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30669061 | /m/0gh8zvn | Life in the Fat Lane | null | null | null | The novels main character is Lara Ardeche. According to Lara, her family life is perfect because her parents are youthful, beautiful, and involve themselves in every aspect of her and her brother's life. She is elected homecoming queen for her high school, following in her mother's footsteps, and she is her father's "princess". Each morning is a daily routine of waking up in a glamorous home, eating a healthy but delicious home-cooked meal, and working out in her home gym given to the family by their wealthy grandpa. Her best friend Molly is the complete opposite. She is overweight, her family life is a wreck, her nickname is "the Mouth", and has a sarcastic sense of humor. After being elected homecoming queen, Lara notices a rapid weight change. Each week she gains over ten pounds. No matter how much she works out, diets, or even starves herself there is no way around the weight gain. Her thin and perfect mother begs Lara to do anything she can to keep the weight off and her father eventually stops calling her "princess". Every one of Lara's so-called friends abandons her, except for Molly and Lara's boyfriend Jett. Within months, Lara gains 100 pounds. After seeking over fifty medical doctors, she is diagnosed with the rare and incurable disease "Axell-Crowne" syndrome, a severe metabolic disorder. Her relationship with Jett begins to deteriorate, along with her entire family's relationship. Lara's dad announces that he is having an affair. In order to try to hold up the last strings of the family, the family moves to Michigan from Nashville to begin a new start, but Lara is having an even harder time at this high school. People refer to the once 100 pound girl as the "obese girl" and nobody believes that she truly has a rare but severe disease. Lara begins taking piano classes in her new home to occupy her boredom and is introduced to a new group of friends. Once enrolled in the piano classes, she meets some of the most genuine people who do not use looks as a mean of creating friendships. She spends time with a boy who is blind who appreciates Lara for her true self. Lara begins accepting herself and believing in who she is. She has different perceptions on what relationships need to have in order to sustain. The weight is slowly coming off, but Lara finally realizes a thin body is not the key to happiness. |
30672997 | /m/0g9szfr | The Big Question | null | 2007 | null | Contestants compete for the chance to answer a final question which if they answer it correctly will take all their problems away by making them one of the richest people in the world. Downside though is that if they get the question wrong, they are executed in prime time. |
30674714 | /m/0g9vdlr | Beautiful Assassin | null | 3/30/2010 | null | The novel centers on Lieutenant Tat'yana Levchenko, who decides to decides to join the Soviet Army as a sniper after her husband, Nikolai Grigorovich (who is known as Koyla by "those few friends he had") goes missing in action and her daughter, Masha, is killed by Germans in their hometown of Kiev, Ukraine. After Masha's death, Tat'yana desires to become a soldier and boards a train filled with recruits. As she and the recruits change into military gear and uniforms on the train, while some make lewd comments at her, Tat'yana is one of the first to acknowledge that she can fire a gun when asked by a political officer. After killing a cow in a farmer's field, the officer smiles and tells her to "Do the same with the Germans." (page 248) During the Siege of Sevastopol, Tat'yana becomes a Soviet hero when she kills a confirmed 300 Germans, including one called the "King of Death." After being wounded in action (which requires a hysterectomy), Tat'yana is evacuated from the front and while recovering from her injuries is presented with the Gold Star medal, is honored a Hero of the Soviet Union, and receives many letters thank her for her service and bravery. Tat'yana's fame grows to the point that Elanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States, hears of her actions and invites her to America. While in America, Tat'yana becomes friends with Mrs. Roosevelt, along with her interpreter Captain Jack Taylor (real name Charles Pierce), and becomes an unwilling pawn in the efforts of her handler Vasilyev, who wants Tat'yana to get close to the first lady in the hopes of uncovering President Franklin Roosevelt's war intentions. Forced to question the motives of her handler and even her translator and must make the decision of whether to remain in the United States or return to the Soviet Union, then she mysteriously disappears. In the book's epilogue, many decades after her disappearance, an elderly Tat'yana is tracked down by a journalist who revealed her story of her wanting to marry Captain Taylor (who died in a plane crash before the end of the war), learning from him about a Soviet spy network in the United States, a letter from Mrs. Roosevelt after President Roosevelt's death, a photo of Tat'yana and her family, and the log she recorded her kills in. The novel ends with the journalist, whose name is Elizabeth, revealing that she and her husband adopted a Russian girl named Raisa, who Tat'yana remembered rescuing from the Germans in the sewers of Sevastopol during her time as a sniper, but had no knowledge of what happened to her after the war. |
30680313 | /m/0g9w7z_ | Chemmeen | Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai | 1956 | {"/m/050z5g": "Chivalric romance", "/m/07s9rl0": "Drama", "/m/01qxvh": "Romance novel"} | Chembankunju's only aim in life is to own a boat and a net. He finally succeeds in buying both with the help of Pareekutty, a young Muslim trader, on condition that the fish hauled by the boat will be sold to him. Chembankunju s pretty daughter Karuthamma and Pareekutty love each other. Karuthamma s mother, Chakki, knows about it and reminds her daughter about the life they lead within the boundaries of strict social tradition. Karuthamma sacrifices her love for Pareekutty and marries Palani, an orphan discovered by Chembankunju in the course of one of his fishing expeditions. Following the marriage, Karuthamma accompanies her husband to his village, despite her mother s sudden illness and her father s requests to stay. In his fury, Chembankunju disowns her. On acquiring a boat and a net and subsequently adding one more, Chembankunju becomes more greedy and heartless. With his dishonesty, he drives Pareekutty to bankruptcy. After the death of his wife, Chembankunju marries Pappikunju, the widow of the man from whom he had bought his first boat. Panchami, Chembankunju s younger daughter, leaves home to join Karuthama, on arrival of her step mother. Meanwhile, Karuthamma has endeavoured to be a good wife and mother. But scandal about her old love for Pareekutty spreads in the village. Palani s friends ostracize him and refuse to take him fishing with them. By a stroke of fate, Karuthamma and Pareekutty meet one night and their old love is awakened... Palani, at sea alone and baiting a shark, is caught in a huge whirlpool and is swallowed by the sea. Next morning, Karuthamma and Parekutty, are also found dead hand in hand, washed ashore. At a distance, there lies a baited dead shark. |
30681431 | /m/0g9wgg4 | Moshidora | Natsumi Iwasaki | null | null | The story follows Minami Kawashima who, as a favor to her childhood friend, Yuki Miyata, takes over as manager for the Hodokubo High School Baseball team when she is hospitalized with an illness. With no previous experience managing a team, Minami ends up picking up a copy of Peter Drucker's business management book, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, and starts to manage the baseball team like one would manage a business, with the goal of reaching the nationals. |
30688502 | /m/0g9t9xw | The Rising | James Doohan | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | The Rising begins in media res during a conflict between two groups, the Commonwealth and an extremist religious group the Mission Of Life Lived In Ecclesia (commonly referred to as "Mollies") and the Mollies' allies, an alien species known as the Fibians. The basis of the conflict is that the Mollies settled an otherwise worthless sector of the galaxy, later discovered to naturally have extremely rich sources of easily obtainable antihydrogen, an energy particle that is required for the high technology space travel and civilization, and difficult to manufacture artificially. Commander Peter Raeder, formerly a pilot, has been assigned as Chief Engineer on the new fast carrier ship CSF Invincible, a smaller carrier type the Commonwealth hopes to use to preserve their dwindling stockpile of antihydrogen for as long as possible. Shortly after launch, Raeder becomes aware that there is a Mollie sleeper agent aboard performing acts of sabotage to prevent the success of the fast carrier design. After several missions and assorted acts of sabotage, Raeder successfully IDs the sleeper, and manages to prevent the final sabotage, which would have destroyed the entire ship. A sub-plot involving piloting of a Speed, the in-universe space superiority fighter, is that a pilot requires two flesh-and-blood hands to properly interface with the fighter for battle (Raeder had lost a hand prior to the events of The Rising, and though outfitted with a high-tech prosthetic otherwise indistinguishable from a real hand, cannot make the link, the prosthetic's sensory devices being unable to match the delicacy and precision required for interface). Toward the end of the book, Raeder's engineering staff successfully create an interface device that will work even for Raeder, on the basis that injuries such as Raeder's are becoming more common in the conflict, and losing an experienced pilot for such an injury drastically reduces the Commonwealth's pilot pool. |
30688512 | /m/0g9vp1n | The Privateer | S. M. Stirling | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | Fresh from the events of The Rising Commander Peter Raeder is called to a board of inquiry for certain questionable actions during the first missions of the Invincible. When the board seems to be about to send Raeder to a desk job on Earth, a special ops Marine group catches Raeder's interest. In exchange for running a high-risk high-reward undercover assignment, the Marine General will make sure that Raeder regains his position on the Invincible. With little other choice if he wishes to remain in space service, Raeder agrees. Going undercover with other Commonwealth military personnel as a pirate group, Raeder's assignment is to uncover an antihydrogen smuggling ring and gather vital intelligence on the Mollies and their Fibian allies. After successfully completing the assignment, Raeder is re-assigned to the Invincible, though he will have to wait with the rest of the crew as during his assignment the fast carrier was heavily damaged and will require extensive repairs. |
30688520 | /m/0g9wypy | The Independent Command | James Doohan | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | In the final novel of the Flight Engineer series, the crew of the Invincible find themselves in a distant, as yet unexplored by humans, section of the galaxy. There, they find the origin of the Fibian allies who have aided the Mollies so well in their war with the Commonwealth. While they work to unravel the mystery of the Fibians, the Commonwealth is near to running out of antihydrogen completely. Successfully gaining the Fibians as an allied species (themselves divided along a sort of grouping by color, only one color of which actually having allied itself with the Mollies) the Invincible returns to human space just as an otherwise final battle has been fought. The Mollie fleet is completely demolished, but their Fibian allies, despite taking losses of their own, still has roughly a three to one advantage over the Commonwealth. However, with the majority of the Fibian groups allying themselves with the Commonwealth, the Mollies' Fibian allies are quickly overwhelmed and the Commonwealth emerges victorious. |
30692209 | /m/0g9y170 | Durgaastamana | null | null | null | After Kasturi Rangappa Nayaka II dies in 1754 without an heir, 12-year old Madakari Nayaka, son of Bharamappa Nayaka of Jaanakalludurga (a small fort town close to Chitradurga), is named his successor and ascends to the throne. The young king is trained in the art of kingship by KaLLi Narasappayya, the able prime minister of Chitradurga, and Obavvanaagati, mother of Kasturi Rangappa Nayaka II, and soon blossoms into a capable administrator and fearless warrior. His brother, Parashurama Nayaka, meanwhile is trained in the art of prime ministership by Narasappayya. Madakari Nayaka soon faces challenges from neighbouring enemies of Chitradurga such as Rayadurga and HarapanahaLLi, whose rulers have long eyed this fort and try to take advantage of Madakari's youth and relative ineperience and defeat him in battle. However, young Madakari is up to the challenge and leads his forces successfully against the would-be usurpers. Soon, he establishes himself as a kind ruler of his subjects and iron-fisted vanquisher of his enemies. He weds Bangaravva (daughter of the Nayaka of Jarimale) and Padma, while also maintaining a concubinal relationship with a young woman named KaDoori and her sister Nagavva. Meanwhile, Hyder Ali begins extending the empire of Mysore all across South India. He has faced off with the English and the Mughals and only the Marathas are like a thorn in his flesh. He asks for Madakari Nayaka's friendship and assistance in defeating the Marathas. In turn, the Marathas, under Madhava Rao I, also ask for Madakari's help in their campaign against Hyder. Madakari, who leads a pack of BeDa warriors famed for their bravery and ferocity, agrees to help the Marathas (despite being prodded in Hyder's direction by prime minister Narasappayya) and, using his trained warriors, crushes the rulers of several forts in battle, the most famous being the battle of Nijagalhttp://www.sandeepweb.com/2008/10/29/the-battle-of-nijagal. He hands over these forts to the Marathas in exchange for their friendship and money. With time, however, the Marathas become disunited and their internal strife leads to Hyder Ali gaining an upper hand once again. Madakari then begins helping Hyder in several campaigns against the Marathas (this time heeding Narasappayya's advice). It seems that the Chitradurga-Mysore friendship is genuine and strong. Soon, however, the representatives of Hyder Ali in Chitradurga are discovered (by Madakari's brother, Parashurama Nayaka, an apprentice to Narasappayya) to be spying and collecting confidential information about the fort, its strengths and weaknesses, the army, the weapons in the Durga arsenal and other sensitive areas. The spies are punished and Narasappayya, shocked over his failure to nab these culprits, takes responsibility for it and resigns. He leaves for a pilgrimage with his wife as Parashurama Nayaka takes over as prime minister of Chitradurga. Relations between Chitradurga and Mysore slowly begin showing signs of strain. The rest of the novel is about the inexorable progress of the two kingdoms towards an epic confrontation. |
30695205 | /m/0g9z_t4 | Nearer the Moon: From A Journal of Love | Anaïs Nin | 1996 | {"/m/016chh": "Memoir", "/m/02gsv": "Personal journal"} | Anaïs Nin continues her open marriage with Hugh Parker Guiler and her affairs with Henry Miller and Gonzalo Moré, under the shadow of the Spanish Revolution and the approach of World War II. She helps Gonzalo with his Communist and anti-Fascist activities, even though she believes more in literature and personal contact than in politics as a means of progress. Henry's work is already succeeding, and Anaïs's is starting to be published (of course, this will be interrupted by the war). |
30699742 | /m/0g9tzkh | Casper the Commuting Cat | null | 8/5/2010 | {"/m/017fp": "Biography", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/05h83": "Non-fiction"} | Casper the Commuting Cat is the story of an adventurous cat, Casper, that the author, Susan Finden had adopted from a rescue centre in 2002. She describes how Casper liked to wander from her house and was not afraid of people or traffic. Casper used to walk into office blocks and doctors' consulting rooms and find a chair to sleep on. Then he started queuing with people at a bus stop across the road from his house and boarding buses that took his fancy. He would curl up on a seat and go to sleep, and when the bus had completed its 11 mile round-trip to the city centre and returned to his bus stop, the driver would let him off. Casper's commuting habits made him a celebrity and Finden describes the world-wide media attention that she and Casper received. In January 2010 Casper died after being struck by a speeding taxi while crossing the road outside his house. Finden tells how she coped with her loss and the renewed media attention that followed. In addition to covering Casper's exploits, Finden includes in the book a brief story of her own life, and discusses the other cats she had adopted from rescue centres. Also present are several light-hearted chapters "written" by Casper from "the other side" in which he gives advice to other cats on how to handle humans, catch a bus, and deal with the media. |
30700848 | /m/0g9v6sv | Millroy the Magician | Paul Theroux | null | null | The book concerns lonely teenager Jilly Farina and her relationship with Millroy. He is performing and calls her out of the audience and tells her he will train her to be his assistant. Millroy leaves the travelling fair and together with Jilly embarks on a mission to transform the food habits of America; converting them to Bible-based vegetarianism and promising his followers that they will live to be 200. His evangelical fervour is backed up by miraculous tricks but attracts growing opposition. He goes on to create a top-rating television show and chain of 'Day One' diners staffed by young volunteers. But Jilly is becomes increasingly uncomfortable in her role as his muse and confidante... |
30701582 | /m/0g9svkb | What Technology Wants | Kevin Kelly | 2010 | {"/m/05h83": "Non-fiction"} | In his young adulthood Kevin Kelly spent many years traveling remote parts of the developing world, an experience which helped inform his perspective on what he has coined the technium. The opening chapter of What Technology Wants entitled My Question chronicles this period in Kelly's life and gives the reader a sense of how Kelly went from being a nomadic traveler with few possessions to a co-founder of Wired.. Kelly focuses on human-technology relations and argues for the existence of technology as the emerging seventh kingdom of life on earth. What Technology Wants offers the anthropomorphic conception that technology is one giant force — the technium — which Kelly describes as "...a word to designate the greater, global, massively interconnected system of technology vibrating around us". |
30712763 | /m/0gfjm4n | The Mystery of a Hansom Cab | Fergus Hume | 1886 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The story of The Mystery of a Hansom Cab takes place in Melbourne, Australia, and involves an investigation into a homicide where the deceased was discovered in the evening inside of a hansom cab. The city of Melbourne is itself a significant factor in the plot and setting, and is described by the author: "Over all the great city hung a cloud of smoke like a pall." Throughout the novel the influential and secretive Frettlby family is a key element, and it is revealed later in the book that they have an illegitimate daughter living on the streets. The name of the killer himself is not as much of a significant revelation in the story, as is the role of the Frettlby family and their secret. The class divide between the wealthy and less fortunate of the city of Melbourne is juxtaposed throughout the plot. The protagonist in the novel is a law enforcement official named Detective Gorby, who is given the task of solving the murder. |
30712802 | /m/0gfhg28 | Corpsing | null | null | null | Conrad is a television producer who, whilst having lunch with his ex-girlfriend Lily, witnesses her murder and is shot himself by an anonymous assailant. The rest of the novel centres around Conrad's attempts to uncover the identity of Lily's killer and to discover the reasons for her murder. |
30727100 | /m/0gfd6n1 | The Displaced Person | Flannery O'Connor | 1955 | null | The story takes place on a farm in Georgia, just after World War II in the 1940s. The owner of the farm, Mrs. McIntyre, contacts a Catholic priest to find her a "displaced person" to work as a farm hand. The priest finds a Polish refugee named Mr. Guizac who relocates with his family to the farm. Because the displaced person is quite industrious, the Shortlys, a family of white farm hands, feel threatened and try to manipulate Mrs. McIntyre into firing Guizac, but Mrs. McIntyre decides to fire Shortly instead because of his perceived laziness. After the Shortlys leave, Mrs. McIntre misses Mrs. Shortly but finds out she died of a stroke on the day that they left, so she invites Mr. Shortly back instead. When she finds out that Guizac is asking his teenage niece to come to America by marrying one of the African American farm hands, she is appalled and when she eventually goes to fire him, a tractor rolls over his body. |
30734135 | /m/0gfdkz9 | Dandelion Fire | N. D. Wilson | 5/1/2009 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Despite the restriction the Willises had put on them for opening any more cupboards, which lies on the attic wall, Henry's and Henrietta's curiosity got the best of them. Unfortunately, when Henrietta was searching for the skeleton key, of which she was hiding from her little sibling, Anastasia, Henry was struck by a bolt of lightning and lost consciousness. Luckily, even though Henry was struck blind after the incident, he was uninjured with nothing but a scar on the palm of his hand. Henrietta was sceptical, and thought that Henry was faking his blindness. But, again, she was actually unsure of herself. Henry was immediately rushed to a hospital, but his symptoms weren't as severe as a victim getting struck by an authentic lightning bolt. On the other hand, faithful Richard assured them that Henry will never have failed his courage and exaggerate, unless if he wasn't acting and was injured. After the bumpy ride home, Henry was left alone to rest in his room. When Henry woke up, his skin felt all flaky, and the burn in his jaw, caused by the blood of Nimiane, singed his cranium. He then started to devise a plan involving Richard, instead of Henrietta, to travel with him through the cupboards in a search for his birth parents. While he was explaining his plan to Richard, Henrietta, secretly, listened in on their conversation. She couldn't feel but betrayed that her own cousin would not let her go with him. She decided to get back at Henry by grabbing Richard as he makes his way through the landing the next time he comes. Unfortunately, both of their brainstorming fails as Henry and Richard was abducted by Darius, an evil wizard. Impatiently, Henrietta waited for Richard until she was determined to go through the door from her grandfather's room to the secret realm herself. There, she was kidnapped by two short, but extremely strong men, and was taken to Magdalene, queen to the FitzFaeren. She wanted Henrietta to retrieve the three stolen items from her deceased grandfather, or if she refuses, Henrietta will be held as a prisoner as long as the objects used to thwart the evil Nimiane are regained. Henrietta absconded the queen's grasp by flinging herself out of a window. Cold and hungry, Henrietta followed a stream to Eli FitzFaeren's house. Henry was to be bearing Darius's mark, so that Darius and Henry can be branded by the same symbol, before Henry's christening, a ceremony in which the naming of the child occurs. What was unexpected in Darius's scheme was that the surgeon who was supposed to stigmatize them together felt pity for Henry, so he let Henry escape by drugging himself. When Darius entered the room, he was outraged by the boy's breakaway, when Henry was actually still in the room, only concealed by the door. Darius supposed that Henry had retreated back to Kansas, through the dimension he was from. Therefore, Darius used Richard as a ransom to the Willises for Henry. Meanwhile, Henry tried to slide through the pipe of the building, just in case if Darius was still in the premises from within. On the last flight of pipes, Henry fell, flying through the air, unable to cling onto anything sturdy. When he regained consciousness, he was on a bed in a draped room and sitting in front of him are a kind couple who rescued him from the incident. After, Henry was nurtured back to health, he went to the post office to go back through a cupboard and return to Kansas. But, when he arrived, nobody was there, and there was a note from Frank explaining what had happened when Darius had made an appearance and started torturing them. Meanwhile, Darius was called by the queen |
30734195 | /m/0gff6yd | The Chestnut King | N. D. Wilson | 3/1/2010 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The story begins with Henry and Zeke playing baseball, a favorite pastime of theirs, outside the Willis barn. While playing two police officers encounter them; since Henry should be a missing person, he attempts to escape. In the confusion Henry escapes to Hylfing, his home city in his family home where he encounters Henrietta to find that Mordecai, his father, is gone but Caleb, Mordecai's older twin brother, Henry's uncle is there. The next morning Henry meets his older brother James, who is home from the capital city of the Empire which Hylfing belongs in, Dumarre. Mordecai and Franklin Fat-Faerie arrive, Frank tells them that he is about to be de-faerened, similar to an execution, for helping Henry break a spell. During this, Grandmother Anastasia gives the following information: Henry York Maccabee, Ten fingers will find you. Two are tapping at the gate. Following, Henry has a dream of his Uncle frank being assassinated by a man who would be identified as Coradin, as well he has a vision of Nimiane. After he has the dream, Richard comes and explains his feelings for Una, to Henry's great amusement. After Richard departs, Mordecai comes and speaks to Henry about his scar, given to him by Nimiane. The following day, Henry is awoken by Henrietta to find out that an Imperial Liaison captured Frank, Hyacinth, and Monmouth. After that Henry and Fat Frank cause trouble with some imperial troopers, following, Henry has his first encounter with Coradin. Meanwhile, Frank, Hyacinth, and Monmouth, are in the Lord Mayor's office, Roderick has an argument with Frank and James, who is a worker on the Imperial Galley. Roderick orders his troopers to take them to the galley. In Endor, Nimiane senses that Moedecai is there. |
30738463 | /m/0gfg1nc | Bring Home the Revolution | Jonathan Freedland | 1998 | {"/m/05qt0": "Politics", "/m/05h83": "Non-fiction"} | Journalist and broadcaster Jonathan Freedland takes a meandering tour through the stubbornly varied states and regions of the United States of America meeting people of all racial and cultural persuasions and of all religious and political beliefs in his effort to build an accurate picture of modern American society and the ways in which these people can and often do affect the way politics is carried out in their country, both locally and nationally. From these encounters Freedland learns the values of a republican government and how these values can be brought back across the Atlantic to Britain and benefit the very people who first created many elements of this republican ideology. |
30740142 | /m/0gfc_34 | Six Records of a Floating Life | null | null | null | In the Wedded Bliss, the author mainly puts the focus on his wife Chen Yun as showing his sorrow to beauty. Chen Yun’s is not so beautiful, but she pursues beauty by nature. She takes painting and embroidering as a necessity to composing poem and regards the simple life as the ideal situation. Shen Fu treats her like a close friend who can share with his hobbies and feelings, but the idea is not recognized by the orthodox society, which only remains as the author’s yearning for beauty. The Little Pleasures of Life gives a vivid description of the leisure time activities of Shen Fu: his joys of his childhood, his adult life cultivating flowers, and the experiences of composing poems with other scholars. He tends to be close to nature in childhood and takes delight in nature. While in the adulthood, he has very little time to focus on nature, and is often chained to worldly possessions. Many of the episodes are involved with discussions of aesthetic experiences, which are really worthy of careful thinking. In Sorrow, Shen Fu points out that most of his life frustrations are out of his uprightness and his commitment to words. Though this chapter opens with the author’s own sorrow, actually its large content deals with the bumpy life of Chen Yun which is also due her characters. The content is full of the author’s endless love for his wife and resentment to the unfaire fate. The Joys of Travel not only portrays beautiful scenic spots the author had visited but also records anecdotes, local customs and historical allusions. Different from others, the author holds the belif that the gaining of experience counts rather than having a rough view and following what others said. |
