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The Cleft | Doris Lessing | null | The story is narrated by a Roman historian, during the time of the Emperor Nero. He tells the story as a secret history of humanity's beginnings, as pieced together from scraps of documents and oral histories, passed down through the ages. Humanity was made up, in the beginning, of solely females who reproduced asexually. These females were a calm race and had few problems. They lived by the sea and were partially aquatic. They called themselves "Clefts" - after The Cleft - a fissure in a rock which the females deemed sacred, and which had a resemblance to the female vagina. One day, a cleft gave birth to a male child - to what the clefts dubbed a "Monster". This caused such a fright that the boy was killed by the clefts. But more "monsters" were born, and the clefts left them on a rock to die. Eagles, which lived nearby, saw the dying babies and swooped down and carried them off, to deposit them in a nearby valley where they were then suckled by beneficent deer. The children gradually grew older and able to fend for themselves. Soon, as more boys were brought by the eagles, a tribe emerged. One day, a female wandered over to the valley and was raped by the now adult men. She fled and gave birth to a new, mixed child nine months later. When she told her story to the rest of the clefts, the two tribes soon came into contact with each other. The matriarchs of the clefts, however, feared the "monsters" and decided to try to kill them off. |
Shadow's Edge | Brent Weeks | null | Kylar Stern has rejected the assassin's life. In the wake of the Godking's violent coup, both his master and his closest friend are dead. His friend was Logan Gyre, heir to Cenaria's throne, but few of the ruling class survive to mourn his loss. So Kylar is starting over: new city, new companions, and new profession. But when he learns that Logan might be alive, trapped and in hiding, Kylar faces an impossible choice: he could give up the way of shadows forever, and find peace with his young family. Or he could succumb to his flair for destruction, the years of training, to save his friend and his country - and lose all he holds precious. Godking Garoth Ursuul has assumed power in Cenaria and is manipulating the futures and destinies of all who live there. Many nobles, led by self proclaimed Queen Terah Graesin, have left the city in ruins to the Khalidorans. Attempting to leave behind the life of shadows that ruined his master, Kylar flees to Caernarvon and an idealic life with Elene. But darkness finds Kylar along the road to the light as friends return for one last job and Kylar learns more about who Durzo and ultimately Kylar are. Kylar has become a titanic force with a foot in the light and in the dark, but which will our twilight hero choose? |
Raising Atlantis | null | 2,005 | The story begins when an earthquake in Antarctica uncovers ancient man-made remains beneath the ice. The US military powers in the area ignore international law and take over without reporting the discovery to any other countries at work on the continent. The general in charge, Griffin Yeats, calls in his son Conrad and the only woman Conrad ever truly loved (yet could never be with), Australian linguist and ex-nun Serena Seghetti. While each has their own reasons for being there, they both invite trouble when they discover that what they've uncovered at the bottom of the chasm is the top of a pyramid. When they find their way inside, they accidentally set off a trap meant to periodically destroy civilization in order to keep human beings in check and stop them from destroying themselves for good. As they race across the newly-revealed Atlantis, trying to find a way to set things right, they end up in the middle of multiple government and terrorist bids to seize control of the site. Many secrets of the past of not just humanity, but of the main character, Conrad, are revealed. The novel ends with Atlantis being once again lost beneath the ice, along with all of its information, technology, and proof of its existence. Conrad just barely survives the re-burial and wakes up being treated in the Australian-owned McMurdo Station with Serena nearby. Serena tries to convince him that nothing happened, while Conrad tries, unsuccessfully, to hit on her. Serena goes back to the Vatican to report to the Pope and deliver her evidence of Atlantis, only to discover that Conrad had been toying with her. He had tricked a nurse into switching her thermos (in which she had concealed the information) with an empty one. Unfortunately for Conrad, the information is inconclusive and offers no real proof of what he found in Antarctica. The Pope then proceeds to beg her to return to the church, not just for religion's sake, but to use the information and connections within to save Conrad's life. While the situation is, in the end, resolved, this story is a cliffhanger and leads into the next novel of the four, The Atlantis Prophecy. |
The Atlantis Prophecy | null | 2,008 | Three years after the events of the first book, a funeral is finally carried out for Conrad's missing father, Griffin Yeats, & there is an internal uproar over the symbols chosen for Griffin's headstone (the choices made by Griffin himself) & while trying to figure out what the symbols mean, Conrad stumbles into a race to find a missing artifact that contains Atlantean information buried somewhere under Washington DC- but before he can get far, an ancient terrorist organization known as the Alignment, who have secretly infiltrated the ranks of every government, religious organization & secret society on the planet, send an assassin after him, sparking a murder investigation, which is twisted into an attempt to assassinate the president- Now Conrad must avoid his own government & discover the globe, with or without Serena's help, before the Alignment can launch a global pandemic which will be set loose on the Fourth of July & wipe out almost all of humanity- allowing the Alignment to rise to power... and, he only has one week to accomplish all this! |
Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca | null | null | As punishment for plagiarizing the classical Syrian satirist Lucian, Father Reynardine Bombo is commanded by an apparition of the "famous prophet Mahomet" to "take a long and tedious Journey to Mecca" on foot. To atone, Bombo must also convert to "Mahometanism," become a zealous devotee, and don a "Turkish habit and particularly that of a Pilgrim." His forced religious conversion does not prevent Bombo from frequently indulging in alcohol and pork during his pilgrimage. Headed for the harbor of New York, Bombo sets off from his New Jersey "castle" (the fictional stand-in for the college's Nassau Hall) clothed in a turban and a "Turkish vest". Seeking quarter in inns, houses of ill fame, and at his father's castle on Long Island, Bombo initiates a series of angry disputes when the characters he encounters fail to show the respect and deference that is his due as a pilgrim. These episodes often devolve into gross-out humor and violent slapstick pratfalls, of which Bombo is the usual victim despite his great size and pugnaciousness. While sailing across the Atlantic, Bombo is tied to the ship's yard-arm for propositioning the captain's wife and instigating a mutiny, abducted by French then Irish privateers, and finally set adrift in a barrel. Washing ashore on the Irish coast, Bombo tries his hand at teaching and panhandling. Bombo's trek across the Middle East and arrival in Mecca are hastily detailed in the book's final chapter. In Mecca, Bombo visits the mosque that purportedly contains the tomb of Mahomet, wherein he deposits dictionaries "in one of the most sacred closets of the place" in order to complete his penance and "pacify the Ghost of Lucian." Bombo returns safely to his castle in New Jersey, a refined and more responsible scholar, and eventually retires to a country estate in the vicinity to live out his days. |
Tempted | Kristin Cast | 2,009 | Tempted starts immediately after the end of events in the 5th book, Hunted, and is told from the point of view of six characters: Zoey, Stevie Rae, Aphrodite, Rephaim, Heath and Stark. In the aftermath Zoey gathers her allies and starts organizing them. Stevie Rae notices she's very tired and takes over, leaving Zoey to take care of a wounded Stark and her grandmother. Having recovered from her accident, she tells Zoey that she is A-ya's reincarnation and that A-ya was made to love Kalona, so that's why she cannot help being uncontrollably attracted to Kalona, as it's in her soul. In the end she's so stressed that when Erik finds her, demanding a share of her time, they quarrel and she dumps him for being overly jealous and possessive, taking her down to two love interests (whilst Erik forms a relationship with Venus, Aphrodite's ex- roommate). She rooms in with Aphrodite and has a dream with Kalona at the same time she has a vision that links to several elements from the dream. Alerted by Zoey's panic, Stark climbs up to her room and sleeps there to guard her from further intrusions. Aphrodite leaves and takes Darius to Stark's abandoned room. While they talk, she realizes she's come to love him and is afraid she is incapable of returning his feelings. He soothes her and pledges his Warrior's Oath to her. The kids return to the House of Night. They find Anastasia Lankford, a professor at the House of Night, dead at Rephaim's hands, and Dragon grieving her loss. Jack stays with Dragon to comfort him and coax him through his pain while Zoey goes to assess the mood of the school. Through Aphrodite's visions, Zoey's dreams of Kalona and Kramisha's prophetic poems they find that Kalona and Neferet plan on getting back the old ways of the vampyres. Following the rumors on Twitter, Jack finds Kalona and Neferet in Venice, on the isle of San Clemente with the Vampyre Council. Another vision brings a new warning: if Zoey is with Kalona the world will end as they know it, and if she chooses love and Nyx he will "die" and the world will be safe. On the other hand, Zoey can't completely reject him, as she believes he can be saved. In an effort to gain her favor, Kalona shows her his past as Nyx's Warrior and promises to change his ways if she will have him. Zoey and her friends go to Venice to have their say in the Council, but Stevie Rae stays behind, arguing that it's her responsibility as a High Priestess to take care of the rogues. Upon arriving, they learn that Neferet claims to be Nyx Incarnate and Kalona claims to be Erebus. It is revealed that Zoey's destiny is to face Kalona alone, meaning that only she can save the world. The Council declares Aphrodite a Prophetess of the vampyres, but is otherwise distrusting of Zoey, mainly because of her age. After the Council session is over Heath and Zoey talk about the stresses of everything going on Zoey sends Heath to find Stark. He discovers Neferet and Kalona in a secret conversation; Kalona finds Heath. Heath uses the Imprint to call Zoey and she arrives to see Kalona kill him. In her anguish she throws Spirit at Kalona, but her soul shatters and goes to the Otherworld. While sweeping the Benedictine Abbey grounds, Stevie Rae finds an injured Raven Mocker named Rephaim (the favored son of Kalona) and helps him to safety against her better judgement. She binds his wounds and sends him through the tunnels. Back at the House of Night she's horrified to learn that he was actually the one to kill Dragon's mate, Anastasia Lankford. In the tunnels Rephaim is found by the rougue red fledglings, and their leader, Nicole, uses her gift to peer into his mind and learns that Stevie Rae saved him. They use him as bait and catch Stevie Rae, leaving her alongside him in a cage on the roof to be burned down by the sun. Rephaim helps her and the two get in the ground at the last minute. To repay her for nursing him back to healt, he offers her his immortal blood to heal her burns. Unexpectedly, the two Imprint and Stevie Rae loses hers with Aphrodite. Alerted by Aphrodite's going into painful convulsions, Zoey calls at the House of Night and Erik and Lenobia rush to find and save Stevie Rae. With the last of her powers, Stevie Rae hides Rephaim from their eyes as they get her out. |
Crown of Ancient Glory | null | null | In Crown of Ancient Glory, the player characters must find the heir to the kingdom of Vestland and retrieve the magical Sonora Crown to unite the country before the Ethengar Khanate invades. The module includes plans for a longship. The player characters assist the kingdom of Vestland, whose High King has recently died. They must also recover the missing holy Sonora Crown, which is also a powerful artifact. The heir to the kingdom was lost at birth, and the players must determind the identity and location of the lawful heir of Vestland. The characters must deal with traitors and spies from within, and invadors from the forces of the Ethengar Khanate, massing on the borders to take advantage of Vestland's plight. |
Koo Kam | null | null | Set in 1939, the early days of World War II in Siam, to Angsumalin meeting one last time with her childhood friend, a young Thai man named Vanus. He is leaving for England for his studies and hopes that Angsumalin will wait for him and marry him when he returns. Shortly thereafter, Thailand is invaded by Japanese military forces. In Thonburi, opposite Bangkok on the Chaophraya River, the Imperial Japanese Navy establishes itself at a base. The forces there are led by Kobori, an idealistic young captain. One day he sees Angsumalin swimming in the river and falls for her. She, being a proudly nationalistic Thai woman, despises him because he is a foreigner. Nonetheless, Kobori persists at seeing her and a courtship develops. Angsumalin found that Kobori is a real nice gentleman and start falling for him but she kept her feelings in secret because of the war. Then, for political reasons, Angsumalin's father - who is the Leader of Free Thai resistance, insists that she marry Kobori. Understanding that Angsumalin is not marrying him out of love, Kobori promises not to touch her, but he breaks that vow after the wedding. Despite this, Angsumalin develops tender feelings for Kobori, but is still torn by her feelings for her nation and feel quilty to Vanus, who returns to set in motion a conflict between the two men. |
Hunted | P. C. Cast | 2,009 | Zoey and her friends help Stevie Rae heal after the events at the end of Untamed - the arrow did not kill her, but took most of her lifeblood, so Kalona could be freed from the earth. Zoey and Stevie Rae reconcile, and the latter introduces Zoey's group to some of the red vampyre fledglings. Aphrodite lets Stevie Rae feed on her to heal, which forms an Imprint between them. When Erik follows Zoey on her way to her room they kiss, but then Erik gets too rough and scares her. Erik and Zoey get back together, though Zoey's not entirely sure due to Erik's possessiveness. Kalona starts getting into Zoey's dreams to seduce her, and calls her A-ya. Kramisha, a red fledgling, is revealed to also express prophecies through her poetry, and Zoey gives her the title of Poet Laureate. This is how they find their first clue. One of Kramisha's poems states that Kalona and Neferet will be banished when Night, Humanity, Blood, Spirit and Earth come together, but Zoey doesn't know who will represent these elements. Heath arrives at the tunnels, and Zoey goes outside to talk to him, much to Erik's anger. Heath tries to reconcile with her, but to no avail. A Raven Mocker attacks them and critically wounds Zoey. She drinks from Heath to heal and they Imprint again, but she is still weakened. Kramisha gets exited and loses her control a little when she sees Heath (a human), leading Zoey to realize that the red fledglings may still have problems with their self-control. Darius finally declares that Zoey needs exposure to more adult vampyres to survive, and she is forced to return to the House of Night, much to Neferet's pleasure. She finds out that Kalona's presence has caused the fledglings and the vampyres to turn their backs on Nyx. Kalona's favorite son, Rephaim, and Darius get into a fight. Kalona intercedes and gives Darius a huge scar which upsets Aphrodite. Zoey successfully persuades Stark to turn back to the good side. He becomes the second red vampyre when he pledges his Warrior's Oath to Zoey and she accepts. Zoey discusses the situation with Lenobia and, upon analyzing Kramisha's poem again, finds out that she is Night, Blood is Stevie Rae, Humanity is Aphrodite, Sister Mary Angela is Spirit, and Grandma Redbird is Earth. Zoey and her friends set fire to the school as a diversion and escape on horseback to the Benedictine Abbey. Zoey and the other people mentioned in the poem open a circle and send everyone else inside. Neferet, Kalona and Stark arrive quickly afterwards in an SUV, followed by the Raven Mockers. Neferet and Kalona take turns at threatening and cajoling Zoey but she finally accepts the truth: that although A-ya is a part of her, she will choose her own destiny. She rejects Kalona. Neferet orders Stark to shoot Zoey but he says that Zoey is his heart and aims at her while thinking of himself. Realizing what will happen, Zoey uses the elements to stop the arrow and knocks him out in the process. Night, Humanity, Blood, Spirit, and Earth complete the spell and banish Neferet and Kalona. Zoey's Mark spreads to across her scar. She is deeply in pain because she had to say goodbye to Kalona, and knows that the fight isn't over yet. |
The Underneath | Kathi Appelt | 2,008 | The Underneath is underneath the ramshackle house. Ranger can go there, but not much further, as he is chained, and never released, since his leg has been shot accidentally by his evil owner, Gar Face. He meets a calico cat who has kittens, and he names the kittens "Sabine" and "Puck". When Puck breaks the rule of going outside the underneath, bad things happen. There are important events going on beyond the house, in the bayou and swamps nearby, near the Texas-Louisiana border. Those events are related to others that happened a thousand years ago, when Grandmother, a cottonmouth water moccasin, and also a lamia, lost her only daughter to Hawk Man, another being who is part animal and part human, who became her daughter's husband. Grandmother was trapped in a clay jar because Hawk Man trapped her there, and has been thinking about that loss ever since. The Alligator King, who has grown to a hundred feet in length, has been around, thinking about these matters, for that seven thousand years, too. When storms release Grandmother, she decides to do something unexpected. She sees the love between the kittens and the hound, and frees Ranger. Although the kittens and the hound are now free, the calico cat had been drowned by Gar Face, who, himself, meets a bad end. The book also mentions the Caddo native Americans, who used to live in the area. |
Generation A | Douglas Coupland | null | Coupland's website has a synopsis of the novel: |
The Boy Detective Fails | null | null | In the twilight of a childhood full of wonder, Billy Argo, Boy detective, is brokenhearted to find his young sister and crime-solving partner, Caroline, has committed suicide. Ten years later, Billy, age thirty, returns from an extended stay at Shady Glens Facility for Mental Incompetence to discover a world full of unimaginable strangeness: office buildings vanish without reason, small animals turn up without their heads, and cruel villains ride city buses to complete their evil schemes. Lost within this unwelcoming place, Billy finds the companionship of two lonely children, Effie and Gus Mumford—one a science fair genius, the other a charming, silent bully. With a nearly forgotten bravery, Billy confronts the monotony of his job in telephone sales, the awkward beauty of a desperate pickpocket named Penny Maple, and the seemingly impossible solution to the mystery of his sister's death. Along a path laden with hidden clues and codes that dare to be deciphered, the boy detective may learn the greatest secret of all: the necessity of the unknown. |
Tender as Hellfire | null | null | Dough and Pill are brothers bound by more than blood. The anguish of their past, the terror of their present, and the uncertainty of their future all underscore the only truth that is within their grasp: each other. For beneath the cruel surface of their trailer park community lies a menagerie of odd characters, each one strange yet somehow beautiful, including Val, the blowsy bottle-blonde who shows surprising maternal instincts when the boys need it most, and El Rey del Perdito, the "Undisputed King of the Tango," a widower who dances nightly, imagining his wife in his arms, as Dough peers through the window contemplating a love that seems not to die. Surrounded by the strange and displaced, Dough and Pill must navigate through a world of constant pain and confusion. Finding beauty in unexpected places and maintaining reverence for hard-won scars, these two brothers learn, finally, that even broken things can be perfect. |
How the Hula Girl Sings | null | null | A young ex-con in a small Illinois town. A lonely giant with a haunted past. A beautiful girl with a troubled heart. Strange and darkly magical, How the Hula Girl Sings begins exactly where most pulp fiction usually ends, with the vivid episode of the terrible crime itself. Three years later, Luce Lemay, out on parole for the awful tragedy, does his best to find hope: in a new job at the local Gas-N-Go; in his companion and fellow ex-con, Junior Breen, who spells out puzzling messages to the unquiet ghosts of his past; and finally, in the arms of the lovely but reckless Charlene. How the Hula Girl Sings is a suspenseful exploration of a country bright with the far-off stars of forgiveness and dark with the still-looming shadow of the death penalty. |
Air and Angels | Susan Hill | 1,991 | The first half of the book comprises two separate narratives in set in Edwardian India and Cambridge. In Cambridge the Revd Thomas Cavendish, a celibate and irreproachable university don in his mid-fities appears destined to become master of the college. He lives with his sister and is a confirmed batchelor, spurning the attentions of his sister's friend Florence who is determined to wed him. His enthusiasm is birds; spending his leisure time either on the Fens birdwatching, or in his indoor aviary. In India, 15-year old Kitty is becoming bored with ex-colonial life, and at the same time repelled by the poverty she sees nearby; and longs to return to the England she left as a young child. Eventually her parents relenting and after a long sea voyage she arrives at her cousin Florence's house in Cambridge. The second half of the book concerns Thomas Cavendish's growing obsession with Kitty after he sees her from his window, as she stands on a bridge over the river. Through his contacts with Florence he becomes her tutor with disastrous results... |
Bluebirds Used to Croon the Choir: Stories | null | null | Meno ensures from the first that readers are in odd territory, starting off with "The Use of Medicine," about a pair of kids using an old bottle of belladonna and a hypodermic they find among their father's medical supplies to drug little animals. Surreality rears its head in "In the Arms of Someone You Love," set in revolutionary Cuba, where a man worries about losing his wife to a dashing magician. The city erupts in violence, and the man makes a devilish barter for the sake of love, a move that takes this tale out of the realm of magical realism and into that of high romantic fantasy. More mundane matters prevail in such stories as "Mr. Song," which portrays a cad who pays the aged crooner in the apartment next door to sing ballads through the thin walls as a way of setting the mood, and "I'll Be Your Sailor," in which a schlemiel carries on a benighted affair with a woman in his apartment building who works at a themed fast-food restaurant and has a hockey-loving brute for an uncaring husband. The collection's highlight is the hilarious "A Trip to Greek Mythology Camp," a painfully comic scenario about a summer camp full of socially awkward kids who assume that in numbers they will find acceptance. Musical tales of love and loss with hardly a word wasted. |
