In this section it sets up the mood for the whole book. In chapter one it sets the mood that Austin is a depressed person and is somewhat suicidal. It also introduces Austin and his two best friends Dobie and Curtis. In chapter 2 it shows Austin and his friends are football players. The chapter also gives more details about how they are. In chapter 3 it introduces Austins mom and Becky. Also it expresses how Austin feels about going to school, also how he is used to the routine he does every year to go to school. Chapter 3 show''s Austin and his friends favorite spot which is Dairy Queen, also Austin and Heathers meet. In chapter 4 they talk about Heather and how Austin would end up with her, and how his friends feel about her. This chapter also sets the mood for Austin and Heather and how their first date happens. In chapter 5 they talk about Austin''s first away game, and how it plays out. Chapters 6-9: In this section they go to a lot of places. In chapter 6 they go to a movie and dinner together, Austin and Heather. They go to Heather''s house and he meets her mother. Then Austin goes home to his family. In chapter 7 they go to church on Sunday. Austin is there thinking about Heather and ask God to forgive me. In chapter 8 he is at home in his bed dreaming about him and Heather. Then he goes to school and have practice. After practice they are in locker room talking. Austin takes Curtis home them takes Heather home because she was waiting for him after practice on the truck. In chapter 9 his at home and Curtis comes over. In chapter 10 Austin talks about how he used to be the one to give Dobie rides home after his practices, but since he started to date Heather, Curtis takes Dobie home. It also talks about what him and Heather do after practice which is they go to the spot which happens to be Dairy Queen, and how they get their usual. They (Austin and Heather) have a conversation about what happened between Curits and Kat. Austin waits for Heather to brush her hair before going off, he said "This waiting for hair to be brushed - is the price of dating Heather". They sit in the car just hanging out for a while. Heather think Austin is mad at her when he really is not and she gives him oral sex to please him also in hopes that he will not be mad no more. Then two weeks later they have sex. In chapter 11 Austin plays in his sixth game, and Curtis ended messing up. Curtis gets bothered by this and he does not speak for a while. They are gonna go out that night and they invite Austin, but he''s going to be to busy with Heather. In chapter 12 Curtis happens to be in the middle of Bull-in-a-Ring since he messed up the game in chapter 11. After Bull-in-a-Ring Austin does not know if he should help his best friend up or do as the couch said and go get ready to do sprints...He goes to do sprints. In chapter 13 Austin sits in Heathers room and watch''s her get dressed. They just talk about the usual stuff. Heather ask''s Austin to pass her a clip when he goes to find it he opened the wrong drawer and she gets mad, Austin stared at the note, it was from her father. Austin tell''s her its okay to talk about her father to him, but she does not seem to want to open up. Soon Austin has to leave. In chapter 14 Austin and Heather get into a little argument, and then when they make up they go off to Dariy Queen. After that Austin wants to "please her" but she takes it the wrong way and goes off on him, and tells him all these mean things that make him depressed. In chapter 15 it talks about his ride home; lonely. When he arrives he goes all suicidel in the bathroom and is thinking about cutting himself, but Becky his little sister comes to the door with the phone, and it happens to be Heather on the line. She wants to talk so she ask''s him to go over. He drives back over to her house. Chapters 16-19: In this section still going places. In chapter 16 Austin is at Heather''s house and they are talking about what happened the other night. They talk about their pass and Heather cry''s from her pass. In chapter 17 he was just leaving Heather''s house they were holding each other and talking at 3 in the morning. At the game they won. Goes home and cannot sleep its Sunday and its 4:30 but her do not have to get up til 8. In chapter 18 his at school and has football practice again.Takes Dobie home then Heather. Austin went to Heather house and she told him it was over with them. In chapter 19 he is at home in his truck thinking. Then he goes to Curtis house and talk about him and Heather.

