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The Infernal City | Gregory Keyes | 2,009 | The Infernal City takes places in 4E 41 (40 years after the events of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles.) Tamriel is a continent inhabited by many races, and is ruled by an imperial authority. A floating city known as Umbriel is devastating Tamriel. Any person caught beneath Umbriel dies, and is resurrected as undead. Annaïg Hoïnart, a seventeen-year-old Breton girl, and her Argonian friend Mere-Glim, escape from Black Marsh just ahead of Umbriel. They witnessed Umbriel moving toward the city, and after Glim is overcome by an urge to run back to the city, Annaïg During their journey, Sul and Attrebus met a group of Khajiit who joined them. Sul explained to Attrebus that he intended to short-cut through Oblivion to beat Umbriel to Vvardenfell. He explains that Umbriel was undoubtedly a product of Vuhon, the man who had engineered the ingenium, the device that had kept the Ministry of Truth in place in Vivec's absence. He killed Sul's love, Ilzheven, and caused the Ministry of Truth to crash into Vvardenfell, in turn causing Red Mountain to erupt and destroy the entire island. Sul and Vuhon both were thrown into Oblivion, and a being named Umbra took that opportunity of the barrier between worlds opening to throw a sword, also called Umbra, into Tamriel, preventing Clavicus Vile from imprisoning him in it again. Sul is looking for the sword to destroy Umbriel. After nearly being recaptured, Sul opens a portal to Oblivion and he, Treb, and the Khajiit entered the planes of Oblivion, traveling through different planes, noticing the differences through the pain of the transitions. The path was interrupted in Hircine's plane, and Sul guided the party through Oblivion as Hircine and his drivers hunted them. One of the Khajiit was killed during the chase, and those remaining stayed behind at the end of the course to delay Hircine from reaching Attrebus and Sul. Attrebus and Sul exited Oblivion directly into the ruined Vivec City. There, Sul explained that Azura told him he'd find Umbra here, and that it must be what Vuhon was after. He found that the place where Umbra should have been was gone, and spoke with the spirit of Ilzheven. He questioned her about Umbra, and she told him that Dunmer found it and took it north, toward the Sea of Ghosts. As Sul wandered the ruined city, Attrebus kept an eye out for Umbriel and opened Coo, finding Annaïg looking back at him. She told him that she couldn't wait for him, that she and Glim would use her flying potions and leave Umbriel. When she closed her locket, a few moments later Attrebus saw the bottom of Umbriel poking out from the bottom of the clouds, heading toward them and very close. Annaïg, working in Toel's kitchen on Umbriel, received a bucket of ingredients from a skraw that contained her locket, and inside it a message from Glim. She responded to Glim’s note and they met the following midnight, at the dock. They consumed flying potions Annaïg had made, and begin to fly away from Umbriel, only to find that they had become like the other residents of the city; if they traveled too far from Umbriel, they began to lose their substance. Though Colin had been pulled from the Attrebus investigation, he continued investigating. The last person Gulan had spoken to, Letine Arese, an assistant to the Prime Minister, made her way deep into the Market District and entered a building, and Colin climbed a nearby building in order to reach a third-story window. He entered a small empty bedroom and made his way downstairs until he heard the voices of Arese and a male. She seemed concerned that the "job" was not accomplished as it should have been. Colin learned that a courier brought news to the Emperor that the Prince lived. As their conversation escalated, among the screams of men it seemed that Arese changed form into a sort of beast. It moved past him, up the stairs, then a few moments later came back down and exited through the door. The building was burning, and Colin escaped through the window. Unable to search the house, he wondered why Arese wanted the Prince dead, and why she didn't accomplish the task herself. Sul was drawn back to Attrebus by his screams, to find Umbriel nearly upon them. They attempted to move back to their entry position, but were transported to Umbriel, suspended in a type of spiderweb-like net in front of Vuhon. As they spoke, Sul accused Vuhon of murdering his love, Ilzheven, and destroying Vvardenfell; Vuhon contested that it was actually Sul that did that. It was revealed that Ilzheven had a very special type of soul, and Vuhon was using her to power the ingenium, to hold the Ministry of Truth aloft over Vivec City. When Sul freed her, it sent the Ministry of Truth crashing into Vivec City, killing Ilzheven and throwing Sul and Vuhon into Oblivion. Vuhon also revealed that he had an ally inside the Imperial Palace, the person that was trying to have Attrebus killed. He said he'd need the Imperial City, specifically the White Gold Tower, and offered Attrebus the chance to convince his father to back down. Through his close relationship with Oblivion, Sul shattered Vuhon's glass world by summoning a monstrous daedra. While Vuhon was distracted, Attrebus tried to attack from behind, but was discovered by Vuhon and trapped once more. At the last moment, Sul sprang to the prince's side and said "Not now," before laying a hand on his shoulder and pulling them both into another part of Oblivion. The book ends with Glim and Annaïg back on Umbriel, defeated. They spent a few hours together before saying their goodbyes, and Annaïg headed back to the kitchen. She promised Glim that, while all they could do was continue to move forward, eventually they would be free. She then resolved to become stronger and more ambitious in order to survive. |
In Too Deep | Judy Blundell | 2,009 | 14 year old Amy Cahill, her 11 year old brother Dan Cahill, and their older babysitter au pair Nellie Gomez head to Australia to discover what their mother and father knew about the clue hunt. There they meet their friendly surfer cousin Shep Trent, who helps them by transporting them where they need to go in his plane. Amy and Dan are on the trail of a mysterious criminal known only as Bob Troppo, and they also discover a secret expedition their parents went on around the world to look for clues. But following her parents' footsteps reminds Amy of the memories she had of the night her parents died. Memories so painful she can't even bear to share them with Dan. Amy and Dan have to decide how much they're willing to risk, and what they are. Ian and Natalie Kabra's mother, Isabel, joins the hunt, as she could not stand the mistakes her children have made. The Kabras send the Cahills an 'invitation' to a meeting at a dock in Australia. Amy can't decide which Lucian to trust - the cloying Isabel Kabra, or the serious, but deadly, Irina Spasky. Irina stops following Isabel and helps Amy with the clue hunt. She turned away from Isabel because she lost her boy, Nikolai, when she was on a mission. Amy's life is threatened by Isabel, but she escapes thanks to the Holt family, who helped her because of their previous alliance in The Black Circle. Amy and Dan are briefly distanced from each other when Irina talks about Amy and Dan`s parents being murdered in front of Dan (Amy had been too filled with grief to tell Dan that their parents were murdered) Amy and Dan continue their search to find out that Bob Troppo was actually Ekaterina agent Robert Cahill Henderson, who came devastatingly close to finding all 39 clues in his Indonesian lab. His work was destroyed by the Krakatoa eruption and he fled to Australia. Amy and Dan find a note written by him, a strange poem seemingly pointing to the clue. The Cahills discover the clue - water - with the help of Alistair Oh. However, Isabel Kabra sets the house they are staying in on fire, and Irina Spasky chooses to save Amy, Dan, and Alistair at the price of her own life. The book ends with Amy and Dan thinking that they now are doing the Clue hunt for their parents. |
The Bell at Sealey Head | Patricia A. McKillip | null | The small ocean town of Sealey Head has long been haunted by a phantom bell that tolls as evening falls. The sound is so common that many of the town's inhabitants don't even notice it, let alone questions its existence. Ridley Dow, a scholar from the city, comes to investigate the mystery, and sets up residence at the old inn owned by a young man named Judd and his ailing father. To aid Ridley, Judd enlists the help of his friend and love-interest Gwyneth, a young woman who writes her own stories to explain the bell. On the other side of town is the ancient manor Aislinn House, whose owner, Lady Eglantine, lies dying. Emma, a servant in the house, is able to open doors that lead not into another room, but into another world. On the other side of Aislinn House's doors is castle where the princess Ysabo moves through her daily rituals, tasks that Ysabo hates and doesn't understand, but cannot question. While Emma and Ysabo are able to speak to one another, neither has ever tried to cross into the other's realm. When Lady Eglantine's heir Miranda Beryl comes to Aislinn House, Sealey Head's secrets begin to reveal themselves, sometimes with dangerous consequences. Miranda brings to Sealey Head an entourage of friends from the city, as well as a strange assistant. As the town gets pulled deeper into the strange magic that Ridley, Judd, Gwyneth, and Emma uncover, Ridley breaches the border between Aislinn House and Ysabo's world. It is only when the bell's location and owner are discovered that Aislinn House and all of Sealey Head are able to return to safety. |
In the Forests of Serre | Patricia A. McKillip | null | After the death of his wife and child, Prince Ronan falls into a depression so deep that even a fated encounter with the witch Brume leaves him unmoved. He gives Brume his heart, certain that he no longer needs whatever is left of it, and then wanders through the forests of his country, escaping from an arranged marriage that his parents hope to force him into. In the woods he becomes enchanted by a firebird and relentlessly pursues it, leaving behind his memories in his madness. As her betrothed runs wildly through the wilderness, Princess Sidonie reluctantly leaves her home of Dacia to travel Serre. Her father and his wizard Unciel realize that an alliance between Dacia and Serre will protect their country from war. To aid Sidonie and guard her from Serre's magic, Unciel arranges another wizard, Gyre, to escort her while Unciel, who is still weak from an earlier battle, and his scribe Euan Ash watch over the events from Dacia. Gyre agrees, but has his own motivation for undertaking the journey. Sidonie encounters the nearly delirious Ronan, though neither know who the other is; Gyre, aware of the prince's quest, takes advantage of the confused situation to steal Ronan's identity. With the help of Unciel, who gathers his strength to settle the unfinished business he has with Gyre, Sidonie brings Ronan back from his wanderings and brings peace to both Serre and Dacia. |
Peter and the Sword of Mercy | Dave Barry | 2,009 | The story is set in 1902, 23 years after the events of Peter and the Secret of Rundoon. Molly Aster, now Molly Darling, is married to George and a mother of three: Wendy, John, and Michael. Her mother Louise has been deceased for a while and her father Leonard is very ill. One evening, she is visited by one of the original Lost Boys: James, who now works for Scotland Yard. He informs Molly about his suspicions with Baron von Schatten, an advisor to Prince Albert Edward. James thinks von Schatten is being controlled by Lord Ombra, but Molly brushes it off as foolishness, saying that Ombra was destroyed at Rundoon. Along with this, the Starcatchers have been few since the incident. James tells her he will come back the next night, giving her some time to think the whole thing over, as he has nowhere else to turn. Meanwhile, on Mollusk Island, four men known as McPherson, O'Neal, Kelly and DeWulf wash up on shore in a boat. They claim to have been lost at sea for a few weeks, but Chief Fighting Prawn becomes suspicious when he says that they look like they were out at sea for a few days. He and Peter keep a close eye on the four men, especially O'Neal. Back in London, Molly has waited three days, and James has still not returned. She starts to fear that he might be in real danger. Anxious to find out what is going on, Molly goes to the Scotland Yard, only to be told by his employer, Blake, that he is on vacation. Puzzled, Molly returns home and is almost grabbed by a bobby on the Underground. George is not too pleased when she tells him her story. He fears that he could lose his job due to a minor incident like this. Molly decides to talk to Wendy about the Starcatchers, knowing that her daughter is the only one who could understand. So, after Molly tells her daughter that she is actually in the Starcatchers, Molly sets off to her father's house, hoping to find some answers. But she, too, mysteriously disappears. Meanwhile, a hideous man-like monster named The Skeleton, one of the "Others" that can cause pain with but a mere touch, looks for the missing tip of the sword Curtana- a.k.a. the Sword of Mercy. He finds it in a church window, disguised as a bishop's miter. To keep his children safe, George sends them to stay in Cambridgeshire with Neville Plonk-Fenster, an inventor and their uncle. At Uncle Neville's place, Wendy is able to get an ornithopter, one of her uncle's inventions and uses it to find Peter. Before this, she visits her grandfather, Leonard Aster, who gives her a locket of starstuff and tells her to seek out Peter. Before he loses consciousness, he tells her to "confess". Wendy is confused, though, as she has no clue as to what he meant. In Molly's prison, she notices that men pass her prison every day. She believes they have been digging because of their dirty appearance. Wendy finally finds Peter on Mollusk Island with the help of some porpoises. She convinces him to come back to England with her to stop the "Others." |
Castle Dor | Arthur Quiller-Couch | 1,961 | Castle Dor began life as the unfinished last novel by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, the celebrated 'Q', and was passed by his daughter to Daphne du Maurier. The story is based around the legend of Tristan and Iseult, but set in 19th century Cornwall. The main characters are a Breton onion seller, called Amyot Trestane, and the newly-wed Linnet Lewarne. |
Memorial Day | Vince Flynn | 2,004 | Rapp, back in the field after a long stint on desk duty for insubordination, unearths the bomb plot during a daring commando raid on an al-Qaeda stronghold in Afghanistan. A U.S. strike force manages to intercept and disarm the nuke moments after it arrives by freighter in Charleston, S.C. Everyone, including series stalwart President Robert Hayes, congratulates themselves on a job well done, but Rapp isn't convinced; he believes al-Qaeda leader Mustafa al-Yamani has smuggled a second nuke into the country and plans to detonate it in Washington, D.C., during Memorial Day celebrations. Rapp, a ruthless terrorist pursuer by temperament and training, turns it up several notches this time around, following al-Yamani's scent with feverish abandon. Flynn trots out his usual assortment of characters to keep the action tense—wishy-washy cabinet members, political climbers, invective-spewing terrorists and a selected assortment of ice queens who use sex as a weapon. Yet his skillful use of converging plots, particularly the panic created by having a nuke on the loose, is enough to keep Flynn's growing fan base more than willing to overlook the formulaic components. WorldCat shows that the book is in over 1800 US and Canadian libraries |
Finding H.F. | Julia Watts | 2,001 | Abandoned by her teenage mother as a baby, 16-year old Heavenly Faith (H.F.) Simms has been raised by her loving but deeply conservative Baptist grandmother ('Memaw'). A tomboy and a closeted lesbian, she is an outcast at school in the small rural mining town of Morgan, in southeastern Kentucky. Her best and only friend is Bo, an effeminate gay boy who is the punching bag for the high school football team, as well as for his violent alcoholic father. H.F.'s first lesbian experience comes when the beautiful new girl at school, Wendy Cook, invites her to a sleepover, where they get drunk on wine and make love. The following morning though, Wendy coldly rejects H.F.s advances, breaking her heart. The same day, H.F. discovers a shocking secret about her mother. Unable to cope with the pain in their lives, H.F. and Bo decide to embark on a road trip during spring break across the South, from Kentucky to Florida. |
The Library Card | Jerry Spinelli | 1,997 | The book follows the adventures of four different characters named Mongoose, Brenda, Sonseray, and April as each child discovers a blue library card. The Library Card shows how libraries can affect the lives of each character in very different ways. |
The Blue Star | Fletcher Pratt | null | The novel is set in a parallel world in which the existence of psychic powers has permitted the development of witchcraft into a science; in contrast, that of the physical sciences has languished, resulting in a modern culture reminiscent of our eighteenth century. Witchcraft is hereditary but the ability to use it can be held by only one member of a family line at a time, being passed from mother to daughter at the daughter's loss of virginity. The daughter's lover then gains possession of her magical talisman, a jewel known as the blue star, which enables him to read the mind of anyone he looks in the eye. The catch is that he retains access to this power only so long as he keeps faith with his witch lover. The empire in which the action is set is comparable to the Austrian one in our own history. The government bans witchcraft, which merely serves to drive its practitioners underground, where they can fall prey to the use and abuse of unscrupulous powerful or ambitious individuals. The protagonists are Lalette Asterhax, a hereditary witch, and Rodvard Bergelin, an ordinary government clerk who has been recruited into the radical conspiracy of the Sons of the New Day. Rodvard, though attracted to the daughter of a baron, is commanded by his superiors to seduce Lalette instead to gain the use of her blue star in the furtherance of their revolutionary aims. The witch is no more truly enamored of him than he is of her, but both fall in with the scheme for their own reasons, unaware of how much they are simply pawns in the larger scheme of things. Everything soon goes bad, and the couple is forced to flee the empire. Various adventures and complications ensue as they stray into one cause or acquaintance after another, gradually growing beyond their shallow, selfish roots into a greater understanding. |
Barbary | Vonda McIntyre | null | Barbary, a twelve-year-old girl, is an orphan who has lived in several group homes and foster families since the death of her mother. The novel opens with her waiting in a spaceport for a seat on a shuttle to Earth orbit, which will be the first step on a journey to the research space station Einstein, where she is to live with her new foster father, Yoshi, a poet and college friend of her mother's. Unfortunately, she has two difficulties: the shuttle is filled with dignitaries from Earth travelling to the station, so it's unlikely she will get a seat, and she is trying to smuggle her cat, Mickey, into space with her (pets are forbidden on the station). Barbary gets a seat on the shuttle with the help of the station's new administrator, a famous African-American woman astronaut, who tells her the reason so many VIPs are on the shuttle: an alien spacecraft has entered the solar system. It is not responding to communications or making any transmissions, nor is it making any powered maneuvers, but its course will bring it close to Einstein. Once she reaches orbit, Barbary spends several days on an orbital transfer ship before finally arriving at Einstein while managing to keep Mickey hidden. Once there, she meets Yoshi; Heather, her new sister, who is the first child born in space; and Thea, Yoshi's lover, an absent-minded astronomer. She hides Mickey in her and Heather's shared room, but has to reveal him to her fairly quickly. Heather agrees to help her keep Mickey hidden and fed while showing her around her new home and taking her on a trip outside the station in a vehicle called a "sled." Barbary asks Heather if she knows any private places on the station where Mickey can move about more freely so he won't be bored. Heather shows them a radiation shielding sublevel of the station on the outer edge of its rotating ring; it is filled with dirt made from lunar regolith tailings from the station's construction. While there, Mickey crawls into a mistakenly-open access panel to an elevator shaft and the girls lose him. They are reunited when the station administrator later summons Barbary to the station control center, where Mickey has emerged, to the delight of the technicians. Initially she wants to send Mickey back to Earth, but relents when a technician discovers a dead rat that Mickey has found and killed, proving he might be useful to the station as pest control. In the meantime, Thea has been constructing a telescope instrument in the family's quarters which is to be put on a sled and sent toward the alien craft, which has finally made a course change to bring it near Einstein and has sent transmissions in many human languages. When Heather and Barbary are elsewhere on the station, Mickey climbs inside the instrument package, and is not noticed when the package is installed on the sled and sent off into space. Barbary figures out he is not on the station when the station computer tells her it can't detect the radio tracking tag on his collar. She and Heather take Heather's sled out and begin chasing after Mickey's sled, but when they catch up, both sleds are grabbed by tractor beams and pulled aboard the alien ship. The girls learn that the friendly aliens, which look like mobile crystalline columns, have been traveling through the galaxy for a billion years, and have come to the solar system to inform humanity of the rules of galactic society before humanity finds it first. The novel ends with the aliens beginning to take the girls back to their home. |
Od Magic | Patricia A. McKillip | null | The wizard Od, a giantess who travels mysteriously, accompanied by numerous injured animals, which she heals, saved the city of Kelior, founded a school of magic there, then disappeared into the wilderness. Hundreds of years later, she appears at Brenden Vetch's small farm, inviting him to study at her school to perfect the magic he wields over plants, and finds in them. After he makes the long journey to the city, Brenden discovers that Kelior, instead of being a bastion for learning and exploration, is fearful of unfettered magic; the king and his wizard Valoren Greye outlaw any new type of magic, which they see as a threat to Kelior's order and safety. They want magic to be subservient to their rulership. As Brenden acclimates to his strange environment, Princess Sulys attempts to come to terms with her engagement to Valoren, a man she scarcely knows, which engagement was arranged by her father. But Valoren, and her father, take her for granted, and won't listen to her. Among other things, she wants Valoren to know that she has some magical power. Instead of preparing for her upcoming wedding, she prefers to converse with Ceta Thiel, a historian writing about Od. Her discoveries about the wizard puzzle her and her lover, Yar Ayrwood, who works at Od's school. Yar ventures out of the school and into the city to learn more, unintentionally involving his curious student Elver. The wizard Valoren is too preoccupied to help with his wedding arrangements: Not only is Brenden proving to be an enigma, but a new magic-user, Tyramin, and his daughter Mistral have brought a magic show to the Twilight Quarter of the city. Believing these magicians to be dangerous, Valoren commands that Tyramin and Mistral are to be investigated. As the warden for the Twilight Quarter, Arneth Pyt has to obey Valoren's order, even as he falls in love with the mysterious Mistral. When the king and Valoren try to suppress these new magics, an uprising that they could never foresee forces change upon the static kingdom. Mistral asks the king to allow Tyramin to perform for the king in the palace. (Actually, Tyramin has been dead for some time, but Mistral has presented him by illusion at performances. Sulys gets serious about magic, and stands up to her father during the performance, arguing that the king and Valoren have not been paying attention to her, and that Mistral should be allowed to practice her magic within Kelior. Yar and Valoren return from a search for Brenden, combined with an investigation of mysterious rock-like beings in the far north, and the beings, and Brenden, come with them. Elver turns out to be Od, in disguise. Od says that she wants the school to continue, but without the restraints imposed by the king, which she has experienced as Elver. The king agrees, and magic becomes an art again, rather than a trade. |
Gaston 19 | André Franquin | 1,999 | The album contains some mini-récits, advertisements and drawings. * paint brush with tank and battery : brush so efficient that it paint also the user * electric roller skates : roller skates without brakes nor switch * miniature drill : highly efficient drill that can accidentally cause some damages * small ventilator: too efficient, it flies away * fan with motor: fan with battery to be placed on the wrist, it also allows someone to fly * electric cigar-cutter : this cigar-cutter not only cut cigars but also grind them * shaving brush with rotary hair: with too powerful batteries, it can have unexpected effects (Gaston 19) * bicycle on baterries: batteries are placed in the frame of the bike * heating soles: non-slip soles equipped with a heating system against black ice * miniature electric doll: doll of Prunelle * fire-extinger walkie-talkie: to communicate easily and avoiding being exposed * antifreeze : this antifreeze makes bubbles * radio-controlled bin |
Lad, A Dog | Albert Payson Terhune | 1,919 | ;"His Mate" A rough collie named Lad lives at the Place with his Master, Mistress, and his mate, Lady. When Knave, a younger collie, is boarded at the Place, Lady begins ignoring Lad in favor of the newcomer. During a romp in the forest with Knave, Lady is caught in a leghold trap. Knave leaves her there and returns home but Lad finds her. Several days later, the still limping Lady accidentally gets locked in the library and is subsequently blamed for the destruction of the Master's beloved mounted bald eagle. The Master starts to whip her, but Lad intervenes and takes the whipping himself, knowing Knave was the culprit. Later, he attacks Knave for getting Lady in trouble, sending him fleeing from the Place. As the Master apologizes to Lad, Lady lovingly licks his wounds from the fight. ;"Quiet" On a cold October day, the Mistress falls into the lake and develops pneumonia. As the house must be kept quiet during her recovery, the dogs are sent to a boarding kennel, except Lad who is ordered to keep quiet. One night a thief breaks into the house, hoping to take advantage of the absence of the dogs. After he climbs through a window, Lad silently attacks him. During the ensuing fight Lad is cut with a knife before sending the man crashing back through the window. The noise wakes the humans of the house and the thief is arrested. After Lad's wound is treated, he enjoys praise from the Mistress then travels some distance from home to enjoy a lengthy session of barking. ;"A Miracle or Two" One spring, a relative of the Mistress brings her invalid toddler, Baby, to the Place in the hope that the weather will help her grow stronger. Lad immediately befriends the girl and becomes her constant companion. By summer, Baby is growing healthier, though she is still unable to walk. One afternoon, the mother sits the child near the lake, then leaves her to go meet the Master and Mistress, who are returning from town. Lad saves the baby from a copperhead snake, but the distraught mother only sees Lad throw her backwards and begins beating him. To protect her friend, Baby manages to shakily walk to her mother and explain what happened. While the humans fuss over the occurrence Lad sneaks off and spends four days buried in marsh mud to draw out the snake's poison. ;"His Little Son" Lady gives birth to three puppies, but after two die of unexplained causes, Lady lavishes all her attention on the surviving pup, Wolf. She later develops distemper and is taken away by the veterinarian, so Lad takes over the raising of his son, solemnly teaching him the Law of the Place. Wolf comes to love and respect his father and soon forgets his mother, though Lad continues to search for her daily. A month later, Wolf falls through the ice of the semi-frozen lake, and Lad nearly drowns while saving him. When Lad staggers to shore, he is ecstatically greeted by the recovered Lady. ;"For a Bit of Ribbon" The Master and Mistress enter Lad in the Westminster Dog Show in New York, much to Lad's abject misery as he dislikes the preparatory bathing and brushing. Dismayed to learn that Lad will have to stay chained to a small bench for all four days of the event, his owners begin to regret bringing him. To their joy, Lad wins the blue ribbon in both the Novice and Winner classes, and they decide not to subject him to the four-day stay. When they let Lad know he is going home, he joyfully perks up. ;"Lost!" Due to city regulations, the Master and Mistress are forced to muzzle Lad when they take him from the show. During the drive out of the city, Lad falls out of the car and is left behind. After he realizes he is lost, Lad starts towards home. Along the way he is chased by the police and a crowd of people, who presume he is rabid, but he escapes them by swimming across the Hudson River. Later he is attacked by a mongrel guard dog, but he refuses to run from the battle. He initially struggles to defend himself while muzzled, but then the other dog inadvertently bites through the strap holding the muzzle on, allowing Lad to quickly defeat him. When the Master and Mistress return from searching for Lad, they find him waiting on the porch. ;"The Throwback" Glure, a wealthy neighbor who considers himself gentry, stops at the Place for a night while on the way to a livestock show with a flock of expensive sheep. During the night, Glure's "Prussian sheep dog", Melisande, worries the sheep and they break free from the pen. Though Lad has never seen sheep, he instinctively herds them together while keeping Melisande under control. When the humans arrive to take the sheep home, Glure's herdsman apologizes for having earlier insulted Lad and Glure offers to trade Melisande for Lad. ;"The Golden Hat" Tired of his high-priced imported livestock losing in local shows, Glure concocts a dog show with a special gold cup event that is limited to collies that are both American Kennel Club blue ribbon winners and capable of completing the tasks of a British working sheep dog trial. Initially, it seems like the only dog who meets the requirements is Glure's recently purchased blue-merle champion, Lochinvar III; however, the Mistress is able to command Lad through the motions of the trial. Lochinvar works primarily by hand signal, so when Glure accidentally burns his fingers on his cigar while going through the trial, the dog stops working and waits for Glure's hand-shaking to be explained. The dog is disqualified and Lad is declared the winner. The Master and Mistress donate the gold cup to the Red Cross in his name. ;"Speaking of Utility" Glure tries to encourage the Master to support the "war effort" by killing his non-utilitarian animals, including his dogs. The Master quickly points out that Glure himself did not "sacrifice" his dogs but lost them to distemper. Pointing out that Lad had just chased off a trespasser from the Place, he fiercely argues that his dogs are his home's best protection. A few days later during a livestock show, Lad attacks Glure's new groom, recognizing him as the trespasser he chased away earlier. Lad's attack frees a vicious bull, which goes into homicidal rage. Lad abandons his attack of the groom to protect him from the bull. The bull chases Lad over the river and consequently gets stuck in the mud. The Master quickly determines why Lad attacked the man and Glure grudgingly thanks them. ;"The Killer" Lad is accused of killing eight sheep owned by a neighbor. When the Master refuses to believe the accusations, they are taken to court where the neighbor's farmhand testifies that he saw Lad kill two of the sheep. The Master successfully shows the improbability of a single dog carrying off six sheep in two nights and that the two dead sheep left behind were clearly cut with a knife, not teeth. After Lad is given a 24-hour parole, the Master asks the judge to accompany him to the neighbor's house that night, where they discover that the farmhand was actually stealing the sheep, then killing one from each batch to put the blame on Lad. ;"Wolf" Wolf, the companion and friend of the Boy, is highly intelligent and an excellent guard dog. The Boy is upset that he is not allowed to enter the dog shows, though he understands that Wolf does not meet the breed standards. While the family is at a dog show with Bruce and Lad, Wolf is poisoned by an intruder. Having only eaten part of the tainted meat, Wolf is still alive when the thief returns to the house that night and is shot twice while protecting the Place. The thief escapes, but is later apprehended by the police while being treated for his bites. Wolf recovers and is given a "Hero Cup" trophy, to the Boy's delight. ;"In the Day of Battle" On a cold, snowy day, thirteen-year-old Lad feels snubbed when the three-year-old Wolf does not invite him to join him and Rex, a five-year-old collie and bull terrier mix, for a run in the woods. Later, Lad goes for a walk, following their path. When he meets them on the trail, rather than letting Lad pass, Rex viciously attacks him. With his teeth dulled by old age, Lad is unable to really fight back. Refusing to just run, he defends himself as best he can while moving backwards towards home, half a mile away. Though Wolf betrays him and joins Rex in the life-or-death fight, Lad manages to get close enough to the house for Bruce to hear the battle and alert the Master and Mistress. The Master is forced to kill Rex after the crazed dog turns on him. After four weeks recovering from his wounds, Lad is able to go outside again and Wolf steps aside for him, acknowledging he is still the leader of the Place's dogs. |
