title
stringlengths 1
220
| author
stringlengths 4
59
⌀ | pub_year
int64 398
2.01k
⌀ | summary
stringlengths 11
58k
|
|---|---|---|---|
A Thread of Scarlet | Bruce Marshall | 1,959 | The hero, as often in Marshall's novels, is a Scottish priest. The novel tracks the life of Father Campbell, a convert to Catholicism from a wealthy family, from his ordination to the priesthood just before the First World War until his death many years later, as a Cardinal. In his first parish assignment, Father Campbell found himself pitted against his Rector, a canon, in a kind of running conflict the first of a series of minor entanglements and setbacks which lay in the path of his vocation like boulders. World War I sees him sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force as a Chaplain. The experiences there hardened him some, but his essential faith is unshaken. After the war he returns to his parish, still a very serious, but unsophisticated young priest. He seeks a miracle for an Army companion who he has helped lead back to the faith. They go to Lourdes. Scotland, which had never been granted such a miracle, watched hopefully. The outcome was a surprise to everyone, and causes Father Campbell a good deal of bother. Father Campbell was patient and humble; but in his early years his essential characteristic was a rebellious intelligence, challenged by Catholic discipline and eventually mellowed by the experiences which befell him after he had been created Cardinal. A study of the complex problems facing the world and the church, the book presents a dramatic and absorbing reality to subjects the layman rarely sees and often feels kept from. The priest's rise through the church hierarchy allows him to travel widely and as he observes the actions of the people, both lay and clerical, he himself remains unspotted by the world. A famous writer has said that only the truly good can understand evil and Father Campbell is a man for whom the glory of God and the truth of the Church are the ultimate realities. The result is a heart-warmingly human story of richness and depth in which faith and intelligence triumph – as does charity. The story ends when the old Canon, having grown fond of the Cardinal, relents at last, bequeaths his excellent wine cellar, and his collection of soap scraps, to him. |
Maigret and the Hotel Majestic | null | null | Maigret is called to the high-class Hotel Majestic to investigate the body. The wife of a wealthy American has been killed - but to Maigret's surprise she has a gun in her purse. He begins to follow up the handful of clues that could explain her secret life and her demise. |
Inspector Ghote's Good Crusade | H. R. F. Keating | 1,966 | The novel begins just after Inspector Ghote has been given the task of investigating Frank Master's murder. At the Masters Foundation for the Care of Juvenile Vagrants Ghote meets two urchins who answer to names which they have chosen for themselves from American movies: "Edward G. Robinson" and "Tarzan". Inside, Ghote meats Dr Diana Uplea, who tells him that death was the result of arsenic poisoning. The cook tells him that Frank Masters ate the same food as the orphans, which was of poor quality except for a beef curry prepared under Doctor Diana Uplea's supervision. Ghote asks to see the dishes the meal was served in and the cook reveals that he is an unreliable witness by first claiming the dishes are washed then offering an "unwashed dish" which is actually a clean dish with leftovers from the dustbin added. The interview ends when Fraulein Glucklick enters the room, interrupting Ghote. Glucklick informs Ghote that a Swami was giving a talk at the time of the murder. She also tells Ghote that Dr Diana Uplea caused no end of trouble when Masters visited Tibetan refugees in the Punjab and left Dr Uplea in charge. At this time Dr Upleigh discovered the notorious criminal Amahred Singh was hanging around the foundation and threatened him with the police. Lastly Fraulein Glucklick tells Ghote that the windows of the staff dining room are left open and on several occasions people have reached in to steal food (the implication is that someone could reach in to add poison). The next day Ghote interviews Sonny Carstairs, an Anglo-Indian dispensing chemist at the foundation. Carstairs notes that the preparation used to treat the skin disease of "Edward G. Robinson" contains arsenic. On investigation the preparation bottle is lighter than it should be. Ghote tries to take the bottle as evidence but Carstairs drops it. Under threat of arrest for destroying evidence Carstairs tells Ghote that he dropped the bottle out of shock, having realised that the only key for the dispensary is in his charge. After the interview Ghote encounters Dr Uplea who tells him Carstairs is not normally so clumsy and confirms there is only one key to the dispensary. Dr Uplea also reveals that she had "Edward G." and "Tarzan" watch on the dispensary as her car was nearby and had been recently vandalised. Ghote interrogates "Edward G." by playing along with the boy's obsession with movies. The boy tells him that he saw a man enter the dispensary with a key. Using a ride in a police wagon as a bribe, Ghote discovers that the man was Amahred Singh, who has a gold smuggling racket which the boys help with. Masters apparently found some of the gold and locked it in the dispensary. "Edward G." promises to arrange a meeting between the inspector and Singh. Ghote calls the fingerprint department and learns that Singh's fingerprints were found in the dispensary. A new interview of Sonny Carstairs, with intimidation, confirms that Carstairs gave Singh the key to dispensary because Singh threatened him. Later the same evening Chatterjee Krishna blackmailed Carstairs for the key with the knowledge that Carstairs used ether as a recreational drug. Chatterjee admits borrowing the dispensary key but then flees. Ghote gives chase and captures Chatterjee who admits entering the dispensary but denies killing Frank Masters. Ghote reluctantly accepts this. "Edward G." keeps his promise: Singh arrives and begins to answer Ghote's questions in a good-natured way. He charmingly acknowledges that he is a criminal and that the police want to hang him. Ghote tries to obtain a confession that Singh entered the dispensary. Singh refuses to give an explanation of why he was in the dispensary and notes that even he is a little afraid of Doctor Diana Uplea. The following day Ghote has an interview with the Deputy Superintendent of Police. Ghote is ordered to have Singh arrested, with false evidence if necessary, and to suppress evidence that implicates Chatterjee. The D. S. P. leaves Ghote with a warning not to be too clever. Instead of following orders, Ghote interviews Dr Uplea again. Frank Masters' visit to the Punjab is mentioned. Masters himself is described as a man of action rather than an armchair charity worker and as a man who had his eyes wide open to the evils of the world and was prepared to oppose them where he could. Threatened with arrest, "Edward G." offers to supply false evidence in return for a fee. Ghote is painfully aware that this would be acceptable to his superiors and is faced with a difficult dilemma when "Edward G." claims to have seen Singh take poison from the jar in the dispensary. Ghote resists the temptation to accept the boy's offer immediately, and hopes to use the threat of eyewitness testimony to extract information from Amahred Singh. He searches for Singh in one of the more dangerous parts of Bombay where he is attacked by one of Singh's associates and knocked unconscious. Ghote awakes to find himself in Singh's hideout in the presence of Singh himself. Singh acknowledges that he is a gold smuggler and admits entering the dispensary looking for gold that Masters had discovered and confiscated from the boys. He claims he found no gold, denies taking the poison and reveals that he knows Chatterjee also entered the dispensary. The next day Ghote visits Chatterjee and obtains the address of "Tarzan's" family. Ghote has deduced that the boy's family are a link in Singh's Gold smuggling pipeline as they are fishermen and have a boat. Ghote visits the family, posing as a social worker. After his visit he keeps them under surveillance but his search fails to find any gold when they return to shore. Feeling defeated, Ghote has Chatterjee brought to the police station for interrogation. Chatterjee describes Frank Masters as at times overgenerous which caused trouble at the foundation. On such occasions Masters responded with further acts of generosity, but often failed to follow through with his good works. The following evening Ghote has a row with his wife. It ends with Ghote revealing that he has saved 500 rupees for a refrigerator, which will cost over 1100 rupees. He agrees to buy the refrigerator tomorrow and borrow the outstanding amount. The next day, after getting the money out of his savings account, Ghote again visits "Tarzan's" family and discovers Singh keeping watch on them. He accuses Singh of murdering Masters, Singh denies it and claims ignorance of where the poison was kept. Singh tries to bribe Ghote then berates Masters acts of charity as acts of vanity. Ghote resolves to give his refrigerator money to the fisher family and soon after does so. Returning to the foundation Ghote again encounters "Edward G." who also mocks Masters charity as mere egotism. Ghote realises that he has heard variations of this opinion from several people and that it must be true. Doctor Diana Uplea is the only person who has contradicted this view of Frank Masters. Ghote finds Dr Uplea, who tells him that Masters was a bad administrator who would not accept advice and a poor judge of character who allowed himself to be fooled by Amahred Singh. Hearing this causes Ghote to regret giving his refrigerator money to the fisher family and he hurries away in hope of retrieving it. At their home Ghote discovers that the stepmother spent every penny on funding the village's holy day fiesta. Despairing, Ghote chances upon Singh digging something up. Singh flees but Ghote chases and arrests him. Inspector Patel of Indian Customs and Excise meets Ghote at the Bombay railway station. Patel takes Singh into his own custody, noting that Ghote had no authority to arrest Singh for a smuggling offence. Ghote tells his wife he has given his money to the poor. His wife, Protima, is furious. The argument ends when Ghote tells Protima that the family used the money to celebrate the village's holy day and they both begin laughing. Ghote recounts the important details of the case to his wife, who remarks that a person can become sick without poison. Ghote has a revelation and solves the case. At the foundation Ghote finds Dr Uplea about to fire the cook which she claims she has the authority to do now Frank Masters is dead. Chatterjee tries to make peace but Carstairs agrees the cook is terrible and that Dr Uplea is in charge. Ghote announces he knows the identity of the murderer. Dr Uplea invites Ghote to arrest Chatterjee but Ghote declines, explaining that neither Chatterjee nor Singh committed the crime. Ghote explains that "Edward G." told Chatterjee that Frank Masters had lost his money and was smuggling gold to support the foundation. Chatterjee believed this lie and tried to protect Masters' reputation, inadvertently implicating himself. Ghote reveals that Frank Masters became sick because of an ordinary emetic which allowed Dr Uplea to access the dispensary legitimately and administer the poison instead of a cure. Dr Uplea confesses that this is the truth and that she killed Masters because he intended to abandon the foundation and give his money to Tibetan refugees instead. After Dr Uplea has been taken away, Ghote finds himself alone with "Edward G." who reveals that the boys knew the truth all along. "Edward G." stresses that street children need to know what is going on around them, as it is a survival skill, and praises Ghote's cleverness in catching Dr Uplea. Ghote at first accepts this praise, telling the boy that the police are not always stupid, then concedes that at least some policemen have wives who cannot be tricked. |
Computer One | null | null | The novel describes a near utopia in which almost everything is automated by Computer One, with humanity's primary struggle being what to do with all its leisure time when there is very little work to be done. Though analogous to the Internet, the Computer One of the novel assumes a far greater unity of purpose and truth. Whereas the content of sites on the World Wide Web varies greatly and typically reflects the views of individual authors, Computer One provides a singe authoritative source of information with no ambiguity. |
Only Fade Away | Bruce Marshall | 1,954 | A change of pace for Marshall, this book is only peripherally concerned with matters of faith and religion. Strang Methuen is an old soldier, a stiff-necked Scot who serves in the British Army in two world wars. Methuen is able to show more courage in the face of enemy fire than when dealing with friends and family—those he loves and hates. Methuen has been bullied since his school days by Hermiston. For nearly 40 years, every time he thinks he has escaped or defeated the bully, a quirk of fate makes Methuen the goat again. The very qualities that keep him from winning, integrity and personal honor, also make him a sympathetic and interesting character. A revelation about his beloved daughter almost crushes Methuen, but he recovers. The story ends when Methuen, now a Brigadier General fighting in World War II Italy, uses his experience and wiles to perform a vital military maneuver, preventing a major defeat. Unfortunately Hermiston, in an attempt to finally put things right, makes a confession which puts Methuen's achievement in a bad light. He is demoted and leaves the service in disgrace. |
The Bishop | Bruce Marshall | 1,970 | This novel is a sort of 'inside look" at the workings of a fictional Roman Catholic Bishop's headquarters in the United Kingdom. The central characters are Bishop Bede Jenkins; Father Spyers, a young, recently ordained priest who serves as the Bishop's secretary; Monsignor Basil Powell, the Vicar General, who was once a Major in the Grenadier Guards; and Monsignor Finbar O'Flaherty, the administrator of the pro-Cathedral. The story opens as Father Spyers opens a new encyclical, Humanae Vitae, which prohibits Catholics the use of chemical birth control methods (physical methods had long been banned). The process of implementing perhaps the most controversial papal bull released during the Church's second millennium supplies most of the activities of the story. Marshall introduces us to the discussions and arguments within the Catholic community during this time. The Bishop finds himself embroiled in fights with his superiors over his methods of implementing the decree. Father Spyers spends time in the hospital after being struck down by an angry husband. Subplots include Monsignor Powell's counseling of a nun who wishes to leave the convent, problems that the Bishop's friend, an Anglican Bishop, experiences and the irreligious attitude of modern Englishmen. The novel touches on modern literature, the treatment of animals, modern art, cultural differences and Father Spyers' daydreams of his future papacy (interestingly he chooses Benedict XVI as his title). |
The Death Guard | null | null | In its tale of a chemist who creates an army of bloodthirsty plant-based humanoids out of a desire to abolish war once and for all (the rationale being that no country would attack England if it were known she possessed such a defense), the book foreshadowed the rise of nuclear weapons and Cold War politics. Continental Europe forms an alliance and invades Britain. The book is divided into three parts. In the first part of this novel we meet the inventors of the artificial life. We follow their story from their first meeting through the time when they relocate their lab to the Congo for its more conducive weather conditions. The first we hear of the matured Death Guard (nicknamed Pugs) is via a radio broadcast that is ended prematurely by the hideous death of the announcer. The next part is a tour of the process of making and growing the "pugs", as the protagonist "enlists" in one of factories and gets a firsthand look at what his uncle and grandfather had wrought. The third section recounts the war with continental Europe and the breakdown of infrastructure. Involving poisonous electric gas, "humanite" bombs (atomic bombs), and the unfeeling march of the Death Guard across the very land they were designed to protect. Later the Death Guard continues to wander unchecked across the broken landscape even after all the enemy has been killed. The resulting carnage reduces whole cities and towns in Britain to smoking rubble. |
Landscape for a Good Woman | Carolyn Steedman | null | Landscape for a Good Woman is an autobiographical class analysis which looks at the working class upbringing of famed sociologist Carolyn Steedman in 1950s London. “It is about the centrality of some narratives and the essential marginality of others, and about the stories we tell ourselves to explain our lives. Her writings emphasize and analyze the differences between her and her mother, who didn’t represent the traditional model of mother-child relationship. |
Saffy's Angel | Hilary McKay | null | The novel begins with Saffron searching through the colour chart pinned up in her house, looking for her name. The characters are introduced. While Saffron searches, the health visitor is checking up on Rose, her new sister. The health visitor then discovers Rose has been sucking Caddy's paint tubes. The health visitor threatens to take Rose to Casualty. Saffron finds out that she was adopted by Bill and Eve, after Saffron's mother, who is Eve's sister, is killed in a car crash and becomes deeply upset, despite being comforted by her family. The story fast forwards to when Rose is 6 years old. Rose starts school (a year late according to the health visitor) and draws her first picture, which her teacher pastes to the wall. Rose is very upset and persuades Indigo to steal her picture and Caddy to draw an identical one to go up on the wall instead. Rose, Indigo, Saffron and Caddy's grandfather visits and Caddy has another disastrous driving lesson and tells her driving instructor, Michael about failing all her exams. Soon after their grandfather visits, he dies and leaves something to each of the children. For Cadmium, his property in Wales. For Indigo, his car. For Saffron, his angel in the garden. And for Rose, his money. After the will is read, Bill heads back down to London and while running after him, Saffron meets Sarah. Caddy has another lesson, meanwhile Saffron goes round to Sarah's house and meets her mother, Mrs Warbeck, the headmistress of the private school. Sarah begins the idea of visiting Siena, where Saffron believes the stone angel is. Sarah persuades her mother and father to take her to Siena during the term, and Sarah's mother begins to trust the two friends, and lets them go into town together. They meet up with some girls their age who all have their noses pierced. Sarah wants one too and persuades Saffron to get one done. When Sarah's mother finds out Sarah is in lots of trouble, but Saffron's nose ring is admired by her family. Soon after, Caddy scatters her revision books across the house, in order to revise everywhere and to beat her driving instructor's talented (made-up) girlfriend. Sarah perfects her plan to smuggle Saffron into Siena in her car and Saffron is forced to agree by her sisters and brother. Caddy passes her written driving test and Saffron heads off to Siena with Sarah's family. When they arrive at Siena, Sarah's family having found out three-quarters of the way there, Mrs Warbeck, Sarah and Saffron set off to find the stone angel. They discover a locked door and go back very disappointed. Sarah's father starts up a rude game marking Italians' bottoms out of ten. Saffron makes a call home and talks to her mother. Caddy is still revising to beat Michael's girlfriend, Rose is doing her art and Indigo is conquering more fears of his. Saffron and Sarah try again and again, until on the last day they find Saffron's forgotten neighbour. The neighbour tells Saffron that her grandfather took the stone angel away long ago, when he took Saffron. Meanwhile, Caddy takes her driving test. Rose and Indigo decide to look in the Banana House for Saffy's angel. Caddy is very disappointed to find she passed her driving test, because she can't have driving lessons with Michael anymore. However, Indigo and Rose persuade Caddy to drive to Wales to find Saffy's angel, Indigo's car and Caddy's house after Indigo has a brainwave. On the way there, Rose holds up lots of signs to make up for Caddy's nervous driving. When they arrive in Wales, they find barbed wire around Caddy's house with a large 'Keep Out' sign plastered on. But, they climb over and find Indigo's wrecked car with a chest in the back, nailed tightly shut. They return home to find Saffy and Sarah back from Siena. Bill also has arrived home, and has to have everything explained to him by Saffron and the rest of the family. Bill opens the box and finds Saffy's stone angel in pieces. Saffron is delighted to have found the box. Caddy is going to university in London, after passing all of her exams. Before Caddy goes, however, Caddy finds the perfect resin and paint, to stick Saffy's angel back together right before she leaves. Saffy finds out that she belongs in the casson family and there is no place like home. |
The Seer | David Stahler, Jr. | 2,007 | After leaving Harmony, Jacob is following the trail to find Delaney Carrow, a girl presumed dead. By homing in on her sounder, he meets Xander, an ex-mercenary for the Mixel corporation. Xander initially gives Jacob a hard time, but as the weeks pass, he warms to the kid he calls "blinder". Jacob, once again homing in on Delaney's sounder, discovers that Xander has it. When he confronts Xander (using a kitchen knife of all things) he discovers that Xander had given Delaney a ride, and left her on the doorsteps of Mixel. In desperation, Jacob begs Xander to take him to Melville, to see if he can find Delaney. Xander is against it at first, but he eventually caves in and takes him to Mixel tower, where they discover that Delaney has become a pop-star, and has also been changed; given artificial eyes so that she can see. But Delaney is not happy. In truth, she is a prisoner in Mixel tower, and Jacob hatches a plan with Xander to free her from Mixel. Later, Jacob starts having visions, first about Delaney and Harmony, but later on, bits and pieces of these visions come true and he realizes that he is starting to be able to see future events. With this new power, he is able to get his companions out of difficult situations. One night, he has a vision of a boy telling him that there are people like him out there, Blinders turned Seers. However, the message garbles before Jacob can hear the location of the colony, so Jacob decides to revisit Harmony to seek answers. Upon returning to Harmony, Jacob and Delaney pay a visit to the high councilor's house where Delaney tells her father of her return. The high councilor tries to strangle his daughter, but is presumably killed by Jacob, and she escapes while Jacob heads to the ghostbox. He begins asking the ghostbox if there are other people like him out there. The ghostbox then tells Jacob that there are others like him, people who were born blind and have gained the ability to see (called "abominations" by the ghostbox), who were supposed to be killed rather than simply having their sight taken away as Jacob believed before. Jacob then proceeds to ask the ghostbox where the other escaped Seers might be, and discovers from the machine that they could on the colony of Tieresias. Eventually, he is detected by listeners who chase him throughout Harmony. They fail to catch him and he and his companions make a hasty escape away from the colony. |
Tell All | Chuck Palahniuk | 2,010 | The novel, an homage to the Golden Age of Hollywood, is narrated by Hazel "Hazie" Coogan, a lifelong employee and caretaker of aging actress Katherine "Miss Kathie" Kenton. When a suitor named Webster Carlton Westward III manages to weasel his way into Miss Kathie’s heart (and bed), Hazie is suspicious. Upon discovering that Westward has already written a celebrity tell-all memoir foretelling Miss Kathie’s death in a forthcoming Lillian Hellman–penned musical extravaganza, Hazie worries that Westward's intentions may be less than honorable, and may even be deadly. |
Free Land | Rose Wilder Lane | 1,938 | It is 1880s - David Beaton and his bride come to Dakota to claim three hundred acres of grassland. But they have to struggle to survive. The young couple experience cyclones, droughts, and blizzards that isolate them for days from the rest of the world. |
My Life Starring Mum | null | null | The novel is written in diary form. It starts with Hollywood at her Convent School. The Reverend Mother tells Holly she has received a call from her mother, asking her to come back to London to live with her because Kandhi is worried about security. Hollywood returns to New York to find her new deluxe home halfway through renovation. Meanwhile her mum is filming a new movie, and when she announces she is going to be married to her British co-star, Hollywood is not happy. |
The Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark | Ridley Pearson | 2,005 | For many nights, Finn has been appearing in Disney parks as a DHI ("Disney Host Interactive") and a hologram, while he is asleep. Finn realizes that these are no dreams, and are actually happening. While in the empty park one night, he meets Wayne, an elderly cast member and original Imagineer. Wayne tells Finn that he must find the other kid hosts and arrive at the park at the same time or else Disney is in danger. There is a mysterious group called The Overtakers, who plan to take over the parks and maybe the world. Finn doesn't believe Wayne, and Wayne sends Finn back to his real body by pressing a red button on a black fob. The next night he finds himself back in the empty dark park as his DHI. This time, he sees two of the other DHIs Charlene and Philby, and to make matters scarier, a group of pirate Audio-animatronics from Pirates of the Caribbean ride around in cars from Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, and they shoot lasers at Finn. Finn wakes up and sees the laser burns on his real body, his mom asks him what happened so he lies and says that a bully burnt him with a cigarette. During the day Finn and his strange new friend, Amanda track down the other four hosts Willa, Philby, Maybeck and Charlene. Finn tells them they're not alone in appearing to the park at night. He said they must all go to sleep at night at the same time and appear in the park at the same time. Finn and Amanda also decide to do investigating of their own, and head to the Magic Kingdom in the afternoon. Security guards see the real Finn and Finn's DHI so they decide to chase after him. After Finn and Amanda reunite at The Haunted Mansion, the two decide something is wrong in the park. That night, the 5 DHIs unite at the park and meet up with Wayne. Here they discover that the park comes to life after hours, and Wayne explains to them that something is going wrong in the parks- rides closing, costumes disappearing, Audio-animatronics coming to life, and padlocks stolen. Wayne takes them into the Country Bear Jamboree, where he tells them how Magic Kingdom and the world outside its walls are endangered by the Overtakers. After showing the kids a secret passageway through Cinderella's Castle called Escher's Keep that is a secret apartment to escape the DHI world. Wayne explains that the DHI system was created especially for this purpose, as they needed 5 teenagers to unravel an old fable by Walt Disney himself- The Stonecutters Quill. The fable concerns a stonecutter, who wishes to be: the sun, the clouds, the wind, and the mountains. Along with the fable came a quote- "I have plans to put this place in a different perspective". Realizing that all four subjects of the matter are in multiple attractions around the park, and must be what Walt meant, the five kids decide to set out to find clues to stop the Overtakers around the park. The plot unfolds as the group searches through the park's attractions for clues as to what can stop the Overtakers. The kids look up information about Walt Disney, the parks, and research DHI technology. In the day time, the kids keep in touch through the online game VMK, and at night they meet up in the park as their DHIs and search. Unfortunately, as they search, they hit some road blocks; they can't find anything in the attractions, no matter how hard they look. Another problem is the Overtakers getting in the way- the kids ride in its a small world, and the animatronic dolls come to life and attack and bite at the kids. The ride ends up broken at the end of the night and closed. Another problem is the suspiciousness around Finn's friend Amanda. She follows Finn around, begging to know whats going on, and appears out of nowhere. Finn notes that when she runs, she seems to float. Another problem following the kids is one of the Overtakers, the evil fairy Maleficent from "Sleeping Beauty" (1959 film). Maleficent seems to have powers over cold- she can blast ice, freeze people, and create ice wherever she goes and whatever she touches. The kids seem to get colder than normal when she appears. The kids also (coincidentally) play separate sports at the Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex. At the sports games, Finn meets a girl named Jez-(she says it's short for Jezebel). She seems to take a liking to Finn and follows him around, and she and Amanda seem not to like each other. Meanwhile, Finn deciphers the quote from Walt Disney in the 50s, and realizes by "different perspective", he meant things being in 3D, as they were wildly popular in the 50s. Supposing that Walt planned this whole thing out, Finn gets 3D glasses, and the teens go around the attractions across various nights, looking for clues and letters: *Finn and Philby float through the water of Splash Mountain, only to have Maleficent activate the ride. They go over the final drop and almost get killed, but manage to climb into an upcoming log and, using the 3D glasses, find letters on the walls in the cloud reference at the end of the ride. *Charlene and Willa visit the park during the day and ride The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh for the wind reference. Maleficent gets their honey pot car alone in a scene, locks the doors, and sets off the water system, almost drowning and suffocating the girls to the ceiling. The two break the door foundation, and escape, but getting the clues on the ride along the way. *At night, the girls and Maybeck recheck It's a Small World for the sun reference and find the letters. *Finally, Finn and Philby, looking for the mountain reference, climb the tracks of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. However, Maleficent brings the attraction to life, bringing to life a giant skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. While gaining the clues, the two boys outrun the dinosaur on the track and the skeleton breaks apart over the attraction. Another problem in their journey occurs when Maybeck's DHI never returns one night. In real life, Maybeck is trapped asleep, as his DHI is still in the Magic Kingdom. Finn and Philby (as DHIs) realize that the Overtakers must've put Maybeck in a dark place where his screams cannot be heard - Space Mountain. Finn and Philby use a rope from Wayne's apartment over the Main Street Firestation to climb the building and scale the catwalks and tracks until they find him tied up in a closet. Using their DHI powers, Finn becomes light and rescues Maybeck. Maybeck reveals that it was Maleficent and Jez; he had agreed to meet Jez on a date, but she was really Maleficent's evil slave. This scare seems to make the kids stop coming back at night for very long, and the five resume their normal lives. While riding bikes with Amanda days later, Finn catches a glimpse of Maleficent on a motorcycle, going after them. Riding through a skate park to escape, Amanda seems to create some sort of magic to help Finn escape, and leaves him speechless. Eventually, the five kids return to the park at night again to get the rest of the letters on the attractions, which seem to spell out "MY FIRST PEN". They soon learn that the secret weapon they need is Walt Disney's first pen, which is kept at the One Man's Dream exhibit at Disney's Hollywood Studios (Disney-MGM). Finn infiltrates the exhibit after closing to get the pen. However, he grabs a whole handful of pens and pencils and tries to escape, when he hears security coming, and realizes he's been ratted out. However, before he escapes, Maleficent steals Walt's original plans and designs for the parks. Finn escapes and discovers that it was Amanda. Finn thinks Amanda is an Overtaker and has been setting him up. Finn leaves her in anger. On an evening school field trip to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, where everyone is in a costume, Finn (who brought the pens and pencils from the One Man's Dream display) meets up with the other four DHIs. While meeting up at the party, Amanda and Charlene suddenly faint at the same time. Finn spies Maleficent and Jez descending into Pirates of the Caribbean. Finn, Maybeck, and Philby follow the two into the corridors and underground passageways of the attraction and discover large jail cells, with brand new padlocks, reported to have been stolen only recently. The three realize that the witches must be planning to lock all the Cast Members in the cells below the ride. The three continue, only to be cornered by Maleficent and Jez, who purposely led the three down below. Using Walt's pen, Finn realizes it has some sort of powers, and stuns the witch and electrifies her with it. Maleficent faints and Jez is forced to revive Amanda and Charlene. Now knowing Maleficents plans and what must be done, the kids and Wayne realize they must catch her and retrieve the stolen plans. However, when the kids and Wayne meet the next morning at the Transportation and Ticket Center, Wayne has brought along Amanda. Wayne has the five kids dress up as costumed cast members found around the park, and sends them into the utilidors for cast members beneath the park. While the two girls (and Amanda) man the park overhead, the three guys head for the coldest room of all in the utilidors- the computer room, seeing how Maleficent is all about cold. Luring her out of the computer room by pretending to give her the pen, Finn electrifies the witch again, grabs the plans, and the 3 boys rush off into the park with the plans and the pen, and Maleficent after them. Philby and Maybeck meet up with Charlene and Willa and escape back to Wayne. In a battle outside Tomorrowland (which is believed to be a show by park guests), Finn becomes his DHI (during the day!) and knocks over the witch and he steps into Jez, nothing but light. She tries to step out of him, but he knows her every move. In an effort to try to rid herself of him, she spins extremely fast, and now they are one: spinning and glowing. While she is spinning she is slowly transforming into a brighter girl, a girl almost identical to Amanda. Finn realizes the two are twins, twin witches, and Jez had been under a spell by Maleficent. Her real name is Jess. The two joyfully reunite and thank Finn, who escapes down a garbage chute with the plans and the pens, and Maleficent giving chase. Finn ends up in a large bin of trash and escapes, while Maleficent lands in a giant net, closed and captured by the Disney Imagineers. Finally, the witch has been caught and peace restores. Hours later, Maleficent is locked up in her own jail cell in the queue of Pirates of the Caribbean, and the kids rejoice in the Cinderella Castle apartment because Amanda and Jess have reunited, the riddle has been solved, Walt's first pen has been found, and everything has been restored to normal around Walt Disney World. Finn touches Walt's first magical pen to the recovered plans of the park, causing the Magic Kingdom to illuminate, and the park becomes more magical as the rides magically become fixed, everything returns to tip-top shape, and the most elaborate fireworks the park had ever seen go off in the night sky. The five kids watch the park light up in the same path as they did on the map, and the plans illuminate as they celebrate a happy end. Wayne then returns to his desk, picks up the black remote and presses the button. |
Looking for JJ | Anne Cassidy | 2,004 | The book centers around Alice Tully, a 16 year old waitress who is living in Croydon. She has a boyfriend called Frankie, and lives with a carer called Rosie. She killed her friend, Michelle, when she was 10 years old, as Jennifer Jones, and had been released from jail 6 months previously. The book follows certain parts of the story such as Alice now, Jennifer and the killing, and her new identity when the press expose her at the end of the book. There are four sections in the book: the first is in the mindset of Alice Tully, the second of Jennifer Jones (going into details of her childhood, showing her mother's descent into prostitution and the build up to the crime), the third of Alice Tully (as her identity is revealed) and the last of Kat Rickan (Jennifer's new identity). |
Changes | Jim Butcher | 2,010 | Susan Rodriguez contacts Dresden to tell him they have a daughter, Margaret Angelica, who was born after the events of Death Masks. Dresden's daughter has been kidnapped by the Red Court. After Susan and Martin arrive, Susan explains the circumstances of Maggie's birth. Now determined to track down his daughter, and struggling with rage, guilt and other emotions over Maggie's birth, Dresden attempts to track her down by infiltrating a nearby Red Court outpost. The attempt is complicated by the fact that the outpost is Dresden's office building, which has been purchased by the Red Court. The attempt is further derailed by the arrival of a team of Red Court vampires. Dresden battles them, and the trio escapes. The building is detonated by the Red Court moments later. The information Susan and Martin managed to harvest, however, implicates that Duchess Arianna, the widow of a Red Court duke that Dresden killed several years earlier, is behind the kidnapping. Dresden goes to Edinburgh to seek help from the Council. However, upon his arrival, he discovers Arianna is there, hosting a peace conference with the rest of the Council. Dresden openly challenges Arianna to a duel to the death over his daughter's kidnapping, but is prevented from carrying it through by the other members of the Council. Infuriated, Dresden returns home. Dresden learns from Karrin Murphy that Rudolph, who used to work in Special Investigations, is now implicating him in the explosion, and that he is being pushed to do so by someone. Due to Rudolph's accusation, the FBI and a SWAT team arrive at Dresden's apartment to arrest and interrogate him. Dresden flees to the Nevernever with any items that could be considered "illegal" (including Bob and the two Knights of the Cross swords in his possession, but is forced to return after barely escaping a fight with an enormous centipede with his life (leaving behind his items buried for safe keeping), and is arrested. Because the FBI lack evidence and charges, and because of the level-headedness of Special Agent Tilly, Dresden is released, but not before wasting valuable time. Returning to his home, he discovers that Leanansidhe has immobilized Susan and Martin assuming they're intruders. After realizing that his Mother left him something, he asks the Leanansidhe if his mother left her anything to safeguard for him. He receives a magical ruby representing the summary of his mother's considerable knowledge of the Ways, which are safe passages through the hazardous Nevernever. Dresden is obliquely directed to Johnnie Marcone, who, in turn, directs Dresden to Ms. Gard, his supernatural consultant. Ms. Gard transports Dresden to the headquarters of her employer, Monoc Securities. She introduces Dresden to the CEO, Donar Vadderung, who Dresden realizes is actually Odin. Odin freely gives Dresden the truth of the matter. The Red Court is going to use Margaret for a powerful rite of Death Magic at Chichén Itzá, which is a conjunction of a number of Ley Lines, powerful rivers of magical energy. If successful, the blood curse will kill everyone who shares a relation to Maggy, including Dresden himself. Dresden decides to investigate Rudolph, the FBI agent who implicated him in the office explosion, realizing that he must have implicated Dresden because of pressure coming from the Red Court. Knowing the Red Court will now want Rudolph dead since his usefulness has run out, Dresden hopes to get information from the Red Court's assassins. It turns out that the same husband-wife pair of vampires who coordinated the Office operation, Esmerelda and Estaban, are the ones pressuring Rudolph and bring along a Mayan demon, known as a Devourer, to assist. With the aid of Mouse, Molly and Thomas, who Harry enlists in the rescue effort, the Eebs are beaten and flee. However, when Thomas nearly feeds on Molly because of his injuries, a disgusted and angry Dresden orders him to leave until he can control himself. The Eebs, later firebomb his apartment; after waking his elderly landlady, Dresden attempts to save the other occupants of the building, but breaks his spine after falling off of a ladder. He is taken to Father Forthill's Church. After asking the archangel Uriel for help, Dresden realizes that he can no longer refuse power on moral grounds alone; to save his daughter, he calls upon Mab, the Winter Queen, and takes on the mantle of the Winter Knight. Healed of his injuries, Harry survives an assassination attempt by a local hitman, but is shocked to learn that it was apparently Susan who placed the hit on him (though he realizes that it could have be Esmerelda using her abilities to create masks to look like Susan). When he attempts to find her, however, he discovers that Susan has been arrested for questioning, having also been implicated in the Office explosion; Harry goes to the office building to free her. However, the Eebs bring a host of Red Court vampires, and the Devourer, in a direct assault on the FBI office building to kill Harry, Martin and Susan. Special Agent Tilly allies himself with the three to escape the ambush. They manage to get the remaining agents out of harm's way - Murphy and Tilly escape through a back door, but the vampires continue to hound Dresden and Susan, who attempt to escape the ambush into the Nevernever. The Eebs pursue him, along with their vampire host and the Devourer; however, the corresponding location in the Nevernever is the home of the Erlking, a powerful fairy who holds a grudge against Dresden. Dresden, who is now at the center of the Erlking's power, manages to impress him with his quick wit, but the Eebs accuse Dresden of orchestrating the move into the Erlking's realm to bring him into the war between the Vampire Courts and the White Council. The Erlking orders them to duel to determine who is telling the truth; Harry and Susan face and finally kill the Devourer, plus a minor vampire. The Eebs and their hosts are taken away to be tortured by the Erlking and his minions, and Harry and Susan are allowed to leave. The Leanansidhe, who has been assigned by Mab to ensure Harry's final quest is successful so he can take on the duties of the Winter Knight, transports Harry, Molly, Susan, Martin, Thomas and herself to the location where Harry can open the first of a set of Ways to get to Chichen Itza. Along the way, she enchants the clothes and weapons of Dresden and Susan to protect them and allow Susan to disappear completely. Lea also brings Dresden his bag of goodies that he had buried in the Nevernever including the two swords and Bob. Harry convinces Susan to take up Ammorachius, the sword of Love, and Murphy to take up Fidelacchius, the sword of Faith. Included in the bag is a sending stone he uses to communicate with Ebenezar, who has been trying to reach him. Eb had already told him that the Grey Council couldn't help with his quest to save the girl, but Dresden finally tells Eb that the girl is his daughter, causing Eb to encourage Dresden to continue. Using his mother's gem, Dresden opens a series of Ways to arrive at Chichén Itzá. However, the jungle is too thick, and they cannot reach the main temple in time. However, the Leanansidhe turns Dresden and his cohorts into hounds, allowing them to easily race through the dense jungle to the Main Temple. Confronting the Red Court, the Red King grants Harry an audience. Speaking through an interpreter, the Red King agrees to allow Dresden to duel Arianna in exchange for Maggie's life. After a protracted battle with Arianna, Dresden finally kills her. However, the Red King refuses to honor their agreement, claiming that because he never spoke a word to Dresden, the agreement was void. He orders Maggie's immediate sacrifice. Susan, Sanya and Murphy effectively wield the Swords against the most ancient vampires, the Lords of the Outer Night. The Lords have become much more than vampires thanks to the worship of the ancient Mayans, to whom they had posed as gods. Harry's group finally cuts its way to the temple. At a signal from the Leanansidhe, the Grey Council appears at Chichen Itza through a Way, and joins the battle. At the battle's climax, Dresden rushes into the Sacrificial Room to stop the ritual. Susan (invisible thanks to Lea's illusions) holds Ammorachius forth over Maggie, causing a holy glow of unknown source, which causes the vampires to hesitate. Martin appears and destroys the illusion, betraying Susan, before calmly explaining to Susan and Dresden that he has always been a Red Court spy in the Fellowship of Saint Giles. After he reveals that he betrayed Maggie's location to the Red King, Susan goes berserk and tears out Martin's throat. Drinking his blood completes her transformation into a Red Court vampire. As Martin dies, he and Dresden soulgaze. Dresden learns that all of Martin's actions have been a 200-year-long con run on the Red Court with the end goal of putting someone in a position to destroy the entire Red Court in one blow. Betraying Maggie to Arianna was the only way to ensure that Dresden would be in such a position. The distraction of Susan killing Martin allows Harry and Lea to destroy Harry's prison, and Harry is able to overpower the Red King in a brief struggle. Dresden carries her to the altar and cuts her throat, unleashing the Bloodline Curse upon the red court and killing every last one since Susan is now the youngest vampire of the Red Court. The few half vampires who are not killed by the removal of their vampire halves, as well as the Red King's Mortal followers, are almost all destroyed by the angered captives the Red Court planned to murder. Exhausted and in shock, Dresden holds Maggie on the temple steps. He speaks with Ebenezar, who explains how the Red Court must have found out about their family ties (Dresden realized during the battle that Ebenezar is his grandfather, but Eb never told anyone for fear that they would use it against Ebenezar. Arianna had figured it out years before when she saw Dresden's mother and Ebenezar fighting like family. The point of the blood curse was to kill Ebenezar who was the most powerful wizard alive, along with Dresden). Dresden realizes he can never provide the sort of home for Maggie he wants her to have and asks that she be placed in the safest possible place. Sometime later, having no apartment to return to, Dresden is on the Water Beetle, recovering. He showers and changes in preparation for a potentially romantic interlude with Karrin Murphy, who is depressed after learning her job as a police officer will be lost due to Rudolph's machinations. Tense and nervous, Dresden goes onto the deck to get some air, only to be shot and fall over the boat's edge into the cold waters of Lake Michigan. |
The Fort at River's Bend | Jack Whyte | 1,999 | The Party of Merlyn and Arthur arrive at Ravenglass and are welcomed by King Derek. Upon their arrival they find out that the commander of the Sons of Condran's navy, Liam, is also in the port. The crews are both unarmed, because Derek maintains the port of Ravenglass as a neutral, weapons-free zone, but Liam has hostile intentions for his visit. After Merlyn arrives, Liam attempts to capture Ravenglass in order to turn it into his own kingdom. Shelagh, however, is able to kill Liam before his crew captures the king. They slaughter the crews of the ships in port but find out that the rest of his fleet is supposed to land to help take the city. Merlyn and his party arrange the defenses of Ravenglass and, along with the help of the local people, are able to repel and intimidate the fleet into flight. Merlyn had originally approached Ravenglass in order to find a place to safely raise Arthur away from enemies at home. Originally Derek had refused Merlyn sanctuary. However, since they helped in the defense of his kingdom, he agrees for Merlyn to move his people to a Roman fort Mediabogdum, a Roman fort on the edge of Ravenglass's lands. The party moves to the fort and Dedalus is able to rebuild the baths, while the rest of the party works on rebuilding several of the barracks. The Party remains at Mediobogdum for several years after. While there Merlyn commissions duplicates of the sword cast by Publius Varrus from the Lady of the Lake statue. They are used, along with a method developed using wooden Roman practice swords, to train Arthur and his friends how to fight. Before the end of this book, a raiding party from the Sons of Chondran try to attack the city but are cast upon the shore by a violent storm. Merlyn uses this event to teach Arthur of the value of human lives. By the end of the chapter, Merlyn has become romantically involved with a woman from Ravenglass who, along with forty others from the town, have been brought to settle in the fort to help maintain its productivity. On a previous visit Merlyn and Ambrosius had decided that a garrison should support Merlyn's party, and that expedition arrives at the beginning of the book. The party continues to live at Mediobogdum, and Arthur shows his prowess as a leader, deciding to begin training some of his other friends from Ravenglass in the combat style that Merlyn designed for him. A winter has many negative events: Lucanus dies, Rufio, one of Merlyn warrior companions, is attacked by a bear and loses the use of his right arm and news of Ironhair causing political problems in Cambria reaches Merlyn via a letter from Ambrosius. Because of the letter, Merlyn decides that it would be best to return to Camulod to assist in the military campaign soon to ensue. |
The Iciest Sin | H. R. F. Keating | null | Senior government official, Mr Mistry, requests Ghote's assistance on a "private matter". Mr Mistry's neighbour, Miss Daruwala, is blackmailing a Mr Pipewalla. Ghote is told to break into Daruwala's flat, spy on her then use what he sees to force her to leave India. Ghote considers this housebreaking and blackmail but cannot refuse. At home Ghote's son, Ved, attempts to blackmail Ghote into buying a computer by threatening to tell Protima, Ghote's wife, their television was bought on the black market. The next day Ghote blackmails a locksmith to get keys to Miss Daruwala's apartment, which Ghote's searches until she returns with Dr Edul Commissariat, a famous scientist. Ghote hides overhears that Commissariat submitted someone else's thesis as own work. Miss Daruwala demands "one lakh in cash" (100,000 rupees). Commissariat murders Miss Daruwala with a swordstick and burns the documents that incriminate her victims. Afterwards, Ghote leaves his hiding place. He did not arrest Commissariat because the Doctor is a humanitarian and Miss Daruwala's was a blackmailer. Feeling responsible Dr Commissariat's fate, Ghote tells Mr Mistry that Daruwala is dead but not who murdered her. Inspector Arjun Singh of Crime Branch investigates the murder, reported by Ghote's anonymous phone call. Ghote's is assigned to a blackmail case. Tabloid newspaper, Gup Shup, has blackmailed people into paying for an entry in Indians of Merit and Distinction. Freddy Kersasp is the ringleader but the evidence points to his office manager, Shiv Chand. Ghote arranges a sting operation, in which two people witness the payment. Ghote returns home and finds Mr Ranchod, Mr Mistry's servant, waiting. Ranchod believes Ghote is blackmailing the murderer. Unwilling to tell Ranchod the truth, Ghote pays him one hundred rupees. Ghote's sting operation goes well and Shiv Chand is arrested. Chand refuses to testify against Freddy Kersasp who is in the USA. Days pass. Inspector Singh's investigation makes no progress. Ranchod demands more money. Kersasp returns and fires Chand. Chand tells Ghote everything, but Kersasp's blackmail victims refuse to testify. Ghote learns that Kersasp was the prime suspect in a robbery and murder thirty-seven years ago. Enquiries in England reveal that Kersasp did not raise the funds to start his newspaper by running a magazine there, as he claimed. There is insufficient evidence to convict Kersasp, but Ghote is ordered to blackmail him into leaving the country. Ghote does so. Ghote refuses to pay Ranchod when they next meet and several weeks go by. Then Inspector Singh is transferred to the Vigilance Branch of Bombay Police (Internal Affairs) and the Daruwala murder case abandoned. The next morning a notorious gangster, Mama Chiplunkar, approaches Ghtoe. Ranchod has spoken to Chiplunkar who intends to blackmail Ghote for confidential information. The following day Chiplunkar repeats his demand and Ghote gives in. In court Shiv Chand is found guilty. Ghote plans to push Chiplunkar under a train and arranges a meeting with Chiplunkar at Grant Road Station, using information about a raid as bait. A perfect opportunity to kill Chiplunkar arises but Ghote cannot bring himself to do it. Ghote rejects Chiplunkar's blackmail attempt and escapes on a train. Ghote considers suicide, as he believes Chiplunkar will soon expose and disgrace him. He waits two days then learns Chiplunkar has fled to Ahmedabad. Ghote is called to the assistant commissioners office where he learns Chiplunkar has purchased Daruwala's flat as a hideout. Ghote deduces that Ranchod is hidden there, waiting for Chiplunkar's order to testify against Ghote. In spite of this, Ghote assists the search team in entering the property. Inside they find Ranchod dead from an overdose of narcotics. Chiplunkar returns home and is arrested for drug possession. Anything Chiplunkar says about Ghote will be ignored without Ranchod. Ghote goes home and tells Ved that he can have the computer. |
