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he grisly headline leaves nothing to the imagination: “Woman’s torso recovered from Tokyo Bay. Believed to be missing British bartender Lily Bridges.” The only suspect is Lucy Fly. Her friend is dead, her lover has disappeared, and as far as anyone is concerned, she’s as good as guilty.

Trapped in the interrogation room, Lucy begins to unravel two stories. One, for the police, is a spare outline, offering more questions than answers. The other–the real one, if you believe her–is a gripping dive into an obsessive mind, revealing the checkered past that brought her to Japan, her complicated friendship with Lily, and a tempestuous affair with a missing Japanese photographer named Teiji. As she excavates the dangerous secrets–both past and present–that haunt her waking mind, Lucy relates an unsettling life story that spans bustling Tokyo, the British countryside, and remote Japanese islands, each step taking us closer to the chilling truth about Lily’s death.

Mockingjay is chronologically the last installment of The Hunger Games series.  The book continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, who agrees to unify the districts of Panem in a rebellion against the tyrannical Capitol.

Catching Fire is  the second book in The Hunger Games series. As the sequel to the 2008 bestseller The Hunger Games, it continues the story of Katniss Everdeen and the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem. Following the events of the previous novel, a rebellion against the oppressive Capitol has begun, and Katniss and fellow tribute Peeta Mellark are forced to return to the arena in a special edition of the Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games is the first book in the series.

The Hunger Games follows 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12 who volunteers for the 74th Hunger Games in place of her younger sister Primrose Everdeen. Also selected from District 12 is Peeta Mellark. They are mentored by their district's only living victor, Haymitch Abernathy, who won 24 years earlier and has since led a solitary life of alcoholism.

Peeta confesses his longtime secret love for Katniss in a televised interview prior to the Games. This revelation stuns Katniss, who harbors feelings for Gale Hawthorne, her friend and hunting partner. Haymitch advises her to feign feelings for Peeta in order to gain wealthy sponsors who can provide crucial supplies to the "star-crossed lovers" during the Games.

In the arena, Katniss allies with Rue, a young tribute from District 11 who reminds Katniss of her kid sister. When Rue is killed, Katniss places flowers around her body as an act of defiance toward the Capitol. Then the remaining tributes are alerted to a rule change that allows tributes from the same district to win as a team. Katniss finds a seriously wounded Peeta and nurses him back to health. When all of the other tributes are dead, the rule change is abruptly revoked. With neither willing to kill the other, Katniss comes up with a solution: a double suicide by eating poisonous berries. This forces the authorities to concede just in time to save their lives. During and after the Games, Katniss develops genuine feelings for Peeta and struggles to reconcile them with what she feels for Gale.
Haymitch warns her that the danger is far from over.

The authorities are furious at being made fools of, and the only way to try to allay their anger is to pretend that her actions were because of her love for Peeta. On the journey home, Peeta is dismayed to learn of the deception.

In Flint City, Oklahoma, police detective Ralph Anderson arrests popular teacher and Little League coach Terry Maitland in front of a crowd of baseball spectators, charging him with raping, mutilating and killing an eleven-year-old boy. Maitland hires his friend and lawyer, Howie Gold, to assist him but Anderson has eyewitnesses and clear forensic evidence pointing to his guilt. In the meantime, eager reporters harass Maitland's wife, Marcy and his two daughters, Sarah and Grace.

District Attorney Bill Samuels tells Anderson to break Maitland's alibi in order to make this an open-and-shut case. Anderson discovers, however, that multiple eyewitnesses confirm Maitland was out of town when the murder occurred, at a writer's conference in a neighboring town. Conference site security footage also provides confirmation of Maitland's alibi. Anderson finds a book at the conference center gift shop that Maitland (or his doppelgänger) touched and the fingerprints on the book are confirmed to be Maitland's. Samuels encourages Anderson to destroy this new evidence but he does not. Despite evidence that Maitland was in two places at once, Anderson still believes Maitland killed the boy. Maitland is shot to death outside of the courthouse by the older brother of the victim, who is subsequently shot and killed by Anderson. Anderson is placed on administrative leave and the district attorney decides not to seek reelection.