30745488 | /m/0gffhy7 | A Momentary Taste of Being | James Tiptree, Jr | 1975 | null | Taking place in a world where the excessive human population (confirmed to be at least 20 billion, and speculated to be at or approaching 30 billion) necessitates an interstellar search for a habitable planet, the story centers on the experiences of Dr. Aaron Kaye, resident psychiatrist of Centaur, the second relativistic starship sent by the United Nations for this endeavor. The ship's crew—composed of more than 60 men and women from varying countries, each specializing in (often overlapping) scientific fields, chosen also on social and sexual bases—has discovered a planet potentially capable of supporting human life. A team consisting primarily of the ship's Chinese population had been sent to investigate the promising world, and Lory Kaye, Aaron's younger sister, a biologist, is the only crew member to return from that mission. Upon her return, Lieutenant Tighe, a member of the ship's EVA crew came into contact with samples brought back by Lory and was subsequently incapacitated. As the story begins, several crew members are in quarantine, including Aaron, Lory and Tighe, as a trial is underway to determine the nature of Tighe's malady, the truth of what happened on the planet and why Lory is the only returning member. Lory insists that the planet is a paradise, and that the Chinese decided to start a colony rather than return to the ship. Given that someone would need to return to spread the discovery and decision, it was logical that she, as a non-Chinese, be the one to do so. She also claims that the sample she brought back is completely harmless and that Tighe's condition must be the result of a previous impairment; it is later revealed to the reader that Tighe had been involved in an accident three years before, during which an oxygen tank had nearly beheaded him, leaving a lasting dent at his parietal arch, validating her assessment. Though relentlessly interrogated by safety officer Francis Xavier Foy, Aaron trusts his sister's account, seeing nothing physically indicating dishonesty neither by observation nor in the monitoring instruments. Yellaston, the ship's commander, attempts to maintain civility within Foy's inquiry, reprimanding him when the questions become too abrasive or repetitive, and allowing Lory the time she needs to respond. Ironically, it is when Lory finally gives an answer which seems to placate Foy that Aaron becomes suspicious of her story: throughout their lives, Lory has shown indignation whenever the vulgarities of human existence were concerned. Wherever she encountered violence, jealousy, dishonesty, etc., she would decry these incidents and those perpetrating the acts as inhuman. Yet, she lets slip that there had been a quarrel amongst the Chinese, and that in deference to their culture, she had agreed to delete the record so as not to dishonor their lapse of solidarity. Convinced that this explains every question, Foy agrees that Lory can be released, and that the alien specimen, reportedly a fungus of some sort, can be safely examined. Despite his uncertainty, Aaron's release from quarantine distracts him with the quotidian as well as the unusual. During the period of Tighe's sedation and quarantine, multiple crew members have reported to seeing him wandering the ship, somewhat transparent, but recognizable. While investigating these sightings, and dealing with his own increasing nightmares, as well as reawakened sexual feelings toward his sister (with whom he had been sexually involved during their teens), he also must contend with the growing disharmony among the crew, the promise of a new land reviving old xenophobic and nationalist tendencies. Discovering that he is in competition with Coby (who always seems in the know), a fellow medical professional, for the crew's trust, and Bustamente, the imposingly large, black chief of communications, for his girlfriend (Bustamente having placed her third in his list of potential mates once the crew disembarks), Aaron's anxiety grows. To his relief, Aaron learns that Yellaston, also, is not totally convinced by Lory's story, and that the commander wishes to take every precaution when examining the alien specimen, as well as to wait before sending the green light back to Earth. However, during the examination, a strange attraction draws the more and more crew members to the luminescent alien sample, until only Aaron and Lory are left. It is at this point that Lory tells Aaron that she returned with the specimen after seeing that contact with it reduced the Chinese crew members into perfect humans -— beings devoid of the basest urges and instincts which drive the species to self destruction. Selflessly resisting its overwhelming pull, she returned with it so that she and her brother might share their union with the pure light. In actuality, however, contact with the specimen leaves each exposed crew member markedly changed, in a seeming state of emotional detachment and confusion. Having succeeded in her mission to expose the rest of the crew, Lory, too, finally gives in to the fatal attraction to the alien; Aaron is also irresistibly drawn but before he can reach the creature in the lander, another crew member leaves with the vessel. Aaron is left the only one not altered, unable to satisfy his urge to go to the light. The changed humans retain something of their old selves, as occurred with Tighe, and it is through the ramblings of Coby that Aaron determines what the alien specimen must actually have been, and what that makes human beings. The story ends with an increasingly intoxicated Aaron Kaye recording his musings on the appearance and disappearance of ghostly apparitions of the other crew members (explaining the Tighe sightings), the dwindling crew population, the repercussions of his theory and his desperation regarding both his choice to resist the lure and the ultimate insignificance of the entire human race. |
30747419 | /m/0gfghs_ | Fontamara | Ignazio Silone | 1933 | null | One night, three people from Fontamara - a mother, father and son - tell an exiled writer about various things which had happened in their village. The writer decides to turn these into a book. The mother, father and son therefore become the narrators, though the majority of the book is narrated by the father. Cav. Pelino arrives in the village and tricks the cafoni to sign a petition which would deviate the watercourse away from Fontamara and therefore away from the fields in which they work. The Fontamaresi are initially reluctant but they do sign the blank pieces of paper he gives them. He places another sheet on the top of the pile which says The undersigned, in support of the above, supply their signatures spontaneously, voluntarily and with enthusiasm for cav. Pelino ( p. 37). On their way to the fields the men see workers deviating the watercourse. A boy delivers the news to the village and the women go to the regional capital city in order to protest. They don’t realize that under the new regime the sindaco (mayor) is now the podestà and are taken to the house of the Impresario (a wealthy businessman) where, after much deliberation and fruitless trips elsewhere to find him, they are once again deceived, because Don Circonstanza and the Impresario persuade them to accept a three-quarter/three-quarter split of the water. The Impresario has also taken the tratturo (flat land owned by the community which is used for migration of sheep). Berardo Viola wanted to emigrate to America but cannot due to new emigration laws. He had sold his land to don Circonstanza to fund his trip but now has no land, known as il cafone senza terra (the peasant without land) and is unemployed and, because of his pride, feels unfit to marry Elvira – a Madonna-like character whom he loves. ( p. 102). Cav. Pelino informs the government that the Fontamaresi not cooperating (through ignorance) with the new Fascist regime and Innocenzo la Legge comes to impose a curfew, which will severely inhibit their work, and forbid talk of politics in public places. Berardo makes a speech against Innocenzo who is humiliated and who then spends the night with Marietta. The cafoni are summoned to a meeting in Avezzano to discuss the matter of Fucino (an extremely fertile area of land), and are yet again deceived when instead of having a discussion, the land is taken from them and given to the rich ( p. 130). Some of them miss the truck home and meet a man who takes them to a tavern and offers to help them with their uprising and bring them weapons but, whilst he is gone, the Solito Sconosciuto approaches them to warn them they are being set up. Back at Fontamara, trucks of Fascist soldiers arrive and gang rape the women of Fontamara whilst the men are working in the fields. When the men return the Fascists question them, asking Long Live who? but the Fontamaresi don't know what answer they are supposed to give. The attackers see Elvira at the bell tower, mistake her for the Madonna and flee. Berardo and Giuva find Elvira and Matala at the top of the bell tower. Berardo picks Elvira up in his arms, takes her home and spends the night with her. In the morning he is even more determined to marry her, and Giuva thinks the only way Berardo could earn enough money to buy some land is buy getting a job in town. The Impresario buys the cafoni's wheat whilst it is still green for 120 lire a hundredweight, knowing that the prices are about to be increased under a new law to 170 lire and therefore makes a substantial profit which should have gone to the Fontamaresi. He also introduces wage reductions which reduce wages to 40% and 25% for land-betterment work. Don Circonstanza tricks them again, telling them that the water will be returned not after 50 years but after 10 lustri (5-year periods) ( p. 181-2), as the ‘’cafoni’’ don’t know what a lustro is. The younger people of Fontamara want Berardo to rebel with them but he refuses. Teofilo, one of Berardo's young followers, hangs himself from the bell rope at the belltower. Berardo and the younger narrator go to Rome, looking for work. They enlist the help of lawyer Don Achille Pazienza, a guest at the Locanda del Buon Ladrone (The Good Thief's Inn) ( p.200) who also tries to exploit them. Whilst they are in Rome they find out through a telegram that Elvira has died. They meet the Solito Sconosciuto once more and go to a café where they are set up by the police and arrested for having clandestine papers against the Fascist regime. Both the young narrator and Berardo are tortured in prison and Berardo sacrifices himself, pretending he is the Solito Sconosciuto in order for the rebellion to continue and so that people hear about what has happened in Fontamara. The Solito Sconosciuto publishes an article Long Live Berardo Viola which tells the story of Fontamara and he passes on printing equipment (the duplicating machine) to the ‘’Fontamaresi’’ so they can start their own local anti-Fascist newspaper, which they call Che fare? (What are we to do?) (see Lenin's work What Is To Be Done? or in Italian Che Fare?). The three narrators go to visit the wife's family in San Giuseppe to celebrate the son's release and distribute papers there. On their way home they hear gunshots, and a passerby informs them there's a war at Fontamara. Almost everyone has died those who could, fled. Those who could, escaped. They then cross the border with the help of the Solito Sconosciuto. |
30750639 | /m/0gfdh1x | A Gate at the Stairs | Lorrie Moore | 2009 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The novel’s main character is Tassie Keltjin. At age 20, Keltjin is attending a major university identified only as the “Athens of the Midwest.” When the novel opens, she is looking for a job as a nanny. With no real childcare experience, she finds that the only mother willing to hire her is Sarah Brink. The hitch is that Sarah does not yet actually have a child. This doesn’t stop her from hiring Keltjin anyway. Soon Tassie finds herself embroiled in the Brink family's attempts to adopt a bi-racial child who eventually goes by the name “Emmie.” Now a college student and a nanny, Tassie starts a relationship with a man named Reynaldo whom she met in one of her classes. Reynaldo tells her that he is Brazilian. She thinks it's odd that when he purports to use Portuguese, he actually speaks Spanish. Later, Reynaldo ends the affair, informing her that he is suspected of terrorist activities and must disappear. In saying goodbye, Reynaldo tells her he is not actually Brazilian. When she asks where he is from, he answers "Hoboken, New Jersey." Though Reynaldo denies being part of a cell he says that "It is not the jihad that is the wrong thing. It is the wrong things that are the wrong things" and then he quotes Muhammed. The Brink family's adoption proceedings go awry when it is discovered that the Brinks lost their biological child many years earlier in a bizarre highway accident. It emerges that Edward punished his son for insubordinate behavior by making him get out of the car at a highway rest stop. The boy then walked onto the highway where he was killed by an oncoming vehicle. Tassie mourns the loss of Emmie who is taken back into foster care. Within a few weeks, she is also mourning the death of her brother Robert. Having failed to succeed academically and be accepted to a good, four-year college, Robert enlists in the United States Army and attends boot camp at Fort Bliss. He is killed in Afghanistan almost immediately after boot camp. Tassie blames herself for his death when she discovers, amidst her email, an unread note from him asking for her advice on whether to join the army. The Keltjins are further devastated when the army issues multiple and conflicting accounts of how Robert died. Tassie spends a few chapters of the novel recuperating from life’s slings and arrows at her parents’ small farm, but she returns to college the next year. The novel closes on a telephone call in which Sara Brink’s husband Edward tells Tassie that he and his wife have split up. He then invites Tassie to have dinner with him. Tassie addresses the reader directly, saying she declined to meet him even for a cup of coffee and the novel ends on the words, “I learned that much in college.” There are multiple theories about the meaning of the book’s title. Michael Gorra writes that it refers to the child safety gates that people put at the top of staircases to keep children from toppling down the stairs. Michiko Kakutani, on the other hand, believes the book’s title refers to a song Tassie wrote which includes the lyric “I’d climb up that staircase/past lions and bears,/but it’s locked/at the foot of the stairs.” However, there is also a gate at the front of the Brink house that takes on symbolic significance as Tassie first approaches the house. The gate is slightly off its hinges, and Tassie notes mentally “it should have communicated itself as something else: someone’s ill-disguised decrepitude, items not cared for properly but fixed repeatedly in a make-do fashion, needful things having gotten away from their caregiver.” |
30757387 | /m/0gfhgcy | Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance | Marion Chesney | 2004 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/028v3": "Detective fiction"} | In Paris on holiday Agatha is relieved of her wallet in what she calls the Paris Incident, and the attitude of the Paris Police nudges her into setting up her own detective agency. She finds an office in Mircester. Her new neighbour in what was James Lacey’s cottage, Emma Comfrey, applies for the job of secretary in the office, and, uncharactistically assertive, gets it. She has retired from the Ministry of Defence, where she has survived a Superglue investigation when she sabotages a popular colleagues’ computer. It turns out she is unbalanced and devious, with a vindictive nature when slighted. She gets a crush on Sir Charles Fraith, so aims to kill Agatha when Charles goes off with Agatha instead. The agency’s first case is a missing cat, and the second is to guard a divorcée’s daughter, Cassandra, who has received a death threat. It turns out that her ex-husband Jeremy Laggat-Brown has supplied bomb timers to terrorists including the Provos, and is in love with Felicity Felliet who wants to recover her ancestral home which Mrs Laggat-Brown now has. Jeremy’s real target is his ex-wife. He engages a Provisional IRA hitman Johnny Mulligan to kill Agatha. The jealous Emma Comfort poisons Agatha’s coffee with rat poison, which kills Mulligan who is waiting in her home to shoot her. Later Agatha is nearly gassed by Felicity. Finally after Emma is certified she escapes and goes to Agatha’s cottage, but is shot by Felicity Felliet who also wants to shoot Agatha (but has not met her). Agatha falls in love with Sir Charles Fraith again, and with the chief suspect, Jeremy Laggat-Brown. But she finds out that Harrison Peterson’s death is murder not suicide, and disproves Jeremy Laggat-Brown’s alibi - he has hired a drunken dropout to impersonate him in Paris. Inspector Fother of the Special Branch says he is .... damned if the papers are going to know that some dotty female from a provincial detective agency cracked a case that the Special Branch could not. |
30757898 | /m/0gffw_6 | Conan the Valiant | Roland J. Green | null | {"/m/0dz8b": "Sword and sorcery", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Conan the Valiant is set in Turan where a 22 year old Conan is recovering from his victory over the Cult of Doom (found in Robert Jordan's Conan the Unconquered). Not surprisingly, Conan finds himself involved in court intrigue and joins forces with a sword maiden Raihna and her employer the sorcerer Illyana in an effort to both keep out of Mughra Khan's dungeon and stop the growing menace of the magic user Eremius. Using one of the Jewels of Kurag—the other is held by Illyana—Eremius has command over a growing army of the Transformed, one-time humans who are turned into reptilian demons, and is looking to conquer large parts of Turan. The combination of local villagers, Conan's sword, and Illyana's magic destroy Eremius and the twin Jewels. |
30758555 | /m/0gfhbpt | The Sun, the Genome and the Internet | Freeman Dyson | 1999 | {"/m/05h83": "Non-fiction", "/m/06mq7": "Science"} | Professor Dyson suggests that three rapidly advancing technologies, Solar Energy, Genetic Engineering and World-Wide Communication together have the potential to create a more equal distribution of the world's wealth. Amongst other things he proposes that solar power in the Third World could connect even the most remote areas to all of the information on the internet, potentially ending the cultural isolation of the poorest countries. Likewise, breakthroughs in genetics could lead to more efficient crops, thereby engendering the renewed vitality of traditional village life, currently devalued by the global market. |
30767858 | /m/0gffyz4 | Chanakya's Chant | Ashwin Sanghi | 2010 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The year 340 BC. A hunted, haunted Brahmin youth vows revenge for the gruesome murder of his beloved father. Cold, calculating, cruel and armed with complete absence of accepted morals, he becomes the most powerful political strategist in Bharat and succeeds in uniting a ragged country against the invasion of the army of that demigod, Alexander the great. Pitting the weak edges of both forces against each other, he pulls off a wicked and astonishing victory and succeeds in installing Chandragupta on the throne of the mighty Mauryan empire. History knows him as the brilliant strategist Chanakya. Satisfied-and a little bored-by his success as a kingmaker through the simple summoning of his gifted mind, he recedes into the shadows to write Arthashastra, the science of wealth. But history, which exults in repeating itself, revives Chanakya two and a half millennium later, in the form of Gangasagar Mishra, a Brahmin teacher in a small town of India who becomes a puppteer to a host of ambitious individuals-including a certain slum child who grows up to be a beautiful and a powerful woman. Modern India happens to be just as riven as ancient bharat by class hatred, corruption and divisive politics and this happens to be Gangasagar's feasting ground. Can this wily pandit, who preys on greed, venality and sexual deviance-bring about another miracle of a united India. Will the Chanakya Chant work again? |
30769405 | /m/0gffw4n | The Last Dragonslayer | Jasper Fforde | null | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | The story begins with 15-year-old Jennifer Strange, who is filling in for the missing manager of Kazam, an employment agency for magicians. There are prophecies that the last dragon will soon die, meaning that the dragon's territory is up for grabs. Trying to find the truth of the matter, she finds the official Dragonslayer and is pushed into becoming his apprentice. And from there it gets worse. |
30774504 | /m/0gff0p7 | Patient Zero: A Joe Ledger Novel | null | null | null | The story follows a Baltimore detective who is recruited into the Department of Military Sciences (DMS) and has to fight terrorists and flesh-eating zombies created by a pathogen called "Sword of the Faithful". Sword of the Faithful is a parasite that infects the brain with Prion protein. DMS is very short-handed because "Bravo" team and "Charlie" Team were wiped out in an outbreak at a hospital, and the protagonist, Joe Ledger, is installed as the head of the new "Echo" Team. Meanwhile, a Middle East terrorist group led by El Mujahid is developing new, faster-acting strains of the disease. The funding for the new strains is coming from a pharmaceutical company called Gen2000. |
30774799 | /m/0gk_h4d | Rosie Winter - Winter in June | null | null | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery"} | Rosie Winter and best friend Jane pack their bags and head for San Francisco to catch a boat to the South Pacific. While waiting in line for the boat they find out that a woman has been found murdered and floating in the bay. This delays their boarding on the ship and allows Rosie time to think about the girl and what might have caused the woman to meet her untimely fate in the water. Rosie does not know that Irena Zinn, the body in the water, would be so closely related to her coming new friends and her trip. Once aboard a once luxurious cruise ship, now turned navy vassal for the war effort, Rosie and Jane meet the rest of their tour mates and the A Class star who will be their USO den mother. Cast of characters ends up being a bitter comedian named Violet and a shy singer named Kay. The A Class star is none other than Hollywood’s own Gilda DeVane. Rosie and James main mission for going to the pacific, is not to entertain the troops, although that is plus. They are going to see if they can see about Jack and his mysterious disappearance after the mysterious capsizing of his navy vessel on a mission. When they, finally, hit the Islands they start performing in the shows and hoping from Island to Island. The search for answer as to what happened to Jack takes some time to develop but an old voice lends Rosie some new information. Peaches aka Paul Ascot whom Rosie meet Prior at the Stage Door Canteen in New York City had been providing Rosie with information and shows up on the island with Billy, Jane’s new squeeze. Rosie finds out that Jack is dead chased into the water by military police. However, this might not be her final word on Jackand his disaprancJ. Through adventure and mishap Rosie unravels the mystery of what happened to jack, as well as, the mystery of Irena Zinn and how she ended up floating in The Bay of San Francisco. |
30777995 | /m/0gfhx3c | Memory | Lois McMaster Bujold | 1996 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | During a routine combat mission, Miles suffers an epileptic-like seizure, a lingering side effect of his recent death and cryo-revival. During the fit, his plasma arc is activated and he accidentally severs the legs of the courier he was sent to rescue. Terrified of the possible consequences if he lets his condition reach the ears of Simon Illyan, he falsifies the mission report to cover it up. However, Illyan has spies in place among his crew, Miles is caught out in his lies, and he is forced to resign from ImpSec. He is plunged into a state of deep depression. Meanwhile, Emperor Gregor, after years of refusing to marry any of the tall, slim, eligible Barrayaran ladies paraded in front of him by Alys Vorpatril, unexpectedly falls in love with a short, voluptuous Komarran, Laisa Toscane, a wealthy heiress and member of a Komarran economic delegation. Unfortunately, she was already in the sights of Duv Galeni, now an ImpSec commodore and friend of Miles. Being from Komarr brings Galeni under suspicion during later events. When Illyan suffers a sudden, crippling mental impairment, Miles suspects it is not natural. His attempts to investigate are blocked by ImpSec's acting chief, so he asks Gregor to assign an Imperial Auditor (a top-level troubleshooter with practically unlimited authority and answerable only to the Emperor). Gregor unexpectedly makes Miles himself a temporary Auditor. After Miles unravels the devious crime in remarkably quick time, his appointment is made permanent. Duv Galeni is cleared, becoming ImpSec's new Head of Komarran Affairs, and he discovers love in the form of Delia Koudelka. |
30778144 | /m/040_5d2 | A Civil Campaign | Lois McMaster Bujold | 1999 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | An Imperial wedding is afoot, and love is in the air; Gregor and Laisa are finally to be married. Lady Alys Vorpatril, Ivan's mother, is put in charge of all the arrangements. Miles tackles the task of wooing Ekaterin in his typically deranged fashion: he does everything he can to avoid letting her know that he might just like her, fearful that her previous experience has put her off marriage for life. To let him see her frequently, and knowing of her ambition to become a gardener, he hires her to design a garden for Vorkosigan House. His brother Mark also has relationship problems: he is in love with the warm, empathetic Kareen Koudelka, but her parents disapprove of him, and while this did not seem to bother her on Beta Colony, the sexual mores of Barrayar are much stricter, and she feels that she has to keep their relationship a secret from her family and live chastely while under their roof. A significant subplot involves Mark's profit-inspired theft from a laboratory on Escobar of an engineered insect called the "butter bug," capable of converting waste vegetation into nutritious, edible ... bug vomit. Everything goes horribly wrong when Miles hosts a dinner party. Butter bugs and "bug butter" plague both aesthetics and digestion. A still-recovering Simon Illyan inadvertently blurts out Miles' not-so-secret (except to the intended target) courting of Ekaterin. She walks out after he panics and asks her to marry him. Meanwhile, Kareen's parents forbid her to have anything to do with Mark after they find out that he took her to the Orb of Unearthly Delights, a notorious Betan pleasure palace. The debacle has wider consequences. Two seats on the Council of Counts are up for grabs, one because the incumbent died, the other because the current Count Vorbretten has been found to be part Cetagandan, dating back to the days of the occupation. The seat (and Countship) of the late Pierre Vorrutyer is being contested by a distant cousin, Richars, and the previous Count's sister, Donna, who has undergone gender reassignment surgery on Beta Colony, becoming a fully functional man, Lord Dono, in order to better qualify as a potential Count. As his father's Deputy, Miles is courted by both sides. Richars makes an ill-advised attempt to use Tien's suspicious death as leverage. For security reasons, Miles is unable to defend himself with regard to the Komarran incident. Lord Dono, who as Donna taught Ivan Vorpatril "everything he knew", uses Ivan to recruit his own support among the counts, gaining Miles's vote after Richars's blunder. When Ekaterin finds out about the rumors, she is forced to consult Miles. Miles offers to take the blame, to spare Ekaterin and her son, but she refuses to let him. Somewhat reconciled, they set out to solve their problems, defeat their enemies and ascertain her true feelings. Mark's and Kareen's problems are solved after Miles advises Mark to utilize a most effective weapon: their mother Cordelia. She soon has Kareen's parents cowed and amenable. Miles's troubles culminate in a tumultuous Council session where dirty tricks abound. This results in defeat for the enemy and the very public betrothal of Miles and Ekaterin. The Imperial wedding goes off with only a minor hitch. At the Imperial wedding reception, Miles meets an old, respected acquaintance, ghem-General Dag Benin, who subtly lets him know that the Cetagandans are aware that he and Admiral Naismith are one and the same. Like its predecessor, this novel tells its story from the viewpoints of both Miles and Ekaterin, on occasion smoothly switching from one to the other during a given scene. There are also the viewpoints of Mark, Kareen Koudelka, and even Ivan Vorpatril, whose interior life has not been described at all before this. |
30781122 | /m/0gfg8kn | Sea Lord | Bernard Cornwell | null | null | John Rossendale is the current Earl of Stowey. After the death of Johnny's father (some time before the book begins), the family had to sell almost everything, to pay the death duties on the estate. Johnny's mother's only goal being to hold on to the family seat, at Stowey Manor. Johnny having grown up with boats and not wanting to be involved in family affairs, left to sail the world with his best friend Charlie. Four years before our story beings, Johnny and Charlie, had got as far as Australia before bad news demanded their return to England. So after selling their boat they flew home. Johnny's elder brother, unable to cope with the stress from constantly fighting creditors in an attempt to hold on to the family home, had committed suicide. John had inherited the Earldom of Stowey, with all its troubles. Johnny, the irresponsible younger brother, returned home only to fall right in the middle of the storm. His mother had decided the only option was to sell their last remaining significant asset, a painting of Sunflowers by Van Gogh. Only before the sale can be completed, the painting is stolen. Johnny, under the weight of circumstantial evidence, is assumed to be the thief, only the police decide they cannot prove it. Johnny decided to do what he does best and go back to sea, to run away from it all. The story begins with Johnny, recalled to England again to attend his mother's deathbed. The threads of the story twist between the flawed hero Johnny; his twin sister, who has never forgiven her brother for arriving ten minutes before her, and who wants nothing but to regain the respect and position due her family; Georgina, his youngest, mentally retarded sister, whom he adores; Jennifer the gorgeous stepdaughter of a very rich art collector who will pay anything to get Van Gogh's Sunflowers on his wall and Charlie, Johnny's oldest and dearest friend. |
30781462 | /m/0gfjd23 | Lord of Souls | Gregory Keyes | 9/17/2011 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Like its predecessor The Infernal City, the novel Lord of Souls takes places about 40 years after the events of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles, and some 160 years prior to the events of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Annaig is again promoted after introducing new ideas and dishes into Umbriel's court, and eventually tricks a rival kitchen into confirming she recreated their secret ingredient, also condemning Slyr, her assistant, to death after Slyr repeatedly tries to poison and murder her. Her mood further darkens after Mere-Glim is caught and killed while attempting to lead the skraws in another raid. Sul and Attrebus, captured by Malacath, escape and resume the search for Umbra, and are led to a fort where the current wielder of Umbra has been buried alive after the sword drove him immediately insane. |