Being Nikki | Meg Cabot | 2,009 | The novel begins with us meeting Emerson Watts as she is on a model shoot in St. Johns, clinging onto a rock cliff over a group of nurse sharks, for a commercial for Stark Brand deodorant. She suddenly falls into the water and is rescued by her on-and-off "boyfriend" Brandon Stark (the son of her boss Robert Stark, C.E.O of mega-corporation "Stark Enterprises"). Later on at the hotel, Em gets a call from her apartment man saying a man keeps coming to her door. Em finds out the man that keeps coming to the door was Nikki's brother, Steven, there giving her the news that their mother (i.e. Nikki'and Steven's mother) has gone missing. Em tries to convince Steven she doesn't know anything, but barely gets him to believe her "amnesia" story. Lulu, attracted Steven, asks him to stay with them at the loft. During his time at the loft, Em notices that they have been bugged and begins to watch what she says and does there and in other places around the house. Shortly after all this drama, Em decided to go see her real family (who are being bugged too), and comes to the realization that she can't really go back to her old life after she realizes that she couldn't see her grandmother that Christmas. As she left her family's apartment in tears and was greeted by Christopher, who asked her to come up to his apartment (which was also being bugged) and began to talk with her about his plans to take down Stark Enterprises for "killing" Em. Em also considers that Christopher must have loved Em after she sees a picture of her in his bedroom. He also says that he can help her find Nikki's mother if Em can get him an account name and password for a Stark Employee. Em reluctantly agrees to help. Em and several other models from Stark Enterprises are having a rehearsal for the Stark Angels fashion show for the upcoming New Year's Eve. While the models in their pairs of wings are lining up in a queue to get on stage, a model named Veronica who was standing in front of Em in the queue warns Em to stop sending romantic emails to her boyfriend Justin Bay. Em tells her that she has not been emailing to Justin, saying that it was another girl using her name, but Veronica doesn't believe her. As Em completes her run and heads for the end of the catwalk, she trips over a pile of feathers seemingly ripped off a pair of Stark Angel wings, believing that it was Veronica who set it up. After the accident Em was taken to Dr Higgins' office and had a discussion about parts of her body that are in pain. Em says she is fine but while the doctor was typing her user name and password on a Stark Employee login site, Em sees it to give both the user name and password to Christopher. After that, at the annual party that Nikki and Lulu hold, Christopher turns up unexpectedly and asks to speak to Nikki (Em) in private. They then go into her room, where Christopher then starts kissing her. Between a kiss, he mutters the word "Em". When it finally dawns on Em what he just said, she asks him and he says that he knows its really her as he saw her document when he was hacking into the Stark mainframe. He also confesses that he had always loved her and is regretful that it took her death for him to finally see it. Brandon bursts into the room and sees Christopher with Em but tells Em that her sister Frida (who wasn't invited but eventually invites herself to the party wearing inappropriate clothing)is vomiting and had been lied to by Justin Bay about alcohol being in the fruit punch; Gabriel Luna is trying to help her. Em comes up to Justin and asks for his cellphone but Justin refuses to. With some help from Gabriel, Christopher chokes Justin so he will give his cellphone to Em. Em and Christopher go through Justin's messages and finds Nikki Howard's romantic message, asking Felix to track down the person who wrote this. Felix tracks the message to the house of Dr. Jonathan Fong, a Stark neurosurgeon who lives in Westchester using Brandon's car. After they go there, they realize that Nikki's mom and Nikki herself (but in another person's body) is alive. Dr. Fong then explains why he did all those things and even says that he has been hiding Nikki and her mom there otherwise Stark will kill all the 3 of them. Soon, Brandon enters the house, after being asleep in the car. He threatens Em and tells her she must now be his girlfriend, and must help him destroy his fathers career, while telling Em to break up with Christopher. She unwillingly does so, and he takes Em, Nikki, and Mrs. Howard to his summer house, where they will be safe from Stark. |
Like | Ali Smith | 1,997 | The novel is told in two parts: the first is set in present-day Scotland where Amy Shone, a seemingly itinerant and illiterate drifter has just found work as the caretaker of a caravan site and camping ground. She lives with her nearly eight-year old daughter, Kate, and their patchwork lives are thrown into relief with glimpses of Amy's more glamorous past, when she was a Cambridge scholar. When a random phone call for an interview brings mention of her one-time friendship with a young actress named Aisling (Ash) McCarthy, the mysteries of Amy's unraveled life begin to settle. The second half of the book is a journal, written by Amy's old friend and actress, Aisling McCarthy, found in a box of Amy's old journals that her daughter Kate has read. Ash's journal is a headlong rush through her relationship with Amy from its dizzy beginning to its fiery end. Ash's journal highlights a tale of opposites - with twin desires as well as a subtle metaphor of Scotland and England themselves: two countries forever connected and forever apart. |
Wednesday Is Indigo Blue | Richard Cytowic | 2,009 | The introduction likens the "cross-talk" occurring in the brain producing synesthetic experiences to weather patterns in coastal regions where there are no barriers and all of the elements interact. Normally communication in the brain is like weather in the Rocky Mountain regions, where weather can be isolated in one spot independent of weather systems close by. Chapter 1, "What color is Tuesday?", describes some of the early and still common resistance to the existence and study of synesthesia, and explains the fundamental characteristics necessary to "diagnose" synesthesia. The authors advocate the usefulness of introspective reports as they can later be useful in developing third-party tests for such purposes. Form constants are introduced as part of a framework to study visual synesthetic concurrents (the involuntary response in another sense). Chapter 2 builds on Chapter 1, discussing the types of synesthesia and the methods used to make a synesthesia diagnosis such as variations on stroop tests. The potential benefits of synesthesia are expanded on, including its correlation with eidetic memory and experience of a wider ranger of color. Chapter 3 discusses grapheme-color synesthesia in detail and describes the case of Solomon Shereshevsky. |
The Gallifrey Chronicles | Lance Parkin | null | The Eighth Doctor accompanied by Fitz Kreiner and Trix MacMillan, overthrows the tyrant Mondova on an alien world, prevents a time travelling alien from interfering in Ancient Roman history and stops a Dalek (never named as such, but heavily implied) invasion of Mars. Against this backdrop, Fitz and Trix have begun a relationship and decide to leave the TARDIS. The Doctor returns to Earth in 2005, materialising at the grave of Sam Jones. When the Doctor claims not to remember his former companion, Fitz becomes angry and leaves with Trix. As the pair attempt to readjust to normal life, it is revealed that Trix has been secretly passing information gain on their travels to another former companion Anji Kapoor who has used the information to manipulate the stock market and thus built up a considerable fortune. The Doctor discovers that another Time Lord, Marnal, had also survived the destruction of Gallifrey and has been living for the past hundred years as a human science-fiction writer (whose books are actually the history of the Time Lords and their homeworld). Marnal, who also claims to be the original owner of the Doctor's TARDIS, blames the Doctor for the cataclysm, and takes him and the TARDIS captive while the insectoid alien Vore invade the Earth. The Vore attack leaves millions dead or missing, including Fitz who apparently dies trying to save Trix. After a cold fusion explosion guts the interior of the TARDIS, the Doctor discovers that K-9 Mark II has been aboard ever since Gallifrey's destruction, hidden behind a false wall, with orders from Lady President Romana of Gallifrey to kill him. However, K-9 pauses once it scans the Doctor's mind and discovers the reason why the Doctor had lost his memory. It transpires that, just prior to destroying Gallifrey, the Doctor (with the help of his former companion Compassion) had downloaded the entire contents of the Gallifreyan Matrix — the massive computer network containing the mental traces of every Time Lord living and dead, more than 140,000 Time Lords — into his brain, with his own memories suppressed to make room for the data. Gallifrey had not actually been erased from history, but an event horizon in relative time prevented anyone from Gallifrey's past from travelling beyond Gallifrey's destruction, and vice versa. Both the planet and the Time Lords could be restored, along with the Doctor's memory, if a sufficiently sophisticated computer could be found to reconstruct them. Before that could be done, however, the problem of the Vore must be dealt with. Marnal is wounded while fighting the Vore, and being on his last regeneration, he dies. The Doctor tells him that he is his hero, and Marnal dies in peace, confident that the Time Lords will be reborn. The Doctor reveals that the Vore have not actually killed their victims, but sprayed them with a chemical that makes them invisible to humans; Fitz is still alive and the Doctor brings him back for Trix, claiming he brought the dead back to life on his first day on the job. The Doctor, Fitz, Trix and his allies travel to Africa with a Royal Navy Battle Group to confront the threat of the Vore. The novel and the Eighth Doctor Adventures end uncertainly, as the Doctor leaps into the very heart of the Vore hive. |
View from Mount Diablo | null | null | The poem narrates the life of a white Jamaican, Adam Cole, born sometime in the 1930s and so growing up during World War II, during which his uncle Johann, of German extraction, is interned in the same camp as future national leader Alexander Bustamante. Adam has a close friend, Nathan, a poor black boy who is a gardener and groom, but education forces them apart. After taking a degree at Oxford University in the 1950s Adam returns to Jamaica to work as a journalist on the Daily Tribune (a version of The Daily Gleaner) and marries a Jamaican Chinese, Amber Lee. They have a daughter, Chantal, but when she is 15 (sometime in the early 1970s) she is raped in the grounds of her school, and the marriage subsequently breaks up, Amber and Chantal emigrating to Canada while Adam stays in Kingston and becomes ever more committed to crusading journalism. A parallel historical narrative charts Jamaica's progress from Crown Colony to full independence, and its subsequent descent into serious civil violence. Corruption, veniality, sectarianism, and other elements forming what Rastafarians call the 'politricks' of Jamaica are noted, but the principal force for evil is squarely diagnosed as the international cocaine trade, in its facilitation of material corruption, in the morally deadening toleration of violence it promotes, and in the appalling opportunity cost it imposes on national infrastructrure, education, and business. From this history a series of vignettes emerge, of profits turned, of a needless death on the operating table caused by a substandard generator, of extrajudicial killing by a special police squad, and of events in the life of a principal cocaine baron—Adam's sometime friend, Nathan. Eventually an enforcer named Blaka, spurred by religious conversion, becomes an informer for Adam, whose journalism begins to expose too many secrets of the 'runnings', or details of shipments and transactions. Adam also hears the dying confession of a white middleman, Tony 'the Frog' Blake, who knows of Nathan's involvement, and so becomes an unacceptable threat to the cocaine trader—and as Blaka observes, "Blood / cheaper than drugs" (946-7). Blaka is found murdered on Mount Diablo (a central Jamaican height), "stuffed in a handcart, head severed, torso turned / to the mountain, blank eyes staring down the valley [...] the word Judas, warning intaglio, / carved with a switchblade into the transom" (955-9); another body is floating in the harbour; and Adam himself is confronted at home, and after a brief struggle shot dead, by Nathan. Formally, View from Mount Diablo uses a tragic (i.e. failed, abortive) Bildungsroman structure to support a state-of-the-nation novel; additional topoi and tropes concerning the drug trades and policing are drawn both from real Jamaican life and from popular cinematic and print fictions of crime. Technically, the verse novel is written in loosely heroic single-rhymed quatrains—i.e. the metre consistently approximates iambic pentameter, and the four-line stanzas rhyme abcb. It is structured in a prologue and 12 chapters, and has 1,048 lines. |
Push | Sapphire | 1,996 | The school has decided to send her to an alternative school because she is pregnant. Precious is furious, but the counselor later visits Precious's home and convinces her to enter an alternative school called Each One Teach One. Despite her mother's insistence that she apply for welfare, Precious enrolls in the school. She meets her teacher, Ms. Blue Rain, and fellow students Rhonda, Jermaine, Rita, Jo Ann, and Consuelo. All of the girls come from troubled backgrounds. Ms. Rain's class is a pre-GED class for young women who are below an eighth-grade level in reading and writing and therefore are unprepared for high school-level courses. They start off by learning the basics of phonics and vocabulary building. Despite their academic and personal deficits, Ms. Rain strives to ignite a passion in her students for literature and writing. She believes that the only way to learn to write is to write every day. Each girl is required to keep a journal. Ms. Rain reads their entries and provides feedback and advice. By the time the novel ends, the women have created an anthology of autobiographical stories called "LIFE STORIES – Our Class Book" appended to the book. The works of classic African-American writers like Audre Lorde, Alice Walker and Langston Hughes are inspirational for the students. Precious is particularly moved by The Color Purple. While in the hospital for the birth of her second child, a boy she names Abdul Jamal Louis Jones, Precious tells a social worker that her first child is living with her grandmother. The confession leads to Precious' mother having her welfare taken away. When Precious returns home with her newborn baby, her mother is enraged and chases her out of the house. Homeless and alone, she first passes a night at the armory, then turns to Ms. Rain who uses all of her resources to get Precious into a halfway house with childcare. Her new environment provides her with the stability and support to continue with school. The narrative prose, which is told from Precious' voice, continually improves in terms of grammar and spelling, and is even peppered with imagery and similes. Precious has taken up poetry. She's also eventually awarded the Mayor's office's literacy award for outstanding progress. This accomplishment boosts her spirits. With her attitude changing and her confidence growing, Precious finds herself thinking about having a boyfriend, a real relationship with someone near her age, with someone who attracts her interest. Her only sexual experience thus far has been the rape and sexual abuse by her father and, to a lesser extent, her mother. Although she tries to move beyond the trauma of her childhood and distance herself from her parents, an unwelcome visit from Precious' mother reveals that her father has died from AIDS. Testing verifies that Precious is HIV positive, but both her children are not. Her classmate Rita encourages Precious to join an incest support group, as well as an HIV positive group. The meetings provide source of support and friendship for Precious as well as the revelation that her color and socio-economic background weren't necessarily the cause of her abuse. Women of all ages and backgrounds attend the meetings. The book concludes with no specific fate outlined for Precious, with the author leaving her future undetermined. |
The Stronghold | Mollie Hunter | 1,974 | The novel opens on the day when over seven hundred Men of the Boar from many islands gather together, summoned by the chief Nectan. Nectan puts forth the proposal that the warriors should no longer fight the Roman raiders, but retreat when they approach, as the tribe's very existence is threatened by their losses. The Chief Druid strongly opposes the idea, saying they must continue to fight; he declares it a matter of faith, and therefore his domain, directly challenging Nectan's leadership. Coll is convinced that his idea of a high circular drystone stronghold, designed to be impregnable, is a third way. He has been developing the idea, drawing plans and building models, since he was five, when a Roman raider killed his father, abducted his mother and shattered Coll's leg, crippling him. However, none of the elders will listen to him. Taran arrives, introducing himself as a member of the tribe who was seized for a slave when he was twelve, and recently escaped by killing his master. He is welcomed, but it soon appears that he has a desire for power, seeking first to ingratiate himself with the chief's daughter, and then plotting with the Druids and the chiefs of the Raven and the Deer. Coll's brother Bran, who lives with the Druids, is torn between the two camps. The struggle between Nectan and Domnall for mastery of the tribe culminates in Domnall choosing Nectan's daughter Fand for a human sacrifice. Coll, who loves Fand, takes the advice of Bran on how to stop the sacrifice, believing that he will die in her place. In fact it is Bran who dies, fulfilling the prophecy made about him when he was a baby, and devastating Domnall who loved him like a son. In the wake of these events, Coll is given leave to build his Stronghold. The whole tribe works long and hard to build the 8-storey structure, and it is ready just before the first raid of the summer. The warriors prepare to defend it while the other tribespeople go into hiding. The first assault is repulsed, though Domnall is downed while shouting curses in Latin at the Romans. Taran, who also knows Latin, takes his place, but though pretending to curse, actually advises the Romans to make a second attack overland. When Taran's treachery is exposed, Coll devises a plan to trap the Romans which is extremely successful. His Stronghold is vindicated and plans are made to build more, all over the islands. |
Space Demons | null | 1,985 | The main four characters in the book are Andrew Hayford, Ben Challis, Elaine Taylor and Mario Ferrone. The plot starts when Andrew's dad brings him an exciting prototype video game from Japan. Andrew, who is a video game enthusiast, shows it to his best friend Ben Challis, who agrees to play the game with him. Later, two other players are introduced to the game: Mario Ferrone and Elaine Taylor. It is later revealed that it is possible to get transported into the game by means of a special gun, which only works when a strong beam of hate is directed at someone. Later on, the four get trapped inside the game and gradually work out the only way to escape and thus win the game is if they conquer their hate. |
American Gothic | null | null | Inspired by the case of real life serial killer H. H. Holmes, the story follows maniacal surgeon G. Gordon Gregg, who preys on young beautiful women and, luring them into his labyrinthine castle, kills them in the most precise, painless way possible, thus orchestrating the perfect series of crimes. However, an ambitious journalist called Crystal becomes suspicious of Gregg, a feeling made much more complicated by her growing attraction to him and vice versa. Bloch also wrote a 40,000 word essay based on his research for the novel, "Dr Holmes' Murder Castle" (first published in Reader's Digest Tales of the Uncanny, 1977; since reprinted in Crimes and Punishments: The Lost Bloch, Vol 3, 2002). |
The Little White Car | Dan Rhodes | 2,004 | The book is set in Paris where Veronique after having just split up with her boyfriend is driving home in her 'little white car' when whilst passing through a tunnel in central Paris is approached at high speed from behind by a large car. She is determined not to let it pass; but it collides with the back of her car and crashes. On seeing the news next morning Veronique realises "Oh shit, I killed the princess". The remainder of the book tells of Veronique's life and loves before the fateful day, and the efforts to conceal her involvement afterwards. |
Overkill | null | null | When the body of a young mother is found washed up on the banks of the Mataura River, a small rural community is rocked by her tragic suicide. But all is not what it seems. Sam Shephard, sole-charge police constable in Mataura soon discovers the death was no suicide, and has to face the realisation that there is a killer in town. To complicate things the murdered woman was the wife of her former lover. When Sam finds herself on the list of suspects and suspended from duties she must cast aside her personal feelings and take matters into her own hands to find the murderer and clear her own name. |
Enchanted, Inc. | Shanna Swendson | 2,005 | Kathleen "Katie" Chandler has been living and working in New York City for about a year, but originates from Texas. She has a job under a boss named Mimi, but she hates it. She is soon offered a mysterious job. When she looks into the job, it turns out that she is one of the 1% in the world who are immune to magic, and that the company offering her the job is a magic company called MSI Inc, which stands for Magic, Spells, and Illusions Inc. It soon becomes apparent that the world is in trouble from the evil wizard Phelan Idris and it is up to Katie and her friends to save it. |
Ark | Stephen Baxter | 2,009 | In 2031, the rising sea levels have inundated most of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America and the flood waters have risen as far north as Kentucky, causing an influx of internally displaced persons. For the moment, Denver and most of Colorado are safe from harm, and has become the new capital of the United States. Although civil war is brewing with separatist Utah over control of untainted fresh water supplies and former Interstate Highway System roads. Affluent inhabitants of the United States and remaining elements of NASA have funded a desperate and far-fetched get-away plan called 'Nimrod'; to ensure the continued survival of the human race, they construct a massive interstellar spacecraft from conjoined and modified Ares rockets, Saturn hardware, and Space shuttle components that is capable of superluminal travel using the Alcubierre drive, and is christened as 'Ark One'. The plan is that the children and descendants of those who built the ship will travel to a neighboring earth-like exosolar planet to start civilization anew, given that shortly before the onset of the Flood, SETI technology had advanced to the point where it could detect potentially habitable worlds in other planetary systems. The main character, Holle Groundwater, is the daughter of one affluent man, Patrick, who were first introduced to the project by Jerzy Glemp, a former Polish millionaire; his shy but intellectually gifted son, Zane, becomes Holly's best friend as he helps her progress through the project's elite scientific education program to become a candidate for one of the ship's many specific functions each person must contribute, with her specializing in spacecraft life support and Zane as the Ark's warp drive specialist. Other candidates are introduced and excluded due to the brutal training regime of the project, for the candidates in question are required to have specialized fields of knowledge for either the ship's function and/or for preservation of mankind's history, knowledge, and culture; and to create a secular-minded crew with a diverse gene pool to breed. Kelly Kenzie becomes the designated mission leader during the first phases of the mission, Wilson Argent is her sometime partner who succeeds her as mission commander later in the book; and with Venus Jenning is the Ark's celestial navigator. As noted above, there is some overlap between the earlier novel in this trilogy and its successor - aging astronaut Gordo Alonzo and Thandie Jones, the bisexual oceanographer from Flood, appear as influential characters, and Grace Gray is also a pivotal character, as is her daughter Helen, who is born on the Ark en route to its initial interstellar destination. During the 2030s, President Linda Vasquez serves four terms of office under the crisis conditions and the remnants of the federal government and armed forces take over control of the Nimrod Project. During that time, experimental use of antimatter propulsion results in several tragedies and triumphs, all the while the floodwaters rise inexorably. By 2041, the Ark is ready to be launched, although a relentless selection process has reduced the number of potential candidates to eighty in number. On the day of the launch, desperate civilians and military personnel escaping the approaching floodwaters attempt to storm the Ark, resulting in a hurried evacuation of the candidates to the starship in question. The chaotic launch is successful, but causes fatal irradiation of the surrounding area, owing to the use of nuclear fission– powered thruster technology (derived from Project Orion (nuclear propulsion) of the 1960s). Once the Ark has left Earth orbit to get under way, the crew find that they have inadvertently left some prior designated candidates behind, and some of the security personnel make a failed attempt at mutiny to find a new life shipboard. In addition, some of the female candidates are pregnant and give birth to children who become a shipboard generation. By 2042, they have harvested enough antimatter from Jupiter's magnetosphere to propel their warp drive starship to 82 Eridani's planetary system, twenty-one light-years from the Sol System, which is reached nine years later. By that time, most of Earth now lies underwater and Mount Everest is calculated to become submerged in 2052. However, problems arise, due to the nature of the targeted planet, designated "Earth II." Although 82 Eridani is a yellow G5 star, it turns out that the 'earthlike' world in question is on the fringe of its planetary system ecosphere and the prospects of prolonged extremes of temperature are further worsened by a high axial tilt relative to the system's ecliptic (rather like that of Uranus in our own solar system). (This planetary configuration, called "Urania", is used by Baxter in his story "Grey Earth". It is ultimately derived from a book called What If the Moon Didn't Exist?.) There is debate and in-fighting over what to do next, but the crew come to an agreement as Zane proposes to split the ship and crew up. One colonizes Earth II, while another led by Kelly travels back to Earth in one of Ark One's twin hulls, Seba, making planetfall in 2059. A third faction with Holly, Wilson, Grace, Venus, and Zane takes the ship's other hull, Halivah, and takes a further thirty years to travel outward to an (unnamed) M6 red dwarf star and its super-earth terrestrial world, designated "Earth III" and situated 111 light years from Earth, within Lepus (constellation). Unfortunately, generational tensions arise between the rebellious youth born on the ship and the original crew, with Wilson forming a gang-like leadership breeding with the majority of the females on board. Things are further worsened by Zane's dissociative identity disorder which he slowly developed from sexual and psychological abuse earlier in the book from his overbearing father; his fragmented pessimist personalities preach to the younger crew and make them disillusioned of the idea that they are all enclosed and observed from the 'outside world' in a simulated bio-sphere environment as a social experiment. Eventually this all leads to further mutiny as the younger crew try to break out of the ship, which consequently results in ship-wide explosive decompression that inflicts a large loss of life and causes the destruction of one of the onboard shuttle-based landing craft. Once recovering from the incident, Holle forcibly takes command by reluctantly forming a dictatorship under her rule, using threats to shut off life support for those who do not partake in the maintenance of the ship's systems to keep order except for those who are too vital for the ship, as done with Zane as she orders him to be isolated and kept alive only for the purposes of keeping the warp drive functional. This act shatters the friendships of the original crew, and with no hope to help his deteriorating state of mind and being kept alone, unloved, and alive as merely a tool as he had for most of his life, Zane commits suicide. While this is occurring, the floodwaters inundate Denver, and Kelly's ex-husband Don, Gordo, and Mel, ex-Candidate and Holle's former lover make a last stand at Alma, Colorado, which was the nearest habitable area near the former starship launch site and Mission Control for the Ark before it departed from Jupiter. In the ensuing melee, Don is killed. In 2061, when Seba returns to Earth, Lily Brooke (Floods principal protagonist) has been dead for the last three years. Thandie Jones continues to survive and has links to 'Ark Two', which turns out to be a (new) and expansive seafloor settlement which taps the geothermal energy from the submerged former Yellowstone National Park's supercaldera. Kelly meets her aged father, Edward Kenzie, and her estranged son Dexter, whom she voluntarily abandoned for a place on board. Mel has also survived, but Gordo Alonzo died defending Ark Two from ID interlopers before the rising floodwaters made further interference impossible. Human genetic engineering is postulated to assist the descendants of Ark Two to adapt to their new and arduous environmental conditions. This idea ("pantropy"), used by James Blish in his story suite The Seedling Stars, is a powerful theme in almost all of Baxter's fictional series. Two years before Halivah arrives at Earth III, Venus intercepted a strong, brief signal of unknown origin, which was not repeated (similar to the Wow! signal), and it is speculated to be extraterrestrial. She keeps the knowledge of the signal to herself. In 2081, the ship arrives at Earth III which turns out to be in a close proximity to its parent star, its surface is active with volcanoes and its climate frigidly cold from the weak solar heating of the red dwarf along with one side permanently facing away from the star, but the planet is nonetheless habitable enough to support photosynthetic life and by extension, human life. With only one landing craft left after the mutiny years earlier, Holle is forced to halve the crew through a careful selection of those to colonize the planet, specifically young children who are as diverse as possible to eliminate the risk of inbreeding. Wilson is selected to go for he is the only one who could fly the shuttle despite his age, and finally Helen is selected to go to educate the young colonists for the process of building a functional colony to prosper. After a painful goodbye to her mother Grace, and to her own children, Helen and the settlers disembark. However, Holle and Venus resolve to explore the star system's other planets using small warp-jumps. The novel is left open-ended: Wilson, Helen, and the forty children on board the shuttle craft successfully land on Earth III, set foot on its surface and begin planning for rebuilding human civilization while they see the Ark for the last time before it disappears into the cosmos, suggesting that the starship has effectively become a generation ship until the rebuilt civilization of Earth III, that may not rise for decades, centuries, or even millennia to become spaceflight capable, can reunite with the descendants of the Ark. Two pendant stories have been published since in Asimov's Science Fiction: "Earth II" and "Earth III"; each deals with characters struggling with the legacy of Ark One's colonization of their world in the face of military consolidation of the planets. These seem to be the conclusions of the Flood storyline, since Baxter has written no more material in this continuity. |
Child of the Wolves | null | 1,996 | Granite is born on a snowy April day in Alaska. For the first weeks of his life, he lives in the kennels, playing with his siblings Digger, Cricket, and Nugget. Even though their mother Seppala gets sick, life is good there. His owners, Tim and Kate, take good care of him. Granite differs from the other pups. He is not eager to train to be a sled dog. One day, when the pups are ten-weeks-old, a man shows up to buy Granite and his sister Cricket. Even though Cricket is bought and does not mind going to a new home, Granite does not want to leave his mother and runs away from where he grew up. He runs away into the Alaskan wilderness. After days wandering alone, hungry and injured, the Siberian husky puppy meets a wolf pack, led by a black wolf named Ebony and his mate, Snowdrift the white wolf, whose pups were kidnapped weeks before. She takes Granite in. Snowdrift raises the dog as a foster son and teaches him to hunt mice. That seems to help her get over some pain in losing her pups. It is mentioned that her pups were stolen by humans who wanted to breed young wolves to huskies, for wolfdogs are worth a lot of money. Even though he protects Granite, Ebony does not like him, and neither do Strider (Ebony's brother, Granite's chief tormentor), Roamer (Ebony and Snowdrift's two-year-old son), and Breeze (a female wolf who came to them from a pack in the west). The other wolf who likes Granite is Snowdrift's yearling son, Climber. Granite and Climber become fast friends. Granite is less afraid of Climber because the young wolf had a "husky face", and Climber was pleased to have a younger member (so his rank rises) regardless of Granite being a dog. Another reason the pair play together is that Climber is still young, and was a pup not a long time ago. Ebony pretends the dog is not there, and Breeze feeds Granite only to humor Ebony. Roamer and Strider feed him just to show Snowdrift. When she is not there, they take back what they fed Granite. Strider, later on, pretends to give Granite a lesson and lures the young dog into attacking a porcupine. Granite got tricked and a face full of quills. Granite hopes to please Ebony by trying to catch a fox but nearly loses his life. He nearly runs into a trap, but Breeze stops him just in time. He is, again, scorned by the others for his lousiness. However, later on, Climber is killed during a moose hunt, and Granite must try to earn his place in the pack, while dodging Roamer and Strider and other dangers of the Alaskan wilderness. Granite then runs away, overwhelmed by the torments from Roamer and Strider. Granite proves to be no longer a puppy who cannot fill his own stomach. He does fine save for the dark cloud of loneliness that grows bigger each day. He meets another pack of wolves when he intrudes into their territory. They welcome the dog with slashing teeth. Granite returns to Ebony's country, and the black wolf, though angry, lets him rejoin the pack. Meanwhile, Snowdrift attempts to search for her lost pups but is shot by hunters. The rest of the pack finds her, though she is blind and wounded. While Snowdrift recovers, Breeze is almost kind to the dog and teaches him how to hunt salmon. In the fall, Granite kills a marmot, but Roamer tries to take it away. Granite fights the young black wolf and wins, and Roamer dares not to challenge him again. In the end, Granite saves Snowdrift's life. Ebony lets the dog hunt alongside him, making Granite's dream come true. Even Strider is friendly and no longer challenges the dog. Granite, now more than two years old, realizes that he is home. |
Absolutely, Positively Not | null | 2,005 | Steven DeNarsky, a 16-year-old Superman fan, starts to develop sexual feelings for his substitute homeroom teacher, Mr. Bowman. Steven tries to reassure himself by buying such magazines like Playboy and the Victoria's Secret catalog, and dating attractive girls. Unable to bottle his emotions any longer, he confesses to his friend, Rachel, that he is gay. To his surprise, Rachel and her entire family had previously assumed that Steven was gay. Rachel urges Steven to create a Gay/Lesbian Alliance club at their High School, but Steven is not optimistic about completely "Coming Out of the Closet". Steven later does reveal that he is gay to both his parents, who don't think much of it. Steven eventually accepts his homosexuality by attending a teen Gay/Lesbian club, but mistakenly goes when it is specifically a Lesbian meeting. Despite this, he has a good time and decides to embrace his homosexuality. |
The Fox Cub Bold | Colin Dann | 1,983 | Having left White Deer Park after the defeat of Scarface Bold is exploring his new surroundings which he refers to as "the real world". He sees a magpie which criticises him for being out during the daytime and feeding off scraps that many smaller animals would be grateful for, instead of hunting for his own food. Next he encounters a carrion crow who warns him that humans could be about. Bold ignores this warning as he sees nothing to fear from humans and in the following days he encounters several humans who do no harm to him at all, which increases his confidence. A few weeks later Bold discovers a game wood on some farmland and develops a taste for game birds (mainly partridges and pheasants). He sleeps in a badger set, but its owner soon arrives and wakes him up. Bold is friendly towards this female badger and she warns him about the humans in the area. Bold ignores this warning too and upon coming across a collection of animals killed by the gamekeeper kills and eats a bird in front of it as an act of defiance. However a few days later he discovers the female badger in a snare. Though he manages to save her by biting through a wire this wire snaps back and injures his eye. The badger is grateful and offers to help Bold whenever he may need her. One day Bold hears the sound of gunfire and discovers he has been caught in a pheasant shoot. When a dog comes towards him to get a dead pheasant he tries to run away but runs towards the hunters because his bad eye prevents hime seeing them. One of the hunters then shoots him through the leg. Bold limps across the field with his injured leg dragging along the ground and eventually reaches a ditch where he is out of sight. Bold sees a dormouse nearby and tries to catch it, but is no longer nimble enough. Bold is unable to move far from the ditch and his diet consists mainly of slugs and insects he can find nearby. Unfortunately these don't provide enough sustance and Bold becomes very weak. He is found by the crow he met previously and Bold asks the bird for help, but the crow refuses until Bold tells him that his father is the famous Farthing Wood Fox. After this the crow agrees to help him and heads off to find the badger that Bold helped. She eventually arrives with three of her kin and they feed Bold. One of the badger's offspring suggests that Bold should return to their set until he recovers. A few days later Bold prepares to travel back to the game wood with the female badger, whom he has decided to call Shadow because she constantly watches over him. Due to Bold's injury they travel very slowly and when Shadow goes hunting Bold decides to leave as he doesn't want to be dependent on others. He finds an abandoned earth containing the remains of another fox's catches, which he gratefully devours. The next day he tries to catch a vole but has no success. He then resolves to live by raiding the food supplies of humans as revenge for his injuries. The next day Bold travels to a nearby farm and comes across a pair of bantams which have been allowed to make their nest in the open. They notice the young fox and escape, but Bold is able to eat the eggs that they have abandoned in their nest. He returns to the farm a few days later and catches one of the bantams (it rans towards him after being startled). While taking it back to his earth he meets Shadow again in a Swede field. Bold doesn't want to talk to her as he doesn't want to share the bantam but Shadows see him. Despite offering part of the bantam Shadow incists that Bold has all of it. Bold returns to the farm the next evening but the remaining bantam has been locked away and the farm dog sees him, forcing Bold to escape. Two humans use their terrier to track down Bold and dig up his earth, but when they see his weakened state they assume he cannot be the culprit and that his mate must have killed the bantam. Assuming Bold will not survive the winter they leave him alone. Bold meets the crow again, who suggests that he scavenge for food in a nearby town. It takes Bold several days to arrive, but when he does the two friends agree to collect food for each other in their scavenging. The crow is the first to look for food and after telling Bold that he has eaten some food left out for a dog or cat Bold decides to call him Robber. As Bold is injured he cannot jump over fences meaning he cannot get into most gardens, so his scavenging is limited. One evening while scavenging Bold sees a vixen in one of the gardens, but she completely ignores him and Bold feels humiliated. Several days later Bold sees the vixen in the garden once more and tries to dig his way in but she comes out to greet him. She tell Bold she moved into this town during the winter because food is more plentiful and offers to help him hunt but Bold's pride causes him to reject her offer. The vixen sees Bold again a month later and tells him she wants to hunt with him, and this time Bold does not refuse. Together they catch some rats and Bold calls her Whisper because of her stealth. Whisper offers to let Bold stay in her earth, but he goes back to his usual home to give one of the rats to Robber. When Bold tells Robber about Whisper, the crow insists that his friend forget their agreement and go to live in the vixen's earth, which Bold does the following night. Bold is unable to jump the wall to get in, but they find a hole through which he can enter. In the earth Whisper mistakes Bold for a much older fox and asks where he was born. Bold tells her he was born in White Deer Park and that his father is the famous Farthing Wood Fox, and Whisper makes a plan which Bold knows nothing of. A few days later they come across a large dog who barks loudly outside their earth. One day Bold cannot get back into the earth because the wall has been mended and the dog pursues him, so Bold hastily tries to make a new hole but gets stuck. Robber comes to his rescue but the dog turns out to be friendly and he helps Bold to make the hole in the wall big enough for him to get through. The dog, a mastiff, tells them his name is Rollo and that he is very lonely during the day as his master has left him nothing to play with. He visits the foxes frequently during the day in the ensuing weeks, even though the foxes are trying to sleep during the day. As mating season arrives the two foxes mate and Whisper is soon carrying Bold's cubs. Whisper tells Bold that she choose him as her mate because he was a cub of the Farthing Fox and she wants their cubs to be born in White Deer Park. Bold is crushed by this but he reluctantly agrees to lead her there. The foxes are fed for their last few days in the town by Rollo, and they head off back towards the country. Heavy snow makes travelling difficult for Bold, so their pace is very slow. Whisper wants to speed up but traveling through the slush exhausts Bold and he collapses on open land. He insists that Whisper go to find cover while he rests. Robber, who has been tracking their journey, discovers Bold on the ground and promises to bring Bold some food. Robber heads back to Rollo who agrees to bring a bone he has buried to Bold and Whisper. While waiting Bold digs himself into the snow to hide himself. However two men with two greyhounds are chasing a hare. One greyhound kills the hare, the other chases Bold. Fortunately Robber arrives and distracts the greyhound until Rollo gets there. Rollo then grabs the greyhound by the neck, shakes it, and casts it away. Rollo brings the foxes his bone and the hare killed by the other greyhound before heading back home to his master. As the foxes approach White Deer Park, Bold leaves Whisper while she is sleeping and hides himself away, forcing her to finish the journey alone. She arrives at the reserve and meets Charmer, who immediately tells her family of Bold's return. Meanwhile Robber has noticed Bold go into hiding and offers to feed him, but the injured fox wants to wait for his death. Robber notices Fox and Friendly searching outside the park and leads them to Bold, joining up with Vixen and Charmer along the way. The foxes arrive and Fox tells Bold how proud he is, before the young fox departs the real world for good. |
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma | Trenton Lee Stewart | 2,009 | In the third installment of the Mysterious Benedict Society series, Reynie, Sticky, Kate, Constance, and various loved ones find themselves holed up in Mr. Benedict's house, which is teeming with security. The evil Mr. Curtain is at large and hunting for the Whisperer—now in Mr. Benedict's possession—so he can try again to control minds from afar. When a shady businessman shows up with false records claiming that he is Constance's father, Mr. Benedict is compelled to use the Whisperer to uncover her short past. Distraught and confused after all is revealed, Constance runs away, with the whole household after her—just the distraction Mr. Curtain and his men need to steal the Whisperer and set his evil plans in motion. Of course, the rest of the Mysterious Benedict Society soon find themselves on his trail.http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/mysterious-benedict-society-and-prisoners-dilemma Soon, Reynie receives messages telling him a code number. He realizes it is a library code number, and Sticky tells them that that book's only copy is located in a library. They find Constance and an apparent clue to where the Whisperer is, but it turns out to be a trap. They are captured by Mr. Curtain. Kate makes several aptempts to escape but none prevail. Finally, their various loved ones come to the rescue, particually Milligan, who throws himself at McCracken, leader of Mr. Curtain's team of "Ten Men". Mr. Curtain and S.Q. escape but S.Q. prevents him out of love. In the end Mr. Curtain is arrested and sent to prison. Milligan retires, Constance is adopted by Mr. Benedict, and the families settle in the second floor of Mr. Benedict's bedroom (Or in Sticky's case, across the street. The Whisperer was disabled by Mr. Benedict. His narcolepsy is cured by Constance. |
Covering Islam | null | null | Said postulates that, if knowledge is power, those who control the modern Western media (visual and print) are most powerful because they are able to determine what people like or dislike, what they wear and how they wear it, and what they should know and must not know about themselves. A man's intellect enables him to think, ponder, contemplate and question. His intellect is, according to Islam, what makes him unique as an individual. Man, by nature, is a rational being, but the western media wants him to be irrational—in the sense of accepting or agreeing to an idea without verifying, thinking about or questioning it. In other words, says Said, irrationalism means to let one person think and decide for another—to let one person control others. Said refers to the media's ability to control and filter information as an 'invisible screen', releasing what it wants people to know and blacking out what it does not want them to know. In the age of information, Said argues, it is the media that interprets and filters information—and Said claims that the media has determined very selectively what Westerners should and should not know about Islam and the Muslim world. Islam is portrayed as oppressive (women in Hijab); outmoded (hanging, beheading and stoning to death); anti-intellectualist (book burning); restrictive (bans on post- and extramarital affairs, alcohol and gambling); extremist (focusing on Algeria, Lebanon and of course Egypt); backward (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the Sudan); the cause of worldwide conflict (Palestine, Kashmir and Indonesia); and dangerous (Turkey and Iran). The modern Western media, says Said, does not want people to know that in Islam both men and women are equal; that Islam is tough on crime and the causes of crime; that Islam is a religion of knowledge par excellence; that Islam is a religion of strong ethical principles and a firm moral code; that socially Islam stands for equality and brotherhood; that politically Islam stands for unity and humane governance; that economically Islam stands for justice and fairness; and that Islam is at once a profoundly spiritual and a very practical religion. Said claims that untruth and falsehood about Islam and the Muslim world are consistently propagated in the media, in the name of objectivity, liberalism, freedom, democracy and ‘progress’. |
The Poet of Tolstoy Park | null | 2,005 | The book begins in Nampa, Idaho, with Henry Stuart having just learned that he has one to two years to live because he has non-contagious tuberculosis. Told he will be more comfortable in a warmer climate, Stuart leaves his two grown sons to relocate to Fairhope, Alabama. When he arrives, he finds that the land he has purchased sight unseen hosts only a barn. He decides to build a house, on property he names "Tolstoy Park" in honor of Leo Tolstoy, who had himself become a wandering ascetic in the months before his death. An amateur poet and an eccentric, Stuart sheds his materialism for a life of contemplation, one which extends much longer than Stuart expected. |
The Siege of White Deer Park | Colin Dann | 1,985 | Of the Farthing Wood animals Kestrel has moved away from White Deer Park to hunt without the risk of killing his friends, Hare and Rabbit have died of old age, and as original Farthing Wood smaller animals have and have so many descendents with the animals native to White Deer Park the oath no longer applies to them. The Farthing Wood animals' third winter in White Deer Park has come to an end. As spring arrives there is an influx of animals from outside the park. Fox suspects that something outside the park is driving these animals to take shelter in the park, so Tawny Owl and Whistler search outside the park for clues. They find nothing, but word starts to spread of a fierce beast making raids in the park during the night. As it is able to attack animals on the ground and in nests some animals believe that the Beast can fly. After searching the reserve and finding no sightings of the Beast Tawny Owl takes refuge in a tree in a small area of woodland within the park to rest. Before dawn he is awakened by the thought he is being watched. Looking down he sees the head of a large creature with bright eyes looking at him in a menacing way. Knowing this is what he is looking for, Owl flies further up the tree out of reach, then notices the strange creature has disappeared in an instant. Owl then flies off to warn Fox and the others of his sighting just as the sun rises. Tawny Owl gives Fox a description of what he saw. Adder also hears of these developments. Though Adder says nothing Fox thinks Adder is hiding something. Later Adder finds Toad and asks him about some large paw prints he has found near the now deserted Ediable Frog's pond. Adder explains that as he doesn't have paws he can't judge whether they're from a toad or not. Toad tells him these prints are too big for a toad. A meeting is called and Toad informs the animals of the footprints seen by himself and Adder. Badger states that the graceful nature of this animal reminds him of the Warden's cat and suggests that the animal might be a giant cat. Tawny Owl pooh-poohs this suggestion. Not long afterwards meeting the Beast kills one of the white deer herd and Friendly discovers the carcass, then talks to some of his younger relatives about his plan to track the creature down. The Beast kills a white deer fawn and leaves few remains as evidence, so Friendly and the other foxes do not notice what has happened. The Warden does notice the losses and regularly patrols the area with a gun, but the Beast is not discovered. While fishing Whistler spots the Beast when it drinks from the stream, and sees that it is a very large cat. He tells Adder, who notices that the footprints are the same ones that he had seen before, and he decides to pursue the cat with the idea of poisoning it. However the Beast traps Adder with its paw and toys with him, eventually knocking him into the stream which allows him to escape. Whistler tells Fox and Vixen of the creature he has seen and Weasel heads off to tell Badger the news. He arrives at Badger's set and discovers Badger talking to a young mole named Mossy, who is trying to tell Badger that Mole is his father. As Badger is unable to accept that Mole is dead Weasel asks Mossy to pretend to be Mole for Badger's sake. He then tells the other animals, who agree to go along with this idea. As the vixens are looking after their cubs Friendly gathers a group of male foxes - made up of Pace (Friendly's son), Husky (Bold's son), Ranger (Charmer's mate), Rusty (Ranger's son), and Trip (Ranger's son) - to join him on an expedition to search out the Beast. They head to the stream where the creature was seen by Whistler and follow its trail into an area of woodland. Friendly notices something stir in the undergrowth and heads off after it, but he is unable to stay on its trail. Initially the foxes wait for the Beast to return but Friendly lets the young foxes look for food, and they come across another young deer which was killed by the Beast. They feed off the remains of the carcass and head back, but the Beast watches them from a tree as they do so. Meanwhile Adder comes across a female adder and tries to impress her with the story of his attack by the Beast, but she shows no interest in him and Adder slides away from her. Adder later tries to find the female adder but is unable to. The next day Whistler discovers that the Warden is setting up a pen by the perimeter of the reserve, and when Tawny Owl tells the animals that the deer are being rounded up they realise that the humans have decided to watch over them to keep them safe. The Beast also realises what the Warden is doing and decides to bide its time so the Warden will think it has left the Park. That evening Friendly and his group of foxes go in search of the Beast again, and its trail leads them to a small copse. Ranger thinks it's a trap but Friendly insists they go on. They enter cautiously but the Beast leaps down from a tree and grabs Husky in its jaws, before leaping back up carrying the young fox. The other foxes realise they are powerless against such a huge animal and leave to fetch help. Once they're gone the Beast drops Husky to the ground. Friendly and the young foxes look for Fox and Vixen, but they find Badger instead and tell him what has happened. Fox and Vixen soon return and Badger decides to offer himself to the Beast in exchange for Husky. He heads off but the foxes leave soon afterwards and reach the copse before him, only to discover that Husky is dead, and the Beast is long gone. Fox comes up with a plan and instructs the other animals to spread the word across the park that every inhabitant of the reserve must keep a lookout for clues and report anything they see immediately. The Warden realises that his attempt to lure the Beast has been unsuccessful and releases the deer back into the reserve. Later Adder comes across the female adder again, and she tells him that she has seen the Beast use a large hole in the bank by the stream. Adder finds this hole, then finds Whistler and tells him this information. Whistler immediately flies away to inform Fox, who decides to gather all the park's inhabitants together and try to trap the Beast in its lair. That evening all the animals have gathered together and they head towards the stream. They find the hole and Toad volunteers to search it for the Beast. He goes inside and discovers the creature sleeping inside, and Fox looks on the other side for another exit. However the Beast wakes up and leaves its lair, causing the group of animals to pull back in terror and watch as the cat washes itself, showing no interest at all in its audience. Eventually the cat takes a few laps from the stream and bounds away out of sight, as the animals can only watch, powerless to stop it. Most of the animals disperse, but Tawny Owl pursues the Beast through the air, eventually finding the large cat in a ditch near the perimeter of the reserve. The Beast asks about Tawny Owl's interest in it, and Owl tells it how terrified all the park's inhabitants are of it. He asks the cat whether it could hunt somewhere else instead and it refuses, but it makes a pledge that no animal will ever see it again although it will still be around, and promises to leave the park if any creature should set eyes on it and tell it so. Tawny Owl decides to go tell all the animals about how he has spoken to the Beast but being very tired he decides to sleep first. Now that the deer are back the Beast kills two more deer and stores them until the park's inhabitants have let their guard down. The Warden lays traps for the Beast, but it does not go near them and the Warden eventually decides to remove them. Needing to restock its larder the Beast then goes on a rampage in Farthing Wood territory, killing several of the smaller creatures and nearly killing Leveret, but he escapes and his mate is killed instead. Adder meets the female adder again and she tells him that she would like to be known as Sinuous. They sunbathe together and Sinuous suggests that the Beast may be living underground. Adder immediately tells Badger and Fox about this theory, and all the foxes, badgers, weasels and rabbits in the park are asked whether they know of a large underground lair, but none do. Badger tells Mossy about the theory and Mossy informs him of a large underground chamber that Mirthful had come across before she died. Badger asks Mossy to find the chamber and inform him if the Beast is living there so that Badger can spot the cat and force it to leave. Mossy starts his search, but he gets distracted by worms and loses focus. However he eventually falls into a large chamber and discovers that the Beast is sleeping inside. He tries to leave quickly but the Beast wakes up and pursues him. Mossy digs underground but the Beast digs after him until Tawny Owl shouts out that he has seen the cat and asks him to yield. The cat roars loudly and Badger arrives, asking the Beast to take him instead of Mossy. The Beast tells the animals he could easily slay them all, but just then they all hear the loud cry of another cat in the distance. The two cats call to each other and the Beast rushes out of the park to join the female that was calling to him. The animals realise that spring must be the mating season for the Beast and celebrate that the Beast has finally left the park. |
