a book written by Oliver in which a young girl is seduced by an older man. Oliver was actually Padgett''s father; Padgett wanted the blood for a DNA test to confirm paternity. Padgett killed Oliver in a fit of anger after confronting him in the lighthouse. He killed Adrian Boyde because the priest knew Padgett wasn''t telling the truth about his whereabouts the day Oliver was killed. Before Kate and Francis can arrest Padgett, he takes a young staff member, Millie Tranter, hostage and threatens to throw her from the lighthouse. Kate bravely forces herself through a narrow window so she can unlock the lighthouse door. She and Benton climb to the top, confront Padgett, and Benton convinces him to surrender. Dalgliesh recovers from his illness, and after the break of the investigation and quarantine, he and his lover Emma both overcome their fears about each other''s seeming lack of commitment, and agree to marry. fr:Le Phare (roman)

The Lighthouse

Damião (pronounced Dan-mi-an-o) is a young man who escapes from a seminary. Afraid that if he returns home, his father will force him to return to the seminary, he goes to ask help of Miss Rita (pronounced He-tah), a window and the lover of Damião''s godfather, João Carneiro (pronounced Jo-an-o Ca-he-ney-roh). She agrees to help him, and he hides in her house, where she has a number of girls working for her. When Rita asks why he does not speak with his father, Damião tells Rita that his father does not listen to anyone. Rita suggests that he seek help from his godfather. At first, Damião resists, but eventually agrees, and João Carneiro is sent for. While they wait for João Carneiro at Rita''s house, Damião tells jokes to the girls. One of them, a slave named Lucrécia (Lou-kreh-see-a), is distracted from her work. Seeing this, Rita threatens to beat Lucrécia with a stick, the usual punishment, if she does not finish her work. Feeling sympathy for the small scarred black girl Damião decides that if Lucrécia does not finish the work, he will try to protect her, but says nothing. João Carneiro arrives and Rita tries to convince him to intercede with Damião''s father. She is insistent, and sends him off. Then she tells Damião to go eat dinner. Some local women come to Rita''s house for coffee and conversation. After the women leave later in the day, Damião becomes increasingly nervous and, certain that if he remains at Rita''s house, his father will find him and send him back to the seminary, decides to try to escape. Clad in a chasuble, he begs Rita for some plain clothing. Laughing, she tells him to relax, and that everything will turn out well. But soon a note from João arrives with the news that the father is unconvinced. Damião sees that Rita is his only hope. She takes a pen and paper and writes a note to João telling him that if he cannot convince the father, they will never see each other again. Then Rita goes to the collect the work from the girls. Seeing that Lucrécia has not finished her work, she takes Lucrécia by the ear and tells Damião to fetch the stick. He is torn between his desire to help the girl, who begs him for help, and his desire to escape the seminary, he feels remose, but gives Miss Rita the stick. pt:O Caso da Vara

The Case of the Stick

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.

The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie

The novel is set in the mid-19th century, with glimpses into the history of the house, which was built in the late 17th century. The primary interest of this book is in the subtle and involved descriptions of character and motive. The house of the title is a gloomy New England mansion, haunted from its foundation by fraudulent dealings, accusations of witchcraft, and sudden death. The current resident, the dignified but desperately poor Hepzibah Pyncheon, opens a shop in a side room to support her brother Clifford, who is about to leave prison after serving thirty years for murder. She refuses all assistance from her unpleasant wealthy cousin Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon. A distant relative, the lively and pretty young Phoebe, turns up and quickly becomes invaluable, charming customers and rousing Clifford from depression. A delicate romance grows between Phoebe and the mysterious attic lodger Holgrave, who is writing a history of the Pyncheon family. Phoebe takes leave of the family to return to her country home for a brief visit, but will return soon. Unfortunately, before she leaves, Clifford stands at the large arched window above the stairs and has a sudden urge to jump upon viewing the mass of humanity passing before him and his recollection of his youth lost to prison. That instance, coupled with Phoebe''s departure — she was the only happy and beautiful thing in the home for the depressed Clifford to dwell on — sends Clifford into a bed-ridden state. Judge Pyncheon arrives at the house one day, and threatens to have Clifford committed to an insane asylum if he does not disclose information regarding mystical "eastern lands" of Maine that the family is rumored to own. The deed however has been lost. Before Clifford can be brought before the Judge (which, it is implied, will completely destroy Clifford''s sanity), the Judge mysteriously dies in the same chair as the historical Pyncheon who stole the land on which the house was later built from a settler named Maule. Hepzibah and Clifford escape on a train (then a very new form of transport) after the Judge dies. The townsfolk murmur about their sudden disappearance, and, upon Phoebe''s return, the Judge''s body is discovered. Hepzibah and Clifford return shortly, to Phoebe''s relief. Events from past and present throw light on the circumstances which sent Clifford to prison, proving his innocence. Holgrave is discovered to be a descendant of Maule but bears the Pyncheon family no ill will, mostly due to his feelings for Phoebe. The romance ends with the characters leaving the old house to start a new life, free of the burdens of the past.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Princess Diaries, Volume VI: Princess in Training

By Meg Cabot

Les Illusions perdues

By Honoré de Balzac

Winston's War

By Michael Dobbs

A Specter is Haunting Texas

By Fritz Leiber

If Not Now, When?

By Primo Levi

Superfudge

By Judy Blume

Coal Run

By Tawni O''Dell

Magician

By Raymond E. Feist

The Lighthouse

By P. D. James

The Case of the Stick

No Author Listed

The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie

By Jaclyn Moriarty

The House of the Seven Gables

By Nathaniel Hawthorne