title
stringlengths 1
220
| author
stringlengths 4
59
⌀ | pub_year
int64 398
2.01k
⌀ | summary
stringlengths 11
58k
|
|---|---|---|---|
The Monstrumologist | Rick Yancey | 2,009 | Folio one The Monstrumologist begins when Erasmus Gray pulls his horse and cart up to Dr. Warthrop's house in the middle of the night. He reveals the body of a young woman and an Anthropophagi, "one wrapped around the other in an obscene embrace." The girl has "half her face" missing, and her throat is torn out. Dr. Warthrop dissects both the girl and the monster, and finds an Anthropophagi fetus in the dead girl's womb. Warthrop explains to Will Henry, who is taking notes on the procedure, that Anthropophagi require a host to grow their young in. They poison the baby and continue examining the bodies. Dr. Warthrop theorizes that because Anthropophagi are indigenous to Africa and have never been seen in the Americas before, there could only be one or two more in the area at most. The next night, Warthrop, Gray, and Will Henry go to the cemetery to return the girl's body to her grave. While Gray and Will Henry re-dig the grave, Warthrop tries to discover how the Anthropophagi accessed her body in the first place. They are all interrupted when Gray's horse is spooked by something in the surrounding woods. Suddenly, an Anthropophagus bursts up from under the dirt in the hole Will Henry and Gray were digging. It seizes Gray by the legs and starts dragging him down. Will Henry grabs Gray's wrists and tries to pull him back, but is not nearly as strong as the monster, and starts being pulled in himself. He tries to release Gray, but Gray hangs on to him and refuses to let go. Dr. Warthrop shoots Gray and pulls Will Henry back, while Gray's body is pulled all the way into the hole. Warthrop and Will Henry run for their lives as more Anthropophagi "poured out of Eliza's grave, dozens of them, scores, sprinting with arms outstretched and mouths agape, their colorless skin radiant in the starlight, as if every tomb and sepulchre had vomited forth their foul contents." They jump on the back of Gray's horse and ride off, narrowly evading the approaching swarm. Back at Warthrop's house, he and Will Henry begin searching through old newspapers for suspicious deaths over the past thirty years. Warthrop marks possible Anthropophagi attacks on a map, and from it estimates that there are around twenty five or thirty Anthropophagi in the area. The map also shows that the Anthropophagi have been steadily making their way from the coast to New Jerusalem (where Warthrop lives) over the last couple of decades. Warthrop then composes a letter to John Kearns asking him to come and use his "inestimable services" to help with the infestation, dictating with "a hint of distaste." Will Henry finds a key among the old papers as well, and puts it in his pocket to show to Warthrop later. Will Henry also realizes that he has lost his hat, the last object in his possession from his home before his parents died. Warthrop and Will Henry leave that night for Dedham, where they find the Motley Hill Sanatorium. Warthrop knocks, and after a long wait, a "withered woman in black", Mrs. Bratton, answers. At first she refuses to let them in, until Warthrop mentions he's the son of Dr. Alistair Warthrop, at which point Mrs. Bratton slams the door and goes to get Dr. Starr. Starr lets them in and, after discussing Warthrop's father for a while, reveals that Warthrop's father had a keen interest in one of Starr's patients, Captain Varner. Warthrop asks to see Varner. Starr "cast an eye toward the parlor door" and stalls for several minutes, until finally Warthrop bribes him and Starr calls for Mrs. Bratton to take them to Varner. Bratton leads Warthrop and Will Henry upstairs. As they pass doors, they hear patients crying and calling out, and (in one case) laughing frantically. They're also surrounded by the smell of "unwashed flesh, old urine, and human feces." Varner is lying on a bed under multiple layers of sheets. Warthrop then tries to get Varner to speak, but without any success at first, as Varner stairs up mindlessly at the ceiling. It's not until the name Warthrop is mentioned that he really responds. He was paid a large amount of money to pick up three Anthropophagi, an adult of each gender and a cub, and sail them back to the New World. Varner and his crew were instructed to lock up the Anthropophagi in the bottom of the ship and throw down a cow, goat or chimpanzee to them every couple of weeks. However, the Anthropophagi refused to eat them. The crew makes a sport of tormenting them, particularly the first mate. Drunk one day, the first mate takes a piece of cow meat and swings down a rope in the top of the Anthropophagi's holding area below deck to give it to them. The female Anthropophagi grabs him and eats him. Captain Varner posts guards to ensure nothing like it happens again, but one day a huge storm hit the ship and the crew can see almost nothing. The Anthropophagi climb through the porthole and up the side of the ship onto the deck, where they proceed to slaughter the crew When only Varner is left, he runs for the lifeboats, stabbing one of the female Anthropophagi's eyes on the way out. When he returns home, he is sent to the sanatorium. Warthrop pulls back Varner's bedding to reveal that Varner's flesh is being eaten away by maggots, thus the flies. Warthrop diagnoses that whatever infection Varner has already spread to his bones: Varner will live no more than a day. Warthrop spends the night at Varner's bedside until Varner dies the next morning. It is understood by the reader that his death is the direct result of neglect from Starr and Bratton. He then confronts Mrs. Bratton, informing her that he is going to inform the police that they are mistreating their patients. "She responded stiffly, 'I've no idea what you mean, Dr. Warthrop." "'Regrettably that very well might be so,' acknowledged the doctor icily. 'And all the more appalling if it is! To view your shameful neglect as altogether fitting and humane is beyond deplorable - it is inhuman. You may inform your master that I am not finished here. I am not finished, but Motley Hill is." Folio Two Early the next morning, Constable Morgan knocks on the door asking for Warthrop. He tells Warthrop that something has happened "totally outside the range of my experience." On the carriage ride to the crime scene, Warthrop questions Morgan. Warthrop discovers that "the crime" was reported "shortly after dawn" Only one person survived (Malachi). Morgan explains he called on Warthrop because "no human being is capable of so foul a crime." They arrive at the town rectory. (224) Five have been found dead; the rector, his wife, and three of their children. Various chunks of them have been torn off, and blood and carnage are everywhere. Warthrop estimates it to be the work of at least eight to ten Anthropophagi. Morgan observes that the odds of these monsters appearing in the town where "the country's - if not the worlds - preeminent expert in these matters resides" by chance are very small. Warthrop, Morgan and Will Henry go to the sanctuary, where Malachi is waiting. He is visibly disturbed. "His full lips moved soundlessly, as he stared, like some Eastern mystic, at a space beyond our mortal sphere, looking without but seeing within." Malachi does not respond much to anyone except Will Henry, after discovering Will Henry's family is also dead, and that Will Henry ran from the scene. Malachi asks, "Do you think God will forgive us, Will Henry?" Malachi explains what happened before he ran. The Anthorpophagi came through the windows of the house while they slept. One of his sisters came to hide in his room with him. They listened to their families screams and the sounds of the monsters tearing them and the house apart. Malachi breaks open his bedroom window so he and his sister can escape. The Anthropophagi hear the sound of breaking glass, and his sister faints. Malachi jumped through the window and rode to Morgan. Warthrop and Will Henry return home. Morgan arrives shortly. He brings Malachi and his assistant with him. (253) He tells the doctor he has been at the cemetery, and that he found Will Henry's hat. Morgan deduces that Warthrop knew the Anthropophagi were there, which Warthrop confirms. Malachi blames Warthrop for his family's death. He whispers, "he took everything from me, Will!" Will Henry convinces him to let go of the gun by answering "and you would take everything from me." Will Henry takes Malachi to one of the spare bedrooms and puts him to bed, sitting with him for awhile. Someone starts banging on the front door, and Warthrop calls for Will Henry to answer. Kearns arrives, "looking for the house of a very dear friend of mine." Warthrop comes in, and "froze upon seeing the tall Englishman in the entryway." Kearns, upon seeing Warthrop, says "'My dear Pellinore,' purred Kearns warmly, brushing past me to seize the doctors hand. He pumped it vigorously." When Will Henry returns with tea, the three men are looking at Warthrop's map where he plotted the various Anthropophagi attacks. Kearns suggests Warthrop's father paid to have the Anthropophagi shipped over, and Warthrop slaps him. As the night goes on, Kearns continues to tease Warthrop about his relationship with his father. Folio Three The next day, Warthrop, Kearns, Will Henry, Malachi, Morgan, and six of Morgan's men meet to prepare a trap for the Anthropophagi. Kearns is in a notably good mood. When Morgan asks Warthrop why Kearns is so cheerful at the prospect of slaughtering or possibly being slaughtered, Warthrop explains "it's the joy of a man perfectly suited for his work." Kearns directs the men in setting up the 'slaughter ring in the cemetery.' Morgan becomes steadily more and more disgusted with Kearns. When Kearns states that "there is no morality save the morality of the moment," Morgan retorts "I begin to see why you delight in hunting them. You've so much in common." Once the men have finished setting up the 'slaughter ring,' Kearns pulls out the bait he brought with them: a woman's motionless body, "reposed as a corpse." Morgan protests that using the woman's body is immoral. Kearns justifies that "it's a woman of the streets, Morgan. A common tramp with which the gutters of Baltimore are choked to overflowing." As evening comes, everyone gets into position in the trees around the slaughter ring, guns and grenades in hand. Smiling, Kearns comments "the bloody hour has come." Kearns has the woman's body chained in the middle of the slaughter ring. He goes over to her, bending over her in such a way that no one can see what he's doing. Suddenly she starts kicking and screaming, and the other men realize she is alive. Morgan curses Kearns, but thinks there's no time to help the woman as the Anthropophagi start to come up from underground. Kearns shoot the first one to injure, not to kill, in the hopes that it's suffering will draw out the rest. The woman is still screaming on the ground. Warthrop runs out to her, ignoring the injured Anthropophagi, carries the woman under the trees and starts binding up her wounds. At the sound of more Anthropophagi quickly approaching, Warthrop returns to the trees to shoot, leaving Will Henry and Malachi to tend to the woman. As the adults in the trees deal with the largest faction of Anthropophagi, a juvenile comes upon Will Henry and Malachi. Malachi shoots it, but not in an area that does lasting damage. Malachi doesn't have time to reload, so he jams the butt of the gun into the Anthropophagi's mouth. Will Henry pulls out Warthrop's revolver, but the Anthropophagi smacks it out of his hand and grabs him. (328) Will Henry pulls out a knife from his belt. He stabs each of the Anthropophagi's eyes, and then its brain, killing it. The battle ends shortly. Warthrop has Morgan's assistant take the wounded woman to a doctor. Upon examining the Anthropophagi bodies, they cannot find the leader, who they expect to recognize by her missing eye (as she was stabbed by Varner earlier on). Surmising she is still underground with her young, they decide they must go into the Anthropophagi warren and look for her in order to ensure that all of the monsters are killed. Kearns suggests that the "front door" of the Anthropophagi's underground home must be in the Warthrop mausoleum, in keeping with his theory that Warthrop's father had them brought over in the first place. Inside it, Kearns finds a hidden clock, "hands frozen at twelve." Warthrop, finally accepting that Kearn's theory must be true, suggests they try moving the hand to three o'clock because the witching hour was important to his father. They do so, and a hidden door opens. They find a locked trapdoor. Will Henry remembers the key he found earlier (still in his pocket), and tries it out: The trapdoor opens. They lower themselves into what appears to be the main pit where the Anthropophagi live and eat; the floor is covered in bones. They search the tunnels leading away from it until Kearns and Warthrop discover a small tunnel that only Will Henry can get through. He finds another juvenile Anthropophagi, sleeping. One of its forearms is missing, and it appears to be in considerable pain. Wanting to put it out of its misery, Will Henry comes up close to it to shoot it. The Anthropophagi suddenly jerks awake and grabs Will Henry. In the struggle, Will Henry's arm is bitten. Will Henry eventually manages to kill it with a large stone found on the ground. Will Henry wanders around in the tunnels until Kearns finds him. Will Henry explains what happened to him, and Kearns then instructs him to take the 'bandage' (Will's shirt, which he has wrapped around his arm) off of his bite wound, because "we don't want to risk an infection." Kearns then instructs Will Henry to follow the path Kearns has marked, which Kearns says will take Will Henry back to Warthrop. Will Henry continues, until he smells Anthropophagi ahead and stops. Kearns appears behind him and asks him why he stopped; Will Henry explains that this can't be the way back. "'I had hoped to avoid it,' was his cryptic response. 'The smell of blood should have drawn her out; I'm at a loss, frankly ,why she didn't come... I am so sorry, Mr. Henry, but there really is no choice. It is the morality of the moment.' And with those parting words John Kearns shoved me as hard as he could." Warthrop comes running over to Will Henry, who explains what Kearns did. When Kearns tries to justify his actions, Warthrop threatens to shoot him. Suddenly, the floor bursts from under them as the leader pushes up and grabs Malachi. Malachi tells Will Henry to grab a grenade from Kearn's bag; Will Henry tosses it at Malachi and the matriarch, and they are both buried in dirt, mud and rock. The matriarch rises out of the dust, leaping towards Will Henry, who knows he only has one shot left in his gun. He aims for her brain and shoots: she dies. In the final chapter, we learn that Warthrop, Kearns and Will Henry visit Starr afterward; Kearns kills him, then disappears. Six months later, Warthrop and Will Henry find a newspaper headline: Ripper Strikes Again/Whitechapel Killer Claims Fourth Victim. Finally, Warthrop gives Will Henry a new hat: after holding his old hat in one hand and his new one in the other, Will Henry tosses his old hat in the fire. |
Little Black Girl Lost 2 | null | null | The second book of the Little Black Girl Lost series reveals all the damaging secrets of the first book. Johnnie Wise, the main character, has a lot on her mind and trouble in her path. Every day Johnnie deals with the fact that she's rich by prostitution, is a high school dropout, has no parents, and is only 16. In the last year, before the second book began, Johnnie went from a church-going good girl, to a prostituting liar. Johnnie's troubles all started off on Christmas Eve, when her mother sold her virginity to a white man named Earl Shamus. Earl was a regular customer of her mother, Marguerite Wise, also a prostitute. Marguerite is later killed by the KKK leader, Richard Goode, who was also a regular customer. Johnnie wants justice for the death of her mother, and seeks the help of Napoleon Bentley. Bentley is a white Spaniard, who owns one of the hottest clubs on the black side of New Orleans. In exchange for sleeping with him, the married Napoleon grants Johnnie justice, while betraying his own morals. Lucas Matthews, Johnnie's boyfriend and Napoleon's employee, has an affair with Marla Bentley, Napoleon's wife. Lucas' inability to keep away from Marla's lust puts his life on the line. Bubbles, Napoleon's bodyguard and right hand man, constantly warns Johnnie and Lucas that the things they are doing are wrong and dangerous, but these warnings are meaningless to the naive teenagers. After Johnnie quits prostituting, she gets a job as a maid for the Beauregards. Though Johnnie doesn't have to work, she wants to get to know the white side of her family. Ethel Beauregard, Johnnie's boss, is unaware that Johnnie is her blood relative. On her first day she meets Katherine, the cook, who believes that she is queen of the house, and that the Beauregards praise her. Her thoughts of her high status are soon crushed when Johnnie sits at the table for breakfast with the Beauregards, and then feeds her sickly grandfather, Nathaniel. As Johnnie's life progresses and she tries to find the answers to all her questions, Lucas' trouble starts to unravel. One day Lucas is ordered by Napoleon to take Marla to Shreveport, Louisiana to pick out a new car. He doesn't want to go for the fact that he know he will fall into Marla's trap once again. As they make a pit stop, Lucas meets Preston, who pitches the idea that he should start selling marijuana for some fast money. When Lucas returned home, he went to Johnnie's house so they could fix their relationship. He also told Johnnie of his idea to start selling marijuana. Johnnie opposed at first, because Bubbles had warned him of these fast money ideas, but soon changed her mind and helped him carve a safe, secret plan. As Lucas and Johnnie progress, Napoleon's and Bubble's old enemies return. Vinnie Milano and John Stefano, some ten years ago, wanted to have Napoleon killed in prison, but his attempts failed. The black side of New Orleans was supposed to be Vinnie's, but Sam gave it to Napoleon instead, and Vinnie hated that. So once John heard that there was a race riot over the killing of Richard Goode he asked Sam for permission to terminate Napoleon. When Sam said no Stefano told Salvatore Porcella, his bodyguard, to take a trip to Chicago to pay Vinnie a visit, and get him to do their dirty work. When he returned to New Orleans his life was shortly ended before he could tell Stefano what happened, and that Connie Giovanni knew of their plans. Napoleon still yearned for Johnnie and would stop at nothing to get her, but first he knew that Lucas had to die. So he sent Bubbles to find Lucas' enemy, Billy Logan. It was now Thanksgiving and, Lucas was on the run for selling marijuana. Johnnie's life was going good until she got that call. Now that Lucas was in jail looking at 15 years, Johnnie was desperate for help so she went to Napoleon. Everything was going down hill for Johnnie, her stock broker stole all her money, Lucas is in jail, and now she could possibly be pregnant. She believes that Napoleon is trustworthy, but he planned all this. Sadie tries to help, but doesn't know how, so she just listens and helps educate Johnnie's young mind on the harsh ways of people. Johnnie can't even begin to think of how to handle all this. "Will God help?" She asks herself, Johnnie Wise's young life was going so great, but she now realizes she can't trust everyone and how cold the world really is. |
In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu | null | null | Dreaming of freedom from a life of brute servitude, hard labor, and debt to a tyrannical landlord, Papa Santuzzu and his wife, Adriana, push their beloved children to immigrate to La Merica, the Land of Opportunity. In his "wild and giddy imagination," Papa Santuzzu ardently believes in the ease of attaining the American Dream, the promise of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for all, and rests assured that his children will thrive in this great nation of abundance. Following the painful, yet exuberant, process of the Santuzzu children's displacement from their homeland and relocation in Papa Santuzzu's conceived lush "faraway garden," Ardizzone's novel re-imagines the meaning of such a journey, where every obvious gain entails some unforeseen sacrifice. A loving tribute to Sicilian American culture, In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu resounds with the traditional folklore and songs of Sicily, implanting within our hearts a vibrant and compassionate perspective of the struggles, joys, and proliferation of diasporic communities in modern America. In their earnest exodus to America, the Santuzzu children arduously clear away the weeds and briars in what seems a vast and rugged wilderness, managing to cultivate their own unknown, yet nonetheless beautiful, version of their Papa's paradisiacal vision—building, at last, a home-away-from home. |
Heart of the Order | null | null | The main character, Danny "Kiss of the Wolf" Bacigalupo, a baseball player from Chicago's North Side with "blood on his bat." In an open letter to his son, Danny recaps his life and explains how an accidental death, guilt, Catholicism, amnesia, a good glove, a good level swing, and the love of a fat woman with beautiful eyes can shape a life. Profoundly influenced by the accidental death of a neighborhood kid during a ball game (one of Danny's line drives struck him in the Adam's apple), Danny "suffers" the schizophrenic presence of the dead boy throughout high school, the minor leagues, and major league baseball. Bacigalupo's story begins with a flippant, jocular tone; however, it quickly hits a comfortable, engaging stride, describing the thrills, agonies, and occasional epiphanies of growing up Catholic, Italian, poor, and naturally athletic. |
In the Name of the Father | null | null | A novel deeply in the American grain that tells the story of the funny and painful transit to manhood accomplished (and endured) by Tonto Schwartz. It's the story of an emotional search for a lost parent and for a way of living. While young Tonto moves forward through successive rites of passage the psychological direction of the novel is backward in time as he struggles to understand the father he never knew. Set on Chicago's tough North Side, In the Name of the Father is a lean and elegant portrait of an American youth, a book about Chicago, Catholic education, first friends, and first loves. Its hero is a young man gifted with passion who fights his way through the grim realities of his life to a remarkable resolution. |
Settlers in Canada | null | null | The story is centered around a reasonably well off family (the Campbells) who lose their estate and decide to emigrate to Canada. It begins after they have inherited the family estates, and have settled down there. Their eldest son is has gone to college and the second son is in the navy. One day a claimant to the estate appears. His claim proves to be true and the Campbells must give up the estate. Mr. Campbell had given up his business to take over the estate and with the legal costs as well they have very little money left. They just have enough to journey to Canada, and take up a settlement near Lake Ontario. The family is united in their troubles and they pull together to make their farm a success, in the process, dealing with the weather, hostile Indians and forest fires. Eventually a letter arrives to say that the relative who had taken the estate, has died, and it is now theirs once again. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell travel home and the rest of the family go their separate ways. |
Glitz | Elmore Leonard | 1,985 | Psycho mama's boy Teddy Magyk has a serious jones for the Miami cop who put him away for raping a senior citizen—but he wants to hit Vincent Mora where it really hurts before killing him. So when a beautiful Puerto Rican hooker takes a swan dive from an Atlantic City high-rise and Vincent naturally shows up to investigate the questionable death of his "special friend," Teddy figures he's got his prey just where he wants him. But the A.C. dazzle is blinding the Magic Man to a couple of very hard truths: Vincent Mora doesn't forgive and forget ... and he doesn't die easy. |
The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole | null | null | The Createst Man In Cedar Hole is a novel about small-town life, growing up, and, above all, what it takes to be great. Cedar Hole is a mossy, dank town where only the grass seems to possess ambition. Trapped for generations by their lack of initiative, imagination, and optimism, the contentious locals feel bonded only by their distrust of the outside world. The pallor of lackluster Cedar Hole is only magnified by its neighboring community, Palmdale, a comparatively upper crust, gentrified community where the houses are as superior to those of Cedar Hole as the people who live within them. Into this gloomy world are born two boys, Robert J. Cutler and Francis "Spud" Pinkham. Yet their tie to Cedar Hole is their only commonality as they couldn't be more different. Like Cedar Hole, Francis lacks confidence, vitality or distinction while Robert is a preternaturally wise, courteous boy who effortlessly earns the admiration of those around him. Forced for much of his life to exist in the dark, deeply etched shadow of Robert's accomplishments, Francis struggles against everyone's expectations (including his own) to find his own niche of success and happiness. |
Inventing the AIDS Virus | Peter Duesberg | 1,996 | Duesberg's principal assertions are that: * AIDS is not an infectious disease. * HIV as the cause of AIDS fails Koch's postulates. * HIV is a passenger virus unrelated to AIDS. * The symptoms of AIDS are caused by the drugs used to treat the condition; recreational drug use; malnutrition; and unsanitary living conditions. * American public health and science agencies stifle creativity and suppress the true causes of AIDS. The book's central premise, that HIV is not the cause of AIDS, has been completely rejected by the scientific community as a form of AIDS denialism, since HIV has been isolated and shown to be the cause of AIDS. |
The Gods Return | null | null | Prologue In Palomir, the priest of Franca, Salmson, calls forth the Worm, a giant worm that spews a black ash cloud from its mouth that melts the flesh off of whomever it touches, through the use of blood sacrifices. Using a hair of the Lady he restrains it and gives it into the keeping of Archas, a pirate. Salmson tells him that he must always possess the talisman, or the Worm will devour all the world as it did to its own. Upon summoning the worm, they see through to the worms home world, it is barren, lifeless, and completely covered in a grey ash. The Main Events Following the events of The Mirror of Worlds Garric, Sharina, Cashel and Ilna have been reunited on Pandah, the new capital of the continent. When they begin receiving reports of rat armies moving forth from Palomir under the influence of its Emperor and the forbidden gods (Franca in particular), they are forced to separate to save the kingdom. Garric and Tenoctris take the army to Haft where they have reports that an army of Rat men are advancing. Garric leaves control of the city in the hands of Sharina as his regent. Upon arriving in Haft Garric is met by his father Reise, who urges him to return to Barca's Hamlet and visit his mother. The Army moves to Barca's Hamlet and Garric visits his mother, assuring her that despite the lack of blood relationship she is still the only mother he has ever known. We next find Garric on the march, his troops run into a foraging party of the rat men, Garric rides out to meet them with a squadron of cavalry and a regiment of infantry. In the course of the brief battle Garric discovers that the scent of the Rat men causes horses to either run in fear, or attack in a fit of rage. Garric is almost killed in the course of the battle but is saved by a platoon of infantrymen. Garric orders the recovery of some of the bodies and brings one to Tenoctris, who upon examining the corpse discovers how they are made. She informs Garric that the rats are created by stealing the souls of the dead, and putting them in the bodies of rats. She also informs him that they must venture into a different plane of existence to find Lord Munn and ask him to close the Ivory Gate, through which the souls of the dead are being stolen. Guided by a boatman, they come to a temple and awaken Lord Munn, who then closes the Ivory Gate, halting the creation of further rat legions. Returning to their own world, Garric and Tenoctris battle the legions of the Emperor and defeat them. Cashel travels with Liane and Rasile to Dariada. There they hope to stop the Worm, which now approaches the city to destroy it. They take counsel from the Tree Oracle and journey to awaken the hero Gorand, who had defeated the Worm once before and then was driven from Dariada by its people. Coming to a different world, they defeat the Lord and then pass through a gate where they defeat a pair of wizards and awake Gorand. While he is reluctant to return, he follows them out. In Dariada, he possesses the Tree Oracle, and destroys the worm. In the midst of the fighting, Cashel becomes the Shepherd, the last of the Gods to return. Ilna goes south at the request of former Admiral Zettin where she searches for one of his relatives. There she is taken by a wizard who convinces her to steal a box that belonged to the wizards deceased husband. They go down to his grave and there Ilna opens the box, meeting Usun. She travels on and comes to a new land where she meets King Perus, Princess Perrine and Prince Perrin slaves to a great ape who wants to be King and God of all. Ilna defeats the ape with her weaving and battles Hili, the Queen of Hell. Upon killing Hili, Ilna becomes the Sister, the second of the returned gods. Sharina remains on Pandah as regent where she is confronted by a new religion worshiping Lord scorpion. A mysterious figure Black enters Sharina's dreams and tells her that she is to be the high priestess of this new religion. Scorpions now run loose through the city, working as spies. Sharina befriends Burne, a speaking rat, who acts as her personal scorpion catcher. Brune is instrumental in capturing one of the new priests of the scorpion cult, a former priest of the Shepherd. When the priest is questioned he reveals that Black always appears in his dreams, and tells him where to preach, confirming for Sharina that she was not merely having a bad dream. As Black's plot is unveiled, Sharina besieges the former Temple of the Shepherd where Black has made a fortress. She defeats a large scorpion with the help of the army and then duels Black alone. Upon his doom she becomes the Lady, the first of the returned gods. Epilogue King Garric and his wife Liane supervise the erection of a new temple devoted to the three gods. They carve statues for Sharina, the Lady; Cashel, the Shepherd; and Ilna, the Sister. With the help of the Gods, Garric says, they will rule. |
The Dive From Clausen's Pier | null | null | The story begins with a group of close friends from small town Madison, Wisconsin head to Clausen’s Pier to celebrate Memorial Day. Carrie Bell has been thinking, for a long time, of how her longtime relationship with fiancé Mike Mayer is wilting away. As everyone has noticed her withdrawal from Mike, Mike decides to win back her attention by taking a daring dive off of the pier into the shallow waters below. As a result of this dive, he breaks his neck and becomes paralyzed. While all of the friends do their best to help him adapt to the situation, Carrie finds herself under too much pressure to stay in the situation, and impulsively moves to New York. In New York, Carrie attempts to come to terms with who she is as a person. She faces the guilt of leaving behind her life and paraplegic fiancé. She finds herself in love with a new man, Killroy, who helps her find herself. Carrie, being exposed to the fast-paced and electric city life, finds her release in fashion. However, the guilt becomes too much for Carrie and she is drawn back to the Midwest. She finds that the bonds are still strong and that while New York was an escape for her, her life is truly in Madison. She returns to her hometown and makes strong efforts to rebuild her relationships not only with Mike, but with her friends, family, and herself. |
Whitethorn Woods | Maeve Binchy | 2,006 | The novel is told through the stories of numerous people who are somehow connected to a town in Ireland by the name of Rossmore. The town faces a major dilemma as news surfaces that a new highway is being built through the area, which could threaten to disrupt the peaceful and undisturbed life that the town has enjoyed so far. fi:Valkeiden kukkien lehto |
24 for 3 | Charles Boyle | 2,007 | A woman whose life is split between her lover (a loss adjuster) and husband worries about the whereabouts of her teenage son and wonders about the rules of cricket. Her husband draws elaborate diagrams of field positions, in contrast her lover prefers mystery. As the woman becomes more intrigued by the game she draws parallels between the characters in her life and the strategies of the game... |