In the Path of the Storm | Colin Dann | 1,989 | The death of the Great Stag, leader of the deer of White Deer Park, leaves its inhabitants at the mercy of his successor Trey, a strong and fearsome stag who believes there is no room for the smaller animals in the nature reserve. Meanwhile, Tawny Owl grows tired of bachelorhood and leaves the park in search of a mate. |
Battle for the Park | Colin Dann | 1,992 | The inhabitants of White Deer Park face a new danger as a pack of town rats arrives at the nature reserve, intent on taking it over for themselves. Meanwhile, many of the animals in the park go missing and the others take it upon themselves to find out where they have gone. |
Rise of a Merchant Prince | Raymond E. Feist | 1,995 | Erik von Darkmoor and Rupert Avery (Roo), have returned to Krondor after serving in Calis special unit that was sent down to the continent of Novindus. Erik plans on staying in the army as a corporal in the coming war, and Roo states that he plans on becoming a rich trader. After being pardoned of their crimes by Borric, King of the Kingdom of the Isles, Erik and Roo begin a journey to visit their family in the town of Ravensburg. In an inn along the way, they meet one of Roo's cousins, Duncan, who decides to travel with Roo on the promise of becoming rich. Once in Ravensburg, Erik visits his mother, who faints on the sight of him, as they were told that Erik and Roo were hanged. After a quick explanation, Erik learns from his childhood friend, Rosalyn, that Stefan von Darkmoor, who raped her, is the father of her young child. Roo meets up with his father while buying a wagon, and it is quickly apparent that Roo's father cannot bully him around anymore, and rents out his services as a teamster to Roo. The plot centers primarily on the rise of Roo as an important merchant in Krondor. In the background we see a little of the progression of the war: Erik leaves with a group of special forces to re-infiltrate the den of the Pantathian Serpent Priests, Duke James follows Roo's rise from the sidelines, and steps in from time to time to help. Roo eventually becomes possibly the richest man in the Western Realm. Near the end of the book, we follow the war more closely, as Miranda, Calis, Erik, and their squad find the there is a "third player" at work—someone is already slaughtering the Pantathians. It turns out to be a demon. This greatly aids their quest, as it is a tremendous distraction to the Serpents. As they delve deeper into the mountain they find that the Pantathians have used thousands of human sacrifices to infuse life force into a gem as a "key" to open the Lifestone. But Calis discovers something unexpected—the Key is not what it appears. Nor are the Dragon Lord artifacts they find. Something has contaminated them. Miranda brings the Key and a Dragon Lord helmet to Elvandar, where Pug, Tomas, and the Spellweavers attempt to discern its use. Erik tosses the rest of the artifacts into lava, which releases tremendous energy. He, Calis, and a small squad escape the mountains, but their way home is lost. They are eventually rescued by Nakor and Roo, who decided to sail to Novindus to save them. The book ends with many unanswered questions: who is the "third party" at work? how were the artifacts corrupted and why? is another force after the Lifestone? are demons somehow involved, fooling the Pantathians? bg:Възходът на търговеца принц fr:L'Ascension d'un prince marchand nl:De macht van een koopmansprins |
Werewolf versus Dragon | Matthew Morgan | 2,009 | Ulf is a young werewolf who lives at Farraway Hall, where he and hundreds of other endangered beasts are protected by the RSPCB (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Beasts). When Professor Farraway, the founder of the RSPCB, died, he left his fortune and estate to the society. His son, Baron Marackai, believed he deserved the contents of his father's will and he's made it his life's ambition to take revenge on the RSPCB. A man named Inspector Black shows up at Farraway hall claiming to be investigating the murder of a baby dragon. He believes that the culprit shot the baby dragon in order to lure the mother dragon into a trap. The killer was planning to erect a Ring of Horrors where two endangered beasts battled to the death before a crowd of spectators. But Ulf sees through Inspector Black's facade. Ulf believes he has too much information about the dragon killer's intentions to for an innocent investigator. Inspector Black has his hand in these dirty dealings, and it's up to Ulf to prove it. |
Simon | Rosemary Sutcliff | 1,953 | The story begins on the eve of the English Civil War in 1642. Simon Carey is the school age son of John and Anne Carey, of Lovacott Farm, near Great Torrington in Devon. He has a sister, christened Marjory, whom he always calls "Mouse". One day he is the house of his best friend Amias Hannaford with whom he does his schoolwork, when Amias's father Doctor Hannaford announces that the king has raised his standard at Nottingham, and calls for a toast to the king. Simon refuses, because he and his family support Parliament. This leads to a falling out between the families. Simon's father goes off to fight for Parliament but orders Simon to finish school first. One day while Simon is getting his horse Scarlet reshoed in town, a rider falls down in front of him after being pursued and almost run over by the following horses. He and the smith rescue the young rider. Through his knowledge of the area and the introduction of the rescued man Barnaby Colbourne, a Parliament man, he manages to lead retreating Parliament troops under Colonel Ireton past a Royalist stronghold to safety. A few months later, after finishing his education, Simon goes to Windsor to join the New Model Army. He is fortunate to fall in again with Lieutenant Colebourne who recommends him to General Thomas Fairfax. Simon is commissioned as cornet to Colbourne in the Fairfax Horse. One of his subordinates is the devout Corporal, former Ironside 'Zeal-for-the-Lord' Relf. He first sees action in the decisive Battle of Naseby. After the battle Corporal Relf deserts, having learned that his neighbour has stolen all his money from him. He is recaptured and sentenced to the Pioneer regiment, one of the harshest of units, but escapes. Simon's troop heads west and is ordered to capture a house at Okeham Paine, near Exeter, which is held by the Royalists. When they break through he finds himself fighting Amias, who is with the Royalists. Simon is knocked unconscious by a musket butt and is tended by the formidable lady of the house, Mistress Killigrew. He meets and falls in love with her daughter Susanna. After his recovery he is ordered to go to Lovacott to act as a go-between for messages from Parliament spies in the area under Royalist control. One turns out to be Corporal Relf, now called Ishmael Watts, who is hiding with another spy, Podbury, in the tower of Torrington Church above the powder store. While Simon is at home, a Royalist search party led by Amias turns the house upside down, Simon's sister describes him "not quite 'zactly", i.e., not quite right after his head injury, and Amias chooses to believe this to stop further enquiry from his subordinates. It is then that Simon realises their friendship is still alive. When he hears the Parliament army is in Torrington, he rejoins them for the battle there. The Royalists are defeated and 200 prisoners are put in the church. When a huge explosion blows up the church, suspicion falls upon a red-headed man whom Simon recognizes as Amias, because he used a phrase they used as children. He finds him outside the town and brings his doctor father to him. Amias said it wasn't he who blew up the church. Simon is unaware he is being followed by Cornet Wainwright, who has disliked him since Simon took his coveted position as cornet. He and Amias are arrested. Amias is cleared when the dying Ishmael Watts (Corporal Relf) tells the chaplain Joshua Sprigg and General Fairfax that the explosion was an accident. The General forgives Simon, comparing his actions to those of the Biblical Jonathan who protected his friend David. The story ends four years later at Lovacott in April 1649. Simon resigned from the army at the same time as General Fairfax, because both disagreed with the decision to execute the king, although they otherwise approve of the Commonwealth. A ghost from the past, Podbury, reappears and the mystery of the blast that killed 200 Royalists seems to be solved. Simon and Amias are fast friends again and look set to marry Susanna Killigrew and 'Mouse' respectively. |
Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel | James Patterson | 2,010 | The novel begins with the Flock traveling to Chad in Africa. They are there to help the residents as part of the Coalition to Stop the Madness project, but are attacked by local rebels who are opposed to receiving help from outsiders. After beating the rebels, the Flock proceed to do volunteer work, such as distributing rice. On the second night, Angel reveals that 'Fang will be the first to die', causing an upset in the Flock, before Dr. Hans, a former Itex worker, interrupts. He invites Max and Angel to breakfast where introduces them to his new experiment, Dylan, a bird kid like them but someone who cannot fly well. At breakfast, it is revealed that Dr. Hans plans on forcing the human race to evolve by using the Flock as evolutionary templates. He tries to enlist Max's help by showing her the advancements he has currently made, the most extreme being cutting off and regrowing his own finger. She, however, refuses to help, and quickly returns to the Flock where she instructs them to wait. Back in America, in the E house on the cliff of a canyon—where the Flock resided at the beginning of Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment—the members of the Flock are safe. Total is back with them after staying with Max's mother, and Max and Angel still have not spoken. Max, after deliberation, blackmails the Flock into a self taught home school, because they need to learn things in order to understand the enemy. This leads to a trip to an unnamed museum where Iggy voices his wish that he was not blind. Returning home, the Flock fight, and Max suddenly decides that tomorrow will be her birthday. She asks if anyone else wants to turn a year older, and so a party is planned for all of them the following day. While exchanging gifts, Jeb arrives with Dylan in a black four wheel drive Jeep as it is revealed that Dylan is unable to fly well. Max then teaches him how to fly starting with pushing him off of the roof. Afterwards, the rest of the Flock are still mad at Max. Angry at Jeb, Max flies away, and Fang goes after her. During this time, the others are attacked by Erasers, who were supposedly extinguished in Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports. It is also revealed that Dylan has been trained to fight, and can self-heal his own wounds. When Max and Fang return, the Flock vote Max out because she and Fang were not there to help them fight the Erasers, and they both leave for Las Vegas. Meanwhile, the water supply to the house is tainted with a genetic accelerator that induces mutations. Angel replaces Max as Flock leader, and takes the new group to a celebrity party in Hollywood. They are attacked when Max and Fang find them, and are suffering from the side effects of the genetic accelerator. Jeb is shot while protecting the Flock, but survives. After recovering, Angel leaves to join Dr. Hans as Max resumes leadership. Later, a vague letter from Fang warns Max not to follow him. Fang finds Angel and Dr. Hans, but is shot with a tranquilizer dart, and he passes out. When Fang comes to, he is badly beaten and restrained to a bed. Dr. Hans plans to experiment on Fang with his genetic accelerator drug and injects Fang with it. However, the drug ends up causing him to die. Angel tells(through her mind) Max to come to rescue him, but when the Flock arrives, they are too late. Max desperately tries to bring Fang around, but to no avail. She finally stabs a needle of adrenaline into his chest and after a few moments, Fang is brought back to life. Then Dylan tries to kill Dr. Hans with a needle he finds, but when he realizes it is against the Flock's way to kill in cold blood he stabs himself with it in a suicide attempt, but lives. In the epilogue Total marries Akila. Fang leaves the reception early, and when the Flock arrives back home after the reception, Max goes to look for Fang, but instead finds a letter addressed to her. Max reads the letter aloud to the rest of the Flock. In the letter, Fang tells Max that he loves her more than anything, but it is because of their love that he is leaving the Flock. He tells Max that everyone was right about them starting to only care about themselves and that it puts the others in danger he also calls Max sweetheart which surprises everyone. The rest of the Flock still needs her to be a leader and she can't do that with him around. He also tells her that he knows where he is going and to please not look for him. At the end of the letter, Fang makes a promise to Max. He says that if in 20 years, if both of them are still alive, and the world is still in one piece, then he will meet her at the top of the cliff where they learned to fly like the hawks in Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment. After the epilogue, Max goes through Fang's files on an old laptop since Nudge is using the new one. The first thing Max sees is Fang's MaxProCon.doc showing the pros and cons of Max, such as, "She's a good leader, but a drill sergeant." In the next file, Fang is describing what happened in Africa. Then, he has his "giftlist" for everyone's birthday, and describes Max's gift. In the next file he talks about when he and Max were in Las Vegas. The file after that contains a letter to Dylan where he writes that he hates Dylan more than anyone because he likes Max and Dylan is trying to be with her. After this, a long string of questions is shown, written by a fan called "Jessie." Jessie (whose gender is not confirmed) asks such unusual questions as "Do you smoke apples?" "Would you tell us if you were gay?" "Has Angel ever read your mind when you were having dirty thoughts about Max and gone 'OMG' and you were like 'D:'?" Fang's responses range from "Uhhhh...." to "hahahahahahaha" to "I could never be as Fangalicious as you'd want me to be." He ends it by saying that he has been by Max's side forever but he now cannot be around anymore because his anger towards Dylan is "clouding my decisions" and that he does not "know what the right thing to do" is. |
How We Decide | Jonah Lehrer | 2,009 | Sections/chapters of the book are titled as follows: * Introduction * The Quarterback in the Pocket * The Predictions of Dopamine * Fooled by a Feeling * The Uses of Reason * Choking on Thought * The Moral Mind * The Brain Is an Argument * The Poker Hand * Coda |
Journeys to the End of the World | Clive Algar | 2,007 | Psychology student Vicky Watts travels from Cape Town to Plettenberg Bay hoping to discover what happened to her enigmatic great-grandfather, Dan Butler, who returned from the trenches of the Western Front in 1918 suffering from shell-shock. Like the archaeologists working in the Letterbox Cave (a pivotal location in the story) the novel gradually brushes through layers of the past, revealing not only Dan’s harrowing story of war, guilt and love but reaching back to the foundations of modern South African society when a young Khoi flees the brutality of his trekboer master. The mysterious cave, near Plettenberg Bay, connects the lives of the major characters and it is near this archaeological site that Vicky experiences her own life-altering crisis. |
The Lump of Coal | Daniel Handler | 2,008 | It is Christmastime. A living lump of coal falls off a barbecue grill. He wishes for a miracle to happen. The lump of coal is artistic and wants to be an artist. He goes in search of something. First, he finds an art gallery that, he believes, shows art by lumps of coal. But when he comes in, he sadly discovers the art is by humans who use lumps of coal. He then finds a Korean restaurant called Mr. Wong's Korean Restaurant and Secretarial School, but he goes in and discovers that all things used must be 100% Korean (although the owner does not use a Korean name or proper Korean spices). The lump of coal continues down the street and runs into a man dressed like Santa Claus. The lump of coal tells the man about his problem, and the man gets an idea. He suggests he put the lump of coal in Jasper (his bratty son)'s stocking. The son finds it and is ecstatic; he has wanted to make art with coal. So he makes portraits and he and the lump of coal become rich. They move to Korea and open an actual genuine Korean restaurant and have a gallery of their art. |
Succubus Blues | Richelle Mead | 2,007 | We first meet Georgina Kincaid when she is asked by her friend Hugh the imp to sleep with a virgin who has bargained to give up his soul in exchange for a hot and heavy fantasy encounter with a demoness. So as a favor to her friend she agrees to shape shift into a demonic outfit complete with wings and a tail and sleep with the 34 year old man. We are then told that she is a succubus who takes the life force from men through sex, in order to survive. The better character the man has, the more energy she gets from him - and conversely, she gets less energy from a more immoral man. After sex with the man she goes to her car where she is accosted by a vampire named Duane who tries to force himself on her. When she fights back, he is angered, but when a car is driven by it allows her a distraction to get away. She gets a call from her demon boss Jerome who got a call from Duane saying she attacked him and threatened him, which she did in self-defense. We then learn that she works at a book store and has a crush on the writer of her favorite series who is going to have a book signing at the store. While working we meet her co assistant manager Doug and a man who she flirts with while working and talking to him about the book signing for Seth Mortensen. She tells him that she thinks they should come up with new and exciting questions for the author because he probably always gets the same questions and wants to impale himself when he always has to answer them. She assures him that she is an avid fan who would agree to be his sex slave if she was able to get advance copies of his book. After work she gets home to find that her boss Jerome and his angel friend Carter are at her house and they think she killed Duane. When she assures them she didn’t and Carter agrees that she is telling the truth they tell her to be careful because someone is killing local immortals. She returns to the store for the book signing to find the man she was flirting with earlier and she finds his nervousness and awkwardness adorable and starts to flirt with him again only to be interrupted by Paige her boss when she comes looking for Seth Mortensen and grabs the man. Georgina is embarrassed so she tries to avoid and ignore Seth because of her earlier flirting and comments but Paige volunteers her to show Seth around the city the next day. The same night the owner of the store wants to have sex with her in his office but she refuses due to a ‘date’. She then beckons a stranger over to her and passes him off as her date. They walk out of the store together and the stranger, named Roman, asks her out while he walks her home. She is attracted to him. But since she doesn’t like corrupting good men she refuses. When her friend Hugh is beat up during the day time she goes to try to do research on who could be killing immortals she looks for a psychic Erik at another book store but they tell her that he has left and opened his own store. However she has a run in with the store’s manager Helena who is trying to sell the ideas of new age crystals and psychic knowledge. When an angel is killed and Georgina finds that the killer is leaving her notes she goes to Erik again. He gives her the idea of Nephilim. However she gets attacked by an invisible immortal and she is saved by Carter the angel but they don’t find the Nephilim. So Carter stays with her because the Nephilim has some kind of obsession with her and they think she is still in danger. Meanwhile Roman is still persistent and she agrees to go on a date. One date at a time she finds that she is really drawn to him and has a hard time keeping her self-control with him. They go on several dates and she really likes him and they both enjoy dancing. Meanwhile she is also growing fond of Seth the writer although he isn’t very good at expressing himself through speech but they bond over emails which Georgina finds great because it’s like reading books he wrote just to her. However it all comes to a turning point when she gets drunk on a date with Roman at a concert for Doug’s band. The bookstore workers are there along with Seth who has become their in store writer. In a moment of weak self-control and intoxication she allows herself to kiss Roman. When he says that he felt something weird she realizes she just took some of his life force so she runs off but is followed by Seth who takes her back to his house. He helps hold her hair while throwing up and breaking down and nursing her hangover the next morning. In light of her low self-control she breaks up with Roman and tells him to stay away from her. He is hurt and confused and she is hurt because she really likes him so she turns to Seth for comfort and they become even more tender towards each other. Then Georgina finds out that the Nephilim is the child of Jerome from a human. She also find out that the Nephilim is sending notes to Jerome as well and that the killing of lesser immortals was just the beginning. They think this means that Jerome is the next target. So Carter goes to stay with Jerome and leaves her. She gets a note from the Nephilim at work saying that she must prove she really care for her mortal friends and that they are not just an entertainment in her life. If she can take care of her boyfriend and keep him safe until the end of her shift then they will be allowed to live if not then the Nephilim will kill him. But Georgina does know what guy the Nephilim is talking about so she tries to get in touch with Roman through a phone call because she doesn’t know where he works, she also takes Seth with her to check on the safety of Doug and tell him to stay with a crowd and cover her night shift. She then checks to make sure that Warren will be in meetings until the end of the day. When she thinks everyone is safe she goes home and finds Roman at her door. He is touched that she cares about him but is confused by her off and on vibes. He goes to kiss her and when she tries to reject him he tells her that she won’t do anything bad to him she can. Then she realizes that he is the Nephilim he tells her that he loves her and her fight against the demonic system she belongs to. He is taken with her and loves that she is a succubus that doesn’t want to take people's life force. He tells her that he killed the immortals that hurt her and stopped himself from killing Hugh. She then wants to know why hurt her but she finds out that he has a twin sister and that she was the one who attacked Georgina. He tells her that after he kills Carter the high Angel in the area they can run off and be together. She considers it and really wants to but when he won’t agree to leave before he kills Carter she decides that she can’t be with him and sit back while Carter dies so she tricks him into believing that she has agreed and they make love over and over all night. In the morning she tells him that she needs to call in sick to work but instead calls in her immortal friends and bosses. But then Roman tells her that he has decided she is all he needs and they can leave together now and he won’t kill Carter but it is too late because Seth shows up with coffee and doughnuts for her day off and Roman realizes that she called her bosses not her store job. So he calls his sister who ends up being Helena who already hates Georgina and a battle of power starts, one that sucks away all Georgina’s life energy. As she is dying Carter and Jerome show up and battle Roman and Helena. Georgina tries to save Seth but in her weakened state she kisses Seth and drains almost all his life while she sees the thoughts in his head and she realizes that Seth loves her in a worshiping wonderful way and she realizes she really cares for him. All their feelings flash by as she drains him but when she and he are pulled apart she realizes what she did and feels awful for almost killing him so when Jerome tries to wipe his memory of all he saw including knowing Georgina she makes a deal with Jerome to be his number one employee if he lets Seth keep his memories. The angel and the demon killed Helena but Roman got away injured. When Seth has recovered a week later she tells him everything about her immortal life and those around her. He is to shocked and stunned to say anything so she leaves and cries into Carter's shoulder because she realizes how deeply she cares for Seth and she doesn’t want him to hate her. She arrives to work to find that Seth has written her a note in a copy of his book. It says ... “To Thetis, Long overdue, I know, but very often the things we most desire come only after much patience and struggle. That is a human truth, I think. Even Peleus knew that. – Seth “ After finding out that the story of Thetis and Peleus was one where a mortal loved a shape shifting sea nymph so much he tamed her and they lived together and loved one another eventually leading to the birth of Achilles she finds that he has hope for the future. |
The Inferior | Peadar Ó Guilín | 2,007 | Stopmouth is a member of the Human tribe, which is on the verge of extinction. There is a vast variety of different species of sentient creatures, all of whom either have made alliances with the humans, or hunt them as a source of food. In return, in order to survive in this barbaric world, the humans hunt other species and "trade flesh", a tradition that has the humans trade the weakest and most useless members of their tribe to other species as a source of food. In the book, this is known as "volunteering", and it is considered shameful to attempt to resist being volunteered for the good of your tribe. Stopmouth himself (who is said to be around 5,000 days old, around 13 years old) is constantly overlooked and overshadowed because of both his stuttering speech impediment and his more popular brother, Wallbreaker. One day Stopmouth meets a woman named Indrani. Indrani fell from the sky when one of the mysterious globes that fly across the 'Roof' (the Human tribe's name for the sky, basically) explodes, and she is expelled from it. Indrani seems to be more civilzed than Stopmouth's tribe, and is disdainful of them. The Human tribe believes her to be 'slow', or stupid, because she cannot speak their language, and their experience has been that there is only one Human tribe. She was going to be volunteered, but Wallbreaker took her as a wife (partly because of her beauty, and partly because one's status is raised when one has more than one wife), protecting her from being traded. Eventually, a great war ensues over a piece of technology known to the barbarians as 'the talker'. It allows different species to communicate with each other, thus making them easier to coordinate alliances with. It eventually gets to the point where most of the species opposing the Humans are destroyed, and Wallbreaker (having been elected chief by this point) takes possession of the talker, which becomes a coveted artifact. Stopmouth, who has come to love Indrani and resent Wallbreaker for taking her before he did, steals Indrani from him and, at her request, the talker. He is pursued across the land by his tribe until they eventually lose their pursuers. Stopmouth (having travelled to a distant part of the land) eventually becomes the surrogate chief of a tribe of religious humans who are on the verge of being wiped out by a strange race of creatures. With his help, they learn to fend for themselves. Indrani reveals toward the end of the book that she comes from a tribe of Humans who live in the Roof, and actually watch the Humans below fight for their lives as a form of entertainment. Stopmouth is devastated by this, but eventually they reconcile, as Indrani has come to a different view of his people, and now holds a degree of respect for them where there had only been disdain before. The book ends when Varaha—a member of Stopmouth's new tribe of humans and a secret member of Indrani's old Roof tribe—confronts Stopmouth while Indrani is being reclaimed by her 'civilized' people. Stopmouth manages to kill Varaha, but Indrani is returned to the Roof. |