Damage

Jackie Rhodes is the daughter of a respected gamekeeper, known as "Trapper" Rhodes, in Kenya. She has lived there all of her life, so she is astounded and saddened when she learns from Tembo, her father''s African servant, that her family will soon be abandoning the continent. Her biggest concern immediately becomes her pet bushbaby Kamau, which had been a Christmas gift from her father; she fears the creature is too young to fend for itself and will perish if left behind. During a family picnic, Trapper Rhodes comforts Jackie by assuring her that he''ll obtain an official export permit that will allow her to take the bushbaby along. When the time comes for their departure, Jackie realizes that she has lost the export permit and grows very concerned. She learns from a steward that the ship''s captain is not fond of animals, which makes matters worse. She realizes she cannot possibly hide Kamau as a stowaway or face export officials upon arrival. As her family sleeps, she abandons the ship hoping to set Kamau lose in the docks of Mombasa. Thoughts of the bushbaby''s many natural predators immediately make Jackie have a change of heart and decide that Kamau must be returned to his natural habitat if he''s to have a chance at survival. Jackie is horror-stricken when she realizes the ship has set sail leaving her and Kamau behind. She is comforted by the sound of a harmonica, realizing that it is being played by Tembo. She explains the situation to him and asks for his help. The African, moved by his loyalty to the Rhodes and a desire to be of service, unenthusiastically agrees to do so. The trio head by bus and foot towards the village of Vipingo. At her father''s cottage Jackie and Tembo plan their next move while becoming increasingly acquainted with one another, which soothes the girl''s fears. Meanwhile, Kamau encounters a praying mantis and Jackie observes the bushbaby''s hunting abilities, growing less concerned about its ability to survive on its own. Unfortunately, the area is affected by a drought and an unexpected encounter with a rat snake foreshadows the dangers that they''ll face in their journey. Jackie, who had hoped to be helped by Major Bob, a friend of the family, is astounded to learn that he''s abandoned his home. When she approaches the Vipingo post office, she overhears the Hadj speaking to a gathering of villagers. He shows them the police''s official order for the arrest of the black man who is believed to have kidnapped the white Rhodes girl. Horror-stricken, Jackie returns to Tembo and tells him that they must leave the place immediately. Back aboard the ship, Jackie''s family discover her absence and request that the ship be turned around, a suggestion that coincides with Captain MacRae''s plans to avoid a threatening sea storm brewing in the Indian Ocean. A prolongued drought is upsetting the many animals of the African savanahs as they follow the trails of the elephants in search of water. This complicates Tembo and Jackie''s journey across the grasslands as they face dangerous creatures. The most dangerous encounter, however, is with an elephant poacher sent out to kill Tembo. Tembo manages to wrestle the man and send him running, but not before one of his poisoned arrowheads strikes Jackie''s upper arm.