Midshipman Bolitho and the Avenger | null | null | Bolitho and Dancer are given leave from the Gorgon after its return to Plymouth for a refit. They decide to spend this holiday at the Bolitho estate. However, soon after they arrive a taxman is killed. Because they are the only agents of the King locally, they must investigate the body and suspect that he was killed by either smugglers or wreckers. Soon after, Hugh Bolitho arrives, charged with finding and capturing whoever committed the crime, and Bolitho and Dancer are ordered temporarily under his command. With the midshipman aboard, they hunt the wreckers. They capture a vessel smuggling guns, and learn that they are connected to the shipwreckers. Trying to set a trap, they send the guns in a small convey under the command of Dancer. The convey runs into an ambush in which Dancer is captured. The smugglers release Dancer who recognizes the voice of their leader, as a local member of the landed gentry. He attempts to flee to France in a private yacht, however a lucky suggestion by Bolitho allows Hugh to catch the yacht in flight, which the Avenger captures with little resistance. |
The Big Honey Hunt | Stan and Jan Berenstain | null | At the beginning of the book, around the Berenstain Bears' table, Mama Bear announces that they are out of honey and tells Papa Bear to go get some more. He agrees and takes their son, Small Bear, along with him. However, he ignores Mama Bear's advice to go to the store to buy the honey and tries to collect wild honey instead. To that end, he and Small Bear follow around a bee as it flies from tree to tree. At each tree, Papa Bear declares that he is sure there is honey inside of it, but instead variously encounters an owl, a porcupine, and a family of skunks. When they do finally find a tree full of honey, it is protected by a swarm of bees. The bees chase them down to the river, where the bears jump in to avoid them. After the bees leave and the bears exit the water, Papa Bear gives up and decides to buy the honey from the store, as Mama Bear originally suggested. |
The Twelfth Card | Jeffery Deaver | 2,005 | The story starts out in a museum where Geneva Settle, a high-school student in Harlem, is researching information for a paper about her ancestor, Charles Singleton. While she is looking at an old newspaper, Thompson Boyd, an unfeeling, professional killer, attempts to murder her. As his attempts continue, each time he leaves behind a clue which either helps or misleads Lincoln Rhyme. Amelia Sachs, Fred Dellray, Mel Cooper, and Lon Sellitto help Lincoln to solve why Boyd is after Settle. Rhyme believes initially that Geneva was the witness to a planned terrorist attack. It is eventually revealed that Boyd was hired to kill her because of her ancestor's secret. Singleton’s secret was that he owned fifteen acres of prime land in Manhattan in the 1800s. Rhyme had discovered through the investigation of the crime that Geneva's ancestor was falsely accused of murder and had his land stolen. The person who bought the land ended up creating a huge company in the modern time. As the land was not legally sold, all of Singleton's relatives were legally entitled to compensation over the course of 200 years. The chase to catch Boyd and all of his accomplices continue throughout a two day period. Throughout the story, there are also some other smaller story lines and this crime eventually leads to the solutions of other crimes. Some of the people in the novel are not who they appear to be. One of Boyd's accomplices pretends to be the guidance counselor at Settle’s high school. Also, a common vandal and criminal turns out to be Settle’s dad. |
Beauty | Raphael Selbourne | 2,009 | Set in Wolverhampton, England, Beauty relays the tribulations of ten days in the life of Beauty Begum, a nineteen-year-old Muslim Bengali woman who has survived a substantial degree of physical and emotional harm from her family. As a consequence of the fact that the novel is told using an oscillating narrator, the reader has the benefit of 'hearing' the thoughts of the main characters. At the beginning of the novel, Beauty is again living with her family after having returned from Bangladesh, where she was supposed to be the wife of a mullah more than twice her age, an arranged marriage that has not worked out due to Beauty's opposition. Having preserved her virginity, and having been pronounced dumb and insane by her family, she now realizes that she is again being singled out to marry someone for whom she does not care. The first few chapters provide an account of her unhappy life, having to provide meals for the rest of the family according to precise specifications, being verbally and physically abused by family members and only being allowed out of the home to attend English classes. Her one act of rebellion – her leaving home before it is too late – causes her first encounter with the world of "white people." She meets Mark Aston, a young ex-con who is trying hard to stay on the right path as well as Peter Hemmings, his middle-class neighbour. Peter has been unable to commit himself to his relationship with Kate Morgan, a career woman whose sophisticated feminist demands have alienated her from him. Beauty also meets a group of elderly residents of an old people's home where she finds work. Although she is appalled at many aspects of white people's lives, Beauty realizes that she can also benefit from her interactions with them. Mark's attempts at teaching the illiterate young woman to read as well as Peter's lecturing her on Western thought, in particular atheism and Darwinism, help her gain some practical knowledge and skills but also reconsider her own prejudices and strengthen her own faith. At the same time, Beauty is exposed to the bureaucracy of the welfare state and the futility of its endeavours to help those in need. Somewhat empowered, Beauty, who has successfully fought off all timid advances by both Mark and Peter, has to choose between her family duty and her own freedom. |
Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil | Derek Landy | 2,012 | Solomon Wreath is ordered by the senior necromancers to use a Sensitive to confirm if Valkyrie is the Death Bringer, the person that brings down the wall between life and death. Since the only Sensitive powerful enough, Finbar Wrong, is a friend of Valkyrie, they order Wreath to use a remnant on him to force him to comply. However, when he does so, the remnant can only see Darquesse, making Wreath think Valkyrie will be the one to defeat her. The vision makes the remnant believe Darquesse is a messiah for the remnants, and attempts to possess Wreath. When this fails, it travels to the Midnight Hotel, possesses Shudder, and frees its fellow remnants. Having killed Marr, Tesseract returns to Roarhaven to collect payment from the Torment, but is double-crossed and nearly killed, making him go on a hunt for revenge. He manages to kill one of the conspirators easily, but after he kills the second the sanctuary is attacked by remnants and he is possessed. Valkyrie spends Christmas with her family, learning that her cousins Crystal and Carol have become more friendly as their other relatives make fun of them. However, she is told that she must leave to seal her true name, and is taken to Doctor Nye, an androdgynous doctor who's woorkshop is filled with body parts, seals her true name but then attempts to experiment on her. Since she is technically dead within the workshop, she struggles to think clearly enough to escape, but succeeds in using necromancy to force Doctor Nye to let her go. She explains to Skulduggery that she is Darquesse and has sealed her name, and the pair track down Scapegrace and take him to Grouse in the hope of preventing his body from decaying further. While the remnants begin possessing people Solomon Wreath goes back to Finbar Wrong to check up on and discovers that he has been partially mentally disturbed by the remnant, when he goes to leave however he is possessed. Valkyrie introduces Fletcher to her parents and they go dancing together, but everyone in the club is possessed by remnants and the pair only narrowly escape. They run into Crystal and Carol, and Valkyrie is forced to explain to them that magic is real in order to persuade them to leave. After several close calls while the remnants take over, searching for Darquesse, the sorcerers regroup at the Hibernian, and arrange a plan to activate the giant Soul Catcher at MacGillycuddy's Reeks to recapture the remnants. In the meantime, Grouse is unleashing a harmless virus which makes people act as though they are possessed, as a cover for the remnants' escape. To complete the plan, Valkyrie reveals Gordon's Echo Stone to help the group with his knowledge on the matter, which Skulduggery claims he suspected all along. The group split up to find the key to the Soul Catcher, motivating Tanith and Ghastly to confess they have feelings for each other. However, while the key is recovered successfully, the plan comes to a halt when Fletcher is possessed. Valkyrie is rescued from her boyfriend by Billy-Ray Sanguine, who has been hired to bring down the remnants, and who asks after Tanith, hinting he has a crush on her. Valkyrie discovers that Clarabelle has been possessed and murdered Kenspeckle, and is later attacked by Fletcher. She is saved by Caelan before escaping with Skulduggery, Ghastly, Tanith, China and Billy-Ray. The group drive to the Soul Catcher, and Skulduggery reveals to Valkyrie that he suspects that one of their group is possessed. This suspicion is proven correct when China turns on the group, launching a surprise attack on Ghastly, incapacitating Skulduggery, and attacking Tanith using symbols. She orders a Remnant to possess Ghastly instead of Tanith, and kidnaps Valkyrie. However, before she escapes, Sanguine steals the key for the Soul Catcher from her. While the group find the Soul Catcher, Valkyrie is possessed by a remnant in an effort to spur their messiah's coming, bringing out Darquesse. However, Darquesse is not the remnant in control - instead, it is a part of Valkyrie which hates everything. It overpowers the remnant possessing Valkyrie, and sets about killing all bystanders with pleasure, with no regard for whose side they are on. Skulduggery arrives after a few minutes and explains that Darquesse is what Valkyrie will become if she refuses to fight back against the apathy, bitterness and hopelessness, and she finally destroys the struggling remnant in her body, which returns her to normal. He then holds Valkyrie hostage (threatening to kill her) to force the remnants to release their bodies, which allows the Soul Catcher to retrieve them. However, the one possessing Tesseract escapes and possesses Tanith. Valkyrie and Tanith fight, but Valkyrie is unable to get her to the Soul Catcher in time: the possessed Tanith escapes. As the sorcery community recovers from several deaths, a new Council is chosen, with Ravel as Grand Mage, and Ghastly and Madam Mist as Elders - Madam Mist being a close friend of the Torment, who insists she is accepted before allowing the use of the Sanctuary. Ghastly wasn't keen on taking the job, but was keen on finding a cure for Tanith. Skulduggery tells Valkyrie that there is no cure for removing a remnant after it has taken over someone for more than 4 days. Fletcher takes Valkyrie to Australia to apologize for his actions while possessed, and she tells him that she loves him, but she finds herself unwillingly interested is Caelan. Tanith arrives at Valkyrie's house, after the four day period before a Remnant fuses itself to a host, and explains that she does not plan to attack Valkyrie, but rather to lead her subtly towards her "destiny" as Darquesse; Tanith leaves with Sanguine, her new boyfriend. Skulduggery attempts to arrest Tesseract after Tesseract kills the Torment, but during the chase Tesseract is mortally-wounded by a man claiming to be Lord Vile, who says to Skulduggery that he has returned and is building up his strength, and that he plans to kill Valkyrie, who he thinks may be the Death Bringer, and all of the Necromancers. Before he dies, Tesseract recalls that Skulduggery never fought Vile, and asks if Vile's necromancy reanimated him, but Skulduggery does not answer. Tesseract asks Skulduggery to bring him outside as a dead man's last request and he dies looking out at the sunrise. |
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet | David Mitchell | 2,010 | The novel begins in the summer of 1799 at the Dutch East Indies Company trading post Dejima in the harbor of Nagasaki and tells the story of a Dutch trader's love for a Japanese midwife who is, however, spirited away into a sinister mountain temple cult. |
The Nader Report on the Federal Trade Commission | Edward F. Cox | 1,970 | It is important to note that this report is based on the FTC as it was in the 1960s. During this time, the FTC was under scrutiny for major weaknesses. One year after the Nader Report was published, the ABA Commission to Study the FTC also issued a report criticizing the FTC, exploring whether or not the FTC should be abolished. The main arguments of the Nader Report were: * The FTC is ineffective. * The FTC is passive about its duties, is not proactive about discovering violations, delays actions to an unreasonable extent, and has ineffective enforcement practices. * The FTC should prioritize problems that have a high area of impact (e.g., many potential victims, particularly vulnerable victims, extraordinary cost to the victims). * The FTC needs to improve detection of such problems, particularly through direct grassroots involvement and active investigation. * The FTC needs to resolve the fundamental process and power issues that prevent it from taking action in a timely manner. * The FTC should not be a "friend" to business; it needs to be feared, and it needs to provide strong disincentives to businesses for committing violations. * The FTC should not be able to hide behind secrecy and powerful political and business relationships. |
Into the Gauntlet | Margaret Haddix | 2,010 | Into the Gauntlet begins as Amy and Dan Cahill enter a London hotel tired and with no lead whatsoever. They receive another lead, but this is stolen by Isabel Kabra via a pet monkey, who leaves them a coin with a fancy script K on it. However, Dan, who has already memorized it, rewrites it. Amy looks all over the Internet to find out what it means, and she is about to shout out when Nellie realizes that the Kabra coin is a bug. She destroys it, along with three other bugs from each of the other three branches. Amy then tells them that the clue leads to William Shakespeare, so they go to a performance of Romeo and Juliet in The Globe Theatre. Once there, they confront the Starlings, who are back in the clue hunt after being sent to the hospital in an explosion back in The Maze of Bones, and steal their lead, but they are trapped by Jonah Wizard, who was forced back into the clue hunt by Cora Wizard, the Holts, Alistair Oh, and the Kabras. Hamilton Holt steals the piece of paper with the lead, but Dan rips off the top and bottom, and he and Amy run away while everyone else is fighting over the rest of the lead. Their section of the lead says: "For this great man we sing was b here". The rest of the word that goes with the letter "b" was torn off, so they assume that it was supposed to be "born". At Shakespeare's birthplace, Amy and Dan realize that the word was supposed to be "buried" and are the last to arrive at Shakespeare's grave site besides Isabel Kabra, Eisenhower Holt, and Cora Wizard. However, they are surprised to find that no one is fighting with each other and are instead making unsuccessful exchanges of clues and information. The teams eventually leave the Cahills in the grave site with video cameras, but they are aware of this and communicate by writing on a sheet of paper while pretending to draw a picture of Shakespeare. They then go outside to Shakespeare's grave, and Dan does a rubbing of it. However, just as Dan finds a secret line that does not show on the tombstone, the other teams arrive. Dan pretends to mess up and tears the paper apart, careful to rub just the first four lines when someone from each team asks for a rubbing. Once everyone leaves, he makes a rubbing for them but includes the last four lines, in which Shakespeare asks them to dig up his grave. Inside Shakespeare's grave, Amy and Dan find a metal pole with the words, "Madrigal Stronghold * Cahill Ancestral Home" encircling it. They also find a ribbon with seemingly random letters on it but are forced to unravel it as the other teams appear and chase them. Meanwhile, Sinead Starling steals a digitized version of the ribbon from the grave's guardian while everyone else plants a homing device on Amy and Dan, who have recreated the ribbon out of the bottom of Amy's old t-shirt and wrapped it around the metal pole to find the coordinates to the house of the original Cahills- a house on an island off the coast of Ireland. The other teams follow them there, but they are forced to work together as they make their way through the gauntlet, a series of doors with questions about the clue hunt. However, every door except the last is opened, and when they reach the vial that supposedly has the master serum, they find that Isabel Kabra beat them to it. She reveals that the serum is fake and forces them to give her all their clues to save the people they love. However, when Isabel is about to drink it, Ned Starling bursts into the room, and she turns towards him, about to shoot him with her gun. Everyone unites and charges her, knocking the gun and the serum out of her hands. But then only Amy and Dan are holding her down while everyone else chases after the serum, and she reaches the gun, knocking Dan in the stomach with it. She is about to shoot him when Amy, out of options, grabs the vial with the serum and slams it down on Isabel's head. It shatters, destroying the serum, but everyone gives Amy and Dan their clues because they were the only ones that held down Isabel while they all chased after the serum. After finding their way out of the gauntlet, the teams separate on amiable terms, and Amy and Dan stay behind with Fiske Cahill and Mr. McIntyre, who give them a letter from Grace. They then reveal that the entire Clue Hunt was just a preparation for the battle with another family. Amy and Dan are left in the legal custody of both their Great-Uncle Fiske and Nellie, but the letter makes it clear that their adventures aren't over yet. The pictures under the page are secret code that means 'The Cahills aren't the only ones looking for the clue. The Vesper is rising.' |
An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President | Randall Robinson | null | Robinson begins by mention of the date and time of February 29, 2004 4:30 a.m., stating, "The real events of the story are very unlike those described to the general public." He knows that the conventional accounting of Aristide's removal from office is quite different than the entire history he is about to tell. The date of December 9, 1492 is described as the most fateful of days… Then, there were an estimated 8 million native Taínos living on the island of Hispaniola. "Within 20 years, there were fewer than 28,000." "Thirty years on, by 1542, only 200 Taínos remained." Many chapters are also entitled with a date. November 17, 1803 is a good example. This date represents a date that Robinson describes as significant because, "It may have been the most stunning victory won for the black world in a thousand years. There has been nothing quite like it, before or since." Here he is describing the defeat of slavery, in Haiti, by the Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture. The ramification of these dates in Haitian history is monumental, per Robinson. "As a direct result of what the Haitian revolutionaries did to free themselves, France lost two thirds of its world trade income." Furthermore, the Haitian revolutionaries had a global perspective on fighting slavery. They worked with Simón Bolívar in an effort to fight slavery in South America. And they also "rolled out an unconditional welcome mat to anyone who escaped European colonialism in Africa or fled bondage from a slave plantation anywhere in the Americas, North, South, or Central." Meanwhile, in the United States Thomas Jefferson said, "If this combustion can be introduced among us under any veil whatever, we have to fear it." Jefferson was fearful that the Haitian revolt might spread to slaves in America. Robinson quotes Garry Wills…"From that moment, Jefferson and the Republicans showed nothing but hostility to the new nation of Haiti." Haiti had been "the most profitable slave colony in the world" and "slaves were routinely worked to death, starved to death, or beaten to death.". "Of the 465,000 black slaves living in Haiti when the revolt began, 150,000 would die during the 12 and a half years of fighting for their freedom." Frederick Douglass is quoted as stating that the Haitian harbor of Mole St. Nicolas is of such strategic importance that, "It commands the windward passage which is the shipping lane between Haiti and Cuba." "The nation that can get it and hold it will be the master of the land and sea in its neighborhood." So for the next two hundred years, Haiti would be faced with the active hostility from the world's most powerful community of nations." The hostilities came in the form of "military invasions, economic embargoes, gunboat blockades, reparations demands, trade barriers, diplomatic quarantines, subsidized armed subversions." When the French departed from Haiti, they demanded reparations from Haiti of roughly $21 billion (in 2004 dollars). Robinson states that there were a number of important precedents in the Caribbean that shed light on the U.S. position towards Haiti. They included sending U.S. troops to the Dominican Republic in the early 20th century to force the Dominican Republic to give Washington the power to collect customs revenues for the U.S. at the Dominican Republic's main shipping ports. This led to the U.S. invading the Dominican Republic in 1915 and occupying the country until the end of 1924. In 1937, the Dominican Republic, under the U.S. sponsored dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, massacred 35,000 Haitians. The American Secretary of State, Cordell Hull stated that, "Trujillo is one of the greatest men in Central America and in most of South America." In 1951 the U.S. overthrew the democratically elected government of Guatemala. This occurred, according to Robinson, because the elected president Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán raised the minimum wage to $1.08/day and he attempted moderate land reforms for the benefit of the Guatemalan people. In response to this, the U.S. accused the Guzman government of being under the influence of communism. Robinson states that the Guzman government had no communists in their fairly elected government and that the real reason for the U.S. aggression in the area was to protect the interest of the American owned corporation, the United Fruit Company, (now called Chiquita Brands). Furthermore, Robinson says that the U.S. supported the Haitian dictators François Duvalier, and Jean-Claude Duvalier, Henri Namphy, Leslie Manigat, and Prosper Avril. François Duvalier killed an estimated 50,000 Haitians. He ruled from 1957 to 1971. Jean-Claude Duvalier took control after his father died in 1971 and continued the brutal dictatorship until February 1986. Military rulers overthrew Aristide, not just once, but twice, once in 1991 and again in 2004. Both elections of Aristide were lawful democratic elections. "There were no charges of malfeasance, either adjudicated, or formally lodged against him." The elections also included the election of 7,500 other official government positions. Robinson describes Aristide as "a democratic president who'd been elected twice by the largest margins on record for free elections in the Americas." In 1991, shortly after Aristide was elected, he was overthrown by General Raul Cedras, Colonel Roger Biambi, and Police Chief Michel François. In 1994 those dictators were forced from power and democracy was restored. Cedras had been trained by the U.S. at the School of the Americas. Later, Michel François was indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for shipping large quantities of cocaine. In 1991, the former U.S. Attorney General, Ramsey Clark formed the Investigative Commission on Haiti. The Commission reported, "200 soldiers of the U.S. Special Forces arrived in the Dominican Republic with the authorization of Dominican Republic President Hipolito Mejia, as part of the military operation to train anti-democracy Haitian rebels." Robinson states, "Thus they were prepared to scuttle a democracy, a constitution, an elected parliament, a functioning national government, to drive one man, Jean-Bertrand Aristide out of office, out of Haiti, indeed out of the Western Hemisphere." He continues to say, "To this wholly illegal and anti-democratic purpose, several forces cleaved as one. The armed rebels, the United States of America, France, Canada, the Dominican Republic, and a new association of Haitian opposition splinter groups forged, funded, and counseled, by the International Republican Institute, and the Convergence Democratique, all worked towards the overthrow of the populist Aristide. Convergence Democratique would later morph into a subversive right wing organ known as Group 184 " Haitian anti-democratic rebel leaders included Guy Phillipe, Louis-Jodel Chamblain, Ernst Ravix, and Paul Arcelin. "U.S. military officials have confirmed that 20,000 M16 rifles were given to the Dominican Republic shortly after Aristide normalized diplomatic relations with Cuba on February 6, 1996." In November 2000, Aristide was re-elected for a second term with 90% of the vote. Aristide increased the number of schools, and hospitals, and he worked for the treatment and prevention of Aids. He raised Haiti's minimum wage in 2003 from $1/day to $2/day." He also established one standard birth certificate by eliminating the previous two-tiered race and class birth certificates." In 2002 another anti-Aristide insurrection was led by Guy Phillipe, a former police precinct captain who had been trained by the CIA ." Bertrand had proclaimed that France owed Haiti $21 billion (valued in current dollars) for the money France extorted from Haiti following its successful slave rebellion, and when Jean-Bertrand Aristide was kidnapped and removed from office in 2004, still 1% of the population owned 50% of the country's wealth." Robinson states, "Where the poor were concerned, the United States invariably opposed the efforts of the poor's own governments, whenever and wherever those governments tried in any serious or structured way to ameliorate the poverty of their own people. If there has ever been a circumstance in which the Americans did not take the side of the rich in efforts to quash even modest reforms to help the poor, I do not know of it." In early February 2004, the anti-Aristide rebels launched their attack by "torching fire stations, and jails…and murdering rural police officers" Per Robinson, on February 29, 2004, Aristide was kidnapped and driven out of office. Robinson states that the United States had always supported the wealthiest Haitian families such as the Mevs, the Bigios, the Apaids, the Boulos, the Nadals. Senator Christopher Dodd confirmed this when he said, "We had interests and ties with some of the very strong financial interests in the country and Aristide was threatening them." On January 1, 2004, Haiti celebrated its 200th birthday and 500,000 Haitians celebrated the fact that they now had a democratically elected government. On Saturday February 7, 2004, 1,000,000 Haitian people demonstrated in support of Aristide. They were demanding that he be allowed to finish his five-year term. They knew that his governance was being threatened. The United States, however, favored the International Republican Institute (IRI) which is a U.S. non-profit organization that builds mechanisms to support "democracy" overseas. Per Robinson, despite their claims, the IRI funded right wing wealthy opponents to the Aristide government and thereby supported the opposite of democracy. Furthermore, Stanley Lucas was the senior program officer for the IRI and he had significant Duvalier affiliations. The Bush administration through an Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere, Roger Noriega, fully supported the I.R.I. Jesse Helms, the Republican chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Aristide "insane, dictatorial, tyrannical, corrupt and a psychopath." Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister, blamed Aristide for "spreading violence." Jamaican Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson, threatened to "impose sanctions on Aristide." The American television networks portrayed Aristide's departure in 2004 as if it were a voluntary departure. Randall Robinson spoke with Aristide on March 1, 2004 to learn then that Aristide had been transported to the Central African Republic against his will. Robinson was told by Aristide that Aristide had been forcibly removed from office in a coup. Per Robinson, the Haitian rebels who had removed Aristide from office, "had been trained by United States Special Forces." They were trained "in the Dominican villages of Neiba, San Cristóbal, San Isidrio, Hatillo, and Haina." Robinson states that the Armed Forces of Haiti (the Haitian Armed Forces under the Duvalier regimes), and the Front For the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH, a paramilitary death squad that fought against democracy) massacred some 5,000 Haitians between 1991 and 1994. Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a Duvalier death squad leader, was accused of war crimes committed in 1987, 1991, 1993 and 1994 including the murder of Antoine Izmery, a pro-democracy advocate. Guy Phillipe received Central Intelligence Agency training in Ecuador. He ordered paramilitary to kill Aristide supporters. Per Robinson, the opposition to democracy was "an amalgam of killers, drug runners, embezzlers, kleptocrats and sadists and included the wealthy and the elites of Haitian society." Per Robinson, the United States provided the rebels with M16s, grenades, grenade launchers, M50s. Emmanuel Constant was another player in opposition to Aristide, and along with Phillipe and Chamblain, they slaughtered thousands of innocent pro-democracy civilians. After the abduction of Aristide, George W. Bush called Jacques Chirac to thank him for French cooperation in the removal of Aristide. Robinson continues, "Condoleezza Rice had directly threatened Jamaica for offering asylum to Aristide" "The United States wanted Aristide not only out of Haiti but out of the Caribbean. Senator Christopher Dodd cited U.S. Department of Defense documents that indicated that the US did, in fact, supply 20,000 M16s to the Dominican Republic prior to the deposition of Aristide. "American officials had armed and directed the thugs, organized an un-elected and un-electable opposition, and choked the Haitian economy into dysfunctional penury." The Central African Republic President at the time was François Bozizé. The Central African Republic is French controlled. The French Defense Minister stated that the Aristides were being guarded by French soldiers in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. Robinson and Maxine Waters (member of the U.S. Congress) then obtained an offer of asylum signed by P.J. Patterson, the prime minister of Jamaica. They attempted to get François Bozizé, the president of the Central African Republic, to accept it. CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN all turned down Robinson's request to join him to report on the events surrounding the removal of Aristide from office. Robinson, however, did get Amy Goodman (an independent news reporter for Democracy Now), Sharon Hay-Webster (a member of the Jamaican parliament), Peter Eisner (a deputy foreign editor at the Washington Post), Sidney Williams (a former U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas), Ira Kurzban (one of the best known lawyers in America for Immigration and Employment Law) to join him in Bangui. Robinson states, "American decision makers only feign concern about world poverty. And they sustain the lament only so long as the pretense and its addictive but useless, solutions are profitable, directly or indirectly, to American private interests." "The force, the power plant, is money, the relentless campaign to capture it, and the God-invoked armed ruthlessness to keep it." Robinson and his entourage succeeded in getting Bozizé to release Aristide and Aristide's wife to the entourage and they took the couple to Jamaica. ." The U.S. then installed Gerard Latortue as interim president. When Latortue rescinded the Haitian demand for restitution from France, Florida House Republicans Mark Foley and Eugene Clay Shaw, Jr. introduced a house resolution commending Latortue for his great service to Haiti." Robinson states that, between the day of the abduction and the election, in 2006, of René Préval, at least 4000 Haitians had been killed by the interim government." Finally, Robinson concludes by saying "as long as one member nation of the global family of nations is free to behave toward a fellow member nation with lethal impunity—to bully, to menace, to invade, to destabilize politically or economically, to reduce to tumult—no country, so threatened, can hope to enjoy the social and political contentment that ought inherently to attend democratic practices." |
