The book tells the story of Victoria Cope, following her experience of hosting a home child - an orphan from England sent to Canada by Barnardo''s, essentially as a servant, receiving care and education in exchange. The Copes end up with a girl one year older than Victoria, named Marianna Wilson. She tells Victoria about her life in England, and as they become friends Victoria becomes more aware of some of the discrimination that Marianna faces from the local children, as well as from members of Victoria''s own family, notably her oldest brother, David. Something seems to be distracting Marianna and one night Victoria wakes up and finds Marianna in the barn with her younger brother, Jasper, who had escaped from the home where he was placed after his guardian whipped him and broke his arm. The family must decide what to do with Jasper, which is made difficult by David''s attitude towards the home children. The book ends with an epilogue detailing where Marianna and Victoria went in their lives, and explaining how the home child program worked. The orphan becomes rich and famous.

Orphan at My Door

In 1960, 58-year-old Jim Fergesson decides to sell his Oakland-based auto repair business and retire. This threatens to greatly inconvenience his business tenant, used car salesman Al Miller, who rents a lot from Fergesson to sell his battered but superficially reconditioned old jalopies. Chris Harmon, an entrepreneur, advises Fergesson to invest in a new super-garage located in Marin Country Gardens. Jim takes a fall in the mud and has a minor heart attack during a visit to the property to personally verify its existence. Miller is convinced that Harmon is corrupt and makes an amateurish attempt at blackmailing him over his alleged (then-illegal) sale of salacious audio recordings. At the same time Al enters employment with Harmon as a curiously unqualified salesman of Classical Music. This, as it turns out, was an innocent administrative error. Al''s actual assignment now involves the mass marketing of, wait for it now, Barbershop Music. He sees conspiracies, machinations and double-dealings where there are none and strives mightily, but ultimately fails, to disrupt the final contract-signing between Fergesson and Harmon by playing on old Jim''s paranoia. The strain of it all takes its toll on a recently injured, weakened, ailing Fergesson and he dies later that night at home. Al then discovers that his used car lot has been ferociously vandalised, although the exact time and date remain uncertain. This plays an unexpectedly important role in the unfoldment of subsequent events. Things are not quite what they seem, and coincidence plays a starring role here. His wife Julie quits her job and they run off together across Nevada, whilst Lydia, Jim''s widow, discovers that her late husband''s deal with Harmon was, contrary to what Al had sincerely believed, completely legitimate. Al is temporarily detained after Lydia threatens to sue him for fraud. Julie leaves him forever. In a moment of true serendipity Al starts a new relationship with his married real estate vendor, a vivacious, attractive "colored" woman by the name of Mrs. Lane.

Humpty Dumpty in Oakland

Ninette Dupond was a dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet who was chosen to be the lead when Mademoiselle Jean-Marie Augustine is injured. She is fired when her performance receives good reviews but also when she catches the eye of the La Augustine''s patron. Poor and desperate, Ninette is surprised when she finds a tomcat that is able to psychically talk to her. The cat, Thomas, convinces Ninette to migrate to England and become a premier dancer there. With no better options, Ninette takes the chance despite her disbelief in magic. On the way, Thomas teaches her English, instructs her on the basics of the magical world and convinces her to adopt the identity of the Russian ballerina, Nina Tchereslavsky. Thomas is also able to convince the owner of a music Hall, Nigel Barret, who is an Elemental Master of Air to take ''Nina'' on as the main act of his show. In a ploy based on the fairy tale, Nigel and his partners discover Ninette posing as "Nina" supposedly shipwrecked on a beach near Blackpool. Inspired, Nigel and his partners, Arthur (who is in charge of the orchestra) and Wolf (a parrot who supposedly is the reincarnation of Mozart), create a production based on the experience. They set Ninette up in a nice apartment with a maid named Alsie McKenzie (who has no magic, but has the abilities of a Sensitive, which means she can see Elemental beings and the like ) and start rehearsals, with Ninette also doing some dancing acts on the stage in the meantime. Nigel enlists the help of Elemental Master of Fire and stage magician, Jonathon Hightower, both for the production and that he suspects the shipwrecking was actually an attack on Nina. The threat becomes real, when the real Nina Tchereslavsky discovers Ninette''s impersonation. The danger in this is that the real ''Nina'' is also a troll that is able to absorb people''s identities and their memories.The troll had previously the taken on the forn of a young poet and from there seduced the real Nina into a bed then used its elemental powers to absorb her and then take her place.