30810053 | /m/0gfjh2m | Le lieutenant de Kouta | null | 1979 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Lieutenant Siriman Keita has returned from a long service in the French Colonial Army (during which he was awarded the Croix de guerre) to Kouta, a market village near his smaller home village of Kouroula. In Kouta, he at first plots to ascend to the canton chiefdom while avoiding his envious older brother, Faganda. However, his plans are scrapped when he humiliates himself in a horse-riding accident before the village, and he withdraws to his fortress-like "square house." After a time, he adopts a fatherless boy who he had once punished for stealing, and marries Awa, a Senegalese woman of questionable reputation. Disaster strikes the lieutenant again, however, when the French commandant incites him to lead a punitive expedition against the pro-independence village of Woudi. When the expedition fails, the lieutenant is stripped and humiliated before the people of Kouta and, after the commandant denies his own involvement, is sent to jail in the country's capital for disturbing the peace. He returns to find Awa pregnant by a young pro-independence activist, but having changed during his incarceration, the lieutenant forgives her betrayal and adopts the coming child as his own. He reconciles with the imam of the local mosque, formerly a bitter enemy, and eventually becomes the village muezzin, only to die mysteriously following an injection by his envious brother. The imam does him the honor of burying him in the mosque, while the French administrators, concerned by the example of his conversion, hastily and posthumously award him the Legion of Honour. |
30819547 | /m/0gfds3l | The Lad and the Lion | Edgar Rice Burroughs | null | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | When the king of a small European country is murdered by conspirators, his young grandson and heir Prince Michael is spirited away by a faithful retainer, carrying out the orders of the dead king, who had wind of what might be afoot. The diverging fates of Michael and his former country then unfold in parallel, in alternating chapters. The ship the prince is put aboard is wrecked in a storm and he is injured and swept overboard. Climbing aboard an empty lifeboat, he is rescued by an mad, epileptic old man piloting a tramp steamer. Also aboard is a caged lion. The old man beats the prince and tortures the lion, keeping them prisoner on the craft for years. Michael, his memory gone, makes friends with the lion, which ultimate breaks free and kills their tormentor. The steamer, now adrift, eventually strikes shore on the coast of northern Africa. The lad and the lion live and hunt together in the wild at the margin of the jungle and desert. Eventually they encounter a band of Arabs, whose flocks they prey on. They rescue Nakhla, daughter of the Arabs' chieftain Sheik Ali-Es-Hadji, from marauders and return her to the band. Afterward she meets with Michael secretly, dissuading him from raiding her people and gradually teaching him how to speak and dress as an Arab, shoot, and ride a horse. As he cannot even remember his own name, she dubs him Aziz. The lion, meanwhile, has taken up with a lioness, giving Michael two lion friends. Eventually the Arab warrior Ben Saada, who desires Nakhla, discovers her meetings with Michael and informs her father. The two proceed to separate the pair, the sheik by forbidding Nakhla to visit him, and Ben Saada by lying to Michael that she has married another and is no longer interested in him. Afterward Michael encounters two Arabs who have abducted another girl, Marie, daughter of a French officer. He saves her and returns her to the French camp while his lions dispatch her captors. There, as the guest of her father Colonel Joseph Vivier, he learns French and tells his story to his new friends. His past prior to his sojourn on the steamer is still a blank to him. Later, visiting the Arab camp in their company, he meets Nakhla again, but she, seeing him with Marie, will have nothing to do with him. This hardly frees him to court Marie, however. Back with the French he learns that both the colonel and the wife of another officer, who has taken Marie under her wing, disapprove of their friendship. Hurt, he returns to the wild, determined to confront Nakhla; Marie, in parting, has told him she observed the Arab girl was not married, and reveals that Aziz, the name she had given him, means "beloved." Followed by his lions, Michael confronts the sheik and demands to see Nakhla. Refused, he claims to be the brother of el adrea (the lion) and threatens to resume predation on the herds. The sheik then discovers she is missing, kidnapped by Ben Saada, whose hand she has refused. An emissary from Ben Saada arrives, offering to negotiate; the sheik refuses, and swears vengeance should any harm come to his daughter. Michael trails the messenger back to Ben Saada. Meanwhile Nakhla has escaped, only to be captured in turn by the Arab marauders of Sidi-El-Seghir, who decide to sell her into slavery. Michael now follows her new captors and attempts to free her, only to be taken in turn. His lions prowl about the camp as Nakhla tends the injured Michael's wounds. Then the marauders are attacked by the French. In the confusion, Sidi-El-Seghir rides off with the captives, only to be set upon by the two lions. Michael kills the bandit. He compares note with Nakhla, and Ben Saada's lies are revealed. The couple reconciles, and the sheik afterward agrees to the match. The lions depart when Michael passes out from his wounds, thinking him dead. When he revives he finds his memory restored, but decides to stay with Nakhla rather than attempt to recover his heritage. The murdered king's brother Prince Otto, one of the conspirators, succeeds him, but he and his spoiled son Prince Ferdinand are disliked by the people. His accomplice Sarnya has been rewarded by promotion to chief of staff as General Count Sarnya. Three new conspirators, Andresy, Bulvik and Carlyn, emerge in opposition. Bulvik attempts to assassinate Sarnya but fails, and is fatally shot in turn. Prince Ferdinand becomes enamored of Hilda de Groot, the pretty daughter of the head gardener, but makes an enemy in her brother Hans. Years pass. Andresy and Carlyn plot against the king, while Hans plots against Ferdinand. He reveals the prince's infatuation to King Otto, opening a rift in the royal family. An exile, Count Maximilian Lomsk, who wishes to return and is ambitious for Sarnya's position, is encouraged by Andresy to communicate Ferdinand. Through their machinations Carlyn is reinstated as a lieutenant in the army, which he hopes to parlay into a position of captain of the guard from which he can strike at the king and prince. King Otto attempts to shore up the realm's faltering finances and counter Ferdinand's continuing liaison with Hilda by betrothing him to the wealthy Maria, princess of a neighboring country. Ferdinand resists at first, but eventually marries her. They quickly come to hate each other. The conspirators' plan proceeds. Carlyn, who has achieved his post close to the king, accompanies him to inspect a cavalry regiment. William Wesl, a patsy of the conspirators, is sent to the palace with a letter. As he approaches King Otto and Captain Carlyn the latter shoots the king with a gun stolen from Hans and throws it at the feet of Wesl. Doubly implicated as the assassin by the letter he unwitting bears, Wesl is arrested and executed. Ferdinand, now king, continues to alienate the people. He sacks Sarnya, placing Maximilian Lomsk in his position, and makes Hilda lady in waiting to Queen Maria. The queen, offended, returns to her own country, but by threatening to take her money with her forestalls Ferdinand from divorcing her to marry Hilda. Ferdinand plans war against Maria's country, while Andresy plots a coup against the monarchy together with six army officers. Andresy's intention is to set up a republic with himself as head and the now-aggrieved General Count Sarnya as head of the army. Meanwhile, Wesl's wife, realizing her husband was set up by Captain Carlyn, feigns falling in love with the captain. All comes to a head on the date set for the coup. The six officers assassinate Ferdinand and Hilda. Hans, hearing of his sister's death, commits suicide. Wesl's wife murders Captain Carlyn. At the end of the novel the two plot threads touch briefly. Aziz, formerly Prince Michael, is still living in Africa and now happily wed to Nakhla. He reads that Count Sarnya has seized power in his former country and made himself dictator. He cables the new ruler as follows: "Congratulations! You have my sympathy — Michael." |
30819843 | /m/0gfhx92 | The Three Musketeers in Africa | null | null | null | Csülök, Senki Alfonz and Tuskó Hopkins the three legionaries live at the fortress of Oasis Rakhmar. Legionary Tuskó Hopkins serves by the name of Herman Torze because of a stolen uniform and data. He receives a letter from a young lady named Yvonne Barre addressed to Torze. She is in search for her brother, Francis Barre. The three legionaries find out that Francis is at the worst discipline camp, Igori. They want to help Yvonne, so each of the three commit some transgression to be punished by marching to Igori. There they face a big surprise as the discipline camp resembles to a resort centre. There they meet Yvonne, the dying Francis Barre and their father General Duron. Duron tries to unveil the fraud in a letter. The three legionaries and Yvonne escape from the camp carrying the letter to Marquis De Surenne. Finally the plot is unveiled and Senki Alfonz marries Yvonne. |
30821476 | /m/0gfg6xc | Super Sad True Love Story | Gary Shteyngart | 7/27/2010 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The son of a Russian immigrant, protagonist Leonard (Lenny) Abramov, a middle-aged, middle class, and otherwise unremarkable man whose mentality is still in the past century, falls madly in love with Eunice Park, a young Korean-American struggling with materialism and the pressures of her traditional Korean family. The chapters alternate between profuse diary entries from the old fashioned Lenny and Eunice's biting e-mail correspondence on her "GlobalTeens" account. In the background of what appears to be a love story that oscillates between superficiality and despair, a grim political situation unravels. America is on the brink of economic collapse, threatened by their Chinese creditors. In the meantime, the totalitarian Bipartisan government's main mission is to encourage and promote consumerism while eliminating political dissidents. In the midst of all this, in a world where anyone's sexuality can be rated at the touch of the screen, where the privileged can live forever but the unfortunate die too soon, there is still value to being a real human being. |
30825556 | /m/051wk86 | Sabotage at Sea | Franklin W. Dixon | null | null | This drama, mystery, war film is set during the Second World War. Cargo ship Captain Tracey (David Hutcheson) has discovered that enemy agents have tampered with his ship. The film follows the desperate search for the saboteur. |
30834790 | /m/0gfgr4f | The Raven in the Foregate | Edith Pargeter | 1986 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery"} | December 1141 starts out with mild weather in Shrewsbury. Abbot Radulfus is called to Westminster for a second legatine council in one year. Henry, Bishop of Winchester turned his allegiance back to his own brother King Stephen, now released from imprisonment by the contender for the crown, his cousin Empress Maud in trade for her strongest supporter, Robert of Gloucester. As he called all the bishops and major clerics to announce the support of the church, and himself, for the Empress, he now calls them back to reinstate allegiance to the crowned King. Supporters of the Empress in areas strong for the King must now make themselves scarce or come to terms with the change. Shortly before, Father Adam of the Holy Cross parish church, in the Foregate, died after long years of service. Abbott Radulfus has the task of finding a replacement. On his return on 10 December, he brings a learned priest recommended by Henry of Winchester at the council. Father Ailnoth comes with a housekeeper, and her unskilled nephew Benet, seeking work near her. The monks agree to Ailnoth, previously clerk to Bishop Henry. They also agree to try Benet on approval. Hugh Beringar, Sheriff of Shropshire on the death of the appointed sheriff, is called to meet with the King, at his Christmas feast at Canterbury. King Stephen is now free to consider if the young man he appointed as Deputy three years earlier is the one he will choose formally as Sheriff in the King's name. Benet is assigned to help Cadfael with the heavy garden work needed before the first frost. The two get along well as Benet works hard and well. As the days pass, Cadfael notices that the young man presents one face to him, and a different one to the rest of the Abbey. In just eight days Father Ailnoth alienates or directly offends almost everyone in the Holy Cross parish. He refuses confession, absolution, and then communion to Eluned, a local girl who kills herself in despair at the rejection. He treats the children with the rod, especially when he is teaching them to read. He refused to baptize an infant born too sick to live above an hour, then refused the infant burial in blessed ground because it was not baptized. In the market, he accuses the local baker of short-weighting his loaves of bread. On the land, he pays no heed to property lines until he oversteps and is challenged. The provost of the town meets with Abbott Radulfus to share the complaints. The Abbot talks with the priest, who does not understand the change in his role, from bishop's clerk to someone with the 'cure of souls.' He does not see and will not see that the rites of daily prayers are not always more important than the baptism of an infant whose parents know will not survive, and justifies his hard-hearted decision on the letter of the rules. His treatment of the infant and the young woman rankle all, not just their own families. On Christmas Eve, Brother Cadfael walks out for a visit with Aline Beringar and his godson Giles; en route, he sees Ralph Giffard walking away from town. On returning to the Abbey, Cadfael sees Father Ailnoth walking out, staff in hand, in the first frost of the winter, so focussed he does not reply to a friendly greeting. Both Benet and Sanan appear for the Christmas Eve services (matins) at the Abbey, while her stepfather attended at Saint Chad, the parish church serving his town house. At this their second meeting, Benet and Sanan slip out separately to Cadfael's workshop for a warm, uninterrupted chat. The next morning, Christmas day, the housekeeper reports Ailnoth missing all night. She hoped he had gone to the all night celebration of the Nativity in the Abbey, but he had not. A search by the locals led by Cadfael finds his body in the mill pond, hit on the back of the head and drowned. Hugh's deputy initiates the investigation, expecting no co-operation because everyone disliked him for specific and often personal reasons. The Abbot is carrying a burden in this investigation, as he had judged this man a good vicar for the parish of Holy Cross. Two days after Christmas, Hugh returns from the meeting with King Stephen, who has formally accepted Beringar as his Sheriff in Shropshire. King Stephen is starting with fresh energy, and some desire for revenge on the supporters of Empress Maud. Hugh is given two names to hunt in Shropshire, two squires of FitzAlan in Normandy. One is Torold Blund, who Hugh knows has already left, rejoined his wife Godith. The other is Ninian Bachiler, a single man. Hugh has little interest in revenge, so does the minimum, which is to announce the names of men being sought by the King. A couple of days later, Ralph Giffard comes forward with his information on Ninian, forcing Hugh to mount a larger investigation. Giffard's action forced another action. Cadfael had confronted Benet with his true name, Ninian, ending that charade between the two of them. Ninian explained his plans now his original mission was of no use, and told his joy at learning Torold was safe home. He explained that the plan bringing him to Shrewsbury was set in motion by his resourceful childhood nursemaid, Diota Hammet, whom he had sought when the tide turned away from Maud in the south. He seeks now to escape through Wales to reach Gloucester, where the Empress's forces are gathered. On the day Giffard comes forward, Sanan meets Ninian at Cadfael's workshop, to explain the need for him to hide now, not be taken by the Sheriff. Cadfael, returning from tending the sick outside the Abbey, hears their discussion. He steps away before his presence was known, so they can go to the hiding place pronto. Cadfael did not hear that hiding place, so need not worry about lying to Hugh, who appeared at the Abbey before Cadfael went to his own little workshop. Thus Cadfael appears as astonished as the other brothers when told that simpleton Benet was in fact the young squire Ninian, who has fled with no trace. The coincidence of the suspected murder of Father Ailnoth and the disappearance of Ninian has raised Ninian's name as the murderer. Ralph Giffard told Father Ailnoth of the true identity of Benet, and the meeting place and time. Giffard sent neither yes nor no in reply to the message he got from Ninian, all of which Giffard reports to Hugh Beringar. The purpose of the righteous Ailnoth marching past Cadfael before Compline is now clear: to confront the boy for having used Ailnoth to travel north, being at the meeting place in Giffard's stead. Did they meet? Did others arrive before or after Ninian, resulting in the death of the hated priest? Hugh considers all the possibilities. In his rounds among the locals needing medical help, Cadfael is sent to the grandmother left tending the infant orphaned by her mother's death after rejection by the vicar Father Ailnoth. He is pleased to learn the thriving baby was named Winifred, for their local saint. Diota had been injured the night the priest disappeared. Cadfael treated her wounds, and checked on her days later, when Sanan Bernière was visiting. Walking out together, she tells him she plans to help Ninian escape and will escape with him. Cadfael ponders items that were not found with Ailnoth's body, but ought to have been with it. Ailnoth wore a small cap over his tonsure that cold night, not wearing his cowl, and he walked with a hard staff. This staff was brought to mind from a trip to the mill where he encountered Ninian, who hoped to find it as well. Ninian will not leave the area until his name is cleared of the murder charge, and Diota is safely set up; only then he will ride out with his love, Sanan, to be married in Gloucester. Cadfael set out to find these items. The cap was found by boys playing at the unfrozen river early Christmas morning, and then taken by Cadfael in trade for some apples. He found the staff near where the body was found. The ebony staff, with its stag's horn handle and band of silver, holds long, greying hairs in it, suggesting only one person. Cadfael again visits Mistress Hammet, pressing her for the full story of Christmas Eve. The priest's reaction to learning of the true identity of Ninian was to find sin in both his housekeeper and the boy. She tells how she followed the priest on his way to meet Ninian, begging him not to do harm to the boy. She clung to him, begging for mercy; Ailnoth's response was to beat her with his staff, leaving the wounds Cadfael had tended. This terrified and dazed her, so she let go of him, and made her way home. She did not see anyone else on her return, and left the priest alive. A thaw comes at the end of December, so Cynric can dig the grave for Ailnoth. Hugh has learned that the baker Jordan Achard was seen out early Christmas morning, and his wife will attest her husband was not with her, but with one of his "fancy girls." Hugh proposes to announce this after the funeral as a way to get the guilty person talking, a scheme Cadfael terms devious — why is he friends with such as Hugh? Hugh says, like calling to like. A week after Ailnoth was found dead, Father Abbot gives the eulogy at his funeral, both in penance and to assure only truth is told. It is mainly the men of the parish who gather for this funeral, in addition to the housekeeper Diota come with Sanan. Ninian came out of hiding, in fear his nurse will be taken at the Sheriff's announcement. As the baker loudly protests his innocence of murder and guilt of adultery, Ninian is mistaken for a servant boy by Ralph Giffard, asked to hold his horse. Ninian plays his role again, in a humorous turn. The verger Cynric steadily fills the grave, and proves to be the one witness who knows how Ailnoth came to his end. He speaks at the request of Abbot Radulfus, and the Sheriff, only because someone is being charged with this death. In Cynric's view, the man of violence died by violence, a judgment but no murder. Cynric witnessed the scene between Ailnoth and Diota from the place where the unforgiven young girl had killed herself. After Ailnoth beat her, Diota had grabbed the end of the staff, then he pulled it back as she let go and ran away. The priest reeled backwards hitting a dead willow then into the pond. Cynric walked close enough to see the man's face, his identity. Cynric walked away that evening, assured this happened at the very pond where the girl died for a reason, the will of God. Cadfael considered Cynric set all in foregate and town free of suspicion. Abbot Radulfus accepted Cynric's story, as did the Sheriff. Cadfael's evidence confirmed the story. Cynric finished the burial. Only Brother Jerome was upset at this ending. In his busy-ness afterward, he sees Ninian holding the horse, thinks he recognizes him. Then he sees Ralph come to claim his horse, pay a silver penny to the diligent peasant who then followed him away. Brother Jerome was disappointed he was not bringing in a malefactor, yet relieved he was not caught in an embarrassing error – Giffard's own groom! Sanan had watched it all, thinking how Ninian will laugh when she tells him the whole story. |
30834797 | /m/0gfgyzy | The Hermit of Eyton Forest | Edith Pargeter | 1987 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery"} | The story opens on 18 October 1142 with the news that Richard Ludel, lord of Eaton manor, has died of his wounds taken at the battle of Lincoln in February 1141. A servant carries the news to Sheriff Hugh Beringar, who has charge of the manor lands for King Stephen. Hugh shares the news with Abbot Radulfus, who is guardian of the son. Brother Paul informs young Richard, 10 years old, that he is orphaned, and lord of Eaton manor. Richard has been educated at the Abbey since age 5 when his mother died. It is suspected that his father made the charter with the Abbot to keep his son away from his grandmother, Dame Dionisia Ludel. She does not believe in such education for a lord. Her goal is to marry the boy to Hiltrude, daughter of Fulke Astley, who will inherit the estates on either side of Eaton manor: Wroxeter and Leighton. That he is too young, their ages 12 years apart, have no bearing on her decision, aimed at increasing family lands and her own power. Her request that Abbot Radulfus send the boy back to her is refused. While the boy is educated, the steward John of Longwood will continue to run the estates well. Hugh Beringar has power from his role as King Stephen's man, overlord in the King's absence. He decides it is best that the boy's inheritance be assured. The former overlord of the estate, William Fitz Alan fled to France, as a supporter of the Empress Maud when King Stephen took Shrewsbury and Fitz Alan's estates. Fitz Alan is rumoured back in England, no need to stir up old loyalties. Two strangers enter the area in October, the holy hermit Cuthred and his helper boy. The hermit is given a disused hermit's chapel with adjacent room by Dame Dionisia for his residence. The helper sets to making a garden, as the local folks rapidly accept the hermit in their midst. He and his helper were present at the funeral of Richard's father, when three brothers of the Abbey escorted the son, returning him in time for Vespers. Otherwise, Cuthred never leaves his small residence, his doors always open. The rest of the story takes place over a few days in November 1142. Eilmund, forester for the Abbey, reports unusual damage in the Eyton Forest. The river bed was undermined, deer and sheep from Eaton manor damaged young plants, including new ash trees. Neither Eilmund nor John of Longwood can find how the animals escaped. This forest is owned by the Abbey. The hermit's boy reports to the Abbot at Chapter two day's later Cuthred's view of the odd events in Eyton forest: they are happening in punishment for the young Lord Richard not being allowed back home to live at his manor. The helper introduces himself as Hyacinth. He is a young man with reddish brown hair, the colour of copper beeches. Leaving the Abbey, Hyacinth is approached by Richard, who wants a friend to tell him the true news about his own lands. They form a pact as friends. En route to the hermitage, Hyacinth hears a man in pain in Eyton Forest. He immediately helps by rolling a fallen willow tree off Eilmund. He finds local men to carry Eilmund to his own assart, where his daughter Annet is doing her chores. As Eilmund is carried on a litter, Hyacinth runs ahead to warn the daughter of what she will see. Seeing her father's state, she asks Hyacinth to go back to the Abbey, asking for Brother Cadfael to set her father's broken leg. Radulfus sends Brother Cadfael on horseback to tend their forester, Hyacinth keeping pace on foot. Before Cadfael left for the forest, Hugh Beringar shared the latest news in the conflict between King Stephen and the Empress Maud. She is held under siege in Oxford Castle. Her best ally, Robert of Gloucester is back from France, at Wareham, hoping to lure King Stephen from the siege. The Empress sent a messenger from Oxford Castle to Brian Fitzcount, Lord of Wallingford, her strongest ally after Robert. The messenger's horse was found, with empty saddlebags, but no sign of the messenger Renaud Bourchier—thought brave by Cadfael to venture out of a siege to deliver jewels to Wallingford where money was needed to pay the men. Returning to the Abbey from Eilmund's, Cadfael meets its newest guests, Drogo Bosiet and his groom Warin, of Northamptonshire. Warin tells Cadfael that his lord is hunting a man, a villein named Brand, who had fled after attacking the steward. Drogo's son is also hunting; the two plan to meet at the Abbey. Drogo seeks the help of the Abbey at the next day's Chapter meeting. Abbot Radulfus is not well inclined to this man's goal, so recommends him to contact the sheriff for aid in his pursuit, after a precisely true response that no one of that description stayed in the Abbey. After Vespers, Brother Jerome, ever righteous, meets privately with Drogo to tell him that the hermit's helper bears some resemblance to the villein Brand. Jerome's meeting is not as private as he hopes, as young Richard overhears their conversation and the threat to his friend Hyacinth. Richard immediately rides his pony to warn Hyacinth before Drogo can set out for the hermitage in search of him. Richard finds Hyacinth with Annet in the Eyton Forest. Hyacinth appreciates the warning. In the twilight, Richard heads back to the Abbey while Hyacinth avoids the hermitage. That same day, Brother Cadfael rides to check his patient. He waits to leave Eilmund until Annet returns from her evening duties, rather longer than usual. Riding on a moonlit night, Cadfael encounters Drogo's horse with no rider, then the body of Drogo Bosiet, killed by a knife in his back. Cadfael takes the horse with him to the Abbey, informs the sheriff by notes, and the Abbot in person before Matins. In the light of morning, Hugh Baringar and Cadfael inspect the corpse and the scene. It is clear that Drogo was stabbed in the back as he walked his horse on the forest path in a densely wooded section en route to the Abbey. No knife is found. Only the roll tied to the saddle had been stolen, using the knife. A fine ring on Drogo's hand remains, suggesting thievery was not the motive for the murder. They ride back to consult the Abbot, as Cadfael tells Hugh what he knows about Drogo and the villein he sought, moved by a "vigorous hate". The Abbot gathered two useful facts to aid the investigation. Brother Jerome reports his conversation with Drogo Bosiet, revealing Bosiet's likely destination, and why he rode without his groom. The groom was sent to town to seek a fine leather worker, the trade at which the villein excelled. Hugh visits the hermit, with Cadfael. Cuthred confirms that the Abbey's guest had visited him the day before. Hugh and Cadfael carefully observe the interior of the hermitage, Cuthred's cell. Cuthred says Hyacinth has not been at the hut since the day before when he sent him on an errand, but is now suspicious of him, alarmed at this murder. Cuthred tells how he met Hyacinth, a beggar at the gates of the Cluniac priory in Northampton, in the end days of September. The mysteries are set for solving: one murder, one missing helper, and the damage in the Eyton Forest. Hugh Beringar sets up a manhunt for Hyacinth, though unconvinced of his guilt. Upon second return to the Abbey in one day, Cadfael learns of another mystery, the whereabouts of young Richard. He has not been seen in the Abbey since the day before at Vespers. It is clear to Cadfael that Richard overheard Jerome's conversation, then vanishes from the Abbey. Cadfael fears for the boy, whose grandmother is not above taking him from the forest. Hugh Beringar and his men search for both the school boy Richard and the suspected murderer Hyacinth. A new guest arrives at the Abbey as the brothers search the Abbey unsuccessfully for Richard. Rafe of Coventry, of the Earl of Warwick, is a falconer. Cadfael is stabling his horse at the same time as Rafe, so they talk briefly. Rafe notices the horse whose owner lies in the mortuary chapel, then looks at the face of the dead man, a stranger to him. In the next two days, all the mysteries are resolved. In Hugh's manhunt, he returns to Cuthred the next day seeking the boy Richard. He has not been there. Most think that Hyacinth has run to Wales, where