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Omega | Jack McDevitt | null | A world of strikingly humanoid beings is discovered to be in the path of an Omega cloud, which attack and destroy anything with a sharp corner. The beings' civilization is strikingly similar to the early Greeks. Hutch is part of an expedition to save them if possible, using a new discovery. |
A History of Fly Fishing for Trout | null | 1,921 | A History of Fly Fishing for Trout is the first book to trace the history of fly fishing from its very beginning, with chapters on Early Sporting Literature, Early Fly Fishing in France, and identifying all the artificial flies mentioned by early writers. With a useful bibliography. |
Désert | Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio | 1,980 | Two stories are interwoven. The shorter, which begins and ends the book, is specifically set in 1910–1912 and tells of the last uprising of the desert tribes against the French protectorate of Morocco, mostly as observed by a small boy, Nour. The longer, the story of Lalla, is set in an indefinite time, but obviously after the Second World War. It describes her early life in a Shanty "city" on the edge of an unnamed Moroccan coastal town, and particularly her friendship with "the Hartani" who, like her, originates from the desert tribes. It narrates the time she spends in Marseilles and her eventual return to the shanty city, where she gives birth to the Hartani's child. |
Mother Warriors | Jenny McCarthy | 2,008 | The book shares the personal stories of several families fighting autism. These stories focus on alternative autism therapies that they try to heal their children, as well as McCarthy's own reminiscing about her autistic child and her outspoken and contentious activism. The book includes the daughter of the founder of Autism Speaks, who claims to have changed her son's diet and improved his autism despite conspiratorial resistance from the organization, which, the book claims, until recently, rejected research into biomedical treatments; a mother who is claimed "healed" her son of his autism while taking on breast cancer; a father whose son was officially undiagnosed after allegedly under-going treatment for a laundry list of debilitating autism symptoms and regressions; and a sixty-year-old woman who made attempts to fight to save her son (now thirty) in the 1980s, the book exclaims that she paved the way for the parents of today. The book also features a list of controversial autism resources and a directory of DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) doctors who are sympathetic to the widely discredited theory that autism is caused by mercury in vaccines. |
Minnie and Moo: The Night of the Living Bed | null | null | After having a nightmare about a giant mouse eating the last piece of chocolate in the world, Minnie grabs Moo and the two cows fall out of the bed which causes the bed to start rolling away. They run after it and then they jump on, grabbing other animals on the way down a hill. When they finally come to a stop in town, Moo realizes that it is Halloween night. The animals do lots of tricks so that they can get chocolate. When Minnie goes home, the cow is contented and ready to sleep. |
Mademoiselle de Scuderi | E.T.A. Hoffmann | 1,819 | The action takes place in Paris during the reign of King Louis XIV of France. The city is under siege by what is presumed to be an organized band of thieves whose members rob citizens of costly jewelry in their homes or on the street. Some of the street victims are simply rendered unconscious by a blow to the head, but most are killed instantly by a deliberate dagger thrust to the heart. The murder victims are mostly wealthy lovers who are on their way to meet their mistresses with gifts of fine jewelry. These are not the only terrible crimes plaguing Paris (a series of bizarre poisonings is described in detail), and to combat them the King establishes a special court, the Chambre ardente, whose sole purpose is to investigate them and punish their perpetrators. The president of the Chambre, La Régnie, however, is consistently thwarted in his attempts to stop the evildoing, and in his blind zeal and frustration he is seduced to commit acts of terror and brutality. Because of his failures and cruelty, he quickly earns the hatred of those he was appointed to protect. In a poem exalting the King, the lovers of Paris exhort him to do something for their safety. Mademoiselle de Scudéri (the historical Madeleine de Scudéry), who is present when this appeal is presented, counters jokingly with the following verse: Un amant, qui craint les voleurs, N'est point digne d'amour. [A lover who is afraid of thieves Is not worthy of love.] The elderly de Scudéri is a well-known poetess who lives in a modest house in Paris on the rue Saint Honoré by the grace of King Louis and his lover, the Marquise de Maintenon (the historical Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon). One night, a young man bangs on the door of de Scudéri's house and pleads urgently with her maid to be granted entrance. The maid finally lets him in but denies him access to her mistress, whose life she fears is in danger. The young man eventually flees at the sound of the approach of the mounted police, but leaves behind, a small jewelry box, which he begs the maid to deliver to the Mademoiselle. The next morning, de Scudéri opens the box and finds exquisite jewelry and a note in which the band of jewel thieves thanks her for her support in the form of the verse quoted above. Mademoiselle de Scudéri is distraught by the contents of the jewelry box and seeks the advice of her friend de Maintenon. The Marquise immediately recognizes the jewelry as the work of the goldsmith René Cardillac. Cardillac is known not only in Paris but around the world as the best artist in his field. He is also famous, however, for a strange attribute: he creates the most beautiful pieces of jewelry but then does not want to part with them. Only after much delay does he finally deliver a piece to the customer who commissioned it, and then only under (sometimes violent) protest. Several months later, Mademoiselle de Scudéri is riding in a glass coach over the Pont Neuf when a young man forces his way through the crowd and throws a letter into the coach. The letter adjures the Mademoiselle to find whatever pretense necessary but to return the jewelry to Cardillac at once. If she does not, the letter warns, her life is in danger. She is overcome by feelings that she is surrounded by "strange events and dark mysteries" but decides to heed the letter writer's appeal. Two days later, she travels to the goldsmith's house, only to arrive just as his corpse is being carried away. Cardillac has been murdered, and Olivier Brusson, Cardillac's assistant, has been arrested for the crime. Cardillac's daughter Madelon, who is betrothed to Olivier, protests his innocence. Because of Madelon's suffering and utter despair, Mademoiselle de Scudéri takes pity on her and takes her to her house to look after her. Touched by and believing Madelon's avowals of Olivier's innocence, the Mademoiselle tries to intercede on his behalf with La Régnie. He receives her graciously but is unmoved and presents her with circumstantial evidence that in his view proves that Olivier is the murderer. The Mademoiselle hears the evidence but cannot convince herself of the young man's guilt. La Régnie grants her permission to speak with Olivier, but when she meets him in prison she recognizes the young man who had thrown the warning letter into her coach and falls to the ground unconscious. She now is uncertain of Olivier's innocence and is torn inwardly. She curses the destiny that had made her believe in truth and virtue but now has destroyed the beautiful image she had made for her life. In the hope that Olivier will confess, Desgrais, de Scudéri's friend and an officer in the mounted police, offers to arrange for a meeting with Olivier in her house. The mademoiselle is filled with foreboding but nevertheless decides to obey the higher powers that had marked her for the solution of some terrible mystery. Olivier is brought to her house, and while guards wait outside he falls on his knees and tells her his story: Olivier tells the mademoiselle that he is the son of the impoverished young woman, Anne, whom de Scudéri had lovingly raised as her own daughter and from whom she has not heard since she married an industrious and skilled young watchmaker who took her and Olivier to Geneva to seek their fortune. Because of the jealousy of others in his profession, Olivier relates, his father was not able to establish himself in Geneva, and both he and his wife later died there in poverty. Olivier, who had apprenticed himself to a goldsmith, eventually became so skilled in his profession that he was hired as an assistant by René Cardillac in Paris. All went well, Olivier tells the Mademoiselle, until Cardillac threw him out of the house because he and Cardillac's daughter, Madelon, had fallen in love. In his desperation and longing, Olivier went one night to Cardillac's house in the hope of catching a glimpse of his beloved. Instead, he saw Cardillac slip out of the house through a secret entrance and not far away attack and kill a man by thrusting a dagger into his heart. Cardillac, who knows that Olivier has seen the murder, invites him to return to his workshop and offers him his daughter in marriage. Olivier's silence had been bought, he confesses to de Scudéri, but he relates how from then on he lived with intense pangs of guilt. One evening, Olivier tells de Scudéri, Cardillac told Olivier his own story. (The plot here becomes a story within a story within a story.) Cardillac tells Olivier how an experience involving a sumptuous diamond necklace (the necklace was worn by a Spanish actor with whom she later had an adulterous affair) that his mother had while she was pregnant with him had marked him for life with a love of fine jewelry. This love caused him to steal jewelry as a child and later led him to become a goldsmith. An "inborn drive," Cardillac told Olivier, forced him to create his renowned works but led him also again and again to take them back from his customers in thefts that often involved murder. Olivier tells de Scudéri that Cardillac stored the retrieved pieces, which were labeled with the names of their rightful owners, in a secret, locked chamber in his house. Eventually, Olivier informs the mademoiselle, Cardillac decided to give Mademoiselle de Scudéri some of his best work in thanks for the verse that she had quoted to the King in response to the appeal from the threatened lovers. He asked Olivier to present the gift, and Olivier saw in the request a chance to re-establish contact with the woman who had loved and cared for him when he was a child and to reveal to her his unfortunate situation. He was able to deliver the jewel box but was not able to meet with the Mademoiselle. Some time later, Cardillac again was overcome by his evil star, and it is clear to Olivier that he wanted to retrieve by force the jewelry that he had given to the Mademoiselle. To prevent this, Olivier relates, he threw the letter into de Scudéri's coach, imploring her to return the jewelry as soon as possible. Two days later, because he was afraid that his master was about to attack Mademoiselle de Scudéri, Olivier secretly followed him when he left the house under cover of darkness. Instead of the mademoiselle, Cardillac attacked an officer, who stabbed Cardillac with his dagger and then fled. Olivier brought Cardillac and the murder weapon back to his house, where the master died of his injuries. Olivier was arrested and charged with the murder. His intention, he states, is to die for the murder if he must in order to spare his beloved Madelon the sorrow of learning the truth about her father. With this, Olivier ends his story and is returned to prison. Because he continues to refuse to confess, an order for his torture is issued. Mademoiselle de Scudéri makes a number of attempts to save Olivier, including writing a letter to La Régnie, but she is unsuccessful. She even wants to plead his case before the King himself, but a famous lawyer by the name of d'Andilly, whom she has consulted, convinces her that at this stage in his case this would not be in the young man's best interest. Unexpectedly, an officer in the King's Guard by the name of Miossens visits her and reveals that he is the person who, in self-defense, stabbed and killed Cardillac. The astonished Mademoiselle says to him "And you have said nothing? You have not made a statement to the authorities regarding what happened?" Miossens defends himself by stating "Allow me to remark that such a statement, even if it did not cause my ruin, would at least involve me in a most loathsome trial. Would La Régnie, who scents crime everywhere, immediately believe me if I accused the honest Cardillac, the very embodiment of complete piety and virtue, of attempted murderer?" Miossens refuses to consider Olivier innocent, accusing him instead of being Cardillac's accomplice. Under a pledge of secrecy, Miossens repeats his testimony to d'Andilly, and with this information the lawyer is able to have Olivier's torture postponed. Subsequently, de Scudéri is successful in getting the King to review the case once again. After a month of uncertainty, he reveals to the Mademoiselle that Olivier has been freed, that he will be allowed to marry his beloved Madelon, and that he will receive 1,000 louis d'or as a dowery under the condition that they leave Paris. Olivier and Madelon move to Geneva, where they live happily. The jewelry stolen by Cardillac is returned to the rightful owners who still are living. The rest becomes the property of the Church of St. Eustace. |
Minnie and Moo: The Attack of the Easter Bunnies | null | null | Minnie hears the farmer saying that he is too old to be the Easter Bunny. The cows try to find a substitute because the grandchildren are expecting an egg hunt. When all the animals turn them down, the job goes to Minnie and Moo, but the other animals soon join them. |
American Beauty | Edna Ferber | 1,931 | True Baldwin, a millionaire, unnerved by the stock market crash of 1929 is advised to return to the Connecticut farm of his youth in order to buy land to till for his health. After discovering that the home of his childhood is currently owned by Polish immigrants, he and his daughter Candace, an architect, find what she calls "the most beautiful house in America." True says it is the home of the Oakes family, built by Captain Orrange Oakes in the early 18th century. The house and the land are passed along from generation to generation and are eventually inherited by Judith Oakes. Through time, the mansion, the property and the family have degenerated. Following the death of her mother, Judith's niece Tamar Pring arrives at the Oakes home. Temmie's wily personality and vigor resemble that of her namesake, Tamar Oakes, the daughter of Captain Oakes. Finding the house in a state of disarray, Temmie assumes the responsibility of cleaning it; Judith seems incapable of helping her with household chores. Temmie takes on the name of Oakes and eventually marries Ondia Olszak, a Polish immigrant who works her family's tobacco farm. By the time True and Candace arrive, Orrange Olszak, Temmie's son, operates what is left of the farm. He is being forced to sell it, however, because of the greed of his half brother and sister. |
The Whole Truth | David Baldacci | 2,008 | The head of a major arms vendor plots to restore the great power confrontations like those of the cold war, along with the long term stability of mutually assured destruction. To this end, he foments hostility between Russia and China, by means of a disinformation campaign (perception management) augmented with selected murders. A secret agent, aggrieved by his fiancée's murder, joins forces with an alcoholic reporter to foil these evil plans. nl:Niets dan de waarheid (boek) |
A Life of Contrasts | Diana Mitford | null | In the autobiography, the British aristocrat recounts her colourful past. Such as her marriage to Sir Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists, her association with Nazi figures and her subsequent three year internment under Defence Regulation 18B. She also recounts her frienships with leading literary figures sich as Evelyn Waugh, Harold Acton, John Betjeman and Lytton Strachey. In the 2002 edition, she describes several events which occurred following the original 1977 publication. Such as the grief she experienced after her husband's death, her brain tumour as well as her reaction to international events and public figures. She also writes about her "secret" missions to Germany before war broke out, when she helped set up a radio station to raise funds for the BUF. |
