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Sidney Sheldon's After the Darkness | Tilly Bagshawe | null | Grace Brookstein lived a luxurious lifestyle despite the economic free fall in the US. Then suddenly her billionaire husband Lenny mysteriously disappeares in a tragic sailing accident. Along with Lenny's disappearance, Lenny's hedge fund, the Quorum, that has a $75 billion investment is also missing and everyone believes that Grace stole the money. She was convicted and imprisoned. Grace believed that she is framed. Now alone and no one to turn to, she is determined to find out who is framing her and is desperate for revenge. |
With the Lightnings | David Drake | 1,998 | During a war between a Republic of Cinnabar and the Alliance of Free Stars, a coup d'état takes place on a neutral planet of Kostroma, with both factions becoming involved. Two Cinnabarian protagonists - a navy lieutenant and emigre librarian - find themselves in the center of the unfolding events. |
Cikáni | null | null | The scenery of the novel is inspired by Kokořín Castle and its surroundings. The castle is under the rule of Earl Valdermar. Two gypsies come to an inn under the castle. Neither is an ethnic gypsy, but they accepted the lifestyle of nomads. The older one was originally a Venetian gondolier, Giacomo, who is traveling to find the kidnapper of his girlfriend Angelina. The young one is a waif adopted as his son. In the inn they meet Lea, an old Jewish owner's daughter, who falls in love with the young gypsy. She is slightly mad. The old Jew tells a story of a former owner of the inn who was a woman named Angelina, with a son. She has disappeared, no one knows where. The gypsies spend the night in the woods where they encounter a very mad lady (repeating just one sentence: "It was not me but him"). She then confesses to the young gypsy, who is jealous because of Lea, that she brought her to the Earl to be raped. A character of Bárta Flákoň appears who tells lies about his own life, but gossips truly about others. He reveals to the gypsies that Earl Valdemar kidnapped Angelina in Italy and brought her to his castle, so the old gypsy comes to the castle and kills Valdemar. The gypsies are arrested then, but a letter left by Valdemar reveals that the young gypsy is the Earl's bastard and heir. The old gypsy is executed. Lea committed suicide; her father dies of sorrow. The only character who is left alone in despair is the young "gypsy" now called "young Valdemar", who does not accept his father's property and continues the life of a free gypsy. "My father! – father seduced my mother – no, he killed my mother – through my mother – no, he through my mother seduced my lover – seduced my father's lover – my mother – and my father killed – my father." |
Waylander lll – The Hero in the Shade | null | null | Waylander is a rich lord, living in a distant land, away from his problems in Drenan. At the same time, an ancient evil is trying to penetrate our world by a magical portal. Legendary cursed creatures are back to conquer the world that once belonged to them, in blood and terror. Only a handful of heroes remain, with a mysterious man leading them: a man with his hands covered with blood, who killed for money. A man known, in the Drenaï world, as an assassin. To vanquish evil, a riddle must be solved, and Waylander must kill a man who cannot be killed. |
Double Dutch | null | null | Delia is an eighth grader in Cincinnati, Ohio. She competes on a team in the Double Dutch world championships with her friends Yolanda, Charlene, and her friend Randy is the waterboy. During school they are told they might have to pass a standardized test in order to be on the team, which is ghastly news for Delia because she can’t read. Randy is also having difficulties. His dad is a truck driver, so Randy is often left home alone to care for himself. Randy’s dad has been gone for weeks, and still hasn’t called. Soon Randy has to sell the VCR and other appliances to pay the rent and buy food. Later Randy tells the coach and goes to stay with his family for awhile. Everyone is trying to avoid the Tolliver twins, because of the rumors surrounding them. It is said in the book that they kill puppies for fun, and terrorize their mother. During the story two tornadoes hit the school while it's in session. Yolanda goes to the bathroom shortly before they hit, and remains missing for a while after. Also right before the tornadoes hit the Tolliver twins run out of the classroom. They later rescue Yolanda and we find out they are not only scared of storms, but they both like Yolanda. After this they become friends. After an exciting competition, Delia sees a paper with a picture of Randy’s dad on it, but because she can’t read, she doesn’t tell Randy because she thinks he knows. Randy, however, sees it while cleaning up and finds out that Delia saw it too. They fight for a bit, and Randy tells Delia his secret. She feels guilty for not telling him, so she tells Randy that she can’t read and runs out of the gym. Later she goes to dinner with her mother, and reveals to her secret to her as well. Also, we find out that Randy's dad was robbed while on his route and was just recently discovered. |
Cetaganda | Lois McMaster Bujold | 1,996 | Miles and Ivan are sent to the home world of the Cetagandan Empire to represent Barrayar at the Imperial funeral of the dowager Empress, mother of the current Emperor. They soon become entangled in an internal Cetagandan plot which leads to murder. Miles forms an unusual alliance with Rian Degtiar, the "Handmaiden of the Star Crèche", who is charged with the duties of Empress until the new one is chosen. Miles solves the complex mystery and prevents the Cetagandan Empire from fragmenting into nine dangerously expansionist-minded parts. Then, much to his chagrin, he is publicly awarded the "Order of Merit", the highest Cetagandan award, by the Emperor himself. He also picks up clues to a Cetagandan genetic experiment, which becomes the object of much skulduggery in Ethan of Athos. |
The Dwarves | null | null | Tungdil Bolofar, a young blacksmith, is the only dwarf in Ionandar, one of Girdlegard's five enchanted realms. These realms, rich in magical energy forcefields, are ruled by magi while other lands are ruled by the kings and queens of Girdlegard. His "foster father", the venerable magi Lot-Ionan, sends him on an errand to return some artifacts to one of his former pupils and then travel to the secondling dwarf kingdom. Along the way he meets Boindil and Boendal, two secondling twins, who lead him to Ogre's Death, a fortress in their kingdom. They slaughter orcs and avoid Nudin, a magus who has fallen under the spell of The Perished Land (the evil spirit of Girdlegard). Nudin betrays the magi, kills them and corrupts the forcefields so that he alone can use them.The Perished Land attempted and succeeded in infiltrating Girdlegard and defeating the dwarves' fifthling kingdom eleven hundred cycles ago. Whoever dies on the Perished Land is raised as a revenant in service of the Perished Land's spirit though if the reverents spirit is strong enough it can resist the perished land. Tungdil owns the books that explain the only way to defeat Nudin: forge a magical axe called Keenfire that needs to have a steel blade a hilt made of the extinct tree known as the sidguredaisy, and runes engraved with a combination of all the known metals. They decapitate Nudin, but he survives thanks to the dark power of the spirit of the perished land possessing him. They meet Andokai, the last surviving maga, and her bodyguard Djerun. Tungdil is also involved in a plot to delegitimize Gandogar's claim to the throne, who has been convinced by his evil advisor Blisipur who is secretly a thirdling (an evil race of dwarves who throughout history have tried to end the lives of all other dwarves) that the elves betrayed the fifthlings and want to create a war with them while they're weak from the constant battles with the perished land. Tundgil and Gandogar then set out to forge Keenfire for the fifth challenge that was taken out by chance by Blisipur in the draw. cs:Trpaslíci (kniha) it:Le cinque stirpi de:Die Zwerge |
The Female Quixote | null | null | Arabella, the heroine of the novel, was brought up by her widowed father in a remote English castle, where she reads many French romance novels, and imagining them to be historically accurate, expects her life to be equally adventurous and romantic. When her father dies, he declared that she would lose part of her estate if she did not marry her cousin Glanville. After imagining wild fantasies for herself in the country, she visits Bath and London. Glanville is concerned at her mistaken ideas, but continues to love her, while Sir George Bellmour, his friend, attempts to court her in the same chivalric language and high-flown style as in the novels. When she throws herself into Thames in an attempt to flee from horsemen whom she mistakes to be "ravishers" in an imitation of Clélie, she becomes weak and ill. This action might have been inspired by the French satire The Mock-Clielia, in which the heroine "rode at full speed towards the great Canal which she took for the Tyber, and whereinto she threw her self, that she might swim over in imitation of Clelia whom she believed her self to be. The Doctor reasons with her and makes her come to an understanding of the clash of mundane reality and literary illusion, at which she finally accepts Glanville's hand and marries him. In the novel, Arabella often speaks lengthily in defense and about the novels and their heroines. |
Dunk | null | null | Chad Turner, is a 15 year old boy, who lives on the Jersey Shore. He is now on summer vacation, and will soon start 11th grade. While on the boardwalk,he sees a bozo in a dunk tank, who makes fun of people like an animal, and taunts them when they fail to hit the target. This inspires Chad to realize his dream job: to become a Bozo. Chad lives in a two story house, but the 2nd floor is rented part of the house. Chad's mother had rented out the 2nd floor to make money, and buy more houses, but then failed. Chad's father had left, and Chad hates to talk about him, because of his problems, and the fact that he didn't want Chad. Because Chad's mother had worked since the age of 13, and "wasted her life", she doesn't want Chad to work. But Chad thinks he needs a part time job to make some money. As Chad makes his second trip down the boardwalk, he runs into Anthony, a local bad boy, who has appeared to have stolen sunglasses from a local souvenir store on the boardwalk. Anthony is caught by the store owner, but escapes, leaving the owner to think Chad is the thief. As Chad is encountered by two cops, Costas and Mannetti, he realizes that there is a witness, a man in black on a bench. But the man does not say anything about Chad's innocence, and, despite the fact that the cops let Chad go, he gets mad at the man. On the way home, Chad sees the man from the bench following him, but when he gets home, he realizes that the man on the bench, is his new tenant. During Chad's beginning of his summer tradition: walking down the boardwalk with his best friend Jason, and spend money on the way home, Chad and Jason see the Bozo's performance, when suddenly Chad realizes that the Bozo, was the man on the bench. The next morning, Chad is introduced to his new tenant, the Bozo, Malcolm Vale, who will be teaching at a college. Chad yells at Malcolm for not helping him out in his police encounter, but Malcolm just mimics him, and does some impressions. When Jason arrives, Malcolm offers them a job to help him move his stuff into his apartment, for $10 each, and before Chad can reject, Jason agrees to help. Later, at the boardwalk, Chad asks Bob, the barker, the one who runs the dunk tank, for a job, and gets one, but Bob does not tell chad what job he just gave him, as Chad believes he just got a Bozo job. Chad also realizes he broke his promise to his mom about not working. Chad goes back to the house with Jason to help Malcolm. While carrying boxes, Chad realizes that Jason, is heating up, and while on the stairs, Jason collapses, and nearly falls. Chad finishes the job, and Jason goes home to rest. Later, Chad goes back to the tank to get to work. But Chad gets more than he bargains for when he finds that his "Bozo job", is actually picking up balls that the players throw. Chad gets banged, bruised, embarrassed, and his back gets a cramp from bending over too much. Chad works for hours, but at quitting time, gets his paycheck, and finds that he had been paid $30. Despite the fact that the payment might be good,he does not know if he would go back to work at the tank, but the next day, at the beach, he sees Stinger Dalton, a baseball pro, who had graduated, and is on a scholarship, visiting his friends. Chad, who is good friends with him, asks him to come to the dunk tank, and it seems that Stinger might come. This makes Chad want to go to the dunk tank to work. What Chad has really done is set Malcolm up. Stinger and his friends go to the tank in bright colored clothing while Chad tells Malcolm to get them as marks. Stinger and his Friends, who are pro pitchers, dunk Malcolm constantly for 2 hours straight. After closing time, Chad walks home and is confronted by an angry Malcolm. Malcolm tells Chad to stay away from him and the Bozo job and then goes up to the second floor of Chad's house. The next day Chad goes down to the boardwalk with Jason. While passing by a game he sees the girl whom he met last summer and has been thinking about her all year. The girl's name is Gwen O'Sullivan. While they are chatting Jason is acting strangely and soon enough the police come by to arrest Chad and Jason, thinking they're on drugs. While Jason is taken to the hospital after collapsing again, Chad is taken to a station cell where he meets an old robber named Saul. They have a slight conversation until Chad is released. Malcolm, who the police think is Chad's father, has come to the station to pick up Chad. Chad found out that Jason had been in intensive Care and goes to visit him. While he is there he tries to make Jason laugh but his parents interrupt trying to ask Chad what drugs they were on. Chad, not knowing what to say, ran out of the hospital. Chad visits Jason again still trying to make him laugh. Jason's parents seem to be blaming Jason's illness on Chad. Jason's dad is stressed out with his work and is hesitant when Chad offers to help. Reluctantly, he gives in and Chad asked his friends, Mike, Corey, and Ellie, to help out too. After sometime, Chad works up the nerve to go and talk to Gwen again. He thought that she wouldn't talk to him anymore after the police incident but he proved himself wrong. Once again Chad goes to visit Jason, but this time Jason's mother tells Chad that he is a bad influence to Jason. He leaves again but promises to visit again when his mother cools off. Chad goes to the boardwalk again to talk to Gwen. He finds out she has a break at 5 o'clock and is about to ask her out when Anthony appears. He and Gwen already have plans for the night, dashing Chad's hope. Chad returns home in a state near depression. His friends come and tell him to get up but he refuses to listen. Finally, Malcolm comes and asks Chad if he wants a turn to be a Bozo. Chad refuses and tells him to get out while still laying on the couch. Malcolm, enraged at Chad's reaction, flips the couch over with Chad still in it saying that Chad makes him sick. A fight breaks out between them. After pinning Chad to the floor, Malcolm tells him, "I had a wife. I had a son. They're dead. Dead. Gone. So don't tell me about your troubles." He helps Chad up and asks Chad if he wants a turn at being a Bozo again. Chad is annoyed that Malcolm 'barges in, slaps me around, wrecks the place, and wants to know if we can be pals.' However mad Chad is, he realizes that Malcolm has brought him back to reality. Malcolm lends Chad a lot of books and videos from which he formed his Bozo jokes. Chad brings some of the movies Malcolm lent him to the hospital to visit Jason. As they are watching one, Jason begins to laugh hard which turns into a fit of coughing. His mother comes rushing in yelling at Chad to get out. Chad returns home and returns some of the books Malcolm gave him. Chad also apologizes for kneeing Malcolm, while Malcolm apologizes for slapping Chad. Malcolm tells Chad to try being the Bozo from their porch and the people passing by a the marks. Chad refuses at first saying that he doesn't want to make enemies but Malcolm says to talk quietly. Chad loses all his "marks" and says that he sucks. Malcolm says he doesn't suck but that he still has much to learn. Chad visits Jason again bringing one of the books. Chad reads out the lines that are funny to Jason. They watched 2 movies and Chad left the 3rd one there in case Jason wanted to watch it. He leaves before noon to escape Jason's mother. Chad goes to the dunk tank again for his job. Malcolm tells him to watch carefully and try to imagine what he would say if he were the Bozo. Afterwards Chad and Malcolm are walking to Salvatore's, the pizza place when Chad asks about Malcolm's past. Malcolm answer after a few moments saying he was in a car crash. They both drop the subject. Chad goes once again to visit his best friend in the hospital. He brings more movies with him but this time forgets to watch the clock. Jason is in the middle of a coughing fit when his mother bursts in and screams a Chad to get out. When Chad goes to work the next night, Malcolm and his friend Doc are driving him to see a Bozo named Jordy Ketchum. He is even better than Malcolm, hooking three marks at a time. Malcolm and Chad once again practice by making Bozo remarks at passing people quietly. They head back to the house and Malcolm gives Chad a book and a video. Both are about how laughter can heal an illness. The next time he goes to the hospital, he makes Jason promise he will read the book Malcolm just gave him. Chad heads down to the boardwalk to talk to Gwen, who he hasn't seen for a while. She tells him that Anthony is taking her to a party tonight on Abbot Drive. Chad begins to panic and tries to tell Anthony not to take her there. Chad and Malcolm worked their shifts at the tank. Malcolm as a Bozo, Chad as the ball fetcher. They finally knocked off at eleven o'clock. Malcolm makes a phone call before walking home with Chad. On their way, Malcolm tells chad about his deceased wife and son. Finding police at his house, Chad runs inside thinking that his mom is in trouble. Instead, he is being framed for supplying the party Anthony is at with beer. Chad denies it and proves his innocence and Malcolm backs him up this time. The truth of Chad working spills out when the cops find his money and his mother talks with him after they leave. Chad asks Malcolm to come with him to visit Jason. He refuses at first but gives in when Chad asks again. They go there and make Jason laugh a couple times. They came back another day but Jason's mom caught them. Malcolm talked her into letting them cheer up Jason telling her about the healing powers of laughter. Gradually she became less angry at Chad. Malcolm gives Chad some water-proof greasepaint and tells him that he has a tryout tomorrow.Chad goes and find Corey, in shorts and extra nerdy glasses, Mike, in his goofy Hawaiian shirt, and Ellie, with a T-shirt saying 'I Love to Polka'. Chad does well until he sees Gwen pass by. He calls her red head first and she doesn't turn. Then he calls her by her real name and she realizes its Chad. Chad asked her about the party while he was still in the tank and she tells him she never went. Malcolm comes over and tells Chad to let him take over. Chad does so telling Gwen to wait while he takes off his makeup. Jason heals from his sickness over the summer. Gwen and Chad begin to go out. Malcolm asks to try out his teaching techniques on Chad before he leaves to teach. Chad agrees. The book closes with Chad telling the reader that anything is possible, and states he might become a teacher of "Dunkology", and that "Stranger Things have Happen". |
The Midnight Charter | David Whitley | 2,009 | The novel starts with Mark in a delirious, dream-like state due to the fact that he suffers from a deadly fever. He has been sold by his father to Dr Theophilus in the hope that he will treat Mark. While he is being treated, he meets Lily, a servant to the doctor's grandfather, Count Stelli, the city's greatest astrologer. She helps him adjust to his newfound life. Mark is soon cured of the terrible fever, and will soon leave Count Stelli's tower, with Dr Theophilus and become his assistant. But Mark does not want to go, and brokers a deal with Lily; he will stay and serve the Count and she will leave the horrid tower and learn about medicine with the doctor. While Lily and Dr Theo struggle to survive, Mark is taught how to be an astrologer by the Count. Soon, with the aid of Mr Snutworth, Mark plans to overthrow the old Count and become the greatest astrologer himself. In the meantime, Lily comes up with a shocking idea; provide free accommodation, medical care and food to debtors and those in need of it. Both she, Dr Theo and two others start an almshouse. Mark manages to successfully overthrow the Count, and soon becomes a powerful astrologer himself, living in high society. On numerous occasions, Lily asks Mark for his support of the almshouse, but he declines, stating that he and his reputation would be at stake. With the aid of Mr Snutworth, Mark soon becomes the most powerful person in all of Agora, bar the director. Both Mark and Lily are being watched by the Director, and while Mark is pondering marrying Cherubina, he orders Snutworth to betray Mark and take his power. Snutworth has known what he must do all along, and Mark soon falls from power and becomes a debtor. He is put in prison pending investigation. Snutworth replaces Mark as astrologer. While in prison, Lily is summoned to the Director of Receipts. The Director tells her about the Midnight Charter that was made by the founders of Agora, and gives her a choice; be banished from Agora, and take Mark with her, or . She decides to leave Agora, and before Mark knows what is happening, he and Lily are dumped outside the city walls, with no way back in. Mark is furious with Lily, as he had only newly discovered that his father was a prison warden, and he wanted to spend more time with him. |
Osterlandet | null | 2,007 | In 2003, a box was discovered in Sweden that contained a journal, letters, and old glass-plate negatives which belonged to Algot Sättersröm. They told a story dating back to 1903, when Algot left Sweden to live in Egypt and Jerusalem. The material was discovered by photographer Mattias Sättersröm, Algot's great-grandson. After reading the journal, letters and printing from the glass-plates Mattias decided to follow in Algot's footsteps. He enlisted the help of friend and photographer, Mark Smith to collaborate on the project and landed in Alexandria one hundred years to the day after Algot arrived. |
The Gifts of the Body | Rebecca Brown | 1,994 | The book is divided into ten short stories, the titles associated with "gifts" which are various functions of the body, both physical and emotional. These gifts are (in order of the stories) sweat, wholeness, tears, skin, hunger, mobility, death, speech, sight, hope, and mourning. Each of these "gifts" are experienced by the caregiver. The caregiver deals with various patients who have AIDS, showing the different relationships that they share, whether they be good or bad. The patients themselves are different from one another in terms of age, financial situation, attitude towards the illness, etc., showing the reader that this disease can/does affect all types of people. |
Luka and the Fire of Life | null | 2,010 | The book opens with Luka and his father Rashid Khalifa walking home from Luka’s school in the fictional city of Kahani in the land of Alifbay. They pass the Great Rings of Fire circus, where upon seeing the pitiful state of the animals Luka yells, “May your animals stop obeying your commands and your rings of fire eat up your stupid tent.” (Rushdie 6) Luka’s curse works, as later that very day the animals revolt and the rings of fire consume the tents. Also the same day Dog and Bear, a bear and a dog respectively, two animals from the circus, arrive and become Luka’s faithful pets, “so fierce in his defense that nobody would ever have dreamed of bullying him when they were nearby,” (Rushdie 4) However, one month afterwards Rashid Khalifa falls asleep and doesn’t wake up. After several days, Luka receives a letter via vultures from Aag revealing that he cursed Rashid. Then, thinking that Rashid is awake Luka rushes outside with Dog and Bear and enters the World of Magic. Upon realizing that the Rashid he saw isn’t his father, but is a phantom-like creature that calls itself Nobodaddy, Luka learns about Dog and Bear’s pasts. Bear is Barak of the it-Barak, one of the immortal dog-men of old turned into a dog by a Chinese curse; and Dog was the monarch of a northern land turned into animals by an ogre who was jealous of their dancing abilities. Now with Nobodaddy to help them, the quartet now journey onwards towards the Fire of Life, but not before Nobodaddy reveals that once someone like him comes into being, someone has to die. Upon arriving at the River of Time, which they must follow in order to find the Fire, they are attacked by the Old Man of the River, who kills Luka. After being revived Luka realizes that this world is like a video game, with lives and levels. Luka eventually bests him in a game of riddles by playing the Riddle of the Sphinx, “What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?” (Rushdie 55), the one riddle is father did not know the answer to. Thus, the Old Man has to Perminate (permanent termination) himself. They find a boat but are soon capsized by the Eddyfish. They then enlist the help of the Elephant ducks, “a pair of absurd creatures with duck-like bodies and large elephant heads,” (Rushdie 66) who take them upriver. While traveling up river the group stops at the Respectorate of I, an oppressive city run by easily insulted rats who demand eternal respect. After getting ready to leave after lunch, Luka accidentally insults the Respectorate’s national song. But before the rats can do anything the Otters of Ott attack, led by the Insultana of Ott, “a green-eyed girl wearing a green and gold cloak, her fiery red hair streaming in the wind, nor more than sixteen or seventeen years old.” (Rushdie 78) Luka correctly guesses her name as Soraya, and helps her defeat the rats with itching powder. Afterwards, Soraya joins them on their quest. Her flying carpet helps them pass through the Mists of Time and the Great Stagnation. Soraya sends the carpet extremely high above the Inescapable Whirlpool and El Tiempo to escape them, “perhaps forty miles below them already.” (Rushdie 106) The elephant birds help through the Trillion and One Forking Paths, where the true River of Time splits into thousands upon thousands of fakes. Afterwards, they are temporarily detained by the Great Rings of Fire, the impassable defense of the Fire. However, Dog and Bear reveal it to be both a fake illusion and the handiwork of Captain Aag. As soon as Bear and Dog disable the illusion Aag shows up along with Nuthog, a magical changer in the form of a dragon. While Aag gloats Nobodaddy tells Luka, “His original name was Menetius, and he was once the Titan of Rage.” (Rushdie 123) Right as Aag orders Nuthog to destroy Luka and company, Soraya arrives, having freed Nuthog’s three sisters, who were imprisoned in ice by the Aalim. With her sisters now freed, Nuthog betrays Aag and incinerates him. With the changers now with them, the group passes through the land of the ex-gods. After meeting up with Coyote, one of the original Fire thieves, the Fire Alarm goes off, alerting the gods that someone is going to try and steal the Fire. Instead of running, Luka and the group head towards the danger. After making it past the guards, by using Nuthog’s sister’s one time transformation into Slippy, the Horse King, they wait for Coyote to begin the diversion. Coyote begins the diversion while Luka goes behind the Mountain of Knowledge, “with the Lake of Wisdom lapping at its shores, its water clear, pure, and transparent in the pale, silvery light of the Dawn of Days,” (Rushdie 160) to find the Abysm of Time. Luka then enters the Left-Handed version of the Magic World, where he is soon captured. Then, the gods arrive and Luka makes a speech to them whereas the World begins to fall apart. The gods, inspired by Luka’s speech, allow him to take the Fire. Soraya arrives, and the group begin the journey back towards the entrance. With the world now ending and Nobodaddy nowhere to be found, the group is flying as fast as they can towards the dying Rashid. They are now joined by Prometheus, the original Fire Thief and brother of Aag. After barely escaping El Tiempo, “the Carpet being sixty-one miles above the Earth’s surface,” (Rushdie 193) they enter the Mists of Time when Prometheus dissipates them. They are then captured in the cloud fortress of Baddal-Garh, now under the control of the Aalim and Nobodaddy, who has betrayed Luka in order to complete his task of killing Rashid Khalifa. Prometheus grows to his full height and hurls Nobodaddy into outer space. Then, the Aalim finally show themselves whereas they begin speaking, causing everyone but Luka, Dog, Bear, and Prometheus to collapse in pain. Luka then curses the Aalim, and then as if one cue, the gods revolt, destroying the fortress. Luka and the group speed towards the entrance, the gods defending them from the deadly Rain Cats, the Aalim’s final card. Luka makes it home and gives the Fire to Rashid, “the color returned to his face; after which a glow of health spread across his cheeks, almost as if he were blushing with embarrassment.” (Rushdie 212) Then, a deformed Nobodaddy arrives, whereas Bear sacrifices his immortality to destroy the phantom once and for all. Then, the Khalifa’s enjoy a wonderful, happy dinner, with Soraya now having to “put up with the stories of the Magical World from her husband and both her sons.” (Rushdie 217) Soraya then puts the Fire of Life away somewhere, where hopefully it will return to the World of Magic. |