Hugh's writ does not run. Hugh suspects that Dame Dionisia is hiding her grandson, but does not uncover him in the search, not at Eaton manor, nor at Wroxeter, the closer of Astley's two manors. Cadfael brings crutches to Eilmund, fast healing. He waited out of sight on first leaving, to follow Annet as she meets the much-sought Hyacinth. Annet, Eilmund and Hyacinth bring Cadfael in on their secrets. Annet loves Hyacinth and her father knows all about it. Eilmund likes and is grateful to Hyacinth for saving him in the forest, so hides him during the manhunt. Hyacinth confesses that Dame Dionisia set him to the task of making trouble for the Abbey until Richard was returned to her. Though Hyacinth did not push the willow tree onto Eilmund, he feels responsible for that, which does not shake Eilmund's views. Cadfael is unhappy that he cannot tell Hugh what he knows, as these three cannot trust the Sheriff as Cadfael does. Hyacinth was with Annet at the time of the murder. Innocence is not sufficient; he is not safe until the manhunt is stopped. Hyacinth describes his bad treatment at Drogo's hands, even as he became so skilled at fine leather work. Bosiet distrained Hyacinth's father's lands shortly before he died, leaving the orphan Hyacinth more bound to the lord for survival. Hyacinth ran because he beat up the steward when he chanced on him raping a local girl. Hyacinth knew that Bosiet valued the steward over the girl, and would savour the chance to bear down harder on him. Next day, Drogo's son Aymer arrives at the Abbey with his groom, learning of his father's murder. Harsh like his father, he is not much saddened. His focus is on finding the villein, his property. Cadfael is eager for Aymer to give up his greedy chase, take his father home for proper burial. Then Cadfael can resolve the conflict of the two promises he made, informing Hugh of what is known by those living in Eyton forest. Cadfael encounters Rafe putting coins in the alms box. One is a coin struck with the image of the Empress. Rafe admits to coming from Oxford. Cadfael asks, are you come to find the murderer of Bourchier? Rafe says no, but I wish it were that. Hyacinth seeks Richard in the evening when the manhunt is in abeyance. Reasoning that the greatest threat to Richard was his grandmother, he seeks the manor of the intended bride, Leighton, the one further out and last to be searched. Hearing a young woman travelling with her father on horseback in the darkness, he knows he is right. He finds Richard locked in a room, but cannot free him, only speak through a shutter. Instead, they hatch a plan for him to agree to the marriage ceremony, at which the hermit Cuthred will act as the priest. Hyacinth whispers a secret to Richard that persuades him to follow the plan that evening. The morning after the marriage ceremony, Richard talks with Hiltrude. She tells him how she wants to marry someone else, a second son whose hope of land is only a promise. Richard has no interest in marriage at all, at age 10. Gaining respect for Hiltrude, he shares the secret that led him to agree to the ceremony. She is delighted. The two make a plan so Richard can escape on his pony for a daring ride to the Abbey. Richard begins his ride in daylight, after dinner (the midday meal). All goes well until a groom notices the grazing pony missing. He notifies Astley, who is aware of the missing Richard hours before their plan anticipated. He wants the boy to sign some papers, so is angry and in immediate pursuit. Astley chases after Richard, knowing he will head for the Abbey. They arrive dramatically in the Abbey courtyard, Richard first on his pony followed less than five yards by Astley on his large grey, both animals overworked and almost foaming. Richard falls off the pony and grabs the Abbot's legs, making clear where he wants to be. The courtyard was full, as Vespers had just ended. The lord Astley and Abbot Radulfus face off. Astley says, I want my son in law. The Abbot coolly, forcefully, and without insult, takes control of the conversation with Astley, also asking Richard questions. Richard's honour is tested, as he will answer the Abbot truthfully, yet cannot implicate anyone who helped him in good faith. He does his best, relying on the Abbot's holding the same code of honour. The questions allow Richard no opening to reveal the main reason he did stand up in the marriage ceremony; in frustration, he shouts that Cuthred is not a priest, in front of a rapt audience. Rafe, among the crowd, hears this and slips away. Brother Paul steps up to take Richard, as the Abbot puts off all other issues with the boy to another time. There is one way to learn if Richard is right about the hermit, ask the hermit to tell if he is also a priest. Abbot Radulfus plans a meeting with Cuthred after Prime the next morning, inviting Sir Fulke Astley to join him. Hugh Beringar enters the scene now, seeing the confrontation of the two men, and defiant yet frightened Richard. Just returned from Leighton, on a wild goose chase searching for Richard, he is not kindly inclined to Astley. The topic of charges for kidnapping is now raised, muting Astley after his voluble and honest surprise at Richard's charge against the hermit. Aymer Bosiet has not yet left the Abbey, still a threat to Hyacinth. Next morning, all meet at the unexpectedly silent hermitage. The Abbot enters first, into the small room, calling for Cuthred to no avail. Hugh passes him into the chapel, to see Cuthred lying dead at the foot of the altar, his own knife near his hand. How to make sense of this scene, everything orderly except the sprawled body? A casket (small box) is broken open and empty. Hugh and Cadfael quietly notice the absence of the breviary. Some blood shows on the tip of Cuthred's knife, and two places are noted on his clothing where a knife had been wiped clean of blood, by one who takes care of his weapons. Dame Dionisia arrives. She is struck by the sight of the dead man, realising how death can come at any moment, even to her, with all her sins upon her. Brother Cadfael looks once more in the chapel, inspecting for blood spots. Some were on new wood, at his height. Cadfael rides to the Abbey with the group carrying the hermit's body. Aymer Bosiet is leaving with his father's casket. Aymer looks at the corpse of the hermit, and recognizes the face. He and his father had met this man at Thame, one night at the end of September. He was dressed differently, hair cut in the Norman style, a man who wore weapons. They played dice and chess with him. Thus is explained the murder of Drogo, by circumstance at least. The hermit could not risk discovery by a chance acquaintance. Cadfael asks Aymer, what kind of horse was he riding back then? No horse, very odd. Aymer and group leave the Abbey. Time to bring Hyacinth out in view, Cadfael decides, to resolve the questions of the hermit being a priest or not and Hyacinth's role in the recent events. First, he and Hugh speak in the herbarium. Cadfael tells him that Hyacinth can add to this. They want to pursue the why of these deaths, with no risk to Hyacinth. They prepare to ride to Eilmund's cottage. Hugh calls off the manhunt. They meet Rafe in the stable, who tells Cadfael he leaves the next day. Cadfael says, you may need my services, he drew blood. Come to me before you leave. At Eilmund's cottage, Hyacinth tells what he knows of Cuthred, after hearing that he was both a murderer and now dead. When they met, Cuthred was not dressed as a priest. Hyacinth stole a habit for him at the priory, so he could transform himself. Cuthred told Dame Dionisia he was a priest and she believed him, but Hyacinth knew he was not. Hugh tells Hyacinth the hunt is called off, he is free to seek work in the town. What name does he choose? Annet says, Hyacinth. In a year and a day, he will come to ask for Annet as his wife. Hugh and Cadfael ride through the forest and talk. One realisation is that the Bosiets, father and son, spent two full months on the hunt for their villein, riding far from home, and stopped only a few days after the father is slain for a chance meeting with the hermit, before he became a hermit. Rafe seeks Cadfael to treat his long knife wound. Tells him his full name is Rafe de Genville, vassal and friend to Brian FitzCount, loyal to the Empress. Rafe is heading to Brian to restore to him what is his. It had been a fair fight between him and the hermit. Both used daggers, as the hermit had no sword. Rafe found what he sought in the reliquary, and in the breviary. A personal letter was hidden in a pocket of the breviary, already read by the dead man—seal broken. Rafe asks, was this sin? In his day, Cadfael would have done the same. Rafe's wound is treated, he says farewell. Hugh and Cadfael talk in the herbarium again, reviewing. Cadfael says, I let him go. He? asks Hugh. Rafe de Genville, the man who killed Cuthred/Bourchier in a fair fight, for good reason. Cadfael did not ask how Rafe found clues that brought him to Shrewsbury. Cadfael knew one clue, when Richard yelled that the hermit was no priest. Rafe sought a cheat, found him in the hermitage. Cadfael "drew a bow at a very long venture" asking if Rafe sought the murderer of the missing messenger. Horse with no man, man with no horse, Cadfael had linked these together. Hugh recoils realizing the full horror of the crime that Renaud Bourchier first committed, fouler than murder. Deliberate dishonor is what Bourchier pursued when he left as the trusted messenger who coldly and practically made his new opportunities for the future. That letter from the Empress might have been blackmail, if the Empress's husband in Normandy sought divorce—these are the calculations Bourchier was making. Hugh is persuaded Rafe acted rightly. All the mysteries are solved, the treason revenged, the innocent preserved, the lovers united, honour upheld. |
30841087 | /m/0fq13zc | I Am Number Four | Pittacus Lore | 8/3/2010 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/03mfnf": "Young adult literature"} | This follows the story of John Smith, a 15-year-old alien from the planet Lorien, and Henri, his guardian Cêpan, as they run from the Mogadorians, another alien race that is hunting John and eight other teenage Lorics residing on the planet Earth. These nine teens are members of the Garde, a group of Loric people gifted with special powers called "Legacies." Cêpans, who are also Loric, do not acquire Legacies and most often become protectors and mentors for young members of the Garde. The teenagers are protected by a spell or charm that only allows them to be killed in numeric order. The first three have been killed, and John is Number 4. The book opens with the death of Number Three. Number Four is introduced under the alias Daniel Jones as he leaves Florida. Four has three circular scars which begin on his right outer leg, just above his ankle, and move upward along his outer calf. Each signifies the deaths of Numbers One, Two, and Three, and burn with blue fire when they appear. These scars are present on all the Lorien teenagers, and with each death, another scar appears. Henri, Four's Cêpan (guardian), tells him they are going to Paradise, Ohio. Henri produces a new identity for Four, giving him the name "John Smith." Tired of running, John says that he wants to begin to make a life for himself. Henri reminds him why they run, and the conversation ends. John begins to attend the local high school where he meets the beautiful Sarah Hart, a junior. He also meets her ex-boyfriend Mark James, who immediately begins to pick on John. John stands up to him, the first time he has ever stood up to anybody. During astronomy class, John's hands begin to hurt and glow. When John is back at his house, he realizes that his first legacy has arrived. After the Mogadorians' devastating attack on Lorien, the Nine are the only surviving Lorics with legacies — and each of the Nine is gifted with a different set of legacies (though they all have telekinetic powers). Henri tells John that his first legacy is Lumen, the ability to produce light from his hands, accompanied by a developing resistance to fire. Henri uses an oblong milky white stone to help John spread his resistance to fire and heat throughout his body. During this process John sees a vision of his last moments on Lorien when the Mogadorians attacked, while Henri narrates. Henri and John have a special Loric chest that can only be opened by both of them together. (However, if Henri dies, John will be able to open it by himself.) Using artifacts from the chest Henri shows John a model of the galaxies where he can see how Lorien looked before the Mogadorians destroyed it and how it looks now, desolate and barren. The chest also contains a healing stone that heals all wounds inflicted on the body, but with conditions: the healing process is twice as painful as the injury itself, and the wound must have been inflicted with intent to harm. The stone must be used soon after the injury occurs. Also in the chest are several small pebble-like rocks, Lorien salt, that can be placed under the tongue for a burst of strength and relief from pain. The effects of the salt are rapidly diminished by the use of legacies. With the arrival of John's legacies, Henri begins to train him. John eventually learns to turn his lights on and off at will. John also makes his first real friend, Sam Goode, who believes that extraterrestrials have visited Earth. John also grows closer to Sarah. At a town Halloween party John, Sarah, Sam, and Sarah's friend Emily are ambushed by Mark and some of his football teammates. Already tired of Mark's constant bullying, John is enraged when the Mark and his friends run into the woods with Sarah. John chases the boys and confronts Mark and his friends, easily defeating all of them and freeing Sarah. Sam witnesses much of the ordeal and becomes wary of John, avoiding him for some time. When John goes to Sam's house to talk to him, he threatens John with a gun, but John convinces him he's not an alien so he leaves with a magazine on alien conspiracies. John is invited to a dinner at Sarah's house. Henri has gone to Athens, Ohio because he discovers an alien conspiracy magazine and goes to find out how they had gained information on Mogadorians and hasn't called John yet like he promised. So John calls Sam for help. Sams drives John to Athens, where they find Henri ambushed and captured inside the publisher's house. John's telekinesis legacy appears, and he uses it to save both Henri and Sam and escape the house as several Mogadorian scouts arrive. Henri tells Sam their whole story, and after seeing John use his telekinesis Sam accepts them for who they are. John's training intensifies until he is able to perform complex telekinetic feats with his clothes lit on fire. At a party at Mark's house, a fire starts, trapping Sarah on the second floor. John rushes in and saves her, revealing who and what he really is to her in the process. She still confesses her love for him, and John says he loves her too. He then proceeds to tells her everything about himself. At school the next day, John fears that he will have to leave, as people had seen him jump out of the window and reported it. Fortunately, the paper has no reference to his involvement in the fire. All seems to be going well when a fax arrives for John at the school saying "Are you Number Four?" John leaps through a window and rushes home to find Mark, who has realized the truth. He argues with Henri about why he did what he did, saying he wanted a normal life. He then frantically returns to the school to find Sarah when he realizes that the Mogadorians are on their way. John finds Sarah, but they encounter a Mogadorian scout, one of several who have closed in on the school. John kills it, but their escape route is blocked by two more Mogadorians until Henri and Mark arrive and kill the scouts. The four are then joined by a girl about John's age and John's dog, Bernie Kosar. The girl identifies herself as Number Six. John realizes that since he and Six have met, the charm protecting them from being killed out of order has now broken. Six replies that the war has begun and that they must fight. While the five companions make their way out of the school, John tells Mark and Sarah to go back and hide, as it isn't their fight. They do, and in the battle that ensues John confronts his first soldier, whom he kills. John is wounded severely and is rescued by Henri as well as Sam, who realized what was happening and has come to help. John discovers his third legacy, the ability to communicate with animals. He realizes that (his supposed pet dog) Bernie Kosar is a chimaera (a shapeshifting creature), and he convinces one of the Mogadorians' beasts to turn on its masters. In the chaos Henri is hit by a Mogadorian's energy blast and dies in John's arms. Before he passes away, he says, "Coming here, to Paradise, it wasn't by chance." Waking up in a hotel room, John tells Sarah that he has to leave. Sarah accepts this and tells him she will wait for him. John replies in a similar fashion, saying his heart will always belong to her. Afterward, Henri's body is cremated. Sam agrees to go with John and Six as they prepare to leave in search of the other four Loric children. The novel ends with John telling Sarah he loves her and will come back and then he's leaving with Six, Sam and Bernie. |
30846243 | /m/0gfg6zw | Force ennemie | null | null | null | The main character is a poet who mysteriously wakes up in a rubber room, locked away in a lunatic asylum, apparently at the request of a relative due to alcoholism or perhaps jealousy. He then becomes possessed by an "Alien Force" from another planet, Kmôhoûn, whose crazy voice is constantly screaming in his head. He then falls in love with a female inmate, Irene, but she leaves and so he follows her to the ends of the earth, while the Alien Force cohabits his body. |
30853970 | /m/0g9x7hf | The Boy in the Oak | null | 2010 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | A boy who lived in a house with a garden did not appreciate nature; he trampled on flowers and carved his initials into trees. The fairies that lived in the forest decided to stop him from destroying everything by trapping him inside the large oak tree in the garden. His parent searched and searched, but eventually gave up on finding him and moved away. After several years, a new family moved into the house. They spoke of cutting down the oak tree, which angered the fairies. They choose to try to steal the little girl, but the boy forces her back through the portal between the fairy and human worlds. This kindness allows the boy to break the spell that trapped him. |
30857810 | /m/0gk_ncw | Scorpia Rising | Anthony Horowitz | null | {"/m/06wkf": "Spy fiction"} | This novel starts with Zeljan Kurst, leader of Scorpia, being asked by Yannis Ariston Xenopolos, a Greek billionaire with cancer, to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece. He is promised €40 million, half in advance. MI6 has found out about the visit and try to capture him due to a mole who was given a change of identity in exchange, but Scorpia agents in the museum disguised as visitors help Kurst to escape. He assigns the mission to new Scorpia member, Abdul-Aziz Al-Rahim, known as Razim, who suggests blackmail, attempting to almost ruin the British reputation with the rest of the world. Razim is studying the issue of pain, with the aim to come up with a measurable unit of pain, naming it after himself, by torturing all kinds of members of society, with a teenager being the top of his wish list, as he explains when torturing a French agent. The plan requires Scorpia to build up a file, codenamed Horseman, on the subject of Alex being used as a spy by the British government for a disgraceful act, and killed, threatening to expose it, hence ruining the British reputation, unless the Elgin Marbles are returned to Greece In a secret prison in Gibraltar for people who are against Britain, Scorpia manages to free Julius Grief, one of Hugo Grief's clones from Point Blanc who is also Alex's look-alike. Julius is hellbent on revenge over Alex for what he did in Point Blanc. They hide a gun in the library for Julius along with instructions, enabling him to get out of the gates by taking his pyschiatrist hostage. His death is faked with a remote-controlled car, a duplicate of the one he was driving which contains a dummy in the front, being sent over a cliff which is released from a barn soon after he drives into it. Scorpia also decides that the best way to start the ball rolling would be for a body leading MI6 to Cairo, where the main action will happen, to be found, and Kurst decides this is another Scorpia board member Levi Kroll, who opposed the plan initially, and is shot in the neck by a sniper. In Britain, MI6 scientists find Kroll, who was found floating in the River Thames, to suspect an attack at the Cairo International College of Arts and Education in Cairo, Egypt, where many wealthy children are sent. At school, Alex is attacked by a sniper who wounds his friend Tom Harris in the arm with his second shot. Alex follows the sniper and is able to send the helicopter and the sniper who is escaping in crashing into the Thames. This gives Alan Blunt a chance to send Alex on a mission to Cairo to investigate the new head of security Erik Gunter, believing he might have somethings to do with Scorpia. Unlike in most other missions, Alex's friend and guardian Jack Starbright demands to come along to keep an eye on him, as well as Derek Smithers being sent from MI6 to co-ordinate the mission. The action ultimately leads Alex to a floating market, the House of Gold, where Gunter has shot a weapons dealer after he sells him a gun, whose body Alex finds. The market is blown up whilst he is on it. He is then kidnapped by a mysterious group, who take him to a room where he is waterboarded for information. However, this is quickly stopped by Joe Byrne, revealing that the mysterious group are the CIA, who have recognized Alex as an MI6 spy and believe he is there as an assassin. Byrne explains to his guards that he has worked with Alex and is no threat. Then Bryne explains that they are in Cairo to protect the American Secretary of State, who is planning to make an anti-British speech in order to draw international attention to herself, and the CIA have been called to provide security. Scorpia then begins to target Smithers, who is found to have booby trapped his entire house in Cairo, from itching powder to a doormat which leads to the Cairo sewers. Alex then finds out what Smithers' last gadget is - a fat suit which he has been wearing since the moment Alex met him - and discovers that Smithers is really a skinny Irishman in his late thirties. He says they should split up, and leaves. Alex gets home, but finds Jack has been kidnapped and a note is ordering him to get to a certain location, or she will die. Both Alex and Jack are taken to Razim's fort in the Sahara Desert, where Alex is taken to be Razim's next subject. However, for the plan to work out, they cannot physically cause him pain or mark his body in any way. So Razim instead decides to use the opportunity to subject him to emotional pain. To do this, he strips Alex down to his boxers, ties him up, and attaches several emotion-recording devices to him. Razim pretends to allow Jack to escape from her cell by making sure one of the bars is weak enough to be removed with a knife Jack has stolen, knock out a guard and drive off in an old Land Rover. Unbeknownst to her, the Land Rover has 30 kilograms of explosives connected to it and, with Alex watching live on a screen, Julius detonates the bomb, killing her instantly. Alex's grief is too much for him to handle and he blacks out. Alex was then taken to Cairo, where he is told what will face him by Gunter – when the American Secretary of State decries the United Kingdom and gives her anti-British speech, Julius (posing as Alex) will assassinate her, and in the clamor that follows, Alex's body will be found nearby.This dives coherent explanation, that Alex killed her. Days later, Scorpia will begin their blackmail, threatening to expose their file on MI6's use of a schoolboy as an assassin unless the Elgin Marbles are returned. As a last request, Alex asks for a cigarette, and as Gunter opens the packet, an irate scorpion inside the packet, hidden previously by Alex, stings him. This immobilizes Gunter enough for Alex to steal his gun and break his nose, killing him from the trauma. Alex then rushes inside, just at the time when Julius was sneaking away in order to go to his hidden sniper rifle and kill the Secretary of State. However, Alex distracts Julius just in the nick of time, so a shot is fired, alerting everyone to the presence of a sniper, but no one is killed. This organises the frenzy required, but Julius slips away into the crowd, leaving Alex to need to give chase or lose him again. Julius steals a gun from a policeman. Alex chases Julius through the streets of Cairo, culminating in a grassy verge by the side of a road, where Julius is hit by a car. He claims that Alex wouldn't dare kill him, but as Alex turns away, Julius goes for his gun and shot, but Alex shot before him. Although this is not the first time Alex has ever shot someone, it feels to him as if he is killing a part of himself because Julius looked like him. He then meets up with the CIA, who are forming a joint taskforce with the Egyptians in order to take out Razim in the desert. However, they need Alex to come with them to be able to properly locate him, and so as to avoid suspicion when landing. They torture the pilot in order out the code word (Selket) so they won't get shot down while approaching the fort, which works out, and Alex poses as Julius when arriving. However, Razim sees through this, and a shootout begins, eventually ending on the bridge between the two halves of the fort, where Razim falls off when it splits, and falls into the salt pile below where he is slowly crushed to death. After this incident, the remaining Scorpia members are arrested including Kurst. Back in England, Blunt is retiring and will leave his job to Mrs. Jones. Before Blunt says goodbye, Mrs. Jones reveals that she knows Blunt hired the sniper to fire at Alex's school, which means that he also is responsible for Jack's death. Alex is adopted by Edward Pleasure, Sabina Pleasure's father, who is confident Alex will get better with his family. |
30858664 | /m/07jyr4 | We Have Always Lived in the Castle | Shirley Jackson | null | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The novel, narrated in the first-person by 18-year-old Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood, tells the story of the Blackwood family. Merricat, her elder sister Constance, and their ailing uncle Julian live in a large house on large grounds, in isolation from the nearby village. Constance has not left their home in six years, going no farther than her large garden. Uncle Julian, confined to a wheelchair, obsessively writes and re-writes notes for his memoirs, while Constance cares for him. Through Uncle Julian's ramblings the events of the past are revealed, including what has happened to the remainder of the Blackwood family: six years ago both the Blackwood parents, an aunt (Julian's wife), and a younger brother were murdered — poisoned with arsenic, mixed into the family sugar and sprinkled onto blackberries at dinner. Julian, though poisoned, survived; Constance, who did not put sugar on her berries, was arrested for and eventually acquitted of the crime. Merricat was not at dinner, having been sent to bed without dinner as punishment. The people of the village believe that Constance has gotten away with murder and the family is ostracized. The three remaining Blackwoods have grown accustomed to their isolation and lead a quiet, happy existence. Merricat is the family's sole contact with the outside world, walking into the village twice a week and carrying home groceries and library books, where she is faced directly with the hostility of the villagers and often followed by groups of children, who taunt her. Merricat is protective of her sister and is a practitioner of sympathetic magic. She feels that a dangerous change is approaching; her response is to reassure herself of the various magical safeguards she has placed around their home, including a book nailed to a tree. After discovering that the book has fallen down, Merricat becomes convinced that danger is imminent. Before she can warn Constance, their estranged cousin, Charles, appears for a visit. Charles quickly befriends Constance, insinuating himself into her confidence. Charles is aware of Merricat's hostility and is increasingly rude to her and impatient of Julian's weaknesses. He makes many references to the money the sisters keep locked in their father's safe, and is gradually wooing Constance, who begins to respond to his advances. Merricat perceives Charles as a threat, calling him a demon and a ghost, and tries various magical and otherwise disruptive means to drive him from the house. Uncle Julian is increasingly disgusted by Charles, and Constance is increasingly caught between the warring parties. One night before dinner Constance sends Merricat upstairs to wash her hands, and Merricat, in her anger against Charles, pushes Charles' still-smoldering pipe into a wastebasket filled with newspapers. The pipe sets fire to the family home. The villagers arrive to put out the fire, but once it's out, in a wave of long-repressed hatred for the Blackwoods, they begin throwing rocks at the windows, smashing them and surging into the house to destroy whatever they can, all the while chanting their children's taunting rhyme. Merricat and Constance, driven outdoors, are encircled by some of the villagers who seem on the verge of attacking them, en masse. Merricat and Constance flee for safety into the woods. In the course of the fire, Julian dies of what is implied to be a heart attack, and Charles attempts to take the family safe. While Merricat and Constance shelter for the night under a tree Merricat has made into a hideaway, Constance confesses for the first time that she always knew Merricat poisoned the family. Merricat readily admits to the deed, saying that she put the poison in the sugar bowl because she knew Constance would not take sugar. Upon returning to their ruined home, Constance and Merricat proceed to salvage what is left of their belongings, close off those rooms too damaged to use, and start their lives anew in the little space left to them. The house, now without a roof, resembles a castle "turreted and open to the sky." The villagers, awakening at last to a sense of guilt, begin to leave food on their doorstep. Charles returns once to try to renew his acquaintance with Constance, but she now knows his real purpose is greed and ignores him. The two sisters choose to remain alone and unseen by the rest of the world. |
