On an island there lived a solitary family, a father, a mother and a little boy. Once, a man named Johano swam to the island nude, since his ship had sailed off while he was bathing. The parents dressed him and hosted him for a month, during which time he told the boy fables and described continental cities. After he left, the boy ran away from home on a boat. When rescued by a ship, no one could understand his language. In port in Russia, the cook, Ivan, took him to see the city, but got drunk and was arrested, leaving the boy to sleep for several days in a cemetery, where he was found by other parents burying their own dead son. The parents then adopted him. The boy developed great musical talent, and he became a great violin master. In the village Brey, Rika returns home one day to find a baby boy in a box on the table; she calls him Moses. It develops he too is very talented and becomes a violincelloist. In the Prussian city of Prosen a doctor is summoned to aid a dying circus worker. The circus worker dies, but a 16 year old boy with a badly infected knee is discovered in his carriage. The doctor adopts him. He too is very talented and studies the piano. Johano, the man who had visited the family on the island, encounters Ivan, the ship''s cook who had been arrested. They learn that the boy from the island is looking for his parents, but has no idea even how to find the island they lived on. They manage to gather money and set off for Russia. On the way they encounter the boy who had been adopted by the doctor, at first confusing him with the boy that they were looking for. Johano arranges for his further study and they continue on their journey. Four years later, in 1914 a concert was arranged in The Hague to which the three masters were invited: the violinist, the violincellist, and the pianist. When they met, they were very shocked, since all three looked identical — even their friends couldn''t tell them apart. But they could barely understand each other, as they spoke three different languages. Just then Johano and Ivan appeared, and the detective work began. As it happened, the pianist, former circus boy, had in his possession a diary which had belonged to his mother. Johano recognized the language in the diary as Esperanto, and they began piecing together how the boys had gotten separated. Johano found the father in an insane asylum in The Hague, and they were able to recall him to sanity with their music. Apparently, he too was a famous violincellist. He and their mother had spoken Czech and Esperanto together. The mother and Rika were also found alive. Johano got the boys to learn Esperanto so that they could understand each other. In the end they all left for the island, because the first boy wanted to meet with his adoptive parents. There they said goodbye to Johano, who it turned out, wasn''t human at all, but a supernatural being, who had come to protect the three boys, children of Orpheus.

Children of Orpheus

The first section of On Writing is an Autobiography mainly about King’s early exposure to writing, and his childhood attempts at writing. King talks about his early attempts to get published, and his first novel Carrie. King also talks about his fame as a writer, and what it took to get there. This includes his relationship with his wife, the death of his mother and his history of drug and alcohol abuse. The second section is practical advice on writing, including tips on grammar and ideas about developing plot and character. King himself describes it as a guide for how "a competent writer can become a good one." This includes his beliefs that a writer should edit out unnecessary details and avoid the use of unnecessary adverbs. He also uses quotes from other books and authors to illustrate his points. The third section is also autobiographical, in which King discusses the 1999 automobile accident in which he was struck by a vehicle while walking down an isolated country road. He describes serious injuries, his painful recovery and his struggle to start writing again. King includes part of a rough draft and an edited draft of his own story entitled "1408". In the United Kingdom paperback version, a short story by Garret Adams entitled "Jumper" was included at the end of the book, which was the winner of the On Writing competition.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Meg Murry is worried about her brother Charles Wallace, a 6-year-old genius who is bullied at school by the other children. The new principal of the elementary school is the former high school principal, Mr. Jenkins, who often disciplined Meg, and who Meg is sure has a grudge against her whole family. Meg tries to enlist Jenkins''s help in protecting her brother, but is unsuccessful. On top of this, Meg discovers that Charles Wallace has a progressive disease which is leaving him short of breath. Their mother, a microbiologist, suspects it may have something to do with his mitochondria and the (fictional) "farandolae" that live within them. One afternoon, Charles Wallace tells Meg he saw a "drive of dragons" in the vegetable garden in their back yard. Meg goes out with him to investigate, but all they find is a pile of very odd feathers. Later, Meg has a frightening encounter with something that looks like Mr. Jenkins. Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O''Keefe discover that Charles Wallace''s drive of dragons is a single creature named Proginoskes. Progo, as he is quickly nicknamed, insists on being called "a cherubim" instead of a cherub because he is "practically plural," having a multitude of wings and eyes. The children also encounter a tall robed being named Blajeny, who informs them that he is a Teacher, and that they and Proginoskes have all been called to his class. They also encounter a snake that lives in their wall, Louise the Larger, who is also a Teacher. Meg learns that the galaxy is threatened by beings called Echthroi, who seek to erase the entire universe by un-Naming things. She soon has to save Mr. Jenkins from this fate, by Naming him. Part of the task is to distinguish the real Mr. Jenkins from two Echthroi doubles, but it also means that she must look past her personal grudge, find the goodness in Mr. Jenkins, and let herself love him. The characters then learn that Echthroi are destroying Charles Wallace''s farandolae. They travel inside one of his mitochondria, which is named Yadah, and turn the tide by convincing a larval farandola to take root and accept its role as a mature fara, against the urgings of an Echthros. In the process, Meg is nearly "Xed,"(unnamed) and Mr. Jenkins is invaded by his Echthros doubles. Proginoskes sacrifices himself to "fill in" the emptiness of the Echthroi, Charles Wallace''s life is saved, and everything returns to normal.