Reserved for the Cat

The novel opens in 1857 with Rougon''s career at a low ebb. In conflict with the Emperor over an inheritance claim involving a relative of the Empress, Rougon resigns from his position as premier of the Corps législatif before he can be dismissed. This puts the plans and dreams of Rougon''s friends in limbo, as they are counting on his political influence to win various personal favors. His greatest ally and his greatest adversary is Clorinde Balbi, an Italian woman of dubious background and devious intent. Clorinde desires power as much as Rougon does but, because she is a woman, she is forced to act behind the scenes. Rougon refuses to marry her because he believes two such dominant personalities would inevitably destroy each other. Instead, he encourages her to marry M. Delestang, a man of great wealth who can easily be wheedled, while he himself takes a respectable nonentity of a wife who will not hinder his ambition. Rougon learns of an assassination plot against the Emperor, but decides to do nothing about it. In consequence, after the attempt is made (the Orsini incident of 1858), the Emperor makes him Minister of the Interior with power to maintain peace and national security at any cost. Rougon uses this as an opportunity to punish his political adversaries, deport anti-imperialists by the hundreds, and reward his loyal friends with honors, commissions, and political appointments. Through his influence, Delestang is made Minister of Agriculture and Commerce. As Rougon''s power expands, however, his cronies begin to desert him despite his fulfilling their personal requests. They feel that he has not done enough for them and what he has done either has not been good enough or has had consequences so disastrous as to be no help at all. Moreover, they consider him ungrateful, given all the work they claim to have done to have him reinstated as Minister. Eventually, Rougon is involved in several great scandals based on the favors he has shown to his inner circle. At the center of all this conflict is Clorinde. As Rougon''s power has grown, so has hers, until she has influence at the highest level and on an international scale, including as the Emperor''s mistress. Now having the upper hand, she is able to punish Rougon for his refusal to marry her. To silence political and personal opposition, Rougon decides to submit his resignation to the Emperor, confident that it will not be accepted. However, it is accepted, and Delestang is made Minister of the Interior, the implication being that both actions are founded on Clorinde’s authority over the Emperor. The novel ends in 1862. The Emperor has returned Rougon to service as Minister without Portfolio, giving him unprecedented powers in the wake of Italian unification. Ostensibly, the appointment is meant to reconfigure the country on less imperialistic, more liberal lines, but in reality Rougon has a free hand to crush resistance, curtail opposition, and control the press.

