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Destiny, or The Attraction of Affinities | John David Morley | 1,996 | Following in his father Magnus's footsteps, Jason Gould travels to Germany in 1961 but, unlike Magnus, Jason never returns to England, remaining to witness the construction of the Berlin Wall and the division of the country, meanwhile falling in love with the daughter of a woman whom his own father had once hoped to marry. Conceived alongside the unification of Germany in 1990, the novel confronts haunting questions about the collective guilt of the Holocaust, the oppressive ideological constraints of life in the GDR and the radical terrorism of the Red Army Faction. The narrative explicitly evokes Kleist’s Michael Kohlhaas and Caspar David Friedrich’s Chalk Cliffs on Rügen, while tracing the evolution of a cultural identity inescapably overshadowed by a political history of perennial trauma. |
Jonah Hex: No Way Back | null | null | After collecting a bounty, Jonah Hex takes up in a saloon for the night while acquiring the services of prostitutes. Two lawmen arrive at the saloon and give a prostitute a wanted poster to deliver to Hex showing that his mother, Virginia "Ginny" Dazzleby, is wanted for murder. In a flashback, it revealed that Hex has not seen his mother since childhood when she ran off and left Hex with his abusive father. Two days later, Hex's horse is shot out from under him by two bandits and he briefly lies on the ground playing dead before shooting both bandits. Against Hex's initial wishes, the bandits' dog, which Hex calls Dag, decides to accompany Hex. Hex arrives at saloon to inquire about his mother and shoots a man who pesters him about his gunsmanship. The bartender directs Hex to the tent town located behind the town proper, where Hex encounters three men stealing diseased blankets to trade to Indians who settled on land they purchased. When the men try to rob Hex, he shoots one in the arm and dodges gunfire from the other two so that they shoot each other. A small boy who overheard Hex questioning the men about his mother steps forward saying she was kidnapped by a group of Mexicans heading south. While on their trail in Arizona, Hex comes across a Navajo village razed by the Mexicans so they could pass off the Navajo scalps as Apache and sell them. Hex catches up with the Mexicans in a saloon and kills them all. He finds his mother upstairs dying of tuberculosis. Hex's mother mistakes him for the devil come to claim her soul. Before dying, Hex's mother reveals that the Mexicans that captured her were working for El Papagayo and that she had another son by Dazzleby named Joshua. A woman at the bar named Edna reveals that Hex's mother was taken as bait for Hex. Hex travels to Heaven's Gate, Colorado to deliver his mother's corpse to his half-brother and is informed upon arrival that Joshua is both the preacher and sheriff of the town and that the town has no saloon or whorehouse. Hex initially wants to leave right after delivering the body, but Joshua convinces him to stay for the funeral and to give up his guns while in town. Meanwhile, El Papagayo shows up at the saloon where Hex killed his men. He ties up and severely beats the bartender, his daughter and Edna and shoots Edna after she bites his hand. He then reveals that Hex's father destroyed his village when he was a child and he swore revenge on Hex's family. Back in Heaven's Gate, Joshua tries to make peace with the differences between him and his half-brother, but Hex makes good on his promise to ride out after the funeral. However, shortly after leaving town, Hex spies El Papagayo with around fifty men riding towards the town. Hex returns to town and suggests that they run, but the townspeople decide to say and fight. The next day El Papagayo men ride into town and find Hex's dog. El Papagayo orders one of his men to shoot it to prove his aim. They find the town otherwise deserted. The men arrive at the hot spring outside Heaven's Gate and find the women of the town bathing in it. One of them claims that the town is populated only by women. When El Papagayo's men jump into the water, the townsmen spring out of the water armed with various weapons. The townsmen win the initial skirmish, but Papagayo is not among the dead. Papagayo mows down some men with a Gatling gun and promises to spare the town if they turn Hex over. The townsmen over power Hex and attempt to hand him over, but when Papagayo hears Joshua refer to Hex as his brother, he shoots him, only hitting his arm. Hex breaks free, and Papagayo shoots him in the shoulder before Hex knocks the gun out of his hand. Papagayo reveals a knife hidden in his pants leg and stabs Hex through the arm. The fight continues until Hex pinned Papagayo and slits his throat with the knife still in his arm. Seeing their leader dead, El Papgayo's men retreat. The story cuts to months later when Hex leaves Heaven's Gate after staying with his brother to heal. On his way out, Hex stops by his mother's grave, with Dag buried next to her, and tells her he doesn't blame her for leaving. |
Journey to the End of the Whale | John David Morley | 2,005 | Swiss orphan, insurance agent and amateur marine biologist Daniel Serraz free-floats with life’s currents until a traumatic midlife episode sends him on a journey of discovery to the remote east Indonesian island of Lefó. There, he will uncover the secret of his origins, but not before risking everything hunting with the islanders, the last torchbearers of an ancient tradition by which whales are bested by men in teak boats, harpooned by hand on the open sea. |
Passage | John David Morley | 2,007 | Abducted by conquistadors in the year 1500, the merchant’s ward Pablito (alias White Water Bird, alias Paul Zarraté, alias Paul Straight, alias “the World’s Greatest Living Wonder”) passes through five books and five ages of man, as he travels from the primordial forests of the Amazon to the Incan empire of Tahuantin-Suyu, to the slave-plantations of colonial Pernambuco, via antebellum New Orleans, to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, before witnessing the birth of Hollywood and the explosion of an atomic bomb. |
The Book of Opposites | John David Morley | 2,007 | Beginning with a Mercedes 600 plunging off the Glienicker Bridge between the former borders of East and West, The Book of Opposites is a tale of love, death, precognition, paradox, yoga and quantum mechanics. |
Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang | Chelsea Handler | 2,010 | The book consists of humorous essays written by Chelsea about her various life experiences. The essays are often blatantly vulgar, much like the ones in Handler's previous two published books. The vulgarity of the stories have in some cases become a point of controversy among parts of the public, however, her fans argue that her straight-forwardness and brutal honesty contribute to the book's appeal. |
East of the Mountains | David Guterson | 1,999 | Dr. Ben Givens is a 73 year old retired Cardiothoracic surgeon and a widower, recently diagnosed with terminal colon cancer. Still haunted by his experiences as a soldier in the war, and in mourning for Rachel, his late wife of some 50 years, Dr. Givens's current life consists primarily of his family (a daughter and grandson), and occasional hunting trips. Although he hunted as a boy with his father and brother, he abandoned it after the war, only taking it up again upon Rachel's death (he still uses his Father's old Winchester rifle). Aware that he is nearing the end of his life, he decides to set off from his home in Seattle for one last hunting trip, along with his two Brittany hunting dogs, Tristan and Rex, heading east across the mountains of Washington State back towards the orchard areas where he was born. His family does not, however, know of his cancer, and his intention during the trip is to commit suicide, shooting himself with his Father's gun, staging it to look like an unfortunate accident which occurred whilst he was climbing over a fence; thus saving both himself and his family from the pain of a long, drawn-out death from cancer. En route, however, Dr. Givens accidentally crashes his car, and although his only real injury is a swollen black eye, he is left without his planned mode of transportation. Deciding to continue with his trip, he is forced to make his way east by alternative means. Through a combination of hitchhiking, a long walk through the desert, a lift bought from a lorry driver, a Greyhound bus, and a rental car, he finally approaches his destination; but will the combined effect of the people he has met, the experiences he has undergone, the gains he has made, and the losses he has sustained during this journey be enough to make him reject his climactic plan? |
Richard: A Novel | Ben Myers | null | Richard comprises two narratives. One is from Richey's first-person point-of-view, beginning with his departure from his London Hotel on 1 February 1995, and covering his thoughts, movements and encounters from this point onwards. The second narrative strand is a second-person point-of-view, running through Richey's childhood, school, university, career with the Manic Street Preachers, and physical/emotional breakdown. This second narrative strand eventually reaches the point at which the first narrative strand began, converging both narratives. |
Boneshaker | Cherie Priest | 2,009 | Early in the American Civil War, rumors of gold in the Klondike have brought would-be prospectors to North America's Pacific Northwest. Anxious Russian investors commission American inventor Leviticus Blue to create a machine which can mine through the ice of Russian-owned Alaska. Blue's "Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine" (or "Boneshaker" for short, named after boneshaker bicycles of the era), instead destroys several blocks of downtown Seattle and releases a subterranean vein of "blight gas" that kills anyone who breaths it and turns some of the corpses into rotters (non-supernatural zombies). A wall is erected to contain the gas within the affected part of the city. Leviticus Blue is nowhere to be found. Sixteen years later, Leviticus's wife and son, Briar and Zeke (Ezekiel) Wilkes, live in the impoverished outskirts of the former metropolis. Life is difficult, but Briar manages to support herself and Zeke by working a physically demanding blue collar job. However, one day, Zeke enters the toxic city in search of evidence proving his father is innocent of the intentional destruction. Briar intends on following, but the drainage hole collapses in an earthquake. She then hitches a ride over the wall by a captain of an airship, the unnaturally tall Captain Cly. Meanwhile Zeke meets Rudy, a man who claims to be a highly decorated lieutenant. Rudy tells Zeke that he can lead him to his parent's former house. The pair of them encounter an Native American woman who lightly wounds Rudy, but they manage to elude her. Briar is attacked by rotters, which causes her to flee to the roof of a building, where she is rescued by Jeremiah Swakhammer and his Doozy Dazer. He takes her to a bar named in honor of her deceased father to meet people including the barkeeper, Lucy O'Gunning. Once again, rotters attack the bar, forcing the occupants to retreat. It is later revealed that a man named Minnericht caused the rotter attack. Lucy takes Briar to see Minnericht, believed by some to be Leviticus Blue. Briar, however, doubts this. Unbeknownst to her, Minnericht has taken Zeke hostage. A battle breaks out between Minnericht's men and Swakhammer, Lucy, and the Indian princess. This battle attracts the rotters, complicating Briar's efforts to reunite with her son and exit the dangerous area of Seattle. Swakhammer is found unconscious and in critical condition by Briar. She tries to make Minnericht help him, leading to a heated argument in which Briar renounces that he is Leviticus, and mocks him. Unbeknownst to Minnericht, the Indian Princess is behind him, and while Briar distracts him she comes, slits his throat, and kills him. Everyone reunites and escapes to the surface. Eventually Briar leads Zeke to her and Leviticus' old home and tells Zeke that she killed Leviticus Blue years ago, as he tried to escape Seattle with his Boneshaker. Briar shows her son Blue's mummified body, still inside Boneshaker. Zeke claims he doesn't hold any grudge against his mother for killing her husband, and they embrace, before leaving to loot what is left of the former Blue residence. |
Barn Burner | null | null | In 1933 while running from a bad situation at home and suspected of having set fire to a barn, 14-year-old Ross finds haven with a destitute but loving family which helps him make an important decision. After a family disagreement, Ross Cooper leaves home with only a knapsack and the clothes on his back. He hopes to find work, but job prospects in the 1930s are dim, especially for someone as young and inexperienced as Ross. His troubles worsen after he is spotted fleeing a burning barn in a Ohio town where a number of barns have gone up in flames. Though a kind but destitute family takes Ross in, he yearns to hit the road again, especially when another barn is set afire and he falls under suspicion. But stronger than his wish to leave is his hope to discover the true identity of the barn burner and clear his name. This moving and fast-paced story captures the spirit of determination and hope boys like Ross needed to survive during the Great Depression. |
I Am Not a Serial Killer | Dan Wells | null | The book follows 15-year-old John Wayne Cleaver, a diagnosed sociopath who lives above a morgue owned by his mother. He fears that he is "fated" to become a serial killer due to being plagued by constant homicidal urges, and so lives by a set of rules designed to keep his violent impulses in check. His careful regime of self-denial is threatened when he becomes ensnared in a serial killer case in which he senses a connection with the killer.` |
The Bronze Horseman | Paullina Simons | null | The book begins on 22 June 1941, the day Russia enters the Second World War after Operation Barbarossa. Tatiana Metanova, nearly seventeen, meets the handsome and mysterious Red Army officer Alexander Belov. The relationship between Tatiana and Alexander develops against the backdrop of the Siege of Leningrad and in the face of many difficulties. |
Death Cloud | Andy Lane | 2,010 | Sherlock Holmes is sent to live with his unknown aunt and uncle in Holmes Manor in Hampshire over his school holidays when his father is unexpectedly sent overseas with the British Army. He cannot go home as his mother is unwell, and cannot go to London as his older brother Mycroft is busy working for the government. Wandering around the estate and the surrounding countryside he soon befriends a boy his own age named Matty Arnatt (who has witnessed an unusual death involving a cloud of death). After a few days of holidays Sherlock discovers that his brother Mycroft has hired him an unusual American tutor named Amyus Crowe. During their first lesson together Sherlock finds a dead body on the Holmes' estate and witnesses the same death cloud surrounding the body that Matty had previously seen. He detects a yellow powdery substance around the body and takes a sample of it. With Matty's help he tracks down a warehouse which has links to one of the deceased, and almost dies in the warehouse when the villains set it alight. Holmes escapes the building, and determines that he must travel to Guildford and locate an expert in exotic diseases who might help identify the yellow substance. He, therefore, sets out with Matty on his barge to Guildford, and although they are attacked along the way by the villains, they nevertheless make it to his destination and discovers that the yellow substance is bee pollen. On returning home he visits his tutor's home, where he meets Crowe's daughter Virginia. A few days later Sherlock is lured to a fair, where he is forced to participate in a boxing match, from which he is kidnapped and interrogated by the unseen Baron Maupertuis until he is rescued by Matty, and the pair go to his tutor's home. Knowing that the Baron has left his headquarters, Sherlock, Matty, Crowe and Virginia determine to follow and locate the Baron. They discover that the Baron is shipping a weapon from a London wharf, and after a series of chases, Sherlock and Virginia are kidnapped to France by the Baron, and further interrogated. The pair escape and meet up with Crowe and Matty and set out to stop the Baron from trying to destroy the British Army. |
Alice Next Door | null | null | The story revolves around an Irish twelve-year-old girl called Megan Sheehan, whose best friend, Alice O'Rourke, has just moved away from Limerick to Dublin with her younger brother Jamie and her domineering mother. Megan enters sixth class on her own and finds it hard to cope with no friends. Although Megan can e-mail Alice and call her every Saturday, she has difficulties dealing with her exasperating mother and arch-enemy Melissa on her own. Megan is humiliated when her stingy, non-consumerist mother Sheila Sheehan orders her to petition for a park to be kept. To make up for this, Sheila takes Megan to Dublin for five and a half hours, where she can spend the day with Alice. At the end of this day, Alice tells Megan she has a plan to move herself back to Limerick, and promises to tell Megan the next time she sees her. Once the Hallowe'en holidays come around, Alice travels down to Limerick for three days to stay with her father, Megan's next-door neighbour. Here Alice reveals her plan. She will stay in Megan's house for the whole week without any parents knowing - Alice's father thinking she is in Dublin, Alice's mother thinking she is with Mr O'Rourke. Alice stays in Megan's bedroom the whole week, telling her mother that she is too sick to come home on the train. Megan manages to stash food away for her, like Pot Noodles, but over the week Alice gets more and more irritated and Megan realises how hard it is for her to have divorced parents. Alice's mother comes down to Limerick when she discovers her daughter is not at Mr O'Rourke's house. She enters the Sheehan home with her ex-husband, find Alice and takes her back to Dublin. Megan is extremely upset. In the end they make it work. Alice comes down for the holidays and they still stay best friends forever. |
The L-Shaped Room | Lynne Reid Banks | null | The L-Shaped Room is set in the late 1950s and follows a young woman, Jane Graham, who arrives alone at a run-down boarding house in London after being turned out of her comfortable middle class home by her shocked father after telling him she is pregnant. The L-Shaped room is the dingy room at the top of the boarding house that Jane retreats to, to wallow in her miseries. Jane narrates the story as we follow her through her pregnancy and her encounters with the other residents of the boarding house, all misfits and outsiders. Jane got pregnant through a bungled sexual encounter losing her virginity to her ex-boyfriend. Her decision to live by herself and have the baby causes her to be seen as little better than the prostitutes who live in the basement of the boarding house. |
People Like Us | null | 2,007 | The text highlights the egocentricism and the "endless misunderstanding and mutual, cross civilisational ignorance" that - according to the author - pervade contemporary Islam-related attitudes and discourse. In the process it discusses issues such as the hijab, jihad, fundamentalism, radicalism, and secularism. |
Blood Oath | null | 2,010 | "Blood Oath" opens with an Army Ranger task force in Kosovo, conducting surveillance on a group of Serbians as night falls. The Rangers watch as a mysterious figure attempts to bargain with the Serbs, trading a bag of cash for a mysterious case with US Army markings. However the deal goes bad and the Serbs attack the figure. As the fight progresses, one of the soldiers sees the fight between the figure and a Serb up close, and realizes what he is seeing: a werewolf and a vampire, in a fight to the death. Twenty hours later, Griff is escorting Zach Barrows to the Smithsonian Institution. There, Zach meets the mysterious figure: Nathaniel Cade, a vampire bound by a blood oath to serve the President of the United States. Agent Griff is retiring, and brings in Zach to take over after Zach is found fooling around with the president's daughter. Through various flash-backs, we find out about Cade's past: as a young man, he served on a whale hunting vessel in 1867. His ship was attacked by a vampire, killing all on board but leaving Cade, who turned to a vampire himself. He was captured and sentenced to death, but spared by President Andrew Johnson, who in turn had him bound by voodoo to the Office of the President. As Zach begins his first day, he and Cade are dispatched to the Port of Baltimore. ICE agents have found a shipping container holding a horrible discovery: various body parts, all hanging on hooks in a grim meat locker. After interrogating the driver, Cade tells Zach that they are on their way to find Johann Konrad Dippel, the real-life Dr. Frankenstein. Konrad is an alchemist from Germany, and is currently over 350 years old, due to having discovered the Elixir of Life. His Elixir can bring dead tissue to life, and make it so strong just one of his creations killed dozens of people before being stopped. Konrad had been arrested in Nigeria by Cade in 1970; however, Konrad performs a service to the United States in 1981 and as a result is set free, as long as he does not practice his evil medicine again. Cade and Zach confront Konrad, who denies any involvement with the dead body parts. However, after Cade and Zach leave, Konrad moves to a secret lab and proceeds to demonstrate that he has not given up his diabolical work at all. Cade leaves Zach to tail Konrad while he finds an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting to attend. At the A.A. meetings, Cade is able to draw strength from the humans, as they all struggle with desire for the drink, even if they have different thirsts. As Cade leaves, he is stopped by Tania, a female vampire he failed to help in the past. While neither will admit it, their shared history gives them both the closest thing to feelings for each other that vampires can feel. As Zach is tailing Konrad, he is followed by a mysterious black car. With Cade's assistance, they ambush the black car and find Helen Holt, a former CIA agent who now works for a dark organization referred to as Shadow Company. The Shadow Company began during the Cold War, and has since delved into darkness so deep that the conspiracy theories about President John F. Kennedy and Roswell are nothing compared to the truth of what they truly do. As Cade and Zach dig deeper and deeper into the truth behind the body parts and their connection to Konrad, they find back-stabbing and double-crosses waiting for them at every turn, with their search finally ending in a terrifying showdown with the Other Side that takes place in the heart of the nation's capital. |
Gusher of Lies | Robert Bryce | 2,008 | In 2008 the USA imported 60 per cent of its oil. Bryce argues that, given the size of its energy needs, the USA needs to continue importing oil. He also favors increasing domestic production of oil and gas. He acknowledges that energy independence has appeal as a slogan, but says that the reality is energy interdependence. As in his later book Power Hungry he makes a case that renewable sources such as wind power and solar energy cannot meet the United States' (growing) energy requirements. Bryce dismisses ethanol fuel as having a cost that far outweighs the benefits. However, he believes that as world prices rise in the longer term, it will be economic to move to non-fossil sources. |
Chords of Strength: A Memoir of Soul, Song, and the Power of Perseverance | null | 2,010 | The memoir starts with Archuleta describing his childhood in Florida with his family and eventually moving to Utah. He introduced his readers to his family members, including how his mother, Lupe, was born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and enjoyed dancing and singing with her sisters when she was younger. Archuleta reveals that music has been a huge influence in his family for generations and that his father, Jeff, is a jazz trumpet player and that he has been a musical influence on him because he taught him the concepts of improvisation. Archuleta also described the impact the musical Les Misérables had on him and also the influence of the first season of American Idol. He described his experiences in the Utah Talent Show, Jenny Jones' Show, and Star Search, for which he won the title of Junior Vocal Champion. The vocal cord paralysis Archuleta suffered at a young age was described in detail, including how he felt and what the experience has done for him and taught him. He then continues to describe his decisions and various events leading up to his audition and participation on the seventh season of American Idol. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Archuleta writes about how his faith encouraged him, influenced him, kept him grounded and helped him stay optimistic throughout his challenges. Archuleta showed love for his fans by writing how much he appreciates their support and provided his top 3 fan encounters. Inspiring others to also follow their dreams and make a difference, Archuleta concludes his memoir with "And remember, even when you can't sing, you can always plant a tree". |
Worth Dying For | Lee Child | 2,010 | On his way to Virginia to meet Susan, the CO of the 110th MP from 61 Hours, Jack Reacher stops at the Apollo Inn, a fading motel in rural Nebraska. In the motel's bar he overhears a drunken doctor refuse to treat a woman's nosebleed which won't stop. The woman, Eleanor Duncan, is married to Seth Duncan, the scion of the Duncan clan, which holds that part of Nebraska in its iron grip, keeping the population in docile silence. Reacher suspects domestic abuse, and coerces the doctor into doing the right thing. Reacher's altruism sees him become embroiled in the Duncans' family business, and the unsolved disappearance of Margaret Coe, a child from twenty-five years earlier. |
The Salt Eaters | Toni Cade Bambara | 1,980 | The novel opens on Minnie Ransom, the "fabled healer of the district", performing a healing on Velma Henry who has attempted suicide by slitting her wrists and sticking her head into a gas oven. Velma, a community activist who has worked in various leftist movements, has suffered a nervous breakdown due to the increasing factionalism in the activist community of Claybourne as well as her failing marriage to Obie, another activist, and the pressures of her job as a computer programmer at Transchemical, a chemical plant in the neighboring town. Minnie, an unmarried eccentric, calls on her spiritual guide, a "haint" she called Old Wife, to guide her through the healing as she feels Velma is resisting her efforts. (Old Wife was the elderly woman who helped Minnie deal with the emotional breakdown she experienced after she ran away from the bible college that her well-to-do parents sent her to and headed to New York City.) Many chapters of the book feature long internal dialogues between Minnie and Old Wife, with the two of them having spirited debates about the "loas" that Old Wife refuses to acknowledge. The healing, which is conducted in the infirmary that Velma helped to establish to serve the community is witnessed by several visitors, most of whom have some sort of connection to Velma. The entirety of the novel's action revolves around the healing, with the planning of the upcoming Spring Festival serving as backdrop. The point-of-view of the novel shifts numerous times between characters. "At once spiritual, apocalyptic, mysterious, cacophonic, and destabilizing, The Salt Eaters offers a unifying epiphany of creation and community." |
