The authors argued that while the Democratic Party "owned" "the Economic Issue" (a broad category encompassing such issues as Social Security and employment), the Republicans likewise "owned" "the Social Issue" (crime, drugs, and morality). They argued that whichever party could exploit their own strengths, and neutralize their opponent''s, would prevail. The authors traced the dichotomy in part to voter concerns about "law and order" in the 1960s. The concern grew as disorder became associated with racial tension, activism and college radicalism; and the people associated with those issues generally had liberal attitudes on sexual behavior and drug use. The authors argued that the electorate at the time did not share this kind of liberalism. The authors noticed many Democrats took a liberal stance on what they called issues of law and order and permissiveness, and said that this could be potentially disastrous. They intended the book to be a warning to Democrats about the danger. They argued that the "real majority" was still economically liberal, but socially conservative. They advised Democrats that Republicans would increasingly garner votes based on "the Social Issue". The Real Majority is often compared and contrasted with The Emerging Republican Majority, a book by Republican strategist Kevin Phillips which was released at the same time. Phillips concluded that the majority was inevitable, a conclusion Wattenberg and Scammon reject.

The Real Majority

The book tells the story of a teddy bear named Corduroy, displayed on a toy shelf in a department store. One day, a girl named Lisa arrives in the store with her mother and spots the bear. She is willing to buy him, however, her mother declines to spend more money and notes that a button is missing from his overalls. After they leave, Corduroy decides to find the missing button by himself and embarks on a trip around the department store after it closes in the evening. He goes upstairs and finds furniture he had never seen before, including beds and mattresses. Thinking that one of the mattress buttons is the one he is missing, he pulls it hard and eventually falls down from the bed, making noise. The store guard arrives, finds the bear and puts him back in place. The next day, Lisa comes back with the money she had found in her piggy bank and buys Corduroy. At home, she sews a button on his shoulder strap and the book ends with them saying that they had always wanted a friend and hugging each other.

Corduroy

Jack Norton, one of a group of Navy SEALs that were psychically and physically enhanced by Dr. Peter Whitney, called Ghostwalkers, is on a mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to rescue his twin brother, Ken from rebel forces. Ken had led a team sent to save an American senator whose plane had gone down. Unfortunately, Ken himself was then captured and tortured before he was retrieved. When he rescued his brother, Jack too was captured; however he was able to escape. Briony Jenkins takes a walk in the jungle, despite the danger of encountering rebel forces. She is a member of a circus family, called the Flying Five. But she has always been different; she cannot be around people without feeling constant pain. She is also stronger and faster than either of her four brothers. Jack encounters Briony while hiding in the jungle, and is immediately aware that she is a Ghostwalker like hemself. He is also stunned by his powerful attraction to her. Briony in turn is amazed that even with his numerous injuries, she cannot feel his pain nor hear his thoughts; it''s the first time that has ever happened. She is also surprised to learn that Jack knows her older brother Jedediah, having served with him when Jeb was a SEAL. Briony is able to get Jack to her hotel and treat his wounds. The next day, Jeb arrives and is at first stunned then alarmed to see Jack with his sister. Jack has always had a formidable reputation, and he’s surprised that his sister seems comfortable in his presence. Jeb agrees to help Jack, and suggest he hides in the arena where they have been permitted to practice. Throughout the next few days as Jack waits to be picked up by his people, the attraction and intimacy between him and Briony grows. When it is time to leave, Jack coolly informs her that he doesn’t want to continue their relationship. Almost three months later, Briony discovers that she’s pregnant. Before she can get over that shock, her doctor tries to drug her and kidnap her. She and her brother escape and go on the run. