National Network for Equitable Library Service

A barrister becomes a detective when his friend disappears at an English manor in this classic Victorian novel. Beautiful Lucy Graham charms every man she meets, including wealthy widower Sir Michael Audley. After they marry, he refurbishes his mansion to create a little palace for his new wife, where her future seems bright. Her past, however, is shrouded in darkness, and she'll do whatever it takes to keep it hidden. Then Sir Michael's nephew, Robert, a London barrister, comes for a visit with his good friend George Talboys for a week of fishing.

A tale of love, class, and murder during the era of the trade-union movement in nineteenth-century England, from the author of North and South. In Manchester, long-suffering John Barton and his daughter, Mary, both want a better future for each other. John toils away with the trades' union for better wages for his fellow workers in the textile mill, while Mary must consider whom she will marry. She decides to leave the working-class Jem Wilson, hoping instead to wed Harry Carson, the wealthy mill owner's son.

The women of an English country village star in this Victorian classic that inspired a BBC series, from the author of North and South. Welcome to Cranford, where everyone knows one another and a cow wears pajamas. It's a community built on friendship and kindness, where women hold court and most of the houses'and men'are rarely seen.

A tragic affair blooms between a working-class orphan and a wealthy rake in this classic novel of Victorian England. Although Ruth Hilton is kind, life does not treat her kindly in return. An orphaned young seamstress, she works long hours at a sweatshop in a small English town. When she is sent to a fancy ball to repair the ladies' dresses, she catches the eye of a gentleman, Henry Bellingham. Falling for Henry leads to the loss of her job and her home, and Ruth quickly finds herself raising a child alone.

The "shocking" and "suspense-packed" bestseller about one teacher's stand against student violence, and the basis for the Academy Award-nominated film (The New York Times Book Review). After serving his country in World War II, Richard Dadier decides to become an English teacher'and for the sin of wanting to make a difference, he's hired at North Manual Trades High School. A tough vocational school in the East Bronx, Manual Trades is home to angry, unruly teenagers exiled from New York City's regular public schools.

Two young boys find some very unusual new pets in this short story from a Grand Master of Science Fiction. Tagging along while his astronomer father visits an industrialist at his vast estate, young Slim is lucky enough to make fast friends with the industrialist's son, Red, who has recently caught some very strange animals on the property. The animals seem intelligent enough, and Red recruits Slim to help him train the odd creatures to do circus tricks.

Hugo Award Finalist: A mystery at the heart of a desert planet and its ruling class must be solved in this thrilling tale from a Grand Master of Science Fiction. Brion Brandd has just triumphed in the planetary contest called the "Twenties, "a series of physical and mental trials meant to push contestants to their limits. But before he can fully recover from these tests, he's recruited by former Twenties champion Ihjel for a mission of utmost importance.

A gifted gambler fights to survive on a hostile planet in this classic novel from the creator of science fiction antihero the Stainless Steel Rat. The gravity is twice that of Earth. The weather is an unpredictable maelstrom. All species of life, both plant and animal, monstrous and microscopic, are lethal. And the environment is drenched with radioactivity. This is planet Pyrrus, where telepathically gifted gambler Jason dinAlt has ended up after scamming a government casino out of a fortune.

The groundbreaking novella that gave rise to science fiction's original space hero, Buck Rogers. In 1927, World War I veteran Anthony Rogers is working for the American Radioactive Gas Corporation investigating strange phenomena in an abandoned coal mine when suddenly there's a cave-in. Trapped in the mine and surrounded by radioactive gas, Rogers falls into a state of suspended animation...'or nearly five hundred years.

There's a heavy price to pay for the manipulation of nature in this novel from the revered author of The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. It begins as a boon for mankind-the creation of the substance Herakleophorbia IV. When fed to farm animals, it causes them to grow to enormous size. But when it is accidentally allowed to enter the local food chain, the consequences prove monstrous: Human children exposed to it grow into giants, reaching forty feet in height. At first, these giants are tolerated. Then, as they mature, they are scorned.