title: The List: A Love Story in 781 Chapters
author:  Aneva Stout 
description: Stout's debut novel is a clever hybrid of meta-fiction and gift book: this slim, illustrated hardcover is a love story composed entirely of second-person affirmation-style list entries, none more than two or three dozen words. The result offers all the guilty pleasures of chick litthe snarky humor of a good glossy magazine and the soothing cadences of a girl-loses-boy-girl-finds-boy-girl-dumps-boy plotwith a precise breakdown of the newest behemoth genre which, at its best, refines the form to poetic abstraction without sacrificing readability: "248. You'll wonder how he keeps his bathroom tile so sparkling. 249. He'll say, 'Are you okay?' 250. You'll say, 'Don't stop!' " It can grate when its heroine (you) hews too close to clich, but Stout generally avoids easy laughs at her character's/audience's expense. Though brief, the book has enough drama, emotional resonance and sharp throw-away lines ("333. You'll look in his closet. 334. You'll find something you wish you hadn't. <i>a. A closet that's neater than your living room. b. Twister. c. A videotape labeled: Aruba.</i>") to make it worth revisiting, either in part or whole. Simultaneously, the "high art" fiction conceit reinvigorates the "low-art" gift-book genre it appropriatesnot a major achievement ( la <i>The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay</i> or Lorrie Moore's <i>Self-Help</i>), but no small feat either. <i>(Apr.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  > A HIGHLANDER’S CAPTIVE
  
  
  > HIGHLAND TEMPTATIONS
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  > AILEEN ADAMS
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  > CONTENTS
  
  > [A Highlander’s Captive](index_split_003.html#filepos5856)
  
  > [Chapter 1](index_split_004.html#filepos7397)
  
  > [Chapter 2](index_split_005.html#filepos22651)
  
  > [Chapter 3](index_split_006.html#filepos38294)
  
  > [Chapter 4](index_split_007.html#filepos54577)
  
  > [Chapter 5](index_split_008.html#filepos71030)
  
  > [Chapter 6](index_split_009.html#filepos88308)
  
  > [Chapter 7](index_split_010.html#filepos113004)
  
  > [Chapter 8](index_split_011.html#filepos130183)
  
  > [Chapter 9](index_split_012.html#filepos140818)
  
  > [Chapter 10](index_split_013.html#filepos154619)
  
  > [Chapter 11](index_split_014.html#filepos172201)
  
  > [Chapter 12](index_split_015.html#filepos183747)
  
  > [Chapter 13](index_split_016.html#filepos199191)
  
  > [Chapter 14](index_split_017.html#filepos220205)
  
  > [Chapter 15](index_split_018.html#filepos232288)
  
  > [Chapter 16](index_split_019.html#filepos246980)
  
  > [Chapter 