The Virginians | William Makepeace Thackeray | 1,859 | It tells the story of Henry Esmond's twin grandsons, George and Henry Warrington. Henry's romantic entanglements with an older woman lead up to his taking a commission in the British army and fighting under the command of General Wolfe at the capture of Quebec. On the outbreak of the American War of Independence he takes the revolutionary side. George, who is also a British officer, thereupon resigns his commission rather than take up arms against his brother. |
The Battle for God | Karen Armstrong | 2,000 | Armstrong's central case rests on the confusion between mythos and logos, using these in the technical sense suggested by Johannes Slok. Myth concerns "what was thought to be timeless and constant in our existence...Myth was not concerned with practical matters but with meaning". By contrast "Logos was the rational, pragmatic and scientific thought that enabled men and women to function well in the world". In religion, logos appears in legal systems and practical action. By the eighteenth century, "people in Europe and America began to think that logos was the only means to truth and began to discount mythos as false and superstitious." Armstrong suggests that fundamentalists have turned their mythos into logos using the mindset of the modern scientific age. The first part of the book, "The Old World and the New", compares the progression of the three monotheistic faiths between 1492, when Columbus discovered America, and 1870, when "The Franco-Prussian War had revealed the hideous effects of modern weaponry, and there was a dawning realisation that science might also have a malignant dimension." It traces the way Jews and Muslims modernized during this period. This leads to the modern period described in part two, “Fundamentalism”, when there was a growing adoption of a literalist interpretation of scripture in the United States, which eventually gave rise to The Fundamentals, a series of 12 volumes refuting modern ideas published shortly before and during the World War I, of which 3 million copies were distributed to every pastor, professor and theological student across America by the largesse of oil millionaires. Though this led to a distinctive ideology, it was not till the 1980s that it emerged as a political force. In Judaism, the growth of Zionism was given its biggest boost by the Holocaust which led to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Although many traditional Jews migrated there, the most conservative rejected the secular interpretation of Zionism and it wasn't until the emergence of Gush Emunim after the Yom Kippur War in 1974 that fundamentalism emerged in Israel as a political force. In Islam, fundamentalism did not emerge until modernization had taken hold, first in Egypt with the creation of the Muslim Brotherhood by Hasan al-Banna. Armstrong traces the development of Sunni fundamentalism under Sayyid Qutb and Shia fundamentalism under Ayatollah Khomeini. |
Zettels Traum | null | null | The novel is set in 1968 at 4 AM in the Lüneberg Heath in northeastern Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It follows the lives of Daniel Pagenstecher, visiting translators Paul Jacobi and his wife Wilma, and their teenage daughter Franziska. The story is concerned with the problems of translating Edgar Allan Poe into German. |
Krondor: The Assassins | Raymond E. Feist | 1,999 | Squire James of Krondor must find the cause for many unexplained murders plaguing Krondor. While a war is waged between the Mockers and agents of the Crawler a rival criminal with ties to Kesh. As a further complication eastern nobles arrive the Crown Prince of Roldem and the Duke of Olasko and his son and daughter. William the son of the magician Pug and Katala is commissioned as a Knight-Lieutenant and soon he is escorting the Duke on a hunt which turns out to be an ambush with two attempts on the nobles’ lives one by a group of magicians controlling panthers and another during the night by nighthawks William manages to keep them alive until aid arrives. Meanwhile James discovered something that will lead him to the main nest of the nighthawks with the help from Ethan Graves. James, William and a few soldiers disguise and approach the supposed location which used to be a Keshian outpost. They discover a back door and enter saving one of their captured scouts and causing havoc while they wait for Prince Arutha and his army. Jimmy is captured and is readied for a sacrifice in a demon summoning. He manages to upset the ritual and the demon is loosed on the nighthawks instead of the prince’s army. William and his squad force the demon to confront Arutha who in turn kills him with his magic imbued sword. The search of the nest results in some dark books, a sealed chest and documents. Arutha then orders a forced march to port Vikor and there he is met by Admiral Trask who takes them swiftly to Krondor. There they open the chest which turns out to be a magical assassin intended for Prince Vladik. The creature is defeated with help from a priest of Prandur but a lot of damage is caused to that wing of the palace. Further inspection and translation of the captured documents reveals that the Duke of Olasko is behind the attempted murder and Arutha sends the eastern nobles back to Roldem under escort. The Mockers are back in power as the Crawler's agents are defeated, Jimmy meets the unconfirmed Upright Man of the Mockers. It is further revealed that Sidi is behind the chaos. |
Earthseed | null | null | Many years into the future, a last-ditch attempt to save humanity was created, a project known as Ship, an AI containing DNA of different Earth flora and fauna and sent into space to find a new planet. Also created are a group of children using genes from the leaders of the project, all raised by Ship, and of whom Zoheret is the main character. Now in their teens, the Zoheret and the others are subjected to their last test, a competition within the Ship's Hollow, a simulated Earth-like environment. The teens are moved into the Hollow, and told to live there so that they can gain the skills they will need to live and survive on their new planet. Very quickly, Ho and Manuel, two troublemakers, split off from the rest. Zoheret and the others are left make a farming community, with Zoheret's friend and roommate Lillka as the group's leader. All goes well until it is discovered that Ho's group has started to steal some of the main settlement's supplies. This upsets a great many of the main settlement's members, and they go out to find the smaller group's home base. The vengeful group ends up burning down the cabins of the other community. Angry and confused, Zoheret and her friend, Bonnie (accused of cooperating with Ho and Manuel's group) set off to plead with the Ship; however, Ship is unwilling to let them out of the Hollow. They finally get Ship to let them get food to take back to their settlement. Zoheret develops a relationship with Dmitri, another teen, while Lillka is slowly replaced as leader by another boy, Tonio. Things for the small community are made much worse when they awake to find their fields incinerated by Ho's group. The settlement leaves to hunt down Ho and Manuel's group, while Zoheret and Bonnie, still concerned over Ship's odd behavior, lead a small group back to Ship. Instead, they stumble across an older man, Aleksandr, who introduces himself as Dmitri's older brother, a remnant of Ship's previous attempt at the Project. He takes Zoheret and the others in her group out into Ship's corridors and introduces them to the other six members of his group, including Zoheret's own older brother, Yusef. They explain that Ship had created them years ago when it had found two planets suitable for life. However, neither turned out adequate (the first having a poisonous atmosphere, the second inhabited by intelligent life), and the group was given two options: live their lives out in the Hollow, without reproducing, or go into cryostasis. Most of the group goes into cryostasis and are now in the process of being revived. Armed with this knowledge, the younger group go back to their settlement and are immediately captured by Ho. Threatening her friends, he sends Zoheret over to get supplies. Upon reaching the settlement, Zoheret is treated to another shock: another group of adults have been revived. These are the leaders of the project, having put themselves secretly into cryostasis, and who have now taken over the settlement and shut down the Ship's systems. A war between the two groups start, forcing Zoheret to unite her community with Ho and Manuel's and to ally with the Aleksandr and his own group. Though the younger group eventually wins, after having turned Ship's systems back on, there are losses on both sides, with Zoheret losing an arm when her own genetic mother shoots her. They settle on Ship's new planet, the adults placed in cryostasis, having learned many lessons. Zoheret becomes the group's leader and Ship leaves, setting off to find a new planet to do the Project on. |
The Leper of Saint Giles | Edith Pargeter | 1,981 | In October 1139, Brother Cadfael, a monk of Shrewsbury Abbey, skilled herbalist and physician, is restocking the salves and medicines at a leper colony at Saint Giles, maintained as a charity by the Abbey. Young Brother Mark has volunteered his turn to care for the lepers and enjoys caring for the sick. A wedding between two landed families is to take place in two days at the Abbey. Cadfael believes the bride to be a descendant of a renowned knight whom he knew on the First Crusade. The arrival of these wealthy people in their fine clothes draws out townspeople and those at St. Giles to watch them pass. First the groom, Huon de Domville, and his party arrive, headed for Bishop Roger de Clinton's house across the road from the Abbey. Cadfael is surprised how old the bridegroom is. As he passes, the baron lashes out with his whip at one of the lepers, an old man called Lazarus, a recent arrival who is slow to get off the road. Next, the bride and her party arrive, aiming to stay in the Abbey guest house. Iveta de Massard is a beautiful young woman, worth the wait for all the onlookers. With her are her legal guardians, Godfrid Picard and his wife Agnes. This marriage does not have the look of a love match; rather it is a contract between families for financial and social gain. From the Bishop's house, de Domville's three squires watch as Iveta's party passes his lodgings. Iveta secretly gives a sign to one of them, Joscelin Lucy. The other two, Simon Aguilon, de Domville's nephew and heir presumptive, and Guy Fitzjohn, know of Joscelin's hopeless love for Iveta. That night, after Vespers, Iveta absents herself to meet Joscelin in Cadfael's workshop in the Abbey grounds. They discuss how the marriage might be prevented, without much hope. Cadfael walks in to do some of his work, startling the pair. Hearing Agnes Picard approaching, he pretends that Joscelin and Iveta are seeking medicines. Civilities are preserved although Agnes is not fooled. After Agnes and Iveta depart, Joscelin tells Cadfael that he would commit murder to prevent Iveta's marriage to Huon de Domville. Cadfael scolds him for using such words lightly, when he suspects this boy (all young men are boys to Cadfael) would not act on his strong feelings so wrongly. The next morning, Joscelin bursts into the Abbey's grounds, as he has been dismissed by de Domville not for his own errors or faults, but at Picard's urging. He challenges Godfrid Picard to a duel for this smear to his honour. As Abbot Radulfus intervenes to prevent a brawl, de Domville himself arrives with Gilbert Prestcote, the Sheriff of Shropshire and accuses Joscelin of the theft of a gold and pearl necklace, a gift intended for Iveta. Joscelin's belongings are searched by Prior Robert. The necklace is found in the last object by interference of de Domville. Cadfael suspects that it was planted there. Joscelin is meekly led out of the Abbey by the Sheriff's men but at the bridge before the town, he breaks free of his guards and escapes by jumping into the River Severn, successfully avoiding arrows and pursuit. Simon later goes to find him in the woods, and conceals him in a shed within de Domville's lodgings at the Bishop's house. Later that day, Radulfus summons Cadfael to discuss the Picards' complaints at his interference. Cadfael states his concern that Iveta is being coerced into marriage, but when they question Iveta alone, she states she is willing to be wed to de Domville. Late that evening, rather than sleep, de Domville tells Simon that he fancies a night ride, and trots off towards Saint Giles. His progress and direction are noted by Lazarus, sleeping outdoors this night. Yet later that night after some sleep, Joscelin leaves his hiding place in pursuit of his ultimate goals, to stop the marriage and get Iveta to safety. He is heard by a patrol and is pursued along the same road. The leper Lazarus conceals him in a haystack. Surprising himself, Joscelin confides to Lazarus his crude plan to challenge de Domville to a duel to the death to thwart the wedding. Lazarus says that de Domville rode past Saint Giles a short while before, and must presumably come back the same way before the wedding later that morning. At ten o'clock, Iveta and the invited guests gather at the Abbey church for the wedding, but Huon de Domville does not appear. Searchers find him dead on a track far from his lodgings. Cadfael's careful search of the area shows rope marks on two nearby trees. De Domville had been toppled from his saddle by a rope stretched across the path, then strangled with bare hands as he lay stunned. Most assume that this is Joscelin Lucy's work. Cadfael determines from the dew under the body that de Domville died shortly after dawn. He also notes that the strangler wore a ring, the jewel of which cut into the flesh of de Domville's throat. Nobody recalls whether Joscelin wore such a ring. At the Abbey, Picard is vehement that Joscelin Lucy must be taken and hanged, as he is most certainly the guilty man. Iveta protests that Joscelin must be innocent, as he is in prison. When the Picards reveal the truth of his escape, she collapses. The Picards grudgingly allow Cadfael to take care of her. Once safely indoors, she tells him that she agreed to marry de Domville because the Picards had threatened that Joscelin would otherwise be hanged for theft, and begs Cadfael to help Joscelin. The Sheriff musters parties to search for Joscelin. At Saint Giles, Brother Mark is aware that from the hour of Prime, his flock has grown by one tall man, who is concealed behind a leper's veil. Because the lepers trust the newcomer, so does Brother Mark. That evening, the searchers return empty handed. Some of Prestcote's men have searched de Domville's lodgings, finding traces that a man had been there, but has left. Simon seems strangely disconcerted by the news. With Godfrid Picard, he attends the ceremony of placing de Domville in his coffin. About the same time Cadfael's assistant, Brother Oswin, notes that de Domville's hat is missing. Cadfael finds it near where he fell, with a very rare flower, blue creeping gromwell, wound around it. The next day, Cadfael searches the area for that rare flower. The locals tell him how to find de Domville's hunting lodge, where the flower grows in abundance. The caretakers invite him inside, where Cadfael notes a gentlewoman's perfume. As he leaves, he sees a fine horse suitable for a lady. He goes to the Bishop's House to question de Domville's servants. The servant Arnulf admits that de Domville had a favourite mistress, a former peasant girl named Avice of Thornbury, a place Cadfael knows how to find. Joscelin has confided in Lazarus his new plan to take Iveta to sanctuary at a Cistercian convent near Brewood until the courts can properly consider her case. He has befriended Bran, a young boy at Saint Giles. From Brother Mark, Bran obtains a strip of vellum on which Joscelin writes a message to Simon, asking him to tether his horse near the Abbey grounds and tell Iveta to be in Cadfael's herb garden after Vespers. Just before dawn on the next day, Joscelin sneaks into de Domville's lodging, leaving the message in the mane of Simon's horse. Shortly afterwards, Iveta is surprised when she overhears Simon and Godfrid Picard arguing furiously. Simon is admitted briefly to her room and passes on Joscelin's message, showing her the vellum, before being shown out by Picard. The Sheriff prepares to search for Joscelin for a third full day. He calls up every able-bodied man and horse, appearing to leave the Abbey unguarded. Towards evening, Joscelin prepares to leave Saint Giles for the last time. Before he departs, Lazarus asks him to describe Godfrid Picard. Meanwhile, Iveta has acted on Joscelin's message. She obtains a double dose of the syrup derived from poppies which Cadfael uses as a sleeping draught from Brother Oswin, and puts it into the drink of the maidservant left to watch over her. She then meets Joscelin in the grounds. They do not get far, as some of Sheriff's men find Joscelin's horse, and then trap the two of them at the Abbey. As Joscelin tries to break free and snatches a knife from one of the Sheriff's men, the service of Vespers ends and the monks stream out. Abbot Radulfus once again intervenes to prevent Joscelin being cut down. The Sheriff and his searchers arrive one by one as darkness falls, Simon and Guy with them. The Sheriff agrees that Joscelin is on Abbey grounds, where Radulfus is in charge, and allows him to question Joscelin. As Joscelin tells his story, Brother Mark appears, wet from having forded a stream as he followed Joscelin from Saint Giles. Cadfael enters this scene. He has traced Avice of Thornbury, who has entered the Benedictine convent at Godric's Ford nearby and has joined the order as a novice. Cadfael relates her evidence that de Domville left the hunting lodge as dawn broke on the morning he was murdered. Brother Mark confirms that at that time, Joscelin was already in cover at Saint Giles. He also states that he has been watching Joscelin all day, and can account for his every move. Cadfael then announces that he has found the body of Godfrid Picard, strangled as Huon de Domville was, as he returned from Godric's Ford. Agnes Picard instantly turns on Simon Aguilon and accuses him of the murder of both de Domville and her husband. She tells everyone that Simon had sought Iveta's hand as de Domville's heir. Godfrid Picard realised at the coffining ceremony for de Domville, from a pale mark on Simon's finger, that Simon had worn the ring which Cadfael noted had cut into de Domville's throat, but was no longer wearing it. Picard was nevertheless prepared to accept Simon as a suitor for Iveta, provided Joscelin was pronounced guilty of the murder and hanged. Cadfael tells the Sheriff that Simon was entrusted by de Domville to escort Avice of Thornbury to the hunting lodge, and alone of the household knew the route de Domville must take. Simon angrily protests his innocence, but is surrounded and forcibly searched. The ring is found on him. Finally, one of the Sheriff's men admits that it was Simon who alerted him to search for Joscelin at de Domville's lodging, and later to intercept him in the Abbey grounds. As Simon is dragged off to the castle, nobody questions whether he is guilty of the murder of Godfrid Picard, as well as that of his uncle. When he examines Picard's body closely, Cadfael has doubts, as whoever strangled Picard lacked several fingers. Cadfael walks with Mark to Saint Giles, where Cadfael tells Lazarus that he knows him to be the famous knight Guimar de Massard, who was believed to have died as a prisoner of the Fatimids after being captured at the Battle of Ascalon 30 years earlier. Lazarus reveals that he had been told of his malady by Fatimid doctors, who also treated him for it. He had them announce that he died of wounds received in battle, and lived as a hermit for years until he learned that his son had died and left an orphaned child. He returned to England after a trek of many years, arriving at just the right moment. He was outraged to find Iveta being exploited by the Picards and unwillingly forced into marriage. Her "honour" of 50 manors across four counties was not thriving. As Prestcote's searchers made their way back to Shrewsbury, he had waylaid Godfrid Picard, challenged him to mortal combat, and easily disarmed and strangled him. Cadfael urges de Massard to reveal himself to Iveta, who venerates his memory, and will also know him as Joscelin's good friend. He boldly suggests that there was another Lazarus who returned from the dead, to the joy of his family. Lazarus removes his veil to reveal features ravaged by disease and asks "And was this the face that made his sisters glad?" He assures Cadfael that all is well with him, and leaves Saint Giles that very night, never to be seen again. |
A Shabby Genteel Story | William Makepeace Thackeray | null | After a brief preliminary chapter outlining the early life of certain characters the story begins in England in the winter of 1835. A well-born but impoverished gentleman calling himself "George Brandon" is hiding from his creditors in the out-of-season seaside town of Margate. He finds cheap lodgings with a family consisting of James Gann, a bankrupted small businessman; his termagant and socially pretentious wife, Juliana; her two elder daughters by her first husband, Rosalind and Isabella Wellesley Macarty; and her downtrodden youngest daughter, Caroline Gann. Though he despises the entire family as ridiculously vulgar, the supercilious Brandon plans to amuse himself by seducing one or other of the elder girls, who are local belles; but though at first they find him attractive they soon realise he is mocking them and their social milieu. Thereafter they treat him with scorn, and so Brandon irritably switches his attentions to the youngest, Caroline. She responds by conceiving a passionate first love for him, and he begins a covert flirtation with her - in part to irritate another lodger who adores her. This is the handsome, vain, deluded young artist Andrew 'Andrea' Fitch. From being at first an amusement to Brandon however Caroline eventually becomes an obsession, for although desperately in love she makes it clear she will not sleep with him unless he offers marriage: and this Brandon cannot do, as his financial future depends on his making a good match with a wealthy wife. As he grows increasingly frustrated with Caroline he becomes more and more furious with her admirer, Fitch, who suspects his designs on the girl and thwarts them where he can. Brandon finally insults Fitch, who then grandiosely challenges him to a duel. With the help of two of Brandon's friends visiting from university (a dissipated young nobleman called Viscount Cinqbars and his toady, Rev. Thomas Tufthunt) the 'duel' takes place, though the pistols in fact are not loaded.(Thackeray uses a similar plot device in The Luck of Barry Lyndon). The "duel" is interrupted anyway by the arrival of a wealthy lady previously besotted with Fitch, who impetuously carries him off with her. Brandon by this time is so intent on having Caroline that he allows the Rev. Tufthunt to marry them, and they run away together. There the story ends. In his note to the earliest edition Thackeray hints at how the plot was to have developed: "Caroline was to have been disowned and deserted by her wicked husband: that abandoned man was to marry somebody else: hence, bitter trials and grief, patience and virtue, for poor little Caroline, and a melancholy ending - as how should it have been gay?" |
Falsehood in War-Time | null | null | Falsehood in War-time identifies the role propaganda plays in World War I, in general and specific terms. Ponsonby states that the book was not written to blame nor expose any individual or authority over another; it was written to inform and disillusion the masses. General ideas of propaganda that nations used were: *Depicting the enemy in a negative light *Provoking patriotism *Exaggerating victories, concealment or minimization of defeats, and the continuous exposure of enemy atrocities in order keep up morale *Asserting that they (the nation) did not want war *Having the information come from “intellectuals and literary notables” Ponsonby lists over 20 different falsehoods that “pretty well cover the ground.” He doesn’t condemn lying during war-time, saying without lying there would be “no reason and no will for war,” and shows how it must (is) be used through his examples and explanations. |
A Mind at Peace | Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar | 1,949 | The novel is orchestrated into four parts named after the four main characters: “İhsan,” “Nuran,” “Suad,” and “Mümtaz”. At a young age, after his parents die during the Allied occupations of Ottoman territories after WWI, Mümtaz, goes to live with his much older cousin İhsan, an intellectual and history teacher at Galatasaray, the famous French lyceum in Istanbul. Their relationship is one of mentor and student. İhsan is a role model who has now fallen seriously ill, upsetting the spirit of the entire family. Parallel to the relationship between Mümtaz and İhsan is the love affair between Mümtaz and Nuran, the women who has recently left him. Mümtaz is devastated by İhsan’s sickness, by the fact that Nuran has recently made up with her ex-husband, and by the impending second world war. The fourth major character, and the darkest of them, is Suad, an admirer of Nuran who ultimately commits suicide in Mümtaz’s apartment, destroying Mümtaz’s relationship with Nuran. Psychologically, socially, nationally, and internationally, the developments in the novel are always pregnant with permanent change and uncertainty. Both the vital importance and the fragility of these relationships are highlighted through lyrical passages of modernist and symbolist prose. The influence of writers such as James Joyce, Marcel Proust, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky can be felt in the prose. Part I (“İhsan”) and Part IV (“Mümtaz”) frame the novel and represent a tense and melancholy twenty-four hour period culminating in the announcement that World War II has begun in Europe. Part II (“Nuran”) and Part III (“Suad”) narrate the events of the preceding year. Part II delves into the halcyon relationship between Mümtaz and his beloved Nuran through the intertwining of aspects of Ottoman Turkish classical music, folk songs, theater, and the natural beauty of the Bosphorus – a body of water separating Europe and Asia. Part III is brooding in tone as it relates the dampening and growing sorrow surrounding this idyllic romance, through the complications presented by Suad. Part IV takes up the themes of the East/West “problematic” and problems of identity, focusing on the realization by those in Mümtaz’s circle that he is on the verge of mental and emotional collapse. A Mind at Peace is a novel about its opposite, tension and anxiety, and the challenges posed by war and self-destruction to relationships and aesthetics; all the while, Tanpınar contemplates the mystery, irony, and persistence of the observing eye and hybrid consciousness. Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar is an author of modernist transfigurations. Revelations of the Turkish soul on the threshold of political and cultural change inflect his prose, and mark his language and aesthetics. A Mind at Peace, among other things, is the Turkish national anti-epic. It is a bildungsroman that doesn’t lead to maturity and the wisdom of experience, but to a spectrum of vulnerabilities from psychic instability to sacrifices of identity and history. Tanpınar represents the modernism of countries like Turkey that have experienced concentrated periods of reform and revolution, or even, countries with a history of colonization. His narrative point-of-view moves between a more traditional narrator and the poetic voice of an aesthete. His prose, in style and structure, is thereby a faithful narrative representation of the fraught cultural transition from the Ottoman Empire to the mid-century Turkish Republic. In A Mind at Peace, Tanpınar writes through a number of themes and tropes including the divided self, the melodic makam, the Ottoman legacy, the Sufi theme, material culture (objects and memory), and the unrequited mystic romance (of lover and beloved). Entering a vast symbolist world (of light and illumination, season and clime, lover and beloved, alchemy and transfiguration, Istanbul and the Bosphorus, etc.), the reader is never made to forget that he is accessing a world through the perspective of a voyeur, a flâneur, an ironist, a tourist of one’s native city, an aesthete, and one who has learned to see life from the outside through a self-Orientalizing gaze. Tanpınar treats language as an object around which memory coalesces. For lest it be forgotten, Tanpınar’s Turkish audience alone represents a readership estranged from its own immediate cultural heritage and history. |
I Will Survive | null | 2,009 | As the eldest son from a lower middle class household, Sunil Robert began his life in Hyderabad spending his childhood without any worries. His family, though poor, was well respected in the community. Robert was popular among his friends. Life came to a rapid halt after his father lost his job and could not find another one. Robert, still very young, was forced to change with circumstances, coming to terms with his new responsibilities and learning to live with the stigma of a life on borrowed money, food, clothes and books. As he struggled through his school and college days, he grew bitter and resentful towards his father, his extended family and the community which he lived in. Robert found himself getting involved with the local mob. However, before things got worse, Robert decided to take control of his life. With the help and support of his family and the local community, he got his life back on track. He got a job and decided never to venture back to those dark days again. Through the rest of the memoir, Robert summarises his rise as a corporate communicator at the technology giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and how he eventually dealt with his harsh feelings. He learned to forgive, raised his family responsibly and finally achieved what he has made of himself today. |