The New Confessions | William Boyd | 1,987 | The novel's protagonist, John James Todd, experiences a lonely childhood growing up with a father who is distant and cold towards him and a brother, Thompson Todd, who dislikes him intensely. His only solace is Oonagh, his nanny, who, although illiterate, has a tough, sharp mind and acts as a kind of surrogate mother. His father, Innes McNeil Todd, is a senior consultant at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and University Professor. John James's school years pass uneventfully until he decides to run away to visit his mother's sister, Faye, living in the south of England - a woman for whom he has developed a schoolboy crush as a consequence of their correspondence following her husband's death. During his stay, John James exposes himself whilst they are having a picnic whilst punting in Oxford and his aunt slaps him. Feeling disgraced, he decides to enlist in the army and ends up on the Western Front. Todd's war starts of fairly peacefully because he is stationed at Nieuport-les-Bains in Belgium at the extreme end of the Front. His regiment - the 13th (Public School) service battalion of the Duke of Clarence's Own South Oxfordshire Light Infantry is made up of public schoolboys, none of whom Todd particularly likes apart from Leo Druce. Todd takes part in the attack and his company is almost entirely wiped out, with over fifty percent casualties. On August 22, 1917 Todd is involved in a second attack - one of the Bantams tries to kill him (after a previous run in) but mistakenly kills Todd's Lieutenant. Todd is finally relieved from his own personal nightmare by Donald Verulam, a friend of his father's, who enlists him into the WOCC (War Office Cinema Committee). As a WOCC cameraman, John James spends his time filming subjects that are worthy of propaganda value and is delighted when his first four reels of film of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry are shown to the KOYLI colonel and his officers in their battalion reserve billets. Whilst filming other regiments, Todd decides to make his own film of the true horrors of fighting but this is rejected by the censors for being unpatriotic and he is almost returned to the front line (unlike his rival, Harold Faithfull, who is much lauded for his artificially-shot 50 minute film, The Battle of Messines. Todd ends up imprisoned in solitary confinement in Weilberg, Germany and sinks into a profound depression until he befriends a German guard, Karl-Heinz, who, in return for kisses, smuggles him torn out pages of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Les Confessions. Finishing it over a seven-week period, he weeps because he is so profoundly affected. Eventually, his story is confirmed and he is transferred to an officers' camp in Mainz for five months until the war's end. The story moves forward to July, 1922 and Todd is now working for Superb-Imperial Films in Islington, London. Todd starts filming in and around Edinburgh, joined by his old friend Leo Druce as producer, whom he meets again at an old regimental reunion and who is down on his luck. The film is a commercial success but his employer goes bankrupt. However, Todd receives a postcard from Karl-Heinz saying that he is making lots of films and plays in Berlin. He joins him, only to find that Karl-Heinz is just a bit-part extra, so he becomes the doorman at The Hotel Windsor and moves in with Karl-Heinz. Karl-Heinz starts to enjoy more success whilst Todd remains in a rut, and one day presents Todd with a copy of Rousseau's Julie which the latter hates but turns into a film script. Liking it, Karl-Heinz introduces Todd to Duric Lodokian and his son, Aram - the Armenian owners of Realismus films - and they offer him a contract. Todd's propects are now looking up and he is joined by Sonia and Vincent, their son, at his apartment at 129b on Rudolf Platz. All goes well until Todd encounters Doon Bogan, an American film star, who Karl-Heinz suggests play the lead role of Julie. After their first meeting, Todd knows he is in love with Doon. However, whilst living with Sonia and his increasing family, he is able to keep his emotions in check. However, after one particularly successful scene while filming Julie, John James makes his feelings known to her only to receive a knee in his groin. John James bemoans his position to Karl-Heinz and he is only restored when he decides to make a film version of The Confessions. Now he is happier living at home and becomes very attached to his second son, Hereford, who is an engaging affectionate baby. He also rents a small wooden villa and has an affair with a German actress, Monika Alt. Doric Lodokian dies but extracts a promise from his son that Realismus will undertake the three films, each three hours long, of The Confessions. The Confessions: Part I starts to be filmed and requires a vast machine to set it in motion. Doon and John James finally make love and, on their return to Berlin, they carry on the affair intermittently until they are discovered by Sonia's private detective. Sonia announces she is divorcing him and returning to London with the children. Doon is offered a role by her ex-husband Mavrocordato in a new film. Todd's film is at last completed but Aram arrives (now calling himself Eddie Simmonette) and thinks they are too late owing to the introduction of sound. Doon announces she is moving to Paris - disliking Germany because of its increasing Nazification - and Realismus films comes close to bankruptcy as a result of the 1929 Wall Street Crash. The Confessions: Part I is shown in the enormous Gloria-Plast cinema on the Kurfurstendamm, accompanied by a 60-man orchestra - but the great auditorium is half empty for the gala and closes after a week. Eddie manages to scrape up enough money for The Confessions: Part 2 and filming starts at Neuchatel in January, 1934. However, it is beset by misfortunes and Eddie finally arrives to say that the studios have been shut down and all his property impounded after his being declared a 'non-Alien'. He has a cold, comfortless meeting with Sonia and the children in a large house near Parsons Green, and is forced to pay support by Mr Devize, her solicitor. Todd returns to Edinburgh and has to go through the ritual of being caught in flagrante committing adultery so Sonia can divorce him. Todd is taken on by Courtney Young, the owner of Court Films, and is joined there once more by Leo Druce as his producer. Young is persuaded to finance The Confessions and pays Todd to work on the script of Part II, but is then asked by his boss to direct a film about King Alfred. Following a meeting with Druce, he decides to turn it down, only to find out the next day that Druce has been made its director and they have a furious falling out. John James is sacked by Court Films and, with nowhere else to go, returns to Scotland. After failing to raise finance for The Confessions: Part II, he relocates to Los Angeles but his position worsens when he becomes stuck without a visa in Tijuana, Mexico. Luckily, he meets a local newspaper proprietor and becomes a photographer for the Tijuana, Tecate, Rumorosa and Mexicali Clarions. Between 1940 and 1943 Todd's fortunes look up. He is reunited with Eddie Simmonette in LA and he directs eleven westerns, all under one hour long. He also re-encounters Mavrocordato, only to learn that Doon left him in France to return to the United States. He asks Ramon to try and track down her whereabouts and learns that she is living in Montezuma, Arizona. After finishing his film, The Equaliser, he visits her, only to find an older, more cynical chain-smoking Doon who is completely different to the young woman he knew twenty years earlier. Determined to take a role in the war, he is sent by Ramon as a war correspondent to follow General Patch's 7th Army invasion of France's southern coastline. John James returns to Berlin to look for Karl-Heinz and eventually manages to be re-united with Eugen P. Eugen who eventually tracks down Karl-Heinz in a half-demolished church, suffering from stomach disorders. After flying to LA, they start filming Father of Liberty for Lone Star Films. However, everything changes when Eddie asks to meet him secretly and they discuss the Hollywood Ten and John James' listing in Red Connections as a communist. Taking advice from Eddie's lawyer, he appears before the Brayfield subcommittee of HUAC and pleads the Fifth Amendment. From this point on, he is laid off by Eddie and blacklisted by all the major studios. Eventually, he is named in executive session by Monika Alt and Ernest Cooper as a member of the revolutionary communist cell in Berlin in the Twenties. John James gives a confident performance in front of the cameras and Doon perjures herself in order to save his skin. From their detailed knowledge, Todd knows he has been set up and, speaking to one of his students, a Japanese businessman, he hires a Japanese private dick to find out who - it turns out to be Monroe Smee, a nobody whom Todd met when he first came to the U.S.A. and who he inadvertently offended by criticising his tacky scripts. Todd, after following Smee to the Red Connections office in West Hollywood, decides to confront his persecutor at his home but is thrown out of the house. Finally, fear of the Red Threat wains and Todd once more takes up film directing. Karl-Heinz suffers from ill-health and is found dead in the Hotel Cythera where he has always lived. Retiring to the convict shack at Big Sur which he and KH rented whilst filming, Todd decides to have his private detective, O'Hara, get Smee of his back after he sees him observing him swimming. O'Hara misunderstands his instructions and kills Smee to order for a one thousand dollar fee and, together, they dump the body over the edge off the cliff by the ocean. The novel finally comes to a close with John James finishing his reminisences at the Villa Luxe, a house he has been renting on a Mediterranean island for the past nine years from Eddie, after fleeing the US owing to his fear of being connected with Smee's death. |
The Double Comfort Safari Club | Alexander McCall Smith | 2,010 | Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are called to a safari lodge in Botswana's Okavango Delta to carry out a delicate mission on behalf of a former guest. The Okavango makes Precious appreciate once again the beauty of her homeland: it is a paradise of teeming wildlife, majestic grasslands and sparkling water. However, it is also home to rival safari operators, fearsome crocodiles and disgruntled hippopotamuses. What's more, Mma Makutsi still has not set a date for her wedding to Phuti Radiphuti and is feeling rather tetchy herself, not least because of Phuti's possessive aunt. But Precious knows that with a little patience, just as the wide river will gently make its way round any obstacle, so will everything work out for the best in the end ... |
Purity in Death | Nora Roberts | 2,002 | Lt. Eve Dallas and her assistant, Delia Peabody, are called in by Officer Troy Trueheart after he has shot and killed a suspect named Louie Cogburn. The man, a known but unconvicted, normally low-profile dealer in "illegals" (illegal drugs) to children, had suddenly turned homicidally insane and killed a neighbor in his apartment building; he was attacking the neighbor's wife when Trueheart enters the scene. Trueheart is forced to stun Cogburn when he attacks the officer; however, despite Trueheart's weapon being locked on a normal stun setting, Cogburn dies instantly. On examining the scene, Eve finds the attacker's computer bears a message on its screen: "Absolute Purity Achieved." She sends the computer to NYPSD's Electronics Detection Division for examination. The attacker's autopsy, meanwhile, shows an unusual extreme swelling of the brain tissue, enough to induce irreversible dementia and violence. Some time later, the EDD investigator working on Cogburn's computer turns violently enraged, injures Ian McNab, and then dies of the same intense brain swelling while holding Captain Feeney hostage. The next day, another body is found, that of Chadwick Fitzhugh, an unconvicted pedophile, with the same swelling and evidence of the same uncontrollable violence, and with the same message on his computer terminal. Following this, a text message is sent to reporter Nadine Furst from a group calling themselves the "Purity Seekers," claiming responsibility for the deaths of Cogburn and Fitzhugh, and promising more "executions" of criminals that the law has not been able to touch, by means of a unique computer virus. It becomes Eve's job, with the help of Roarke and her team, to stop the Purity Seekers before more are killed by them, as well as more deaths of uninvolved individuals. |
The Highest Tide | null | null | Miles O'Malley is a 13-year-old boy from Skookumchuck Bay in southern Washington in love with his 18-year-old babysitter, Angie Stegner, daughter of the local judge and his neighbor. His parents are unhappy and want a divorce, which has consequences for Miles. The only person who believes in Miles is the local professor, who cares a lot for the boy and is intrigued by his knowledge of Puget Sound. Miles also enjoys visiting his neighbor Florence, an old woman with advanced Parkinson's disease who was once a professional psychic. Although she informs Miles of a very high tide coming in that September, all of her previous 'readings' were wrong, so the correctness of this is called into doubt. After Miles discovers a very rare sea animal, a Giant Squid, washed up on the shore, he is struck by fame, which he has trouble handling. Every headline in the local newspapers includes his name, people want to meet him, and he is overwhelmed by the thought of the whole situation, as he was just doing what he loved. His parents, who never thought much of their son or the ocean, are embarrassed by all the publicity, feeling like they do not really know Miles. A series of strange events tie the story together and odd things are happening in the Puget Sound. This is a summer that will change Miles forever. |
Requiem | Robyn Young | 2,008 | Requiem, like Brethren and Crusade before it, follows Will Campbell, a Templar involved in a secret order known as the Anima Templi. After the fall of Acre, Will returns to Europe to find out that his order agreed to help King Edward I to conquer Will's homeland, Scotland. Will decides to leave the Templars and fight together with his people against English invaders. But after his return to Paris he must face an even bigger danger, a plot that will lead to the end of the Knights Templar. |
The Pilgrim of Hate | Edith Pargeter | 1,984 | In June 1141, the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul prepares to celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of St. Winifred's casket at Shrewsbury Abbey. The monks will carry the reliquary from the small chapel at St. Giles to its altar in Abbey church. Brother Cadfael recalls the decision he made in Wales, when he alone removed Winifred's actual remains from the casket, returned them to her Welsh soil and replaced them with those of a monk who died on their mission to seek these holy bones. He shares this tale with Hugh, relieving a burden. The saint has continued to work miracles in her home in Wales, but none in Shrewsbury. Is the saint displeased with Cadfael? Abbot Radulfus returns from the legatine council in early June after 8 weeks away. Henry, Bishop of Winchester called the council as an attempt to end The Anarchy, a civil war between the forces of King Stephen, the lawfully anointed king and Bishop Henry's brother, and Empress Maud, the lawful heiress of her late father King Henry I. He is held in prison in Bristol, while she seeks the approval of London for her coronation. This dispute has the nobility and clerics of England at each others' throats; it comes to a head in Winchester on day three of the council when Stephen's wife Queen Matilda sends a message to the bishop, requesting Henry to seek release of his brother the King, enraging Henry who had turned to the Empress. Later that evening, the Queen's messenger is ambushed in a Winchester alley by supporters of the Empress. Rainald Bossard, a knight supporting the Empress, intervenes to save the messenger and is murdered for his noble efforts. The attackers slip away. Abbot Radulfus feels Bossard's death very deeply, asking the monks to pray for his soul. Pilgrims arrive in large numbers. Arriving after three weeks of walking is a middle-aged widow, Dame Alice Weaver, with a crippled teen named Rhun and his beautiful sister, Melangell. Aunt Alice has brought her nephew to pray to St. Winifred for relief from the pain caused by his clubfoot; Rhun wants his sister to find a happier life than caring for him. He accepts Cadfael's help of powerful massages, but refuses any sleep aid. Two taciturn young men arrived with them. Ciaran, who suffers from a 'fell disease', is under vow to hobble barefoot to Aberdaron in Wales to die in peace, hampered by a great iron cross around his neck and protected by a bishop's ring. His inseparable friend Matthew has vowed to see Ciaran through to the end of his penitential journey. These two groups travelled together nearing the Abbey, Matthew giving aid to Rhun on occasion, and showing an attraction to Melangell. Cadfael notices a third party of pilgrims, four merchants who do not quite suit their trades. Their suspicious actions and a tip from Brother Adam lead him to warn Beringar that they may be thieves. While Beringar sets a net to catch the thieves working the fair, he meets Olivier de Bretagne and his companions, messengers from the Bishop's conference. Proceeding to Hugh's house in town, Olivier makes his request that the Sheriff accept Empress Maud as queen, which request Beringar politely turns down. Olivier tells Hugh that while in Shrewsbury he will search for Bossard's adopted son, Luc Meverel, who is missing following his lord's murder in April. Olivier mentions he may find the monk he met at Bromfield, who was kind to his liege lord's wards. Hugh is pleased to meet by name this man with whom he had worked to save the Hugonin children. Beringar's net caught one of the thieves, and recovered the ring stolen from Ciaran. The ring was on the hand of a local goldsmith, Daniel Aurifaber, who bought it from one of the suspicious tradesmen as a side deal in a crooked dice game. Near dawn on the day of the procession, Melangell sees Ciaran who tells her that he is leaving Shrewsbury for Wales now that his "safe-passage" ring is returned to him. Melangell promises to keep his secrets. Ciaran leaves. After Mass is over at the Abbey church and St. Winifred's reliquary is in place on her altar, pilgrims line up to make their requests of the saint. Prior Robert presides. Rhun approaches on his crutches, but says he can kneel. Rhun drops his crutches; as he puts his foot to the ground and climbs the stairs to the altar, the congregation can see his leg fill out and his foot untwist. He prays in an atmosphere of complete silence; when he steps back, his foot whole and fully functional, the church is filled with shouts of praise for the saint who has performed such a miracle. At the midday meal, Matthew notices that Ciaran is missing. Melangell tries to stop Matthew pursuing Ciaran, saying Ciaran wants them to be together. He reacts with unusual rage, shoving Melangell down. Moments later he leaves the Abbey, hot on Ciaran's trail. After the meal shared with the Abbot, Olivier and Hugh seek out Cadfael from Winifred's altar, for aid in finding Luc. The presence of Olivier is Cadfael's own miracle; his saint is pleased. The description of Luc—that of a dark-haired, dark-eyed, well-bred, taciturn young man—applies to Ciaran and Matthew, who arrived together but could have met en route. The Abbott requests them to appear before him, to learn they are both gone. When Matthew left, he claimed his dagger and left a generous gift of money. On this news, Olivier leaves quickly to search for them, promising to return that evening, with Hugh as his immediate guide. Left with Cadfael, Abbot Radulfus asks if Rhun's recovery could be feigned. Cadfael replies that the boy is thoroughly honest and that his defect could not have been repaired by any doctor. Radulfus, reassured of this miracle, asks Cadfael to bring Rhun to him. They return to the Abbott with the scrip left behind by Matthew or Ciaran. Rhun states his wish to stay where the saint called him. The saddened Melangell tells Cadfael that the two young men left separately, heading out over the fields instead of along the north road. The Abbott opens the scrip, finding a book with Luc Meverel's name in it. Now is the time for quick action. Sending word to Hugh Beringar, Cadfael goes on horseback to follow the two young men on the overland route. At the edge of twilight, he hears Ciaran and Matthew in a clearing around a great beech tree some miles west of Shrewsbury. Then he hears Matthew fighting off the three felons. The felons wait for darkness to finish the fight. Cadfael, unarmed, approaches on foot, bellowing as if he is part of a large party in pursuit. He forcefully knocks down Simeon Poer. That loud cry leads Hugh and his men to light up the scene and nab the three attackers. Olivier heard it, too, and appears on scene, telling Cadfael to look round, he has won his field. In the brawl, Simeon pulled the cross off Ciaran's neck. Looking up to Matthew, Ciaran says 'I am forfeit, now take me.' Cadfael agrees gently. Matthew glares at Cadfael, looks back contemptuously at Ciaran and throws down his dagger. In a daze, he walks away with Olivier close behind. Ciaran, a man from Danish Dublin in the service of Bishop Henry, tells how he stabbed Bossard, wrongly believing that his master would condone the impulsive crime. Henry banished Ciaran from England, telling him that he must make his entire journey to Dublin barefoot while wearing a heavy iron cross. If anyone finds him wearing shoes or without the cross before Dublin, his life is forfeit. Luc Meverel overhears these words, as he followed the attacker back to the Bishop's house unseen. Luc appoints himself enforcer of this vow. Luc accompanies Ciaran under the name "Matthew", motivated by grief turned to hate and vengeance. At the crucial moment, Luc's grief softened away from vengeance. Bishop Henry would not sanction murder, rather forced Ciaran away. Hugh allows Ciaran to walk away, taking up his issues with God on his own. Olivier returns with Luc/Matthew to Shrewsbury, where Luc once again pays court to Melangell. Matthew begins life anew with confession to the Abbott, and marriage to Melangell. Rhun stays at the Abbey as a novice, while their aunt prepares to return home alone. Cadfael and Olivier talk in the herbarium, where Olivier reports he and Ermina Hugonin had married this past Christmas, as Cadfael had hoped. Arriving suddenly, Hugh has the latest news from London: the Empress Maud has lost London and retreated to the southwest. The weight of the failure rests on the Empress's shoulders, her weakness being her inability to praise her allies or ever forget a past slight, but the pressure of the Queen's army in Kent helps to change minds in London.,,, Olivier must follow his own liege lord to Oxford, leaving Shrewsbury before he wanted. Hugh and Olivier are friends but on opposite sides of this civil war, and both close to Cadfael, who will be ever neutral in these politics. Watching Olivier leave, Hugh says that he resembles Cadfael in some ways; the monk replies, no, he looks completely like his mother. "I always meant to tell you, some day," he said tranquilly, "what he does not know, and never will from me. He is my son." |
Promises in Death | Nora Roberts | null | On being called in to investigate a dead body, NYPSD homicide detectives Eve Dallas and Delia Peabody discover that the woman is a fellow officer, Detective Amaryllis Coltraine, who worked out of another precinct. To add to the emotion of the case, Coltraine was the lover of Li Morris, the Chief Medical Examiner and a good friend of Eve and Peabody. Coltraine was shot with her own police stunner; it also appears that she may have known her killer. Meanwhile, Eve's contact from Internal Affairs Bureau Donald Webster clues her on the victim's connection with Alex Ricker Max Ricker's son back in Atlanta, Georgia, from where the victim requested a transfer to New York following a fallout. Initial evidence suggests that the kill may have been ordered by Alex Ricker. The suspect's reactions, however, as well as Roarke's impressions from a private discussion they have, tend to steer the blame away from him. Eve is beginning to sense that the killer may have been one of the detectives Coltraine worked with at her precinct. A humorous minor subplot revolves around Eve's performing another duty of friendship she has never tackled before: hosting a wedding shower for Louise Dimatto, who is marrying former "licensed companion" Charles Monroe. In the middle of the shower, Eve gets a call from dispatch informing her of the death of Rod Sandy, Alex's Personal Assistant. After she gets back, Eve requests Charlotte Mira and Cher Reo to sit in for a debrief and ends up explaining the case to all her friends which leads Mavis to point out the killer who was the victim's partner at her precinct. Further digging reveals the killer to be the illegitimate daughter of Max Ricker,who set her up to extract his revenge on Eve and Roarke for putting him in a cage. |
The Overton Window | Glenn Beck | 2,010 | The novel is based on the Overton window concept in political theory, in which at any given moment there is a range of policies related to any particular issue that are considered politically acceptable ("in the window"), and other policies that politicians seeking to gain or hold public office do not feel they can recommend without being considered too far outside the mainstream ("outside the window"). Moving the window would make previously radical ideas seem reasonable. Beck has referred to the book as "faction" – fiction based on facts. The plot revolves around a man named Noah Gardner, a public relations executive who has no interest in politics. He changes his mind when he meets a woman, Molly Ross, who is "consumed by the knowledge that the America we know is about to be lost forever," an idea Gardner dismisses as a conspiracy theory. After America comes under attack, however, he works to expose the conspirators behind the attack. |
Abercrombie Station | Jack Vance | 1,952 | Jean Parlier, a beautiful but deadly teenager, is hired by a mysterious man to seduce and marry the supposedly terminally ill heir to Abercrombie Station for the fee of one million dollars. Abercrombie Station orbits the Earth and exists as a pleasure resort that caters to the whims of the obese. In space, freed from the demands of gravity, rich, corpulent people frolic in decadent excess. Within the mini-society of the station, obesity becomes the ultimate standard for beauty. The heir to Abercrombie Station, Earl, is sour and churlish, and Jean, working as a servant, makes a direct play for him, which only raises his ire. Forced to engage in subterfuge, Jean breaks into his private apartments and discovers that Earl has amassed a veritable zoo of malignant creatures from across the galaxy held in suspended animation. Earl engages in unwholesome activities with these aliens and Jean realizes she cannot follow through with her plan to marry him. Back on Earth, she renegotiates with the mysterious man who hired her and discovers he is actually Lionel, the missing heir to the station who is living in exile. He is normal sized, and has gone to Earth to find a fat woman willing to love him. Jean and Lionel return to the station, force Earl to expose his zoo where he has also entrapped his older brother Hugo, who was presumed dead. Earl is revealed to be a murderer who conspired to rob his family of their rightful heir. In his anger, he unleashes all his animals, killing himself and almost everyone except Jean, Lionel, and a witness. Jean had created a contract with Lionel, using Abercrombie Station as collateral, guaranteeing herself a two million dollar payoff. At the end of the story, she doesn't know what to do with her sudden wealth. |
The Wolf-Sisters | Susan Price | 2,001 | Kenelm begins his tale by telling of the hardships and misery he suffered during his time at the monastery, and of how he was gifted to the Christians by King Guthlac, his uncle, aged ten. The young Kenelm resents Guthlac and longs to be back at court, to enjoy the bright colours, good food, excellent storytelling and beautiful women there. He hates the life of boring prayers, bad food and degrading menial chores as a monk, and despite years of being taught the Christian ways, he still believes fervently in his own Norse gods, and in his ancestor Woden. He prays to Woden desperately to be allowed to return there without disgracing himself or his family, as he cannot leave the monastery without doing so. As he finishes his prayer, a monk summons him to the dining hall, where he notices a trio of house-carls, kept warriors, that serve his uncle King Guthlac. Under the direction of his Abbot, he bathes and changes, and visits his Abbess, who informs him that it has been requested that he leave the monastery to do his uncle's business. Kenelm, overjoyed, realises that his ancestor Woden has granted his prayers. Despite the Abbess's disapproval, she allows him a month's leave, and makes him promise to pray three times a day. Kenelm agrees, but privately swears to himself that he will pray to Woden. He then leaves with the house-carls, who tell him about the deadly plague that has swept through the court, laying low almost everybody, including the king and queen. Fortunately, the monastery is so excluded that Kenelm has never heard of the plague they are talking about, and is fit and healthy. Upon arriving at the court, Old Egwin tells him of the murderous Foreigners that are invading the country, and that nobody is strong enough to stand against them. He commands Kenelm to go to find help, revealing that the only creatures capable of helping him are the Wood Women, powerful spirits related to Woden and the Norse gods that are famed for singing to men and leading them until they are lost in the woods. Kenelm journeys into the woods and breaks a twig, as instructed by Egwin. At this, three young, beautiful, naked women emerge from the trees, dark-haired and with big dark eyes, blood-red lips and sharp white teeth. Kenelm, though very afraid, begs them in Egwin's name to drive off the Foreigners, and they, after some persuasion, agree, because they knew Old Egwin when he was a young man. |