Son Excellence Eugène Rougon

First published in Brazil in 1949, O Homem que Calculava is a series of tales in the style of the Arabian Nights, but revolving around mathematical puzzles and curiosities. The book is ostensibly a translation by Brazilian scholar Breno de Alencar Bianco of an original manuscript by Malba Tahan, a thirteenth century Persian scholar of the Islamic Empire – both equally fictitious. The first two chapters tell how Malba Tahan was traveling from Samarra to Baghdad when he met Beremiz Samir, a young lad with amazing mathematical abilities. The traveler then invited Beremiz to come with him to Baghdad, where a man with his abilities will certainly find profitable employment. The rest of the book tells various incidents that befell the two men along the road and in Baghdad. In all those events, Beremiz Samir uses his abilities with calculation like a magic wand to amaze and entertain people, settle disputes, and find wise and just solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems. In the first incident along their trip (chapter III), Beremiz settles a heated inheritance dispute between three brothers. Their father had left them 35 camels, of which 1/2 (17.5 camels) should go to his eldest son, 1/3 (11.666... camels) to the middle one, and 1/9 (3.888... camels) to the youngest. To solve brother''s dilemma, Beremiz convinces Malba to donate his only camel to the dead man''s estate. Then, with 36 camels, Beremiz gives 18, 12, and 4 animals to the three heirs, making all of them profit with the new share. Of the remaining two camels, one is returned to Malba, and the other is claimed by Beremiz as his reward. The translator''s notes observe that a variant of this problem, with 17 camels to be divided in the same proportions, is found in hundreds of recreational mathematics books, such as those of E. Fourrey (1949) and G. Boucheny (1939). However, the 17-camel version leaves only one camel at the end, with no net profit for the estate''s executor. At the end of the book, Beremiz uses his abilities to win the hand of his student and secret love Telassim, the daughter of one of the Caliph''s advisers. (The caliph mentioned is Al-Musta''sim, and the time period ends with the Abbasid dynasty''s collapse.) In the last chapter we learn that Malba Tahan and Beremiz eventually moved to Constantinople, and there they lived long and pleasant lives.

The Man Who Counted

The Gladiator follows the same concept as the other Crosstime Traffic novels. A parallel world similar in most respects to our own has discovered the technology to visit and trade with other parallels, spreading the notions of liberty and capitalism at the same time. The plot of The Gladiator follows the same formula of the other books in the series with an imperiled company operative and local protagonists being used as guides to the parallel. In The Gladiator it is indeed the capitalist West that has been consigned to the "dustbin of history" and the world has been remade in the image of the Soviet Union. The point of divergence from ours was the decision of the United States to allow the Soviet missiles to remain in Cuba during the Cuban Missile crisis and the complete withdrawal from Vietnam in 1968. Thus, communism spread throughout Latin America and Southeast Asia giving the Soviet Union an upper hand in economic and military strength over the United States. Due to the embargo of the many countries that were captured in the Soviet Sphere, the United States went bankrupt and lost its position as a super power, and most of Europe went communist afterward in the 1980s and 1990s. A hundred years later, communism has taken over much of the world and capitalism is very much dead. The protagonists of the novel, Gianfranco and Annarita, are teenagers in an Italian People''s Republic, satellite to the interests of the USSR. Amidst the grey Soviet Brutalist tenements they discover a strategy game shop that is disseminating capitalist ideas with the games they sell. The shop is a front for the Crosstime Traffic trading monopoly, as the protagonists discover when the shop is closed by the authorities and one of the clerks, Eduardo, turns to the protagonists for help.