30860483 | /m/07_20v | Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers | Rob Grant | 11/2/1989 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/02yq81": "Comic novel", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction"} | The book begins in 2180. Commercialism is still rife, and most of Earth's natural resources have been depleted. Most of the solid planets and moons in the solar system have been colonised. Having ended up in a supply port on Saturn's orbiting moon Mimas after celebrating his 25th birthday by binge drinking on a Monopoly Pub Crawl in London, Dave Lister is trying to earn enough money for a shuttle ticket home by stealing taxis and picking up fares while sleeping in a bus station locker. However, since Lister ends up either losing the money by getting mugged or spending the money getting drunk, its obvious he won't be getting home any time soon. One night, Lister picks up a Space Corps officer calling himself 'Christopher Todhunter' (who is obviously wearing a fake moustache) asking to be taken to a plasti-droid brothel, only for the droid to malfunction and nearly rip off his private parts. However this gives Lister inspiration, and he quickly signs up with the Jupiter Mining Corporation intending to get himself signed to a ship and going AWOL once it reaches Earth. Despite his lack of qualifications and the admissions officer deciding he had an attitude problem (due to telling him that he wanted to sign up to "explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations and to boldly go where no man has gone before"), Lister is quickly assigned to Red Dwarf, a mining ship as the lowest ranking crew member. On the trip he meets the drunken Petersen who informs Lister that Red Dwarf will indeed be returning to Earth... after a four-and-a-half year round trip much to Lister's dismay. When aboard Lister is told he is a technician on Z-Shift, whose duties are those that the service droids are considered too good for, and is introduced to his supervisor and roommate Arnold Rimmer who Lister recognises as the Space Corps officer with the fake moustache from the plasti-droid brothel incident. Unfortunately Rimmer is also highly neurotic and pretentious causing he and Lister to develop a mutual dislike of the other. Five months later, Lister has settled into the dull, monotonous routine of life aboard Red Dwarf when he finds himself falling in love with senior officer Kristine Kochanski. The two embark on a passionate five-week love affair before Kochanski dumps him and returns to her boyfriend whose name Lister can't remember. Meanwhile Rimmer has been spending his time constantly trying and failing to pass the Astro-Navigation exam despite his best cheating efforts as well as using the ship's stasis units (which freeze time for the person inside) to constantly de-age himself. Lister, who has had enough of life on Red Dwarf since being dumped, realises that the stasis units could be his key to an instant arrival back on Earth. After studying the ship's regulations, he finds that smuggling an unquarantined animal aboard the ship is the least serious offence which carries a statutory sentence of time in stasis. On his next planet leave he brings a pregnant cat back to Red Dwarf (after having her fully inoculated to ensure she won't actually present a danger to the ship) and ensures that he gets caught with her. After being hauled before the captain (an American woman with the unfortunate surname of Kirk), Lister lies and tells her that the cat was ill when he found her and refuses to reveal where he has hidden her. As a result, Lister gets his wish and is sentenced to stasis for the rest of the trip. He enters the unit fully expected to exit and find himself back home. Upon learning of Lister's sentence, Rimmer is furious that his nemesis is going to have all this time in stasis not getting older and prepares to work on an immediate appeal. He never gets the chance, as one of the ship's nuclear reactors fails and lets loose a wave that kills everyone except Lister. Just before he dies, Rimmer (who was literally a few seconds away from the safety of the stasis booth where he planned to spend the evening) finds himself thinking of gazpacho soup. In the hold, Lister's cat and her kittens are safe from the radiation too. Upon release from stasis, the ship's super-computer Holly explains that he piloted Red Dwarf out of the Solar System to prevent radiation contamination. Holly could not release Lister until the radiation had reached a safe background level. However, because the leaked Cadmium II had such a long half-life, Lister was kept in stasis for three million years. During this time, Holly has gone a little computer senile. Lister is then told that not only is he all alone on the ship and millions of years away from Earth but he is also likely the last human left alive. Lister promptly falls apart, walking around the ship naked and nearly drinking himself to death before he collapses. Lister wakes up in the medical unit to find Rimmer, who has been selected by Holly as the person most likely to keep Lister sane, and is now generated by the ship's computer as a hologram. Having collected himself, Lister instructs Holly to chart a course for Earth. Meanwhile, the crew discovers another life on board, an intelligent humanoid who comes to be known simply as The Cat, a member of a race of cats evolved from Lister's cat Frankenstein and her kittens after having survived the radiation blast deep in the ship's enormous cargo hold. Due to three million years of constant acceleration, Red Dwarf breaks the light barrier, complicating things aboard as the crew begin to experience 'future echoes,' brief glimpses of events that have yet to happen. Lister is worried when Rimmer tells him that one of the echoes shows him being blown up when attempting to fix the ship's navicomp and tries everything to avoid it, but eventually accepts his fate when the device fails and he has to fix it. However, the repair operation succeeds and an aged Lister appears as part of a future echo informing his younger self that it was his grandson he saw blown apart. Lister also learns that at some point in the future he will have twin sons. Eventually the ship slows and Holly succeeds in turning around and heading for earth. En route the Red Dwarf crew retrieves the Nova 5, a ship which had been on a mission to advertise a popular soft drink when its mechanoid service robot, Kryten, caused it to crash by trying to wash the computer. After looking after the survivors of the crash for many, many years (the fact they were long dead not withstanding), Kryten shuts down when he realises the truth and Lister has to work hard to get him reactivated. Eventually he does, and learns that the Nova 5 had a duality drive that could get him back to Earth within months. With that Lister, Kryten and an unwilling-to-work Cat use the mining equipment aboard Red Dwarf to procure the fuel they need. Despite the Cat only putting in minutes of work each day and Kryten only helping by constantly serving tea and sandwiches, eventually Lister gets what he needs. Meanwhile, Rimmer has found a hologram generator aboard the Nova 5 meaning that another hologram can be created aboard Red Dwarf. After finding all the Nova 5 crew discs corrupted beyond repair, Rimmer suddenly gets an idea... who better as a companion for him than himself. Another Rimmer is created and at first the two get along great with the two moving in together and keeping each other motivated while supervising the repair of the Nova 5. However, the two begin to get on each other's nerves by trying to one-up each other and the original Rimmer despairs when he finds himself forced to exercise by his counterpart and only being allowed minutes of sleep a night. Things come to a head, and the two demand that Lister switch one of them off. Lister chooses the original, but asks about Rimmer's obsession with gazpacho soup. Rimmer tells his most painful memory: at a formal dinner with the captain, he complained that his soup was cold, unaware that the Spanish dish is traditionally served cold. Lister assures Rimmer that anyone could have made that mistake, then admits that the duplicate Rimmer has already been turned off (having lied to hear the gazpacho soup story). He promises never to mention the conversation again (but can't resist a little joke at the end). The crew soon repair the Nova 5 and return to Earth, using the duality drive, as heroes. Lister starts living in a replica of Bedford Falls from It's a Wonderful Life with a descendant of Kochanski who looks and acts exactly like her and is even called Kristine, Rimmer marries a supermodel and becomes a successful businessman (with his company developing a solidgram body for Rimmer and a time machine to allow him to socialise with the greatest figures in history) and the Cat lives in Denmark in a palace surrounded by a moat of milk. It gradually becomes clear, however, that they're each living out their own improbable fantasies, and Lister, Rimmer and The Cat must accept the fact that they've not returned to Earth, but are trapped within an addictive virtual reality called Better Than Life, a game which is killing them, but is incredibly difficult to escape from... |
30861467 | /m/07902h | The Autobiography of a Flea | Anonymity | 1901 | null | The plot begins with Bella in church. As she leaves, Charlie pushes a note into her hand. She reads that it says he will be in their old meeting place at eight o' clock. She meets him in a garden. After some playful conversation, Charlie introduces her to her first sexual experience. Father Ambrose, who had been hiding in the shrubs, surprises them afterward, scolding both of them for their behaviour and threatening to reveal what they have been doing to their guardians. Bella pleads for mercy. Father Ambrose, appearing to relent, tells Bella to meet him in the sacristy at two o'clock the next day and Charlie to meet him at the same time the day after that. Ambrose instructs Bella into a way she may be absolved of her sins and blackmails her into sex with him, lest he tell her guardian what she was up to. Then Ambrose's colleagues, the Fr Superior & Fr Clement, catch them in the act, and they demand equal rights to Bella's favours. And so Bella is introduced to serving the Holy community in a special way. Despite his promises, Ambrose goes to see Bella's uncle, Monsieur Verbouc and tells of her lewd behaviour. This leads to her uncle, who has long entertained lustful thoughts of his niece, attempting to force himself on Bella. The narrator then intervenes, biting him to put a damper on his ardour. Next, Father Clement, looking for Bella's room, climbs into the window of Bella's aunt, the pious Madame Verbouc, who had mistaken him for her husband. M. Verbouc then bursts in and his wife realises she's actually been making love to the randy priest. Bella's friend, Julia Delmont, becomes Ambrose's next target. By now completely corrupted and happy to go along with whatever Ambrose suggests, Bella readily agrees to the Father's next scheme: She will offer herself to Monsieur Delmont, on condition that her face is covered. The trick is that it will not be Bella who lies there, but Delmont's own daughter. Father Ambrose seduces her and says he will come to her by night and make love to her, but she must hide her face. When the act is consummated, Bella appears and pretends that it was all a big mistake. But since Delmont has now potentially impregnated his daughter, the only way to be sure his incest cannot be discovered is to have all make love to her as well. In case she is pregnant, nobody can claim that her own father is the father. |
30863098 | /m/02v_v25 | Mystery of the Whale Tattoo | Franklin W. Dixon | 1968 | {"/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/028v3": "Detective fiction"} | This story is set in and around Bayport as well as briefly in Mystic Seaport. The boys are hired by a traveling carnival to spot pick-pockets. This ties in well with their other job where the boys try to help their detective father by tracking down the location of an informant trying to sell information about a valuable object that has gone missing. The main lead is that the person has called from a public telephone on the fair grounds. All of their eventual suspects are noted for having tattoos of a whale on them.Chet Morton also uses his new hobby, scrimshaw, to piece up members of the gang. |
30863897 | /m/07j430 | The Sea Came In At Midnight | Steve Erickson | 1999 | {"/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The novel starts at the end of 1999, when Kristin, a teenage drop-out, answers a sexual ad written by a man who calls himself the Occupant. Behind the poetic language of the ad, it is clear that the Occupant is looking for a sexual slave, yet Kristin accepts the pact and goes to live in his house in Los Angeles. The Occupant's job is unclear: he defines himself as an apocalyptologist, and is busy drawing a calendar on the walls of his bedroom, on which he maps all the irrational events following May 1968, which, according to him, define the end-of-the-century in which the novel is set. Their relationship evolves, until, after a climactic moment, the girl understands that she has replaced the Occupant's partner, who disappeared. After this crisis, the Occupant, whose real name is Carl, begins to tell his story. His story is set mostly in Paris, where he met Angie, who will become his partner. Next we hear the story of Angie, whose real name is Saki, the daughter of a Japanese physicist working for a US defense project. She has gone to New York to work as a lap dancer. Her involvement with pornographic films ultimately leads her to be hired by Mitch, who produces snuff films. Angie is saved by Louise, Mitch's wife, and after this event (which takes place immediately before Angie flies to Paris, where she will meet Carl) the novel tells the story of Louise and Mitch, then back to Carl. The stories ultimately reconnect in the ending of the novel. |
30864314 | /m/03n7vt | On the Genealogy of Morals | Friedrich Nietzsche | 1887 | {"/m/037mh8": "Philosophy"} | Nietzsche's treatises outline his thoughts "on the origin of our moral prejudices", thoughts a long time in the making and already given brief and imperfect expression in his Human, All Too Human (1878). Nietzsche attributes the desire to publish his "hypotheses" on the origins of morality to reading his friend Paul Rée's book The Origin of the Moral Sensations (1877) and finding the "genealogical hypotheses" offered there unsatisfactory. Nietzsche has come to believe that "a critique of moral values" is in order, that "the value of these values themselves must be called into question". To this end he finds it necessary to provide an actual history of morality, rather than a hypothetical account in the style of Rée, whom Nietzsche refers to as an "English psychologist" (using the word "English" to designate a certain intellectual temperament rather than a nationality). In the "First Treatise" Nietzsche is concerned to show that the valuations "good/evil" and "good/bad" have distinct origins and that the two senses of "good" are, in their origins, radically opposed in meaning. The noble mode of valuation calls what it itself stands for "good", that is, everything which is powerful and life-asserting. In the "good/evil" distinction, which is the product of what he calls "slave morality", what is called "evil" equates to what aristocratic morality calls "good". This valuation develops out of the ressentiment of the weak in the face of the powerful, by whom they are oppressed and whom they envy. Nietzsche indicts the "English psychologists" for lacking historical sense. They seek to do moral genealogy by explaining altruism in terms of the utility of altruistic actions, which is subsequently forgotten as such actions become the norm. But the judgment "good", according to Nietzsche, originates not with the beneficiaries of altruistic actions. Rather, the good themselves (the powerful) coined the term "good". Further, Nietzsche contends that it is psychologically absurd to suggest that altruism derives from a utility which is forgotten: if it is useful, what is the incentive to forget it? Rather such a value-judgment gains currency by being increasingly burned into the consciousness. From the aristocratic mode of valuation another mode of valuation branches off which develops into its opposite: the priestly mode of valuation. Nietzsche suggests this process is encouraged through a confrontation between the priestly caste and the warrior caste. The priests, and all those who feel disenfranchised and powerless in a situation of subjugation and physical impotence (e.g., slavery), develop a deep and venomous hatred of the powerful. This is the origin of what Nietzsche calls the "slave revolt in morality", which, according to him, begins with Judaism (§7), for it is the bridge which led to the slave revolt of Christian morality by the alienated, oppressed masses of the Roman Empire (a dominant theme in The Antichrist, written the following year). Slave morality in feeling ressentiment does not seek redress for its grievances by taking revenge through action, as the noble would, but by setting up an imaginary revenge. It therefore needs enemies in order to sustain itself, unlike noble morality, which hardly takes enemies seriously and forgets about them instantly having dealt with them. The weak deceive themselves into thinking that the meek are blessed and will win everlasting life, thereby ultimately vanquishing the strong. They invent the term "evil" to apply to the strong, and that which proceeds from strength, which is precisely what is "good," according to the noble, aristocratic valuation. These latter call their inferiors "bad"—in the sense of "worthless" and "ill-born" (as in the Greek words κακος and δειλος)—not "evil." It is in the First Treatise that Nietzsche introduces one of his most controversial images, the "blond beast". Nietzsche had previously employed this metaphor of the "blond beast" to represent the lion, an image that is central to his philosophy and which makes its first appearance in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Nietzsche expressly insists that it is a mistake to hold beasts of prey to be "evil," for their actions stem from their inherent strength, rather than any malicious intent. One should not blame them for their "thirst for enemies and resistances and triumphs" (§13). Similarly, it is also a mistake to resent the strong for their actions, because, according to Nietzsche, there is no metaphysical subject. Only the weak need the illusion of the subject (or soul) to hold their actions together as a unity. But they have no right "to make the bird of prey accountable for being a bird of prey." Nietzsche concludes the First Treatise by considering that the two opposing valuations "good/bad" and "good/evil" have been locked in a tremendous struggle for thousands of years, a struggle that originated with the war between Rome (good/bad) and Judea (good/evil). What began with Judea was the triumph of ressentiment; its hold was broken for a moment by the Renaissance, but reasserted by the Reformation (which, in Nietzsche's view, restored the church), and refreshed again by the French Revolution (in which the "ressentiment instincts of the rabble" triumphed). In the "Second Treatise" Nietzsche advances his thesis that the origin of the institution of punishment is in a straightforward (pre-moral) creditor/debtor relationship. Man relies on the apparatus of forgetfulness which has been bred into him in order not to become bogged down in the past. This forgetfulness is, according to Nietzsche, an active "faculty of repression", not a mere inertia or absentmindedness. Man needs to develop an active faculty to work in opposition to this in order that promises can be made that are necessary for exercising control over the future: this is memory. This control over the future allows a "morality of custom" to get off the ground. (Such a morality is to be sharply differentiated from Christian or other "ascetic" moralities.) The product of this morality, the autonomous individual, comes to see that he may inflict harm on those who break their promises to him. Punishment, then, is a transaction in which the injury to the autonomous individual is compensated for by the pain inflicted on the culprit. Such punishment is meted out without regard for moral considerations about the free will of the culprit, his accountability for his actions, and the like: it is simply an expression of anger. The creditor is compensated for the injury done by the pleasure he derives from the infliction of cruelty on the debtor. Hence the concept of guilt (Schuld) derives from the concept of debt (Schulden). Nietzsche develops the "major point of historical methodology" that one must not equate the origin of a thing and its utility. The origin of punishment, for example, is in a procedure that predates punishment. Punishment has not just one purpose, but a whole range of "meanings" which "finally crystallizes into a kind of unity that is difficult to dissolve, difficult to analyze and [...] completely and utterly undefinable" (§13). The process by which the succession of different meanings is imposed is driven by the "will to power"—the basic instinct for domination underlying all human action. Nietzsche lists eleven different uses (or "meanings") of punishment, and suggests that there are many more. One utility it does not possess, however, is that of awakening remorse. The psychology of prisoners shows that punishment "makes hard and cold; it concentrates; it sharpens the feeling of alienation" (§14). The real explanation of bad conscience is quite different. A form of social organization, i.e. a "state," is imposed by "some pack of blond beasts of prey, a race of conquerors and lords." Such a race is able to do so even if those they subject to their power are vastly superior in numbers because these subjects are "still formless, still roaming about", while the conquerors are characterized by an "instinctive creating of forms, impressing of forms" (§17). Under such conditions the destructive, sadistic instincts of man, who is by nature a nomadic hunter, find themselves constricted and thwarted; they are therefore turned inward. Instead of roaming in the wilderness, man now turns himself into "an adventure, a place of torture.” Bad conscience is thus man's instinct for freedom (his "will to power") "driven back, suppressed, imprisoned within" (§17). Nietzsche accounts for the genesis of the concept "god" by considering what happens when a tribe becomes ever more powerful. In a tribe, the current generation always pays homage to its ancestors, offering sacrifices to them as a demonstration of gratitude to them. As the power of the tribe grows the need to offer thanks to the ancestors does not decline, but rather increases as it has ever more reason to pay homage to the ancestors and to fear them. At the maximum of fear, the ancestor is "necessarily transfigured into a god" (§19). Nietzsche ends the Treatise with a positive suggestion for a counter-movement to the "conscience-vivisection and cruelty to the animal-self" imposed by the bad conscience: this is to "wed to bad conscience the unnatural inclinations", i.e. to use the self-destructive tendency encapsulated in bad conscience to attack the symptoms of sickness themselves. It is much too early for the kind of free spirit—a Zarathustra-figure—who could bring this about to emerge, although he will come one day: he will emerge only in a time of emboldening conflict, not in the "decaying, self-doubting present" (§24). Nietzsche's purpose in the "Third Treatise" is "to bring to light, not what [the ascetic] ideal has done, but simply what it means; what it indicates; what lies hidden behind it, beneath it, in it; of what it is the provisional, indistinct expression, overlaid with question marks and misunderstandings" (§23). As Nietzsche tells us in the Preface, the Third Treatise is a commentary on the aphorism prefixed to it. Textual studies have shown that this aphorism consists of §1 of the Treatise (not the epigraph to the Treatise, which is a quotation from Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra). This opening aphorism confronts us with the multiplicity of meanings that the ascetic ideal has for different groups: (a) artists, (b) philosophers, (c) women, (d) physiological casualties, (e) priests, and (f) saints. The ascetic ideal, we may thus surmise, means very little in itself, other than as a compensation for humanity's need to have some goal or other. As Nietzsche puts it, man "will rather will nothingness than not will". (a) For the artist, the ascetic ideal means "nothing or too many things". Nietzsche confines his attention to the composer Richard Wagner. Artists, he concludes, always require some ideology to prop themselves up. Wagner, we are told, relied on Schopenhauer to provide this underpinning; therefore we should look to philosophers if we are to get closer to finding out what the ascetic ideal means. (b) For the philosopher, it means a "sense and instinct for the most favorable conditions of higher spirituality," which he needs to satisfy his desire for independence. It was only in the guise of the ascetic priest that the philosopher was first able to make his appearance without attracting suspicion of his overweening will to power. As yet, every "true" philosopher has retained the trappings of the ascetic priest; his slogans have been "poverty, chastity, humility." (e) For the priest, it is the "'supreme' license for power." He sets himself up as the "saviour" of (d) the physiologically deformed, offering them a cure for their exhaustion and listlessness (which is in reality only a therapy which does not tackle the roots of their suffering). Nietzsche suggests a number of causes for widespread physiological inhibition: (i) the crossing of races; (ii) emigration of a race to an unsuitable environment (e.g. the Indians to India); (iii) the exhaustion of a race (e.g. Parisian pessimism from 1850); (iv) bad diet (e.g. vegetarianism); (v) diseases of various kinds, including malaria and syphilis (e.g. German depression after the Thirty Years' War) (§17). The ascetic priest has a range of strategies for anesthetizing the continuous, low-level pain of the weak. Four of these are innocent in the sense that they do the patient no further harm: (1) a general deadening of the feeling of life; (2) mechanical activity; (3) "small joys", especially love of one's neighbour; (4) the awakening of the communal feeling of power. He further has a number of strategies which are guilty in the sense that they have the effect of making the sick sicker (although the priest applies them with a good conscience); they work by inducing an "orgy of feeling" (Gefühls-Ausschweifung). He does this by "altering the direction of ressentiment," i.e. telling the weak to look for the causes of their unhappiness in themselves (in "sin"), not in others. Such training in repentance is responsible, according to Nietzsche, for phenomena such as the St Vitus' and St John's dancers of the Middle Ages, witch-hunt hysteria, somnambulism (of which there were eight epidemics between 1564 and 1605), and the delirium characterized by the widespread cry of evviva la morte! ("long live death!"). Given the extraordinary success of the ascetic ideal in imposing itself on our entire culture, what can we look to to oppose it? "Where is the counterpart to this closed system of will, goal, and interpretation?" (§23) Nietzsche considers as possible opponents of the ideal: (a) modern science; (b) modern historians; (c) "comedians of the ideal" (§27). (a) Science is in fact the "most recent and noblest form" of the ascetic ideal. It has no faith in itself, and acts only as a means of self-anesthetization for sufferers (scientists) who do not want to admit that they are such. In its apparent opposition to the ascetic ideal, it has succeeded merely in demolishing the ideal's "outworks, sheathing, play of masks, [...] its temporary solidification, lignification, dogmatization" (§25). By succeeding in dismantling the claims to the theological importance of man, it has merely come to substitute the self-contempt of man as the ideal of science. (b) Modern historians, in trying to hold up a mirror to ultimate reality, are not only ascetic but highly nihilistic. As deniers of teleology, their "last crowings" are "To what end?," "In vain!," "Nada!" (§26) (c) An even worse kind of historian is what Nietzsche calls the "contemplatives": self-satisfied armchair hedonists who have arrogated to themselves the praise of contemplation (Nietzsche gives the example of Ernest Renan). Europe is full of such "comedians of the Christian-moral ideal." In a sense, if anyone is inimical to the ideal it is they, because they at least "arouse mistrust" (§27). The will to truth that is bred by the ascetic ideal has in its turn led to the spread of a truthfulness the pursuit of which has brought the will to truth itself in peril. What is thus now required, Nietzsche concludes, is a critique of the value of truth itself (§24). |
30864419 | /m/07b91w | The Brooklyn Follies | Paul Auster | 12/27/2005 | {"/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | 60-year-old Nathan Glass returns to Brooklyn after his wife has left him. He is recovering from lung cancer and is looking for "a quiet place to die". In Brooklyn he meets his nephew, Tom, whom he has not seen in several years. Tom has seemingly given up on life and has resigned himself to a string of meaningless jobs as he waits for his life to change. They develop a close friendship, entertaining each other in their misery, as they both try to avoid taking part in life. When Lucy, Tom's young niece who initially refuses to speak, comes into their lives there is suddenly a bridge between their past and their future that offers both Tom and Nathan some form of redemption. The Brooklyn Follies contains the classic elements of a Paul Auster novel. The main character is a lonely man, who has suffered an unfortunate reversal. The narrative is based on sudden and randomly happening events and coincidences. "It is a book about survival" as Paul Auster says. The novel was published in Danish in May 2005, under the name Brooklyn Dårskab. It was published in English in November 2005. The Traditional Chinese version appeared in October 2006 with the title slightly altered as Mr. Nathan in Brooklyn. |