A Wind in the Door

Praying for Power is divided into three main sections: In Part 1, "The Culture of Buddhism", Brook reviews the development of religious philosophy and politics and the new familiarity with, and openness toward, Buddhism, in what was a Confusianism-dominated society. In Part 2, "Monastic Patronage''", the author investigates the contributions of the new elite class of gentry, made in the form of "land donations; money and materials for building and renovation; exercise of social and political influence to forward and protect monastic interests; and ''literary patronage,'' the composition of admiring poems and essays or the compilation and printing of an institutional history to elevate the prestige of a given monastery." In Part 3, "Patronage in Context", the author examines in detail patronage by the gentry in three distinct counties: one poor, "where Buddhist institutions were not well developed"; a second rich, where they flourished; and a third "in peculiar circumstances that allow Brook to highlight the ambiguous position of the county magistrate vis-à-vis monastic patronage."

Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China

Roger Two Hawks, an Iroquois serving as a combat pilot in WWII, is shot down during a raid on Ploieşti, Romania. While parachuting he feels a strange dizziness. Being hidden by locals, he realises that they neither look nor speak like Romanians, but rather resemble Native Americans and speak a language distantly resembling that of his own tribe. The mystery is resolved when he sees a globe and finds that he is in a world where the continent of America does not exist, having been drowned for the whole of humanity''s tenure on Earth. As a result, the ancestors of the various Native American tribes did not cross the non-existent Bering Strait but wandered westward into Europe, taking the general place of the Slavs in our history. Thus, the Iroquois live in Romania and the Ukraine, the Aztecs in Russia, and so on. Though very different from our world, in this reality, too, a war is going on resembling the one which Two Hawks left behind, with a kind of aggressive Germany-analogue trying to conquer everybody else (though its dominant people are not Germanic but rather Lithuanian). Two Hawks very quickly gets involved. His knowledge and abilities are very much in demand, since this world does not yet have heavier-than-air flight, and its possession could decide the war. He goes through a very fast-paced series of adventures, involving such elements as Hittites who survived into the 20th century, a Luftwaffe pilot who also ended up in this world, an England which had never known a Roman Empire nor a Norman Conquest but has many Cretan and Semitic elements in its makeup, an unknown chapter in the life of Elizabethan adventurer Humphrey Gilbert, an Arab-colonised South Africa and a mysterious island on the site of our world''s Colorado, where an underground Polynesian temple is to be found. As can be expected, Two Hawks also experiences a most tempestuous love affair.