A Web of Air | Philip Reeve | null | The clever young engineer, Fever Crumb, is swept up in a race to build a flying machine. Her mysterious companion is a boy who talks to Angels. Powerful enemies will kill to possess their new technology-or to destroy it. A Web of Air is the sequel to Fever Crumb, the story set centuries before Mortal Engines that tells how great cities begin to build giant engines to make their first predatory journeys across the wastelands. It is set in Mayda, a city established in an atomic bomb crater off of mainland Portugal. |
Celandine | null | 2,006 | The book starts out with Celandine running away from the boarding school she was sent to by her parents to ‘pound all of the nonsense out of her’. It is her third escape attempt, after being sent back twice by her parents. She boards a train and meets a crippled soldier who appears to be no older than her brother Freddy, who died as a volunteer soldier. She aids him in lighting his cigarette. She also meets a nurse who upon Celandine's departure from their company exclaims “Do you know that extraordinary looking girl?” She returns to her home farm but does not enter not wishing for an angry confrontation with her father. She climbs the hill and hoots; a signal apparently. A small child Celandine calls Fin appears out of nowhere and jumps her; smothering her with love and affection, begging for cake. This is where the back-story begins. Celandine was 10 when she first saw the “little people”. She was resting under a tree where Fin finds her, soon followed by his Father/Guardian. Upon her return to her normal surroundings no one except Freddy believes her when she tells them what she saw. [The above comprises the first 1½ chapters.] |
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures | Malcolm Gladwell | 2,009 | What the Dog Saw is a compilation of 19 articles by Malcolm Gladwell that were originally published in The New Yorker which are categorized into three parts. The first part, Obsessives, Pioneers, and other varieties of Minor Genius, describes people who are very good at what they do, but are not necessarily well-known. Part two, Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses, describes the problems of prediction. This section covers problems such as intelligence failure, and the fall of Enron. The third section, Personality, Character, and Intelligence, discusses a wide variety of psychological and sociological topics ranging from the difference between early and late bloomers and criminal profiling. |
A Fine and Private Place | Peter S. Beagle | null | The book takes its title from a verse from Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress": "The grave's a fine and private place, / But none, I think, do there embrace." The setting, accordingly, is the fictional Yorkchester Cemetery, where one Jonathan Rebeck, a homeless and bankrupt pharmacist who has dropped out of society, has been living, illegally and unobtrusively, for nearly two decades. He is maintained by a raven who, like the legendary ravens who fed Elijah in the wilderness, supplies him with food in the form of sandwiches thieved from nearby businesses. The protagonist exhibits the peculiar ability to converse with both the raven and the shades of the dead who haunt the cemetery. Beagle portrays ghosts as being bound to the vicinity of their burial, with their minds and memories slowly fading away as their mortal forms return to the dust. As the plot proceeds, Rebeck befriends two recently arrived spirits, those of teacher Michael Morgan, who died either from poisoning by his wife or suicide (he can't remember which), and of bookshop clerk Laura Durand, who was killed by a truck. The two ghosts fall in love, and each pledge themselves to each other "for as long as I can remember love." Rebeck soon finds himself subject to another's attentions as well, in the form of a widow, Mrs. Klapper, who discovers him while visiting her husband's mausoleum. The quiet existence of this unlikely quintet is diverted by philosophical conversation and the poisoning trial of Morgan's wife, word of which is regularly provided by the raven from the local newspapers. After she is ultimately found innocent and her husband's death ruled suicide, Morgan faces separation from Laura when his body is removed to unhallowed ground. Rebeck, under the encouragement of Mrs. Klapper, is driven to find a way to reunite them, and finally takes leave of his unusual abode. |
The Traitor | null | null | The story opens in 1986 when Amy Lockhart opens a letter from the British government about her father. Then there is a flashback to 1936 to the life a member of the British Union of Fascists, an organization of British men following Sir Oswald Mosley inciting a pogrom in a Jewish Ghetto in London. There are many other flashbacks about this person leaving the reader to guess whether it is really John Lockhart or someone else in the SS. The story of John Lockhart then opens in late 1943 off the coast of Crete. John Lockhart, an MI6 agent is about to infiltrate the island to join up with the Greek Resistance and one of its leaders Manoli Petaris. His mission is to help them create havoc for the Nazi occupation in Crete After reaching their hiding place, they plan an attack on an ammunition dump. The attack fails however and Lockhart and several other Andartes are captured and taken to a prison. There, the commandant of the prison Lockhart is held, an oberst named Dietrich interrogates him. Lockhart pretends to be a Greek and resists interrogation but fails and is discovered to be a spy. He later agrees to help the Nazis in exchange for news of his wife Anna who had been captured during the invasion of Holland. Later it is discovered that Anna is alive in another concentration camp. Dietrich offers his life and the life of his wife in exchange for helping the Nazis infiltrate the Greek resistance. He reluctantly agrees and is dropped off somewhere near the original hiding place. During this time there are flash backs to When Lockhart was an Oxford student working as an archaeologist in Crete. It is here that he meets Anna and it goes about to tell of their courtship and his friendship with Manoli and some of his classmates there. Unfortunately Lockhart discovers much of Crete has changed from the war. He comes across a village he remembered staying at in ruins, destroyed as retribution for killing an SS officer early on in the story. Lockhart Returns to the Andartes hiding place where he explains to Manoli how he plans to allow suspected collaborators to be captured in exchange for keeping himself and his wife alive while satisfying Dietrich. Unfortunately the camp is raided by Nazis and everyone except Lockhart is killed. Manoli chastises Lockhart as a traitor before dying. The book then goes to Berlin and follows the life of An SS Hauptsturmführer named Carl Strasser, a veteran of the Russian Front who now holds a desk job and is given orders to form an SS brigade made up of British Soldiers called the British Free Corps (BFC) to fight the Russians in the east. Strasser also is involved with a prostitute who is working undercover as an SD agent named Leni Steiner. We later learn that Leni is the daughter of a German woman and a Jewish Father who must work undercover for the SD in order to protect her family. Strasser reviews the soldiers that already joined The BFC, some of whom did so to escape punishment others because they were sympathetic to the Nazi cause, many of whom were BUF members before the war. One of them is Pugh, a BUF spokesmen with a port wine stain on his face who we soon learn is the character in the flashbacks from the BUF. Lockhart is to be the leader of this brigade. Lockhart initially refuses to join but while imprisoned in Berlin, he meets a Russian spy who was captured who learned about a plan by the Nazis to use sarin nerve gas to win the war. He tries to give the name of its location but is taken away to be executed. All Lockhart knows is that the name starts with MITT. Fearing that the Nazis could deploy the gas and fearing for the life of his wife he agrees to join. He later finds out that Andrew Worstead, a former classmate of his From Oxford and the Crete digs is one of the members of the BFC. He claims that he was an officer who was demoted to private for impregnating his CO's daughter and was captured at Dunkirk. Lockhart has orders to recruit POWs to join the BFC. Lockhart uses this opportunity to send a secret message to MI6 disguised as a POW letter to family members to warn the Allies of sarin and the BFC. He does this with the help of corporal Strafford who is forced to join as punishment for attacking Lockhart. The recruitment drive comes to a halt after he is stabbed by a prisoner in another camp, but because of his recruiting he is discovered and is denounced as a traitor. Because of this and unknown to everyone in the unit, his letter is ignored back home and sarin disregarded as a false rumour. Under Strasser and Lockhart BFC is slowly taking shape. Lockhart sees letters from his wife that are typed but does not believe they are real. He tries to make a deal with Strasser to see his wife but agrees only if the BFC meets training requirements for the Russian front. A deal he says he can break or change at any time. Meanwhile Lockhart presses Andrew Worstead about his joining the BFC and about whether or not Anna's letters are real or if she is dead or alive. Worstead claims that he joined the BFC to infiltrate and destroy the unit in order to become a hero back home. He also says that he suspects Pugh is collaborating with Strasser to forge the letters from Anna and keep an eye on the unit. Lockhart meets up with members of the SS and other Nazi party officials to try and learn the truth about sarin. He learns that the gas might be a project in the Ahnenerbe a German think tank that deals with race theory. With the help of Strafford (who had been a burglar before the war) Lockhart infiltrates an office in the Ahnenerbe and discovers a file of the A4 project. Later at a bar in Berlin he meets Pugh with Leni Steiner. Pugh reveals that he is no longer a fascist but is a Russian spy with Leni. He tells him that the story of Worstead being demoted and voluntarily joining is not true. In reality Worstead was a homosexual who's orientation was discovered in POW camp. He was shunned and later forced to join the BFC or be sent to a concentration camp. Worstead's orientation was later discovered by Pugh who blackmailed him. Worstead it turns out is the real spy for Strasser and that he was the one writing the letters from Anna. Lockhart confronts him and Worstead confirms most what Pugh had said but claims the letters were written by a British Nazi who is the son of the organist at John and Anna's wedding and that Anna was dead. He later kills himself. Lockhart is accused of murdering him and is arrested. Strasser initially refuses to release Lockhart saying that it was nearly impossible. But When dating Leni at a hotel, he is forced at gunpoint to release Lockhart. Leni reveals herself as a spy for the SD and tells him he must obey Lockhart and give him what he wants or she will inform the SD that Strasser is a traitor and have him beheaded. To make things worse, Lockhart claims that he knows that Anna is dead (which is not really true) which means Strasser has no way of blackmailing him. Meanwhile, The Allied Forces have invaded Europe in the D-Day operation and Lockhart fears that Germany will be desperate to use the nerve gas. The BFC is also demoralised by Germany's losses. Leni and Pugh grudgingly agree to help Lockhart destroy the factory where the gas is kept but they have doubts it can be done. Leni takes part by luring one of the Ahnenerbe's officials into her apartment to interrogate him. Lockhart forces him to reveal information about A4 which is in fact a rocket program. Gas was to be loaded on the V-2 rockets and launched at London in order to force the Allies to surrender. Before the location is given out however he dies of a heart-attack. To make things worse, the SD has been following him and bursts into the apartment to arrest Lockhart and Leni. Lockhart however manages to disarm and kill them. An air raid follows destroying the apartment and evidence of Leni's involvement. This gives them time to plan the attack on the factory. With the help of Russian Intelligence (GRU), Leni changes her identity and the two hide out in another apartment. There they are contacted by the Russians with information on the factory's location which is in Mittelbau and ordered to destroy it. The plans are held by another agent. Lockhart learns more about the location of Mittelbau and is shocked to learn that the adjoining camp used for slave labour in building the rockets is the same camp that his wife Anna is held in and that she is still alive. They collect the plans and then Lockhart forces Strasser to provide weaponry for the mission. By this time The BFC is completely demoralised and according to Pugh many want to return to POW camp. Lockhart uses this opportunity to convince them to join him in his mission which they all agree. Even Strasser who fears losing the war agrees to join. Lockhart goes to a POW camp to meet a former classmate about getting information about how to destroy the gas. He informs them to use a small drum or still to do so. The BFC with Strasser and Leni then go to Mittelbau underground factory to destroy the gas. With the help of Strasser they manage to get weapons, equipment and forged documents and get as far as the gate where they run into trouble. After the gate opens for a passing truck, they decide to Attack the guards and manage to drive into the factory where the gas is kept. They barely manage to seal the gas inside the still and blow it up with dynamite but not without taking heavy loses. John Lockhart and Leni try to make their escape when John sees Anna in the compound. He runs to her but is killed. Leni is the only one who escapes. Back in 1986, Amy is showing her mother the letter. Thanks to new openness in the USSR from perestroika, new information including Leni's testimony is released from the Russians. Captain John Lockhart's name is cleared and he is awarded a medal along with the other members of the BFC. Leni unfortunately was betrayed and taken to a concentration camp where she was executed. Anna then shows Amy the pine-cones John gave her before being shot in Mittelbau. |
A World to Win | null | null | Part One: Green Valley In the beginning of the story, we are introduced to Martha Darrell of Green Valley, who is a single woman who is “past her prime” for dating. She is awoken one night by her doorbell and finds Terry Hurley and his sick child Leo. Martha lets the two stay until the child is better but the relationship blossoms and soon Robert is born. Later in his childhood, Martha starts to become more religious as her and Terry grow apart. Leo starts seeing a girl named Anna and Robert accidentally spills the details to a bully named Dogface. Dogface tells his father, Preacher Epperson, who gets Martha involved, and she comes down on Leo pretty hard. He leaves and Anna shortly follows. Part Two: The Green Dragon In anticipation of college Robert goes to visit Boone University that his grandfather was a professor at and his mother was a student. On a train to campus, he meets Alan Vass and Sol Abraham, two returning college students. When Robert goes to the University himself, he adopts many of the same attitudes Alan does. While at school, Robert meets Nell, his first and only love who is also a writer. She follows him after he leaves school and they start living together, he working on his novel and she encouraging him and working at an office responsible for busting up protests. It is at this point that Robert is called back to Green Valley because his mother is ill. After her death, Terry opens up to Robert more and asks that they stay in better touch. Leo comes back into Robert's life and Leo gets Robert a job at his mill. Robert really does not like the work but he struggles through. Later, the workers of that mill go on strike and come after Leo because they know he is the one that told management about their union plans. After not being pummeled like expected, Leo promises not to go into the mill again. Part Three: Nothing to Lose Now out of a job, Leo finds out Anna is pregnant. They decide to go back to Green Valley where they are sure things will be better. Meanwhile, Robert's manuscript is turned down and he leaves Nell because he is tired of living off her. Anna and the baby are killed in a car accident at which time Leo decides to make the world feel sorry for what they have been through. Instead, he becomes a wanted man and Robert comes to his rescue, freeing him from the law and renewing their relationship. |
Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days | Derek Landy | 2,010 | Valkyrie, Tanith, Fletcher and Ghastly are hunting down Skulduggery's original skull in order to rescue him from the Faceless Ones. They discover the skull was retrieved by Detective Marr, Skulduggery's replacement, and is in the Sanctuary. They break in to retrieve it, getting Ghastly and Tanith captured. After an unexpected kiss from Fletcher, Valkyrie goes through the portal alone, retrieves Skulduggery, who is initially convinced that he is hallucinating and flees back through the portal outrunning several Faceless Ones. While Valkyrie is in the alternate dimension, a Sanctuary agent attacks China and Fletcher, badly wounding China. Valkyrie has been learning necromancy from Solomon Wreath, which Skulduggery disapproves of. He forces Wreath to tell her about the necromancer's prediction that soon, a Death Bringer will be powerful to break down the walls between life and death forever. The last person they believed to be the Death Bringer was Lord Vile. Wreath strongly believes Valkyrie to be the Death Bringer, but the other necromancers do not agree and want proof. Skulduggery and Valkyrie also learn about a vision shared by many Sensitives, in which Skulduggery, Valkyrie and Valkyrie's parents are killed by an evil sorceress called Darquesse, apparently in only a few years time. Valkyrie is even more horrified at this when she learns her mother is pregnant. Vaurien Scapegrace, Dusk, Springheeled Jack, Remus Crux, Billy-Ray Sanguine and his father, Dreylan Scarab have formed a "Revenger's Club" which plans to destroy the Sanctuary and attack the characters who have wronged them in the past. They begin by attacking the Sanctuary with vampires, so that Scarab can get revenge on Thurid Guild for framing him and sending him to prison for 200 years. The attack allows Valkyrie, Skulduggery and Fletcher to rescue Tanith and Ghastly from prison. The Revenger's Club steal a bomb called the Desolation Engine, kidnap Kenspeckle Grouse and Tanith, and then use a horde of zombies - headed by Vaurien Scapegrace, who they murdered for lying to them – to break into the Midnight Hotel and free a remnant. They use the remnant to control Kenspeckle, forcing him to repair the Desolation Engine, and then allow the remnant in his body to torture Tanith by nailing her to a chair. Valkyrie and Skulduggery rescue Tanith, free Kenspeckle and recapture the Desolation Engine, but Tanith is left severely injured and afraid of Kenspeckle. Kenspeckle then deduces the Revenger's Club made him build a second Desolation Engine. The team track Scarab and the others to Croke Park stadium, and fight for the Desolation Engine. In the fight, Valkyrie is bitten by Dusk, but he reacts strangely to her blood and does not kill her. Scarab informs Thurid that his family will be killed unless he activates the Desolation Engine, and Thurid agrees to do so, but Fletcher teleports him away just before he is able to. Valkyrie goes after Billy-Ray and Thurid's house, but he refuses to attack her, saying that Dusk has decided that leaving her alive will be more chaotic and entertaining. Fletcher safely returns with Thurid, who the bomb was designed to spare, having left him in an isolated area to detonate the bomb safely. Realising she was horrified by the thought of Fletcher's death, Valkyrie kissed him before getting her bite treated, preventing her from becoming a vampire. After she has recovered, Valkyrie and Skulduggery go to transport Thurid to jail, as he has confessed to the crime he framed Scarab for. However, as they are leaving, Myron Stray detonates the Desolation Engine on Detective Marr's orders, destroying the Sanctuary and narrowly missing Thurid, Valkyrie and Skulduggery, burning the bottom of Thurid's legs off in the process. Valkyrie returns home, only to remember with horror the moment in the first book where she glimpsed her true name in the Book of Names, discovering that she is the evil sorceress that destroys the world. She is Darquesse. |
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You | Peter Cameron | 2,007 | James Sveck is an isolated young adult caught in the summer before he is to begin college at Brown University. The only person in his life with whom he is able to successfully relate is his grandmother; otherwise, James prefers solitude. Cameron’s use of first person narration allows for the reader to create an intimate relationship with James as he works through his life and through the therapy sessions to which his parents have made him go. The reader learns about James’s present as he tells the events of his days, but the reader learns about his past when James’s reflects on his therapy sessions. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 play a key role in James' outlook and emotional state. |
The Well of the Unicorn | Fletcher Pratt | 1,948 | The land of Dalarna is under the heel of the Vulkings, whose heavy taxation is forcing the Dalecarl yeomen out of their holdings. The protagonist Airar Alvarson is one of the dispossessed. On the advice of his mentor, the magician Meliboë, he joins the underground Iron Ring resistance, only to face defeat and failure. Captured and enslaved by the free fishers on the Gentebbi Islands, he goes through a series of adventures in which he gradually rises from a homeless fugitive to a great war leader. During his quest Alvarson gives much thought to the issues of honor, war, justice and government. He finds admirable qualities even in his enemies, and problematic ones in some of his allies. Always questioning where the right lies and what principles should guide his course, he feels his way to his goals as best he can. He finds magic a poor tool for defeating enemies or winning battles, as the small enchantments of which he is capable make him ill and gain him little. The great Empire across the sea, to which all parties pay at least a nominally fealty, seems to offer at least a symbolic solution; it guards the legendary Well of the Unicorn, which brings peace to those who drink from it. But its panacea is a deceptive one; those who do drink tend to find the peace so gained offset by new difficulties. The long, hard road of forging armies, building alliances, and waging war, without any mystical short cuts, proves the only effectual path. At the end of the novel, with the assistance of the Star-Captains of Carrhoene, Alvarson has succeeded in overthrowing the Vulkings and freeing Dalarna, and won the emperor's daughter as his bride to boot. But it seems he will have no rest, as word comes that the heathens of Djik have invaded the isles of his allies, the free fishers. When his wife urges him to drink of the Well with the invaders, he declines such facile solutions, countering that "There is no peace but that interior to us." |
Love, Lies and Lizzie | null | 2,009 | The plot of book is based on Jane Austen's book Pride and Prejudice. The protagonist is Lizzie Bennet, who has just dumped her boyfriend Toby. Lizzie's sister, Jane is surprised by it, because Toby is crazy about Lizzie. After that, Mrs Bennet tells her daughters that the family is moving to the new house at Priory Park. The five sisters do not feel good there at first, but soon they get involved in parties and James Darcy's life. |
Star Wars: Crosscurrent | Paul S. Kemp | null | In 5000 BBY, the Sith Lord Saes Rrogan gathers up a Force-enhancing mineral from a world that his Sith fleet destroyed. On his heels are Jedi Master Relin Druur and his Padawan Drev Hassin. When they attempt to board Rrogan's ship, the Harbinger, Drev is killed, but Relin makes it aboard, killing and wounding several of Rrogan's subordinates before confronting the Sith himself. They have a brief duel which both escape severely wounded, and Relin manages to sabotage the hyperdrive core of the Harbinger in order to mess up its trajectory in returning with the rest of the Sith. This throws off the trajectory of the Harbingers sister ship, the Omen, which would have it crash land irreparably on the out-of-place world of Kesh. As for the Harbinger itself, its hyperdrive sabotage drives it more than 5000 years into the future, specifically in 41 ABY. In that time period, Jedi Knight Jaden Korr senses a disturbance in the Force emanating from the Unknown Regions. He travels there and lands on the world of Fhost, where he seeks the help of junk dealers Khedryn Faal and Marr Idi-Shael. They take him to a nameless moon where Jaden had felt the disturbance in the Force. They soon run into the Harbinger that had finally come out of hyperspace after more than 5000 years. They ally with Relin Druur to combat Saes Rrogan's forces even as those from the past realize in what time they're now in. Eventually, as Relin gathers the help of Marr to destroy the Harbinger, Jaden teams up with Khedryn to explore the mysterious moon. While all this happens, Jaden is being stalked by Kell Douro, an Anzati who drains people's lives away, and finds Jaden to be a delicious meal. On the moon, Jaden and Khedryn find a dead and deserted base. The two of them get separated, and Khedryn is nearly killed by Douro. But Douro decides not to quench his appetite with Khedryn, and remains ever-vigilant to consume Jaden's life. Jaden, meanwhile, finds the source of the dark side in the form of a deranged clone of Jedi Master Kam Solusar. Though Jaden loses most of his fingers in one hand, he kills the clone in combat, but is nearly killed by Douro. Douro, however, is killed himself when Khedryn shoots his brains out at point-blank range with his blaster. Despite the victory against the clone and Douro, Jaden senses through the Force that other deranged clones of other Force-users in the base have managed to escape. This is confirmed when Jaden and Khedryn see a ship fly away from the outside of the base. Aboard the Harbinger, Marr helps Relin with his mission as best he can, then escapes while Relin confronts Saes Rrogan in one final battle. Relin kills Rrogan, and then uses the Force-enhancing minerals around him to completely destroy the Harbinger. With that, Jaden, Khedryn, and Marr all decide to go home. |
Attica | Garry Kilworth | 2,006 | 12-year-old Chloe and her brothers: Jordy, 12, and Alex, 10, have the adventure of a lifetime. Chloe and Alex's father died of a heart attack when they were just 8 and respectively, 6. Their mother, Dipa has been trying to find a new husband since her children's father died. When she does, the kids have a surprise: they are gonna have a new brother. Jordy, three months older than Chloe, is the exact opposite of Chloe and Alex, so they are not so happy when they find out their family enlarges to five members. Ben, Jordy's father and Chloe and Alex's stepfather is a paramedic and Dipa, a doctor, so the kids are used not having their parents at home. But when they move to Winchester to a rented apartment everything is going to change. Mr. John Grantham, the old man that rented them half of the house he lives in, tells Chloe about the girl he loved in the 1930s and 1940s. Susan married a much richer and older man. Though, Susan gave him a clock that sings Frère Jacques, a clock that he cannot find. Chloe offers to take her brothers and go in the attic and so the adventure begins. On their way, Chloe, Jordy and Alex discover all sorts of dark secrets of the attic, that they named "Attica", and all sorts of weird characters, such as Atticans, a weird race of creatures with bumps on their heads that think that all humans are ghosts and monsters of the Attic. |
The Indian Clerk | David Leavitt | 2,007 | The novel is inspired by the career of the self-taught mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, as seen mainly through the eyes of his mentor and collaborator G.H. Hardy, a British mathematics professor at Cambridge University. The narrative begins in January 1913, in Cambridge, England, where Hardy receives a letter filled with unorthodox but imaginative mathematics and asking for support and guidance. |
The Cat Who Went Bananas | Lilian Jackson Braun | 2,005 | Jim Qwilleran reviews the local play for the Moose County Something. Polly is busy with the grand opening of The Pirates Chest, a local bookstore funded by the K Fund. While going about with his daily life one of the cast members of The Importance of Being Ernest is killed during a car accident. Rumors circulate after it is discovered Ronnie Dickson had a large amount of alcohol in his system. Jim has a sneaky suspicion over newcomer Alden Wade, a notorious ladies man. In order to get closer to Alden, Qwill writes a book about the Hibbard House, run by an eccentric Violet Hibbard. It's up to Quill, Koko and Yum-Yum to solve the mystery. |
Kraken | China Miéville | 2,010 | An inexplicable event has occurred at the British Museum of Natural History — a forty foot specimen of giant squid in formalin has disappeared overnight. Additionally, a murder victim is found folded into a glass bottle. Various groups are interested in getting the squid back, including a naive staff member, a secret squad of London police, assorted religious cults, and various supernatural and mostly dead criminal elements. The wondrous squid represents deity to the Church of Kraken Almighty. Did they liberate their god, or could it have been stolen by a rival cult? |
Mohana Silai | null | null | The story begins with Idhayakumaran entering the city of Vanchi, the second capital of Cheras. He is stopped at the entrance by the guards who does not allow him to enter after knowing that he is from Chola country. But Idhayakumaran gallops in his horse into the city. He finds a beautiful ivory statue of a dancing female in the woods within the city. Just as he took the statue in his hand he hears the Chera princess Ranjani ordering her guards to arrest him for steeling the statue. Idhayakumaran escapes from the situation by taking the princess as his hostage. He later releases her and informs her that the secret of her birth will be revealed today in the place of the royal jeweler. The princess meets a stranger along with Achuthaperaiyar, the royal jeweler. Idhayakumaran meets them there along with the statue. Achuthaperaiyar introduces the stranger as Vijayalayan and he is her father. Vijayalayan calls her Kannazhagi. Vijayalayan also mentions that he has just captured Vanchi. He explains that the statue was made by Ilamcetcenni, the legendary Chola king. He also reveals that Achuthaperaiyar as his Chief Minister, and explains that her mother's name is Bhoodevi and he had married her when he was the king of the then tiny Chola country ruling the region around Uraiyur. Once when Vijayalayan was in Pandyan country with Achuthaperaiyar for a week, the Mutharayars of Kalabhras clan raided Uraiyur and tried to abduct Bhoodevi. But she stabbed and killed herself with a dagger. The raiders took with them the three year old Kannazhagi. When Vijayalaya Chola returned he vowed to destroy the clan of the raiders. A week later the Chola king went to Kanchi and met the Pallava king and made Cholas a feudal kingdom of the Pallavas. The Pallava king made him the Commander of Pallava army. Vijayalaya led many successful invasion into the Kalabhras country and started to look for you. When she was found (after fifteen years) in Vanchi, Vijayalayan sent Achuthaperaiyar there - which resulted in Vanchi being captured by the Cholas. Later Aditya and Idhakumaran infiltrates the Mutharayar strong hold Chandraleka (Senthalai), where they meet the king Perumpidugu Mutharayar, his son Maran Parameshwaran Mutharayar and daughter Devi (with whom Aditya falls in love). They then devise the plan for Chola invasion of Tanjore and Senthalai. The story ends with Cholas under Vijayala capturing Senthalai and Tanjore and Vijayalaya changing his capital from Uraiyur to Tanjore. |
To Have and To Hold | Deborah Moggach | 1,986 | Liberated Viv, happily married to Ollie, decides to bear a surrogate baby for her sterile sister Ann, but instead of artificial insemination conceives naturally with her brother-in-law Ken, who falls in love with her... |
