When the book begins, the Cocciolone family is packing for their new life aboard the Mayflower. The family consists of Carol Jeanne, her husband Red, their daughters Lydia and Emmy, and Red''s parents Mamie and Stef. They take a shuttle to the Ark, during which Lovelock is ashamed of his primitive, terrified response to free-fall. Aboard the Mayflower, the Cocciolone family begins to integrate themselves into the society of the Ark. When Lovelock meets a scientist who attempts to communicate with him via sign language, Carol Jeanne explains that she hadn''t taught her Witness sign language because she didn''t want him "chattering to [her] all the time." This event marks Lovelock''s first feelings of furious rebellion. Lovelock begins to long for a mate, and children of his own. After learning about a supply of cryogenically frozen capuchin monkeys, he steals a young female monkey and hides her in the low-gravity poles that support the Ark. Unfortunately, she grows up stunted and sickly. Lovelock, realizing that should his actions be discovered he would be put to death, begins to write his story in a hidden file on the Ark''s computer.

Lovelock

The book is set in the 17th century in the Badgworthy Water region of Exmoor in Devon and Somerset, England. John (in West Country dialect, pronounced "Jan") Ridd is the son of a respectable farmer who was murdered in cold blood by one of the notorious Doone clan, a once noble family, now outlaws, in the isolated Doone Valley. Battling his desire for revenge, John also grows into a respectable farmer and takes good care of his mother and two sisters. He falls hopelessly in love with Lorna, a girl he meets by accident, who turns out to be not only (apparently) the granddaughter of Sir Ensor Doone (lord of the Doones), but destined to marry (against her will) the impetuous, menacing, and now jealous heir of the Doone Valley, Carver Doone. Carver will let nothing get in the way of his marriage to Lorna, which he plans to force upon her once Sir Ensor dies and he comes into his inheritance. Sir Ensor dies, and Carver becomes lord of the Doones. John Ridd helps Lorna escape to his family''s farm, Plover''s Barrows. Since Lorna is a member of the hated Doone clan, feelings are mixed toward her in the Ridd household, but she is nonetheless defended against the enraged Carver''s retaliatory attack on the farm. A member of the Ridd household notices Lorna''s necklace, a jewel that she was told by Sir Ensor belonged to her mother. During a visit from the Counsellor, Carver''s father and the wisest of the Doone family, the necklace is stolen from Plover''s Barrows. Shortly after its disappearance, a family friend discovers Lorna''s origins, learning that the necklace belonged to a Lady Dugal, who was robbed and murdered by a band of outlaws. Only her daughter survived the attack. It becomes apparent that Lorna, being evidently the long-lost girl in question, is in fact heiress to one of the largest fortunes in the country, and not a Doone after all (although the Doones are remotely related, being descended from a collateral branch of the Dugal family). She is required by law, but against her will, to return to London to become a ward in Chancery. Despite John and Lorna''s love for one another, their marriage is out of the question. King Charles II dies, and the Duke of Monmouth (the late king''s illegitimate son) challenges Charles''s brother James for the throne. The Doones, abandoning their plan to marry Lorna to Carver and claim her wealth, side with Monmouth in the hope of reclaiming their ancestral lands. However, Monmouth is defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor, and his associates are sought for treason. John Ridd is captured during the revolution. Innocent of all charges, he is taken to London by an old friend to clear his name. There, he is reunited with Lorna (now Lorna Dugal), whose love for him has not diminished. When he thwarts an attack on Lorna''s great-uncle and legal guardian Earl Brandir, John is granted a pardon, a title, and a coat of arms by the king and returns a free man to Exmoor. In the meantime, the surrounding communities have grown tired of the Doones and their depredations. Knowing the Doones better than any other man, John leads the attack on their land. All the Doone men are killed, except the Counsellor (from whom John retrieves the stolen necklace) and his son Carver, who escapes, vowing revenge. When Earl Brandir dies and Judge Jeffreys is awarded guardianship of Lorna, she is granted her freedom to return to Exmoor and marry John. During their wedding, Carver bursts into the church at Oare. He shoots Lorna and flees. Distraught and filled with blinding rage, John pursues and confronts him. A struggle ensues in which Carver is left sinking in a mire. Exhausted and bloodied from the fight, John can only pant as he watches Carver slip away. He returns to discover that Lorna is not dead, and after a period of anxious uncertainty, she survives to live happily ever after.