The Head of the House of Coombe | Frances Hodgson Burnett | null | Lord Coombe is considered to be the best-dressed man in London. He is also a man whose public reputation, despite his formidable intellect and observant eye, is one of unmitigated wickedness. During one of his social forays, he meets a selfish young woman named 'Feather' with the face of an angel. Fascinated by her, he slowly drifts into her circle. When her husband dies unexpectedly, leaving her alone and desolate in London, he ends up taking her under his wing. Feather has a daughter named Robin, of whom she takes little notice. She treats Robin with shocking neglect and once Coombe takes over responsibility for the household's finances, Feather readily abandons poor Robin to the less-than-kindly ministrations of her nurse. In fact, Robin doesn't even know Feather is her mother for her first six years, calling her 'The Lady Downstairs'. Robin also hates Coombe, having heard a conversation that blamed him for the loss of her first friend. This was a little boy named Donal who was in fact Coombe's heir. Donal's mother disapproves both of Coombe and Feather and when she discovers that her son has been playing with Robin, she whisks him away, leaving Robin heartbroken. However, Coombe does not return this dislike and in fact makes a point of serving as her guardian, albeit without Robin's knowledge. As Robin grows, he builds her a set of rooms, engages a loving nurse for her, and eventually secures a reputable governess for her. While her mother continues to behave with the selfish freedom of a wanton child. As Robin grows, she becomes a lovely and intelligent though innocent, girl. Feather's circle includes some unsavory characters, one of whom, a German nobleman, tries to make Robin into his plaything. This caricature of Imperial German stereotypes uses Robin's desire to support herself to trap her in a house of ill repute. His plan fails mainly through the actions of Coombe, but the after-effects leave Robin crushed. One of Coombe's few true confidants is a dowager Duchess - a woman of both great intellect and great understanding who has recently lost her long-time lady companion. After Robin's experiences with the German, Coombe suggests Robin as a suitable replacement. The Duchess is the one person who knows the secret of Coombe's determination to watch over Robin and why he is willing to tolerate the activities of her mother. This secret is finally communicated to the reader as well during one of Coombe's talks with the Duchess. The Duchess does indeed take in Robin and befriends her. Robin is introduced to the Duchess' children and their friends and finally sponsors a small dance for Robin. At the dance, Robin meets Donal again as Coombe and the Duchess learn that an Austrian Archduke has just been assassinated in Serbia. |
A Captain's Duty | null | null | A mariner of 30 years' experience when his ship was taken, Phillips utilized all security precautions to keep his crew safe and hidden, leaving him as the only possible hostage. This led to an ordeal of several days in a lifeboat in the hands of pirates, who Phillips portrays as alternately conciliatory, vicious, and unfocused. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy assembled a large task force, and tensions steadily rose, as did Phillips’ fear for his life. The book details Phillips' attempted escape and eventual rescue by U.S. Navy SEALs, and portrays Phillips' wife Andrea as loyal and strong-willed. |
Freaky Green Eyes | Joyce Carol Oates | 2,003 | The novel opens with Franky explaining how "Freaky" came into her life. It was the week before her 14th birthday and she went to a college party near the Puget Sound in Washington with some friends from her high school. While there, she met Cameron (a college freshman at the University of South Carolina), who encouraged Franky to drink and tried to rape her. A strong swimmer, Franky used her legs to kick Cameron hard enough to get him off of her. Afterward, Cameron looked at her and said, "You should see your eyes! Freaky green eyes!" Franky, now 15, lives in Yarrow Heights (a suburb of Seattle) with her father, Reid Pierson, her mother Krista Pierson, her younger sister Samantha and her half brother Todd. A sports reporter, Reid had a big contract go through with a TV network and wants to celebrate with his family. Krista, however, goes to an arts and crafts convention in Santa Barbara, California instead, which angers Reid. When Krista returns home, Franky starts to notice the tension between her parents, especially after overhearing them fight. She hears her mom say she does not want to go Reid's work gatherings because she feels like she doesn't fit in with his crowd. In turn, Reid gets mad that Krista isn't fulfilling her role as a wife. Krista starts wearing scarves around her neck and long shirts to cover her wrists and arms, and Franky notices, thinking her mother is hiding bruises. Yet she cannot muster up the courage to ask her about it. Instead, she starts feeling resentful toward her mother, thinking all the fighting was Krista's fault for provoking Reid. Younger sister Samantha worries that Krista and Reid will divorce but both say that won't happen, "now or ever." Slowly, Krista moves out of the house and into a small cabin in Skagit Harbor. She starts by taking her art supplies, then clothes and her dog, Rabbit. Whenever Reid would be home, Krista would live in her cabin. When he'd Reid leave to cover sporting events, she would come back home to be with her children. Samantha would call Krista and beg her to come pick them up so they could all spend time together, but Krista would always say no, saying it was their father's decision. Reid, however, would say the opposite. Samantha's frustration angered Reid and he'd twist her arm to make her quiet, giving her welts. For the Fourth of July, Franky and Samantha go with their father to Cape Flattery to stay with one of his friends. While there, Franky learns that Reid's friend's sons steal animals from a wildlife refuge and put them in cages to make their own zoo. In the middle of the night, Franky releases all the animals. When confronted about it the next morning, she confesses but says she's not sorry. Enraged, Reid grabs Franky and shakes her very hard, stopping only after his friend pulls him away. Later that month, Reid finally lets the girls go down to Skagit Harbor to visit their mother. Franky vaguely remembers the cabin from her childhood, recognizing the fake rooster she had thought was real as a kid. Krista shows them around the property, including a small burrow hidden underneath a rock, but the reunion is cut short when Reid arrives, yelling at Franky and Samantha to pack up and get in his car. When they get in, Reid tells them Krista is having an affair and they should never forgive her for it. After that, Krista tries to call and talk to her daughters, but Reid tells the new housekeeper to forbid it. Twyla, Franky's best friend, tells Franky that Krista calls her to talk about Franky and see how she is. Twyla tells Franky that Krista said, "Don't forget Mr. Rooster!" One night, Franky phones Krista and angrily tells her she never wants to see her again. The next day, she regrets what she said and tries to find her mother's number but can't find it. She had no idea the conversation the night before would be their last. Krista (and her friend Mero Okawa) disappear. The police interview Franky about where Reid had been that night, but Franky says Reid took medication for a headache and slept the entire night. During the interview, she expresses her anger at her mother, only referring to her as "Krista Connor," not "mom." As a result of media attention on the case, Franky and her family move Reid's defense lawyer's house on Vashon Island. While there, the defense lawyer coaches Samantha and Franky, telling them that if Reid would have left in the middle of the night, they would have heard him leave. During this time, "Freaky" tries to convince Franky that something is not right. Franky searches the Internet and discovers that police investigators found "non-human" blood in the cabin, which she concludes belonged to the dog. One night, Franky dreams about her mother's cabin, and in the dream, the fake rooster is crowing. The next morning, Franky skips school and heads towards Skagit Harbor to visit her mother's cabin. She walks over toward the barn and looks into the secret burrow, where she finds her mother's journal, which Krista had kept throughout her separation with Reid. In the journal, Krista writes about how Reid beat and her threatened to kill her. After reading the journal, Franky realizes what her father has done. She also recalls waking up the night her mother disappeared, hearing Reid coming into the house through a door they never use. Franky calls her Aunt Vicky to pick her up and they go to the police station. In a second interview, Franky tells the police the truth, not what she has been coached to say by her father or the defense lawyer. Reid is convicted and sentenced to 50 years-to-life without parole for the deaths of Krista and Mero, whose bodies were found dumped at Deception Pass. Franky and Samantha, in the custody of their aunt, move to New Mexico. * Francesca "Franky" Pierson - The 15-year-old narrator and protagonist that keeps a journal to reflect on the time before her mother went missing. * Krista Pierson - Franky and Samantha's mother and also Todd's stepmother. Her maiden name is Connor (which the name she used to sign her artwork). She had been a TV announcer before marrying Reid. * Reid Pierson - Franky, Samantha, and Todd's abusive father. He had been a famous professional football player before becoming a sportscaster for CBS. * Samantha Pierson - Franky's 10-year-old sister. * Todd Pierson - Franky and Samantha's 20-year-old stepbrother who followed in his father's footsteps and plays college football. * Rabbit - Krista's Jack Russell terrier dog. * Mero Okawa - Krista's gay friend in Skagit Harbor. Reid thought he was Krista's lover. * Bonnie Lynn Byers - Reid's first wife and Todd's mother. She was killed in a boating accident. Reid was the only witness. Her case was reopened after Krista's case was concluded. |
The Book of Khalid | Amin al-Rihani | 1,911 | The novel, which is intensely autobiographical as Rihani himself immigrated as a child, tells the story of two boys, named Khalid and Shakib, from Baalbek in Lebanon (at the time, the Syrian province of the Ottoman Empire) who migrate together to the United States, coming by ship through Ellis Island and enduring the classic "Via Dolorosa" of an immigrant. They move into a wet cellar in the Little Syria community of Lower Manhattan near Battery Park and begin to peddle counterfeit Holy Land trinkets and religious items throughout the city, a typical Arab endeavor in America. While Shakid, although himself a poet, is focused and accumulates savings through peddling, Khalid becomes distracted and turns away from commercial activity toward frantically consuming Western literature and participating in the New York City intellectual and bohemian scene. At one point, he burns his peddling box, decrying the dishonesty of their sales. After exhaustion from reckless "bohemian" pursuits, Khalid shifts towards party politics when he is offered the position of a functionary and ward for the Arab community in the machine politics of the city. However, Khalid insists on moral purity in his political work, causing conflict with his "Boss." As a result, he is jailed for a brief time of ten days (Shakid helps secure his release) under the charge of misapplying public funds. The two decide to return to Lebanon before long, and Khalid then shifts back to intense peddling for a time, paying off his accumulated debts and earning funds for return passage. Describing the result of their return, Christoph Schumann has stated that "the subsequent course of events mirrors the progress of his American experience: spiritual retreat, political activism, and persecution." Khalid soon engages in a series of actions that anger Maronite clerics in his home city. He refuses to attend church services and spreads pamphlets and ideas seen as heretical. Moreover, he presses his wish to marry Najma, a young cousin, but Church leaders refuse to grant consent. As result of the growing conflict, Khalid is excommunicated, Najma is forced to marry another, and Khalid moves to the mountain forests and starts to live as a hermit. During this period of exile, he contemplates nature and integrates lessons learned in America with his views on the cultural and political dilemmas of the Arab world. He evolves into a self-identified "voice" for the Arabs, and chooses to return to spread his views on liberation from the Ottoman empire and on the importance of religious unity and scientific progress. Khalid travels to different cities engaging in political and spiritual speech, periodically writing letters to Shakib. During his travels, Khalid meets an American Baha'i woman named Mrs. Gotfry with whom he discursively engages on questions of love and religion. He travels to Damascus where he speaks in the Great Mosque about his views of the West and of religious tradition, producing a riot and prompting the Ottoman authorities to pursue his arrest. He flees with Mrs. Gotfry to Baalbek, where he meets Shakib and learns that Najma, along with her young son, is abandoned and now ill. All together (Khalid, Mrs. Gotfry, Najma, her son, and Shakib), they flee to the Egyptian desert to escape the Ottoman authorities. After an idyllic period in the desert of several months, Mrs. Gotfry and Shakib leave. Najma's son, Najid, dies suddenly of an unexpected illness, and Najma relapses and follows him in death in her grief. Khalid disappears and does not contact Shakib; his whereabouts are unknown. |
The Seventh Scroll | Wilbur A. Smith | 2,008 | This book is set in the present day and follows the exploits of adventurer Nicholas Quenton-Harper and his love interest, the beautiful Dr. Royan Al Simma as they try and uncover the tomb of Tanus as described in River God. Wilbur Smith makes references to himself in the book, parodying the conventions of violence and sex often seen in his work. Duraid Al Simma and his wife Royan decipher the seventh scroll, which Taita had placed in the tomb of Lostris. Unfortunately, before they could proceed further, they are attacked and their work is stolen. Duraid is brutally murdered, but Royan manages to escape into the night, for help. She narrowly escapes death for the second time. Royan heads to England and there convinces an old friend of Duraid, Nicholas, of the existence of the fabulous treasure that is in the tomb of Pharaoh Mamose. During her stay in England she narrowly escapes death for the third time as she and her mother drive back home. Struck with confusion, fear and insecurity, she entrust herself into Nicholas's companionship. Together they travel to Ethiopia following clues laid out by Taita. As the pair journey along together, they grow fond of each other's company, with heart-felt love and romance. They find the location of the tomb, but are then attacked by the Pegasus group, which was also behind earlier attempts on Royan's life. Once again Royan and Nicholas's work are stolen. It is revealed that the Pegasus group is owned by Herr von Schiller, a ruthless German collector. With the help of his right hand man Jake Helm, Colonel Nogo, and Duraid's former assistants under his command, he acquires a strong force that are willing to go to extreme lengths for his sake. Colonel Nogo was put in charge of keeping Royan and Nicholas out of their way and Duraid's assistant was in charge of exploiting the works Nicholas and Royan discovered, while Jake Helm provided them with Pegasus's facilities. Meanwhile, with the help of an old friend of Nicholas, Mek Nimmur (leader of a notorious force of Christian gangs, 'Shuftas'), Nicholas and Royan sneak back into Ethiopia for the second time, but this time illegally and with equipment to search for the treasure. Accompanying them is an old fisherman who has knowledge of building dams. He is employed under Nicholas's demand, to help in their quest. With spies of Herr Von Schiller's gloating around Nicholas and Royans's premises, the question of how Nicholas and Royan manage to find the tomb and escape from von Schiller forms the rest of the novel. |
Rapture of the Deep | null | 2,009 | The novel begins minutes after the final confrontation with Jacky's Head Agent Jardineaux that was just about to kill her at the end of the last novel (My Bonny Light Horseman.) Her schooner, 'Nancy B. Alsop', comes to receive Jacky from Paris. Once aboard, her butler Master John Higgins cleans her up and Jacky tells him of her duty as a nightclub dancer and spy for the British. She also tells of Jean-Paul, who she had a relationship with along the course of events. When reunited with Jaimy who's done recovering from an attack on sea, the two decide to get married when at home in Britain. When in London, she reunites with friends Mairead, Judy, little Joannie and her grandfather Pastor Alsop (her late mother's father.) Jacky dines with Jaimy's family, despite the strained relationship with Mother Fletcher. She manages to charm Jaimy's father and brother, but his mother still hates him. On the day of the wedding, Mairead, Judy, and Joannie help get Jacky ready for the wedding but soon, there's a massive interruption. And it's none other than British Intelligence; the ones who assigned Jacky's first previous mission as a spy. Mairead and Judy fight the British back but Jacky is taken along with Jaimy. Jacky reunites with Mr. Peel and Lord Grenville. When Jacky acts up, Lord Grenville reminds her of past relationships with Spanish pirate, Flaco Jimenez, Captain Lord Richard Allen, and Jean-Paul de Valdon just to inform Jaimy of her cheating ways that he's already been subjected to back outside of New Orleans. Soon when they come to terms that Jacky was about to embark on another mission, the two officials inform Jacky of the assignment at hand. Back in 1733, the ship 'Santa Magdalena' sunk due to a dangerous typhoon and on the ship was millions upon millions of gold in coins. Britain wants to retrieve that gold to help the economy and Jacky is promised a percentage of that gold and a possible pardon from the King himself, despite her crimes of piracy. Luckily for Jacky, Jaimy is allowed to be with her on the mission but they will be on separate ships. Both ships are Jacky's: the 'Dolphin' and 'Nancy B. Alsop.' On the 'Dolphin', the ship will be commandeered by none other than Captain Hannibal Hudson while Jacky is to be captain of the 'Nancy B.' Jaimy is stationed on the Dolphin along with Lieutenant Flashby. Despite the fact that Flashby will be in on this mission, Jacky will have aboard her crew Davy and Tink from the Dread Brotherhood of the 'Dolphin.' Also on board her schooner is Higgins, little Joannie Nichols and Daniel Prescott. Jacky is also reunited with Dr. Sebastian who is "the leader of scientific expedition." But as of right now, Jacky don't know of anyone else who is to be helping on the expedition with the exception of her very own John Thomas and Smasher McGee. What Jacky is assigned to do is sail to the Florida Keys to where the 'Santa Magdalena' is located under the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean. When allowed to leave, Jacky and Jaimy are aware of their positions on separate boats. Another regulation is that there's to be no sexual intercourse between the two of them; the British have no use for a pregnant agent. They depart on their two separate ships and sail for Boston. In Spanish waters, Jacky is required to take up a disguise as an American sponge diver called Jacqueline Bouvier. The Spanish are conflicting with the British so Jacky and her crew must maintain an American cover when in the Caribbean. Jacky prepares to revisit the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls and wears her outrageous red wig and mantilla for the occasion. When there, she reunites with Annie who is married Davy and all her old Lawson Peabody friends and have dinner. She sees her friend and biographer, Amy Trevelyne, who has recently taken a liking for Ezra Pickering. Jacky reunites with Captain Hudson and Jaimy; Among the others aboard for the journey are Flashby and Mr. Bennett. Hudson show Jacky a contraption called the diving bell which will aid Jacky underwater whilst swimming for sponges and scavenging the 'Santa Magdalena for the gold supply. And the one designing the bell is none other than Professor Tilden himself; he's the scientific expert aboard the 'Dolphin' just as Dr. Sebastian is, aboard the 'Nancy B. Alsop.' Before setting sail for the Keys, Jacky tells Captain Hudson to be on the lookout for any ship-jumpers that might get on board for information and turn it in to the opposing forces such as the Spanish. Jacky and Jaimy enjoy time together but must depart for a couple of weeks. While docked in Charleston, Jacky, Davy, and Tink, enjoy time together and visit a couple of taverns where she performs her songs on pennywhistle and violin The next day, Jacky and the group run along a slave trade being done. Black people are being auctioned to the highest bid while being laughed by a racist crowd. Jacky is deeply angered by this kind of trade going on but bids for a rotund, old slave woman named Jemimah. Despite being laughed at by the local Colonel Ashley Tarleton for wanting an old Negro woman as a slave, she takes Jemimah to the 'Nancy B.' Despite the lukewarm reception Jacky gets from her crew, Jemimah is taken in as the ship's cook and mother figure to Joannie and Daniel. Jacky then talks to Jemimah personally to let her know she is freed as a slave and when they get to Havana, she has the option to walk away with the pay she gets from Faber Shipping or stay as a permanent member of the ship. Jemimah says she will decide on that later. Soon Jacky is prepping on her swimming skills and gets Davy to drop his drawers and take a swim after an occasional Sunday lesson. With the crew laughing at him for his fear of swimming; they get Joannie to do it too, much to her dismay. When they get to the Keys, Jacky starts swimming immediately; her first dive is a dangerous one though. She has a run-in with what Dr. Sebastian knows as a moray eel. Despite Dr. Sebastian's interest in the creature, Jacky remains terrified after being put back on board. Jacky decapitated the eel and gave the carcass to Dr. Sebastian. Studying the coordinates of the 'Santa Magdalena's' resting place from Carlos Maria Santana Juarez's journals from 1733, Jacky decides to explore the nearby island. She notices how there's a large amount of mangroves in the area and takes Dr. Sebastian, Joannie, and Daniel along for the trip. When there, Jacky puts a red sash around a mangrove bush to indicate what island it be. Jemimah told the kids to collect oysters and fresh water. The water's too salty as desired so they go back with no water. Dr. Sebastian notice fiddler crabs on the island and soon, the group are ambushed by alligators. It turns out the island is one big alligator pit and while they luckily escape. They have to save little Joannie from one of the gators which breaks a couple of her ribs and gives her head a hard knock. Once aboard, they tend to her immediately and think she's not going to make it. But Joannie does in the end, and stays in Jacky's bed for a week or so with Daniel constantly at her side. Jemimah soon exposes Jacky to the chickens Higgins brought aboard while in port. Jacky makes note of a fiercely territorial banty rooster that she may have use for someday. Soon, Jacky is ready to dive down and find the 'Santa Magdalena'; the entire crew disagrees with her all except Dr. Sebastian that tells her that it's he that specifically 'instructs' her to do it. Jacky dives into the water and within minutes, she finds the sunken ship. After such success, the moment is ruined by the sight of a Spanish man-of-war. The boats is called the San Cristobal and it is massive in size and in ammunition. The officer in charge demands who the fleet is and what's their purpose in Spanish waters. Unconvinced, the men scrounge the 'Nancy B.' and find no evidence to prove the crew are fakes. In the mean time, Jacky is hiding out in the waters and soon come up. She meets the cold-tempered yet dashing lieutenant and gets water on his shiny black boots. The Spaniard forces Jacky to shine his shoes for her mistake and the 'San Cristobal' sets sail towards Havana. So do Jacky and the 'Nancy B.'; taking in the views as heading into dock. She notices Morro Castle and the heavy fortification since the assault on the city by the British. In dock, the lieutenant from the 'San Cristobal' introduces himself as Juan Carlos Cisneros y Siquieros. The man takes an extreme disliking towards Jacky and Jacky has mutual feelings. In dock, Jemimah decides to explore the town and see if she likes it enough to make her own roots. Jacky, Davy, and Tink explore the town; immersing in some cockfighting matches (where Jacky trains her own banty rooster El Gringo), performing at the Cafe Americano, among other activities. Soon Jemimah comes back to be a part of the crew but with richer, more tasteful clothes from the money she received working for Faber Shipping. Daniel and Joannie are happy to have their Aunt Jemimah back, obviously. One night at the Cafe Americano, Jacky runs into old flame Flaco Jimenez and is introduced to Flaco's new first mate, El Feo. Jacky is threatened by the presence of El Feo instantly. It's a nice reunion but soon Flaco tells Jacky that he knows why she's down here in the Caribbean, looking for treasure. Turns out, that Captain Hudson let a "ship-jumper" on board the 'Dolphin' and he gathered information for the Spanish and is off in the world somewhere. This angers Jacky; and by this time Higgins and the crew comes to pick Jacky up and carry her back to the 'Nancy B.' Spending days preparing for the cockfighting matches and immersing herself in Jemimah's Brother Rabbit and Brother Fox tales, Jaimy and the 'Dolphin' crew soon meets back up with Jacky. She gives them an update on her progress and spends the night with Jaimy in her cabin. The next morning on board, Jacky gets ready for her first descent using the diving bell; Tink makes Jacky some swim fins and she gets used to the diving bell's design. At first she uses the mechanism for getting some creatures for the Doctor then she ventures down to the 'Santa Magdalena.' In the meantime, Flaco Jimenez and his ship is hanging around the vicinity of the wreckage, uneasing the crew deeply. Jacky gets underwater towards the ship with a grappling hook and uses it to pry the golden crucifix from the mainmast but still gets no access to the lower spaces of the ship. Taking a break from scavenging, Jacky returns back to business and eventually finds the ship's vault, using the hook to unhinge the door off the vault, Jacky finds the gold supply of the ship. In the process of getting the bell and the gold up into the ship, Jacky contracts nitrogen narcosis, a condition similar to alcohol intoxication that leads from high amounts of nitrogen that gets in the bloodstream. Jacky don't feel anything but when the pain from the Rapture of the Deep starts to kick in, she begins convulsing and shrieking until they get her back into the water to ease the condition. Jaimy, even though he is nervous about being in the bell under water, takes her down where they make-out. Dr. Sebastian is angry with Jacky for getting in the condition but he takes it out on Professor Tilden who didn't tell her of the Rapture of the Deep because "she was just a girl" and probably wouldn't "understand the science." Dr. Sebastian assures Tilden she is not a stupid girl and has Jacky ushered to bed. The next day Jacky starts putting the gold in baskets underwater when her own greed (a little Mary Faber talking in her head) tells her to put fan coral in the baskets and keep the gold for herself where she can use the gold to buy another ship like her precious 'Emerald'. Jacky does it, sneaking the gold into her undersea safehold for Faber Shipping Worldwide. Soon, Jacky encounters Flaco and his ship "El Diablo Rojo" and while they talk, Flaco's first mate El Feo plot a mutiny in secret. They hold the "Nancy B." and its crew at gunpoint but soon a fight among the two opposing ships commences. El Feo and his new ship, the "Red Devil" sail off in retreat, leaving Flaco with to side with Jacky. Back in town, Jacky continues with the cockfighting matches and nights at the Cafe Americano. Lieutenant Cisneros corners Jacky in the club and nearly provokes a fight but Ric, the owner of the cafe, points out the bar's etiquette rules and orders the lieutenant to leave. Cisneros does but vows that it's not over between the two of them. As for Jaimy and the rest of the 'Dolphin', they end up in Kingston perfectly fine. They are invited to the Officers' Club where it is there, Jaimy runs into Captain Richard Allen. Jaimy instantly remembers Allen from the time he caught Allen and Jacky skinnydipping in the Mississippi River. Allen also remembers Jaimy and they have an awkward conversation. Things get even more awkward when Allen runs into Flashby. After another cockfighting match, Jacky tells Joannie to go collect the winnings of the match. But she does not return and Jacky soon figures out she's missing. The crew goes all over Havana looking for the girl to little success. They hear that a white man took Joannie. While on the open sea, Jacky runs into El Feo and his crew. They are taken aboard and it's found out that El Feo himself kidnapped Joannie. Jacky also find out that Flashby's been working undercover for El Feo the entire mission, something of a "double agent." El Feo demands to be shown where the gold is at and Jacky's doesn't fess until Joannie and Daniel are threatened with their lives. Jacky lies to El Feo, saying it's all on the nearby island (the island full of mangroves and alligator pits.) El Feo has Flashby and his crew sail to the island and look for it while the rest stay aboard the 'Red Devil.' El Feo then takes Jacky to his living quarters where it's there, that he attempts to rape Jacky. Daniel and Joannie intervene; releasing El Gringo on El Feo- stunning him. Then Jemimah takes her huge frying pan that she bought in town and knocks him out cold. Jacky's crew is then able to upheave the 'Red Devil' and throw El Feo's body into the water to be with the remnants of the 'Santa Magdalena.' Finally the 'San Cristobal' comes into view, attacking both ships. But the 'Dolphin' comes to aid Jacky and the crew just in the nick of time. Jacky reunites with both Jaimy and Captain Allen and fights off the Spanish warship. Cisneros then comes aboard for Jacky personally, vowing to kill her. Fearlessly, just as he is about to, Jacky whips out her pistol and shoots him. With the battle soon over, Flaco regains his old ship and gives back the ship its original name. He kisses Jacky and thanks her for the help, leaving the battlefield. Jaimy then soon embarks to be an officer in command on the newly-named 'Saint Christopher.' Flaco soon comes back for his share of the gold and the gold is split evenly between the crew. The Spanish sailor leaves for the southern horizon and Jacky makes her way back to Boston where her crew splits up. Jemimah has federal agents search the nation for her kids that were also victims of slavery; Jim Tanner reunites with Clementine; Davy reunites with Annie; Smasher and John go off on their own journey; El Gringo retires to Dovecote; and Joannie goes back to the Lawson Peabody, much to her dismay. Jacky returns to stay with Amy Trevelyne and Ezra Pickering and keeps her current crew: Higgins, Davy, Tink, Daniel, and herself. Jacky tells Ezra that she plans on buying a ship with the gold that she hid away. |