Peter & Max: A Fables Novel | Bill Willingham | 2,009 | The novel flips between telling the history of the main characters in Hesse, their homeland, and current events in the mundane world (what the Fables call our world). Peter Piper and his brother Max are sons of traveling minstrels. Although Peter is the younger son, his father bestows on him a magical flute, a family heirloom that has ability to avert danger. When the Piper family is visiting their long-time family friends, the Peep family, the empire's army attacks. The Pipers and Peeps escape to the Dark Forest. While the are asleep, Max — jealous of Peter because he was given the flute — kills his father while they are away from camp. Max then returns to camp claiming that the empire's troops have attacked. The announcement causes the families to flee in panic. Peter, Max and Bo Peep are separated. Peter winds up in Hamelin where he becomes a member of a thief's guild. Bo Peep becomes a member of an assassin's guild. Max meets Frau Totenkinder who gives him a magical pipe of his own which he learns to use for evil purposes. He goes to Hamelin where he becomes the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Eventually Peter and Bo Peep are reunited and marry. They are heading to Sanctuary when they meet Max who is still angry over being passed over by his father. He attacks Peter and Bo Peep usmagical pipe. Peter is able to avert the danger with his flute, but inadvertently passes the danger along to Bo Peep, ruining her legs and crippling her. In present day, Peter and Bo Peep have been settled in "the Farm", when they are advised that Max has emerged in the current world. Peter leaves New York to meet his brother in Hamelin, Germany. Peter is fully aware of his brother's power and intent to kill him, but idetermined to face his fate regardless. In their confrontation Peter is all but helpless in the face of his brother's magic; all of his weapons are useless due to Max's many magical wards. Peter triumphs in their confrontation by using his magical pipe as a weapon, shoving the sharp reeds through his brother's heart. This is only possible because his brother had desired to acquire the flute. Peter then claims his brother's flute for Fabletown, resolving to use it only to undo the spell that crippled his wife centuries before. This is partially successful. There is a brief epilogue, in which Beast, of Beauty and the Beast, tries to confiscate "Fire", the red flute of max's. but Peter refuses because the spell has only begun to be reversed. He promises to turn fire over when Bo's legs are restored. |
Freddy the Politician | Walter R. Brooks | null | To encourage farmer Bean to go on his vacation, the animals decide to elect a president who can manage the farm while he is gone, and to start a bank to manage the farm money. :"'Yes, but how do you start a bank?' asked Eeny. :'Pooh! Nothing to it!' said the cat. 'You just—well, you just open it. Big sign over the door—"BANK." That’s all.' :'Oh,' said Eeny. 'So you call it a bank and then it’s a bank, hey?' :'Sure.' :'Oh,' said Eeny again. 'So then if I call you a big blowhard, what does that make you?'" (pp. 10-11) During a fierce storm, a lost and exhausted woodpecker finds shelter in the farmhouse. The animals realize that the name John Quincy would be impressive for a bank manager and offer him the job. Freddy gets the job of secretary. Vaults are dug under a shed. The bank is a success, and within a few days the vaults are full. Mr. Bean approves, but when he tells Mr. Weezer, the banker in Centerboro, they have an argument causing Mr. Bean to withdraw all his money and place it in the animal bank. When Jinx the cat proves uninterested in being a bank officer, John Quincy suggests bringing his father, Grover, from Washington. The woodpeckers proceed to hold a bank board meeting down a tunnel that is too small for Freddy. Since he cannot attend the meetings, control of the bank is taken from the Bean animals. The woodpeckers also have a plan for winning the election. Since all animals on the farm can vote, the woodpeckers visit the local birds to get their support. Then Simon the rat and his family — old enemies of the Bean animals — show up. The Bean animals realize they must select a popular candidate carefully to avoid the woodpeckers or Simon taking control of the farm. Mrs. Wiggins the cow is chosen for her common sense and public speaking experience. Mrs. Wiggins laughes during the campaigning: the opposition says laughter is out of place in government. Old Whibley the owl calls this balderdash. The woodpeckers challenge Whibley to a duel, but he apologizes. :"'You apologize?' said Grover. :'Certainly. You are a stuffed shirt, and you do talk balderdash, but I apologize for saying so.' :'But that’s no apology,' said John Quincy. :'What do you mean, it’s no apology?' said the owl. 'Either I apologize or I don’t apologize. If I do, it’s an apology, isn’t it?'" (p. 123) When Freddy comes for advice later about how to handle the woodpeckers, Whibley comments, "'He couldn’t do a ridiculous thing to save his life. That’s why he’s ridiculous all the time.'" (p. 136) Whibley has the practical suggestion for Freddy to dig a hole into the boardroom large enough for him. This done, Freddy blocks the other entrances, and calls a board meeting. The woodpeckers cannot get in, and Freddy votes himself bank president. When the animals find out that Freddy tricked the woodpeckers using the same trick that had been used against him, votes start to shift from the woodpecker party. The animals are “on the whole a good-natured crowd" on election day, but the woodpeckers have schemed to have the votes for Mrs. Wiggins ("W") counted for a party they support "Marcus" ("M", an upsidedown "W"). Freddy retorts that their ballots were probably intended to be for one of other the farm animals with the same initial, too. Thwarted, Grover takes control of the powerful mechanical man (invented in an earlier book). The woodpeckers overthrow the animal government by force, taking Freddy prisoner. The woodpeckers launch a military campaign to expand their government to nearby farms and eventually the whole state. After they leave, Freddy escapes in disguise as an Irish woman, visiting the Centerboro bank manager to convince him the animal bank is no threat. Once he is on Freddy’s side, they snare Grover with a meeting in town. Grover is trapped in the mechanical man, removed, and replaced. Returning to the farm, the mechanical man instructs the woodpecker’s army to disperse. John Quincy and Grover, beaten on every front, leave the Bean farm peacefully. |
One in Three Hundred | J. T. McIntosh | 1,953 | Set in the near future when a scientific principle has been discovered allowing exceptionally accurate predictions of solar flares and the occurrence of the Sun increasing its solar output. Applying this principle, worldwide consensus has determined which day, hour, and minute the Sun will brighten so much as to boil away the Earth's seas. Realizing that the heightened albedo will destroy life as we know it, the world's nations debate what to do when the Sun "goes off." Since the Earth's rotation continues at 360 degrees in 24 hours, it will take only one day to cause all of the Earth's oceans to boil away. Terrific hurricanes and tidal waves will also occur, causing all buildings to be destroyed. If there are any survivors, they will be in hardened bunkers deep underground, and they will only be able to last as long as their food lasts. The unavoidability of the impending doom has caused some technologically advanced countries to look for sanctuary on another planet, such as Mars. This is all scheduled to happen in a few years, and the exact minute and hour of the Sun's increase in radiance does not give the human race much time to devise a way of navigating space to an orbit as far away as Mars. Nevertheless, massive building programs are initiated, and hundreds of spaceships are raised, many of them unfit for flight. A series of national lotteries are established with grand prize being a ticket to ride a spaceship off the Earth, and possibly make it as far as Mars. Many spaceships, however, were built without landing gear. Although many ships were supposed to have shortwave radios to communicate with each other, many of the shortwave radios were simply empty cases as the tubes and wires had been left out. The protagonist of the story has been elected into a position of authority, and must choose which people to take with him to Mars. He has only a limited number of tickets, and knows there will come a time when people with guns will storm their way on board, rather than stand in line until the tickets are depleted. The book is titled "One in Three Hundred" because only one in three hundred people in the United States will get a ticket to leave the Earth, and there is still a question whether the spaceships will have enough air, or even be able to travel to Mars in time, and nobody is certain whether the atmosphere of Mars is breathable, or whether Mars will even be habitable when they get there. |
How to Build a Robot Army | Daniel H. Wilson | 2,007 | Daniel H. Wilson’s third book is obviously fiction, but contains a lot of useful information nonetheless. How to Build a Robot Army: Tips on Defending Planet Earth Against Alien Invaders, Ninjas, and Zombies not only deals with how to reprogram household robots to defend against aliens but literally every imaginable monster. From vampires to Godzilla Wilson has you covered. With section titles such as “How to Slay a Vampire Clan” and “How to Repel Godzilla” Even though there is a section in the book that deals specifically with that scenario, “How to Thwart an Alien Invasion”. Despite its apocalyptic aura the book is an easy read. The sections are all short and to the point with little to no flowery language but a lot of humor mixed in. Each section goes into describing what sort of attack you are facing and the monsters involved. Then looks at a typical personal robot that is available for reprogramming. The reprogramming goes in depth but again is easy to follow and stays on point to the hostile situation. |
Whole Earth Discipline | Stewart Brand | 2,009 | Speaking on "Rethinking Green", Brand provided a short version of his book: The book challenges traditional environmentalist thinking around four major issues: *Cities are green. *Nuclear power is green. *Genetic engineering is green. *Geoengineering is probably necessary. And he summarized the book. Urbanization, or the move to cities, requires grid electricity, which one chapter discusses, in particular nuclear power. Another two chapters explain the need for genetic engineering. A "sermon" on science and large-scale geoengineering is a fourth chapter. Fifth is a chapter on restoration of natural infrastructure and benevolent ecosystem engineering. Finally, Brand concludes with humans' obligation to "learn planet craft", to enhance life and Earth like an earthworm. |
Anima | null | null | Megan hopes to be an actress, and goes to London for auditions and tryouts. Olive, on the other hand, is not particularly photogenic, and worries about remaining single for the rest of her life; she lost her father some years ago to suicide, and as the years have gone on, she now has arthritis and a stooped or crooked back, deformed as a result of a life threatening car accident prior to puberty. Nextdoor to Olive, a man and woman have moved into the building she used to live in, back when her father was alive. There is something suspicious about the new couple because the woman looks unusually young for her age, and has possibly stopped aging. When compared against photographs from years ago, the woman remains the same, but her husband has become much older. The differences are striking. Megan believes that the man had done away with his first wife, and replaced her with a new one. Megan sets out to prove there has been a replacement of some kind, quite possibly involving murder on the one hand, and immigration fraud on the other. The wife is described as having waxen features, pale and white. But since they moved in, Olive has become quite fond of the strange couple nextdoor. Although they generally keep to themselves, they threw a party in the summer, and convened a seance in a darkened room for the purpose of reaching out to the afterworld. The curtains were drawn and the room was black. After the seance was over, everybody said that Olive had spoken with the voice of a young child, commenting to her dad about a small bird that had died. What no one knew at the party, was that Olive's nickname was Livy - the name that was called out in the middle of the seance. |
Songs My Mother Never Taught Me | Selçuk Altun | null | The novel, described by the publisher as, “a remarkable thriller that takes us through the streets of Istanbul,” tells the story the privileged young Arda, who reflects the life of his murdered father, after the death of his overbearing mother, and ‘your humble servant’ Bedirhan, who has decided to pack in his ten-year career as an assassin, as their two lives become intrinsically bound, while, Selçuk Altun, a former family friend, provides Arda with clues to track down his father's killer. |
Many and Many a Year Ago | Selçuk Altun | null | The novel tells the story of Kemal, a convalescing Turkish fighter pilot, who, after his friend mysteriously disappears, is left with a generous allowance and the use of his large house in Istanbul’s Taksim district. Kemal subsequently embarks on a mysterious mission following in the fictitious footsteps of American writer Edgar Allan Poe from Istanbul to Buenos Aires, and eventually to the Edgar Allan Poe museum in Boston where he decides to enter a writing competition with a novel called Many and Many a Year Ago. This novel is, according to the author, “a literary thriller like my other novels,” but, “can also be regarded an ‘experimental mystery’ book,” as it, “also includes eight short stories that overlap with the novel's plot,” “told with an outlook similar to that of Scheherazade, the narrator of One Thousand and One Nights.” “It is part literature and part travel book, a little bit of Paul Auster and Bruce Chatwin,” he states, “what I tried to do was imagine what the life of a post-modern, well-off Poe would have been like.” “Now, I can only wonder what Americans, should they get the chance to read it, will think of my Turkish interpretation of this American master.” |
Burned | P. C. Cast | 2,010 | Stark, Darius and Aphrodite follow the clues in Kramisha's prophetic poems and take Zoey's body to the Isle of Sgiach to find a way of getting Zoey back. They gain entrance because of Stark's being the blood relative of Seoras, the queen's Guardian(the "bridge of blood"). Together with Sgiach they decipher the rest of the poem and realize that Stark must become a Shaman to step into the Otherworld. Stark sacrifices on the altar of Seol ne Gigh and through pain he enters a trance where he kills the evil side of himself to become a Shaman. After the fight, the Black Bull leads him to the Otherworld. Zoey meets Heath in the Otherworld and refuses to be parted from him a second time. As time passes she becomes more and more erratic. Heath feels bad as he sees her fall apart, but is powerless to stop it as Zoey herself is too afraid to accept the lost parts of her soul back. When Stark arrives, he follows Aphrodite's advice and contacts Heath first, as Zoey wouldn't leave with Heath still in the Otherworld with her. Stark argues that Zoey might still accept her soul back and stay with Heath, but Neferet would win in the real world. Realizing that Stark speaks the truth and is not motivated by jealousy anymore, Heath speaks one more time with Zoey and disappears. While Zoey stays behind, crying, Stark comes and tries to get Zoey to come back, but she is too scared. To get her to act, Stark comes out of the enchanted meadow and faces Kalona in an arena. Terrified that Stark might die too, Zoey finally calls back the fragments of her soul. Stark is temporarily distracted, and Kalona kills him. Zoey calls air and fixes him on the wall of the arena. She calls in the debt he owns her for Heath's death to save Stark, and Nyx materializes and forces Kalona to share some of his immortality with Stark before banishing him from her realm. Zoey wakes Stark and gives him her blood to heal him and her tattoos return. She gets up, follows Spirit and jumps into the darkness along with Stark. After having nearly burned down on a roof, Stevie Rae recovers quickly due to Rephaim's Immortal blood and their Imprint. She learns of Zoey's soul shattering and has to balance the expectations of those who would expect her to step in Zoey's shoes. She escapes her friends to talk to Rephaim and the two make a pact to help each other until Zoey or Kalona returns to her or his body. Stevie Rae follows the clues in Kramisha's poems and decides to invoke Light, materialized as on of the bulls. By wrongly presuming that Light will materialize as the white Bull, she accidentally invokes Darkness, who nonetheless gives Stark access to the Otherworld. To reach her in time, Rephaim calls unto the immortal powers of his father to heal his wing, without realizing that it's actually Darkness too, that answers. He reaches her in time and takes on her debt to Darkness, allowing the Bull to feed on his pain. To save him, Stevie Rae calls the black Bull, Light and accepts to be forever bound to Rephaim's humanity in exchange for Light's saving him. The Bulls start fighting and disappear. Dallas appears and takes a wounded Stevie Rae home. When she heals she takes the red fledglings to conquer the tunnels. On the way, Dallas discovers an affinity for the New world, electricity, and leads them to the kitchens where the renegades are gathered. Five of them die in the ensuing confrontation, but none of Stevie Rae's, because of her Earth affinity and the others flee. Stevie Rae and Dallas remain behind to finish cleaning up. Dallas kisses Stevie Rae and they start having sex, when Rephaim finds them, alerted by the Imprint. Realizing that Stevie Rae has saved and sheltered him, Dallas lets himself be influenced by the residual Darkness left by the renegades and fights him. When Stevie Rae protects Rephaim, Dallas accepts Darkness and Changes and angrily rushes out, threatening to tell everyone at the House of Night the truth. When she finds out he has stolen her car, Stevie Rae lets Rephaim fly her to Gilcrease, where she goes to sleep. The next day, Stevie Rae calls Lenobia, to find that Dallas has never reached the House of Night, and Aphrodite, to learn that she has had a vision about her and Rephaim. Stevie Rae and Rephaim confess their feelings for each other and Nyx offers them a vision of a human Rephaim. As they look transfixed, Kalona returns to the real world, along with Zoey, and Rephaim leaves, confessing he can't turn his back on his father. |
The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man | Marshall McLuhan | 1,951 | McLuhan is concerned by the size and the intentions of the North American culture industry. "Ours is the first age in which many thousands of the best-trained individual minds have made it a full-time business to get inside the collective public mind," McLuhan writes in his preface to the book. He believes everyone is kept in a "helpless state endgendered by prolonged mental rutting is the effect of many ads and much entertainment alike." McLuhan hopes Bride can reverse this process. By using artefacts of popular culture as a means to enlighten the public, McLuhan hopes the public can consciously observe the effects of popular culture on them. McLuhan compares his method to the sailor in Edgar Allan Poe's short-story "A Descent into the Maelstrom." The sailor, McLuhan writes, saves himself by studying the whirlpool and by co-operating with it. Likewise, the book is not interested in attacking the strong currents of advertising, radio, and the press. The book argues anger and outrage are not the proper responses to the culture industry. "The time for anger...is in the early stages of a new process," McLuhan says, "the present stage is extremely advanced." Amusement is the proper strategy. This is why McLuhan uses punning questions that border on silly or absurd after each visual example. On the technique of amusement McLuhan quotes Poe's sailor, when he's locked into the whirlpool's walls looking at floating objects: :"I must have been delirious, for I even sought amusement in speculating upon the relative velocities of their several descents towards the foam below." [italics original] This amusement, McLuhan argues, born "of his rational detachment as a spectator of his own situation," saved the sailor's life. By adopting the position of Poe's sailor, readers of Bride can escape from the whirlpool of popular culture. |
To Make My Bread | null | null | The novel begins in the year 1900 with the McClure family, which consists of Emma, the mother, her father Granpap, and Emma’s children: Basil, Kirk, Bonnie, and John. They make their living in the Appalachian Mountains as farmers and bootleggers. The family is forced to live through a harsh winter with little food. It is apparent they must work hard for what they need. They are also poor, as they must take credit at the general store to buy food. As the family continues to barely subsist, the “outside” seems to be creeping closer to the isolated families of the Appalachian region. One day a peddler from the outside comes to visits the McClures. He tells the family about a new mill in town where they are hiring many people. Granpap quickly dismisses him because he does not like the outsider. The family struggles to make a living and challenging personal relationships often get in the way. Kirk is revealed to be a drunk and very poor at managing money. Kirk becomes involved with Minnie, and she is revealed to be pregnant, although it is unclear who the father is. Granpap is arrested for bootlegging and is sentenced to two years in jail. Basil decides to leave the family to gain an education. Kirk is killed, and it appears that Sam McEachern is the one who shot him. Basil returns later asking for money for books at his school, and with the death of Kirk and Granpap in jail, money is very tight. Granpap decided that his family would move to Leesville to work in the mill to make more money. When the families arrive at Leesville, they believe that working in the mill will provide them with more opportunities. Frank, Ora, and Emma begin their jobs at the mill. In the fall, John and Bonnie start school. However not long after that, Emma becomes ill and Bonnie and John are forced to begin working and leave school. John begins a friendship with John Stevens, a veteran mill worker and union supporter. As Bonnie and John grow up, Bonnie marries Jim Calhoun. Emma’s condition continues to worsen, and she dies. Later, Jim has and accident that precludes him from working, and he abandons his family. Granpap becomes ill and soon dies. Working at the mill is hard on families. One day one of Bonnie’s kids gets pneumonia while she is at work and dies. Mary Allen, an African American worker, is sympathetic and sends her daughter to care for Bonnie’s children. John and Bonnie continue to work in the mill but they are unhappy with their situation. Workers wages are cut and the number of positions reduced. As John has learned many things about unions he decides to unionize the workers and starts a strike. The workers picket outside the factory and are often jailed and beaten. Bonnie is also involved in the unionization of workers. Because of her relationship with Mary Allen, Bonnie helps to make the union integrated so African Americans do not scab. John and the other union leaders decide to hold a rally. During the rally Bonnie is shot and killed. In the aftermath, John Stevens tells John “this is just the beginning.” |
The Awakening | Kelley Armstrong | 2,009 | The Awakening takes place directly after the events in The Summoning. Chloe has been recaptured by The Edison Group, a team of supernatural scientists responsible for manipulating her DNA, therefore enhancing her necromantic abilities. While there, she discovers that she, and other supernaturals are experimental subjects who were genetically modified at birth. Chloe and Tori (a witch) lead the Edison Group to a factory where they were supposed to meet Derek and Simon. Chloe and Tori escape with help from liz after struggling with Tori's mother, Diane (also a witch), but not before Diane hits Chloe's aunt Lauren with a seemingly fatal spell. The two girls run and hide. Chloe reads a letter her Aunt Lauren gave her which explains that she only ever wanted to help young supernaturals but it wasn't until her own niece was in danger that she realized how dangerous the Edison Group was. The next day, they meet up with Derek and Simon at the factory. The five of them decide to find Kit Bae, Simon and Derek's father, who will be able to help them all. On the bus to New York City, Chloe is woken by Derek who tells her that he feels another change coming on. She offers to go with him and asks Tori to tell Simon that if they don't make it back to the bus, they will meet up in New York City. They catch a bus heading to New York City where they find Tori and Simon, but their father's friend Andrew is missing. Suspecting that Andrew has been captured, they decide to leave in the morning. Before dawn, the Edison Group attacks them. While hiding, Chloe hears a voice that sounds like her Aunt Lauren's, guiding her to safety. She realizes with some panic that she wouldn't hear Lauren unless she was dead and wonders if The Edison Group has killed her Aunt. Chloe and Simon are approached by a man that Simon recognizes as Andrew Carson, the man they've been looking for. Andrew helps them to safety and Derek arrives with Tori. They all escape in a van and Andrew tells them that he's taking them to a safe house for supernaturals where they can rest up and eventually help take down The Edison Group. |
The Reckoning | Kelley Armstrong | 2,010 | Following on from the events in The Awakening, the story follows Chloe, Derek, Simon and Tori as they live in the Safe House, formally owned by an ex-employee of the Edison Group, with Simon and Derek's father's friend Andrew. Amongst other visiting supernaturals, the four find themselves racing to try and persuade the renegade group of supernaturals to save Chloe's Aunt, who may possibly be dead, and Rae, a former member of Lyle house. The Reckoning is the final book in the Darkest Powers trilogy. Chloe, Derek, Simon and Tori have made it to safety from the Edison group.. or so they think. After being on the run and having to rely on themselves in life threatening scenarios, our supernatural gang is back under the ruling of adults. Adjusting back to the way of a childhood seems to be easier said than done. Chloe and her group of souped up supernatural buddies are still finding their way as their extraordinary powers keep on developing and surpassing all the adult supernaturals around them. With so much power at their hands, this seems to scare even the best of people. Not before long does safety fly out the window and let in a whole new hot mess of problems. Chloe, Derek, Simon and Tori find themselves in all kinds of mishaps that seem be too much to blame on just pure bad luck. This leads them to think there's an Edison Group spy amongst them just waiting to help bring them back to their crazy scientist lab to poke and prod at them, and maybe even worse, to kill them. All the supernatural drama doesn't stop the mounting attraction between Chloe, Derek and Simon love triangle. The chemistry between Derek and Chloe is obvious to everyone but them - they're both inexplicably still blind to it. Simon is still in love with Chloe, whom he eventually shows his feelings for. In the end, they go on a "date" which turns out rather poorly. Simon, having never been hurt by a girl before, is unsure how to react and Chloe feels bad for all of this. But when Chloe, Simon, and Tori are handed over to the Edison group by one of the supernatural adults, it proves their suspicions of an Edison spy that killed Andrew and Gwen. Simon and Derek's Father comes on time with Derek to save them. During the fight Prof. and Tori's mother are killed and the building of the Edison Group was destroyed. Still on the run, they are able to reconcile with each other including the aunt of Chloe and excluding Rae who 'disappeared' before Chloe, Simon, and Tori were handed over.In the end, Chloe and Derek kiss. |
Fossil | null | null | On a medium-sized, low-gravity planet with a very slow rotational period, the side that is farthest from the sun is always a very hard mixture of frozen carbon dioxide, rock hard ammonia, and solid water ice, and the side that is closest, a sea of turbulent liquids and icebergs. The planet rotates so slowly that the part that is half ice and half ocean, is constantly beset with troubling weather conditions ranging from blizzards to unanticipated ice melts and earthquakes. It takes centuries if not thousands of years for the wobbling of the planet on the ecliptic to melt certain parts of the planet. Even still, it is possible for the planet to have become locked in orbit, so the farthest side never melts. The tidal locking of the planet may have occurred hundreds of millions of years ago, and seasons appear to be limited to the slight wobbling of the planet on the ecliptic. Far from being an uninteresting planet, the ecliptic along which the planet travels is also tilted. Most of the colonies are located along the "coast" - the place in a murky half-shadow of constant night and constant day. Scientific researchers from all kinds of alien species from all over the known universe have come to this planet to engage in an arduous archaeological expedition to unearth mysterious fossils from deep within the multi-kilometer thick icy crust. They have dug so deep that it is generally considered dangerous to dig any deeper. On some of the worlds around the galaxy, mysterious relics are found from an earlier civilization that no longer exists. Since the planet has almost no rock at its core, and enjoyed a rotational period for the first couple billion years of its existence, there is probably nothing to find here, short of fossils of earlier species once flourishing on the planet, but now extinct. |
The Way of Kings | Brandon Sanderson | null | The world of The Way of Kings is one constantly assaulted by hurricanes, referred to in the book as highstorms. Flora and fauna have evolved to cope with this condition. In response to an attack by malevolent entities (known as Voidbringers), the "Almighty" fashions magical weapons and suits of armor, called Shardblades and Shardplates. The "Almighty" equips knights, known as Radiants, with these, and, eventually, the Radiants defeat the evil Voidbringers. Then, for unknown reasons, the Radiants turn against mankind, ignoring their cause and vanishing. They leave their Shardplates and Shardblades for all who want them, thus creating wars and strife. The book begins at a phase where warlords have, for many years, been gathering armies around Shardblade-wielding fighters. These armies fight over possession of the remaining Shardblades in an attempt to acquire a decisive advantage. |
Invisible | Paul Auster | 2,009 | The first section, titled "Spring" and told in first person, chronicles the entanglement of Columbia University student Adam Walker with French political science professor Rudolf Born, who meet in New York City in the spring of 1967 and who form an alliance to publish a literary magazine. Their friendship splinters as a result of a tense love triangle with Born's girlfriend Margot and as a result of a late night mugging that ends in violence. The second section, "Summer" describes the events in Adam's life later that summer in New York sharing an apartment with his older sister, Gwyn. This section of the story is told in second person. Adam's story of the summer of 1967 is also framed by his having sent his manuscript, written in 2007, to a new character, James, who we are told is a famous author. In the framing story, James tells us how he receives the manuscript from a dying Adam and they arrange to meet. In the third section, "Fall" we learn that Adam, in 2007, has died before he and James could meet, and has completed only notes of the third and final section of his memoir of 1967. James fleshes out the notes Adam has left in a third person account. "Fall" tells the story of Adam's trip to Paris, where he encounters Born and Margot, as well as other friends of Born's, a woman named Hélène and her daughter Cécile. Adam inserts himself into the lives of these women and contrives a scheme to atone for guilt he carries stemming from his actions following the mugging in New York. At the close of this section James contacts Gwyn, and it is revealed that James has changed every name and setting in the book in order to protect the identity of the author, "Adam." The final section takes place in 2007. James has been told by Gwyn that the major events of the second section of the book are entirely made-up, and James wonders whether any of the purported memoir is true. In searching for corroboration, James tracks down Cécile, now a distinguished literary scholar. She concludes the story by describing in her diary how she, in 2007, has a final strange contact with Rudolf Born, at his remote island home in the Caribbean. |