Romiette and Julio | Sharon Draper | 2,001 | Waking up 3 a.m. on the last night of Christmas vacation, Romiette has had another drowning dream. To relax herself, she starts to write in her diary. The next morning is Julio's first day at Romiette's school. After having trouble with gangs in Corpus Christi, Texas, Julio follows his father's new job to Cincinnati. On his first day of school, he hits a classmate, Ben, hard enough to make his nose bleed. When Ben covers for Julio, telling the principal that he had tripped and fell, Julio and Ben become friends, after Ben calls Julio. When Julio gets home that afternoon, he logs into a chatroom with the screen name "spanishlover" and starts to chat anonymously with "afroqueen," who he later finds is Romiette Romiette invites Destiny over to her house to watch a movie. After the film is over, Romiette excitedly tells Destiny about her online chat with "spanishlover." However, Destiny warns Romiette about dangerous people on the internet. Later at school, Julio is threatened by The Devildogs, a gang that assumes he belonged to a rival gang in Texas. Once home, Julio calls his friend Diego to groan about how much he hates Cincinnati. As soon as Diego hangs up, Ben calls and Julio asks him about The Family. Again, Julio and Romiette chat online, but this time they arrange to meet at lunch. Julio tells Ben about the lunch date. After school, Romiette writes in her journal about the lunch date, writing that the first thing she thought when she saw him was how good looking he was, that he hates Cincinnati and loves Texas, and concluding by vowing to call Destiny about it. At that moment, Destiny calls Romiette and they talk about the lunch date. For fun, Romiette only says that she had lunch with the person she chatted with, leaving Destiny to think she had lunch with a grown man. Romiette chats with Julio online, asking what sign he is for Destiny. At this point, Julio's father Luis mentions that he disapproves of his son's interactions with black classmates because of previous experiences with gang troubles. Unaware of the mounting family conflict, Romeitte continues to write in her journal about Julio, confessing that she is starting to like him more and more. When Julio talks to Ben, he, too, realizes how much he is beginning to like Romeitte. He says that she makes him feel alive. A couple of days later, at her mother's store Romiette is threatened by Makala, a member of The Devil Dogs, who disapprove of their relationship. Romiette and Julio face how to cope with the gang pressures, while continuing to fall deeply in love. Romiette had the same dream that she is drowning and, again, she hears a male voice at the end. During lunch, Romi runs into Malaka, who warns Romiette again about the Devil Dogs and how they don't like her hanging out with Julio. When Julio tells his parents about Romiette, his mother Maria approves, as long as he takes his time. Luis, on the other hand, cannot accept that Romi is black, telling his son the story of how his first love was killed by African American gang members. When Destiny spends the night at Romiette's, they try out the "Scientific Soul Mate System", which is supposed to find the man of their dreams. On Sunday morning Romiette finds she has dreamed about Julio and looks forward to seeing him later that afternoon. After a relaxing afternoon at Romiette's house, they walk to Julio's home through London Woods. Soon, they see a car following them. The Devil Dogs pull up and threaten Romi and Julio at gunpoint to end their relationship. On Monday at lunch Ben, Julio, Romiette, and Destiny all sit at their lunch table and talk about what to do about the gang problem, eventually agreeing on a plan to stop them. On Monday evening at five o'clock, they put their plan in action and head towards London Woods At six o’ clock Romiette and Julio start kissing and hugging to draw attention to themselves, as Ben and Destiny follow in a car. To their horror, the car breaks down, leaving them to push it the rest of the way. Now left vulnerable without backup, Romi and Julio are soon kidnapped by The Devil Dogs. When Romiette's parents Lady and Cornell come home from work, they see that Romi is not home. Lady then calls Malaka and asks her if she knows where Romi is at. Malaka denies any knowledge of her whereabouts. Soon, Destiny and Ben arrive at the Cappelle home to explain what happened to Romi and Julio. Meanwhile, at the Montague’s, Luis thinks it is Romiette's fault that his son is missing. Malaka finally tells the police something about where Romiette and Julio are, also getting charged for possession of a firearm, while Ben and Destiny help to find their missing friends. Romi and Julio are stranded at the bottom of a boat in London Woods Lake. When lightning strikes, they are separated. Having fallen into the lake, unable to swim, Romi blacks out and experiences once again her recurring dream. When Julio finds her floating face down, he pulls her to land and finds she is not breathing. As Julio tries to wake her, Romi recognizes the voice in her dream as Julio's. Meanwhile, Officer Blazar finds the minicam Julio had in his pocket and Destiny spots Romi's shoe. The officers and the parents decide to dredge the lake, as newscasters announce Romi and Julio's disappearance. Soon, Nannette Norris, a local newscaster, arrives to interview people around the London Woods. Looking together at the other end of the lake, the Cappelle and Montague fathers find Romiette and Julio under a log. The news cameraman gets a shot of the fathers bringing back Romi and Julio, and follows them to the hospital for interviews. The entire Cappelle and Montague families go on air to tell the community what happened. The novel ends with Romiette and Julio calling each other to laugh at the whole thing. |
Little Eva: The Flower of the South | null | null | Little Eva tells a simple tale of Eva, a young girl and the daughter of a plantation owner, who is well-behaved, polite, and intelligent. Eva, due to her kind-heartedness, teaches the child-slaves on the plantation how to read and write, and because of her kindness, the slaves, when they are set free, prefer to remain on the plantation with Eva as her friends. |
Daughter of Venice | Donna Jo Napoli | 2,002 | This story follows Donata, daughter of a wealthy noble in 1592. VENICE, ITALY 1592. Donata Mocenigo, daughter to one of the city's noble families, leads a life of wealthy privilege. But constrained by the strict rules of etiquette a young noblewoman must observe, she longs to throw off her veil and wander freely around the vibrant city she can see only from her balcony. So Donata comes up with a daring plan to escape the palazzo and explore - a plan that will change her own and her family's lives for ever. Donata Mocenigo is the daughter of a wealthy Venetian noble family; but chages at her lack of freedom. Eventually she and her sisters conspire to let her dress up as a poor boy, and wander the city freely - her twin sister, Laura, taking her place around the household. On her first visit outside her palazzo, she injures her foot, wanders into the Jewish Ghetto, and meets a young man called Noé, who helps her and gives her a pair of shoes, in return for her working off the debt for him at a printers' workshop, copying out handbills. Donata does so for a month, getting closer to Noé. Meanwhile, at home, she and Laura persuade their father to allow them to join their brothers in tutorials - Donata begins learning to read and write, and about architecture, business and history. Laura, however, is less interested, and quits tutorials after a short time. As Donata and Laura are the second and third daughters in their family, and only the first (and sometimes second) daughter normally marries, both of them hope to find husbands instead of being sent to convents like their younger sisters, Maria and Paolina. However, during a dinnertime discussion, Donata's father announces that he has found not one, but two husbands - one for their older sister Andriana, and one for Donata, who has been selected partly because of being so hardworking. However, since it is Laura who has been working hard in her stead while she wanders around Venice, she feels horribly guilty and decides that she cannot get married - partly from loyalty to Laura, and partly because she is falling in love with Noé. Eventually, she comes up with a plan: she writes a denunciation of herself, claiming that she has converted to Judaism, so that she will be embroiled in a scandal, withdrawn from the betrothal, and Laura can take her place. In the process her family discover that she has been leaving the palazzo, alone, but eventually the plan does succeed. Donata has no idea what her future will hold, but eventually her father reveals that her tutor, Messer Zonico, has gone to the University of Padua to persuade them to allow her to take up the doctorate course in philosophy. Donata is overjoyed, and hope to become a tutor like the one she admires someday, to other noble girls. |
Close to Home | Deborah Moggach | 1,979 | The book is set in the long hot summer of 1976 in a suburban London street and concerns the occupants of two adjacent houses. In one lives Kate Cooper who struggles with her two young children and the domestic chores whilst keeping up appearances for her high-flying husband who works as a eurocrat in Brussels, spending little time at home. In the other lives Sam Green is struggling to write a novel whilst his wife goes out to work running a psychiatric practice and his angst-ridden teenage daughter binge eats in her bedroom. Kate and Sam are drawn together whilst their families are seemingly unaware... |
The Grange at High Force | Philip Turner | 1,965 | The novel opens in All Saints' church in Darnley Mills. Some time ago, Peter constructed a Roman ballista and accidentally broke a window in the church while testing it. Two pigeons, taking advantage of the broken window, built a nest in the nave. "Operation Bird's Nest" is now underway, with Arthur climbing up to remove the nest. The gathered crowd below are (quite unnecessarily) concerned for his safety, except for Miss Cadell-Twitten, who is still seething about the ejection of the birds from the church. Arthur poses in an empty niche, which Mr Pritchard explains once held a statue of the Virgin Mary. The same day, the three friends set off to explore High Force on the moors, to see the waterfall and the tiny abandoned church of Little St. Mary's. Peter has an accident with his bicycle, aptly named the Yellow Peril. Seeking help at the Grange, they meet the Admiral and Guns, and are fascinated by the ancient ship's cannon on the Grange terrace and the workshop in the cellar where a mill wheel is being constructed to provide reliable electricity. The Admiral is in turn interested to hear about the ballista, and proposes that both weapons should be fired at targets to test their accuracy. They all go together to look at the church, and find it has been invaded by dozens of birds. It needs re-roofing, and thorough cleaning. They set about the various tasks with energy and enthusiasm, also stumbling on a mystery concerning the statue. Miss Cadell-Twitten hints that she knows the answer, but refuses to tell them because they accidentally frightened her bird Augustus. Plans to fire the cannon are scotched by the police sergeant, until an opportunity arrives just before Christmas, when they succeed in sinking a makeshift raft. Immediately afterwards, a blizzard starts and they help Mr Ramsgill gather in his scattered flock. A exceptionally heavy snowfall cuts off the moor, and even with a snow plough it is a struggle to return to the Grange through the deep drifts. David, the only one who can manage the snowshoes, checks on Bird Cottage and finds Miss Cadell-Twitten suffering from exposure. Grateful for her rescue, she tells them where to find the statue, which is recovered and returned to All Saints. The novel ends with a two-gun salute, as the Admiral and Guns set off in the spring in their new boat to explore the coastline of the British Isles. |
Beyond the Grave | Judy Blundell | 2,009 | Amy and Dan head for Egypt, with their au pair Nellie Gomez, to find a clue, hidden by Ekaterina founder, Katherine Cahill. They were tailed by Irina Spasky, but escape to a store with an Egyptian goddess statue, the Sakhet. There, a man, Theo Cotter, shows up and convinces them it's a fake. Discouraged, they go back to Nellie. They go to the Hotel Excelsior and find the Ekaterina stronghold. They find three Sakhets and get trapped by Bae Oh, who is the hotel's owner. As they escape, one of Grace's friends, Hilary Vale, takes them to her house. She gives them items from Grace and they find out Theo is Hilary's grandson. They head for an Egyptian temple and get trapped by Irina and Theo. After Amy and Dan had escaped, they are trapped again by Jonah Wizard, who leaves them on a deserted island on the Nile. After Jonah left them, they are chased by a crocodile across the island, but are saved by a local fisherman. They find out Theo and Hilary Cotter tricked them to get their hands on the Sakhet that Grace left for Amy and Dan. After an unsuccessful attempt to find the clues under the Nile river with Alistair, Amy and Dan find something leading them back to Cairo. After arriving, they find a store which Grace once visited. The store owner, Sami, gives them a Senet board. After opening the puzzle, they identified their clue, Myrrh. It ends with the stronghold getting destroyed, and Amy and Dan finding a mysterious cloth with letter Ms in a pattern, indicating that it must have been the Madrigals. |
The Fire Kimono | Laura Joh Rowland | 2,008 | In the prologue, a Shinto priest passing by discovered remains of a human unearthed when strong winds toppled an oak tree near the Inari Shrine. Since his return from Ezogashima, there had been increased in attacks against Sano and against Matsudaira, the attackers wearing insignias from each other's houses. Just as Sano confronted Matsudaira about the latest attack on Sano's wife, Reiko, which Matsudaira flatly denied, both men were summoned by the Shogun. The shogun informed them that the skeleton of his long lost cousin, Tokugawa Tadatoshi, who was thought to have perished during the Great Fire of Meireki, and charged Sano with the investigation. Sano barely had time to plan his investigation when his mother, Etsuko, was arrested by Matsudaira's men as the suspect for murdering Tadatoshi. The witness was a Colonel Doi Naokatsu in the service of Matsudaira. Doi was also apparently once Tadatoshi's bodyguard, and Etsuko was a lady-in-waiting to Tadatoshi's household women. Sano was shocked that his mother was not a humble commoner as he had thought, but a scion of the Kumazawa clan, a respected hereditary Tokugawa vassal. Doi claimed to have heard Etsuko plotting with Egen against Tadatoshi, Egen being a monk and Tadatoshi's tutor. Sano was able to convinced the shogun to allow him bring Etsuko home to facilitate the investigation, but he was dismayed to find his mother less than cooperative. As more and more of the past were uncovered, his mother's position became more and more unfavourable. Meanwhile, confined to the security of the house due to danger of attacks, Reiko was at last able to help in the investigation by trying to get more information from Etsuko, and from Etsuko's loyal longtime maid, Hana. Reiko was also struggling to win back her young daughter, Akiko, who became alienated from Reiko when Reiko left her behind to go to Ezogashima to rescue her son, Masahiro, as told in the previous novel. Hirata too had returned from an even longer absence to find that his wife and children had become strangers to him. Amidst the investigation, Yanagisawa plotted with his son Yoritomo to bring down both Sano and Matsudaira. |
The Takeover | Muriel Spark | 1,976 | Three large villas overlooking Lake Nemi are owned by the wealthy, glamorous American Maggie Radcliffe. One is occupied by her son and daughter-in-law. A second is leased by an Italian doctor and his two children. The third is occupied by the eccentric Hubert Mallindaine, who believes himself to be the descendant of the offspring of the Emperor Caligula's mythical liaison with Diana. Once a trusted friend of Maggie Radcliffe, Hubert is now an unwelcome house-sitter whom she wants evicted as quickly as possible. Hubert is not so easily removed, however, and his intransigence and liquidation of Maggie's assets in the house (including a Cezanne) is mirrored in the loss of much of Maggie's wealth, from burglary to outright embezzlement of her entire estate. Events conspire however to cause both to review what they consider important. |
Sir Nobonk and the Terrible Dreadful Awful Naughty Nasty Dragon | Spike Milligan | null | The story takes place in the mythical Kingdom of Rotten Custard, a kingdom that exists within Cornwall, where knights are constantly at war with the Dragons. Among the knights is a 60-year-old knight named Sir Nobonk, who becomes a dragon-catcher in order to save the dragons from extinction. Setting forth into the nearby forest, Sir Nobonk successfully captures the last living dragon, and convinces the king to open a zoo to help dragons to repopulate. The plan becomes successful, and also helps humans and dragons to co-exist peacefully within the kingdom. However, the prosperity of the kingdom invokes a giant named Blackmangle to attack the kingdom along with his servant Witch-Way, leaving it to Sir Nobonk to face the new foes and to save the kingdom. |
Prayer for the Living | Bruce Marshall | 1,934 | A witty, engrossing, unique novel about the life of masters and boys in a Scottish prep school. One way of describing this novel is to say that it is a story of life in a prep school in Scotland during World War I: and that, so far as the bare facts go, is an accurate description. But it is no way at all of conveying to the reader the devilish wit and cutting satire with which Mr. Marshall heightens and brightens the scene, or the pathos surrounding schoolboys who will overnight be turned into soldiers, or the moving idyl of love between the headmaster's daughter and a young student about to leave for the Front. |
An Account of Capers | Bruce Marshall | 1,988 | Set against the background of an Italy poised on the brink of war with Abyssinia in 1935, the story focuses on chartered accountant Arthur Waters. He is sent to Milan to audit the books of an Italian firm. His seemingly straightforward mission becomes somewhat hampered when he becomes involved with the beautiful Emma and the treacherous Bazzini. But his problems really begin when he is mistaken for a British spy and prevented from leaving the country. |
Fadeout | Joseph Hansen | 1,970 | Following the discovery of his car, destroyed beneath a narrow wooden bridge, police assume that Fox Olson, once beloved pop star, died in a road accident, despite there being no sign of a body. When Dave Brandstetter, an insurance investigator and no-nonsense gumshoe, arrives on the scene, he soon begins collecting evidence that indicates otherwise. For instance, what lies behind the seemingly innocent friendship between Fox's wife and his manager? And just why has an old boyhood friend of his suddenly shown up after twenty years? |
White Acre vs. Black Acre | null | null | The story follows the history of the United States from its time as a British province to the beginning of tensions between north and south in the 1850s. It is presented as though the story were being recounted by a retired barrister from Lincolnshire in England to a reporter from the United States. The story takes place in the county of Shropshire in England, where capitalist Mr. Bull is undergoing a difficult transaction with a large quantity of land his firm has since acquired from various lucrative business deals. His main rival is Don Armado, who owns land near his own, and seeks to steal Bull's land from him. When Don Armado is placated, Mr. Bull takes his business elsewhere, and the land prospers. However, the two farmers tilling the land are suddenly split over the question of whether the land ought to be tilled by ordinary, ineffective farmhands or by loyal, hardworking slaves. The land is thus split between the two farmers. The pro-slavery segment becomes the Black Acre Farm, whilst the anti-slavery land becomes the White Acre Farm, with both competing to see which side will be the most prosperous. |
Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary | Brandon Mull | null | Kendra is being held captive by the Society of the Evening Star, and her brother Seth Sorenson is depressed at his sister's sudden death. With the help of an anonymous person, Kendra uses a knapsack to escape along with a victim of her captor lectoblix Torina. An undercover agent of the Society of the Evening Star had explained that a lectoblix sucked the youth out of victims previously. Reading Patton Burgess' Journal of Secrets, Kendra learns the location of the key to the Translocator, one of the keys to the demon prison. But in order to recover it, the Knights of the Dawn must take on their biggest and most dangerous task: to enter a dragon sanctuary closed to human interference, a death trap called Wyrmroost. In order to retrieve the key to the Translocator's vault, the team must brave the forbidden Dragon Temple, which brings challenges more dangerous than any before. Gavin's true identity is revealed as Navarog, the evil dragon that was the original occupant of the Quiet Box at Fablehaven. Gavin intends to eat Kendra before Raxtus devoured him. Meanwhile, Kendra returns home in despair of betrayals to hear shocking news. |
The Black Gauntlet: A Tale of Plantation Life in South Carolina | null | null | Unlike other anti-Tom novels, The Black Gauntlet does not have a discernible narrative. It is essentially a collection of speeches by characters who argue in favor of American slavery as an institution. Some of the speeches were created by Schoolcraft. In other cases, she refers to quotations from other published works, including the Bible and Uncle Tom's Cabin. |
Currency Wars | null | 2,007 | According to the book, the western countries in general and the US in particular are controlled by a clique of international bankers, which use currency manipulation (hence the title) to gain wealth by first loaning money in USD to developing nations and then shorting their currency. The Japanese Lost decade, the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the Latin American financial crisis and others are attributed to this cause. It also claims that the Rothschild Family has the wealth of 5 trillion dollars whereas Bill Gates only has 40 billion dollars. Song also is of the opinion that the famous U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, is not a department of state functions, but several private banks operated by the private sector, and that these private banks are loyal to the ubiquitous Rothschild family. On June 4, 1963, President Kennedy signed an executive order, which, as an amendment to Executive Order 10289, delegated the authority to issue silver certificates (notes convertible to silver on demand) to the Secretary of the Treasury. Song says the direct consequence was that the Federal Reserve lost its monopoly to control money. The book looks back at history and argues that fiat currency itself is a conspiracy; it sees in the abolition of representative currency and the installment of fiat currency a struggle between the "banking clique" and the governments of the western nations, ending in the victory of the former. It advises the Chinese government to keep a vigilant eye on China's currency and instate a representative currency. The book, published in 2007, also correctly described and warned of the various forms of derivative speculation used by Wall Street which eventually became the causes of massive margin call sell offs and stock market crash in late 2008.. |
Midnight | Jacqueline Wilson | 2,003 | Violet is a dreamy girl who is often away in her own world, filled with fairies designed by her favourite author, Caspar Dream. She lives with her mother, father and her brother Will, who she loves very much despite the fact he can be controlling and sometimes frightens her. At Christmas, Violet finds out that Will was adopted. One night, Will forces Violet to play a game of 'Blind Man's Buff'. Violet hates the game, but plays anyway because since Will discovered he was adopted he had become reclusive and rarely played with her. Consequently, she has a scary experience with bats in the attic of an empty house. Violet later makes a resolution that she will not let Will order her around. Soon, a new girl, Jasmine, comes to Violet's school and chooses her as a friend. Violet is thrilled because Jasmine is pretty and rich, although she is not sure if Jasmine truly wants to be her friend or just wants to get closer to Will. Will and Violet play 'Truth and Dare' and Will asks Violet that, if she could have a love affair with anyone, who would it be? Violet says Caspar Dream. Violet asks the same question to Will but before he can answer, Jasmine calls and asks for help with her homework. Much to Violet's surprise, Will invites Jasmine over. They work for a while and then play Truth and Dare again, where Will asks Violet who she likes better, him or Jasmine. When Violet fails to come up with a reply, Will dares her to spend 10 minutes in the attic. Violet reluctantly agrees. In the attic, Violet finds out that she used to have another brother named Will but he died when he was less than one year old, so her parents tried to replace him with her adopted brother. She leaves the attic and finds Will and Jasmine kissing. Not realising she is within earshot, Jasmine and Will make fun of Violet and the fairies she has hanging from the ceiling. When they see her, Violet runs away and goes to see Caspar Dream's old house. There she finds Caspar Dream himself and they become friends. When she returns home, Jasmine is apologetic and regretful. She forgives both Jasmine and Will. Afterwards, she confronts her parents about the first Will. They eventually tell her and Will the truth and soon things begin to become better for Violet. |