Belthandros and Chrysantza | null | null | Belthandros, a Roman (Byzantine) prince and youngest son of king Rhodophilos, quarrels with his father and leaves his home to seek his fortune. After wandering in the hostile lands of Anatolia and dealing with Turkish bandits, he reaches Tarsus in Armenian Cilicia. There he sees a fiery star in the depths of a river (a metaphor for love) and follows it to the north. In this way he finds a castle built of precious gems, which belongs to King Eros (, Erotokastron), and is full of various miracles and magnificent statues and automatons. Belthandros leaves his escorts outside and enters the castle alone. There he sees an inscription that tells of his predestined love between him and Chrysantza, the daughter of the king of Great Antioch. He is then summoned by the lord of the castle, Eros, who announces to him a beauty contest at which Belthandros must give a wand to the most beautiful among forty princesses. The contest takes place and Belthandros gives the wand to the most beautiful princess, whereupon all that surrounds him suddenly disappears "like a dream", leaving him alone in the castle. At this point he resolves to go out and seek the princess. After a short journey he arrives in Antioch where he meets the king of the city, is accepted as his liegeman, and soon becomes an intimate of the royal household. There he meets his daughter Chrysantza, whom he recognizes as the princess he chose at the Castle of Eros. Although Chrysantza has never seen him before, she too recognizes him, and the two fall in love. Two years and two months however pass before their first love meeting, which takes place secretly at night in the royal garden. The meeting ends suddenly when a jealous courtier discovers them and Belthandros is put in jail. In order to save her lover's life, Chrysantza convinces her faithful chambermaid, Phaidrokaza, to take the blame by declaring that the prince had visited her instead. The king believes the story and a forced marriage between Belthandros and Phaidrokaza takes place. The following days the couple continues to meet secretly, but soon the situation becomes unsatisfactory, and they decide to flee, together with the chambermaid and two retainers. On the way, they cross a flooded river, where Phaidrokaza and the two retainers are drowned, while the two lovers are separated and thrown up on the far bank. Chrysantza comes upon the corpse of one of the retainers, made unrecognizable from the river. Thinking it is Belthandros, she is about to fall on the dead man's sword, when Belthandros himself appears to forestall her. The lovers reach the seacoast where they find a ship sent by king Rhodophilos in search for his son. The romance ends with their return to Constantinople, where a wedding ceremony is performed and Belthandros is proclaimed heir to his father's kingdom. |
A Carne | Julio Cézar Ribeiro Vaugham | null | Lenita is a young, inexperienced 22-year-old woman who, recently orphaned, goes to live with an old farmer who raised her father. In the farmer's house, she meets his son, Manuel, a divorced man. They soon start a forbidden love relationship. |
The Beacon | Susan Hill | 2,008 | The four Prime children grow up in a bleak North Country farmhouse called 'The Beacon'; Colin and Berenice marry locally, May, the central character of the novel went to University in London but returns within a year. Only quiet, watchful Frank escapes to become a journalist on Fleet Street. But then he publishes a successful novel about his childhood which throws the family into turmoil... |
Library Lion | null | 2,006 | What should the librarian do when a lion shows up for story hour? Well, as long as he follows the rules, he is welcome. Each day he shows up early to help the librarian with licking stamps, dusting books, and doing anything else she needs. Everything is wonderful until the librarian falls. What's the lion to do? He knows that he is not allowed to roar, but Miss Merriweather needs help. For her, the lion breaks the rule and lets out his loudest roar. After helping his friend, he sadly leaves knowing that he has broken the library's rules. |
The Dead Republic | Roddy Doyle | null | An aging Henry Smart is attempting to cement his reputation. John Ford plans a movie based on Henry's life, but Henry eventually realizes the film that Ford has planned will reduce his story to sentiment. Henry plans to kill Ford, but his callousness has faded, and he drifts into the Dublin suburbs, where he meets a respectable widow who may possibly be his long-disappeared wife. Henry ages in obscurity until the 1970s, when he is caught up in the 1974 Dublin car bombings and the Provisional IRA uses a distorted version of Henry's story as a public relations ploy. |
Chunhyangjeon | null | null | MongRyong who always studies hard, goes out to get some fresh air. He sees ChunHyang on a swing and it's love at first sight. He orders his servant, BangJa to ask ChunHyang to come to him but she refuses. MongRyong goes to talk to ChunHyang's mother, Walmae, to ask permission to marry ChunHyang; Walmae gives her permission and the two young people marry that day. MongRyong's father, a government official, has to move to another region, Seoul so MongRyong has to leave ChunHyang to follow his father. After he leaves, a new lord comes to ChunHyang's village. The new lord is greedy and selfish- he always wastes his time at partying with courtesans. ChunHyang, renowned for her beauty, is forced to come to his party. Although ChunHyang is not a courtesan the lord treats her like one because her mother is a courtesan. So he compels her to sleep with him, but ChunHyang keeps refusing because she is married. The lord gets angry and imprisons her. He decides to punish her on his birthday. MongRyong wins first place in a state examination and he becomes a secret royal inspector, or AmHengUhSa, who investigates and prosecutes corrupt government officials as an undercover emissary of the king. Under disguise, he comes to ChunHyang's village and finds out what have happened to ChunHyang and the misbehavior of the lord. He must conceal his real identity so he acts like an insane person and wears mendicant clothes. Despite his mendicancy, ChunHyang still loves him and asks her mother to take good care of him. At the lord's birthday celebration, MongRyong comes in and makes a satirical poem about the misbehavior of the lord, but the lord does not understand the poem. MongRyong discloses his real position and punishes the lord. At first, ChunHyang cannot recognize MongRyong and he tests her faith by asking her to spend a night with him. ChunHyang, who still cannot recognize him, refuses him as well. However, she recognizes him soon and they live happily ever after. |
Journey Beyond Tomorrow | null | null | The book's introduction is written by a fictional editor and compiler working at a future time after 3000 AD, narrating the adventures of Joenes, a semi-legendary figure of the 21st Century whose philosophy has permeated the world until a few years before the time of writing. From the introduction, the reader learns that this future civilization is dominated by Polynesians; that some great cataclysm overtook the world during Joenes' lifetime; that only fragmentary information of that time has survived, mostly by oral tradition carried on by story-tellers on various Pacific islands, being compiled and written down after a thousand years; and that the people of that future find it difficult to understand our time - and while knowing that it possessed some technological achievements they don't have, they don't feel envious nor are they eager to re-discover these secrets. The bulk of the book consists of Joenes' adventures themselves. Born of parents of U.S. origin, Joenes has always lived on the tiny Pacific island of Manituatua. At 25 he loses his job and decides to visit the United States. Following his arrival there, he undergoes a series of surreal experiences, through which Sheckley describes with extreme sarcasm a society full of absurd extremes. Just arrived Joenes gets to know Lum, who would become his lifelong companion and friend, tries Peyote, argues with the police and is mistaken for a Communist. Investigated by a commission of inquiry he is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, but his sentence is immediately remitted by some kind of an electronic oracle. He is co-opted as a professor in a university engaged in manifestly insane experiments and is later recruited by the government to work at the Octagon (which replaced The Pentagon). He is then sent to the Soviet Union on a secret mission, but on his return the plane is mistaken for an enemy aircraft and attacked, sparking World War III. Only some Pacific islands survive, where Joenes moves with his friend Lum. |
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda | Tom Angleberger | 2,010 | The plot of OY3, as quoted by Amazon.com, "With Dwight attending Tippett Academy this semester, the kids of McQuarrie Middle School are on their own—no Origami Yoda to give advice and help them navigate the treacherous waters of middle school. Then Sara gets a gift she says is from Dwight—a paper fortune-teller in the form of Chewbacca. It’s a Fortune Wookiee, and it seems to give advice that’s just as good as Yoda’s—even if, in the hands of the girls, it seems too preoccupied with romance. In the meantime, Dwight is fitting in a little too well at Tippett. Has the unimaginable happened? Has Dwight become normal? It’s up to his old friends at McQuarrie to remind their kooky friend that it’s in his weirdness that his greatness lies." The timeframe of the book is revealed to be a few days after Darth Paper Strikes Back, an it takes place in both schools, McQuarrie Middle School, and Tippett Academy. Also, the origami guest stars who appear in the book are listed below: * Han Foldo- Chewbacca's human partner, Han Solo, finally gets into origami with Chewie in the new book! * Wicket- Either just a normal Ewok, or Wicket the Ewok, will be an Origami guest star in book 3 |
Deogratias | null | null | The story takes place before, during, and after the genocide in Rwanda; told through parallel storylines. It is divided between the present day and Deogratias' flashbacks, denoted by black borders for the former and blank borders for the latter. It follows Deogratias, a Hutu teenager who has been unstable ever since his two Tutsi friends died in the genocide. The story begins after the genocide. Deogratias is at a bar and meets some old friends. Deogratias has flashbacks to his life before the genocide. He remembers the crush he had on the two girls and how he tried to spend time with them. In the flashbacks, Deogratias wasn't always a good person. We meet other people in the story. The two tribes in the country didn't get along. Deogratias was a bit caught in the middle of the feud. His life after the genocide seems very bad. In day three of Deogratias returns to the town looking for urwagwa (banana beer) because he is turning into a dog again, but doesn't. Because he talks to Julius about killing the Tutsis, then he begins to think of how the father and brother Philip left and the others stayed and hid. |
The Wonderful Visit | H. G. Wells | null | The Wonderful Visit tells how an angel spends a little more than a week in southern England. He is at first mistaken for a bird because of his dazzling polychromatic plumage, for he is "neither the Angel of religious feeling nor the Angel of popular belief," but rather "the Angel of Italian art." As a result, he is hunted and shot in the wing by an amateur ornithologist, the Rev. K. Hilyer, the vicar of Siddermoton, and then taken in and cared for at the vicarage. The creature comes from "the Land of Dreams" (also the angel's term for our world), and while "charmingly affable," is "quite ignorant of the most elementary facts of civilisation." During his brief visit he grows increasingly dismayed by what he learns about the world in general and about life in Victorian England in particular. As he grows increasingly critical of local mores, he is eventually denounced as "a Socalist." The vicar, his host, meanwhile comes under attack by fellow clerics, neighbors, and even servants for harboring a disreputable character (no one but the vicar believes he comes from another world, and people take to calling him "Mr. Angel"). The angel's one talent is his divine violin-playing, but he is discredited at a reception that Lady Hammergallow agrees to host when it is discovered that he cannot read music and confides to a sympathetic listener that he has taken an interest in the vicar's serving girl, Delia. Instead of healing, his wings begin to atrophy. The local physician, Dr. Crump, threatens to have him put in a prison or a madhouse. After the angel destroys some barbed wire on a local baronet's property, Sir John Gotch gives the vicar one week to send him away before he begins proceedings against him. The Rev. Mr. Hilyer is regretfully planning how he will take the angel to London and try to establish him there when two catastrophes abort the plan. First, the angel, who "had been breathing the poisonous air of this Struggle for Existence of ours for more than a week," beats Sir John Gotch with Gotch's own whip in a fury after the local landowner insolently orders him off his land. Distraught to think (mistakenly) that he has killed a man, he returns to the village to find the vicar's house in flames. Delia, the serving girl, has entered the burning building in an attempt to rescue the angel's violin: this extraordinary act comes as a revelation to the angel. "Then in a flash he saw it all, saw this grim little world of battle and cruelty, transfigured in a splendour that outshone the Angelic Land, suffused suddenly and insupportably glorious with the wonderful light of Love and Self-Sacrifice." The angel attempts to rescue Delia, someone seems to see "two figures with wings" flash up and vanish among the flames, and a strange music that "began and ended like the opening and shutting of a door" suggests that the angel has gone back to where he came from, accompanied by Delia. An epilogue reveals that "there is nothing beneath" the two white crosses in Siddermorton cemetery that bear the names of Thomas Angel and Delia Hardy, and that the vicar, who never recovered his aplomb after the angel's departure, died within a year of the fire. |
Tao: On the Road and on the Run in Outlaw China | null | null | As people protest asking for Democracy in the cities of China and all foreigners are faced with suspicion, an adventuresome Japanese student named Aya Goda travels to the interior of China. There she meets and falls in love with Cao. After his work is banned, the police chase them across much of China and Tibet, until the Japanese embassy finally helps them escape China. |
Ash | null | null | Ash is a teenage girl whose loving father has died, leaving her alone with her cruel and violent stepmother. Ash's sole source of comfort is reading fairy tales by the dying light of the fire in her room each night. Ash dreams that, one day, fairies might find her and spirit her away to their world where all her wishes will come true. One night, the mysterious and sinister fairy prince Sidhean finds Ash and begins to prepare her to enter fairyland. But shortly thereafter, Ash meets Kaisa—a noblewoman and the King's Huntress. Ash and Kaisa not only form an immediate and deep friendship, but Ash begins to fall in love with the beautiful, strong woman. Ash's feelings seem be reciprocated but Sidhean returns to claim what he says is rightfully his due, and a battle for Ash's body and soul will push Ash to the brink. |
The Dark Abode | Dr.Sarojini Sahoo | 2,008 | The novel begins with questioning the mere physicality of the man-woman relationship but then transports the reader into the higher planes of platonic love. The central character of the novel is Kuki, a Hindu woman from India who falls (and then rises) in love with a Muslim artist from Pakistan . The unusualness of the socio-cultural background of these two characters is delicately portrayed by Sahoo in a sensitive and convincing manner. Readers become familiar with the two sets of roles that Kuki plays; that of a lover and that of a wife. Sahoo subtly balances these two roles and at the same time, highlights the superiority of a wife in a pragmatic world. But the novel is not merely a love story. Though love is a part of the novel, it deals with a much broader topic: the providence of a woman in India. At the same time, it also portrays a story of how a perverted man, over time, becomes a perfect man. It also delves into the relationship between the ‘state’ and the ‘individual’ and comes to the conclusion that ‘the state’ represents the moods and wishes of a ruler and hence, ‘the state’ actually becomes a form of ‘an individual.’ Additionally, it takes a broader look at terrorism and state-sponsored anarchism. |
The Custom of the Army | Diana Gabaldon | 2,010 | In 1759, the morning after a duel in which the other participant is killed, Lord John Grey is presented with a series of letters accusing him of murder, a demand for satisfaction for compromising the honor of the lady over whom the duel was fought, a plea from the lady herself to do 'something', a promotion to Lt. Colonel as a result of events that occurred in Brotherhood of the Blade, and a summons to represent a companion officer who is being court martialled in Canada. Considering the latter to be the least of the evils he has been presented with before breakfast, Grey departs for North America. In Louisbourg, he joins General Wolfe's forces during their three month siege of Quebec, but the General is currently not available. During his stay Lord John discovers his cousin by marriage, Malcolm Stubbs, in questionable living arrangements, with an illegitimate child; however, he is unable to confront Capt. Stubbs who is currently on a scouting mission. Meanwhile, his friend and former lover Charlie is under house arrest and in failing health, awaiting the court martial that has not yet been scheduled due to the ongoing siege of Quebec. Grey passes the time he must wait on a fishing trip with Manoke, an Indian guide. Upon his return in September, Grey finds both Wolfe and Stubbs have both returned as well. Grey violently objects to Stubbs dishonorable behavior, and briefly considers, but refrains from, killing him. Wolfe invites Grey, an artillery officer with experience with Highlanders, to participate in the daring night-time landing of cannon along the St. Lawrence River, through French sentries, and up the steep cliffs. After scaling the cliffs with the cannon crews, Grey is with the 78th Fraser Highlanders during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham which takes place hours later. Capt. Stubbs is critically injured in the battle, and Grey with the assistance of an other officer carries him back to the medics, which saves his life, but not his leg. After the battle, Stubbs is shipped back to England on disability and Grey returns to find both his friend Charlie and the mother of Stubbs' illegitimate son dead of smallpox. The infant's grandmother sells the child to Grey. He takes the baby to a Catholic orphanage, leaving him with an annual stipend and naming him 'John Cinnamon'. |
Italian Shoes | Henning Mankell | 2,006 | Set around the year 2004, the novel focusses on Fredrik Welin, once a successful orthopaedic surgeon forced to retire early from his profession career. He has retreated to a tiny, remote island in the Stockholm archipelago which he has inherited from his grandparents and is now the sole inhabitant. The island is normally surrounded for at least half the year by thick sea ice which adds to the sense of solitude. Fredrik lives a reclusive and somewhat austere lifestyle in a run-down house, enjoying few luxuries. Welin's only companions are his aged cat and dog. The postman, Jansson is the one regular visitor to the island. Despite this Welin has never become particularly sociable with Jensson. In fact he displays little sympathy for the postman’s frequent requests to be treated for his medical concerns and has privately diagnosed Jensson as suffering from mild hypochondria. One cold winter's day Welin spies a figure out on the ice, struggling to make their way on foot towards his island. This unanticipated encounter leads to a surprising revelation and a journey not only across Sweden, but also back to his childhood and early adult life. The unfolding events force him to confront painful memories from his past, from which his isolation on the island has enabled him to remain largely immune until now. Fredrik also seeks to address the regrets he has about the unfortunate incident which led to his enforced retirement Key themes of the novel concern the dilemmas faced by those experiencing aging and death, both at first hand and through others close to them; the impact of poverty and destitution on an individual's life chances; and vulnerability, courage and forgiveness in intimate relationships. |
Star Island | Carl Hiaasen | 2,010 | Ann DeLusia, the "stunt double" for habitually intoxicated and drug-addicted pop star "Cherry Pye", is mistakenly kidnapped by an obsessed paparazzo. Now, the star's entourage must find a way to rescue Ann, and do it without revealing her identity to the star herself, or the world at large. The novel also features the re-appearance of Hiaasen's recurring character, ex-Florida governor Clinton "Skink" Tyree. |
Monk Dawson | Piers Paul Read | 1,969 | It tells the story of Edward Dawson through the words of his friend Robert Winterman. It begins with their school days at Kirkham, a Roman Catholic boarding school run by Benedictine monks. Edward vows to devote his life to helping people and comes to believe that entering the priesthood to be the best way to fulfil this ambition and stays on at Kirkham, becoming Father John. The Second Vatican Council called by Pope John XXIII has considerable impact on Dawson, who was caught up in reformist zeal; which led to his leaving the monastery and moving into the secular clergy. He works at Westminster Cathedral but finds his faith challenged by the pressures of the world around him and he eventually loses his faith and gives up his vocation. Instead with the help of his friend Robert becomes a journalist, editing the Beaconsfield Gazette, and having left the Church finds himself without friends. But the enigmatic ex-monk finds solace in recently widowed Jenny, one of the women he helped as a priest, and moves in with her... |
Spells | null | 2,010 | Six months after discovering that she is a faerie scion and saving the gateway to Avalon, Laurel is summoned to her faerie home to hone her skills as a Fall Faerie. She expects to be able to return to normal life after her classes have ended, but she quickly realizes that danger is still coming. She must also choose between her two worlds - and the two guys in them. Spells begins six months after Laurel's close encounter with death due to Barnes the troll. She steps out of her car, ready to go to the Academy of Avalon to train as a Fall faerie and is greeted by Tamani. Her supposed summer vacation isn't all that fun because she has to work hard honing her skills as a Fall faerie in order to be prepared to defend herself against situations like the one that happened six months ago. She gets a little time off every now and then, much to her relief, when Tam comes to visit and take her on a tour of Avalon. As summer ends, so does Laurel's trip back to her roots. On her return she is greeted by some pleasant, and some not so pleasant, changes. School starts and she gets back to her normal life as a human. Then comes fall, when Laurel's flower blooms again. This time, with her family knowing everything, it's much easier to deal with. However, in the last days she is attacked again but is saved by a woman called Klea whose sole mission in life is to hunt down supernatural beings, particularly trolls. She then goes to the land to tell Tamani everything that happened and is warned to be careful. For some time, things cool down and in the meanwhile she receives an invitation to attend the Samhain festival in order to welcome the New Year - and a note from Tam which says he'll escort her. She sneaks out without telling either David or her family about her visit to Avalon and has fun watching all the dramas and shows put up by the Summer faeries for entertainment. At the end of the festival Tam kisses Laurel and tells her that he’s tired of waiting, after which they have an argument. Later, Shar announces that David has come, at which time Tam asks her to tell him the truth: does she love him or not? Laurel says that she doesn't and asks him to go away. At that moment, he pulls her in and kisses her - with David staring at them. Laurel and David have an argument after which David says he needs some alone time. That very night she receives a note from Barnes. She goes to David and tells him that Barnes has Chelsea as his hostage. They both go to save her; on their way to the lighthouse they stop at Laurel's mom's store to get some ingredients for ‘monastuolo serum,’ something that will help them defend themselves from the trolls. Once there, Laurel uses the serum against the trolls. All of the trolls except Barnes are affected by it; she then points a gun at him and demands for some answers. However, during this little chat Barnes tricks her and makes her the target once again. At this moment Klea enters and kills Barnes. It is revealed that Chelsea had her suspicions all along that Laurel was a faerie. Laurel apologizes to David and tells him that she loves him; he forgives her, but she also tells him that she'll be going to visit Tamani the next day to tell him that she cannot handle juggling two worlds any more, and that she will not come to visit him. Things also get cleared up between Laurel and her mom. The next day when she visits the land, instead of Tam it is Shar who receives her and tells her that Tamani no longer guards that post. He went away because Laurel told him to. He also tells her that he didn't hate her, just the way she treated Tamani, and tells her about the depth of his love for her. Laurel then tells Shar that what she had come to tell Tam: that she won't be visiting him again, and can't handle two worlds, which Shar praises. He asks her about the cause of her getting blisters. At first she doesn't tell, but eventually gives in when realizing the grave danger she is putting Avalon in by hiding what had happened. When she leaves, it is revealed that Tamani had been there and was hiding from her so that he could get the real details about what happened. The book ends with Shar and Tam talking about Tam's new assignment. The assignment is not revealed, but it said to be something that Tamani would like to do. |
Sky of Stone | null | null | In Sky of Stone, Hickam has gone off to college at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. His mother, who is living separated from her husband in Myrtle Beach, contacts him and asks him to return home to Coalwood to help his father. He arrives to find his father, the mine superintendent, is being investigated by the coal company because of a fatal mining accident. After wrecking the family car the young Hickam needs to pay for the repairs, and he takes a job in the coal mine for the summer in a program set up by the United Mine Workers of America for college students. His father, who although he wanted to see his son grow up to be a mining engineer is fervently anti-union, and his mother, who swore her sons would never work in a coal mine, are both against this. He defies the wishes of his parents to take the job. His father in response cuts off his college funds. A female mining engineer (Rita) is in town, as is the standard practice of the parent company sending new engineers to gain experience working in the mine. Due to superstition ingrained in local custom, she is not allowed in the mine unlike the male engineers. She vows to be the first woman in the mine, and tries to get young Hickam to sneak her in one night. They are caught and this fails. Meanwhile, she unveils a plan to replace all the track inside the mine. Two teams will work from opposite ends of the mine replacing track, one from Coalwood and the other from Caretta (the two mines adjoin). Homer Hickam, Jr. is one of three people working on the Coalwood team, which is led by a devout Pentecostal Christian (Johnny Basso). The work becomes a race and a contest between the two teams, with the other miners placing bets on whether Coalwood or Caretta will win. As the race goes on over the summer, so does the investigation of Hickam Sr. As the investigation unfolds, more mysteries are revealed, including the identity of a disabled worker still secretly on the coal mine's payroll, and the fate of the Hickam family's pet fox 'Parkyacarcass'. In the end, Hickam Sr. is cleared, the Hickam family is reunited, and Rita is allowed in the mine, but the Coalwood team loses the contest by a hair. |
After Ever After | Jordan Sonnenblick | 2,010 | Jeffrey is a teen in remission. Even though the cancer should be far behind him, Jeffrey still worries that it will return. He has got normal teen stuff to deal with, too - friends, parents, girls, school. Normally, he would ask his older brother, Steven, for advice. But Steven, always the trusty, responsible one, is finally rebelling and has taken off to Africa to join a drumming circle and "find himself." Jeffrey feels abandoned. Meanwhile, his best friend, Tad, is hatching some kind of secretive, crazy plan involving eight-grade graduation. And Lindsey Abraham, a way hot girl who is new to the school, thinks Jeffrey is cute . . . which totally freaks him out. There is a lot about life that cancer has prepared Jeffrey for, but there is a lot that is brand-new. Now it is time for him to learn not only how to fight for himself but to stick up for the people he loves. However, at the end, he has to prepare to let go some of his memory and accept the meaning of death. |
The Assisi Underground | null | 1,978 | In the Italian town of Assisi during World War II, 300 Jews were sheltered and protected by a peasant turned priest, Father Rufino Niccacci. He dressed many of them as monks and nuns, taught them Catholic ritual, and hid them in the monasteries. Others lived in parishioner's homes and, with fake identity cards, found jobs and blended into the community. The town's printing press, which during the day printed posters and greeting cards, at night clandestinely printed false documents that were sent by courier to Jews all over Italy. Not a single refugee was captured in Assisi. No one who participated in the rescue operation ever betrayed it. The operation was unwittingly aided by the German Commandant of the city, Colonel Valentin Müller, a Catholic, who had been persuaded by Father Rufino that he had been sent to the town not only by the German High Command, but also by God, with the mission of protecting the Christian holy places and monasteries. Müller appealed to Marshal Kesselring to declare Assisi an open city. When the Allies began approaching the city, one of the Jewish refugees, whose German was so excellent that he had gotten a job with the Wehrmacht, forged a letter from Kesselring declaring Assisi an open city. The colonel never suspected it to be a forgery and immediately ordered all German troops to leave town, thus saving Assisi from destruction. |
November | null | null | In the first part of the novella, the narrator is a schoolboy, and the narrative consists of his meditations on life, as well as his longing for sexual awakening and the beginning of his adult life. He perceives himself as a voyeur, witnessing couples, sumptuous dining rooms, professionals at work and scenes of family life. In the second part, the young author loses his virginity with Marie, a worldly- wise courtesan who recounts her personal story of erotic experience. Initially, she was a virginal sixteen year old until she was unwillingly married to an elderly suitor who wanted a younger mistress. In return for her acquiescence, though, she has acquired sexual freedom and experience. However, as the reader later learns, she subsequently becomes a tabula rasa, providing her body for the enjoyment of men, but not her individuality or personality. In the concluding section of the novella, the adolescent narrator tries to revisit Marie, but the courtesan and her brothel of residence have vanished. The narrator takes up study toward a legal career, but has already eschewed marriage or professional life. Eventually, he dies. |
Darkness Descends | null | null | A beautiful high school senior is brutally beaten, raped and left for dead. Track star Chris Walker was spotted by one of the assailants as he witnessed the assault. While Chris grapples with his innermost thoughts on what to do, the city's mayor is kidnapped, launching Chris into action where he comes to grips with who he is and what he stands for. |