The Dragon Lord | null | null | In sixth century Britain, King Arthur desires a dragon to harass the Saxon invaders. Merlin tells Arthur that the skull of a lake monster is required. From a batch of new mercenary recruits to Arthur's army, Gawain selects an Irishman called Mael and a Dane called Starkad after Mael defeats Lancelot in a demonstration duel in front of the recruits. Arthur sends Mael to Ireland to retrieve the skull and keeps Mael's friend Starkad as hostage to ensure his return. In Ireland, Mael is escorted to a road where he meets Veleda, a pagan witch who foresaw Mael's coming. The two travel together for three days and arrive at Lough Ree where a pagan shrine has been converted to a chapel manned by a priest and a large, mentally-retarded student, Fergus. During the night Mael steals the monster skull which was on display in the chapel but Fergus catches him. The ensuing fight spills out onto the lake pier that breaks apart as Fergus fights with a mace. Veleda helps Mael back to land but Fergus drowns and a lake monster drags the priest away. On their way back to Britain, Mael and Veleda are attacked on a ship but escape as Veleda summons a purple fire that burns their attackers. With the skull Merlin creates a small dragon (a wyvern) which he hopes to grow and teach to be obedient. Mael is re-united with Starkad and they consider whether to stay in Arthur's camp. Veleda has a vision and implores they to retrieve the spear and shield of the Saxon Biargram Ironhand. Mael and Starkad leave on the pretext that Starkad must go settle a blood feud with Biargram. Arthur detains Veleda as insurance of their return. Traveling to the Saxon territories, they walk to a drought-stricken village where desperate villagers are attempting to sacrifice a girl. Mael and Starkad interrupt and kidnap the girl. They flee to a house where an old woman, a witch, was expecting them. The sacrificial girl cuts Starkad's legs in the night and escapes. Mael continues on without Starkad and reaches Biargram's homestead, where he learns Biargram has recently died. Biargram's son throws Mael into Biargram's crypt as a sacrifice. A curse was placed on Biargram that makes him return to life every night. Mael fights off the re-animated corpse and is saved by Starkad who interrupts grave-robbers. They carry off Biargram's spear and shield. Once back at Arthur's camp Mael and Starkad are reunited with Veleda. Arthur claims Biargram's spear for himself. Mael and Starkad take their places in Arthur's army and are marched northwards to the walled town of Leicester. They spend the night there, meet with a wounded Dane veteran and defeat two Herulians after they killed a family while pillaging. The next day at the battle front they are positioned against Aelle’s forces. The Saxon forces ford the Dubglas River and attack the Britons who slow the Saxon advance using horse archers and caltrops. In the midst of battle Aelle nearly kills a dismounted Arthur but is foiled and killed by Mael. Victorious, Arthur immediately sends Mael and Starkad away to tell Merlin to release his dragon. Merlin trapped the dragon in a cave but had lost control of it. Veleda insists that dragon must be killed because it is too powerful and uncontrollable. In battle with the dragon Mael uses Biargram's shield against its fire breath, and they are able to kill it. The three flee Britain to escape Arthur's retribution for killing his dragon. |
Oceanic | Greg Egan | 1,998 | The story follows Martin, a Freelander living on the oceans of Covenant. As a boy he has a religious experience that shapes his life for years to come. As he grows into manhood his experiences and studies begin to conflict with his deep rooted faith. Eventually he joins a small circle of scholars studying the effects of one of Covenant’s most abundant microbes as his views of life change dramatically. |
The Eldorado Network | null | null | Set mainly in Madrid and Lisbon in 1940 and 1941, it concerns the young Spaniard Luis Cabrillo, who witnesses the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, and later joins the Abwehr, or German intelligence service. He is enthusiastic and resourceful, and after completing his training he is sent to London to spy on the British -- codename: Eldorado. However, he only gets as far as Lisbon, where he rents an office, buys an almanac and a guidebook, and begins concocting misinformation to mail back to his superiors in Madrid. The Abwehr pays him for each report and for each agent he recruits, and before long Luis has established a network of spies from all over the British isles. While inspired by fact, and carefully researched, the novel is rich with Robinson's trademark black humour and verbal wit. |
Minnie and Moo: Will You Be My Valentine? | null | null | Moo decides to create "love poems for the needy". So Minnie and Moo dress up as cupids. The cows have just the right outfits in the barn. Dressed up as cupids, they use Moo's poems to bring love to the barnyard. The poems do not always end up in the right hands, claws, or hooves. Farmer John thinks that the cows was the one sending the poetry. His wife replied that cows can't write. |
Click, Clack, Quackity-Quack: An Alphabetical Adventure | Doreen Cronin | 2,005 | The book has phrases that start with each letter of the alphabet. It tells the story of a duck led summer outing that includes the cows from Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type. When the duck rides his wagon, the readers go through the ABCs. The animals stop at a good place to have a picnic. |
Jewels from the Moon | Eleanor Cameron | 1,964 | Chuck and David have two further adventures. This volume collects two short stories in the Mushroom Planet series, but is very rarely mentioned. The book was published in 1964 by the American Book Company; it is 64 pages. It was designed as a school reading book, and each story has several discussion questions after it. The stories add more detail about David, Chuck, Mr. Bass, Mr. Brumblydge, etc. In the first, the boys meet a mysterious but kindly old lady (apparently a Mycetian like Mr. Bass) who takes them on a spectacular dream journey. In the second, they accompany Prewytt Brumblydge on an expedition to recover portions of a brumblium meteorite. |
The Line | Martin Flanagan | 2,005 | A short history of Arch's childhood growing up in rural Tasmania Most of the memoir is composed of these sections which contain various situations that Arch remembers from his time in the war. A tribute written by Arch in memory of Edward (Weary) Dunlop. A short work of fiction written by Arch. |
In Arabian Nights | Tahir Shah | 2,008 | Shah frequents the Café Mabrook, which becomes for him the "gateway into the clandestine world of Moroccan men" and is told "if you really want to get to know us, then root out the raconteurs". He also hears of the Berber tradition that each person searches for the story within their heart. Events at home are interwoven with Shah's journeys across Morocco, and he sees how the Kingdom of Morocco has a substratum of oral tradition that is almost unchanged in a thousand years, a culture in which tales, as well as entertaining, are a matrix through which values, ideas and information are transmitted. Shah listens to anyone who has a tale to tell. He encounters professional storytellers, a junk merchant who sells his wares for nothing, but insists on a high payment for the tale attached to each item and a door to door salesman who can obtain anything, including, when Shah requests it the first "Benares" edition of A Thousand and One Nights by Richard Burton, a translation that the author's father Idries Shah had once given away. As he makes his way through the labyrinthine medinas of Fez and Marrakech, traverses the Sahara sands, and tastes the hospitality of ordinary Moroccans, he collects a treasury of stories, gleaned from the heritage of A Thousand and One Nights. The tales, recounted by a vivid cast of characters, reveal fragments of wisdom and an oriental way of thinking. Weaving in and out of the narrative are Shah's recollection of his family's first visits to Morocco and his father's storytelling and insistence that traditional tales contain vastly undervalued resources; "We are a family of storytellers. Don't forget it. We have a gift. Protect it and it will protect you." As a father himself Shah now passes the baton on to his own children. |
Into the Silence | null | null | A body in a church hall is found with its vocal cords missing and a metallic figure is seen hiding in the shadows. With the amateur operatic contest getting under way, Ianto Jones joins a male voice choir to track it down. <!- |
Bay of the Dead | null | null | The city of Cardiff is sealed off by unknown forces. The living dead shamble through the streets, eating anything they can get their hands on. It's up to Torchwood to save the city but...apparently they don't even believe in zombies. <!- |
The House that Jack Built | null | null | The house that Jack lived in in 1906, Jackson Leaves, has new tenants. However, the rooms don't stay in one place, there's a man in the airing cupboard and there are ghostly apparitions, all of which draw the attention of Torchwood. <!- |
Face Value | null | null | The book is a selection of interviews and photographs of public figures from various fields such as entertainment, sport, business, art and politics. Allan also contributed a column-style introduction to each chapter. Andrzej Sawa provided the photographs of the interviewees. Five of the interviewees (Sol Kerzner, Danie Craven, Pieter-Dirk Uys, Walter Battiss and Taubie Kushlick) were featured in the They shaped our century survey, a top 100 list published about which people had the greatest influence on South Africa during the twentieth century. "I do not think that for one moment that in a brief interview I can write an accurate-every-time character-revealing piece. But my aim has always been to convey as honestly as I can my first impressions on FACE VALUE, with no 'Ums', 'Ers' or retakes." |
Click, Clack, Splish, Splash: A Counting Adventure | Doreen Cronin | 2,006 | While the farmer sleeps on the couch close to the fishing tank, Duck and the barnyard animals sneak into the house on a quiet mission that involves "3 buckets piled high" outside the window and "4 chickens standing by". At the end of the book, the reader finds out that Duck's plan was the liberate the farmer's fish. |
Wiggle | null | null | The book is about wiggling. For instance, "First wiggle where your tail would be. Then wiggle all your hair. Feeling extra silly? Wiggle in your underwear!" |
Onitsha | Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio | 1,991 | Onitsha tells the story of Fintan, a young European boy who travels from Bordeaux to the port of Marseilles to sail along the coast of Africa to the mouth of the Niger River to Onitsha in colonial Nigeria with his Italian mother (nicknamed Maou) in the year 1948.Warren Motte wrote a review in World Literature Today to note that, like many of Le Clézio's writings Onitsha is a novel of apprenticeship. He mentions that the very first words of the novel inscribe the theme of the journey and announce that it will occupy the foreground of the tale and he quotes a passage from Ontisha to exemplify Fintan's reluctance to embark upon that journey It was a long journey as Le Clézio wrote: They were intending to meet Geoffroy Allen (Fintan's English father an oil company executive who is obsessed with uncovering the area's ancient history by tracking down myths and legends) whom Fintan has never met. Onitsha depicts childhood, because it is written semi-autobiographically, but seen through the eyes of Fintan and to lesser extent his father, and his mother, who is not able to fit in with the colonial society of the town of Onitsha with its casual acceptance of 'native' slave labour. Le Clézio wrote: Eventually, Fintan's father loses his job with the United Africa Company and moves the family first to London, then to the south of France. Sabine Rhodes, another British National, already a miscast in the colony recognises the inevitable The novel ends on a note of rebellion against the white rulers and points towards the coming of the neocolonialism of conglomerates which would finally begin another form of economic exploitation of a country rich in oil. |
Diary of a Spider | null | null | The book is a diary written by a spider. The diary has things such as pictures of Spider's family, a picture of his favorite book, a discovery of a sculpture, and a playbill from the school's production of "Itsy Bitsy Spider". There is also a slight storyline about Spider's friendship with Fly and Grampa hating bugs with six legs. The worm from Diary of a Worm makes occasional appearances. |
Things That Are | Andrew Clements | 2,008 | The story is about 17 year old Alicia, Bobby's friend who the reader learned about earlier in the series. The main plot centers around her journey of self reassurance and courage. The story also includes short exchanges between Alicia and her "brain fairy" in which they argue over a present topic.The "brain fairy" always annoys Alicia and calls her names. The story starts out with Bobby coming home from New York to Chicago to visit Alicia. He was unknowningly followed by the invisible man, William. The FBI start to intervene because of an arrest warrant on William. Alicia and Bobby then help William use an electric blanket to return him to his previous state. William then returns to his wife and daughter in Montreal. |
Point of Origin | Patricia Cornwell | 1,998 | Dr Kay Scarpetta, Virginia Chief Medical Examiner and consulting pathologist for the federal law enforcement agency ATF, is called out to a farmhouse in Virginia that has been destroyed by fire. In the ruins of the house she finds a body that tells a story of a violent and grisly murder. The fire has come at the same time as Carrie Grethen, a killer who nearly destroyed the lives of Scarpetta and those closest to her, has escaped from a forensic psychiatric hospital. Her whereabouts is unknown, but her ultimate destination is not, for Carrie has begun to communicate with Scarpetta, conveying her deadly—if cryptic—plans for revenge. Carrie has linked up with a new companion, willing to end his life of sadistic slayings for her pursuit of Scarpetta. |
A Concise Treatise on the Art of Angling | null | 1,787 | Although the first part of A Concise Treatise is a general angling work that provided little new information when it was published, the second part of the book--The Complete Fly-Fisher was one of the earliest how-to books on the subject of fly fishing and artificial fly making. The book proved to be extremely popular and useful, being issued in thirteen editions from 1787 to 1846. |
Between Two Rivers | Nicholas Rinaldi | 2,004 | It consists of several intertwining stories concerning the residents of Echo Park, a fictitious Battery Park condominium and its Romanian concierge, Farro Fescu. Residents include a quilter commissioned by the United Nations, an undertaker, an ex-Luftwaffe pilot, a plastic surgeon specialising in sex change operations, and the story involves the complex interactions between them, including love affairs, rape, suicide and poisoning. It also includes the impact on the residents of both the 1993 bombing and 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center. |
The Presence: A Ghost Story | Eve Bunting | 2,003 | The spirit of a 17 year old boy that died 120 years ago stands on the stairs of a church in Pasadena California, waiting for 17 year old Catherine, who is spending Christmas with her grandmother while her parents are traveling in Europe. The ghost, Noah, who calls himself The Presence, is searching for a soul mate and thinks that Catherine is the one. Catherine has grief and guilt about her best friend Kristy's death and Catherine is shocked when Noah tells her that he has talked to Kristy and can arrange a time for her to talk to her friend. The ghost and Catherine tell the story and their narratives show details of the ghost's past as well as the accident that claimed Kristy's life. |
The Glass Cell | null | null | A dark and disturbing novel about the effects of wrongful imprisonment, the story sees Philip Carter, a sweet natured and naïve young man sentenced to six years in jail for fraud, a crime he did not commit. Upon his release, those who knew him best are shocked by the complete change in his personality; the gentle man they once knew has become a violent, drug-abusing depressive, so much so that restoring his faith in humanity could prove a struggle. |
The Whiskey Rebels | David Liss | 2,008 | Despite the title, the novel's action does not include the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794; it is set mainly in the preceding years from 1788 to 1792. Two main fictional characters, Ethan Saunders and Joan Maycott, offer first-person narratives that begin separately, in alternating chapters, and gradually come together for the climactic scenes. The reader first meets Ethan Saunders in 1792 Philadelphia, the temporary capital of the newly formed United States of America. Saunders is a disgraced former spy for General Washington during The American Revolution, now a drunkard and scoundrel but still seeking redemption. Joan Maycott's autobiography begins at the age of seventeen near Albany, New York in 1781. Her life takes her to New York City and out to the frontier town of Pittsburgh, in Western Pennsylvania. After many travails, she returns to New York City and on to Philadelphia, where she eventually meets Saunders. Along the way, we learn about the duplicity of speculators like William Duer, the hardships of life in the western wilderness and the use of whiskey as a form of frontier currency. We learn why the western pioneers hated the Bank of the United States, the Whiskey tax, and Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, creator of both. This hatred gives birth to an audacious secret plan to (as Joan sees it) free the new nation from the corrupting influence of the financiers and speculators of the cities, and return to the republican purity intended by the founders. The climactic events take place against the historical backdrop of Duer's attempt to take over the national bank, which led to the Panic of 1792. The fictional Ethan and Joan meet many historical characters in addition to Duer and Hamilton, including frontier champion Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Jeffersonian journalist Philip Freneau, wealthy socialite Anne Bingham, Hamilton blackmailer James Reynolds, his seductive wife Maria and Senator (at that time) Aaron Burr. |