Shadow Kiss | Richelle Mead | 2,008 | Rose, in shock over Mason's death, prepares with the rest of the novices for the Qualifying Exam, in which the novices protect the Moroi students from "attacks" by "Strigoi" (their Dhampir teachers). Rose is positive that she will be paired with Lissa, but instead is paired with Christian Ozera, while Eddie Castile (Mason's best friend) is paired with Lissa. Rose complains to her teachers, but ultimately resigns herself to guarding Christian. During the first attack on Christian, Rose sees Mason's ghost and freezes - and is accused of being a sore loser by her teachers. In a sudden twist, Christian is the only person who truly believes that Rose didn't screw up on purpose. Meanwhile, Rose learns from Dimitri that Victor Dashkov's trial is coming soon - and that she and Lissa aren't going to be called to testify. She begs Dimitri to find a way to get them into the trial, and he promises to see what he can do. Adrian and Lissa are growing closer (in a teacher-student sense) while practicing their Spirit use, making Christian jealous. After Rose settles a fight between Lissa and Christian, she begins to sense changes in herself - mainly feelings of intense anger (even more than is usual). Christian is also approached by Jesse Zeklos to join a secret "club" he and Ralf have started, though Christian turns them down. Rose becomes suspicious, and tries to learn more about this club, which she later learns is called "Mână". Although Dimitri attempts to get Rose and Lissa into court to testify, it is ultimately Adrian who gains them entry. On the plane ride to Court, Rose is struck with a horrible migraine, but shakes it off as they arrive at Court; Dimitri and Alberta accompany Rose, Lissa, Christian, Eddie, and Adrian. Dimitri and Rose go to visit Victor in jail, who is as maddeningly pleasant as ever, and threatens to reveal what really happened between Dimitri and Rose the night he kidnapped Lissa. Dimitri threatens to have him killed in jail, but Victor taunts them with his knowledge. The day of the trial, Victor does reveal that Rose and Dimitri almost slept together, but everyone in the courtroom automatically believe this to be another one of Victor's lies. He is sent to prison by the court. Lissa meets with Queen Tatiana to discuss her future; she agrees to go to a college close to Court, and voices her opinion on Moroi fighting with Dhamphirs. Rose goes in to meet with Tatiana next - who insists that Rose stop sleeping with Adrian and call off their "engagement". Rose is stunned, and listens to Tatiana call her everything but a whore. Tatiana then reveals that she has been planning a marriage between Adrian and Lissa, and that they don't need to be carrying any of her "emotional baggage" around with them. Rose shrugs off the queen's accusations and meets up with Lissa, lying to her about her conversation with the queen. Lissa takes Rose for a manicure, where Rose is treated by a young man, Ambrose, who turns out to be a Dhamphir and the queen's blood whore. He takes Lissa and Rose to a fortune teller, who gives Rose a rather boring reading. Dimitri finds them and agrees to have his fortune read. The fortune teller predicts that Dimitri will "lose that which he treasures most". On the plane ride back to the Academy, Rose gets another horrible migraine, this time drawing the attention of Alberta and Dimitri. When they are forced to make an unscheduled stop at a human airport to refuel during a snow storm, Rose's migraine becomes much worse, and when she steps off the plane, she sees the ghosts of Lissa's parents and brother, along with many others. When she comes to, she is in the infirmary back at the Academy. Rose is finally forced to come clean about seeing Mason's ghost, and she is ordered to see a counselor. Her "guardian time" with Christian is also limited. While back at school, her temper still increases, though she does successfully defeat Dimitri as a "Strigoi" while guarding Christian. Lissa is approached by Jesse and Ralf to join Mână, and she accepts their invitation as a chance to spy on them, without Rose's knowing. Lissa is led into the woods and attacked by Jesse and the other magic users. Rose senses something is terribly wrong and runs to Lissa's aid. She beats Lissa's torturers – fellow students — and Lissa tortures Jesse using Spirit. Rose realizes that whenever Lissa uses Spirit, dark emotions fill Lissa — which caused her to cut herself in the first book — and tells Lissa to let the dark emotion flow through their connection and into Rose - which is what has been causing Rose's mood swings and violent behavior. Lissa obeys, and Rose suddenly begins beating Jesse fiercely. Alberta and Dimitri appear, and Alberta has several guards take Jesse away, while ordering Dimitri to handle Rose, who is still in a manic state. Dimitri takes Rose to an old cabin that Tasha Ozera stayed in when she visited the Academy. Rose attempts to run to the infirmary, where she knows they would take Jesse, but Dimitri subdues her and forces her to let go of her anger. She collapses, terrified that she is going crazy. Dimitri listens to Rose's explanation and insists that he won't let Rose go crazy. They end up kissing and Rose loses her virginity to him and start to head back to the school when they are attacked by a Strigoi. Dimitri sends Rose back to the school to warn the guardians, while he stays behind to hold off the Strigoi. The guardians react quickly and send Rose back to her dormitory, where she and the other novices are told to stay put. Rose is sent to guard a small window, where she is finally given a silver stake. She senses immense fear from Lissa, and learns that Christian is in the church, where he was supposed to meet Lissa to talk about Jesse and Mana. Eddie and several other novices are guarding Lissa and the other Moroi, so Rose sneaks out the small window to go after Christian. She and Christian rush to the elementary school, where there would be much less security, and combine Rose's fighting skills and Strigoi sense with Christian's Fire magic to destroy many Strigoi. After the battle, Rose learns that this is one of the biggest groups of Strigoi - who are typically loners - to ever attack any Moroi or Dhamphirs. Along with many dead guardians and Moroi, several Dhamphirs and Moroi were captured by the retreating Strigoi — including Eddie. Rose's mother, Janine, comes to the aid of the guardians with reinforcements, and with Mason's help, Rose figures out where the Strigoi are holding the hostages. Before they leave, Dimitri tells Rose that he is going to ask to be placed with a different Moroi close to Court, so that he and Rose can be together. Janine, Dimitri, and Rose plan a counterattack, and reluctantly enlist the help of other Dhamphir novices and, surprisingly, several Moroi teachers to harness their power as a weapon. When the army reaches the caves the Strigoi are hiding in, Rose is forced to stay outside while Janine and Dimitri lead the attack inside. Once all the hostages are out, Rose goes into the caves to assist the retreat. Just as she thinks everyone she loves is safe, Dimitri is attacked and left behind as Janine forces Rose out of the caves. Rose later finds out that Dimitri's body wasn't found. Another team of guardians returns to the caves the next day, confirming that Dimitri was not killed, but was made Strigoi. Rose realizes that the fortune teller's prediction came true: "you will lose what you value most so treasure it while you can" - not herself, as Rose believed, but his soul. Rose decides to leave the Academy to go after Dimitri and kill him. After she files the necessary papers, Lissa meets her just before she leaves and reveals that she figured out Rose was in love with Dimitri. Lissa begs Rose to stay, even tries to use compulsion on her, but Rose snaps and tells Lissa that all her life she's been told that Lissa comes first. Rose says that she needs to do something for herself for once. Rose asks Adrian for money, which he willingly gives to her, and asks her if she will come back. Rose says she will eventually, and tells Adrian that she will give him a chance - go out with him - when she comes back. As she leaves the Academy, Rose says good bye to Mason, then heads off to Siberia, where she believes Dimitri would go first; back to his hometown. |
The Worry Trap | null | 2,007 | Written for people dealing with chronic worry and anxiety, the book is based on the new principles in what is occasionally termed the Third Wave of Behavioral Therapy using acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) The author, a professor of psychology and a founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, uses simple examples and analogies to illustrate how accepting and identifying your thoughts "As just mere thoughts" can help you step back and separate yourself emotionally from your actual thoughts and live more in the present moment, thus decreasing worry and anxiety. An increased awareness of the separate nature of your self stated as context and your actual experience stated as content in the book, can reduce worry and stress on a person which can lead to beneficial health aspects as well. While worrying is a natural emotion for everyone excessive worrying can interfere with problem-solving and decision-making. The author uses a five-step model approach to guide the reader through learning the skills of acceptance and commitment therapy and applying them to the problem of worry. It starts off by discussing the "fight-or-flight" response and the normal impulse toward controlling thoughts and feelings. Finally, it guides you in taking actions directed by your values rather than by worry. The five steps are contained in the acronym LLAMP which is used throughout the book.New Harbinger Publications, Inc. An Interview with Chad LeJeune AtHealth.com-- *Label “anxious thoughts” *Let go of control *Accept and observe thoughts and feelings *Mindfulness of the present moment *Proceed in the right direction |
Rage: A Love Story | Julie Anne Peters | 2,009 | Johanna is a senior in high school living in the apartment above the home occupied her older sister Tessa. Both her parents have died and she has come out as a lesbian to her best friend Novak and her sister Tessa. A teacher ropes Johanna into tutoring Robbie, a boy with mild autism so he can graduate; Robbie happens to be the twin brother of Johanna’s secret crush, Reeve Hartt. As Johanna tries to get closer to Reeve, she begins to experience some of the physical abuse that is part of Reeve’s daily life, living with a mother who is a drug addict and a violent uncle. Because Johanna believes she is in love with Reeve, she suffers through the emotional, verbal and physical abuse of the girl she wants as her girlfriend. |
Death Note Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases | Ishin Nishio | 2,006 | Narrated by Mello it recounts the first time L worked with Naomi Misora, searching for clues and trying to prevent the next victim of a psychotic serial killer, who is able to make murders look like suicides. The plot also has an interesting backstory to the orphanage from which L came from, Wammy's House, and the relationship between Naomi Misora and Raye Penber. The serial killer just happens to be and old aquantance of L's, one of his original successors: B (Beyond Birthday),who ran away from Wammy's house shortly after A's (the first of L's succecers)suicide . This tragedy, along with B's shinigami eyes drove him over the edge and started committing murders. B became the most famous serial killer in L.A., and L's leading case. Hearing about the murders, L recruited Naomi Misora (a former F.B.I. employee and current friend of L) to help in the case. During the case, she meets a detective named Rue Ryuzaki (B posing as an alias of L) ,she keeps close contact with L during her time working with Ryuzaki.Since the first three murders have already occurred Ryuzaki and Misora study the scenes for any missing clues. They solved the various puzzles, which led them to the address of a victim or show them the name of the victim who was next. At Backyard Bottomslash's (the third victim's) house they found a clue to the next victim's whereabouts: a hotel in Pasedena. They deduced that the victim's initials would be B.B. again ,since the were two people in the hotel who had those initials (Blackberry Brown and Bluesharp Babysplit ). In rooms 1313 and 404, respectively. They paid off the patrons and put them up in very nice suites.They both went to the different rooms(Misora in 1313,and Ryuzaki in 404). Misora starts to think, she pieces everything together and realizes who Luxaky is and that he was using her for fun and testing her intelligence. She rushes down the stairs to find that Ryuzaki (BB/Rue) has lit himself on fire. He was barely alive, so she decided to turn him in. He went to the hospital and survived with ony mild burns. He was sent to prison, and some years later died of a heart attack, supposedly one of the criminals killed by Kira. Later, while waiting at a bus stop,s he saw a man than looked a little like BB, he leaned over to her, she thought he was going to hug her, instead he tried to attack her but she managed to kick him down the nearby subway stairs. She felt guilty and went to check on him. She helped him up and he shook her hand and held it for a few seconds. He walked away but looked back a little, sucking on his thumb. (it was obviously L ,although she didn't really notice) |
This Misery of Boots | H. G. Wells | 1,907 | This book is separated into five chapters. 1. The World as Boots and Superstructure Wells opens the narrative with a discussion that he had with a friend over the quality of boots worn by the working class. The two men discuss the poor quality of the ill-fitting boots and the permanent negative effect they have a person’s feet and gait. They both agree that the majority of boots are a constant source of “stress, giving pain and discomfort, causing trouble, causing anxiety.” The men order these effects of the poor quality boots into two classifications: *a. The Troubles of the New Boot. The new boots are ready made from unseasoned, poor quality material and poorly ventilated. The new boots permanently distort and disfigure the feet of children. *b. The Troubles of the Worn Boot. The worn boot is decrepit, misshapen and painful to wear. The wearer is constantly ashamed of his shabby appearance and his inability to escape their torment: “They have you always.” “It does not do,” Wells’ friend says, “to think about boots.” 2. People Whose Boots Don’t Hurt Them My purpose is served if I have shown that this misery of boots is not an unavoidable curse upon mankind. If one man can avoid it, others can. Wells believes that all miseries are preventable and lies in the power of men to cure. Wells cites a second friend as an example of his belief. His friend grew up in the lower working class with cracked, misshapen boots and raised himself up from poverty. The friend does not revel in his success and comfort, instead he suffers from guilt. He is angry at the thought of the statesmen who “ought to have forseen and prevented this”; all are “responsible people who have neither the heart, nor courage, nor capacity to change the state of mismanagement that gives us these things.” Wells argues that poverty is not the universal lot of mankind. The poor simply get the worse side of an ill-managed world.” 3. At This Point a Dispute Arises Wells explains the factors behind the pricing of manufactured items. Wells hypothesizes a “Free Booting expedition” to make affordable boots for British citizens. The expedition must travel to South America to obtain leather, but must pay exorbitant prices to purchase the cattle. The expedition must pay exorbitant prices to the owners of the transport companies to move the leather to England and pay high rental costs to landowners to store the raw materials and house the factory. The factory owners charge the expedition for the manufacture of the boots. In the end, the final price remains out of the reach of the average man and woman. Wells condemns the institution of Private Property as the source of this poverty. He claims that although there are plenty of resources, land and intelligence to manage the enterprise the obstructive claims of Private Property stand in the way. Wells liken the owners to “parasites upon [the] enterprise at its every stage. He further describes them as “leeches, taking much and giving nothing.” Wells ends the chapter by stating the State should “take away the land, and the railways, and the shipping and many great enterprises from their owners” and run them for service instead of profit. 4. Is Socialism Possible? Wells argues that Socialism is viable and the natural evolution of human society. He states that only the mean and unimaginative element of society would oppose the rise of Socialism. 5. Socialism Means Revolution Wells declares that Socialism inevitably means revolution, “a complete change, a break with history.” He argues that Socialism transcends class, ethnicity and classifications such as liberal or conservative. He urges Socialist to “confess our faith openly and frequently.” |
Twenties Girl | Sophie Kinsella | null | Lara is a twenty-seven-year-old girl who has always had an overactive imagination. At the funeral of her great-aunt Sadie, she gets visited by her ghost, in form of a bold, demanding, Charleston-dancing girl. Sadie has one particular request: she can't rest without her precious dragonfly necklace, and demands that Lara is to find it for her. But Lara is besieged with problems of her own, such as her uncertain future as co-founder of her own headhunting agency, and the fact that she was recently dumped by Josh, the love of her life. Lara, coerced by Sadie, embarks upon an arduous journey to find said necklace, but in the process of doing so ends up accomplishing so much more. Unraveling the ugly truth behind her uncle's enormous success, inadvertently unearthing a long-lost love story enshrouded by the cobwebs of time, and even managing to get entangled in a love story of her own... |
Sharp Teeth | null | 2,008 | Packs of werewolves struggle for power in the underbelly of Los Angeles. |
Love & Respect | null | null | The book is built upon the theory that the "primary emotional needs" for men and women, respectively are that men need respect and women need love, like they need air to breathe. Dr. Eggerichs uses simple examples to illustrate real life situations in relationships and then often connects those situations to the verse in Ephesians and other passages in the Bible. The book is organized into three main sections. The Crazy Cycle first illustrates that "Without love, she reacts without respect and without respect, he reacts without love". Misunderstandings in communication is expressed using simple metaphors to illustrate that men often use blue sunglasses and women often use pink sunglasses during communication. Practical strategies are then discussed to stop the Crazy Cycle from spinning, including the use of scientific findings by John Gottman. The Energizing Cycle next outlines strategies for improving a relationship by showing that "his love motivates her respect and her respect motivates his love", using two acronyms C-O-U-P-L-E (Closeness, Openness, Understanding, Peacemaking, Loyalty, and Esteem) and C-H-A-I-R-S (Conquest, Hierarchy, Authority, Insight, Relationship, and Sexuality). The Rewarded Cycle lastly is demonstrated by example using Scripture that "His love blesses regardless of her respect and her respect blesses regardless of his love". Connecting obedience to Christ in the correlation to a greater outcome in the relationship is suggested. |
Epitaphs for the Living: Words and Images in the Time of AIDS | Billy Howard | 1,989 | Each page of the book can be viewed as an independent illness narrative. Howard, in letting his subjects speak for themselves, transcribes their stories in an intensely personal way. The photographs depict patients in their own surroundings, each one a visual narrative of the sick person's daily life. They use their own faces and bodies to convey the turmoil that lies within. Using photography as its principle medium, the book attempts to tell the story of AIDS from the patients' points of view. The introduction, by Lonnie D. Kliever, points out that many of the personal messages written by the portrait subjects indicate where they are on the journey toward accepting their mortality. Many other messages highlight illness as the main focus rather than impending death. A consensus among the patients is that dying from AIDS is bad, but living with AIDS is worse. Whether they last a few words or a long letter, each message represents that patient's personal story. |
The Undomestic Goddess | Sophie Kinsella | null | Workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting has just done the unthinkable. She’s made a mistake so huge, it’ll wreck any chance of a partnership. Going into utter meltdown, she walks out of her London office, gets on a train, and ends up in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she’s mistaken for an interviewee and finds herself being offered a job as housekeeper. Her employers have no idea they’ve hired a lawyer–and Samantha has no idea how to work the oven. She can’t sew on a button, bake a potato, or get the #@%# ironing board to open. How she takes a deep breath and begins to cope–and finds love–is a story as delicious as the bread she learns to bake. But will her old life ever catch up with her? And if it does…will she want it back? |
All You Need Is Kill | null | null | The story is told from the perspective of Keiji Kiriya, the protagonist, a new recruit in the United Defense Force which fights against the mysterious 'Mimics' which have laid siege to Earth. Keiji is killed on his first sortie, but through some inexplicable phenomenon wakes up having returned to the day before the battle, only to find himself caught in a time loop as his death and resurrection repeats time and time again. Keiji's skill as a soldier grows as he passes through each time loop in a desperate attempt to change his fate. |
The Gangster We Are All Looking For | Lê thi diem thúy | null | The narrator, her father, Ba, and her four uncles to whom she was related by water, not by blood, floated across the South China Sea together in a U.S Navy ship often where they stayed in Singapore refugee camp. In 1978, all six immigrants got a sponsor in the name of the retired navy officer MR. Russel while they were in the refugee camp. While their papers were processed, Mr. Russell died. Before he died, he had a dream about flying birds and told his dream to his wife. Based on his dream, she decided to take care of the six immigrants and moved them into Mr. Russell’s son Melvin’s house. However, Mel was not happy and felt uncomfortable having them stay in his house. Because of his mother begging him, he was obligated to accept the duty. After a while, Mel hired Ba and the four uncles as his crew of house painters and maintenances workers. Even though it was so hard to communicate with them in English, Ba was a better speaker and knew many more words than the other men, so that he could translate for them. Mrs. Russell was a good, kind person to the narrator and Ba. She took them to the mountains one Sunday afternoon. At that time, Ba and the narrator took a picture together for the first time. In contrast, the four uncles were spending their Sundays afternoons with Vietnamese people at the pool hall. They started smoking cigarettes and learning to bet on football games. On the negative note, the narrator did not like American culture. She did not like to wear American dresses, and felt lonely because she was the only Vietnamese girl in her school. Melvin and Mrs. Russell owned a collection of miniature glass animals that belonged to the late MR. Russell, and put the glass cabinet at the corner of Mel’s small, crowded office. Mel warns the immigrants not to touch any of them. However, they did not understand what he said, and Ba did not interpret it for them. The narrator perceived that the butterfly inside the glass was alive and trapped in the glass, and she wished that it could to escape. Even though Mel told them not to touch anything, the narrator started playing with those forbidden glass sculptures often, but secretly. She would open the cabinet doors and let the animals get some air; also, she carried the animals and told them stories. She was especially curious by one of the objects that she noticed before - a paperweight with a butterfly inside. One day in December, the narrator attempted to make her dream a reality by throwing the glass butterfly at the cabinet, shattering that piece along with the rest of the collection. Ba and the four uncles ran into the room, at which point Ba said, "suh-top” when he arrived at the scene, indicating his limited English skills. He was meant to pronounce “Stop”. The mother of the narrators and wife of the father makes her way to America and is reunited with her daughter and husband. They live in an apartment complex with palm trees and a pool. The mother works as a seamstress. The mother accidentally crashes her Cadillac into the apartment gates. The boys of the apartment complex, on hot days, would jump from the second story into the pool. In response to this, the landlord has the pool emptied and filled with rocks and cement. A baby palm tree is planted on its surface. Following the change, Ba and Ma argue. At the abandoned home next door, the neighborhood children play and set up a large cardboard box they find. One summer, the narrator enters the box with a boy, who begins to touch her chest. The narrator continues to enter the box with the boy. One day, the narrator is sent to run an errand, and as she is returning home, she feels the terrifying presence of her brother who seems to have been left in Vietnam. This section begins with a description of a black and white photograph of the narrator's grandparents in Vietnam. Before the narrator's birth, when Ma, a Catholic schoolgirl, decided to marry Ba, a Buddhist gangster, Ma's parents were outraged and disowned their daughter. The narrator was born in Vietnam in an alley behind her grandparents' home. The narrator recalls her father's face at a military camp in South Vietnam. The family moves from the Red Apartment with the palm tree to the Green Apartment. Because the manager murdered a woman, family moves again to Linda Vista. Ma shaves her head because she is angry at Ba for gambling and drinking. After the arrival of the aforementioned photograph, Ma and Ba get into fights. Kids outside the apartment wonder what is happening, and the narrator goes outside, wildly dancing in front of the crowd. The family is ultimately evicted from their home. The Linda Vista home is ultimately demolished. When they leave, Ma remembers that she forgot the photograph of her parents in the apartment and frantically cries to return to her parents. The narrator runs away from home to the East Coast. The father finds a new occupation as someone who mows lawns and one day digs a trench in someone's lawn without being told to. When the narrator returns one night, Ba tells her that he is in trouble. In the final section of the novel, two narratives seem to run alongside one another, alternating every few paragraphs. The first narration takes place in America, where the father, in order to ignore the ringing phone, does various things to preoccupy himself. The mother works at a Vietnamese restaurant which overcharges their customers for foreign cuisine. There are rumors that their daughter has moved to the East Coast to become a writer. The other narration takes place twenty years ago, in Vietnam. The narrator's brother's body was pulled from the South China Sea. He is said to have been jumping from one boat to another when he suddenly slipped and fell. Ma's father brings the narrator's dead brother back home, where people say he has cursed the home with bad water. Ba is currently fighting in the war. In this chapter many events from the story are concluded, and many things are revealed. One event is that the narrator’s brother died 20 years when his body was pulled out from the sea. But before the author gives us this information there is lots of description of what the father was watching on TV while the phone was ringing. The author wants the reader to pay close attention to those descriptions. The girl’s father was watching the news. The phone was ringing, but he somehow did not want to pick it up. At some point, the reader knows that he gets nervous and he is resisting taking that call—he feels that something is not quite right. The author manages to give the reader a hint of what is happening, illustrated when the father changes channels. The first time he sees firemen, trying to hose down a flaming bank of trees. Firemen are always associated with danger, or moments in which someone is having troubles. Even though he is not picking up the phone, he is watching what could be happing: danger! The phone still ringing and the father changes the channel, so as to ignore the phone again. This time, he is watching footage of a flood in the middle of the country. A Flood symbolizes the conclusion of one phase or cycle; at the same time brings new things. It also symbolizes destruction and death. Moreover, the author again gives the reader a sign that danger is coming. After the flood, the father watches a boy and his father traveling on a canoe. This is very important because the images were a boy and his dad; it could have been a girl and her mom, but it wasn’t. This is a connection to the father and his son, and they were together in the water. Later on the chapter the author describes how her brother died; the women at her house whispered that the her brother died because he jumped between two boats and he hit his head and went straight down to the hole. We have seen images of firemen, flood and a boy with his dad in the canoe; all of these images have a connection with what was happening at Vietnam. The phone kept ringing and the father changed the channel and saw two politicians shaking hands, a woman standing at a field of green grass—pointing at it and shaking her head. This image is very important because the woman staring at the grass could be a sign of a buried body. When people die, they are buried in cemeteries in big green fields, because somehow nature gives a sense of peace. This could be a representation of how the girl’s mother was feeling. In the chapter she did not want to bury her son—moreover, the woman on the TV was shaking her head side to side saying no, she was also sad, as she was pointing to the grass. The phone is still ringing and father changes the channel to a baseball game—he fills a pot with water to water the plants and the dog he had found a week before came toward him—and the phone stopped ringing. If we make a connection between all these images, we understand that the author wanted to gives us information of what was happening in Vietnam. The flood was the catalyst, and the water was where the boy died. The canoe could be compared to the boats, and the women starring at the field, could be the place where he was going to be buried. The author uses these descriptions so we can interpret them and make conclusions of what might be happening. |