Dragon Boy | Dick King-Smith | 1,993 | Montague Bunsen-Burner is a dragon who is put on a 'no-humans' diet by his wife Albertina. Out on a flight later that day, Montague discovers a young boy, John, who was recently orphaned. Montague decides to take the boy home with him. John proves his worth as a member of the family with his knowledge of various forest herbs that enhance the flavour of several foods. John proves his value to the family further when Albertina lays her latest clutch of eggs. Deducing that Montague and Albertina are ignorant of the need to incubate eggs, John manages to smuggle an egg away from Albertina's latest clutch and place it in a 'nest' made of reeds, inspired by a lizard nest he saw when he was younger, that will keep it warm until it hatches. While returning from hiding the egg, John is nearly attacked by a wolf, and later a bear, but Montague manages to save him and kill both animals, the bearskin being kept for John to sleep under in winter. Noting that the wolf is milky, John deduces that she has cubs, setting out to find her family. Although three of the cubs are dead when he finds her den, John takes in the fourth cub (a coal-black male), naming him 'Bart' and training him as a pet. After John and Bart have kept an eye on the egg in its makeshift 'nest' for the next six weeks, it finally hatches, revealing a young female dragon who names herself 'Lucky', much to the joy of her parents. From this point onwards, John is regularly described as the Bunsen-Burner's adopted son and Lucky's 'little brother'. Although John attracts some quizzical gazes when an elderly dragon Examiner comes to test Lucky's flying abilities, no definite questions are asked. While the dragons take a holiday at the beach where Montague and Albertina stayed after their wedding, shortly after Lucky's first birthday, John and Bart are confronted by wolves, being cornered in the cave before they are forced to attack. However, Lucky senses that her brother is in danger and returns to save him, although the subsequent damage to John's clothes forces them to travel to a nearby village to steal replacement clothes for him. During their time away, the Bunsen-Burners are briefly attacked by a group of ambitious knights, but the dragons easily drive them away without any casualties (Albertina resolutely informing Montague that their relationship with John means that they must never eat human flesh again after everything he has come to mean to them). As Lucky grows older, the comparative rarity of dragons in the present compared to their old courting days prompt Montague and Albertina to try to search for a potential husband for her in an arranged marriage, but their search fails; Albertina is harshly turned away by the head of a family of Welsh dragons, and while Montague discovers a pleasant family- the Charmouths-, they have nothing but daughters. Fortunately, while visiting the holiday beach in a bad mood about her parents' attempt to plan her life for her, Lucky discovers a boy dragon called Gerald Fire-Drake, who left his home in Scotland after an argument with his father, the two forming a deep attachment that blossoms into romance. During this time, John has a brief encounter with an outlaw who threatens to kill him, but Bart senses his master's peril and hurries to save him, Bart's attack- followed closely by the arrival of Albertina- prompting the outlaw to flee while leaving John his weapons. After an engagement of a couple of years due to Gerald and Lucky's youth, their wedding takes place near the lake where Lucky hatched, attended by the Fire-Drakes, Albertina's cousins, Montague's brother and his wife, the Examiner who gave Lucky her test, and the Charmouths (Montague reasoning that they are a pleasant family and Gerald's brothers might be interested). The ceremony completed after John gives a speech in his role as best man, Gerald and Lucky fly off for their honeymoon, leaving John to reflect on the joys of his life as a dragon boy. |
They're a Weird Mob | John O'Grady | null | Giovanni 'Nino' Culotta is an Italian immigrant, who comes to Australia as a journalist, employed by an Italian publishing house, to write articles about Australians and their way of life for those Italians that might want to emigrate to Australia. In order to learn about real Australians, Nino takes a job as a brickie's labourer with a man named Joe Kennedy. The comedy of the novel revolves around his attempts to understand English as it was spoken in Australia by the working classes in the 1950s and 1960s. Nino had previously only learned 'good' English from a textbook. The novel is a social commentary on Australian society of the period; specifically male, working class society. Women mostly feature as cameos in the story with the exception of Kay (whose surname is not revealed in the novel), who becomes Nino's wife. In the novel, Nino meets Kay in a cafe in Manly and their introduction is effected by Nino trying to teach Kay that she cannot eat spaghetti using a spoon. The final message of the novel is that immigrants to Australia should count themselves fortunate and should make efforts to assimilate into Australian society, including learning to speak Australian English. However, there is also a satirical undercurrent aimed at Australian society as a country of migrants. |
Prajapati | null | null | The novel opens with Sukhen, the protagonist, trying to capture a butterfly. Sukhen goes over to his lover’s house early in the morning. Even as he tries to catch a butterfly, he is simultaneously taking with his lover and analysing his own life as he recollects the past. Sukhen had been brought up in a family where he had found no love or affection. His mother died leaving behind her husband and three sons- Keshob, Purnendu, Sukhendu. Both of his elder brothers are politicians and according to Sukhen mere opportunists. The brothers used people for their own benefit and cheat them without remorse. He remembers his mother as an extremely flirtatious woman. Sukhen’s father is also devoid of any moral depth and realisation. He was a mean money minded man. Sukhen had grown up with in these circumstances. He become venturous and had no respect for elders and women. The neighbours especially the rich ones feared him. Mr. Chopra, manager of neighbouring industry and Mr. Mittir, the labour advisor, always flattered Sukhen out of fear. Sukhen remembers Jina, the daughter of Mr. Mittir who had been seduced by her kaku (uncle), Mr. Chatterjee, a colleague of her father. Sukhen also had seduced Jina. Sukhen had become addicted to women and alcohol at a very early age, soon after having entered college. Subsequently he got attracted to a girl named Shikha. Sukhen fell in love with Shikha when he was taking in a hunger strike conducted on the demand to rehabilitate a teacher of his college who had recently been fired by the college authority and to stop the rising of a multi-storeyed building close to the college gate. Unlike Sukhen, Shikha hailed from a poor family. Her father is a drunkard and numb to the affairs of the family. Shikha’s two brothers were subordinates of Sukhen’s two elder brothers in the respective political parties of the latter. Her only sister, Bela was married but stayed at her father’s house and flirted with several men. However the presence of Shikha in Sukhen’s life offered some respite to his careless and perplexed life. This relationship somehow helped to revive the latent sense of humanity in Sukhen. Sukhen hates hipocrisy. He hated those politicians who cheated and oppressed people for their own ulterior need and those teachers who used his students as a political weapon for personal benefits as well as the owners and governing body members of industries who squeeze the labourers; also the parents who were indifferent to their children, the lechers who abused children for sexual satisfaction. He also disliked the heinous attack of American soldiers on prostitutes. The atrocities around him agonised and traumatized him. He sometimes suffers from a subtle pain down to his shoulder and channelised his energy into anger to numb and forget the pain. He pees under his father’s table, rumples his brothers’ rooms, calls out to servants and so on to divert his attention. Yet, the otherwise brash Sukhen, respected Shulada, an old servant of their house. Keshob, the elder brother of Sukhen, is a powerful political leader. The brother allegedly illegally traded in baby foods and railway spare parts. Keshob has several relations with married women and young girls who were members in his own party. Purnendu, the immediate elder brother is also a political leader and an employee in a governmental office. His political party apparently worked for the poor section of the country and fought for justice but ironically, he is the who copulates with their maid servant’s daughter. Both of his brothers want him to join their party! Sukhen refuses to join either of them and severely criticises their agendas. He ends up being the enemy of both the groups. As we proceed through the novel, we see Suhken breaking off one wing of the butterfly and though Shikha tries to revive it, the fly eventually dies. After having chatted with Shikha for some time, he leaves for home. But instead going home, he moves around on the roads on his bike and sees Nirapodobabu (নিরাপদবাবু), a primary school master watching Ramesh (রমেশ), a worker of Purnendu’s party, delivering a lecture. He wonders about the peaceful life of Nirapadababu and dreams of having a wife like Nirapadababu's. He plans of marrying Shikha and living peacefully like Nirapadababu. He also enjoys the company of the superintendent of police of the local police station, N’Kori Haldar (ন’কড়ি হালদার), and Bimol (বিমল) a devoted worker of Purnendu’s party. As he thinks of living a simple life with Shikha as his wife, he stops by to meet Mr. Chopra and get himself a job. But Chopra refuses him as he known that Suhken is a hooligan and the local mischief. Perturbed, Suhken wonders who are the simple and good boys? (সাধারন বাঙ্গালি ছেলে কারা?) Sukhen then goes in search of Shutka(শুটকা), a friend of his. He ends up finding Shibe (শিবে), another friend of him in Doyalda’s (দয়ালদা) tea stall. Suddenly he feels that strange pain close to his shoulder. To suppress that pain he has alcohol almost voraciously and goes to Shibe's house and there he meets Manjori (মঞ্জরী) and falls asleep. In the evening, he woke up and found Shutka close to him. He goes to Shikha’s house again as he had promised to go there in the evening. At last, he comes back home at night and takes a bath and sleeps without having food. The next day there is a strike. He goes out in the evening and fells in midst of two processions. He gets severely injured in a bomb explosion and is admitted in a hospital. One of his arms had been blown off and he finally succumbs to the injury. |
Ashling | Isobelle Carmody | 1,995 | The powerful Misfit Elspeth is sent to Sutrium, the seat of the ruling totalitarian Council, to seal and alliance between the secret community at Obernewtyn and the rebel forces. Yet her journey takes her far beyond the borders of the Land, across the sea into the heart of the mysterious desert region, Sador. There she seeks help to destroy the weaponmachines but before her dark quest can begin, she must learn the truth of her dream: why the Beforetimers destroyed their world... |
February Shadows | Elisabeth Reichart | 1,989 | The story begins with Hilde, an elderly woman, awaking in the middle of the night to the sound of her telephone ringing. Upon answering she discovers that her husband, Anton, who was staying at a nursing facility for a severe illness, has died. His death triggers feelings of loneliness and abandonment along with painful memories of the death of her older brother, Hannes, who died during World War II, sending Hilde into a state of panic and despair. Each day Hilde visits Anton's grave mentally talking to him as if he is still alive. One evening, as she is returning home, Hilde discovers that a black cat seems to be following her. The cat causes her to remember two distinct experiences from her past. The first is a memory from when she was a small child and had attempted to hide a stray cat in her bedroom. Her family was very poor and could not afford a pet, but she saved her table scraps for it anyway. One day as she was coming home, her father met her drunk in the doorway. After telling her he had snapped the cat's neck, he beat her harshly with a fly swatter. This first memory seeped into the second: her daughter, Erika, begging to keep a stray cat she had found. Anton had granted her wish, but the cat ruined the neighbors' gardens and Hilde was forced to drown it in the river. The following day, Mr. Funk, a friend of her late husband, appears at her door and pressures Hilde to join the Retiree's Union. She joins because Anton had been a member of the Austrian Socialist Party and he would have approved of her socializing with other members. Hilde assures Mr. Funk that she will attend the next evening social. Mr. Funk's visit forces another memory to resurface. She remembers her daughter asking what party Anton had belonged to during the period of National Socialism; Hilde recalled him being part of the Hitler Youth. The reader also discovers that Hilde's brother, Hannes, was killed by the Nazi Party. Erika's insolence upsets Hilde greatly. Soon after, Erika calls her mother, stating that she will be coming to visit. Erika also grieves her father's death. Hilde becomes impatient with Erika, hinting at the contradictory nature of their relationship. Hilde wants to be with her daughter, yet she feels as if her daughter is a total stranger. Erika acts boldly and actively pursues her career as a writer. Hilde believes the only reason Erika wishes to come home is to get information for her book, which is true. Hilde is angry at her daughter for forcing her to relive her past experiences; her childhood was full of poverty, loneliness, and shame. Anton had been her way out of the past, and she only wants to move forward. Hilde attends the Retiree's Union social pretending to be happy. She watches the dancers on the dance floor and mourns the absence of her husband. The dancers trigger another memory from her childhood: she sees her father kicking her mother on the dance floor and she runs out to help. Soon, both Hilde and her mother are being beaten on the ground, her father will not let them comfort each other. The only person she can to turn to is her brother, Hannes, who comforts her. The memory is too painful for Hilde and she leaves the social immediately. Erika arrives the next day and announces that they will take a trip to the village so she can obtain more information for her book. (The reader must assume that the village is in the Mühlviertel.) Hilde does not wish to go, yet does not want to be excluded. As they enter the village, Hilde recalls working hard in the fields to harvest the crop left behind by farmers to have enough food for their large family. She remembers the hunger pains and how her father could not find work. She remembers Fritzi, a member of her apartment-style household, bringing eggs and bacon on Sundays from the farmers and how she had felt proud carrying the basket into the kitchen. She had wanted her mother to be more proud of her than she was of her older and prettier sister, Monika. Hilde sees the lifeless and leafless pear tree in the village. She refers to it as the "February Tree", the tree on which Hannes was hanged. She remembers a Nazi in a black uniform telling her at school that her brother was dead. She remembers running through the snow and losing one wooden shoe in an attempt to save him. She remembers discovering he truly was dead and lying in the snow, hoping for her own death. Hilde and Erika visit her old house and she recalls beatings; they then visit the pond where she is reminded of the many loads of laundry she was forced to wash with her mother. She begrudged the freedom of her brothers who were not forced to do work, her oldest sister, Renate, who lived with their grandparents, and her delicate sister, Monika, who was never asked to manage hard labor. They walk down the lane to the old school lined with apple trees; she recalls the rough feeling of cobblestones on her sore feet and the bitter taste of the small apples. She evades a certain barn on the lane and avoids looking out into the distance towards the area which was once the site of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. Upon returning to their hotel, room Hilde reflects on her daughter. Her inner thoughts display envy toward Erika's privilege of being educated and her ability to choose her career. Hilde reveals that she had always wanted to be a nurse, however her dreams of a nursing career were shattered the day her village was bombed during air raids. She had watched her brother Stephen die as she was swallowed by mounds of earth. The raid had made her weak and incapable of dealing with trauma later in her life. During their stay in the Mühlviertel, Erika is able to extract information about the fateful day in February that Hilde had been pushing from her memory for many years. Hilde relays that in the middle of the night she and her siblings were awakened by the sound of sirens. Her parents and the other tenants of her home were forced to stand for a roll call in which Pesendorfer, the Nazi authority in their house, told the tenants that many Russian convicts had escaped from the nearby concentration camp. He explained that it was their duty to Germany to find and kill each one of these convicts. Hilde, being a young girl, is told to stay at the house. However, she is worried about protecting her brother Hannes, who, like her other brothers, is forced to search for prisoners, and sneaks away to find him. In her search for her brother, Hilde comes across the barn near her schoolhouse. She enters it, only to find Pesendorfer, her neighbor Mrs. Emmerich, and her brother Walter all violently killing prisoners. She runs home and finds Hannes, who informs her that he has hidden a prisoner in his wardrobe and that she must remain silent about it. The next morning the villagers attend church to commemorate Candlemas. The hunters seek purification and are urged by their pastor to side with Germany and continue the search for the prisoners. At this insistence Hilde finds herself telling Hannes' secret to her mother. The story is vague about how this information is relayed to Pesendorfer, but, he finds and kills the prisoner, then takes Hannes away to beat him for his misconduct. Hilde recalls cleaning the blood from her brother's face after the beating. The following day, she finds that Hannes has been hanged for his actions. Her guilt in the causation of two deaths is evident through her narration. Back in the present, Erika is stunned by the horrific story and deeply regrets forcing her mother to relive the event. The novel closes with the image of the mother and daughter driving away from the Mühlviertel, with Hilde at the wheel and her foot on the gas pedal. |
Eagle in the Sky | null | null | A 14 year old David Morgan, handsome and academically gifted heir to a South African business empire and fortune, learns to fly with Barney Venter, a gruff but experienced ex-airline pilot. He realises that David is 'bird' - blessed with a natural flying ability. David learns quickly and soon gains his pilot's licence. After school, he opts to join the South African Air Force instead of going to university and business school. He impresses his Commanding Officer, the crusty Colonel Rastus Naude, who is disappointed when David decides not to accept a longer service contract and instead tries to seek out what he's meant to do. He travels widely in Europe. In Spain, he meets Debra Mordechai, an attractive young Israeli writer and university lecturer, who's traveling with her brother Joe and his fiancee Hannah. Debra rebuffs David's advances and they part on bitter terms. David is drawn to Jerusalem to find her, and meets 'The Brig', her father, General Mordechai, a plain-spoken pilot in the IDF and a senior staff officer. Learning that David has much experience on flying Mirage jets, he satisfies himself of David's skills and then offers him a commission in the IDF. He accepts and is granted Israeli citizenship. He is plunged into Israel's struggle for survival. David's memories of his own (Jewish) mother and his growing passion for Debra make his involvement with this new country's cause inescapable. He and Debra set up house together. But at Joe and Hannah's wedding, a terrorist attack kills Hannah and Debra is left blind. In her grief, she rebuffs David, who only finds solace in the skies. He and Joe get into a dogfight with Russian-trained Syrian fighters. Joe's plane is shot down and David, low on fuel and on the wrong side of the border, is forced to ditch. His jet catches fire and he is badly burned. A year later, after much plastic surgery and no longer the handsome man he was, David is forced to resign his commission on pain of a court-martial. He is now an outcast, as he had brought Israel to the brink of open war. He desperately seeks out Debra, and she is now willing to accept him back, not knowing what he now looks like. They marry, despite the misgivings and anger of 'The Brig' and they travel to the now virtually derelict game lodge that David's late father owned in the South African bush. Remembering all the poaching and 'sport' killing that had happened there in his youth, he seeks out game warden Conrad Berg and offers the whole estate as a national park to serve as a haven for animals fleeing poachers. David falls foul of a particularly ruthless poacher and in the ensuing violence, Debra is badly injured. Pregnant, she loses the baby. But the injury has affected her brain and she can now sense some colours. They travel to Cape Town to consult a top ophthalmic surgeon, who decides to operate. The procedure is successful and Debra's sight is restored. But she can now see how David really looks and in her panic, she rebuffs him. David is badly hurt and seeks consolation in the only place he feels safe - the sky. He plans to commit suicide by flying until his fuel runs out, but Debra's father, who is visiting and has friends in Air Traffic Control, establishes radio contact with him and convinces him to return to Debra. |
The Improvisatore | Hans Christian Andersen | 1,835 | In this fictionalized autobiography, the hero Antonio does not arrive as a tourist but grows up in Italy, thus able to show not just the sunny side of life but also some of its shadows. In its structure, the novel reflects Andersen's own life and his travels through Italy. The descriptions of the Italian towns and regions are particularly captivating, expressed in the author's colourful language. Like Andersen himself, Antonio comes from a poor background but fights his way through various crises and amorous relationships until he is finally successful. The last improvisation involves a fishing boat accident in which many lose their lives. But finally Antonio becomes the happy husband of the beautiful young Lara as well as a landowner in Calabria. |
A New Athens | Hugh Hood | 1,977 | Narrator Matt Goderich, now approaching middle age, has become an art historian. As the novel opens, he is wandering along the back roads of eastern Ontario, contemplating the flora, the history of trains in the region, and decades past. He relates his time as a young student, beginning in 1948, where he is a rare Catholic at the overwhelmingly Protestant Victoria University in the University of Toronto. After a fleeting first romance he meets his future wife Edie, who disappoints her family by converting to Catholicism to marry him. The young couple spends time in her hometown of Stoverville (a fictionalized version of Brockville), where her parents have a boathouse on the Saint Lawrence River. Her father is a well-known politician, and her mother is a brilliant but undiscovered painter. The 'new Athens' of the title is a reference to the town of Athens, Ontario. |
Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball | null | 1,990 | In the book, Will discusses how each of the four subjects highlighted play, or in the case of La Russa, manage the game of baseball. It also discusses the history of the game, such as how Candy Cummings invented the curveball pitch in 1867. There are also statistics mentioned, as well as anecdotes. Will also inserts personal opinion, such as when he discusses his belief that baseball needs to have more walks and fewer strikeouts, and that Baltimore is the best baseball town. |
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War | Karl Marlantes | null | The book is set in Vietnam in 1969 and draws from the experiences of Marlantes, who commanded a Marine rifle platoon. The novel presents an unflinching look at the hardships endured by the Marines who waged the war on behalf of America. It concerns the exploits of second lieutenant Waino Mellas, a recent college graduate, and his compatriots in Bravo Company, most of whom are teenagers. "Matterhorn" is the code name for a fire-support base located between Laos and the DMZ. At the beginning of the novel, the Marines build the base, but later they are ordered to abandon it. The latter portions of the novel detail the struggles of Bravo Company to retake the base, which fell into enemy hands after it was abandoned. |
The Blind Barber | John Dickson Carr | null | When the ocean liner Queen Victoria arrives in Southampton harbor from New York City, mystery writer Henry Morgan disembarks hastily and calls on Dr. Fell to unfold a remarkable story of mayhem and mystery. It begins with Curtis Warren, an amateur cinematographer who also happens to be the nephew of what Morgan describes as “a Great Personage in the present American Government […] not far from F.D. himself”. One afternoon during the Queen Victoria’s voyage, Morgan and his friends Peggy Glenn and Capt. Thomassen Valvick (Ret.) are summoned to Warren’s cabin, where they find its occupant nursing a wounded cranium and thoughts of vengeance. It seems that Warren inadvertently brought some reels of film on board showing his uncle, near the end of a long dinner party, making an extremely impolite speech about his fellows among the world’s mighty, and that someone has just broken into Warren’s cabin, hit him over the head, and stolen enough of this film to cause unheard-of scandal. The four of them soon learn that a notorious and dangerous criminal (the “Blind Barber” of the title) is believed to be on board the ship. Concluding that this is the person who stole Warren’s film, they hatch a plan to lure the thief into coming back for the rest of the loot so they can catch him or her in the act. Instead, they end up inadvertently attacking the captain of the Queen Victoria and stealing, then losing, a valuable emerald elephant – to say nothing of the dying woman they find in one of the cabins, who proceeds to apparently vanish into thin air. In attempting to unravel these complications, our heroes succeed only in creating a great many more; by the end of the voyage, Warren has been confined to the brig, the emerald elephant has inexplicably reappeared and disappeared several more times, a high-tech bug-powder gun has gone berserk, and a drunken puppeteer has started throwing the passengers’ personal goods overboard, among other events. As Morgan relates all this, Fell, greatly amused, makes notes of sixteen clues that he labels with enigmatic phrases (“The Clue of Terse Style”, for instance). In the end, he interrupts the story to answer the doorbell; when he returns, he is carrying a brown-paper parcel that turns out, in due time, to contain the stolen film. Dr. Fell explains complacently that he’s already identified the Blind Barber to the Queen Victoria’s captain; the last two chapter show him explaining his deductions, both to Morgan and to the Barber himself. This novel is generally felt to be the most humorous of Dr. Fell's adventures, somewhat echoing the farcical later adventures of Carr's Sir Henry Merrivale. |
Treasures of the Snow | null | 1,950 | Annette Burnier lived with her father, elderly grandmother and young brother Dani in a small village, Rossinière, in the Swiss mountains. When she was eight years old her mother died just after Dani was born, and since the family was too poor to afford a nanny, Annette took the responsibility upon herself, arranging with the schoolmaster to study at home under her grandmother's guidance. When Dani was old enough for her to return to school, she did well and often gained top marks. On Dani's fifth Christmas, he put his slipper outside in the snow, hoping that Father Christmas would bring him a present. In the morning, to everyone's astonishment, a tiny white kitten had snuggled into the slipper. Dani called him Klaus and the two became inseparable. Further up the mountain in the next chalet, Annette's classmate Lucien Morel lived with his elder sister Marie and their widowed mother. Lucien found schoolwork difficult and was frustrated that he was often bottom of the class. He also resented having to help around the home and farm with all the tasks that his father would have done, and his mother and sister criticised his laziness. Conflict flared one day when Lucien was sledging down to school and accidentally collided with Annette's sledge, throwing her into a ditch full of snow. Out of resentment at her success in school, he didn't stop to help her, but sped off to school. When she arrived late, cold, wet and grazed, with torn wet books, she had to explain what had happened. Lucien was caned by the schoolmaster, and ostracised by the rest of the class. When on his way home he vented his frustration by kicking over a snowman Dani was building, Annette ran out and slapped his face and shouted angrily at him. Lucien's increasing loneliness and festering hurt was directed at Annette and he looked for opportunities for revenge. So when he saw Dani in the meadow picking flowers for Annette's birthday, he grabbed the flowers and trampled on them. Then afraid Dani would get him into trouble, he picked up Klaus and held him out over a deep ravine, threatening (but not intending) to drop the kitten unless Dani promised not to tell. Klaus, however, scratched Lucien, and he let go. Dani rushed across and fell over the cliff into the ravine. Lucien was terrified and griefstricken, convinced that Dani was dead, and went home but couldn't face his family so hid in the barn. When the worried families found Lucien, he confessed what had happened. Dani's father used a rope to climb down the ravine and found Dani was still alive at the bottom, but with a broken leg. Dani's leg healed badly, shorter than the other leg, leaving him permanently unable to walk without crutches. The whole village knew what Lucien had done, and he became even more of an outcast, very lonely and unhappy. Working hard around the home and farm helped him stop brooding for a while, and his mother praised him for this, and his sister was kinder to him. But his real solace was to climb to the woods and spend time alone, carving little figures out of wood. He found he had a real talent for this. It was here that he made friends with an old man who lived alone in a tiny chalet high above the village, whose only income came from selling his own woodcarvings. He taught Lucien, and let him use his woodcarving tools. He also confided in Lucien his life story. As a young man he had been happily married with two young sons and a good job in a bank, but then got into bad company and became addicted to alcohol and gambling. Eventually to pay the family's debts he stole from the bank and finished up in prison. His wife died, but his sons were adopted by their grandparents and were very successful. When he came out of prison, he did not want his sons' futures jeopardised by being associated with a criminal, so let them assume he was dead. He had lived alone on the mountain for many years and saved a lot of money from the beautiful woodcarvings he sold, and his great hope was that he might be able to use the money to help someone in need. Lucien was constantly burdened by the guilt of what he had done to Dani, but Annette's hatred towards him made it impossible to do anything for the little boy. He did carve a Noah's Ark full of little animals for Dani, but Annette simply threw it on the woodpile. Lucien also decided to enter one of his carvings for the hand-craft competition at school, but shortly before the competition Annette secretly smashed the carved horse out of spite, and won the competition herself. Neither Annette nor Lucien could find peace of mind or happiness. Then one night Annette went out for a walk alone, slipped on ice and sprained her ankle very badly. Unable to walk, she was in danger of freezing to death. She struggled to the nearest chalet but the people were away. Then to her relief someone came skiing down the path; it was Lucien, on his way home from visiting his old friend. She called for help, and he gave her his cloak, went home to get the sledge. When he returned, Annette confessed to him about breaking his carved horse, but instead of being angry Lucien forgave her and felt relieved that he was not the only person to have done hurtful things out of spite. He took her on the sledge to her chalet, where he was invited in. Later Annette confessed to the schoolmaster, and they agreed that he should present her prize to Lucien. The enmity was over, but Lucien still felt troubled with guilt about Dani's disability and pain. One evening Lucien's sister, who commuted by train to work in a hotel in the nearest town, came home with a generous tip from a famous orthopaedic surgeon, Monsieur Givet, who was staying at the hotel. Lucien asked excitedly whether he could make Dani better, but was told the doctor was leaving the hotel for home early the next morning, and anyway his fees would be far too expensive. Nevertheless, Lucien crept out of the house that night in a blizzard and went to talk with his friend the old man, telling him about Monsieur Givet and that he might be able to cure Dani. The old man gave Lucien a sock full of banknotes to pay for the treatment, but made him promise not to tell the doctor anything about him. "Just tell him that it is the payment of a debt," he said. Then Lucien attempted to climb and ski to the town, which involved crossing a high mountain pass. Despite the atrocious weather he reached the hotel about 5 am. Monsieur Givet went with Lucien to visit Dani, and offered to treat him in his hospital. But before he left the village, he asked Lucien's sister where the old man lived that Lucien knew, and went to visit. He recognised the old man as his father, told him how much he had missed him, and invited him to come home. Dani went with Annette to stay in the hospital. His fractured leg was re-broken and set properly, and Dani returned home able to walk and run like any little boy. |