The Gate of Time

The novel tells the story of an astronaut, Hal Bregg, who returns to Earth after a 127 year mission to Arcturus (In original Polish version Fomalhaut). Due to time dilation, the mission has lasted only 10 years for him, but on Earth he faces culture shock, as he finds the society transformed into a utopia, free of wars or violence, or even accidents. For Hal, however, this new world is too comfortable, too safe. Earth is no longer home, it is "another, alien planet". Humans themselves have changed, having undergone a procedure called betrization, designed to neutralizes all aggressive impulses. Hal mistrusts this approach, seeing the side effects of extreme risk-aversion as wrong. In particular, for an astronaut, he cannot agree with the opinion that space travel and space exploration are nothing but a youthful and dangerous adventurism. For Hal, this means that "... they have killed the man in man". He and the other returning astronauts are viewed with mistrust, seen as "resuscitated Neanderthals". They are alienated, outcasts, and subject to social pressure to undertake the betrization procedure. The other choice is to leave Earth again and hope that once they come back, in several centuries, Earth''s society is more familiar again. In time, Hal''s marries a local girl, Eri, and comes to see the world her way, even disapproving of his youth''s love, space expeditions. When he learns that members of his former crew are planning a mission to Sagittarius, he seems not to care, content to leave the stars to others. Hal still remembers his past, recalls the moon Kereneia, a magnificent canyon "made of red and pink gold, almost completely transparent... through it you can see all the strata, geological folds, anticlines and synclines... all this is weightless, floating and seeming to smile at you". Yet he trades the chance to experience such sights and adventures for love and peaceful, quiet life.

Return from the Stars

The book is highly critical of Richard Fuld, Henry Paulson, and the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, a 1999 act of Congress signed by former United States President Bill Clinton that repealed portions of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933. The book contains an account of how McDonald, after attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst, selling pork chops, and self-teaching himself the material required to pass the General Securities Representative Exam, went on to develop the website ConvertBond.com, which was later purchased by Morgan Stanley. The author''s stated expertise, in the convertible bond market, was what allowed him to create the website ConvertBond.com during the dot-com bubble, and successfully sell it to Morgan Stanley before the Internet bubble burst. It was while he was working at Morgan Stanley that McDonald was offered a job as vice-president at Lehman Brothers. The book characterizes Richard Fuld as being out of touch, smug, and a ruthless CEO with a short temper and a penchant for rage. The book sarcastically refers to Fuld as "his majesty," "god-like," and a "spiritual leader." McDonald believes that the United States government should have saved Lehman Brothers, and that Dick Fuld falsely believed that the United States government would save the company after having a meeting with Henry Paulson in the spring of 2008, which led him to engage in unnecessarily risky behavior and reject an offer of $18 per share from the Korea Development Bank as late as August 2008.

A Colossal Failure of Common Sense

Henry, a man in his early 30s, recounts his thirteenth year. As Labor Day weekend approaches, 13-year-old Henry sees no reason why this weekend should be any different. He expects it to be as lonely as the rest of the summer, only watching television, playing with his pet hamster and fantasizing about his female classmates. Henry shares his life in New Hampshire with his wounded divorcee mother, Adele. Adele''s agoraphobia means that the family survive on unedifying tinned foods and frozen meals. However, on the Thursday before Labor Day weekend, Henry persuades his mother to go on a shopping trip. It is there that they meet an unkempt man who is bleeding from his forehead and agree to his request for a ride in their car. This mysterious man, Frank, admits that he is a convicted murderer that has escaped prison. Despite his past, Frank makes the claim that the mother and son have "never been in better hands". Indeed, Frank teaches Henry how to throw a baseball, change a flat tire and to bake. Meanwhile Adele and Frank, long love-starved, become infatuated with each other, and Adele emerges from her depression.