People's Republic | Robert Muchamore | null | People's Republic begins with us being introduced to Ryan Sharma. Ryan has just completed some punishment laps and finds out that he is being wanted for a mission. Also, we learn about Fu Ning, a Chinese girl living in a Dandong boarding school and wanting to escape. The book then rotates between the two characters lives, eventually showing Ryan going to the USA to infiltrate the Aramov clan through Ethan Kitsell. Ning ends up escaping China and going on the run with her stepmum Ingrid as she is wanted for questioning over her husband Chaoxiang's involvement in sending illegal immigrants across countries. Ingrid and Ning eventually try to flee China to Britain and end up in Kyrgyzstan. Unfortunately, Ingrid is tortured and is being tried to hand over bank account details so they can go to Britain. In the end, the deal doesn't work, leaving Ning on her own and trying to get to Britain by herself. Meanwhile, Ryan becomes Ethan's only friend after his mum and his best friend died, leaving him as his only support after saving his life again. Ryan also saved Ethan's life when he was hit by a car this helped the part of the plot to bond with him. However, just as they were bonding, a bomb was placed at the bottom of Ethan's house leaving him and everyone else at a motel. Ethan is then taken into care by a lawyer of his called Lombardi and is about to be taken back to Kyrgyzstan. This leaves Ryan to be sent back to CHERUB campus after hitting his mission controller's head, Dr D. Ryan, after being taken back to CHERUB is punished with 400 hours of recycling duty but still has a friendship with Ethan. Ning,after being smuggled into Britain is forced to labour making sandwiches and having no way of getting out despite having no money owned to the gangsters there and not wanting to work there. The book concludes with her escaping the warehouse where she was labouring and almost being deported back to China. But, just before the plane leaves, Amy manages to meet up with her and gets her to join CHERUB as she has a boxing champion streak required for the phesique of cherub and she is also very smart required to the mental training as well as the point where she has no parents, afterall Ingrid has died being tortured and her dad is being questioned, so she is a perefect cherub candidate. As Ryan is involved with her story, he gives her a tour around campus and introduces her to everyone there. The book finishes off with Ryan being allowed to get back into touch with Ethan. |
Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place | Terry Tempest Williams | null | Terry Tempest Williams, the author, who narrates the book, will be referred to as "Terry" in the synopsis. Terry Tempest Williams opens up the book by talking about nature. The Great Salt Lake, the burrowing owl refuge, climate change, everything. She begins the story with a distinct focus on nature. She has an unparalleled connection with nature. She feels a close personal tie to the Great Salt Lake, with the animals in the Salt desert area, but most specifically with the burrowing owls. This connection goes back to her days as a child, bird watching with her grandmother and spending carefree days on bus tours, or just simply at the refuge. Williams goes on to explain how every woman in her family, blood related and not, have all been afflicted with breast cancer. The women have had very serious cases, almost always requiring a mastectomy. And while the cancer only manifests itself in the women, it affects the entire family. This book focuses on Terry's mother, Diane’s, cancer relapses, and she is faced with a bout of ovarian cancer. At first, she almost refuses any treatment, citing that she would rather live her life naturally, rather than deal with the pain and suffering of chemotherapy and radiation treatment which are not guaranteed to cure her. However, after some deliberation, she agrees to go through with eleven month chemotherapy. Meanwhile, the Great Salt Lake is getting increasingly uncontrollable, so the government comes up with five separate options of how to keep the lake in check. Diane’s treatment appeared to have gone well, and the doctor happily informs them that all seems well. However, he was wrong, and there was some cancer which appeared to remain. This would require an extra six weeks of radiation treatment. The levels of the lake continue to rise, and a new character named Tamra Crocker is introduced to the story. Tamra is a cancer patient that Diane exchanges letters with as they deal with the physical and emotional effects of their cancer diagnoses and treatments. Terry discusses the importance of communicating through letters. During this exchange of letters, Terry and Brooke are in walking the salt flats in Nevada, while her parents are in Switzerland. Later, when the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake is frozen, Terry takes her mother to the Bird Refuge for the first time, which was a very new experience for her. Later, Tamra sends a letter of thanks towards Diane while explaining her own adversities she faced battling her brain tumor. Tamra passes away, and Terry is therefore forced to seriously think about how much time she and her mother have together. Terry discusses the meaning of lists in her life and creates a comparison between her everyday life and bird watching. Terry had to go to the hospital and have a small cyst removed from her right breast, which forces her to question if she will follow on her mother’s path of cancer. She explains how seeing her mothers and grandmothers experiences with cancer affect her. Tempest then discusses the United Order (a community that Brigham Young created). There are particular aspects of this community relating to economic and governmental choices that are difference from most. This ideal society incorporates personal choice of specialty and a cooperative, Mormon lifestyle. Terry and Diane continue to exchange Mormon stories during their time at the Refuge. Terry, Diane and Mimi had their astrology done and they discussed their charts during a picnic by the Great Salt Lake. Amidst the sun, they discuss their relationship with birds and Tempest creates a metaphor of identity. On page 119 Terry asks “How do you find refuge in change?” Terry and Diane encounter so much change amidst Diane’s sickness and the changing lake levels, with Mimi’s answer as: “You just go with it.” So far in the readings there has been change after change, and we see the characters yearning for refuges amidst these changes. Later, Terry and her mother attend Tamra’s funeral and when they return the atmosphere along the Great Salt Lake is very different because of the snowstorm. Later, they all celebrate Thanksgiving in a log cabin in the woods in Utah. Invited by Terry’s Aunt and Uncle Rich and Ruth, the large family has their first holiday together after Diane’s cancer treatment. Terry is fighting with her mother’s cancer. The Bird Refuge is also continuing to flood and the government is trying to find a way to pump the flooding water so it doesn’t destroy and take over more of the land then it already has. Terry’s mother, in the beginning, is coping well with cancer and is even starting to believe that cancer is her solitude and her refuge. But as her results start to get worse, so does the flooding of the Bird Refuge. Is nature directly related and dependent on an outside factor? On page 161, Terry’s mother successful returns to surgery. Terry and the rest of the family begin to shows evidence of hope that she will survive this disease. Terry’s mother then states, “Just let me live so I can die.. to keep hoping for life in the midst of letting go is robbing me of the moment I am in now.” Christmastime signifies the last time the Williams’ family will all be together for a reason they would have under normal circumstances. At New Year’s, the family discusses funeral arrangements and the family passes a sleepless night. Terry continues to try to lift her mother’s spirits, dressing in bright, gregarious outfits each day to give her something to think about other than her ever-weakening spirit. The tension in the house grows as Dr. Smith shows them how to give Diane morphine, and her father snaps. He yells at Terry, telling her he doesn’t want to “deal with” his wife anymore: Terry can go home and leave the house that has become a hospital, but he can’t. Terry asks her mother if she and her husband should have a child, and she says that raising a child is the most beautiful part of life. Terry, on the other hand, doesn’t want to lose her solitude and remains ambivalent. She resolves to follow her feelings, a common theme of the book. Terry’s father comes home one day to a swarm of cars in the driveway, and he is infuriated once again. His emotions are the most evident, as he is not afraid to let loose. He shouts and tells everyone—mostly close relatives—to leave, even as Diane’s morphine pump beeps to signal an emergency. They untangle the tubes and Diane is fine, but this was the last experience we see of the family with their mother alive. As the mortician tries to prepares Diane’s body for the funeral, Terry has to remove the makeup from her mother’s face repeatedly. This is important because it signifies Terry’s love of what is pure and natural, not what others feel like they can do to improve it. Terry goes for a walk in the woods with her husband, and falls, leaving a gash on her forehead. She considers it being marked by the desert, and sees it as a growing process, or a transformation, similar to ancient cultures participating in scarification rituals to denote change. Perhaps this could be a point in Terry’s life where things begin to change for her. Alas, we soon hear that her aunt, Mimi, has been diagnosed with cancer by the same Dr. Smith in the same hospital. Mimi takes the stance that she won’t fight the cancer, having learned from Diane, she will just go with it. Meanwhile, the Utah government is busy doing the opposite: instead of letting the Great Salt Lake rise on its own, they have “succeeded” in harnessing the lake through an intricate pumping plan costing a billion dollars. Visiting Oregon, Terry comes upon many of the birds that were displaced by the projects around the Great Salt Lake. Wetlands like the one in Oregon are refuges for these birds, just like the Great Salt Lake and her mother had been Terry’s refuges. The flood is over, and the Bird Refuge is clear for the first time in seven years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grants $23 million to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge so that it may be properly restored. Brooke and Terry go out in a canoe on the Half-Moon Bay. While riding in the canoe, Terry is reminded of a trip she took to Mexico during the Spanish holiday, El Día de los Muertos, also known as “Day of the Dead.” While on this trip, Terry meets a man in the village of Tepoztlán. This man asks Terry what she wants from her dead. He then directs her to a small adobe with a turquoise door and says that if she is meant to find the door, she will. Terry finds the turquoise door and once she enters as well as white pews, and an alter with thirteen candles. Here, there are people praying out loud with a woman who is kneeling at the altar. These people are most likely locals of the area, and they have come to the adobe in honor of the Spanish holiday, El Día de los Muertos. While here, these people are able to experience a sort of spiritual connection with their dead. Terry states that she was also able to experience this spiritual connection. Afterwards, Terry ventures out into the streets of the village and experiences the village’s festivities for El Día de los Muertos. Here, Terry meets a woman who tells her of her dead family members. Terry continues to discuss her family’s history of cancer and how as a group of people, it is traditionally uncommon for Mormons. In this section, Terry shares a recurring dream with her father. In her dream, she sees a flash of light in the desert. She learns from her father that when she was young, she witnessed a test bomb explosion. This knowledge allows Terry to then contemplate the medical histories of people who live in the area. She discusses many people who suffered from different types of cancer and died years later. Williams writes, “It was at this moment that I realized the deceit I had been living under.” Terry goes on to discuss how the government did not do anything to put an end to the bomb testing when all the while, the government was aware of the potential deadly effects that the bombs could have on humans. In the Mormon religion, Terry was taught as a child by her mother to not ask questions that would “rock the boat.” Now, Terry feels that abiding by the traditions and rules of her Mormon religion is no longer possible. Williams writes, “Tolerating blind obedience in the name of patriotism or religion ultimately takes our lives.” Terry now knows that she must question everything despite what her religion’s values may encourage or what those around her believe. Terry tells of another dream that she has. In this dream, women from all over the world are gathered in the desert speaking of change and dancing around a bonfire. The women are gathered here because they are mothers who are marching to claim the desert in honor of their children. In the dream, the women are soon apprehended by soldiers who arrest them. Terry diverts from this dream to tell that she has crossed the Nevada Test Site line and was arrested along with a small group of people. She calls her own actions, “an act of civil disobedience.” She states that this act was in honor of the women who have suffered from the deadly effects of the test site. The novel concludes with Terry and fellow arrested women left alone in the desert. Instead of feeling stranded, Terry states that she as well as the other women are at home in this nature. |
The Gates of Thorbardin | null | null | The major plotline of The Gates of Thorbardin is that there once existed a hidden entrance to the Dwarven realm of Thorbardin. During the War of the Lance, this gate could be used as an entrance by the forces of Takhisis to destroy the Dwarven kingdom. The major character in this novel is a Dwarf by the name of Chane Feldstone. Chane comes to the knowledge of the secret entrance to Thorbardin through a dream. Chane doesn't know of his heritage, but he learns that he is a direct decedent of Grallen of Thorbardin who died fighting the mage Fistandantilus years before. Chane learns that his ancestor Grallen was attempting to seal the hidden entrance to Thorbardin using a powerful artifact known as Spellbinder which was once used in conjunction with another Gemstone named by the Dwarves Pathfinder to contain the magic of the Graygem of Gargath. The main character picks up a number of other characters such as Wingover, Chestal Thicketsway, Bobbin, and Jillian Firestoke in his travels. Among other notable events, Chane comes across the original location of the Graygem in Waykeep Valley and encounters the Irda. He also encounters the remains of the Hill Dwarves and Mountain Dwarves encased ice since the Dwarfgate Wars. Chane also finds the Helm of Grallen in the remains of rubble which were blown away from the tower of Zhaman. A Secondary plotline revolve around the renegade mage Caliban who was hunted down and killed years before by members of the three orders of magic. Caliban pulled his own heart out during the encounter and his shriveled heart remained as a power artifact used by the major antagonist in the story Kolanda Darkmoor. Caliban through Kolanda seeks the death of the three mages that hunted him down and killed him years before. Glenshadow the Wanderer, who wears the Red robes of Neutrality was the one one of the three mages to survive the encounter with Caliban. Caliban and Glenshadow encounter each other near the end of the novel. At the end of the novel Chane with the help of his traveling companions is able to discover the location of the hidden entrance, which is near Sky's End Peak near Northgate, by using the gem Pathfinder and the Helm of Grallen. Chane places Spellbinder inside the hidden entrance and the entrance is sealed from the outside as the result of a terrible magic storm. All the major benefactors in the story survive, the hidden entrance is sealed against magic (through Spellbinder which is now buried) and the Helm of Grallen passes into the realm of Thorbardin. |
Perfect: A Novel | null | 2,004 | Isabelle Lee is a 13 year old girl whose world got turned upside down after the death of her father. Isabelle’s life seemed somewhat perfect before her father’s death. That soon changed along with her mother’s behavior, her developing a new habit of binge eating, and her relationship with little sister April. Her mother went from being a full time English professor to a part time English professor, who spent the rest of that time in bed complaining of being tired. Her mom was suffering with depression due to her husband’s death. Not only did Isabelle’s mom have trouble coping with the death; Isabelle was also having trouble dealing with the death of her father. She dealt with the death by eating away her emotions and then throwing them up, better known as binge eating. This new habit was discovered by her little sister April, referred to as Ape Face, and then she reported this finding to her mother. This is the part of the book where Isabelle is forced to go to group pyscotherapy because her mother is making her in hopes that she will stop this horrible habit.At first Isabelle is completely against talking to strangers about her problems coping with her father’s death; during group Isabelle realizes the most popular, pretty, rich, smart, and nice girl in school; Ashley Barnum faces the same problems she does. They soon become friends and eat huge amounts of food before throwing up together at sleepovers. Isabelle begins to hang out with the "cool" kids at school, leaving her old friends behind. One night at a sleepover when Ashley is getting food for the two Isabelle finds footnotes for the current book they're reading in English class, realizes Ashley cheats to get good grades and appear smart. Isabelle begins to see the shrink who is in charge of group alone once a week and tells her about her and Ashley's relationship- while disguising Ashley with the code name "Penelope". One day Ashley doesn't come to school and despite them being annoyed with her for leaving them, Isabelle sits with her old friends. That night Ashley spends the night at Isabelle's house for the first time and reveals her parents are getting divorced, the reason she wasn't at school that day. Ashley and Isabelle begin to binge again but Isabelle stops and decides not to throw up with her friend this time. Isabelle soon realizes that group has helped her not only cope with her father’s death but make friends with one of the most popular girls at school. Isabelle realizes towards the end that the once strangers in group are just people like her, who are suffering with an eating disorder because they simply cannot cope. By the end of the book, Isabelle has gone 35 hours and counting without throwing up, has become friends with Ashley Barnum (aka the popular girl), and has gotten her mother back in her life. |
The Confession | John Grisham | 2,010 | In 1998, Travis Boyette abducted and raped Nicole "Nikki" Yarber, a teenage girl and high school student in Slone, Texas and buried her body in Joplin, Missouri some 6 hours from Slone. He watches unfazed as the police arrest and convict Donté Drumm, a black high school football player with no connection with the crime. Despite his innocence, Drumm is convicted and sentenced to death. He has been on death row for nine years when the story takes place. While Drumm serves his prison sentence, lawyer Robbert "Robbie" Flak fights his case while Black Americans protest his false conviction, creating a law and order situation. Meanwhile, Boyette had fled to Kansas and had lived there ever since. He had been suffering with brain tumor for the past nine years and his health had deteriorated. In 2007, with Drumm's execution only a week away, reflecting on his miserable life, he decides to do what is right; confess. He meets a priest Reverend Keith Schroeder who takes him to Slone. Despite his confession to the public, the execution proceeds on and Drumm is executed by lethal injection. Boyette then reveals the resting place of Nikki and DNA samples show signs of rape and assault on her body. |
Reckless | Cornelia Funke | 2,010 | Reckless opens with twelve-year-old Jacob Reckless entering his missing father's study and discovering a strange mirror. Finding a note containing cryptic instructions, Jacob presses his hand against the glass to obscure his face. When he removes his hand, he finds himself standing in front of an identical mirror in an abandoned tower. This world is referred to by Jacob as the Mirrorworld. The Mirrorworld is similar to this world, but has not progressed as far technologically, and magic still runs rampant. Twelve years after Jacob finds his way through the mirror, Jacob's brother Will finally follows Jacob into the Mirrorworld. Soon after Will arrives, he is attacked and scratched by a Goyl, a humanoid race with stone skin. As a result of the attack, Will's skin begins turning to stone. This curse that turns human skin to stone was created by the Dark Fairy, the Goyl King's lover. Jacob knows that the stone will soon invade his entire body, and Will will become one of the Goyl. Jacob has already lost both of his parents and cannot bear to lose his brother so he rides off in search of a cure. His old friend and mentor, Chanute, tells him that the berries that grow in the garden of child-eating witch may cure Will of the curse of the stone skin. Will sneaks back through the mirror to say goodbye to his girlfriend Clara over the phone. Clara races to Will's house, only to discover the secret of the mirror herself. With time running out, Jacob, Will, Clara and Jacob's vixen friend, Fox, journey to the witch's house, which lies deserted. When they arrive, they realize that they're being pursued by The Tailor, a creature that gets its name from how it tailors its clothing from the skin of its victims. Jacob and Fox fight The Tailor, with Will and Clara inside the gates, which The Tailor cannot enter, but Jacob is wounded on the shoulder during the fight. Will takes the berries, and they sleep. In the morning, Will's condition has not changed; the berries did not work. In another attempt to save his brother, Jacob decides to return to the Red Fairy, whom he had been enamored with for over a year, in the hope that he can convince her to help break the curse. Jacob assumes the Red Fairy will be able to break the curse because she is the Dark Fairy's sister. Meanwhile, a Hentzau, the Goyl King's right hand, leads a group of Goyl soldiers to find Will, whose skin is turning to jade. The jade Goyl is legendary among their people as the ultimate protector for their King, Kami'en. The party rides to the Dwarf city Terpevas to enlist the help of Valiant, a dwarf who knows the secret location of the Valley of the Fairies. Jacob forces Valiant to join them at gunpoint. The Goyl patrol ambushes the group before they are able to enter the Valley of the Fairies. Access to the Valley is secret, but with the help of Valiant, they are able to pass through the field of blood-thirsty unicorns. Jacob then rows to the Fairies' Island while the rest of the party wait on the shore of the lake. It doesn't take Jacob long to convince Miranda, the Red Fairy, to tell Jacob how to cure Will. Miranda tells Jacob that the curse will only be lifted when the Dark Fairy is destroyed, and tells him the means to accomplish this task. The journey to the Dark Fairy will take more time than Will has left, so she also tells Jacob how to put Will into a deep sleep, which effectively pauses the spread of the stone. As soon as Jacob returns, he leads them to the roses which Will must smell to send him to sleep. Like sleeping beauty, Will falls asleep when he is pricked. The Goyl Soldiers were told how to cross the unicorn boundary by Valiant, ambush them and shoot Jacob. They overpower the group and take the sleeping Will captive, and leave Clara and Fox to bury Jacob. Valiant, who has developed a soft spot for Clara, stays behind, and digs a grave for Jacob. While he does this, the moths of the Red Fairy flock to Jacob's body, and the Red Fairy brings him back from the dead. Now on their mission to rescue Will, they travel cross country to the mountains underneath which the Goyl have built their capital city. Valiant agrees to help Jacob recover Will in return for a tree that produces golden sap. Valiant leads them to an unguarded entrance to the Goyl city. While in the mountains, Jacob and Clara accidentally drink from a stream of Lark's Water, which ignites passion between them. Fox finds Clara and Jacob kissing and becomes extremely jealous. Jacob and Valiant decide to leave Clara and Fox behind. Valiant manages to smuggle Jacob into the Goyl city, by pretending Jacob is a slave. Inside the city, Valiant asks merchants and traders if they know of the Jade Goyl's whereabouts. One merchant claims he is being held in the floating Palace, high above the main city. Numerous small high bridges pass the Palace, and Jacob decides that it will be easiest to enter the Palace from the bridges, climbing up the Palace walls and into a window. Valiant advises against this, but Jacob ignores him. Jacob uses waneslime to turn himself invisible and a Rapunzel hair to scale the building. While Jacob is climbing the Palace Walls, he is ambushed by two snakes. He is captured, and questioned on the whereabouts of Clara and Fox. He is then tortured with scorpions, and passes into a deep sleep. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a cell next to a still sleeping Will, waiting to be woken by a kiss from his true love. Jacob realizes he has given away Clara's location under torture when the Dark Fairy arrives with Clara and Fox, who have been found and captured. Clara is sent into Will's cell to wake him from his sleep. Jacob wants to kill the Dark Fairy, but he needs contact to her, and she is too far away. Clara kisses Will, and he wakes. His is now completely Goyl, with no trace remaining of Will. Will leaves his cell, so that he can protect the Goyl King Kami'en, and Clara is jailed in the cell next to Jacob, and Fox is locked up on the floor above them. When the Dark Fairy and her guard are gone, Valiant appears and rescues them all. They leave the city with the biplane which Jacob realizes his father built; Jacob now knows for certain that his father did disappear inside the Mirrorworld. On their way back to the tower where the Mirror stands, Jacob decides he will not give up on Will. He tells Clara, Fox and Valiant that he is going to the Empire's capital city Vena for some business, and he catches a train, leaving them to return to the tower on their own. Jacob understands that going to Vena is his last chance to kill the Dark Fairy and undo the curse she put upon Will. Kamie'en is going to marry the Empress' daughter in order to make peace between the humans and the Goyl. This ceremony will take place in Vena. Once in the capital city, he sneaks into the Palace to spy on the Dark Fairy, who he finds in the same room as Will and Kami'en. Kami'en leaves, and Jacob, in a secret passage, bumps into an "official" Empire spy. Jacob knocks him unconscious, but the Dark Fairy and Will hear him, and Will breaks down the wall, and begins to fight with Jacob. Before any real damage is done, the fight is interrupted and Jacob is given an audience with the Empress, Therese of Austry. Jacob tells her that he must kill the Dark Fairy because of his brother and needs her help. She denies to help him in public, although later sends one of her officials to tell Jacob that the Dark Fairy takes a walk thorough the Palace Gardens every evening, and offers to give him access. That evening, Jacob ambushes the Dark Fairy. He touches her and says her true name, which turns her into a tree. She then promises that she will turn Will back into his human form, if Jacob allows him to protect the King during the wedding to the Empress' daughter. Jacob steals a golden ball (from the Frog Prince (story)) from the Palace, which will trap anyone who catches it inside until it is polished. He plans to use this ball to trap Will, so that he could be returned to his human form. Jacob attends the wedding, as do Clara, Valiant and Fox. The Empress, knowing that the Dark Fairy has been destroyed by Jacob, has ordered an attack on the Goyl King and his people during the ceremony. The Cathedral turns into a bloodbath, and many of the humans die. Just as the Dark Fairy seemed to know, Will successfully defends Kami'en. Jacob realizes he has played into the Empress' hands and led the Goyl to a slaughter without the Dark Fairy, so he shouts her name to release her from the tree. The Black Moths of the Dark Fairy fill the Cathedral, poisoning hundreds of humans. Jacob tries to protect Clara from the moths by using the tricks the Red Fairy taught him. Eventually the Goyl win the battle, and the Dark Fairy turns all the blood on the clothes of those alive into roses. The wedding ceremony continues, and after the marriage all those still alive parade outside, secretly being taken hostage, through the people who have no idea of the slaughter that just occurred. After the wedding, Jacob meets with the Dark Fairy, who tells him that she will return Will to his human form under the condition that Jacob take him very far away, because if she sees him again, she will kill him. Jacob manages to catch Will in the golden ball and the Dark Fairy returns him to his human form while still trapped. Jacob asks the Dark Fairy the price for returning Will to his true form, and the Dark Fairy replies that he has already paid it. He learns that anyone who says the Dark Fairy's true name will have only a year to live. Jacob then returns to the tower with Clara, Fox and Valiant. When they arrive at the tower, Jacob tells Clara to polish the golden ball until she sees her reflection. As she does this, Will is released, completely human again, and he embraces Clara. Jacob then tells them that they must leave the Mirrorworld, and so Will and Clara pass through the mirror once again. Fox, knowing there must have been a price for it, asks Jacob what it was, but Jacob doesn't tell her. He realizes that in the Mirrorworld, there is always a cure, and he sets off to find it. |
Changes: a Love Story | Ama Ata Aidoo | 1,993 | Esi Sekyi approaches Linga HideAways Travel Agency in order to finalize travel arrangements – a task Esi has taken on in the absence of her company’s regular secretary. She meets Ali Kondey, the charming owner of the travel agency who assures her that his agency will take care of everything. Esi leaves in her beat-up car and Ali praises Allah for the gift of his woman. Sometime later, Esi’s husband Oko forces her to have sex with him, which she regards as the last straw in their already-deteriorating marriage. Esi then goes to work and tries to pull herself together while searching her native tongue – presumably an African dialect – for a word to describe what just has just happened. She concludes that although her native language has no word for it, in English it might be called “marital rape.” Esi’s best friend, Opokuya, is then introduced, her character standing in fierce contrast to Esi’s. Although their marriage is generally happy, Opokuya and her husband, Kubi, frequently argue about who will have the family car for the day. On this particular occasion, Kubi wins and they agree that he will pick Opokuya up at the Hotel Twentieth Century after work. Esi runs into Opokuya in the lobby of that hotel and the two quickly begin a conversation about Esi’s decision to leave her husband. The story recounts Ali’s friendship and eventual marriage to his college friend Fusena. As they had children, motherhood consumed Fusena’s life, forcing her to stop working and temporarily stifling her desire for higher education. Esi and Ali’s relationship develops as they become lovers. As Esi finds herself becoming more dependent on Ali’s affection, she is disappointed when he fails to visit her for two weeks. When Ali finally reappears, he proposes to Esi, offering her a ring to show that she is “occupied territory.” The marriage negotiations begin as Ali travels to the village where Esi’s family lives in order to discuss the marriage. However, his request is denied due to his failure to bring a proper relative to the negotiations. It becomes clear that both Ali’s and Esi’s families are reluctant to agree to such a union, especially when some of the polygamy traditions have already been breached. Both families eventually agree and Ali and Esi are married in a simple ceremony. On New Year’s Eve, Ali visits Esi before going home and while Ali is there, Oko drives up to Esi’s house with their daughter, Ogyaanowa, in tow. The two men fight and Esi bolts, taking Ogyaanowa to Opokuya’s house. Esi recounts the events to Opokuya and Kubi, who drives over to Esi's to check on her house, only to find that both men have disappeared. Ali and Esi go on a holiday to Ali’s home village, Bamako and they spend their time there like tourists. After they return, Ali becomes more distant, spending more time with his attractive new secretary. Esi spends Christmas alone, taking sleeping pills to reign in her deep sense of abandonment. On New Year’s Day, Ali finally reappears, offering her a new car as a bribe. He then immediately leaves. Esi shows off her new car to Opokuya and offers Opokuya her old car. Ali continues to give Esi bribes as substitutes for his presence. After three years, Esi finally breaks down and tells Ali that their relationship has deteriorated. Opokuya finally picks up her car from Esi's house and leaves. Later, Kubi shows up, supposedly searching for his wife. He begins to kiss Esi and Esi considers sleeping with him but decides that she could betray Opokuya like that. Esi and Ali never divorce, remaining friends and sometimes lovers. |
Wild Romance | null | null | It was a chance meeting on a steamboat in 1852 between a young woman of nineteen named Theresa Longworth and a soldier in his thirties Charles Yelverton, heir to the title of Viscount Avonmore. After a five-year clandestine romance hidden from the public eye, the affair blossomed until they finally got married in secret in Edinburgh. The following summer they remarried in Dublin again in secret but in the presence of a priest. This was at the request of Theresa who was a Roman Catholic while Charles Yelverton had been brought up a Protestant. The validity of the marriage was later questioned in court. |
Duties Beyond Borders | null | 1,981 | ===The Use of Forc he Promotion of Human Right roblems of Distributive Justic n Ethics of World Order=== |
Casablanca | Edgar Brau | 2,003 | Casablanca begins when the narrator, who is driving his car to Mar del Plata seaside resort, is caught by a big storm. While looking for some shelter he comes across a place similar to Rick's Café Américain. He gets out of the car and, almost blinded by the rain, hurries to the entrance door. Just then somebody starts playing "As Time Goes By" on a piano at the back of the room. The player is identical to Sam, but much older; he is wearing the same suit jacket that is shown in the film, but worn out now. In one of the corners, an old man in dark glasses, who looks like Humphrey Bogart, is dozing at a table. When the song is over, the black man starts to tell the narrator the story of the place and of the people who lived there. It all started, he says, in the early fifties, when the owner of those lands, a rich man very similar Sidney Greenstreet —the actor who interpreted señor Ferrari— decides to build a replica of Rick's café to reproduce in it the main scenes of the movie. With this purpose he sends agents around the country and abroad, to look for people whose physical appearance is identical to the characters. He keeps for himself the role of Señor Ferrari. When the cast is ready, they rehearse for some months; their voices and accents must sound like the English spoken in the original version. To imitate the black-and-white movie, everything in the place is in lighter or darker shades of grey. When the café is opened, success is enormous. The people who visit it have the feeling they are “inside” the famous movie. Señor Ferrari's dream (“Ferrari” is the name given to the ranch owner in the story) Señor Ferrari's dream of turning the movie Casablanca into reality has come true. Some years of splendor follow, but an epidemic of hoof-and-mouth disease and an unexpected flood affect Señor Ferrari's property, and he goes bankrupt. He speaks with President Perón to get a license to play for real money at the roulette wheel and the poker tables (up to that moment people pretended that they were gambling). President Perón —who had visited the place some months before and had an affair with Ilsa (Ferrari's lover) — agrees to it. The café manages to survive, although far from its past magnificence. Then a military coup overthrows Perón, and the casino is closed. It is a hard blow for Ferrari, who commits suicide. In his will, he states that the café will remain the property of his employees, provided that they never shut it down or put it up for sale. In the following weeks, they try to do their best to make ends meet, but after a while some of them give up and desert the place. In a few months, the only ones who remain are Rick, Ilsa, Sam, Renault, and Ugarte. To make a living they decide to perform isolated scenes, which are shown to the few tourists who happen to go by. Time passes, and not only the place deteriorates but the health of its dwellers as well. The moment the narrator arrives, Sam can offer nothing but an account of what happened in that fantastic Casablanca, and introduce Rick and Ilsa, who are much older now (Rick is blind; Ilsa makes a brief appearance, dressed as Ingrid Bergman in one of the scenes of the movie). In a vase placed near the exit door, visitors leave a few coins. Meanwhile, the storm has subsided. Sam plays As time goes by once again, to say goodbye now. The narrator gets into his car and, with the feeling that he has witnessed a sequel to the movie that Hollywood never made, leaves the place. |
Red Leech | Andy Lane | 2,010 | A few months following the events of Death Cloud, Sherlock Holmes is pleased when Mycroft comes to visit him at Holmes Manor in Hampshire, but Mycroft's visit has a serious purpose, he has come to let Amyus Crowe know that British Intelligence suspect that John Wilkes Booth has come to England under the alias to John St. Helen. Without any encouragement from Mycroft or Amyus, Sherlock sets off to Godalming where Booth is suspected of hiding out, enlisting Matty Arnatt's help along the way. Sherlock enters the grounds of the house in Golaming that he suspects Booth is staying in, there he is kidnapped from a brief period of time by a man whose face is scarred by fire on one side, this man may be Booth and is being aided and guarded by three fellow conspirators. Sherlock escapes with Matty's help and immediately returns to Holmes Manor and lets Mycroft and Amyus know what happened. They are somewhat disappointed that Sherlock has let the conspirators know that they are under investigation. The next morning, the Holmes brothers visit Amyus who concludes that the conspirators will have taken flight and will be heading to America, so he needs to follow them. When they discover that the conspirators have kidnapped Matty, Amyus, Sherlock and Virginia chase them on horseback, but are unsuccessful in rescuing Matty. Given the new turn of events, it is decided that Sherlock will accompany Amyus and Virginia to America as he is the only one who knows what all the conspirators look like. Once they reach America, Sherlock locates where Matty is being held and he and Virginia follow the conspirators (and Matty) on board a train. The conspirators find Sherlock and Virginia, and after a perilous fight on the roof of the train, Sherlock is captured and the train is diverted to the headquarters of the organizer of the conspiracy, Duke Balthassar. In conversation with Balthassar, it becomes clear that the conspirators plan to invade Canada and have it become the Confederate stronghold—a plan which Sherlock is determined to foil. |
Hunger's Rogues | null | null | Hunger's Rogues takes up the author's story about one year after his escape from forced labor in the Russian mines, recounted in Donbas. The book opens in 1948 with Sandulescu approaching Transit Camp Buchholz, a camp for displaced persons, or "DPs", awaiting permission to emigrate overseas, then located outside of Hanover, Germany, near the village of Buchholz. The author describes camp and camp life, then unfolds his involvement, through friendships made in camp, with the thriving black market primarily based in the train stations of cities throughout Germany and the countries formerly occupied by the Nazi regime. After passing initial emigrant screening, Sandulescu fails the medical exam due to elevated blood pressure and is forced to remain in camp for an extended period until he can be re-tested. As he bides his time until the next opportunity for a medical exam, the excitement of trading on the black market continues to draw him in. Sandulescu recounts black market trades and affairs that include selling pork from a clandestine farmhouse slaughter, a trip to Belgium disguised as a US soldier to buy 150 pounds of coffee, and a trip in the company of a Red Army officer from the Balkans to Paris to buy and peddle cigarettes. He gives market prices for black market goods, primarily food, and the exchange rate in terms of packs of cigarettes, as American cigarettes were the most widely accepted currency at the time. The book includes vivid word pictures of the lives of ordinary civilians in the aftermath of the war, with rationing and shortages leading many to trade on the black market to eat well or just to survive. The book ends with Sandulescu describing his clearance to emigrate and his boarding a ship to Canada. In an epilogue, the author describes returning to Germany in 1954 as a US citizen and soldier. Obtaining leave from his unit, he travels to the small village where he had buried, six years earlier, fourteen golden goblets looted from a Bavarian castle. On arriving at the location, which was a heavily wooded area at the time, Sandulescu finds an apartment building erected on the spot. Not willing to risk calling attention to his involvement in the six year old theft, Sandulescu inquires only as to how long the building had been standing. He learns from a passerby that the apartment building had been constructed three years previously. Fearing to ask further questions about any artifacts uncovered during construction, Sandulescu returns to his army unit having never learned the fate of "his" treasure. |
La Carte et le territoire | Michel Houellebecq | 2,010 | The novel tells the story of the life and art of Jed Martin, a fictional French artist who becomes famous by photographing Michelin maps and painting scenes about professional activities. His father is slowly entering old age. Jed falls for a beautiful Russian executive from Michelin but is unable to hang onto this relationship. He becomes extraordinarily successful and therefore suddenly rich. He meets Michel Houellebecq in Ireland in order to ask him to write the text for the catalog of one of his exhibits, and offers to paint the writer's portrait. A few months later Houellebecq is brutally murdered and Jed Martin gets involved in the case. |
City of Thieves | David Benioff | 2,008 | The story as introduced is the recollections of a contemporary Russian Jewish émigré living in Florida. Seventeen year old Lev Beniov lives alone in an apartment in Leningrad (which the narrator refers to as "Piter", the nickname residents use for their city) as his poet father was recently abducted by the NKVD secret police and his mother and sister have fled the besieged city. Lev is arrested for looting the body of an ejected Luftwaffe pilot. Sent to prison, he meets Kolya Vlasov, a young soldier arrested for deserting his unit. Though just three years older than Lev, Kolya is more cultured and refined than Lev. Lev and Kolya are brought to an NKVD colonel Grechko who barters with them: if they are able to obtain a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter's upcoming wedding, the two will be given their freedom. If they are unable to find the eggs, a luxury in the starving city, both will lose their lives. During Lev and Kolya's journey for the eggs, they come across an assorted cast of characters, including cannibals and a group of Soviet partisans. Eventually, Lev and Kolya allow themselves to be taken prisoner by the Germans. To gain the coveted dozen eggs, Lev must beat a sadistic German officer in a game of chess. Kolya and Vika (a female survivor of the partisan group) kill the officer and his guards before escaping, and Lev loses half a finger in the fight. Vika leaves them to find another partisan group and they return to "Piter". As they approach the city, Kolya is shot by a Soviet sniper. He is taken to hospital but bleeds to death anyway, while Lev discovers that the colonel had three dozen eggs airlifted in. At the end of the novel Lev is in his apartment when Vika, who had promised to track him down, turns up. She says she does not cook, suggesting they marry, as at the start Lev's grandson says his grandmother would never cook. |
The Fall of the Pagoda | Eileen Chang | 2,010 | The Fall of the Pagoda tells a narrative story about the childhood life of a girl, Lute, born in a noble family which is in a process of moral and financial decline. As a young girl, her mother followed her aunt to go abroad,and her father was addicted to opium, leaving her and her little brother to live with their servants, aunt Tong, aunt He, aunt Qin, etc. Her father presided over their family. But he did not work due to a negative attitude to life and the addiction to opium. Lute's mother, Lu, a woman in the vanguard of female self-reliance, decided to divorce with her father, the patriarch who was adrift in post-Qing China. Maybe due to her special family background, the little girl was different in some significant way from others of the same age. Her psychological age is much older than actual age. Lute's sickly brother, Hill, as a boy, was the important child in this family because he would be the successor of his father, Yuxi. The young boy was cosseted, over-supervised and beaten so that he was weak and morose. Lute was often ignored and had more freedom to do what she wanted. She was given to those of no consequence. Lute grew up around servants, the sprawling, extended family existed in a sea of gossip, scandal, jealousy and fear. They were bound together by their need for money, and the terror of destitution. They lived on the family's ever-diminishing wealth and tarnished prestige, pretending loyalty while pursuing their own survival and pleasure. Through young Lute's child clear eyes, those adults sometimes were hypocritical; even her parents were relentlessly selfish. |
Dead Space: Martyr | Brian Evenson | 2,010 | The novel delves into the origins of Church of Unitology, Michael Altman, Necromorphs and the mysterious Black Marker in the Dead Space universe. The story revolves around geophysicist Michael Altman as he investigates the source of a mysterious signal and uncovers a strange alien artifact. The narrative then goes on to focus on how Altman's actions led to his own unwilling "martyrdom," the origin of the Red Marker, and the subsequent birth of the Church of Unitology. |
Life | James Fox | 2,010 | Life is a memoir covering Keith Richards's life, starting with his childhood in Dartford, Kent, through to his success with the Rolling Stones and his current life in Connecticut. His interest in music was triggered by his mother, Doris, who played records by Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine and Louis Armstrong, and his maternal grandfather, Augustus Theodore Dupree, a former big band player, who encouraged him to take up the guitar. In his teens he met up with Mick Jagger, who he had known in primary school, and discovered that they both shared a love of blues music. In the early 1960s Richards moved into a London flat, shared with Jagger and Brian Jones. Together with Bill Wyman, Ian Stewart and Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones were founded in 1962, playing gigs at Ealing Jazz Club and the Crawdaddy Club. The book chronicles Richards's career with the Stones since 1962, following their rise from playing small club gigs to stadium concerts, Richards's drug habits, his arrests and convictions. His relationships with a number of women, including Anita Pallenberg, Marianne Faithfull, Ronnie Spector and Patti Hansen, whom he married in 1983, are covered in detail. The often difficult partnership between Richards and Jagger is referred to throughout the work and coverage of this has caused much media interest. Throughout the work, much attention is given to Richards' love of music, his style of playing and chord construction. His non-Stones projects, such as the X-Pensive Winos and recording with the Wingless Angels in Jamaica, as well as collaborations with Chuck Berry and Gram Parsons amongst others are covered in some detail. |
Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Journey | Kathryn Lasky | 2,003 | On their way towards the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, "The Band" (Soren, Gylfie, Twilight and Digger) and Mrs. Plithiver are mobbed by crows. The Band managed to fend off the crows but at the cost of Digger being injured. After landing in a tree for shelter, a neighbouring family of Masked Owls came to visit. Before leaving, the female Masked Owl became skeptical when she heard that "The Band" was on the way to find the Guardians of Gahoole. Later after their departure from the spruce tree, they stayed in a sycamore with a couple of Sooty Owls named Sweetums and Swatums who supported The Band in their quest to find Ga'Hoole. In the Beaks, a barren and desolate area, "The Band" ventured into a dark cave where they were attacked by a bobcat. Together, "The Band" managed to kill the bobcat and upon further investigation they found a dying Barred Owl. When they asked if St.Aggie's had attacked him, his last words were, "Oh! You only wish!" After hearing this disturbing news, The Band continued on their quest. However, their progress would be dangerously hindered because of the Mirror Lakes. Their gleaming surfaces hypnotized The Band and made them content to stay and put off their quest. Eventually Mrs. Plithiver recognized the danger and stirred The Band into remembrance of their quest. When they left, they were blown off course straight into the Ice Narrows in the Northern Kingdoms where they were taken in by a family of puffins: the oddest creatures "The Band" had ever seen. Despite all difficulties, "The Band" were escorted to the Island of Hoole by the Snowy Owl monarchs of the tree, Boron and Barran. Upon their arrival to the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, a stuck-up Spotted Owl named Otulissa escorted "The Band" to their new hollow. They learned from her that they could not just go into a battle but that skills must be learned by becoming members of chaws: specialized groups of owls that dedicate themselves to a certain skill. Despite finding Ga'Hoole, "The Band" sought a meeting with the parliament because they felt that their knowledge of St. Aggie's would be valuable to the Guardians. However, Boron informed "The Band" that they needed to wait a bit longer and that nobility wasn't garnered instantly but through unwavering resolution and stalwartness. He also informed them that their journey had not ended when they arrived at the tree but it had only just begun and that they would begin their training the next day. During the day, Soren found Twilight thinking about leaving the Guardians because "The Band" would be broken up because they would be separated into chaws. Soren reassured Twilight that no matter what happened that they would always be a band. Upon hearing these words, Twilight decided to stay. As time passed, "The Band" learned many skills and became more accustomed to life at the tree. However, Soren was still haunted by the thought of his sister Eglantine and her well-being. Eventually, The Band were placed into their respective chaws; Soren was placed into the colliering and weather chaws. This was a disaster for Soren because of the Whiskered Screech Owl Ezylryb's intimidating missing talon and because he was double chawed with Otulissa whose talkative attitude proved to be hard to bear. However, the blacksmith of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, Bubo (a Great Horned Owl) was confident that Soren would be all that he could be because Ezylryb had recognized Soren's potential. Later, "The Band" discovered that the roots under the parliament chamber were prone to transmitting any sound created in the chamber. This allowed them to discover that the Guardians were addressing the topic concerning the dead Barred Owl. They found out that he was a slipgizzle: an owl spy that worked for the Guardians. Eventually Soren's fears and problems began to subside. Ezylryb proved to be much more than every owl in his weather chaw ever thought him to be. Soren was even able to help Mrs. Plithiver get a spot in the harp guild with Madame Plonke, the tree's beloved snowy owl singer. Soren also managed to catch a burning coal in his beak and earned Ezylryb's rare approval. Owlets of the Tyto species were found dropped all over babbling nonsense about owl purity. Digger and Twilight, who were part of the search and rescue chaw, found Eglantine who was one of the owlets dropped in the event that came to be known as the Great Downing. Soren was shocked when he was shown Eglantine but disappointed that she wasn't her true self. Eventually, Trader Mags came to trade goods at the Great Ga'Hoole Tree and Eglantine went into a panic when shown a piece of isinglass. This panic, however, proved to be effective because Eglantine broke out of her strange condition and became normal once again. For now, Soren felt content but only to an extent since Ezylryb, the ryb Soren had come to truly cherish, had not yet returned from his investigations of the Great Downing. |
Sunset Park | Paul Auster | 2,010 | Set during the American financial recession in 2008, the college dropout Miles Heller, who has been running from his past for seven years, is forced to leave his new girlfriend in Florida and return home to New York. There he unites with his old friend Bing who lives together with 2 women in an abandoned home in the Sunset Park neighborhood in Brooklyn. Through several situations of coincidence and self-discovery, it is a story about how to reconnect with a world once left behind, and how to rejoin the human race after self-inflicted exile. |
Last Rumba in Havana | null | null | The book chronicles the life of an architecture student turned prostitute. It portrays the reality of the notorious Cuban prostitutes who cater only to foreigners. The author delivers fragments of this life through a long monologue, starting with tales of sordid and violent episodes of childhood in the Havana neighborhood of Jesus Maria. With a nihilistic vision of Cuban society, he pursues his character's story both in the poor neighborhoods and those of high-ranking Cuban luxury hotels as well as prisons. It is a journey through the lost paradise that never officially existed. The dialogue is broken occasionally by insertions of short stories, poems, imaginary telephone conversations, proverbs and other resources, giving it a lyrical quality. |
The Clockwork Three | Matthew J. Kirby | null | Giuseppe, a boy who has to collect money for his padrone, one day finds a green violin from a shipwreck. The beautiful sound the violin makes possesses people into loving it and may just earn him enough money for his secret stash to eventually buy a ticket to his native country, Italy. Meanwhile, Frederick works on his automaton which hopefully will promote him out of apprenticeship, and a girl named Hannah works as a maid where she hears of hidden riches in the hotel where she works. Shortly after, she becomes the personal assistant of a strange guest, Madame Pomeroy. Two weeks later, Giuseppe then saves Frederick from being bullied, and the two become friends. Madame Pomeroy asks Frederick to construct an automaton for her, and Frederick and Hannah meet. Stephano discovered Giuseppe's secrets and tries to capture him, but Giuseppe escapes and hides out in a park. Hannah discovers that a man named Mister Stroop supposedly left the treasure in the suites at the top of the hotel. She later sees a map that hints it may near a pond in the park. She runs to look for it when she desperately needs money for her sick father's medicine. There she meets Giuseppe, and the two look for the treasure but it is not there, though she receives some herbal medicine from a woman who worked as a gardener in the hotel. Hannah's father draws for her where the treasure is hidden in the hotel, having worked for Stroops hotel in the past. The next day the three children all meet for the first time and Frederick shows the other two his automaton. The three agree to help each other out with their problems. Giuseppe mentions that he saw a clockwork head— Frederick's only missing piece— in a museum. The three sneak into the museum so Frederick can inspect the head, but they are interrupted by guards and forced to flee. Frederick escapes with the "borrowed" head, which was made by Albertus Magnus. Hannah also accidentally took a small piece of clay belonging to a golem, which she inserts into the clockwork man's chest. This, coupled with the Magnus head, gives him near-human intelligence. Hannah discovers that Mister Stroup's treasure is actually his will, witnessed by the hotel's owner, Mister Twine. She and Frederick talk to him, but Hannah refuses to take the money because it would cause the park to be destroyed. Mister Twine promotes her to the chief of maids, and gives her quite a bit of money for new dresses, a portion of which she gives to Giuseppe for his ticket. A law was passed that the padrones no longer had legal control over their buskers. Enraged, Stephano tries to kill Giuseppe, but they are saved by Madame Pomeroy, who lets Giuseppe travel with her to play his green violin for kings and queens. Frederick eventually makes journeyman, and Hannah's father's health improves. |
The Prague Cemetery | Umberto Eco | 2,010 | Paris, March 1897: Captain Simone Simonini—adventurer, forger, secret agent—is called upon to investigate assassination and political intrigue which affects Europe's future. |
Hide My Eyes | Margery Allingham | 1,958 | An old country bus parks in London's Theatreland on a rainy night, and a murder ensues. Superintendent Charles Luke has his theories but it is not until he calls in Albert Campion for advice that they begin to come together. How do the museum of curios and the giant scrapyard in the East End link with the smooth Lagonda driver with his well-arranged alibis ? |
Gold By The Inch | null | 1,998 | The novel is split into three sections. The narrator is in Thailand visiting his younger brother, Luk, who works there as an architect. Thailand is the birthplace of the narrator’s mother. He ‘falls in love’ with Thong, a Thai prostitute, during his visit. The book tracks the narrator’s relationship with Thong. This relationship at first seems to be somewhat mutual but soon is clearly shown to be driven by money as Thong accepts every monetary gift doled out by the narrator. Thong eventually events the narrator to live with him and his family instead of spending on expensive hotel rooms every night and it becomes evident that Thong is actually from a relatively wealthy family. The narrator now leaves Thailand to visit family in Malaysia (Penang), the country in which his father was born. In this section, more information concerning the narrator’s childhood and family is revealed. For instance, the narrator’s father had a terrible relationship with his family in Malaysia as well as his own son and wife, whom he later left for an American woman. In this section, stories from the narrator’s past are revealed and we learn that the narrator only began this journey because at home he just recently witnessed his father’s death and the end of his relationship with boyfriend, Jim. His father had been living in Honolulu with wife and was near to death when the narrator decided it was okay to visit him. The narrator dated Jim in New York and the two’s relationship was based on Jim’s economic power and the narrator’s aesthetic value. The relationship ended over Jim’s inability to quit using drugs. Back in Malaysia, the narrator tours the city with his auntie. The narrator also neglects to tell the Luk, his mother, or his father’s family in Malaysia that Ba, the narrator’s father, has died. While in Malaysia, the narrator also devotedly thinks about Thong, whom he very much misses and completely ends his relationship with Jim by first reporting him to the authorities as a drug smuggler and then sending him a postcard that reads, ‘Keep everything’ (89). The narrator also spends some time trying to get a photograph of his grandmother whose death is surrounded by numerous stories. Post a conversation with his grandmother’s spirit, the narrator finally decides his trip is completed and he is ready to return to Thong in Thailand. The narrator makes a point of not contacting Thong right away until he sees him one night past weekend walk into the same bar the narrator is at with three friends. Thong’s commitment to the narrator is suspect. The narrator moves into Thong’s house but he sleeps separately from Thong on an entirely different floor. In general, Thong becomes more and more distant and less and less affectionate. As jealousy takes over the narrator, he spirals into a stronger and stronger drug addiction. At some point, the narrator and Thong bump into each other at a bar and through the translation of another friend, Thong breaks up with the narrator. Eventually, the narrator moves out of Thong’s house. Luk and friends try to help the narrator recover from his breakup. In the end, the narrator realizes that in the end, he is just an American doing things in Thailand he would be unable to do back home. Though he tries to play this off as something that makes him invincible, in the end the narrator seems to realize that his trip is done, and he needs to return home though where home is the book does not specify. |
Fever of the Bone | null | null | The story centers on the investigation of the murders of several teenagers who, at first, can only be connected by their use of the fictional social networking site RigMarole. Along the way, Carol has to deal with the pressures placed on her by new Chief Constable James Blake, which include an attempt to lower the costs of the investigation by using in-house profiling help instead of going to Dr. Hill. Tony, meanwhile, is dealing with a personal loss that forces him to re-examine several long-held beliefs. |
Un destino ridicolo | null | 1,996 | The novel is set between Sardinia and the city of Genoa. The Sardinian shepherd Salvatore, after a detention in prison, comes to Genoa in search of a better life. In the old town he meets a prostitute, Veretta, and falls in love with her. The main plot is weaved with the histories of the pimp Carlo, the French criminal Barnard, the young singer-songwriter Fabrizio and his fan Alessandro, the beauty Maritza and Salvatore's cousin, Annino. The character of Maritza is a novelization of Bocca di Rosa, main character of a song of De André. Two other characters (Fabrizio and Alessandro) are the authors themselves. |
The Lost Thing | Shaun Tan | 2,000 | Set in the near future, in dystopian Melbourne, Australia, The Lost Thing is a story about a boy who enjoys collecting bottle tops for his bottle top collection. One day, while collecting bottle tops near a beach, he discovers a strange creature, that seems to be a combination of an industrial boiler, a crab, and an octopus. This creature is referred to as "The Lost Thing" by the narrator. The boy realizes the creature is lost and out of place. He attempts to find its owner but is not able to, due to the indifference of everyone else. As he is looking for the creature's owner, he is met by a creature who gives him a business card with a weird sign on it. After searching much of the city for the sign, the boy is able to find the sign and follows it to a utopian land for lost things, where he returns the creature,and continues on with his life - although he was unable to say whether the creature really belonged there. |
The Sentimentalists | null | null | The novel's protagonist is an unnamed young woman seeking to better understand her relationship with her father by investigating his experience in the Vietnam War. |
The Dead | Charlie Higson | null | The Dead begins a year before the events in The Enemy and two weeks after a worldwide sickness has infected all adults, turning them into zombies. Two fourteen-year-old boys called Jack and Ed are trapped with a group of other schoolboys in the Rowhurst boarding school, in a remote village, a few miles from London. After escaping from an adult siege of their school, Jack and Ed rescue the French teacher's daughter, Frederique, and attempt to contact several boys inside a church. Alarmed that there is no reply from inside the church, they break in and find that the boys hiding inside are unconscious from carbon monoxide poisoning. They manage to revive them. Matthew, a boy who has possibly suffered brain damage from the carbon monoxide, believes himself to be the messenger of the Lamb of God and believes that he must go to St Paul's Cathedral in London. The group splits, with Matt and his "acolytes", including Jack, who wishes to visit his family's house, attempting to go to London, and the rest deciding go deeper into the countryside. The group heading for the countryside are attacked by older, infected teenagers shortly after parting from the rest. They are saved by the timely arrival of a motor coach driven by an adult named Greg Thorne. He is a butcher who claims that he is immune to the disease. With his young son Liam, Greg has acquired a bus and is collecting children to transport them all to London. Himself and Liam to visit Arsenal Stadium, revealed to be an adult nest in The Enemy. Several other children are on the bus. Greg turns the bus around to find Jack, Matthew, and the Lamb of God believers, who are all still journeying towards London. Greg explains that, before the epidemic, he was staying with a farmer and his family, but he had had to kill a father and the older children, and indirectly remarks that he had to kill a crazy child because of the loss of his family and is seen to be eating dried meat. The bus halts for the night. Liam realizes that Greg has become infected and can no longer protect him, whom Greg strangles in his sleep. The next morning, Greg is inexplicably wearing Liam's glasses. Jack and Ed confront Greg about Liam's death. The bus is assaulted by several adults, and the group escapes from the bus and make it to the Imperial War Museum in south London. The kids clash with the leader of the museum group, Jordan, who refuses to let them stay in the museum, but he compromises and lets them stay as long as they collect food for themselves. A group sets off, and they explore until they find a Tesco truck with a partially decomposed corpse inside. Whilst they are attempting to get the truck to run, Frederique comes under attack by several adults. They fight off the adults and are surprised to find that she is unharmed. The group manage to drive the truck back to the museum while Jack, Ed, and another boy, Bam, set off to find Jack's home, where he has been planning to go since the beginning of the infection. Meanwhile, Matt's religion has gained believers in the museum. They rename the religion Agnus Dei, Latin for "Lamb of God". Matt foretells that the Lamb will look like a boy and will have a shadow that is another boy, who must be sacrificed. The new religion attempts to make a banner, but the maker misspells Agnus Dei Angus Day Meanwhile, Frederique attacks Froggie, biting into his arm. She reveals that she is sixteen years old and has been infected the entire time, with her diseases taking longer to infect her. She is locked in a storeroom by several of the kids. Jack, Ed, and Bam make their way to the Oval Cricket Ground. Outside the cricket ground are ambulances, army trucks, and skips filled with dead bodies. The boys explore, finding and keeping several weapons. The entire stadium is full of diseased corpses that were going to be burned, but the soldiers were themselves infected or killed before they had a chance. The boys are then pursued by adults through the stadium. Jack has a sub-machine gun he found from a dead soldier and, whilst trying to fend off an adult, he shoots a propane tank, causing it to explode and causing an avalanche of bodies. Jack and Bam are buried underneath the bodies and debris. Bam mistakes Jack for an adult and shoots him with a shotgun. Jack is badly wounded but able to stand. Ed finds them, and the three boys leave, continuing their search for Jack's house. They continue towards Jack's home but are ambushed by adults in the street. The three boys manage to kill all the attacking adults, but Greg appears, now fully infected, and kills Bam with a meat cleaver. He then slashes Jack's chest open and cuts the side of Ed's face from forehead to chin. Greg is about to finish off Ed, but Greg flees when Ed mentions Liam. Ed drags a dying Jack to his home and tries to heal his friend's wounds. However, Jack is beyond repair, and Ed takes Jack to his bedroom and spends the night with him. In the morning, Jack has died from his wounds. Ed cremates his friend's body and leaves, headed back to the museum. Soon Ed is ambushed again by adults. He is rescued by David King, Pod, and their group. They all travel to the museum. David warns Ed that a fire, caused by the fire at the Oval is spreading northward, towards the museum and that they should move. At the museum, Ed confronts the infected Frederique, who attempts to attack him. She escaped from captivity by gnawing through her own thumb to get out of the handcuffs. He defeats her and manages to banish her to the streets rather than killing her. He holds council with David and Jordan, and they decide to move to North London. Jordan decides to stay in the museum with several others. Ed and David lead their kids in the Tesco truck and attempt to cross north across the River Thames, fleeing the rapidly spreading fire. Every other kid in South London is also trying to cross the river, and they all struggle to do so due to a commotion between kids further up the bridge. But a huge wave of adults come up behind the kids from the south, and Ed and several other fighters hang back to fend off the infected to protect the other kids. Frederique reappears and attacks Aleisha, injuring her, and Ed shoots Frederique with a pistol. Ed is helped by another boy named Kyle, and, although the fighters initially seem to be overwhelmed, they are rescued by Jordan and his crew, who had been forced to abandon the museum by adults and the fire. They realize that they must flee, but the way back to the bridge is blocked by a horde of adults. The kids manage to take control of a sightseeing cruise boat moored in the river. They pilot it downstream towards the Tower of London, but Matt hijacks the boat in an attempt to reach St Paul's. He accidentally crashes the boat into the bridge, and it splits in half, causing a number of kids to drown, including Aleisha. Matt and the survivors of his acolytes are last seen disappearing under a bridge, standing on the top of half of the ruined boat. Jordan, Ed, Kyle, and the survivors find lifeboats and make it to the river's north bank. They make their way to the Tower of London and enter it by climbing the drainpipes. Inside they find a group of about thirty kids already inhabiting the castle. Frustrated at the leadership of the current leader, Jordan takes control, with Ed as his right-hand man. Of the original group from the bus, only Ed and Courtney remain. The others are either dead, missing, or still with the Tesco truck. Greg finds himself in Trafalgar Square, where he has lost his shirt. He puts on a St George t-shirt from a souvenir stand and decides to get revenge on those who he holds responsible for Liam's death. It is also revealed that he intends to raise an army of adults, setting him up as the 'Saint George' adult of The Enemy One year later, Ed, Kyle, and Jordan are guarding the Tower of London. Small Sam and The Kid arrive. The Tower group are shocked to see that Sam and The Kid resemble the Lamb and the Goat as portrayed on the Angus Dei banner. |
Nights of Rain and Stars | Maeve Binchy | null | In a small town in Greece, a group of people witness a boating accident and subsequently become tangled in each other's lives. Thomas is a Californian university professor escaping from the tense relationship between him and his remarried ex-wife, and their son, who he adores. Elsa, the beautiful German blonde, resigned from her successful television job to escape her ex-boyfriend, who she still loves. Irish Fiona couldn't stand her family and friends' resentful attitudes towards her boyfriend, Shane, so they went to peaceful Greece. David, a kind English man, doesn't want to take over his father's business like his family wants and expects, and instead decides to travel. These strangers meet in a tavern in peaceful Aghia Anna underneath the stars, and soon they are the closest of friends. Vonni, a native who too escaped her family many years ago, becomes involved in all their lives and together they form bonds and discover things about each other and themselves that they never could have anticipated. *2004, Ireland/UK/Australia, Orion ISBN 0-7528-5166-7, Pub date 25 August 2004, Hardback *2004, USA, Dutton ISBN 0-525-94754-X, Pub date 21 September 2004, Hardback *2005, USA, Dutton ISBN 0-451-21446-3, Pub date 28 June 2005, Paperback *2005, Ireland/UK/Australia, Orion ISBN 978-0-7528-6536-2, Pub date 29 June 2005, Paperback |
Frozen in Time | Ali Sparkes | 2,009 | Ben and Rachel Corder are staying in their house with their dreary old uncle when the TV satellite breaks and the TV explodes. Unable to do anything to amuse themselves, Ben and Rachel start digging in the garden and find themselves opening a hatch. They drop themselves into it and find themselves in what looks like an old-fashioned underground house, where they find a what looks like a torpedo and are shocked to see two dead bodies in it. Rachel accidentally presses a button and suddenly the hatch opens and the bodies come to life. Rachel faints and Ben starts talking gibberish in his shock. The two people that had before seemed dead introduced themselves as Freddy and Polly Emerson and asked why they were in their fathers' vault. When Rachel and Ben explained, they first refused to believe it, but then believed when Rachel and Ben took them into their house. Freddy and Polly revealed they had been put into cryonic suspension - their father had stopped their hearts and was able to make them start again. Freddy and Polly had been put to sleep in 1956 and woke up in 2009. They couldn't understand why their father had deserted them. In time, Rachel and Ben introduce them to 2009, and Freddy and Polly are frequently shocked. They get sent to school (under the name Robertson, in case there's anyone old enough on the school staff to remember) and try to research what happened to their father. A cheerful librarian gives them documents. One day, Rachel reads an email sent to her by her uncle which reads: "Get out of the house now!!! You are in danger!" Ben and Freddy, who had been escaping bullies who constantly taunt them partly because of Ben's stutter and partly because of Freddy and Polly's posh accents and their peculiar habbits, come back to see Rachel and Polly being drugged and thrown into the boot of the car. Ben knocks a man out with a camera and runs to the librarian, who had been behind it all. She had suspected Freddy and Polly's real identity and wanted to learn how to work cryonic suspension. Ben is also drugged and thrown into the car. The car drives away and Rachel wakes up to see Polly being taken out of the car to be boarded onto a helicopter. She finds a torch, picks the lock of the boot with a hairgrip and sprays antiseptic into the librarians' eyes. They then get taken to a place where all the people who were working to find Freddy and Polly's father have been working on helping them to escape and Freddy and Polly are reunited with their Father, who built another cryonic suspension machine and froze himself inside it so that he would not grow old and die without his children. The story ends with Freddy and Polly trying to teach their father about 2009 life. |
Daughter of Darkness | null | null | A young woman named Willamina "Willie" Connolly is the daughter of a prosperous New York couple, editor Matt Connolly and his wife Willamina, an Irish concert pianist. Willie is a child prodigy with an extremely high IQ. Her parents believe her to be a happy, contented child, but this is a carefully contrived mask. Her primary motivation is independence; she detests anyone making decisions for her, especially based on her age or appearance. Her very name, Willamina Junior, made her feel like a bad carbon copy, until she discovered Gertrude Stein's The World Is Round and began to call herself Willie. She has made a thorough study of anthropology and is an accomplished practitioner of witchcraft and sympathetic magic. Her doll collection is actually an array of poppets which she uses to curse those who displease her. This backfires on her when one of her spells leads to her mother's death. Willie's remorse and her wish to see her father happy again develops over the years into incestuous desire, although Willie herself does not realize it. |
Tristan and Iseult | Rosemary Sutcliff | null | Tristan is depicted as a prince of Lothian, whose king Rivalin married the sister of Mark of Cornwall, making Tristan the nephew King Mark. Tristan's mother is shown as dying in his childbirth, and his name as being from the latin root word trista http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trista, reflecting the sadness of Rivalin at the loss of his wife. He journeys to the Kingdom of Cornwall in effort to prove himself, and enters the service of King Mark without revealing his identity. After defeating the Irish champion Morholt, Tristan's identity is revealed, and his position as Champion of Cornwall solidified. Having been wounded by the poisoned blade of Morholt, Tristan wastes away, eventually being set adrift in a boat by his own choice. He lands on the shores of Ireland, and his healed by the skills of Iseult of Ireland, although without actually meeting her. Upon returning to Cornwall, he is involved in a move to have King Mark marry. Tristan is sent on a quest to find a bride for the king, and winds up once again in Ireland. Tristan defeats a dragon, is once again healed by Iseult, and though given her hand in marriage as reward, promises to bring her back to Cornwall as bride for his Uncle. These events are shown in light of bringing peace to an ongoing war between the two kingdoms. Tristan and Iseult are stranded on a distant shore for a few days, delaying their return to Cornwall, and cementing their own love for each other, despite the commitments of circumstances. Sutcliff herself states that she intentionally left out the love potion as something 'artificial' . Upon returning to Cornwall, Iseult is wedded to King Mark, and they both seek to behave honorably by maintaining a distance between themselves. They eventually end up having a clandestine relationship, and are caught by King Mark. After various conflicts, Tristan is banished from Cornwall, and travels to Brittany, entering the service of King Hoel of Brittany. Tristan befriends Hoel's son Kahedin, and is married to Hoel's daughter, Iseult of the White Hands. The relationship is never consummated, with Tristan pining away for Iseult of Ireland. Kahedin is killed by the husband of his own original love, after a successful visit aided by Tristan. Tristan is once again sorely wounded, and sends for Iseult of Ireland to come and heal him. The returning ship is to furl white sails if it returns with her, and black sails if not, much like the story of Theseus returning to his father. Iseult of the White Hands lies to Tristan out of jealousy, saying that the sails are black, and he dies. Iseult of Ireland finds him dead, and dies by his side. They are buried together back in Cornwall, with a hazel tree growing from his heart and a honeysuckle from hers, intertwining above their graves. Similar to many of her novels, Sutcliff depicts these ancient and legendary stories in a realistic fashion. She also focuses on the themes of individuals bound by obligation, also using the visual balance between the dark haired Tristan and the blonde haired Iseult. |
King of Kilba | Percy F. Westerman | 1,926 | Kenneth Kilsyth, a young clerk in a London counting house, and a most reluctant employee, wins £1000 in a football pool (nearly £200,000 at present-day prices calculated as average earnings, or over £43,000 calculated as retail price index). Inviting his sole friend and fellow clerk, Gerald Hayes, to join him, he embarks on a journey of adventure. Some time later, they find themselves the sole passengers on a merchant ship, the S.S. Mumtaz, steaming from Vancouver to Honolulu, but all the officers and most of the sailors are quickly wiped out by a mysterious disease, leaving the two passengers the only people alive. Bridges, the quartermaster of the crew, survives long enough to help dispose of the bodies overboard and shows the lads how to rig a sail on to the wallowing freighter. Under the influence of the North-East trade winds and the North Equatorial current, the Mumtaz eventually drifts over a coral reef and lodges on the leeward side. The boys are near an island, and arming themselves with guns from the captain’s cabin, they land on the island. At dawn, atop a small hill, they are confronted by an army of 'savages'. But the natives attack on stilts (the ground is taboo to them) and the boys are able to defend themselves. The attack is suddenly called off by an elderly white man who speaks broken English. He reveals that he was shipwrecked many years before and has become 'King' of the island, called Kilba. This is in accordance with a local prophecy that a white man will always rule the people. From him, they learn that tribal warfare between the two islands of Kilba and Neka has existed for many generations. They take part in some battles, and eventually the old king dies. Kilsyth is forced to accept the title, with 'Haya', as Hayes in now known, as his 'brother'. They conduct the continuing war against the neighbouring island. They attempt to introduce the islanders to football and cricket. Cricket proves so attractive that the natives relax their vigilance. The Nekas invade and carry off Hayes as a captive. He is lowered into an abyss as a sacrifice to an enormous crab, known as 'Bonga Te Akka' (The great mill wheel) The crab, with a shell six feet across and claws over eight feet long, is about to devour its prey when Kilsyth and an army of Kilbans arrive to rescue him. But the tables are turned and Kilsyth is himself sacrificed to the crab. His small gun is useless, but he manages to light a fire, which deflects and then burns the crab to death. The Nekans attempt to kill Kilsyth anyway, but are thwarted when the two heroes are rescued by a party of New Zealanders prospecting for ambergris. In fact, one of the island's sheltered bays contains vast stores of this valuable material. The two men promise to reveal the location of the cache, in return for equal partnerships in the firm of Wilcox and Co in Auckland, who are sponsoring the search. They fly away in the explorer's aeroplane, thus fulfilling another island prophecy that the King will be taken away by a 'great bird' when his work is done. |
Babylon Revisited | F. Scott Fitzgerald | 1,931 | The story is set in the year after the crash of the 1929, just after what Fitzgerald called the "Jazz Age". Brief flashbacks take place in the Jazz age itself. Much of it is based on the author's own experiences. |
Richard Yates | Tao Lin | 2,010 | Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning (unrelated to their child star namesakes) are friends who initially met over the internet and converse with each other regularly through Gmail chat. Haley is a 22-year-old author in Manhattan, and Dakota is a 16-year-old high school student in a nearby suburb in New Jersey. |
The Still Point | null | 2,010 | The book's two central characters are Edward Mackley, an Arctic explorer who went missing during an expedition at the turn of the 20th Century, and his great-grand-niece Julia, who lives a hundred years later. On a hot summer's day Julia begins sorting through the belongings she has inherited from her uncle, while trying to ignore the cracks which are appearing in her marriage. However, as the day wears on she makes a discovery that forces her to re-evaluate her long-held image of her uncle, her husband Simon faces a choice that will decide the future of their relationship. |
The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz | Jules Verne | null | Railway engineer Henri Vidal was invited by his younger brother Marc to pay him a visit in the (fictional) city of Ragz, Hungary. Marc was engaged to Myra Roderich, the daughter of highly praised Dr. Roderich. Before leaving Paris, he learned that a man named Wilhelm Storitz had proposed to Myra, but he was refused. Henri describes his journey, made on land and on the Danube River on the barge Dorothée, also noting monuments and cities he sees on the way. At his arrival in Ragz he received a warm welcome from Myra's family. One day, Dr. Roderich told Henri and Haralan (Myra's brother) that Wilhelm Storitz had come to request to propose again to Myra. When he is again refused, he threatened the family. Before the marriage, a contract must be signed by the town governor as an old tradition from Ragz. A party was organized for the event, which was disrupted by a mysterious voice that sang the German Hate Song. To make matters worse, the contract was found torn to pieces and the bride's wreath lifted itself and hovered mysteriously in the air, ensuing panic among the people at the party. After reporting the events to the chief of the Ragz police, Heinrich Stepark, he suspected that the culprit must be Wilhelm Storitz, as he was the only person who profoundly disrespected the Roderichs. Wilhelm's house was searched but, beside Myra's bride wreath and a mysterious yellow fluid in a blue vial, no significant evidence was found. A few days later, after getting the permission from the governor, Myra Roderich and Marc Vidal were ready to be wed the next day at the Ragz cathedral. On June the 1st, seconds before being wed, the same voice mentioned above cursed the couple. Myra lost consciousness and was given special care. By now the entire population of the town suspected Wilhelm Storitz to be the culprit. As a consequence, the mob burned his house down, despite the efforts made by police agents. Later, while on a walk, Henri and Stepark overheard a conversation between Wilhelm and his servant Hermann, both in a state of invisibility, as they had been throughout the novel's plot. Stepark attempted to capture Wilhelm but failed. When they returned, they found Myra missing. The next day, using the information gathered from the conversation, Haralan fought with an invisible Wilhelm and defeated him. As he bled, Wilhelm became visible. Hermann wasn't there but he was found dead later in the same garden where he died of a heart failure and regained his visibility. Back home they miraculously found Myra, who hadn't left her bed at all - she was just invisible. As Wilhelm had died, and the antidote had been destroyed, Myra was to remain invisible forever. |
An Imaginative Approach to Teaching | null | null | This book contains three main chapters. Each of these chapters focuses on a particular stage of cognitive development and the set of cognitive tools that people use at these stages. The stages are linked to the development of oral language, literacy and theoretical thinking. The first chapter describes the cognitive tools linked with oral language use. These include story form, metaphor, binary opposites, rhyme, rhythm and pattern, humor, mental imagery among others. These tools first become present in preliterate people, which generally happen to be children before the age of seven. The second chapter describes the cognitive tools that are added with the onset of literacy. These include a sense of reality, interest in extremes of experience, association with heroes, connecting knowledge with human meaning, narrative understanding among others. Egan states that these tools do not replace the previous toolkit, but are additions. The third chapter describes the cognitive tools that are added when students are nurtured toward theoretical thinking. The two previous toolkits are prerequisites to developing this toolkit. Some of the tools indicated here are a sense of abstract reality, a sense of agency, a grasp of general ideas and their anomalies, a search for authority and truth, and meta-narrative understanding. After each of these three chapters, a section referred to as a “half chapter” is included. These half chapters include suggested planning frameworks for the preceding cognitive toolkit and a series of example lessons or units. |
The Sly Old Cat | Beatrix Potter | 1,906 | A cat invites a rat to her tea party. She eats her bread and leaves only crumbs for the rat. She drinks her tea and leaves only drops of milk for the rat. The rat believes she will eat him for dessert and wishes he had not come. When the cat raises the milk jug to drink the last of the milk, the rat gives the jug a pat and it slips down over the cat's head. She bangs about the kitchen unable to free herself. The rat sips some tea, puts a muffin in a paper bag, and leaves. Later, he eats the muffin. |
Vapor | Amanda Filipacchi | 1,999 | Vapor is the story of Anna Graham, an aspiring actress who one night saves the life of a stranger being attacked in the subway. The stranger, Damon Wetly, an unconventional scientist, decides that he will repay Anna’s selfless act by making her dream of becoming a great actress come true. In a twisted reworking of the Pygmalion myth, Damon abducts Anna, imprisons her in a house filled with experimental clouds, and spends months putting her through a grueling training regimen which allows her acting skills to reach unprecedented heights and Anna to achieve her Hollywood ambitions. |
Auf der Höhe | null | null | The central figure is a king whose self-confident individuality comes in conflict with his love of popular freedom. Anticipating the superman of later writers, he feels that his nature is cast in too large a mold to be confined by constitutional restraints or ethical conventions. In conflict with a majority of the elected representatives of the people over some ecclesiastical question, he dissolves the assembly in his impatience of any outer control. The same characteristics are manifesting themselves meantime in his domestic life. His queen is a gentle lady of domestic instincts. He loves her, yet he finds in the forceful, energetic Countess Irma, one of her ladies in waiting, a spirit so answering to his own that they join to transgress, he the bond of marriage, she of loyalty to her queen. Atonement comes first to Irma, who withdraws from the court into solitude, recognizing that one who would live a life of nature may not claim the protection of the social order. Thus the king is brought to realize that life for its full unfolding depends not only on following the law of nature or the law of custom, but in the co-ordination of them, when man of his own free will yields obedience to law. He dismisses his autocratic counsellors and bows to the will of his people. The stress of this psychic drama is relieved by scenes between the queen and Wallpurga, the little prince's peasant nurse, who passes, as does her husband, through a conflict parallel to that of Irma and the king, though both are saved from straying by their unsophisticated respect for the folkways. The contrast between court and peasant life is a primary interest in On the Heights. |
The Cannibal | John Hawkes | null | The novel is divided in three parts. The first and the last are set in 1945, in an imaginary small German town ravaged by the war, Spitzen-on-the-Dein. The second part takes place during the First World War, from 1914 (the title of this part of the novel) to 1918. It is difficult to outline the plot of the novel because when the narrative shifts from 1945 to 1914 we are not clearly told what is the relation of the characters in that part of the novel with those of the first and last part; the only continuity is the presence in all three parts of Madame Snow. Stella Snow is a young and promising night club singer, daughter of a German general, in 1914; she is the owner of a boarding house in the destitute Spitzen-on-the-Dein of 1945. However, the story, told in a surrealistic or anti-realistic fashion, may be summarized by saying that the two parts of the novel set in 1945 depict the material and moral wasteland created by Nazism and W.W.II; the first part can be said to show the roots of those horrors in the years of earlier German imperialism and the humiliating defeat of 1918. While the first and last part are told by a first-person narrator, Zizendorf, who masterminds a crackpot plot to kill the American overseer of the occupied German town, Leevey, and start a rebellion of the defeated Germans against the Allied invaders, the central part is a third-person narrative where fragments of the past are told, describing episodes which involve the owner of a tavern, Herman, and his son Ernst (who marries Stella), and a mysterious Englishman called Cromwell, who seems to have sided with the Germans against England but might also be a spy. |
The Popularity Papers | null | 2,010 | Two fifth-grade friends, Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang, want to learn how to be popular before entering middle school. The book is their journal, documenting their misadventures to become more popular, as well as their family and school life. |
The Rice Sprout Song | Eileen Chang | 1,955 | The novel tells the story of a peasant family and their struggle for basic sustenance while the government does little to help, and in fact, demands more goods from the peasants as they cope with the harsh weather and a food shortage. The book begins with the wedding of Gold Flower T'an, the sister of Gold Root T'an. In this part of the book, Chang shares with the reader Chinese family traditions and the bonds between family members. For example, a bride would be escorted by her family to the groom's house in a carriage where there would later be a wedding banquet hosted by the groom's family. For now, Gold Root T'an is living with his daughter, Beckon while his wife is working in the city to provide for her family. |
The Elf on the Shelf | null | null | Every day from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve, each family's scout elf watches over the children and then at night, once everyone goes to bed, the elf flies back to the North Pole to report back to Santa about what activities, good and bad, took place throughout the day. Before the family wakes up each morning, the scout elf flies back from the North Pole and hides. By hiding in a new spot each morning around the house, the scout elf and the family play an on-going game of hide and seek. The Elf on the Shelf explains that elves get their magic by being named. In the back of each book, families have an opportunity to write their elf's name and the date that they adopted it. Once the elf is named, the scout elf receives its special Christmas magic which allows it to fly to and from the North Pole. However, the magic might go if touched, so the rule for The Elf on the Shelf states: "There's only one rule that you have to follow so I will come back and be here tomorrow: Please do not touch me. My magic might go, and Santa won't hear all I've seen or I know." Although families aren't supposed to touch their scout elf, they can talk to it and tell it all their Christmas wishes so it can report back to Santa accurately. |
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe | Charles Yu | 2,010 | The novel centers around Charles Yu, a time machine mechanic. He lives in his TM-31 time machine with his non-existent dog, Ed, and the time machine's depressed computer, TAMMY. Yu travels through Minor Universe 31 fixing time machines of people who try to fix the past. He visits Linus Skywalker who tried to kill his father, Luke Skywalker because his father's fame overshadowed Linus's life. Yu also visits a girl who traveled to be with her grandmother as she died. Yu explains to her that because she wasn't present when it happened, she cannot stay. Yu is called in by his boss, Phil, to have his time machine serviced. He walks around in the city while his TM-31 is being repaired and visits his mother who is in a time loop in which she continually replays an hour of her life. He watches a holographic version of himself and his mother interact as she serves dinner. The next day Yu rushes back to his time machine, sees his future self exit his machine, and shoots his future self. As his future self is dying, the future self gives Yu a book and says that the book is the key. By shooting himself, Yu has entered a loop in which he must eventually travel back in time, hand his past self the book, and get shot. Yu quickly takes off in his time machine and begins to rewrite the book by reading from the book he was handed. He eventually asks himself what would happen if he skipped forward, and so he jumps to the end of the book. He wakes up in a Buddhist temple and sees "The Woman My Mother Should Have Been" as well as his father's shoes. He exits the temple and finds himself in a shuttle. Yu finds himself back in his TM-31 and floats through memories that he sees play out before him. He explains how he and his father invented the time machine and brought it to the director of research at the Institute of Conceptual Technology. Yu's father explained the concepts but was unable to get his machine to work. Back in the TM-31, Yu finds a key in the book he is writing that leads him to discover a diorama with a clock that points to a time. TAMMY and Yu realize that this is a clue to where they can find Yu's father, but also realize that they are headed back to the hanger so Yu's past self can shoot him. Yu realizes as he flies in that he loves TAMMY and she loves him. He steps out of his time machine and gets shot, but lives as it was just a shot to his stomach. In the appendix, Yu talks about visiting the place and time displayed by the diorama. He finds his father, trapped because his time machine broke down. Yu makes amends with his father and then travels to the present. He reunites his dad with his mom, then sets off to find "The Woman You Never Married". He continues to write his novel, but suggests he "keep stalling, see how long you can keep expanding the infinitely expandable moment". |
Our Nig | Harriet E. Wilson | null | Our Nig opens up with the story of Mag Smith. In the past, Mag was seduced and left with a child out of wedlock. After the child dies, Mag moves away to a place where no one knows her. In this new town, she meets a black man named Jim who falls for Mag. She resists him at first but she soon realizes that her efforts are futile. Jim and Mag eventually marry and they have two children: Frado and a son. Later on, Jim grows ill, and dies. Mag is once again left by herself, only this time she has two children to care for. Mag marries Seth, one of Jim’s business partners, and he takes the family under his wing. Eventually Mag and Seth realize that they cannot care for both of the children and he suggests they send Frado to live with the Bellmonts. Mag refuses at first, but reluctantly agrees with Seth and the decision is made to send Frado to live with them. Frado is then dropped off at the house under the guise that Mag will be back to pick her up later in the day. After a few days, the Bellmonts along with Frado come to the realization that Mag never intended on returning. We receive a description of Mr. Bellmont that he is kind and humane, however Mrs. Bellmont on the other hand is the complete opposite. The Bellmonts also have four children, two boys and two girls. The family decides whether or not to keep Frado and if they do, where she should sleep. Frado is sent to live in a separate part of the house that she will soon outgrow. The following day Mrs. Bellmont calls for Frado early in the morning and puts her to work washing dishes, preparing food, etc. Mr. Bellmont is humble towards Frado. Jack is accepting Frado since her skin complexion is not very dark. Mary is against Frado's presence and wants her to go the County House instead. Mrs. Bellmont is not happy with Frado's existence in the house but manages to find ways to make her useful by serving as a perfect work girl. Frado lives in a new room unfinished chamber over the kitchen. A year passed and Frado accepted that she is part of the Bellmont family. Jack buys Frado a dog named Fido, who becomes her friend and eases her loneliness. Later on, Frado is allowed to attend school with Mary. One afternoon on their way home, Mary tries to force Frado into the water but falls into it instead. Later that day, Mary runs home to tell her mother that Frado pushed her into the stream. Frado receives a good whipping from Mrs. Bellmont and Jack futilely tries to defend Frado. Nig runs away and Mr. Bellmont, Jack and James search for her. She asks James that if God made him, Aunt Abby, and Mrs. Bellmont white, then she dislikes God for making her black. The first day of spring a letter arrives from James about his declining health. Jack comes to visit the family. Mrs. Bellmont beat Frado senseless and mentioned if she ever exposes her to James she would “cut her tongue out”. By November James' health starts to deteriorate further. Mary leaves home to nurse her brother, Jake. James requests Frado to stay by his bed side until further notice. Mrs. Bellmont discovers Frado reading the bible. Mrs. Bellmont speaks to her husband about Frado going to the evening meetings. In the following spring, James passes away. After James’ death, Frado once again conflicts with her unfitness to be in Heaven, and seeks Aunt Abbey’s aid. Aunt Abbey teaches Frado about God and the Bible, invites her to a church meeting, and encourages her to believe in Him and seek the passage of Heaven. When Mr. Bellmont grows concerned for Frado’s health from her beatings, Frado one day takes his advice. Before Mrs. Bellmont would strike her down with a stick for taking too long to bring firewood, Frado threatens to stop working for her if she did. Mrs. Bellmont unexpectedly relents. From there after, she whips her less frequently. News arrives that Mary dies from illness. Frado considers escaping, but realizes the lack of choices in which to take. She decides to wait until her contract was over at the age of eighteen. Overtime, Jane leaves the house, and Jack moves back in, introducing his family to his wife, whom Mrs. Bellmont verbally abused due to the fact that she was poor. When Frado turns eighteen, she is arranged to make clothes for the Moores family. Due to her ailing health, she slowly becomes unable to work. She moves to a shelter where two elderly women take care of her for two years. For a while, she is nursed again by Mrs. Moore, but after her husband leaves, Frado is forced again to find work. She eventually is employed by a poor woman in Massachusetts who instructs her on making bonnets. Though growing feebler and declining in health, Frado makes substantial wages.Despite three years of failing health,a few years later Frado moves to Singleton where she marries a fugitive slave named Samuel whose back wasn't as bruised as hers. He constantly leaves her to go "lecture". These lectures left Frado home for weeks at a time with little money. Once again Frado is left to depend on her self especially during the birth of her child. During Samuel's absence Frado becomes sick one last time leaving she and her child to find shelter in the home of a poor woman where she later recovers. Over time in New Orleans her husband becomes sick with yellow fever which leaves her to depend on herself permanently. Now that Frado is on her own she has to find work by traveling through the different towns of Massachusetts. She goes through a few hardships but later in the book we see a busy Frado preparing her merchandise for costumers. In the end, Mr. and Mrs. Bellmont, Aunt Abbey, Jack and his wife have all died. Jane and Henry, Susan and her child are all old. No one remembers Frado. The last line of the book ends with "but she will never cease to track them till beyond mortal vision". Even though everyone may have forgotten about Frado, she still remembers them. |
Night Thoughts of a Classical Physicist | null | 1,982 | Victor Jakob, a Physics professor in a small German university, reflects on his life as a physicist, recalling major discoveries and ideas of recent decades and his interactions with prominent physicists whose ideas challenge the classical physics worldview. Meanwhile the tide of World War I is turning against Germany. As he meditates on the changing world, Jakob hikes to a mountain overlooking his university, where he becomes trapped in a muddy ditch, while gunfire rings out below. In an apparently hopeless situation, he takes out his revolver and "open[s] his mouth." (Some reviewers characterize his apparent death as an accident, while others interpret it as suicide, a parallel to that of Ludwig Boltzmann; John Maddox considered it open to interpretation whether Jakob succeeds in killing himself.) |
White Shark | null | null | A quiet Long Island fishing community is suddenly struck with terror when an amphibious beast created by a mad Nazi scientist is unleashed on the town. Dr. Simon Chase, a struggling man who leaves his wife and child to finish school at a Marine Biology science institute sees his son, Max for the first time in twelve years. A crew tracking a pregnant Great White (ironically named "Jaws") spot a porpoise with a claw gash in its tail and see massive kills of sea life; when they then observe the same claw marks on Jaws herself, Chase knows that there must be something big out there to attack a great white. Dr. Amanda Macy, who studies whales using sea lions with strapped-on video cameras, allows herself to actually see the creature firsthand. Macy's camera gets a shot of a clawed hand attacking a fish. After additional horrific and bloody encounters at sea, the beast comes ashore, endangering the entire town. Now it's up to Chase to try and stop the creature before it kills off the entire town, and eventually move on... |
Bones to Ashes | Kathy Reichs | 2,007 | Bones to Ashes follows a forensic anthropologist who had just moved to Montreal. While in Montreal she hears about a box of bones that could be her old friend Evangeline who disappeared along with her sister. While Temp is working on her regular cases and the case with the bones she believes is her friend. As on and off lover and co-work of hers Andy Ryan is involved in a case with three dead girls, Temp decides to get involved in as well. While working on this case Temp’s husband decides to divorce her for a woman 20 years younger than he is. There are then many events that leads to uncovering child pornography. At the end one girl was killed by her father who committed suicide not long after. Another girl is still alive who is going by a fake name to hide her dark past and the third girl was never identified. |
Devil Bones | Kathy Reichs | null | Animal and human remains are found in a house under renovation in Charlotte, North Carolina. Signs of satanism and devil worship are also found which lead to a witch hunt by the panicked citizens. |
The Obama Identity | null | null | Prior to Obama's election, the protagonist, a CIA agent named Theodore J. Higginbothem III, or "Higgy" uncovers a vast conspiracy surrounding Barack Obama. After Obama is elected, the protagonist attempts suicide, but is unsuccessful; afterwards, he goes to work for the president. |
Mistborn: The Alloy of Law | Brandon Sanderson | 2,011 | Tor has given a short synopsis of the novel, which is as follows: # |
The Haunting | Joan Lowery Nixon | 1,998 | As the story opens, Lia, 15, is at her great-grandmother Sarah's bedside. Delirious, the old woman begins to speak of Graymoss Plantation, the Louisiana family estate left unoccupied for decades because of a "terrible, fearful evil." After the woman's death, Lia discovers that the house has been willed to her mother, who plans to move the family in and adopt a group of hard-to-place children. Lia is against this idea and vows to prove to her mother that the house is truly haunted. She learns that the ghostly occurrences are well documented and that several locals oppose the family taking up residence at Graymoss. Could one of these people be staging the hauntings? Lia has a change of heart, however, after she meets the children her parents want to care for and resolves to take on the ghosts herself. Aided by a collection of Edgar Allan Poe's stories, she eventually succeeds in driving the spirits away. The ghosts are reminiscent of those in Shirley Jackson's classic The Haunting of Hill House, whispering through the walls and sending books flying through the air. The novel ends somewhat abruptly, and a potentially interesting romantic relationship fizzles out completely, but this is still a page-turner that will satisfy mystery and ghost story fans. |
Call Me Elizabeth: Wife, Mother, Escort | null | 2,006 | When full-time legal secretary Dawn Annandale notices an advertisement in a magazine which states that attractive girls can earn up to £300 per night by engaging in escort work, her curiosity is piqued. At first, she thinks that the work would be in dissonance to her own life which consists of having six children between the ages of two and twelve, having a nice home in Kent and a husband, Paul. The struggle to maintain a privileged middle class existence led to Dawn's realisation that herself and her husband 'were very probably guilty of trying to live a champagne lifestyle on an orange juice budget.' The author's account of her subsequent actions attempt to explain to the reader that she was motivated by her fervent desire to give to her children a happy and stable beginning in life. From the start of Dawn's marriage, Paul leaves the running of the house and the sorting of finances to Dawn. He assures Dawn that he is happy for her to do what she thinks is best for the family. When she enrols her first child at a private primary school, she feels that this sets a precedent for her other children to be educated up to the same standards. Financial matters are further complicated by the additional costs of after-school clubs, school uniforms and music lessons. Her impecunious situation prompts her to make an appointment with Jimmy, a man in charge of the escort operation. Jimmy comments that Dawn is very different from his other girls. This adds to Dawn's anxiety because she worries that she will not experience financial success. When Jimmy asks her the reasons as to why she is seeking to pursue this form of work, Dawn replies honestly that she is motivated by the fact that she has 'six kids to feed and educate and a mountain of debts to pay.' When Dawn sees her first client, she introduces herself as Elizabeth. Although she is overwhelmed by trepidation, uncertaintly and anxiety during her experience, her fears soon dissipate when she visits subsequent clients. Many of the men she sees are exceptionally protective of her in that they give Dawn/ Elizabeth advice on the best means by which to conduct herself so that she can decrease the chances of finding herself in a dangerous situation. She is also struck by how many of her clients are lonely men who feel ignored by their wives. many of her clients request her on multiple occasions because of her ability to engage in intellectual conversations. When it dawns upon the author how lucrative her newfound position is, she leaves her job as a legal secretary and works as a full-time escort. She joins a new agency and becomes acquainted with Trish runs the switchboard. Elizabeth becomes more adept in her role and her confidence increases. When she rings a local radio station which asks listeners to provide an account of what they are doing late at night, Elizabeth reveals the activities in which she has been engaged. She is happy and pleased at the amount of public support she receives. Her comfort level becomes challenged when one of her male friends discovers the double life that she has been leading. |
Grandville | null | null | The book begins with a chase in the streets of Paris, also known as Grandville, in which British diplomat Raymond Leigh-Otter (an otter) escapes from a group of assassins. The action then cuts to Leigh-Otter's house, in which he is found shot dead and the local police are inspecting the body. Detective Inspector Archie LeBrock of Scotland Yard, a large, heavily built badger, arrives with his assistant, Detective Roderick Ratzi (a rat), and deduces that Leigh-Otter was in fact murdered, after LeBrock notices that Leigh-Otter is holding the gun in his right paw when in fact he is left-handed. Thus, they go to Paris in order to investigate. After LeBrock and Ratzi check into their hotel, they learn that Leigh-Otter often met up with a female guest, Coco (a very attractive cat), the dresser for music hall star Sarah Blairow (a badger). After further investigation they learn that others have also committed suicide, including Coco. As LeBrock goes to meet Sarah, he finds that some assassins have come to kill her. LeBrock gets rid of them and learns that they are working for an organisation called "The Knights of Lyon". LeBrock tells Sarah to go into hiding while he and Ratzi try to solve the case. While LeBrock attempts to find more information by interviewing the British ambassador, Honourable Citizen Turtell (a tortoise), Ratzi learns the Knights of Lyon are a medieval religious cult possibly connected to the Knights Templar. They visit the Robida Tower ground zero site, which had been bombed by British anarchists, causing tension between Britain and France. Two assassins approach LeBrock, who makes his way to a Turkish bath. LeBrock stops them and learns that the assassins do not know who they are working for, knowing them only as "The Knights". LeBrock kills them. Ratzi investigates another of the suicides, that of Professor Tope (a mole), pioneer of automaton engineering. After talking to his son, they learn he had an assistant called Snowy Milou (white Wire Fox Terrier). After searching Tope's old lab, LeBrock receives a telephone call from Sarah asking him to visit, because she is worried about her safety. She seduces LeBrock after he arrives and the two make love. The next day, LeBrock learns that Milou has become an opium addict and drug dealer. Ratzi uncovers a photograph which features Tope and several other public figures: Jean-Marie Lapin (a rabbit), a far-right nationalist politician and now Prime Minister who came to power following the bombing of Robida Tower, promising a "War on Terror"; Madame Krupp (a wombat), an arms manufacturer and newspaper owner; the Archbishop of Paris (a chimpanzee); Reinhardt (a rhinoceros) the Minister for War; and Hyen (a hyena), Chief of Police and Secret Service. LeBrock believes they are the Knights of Lyon and goes to investigate the Archbishop. LeBrock meets up with Milou and learns from him the whereabouts of the Archbishop. LeBrock and Ratzi capture the Archbishop, tie him to a chair and threaten to kill him by setting fire to him. LeBrock deduces that the attack on Robida Tower was organised by the Archbishop and the other Knights (with the help of Tope), who used the British anarchists as scapegoats. Under pressure, the Archbishop tells them that they did it because they believed they could protect French society from decadency and atheism by uniting them against a common enemy. An attempt to unite the people by having a war in French Indo-China had failed, so the Knights began to spread stories of a British super-bomb aimed at Paris. Their final plan is to launch a skyship from Krupp's estate and fly it into the Paris Opera House, where thousands will be watching the Trans-Empire Song Contest. Afterwards, LeBrock sets the Archbishop on fire, killing him. Outside, LeBrock tells Ratzi that he believes that Leigh-Otter was not a diplomat, but a member of the British Secret Service trying to stop the Knights' plan. As LeBrock and Ratzi arrive back at the hotel, they receive a message from Sarah saying that she is in danger. The two arrive at her hideout to find she is being held captive by the assassins. During a shoot-out, Sarah is killed and Ratzi badly injured. The following morning, LeBrock asks a human bellboy at the hotel to collect some things for him - things he will use to make bombs. LeBrock makes his way to the Krupp estate, where the Knights are preparing for the attack on the Opera House. LeBrock sets off his bombs and shoots Krupp, Hyen, Lapin and Reinhardt. Krupp's dying words, to LeBrock, are that the Knights were loyal to the Emperor. He realises that they are not "The Knights of Lyons", but "The Knights of The Lion", the lion being Emperor Napoleon XII, the head of state. LeBrock is hit over the head with a chair by Reinhardt, who was not dead but only injured. Reinhardt makes his way to the skyship and prepares to leave. LeBrock follows him and grabs hold of the skyship as it takes off. Not seeing LeBrock, Reinhardt sets the skyship's course and prepares to jump out. As he opens the door, LeBrock jumps in. Reinhardt charges at him, but falls out of the door. As he falls, LeBrock shoots him dead. LeBrock then changes the skyship's course, crashing it into Napoleon's palace. The next day the public learns the truth about the Knights and the attack on Robida Tower, with some wondering if a revolution might happen following the news. LeBrock meets up again with Ratzi in hospital. |
The Warlock: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel | Michael Scott | null | At the end of The Necromancer, twins Sophie and Josh Newman were separated. Sophie left with the now very weak protagonist Nicholas Flamel, his wife, Perenelle Flamel and Niten, an immortal Japanese swordsman; while Josh exited with the main antagonist Dr. John Dee and his accomplice Virginia Dare. Mars Ultor, the Avenger, sees Sophie, accompanied by Niten, seeking a way to reclaim her brother. Nicholas Flamel is unable to help her in the search as he lapsed into unconsciousness after the battle against Dr. Dee, Virginia Dare and the Archon, Coatlicue. Perenelle and Prometheus escape from Hades, Prometheus's long drawn-out punishment shadowrealm, which crumbles into nothing, because Prometheus uses most of his aura to feed the crystal skull. Meanwhile, in the Catacombs underneath Paris the previously imprisoned and very powerful Elder, Mars Ultor has a conversation with his wife, the Witch of Endor, and the Egyptian Elders: Isis and Osiris. The witch has come there to free him while Isis and Osiris are hunting down Dr. John Dee. In San Francisco, Niten leads Sophie to Tsagaglalal, She Who Watches, who is in reality Sophie's Aunt Agnes. Perenelle, Nicholas, and Prometheus join them shortly. Nicholas is set to die within the day and Perenelle two days later, but the mysterious Hook-Handed Man told Perenelle long ago that she could give her husband one more day of life in exchange for one of her own. Through a ritual that requires Tsagaglalal and Sophie's auras, Perenelle is able to keep Nicholas alive for another day as well as awaken him from his coma. In Danu Talis, Scathach, Saint Germain, Palamedes, Shakespeare, and Joan of Arc are captured and sent to a volcano prison. Marethyu is captured and taken to the ruler of Danu Talis, Aten. Aten is facing betrayal from his brother, Anubis and mother Bastet. He fears the destruction of Danu Talis but also reaches an epiphany that if Danu Talis is not brought down, future civilizations will never be created. He asks the Hook-Handed Man for advice. Marethyu advises that Aten become an oath breaker, or a warlock, and turn the city over to Marethyu. He agrees but Anubis arrives to arrest Aten. Aten allows himself to be captured to let Marethyu escape in a crystal vimana (flying saucer). In the present, Odin, Hel, Black Hawk, and Mars Ultor arrive at Tsagaglalal's home to seek her wisdom. Tsagaglalal then gives everyone emerald tablets that Abraham the Mage (who was her husband) wrote personally for them. Mars, Hel, and Odin then go to Alcatraz to kill Dee. Nicholas, Perenelle, Niten, and Prometheus go to the Embarcadero to stop The Lotan, a seven-headed sea monster released by Dee with the help of the Elder, Nereus. Sophie spends time with Tsagaglalal who teaches her the Magic of Earth. To her surprise, however, Sophie is taught that all magic is one; there is no true division, it is just pure imagination. Tsagagalal takes Sophie to reunite with Josh on Alcatraz. While spending time together on Alcatraz, Machiavelli bonds with Billy the Kid and they decide to break the oaths made to their Elder masters, becoming warlocks. This angers Dee, who nearly allows the Sphinx to kill Billy, but he is stopped by Dare, who knows Billy from years past. Under the influence of Dee and the sword Clarent, Josh helps Dee release the wild and dangerous beasts being kept in the prison as a part of Dee's newest and most desperate scheme--he not only wants to destroy the Elders and rebuild the Earth, but also claim the other shadowrealms and Danu Talis. Sophie reaches Alcatraz by leygate through her jade tablet and refuses to leave Josh. |
Fear | F. Paul Wilson | null | JJ, who works at a restaurant managed by Florian, meets with a group of kids hanging out at the parking lot of the restaurant. The kids tell him that in order to join their club, called "The Killers," he has to kill someone. A few days later, JJ meets with them again and proclaims that he killed Florian. He later proceeds in shooting someone in that group with blanks, Bony, who falls down at impact, leaving JJ to believe that he killed Bony. After Bony gets up and informs him that the act was just a joke; that the rest of the group was in on it and it was JJ's initiation to the club, Julie, who works with JJ at the restaurant, approaches them and informs them that someone shot and killed Florian. On Halloween night a young, cocky man tries to seduce a seemingly shy, young girl. In the end his intentions change and they both are not who they seem. Phil Boreidae and his family move to Lectus, where they hear about the disappearances that occur when Lectus gets too overcrowded from a girl named Etchenia. Soon, the population begins to rise and one day, they hear that everyone at the north end of Lectus has been wiped out and about a strange light that had appeared in the sky. An astronomer, Schroeder Peterson, suggests they were being visited by God. That night, a force pulls Phil's sister, bothers and mother in the air, leaving him, his father and several others left on Lectus. His father volunteers to go to the mysterious light, and disappears after going towards it. Hannah and her family move to Entrails, Michigan, where their next door neighbor, Rebecca Perfect, offers Hannah a babysitting job for the night. During the babysitting job, Hannah notices the kids acting strangely, and after hearing someone call her name, she goes to investigate. This crying leads Hannah to a tiny room behind a mirror, where she finds the source of the crying: a baby monitor with a video screen. After finding the cage that the baby had been located in, she topples into the cage and is trapped inside with a doll that looks like her. In the end, the littlest Perfect appears outside of the cage with a key. Dax's younger brother, Jon, is afraid of the dark and that the shadow people will come and get him if the lights are out. So one night Dax lets Jon lay in the dark terrified and is about the find out that the shadow children are real, very real. The ring is poison the ring is stolen. ===Jeepers Peeper iney Powe he Night Hunte uitio agge ay Gun=== |
An Ice Cold Grave | null | null | Harper and her step-brother, Tolliver Lang, show up in Doravilla, North Carolina, to help locate missing, yet presumed dead, boys. The boys have been labeled as runaways by the former sheriff, yet some in town believe different. Harper meets the new sheriff and one of the grandparents of one of the missing boys, who drives her all over trying to locate any signs of the missing. Near a vacant, unused property Harper locates not just the six missing boys but actually eight in total. Using her 'ability', Harper sees the last few moments of the young men's lives, learning they were raped, beaten and left to die. Soon the town becomes flooded with the media and other law enforcement agencies. As Harper and Tolliver prepare to leave she is attacked and hurt, forcing the duo to remain in town until she can heal. Slowly secrets become revealed and the killer is known. |
The China Governess | Margery Allingham | 1,963 | Timothy Kinnit is trying to elope with Julia, but the question of his origins as a wartime refugee baby stand between them and their future. What does the "Turk Sreet Mile", once the wickedest street in London but now redeveloped after wartime bombing, have to do with the mystery ? Can Albert Campion and the recently-widowed Chief Inspector Charles Luke find the answer and discover who wants it kept a secret ? |
The Dark Flight Down | null | null | Five days after New Year's Eve and Valerian's death, Boy and Willow have been separated by Kepler, who needs Boy further, and is determined not to let Willow get in his way. The two set off for the funeral of Korp, the director of Valerian's old theatre. To Kepler's chagrin, Willow is also there, having snuck out from the previous job that Kepler got for her at a local orphanage. The theatre violinist, Georg, insists on dragging Boy and Kepler off to a local tavern. Willow follows, and, despite Kepler's attempts to leave, he is dragged into a game of Snapdragon, which he finds he is not very good at. Meanwhile, Boy and Willow, finally reunited, discuss the possibility of abandoning Kepler and eloping together. Discovering Kepler is unconscious after drinking too much absinthe, Boy decides to return him home, and is offered help by Wilfred, the strongman. Before leaving, Boy and Willow make plans to meet at the St. Valentine's fountain, and share their first kiss. The next day, Boy seeks out the mysterious Book that Valerian had sought, and Kepler had taken, in the hope he will find out whether or not Valerian really was his father, and what is real name is. However, a hungover Kepler arrives and orders Boy to return to Valerian's house to collect the Camera, which Valerian had spent money having built in order to determine when Fate was coming. At the house, Boy finds the Camera, but before he can retrieve it, he is apprehended by some members of the City Watch, who suspect him of looting. Boy is dragged off to the Palace, where the ancient Emperor Frederick lives. At the St. Valentine Fountain, Willow grows angry at Boy's no-show, and storms off to Kepler's to confront him. There, she discovers that Boy has not returned, and they set off to look for him at the Yellow House. Upon arrival, they find signs of a struggle, and find the Camera, which Kepler had sent Boy to find. Knowing where Boy is, Kepler insists on rescuing Boy alone. Willow, however, heads to the Palace and tries to find a way in. Unable to, she runs into Kepler, who decides to help. At the Imperial Palace Court, Boy is presented to the Emperor Frederick by his shaven-headed servant, Maxim. Frederick, an elderly and hypochondriac who is obsessed with his health, living an extravagant lifestyle and finding immortality, is uninterested in the findings and orders Boy be thrown into the river. Before the City Watchmen can do so, however, Maxim intervenes and instead has Boy dragged down to the castle dungeon. Boy soon picks the lock of his cell and tries to get out, but is unable to. In his wait, he is troubled by dreams of a dark flight of stairs, leading to where he believes the Phantom, a savage murdering creature from the previous book, is kept. Eventually, a blinded jailer brings him some food, and is carrying a second one for another prisoner, whom Boy is unable to see. Maxim questions Boy about the Book, believing Valerian had it. When Boy is unable to answer, Maxim grows frustrated and leaves. It emerges that Maxim is seeking the Book because Frederick, determined not to die, as he has no heir to the throne, and is the last in line for his family, is attempting to find a way to become immortal, and is relying on astrologers, alchemists and necromancers to help him, and if a person does not impress him, he has them killed. Maxim hopes that the Book will provide the answer. Boy further investigates the dungeon and, further away from his cell, he meets an elderly man, who lives in a guilded, well-furnished cell within the dungeon. The man, whose memory has left him, introduces himself as Bedrich, and reveals that he is Frederick's former doctor. He is now meant to take care of the Phantom, which resides within the Palace. The next time a meal is brought, Bedrich is brought with it. He is told he may be released. Sensing an opportunity to get help, he asks Bedrich to send a message to Willow, telling her to steal the Book (from Kepler, though this is not verbally mentioned) and return. Bedrich starts to tell Boy that he knows about this "Book," and upstairs, Frederick questions Maxim about Boy. Having forgotten he had ordered Boy's death, he demands that Boy be cleaned up and brought to him. Back downstairs, Bedrich reveals that the Book is not only full of knowledge, but also very dangerous. It was brought to Frederick by the Beebe family (the grave of Gad Beebe having been the one Boy and Valerian had attempted to retrieve in the previous book). Before he can go on, two guard arrive and take boy away, leaving Bedrich in the cell, and it is revealed that their interaction was actually being spied on. Boy is taken to some luxurious quarters, where he is given a bath, some food and clothing and a bed by another blinded servant. The next morning, he is interrogated again by Maxim, who seems to know exactly what has been said, and about Willow. Boy realises he was spying on the meeting, and feels awful at having betrayed Willow's name. He is taken down to the Court, where Frederick is holding a meeting of applicants for a Royal Position. Boy immediately impresses Frederick when he exposes a secret that an alchemist is using to try to prove his alchemy, leading to the man's death. The next demonstrators turn out to be Kepler and Willow, who introduce themselves as Arbronsius and Mina. They show Frederick the apparatus that Boy had been sent to collect. The demonstration of the trick is enough to win them Frederick's favour, and he appoints them to Royal positions. That night, Boy manages to work out where Willow and Kepler are staying, and, after escaping from his room, goes out to find Willow. As he is crossing the snowy courtyard, he runs right into The Phantom, which is even scarier than he had expected. The next day, Maxim storms into his room, angry, because Willow was not at the orphanage. He eventually explains to Boy that he hopes the Book will provide the answer to immortality. Boy scoffs at this idea, mentioning that "How's he going to know any different unless he dies." Maxim has an idea, and drags Boy down to the Court. There, Boy manages to talk to Willow and Kepler. Maxim lies to Frederick and says that he does have the Book, and Frederick decides he does not wish to see it, as it might evoke bad memories, and believes Maxim. Boy arranges to meet with Willow that midnight. That night, as Maxim is planning his next move, Boy meets up with Willow in the throne room. Boy discovers that Kepler was indeed lying about Valerian being his father, as the mention of the woman Valerian had loved, Helene, was enough to persuade Valerian that Boy was his son. He discovers that Kepler has the book with him, and refuses to leave until he reads it. The two make a plan to try to retrieve the book before Frederick becomes immortal, and share a brief kiss before departing. The next day, Maxim calls a meeting of the Court, planning to use Frederick's immortality to advance his own power. To his dismay, Boy, whom the Emperor has drawn a favourable eye towards, is made to attend. Maxim goes through an elaborate ceremony, and gets the Emperor to drink a potion behind some screens. Frederick falls asleep for a few minutes, before waking, believing himself to be immortal. Boy realises, however, that it is a trick. Before the guards can kill the astrologers, Boy immediately steps forward and shouts that it is a trick, mentioning the very fact that Frederick cannot conclusively prove he is immortal unless he dies, as he himself had said. Frederick chooses to listen to Boy and demands the Book. Trapped, Maxim confesses that he was lying and, after many years of being pushed around, finally explodes at the Emperor, who orders that he be killed. Before the guards can get him, Maxim escapes through a secret door, and Frederick orders the guards to search for him. Boy and Willow take advantage of the confusion to try to flee from Kepler. Willow escapes, but Boy is caught by Kepler. At that moment, Maxim returns - with The Phantom on a chain. He reveals that Frederick does have a son - that fifteen years before, one of Maxim's consorts, Sophia Beebe, fell into a relationship with the Emperor. The son that she produced was, in fact, The Phantom, who is, technically his heir. Frederick orders his guards on Maxim, but the Phantom escapes, as does Boy. Boy escapes to Willow's quarters, where he finds her reading the Book. Boy demands to know what she has read, so he can finally know his name and his history. Willow, however, begs him not to read it, saying that it is not in his interests to, but he insists on knowing. Before doing so, Willow finally tells Boy that she loves him. She then informs Boy that his father is none other than the Emperor Frederick. She reveals that Sophia Beebe, The Phantom's mother, had given birth to two sons - Boy was the second one, while the Phantom is, in fact, his disfigured brother. When Frederick had locked away the disfigured one, Sophia had fled with Boy, her healthy child, faking his death. In response, Frederick stripped the Beebes of their favour and titles, all the while searching for Sophia. After proclaiming that he loves Willow back, Boy confesses that he does not care about his finding. Willow reveals that Kepler knows his secret, and Boy realises that Kepler had wanted Boy to curry favour from the Emperor by revealing his healthy son, and heir to the throne. Boy does not want to be heir, however. At that moment, The Phantom arrives at the balcony, but does not attack them. Instead, it approaches Boy, and the two share some brotherly affection. Suddenly, Kepler arrives and attacks The Phantom. The two fight, and fall over the balcony to their deaths. With both The Phantom and Kepler dead, Boy and Willow prepare to leave. Boy, however, throws the book into a fire. It is eventually ablaze, and burns, taking its evil and magic with it. The two leave the Palace, by jumping off the Palace walls. They spend the night at Kepler's. The next morning, Boy and Willow take the now-deceased Kepler's money, clothing, blankets and valuables. They plan to leave the City and, as two young lovers, set up their own future. Before leaving, though, Willow makes one final revelation - that "Boy" was, in fact, Boy's real name, as it was what Sophia had actually called him while the two were on the run. In a final scene, the Emperor Frederick, now suffering completely from dementia, calls for Maxim, whom he has had locked in the very cell that he imprisoned the Phantom in. |
Alive In The Killing Fields | Nawuth Keat | 2,009 | --Nawuth Keat is the fifth of eight children in a Cambodian village known as Salatrave. His father is a prosperous rice farmer, owning both a motorcycle and tractor. This wealth places Nawuth and his family in particular danger from the Khmer Rouge. After the dictator Pol Pot overruns the government with the aid of the Khmer Rouge, Nawuth's life is completely transformed. Without warning Salatrave is attacked and Nawuth's mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and uncle are massacred. Nawuth himself is shot three times. Nawuth survives his attack and is sent by his father to live in the town of Battambang with his older sister, Chantha. Nawuth's father remains in Salatrave. Eventually the Khmer Rouge invade Battambang and Nawuth is forced to flee with his brothers (Hackly, Bunna, and Chanty); Chantha; and Chantha's fiance (Van Lan). They return to the ruins of Salatrave, where Chantha and Van Lan are soon married. Nawuth's father flees to the jungle to escape certain death while, Nawuth and the rest of the family are forced into labor by the Khmer Rouge. Food is scarce and they suffer from malnutrition. The family is further separated when Bunna is forced to join a chalat, a team of teenagers forced to build dams and huts. Nawuth eventually escapes from the labor camp and joins his father in the jungle, where he stays for many months. Nawuth later rejoins Van Lan, only to find nothing has changed for the better. There is less food and the murders have gotten worse. At this time Nawuth witnesses an old man's murder and realizes how truly evil the Khmer Rouge are. After some time back, food is too scarce to survive on. During that year, more people died from starvation than from bullets. Then one morning, Van Lan left to visit his parents. During this time, Nawuth stole some rice from neighboring farms. He also stole squash and made traps for fish. Nawuth and his brothers suffer from starvation and their bellies become bloated. Due to this, he and his brother, Chanty, head again into the neighboring farms to steal more rice, and they are caught. The Khmer Rouge let them go. Due to lack of food, Nawuth gets infected. Most people had died from this infection, so Van Lan takes him to a doctor, and the doctor saves his life by giving Nawuth an enema. Afterwards, Nawuth is told to guard a large building filled with corn. Monkeys steal the corn, and Nawuth is yelled at by the soldier that assigned him the task. He survives and once again guards the corn. Using traps his father taught him how to make, he catches a few monkeys that try to steal the corn, and eats them. Afterwards, he takes some of the corn and hides in the jungle; and he is caught, but his life is spared. The weeks that followed were harsh: people blamed stolen food products on him, but the guards did not believe them. A while later, his father was killed. Some time passed before the world gave any help. The Vietnamese started to attack the Khmer Rouge and a war started. The Vietnamese began to attack the cities. Chantha gave birth to a baby named Vibol during this time. Nawuth is caught in the cross-fire shortly after. It was a small skirmish, but many people were injured. They did not get away though: the Khmer Rouge made them march further inland, away from the Vietnamese-protected zones. A few weeks later, they left the Khmer Rouge area for the city. About thirty people left with them at night. They ate what they could. When they finally got to the cities, they met up with Van Lan's family. When there, Nawuth met a child named Ang. They became best friends. The Vietnamese were "an improvement" over the Khmer Rouge, but they were still ruthless. Along in the city, Nawuth got his palm read, and it turned out to be an accurate statement. During this time, Van Lan had a talk with Nawuth about leaving. The Vietnamese have taken what the Khmer Rouge have not destroyed. A few days later they say goodbye and leave. They walked more than they had ever. The Vietnamese did not want the world to know that they were not saviors, so they classified the wanderers as enemies. They had to drink from a pond with dead bodies in it, and the Khmer Rouge changed their names to Angka, or "The Organization of Saviors". Finally, they slipped across the border to sneak into a Thai refugee camp, where life was almost as bad: it was run by the United Nations. They got one chicken every two weeks and a bag of rice a month. Some of the Thai refugee camps would deport thousands of refugees back into Cambodia. The Cambodians shot the old and the weak, and the people in the front were killed by landmines. The United Nations got involved. Chantha gave a woman one hundred dollars worth of gold, and Nawuth split up with his family and friends. The woman took him in, only to treat him like trash. The family that Nawuth is staying with has a sponsor in Paris, who is willing to pay for the airplane trip. Nawuth is supposed to meet Van Lan and the rest of his family in Paris. Nawuth and his "family" leave to go to another camp. There, they got a chicken a week, but Nawuth would steal religious offerings given to Buddhist monks anyway. A few weeks later, his "mom" tells him they aren't going to Paris after all: their sponsor had been unable to buy the tickets, but instead, there would be a chance they would be able to go to the United States. They had a sponsor in the United States, but they had to wait an entire year to go. When they were allowed to leave, they got medical exminations, but the doctor missread the bullet wound on Nawuth's arm as an infection and pronounced Nawuth to be sick. They had to stay. The family shunned Nawuth. Over the following months, the doctor was convinced that the scars on Nawuth were not infections, he signed the papers for qualificaton. They were moved to another camp. This camp was more crowded than the others. They spent two weeks there, and then they got sponsored and were told "in two days, you leave to the United States". There, the bus that took him was larger than any bus he had ever seen, and the actual airport was the same, the largest building he had ever seen. They landed in San Francisco, after 18 years of suffering, Nawuth was free. AfterWord Shortly after, Nawuth left to Portland, Oregon. This is where he would split up with the family. This was because he was forced to work, while the other kids got to play. He got a job, being paid $3.17 an hour, and a monthly welfare check of $300, which he gave to his "mom". When he found out that Van Lan, Chantha, Vibol, and Bunna lived in a refugee camp in Indonesia, he asked "mom" for ten dollars. She refused. He left to go live with his great aunt who lived not to far away from Portland. He later married his high school sweetheart, Rany Prak, who was also a Cambodian immigrant. They had three children: Brian, Anthony and Stephanie. Van Lan, Chantha, Vibol, and Bunna all live in Lyons, France. Ang also made it to France. Hackly lives with Nawuth, and Nawuth's oldest sister Chanya, and works in a military hospital in Pursat. |