Dead or Alive | Grant Blackwood | 2,010 | When John Clark and Domingo "Ding" Chavez are forcibly retired from both the CIA and Rainbow, they join Jack Ryan, Jr. at "The Campus", a privately-run intelligence organization carrying 100 blank Presidential Pardons (signed by Jack Ryan, Sr. before he left office) for any actions they may choose to take based on the information they collect. John and Ding take the responsibility to train Jack Jr. for field work while they try to crack a plot by a group of Islamic extremists to assemble and detonate a nuclear device in a nuclear waste storage facility in order to poison the water table for the western United States. Meanwhile, Jack Ryan, Sr. decides that he's had enough of the way his successor, President Ed Kealty, is running the country, and subsequently announce his candidacy for President of the United States. |
The Tatami Galaxy | null | null | The story of The Tatami Galaxy follows an unnamed third year university student in Kyoto, Japan and what he views as his wasted time in a particular club (also called "circle") at his university. He meets Ozu, another student, whose encouragement sets him on a mission of dubious morality. He contemplates his affection for a second year engineering student, Akashi, and makes promises to her, usually of and within a romantic subtext. The culmination of his dubious missions often conflict with his interest in her in some way. The story is one of a number that draw on the author's experience in Kyoto University. ; : :An unnamed college student in Kyoto who is recollecting his past two years of college life. He entered college dreaming of the "rosy campus life" that must surely be his. He wants to meet the raven-haired girl of his dreams, which is why he joins a new social circle in each episode. He is quite shy, and easily manipulated by the other characters. Even though he is the central character, he seems to be the most powerless and normal person in the roster. ; : :The appearance of Ozu in each episode causes the protagonist considerable distress. The protagonist always expresses how ugly Ozu is on his first appearance, which is often followed by Ozu telling him that he's quite cruel. Ozu seems to be a misfit as well, yet he's often the one manipulating the other characters against the protagonist. He also seems to care for the protagonist, and rescues him on certain occasions from sticky situations. Because he often eats unbalanced meals, he looks very pale and spooky as if he is a yōkai, especially to the protagonist, and is occasionally depicted as such. ; : :A freshman student who is commonly (but not always) the center of the protagonist's affections. She acts rationally and even coldly towards most people, but often shows hints of affection or at least helpfulness to the protagonist. Her fear of moths also contrasts with her normally calm demeanor. She often appears in the same club that the protagonist joins, she is a student of the engineering department and a member of Birdman circle. ; : :Originally introduced as a deity of matrimony in the first episode, but he is actually an eighth year student living in the same dorm as the protagonist. He always wears a yukata and has a wise, distant, nonchalant air about him. He is more commonly referred to simply as Master Higuchi or The Master (Shishō). He often aids the protagonist most directly, though the protagonist may not see it that way. ; : :An eighth year student who leads the Film Circle Misogi. Regardless of his bad GPA, he is a handsome man and adored by members of his circle but he harbors a secret fetish for breasts, and keeps a love-doll (Kaori). He often takes an antagonistic role relative to the protagonist, and Ozu often assists Jōgasaki in some way, usually a way detrimental to the protagonist's progress, in spite of the fact that Ozu is helping the protagonist at the same time. ; : :A dental hygienist who is close to Higuchi and Jōgasaki. She likes getting inebriated, at which point she drastically loses her sense of judgment and flirts with whomever is around. Aware of this, she is cautious about choosing who she goes drinking with. She serves as a formal love interest for the protagonist in episodes 6–8. ; : :The love-doll owned by Jōgasaki. In episodes 6–8, the protagonist develops affections for her after being given the opportunity to keep her in his room. She seems to speak to him but it is unclear whether the speaking is truly hers or whether it is simply the thoughts of the protagonist projected through her. ; : :A shady sub-leader of the Film Circle Misogi. He acts as a yesman of Jōgasaki in the circle but he leads the Secret Society Lucky Cat Chinese Restaurant on backstage. ; :An elegant girl the protagonist is in a correspondence with. She has the appearance (in his daydreams) of the raven haired maiden he's always dreamed of. In episodes 6–8, she writes an ultimatum to him asking to meet or end their correspondence. The letters are revealed to be originally written by Ozu as a prank, and later by Akashi, who takes them more seriously. ; : :An old woman who appears in every episode, almost always along Kiyamachi Street, and tells the protagonist (often but not always at his behest) to seize the opportunities before him (or a variation thereof). She increases the price for her services by ¥1000 in each subsequent episode. ; : :The owner of the neko ramen shop the protagonist favors. He is mostly silent, occasionally putting in a short, new insight into the protagonist's current conversations or problems. He occasionally takes on a more active role in the protagonist's adventures, always on a helpful note. He appears to have some ties to Higuchi. ; : :A character representing the protagonist's sexual drive. He is shown as a cowboy. He constantly bickers against the protagonist, his only goal to receive sexual pleasure. He appears in episodes 6–8 and 10. |
Chinese Cinderella: The Mystery of the Song Dynasty Painting | null | null | The story starts off with Chinese Cinderella being pursued by a mysterious woman wearing black. CC falls and ends up in a hospital recovering from a nasty fall. There she sees a famous Chinese painting called 'Along The River AT Qing Ming'. Chinese Cinderella is suffering from sudden and random bouts of unconsciousness she is haunted by vivid dreams that seem very strange yet somehow very familiar. A tale and adventure emrges of friendship, wealth, poverty, eunuchs and an emperor who loved art. Chinese Cinderella recalls a life eight hundred years ago during the Song Dynasty. After a fall, CC is whisked away to a hospital. As she drifts in and out of consciousness, she is haunted by vivid dreams that seem strange—yet somehow familiar. Thus begins CC’s emotional journey back to a privileged life lived eight hundred years ago during the Song dynasty. CC was the daughter of a wealthy and influential man, but she finds herself drawn to a poor orphan boy with a startling ability to capture the beauty of the natural world. As the relationship between these two young people deepens, the transforming power of art and romantic love comes into conflict with the immovable rules of Chinese society. |
The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver | Thornton Burgess | 1,917 | Paddy moves into the Green Forest, and Sammy Jay starts to complain he is cutting down the trees, but Sammy falls into the water and learns that this did not work out very well. After that Old Man Coyote finds out Paddy is in the Green Forest, and starts to hunt for him, though for three days Paddy outsmarts him. But one day he almost catches Paddy and he would have were it not for Sammy Jay telling Paddy to get into the water. After that Paddy and Sammy become best friends. |
Radiant Shadows | Melissa Marr | 2,010 | The prologue of Radiant Shadows shows Devlin, the high court's Assassin, agreeing to shelter a spectral girl name Rae in faerie without his queen's knowledge. It then skips forward about a century, to show the high queen, Sorcha, ordering Devlin to kill a baby halfling, the child of the Gabriel, along with a warning that it should "never enter faerie". The novel then cuts to the present day, to Ani, the halfling whose life Devlin spared, as she tries to fit in with the other hounds, but cannot, due to her father's protectiveness and her mortal blood. Devlin, meanwhile, has been told by Sorcha to stay in the mortal world to keep an eye on her son, Seth. Devlin and Ani meet at the crows nest, where she drains his energy and he leaves with a taste of her blood. Ani is different from other hounds, due to her ability to feed on both emotions and touch, and mortal and faery. Irial, the former dark king, has been performing tests to identify what about her is different and introduce it to his court to strengthen them. This also, however, draws the attention of Devlin and Sorcha's other sister, Bananach, the essence of war. She tells Ani that she has to kill Seth and Niall, or give Bananach her blood. Ani can do neither, and is soon found by an unclaimed steed. Ani, Devlin and the steed -which Ani names Barry, short for Barracuda- leave the state to get away from Bananach. In faerie, meanwhile, Rae, who is a dreamwalker, enters Sorcha's dream and gives her a way to watch Seth in the mortal world. Unfortunately, she becomes obsessed with this, and without her rulership faerie starts to dissolve. Bananach pays a visit, and starts killing members of the high court. Scared, Rae contacts Devlin through a dream and informs him of this turn of events. Devlin and Ani return to huntsdale only to find that Bananach has killed Ani's sister Tish. Ani demands that they should then kill Bananach, "breath for breath", but Devlin informs her that neither of the twins can be killed without killing all of faerie. Bananach later goes to stab Ani, but Irial throws himself in front of her, taking the wound that would be hers. The knife dissolves inside him, poisoning him, and Bananach says that he will not last the fortnight. Irial tells his successor and love interest, Niall, that he "wishes he hadn't been king when they met", referring to Niall's backstory as revealed in Ink Exchange, then Ani, Devlin, Rabbit and Seth leave for faerie. Devlin was injured in the fight, and Ani allows him to drink her blood, healing him and binding them together. With Seth returned to faerie, Sorcha awakens, and together Devlin, Ani and Rae form the shadow court to balance the high court. (This, however, leaves the dark court out of balance, this will presumably be remedied in the final book, Darkest Mercy.) They also seal the veil between the mortal and faerie worlds so that one cannot return to the mortal world without both the High and Shadow court's help. it:Radiant Shadows |
The Inverted World | Christopher Priest | 1,974 | The opening and third sections of the book are narrated in first-person by the protagonist, Helward Mann; the middle part is in third-person. Helward lives in a city called "Earth", a giant structure that is slowly winched along on a set of tracks forever northward. The pulling of the city has been going on long before Helward was born - and although he is puzzled by the need to keep the city constantly moving and its need to reach "the optimum", he nevertheless joins one of the Guilds - the elite that ensure the constant motion and survival of the city. All the inhabitants of the city Earth believe that they are lost a long way from planet Earth, and that one day they will be found and rescued but until then they must go on surviving in the little microcosm they have constructed of planet Earth. The populace of city Earth grow up in crèches and reach adulthood rarely seeing outside its walls. A small exercise area with large walls and a view of the sky above is as much as they see of outside. Even after reaching adulthood, the vast majority never see beyond the confines of the city. A few of the inhabitants - chosen males - are offered positions with the Guildsmen. These are the only inhabitants of the city given access to the outside world, and it is these alone that know the secret of the city. Beyond the walls the true nature of the city is revealed, and the great lengths that must be achieved for its continued survival. Constructed on top of great wheels, the city is slowly winched along railway tracks, moving forever northward. The tracks are constantly reused; as the city moves past one section that part is ripped up, carried to the front of the city and relaid once more. Once the tracks reach a suitable length, giant wheel-pulleys are moved into position and slowly, smoothly - so that no resident of the city realises - the city is dragged along to its new location, and track laying can once again begin in earnest. It is the responsibility of the guildsmen to ensure the movement and survival of the city. Come river, ravine, valley or mountain, the city must never stop its relentless movement, as there had been severe detrimental effects the more the city lagged behind in the 'past'. As directed by Destaine, who was one of the first residents of the city, the best way to achieve the city being near the 'optimum' is to have a selection of guilds, each responsible for specific jobs. The guilds originally consisted of four: Track Guild, Traction Guild, Future Guild and Bridge-Builders Guild. An additional two were added later on: Barter Guild and Militia Guild. The Track Guild is responsible for the laying and removing of the tracks; the Traction Guild are responsible for the pulling of the city; the Future Guild map out the land ahead of the city to determine the best route for the city; the Bridge-Builders are responsible for ensuring the city can navigate safely across ravines or rivers. As the city moves through its environment it passes by villages and it is the job of the Barter Guild to employ labour to help the Track Guild and to 'invite' surrogate mothers from poor local native clans, since women in the city tend to bear mostly male offspring. Occasionally some of these villages can be aggressive and it is the Militia Guild's job to protect the city from them. It turns out that the inhabitants of the city have never left Earth, but that the city was planned hundreds of years ago as a means to exploit a theretofore unknown, localized energy source in preparation for a severe, global energy crisis which caused society to tumble back into poverty and anarchy. Since the 'optimum' powering the generators of the city moves some meters every day, it was necessary to set the city on tracks to follow it. Over the centuries the city Earth was towed from inner China to the coast of Portugal while the knowledge of the city's origin was gradually lost. The generator powering the city changes the world for the city dwellers, turning sun and Earth into rotating pseudospheres, with the rims rotating at a speed faster than light. Time varies, going slower in the spikes - the 'future' - and speeding up rimwards - the dangerous 'past'. The effect also affected metabolism and DNA of the city dwellers to the point of physical dependence to stay near the 'optimum'. The Atlantic ocean, at first thought to be a very large river, is an obstacle no guild is prepared for. The book ends with an unknown future for city Earth, already replete with revolt, shortages and doubt. |
Directive 51 | John Barnes | 2,010 | The title is a reference to Directive 51, the Presidential Directive which claims power to execute procedures for continuity of the federal government in the event of a "catastrophic emergency". In the near future, a variety of groups with diverse aims, but an overlapping desire to end modern technological society (the "Big System") create a nanotech plague ("Daybreak") which both destroys petroleum-based fuels, rubber and plastics and eats away any metal conductors carrying electricity. An open question in the book is whether these groups, and their shared motivations, are coordinated by some conscious actor, or whether they are an emergent property / meme that attained a critical mass. The Daybreak plague strikes, and world governments are helpless to deal with it. Industrial civilization rapidly breaks down, and tens of millions die in the US alone (the global death toll measures in the billions). There is a presidential succession crisis. Just as society in the US seems to start stabilizing, preemplaced pure fusion weapons detonate, destroying Washington DC and Chicago. This is followed by additional pure fusion weapon strikes, which are determined to be weapons that are being created on the moon by nanotech replicators. A shadowy neofeudalist group (the "Castle movement") led by a reactionary billionaire may be inadvertent saviors of society ... or may have some deeper involvement in things. |
Cybele's Secret | Juliet Marillier | 2,007 | Cybele's Secret (pronounced Ke-beh-leh)is the sequel to Wildwood Dancing. It is narrated by Paula, the fourth sister of five and a scholar. She accompanies her father on a business trip to Istanbul to try and find a statue of the goddess Cybele. Paula's father thinks it appropriate to hire a bodyguard for Paula as the streets in the city a dangerous place for a young, foreign woman. As Paula is about to make a decision on which man she will hire, another, named Stoyan, shows up. He admits to having left his previous boss alone and exposed, which proved fatal for the boss, but Paula hires him anyway. After a while, they go to a dinner, where Paula meets an influential lady who runs a women's only library and steam room. She invites Paula to come along one day, which Paula gladly accepts, being excited about the prospects of so many books. She begins to research Cybele, to see if it would give her a clue as to where the statue was.She knows that time is running out to find the statue; one of her father's colleagues is already murdered because of it and there are rumours of a religious cult of Cybele's followers somewhere in Istanbul. Paula finds some old records with delicate pictures around the edge, on which appear strange words that only she can see. She soon realises that the faerie folk have given her a task, as they did her older sister Jena several years ago, but does not know what it is, only having a few words from the witch Dragutsa to go off; 'You must help an old friend of mine.' Paula ropes her Stoyan into helping with the quest, and also begins to teach him how to read and write. To find the statue, Paula must join with a daring and dangerous pirate named Duarte, who has promised a friend that he would return one day to the island where they have found out that the statue is kept. Paula finds herself drawn to him as she also is to Stoyan. They set out for the island on the pirate's ship to find the statue. Paula's father does not know about this. On the island they find many perils, including the influential lady who owns the library that Paula has been using, and who turns out to be the leader of the religious cult. She admits to wanting the statue for herself and followers, and is willing to kill to get it. Paula, Stoyan and Duarte have to journey through a cave and pass certain test such as helping Tati, (Paula's sister who goes to live with Sorrow in the Faerie realm with Sorrow at the end of Wildwood Dancing), get across a perilous path to join them, without speaking to or touching her. They achieve this through Stoyan's amazing control of dogs. Then they must choose a gift each. Paula chooses a tapestry of five girls sewn to look like her and her sisters. The influential lady chooses the statue, which Paula, Duarte and Stoyan did not realise was an option. Another task is that Paula must collect three tiny creatures which sit on her arms and head. After the many tasks, they come out of the cave into another place on the island. The cave begins to collapse, shaking and dropping stones, with their opponents still inside. Faced with the choice of saving herself or dying with her guard, the cult's leader chooses to die with the guard she took such good care of the whole time. The statue is placed back where it should belong, with the villagers who live on the island and who are the true worshippers of Cybele. The adventurers return to Istanbul, upon which Paula eventually realises that yes, she is in love with Stoyan. They decide to get married back at Paula's home, which is a welcome event to everyone, including Stela, who exclaims that maybe since Tati and Jena have had their tasks, and Iulia is married, it will be her turn to go back to the Faerie realm, and she will be able to see Ildephonsus and all her other little friends again. |
Little Darlings | Jacqueline Wilson | null | Destiny Williams wakes up on her eleventh birthday and receives a black outfit from her mum. Her biological father is the rock star Danny Kilman and her mum got them tickets to a movie premier in the hopes of Destiny meeting her real dad. Sunset Kilman, who lives with her rock star dad Danny Kilman, ex-model mum Suzy Kilman and two cuter and younger siblings with ridiculous names, attends the movie premier with her family. She's criticized by her mother Suzy, who she believes hates her. The movie has Danny in as a cameo appearance. It turns out they made fun of him on the movie, but Danny pretends it doesn't bother him and laughs it off. But as they walk out he becomes angry that they made a fool of him. Sunset sees Destiny and her mum in the crowd and tries to get her dad to look at them, only to be scolded by Suzy. Destiny and her mum Kate don't have train tickets home or any money to pay for transport. Destiny tries asking some people they pass as her mother isn't talking as Danny didn't recognize her. Destiny and Kate get a lift back from a nice lady eventually, but Kate asks her to drop them off at Robin Hill which is where Danny and his family live. Sunset wakes up the next day and finds Destiny who has climbed over the fence into her garden. The two start talking about how Destiny is the daughter of Danny as well. Suzy comes out and yells at Sunset for letting them in and threatens to call the police. Destiny and Kate are thrown out and Suzy hits Sunset around the face. Destiny and her mum eventually find their way back home to the maisonette house they live in, in the Bilfield estate. Destiny gets ready for school at Bilfield Primary where she is in year 6. Her teacher Mr Roberts announces they're doing a talent show called 'Bilfield's got Talent' The boys wants to do street dance acts and divide into two groups the Flatboys and the Speedos. (the Flatboys and Speedos are two gangs on the estate that hate each other and are always fighting). Apart from Raymond who does proper ballet and two other boys who want to mess about doing mikey take ballet. And Fareed who wants to do magic tricks. Hannah becomes his assistant. One group of girls decide to do a play, and two other groups are formed wanting to dance and sing at the same time. Which leaves Angel who wants to do a pole dance, which Mr Roberts forbids. Angel makes fun of Destiny, saying she has no talent. Destiny then says she'll sing the Danny Kilman song 'Destiny' which she was named after. Sunset finds Destiny and Kate's fan page on the official Danny Kilman fan site. She finds out Destiny's address and writes her a letter and send her a leather jacket. Sunset then tries again to talk to her dad and convince him that Destiny really is his daughter. He gets angry and tells Sunset to leave it. Destiny and her classmates all gather to rehearse their acts for the talent show. everyone is very badly rehearsed, except Destiny because when she sings everyone is stunned. Mr Roberts decides to put her on last. Destiny gets home with a rush of excitement. She finds the package Sunset had sent her and opens it up to find the jacket, which fits her perfectly. She has to wait until her mum's horrible friend Louella has gone so she can tell her mum about it and show her the letter from Sunset. Sunset's little sister Sweetie has a birthday party and receives wondrous gifts, including a doll as big as herself and a sweetshop. However, Danny has invited the niece of a girl who Suzy hates, which causes Danny and Suzy to start fighting. Danny walks out on them along with the girl who Sunset nicknames Big Mouth. Destiny prepares for the first talent show in front of the school with a student panel. Everybody gets really high scores (except a couple who are chanted of the stage with 'off, off, off!') and Destiny is given the second to last place. She goes home and cries to her mum about it, saying they don't like her just because she's the new girl and she isn't in either of the Flatboys or Speedos gangs. Danny turns up and takes the kids away with him and Big Mouth, despite Suzy's protests. They go to a grand hotel and get room service Destiny arrives at her school later in the evening for the talent show with teachers on the panel. She's greeted by Jack, a boy in her class who she begins to like when he compliments her on her singing. He comforts her backstage before she goes on. After Destiny's sung, she's given the highest score meaning she's won the competition. Jack jumps onstage and gives her a hug in front of everyone. The next day she takes her mum Kate to the doctors as throughout the book she's been worrying about her losing so much weight. Kate faints in the doctors and is taken for blood tests, but everything turns out to be fine with her. Sunset has to look after Sweetie and Ace as their mum Suzy gets more and more depressed. Danny's manager Rose-May comes to the door with Danny and says that Sweetie has a chance to be on TV on a new show called little darlings about famous celebrities and their children. Sweetie sings for her and Rose-May thinks she's perfect. The producer for the show comes along the next day and Sweetie gets ready to sing for her. Sweetie's tooth falls out just as she's about to sing and she bursts into tears. The producer Debs thinks she's too young for the show and asks if Sunset can sing. She says no, but makes them stay as she rushes to get the tape of Destiny singing at the talent show. They all watch it and Debs says they could reunite Danny and his long lost daughter on the show. Destiny wakes up and sings Destiny to herself, happy about her mum being alright. Her mum Kate rushes back into the house after she's left for work saying a Mercedes car is parked outside for her. She rings Debs as the driver gives them a letter. Destiny sings to Debs down the phone to prove it's her and Debs explains about the little darlings show and how she'll get to meet her dad Danny. Destiny and her mum are driven away, but Destiny stops and asks if she can make a quick stop. She goes to Jack's flat and says goodbye to him before she goes and it becomes obvious he has a crush on her. Destiny and Kate ride of to Robin Hill where they're greeted by Debs and Destiny meets her dad Danny with a big hug whilst she's being filmed. Destiny meets Sunset in person and the book ends with them smiling at each other as they hold hands, best friends turned sisters. |
The Island Beneath the Sea | Isabel Allende | 2,009 | The story opens on the island of Saint-Domingue (current day Haiti) in the late 18th century. Zarite (known as Tete) is the daughter of an African mother she never knew and one of the white sailors who brought her into bondage. As a young girl Tete is purchased by Violette, a mixed race courtesan, on behalf of Toulouse Valmorain, a Frenchman who has inherited his father's sugar plantation. Valmorain has big dreams of financial success and is somewhat ambivalent towards slavery. He views it as a means to an end, as he does most things. Upon Valmorain's marriage, Tete becomes his wife's personal slave. Valmorain's wife is fragile, beautiful, and slowly succumbs to madness. As Valmorain's wife goes mad, Valmorain forces Tete, now a teenager, into sexual servitude, which produces several illegitimate children. Spanning four decades, the narrative leaps between the social upheavals from the distant French Revolution to the Haitian slave rebellion in all its brutality and chaos, to a New Orleans fomenting with cultural change. |
Dragon Haven | Robin Hobb | null | The book opens where the previous book left off and we continue to follow the dragons, the keepers and the barge Tarman as they continue their trek up the river. |
The Desert Spear | null | null | The novel continues the story of mankind's battle against demons known as "corelings", which rise from the planet's core each night to feast upon humans. The Desert Spear is book two of the Demon quintet. The Deliverer has returned, but who is he? Arlen Bales, formerly of the small hamlet of Tibbet's Brook, learned harsh lessons about life as he grew up in a world where hungry demons stalk the night and humanity is trapped by its own fear. He chose a different path; chose to fight inherited apathy and the corelings, and eventually he became the Painted Man, a reluctant saviour. But the figure emerging from the desert, calling himself the Deliverer, is not Arlen. He is a friend and betrayer, and though he carries the spear from the Deliverer's tomb, he also heads a vast army intent on a holy war against the demon plague and anyone else who stands in his way. |
Monster Man – 1994 | null | null | The story is set in Western Australia. Melanie Spencer is just trying to stop males from controlling her life when a man (Levine) who thinks she looks like his deceased sister abducts her. This man has an alter-ego named Monster. Monster is the one who is blamed on all of the bad things that have happened so Levine does not feel guilty. Levine has also kidnapped a little girl (Christine Webster) who also looked like his sister Claudia. Levine takes these two girl on a trip to his old school where he was bullied and burns it down. He then tries to hide with them down at a beach, but kills a man and his dog to cover his tracks. The two girls then run away. Whilst everyone thinks that Levine is dead, he then comes back for revenge and tries to kill Melanie whilst she is in hospital recovering from the injuries sustained whilst being a prisoner of him. |
\\"Uncle Tom's Cabin\\" Contrasted with Buckingham Hall, the Planter's Home | null | null | The novel follows Eugene Buckingham, the only son of a South Carolina planter, as he crosses paths with Julia Tennyson, a Scottish American journalist who has written a number of pamphlets under various pseudonyms. What begins as mutual friendship eventually evolves into love, despite the anxieties of the opposing fathers. Col. Buckingham - Eugene's father and a (fictional) descendant of the Duke of Buckingham - contests the partnership on the grounds that Julia has written pamphlets degrading all planters as vicious sadists, even though he is not. Likewise Dr. Tennyson - Julia's father and a Scotsman - objects because he supports the view of all planters as violent and cruel. The Tennysons eventually make their way to South Carolina from New York, and after several philosophical discussions regarding American slavery, Eugene and Julia are allowed to marry. The story ends as the newlyweds embark on a ship to England for their honeymoon. |
Assassin's Creed: Renaissance | null | 2,009 | This is a story about a young man, Ezio Auditore, seeking revenge for the killing of his family. On his mission for vengeance he finds out truths about his father and his father's history. Guided by assassins, his skill as an assassin is honed until finally he is one of them. Ezio becomes involved in a war between the Assassin Order and the Knights Templar, who both seek an ancient Vault in Italy which contains super-advanced technology that can alter human minds. Set entirely in 15th century Italy, the plot features non-fictional characters such as Rodrigo Borgia, who is here portrayed as the antagonist. Unlike the game Assassin's Creed II, it does not span over a vast period of time (the game's plot also takes place as late as 2012) and takes its own liberties for the sake of creativity. There is no mention of the modern day events of the Assassin's Creed universe, including Desmond Miles looking back on his ancestor's memories. Some of the book, including Ezio's long-running relationship with Christina, were left out of the novel and were instead included as playable repressed memories in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. |
Cryoburn | Lois McMaster Bujold | 2,010 | Cryoburn takes place six or seven years after Diplomatic Immunity. Miles is 39 years old. He is sent by Emperor Gregor to the planet Kibou-daini ("New Hope") to investigate White Chrysanthemum Cryonics Corporation. WhiteChrys, a major "cryocorp", to which sick or dying people go to be frozen in hopes of one day being revived and cured, is opening a subsidiary on Komarr, arousing suspicions. The narrative follows three points of view: those of Miles, his Armsman Roic, and Jin Sato, a local Kibou-daini boy. At a conference, an attempt is made to kidnap Miles and the other attendees. Miles avoids capture because an allergic reaction to the drug used on him causes him to go extremely hyperactive, and escapes into the below-ground Cryocombs, where the frozen are stored. Roic is caught along with Raven, a cryo-revival specialist from the Durona Group who assisted in reviving Miles after his death on Jackson's Whole (detailed in Mirror Dance). When Miles finds his way back to the surface, he encounters Jin, an eleven-year-old boy living with his chickens and other pets in a disused building. Jin introduces him to a society of outcasts living in abandoned facilities. This helps Miles piece together what is really going on. |