The Slaves of Solitude | Patrick Hamilton | 1,947 | The novel is set in 1943 in the fictional town of Thames Lockden (based on Henley-on-Thames), and largely follows the experiences of Miss Roach who lives in the Rosamund Tea Rooms, a guest house, having left London during the Blitz. Also residing at the guest house are Mr Thwaites (described as the 'President in Hell'), Miss Steele, Miss Barrett (both aging spinsters) and Mr Prest (a retired comedian). Miss Roach works at a publishing firm, 'as a secretary and in other capacities' in London. The opening sequence describes London as a great monster respiring, drawing workers into the city through its lungs in the morning and expelling them in the evening. It then follows Miss Roach to the Rosamund Tea Rooms and she is presented as leading a dull and uncomplicated life. She is, however, oppressed by Mr Thwaites who takes every opportunity to mock her at meal times. Mr Thwaites, revealed to be a Nazi Sympathiser, insists that Miss Roach is a 'friend of the Russians', is shown to be overbearing and a bore and forces the shared meals the guests partake in to be conducted in an oppressive atmosphere. Soon after this, two American servicemen appear at dinner. Miss Roach becomes romantically involved with one of them, Lieutenant Pike, beginning a relationship centred around the local pub and kissing on a bench. This relationship becomes disrupted by the arrival of Miss Roach's German friend Vicki Kugelman, who soon becomes Miss Roach's love rival. Miss Kugelman moves into the Rosamund Tea Rooms, charms Mr Thwaites and there soon begins a sort emotional struggle between the two spinsters. |
Those Who Walk Away | Patricia Highsmith | null | When Ray Garrett's new wife kills herself on their honeymoon, he persuades the initially suspicious Rome police that he's innocent of any wrongdoing over the death. However, his father-in-law, the brutish Ed Coleman, is convinced Ray killed her and shoots Ray, leaving him for dead. He survives and, desperate to prove himself, follows Coleman to Venice, where a deadly game of cat-and-mouse ensues, with Coleman still seeking justice and Garrett a clear conscience. |
The Last Egyptian | L. Frank Baum | 1,907 | The extensive diacritical marks appear in the novel as published by Stern. The novel focuses on three main characters, and is written in a third person limited point of view, which subtly shifts among the three characters, the narrator speaking with each character's very different prejudices as each becomes the temporary main focus. These three characters, in order of appearance, are Gerald Winston Bey, an English Egyptologist; an Egyptian, Kāra, and a dragoman named Tadros. Kāra, being white-skinned, is mistaken by Bey for a Copt, though he is no Christian, and he has no respect for Arab Muslims, either. Kāra claims to be a descendent of Ahtka-Rā, High Priest of Ămen, whom he says ruled Rameses II as his puppet, including hiding the latter's death for two years--archaeology says Rameses reigned 67 years, but according to Kāra, he ruled only 65. All of this Kāra has learned since he was a child from his grandmother, Princess Hatacha, who had come to England when she was 17 and created a stir, ultimately marrying a Lord Roane, Kāra's grandfather. Hatatcha is a cruel and vindictive old woman, but as she is dying, she gives him information about the large treasure cache that they have been living on, including many hieroglyphic papyri from which she educated him as a child that will prove to the world that he is of royal lineage and avenge her against Lord Roane for leaving her in poverty. It is within the cliff that their home is built in that the treasure is kept, behind a wall built over an opening of a cavern too deep to use as a shelter. Tadros and the Bey compete to acquire these papyri from him to sell, and Kāra nearly kills the former for stealing one, but he stops, knowing he can use him. He allows him to have that one in exchange for the girl Nepthys, whose principal interest is cigarette smoking, whom Tadros is set to acquire for another's harem. After Hatatcha's funeral, Kāra steals the donkey of Nikko, an old blind man, for the elderly black-skinned dwarf embalmer, Sebbet, to transport her remains for mummification. He meets Winston on his dahabeah and accompany him to Cairo. In Cairo, Kāra seeks to have his gems recut in the modern style, but instead sells them for cash, and takes his steps toward revenge on Lord Roane. Charles Consinor, 9th Earl of Roane, is now elderly and of poor reputation, while his son, Viscount Roger Consinor is a professional gambler. Kāra manipulates things to get Charles (Lord Roane) a diplomatic post in Cairo. There, he catches Roger cheating with marked cards and loaded dice at the club, puts Nepthys in his personal harem, and then proceeds to make moves on Lord Roane's granddaughter, Aneth Consinor, who has been sent back to the family from school on account of unpaid tuition. He falls in love with Aneth (as does Winston), causing him to send Nepthys back home, but when she refuses to marry him, considering him a friend and herself unready for marriage, he quickly returns to his desire for his grandmother's revenge. Winston tells Kāra that thee latter cannot marry her because they are cousins, but Kāra cares not, stating that Egyptian kings married their sisters, so marrying a cousin is nothing. Lord Roane has embezzled money via McFarland, a contractor on a sham embankment project. Kāra is aware of this and tries to blackmail Lord Roane into forcing Aneth into marriage with him. Roane refuses, saying his granddaughter should not hurt for his misdeeds, calling Kāra an "infamous nigger," to which Kāra "redden[s] at the epithet." Kāra then approaches Aneth with the proposition, and she agrees to marry him out of filial duty, to which he responds by giving her forged documents for her to destroy, while he retains the incriminating documents. Winston, upon learning that Kāra's accusation is true, conspires with Aneth's companion, Mrs. Lola Everingham, (wife of an engineer known for his work in Asia) to woo her into marriage with himself. This causes the dutiful girl more pain if anything, creating a longing for something she will not let herself have. Paying off Tadros to help them instead of Kāra, Winston and the Consinors plan to abduct Aneth to Winston's dahabeah. When this is accomplished, they tell her that Kāra has decided he does not want to marry her, Lord Roane again referring to him as a "rascally nigger." They have learned this, in effect, is true: he has hired a wiley Copt named Mykel into his employ, to whom he has provided the garments of a Coptic priest, and a Coptic Bible from which to conduct a ceremony. Mykel being a false priest, Aneth would not be legally married, and thus shamed and unmarriageable. Tadros and Viscount Consinor leave the vessel at Fedah, expecting Kāra to return soon for more treasure, as he has secured the help of his brother-in-spirit, Sheik Antar, a large Arab who dyes his grey beard black, and his Muslim followers, who also live in a small town on the Nile inhospitable to strangers. Tadros is aware that Kāra has been buying on credit, and will be forced to soon return for more gemstones, including to pay Antar. Kāra attacks the dahabeah with Antar, but Antar refuses to dirty his sword more than once, and only after receiving payment. Unable to find Tadros, whom he wishes thrown overboard, and shot at by Mrs. Everingham, he returns to Fedah, where Tadros has had Roger hide under the rushes that Hatatcha used as a bed. Tadros asks him if he is "comfortable"—to which he replies "not very"—but he clarifies enough to remain still for several hours. From there he is able to see what Kāra presses in the wall to enter into the secret passage. Kāra places the Talisman of Ahkta-Rā on his finger, believing it will give him his ancestor's power if he uses it only temporarily, in spite of the curse upon it, but as he is trying to lug two sacks full of gems, a statue of Isis, which had fallen the last time he was in the tomb, falls again, knocking it off his hand, and when he stumbles, a lamp he as tied to the button of his shirt is knocked out. In the darkness, he sees the Talisman return to its spot, or at least he is confusing it with the candle Consinor is using that was left for him by Tadros. Kāra attacks Roger, but Roger is a skilled wrestler and manages to get on top of him as Kāra tries to asphyxiate him. He is able to knock Kāra's head to the ground long enough that he loses consciousness, allowing Roger to flee. Kāra, though, has inadvertently removed the dagger that keeps open the vault door, which Hatatcha informed him cannot be opened from the inside, and even as Roger can hear him regain consciousness and get up, he is unaware that Kāra is quite trapped and continues to run. Mistaking Roger for Kāra, Nepthys stabs him fatally. When Winston's dahabeah arrives at Fedah, Tadros tells Antar that the police have come and taken Kāra and will also arrest Antar and his men if caught. Although he must work to convince Antar he has nothing to do with the police, eventually he gets them to flee northward. Not knowing what has happened to Kāra, and not wishing Nepthys to be punished for the death of Roger Consinor, he gives the same story to Winston and the Cosninors, and is triumphantly hired to be their dragoman as they go on to Luxor for the wedding of Aneth Consinor to Gerald Winston. |
The Brass Verdict: A Novel | Michael Connelly | 2,008 | Since the events of the previous novel, attorney Mickey Haller has spent a year recuperating from his wounds and a subsequent addiction to painkillers. He is called back to the practice of law when an old acquaintance, defense attorney Jerry Vincent, is murdered. Haller inherits Vincent's caseload, which includes the high-profile trial of Walter Elliott, a Hollywood mogul accused of murdering his wife Mitzi and her German lover. Haller secures this "franchise" case, persuading the mogul to keep him on as counsel by promising not to seek a postponement of the trial, which is due to start in nine days. Meanwhile, maverick LAPD detective Harry Bosch, the main character in several earlier novels written by Connelly, is investigating Vincent's murder. Bosch, warning that Vincent's killer may come after Haller next, persuades the reluctant lawyer to cooperate in the ongoing murder investigation. Meanwhile, Haller shakes off the rust, and lingering self-doubts, as he prepares for the double-murder trial. Among the cases Haller takes on is that of a former surfing champion, Patrick, who, while addicted to painkillers after a surfing accident, has stolen a diamond necklace while at the home of a friend. Haller feels sorry for Patrick because of his own history of addiction, and employs the young man to drive his Lincoln. He manages to get Patrick off the charges against him by playing on a hunch that the stolen diamonds were not genuine. Assisted by his investigator, Cisco, and his office assistant, Lorna (who is one of Haller's two ex-wives), Haller works out a strategy to defend his client, based on the fact that the gunshot residue found on Elliott's hands is the result of having travelled in a police car used earlier in the day to transport another prisoner. He also becomes suspicious of three German men, relatives of Mitzi Elliott's lover, and throws doubt as to whether the couple's murderer was actually after Mitzi or her lover. In the meantime, Walter admits that he is involved with the Mafia and that he believes they murdered both his wife and the lawyer Jerry Vincent. On the strength of information from Bosch, Haller becomes suspicious that Vincent has bribed someone in the legal process to plant a jury member who would help obtain an acquittal for Walter Elliott, regardless of the evidence. On investigation, he finds that one of the jurors has stolen someone else's identity, and he ensures that this information becomes known to the judge in the Elliott case, resulting in the trial being brought to a halt just as it begins to go Haller's way. Elliott, however, confesses to Haller that he actually did kill Mitzi and her lover, and Haller is left pondering on the outcome of the case. During the evening he receives a call from the police, asking him to help a former client. When he arrives on the scene, he is attacked by a man who attempts to push him over a precipice. Bosch and his team, who have been observing Haller, arrive on the scene just in time to prevent the murder, and the attacker is discovered to be the planted juryman. Haller figures out that the person behind the corruption is in fact a senior judge, and confronts her with his evidence, leading to her arrest by the FBI. When he learns that Walter Elliott and his secretary have also been murdered, he assumes she is behind that murder, but it turns out that justice has been dispensed by Mitzi lover's family before their return to Germany. Unknown to Haller, but revealed in previous Connelly novels, is the fact that Bosch is Haller's half-brother. Haller works out the puzzle by the end of the book, going mainly on the resemblances between Bosch and his own father (himself a lawyer) but at this point no arrangement is made for the two men to meet again. |
Terra Amata | Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio | 1,969 | Terra Amata is about a man named Chancelade, and his detailed view of an otherwise ordinary life, from his early childhood to his grave. Terra Amata is an archaeological site near the French town of Nice. |
Calm at Sunset, Calm at Dawn | Paul Watkins | 1,989 | The story is set on and off the Rhode Island coast where James Pfeiffer, age 20 and just expelled from college starts working on a broken down scallop trawler against the wishes of his family. He follows in the footsteps of his father Russ, who now has an unexplained fear of the sea. James comes to learn the very real dangers that exist in the present and truth about his fathers past... |
A Piece of Cake: A Memoir | null | null | This novel provides a first-person account of Cupcake Brown's triumph over adversity. She largely adopts a colloquial writing style which makes the book a very approachable work for readers. She also has a tendency to end various chapters with sentences which direct the reader to imminent events in her life. For example, she concludes one of the chapters in her biography with: 'Little did I know, I really was leaving Lancaster for good.' The story begins in January 1976 when the female protagonist gives a short account of why her mother named her Cupcake. Cupcake Brown's mother died in 1976, when Cupcake was 11. Since her biological father only acquired custody because he wanted to receive social security checks, she and her brother were placed in an abusive stranger's foster home, along with several other children. Their foster mother, Diane, forced them to clean her entire house every day and beat them if she wasn't satisfied. Diane's daughter, Connie, was also slightly sadistic in terms of the way she derived pleasure from tormenting Cupcake and the other children who resided in the foster home. For example, she is quick to point out to Cupcake that she is the real child of Diane as opposed to being a foster child. In Connie's mind, she believes that her 'status' entitles her to cause trouble for the foster children in any way that her cruel mind will allow. Within days of arriving, Cupcake is raped by her foster mother's nephew, Pete. Cupcake provides a frank account of how Pete thrusts a glass of rum and coke into her hand, tells her to drink it and how everything happened so fast afterwards. Although the drink makes Cupcake feel very good at first, she proceeds to relate what she describes as being a nightmare. She also decides that since God took her mother away from her as well as allowing the rape to happen to her, then He must not like Cupcake very much. She then decides that she hates God. After months of unrelenting abuse, Cupcake runs away and ends up meeting a prostitute, Candy, who teaches her about life on the streets, how to smoke marijuana, and charge for sex as a prostitute. Cupcake 'turns her first trick' at the age of eleven. Her next foster father, under the guise of "cheerleading practice" traded her LSD and cocaine for oral sex. She moved in with her great aunt in South Central Los Angeles, where she joined a gang. She narrowly survived a shooting when she was barely 16, and she left the gang. Her boyfriend taught her how to freebase and introduced her to crack. Soon, she was a "trash-can junkie," indulging in as many drugs as she could find. When she woke up behind a dumpster one morning, scarcely dressed and more than near death, she admitted that she needed help. She then attends an addiction clinic, where she embarks upon her road to recovery. |
Darwin's Children | Greg Bear | null | A human endogenous retrovirus called SHEVA begins to spread, attaching to people's chromosomes. As it becomes active, it causes the birth of millions of genetically altered children. To the government, this represents a deadly threat to public health and safety, so they take the mutated children from their parents and place them in concentration camps. The children communicate by using complex verbal tricks, enhanced facial expressions, and psychoactive chemical scents made from their own bodies. They also form stable groups that minimize conflict and maximize cooperation. Mitch Rafelson and his wife, Kaye Lang, have a SHEVA daughter named Stella Nova that they try to shield from the government's Emergency Action forces, but the child is captured and sent to a camp. A government virus researcher, Christopher Dicken, makes significant discoveries, as does Kaye. |
Floating Flies and How to Dress Them | null | 1,886 | Floating Flies and How to Dress Them provides an in-depth study of nearly 100 duns and spinners in the English chalk streams of Hampshire County. The books contains detailed drawings and instructions on how to create hand-made artificial flies. Included is information on types of hooks and implements to use plus tips on dyeing materials and how to dress the flies on eyed-hooks. The book contains ten colorplates and many black and white line drawings used to illustrate specific techniques. |