Lorna Doone

Paul Abrams has just moved to New York City with his parents. He starts at tenth grade in a new high school, Don Carey High School. When he finds out that no one at his new school cares much about much of anything, he tries to shake things up by nominating Mike Otis, a reclusive man of mystery, for Student council president. Mike runs unopposed and is soon elected and soon forgotten. Sheldon then begins to care and starts to talk up Mike and attributes a wave of needed repairs to Mike. As the students begin to care, the teachers sense that something is going on. They take it to the next level by publishing a short newsletter entitled The Otis Report, which criticizes school staff and praises Mike to the heavens. They distribute it on roller skates, wearing masks. As a result, Mike is dismissed as student body president. The pair react with a campaign to restore him and the students begin to care about something. Mike''s address in his permanent file is on the eleventh floor of a ten-story building. The pair track him and locate his real address. Eavesdropping, they discover that he is about to fail a course. They seize on the chance to increase student participation even more, as a large part of the student body now idolize him. They collaborate to produce a project for him. The project is of such quality that it is entered in a science fair. It is disqualified when the judges discover that the work is not his. The students react badly, resulting in the schools banning from the event. Next they turn to sports. An announcement that Mike likes basketball results in full-on participation in the game. They play an away game and win (63-62). This results in a joyous riot and much destruction. Eventually, the staff gives in and confirms Mike as student body president. Paul and Sheldon are ecstatic at this news, feeling that the sky is now the limit. However, Mike soon announces that he is leaving. The students are surprised, but plan a party to "send Mike off in the style he deserves."

Don''t Care High

A nameless narrator goes to Venice to locate Juliana Bordereau, an old lover of Jeffrey Aspern, a famous and now dead American poet. The narrator presents himself to the old woman as a prospective lodger and is prepared to court her niece Miss Tita (renamed Miss Tina in later editions), a plain, somewhat naive spinster, in hopes of getting a look at some of Aspern''s letters and other papers kept by Juliana. Miss Tita had denied the existence of any such papers in a letter to the narrator and his publishing partner, but he believes she was dissembling on instructions from Juliana. The narrator eventually discloses his intentions to Miss Tita, who promises to help him. Later, Juliana offers to sell a miniature portrait of Aspern to the narrator for an exorbitant price. She doesn''t mention Jeffrey Aspern''s name, but the narrator still believes she possesses some of his letters. When the old woman falls ill, the narrator ventures into her room and gets caught by Juliana as he is about to rifle her desk for the letters. Juliana calls the narrator a "publishing scoundrel" and collapses. The narrator flees, and when he returns some days later, he discovers that Juliana has died. Miss Tina hints that he can have the Aspern letters if he marries her. Again, the narrator flees. At first he feels he can never accept the proposal, but gradually he begins to change his mind. When he returns to see Miss Tina, she bids him farewell and tells him that she has burned all the letters one by one. The narrator never sees the precious papers, but he does send Miss Tina some money for the miniature portrait of Aspern that she gives him.