The Odd Women | null | 1,893 | The novel begins with the Madden sisters and their childhood friend in Clevedon. After various travails, the adult Alice and Virginia Madden move to London and renew their friendship with Rhoda, an unmarried bluestocking. She is living with the also unmarried Mary Barfoot, and together they run an establishment teaching secretarial skills to young middle-class women remaindered in the marriage equation. Monica Madden, the youngest and prettiest sister, is living-in above a shop in London. She is, in modern parlance, "stalked" by a middle-aged bachelor Edmund Widdowson, and he eventually brow-beats her into marriage. His ardent love turns into jealous obsession suffocating Monica's life. Meanwhile Mary Barfoot's rakish cousin Everard decides to court Rhoda initially as a challenge to her avowed dislike of love and marriage, but he later falls in love with her for her intellectual independence, which he finds preferable to the average uneducated woman's inanity. Despite being virulently anti-marriage, she decides to indulge him with a view to turning down any marriage proposal to show her solidarity with her "odd women". Ironically, she in turn falls for him. Married Monica meets Bevis, a young, middle-class man who pursues her and represents for her the romantic ideal from popular novels. Crucially, Bevis lives in the same building as Everard Barfoot. Monica, determined to elope with Bevis, goes there. Unbeknownst to her, her husband has hired a detective to follow her. She hears someone follow her up the stairs and, to appear innocent, she knocks on Barfoot's door. This is reported back to Widdowson, and he feels his suspicion has been justified and informs Mary Barfoot of her cousin's blackguardly ways. Rhoda, on the other hand, is on a holiday in Northumberland, and Everard goes to see her there. He woos her and at first suggests they enter a free-union (i.e. live together out of wedlock), which would appear to be consistent with her principles. However, she gives him a conventional "womanly" response and agrees to be with him only in a legal union; Barfoot, somewhat disappointed in her surprising conventionality, proposes marriage, which she accepts. She then receives a letter from Mary telling of Everard's supposed affair with Monica. Rhoda then breaks off the engagement, after Everard proudly refuses to give an explanation but insists he is innocent. After Widdowson confronts Monica over her infidelity, she leaves him but lives at his expense and even moves, together with her sisters, to his rented house in Clevedon. Virginia has become an alcoholic (her way of dealing with being an 'odd woman'). Monica is pregnant by her husband, but her pride will not let her reunite with him. To salve her conscience, she visits Rhoda and shows her a love letter from Beavis and also exonerates Everard over the alleged affair. Then, months after they last saw each other, Everard visits Rhoda, asks her if she still believes him to be guilty, and repeats his offer of marriage. Even though Rhoda assures him that she believes him innocent, she refuses his proposal, intimating that in his professions of love he was "not quite serious," but was partially testing her principles. It is too late for them to reunite. Barfoot soon gets married to a conventionally educated young woman. Monica gives birth to a girl, then dies soon after. The novel ends with Rhoda holding the baby, crying and murmuring, "Poor little child!" |
The Sword and the Circle | Rosemary Sutcliff | null | The novel is broken into thirteen chapters, with the first five being the development of King Arthur's background, while the remaining are nearly stand-alone stories covering the exploits of different knights. He is shown as the son of Uther Pendragon, begot upon Lady Igraine with the assistance of Merlin. Merlin did not feature in Sutcliff's previous Arthurian stories of Sword at Sunset, but is shown here as being the driving force behind the ascension of King Arthur and his court. Merlin is depicted as being descended from the Lordly Ones, or the 'Little Dark People', as Sutcliff commonly refers to the possible original inhabitants of Great Britain. He orchestrates Arthur's upbringing under Sir Ector, alongside his foster brother Sir Kay. Arthur's identity as ruler of Britain is revealed when he pulls the Sword from the Stone, but he later receives Excalibur, a different sword, from the Lady in the Lake. The rest of the novel's chapters cover many of the other classic Arthurian characters and tales, including: the origins of Lancelot of the Lake, as well as his encounters with Elaine;Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Beaumains, the Kitchen Knight; Tristan and Iseult, in a retelling nearly identical to Sutcliff's earlier novel of the same name, albeit a much shorter version; Geraint and Enid; Gawain and the Loathly Lady; and finally the arrival of Percival at Arthur's court, which is connected by Merlin's previous prophecies to presage the beginning of the Round Table's downfall. The book stops here, to be continued in The Light Beyond the Forest and The Road to Camlann. |
Starfinder | null | null | Young Moth had grown up in Calio, the mountain city -and he considered himself lucky to live in this very special place. For in Calio a man could be a Skyknight, one of the elite pilots who flew the fragile, beautiful, newfangled flying machines called dragonflies. Any man who dreamed of flying belonged in only one place, Calio, the city on the edge of the world. And young Moth, who had worked at the aerodrome since he was ten, wanted to fly more than anything. To the north of Calio stretched the Reach, looking like a sea of fog that never ended. There were numerous tall tales about the lands beyond the Reach, and Moth heard the oddest of them regularly now that he was living with Leroux. When Moth was ten, and first taken in by Leroux, he had been especially fascinated by Leroux's stories of the Skylords, but at the grown-up age of thirteen, Moth was becoming increasingly skeptical about the existence of these mysterious, powerful, and frightening beings from beyond the Reach. But Moth's life was about to change in ways he could not even imagine, and soon the land of the Skylords would become more real and more threatening than the most outlandish tales Leroux could have spun. For soon Moth would have a key to another world -the world beyond the Reach... |
Deeper | Jeff Long | null | In a prologue, veteran underground guide Ike Crockett abandons his wife Alexandra von Schade and unborn child to return to the subterranean world, driven by feelings and whispers he cannot understand. He does not plan on returning to the surface. At the same time, an unscrupulous video documentary producer named Clemens is leading a film crew and its support team into the abandoned Hadal metropolis discovered by the ill-fated Helios expedition three years earlier. The film crew is wiped out by an unseen force, with Clemens the sole survivor. The main narrative resumes a few years later. While tensions between the United States and China increase on the surface, sub-planetary exploration and colonization is booming, ratcheting up potentials for international conflicts. The subterranean world is though to be safe, having been "sanitized" by the viral bioweapon deployed during the first novel's Helios expedition. On Halloween night, scores of children are suddenly abducted by the long-thought-extinct Hadals, who brutally kill any adults attempting to intervene. The Hadals take the children back underground with them, leaving the United States in a panic. Due to the tensions with the Chinese, the U.S. government decides against mobilizing the military to perform a sweep of the sub-planetary Pacific region in search of the kidnapped children and the apparently-not-extinct Hadals. Ali von Schade is approached by Rebecca, a tall and statuesque young woman whose husband was killed and whose daughter, Samantha, was kidnapped by Hadals. Due to Ali's previous experience with Hadals and the sub-planet, Rebecca wishes to enlist her help in searching for her daughter. When Ali declines and warns against searching, Rebecca eventually creates an army of volunteers and mercenaries to rescue the kidnapped children. Some of these volunteers are the same people who angrily attack Ali's research institution, believing her to be more sympathetic to the Hadals than to her own people. Clemens, who escaped Hadal captivity and is wracked with brutally inflicted scars and deformities, is present at the attack on Ali, and becomes a supporter of Rebecca and her goal of entering the sub-planet. Rebecca's army enters the sub-planet, aided surreptitiously by the U.S. government and overtly by a mercenary leader named Hunter, and begins traveling toward the Hadal metropolis discovered by the Helios expedition a decade earlier. She encounters an AWOL Navy SEAL sniper named Beckwith, who had deserted the military after he and his colleagues had mistakenly murdered a group of Chinese settlers after believing them to be the children-snatching Hadals. Rebecca, Hunter, Clemens, and Beckwith descend through the interior of the planetary crust toward the metropolis. They discover the remains of all the male children, who were apparently killed by the Hadals after being unsuitable captives. Ali and a colleague, Gregorio, enter the sub-planet themselves on a similar quest. Meanwhile, as both Rebecca's army and Ali and Gregorio separately descend in search of the kidnapped children, Ike Crockett has been conversing with an ominous "Angel," who appears to be a superhuman being as old as Earth itself. Ike appears to be a captive of this being, who explains that he himself is the prisoner and wishes Ike to "free" him. The Angel reveals that he has directed both human and Hadal evolution. Gregorio dies in a climbing incident, leaving Ali by herself. Rebecca's army, having shrunk considerably due to desertions, eventually discovers a second Hadal metropolis, this one decorated with statues and emblems of oxen and Minotaurs. Ali is discovered by the Angel, who takes her to his lair. There, she watches in shock as he removes his "disciple," who is revealed to be Ike, her husband, from a walled-in room and forcibly gives him an amphetamine-like drink. Ike rushes off, having been given instructions by the Angel to bring him the kidnapped children. Rebecca's army discovers a complex of pyramids across a river from the city and, led by Clemens, enters it across a large bridge while Hunter's mercenaries and Rebecca herself remain behind. The volunteer army, now down to less than ninety men, discover troves of treasure and begin looting. Suddenly, they are ambushed by Hadals and effectively massacred - only three make it back to the city. Rebecca, Hunter, the mercenaries, and the three volunteer survivors use a building on the city's side of the bridge to fortify themselves and a siege begins, pitting the remaining humans against an unknown number of Hadals. The siege ends in a bloody battle after over a week of Hadal biowarfare, which includes using darts poisoned with the rabies virus and a Hadal who infects himself with Ebola before allowing himself to be killed by a mercenary sniper; soon to be cooked and eaten by the starving humans. Clemens, thought dead in the massacre of the volunteer army, returns and tells them that he has been dealing with the Hadals, who will release the children if the mercenaries surrender to certain torture and death. Hunter refuses and believes Clemens to be in league with the Hadals. Before he can be killed, the zip-tied Clemens is freed by Rebecca, and he promises to return with Samantha. Samantha is brought forth by three Hadals, who use her as a human shield. A battle ensues, and Samantha is killed. As Ali replaces Ike as the Angel's captive "disciple," Ike enters the pyramid complex. It has been revealed that the kidnapped children are the design of the Angel, but the Angel's plans have been co-opted by Clemens, who was once a "trainee" of the Angel. Ike kills many surviving Hadals and has been told to bring the children and the disobedient Clemens to the Angel. Clemens, however, proves to be a formidable adversary and bests Ike in hand-to-hand combat, inadvertently aided by the sniper Beckwith, who remained undetected by the Hadals and mistook Ike for a bad guy and assumed Clemens was a good guy, shooting Ike's hand. Clemens has the remaining girls and a traumatized and mentally unstable Rebecca (unable to cope with the loss of her daughter Samantha) with him, and tells the girls that he, Clemens, is their rescuer and that Ike is the one who mutilated him. As he tortures and prepares to kill Ike, Clemens is paralyzed by Rebecca, who uses a poison-tipped barb given to Ike by the Angel. Beckwith arrives and, realizing his mistake, helps rescue Ike, the delusional Rebecca, and the girls. They head toward the surface, suffering from illness and fatigue. Ali remains with the Angel, knowing that as long as she is his willing captive and "disciple" he will not find a way to "free" himself. The girls are brought to the surface and their parents celebrate in massive function thrown by the United States government. In the final pages, it is ambiguous as to whether or not a nuclear war between the United States and China has erupted. |
Memoirs of a Magdalen | Hugh Kelly | 1,767 | The rakish Sir Robert Harold is engaged to be married to Louisa Mildmay. While staying at her parents' house before the marriage Sir Robert seduces Louisa. Then, deciding she is too amorous to make a good wife, he breaks off the marriage. After fighting a duel with Louisa's brother, Colonel Mildmay, Sir Robert flees to the Continent. The disgraces Louisa is sent to London by her parents, where she is kidnapped by another rake Sir Harry Hastings. She eventually manages to escape and takes shelter in the London Magdelan House for reformed prostitutes. After hearing of Lousia's fate, Sir Robert returns from Europe and fights Hastings in a duel, badly wounding him. Filled with remorse he then again offers to marry Louisa, and they settle down happily together. |
Pharmakon | null | null | The novel Pharmakon is divided into three parts within the book. The first part of the novel, titled “Book 1”, takes place in the 1950s and centers around Will Friedrich; a middle aged, nontenured professor of psychology at Yale University. Though extremely smart and known around campus for his ability to take a set of data and “calculate the standard deviation in his head”, Will is having a hard time figuring out an idea to climb the social ladder into the upper circles of the Yale elite. This all changes when will overhears Dr. Bunny Winton about an exotic plant called “gai kan dong” or, “The Way Home.” She describes how this plant has been used by a native tribe in New Guinea to calm people after traumatic events. Friedrich sees this plant as a possibility of creating an anti-depressant, and after a bit of research, tracks down Dr. Winton to see if she is willing to become his partner in experimenting with “The Way Home.” She agrees and they begin testing on the same plants used by the New Guinea tribe. After isolating the active ingredient in the plant, Winton and Friedrich test the drug on rats and experience positive results. Excited that this plant may actually provide a breakthrough in anti-depressant drugs, they decide to move forward and test “The Way Home” on human subjects. This is where Casper Gedsic is introduced into the story. Casper Gedsic is originally described as a “bearded with pimples and peach fuzz, too shy to look a person in the eye.” We learn as the novel continues that he has contemplated suicide at least once before, and is a “highly functional obsessive compulsive with schizophrenic tendencies.” Casper decides to sign up for the drug trial for “The Way Home” an almost immediately begins to see a change on his perception of life. Things that once obsessively bothered Casper he is easily able to brush off, and instead of worrying about the world he starts to become confident with who he is. Casper’s new found confidence enables him to clean up his appearance and become friends with Whitney Bouchard, an extremely rich, Yale football player. Casper documents his relationship with Whitney through his sessions with Friedrich, which occur weekly to help document the drug’s effects on the users. Although the drug initially just allows Casper to block out his insecurities, over time he becomes cocky and eager to social climb. During one of his sessions with Friedrich, he recalls his accounts of how he acts as though he comes from money in order to gain favor with Whitney’s friends. In another session, he speaks of how he had stole Whitney’s girlfriend, but it is okay because “everybody at the yacht club” does it. Friedrich takes note of Casper’s seemly complete disregard for Whitney’s feelings, but does not look into the matter any further. These sessions with Casper continue until the end of the drug trial. After the drug trial concludes, Friedrich and Dr. Winton are both excited due to the positive results of the trial. Once home, Friedrich received a call from an intoxicated Whitney, talking about how Casper had changed ever since he stopped taking his medication and how he had created a list of everybody he blamed for his current state of despair, with Friedrich and Dr. Winton being at the top. Casper appears at Friedrich’s house while Will was outside with his wife and children. With a gun at his side, Casper begins to approach the unknowing Friedrich, but then for some unknown reason changes his mind and turns to leave. Friedrich spotted Casper as he is walking away with the gun and informs the police that Dr. Winton may be in danger. The police arrive at Winton’s home to see that Bunny Winton had been shot dead and her husband had been beaten in paralysis. The police immediately rush back to Friedrich’s house to protect him and his family in case Casper came back. As Friedrich was talking to the police and everybody was speculating why Casper may have left them alone at first, Will’s youngest son, Jack, disappeared. After much searching, they found his lifeless body next to a fallen birdbath in the garden outside. The next part of the novel, entitled “Book II”, begins approximately seven years after the conclusion of the first part. Will Friedrich has moved his family away from the New England area into New Jersey in an attempt to start over away from the Casper incident. Will quit his job at Yale and took a teaching job at Rutgers which, while less prestigious, made him a full professor at double his previous salary. Casper, being caught by the police, was able to convince a jury he was mentally unstable and was sentenced to a lengthy term in the Connecticut State Hospital for the criminally insane. Though Casper was locked away, the Friendrich’s wanted to disassociate themselves from him as much as they could, so when the baby Zach was born 2 years after Dr. Winton’s murder, the family kept everything from the past a secret. The rest of the story is told from the Zach’s perspective. It wasn’t until Zach was four and a half years old when he first heard that he had a brother named Jack who died before he was born. It was then he realized that his family had many secrets, though he didn’t find out anything about Casper until the age of seven. When Zach was seven, he was ashamed of the fact that he didn’t know how to swim. Will tried every psychological method to get through to Zach that he would be okay, but Zach said he was terrified of “losing touch with the bottom”. One day Zach was left home under the care of his irresponsible older sister, and went outside alone to set up a lemonade stand. While he was attempting to make a profit, a man drove up and got out of his car and started talking to him. It came up that Zach was afraid to swim, and the man persuaded Zach to get in his car under the premise that he would teach him. The man took Zach to a remote lake and allowed Zach to ‘fall’ into the water. Zach was struggling and thought he was going to drown, but as he started having too much difficultly the man saved him and brought him home, dropping him off at the side of the road before speeding off. The reader then learns that this mysterious man was Casper Gedsic, who had recently escaped from the mental hospital with plans on extracting revenge on Will Friendrich. After all these years, Casper was convinced that it was Friedrich’s fault that he felt depressed again once he stopped taking “The Way Home”. When Zach gets dropped off at his house, his parents are frantically searching for him with help from the police. They soon are able to realize that it was Casper who had taken Zach “swimming”, but they are dumbfounded on why he would let Zach live. After about a week of searching by the police, they are finally able to track down Casper once again and place him in a higher security mental hospital, which he never escapes from for the remainder of his life. Though Zach was relatively safe, this event traumatized him for the rest of his life. The fact that a notorious murderer with a grudge for his family was the same man who taught him how to swim haunted Zach, especially because he became fond of Casper before he found out he was a known murderer. The novel then skips ahead a few years to when Zach and his brother, Willy, are attending the same private high school and the family has moved into the mansion with all the money their father was now making. At school, Zach is having an issue escaping Willy’s shadow due mainly to the fact that Willy is athletic and popular while Zach is a bit introverted and anti-social. All of this changes when Zach breaks down to a girl he likes and begins to tell her all about Casper. The word that Zach came face to face with a murderer spreads around school quickly, and increases Zach’s popularity tremendously. He starts to be bombarded with requests by people to tell them about “the boogieman” that has haunted the Friendrichs his entire life. Zach is torn because he has no resentment towards Casper, while the rest of his family still views Casper Gedsic as the devil. This divide between his world view and his parents' world view cause him to begin to rebel. He soon gets into drugs, which came fairly easily because many other popular students were also using illegal substances. He does all of this without his father’s knowledge, and though he wants to admit to his parents his drug problem at times, he never lets them into his world. He goes through high school this way, and eventually gets into Yale largely due to his essay “Growing Up With Casper”, which his father is appalled by. Part 3 of the novel, entitled “Book 3”, begins 21 years after Zach received his acceptance letter. He his lying on the floor of his sister's guest house going through cocaine withdrawal trying to figure out where life went wrong. The reader learns that Zach dropped out of Yale and moved to Los Angeles to become a screenwriter. It is there that he started his affair with cocaine, but after many years of addiction he is attempting to get clean. He hasn’t talked to a majority of his family for years, especially his parents. He decides he wants to try to contact them now that he is clean, but his attempt goes horribly awry when his father sees him and recoils, thinking that Zach is just there to rob them. This enrages Zach and he storms off and goes to live with an old friend in the city, never speaking to his parents again. A few more years pass and Zach still hasn’t talked to his family. The novel then puts the focus back on Will Freidrich. He and his wife Nora are still happily married, living in their mansion by themselves now that all their kids have grown up. Will reflects on where everything went wrong for his children, because none of their lives turned out how they had hoped they would. He recalls his own childhood, and begins thinking that if he was in his thirties knowing what he knows now, he would be able to make a real difference in the world. “Old man thoughts”, he describes them, but Will is now an old man. The book ends with Will lying in bed at night contemplating on these introspective thoughts, trying to cry because he knows from psychology the therapeutic values of tears, but he is unable to. After all the anti-depressants he had helped make during his lifetime, he wonders if there is any way somebody can prescribe tears. |
Abduction | Robin Cook | 2,000 | A team of researchers in a remote region of the Atlantic become trapped inside an ancient undersea volcano when their submersible is inexplicably drawn in. They discover a technologically advanced world of genetically engineered, physically near-perfect humans living comfortably in an enclosed city within the Mohorovičić discontinuity. The researchers are told that their Moho-dwelling cousins evolved many millions of years prior to current humans and became very technologically advanced. Millions of years ago, these "first generation" humans discovered that Earth was about to be bombarded with hordes of meteors, effectively sterilizing the surface of the planet. Unable to find a suitable extrasolar planet to move to in time, the first generation humans decided to instead move into the Mohorovičić discontinuity, shielding themselves from extinction. The Moho-dwellers watched over the centuries as the second-generation humans evolved and developed, and reveal that they abducted these researchers to determine if the researchers had been searching for them. The researchers reveal that nobody on the surface has ever thought there were civilizations living under the Earth's crust, and that they were doing geologic exploration and research instead. Fearing for their own safety and the discovery of their civilization, the Moho-dwellers feel they cannot allow their abductees to return to the surface. The research team manages to recover its submersible and mounts an attempt to return to the surface. However, at the last moment they encounter a large Moho craft and emerge to the ocean's surface in the late 18th century. The group abruptly discovers that the craft was actually some sort of advanced Moho time machine and/or spacecraft that sent them 200 years into the past to prevent them from alerting the surface world to the presence of the Moho-dwellers. |
The High Deeds of Finn MacCool | Rosemary Sutcliff | null | The story begins with the explanation of Cormac mac Art's formation of the Fianna as a defense force for Ireland, which was originally led by Finn's father, Cumhal. Cumhal is killed by Goll mac Morna, who takes over leadership of the Fianna, and Cumhal's wife Muirne flees to give birth to Finn. The boy grows up strong in the manner of his father, studies under the poet Finn Eces, accidentally tasting the Salmon of Knowledge and thereby gaining magical powers, and ultimately regaining leadership of the Fianna by defeating the Fairy that haunts the Court of Tara, Aillén mac Midgna. Goll swears loyalty to him, and Finn rules the Fianna successfully thereafter. Similar to Sutcliff's Arthurian Novel The Sword and the Circle, most of the chapters in this novel are nearly stand-alone tales, covering many of the stories and characters associated with the Fenian Cycle. Some of these include: Finn's courtship of Sadhbh and the birth of Oisín; the tales of Diarmuid and Grainne; Niamh of the Golden Hair; the Giolla Dacker; multiple encounters with the Fair Folk; and ultimately ending with Cath Gabhra and the downfall of the Fianna. |
Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede | Bradley Denton | null | Oliver Vale was conceived on February 3, 1959, the day that Buddy Holly died. Exactly thirty years later, Buddy Holly appears on every television set in the world, on every channel. Holly states that he is being held on Ganymede, and that Oliver Vale is to be contacted for assistance. He then begins performing. As a result, Vale finds himself being pursued by agents of the Federal Communications Commission, by angry television-watchers, and by still more mysterious forces. |
Creepy Creatures | Scott Morse | null | Grady Tucker and his family move into a house next to Fever Swamp. Grady finds and convinces his parents to let him keep a large wolf-like stray dog for a pet which he names Wolf. But when something has broken into the deer pen in Grady's yard and killed one of the animals, his dad decides that the stray had to be taken to the pound. Grady helps the dog flee before his dad can capture it. That night, Grady hears the howling again and explores Fever Swamp to get to the bottom of things. He encounters Will Blake, one of his friends, who is slowly turning into a werewolf under the full moon. The newly changed werewolf bites Grady, but the assault is cut short when Wolf attacks and kills Will. On the night of the next full moon, Grady transforms into a werewolf and joins Wolf in hunting. Youngsters Mark and Jodie are brother and sister. While visiting their grandparents, Curtis and Miriam, the children notice strange movements at night: the scarecrows are moving, and their grandparents are acting differently. Jodie concludes that Sticks, the groundskeeper Stanley's son, made the scarecrows move. Jodie dresses Mark up as a scarecrow for revenge on Sticks. However, after a scarecrow tries to hurt Jodie, Sticks explains to her that Stanley brought the scarecrows to life last time he visited the farm. Curtis and Miriam had been trying to keep Stanley happy so that he will keep the scarecrows asleep. After scaring Stanley with the scarecrow costume, the scarecrows begin walking towards them. Sticks uses torches to burn all the scarecrows, and they all fall to the ground. The next afternoon, Jodie notices a stuffed bear move a little. Ana and Luis Garcia decide to join their father on a trip to Alaska to try to locate a snow creature known as the Abominable Snowman. There, they eventually see the Snowman frozen in ice. Their father decides to take him back to Pasadena, California, where they live. Before doing so, Luis sneaks some snowballs in the trunk in which the Snowman would be taken home. After showing their neighbor Lauren Sax the Snowman, Ana throws a snowball from the trunk at her, but it misses and hits the tree. This causes the snow to expand and covers their yard in snow. Lauren grabs some of the snow and throws it at Ana, and she becomes covered in ice. After the heat from the furnace and oven does not defrost her, Luis gets the Snowman to break out of the ice. The Snowman defrosts her and escapes. |