Weaver | Stephen Baxter | null | In this timeline, Hitler decided to launch Operation Sea Lion (a projected Nazi invasion of Great Britain) in 1940, shortly after a more devastating version of Dunkirk resulted in a shortage of British Army soldiers. However, due to Winston Churchill's lobbying of President Franklin Roosevelt and his Congress, there is some US military assistance provided. As with France during the First World War, there is only partial occupation of southeastern England, and a Nazi "Protectorate of Albion" (similar to Vichy France) is established. The Nazis occupy a band of territory that stretches from Portsmouth in the southwest, including communities like Tunbridge Wells, Horsham, Hastings, Pevensey, Dover, Folkestone and Gravesend. They establish a puppet regime in Canterbury led by renegade English Nazi collaborator Lord Haw Haw, and while London remains unoccupied, the adjacent occupation results in the evacuation of senior governmental personnel, politicians, George VI and his royal family to elsewhere in Northern England. Baxter traces the effects of the occupation on several protagonists. Ben Kamen is Jewish, gay and a latent telepath, while Mary Wooler, and her son Gary, and daughter-in-law Hilda, work on covert projects for the British Army, endeaviouring to discover how to dislodge the Nazi presence from the "Protectorate of Albion" in the southeast. Ernst Keiser, a relatively kindly officer, lodges with a rural family, whose female members, Irma and Viv, collaborate intentionally with the military, while Alfie is made to serve in a forced labour unit later in the war. As in "our" timeline, Hitler still launches Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, but there are other divergences, as the Japanese Empire has sufficient manpower to invade Australia in this timeline as well, although no other details are forthcoming. Ben's identity is discovered, but he is spared from the ravages of an expanded version of the Holocaust due to his latent telepathic abilities. Julia Fiveash, another English Nazi collaborator, is involved in the Ahnenerbe, an SS occult warfare division. In 1943, the tide of war has turned, and the British and US armed forces launch "Operation Walrus" to recover the territory of the former "Protectorate." However, they stumble on Ahnenerbe plans to use Kamen to alter the course of history so that either William the Conqueror lost the Battle of Hastings to Harold II in 1066, or Christopher Columbus turned east, reviving Crusader hostility against the Islamic world during the sixteen century, instead of his discovery of the Americas. In the ensuing battle, Fiveash kills Gary, and Mary is able to prevent any further historical change through influencing Kamen's choice of telepathic transmissions. However, the novel ends with Kamen once more entering a dream state, and hints that our timeline is the result of his broadcasting a telepathic message to one of Hitler's advisors at the time of the Dunkirk Evacuation. |
Catch Me if You Can | Frank Abagnale | 1,980 | :The movie plot is available at Catch Me If You Can. The book is the semi-autobiography of Frank Abagnale Jr., who was one of the most famous con-artists in the 20th Century. It is written in the first person and describes how he cashed $2.5 million worth of bad checks. He assumed various jobs, such as pretending to be a Pan Am pilot, a doctor, a teacher, and an attorney. Abagnale was eventually caught by the FBI Agents, who had been chasing him the whole way, while living in France and then served around 5 years in prison - 6 months in France, 6 months in Sweden, followed by four years in the United States. The book ends with Abagnale running away from the FBI. |
Tim the Tiny Horse At Large | null | 2,008 | Tim is still small yet his responsibilities are growing larger. Whilst continuing to live in his matchbox stable, he falls in love with Fly's sister Chenille, is Best Horse at Fly's wedding, babysits for Mr and Mrs Fly's baby, and buys a loft style apartment cigarette box using a five pound cheque. Then, Tim goes to buy a pet greenfly, George, and has to face up to the responsibilities and tragedies of being a pet owner. |
The Sufis | Idries Shah | 1,964 | Eschewing a purely academic approach, Shah gave an overview of Sufi concepts, with potted biographies of some of the most important Sufis over the ages, including Rumi and Ibn al-Arabi, while simultaneously presenting the reader with Sufi teaching materials, such as traditional stories or the jokes from the Mullah Nasrudin corpus. The book also gave details of previously unsuspected Sufic influences on Western culture. According to Shah, the Freemasons, Cervantes, Western chivalry, alchemy and Saint Francis of Assisi, amongst others, were all influenced directly or indirectly by Sufis and Sufi ideas, often as a result of contact between East and West in the Middle Ages in places such as Spain or Sicily. |
Flush!: The Scoop on Poop throughout the Ages | null | 2,007 | The book contains two-page chapters with rhyming text, color illustration, and factual side-bars. Published for school children between grades 2 and 4, the book uses humor to describe the history of human waste. As well as the development of the toilet, chapters include various trivia including the uses of urine, Louis XIV's habit of holding meetings on a toilet that was shaped like a throne, and Elizabeth I's rejection of the first mechanical toilet. |
Juliet Dove, Queen of Love | null | null | Juliet Dove, a middle school girl, gets lured into a shop and is given an amulet. The amulet can't come off and she realizes that she is in a story. In order for her to be free, she has to complete it. The amulet makes the person that wears it attractive to the opposite gender. With the help of two rats that can talk, who are friends of the shop owner, she finds out the amulet was given to her by Eris, the goddess of discord. She is embarrassed by the group of boys that follow her. She manages to solve the mystery and reunite two mythological lovers, Cupid and Psyche. |
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things | Carolyn Mackler | 2,003 | Virginia "Ginny" Shreves is an overweight, self-conscious sophomore at a private high school in Manhattan. She has a make out buddy, Froggy Welsh the Fourth, and she doesn't want him (or anyone, for that matter) to see her fat. She hides her fat by wearing baggy clothing. Early in the novel, she doesn't really know how she feels about Froggy, but later she starts to see herself in a new light and realizes that she actually likes this guy she has been fooling around with. Her mother, Dr. Phyllis Shreves, is an adolescent psychologist who is obsessed with her daughter's weight, while her father is always complimenting skinny girls and making her feel unsatisfactory. Her older sister, Anais, joined the Peace Corps and moved to Africa in order to escape her mother, whom she calls The Queen of Denial. Her older brother, Byron, whom she idolizes, was suspended from Columbia University for committing date rape. This event forced her to completely reevaluate her opinion of her big brother. Virginia finally stands up to her mother and gains control of her life. She goes to Seattle to see her best friend Shannon, and buys the ticket without telling her mom. Towards the end, she becomes rebellious; she dyes her hair purple and gets her eyebrow pierced. She also makes new friends, realizes what she wants to become and sees the value in herself as a person. She also realizes that she must understand who she is on the inside and that this is much more important than external appearances. She takes up kickboxing, and realizes that it is fine to change the way one looks on the outside, as long as this is done for the right reasons and the changes have a positive impact on a person physically and emotionally. |
Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod | Gary Paulsen | 1,994 | Winterdance tells the story of how Gary Paulsen came to compete in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The story begins with a poverty stricken Gary Paulsen (and his wife Ruth) living in a cabin in the woods of Minnesota, where he uses a team of dogs to pull a sled as he checks his trap lines. As Gary Paulsen's relationship with the dogs grows, he begins taking the team on longer and longer runs, sometimes staying out for several days at a time. Paulsen returns home from a particularly lengthy trip and settles the dogs down in their kennel. However, he discovers that he is unable to enter the cabin. When his wife, Ruth, comes outside she finds him sitting quietly with the dogs, and Paulsen confesses to Ruth that when he is out with the dogs that he doesn't want to come back. Although they had talked about the Iditarod prior to this point, and wondered at the insanity of the Mushers who competed in it, it is at this moment, with this confession, that Ruth knows Paulsen will compete. Having only ever run a small team of dogs Paulsen is severely lacking in experience. In order to run the Iditarod, he will need a team of fifteen or sixteen dogs, and he doesn't own even half that many. He purchases some Canadian sled dogs, Devil, Ortho, and Murphy, and on the drive back home quickly realizes the difference between family pets and Eskimo sled dogs. Before they have gone several miles Devil and Ortho have chewed their way out of their travel kennels and are destroying the back of the truck, and Paulsen says to Ruth that someone will have to ride in the back with the dogs and keep them in. Ruth replies that as Paulsen is the one running the Iditarod that it should be him, and that it will give him a chance to get to know the dogs. Paulsen reluctantly agrees and climbs into the back of the truck. As soon as Ruth starts the truck the dogs leap on Paulsen and he is forced to defend himself. By the time they arrive home, Paulsen's own transformation has begun. Still lacking experience, Paulsen hitches his team up and goes on several more runs, resulting in numerous wrecks, some of which result in Paulsen losing his team and walking home by himself. (The dogs not only find their own way home, but return long before Paulsen.) After one particular late night run where Paulsen and his team encounter several skunks, with the expected results, Paulsen is relegated to sleeping in the kennel. He finds that sharing sleeping quarters with the dogs increases his bond with them, and even after the smell has worn off he continues to sleep outside. When word gets around that Paulsen plans to compete in the Iditarod, the local community rallies behind him by donating money, food, and essential gear. One neighbor even donates his truck and drives Paulsen and the dogs up to Anchorage for the race. When they start to run out of money this neighbor dips into his own savings account to help fund the remainder of the trip and keep Paulsen's dream alive. Paulsen arrives in Anchorage two months before the race, and quickly realizes just how little he still knows about running the Iditarod. As he prepares himself for the 1,100-mile race, Paulsen constantly asks questions and seeks to learn from the officials and the other, more experienced Mushers. Paulsen's inexperience causes problems right from the first day, when he takes a wrong turn that adds 120-miles to his run. On this detour, Paulsen encounters a moose which, despite being repeatedly shot by a Musher traveling behind him, fatally wounds the lead dog of that team. During the 17 and a half days it takes Paulsen to complete the race he experiences sleep deprivation and hallucinations, freezing temperatures and bitingly cold winds, stunning views, and tragic disasters. He also re-evaluates his life and decides that a simple life is better than the pursuit of money and material objects. At the end of the story, Paulsen is diagnosed with coronary disease and is told that he will be able to live a normal life. Before returning home a devastated Paulsen calls a family friend and asks him to take all of his dogs except for Cookie, the dog who led his Iditarod team. |
Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth | Margaret Atwood | 2,008 | The content is divided into five parts. The first part, Ancient Balances, considers psychological and historical aspects of debt. Atwood calls debt an imaginative human construct derived from a sense of need or greed and a sense of fairness in reciprocity and equivalent values. She cites a study by Frans de Waal that suggests a sense of fairness may be a genetic trait shared with other primates, and a study by Robert Axelrod which illustrates, given a level playing field, that the tit-for-tat strategy (or 'Do unto others as they have done onto you' strategy) was the most superior strategy in game theory. Debt and borrowing mechanisms from ancient and biblical societies are compared, including provisions from the Code of Hammurabi, Ancient Egyptians, and the Greco-Roman mythologies. The second part, Debt and Sin, explores the theological side, including moral or ethical characteristics attributed to debtors and creditors by society and religion. Debt, like certain vices, such as cigarette-smoking, have experienced times when it was considered sinful, and other times fashionable. Biblical references, like the Book of Deuteronomy, the Lord's Prayer, and sin-eating, are examined. The growth of debt is linked to the growth of the written media with the relationship symbolized by the Faustian contract with the devil. The third part, Debt as Plot, examines the "Debtor" game from Eric Berne's Games People Play and its derivative "Try and Collect". Debt as a motif and theme is explained, especially in 19th century literature, with examples from "The Devil and Tom Walker", Wuthering Heights, Vanity Fair, Madame Bovary, House of Mirth, and The Mill on the Floss. Atwood posits a theory that Charles Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge is the reverse character of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus; although Scrooge is rich, he is unwilling to spend his money and is living miserably before he is saved., while Doctor Faustus is rich, happy, and generous but ends in hell. The fourth part, The Shadow Side, looks at what happens to debtors and creditors when debts are not re-paid. Some debts that are a matter of honour to which the debtor must repay by an equivalent value or creditor must either forgive or extract revenge. Debts to society, after committing crimes, are paid through vengeance-based imprisonment. The United Kingdom had debtors' prison for those who could not pay, but this was abolished for economic reasons as it prevented labourers from working and had a burdensome cost of operation. Other societies used the services of their family members or themselves as collateral. Sometimes the debtors overthrew the creditors, like King Philip IV of France against the Knights Templar, or the Ugandans against the Asians. Atwood applies the trickle-down economics to debt and examines the psychology side through the Jungian Shadow. In the final part, titled Payback, Atwood examines ecological debt. She recounts the journey of Scrooge in A Christmas Carol but placed in a modern setting. The modern-day Scrooge is visited by the spirits of Earth Day. In the past Scrooge witnesses debts to nature being repaid through animal and human sacrifices and through pestilence in over-crowded or unsustainable populations. In the present Scrooge witnesses current unsustainable practices, over-fishing and deforestation, creating a debt to nature being repaid through effects on the climate and impacts on people. Finally, in the future, Scrooge is shown two versions: one, an eco-friendly human society balanced with environmental systems, and the other, a dystopian future with a disaster affecting the fuel or food resources in such a way that hyperinflation sets in and renders money useless. |
Searching for Anne Frank: Letters from Amsterdam to Iowa | Susan Goldman Rubin | null | In 1939, a ten-year old girl named Juanita Wagner was the pen pal of Anne Frank and she only sent two letters. Juanita lived in Danville, Iowa. Juanita and her older sister, Betty (the pen pal of Margot), wondered what had happened to the Franks in the war. After the production of a 1955 Broadway show called The Diary of Anne Frank on Broadway the sisters realized who their pen pals were. The book tells the story of Anne Frank's life and Juanita Wagner's life. |
The Way of the Sufi | Idries Shah | 1,968 | As in The Sufis, Shah gave potted biographies of some of the best known Sufis of the ages, while adding brief descriptions of four of the major Sufi orders, or Tariqas: the Chisti Order, Qadiri Order, Suhrawardi Order and Naqshbandi Order. In addition there were a number of Sufi teaching stories as well as question-and-answer sessions with Sufi teachers. Continuing a theme from the previous book, Shah argued that Sufism had greatly influenced Western civilisation over the centuries, but that this had largely gone unrecognised, citing examples such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, the William Tell legend, the former United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjoeld and the works of Sir Richard Burton amongst others. In the East, he also said that Sufism had influenced certain aspects of Hinduism as well as Zen Buddhism. |
The Sandman | Ralph Fletcher | 2,008 | Tor is an inches tall man who can not fall asleep no matter what he tries. He discovers a dragon scale while walking in the woods. He learns that the powder made by grinding the scale induces sleep. He then travels sprinkling the sand into the eyes of sleepless children. |
The Winds of Darkover | Marion Zimmer Bradley | 1,970 | The novel concerns Brynat Scarface, a bandit who has seized control of the ancestral castle of the Storn family. |
The World Wreckers | Marion Zimmer Bradley | 1,971 | The novel concerns a group of entrepreneurs who are hired to sabotage the ecology of Darkover so that the planet will be dependant on imports. |