30865565 | /m/07htyf | The Virgin and the Gypsy | D. H. Lawrence | 1930 | {"/m/0707q": "Short story"} | The tale relates the story of two sisters, daughters of an Anglican vicar, who return from overseas to a drab, lifeless vicarage in the post-First World War East Midlands. Their mother has run off, a scandal that is not talked about by the family. Their new home is dominated by a blind and selfish grandmother along with her mean spirited, poisonous daughter. The two girls, Yvette and Lucille, risk being suffocated by the life they now lead at the Vicarage. They try their utmost every day to bring colour and fun into their lives. Out on a trip with some friends one Sunday afternoon, Yvette encounters a Gypsy and his family and this meeting reinforces her disenchantment with the oppressive domesticity of the vicarage. It also awakens in her a sexual curiosity she has not felt before, despite having admirers. She also befriends a married Jewish woman who has left her husband and is living with her paramour. When her father finds out about this friendship, he threatens her with "the asylum" and Yvette realizes that at his heart her father, too, is mean spirited and shallow. At the end of the novel, Yvette is rescued during a surprise flood that washes through the home and drowns the grandmother. The rescuer who breathes life and warmth back into the virginal Yvette is the free-spirited Gypsy, whose name is finally revealed in the last line of the novel. |
30865855 | /m/03y9kkt | Soul Catcher | Frank Herbert | 1972 | null | Soul Catcher is about a Native American who kidnaps a young white boy, and their journey together. It is a story of vengeance and sacrifice. In the conflicted anti-hero, one may see many truths to the feelings harbored by those who were conquered. |
30866961 | /m/0gg8g_d | Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837 | Linda Colley | null | null | Britons begins with the period after the 1707 Act of Union, when the diverse peoples of the British isles developed a sense of “Britishness” based largely on their perceived differences from Europeans. A common commitment to Protestantism provided Britons with a unifying history and a constant enemy in Catholic France for over a century, reinforced by the growth of British trade and mercantilism. Colley contends that the Jacobite insurrection of 1745 against the Hanoverian government was unsuccessful because the twin forces of Protestantism and the financial interests of the merchant class motivated Britons to stand firmly against a Catholic Stuart uprising and the economic destabilization it would bring. British unity was shaken after the overwhelming success of the Seven Years' War, which left Britain with a huge foreign empire to rule, turning Britain into a military power and forcing her citizens to re-examine their definition of Britishness and empire. Losing the American Revolutionary War made the country more patriotic and set the ideas of monarchy, military, and empire at the center of British identity. George III was more attentive to the royal image than his predecessors and came to be loved by his people. Total war with Napoleonic France provided women an opportunity to carve out their own niche, however small, for themselves in the public sphere, working in support of the war effort and the royal family. Just as war transformed women's participation in public and political life, so too did it lead to increased political power for men because the government needed mass military participation during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. During the 1830s, the unity of the British nation was challenged by three reform crises: the expansion of the rights of Catholic citizens, the movement for parliamentary reform, and the abolition of slavery. These reform efforts gave a great number of Britons their first opportunities to engage directly in the political life of the nation; the majority of British subjects were still not citizens, however, but subjects, calling into question the degree to which Britain was a nation of Britons.' Britons closes by taking note of debates over British identity today, especially with regard to the European Union, and the influences that originally bonded Britons are now largely gone, leading to a resurgence of English, Scottish, and Welsh identity. |
30867990 | /m/0gfjp06 | Pink | Gus Van Sant | null | {"/m/0l67h": "Novella", "/m/0pym5": "Absurdist fiction"} | The story is set in Saquatch, Oregon, USA, and details the life of Spunky Davis, a middle-aged maker of infomercials who is trying to find his next assignment and finish the science-fiction screenplay that he hopes will bring him Hollywood glory. The science-fiction screenplay sections of the book were written by Lanny Quarles. Spunky meets Jack and Matt who are from another dimension called Pink. The book has a flip-book element and other drawings that were created by Van Sant himself. |
30869162 | /m/0gfhsjb | The Scheme for Full Employment | Magnus Mills | 3/3/2003 | null | The scheme referred to in the title involves the driving of 'UniVans' from depot to depot picking up and unloading cargo - the cargo being replacement parts for UniVans. "Gloriously self-perpetuating, the scheme was designed to give an honest day’s wage for an honest day’s labor", "the envy of the world: the greatest undertaking ever conceived by man". The novel is a satire of labour relations and describes how the scheme is brought to the brink of disaster. |
30871397 | /m/06c_78 | The Dogs of Riga | Henning Mankell | null | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction", "/m/02n4kr": "Mystery", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction", "/m/0c3351": "Suspense"} | When a life raft with two dead bodies washes up on the Swedish shore, detective Kurt Wallander is led on a wild goose chase that leads him to Latvia. Much of this book is a commentary on the unstable political climates of former Soviet republics in the early 1990s, before these countries faced the period of economic boom, stability and prosperity which started in the 2000s, and was interrupted to a degree again in 2008. |
30873159 | /m/03lwnr | Wyrms | Orson Scott Card | null | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | King Oruc, fearing Patience or Peace could be a danger to his reign, keeps them under control by allowing only one of them to leave the castle at a time. However, this delicate hostage situation falls apart when Peace becomes ill. Before he dies, Peace cuts into his shoulder to retrieve a crystal globe hidden under his skin. "The scepter of the Heptarchs," he says. "Never let a gebling know you have it." Only moments after Peace dies, King Oruc sends an assassin after Patience. She easily dispatches him and leaves the castle, stopping to visit her father's preserved head in Slaves' Hall, where the heads of the wisest people are kept alive by headworms. Since the heads are coerced to speak only the truth, Patience forces her father to divulge his darkest secrets. Peace reveals that since Patience's birth, he had been fighting a powerful compulsion to bring her to Cranning, home of the geblings. The "Cranning Call," as it was known, drew the world's greatest thinkers and achievers to make a pilgrimage to Cranning, never to be seen or heard from again. Peace says the source of the Call is the Unwyrm, attempting to summon Patience to his lair. Outside the castle, Patience feels the Cranning Call and decides she will go to Cranning to challenge the Unwyrm. Even as the Cranning Call becomes stronger and more urgent, she chooses her own routes towards the city in defiance of the Unwyrm's power. Patience, joined by Angel and a massive river woman named Sken, eventually meets Ruin and Reck, twin brother and sister geblings who are together the king of the geblings. All their lives, Ruin and Reck had been repelled from Cranning by the Unwyrm, but the Cranning Call surrounding Patience cancels the repulsion and allows them to travel with her. Will, the silent but strong human who had lived as Reck's slave, joins their party. They stop by a house advertising simply ANSWERS. The owner, a dwelf named Heffiji, gives them a crash course in the strange genetics of Imakulata, in which every native plant or animal derives from a single originating species: a black segmented insect, or wyrm. Heffiji also explains that the scepter Patience had retrieved from her father's shoulder was the mindstone of the gebling king, stolen 300 generations ago by the Heptarch. Surgically implanted, it transfers the memories of the previous owners to the current host while absorbing new memories. Ruin - a skilled surgeon - agrees to insert the crystal into Patience's brain. Patience spends the next 40 days half-crazy, processing the memories of previous Heptarchs and the alien minds of gebling kings. She relives the moment when the Starship Captain, lured through lust to the surface, mates with the Wyrm in its lair beneath a glacier that would later become Cranwater. The Wyrm gave birth to the geblings, dwelfs and gaunts - and then finally to a giant wyrm-like child called Unwyrm. Finally, Patience understands the Cranning Call is summoning her to mate with the Unwyrm, so that he can impregnate her with Kristos, a superior human race. This improved species would outcompete humans as well as the dwelf, gebling, and gaunt variants produced by the first-generation mating between the Wyrm and the Starship Captain, eventually becoming the dominant form of life on Imakulata. Even as her lust for Unwyrm grows, Patience knows she must kill him or the world will be doomed. She explains it all to the rest of her companions, and they continue their journey to meet and hopefully kill Unwyrm before he is able to bring his dark plans to fruition. When it is all over Patience hopes to take her place as Heptarch and unite all of the planet's species together in peace. |
30874097 | /m/054ymy | We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story | Hudson Talbott | null | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature"} | One day in the Cretaceous Period as a Tyrannosaurus is about to devour a smaller dino he captured, a flying saucer piloted by an alien named Vorb arrives. He recruits him and several other dinos he's found for a trial of a special "vitamin" he's developed, which, upon feeding it to the dinos, causes them to become sapient. Vorb takes them aboard his saucer and they travel to the present, dropping them off in New York City, which at that moment is celebrating the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The dinos pretend to be inflatable balloons to sneak along with the parade, but Rex mistakes one of the real dino balloons to be his friend Allosaurus. The ruse is broken as a result of him accidentally popping "Allosaurus" and the dinos flee as the crowd panics in sight of them. The police come to capture the dinos soon after, but the helpful curator of the American Museum of Natural History, Dr. Bleeb, takes the dinos in, and hides them from the cops by having them pretend to be life-size model dinosaurs. This satisfies the police, who leave to search for the dinosaurs elsewhere, and the curator lets them stay for the night. She reads them a bedtime story about a trilobite who wanted to walk on land, while the dinos watch out the window, unsure about their future. ru:Мы вернулись! История динозавра |
30874726 | /m/0fbtnz | R-T, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH | Jane Leslie Conly | 1990 | {"/m/0dwly": "Children's literature", "/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy", "/m/014dfn": "Speculative fiction", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | When two children named Margaret and Artie are lost during a camping trip, they are found by the colony of rats, specifically one named Christopher. The children help the rat community with various tasks, and Artie and Christopher become very close friends. However, when winter comes, the rats cannot shelter the children and must send them back. The children try to keep the secret of Thorn Valley, but after pressure, Margaret ends up revealing it. The story ends with a party of adults traveling to Thorn Valley to discover the rats' colony only to discover an empty, apparently uninhabited plot of land with all traces of the colony removed. The whereabouts and fate of the rats of NIMH are left unstated, though Artie did find a gift from Christopher, a picture of an arrow, presumably pointing to the new location of the colony. |
30875107 | /m/04y01c | ...And Call Me Conrad | Roger Zelazny | 1965-10 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | After being devastated by a nuclear war, the Earth is a planet with a population of only 4 million, overrun by a variety of mutated lifeforms. Worse, much of the Earth is now owned by the Vegans, a race of blue-skinned aliens who see the planet as a tourist location. Conrad Nomikos, the first person narrator, is a man with a past that he'd rather not talk about, and he's been given a task that he'd rather refuse: to show an influential Vegan around the old ruins of Earth. But Conrad suddenly finds himself the reluctant protector of this alien visitor when attempts are made on the Vegan's life. Conrad knows that keeping the Vegan alive is important—but now he must find out why. Conrad now finds himself pitted against a group of Earth rebels that includes an old comrade-in-arms and an old lover, neither of whom can understand why he would want to protect one of Earth's subjugators. He is aided by another old friend and an old man who is actually one of his sons. It is eventually revealed that the Vegan he is escorting has been charged with the final disposition of the planet Earth. The Vegan in his turn is confounded by Conrad's actions. Ostensibly there as a tourist to see Earth's sights, he is horrified to find that Conrad is having the pyramids of Egypt torn down, more so when the immortal explains that the process is being filmed, and that the film will be run backwards to simulate the construction of the pyramids. Along the way it appears that Conrad's beloved wife is killed in a natural cataclysm. At the end, the rebels realize that Conrad has been fighting to protect the Earth in his own way. Through actions such as the deconstruction of the pyramids, Conrad makes the Vegans see that Earthlings would rather destroy the planet's riches than see them fall into the hands of others. In the final battle to protect the Vegan, Conrad's wife appears to deliver the decisive saving blow. The Vegan sees the mettle of which Conrad is made, and decides to leave the planet in the possession of the one being with the longevity, power and moral fiber to do well by it. Conrad finds himself the owner of Earth. |
30876903 | /m/03n0y_ | A Raisin in the Sun | Lorraine Hansberry | null | null | Walter and Ruth Younger and their son Travis, along with Walter's mother Lena (Mama) and sister Beneatha, live in poverty in a dilapidated two-bedroom apartment on Chicago's south side. Walter is barely making a living as a limousine driver. Though Ruth is content with their lot, Walter is not and desperately wishes to become wealthy, to which end he plans to invest in a liquor store in partnership with Willy, a street-smart acquaintance of Walter's whom we never meet. At the beginning of the play, Mama is waiting for an insurance check for ten thousand dollars. Walter has a sense of entitlement to the money, but Mama has religious objections to alcohol and Beneatha has to remind him it is Mama's call how to spend it. Eventually Mama puts some of the money down on a new house, choosing an all-white neighborhood over a black one for the practical reason that it happens to be much cheaper. Later she relents and gives the rest of the money to Walter to invest with the provision that he reserve $3,000 for Beneatha's education. Walter passes the money on to Willy's naive sidekick Bobo, who gives it to Willy, who absconds with it, depriving Walter and Beneatha of their dreams, though not the Youngers of their new home. Meanwhile, Karl Lindner, a white representative of the neighborhood they plan to move to, makes a generous offer to buy them out. He wishes to avoid neighborhood tensions over interracial population, which to the three women's horror Walter prepares to accept as a solution to their financial setback. Lena says that while money was something they try to work for, they should never take it if it was a person's way of telling them they weren't fit to walk the same earth as them. While all this is going on, Walter's character and direction in life are being defined for us by two different men: Beneatha's wealthy and educated boyfriend George Murchison, and Joseph Asagai, a Nigerian medical student at a Canadian university on a visit to America. Neither man is actively involved in the Youngers' financial ups and downs. George represents the "fully assimilated black man" who denies his African heritage with a "smarter than thou" attitude, which Beneatha finds disgusting, while dismissively mocking Walter's lack of money and education. Asagai patiently teaches Beneatha about her African heritage; he gives her thoughtfully useful gifts from Africa, while pointing out she is unwittingly assimilating herself into white ways. She straightens her hair, for example, which he characterizes as "mutilation." When Beneatha becomes distraught at the loss of the money, she is upbraided by Joseph for her materialism. She eventually accepts his point of view that things will get better with a lot of effort, along with his proposal of marriage and his invitation to move with him to Nigeria to practice medicine. Walter is oblivious to the stark contrast between George and Joseph: his pursuit of wealth can only be attained by liberating himself from Joseph's culture, to which he attributes his poverty, and rising to George's level, wherein he sees his salvation. To Walter, this is the American dream, which he pursues as fruitlessly as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, with the added handicap of being black in white America. But whereas Loman dies at the end of his story, Walter redeems himself and black pride at the end by changing his mind and not accepting the buyout offer, stating that they are proud of who they are and will try to be good neighbors. The play closes with the family leaving for their new but uncertain future. |
30878178 | /m/0gfd3qd | Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us | Daniel H. Pink | 2009 | {"/m/05h83": "Non-fiction"} | In his book Daniel Pink has made a 140-character summary of what the book is about, in the style of Twitter. :"Carrots & Sticks are so last Century. Drive says for 21st century work, we need to upgrade to autonomy, mastery and purpose." Another summary was done by RSAnimate, a ten minute video animation adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA. |
30882727 | /m/0gg8720 | Zeluco | null | null | null | The first quarter of the novel details Zeluco’s numerous initial wrongdoings in rapid succession. The novel opens with an incident that, according to the narrator, illustrates Zeluco’s violent temper and uncontrollable impulses. Irritated by his pet sparrow, the young Zeluco crushes it to death in his hand and ignores the remonstrances of his horrified tutor. Grown into a handsome, selfish, and cruel young man, Zeluco seduces and impregnates the niece of an important noblewoman. He then deserts the niece and spends two decadent years in Italy, draining his mother’s resources. Once his mother has given him the last of her money, Zeluco drops his pretence of affection, and she dies of disappointment at his anger and spite. Unconcerned about his mother’s death, Zeluco attempts to marry Rosolia, a young woman with a vast potential inheritance. Rosolia’s mother, convinced that Zeluco is only after her daughter’s money, pretends to be pregnant. Certain that Rosolia’s inheritance will be greatly reduced, Zeluco abandons her, travels to Spain, enlists as an officer in the military, and follows his regiment to Cuba. Zeluco mistreats his men in an attempt to gain a promotion, but after being chastised by his superior officer, he turns his attention to a wealthy widow. Though he offers the widow tender affections until she agrees to marry him, he treats her with cold indifference once she signs over her money and property to him, and she dies of grief. Newly interested in the wife of his rich Portuguese neighbor, Zeluco courts the wife secretly until she refuses to meet him for fear of discovery and confesses her flirtations to her husband. The Portuguese disguises himself and stabs Zeluco. After a difficult recuperation, Zeluco attempts to revenge himself upon the Portuguese by making the man think Zeluco to be the father of his newborn son. After this plot fails, Zeluco leaves Cuba for Naples. The remaining three-quarters of the novel is devoted to Zeluco’s interactions with a particular circle of aristocrats in Italian high society. Once established in Naples, Zeluco becomes interested in Laura Seidlits, the beautiful daughter of the widow Madame de Seidlits. Determined to meet Laura, he attempts to ingratiate himself with the nobleman Signora Sporza, Madame de Seidlits’ first cousin. Though she pretends to oblige him, Signora Sporza distrusts Zeluco and senses his cruel character. Laura also instinctively dislikes Zeluco and refuses his proposal of marriage. Infuriated by Laura’s disdain, Zeluco stages a false attempt of robbery, rape, and murder by having his valet attack Laura and Signora Sporza’s carriage. Despite Zeluco’s apparently heroic false rescue, Laura remains unmoved and unwavering in her decision not to marry Zeluco. Madame de Seidlits’ bank fails, however, and after learning of her mother’s financial distress and being pressured by Father Pedro, Laura agrees to marry Zeluco to preserve her mother’s happiness and wellbeing. As in the case of the rich widow, Zeluco treats Laura cruelly as soon as he achieves his goal and sates his appetites. Laura bears his ill treatment meekly, hides her misery, and presents a positive image of her married life. Signora Sporza, as well as Laura’s newly arrived half-brother Captain Seidlits and his friend Baron Carlostein, suspects the true state of affairs. Laura and Baron Carlostein begin to fall in love with one another, but Laura cuts the relationship short because she is unwilling to violate her marriage vows. Oblivious to Laura’s love for Carlostein, Zeluco erroneously believes Laura to be in love with a nameless Italian nobleman. Bored with Laura, Zeluco begins an affair with Nerina, a deceitful woman who pretends to be in love with men for financial gain. Nerina manipulates Zeluco through pretended fits of jealously and eventually convinces him that his and Laura’s newborn son is really the bastard child of Captain Seidlits. Giving in to his natural jealousy and furious impulses, Zeluco snatches his son from Laura’s lap and strangles the child. Laura immediately faints and remains out of her senses for a number of weeks. When Laura partially regains her senses, she sees a painting of the Massacre of the Innocents, screams, and falls into a feverish frenzy. When Baron Carlostein, Captain Seidlits, and Signora Sporza examine the picture, they realize that one of the soldiers strangling a child bears a strong resemblance to Zelcuo. Laura recovers from her fever with her senses intact and writes to Zeluco asking for a separation and promising she will tell no one about the murder. Captain Seidlits, however, labels the soldier in the picture with Zeluco’s name. Baron Carlostein provokes Zeluco into a duel to spare Captain Seidlits. The night before the duel is to take place, Zeluco goes to Nerina’s house unannounced and catches her with another lover, who stabs him in the stomach. On his deathbed, Zeluco repents of his amoral conduct and apologizes to Captain Seidlits. After arranging her affairs and giving monetary gifts to Zeluco’s relations, Laura agrees to marry Baron Carlostein and moves to Berlin with her family. |
30883520 | /m/0gg7t86 | Never Mind the Balkans, Here's Romania | null | 2008-05 | null | Based on the author’s personal experiences in urban and rural Romania over a fourteen-year period between 1994 and 2008, the book consists of a series of vignettes delineating various aspects of modern Romanian life. A narrator tells the stories in the first person, using the present tense, and is closely linked to the events and characters portrayed, often with unexpected results. He describes encounters with taxi drivers, the new rich, teenagers, notaries, lawyers, waiters, musicians, friends, families, association presidents, politicians, etc. Settings range from Bucharest to Transylvania, from the mountains to the coast. In two stories, the narrator meets or observes Romanians abroad. The tone throughout is wry but empathetic, with elements of bittersweet comedy, danger and, on one occasion, violence, when interests and ideals clash. Most of the stories contain an allegorical twist, inviting wider interpretation. |
30890142 | /m/0gg9mkv | The Meaning of It All | Richard Feynman | 1998 | {"/m/05h83": "Non-fiction"} | In the first lecture, "The Uncertainty of Science" Feynman explains the nature of science, that it is a "method for finding things out", and that it is "based on the principle that observation is the judge of whether something is so or not". He says that uncertainty and doubt in science is a good thing, because it always keeps the door open for further investigation. The second lecture, "The Uncertainty of Values" deals with his views on the relationship between science, religion and politics. Feynman acknowledges science's limitations and says that it does not have the "value system" that religions have, but adds that it can be used to help in making decisions. He also stresses the importance of having the freedom to question and explore, and criticizes the (then) Soviet Union by saying that no government has the right to decide which scientific principles are correct and which are not. In the third lecture, "This Unscientific Age", the longest of the three, Feynman discusses his views on modern society and how unscientific it is. Using a number of anecdotes as examples, he covers a range of topics, including "faith healing, flying saucers, politics, psychic phenomena, TV commercials, and desert real estate". |
30892578 | /m/0gg7vh8 | Another | null | null | null | In 1972, a popular student named Misaki who was in class 3-3 of Yomiyama North Middle School suddenly died partway through the school year. Devastated by the unexpected loss, the students and teachers behaved like Misaki was still alive, leading to a strange presence on the graduation photo. In Spring 1998, a 15-year old boy named Kōichi Sakakibara transfers into Yomiyama's class 3-3, where he meets the peculiar Mei Misaki, who is seemingly ignored by her classmates. The class is soon caught up in an epidemic where students, or people related to class 3-3 students, are caught up in mysterious deaths. Learning these deaths have something to do with the mystery of 1972, it is up to Kōichi and Mei to discover the cause of these mysterious deaths and figure out how to put an end to it before it puts an end to them. |
30900805 | /m/0gg6mwd | The Gods Are Not To Blame | Ola Rotimi | 1971 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel", "/m/05qp9": "Play"} | The book begins with an Ifa Priest's predictiction of a newborn son of King Adetusa and his Queen Ojuola that will grow up to "kill his own father and then marry his own mother!" The baby's feet are tied with a string of cowries... Now years later, the child Odewale is King and married to Ojuola. An old man Alaka, half clown, half philosopher, comes to tell Odewale that his "parents" have died. However, Alaka also lets slip that they were not Odewale's real parents. Shamed by the suggestion that he is illegitimate, Odewale brutally forces Alaka to reveal the truth: that Alaka found him in the bush and brought him to the neighbouring Ijekun chief to be fostered. |
30907060 | /m/0gg8n5_ | Wildfire at Midnight | null | null | null | Fashion model Gianetta Brooke goes on holiday to the island of Skye, only to find that her ex-husband, writer Nicholas Drury, is staying at the same hotel. After two murders take place locally, suspicion falls on the hotel guests. Gianetta, having become friendly with fellow-traveller Roderick Grant, eventually discovers that Grant is the murderer. She is saved from becoming his next victim and reunited with Nicholas. |
30911595 | /m/0ggb84l | The European Union as a Small Power: After the Post-Cold War | null | null | {"/m/03g3w": "History"} | The EU is a response to and function of Europe’s unique historical experience. The past decade has shown that there is policy space for greater EU engagement in European security, although the EU has not been able to play all roles with the same degree of accomplishment. There are particular concerns over its security and defence dimension where attempts at pooling resources and forming a political consensus have failed to generate the results expected. These trends, combined with shifts in global power patterns, have been accompanied by a shift in EU strategic thinking whereby great-power ambitions have been scaled down and replaced by a tendency towards hedging vis-à-vis the leading powers. On an operational level the track record shows that the EU’s effectiveness is hampered by a ‘consensus– expectations gap’, owing primarily to the lack of an effective decision-making mechanism. The sum of these developments is that the EU will not be a great power, and is taking the place of one of the small powers in the emerging multipolar international order.(summarized on page 11). |