Blu's Hanging | Lois-Ann Yamanaka | 1,997 | Blu's Hanging is a novel which introduces the very distressed life of the Ogata family. After suffering through the death of their mother, Eleanor, Ivah, Blu, and Maisie struggle to deal with life and the issues that ensue as a result of their loss. Their father, Poppy, struggles to parent them, barely making ends meet and not knowing how to care for his children after losing his wife. Ivah is left to fulfill the maternal role to her two younger siblings and is held to unrealistic expectations by her father. Even though Eleanor has died, her presence among the family remains. This has both positive and negative effects on the family. The Ogata's struggle to move on, specifically Poppy, who cannot come to grips with her death. He constantly speaks of Eleanor, with frequent references to Moon River. He becomes hardened and cold to his children as he struggles to grieve. The children are also deeply affected by Eleanor's seemingly constant presence within the family. As they still look to her for guidance and support in dealing with their issues, they are able to rely on her when in pain yet battle with being able to move on. Because of the fractured state their family is in, their wounded unit is easily torn apart by outer societal influences. Due to the lack of parenting, each child struggles to cope in unique ways. They are treated harshly by Poppy and are neglected of any true care or concern. As he is depressed himself, he turns to drugs bringing the family to a more desperate state, economically and emotionally. Certain events begin to unfold and proper judgment on behalf of the children is not used. They find themselves teetering with very dangerous situations to which Eleanor would've never approved of. As a result, Uncle Paulo, a neighbor of the family, rapes Blu, weakening the already fragile state of the Ogatas. Poppy, left feeling beside himself, blames Ivah for her abandonment of her younger siblings as she attempted to cross her first stepping stone to independence (i.e. going away to school). As the children have no real support system, and they are constantly combated with troublesome circumstances including racial angst and violence, they are left to feel like orphans as their place in society seems to diminish even further. Ultimately; Ivah, Blu and Maisie, who are still very attached to the presence of Eleanor, are able somewhat move on through the letting go of their dog, Ka-san. Poppy, still unable to cope with the loss of his wife, leaves as well. Although the children are conclusively alone, it seems as a small glimmer of hope in allowing them to reform as individuals. |
Shortcomings | null | null | Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel Shortcomings is his only work that fully deals with themes of being a young Asian-American male in American society. Ben Tanaka, the story’s protagonist, lives in Berkeley, California with his politically active girlfriend Miko Hayashi. Ben is uninterested in Miko's participation in the Asian-American cultural community, but he possesses a wandering eyespecifically for Caucasian women. When Miko begins to resent what she interprets as a rejection of both her Asian heritage and of herself, she moves to New York, at which point Ben disastrously attempts to pursue the type of woman he feels he really wants. The title Shortcomings relates to the main theme of the graphic novel which revolves around the tragic shortcomings of the human condition. In Sandra Oh's essay "Sight Unseen: Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve and the Politics of Recognition"., published by The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS), Oh writes that Tomine, like his character Ben Tanaka, is more or less "pessimistic about the possibility of escaping the limitations of socially inscribed identities." Throughout the novel we see this pessimism manifest in Ben's general rejection and resentment of things that attempt to, in Ben's words, "make some big 'statement' about race." At the same time, Shortcomings does deal with racial issues, but it attempts to do so without resorting to clichés. |
The Viper's Nest | Peter Lerangis | 2,010 | Amy and Dan Cahill are staying inside a small cabin with their uncle, Alistair Oh. However, the evil Isabel Kabra starts a fire in the cabin. Surprisingly, former secret agent and murderer, Irina Spasky, brings them a pole to slide down to safety. Irina climbs to the top and helps them down, but the pole catches fire. Irina senses that the roof will collapse, reflects on her life and decides that she has lived long enough. The roof collapses under her, and she dies. The book begins the morning after the fire that killed Irina Spasky, who was an ex-KGB and Lucian spy. The two were shaken by what had happened, not believing that Irina was on their side, after attempting to kill them earlier in the series. Using their de-coding abilities, Dan and Amy figure that the last words Irina spoke were actually a song: "I'm with you and you're with me and so we are all together", which points them to Pretoria, South Africa. Here, they are given a postcard suggesting a connection with Shaka. As they unravel the history of Shaka, they find out that he was a member of the Tomas branch, and was connected to Winston Churchill. They find the clue, aloe, but are captured by the Kabras while leaving South Africa. Isabel Kabra offers Dan and Amy to join their family. When they decline, Isabel orders them to be tied in chairs, and chopped to pieces by a spinning propeller. They escape with the help of Professor Bardsley, together with the vial of green liquid that they thought was their lead to the second clue in The Maze of Bones, by flying Grace Cahill's old plane, The Flying Lemur. During the ride, Dan and Amy accidentally break the vial, spilling some of the contents onto Dan's arm. It turns out to be a Lucian poison. To get the antidote, they fly to Grace Cahill's home in Madagascar. While at Grace's Madagascar home, they find a page in her journal that says, ″I am feeling melancholy today, thinking about my dear A & H and missing them so. I cannot even bear to listen to my beloved di Lasso, because of the reminder...″, and on another page it says, ″I have written Deng Xiaoping, who has agreed to grant to visit to A & H when he discovered that they, like him, are "M." This, along with a piece of music by di Lasso, leads Dan to realize that his and Amy's family branch is the Madrigals. |
Fire World | Chris D'Lacey | null | It opens on the planet Co:pern:ica with Counsellor Strømberg (an auma counsellor) talking to Professor Harlan Merriman and his wife Eliza, and then their son David walks in. They talk about dreams that David has been having as they watch a video they had recorded while he was sleeping. On Co:pern:ica, they have commingled with Fain to make themselves higher beings, although there is a power called The Higher which governs those on Co:pern:ica. The dream is very strange and David has been visited by Firebirds (one of only the two creatures that live on Co:pern:ica) and they are seen blowing their special fire over him. It is later shown that a temporal rift had opened up and the fire birds came to close it up. Although Bernard Brotherton believes that David imagineered the fire birds, they come to the conclusion that someone, somewhere on another universe had been calling out to David. Eliza and Harlan travel back to their pod where they decide to commingle their fain and produce another child, a daughter for when David comes back. To be able to have a child on Co:pern:ica they must be assessed by an agent of the higher, one of the Aunts. They request the Aunt they had for David but she is otherwise engaged and are given Aunt Gwyneth. Whilst they are being assessed Harlan insults Gwyneth and she denies them to have a child, but says that Eliza could become an Aunt. Eliza reluctantly agrees and the next day she is taken to the Dead Lands and begins to learn more about the world they live on. Gwyneth also states that Eliza spent her childhood with her and that she was brought back into the system at the age of five. Whilst Harlan is at work at the Ragnar Institution of Phy:sics, he brings in data from the research on David and asks his partner Bernard to put the information into SETH, which we are led to believe is some sort of super computer. The equipment that they have set, is meant to open up a controlled rift and let someone pass through it almost like a tele:port. Strømberg suggests sending David to a librarium, which is a huge building going up past the clouds to be tutored by Charles Henry and have an 'adventure'. Eliza and Harlan drop David off there and they a meet a young girl called Rosa who says that the Librarium is hers. She tells Harlan and Eliza that they may leave and Rosa and Mr Henry will look after David. After a meeting with Mr Henry, they both tell David that to get around the Librarium they have to think of where to go and picture it in their heads. David practices by finding the toilet and a wardrobe where he dresses a little like Rosa. David enjoys his time with a Rosa, they become friends whilst cataloging the library for Mr Henry. Whilst they are cataloging they ask Mr Henry how to get to and above floor 43, because although they have searched for it they have never been able to reach it. Mr Henry says they must work hard to be able to access the secrets of the upper floors and it is revealed that there is a huge Firebird eyrie up there. One day David and Rosa are teasing each other about a book each wanting to put it into their own collection when Rosa challenges David that when she throws the book out of the window whoever reaches it first will be able to catalogue it. When Rosa throws the book it hits her Firebird Runcey and David rushed down to help him telling Rosa to fetch Mr Henry. When Rosa and Mr Henry reach David they find Runcey gone and David has entered a state of Melancholia, because a seemingly evil large, Red Firebird named Azkiar finds Runcey and David, and the Azkiar flies away with Runcey. Rosa finds a book about Dragons which she accidentally mispronounces as 'drargones', and fearing that Strømberg and Mr Henry will take the book from her, she runs for a place to hide. Rosa manages to find the door to floor 43 but the door is locked and there is no visible lock to the door. Gwyneth then appears and asks why she is trying to go up there and Rosa lies several times, Gwyneth asks about the dragon book and Rosa tells her. Gwyneth tells Rosa the correct pronunciation, but forbids her to read it. Then Gwyneth, who is visiting to check on David, demands to be taken to David and Mr Henry. At first Gwyneth wants David to be de:stroyed but Strømberg steps in and says they should assess David as he is a very special ec:centric. Back in the Dead Lands, it begins to rain as Eliza finds clay and begins to model with it, eventually making an egg. The rain then becomes very strange as it is driving Eliza away, although when the drops fall on the ground they recreate images of dragons (long since died out on Co:pern:ica). Eliza finds them beautiful and then they start to scare her until she shouts 'I AM ELIZA!' and they turn away. Then the lead dragon, described as bony and almost human like to Eliza breathes over her. Eliza collapses into a heap. Sometime later, a group of Firebirds find Eliza and they are trying to take care of her, when they discover the egg and wonder how one could have gotten out of the eyrie. Two days later, Harlan, Bernard and Strømberg are about to open up the rift when it cuts to Aunt Gwynteth in the Dead Lands. She finds a trail of stones leading towards some caves. Reaching the cave she sees that Eliza has created lots of clay dragons acting almost as guardians to the slope that they are on. Gwyneth furiously confronts Eliza about the heresy she has committed and Eliza shows that she has a baby daughter and cracked the family anomaly. Back at the Librarium, a fire bird named Aurielle, picks up the fire tear enclosed in one of David's own tears, a daisy chain that Rosa made for David earlier in the book and the egg that Eliza created. Aurielle thinks about these things as she flies back to her perch and looks at a woven tapestry that she likes, depicting the last scene of Dark Fire, where there are dragons, humans, the ix and darklings. Aurielle and the other fire birds know about the darklings which they call "the shadows of ix". The tapestry is apparently named Isenfire. As Aurielle is thinking about all of this another firebird comes along and warns them that a portal is opening somewhere and they need to be there. Rosa and Henry and the whole of Co:pern:ica feel the rift opening. Rosa has read and re-read the book about Dragons to David, after Strømberg overruled Aunt Gwyneth. Rosa manages to figure out how to read Dragontongue and believes she knows how to get up to the upper floors, just as Harlan switches on the machine. Suddenly Rosa passes out and then when she wakes up, she finds David waking up as well, and they have discovered that they have aged about eight years. David and Rosa try to find out what has happened to the two of them and whether it is just the people inside the librarium, or everyone. Rosa says that just before David woke up there was something like a time quake. They talk for a while before traveling to the door and Rosa tries and fails to open the door. David has a go and effectively speaks in Dragontongue saying "sometimes" and the door opens. When they get through the door they find that all books are already ordered. David and Rosa look around and David finds a book entitled Alicia in the Land of Wonder (alternative to Alice in Wonderland). They both then see Azkiar, and they run, but not before they find that he was sitting on a plaque entitled 'FICTION'. David tells Rosa to go and find Mr Henry, which she does, and David runs off down the corridors of shelves until he gets cornered by Azkiar. Fearing that he will have to throw books at it he prepares to do so, picking up a Steven Kinge novel. But Azkiar does not attack David and instead looks at him puzzled. David takes the opportunity and walks away, and commingles with the book's auma. David leaves the floor and goes to Mr Henry's office, where Rosa is kneeling on the floor, and discovers that Mr Henry is now dead. Harlan steps through the door and they both see that they have all aged. Harlan says that when he started his experiment, everyone connected to it aged and Mr Henry obviously died because of aging. The experiment failed and Harlan was devastated by what he had done. Knowing that he will be arrested and taken away by Re:movers he gives David a micro:pen, that he says has all the relevant information that he needs. The re:movers come in. They assess Mr Henry and conclude that he died of natural causes. Aunt Gwyneth comes in and they see that she too has aged slightly. Gwyneth sees that Harlan passed David something and when she demands to see it, David quickly imagineers it into a gold wedding ring and explains his father wanted him to give it back to his mother. She explains that she is taking Harlan away and that Eliza has called for David to be released and brought back, where she and his sister are waiting for him. Gwyneth explains that Rosa cannot go, because she can only leave the librarium if she is called. Because her parents have died from the time quake and she has been officially declared an orphan, no-one can call her. Gwyneth states that the Librarium is under the Aunts control for now whilst they complete an evaluation and get a new curator. She summons two Aunts; Primrose and Petunia. Whilst David is walking away Rosa calls that if he does not stay with her, she will never let him come back. David promises that he will return and changes the ring back to the micro:pen. Meanwhile up on floor 108 Azkiar has flown to Aurielle to tell her that he has seen humans on the upper floors. Aurielle asks whether it was Mr Henry and the answer is 'no', and Azkiar tells her it was David. This confirms that something has happened to everyone involved and connected to the experiment because even the fire birds feel and look different. After Azkiar has told Aurielle about the aging incident, Aurielle tells him she must meditate on the matter and Azkiar, angry with her, flies up to the tapestry. Looking at it he sees two humans and makes the connection that two of the humans are David and Rosa, and that they were the ones who had been found on floor 43. Back at pod 42, David is settling in with his mother and sister although they display some sibling rivalry. Eliza quells this by saying that she loves them both the same. Eliza warns David not to mention Harlan in front of her and tells David that Penny was born from an egg and that Eliza has brought clay back with her. Eliza says that she saw lots of things outside of the Great Design and that they were flawed like Boon. One of the dragons, the ugly one, guided her toward the cave. Eliza had taken the clay with her and that was how she had created an egg which she left outside the cave, and then a dragon came down and kindled it for her. When Gwyneth came back she destroyed all of the guardian dragons. Eliza only just managed to bring back a small bit of clay without Gwyneth noticing. David goes to Harlan's study and finds the com:puter wiped. Using the memory stick he manages to find out what his father discovered, and also that fire birds tried to close up the rift, but something else was coming through. David is interrupted by Penny, who tells him that she has found a black fire bird feather and both Eliza and David tell her that there are no black firebirds. Penny gets upset, and goes and gets ready for bed. When Penny is ready, David goes up and starts reading Alicia in the Land of Wonder to her, imagineering the story with her so that the characters come to life. But something goes wrong and they see a mirror of another world (Liz's mirror in her bedroom) in it are clay dragons and a unicorn.Størmberg carries him to bed. David wakes up two days later to find that Strømberg has gone and that he cannot stay in one place for too long, because he has gone into hiding. David tells his mother that to find the answers that he needs he either needs to go to the Dead Lands, which he knows she will not let him do, or go back to the Librarium. David prepares to go back to the Librarium when Penny walks in and tells him about the night he read to her. David begins to remember, and Penny shows David a picture that she drew of what the White Rabbit changed into. David knows that are no creatures like this on Co:pern:ica, and wonders how she could have gotten the detail so right for it. Eliza tells David, before he goes that he needs to meet up with Strømberg on Bushley Common in the evening. When David asks which evening, she replies any, and that he will know how to find David. David goes to the common and plays with a katt whilst he waits for Strømberg to arrive. Strømberg tells David that the society they are in is failing, and Aunts are plotting to overthrow the Higher and that the Higher resides in the Librarium. Strømberg and Mr Henry believed that the Higher operates through the firebirds. They talk some more and Strømberg is impressed that David and Rosa managed to get to the upper floors, whilst Stromberg and Mr Henry had tried for 20 years and failed. Before Strømberg leaves, he urgently tells David that he must go back to the Librarium and retrieve the Book of Agawin which he believes will tell the whole history of Co:pern:ica and of Dragons, and then contact him. David tells Strømberg of the story telling, and that his adopted imagineered character turned into a black fire bird. Strømberg is confused, and then David tells him that when he slowed the video down of the experiment, he believes something came through and infected a normal fire bird and turned it black. Stromberg tells David that if this is true, then he must get to the Librarium that night, if possible and find the book. As Strømberg walks off, David puts the katt down and walks off himself. The katt suddenly turns into Gwyneth, meaning that she has heard the whole conversation which was meant to be private. Meanwhile back in the Librarium, Rosa is not getting on well with the Aunts. They at first make her clean out a room for them and will not let her order any more books. This frustrates her greatly. One of the demands is the Rosa must block out the window and to do this she has to use books, which breaks her heart and the Librarium itself does not like it. After she has finished the task the Aunts come in and rip pages out of the books and stuff them in the gaps between them. This is too much for Rosa who leaves running. Rosa wants to return to floor 43 but does not dare because Gwyneth found her easily the previous time. Rosa finds herself missing Mr Henry. Whilst Rosa is asleep, deserted even by Runcey, the firebirds who are worried because they have not seen a fire bird since the time quake, including Runcey come down to examine her changes, and they conclude that the girl in the picture (Zanna) and Rosa do match, although Rosa does not have the Mark of Agawin (Oomera). Aurielle decides it is now time to consult the Higher about this situation and flies up over 100 floors to be able to speak to him. Aurielle reaches the roof and thinks that it does not matter how many physical floors one must climb or fly, it is how determined they are and how much they need to get there. She flies onto a balcony and hears the Higher's voice speaking to her. Aurielle flies into the sensory matrix of the Higher known as the IS and speaks to him. The Higher calms Aurielle down and tells that what will be, will be, and that they allowed the science experiment to take place. The Higher also tells her that where there is order in the Eyrie, there is order in the rest of the world. Aurielle asks about the Isenfire, and the reply is that she always knew it was David, and she knows this is true. Aurielle now knows what to do. She must drive out the Aunts and bring David back so that he may be the new curator, and protect the Higher itself. The Higher tells her that Isenfire is upon them all. Finally, Aurielle tells the Higher about the egg that Eliza made, and the Higher replies, 'Beware of the thread.' When she asks what the thread is, the reply is, 'The thread is time and She will come from an egg.' Aurielle has one final question it is 'What is the Higher?', and the Higher tells her that it is pure Fain. The Higher tells her that she must become like a piece of bone that she found on the roof, and although she feels upset that her part is over, the Higher explains she will be an agent of the universe. Aurielle asks to see it, and she sees what fire birds will become. Not larger birds, not dragons, but they would have paws. Rosa also does not like the situation she is in. The Librarium is despondent and desolate and the Aunts have locked themselves in their room with a big sign saying, 'KEEP OUT.' Rosa knows that she needs to find out what is going on and so comes up with a plan, after finding a book about mushrooms (because all Aunts like mushrooms), she makes a mushroom dish that is secretly drugged, and Rosa knocks on the door. 10 minutes later, Rosa gains entry to the room. There is a strange digi:pad on the floor, and she picks up a book reads the information. Then the pad scans the book and it tells her the books auma level. Flicking through the book, Rosa is furious and distraught to find that it has been wiped completely. Rosa tells the fire birds to tie up the Aunts and wait for them to wake up. When they have woken, Rosa gets one of the fire birds to torture Primrose's feet, knowing that they will both feel it as they are twins. Rosa questions the Aunts and finds out that the pad is an auma scanner, and that they have taken the auma from almost every book in the room. Rosa asks if it can be put back, but the energy can only be transferred and Gwyneth is the one who knows what she is going to do with it. They confirm that once the auma has been harnessed, the Aunts will attempt to take over Co:pern:ica. The Aunts distract Rosa by imagineering David and thus enabling them to break free One Aunt manages to accidentally brand Rosa with the mark of Agawin. They then create a fire, which the three firebirds present cannot put out on their own and Aurielle tells Aleron to go and get the other fire birds who are already aware that the building is on fire. The Aunts manage to get the digi:pad by using their fain to catch it when Rosa throws it at the bed which is burning. When they switch it on it releases the auma into the room and there is nothing they can do and the Aunts run, the released auma travels into Rosa, through the mark of Agawin (or Oomara). On the window sill, Aubrey appears (the one who is the black fire bird) and the other fire birds are pleased to see her but puzzled as to her colour and the blood around her neck. More firebirds arrive and manage to put out the fire. Then suddenly, David climbs through the window to take control of the Librarium. Harlan and Bernard are being taken to the Dead Lands where they know their fain will not work. The two of them wonder how they are going to survive once they have been dropped off. They watch the taxi disappear and then check their surroundings. They believe the can see lights in the distance and sure enough six people reach them holding lights. One of the men introduces themselves as Matthew LeFarr and explains that he was brought to the Dead Lands because he asked too many questions in the wrong places. The men give them clothes and they decide to travel to the Isle of Alavon where there is a settlement of twenty two people including Harlan and Bernard. Whilst they walk, Harlan and Matthew talk, and Harlan believes that if Matthew is not the leader of the group, then he should be, because he has leadership qualities. After some time, they manage to reach a hill, and looking over it they see the Isle of Alavon. Matthew explains that this was where they believed Agawin used to reside. The group see a fire bird flying over head and many people race to catch it and Harlan goes with them to see what will happen. An old man, Roderic, is told to take Bernard back to the settlement. Bernard believes that the men are going to kill the fire bird. However, he manages to catch it when it flies to him, and Matthew tells him to put it onto the ground and turn its head away. The fire bird then cries its fire tear and a field of corn grows in its spot. Matthew congratulates Bernard, and says that the field will be called 'Bernard's field'. The whole party then goes back to the settlement where they settle in. Harlan and Bernard know that life will be hard outside the controlled Central but believe they can get along. They learn that fire birds have brought them a great many gifts including cooking utensils and crops. Matthew tells them that there will be a big meeting for everyone to get to know each other. After the meeting, Harlan asks about the tower up on the crest of Alavon and wants to journey up to it. Matthew agrees to take him and Beranard up to it, although warns that many of the tribes have gone mad since returning from the tower. The journey is uneventful up until the point, near the crest, when Harlan is taken over and is told to be wary of the "shadow of the ix". Harlan is then thrown down and the rest of the party wonder what happened to him, as they help him into the building. Harlan tells them about what happened, and says that the dragons name was Gawain but the say they can not see "Gawain" so reviled he is a wandering spirit. They move to the central dais where there is a carving of a winged man and they manage to get the creator to show itself, appearing as a talon (like the one in Fire Star, The Fire Eternal and Dark Fire). The group then decide to come back down the hill to go back to the settlement, where Harlan tells everyone what happened up the hill. He shows everyone the Creator, and then a darkling shows up and demands the Creator from Harlan, who at first denies it, but when he begins to fight it, Harlan drops it accidentally, and the darkling takes it off of him, and flies back to Co:pern:ica central. Harlan reveals that he wrote Isenfier on the sheet of paper that LeFarr gave him and believes that is what brought the darkling upon them. The man who went up the hill with is called Colm Fellowes and Harlan asks him how to destroy the Re:movers, and he tells that it is water. Harlan then comes up with a plan to get everyone back to Co:pern:ica so that he can protect David, by turning the tower of Agawin into a massive beacon. Many of the group are sceptical and believe that the Re:movers will not come, but agree to go along with the plan. Meanwhile the darkling travels back to Co:pern:ica and sees the fire in the Librarium. Landing on the window sill, it prepares to take over Aurielle's body, but gets seen and the fire birds question whether it is really Aubrey. The darkling flies up a few more floors to an abandoned level and prepares to wait another day before getting a new body. On this floor Gwyneth appears, furious at Petunia and Primrose and their incompetence, and sees the darkling and manages to capture it, and takes the Creator, and knows it is from a dragon. Gwyneth talks to the darkling and agrees to commingle with it. The Ix try to take over her body but Gwyneth just manages to break it up, warning the Ix that if it tries to do anything like that again, she will destroy it piece by piece, and the two of them share information. The Ix tells her that they are all part of something, and three worlds are connected: Ki:mera, Co:pern:ica and a low plane world where Isenfier is taking place. Gwyneth asks what planet Isenfier world is called, and the answer is Earth. Gwyneth continues to interrogate the Ix while attempting to resist their attempts at a full control over her body (which she suppresses). The Ix share information about her concerning David Merriman. The Ix explain that David can alternate his auma through the three planes (Co:pern:ica, Ki:mera, and Earth). In basic words he lives an alternate reality on Earth different than on Co:pern:ica. In the conversation the Ix also explain to her about the power of the claw she took from the Ix, saying it acts as a creator that (as known from the previous novels) manipulates dark matter. It has the great power to bring upon whatever is written by the user. This proves true when Harlan managed to call upon the Black firebird possessed by the Ix by simply writing "Isenfier". The Ix also reveal that there are connections across the planes, one being a squirrel( presumably Conker from the previous Novels). The Ix then tell of Gwyneth being a connection as well to Gwilanna who died in the previous Novel before the Battle of Isenfier. Shortly afterward Eliza and Penny come to visit David and Rosa in the Librarium. Gwyneth is then caged up by an imaginereed cage when she starts to act unruly to their presence. After they are introduced to each other Eliza pulls out a clay Dragon that has a pencil and a pad to show to them. They commingle to bring it to life. The dragon comes to life and starts to write something on his pad. Before he is finished though a time rift suddenly appears and the Ix within Gwyneth (still posing as a cat) come to attack and attempt to kill David. David defends himself by somehow transforming into a bear where he attacks and defeats the Ix colony and seals the rift. After everyone settles themselves afterwards Aurielle (the cream-coloured firebird) upon seeing the Dragon on the table sees between it and the dragon that is on the Tapestry on floor 108 of the Librarium. Aurielle urgently tells David and Rosa to follow her with the clay Dragon to floor 108. Rosa is reluctant to bring David’s sister Penny along with them but she ends up tagging along. This leaves Eliza with a very bitter Aunt Gwyneth to guard. Having nothing else better to do Gwyneth starts up a conversation with Eliza. Gwyneth trys to convince her to look at the book that David was looking at on the way out of the room and at the same time try to convince her to release her from her cage. Eventually Eliza does look at the book David went to and reveals that David was trying to look up what the clay dragon was trying to spell before the Ix attacked him. It is revealed to be the dragon's name Gadzooks. Gwyneth also reveals that she is Eliza's mother. She explains to her that her Father was the almighty Agawin himself. However Gwyneth has no idea what has happened to him even up to when she was brought into Aunthood. During Aunthood Eliza was latter discovered to be eccentric but her Aunt Su:perior took pity on her and decided to put Eliza into stasis util it was time for Gwyneth to claim her. But that unfortunately never came and Gwyneth realized she would not need a mother so she decided to have her introduced into Co:pern:ica as an orphaned child. She would be simply watched over by Gwyneth. This explains why Eliza could not recall her memories of childhood clearly when asked to by Aunt Gwyneth. Gwyneth tries and tries to convince Eliza to free her. She also explains to her briefly about the Dragon claw found she found off of the Ix saying that