Apartment 255 | Bunty Avieson | 2,001 | 'Apartment 255' is the story of two best friends since school - Sarah and Ginny - who are, at the time of the book's telling, adults. Things are depicted as much better for Sarah - who has a boyfriend Tom with whom she shares a stunning inner-city apartment. But things have not worked out so well for Ginny who wanted Tom, and didn't get him. She wants what Sarah has, and moves into an apartment overlooking Sarah and Tom's flat to stalk them. |
The One O'Clock Chop | Ralph Fletcher | 2,007 | Matt a fourteen your old boy living on Long Island in 1973 takes a job with Dan a clam digger so that he can earn enough money to buy a used Boston Whaler. Jazzy, Matt's cousin from Hawaii arrives to spend the summer with Matt and his mother. Jazzy and Matt become kissing cousins until Jazzy becomes interested in another boy. They eventually become friends again and Matt learns to stand up for himself. The One O'Clock Chop is a daily breeze that suddenly moves across the bay where Matt lives roughening up the smooth surface. Dan says "the old salts say you can set your watch by it." |
A Game for the Living | null | null | Ramon, a devoutly Catholic furniture repairman from Mexico City, meets Theodore, a wealthy German atheist. An unlikely friendship develops, until Lelia, a woman they had both slept with and cared for, is found brutally raped, murdered and mutilated, leaving each man in suspicion of the other. |
The Two Faces of January | Patricia Highsmith | 1,961 | The book revolves around American characters, but is set in Athens, Crete, and Paris. It involves a con artist, Chester MacFarland, who accidentally kills a Greek policeman who is investigating him. MacFarland's wife, Collette, and an American student, Rydal Keener, become involved in covering up the death and fleeing the country. |
Grandpa Never Lies | Ralph Fletcher | 2,000 | A young girl describes her special relationship with her grandfather over four seasons. The Grandfather tells imaginative tales in response to her questions. Each tale is followed by her refrain of "And Grandpa never lies, so I know it's so". Then Grandma suddenly dies and the little girl and her grandfather mourn together. |
Cockroach Cooties | Laurence Yep | null | Two brothers, Teddy and Bobby, try to defend themselves from a school bully named Arnie. The brothers discover that the bully is afraid of cockroaches. Bobby finds a cockroach and names it Hercules. Bobby uses cookies with strange ingredients to trick Arnie into a peace treaty. With the help of Hercules, the boys figure out what is happening to the bully. |
Tomorrow Wendy | null | 1,998 | Cary's head is such a mess, which is why she keeps it hidden under her floppy Audrey Hepburn hat. Her best friend Rad — who only she can see — speaks to her in only song lyrics. Not even her boyfriend Danny knows what kind of things go through her head. He especially is oblivious to the fact that Cary has strong feelings for a girl named Wendy. Wendy has bright green hair and "hard-candy sadness in her eyes". Cary thinks that this sexy and mysterious girl could love her just as much as her boyfriend Danny does. The only problem, is that Wendy happens to be Cary's boyfriend Danny's twin sister. |
The Goliath Bone | null | null | Hammer is forced to put off retirement and his marriage to his longtime love interest and secretary, Velda, after he falls into the middle of an international crisis. Hammer saves a couple of archaeologists from unknown muggers somewhere in New York. Lo and behold, the archaeologists are the target of Al Qaeda agents who believe they possess a thigh bone that belonged to the Biblical character, Goliath. Hammer now finds himself going against Islamic terrorists, including a 7-foot agent code named, of course, Goliath. Will Hammer hold up against the new enemies of the US? |
Heartland | null | null | The narrative follows the coming-of-age story of Wing Seng, a young ethnic Chinese at the threshold of adulthood. The novel starts when he is eighteen years old, in his second year of his junior college and facing enlistment into national service. Wing Seng has two good friends in junior college: Sham, an Indian, and Audrey, a female friend. He starts a relationship with schoolmate and environmentalist, Chloe, but finds her upper middle class background clashes with his more modest one. Eventually he is enlisted and undergoes the gruelling three-month Basic Military Training at Pulau Tekong. He makes friend with Yong, a lower middle-class boy who speaks only Singlish, and befriends his younger sister May Lin. Wing also learns harsh truths about his own family along the way. |
The Circus Surprise | Ralph Fletcher | 2,001 | Nick is taken to the circus as a surprise for his birthday. While at the circus he follows his nose looking for the cotton candy, and when he turns around his parents are gone. A clown on stilts comes to his rescue and puts him on his shoulders and they locating his parents. While they are searching for Nick's parents the clown has Nick in a small pouch and as they travel he tells Nick to look out at the circus and makes Nick laugh by saying that the lions are kittens and the people were ants. |
A Suspension of Mercy | null | null | Television scriptwriter Sidney Bartleby, who specialises in murder mysteries, daydreams about killing his wife, Alicia, as a way of drawing inspiration for his stories. However, when she unexpectedly takes a long holiday away from him, he begins wondering whether he could ever put his plan into action. |
The Tremor of Forgery | null | null | American author Howard Ingham arrives in the sweltering heat of Tunisia, so he can draw inspiration for a new movie script he's been commissioned to write. However, when the director he's working with doesn't show, he begins hearing stories from back home about infidelity and suicide. Rather than abandon the project and leave, Howard stays in the country and starts work on a novel instead. He gets to know Francis J. Adams, an aging American propagandist and Danish homosexual painter Anders Jensen. While waiting for a letter from his New York girlfriend Ina, the plot of his projected novel comes together. It's the story of a banker who forges documents to steal money he then gives to poor people. One night, Ingham finds someone breaking into his apartment and throws his typewriter at the intruder, who is then dragged away by others. Ingham struggles to keep this possible murder secret from his acquaintances while at the same time questioning western morality and its worth in a country where he is a stranger. |
A Dog's Ransom | null | 1,972 | One day, publishing house executive Ed Reynolds finds a disturbing ransom note in the Manhattan apartment he shares with his wife: "Dear sir: I have your dog, Lisa. She is well and happy... I gather she is important to you? We'll see." As the couple slowly realise the predicament they're in, it becomes painfully clear that an ambitious kidnapper really has hit them where it hurts... |
Edith's Diary | null | null | When Edith Howland's husband abandons her for a younger woman, leaving her with their alcoholic son and his senile uncle, she begins recording details of an imaginary, much more successful life where she has friends and grandchildren. However, this diversion soon grows unhealthy when she becomes slowly convinced that the fantasies are real… |
All His Engines | null | null | With a plague of comas seizing the world, John Constantine and his best friend Chas Chandler travel from the UK to Los Angeles to try to discern its origin. They unwittingly step into a war between gods, most notably Mictlantecuhtli, the Aztec deity of death, who resents Constantine's intrusion into his business. Beroul, a demon who behaves as if he were a Hollywood movie executive, holds hostage the soul of Chas' granddaughter Trish. Constantine can get her back, if he disposes of Beroul's enemies, which he eventually does by enlisting the help of Mictlantecuhtli. Constantine is able to trick his way out of the bargain, however. The story begins on a dark night in Liverpool in August 1961. As the clouds in the sky begin to take strange forms, we see that the shapes are transpiring above the home of a young John Constantine. He is awake in his bed and believes the noises coming from outside his window to be from his sister, Cheryl, breaking in after curfew. Suddenly, however, an enormous skeleton-like creature manifests itself on Constantine's bed and demands that he hand over something better than his own immortal soul. The frieghtened Constantine screams at the sight of the monster and it disappears. However, John's father comes into the room and, despite his pleads that a ghost had been in his room, scolds John for waking him up at such an hour. A confused Constantine is left staring out his bedroom window. The focus of the story then shifts to the home of Geraldine Chandler, Chas' daughter in the fall of 2004. Her ex-husband is screaming at her to see his divorced daughter, Tricia, as she apparently should be ready to leave with him. Finally, he storms into the house to force his daughter out with him. However, when he and Geraldine enter her bedroom they are shocked to find Tricia motionless and unresponsive on her bedroom floor. Following a trip to the hospital, the entire Chandler family, Chas included, is seated in the waiting room of the hospital, discussing Tricia's condition. As tensions arise between Chas and Geraldine's ex, Constantine arrives to the hospital to offer his hand in helping Tricia. Immediately, however, Chas' wife, Renee rejects his help and demands that he not go anywhere near Tricia. Following this outburst, Chas explains to John that his granddaughter is in critical condition and that the doctors are clueless as to why. Desperate for an answer, Chas called on Constantine for help, fearing the possible cause to be supernatural. John agrees, but warns Chas that things might get very difficult as he goes deeper into this mystery and that he will need a driver. Chas agrees and the two leave the hospital to seek answers. The first place that the two visit is the home of an old friend of Constantine's named Fennel. On the way there, Constantine suffers a flashback in which he is arm wrestling a supposed friend of his. After taking the man's concentration away from the armwrestling match they are having, John ends up the winner. The man is furious with him and prepares to stab him when Chas interviens and the pair end up against every other man in the room. Suddenly, all the men in the room save for John and Chas begin to wither away and die. Once again, the same enormous skeleton-like being appears in the house and once more demands something from Constantine. Back in Chas' car, John begins to strain himself as he refuses to believe the events of the flashback actually happened. Once inside Fennel's house, John wisecracks his way into getting his friend to help him. Fennel is apparently a powerful psychic, which John intends to exploit for his own gain. The two set up the necessary environment and begin a seance of sorts in order to contact Tricia. When Fennel finally reaches her, she reveals that she is in chains and that the only one who she's seen so far is the 'nasty man'. Before revealing who this man is, he forces his control onto Fennel and tells Constantine that what's his is his. Unfortunately, the stress is too much for Fennel's body and he explodes in a storm of fire, leaving only a burning address in the floor of Fennel's home. This address is one that exists in Los Angeles, where Chas and Constantine prepare to go. Following a troubling flight for Chas, the two arrive at the Los Angeles airport, intent on seeking the address. After acquiring a vehicle, Chas drives Constantine to the address they seek. At this address, a large mansion sits atop a hill and is adorned with many tacky lawn ornaments. |
The Go-Giver | null | 2,008 | The Go-Giver as the authors tell, revolves around the story of a young professional (Joe) who is striving for success. Joe is ambitious, however lately it seems like his hard work and efforts are not paying off in terms of results. Following a disappointing quarter - in terms of sales results - he inadvertently seeks the mentorship of The Chairman. Joe then embarks on a learning journey by meeting Go-Givers - friends of The Chairman. Through these interactions he learns of the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success: 1- The Law of Value: Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment. 2- The Law of Compensation: Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them. 3- The Law of Influence: Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interests first. 4- The Law of Authenticity: The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself. 5- The Law of Receptivity: The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving. |
Favorite Flies and Their Histories | null | 1,892 | Favorite Flies is a unique volume that compiles the stories and images of popular American artificial flies of the late 19th century. It is one of the earliest works to use chromolithography color plates. Today, the original flies used to create the color plates are preserved in the American Museum of Fly Fishing in Manchester, Vermont. The stories for each fly described in the volume were obtained through correspondence with fly fisherman and fly tiers throughout the U.S. and Canada. The following is a typical story about the Professor, a popular wet-fly of time: No. 192. The Professor was named after the much-loved Professor John Wilson (Christopher North), and the story of the fly is, that one time, when this famous angler Was fishing, he ran short of flies, and, to create something of a flylike appearance, he fastened the petals of buttercups on his hook, adding bits of leaves or grass to imitate the wings of a fly. This arrangement was so successful that it led to the making of the fly with a yellow silk body, since then was widely known as the Professor Professor. - A prime favorite; use it on almost all casts when I see more than one fly. When using a black tail fly, I use a brown fly and a Professor for droppers; find it a good fly under general conditions, when using a Miller for tail fly; then use Professor for droppers. From a letter from W. David Tomlin ("Norman") Duluth, Minn as favorite flies for trout in Michigan streams. Favorite Flies contains plates and stories for Bass Flies, Trout Flies, Hackles, Salmon Flies, and Lake Flies |
Caine Black Knife | Matthew Stover | 2,008 | The novel is split between the adventure that made Caine a star (Retreat from the Boedecken) and events in the present day. Both events take place in the same area, and both involve the Ogrillo Black Knife clan who roam the Boedecken Wastes. A twenty-five-year gap separates the two timelines. The arc was completed in Caine's Law (earlier working title: "His Father's Fist"), released April 2012. |
The Clay Marble | Minfong Ho | 1,991 | After the fall of the Khmer Rouge, 12-year-old Dara, her older brother Sarun, and their mother journey to the Thai border in search of food. Here they meet the remnants of another Cambodian family, one of whose members, Jantu, becomes Dara's friend; another, Nea, falls in love with Sarun. Life is going along well until in fighting among neighboring guerrilla groups forces the families to flee again. In the confusion, Dara and Jantu become separated from the main group. After many incidents, they are reunited with their families, although Jantu is shot in the process and dies soon after. Sarun, once a proud farmer, wants to join the military. Dara courageously stands up to him, and convinces him to return home with the family. The title comes from Jantu's effervescence and manual dexterity, the combination of which impresses Dara as magic. She believes a clay marble, having been invested with Jantu's magic, gives her the courage to get through her ordeals. |
