Raymond Chandler's THE BIG SLEEP explores hard-boiled crime in Los Angeles.  Philip Marlowe investigates blackmail and murder in a complex noir plot.  Martin Luther King, Jr.'s A LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL explains his justification for participating in nonviolent demonstrations in a model of persuasive writing.  A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens examines love and friendship in London and Paris during the French Revolution.  James Herriot's ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL digs into the adventures of a veterinary surgeon in the Yorkshire Dales.