The Bushbabies

Querry, a famous architect who is fed up with his celebrity, no longer finds meaning in art or pleasure in life. Arriving anonymously at a Congo leper colony overseen by Catholic missionaries, he is diagnosed - by Dr Colin, the resident doctor - as the mental equivalent of a ''burnt-out case'': a leper who has gone through a stage of mutilation. However, as Querry loses himself in working for the lepers, his disease of mind slowly approaches a cure. Querry meets Rycker, a palm-oil plantation owner, and a man of strong Catholic faith who does not accept his own nothingness and tries to amplify the relevance of Querry''s presence in that country. Rycker''s wife, a young and uneducated woman, is absolutely bored with his prudishness and her own lack of freedom. It is revealed that Querry is a famous architect, known throughout the world for his design and construction of Churches - which he himself believes have been defiled by the religious occupants. Querry begins the task of designing and overseeing the building of a Hospital for the Leproserie. An English journalist called Parkinson arrives at the village with the intention of writing a series of articles, to be syndicated in many European and North American newspapers, on the subject of Querry''s perceived ''saintly'' activities in the village, including a story of Querry pursuing his servant - an African mutilated by Leprosy-, who became lost in the jungle. However Parkinson also brings up Querry''s past not only as an architect but also as a womanizer. It is revealed that Querry''s former lover committed suicide, thus prompting his journey to the village (however his journey was not the result of feelings of guilt or grief, but rather the incident acted to magnify his growing loss of faith and vocation.) When the first article is published and received at the village, Querry becomes angered by his portrayal, not only by Parksinson, but by Rycker whom Parksinon interviewed for the story. Querry travels to Luc and on the way calls in to confront Rycker. Querry learns that Rycker''s wife fears that she is pregnant and that her husband does not want a child (despite having refused contraception and having effectively forced her into sex numerous times). She tells Querry to ask Rycker for permission to travel to the capital Luc to see a doctor. Following a confrontation between Querry and Rycker, Querry leaves for Luc and takes with him Mrs. Rycker so she may visit the doctor, however neither of the two inform Rycker of her departure. Querry never becomes physically intimate with her. In Luc, Querry and Mrs. Rycker take rooms at the hotel. However before going to sleep, Querry suspects that Mrs. Rycker is crying in the next room. When he investigates she informs him that she was actually laughing at the novel she is reading - one that would be banned at her home with the pious Rycker - and the two share a bottle of Whisky. As Mrs. Rycker is going to sleep, Querry tells her a story which closely parallels his story: a man losing both faith and vocation. The following morning Parksinson informs Querry that Rycker has arrived in Luc in pursuit of his wife and, upon discovering his wife''s diary with an entry stating "Spent the night with Q", Rycker accuses Querry of having an affair. Querry, after briefly meeting Mrs. Rycker and learning that she is pregnant with Rycker''s child, leaves Luc and returns to the village, where the construction of the Hospital is nearing completion. Days later Mrs. Rycker arrives at the convent near the village. She tells the sisters and priests that she has been having an affair with Querry and that she is pregnant with his child. When Querry visits her she claims that she thought of Querry whilst having sex with Rycker in an attempt to endure the man, and thus she became pregnant with what she views as Querry''s child (despite being Ryckers). Father Thomas, the temporary supervisor of the village, becomes angry at Querry for bringing shame and sin upon the village (as well as damaging his image as saintly - despite strong objections to having such an image from Querry himself). Rycker arrives at the village and demands to see Querry, who has gone to stay in Dr. Colin''s room for the night. Rycker begins to walk to Dr. Colin''s stating that a jury would never convict him, which troubles the priests - one of whom pursues Rycker in order to prevent him shooting Querry. Enraged, Rycker confronts Querry. While being accused of adultery, Querry laughs at the absurdity of the accusations. Rycker misinterprets the laugh and becomes angry and shoots Querry, who then dies. Querry is buried in the village, which fulfills his wish to never return to his old life.

A Burnt-Out Case

Lord Emsworth is aghast to learn that his younger son Freddie is back in England from America, sent over to push "Donaldson''s Dog-Joy" to the English dog-owning public. He is less worried to hear that his niece Prudence Garland is being called a "dream rabbit" by unknown men over the telephone. Freddie meets Prudence, and learns her caller was none other than Bill Lister, an old pal of Freddie''s and godson of his uncle Galahad, with whom Prudence plans to elope. The elopement is scuppered, however, when Prudence''s mother Lady Dora has her sent to Blandings to cool off. Freddie and Galahad arrange for Lister to be near her, getting him a job painting Lord Emsworth''s pig, Empress of Blandings. Freddie''s wealthy American friend Tipton Plimsoll, after a lengthy binge celebrating his new-found wealth, decides to lay off the booze after mistaking Lister''s gorilla-like face for an apparition, and heads down to Blandings with Freddie, who hopes to sell dog-biscuits to Tipton''s stores. At Blandings, Colonel and Lady Hermione Wedge are excited by the prospect of their beautiful daughter Veronica meeting such a wealthy man, even more so when the two hit it off immediately. Plimsoll, however, is thrown off by the reappearance of the face (Lister having come to gaze up at his beloved''s window), and by Veronica''s intimacy with Freddie, to whom, he learns, she was once engaged. Lister''s style fails to please Lord Emsworth, and the two fall out, but Freddie, at Gally''s suggestion, smuggles him back into the castle disguised as a false-bearded gardener, having paid off Angus McAllister. Lister soon ruins things, however, when after scaring Plimsoll once more and terrifying Veronica, he mistakes her mother for the cook and tries to bribe her to pass a note to Prudence. Gally heads to Blandings himself, for Veronica''s birthday, and soon brings her and Plimsoll together by the simple expedient of putting the Empress in her bedroom. He also brings Lister with him, inroducing him as another artist by the name of Landseer, counting on Emsworth''s poor memory and the thick false beard to keep him from being recognised, but Freddie blows the gaff to Lady Hermione, while Gally is off bribing Pott the pig man to keep quiet, and Lister is asked to leave. Also thanks to Emsworth''s distracted nature, Freddie accidentally gives Veronica his wife''s expensive diamond necklace (while the pendant he had bought for her was sent to Aggie in Paris). Gally smooths over a resurgence of jealousy in Plimsoll on seeing Vee in the necklace, by claiming it is false, and Plimsoll gives it to Prudence for the church jumble sale. With Freddie desperate to get the necklace shipped over to his increasingly irate wife, and threatening to distrupt Plimsoll and Vee''s happiness, Gally proposes to hold the family to ransom, getting the family''s blessing for Prudence and Lister''s marriage in return for the jewels. Lister, lurking in the gardens, glimpses an overjoyed Prudence on a balcony, but cannot catch her attention, so he fetches a ladder and climbs to the balcony. He is spotted by Colonel Wedge, who mistakes him for a burglar and fetches footmen and his revolver. Lister, hearing the Colonel, tries to flee along a ledge to a drainpipe. He climbs down the drainpipe safely, but lands on Pott the pig man, who keeps him there until Wedge arrives. When Wedge hears Lister''s story from Gally, he is impressed with the man''s spirit and leaves him. Gally reveals he has lost the necklace, but hopes to bluff his sister. Plimsoll arrives to confront his nemesis, and is delighted to learn Lister is real. Hermione approaches, and Gally successfully fools her into thinking he still holds the necklace; Emsworth, hearing his son is in danger of getting divorced and returning home for good, hurriedly pays for Lister''s business. When Gally tells Hermione where the necklace is (in the flask taken from his room by Plimsoll), she is annoyed to realise she had it all along, Plimsoll having handed it to her when he still thought Lister was an hallucination.