Sea of Poppies | Amitav Ghosh | 2,008 | The story begins with Deeti, a simple, pious lady, caring mother and an efficient housewife. Married to Hukam Singh, a crippled worker in the Ghazipur Opium Factory, the unfortunate Deeti figures out that on her wedding night, she was drugged with opium by her mother-in-law, so that her brother-in-law could consummate the marriage in place of her infertile husband. This brother-in-law is the real father of Deeti's daughter Kabutri. When her husband dies, Deeti sends Kabutri to stay with relatives. Deeti looks almost certain to meet her doom when she chooses to go through with the sati ritual (immolation on her husband's funeral pyre), but then Kalua, the ox man from the neighbouring village, comes to her rescue. The couple flee and unite. This is not acceptable to their fellow villagers. In order to escape Deeti's in-laws, she and Kalua become indentured servants on the Ibis. Zachary Reid, an American sailor born to a slave mother and a white father, receives a lot of attention. He has been on the Ibis since the schooner started her arduous journey, and hopes to die with it. He maintains that in his lifetime he has never seen a more admirable article than the Ibis and it is no less than a mother to him, supporting him in his dark hours and rejoicing with him in his happiness. With the support of the head of the lascars, Serang Ali, he becomes the second in command of the ship, when it was refitted to carry indentured labour to the island of Mareech or Mauritius instead of the tradable opium. Neel Rattan Halder, a wealthy rajah whose dynasty has been ruling the zemindary of Rakshali for centuries, is confronted by Mr. Burnham with the need to sell off his estates in order to pay for the debt he had incurred when trading opium with China at the height of the opium trade. But now that the opium trade has come to a standstill, as a result of the resistance shown by the Chinese authorities, he is left with no money to clear his loan. When Mr. Burnham proposes to settle the load for Halders zamindary, Halder refueses the deal as the zamindary is his familys ancestral property and selling it would mean turning his back on his many dependents living in his household and zamindary. He is tried for forgery, but it is a sham trial orchestrated by Burnham and his cronies. The court punishes him by sentencing him to work as an indentured labourer for seven years in Mauritius. It is then that he meets Ah Fatt, a half-Chinese, half-Parsi opium addict from Canton, his sole companion in prison since the two will eventually be transported together on the Ibis. The book also features Paulette, a French orphan, who has also grown up in India. Her father was an eccentric but kind botanist, and her mother died in childbirth. Mr. and Mrs. Burnham take Paulette into their home after her father's death. She becomes determined to run away because Mr. Burnham has behaved in a disturbing way with her in private. Also, he is trying to get her married to his friend, the stern, elderly Justice Kendalbushe. As it happens, Paulette had met Zachary Reid, the American sailor, at a dinner at the Burnhams'; she was instantly drawn to him, and he to her. She has resolved to travel to Mauritius, as her great-aunt did, in the hope of finding a better future. Along with Jodu, her childhood friend (or brother, as both Jodu and Paulette are brought up under the care of Jodu's mother following the death of Paulette's mother at childbirth), she boards the Ibis, unaware of her destiny. Paulette easily disguises herself as an Indian woman, using her fluent Bengali, which she learned in childhood growing up at close proximity with Jodu and his mother. Paulette's upbringing in India has also made her feel more at ease with Indian manners, food, and clothing than with Western ones. As the stories merge, each carrying its share of joys and sorrows, the Ibis becomes a shelter to those in destitution. After much strife and bloodshed on board the vessel, Neel, Ah Fatt, Jodu, Serang Ali and Kalua manage to escape, unaware of the destination the sea waves will carry them to. |
The Lucky One | Nicholas Sparks | 2,008 | U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young woman half-buried in the dirt during his first tour of duty in Iraq. He carries the photo in his pocket and soon wins a streak of poker games, then survives a battle that kills two of his closest buddies. His best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good fortune: the photograph, his lucky charm. Back home in Colorado, Thibault begins to believe that the woman in the photo somehow holds the key to his destiny. He sets out on a journey across the country with his dog Zeus to find her and eventually encounters Elizabeth Green, a divorced mother with a young son Ben, in North Carolina. Caught off guard by the attraction he feels, Thibault keeps the story of the photo and his luck a secret. He and Elizabeth begin a passionate love affair, but the secret of the photo will soon threaten to tear them apart—destroying not only their deep and true passionate love, but also their very lives. |
Fool | Christopher Moore | 2,009 | Pocket is the royal fool at the court of King Lear of Britain. To prevent Lear from marrying off his daughter Cordelia, a girl Pocket is especially fond of, he schemes with Edmund of Gloucester. Pocket advises the bastard (i.e., illegitimate) Edmund how to get the land of his legitimate brother Edgar, while Edmund is to prevent the marriage of Cordelia. Edmund somehow gets Lear to ask each of his three daughters – Goneril, Regan and Cordelia – how much they love him. While Goneril and Regan please the old king with their exaggerations, Cordelia enraged him with her famous laconic “I love thee, according to my bond.” Lear disinherits Cordelia and divides his kingdom among Goneril and Regan. Notwithstanding, the prince of France marries Cordelia and takes her with him. Deprived of his adored Cordelia and angry with Lear because of the way he treated her, Pocket – advised by the ghost of a girl who turns out to have been not only his deceased lover but also the former queen of Lear and mother of Cordelia – starts his own vendetta: He encourages Goneril and Regan to strip Lear of his remaining power (especially his train of 100 knights, one of the conditions on which Lear passed the kingdom to his daughters) and tries to drive the older sisters into war against each other. Lear finally realizes his mistake and goes temporarily mad. To estrange the sisters he makes both believe that they are in an affair with Edmund of Gloucester. While successful in this, Pocket fails to incite civil war, simply because Cordelia – now a veritable warrior queen – invades Britain with her army from France. Lear, and later on Pocket, end in the dungeon of the castle now ruled by Edmund, now Earl of Gloucester. The two elder sisters are in the same castle and ally against Cordelia, but poison each other out of jealousy nonetheless. Edmund confronts Lear and Pocket, and Pocket kills him with his throwing knives. Shortly after, Lear dies. Cordelia invades the castle and becomes queen of Britain. Pocket, who has been told by witches that he is the son of Lear’s brother, marries Cordelia and becomes king. |
Escape to the Hills | null | 1,947 | The book chronicles the Chapmans of Silliman University experiences as they escape to the hills and lived as fugitives in the mountains of Negros Oriental during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, as well as, their experiences when they were kept in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp. |
The Salmon Fly | null | 1,895 | In The Salmon Fly, George Kelson boldly and confidently distilled a lifetime of salmon fishing wisdom into this privately published work. The book contains 510 pages of text and 46 pages of illustrations plus 8 coloured plates showing 52 flies. Many of the black & white illustrations are of fly-fishing contemporaries of Kelson—to include Mr. A.V. Wells-Ridley J.P; Major J.P. Traherne; Mr. Barclay Field. The first part of the book is devoted to the techniques of tying the salmon fly as well as patterns for individual flies. Here's a typical pattern write-up: *JOCK SCOTT. G.S.- (John Scott.) **TAG. Silver twist and yellow silk. **TAIL. A topping and Indian Crow. **BUTT. Black herl. **BODY. In two equal sections : No. 1, of yellow silk (butter-cup colour) ribbed with narrow silver tinsel, and butted with Toucan above and below, and black herl : No. 2, black silk, ribbed with broad silver tinsel. **HACKLE. A natural black hackle, from centre. **THROAT. Gallina. **WINGS. Two strips of black Turkey with white tips, Golden Pheasant tail, Bustard, grey Mallard, Peacock (sword feather) Swan dyed blue and yellow, red Macaw, Mallard, and a topping. **SIDES. Jungle. **CHEEKS. Chatterer. **HORNS. Blue Macaw. **HEAD. Black herl. It is only just possible to find a river or a catch, be it in pools, streams, rapids, or flats, shaded or exposed to the light of day, in which a "Jock Scott," when dressed properly, has not made for itself a splendid reputation. The second part of the book is devoted to the practical aspects of fishing for salmon with the fly—locating fish, casting techniques, catching and landing fish and various accessories and equipment. The Salmon Fly also includes 46 full page black and white advertisements for mostly angling and sporting pursuits. |
Magnus | null | null | Easily Mackay Brown's most religious novel - written after he was received into the Roman Catholic Church - it is seen principally from the perspective of outsiders (peasants, mercenaries, schoolfriends, tinkers) which Mackay Brown interleaves with the Christian tradition of the Seamless robe of Jesus. The narrative implies that Magnus's life is a preordained quest for the garment as a manifested object. It moves swiftly from Magnus's conception to his boyhood at the monastery on Birsay, his non-violent participation at the Battle of Menai Strait (depicted in the Orkneyinga Saga) to the political manoeuvring and outright conflict between Magnus and his cousin Earl Hakon Paulsson. The narrative also reflects on the damage this inflicted on the inhabitants of the islands. At the pivotal moment of Magnus's execution by Hakon, the narrative switches to Flossenbürg concentration camp during World War II . Magnus's unwitting executioner Lifolf becomes a cook at the camp, co-opted into the hanging of the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer by the camp's drunk Nazi commanding officers. The story returns to twelfth century Orkney, and concludes with the tinkers, Jock and Mary (present since the outset of the tale). Jock prays to the tomb of the (as yet uncanonised) 'Saint' Magnus, but is reprimanded by Brother Colomb, Magnus's former teacher. However not long after, Mary, hitherto blinded by cataracts, suddenly has her sight restored. Throughout the novel, Mackay Brown contrasts the inevitable nature of Magnus's fate with the symbolic significance of pre-Christian ritual, including human sacrifice. Despite this, critics have noted the deeply meditative nature of the work despite the bloody events it depicts and the harshness of existence in twelfth century Orkney. |
A Purple Place for Dying | John D. MacDonald | 1,964 | McGee is drawn away from his usual haunt of Florida by a job offer from Mona Yeoman, who suspects that her estranged husband has stolen from her considerable trust fund. Before the investigation begins, Mona is murdered before McGee's eyes by an unseen gunman. By the time he summons the police to the scene, her body has disappeared. McGee then sets out to solve her murder. |
Their Dogs Came with Them | Helena Maria Viramontes | null | Their Dogs Came With Them follows the lives of 4 Mexican American young women living in East Los Angeles during the 1960s. Each character’s story is told in individual chapters while their lives often intermingle. Additionally, her narration style changes from past to present, giving the reader a glimpse into their childhoods to show how their upbringings has an effect on the present. They grow up in an urban landscape, intensified by freeway construction that displaced homes, while the Quarantine Authority uses roadblocks to keep residents in East Los Angeles, “supposedly” protecting them from rabid animals. Turtle, a girl so desperate to belong, acts like a boy to please her gang member brother, Luis Lil Lizard, who is resentful about having a girl for a sibling. After growing up in an abusive home environment, she too joins the McBride Homeboys and then lives on the streets when her brother goes to fight in Vietnam. Ermila, orphaned after her parents ran away, lives with her grandparents who do not understand the rapidly changing times and the younger generation. Her close group of school friends becomes her family, and together they experience the Chicano power movement as well as serious family and relationship problems. Tranquilina, the daughter of missionaries, is optimistic about religion despite witnessing horrible atrocities, like the cruel and revengeful murder of Ermila’s cousin Nacho, committed by the McBride Boys. And last there is Ben, who gets a scholarship to USC and has a chance of getting ahead, but is gravely depressed. As a child he loses his mother, and then he accidentally leads another boy in front of a truck, killing the boy. Witnesses falsely claim that Ben tried to save the boy, and thus Ben leads a life of guilt. Together, these characters, their environments, and their families, emotionally depict the struggles of being low-class section in Los Angeles during the 1960s. |
Captain Nemo: The Fantastic History of a Dark Genius | Kevin J. Anderson | 2,002 | The novel follows Verne and André Nemo from their childhoods. Verne is depicted as being a sheltered, almost neurotic individual who is incapable of taking risks, while Nemo is adventurous and resourceful, especially after the death of his father (a dock worker). Both lust after the independent-minded Caroline Arronax. The two boys attempt to apprentice themselves to a ship captain named Grant, but Verne's stern father finds him and forces him to come home and study to become an attorney. However, Nemo joins the crew, and after an attack by pirates, is stranded on a mysterious island. Meanwhile, Caroline is forced to marry an explorer, Captain Hatteras. Eventually Nemo manages to escape through a fantastic underground world. Returning as a hero, Nemo proposes to spend five weeks in a new balloon design exploring Africa. Caroline joins him, but Verne, fearing what might happen, refuses. Nemo volunteers to fight in the Crimean War. While there, he is taken captive by one of his supposed allies, an Ottoman commander named Robur. Robur is engaged in a power-struggle with a rival official, Barbicane. Nemo is forced to design a submarine for use in the Ottoman navy; after many difficulties, it is finally launched, and christened the Nautilus. Nemo and his fellow slaves use it to kill Robur, but not before their families — including the Turkish wife Nemo had taken and their son — have been killed. Grief-stricken, he turns to piracy, destroying the warships of the world he encounters. Meanwhile, back in France, the Franco-Prussian War has begun, and Caroline's husband Hatteras has long been missing. However, she rebukes Verne's romantic advances, as by now she only loves Nemo. For Nemo, however, the destructive lashing out begins to lose its appeal, and after sinking a passenger ship, he rescues one of its occupants — a man named Phileas Fogg, who is more concerned with winning a bet of his than the fantastic Nautilus. Nemo decides to bring him to his destination, and then returns home to France. There, he retrieves Caroline from the Siege of Paris by bringing the Nautilus up the Seine; he takes her to beneath the Arctic ice pack to see the wreckage of her husband's ship. Now free to be together, they return to find Verne, who finally works up the courage to join his friends on their last journey together before Nemo and Caroline retreat beneath the waves together: Nemo brings the Nautilus to Atlantis. In addition to the fictional characters and members of Verne's family, several other historical individuals appear, specifically: Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Baron Haussmann, Napoleon III, Said bin Sultan, the Earl of Cardigan, Florence Nightingale, and Pierre-Jules Hetzel. |
Yaprak Dökümü | Reşat Nuri Güntekin | 1,939 | The novel revolves around a middle class Turkish family (the Tekins) in the 1930s. The main characters are Ali Riza Tekin (head of the Tekin family), his wife Hayriye, their young daughters: Fikret (the oldest daughter), Leyla (the second daughter), Necla (the third daughter), Ayşe (their youngest daughter), their only son Şevket (who is between Fikret and Leyla) and his bride Ferhunde (who is also the principal antagonist). |
The Children's Bach | Helen Garner | 1,984 | The novel, set in Melbourne, concerns a couple, Athena and Dexter, who lead a self-sufficient life with their two sons, one of whom is severely disabled. Their apparently "comfortable rut is disrupted by the arrival of Elizabeth, a tough nut from Dexter's past." Elizabeth brings with her her sister Vicki, Vicki's sometime lover Philip, and Philip prepubescent daughter, Poppy. Through them, Athena and Dexter are drawn into a world whose ideas and values test the foundations of their relationship. |