The Passage | Justin Cronin | 2,010 | The novel is broken into 11 parts of varying lengths. The story itself is broken into two sections: The first and shorter section covers the origins of the virus and its outbreak, while the second is set 93 years after the infections, primarily following a colony of survivors living in California. Several narrative devices are used, including email, journal entries, newspaper reports, and other documents. Occasional use is made of reference material from 1,000 years after the outbreak, coming from "The Journal of Sara Fisher", sourced from a future "University of New South Wales, Indo-Australian Republic". The U.S. government is conducting a top secret experiment referred to as "Project Noah," which involves acquiring and transporting death row inmates to a secret military compound in Colorado for the purposes of modifying them into super-soldiers for the U.S. Army. These genetic experiments originate from patient zero Fanning - one of two surviving members of an expedition investigating a Bolivian bat-carried virus. The virus, while eventually causing hemorrhagic fever and death in initial subjects, is being refined to accentuate its other properties - boosting of the immune system, enhanced strength and agility. The FBI agents responsible for recruiting the prisoners are ordered to collect 6 year old Amy Bellafonte from a convent, and, although conflicted, deliver her to Dr. Lear, the head of the project. At Noah she is exposed to a refined version of the serum administered to "The Twelve"—the original inmates. Lear theorizes that as Amy's immune system has not had chance to mature it will form a symbiosis with the virus and live with her sympathetically, instead of the violent forms it has taken with the other twelve. Of the inmates, the first and last recruited are depicted as being different from the others: Babcock, the original test subject, is stronger and appears to have developed psychic abilities, occasionally influencing his guards and cleaners; and Carter is in fact innocent, but was convicted of first-degree murder nonetheless. Zero (AKA Fanning) and the other twelve inmates mentally take control of their guards and escape their quarantine cells, rapidly killing all who stand in their way. Amy is rescued by Brad Wolgast (the FBI agent who brought her to Noah) and Sister Lacey (a nun who was looking after Amy when she was recruited). Lacey is taken by Carter, as Wolgast and Amy escape to a mountain retreat where they live for several months, occasionally picking up news of the contagion spread throughout America. The rest of the world's fate is not stated, but it is mentioned that most of Europe has imposed quarantine over travel. Despite living reasonably comfortably in the mountain site, Wolgast eventually succumbs to radiation sickness when a nuclear device is detonated relatively nearby - he assumes that the government is attempting to sterilize infected areas of the country - and Amy is left to fend for herself. The novel shifts forward in time approximately 93 years (with occasional reference retrospectively 1,000 years in the future), and the narrative is taken up around a self-sufficient and isolationist colony established by the military (specifically FEMA) not long after the initial outbreak. The colony is in slow decline, although only one character (a technician called Michael) seems to recognize this; he is trying to establish clandestine contact with the outside world to obtain spares for their failing equipment - specifically their batteries which power the high-wattage lights which protect the colony from the virals, who in traditional vampiric style are highly light-sensitive. During a nighttime attack, Amy arrives at the gates of the camp, having previously met Peter Jaxon (one of the colony's senior figures) during a foraging expedition. Amy's arrival also results in a break-in from the virals leading to the death of "Teacher" - the person responsible for the upbringing of all the children under eight in the colony. Amy now appears to be a fifteen year old girl, and upon her arrival is grievously wounded by a crossbow, but her own recuperative powers soon heal her and within days she is as healthy as she was before being injured. Amy's arrival, her healing abilities, Teacher's death and inner-colony friction (caused by Babcock's mental influence over several Colony figures) force several of the colony dwellers to abscond with Amy and seek out another military site in Colorado - from where Michael has been receiving faint radio signals. Amy demonstrates a psychic bond with the virals, and manages to keep the group of travelers relatively safe during their journey. They come across another settlement established in a Las Vegas prison, known as the Haven, which, while initially welcoming, is in fact Babcock's lair. The Haven "feeds" Babcock blood sacrifices in exchange for being left alone by the horde of virals at his disposal, referred to as "The Many" (as opposed to The Twelve). During a botched attempt to kill Babcock during one of the blood sacrifice rituals, sympathizers at the Haven enable the group to escape via railroad, and they meet up with a Texan military group, who assist them in finding the Colorado outpost. Once at the outpost, they discover that it is the same compound where the outbreak started, and still serves as home to Sister Lacey. Lacey, like Amy, was treated by Lear with a modified form of the serum, providing her with longer life and a psychic bond with not only Amy and the virals, but Babcock as well. It is decided to lure Babcock into the outpost - Amy and Lacey confirm that he is headed towards them in any case - where they will detonate a nuclear device originally designed to sterilize the compound, but never used. The group theorize that the virals are like a hive mind and once Babcock is dead his hold over the virals created exponentially by him will cease and they will no longer be a threat. While waiting for Babcock to arrive, the group is attacked, resulting in Alicia ("Lish") becoming infected, and treated by Sara the medic with modified serum. Lacey hands over files on The Twelve, revealing their hometowns, to which she suggests The Twelve will have returned. Upon Babcock's arrival, Lacey lures him to a chamber where she detonates the bomb, destroying herself, Babcock, and much of the outpost. The attacking virals all collapse and die again, in most cases leaving behind nothing but dust, proving the hive theory correct. Lish adapts to the virus in a similar manner to Amy and Lacey before her, yet with differences - she has limited psychic abilities, but has the strength and endurance of a viral. Greer, one of the Texan soldiers traveling with them, comments that she would be a formidable soldier - suggesting that Lish has become the first true "super soldier" that the government was trying to develop 93 years ago. Part of the group - primarily Amy, Peter, and Lish - return to the First Colony only to find it deserted, with no sign of what happened or where the colonists may have gone. There are two bodies, a victim of a suicide and that of Auntie, who seemingly died of old age. They decide to hunt down the remaining Twelve using Lear's files to determine their locations, and Lish as their primary weapon. That night Amy meets the infected Wolgast, outside the Colony. The other group stays with the Texan Expeditionary force, and their remaining story is related through parts of Sara's diary - her last entry is at Roswell Base, and among comments about her own pregnancy she states that she can hear gunshots, and is going to investigate. This entry is presented as part of the future reference material, and is stated to have come from the site of "The Roswell Massacre". The novel ends ambiguously for all surviving characters. |
The Gilt Kid | James Curtis | 1,936 | The protagonist of the novel is Kennedy, a 25-year-old spiv. Due to his blond hair he is known as "The Gilt Kid" from which the novel gets its title. The novel picks up as Kennedy has recently been released from prison having served a sentence for burglary. With no real plans to go straight and with Marxist sympathies he re-engages with the underworld of Soho and its associated culture. On his travels through London he observes and comments on the rituals of the destitute, prostitutes and criminals. Eventually "The Gilt Kid" finds himself involved in a robbery that doesn't go to plan. Fearing the inevitability that he will return to prison he struggles with the judicial system and attempts to ensure his freedom. |
Zen Ties | Jon J. Muth | 2,008 | Stillwater the panda and his three human friends, Karl, Addy and Michael are back in a new adventure. This time, Michael is faced with the daunting challenge of an upcoming spelling bee. The story also introduces Miss Whitaker, an elderly neighbor whose cantankerous nature frightens the children. Stillwater uses his quiet wisdom and insight to see past her bad temper to the lonely woman within. Stillwater also receives a visit from his young nephew Koo, who speaks in Haiku. |
The Council of Dads | Bruce Feiler | null | When author Bruce Feiler discovered he had cancer he was worried about his daughters growing up without him by their sides to advise them. He decided to create a "Council of Dads", and wrote a letter which he then read to six of his friends asking them to be father figures to his children. |
The Twin | Gerbrand Bakker | 2,006 | The novel follows the plight of Helmer, who resides on a Dutch farm with his father. His twin dies accidentally and Helmer encounters his girlfriend. |
Battles of the Clans | Erin Hunter | 2,010 | Just like previous Field Editions, Battles of the Clans has no real plot but consists of multiple short stories told by cats from the Clans (including SkyClan). Battles of the Clans starts with Ashfoot bringing two kittypets, the readers, into Onestar's den. He welcomes them and brings them to each Clan to find out their special battle tactics. After visiting ThunderClan, ShadowClan, RiverClan, and WindClan, a SkyClan ancestor visits the readers while they are sleeping and tells them their special battle tactic. Tawnypelt then tells the readers of the lake territories and battles. Tigerstar subsequently appears and tells of the forest territories and battles. After this, there is a Gathering, at which the readers hear stories of past battles. Onestar then says goodbye, and the book concludes. |
Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World | Margaret Thatcher | 2,003 | Looking at the lessons learnt during the Cold War Lady Thatcher writes of the United States being the only remaining superpower, and the responsibilities which come with that burden. She also writes about the dangers inherent in the Balkans given the instability of the region and the rise of Islamic Extremism. |
Commander-1 | null | null | An up and coming Chinese Communist apparatchik named Li devises a plan with the aid of a prominent nuclear scientist and a PLA general to produce a nuclear weapon, which they will plant outside US bases of strategic importance and detonate so that it appears that the USSR has committed to the first strike of a nuclear war. The United States and the Soviet Union both deploy their nuclear arsenals, wiping each other out and destroying the Pentagon and killing the US President. Meanwhile the only submarine left in the US fleet which has been on an expedition conducting an experiment on social isolation under the Polar Icecap comes back to port after receiving news of the nuclear holocaust. The commander drops the survivors off at a deserted Pacific island that will be passed over by the fallout. The survivors soon discover that the island is really a massive bunker for just such an eventuality. Two of the survivors kill themselves after they conceive a child which they believe to be mutated due to the presence of the mutated baby produced by one of the island's local apes. The submarine then heads to a surviving US naval base where they find the military holding out against civilian survivors led by an ex-congressman. The submarine commander, James Geragty, turns the civilians into mindless drones using drugs from the medical supplies at the base, and takes them on board his submarine to the Pacific island, the only place in the world not affected by fallout. There Geragty sets himself up as the new President of the USA - Commander One - and sets his slaves to work building his new paradise, which the original experiment subjects reject as totalitarian. After he declares that he will attempt to destroy any Soviet survivors that he may eventually find, he sets the original experiment candidates loose on a rubber dinghy, claiming that he will let them go to another island. As they float away on the ocean Geragty has them machine-gunned in the water, destroying all dissent in his new society. |
The Lost Hero | Rick Riordan | 2,010 | As the book opens, Jason awakens on a school bus, unable to remember who or where he is, or anything about his past. He is sitting next to Piper McLean and Leo Valdez, who call him by name and say they are his girlfriend and best friend respectively. All three are part of a class field trip to the Grand Canyon, and after they arrive, a classmate Dylan turns into a Venti (Storm Spirit) and attacks the trio and their trip leader, Coach Gleeson Hedge. In the ensuing fight, Jason surprises everyone, including himself, when one of his coins turns into a sword which he uses to battle the storm spirits. Coach Hedge, who reveals himself to be a satyr during the fight, is taken captive by a fleeing spirit. After the battle, a flying chariot arrives to rescue the trio, but one of the people in it, Annabeth, is upset when she discovers that her missing boyfriend, Percy Jackson, is not there as she expected. Annabeth, seeking Percy, was told in a vision from the goddess Hera to look there for the "guy with one shoe", but this turns out to be Jason, who had a shoe destroyed during the fight. Jason, Piper,and Leo are told that they are demigods and are taken back to Camp Half-Blood where they meet other greek demigod children like themselves. There, Leo is revealed as a son of Hephaestus, Piper as a daughter of Aphrodite and Jason as a son of Zeus, though Hera tells him he is her champion. Jason later discovers that he is the full brother of Zeus's demigod daughter Thalia Grace, who is a Hunter of Artemis. Shortly after they arrive, the three are given a quest to rescue Hera, who has been captured, and they set off. They soon discover that their enemies are working under orders from Gaea to overthrow the gods. During their quest, they encounter Thalia and the Hunters, who have been looking for Percy. Thalia and Jason reunite for the first since Jason was captured at the age of two. On the way to Aeolus's castle, Jason, Leo and Piper become separated from Thalia, who promises to meet them at the Wolf House, the last place Thalia had seen Jason before this meeting. After being nearly apprehended by Aeolus, who is under Gaea's orders, the trio manage to escape thanks to Mellie, Aeolus`s former assistant, and end up in San Francisco, thanks to the result of a dream Piper had with Aphrodite. After landing in San Francisco, the trio rush to Mt.Diablo to fight the giant Enceladus, who has kidnapped Piper's father. They manage to kill the giant and save Piper's father, after which they rush to the Wolf House to free Hera. Although the heroes and the Hunters save Hera, the king of the giants, Porphyrion, rises fully and disappears into a hole in the Earth. Jason's memory then starts returning, and he remembers that he is a hero from a Roman counterpart to Camp Half-Blood somewhere near San Francisco, and is the son of Jupiter, Zeus's Roman aspect. He realizes that Hera, also known as Juno, has switched him with Percy Jackson, who will be at the Roman camp with no memory of his life, in the hopes that the two camps would ultimately work together to fight the giants and defeat the goddess Gaea. |
Dead Heat | null | null | Based on the character Hitch created by Dave Dorman, Dead Heat tells the tale of a research facility in the Australian desert after an accident occurs; mutated DNA causes the mindless dead to rise up as zombies. As the undead population begins to outnumber the living, one zombie among them – Hitch – retains memories of his living existence and feels emotion. This sends him on a road trip to discover why he is seemingly the only zombie of this nature. His travels take him to Texas, where a psychotic man fashioning himself after Hitler hopes to enslave the world's remaining living people; to Michigan, where a band of survivalists try to destroy him; and finally to the Desert Southwest, where an otherworldly creature has begun creating grotesque undead hybrids out of various body parts. |
Fraulein Spy | null | null | The story is set in May 1964. Nick Carter is on the trail of Judas – the master spy first encountered in Run, Spy, Run. Posing as an investigative journalist for a West German tabloid newspaper, Carter tracks Judas to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he is living among the expatriate German community under the alias Hugo Bronson. Carter meets an informant at his home who reveals that Bronson is actually Martin Bormann, one of Adolf Hitler's closest aides and who was thought to have escaped from Germany at the end of World War II. Before he can reveal Bormann's current whereabouts the informant is shot dead by a sniper. Carter takes documents from the informant's safe that identify two missing German scientists as former Nazis. Carter traces Bronson to a house in West Berlin where he discovers a plot to kidnap five renowned German scientists living overseas. AXE suspects that the terrorist organization known as CLAW, supported by communist China, is behind an operation to kidnap the scientists and transport them to China. Four of the scientists are missing; the fifth, Dr Mark Gerber – a naturalized American – has been persuaded by his attractive secretary (Elena Darby) to join her on a round-the-world trip. AXE sends two agents to trail Gerber on his trip while Carter meets up with them in Cairo, Egypt. AXE discovers that Gerber's secretary is a communist spy luring Gerber to a location where he can be kidnapped more easily. On the Bombay to New Delhi leg of the world tour Julia Baron (Carter's assistant in Run, Spy, Run and The China Doll) joins the group. One of the missing scientists is also on the flight against his will accompanied by a minder. The elderly scientist tries to leave the group during a sightseeing trip aided by Carter but dies of heart failure in the attempt. He manages to inform Carter that Bormann was behind the plan to assemble the team of scientists on behalf of China. En route to the Taj Mahal the plane is hijacked by terrorists posing as passengers and diverted to a military base in China. Gerber is separated from the rest of the passengers and taken to a secret underground laboratory. There he meets Bronson and the team of missing German scientists who are expected to help build an atomic bomb for the Chinese. Carter organizes a revolt by the passengers. They overcome the guards and steal their weapons. Carter and Elena enter the secret laboratory searching for Gerber. They find him and the other missing scientists restrained in a chamber while the military base commandant (Yi) is torturing Julie Baron to force the scientists to cooperate. Carter kills the commandant in unarmed combat and frees the scientists. Elena is caught and tied up. Carter places a time bomb in the missile silo and breaks out with the passengers – several of whom are killed or injured in the attempt. Carter recognizes Bronson as Judas. Judas escapes unharmed as the passengers board their hijacked plane and escape as Carter's bomb explodes destroying the secret base. |
Final Theory | null | null | The narrative begins with the brutal attack on the aged theoretical physicist Hans Walther Kleinman by Simon. Simon was acting on the orders of the mysterious Henry Cobb to extract information on the Einheitliche Feldtheorie - the unified theory that Einstein worked during his last years. Dr.Kleinman was one of the four close students of Einstein and one of the secret keepers of the great theory. David Swift, a former student of Kleinman, and a professor of History of Science at Columbia University was summoned to the hospital where Kleinman was undergoing intensive care after his attack. Just before succumbing, he pulls David close and wheezes two words in German: "Einheitliche Feldtheorie" and tells him a sequence of numbers. Soon, Swift is intimidated by Lucille Parker, a sixtyish FBI Agent who is also after the theory. Simon attacks the garage where the FBI held David, and David escapes. Meanwhile, FBI takes Karen, David's ex-wife and his son Jonah into custody. David on the other hand, succeeds in boarding a train headed for Princeton. He decides to meet an old friend of his, Monique Reynolds a string theorist at Princeton University. Monique at first is skeptical about his story. David soon comes to know of the deaths of two close students of Einstein, Jacques Bouchet of the University of Paris and Alastair MacDonald, who was under treatment for mental disorder. The sequence of numbers that Kleinman gave David, pointed to the location of The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University where another close student of Einstein, Amil Gupta worked. They decided to tell him the news, and head to Pittsburgh. Simon and the FBI succeeds in following them to CMU. At CMU they meet Gupta. Gupta's late wife was a Holocaust Survivor whom Einstein had helped to bring to Princeton after World War II. His only daughter is a drug addict and he lives with his autistic grandson, Michael who is obsessed with playing Warfighter - a program used for combat training. Knowing that FBI has been following them, David, Monique, Gupta and Michael, escapes in a H1lander. They head for a hunting cabin in West Virginia, where Kleinman spent some time a few years ago with Gupta and Michael. On the way Simon chases them, and narrowly avoids an accident. Meanwhile Karen and Jonah are released by the FBI. Lucille Parker discovering David's escape, sends Agent Brock (who also works for Henry Cobb) and an assistant to the cabin. On the computer in the cabin, David's group finds references to Gupta's daughter's residence in Columbus, Georgia. They are soon intimidated by Brock and his assistant. In the commotion that follows, Brock's partner dies and Brock and Gupta get seriously wounded. David, Monique and Michael escapes from the cabin on Gupta's suggestion. Meanwhile, seeing that the FBI is getting nowhere with the case, the Delta Force is asked to take over. Simon soon arrives and takes the weak Gupta and Brock. He takes Gupta to a local doctor and saves his life, where Gupta tells him that he is Henry Cobb. Meanwhile David's company is rescued by a group of hunters who gives them shelter. They soon head toward Columbus. They meet Gupta's daughter, Elizabeth Gupta - a drug addict who works as a prostitute. She is agitated on the mention of her fathers name and tells them that Kleinman (who was her godfather) hated him. She also tells them that Kleinman worked for a while in the VCS (Virtual Combat Simulation) office in Fort Benning. David decides to go to Fort Benning thinking that Kleinman hid the theory in one of the computers there. Meanwhile, the FBI arrives in Columbus and Lucille Parker succeeds in tracing them to Fort Benning. David's party arrives at Fort Benning and gets access to VCS Office. David with the help of a VR goggles starts playing Warfighter, hoping to find the theory in one of the levels. Meanwhile, Gupta also enters Warfighter remotely and tries to get hold of the theory. David attempts to sabotage Gupta's plan and in the process, erases Warfighter and the theory. But Kleinman had built an escape hatch for the file which saved the data on a flash drive. They escape with the flash drive into the mountains nearby. During this time, Brock succeeds in abducting Karen and Jonah. David and Monique starts reading the contents of the flash drive. Einstein had used differential topology to describe the unified field equation in the theory. He had found out that all particles are geons and had successfully predicted the mass of all fundamental particles, which was one of the hallmarks of a theory of everything. Einstein had built his unified theory around the Holographic Principle. He had worked out the exact equations for the universe (as a brane), how it evolved and explained how everything got started. If our brane was twisted enough one could sent particle's from one point in the universe to another. The returning particles can trigger a violent warping of the local spacetime, leading to release of huge amounts of energy which can be used as a weapon. Einstein had worked out equations for all this. This was the reason why he never published this theory. David then realized why Simon and the FBI were after him. They destroy the flash drive, in an attempt to destroy the theory. But Kleinman had made Michael memorize the whole theory. David realized that the numbers that Kleinman whispered to him pointed to Michael and not to Gupta. The FBI soon arrives and they escape. Monique is soon caught by Gupta and Simon. David is also intimidated by Gupta using his son and ex-wife as hostages. He along with two of his former students, had devised a plan to send particles like in the theory. But he still needed the field equations in the theory. For making the particle beam, they had decided to use the Tevatron in Fermilab. They soon reach Fermilab and takes over the Tevatron control room. Meanwhile, Brock is left with David, Monique, Karen and Jonah. In a fight between David and Brock, Brock falls into burning mineral oil and dies. Although Gupta's interests were purely academic, Simon wanted to revenge the murder of his wife and children by the US troops and decides to use the technology against the country. He locks Gupta in a room and proceeds to take control of the experiment. David, meanwhile was devising a plan to shut down the Tevatron. He succeeds in shutting down the Tevatron by smashing the beam pipe and in the process kills Simon. Meanwhile, Gupta becomes hysterical and kills people near him with an Uzi. The FBI agents soon kill Gupta. Michael is left to the custody of Monique who gets engaged to David. |
Hingede öö | Karl Ristikivi | 1,953 | The novel comprises three parts, "Surnud mehe maja" (The House of a Dead Man), a briefer interlude entitled "Kiri proua Agnes Rohumaale" (Letter to Mrs Agnes Rohumaa) and "Seitse tunnistajat" (The Seven Witnesses). The novel is a first-person narrative. In the first part, a nameless protagonist enters something resembling a concert hall in Stockholm a little before midnight on New Year's Eve and finds himself in a labyrinth of salons and staircases, meeting people from whom he feels alienated. The second part is written as a reply by the author to a letter sent by a fictional reader, Mrs Agnes Rohumaa. Apparently Mrs Rohumaa has expressed her dissatisfaction with the novel after reading the first part and the author feels obliged to reply and justify his writing. The last part describes a trial in which seven witnesses are called to give evidence, each for one of the seven deadly sins. The last witness is the protagonist. |