The Wall-to-Wall Trap | null | null | Ted is a publicity department executive at the Manhattan office of Above All Pictures, a movie production company in the mid-1950s. His high salary affords him a nice car and furnishes his large apartment, where he lives with his wife, Roxy, and their two children. Although Ted has experience in the specious marketing game played between publicists, actors, directors, producers, and tabloid journalists, he feels trapped in office politics after a rumor is started that he is about to be fired by his new boss, Larry. Larry takes a Machivellian approach to management, even convincing Ted to shed crocodile tears over his potentially destitute family during a business dinner with a magazine editor. Ted hopes to secure a headlining article to back up a publicity stunt for Above All's latest movie. Without the article, Ted's stunt will backfire, the movie may flop, and Ted is certain to be fired. Ted's former boss, Willie — who had left Above All to be a television executive in Chicago, Illinois — had a more lenient management approach. Willie is virtually blind to incompetence and seeks unconditional loyalty. He surrounds himself with yes men and rewards those that let Willie all but run their lives for them. Ted perceives it as security through fealty. Before Ted leaves Above All for Chicago, he and Willie have a falling out. Ted now strives to prove himself to Larry and the other executives at Above All, to thwart the rumor of his imminent firing. Ted acknowledges Larry's cutthroat methods, but prefers the stress over sucking up to Willie. Ted's wife wants him to reconcile with Willie and take a cushy, stress-free job in Chicago. Ted contemplates leaving the industry altogether, knowing it will mean sacrificing his lavish lifestyle and his socializing with the well-to-dos in the movie industry. |
Story of a Girl | Sara Zarr | null | The story centers around Deanna Lambert, a teen troubled by social exile and branding rumors. When she was thirteen, her father caught her and her brother's friend, seventeen-year-old Tommy Webber, having unprotected sex in the back of Tommy's Buick. Word gets around by Tommy, and Deanna is named the 'school slut'. Her father becomes distant and cold towards her, never showing any affection after what he witnessed. Three years later, Deanna still lives in her small hometown of Pacifica, California. Her affair with Tommy Webber is still a popular gossip topic and her older brother, Darren, and his girlfriend, Stacy, now live in their basement with their illegitimate child, April. Keeping a fantasy of moving out of the house with Darren and Stacy in her mind and coming to a happy home, Deanna gets a summer job at a ratty pizza parlor, Picasso's Pizza, while also dealing with inhibited feelings of affection for her best friend, Jason, who is dating her other friend, Lee. As the summer progresses, Deanna's secret love of Jason deepens. She begins to become more and more envious of Lee, especially of Lee's happy home and inner peace. One day, Deanna finds that Stacy fled the house,leaving April behind, and does not return. At the same time, she develops a friendship with her boss at Picasso's, Michael, while working alongside Tommy Webber. One evening, Michael gives Deanna a ride home from work and Deanna's father grows suspicious of Michael's motives. Deanna then lashes out at her father for never again trusting her after he caught Deanna and Tommy in the car, which causes her father to temporarily leave. At the end of the story Deanna reconciles with Lee and Jason, Stacy suddenly arrives home ( it is revealed that she left only intending to party before returning to motherhood ), and Deanna decides to truly move on from the affair she had so long ago. Coincidentally, her father also returns to his family and moves on from the past. |
The Girls Get Even | null | null | The girls plan to play a dirty trick on the boys. When the boys find out, both sides make a deal, that who ever makes the best Halloween costume will get to boss the other team around for a whole month. At the Halloween carnival the boys sabotage the girls' costume and the girls sabotage the boys’ costume. The boys are so upset they plan a trick on the girls; they make a fake party invitation saying go to the cemetery and follow the clues they see, and at the end of the clues the boys would pour worms and pasta all over them. But the girls tricked the boys by emptying the bucket of worms and pasta. The boys missed their chance of getting candy, when they got home the girls were waiting and ready for a party. |
Cavern of the Fear | Jennifer Rowe | 2,002 | In Deltora, a land of magic and monsters, the Shadow Lord's evil tyranny has finally ended after three unlikely heroes Lief, Jasmine, and Barda defeated him. He and the creatures of his sorcery have been driven out of Deltora. But thousands of Deltorans are still enslaved in the Shadowlands, the Shadow Lord's terrifying and mysterious domain. To rescue them, Lief, Barda, and Jasmine, heroes of the quest for the Belt of Deltora, must find the Pirran Pipe, the only weapon the Shadow Lord fears. They embark on the dangerous quest and finds the first broken piece of the Pipe. There they encounter The Fear, a giant squid, whom they defeat. |
Coco & Igor | Chris Greenhalgh | 2,002 | Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring has its Paris premiere on 29 May 1913. Coco is mesmerized by the power of Igor’s composition, but the audience is scandalized by its discordant, rhythmic music and Nijinsky's primitive choreography. Coco finally meets Igor seven years later, at a dinner hosted by Sergei Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes. Igor has been forced to flee Russia – with his wife and four children – following the Russian Revolution. Coco invites him to bring his family to stay with her at her villa in Garches – 'Bel Respiro'. Couturière and composer soon begin an affair. Both experience a surge of creativity; while Coco creates Chanel No. 5 (with perfumer Ernest Beaux), Igor’s compositions display a new, liberated style. But Igor’s wife, Katerina, becomes ill with consumption and an unbearable tension takes hold of 'Bel Respiro' and its occupants. |
Heaven and Earth | Ian Plimer | 2,009 | In the book, Plimer likens the concept of human-induced climate change to creationism and asserts that it is a "fundamentalist religion adopted by urban atheists looking to fill a yawning spiritual gap plaguing the West". Environmental groups are claimed to have filled this gap by having a romantic view of a less developed past. The book is critical of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which he claims has allowed "little or no geological, archeological or historical input" in its analyses. If it had, the book asserts, the IPCC would know cold times lead to dwindling populations, social disruption, extinction, disease and catastrophic droughts, while warm times lead to life blossoming and economic booms – suggesting that global warming, whether or not caused by humans, should be welcomed. The book is critical of political efforts to address climate change and argues that extreme environmental changes are inevitable and unavoidable. the book claims, and they have narrowed the climate change debate to the atmosphere, whereas the truth is more complex. Money would be better directed to dealing with problems as they occur rather than making expensive and futile attempts to prevent climate change. The book differs from the scientific consensus in contending that the Great Barrier Reef will benefit from rising seas, that there is no correlation between carbon dioxide levels and temperature, and that 98% of the greenhouse effect is due to water vapour. In the book, Plimer asserts that the current theory of human-induced global warming is not in accord with history, archaeology, geology or astronomy and must be rejected, that promotion of this theory as science is fraudulent, and that the current alarm over climate change is the result of bad science. He argues that climate models focus too strongly on the effects of carbon dioxide, rather than factoring in other issues such as solar variation, the effect of clouds, and unreliable temperature measurements. |
Wagon Train to the Stars | Diane Carey | 2,000 | Guarding a colony expedition becomes much more difficult when an ancient feud between two alien races threatens everyone. |
Belle Terre | Dean Wesley Smith | 2,000 | The Enterprise is leading thirty-thousand colonists on a six month trip to establish a strategically important colony. Just after they make their first attempts at settling in, Spock discovers a nearby moon has two important features. It is made of a very valuable ore and is also unstable. If it blows, all the colonists will be killed. |
Rough Trails | Julia Ecklar | 2,000 | A vital colony, needed to support the eventual expansion of the Federation, is suffering problems. The home planet is ravaged by natural disasters. Alien threats endanger the lives of everyone due to greed for the mineral rights. As the Enterprise patrols the system, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov find that the colonists have outright decided they don't want the help of Starfleet anymore. |
The Flaming Arrow | Kathy Oltion | 2,000 | Belle Terre is a new human colony set up on a vitally strategic new planet. It is to be a much-needed stop-over point for human expansion. Unfortunately there is months of distance between this section of space and the Federation, the exact reason for the colony in the first place. The Enterprise and James Kirk have been dealing with a series of threats to Belle Terre, the latest is an alien race armed with a 'superweapon' that is determined to kill every last human; the mineral rights are just too valuable. |
Batman: Haunted Knight | null | null | During the story "Fears", Batman is hunting down and trying to capture Scarecrow. As the title suggests, fear plays a large part in the story, with Batman nearly dying of fear while trapped in a large, poisonous, thorn maze. "Madness" tells the story of James Gordon's daughter, Babara, being kidnapped by Mad Hatter and forced to be in a twisted tea party with other kidnapped children. Batman and Gordon finally save Babara and bring down Mad Hatter. "Ghosts" is basically a Batman universe version of A Christmas Carol, with Bruce's father taking the place of Marley, and the three spirits being Poison Ivy, Joker, and a Grim Reaper figure who turns out to be Batman's ghost. The message from the spirits is that Bruce should not let Batman take over his entire life. |
Gilda Joyce: The Ghost Sonata | Jennifer Allison | 2,007 | Wendy Choy, Gilda's best friend, gets to go to Oxford, England for a piano competition. When Gilda finds this out, she embarks on the trip with Wendy as an official page turner. But when Gilda thinks that there are ghosts haunting Oxford, she gets excited. Mysterious Tarot cards are placed in the guests' bedrooms which gives Gilda even more reason to believe that there are hauntings in Oxford. Gilda is a self-proclaimed psychic investigator who believes that she can speak with her late father. She tries to solve the problem why this ghost is haunting them. |
Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story | Mary Downing Hahn | null | The book starts with Molly and Michael (brother and sister) arguing with their mom because they found out that they are moving to the country. The house used to be a church and has a graveyard located near it. Heather, a 7-year-old girl, still does not trust Molly (stepsister), Michael (stepbrother), and their mother, Jean (stepmother). She tends to stay close with her daddy, Dave. When Molly hears of Heather having a ghostly friend, she immediately watches her every move, causing later arguments to occur. While Molly tries to have a sisterly relationship with Heather, Heather continues to deny the trust given to her. Heather threatens Molly later on that if she continues to bother and "spy" on her and Helen, "Wait Till Helen Comes". Helen comes while Heather, Jean, and Dave are gone and destroys Molly, Michael, and Jean's room. Molly sees Helen, but no one believes her. Helen gives Heather a locket, and later while Jean and Dave are gone, Heather sneaks out to see helen. Molly follows Heather and Helen, while Helen tries to lure Heather into a pond and drown her, but Molly saves Heather. While Molly gives Heather CPR, Helen comes back to get Heather. Molly takes the locket and throws it at Helen. She runs after it. Molly tries to escape, dragging Heather behind, and falls into a hole where they found Helens parent's bones. Molly finds out that Helen had killed her parents by accidentally setting a fire, just like how Heather accidentally played with the stove that started a fire that killed her mother when she was three. Once Molly and Heather are found and rescued, the parents' bones are removed and buried with their daughter. Helen is finally at rest and Molly comes to love and care for her stepsister. |
The Prince of Tides | Pat Conroy | 1,986 | Tom travels to New York City to discuss his sister's problems with Dr. Susan Lowenstein, her psychiatrist. Starting in her childhood, Savannah experienced schizophrenic hallucinations involving bloody figures and dogs which tell her to kill herself. Savannah moves to New York and becomes an emerging writer of poetry, writing about her past as a way to escape from it. After many years, Savannah attempts suicide and nearly succeeds, the hallucinations still haunting her. In flashbacks which take up most of the novel, Tom relates incidents from his childhood to Lowenstein, who hopes that by finding out what pushed Savannah into her latest suicide attempt she and Tom can discover how to save her life. We learn that Tom and his siblings were the offspring of an abusive father and uncaring mother. The father, Henry, a WWII bomber crewman who survived being shot down and managed to evade capture by the Nazis, thought that the best way to raise a family was by beating them, and did so regularly. He was a shrimp boat operator and, despite being successful at that profession, spent all of his money on frivolous business pursuits. One business attempt was a gas station that he advertised with a live tiger (that became the family pet, Caesar). These attempts leave the family in poverty. Their overly proud, status-hungry mother was only concerned for the family's public image, and would not let her children say a word about their father's abuse. Eventually, Tom reveals the most traumatic event of their childhood, which ultimately caused the first of several of Savannah's suicide attempts. A man the children nickname "Callanwolde", who they first encounter in a wood next to their grandmother's home in Atlanta, escapes from prison with two other men and goes to the Wingo's home on Melrose Island, South Carolina. They rape Tom, Savannah (they were just 18 years old), and Lila (their mother). Luke, who was working outside, comes to the house, sees the men through the window, and releases the family's pet tiger, Caesar, who kills the men raping Lila and Savannah; Tom kills the man who raped him. The mother and the children dispose of the men's bodies and she made them promise that they would never tell a soul about what happened. After the revelation of the rape, Lowenstein feels that she is even closer to helping Savannah. Tom then tells the story of how their brother, Luke, died. Lila ends up divorcing Henry many years later, and marries Reese Newbury, a prominent landowner in the city of Colleton and former husband of a childhood rival, next to Melrose Island. Lila had gained the land in the settlement, and sells it to Reese. Reese sells all of the land in Colleton county and the Atomic Energy Commission begins the construction of production plants there. Luke, an ex-Navy SEAL who served in Vietnam, decides to fight for his land and the city, using guerrilla tactics to destroy bridges and building equipment, becoming a wanted man. He is tracked down by Savannah and Tom who try to persuade him to give up instead of being killed by the FBI. Luke is finally persuaded to surrender himself at a time and place of his choosing, but en route to the meeting, is shot and killed. Luke's death was the driving force behind Savannah's latest suicide attempt, and Lowenstein and Tom figure out that in order to save Savannah, she would have to write poetry about Luke's life the way she wrote about her childhood. As the novel concludes, Savannah is making her recovery and Tom becomes closer to his wife and children. Henry, after being released from prison for drug trafficking, is confronted by Tom about his abuse, but does not remember ever hurting his family. Although Savannah and Tom can never completely forgive him for the damage that he did, they look forward to getting to know their father better, who acts like a changed man. By the end of the novel, they had not completely repaired their relationship with their mother, despite an earlier apologetic conversation between Lila and Tom. Tom's meetings with Lowenstein also helped him better understand himself and save his marriage. Tom ended up as emotionally detached as his father and mother were, and because of this he never learned how to love his family. Sallie cheats on Tom, and the two nearly divorce. Tom falls in love with Lowenstein through the course of the novel, but realizes that he still loves Sallie. Lowenstein and Tom part ways after saving Savannah, and Tom returns to his family to become the father that he never was. |
The Snowman | Jo Nesbø | 2,007 | The book begins with a scene in 1980 - 24 years before the main plot. A married woman has sex with a lover in the middle of the day, while her adolescent son waits in a car outside; their lovemaking is disturbed when they think somebody is looking at them from outside the window, but it turns out to have been only a snowman built outside. The significance of the scene only becomes clear near the end of the book, where - as with other flashbacks in the Harry Hole books - it provides a clue to the identity of the book's real villain. The main plot is set in 2004, when Norwegian detective, Harry Hole investigates a number of recent murders of women around Oslo. His experiences on a training course with the FBI lead him to search for links between the cases, and finds two – each victim is a married mother and after each murder a snowman is found at the murder scene. On looking back through previous murders going back some years, Hole comes to realise that he is on the case of Norway's first official serial killer, as he discovers more women who have disappeared and are believed to have been abducted or murdered in a similar pattern. Almost all of the victims vanish after the first snowfall of winter and a snowman is found near the scene, although this is usually ignored as not being indicative during the original investigation. Further investigation leads Harry and his team – including newcomer to the Department, Katrine Bratt, recently transferred from the Police Department in Bergen, to suspect that paternity issues with the children of the victims may be a motive for the murders. They discover that all of the victims' children have different fathers to the men they believe to be their father. Following DNA Testing results leads the investigation down a few wrong routes and several murder suspects are eliminated from the enquiry. Within a short time, Harry and Katrine are drawn together - personally as well as professionally. In the past Harry avoided having affairs with female colleagues, but he is now tempted. During a departamental party, Katrine makes bold advances - and though rejecting her, Harry afterwards has vivid sexual fantasies about her. It is, however, far more than a sexual attraction. He recognizes in her a kindred spirit - a brillant detective able to notice the smallest of details and form them into patterns. Moreover, she has the same kind of obsessive dedication to the job which Harry himself has - the obsessive dedication which had earlier caused Harry's girlfriend, Rakel, to break their relationship. To complicate matters further, during the investigation, Harry continues to meet, clandestinely, with Rakel, despite the fact that Rakel has a new boyfriend, the doctor Matthias Lund-Helgesen. Eventually, however, suspicion falls of Katrine Bratt being herself "The Snowman", after she attempts to force a confession out of one of the strongest suspects, who eventually turns out to be innocent. Harry chases her across Norway and finally catches up with her at a previously discovered murder site. She is apprehended and committed to a psychiatric unit. After initially seeming to be unresponsive, she eventually informs the psychiatrist of the reasons for her behaviour. At the same time, Harry's superior officers decide that the scandal of allowing a long-time serial killer to work on the murder case will be damaging and determine that they require a scapegoat to appease the press. Due to his previous issues with alcoholism and consequent reputation within the police department, Harry is put forward in absentia. Harry comes to realise that the murderer is still at large when another victim is discovered. Purely due to a random thought triggered by a comment from Matthias, Harry makes a vital connection that ultimately leads him to the true perpetrator. His success in finally apprehending the killer prevents any need for a scapegoat and Katrine Bratt, following further mental stability checks is sent back to Bergen Police Department. A background theme to the book's plot is the centuries-old rivalry between Oslo and Bergen, repeatedly referred to in (often ironic or facetious) remarks by various characters. In one passage Katrine tells Harry that "Bergensians don't think of Oslo as the capital". |
T3: Terminator Hunt | Aaron Allston | null | Skynet, the most advanced artificial intelligence ever developed, has long since outstripped its human creators in deviousness, duplicity, and sheer ruthlessness. In 2029, as the human Resistance inexorably pushes toward a victory over the machines, Skynet has a card to play that the Resistance can’t counter. It can use one of the Resistance to betray all humanity. Skynet kidnaps Resistance agent Paul Keeley, drugs him into a hazy, receptive state, and subjects him to an uncannily realistic VR simulation in which a beautiful woman is trying to rescue him from the living hell of the future. Unfortunately, that woman is a seductive, deadly Terminatrix. If Paul believes what his virtual “savior” tells him, he may inadvertently reveal vital Resistance secrets that could cause mankind’s destruction. The Resistance must find the key to unlock Paul’s memory and hunt down the answers that will defeat the Terminatrix, the T-X, Skynet’s most powerful weapon of all. |
T3: Terminator Dreams | Aaron Allston | null | Despite the sacrifice of a T-850 and the heroic efforts of John Connor and Kate Brewster, Skynet became operational. It is now 2029 AD, and the war between the human Resistance and Skynet rages on. With small guerrilla forces, John and Kate continue to sabotage and destroy Skynet forces . . . but it's not enough. Before Judgment Day, Danny Avila helped program what became Skynet and was plagued by nightmares of Terminators destroying cities and decimating mankind. He disappeared two days before Judgment Day, and didn't resurface until Kate and John discovered him years later. Danny still can't remember what happened to him just before Skynet attacked. He has the nagging feeling that he has forgotten something very important. Despite this memory lapse, he has become a vital member of the Resistance. Horrible dreams have begun to haunt him again. Could these dreams be a psychic link to his past self? John Connor has an idea: if Danny past and Danny present can communicate, perhaps they can help the Resistance gain an edge and defeat Skynet. But to accomplish such a connection would place Danny at tremendous physical and emotional risk. It's a dangerous experiment, but one that might prove the salvation of mankind's future... and the death of Danny. |
Thin Air | Dean Wesley Smith | 2,000 | The Federation has established the colony of Belle Terre, vitally important to their continued expansion. However, the planet they have chosen has unexpected mineral riches, desired by nearby aliens. Due to sheer distance, the only starship to guard them is the Enterprise. The planet is now under attack by biological weapons; Captain Kirk decides to take the fight to the aliens threatening Belle Terre. |
Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go | null | 2,008 | One day, the nerdy Milton Fauster and his kleptomaniac sister Marlo are in the Grizzly Mall of Generica, Kansas. They go into a store and Milton unwittingly steals some lip gloss. As Marlo and Milton are running through the mall with the security guard chasing them, Milton realizes Marlo tricked him into stealing lip gloss.They take a brake for a moment and they stop in front of a giant marshmallow model of a Grizzly Bear, and Milton sees Damian Ruffino, his extremely unhygienic tormentor and bully at school. He is sticking some dynamite in the marshmallow Grizzly Bear Statue's you-know-where. Before the mall security guards can catch up with them, the marshmallow Grizzly Bear explodes and Milton and Marlo both die. Damian also dies. The last thing they see is flaming marshmallow all over the mall. Now, Milton and Marlo are holding hands and plummeting downward and Milton feels a slight sting. He and Marlo land, and they found themselves in a terrible school in Limbo where the principal Bea "Elsa" Bubb torments them with things they wish they could have. But, Damian is getting the special treatment. The teachers are rude, mean, and disgusting. The children are terrified. They now find themselves in Limbo, the waiting area for the Nine Circles of Heck, which include Rapacia, Blimpo, Precocia, Sadia, Snivel, Fibble, Lipptor, and Dupli-City. When Milton meets Virgil, his new and now only best friend, they and Marlo plan an escape to return to Earth, instead of spending the rest of their lives tormented in Heck. Each book in the series deals with a realm of the afterlife of Heck. "" Circles of Heck"" Limbo : First place where kids arrive after they die, where their souls are weighed and assessed. Rapacia : Where the greedy kids go. Blimpo : Where the fat kids go. Fibble : Where the lying kids go. Snivel : Where the whiny kids go. Precocia : Where the smarty-pants kids that grow up too fast go. Lipptor : Where the kids who sass back go. Sadia : Where the bullies go. Dupli-City : Where the back-stabbing kids go. Honors Rapacia: The Second Circle of Heck was nominated for an Oregon Book Award. Other Books Released in the Series Rapacia: The Second Circle of Heck was released in July, 2009. Blimpo: The Third Circle of Heck was released in May, 2010. Fibble: The Fourth Circle of Heck was released May, 2011. Snivel: The Fifth Circle of Heck was released on May 22, 2012. Precocia: The Sixth Circle of Heck will be released in February 2013. |
Winter Rose | Patricia A. McKillip | 1,996 | When Rois Melior, the wild daughter of a widowed father, first sees Corbet Lynn step from the woods, she is attracted to him despite a sense that he isn't what he appears to be. As he rebuilds his family's decaying estate, Rose and her sister Laurel both befriend and eventually fall in love with Corbet. The seasons progress as calm, sensible Laurel begins to change, forgetting her earlier betrothal and becoming obsessed with Corbet. In the winter, Corbet mysteriously disappears and Laurel begins to waste away, much like her mother did. The town believes that the curse that Corbet's grandfather lay upon his descendants has claimed him. Only Rois, who has been able to slip in and out of the woods since she was a child, is able to chase after Corbet and save him and her sister. But the power of the fey is a tricky magic, and even as Rois untangles him from his past, she is in constant danger of being ensnared herself. |