A Walk to Remember | Nicholas Sparks | 1,999 | The story starts with a prologue from Landon Carter at age 57. The remainder of the story takes place when Landon is a 17-year-old high school senior. Landon lives in the small, religious town of Beaufort, North Carolina. His father is a genial, charismatic congressman. His father is not around very much, as he lives in Washington, D.C. Landon is more reclusive, which causes some tension in their relationship. Landon's father pressures him into running for class president. His best friend, Eric Hunter, who is the most popular boy in school, helps him and, to his surprise, Landon wins the election. As student body president, Landon is required to attend the school dance with a date. Since nobody else seems to be available, Landon reluctantly asks Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of Hegbert Sullivan, the Beaufort church minister, who accepts his invitation. While Jamie is very religious and carries a Bible with her wherever she goes, Landon (one of the popular students) is reluctant to go to the dance with someone like her. When Landon is threatened by Lew, Jamie comes to Landon's aid, to his appreciation. At the end of the night, he admits she was the best date possible. A few days later, Jamie asks Landon to participate in the school's production of The Christmas Angel. While Landon is not very enthusiastic about participating, he agrees to it anyway. Jamie, on the other hand, could not be happier about her new cast mate. Landon knows that if his friends learn about his role in the play, he will be teased relentlessly. One day at rehearsal, Jamie asks if Landon will walk her home, after which it becomes routine. A couple of days later, Eric mocks the couple during their walk home and Landon becomes truly embarrassed to be with Jamie. Meanwhile, Landon continues to learn about all the people and organizations Jamie spends her time helping, including an orphanage. Landon and Jamie visit the orphanage one day to discuss a possible showing of The Christmas Angel, but their proposal is quickly rejected by Mr. Jenkins. When Jamie and Landon were waiting to meet Mr. Jenkins, she tells Landon that all she wants in the future is to get married in a church full of people and to have her father walk her down the aisle. While Landon thinks this is a strange wish, he accepts it. In truth, he is beginning to enjoy his time with her. One day, while they are walking home, Landon yells at Jamie and he tells her that he is not friends with her. The next day at the first show of The Christmas Angel, Jamie enters the stage dressed as the angel, making Landon simply utter his line, "You're beautiful," meaning it for the first time. Following that, Jamie asks Landon if he would go around town and retrieve the jars containing money collected for the orphans' Christmas presents. When Landon collects the jars, there is only $55.73, but when he gives the money to Jamie, there is $247. Jamie buys gifts for the orphanage, and Landon and Jamie spend Christmas Eve there. Jamie's Christmas gift to Landon is her deceased mother's Bible. As they get in the car to go home, Landon realizes his true feelings for her. "All I could do is wonder how I'd ever fallen in love with a girl like Jamie Sullivan." He invites her to his house for Christmas dinner. The next day Landon visits Jamie at her house, where they share their first kiss on her porch. Afterward, Landon asks Hegbert if they can go to Flavin's, a local restaurant, on New Year's Eve. While Hegbert initially refuses, after Landon declares his love for Jamie, Hegbert allows it. On New Year's Jamie and Landon go to dinner, where they share their first dance. A couple of weeks later, Landon tells Jamie that he is in love with her. To his surprise, Jamie replies by insisting that he can't be. In response, Landon demands an explanation, and Jamie reveals that she is dying of leukemia. The following Sunday, Hegbert announces to his congregation that his daughter is dying. Jamie does not return to school the following Monday and that it is eventually learned that she is too ill and will never return to school. While they are having dinner at Landon's house, Jamie tells Landon, "I love you, too," for the first time. A couple weeks later, Eric and Margaret visit Jamie's house, where they apologize for ever being rude to her. Eric gives Jamie the $400 that he collected for the orphanage. Jamie refuses to stay at the hospital, because she wants to die at home. In turn, Landon's father helps to provide Jamie the best equipment and doctors so she can spend the rest of her life at home. This gesture helps to mend the gap between father and son. One day, while sitting next to Jamie while she sleeps, Landon comes up with an idea. He runs to the church to find Hegbert and asks him for permission to marry Jamie. While Hegbert is reluctant, his refusal to deny Landon's request is seen by Landon as approval. Landon runs back to Jamie's side and asks, "Will you marry me?" Landon and Jamie are married in a church full of people with Hegbert walking Jamie down the aisle. When they reach the front of the church, Hegbert says, "I can no more give Jamie away than I can give away my heart. But what I can do is let another share in the joy that she has always given me." Hegbert has had to experience so much pain in his life, first losing his wife, now knowing his only child will soon be gone, too. The book ends with Landon 40 years later at age 57. He still loves Jamie and wears her ring. He finishes the story by saying, "I now believe, by the way, that miracles can happen." |
The Shadow Speaker | Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu | 2,007 | Ejimafor "Ejii" Ugabe is a fourteen year-old Muslim half Wodaabe half Igbo girl. She lives in the Nigerian village of Kwàmfa. Her father was once the hated dictator-like chief. She lives in the year 2070. The whole world is falling apart after a nuclear fall out in , quote, “the early twenty-first century”. |
If We Dream Too Long | null | null | The book follows the life of Kwang Meng, a young, 18-year-old working adult who has just graduated from secondary school. He currently works as a clerk, a job which he finds drab and monotonous. Two of his secondary school friends, Hock Lai and Nadarajah (nicknamed Portia), follow different career paths in their diverging lives. Hock Lai becomes a white-collared worker, determined to climb the corporate ladder, while Portia intends to further his studies in the UK. Kwang Meng meets and strikes up a relationship with a local bar girl, Lucy, at Paradise Bar. Unfortunately, owing to their very different social backgrounds, the couple has to break up (initiated by Lucy). Hock Lai tries to matchmake Kwang Meng with one of his female acquaintances Anne. Kwang Meng meets Boon Teik and Mei-I, neighbours who are both teachers, and whom Kwang Meng finds an ideal couple. Hock Lai himself gets married with Cecilia, whose father is one of the rich tycoons of Singapore. Throughout all this, Kwang Meng comes across as a rather passive figure, preferring merely to observe and seek solace through activities like sea swimming, smoking and drinking in bars. At the novel's end, Kwang Meng's father suffers a stroke, which destined him to take up the burden of supporting his family. |
Nights in Rodanthe | Nicholas Sparks | 2,002 | The story begins in 2002 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Adrienne Willis, a part-time librarian and divorced mother of three, is helping her daughter, Amanda, cope with depression. Amanda is having problems coping with the loss of her husband and is having difficulties raising her two children. In an effort to show that life goes on despite trying times, Adrienne tells her daughter the story of her relationship with Paul Flanner, whom she met in 1988. Adrienne was abandoned for a younger woman by her husband. She parented their children alone and took care of her sick father. This had worn her down. So when an opportunity comes along to tend an inn in the small coastal town of Rodanthe, North Carolina for a friend, Adrienne decides to do it. As soon as she arrives, a major storm is forecast. Meanwhile, Paul, a fifty-four-year-old father, arrives in Rodanthe. He has sold his home and practice, and now wishes to travel to an isolated place where he can seek relief from his shattered life. A successful surgeon, he has recently divorced from his wife, and has had a patient die. While the storm looms, the two characters, the only people at the inn, find compassion in one another and fall in love. After a few days, Adrienne and Paul slowly realize that once they leave, they must return to their separate lives. Paul explains a promise to join his estranged son in a medical clinic in Ecuador; eventually, he and Adrienne part. Adrienne returns to Rocky Mount. Paul heads for Ecuador. They communicate through letters, further fortifying their love. Paul, however, dies in Ecuador. |
The Great Ghost Rescue | Eva Ibbotson | 1,975 | Humphrey the Horrible is a pleasant, friendly ghost - quite unlike his frightful, ghastly and loathsome family: his mother, a Hag; his father, a Scottish ghost killed fighting in the Battle of Otterburn in which he lost both his legs, and was run through by a sword; his brother George, a screaming skull; and his sister, Winifred, a wailing ghost covered in bloodstains. The little family are turned out of their castle home when humans plan to redevelop the castle into a holiday resort. They travel with across England, accompanied by their headless Aunt Hortensia and their pet Shuk, and come to Norton Castle School, mistaking it for an empty castle. Here, they meet Rick, a student quite unafraid of ghosts. Rick plans to take the ghosts to the Prime Minister for peace talks concerning the large numbers of ghosts being turned out of their homes. The ghosts and Rick head to London, and pick up an assortment of hangers-on along the way: Walter the Wet, a ghost haunting a polluted river; Cousin Susie and her vampire bat brood; and the Mad Monk, whose church was destroyed to make way for a motorway. In London, Rick seeks out his member of parliament, Clarence Wilks, but the ignorant politician dismisses Rick's story as a fanciful pretense. Rick and the ghosts, furious at Wilks' disbelief, haunt his house and ruin a dinner party with several prominent guests. Wilks takes the ghosts to meet with the Prime Minister in exchange for leaving him be. The Prime Minister is shaken though sensible, and cannot promise the ghosts land for their own. However, a Lord Bullhaven, present throughout the whole conversation, allows the ghosts to settle in his land in northern Scotland, a place called Insleyfarne. The ghosts are thrilled, and settle in Insleyfarne. Rick returns to Norton Castle School, saddened to leave his friends behind. Lord Bullhaven, however, is revealed to be "the sort of person who couldn't bear anything to be even the least bit unusual or out of the ordinary", and had gathered the ghosts of England at Insleyfarne to exorcise them. He recruits several clergymen and takes them to Insleyfarne in a bid to exorcise the ghosts. Humphrey manages to escape and, weakened, travels to Norton Castle School to warn Rick. Rick, his friend Barbara (daughter of the school cook) and new boy Peter Thorne, travel to Insleyfarne by plane to save the ghosts. They are helped by Mr Wallance, one of the clergymen who agreed to exorcise the ghosts for enough money to feed his starving family, but regrets his decision to help Bullhaven. Rick, Barbara and Peter find the Hag, close to death, and she instructs them on supernatural remedies to save the other ghosts, such as saying Latin curses backwards and using dried wormwood to cure the Shuk's tail. The ghosts hold a party to celebrate their survival and victory over Bullhaven. They rename Humphrey "HUMPHREY THE HEROIC" and pronounce Rick as "RICK THE RESCUER". The party is interrupted by Bullhaven, who in his anger, crashed his car into a stone wall, and has returned to Insleyfarne as a ghost. Rick implores the other ghosts to offer him sanctuary. Rick, Barbara and Peter return to their school and Rick is thoughtful and quiet. Barbara tells him about the plight of the polar bears about Alaska, and Rick begins forming plans for yet another adventure. |
Storm Catchers | Tim Bowler | 2,001 | A storm is breaking, and it's going to change everything.... "She was simply crying. Crying as the rain drove into her face, crying as the gate opened before her. Crying as he took her away." Tap.Tap.Tap. Fin has gone to check out Billy's new computer, and leaves his brother and sister, Sam and Ella, at home. Little does he know that something devastating is about to take place. In the middle of this coastal storm, Ella has been stolen away by a mysterious kidnapper at night. The Parnell family is shocked-and is being torn apart by Ella's kidnapping. The kidnapper is showing no sign of relenting, giving any information on Ella's state, and saying what he really wants. Until one day, he reveals his plans, and tells the Parnell family what he wants with Ella. On the other hand, Sam has been frequently running towards the old Pengrig lighthouse to catch the Storm. Sam has been talking to himself. When asked, he simply replies, "It's a secret." As time goes on, the Parnell family is forced to unravel their past, full of their deepest, darkest secrets. Maybe getting Ella back wasn't as easy as they thought. |
The Mass Psychology of Fascism | null | 1,933 | The question at the heart of Reich's book was this: Why did the masses turn to authoritarianism which is clearly against their interests? Reich set out to analyze "the economic and ideological structure of German society between 1928 and 1933" in this book. In it, he calls communism "red fascism" and groups it in the same category as Nazism, and this led to him being kicked out of the Communist Party. Reich argued that the reason Nazism was chosen over fascism was sexual repression. As a child, a member of the proletariat had learned from his or her parents to suppress sexual desire. Hence, in the adult, rebellious and sexual impulses caused anxiety. Fear of revolt, as well as fear of sexuality, were thus "anchored" in the character of the masses. This influenced the irrationality of the people, Reich would argue. As Reich put it: Suppression of the natural sexuality in the child, particularly of its genital sexuality, makes the child apprehensive, shy, obedient, afraid of authority, good and adjusted in the authoritarian sense; it paralyzes the rebellious forces because any rebellion is laden with anxiety; it produces, by inhibiting sexual curiosity and sexual thinking in the child, a general inhibition of thinking and of critical faculties. In brief, the goal of sexual suppression is that of producing an individual who is adjusted to the authoritarian order and who will submit to it in spite of all misery and degradation. At first the child has to submit to the structure of the authoritarian miniature state, the family; this makes it capable of later subordination to the general authoritarian system. The formation of the authoritarian structure takes place through the anchoring of sexual inhibition and anxiety. Reich noted that the symbolism of the swastika, evoking the fantasy of the primal scene, showed in spectacular fashion how Nazism systematically manipulated the unconscious. A repressive family, a baneful religion, a sadistic educational system, the terrorism of the party, and economic violence all operated in and through individuals' unconscious psychology of emotions, traumatic experiences, fantasies, libidinal economies, and so on, and Nazi political ideology and practice exacerbated and exploited these tendencies. For Reich, fighting fascism meant first of all studying it scientifically, which was to say, using the methods of psychoanalysis. Reason, alone able to check the forces of irrationality and loosen the grip of mysticism, is also capable of playing its own part in developing original modes of political action, building on a deep respect for life, and promoting a harmonious channeling of libido and orgastic potency. Reich proposed "work democracy," a self-managing form of social organization that would preserve the individual's freedom, independence, and responsibility and base itself on them. |
Pale Gray for Guilt | John D. MacDonald | 1,968 | When McGee visits Tush Bannon, his wife Janine and their children at their motel/marina, he finds the business in trouble. Tush explains that the local authorities are making life difficult for him by such means as introducing roadworks on the only access road. Pressure is being put on the Bannons by a well-connected local businessman, Preston LaFrance, to sell to a large corporation that wants to develop the land for industrial use. Most of the income they have left is from a few houseboats, one of which is rented to Arlie Denn and her husband, hippies who make a small living selling handicrafts. The next time McGee sees Tush, they bump into one another at a bar, where Tush is in conversation with a smart young woman named Mary Smith. He tells McGee that Smith is an agent for an entrepreneur named Gary Santo, who wants to acquire the whole parcel of land. Tush has appealed to both LaFrance and Santo without success; they are not interested in his personal circumstances and are prepared to put him out of business to get what they want. Tush cannot afford to sell his land at the deflated price now being offered. All he can do now is to resume his old job as a salesman. When McGee next goes to call on the Bannons, he finds the motel and marina closed down, and learns that Tush was found dead on the premises the previous day, apparently having committed suicide by releasing a heavy hoist onto his own head. Suspecting foul play, McGee investigates further and learns that Tush's wife Janine, having been forced to leave the property by bailiffs, has gone to stay with an old friend, Connie Alvarez, and is not yet aware of her husband's death. Satisfied that Tush did not kill himself, McGee begins a campaign to help Janine and her children financially whilst seeking revenge on those whom he holds responsible. With help from his friend Meyer, McGee builds up an elaborate scam. They con LaFrance into buying the Bannon land at an inflated price and the profits are used to buy Janine shares in Fletchers, a company whose stocks Meyer knows to be over-priced. McGee then obtains an introduction to Gary Santo through Mary Smith, avoiding the latter's sexual advances by pretending to be away setting up a deal. He persuades Santo to invest heavily in Fletchers, thus artificially boosting the share price, selling off Janine's shares when the market peaks. McGee's girlfriend, Puss Killian, also plays a part in the scam, but then disappears, leaving a mysterious note of apology, saying that their affair is at an end. In the meantime, McGee has been arrested by the local sheriff on suspicion of involvement in Tush Bannon's murder. Testifying against him is Arlie Denn, who witnessed the murder and has been bought off by the murderer, Freddy Hazzard, a junior deputy related to LaFrance. Hazzard, who had set up the suicide scenario after accidentally killing Tush by an over-enthusiastic beating, goes on the run when Arlie changes her story, but reappears later on McGee's boat, The Busted Flush, where he takes Janine hostage and subjects her and McGee to an ordeal of several hours imprisonment, his plan being to sink the boat with them in it and get away on its small speedboat. McGee manages to get free, but is shot in the shoulder by Hazzard, who is then killed by Janine with a blow from a fire extinguisher. Wishing to avoid publicity, McGee and Janine agree to bury Hazzard at sea and they spend some time together on a fake holiday before returning to base, where McGee is confronted by Santo and Smith. Learning how he has been stung, Santo fires Smith, but she quickly loses interest in McGee. A message of explanation from Puss Killian makes him resolve to stay away from women for the foreseeable future, and he is left alone with Meyer to resume his usual way of life. |
