| LIST C (continued) David Copperfield “Please, Mr Murdstone ! Don’t beat me ! I’ve tried to learn my lessons, really I have, Sir !” sobs David. Although David is only eight years old, Mr Murdstone does beat him, and David is so frightened that he bites his cruel stepfather’s hand. For that he is kept locked in his room for five days and nights, and nobody is allowed to speak to him. As David grows up, he learns that life is full of trouble and misery and cruelty. But he also finds laughter and kindness, trust and friendship … and love. The joy luck club There are so many things that a mother wishes to teach her daughter. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to keep hoping, when hope is your only joy. How to laugh forever. This is the story of four mothers and their daughters – Chinese-American women, the mothers born in China, and the daughters born in America. Through their eyes we see life in pre-Revolutionary China, and life in downtown San Francisco ; women struggling to find a cultural identity that can include a past and a future half a world apart. Cry freedom They said Steve Biko was a man of violence; then why did he talk of peace ? They said he wanted revolution; so why did he talk of friendship ? They said he died of hunger; why was his body broken and bruised ? This is the story of a man’s fight with the government of South Africa. It is the story of all people who prefer truth to lies. It is the story of all people who cry “Freedom !”, and who are not afraid to die. |
| Night without end On the polar ice-cap, 640 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, the deadly, icy winds can freeze a man to death in minutes. But the survivors of the crashed airliner are lucky – they are rescued by three scientists from a nearby weather station. But why did the airliner crash in the first place ? Who smashed the radio to pieces ? And why does the dead pilot have a bullet hole in his back ? The rescue quickly turns into a nightmare : a race through the endless Arctic night, a race against time, cold, hunger – and a killer with a gun. Desert, mountain, sea Three different parts of the world, but all of them dangerous, lonely places. Three different women, but all of them determined to go – and to come back alive ! Robyn Davidson walked nearly 3,000 kilometres across the Australian desert – with a dog and four camels. Arlene Blum led a team of ten women to the top of Annapurna – one of the highest mountains in the world. Only eight came down again. Naomi James sailed around the world alone, on a journey lasting more than 250 days. Deadheads An English rose garden on a summer’s day. A small boy watches with interest as his great-aunt cuts the deadheads off the rosebushes with a sharp knife. What could be more peaceful, more harmless ? Young Patrick grows up to be a calm, pleasant man, with a good job, a wife and two children, and the best rose garden for miles around. When somebody tells the police that Patrick Aldermann is killing people, Chief Superintendent Dalziel thinks it’s probably all nonsense. But Inspector Pascoe is not so sure … |
| The woman in white The woman in white first appears at night on a lonely heath near London and is next seen at a grave side in Cumberland. Who is she ? Where has she come from, and what is her history ? She seems alone and friendless, frightened and confused. And it seems she knows a secret – a secret that could bring ruin and shame to a man who will do anything to keep her silent. This famous mystery thriller by Wilkie Collins has excitement, suspense, romance and a plot that twists and turns on every page. A morbid taste for bones Murder in the twelfth century is no different from murder today. There is still a dead body, though this time with an arrow through the heart instead of a bullet. There is still a need to bury the dead, to comfort the living – and to catch the murderer. When brother Cadfael comes to a village in the Welsh hills, he finds himself doing all three of those things. And there is nothing simple about this death. The murdered man’s daughter needs Cadfael’s help in more ways than one. There are questions about the arrow. And the burial is the strangest thing of all … |