Full Moon

Richard II is the main character of the play. The first Act begins with King Richard sitting majestically on his throne in full state. We learn that Henry Bolingbroke, Richard''s cousin, is having a dispute with Thomas Mowbray, and they both want the king to act as judge. The subject of the quarrel is Bolingbroke''s accusation that Mowbray had squandered monies given to him by Richard for the King''s soldiers. Bolingbroke also accuses Mowbray of the recent murder of the Duke of Gloucester, although John of Gaunt—Gloucester''s brother and Bolingbroke''s father—believes that Richard himself was responsible for the murder. After several attempts to calm both men, Richard acquiesces and Bolingbroke and Mowbray challenge each other to a duel, over the objections of both Richard and Gaunt. The tournament scene is very formal with a long, ceremonial introduction. But Richard interrupts the duel at the very beginning and sentences both men to banishment from England. Bolingbroke has to leave for six years, whereas Mowbray is banished forever. The king''s decision can be seen as the first mistake in a series that will lead eventually to his overthrow and death. Indeed, Mowbray predicts that the king will fall sooner or later. John of Gaunt dies and Richard II seizes all of his land and money. This angers the nobility, who accuse Richard of wasting England''s money, of taking Gaunt''s money (which rightfully belongs to Bolingbroke) to fund a war with Ireland, of taxing the commoners, and of fining the nobles for crimes their ancestors committed. Next, they help Bolingbroke secretly to return to England and plan to overthrow Richard II. However, there remain some subjects faithful to Richard, among them Bushy, Bagot, Green and the Duke of Aumerle (son of the Duke of York), cousin of both Richard and Bolingbroke. King Richard leaves England to administer the war in Ireland, and Bolingbroke takes the opportunity to assemble an army and invade the north coast of England. He executes Bushy and Green, and wins over the Duke of York, whom Richard has left in charge of his government during his absence. When Richard returns, Bolingbroke first claims his land back but then additionally claims the throne. He crowns himself King Henry IV and Richard is taken into prison to the castle of Pomfret. Aumerle and others plan a rebellion against the new king, but York discovers his son''s treachery and reveals it to Henry, who spares Aumerle as a result of the intercession of the Duchess of York but executes the other conspirators. After interpreting King Henry''s "living fear" as a reference to the still-living Richard, an ambitious nobleman (Exton) goes to the prison and murders the former king. King Henry repudiates the murderer and vows to journey to Jerusalem to cleanse himself of his part in Richard''s death.