The Aspern Papers

The story follows the exploits of Chichikov, a gentleman of middling social class and position. Chichikov arrives in a small town and quickly tries to make a good name for himself by impressing the many petty officials of the town. Despite his limited funds, he spends extravagantly on the premise that a great show of wealth and power at the start will gain him the connections he needs to live easily in the future. He also hopes to befriend the town so that he can more easily carry out his bizarre and mysterious plan to acquire "dead souls." The government would tax the landowners on a regular basis, with the assessment based on how many serfs (or "souls") the landowner had on their records at the time of the collection. These records were determined by census, but censuses in this period were infrequent, far more so than the tax collection, so landowners would often find themselves in the position of paying taxes on serfs that were no longer living, yet were registered on the census to them, thus they were paying on "dead souls." It is these dead souls, manifested as property, that Chichikov seeks to purchase from people in the villages he visits; he merely tells the prospective sellers that he has a use for them, and that the sellers would be better off anyway, since selling them would relieve the present owners of a needless tax burden. Although the townspeople Chichikov comes across are gross caricatures, they are not flat stereotypes by any means. Instead, each is neurotically individual, combining the official failings that Gogol typically satirizes (greed, corruption, paranoia) with a curious set of personal quirks. Chichikov''s macabre mission to acquire "dead souls" is actually just another complicated scheme to inflate his social standing (essentially a 19th century Russian version of the ever-popular "get rich quick" scheme). He hopes to collect the legal ownership rights to dead serfs as a way of inflating his apparent wealth and power. Once he acquires enough dead souls, he will retire to a large farm and take out an enormous loan against them, finally acquiring the great wealth he desires. Setting off for the surrounding estates, Chichikov at first assumes that the ignorant provincials will be more than eager to give their dead souls up in exchange for a token payment. The task of collecting the rights to dead people proves difficult, however, due to the persistent greed, suspicion, and general distrust of the landowners. He still manages to acquire some 400 souls, and returns to the town to have the transactions recorded legally. Back in the town, Chichikov continues to be treated like a prince amongst the petty officials, and a celebration is thrown in honour of his purchases. Very suddenly, however, rumours flare up that the serfs he bought are all dead, and that he was planning to elope with the Governor''s daughter. In the confusion that ensues, the backwardness of the irrational, gossip-hungry townspeople is most delicately conveyed. Absurd suggestions come to light, such as the possibility that Chichikov is Napoleon in disguise or the notorious and retired ''Captain Kopeikin,'' who had lost an arm and a leg during a war. The now disgraced traveller is immediately ostracized from the company he had been enjoying and has no choice but to flee the town in disgrace. In the novel''s second section, Chichikov flees to another part of Russia and attempts to continue his venture. He tries to help the idle landowner Tentetnikov gain favor with General Betrishchev so that Tentetnikov may marry the general''s daughter, Ulinka. To do this, Chichikov agrees to visit many of Betrishchev''s relatives, beginning with Colonel Koshkaryov. From there Chichikov begins again to go from estate to estate, encountering eccentric and absurd characters all along the way. Eventually he purchases an estate from the destitute Khlobuyev but is arrested when he attempts to forge the will of Khlobuyev''s rich aunt. He is pardoned thanks to the intervention of the kindly Mourazov but is forced to flee the village. The novel ends mid-sentence with the prince who arranged Chichikov''s arrest giving a grand speech that rails against corruption in the Russian government.