The Million Dollar Putt | Dan Gutman | 2,006 | Edward Bogard ("Bogie" for short) is a 13 year old blind boy who lives in Hawaii with his widowed father. Though blind, he rides a bike, parasails, and plays guitar. When he decides to take up golf he has to enlist the aid of his neighbor, a young girl named Birdie. As their friendship develops, it turns out that Bogie also has the driving touch of a professional golfer. Someone anonymously enters him into a golf tournament and the two join forces to try to win the million dollar prize. |
December 7, 1941: A Different Path | null | 1,995 | The novel begins with a Japanese air strike on the port of Vladivostok, the prelude to a Japanese invasion of western Siberia. Simultaneously, Japanese forces strike southward, bypassing the American colony in the Philippines and taking Australia and the European colonies in southeast Asia. Facing invasion on two fronts, the Soviet Union soon collapses, as Joseph Stalin and his entourage are massacred by escapees from a gulag during their evacuation from Moscow. Though President Franklin D. Roosevelt endeavors to prepare the United States for war against Germany, he faces renewed isolationist opinion. A proposal to begin work on an atomic bomb is rejected because of the cost and uncertainty that it will work. Facing a resurgent Germany, Winston Churchill has little choice but to surrender. Adolf Hitler uses his dominance to complete the extermination of the Jews in Europe and expands his program to the Middle East. German scientists also complete work on an atomic bomb, which Hitler uses to destroy New York City and force the United States to surrender. When the Germans learn of the harsh Japanese treatment of the Australians, they force the Japanese to abandon their conquest of the continent on pain of atomic destruction. Though Germany now dominates the world, cracks start to appear in their empire. The puppet regime in the United States encounters resistance when they attempt to implement the "Final Solution" in America. News of the growing difficulties exposes the extent of the Holocaust to Albert Speer. |
Ramage and the Drumbeat | Dudley Pope | 1,967 | The book follows Lt. Nicholas Lord Ramage and his experiences commanding the cutter HMS Kathleen. Dispatched by Commodore Horatio Nelson to carry messages to Gibraltar while transporting the Italians refugees rescued in Ramage. During the voyage, the Marchesa and Ramage exchange rings through a faked shooting competition. Soon the Kathleen encounters the crippled Spanish frigate, La Sabina. Deciding that it would be imprudent to leave the hulk drifting at sea, he forces the ship to surrender to his far inferior armed ship by a faked attempt at blowing the stern off the ship. He takes La Sabina in tow. Soon after, two British frigates encounter the Kathleen and remove the prisoners from the hulk in tow. The Captain of one of the ships also takes charge of the Marchesa, to the great reluctance of Ramage and herself. Soon after, Ramage and the hulk drift into a Spanish fleet returning to the port of Cartagena. Though the Kathleen is captured, Ramage, with the help of Jackson, passes himself off as an American sailor pressed by the British, and receives liberty from the Spanish. While in Cartegena (with other foreign and non-foreign refugees from the Kathleen who had fake protections) Ramage spies on the Spanish admiral José de Córdoba, stealing several official documents from his house. From these Ramage learns that the Spanish fleet will soon sail for the Atlantic. Realizing the danger of the situation, he steals a xebec and returns to Gibraltar, where he finds the recaptured Kathleen. The Commissioner of the port then sends Ramage to find Sir John Jervis and warn him of the battle. After a squall, he encounters the fleet, which quickly proceeds to Cape St. Vincent where they fight the Spanish fleet on 14 February 1797, the Kathleen acting as a support ship for Lord Nelson. Entangled in the battle, Ramage and the Kathleen become integral in the fouling of the San Nicholas aboard the San Jose, allowing Nelson in the to come into battle. The British fleet is victorious, capturing 4 ships, and Ramage nearly dies from a wound which knocks him into the sea. However, he is rescued by several of his sailors, but gains no credit for his role in the battle. |
First Term at Malory Towers | null | null | Darrell is sent to boarding school for the first time. When she arrives, she is sent to the head, Miss Grayling, with some other new girls, who tells them that "successes" are girls who become dependable.Darrell soon learns the names of the girls in her dormy. Jean is a sensible Scots girl. Irene is a scatter brain but loves music and maths.Mary-Lou is a quiet and timid little girl. Alicia is a cunning, smart and funny girl. Gwendoline is a selfish girl. Sally is a closed up girl and keeps herself to herself. Catherine is the head girl and is good at it. Emily is a quiet girl who's only real interest is elaborate embroidery and sewing. Violet is another girl in the form and doesn't feature in the books much.Darrell herself was the tenth girl in the dormitory. Darrell wants to be a success, but is distracted by Alicia Johns, falling lower in her place in class and playing tricks on the staff. However, things are still going all right for Darrell, which is not the same story for the other new girls, Gwendoline Mary Lacey and Sally Hope. Gwen is spoilt and not liked, while Sally is withdrawn and unfriendly. Darrell tells Sally that their mothers know each other, and isn't Sally's new baby sister lovely? But strangely Sally angrily states she has no baby sister, and she wouldn't want one either. A few chapters in we see Darrel's temper rise against Gwen. Mary-Lou, a girl scared of everything, is held down in the water cruelly by Gwen, because Gwen is angry at being teased all the time. Darrell hits Gwen because she is in a temper. Darrell regrets her lose of temper and makes amends so the girls like her again, but Gwen is reluctant to apologise to Mary-Lou. Gwen is becoming more unpopular, and is jealous of Darrell. Mary-Lou suddenly springs up a complete adoration of Darrell, as she truly believed that she had been drowning. She follows her around everywhere and desperately tries to befriend her. Unfortunately However, this only ends up in annoying Darrell, Darrell wanted to take Mary-Lou out for half-term but she was going with Gwendoline and was too scared to tell Gwen that she wanted to go with Darrell. Next Darrell asks Sally if she would like to go out but she refuses. At half-term Darrell takes out the quiet Emily who's only real interest is sewing. Darrell sees Sally later that night. She says that Sally does have a baby sister, as her mother has just told her. Sally again denies it, the girls row, and Darrell pushes Sally so hard she flies across the room. The next morning Sally is in the San, seriously ill. Darrell is very worried as she thinks her push caused her illness. Things are sorted out when Darrell's father comes to operate on Sally and says it was not Darrell's push that made Sally ill. She had, in fact, appendicitis and had to get her appendix removed. Sally admits to Darrell she does have a sister but only pretended because she was jealous. Sally's mother comes to visit Sally and Sally is no longer jealous. Darrell and Sally become friends. Darrell visits Sally almost every day and decide, to boost Mary-Lou's confidence they would be nice to her and think up a plot to help her. Alicia said it wouldn't work and tried to point out flaws in the plan,Darrell thought they were good points but Sally ignored them-much to Alicia's annoyance. Darrell was supposed to pretend to have difficulties in the water so Mary-Lou would throw in the float, the problem was, the float was off to be mended. So Mary-Lou, an awful swimmer who was generally scared of everything jumped in to save her fully clothed. Meanwhile, Gwen is still jealous of Darrell and when Darrell and Sally think of a plan to boost Mary-Lou's confidence Gwen becomes spiteful and smashes Mary-Lou's pen. Darrell is accused of this, but Mary-Lou comes to the rescue, finding out that it was really Gwen, because she is fond of Darrell and Sally. The term ends with Darrell and Sally best friends and Mary-Lou ever more confident . |
Set in Stone | Linda Newbery | 2,006 | Samuel Godwin, an aspiring artist, is forced to drop out of art school following his father's death. Without any qualifications he contemplates what to do for work. Wealthy businessman Ernest Farrow advertises for an art tutor for his two daughters, and Godwin successfully applies for the position. He moves into Farrow's mansion, Fourwinds, with adequate time to pursue his own art. Godwin becomes infatuated with Farrow's youngest daughter, Marianne, but questions remain unanswered. Marianne wanders the grounds at night, while her sister, Juliana, is always quiet and sad. Godwin discovers the previous art tutor, a talented sculptor, was sent away from Fourwinds before he finished his masterpiece. |
The Assignment | Friedrich Dürrenmatt | 1,986 | Tina von Lambert, wife of psychiatrist Otto von Lambert, has fled to an unnamed North African country (referred to as M.), where she is found raped and murdered in the [desert]. Otto hires F., a filmmaker, to travel to M. and reconstruct his wife's murder. The Chief of Police appears to be cooperative, however, after a police-escorted visit to the Al-Hakim ruins where the body was found, F.'s cameraman reveals that his footage has been replaced. The police then allow F. to question a number of foreign agents being held and tortured at the police ministry, all of whom tell her the same vague, inconclusive story, none confessing to the crime. Later, F. is taken to observe the execution of a Scandinavian spy in the central courtyard of the police compound; the Chief of Police claims that the spy has confessed to the crime and that the case is solved. They are shown the video of their investigation, which includes none of their footage; instead it has been turned into a propaganda film featuring the police. In despair, F. leaves her crew and walks alone through the marketplace, where she comes across the distinctive red fur coat she knows belonged to Tina von Lambert. She purchases the coat and wears it back to her hotel. At the hotel F.'s cameraman tells her that his footage has again been taken, this time that of the execution, and that aeroplane tickets out of the country have been booked for them for early the following morning. In her room, F. finds the Head of the Secret Service, who congratulates her on her work and explains that he will use her confiscated footage to expose the corruption, weakness, and incompetence of the Chief of Police, who is planning a coup against the state government. The Head of the Secret Service asks that she continue her investigation under his protection and without the knowledge of the Chief of Police. He offers a new crew, and provides a body double, complete with a red fur coat, to travel home with the old crew in F.'s place. F. is relocated to a derelict hotel, inhabited by a lone, aged maid. Björn Olsen, the cameraman hired by the secret service to assist F., arrives at the hotel and mistakes her for Jytte Sørensen, a Danish journalist; when he realizes his mistake, for F. speaks no Danish, he flees in a panic. Later, the Head of the Secret Police shows F. a gossip magazine with an article titled "Return from the Dead", featuring a photograph of Tina von Lambert reunited with her husband; he explains to her that the murdered woman was in fact Sörensen, a friend of Tina's, to whom Tina had given her red fur coat and passport. The reason for the murder, however, remains a mystery. Determined to find the truth, F. leaves the hotel and heads toward the desert. On the way she finds Olsen's dead body next to his exploded Volkswagen van, and while she examines the disaster she meets the cameraman Polypheme, who is filming her. Polypheme tells F. that he has video footage of Sørensen, who was on the trail of a secret before her death, and offers to show it to F. if she allows him to make a film portrait of her. Despite his dishevelled appearance and apparent drunkenness, she agrees. Polypheme takes F out in to the desert in his Land Rover, and eventually they arrive at a secret subterranean compound. The compound is a vast underground labyrinth, obviously built at great expense, though it appears to be uninhabited by anyone other than Polypheme. F. is taken to a grotesque room and left alone, and there, to her horror, she discovers a series of still frames of Olsen's death. Later in the evening she leaves her room and explores the compound, trying to track down the source of a mysterious hammering sound, which she traces to a locked door with a key in the keyhole. Out of fear she does not go inside. She finds the Land Rover and contemplates fleeing, but again is dissuaded by fear. Unable to locate her original quarters, she finds an empty room and falls asleep. In the morning, F. is found by Polypheme, now clean and sober, and over breakfast he explains the country's political situation. The primary source of revenue for the country is a meaningless war with a neighbouring country over the empty, largely uninhabited desert in which the compound is located. The already ten-year-long war is continued to serve as a testing ground for the military products of weapons-exporting nations, from tanks to intercontinental ballistic missiles. The compound was built to measure the effects of the weapons; at one time it was staffed by human observers, many of whom were eventually replaced by observational machines. Eventually a satellite was put in orbit directly above the compound, followed by a second satellite to observe the first. The satellites made the compound redundant, and the last of the people, excepting Polypheme, left. The power was cut, and the compound was running only on battery reserves which would soon be depleted and force even Polypheme to leave. Polypheme explains that he has taken shelter in the compound and military employment because his habit of collecting sensitive and potentially ruinous photographic documentation of criminals, police, and political figures makes him a target from all sides. Polypheme, when asked how he got his name, explains to F. that it was given to him by a man named Achilles, a bomber pilot and professor of Greek, who named him after the cyclops Polyphemus. He and Achilles were sent on a night raid of Hanoi from the USS Kitty Hawk, and Achilles lands their damaged plane despite sustaining serious head injuries, saving Polypheme in the process. From his wounds Achilles becomes criminally insane and is locked in a cell in a military hospital because of his tendency to rape and murder women. The hammering behind the locked door in the compound is revealed to be Achilles and truth about Jytte Sørensen's rape and murder comes out; Polypheme, indebted to Achilles, provided Sørensen as a sacrifice to the violent beast's only remaining desires. Polypheme shows his film portrait of Sørensen's rape and murder, and explains that F. will be the next victim. F. is taken out in to the desert wearing the red coat, forced to walk in front of the Land Rover carrying Polypheme and Achilles. The setting of Sørensen's portrait was flawed, and this time Polypheme chosen the perfect location out among the ruins of the tanks. F. has accepted her ultimate demise; however, when Achilles is almost upon she is struck by a powerful will to live. At the last possible moment the Chief of Police, his officers, and film crew come out of the tanks, and Achilles is shot repeatedly until he dies. Polypheme races off in the vehicle, but is killed soon after in an explosion, likely from a missile test. F. returns home and her film is rejected without explanation by the television studios. She reads that the Chief of Police and the Head of the Secret Service have been executed by order of the Head of State for high treason and attempting to overthrow the government. The Head of State denies rumours that the desert is being used as a missile test ground. On the opposite page of the newspaper F. reads that a baby boy has been born to Tina and Otto von Lambert. |
The Book of Atrix Wolfe | Patricia A. McKillip | null | For twenty years, Atrix Wolfe has turned his back on his magic to live with the wolves in the mountains. Once a powerful mage, Atrix Wolfe nearly caused the destruction of the kingdom of Pelucir when one of his creations, meant to force an invading army threatening his homeland to retreat, massacred not only the invaders, but the Pelucir forces defending their homeland as well. The daughter of the Queen of the Wood was another victim of Atrix's Hunter; during the creation of the Hunter, Saro disappeared when the fairyworld was torn asunder by Atrix Wolfe's magic. Talis, the prince of Pelucir, calls Atrix back to the human world to explain a spellbook written by a mysterious mage shortly after the massacre of Hunter's Field that the aspiring mage was studying. In the kitchens of the castle, a mysterious scullery maid named Sorrow works silently, interacting more with the pots and pans than other people. The three characters are connected by the Queen of the Woods's desire to find her daughter, but it is only when they uncover the truth of what happened twenty years earlier that they are able to find her as well as solve the mysteries of the spell book. Atrix Wolfe eventually discovers that the terrible Hunter was made, in part, from Ilyos, the consort of the Queen of the Wood and Saro's father. Talis delivers Saro back to her mother, thinking that he will never see her again, as the Wood is a magical realm, which humans cannot reach by normal means. Saro regains the power of speech after being returned to the fairy world. Atrix Wolfe un-makes the Hunter. Ilyos, however, has been through so much that he cannot return to his life as the Queen's consort. In order to protect the Queen's world, he turns himself into one of the trees of the Wood. Talis is surprised when Saro returns to Pelucir, and they begin to become acquainted. She says that he was the only person she knew, for twenty years, who was kind to her. |
Columbine | Dave Cullen | 2,009 | Columbine has two main storylines, told in alternating chapters: the 'before' story of the killers' evolution toward murder, and the 'after' story of the survivors. There are shorter 'during' accounts of the attack, dispersed through the book. The 'before' story focuses primarily on the killers' high school years. According to the experts cited here, Eric Harris was a textbook psychopath, and Dylan Klebold was an angry depressive. The 'after' chapters are composed of eight major substories, focused on individuals who played a key role in the aftermath, including Principal Frank DeAngelis, alleged Christian martyr Cassie Bernall (another myth, according to the book), "the boy in the window" Patrick Ireland, FBI Supervisory Special Agent Dwayne Fuselier, the families of victim Danny Rohrbough and heroic teacher Dave Sanders, who died saving students from the gunmen. The Evangelical Christian community's feverish response is also chronicled. Columbine begins four days before the massacre, at a school assembly hosted by Principal DeAngelis just before Prom weekend. Scenes from the massacre are depicted graphically in the early chapters, and later through flashbacks. The book is formally composed of five parts: "Part One: Female Down," "Part Two: After and Before," "Part Three: The Downward Spiral," "Part Four: Take Back the School," and "Part Five: Judgment Day." The book contains fifty-three chapters, a timeline, twenty-six pages of detailed endnotes and a fifteen-page bibliography organized into topics like, "Psychopathy," "Government Reports," "Lawsuits," "Christians," "Evidence," "Hostages and Terrorists," "Survivors," "Media Accounts," "Police Ethics and Response Protocols," etc. |
Liberia; or, Mr. Peyton's Experiments | Sarah Josepha Hale | null | The story follows Mr. Peyton, the eponymous slaveowner who wishes to free all the slaves on his plantation. However, before he can do so, Peyton wishes to make certain that the slaves in his charge will be happy in their new-found freedom, and so decides to conduct three separate "experiments" to test this. In turn, Peyton sends his slaves to a farm in the Southern United States, an industrial town in the Northern United States, and finally to Canada. In all three cases, the slaves end up being even worse off than they had been under slavery, having been bullied by white supremacists who occupy all three places and dislike the presence of coloured people. However, a despairing Peyton is approached by members of the American Colonization Society, who convince Peyton to send his slaves to their native home in Liberia, where they can be happy and free. Peyton and the slaves agree, and the freed slaves in Peyton's charge are sent back to Africa, where they can finally prosper and be free from discrimination. |
Windswept House: A Vatican Novel | Malachi Martin | 1,998 | Windswept House describes a satanic ritual - the enthronement of Lucifer - taking place at Saint-Paul's Chapel inside Vatican City, on June 29, 1963. The book gives a scary depiction of high ranking churchmen, cardinals, archbishops and prelatees of the Roman curia, taking oaths signed with their own blood, plotting to destroy the Church from within. It tells the story of an international organized attempt by these Vatican insiders and secular internationalists to force a pope of the Catholic Church to abdicate, so that a successor may be chosen that will fundamentally change orthodox faith and establish a New World Order. |
Manhattan Is My Beat | Jeffery Deaver | 1,988 | Rune is a street-wise twenty year old, not long arrived in New York City, but she's already found herself a squat in an empty loft. She's also landed a job in a video store, Washington Square Video, that lets her pursue her interest in old movies; it's also where she meets Mr. Kelly, a lonely old man who rents the same tape over and over: a crime film based on a true story called Manhattan Is My Beat. When Rune goes to visit him for a routine tape collection and finds him dead, the police suspect a robbery. However, Rune is convinced that the true answer to the mystery lies with the tape of Manhattan Is My Beat. This conviction draws her into a dangerous adventure against those who will stop at nothing to hide the truth and don't believe in Hollywood endings. =Other media= Manhattan Is My Beat has been optioned by Double B Productions. The novel is being adapted by Double B Partners, John and Lisa Bishop.. |
The Demon's Lexicon | Sarah Rees Brennan | 2,009 | The story follows two brothers with a sordid past, Nick and Alan Ryves, who fight demons and monsters. They are on the run from a magician, from whom their mother supposedly stole an amulet, when they meet Mae and Jamie, troubled teenagers who come to them for help. Throughout the book they face horror, evil, and people who just generally want to kill them, while in the meantime, long kept secrets are threatening to unravel. In the lore of the book, humans can either be born with magical powers, or can make pacts with demons who will grant them power or use their own magic. Very early on, Mae expresses the thought that she may have once had magical powers, but that they went away. Nick chastises her for this, saying that if you have magical powers, they never leave you. |
1Q84 | Haruki Murakami | null | The events of 1Q84 take place in Tokyo during a fictionalized 1984, with the first volume set between April and June, the second between July and September, and the third between October and December. The book opens with Aomame as she catches a taxi in Tokyo on her way to a work assignment, noticing Janáček's Sinfonietta playing on the radio. When the taxi gets stuck in a traffic jam, the driver suggests that she get out of the car and climb down an emergency escape in order to make her important meeting, though he warns her that doing so might change the very nature of reality. Aomame makes her way to a hotel in Shibuya, where she poses as a hotel attendant to kill a hotel guest. She performs the murder with a tool that leaves almost no trace on its victim, leading investigators to conclude that he died a natural death from a heart failure. Aomame starts to have bizarre experiences, noticing new details about the world that are subtly different. For example, she notices that the Tokyo policemen are carrying semiautomatic pistols now, and she always remembered them carrying revolvers. Aomame checks her memories against the archives of major newspapers and finds that there were several recent major news stories of which she has no recollection. One of these stories concerned a group of extremists who were engaged in a standoff with police in the mountains of Yamanashi Prefecture. Upon reading these articles, she concludes that she must be living in an alternate reality, which she calls "1Q84," and suspects that she entered it about the time she heard Sinfonietta on the taxi radio. The character of Tengo is introduced, whose editor and mentor Komatsu asks him to rewrite an awkwardly written but otherwise promising manuscript that had been entered in a literary contest. Komatsu wants to submit the novel to a prestigious literary agency and promote its author as a new literary prodigy. Tengo has reservations about rewriting another author's work, especially that of a high school student. He agrees to do so only if he can meet with the original writer, who goes by the strange pen name "Fuka-Eri", and ask for her permission. Fuka-Eri, however, tells Tengo to do as he likes with the manuscript. Soon it becomes clear that Fuka-Eri, who is dyslexic, neither wrote the manuscript on her own, nor submitted it to the contest herself. Tengo's discomfort with the project deepens upon finding out other people must be involved. To address his concerns of her past, Fuka-Eri takes Tengo to meet her current guardian, a man called Professor Ebisuno-sensei (), or simply "Sensei" to Fuka-Eri. Tengo learns that Fuka-Eri's parents were members of a commune called "Takashima" (). Her father, Tamotsu Fukada () was Ebisuno's friend and colleague, but they did not see eye-to-eye on their subject. Fukada thought of Takashima as a utopia; Ebisuno described the commune as a place where people were turned into unthinking robots. Fuka-Eri, whom Ebisuno-sensei nicknames "Eri" (), was only a small child at the time. In 1974, Fukada and 30 members founded a new commune called "Sakigake" (). The young members of the commune worked hard under Fukada's leadership, but eventually disagreements split the commune into two factions, and the more radical side formed a new commune called "Akebono" (), which eventually has a gunfight with police near Lake Motosu () in Yamanashi Prefecture. One day, Fuka-Eri appears on Ebisuno-sensei's doorstep. She does not speak and will not explain what happened to her. When Ebisuno attempts to contact Fukada at Sakigake, he is told that he is unavailable. Ebisuno thereby becomes Fuka-Eri's guardian, and by the time of 1Q84s present, they have not heard from her parents for seven years, leading Ebisuno to fear the worst. It is while living with Ebisuno that Fuka-Eri composes her story, Air Chrysalis (). Unable to write it herself, she tells it to Azami (), Ebisuno's blood daughter. Fuka-Eri's story is about a girl's life in a commune, where she met a group of mystical beings, whom Fuka-Eri refers to as "Little People" (). Over time, Tengo begins to suspect that the mystical events described in Fuka-Eri's novel actually happened. Meanwhile, Aomame recovers psychologically from her recent assignment to kill the hotel guest. It is revealed that she has a personal and professional relationship with an older wealthy woman referred to as "the Dowager" (). The Dowager occasionally asks Aomame to kill men who have been viciously abusive to women, and it becomes clear that both Aomame and the Dowager have personal pasts that fuel their actions. They see their organized murders as one way of fighting back against severe domestic abuse. Aomame tends to be sexually promiscuous; after the recent killing, she releases stress by going to single bars and picking up older