OXFORD BOOKWORMS LEVEL 6 (BOOK ONLY)

9780194792714

A Passage To India (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

A mysterious incident at the Marabar Caves, involving Adela Quested, newly arrived from England, and Dr Aziz, an Indian doctor, leads to a drama that divides the British and Indian communities in anger, distrust, and fear. Forster's great novel brings to life all the dangers and misunderstandings of colonialism but, as Forster himself wrote, the story is 'about something wider than politics, about the search of the human race for a more lasting home, about the universe as embodied in the Indian earth and the Indian sky, about the horror lurking in the Marabar Caves... 

 

9780194792530

American Crime Stories (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

Curtis Colt didn't kill that liquor store woman, and that's a fact. It's not right that he should have to ride the lightning - that's what prisoners call dying in the electric chair. Curtis doesn't belong in it, and I can prove it.' But can Curtis's girlfriend prove it? Murder has undoubtedly been done, and if Curtis doesn't ride the lightning for it, then who will? These seven short stories, by well-known writers such as Dashiel Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, and Nancy Pickard, will keep you on the edge of your seat. 

 

9780194792547

Barchester Towers (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

Mrs Proudie, the warlike wife of the new Bishop of Barchester, brings the Reverend Slope into the Bishop's Palace to help dominate her husband and the local clergy. But Slope is a snake in the grass, determined to win advancement for himself - even to fight Mrs Proudie. Their battle becomes a furious dance, involving rich, pretty Widow Bold, angry Archdeacon Grantly, man-eating Signora Neroni, confused Parson Quiverful and his fourteen noisy children. This classic comedy is Trollope's most famous novel. 

 

9780194792561

Cry Freedom (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

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.

 

9780194792578

Deadheads (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

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...

 

9780194792585

Decline and Fall (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

After a wild, drunken party, Paul Pennyfeather is forced to leave Oxford and begin a new life out in the wide world. His experiences take him from a boys' private school in Wales, where he meets some rather strange people, to a life of luxury in a grand country house and the Ritz Hotel, and then to seven years' hard labour in prison. Where will it all end? The black humour of this story about English society in the 1920s is as fresh today as it was when the novel was first written.

 

9780194792592

Dublin People Short Stories (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

A young country girl comes to live and work in Dublin. Jo is determined to be modern and independent, and to have a wonderful time. But life in a big city is full of strange surprises for a shy country girl... Gerry Moore is a man with a problem - alcohol. He knows he must give it up, and his family and friends watch nervously as he battles against it. But drink is a hard enemy to fight... These stories by the Irish writer Maeve Binchy are full of affectionate humour and wit, and sometimes a little sadness.

 

9780194238137

Dubliners (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

Dublin, Ireland, in the early years of the twentieth century. It is a poor city, and there is hard drinking, dishonesty, and violence just beneath the surface everywhere you look. Glance inside a few people's lives, and you soon find loneliness and disappointment, self-hate, and despair. The people in these stories are paralysed: locked into the circles of their everyday lives, where they are caught waiting between life and death. For some, there is a way out - but will circumstances, or their own fear, stop them from taking it?

 

9780194792608

The Enemy (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

On a beautiful summer evening in the quiet town of Marlow, a young woman is walking home from church. She passes a man who is looking at the engine of his car. He turns round, smiles at her... and throws acid into her face. Then her father, the scientist George Ashton, disappears. And her sister, Penny, discovers that her husband-to-be, Malcolm, is a government agent. Why has Ashton disappeared, and why is Malcolm told to hunt for him? Who is George Ashton, anyway? And who is the enemy?

 

9780194794206

Gazing at Stars: Stories from Asia (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

How fair is fair trade? When the American models leave the Malaysian island after their fashion shoot, they take away more than just photographs, and leave behind a family that will never be the same again.

Bookworms World Stories collect stories written in English from around the world. These stories from China, India, Malaysia, and Singapore, are by writers Lui Hong, Attia Hosain, Preeta Samarasan, Hwee Hwee Tan, Ridjal Noor, Shashi Deshpande, Ovidia Yu, Nora Adam, Nirupama Subramanian, and Catherine Lim.

 

9780194614443

Jane Eyre (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

Jane Eyre is alone in the world. Disliked by her aunt's family, she is sent away to school. Here she learns that a young girl, with neither money nor family to support her, can expect little from the world. She survives, but she wants more from life than simply to survive: she wants respect, and love. When she goes to work for Mr Rochester, she hopes she has found both at once. But the sound of strange laughter, late at night, behind a locked door, warns her that her troubles are only beginning.

 

9780194792646

Meteor and Other Stories (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

It was just a smooth round metal ball, less than a metre in diameter. Although it was still hot from its journey through the huge nothingness of space, it looked quite harmless. But what was it, exactly? A meteor, perhaps - just one of those pieces of rock from outer space that occasionally fall down on to the planet Earth. But meteors don't usually make strange hissing sounds... In this collection of four of his famous sciencefiction stories, John Wyndham creates visions of the future that make us think carefully about the way we live now.

 

9780194792653

Night Without End (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

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.

 

9780194792660

Oliver Twist (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

London in the 1830s was no place to be if you were a hungry ten-year-old boy, an orphan without friends or family, with no home to go to, and only a penny in your pocket to buy a piece of bread. But Oliver Twist finds some friends - Fagin, the Artful Dodger, and Charley Bates. They give him food and shelter, and play games with him, but it is not until some days later that Oliver finds out what kind of friends they are and what kind of 'games' they play...

 

9780194792677

Pride and Prejudice (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

The moment I first met you, I noticed your pride, your sense of superiority, and your selfish disdain for the feelings of others. You are the last man in the world whom I could ever be persuaded to marry,' said Elizabeth Bennet. And so Elizabeth rejects the proud Mr Darcy. Can nothing overcome her prejudice against him? And what of the other Bennet girls - their fortunes, and misfortunes, in the business of getting husbands? This famous novel by Jane Austen is full of wise and humorous observation of the people and manners of her times.

 

9780194614467

Tess of the d'Urbervilles (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

A pretty young girl has to leave home to make money for her family. She is clever and a good worker; but she is uneducated and does not know the cruel ways of the world. So, when a rich young man says he loves her, she is careful - but not careful enough. He is persuasive, and she is overwhelmed. It is not her fault, but the world says it is. Her young life is already stained by men's desires, and by death.

 

9780194792615

The Fly and Other Horror Stories (2rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

Flies are a nuisance. They are annoying when they buzz around you, but you can brush them away with your hand. After all, a fly is only about half the size of your fingernail. But suppose it wasn't. Catch a fly and look at it closely - look at its head, its eyes, its legs. Now imagine that this thing was the size of a human being... These eight stories offer horror in many shapes and forms, in worlds full of monsters and evil spirits, where terror lies waiting in the shadows, and where the living and the dead dance hand in hand.

 

9780194792639

The Joy Luck Club (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

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 for ever. This is the story of four mothers and their daughters - Chinese- American women, the mothers born in China, and the daughters 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.

 

9780194792707

The Woman in White (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

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.

 

9780194792691

Vanity Fair (3rd edition) - Oxford Bookworms Library Level 6

When Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley leave school, their feet are set on very different paths. Kind, foolish Amelia returns to her comfortable home and wealthy family, to await a suitable marriage, while Becky must look out for herself, earning her own living in a hard world. But Becky is neither kind nor foolish, and with her quick brain and keen eye for a chance, her fortunes soon rise, while Amelia's fall. Greed, ambition, loyalty, folly, wisdom... this famous novel gives us a witty and satirical picture of English society during the Napoleonic wars.