she must go and claim it. She apparently hid it somehow without the Ix being aware. After a while she finally gets Eliza to open the cage and release her despite David's warnings not to listen to her. Meanwhile David and Rosa continue to climb up the floors of the Librarium making their way towards floor 108. Rosa sees the remains of the egg being guarded on the floor having already hatched. David is quick to try to get downstairs fearing for Penny and Eliza's safety from whatever hatched from the egg. However Rosa manages to convince David to stay on the floor long enough for them to find the tapestry on the large table in the room. David looks closely at the Dragon's notepad in the tapestry using a tele:scope. He finds on the notepad the three line mark of Oomara and a faint word written on it saying "sometimes". This is apparently referring to Gadzooks writing the word during the finale of Dark Fire when everyone disappears in the end. They then turn their attention towards the book of Agawin which has somehow found its way to floor 108. David was sent by Strømberg to read the book cover to cover to find out more secrets, possibly pointing towards the Librarium. The book is apparently split into several sections: The Flight of Gideon, The Battle of Isenfier, The Isle of Alavon, and The Ark of Co:pern:ica Eventually David and Rosa decide to proceed to the lower floors. They are then separated when the Librarium starts to undergo a strange transformation. All the books and everything on all the floors of the Librarium start to transform into and become consumed by woodlands, trees and vines that start to warp their way around the entire Librarium. In the process Rosa encounters a white horse. Its name is Terafonne. The reason for the transformation is revealed in the next chapter. While Rosa and David were up in floor 108 Penny is struggling to find the right book for herself down in floor 43 she catches a raindrop outside through the window while it is raining. The raindrop transforms into some sort of light and a girl younger than Penny appears and has wings. She calls herself Angel and it is obvious she is the parallel version of Alexa in Dark Fire. She offers to help her find a book and leads her to a point in the room and then disappears. The raindrop leads her to a shelf marked with the author that is David Rain from the previous books. There she pulls out his book Snigger and the Nutbeast, and when she opens it a squirrel jumps out of the book. At that moment Gwyneth appears behind Alexa holding Eliza captive within the cage that David imagineered. At that point the transformation of the Librarium begins. Gwyneth explains to Penny that she triggered the transformation by opening the book. She says that the Librarium is actually the infamous Ark of Co:pern:ica that is referred to in the Book of Agawin. The Ark was created during the Great Re:duction that formed the dead lands in order to protect all of the animals and wildlife of Co:pern:ica. As Gwyneth rambles on about the Ark and animals in it, Penny takes the chance to attack Aunt Gwyneth and take the cage holding Eliza with her. However Gwyneth uses her powers to summon forth a wooden spike through the floorboards to drop Penny dead in her tracks. Eliza urges her daughter not to resist her to prevent further harm to her. At that moment Penny tells Gwyneth of the winged girl she saw moments ago named Angel. Gwyneth is then introduced to Aurielle, Aleron and Azkair who have all transformed into small dragons. They attempt to burn Gwyneth with their fire but fail. The three of them cannot cause harm to the claw artifact that she holds and instead of harming Gwyneth they end up making her more powerful. She then uses the claw to knock back Azkair as he tries to attack her. Aurielle demands that Aleron keep Azkair put as she goes after Gwyneth, who has transformed herself into a Raven and has blended in with the flock circling the Ark that came with the influx of other animals that came into the Ark as a result of the transformation from the Librarium to the Ark. As the pursuit between them escalates into the higher floors of the Ark, Gwyneth finds herself in the sensory matrix Is; the domain of the Higher. When she arrives she arrives in a very icy world that looks somewhat like the works of the Arctic. Gwyneth lands next to a polar bear and transforms back to herself. Next to the polar bear are Angel and Rosa who is now riding Terafonne. The polar bear (apparently representing the Higher) says that all around her are flakes that are actually small fire stars. He encourages Gwyneth to take a fire star and join them. Angel apparently says she really wants Gwyneth to defect for them and to help them. However the Aunt has plans of her own. Her ambition to overthrow the Higher has completely suppressed any wishes for an Alliance with them. She threatens to destroy the bear with the claw that she holds. Little does she now that any malevolent intent with the claw will immediately cause it to turn against her. The Higher warn her of this but again her ambition to overthrow the Higher overrules his negotiations. As Gwyneth is about to strike the claw indeed turns against her and throws her off of IS into the ocean below. The ocean has formed as a result of the excessive raining that has caused a flood and then an ocean. Harlan, Bernard and Lefar are victorious in their struggle with the Re:movers and have imagineered a boat to adapt to the changes going on around them. Harlan has also suffered injuries from the battle including the loss of an eye which is now covered by an eye patch. They pull Gwyneth from the water onto the deck of their boat (who is at the moment still alive). She wakes up coughing up water. Harlan who immediately recognizes her demands they give her no help. However Lefar manages to convince him that even as bitter as she is she is still an Aunt and is to be respected. So with that they blanket her to keep her warm. In her dying breaths she says "My bo-dy is bro-ken but...nnn...my will...", revealing the fact she is indeed dying but has no intention of doing down in defeat just yet. With that she does something the shocks the three of them. She attempts to write something using the claw to try to save herself. As she writes Harlan becomes increasingly frustrated and takes a fishing hook and is about to impale Gwyneth with it when she is finally finished writing. In the end she wrote: "I, Gwyneth also known as Gwilanna live..." Gwyneth is boarded onto the Ark and placed into a casket. Despite having written something with the claw that should have brought her back to life her body remains lifeless. The Merriman family is reunited and they all gather around the casket along with Lefar and Bernard. It is then when Eliza reveals what she learned from Gwyneth, that Gwyneth is her mother. At that point Rosa walks in and is not pleased of seeing Gwyneth in the casket and demands that she be removed from the Ark. When she is told that Gwyneth may be still alive due to what she wrote on the boat with the claw before she died, Rosa proceeds to ensure her death by attempting to drive a wooden stake through her. David manages to stop her and Eliza explains that despite all the bad she has done she is still her mother and wishes for her body to stay on the Ark. Before leaving the area with Gwyneth's casket Harlan hands over the claw that he took from Gwyneth to David and tells David to meet him at the casket alone at some point to discuss a few things. Later on Rosa pulls David aside and has a private conversation with him. She claims that the Tapestry up on floor 108 is gone. It has somehow vanished when the Librarium was slowly transforming into the Ark of Co:pern:ica. Besides the loss of the Tapestry everything seems to be doing just fine in the Ark. Lefar starts helping Bernard satisfy his curiosity about the bees that colonized after the Ark came to be and everything seems to be doing just fine. Later on David goes to his meeting with Harlan. On his way he bumps into Angel who asks her to read her a part of the story Snigger and the nutbeast. He does so but before he can read more she gives him some sort of talisman ( possibly similar to the one that transforms into Groyne in the previous novels ) and then says she has to go. She thanks her for giving him the talisman and proceeds to meet with Harlan for their scheduled private meeting at Gwilanna's casket. It is also revealed ( if not now earlier in the novel ) that David and Rosa are the parents of Angel. She hatched from the egg in floor 108 guarded by the firebirds when they found it in the dead lands. It apparently fused with the chain of daisies that Rosa made for David before the time rift from Harlan's experiment and the tear that David shed when he saw the wounded Runcey. David arrives at the floor of the ark where his father Harlan is waiting for him. They take a moment to examine Gwyneth's body and to discuss the strangeness of her state. Harlan and David both agree it is strange that when Gwyneth wrote what she wrote on the ship that she is still in this condition. If the claw's purpose served true it would have brought Gwyneth back to life. They debate that this could possibly be because she might not have had her intent in check when she wrote so that's why it may not have worked. Then David proposes that due to the time nexus it has somehow delayed the effects. Later on after the scheduled meeting at Gwyneth's body at some point Harlan and David meet on the outside deck. At this point the large ship that is the Ark is setting coarse towards land. It is here when in great detail Harlan explains to David of the Battle in the Dead Lands between him, Bernard, Lefar and the rest of his tribe against the Re:movers. They were victorious as Harlan explains his story, however Abbot Hugo had to sacrifice himself when a Re:mover sunken in the marshes of the battlefield stuck its hand out in front of Harlan holding a bomb. Hugo protected Harlan by throwing himself onto the bomb to save Harlan's life. He also explained that he was burned in the eye by a scanner from one of the Re:movers which explains his eye wound. Angel then appears at Harlan's side. She tells Harlan that Hugo is very happy and cries, making his wounded eye heal. Rosa returns after riding Terafonne to some distant land. The Ark then stops at the Dead lands where all the animals inside are released. David and Rosa have a conversation with her afterwards primarily concerning the future of the Ark. David proposed that they should have the help of the firebird to distribute books to all the people of Co:pern:ica ( especially those uses boats to get close to the work of wonder ). Rosa refuses to simply give away all the books. However David explains it would not be so. Instead of keeping the books they would return them for a new one. Rosa then accepts and within days the firebirds are distributing books to numerous citizens of Co:pern:ica having many return with notes form those who borrowed them that requests new books. Many in their boats land them where the Ark itself also landed. They all then proceed to be shown to the Isle of Alavon. Lefar then declares that he shall be leaving soon and one by one he bids goodbye to the Merrimans and kisses Rosa's hand to bid her goodbye as well. However when it came to David he asks him to stay. He then calls his father Harlan aside and reveals his secret that he has yet to tell him. He tells him that Lefar is in the tapestry in floor 108. Harlan, a little flustered from not being told of this earlier manages to get Lefar to stay. The distribution and return of books from the Ark continues. One day Rosa is busy cataloging them when Lefar came in laughing. He claims that a note has been received for her that turns out to be a proposition of marriage to Rosa. Rosa turns him down because of David. Later on Strømberg makes an entrance into the Ark. Once invited inside, Strømberg states that everything seems to all well. At first he says that people thought that the Higher was angry and that the Ark was a symbol of their anger. However later on the find out otherwise. That it is actually a gift from the Higher for people to understand and co-exist more with the wildlife brought by the Ark. Eventually everyone in the Ark gather around a table on the deck where David intends to discuss and explain more about things that circle around the Tapestry on floor 108. Since the Tapestry has still yet to be recovered David uses his memory to imagineer a duplicate of the Tapestry to show to everyone. This scene is very important because if the reader was slightly confused before this is where all the pieces fall into place. While the grown-ups talk Eliza takes Penny for a walk so she wouldn't disturb the meeting. Once shown the replicate of the tapestry Lefar asks why they are in the Tapestry. Harlan being a scientist working for the Ragnar Institute explains the theory of time. He explains that present past and future are all united into one "now". That being said he explains that there are actually parallel dimensions out there with people who are the same as them but live different lifestyles in a completely different plane of existence. David then explains that the tapestry depicts a battle that he thinks was actually frozen in time. The dragon Gadzooks, who is also in tapestry with his pencil and pad, writes "sometimes" with his pencil and notepad. David says that Gadzooks basically froze the battle in a critical point when it apparently seemed to be swinging in the favour of the Ix. This explains why in the previous book everyone disappeared in battle near the end. After that he Gadzooks sending a distress beacon to other worlds for a request for help. The beacon apparently resonated with David in Co:pern:ica and the abnormal sleeping patterns David was having in the beginning of the book was really a response to the Ix tracking the beacon to Co:pern:ica and trying to get in via David. David also explains that there is a possibility that the Ix had a bigger ambition than to control the time nexus that they would use to unfreeze the battle. He explains that he believes that he is actually destined to go to the aid of those in the battle depicted in the tapestry and that is most likely why the Ix want him dead. Harlan then brings up an interesting point: Gwyneth actually wrote the name Gwilanna when writing herself back to life using the claw. The question is then raised of how Gwyneth would have known her name on the other world. They then figure out that the Ix actually gave her that information earlier while both were sharing information. As the conversation continues Rosa then shows up with two firebirds who have finally recovered the Tapestry. To the shock of everyone on the Ark the Tapestry is different then the one that David imagineered to replicate it. It is different in a sense that Gwyneth has apparently appeared on the Tapestry. There is then a shocking revelation. When Gwyneth wrote what she wrote on the boat the reason she didn't come back to life is because she never intended to come back to life in Co:pern:ica. Instead when she wrote herself to life she ended up surrendering herself to the time nexus and realigns it in the process. She referred to herself by her other name Gwilanna when she was writing herself back to life using the claw. Since she referred to the name given to her parallel self on Earth she was resurrected on Earth. If Gwyneth remained dead in the events of the Tapestry (which was the final battle in Dark Fire) the events of the Tapestry would be true. However this is not the case. Since she has brought herself back to life on Earth she has done so during the events of the Tapestry. David and Harlan reveal that this could completely change the events of the Tapestry if she were to be present while they occurred. Suddenly Aurielle gets snagged in the Tapestry and as she starts to struggle to move she starts to pull at the thread on the Tapestry slowly unraveling it. This then causes the picture of Gwyneth to appear(and a strange boy) on the Tapestry and David to slowly move towards the Shadow of the Ix. In the very end of the book the water around the ark turns to fire. |
The Bishop's Man | Linden MacIntyre | 2,009 | The story follows the life of a Catholic priest named Duncan MacAskill. In the 1970s MacAskill convinced a rural Nova Scotia priest who impregnated his own housekeeper to quickly move to Toronto and avoided what could have been a significant local controversy. MacAskill was subsequently called upon numerous times by the Catholic Church to quietly resolve numerous potential controversies. By the 1990s, MacAskill was the dean of a Nova Scotia Catholic university. He is soon sent to oversee a remote Cape Breton Island parish were he would have a low profile, deal with a new impending public controversy, and come to terms with the consequences of his past cover-ups. |
Asphalt | null | null | Racine, an expatriate DJ returns from an ill-fated stay in Paris to a war-torn New York City and finds himself lodging in a deteriorating civil war era brownstone in a Brooklyn neighborhood devastated by poverty and despair. Here he meets Manny, a cross dressing free spirit with a penchant for women and architectural history; Mawepi the stout bouncer and translator for the clairvoyant yet reclusive Holy Mother Lucinda and Couchette, an emotionally scarred lap dancer mired in denial regarding her famous jazz musician father's suicide (former owner of the house) and mother's unexpected death. Immediately Racine finds himself creating the sonic backdrop for intense parties, orgies and conversations while Manny and the other residents chase their dreams in a transitional New York. Couchette is the troubled spirit with whom Racine shares physically intimate and emotionally frustrating moments. The story weaves depictions of Racine's childhood, including his mother's death by fire when he was an infant; his experiences living with his brother, Frederick, in the custody of an uncle who is a disturbed religious zealot; Frederick's mysterious accidental death; Racine's eventual abandonment and years in foster care under the guardianship of a caring alcoholic; and the truth of his recent trip to France to visit a former schoolmate, Benoit, and his girlfriend. Rux infuses his tale with Greek mythology, mirroring Racine's tragic life experiences with that of Euripedes' Hippolytus who is physically dismembered by a monstrous force on his journey to redemption. The characters in Asphalt all employ different strategies for abandoning experiences that have consumed and distorted their views of reality and their conflict with memory and poses a rhetorical embedded question in abandoned buildings and the psychological after effects of war-torn cities as to how cultures and individuals handle suffering, loss and unresolved tragedy. |
One Million Tomorrows | null | null | In the 22nd century, no one had to die of old age any more. The pharmaceuticals division of a large corporation had devised a potion that bestowed immortality on a single application, without any need for follow up treatments. The immortality treatment did not and could not wear off. All it took, was a single dose and the human would become immortal. However, it had an unusual effect on males that drank it. It effectively neutered them, causing complete cessation of sexual desire, and the ability to perform sexually. In this kind of world, many men put off taking the immortality treatment for as long as possible. But the main character, Will Carewe, is not yet immortal, and wishes to involve his wife in questions as serious as this one. They have not yet had any children. He is a high ranking employee for a transnational corporation that one day approaches him with a confidential question relating to the discovery of an immortality potion that does the same thing that the current one does. But without the undesirable side-effect of turning off the sex drive in males. The desirability of patenting the process required the corporation to handle related matters under a cloak of secrecy. But somewhere someone has spilled the beans, and competitors will do anything for the magic recipe, especially if this can be done before the patent is filed in the US Patent Office. They will do anything, including bribery, extortion, and murder, to get the information out of the pharmaceuticals lab before the process is made public. The hero of the story, Will Carewe says he is willing to test the new chemical, even if it backfires and results in permanent sterility and complete loss of physical desire and physical ability. But it appears there is someone out there that is willing to do anything to kill him before he does. |
206 Bones | Kathy Reichs | 2,009 | Tempe is still unsure whether to continue her romantic relationship with Andrew Ryan. Tempe and Ryan set out to Chicago to clear her name, where much to Tempe’s annoyance, Ryan bonds with Tempe’s estranged ex-husband’s family while waiting for his flight back to Montreal. In Montreal, Tempe is convinced that the recent deaths of three more old women are somehow connected with the death of the heiress. The informant who placed the call turns up dead and Tempe is once more at a dead end. Although she is usually very meticulous in handling her cases, it seems that she makes more and more mistakes. Is someone from inside sabotaging her, and why? Her alleged mistakes are made public; now not only her career is at risk – her life is in danger too. |
The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy | Bill Simmons | 2,009 | From The Wall Street Journal: :"In what passes for structure, Mr. Simmons offers a brief (for him) history of the league. Then he "corrects" every mistaken MVP award the NBA ever handed out. Then he imagines every detail of a new and improved Basketball Hall of Fame, naming the 96 players who belong there and offering an analysis of each selection. Then he ranks the top 20 teams of all time. Finally, he conjures up the perfect 12-man roster to face a team of Martians with the fate of Earth on the line—with the 1985 version of Magic Johnson passing to a 1992 vintage of Mr. Jordan and the 2003 Tim Duncan rebounding." |
The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole | Stephen King | 2,012 | The novel begins with Roland and his ka-tet arriving at a river on their journey to the Dark Tower. An elderly man who operates a ferry gets them across the river, and warns them that a severe storm (Starkblast) is coming, and that they can find shelter in a building a few miles ahead. They reach the shelter just in time, and while they wait out the storm, Roland spins a story to keep them occupied. The story he tells, called the "Skin-Man", depicts Roland as a young gunslinger. His father sends Roland and his ka mate Jamie De Curry west to the town of Debaria on a mission to capture the Skin-Man, an apparent shape shifter who terrorizes the town and surrounding areas by transforming into various animals at night and embarking on murderous rampages. Roland and Jamie take a train to Debaria, but it derails before arriving and they must finish their journey on horse. On their way, they pass through a town known as Serenity, a community of women where Roland's mother lived after suffering a mental breakdown following her affair with Marten. It is here that they learn of a woman attacked by the Skin-Man and hear her tale. Roland and Jamie arrive in Debaria, and with the help of the local Sheriff, Hugh Peavy, they determine that the Skin-Man is most likely a salt miner from a nearby village. The next morning, they discover that another brutal attack has occurred overnight on a local farm. They investigate the scene, and discover a single survivor, a small boy named Bill, who has lost his father in the attack. Roland and Jamie determine that the murderer left the scene on horseback, and Roland sends Jamie to the salt mines to round up every miner who has a horse or is able to ride one. While returning to Debaria with Bill, Roland performs his hypnotism trick (which Roland first used in his chronological life in Wizard and Glass) with one of his shells (a fifty-seven - the caliber of an apprentice's gun). While hypnotized, Bill relates what he saw of the Skin-man; Bill tells Roland that he saw the Skin-Man in his human form after the attack, but only glimpsed his feet. He stated that on one ankle the Skin-Man had a tattoo of a blue ring around his ankle. The tattoo indicates that the man spent time in the prison at a (now abandoned) military barracks further west of Debaria. That area had fallen to the chaos of John Farson, the Good Man, within the last generation. Back in town, Roland brings Bill to a cell in Sheriff's station. He plans to walk each suspect past Bill in the hopes the young boy can identify the Skin-Man, or that the Skin-Man will reveal himself by fleeing due to fear of being identified. While Roland and Bill wait for Jamie to round up the suspects, Roland tells Bill the story of The Wind Through the Keyhole. In this story (within a story), we meet Tim Ross, a young boy who lives in a forgotten village that fears the annual collection of property taxes by a man named The Covenant Man. Tim recently lost his father, who was killed by a dragon while in the woods chopping trees. After the death of his father, Tim's mother, no longer able to pay the taxes to keep their home, marries his fathers best friend and business partner Bern Kells, who moves in with them. Kells is a mean man prone to heavy drinking who does not treat Tim or his mother well. One day The Covenant Man comes to collect the taxes, and he secretly tells Tim to meet him later in the woods. During this meeting, The Covenant Man reveals to Tim that it was actually Bern Kells who killed his father, not a dragon and with help of a scrying bowl shows Tim, Kells beating his mother, causing her to go blind. Later, The Covenant Man sends Tim a vision telling him that if Tim again visits The Covenant Man in the woods, he will give Tim magic that will allow his mother to see again. Tim, armed with a gun given to him by his school teacher, journeys into the dangerous woods, and is led into a swamp by the evil fairy, Armaneeta. Here, Tim almost becomes victim to a dragon and other mysterious swamp creatures, but he is saved by his gun as well as a group of friendly swamp people, who mistake him for a gunslinger. The swamp people guide him to the far side of the swamp, and equip him with a small mechanical talking device from the 'Old People' that helps guide him on his journey. Eventually, Tim arrives at a Dogan where he finds a caged 'tyger', which wears the key to the Dogan around its neck. A Starkblast approaches, and Tim, realizing this is likely a trap set for him by The Covenant Man, befriends the tyger. Tim and the tyger ride out the storm under a magical protective blanket. The next morning, Tim discovers that the tyger is actually Maerlyn, a white magician, who had been trapped in the cage for years due to black magic. Mearlyn gives Tim a potion to cure his mother's blindness and sends him back to his mother on the flying magic blanket. Tim then cures his mother's blindness. Tim's mother then kills Bern Kells with an ax after Kells enters their home with the intention of killing them. This concludes the Wind Through The Keyhole story, and Jamie arrives back in Debaria with the salt mine suspects. Young Bill is able to identify the Skin-Man due to his ankle tattoo and an associated scar, at which time the Skin-Man transforms into a snake, and kills two people. Roland shoots the snake with a specially-crafted silver bullet (which he had made upon their arrival in town), killing it. Roland and Jamie travel back to Serenity, where the women agree to adopt young Bill, who is now an orphan. Roland is also given a note written long ago by his mother. In this note, his mother claims she forgives Roland for his act of accidentally killing her. This concludes the Skin-Man story and an adult Roland and his ka-tet have now successfully ridden out the Starkblast. They pack up, and continue on their journey to the Dark Tower. |
Fading Echoes | Kate Cary | 2,010 | At the beginning, we see that the cats of the Dark Forest are training Breezepelt and other cats in the same way they trained Lionblaze. Hawkfrost begins to visit Ivypaw in her dreams and teaches her many battle moves, pretending he is from StarClan. Ivypaw, still jealous that Dovepaw is keeping secrets from her own kin, decides not to tell anyone about Hawkfrost's training. Leopardstar, leader of RiverClan, loses her last life, and Mistyfoot takes her place as leader of RiverClan. The three reveal to Firestar who they are; Firestar reveals that he suspected it all along, but had his doubts after Hollyleaf's death. Firestar tells the Three what he knows about them, and delivers a crucial piece of information: The prophecy is not from StarClan. After days of rain, Dovepaw senses a tree on the edge of the hollow about to fall. She warns Firestar and the Clan, and they manage to evacuate the camp before the tree falls. However, Mousefur stays behind, refusing to give up on a mouse that she was eating. Longtail goes back for the mouse, and Briarpaw goes back for Longtail. As a result, Briarpaw's hind legs are paralyzed, and Longtail is killed. With Leafpool's help, Jayfeather finds out that Littlecloud had the same problem with another cat. The cat's lack of exercise allowed a chest infection to make it harder for him to breathe, eventually killing him. Jayfeather vows not to let Briarpaw die, but near the end of the book Briarpaw starts to develop a perhaps deadly cough. Briarpaw, Bumblepaw, and Blossompaw get their warrior names: Briarlight, Blossomfall, and Bumblestripe. Tigerstar tells Ivypaw that giving a strip of land to ShadowClan has endangered ThunderClan. Ivypaw believes Tigerstar and tells Firestar that she had a dream from StarClan of ShadowClan invading, because they believe that Firestar is too weak to keep his own territory. Firestar and the senior warriors decide to attack ShadowClan before they can attack ThunderClan. During the battle Lionblaze kills Russetfur, but not before she deprives Firestar of his seventh life. Lionblaze then looks upon the misery and death that the battle has brought, and believes that it should have never occurred. |
Flight from Rebirth | null | null | Modern science has discovered a way to rejuvenate people. It is just like immortality, but the rejuvenation process causes the human brain to be "restarted"–effectively losing all its former memories so the recipient starts life anew, like a blank slate. The world has reached a stage where there is very little privacy, and the rigors of modern society invade just about every corner of life. Even still, there are outcasts in remote areas who find a way of surviving without being part of the wider society. The main character, Benny Rice, struggles to maintain a low profile, even going so far as to quit and change jobs when offered a promotion; his personal history mysteriously dates back to a series of dead ends. No matter what job he's had, he always quits before getting promoted. An amicable, friendly sort, he is in for quite a surprise when an unlikely friend, a multi-billionairess, is so taken with his gentleness and kindness that she decides to write him into her will as the principal co-beneficiary to her vast estate of billions. The "Trust" is a foundation that encourages the successful, the accomplished, and the intelligent—basically the cream of the crop—to undergo the rejuvenation process. However, her will requires the Rejuvenation Foundation give Benny exactly the same treatment reserved to the successful and rich. Public notoriety is exactly what Benny Rice does not want. He only wants to be left alone and allowed to go on with his quiet and peaceful life in a position in life that is least subject to public scrutiny. |
The Divide | null | null | A group of American Resistance fighters attempt to spark a revolution at a summit meeting between Hitler and Tōjō celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Axis victory in World War Two. The book begins on July 4, 1976. A Japanese general is visiting China Lake, California, the site of his victory over General George Patton during World War Two. A bomb planted on a horse explodes, killing the general, and a mysterious cowboy is seen in the area. The cowboy is Cooper, travelling with his adopted father Wayne Stubbs, and a young Native American woman named Chula. They travel to the hidden National Redoubt in the Rocky Mountains, where work on developing a nuclear bomb had been ongoing throughout the decades. However, General Buckwesson, comfortable in his fortress, has no intention of sparking a revolution despite the unique opportunity that has recently arisen. A senile Hitler and a retired Tojo are meeting in the geographic center of the now divided United States. Cooper and younger members of the resistance plan on attacking the event, and Lisa Blum, daughter of the last head of the Manhattan Project, suggests using the only atomic bomb in the world. |