Outside Over There | Maurice Sendak | 1,981 | A young girl named Ida harbors feelings of jealousy and resentment towards her baby sister, for whom she is largely responsible while their father is away. When her sister is kidnapped through the nursery window by mysterious robed fey, who leave an ice baby in her sister's place. Ida resolves to rescue her, embarking on a fantastic adventure. Initially, Ida is easily distracted from her goal, nearly passing her sister as she becomes absorbed in the magic of the quest. Ultimately, she succeeds in rescuing her baby sister and returning home, now fully committed to the care of her sister until their father returns home. |
The Faraway Lurs | null | 1,963 | The story takes place in Denmark during the Bronze Age. The main character is an 18 year-old girl named Heather, and she is a member of the tribe called the Forest People that lives in a village called Oakwood. They worship a sacred tree and a spring. At the beginning of the story Heather is gathering honey from a beehive high in a tree. She is being helped by her slave Buzz, who is able to hum ("buzz") in a special way that keeps the bees from stinging. Buzz had been captured by Heather's father Goodshade from a different tribe called the Sun People, who are called this because they worship the sun and are known for making bronze tools and weapons. Although Buzz was originally one the Sun People, she is now afraid of them because they had tried to sacrifice her. While Heather is high in the tree, Buzz stops humming, allowing the bees to sting Heather. Heather asks Buzz why she stopped humming, and she replies that she can hear a sound. Heather looks in the direction of the sound, and sees the Sun People in the distance driving their cattle toward a nearby lake. The Sun People also make a bronze musical instrument called the lurs. The faraway sound that the girls hear is the lurs. Heather is curious about the Sun People, however she knows that in the past the Sun People have attacked the Forest People, so she runs back home to tell what she has seen. She meets Blue Wing, her presumed future husband, and they both go to Heather's father Goodshade, the village chief, but he is not worried about the Sun People. Later, Buzz tells Heather and Blue Wing that Goodshade had already known about the Sun People before they told him, and that he had sent messengers to warn other villages. The next day, Heather realizes that in her excitement about seeing the Sun People she had left her honey up in the tree, and she goes back to the tree to get it. When Heather comes down from the tree, she sees a handsome young stranger standing near the tree. His name is Wolf Stone, and he is one of the Sun People. Heather is wary but intrigued by the young man. She asks him whether the Sun People plan to attack the Forest People to rob them. He says they will if they want, but does not sound as if he is serious. Heather returns to her village, but does not tell anyone about her meeting with Wolf Stone. She has trouble forgetting about him. In the evening she is sitting on a mound near the village, and Wolf Stone sneaks up to her to talk. He tells her that he has come to warn the Forest People to take all their animals and hide in the forest for several days. She asks him why, and he explains that the chief Great Elk, who is his father, wants to build a ship from the wood of the tree of power, which he knows grows in Oakwood. He believes that a ship built from the wood of this tree can never be sunk. Wolf Stone tells Heather that if the Forest People hide, he will lead the Sun People away from the Forest People's sacred tree. Heather asks him how he knows about the sacred tree, but he makes evasive Įanswers. As he is leaving, Heather asks Wolf Stone why he came to tell her this, and he tells her that she is unlike any girl he has ever known. Heather returns to her village to warn everyone. She tells her mother that Wolf Stone had told her to have everyone hide in the forest from the Sun People. However, she does not tell anyone about their plan to cut down the sacred tree to build a ship. Heather's mother consults the sacred tree, which tells her that Wolf Stone could never deceive his father, and asks who will protect the tree from the Sun People if all the Forest People hide in the forest. Heather asks Buzz to go to the village herbalist Swampwife to get medicine to soothe the bee stings, but Buzz refuses. Buzz then tells Heather that the Swampwife has treasures including bronze bracelets, which she could only have gotten from the Sun People. This prompts Heather to wonder whether it might have been the Swampwife who told the Sun People about the sacred tree. But Goodshade tells Heather that he thinks it was not the Swampwife, but rather she herself (Heather), and that she had accidentally told Wolf Stone. Goodshade decides not to have the Forest People hide in the forest, but to have the sacred tree guarded by archers. Later, Heather goes to see Blue Wing, who tells her that he has asked Goodshade for her hand. She confesses to him that she loves Wolf Stone instead of him. Littleman, who is one of the oldest of the Forest People, allows himself to be captured by the Sun People in order to spy on them. He learns that they do not have bows and arrows, only swords, and confirms that they are interested in the tree. They release him and try to follow him home to find the tree, but he is too clever and they unable to follow him. In the camp of the Sun People, Eagle is anxious to build a ship. The chief Great Elk, Eagle, and the Sun Priest Troll Tamer argue about whether the ship must be built from the tree of power or merely from any tree. They also discuss whether the tree of power should be destroyed if it is not used. We learn that it really was Swampwife who told the Sun People about the tree of power, and that that night she has promised to lead two other priests Longfire and Knife to the tree. Many of the Sun People want to kill Troll Tamer, but they believe in a curse that if Troll Tamer dies, so will chief Great Elk. Some of the Sun People want to kill Troll Tamer even if it means that Great Elk will die. Wolf Stone had promised Heather to lead the Sun People away from the Forest People's sacred tree, but now he realizes that he cannot lie to his father Great Elk, who tells him his plan to take the sacred tree without a fight. Wolf Stone decides to warn Heather again. Meanwhile, Heather discovers that the village dogs have been fed a poison rabbit to kill them. She knows that the Swampwife had the ability to do this, and suspects her of doing it to keep the dogs quiet at night, when an attack might occur. Heather and Buzz go to confront the Swampwife with their suspicions. When they get there, they find that the two priests Longfire and Knife have come to see the Swampwife, who had promised to lead them to the sacred tree. The Swampwife tricks Knife into drowning by walking into the swamp, where he sinks because of the armor he is wearing. The Swampwife laughs, and Buzz makes her special humming noise, which paralyzes the Swampwife, causing her to drown as well. The other priest Longfire catches Buzz and Heather, and is ready to kill them when Stone Wolf arrives. Stone Wolf stops Longfire from killing them and sends him back to the Sun People. After Longfire has left, Stone Wolf tells Heather that the Forest People must guard the wrong tree to deceive the Sun People about which tree is the sacred tree. She asks him to meet with her father to convince him. They go to him and Stone Wolf tells him his plan, but Goodshade does not believe it will work. Stone Wolf warns Goodshade that if Great Elk failed to win the tree of power, then the Sun Priest Troll Tamer would burn down the forest. Then Stone Wolf leaves and returns to the Sun People. The next day, the Forest People ask the sacred tree what they should do, and it tells them to be brave and to find their greatest treasure and give it to their god. As the people ponder what this might mean, Heather and Buzz are talking and Buzz tells Heather that she wants Stone Wolf to kill his father. Heather disagrees, but Buzz says that someone must do this. That night Elfstream, one of the oldest chieftains, says that he thinks the tree is calling on them to sacrifice one of their own lives to the tree. Goodshade says that never before has a god asked for this, and that time will tell what their greatest treasure is. That night, Eagle sneaks to the Oakwood and finds where Buzz is sleeping. He convinces her to help him kill Great Elk to keep him from burning down the forest. Eagle does not want this, because he wants to build a ship. He asks Buzz to bring him poison, a stone axe, and a few bows and arrows, and she agrees. Blue Wing sees Buzz delivering these items to Eagle, and confronts Eagle. Blue Wing says that Eagle has no right to these things and that Eagle cannot even shoot a bow. Eagle tells Blue Wing that one arrow could defeat Great Elk, suggesting that Blue Wing could do this himself. Blue Wing wonders why Eagle wants to kill the chief of his own people, and Eagle tells him that it is because Great Elk wants to burn the forest, while Eagle only wants a tree, and he does not want the tree of power, but another tree. Eagle tells Blue Wing that once Great Elk is dead, Troll Tamer would die because of the curse, and Wolf Stone would become the chief of the Sun People, and that he would not burn down the forest. Blue Wing says that he does not think that Wolf Stone is so timid, and Eagle says that in that case Wolf Stone would be killed, too. Blue Wing wants to save the forest, and is also excited about the possibility of killing Wolf Stone, whom Heather loves, since he (Blue Wing) wants to marry Heather himself. So he goes with Eagle to the Sun People. Goodshade and Littleman see them leave together, and Buzz, who overheard their conversation, tells Goodshade and Littleman that Eagle and Blue Wing are planning to kill Wolf Stone. Littleman suggests that Buzz run to the camp of the Sun People to warn them. Wolf Stone goes to his father chief Great Elk and tells him of his love for Heather. He declares that he does not want the ship or to fight the Forest People or burn down their forest. Great Elk is receptive to his son's wishes, and says that he does not believe in the curse that he will die if Troll Tamer does. He decides to have Troll Tamer killed. Wolf Stone and several other sons of Great Elk begin planning how to do this, but know that Troll Tamer is powerful and has many spies among the slaves, and may already know of their plans. Troll Tamer announces that the lurs will be played and then there will be games that evening, and that this is part of his plan to take the tree of power. He says that the Forest People will hear the lurs and will come to watch the games. While they are watching the games, the Sun People can take the tree. Eagle says that Blue Wing, the best archer of the Forest People, has been taken hostage and that they will trade him for the tree. Great Elk astonishes Eagle by announcing that he no longer wants the tree or even to build a ship. As Great Elk dismisses Eagle, Troll Tamer announces that the tree of power will be burned. Great Elk also rejects this plan, and asks to see Blue Wing's bow and arrows, and tells Blue Wing to teach them how to use a bow. He says that after the games Blue Wing will be allowed to return to the Forest People. While Blue Wing is giving his archery demonstration, Buzz comes to Wolf Stone to warn him that Blue Wing intends to kill him. The next game involves Blue Wing trying to hit the Doves (girl warriors) with arrows as they ride in circles around him on horses. He is worried about hurting them, but they are so skilled that he does not hit even one of them, as hard as he tries. Every arrow he shoots misses. After the game ends, the Sun People discover that one of the stray arrows has killed Troll Tamer. When other sun priests come to Great Elk to tell him, Great Elk takes a drink from his cup and falls over dead: he has been poisoned. Eagle, who is nearby, picks up the cup that held the poison and takes it. Buzz is still at the camp of the Sun People, and now realizes that Great Elk must have been poisoned by the poison that she had given to Eagle. Now that Great Elk is dead, Wolf Stone is the chief of the Sun People. Wolf Stone gives Buzz a bronze sun-disk and tells her to take it to Heather and tell her that he will come for her after he has buried his father. He then orders that Blue Wing be tied up to prevent him from killing him. Buzz does go to Heather and takes the sun-disk to Heather, who begins to wear it, although the other Forest People disapprove. Then Heather discovers that the spring has dried up. She becomes afraid that everyone will want her to give her sun-disk to the spring as an offering, to make it flow again. After Great Elk and Troll Tamer are buried, Wolf Stone tells his brothers and the priests of the changes that he will make, now that he is chief. While they are talking, Blue Wing frees himself from his fetters and finds his bow and an arrow. He manages to shoot an arrow at Wolf Stone before he is killed by Wolf Stone's warriors. Later, a messenger arrives at Oakwood with the news that Blue Wing has been killed because he killed Wolf Stone. Heather is stunned. She gives the sun-disk to her parents to be used as a sacrifice to the spring, and goes to bed as it begins to rain. The next day, the spring has still not started flowing again, despite the rain. The Sun People organize a ritual sacrifice to their god. At the last minute Heather realizes that the intended sacrifice is she herself. She is given a poison to drink, and she willingly drinks it. |
The White Queen | Philippa Gregory | null | The story follows Elizabeth's life from her first meeting with Edward, through to his death and its aftermath. The mystery of the Princes in the Tower forms part of the action, with the novel questioning whether King Richard III had reason to have the boys killed. In the novel, young Prince Richard is not sent to the tower; Queen Elizabeth instead substitutes a page boy for the prince, who escapes and lives under an assumed name. The novel ends in 1485, just prior to the Battle of Bosworth. |
Necroscope | Brian Lumley | 1,986 | Harry is an English youth in school, and strange things occur as he grows up, such as a sudden increased intellect in mathematics, and the ability to fight beyond his experience after a teacher is killed. Eventually he marries his childhood sweetheart, Brenda, who slowly realizes there is more to her now-successful writer husband: that he can speak to the dead, whose collective consciences remain behind, at the location of dying. These dead can talk only to Harry at first, but eventually, they can "deadspeak" to each other. Coinciding with Harry's evolving abilities, Boris Dragonasi is contacted by a long-chained vampire, Thibor Ferenczy. Boris gains the ability to become a necromancer, who can forcefully extract secrets from the dead by playing with their remains and even eating them. Harry goes to visit his stepfather, who he knows killed his mother by drowning her in a river, and lives in a house at that river. Harry, realizing his stepfather is a Russian spy who plans to kill him for his talents, sabotages his stepfather, but both crash through the ice and fall into the frozen river. As he tries to get out, Harry discovers a new ability of the dead when his mother's corpse drags his stepfather down into the cold river, drowning him also. Eventually, Harry is contacted by E-Branch, who deal with ESPionage using psychic investigators and spies, while Boris is hired by the U.S.S.R. equivalent, the Opposition. Boris tracks down rumors of vampires, finding a World War 2 veteran who killed one, Faethor Ferenczy, along with a Russian Mongul, Max Batu, whose talent is to kill someone just by looking into their eyes. Eventually, Thibor manipulates Dragonasi and reveals that he is in a symbiotic relationship with a vampire, and they can reproduce but once per lifetime. He gives his offspring to Boris, who later betrays and kills Thibor with Batu, and in turn kills Batu so he can gain the secrets of using the "Evil Eye". Meanwhile, the head of E-Branch, who was killed by Boris, requests Harry's help in defeating the necromancer. Harry uses his ability to talk to the mathematician Mobius, who teaches him to travel time (and later space) by using the "Mobius Continuum". Harry uses "doors" to leap to places, and goes (teleports) to Russia where Boris is now the head of Russia's ESPionage unit, having killed the former leader. Using an army of walking undead, he eventually finds Boris, who tries to use his newly-acquired "evil eye" to kill Harry. However, one of Harry's undead followers interposes himself between the two, and Dragosani is killed because, as Max Batu had told him earlier, "one cannot curse the dead, for the dead cannot die twice". Unfortunately, Harry himself dies in the conflict from gunshot wounds, but his mind also lives on like his dead friends; and his body survives long enough to draw Dragosani back into the Mobius Continuum and trap him in a recurring time loop for all eternity. |
Necroscope II: Wamphyri | Brian Lumley | 1,988 | The spirit of Harry Keogh now resides in his son, Harry Jr. When his infant son sleeps, Harry can roam the Continuum and speak to the dead, but is gradually losing his control as the son "reels" his father's spirit back in. Roaming in his spare time, Harry discovers that Thibor had infected a pregnant woman with a small part of his flesh, which results in a lesser breed of vampire, albeit a still formidable one. This youth, Yulian Bodescu, retains many vampire abilities: hypnotism, increased lust, bodily transformation, regeneration, and creating thralls (lesser vampires that are infected with a shed body part of the master vampire). Harry eventually contacts Faethor Ferenczy, a master manipulator (as all vampires are), who was not ready to die but was forced to when he was pinned beneath an unmovable column. When Faethor died, a small worm like (leech) creature left his body, which was also killed. Talking to Faethor, Harry discovers that the creature is the "true" vampire and source of the Wamphyri power, longevity, and when the two beings are merged, they are Wamphyri. Faethor tells Harry about Thibor, who was a mighty warrior centuries prior, and how he infected Thibor with his sole wamphyric egg. Thibor was to watch over Faethor's castle and servants while gone, but after disobeying him, Faethor had him chained underneath the earth (leading to the events of the prior book). Yulian is creating thralls out of his family, and Thibor uses telepathy to tell him that Harry Jr. is a great enemy. Yulian sets out to kill the infant, and Harry informs E-Branch that Thibor has a piece of dead skin left behind, which could be used to further Yulian's mutation. E-Branch teams up with the current Russian head to destroy Thibor's remains and a "finger mutation" left behind in Castle Ferenczy. After destroying the remains of Thibor, Alec Kyle is captured by rogue Russian agents believing him to be a spy. With the assistance of Zek Foener they mindwipe him and steal his knowledge of British E-Branch and Harry Keogh. Afterwards Zek Foener learns she has been tricked and vows never to use her talents for the Russians again. As Yulian prepares to murder Harry Jr, the infant, using powers he learned form his fathers mind slips through the Mobius Continuum, to E-Branch HQ with Brenda while the dead rise to slaughter Yulian Bodescu. Before he goes Harry Jr. releases his fathers consciousness, which is drawn to inhabit the now mindless body of Alec Kyle. Enraged at what the Russians have done to Alec Kyle, Harry destroys the Russian HQ once more. It is unclear at the end of the Novel whether Yulian would have developed into "FULL" Wamphyri, however such seems likely as he had been able to shapeshift extensively among other talents that lesser vampires seldom possess to any great extent. |
Necroscope III: The Source | Brian Lumley | 1,989 | The series starts to explore the origins of the Wamphyri manifestation on Earth. Years after Harry's son left, Harry has left E-Branch and has spent years searching the world for them. The new head of E-Branch, Darcy Clarke, recruits him in a case of a British spy (Micheal Jazz Simmons) who similarly disappeared, while investigating a Russian base. On investigation Harry discovers the Base is the result of a "blowback" from a high powered photon beam into an atomic pile which powered it and has created a "Grey" hole in space time, a oneway passage to another world which the Russians have been sending people through, and which monsters have emerged from. Traveling through a parallel grey hole in Romania Harry enters the source world of the Vampires, a world known as Starside/Sunside, wherein Vampire overlords prey on gypsy inhabitants, and wherein his now adult son (his son having used time travel as well as interdimensional to avoid Harry) is infected as a Vampire/Werewolf and besieged by the world's Vampire Masters as he seeks desperately to protect both himself and the world's people without losing what remains of his own humanity in the process. Harry and Harry Jr use the sun to destroy the Vampire lords. In the process Harry Jr is horribly wounded by the sun. Harry Sr. spends time with the only vampire Lord that was not banished to the Icelands, Lady Karen. She is struggling with her remaining humanity. Harry cages her in a room in her castle after destroying or freeing all her servants. After starving her for many days he is able to lure out her Vamipre leech and kills it. The Lady Karen commits suicide, because she has known what it's like to be Wamphyri. The book leaves off with Harry Jr. becoming aware of Harry Sr. watching him with his mind blocked off from his powers. |
Necroscope IV: Deadspeak | Brian Lumley | 1,990 | Several years after his return to earth Harry Sr. is troubled by nightmares of resurgent Vampires. These nightmares are messages from the dead who he is unable to communicate with when awake due to the actions of Harry Jr. Separately E-Branch is investigating drug smuggling in the Mediterranean when two of its agents are assaulted. One is vampirized and the other rendered insane. Harry Sr's new girlfriend, Sandra, herself secretly a member of E-Branch plays a pivotal role in bringing Harry into the mix. She had been assigned to watch him and if possible restore his powers and reports to the head of E-Branch on his status. Unknown to everyone the E-branch head is a sleeper agent for the Russian E-Branch/KGB community. Afraid that Harry may be recovering his old powers, or perhaps developing new ones, the Russians choose to eliminate him. The plot fails due to the intervention of the dead, and in the process Sandras status as an agent is revealed, as is the fact that Ken and Trevor are in trouble, and that the dead want Harry in the Mediterranean. Together Harry, Sandra, and Darcy, go out to check on the situation. During the course of the investigation they learn that the drug smuggler is a resurrected Janos Ferenczy, using the alias Jianni Lazarides. Sandra and Ken Layard are kidnapped and vampirized, and Janos uses his telepathy to force Trevor Jordan to kill himself. Despite being virtually powerless Harry moves to engage Janos on his home ground in Romania, but not before spending the night (what would later be revealed to be a very fateful night) in the ruins of Faethers house in Ploesti. When he awoke the next morning Harry discovered he was surrounded by odd black mushrooms that exploded at the slightest touch releasing their spores into the air which he breathed. Overnight Faether had restored his Deadspeak, and had untangled most of Harry's mental troubles. However not being a mathematician he was unable to restore the command of numbers and access to the Mobius Continuum. With his deadspeak restored Harry sought out and again spoke to Mobius himself, who recruited other mathematicians to help with the problem as Harry approached Janos lair slowly. Harry began showing signs of developing telepathy and possibly other powers in his own right. A fact he initially put down to his mind compensating for the long lack of his other abilities. During the final confrontation against Janos and his vampire thralls a group of Thracians raised from their ashes by Janos to help him instead took Harry's side and assisted him. This along with the timely restoration of his teleportation abilities through the Mobius Continuum allowed Harry to defeat Janos. The book closes shortly after Harry and the last Thracian stake and behead the vampirized Sandra. |
Necroscope V: Deadspawn | Brian Lumley | 1,991 | Harry Keogh discovers that he is being transformed into a member of the Wamphyri by the spores of the mushrooms he inhaled at the ruins of Faethors house in Ploesti. Additionally he experiments with Janos Ferenczy's "resurrection" necromancy to restore some people - notably Trevor Jordan and Penny Sanderson - to life. E branch begins to suspect Harry may have been infected, but Darcy calls Harry in anyway on a serial killer case. Resolved to do one last favor for humanity, both the living and the dead, Harry hunts down and deals with the necromancer/serial killer/rapist Johnny Found. Shortly after this Harry and Penny, who slept with him while he was literally asleep and thus infected herself, are driven from England by E branch, who cannot risk Harry being allowed to live as a vampire. Eventually Harry and Penny flee for starside, but in the process Penny is killed. Arriving back in the Vampire world Harry finds Lady Karen alive, after he had thought her dead from an attempted cure. The two out of loneliness become lovers for a time. But the vampire lord Shaithis, banished after battle with Harry and Harry Jr to the icelands is returning at the head of a small but vicious army, along side his ancestor from time immemorial, the most feared Wamphyri of all time, Shaitan himself. Unfortunately Harry Jr, has now mostly devolved into a wolf similar to the one who transmitted its egg to him. Gone are most of his powers, leaving his father and Karen to face Shaitan and Shaithis almost alone. Harry and Karen are, after a brief battle, crucified at the gate. However in a last act Karen commits suicide to take Shaithis with her and Harry and Harry Jr, combine their powers one last time to send a plea for help to earth which results in the dead in the Russian complex sending a nuclear armed exorcet through the gate, destroying Harry, Harry Jr, and Shaithis in a nuclear explosion. |
The Last Aerie | Brian Lumley | 1,993 | Sixteen years in the past on Earth Ben Trask along with other members of British E-Branch awake to a nightmare and feel compelled to go to their HQ in London, where they find each other waiting. Once there they use their combined ESP powers to project a hologram of the nightmare into view. They see a body of a man all burned and blackened by fire spinning in the darkness, suddenly he explodes and disappears into golden shards of light, one of the shards seems to come right out of the image and fly out of the room. They realize they have witnessed the death of Harry Keogh in the vampire world. (Necroscope: Deadspawn) Back in the present on Earth, Nathan is trapped, stuck inside the entrance of the wormhole gate in Perchorsk in Russia. Unsure if Nathan is human or Wamphyri The commander of Perchorsk, Turkur Tzonov, a telepath, contacts British E-Branch for help. Ben Trask and Ian Goodly agree to go to Perchork as advisors. Once at Perchork, Ben's talent immediately tells him Nathan is human. Nathan is moved to a cell in the complex where Turkur begins interrogation, but Nathan stays quiet, only using his telepathy to talk to Ben. He realizes that the British knew his father (having learned this from reading Turkur's mind), and wants to know more so he accepts their help. Another Russian telepath Siggi Dam feels sorry for Nathan and allows him to escape. He flees into the mountains where he is finally intercepted by a British special forces helicopter and taken to England. Once there he is told about his father and speaks to some of Harry's dead friends. E-Branch also tell him of the Möbius continuum and how Harry could teleport. Eager to learn this ability as he already has the numbers in him, Nathan starts to learn mathematics from a tutor but soon surpasses him. He then starts taking lessons from members of the dead, in particular Harry's own teacher a dead British headmaster. E-branch also shares with Nathan the location of the second gate in Romania which he can use to go home, but Nathan must wait until the river there is at its lowest to get to the entrance, so he spends many months with the British learning about the world and his father. While Nathan and Zek Foener are on a trip to visit the grave of her husband Jazz Simmons, they are attacked by Turkur's men (still trying to recapture Nathan). Having nowhere to run they are forced to swim in the ocean. Meanwhile in England Ian and David Chung know something is happening and turn on a computer in Harry's room in the E-branch Headquarters. A golden dart flies out of it and disappears. It finds Nathan who is still hiding in the ocean and in danger, and strikes him. By this blow he instantaneously learns Harry's knowledge of the Möbius mathematics and how to transport. He teleports both himself and Zek straight back to the E-Branch office though the Continuum. While all this has been happening on Earth, back in the vampire world Nestor has ascended as the Wamphyri Lord Nestor Lichloathe, and has discovered the dread power of Necromancy. He is also inflicted with leprosy from crashing his flyer into the leper village. The Wamphyri of Turgosheim have also been busy as well, been making flyers and fighting beasts to follow Lady Wratha's group across to the west in order to wage war against them. |
Tim Thompson in the Jungle | Frank Buck | null | Tim Thompson, a young boy, stows away aboard Frank Buck's ship at Singapore that he might accompany Buck, his hero, on a jungle expedition. The story of their adventures is told by Ferrin Fraser, based on Buck's own experiences, except for the introduction of certain characters, notably a villain, Rawson, who is lying in wait at Ceylon. At the climax, Tim Thompson, awestruck, watches as Buck descends into a pit and takes a man-eating tiger by the tail. The book has sixteen full-page illustrations grouped at the end. |
Blood Brothers | Brian Lumley | 1,992 | It is revealed that after the Battle in the Garden (Necroscope 3, The Source) while recovering from the ravaging of his mind by his son The Dweller, Harry Keogh fathered two sons unknowingly with a Szgany woman Nana Kiklu, in starside/sunside. This books covers in some part the boys growing up among the Szgany of Lardis Lidesci. With the vampires destroyed (Necroscope 5, Deadspawn) by Harry Keogh and Lady Karen with the help the wolf The Dweller the Szgany have stopped travelling and settled into towns. The boys grow up with their mother in the Lidesci town named Settlement with their friends and especially a girl named Misha and Lardis' son Jason. The boys suffer from dreams and sometimes nightmares of people whispering in their graves and they also talk to three wild wolves who for reasons unknown to them call the boys their uncles. We also learn of a long forgotten part of the world to the far east of the known Starside/Sunside. Discovered a long time ago by an exiled Wamphyri Lords Turgo Zolte and now home to around 40 Wamphyri Lord and Ladies and similar Szgany tribes al under the command of the Lord Vormulac Unsleep. But whereas the Szgany of old Starside fight back against the Wamphyri, the Szgany in Turgosheim have become worn down and supplicant. Settling in towns and allowing the many Wamphyri to visit and take as they want, using a tithe system where they are forced to choose or find a certain number of "volunteers" to be taken and used by the Wamphyri. Aggravated and tired of the Turgosheim life and aware that the land in the west is free of vampires a group of six Wamphyri under the command of the Lady Wratha The Risen flee Turgosheim for the west. As they grow older Nathan and Nestors once close relatationship deteriorates due in part because of their affections for Misha. While they are fighting over the Szgany girl their unprepared village is attacked by the Wamphyri led by Wratha. After the attack Nathan journeys away from Settlement, believing his mother, brother and Misha have been taken by the Wamphyri he ends up alone, weary and destitute and ready to die in the desert. His deadspeak thoughts are answered by a dead elder of the underground desert dwellers the telepathic Thyre. Wanting to help Nathan the dead Thyre Rogei guides him to a resting place of their ancients where he is found by the guards there. Nestor, also injured in the attack on the village ends up in the hills, his memory damaged due to a head injury and believing he is a Wampnyri Lord. Nestor witnessing a duel between two Wamphyri Lords, Vasagi the suck and Wran KIllglance, rivals and part of Wrathas group out of Turgosheim. His intervention in the form of a crossbow bolt fired into Vasagi allows the Killglance Brother to win. He is then "rewarded" by Wran for his help with Vasagi's egg and he becomes Wamphyri. Nathan, previously shunned by the dead of the Szgany, is immediately taken in by the Thyre and becomes famous among them, communicating with their dead and making many friends. Nathan becomes a conduit for the dead Thyre to talk to and teach the living Thyre, reuniting lost loved ones and telling them of new contraptions and inventions they have designed while dead. Learning to use his telepathy while traveling east with the Thyre across their many towns and underground outposts Nathan eventually ends up in Turgosheim. In Turgosheim Nathan finds a supplicant Szgany tribe and is put into the tithe where he is taken to the manse of the Wampnyri Lord Maglore The Mage. Intrigued by Nathans intelligence, colours and demeanour Maglore does not vampirise him, instead choosing to keep him around as a companion or "pet". Nathan spends many months in Maglore's manse learning about Turgosheim and he also meets another untouched human, the female Szgany girl Orlea. All the time keeping his powers and mentalism hidden from the Wamphyri Lord Nathan eventually 'escapes' on a flyer and goes back to western sunside and the Szgany Lidesci. Where he is reunited with his mother and marries Misha. Upon Nathan's return Nestor senses him and is enraged to find him back. Believing in his broken mind that Nathan is an "old enemy" Nestor attacks Nathan and Misha along with his lieutenant Zahar, injured in the brisk skirmish Nestors flyer crashes near a leper colony but not before Nathan is thrown through the Perchorsk gate by Zahar on Nestors orders. |
