The story, set in Latium in AD 77, opens with the deaths of Falco''s newborn son (posthumously named Justinianus), and Marcus Didius Geminus, alias Favonius, Falco''s estranged father. Following the funeral, Falco is astounded to discover that his father has left him and the rest of the Didii family a sizeable fortune, but with one problem: before Geminus died, he impregnated Falco''s friend Thalia and as a result, he is now forced to share Geminus'' inheritance with Thalia''s yet unborn child. While auditing his father''s business contacts, debtors and creditors, it transpires that a debt owed was never paid because the creditor in question, Julius Modestus, has disappeared. Falco travels to the towns south of Rome with his adopted daughter Albia (who is unhappy that Falco''s brother-in-law Aulus has married someone else) and pays off the debt owed to Modestus'' nephew, Sextus Silanus (and to investigate the disappearance of Silanus'' uncle), while his friend Lucius Petronius Longus, the captain of the vigiles in Rome''s Twelfth District, finally discovers Modestus, who has been brutally murdered and eviscerated. A clan of Imperial freedmen in the Pontine Marshes, the Claudii (consisting of four siblings named Nobilis, Probus, Virtus and Pius; and their wives and female siblings) are implicated in Modestus'' grisly murder but as Falco and Petronius investigate further, they attract the interest of the Imperial Chief Spy, Anacrites &mdash; who, as usual, takes the case away from them. Meanwhile, however, another courier is found murdered and mutilated in the same manner as Modestus, while Anacrites'' behaviour begins to become more erratic (and suspect) even as Falco and Petronius (covertly) investigate the murders further, eventually discovering more victims and the murderers themselves too, who are none other than the four Claudii brothers. It is thus discovered that Modestus may have been killed by the Claudii for attempting to speak out against them. Pius is abducted by Falco and Petronius to be taken away as a slave in a mine, Virtus and Probus are finally apprehended while Nobilis dies by falling upon the swords of Falco and his friends. Yet, even after the Claudii are wiped out, it is revealed that the Claudii may have had a fifth brother who could be a co-prepetrator. The identity of this fifth brother and his connections to Falco, his friends, and the imperial government are finally deduced; however, the Didii, Camilli (Falco''s in-laws) and Petronii families realise that they know too much and that their lives (and possibly even the ruling Flavians) are now potentially threatened by this same person. Forced to make a difficult decision, Falco and Petronius finally decide to take matters into their hands, conspiring to "send Nemesis to deal with him" once and for all, ending the novel and the series so far in a cliffhanger.

Nemesis

Nassim Nicholas Taleb refers to the book variously as an essay or a narrative with one single idea: "our blindness with respect to randomness, particularly large deviations." It is Taleb''s questioning of why this occurs and his explanations of it that drive the book forward. The book''s layout follows "a simple logic" moving from literary subjects in the beginning to scientific and mathematical subjects in the later portions. Part One and the beginning of Part Two delve into Psychology. Taleb addresses science and business in the latter half of Part Two and Part Three. Part Four contains advice on how to approach the world in the face of uncertainty and still enjoy life. Taleb acknowledges a contradiction in the book. He uses an exact metaphor, Black Swan Idea to argue against the "unknown, the abstract, and imprecise uncertain—white ravens, pink elephants, or evaporating denizens of a remote planet orbiting Tau Ceti." In the first chapter, the black swan theory first is discussed in relation to Taleb''s coming of age in the Levant. The author then elucidates his approach to historical analysis. He describes history as opaque, essentially a black box of cause and effect. One sees events go in and events go out, but one has no way of determining which produced what effect. Taleb argues this is due to The Triplet of Opacity. In the second chapter, Taleb tells a fictional story of a character named Yevgenia Nikolayevna Krasnova and her book A Story of Recursion. She published her book on the web and was discovered by a small publishing company; they published her unedited work and the book became an international bestseller. The small publishing firm became a big corporation, and Yevgenia became famous. This incident is described as a Black Swan Event. Taleb seems to be using "recursion" as a hint that he is predicting the story of his own book The Black Swan—Yevgenia''s rejection of fiction and nonfiction as categories is reminiscent of Taleb''s idea, and her character seems autobiographical as Taleb may be poking fun at his own intolerant temperament. In the third chapter, Taleb introduces the concepts of Extremistan and Mediocristan. He uses them as guides to define how predictable is the environment one''s studying. Mediocristan environments safely can use Gaussian distribution. In Extremistan environments, a Gaussian distribution is used at one''s peril. Chapter four brings together the topics discussed earlier in the narrative, about a turkey. Taleb uses it to illustrate the philosophical problem of induction and how past performance is no indicator of future performance. He then takes the reader into the history of Skepticism. In Chapter nine, Taleb outlines the multiple topics he previously has described and connects them as a single basic idea.

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

The story is about 17-year-old Gwendolyn/Gwennie (Gwen) who lives in New York City with her grandfather. One day her grandfather disappears leaving only a phone message telling Gwen not to worry about him. Gwen continues her life as normal as possible while trying to practice for her violin auditions. She then meets Robert (Bobby) from Things Not Seen in a cafe. Robert is in town also preparing for trumpet auditions.Gwen invites Robert to stay in her empty house with her to help get him out of the hotel he was staying in. While shopping in Niketown Store in New York City, Gwen and Robert spot a faint shadow apparently coming from an invisible person. Robert then tells her that two years ago he turned invisible. In the following days Robert discovers Gwen''s grandfather dead in the freezer. The other invisible man is found in Gwen''s house after the discovery of her grandfather. The man named William started to seek out Robert to find out how to undo the invisibility. William also is revealed to be a womanizing thief. The mystery of Gwen''s grandfather''s death is closed when the grandfather''s lawyer reads out a letter written the last day the grandfather was alive. The letter contains the will of the grandfather. Detectives decide that the grandfather knew he would die so he hid in the freezer. The detectives also say that the grandfather went in with an oxygen bottle, thick clothes, and left the refrigerator slightly open so he could have left if he wanted to. Gwen was distraught and did not feel like playing the violin the whole day.The next day she gets a phone call from Alicia, Robert''s girlfriend asking her to play. Alicia ended up thanking Gwen for the beautiful song and hung up. On the day of Gwen''s audition she opens an envelope with dog tags with a code leading to the title of a Bible passage. The passage says,"There is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends". Gwen finally understood why her grandfather did what he did, and she walks confidently into her audition.

Things Hoped For

Tambu is the main character of the novel. She is a young bright girl that is eager to go to school. The novel opens up with the news that Tambu’s older brother, Nhamo, had just died. Tambu is not upset about this because Nhamo studied at a missionary school away from his homestead with his uncle Babamukuru and his family. The only thing Tambu desires is to attend school, but her family is very poor and does not have enough money to pay for her school fees. Tambu’s uncle, Babamukuru, and his family came to visit the homestead. Because of Babamakuru’s success, Babamukuru is worshipped whenever he comes to visit. During the visit, Babamukuru suggests that Tambu should take Nhamo''s place and attend the missionary school by his house. Tambu is extremely excited to be going away to study at the missionary school. Upon arriving, she soon becomes close to her cousin Nyasha and completely focuses in her studies. During her stay with Babamukuru, Tambu is exposed to a different lifestyle. She often questions Nyasha’s behavior. On one occasion, Nyasha and Babamukuru get into a serious argument after a school dance. The argument soon develops into a fight, where Nyasha punches Babamukuru and Babamukuru strikes her back. Tambu is completely shocked by these events. After the fight, Nyasha becomes distant and focuses on her studies and exams. During term break, everyone returns to visit the family back in the homestead. Tambu does not want to go back as she is much more comfortable living with Babamukuru. Babamukuru''s wife, Maiguru also does not look forward going back, because there she is expected to do all the cooking and cleaning for all the members of the extended family. Upon arriving, family drama arises everywhere. Babamukuru concludes that the reason his family has so many problems is because Tambu’s parents are not legally married. He decides that they must marry as soon as possible. Tambu is punished by Babamukuru because she disagrees with the idea of her parents marrying and does not attend the wedding. Soon after, Maiguru decides to leave Babamukuru after an argument over how she is being treated. However, she later returns to live with him. Towards the end of the term, there is an exam administered at Tambu’s school. This exam is to test the students and offer them an opportunity to study at a well known missionary school. Tambu excels on the exam and is offered a scholarship to attend this well known school. Babamukuru is hesitant to let her go, but he then realizes that this is a great opportunity and allows her to attend. Since Tambu is leaving, Nyasha gets upset with her because she does not want her to leave. In the new school Tambu is introduced to many cultural changes; however, she remains resilient to the changes. As always she is fully focused on her studies. When Tambu returns home to Babamukuru, she discovers that Nyasha has changed. Nyasha is extremely thin due to the fact that she is suffering from a serious eating disorder. Babamukuru finally decides to take Nyasha to see a psychiatrist, which allows her to slowly recover. Maiguru is also very disappointed that Chido has decided to have a white girlfriend. Because of the unfortunate events that surround Tambu’s family, Tambu fears that she may become affected by them just like Nyasha. Consequently, Tambu remains cautious of her daily situations and nervous of the conditions that surround her.

Nervous Conditions

Set in Britain in the early to mid-1980s, the story surrounds the young gay protagonist, Nick Guest, who has come down from Oxford with a first in English and is to begin graduate studies at University College London. The novel begins in the summer of 1983, shortly after Thatcher''s landslide victory in the Parliamentary election of that year. Nick moves into the luxurious London home of the wealthy Fedden family. The son of the house, Toby, is his Oxford University classmate and best friend, and Nick''s stay is meant to last for a short time while Toby and his parents - Rachel, the daughter of a wealthy Jewish family, and Gerald, a successful businessman and just-elected Tory MP - are on holiday in France. Left at home with Nick is the Feddens'' daughter, Cat, who is bipolar and whom the Feddens are reluctant to leave on her own. Nick helps Cat through a minor crisis, and when her parents return they suggest he stay on indefinitely, since Cat has become attached to him and Toby is getting a place of his own. As a permanent member of the Feddens'' household, Nick experiences for the first time the world of the British upper class, observing them from his own middle-class background. Nick remains a guest in the Fedden home until he is expelled at the end of the novel. Nick has his first romance with a black council worker, Leo, but a later relationship with Wani, the son of a rich Lebanese businessman, illuminates the materialism and ruthlessness of 1980s Thatcherite Britain. The book explores the tension between Nick''s intimate relationship with the Feddens, in whose parties and holidays he participates, and the realities of his sexuality and gay life, which the Feddens accept only to the extent of never mentioning it. It explores themes of hypocrisy, homosexuality, madness and wealth, with the emerging AIDS crisis forming a backdrop to the book''s conclusion.

The Line of Beauty

During the Oklahoma Land Run, Cissy and her parents arrive from the east to settle in Florence Town, a new settlement. Within a few days, it becomes apparent that a local railroad company wants to use the land for itself and attempts to purchase it from the people of the town. The townspeople don''t want to sell their land, and after falling foul of the railroad company, the director announces that no trains will stop at the town. Suffering hardship through having no railroad connection, the townspeople decide to make efforts - both legal and illegal - to stop the train that passes through their town. The story documents the life of Cissy as she grows and people in the town struggle to make some sort of living. Rumours of a young girl''s death under the wheels of a train sparked a sabotage of the railway removing a length of rail, and blocking the road crossing. Realising what damage to human life they might cause, the townspeople manage to reconstruct the track before the train comes through, thereby averting disaster. Deciding that they should take a more peaceful approach to persuading the trains to stop, the townsfolk hold a fair to show their community off to a trainload of passengers, hijacked by a group of the town''s men. Following the success of the Florence Fair, and the overwhelming response from the passengers pressuring the railroad company to stop ignoring Florence, trains begin to stop at the town after that, which allows the town to grow. To pay tribute to the town''s new start, and in a gesture of reconciliation towards the railroad company, it is renamed Olive, hence the "Olive Branch Line". The book may be partly influenced by the Enid-Pond Creek Railroad War, and is dedicated to the people of Enid, "who did stop the train".

Stop the Train

Elayne Trakand, Nynaeve al''Meara, Aviendha, and their coalition of channelers use the ter''angreal called the Bowl of the Winds to reverse the unnatural heat brought on by the Dark One''s manipulation of the climate and then escape a Seanchan invasion by Traveling to Andor, where Elayne claims the Lion Throne. Perrin Aybara moves into Ghealdan in an attempt to stop Masema Dagar, the self-proclaimed Prophet of the Dragon. He unknowingly rescues Deposed Queen Morgase of Andor (who now goes by the name of Maighdin and becomes Faile''s servant), from the Prophet''s men. He then secures the oath of fealty from Alliandre, Queen of Ghealdan. At the end of the book, Faile Bashere is kidnapped by the Shaido Aiel. Egwene al''Vere, Amyrlin Seat of the rebel Aes Sedai, finally manipulates her unruly followers into giving her more control, and they prepare to Travel to Tar Valon to lay siege to the White Tower. Rand al''Thor, with Asha''man and Illianers, attempts to repel the Seanchan invasion in Altara. Though successful in early skirmishes, things go awry later, when Rand uses Callandor on the Seanchan army. Since he was fatigued from wounds and channeling, and both halves of the One Power are behaving erratically in the area following the use of the Bowl of the Winds, as well as an inherent instability in Callandor, Rand loses control while wielding Callandor, causing much destruction to both armies and forcing a stalemate. Returning to Cairhien, Rand is attacked by traitorous Asha''man led by Dashiva, who attempt and fail to kill him. Mat Cauthon is absent from the book, due to injuries sustained at the end of the previous book, A Crown of Swords. Robert Jordan had earlier done the same for Perrin Aybara, who had been absent from Book 5, The Fires of Heaven.

The Path of Daggers

This novel is an imaginative reconstruction of the life of a band of Neanderthals. It is written in such a way that the reader might assume the group to be modern Homo sapiens as they gesture and speak simply among themselves, and bury their dead with heartfelt, solemn rituals. They also have powerful sense impressions and feelings, and appear sometimes to share thoughts in a near-telepathic way. As the novel progresses it becomes more and more apparent that they live very simply, using their considerable mental abilities to connect to one another without extensive vocabulary or the kinds of memories that create culture. They have wide knowledge of food sources, mostly roots and vegetables. They chase hyaenas from a larger beast''s kill and eat meat, but they don''t kill mammals themselves. They have a spiritual system centring on a female principle of bringing forth, but their lives are lived so much in the present that the reader realizes they are very different from us, living in something like an eternal present, or at least a present broken and shaped by seasons. One of the band, Lok, is a point of view character. He is the one we follow as one by one the adults of the band die or are killed, then the young are stolen by the "new people," a group of early modern humans. Lok and Fa, the remaining adults, are fascinated and repelled by the new people. They observe their actions and rituals with amazement, only slowly understanding that harm is meant by the sticks of the new people. The humans are portrayed as strange, godlike beings as the neanderthals witness their mastery of fire, Upper Palaeolithic weaponry and sailing. All save the last chapters of the novel are written from the Neanderthals'' stark, simple stylistic perspective. Their observations of early human behaviour serve as a filter for Golding''s exercise in paleoanthropology, in which modern readers will recognize precursors of later human societal constructs, e.g., religion, culture, sacrifice and war. The penultimate chapter employs an omniscient viewpoint, observing Lok. For the first time, the novel describes the people the reader has been inhabiting through the first-person perspective. Lok, totally alone, gives up in despair. In the final chapter, we move to the point of view of the new race, more or less modern humans fleeing in their boats, revealing that they are terribly afraid of the Neanderthals whom they believe to be devils of the forest. This last chapter, the only one written from the humans'' point of view, reinforces the inheritance of the world by the new species. The fleeing humans carry with them an infant Neanderthal, of whom they are simultaneously afraid and enamoured, hinting at the later hypothesis of inter-breeding between Neanderthals and modern humans.