Richard II

From the official blurb: :Empire State of Mind tells the story behind Jay-Z''s rise to the top as told by the people who lived it with him- from classmates at Brooklyn''s George Westinghouse High School; to the childhood friend who got him into the drug trade; to the DJ who convinced him to stop dealing and focus on music. This book explains just how Jay-Z propelled himself from the bleak streets of Brooklyn to the heights of the business world. Notable sources include hip-hop luminaries such as DJ Clark Kent, Questlove of The Roots, Damon Dash, Fred "Fab 5 Freddy” Brathwaite, MC Serch; NBA stars Jamal Crawford and Sebastian Telfair; and recording industry executives including Craig Kallman, CEO of Atlantic Records. Greenburg also reveals new information on Jay-Z’s various business dealings, such as: * The feature movie about Jay-Z and his first basketball team that was filmed by Fab 5 Freddy in 2003 but never released. * The Jay-Z branded Jeep that was scrapped just before going into production. * The real story behind his association with Armand de Brignac champagne. * The financial ramifications of his marriage to Beyoncé.

Empire State of Mind

Sally Blount''s father, Matthew Blount, has been arrested for the murder of Paul Jerin, a chess master. Blount had arranged for Jerin to play twelve simultaneous games of blindfold chess at his club. Well into the contest, Jerin complains of physical discomfort and cannot continue. Shortly thereafter, Jerin dies of what tests show to be arsenic poisoning. During the contest, Jerin had been sitting by himself in a small library off the chess club''s main game room. He had nothing to eat or drink except a pot of hot chocolate, brought to him by Blount. After Jerin fell ill, he was diagnosed by a doctor who was playing in the contest; the doctor called for an ambulance but Jerin died at a hospital. Not only had Blount brought the hot chocolate to Jerin, he had washed out the pot and the cup after Jerin complained that he didn''t feel well. Blount is charged with murder. The only people to enter the library where Jerin sat, other than Blount, were four messengers, who relayed the moves between the main game room and the library. The messengers apparently had no good opportunity to put arsenic in Jerin''s chocolate. Dan Kalmus is Blount''s corporate lawyer, and represents Blount after he has been jailed without bail. Blount''s daughter Sally is convinced, however, that Kalmus is in love with Blount''s wife Anna, and that he won''t be inclined to give Blount his best legal efforts. Furthermore, Blount''s specialty is business law, not criminal law, and he might not have the needed background. But Sally is certain that her father is innocent, so she hires a reluctant Wolfe to investigate on her father''s behalf. Neither Wolfe nor Archie seems to have his heart in the case because the circumstances point so clearly at Blount. And Wolfe learns from the police that their own inquiries discovered no connection between the messengers and Jerin, whereas Blount was unhappy that Jerin had been seeing Sally. Because none of the messengers could have a motive to kill Jerin, and because he has assumed that Sally is correct that her father didn''t, Wolfe conjectures that Jerin was poisoned not because the murderer had it in for Jerin, but to get at Blount, whose apparent motive would surely get him arrested. Wolfe''s hypothesis, then, is that Jerin was a pawn, sacrificed in a gambit to get rid of Blount. Wolfe speaks with each of the messengers as the best alternative suspects, to try to determine which of them might have wanted Blount, not Jerin, out of the way. Each of the four has a possible motive: Sally thinks Kalmus is in love with her mother, Farrow would like to take over Blount''s firm, Yerkes wants Blount''s vote in a board election but won''t get it, and Hausman resents Blount for going easy on him in chess games but winning anyway. Wolfe learns that there is, in Blount''s words, "a certain fact" known only to Blount and to Kalmus that will demonstrate his innocence. The fact turns out to be that Blount really did put something in Jerin''s chocolate, but it was sedative in effect, not poisonous. This puts a very different face on things, and as a result Wolfe and Archie, independently, are able to infer both the murderer''s identity and how the arsenic got into Jerin.