The Gladiator

Giovanni is a boy from a poor family, working hard to feed his sick mother (who has contracted an unnamed disease). Because of this, he never has any free time and is ridiculed by his peers, leaving him as somewhat of a social outcast. His kindly friend, Campanella, is the only one (apart from his mother and his sister, both of whom are never actually seen) who cares for him. At school, in a science class, the teacher asks Giovanni what the Milky Way really is. Giovanni knows that they are stars, but cannot answer. The teacher asks Campanella, but he intentionally does not answer to save Giovanni from even more ridicule from his peers. During class, the local bully, Zanelli, says that Giovanni has been so absent-minded because his father has yet to come back from an expedition to the far north. Zanelli claims that Giovanni''s father was arrested (because the trip was supposedly "illegal"), which angers Giovanni. Before he can give Zanelli a good punch, the bell rings, marking the end of the class. The teacher, after encouraging the students to attend the star festival occurring that night, lets everyone leave. Giovanni, however, stays behind to chat with the teacher. After class, the teacher (another of Giovanni''s friends) and Giovanni marvel at the fossils that Giovanni''s father brought back from his expeditions. The teacher asks Giovanni if his father is back yet (this question is asked repeatedly throughout the story). Giovanni responds no, and heads home to begin another long, lonely night of work at the local paper. On that night (which marks a large festival), Giovanni runs into Zanelli. He makes fun of Giovanni, mocking him about an otter fur coat his father would give him when he comes back, and runs away to the festival. Giovanni can not go to the festival, because he has to take care of his mother, and do the chores that his sister did not. Tired after a hard day''s work, Giovanni lies down on top of a hill. He hears a strange sound, and finds himself in the path of a train. Luckily, the train stops. He gets on board, as does Campanella. Giovanni notices that Campanella is all wet. Giovanni asks why, and Campanella says he''s not sure, but a flashback that shows him drowning suggests otherwise. The train travels through the Northern Cross and other stars in the Milky Way. Along the way, the two see fantastic sights and meet various people: for example, scholars excavating a fossil from white sands of crystal and a man who catches herons to make candies from them. Children who were on a ship that crashed into an iceberg (possibly Titanic) get on the train at Aquila, suggesting that the train is transporting its passengers to their afterlife. The train arrives at the Southern Cross and all the other passengers get off the train, leaving only Giovanni and Campanella in the train. Giovanni promises Campanella to go on forever, together. But as the train approaches the Coalsack, Campanella disappears, leaving Giovanni behind. Giovanni wakes up on top of the hill. He heads to the town, and finds out that Zanelli fell into the river from a boat. He was saved by Campanella who went into the water, but Campanella had not come up since then and is missing. Worried, Giovanni heads toward the river, in fear of what he already knows. His worries prove true, because Campanella has been under the water for a long duration of time, meaning he is dead. On the verge of tears, Giovanni tries to stay strong. Campanella''s father (who didn''t notice Giovanni at first) asks Giovanni to have his classmates come over to his home, after school tomorrow (for reasons unknown, though it seems likely that they are being called in for a formal funeral). Giovanni then makes a promise to stay strong throughout life, claiming that, no matter where he is, he and Campanella will always be together. He then heads home, to deliver milk to his mother.

Night on the Galactic Railroad

The book centers around 10-year old tomboy Christina who, to her displeasure, has to spend her summer with her grumpy uncle after her grandmother becomes ill. Uncle Ralph is house sitting for a friend in an old, spooky, and isolated lake-side Victorian mansion. Once she gets there she, finds a room that looks as if it had once belonged to a little boy. There she sees, for the first time, a little boy in a blue sailor suit, who disappears before Christina can talk to him. She also finds out that whatever she does, she cannot get inside the attic even though she hears noises coming from there. Christina decides she wants to know why the little boy is there. On a trip to the nearby city, Christina looks for old newspapers to see if she can find any information about the house. She finds a newspaper dated 30 years ago. It says that a murder took place in the house after a man stole some valuable stamps. The men whom he stole from found out where he was staying and went to kill him. The little boy was killed simply because he had witnessed the murder. One of the murderers confessed and said that they never found the stamps. When Christina gets back she finds the stamps inside an old comic book in the boy''s room. Suddenly she hears something descending from the attic. Once again she sees the boy, but his time his expression is of terror, pointing at the attic door where the ghost of his sitter is about to come out. Christina and her uncle flee the house after the ghost of the sitter causes chaos. They manage to escape and spend the night in a nearby town. They turn the stamps in to the local sheriff''s office the next morning. When they arrive back at the house, that morning, they find the doors and windows all open from the previous night. Upon further investigating, Christina concludes the ghost of the little boy is finally at peace now that the mystery surrounding his untimely death has been solved.

Christina''s Ghost

The Smiths are a traditional couple from London who have invited another couple, the Martins, over for a visit. They are joined later by the Smiths'' maid, Mary, and the local fire chief, who is also Mary''s lover. The two families engage in meaningless banter, telling stories and relating nonsensical poems. At one point, Mrs. Martin converses with her husband as if he were a stranger she just met. As the fire chief turns to leave, he mentions "the bald soprano" in passing, which has a very unsettling effect on the others. Mrs. Smith replies that "she always wears her hair in the same style." After the Fire Chief''s exit, the play devolves into a series of complete non-sequiturs, with no resemblance to normal conversation. It ends with the two couples shouting in unison "It''s not that way. It''s over here!," right before a blackout occurs. When the lights come back on, the scene starts from the beginning with the Martins reciting the Smiths'' lines from the beginning of the play for a while before the curtain closes.