Dead Souls

Anakin Solo''s uncle, Luke Skywalker, informed the Solo family that young Anakin, eleven years old, is ready to begin his Jedi training. Anakin leaves his homeplanet of Coruscant to go to Yavin 4, where the Messeni Jedi Academy resides. There, he feels shy at first, but quickly comes across a bubbly, nine year old girl named Tahiri Veila. Tahiri is talkative and Anakin is quiet, but the two become instant friends. However, all is not well. Anakin begins to have visions of himself on a raft, going down a big river. He confides in Tahiri that he feels he needs to follow his vision, and see what it means. Tahiri is skeptical, until she too has the vision. The vision grows, showing a storm behind the two of them on the raft, Tahiri falling into the water, and Anakin unable to help her. Together, they sneak out of the Jedi Academy on students'' break. They hitch a raft, and begin their journey. Anakin, who brought R2-D2 with them, listens to his beeps and notices that there is a storm brewing behind them, just like in the vision. There are monthly storms on Yavin and they are very dangerous, so Anakin and Tahiri are determined to reach the shore. Along the way, Tahiri falls into the water just as Anakin predicted. Anakin, terrified, keeps his cool and saves Tahiri with the use of the Force. Tahiri is saved and the two come across a temple, much like the Jedi Academy. They enter and go through a series of puzzles before entering the final room. A sleeping animal awakes, and claims to be a Jedi Master. Ikrit, a Jedi of the Old Republic, informs the two that there was a golden globe in the room and that Massassi children were trapped within it. The children had been trapped a long time ago by a Sith Lord. Master Ikrit had tried to free the poor children years ago, but the children could only be freed by children themselves. With that in mind, Anakin and Tahiri tried to reach within the globe, but find swirling sand, and pain, so much pain that it is unbearable. They sadly tell the Jedi Master that they cannot do the task right yet, but maybe when they grew stronger, they would be able to. Master Ikrit tells them that it is their destiny. They alone were the ones chosen to free these children. They take the furry Jedi Master with them, and head back to the Academy. They were fearful to discover that it was already midnight, and that people at the Academy were looking for them. Sure enough, when they got back to the Jedi Academy, Luke Skywalker was waiting for them on the front steps, not at all pleased. Tahiri, afraid that Luke would expel them both, takes blame for their outing completely, saying that they had gotten lost and that R2 led them home. This was a lie, and Luke was doubtful but when he asks R2 for confirmation, the droid whirrs back in agreement. So they avoided punishment. They have yet to fulfill their destiny which continues in the next installments in the book series.

Junior Jedi Knights: The Golden Globe

Evernight Academy is an exclusive boarding school for the most beautiful, dangerous students of all—vampires. Bianca, born to two vampires, has always been told her destiny is to become one of them. But Bianca fell in love with Lucas—a vampire hunter sworn to destroy her kind. They were torn apart when his true identity was revealed, forcing him to flee the school. Although they may be separated Bianca and Lucas will not give each other up. She will risk anything for the chance to see him again, even if it means coming face-to-face with the vampire hunters of Black Cross—or deceiving the powerful vampires of Evernight. Bianca''s secrets will force her to live a life of lies. Yet Bianca is not the only one with secrets. When Evernight is attacked by an evil force that seems to target her, she discovers the truth she thought she knew is only the beginning. Bianca breaks into Mrs Bethany''s carriage house in an attempt to discover what Lucas wanted to know; why humans are allowed at Evernight. She discovers nothing and heads back to Evernight, disappointed. She sees someone in the hall, but decides that it was just her own reflection. Orientation day sees Bianca sharing a room with Raquel, as Patrice has left Evernight for a few decades. Raquel''s parents forced her to return to Evernight, despite her having told them that she was stalked by Erich. Bianca catches up with Vic, who gives her a letter from Lucas. Bianca''s mail is being searched for this exact reason, so they cannot keep in contact. The letter tells Bianca to meet Lucas in October at the Amherst train station. As Bianca leaves her room to drink blood (she is the only vampire sharing with a human), she sees a blue light and thinks that there is a person on the stairs. This time, she is more curious, but is interrupted before she can investigate further. Bianca tells everyone there is a meteor shower so that she can camp out on the grounds to watch it. Really she is going to see Lucas. She hitches a ride in the laundry truck into Amherst and is walking along to find Lucas when a young vampire girl joins her in her walk. She is afraid of someone following her, and Bianca thinks she looks so lonely and innocent that she cannot refuse. The girl says she once went to Evernight, but did not get along with Mrs Bethany and ran away. They arrive at the train station and Lucas follows shortly after. He sees the girl with Bianca and thinks she is going to harm her. It turns out that Lucas had been the one following the vampire girl and she is very frightened. She attacks Lucas and wants to kill him, but Bianca stops her in time. Lucas calls for the rest of the Black Cross to come, so Bianca tells the girl to run away. She escapes before the Black Cross arrives, and Bianca and Lucas share the weekend at the Base Camp, as Black Cross does not know she is a vampire. When she sneaks back, Balthazar catches her. In an attempt to reason with Balthazar and make sure he does not tell Mrs. Bethany about her visit, she mentions the vampire girl who turns out to be Balthazar''s sister. Soon Bianca and Balthazar make an arrangement; they pretend to be dating so Balthazar could get her off campus, since he is a trusted student, so she could meet Lucas while in return Bianca and Lucas help Balthazar find his sister, Charity, which they do. She is now part of a clan and blames Balthazar for killing her. After Courtney finds out about Bianca and Balthazar leaving school she stakes her and then decapitates her before leaving. An attack on the school by Charity and her clan while an attack by Black Cross is taking place leads Bianca, Lucas and Raquel to leave the school and head to Black Cross HQ. On their way out of the school they meets Charity who they think will kill them but as they prepare to run she is pushed against a tree and staked by a sharp branch. Although Lucas wants to finish her off he cannot find anything to destroy her with so agrees to leave her. When at Black Cross HQ Raquel volunteers to join and Bianca later agrees to join.