30927727 | /m/0gg986x | Faith | null | null | null | Dicky Cruyer, who is now acting Director of Operations, sends Bernard and another agent into East Germany to meet with Verdi, a KGB defector who has promised to supply access to the KGB mainframe and wanted to see Bernard. Upon discovering a corpse at the meeting point they realise that they have been set up. After killing a Stasi agent and being sheltered by one of Fiona's networks they escape back to West Berlin. Dicky is desperate for the Verdi operation to succeed in order to secure Operations permanently and angle for the soon to be vacant Deputy Director General position. Fiona is now working for Dicky and backing the operation because VERDI has promised to bring information about the death of her sister Tessa during Fiona's escape from the East. Others high-up in the SIS are determined to block the operation. Bernard knows Verdi from the old days in Berlin, doesn't trust him and isn't sure about the operation but now he must work with his old friend Werner Volkman to find out what is really going on and bring Verdi safely to London. Along the way Bernard has to deal with the usual office politics, enemy agents, his fragile wife, his ex-mistress Gloria, Dicky's wife's seduction by a KGB operative and Tessa's husband's attempts to find out who was really responsible for her death and make them pay. Bret makes a surprise return to London to take the Deputy Director General position. He appoints Gloria as his assistant and promises a major clean out of London Central. Gloria tells Bernard she is worried that files about her father's and Bernard's connection with Fiona's mission are being illegally erased from top secret databases. Verdi tells Bernard the corpse at the meeting point was Timmermann, a freelance agent working for George and Fiona who was nosing around about Tessa and had to be eliminated, something Bret had tried to inform Bernard of via a cryptic message. Verdi is safely brought to London to finalise the deal where he hands over Tessa's post mortem report as promised. Verdi then spins a fanciful story to Bernard that the report is a fake and that Tessa is really still alive and being held captive in East Germany; something Bernard forces Werner to keep secret. Verdi is then killed by a sniper and everyone faces an official inquiry into the mission's failure. |
30929390 | /m/0gg4c8v | The Mystery of the Strange Bundle | null | null | null | Mr, Fellows runs with a bundle in the night out of his room. What was in the bundle? Why did he run? The five find-outers and dog are on the track. Fatty, the leader of the five learns ventriloquism. |
30932229 | /m/0gg5w_q | The Family Arsenal | Paul Theroux | 1976 | {"/m/01jfsb": "Thriller", "/m/02xlf": "Fiction"} | The Family Arsenal follows a bitter former American Consul as he blunders into a terrorist commune in search of a cause; seemingly any cause so long as it offers some way of battling evil, which here takes the guise of a heavy handed government and a gun-running criminal. Shortly after Valentine Hood joins a terrorist cell operating from a nondescript house in a once pleasant street in Deptford, South London, he commits a senselessly quixotic killing. The repercussions from this unsanctioned act ripple far and wide, eventually endangering everything and everyone he has been fighting for. Gradually Hood insinuates himself into the confidences of the suspicious, down-trodden members of his new family as they plan and execute equally pointless atrocities around London, either alone or with the assistance of a bored society hostess, an up and coming actress and a man who may or may not allow access to the IRA. |
30946755 | /m/0gg50k5 | Plain Kate | null | null | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Katerina "Kate" Svetlana is an orphan who lived in the small eastern European market town of Samilae. She was called "Plain Kate" because of her plain looks. Her mother died in childbirth and her father, a master woodcarver, took care of her until he died of a mysterious river sickness. She is thought to be a witch by some of the other townspeople, because of her brown and blue eyes. Kate is too young and too poor to join the woodcarving guild, and is forced to live out of her father's market stall, seeking out a living from her carvings. One day, a stranger comes to market. The stranger, Linay, offers Kate her heart's wish in exchange for her shadow. She initially refuses, but later agrees when rumours of witchcraft spread and she feels she must escape the town to survive. Linay provides her with basic necessities, and her wish to not be alone results in her pet cat Taggle gaining the power of speech. Kate joins a group of Roamers, nomads who travel from town to town selling goods. She meets Drina, a girl with no mother but a living father who tells Kate about an uncle who went mad once Drina's mother was burned as a witch. A few days later, Kate reveals to Drina that a witch took her shadow and that Taggle actually talks. Since Drina's mother was actually a witch, and Drina shares some of that power, Drina decides to help Kate. Drina repeats the one rule of magic: that for something to be granted, something must be given in return, but the spell backfires. Drina apologizes but says that they can still get help from someone who knew her mother in the markets of Toila. Throughout their journey, a mysterious fog creeps up the river, bringing sickness to the towns it touches. The people of the countryside are more fearful than ever, ready to pounce on any mysterious stranger or Roamer with accusations of witchcraft. Kate and Drina barely escape from an angry mob in Toila, and the Roamers start to believe that Kate is more trouble than she is worth. Worse, the river sickness has started to affect the Roamers as well. Some Roamers accuse Kate of being responsible. The discovery that Kate now has no shadow, and that Taggle can talk, seals Kate's fate. The Roamers lock her in an old bear cage, and prepare to burn her themselves. Kate manages to escape with Taggle, but is badly burnt. She runs to the river and dive in. Kate wakes up in a small boat, and discovers that Linay has saved her from drowning in the water. Her hands are bandaged and she is in clean clothes, and Linay reveals that he did not want Kate to drown. This was how his sister died, while running from an angry mob, and it is this that has transformed her into a Rusalka, a vampiric water creature that has been causing the river sickness. Kate realizes that Linay is Drina's uncle, and that the Rusalka is actually Drina's mother, Lenore. Linay promises to return Kate's shadow to her when they reach Lov, a big city downriver, but he needs her to exact his plan for revenge. He reveals that he has taken Kate's shadow so he could augment the power of the Rusalka and destroy the city of Lov, where Lenore died. He is leading his sister down the river and keeping her under control by offering her his blood, but he has no more blood to give. He asks Kate to offer some of her own blood. In spite of Taggle's advice not to agree to Linay's deal, Kate reluctantly starts to feed her blood to Lenore, every night. Soon, she discovers that her shadow is held in a box made of her stall's ruins. After an attempt to free her shadow fails, Kate decides that she cannot allow Linay to destroy Lov, and she flees Linay's boat, trying to beat him to the stone city. On the way, she meets Drina in the red vardo with Behjet. Behjet has fallen into the "death" sleep. Drina says that the ghost has taken other Roamers as well. Together, the two arrive at Lov. There, they see Linay being captured by the city guards. He is calling for himself to be burned. On the day of the burning, as Linay is to be burned at the stake, he calls Lenore, who comes. Combined with Kate's shadow, she begins to destroy Lov. Kate and Drina plead with Linay to stop, but he refuses. Taggle, remembering the rule of magic, gives back the gift of his speech by selflessly jumping onto Kate's knife, killing himself, and ending the Rusalka's attack on the city. The Rusalka transforms back into Lenore, in ghost form, who comforts the dying Linay, and her daughter Drina. Before she fades, crossing over completely into the afterlife, she grants Kate one last gift and uses her witchcraft to bring Taggle back to life, although without the ability to speak. She also gives Kate back her shadow. Those caught in the sleeping sickness, who are still alive, wake up at last. Kate, Taggle and Drina leave Lov and find Behjet awake. Later, when it is almost dark, Plain Kate finds Linay's green boat. Inside, she finds the box which held her shadow. Inside there is a sack full of gold and silver, and a note on which Linay had written: Kate. I hope you live. Before the book ends, Plain Kate picks up Taggle and says: "I did. We both did. And we'll keep on living." |
30960484 | /m/0ggb9hl | The Leopard | Jo Nesbø | 2009 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction"} | Following the traumatic events of the previous novel, the world-weary detective Harry Hole has gone on a kind of self-imposed exile from Norway and disappeared. Because of a series of murders by a potential serial killer in Oslo leave the police baffled and call for Hole's special talents, a search is launched and he is eventually found by a new Crime Squad officer, Kaja Solness, in Hong Kong, where he has become addicted to opium. After failing to convince Harry to return to Norway by describing the identical murder of two women, Solness informs him that his father is seriously ill in the Rikshospitalet and will not live much longer. This convinces Harry to return to Norway with Solness. Harry returns to Crime Squad to find that it is in a political tussle with the National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos). The power-hungry head of Kripos, Mikael Bellman, seeks to build his own power by gaining a monopoly on all murder investigations in Norway and is at odds with Harry's own supervisor. Much of the book's plot is concerned with this no-holds-barred power struggle, with rival detectives conducting surveillance on each other and resorting to constant intrigue, blackmail and the planting of spies and "moles" in the rival department. From the very moment of landing in Norway, Harry finds himself the target of Bellman's hostility - though the head of Kripos is not averse to obtaining the results of Harry's detection and taking credit for them. To begin with, Harry is reluctant to become involved in the murder investigation, but when a female Norwegian MP is murdered in a public park, he is drawn into the case. The third murder initially seems unrelated to the previous two. The previous victims had been found with 24 small incisions emanating from the mouth, but the actual cause of death was by drowning in their own blood from those wounds, whereas the MP was found having been hanged, though the fall had been considerable and she had been decapitated by the rope. Harry, Solness and one of Harry's former colleagues at Crime Squad start trying to find the killer - working under cover as officially the case had been given to Kripos. While working together, Harry and Kaja are increasingly drawn to each other. Like himself, Kaja turns out to be haunted by traumatic memories and ghosts of the past, and her past personal entanglements impact her professional life - which leads to a big confrontation between the two of them, and then to a reconciliation and a tempestuous love affair. In the investigation, they meanwhile discover that all three murdered women had been at the same ski lodge some time previously all on the same night. Harry deduces that the murders are part of the killer's attempts to cover up his (or her) trail. Suspicion initially falls on a man known to have been at the ski lodge at the time, but he is eliminated from the enquiry when he also is found murdered having been super glued to his bath and then slowly drowned, returning to the killer's previous style of murder. Forcing Bellman to include him in the Kripos team - though there is no love lost between the two of them - Harry finds another person who had been at the ski lodge at the time and who is now in Australia. She refuses to be bait for the killer, but Harry and Solness instigate a sting operation to draw out the killer. But this fails and almost costs them their lives when the killer outsamrts them, and instead of coming near the hut starts an avalanche which covers and very nearly kills them. Harry finally determines that the murderer is someone that he knows and who has become close to him, following a discussion with The Snowman from his previous case. He realises who he believes to be responsible and has him arrested. Unfortunately, Harry's instincts have proved wrong and the real killer is discovered to have fled to the Congo. Harry and Solness follow them and Harry is kidnapped by associates of the killer. He manages to escape, but Solness has been captured herself. Harry follows the clues given by one of the killer's associates and finally confronts and kills the murderer at the lip of a live volcano. Following the death of his father, Harry spots his former partner, Rakel, and her son, Oleg, at the funeral and manages to confirm that they are alive and happy away from Norway - having fled following the events of The Snowman murders. Though it is but a fleeting meeting, it re-confirms that Rakel is the one great love of Harry's life and that no other woman can truly replace her. Therefore, Kaja's deep love for Harry and her aspiration to build a life together with him is doomed to failure and heartbreak. The poignant farewell scene is reminiscent of the similar scene at the end of The Redeemer, where Harry cut off a budding affair with Martine, the Salvation Army woman with whom he got involved in that book. Harry himself returns to see The Snowman, who is gravely ill and who feels some remorse at what he had done. It is tacitly suggested that Harry helps The Snowman to commit suicide, which Harry feels is payment for having failed to follow his father's previous request for him to perform euthanasia. By the end of the novel, Harry has gotten many new traumatic memories and haunting "ghosts" - having been very near death several times, mutilating his own face to get free of the killer's fiendish trap, shooting an African mercenary who turned out to be a young boy... Moreover, he had twice saved Kaja's life by ruthlessly sacrificing somebody else - during the avalanche he had given priority to resuscitating her while another police officer suffocated to death, and at the final showdown in Africa he had shot down the murderer at an angle where the heavy bullet missed Kaja but killed in passing another woman who was held hostage. Though not facing any charges, Harry is well aware of what he did - and determined to go back to Hong Kong, for good this time. |
30967529 | /m/0gg4wgj | Mirat-ul-Uroos | null | null | null | The story contrasts the lives of two Muslim sisters from Delhi, Akbari and Asghari. The first part of the book describes the life of Akbari, who is raised in privilege. She is depicted as lazy and poorly educated. When she moves to her husband's house after her marriage, she has a very difficult time and brings all manner of unhappiness upon herself by her poor judgment and behavior. The book's second part is centered on Asghari, who is modest, hardworking and educated well in a school. She despises idle chatter and is the beloved of all in her mohalla (neighborhood). When she is married, she too undergoes a difficult transition, but through her hard-work, winsome manners and good education is able to form solid bonds with her husband's family and the people of her new mohalla. The story goes through a number of twists and turns that describes the experiences of the two women at various stages in their lives. |
30971642 | /m/0gg7g9t | The Borrowers Avenged | Mary Norton | null | null | The Borrowers Avenged details the events following the escape of the tiny Clock family from the attic of the scheming humans Mr. and Mrs. Platter and their search for a new home. After returning to the Little Fordham model village, the Clocks set out in Spiller's boat for their new home, the rectory of the local church. They make a night journey down the river, barely missing the Platters who are looking for them. When they arrive at the rectory they discover that their relatives Lupy, Hendreary and Timmus are living in the church next door. Arrietty also meets another borrower named Peagreen Overmantel who shows them a place to live under a window seat. The Clocks settle in comfortably and Arrietty is allowed to go outside and do all of the borrowing for the two borrower families. She discovers that her human friend Miss Menzies goes to the church to arrange flowers, but she is forbidden to speak to her. The Platters, having severely damaged the model village in their hunt for the borrowers, decide to use one of Homily's old aprons to help the local "finder" Lady Mullings locate the borrowers. Miss Menzies recognizes the apron and becomes suspicious. Meanwhile, the Platters spot Timmus in the church and break in after hours to catch him, but they accidentally ring the church bells and are caught by the humans in suspicious circumstances. |
30974100 | /m/0gg7sc2 | The Rift | null | null | null | Official summary: The story begins with Commander Pike, seen in the original pilot episode for Star Trek. It then features Captain Kirk and his crew from the future. Mr. Spock learns his favorite word, "fascinating" from the female first officer known only as Number One, deciding it wasn't too emotional and would be a good word to remember for the future. |
30976827 | /m/0gg975f | Dark Places | Gillian Flynn | 2009 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Libby Day, the novel's narrator and protagonist, is the sole survivor of a massacre in Kinnakee, Kansas, a fictional rural town. After witnessing the murder of her sister and mothers in what appears to be a Satanic cult ritual, she escapes through a window and later testifies in court against her teenaged brother. Twenty-five years after the massacre, Libby meets with a group of amateur investigators who believe that her brother in innocent of the crime. With the group's support, she begins an investigation of the events of the massacre, tracking down other witnesses and possible suspects. Interspersed with the modern day investigation are flashbacks to the day of the massacre. These flashbacks are told from the points of view of Libby's mother, Patty, and her brother, respectively. These viewpoints paint a picture of a grim life of desperate poverty, marital abuse and abandonment that characterize life on the farm prior to the murder. <!-- |
30983492 | /m/0ggbh19 | My Best Friend's Girl | null | null | null | Kamryn Matika is a thirty-two year old National Marketing Manager for a department store, who lives in Leeds. On her birthday she receives a card- not a birthday card- from her former best friend, Adele Brannon, which says that she is in hospital and she is dying. Kamryn is reluctant to see her. Two years previously, she discovered that her partner and her best friend conceived a child together three years earlier. Kamryn had vowed never to speak to them again. However, she visits London anyway but when at the hospital she discovers that Adele has terminal cancer and is going to die soon. She is shocked when Adele says that she want Kamryn to adopt her daughter Tegan. Kamryn thinks about it and reflects when she met Adele in university for a couple of hours before she goes to collect Tegan from Adele's Father and Step-mother, who we discover have abused and negected both Adele and Tegan. They let Tegan go as a) they would be glad to see the back of her b) Kamryn had threatened to phone the police. Tegan is somewhat quiet and is rather scared, but Kamryn reasures her everything will be ok. In the hotel room, Kamryn is shocked to see how much abuse Tegan had suffered at the hands of her grandparents. Kamryn decides to stick to a plan: bath, food, bed. This actually works in a bizarre way. A few days later Kamryn receives a knock on her door to say that Adele had died during the night. This shocks Kamryn and she trys to tell Teagn but she refuses to believe it. A few weeks later, Kamryn and Tegan move back up to Leeds. At first, there were issues such as they don't know what shampoo to get for Tegan. Kamryn is under suspicion as she is a black woman with a white child. Kamryn once forgets Tegan and leaves her at a play group while she is having dinner with her new boss, Luke. The next day, Luke comes round and Tegan asks him to come to the zoo with her and Kamryn. Kamryn and Luke become closer and then they become lovers. Just as they are settling in, Kamryn's former parther (and Tegan's father), Nate, comes back on the scene. Kamryn tells Nate about his daughter to which he is now becoming used to even helping with her sixth birthday party, which goes badly wrong when Tegan has an alergic reaction. In the hospital, Kamryn and Nate share a kiss which is seen by Luke resulting in a massive break-up between him and Kamryn. About eighteen months later, Luke meets up with Kamryn and Tegan in a cafe and seems to have forgiven Kamryn. Tegan is now Kamryn's adopted daughter and says that they are going to get a cat. |
30991451 | /m/0gg721v | Hope | null | null | null | A severely wounded courier working for George Kosinski turns up at the flat in London where Bernard and Fiona are now living, since Tessa Kosinski left it to Fiona. George, who is now a tax exile living in Zurich, arrives to take the courier to a doctor and asks Bernard to keep it quiet because he doesn't want Inland Revenue to know he was in the country. Suspecting that a Stasi agent travelled to Zurich to meet with George, Bernard and Dicky Cruyer travel to Zurich to question George. George has put Tessa's engagement ring, given to him by the Stasi, in to be cleaned and then disappeared. Bernard and Dicky track him to his old family estate in Poland where his brother Stefan resides. Stefan says the George was murdered by Russian Army defectors and all that was recovered was a leg mauled by wild dogs, and he has a death certificate to prove it. A hand with George's signet ring is later shown to the British Embassy as further proof and sent to Dicky in London. The Stasi try to steal the hand back before it can be forensically analysed but Dicky chases and shoots the agent and recovers the hand. Bret Rensselaer and Gloria are implementing harsh budget cuts across the SIS. With the backing of Fiona and Dicky Bernard gets a permanent job as Frank Harrington's deputy in Berlin. There he must deal with one of Fiona's networks in East Germany being captured because the head man was a Stasi plant. A young agent Bernard has worked with is killed and delivered to Gloria's hotel room as retaliation for Bernard killing a Stasi agent in Faith. Bernard also learns that Fiona was in love with her KGB minder, a double agent called Kennedy, whom Bernard shot while rescuing Fiona. Fiona and children decide to spend Christmas in the Caribbean with her father. Bernard is sent back in to Poland to extract George. He discovers that George and Stefan have been working for Polish intelligence all the time they have been travelling in the West. George fled to Zurich to try to get out but the Stasi tracked him down. They told George that Timmerman had brokered a deal and if George returns to Poland and renounces his British Citizenship they will reunite him with Tessa, who is pregnant, and they can live happily ever after in Poland. Bernard convinces George that this is nonsense and Tessa is dead and that London will treat him well if he comes clean. George agrees to be smuggled to Sweden in light plane and after shooting George's tail they escape. Bernard hands George over to be shipped off to London for interrogation. Bernard and Gloria fly back to London for Christmas in the lear-jet Bret chartered as an air ambulance in case anyone was injured. |
30996091 | /m/0gh79c6 | Dry-Fly Fishing in Theory and Practice | Frederic M. Halford | 1889 | null | Whereas Floating Flies and How to Dress Them was about the dry fly, fly tying and to some extent the entomology of the chalk stream, Dry-Fly Fishing... was about fishing the dry fly. It was the consummate "how-to" manual for the dry-fly fisherman. It was not only about methodology, but also about the ethics and purism of the dry fly on English chalk streams. The volume begins by spelling out the various pieces of fishing and personal equipment the dry-fly angler should possess. The pros and cons of different rod styles are discussed, along with fly lines, reels and the various miscellany a fly angler should carry. Although Halford did not invent dry-fly fishing, before this volume, no one had laid out in such detail the equipment recommendations needed to be a successful dry-fly angler. Such were Halford's recommendations that they were routinely referenced by the fly-fishing trade: A short, but concise Chapter 2 discusses the distinction between a floating (dry) fly and a sunk fly, with emphasis on the superiority of the floating fly as characterized by this concluding statement: Chapters 3-5 go into great detail about how, when and where to cast the dry fly on the typical chalk stream. These chapters are heavily illustrated with casting techniques and comprise nearly 20% of the entire 1st edition. The bulk of the remaining chapters deal with the entomology of the chalk stream, fly selection and trout behaviour. |
30998772 | /m/0gg9xnd | Broken | Karin Slaughter | 2010 | {"/m/0lsxr": "Crime Fiction"} | Broken begins with the murder of college student Allison Spooner. When the body is pulled from frigid Lake Grant, detective Lena Adams and her oft drunk boss, interim Chief of Police Frank Wallace, follow a trail that leads to the suicide of the prime suspect, Tommy Braham, in his jail cell. The suicide spurs the involvement of Dr. Sara Linton, back in town for Thanksgiving with her family. Still incredibly angry with Lena over her role in Sara's husband's death, and convinced Lena's callous and reckless behavior has led to the possibly innocent suspect's death, Sara calls in back-up from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Upon arriving in town, Agent Will Trent immediately meets with resistance from the Grant County Police Department. Despite the roadblocks, he unveils serious errors and deliberate cover-ups in the investigation, perpetrated mainly by Frank Wallace. Soon after, Allison's boyfriend Jason is brutally killed in his dorm room. This definitively points to a murderer still on the loose, clearing Tommy Braham of any lingering suspicion. After discovering a secret link between all three victims, Will and Sara must pull all the pieces together in time to track down the killer. |
31008263 | /m/0gg74q5 | Heroes of Princeton | null | 2010-08 | {"/m/0hwxm": "Historical novel"} | Accurately following the campaigns of the 17th Regiment of Foot in the American colonies, the company Snow enlists into finds itself at odds with their own ranks as much as those of the enemies, as the seven men enlist together each becomes at odds with their nemesis Sergeant Matthias Skinner who seems hell bent upon their destruction. The novel climaxes at the Battle of Princeton in January 1777 with the famous bayonet charge made by the 17th Regiment as Lt Colonel Charles Mawhoods British brigade is surrounded by General George Washington's army. |
31009077 | /m/0gg8cgt | Mayflower II | null | null | null | The story begins on Pluto in the distant future. Its inhabitants, former collaborators of the Qax, humanity's erstwhile conquerors, are under attack from the new-formed Coalition, seeking revenge for humanity's enslavement. As such, the inhabitants send five generation ships out of the solar system in the hopes that they will be able to form colonies of their own that can survive the Coalition. Rusel, the protagonist, is admitted onto Mayflower II, one of the ships, at the last minute. Shortly after takeoff, it is revealed that the ship's intended destination is outside the galaxy, requiring a flight time of 50,000 subjective years, even with the effects of time dilation. The ship's captain selects a few individuals to receive medical treatment granting them immortality, allowing them to guide the ship through its millennia-long voyage. Over time, however, these individuals die through malfunctions or boredom, leaving Rusel as the only immortal on board, but he becomes increasingly dependent on life-support and gradually merges with the ship. Over time, the other inhabitants of the ship form several different societies, gradually becoming detached from their original humanity. Eventually, they form an almost unrecongisable tribal civilisation. Having forgotten that they are on a spaceship at all, they only maintain it through religious tradition. After 25,000 years have passed, the Mayflower is contacted by Pirius and Torec (protagonists of Exultant), former soldiers of the Coalition, which is revealed to have fallen. They offer to remove the inhabitants from the ship and care for them elsewhere. Rusel, now completely merged with the ship's systems, allows them to do so. Pirius and Torec then leave Rusel to continue into space without the burden of the crew, which he gladly accepts. |
31009850 | /m/0gg6qvv | Blue Remembered Earth | Alastair Reynolds | 1/19/2012 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Blue Remembered Earth takes place in the 2160s, at a time when humanity has repaired Earth's climate and extensively colonised the solar system. An omnipresent surveillance system (known as the "Mechanism") ensures that violent crime is almost unheard-of, and genetic engineering has vastly extended human lifespans. China, India and the nations of Africa are now the world's leading technological powers, although they face competition from the United Aquatic Nations, a new underwater civilisation populated by water-breathing transhumans. Almost all humans possess neural computer interfaces known as "augs", which allow them to access online information, view augmented reality displays, translate speech in real-time and operate telepresence robots. Some individuals, wishing to escape the constant surveillance of Earth's Mechanism, live in a bohemian, ungoverned "Descrutinized Zone" on the dark side of the Moon. The story focuses on Geoffrey and Sunday Akinya, a brother and sister who are members of a powerful African corporate family. Following the death of their influential grandmother Eunice, the siblings begin investigating a series of cryptic messages that Eunice left across the solar system over the previous century. |
31012715 | /m/0gg59pw | Muriel a oranžová smrt | Miloš Macourek | null | null | Muriel a oranžová smrt follows its characters on from where Muriel a andělé left them. The militaristic General Xeron, the main antagonist, has managed to escape justice. Both Muriel and Xeron are captured by a spy from the Orange Planet. Once at the Orange Planet, Muriel is imprisoned, but Xeron, true to character, unhesitatingly joins its autocratic ruling regime, and persuades its leader, the Central Brain, to invade Earth. After a brief, hopeless resistance, Earth is defeated; but Muriel's boyfriend Ró (a visitor from an alien planet of the distant future) contacts his compatriots and allies, and together, they drive the invaders back. Ró journeys to the Orange Planet, destroys its Central Brain, frees Muriel, and liberates the Planet's ordinary inhabitants, who have been unknowingly enslaved all the while. |