Children and Television: Lessons from Sesame Street | null | 1,974 | Children and Television has four sections, "A Proposal", "Planning", "Broadcasting" and "Lessons from Sesame Street". The book also has a preface and an epilogue, written by Lesser, a foreword written by Joan Ganz Cooney, and an introduction by Lloyd Morrisett. Scattered throughout the book are cartoons drawn by children's author Maurice Sendak, who attended the 1968 seminars. Lesser begins his book by describing the origin of Sesame Street and his part in it. He had been studying child development and how its concepts could be used to teach children; since 1961, he studied children's reaction to television and whether or not the medium could be used to teach them. In 1966, he was approached by Cooney and Morrisett to assist them in creating the new show's educational objectives and research goals, and he agreed despite his misgivings about the effectiveness of television as a teaching tool. Sesame Street's audience included any child in the country who wished to watch it, but Lesser reports that the producers' original purpose was to reach the poor children of America. As Lesser stated, "If the series did not work for poor children, the entire project would fail". Lesser is critical of the American public school system, and blames its failure to educate children on the lack of defined goals. When he wrote Television and Children, most American children received no preschool education. The first two chapters of the book detail the reasons for the "experiment" of creating an educational television program like Sesame Street, especially in regards to its audience. "Grownups never seem to understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them". Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince. Gerald Lesser used this quote to begin the second section of Children and Television. He introduced many of his sections and chapters with pertinent quotes. Lesser opens the section on "Planning" by relating how many of the cast and crew were recruited: executive producer David Connell, producer Sam Gibbon, head writer Jon Stone, producer and writer Matt Robinson, Jim Henson, composer Joe Raposo, and actors Loretta Long, Bob McGrath, and Will Lee. Lesser also recounts the process of hiring head researcher Edward L. Palmer and those involved with community outreach. The producers of the new show spent eighteen months planning, something that was unprecedented in children's television. Lesser extensively describes the series of curriculum seminars that took place at Harvard University and in New York City in the summer of 1968. These chapters outline the philosophy behind Sesame Street. The show's creators made assumptions about teaching and held the unconventional view that learning can be unintentional and enjoyable. Finally, they decided that although Sesame Street was set in an urban setting, they would avoid depicting more negativity than what was already present in the child's environment. As Lesser states, "With all its raucousness and slapstick humor, Sesame Street became a sweet show, and its staff maintains that there is nothing wrong in that". The researchers developed a "Writer's Notebook" for the show's writers and producers to serve as a bridge between curriculum goals and script development. Lesser connects the show's production techniques—including the use of music, humor (especially slapstick humor), and animation—with educational goals. Lesser emphasizes the importance of characters, both human and Muppet, to sustain children's attention. According to Lesser, Sesame Street combines four elements to sustain attention: Muppets, the cast of live adults and children on the set, animation, and live-action film. According to Lesser, children's reactions to educational television was ignored; this marked the first time that they were studied to evaluate and improve the show's content and efficacy. Lesser reports that approximately 10-15 percent of the CTW's initial two-year budget of $8 million was spent on research. He relates the priorities for pre-production research, which he called "summative evaluation". Using outside research groups like the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the Workshop wanted to ascertain if watching the show made any difference. They were particularly interested in comparing the show's effect on children from different socio-economic groups, and if viewing conditions affected its effectiveness. As Lesser states, "This became the first time in television's 25-year history that child-watching was systematically applied over a sustained period to the design of a televised series for children". Lesser describes the new methods researcher Edward Palmer created to study the effects Sesame Street had on its young viewers, mostly notably the "distractor", a slide projector placed next to a television set and adjusted to change slides every eight seconds. The researchers recorded when children in their study moved their attention away from the television to the projector, and the data collected were analyzed. Segments were removed based upon the information gathered. "This was the first time in television's history that the children themselves would be listened to with care as a television series for them was designed and broadcast", Lesser states. Lesser begins the section on "Broadcasting" relating the origin of the show's name. As he puts it, "...We were forced to select the name we all liked the least". Lesser reports that the show's premiere on November 10, 1969 was met with a large amount of acclaim and good reviews, but there were some negative reviews and criticism. These he recounts and addresses in great detail in the chapter entitled "Criticism". He includes the criticism of approximately thirty groups and individuals, demonstrating the essence and range of the critics' arguments. Lesser describes the research about the long-term effect of Sesame Street. He reports that the show was watched by three to four million viewers by the middle of its first season, and breaks down the viewership into categories. According to Lesser, ratings remained consistently high. Lesser also describes the testing used by ETS, which found positive differences after the first three weeks of the show's first season. They found that the children who watched the most learned the most. The final section of Lesser's book, "Lessons from Sesame Street", summarizes what the creators and researchers were attempting to do. As Lesser states, "Here is Sesame Street's main lesson: It deliberately uses television to teach without hiding its educational intentions and yet it attracts a large and devoted audience of young children from all parts of the country". |
The Devil's Breath | David Gilman | 2,008 | Max Gordon, the main character in this book, is a teenager attending a boarding school in Dartmoor. His mother was an environmental campaigner along with his ex-SAS father before she died mysteriously. At the start of The Devil's Breath, word comes that his father is missing. Max then decides to take matters into his own hands and travels alone to Namibia, where he meets up with an English-speaking Namibian teenage girl, and a Bushman boy who believes Max has supernatural powers. Max then finds out that now his life is joined to the Namibians and he must combine with them so he can save his father and the environment from Shaka Chang, a ruthless businessman. tr:The Devil's Breath |
Night and the City | Gerald Kersh | 1,938 | The protagonist of the novel is Harry Fabian, a morally reprehensible spiv determined to become the top wrestling promoter in London. During the course of the novel Fabian is embroiled in various unscrupulous money-making ventures. All those around him are treated as a means to an end without exception. However, while his acts of pimping, blackmail and deception are successful, the proceeds of crime soon slip from his hands. Eventually his world starts to come down around him. On one side the police are closing in; on the other those he has swindled come calling. Desperate and at rock bottom Harry will try anything to ensure he comes out on top. |
They Drive by Night | James Curtis | 1,938 | The main protagonist of the novel is Shorty Mathews, a petty criminal just released from Pentonville Prison. Now free he goes to visit his girlfriend in Camden only to discover her dead having been strangled. Realising he will be the prime suspect he flees the scene and attempts to evade the law by travelling with lorry drivers across the UK. The title, They Drive By Night, is a reference to the long distance logistical community who work, predominately, at night. The antagonist Hoover is the real killer. He goes by the alter-ego of Lone-Wolf as he trawls the West End of London for more destitute female victims. His motivation to kill is part social cleansing, part mental degeneration. Alongside both accounts is the police investigation into the murders. Their enquiries proceed, with varying degrees of success, punctuated by corruption and brutality. Needing to wrap up the case there is little choice but to set a trap. Whoever is caught will face the hangman. |
The Silmarillion | J. R. R. Tolkien | 1,977 | The first section of The Silmarillion, Ainulindalë ("The Music of the Ainur"), takes the form of a primary creation narrative. Eru ("The One"), also called Ilúvatar ("Father of All"), first created the Ainur, a group of eternal spirits or demiurges, called "the offspring of his thought". Ilúvatar brought the Ainur together and showed them a theme, from which he bade them make a great music. Melkor — whom Ilúvatar had given the "greatest power and knowledge" of all the Ainur — broke from the harmony of the music to develop his own song. Some Ainur joined him, while others continued to follow Ilúvatar, causing discord in the music. This happened thrice, with Eru Ilúvatar successfully overpowering his rebellious subordinate with a new theme each time. Ilúvatar then stopped the music and showed them a vision of Arda and its peoples. The vision disappeared after a while, and Ilúvatar offered the Ainur a chance to enter into Arda and govern over the new world. Many Ainur descended, taking physical form and becoming bound to that world. The greater Ainur became known as Valar, while the lesser Ainur were called Maiar. The Valar attempted to prepare the world for the coming inhabitants (Elves and Men), while Melkor, who wanted Arda for himself, repeatedly destroyed their work; this went on for thousands of years until, through waves of destruction and creation, the world took shape. Valaquenta ("Account of the Valar") describes Melkor and each of the 14 Valar in detail, as well as a few of the Maiar. It also reveals how Melkor seduced many Maiar — including Sauron and the Balrogs — into his service. Quenta Silmarillion ("The History of the Silmarils"), which makes up the bulk of the book, is a series of interconnected tales set in the First Age that make up the tragic saga of the three jewels, the Silmarils. The Valar had attempted to fashion the world for Elves and Men, but Melkor continually destroyed their handiwork. After he destroyed the two lights that illuminated the world, the Valar removed to Aman, a continent to the west of Middle-earth, where they established their home called Valinor, illuminated by Two Trees, and left Middle-earth to darkness and Melkor. When stars began to shine and the Elves awoke, the Valar fought Melkor to keep the Elves safe, defeated and captured Melkor and then invited the Elves to live in Aman. Many Elves travelled to Aman, while others refused and still others stopped along the way, including the Elves who later became the Sindar, ruled by the Elf King Thingol and Melian, a Maia. Of the three tribes that set out, all of the Vanyar and Noldor, and many of the Teleri reached Aman. In Aman, Fëanor, son of Finwë, King of the Noldor, created the Silmarils, jewels which glowed with the light of the Two Trees. Melkor, released after feigning repentance, destroyed the Two Trees with the help of Ungoliant, killed Finwë, stole the Silmarils, and fled to Middle-earth, where he attacked the Elvish kingdom of Doriath. He was defeated in the first of five battles of Beleriand, however, and barricaded himself in his northern fortress of Angband. Fëanor and his sons swore an oath of vengeance against Melkor – and against anyone who withheld the Silmarils from them, even the Valar. Fëanor persuaded most of the Noldor to pursue Melkor, whom Fëanor renamed as Morgoth, into Middle-earth. Fëanor's sons seized ships from the Teleri, attacking and killing many of them, and left the other Noldor to make the voyage by foot. Upon arriving in Middle-earth, the Noldor under Fëanor attacked Melkor and defeated his host, though Fëanor was slain by Balrogs. After a period of peace, Melkor attacked the Noldor but was again defeated and besieged. Nearly 400 years later, he broke the siege and drove the Noldor back. After the destruction of the Trees and the theft of the Silmaril, the Valar had created moon and sun, thereby also causing the awakening of Men, some of which later arrive in Beleriand and allied themselves to the Elves. Beren, a man who had survived the latest battle, wandered to Doriath, where he fell in love with the elf Lúthien, the king's daughter. The king sought to prevent their marriage by imposing what he believed an impossible task: retrieving one of the Silmarils from Melkor. But together, Beren and Lúthien embarked on this quest. Sauron, a powerful servant of Melkor, imprisoned them along the way; but they escaped, crept into Melkor's fortress, and stole a Silmaril from Melkor's crown. Having achieved the task, the first union of man and elf was formed, though Beren was soon mortally wounded and Lúthien also died of grief. The Noldor, seeing that a mortal and an elf-woman could infiltrate Angband, perceived that Melkor was not invincible. They attacked again with a great army of Elves, Dwarves and Men. But they were deceived by Melkor, who had secretly darkened the hearts of many of the men. Thus it was that the Elvish host were utterly defeated, due in part to the treachery of some Men. However, many Men remained loyal to the Elves and were honoured thereafter. None received more honour than the brothers Húrin and Huor. Melkor captured Húrin, and cursed him to watch the downfall of his kin. Húrin's son, Túrin Turambar, was sent to Doriath, leaving his mother and unborn sister behind in his father's kingdom (which had been overrun by the enemy). Túrin achieved many great deeds of valor, the greatest being the defeat of the dragon Glaurung. Despite his heroism, however, Túrin was plagued by the curse of Melkor, which led him unwittingly to murder his friend Beleg and to marry and impregnate his sister Nienor, whom he had never met before, and who had lost her memory through Glaurung's enchantment. Before their child was born, the bewitchment was lifted as the dragon lay dying. Nienor, realizing what grew within her, took her own life. Upon learning the truth, Túrin threw himself on his sword. Huor's son, Tuor, became involved in the fate of the hidden Noldorin kingdom of Gondolin. He married the elf Idril, daughter of Turgon, Lord of Gondolin (the second union between Elves and Men). When Gondolin fell, betrayed from within by Maeglin, Tuor saved many of its inhabitants from destruction. All of the Elvish kingdoms in Beleriand eventually fell, and the refugees fled to a haven by the sea created by Tuor. The son of Tuor and Idril, Eärendil the Half-elven, was betrothed to Elwing, herself descended from Beren and Lúthien. Elwing brought Eärendil the Silmaril of Beren and Lúthien, and using its light Eärendil travelled across the sea to Aman to seek help from the Valar. The Valar obliged; they attacked and defeated Melkor, completely destroying his fortress Angband and sinking most of Beleriand; and they expelled Melkor from Arda. This ended the First Age of Middle-earth. Eärendil and Elwing had two children: Elrond and Elros. As descendants of immortal elves and mortal men, they were given the choice of which lineage to belong to: Elrond chose to belong to the Elves, his brother to Men. Elros became the first king of Númenor. Akallabêth ("The Downfallen") comprises about 30 pages, and recounts the rise and fall of the island kingdom of Númenor, inhabited by the Dúnedain. After the defeat of Melkor, the Valar gave the island to the three loyal houses of Men who had aided the Elves in the war against him. Through the favor with the Valar, the Dúnedain were granted wisdom and power and life more enduring than any other of mortal race had possessed, making them comparable to the High-Elves of Aman. Indeed, the isle of Númenor lay closer to Aman than to Middle-earth. But their power lay in their bliss and their acceptance of mortality. The fall of Númenor came about in large measure through the influence of the corrupted Maia Sauron (formerly a chief servant of Melkor), who arose during the Second Age and tried to conquer Middle-earth. The Númenóreans moved against Sauron, who saw that he could not defeat them with force and allowed himself to be taken as a prisoner to Númenor. There he quickly enthralled the king, Ar-Pharazôn, urging him to seek out the immortality that the Valar had apparently denied him, thus nurturing the seeds of envy that the Númenóreans had begun to hold against the Elves of the West and the Valar. So it was that all the knowledge and power of Númenor was turned towards seeking an avoidance of death; but this only weakened them and sped the gradual waning of the lifespans to something more similar to that of other Men. Sauron urged them to wage war against the Valar themselves to win immortality, and to worship his old master Melkor, whom he said could grant them their wish. Ar-Pharazôn created the mightiest army and fleet Númenor had seen, and sailed against Aman. The Valar and Elves of Aman, stricken with grief over their betrayal, called on Ilúvatar for help. When Ar-Pharazôn landed, Ilúvatar destroyed his fleet and drowned Númenor itself as punishment for the rebellion against the rightful rule of the Valar. Ilúvatar created a great wave, such as had never before been seen, which utterly destroyed and submerged the isle of Númenor, killing all but those Dúnedain who had already sailed east, and changing the shape of all the lands of Middle-earth. Sauron's physical manifestation was also destroyed in the ruin of Númenor, but as a Maia his spirit returned to Middle-earth, now robbed of the fair form he once had. Some Númenóreans who had remained loyal to the Valar were spared and were washed up on the shores of Middle-earth, where they founded the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor. Among these survivors were Elendil their leader, and his two sons Isildur and Anárion who had also saved a seedling from Númenor´s white tree, the ancestor of that of Gondor. They founded the Númenórean Kingdoms in Exile: Arnor in the north and Gondor in the south. Elendil reigned as High-king of both kingdoms, but committed the rule of Gondor jointly to Isildur and Anárion. The power of the kingdoms in exile was greatly diminished from that of Númenor, "yet very great it seemed to the wild men of Middle-earth". At the end, it is mentioned that that the sunken Númenor came to be called "Atalantë", a name not used when it existed. This led many readers to the conclusion that Númenor is Atlantis; this direct link was, however, denied by Tolkien himself, who asserted that it's a natural word following the constructs of Quenya. The concluding section of the book, comprising about 20 pages, describes the events that take place in Middle-earth during the Second and Third Ages. In the Second Age, Sauron emerged as the main power in Middle-earth, and the Rings of Power were forged by Elves led by Celebrimbor. Sauron secretly forged his own ring to control the others, which led to war between the peoples of Middle-earth and Sauron, culminating in the War of the Last Alliance, in which Elves and the remaining Númenóreans united to defeat Sauron, bringing the Second Age to an end. The Third Age began with the passing of the One Ring to Isildur, who was ambushed at the Gladden Fields shortly after and lost the ring in the River Anduin. This section also gives a brief overview of the events leading up to and taking place in The Lord of the Rings, including the waning of Gondor, the re-emergence of Sauron, the White Council, Saruman's treachery, and Sauron's final destruction along with the One Ring. |
Welcome to Obamaland | James Delingpole | 2,009 | Writing for publication in the United States, Delingpole compares the differences between the United States and Great Britain, taking the view that the latter country is a failed socialist experiment. The book was published in the month that Barack Obama was inaugurated as president, Delingpole having anticipated that Obama would win. |
Pronto | Elmore Leonard | 1,993 | Harry Arno, an over the hill Miami bookmaker quietly lives the good life with his girlfriend, Joyce Patton. Harry skimmed for years from his corpulent mob boss, Jimmy 'Cap' Capotorto and managed to salt away nearly a cool million in a Swiss bank account toward his retirement. Harry wants to retire and move to Rapallo, Italy, dreaming of living an idyllic existence with Joyce in a villa by the sea. In Rapallo he once briefly talked to the poet, Ezra Pound when Harry was in the army and Pound was incarcerated. Now the Justice Department wants Jimmy Cap so they set up Harry to give information about Cap's activities by putting out the word about his skimming activities. The Justice Department figures that Jimmy Cap will try to have Harry killed, which will force Harry to ask for witness protection and turn evidence against Jimmy Cap. Jimmy sends Harry a message in the form of low-life hit man Earl Crowe but Harry is faster with a gun. Harry skips his bond and the baby sitting U. S. Marshal and former Marine Raylan Givens for the second time, the first ending when Harry gave Raylan the slip in an Atlanta airport. Harry makes a nostalgic dash for Rapallo. Holed up in a picaresque Italian resort Harry is soon pursued by his ex-stripper girlfriend Joyce. Raylan follows because he seeks to redeem his previous failure to bring Harry in - for him this is a matter of honor. In addition, ‘the Zip’, another mob affiliate, wants to take over Harry's action, so he tells Cap that he'll take out Harry in Italy. If Harry ends up dead, the Zip gets to take over the bookie operation, which is going to mean a lot more money. The Zip who shows his macho stuff back in his homeland and endlessly humiliates ‘Stronzo’ Nicky Testa demonstrates his penchant for violence with a cold bloodied murder. Consequently, Harry has so many people following him that the small village of Rapallo becomes inundated with U. S. mobsters and federal agents. To the aid of Harry comes Robert Gee, a former French foreign legionnaire who helps him defend the villa against all the trigger-happy mobsters. During all of these events, the sixty-six year old Harry starts drinking seriously again which causes the situation to deteriorate even faster. Harry is in real danger of losing his life, as are several of the other players… |
Mannan Magal | Sandilyan | null | The plot is about Karikalan who set his journey to find his identity was goes to vengi kingdom & meets Niranchana devi accidentally where on finding the political clutches around her & her first younger brother Rajaraja Narendra by her step-maternal uncle Jayasimha II for her second younger brother Vishnuvarshan. Where Jayasimha II wanted to make Vengi throne to his nephew Vishnuvarshan, makes Rajaraja Narendra very weak politically & physically. Karikalan decides to work for her to save. On his journey to save Niranchana DDevi & to get his own identity he was put into positions to manage & tackle by-the-times most dangerous & intillegent men like Brammaraayar, Jayasimha II, Araiyan Rajarajan. |
According to Mark | Penelope Lively | 1,984 | Mark Lamming, a biographer, leads a quiet life in London with his wife Diana, who works at a gallery. In order to gain information about the dead writer and essayist Gilbert Strong who he is going to write a book about, Mark visits Strong's granddaughter, Carry. She runs a garden centre at Dean Close, a mansion Strong used to live in. Mark regularly stays at Dean Close for several days, and in the course of this falls in love with Carry. After some time he comes up with the idea to visit Hermione, Carry's mother who lives in France, so as to ask her some questions about the relationship between her and her father, Gilbert Strong. He asks Carry to join him – partly because he needs her to speak to her mother and partly because he wants to spend time with her. Hesitantly Carry agrees, and together they leave for France – Diana, Marks wife, plans to join them later. The trip to France turns into a fiasco. During their journey, Mark and Carry have sex at several hotels. When they arrive at Hermione's place, Carry becomes extremely reclusive because of the way Hermione, her mother, is treating her. Diana, who in the meantime has arrived there too, is shocked by the state the house is in, and Mark finds that, after all, Hermione is not the right person to get information from for his book. They leave Hermione's place and plan to visit several French cities and villages. As Carry feels extremely uncomfortable while travelling with Mark and Diana, she simply leaves them without saying a word while they are in a supermarket. She travels to Paris where she gets to know Nick, an Englishman. Back to England Carry tells Mark the she has fallen in love with Nick. Mark and Carry sort out their problems and Mark leaves for Porlock, a village in the north of England where he hopes to find out more about Gilbert Strong's life. He moves in with a Major whose aunt Irene was associated with Strong years ago. To Mark's delight, the Major produces a bunch of letters that Strong wrote to Irene. These letters solve the mystery of Strong's life that Mark has been intent to find out about ever since he started working on the biography: Strong had been deeply in love with Irene, who died a short time after their first encounter. Strong had never really got over this heavy loss. These findings enable Mark to understand what made Strong tick and why he had never in his further life been able to develop any happy long-term relationship with women. Having found out about this, Mark feels that he has all the information he needs to finish his book about Strong. He leaves Porlock and heads for London where he visits Carry for what seems to be the last time. In the last chapter of the book, Mark is at a broadcast station where a radio transmission about Gilbert Strong is being produced. |
Passing On | null | null | The book starts with a funeral. The atmosphere is not, as one would assume, oppressive, but rather buoyant. When the coffin is carried to the graveyard, Helen remarks that her mother is still, even after her death, making her presence felt. As her mother had had a row with the priest when choosing the grave years ago, he keeps casting Helen and her brother distrustful looks throughout the funeral. From the very beginning of the book it is clear that Dorothy Glovers must have been a nasty woman. A woman who did not treat her children with love and affection, but ruled them and deprived them of life’s pleasures. Only Louise, her youngest daughter, had had the strength to escape from her dominant influence. When the ceremony of burying is held at the grave and the priest is giving his sermon, Helen thinks: „Eternal life is an appalling idea, especially in mother’s case.“ Slowly but steadily, Helen and Edward get used to their mother’s absence and they start to slightly change their lives. Helen feels much freer than before her mother's death and falls in love with Giles Carnaby, their lawyer. She becomes more confident and starts to perceive life differently. Nevertheless, Dorothy, Helen's and Edward's mother still, even after her death, makes her presence felt. At one point, Helen finds love-letters that a former boyfriend of hers had written to her in one of her mother's old cloaks. Her mother had never given these letters to her and therefore had caused the separation of Helen and her boyfriend. Helen is upset, but has to come to terms with it – she cannot confront her mother anymore. Edwards is a biology teacher. His mother’s does not change much about his life - he remains as reclusive as he had been before his mother's death. He spends most of his leisure time in the wood that is part of the estate he and Helen live at. There he tends plants and watches birds. In the course of the book he turns out to be homosexual. Helen helps Howard through what seems to be a life crisis. By doing so she feels strong. Helen and Edward live modestly. They only buy what they absolutely need; their lifestyle is rather old-fashioned. This is in complete contrast to the life their sister Luise and her husband Tom lead, who every once in a while drop in at Helen and Howard's place. Luise and Tom live an urban life in London, their problems are those typical of people that live in big cities: lack of time and psycho-somatic illnesses. Helen and Howard, by contrast, lead a calm, monotonous and rather rural life. Throughout the book it seems as though Helen and Giles Carnaby, the lawyer, will end up in a happy relationship. This does not happen, as in one of the last chapters Gilbert tells Helen that he does not want to see her anymore. |
Lords of France: The Bankers Who Broke the World | Liaquat Ahamed | 2,009 | The book discusses the personal histories of the four heads of the Central Banks of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany and their efforts to steer the world economy from the period during the First World War until the Great Depression. The book also discusses at length the career of the British economist John Maynard Keynes who criticized many of the policies of the heads of the Central Banks during this time. |
After America | John Birmingham | null | Four years after an energy event damages America for a year the populace still does not understand what is going on. The President is almost slain; seemingly by organized looter gangs. Soon, a new threat arises out of the Middle East. After America is the first sequel to Without Warning. |