Gambit

In a small Indiana city a lone gunman in a parking garage calmly fires into a rush hour crowd in a public plaza, committing a massacre of five random victims with six shots. The shooter leaves a perfect trail behind him for the police to quickly track him down. Evidence from the scene, of a shell case and a quarter bearing the same fingerprints, points clearly to James Barr, a former Army Infantry sniper. He''s arrested but will only say two things to the police: "''They got the wrong guy," and "''Get Jack Reacher for me.''" Reacher, the former Army Military Police officer is 1500 miles away but he sees the news on CNN and gets on a bus to Indiana. Reacher has no job, no home, no car, and a shrinking savings account from his past military pay. Although Reacher has a nomadic existence, what he does have is a sharp moral clarity in a modern climate of moral ambiguity. Instead of clearing Barr, Reacher wants to assist the prosecution in convicting him. There are good reasons why Reacher is the last person Barr would want to see. When Reacher was an investigating MP years past, Barr had committed a killing spree similar to the Indiana shootout, murdering four people during the Gulf War in Kuwait City, but twisted military politics and a technicality let Barr walk free. Reacher swore he would track the sniper down if he ever tried it again. Reacher believes Barr is guilty but Barr''s sister Rosemary is convinced of her brother''s innocence and entreats lawyer Helen Rodin to defend her brother. Helen''s father is the district attorney that will prosecute the case. When Reacher arrives in Indiana, Barr has been beaten so badly he can''t remember anything about the day of the murders, leaving Reacher to form his own conclusions with the available evidence. The local NBC news reporter, Ann Yanni, is also looking for more information and Reacher is more than willing to include her in his investigation, in exchange for a guaranteed public expose on the Barr case. Ann also lets Reacher drive her Mustang convertible car while he is in Indiana. Reacher knows thirty yards, the parking garage distance, is point-blank range for a trained military sniper like Barr. Reacher also knows the shooter missed one shot on purpose, giving Reacher one shot at the truth. Reacher drives to Kentucky to the shooting range where the sniper practiced and learns some interesting facts from Gunny Samuel Cash, the former U.S. Marine who owns the shooting range, which make him doubt the guilty airtight case against Barr. During a long range shooting scene, with a target of 300 yards, Reacher uses his enhanced intelligence with advanced technical and military knowledge, slowing and counting his heartbeat while calculating wind, humidity, trajectory, speed, energy and force. Cash is unwilling to reveal information or his records to Reacher, but grudgingly agrees to talk if Reacher is able to hit the target with one shot. Reacher is a skilled marksman and beside winning the US Army Pistol Championship, served as a pistol instructor. and is the only non-Marine to win the Marine Corps 1000 Yard Invitational rifle competition, 10 years after Cash scraped third place, which Reacher refrains from mentioning. Reacher makes the shot and tactfully says it was due to Cash''s weaponry. Cash responds to Reacher''s spoken compliment and unspoken respect and shows Reacher 32 sheets of target paper from three years'' worth of Barr''s practice shootings at his range, every single sheet with dead-on maximum scores. After the visit to the shooting range, Reacher adds Cash''s information to the case evidence and his weaponry knowledge. Helen and Rosemary sift through the clues in a riveting analysis and finally get Reacher to conclude that Barr is innocent, which means someone set up Barr as the sniper. Someone is also trying to get Reacher off the case, which seemed a slam-dunk but is falling apart. Reacher is teamed with Helen, the young defense lawyer working against her D.A. father with a prosecution team that has an explosive secret of its own. Like most of Reacher''s life, the case is a complex battlefield, but Reacher is at his best during battles. Reacher gets closer to the unseen enemy pulling the strings, leading him to the real perpetrators, a Russian gang, masquerading as legitimate businessmen. The gang''s eighty-year-old capo spent most of his life in the infamous Soviet Gulag and is known only as The Zec. Reacher outwits the mob guards in the Russian gang''s fortress, efficiently and brutally dispatching five hoods before confronting the boss and forcing him to come clean on the whole scam and set-up.

One Shot

The story follows the overlapping lives of three high school seniors, with the chapters alternating between their different points of view. Jason Carrillo, the jock, finds himself questioning his heterosexuality and decides to attend a meeting for gay youth. He does not expect to see his classmates Kyle Meeks and Nelson Glassman at the meeting. Afterwards, Kyle, the mostly-closeted swimmer, decides to help tutor Jason in math. It is revealed that Kyle has had a crush on Jason for the past three years of high school. They bond over their shared feelings towards coming out and their families. Which leads them to become more than friends.'' Nelson, the flamboyant class clown, has conflicting feelings towards Kyle and their relationship. He''s very close to his mother who claims to have always known about his homosexuality, but rarely sees his father. After getting into an argument with Kyle, he decides to hook up with an online stranger named Brick. He has sex for the first time, and fears he has contracted HIV. He becomes friends with HIV-positive Jeremy, and they begin a relationship.