The Bald Soprano

Like Futrelle''s other short stories, "The Problem of Cell 13" features Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen as the main character, although most of the story is seen through the perspective of a prison warden. While in a scientific debate with two men, Dr. Charles Ransome and Alfred Fielding, Augustus, "The Thinking Machine", insists that nothing is impossible when the human mind is properly applied. To prove this, he agrees that he will take part in an experiment in which he will be incarcerated in a prison for one week and given the challenge of escaping. He achieves the goal with great ingenuity (and aid from his frequent confederate, newspaper reporter Hutchinson Hatch) and explains fully how he did it. Everyone around Augustus is amazed at his explanation, and they wholeheartedly believe his point that nothing is impossible, though the warden asks what would have happened if many of the key elements of Augustus''s escape had not been present. Augustus smiles smugly and states that there were also two other ways out, and leaves it at that.

The Problem of Cell 13

Paul has moved to Miami with his mother Laura, 47 years old. They moved there, to a small apartment, following his parents'' divorce. Paul''s father has a new family now, and his name is Greg. Paul attends a new school where his mother is a secretary. Paul must suffer as a social outcast in the rich kid''s private school Gate. Coming in as a sophomore, he is branded as a loser. Though the life of a social outcast is a perilous, tough life, he meets one friend: Belinda (Binky) Lopez-Nande. She is similar to him in the social tree: a lowly outcast. The two manage to live, but just barely. Meanwhile, the fact that his father left him with his mother still stings, and while he never returns his calls, Paul persists in trying. Then, on one miraculous day, the popular, star athlete rich kids, led by the famous Charlie Good, invite him on a mailbox bash. Charlie and his followers, Gray St. John and Randy Meade (St. John and Meat) allow Paul a shot at joining them. Paul agrees and goes with them, and though he respects his neighbors, he decides to bash some boxes. The next day, at school Paul waves to Charlie, but receives nothing in return. Charlie continues to ask Paul to do worse and worse things in order to retain his friendship, leading to the dramatic conclusion - bombing the school.

Breaking Point

At Ballou Senior High, a school besieged by violence in Washington, D.C., honor students have learned to keep their heads down. Like most inner-city kids, they know that any special attention in a place this dangerous can make you a target of violence. But Cedric Jennings will not swallow his pride, and with unwavering support from his mother, he studies and strives as if his life depends on it—and it does. The summer after his junior year, at a program for minorities at MIT, he gets a fleeting glimpse of life outside, a glimpse that turns into a face-on challenge one year later: acceptance into Brown University, an Ivy League school. At Brown, finding himself far behind most of the other freshmen, Cedric must manage a bewildering array of intellectual and social challenges. Cedric had hoped that at college he would finally find a place to fit in, but he discovers he has little in common with either the white students, many of whom come from privileged backgrounds, or the middle-class blacks. Having traveled too far to turn back, Cedric is left to rely on his faith, his intelligence, and his determination to keep alive his hope in the unseen—a future of acceptance and reward that he struggles, each day, to envision.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Orphan at My Door

By Jean Little

Humpty Dumpty in Oakland

By Philip K. Dick

Reserved for the Cat

By Mercedes Lackey

Son Excellence Eugène Rougon

By Émile Zola

The Man Who Counted

No Author Listed

The Gladiator

By Harry Turtledove

Night on the Galactic Railroad

By Kenji Miyazawa

Christina's Ghost

No Author Listed

The Bald Soprano

By Eugène Ionesco

The Problem of Cell 13

By Jacques Futrelle

Breaking Point

By Alex Flinn

A Hope in the Unseen

By Ron Suskind