Witz | Joshua Cohen | 2,010 | In Witz, Joshua Cohen calls all religious Jews "Affiliated". After the sabbath meal a week before Christmas, Benjamin is born to Israel and Hanna Israelien in Joysey, the first son after 12 girls. This winter is particularly hard and in fact persists year round. Benjamin is born full grown (by a method explored by Flann O'Brien in At Swim-Two-Birds), with a beard and glasses. His foreskin continually sheds itself and grows back. Already too big for his father's shirts, he takes to his mother's maternity robes. On Christmas Eve, all of the Affiliated die except first-born sons. The Israelien's maid, Wanda, drives Benjamin down to Florida to live with his grandfather, Isaac, who is Unaffiliated. Meanwhile, a cabal of government operatives are quarantining all of the first-borns on Ellis Island, now called "The Garden" (incorporated), capitalized with the property of the dead. A week later, they come for Benjamin. Isaac dies from a heart attack. Benjamin escapes at a rest stop but is eventually caught and taken to The Garden, where they have moved the entire Israelien house, complete with Sabbath guest still on one of the toilets. The Garden markets Benjamin as the messiah, complete with travelling road show and merchandising. A team of unaffiliated women are trained to act as his mother and sisters and see to his needs. Then the first-borns start dying, and by Passover Benjamin is the only one remaining. It is arranged that he marry the President's daughter in Las Vegas, but Benjamin escapes again, to wander the country in his mother's robe. Back in New York, his "sisters" catch up with him, and during cunnilingus with "Hanna", his tongue gets stuck and is torn off when the sisters try to separate them. The scandal destroys The Garden, and Benjamin is shunned by all (he and the operators of The Garden are Disaffiliated). Without real Jews around to complicate things, America, and soon, the world, has become Affiliated. The President becomes chief of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. Those who refuse to Affiliate are sent to their "homeland", Polandland, where they are kept in ghettos, experimented upon, worked and starved to death, killed. Benjamin finds his way there, too, visiting the towns of his mother's and his father's ancestors. In his wanderings, he sprouts the horns of a cow and ultimately he turns into a woman. The Affiliated, however, revive the cult of his tongue, now displayed as a relic. And Wanda, now Affiliated, with a son of her own, remembers the visitor who came down the chimney to sit with Benjamin every night for the week after his birth: Isaiah? dressed as Santa Claus. 25 years later, we hear from a 108-year-old Jewish man who was in Auschwitz ... He has listed the punch line of a joke, who needs the setup any more, for every year that he has lived. Because what should you do only laugh. |
First Light | Rebecca Stead | 2,007 | First Light follows the adventure of two protagonists, Peter, who lives with his mother and father in New York but is in Greenland for his father's research, and Thea, who lives in an underground colony in Greenland called Gracehope. Gracehope was formed hundreds of years ago by a group called the Settlers who used to live in England. They possessed unusual abilities, such as extremely good vision and hearing, leading them to be called 'eye adepts' and 'ear adepts', respectively. These powers were seen as sorcery, prompting Grace, the leader of the Settlers, to bring the Settlers under the ice in Greenland where they could live in peace. While walking around her house, Thea finds a map in her room of Gracehope. The map shows a tunnel leading onto the surface. Thea and her cousin Mattias find the tunnel and meet Peter who helps them back to Gracehope. Reaching Gracehope, Peter realizes that several talismans of the people are in the shape of mitochondrial DNA, which his mom is studying. After waking up from a headache, Peter finds his mom next to his bed. She explains that she used to live in Gracehope, but was banished with her sister, after her sister ventured above the surface and contracted an illness that could not be cured. She also explains that her research of mitochondrial DNA relates to the ability of mutations to benefit the human body, which could cause their extremely good vision and hearing. In the end, she warns Peter that global warming is causing Gracehope to slowly melt away. The entire colony must learn the dangers they face and escape. One obstacle lies in their way: Rowen, Thea and Peter's grandmother who banished Peter's mom and did nothing to help Thea's mom when she was on her deathbed from an illness when she ventured aboveground. Rowen is the head of the Council in Gracehope and is strictly against going aboveground. To convince the rest of the colony, Peter and Thea plan to use a piece of mythology, that a dog with four white paws would be born when it was time to leave. Such a dog had been born several days ago but has yet to open his eyes. Thea decides to proceed without using the dog and tries to convince the colony at a reenactment of the Settler's escape to Greenland with several allies who know of Rowen's actions. Just as Thea and her allies are about to lose the argument, Peter arrives with the dog, whose eyes are open. That, coupled with the fact that Peter is an eye adept, the first in a hundred years, convinces the colony to listen to Thea instead of Rowen. The novel ends eight months later as the people of Gracehope are slowly educated on global warming and the dangers of staying in their colony. |
The Bent Sword | null | null | In Medieval England, a daydreaming peasant named Steffin wants to pursue his imaginary quest, but he feels trapped by society. When an eccentric storyteller insists that Steffin's quest is real, Steffin is forced to take his destiny into his own hands and seek out his arch nemesis, the dark Lord of Boredom. Through a reckless chain of Don-Quixote-like adventures, colorful friends catch Steffin's dream, and the powers that oppose them begin to unveil themselves. But when reality kicks in and his friends have had enough, will Steffin be able to pull them back together and complete their quest, or will Lord Bore succeed in quelling the greatest of all adventures? |
Snuff | null | null | Commander Sam Vimes is forced by his wife, Lady Sybil, to take a vacation with their son, Young Sam, at her family's mansion Crundells. After a short time of enjoying his vacation, he discovers that the rural community has a dark past with the resident goblins, humanoid lifeforms that live in caves nearby. Vimes finds out that the son of Lord Rust has been enslaving goblins to force them to work on his tobacco plantations in Howondaland, allowing him to manufacture cigars cheaply that are then smuggled to Ankh-Morpork. After teaming up with the local constable, a young man called Upshot, Vimes manages to arrest those responsible for the crime. In the end, thanks to his wife's organizational skills and powers of persuasion, goblins are recognized as citizens by all major nations and rulers. While Rust's son flees abroad, Vetinari considers having him removed. |
The Burning Wire | Jeffery Deaver | 2,010 | The sabotage of a substation of the prominent electrical energy distributor Algonquin Consolidated Power and Light Company in Queens, New York, causing a deadly arc flash leads to an investigation managed by esteemed criminalist Lincoln Rhyme and his team of investigators. The initial primary suspect, Ray Galt, a disillusioned troubleman who is an employee of Algonquin Consolidated, is believed to blame Algonquin and society's reliance on electricity as the reason he developed leukemia due to radiation from working close to power lines. Signals intelligence (SIGINT) suggests that Galt is backed by a previously unknown eco-terror group named 'Justice For'. The collected intelligence fails to specify further details of the terrorist cell, other than the name 'Rahman'. A series of demand letters are sent after the first attack, ordering Algonquin to reduce its electrical distribution, or further acts of violence involving electricity would be executed. Rhyme must also deal with a parallel investigation into a recurring antagonist in the series: the criminal known as Richard Logan, who is nicknamed 'The Watchmaker'. A joint operation is conducted between Rhyme's office and the Mexican Federal Police after Logan is located in Mexico. |
The Confession of Brother Haluin | Edith Pargeter | 1,988 | Heavy snows in mid-December 1142 followed by days of frost in much of England change the politics of the realm and lead Brother Cadfael far from home. In Oxford Castle, Empress Maud has been besieged for months by King Stephen and his forces. Once the roads are again passable, Sheriff Hugh Beringar gets the disappointing news that the Empress took advantage of the snow and frozen rivers for a miraculous escape, right under the noses of King Stephen's army. Rumor has it she and several allies dressed in white, were let down by a rope, walked over the frozen river through Stephen's lines, walked to Abingdon, where they got horses to ride to Wallingford Castle. She is then safe with her brother Robert of Gloucester and her major supporter Brian FitzCount. Oxford Castle surrendered, the men allowed to march home. Cadfael and Hugh wonder, what would the King do if he held the Empress? He would not keep her in chains, as she had done to him the year before. She will not surrender, nor give up her claim on the crown that Stephen wears. Robert of Gloucester returned from Normandy with the eldest son of the Empress with her second husband Geoffrey of Anjou, a boy of nine years named Henry Plantagenet. Her husband did not come to her aid. Perhaps the presence of her son will strengthen her claim for the throne in the eyes of the people. For the moment, the long running battle between these two contenders has begun anew, each with a talent of "conjuring defeat out of victory". King Stephen joined his brother Henry, Bishop of Winchester, and calls his sheriffs to meet him there for the Christmas feast. At Shrewsbury Abbey, the heavy snow fall caused severe damage to the slate tile roof of the guest hall, pouring water on some unhappy guests. The repairs must begin while the frosty days continue, with each monk taking a share in the labor under the guidance of their master builder Brother Conradin. Cadfael took his turn. Brother Haluin puts in his stint, but overreaches while knocking a pile of snow, falling down 40 feet along with many broken slate tiles, the ladders and scaffolds. His feet and ankles are seriously injured by the slates in the fall; his prospects for survival are grim. Taken to the abbey's infirmary, he makes confession in the presence of Abbot Radulfus and Brother Cadfael. Haluin speaks names he has not pronounced in 18 years. At the age of eighteen, he fell in love with a wealthy young woman named Bertrade de Clary. Despite his own good background and their mutual love, Bertrade's mother Adelais forbade his suit. The heartbroken Haluin entered the monastery, only to be visited there soon after by Adelais asking for herbs that would end Bertrade's pregnancy. He stole the necessary drugs from Cadfael's herbarium and gave them to Adelais, who later informed him that Bertrade and the unborn child died from the herbs he had sent, while she told others her daughter died of fever to hide the shame. He begs Cadfael to forgive him for the theft and for putting his herbs to such a use, and asks the abbot to forgive his sins and to grant him absolution. They both comply, while Haluin is much relieved by his confession. But Haluin lives. His injuries are severe and some are permanent - he will never walk without crutches and specially made shoes. Cadfael asks Hugh Beringar if the wife of de Clary yet lived. She lives at Hales, while her son, another sworn to King Stephen, resides in Staffordshire. If Haluin recovers apace, his vow of pilgrimage to seek forgiveness of the mother will be raised, no matter how ill-advised it is in his new state of health. Haluin's recuperation is slow, difficult, disciplined, and steady. In early March he asks in Chapter to be allowed to make his pilgrimage. He had done no penance to earn his absolution, and his vow burns in him: a pilgrimage to Bertrade's mother and to Bertrade's tomb at Hales, east of Shrewsbury. The abbot accedes to his pleading. Haluin may go, but only if he takes Brother Cadfael with him for assistance and safety. Haluin agrees, conceding his need for aid. On the fourth day of March, they proceed by foot to Hales, a three-day journey. They meet with Adelais, who expresses shock over Haluin's injuries and offers the forgiveness Haluin begs. They discover that Bertrade is not buried at the church. The local priest tells them that the de Clary family tomb is at Elford in Staffordshire, for deaths since Bertrade's grandfather. Haluin insists they continue this journey despite Cadfael's concern over his fitness to complete the pilgrimage by foot, now twice as long. Their trip to Elford (via Watling Street and Lichfield) takes the better part of a week. On the second night out, in the hour before dawn, Cadfael takes a short walk. He sees two horsemen passing, each with a woman riding postillion behind him. He recognizes one of the women as Adelais and the other as her maid. Cadfael lays out the rest of their route to include a night at Lichfield, just a few miles from Elford, to assure a good night's rest for Haluin before his all-night vigil. Haluin and Cadfael arrive at Elford to find Adelais in the church, kneeling before the tomb, as if she is their shadow. Adelais offers them meals and shelter in her dower house, keeping them from the rest of the de Clary household. After a restful day, Haluin returns to the church to spend the cold night on his knees in vigil and meditation, alongside Cadfael at the de Clary tomb. Haluin completed the main part of his vow. At sunrise, a curious Roscelin arrives at the church timely to assist Cadfael in bringing Haluin to his feet. He and Cadfael accompany the spent Haluin back to the de Clary manor. As Haluin takes his rest, Cadfael speaks with Roscelin, who tells them he was sent away by his father to serve Audemar, their friend and overlord. Lothair, bringing food, sends the young man away. Adelais offers them horses for the return journey, which spurs Haluin to leave at the moment and on foot as vowed, though it is but a few hours to sunset. A sudden snowstorm forces them to seek shelter at the manor of Vivers. The lord of the manor, Cenred, welcomes them to his home. He notes that they are far from home, with no Benedictine abbeys nearby, save the new one building at Farewell for nuns. Next morning, he asks whether either of the monks is an ordained priest. Heluin is. Will he officiate at the wedding of his much younger half-sister, Helisende, to a nobleman on the morrow? Cenred finds the chance arrival of the monks to be a good sign for this marriage. The haste is because his own son, who was raised with Helisende, has fallen in love with the girl; as such a relationship is prohibited, Cenred wants his sister to marry soon. It is a serious decision for Haluin, who has never performed any rites as a priest, but he agrees. Cadfael meets Helisende in the kennels as he walks about the manor. He asks her if she agrees to this marriage freely. She says yes, if any adult decision is truly free. Cadfael is struck by how familiar she seems though he cannot recall where he has seen her like before. Edgytha serves Haluin and Cadfael their midday meal. She tells them the story of Helisende being the daughter of her late master with his second, much younger wife, adding that the wife has gone into the convent at Polesworth since he died about eight years ago. Her daughter was left to Lady Emma and Edgytha's care, a girl with three loving mothers. Jean de Perronet, charming and very happy, arrives. Cenred invites Cadfael and Haluin to take supper in the hall with the family. They agree, and Haluin is seated next to the couple, the first time he sees Helisende. Cadfael explains to Cenred that they met his son when they stayed at Elford. As the meal ends, Lady Emma reports that Edgytha is gone, for four hours. She told a servant she would be back quickly, with a cat to put among the pigeons. The phrase meant nothing to the servant girl, but much to the parents, Helisende, and to Cadfael. Cenred organizes a party to search out of doors. About half the way to the manor at Elford, using the shortest path, Edgytha's body is found, knife wound to her chest and nothing stolen, clearly murdered. Cenred sends word ahead to Elford with this news, both to notify Audemar who acts as sheriff and to ask if anyone spoke with her. Cadfael sees there is snow beneath her body, not atop it, suggesting she was on her way home. The light snow had fallen early in the four hours. They carried her body back to Vivers. The entire household gathers in the hall, save one: Helisende, noticed only by Cadfael. Jean de Perronet asks if there is a link between his presence and this death. Cenred prays no. Roscelin arrives home, angry at what his father has done behind his back. Roscelin did not see Edgytha at Elford; he thought she had not reached the place. Who did she visit? Father and son argue. Roscelin meets Jean de Perronet, the prospective husband who has read between the lines. Roscelin wants assurance that Helisende was not forced to this marriage, planned secretly until this moment of revelation. Cenred asks his wife to get Helisende, but Helisende cannot be found. Her horse is gone from the stables. Audemar and his men arrive; he takes over the situation, a man of decision and action. With no bride there can be no marriage in this house. Cadfael and Haluin plan to depart in the morning. Haluin sees how small his own problems are, in contrast of the world outside him, a change setting him on the path to a true vocation. Cadfael is "unregenerate", wanting to see this story to its end, but with no justification, no special knowledge as to who or what would have been the cat among the pigeons. They say farewell to Cenred and to Roscelin, as the men wait for word to start the search. They leave to the west on a new path, that bypasses Lichfield, not the same route as their approach to Elford. Few people live in this area, where the locals had long fought the Normans. As evening nears, a man tells them they are quite near the new Benedictine house at Farewell planned by Bishop Roger de Clinton. They head there. After a night's rest at the convent, Haluin recognizes Bertrade, the girl he loved and thought he had killed, now a woman, and she recognizes him. She followed Haluin to the cloister, even taking the founder's name. She is Sister Benedicta, sent from Polesworth to help this new place. Cadfael realizes why Helisende looked familiar to him; her profile was like her mother but her face showed her father's looks. Haluin had much to absorb, strong feelings to experience. Cadfael wants to know what drove the mother to create such pain and trouble for so many years. Cadfael negotiates a meeting between Brother Haluin and Sister Benedicta with Mother Patrice, learning that she has already informed the family that Helisende is safe. Brother Haluin and Sister Benedicta are granted an hour's private meeting. Cadfael rides to Elford to meet with Adelais. Cadfael challenges her with what she had done to Haluin years ago. Then what she did to her own daughter: Adelais married Bertrade off to Cenred’s father Edric while Bertrade was with child by another man. What did she hold against Haluin, a handsome man who others would see as a good match for her daughter? Adelais confesses that she begged the herbs from Haluin then lied about her daughter’s death to Haluin to torment him. She admits that her anger rose because Haluin had fallen in love with her daughter and not her, he unaware of her feelings. If she could not have Haluin, then no woman could. And Edgytha, part of Adelais's household back then, knew the truth of Helisende. Edgytha ran to Adelais that night, who refused leave for the truth to be told. Adelais claims all the guilt, including sending her grooms away, who most likely were the murderers on their own initiative. The truth must out that Helisende has no Vivers blood in her; it is already coming out at Farewell. She will tell it with him as witness. They ride to Vivers manor, where all are gathered – Audemar de Clary, the Vivers and de Perronet. Adelais tells them that Helisende is not blood kin to Roscelin as she had brought her daughter Bertrade pregnant, to be married to Cenred's father. She admits she did all these foul deeds of deception long ago. They realize Edgytha knew as well. She tells them that Betrade, Helisende and the father are at Farewell. The father was a clerk in her household, a year older than her daughter. How did they come to meet now? Cadfael attests to this meeting, telling Haluin's tale in so doing. This stunning news is hard for the Vivers family to accept, a shock to Audemare, a challenge to de Perronet. Helisende is still loved by the Vivers, kin or not. Adelais has lands to leave her granddaughter. Roscelin is joyous. Jean de Perronet will continue his suit. Audemar claims her as his niece, and as overlord places his niece with Cenred once she is ready to leave Farewell. He tells his mother to ride back with him and Roscelin, as Cadfael rides back to Farewell. Audemar is sadly disappointed in his mother's actions years ago, and her actions the day Edgytha visited her. He banishes his mother to Hales, ordering her never to return to his manor at Elford or any other of his manors. Haluin shares his joy of meeting Bertrade and Helisende afterward with Cadfael. Haluin is growing stronger in walking with crutches, and is completely satisfied with his present blessings, this season of his love. He has no angry words for Adelais. He looks forward only. The two Benedictine brothers walk home to Shrewsbury in completion of the vow, the truth in place of falsehood having changed so much. |
Earth | Jon Stewart | null | Written in the past tense, the book's stated purpose is to serve as a Baedeker for an alien civilization that discovers Earth after humanity has died out, most likely by its own hands. As such, Earth (The Book) attempts to chronicle the history of the planet and the human race from the beginning to the present day, and also tries to explain human concepts and emotions such as "love" and "work" for its alien readers. The book follows a similar format to America (The Book), being written in the style of a textbook and featuring many images, including visual gags. One controversial visual gag in America was a Photoshopped image of the United States Supreme Court justices at the time of the book's publishing nude; a similar gag appeared in Earth which was an illustration of human anatomy that featured a nude man, one half of the man depicting Larry King. |
Borderlands | Peter Carter | null | “Borderlands”, is a 1991 novel by British author, Peter Carter. The western oriented novel tells the story of young, and somewhat naïve, Ben Curtis, an orphan who lost both his mother and his brother at an early age. The story spans across several decades of the late 1880s and early 1900’s, as Ben learns the harsh brutal lessons of the Texas and the rise and fall of famous Kansas boomtowns like Abilene and Dodge City. The overall plot of the novel was broken into four sections, all of which tell crucial life changing events in Ben’s life. Throughout the novel, Ben is plagued by sudden, abrupt changes in his lifestyle, and even more sudden deaths as the wild west quickly changes into modern society of the 20th century. The novel begins in Texas, in the year 1871, in the fictional, rural, area of Clement County. Beauregard (Bo) Curtis, and his younger brother Benjamin (Ben), and their widowed mother are struggling to keep their farm afloat in the tough economic times of the late 1800’s. But during the summer of 1870, their mother dies, leaving the two brothers are left to take care of the family farm alone. Bo and Ben hope to receive help from their estranged sister Flo, but to dismay they discover Flo is now married, and has turned her back on their family, leaving them to suffer in poverty alone. However the brothers are soon discover that their poor mother owed money to the local preacher, Tyler, and are soon evicted, left to fend for themselves on the harsh prairie. Completely broke, and now without a home, the two brothers set out for the town of Lookout in hope of getting jobs, working on Sam Clark’s cattle drive. However when they arrive in Lookout, they discover that they missed the Cattle Drive by three days. However the town marshal soon informs them that they can catch Joe Dutton’s cattle drive if they hurry. Bo and Ben quickly ride out onto the Texas range, hoping to catch up to Dutton, so they can join the cattle drive. The two are reluctantly hired by Dutton, and are then equipped with shot guns, spurs, thick leather boots, cowboy hats, and belts. During the cattle drive, the two brothers bond with the other cowhands, and their African American cook. Throughout the drive, Ben begins to gain respect for black Americans, and stops referring to them as just “niggers”, but instead by the cook’s real name, Tom Arnold. The cattle drive slowly makes it way across the desert plains, crossing over the entire state Texas, through snow and rain, and sand storms. Soon, after half a year, the cattle drive arrives in the town of boom town Abilene, Kansas, on June 13, 1871. They men are soon paid, and set out for town in hopes of having some fun. But to Ben’s horror, Bo is soon shot in the back by a man named Dutch Kessel over a crooked card game. After Bo’s funeral, the cattle drive soon sets out for the next town in order to complete the run. However, Ben - heartbroken over the death of the last of his family - decides to stay in Abilene, so that he can avenge Bo’s death - by killing Dutch Kessel. Ben Curtis begins to contemplate how he would get his revenge on his brother’s murderer, how he would gun him down. Whether to challenge him to a gun fight, or simply shoot him in the back like he did with Bo. But to Ben’s dismay, Dutch Kessel fled town the night before after he murdered Bo. Ben considers hunting Kessel down, and challenging him to a gunfight, but the town marshal, Wild Bill Hickok warns Ben to stay out of trouble and not to try to take the law into his own hands, or else he would shoot him on the spot. Ben reluctantly obeys Hickok, intimidated by the tough, hardened, marshal, and gets a job at the local store as a shopkeeper. Ben finds his new job degrading, a job fit for women. Making matters worse, his boss, Jacob Besser, and his daughter Goblinka, are foreign immigrants, causing Ben to further disrespect them. Ben begins to look back on his life, wondering where it all went wrong. However, Ben soon grows used to his new life quiet in Abilene, his thoughts about Dutch Kessel fading more and more each day. After nearly two years working in Abilene, Ben forgets about his vow to avenge Bo, and befriends his neighbor, and chess partner Henry, an immigrant from Germany. Ben suspects that Henry is a communist, and an arsonist, but doesn’t ask him, worried about jeopardizing their friendship. But Ben’s life is disrupted yet again, when Marshall Hickok informs Ben that Dutch Kessel has been shot dead, in St. Louis, Missouri. Ben soon discovers that he is now a local celebrity, even though he had nothing to do with Kessel’s death. Finally free from his vow to avenge Bo, Ben gets a whole new leash on life, a newfound sense of freedom, and multiple future job opportunities. Ben eventually decides to go into business with Besser, selling cowboy hats to town people. With his newfound fame on his side, Ben’s hat business quickly lifts off the ground, and he begins to wonder about a future as being a businessman, like Besser. But the town of Abilene quickly begins to change, the town’s outlook beginning to change more and more as people continued to town. Abilene was quickly becoming a ghost town. To make matters worse, Henry announces to Ben that he’s going to go live with his sister in New York City, and confirms Ben’s thoughts about his communism. However, Ben soon discovers that he doesn’t care, and says good-bye to his only friend in town. Ben visits Bo’s grave one last time and pays his respects. His last few ties to Abilene now gone, Ben boards a train, and leaves town, departing for the currently growing town of Dodge City, Kansas, to set up a fur business with Jacob Besser’s brother, Brusik. Ben Curtis arrives in the famous town of Dodge City, Kansas, and discovers that the town is nothing like the rumors said it would be. Instead of a boom town, Ben finds a town just barely getting started, and is run rampant with crime. Worried about his own safety, Ben considers going back to Abilene, but changes his mind finally meets Brusik Besser, his new business partner. Ben soon opens a successful fur selling business, and soon get used to the wild life of Dodge City. But shortly after starting his business, Ben is almost robbed a pair of bandits, but manages to chase them away. After the close encounter, they decide to hire bodyguards to watch over the guards, but are shocked to discover the men they hire are nothing more than thugs for hires. Still, faced with the difficult decision of whether or not to be the victim or the fighter, Ben and Brusik decide to keep the men under hire. Ben soon becomes wealthy as his business grows more successful, and keeps a hidden supply of money underneath the floorboards of his office. But when the stock market crashes in the year 1873, Ben is forced into bankruptcy. To Ben’s horror and anger, he is forced to leave his store (and the money that he had hid underneath it), when it is bought by a man named Tom Stokes. Broke and homeless yet again - like all those years ago when he was only a 13 year old boy in Clement County, only this time without his older brother Bo to guide him - Ben Curtis quickly hits rock bottom. But when Ben’s life seems to be unraveling before his eyes, another opportunity suddenly appears. Ben soon get a job working with his new boss, Sam Dawson and his co-worker Abel, skinning buffalo for their hides and then selling their furs to make a stable living. Ben is miserable in his new job, going from riches to rags again so quickly, but he manages to survive on the Texas prairie. After a few months, despite the rumors of him being wanted by the Pinkerton family of bounty hunters for owing money to the bank, Ben eagerly returns to Dodge city in hopes of retrieving the money that he hid underneath his store’s floorboards. But Ben is shocked to find that it’s gone, the money way taken shortly after he left, but not by Tom Stokes. Angry, bitter, and confused, Ben returns to his demeaning job as a skinner with Sam. But to Ben’s delight, Sam soon tells him of a plan to move to the state of California, and retire together. But when the group stops just outside the California border, between the Rocky Mountains and the sunny beaches of California, to Ben’s horror, they discover Dutch Kessel is still alive. The story of Dutch Kessel’s demise back in St. Louis was just a rumor, and in fact, Dutch Kessel was camping nearby, in the next camp. Kessel learns of Ben’s location from a bunch of local cowhands, and tracks him down. Determined to get to Ben, Kessel shoots Sam, killing him in cold blood. Ben manages to escape Kessel on horseback, but quickly realizes that he has no way to defend himself from Kessel’s wrath. Kessel then chases Ben across the plains, and into a winter snowstorm. After hours of running, Kessel eventually corners Ben, and reveals that he had been haunted by the memory of Ben for years, worried that Ben would someday return to kill him. Ben tries to reason with Kessel, but Kessel ignores him, and withdraws his shot gun. But just as Ben is about die, Kessel is stabbed and skewered to death by a native American war party. In the aftermath of his traumatic night, Ben eventually gives up on his dream to move to California. Now that Sam had died, it has lost all it’s meaning. With all his friends and family now dead, the now adult Ben decides to live with Henry (The man he met in Abilene) in New York. Ben spends the rest of his life in New York, the last surviving cowboy from the wild, (and rapidly changing) western frontier. |