Rainbow Boys

Apprentice JurisFiction agent and SpecOps-27 operative Thursday Next is taking a much-needed vacation inside Caversham Heights, a never-published detective novel inside the Well of Lost Plots, while waiting for her child to be born (she''s pregnant although her husband Landen was erased from existence by the ChronoGuard in the previous book). As a cover, she must pretend to be the character she is replacing. In the book, she encounters two Generics, students of St Tabularasa''s who have yet to be assigned to a book, and DCI Jack Spratt, a detective who partners with her in investigating a murder. Since Thursday is an "Outlander", a "real" person rather than a fictional character, Spratt hopes that she will help them appeal to the Council of Genres to prevent the disassembling of Caversham Heights, a fate inevitable for books which languish unpublished in the ''real'' world. Using a Caversham Heights as her base of operations, Thursday continues her apprenticeship with Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. Not only is a fictional character &mdash; Yorrick Kaine, the "discoverer" of Shakespeare''s lost play Cardenio in the last book &mdash; loose in Thursday''s real world, a person from Thursday''s world has entered the BookWorld and is conspiring with Kaine and Text Grand Central, the final arbitrators of plot, setting, and other story elements, to release BOOK version 9, code-named UltraWord. UltraWord is touted at a JurisFiction meeting as the greatest advance "since the invention of movable type" because it creates a thirty-two plot story system and allows the reader to control the story. Thursday slowly loses her memory of Landen, though Granny Next remains with her and keeps her from forgetting him completely. Aornis Hades, the villainess, who nearly covered the world in Dream Topping in Lost in a Good Book, is present in her memory as a mindworm. Thursday learns that Harris Tweed, Kaine''s partner, is masquerading as a JurisFiction agent to get UltraWord released in order to fix literature. At the 923rd Annual BookWorld awards, Thursday proves to the seven million fictional characters assembled that UltraWord will render literature merely a saleable commodity &mdash; the thrice-read rule renders an UltraWord book impossible to read by a fourth person after the volume has been read by three people, thus rendering libraries and second-hand bookstores useless. The quality of the writing is also substantively poorer; Thursday produces two skylarks, one from a non-UltraWord book that is described vividly and poetically, and the other from an UltraWord book that is described flat and literally. Tweed and Kaine call for a vote before the audience can be convinced that Thursday''s is the correct argument. In this unprecedented emergency, Thursday breaks open the "IN UNPRECEDENTED EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS" in her JurisFiction operative TravelBook and pulls the handle. The Great Panjandrum, ruler of the BookWorld, appears (a literal Deus ex machina). The Panjandrum calls for an immediate vote which goes against UltraWord and calls on Thursday to take the job of Bellman, the superintendent of JurisFiction. The two Generics, now calling themselves Randolph and Lola, Thursday, and her pet dodo Pickwick take R&R in Caversham Heights, which was bought by the Council of Genres as a character sanctuary &mdash; a solution that appeals to the residents of the novel as well as the nursery rhyme characters who were going to go on strike. The story of the new Caversham Heights constitutes Fforde''s fifth book, The Big Over Easy. The American edition of The Well of Lost Plots has an extra chapter documenting the weathering of a WordStorm during Thursday''s tenure as Bellman. The story continues in Something Rotten. *Thursday Next *Pickwick *Randolph *Lola *Harris Tweed *The Great Panjandrum *Aornis Hades *Granny Next *Landen Parke-Laine *Bellman de:Im Brunnen der Manuskripte fr:Le Puits des histoires perdues it:Il pozzo delle trame perdute