The Inheritors

In Chile during the 1840s, Eliza Sommers is a young Chilean girl raised and educated by English Anglican siblings Victorian spinster Rose and strict Jeremy Sommers, and their sailor brother John Sommers, who are colonists living in the port of Valparaiso, ever since they found her on their doorstep, and taught in the art of cooking by the Mapuche Indian Mama Fresia. Over most of Part I, Eliza''s origins and upbringing, and her maturity are told. Eliza falls in love with Joaquin Andieta, a young Chilean man who is concerned about his mother, living in poverty. The young couple have an affair, ultimately resulting in Eliza getting pregnant. Soon, news of gold being discovered in California reaches Chile, and Joaquin goes out to California in search of a fortune. Wanting to follow her lover, Eliza goes to California, with the help of her Chinese zhong yi (physician) friend, Tao Chi''en, in the bowels of a ship headed by a Dutch Lutheran captain, Vincent Katz. In the beginning of Part II, Tao''s past is revealed, from his early life in poverty, to his apprenticeship to a master acupuncturist, and his ill-fated marriage to Lin, a young and pretty, but frail girl who dies after a brief marriage. Lin''s spirit later comes in to help her widowed husband at crucial points for Tao in later parts of the book. During the journey to California, Eliza, due to her pregnancy, is frail and sick, and later suffers a miscarriage. To leave with ship without suspicion, Tao disguises Eliza as a Chinese boy, a disguise that she maintains in San Francisco where they have landed. Eliza earns money by selling some Chilean snacks and Tao becomes a successful zhong yi. Tao, after seeing the greed and brothels in San Francisco, loses most of his faith in America. Eliza sets on her journey to find Joaquin, using a male cowboy''s disguise and the moniker Elias Andieta, and claiming to be Joaquin''s brother. Meanwhile in Valparaiso, Rose and Jeremy are shocked to find that Eliza has disappeared. When John comes and asks about her whereabouts, Rose reveals a well-kept, shocking secret to Jeremy, a secret that she and John have concealed from him since Eliza''s arrival into their home: John is Eliza''s father, having had her with an unnamed Chilean woman. Based on intuition, John Sommers sails for San Francisco, commissioned by his wealthy employer Paulina Rodriguez de la Cruz as a steam ship captain, with the additional intent of finding his daughter. Part III finds Eliza broke after still trying to search for Joaquin, she occasionly sends letters to Tao describing what she sees in her journey. Although she has fallen out of love with Joaquin, she cannot stop journeying. In an outskirt town, Eliza meets up with Joe Bonecrusher''s travelling caraven of prostitutes and ends up travelling with them as cook and piano player. The members of the caravan believe Eliza to be a homosexual man, a disguise which she takes up much to the frustration of Babalu, the caravan''s bodyguard. Eliza stays with the group during the winter as they settle in a small town. During this time, Tao moves to San Francisco to save up money to move back to China. He surprises himself when he realises he misses Eliza''s company and is consoled when he begins receiving her letters. John Sommers, in his search for Eliza, comes across Jacob Todd, an old suitor of Rose''s who is now a journalist known as Jacob Freemont. Freemont promises that he will look out for any sign of Eliza as he writes articles about the famous bandit Joaquin Murieta, whose description matches Eliza''s lover. Meanwhile, as Joe Bonecrusher''s business begins to dwindle, Tao finds Eliza and returns to San Francisco with her. They set up a network to help young Chinese prostitutes escape and rehabilitate with the help of friends. Eventually Jacob Freemont is able to pass word to the Sommers that Eliza is alive, who was previously thought to be dead. Tao and Eliza live together and eventually form a relationship; she eventually decides to write to Rose to inform her foster mother that she is alive. When Joaquin Murieta is shot dead and his preserved head is showcased in San Francisco, Eliza and Tao go to see if the man was really Joaquin Andieta.

Daughter of Fortune

Bernice Summerfield is grieving since the death of Guy de Carnac (as seen in the previous novel, Sanctuary). The Doctor takes her to a market on a planet called Crex in the Augon system. He quickly sets off, telling her he''ll be back in an hour, and Benny finds a pub where she orders a beer and finds a group of female human drinking partners. After Benny''s had several drinks with them, the Doctor arrives and places a patch on her cheek — a pad that disperses the alcohol in her system. He tells her that they need to leave immediately, and leads her back to the TARDIS. He hands her a scroll, tells her he''ll see her in three months, and collapses. Meanwhile, the genesmith Laylock meets with his associates. They plan to follow the Doctor. In a long, dark room, a teenager named Tim awakens from a dream, having had a premonition that everyone will die. Unable to understand Benny''s grief on a human level, the Doctor has purchased a device which alters his biodata, transforming him into a human named Dr John Smith. Smith lives as a history teacher at a public school in 1914 England, and falls in love with a fellow teacher named Joan. However, when alien Aubertides, hoping to acquire Time Lord abilities, attack the school, Smith sacrifices himself and becomes the Doctor once more; as the Time Lord, he is unable to love Joan in the way the human John Smith did.