Loving Frank | Nancy Horan | 2,007 | The book opens to notes written by Mamah Borthwick, reminiscing on her life and expressing her longing to tell her views of what happened. The story begins with an account of Mamah’s attendance, with great trepidation, at a public talk given by Frank Lloyd Wright, the famous architect of the School of Chicago. The author tells us that some years earlier, Wright had designed Mamah's house at the insistence of her husband Edwin Cheney. We learn of the already tumultuous and intermittent affair between Wright and Mamah, which began with their working together on the architectural plans for the house. The novel is an intricate analysis of Mamah's emotional torments as an intellectual in her own right, wife, mother, friend, and member of society. It also touches on the human aspects of Wright in addition to his artistic talent and eccentricities. Throughout the novel, Mamah explains the artistic or philosophical underpinnings of Wright's extravagant views. We experience the poignancy of both of their family situations and internal conflicts. The novel allows the reader to see Wright through the prism of Mamah’s deep admiration. The Swedish feminist Ellen Key rightfully unnerves the female protagonist when she declares that Mamah may have cowardly followed Wright in order to bask in his brilliance rather than accomplishing anything she can claim her own. A talented writer and novelist, Nancy Horan spins an intricate web of themes in her novel. One of the main themes is that of guilt and judgment of others and society in general. Another is the role of the artist in society. The novel also explores the development of the feminist movement in the United States and Europe. We are told that in America, the focus is on the woman’s right to vote and equal pay whereas the European woman is more concerned about her right to live her life free from the ties of marriage. Mamah’s and Wright’s travels in Europe are described as a form of escape from the constraints experienced at home. They soon realize, however, that the fantasy is short lived and they are inevitably called back to face reality. It is the more conformist and more guilt ridden Mamah who stands her ground and resists the urge to return to her family obligations. She struggles between the ties to her family and her invisible bond to Wright. She chooses the latter but inevitably realizes that her passion for Wright often brings her to abandon her own intellectual aspirations. Even Wright, the self proclaimed free spirit, succumbs to some of society’s pressures in the end. The novel also explores some deeper aspects of love. It is the intellectual inclinations and natural independence of Mamah which piqued Wright’s interest. Yet, while the two travel through Europe together where they can pass as husband and wife, Wright vehemently asks that Mamah play the role of the traditional woman expected to give up her pursuits to follow him where his career takes him. Mamah keenly reminds him that his views are contradictory, which Wright concedes reluctantly. The novel depicts some very positive aspects to the relationship between Mamah and Wright. Although Mamah is recorded to have said that she was not Wright’s muse and that nature was, it is obvious that she and Wright inspired each other. They had a deep understanding of each other’s needs and longings, which brought their lives together to another level. Their inherent idiosyncrasies since childhood had isolated both from many of their contemporaries. The feeling of loneliness is evident in the case of Mamah particularly. Their story ends tragically. Frank Lloyd Wright eventually decides to rebuild Taliesin (studio) located in Wisconsin. |
Miracle in the Rain | null | null | In New York City in 1942, secretary Ruth Wood lives quietly with her ailing mother Agnes. Ruth's co-workers at Excelsior Shoe Manufacturing Co. are Grace Ullman and Millie Kranz, a young blonde who is having an affair with her married boss, Stephen Jalonik. Also in the office is Monty, a young shipping clerk classified by the draft as 4-F, who monitors the war's campaigns on a world map pinned to the wall. One evening after work, when a cloudburst forces Ruth and other pedestrians to take shelter in the vestibule of an office building, Arthur Hugenon, a cheerful, talkative G.I. stationed in the area, surprises the shy Ruth by starting a conversation. When he invites her to dinner, she declines, saying that her housebound mother is expecting her. Undeterred, Art buys food for three at a delicatessen and accompanies Ruth home. Agnes, who has distrusted men since her husband Harry left her for another woman ten years earlier, receives Art with little enthusiasm. During the meal, Art, who grew up on a Tennessee farm, captivates Ruth with his stories and afterward entertains them by playing the piano. Upon finding the manuscript of an unfinished song Harry composed, Art asks permission to take it back to camp, where he and an Army buddy will write lyrics for it. On the weekend, Art takes Ruth and Grace to a matinee. On their way to a restaurant, they stop at an auction and Ruth impulsively bids on an antique Roman coin, which she gives to Art for good luck. At the Café Normandy, where they have dinner, Ruth is unaware that the piano player is her father, whom she has not seen since he left Agnes. However, Harry recognizes Ruth and confides to the bartender that he has been too ashamed to return to his family. Later, Ruth tells Art that Agnes tried to kill herself after Harry left and still hopes for his return. Sunday on their next date Art arrives late, but brings the lyrics he and his friend have written for Harry's song, entitled "I'll Always Believe in You," which they sing together, before Art takes Ruth out. As Ruth and Art walk through Central Park, Ruth voices her fears about the war and Art tells her she must have faith. They then encounter Sgt. Gil Parker, while he takes snapshots of his new bride, Arleene Witchy, who works as a striptease dancer. Gil asks Art to take their picture and then offers to photograph Art and Ruth. In private, Gil warns Art that his division will soon be shipped overseas, but Art refuses to believe the rumor. At the lagoon, where children are sailing toy boats, Art recognizes the name of an elderly man, Commodore Eli B. Windgate. "Windy," as he is now called, is a former yacht owner who owned many of the surrounding buildings before losing his fortune. Art, who hopes to be a reporter after the war, senses a good story and interviews Windy on the spot. He then takes Ruth to the New York Times Building and convinces the city editor to let him write the human interest story. Instead of taking payment, Art asks to be considered for a reporting job after the war. On their next date, Art arrives late riding on a truck filled with other soldiers. Having only a few minutes before he will be shipped out, he asks Ruth to marry him when he returns and, to allay her fears, says he still has the lucky Roman coin. For three months, Ruth writes Art every day, but receives no letters in return. Finally, a specially delivered letter arrives, informing her that Art died on the battlefield and that his dying wish was that she be told he still loves her. Ruth despairs, although her friends and co-workers try to console her. Millie, moved by Ruth's misfortune, drops Jalonik as her lover and takes another job. Grace finds Ruth mourning in Central Park and takes her to St. Patrick's Cathedral, where Ruth lights candles under the statue of St. Andrew. Jalonik, hoping Ruth will fill the void left by Millie in his personal life, takes her to the Café Normandy to cheer her up, but Ruth is too grief-stricken to pay him any attention. Art's friend Dixie publishes Harry's song under his own name, and when Harry hears it on the radio, he calls Agnes to ask her what happened to his manuscript. When Agnes answers the phone, he loses his nerve and hangs up. Although he has written several letters to Agnes, Harry always loses courage and tears them up. Ruth returns often to the statue of St. Andrew and talks to the young priest there. Losing interest in life, she ignores a cold, which turns into pneumonia. Mrs. Hammer, the upstairs neighbor who has often helped Ruth care for Agnes, now helps Agnes nurse Ruth. One rainy night, the feverish Ruth leaves the apartment while her mother dozes off, just before Harry, having mustered his courage, goes there to apologize to Agnes for leaving. Ruth's parents realize Ruth is missing just as Grace telephones. Hearing the Ruth has gone, Graces realizes that Ruth must have gone to the cathedral. Ruth is climbing the cathedral steps when she hears Art calling to her. In her delirium, she sees Art come to her and tell her that love never dies. Because he no longer needs the Roman coin, Art gives it to Ruth. Soon after, the priest finds Ruth passed out on the steps. Graces arrives a moment later. When the priest finds the coin clasped in Ruth's hand, he shows it to Grace, who recognizes it and realizes that, for a brief time, Art returned to Ruth. |
What Every Woman Knows | J. M. Barrie | null | The Wylies, a well-to-do but uneducated Scottish family, are concerned about their daughter, Maggie, a plain young woman who they fear, will remain a spinster. One night the Wylies discover that a serious young university student, John Shand, has been breaking into their home so that he can read books from their large library. Shand is penniless and cannot afford to buy books for his law school education. Maggie Wylie and John Shand come to an understanding: that her family will fund his education if, at the end of five years, he agrees to marry her. John honours his commitment to Maggie, marrying her although he does not love her. Recognising her husband's ambition to become a Member of Parliament, Maggie quietly uses her intelligence and her connections behind the scenes to get John elected. She continues to foster his career, never allowing him to see that she is the power behind his rise to fame. Eventually John begins to believe that his wife is too plain for a man of his stature and position, and he takes up with Lady Sybil Lazenby, a beautiful, refined and high-born young Englishwoman. Maggie is prepared to let her husband go, if Sybil can help him more than she herself can. However, when Shand is preparing a speech that will make or break his career, he finds that Sybil is no help to him, and he realises that Maggie is his inspiration. |
The Elegance of the Hedgehog | Muriel Barbery | 2,006 | The story revolves mainly around the characters of Renée Michel and Paloma Josse, residents of an upper-middle class Left Bank apartment building at 7 Rue de Grenelle – one of the most elegant streets in Paris. Divided into eight luxury apartments, all occupied by distinctly bourgeois families, the building has a courtyard and private garden. The widow Renée is a concierge who has supervised the building for 27 years. She is an autodidact in literature and philosophy, but conceals it to keep her job and, she believes, to avoid the condemnation of the building's tenants. Likewise, she wants to be alone to avoid her tenants' curiosity. She effects this by pretending to indulge in concierge-type food and low-quality television, while in her back room she actually enjoys high-quality food, listens to opera, and reads works by Leo Tolstoy and Edmund Husserl. Her perspective is that "[t]o be poor, ugly and, moreover, intelligent condemns one, in our society, to a dark and disillusioned life, a condition one ought to accept at an early age". Twelve-year-old Paloma lives on the fifth floor with her parents and sister whom she considers snobs. A precocious girl, she hides her intelligence to avoid exclusion at school. Dismayed by the privileged people around her, she decides that life is meaningless, and that unless she can find something worth living for, beyond the "vacuousness of bourgeois existence", she will commit suicide on June 16, her thirteenth birthday. Planning to burn down the apartment before dying, she also steals her mother's pills. For the time being she journals her observations of the outside world, including her perceptions of Renée. Paloma is the only tenant who suspects Renée's refinement, and for most of the novel, the two "cross each other but don’t see each other", in the words of Time Out reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli. Although they share interests in philosophy and literature, nothing happens between them until the death of a celebrated restaurant critic who had been living upstairs. A cultured Japanese businessman named Kakuro Ozu, whom Renée and Paloma befriend, then takes a room in the same apartment building. Ozu comes to share Paloma's fascination with Renée: that the concierge has the "same simple refinement as the hedgehog". Towards the end of the novel, Renée comes out of her internal seclusion, teaching young Paloma that not all adults pursue vanity at the expense of their intelligence and humanity. However, only shortly after Renée realizes that the beauty of life and her connections with the world makes life worth living, she dies in the same way as Roland Barthes; she is struck down by a laundry van. This leaves Paloma and Ozu devastated but leads Paloma not to commit suicide. |
Come Clean | null | null | Justine Ziegler is taken, against her will, to 'Come Clean Drug Rehabilitation Center', the same rehabilitation center her twin brother Joshua Ziegler attended. After an interview with the program director in which most of her answers are twisted out of context to make her seem like a drug addict, Justine is admitted to Come Clean for what is supposedly a three day observation. First she is subjected to a strip search by a senior member, before being taken to the main hall, where the members of the program are "motivating" as part of their rehabilitation. The head of the program, Hilary Navarre, asks the group if anyone knows her, and a boy called Earl admits to taking marijuana with her. Justine denies this, until pages of her diary are read out and the twisted truth comes out. Justine's twin, Joshua, was admitted to the program because he was an addict. One night, Justine woke up, and saw Joshua sneaking out to go out with his friends. Justine asks to come along and eventually Joshua agrees. When they reach their destination, Joshua and the driver go for a walk. Justine is in the back of a car with Earl, and another boy. They are both smoking marijuana, and hand it to Justine, but before she raises it to her lips Joshua reappears and shouts at her to never do it again. After several events like this, the twins' parents admit Joshua to Come Clean. Throughout the book, there are chapters with memoirs of the twins' childhood. There are such events as just playing, and starting school. Every one of these chapters is written in a style which Justine is speaking to Joshua. The final memoir chapter documents Joshua's death. It was New Year's Eve, and Justine is home alone with Joshua. When Justine goes to answer the door, Joshua sneaks outside and jumps off a diving board into an empty pool, committing suicide. The reason for this is apparent late in the book. During Justine's imprisonment in Come Clean, she comes to the attention of a senior staff member, Dwight. It is revealed Dwight raped Joshua during his time in Come Clean and drove him to his suicide. Dwight also forces Justine to do a special pennance alone so he can also rape Justine, Which due to her being on her period, she is forced to perform fellatio on him. A new member is admitted to the program, Toby Sheridan, and he and Justine take an instant liking to each other. Toby was about to graduate from high school, but was admitted to the program. During a weekly meeting, where the families of the admitted come to discuss their progress, Toby's little sister does not believe he is an addict so enlists his football friends to help him escape. The next meeting, fireworks go off, and everyone is evacuated outside. Members of Toby's football team are causing chaos and assaulting staff members. Toby escapes, and Justine takes refuge in her parents' car, and she is forced to return inside to the program. The senior member who strip searched Justine when she was admitted, Gwen, found notes that were passed between Justine and Toby which detailed the escape. Justine is in for a severe punishment, but as it is late everybody is sent home. Justine is sent home with a senior member called Moira. During the drive home, a van crashes into Moira's car, and several people bang on the windows chanting Justine's name. Justine escapes into the van where Toby is waiting for her. Toby and Justine catch a bus to Kansas, where Justine's grandmother lives. They live happily until Justine's mother turns up on the door, having separated from Justine's father. Later that month, Justine is watching television when Dwight sneaks into the house and catches her. He and Hilary have been granted permission from Justine's father to readmit her. When Justine, her grandmother and mother, Hilary and Dwight are discussing this, Toby returns from a jog. Upon seeing Dwight, he charges him but is knocked out. Hilary took the precaution of contacting the local police before she arrived, and they arrive on the doorstep. In a last-ditch attempt to prevent re-admittance, Justine explains how Dwight raped and emotionally tortured her. Hilary listens to this and at the end, instructs the police officers to arrest Dwight. |
Kanikōsen | null | null | A crab fishing ship goes to the open sea off Kamchatka (now in Russia but then in the Soviet Union). The crew do not favour their prospects; one crewman declares "We're going to Hell!" The crew revolt against their sadistic captain and foreman, form a union and take over the ship. However the new order on board is suppressed by soldiers. The book expresses its pessimism from the beginning, not only in the opening remark but in the description of the harbour of Hakodate being filled with rubbish, and the smaller boats being compared to insects. |
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