Stargazer

The book''s protagonist is Andrew Horne (nicknamed "Bear"), a Russian-born U.S. scientist, who works at "West Wing" on Project Beta, a secret government mind-control project, which aims to perfect the art of brainwashing until it is possible to completely re-make a person''s mind and soul. The Project operates on hopeless cases from psychiatric wards, and "prison-volunteers" who would otherwise be executed. The Project''s first Remake having failed disastrously, it is decided to base the second Remake on the mind of Horne himself. The prison-volunteer chosen for the Remake is a Black soldier, referred to as prisvol 233/234, who has killed an officer and been sentenced to death. The project first uses ultrasound to destroy his access to his old memories, and then, having washed the slate clean, exposes him to immersive movie reenactments of Horne''s childhood, college days, war service, and entry into the Project. (As this is performed, the reader discovers that Horne himself was on the receiving end of torture and brainwashing in the Korean War, which he fought against by creating a "false self" which he betrays to the enemy - the "Lieutenant Kijé defense"). At the end of this process, 233/234, now known as "Black Bear", is, for all intents and purposes, Andrew Horne in a new body. However, when Security realizes that Black Bear also has all of Horne''s secret knowledge, and considers him a security risk, this sets off a chain of events where their mirror image identities will lead both Black Bear and Horne to "East Wing" in Russia.