Labor Day

Giuseppe, a boy who has to collect money for his padrone, one day finds a green violin from a shipwreck. The beautiful sound the violin makes possesses people into loving it and may just earn him enough money for his secret stash to eventually buy a ticket to his native country, Italy. Meanwhile, Frederick works on his automaton which hopefully will promote him out of apprenticeship, and a girl named Hannah works as a maid where she hears of hidden riches in the hotel where she works. Shortly after, she becomes the personal assistant of a strange guest, Madame Pomeroy. Two weeks later, Giuseppe then saves Frederick from being bullied, and the two become friends. Madame Pomeroy asks Frederick to construct an automaton for her, and Frederick and Hannah meet. Stephano discovered Giuseppe''s secrets and tries to capture him, but Giuseppe escapes and hides out in a park. Hannah discovers that a man named Mister Stroop supposedly left the treasure in the suites at the top of the hotel. She later sees a map that hints it may near a pond in the park. She runs to look for it when she desperately needs money for her sick father''s medicine. There she meets Giuseppe, and the two look for the treasure but it is not there, though she receives some herbal medicine from a woman who worked as a gardener in the hotel. Hannah''s father draws for her where the treasure is hidden in the hotel, having worked for Stroops hotel in the past. The next day the three children all meet for the first time and Frederick shows the other two his automaton. The three agree to help each other out with their problems. Giuseppe mentions that he saw a clockwork head— Frederick''s only missing piece— in a museum. The three sneak into the museum so Frederick can inspect the head, but they are interrupted by guards and forced to flee. Frederick escapes with the "borrowed" head, which was made by Albertus Magnus. Hannah also accidentally took a small piece of clay belonging to a golem, which she inserts into the clockwork man''s chest. This, coupled with the Magnus head, gives him near-human intelligence. Hannah discovers that Mister Stroup''s treasure is actually his will, witnessed by the hotel''s owner, Mister Twine. She and Frederick talk to him, but Hannah refuses to take the money because it would cause the park to be destroyed. Mister Twine promotes her to the chief of maids, and gives her quite a bit of money for new dresses, a portion of which she gives to Giuseppe for his ticket. A law was passed that the padrones no longer had legal control over their buskers. Enraged, Stephano tries to kill Giuseppe, but they are saved by Madame Pomeroy, who lets Giuseppe travel with her to play his green violin for kings and queens. Frederick eventually makes journeyman, and Hannah''s father''s health improves.

The Clockwork Three

The novel begins in a small town describing the life of Charlie Benjamin. Charlie doesn''t socialize, and unknowingly brings Nethercreatures into his room when he has a nightmare. One night, Charlie brings a Silvertongue into his room. Charlie wakes up before the Silvertoungue kills him, and sees a team of three people, Rex, Tabitha, and Pinch attempting to bring the creature back to where it belongs. After the fight, Charlie''s parents meet the team. Pinch explains that Charlie has the Gift, which allows him to open portals into the Nether and bring creatures across them. Charlie''s gift is too strong, which can become dangerous. Pinch suggests that Charlie follow them to the Nightmare Division, who will decide what should be done with such a dangerous boy. Charlie''s mother reluctantly allows him to go. At the Nightmare Division, the Director instructs Charlie to open a portal. Charlie proceeds to accidentally open a portal to the Named, which are huge powerful beasts. Chaos ensues, and Barakkas, one of the four named creatures of the nether, reaches out his hand and attempts to enter. Charlie quickly closes the portal, which cuts Barakkas''s arm off, including his bracer. After a debate about Reducing (a process that removes IQ points in order to lower gifted peoples power) Charlie, the Headmaster brings him to the Nightmare Academy. There, Charlie meets two classmates, Theodore and Violet. The school trains two different groups, the Banishers and the Nethermancers. Banishers, like Rex, fight and hold off Nethercreatures whereas Nethermancers, like Tabitha, open portals to send them back. Students who lose their Gift are trained as Facilitators, who provide help to the other two. After meeting the Trout of Truth (a creature that determines whether you are a Banisher or a Nethermancer), Charlie finds out that he is a Double Threat, a combination of both a Banisher and Nethermancer. Charlie is then taken by the Headmaster to Charlie''s old house. Verminion, another of the Named who was portalled to Earth some years ago, kidnaps his parents and tells him to exchange his parents for the bracer. Charlie, Rex, Tabitha, and the Headmaster then go to find the Hags of the Void. The Hags of the Void, in return for Rex''s memories of his parents, allow Charlie to go through the Gorgon Maze to find the Shadow(a thing which helps find what you want the most). At the end of the maze, the Shadow fills Charlie, allowing him to find his parents. Charlie''s shadow now points to his parents'' exact location. The group tries to find his parents, and arrives in a volcano. Verminion tricks Charlie into opening a portal, allowing Barakkas to enter. After the incident, Charlie, Violet, and Theodore steal Barakkas''s bracer from the Nightmare Academy to exchange his parents. Brooke, a Facilitator, tags along, and they manage to bring themselves back to the volcano. Charlie tries to trick Barakkas and Verminion by pretending to exchange himself and the bracer for his parents. Verminion doubts Charlie, and exposes his plan. While Violet and Theodore finds his parents and tries to rescue them, Charlie causes the two Named to fight and flees with Brooke. While they are running, Brooke opens a portal, proving that she still has the Gift. The two jump through the portal back to the Academy. Meanwhile, Barakkas has his bracer back. Both of the Named reminded each other that they both have to be alive to summon the fifth, more powerful Named with their Artifacts. The Headmaster hides Charlie''s parents from the Named, and Charlie, with his two best friends, Theodore and Violet goes into the beach and reiterate how they will be together all the way.