Heligoland | Shena Mackay | 2,003 | Rowena Snow, a woman of Scottish-Asian parentage but brought up as an orphan dreams of Heligoland, once mentioned in the Shipping Forecast but now apparently lost forever. She applies for a position as live in housekeeper at 'The Nautilus', a crumbling 1930s built spiral-shaped building in South London inhabited by an artistic community. Only two of its original inhabitants remain, Celeste Zylberstein and Francis Campion along with Gus Crabb, an antiques dealer. The story tells of Rowena coming to terms with her past and finding her place in the community... |
Delirium | null | null | Plot overview Delirium opens when Private Sub CommandButton3_Click() Dim n1 As Integer Dim n2 As Integer Dim Multiplicacion As String n1 = TextBox1 n2 = TextBox2 Multiplicacion = (n1 * n2) ListBox3.AddItem (Multiplicacion) End Sub Private Sub CommandButton4_Click() Dim n1 As Integer Dim n2 As Integer Dim Division As String n1 = TextBox1 n2 = TextBox2 Division = (n1 / n2) ListBox3.AddItem (Division) End Sub Private Sub CommandButton5_Click() ListBox3.Clear End Sub Private Sub CommandButton6_Click() MsgBox ("Terminar Programa") End End Sub Private Sub TextBox1_Change() End Sub Private Sub UserForm_Click() End Sub its main protagonist, an ex-English professor turned traveling Purina salesman named Aguilar, discovers that while away on a four-day business trip his wife Agustina endured an experience that provoked a severe dissolution of her sanity. The book chronicles Aguilar's search for answers and his efforts to rehabilitate his young, beautiful and admittedly singular wife through the use of alternating narrative styles that, as the novel progresses, shed further light on the mysterious events that took place during Aguilar's absence as well as the nature of Agustina's family and childhood, both of which precipitated Agustina's struggle with mental illness. Delirium is organized and constructed through the utilization of a narrative pattern that proceeds in the following order: Aguilar, Midas (Agustina's ex-lover), Agustina, Aguilar, third-person narration of Nicholas and Blanca Portulinus (Agustina's grandparents). This pattern is repeated throughout the majority of the novel and helps to streamline and isolate the progression of several distinctly different, albeit entirely connected, storylines that are never eager to lend the reader immediate access to their secrets. Plot: in depth Delirium begins when Aguilar returns home from a weekend business trip to find several messages on his answering machine asking him to come pick his wife up at a hotel in downtown Bogotá. Upon arriving at the hotel Aguilar finds Agustina in her room with a strange man, existing only as a bombed out shell of her former self. Once home Agustina remains incredibly distant, sometimes even hostile, too preoccupied with abnormal purification rituals and rantings about her dead father's impending visit, to the leave the apartment or even get dressed. Driven by his love for his wife, and aided by the unexpected arrival of Agustina's Aunt Sofi, Aguilar refuses to give up, however, and sets out to discover exactly what happened to Agustina. Aguilar cannot unravel the events of that weekend or resuscitate Agustina's sanity without help and thus he enlists the aid of an alluring hotel employee, named Anita, who lets Aguilar know that whoever his wife was with that weekend their behavior was in no way romantic and provides Aguilar with some of Agustina's belongings that she had left at the hotel. Even more integral to the success of Aguilar's investigation, however, is Aunt Sofi, who, in conjunction with Agustina's narratives about her childhood and the narrative depicting Nicholas Portulinus' own struggles with insanity, helps Aguilar to better understand Agustina's past, which helps to better explain her present behavior. The reader comes to discover Agustina's childhood was not a typical one. She grew up as the sole, attention-deprived daughter in an extremely wealthy Colombian family, the Londoños, and exhibited signs of mental instability (perhaps inherited from her Grandfather who one night, when under the supervision of Agustina's mother, Eugenia, wandered off and drowned in a nearby river) even as a child. Agustina believed that she possessed visionary powers, powers that allowed her to see the future, and in her youth Agustina and her little brother, Bichi, would often perform rituals, often in an attempt to spare her brother from the wrath of her father who would physically and emotionally harass Bichi for his effeminate tendencies. The source of Agustina's power, as she believed, were several photographs that Bichi and her used secretly during their rituals; photographs that would later come to tear her family apart. Running parallel to the rest of the novel Midas' rags to riches to rags storyline tells the tale of Midas, a high class Aerobics Center owner and money launderer for Pablo Escobar, and his equally well to do and similarly employed friends (one of which happens to be Agustina's brother Joaco). Midas' story initially focuses upon a friendly, albeit high stakes, bet that Midas could organize a sexual situation to arouse his newly paralyzed and consequently impotent friend, Spider. Midas' story soon takes a turn for worse when Spider's thugs, while in the process of attempting to arouse Spider via the means of sadomasochism, inadvertently kill a prostitute (Sara Luz) in Midas' gym. The authorities are soon called into investigate and although they find nothing, Midas has covered his tracks well, he nonetheless feels the need to get away for a relaxing weekend, accepting an invitation from Joaco to come spend the weekend with the Londoño family (minus Carlos Vincente Sr. who has since died) at their estate in Sasaima. Once there, however, Midas realizes that, due in large part to her mother's insistence on skirting the truth, Agustina has begun to slip precariously towards her madness, a madness that Midas, being Agustina's former lover, knows all too well. Before the delirium is able to fully set in, however, Midas puts Agustina on the back of his motorcycle and rushes her away from both her family and her own deteriorating mind. Midas' heroism does not last long, though, for he soon hatches a plan to save his reputation that inadvertently plunges Agustina into her debilitating dementia. Soon, however, it becomes clear (due to the information that the other narratives grant) that Agustina is already well on her way to recovery. The novel concludes positively when Aguilar returns home one night to find a note written by Agustina. "Professor Aguilar", it reads "if you still love me despite everything, wear a red tie tomorrow." Aguilar then, with a certain degree of romanticism, wakes up the next morning and dons the reddest tie he could find before heading down the stairs to breakfast. |
The New Girl | R. L. Stine | null | Corey falls in love with Anna, the new girl at school. The only problem is that he can't tell if she's real--most of his friends have never seen her on campus, and she's not listed in the school's files. When he calls her family's home they are strange and evasive. In desperation, Corey goes to Anna's house, located on Fear Street and there her brother tells Corey that Anna is dead. But a few nights later, Anna calls him and asks him to meet her. Anna's passionate kisses convince Corey that his love object is alive and kicking. Corey's friend Lisa finds a dead cat and a piece of paper on its neck. She suspects that this was done by Anna. Corey stays loyal and protests. During prom night,Corey goes to the prom with Lisa. She is pushed down by Anna's brother Brad. Anna is actually Willa, Anna's sister. Willa killed Anna out of jealousy. |
Blood Price | Tanya Huff | 1,991 | Vicki Nelson is a former Homicide detective. When her diagnosis of Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) ruined her night vision and forced her to leave the police force, she became a private investigator. After becoming a witness in a brutal murder of a young man, who was drained to death, his desperate girlfriend Coreen Fennel hires her to investigate his death and Vicki’s intense, strong, and curious nature does not allow her to stop searching for the killer. Vicki tries to get some information from her former partner, Detective - Sergeant Mike Cellucci, who is also investigating the case for the police. The two of them have always been competitors, which leads to their arguments over jurisdiction. Coreen informs her that she thinks that the murderer is a vampire, so she begins what she calls ″hunting″, although she does not believe in the supernatural. The killer is claiming more victims, and when she accidentally walks in on a crime scene, she sees the killer turning into the dark and disappearing. Because of her bad sight, she is sure that it was just an illusion, and when she turns to the body, she sees a man in black next to the body, and tries to scream, but he punches her in the head, rendering her unconscious. She wakes in an unknown apartment, while the same man is searching her purse for some ID. She talks to him, and discovers that he is not a killer, but is also searching for him. He tells her that the killer is a demon, that she actually did see him disappear. He has an ancient book, a grimoire, that should help them. She also finds out that the stranger is Henry Fitzroy: romance writer and 450-year-old vampire. Surprisingly, she believes him. The two make a deal to catch the demon and the man who is calling it up. Her RP makes her useless at night and Henry sleeps during the day, so they agree to hare the investigation. The two uncover that the murders are ritual, that each should call one of the demon’s names, and that he should give material goods to man who is calling him, for the price of blood. Henry tells her that he is the bastard son of Henry VIII, and thus the Duke of Richmond, who fell in love with the vampire Christina, who turned him. When Henry is attacked and the grimoire stolen, Vicki finds him almost dead in his apartment, and realises that he needs to feed to stay alive and heal, so she allows him to drink from her wrist. This makes a bond between them. While the investigation continues, Vicki discovers that the demon was called by a college student, Norman Birdwell, who is a new friend of Coreen's. Vicky tells Mike, but he does not believe her. When Coreen finds out what Norman is doing, she takes Vicki to his residence. He kidnaps the two of them, willing to sacrifice Vicki’s blood to call a new, more powerful demon, Astaroth, who wants to bring about a Hell on Earth. Henry arrives in time to save Vicki and Coreen. Meanwhile, another demon is trying to trick the group, to procure as servants. Together, the three defeat him, and Mike Cellucci, who has been looking for Vicki, arrives in time to see Henry’s vampire powers and the demon he fights with. Vicki, who almost bleeds to death, ends up in the hospital, receiving a blood transfusion. Mike comes to inform her about his police report, which leaves out the demon and Henry. Later, after dark, Henry comes to visit her, and the two agree to a date when she gets out. |
Victim: The Other Side of Murder | Gary Kinder | null | Victim: The Other Side of Murder retells the events of the Hi-Fi Murders. On April 22, 1974, Dale Selby Pierre and William Andrews entered the Hi-Fi Shop in Ogden, Utah, as Keith Roberts waited outside the shop in a car. Pierre, Andrews, and Roberts were all United States Air Force airmen stationed at Hill Air Force Base, just south of Ogden. During an armed robbery of the shop, Pierre and Andrews took five people hostage, killed three of them, and left the two who survived with horrific injuries. Meanwhile, Roberts had assisted Pierre and Andrews in the robbery of the shop's expensive stereo and electronics equipment. The three murder victims were Stanley Walker (age 20), Michelle Ansley (age 19), and Carol Naisbitt (age 52). The two surviving victims were Cortney Naisbitt (age 16) and Orren Walker (age 43). Stanley Walker and Ansley were employees of the Hi-Fi Shop who were working at the time of the armed robbery. While the robbery was in progress, it was inadvertently interrupted on three separate occasions, with each occasion ensnaring an additional victim into the crime. On the first occasion, Cortney Naisbitt entered the shop in order to speak briefly with Stanley Walker. Sometime later, when Stanley Walker did not return home as expected, his father Orren Walker went to the Hi-Fi Shop to look for him. Similarly, Cortney Naisbitt's mother Carol Naisbitt later arrived at the shop to look for her son, who also had not returned home at the expected time. Each of the five victims was taken hostage, bound, forced to drink Drano, and later shot in the head. In addition, Ansley was raped by Pierre. Victim: The Other Side of Murder focuses particularly on Cortney Naisbitt and the Naisbitt family. In the aftermath of the brutal crime, the Naisbitt family struggled not only with the death of murdered victim Carol, but also with the physical and psychological recovery of surviving victim Cortney. This book was viewed by many as a pioneering work, because it was one of the first true crime books that focused on the victims of a violent crime rather than on the perpetrators. |
Six Gates from Limbo | null | null | On awakening in an idyllic tropical paradise, Rex is disoriented and possibly afflicted with amnesia. He knows his name, but the particulars are curiously missing. He spends his first week exploring, and discovers that his Eden-like paradise is surrounded by a huge unscalable wall 50 miles in circumference. Furthermore, there are six gateways at roughly equal intervals, but there is no way to climb up there and see where they go. After a significant amount of exploring, he finds a single house that may hold the answers to his missing memory. How he could have missed it on first waking, is beyond him. Maybe he was just pointed in the wrong direction, and he started wandering off randomly, and forgot to turn around. Inside, he discovers what appears to be three suspended animation tanks, one of which is labeled REX, another REGINA - both with their tops off - and on looking inside, mysteriously vacant. The other tank is labeled VENUS and holds a woman who is the most breathtakingly beautiful thing he has ever seen. |
Harrington | null | null | Harrington follows the protagonist of the same name who explores his memories to better understand his views on Jews. The novel begins with Harrington's early image of Jews, formed by stories told by his maid of Simon the Jew. Harrington says that the stories of Simon the Jew were " used upon every occasion to reduce me to passive obedience." His parents further strengthen this image by rewarding Harrington's antisemitism. Only after attending public school and meeting the bully Mowbray are Harrington's views on Jews changed. Mowbray's tormenting of the Jewish peddler Jacob causes this sudden shift in thinking. The story shifts to a romance novel with the introduction of Berenice Montenero, an American Jew who moved to England with her wealthy father. Harrington's family and friends are alarmed at his choice of a Jewish woman, a relationship further impeded by the advances of Harrington's old rival Mowbray. Seeking marriage into a wealthy family, Mowbray's attempts to court Berenice are denied. As revenge, Mowbray brings charges of insanity against Harrington, a situation further compounded by his family threatening to disown him. To marry Berenice, Harrington must overcome these obstacles and prove himself to Mr. Montenero. He is thus tested "by experiences designed to arouse his enthusiasm and fear." Mowbray is exposed as the culprit behind Harrington's supposed insanity and Harrington is deemed worthy of marriage to Berenice. This strange courtship is concluded with the revelation by Mr. Montenero, "I have tried you to the utmost, and am satisfied both of the steadiness of your principles and of the strength of your attachment to my daughter-Berenice is not a Jewess." |
That Old Ace in the Hole | E. Annie Proulx | 2,002 | Bob Dollar is sent by his employer, the multinational "Global Pork Rind Corporation", to scout for locations for intensive hog farming in the Texas Panhandle. Dollar goes about the work of meeting local down-on-their-luck farmers to manipulate them into selling out. He bases his search in the fictional town of Woolybucket, named after the real tree species, Sideroxylon lanuginosum. There he gets a job at Woolybucket's Old Dog restaurant, and moves into an old bunkhouse in local historian LaVon Fronk's ranch. The inhabitants of the town and the region's quirkiness and stubbornness work on the fundamentally decent Dollar. The ace in the hole of the title is Ace Crouch, who quietly leads Dollar to a "kind of small, quiet and personal redemption." |
The Cup | null | 2,009 | The week before the 2002 Melbourne Cup, Jason Oliver, Damien’s older brother, was fatally injured in a training accident while riding an unraced horse at Ascot Racecourse in Perth. Taken to Royal Perth Hospital, Jason never regained consciousness and died after being taken off life support. In 1975, while competing in the Boulder Cup at Kalgoorlie, Ray Oliver, Damien and Jason’s father, was involved in a five-horse fall. Knocked unconscious, the jockey was flown from Kalgoorlie to Perth where he too was treated at Royal Perth Hospital. Ray Oliver never regained consciousness and died. His death left his widow, Pat, to look after their two sons: Jason, 5, and Damien, 3. Damien’s decision to return to Melbourne following Jason’s death and compete in the Melbourne Cup captured the attention of his fellow countrymen as well as racing enthusiasts around the world. He dedicated his victory in the 2002 Melbourne Cup to his brother. His winning ride has since been selected by Sport Australia Hall of Fame as one of the most memorable moments in the country’s sporting history. Australian director Simon Wincer wrote the book’s foreword. The first six chapters of The Cup introduce the individuals and the events leading up to the 2002 Melbourne Cup, including background on Dermot Weld (“The Irish Wizard”), Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum (“The Sheikh”), the race itself (“The Melbourne Cup”), legendary trainer Bart Cummings (“The Cups King”), Dermot Weld’s historic victory in the 1993 Melbourne Cup (“A Vintage Performance”), and the internationalization of the Melbourne Cup (“The World Comes Calling”). The final ten chapters of The Cup focus on the 2002 racing season, including the decision to race Media Puzzle (“The Dark Horse”), Damien Oliver’s background (“The West Australian”), the 2002 Geelong Cup (“A Theatrical Streak”), the great Australian Thoroughbred Northerly (“The Last Best Hope”), Jason Oliver’s accident (“Racing Home”), Jason Oliver’s death and its effects (“Solving the Puzzle”), Damien Oliver’s winless effort on Victoria Derby Day (“Derby Day”), Melbourne Cup Day (“The Boys From the Bush”), the 2002 Melbourne Cup (“The Race That Stopped the Nation”), and the burial of Jason Oliver (“Final Ride”). A brief epilogue follows the principal characters since 2002. Appendices include the Final Field of the 2002 Melbourne Cup, Damien Oliver’s 2002 Melbourne Cup Carnival Results, Melbourne Cup Statistics, and the Cast of Characters. |
Flirt | Laurell K. Hamilton | null | Flirt follows Anita as she is asked to raise the wife of the wealthy and powerful Tony Bennington. After refusing his request for a reanimation, Anita's lovers come to visit and Bennington reveals that his wife was a fan of Guilty Pleasures. Weeks later Anita comes across the werelions-for-hire Jacob and Nicky, who threaten to kill Micah, Nathaniel, and Jason unless she agrees to use her necromancy for their client. Anita is left with no choice but to comply, even as her inner werelioness reacts to Jacob and Nicky. Anita soon discovers that Bennington is behind the kidnapping and threats, only for her inner lioness to react to the situation. In order to keep Bennington safe Jacob sequesters Anita, only for her lioness to further react to Jacob and Nicky. The two hit men end up giving into the natures of their were-beasts and battle for the chance to mate with Anita. Anita attempts to chase and attack Bennington, only to be stopped by a third member of Jacob's pride, Silas. She manages to wound Silas but Anita is ultimately re-captured and knocked unconscious. When she regains consciousness Anita manages to feed the ardeur off of Nicky, despite the initial attempts of Jacob and his pride's witch. The end result is that Anita's magic completely dominates Nicky, turning him into a "slave" with no free will outside of what she allows him. Anita is then brought to the grave of Bennington's wife and forced to use Silas as a "White Goat". Due to his supernatural nature Anita raises the entire cemetery, overwhelming the protection laid down by the pride witch. This enables Anita to psychically contact Jean-Claude, who swiftly captures Bennington's men. Jacob flees with his pride's witch, but only after watching Anita kill Bennington and leaving behind the now rolled Nicky. Anita takes in Nicky, worrying about her abilities and what his being so completely rolled might mean for her in the future. |
Ars Magica | null | null | Spain, early 17th century. A woman is found lifeless in Santesteban. All points to a murder committed by the Devil and its followers. The region is being scourged for months by the sorcerers, even if the precedent year eleven people were burned alive in a sorcery trial. The people are scared. To appease them the Santo Oficio decides to promote a grace edict to forgive those who admit their agreements with the Devil. The severe inquisitor Alonso de Salazar y Frías is in charge to apply the edict by covering the region. But what nobody knows is that Salazar doesn't't trust anymore in sorcery or spells and, even worst, he doesn't trust in the Devil any more, because he has lost his faith. To reveal the mystery of the witches, Salazar will use the anatomy studies from Leonardo da Vinci, forensic technics he learned in Rome, apothecary knowledge to analyse magical ointments... he finally will base his investigation on verifiable facts to establish factual truths instead of suppositions. Meanwhile, a young woman called Mayo from Labastide-d'Armagnac, who was, following her birth statements, the bastard daughter of the Devil and a mortal woman, travels selling spells. Mayo lost her female companion because this one was arrested during the last auto-da-fé, even if she wasn't condemned. To find her, Mayo decides to follow the steps of Salazar, whom she protects with her spells, even if he doesn't suspect anything about her beneficial actions. During their journey, both will face the diabolical powers which will obstruct their plans, the lack of faith and the death of those they love. |
Delirium (Cooper novel) | Douglas Anthony Cooper | 1,998 | Delirium has Izzy Darlow in New York, investigating the architect Ariel Price in order to write a biography about the man. Price proves to be an unwilling subject, threatening to murder his biographer. |
Milrose Munce and the Den of Professional Help | Douglas Anthony Cooper | 2,007 | The book follows teenagers Milrose and Arabella, who can see the ghosts that inhabit their school. Some of the ghosts are friendly, others are not so much, but after Milrose and Arabella are both sent to the school psychologist to receive treatment the ghosts must find a way to help the two overcome their seemingly well-meaning captor. |
The Rifle | Gary Paulsen | 1,995 | The rifle is forged in 1768 by gunsmith Cornish McManus, who is inspired by a beautiful piece of maple stock. McManus crafts a unique weapon; its .40-caliber, 42-inch barrel is narrower than most rifles of the time, its rifling more severe, at one turn in thirty-five inches, and its butt less drooped than customary, to improve its accuracy. Upon completing the weapon, McManus discovers it to be astoundingly accurate – enough, in fact, to deliver three balls in a row to exactly the same hole at thirty yards. However, lacking money and engaged to be married, he is forced to sell the gun to a man named John Byam, who carries it with him into battle against the redcoats. The gun is passed down through the generations, being lost, rediscovered, and sold as an antique. The rifle ultimately comes to rest on the mantle of Harv, a mechanic. On Christmas Eve, 1994, Harv is poking at his fireplace when a spark ignites the rifle, causing it to go off. The bullet goes through the window and hits the neighbor boy, Richard, as he attempts to fix a light on his Christmas tree. The books ends with Harv throwing the rifle in a river only to be recovered by another man. |
The Life of an Amorous Woman | Ihara Saikaku | 1,686 | A man of the world who lives in the capital city of Kyoto travels to Saga-ken in Kyushu with some friends. They meet an old woman who lives in a grass hut and listen to the story of her life experiences. She was born as the daughter of a family of court nobles, but loses her privileged status, tumbling ever downward through a life mixed with pleasure and trouble in which she goes from being the mistress of a Daimyo, to Courtesan, and a streetwalker. At each stage, she tries to crawl up from the station in which she finds herself, but her own nature causes her to fail. The Mizoguchi Kenji film Life of Oharu is based upon this novel. |
Jack the Hare and Mukuyu Forest | null | null | The story is based on a variety of animals living together in a homestead, and it revolves around a hare called Jack, who works tirelessly to safeguard the wellbeing of his immediate family and that of the animal clan. There was very little contact and mistrust between the animals and human beings. Because much of Jack’s focus was on protecting the animals from humans, he was not prepared for an upheaval from within the animal clan. When that upheaval did come a power struggle resulted with Jack eventually becoming the king of the jungle. |
Face | Benjamin Zephaniah | 1,999 | The protagonist, Martin Turner, is portrayed as a typical teenager from a fairly rough, multicultural area of Newham in east London. One evening, after leaving a rap club, he and his friends are offered a ride home by an acquaintance, which they accept. However, the car is stolen, and the driver's reaction on seeing a police car results in an accident in which Martin suffers severe burns to his face. Martin has to deal with the loss of his Girlfriend and Friends, ridicule at school and his isolation from his family, however he eventually overcomes his disfigurement, makes new friends and attains a level of personal acceptance.The book portrays the difficulties faced by people with facial disfigurements and how one minute they are leading a normal life and the next they are stared at and teased. It shows people with disfigurements are still humans and should be allowed to lead a normal life too. |
Distant Waves | null | null | A girl named Jane Taylor lives with her family of five sisters (her, Mimi, Amelie, Emma, and Blythe). Her mother, Maude, is a medium. They live in the late 19th century America. Jane's father has recently died due to a shot through the heart, and her mother is in grief. The book begins as Maude Taylor, Jane's mother, is trying to contact a woman named Mary Adelaide from the spirit world and "speaks" to her. Mary Adelaide's sisters believe her, but Mary Adelaide's husband believes that Maude is a fraud. Mimi believes their mother to be a fraud because sometimes, they see her scribbling under the table when the lights are turned off, then pretending the spirit wrote them. Jane is under the influence of Mimi and admires her, so she believes it too. Mary Adelaide's sisters suggest that they move to Spirit Vale, a place where many spiritualists live. Maude and Grandma Taylor don't get along well, so they plan to move out. One day, they go to a park to meditate, and Mimi & Jane go for a walk suddenly,the ground starts spitting apart and shaking. An earthquake starts, buildings start shaking and Mimi gets a bad headache. But a man named Nikola Tesla rescues them, and they watch him smash a small device. He explains that he has been destroying things and this earthquake machine is one of his ideas. He believes that everything vibrates and at different frequencies, you can travel between time and different worlds. They are amused. Tesla becomes Jane's ultimate role model and collects newspaper clippings about him over the years. Maude moves them to Spirit Vale, where they are going to stay at the inn for a bit. The in is already fully booked, but, Maude "contacts" the husband of the inn's owner, Aunty Lily, and she lets them stay. In 1911, Mimi and Jane run away to New York, where Jane falls in love with Thad who is Tesla's assistant. Mimi gets a job as an assistant to a wealthy French woman, Ninette, and she goes to travel with her to Europe. When Jane has to get back to Spirit Vale, Thad learns thaat Jane is only 16, which means she's 4 years younger than him. He doesn't write to Jane like he promised her. Jane gets very sad over Mimi's departure and Thad. Maude is devastated and blames Jane for running away with Mimi and her departure. After Mimi has been gone for a while, she finally contacts her family while they are in London, Canada for a spiritual convention for mediums, psychics, etc. It is there that it is proven that the twins, Amelie and Emma, have their mother's gift of being able to speak to the dead after having Queen Victoria speak to Conan Doyle. Mimi reveals that she is going to be sailing on the Titanic, and Blythe wants to go with her. After much convincing, she is allowed to go. Mimi is in first class, and Blythe is in second class. When a man predicts that the Titanic will sink and Mimi and Blythe are on it, Jane, Amelie, and Emma get on it to try to talk them into getting off. Jane bumps into Thad, who is on the ship with Tesla, after Emma fainted. He is overjoyed to see her, and he tells her he made a mistake in not being with her.Jane, Amelie, and Emma are convinced the ship won't sink, so they stay on. Mimi announces that she will be having her wedding on the Titanic to her mistress's butler. Just before the wedding, Thad asks Jane to marry him. She says yes, but they don't tell anyone because she doesn't want to take the night away from Mimi. During the wedding, Telsa wants to show off his newest invention. It's supposed to break ice. Jane recognizes it as the earthquake machine. When he used it, it malfunctioned and the ice berg hit the ship. They start telling people to get on life boats. They realize that Amelie is missing, so Mimi, Jane, Emma, and Thad go looking for her. Telsa tells Thad and Jane to follow him. He says he has an invention that could save everyone. It's a time machine. Mimi finds Jane in the bottom of the ship with Telsa and Thad. She tells her to get on the life boats, but she stays. Telsa's machine partly works and Jane finds herself in the water. She sees a floating chair and she gets on it. She finds Amelie and Emma in the water. Telsa helps them up onto the over-turned table he was on. Mrs. Brown's life boat spots them and they pulled Emma and Amelie on board. Emma dies of hypothermia. Amelie had two broken legs and frostbite on her toes. No body can find Mimi or Thad. Amelie goes to the hospital. She starts to talk, but says that Emma is talking. Jane recalls Emma saying "I won't leave", just before she dies. 2 years pass by. Mimi and Thad, though no bodies were found, are said to have sunk. Jane, now 19, gets a job as a reporter. She sees a picture on a newspaper of two people that survived the sinking of the Titanic in the water all these years. Jane thinks they look like Thad and Mimi. She begs her boss to let her do this story, and he lets her. She goes to them and finds that they are Mimi and Thad. When they were in the time machine, it didn't send them a couple minutes into the future, it sent them a couple of years. Although to everyone else, Mimi and Thad had been gone years, to them it only seems like a few minutes. They all get on a train, and Jane reluctantly tells Mimi that her husband is dead. Jane and Thad ride back home together, where the book ends. |
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