men. During these outings, she meets Ayumi, a policewoman who also has sex to relieve stress. They start to combine their efforts, which works well. Aomame's close friendship to Ayumi makes her recall an earlier friend of hers who was the victim of domestic abuse and committed suicide because of it. Aomame and Ayumi remain friends until one day when Aomame reads in the newspaper that Ayumi had been strangled to death in a hotel. The Dowager introduces Aomame to a 10-year-old girl named Tsubasa. Tsubasa and her parents have been involved with Sakigake. Tsubasa has been forcefully abused by the cult leader named only as "The Leader". As Tsubasa sleeps in the safe house owned by the Dowager, the "Little People" which are mentioned in Fuka-Eri's novel, Air Chrysalis, appear from Tsubasa's mouth and create an air chrysalis, a type of cocoon made from strands pulled straight out of the air. The Dowager had lost her own daughter to domestic abuse and now wants to adopt Tsubasa. However, Tsubasa mysteriously disappears from the safehouse, never to return. The Dowager researches Sakigake and finds that there is widespread evidence of abuse. In addition to Tsubasa, other prepubescent girls had been sexually abused there. The Dowager asks Aomame to murder the religious head of Sakigake, the Leader, who is reported to have been the abuser. Aomame meets up with Leader, who turns out to be a physically enormous person with muscle problems. He reveals that he is the father of Fuka-Eri and has special powers like telekinesis. He is also the one in Sakigake who can hear the religious voices speaking to him. Leader, knowing that Aomame was sent to him to kill him, finally strikes a deal with her: she will kill him and he will protect Tengo from harm. After a long conversation with Leader, Aomame finally kills him and goes into hiding at a prearranged location set up by the Dowager and Tamaru, her bodyguard. Aomame and Tengo's parallel worlds begin to draw ever closer. Tengo is pursued by a private investigator, Ushikawa, who was hired by Sakigake. He follows Tengo in order to gather information on Air Chrysalis. Following Leader's murder, Ushikawa is also ordered by Sakigake to determine the whereabouts of Aomame, who had arranged a therapeutic massage session with Leader only to kill him during it. The novel begins to follow Ushikawa in volume three — he was once a lawyer who made a good living representing professional criminals. He got into legal trouble and had to abandon his career. His wife and two daughters left him, and ever since he has been a detective. He's an ugly creature who repels everyone he meets, but he's intelligent and capable at gathering facts and using logic and deductive reasoning. Ushikawa focuses on Tengo, Aomame, and the Dowager as suspects in his investigation. Since the Dowager's house is guarded well and since Aomame has disappeared without a trace, Ushikawa decides to stake out Tengo's apartment to see if he can find any information related to Aomame. He rents out a room in Tengo's apartment building and sets up a camera to take pictures of the residents. He witnesses Fuka-Eri, who has been hiding out at Tengo's apartment, coming and going from the building. Fuka-Eri seems to realize Ushikawa's presence, as she leaves a note for Tengo and takes off. Ushikawa later sees Tengo return home after a visit to see his dying father. Finally, Ushikawa spots Aomame leaving the building after she herself followed Ushikawa there in order to find Tengo. After Ushikawa spots Aomame, but before he can report this to Sakigake, Tamaru sneaks into Ushikawa's room while he's asleep and interrogates the detective on his knowledge of Tengo and Aomame. Tamaru finds out that Ushikawa knows too much and is a liability to the safety of Aomame, the Dowager, and himself, and he ends up killing Ushikawa without leaving any marks or indications of how it was done. Tamaru then phones Ushikawa's contact at Sagikake and has them remove the detective's body from the apartment building. Aomame and Tengo eventually find each other via Ushikawa's investigation and with Tamaru's help. They were once childhood classmates, though they had no relationship outside of a single classroom moment where Aomame tightly grasped Tengo's hand when no other children were around. That moment signified a turning point in both Aomame's and Tengo's lives, and they retained a fundamental love for each other despite all the time that had passed. After 20 years, Aomame and Tengo meet again, both pursued by Ushikawa and Sakigake. They manage to make it out of the strange world of "1Q84", which has two visible moons, into a new reality that they assume is their original world, though there are small indications that it is not. The novel ends with them standing in a hotel room, holding hands, looking at the one bright moon in the sky. |
The Ghost Drum | Susan Price | 1,987 | The novel is represented as a tale told by the "most learned of all cats". At the beginning and at the head of each chapter, the cat introduces the scenes and the characters. At the end, the cat asks the hearer/reader to pass on the tale so that it may "make its own way back to me, riding on another's tongue." A slave woman gives her new-born daughter to an old witch to be raised as a "Woman of Power". The witch teaches the girl, Chingis, all her arcane wisdom, including the use of the shamanic ghost drum. With the drum she can enter many other worlds including the ghost-world, the land of the dead. When Chingis's apprenticeship is complete, witches come from all around to congratulate her, but the shaman Kuzma envies and fears her potential for greatness. The Czar Guidon, the latest in a long line of ruthless rulers, has married by the counsel of his advisers, but he is deathly afraid of being overthrown by his son. He imprisons his pregnant wife, Farida, in a windowless room at the top of the tallest tower in the palace, and when she dies in childbirth he orders that his son, the Czarevich Safa, should never leave the room. Marien, Safa's nurse, raises him there. When he becomes restless at his imprisonment, she dares to speak to the Czar about him and is summarily executed. The Czarevich spends many years alone before his psychic cries of distress reach Chingis, and then, with the help of the ghost drum, she finds and secretly spirits him away. He is filled with astonishment and wonder at the world he has never seen so much as a glimpse of before. Meanwhile the Czar dies, and fighting breaks out in the palace; Margaretta ascends to the throne and determines to find her nephew, intending to kill him. Kuzma, arriving in the form of a polar bear, offers to help her. Using his shamanic knowledge against Chingis, Kuzma succeeds in killing her and capturing Safa. However, in the ghost world, Chingis enlists the help of her mentor and of Marien and Farida, to return to her body and defeat Kuzma. The four spirits take over Kuzma's body and confront Margaretta before returning to the ghost world to await rebirth. |
Devious | Cecily von Ziegesar | 2,009 | It's January and everyone is back from break. Waverly gets a new dean, Dr. Dresden, and two new students, Isla and Isaac Dresden. Instead of a new semester commencing, Jan Plan takes effect. It is a four-week course where students work on their own independent projects. Junior's and Seniors tend to work on solo projects while everyone else are encouraged to work together. With permission from the dean (via help from Issac) Jenny starts an independent art project based on the two art classes she took the previous semester. Her goal is to experiment with motion, drawing people instead of taking a picture of them with a manual camera. She spends most of her time in the cafe drawing people coming and going. Heath and Brandon's project is based on Man vs. Wild. Heath plans to live outside for three-weeks on basic essentials and camping skills. No tent, basic sleeping bags, no electricity, not contact with the outside world, hunting their own food, gathering fire wood, and taking notes. They take up camp in Waverly's woods. Bradon leaves after a few days, and Heath stays until the night of the party when he is unexpectedly found by Easy. Brandon did not exactly agree to Heath's project. He was conned into it having just returned from Switzerland. During his break, which was paid for by Heath, he visited his girlfriend Hellie Dunderdorf with whom he lost his virginity. After quitting Heath's project he ends up working with Callie due to no other options. Callie and Brandon's project looks into the psychology of love. Callie selected this project to find more information about true love. Is there such a thing? Do you get over your first love? Can you love again? They do research and take a video survey with some of the Waverly girls. During the project Callie finds herself becoming attracted to Brandon (along with most of the other girls), who has more of a sexy unshaven look going on. At one point they end up kissing in his dorm room. Unfortunately, Brandon's webcam was on. Hellie saw the whole thing and promptly breaks up with him. Brett's project, like Brandon's, changes. Originally she was going to intern at Vogue thanks to her sister, Brianna. However, Leslie ends up not needing a new intern due to a promotion to Italian Vogue.She ends up returning to Waverly and joining Sebastian's "friend" Christine Bosley's Jan Plan project. |
Death of a Blue Movie Star | Jeffery Deaver | 1,990 | Rune, now working as an underpaid production assistant while pursuing a career as an independent film-maker, finds herself facing danger again as she starts work on her first film project. She seems to have found the perfect subject following the bombing of an adult movie theatre, seen through the ideas of Shelly Lowe, the porn star whose film was playing when the bomb went off. However, just hours after Rune does her first sit-down interview with her, a second bomb claims Shellys life and Rune starts to wonder she was the intended target all along. Rune's debut may also be her last, as she comes up against someone who wants to bury her film -and the truth- forever. |
I, Alex Cross | James Patterson | 2,009 | Detective Alex Cross is enjoying a birthday party with his family when he receives a call from his bosses informing him that Caroline, the 24-year old only daughter of his late brother Blake, has been found murdered in Virginia. Cross and his girlfriend Briana Stone rush to Richmond, Virginia, and are shocked to discover that Caroline's body was found dismembered (most likely by a wood chipper) in the trunk of a car driven by someone with connections to organized crime. Cross takes the case and one of his first stops is Caroline's apartment. Cross is shocked to discover she only lived a few miles from him and yet never contacted him. He is further shocked to discover that based on the apartment's locale and the extensive lingerie wardrobe inside, Caroline was a high-end escort. Further investigation reveals that several other young people with connections to high-end prostitution have also either been murdered or disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Further investigation reveals that Caroline's escorting activities took her to a secretive club in Culpeper, Virginia, called Blacksmith Farms where she may have met an ultrasecretive character named Zeus who wears a mask at all times. During the course of his investigation, Cross is thwarted by various people in Washington, D.C.—including the Secret Service and the President of the United States—who all want Cross to hand over his investigation to them. Cross refuses and is almost forced to give up his investigative efforts when his old FBI friend Ned Mahoney recommends Cross follow up on a lead provided by a country farmer. The lead turns out to be an escort who met Zeus and saw him without his mask on. All escorts—like Cross' niece Caroline—who saw Zeus without his mask were quickly killed and their bodies dismembered. This escort, however, managed to escape, but not before being shot in the back. The farmer just happened to come upon the escort and managed to nurse her back to health. The escort reveals that Zeus is actually Theodore Vance, husband to current US President Maggie Vance. Theodore Vance has a compulsion for young escorts and is able to indulge his compulsion with the help of various people (like his Secret Service detail) who want to keep it quiet to protect the current Presidential administration. Cross goes to a party at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. to question Theodore Vance about his connection to Zeus. Sensing that President Vance's administration is about to be brought down by Theodore Vance's arrest, Thedore Vance's personal Secret Service agent (Dan Cormorant), in a final act of loyalty to his country, shoots and kills Theodore Vance. Cormorant is immediately killed by other Secret Service agents. By killing Vance, Cormorant has allowed the Vance presidential administration to survive and spared the country the embarrassment of a sex scandal. Instead, Theodore Vance will be remembered as a Presidential spouse who was tragically and inexplicably killed by a rogue Secret Service agent. |
The Haunted Woods | null | null | The main protagonist, Kyle Nathaniel Harper, is a senior in high school, fairly vapid on the surface, but intuitive to the evilness in his surroundings. As he and the town prepare for the fall festivities, which include four nights of "The Haunted Woods," Kyle starts to be introduced to the true nature of his parents, friends, and the rest of the town. Set up as a frame-narrative, the story moves back and forth from nightmare sequence to actual reality, which is meant to throw the reader off as well develop questions about the inner psyche of the main character. Kyle and his friends have the same qualities as well as insecurities of normal teenagers, but when Kyle finds out that it's not only his father's adultery that caused his parents to divorce, he begins to be haunted with thoughts of becoming a monster or dying a victim. |
Pippi Longstocking | Astrid Lindgren | null | The book focuses on the experiences of Pippi Longstocking, a nine-year-old pigtailed redhead whose father, a sea captain, has seemingly vanished at sea, so she moves into a big house known as "Villa Villekulla", located in a little Swedish village, with her pet monkey Mr. Nilsson, a suitcase filled with pieces of gold, and her unnamed pet horse. Gifted with superhuman strength and countless other eccentricities, Pippi is soon befriended by two local siblings named Annika and Tommy Settergren, who admire her and enjoy her company. Having spent her entire life at sea, Pippi's limited knowledge of common courtesy and average childhood behaviour adds humour to the story when she attempts to enroll at Tommy and Annika's school, attends a circus, and attends a coffee party hosted by Mrs. Settergren. |
Show of Evil | null | null | Ten years after saving Aaron Stampler from the death penalty, Martin Vail — now a district attorney — is plagued by his client-turned-archnemesis once again when a series of murder victims turn up with mysterious ties to the erstwhile serial killer. |
Reign in Hell | null | null | Martin Vail, now a U.S. Attorney, is assigned a case in which he must go up against a survivalist militia — and unexpectantly encounters his archnemesis, Aaron Stampler, seemingly back from the dead and posing as a blind Baptist preacher. |
Final Draft | Sergey Lukyanenko | null | The story of the novel begins several hours after the end of Rough Draft, after Kirill Maximov, a regular man who was turned into a functional, escapes from Arkan (or Earth 1), fights his friend and curator of our world (Earth 2 or Demos) Kotya, and kills his midwife-functional Natalia Ivanova. It turns out that the life of an ex-functional after abandoning his function is not safe at all. Especially for a special functional like Kirill. Kirill takes a train to Kharkiv to find his Nirvana (Earth 22) "neighbor" Vasilisa, another customs officer-functional. However, the train is intercepted in Oryol by Arkan's security forces. Kirill is able to escape them and make it to Kharkiv by hitchhiking. Unfortunately, the Arkanians are somehow able to track him, so Vasilisa convinces Kirill to attempt a desperate move — a twenty-kilometer trek through the lifeless frozen world of Janus (Earth 14) during a snow storm. Barely making it to another tower, that of the customs officer-functional Martha, Kirill gets to the Polish city of Elbląg. He is caught by three police officers-functionals, but he is rescued by his friend Kotya, who opens a portal to his Tibetan residence (or rather, the residence of the current curator). Kirill, Kotya, and Kotya's girlfriend Illan (an ex-functional from Veroz, Earth 3) come up with a plan for freeing our Earth from Arkan influence, although Kirill begins to suspect that Arkan may not be the true puppet master behind the functionals. To that end, Kirill travels to a technologically-backward religious world of Tverd (Earth 8), the people of which managed to eliminate functional influence in their world's affairs through the use of highly-advanced biotechnology. However, the Arkanians find him even there and attack this world, even though Tverd is ready to repel such an assault with their all-female Swiss Guards, killer Yorkshire Terriers, and flying gargoyles. Kirill kills the attacking agents but is forced to escape Tverd using his newfound curator abilities. He finds himself in a world, which he believes to be the functional homeworld (Earth 16), most of which is covered by a radioactive wasteland. The only habitable island features a strange-looking skyscraper at its mountain peak, obviously of functional design, as only some people are able to see it. However, upon reaching it, Kirill discovers that the structure is not the functional headquarters but merely their museum, protected by a functional who looks like an angel. After fighting and defeating the angel, Kirill begins to understand the truth behind all worlds influenced by the functionals, most of it has to do with quantum physics. He returns to Elbląg, where a mailman-functional delivers him a letter from Kotya, whose abilities are disappearing, in which he formally challenges Kirill to a duel. The victor (and survivor) would become the next curator. Kirill returns to Moscow and arrives to the location chosen for the duel and defeats Kotya. However, instead of finishing him off, Kirill makes a decision to stop being a functional and return to his previous life, knowing that, due to his special nature, the functionals will not risk trying to kill him. ru:Чистовик (роман) |
The Strain | Chuck Hogan | 2,009 | A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Ephraim "Eph" Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold. In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing. So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city - a city that includes his wife and son - before it is too late. |
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! | Dr. Seuss | 1,957 | The Grinch, a bitter, grouchy, cave-dwelling creature with a heart "two sizes too small", lives on snowy Mount Crumpit, a steep, high mountain just north of Whoville, home of the merry and warm-hearted Whos. His only companion is his faithful dog, Max. From his perch high atop Mount Crumpit, the Grinch can hear the noisy Christmas festivities that take place in Whoville. Annoyed and unable to understand the Whos' happiness, he makes plans to descend on the town and deprive them of their Christmas presents, Roast Beast, Who-hash and decorations and thus "prevent Christmas from coming." However, he learns in the end that despite his success in taking away all the Christmas presents and decorations from the Whos, Christmas comes just the same. He then realizes that Christmas is more than just gifts and presents. Touched by this, his heart grows three sizes larger; he returns all the presents and trimmings and is warmly welcomed into the community of the Whos. |
Le Rosier de Madame Husson | null | null | Madame Husson, the model of virtue in Gisors, is promoting chastity in her town by seeking to crown a rosière (i.e. Rose Queen, a girl of unimpeachable virtue). However, no girl can stand up to the investigations that take place, and Madame Husson crowns the village idiot, Isidore, as the 'rosier' (Rose King). He uses his reward to "slum it" in Paris. |
The General Danced at Dawn | George MacDonald Fraser | 1,970 | Monsoon selection board follows Corporal MacNeill is his efforts to become an officer, and his examination by an officer selection board in India in the final stages of World War II. Despite performing badly in every task, often trying to answer cleverly and failing miserably, he is approved and commissioned due to his apparent dogged determination to complete the assault course. He perseveres in his futile attempts to cross a mud filled ditch, although the examining officers advise him to 'call it a day' and climb out. In reality he was unwilling to finish or turn back, as he had lost his trousers while floundering in the mud, and had resolved to stay in the water to avoid embarrassment. Silence in the Ranks finds subaltern MacNeill joining an unidentified Highland regiment as a platoon commander, and finding it difficult to fit into the regiment's family atmosphere, or to identify with the men under him. At the end of the chapter he is assigned as Duty Officer (CQ) and must remain in barracks on Hogmanay, while the other officers celebrate elsewhere, and is joined in his quarters by some soldiers of his platoon for drinks and conversation. At the close of the evening, he learns that 'Darkie', whom he hears his men talking about, is in fact his own nickname. Play Up, Play Up and Get Tore In follows Dand as he takes the battalion football team on tour on a British-controlled island in the Mediterranean (presumably Malta). Despite the machinations of an opportunistic naval officer, Lieutenant Samuels, who attempts to pass the Highlanders off as members of his own crew, the tour is a success, and the team win every match they play, even against 'The Fleet' in a match organised by the over-enthusiastic Governor, who fails to recognise the disparity in resources between a small regiment and an entire armed service. Lt. Samuels almost gambles away the teams' paychest on this match, but the money is saved by the unwitting Private McAuslan. Wee Wullie is about a soldier known only as 'Wee Wullie', who is frequently drunk and violent, and often ends up being arrested by the military police. The colonel is strangely tolerant of Wullie, however, and it emerges that during the war he showed great heroism, carrying a wounded German for days across the desert until they were both rescued. He received no accolades for this act of heroism, as while in hospital recuperating he got drunk and climbed onto the hospital roof, where he was yet again arrested by the military police. The General Danced at Dawn. The regiment's colonel is soon to retire, and the regiment is eager to put on a good show in an upcoming inspection before he does. The inspection is going badly, 'anything that could go wrong, seemed to go wrong' until the inspecting General watches a display of the regiment's officers performing Highland dancing. He joins in, becoming more and more enthusiastic and recruiting more and more passers by to join in, until by dawn the next morning, the entire regiment and most of the local populace are dancing 'a one hundred and twenty-eightsome reel'. The General's inspection report 'congratulated the battalion, and highly commended the pipe-sergeant on the standard of the officers' dancing.' Night Run to Palestine. MacNeill, on detached service in Egypt, misses his flight to return to the Battalion. While he waits for the next flight, he is put in command of an overnight troop train to Jerusalem. As well as keeping watch for Zionist saboteurs and snipers, he has to deal with an interfering Lt. Colonel, a group of innocent young ATS, a padre deeply concerned for their moral safety,and a soldier who locks himself in the lavatory, amongst other things. He gets the train to Jerusalem in one piece, despite the effort of the Lt. Colonel, before returning to Egypt and a farcical court of inquiry which determines at great length that he missed his original flight out of Egypt, hence his presence in Egypt, and that he must therefore get the next flight. |
Six Suspects | Vikas Swarup | null | Seven years ago, Vivek “Vicky” Rai, the playboy son of the Home Minister of Uttar Pradesh, murdered bartender Ruby Gill at a trendy restaurant in New Delhi, simply because she refused to serve him a drink. The opening murder committed by Vicky Rai is similar to the Jessica Lal murder case in which the killer was Manu Sharma. Now Vicky Rai has been killed at the party he was throwing to celebrate his acquittal. The police recover six guests with guns in their possession: a corrupt bureaucrat who claims to have become Mahatma Gandhi; an American tourist infatuated with an Indian actress; a Stone Age tribesman on a quest to recover a sacred stone; a Bollywood sex symbol with a guilty secret; a mobile-phone thief who dreams big; and an ambitious politician prepared to stoop low. Swarup unravels the lives and motives of the six suspects. |
Hammer of God | null | null | Empress Hekat hears the voice of the god, and it wants the world. In Ethrea, Queen Rhian is finally on the throne, she must convince her counterparts of surrounding nations that Mijak is a very real threat. Should she trust Zandakar, the exiled son of Mijak's Empress? |
Vita Sancti Wilfrithi | null | null | The Vita narrates the life and career of Wilfrid, from his boyhood until his death, with brief digressions into the other affairs of Wilfrid's two main monasteries, Ripon and Hexham. It details his boyhood decision to become a churchman, his quarrels with Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, and various secular figures, his travels back and forth between England and Rome, his participation in church synods, and eventually his death. The text devotes over one third of its contents to Wilfrid's "Northumbrian achievements", but Stephen devotes almost no space to Wilfrid's second period in office as Bishop of York (686–691), and little space to his activity in Mercia. The Vita Wilfrithi, in common with many hagiographies written close to the death of their subject, records very few miracles, but like Bede and Eusebius of Caesarea, incorporates full documents relevant to its story. |
Pit Pony | null | null | In Pit Pony, Barkhouse describes life in a coal-mining town in turn-of-the-century Cape Breton, but also deals with importance of education itself. It is the story of Willie and Gem. Willie is an eleven-year-old boy forced by family circumstances to work as a trapper in a Cape Breton coal mine, and Gem is a Sable Island mare working as a "pit pony". As they work together, a strong bond develops between boy and horse. The book describes the grim realities of life for a young miner - cold, exhaustion, fear - discomforts and dangers that also affected the horses. When Willie and Gem are trapped in the mine during a "bump" - with falling rock and timber, and choking dust - Willie must choose between escaping with Gem or saving the life of another young miner. Willie's choice to save the young miner's life over Gem's life sets Willie free - free to leave the mines and to pursue his education. As it turns out however, Gem had been pregnant, and her foal is saved. |
Kiss Mommy Goodbye | null | null | This novel concerns kidnappings by parents who did not get custody of their children. Donna Cressy loves her husband Victor but the love soon turns to hate when Victor starts mentally harassing her. This causes her to behave oddly owing to her trauma, and during the divorce proceedings a number of people testify that she had been behaving unusually since she married Victor. However, she manages to get custody of their children Adam and Sharon. Victor is allowed weekend visits. Donna moves in with her boyfriend Dr. Segal and his daughter Annie. One day Victor arrives and on the pretext of a weekend visit, he takes Adam and Sharon away. Donna spirals into depression and begins to behave oddly again. Just when she's given up hope, she gets a telephone call from Victor, which she traces to California. When she finally finds the children, Victor almost kills them. However, with the help of Dr. Segal, she is able to get her children back and survive. |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.