The Day After Tomorrow | null | null | Paul Osborn sees the man who has murdered his father years before while walking through Paris. When he sees the murderer again his memories take over. After a detective found out about Henri Kanarack, Osborn plans to kill him. McVey comes to Paris in order to meet some experts on the case of a couple decapitations, where the bodies and heads were found deep-frozen. A few days later Osborn tries to kill Kanarack, but when he's nearly dead a third person enters the scene. He shoots Kanarack and the last information Osborn could get from Kanarack was that he was murdering Osborn's father for hire of Erwin Scholl. Osborn tells McVey about Scholl. Out of McVey's researches arises that Osborn's father invented a scalpel that can be used at degrees of absolute zero and that in the same year he was killed a few other inventors were killed, whose inventions were all about surgery at extremely high or low temperatures and all vanished. Because of that McVey and his investigation team have a suspicion that Scholl and his people might belong to an organization that's working on surgery making it possible to combine deep-frozen body parts and to thaw it so the person is alive. Time passes, and McVey finds out about Elton Lybarger and a ceremony that should be held in Berlin. During this in the main hall of the building Elton Lybarger is giving the speech. Suddenly all doors close and all people inside the main hall are gassed with cyanide gas. Right after the cyanide attack the building is set to fire and Osborn nearly perishes. After Osborn followed Von Holden, the only remaining organization member, to Switzerland and is nearly killed McVey gives Osborn a VCR tape, on which Osborn finds a whole confession of Elton Lybarger's physician. He confesses having experienced the surgery on Lybarger, because they were searching for a person, whose attributes and fingerprints were as much as the same as Adolf Hitler's, and having helped the organization, who was trying to build a new third Reich, to raise Lybarger's two “nephews”, the perfect Aryans, who were raised with him since they were young. According to Salettl one of them should be the new leader after having undergone an operation. Osborn can't remember exactly what happened in Switzerland, but then the scene replays in his mind. He sees how Van holden falls into a crevasse and how he opens the package Von Holden had been carrying with him all the time, and it's the deep-frozen head of Adolf Hitler. |
The Red Pyramid | Rick Riordan | 2,010 | The book is written as a recording made by the Kane siblings, Carter and Sadie. The story begins when Carter Kane and his father, Julius Kane, go to London to visit Sadie, Carter's sister who lives separately from them. Julius takes them to the British Museum to "study" the Rosetta Stone. But he actually has deeper motives and tries to summon Osiris, the Egyptian god of the Underworld by using the stone as an anchor. It goes wrong when all the other four major gods are brought out and Set, the Egyptian god of storms and chaos, imprisons Julius (he is now a host of Osiris) in a coffin. Carter and Sadie were taken to Brooklyn by their uncle, Amos. He goes to find Set, leaving the two near-stranger siblings alone with a baboon called Khufu. In the library of the Brooklyn mansion, they begin to discover signs that they are descended from famous pharaohs. Julius' side of the family was descended from Narmer while their dead mother, Ruby, had a family originated from Ramesses the Great. The term is blood of the pharaohs. When Sadie and Carter reach New York they talk about how in Egypt people lived on the East side of the river because the sun rose in the east and they buried their dead in the west. Sadie asks why can't they live in Manhattan. Amos replies that there are other gods and they should stay separate. This is a link between this book and the Percy Jackson Series. Just then, the mansion is attacked by serpent leopards,also known as serpopards. Sadie's cat, Muffin, turns out be the cat goddess Bast. She makes quick work of the serpopards but the three are forced to run when the carriers tails them. They go into Manhattan, which Amos had earlier said had other non-Egyptian gods. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bast attempts to have them go in the Duat – a magical realm right underneath the mortal realm. But the goddess of scorpions, Serqet, fights Bast and supposedly overpowers her. In the museum, Carter and Sadie find Zia Rashid. She is the scribe of the First Nome, the main nome of the House of Life, that had magicians trying to protect people and fight gods. Carter develops a massive crush on Zia in the book. Zia combats Serqet and bans her from her host by using the Seven Ribbons of Hathor spell. Zia takes the two to the First Nome, where Chief Lector Iskandar – the House of Life leader – and Desjardins – the second-in-command – brought up the assumption that they were both hosts of gods. Sadie and Iskander have a talk and the old Chief Lector tells her about the hosts. They were mortals who the gods inhabited so they could leave the Duat and be in the mortal realm. The next day, the two siblings begin their training. Zia teaches them the concept of casting hieroglyphs to use magic. Carter surprises Sadie and Zia by summoning a combat avatar – it is a magic and Bast used it to fight Serqet – of Horus, the falcon war god. But their training is disrupted when a magician informs Zia that Iskander is dead and Desjardins is next in line for the throne. Sadie creates a portal and they escape to Paris because Desjardins would want to kill them because they are hosts, but not before bringing sphinxes with them. Bast, who is still fine, takes care of them and all of them infiltrate Desjardins' house so they could take a book to fight Set. At Washington, D.C they are chased by the Set animal, who Carter named Leroy. Carter stays back at the airport to fight it and manages to wound it with his combat avatar. He throws Leroy in his Duat locker-a short opening to the Duat-and manages to catch the airplane to Memphis, Tennessee, where the wisdom god Thoth is. When they finish Thoth's test, they learn that they were supposed to have a Feather of Truth from the Underworld/Land of the Dead. And they also needed Set's true name, which contained the person's identity and life. Because of Sadie's attraction to Anubis-god of funerals-he gives the Feather of Truth to her. They then continue from New Orleans to Texas, where Carter fights Sobek but is hopelessly outmatched and outclassed even with the combat avatar. Amos saves them but Bast and Sobek are expelled to the Duat. They go to New Mexico, as Zia wanted Carter there and the earth god Geb told Sadie to. It turns out that Desjardins had known this and a fight occurs. Thanks to Zia's plan, they defeat Sekhmet, the lion goddess of battle, and drive onwards to Arizona. They spot the Red Pyramid, which is Set's main host. When they arrive, Amos collapses and Set reveals he was hosting Amos as well, all along. Carter merges completely with Horus becomes the eye of the war god. He puts up a good fight but Set's strength grows when dawn approaches and the desert glows. Sadie learns from a dying Zia that Set's secret name is Evil Day. She combines with Isis, the magic goddess inside her, and transports Carter and Sadie along with herself to Washington, D.C. Sadie banishes Set to the Duat, reading the book and using the Feather of Truth along with his secret name. Just then, Set's servant appears. He is the host of Apophis, the Serpent of Chaos itself. Even though Carter kills the servant, it is Sadie who rubs the picture of the snake in the sky. They come back for Zia, who turns out to be a shabti-a ceramic doll-and urges Carter to find the real Zia Rashid. They return to Brooklyn House and rebuild the place with magic. Amos leaves for the First Nome to be healed from being possessed by Set. Carter and Sadie are paid a visit by Osiris, who was bonded with their father. They even see the ghost of their mother who was accompanying Julius. The god of the dead gives them his djed amulet to attract other things. The siblings give up Horus and Isis, who vanish away into the Duat but not before preserving a quarter of their power in the amulets Julius had given them a long time ago. Carter and Sadie store the amulets in Carter's Duat locker and put the djed amulet with it. Once kids began to come, they would teach them divine magic or the path of the gods, which involved channeling a god's power. In the end, Carter and Sadie find their father. Julius decides that he would like to stay with his wife; Carter and Sadie now live with their uncle Amos. * Ruby Kane: is Carter and Sadie's mom who died at Cleoptras Needle trying to seal away the chaos snake Apophis. * Carter Kane: He is fourteen and was a host of Horus. Since he was 8, when his mom died, he traveled with his father, Julius Kane. He is Sadie's older brother. When he is with his sister (Sadie Kane) his magic power grows in strength. * Sadie Kane: She is twelve and was a host of Isis. She loves gum and has lived with her grandparents since the age of six. Most suspect Sadie to be a diviner. When she is with her brother (Carter Kane) her magic grows in strength. * Julius Kane: An Egyptian magician who is a host of Osiris. He is Carter and Sadie Kane's father. His wife, Ruby Kane, died trying to seal away the chaos snake Apophis in Cleopatra's Needle.He is also an Egyptologist. * Amos Kane: An Egyptian magician who became a partial host of Set. He is Julius Kane's brother, and a former protector of the Kane children. The children find out that he has been Set's host. * Zia Rashid: An Egyptian magician who is a host of Nephthys. . * Bast: The Egyptian goddess of cats. She becomes the Kane children's protector after Sadie calls for her to defend and help the children * Set: The Egyptian god of chaos and evil, who is the main antagonist of book one. His ultimate plot is to, by his birthday, bring about destruction by means of constructing the Red Pyramid, for which the book is named. Both Amos Kane and Bast dislike and avoid Manhattan because it has "other gods". This is a reference to Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson novels, which identifies Manhattan and the Empire State Building as the modern home of the Graeco-Roman Olympian gods. |
Portrait in Death | Nora Roberts | 2,003 | Lt. Eve Dallas is celebrating the shortly-to-start vacation of Summerset, Roarke's majordomo, when he trips over the cat and falls down the stairs, breaking his leg. As Eve and Roarke are giving him first aid, Eve is tipped by Nadine Furst to a location that turns out to contain a dead body stuffed into a recycle bin. Nadine was sent a set of candid images of the victim, a young, pretty woman, and a final image of her dead body, clearly posed in a formal portrait setting. Also included: a note indicating plainly that the woman is the first victim, with more to follow. Eve assembles her usual team, including Roarke, to track down the killer before he can strike again. However, while taking some time to tend to affairs at Dochas, the shelter that he funds as a charitable project, Roarke meets with a new employee, a social worker, who informs him that she used to live in Dublin at the same time that he was a baby, and that she had given shelter to Roarke and his mother—a different woman than the abusive person that he grew up calling his mother. Roarke's researches show that the social worker is probably correct,and that his father Patrick Roarke killed his mother when she tried to leave him. Roarke is upset over this turn of events and is reluctant to share his feelings with anyone. Eventually, Eve gets him to talk to her desiring to help him through the nightmare of pain. The next day, Roarke hurries off to Ireland to find explanations from the surviving associates of his late, criminal father while Eve is busy investigating the second victim. He learns about his mother's surviving twin sister Sinead and visits her in Ireland where Eve joins him. Together they head back to New York where Eve is called to report to the crime scene of the third victim, who is the sister of Crack, one of Eve's acquaintances. Eve traces the evidence found in the van to kidnap the victims and finally determines that Gerald Stevenson, a sociopath who is affected by his mother's death is the perpetrator. She assigns Detective Baxter and Officer Trueheart to survail the pub the killer frequents. They believe Stevenson is not going to show up and decide to call it a day when Trueheart is kidnapped. The story ends with Eve and the team capturing Stevenson a.k.a. Steve Audrey and rescuing Trueheart. Eve rejoices when she learns that Summerset is finally gone on vacation. |
Angel Blood | null | null | There are four disabled children in a sort of asylum called Bin Linnie Lodge (The Bin to the nurses,or Bin Linnie to the locals of the village) with unique disabilities. They are all given the letter G (standing for Gemini) followed by a number 1-4. However they were given unique names by a nurse they loved, Mrs. Murdoe, Based on their disability. A boy with two layers of skin rather than the usual 7 is named X-Ray, a girl with miniature wings on her back is called Chicken Angel, a boy with weak pulmonaries is called Cough Cough and another girl with no eyes is called Lights Out, or Lolo. As they are kept away from society, they have different names for usual things. The book opens with one of the children's most hated nurses, Tin Lid, taking away Lolo’s “Pippi” (From context, it is a doll but it seems to also mean child). When Lolo resists, Tin Lid calls in the “Leapords” (Security) to “Trank” (Sedate) her. It is revealed that Tin Lid works for a man called Doctor Dearly, who runs the Bin. The children hate him because Dearly made Mrs Murdoe “go takeaway” (In this instance, it means he sacked her, but it in others, it means dying). Mrs Murdoe then became a spirit guide for the children, along with a law-abiding moose’s head called Moose (As he doesn’t move for them, the children refer to being tired as “moosed” or “moosed out”) and a fast cat called Jack. It’s also revealed that there were other children once, but eventually, they all died and went to the “Sky Boat” (Heaven). Their death was forbade by warts appearing over their bodies (“lumpies”) At one point, a child with two heads is mentioned, but not exposited on. All of the children live their lives in near-identical ways, watching a TV movie called the Natural World, (A running plot point is a leopard attacking a group of monkeys), and looking out of a window, (which isn’t allowed, so they have to hide it) named The Weather Eye. Meanwhile, in the city outside the Bin, a young man named Nail meets a girl called Natalie while trying to steal from her shop. They strike up a relationship, because of each others hatred of society. They do jobs to and from the Bin. Cough Cough is getting weaker, and eventually, slowly goes blind. He has warning against Dearly, saying he is trying to kill them all. He reveals that he has given each of them a syringe and is keeping several pills. The others do not believe him until Dearly takes away books and TV, saying it is bad for their eyes. Dearly exposits to X-Ray that he plans to take one of his eyes and transplant it to CC. However, this is postponed due to X-Ray regurgitating on Dearly. When X-Ray tells CC about this, he explains that he has stashed away four syringes and enough pills to kill all of the nurses, he tells them to escape. Eventually, CC dies during an operation on his eye. X-Ray eventually finds out that CC poisoned himself with some pills and when he explains his theory to Chicken Angel, she tells him that they helped him. Angry, he forgets to hide the Weather Eye, and when Tin Lid sees, she also discovers a diary that CA has been writing in, a coloured pencil to write with, a book and a clock that Lolo calls “Maiden China” (She mishears CC saying what’s written on it earlier on, Made in China). As Tin Lid is about to “trank” Lolo, X-Ray, stabs Tin Lid with her syringe and runs away with CA and Lolo. Meanwhile, Nail and Natalie visit the Bin, Nat finds the children and stows them away in the back of their van. Nat later tells Nail, and listens to the children’s tales of horror inside the Bin. After convincing Nail to take the children to the ocean (where they think they will find the “Sky Boat”) they set out, with Nail still worried that they will be arrested for abduction, paedophilia and possibly murder if they do not cure Lolo’s case of the “lumpies”. On the way, they find Mrs Murdoe’s son, a chief ranger, and X-Ray and CA both get the lumpies. The book ends with them reaching the ocean, and holding hands, waiting for death. |
Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia | Joseph D. Pistone | null | Pistone becomes an FBI agent after spending a few years working for Naval Intelligence. He first goes undercover to infiltrate a theft ring. The operation pays off when the FBI arrests one of the largest and most profitable theft rings in history. After the success of the operation, the FBI and Pistone consider going undercover and infiltrating truck hijacking gangs and the Mafia. After months of preparation, the FBI erases Pistone's personal history and he goes undercover as Donald Brasco, an expert jewel thief from Miami, Florida. Hanging out at known crime spots, such as bars and social clubs, he eventually befriends a bartender and joins a crime gang. He moves on to Jilly Greca's crew, who are associates in the Colombo crime family. The crew are involved in truck hijacking and selling stolen merchandise. Brasco meets Anthony Mirra and the two begin hanging out. Mirra is a soldier in the Bonanno crime family and is a lot better connected, respected and feared than Greca's crew. Brasco decides it would be a better choice for the operation to go with Mirra, so he starts hanging out more with Mirra and less with Greca. Through Mirra, Brasco meets another Bonanno soldier called Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero. When Mirra is sent back to prison, Brasco and Lefty become close friends. Brasco gains the reputation of a being a trustworthy, good earner. He is responsible for several lucrative business ventures, including the Kings Court Bottle Club in Florida, which begins a good relationship with the Bonannos and Santo Trafficante. The Bonannos, particularly captain Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano, are happy with Brasco's work and are prepared to sponsor him for membership into the mafia. All the while Brasco is struggling in his personal life because he does not see his real family often, spending months without seeing his wife and three daughters. A family dispute breaks out over who "owns" Donnie Brasco. Mirra claims he owns him since he brought him in, Lefty says he owns him because he was the first to put a claim on him, and Sonny Black as the captain says Brasco belongs to him. After six years undercover, the operation becomes increasingly dangerous. Three powerful captains are murdered; gunned down by fellow Bonanno family members. The FBI want to pull the plug on the operation due to the danger of Brasco getting killed. Pistone wants to stay at least until he gets "made", in order to prove that the mafia is not invincible. A date is set when Brasco is ordered to come out of the operation. There are six weeks left until Brasco is revealed to be an FBI agent. To become a made man, Brasco is ordered to kill Anthony "Bruno" Indelicato, although Bruno has fled New York. FBI agents eventually reveal to Sonny Black that their associate is actually an agent. Although Sonny Black and others consider it hard to believe that Brasco is an agent, he informs his superiors. The men responsible for bringing Brasco into the family are ordered to be murdered. Sonny Black and Mirra are murdered, while Lefty escapes death when he is arrested before he arrives at a meeting. Pistone's work is not complete yet as he has to testify at trials all over America. Operation Donnie Brasco leads to more than 200 indictments and over 100 convictions of mafia members. |
Everything Matters! | Ron Currie Jr. | 2,009 | Junior Thibodeau is born with the exact details of the end of the world by a comet and grows up with a troubled childhood, surrounded by his quiet but powerful ex-Marine father, his secretly-alcoholic and withdrawn mother, and his drug addict and later baseball-savant brother Rodney, as well as the constant presence of the voice that has stuck with him since birth. As he grows older, he questions the importance of concepts such as love in the face of the inevitable apocalypse and battles various addictions. He falls in love with a classmate named Amy and they begin a relationship, but she leaves him after he informs her of the voices in his head. Later in life, Junior becomes an avid smoker and alcoholic while his brother becomes a major baseball star. Junior and a co-worker later conspire to destroy a social security building. Junior backs out, but the friend blows up the building after giving the occupants a chance to evacuate. Junior is arrested and sent to a Bulgarian gulag. There he meets Sawyer, a government agents who reveals that the major world governments know a massive comet is approaching Earth. Sawyer offers Junior a job, which Junior accepts in exchange for his parents' financial future to be secured. Later Junior hears his father has terminal lung cancer. Working constantly for a week and almost dying, Junior develops a cure for his father and has it sent to him. Junior's father recovers, but later dies after hitting a car while asleep at the wheel. After leaving her boyfriend, Amy decides to travel to Junior's father's funeral. Mid-flight she disables the plane's smoke detector so she can indulge herself with a cigarette. A federal agent discovers what she did and arrests Amy. He reveals he's not going to arrest her and they engage in conversation. It turns out to be a ruse, and the agents locks Amy in an interrogation room. He recounts how she told him she had a relationship with a student at Stanford. The agent tells her how this student later renounced his US citizenship and became a member of the Hezbollah. Believing Amy is a part of a terrorist organization, he tortures her and cuts a pinkie off. Junior arrives and has the agent killed. He and Amy reconcile, but they decide not to leave before the comet hits. Later, Amy changes her mind and goes to sign up for Emigration, but she and many others who plan to sign up are killed by a suicide bomber. At this point, the voices in Junior's head reveal that he can pick another version of himself from another universe and take that self's place. Junior essentially goes back in time to the point where he told Amy of the voices. Instead of telling her, he instead instigates sex. Onwards in life, Junior marries Amy and develops a revolutionary irrigation system for use in third-world countries. Junior and Amy later conceive a child named Ruby. While he is very happy, Junior decides not to try to save his father this time. His father dies a painful death from lung cancer. When the comet arrives, Junior and Amy consider killing their daughter to spare her, but decide against it. Junior and his entire family flock to his bedroom and sit there as the comet hits Earth. |
Lady Anna | Anthony Trollope | null | Lady Anna is set during the 1830s, at about the time of the First Reform Act of 1832. The title character is the daughter of the late Earl Lovel. Her mother married the Earl out of ambition rather than love, and despite his evil reputation. Soon after their marriage, he told her that he had a living wife, which made their union invalid and their unborn daughter illegitimate. He then sailed to Italy without her and did not return to England for twenty years. During those two decades, Lady Lovel struggled to prove the validity of her marriage, and consequently her right to her title and her daughter's legitimacy. She enjoyed neither the sympathy of the public nor the support of her family during this time; her only friend and supporter was Thomas Thwaite, a Radical tailor of Keswick, who gave her and her daughter shelter and financed her legal battles. Early in the novel, Lord Lovel returns to England and dies intestate. His earldom, and a small estate in Cumberland, pass to a distant cousin, young Frederick Lovel. However, the bulk of his large fortune is personal property, and thus not attached to the title. If his marriage to Lady Lovel was valid, it will go to her and to their daughter; otherwise, it will go to the young Earl. The Earl's lawyers, headed by the Solicitor General, come to believe that their case against Lady Lovel is weak and their claim probably false. They accordingly propose a compromise: that the Earl marry Lady Anna, thus reuniting the title and the assets held by the late Earl. The plan is enthusiastically supported by Lady Lovel, as fulfilling all of her ambitions for herself and her daughter. The young Earl is favorably impressed by Lady Anna's appearance and character. However, in her twenty years as an outcast, Lady Anna has come to love Thomas Thwaite's son Daniel, and the two have become secretly engaged. When the engagement is known, Lady Lovel and others strive to break it. Lady Anna will not yield to persuasion or to mistreatment; Daniel Thwaite rejects arguments and bribes to end the relationship. Lady Anna is approaching her twenty-first birthday, after which she will be free to marry without her mother's consent. In desperation, Lady Lovel secures a pistol and attempts to murder Thwaite. She wounds but does not kill him; Thwaite refuses to name her to the police; and the attempt puts an effective end to her attempts to keep the two apart. With Thwaite's consent, Lady Anna makes half of her fortune over to the young Earl. She marries Thwaite with the public approval of the Lovel family, though Lady Lovel refuses to attend the ceremony. The two then emigrate to Australia, where they expect that his low birth and her title will no longer be a burden to them. |
The Feather Men | Ranulph Fiennes | 1,991 | The book tells the story of four British Army soldiers, including two members of the Special Air Service, who are assassinated by a hit squad known as "The Clinic". The murders are carried out over a 17-year period, on the orders of a Dubai sheikh whose three sons were killed by British forces in Oman during a battle with Communist guerrillas. Fiennes claimed that he himself was targeted by the group, but was saved by a group of vigilantes calling themselves the "Feather Men". |