The Simultaneous Man

The Empathic Civilization is divided into three parts with an introductory chapter that summarizes the contents and arguments of the book. The first part consists of four chapters and analyses empathy from the perspective of psychology, biology, and philosophy. Rifkin provides a history of empathy in psychology, including how it relates to the works of Freudian psychology, Melanie Klein, Ronald Fairbairn, Heinz Kohut, and Donald Winnicott, leading to John Bowlby and Attachment Theory. As psychological theory has evolved, empathy has played a larger and larger role, especially in the emotional and intellectual development of children. In terms of biology, Rifkin connects the biological function of mirror neurons with the capacity for empathy. Philosophically, Rifkin explores empathy-altruism, the faith versus reason debate, and truth versus reality debate. Rifkin argues in favour of relationalism, that the meaning of existence is to enter into relationships. From the lens of empathy, he deconstructs the concepts of truth, freedom, democracy, equality, mortality. The second part consists of five chapters and focuses on the rise, development, and fall of civilizations. Rifkin connects the qualitative changes in energy regimes and communication techniques with changes in how people understand and organize reality. Hunter-gatherer societies were all oral cultures and thus only existed in geographically-limited small groups and identified themselves symbiotically in terms of that group. Spiritually, these societies believed in local gods who were only known to others through oral tales. The development of writing, as well as hydraulics and irrigation, allowed agricultural societies to better organize themselves so that a larger geographic area and a larger population could be controlled. Hydraulic power was labour intensive, requiring large populations of subservient people. With scripts, there was a shift from a mythological consciousness to a theological consciousness; individuals thought of themselves less in terms of a small, local group and more with a monotheistic religion which included a personal relationship with a god. Decentralization followed the collapse of the Roman Empire, as each town operated a water or wind mill and the printing press distributed literature, empowering more people. Autobiographies started to be written, more people married for love rather than other arrangements, and the concept of privacy, democracy, and market capitalism was more prevalent. People began to organize themselves more into nation-states. Steam and fossil fuels became the dominant energy regime and electronic communications, like telegraphs, radios, telephones, and television, became the dominant means of communication. With vastly more interaction with other people and cultures, there was more emphasis on studying people and psychology. Personal investments, social exploration, and creativity became highly valued. The third part consists of the remaining five chapters. Rifkin extrapolates the changes in energy regimes to predict a shift in production towards renewable sources like wind and solar power under distributed (i.e. personal) management. Rifkin also extrapolates the changes in communication to predict a proliferation of wireless, mobile personal communication that allows people to be constantly connected to others regardless of distance, language, or other barriers. This will evolve people''s sense of empathy to create a biosphere-wide consciousness and a mode of production he calls distributed capitalism. Rifkin believes this new system will allow people to solve more complex issues, such as climate change and pathogenic pandemics, focus more on quality of life (rather than materialistic) issues, and value collaboration over competition.

The Empathic Civilization

The story involves Mr. and Mrs. White and their adult son Herbert. Sergeant-Major Morris, a friend of the Whites who has been part of the British Armed Forces in India, leaves them with the monkey''s paw, telling of its mysterious powers to grant three wishes, and of its journey from an old fakir to his comrade, who used his third and final wish to wish for death. Mr. White wishes for £200 to be used as the final payment on his house. Following that, Herbert is killed by machinery at his company, but they do get compensation of £200. Ten days after the funeral, Mrs. White, almost mad with grief, asks her husband to wish Herbert back to life with the paw. Reluctantly, he does so. After a delay, there is a knock at the door. Mrs. White fumbles at the locks in an attempt to open the door. Mr. White knows, however, that he cannot allow their son in, as his appearance will be too grotesque. Mr. White was required to witness and identify the body, which had been mutilated by the accident and then buried for more than a week. He wishes his third wish for Herbert to remain dead, and the knocking stops. Mrs. White opens the door to find no one there. The theme of the story is contained in this description of the paw: ''"It had a spell put on it by an old fakir," said the sergeant-major, "a very holy man. He wanted to show that fate ruled people''s lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow."