Human Nature

Set in a rundown neighborhood of Manhattan in 1936, the novel explores a five-day alcoholic binge. Don Birnam, a binge drinker mostly of rye, fancies himself a would-be writer. He lapses into foreign phrases and quotes Shakespeare even while attempting to steal a woman''s purse, trying to pawn a typewriter for drinking money, and smashing his face on a banister. That accident gets him checked into an "alcoholic ward." There, a counselor advises Birnam on the nature of alcoholism: There isn''t any cure, besides just stopping. And how many of them can do that? They don''t want to, you see. When they feel bad like this fellow here, they think they want to stop, but they don''t, really. They can''t bring themselves to admit they''re alcoholics, or that liquor''s got them licked. They believe they can take it or leave it alone &mdash; so they take it. If they do stop, out of fear or whatever, they go at once into such a state of euphoria and well-being that they become over-confident. They''re rid of drink, and feel sure enough of themselves to be able to start again, promising they''ll take one, or at the most two, and &mdash; well, then it becomes the same old story over again. Perhaps the only thing keeping Birnam from drinking himself to death is his girlfriend Helen, a selfless and incorruptible woman who tolerates his behavior out of love. Helen does, however, upbraid him with the words: &#34;I haven&#39;t got time to be neurotic.&#34; No sooner has he begun to recover from his &#34;Lost Weekend&#34; than he contemplates killing Helen&#39;s maid to get the key to the liquor cabinet. He has a few drinks and crawls into bed wondering, &#34;Why did they make such a fuss?&#34;

The Lost Weekend

In Blood Promise, Rose leaves St. Vladimir''s Academy to go after Dimitri, who has become Strigoi. The only clue she has is that he might be somewhere in Siberia. After meeting an Alchemist named Sydney, they travel to Siberia, where she eventually finds Dimitri’s family in the small town of Baia. While in Baia, she meets another "Shadow-Kissed" bonded pair, Oksana and Mark, and a mysterious Moroi man named Abe, who tries to force her to go back to St. Vladimir''s. He eventually coerces her into leaving, and Rose agrees after a falling out with Dimitri''s sister Viktoria. She then travels to Novosibirsk with other unpromised guardians to stake out Strigoi in the hopes of finding Dimitri. When she does meet him, she is too stunned by his Strigoi appearance to attempt to kill him, and ends up being held hostage by him. He refuses to kill her, and instead, says he will keep her until she decides to turn Strigoi to be with him. All the while, Rose keeps checking up with Lissa back at St. Vladimir''s through the bond. Avery, a secret Spirit user, has been using compulsion to control Lissa. During a visit to Lissa''s head, Rose gets pushed out by Avery. While held hostage by Dimitri, who has been feeding off her and thus weakening her, Rose eventually manages to escape, grabbing a stake on the way out. Dimitri catches up with her, and they eventually battle on a bridge, where Rose manages to plunge her stake into his chest. Exhausted, Rose ends up at the home of an Alchemist friend of Sydney''s, where Oksana, Mark, and Abe are waiting. When she wakes up, she realizes Lissa is in danger with Avery, who wants to kill Lissa and then heal her back so that Lissa would be "shadow-kissed" and bonded to Avery. With help from Oksana, Rose manages to guide Lissa and Adrian through the fight against Avery and her brother, Reed, and Avery''s guardian Simon. After saving Lissa, Rose asks Oksana and Mark whether there is a way a Strigoi can be restored to their former selves. Reluctantly, they tell her of a Spirit user they knew named Robert Doru, who claimed to have restored a Strigoi back to life. However, only Victor Dashkov, his half-brother, would have any idea where he currently was. Realizing the situation was hopeless because she already staked Dimitri, Rose goes back to St. Vladimir''s Academy. Back at St. Vladimir''s, Rose reunites with Lissa and shares what happened to her in Russia. Rose''s mother, Janine, is also there, and reveals to Rose that Abe is actually her father. After agreeing to re-enroll in school to graduate, Rose goes back to her normal life at St. Vladmir''s. However, she soon receives a package from Russia, enclosed with the stake she used on Dimitri, and a note from him saying he was not really staked properly, and was still alive, waiting for Rose to finish school to find him. Rose realizes that with Dimitri still a Strigoi, she has a chance to restore him to his former life, but only by finding Robert Doru.

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Nemesis

No Author Listed

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

By Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Things Hoped For

By Andrew Clements

Nervous Conditions

By Tsitsi Dangarembga

The Line of Beauty

By Alan Hollinghurst

Stop the Train

By Geraldine McCaughrean

The Path of Daggers

By Robert Jordan

The Inheritors

By William Golding

Daughter of Fortune

By Isabel Allende

Human Nature

By Paul Cornell

The Lost Weekend

By Charles R. Jackson

Blood Promise

By Richelle Mead