The Second Trip | Robert Silverberg | 1,972 | Paul Macy, freshly released from therapy, is walking the streets of New York City when he encounters a woman who addresses him as Nat, the serial rapist whose body Paul now inhabits. The woman, Lisa, realizes her mistake, but the encounter has a strange effect on Paul, and he finds himself hallucinating memories from Nat Hamlin's life. At first, Paul does his best to ignore his past, and begin anew as a holovision newscaster. But slowly, his condition worsens. More visions strike him when he comes into contact with Lisa and sculptures made by Hamlin, who was a celebrated artist before committing the series of rapes that led to erasure of his personality. Paul attempts to discuss his problem with Dr. Gomez at the Rehab Center. However, Gomez (using EEG scans) is convinced that Paul's problem is not real, and is instead just a cry for attention. While at work, Lisa sends Paul messages, urging him to rekindle their relationship. Against his better judgment, Paul agrees to have dinner with Lisa at a People's Restaurant. While they eat, Nat Hamlin is found hiding within Paul's mind, and later becomes a lucid voice demanding control of his old body and memories. The two begin fighting for control of the body, and Lisa's affection. When his condition worsens, Paul tries to visit the Rehab center again, only to find that Hamlin can now cause him physical pain by stopping his heart. Under the threat of pain and possible death, Paul must now work alone with Lisa to eradicate Hamlin. Lisa also has problems of her own. She is destitute and psychologically scarred by her love affair with Hamlin before he was caught and convicted. She has limited ESP, and can read Paul's mind to some degree. Seeing that there really are two personalities within Paul, she feels pity and decides to help get rid of Hamlin permanently. Having become lovers, Lisa and Paul visit a Museum to see the Antigone 21, a lifelike psychosculpture of Lisa. While looking in awe at the sculpture, Paul allows Nat Hamlin to surface. The two argue (within Paul's head) about which personality has more right to exist. Nat declares that Paul is a fictitious construct, and does not deserve to live having been made up by the doctors at the Rehab Center. Paul counters by using the logic of the court, which found Nat guilty and deserving of his punishment. The two can not agree. Hamlin quietly goes away, while Paul gains newfound confidence to control and hopefully destroy Hamlin. Over the next few days, Paul and Nat spar mentally. However, Paul discovers a growing desire to know more about his past. Specifically, he wants the memories of the body he now inhabits. This desire becomes a bargaining chip for Nat, who offers to share his memories if Paul will allow him to control the body from time to time. A bargain is agreed upon, but Lisa comes home and uses ESP to force Nat into hiding. Dr. Gomez shows up at work and attempts to help Paul, but there is no easy way to do that since Paul fears being killed if he visits the Rehab Center. Gomez agrees to have Paul watched, because he is potentially a threat to society, and the first proof that Rehab deconstruction is not 100% effective. Until a solution can be found, Gomez warns Paul to stay away from Lisa. Both he and Paul agree that her ESP is responsible for Nat's return. Gomez also agrees to help Lisa, after Paul urges him to cure her as well. Ignoring Gomez, Paul continues his relation with Lisa, only to find her missing one day. While searching Lisa's old apartment building, Paul gets mugged. After the altercation, he wakes up and realizes that Nat has taken over. Once Nat is in control, he (Nat) immediately returns to his old art dealer, Mr. Gargan, and agrees to have Nat's work sold under Paul's name. Their old contract is legally not binding since Nat was destroyed by Rehab. Meanwhile, Paul capitalizes on his access to Hamlin's memories by harassing Hamlin in turn, dredging up the details of the numerous rapes he committed and ridiculing the idea that Hamlin's artistic talent redeems his past brutality. With Nat still in control, they visit Nat's old home. Though the mansion has new owners, Nat is allowed to see his old art studio only to find that he has lost his artistic talent. Angry, Nat leaves after getting his x-wife's home address. They (Nat and Paul) drive to see Hamlin's ex-wife. Though she is afraid of him, she allows Hamlin into her home. Hamlin's stream of nostalgic reminiscences quickly turns sexual and predatory, culminating in an attempted rape that allows Paul to regain control of his body. Paul apologizes and returns to his apartment in New York, only to find that Lisa is gone. Paul finds Lisa in a community hostel just above the People's Restaurant where they first shared a meal. Lisa lays naked in bed, somewhat catatonic. While trying to convince Lisa to return home with him, Paul merges his identity with Nat. They fight for control of the body (inside Paul's head). Nat is finally vanquished when Lisa appears, and uses her ESP abilities to strike Nat down with mental lightning. |
A Clan in Need | Erin Hunter | null | The story starts out with Ravenpaw waking up in the Moonstone Cave. Barley is asleep, dreaming. When he wakes up with a shriek, Ravenpaw wonders what is wrong. Barley tells his friend that he was dreaming of how, when he lived in BloodClan, he had three littermates. After leaving their mother to fend for themselves, Barley and his sister, Violet, continued living together. It is against BloodClan rules for families to stay together, so when they were caught, they were brought before Scourge. As a punishment, Violet was attacked and nearly killed by her and Barley's brothers, Jumper and Hoot, who had renamed themselves Ice and Snake. After Barley is finished, Ravenpaw tells him that ThunderClan will help them. And with that they set off. But, as they are crossing WindClan territory, they encounter a patrol of warriors. At first, the patrol thinks that Barley and Ravenpaw have kidnapped Crowkit, a young gray tom that can't seem to keep out of trouble. When the patrol's leader, Mudclaw, sees that it's Ravenpaw and Barley, he tells the patrol that these cats are friends. Ravenpaw promises to help look for Crowkit and the patrol leaves. Ravenpaw suggests that they travel to ThunderClan through Fourtrees, that way Barley can see what it's like when there isn't a fight going on there. As they pass by the Great Rock, they find Crowkit struggling to climb to the top. Suddenly, there is a screech from nearby. Mudclaw's patrol has crossed the ThunderClan border to accuse Dustpelt's patrol of stealing Crowkit. A fight is narrowly avoided when Ravenpaw and Barley appear with the kit. Their mission accomplished, the WindClan patrol leaves with Crowkit. Reluctantly, Dustpelt agrees to take Barley and Ravenpaw to Firestar. When they reach the ThunderClan Camp, they are greeted by several cats including Brightheart. As they pass by the Nursery, they meet Sandstorm and her daughters, Squirrelkit and Leafkit. As Ravenpaw congratulates Sandstorm about the kits, Firestar appears. He is curious to know what's bought Barley and Ravenpaw to the Clan. They tell him everything, and Firestar tells them he will help. But first they must rest. As they are resting, somebody calls for Cinderpelt. Ravenpaw goes to Firestar to find out what's wrong. He learns that BloodClan cats have been attacking patrols. Firestar must help ThunderClan before he can send anyone to save the farm. The next morning, Ravenpaw and Barley go on a hunting patrol with Graystripe and Cloudtail. As they return, they are attacked by BloodClan cats. There is a short fight, during which one of the BloodClan cats, Snipe, seems to recognise Barley. When another ThunderClan patrol arrives, the BloodClan cats flee. The prey was ruined in the fight. When they return to camp, Barley hints to Ravenpaw that he might have known Snipe before. Shortly afterwards, Firestar and Graystripe ask Barley for help in finding BloodClan's home in the Twolegplace. He might remember. Barley takes offense and runs off into the forest. Ravenpaw goes to him and tells him that he must tell Firestar anything he knows. ThunderClan is starving. The next morning, Rainpaw and Sorrelpaw leave to go hunting. As Ravenpaw tries to think of ways to coax information out of Barley, Rainpaw runs back into camp. He says that they were attacked by BloodClan and that Sorrelpaw is hurt. They find her and they bring her back to camp. Barley sees that what happened to him and Violet is happening to other cats. With that thought in mind, he goes to Firestar to tell everything he knows. Barley tells Firestar about Snipe and that he really doesn't know much more. Ravenpaw suggests that Violet might know more. After all, she still lives in Twolegplace. The next day, Ravenpaw and Barley leave to find her. When they do, she tells them that BloodClan may be getting organized again. Violet leads them to a friend of hers, Mitzi. Mitzi's son, Fritz, was kidnapped by BloodClan one moon before. She followed the cats when they took him and learned where their home was. She gladly takes them there. Violet, Barley, and Ravenpaw return to ThunderClan to tell Firestar where the BloodClan cats live. He gathers a battle patrol and tells them to show no mercy during the fight to come. The patrol slips out of camp and heads to the place that Mitzi showed them. When they arrive, they find all of BloodClan assembled before Ice and Snake. Violet and Barley's brothers are the new leaders of BloodClan and suddenly, surprisingly, Violet walks forward to them. She calls to them, telling them that their names are Jumper and Hoot and that she is their sister. Seeming to have forgotten about their kin, Ice and Snake are ready to let BloodClan slaughter her when Barley leaps up too. Upon sight of their brother, they are reminded of that day, seasons ago, when they tried to kill their sister. Now, they want to try again. That's when Firestar gives the order to attack. BloodClan and ThunderClan become a single, fighting mass. And then, suddenly, the battle is over. Ice and Snake start walking over to them when suddenly Barley and Violet pounce, catching their brothers by surprise. Seeing that they are about to be beaten, they plead for mercy. Barley says that they've been attacking cats and stealing prey, so now they must pay. Ice and Snake try to wriggle out of punishment by claiming that they never did anything. It was the rest of BloodClan. With that, BloodClan turns on them and they drive their leaders away. Only one cat stays behind. It is Fritz, Mitzi's son. He, Barley and Violet leave to go back to Violet's housefolk and Fritz's housefolk. Firestar promises Ravenpaw that when his clan has rested, he will lead a patrol to drive Willie and his group of rogues from the farm. |
Succubus on Top | Richelle Mead | 2,008 | This is from the book jacket. "Georgina Kincaid’s job sucks. Literally. Love hurts, and no one knows it better than Georgina Kincaid. If she so much as kisses her new boyfriend, she’ll drain his life force. Georgina is a succubus—a demon who draws her power from other men’s pleasure. Admittedly, the shapeshifting and immortality perks are terrific, and yes, Georgina did choose to join the ranks of hell centuries ago. But it seems completely unfair that a she-demon whose purpose is seduction can’t get hot and heavy with the one mortal who knows and accepts her for who she is. It’s not just her personal life that’s in chaos. Doug, Georgina’s co-worker at a local bookstore, has been exhibiting bizarre behaviour, and Georgina suspects that something far more demonic than double espressos is at work. She could use help finding out, but Bastien, an irresistibly charming incubus and her best immortal friend, is preoccupied in the suburbs with corrupting an ultra-conservative talk radio star—and giving Georgina some highly distracting come-hither vibes. Georgina is going to have to work solo on this one—and fast because soon, Doug’s life won’t be the only one on the line…" |
Eyes of the Shadow | null | null | * Plot: One by one, six men who are about to share in a glittering fortune after Harvey Duncan dies are being brutally murdered. However, the millionaire left his only relative, Bruce, a clue to the wealth: a hidden message. * Shadow Disguises: himself, unnamed thug, Pedro a Mexican thug and Lamont Cranston. * Shadow Agents: Harry Vincent, Burbank and Claude Fellows. |
The Shadow Laughs | null | null | * Shadow Disguises: himself, Lamont Cranston, Red Manicks and unnamed police officer. * Shadow Agents: Harry Vincent, Claude Fellows, Burbank * Plot: In Philadelphia, Frank Jarnow uncovers a plan that involves the wealthy Henry Windsor and his brother Blair. Frank attempts to warn Henry but is shot by an unknown hitman, with Henry being framed for the crime. Then, when a detective gets too close to the mystery killer, he shares Jarnow's fate and is murdered. |
Nowhere Man | null | 2,010 | The novel incorporates mystery, murder, high finance, corporate deals, the financial crisis, new technologies, love, sex, motorcycle and cab chases, and conspiracy. |
The Mad Ship | Robin Hobb | 1,998 | Picking up after the adventures in Ship of Magic, The Mad Ship sees Althea Vestrit returning home on the Liveship Ophelia to find that the ship Vivacia has disappeared along with her crew. |
The Amazing Vacation | null | null | The plot follows the adventures of Ricky and Joanna, a brother and sister, on vacation from their home in New York City. They have gone to stay with their Uncle Hubert, Aunt Cordelia, and Cousin Emmeline in the rural town of Trimble Valley, while their parents are travelling "on business" in Paris. They are met at the train station by the housekeeper, maid, cook, and witch named Mrs Breadloaf. The children are driven to an old Victorian house where the family lives. Uncle Hubert is described as a not very good Magician, Aunt Cordelia is a gardener, and Cousin Emmeline is "not all here." The children explore the house and find a magical window in the study. The window has a stained glass border and shows scenes from another world: "The Country Without A Name." It appears that some members of the family have traveled to that country, and have lost parts of themselves there, accounting for their strange behavior. Emmeline has lost a turquoise stone from a necklace, which explains why she is "not all here." With the help of Mrs. Breadloaf, the children open the window and go to the country. Ricky takes his scout knife, and Joanna her knitting bag, which they are told not to give away. They soon meet "a fretful porpentine" who becomes Ricky's "familiar." Against warnings, the children separate, with Joanna going to the isthmus of Baba O' Rhum with Queen Matildagarde VII, and Ricky going to the mountains with Frederico the Porpentine. Joanna spends time on the island with the companions of the Queen: Yarrow, Tansy, Pansy, and Goldenrod. She avoids several attempts by the Queen to steal her knitting bag. Finally she escapes and meets Ali the Boa Constrictor who guides her to the neighboring island Baba. On the way she meets the magician Gordon Johnson. Meanwhile, Ricky has met the Indian Chief Matinkatunk. They travel together until their horses, and Ricky's knife, are stolen by Tim Tumbleweed, who is really Yarrow in disguise. Ricky and the Chief are taken prisoner by King Willexander's henchmen and he is imprisoned in the Castle of the Upper Lowlands. Ricky is finally released when he agrees to accept a false knife from Yarrow. Joanna has been brought to the Castle, after leaving the island of Baba and rescuing Frederico from the Island Rhum. Joanna gives away her knitting, but not the knitting bag, to Princess Citronella in exchange for a turquoise which she thinks is the one lost by her cousin Emmeline. Joanna and Ricky finally get to Triple Peak, the home of the Magicians Congress, and a ghost town. They are reunited with Mrs Breadloaf, and travel to the battlefield of the impending war between the King and Queen. Both children parachute from a Dragon Jet and rescue friends and recover lost objects. The War is settled with the help of the Old Magician and the President, and Prince Culebra Ali is transformed from a snake back into a man. In the final scenes, Joanna and Ricky return to the magic window and climb back into their Uncle's house where they are reunited with all their relatives, and their parents. |
Warlock | Wilbur A. Smith | 2,001 | Warlock is a sequel to River God that details the later life of Taita 40 years on from the death of Lostris. Taita is no longer a slave but a powerful warlock with great fame throughout Egypt and the surrounding nations, and has become the most influential man in Egypt through his close connection to the Pharaoh Tamose. The story begins with Pharaoh Tamose, accompanied by his most trusted companion, Lord Naja, marching towards the Hyksos main camp and planning a surprise attack from the rear. Lord Naja, however, has deviously tricked Pharaoh, for he is of Hyksos blood, and kills Pharaoh Tamose. However no one sees this tragedy, and Naja convinces the army of Pharaoh that he has been slain by the Hyksos and orders the army to retreat back to Thebes. When Naja arrives at Thebes, he cunningly sways the council members to appoint him as Regent, successfully obtaining power of the Upper Kingdom. Meanwhile, Taita takes a 14-year-old Nefer Memnon, Tamose's only surviving son from the Yellow Flower plague, into the desert wilderness to hone his mind and skills and to capture his godbird in order to prove his divine favor. Just after Nefer was born, years prior to these events, during his life in the desert as a hermit, Taita was visited in a dream by the former Queen Lostris, and returned to Thebes to be appointed as Nefer Seti's tutor, who is now next in line for the throne. Taita and Nefer fail to capture the godbird on two occasions, with their last incident revealing dire omens about Tamose's death and a dire threat to Nefer's life in the form of Tamose's unknown murderer. The two try to flee towards the Red Sea to escape the threat, but are found by Egyptian scouts sent by Naja, and return to Thebes. During the return, Nefer is crowned as Pharaoh Nefer Seti but is not of majority age nor ordained by the gods (either by capturing the godbird falcon or passing the trial of the Red Road), and hence must be placed under the protection and care of his Regent, Lord Naja. As the story develops, Taita's talents are spotted by Naja and he is appointed as his personal advisor. Naja then reveals to Taita that he is no longer to be Nefer's tutor and is separated from him indefinitely. Taita is aware of Naja's cruel intentions and the truth behind Pharaoh's death, however he does not reveal this to Naja, and instead uses his influence of him to gain some small control. Nefer's two sisters, Heseret and Merykara are force-wedded to Naja and become his wives, placing him next in line, after Nefer, through marriage. After complications arise, Naja confides in Taita for advice on how to restore peace between the two kingdoms. Taits suggests a treaty, and is sent to King Apepi, the Hyksos leader, to require that he attends a meeting between the two leaders. After a long debate which lasts many days, a treaty is agreed and both leaders sign it, restoring peace throughout the land. However, Apepi is killed not long after and Trok, who was Apepi's general, and is also Naja's cousin and co-conspirator, takes the role of Pharaoh of the Lower Kingdom. All of Apepi's children die as well, except Princess Mintaka, whom Apepi betrothed to Nefer Seti to reinforce the peace treaty. The two False Pharaohs join forces and begin an expedition to conquer more land and extend their kingdom. The co-Pharaohs' plans result in a sudden rise in military activity and levees of taxes, as well as harsher treatment of those who did not readily show their support of them, cause growing dissent and rebellion. Taita, using his vast knowledge and cunning, rescues Mintaka from Trok and reunites her with Nefer Seti, with whom she has fallen in love. The three, with loyal followers such as Nefer's childhood friend Meren Cambyses and a few others, begin to build up their own army in Gallalla over the next years, after Taita has a well constructed in the dead city. During these years Nefer's leadership and capability begins to flourish, and his fledgling forces complete successful missions against the false pharaohs. Nefer rescues his youngest sister, Merykara, who immediately falls in love with Meren. However Heseret has fallen in love with Naja, whom she was forced to marry, and is convinced he is the one true ruler of Egypt. When Naja and Trok are both slain in battles against Nefer's forces, by his efforts and that of his companions, Heseret becomes delusional and kills her sister when she is captured along with Mintaka. She escapes into the desert, determined to search for her dead husband, but is caught by Nefer and punished for killing their sister. Nefer hands her over to Meren and he kills her as justice for killing Merykara, to whom he was betrothed. The story ends with Nefer taking his rightful place at the throne of Egypt, with Queen Mintaka at his side, and with Taita and Meren leaving Egypt on a pilgrimage journey. |
The Quest | Wilbur A. Smith | 2,007 | Egypt is struck by a series of terrible plagues that cripple the kingdom, and then the ultimate disaster follows. The Nile fails. The waters that nourish and sustain the land dry up. Something catastrophic is taking place in the distant and totally unexplored depths of Africa, from where the mighty river springs. In desperation the Pharaoh sends for Taita, the only man who might be able to win through to the source of the Nile and discover the cause of all their woes. In this final adventure of Taita, the beloved Magus is now 156 years old but through his powerful magic, has managed to live longer than most people (with the exception of a few other magicians). He is sent to investigate the blockage at the source of the Nile and defeat a seeminly immortal witch named Eos. During his journey, he gains new abilities as a Magus and can even detect the aura of living beings and discern their personalities. Travelling with a small army which includes his friend Meren, Taita finds a little girl living as a savage amongst a tribe of cannibals. He rescues her and over the months that follow, trains her to be decent and takes her under his wing. He names the girl Fenn and it is revealed that she is the reincarnation of Lostris, Taita's mistress who died at the end of River God. The group survives many hazards and eventually comes across a paradise-like city called Jarri. The original natives there are descended from a rebel group of Egyptians who are mentioned in River God. They rule the seemingly peaceful community by using fear, especially on the newcomers. It is discovered that they are under the spell of Eos who plans to ravage Egypt and then take it as her own Kingdom. Local doctors eventually manage to regenerate Taita's castrated penis and he becomes a whole man once more. However, this was planned by Eos whose speciality is to absorb the power, youth and knowledge from her victims through sex. Taita knows this all along and uses his new "weapon" to defeat Eos. He then locates the Font (The Fountain of Youth) and becomes young again. The rebel Jarrians ally themselves to Taita and they flee back to Egypt, but not before the Red Stones are cast down and the Nile flows again. On the journey home, Fenn begins to have recurring nightmares about Taita remaining forever young while she succumbs to old age and dies. Taita therefore decides to leave Egypt with Fenn and search for the Font (which can relocate itself) in order for Fenn to become immortal also. In a heartfelt climax, Taita bids farewell to his companion Meren, and the Pharaoh Nefer Seti and the word is spread that The Magus had fallen in battle. Egypt mourns his loss, and Taita uses the distraction to leave with Fenn. |
The Wild Soccer Bunch | null | null | In the English translation of the Wild Soccer Bunch stories, the events take place in a small neighborhood in Chicago. The team is made up of a cast of colorful characters, each of them bonded by their passion for soccer. The team plays their beloved game according to five unbreakable rules: "1. Be Wild! 2. Everything’s cool, as long as you’re wild! 3. Never, ever give up! 4. One for all and all for one! 5. Once Wild, always wild!" The logo of the Wild Soccer Bunch is inspired by the original logo created by Masannek's children for their own soccer team. |
Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media's Attack on Christianity | S.E. Cupp | null | Cupp argues that what she characterizes as the liberal media is not only unreliable, irresponsible, and partisan, but they are also guilty of inciting a "revolution" that will destabilize and dilute Christian America. She also claims that The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and Newsweek among others "mock, subvert, pervert, corrupt, debase, and extinguish" the Judeo-Christian ethic and back believers into a dark, irrelevant, morally void corner of American society. In her book Cupp wrote, according to Newsweek, that: *Secularist media have attempted to portray religious expression as a marginal "subculture." They overreacted to presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s 2007 Christmas commercial by concentrating on a "strategically placed" cross formed by bookshelves in the unfocused background. *Major media outlets did not cover President Barack Obama’s failure to acknowledge the National Day of Prayer. *Newsweek’s review of the bestselling dispensationalist Christian fiction series, Left Behind, said, "Sociologists tell us that the United States is experiencing a religious revival, but if the bestseller lists are any guide, the revival looks more like a collective leaving of the senses." *Film reviews of the Christian-themed Chronicles of Narnia were lukewarm despite it being a box office hit. Reviews for The Golden Compass, which attacks religion in general and the Christian faith in particular, were positive although the movie did not do well at the box office. *Cupp also wrote that the press downplays what she calls Obama’s discomfort with religious America, and barely wrote about his covering up of religious imagery in the backdrop when he gave a speech at Georgetown University. |
Pilcrow | Adam Mars-Jones | null | The book is in the form of a memoir by an adult John Cromer telling the story of his childhood and adolescence in the 50's and early 60's. He develops Still's disease at an early age and is confined to bed under a misdiagnosis of rheumatic fever. When the nature of his disease is finally realised he is transferred to the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital in Taplow, Berkshire under the care of Dr. Barbara Ansell but by then he has very little movement left in his joints. Later he moves to a special school in Farley Castle where he is reliant on the 'able-bodied' to help him move around, and realises that he is homosexual. |
The Vice Society | James McCreet | null | Ex-detective George Williamson receives a letter advising him that the death of his wife seven years previously was not suicide (as the inquest had suggested). Rather, it was murder and the solution to that crime is allegedly the same as another crime currently being investigated by Williamson’s rival (and ex-boss) Inspector Albert Newsome. As the two investigators race to solve the strange case of a man who fell out of a window in Holywell Street, it becomes clear that the criminals behind both deaths are more powerful and dangerous than anyone could have expected. The key to all investigations proves to be a single name; “Persephone”. |
A Gypsy Good Time | Gustav Hasford | 1,992 | Vietnam veteran and Private Investigator Dowdy Lewis, Jr. struggles with alcoholism, his time in the Vietnam War, and his own rapid aging. He meets Yvonna Lablaine, an attractive red-headed outcast from a prominent Hollywood family, and falls in love. One day, however, after a brief but passionate romance, Lewis finds Lablaine dying at his door, murdered. He then embarks on a quest involving drug dealers, mobsters and Hollywood moguls in order to find the truth about what happened and to take revenge on the culprits. |
Bullet | Laurell K. Hamilton | null | Anita Blake is back in St. Louis and trying to live a normal life-as normal as possible for someone who is a legal vampire executioner and a U.S. Marshal. There are lovers, friends and their children, school programs to attend. In the midst of all the ordinary happiness a vampire from Anita's past reaches out. She was supposed to be dead, killed in an explosion, but the Mother of All Darkness is the first vampire, their dark creator. It's hard to kill a god. This dark goddess has reached out to her here in St. Louis, home of everyone Anita loves most. The Mother of All Darkness has decided she has to act now or never, to control Anita, and all the vampires in America. The Mother of All Darkness believes that the triumvirate created by master vampire Jean-Claude with Anita and the werewolf Richard Zeeman has enough power for her to regain a body and to immigrate to the New World. But the body she wants to possess is already taken. Anita is about to learn a whole new meaning to sharing her body, one that has nothing to do with the bedroom. And if the Mother of All Darkness can't succeed in taking over Anita's body for herself, she means to see that no one else has the use of it, ever again. Even Belle Morte, not always a friend to Anita, has sent word: "Run if you can..." |
The Naama War | Charles R. Saunders | 2,009 | Warfare on a cataclysmic scale is convulsing the continent of Nyumbani from north to south. Soldiers fall. Cities burn. Blood reddens the sea. Sorcery sears the land. Deities gather in opposite dimensions, poised to unleash unimaginable cosmic power on a land already battered by the Cushites of the North and the Naamans of the South. In the midst of this massive struggle, Imaro, warrior of the Ilyassai, wages a personal war against his nemesis, the sorcerer Bohu of Naama. This individual vendetta mirrors the larger clash between the forces of good and evil – a confrontation that threatens to tear Nyumbani apart. The destiny for which Imaro has been honed like a living weapon now lies directly before him. Imaro vs. Bohu. Cush vs. Naama. War. Magic. Blood. Fire. The losers in this wide ranging battle for the fate of a continent face oblivion. But the winners will not emerge unscathed. |