Dirty Weekend | null | 1,991 | Bella, a solitary young woman with a dubious past, has just arrived in Brighton. Having recently been dumped by her boyfriend, all she wants is some peace and quiet in her newly rented small flat near Brunswick Square. Tim, a young man living in one of the houses across her backyard, takes a fancy to the new arrival and soon starts watching and eventually molesting her. He accosts her in the park and torments her with obscene phone calls. The police are not really helpful, but Bella is scared. On a stroll through the Lanes, she sees a sign advertising sessions with a clairvoyant and, on the spur of the moment, she visits him. Her meeting with Nimrod serves as both an eye-opener and a catalyst. When Bella leaves Nimrod that Friday afternoon, her self-confidence has been restored, her mind is set, and she is ready for action: She has "had enough". A few hours later Tim makes his last obscene phone call to Bella. At night she enters his flat through a window and batters the sleeping man's head with a hammer. On Saturday morning she goes to a gunshop, but all they are prepared to sell her is an airgun. When she leaves the shop she is followed by "Mr Brown", who does sell her an illegal weapon. On Saturday night, dressed to kill, she enters the lobby of one of the large seafront hotels and only has to wait for a few minutes until she is chatted up. Her unsuspecting victim is Norman, a clinical psychologist with a weight problem. Norman, who is attending a congress in Brighton, can easily persuade her to join him upstairs in his hotel room. Once there, he cannot get an erection and asks Bella if he can be her slave. Bella takes the opportunity and, while Norman is bound and gagged, puts a plastic bag over his head. On Sunday morning she finds a dentist who is willing to treat her for her toothache. After he has fixed her tooth, the dentist offers to give her a lift home. Instead, he drives into an empty multi-storey car park and forces Bella to perform oral sex on him ("open wide"). As a result, Bella kills him with his own Jaguar XJ-S. She steals the car and soon afterwards comes to the rescue of an old tramp called Liverpool Mary who is biding her time in a cul-de-sac near Brighton station. She shoots three yuppie-style young men who, drunk and angry, are threatening to set fire to the bag lady. On the same night, at 4 a.m., while walking along the beach near the deserted West Pier, she realizes that she is being watched. The man watching her, a serial killer, thinks he has found his next victim, but when he attacks Bella she stabs him with a flick-knife. |
Life at the South; or, \\"Uncle Tom's Cabin\\" As It Is | null | null | Smith's novel begins on a plantation in Virginia, owned by the benevolent and kindly Mr. Erskine. Among his slaves is Uncle Tom (Smith's version of Stowe's character), who is convinced to run away by an abolitionist schoolteacher from the North. The teacher is portrayed as envious of the prosperity of Erskine and seeks to ruin him by convincing his slaves to desert the plantation. As Tom's journey continues, the man realizes that the abolitionists who are "helping" him wish to enslave him for their own ends. After being abused and mistreated in Buffalo, Illinois after attempting to return home, Tom finally ends up in Canada. Erskine is waiting there to "rescue" Tom from his freedom and to take him back to "good old Virginia". |
The North and the South; or, Slavery and Its Contrasts | null | null | The story centres on the wealthy and prosperous Harley family, consisting of: Frank (the father), Gazella (the mother), and their nine children. After a series of bad investments results in bankruptcy, the Harleys are forced into destitution, which in turn leads to Frank's untimely death from excessive drinking. Gazella continues life as a seamstress in order to provide for her children, two of which have since left home to live on a plantation in Mississippi and are now regaining their wealth. As a working-class woman, Gazella suffers all forms of abuse from those who had once been her equals. The North wanted the slaves to be free and equal. The South wanted slavery for the need in money for crops. |
The Real Cool Killers | Chester Himes | 1,959 | The book's plot concerns the murder of Ulysses Galen, who was found dead in one of the streets of Harlem. Detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson must investigate the murder and follow up various leads as to who might have had a reason to kill Galen. |
Monsieur Lecoq | Émile Gaboriau | null | L'enquête Policemen on patrol in a dangerous area of Paris hear a cry coming from the Poivrière bar and go to investigate. There is evidence of a struggle. Two dead men are lying next to the fireplace, another is lying in the middle of the room. A wounded man, who is certainly the murderer, stands in a doorway. Gévrol, the inspector, tells him to give himself up, and he protests his innocence, claiming self-defence. He tries to escape, and when he is caught he cries, “Lost…It is the Prussians who are coming.” The third man, who is wounded, blames Jean Lacheneur for leading him to this place, and vows revenge. He dies shortly afterwards. Gévrol, judging from the man’s attire, concludes that he was a soldier, and the name and number of his regiment are written on the buttons of his great coat. His young colleague, Monsieur Lecoq, remarks that the man cannot be a soldier because his hair is too long. Gévrol disagrees. The inspector thinks that the case is straightforward – a pub brawl that ended in murder, whereas Lecoq thinks that there is more to the affair than meets the eye, and asks the inspector if he can stay behind to investigate further, and chooses an older officer, Père Absinthe, to stay with him. Lecoq expounds his interpretation of the case to him, stating that the vagabond they had arrested is in fact an upper class man. He comments that the criminal’s remark about the Prussians was an allusion to the battle of Waterloo, and reasons that he was waiting for accomplices. He finds footprints in the snow outside the back exit to the bar, revealing the presence of two women, who were helped to escape by an accomplice. An examination of the body of the supposed soldier leads to the discovery of a note, which reveals that his name was Gustave. Nothing is found on the bodies of the other two men which gives a clue to their identities. The judge, Maurice d’Escoval, arrives and commends Lecoq for the meticulousness of his investigation. After a brief interview with the suspect, the judge leaves suddenly, apparently moved, leaving Lecoq to his own devices. The suspect later tries to commit suicide in his cell. Lecoq continues his investigations the next day, following leads on the two women, but when he goes to report to M. d’Escorval he discovers that he has broken his leg and will be replaced by M. Segmuller. Under interrogation, the suspect maintains that he is an acrobat named Mai, and that he only arrived in Paris on Sunday. He states that he went for a drink in the Poivrière, was mistaken for a police informant, attacked, and defended himself with the revolver he was carrying. After making further enquiries, including observing the prisoner from above his cell, fail to produce any information, Lecoq decides to take drastic measures. He convinces M. Segmuller to allow him to set a trap by letting the prisoner escape, so that he can follow him. Mai wanders in the streets, followed by Lecoq and Absinthe in disguise, and eventually comes out of a seedy bar with a suspicious-looking man. In the evening, they stop outside a town house, which belongs to the Duke of Sairmeuse and Mai scales the wall, eluding his followers. They arrest his accomplice and search the house and its grounds, but the suspect has vanished. Lecoq goes to amateur detective, Père Tabaret for advice. Tabaret states that M. d’Escorval’s fall and Mai’s attempted suicide were not a coincidence, and that the two are enemies. By his reasoning it appears impossible for Mai to be the Duke of Sairmeuse, therefore Mai and the Duke of Sairmeuse are one and the same. Through consultation of biographies of the Duke of Sairmeuse and M. d’Escoval’s fathers, he reveals the hatred that exists between the royalist Sairmeuses and the Republican Escorvals. He says that the prisoner tried to kill himself because he thought his identity would be exposed and that this would bring shame on his family name. L’Honneur du nom 1815. The Duke of Sairmeuse returns from exile to claim possession of his lands, the majority of which are now in the possession of Lachneur, a bourgeois widower who live with his beautiful daughter, Marie-Anne. He claims that he had been charged with their guardianship until the return of the Sairmeuses, but the Duke treats him like a servant and accuses him of profiting from them. In their misfortune, one of their friends, the Baron of Escorval, under police surveillance as a former supporter of the Empire, asks Lacheneur for Marie-Anne’s hand in marriage for his son, Maurice, who is in love with and loved by her. He refuses because he is planning an uprising against the Sairmeuses, and does not want Maurice to get caught up in it. Maurice becomes involved in the plans to be closer to Marie-Anne, joining Lacheneur’s son, Jean, and Chalouineau, who is secretly in love with Marie-Anne. Stopping at nothing that could help him succeed, Lachenur is even welcoming to Martial, the marquis de Sairmeuse, who is enamoured with Marie-Anne and hopes to make her his mistress. His fiancé, Blanche, the daughter of the marquis of Courtomieu, is furious and vows revenge on the woman she wrongly considers as her rival. The uprising fails and the Baron d’Escorval is arrested as the head of the plot, despite having tried to dissuade the rebels from their course of action. He is condemned to death, along with Chalouineau, in a trial presided over by the Duke of Sairmeuse. The baron is saved by Chalouineau, who trades a compromising letter written by the Marquis de Sairmeuse for the chance for the baron to escape. The Duke and Courtomieu accept, but cut the cord that was to help the baron escape as soon as they get hold of the letter. The baron is badly wounded but carried away and cared for by the village curate, father Midon. Chalouineau is executed and leaves all his property to Marie-Anne. Maurice and Marie-Anne reach Piémont, where a priest marries them in secret. The go to Turin, but Marie-Anne decides to return to France when she learns of her father’s arrest and execution. Maurice, unaware that Martial was not involved in the treachery against his father, writes a letter to him denouncing him. Martial, outraged by Courtomieu’s bad faith, reads the letter at the wedding evening, causing a scandal. He vows to live apart from his wife. Marie-Anne takes possession of Chalouineau’s house, and conceals the birth of her son, that a Piedmontese peasant takes away to his land in secret. Blanche, still desiring vengeance against Marie-Anne, gets Chupin to spy on her and slips into her house when she is away and puts poison in a bowl of soup that Marie-Anne drinks on her return. She dies in agony, but sees Blanche who did not have a chance to escape. She pardons her on the condition that she takes care of the son she had with Maurice. Chupin is a witness, but later dies from a stab wound from one of his enemies, but not before revealing Blanche’s crime to his oldest son. Martial vows to avenge Marie-Anne, but no-one suspects that Blanche is the murderer. They move to Paris and live separately under the same roof. They soon learn that the Duke is killed when he went out riding on his horse, probably by Jean Lacheneur, who is in hiding. Chupin’s eldest son turns up in Paris and blackmails Blanche. She fails to find Marie-Anne’s son. Years pass, Maurice’s parents die, and he becomes a judge in Paris. Chupin’s eldest son dies, Blanche believes that she is free from the blackmail, but Jean Lacheneur arrives in Paris, aware of who killed his daughter, and decides to exact vengeance on her by using her husband. He makes Chupin’s widow begin the blackmail again, and sends an anonymous letter to the duke to draw attention to her movements. Martial is stunned when he sees the seedy bar that his wife has been going to, but glimpses the truth when he finds out that it is owned by Chupin’s widow. He finds a compromising letter that Blanche kept and realises that she murdered Marie-Anne. Martial follows Blanche one night when she goes to the Poivrière to meet Chupin’s widow with her chamber maid. Jean Lacheneur has set a trap, in which he intends to lead Martial and Blanche to a notorious place and provoke a scene in which they will find themselves compromised. However, the three criminals he enlists in this scheme let greed take over and try to steal Blanche’s diamond earrings. Martial intervenes and has to combat three foes. He promises Chupin’s widow a reward if she keeps quiet. The women manage to escape. This takes the reader to the beginning of the affair. Having found out that Blanche has committed suicide and that M. d’Escorval has been reunited with his son, Lecoq decides to confront the Duke of Sairmeuse, having put together all the pieces of the mystery. One day a red-haired man goes to the Duke’s house and gives him an urgent letter from M. d’Escorval, asking him, as a gesture of his gratitude for not revealing his identity, to lend him a large sum of money that he needs. Martial replies with a letter that tells him that his fortune and his life belong to his old enemy, whose generosity have saved him from dishonour. He hands this back to the messenger, who drops his beard and wig: it is Lecoq, who had forged M. d’Escorval’s handwriting. The case against the Duke is dismissed, his innocence having been proven, and Lecoq is appointed in the post that he sought. |
Necromancer | null | null | Necromancer follows the fortunes of Paul Formaine, a mining engineer in the late 21st Century who endures several accidents. His quest for self discovery, and recovery from losing his arm, leads him to embrace the Chantry Guild. The Guild embraces a philosophy of destruction with the hope of making space for the rise of a new evolutionary form of humanity. The instrument in their goals is the somewhat melodramatically named Alternate Laws or Alternate Forces. Formaine is led to the Chantry Guild after encountering Destruct, a book written by Walter Blunt, the Guild's leader. Formaine enlists under the mastery of Necromancer Jason Warren and the ethereal influence of musical vocalist Kantele Maki. His initial goal in joining the guild is the regeneration of his lost arm. The story is punctuated by Formaine's epiphany moments. First, he realizes the inadequacy of psychology in his self exploration. He slowly realizes his own savant power over the Alternative Forces. He is taken aback by his growing hyper awareness of the world around him, specifically the inter-related isolation of all individuals. This isolation is dramatically symbolized by Formaine's own singularity. He has a final epiphany near the end of the book that clarifies for him his own identity and potential ... and much more. The book is divided into three sub-books: Isolate, Set, and Pattern. In each book, Formaine realizes the function of each mathematical collective in the flow of objective history and subjective reality. As with many Science Fiction novels, the philosophical underpinnings of evolution require a decidedly unscientific leap in the reader's understanding of what constitutes science to rally the punctuation that brings about the next stage of human evolution. |
City of Glass | Cassandra Clare | 2,009 | Just before Jace and Clary are to leave for the city of Alicante, Jace lies to Clary in the hopes of tricking her into staying for the sake of her own safety. He asks Simon to meet him at the Institute to back him up, only for Clary to end up through the portal after an attack by the Forsaken. The group lands in the Lake Lyn, causing Clary to accidentally swallow some of the water and to hallucinate. She remains behind with Luke's sister Amatis while the others are introduced to Aline Penhallow and her cousin Sebastian Verlac. Jace flirts with Aline to Simon's anger. They are then introduced to the new Inquisitor, who wants Simon to lie about the Lightwoods in order to incriminate them of being in league with Valentine. Simon refuses and is thrown in jail. Clary sneaks away to find the others, only to find Jace and Aline kissing. This causes a fight between the two where Jace insults Clary in order to drive her away and cause her to return home. Clary leaves, heartbroken over his harsh words, and Sebastian later catches up with her to help her with her plan to help her mother. The two go to Ragnor's house the next day, where Clary is shocked to discover that Ragnor has been killed and that Magnus was there in his place. He informs Clary that she must gain a spellbook disguised as a cookbook in the Wayland country home. She then travels to the ruins of Fairchild manor, where she and Sebastian share a kiss that she breaks due to it not feeling right. A projection of Raphael then appears and informs her that Simon is in jail. Clary returns to Amatis's house where Jace is waiting for her. He apologizes to her for his harsh words to her, only for the two to fight once again about him not telling her about Simon being in jail to which Clary even throws glass plates and dishes at him in anger (which he easily avoids). After the two manage to calm down from their fight, they then eventually travel to Wayland manor, only to discover the remains of an experiment Valentine had been running on a half-dead angel. They then learn through the angel that Jace has demon blood. The two barely make it out of the house alive when it begins to explode and while lying on the ground together afterward, end up passionately kissing in the heat of the moment and share a brief moment of passionate romance. Clary stops the two of them when things begin to go too far, accusing Jace of using her so he can hate himself when he says he blames his demon blood for his incesterous feelings for her. The two return to find Alicante in flames and to see Aline grabbed by a demon. Alec goes out to search for Aline, only to run into Magnus and resolve their relationship. Jace and Clary eventually find the spellbook, which she gives to Magnus, angering Sebastian when he asks her for it. Jace, Clary, and Alec leave for the jail where Simon is kept and breaks both him and Samuel out, only to discover that Samuel is actually Hodge, the previous keeper of the Institute. He informs them that the mirror, the last of the Mortal Instruments, is actually the Lake Lyn. Hodge is then killed by Sebastian, who claims that he did it to keep them out of danger. This causes the three to realize that Sebastian is a spy for Valentine, who then flees after a battle with them. They return to the Hall, only to horrifically discover that Sebastian has killed Max. After Max's funeral, Jace sneaks into Clary's bedroom and tells her he loves her and always will. The two then fall asleep on her bed together, holding hands. The following morning, Jace leaves a note behind for Clary to find (along with his family's ring telling her in the note that he wants her to keep it) and sneaks off to find Sebastian. Clary manages to convince the Clave to fight with the Downworlders and teaches them a binding rune that the dying angel showed her. It is during this time that she discovers after talking with her mother, who had finally awaken from her coma by Mangus through the spell book, that she had received angel’s blood while in her mother’s womb and that Jace is actually the son of Stephen Herondale, son of the last Inquisitor, meaning they are not siblings after all. Clary then marks Simon with the Mark of Cain, a powerful protection spell, with the intent of saving him from Raphael, who plans to kill him for being a Daylighter. This causes Raphael to fight the Clave, as this was against what he had asked for. Meanwhile, Jace finds Sebastian talking to Valentine, who intends to use Lake Lyn to summon Raziel to destroy all the Shadowhunters not bound to him. After Valentine leaves Jace to battle Sebastian, who informs him that he (Sebastian) is actually Clary’s brother and the one with demon blood, not Jace (who actually has angel's blood instead of demon). Clary portals to Lake Lyn to stop Valentine from summoning Raziel, only for Valentine to capture her before using a spell to paralyze her body and voice. He then reveals to her his intent of using her as a sacrifice to complete his plan. When Jace arrives to rescue her moments before Valentine is about to slash Clary's throat, Valentine instead uses Jace's blood for the sacrifice, fatally stabbing him, and successfully summons Raziel. However, due to Valentine’s selfish plans and because Clary managed to put her name on the Binding runes instead of her father's, Raziel sees through Valentine's schemes and kills him. When Raziel offers to grant Clary one wish, Clary asks for Jace to come back to life. Raziel then fulfills Clary’s wish, bringing Jace back to life. Afterwards in the epilogue, taking place three days later, the two finally meet up after Jace leaves the infirmary for his wounds. The two then kiss, now finally able to be together, while watching the fireworks alongside their friends in celebration of the successful battle with nothing to keep them apart. |
Frank Freeman's Barber Shop | null | null | The story focusses on a slave named Frank (later Frank Freeman), who is convinced to run away from his peaceful life on a southern plantation by "philanthropists" (Hall's term for abolitionists), having been promised that freedom would also bring a prestigious career. When Frank comes to the end of his journey, however, he realises that he has been deceived: his prestigious career is nothing more than running a seedy barber shop frequented by his new abolitionist masters, and is paid meagre wages for his work. However, Frank is soon discovered by members of the American Colonization Society, who rescue Frank from his predicament, and pay for his passage back to Liberia, his homeland, where he can finally live in peace. |
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies | null | 2,009 | The story follows the plot of Pride and Prejudice, but places the novel in an alternative universe version of Regency-era England where zombies (and indeed skunks and chipmunks) roam the English countryside. Described as the "stricken", "sorry stricken", "undead", "unmentionables", or just "zombies", the deceased ancestors of England are generally viewed by the characters as a troublesome, albeit deadly, nuisance. Their presence alters the original plot of the story in both subtle and significant ways: Messages between houses are sometimes lost when the couriers are captured and eaten; characters openly discuss and judge the zombie-fighting abilities of others; women weigh the pros and cons of carrying a musket (it provides safety but is considered "unladylike"). Elizabeth Bennet and her four sisters live on a countryside estate with their parents. Mr. Bennet guides his daughters in martial arts and weapons training, molding them into a fearsome zombie-fighting army; meanwhile, Mrs. Bennet endeavours to marry the girls off to wealthy suitors. When the wealthy and single Mr. Bingley purchases a nearby house, Mrs. Bennet spies an opportunity and sends the girls to the first ball where Bingley is expected to appear. The girls defend the party from a zombie attack, and attraction sparks between Mr. Bingley and the eldest daughter Jane Bennet. Elizabeth, however, clashes with Bingley's friend, the haughty monster-hunter Fitzwilliam Darcy. The Bennets are shaken when Bingley and his companions suddenly abandon his country home and return to the walled fortress city of London with little explanation. When the local militia arrives in town to exhume and destroy dead bodies, Elizabeth becomes friendly with one of the soldiers, George Wickham, who tells Elizabeth that Darcy cheated Wickham out of an inheritance. Elizabeth's dislike of Darcy turns into full-blown hatred when she learns that Darcy plotted to separate Bingley from her sister Jane. Elizabeth vows to avenge the slight to her family by killing Darcy. Later that evening, she is afforded that opportunity when he appears unannounced at the cottage where she is visiting her newlywed friend Charlotte (who has been secretly bitten by a zombie and is slowly turning into one herself). Before Elizabeth can fetch her katana and behead him, Darcy surprises her again by proposing marriage. The scene culminates in a vicious verbal and physical fight, in which Darcy is wounded. He eventually escapes with his life and writes a long letter to Elizabeth in which he explains his actions. He broke up Jane and Bingley out of fear that Jane had contracted the "mysterious plague" and was about to turn into a zombie. With regard to the allegedly wronged soldier Wickham, Darcy explains that Wickham had attempted to elope with Darcy's younger sister in an attempt to get his hands on her considerable fortune – this was the "inheritance" that Darcy had cheated the man out of. Elizabeth realizes that she has judged Darcy too harshly, and is humbled. Darcy, meanwhile, realizes that his arrogant nature encourages people to believe the rumors about him, and resolves to act more appropriately. Elizabeth embarks on a trip around the country with her aunt and uncle, fighting zombies along the way. At Pemberley she runs into Darcy, who helps her to defeat a rampaging horde of zombies. Darcy's new attitude and mannerisms impress Elizabeth and lead her to consider reconciling their relationship; unfortunately, all hopes are dashed when it is discovered that her younger sister Lydia has eloped to London with Wickham. The Bennet family fears the worst, but eventually receive word that Wickham and Lydia have married, following an "accident" that has rendered Wickham an incontinent quadriplegic. After visiting the Bennets, the couple adjourns to Ireland. Elizabeth discovers that it was Darcy who engineered the union, thus saving the Bennet family from ruin. Meanwhile, Mr. Collins has married the secretly-stricken Charlotte Lucas. When he finds out that she has been turned into a zombie, he kills himself, but not before allowing Lady Catherine to behead Charlotte. Darcy and Bingley return to the countryside, and Bingley resumes courting Jane. Elizabeth hopes to renew her relationship with Darcy, but his aunt, the Lady Catherine, interferes, insisting that her daughter Anne is a better match for her nephew. Lady Catherine challenges Elizabeth to a fight to the death, intent on eliminating the competition, but Elizabeth defeats Catherine and her cadre of ninjas. She spares Catherine's life. Darcy is touched by this gesture, and he returns to Elizabeth. The two cheerfully wipe out a field of zombies (their first battle as a couple) and begin a long and happy future together, insofar as the ever-present threat of zombie apocalypse permits it. |
Nemesis | null | null | The story, set in Latium in AD 77, opens with the deaths of Falco's newborn son (posthumously named Justinianus), and Marcus Didius Geminus, alias Favonius, Falco's estranged father. Following the funeral, Falco is astounded to discover that his father has left him and the rest of the Didii family a sizeable fortune, but with one problem: before Geminus died, he impregnated Falco's friend Thalia and as a result, he is now forced to share Geminus' inheritance with Thalia's yet unborn child. While auditing his father's business contacts, debtors and creditors, it transpires that a debt owed was never paid because the creditor in question, Julius Modestus, has disappeared. Falco travels to the towns south of Rome with his adopted daughter Albia (who is unhappy that Falco's brother-in-law Aulus has married someone else) and pays off the debt owed to Modestus' nephew, Sextus Silanus (and to investigate the disappearance of Silanus' uncle), while his friend Lucius Petronius Longus, the captain of the vigiles in Rome's Twelfth District, finally discovers Modestus, who has been brutally murdered and eviscerated. A clan of Imperial freedmen in the Pontine Marshes, the Claudii (consisting of four siblings named Nobilis, Probus, Virtus and Pius; and their wives and female siblings) are implicated in Modestus' grisly murder but as Falco and Petronius investigate further, they attract the interest of the Imperial Chief Spy, Anacrites — who, as usual, takes the case away from them. Meanwhile, however, another courier is found murdered and mutilated in the same manner as Modestus, while Anacrites' behaviour begins to become more erratic (and suspect) even as Falco and Petronius (covertly) investigate the murders further, eventually discovering more victims and the murderers themselves too, who are none other than the four Claudii brothers. It is thus discovered that Modestus may have been killed by the Claudii for attempting to speak out against them. Pius is abducted by Falco and Petronius to be taken away as a slave in a mine, Virtus and Probus are finally apprehended while Nobilis dies by falling upon the swords of Falco and his friends. Yet, even after the Claudii are wiped out, it is revealed that the Claudii may have had a fifth brother who could be a co-prepetrator. The identity of this fifth brother and his connections to Falco, his friends, and the imperial government are finally deduced; however, the Didii, Camilli (Falco's in-laws) and Petronii families realise that they know too much and that their lives (and possibly even the ruling Flavians) are now potentially threatened by this same person. Forced to make a difficult decision, Falco and Petronius finally decide to take matters into their hands, conspiring to "send Nemesis to deal with him" once and for all, ending the novel and the series so far in a cliffhanger. |
Rebels and Traitors | null | null | The story follows the experiences of two main protagonists: Gideon Jukes, a printer from London who joins the New Model Army, and Juliana Calill, who, as a result of her marriage to the Royalist Orlando Lovell, experiences many vicissitudes. Their stories are linked through the activities of other characters, including the ne'er-do-well Kinchin Tew, the innocent and upright Edmund Treves, and real-life political figures such as Edward Sexby and Thomas Rainborough. |
The Greenhouse | null | 1,988 | The story is told from the point of view of a greenhouse which tells of the family living in the house to which it belongs; most notably Vanessa a girl who grows up alone in the house and garden and is who spent much of her time in the greenhouse until their peace was shattered by a stranger who rapes her. Things can never be the same again for Vanessa as her son is born and inherits his character from his father... |
Dear Nobody | Doherty | 1,991 | The novel is split between two points of view, a first-person narrative presenting the events as Chris recalls them in retrospect, interspersed with a series of letters from Helen to their unborn child (Nobody), telling her side of the story as she experiences it. The framing sequence is set in autumn as Chris is on the verge of leaving for Newcastle University. A parcel of letters is delivered for him, and he recognizes Helen's handwriting. He begins to read the letters, all addressed to "Dear Nobody", and they remind him of the past nine months. The subsequent chapter headings are all the names of months, beginning with January. Helen and Chris make love for the first, and only, time. Chris is prompted to ask his father about his marriage breakdown, and decides to get in touch with his mother. Shortly afterwards Helen begins to fear she is pregnant. Chris is disturbed by her distant behaviour. In late February she finally tells him her suspicions, and writes her first letter to "Dear Nobody": "You're only a shadow. You're only a whisper... Leave me alone. Go away. Go away. Please, please, go away." Later when a pregnancy test proves positive, she tries to abort the pregnancy by going riding, risking her life in a wild gallop, to no avail. In April, Helen's mother finds out, and arranges for her to go to an abortion clinic. However, Helen decides to keep the baby. Mrs Garton refuses to have Chris in the house, but he and Helen continue to see each other. They visit Chris's mother in Carlisle. In June, Helen and Chris sit their A-levels. After they are over Helen tells Chris she has decided they should break up, believing it is best for both of them. Chris is bewildered, and feels bereft. To get away from all the memories in Sheffield, he goes to France with Tom. He meets a girl called Bryn, but cannot forget Helen. In September, Helen learns her mother's greatest secret – that she is illegitimate, a great disgrace when she was growing up – and finally begins to understand her. When her contractions start, she has a sudden impulse to send her "Dear Nobody" letters to Chris. Chris finishes reading the letters, realizes the baby is coming and rushes to the hospital, where he meets his newborn daughter, Amy. |
The Legend of Deathwalker | David Gemmell | 1,996 | The novel begins during the events in the book Legend, During the defense of the fortress Dros Delnoch from the Nadir, Druss begins to tell a young warrior a story from his past. He tells how he and his friend Sieben travelled to the land of the Gothir and how he became involved in the political affairs there. Due to a prophecy that the King made Druss must lose a tournament, when he refuses to do this men are hired to kill him. In the course of the attempt on his life his friend Klay is shot in the spine with a crossbow leaving him paralyzed and mortally wounded. To help him Druss travels to the land of the Nadir where a mystic has told him there are gems that can heal any wound. As he travels to the shrine of Nadir hero Oshikai, the Gothir send a force of 2,000 men to destroy it. Druss arrives at the shrine hoping to find the jewels but is unable to before the Gothir arrive and so helps 4 Nadir tribes to defend the shrine under the guidance of a Gothir trained Nadir soldier called Talisman. Talisman is on a quest to find "The Uniter", a man with blazing violet eyes called Ulric, who will unite the Nadir tribes after centuries of warfare. During the defense of the shrine the spirit of Oshikai's wife Shul-sen is released from captivity with the help of Druss and Talisman, the spirit unleashes a storm on the Gothir army and those that are not killed are ordered to withdraw. Druss's friend Sieben reveals that he has found the jewels which the Nadir call "The Eyes of Alchazzar". He takes them back to Gothir where they find that Klay had died a few days after they left. However, they heal many of the sick in the hospice before returning the jewels to the Nadir. Talisman then calls a meeting of the Nadir tribes in which he smashes the jewels to return the magic and life of the Nadir land. In doing this the energy flows through him turning his eyes a blazing purple; he then claims his name as Ulric. The book then comes back to the present day where we learn that Druss has fallen in combat in the defense of Dros Delnoch. Ulric/Talisman is saddened to learn of this, even though they were on opposing sides he considered Druss a great warrior. |
Jack and Jill: A Village Story | Louisa May Alcott | 1,879 | Jack Minot and Janey Pecq are best friends who live next door to each other. They are always seen together, so Janey gets the nickname of Jill, to mimic the old rhyme. The two do go up a hill one winter day— and then suffer a terrible accident. Seriously injured in a sledding accident, they recover from their physical injuries, while learning life lessons along with their many friends. They are helped along their journey to recovery by various activities created by their mothers. |
The Haunted Woman | David Lindsay | null | Isabel Loment, engaged to the ordinary and unexceptional Marshall Stokes, leads a peripatetic existence as the ward of her aunt, Ann Moor. Their travels take them to the downlands of Sussex, to Runhill Court, an ancient home owned by Henry Judge. There Isabel discovers a strange staircase few can see, which leads upwards to three doors. She chooses one, which opens onto a room that appears to exist only part of the time; what might lie behind the other doors remains a mystery. In the room she reencounters Judge. There they find new insights and are able to express themselves in new ways, but are unable to recall what has transpired there when they leave. They develop a disturbing parallel relationship in the mysterious room, which ultimately culminates in the death of Judge and the rupture of Isabel from Marshall. |
The Mum Minder | Jacqueline Wilson | 1,993 | It all begins when nine year old Sadie's mother, who is a childminder, gets ill. Sadie now has to look after all the children her mum is meant to look after, but eventually the other children's mothers take turns to look after all the children at their workplaces, i.e. at a police station, in an office and at a chocolate shop. The book is written through Sadie's perspective. It is a hilarious tale of how younger children are taken to work with their parents and explains all about child minders and their jobs. It is also an ebook. |
Injury Time | Beryl Bainbridge | 1,977 | Edward is married to Helen but having an affair with Binny. Tonight the lovers are holding their first dinner party, although Edward has promised his wife that he will not be home late. Unfortunately things don't go to plan and the dinner party is gate-crashed by desperate bank-robbers wielding sawn-off shotguns and seeking hostages... |
The Kite Fighters | null | null | Set in Seoul, Korea, in 1473, the novel depicts the relationship of two brothers in a tradition-bound family. Lee Young-sup is acutely aware of the difference in his status being a younger brother, but he finds a true talent the first time he flies a kite. First-born son Kee-sup is under pressure from his father, a rice merchant, to advance the family honour by becoming a court official; he spends much of his time studying for the position, though it is not his true life goal. Young-sup's growing expertise in flying kites and Kee-sup's craft in making them draw the attention of the boy-king of Korea, modeled after King Songjong, and they become friends with the king outside of the ancient protocol and secretly represent him for the kite-fighting competition during the New Year's festival. It is the tension between traditional duties and individual needs that strengthens the bond of the two brothers. |
Shibumi | null | null | Nicholaï Hel is an assassin, born in Shanghai in the 1930s and raised in a cosmopolitan fashion by his mother, a deposed member of the Russian aristocracy, and a general in the Japanese Imperial Army who has been billeted in Nicholaï's mansion. Under the general, Hel is introduced to the concept of shibumi and the game Go, eventually being sent to Japan, where he trains under a famous master of the game and becomes 'culturally Japanese'. The master of this school discovers Nicholai's ability to mentally escape from reality and come back rested and refreshed. When Japan surrenders in 1945, Hel, after long months of hunger, finds (thanks to his knowledge of many languages) a job as an interpreter in the US Occupation Army and becomes a decoder agent in United States Intelligence. Hel learns that the general who raised him is being held as a prisoner of war by the Russians and faces an ignominious show-trial for war crimes, and decides that the only way he can show his gratitude for the man's raising him in Shanghai is to kill him and help him avoid the embarrassment of the trial. He achieves this through his skills at the art of "Naked/Kill", a martial discipline that trains in the use of ordinary items as instruments of death. Hel is then tortured by the Americans and held in solitary confinement without trial, Hel being a citizen of no country. In prison, his physical and mental discipline, along with studying the Basque language from some old books abandoned by a missionary, help him to retain his sanity, although, due to the torture and drugs used in his interrogation, he is no longer able to fully escape mentally and reach his state of peaceful ecstasy. He even develops, in his solitude, a "proximity sense" through which he is aware of any being drawing near (along with its amicable or hostile intentions), and which also allows him to find his way in complete darkness. After three years, Hel is recruited out of his cell by the US Intelligence Service. It is in desperate need of an agent able to cause severe discord between Russia and China. It needs someone who has nothing to lose, who has European features, and who can speak fluent Chinese and Russian. Hel succeeds in his mission, taking for payment the names and locations of those who tortured him, and goes on to become one of the highest-paid and most skillful assassins in the world. The novel begins with Hel, retired in his late fifties in a small castle overlooking a village of the Haute-Soule, in the mountainous Northern Basque Country. He is an honorary member of the local Basque population, and his best friend among them is Beñat Le Cagot, a truculent Basque nationalist and bard, with whom he shares an immense love for freedom and an addiction to spelunking. Hel thinks he is now allowed to enjoy life in a shibui way (mingling discreet epicureanism with fatalism and detachment) and he slowly improves his Japanese garden, enjoys restrictive gastronomy, and practices highly esoteric sex with his concubine. Hel's shibumi existence is interrupted by the arrival of the niece of a man who saved Hel's life many years ago, herself the only survivor of a Jewish commando unit that took up arms to terminate the last of the Black September terrorists, the rest of the small unit having been gunned down in an Italian airport by CIA agents. She begs Hel to help her finish her mission and eliminate the terrorists, and gain revenge on the Mother Company. |
The Prophet from Ephesus | Caroline Lawrence | 2,009 | The story begins in Egypt where Flavia, Nubia, Jonathan and Lupus, still wanted by the Roman authorities, are hiding in Chryses's house. They are delighted to be visited by Aristo, but he brings bad news – not only are they all accused of treason, but one of Jonathan's twin nephews has disappeared, apparently taken by the slavers who have resumed their kidnapping of Roman children. Flavia's father has pursued them, and still does not know that Flavia and the others are alive after the shipwreck. Aristo, their tutor, comes to find them. He is their guardian for most of the book and he helps them get to a great many places. Delighted to find the children alive, he is shown as being the happiest since his love Miriam's death. They embark for Halicarnassus in Roman Asia, where they encounter several old acquaintances: the slave trader Magnus and his giant bodyguard, last seen in The Colossus of Rhodes, the magistrate Bato and the poet Flaccus. Jonathan is having prophetic visions he cannot make sense of, and is still plagued with guilt over the fire in Rome in The Enemies of Jupiter. Flavia is shocked to discover that Flaccus, whose proposal she had decided to accept, is already engaged to someone else. The countryside is full of prophets who are reported to heal the sick and cure the lame, giving Lupus hope that his muteness can be cured. Nubia is still love-sick over Aristo, whose own feelings are obscure. In the end it is revealed that the "eye-witness" to Philadelphius' (Jonathan's nephew) and his wet-nurse's kidnapping was bribed by Lydia, the wet nurse; her child had died and she kidnapped him to compensate for her loss. |
When the Birds Fly South | Stanton A. Coblentz | null | Dan Prescott, an American adventurer, discovers the hidden valley of Sobul in a mountainous region of Afghanistan, inhabited by a strange race of winged people known as the "Ibandru". He falls in love with one of them, Yasma, and they marry in a scene of general celebration. When fall comes, however, the Ibandru abandon their valley to fly south with the birds for the winter. Unable to bear the loss of Yasma, Prescott pleads with her to remain with him rather than participate in the traditional migration, with tragic consequences for his marriage. |
The Cabin and Parlor; or, Slaves and Masters | Charles J Peterson | null | The story begins with the sudden death of a wealthy Virginia landowner, Mr. Courtenay, a kindly plantation owner who has died before being given the opportunity to pay off his debts, leaving his family in debt and facing destitution. In an effort to pay off the debts, the family sell their slaves, among whom is the kindly Uncle Peter, who takes a liking to Courtenay's daughter, Isabel, and vows to help her in any way possible in thanks for the kindness shown to him by the Courtenays. The money earned is nominal, leaving it to Isabel and her brother Horace to acquire jobs in order to pay the remaining bills and to support their ailing mother. Isabel finds a job as a schoolteacher, whilst Horace heads to an unidentified city in the north (inferred to be Philadelphia), where he becomes a "Northern slave" (i.e. a clerk) to the malevolent Mr. Sharpe, a ruthless capitalist who works Horace like as though he were a white slave. As the Courtenays continue to struggle, Isabel eventually finds comfort in a young slaveowner named Walworth, the son of an old Virginia family, who travels back and forth between north and south. When Horace dies of exhaustion in the north, Walworth comforts him in his final hours, and delivers his final requests to his sister in the south. Whilst travelling together, Walworth and Isabel are caught in the midst of an anti-Black riot, from which Walworth is able to save Isabel from harm. Isabel, eternally grateful, begins to have romantic feelings for Walworth, and they eventually marry. The marriage, by a twist of fate, allows Isabel to reclaim her wealth and property - including her slaves - and is finally reinstated at Courtenay Hall. |
Street Gang | null | 2,008 | Prologue: A description of the funeral of Muppet creator Jim Henson in New York City in 1990, from the viewpoint of Joan Ganz Cooney, one of the creators of Sesame Street. Chapters 1—12: The origins and development of the show and the creation of the Children's Television Workshop (CTW). Sesame Street was created after a dinner party hosted by Cooney and her husband in early 1966, attended by Carnegie Foundation vice-president Lloyd Morrisett and Cooney's boss at New York City educational television station WNDT, Lewis Freedman. The discussion inspired them to create a children's television program, different than what was offered at the time, that could "master the addictive qualities of television" and help young children, especially from low-income families, learn and prepare for school. Davis includes the biographies of key players in the show's development: Cooney, Morrisett, Jon Stone, Sam Gibbon, Tom Whedon, Jim Henson, Carroll Spinney, Gerald S. Lesser, Edward Palmer, Joe Raposo, Loretta Long, Bob McGrath, Will Lee, and Matt Robinson. There is also a discussion of the history of early children's television; specifically, Captain Kangaroo and The Howdy Doody Show. Davis emphasizes the coincidence that many involved with the show had first names that started with the letter J: Joan Cooney, Jon Stone, Jim Henson, Jerry Nelson, and Joe Raposo. Chapter 13 ("Intermission"): A description of the first episode of Sesame Street, which debuted on PBS on November 10, 1969. As Davis states, "To see that first episode today—and the four succeeding ones in Sesame's first week—is to be transported back to 1969". The first show was sponsored by the letters W, S, and E and by the numbers 2 and 3. Chapter 14: The influence of Sesame Street during its first season, and a description of its success and critics. Chapter 15—16: The 1970s. These chapters include a description of the production team, the cast who joined the show, and the Muppets that were created during this time. The biographies that Davis depicts are of producer Dulcy Singer, Chris Cerf, Sonia Manzano, Northern Calloway, Emilio Delgado, Linda Bove, Richard Hunt, and Fran Brill. The Muppet characters Cookie Monster and Roosevelt Franklin were also created during these years. Davis describes the music of Sesame Street, Jim Henson's struggle with fame, the end of Cooney's marriage, and CTW's funding difficulties. Chapter 17: The late 70s and 1980s. Davis describes the production of the show's first special (Christmas Eve on Sesame Street), the decompensation and death of Northern Calloway, the death of Will Lee and the groundbreaking way Sesame Street dealt with it, the creation of Elmo and biography of his portrayer, Kevin Clash, and the wedding of Maria and Luis. Davis calls the show's depiction of Mr. Hooper's death and the wedding "the poles that held up the canvas tent that was Sesame Street in the 1980s, a reflection of the sometimes silly, sometimes sad, always surprising, relentlessly spinning cyclical circus of life". The biography of Alison Bartlett-O'Reilly is also described. Chapter 18: The 1990s and 2000s. This chapter describes the cast's responses to the deaths of Northern Calloway, Jim Henson, Joe Raposo, Dave Connell and Jon Stone. It discusses Henson's business dealings with Disney in 1990, a few months before Henson's death, and Sesame Street's ratings decrease. In 1993, the show went through substantial changes in response to the show's decline ("Around the Corner"); the only thing that ultimately survived this restructuring of the show was the Muppet character Zoe, performed by Fran Brill. There were also attempts to include more female Muppet characters. Davis discusses the "Tickle Me Elmo" phenomenon of Christmas 1996, Avenue Q, "Elmo's World", and the character Mr. Noodle. Epilogue: Davis ends his book as he begins it, focusing on Joan Ganz Cooney, during her retirement years. He also discusses the development of Sesame Street's newest character, Abby Cadabby, and the show's international influence. |