The Quantum Thief | Hannu Rajaniemi | 2,010 | The novel is set in a post-human future solar system. Jean le Flambeur is a legendary thief who has been imprisoned in a Dilemma Prison, a virtual jail of the Sobornost created by the Archons, themselves the creation of the Engineer-of-Souls. During an unsuccessful encounter with the All-Defector, he is sprung from his prison in the Neptunian Trojan belt by Mieli, a warrior from the Oort cloud, and taken to her ship, Perhonen. There, he finds out that his freedom comes at a price: he must return to his old criminal ways to steal something for Mieli's employer, the pellegrini. First, however, he has to retrieve his previous memories, which he had meticulously hidden in the Oubliette, one of the Moving Cities of Mars. In the Oubliette, Isidore Beautrelet is unraveling a gogol piracy case, brought to his attention by his tzaddik mentor, The Gentleman. Isidore is an architecture student and only ten Martian years old, but he has accumulated a reputation as a sharp detective. This case, however, exposes him to unwanted fame, which is extremely gauche in polite Oubliette society, where even people who share a flat remain discreetly behind a cloud of gevulot to avoid the faux pas of violating each other's privacy. Notoriety, however, brought him to the attention of a new client, the millenniaire Christian Unruh. Unruh is about to host a party to commemorate his early entry into Quiet, but a note has appeared under impossible circumstances in his mansion, which Unruh asks Isidore to investigate. The note announces an unlikely gate-crasher to the party: Jean le Flambeur. |
Get Into Bed With Google | Jon Smith | null | The book provides 52 practical solutions to Search Engine Optimisation problems faced by many small to medium sized websites. From creating basic Metatags to help categorise pages through to more advanced keyword density ratios. The book outlines techniques which can be employed at the back-end or within the site’s code as well as front-end or editorial techniques to help improve visibility within the search engines. The book includes references to many paid and free tools available on the web to assist readers as well as short case studies. The updated second edition contains new material relating to social networks and Google Analytics to assist readers with utilising and benefiting from these tools in relation to Search Engine Optimisation. |
The Bloke's Guide To Pregnancy | Jon Smith | null | This book takes a 'warts and all' sensible yet humorous look at the many stages of pregnancy. It explores the changes, physical and emotional, that any man can expect to see in his partner and in their relationship over the coming months. Becoming pregnant involved two people. The rearing of a child will involve two people; there is every reason that your partner's pregnancy should also involve the two of you, together. For any man that has been put off reading pregnancy books because he doesn't feel he was the intended audience or that something about the tone of these books was alien to him, yet he still has questions that need answers; then The Blokes' Guide to: Pregnancy is the book he's been looking for. As a father himself, Jon Smith realized, when his partner Lisa became pregnant that there was nothing out there that he could relate to. The Bloke's Guide to Pregnancy is the result. Jon takes a comical yet informed look at the ups and downs of life as a father to be. Guaranteed to educate you while making you laugh out loud! |
Masterpiece | Elise Broach | 2,008 | Masterpiece is a middle-grade mystery about stolen art, miniature worlds, and the surprising friendship between a talented beetle, Marvin, and a lonely eleven-year-old boy named James. When James receives a pen-and-ink set for his birthday, Marvin discovers that he can create tiny, intricately detailed scenes by dipping his front legs in the cap of ink and drawing on paper. James is mistakenly credited with Marvin's amazing pictures, and soon beetle and boy are swept up in an adventure at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that involves masterpieces, forgeries, and a stolen pen-and-ink drawing by the great Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, which Marvin and James are determined to recover. With echoes of The Cricket in Times Square, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and Charlotte's Web, this novel explores friendship, sacrifice, and moral dilemmas in the context of a high-stakes art heist. |
The Next Queen of Heaven | Gregory Maguire | null | Thebes, upstate New York, 1999, the run up to the end of the year: the Scales family must deal with a matriarch driven half mad by a blow to the head by a statue of the Virgin Mary, while gay choirmaster Jeremy must find a practise space for his band, which may draw him into a collision course with the local nuns. |
The Demon's Covenant | Sarah Rees Brennan | 2,009 | Mae has learned that her brother, Jamie, has magic powers. Gerald, the leader of the Obsidian Circle, is trying to persuade Jamie to join the magicians that tried to kill Mae and Jamie before. Mae tries to get Nick and Alan to rescue Jamie, but they themselves are in trouble. Nick has a new power that makes every magician in England want him dead. Mae knows she cannot trust anyone so she makes her own plan to save everyone. |
Intervention | Robin Cook | null | Jack Stapleton is a New York City medical examiner whose infant son, JJ, has neuroblastoma. To take his mind off of his son's medical troubles, Stapleton becomes embroiled in a case about the unexplained death of a healthy young woman who had been seeing a chiropractor for alternative medical treatments. Two of Jack's college friends, one an archaeologist and one a Catholic bishop, become similarly embroiled in a case in Egypt, where recent discoveries suggest scientific/medical explanation for Biblical miracles. Also, new information is found that questions the veracity of information in the Christian Bible. Using 21st century medical technology, Jack and his friends discover that a Palestinian woman, Jamilla Mohammod, may be a direct descendant of Mary. Towards the end of the novel, Jack Stapleton's archaeologist friend Shawn and his wife are killed and Stapleton's bishop friend James blames himself for their death. Curious and perhaps desperate, Stapleton and his wife bring JJ to Israel, where he is held by Jamilla. Later, when examined in a hospital in Jerusalem, JJ's neuroblastoma has vanished. |
Barrayar | Lois McMaster Bujold | 1,991 | As Barrayar begins, Aral and Cordelia Vorkosigan are expecting their first child. When the crafty old emperor dies, Aral takes over as regent. A plot to assassinate Aral and Cordelia with poison gas fails, but the antidote, while effective, is also a powerful teratogen that poses a grave threat to the bone development of his unborn son. In a desperate attempt to save the fetus, Cordelia has it transferred to a uterine replicator—an artificial womb—to undergo an experimental recalcification treatment that may partially combat the otherwise-fatal bone damage. When Count Vidal Vordarian attempts a coup, five-year-old Emperor Gregor is rescued by his loyal security chief, Captain Negri, and reunited with the Vorkosigans. Cordelia, Gregor, and various retainers escape into the hills and hide amongst the rural population while Aral and his father organize the resistance. After Cordelia rejoins Aral, they learn that the replicator containing Miles has been captured. Without proper maintenance, the fetus will succumb within six days, but Aral refuses to attempt a rescue when there are far greater concerns. However, Cordelia convinces her personal bodyguard, Ludmilla Droushnakovi, and one of Aral's officers, Clement Koudelka, to help her rescue Gregor's mother, Princess Kareen, and the replicator containing Miles. Once in the palace, Cordelia and her party are caught. They overpower their captors, but Princess Kareen is killed by Vordarian's bodyguards. They execute Vordarian and escape with the replicator, and the coup falls apart without its leader. Cordelia is put in charge of Prince Gregor's early education, with far-reaching consequences for Barrayar. Because of his exposure to the teratogen, Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is born with extremely fragile bones that break easily, and his growth is stunted. On Barrayar, babies with birth defects are common, due to the hostile environment and to lingering radiation from the war between Barrayar and Cetaganda. With life difficult and resources limited, such babies were traditionally killed, though this practice is illegal by the time of Miles' birth. Still, so-called "muties" are reviled and shunned, and Miles, though genetically sound, must deal with prejudice throughout his life, starting with his own grandfather, Piotr. |
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood | null | 2,010 | 'I will journey to the black heart of a corrupt Empire to root out my foes. But Rome wasn't built in a day and it won't be restored by a lone assassin. I am Ezio Auditore da Firenze. This is my brotherhood.' Rome, once mighty, lies in ruins. The city swarms with suffering and degradation, her citizens living in the shadow of the ruthless Borgia family. Only one man can free the people from the Borgia tyranny - Ezio Auditore, the Master Assassin. Ezio's quest will test him to his limits. Cesare Borgia, a man more villainous and dangerous than his father the Pope, will not rest until he has conquered Italy. And in such treacherous times, conspiracy is everywhere, even within the ranks of the brotherhood itself... |
The Hollow Needle | Maurice Leblanc | 1,909 | Arsène Lupin is opposed this time by Isidore Beautrelet, a young but gifted amateur detective, who is still in high school but who is poised to give Arsène Lupin a big headache. In the Arsène Lupin universe, the Hollow Needle is the second secret of Marie Antoinette and Alessandro Cagliostro, the hidden fortune of the kings of France, as revealed to Arsène Lupin by Josephine Balsamo in the novel The Countess Of Cagliostro (1924). The Mystery of the Hollow Needle hides a secret that the Kings of France have been handing down since the time of Julius Caesar... and now Arsène Lupin has mastered it. The legendary needle contains the most fabulous treasure ever imagined, a collection of queens' dowries, pearls, rubies, sapphires and diamonds... the fortune of the kings of France. When Isidore Beautrelet discovers the Château de l'Aiguille in the department of Creuse, he thinks that he has found the solution to the riddle ("l'Aiguille Creuse" being French for "The Hollow Needle", and also the French title of the novel). However, he did not realize that the château was built by Louis XIV, the king of France, to put people off the track of a needle in Normandy, near the town of Le Havre, where Arsène Lupin, known also under the name of Louis Valméras, has hidden himself. |
High School Heroes | null | null | On Christine Carpenter’s first day of her sophomore year at Thomas Jefferson High School she makes a startling discovery. She can hear peoples’ thoughts. After convincing herself she’s not going crazy, Chris must learn to control her amazing mind-reading ability. Using her power she quickly realizes her crush, the captain of the football team, is also blessed with a special ability. She is soon sucked into a world she never thought possible when two more of her classmates, and a teacher, turn out to have powers as well. What are they meant to do with their special gifts that can either help, or harm others? Christine soon finds out when a monster, lurking in the depths of her school, threatens to murder the student population. When it becomes apparent that the creature is someone she knows, she must decide whether to try and save him, or destroy the beast. It is a difficult choice, but one that ultimately takes her from being an ordinary high school student to being a hero. With this, Christine learns that being a hero doesn't mean having superpowers, it is ultimately the decisions she makes that are the distinguishing factors. |
Bloodlines | Richelle Mead | 2,011 | After helping rogue Dhampir Rose Hathaway evade justice, Sydney Sage's situation with the Alchemists is shaky at best. Her career is jeopardized, to the point where she may have to undergo re-education. Woken in the middle of the night, Sydney is given a last chance: to pose as the older sister of Jill Dragomir (illegitimate sister of the Queen Vasilisa) at a boarding school in Palm Springs, California. Jill is being hidden away from dissident Moroi who want to kill her to end the queen's rule, and a recent attack on Jill at the court has convinced several higher-ups that hiding her in a sunny location is the best way to keep her safe - and keep the queen on the throne. Jill is accompanied by Eddie Castile, a Dhampir who, like Sydney, is still in serious trouble from helping Rose. Tagging along is Adrian Ivashkov, a royal and spirit-user who is taking a break from life at the vampire court. Sydney thrusts herself into the job to prevent her younger sister Zoe from being pulled into the Alchemist world (as well as to keep Zoe away from Keith, the Alchemist in charge of the Palm Springs area, who has a history with Sydney's family). Keith is insistent that Zoe take the mission, but Sydney succeeds in convincing the other Alchemists that she is better prepared. However, her sister takes Sydney's words as an affront, believing she is capable of joining the Alchemists, and leaves Sydney on a sour note. Adrian, Eddie, and Sydney accompany Jill to the private school, posing as her siblings. Adrian is stationed in the house of a local Moroi, Clarence Donahue, an older vampire who lives with his college-age son Lee. Clarence is obsessed with 'vampire-hunters', claiming that they killed his niece, Tamara. The students at the school become infatuated with Sydney's Alchemist tattoo, asking her what "powers" it gave her and where she got it, making her curious. During a history class, she meets the teacher's aide, Trey, who is on the football team. All his teammates (excluding him) have been getting tattoos at a place called Nevermore to enhance their sports performance. Sydney gathers information about the 'rare' metallic tattoos and understands why students are so interested in hers. Tattoos called "steel", made using silver, grant enhanced strength and speed, and bronze-colored "celestial" tattoos imbue a feeling of euphoria. Because the tattoos wear off quickly (lasting from several days to a couple of weeks), they have to be continuously touched-up and lead to addictions. Sydney makes the connection that those tattoos and the gold tattoos used by Alchemists were made using the same procedure (but with different effects, as Sydney's restrains her from telling humans of vampires). Jill catches the attention of a senior named Micah, worrying Sydney. Sydney asks Eddie and Adrian to help persuade Micah and Jill to avoid a relationship, but becomes infuriated when Eddie disagrees. Talking to Lee, Sydney and Adrian 'set' Jill up with him - but despite her interest in Lee, Jill is upset with Sydney interfering in her love life. The group goes mini-golfing, and Sydney is freaked out when Jill (a water-user) uses magic on a waterfall. Sydney is awoken in the middle of the night by Jill asking her to go find Adrian, claiming he's stuck at an apartment with two Moroi women in Long Beach, unable to get home. After Sydney wonders how Jill was able to sense Adrian's moods and actions, Jill admits the truth - she has become bonded to Adrian. During the attack on the vampire court, Jill had actually been killed, and only Adrian's spirit magic had saved her. Sydney, angered now that she knows the extent to which Adrian's actions have caused trouble for Jill (Adrian's hangover on Jill's first day at school had transferred across the bond, and she has had several nightmares caused by his nighttime excursions), goes to Long Beach to find him. Arriving at the apartment, Sydney berates Adrian, whose only excuse is that being at Clarence's house alone is driving him crazy. As they prepare to leave the apartment, the women receive a phone call that a Moroi friend of theirs has been killed - and the attack is identical to the story Clarence told about the death of his niece. Because Sydney already knows all the languages the school offers, she is excused from her last class period and spends the time helping out a teacher. The teacher is writing a book, and Sydney offers to help with notes, typing, and coffee runs. Her first task to is to read and summarize an old Latin book about magic. While later visiting Adrian, Sydney finds herself near Nevermore, and she breaks in while Adrian distracts the tattoo artist. She discovers vials of vampire blood and metallic residues, along with a clear liquid she's unable to place. Sydney offers to help Adrian find a job, so that he can move out of Clarence's house, but is infuriated when he intentionally fails several interviews. Sydney returns to school to find that Jill has disappeared. Eventually, Sydney and Eddie realize that she has left campus to go on a second date with Lee. Sydney berates Jill and Eddie for not taking the mission seriously, pointing out that she's spending a great deal of her time looking after all of the Moroi while trying to stay in the Alchemists' good graces. Unfortunately, Keith has been making several negative reports about Sydney's performance, and her father calls that evening to let her know that she is being recalled, and Zoe is being rushed into training - Keith has succeeded in convincing other Alchemists that Sydney is too friendly with the Moroi and Dhampirs to properly serve the Alchemists. Unable to find a job that suits him, Adrian asks Sydney to help him instead get into a local college, hoping that he will be able to find a place to live with the help of financial aid. In return for connecting Sydney with an acquaintance at the college's admissions office, Sydney's teacher asks her to make a charm from the Latin book - a small amulet that would burst into flame when a certain phrase was chanted. When the teacher refuses the amulet (only wanting to know whether the procedure was possible to follow) Sydney keeps it in her purse. Sydney revisits Nevermore and the receptionist reveals that another Alchemist has been providing the supplies for the special tattoos. Adrian calls her over to Clarence's house and shows Sydney a needle mark on his neck. Sydney realizes that Keith has been siphoning blood and saliva from Clarence and selling it to Nevermore. Sydney asks Adrian to break into Keith's apartment to look for proof, while she confronts Keith at a local diner. Sydney reveals her true reason for being repulsed by Keith - while he stayed with her family as an Alchemist trainee, Keith raped Sydney's older sister. Keith races back to his apartment, tailed by Sydney, but Alchemists have already arrived, having been summoned by Adrian. Keith is taken into Alchemist custody. The group goes to a fashion show that Jill is modeling in, but Adrian and Sydney bicker - Adrian has enrolled at college too late to receive financial aid, but Sydney paid for his art classes herself. Sydney mentions that she is heading to Keith's place, and is ambushed by Lee when she gets there. He reveals that it was he who has been killing girls, including his cousin Tamara, because he was trying to "reawaken" himself back into a Strigoi. Five years before the events of the book, Lee (then a Strigoi) was restored by an unknown spirit-user, and he has been obsessed with converting himself back to a Strigoi. Adrian comes to Keith's apartment to apologize to Sydney, just as Lee cuts her arm with a knife. Lee handcuffs Adrian and ties Sydney's hands together while explaining that he intended to "awaken" Jill as well (claming he loves her and wants the two of them to be together forever). Lee tries to drink Sydney's blood, but finds it disgusting. Left with no other choices, he calls two Strigoi women and tells them that in exchange for "reawakening" him, they could have his hostages. Sydney unties herself and almost escapes with Adrian when the Strigoi arrive. One of the Strigoi tries to "reawaken" Lee, but unintentionally kills him instead when his body refuses to accept Strigoi blood. They turn on Sydney, only to have the same reaction to Sydney's blood as Lee had, before moving on to Adrian. As her last hope, Sydney throws the seemingly-useless amulet at one of the Strigoi, and is astonished when she catches fire. Eddie bursts through the door and defeats the Strigoi. Jill sees Lee's dead body on the recliner and is horrified and traumatized. Sydney meets with a senior Alchemist for a debriefing. Both are very interested in the knowledge of Lee's predicament, which suggested that any Strigoi who are "restored" will be unable to be "reawakened" to Strigoi. The Alchemists hope to research the phenomenon to find a way to protect Strigoi from "awakening" any others. With Keith's departure, the Alchemists have promoted Sydney to take charge of the Palm Springs area and offer her Keith's old apartment, as well as a new roommate for Jill - a Dhampir closer to Jill's age. Knowing Adrian's wishes, she instead asks that Adrian be given the apartment in exchange for his assistance in the research into spirit users and Strigoi. Sydney instead requests her own dorm room on campus, allowing her to continue to watch Jill. Back at school, Sydney confronts her teacher about the amulet, and the teacher confesses she had known about vampires all along. as well as Alchemists. She believes that Sydney has an innate magical ability, and it was that ability that gave the amulet its power. As the book ends, Abe Mazur, Rose's father, arrives with Jill's new roommate - a Dhampir named Angeline who Sydney met while on the run with Rose the previous year. Adrian realizes that Abe has been keeping a close eye on Palm Springs because of Nevermore - and that Abe himself is likely trafficking vampire blood as well. Abe, in turn, reveals to Adrian that the reason Sydney had been forced to obey his commands was that Sydney had contracted him for an attack on Keith that left him with a glass eye - retribution for Keith's rape of her sister. The book closes with the arrival of two other former Strigoi who had been restored: Sonya Karp, who is also a spirit user, and Adrian's former rival for Rose's affections, Dimitri Belikov. |
Purple Jesus | null | null | The novel focuses around three characters: Purvis Driggers, a 24-year old unemployed man, Martha Umphlett, a divorced young woman made to live with the family she once escaped, and Brother Andrew, a monk devoted more to nature than God. Their stories intertwine through a series of events related to a murder, a love triangle, and the sightings of a legendary woodland figure known as the Hairy Man. |
Sabotaged | Margaret Haddix | 2,010 | The book starts where the last left off. Jonah, Katherine, and Andrea are going to be sent back in time to Andrea's time. JB is going to give them a briefing, but his projectionist, Sam, says to brief them after they get there. He does, however, manages to tell them that Andrea is Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the colonies. When they arrive, the Elucidator is gone. Andrea blames Jonah, but Jonah figures out that Andrea was the one who lost it. Deliberately. Andrea begins to tell them why. She says that the night before they left to the 1600s, a man came to her and said that if she did what he said, and plugged in the numbers he gave her, she would be able to do the one thing she always wanted to do, save her parents. Her parents had died in June one year before. Katherine explains that she could not go back to that time and relive it, which is the paradox of doubles. They go through a series of events including saving John White, Andrea's grandfather. They also save Antonio and Brendan, two boys who were to make great artwork. They have tracers which they mix with, implying that they are time travelers. Eventually, a man who calls himself Second gives them food and later on, a jar of paint for John White. Jonah gets furious with Second's "gifts" and says that they all should try to do the opposite of whatever they are going do because it must've been what Second would have wanted. Later on, Jonah follows the tracer boys and finds a canoe and they all follow the tracer boys. In the middle of paddling, Jonah is hit by two boys named Brendan and Antonio in mid-air and falls into the water. He is rescued and sleeps throughout the day. When he wakes up, he finds himself on an island with Andrea, Katherine, John White, Dare, and Brendan and Antonio. Katherine then explains that Second came to Brendan's and Antonio's rooms and sent them here and that they are the real versions of the tracer boys. The boys learn to fish and set up a campfire by being with their tracers and on the next day they head to Croatoan Island. When they arrive, they find that there are dead skeletons everywhere and the reason why nobody went to Croatoan Island is because the tracer boys think that the "evil spirits" of the dead haunt them because of their killings. The tracer boys wake up the tracer version of John White and show him the island. Then the tracer boys say that they hear the sounds of the evil spirit so they head back to the canoe, but Dare runs off into the woods and Jonah chases Dare into the woods and finds Virginia Dare's tracer. He calls Andrea to mix with her tracer, but then while Andrea is within her tracer, she says that Virginia Dare won't come out of the woods until the tracer boys leave. Andrea becomes furious, and suddenly the tracer is inside Andrea. Now Andrea, Brendan, and Antonio get to control what happens. They wake up John White and Virginia Dare meets her grandfather. A man comes up behind Jonah and Katherine and says that what just happened is a second chance in history. The man says he calls himself Second because he gives people second chances. He reveals that his real name was Sam Chase, causing Jonah to figure out that Second/Sam was JB's projectionist. Second/Sam explains that he sent them to Roanoke Island to rescue John White and bring him to Virginia Dare, when actually they were supposed to go the moment where Virginia Dare buries the bones to honor the people of Croatoan Island. Then it actually means that Second/Sam really didn't "Sabotage" their mission, he just wanted them to rescue John White and bring him to his granddaughter which in original time, he was not supposed to. Then JB makes an appearance doing the same thing that Brendan and Antonio did to Jonah, landing on Second/Sam and says that Second/Sam is a traitor for jeopardizing the kids, John White and Dare's life. He fires Second/Sam and explains to Jonah that when Brendan and Antonio landed on him in the canoe, it was called a Time Smack and makes the person fall asleep. Second/Sam then gives Andrea his Elucidator and presses a button, but then he falls asleep. A TV screen shows up in the woods with a pre-recorded video. Second/Sam says that he has released the ripple to go on forward. JB screams and gives the kids his Elucidator and sends them into Time Travel. Second's voice comes up on his Elucidator that Andrea is holding and says that they have to hold on to Andrea and press the glowing button to return to 1600. All the kids agree to go back to 1600 but Andrea says that Jonah can't come because she says she wants to protect him. Andrea, Brendan and Antonio make their way back to 1600 while Jonah and Katherine are floating through time travel with JB's Elucidator. Second's voice comes up on the Elucidator and says that he and Katherine will have to beat the ripple to 1611. Jonah and Katherine start doing flips from a force that pushes them which is actually the ripple passing them. Second says that if the ripple passed them an even number of times, they will beat the ripple, and if they flipped an odd number, they are starting behind. It seemed then they beat the ripple, but JB's voice comes on the Elucidator and says that Jonah and Katherine must save 1611 if they want to save JB, Andrea, Brendan and Antonio and Dare from 1600 and return to the twenty-first century. Jonah and Katherine take the chance and land in 1611. When they are traveling through time Jonah finds a piece of paper with John White, Andrea, and Brendan that was drawn by Antonio. Katherine and Jonah get ready to try to save 1611. |
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