Dossouye | Charles R. Saunders | 2,008 | Dossouye is a fix-up novel created from the short stories "Agbewe's Sword", "Gimmile's Songs", "Shiminege’s Mask", "Marwe’s Forest", and "Obenga’s Drum", the last previously unpublished. Dossouye herself is a woman warrior inspired by the real-life female warriors of the West African Kingdom of Dahomey. Her first stories appeared in Jessica Amanda Salmonson's Amazons! and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress, two anthologies designed to increase the number and recognition of female heroes in sword and sorcery fiction. Orphaned at a young age, Dossouye becomes a soldier in the women’s army of the kingdom of Abomey. In a war against the rival kingdom of Abanti, Dossouye saves her people from certain destruction; but a cruel twist of fate compels her to go into exile. Mounted on her might war-bull, Gbo, Dossouye enters the vast rainforest beyond the borders of her homeland, seeking a place to call her own. The forest is where Dossouye will either find a new purpose in life... or find her life cut short by the many menaces she encounters. |
Young Hitler | null | null | The book is divided into two sections: in the first part, a narrative retells the formative years of the young Adolf Hitler between 1907 and 1918, when he lived as a starving artist on the streets and in the asylums of Vienna, and then joined World War I as a volunteer on the Western Front. When the war ends, Hitler comes into contact with members of the Thule Society in Munich, an association of occultists who had launched a political party, the German Workers Party (DAP).The narrative ends in 1920 when Hitler takes over the DAP and turns it into the Nazi Party (NSDAP). In an interview with The Guardian, author Claus Hant explained that the events after 1920 are exhaustively documented in the numerous Hitler biographies. But what the biographies do not investigate is the time before then, when Hitler was transformed from inconsequential artist and drifter to towering political leader. Hant says that he has centered Young Hitler deliberately around this momentous transformation. According to Hant, this decisive turning point in Hitler’s life can only be explained satisfactory now that recent research has unearthed certain previously unknown data and facts. The second part of the book is purely non-fiction. It contains detailed appendices with many little-known facts about Hitler. Most importantly, the appendices substantiate Hant’s thesis which casts a surprising new light on the reasons behind Hitler’s rise to power. |
Mobsmen on the Spot | null | null | # Shadow Disguises: himself and Lamont Cranston. # Shadow Agents: Cliff Marsland, Clyde Burke, Burbank # Plot: Warehouse owners are approached by an "Association" and offered 'protection'. |
Hands in the Dark | null | null | * Shadow Disguises: himself, George Clarendon * Shadow Agents: Harry Vincent, Clyde Burke, Burbank * Plot: Bob Galvin returns from South Africa to the home of his rich uncle, Theodore. But treacherous associates of Theodore Galvin abduct Bob and replace him with an impostor. The real Bob is held prisoner while the fake meets with Galvin's friends in an effort to uncover the secret of the message of strange red characters that will lead them to Theodore's hidden fortune. |
Undead and Unfinished | MaryJanice Davidson | null | Satan, wants her daughter Laura (Betsy's half-sister), who is the antichrist, to visit Hell so she could understand her heritage. But Satan says Laura would need Betsy to accompany her so that Laura can get to know Betsy better. Betsy agrees, but only under the condition that Satan fix things so that Betsy can read the Book of the Dead for more than just a few minutes. Reading it for more than a few minutes at a time drives a person insane. Betsy and Laura visit Hell, which results in a time-travelling journey that reveals the history of Betsy's husband, Sinclair, and that has some serious consequences. |
Why I Am a Separatist | null | 1,961 | The book opens with an 8-page foreword in which the author invites all "free men" able to rid themselves of their preconceived ideas to read the essay he has to offer, while warning them that they must not hope to find in its pages all the answers to their questions, nor a political programme, nor an accomplished literary work. The essay only pretends to treat of "permanent elements" on the basis of four postulates: * The French Canadians form a nation. * The French-Canadian nation is a nation like any other. * The State of Quebec is the national State of French Canadians. * To progress, French Canadians must be masters in their own house. The author discards not only the question of a hypothetical pro-independence political programme, but also that of the "modalities of power", all the while reassuring his readers by declaring himself personally favourable to the birth of a democratic republic. The substance of the essay consists of 21 short notebooks (cahiers) grouped into six sections. The first section contains six notebooks, the second five notebooks, the third four, the fourth three, the fifth two, and finally the sixth only one. Section 1, entitled The Six Dimensions of Separatism, treats of the consequences, for French Canadians, of constituting a minority inside the Canadian federation, through the 1) historical, 2) political, 3) economic, 4) cultural, 5) social and 6) psychological dimensions of their collective life. Chaput believes that the greatest evils caused by the confederation of 1867 are to have distorted, in the minds of French Canadians, the sense of their own borders, and to have made them a minority people. The Canadian nation, a purely political and artificial construction founded, claims the author, on the force of arms and submission, is being erected on the negation of French-Canadian identity. Despite the dark tableau he renders of the position of the French-Canadian people at all levels, the author believes in their capacity to regenerate and calls upon them to choose the highest degree of collective liberty to which they are entitled. In the conclusion of this first section, Chaput invites French Canadians to learn from the unbreakable will of the Jewish people, who, after centuries of exile, were finally reborn on the land of their ancestors, where they have been building the State of Israel since 1948. He suggests that the first task in the liberation of the French Canadians should be to rid themselves of the symbols of docility and castration that represent, to his eyes, the little curly Saint John the Baptist and his sheep who are paraded every June 24, on the National Day of French Canadians. Section 2, The Five Solutions to Our Problem, presents 1) total assimilation, 2) lucid integration, 3) provincial autonomy, 4) true confederation, and 5) the independence of Quebec as the five ways most commonly put forward to solve the existential problem of the French-Canadian nation. The author explains why according to him the first four solutions are less preferable than the fifth. Assimilation or anglicization, a clear path laid out since the Union of 1840, is proposed to French Canadians on a regular basis writes Chaput. The logic of assimilation is implacable, and those who advocate it among French Canadians share with the indépendantistes having had enough of being "second-class citizens" and being "used as innocent victims in the entertainment of an illusion, that of a bilingual Canada". The assimilationists want French Canadians to put and end to their "diminished national life" by letting themselves be won by the appeal of an all-English life, by letting themselves be vanquished by the arms used in the assimilation of peoples: "interests, thought currents, trends, psychological climates". On their side, the militants of independence claim to wish to end the diminished national life of French Canadians, the bilingualism forced upon them by their dependence on English, not by becoming fully English, but by becoming fully French. Lucid integration is proposed by the supporters of the centralization of powers in Ottawa, for whom Quebec only is, and could only ever be, a province like any other. For them, French Canadians must conquer administrative positions of importance in the federal government. In doing so, French Canadians would gain the maximum from the system in place, and, with their hands on the levers of control, would be able to give themselves a place in the federation. Chaput cannot approve this option because according to him it is founded on two fundamental errors. First, the population of Canada is not homogeneous: the demographic disequilibrium between the English element and the French element is too great for integration to succeed. Second, Quebec is not a province like any other: it is also the national State of French Canadians. Provincial autonomy is the solution put forward by a whole legion of "great defenders of the French-Canadian nations" who have fought against the encroachments of the federal government in the jurisdictions of provinces in general and of Quebec in particular. For Chaput, the Quebec autonomist was depicted in the 17th century by Jean de La Fontaine in the fable The Wolf and the Lamb. Like the lamb, the autonomist is theoretically and morally right on all points, but the practical reason of the wolf still wins because the wolf is stronger than the lamb. Chaput forgives autonomists for their too great virtue, but reproaches them for not "following their own reasoning to the end, which can only mean independence". Rendered insufficient by the reality of centralization to the profit of Ottawa, he suggests to autonomists that they trade their quest for provincial autonomy inside the federation for the achievement of a greater autonomy outside of it. The true confederation is the political ideal which many Quebec autonomists have dreamed of. For the author, there is no doubt that this ideal would be an enormous progress compared to the political status quo. However, when looking up his Quillet encyclopédique at the word confédération, he reads that all confederations tend to transform into federations, and that a federation differs from a confederation in that the member states dispose of a reduced interior sovereignty and lose their exterior sovereignty. In addition to the danger of a potential slip from the state of confederation to that of federation, Chaput does not believe that true confederation would be easier to achieve than independence, because it would require convincing Anglo-Canadians to trade their position of strength over Franco-Canadians for one of absolute equality with them. They would lose a part of their freedom of action in political matters to the profit of a population numerically inferior to their own. For French Canadians, the author believes, true confederation would be a psychological catastrophe. Only independence can free the French Canadian man from the inferiority complex which paralyses his will and undermine his action. The independence of Quebec is the solution that follows "from a mere mathematical observation on democracy: the majority wins over the minority." Militants of independence, Chaput at their head, assert that French Canadians are destined to "subjection and mediocrity" for as long as they form a linguistic and cultural minority undergoing the consequences of the political will of a majority foreign to them. In the pages of Section 3, The Four Questions Relative to Independence, the author answers the questions of the 1) legitimacy, 2) viability, 3) desirability and 4) feasibility of the independence of Quebec. Is the independence of Quebec legitimate? It is legitimate, believes Chaput, first because the French Canadians form a nation. The French-Canadian nation has institutions of its own, a territory it possesses by virtue of section 109 of the British North America Act and which it has occupied for over four centuries; it speaks a common language and demonstrates a will to live as a collectivity (vouloir-vivre collectif) which persists after two centuries of British and Anglo-Canadian domination. The French-Canadian people can legitimately choose political independence by virtue of article 1, paragraph 2 of the United Nations Charter, signed by Canada under the government of prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and never repudiated afterwards. Is the independence of Quebec viable? It is not only viable, it is necessary to the economic liberation of French Canadians, the author claims. For Quebec's economy to pass into the hands of Quebecers, they must be able to legislate in matters of currency, banking, taxation, import and export, air, sea and ground transportation, all jurisdictions of the federal State in Canada. As for the resources Quebec would possess after independence, Chaput believes that no serious person could possibly doubt they would allow a people of five to six million to live and prosper. Is the independence of Quebec desirable? To acquire independence, to obtain international personality, is the "normal" solution adopted by dozens of peoples who have jointed the United Nations since its foundation in 1945. More than simply normal, independence is, according to Chaput, desirable for the same reasons that the Canadian federation, which makes French Canadians a minority, is not desirable. Historically, the independence of Quebec consists in bringing the French-Canadian people to the realization of their destiny, to complete Quebec's transformation from colony to sovereign nation, in the same way numerous former colonies already did. Politically, it is desirable that French Canadians cease to be a perpetual minority and also profit from the advantages of a national government democratically elected. Economically, the independence of Quebec is desirable because it would give to French Canadians mastery over the political means without which, Chaput believes, the achievement of economic independence would "remain a sweet dream". Culturally, independence is desirable because it would then be possible for French Canadians to live in a society that is as unilingual as English-Canadian society is. Socially, independence can only favour the improvement of the condition of life of the people in Quebec, because the liberties enjoyed in the other dimensions of collective life (political, economic, cultural) would make it possible to apply global solutions to the different problems of society. Psychologically, independence would be desirable because according to the author "the problems of French Canada have become psychological problems". For a man as for a people, independence is a state of mind, claims Chaput, and this state of mind would alone wash away half the symptoms of the evil eating out the French-Canadian collectivity. Is the independence of Quebec feasible? Chaput believes the international political climate to be very favourable to the accession of Quebec to independence. Chaput believes that since the cause of Quebec is legitimate, the only thing missing is the will of the people expressed by way of election or referendum in order to meet the conditions of the international community for the recognition of States. It is unthinkable, according to the author, that Ottawa or Washington would repudiate their signing of the United Nations Charter only to counter the entry of Quebec in the community of independent national States. In Section 4, The Three Major Objections to Independence, Chaput discusses 1) of the faith of French minorities, 2) the presumed isolation of Quebec after independence, and 3) the political immaturity of French Canadians, which constitute the objections most often raised against the independence of Quebec. French-speaking minorities, principally of Quebec and Acadian origins, dispersed in the nine English provinces of Canada, often constitute a cause of division and misunderstanding in discussions on the political status of Quebec. Contrary to what is often asserted on the question, Chaput believes that the independence of Quebec would change the situation of French-Canadian minorities for the better, not only in English Canada, but also in the United States and everywhere else in the world. Once sovereign, Quebec, like all other independent States, would be in a position to give itself a policy aiming to protect and support its nationals settled outside its borders. Quebec would be isolated from the rest of the world by separation, those who are not favourable to it often argue. Chaput disagrees. Far from being isolated by its accession to independence, Quebec would then entertain diplomatic relations, equal to equal, with all other countries. The political independence of nations does not mean autarky, it is not the opposite of internationalism, it is the first condition of any and all internationalism. Without the political liberty of nations, Chaput claims, the construction of large supranational political ensembles is not an enterprise of internationalism, but one of imperialism. The political immaturity of French Canadians, evoked by detractors of Quebec nationalism in general and separatism in particular, tend to refer specifically to the era of Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis, in power during 15 years, from 1944 to 1959. Chaput says he stands together with Cité libres editorial team when they wish for French Canadians to assume responsibility over themselves, and agrees in principle with Pierre Trudeau when he writes that it is more urgent to rehabilitate democracy, attack the ideologies of the clerical-bourgeois elite, denounce the indolence of French Canadians, than to search for the culprits among the English. However, he believes the particular definition Trudeau gives to the word nationalism to be a source of confusion. It is a hasty generalization to reject all nationalisms because a political thought claiming to be nationalist (without truly being so believes Chaput) has produced bad fruits. According to him, to reason in this way amounts to "fighting the Church because of the Inquisition, life because of disease, the rule because of the exception." To complete the liberation programme of Cité libre, one not only needs for a social liberation inside Quebec, but also for the exterior liberation of Quebec, which political separation would bring. Chaput sees there two liberations that are "complementary and indispensably tied to one another". Section 5, entitled The Two Options of the French-Canadian Nation, reduces the options available to French Canadians to those of either 1) remaining a minority inside a vast country or 2) becoming a majority inside a smaller country. The sixth and final section, The Sole Reason for Our Cause, asserts that the battle for the independence of Quebec is fought above all in the name of human dignity. More than a question of logic and solid arguments, independence is a question of character. Chaput expresses his conviction that the French-Canadian nation possesses the character and sense of dignity of which free nations are made. |
A Pele do Ogro | Miguel M. Abrahão | 1,996 | The story told by the novel A Pele do Ogro occurs in the cities of London, Rome, Moscow, Paris and Berlin, and as a basis for the plot, the story of 19th century Europe. The novel is divided into three parts and an epilogue. The first, located between 1848 and 1882, shows the first years of the existence of André Duroseille, desires, fears, love life and his obsession with immortality, beauty and youth. Early in the novel, André meets Claire, a poor girl from Lyon, and falls in love with her. But the intense passion between the two, will be the target of the wrath of the mysterious Pierre Labatut, who lost a family member Duroseille and was determined not to lose another. In the midst of an alleged attack of madness, Pierre puts the fire in the hut in which they live, killed his wife and stepdaughter, Claire, and disappears into the flames. André, accused of murder, he is immediately trapped in the chain of Lyon. In prison, he meets Gaston, who first told him of the existence of the mysterious Lydia, known as Romana: "Lydia, female liberation! Lydia, my dear! Lydia, his wife immortal! I will glorify and pray for you ... Take me to the promised happiness. (...) Lydia is the master! The Ser ...! The woman who gives pleasure! Lydia, the woman who is a person without being! She has been with us since the dawn of humanity and will exist until the whole sky suffer the final break. Even taking the form of Lydia, a Roman she's all woman, and it is not ...! So it is a goddess"! Leaving prison, arguing that Lydia can give you immortality, the young Duroseille, stubbornly, now married with a son, went to Italy. In his travels across the European continent, André established friendly relations with historical figures like Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, Queen Victoria and others, who talk about Lydia and their wealth, power, beauty and youth . However, life does not smile for Duroseille: he finds his brother Henry, who has been missing for years, who hates him and is mortally ill and loses his wife and young son in the middle of an arson. But Lydia dominates his thoughts ... The second part of the novel takes place between 1882 and 1894. During this period, André has finally met Lydia. In the first meeting, she said: (...) You're the only man I've been searching for centuries ... But I had to wait until you have 35 years! My Antinous, my love (...)! A strong and passionate relationship between the two soon begin to suffer the stigma of suspicion. Lydia, after telling his origin, saying he was born in ancient Rome at the time of Emperor Hadrian, reveals that he was the reincarnation of Antinous, his only love! – And invites him to participate in the Palio of Siena, where a new tragedy lies ahead: the couple will be present at the suicide of Stefano, a young athlete who kills himself for love has the Lydia: If we do not the energy of these young people before, – a power that will allow us a long life and eternal youth – young people suffer a lot. Lydia finally reveals the secret of the magic of the ancient Celts, and in the forests of Edinburgh, André became an immortal. However, to keep him, he will remove the energy of someone who loves him deeply, which claimed the life of a young Italian couple. Andre feels the weight of guilt and is believed responsible for all the ills afflicting Europe in the late nineteenth century. And he is responsible! One by one of his closest friends will suffer the process of perjury and exile because of him. The third part, between 1894 and 1900, shows André and Lydia involved in lawsuits and scandals that shook Europe in the late 19th century. At this stage, the protagonist of the story, becomes a witness to the suffering of his best friends: Oscar Wilde is demoralized and imprisoned for the crime of sodomy, Alfred Dreyfus was convicted and exiled to Devil's Island, the writer Emile Zola died in suspicious circumstances and France, his homeland!, is ruled by corrupt politicians. "Emile Zola murdered? But by whom? Lydia?" In the home, André is in conflict with the stepdaughter, Paolo, mainly because of Lydia and political beliefs. "Either you are separated from Lydia, or I do not ever want to see you"! – Paolo reproached him with great fury. With the death of his stepson, daughter and grand-son, André – convinced that Lidia was responsible for all the inequities – decides to destroy the only way possible to stop loving him. For him, there was no doubt in these cases: Lydia, the selfish Romana, wanted her for himself and for this reason, it has eliminated all those he truly loved. The epilogue behind surprising revelation. |
A Escola | Miguel M. Abrahão | null | The book has as background the 30s, during the dictatorship of the Vargas government. Master Bolivar Bueno, involved with dangerous ideas for the season, has a strong influence and emotional control over their traditional primary school students from Wolfgang Schubert, while dividing her love life with the teachers of the school, ideologically and being chased by the director, the Rev. Otto Faukner, and his assistant, miss Catarina. In 2005, the play was adapted by its author to the format of the novel, released in 2007. In this new format, the author expands historical themes, importants for the knowledge of Brazilian History of the 30s: Revolution to São Paulo in 1932, fascism and communism in Brazil, ruled by Getúlio Vargas. |
Harry the Dirty Dog | null | 1,956 | The family dog, Harry, disenchanted with taking baths, buries the bathtub scrubber and runs away from home. Harry gets dirty and returns home only to find his family does not recognize him. He attempts to get his family to realize it's him only succeed when he brings back the brush he buried. |
House Rules | Jodi Picoult | 2,010 | The plot is conveyed from the points of view of the main characters in the novel. Jacob Hunt is eighteen years old and has Asperger's syndrome, which is a form of high-functioning autism. He lives with his mother and brother, Emma and Theo Hunt, and lives by a structured schedule, feeling comfortable only when all of his daily activities are planned. Any lack of structure or unexpected events cause him to feel anxious. He is obsessed with forensic analysis; the hobby consumes his life. The novel opens with Jacob setting up a crime scene (in which he is the victim) for his mother to solve. Jacob's need to engage in such activities, as well as his obsession with detail, often frustrates his mother and infuriates his brother Theo. When Jess Ogilvy, Jacob's social skills counselor, is killed, Jacob soon becomes a suspect. After arresting and releasing the first suspect, Mark Maguire, Detective Rich Matson asks Emma if he may talk to Jacob. After Jacob admits that he moved Jess's dead body, Jacob is arrested and charged with murder. The case goes to trial. In court, the prosecutor, Helen Sharp, raises the issues that all of Jacob's symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome are almost identical to the characteristics of those who are guilty. Also, the prosecution argues that most of the evidence proves that Jacob is the murderer (e.g. Jacob's fingerprints on the scene of the crime, an unlabeled crime scene evaluation identical to Jess's found in his notebook, and her backpack he retrieved from her home). At the end of the trial, Jacob testifies that he found Jess, dead in her bathroom and lying in a pool of her own blood. He admits to cleaning her, dressing her and placing her outside, then cleaning the original scene up and creating a new one that will lead investigators in a different direction. This is because he realized that, while an accident, Jess's death was the fault of his brother, Theo, after he was in the house and saw Jess naked. Jess slipped while getting out of the shower, and Theo fled the scene. In the end, Jess's death was in fact an accident. |
Rock & Roll Jihad: A Muslim Rock Star's Revolution | null | 2,010 | The book begins with a quote from Melissa Etheridge, saying: "The story you are about to read is the story of a light-bringer....Salman Ahmad inspires me to reach always for the greatest heights and never to fear....Know that his story is a part of our history." The book tells a life story of Pakistan-born Salman Ahmad, who pioneered "Sufi rock" by marrying his teenage love of Led Zeppelin's sinuously behemoth riffs to the ecstatic vocal acrobatics of the millennia-old qawwali style of singing common to Pakistan, fronts Junoon ("passion"), the most revered rock band in all of South Asia for the past two decades. Facing down angry mullahs and oppressive dictators who wanted all music to be banned from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Salman Ahmad rocketed to the top of the music charts, bringing Westernstyle rock and pop to Pakistani teenagers for the first time. His band Junoon became the 'U2 of Asia', a sufi rock group that broke boundaries and sold a record number of albums. But Ahmad's story began in New York, where he spend his high school years rocking out in Tappan, New York. That dream seemed destined to die when his family returned to Pakistan and Ahmad was forced to follow the strictures of a newly religious. After finishing medical school he devotes his life to peace, love, and power chords as the first true Muslim rock star. "Mine was a sort of Sex Pistols situation in reverse," he writes. "I wanted to unite and heal the divisions in the Third World," not "punch conservative British nationalism and the First World Order in the gut." It didn't hurt that the process included random encounters with Mick Jagger, Bono, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who later named Ahmad UNAIDS Goodwill ambassador. Today, Ahmad continues to play music and is also a UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador, traveling the world as a spokesperson and using the lessons he learned as a musical pioneer to help heal the wounds between East and West; lessons he shares in this illuminating memoir. |
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