The Monkey''s Paw

In Wildwoods backstory, Alexandra is exiled from South Wood for "criminal black magic" to the no man''s land of Wildwood. In revenge, she plots to kill every living thing in The Wood. She strikes a deal with Prue''s parents, who are desperate to have a child. Alexandra promises to use magic to help them conceive, but in return they must give her their second child. After Prue is born Alexandra spends the next ten years raising an army of coyotes. She then causes Prue''s parents to conceive a second child, Mac. Her plan is to make a blood sacrifice of Mac to Wildwood''s Ivy, a dangerous, supernaturally invasive plant. This will give her control over the Ivy, allowing her to choke all life in The Wood. When Mac is one year old, Alexandra sends crows to kidnap him. Prue is in a park with Mac when crows swoop in and carry the baby off. Prue goes after Mac, followed by her classmate Curtis. Prue does not want Curtis along, but before she can send him back, they are separated while fleeing from coyotes. Curtis is captured and taken to Alexandra, while Prue rides a mail truck to South Wood. There, Prue finds a Kafkaesque bureaucracy and dysfunctional government. Police state tactics and paranoia over foreign threats are used to keep the regime in power. Prue eventually meets the Crown Prince Owl Rex, of the Avian Principality, who reveals how Alexandra came to be exiled, and suggests Prue cross Wildwood and seek help from the Mystics of North Wood. Meanwhile, Alexandra is flattering Curtis with a fancy uniform and commissions him into the coyote army as an officer. In a battle against bandits Curtis destroys a howitzer by dumb luck, becoming a coyote war hero in the process. He then stumbles upon Mac in Alexandra''s headquarters and she reveals her plan to sacrifice the baby. Alexandra offers to share the power with Curtis, but he refuses and is imprisoned with some captured bandits and treasonous coyotes. Prue flies to North Wood on the back of an eagle sent by Owl Rex, but is shot down by a coyote archer. She is found by Brendan, the Bandit King, who offers to help. However, they are captured in a coyote attack and Brendan is imprisoned with Curtis while Prue is taken to Alexandra. Alexandra promises her that she will find Mac, convincing Prue to leave The Wood. In prison, Curtis reveals Alexandra''s plan and then leads an escape, gaining the trust of the coyote and bandit prisoners. Prue returns home, and learns of her parents'' bargain with Alexandra. Realizing that she was tricked, she decides to return to rescue Mac. Back in the Impassible Wilderness, Prue travels to see the Mystics in charge of North Wood. Meanwhile, Curtis and the other escapees rejoin the bandits and set out to stop Alexandra. Prue alerts the North Wood Elder Mystic, Iphigenia, to the danger and the citizen militia gather farming implements and kitchen utensils for weapons and march south. Prue rides her bicycle ahead and convinces the bandits to join forces. Just as the sacrifice is about to occur the armies meet in an Ivy filled ruin. Brendan gives a speech to inspire his forces, christening the combined army the Wildwood Irregulars. A raging battle ensues, and the Wildwood Irregulars are near defeat. As Alexandra prepares to carry out the sacrifice, Iphigenia confronts her. Curtis and the remnants of the army make a final push, expecting to be cut down, when above them the sky is filled with an army of eagles from the Avians. The battle turns against the coyote army and Iphigenia uses her control of plants to make the tree boughs snatch Mac from Alexandra. Brendan shoots Alexandra with an arrow and the Ivy consumes her. The victorious Wildwood Irregulars regroup and press on to the gates of South Wood and demand that the corrupt government resign. As a new, peaceful order begins among the factions of The Wood Prue and Curtis part ways as new friends, she goes home and he remains behind to start a new life as a bandit.

Wildwood

Carol Milford is a liberal, free-spirited young woman, reared in the metropolis of Saint Paul, Minnesota. She marries Will Kennicott, a doctor, who is a small-town boy at heart. When they marry, Will convinces her to live in his home-town of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota (a town modeled on Sauk Centre, Minnesota, the author''s birthplace). Carol is appalled at the backwardness of Gopher Prairie. But her disdain for the town''s physical ugliness and smug conservatism compels her to reform it. She speaks with its members about progressive changes, joins women''s clubs, distributes literature, and holds parties to liven up Gopher Prairie''s inhabitants. Despite her friendly, but ineffective efforts, she is constantly derided by the leading cliques. She finds comfort and companionship outside her social class. These companions are taken from her one by one. In her unhappiness, Carol leaves her husband and moves for a time to Washington, D.C., but she eventually returns. Nevertheless, Carol does not feel defeated: :: "I do not admit that Main Street is as beautiful as it should be! I do not admit that dish-washing is enough to satisfy all women!"

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Lovelock

By Orson Scott Card

Lorna Doone

By R. D. Blackmore

Don't Care High

No Author Listed

The Aspern Papers

By Henry James

Dead Souls

By Nikolai Gogol

Junior Jedi Knights: The Golden Globe

No Author Listed

Stargazer

By Claudia Gray

The Simultaneous Man

No Author Listed

The Empathic Civilization

By Jeremy Rifkin

The Monkey's Paw

By W. W. Jacobs

Wildwood

By Colin Meloy

Main Street

By Sinclair Lewis