The Well of Lost Plots

Shortly after the end of World War II, British Colonel Michael ''Hooky'' Nicobar is assigned to the Displaced Persons Division in the British Zone of Vienna, Austria. Like the author himself, Nicobar has had a limb amputated. Marshall also served in the Displaced Persons Division in Austria. Nicobar''s duty is to aid the Soviet authorities to repatriate citizens of the Soviet Union, many of whom prefer not to return to their home country. Billeted in the convent run by Mother Auxilia, Nicobar, and his military aides Major John ''Twingo'' McPhimister and Audrey Quail, become involved in the plight of Maria, a young ballerina, who is trying to avoid being returned to Moscow. Nicobar''s sense of duty is tested as he sees first hand the plight of the people he is forcing to return to the Soviet Union; his lack of religious faith is also shaken by his contact with the Mother Superior. The novel was the basis of the 1949 film The Red Danube starring Walter Pidgeon, Ethel Barrymore, Peter Lawford, Angela Lansbury and Janet Leigh. George Sidney directed. After the movie was released the novel was re-issued as The Red Danube.

Vespers in Vienna

Jilly is struck by a car and becomes paralyzed on her right side. She discovers she can dream herself to the spirit world like her friend Sophie has long known how to do. Her physical body remains in the hospital bed while a dream version of herself, young and not paralyzed, traverses the spirit world. There she meets her friend Joe Crazy Dog, who can travel to the spirit world while awake. He tells her he has sent for a pair of "crow" girls who might be able to cure her condition, but only after she deals with emotional wounds from her past. Somebody breaks into Jilly''s studio and destroys many of her paintings. Her friends keep seeing on the streets a woman who looks just like Jilly. They wonder if a shadow twin might be behind both Jilly''s "accident" and the vandalism. Jilly meets in the dreamlands a young man named Toby. He is an Eadar--a fictional character who acquires a physical presence in the spirit world, but whose existence depends on there being people who believe in him. Together they spend several nights climbing a big tree to get some magical twigs that may help both of them. In flashbacks, the book gradually reveals details of Jilly''s past. As a child, she was repeatedly raped by her brother Del. She finally ran away from home and by her teens was a junkie and prostitute living on the streets, until a kind cop named Lou rescued and rehabilitated her. Back at Jilly''s former home, Del turned his attention to her younger sister Raylene, who never forgave Jilly for abandoning her. Raylene finally stabbed Del and ran away with her best friend Pinky. To make money, they performed badger games and ended up killing a dirty cop. Pinky eventually became a pornstar, while Raylene started working in a print shop. There she fell in love with one of her coworkers, who taught her how to use computers, but finally died in a shootout. Pinky served several years in prison for assault, and during that time she and Raylene began having shared dreams in which they were wolves hunting unicorns. Raylene found out her sister''s whereabouts from an article. On the day of Pinky''s release, Raylene bought a pink Cadillac and the two of them rode off in search of Jilly. That''s when Raylene destroyed Jilly''s paintings, and continued to stalk her. In the hospital, Jilly and Sophie discover that they can share their dreams as well, and when they find themselves in a forest, they encounter a pack of wolves, one of whom Jilly recognizes as her sister. She realizes that Raylene must be the lookalike who destroyed her paintings. Raylene is upset that Jilly has now invaded her dreams. She wants to find a way into the dreamlands while awake, so that she can avenge Jilly there. She sees Joe on the street and recognizes him from his Don''t! Buy! Thai! T-shirt as he slips into the spirit world. By watching him, she figures out how to enter the spirit world herself. She and Pinky kidnap the sleeping Jilly and carry her body into the spirit world. The dreaming version of Jilly has reached the top of the tree and found the twigs, which have made Toby no longer an Eadar, but which have no effect on Jilly''s condition. But because Jilly''s physical body has entered the dreamlands, she feels pulled toward it, and she must climb down the tree to reach it. When she reaches Raylene, they begin talking. Raylene realizes how silly it is to hold a grudge against her sister for something she did when she was a kid just trying to survive. Unfettered, Pinky points her gun at Jilly and fires--but Raylene places herself in the line of fire and dies. Joe arrives at that moment with a pitbull, which kills Pinky. Toby reaches the clearing with a wreath of the twigs, now powerful enough to cure Jilly''s paralysis. Jilly instead uses it to bring Raylene back to life. Because Raylene killed all those unicorns, she must never return to the dreamlands, or else Joe''s friends will hunt her down. The crow girls visit Jilly and tell her that they cannot cure her condition, but they give her feathers so that she can call them anytime she wants.

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