The Ultimate | K. A. Applegate | 2,001 | The book begins with the Animorphs and the rest of the inhabitants of the Hork-Bajir valley drilling and preparing for a surprise Yeerk attack. It is clear they are not ready for attack; the parents, particularly Rachel's mother, are having trouble adjusting, and the Animorphs are in disarray. Jake remains cold and distant to everyone; he no longer wants to be the one to make decisions and no longer has a clear idea about what is wrong and right. Cassie tells everyone that Jake wants a camp meeting and tells him about it mere minutes before the meeting is set to begin; Jake reluctantly agrees to have the meeting. Some of the parents express doubt about the Animorphs' actions and fail to realize the necessity of the war. The Animorphs argue that they know best, and they have experience with the Yeerks. They argue that war is the only way, and that everyone should agree to follow Jake's orders. In the end the whole camp agrees that Jake is to be the leader. Jake reluctantly accepts the burden of leader once again, seeing it as his duty because he is the only one who is capable of leading the Earth resistance. The next morning Jake calls a meeting of just the six Animorphs and they agree that something needs to be done to increase the protection of the camp, and increase the overall size of the resistance. They are no longer in contact with the Yeerk resistance and they don't know how strong the organization is, and the information coming from the Chee seems to be very slow. They recognize that they need more than intelligence; they need a larger force and manpower. They begin discussing the possibility of adding more Animorphs, but none of them has forgotten David, the disastrous last attempt to add a member to the group. However they feel they don't have much of a choice, as the war is clearly shifting to a more open battle, and the Animorphs need more numbers. They agree to use the morphing cube to create Animorphs from disabled teenagers about their age. They decide that it would be best to use kids because they would be more likely to accept the story and are less grounded in reality, and that they ought to use disabled teenagers because the Yeerks would see them as useless host bodies and there is little chance that any of them are Controllers. Cassie, Marco, and Jake go to a hospital to begin the recruiting. They find a ward full of candidates and it is quickly determined that a boy named James, a wheelchair user, is the leader. They convince James to join the fight and he assembles his own team of kids that he thinks would be best. Thus the auxiliary Animorphs are formed. The original Animorphs take them to the Gardens to acquire battle morphs. The Animorphs and James continue to recruit more kids from the ward and after three nights of initiation the auxiliary Animorphs numbers 17. James and two of the others are healed of their affliction by the morphing power, but many more still remain disabled. Those healed agree to pretend to remain disabled for the duration of the war, so as not to alert the Yeerks. James proves to be a natural leader. Cassie wonders how it will work that James is now in charge of a majority of the Animorphs, but Jake is in charge overall. James chooses a male lion as his battle morph, the very same morph of the ill-fated David who challenged Jake's leadership. Jake, however, is not disturbed by this coincidence. Cassie's father overhears a conversation discussing what they have done and confronts the group about the morality of their actions. Cassie recognizes the voice as the echo of her once naive self, and flies away from her father. She realizes more than ever how much she has changed, and how much all of the Animorphs have changed. She realizes they will never be children again and haven't been children for a long time. During a separate recruiting session at a school for the blind, the Escafil device is used to give a blind girl the morphing power. The Animorphs fail to realize that the room is under video surveillance and the Yeerks are alerted of their presence. Tom Berenson (under control of a Yeerk) arrives with a battalion of Hork-Bajir and claims the Escafil device. Cassie is able to slip away and she goes to get James and the other new Animorphs at their hospital. They arrive and go to battle to save the original Animorphs. There are several close calls and one of the new Animorphs has to demorph in order to avoid dying. Visser One arrives and morphs a monstrous tentacle creature and goes after Jake. The other Animorphs try to save him but cannot get close enough. Once the Controller Hork-Bajir frees Jake from Visser One's grasp, this proves that the Yeerk resistance movement is not dead. There are still Yeerks fighting from the inside. Jake orders the Animorphs' retreat, and Tom slips into the forest with the Escafil device and with Jake in pursuit. Cassie follows Jake. There is a confrontation between Jake and Tom in the woods, and Cassie realizes that Jake is actually prepared to kill Tom. Cassie knows that if Tom kills Jake or if Jake kills Tom she will lose Jake either way. If she lets him go through with it he will never forgive himself, and the Jake she has come to love will be gone forever. This leads to Cassie's "betrayal"; she physically stops Jake from lunging toward Tom, thereby enabling Tom's escape with the device rather that have Jake kill him and get the morphing cube back. James and the others arrive back safely. James reports that all of his Animorphs were calm during battle, no-one was seriously injured, nobody was screaming to get out, and nobody was threatening to give up their secret. Cassie reflects that even if Jake and the rest of the original Animorphs go down, at least the resistance would go on. The book ends with Cassie questioning whether the original six Animorphs are still a team, and whether or not they can continue to endure. She remarks that they have been back at the camp twelve hours and Jake has not so much as looked at her. As the book closes she confronts Jake, and he is furious at her. She remains convinced that letting Tom get away with the morphing cube was the right thing to do. |
Red Moon and Black Mountain | Joy Chant | 1,970 | The story involves three children of our own world transported to the world of Vandarei and there separated; the older boy Oliver is adopted by horse-lords, and in a peculiar time-dilation effect grows to adulthood among them, forgetting his origins, while his younger siblings, taken in by the princess In'serinna, remain children and pursue their own quest. All their adventures are part of a larger effort to defeat Satan. |
Killer's Payoff | Evan Hunter | 1,958 | Sy Kramer, a blackmailer, is shot dead in a 1937-style drive-by execution. But it is 1958 and Cotton Hawes and Steve Carella have to find out who killed him. It could have been Lucy Mencken, a rich and respectable lady with a past that included some very unrespectable photographic portraits, or it could have been Edward Schlesser, a manufacturer of soda pop. Or perhaps it was one of the members of a hunting party that went very wrong. |
Heroes of Tobruk | null | 2,006 | The story follows Peter Fullerton and Tony Cantonelli's teen life as they illegally join the Australian army and are shipped off to the Siege of Tobruk. They soon become men as they experience heartfelt moments and feel much hurt throughout the story. |
St. Irvyne | Percy Bysshe Shelley | 1,811 | The novel opens amidst a raging thunderstorm. Wolfstein is a wanderer in the Swiss Alps who seeks cover from the storm. He is a disillusioned outcast from society who seeks to kill himself. A procession of monks runs into him and saves his life. Bandits attack them and take Wolfstein to an underground hideout. He meets Megalena, whom the bandits have abducted after killing her father in an ambush. Wolfstein manages to poison the leader of the bandits, Cavigni, and to escape with Megalena. Ginotti, a member of the bandits, befriends Wolfstein. Wolfstein and Megalena flee to Genoa where they live together. Olympia, a woman of the town, seduces Wolfstein. Megalena, enraged by the relationship, demands that Wolfstein kill Olympia. Wolfstein is unable to kill her. Olympia kills herself. Ginotti follows Wolfstein. Ginotti is a member of the Rosicrucian, or Rose Cross, Order. He is an alchemist who seeks the secret of immortality. He tells Wolfstein that he will give him the secret to immortality if he will renounce his faith and join the sect. Eloise de St. Irvyne is the sister of Wolfstein who lives in Geneva, Switzerland. Ginotti, under his new identity of Frederic Nempere, travels to Geneva and seeks to seduce her. Ginotti reveals his experiments in his lifelong quest to find the secret of eternal life: "From my earliest youth, before it was quenched by complete satiation, curiosity, and a desire of unveiling the latent mysteries of nature, was the passion by which all the other emotions of my mind were intellectually organized. ... Natural philosophy at last became the peculiar science to which I directed my eager enquiries.". He has studied science and the laws of nature to ascertain the mysteries of life and of being: "I thought of death---... I cannot die.---'Will not this nature---will not the matter of which it is composed---exist to all eternity? Ah! I know it will; and, by the exertions of the energies with which nature has gifted me, well I know it shall.'" Ginotti tells Wolfstein that he will reveal the "secret of immortal life" to him if he will take certain prescribed ingredients and "mix them according to the directions which this book will communicate to you" and meet him in the abbey at St. Irvyne. In the final scene, which takes place at the abbey of St. Irvyne in France, Wolfstein finds the corpse of Megalena in the vaults. An emaciated Ginotti confronts Wolfstein. Wolfstein is asked if he will deny his Creator. Wolfstein refuses to renounce his faith. Lightning strikes the vaults as thunder and a sulphurous windstorm blast the abbey. Both men are struck dead. This is the penalty they pay for "the delusion of the passions", for tampering with forces that they neither can control nor understand in seeking "endless life". |
Graceling | Kristin Cashore | null | The novel Graceling by Kristin Cashore follows the life of the 18-year-old Katsa. She is a Graceling, a person with a greatly advanced skill. (People with Graces are noted to have two different colored eyes.) Katsa has one green eye, and one blue eye, which are described to be very beautiful. Because Katsa's Grace is thought to be killing, her cruel uncle, King Randa, uses her as a weapon to punish those who displease him. The king's cruelty causes her to be feared by many in the seven kingdoms; almost everybody believes Katsa to be a savage monster who thirsts for blood. Katsa, disgusted with herself for allowing herself to be controlled by a terrible king, retaliates by making a secret organization called the Council to help all who are being wronged by corrupt kings all over the seven kingdoms. While on a mission with her friends Giddon and Oll for the Council - to rescue the kidnapped father of the king of Lienid - Katsa meets another Graceling. To her surprise, he is able to match her as they fight, but she knocks him out after he says that he trusts her. Not long afterwards, he visits Randa's court and is introduced to Katsa as a Lienid prince, named Greening Grandemalion. He tells her to call him Po, after a tree in Lienid, and they strike up a friendship. Po remains at Randa's court to spar and train with Katsa, while also secretly researching reasons as to why anyone would kidnap the father of the King of Lienid, or Po's grandfather. After a refused marriage proposal from Giddon and some odd words, Katsa realizes that Po's Grace is not fighting, but mind reading. She confronts him, and he tells her that his Grace is sensing things, and he can only hear thoughts if they are about him. Katsa is furious and storms off, scared of how he can get into her head. Po later comes to apologize and she forgives him. During their talk, she realizes that she is in control of herself, and she doesn't have to follow Randa's orders. She stands up to Randa and refuses to do his bidding anymore. Katsa then leaves court. Katsa and Po attempt to find who kidnapped Po's grandfather. She is uncomfortable with him now that she knows he can sense any thoughts she thinks about him. They begin to gather information about the kidnapping, and Po starts to suspect that the King of Monsea, Leck, is the one to blame from kidnapping Po's grandfather. There are very strange stories, but yet nobody suspects him. He has the reputation of a very benevolent king. Po thinks that he might be Graced, although it is impossible to tell because Leck is missing one eye. Along the journey, Katsa realizes she is in love with Po, but she refuses to acknowledge her feelings because she has sworn never to marry. As their feelings grow stronger, they come up with a compromise for Katsa's sake, and become passionate lovers. Katsa and Po continue on their journey to Monsea. While traveling through the forest they see King Leck murder his wife. Despite her promises to believe Po, Katsa still falters when Leck bursts into tears and mourns his wife's accidental death. When she refuses to shoot the supposedly innocent Leck, Po urges them to retreat, knowing that he is the only one who is able to see through his Grace. Katsa and Po search for and find Princess Bitterblue, who escaped from her father, King Leck and earn her trust in order to protect her. Po later tries to assassinate Leck, who is protected by only graced guards, but is chased off after he kills one of the guards. Po is injured by a fall into an icy lake as well as shot with an arrow, making him unable to ride a horse and therefore unable to escape from Leck. After Po's urging, Katsa takes the princess Bitterblue - Leck's daughter, and Po's cousin - to Po's castle in Lienid. While traveling, Katsa realizes that the only way to go is through Grella's pass. Grella's pass is named after Grella, who died while making the journey. The only thing wrong with that is this, no one has ever gotten through the pass alive. Leck arrives at Po's castle before Katsa and Bitterblue, where he has charmed the entire Lienid royal family. Although initially confused, Katsa realizes that Leck is about to tell Po's secret. She then pulls her dagger out of it's hilt and throws it straight through Leck's mouth and drives it through his neck and into his chair. The fog from Leck's Grace still remains, but Katsa eventually goes back for Po, and discovers that the fall has blinded him. However, his Grace allows him to sense the world around him, letting him see where his eyes cannot. The two return to Monsea for Bitterblue's coronation. |
The Black Circle | Patrick Carman | 2,009 | After the Madrigals attack the Ekaterina stronghold, Amy, Dan, and their au pair, Nellie, move to a different hotel and are given a mysterious telegram from a person known only as NRR. The telegram includes an airport locker number, and some of the letters in Dan and Amy's names are underlined. Nellie is still asleep, so they take her cell phone and leave her a note saying that they went to buy some doughnuts. But on the way to the Cairo International Airport, they are chased by Ian and Natalie Kabra, competitors in the race to find the 39 clues hidden around the world. However, they eventually lose the Kabras and find what they are looking for: the locker mentioned in the telegram. They find a glass paperweight with a key in the bottom, and it is holding down a piece of parchment with scrambled letters. They also find a box with disguises and two passports showing them with the disguises on, plus a Russian guide book with two tickets to Volgograd, Russia. After boarding their plane, Amy and Dan unscramble the words on the parchment by adding the underlined letters in their names and find out that information about the next clue is in the following Russian cities: Volgograd, Moscow, Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg and the following Siberian cities: Magadan and Omsk. The Clue seems to follow the murder of the last Russian Royal family, the Romanovs. After arriving at Volgograd, Amy and Dan meet and work with the Holts, climbing the inside of The Motherland Calls to discover a hint to the clue around Rasputin, Anastasia Romanov (who supposedly didn't die, being the only one of the royal family remaining), and Alexei Romanov. They check out the cities on the list they found by the eye of the statue, leading them to the place Rasputin died. During an attack by the Kabras, the Holts alert them of a location code which guides them to a Lucian base. There, they discover who the mysterious NRR is. Nataliya Ruslanovna Radova, the only daughter of Anastasia. They also find the clue in the Amber Room, located by Nataliya. In the Amber Room, they found fake Australian passports of their parents, meaning they went on the hunt for the Clues but never finished. They run into Irina and the man in black. Amy and Dan hide in a coffin while he lures Irina and two Lucian agents out of the church in an attempt to help them escape. They safely make it out of the Church on the Blood, and with Nellie on her way, Dan calls Hamilton and gives him the clue, 1 gram of melted amber. The book ends with the Holts ending their alliance with Amy and Dan. |
Womenomics | Claire Shipman | 2,009 | In Womenomics, Shipman and Kay explore the theory that trends in the current business world have allowed women to leverage their value in order to redefine success. To support this idea, the authors collect evidence showing a concurrent increase in value to companies of female management and increase in priority to women of workplace flexibility. According to the authors, the book functions both to present these findings and to provide "advice, guidance, and fact-based support that proves you don’t have to do it all to have it all." Based on findings from the research done for the book, Shipman and Kay are expanding Womenomics conceptually to include a website incorporating analysis from guest bloggers and news coverage on the shifting roles of women in the workplace. |
Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism | Augustin Barruel | null | In his "Preliminary Discourse", Barruel defines the three forms of conspiracy as the "conspiracy of impiety" against God and Christianity, the "conspiracy of rebellion" against kings and monarchs, and "the conspiracy of anarchy" against society in general. He sees the end of the 18th century as "one continuous chain of cunning, art, and seduction" intended to bring about the "overthrow of the altar, the ruin of the throne, and the dissolution of all civil society". The first volume examines the anti-Christian conspiracy that was begun by Voltaire in 1728 when Barruel claimed that Voltaire "consecrated his life to the annihilation of Christianity". Barruel returned to the principal texts of the Enlightenment and found reasons to draw close links between the philosophism of the time and the anti-Christian campaigns of the Revolution. Here he found that the philosophes had created an age of pretend philosophy which they used in their battle with Christianity. Their commitment to liberty and equality were really commitments of "pride and revolt". Barruel claimed that the proponents of the Enlightenment led people into illusion and error and refers to the philosophes as "Writers of this species, so far from enlightening the people, only contribute to lead them into the path of error". He alleged that Voltaire, dAlembert, and Frederick II, the King of Prussia, planned the course of events that lead to the French Revolution. They began with an attack on the Church where a "subterranean warfare of illusion, error, and darkness waged by the Sect" attempted to destroy Christianity. The influence of the philosophes could not be underrated according to Barruel. They created the intellectual framework that put the conspiracy in motion and controlled the ideology of the secret societies. Barruel appears to have read the work of the philosophes and his direct and extensive quotes shows a deep knowledge of their beliefs. This is unusual among the enemies of the Enlightenment, who rarely distracted themselves by reading the works and authors they were attacking. Barruel believed the philosophes were important as the original villains that seduced the population and made Enlightenment, and subsequently revolutionary, ideals favorable. The second volume focuses on the anti-monarchical conspiracy that was led by Jean Jacques Rousseau and Baron de Montesquieu. These conspirators sought to destroy the established monarchies under the guise of "Independence and Liberty". Barruel analyses and criticizes Montesquieus The Spirit of Laws and Rousseaus Social Contract because the application of the ideas expressed in these books had "given birth to that disquieted spirit which fought to investigate the rights of sovereignty, the extent of their authority, the pretended rights of the free man, and without which every subject is branded for a slave - and every king a despot". He believed that the influence of these two writers was a necessary factor in the enactment of the French Revolution. He agreed with the revolutionaries as they themselves placed the remains of Voltaire and Rousseau in the Pantheon to pay homage to the "fathers of the revolution". Barruel believed that the philosophes had created a lasting influence as their spirit survived through their writings and continued to promote anti-monarchical feelings within the Jacobins and the revolutionaries. The destruction of monarchies in Europe led to the triumph of the Jacobins as they trampled "underfoot the altars and the thrones in the name of that equality and that liberty which summon the peoples to the disasters of revolution and the horrors of anarchy". Barruel equated the rejection on monarchy with a rejection of any type of order and government. As a result, the principles of equality and liberty and their attacks against the monarchy were attacks against all governments and civil society. He presented a choice to his readers between monarchy and the "reign of anarchy and absolute independence". Barruels third volume addresses the antisocial conspiracy that was the objective of the Freemasons and the Order of the Illuminati. The philosophes and their attacks against the church and the throne paved the way for the conspiracy that was led by these secret societies. These groups were believed to have constituted a single sect that numbered over 300,000 members who were "all zealous for the Revolution, and all ready to rise at the first signal and to impart the shock to all others classes of the people". Barruel surveyed the history of Masonry and maintained that its higher mysteries had always been of an atheist and republican cast. He believed the Freemasons kept their words and aims secret for many years but on August 12, 1792, two days after the fall of the French monarchy, they ran though the streets openly announcing their secrets. The secret words were "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" and the secret aim was the overthrow of the French monarchy and the establishment of the republic. Barruel claimed he heard them speak these words in France but that in other countries the Masons still kept their secrets. A division of the group into numerous lodges ensured that if the secrets of one lodge were discovered, the rest would remain hidden. He believed that it was his job to warn all governments and people of the goals of the Freemasons. Barruel described in detail how this system worked in the case of the Illuminati. Even after Johann Adam Weishaupt, the leader of the sect, was discovered and tried in court, the proceedings could not uncover the universal influence of the Illuminati and no steps were taken against the group. The majority of the secret societies could always survive and carry on their activities because of the organization of the group. The Illuminati, as a whole, functioned to radicalize the movement against the throne and altar and influenced more members of the population to subscribe to their hidden principles. They refined the secret structure that had been provided by the Masons basic framework. For Barruel, the final designs of the coalition of the philosophes, the Freemasons and the Illuminati were achieved by the Jacobins. These clubs were formed by "the adepts of impiety, the adepts of rebellion, and the adepts of anarchy" working together to implement their radical agenda. Their guiding philosophy and actions were the culmination of the conspiracy as they directly wanted to end the monarchy and the church. Barruel believed that the only difference between the Jacobins and their precursors was that the Jacobins actually brought down the church and the throne and were able to institute their basic beliefs and goals while their precursors only desired to do these things without much success. According to Barruel, the first major assault on the Enlightenment came during the French Revolution. In the minds of many, the Enlightenment was inextricably connected to the Revolution that followed. This presumed link resulted in an explosion of literature that was hostile to the Enlightenment. When the leaders of the Revolution canonized Voltaire and Rousseau and made the Enlightenment themes of reason, progress, anti-clericalism and emancipation central to their own revolutionary vocabulary, it created a link that meant any backlash against the Revolution would increase opposition to the Enlightenment. The advent of what Graeme Garrard has called the "continuity thesis" between the Enlightenment and the Revolution – the belief that they were connected in some intrinsic way, as cause and effect- proved damaging to the Enlightenment. For Barruel, the Revolution was not a spontaneous popular uprising expressing a long-suppressed general will. It was instead the consequence of a united minority group who used force, subterfuge and terror to impose their will on an innocent and unsuspecting population. Barruel believed that the Revolution was caused by Voltaire, Rousseau and the other philosophes who conspired with secret societies to destroy Catholicism and the monarchy in France. He argued that the writings of the philosophes had a great influence on those who would lead the Revolution and that Voltaire and his followers were responsible for the training of revolutionaries. It was from the followers of the philosophes "that the revolutionary ministers Necker and Turgot started up; from this class arose those grand revolutionary agents, the Mirabeaux, Sieyes, Laclos, Condorcets; these revolutionary trumps, the Brissots, Champforts, Garats, Cheniers; those revolutionary butchers, the Carras, Frerons, Marats". Within the Memoirs, Barruel alleged that Diderots Encyclopédie was a Masonic project. He believed that the written works of the philosophes penetrated all aspects of society and that this massive collection was of particular significance. The Encyclopédie was only the first step in philosophizing mankind and was necessary to spread the impious and anti-monarchical writings. This created a mass movement against the church and society. Barruel believed that the conspirators attempt to "imbue the minds of the people with the spirit of insurrection and revolt" and to promote radicalism within all members of society. This was believed to be the main reason behind the Encyclopédie as it was "a vast emporium of all the sophisms, errors, or calumnies which had ever been invented against religion". It contained "the most profligate and impious productions of Voltaire, Diderot, Boulanger, La Mettrie, and of other Deists or Atheists of the age, and this under the specious pretence of enlightening ignorance". Barruel believed the volumes of the Encyclopédie were valuable in controlling the minds of intellectuals and in creating a public opinion against Christianity and monarchy. Philosophism was a term used by Barruel within the Memoirs to refer to the pretend philosophy that the philosophes practiced. It was originally coined by Catholic opponents of the philosophes but was popularized by Barruel. It referred to the principles that were shared by philosophes, Freemasons, and Illuminati. Barruel defined philosophism as "the error of every man who, judging of all things by the standard of his own reason, rejects in religious matters every authority that is not derived from the light of nature. It is the error of every man who denies the possibility of any mystery beyond the limits of reason if everyone who, discarding revelation in defence of the pretended rights of reason, Equality, and Liberty, seeks to subvert the whole fabric of the Christian religion". The term had a lasting influence as by the end of the 18th century it had become a popular term of abuse used by conservative journals to refer to supporters of the Revolution. These journals accused those who practiced philosophism as having no principles or respect for authority. They were skeptics who failed to believe in the monarchy and the church and thus, had no principles. The use of the term became pervasive in the Anti-Jacobin Review and contributed to the belief in a connection between the Enlightenment and the Revolution and its supporters. Philosophism became a powerful tool of anti-revolutionary and anti-Jacobin rhetoric. Barruel identified a number of individuals who he believed played direct roles in the Enlightenment and the conspiracy against Christianity and the state. He identified Voltaire as the "chief", d’Alembert as the "most subtle agent", Frederick II as the "protector and adviser", and Diderot as its "forlorn hope". Voltaire was at the head of the conspiracy because he spent his time with the highest levels of European society. His attention and efforts were directed at kings and high ranking ministers. DAlembert worked behind the scenes and inside the more common areas of French society. He employed his skill in the cafes and academies and attempted to bring more followers to the conspiracy. Barruel takes a close look at the correspondence between Voltaire and dAlembert and uses this as evidence of their plot to overthrow society. He is deeply concerned with the fact that those he identifies as the leaders of the plot had secret names for one another in their private correspondence. Voltaire was "Raton", dAlembert was "Protagoras", Frederick was "Luc", and Diderot was known as "Plato". Barruel also argued that the conspiracy extended far beyond this small group of philosophes. He believed that the court of Louis XV was a "Voltairean ministry" of powerful men. This group involved Marquis dArgenson who "formed the plan for the destruction of all religious orders in France", the Duc de Choiseul who was "the most impious and most despotic of ministers", the "friend and confidant of dAlembert", Archbishop de Briennes, and Malesherbes, "protector of the conspiracy". According to Barruel, this group of influential leaders worked together with a number of adepts who supported the conspiracy. The most important adept that Barruel identifies is Condorcet. Barruel claimed that Condorcet was a Freemason and leading member of the Society of 1789 who was elected to the Legislative Assembly and was "the most resolute atheist". Condorcet was important because he embodied everything that Barruel claimed the conspiracy was. He was a Freemason that associated with the philospohes and who would become an influential member of the revolution process. Barruel also lists the Baron dHolbach, Buffon, La Mettrie, Raynal, Abbé Yvon, Abbé de Prades, Abbé Morrelet, La Harpe, Marmontel, Bergier and Duclos among the members of the "synagogue of impiety". |
Where the Streets Had a Name | Randa Abdel-Fattah | 2,008 | This book is in the point of view of 13-year-old Hayaat, who is on a mission. She believes a handful of soil from her grandmother's ancestral home in Jerusalem will save her beloved Sitti Zeynab's life. The only problem is the impenetrable wall that divides the West Bank, as well as the checkpoints, the curfews, the permit system, and Hayaat's best friend Samy, who is mainly interested in football and the latest elimination on X Factor, yet always manages to attract trouble. But luck is on their side. Hayaat and Samy have a curfew-free day to travel to Jerusalem. However, while their journey is only a few kilometres long, it may take a lifetime to complete. |
Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones | Derek Landy | 2,009 | Valkyrie Cain and Skulduggery Pleasant are investigating the murders of four Teleporters. After discovering the recent murders may have been linked to a Teleporter murder 50 years ago, Skulduggery and Valkyrie talk to the Sea Hag in the lake and they discover that a man named Batu killed the Teleporter. They discover that the Isthmus Anchor and a Teleporter can open a gateway to the Faceless Ones. With China Sorrows's help they locate a teenage boy named Fletcher Renn, who is an unskilled Teleporter, and save him from Billy-Ray Sanguine who is working for the Diablerie. Batu, the head of the Diablerie, wants to use Fletcher to open the portal. Tanith Low is guarding another Teleporter, but is distracted with a phone call, and she finds him dead in his apartment. Tanith is ambushed, but escapes with a few injuries. Skulduggery and Valkyrie go to Finbar, a Sensitive, who tells them the location of the gate where the Faceless Ones can enter earth. They then meet with a Necromancer, Solomon Wreath who offers the help of himself and three other Necromancers. The Grotesquery is the Isthmus Anchor, which is the part of the Grotesquery that belonged to the Faceless Ones. Skulduggery and Valkyrie go to the Sanctuary to steal the Grotesquery, but are attacked by Remus Crux. The Diablerie use Sanguine to steal the Grotesquery, unintentionally framing Skulduggery and Valkyrie. Skulduggery and Valkyrie use an emergency exit to avoid being captured by the Sanctuary. Remus wants China's help and reveals he knows something about China's involvement on how Skulduggery came back to life. Ghastly Bespoke wakes up at Kenspeckle’s after being a statue for two years and Tanith, Skulduggery and Valkyrie go to Bespoke Tailors, Ghastly's shop, and Ghastly is informed of current news. Ghastly makes Valkyrie new clothes and tells her about his mother, a Sensitive, who had a vision of Valkyrie dying and screaming in pain. In an effort he tries to make Valkyrie quit magic and return to normal teenage life. The owner of the farm where the gate will open, Paddy, learns about magic, and Fletcher locates the exact point where the gate will open. Skulduggery and Valkyrie retrieve the Sceptre of the Ancients and find another black crystal, which powers the sceptre. Batu goes and enlists the Sea Hag's help in exchange for transporting her to the sea. Skulduggery and Valkyrie go to Gordon’s house and Valkyrie is able to take a large black crystal from the cave under his house. Valkyrie goes home to say goodbye to her parents who are leaving to Paris on their anniversary. She is then chased and arrested by Remus Crux. Crux puts her in a cell with Vaurien Scapegrace. Scapegrace tries to kill Valkyrie but she defeats him. Crux attempts to arrest China but Jaron Gallow shows up. Thinking they are working together, Crux jumps through a window to escape and China refuses Jaron’s offer to lead the Diablerie and escapes as he tries to kill her. At the trade on the bridge, Fletcher and Thurid Guild walk towards each other crossing at the center of the bridge and Sanguine tells Skulduggery that there is a bomb in Guild's jacket. Skulduggery shoots Guild in the leg to stop him from coming closer and tells Fletcher to stay near Guild as Jaron won’t risk killing Fletcher. Both sides begin fighting, and the necromancers show up to help. In the end, Tanith believes they have won, then the Sea Hag, on Batu's request, jumps out of the water and takes Fletcher. Valkyrie tricks a security guard into letting her out of her cell and she knocks him out and takes Scapegrace with her as a distraction. Valkyrie sees the new Administrator, the traitor, attempt to kill Mr. Bliss. The Administrator pins her up against a wall and Scapegrace runs into the room chased by Cleavers. The Cleavers look at the situation with Mr Bliss in a circle of blue light that is killing him, Valkyrie suspended on the roof by the Administrator and the Administrator standing there, and advance on the Administrator. The Administrator tries to run, letting Valkyrie fall to the ground. Valkyrie trips her causing her to fall into the blue light, killing herself not Bliss. Valkyrie then runs out of the Sanctuary and Skulduggery drives her to the farm. Tanith, Ghastly, Skulduggery and Valkyrie hide with Paddy in his farmhouse. The Diablerie begin to open the Gateway. Hollow Men ambush Valkyrie and the rest of her team. Paddy persuades Valkyrie to put on the ring he was going to give to the woman he married. China, a dozen Cleavers, and the Necromancers appear and start killing the Hollow Men. Fletcher involuntarily opens the Gateway. Tanith is injured and goes in the house. Bliss arrives and starts fighting Krav. While Valkyrie and Paddy are looking for First Aid supplies for Tanith, Sanguine arrives and attacks Tanith. Paddy tries to shoot Sanguine with his shotgun but is knocked out. Valkyrie then slashes open Sanguine's stomach with Tanith’s sword. Three Faceless Ones come through the gate and Fletcher manages to escape. A Faceless Ones takes over Krav’s body and makes Mr. Bliss explode, killing him. Paddy hits Valkyrie with the Sceptre, reveals himself to be Batu, and knocks Tanith out. Valkyrie realizes that the ring Batu gave her prevents her from using magic, and removes it. They fight, and Batu escapes, taking the Sceptre and hiding it. The Faceless Ones kill many Cleavers and Murder Rose is taken over by another Faceless One. Skulduggery battles the Faceless One and a Necromancer is killed. Jaron panics because he realises that the mark on his arm allows the Faceless Ones to track him down. So he finds a dead Cleaver's scythe and chops off his own arm in hope of repelling the Faceless One. China finds Crux with the Sceptre and persuades him to give it to her. She gives it to Valkyrie who raises the sceptre and fires black lightning twice into the Faceless One that had consumed Krav, killing it. Another Faceless One attacks them. Fletcher teleports Valkyrie out of the way. The Faceless One shatters the Sceptre, destroying itself. Skulduggery decides to get the last Faceless One which had taken control of Batu's body, to chase Valkyrie and go back through the portal. Fletcher opens the portal and Solomon gives Valkyrie his cane to knock the Faceless One back, which destroys the cane. The Faceless One shoots out tentacles made of Batu's organs to save itself, grabbing Skulduggery and pulling him through the portal along with it, as the portal closes. Later, Solomon Wreath approaches Valkyrie and she informs him that Guild is claiming full credit for stopping the Faceless Ones. Solomon tells Valkyrie that there is another Isthmus Anchor, Skulduggery's real skull. Solomon says that after seeing her use his cane, he has determined that she may have a gift for necromancy, and she will need more power than she has now to save Skulduggery, in hopes that she will choose to become a Necromancer. |
The Lofty and the Lowly, or Good in All and None All Good | null | null | The novel takes place along the Georgia coastline in 1837, where the prosperous Montrose plantation continues to yield a rich harvest of cotton each year, which is gathered by the slaves of the plantation. The elderly owner of the plantation, Colonel Montrose, has died of old age, leaving his son to manage the plantation and tend to his slaves. However, with the onset of the Panic of 1837, Young Montrose faces bankruptcy unless he is able to maintain the plantation efficiently and keep it working properly. With the aid of his Christianized slave Daddy Cato, Young Montrose sets to work on getting the plantation back up to speed, but his efforts come under the scrutiny of a usurer named Uriah Goldwire, who is employed by a group of devious capitalists from the North who wish to see the Montrose plantation ruined in order to keep their own pockets filled. Montrose and Cato eventually begin to fight against the efforts of Goldwire to sabotage their work, even going so far as to quell a pro-abolitionist riot intended to force the Montrose slaves into running away from their homes in Georgia to the North. |
Merlin's Ring | H. Warner Munn | 1,974 | The novel is a continuation of the story in The Ship From Atlantis, telling of Prince Gwalchmai's star-crossed love for Princess Corenice of Atlantis in her various reincarnations, along with his centuries-delayed quest to secure aid and settlers to shore up the faltering empire established by his father and refugees from the fallen kingdom of Arthur in the New World. The story opens with Gwalchmai's reawakening after centuries in suspended animation. The Britain he finally reaches is a prostrated land transformed into England by its Saxon conquerors, with his father's exile long forgotten and his countrymen incapable of undertaking any sort of colonization project. Guided by his reincarnated lover, he seeks aid unsuccessfully, his travels taking him from Viking-age Europe to the far-eastern empires of the Chinese and Japanese, and ultimately back to Europe again as it approaches the Renaissance. He is abetted down through the centuries by the magical ring of his godfather Merlin, responsible for his longevity, and by Corenice. Highlights include the hero's visit to Faerie, his service as a companion to Joan of Arc, and his final revelation in Iceland of the secret of the New World to a Genoan, merchant, Christopher Columbus. |
The London Eye Mystery | Siobhan Dowd | 2,007 | The story of The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd begins when Aunt Gloria visits Ted's family home with her son Salim, a half-Indian boy who is roughly a year older than Ted, a boy with Asperger syndrome. Many people with Asperger syndrome have interests of intense focus. Ted has a fascination with the weather, while Salim appears to have a similar condition, involving a fascination with large buildings, although it is never confirmed whether Salim also has Asperger syndrome. Salim says that he "loves the large structures in London" and seems especially captivated by the old Barracks building, which is on the same street as Ted's home. The next day, Salim, Ted and his older sister Kat decide to take a ride on the London Eye, bemoaning the hour-long queues. When a stranger approaches them with a ticket for the Eye, claiming that he is afraid of small spaces and cannot ride on the Eye, they decide to give the ticket to Salim as he has never had a ride on the Eye before. Salim climbs into the Eye at 11:32, waving at his cousins as the Eye ascends. Half an hour later, Salim's capsule lands. Kat and Ted start forward to collect Salim, but cannot find him. When Aunt Gloria and Ted's mother find out, they are extremely angry at Kat for allowing Salim to take a ticket from a stranger. That evening, the two siblings examine Salim's camera and decide to have it developed in case the photographs hold clues. Then the family receives a phone call from the police, saying that a boy of Salim's age and description has been found dead. Ted's father travels to the hospital morgue to see the body, but reports that is not Salim. The next day, Kat, Ted and their father (who works with a demolition company) visit the chemist's to have the photographs developed. They then ride on the London Eye to see if there was any way that Salim could have hidden in the capsule or avoided getting out. They uncover no clues, but line up for the souvenir photograph at the end of the journey anyway. When they arrive home, Ted and Kat examine the newly developed photographs and gain only one clue; the stranger who gave them the ticket is in the background of one of the photographs, wearing a t-shirt with writing on it. The writing says "ONTLI ECUR", which they soon work out that some letters are missed off and it is saying 'FRONTLINE SECURITY' a security company which is currently at work within a local motorbike exhibition. Kat goes to attend the exhibition, and Ted soon works out where she has gone and follows her. They soon find the stranger who sold them the ticket, but he simply avoids their questions, denying any connection with Salim's disappearance. Ted then figures out how Salim managed to leave the London Eye without being noticed and calls the police. The police arrive with Marcus, a friend of Salim's, who confesses to helping Salim to escape. Marcus had bought two tickets for the same capsule, using one himself and convincing his brother to pose as a claustrophobic man who would give his ticket to Salim, pretending not to know him. Salim, who knew the plan, pretended not to know Marcus' brother and entered the same capsule as Marcus, who was dressed as a teenage girl. When the others in the capsule lined up for the souvenir photo, Salim and Marcus swapped outfits; however, there was a coat jacket sleeve in one of the pictures and that was how Ted worked out that the girl who left the pod was in fact Salim now dressed as a female. Once they left the capsule, Salim and Marcus spent the day together and separated at Euston Underground station. That was the last time that Marcus saw Salim. Ted then deduces that Salim is in the old Barracks, because he showed such a fascination with it the day that he arrived. Eventually they find Salim in the old Barracks Building, which is going to be demolished the next day. Salim eventually agrees to fly to New York with his mother, Aunt Gloria, to try it out for 6 months. |
Mr. Frank, the Underground Mail-Agent | Vidi | null | The novel centres on Mr. Frank, a kindhearted but empty-headed worker for the Underground Railroad, where he works to help runaway slaves from the South flee to the Northern United States and then onto Canada. Originally, Mr. Frank is an abolitionist at heart, but comes to believe that slavery is a necessary evil, for while it is wrong, the slaves themselves are better off under their Southern masters than they are in the North. As time passes, Mr. Frank also learns of the corruption within the Underground Railroad itself, discovering that the abolitionists he works with are nothing more than hopeful slaveowners, convincing slaves from the South to run away from their original masters with promises of freedom, only to be enslaved once more. |
Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta | null | null | Lady Fiammetta recounts her tragic love affair with Panfilo, offering it as a warning to other women. Lady Fiammetta and Panfilo quickly fall in love and have an affair, only to have it end when Panfilo returns to Florence. Although he promises to return to Naples, she eventually realizes that he has another lover in Florence. The narrative revolves around Fiammetta's jealousy and despair caused by the affair, rather than the development of her relationship with Panfilo. She eventually considers suicide, but her nurse stops her. Her hopes in the end are bolstered by the news that Panfilo may be coming back to Naples after all. |
Are U 4 Real? | null | null | Ida is exactly the opposite of the girls Sandor usually talks to in real life. She is an attractive girl from Stockholm who likes to party, while he is a shy boy from Gothenburg who likes to dance ballet. The two first meet in an Internet chat room, where they share their feelings and become close friends. Sandor and Ida eventually fall in love with each other. However, everything goes wrong when Sandor decides to visit Ida in Stockholm. |
Faserland | null | null | The novel tells the story of a journey. The unnamed narrator is in his late twenties and is the son of a wealthy family, and travels south from the northern-most tip of Germany down to the Bodensee and onwards to Zürich. He is more an involuntary observer than participant in the events that unfold. He begins in Sylt and heads through Hamburg, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Munich, Meersburg, and finally Zürich. In each of these places he has experiences with decadent excesses in the form of alcohol, drugs, and sexual encounters. These excesses are not enjoyed by the participants, but are more an expression of their hopelessness. The protagonist sees the downfall of his generation – a close friend commits suicide – and experiences his own downfall. He also reflects on unhappy memories of youth. His odyssey, which can be interpreted as either a search for meaning or a long goodbye, ends on Lake Zürich: the references to Greek mythology (Charon, Obolus, and Hades) suggest the narrator's suicide in the middle of the lake. Another interpretation sees the crossing to the other shore as a sign of the homosexuality of the narrator. Neither has been confirmed by Kracht. The ending is left open. |
The Productions of Time | John Brunner | 1,967 | The plot follows Murray Douglas as he joins a theatre production with a group of dysfunctional actors. The play is an avant-garde one where the actors make up the script during rehearsal, and rehearsals take place in an isolated country house. It emerges that the author is feeding each participant's vices, in service of the prurient interests of decadent time travellers. |
The Coachman Rat | David Henry Wilson | null | The narrative follows the life of Robert, the rat that was transformed into the coachman on that fateful night when Amadea (Cinderella) fell in love with Prince Charming. The majority of the novel is an account of the aftermath of that night, as Robert was transformed back into a rat at midnight of that night—yet retained the ability to speak; he then began a quest to find Mara, the "woman of light" (or Fairy Godmother) in order to become permanently human. |