Nightmare Academy

Syanthe is about 18 years old. She is a shapeshifter and has lived with other shapeshifters in the Carlbine forest all her life. Because of an incident that happened years ago, the King had confined all shapeshifters to the Carlbine forest. He marked all of the shapeshifters with a magical tattoo on their faces that would kill them if they crossed the boundaries of the forest. All of the shapeshifters were marked, except Syanthe, who had been hidden at birth from the King''s men. When the Carlbine forest and the shapeshifters (who are closely bonded to the forest) slowly grew sick with an illness, Syanthe''s mother included, she set out into the King''s capital to obtain the cure for the illness. A few days or so later after Syanthe left the forest, she was caught by a caravan of traders. She decided to join these travelers on their way to the capital. She soon found out that the leader of the caravan, Jerel, had powerful magical powers, and realized that there was something amiss with the whole caravan.

Shapeshifter''s Quest

The book begins with Bradley, who had left Fort Dinosaur on an expedition in the first novel and never returned. Bradley and his party are attempting to return to Fort Dinosaur. Along the way, they encounter a creature which appears to be a flying dead man. Some of the members of the party consider it to be a ghost or banshee. Tippet is convinced that he is soon to die, and the next day he is killed by a Tyrannosaurus. The ghost-like creature is seen again, and James is killed by a saber-toothed cat. Bradley disappears during the night, and the remaining members of the party make it safely to Fort Dinosaur. Bradley had been captured by the ghost-like creature, which is soon revealed to be a naturally winged human being, belonging to a subgroup of humanity known as the Wieroo. The Wieroo takes Bradley to the island of Oo-oh, set in Caspak''s inland sea. It attempts to keep Bradley in a prison, but he escapes through a secret passage. He meets Co-Tan, a member of the highest human race of mainland Caspak, the Galu, fully human and of a neolithic cultural level. They enter the chamber of the Wieroo king, a huge member of the race, and Bradley kills the creature with its own sword. Co-Tan and Bradley escape the city of the Wieroo and live for several months on the forested coast of Oo-oh. Finally, though, they are discovered by Wieroo. They succeed in capturing two of the Wieroo and forcing them to fly to the mainland, one bearing each of the humans. On the Caspakian mainland, Co-Tan and Bradley meet the party from the outside world from the previous two books, and they return home to America, where Bradley will marry Co-Tan.

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Children of Orpheus

No Author Listed

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

By Stephen King

A Wind in the Door

By Madeleine L''Engle

Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China

By Timothy Brook

The Gate of Time

By Philip José Farmer

Return from the Stars

By Stanisław Lem

A Colossal Failure of Common Sense

By Patrick Robinson

Labor Day

By Joyce Maynard

The Clockwork Three

By Matthew J. Kirby

Nightmare Academy

By Dean Lorey

Shapeshifter's Quest

By Dena Landon

Out of Time’s Abyss

By Edgar Rice Burroughs