Lemonade Mouth | null | null | Five teenagers meet after all ending up in detention for different reasons. While in detention, they all play and sing along together with a jingle on the radio. They decide to form a band after discussing it. At first, they have trouble agreeing on music, but soon learn to work together and get along. The group decides to play at the Halloween Bash, but many students who are fans of Mudslide Crush, another band at the school, do not want the group to do the Bash. Ray, a member of Mudslide Crush and the school bully, harasses Olivia because of her band. Mo, Charlie and Stella get involved to defend Olivia and Stella spits a mouthful of lemonade into Ray's face. Ray calls Stella "lemonade mouth" and thus, the group takes "Lemonade Mouth" as their band name. Before the Bash, the lemonade machine that inspired the band is taken away as part of an agreement with a sports drink company that is sponsoring the school's new gym. This angers the band, and they decide to fight the decision. At the Bash, many of the students are surprised at Lemonade Mouth's music when they take the stage because the band uses instruments like trumpets and ukuleles. The bandmates develop friendships and bonds with each other when they arrive at Olivia's house to console her after her cat dies. They gradually open up to one another about their problems: Stella thinks she's stupid and has problems with her parents, Wen's father will be marrying his much-younger 26-year-old girlfriend, Mo, an immigrant from India, feels that she doesn't belong, and Charlie's twin brother died at birth. Olivia reveals that her mother and father had sex when they were in high school, and Olivia's mother, who never loved or wanted her, left Olivia's father, Ted, to raise his daughter by himself until he was convicted of armed robbery and manslaughter. In the meantime, Charlie falls in love with Mo. With new trust and friendship, the band becomes successful, getting on the radio and performing at a restaurant. However, things go downhill when Stella's ukulele breaks, Wen injures his lip, Charlie burns his hand, Olivia loses her voice, and Mo gets sick. All of this happens just before an annual live battle of the bands. Though the band does not do well in the competition due to their recent problems, their fans support them nevertheless, singing along to their songs to lift their spirits. Afterwards, Charlie and Mo share a kiss and the two begin dating. Stella makes amends with her parents and finds out she has a learning disability. Wen and Olivia become attracted to each other after Wen gifts Olivia a new kitten. |
Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia | null | null | Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia continues the adventures Alcatraz Smedry and his unusual family and friends who are members of the Free Kingdoms and fighting to protect the world from the cult of Evil Librarians. Alcatraz has finally made it to Nalhalla, location of the Smedry family's home and Crystallia, the kingdom of the Crystin Knights. Alcatraz and his group must work fast to prevent the librarian takeover of the kingdom of Mokia (another of the free kingdoms) and their infiltration of spies into the ranks of the Knights of Crystallia. |
Safari for Spies | null | null | The story takes place in March 1964. The newly independent west African country of the Republic of Nyanga is on the verge of civil war. The country is closely allied to the USSR. The USSR embassy in Nyanga has been bombed and its foreign nationals are being harassed on the streets. The USSR blames the USA for orchestrating the bombing and harassment despite the fact that the US embassy itself has been bombed. Nick Carter is sent to Nyanga posing as a special US ambassador to investigate the true source of the destabilization efforts against Nyanga and its allies. Carter gets to work with the assistance of Liz Ashton, Second Secretary at the US Embassy. Immediately upon arrival he is shadowed by the mysterious Laszlo. The destabilization efforts continue as Julian Makombe, the President of Nyanga, is shot and badly wounded. The chief of police immediately makes a series of arrests and discovers that some of the suspects are drug addicts from Dakar, in neighboring Senegal. Carter travels to Dakar and investigates the Hop Club a sleazy nightclub that supplies heroin and discovers it is a front for Chinese agents. At the recommendation of Rufus Makombe, the President's brother, Carter also visits the Kilimanjaro nightclub in Dakar and has a liaison with the club's singer, Mirella. She lures Carter to a remote house in the countryside where an attempt is made on his life. Mirella falls into a spear-filled pit and is killed instead. Carter escapes and returns to Nyanga to find that Liz Ashton has been kidnapped. Carter, reinforced by the Nyanga police and army, discover her location and arrive just in time to save her. Rufus Makombe, supported by communist Chinese aid, has planned the assassination of his brother, the overthrow of the government, and the establishment of a communist Chinese foothold in Africa. Carter defeats Rufus in hand-to-hand combat and Rufus's supporters are arrested. Finally, Ten Wong, the Chinese paymaster of the entire operation is tracked down to Casablanca, Morocco. Carter breaks into Wong's fortified house and is nearly killed by triffid-like plants that guard the compound. Ten Wong is lured outside and killed by his own plants. |
Spider's Voice | Gloria Skurzynski | 1,999 | Aran a young mute boy is about to give up hope of ever escaping his cruel and impoverished childhood with his guardians. He is sold as common trash and his life seems to fall into an ever growing misery. But then the charismatic scholar named Abelard hires him after rescuing him from captivity. Abelard is in need of a servant who will not speak of his affair with his student Eloise. Because he cannot speak his name, Aran had been nicknamed Spider. Spider accompanies the couple around France as they flee problems brought on by their forbidden passion. During one period in Brittany, Eloise teaches Spider to read, and he is able to use this skill and his talent for spinning wool to become the thread linking the two people he worships most. Abelard and Eloise are forced to temporarily separate while Eloise is pregnant with his child. Spider returns to his old home for a while where he finally learns how to speak. When he returns he sees how Abelard's child has grown. When he goes to visit Abelard, Abelard is so caught up in his own concerns he does not even notice Spider can now speak. Spider is devastated that his idol has been drained of the kind and giving should he once had and he slowly begins to hold Eloise as a new idol. |
Straight Up | Joseph J. Romm | 2,010 | The title of the book's introduction, "Why I blog", is a play on the title of George Orwell's essay, "Why I Write". Romm states, "I joined the new media because the old media have failed us. They have utterly failed to force us to face unpleasant facts. From this starting point, Romm posits that global warming is a bipartisan issue. He writes, "Averting catastrophic global warming requires completely overturning the status quo, changing every aspect of how we use energy – and doing so in under four decades. Failure to do so means humanity's self-destruction." The book collects, reprints and updates postings from his blog, ClimateProgress.org, as the main part of his content, adding introductions and some new analysis. In his first chapter, Romm argues that the media perpetuates the status quo through laziness and a misunderstanding of how to present a "balanced" story. For example, he believes that the media did a bad job of assessing the outcome of the Copenhagen summit in December 2009. Romm comments that global warming is a science story, but that the traditional news media, which has scaled back on specialized reporting, has given the story to political reporters who don't understand, and have not time to research, the scientific consensus. He next presents research concerning the science of climate change, as explained by what Romm calls "uncharacteristically blunt scientists". In the third chapter, Straight Up presents proposed solutions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the use of clean energy technologies and other currently available technologies. For example it describes what Romm believes are the advantages of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, generation of energy through wind and solar power, including concentrated solar power using mirrors to concentrate the sun's energy. He writes that "A 20 percent reduction in global emissions might be possible in a quarter century with net economic benefits". "Our plan", says Romm, must be "Deployment, deployment, deployment, R&D, deployment, deployment, deployment." The next chapter discusses peak oil. The next chapters move into the politics of global warming and what Romm sees as a "right-wing disinformation machine" that confuses and misleads the public, by, for example, fostering what Romm calls "Anti-Scientific Syndrome". The book says, "the economic cost of action is low, whereas the cost of inaction is incalculably greater – what exactly is the 'price' of 5 feet of sea level rise in 2100 … and losing all of the inland glaciers that provide a significant fraction of water to a billion people? Or the price of losing half the world's species? ... the bottom line is that the economic cost of action is low, whereas the cost of inaction is incalculably greater". Romm calculates that deployment of existing technologies on the massive scale that can save the climate can be accomplished at the cost of 0.12 percent of global GDP per year. Romm advocates citizen action to pressure Washington and industry to act quickly and decisively to reduce greenhouse emissions. Otherwise, he argues, we will fall behind in the race to commercialize profitable technologies. "China has a excellent track record of achieving gains in energy efficiency and has begun to ramp up its efficiency efforts and aggressively expand its carbon-free electricity targets (recently committing, for instance, to triple its wind goal to 100,000 MW by 2020). ... will the United States be a global leader in creating jobs and exports in clean energy technologies or will we be importing them from Europe, Japan, and the likely clean energy leader in our absence, China"? In the last chapter, Romm posits that progressives are "lousy" at educating the public, and he offers ways in which he thinks they can be more effective at messaging. In his conclusion at the end of the book, Romm argues that the global economy is a sort of ponzi scheme, in which our failure to prevent the worst effects of climate change now could eventually cause the world economy to fall apart just like a ponzi scheme. |
Echoes of Life: What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History | null | 2,008 | Echoes of Life chronicles the history of the discipline of organic geochemistry. In early experiments, Alfred E. Treibs identified organic molecules, which he extracted from various samples, as chemically altered chlorophyll. He explained the chlorophyll as having come from plants that died millions of years ago. Since Treibs' discovery, hundreds of biomarkers (a term coined 25 years after Treibs' discovery) have been identified. Chapter one, entitled Molecular Informants: A Changing Perspective of Organic Chemistry, gives a brief overview on the history of organic chemistry and explores the possibilities inherent in the science. It also describes how the authors first became interested in the subject and the work they have done within the field. Chapter two entitled Looking to the Rocks: Molecular Clues to the Origin of Life looks at the findings of Sir Robert Robinson and Melvin Calvin discovery's of organic compounds in petrol and the conversion of CO2 to organic molecules during photosynthesis. Early experiments had shown that organic compounds can form spontaneously under conditions similar to the pre-biotic era of earth. These findings led to speculation on the possible discovery on the origins of life. The chapter ends with the authors saying as a precursor to the next chapter Chapter three entitled From the Moon to Mars: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life. A Carbonaceous Meteorite which was found in Hungary in 1857, which was examined by Friedrich Wöhler was found to have organic compounds which he believed were Extraterrestrial in origin. The book moves on to Marcellin Berthelot who in 1864 claimed to have found "petroleum-like hydrocarbons" in a meteorite found near Orgueil. Louis Pasteur also ran experiments on this meteor and concluded it was sterile and not capable of generating life. The discovery of the Murchison meteorite also led to the finding of 70 amino acids most of which are not native to earth's biosphere. The authors look into the work done on samples brought back from the Apollo program missions. Geoffrey Eglinton one of the authors had been given a sample and although he knew there had never been life on the moon they had hoped to find organic compounds. None were found within those samples, which led to disappointment. These findings led the authors to speculate on the possibility of answering the question of whether there has ever been life on Mars and if future missions will bring back viable samples for testing. |
The Executioner | null | null | The title of the novel creates expectations about a cruel murderer, but Stefan Gashtev is a funny little person who has been trying to become popular all his life. He grows up in a circus, works as a clown, studies to become a fakir, then a pilot, unexpectedly goes to prison where he gets to be the executioner. Finally he flies into Outer Space and gets back to Earth after 20 years more obscure than ever. His misadventures are so terrifying that the best-selling author Stephen-Larry King (who has a creative block) decides to use them, but he dies a poor, preposterous death. Only the "non-fictional" story of his prototype remains. |
Intimate Exchanges | Alan Ayckbourn | null | The play begins in the garden of Celia and Toby Teasdale. After an unusually harsh winter, it is perhaps the first sunny day of the year. Inside the house, Celia and her "help", Sylvie Bell are busily spring cleaning. Celia emerges to fetch a step ladder from the garden shed but spies a packet of cigarettes on the table. Celia can either: #Have a sneaky cigarette — Go to "A Gardener Calls" #Carry on with the spring cleaning — Go to "A Visit from a Friend" Celia sits down and lights her cigarette. Five seconds later the doorbell rings and Celia calls to Sylvie to answer it. It is Lionel Hepplewick, caretaker and groundsman of the local school where Toby is headmaster. Lionel has come to do some personal gardening for Celia. Celia's marriage to Toby is failing and Lionel drops several unsubtle hints that he would be available, including a promise to come round on weekends to make sure her crazy paving is "properly laid". However, Lionel has already promised to take Sylvie out on a date and she wants him to commit to her. Lionel can either: #Turn Sylvie down — Go to "A Gardener in Love" #Go out with Sylvie — Go to "The Self-Improving Woman" Celia resists temptation and carries on into the shed. Five seconds later the doorbell goes, but Celia does not hear it. Instead, as she leaves the shed she is greeted by Miles Coombes coming over the fields round the back of the house. Miles is the Chairman of the Board of Governors at the school where Toby is headmaster. Toby's behaviour and ability to perform his job have deteriorated to the point where the school is losing pupils. The other members of the Board want to sack Toby. Miles has come to ask Celia for reassurances that Toby will change and that she will stand by him. Celia can not imagine Toby ever changing and announces that she is about to leave him. Miles can either: #Try to salvage things by suggesting a dinner party — Go to "Dinner on the Patio" #Forget Celia and stand by Toby on his own — Go to "Confessions in a Garden Shed" Five days later, Lionel is clearing out the Teasdale's shed. When Toby heads off to a school meeting, Lionel and Celia take the chance to get to know each other better. Lionel reveals that he is a master baker and Celia suggests that they start a business together. Toby returns from his meeting and apologises to Celia for the verbal abuse he gives her, promising to change and suggesting they take an exciting and fun holiday together. Celia can either: #Reject the apology and start a bakery with Lionel — Go to "Affairs in a Tent" #Stick with Toby and back out of her plans with Lionel — Go to "Events on a Hotel Terrace" It is the morning after Sylvie and Lionel's big date. Lionel is now clearing out the Teasdale's shed while Sylvie is tidying up their kitchen. Celia has dressed up for a coffee morning and her outfit makes an impression on Lionel. He tells Sylvie to put more effort into her appearance and to stop accepting second best in her life. Sylvie persuades Toby to give her tuition and Celia gives her some of her old clothes. Lionel is impressed by the transformation and tells Sylvie he'd like to sleep with her again. Sylvie can either: #Carry on improving herself for Lionel — Go to "A Garden Fête" #Dump Lionel with the rest of the trash — Go to "A Pageant" Five days later, Miles drops in on Celia as she is finishing preparations for their al fresco dinner. Toby has apparently gone for cigarettes at the pub and Rowena has been delayed at a "meeting" with the school PE teacher. While waiting, Celia and Miles have a few drinks and bemoan their other halves. As Celia starts to fret about dinner, Miles reveals that Toby has disappeared to give Miles a chance to salvage Celia's and Toby's marriage on Toby's behalf. Celia refuses to listen and she and Miles enjoy a private dinner together, culminating with Miles announcing his long-term love for Celia. Celia can either: #Start an affair with Miles — Go to A Cricket Match #Tell Miles to go home and sort out his own marriage — Go to A Game of Golf Five days later, Rowena and Miles are taking a walk when it begins to rain. They seek shelter in the Teasdale's shed and have a rare opportunity to talk to one another. Rowena admits to sleeping with most of the squash club and recommends that Miles have an affair as well to rediscover his long-lost sense of adventure. Miles takes the suggestion badly so she locks him in the shed. Sylvie, still busy cleaning up the Teasdales' house, lets Miles out and needles him for gossip. He tells her about Rowena and she agrees that he should have an affair. Miles asks Sylvie to go with him on a walk round the whole British coastline. Sylvie can either: #Say no — Go to A One Man Protest #Say yes — Go to Love in the Mist Five weeks later, Celia and Lionel are catering for the VIP tea tent at the school sports day, except that Lionel is late and Celia is stressed. Lionel finally arrives with the bread he has baked for the sandwiches, which proves to be inedible. To add to the pressure, the tomatoes and cucumber for the sandwiches get dropped on the running track and trampled. With everything going wrong, Celia descends into madness, starting an imaginary tea party. She attacks Miles Coombes who is forced to wrap her up in a tablecloth before going for help. Miles can either: #Fetch Toby — Go to A Funeral (1) #Fetch Lionel — Go to A New Woman Five weeks later, Celia and Toby are taking their first holiday together in years, but it is not the holiday Toby promised; they are recuperating in a dead-end seaside resort after Toby has suffered a suspected heart tremor. Lionel, meanwhile, has refused to take no for an answer from Celia, has followed her to the hotel and is working as a waiter. Lionel's brings out a succession of cream teas so he can talk with Celia, and Celia is forced to eat them to avoid creating a scene. Nevertheless, she is ready to give up on her husband and asks Lionel what plans he has for their future, only to learn that he is a hopeless incompetent. Utterly depressed, she descends into tears and hiccups. Toby returns from a walk and Celia recounts the whole sad affair. Toby can either: #Start a fight with Lionel — Go to A Funeral (2) #Ignore Lionel — Go to A Service of Thanksgiving Five weeks later, Sylvie is helping out with the village fête. She is putting herself in a set of stocks, ready to be pelted with wet sponges. Lionel, meanwhile, has been fired from his job as school caretaker after blowing up the school boiler and Sylvie is having second thoughts about their relationship. Lionel tells Sylvie that she needs to settle down and stop wasting her time on the private tuition she is having with Toby. When she tells Toby she is packing the lessons in, he begs her not to waste her brain, pelting her in frustration. Sylvie can either: #Marry Lionel and start a family — Go to A Christening #Strike out on her own — Go to Return of the Prodigal Five weeks later, Sylvie is still receiving tuition from Toby and Toby is producing the school pageant; an open-air production recounting Boudicca's fight against the Roman forces. It is the day before the performance and Lionel still has not finished building the stage, while the woman playing Boudicca has just broken her wrist. Celia has been asked by the play's author to take on the role of Boudicca and comes to rehearse only to find that Toby has already given the part to Sylvie. This is the last straw for Celia who is getting jealous of the time that Sylvie and Toby spend together, and is unimpressed by Toby's consequential good mood. She gets into a fight with Sylvie, knocks over Lionel's stage and ends up with a bloody nose. Sylvie professes her love for Toby. Toby can either: #Run off with Sylvie — Go to A Harvest Festival #Stay with Celia — Go to A Wedding (1) Five weeks later, Miles and Rowena are attending the "teachers versus pupils" cricket match. Rowena is in high spirits that Miles had the guts to start an affair and goes off to speak with some young estate agents. Celia takes the chance to speak with Miles. Although both of them are glad to be getting away from their respective other halves, neither of them is having much fun and Celia asks if Miles wants to end the affair. Miles goes in to bat and is called out for LBW by Toby, who is umpiring the match. The two of them get into a fight over the decision and Miles gives Toby a bloody nose. Celia takes Toby off to hospital leaving Miles with Rowena. Miles can either: #Send Rowena away and continue the affair with Celia — Go to A Sentimental Journey #End the affair and go for a walk with Rowena — Go to A 50th Celebration Five weeks later, Miles and Toby are spending a great deal of time together. This appears to suit Toby, who is much improved and almost sober, but Celia is getting jealous. Toby and Rowena bump into each other and Rowena asks if Miles is ever going to come home. Toby suggests that Miles does not wish to come home because of Rowena's affairs. Rowena replies that she wouldn't need to have affairs if Miles spent more time in bed with her. Rowena accosts Miles in a bunker and tries to seduce him. Miles can either: #Reignite his relationship with Rowena — Go to Easter Greetings #Reject Rowena's advances — Go to A Triumph of Friendship Miles, devastated by Sylvie's rejection, has locked himself in the Teasdales' shed for the past five weeks. Celia and Sylvie have both been caring for him and Toby is fed up. On Toby's instructions, Lionel lights a fire and prepares to smoke Miles out of the shed. Lionel is interrupted by Rowena and decides to make a pass at her. She talks him out of his trousers and then throws them on the fire as a demonstration of marital fidelity for Miles. Miles can either: #Leave Rowena — Go to A Midnight Mass #Move back in with Rowena — Go to A School Celebrates Five weeks later, Miles and Sylvie are walking along a coastal road. Miles is thrilled, but Sylvie is struggling and complaining that her feet hurt. She had been hoping the trip would involve a bit of romance, a bit of champagne and a private bathroom. Instead, she is getting dirty looks from the B&B staff. The two them get lost in a sudden fog and Miles is terrorised by a passing sheep so they take shelter in a nearby builders' shed. Sylvie is soon fed up and decides to make for home. Miles stays behind until Rowena suddenly emerges through the fog. She has come with news that Sylvie's mother has fallen ill. Miles can either: #Go home with Rowena — Go to A Wedding (2) #Carry on walking alone — Go to A Simple Ceremony Five years later, Toby is still caring for Celia after her mental breakdown. Lionel, meanwhile, has moved on from baking and has made a success for himself in the fast-food business. Five years later, Celia has recovered from her breakdown with Lionel's support, has left Toby and is now running a gourmet freeze-dried convenience food business. Lionel has been relegated to chauffeur duties but remains totally devoted to Celia. It is five years later and Toby has driven himself to an early grave, never having learned to control his temper. Celia is looking forward to the chance to live her own life and is approached by Lionel who has plans to become a vicar. He asks Celia if that is good enough for her, but she turns him down again. Lionel promises to keep trying. Five years later, Toby's verbal abuse of Celia is worse than ever and she finally makes up her mind to leave him. At that moment, Lionel returns to the village for the first time in five years having started a successful taxi business. Lionel drops a bombshell that he is now married and Celia berates herself for missing a chance at happiness. Five years later, Sylvie and Lionel are married and already have several children whom Sylvie has named after various literary figure. Sylvie has asked Toby to be godfather to their latest, Anne Charlotte Emily Branwell, and Toby promises that her education will begin where Sylvie's left off. Five years later, Toby is preparing to give an interview to a women's magazine about his school. The journalist turns out to be Sylvie who is doing well for herself and remains happily un-married. Five years later, Toby and Sylvie return to the village so that Sylvie can visit her family. Toby is uncomfortable and his constant fear that Sylvie is going to leave him is putting a strain on their relationship. Sylvie bumps into Lionel who is now running an import business and asks her out to dinner. She says she might drop him a line one day. Five years later, Lionel and Sylvie are getting married and Sylvie and Toby remain friends. Toby and Celia's relationship has improved and she finally confides in him that she hated their wedding. Instead of being upset, Toby is overjoyed that they have found something in common. Five years later, Miles and Celia are still together but are unable to find happiness. Rowena and Toby, on the other hand, are each doing very well on their own. Five years later, Toby's health is deteriorating and Celia is struggling to look after him. Miles approaches her but she rejects his advances.. Miles and Rowena return to the village after five years living in Australia. Toby has died from a heart attack, having returned to his old drinking regimen after Miles left. Five years later, Toby and Miles have both left their wives and are sharing a house together. Rowena took the opportunity to move to India while Celia has returned to her old career and offers Miles advice on handling Toby's continuing drinking problem. Miles returns to the village for the first time in five years to see Rowena and their children. Rowena is still cavorting with half the men in the village and nobody acts very excited to see him. Five years later, Miles' boring nature is getting the better of Rowena. She is desperately struggling to keep a sense of fun in her life to the point of madness but is nevertheless now loyal to her husband. Five years later, Sylvie has resigned herself to a life of marriage to Lionel and starting a family. In memory of one of her many dreams of a different life that failed to become reality, she asks Miles to give her away at the wedding. During his solo walk round the country, Miles fell off a cliff and died. Five years later, Rowena arranges for a shed to be dedicated to his memory. Sylvie, now married to Lionel, sits in the shed from time to time, lost in her thoughts. |
The Tragedy of Today's Gays | Larry Kramer | null | Kramer begins by explaining how this was the most difficult speech he had ever written and introduces a refrain repeated throughout the speech, "I love being gay. I love gay people. I think we're better than other people. I really do. I think we're smarter and more talented and better friends. I do, I do, I do, I totally do." He then states that George W. Bush was re-elected based on the trope of "moral values," which served as a synecdoche for gay men and lesbians, leading Kramer to exclaim, "Please note that a huge population of the United States hates us." Rather than offer up answers, Kramer directs the audience to find truth for themselves, stating, "We're living in pigshit and its up to each one of us to figure out how to get out of it." He addresses the topic of AIDS, one of the main foci of Kramer's lifework, and warns, "WE HAVE LOST THE WAR AGAINST AIDS." He explains that drugs which treat the symptoms of HIV or AIDS are no cure, and that their ameliorative effects will not last forever. He urges gay men and lesbians to remember those who fought for the rights of People With AIDS and for gay rights, in general, for "we cannot move forward without accepting and understanding our past." Quoting the research of journalist Bill Moyers, Kramer places the struggle for gay and lesbian civil rights within the structure of socioeconomic inequality in the United States, and states that those most privileged in the United States are dedicated not only to destroying the rights and lives of the poor, racial minorities, and non-Christians, but of gay men and lesbians as well. He reveals that in 1971, future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell created a plan to "take back America for the survival of the free enterprise system. Not democracy. Free enterprise." As part of the Powell Manifesto, conservatives in America created foundations to transform one of the most liberal nations in the world into a "classist, racist, homophobic, imperial army of pirates." AIDS worked in favor of this cabal, for "Their wildest dreams then started to come true. The faggots were disappearing and they were doing it to themselves," leading Kramer to conclude, "[I]ntentionality is the only word to describe the genocidal treatment millions of bodies have been drowning in." Kramer concludes by calling gay men and lesbians to action, and states that new treatments for HIV and AIDS make action more urgent, not less: "You who have been given a new lease on life, the very gift of life itself, piss it away." The answer for such destructive ambivalence is a united front that recognizes the negatives, as well as the positives, of gay life. |
Too Close to Home | Linwood Barclay | 2,008 | When the Cutter family's next-door-neighbours, the Langleys, are gunned down in their house one hot July night, the Cutters' world is turned upside down. Could the killers have gone to the wrong house? At first the idea seems crazy, but gradually we discover that each of the Cutter family has a secret they'd rather keep buried. |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.