Green Grass, Running Water | Thomas King | 1,993 | Green Grass, Running Water opens with an unknown narrator explaining "the beginning," in which the trickster-god Coyote is present as well as the unknown narrator. Coyote has a dream which takes form and wakes Coyote up from his sleep. The dream thinks that it is very smart; indeed the dream thinks that it is god, but Coyote is only amused, labeling the dream as Dog, who gets everything backwards. Dog asks why there is water everywhere, surrounding the unknown narrator, Coyote, and him. At this, the unknown narrator begins to explain the escape of four Native American elders from a mental institution who are named Lone Ranger, Ishmael, Robinson Crusoe, and Hawkeye. The elders are each connected with a female character from native tradition: First Woman and the Lone Ranger, Changing Woman and Ishmael, Thought Woman and Robinson Crusoe, and Old Woman and Hawkeye. The book then divides into four main sections: each of these sections is the narration by one of the four elders. In addition to these four explaining the "ordinary" events, they also tell a creation story that accounts for why there is so much water; in each creation story, the four encounter a figure from the Bible, as well as the western literary figure from whom each derive his name. There are four major plot lines in the book. One of these follows the escape and travels of the elders and coyote who are out to fix the world. Dr Joseph Hovaugh and Babo, his assistant, try to track down the elders. Dr. Hovaugh keeps track of every time the elders have gone missing and he attributes major events like the eruption of Mount St Helens to their disappearances. The second plot line follows Lionel Red Dog, Charlie Looking Bear and Alberta. The third plot line follows Eli Stands Alone, Lionel's uncle, who lives in his mother's house in the spillway of the Balene Dam. The fourth plot line involves characters from Christian and Native American creation myths and traditions as well as literary and historical figures including Ahdamn, First Woman, the Young Man Who Walks on Water, Robinson Crusoe, Nasty Bumpo and so on. As the climax of the novel approaches, so does the traditional Blackfoot ceremony of the Sun Dance. Ultimately, the dam breaks due to an earthquake caused by Coyote's singing and dancing. The flooding of water destroys Eli's house, but also returning the waterway to its natural course. The novel concludes much as it began. The trickster-god Coyote and the unknown narrator are in an argument about what existed in the beginning. Coyote says nothing, but the unknown narrator says that there was water. Once again Coyote asks why there is water everywhere, and the unknown narrator says he will explain how it happened. |
Assegai | Wilbur A. Smith | null | After a fallout with his father, Leon Courtney leaves home and joins the army with a little help from his uncle - General Penrod Ballantyne. Leon Courtney rises to become a second lieutenant in the King's African Rifles regiment based in Nairobi, and early in the story narrowly avoids being court-martialled by a vindictive superior officer. Despite his acquittal Leon's duties do nothing to improve his falling morale and he considers quitting the army. General Penrod Ballantyne then recruits Leon to spy on movements of man and machine in German East Africa, suspecting the Kaiser of preparing for war. Leon is placed as apprentice to professional hunter - Percy Phillips. Leon's aptitude for the vocation and learning new languages makes him suitable for the job. His contacts in the local population, specially the Maasai tribe with whom he forges a strong bond, make him adept at espionage. Among Leon and Percy's colourful clients are Theodore Roosevelt and his son Kermit, and a fifty-two year old dominatrix German princess. The first half of the story establishes Leon's credentials as the protagonist. Like many of Wilbur Smith's heroes, Leon is a hunter and marksman, comfortable in the wild, and respectful and adaptable to local people and customs. The antagonist Graf Otto von Meerbach appears in the second half, along with his mistress Eva von Wellbreg. Leon is forewarned by Ballantyne that Meerbach is closely linked with the German war effort and that Leon should keep an eye on his new client. Eva however complicates the matter as Leon falls in love with her at first sight. Meerbach's prowess as a hunter is revealed, along with his true intentions. And in the end Leon is left alone to take down the larger than life enemy. The major parts of the story are set in the wild outside Nairobi, with rich descriptions of hunters' strategies, local Maasai customs, big game hunting and lion hunting. |
Bribery, Corruption Also | H. R. F. Keating | 1,999 | Inspector Ghote's wife Protima has inherited a fortune and a mansion in Calcutta. Ghote is not pleased because it means he must leave his native Mumbai and give up being a policeman. No sooner have they landed in Calcutta than they discover the house is crumbling and inhabited by hostile squatters. Also a housing development is planned in the wetlands behind the house, which has the only access to the proposed construction project. The solicitor in charge of the administering the will, A. K. Dutt-Daster, advises them to sell promptly and return home, but Ghote suspects corruption. As Ghote investigates he uncovers a web of corruption that leads inexorably higher and higher in Calcutta's social and political hierarchy. On the way he encounters the easily bribed solicitor's clerk, who is soon murdered for obtaining incriminating documents from Dutt-Daster's files, he is assaulted under The Great Banyan tree in the Indian Botanical Gardens, meets a crusading newspaper editor who chooses his crusades very carefully, a cynical and corrupt Police Inspector and a powerful businessman who doesn't believe corruption is a bad thing. Powerful forces are aligned against the elderly couple and ultimately they cannot be overcome. Finally Ghote finds himself obliged to pay a handsome bribe simply so the couple can escape from Calcutta with their freedom and lives. Corruption and bribery will always be a part of life no matter how much people fight against it, Ghote reflects on the way home, but that is not a valid reason to give in to such things. |
The Mugger | Evan Hunter | 1,956 | A mugger is attacking women in Isola. Carella is on his honeymoon, and the case is being handled by Detective Hal Willis. A second plot involves Bert Kling, a patrolman hunting a killer. |
Into the Slave Nebula | John Brunner | 1,968 | Earth is a stable, prosperous, hedonistic society. The death of an android by brutal murder shocks Derry Horn, and he undertakes a dangerous interstellar mission. He is imprisoned by ruthless slavers and discovers the origin of the androids. |
The Twelve Kingdoms: Skies of Dawn | Fuyumi Ono | 1,994 | After a year of depending on her ministers to govern the kingdom of Kei, Yoko follows Keiki's advice and descends the mountain to live among her people, eager to learn how to be a better leader from the village's wise-man, Enho. However, when Enho is kidnapped, Yoko finds herself thrust into an all-out war between the kingdoms. Friendships and alliances are put to the test during the Battle of Wa Province. Can Yoko summon the strength to take up her responsibilities as king? |
Ordered to die: a history of the Ottoman army in the First World War | Edward J. Erickson | 2,001 | Edward Erickson has produced the first fully researched account of the Ottoman army in the First World War. There simply has not been a similar complete account, apart from an earlier work in French. In order to achieve this task, Erickson relied heavily on non-published official histories that were not open to non-Turkish historian in the Ottoman Archives until late 1980s and Turkish general staff archives, which have very limited access as of 2008. He also used of a limited number of Ottoman Arabic documents. Erickson's book is almost entirely on the strategic and operational level of the Ottoman Army, which has not been previously described. This book, uniqely different from previous publications, includes discussions of such things as tactics, social issues and the humanitarian dimensions of the Ottoman Army's engagements. Ordered to die presents sets of data on subjects such as the Ottoman army organisation, the structure of the General Staff and headquarters, German military assistance and Ottoman casualty figures. All this information is difficult to find, and published in very different sources that are not available to general audience. Erickson’s figures for the Ottoman casualties are very systematic, and unlike previous publications, which only present two thirds of the campaign histories (presented by campaign bases rather than a holistic approach), covers every branch, year by year, even down to single engagements. The overall conclusion, all things considered, is that the Ottoman army’s record in World War I was an astounding achievement. The book claims it was a "saga of fortitude and resilience". The book presents ample evidence to support this conclusion. |
Dead as a Doornail | Charlaine Harris | 2,005 | It's the first full moon since Jason was bitten by the werepanther Felton Norris (in Dead to the World). Calvin Norris comes to watch over him and help him, and Jason turns into a half man/half panther. Then Sam is shot in the leg and is therefore unable to run the bar. He asks Sookie to go to Fangtasia to ask Eric to lend him a bartender while he is out. Eric sends their new bartender, Charles Twining. Calvin Norris is also shot and seriously wounded, and Sookie learns that other shifters and were-animals are being shot throughout Louisiana. Calvin suspects Jason, based on the theory that Jason is angry at weres for turning him into a werepanther. Known for dispensing their own kind of justice, the real shooter needs to be found before the werepanthers turn on Jason. Colonel Flood, leader of the Long Tooth pack of Shreveport, is hit by a car and dies, so the pack needs a new leader. Alcide's father throws his hat into the ring, and Alcide manipulates Sookie into helping his father by reading the minds of others in the pack. Bill begins to date Selah Pumphrey, a real estate agent, from the nearby town of Clarice. Someone tries to burn down Sookie's house, but she is saved by her fairy godmother, Claudine. A dead man (killed by Charles Twining during the fire) is found outside her house, covered in gasoline, with a Fellowship of the Sun card in his wallet, so he is blamed for the arson. Sookie is then shot while leaving the library, presumably because she associates with shifters. Ballistics says that her bullet matches the bullets of all the others who were shot, except Sam's. Later, Sookie is in an alley with Sam (in his dog form) trying to find the killer, when Sweetie Des Arts, Merlotte's cook, comes at her with a gun. Sweetie explains that she was bitten by a werewolf, and has become part shifter. As an act of revenge, she now kills any shifter she comes in contact with. Tray Dawson, a werewolf who was sent to protect Sookie by Calvin Norris, is shot in this confrontation, and Sweetie is shot and killed by Andy Bellefleur, when he arrives on the scene. Thinking that the problem has been solved, Sookie returns to work at Merlotte's. The befuddled Bubba shows up at the back door to tell Sookie Eric has been trying to reach her, and adds he sent him over to tell Sookie that someone is a hit man. She is then attacked by Charles Twining. It is revealed that Charles was sent by Hot Rain, Longshadow's "maker", to hurt Eric, who had killed Longshadow (Dead Until Dark). Although Eric had paid restitution for the killing, Hot Rain felt that Eric's penalty was not sufficient, and wanted to take something Eric held dear, and therefore chooses Sookie. It becomes apparent that Twining is the one who shot Sam, knowing that Sookie would come looking for a replacement bartender, and that he is also the one who set fire to Sookie's house, then framed an innocent man for it. In a subplot, Tara Thorton has been dumped by vampire Franklin Mott, whom she dated in Club Dead, and is now under the thumb of one of Franklin's associates, the vampire Mickey. It turns out that Franklin Mott gave her to Mickey as part of a debt payment. It was once common for vampires to trade around their groupies, draining them to death when they grew bored. Sookie appeals to Eric, who arranges to have Mickey free Tara. Mickey becomes enraged, attacks Tara, wounds Eric, and tries to kill Sookie. In exchange for his help, Sookie must tell Eric what happened during the days he cannot remember (in Dead to the World). Sookie tells him about their passionate sexual relationship, as well as how she killed Debbie Pelt. The competition for wolfpack leader takes place and there are different rounds to test the werewolves' strength. Sookie discovers that Patrick is cheating in the endurance test. She tells everyone, and as punishment the judges make the final test one that must be done until grievous injury or death. Patrick wins, and after he is declared victor, kills Alcide's father regardless. It is at this event that Sookie makes her first acquaintance with the were tiger, Quinn. |
Definitely Dead | Charlaine Harris | 2,006 | After surviving a Were attack while attending a play in Shreveport with her new boyfriend John Quinn, Sookie Stackhouse goes to New Orleans to sort out the affairs of her cousin Hadley, a vampire who was murdered. When she arrives, she finds Hadley's apartment under a stasis spell that was placed there by the talented and helpful young witch Amelia Broadway, Hadley's landlady. When the spell is removed, Sookie and Amelia are attacked by a newly turned vampire (later revealed to be a Were named Jake Purifoy) whose rising was delayed due to Amelia's stasis spell. Sookie and Amelia are taken to the emergency room after this attack and it is here that Bill, due to Eric interfering, tells Sookie the truth behind his move to Bon Temps. The following night, Sookie calls on the Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne Leclerq, and her new husband, the vampire king of Arkansas, Peter Threadgill. Their conversation eventually leads to the revelation that Amelia and some of her peers plan to magically reconstruct the events of the night of Jake Purifoy's turning. Sophie-Anne decides that this is something she would like to see, so she, her entourage, and Sookie go back to Hadley's together where they find the witches ready to perform the ectoplasmic reconstruction spell. Once the spell runs its course, Sophie-Anne, Andre, and Sookie go into Hadley's apartment for a private conversation where, among other things (such as Sookie being told that she has fairy blood and therefore attracts supernaturals), Sophie-Anne asks Sookie to look carefully through Hadley's things and locate a missing diamond bracelet that was given to the queen by Threadgill; the discovery that this bracelet is missing would mean political disaster for Sophie-Anne. Quinn is also in New Orleans on business, and so the couple is together when a group of Weres break into Hadley's apartment to kidnap Sookie and transport her to the Pelt family. With cunning on their part, and help from Eric and the vampire Rasul, Sookie is able to resolve her differences with the Pelts. Sookie and Quinn attend the party Sophie-Anne and Peter throw in celebration of their new union. The night ends in violence. Events that take place once the fighting breaks out directly influence the events of the seventh book, "All Together Dead." Sookie and a wounded Quinn make it back to Hadley's apartment. The next day, Sookie, Amelia, Bob the cat, and Everett (the young man Mr. Cataliades sends to help Sookie with Hadley's apartment) make their way back to Bon Temps. |
Bones | Jonathan Kellerman | null | The anonymous caller has an ominous tone and an unnerving message about something “real dead . . . buried in your marsh.” The eco-volunteer on the other end of the phone thinks it’s a prank, but when a young woman’s body turns up in Los Angeles’s Bird Marsh preserve no one’s laughing. And when the bones of more victims surface, homicide detective Milo Sturgis realizes the city’s under siege to an insidious killer. Milo’s first move is calling in psychologist Alex Delaware. The murdered women are prostitutes–except the most recent victim; a brilliant young musician from the East Coast, employed by a wealthy family to tutor a musical prodigy, Selena Bass seems out of place in the marsh’s grim tableau. Conveniently–perhaps ominously–Selena’s blueblood employers are nowhere to be found, and their estate’s jittery caretaker raises hackles. But Milo’s instincts and Alex’s insight are too well-honed to settle for easy answers, even given the dark secrets in this troubled man’s past. Their investigation unearths disturbing layers–about victims, potential victims, and suspects alike–plunging even deeper into the murky marsh’s enigmatic depths. Bizarre details of the crimes suggest a devilish serial killer prowling Los Angeles’s gritty streets. But when a new murder deviates from the pattern, derailing a possible profile, Alex and Milo must look beyond the suspicion of madness and consider an even more sinister mind at work. Answers don’t come easy, but the darkest of drives and desires may fuel the most devious of foes. |
A Cold Heart | Jonathan Kellerman | 2,003 | After the events of "The Murder Book", Robin and Alex have separated. Robin moved out and quickly fell in with a man named Tim, who was a vocal coach she met out tour. Meanwhile, Alex has started a serious relationship with a fellow psychologist, Allison Gwynn, who appeared in The Murder Book for the first time. While the two have broken their relationship, the two remain in contact during the course of the book, which suggest that some unresolved feelings still remain. At the same time, Alex Delaware is pulled into a case in which several "young, up-and-coming" artists are murdered, some of which Alex had met during his time with Robin. Towards the end of the novel Alex and Allison's relationship seems to be going strong, but there are some unresolved issues between Alex and Robin that have yet to play out. |
Therapy | Jonathan Kellerman | 2,004 | In Los Angeles, Gavin Quick and his girlfriend are shot dead inside their car, whilst the unidentified woman is also impaled on a metal spike. As he investigates, psychologist Alex Delaware comes up against Dr. Mary Lou Koppel, a celebrity therapist who once treated Gavin and now guards his personal files with fearsome intensity. |
Obsession | Jonathan Kellerman | 2,007 | Tanya Bigelow, a former patient, comes to Alex requesting help. She wants him and his friend Milo to investigate something her mother said on her death bed. Her mother told her that she did something terrible. No one believes that Tanya's mother Patty, who worked with Milo's partner at the hospital as a nurse, could have done anything terrible, but as the reader learns her past, it contains dark secrets. Alex has a new dog, Blanche, that Robin bought him after Spike died. Robin is living with Alex again. |
Wake | Lisa McMann | 2,008 | The book begins with multiple flashbacks,all leading to Janie’s extraordinary powers and where she stands in the present day. Janie Hannagan is an independent, 17-year-old senior at Fieldridge High School, living at home with her alcoholic mother and trying to find ways to fund her future college education. What makes Janie so different from her peers is that she has the involuntary ability to witness others' dreams. Janie discovered this ability at 8 years old, when she was able to witness a businessman’s dream of him giving a presentation in his underwear. From that day on, she is somewhat cursed by the long struggle and suffering of being part of others’ dreams and nightmares. By taking part in others’ dreams, she can see their fears and/or desires. This leads to Janie finding out the secrets of the people around her, but she cannot reveal them because they might think she is crazy. Whenever someone falls asleep within a certain distance of Janie, she automatically becomes paralyzed and blinded, and is sucked into the other person’s dream. People within the dream she enters usually ask her for help, but she is unable to know what to do. All these incidents become a problem for Janie, especially towards her junior and senior years, because most of the time she cannot control the situation. Her peers, especially Cabel, become suspicious of her strange behavior. While most of her classmates have dreams typical of adolescent anxieties, Cabel,a mysterious loner, has frighteningly morbid dreams that Janie cannot come to terms with. After several encounters, Janie and Cabel fall for each other on a class trip to Canada, during which time Cabel becomes aware of Janie's strange powers. Although Cabel helps Janie protect her secret, they are unable to maintain a close relationship due to peer pressures, secrecy, and Cabel's growing reputation as a drug dealer to the wealthy.. Even as Janie and Cabel grow apart, their desire for each other increases. As Cabel seems to fall away from Janie and into the drug trade, Janie realizes things are not always as they seem, and she can learn to use her powers to help others and even serve the community. With the help of Miss Stubin at the Heather Home, Janie discovers that she is a dream catcher and has the power to help others resolve the dreams which are haunting them. The climax of the story comes as Cabel, along with a number of other Fieldridge students and parents, are imprisoned on narcotics charges. Janie witnesses a dream that helps the police and allows her to free her friends. |
All Together Dead | Charlaine Harris | 2,007 | The summit, which has attracted undead power players from all over the central United States, is sure to be tense, due partly to the ramping up of protests by the conservative, anti-vampire Fellowship of the Sun. Accused of murdering her husband, the King of Arkansas, Sophie-Anne is set to stand trial at the convention. The Queen is already in a precarious position, her power base weakened by the damage to New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina, and there are some vampires who would like to finish what nature started. Sophie-Anne's main accuser is Jennifer Cater, a vampire who had been training to be the king's lieutenant at the time of his death. Jennifer is determined to see Sophie-Anne staked in the sun for murdering the king, although Sookie knows the Queen is innocent of the crime. Sophie-Anne plans to put Sookie's gift to good use, having her "listen in" on the thoughts of the humans working for the other vampires at the convention as well as for the hotel, as alliances are formed and allegiances tested in what can only be described as a political power struggle of potentially deadly implications. The story opens with Sookie entering Fangtasia to talk to Eric and those who pay him fealty, as they discuss the accusations against Sophie-Anne. Sookie agrees to work for Sophie-Anne, despite the warnings of her fairy godmother, Claudine, that being at the convention will forever tie Sookie to vampire politics in the mind of all of the attendees, in a very public way. Meanwhile, her relationship with Quinn heats up. At the convention, Sookie meets Barry "Bellboy" Horowitz, the only other telepath she knows. Soon after they arrive, Jennifer Cater and most of the Arkansas entourage are brutally murdered, which simplifies the trial for the Queen. Sookie soon proves invaluable to the Queen as she makes the great suggestion that the Queen appoint her closest friend and "child," Andre, to be King of Arkansas, and then to marry him. Sookie also finds a bomb planted outside of the Louisiana suite, and saves the Queen. She also uncovers something shocking about Quinn—as a teen, he killed a group of men who were raping his mother, and then became indebted to some local vampires in order to cover up the crime. He had to work as a weretiger/gladiator in a ring for three years, and in the process became a fearsome fighter. At the Queen's trial, Sookie saves the queen yet again as, being the only witness, she applies logic to prove that the queen is innocent and that her accusers are being manipulated. In response, one of the main accusers is staked right in the courtroom. Impressed with her usefulness, Andre accosts Sookie and begins to force her to exchange blood with him, to tie her permanently and closely to the queen. She escapes this violation only by the intercession of Eric, who has her exchange more blood with him. This third, major blood exhange with Eric causes Sookie to become more powerful, and frighteningly vampiric, even though she is still human. She can feel Eric very powerfully, and he now has the power to turn her into a vampire at any time. Sookie realizes with dread that she will never be free of Eric's control. Sookie and Barry the Bellboy then put together a number of clues they have had throughout the convention and realize that multiple bombs have been planted throughout the hotel by the Fellowship of the Sun, and they are set to go off during the daytime when the vampires will all be asleep and helpless. She and Barry's quick thinking enable some vampires and some humans to get free, and Barry and Sookie team up to use their telepathy to find injured humans. Sookie finds Andre, who has only minor injuries, and watches impassively as Quinn stakes him in order to free her from his control. Queen Sophie-Anne escapes, but loses her legs. Sookie rescues Eric and Pam, and they and Bill escape with minor injuries, but the death toll for humans and vampires is very high. |