With the help of private investigator Holly Gibney, Anderson follows a trail of clues that takes the duo to Marysville, Texas. Jack Hoskins, Anderson's rival in local law enforcement, is coerced by the Outsider (the real killer) into killing Anderson. The Outsider promises Hoskins that if he kills Anderson he will be cured of his cancer. With the help of a number of characters, Anderson and Gibney discover that they have an actual monster on their hands. They set out to destroy him in a large cave in Marysville, where two children died years earlier. Holly hits the Outsider with the happy slapper (a sock filled with ball bearings, similar to what she used to stop Brady Hartsfield in Mr. Mercedes). He appears destroyed. The district attorney holds a press conference clearing Maitland, alleging defective DNA samples and confirming the video proof supporting Maitland's alibi.

Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and romantic misunderstandings. It is set in the fictional country village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls, and Donwell Abbey and involves the relationships among people from a small number of families. The novel was first published in December 1815, with its title page listing a publication date of 1816. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian–Regency England. Emma is a comedy of manners, and depicts issues of marriage, sex, age, and social status.

The Call of the Wild is one of Jack London's most famous novels.

The story follows a dog named Buck, a 140 pound Saint Bernard, and Scotch Shepherd mix. Buck is abducted from a comfortable life as a pet and tossed into the chaos of the Klondike Gold Rush and the brutal realities of frontier life. Buck changes hands several times before landing in the kindly hands of John Thornton. For teachers and students, we offer our The Call of the Wild Study Guide.
Thornton takes ownership of Buck from a trio of ignorant stampeders, intent upon making a dangerous river crossing. Buck refuses to cross, despite a vicious beating. Thornton recognizes the dog's intelligence and strength. He steps in to claim the dog and nurses Buck back to health. But Buck is forever changed by the treatment he has received at the hands of other men.

 

The Rhythm Section begins with the crash of flight NEO027. The crash destroys Stephanie Patrick's life: her family was on board and there were no survivors. Devastated, she drops out of college and her life spins out of control as she enters a world of drugs and prostitution--until a journalist discovers that the crash wasn't an accident. There was a bomb planted on the plane. Filled with rage, and with nothing left to loose, she focuses on one goal: revenge. The opportunity to obtain it arrives quickly when Stephanie is approached and recruited by an extremely covert intelligence organization. She is young, smart, and beautiful--and has no family, making her the perfect candidate. The organization offers her a deal. She must undergo rigorous training; learn how to control her heart rate and breathing; and learn how to efficiently use weapons. Then, she will assume a new identity and commit acts of terrorism on behalf of the organization. When she completes these assignments successfully--and proves her loyalty--she will be offered the opportunity to take out the terrorists who brought down flight NEO027.

Set in 1948, the story begins in the Watts area of Los Angeles, with Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins. Easy is a Houstonian, from that city's Fifth Ward, who lost his job at a Los Angeles aviation defense plant, and is unable to pay the mortgage on his LA home. Easy is sitting in a bar run by Joppy, a friend who is also from Houston, when a man named DeWitt Albright walks into the bar and offers him a job finding a young woman named Daphne Monet. Monet, a young white woman, is rumored to be hanging out in bars frequented mostly by African Americans, although white women are allowed inside.

At the bar Easy meets two old friends, Coretta and Dupree, among many other people that he knew from his former life in Houston. Coretta says that she knows Daphne, but gives an incorrect address to Easy. He goes home with them and has sex with Coretta, with Dupree asleep in the next room. Easy then leaves her early the next morning, only to be arrested by the LAPD. Shortly thereafter following police interrogation, he is told that Coretta is dead, and that he is a suspect in Coretta's murder.

Henrietta Lacks was born in 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia. Henrietta was a 30-year-old, African-American tobacco farmer. On January 29, 1951, she went to John Hopkins Hospital complaining of vaginal bleeding. Upon examination, it was found that she was suffering from an adenocarcinoma in her cervix. A malignant tumor was metastasizing and ravaging her body. Lacks died of cervical cancer in 1951. Her cells were taken from her body without her knowledge and were used to form the HeLa cell line.  The HeLa cell lines were the first immortalized human cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line reproduces indefinitely under specific conditions, and the HeLa cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data to the present day. All while her children suffered and received no help or compensation for her contributions to science.