31014664 | /m/0gg9163 | Lily Alone | null | null | null | Lily is the eldest child in the Green family. She has two younger half-sisters and a younger half -brother. She often has to take care of them when their mother, Kate Green, goes out to the pub, newsagent or off-licence. Although Lily does not usually mind being shouldered with the responsibility, she sometimes resents it. When Lily's mother meets Gordon, her new boyfriend, at a local club, Kate is convinced that her life has improved and she feels as if Gordon and her [are] on a rollercoaster up to heaven.' Lily becomes cross with her mother for not coming home in a timely manner. That night, she takes care of her brother and sisters by drawing and watching Tracy Beaker. The next day, Kate takes her children on a frivolous shopping expedition and uses a credit card, which causes Lily to become very suspicious. She worries about where and how her mum obtained the card. Kate flies to Spain to be with Gordon. Lily is fearful and angry when her mother suggests that Mikey, Kate's ex-husband, look after the rest of the family while Kate travels to Spain. Kate tells Lily that she has yet to reveal to Gordon that she has children. She further annoys Lily when Kate reveals that she feels as if she deserves a holiday from living in a 'dump.' Kate leaves a voicemail message for Mikey to tell him that he must take care of the children while Kate is on holiday. Lily is afraid of Mikey. By the time Mikey returns Kate's call, Kate has already left for Spain. Mikey tells Lily that he is on his way to Glasgow and tells Lily to tell her mother not to go anywhere. Lily pretends that she has delivered the message. They survive by eating what is left in the fridge. Lily is able to prepare simple meals for her siblings because she has grown accustomed to caring for them. Lily is frightened and cross because she is the one who is in charge. She is fearful that people will find out about her situation and that she will be separated from her siblings. She manages by taking her brother and sisters to the park as well as by using her imagination to entertain the others. She also uses her brains to deal with adults who ask about the whereabouts of her mother, such as the couple the children encounter in the park. Mr Abbot, Lily's teacher, comes to the flat because he is concerned that the children have not attended school and that Lily failed to go on the trip to the art gallery. Lily tells her teacher that they have all been ill and that her mother is at the shops in order to purchase medicine. Lily is scared that Mr Abbot will return with social workers so she packs food, clothing and bedding. When they run away, all of the children are very scared and struggle to feed themselves. They fend for themselves by stealing food from a nearby canteen, until the owners tell them to stop. Lily also enters a home and takes several items of delicious food.Now there's another person on her back her flat neighbour who they call Mr Nosy. Things go even more wrong when Bliss falls out of a tree and breaks her leg while Lily sleeps. Lily realises that she needs adult intervention. She calls an ambulance and they take Bliss to the hospital. When the nurses get Bliss lying down, their Mum returns. The police charge Kate with child neglect. She is told that she needs to perform community service as her punishment. Lily goes to a children's home, split apart from her siblings Baxter and Pixie who were fostered, while Bliss stays in the hospital. The story ends by Lily drawing a picture of the Green family and writing at the bottom: "We're all going to be together very, very soon." |
31038042 | /m/0gg81v9 | Pretty Little Things | Jilliane Hoffman | null | null | 13 year old Elaine Emerson, nicknamed Lainey, meets a boy on the internet while hiding behind a profile indicating her age as 16. She goes on a date with Zach, 17, nicknamed El Capitan, and never returns from the date. Special Agent Bobby Dees, head of the department's Crimes Against Children Squad, tries to find her. |
31038143 | /m/0gg7fgx | Below the Root | Zilpha Keatley Snyder | null | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Raamo D’ok, a 13-year old Kindar boy, learns that he has been Chosen due to his unusually strong Spirit-force abilities. He will be joining the ranks of the Ol-zhaan, Green-sky’s elite ruling class. The next day, Raamo returns to the temple as instructed where he meets the other Chosen, Genaa. Raamo beigns to receive penses from a shadowy figure who is glad to see his strong Spirit-powers, cryptically announcing that he has also chosen Raamo. During Ol-zhaan training, Raamo learns that Genaa's father is dead, captured by the Pash-shan, feared creatures that live trapped below the ground. He also receives news that his sister Pomma has been ill, possibly with a disease called “the wasting.” She has participated in healing ceremonies with Ol-zhaan D’ol Neric, to little avail. Raamo sees Neric walking one day and tries to talk to him, but receives a pense telling him to stay back, revealing it was D’ol Neric who had pensed him before. During the Ceremony of Elevation, D’ol Neric again penses Raamo, telling him to return to the great hall after dark. At their secret meeting, Neric tells Raamo that the Ol-zhaan are hiding secrets about their loss of Spirit-skills, the health of the roots that secure Green-sky, and the nature of the Pash-shan. He learned this by overhearing a meeting of a secret society within the Ol-zhaan, who call themselves the “Geets-kel.” On a clandestine trip to the forbidden forest floor they find a young, weeping, dark-skinned girl named Teera, apparently a kidnapped Kindar child. Raamo and Neric take the frightened Teera back up to the trees and hide her with Raamo’s family. Genaa discovers the existence of Teera and, in the interrogation that follows, learns that Teera is not a captured Kindar but in fact a Pash-shan herself. Teera tells Genaa that her father is alive and has been living among the Pash-shan. Returning to the forest floor, Genaa has a joyful reunion through the vines with her father, Hiro D’anhk, who was drugged and imprisioned below the root by members of the Geets-kel. Genaa, Raamo, and Neric commit themselves to exposing the Geets-kel and work toward freeing the Pash-shan and Genaa's father. Raamo has a nighttime meeting with the highest member of the Ol-zhaan, D’ol Falla. She leads Raamo to a hidden room containing history books and relics from a more violent Kindar past, including metal weapons. She tells Raamo that after colonizing their new planet, Kindar society was split into two factions. Eventually the first group imprisoned the second beneath the roots of the trees. She has come to the conclusion that the Spirit-powers in Green-sky are vanishing because of the separation of the Kindar population. Calling on Genaa and Neric to emerge from the shadows where they had been eavesdropping, D’ol Falla says she has been made aware of the group's activities by Geets-kel spies and that their purposes will soon be exposed. The four of them begin discussing plans for reuniting the Kinder and Pash-shan. |
31038259 | /m/0gg86lp | And All Between | Zilpha Keatley Snyder | null | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Eight year old Erdling Teera runs away from from home when the Coucil decides her pet will have to be killed for food. The Erdlings are in a "time of hunger" due to their increasing numbers. Wandering through the tunnels of Erd, she finds a wider-than-usual opening in the vines that entrap the Erdlings and accidentally tumbles through it, unable to get back inside. She calls out for help and soon is confronted by two strangers, Raamo and Neric. From the green-gold seals they wear, Teera recognizes them as Ol-zhaan. Taking her for a Kindar child who had been abducted by the Pash-shan, they convince her to return to the trees with promises of plentiful food and kind treatment. Teera is hidden with Raamo's family and plays Spirit-games with his younger sister, Pomma. Raamo's fellow Chosen, D'ol Genaa, discovers Teera. In the confrontation that follows, they learn that Teera is actually a Pash-shan, who are not monsters as the Kindar have been told, but people like themselves. The group returns to the forest floor and Genaa is reunited with her father, Hiro D’anhk, thought to have been killed by evil Pash-shan but actually living among the peaceful Erdlings after being imprisoned there by members of the Geets-kel, a secret society within the Ol-zhaan. The conspirators' activities have been observed by a member of the Geets-kel, who alerts D’ol Falla, the highest member of the Ol-zhaan. She summons Raamo to a nighttime meeting where they plan to reunite the Kindar and Pash-shan. Equipped with a map drawn by D'ol Falla, Genaa and Neric immediately set out to find a hole containing the secret metal hatch that grants entrance to the Erdling tunnels. After hearing of Falla's plans, D'ol Regle and his assistants storm into the D'ok household to seize Pomma and Teera. He then calls for a meeting of the Geets-kel to discuss the situation and formulate a plan to stop it. Finally, he retrieves an ancient weapon from D'ol Falla's house and then confronts her with a threat to harm the children if she and Raamo attempt to go forward with their plans. After walking a long distance, Neric and Genaa eventually reach mining car tracks and finally a dimly-lit cavern with a high ceiling and stalactites. There is a yell, and then dozens of Erdlings appear from behind the rocks, armed with metal tools. They are taken to the center of the Edrling world where they explain themselves and their plans to the Council, and then to the whole population in a large forum with debate by different Erdling factions. It is decided to send the Ol-zhaan back to the surface with Hiro in addition to Teera's parents who will serve as the Erdlings' representatives. High up in the trees, imprisoned in a secret room within D'ol Regle's quarters, Pomma and Teera pass their time with spirit-games, which they are getting increasingly good at. At one point their minds seem to work together, reminiscent of a long-lost ability called uniforce. Neric and Genaa return from underground, only to hear that their plans are known to D'ol Regle who barges in and escorts them all to a meeting of the Geets-kel. Presenting his prisoners to the Geets-kel with the weapon by his side, D'ol Regle argues that the Pash-shan and Kindar can not be reunited, or else their pure society will be destroyed. Not all the Geets-kel are convinced and they ask to hear from D'ol Falla, who says that their society has already been falling apart as evidenced by the loss of the spirit-skills and appearance of illness, which she blames on the separation of Kindar and Erdling. D'ol Falla appeals to Raamo to use his spirit-skills to summon an answer, but as he does Pomma and Teera lift their arms up and the weapon begins to float into the air. All the Ol-zhaan present stand in awe, realizing they are witnessing the long-lost uniforce. |
31038341 | /m/0gg60fv | Until the Celebration | Zilpha Keatley Snyder | null | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Now that the Geets-kel have decided to reveal their secrets and integrate Erdlings with Kindar, there is much concern over how to do it properly. A lifetime of beliefs will not be converted easily and there are numerous logistical issues to consider. The Ol-zhaan have different concerns, such as why they had been left out of the secrets and how their lofty place in society will be diminished. Some think it would be best to exile themselves into an uninhabited tree as D'ol Regle has done, while others are eager to help with D'ol Falla's agenda. Food starts being delivered to the Erdlings and their leaders begin talks of how to integrate with the Kindar. The initial plan is to not release Erdlings into the open air immediately, but they soon catch word of the way out and start building crude dwellings on the forest floor. The two societies begin to integrate with some difficulty. An Erdling group lead by Axon Befal has sworn vengeance against the Geets-kel for imprisoning the Erdlings and attacks an Ol-zhaan, violence unheard of in Kindar soceity. More bad news follows. D'ol Falla finds that the tool-of-violence is missing from its hiding place and Axon Befal sends a message that he has kidnapped Pomma and Teera and will kill them unless Orbora is turned over to his control. Then, just as a Council meeting is getting underway, in walks a servant in the Vine Palace with the weapon. She tells how she was instructed by D'ol Regle to steal the tool-of-violence, but then became disenchanted with him when she thought he had kidnapped the children. The Council decides the weapon must be destroyed as soon as possible by taking it down to the Erdling cavern and dropping it into the Bottomless Lake. Raamo leads the procession, carrying the tool-of-violence inside a metal urn. The urn is placed before an opening in the barrier around the Bottomless Lake, but all are afraid to touch the evil object. Raamo eventually steps forward and carries it to the edge of a precipice. He tries to drop the urn, but its power prevents him from doing so and he tumbles into the lake with it. After the initial shock has worn off, a young man lets out a cry and throws a weapon into the lake. He reveals that he was recruited by Axon Befal to kill Raamo, but was not able to do so when he saw the goodness in him. He reports that Befal does not have possession of the children or any more followers and that his message was simply a bluff. A celebration had been planned for the one year anniversary of the Rejoyning, but with Pomma and Teera still missing there doesn't seem to be anything to celebrate about. D'ol Falla is asked to speak, but is nearly lost for words. The first thing that comes to her mind is that the Kindar should celebrate indeed, for they have managed to free the Erdlings and largely come together as a united society. Suddenly, a figure glides down from above, bringing news that the children have been found. To the great relief of the crowd, they appear shortly thereafter. As Hiro gives one last speech to the people of Orbora, D'ol Falla finds the back room where the children are playing. Off to the side, two little boys raise their arms up as a marble urn lifts off the shelf and floats gently to the floor. Teera smiles at D'ol Falla, telling her they've been teaching the other children their "game." |
31040842 | /m/0gg6tds | Princess of the Midnight Ball | null | 2009 | {"/m/01hmnh": "Fantasy"} | Princess Rose and her sisters Lily, Jonquil, Hyacinth, Violet, Daisy, Poppy, Iris, Lilac, Orchid, Pansy, and Petunia are trapped in a curse. Every third night, they have to dance at the Midnight Ball with the twelve sons of the King Under Stone, who lives in a realm below the earth. The curse prevents them from speaking of it, and every prince who attempts to learn their secret in hopes of marrying one of them and inheriting the crown ends up dead by the next full moon. Galen Werner is a soldier who is returning from the Westfalin-Analousia war. On his way to the city of Bruch to live with his mother's sister Liesel Orm, Galen meets an old woman. After he shares his food with her, the woman gives him white and black yarn and an invisibility cloak, saying that he would have to use them when "He" tries to get to the surface. When Galen meets Rose, she knows that he can try to break the curse, but will he succeed despite the complications they come across? |
31045672 | /m/0gg49hm | Daybreak Zero | John Barnes | 2011 | {"/m/06n90": "Science Fiction", "/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | In the near future, a variety of groups with diverse aims, but an overlapping desire to end modern technological society (the "Big System") create a nanotech plague ("Daybreak") which both destroys rubber and plastics and eats away any metal conductors carrying electricity. An open question in the book is whether these groups, and their shared motivation, are coordinated by some conscious actor, or whether they are an emergent property / meme that attained a critical mass. |
31048471 | /m/0gh7hd_ | Bones of Faerie | null | null | null | The war between humanity and Faerie devastated both sides. Nothing has been seen or heard from Faerie since, but in the human world some magic remains embedded in nature. Corn resists being harvested; dandelions have thorns. Trees terrorize villagers, and the town where Liza lives is surrounded by a forest that seems alive and will kill anyone who goes near. But Liza believes her father can protect their town. He does so by electing himself town leader and laying down strict rules, the most important being that any trace of magic must be destroyed, no matter where it is found. Then Liza's sister is born with faerie magic, and Liza's father leaves the baby on a hillside to die. After her mother runs away into the forest, leaving Liza with her abusive father, Liza herself discovers she has the faerie ability to see—into the past, into the future—and she must flee. With a magic shadow following her and an unwanted companion, she will try to journey to the Faerie world. |
31052476 | /m/0gx19l_ | Milk and Honey | null | null | null | Decker finds a toddler with blood-soaked pajamas in the early morning hours while driving home from the yeshiva. He brings her in to the station to turn her over to child services and starts trying to locate the family she came from. His only clue is a number of bee stings. Pete also finds himself posting bail for an old Army buddy of his (Abel Atwater) who had been charged with rape and assault. Abel offers to do repair work on his barn while Pete is off locating the girl's family. In the meantime, Rina is flying in from New York City for a visit for some alone time and to discuss their upcoming marriage. While backtracking clues in the found toddler's case he finds the family home is the site of a quadruple murder and that her name is Katie Darcy. Decker has to slog through a lot of peripheral clues in the case, including a biker bar and a backwoods section of Los Angeles County. His partner Marge Dunn ends up dealing further with one of the potential parents of Katie whose own child was kidnapped in a custody case. She remembered the face and succeeded in putting a name to it. In a raid on the father's house she gets her skull cracked and is lucky to come out of it alive. Meanwhile, Rina and Abel have found an odd sort of relationship based on his and Decker's mutual past and Abel's bitterness over happenings during the war. He ends up frightening and offending her greatly though she does forgive him in the end. In finding the murderer of Katie's family and clearing Abel's name Decker finds an odd parallel in family circumstance. |
31058184 | /m/0gg9g1k | Pir-e-Kamil | Umaira Ahmed | null | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | The story's protagonist, Imama Hashim, belongs to an influential Ahmadiyya family living in Islamabad. She decides to convert to Sunni Islam after being influenced by her friends. She attends her senior shabiha's lectures in secrecy from her family and her roommates, Javeria and Rabia. While studying in a medical school in Lahore, she falls in love for her friend Zainab's elder brother doctor Jalal Ansar. But Imama's family tries to coerce her to marry her first cousin Asjad, which is unacceptable to her as she can not marry a non-Muslim. In the result, her parents respond by locking her up in the house and taking away her cell phone. Imama seeks help from Salar whom she is antagonistic with since she is a religious girl and Salar is not. He is a rich boy with an IQ level above 150. Imama wishes to marry Jalal, but Salar lies to her that Jalal has married someone else. Imama is saddened and asks Salar to marry her so that her family will not be able to force her. Salar helps her and marries but soon after loses contact with her. Imama finds a sanctuary under Sibt-e-Ali and his family. She changes her name and completes her studies and starts working in a pharmaceutical company in Lahore. She hates Salar because he refused to divorce her as he had promised. Salar later travels to New Haven for education, then he works for United Nations for some time before permanently settling in Lahore. Salar finally sees the errors of his ways and changes for good. Later, the scene shifts near to Kaaba, where Salar and Imama are sitting together worshipping God. Salar realizes that God has given him a blessed women to be his companion, and vows to protect her. |
31058296 | /m/0ggb2ch | 11/22/1963 | Stephen King | 11/8/2011 | {"/m/0mz2": "Alternate history", "/m/06n90": "Science Fiction"} | Jacob "Jake" Epping is a recently-divorced high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who tells the story in first-person narrative. Jake assigns his evening GED class with an essay titled "The Day That Changed My Life". One of the students, a learning-impaired janitor named Harry Dunning, writes about how his alcoholic father murdered his mother and siblings, and severely injured him, on Halloween night in 1958. Jake gives Harry an A+, and Harry earns his GED. Two years later, Al Templeton, proprietor of a local diner which Jake frequents, mysteriously summons Jake at the end of the school year. Jake is shocked to see that, in less than twenty-four hours since he saw him last, Al has apparently become deathly ill, and seems to have aged four years. Al shows Jake a time portal located in the back of his diner's pantry, which leads to September 9, 1958, at 11:58 a.m. Jake spends an hour in 1958, then returns to 2011 finding that it is only two minutes later. Al tells him that the portal always leads to that same moment in 1958, and that it is always exactly two minutes later on return to the present. The only person near the portal in 1958 is a drunken, disheveled man whom Al has dubbed the "Yellow Card Man", because of a yellow card stuck in his hat band. The Yellow Card Man seems to be the only other person who is aware of the time portal. Al has learned that it is possible to change history; however, an apparent "reset" on the next trip to 1958 nullifies the change, unless it is made again. After discovering he could change history, Al became obsessed with preventing the assassination of John F. Kennedy, assuming this would lead to a better world without the Vietnam War or the assassination of Martin Luther King. Al extensively researched the JFK assassination, and made a plan to spend five years in the past waiting for the opportunity to kill Lee Harvey Oswald during his attempted assassination of General Edwin Walker. However, the "obdurate" past seems to resist change, throwing up obstacles to prevent them from taking place; Al and Jake conclude this resistance is proportional to the historical effects of the changes. Al was forced to abort his plan in 1962 after developing terminal lung cancer due to his lifelong habit of cigarette smoking. He pleads with Jake to carry out his mission for him. Jake decides to use the attack on Harry's family as his test case. Al gives him a fake ID to create the alias "George Amberson", and a supply of 1958 cash he has collected. Jake finds the "Yellow Card Man's" card has mysteriously turned orange this time. Jake buys a car, and travels to Harry's hometown of Derry, buys a gun, finds Harry's father Frank Dunning, and tracks his movements. Stalked by the revenge-bent brother of Dunning's first wife, whom Dunning had also killed, Jake is not able to stop Dunning's attack, but manages to save everyone but Harry's older brother. After returning to 2011, Jake contacts Harry's sister and learns that Harry was killed in Vietnam. As Jake goes to meet with Al, he discovers Al has committed suicide by overdosing on his pain killers. Jake must now act quickly before Al's death is discovered, which will result in the demolition of the diner (and presumably the time portal.) Jake takes Al's notebook, which contains all of Al's research on Oswald, plus the outcomes of long-shot sporting events on which he can bet to keep himself financed, and enters the portal again. This time the "Yellow Card Man" has killed himself, and the card has turned black. Jake buys the same car and gun, and this time assassinates Dunning well before the attack on his family. He drives to Florida, where he gets a mail-order Bachelor's degree in English from an Oklahoma diploma mill, and spends the remainder of the school year substitute teaching. He then drives to Texas to wait for Oswald's return to the United States following his Marine Corps service and attempted defection to Russia. He settles in Jodie, a small town located near Dallas, where he is hired for a one-year probationary period as a full-time English teacher for Denholm Consolidated High School. He becomes popular with the students and faculty, and becomes romantically involved with the school's new librarian, Sadie Dunhill, who has run away from her mentally disturbed, abusive husband. Things start to sour for Jake when Sadie becomes suspicious of his use of anachronistic slang, and singing rock songs that have not been written yet. When he refuses to confide in her who he actually is, she angrily breaks off the relationship before traveling to Reno, Nevada over the summer vacation to divorce her husband. The school principal has also discovered "George Amberson's" mail-order diploma, and the holes in his background. By this time, Jake has decided not to renew his teaching contract and leave Jodie, so he can concentrate full-time on monitoring Oswald and keep Sadie out of danger. He rents an apartment across the street from Oswald's future Fort Worth residence, and monitors his activities with audio bugs and an shotgun microphone. Through the bugs, Jake witnesses Oswald's abuse of his Russian wife and his conflicts with his overbearing mother. Around this time, Jake reconnects with Sadie and reveals that he is from the future, proving his claims by correctly predicting the outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis; he eventually reveals his full plan of preventing Kennedy's assassination. Sadie is reluctant to believe Jake at first, but her love for him leads her to support his efforts. Meanwhile, Jake becomes hesitant to kill Oswald when he sees his friend, George de Mohrenschildt, seemingly egg on the would-be assassin to kill Walker and Kennedy. Jake is unable to interfere in the Walker attempt when Sadie is disfigured by her psychotic ex-husband. Jake resolves, once he has completed his mission to save Kennedy, to take Sadie back to 2011, when her disfigurement can be corrected. While still estranged from Sadie, Jake himself is beaten by a bookie who lost money due to Jake's knowledge of future sporting outcomes. He spends three months recovering from the beating and resultant memory loss, during which Sadie decides to give him another chance. He regains his memory just in time for Kennedy's visit to Dallas on November 22, 1963. Jake and Sadie race for Dallas and are able to reach Oswald's sniper's nest at the Texas School Book Depository seconds before the fateful moment when Kennedy's motorcade drives past. Nevertheless, Jake successfully prevents Oswald from shooting Kennedy. In a rage, Oswald fires at Jake, but the shot misses him and mortally wounds Sadie. The noise of their confrontation draws the attention of the Secret Service and police, who fire through the window from the outside and kill Oswald. Sadie dies in Jake's arms as the authorities gain access to the Depository. Jake becomes a national hero, being personally thanked by President Kennedy and his wife. The FBI suggests that Jake disappear for a time until the situation dies down. Agonized over Sadie's death, Jake resolves to return to 2011 and back to 1958 in order to repeat his journey in order to save both Kennedy and Sadie. As he leaves Dallas, he learns that there has been a massive earthquake in California in which thousands have died. He suspects that it is related to his changing history. Returning to the portal, he finds that the Yellow Card Man has been replaced by a younger man whose card is green rather than yellow. He reveals himself to be a "guardian" who explains that many other portals exist in the universe. The portals, he explains, are temporary "bubbles" in time, which will eventually disappear as the physical environment in which they reside changes. The "Green Card Man" also explains that traveling through the portal does not erase the past, it merely creates another time thread. The larger the changes and the more threads created, the more unstable reality becomes. The green/yellow/black card is shown to be similar to a film badge dosimeter, measuring the guardian's mental degradation caused by his consciousness of the multiple time threads, explaining the demise of the Yellow Card Man. The Green Card Man can do no more than beg Jake to set things right again. When Jake returns to 2011 again, he discovers a lawless dystopia. He comes across a wheelchair-bound Harry Dunning, who explains the troubled history of the world since 1963. Since LBJ's presidency did not occur, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is never passed. George Wallace becomes president in 1968, leading to nuclear war. The historical disruption is exacerbated by an increase in earthquakes, which are expected to destroy the planet. When Jake returns to 1958, the Green Card Man advises him to go back to 2011 and see that the portal is closed. Jake struggles with his desire to return to Texas to bring Sadie back with him, but ultimately decides he cannot risk changing anything. He returns to a basically restored 2011. Al's diner is demolished. Learning that Sadie survived the confrontation with her ex-husband without his interference, he travels to Jodie and meets Sadie as an old woman. He learns she has lived a life marked by civic and charitable contributions, and he gets to dance with her one last time. Stephen King published an alternative ending on his official website on January 24, 2012, in which Sadie marries another man, subsequently having numerous children and grandchildren. This ending was changed to the ending the novel was published with at the suggestion of Joe Hill, King's son, a writer himself. |
31058802 | /m/0gg7rl1 | The Porcupine | Julian Barnes | 1992 | {"/m/05hgj": "Novel"} | Set in a post-communist fictional country, likely based on Bulgaria, the novel concerns the trial of Stoyo Petkanov, a character judged to be loosely based on Todor Zhivkov, the former communist leader of Bulgaria. As the newly appointed Prosecutor General attempts to ensnare the former dictator with his own totalitarian laws, Petkanov springs a few unwelcome surprises on the court by conducting a formidable defense. The Times described the book as 'Superbly humane in its moral concerns...an excellent novel'. |
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