From Dead to Worse | Charlaine Harris | 2,008 | After the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the man-made horror of the explosion at the vampire Summit, Sookie Stackhouse is safe but dazed, yearning for things to get back to normal. But her boyfriend, the weretiger Quinn, is missing. She then learns that she is descended from fairies, and is 1/8 fairy herself. Her beloved grandmother had an affair with a half-fairy, and had two children with him. While her grandfather is dead, her fairy great-grandfather, Niall Brigant, is alive and seeks to meet her. Sookie is soon drawn into investigating several mysterious deaths among the local Were community. Her telepathy and status as a 'friend of the pack' forces her to mediate between two warring factions, whereupon she discovers that a pack displaced by Hurricane Katrina has been killing the Shreveport Weres in order to take their place. There is a brief "war" between the two packs, with the Shreveport pack emerging victorious, Alcide now in charge. At the same time, Felipe de Castro, King of Nevada, begins a violent campaign to wrest control of the kingdoms of Louisiana and Arkansas from the injured Queen Sophie-Anne Leclerq. The King's men kill the Queen and all of the sheriffs of Louisiana except for Eric, who surrenders in exchange for his life and the lives of all under his protection. Meanwhile, Sookie is upset to learn that she now has a very close blood bond with Eric, and can detect his feelings and know his location, and that she craves his company. She learns that Quinn has been absent because his mother escaped from a were sanatorium where the mentally unstable weretiger was being held. In exchange for help in recapturing her, Quinn became the prisoner of the King of Nevada. She decides that given Quinn's familial responsibilities, she does not wish to have a romantic relationship with him. Instead she renews her relationship with Eric Northman. She also has an upsetting encounter with the werepanthers of Hot Shot. Her sister-in-law, Crystal, is unfaithful to her brother, which means that, based on the particular traditions of Hot Shot, Sookie is required to break the hand of Crystal's uncle and Sookie's friend, Calvin Norris. This causes a rupture in her relationship with Jason, and she stops talking to him. Sookie rescues King Felipe de Castro, Eric, and Sam Merlotte from the murderous intentions of Sigebert, earning her the King's gratitude. She then goes to visit her late cousin Hadley's child, whom she's never met and didn't know existed, and finds out he is a telepath like her. The book ends as she promises the boy and his father she'll be there to help whenever they need it. |
Dead and Gone | Charlaine Harris | 2,009 | In this novel, the weres and shifters make their presence known, following the example of the vampires. At the same time, the King of Nevada, who now leads Louisiana as well, begins consolidating his power, which has a number of repercussions. The revelation of the existence of weres and shifters causes some problems. Sookie's boss, Sam Merlotte, reveals to the community that he is a shifter, and Tray Dawson reveals he is a Were, with both men changing into their animal forms at Merlotte's Bar on the evening of the announcement. Most residents of Bon Temps take the new revelation fairly well; Merlotte's initially sees some business slowdown, but then it returns to normal. However, Merlotte's waitress Arlene, who has been dating a member of the anti-vampire Fellowship of the Sun (FoS), takes the revelation badly and quits her job in a fury. Sam's mother, who is also a shifter, is shot by Sam's step-father, and Sam's non-shifter siblings, who did not know their parents and brother were shifters, have some troubles related to the announcement. Sam leaves Bon Temps to help his mother and leaves Sookie in temporary charge of the bar. Meanwhile, the King of Nevada, Felipe de Castro, consolidates his power in Louisiana. Eric, as the only Louisiana Sheriff to survive the defeat of Queen Sophie-Anne's reign, is in a tenuous position and struggles with Victor Madden, the king's representative. Eric fears the king will try to acquire Sookie to use in his Nevada business dealings, so Eric tricks Sookie, who is unfamiliar with vampire marriage protocols, into marrying him. She is not happy about it, but there is little she can do. However, the marriage is only recognized by vampires. The FBI comes to speak with her about her role in finding people during the collapse of the Pyramid of Gizeh. Then, the mutilated and crucified body of Jason's pregnant werepanther wife is found in the parking lot of Merlotte's, leading Sookie to think it is a hate crime against the recently revealed Weres. When Arlene invites Sookie to her home, Sookie arrives only to discover, through observation and her mind-reading abilities, that Arlene's Fellowship of the Sun friends intend to crucify Sookie, with Arlene leading Sookie into the trap. Sookie calls the authorities and confronts Arlene. In the shoot-out that follows, one of the FoS men is killed and an FBI agent is wounded, and Arlene is arrested along with the surviving would-be murderer. However, Sookie realizes that despite their attempt to use her as an example, they did not crucify Crystal Stackhouse. They intended to commit a copycat crime. Sookie learns that her fairy great-grandfather, Niall, is engaged in a deadly fairy war, with Sookie stuck in the middle. Two psychotic fairies, Lochlan and Neave, are killing all humans with partial Fairy blood because they believe mixing with humans is the reason for the declining prominence of full-bloodied fae. Those same fairies killed Sookie's parents, since her father was a quarter fae. It is later revealed that the bloodthirsty duo crucified Jason Stackhouse's wife just for fun. Later, they kidnap Sookie and torture her in order to get her great-grandfather to surrender. Sookie is rescued by Bill and Niall, but not before being greatly traumatized and possibly mortally wounded. Eric gives her more of his blood, but can't spare enough for her to heal completely since she has very serious injuries and Eric himself needs his stength in the forthcoming battle. In a final battle at the supernatural hospital Sookie's fairy godmother, Claudine (who is pregnant), is killed, as is Tray Dawson, Sookie's were bodyguard and boyfriend of Sookie's witch roommate Amelia Broadway. Sookie is saved by Eric and Bill, who kill Breandan. Niall then decides to seal off Faery, and bids Sookie farewell. |
The Gathering Storm | Brandon Sanderson | 2,009 | As Rand's story begins he is restoring order in the nation of Arad Doman while searching for Graendal, one of the Dark One's favored servants known as the Forsaken. The Aes Sedai work with Rand to interrogate Semirhage, another Forsaken captured at the end of Knife of Dreams. After being freed by her allies, Semirhage is given a Domination Band, an item used to control male channelers, and locks it around Rand's neck. She and Black Ajah sister Elza Penfell use it to make him torture and attempt to kill his lover, Min Farshaw. Unable to channel, he reaches out and inexplicably accesses the True Power, a different power normally only granted by the Dark One, using it to free himself and kill Semirhage and Elza. After this, he resolves to make himself harder and emotionless. He banishes his adviser Cadsuane Melaidhrin for not securing the Domination Band, promising to kill her if he sees her face again. Rand meets with the Seanchan, a civilization that invaded the continent earlier in the series. Their leader Tuon rejects Rand's offer of a truce after sensing a dark aura that emanated from Rand after he channeled the True Power. Following the meeting, Tuon declares herself Empress and prepares a surprise attack against the White Tower. Graendal's hiding place is traced to a remote palace. Confirming her presence, Rand uses the Choedan Kal, a powerful magical artifact, to eliminate the entire building with balefire, a magic that wipes the target from time. This horrifies Min and Nynaeve al'Meara and they turn to Cadsuane for help. Giving up on saving Arad Doman from the Seanchan and starvation, Rand returns to the city of Tear. Nynaeve, under the instruction of Cadsuane, locates Tam al'Thor, Rand's father, who meets with Rand in an attempt to break his emotional isolation. Rand becomes angry when he learns that Tam was sent by Cadsuane, nearly killing his father before fleeing in horror at what he had almost done. Rand Travels to the Seanchan-held city of Ebou Dar, intending to destroy their entire army, but he becomes reluctant to act after seeing how peaceful the city is. Nearly mad with rage and grief, he Travels to the top of Dragonmount, the location where he killed himself in a past life. Angry at the futility of life bound to the Wheel, he uses the Choedan Kal to draw enough power to destroy the world. Lews Therin, a voice in Rand's head from his past life, suggests that by being reborn one has the opportunity to do things right. Agreeing, Rand turns the power of the Choedan Kal against itself, destroying it. Rand is finally able to laugh again. The second main plot thread follows Egwene al'Vere, leader of the rebel faction of Aes Sedai. After her capture by the White Tower in the previous book, Egwene works to undermine Elaida a'Roihan's rule and mend the strife it is causing in the White Tower. She is initially granted freedom of the tower as novice, but after publicly denouncing Elaida, Elaida names her a follower of the Dark One, and orders her imprisonment. When Elaida fails to prove her accusation, Egwene is released. Egwene returns to her room to find Verin Mathwin, who announces that she is of the Black Ajah. Taking advantage of a loophole in the oath Verin had sworn that she could not betray them "until the hour of my death", she fatally poisons herself, allowing her to use her last hour to reveal everything she has learned to Egwene. Verin explains that although she was forced to swear to them or face death, she used the position to research the Ajah. She gives Egwene a journal detailing the group's structure and nearly every member before succumbing to the poison. When the Seanchan attack the White Tower, its fractured state prevents an effective defense. Many Aes Sedai are captured or killed until Egwene, leading a group of novices, succeeds in driving them off. Siuan Sanche, Gawyn Trakand, and Gareth Bryne mount a rescue of Egwene. They find her so exhausted that she cannot protest when they extract her against her orders. After awakening in the camp, she argues that they may have ruined her chances to gain credit in the Tower for the defeat of the Seanchan. Egwene begins to expose the Black Ajah among the rebels, requiring every sister to re-swear her allegiances. Fifty sisters are exposed and executed, while twenty are able to escape. Taking advantage of the weakened White Tower defenses following the Seanchan raid, the rebels prepare an immediate attack. Just before the attack is mounted, the Tower Aes Sedai announce that Elaida was captured in the Seanchan raid, and that they would have Egwene as their leader, the Amyrlin Seat. The rebels return and they begin rebuilding the Tower. |
The Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World | null | 2,007 | The book argues that the British Empire was evil, and responsible for the Irish famine, the atrocities committed by the Black and tans during the Irish War of Independence, Racism, the Scramble for Africa, the Iraq War, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, global warming, world poverty, the Great Plague, Islamofascism, the 19th century Opium Wars against China, the First World War and the Vietnam War. Other events the book places blame on the British Empire for include the Second World War, the fathering of the United States and the drug trade. Other arguments made in the book involve the popularity of homosexuality among the British nobility, that the King James Bible was a deliberate act of heresy, and that the Piltdown Man hoax was a deliberate attempt by British academia to prove that they were a superior race. |
Spawn | Shaun Hutson | null | A child named Harold Pierce is playing a game which involves burning insects, when he accidentally sets fire to his home, killing his mother and his baby brother Gordon and doing severe permanent damage to his face. He is then considered insane and spends the next thirty-five years of his life incarcerated in a mental asylum where he is haunted by his dreadful mistake years earlier. However, when the asylum is set to be demolished, and all the patients are set to be moved to a new one, the doctors believe that Pierce's condition is stable, so they decide to release him. They manage to find him a job working as a porter in a hospital. Meanwhile, Paul Harvey, a killer imprisoned for two murders, escapes. The prison warden informs the chief of police of Exham that he believes that Harvey will return there, as it is his home town, to kill again. He orders a thorough search for Harvey, although he is not found. Pierce slowly settles into his new job and befriends fellow porter Greives. However, one of the aspects of his job involves burning aborted foetuses in a fire, which brings back painful memories. He eventually decides that it would be wrong to burn the foetuses, so he instead decides to sneak them out when nobody is looking and bury them in a nearby field. Shorty after, there is a powerful storm which fells an electricity pylon near the site of the grave. Pierce is paranoid that the workmen repairing the pylon will discover the grave, but they do not. He later returns to inspect the grave in fear that the rain may have washed it up, and he discovers, to his horror, that three of the foetuses are still alive. In Exham, the police continue to search for Paul Harvey. They are now even move determined to catch him as two headless corpses have been found, and they believe Harvey was the murderer. They are also convinced that he is in Exham, as a shopkeeper caught him eating food from the shelves before chasing him out with a shotgun. Meanwhile, Pierce begins to lose his sanity and continues to hear voices in his head, telling him what to do with the foetuses. They order him to cut open his chest and let the foetuses drink his blood, which he does. Greives decides to investigate Pierce's small hut near the hospital, as he can tell something is not right with Pierce. He is horrified to discover that Pierce has passed out due to blood loss, causing him to run from the hut towards the hospital. The shock of what he has discovered, combined stress of sprinting back to the hospital, causes him to die of a heart attack. Later on, Pierce discovers Greives' replacement attempting to burn a foetus, and tries to stop him. But he is too slow, and the foetus is thrown into the fire. Pierce collapses. He is later inspected by a female doctor called Maggie who cannot understand his obsession with not burning the foetuses, or how he received the cuts on his chest, as he will not tell her. Meanwhile, a family are driving near the hospital, when the two children declare that they need to urinate. The father parks near a field and lets then out of the car to urinate. However they are shocked to discover the open grave where five of the foetuses are still buried. They scream, causing their father to rush to them, and when he sees the decomposing foetuses, he vomits violently. He then informs the hospital, who burn the foetuses and then dismiss Pierce, as they realise that he is responsible for the burials. Maggie is surprised to discover that two women have died of what looked like giving birth, although they were not pregnant as they had both had abortions. In the meantime Harold returns to his old, now deserted asylum. Randall witnesses an autopsy of another headless corpse in the hospital where Pierce worked, again believing Harvey to be the murderer. Upon exiting, he encounters Maggie, who informs him that Pierce may be the killer and she tells him of Pierce's past and his actions when he worked in the hospital. Randall then visits the new asylum where Pierce's doctors work, where we learn that Pierce has never been violent or dangerous. He tells Maggie of this, and the two fall in love. He visits her flat, where they passionately have sex. He tells her that he has not been in a relationship since his wife and daughter died in a car accident. In the meantime, several other policemen who work for Randall search an abandoned farm house, where they find Harvey. He attacks one of then with a sickle, killing him, before the others are able to subdue him. They call Randall and he makes sure that Harvey is properly restrained, before giving him a severe beating and sending him back to prison. On the journey one of the guards in the ambulance transporting Harvey undoes his straps to turn him around, as he fears he may drown in his own spit. This proves to be a mistake as Harvey knocks him and the other guards unconscious before escaping. Randall is furious at this news and orders that the police return to hunting Harvey. Another headless corpse is soon discovered, and the police initially believe that Harvey again was the murderer, although after a DNA test they are horrified to discover that the corpse is Harvey. A witness claims to have seen the murder. Randall questions him and the witness describes that the killer had a burnt face. Realising that the killer is in fact Pierce, and not Harvey, he and Maggie rush to the abandoned asylum, where they figure Pierce is. Randall tells Maggie to wait as he enters the derelict building, and he and Pierce meet and fight, Randall is stabbed in the shoulder before he stabs Pierce in the stomach. Randall then searches the asylum and is horrified to discover the foetuses. Pierce, who survived, attacks Maggie outside in her car. She tries to radio for help but the radio runs out of power. Pierce breaks the glass and attempts to stab her, leaving her no choice but to ran the car repeatedly into a tree, with Pierce in between, before the petrol begins to leak and the car catches fire. Maggie is able to escape but Pierce is trapped between the car and the tree, and burns to death. She regroups with Randall in the abandoned asylum, where he shows her the foetuses. It is revealed that the three foetuses have mind controlling powers and that two of them caused their mothers to die; and that they manipulated Pierce into killing all his victims. Randall then tries to kill the foetuses with a knife, but they try to stop him by using their mind control powers to disguise themselves as his deceased daughter. This causes him to momentarily drop the knife, before he sees through their disguise and kills all three of the foetuses. Finally, it is revealed, that the final foetus he killed was merely an illusion, and that Maggie intends to raise the final surviving, evil foetus as her own child. |
Pirate Latitudes | Michael Crichton | 2,009 | In 1665, Captain Charles Hunter is hired by the Governor of Jamaica, Sir James Almont, to lead an expedition to the island fortress of Matanceros. It is there that a galleon, supposedly containing treasures untold, is awaiting protection across the Atlantic for safe travel back to Spain. Almont is excited about the possibility of reward in this venture, though his secretary Mr. Robert Hacklett is less than enthusiastic, calling Hunter a pirate. Hunter gathers his crew in Port Royal and sets sail to capture the ship in its own harbor. Mere days into the journey, their ship, the Cassandra is captured by a Spanish Warship commanded by none other than Cazalla, the infamous Spaniard who commands Matanceros. After a daring escape from their cell, Hunter and his crew reboard their ship and continue on their way before Cazalla can retaliate. Upon their arrival at Matanceros, Hunter, Black Eye, Lazue, Sanson, and the Moor all make their way behind the fortress. Traversing up skyward cliffs, rough jungle foliage, and deadly animals, the crew comes to see that Cazalla has docked under the suspicion that Hunter is still on his way to the island. The privateers manage to make their way around the village and soldiers occupying it long enough to set their traps. After a short duel between Hunter and Cazalla, the traps are sprung, and a slice to the throat kills Cazalla. The Cassandra appears and the crew takes their captain, his mates, and the galleon out to sea. After a few days, the treasure inside the galleon, El Trinidad, is accounted and split between the two ships. Soon afterward, Hunter discovers he is being pursued by the warship commanded by Bosquet, Cazalla's second-in-command. He is chased to Monkey Bay, where he narrowly evades capture with the aide of Lazue's eyesight. The warship is unable to follow due to the sun's glare on the ocean. Here Hunter waits until a few days later, the crew notices the signs of a terrible storm: a hurricane. Using the genius of Don Diego, their cannons are armed and aimed for a mere two defensive shots. Upon their departure, however, the warship has disappeared. Celebrating their surprise escape, a few miles out to sea, the warship is seen coming on their stern quickly. With Hunter aboard El Trinidad, the ship took massive damage from cannon fire until the two were in perfect alignment. The aimed cannons fired upon the warship, merely damaging it with the first shot and seeming to miss entirely on the second. However, after a moment of inactivity, Hunter realizes that the second shot actually landed a devastating blow and the attacking ship explodes with geysers of water shooting into the air. Moments later, there is little evidence of the warship. Victory evades the two ships, however, as it begins to rain and storm. The El Trinidad and the Cassandra, helmed by Sanson, are separated by fierce winds and strong currents. After the storm abates, Hunter finds the El Trinidad beached on a strange island. A few hours later, they see the island is inhabited by cannibalistic natives, who nearly capture the niece of Governor Almont. On their way back to Port Royal, the crew suffers yet another misfortune when their ship is attacked by a Kraken. After it had killed many and damaged the ship, Hunter manages to mortally injure the beast. Their path is finally clear to Port Royal. Upon their arrival, a courier gives message that Almont is gravely sick and Hacklett has taken charge as Governor. Hunter is arrested and put to trial, with Sanson betraying his captain and lying for the court. Hunter is sentenced to be hanged and placed in prison. With the aid of the sickly James Almont, Hunter is sprung from prison and kills the men who sentenced him, save for the judge himself who gives Hunter a pardon. Hacklett is shot in the groin, and Sanson sends word that he alone knows where the other half of the treasure is. Hunter turns the man's own crossbow against him and kills Sanson and throws his body overboard letting the sharks eat his body, yet is never able to find Sanson's treasure. |
The White Giraffe | null | 2,007 | Martine is left an orphan after her parents die in a fire in England; she is shipped off from England to live at an animal reserve in South Africa with her grandmother Gwyn Thomas, whom she has never met before. There she meets Tendai, a local worker on the game reserve with Martine's grandmother. Tendai takes Martine to his aunt named Grace, and she tells Martine that she has "the gift." When Martine has started to get used to her new home, she hears a local legend about a mythical white giraffe. Although no one sees it, the giraffe is rumored to leave footprints where it visits at night. Gwyn Thomas insists that the white giraffe is nothing more than a creature of legend, even though everyone else believes in it. Martine is startled, one stormy night, to see the white giraffe outside Gwyn's home. After some time, Martine feels courageous enough to start looking for the white giraffe at midnight. When Martine is almost bitten by a deadly cape cobra in her search, the white giraffe, who she calls Jemmy, saves her. A few nights later Martine is with Jemmy in the wildlife reserve and hears two poachers discussing the giraffe. One of them spots her, and Martine, for the first time, rides on Jemmy to get away. Several nights later, she decides to go back to Jemmy’s secret cave. Inside, she meets Grace. Grace is a sangoma, a woman skilled at healing, and she tells Martine the full story about the ancient cave. Grace also gave Martine a bag of vials, which are used for healing. The next morning, Gwyn Thomas tells Martine that the white giraffe has been stolen by poachers. They suspect that Jemmy is on a ship, and race to the docks to try and find him. While searching for Jemmy, Martine meets Ben, a (mostly) silent boyfrom her class. She quickly explains to him what happened, and he agrees to help. Ben thinks that Jemmy is held captive in the cargo hold of the ship his father is captain of. They find Jemmy wounded in the cargo hold, and Martine heals him with Grace's medicines. Then they ride off back to the game reserve, where the police capture the poachers. |
A Perfumed Scorpion | Idries Shah | 1,978 | The book contains the substance of lectures given by the author at various universities in the United States of America under the aegis of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge and the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Fairleigh Dickinson University. The ‘perfuming of a scorpion’ is a reference to a symbol used by Hadrat Bahaudin Naqshband of Bukhara when he taught about the ubiquitous problem of hypocrisy and self-deception in both individuals and institutions: “Whoever might perfume a scorpion will not thereby escape its sting”. The seven sections of the book deal in depth with this issue under headings such as Education, The Nature of Sufi Knowledge, The Path and the Duties and the Techniques, Teaching Stories, A framework for New Knowledge and Involvement in Sufi Study. Each section contains numerous illustrative anecdotes from contemporary life but is nevertheless rooted in the teaching patterns of Rumi, Hafiz, Jami, and other great Oriental sages who dealt with the need for, and the path to, knowledge and information before real progress can be made. |
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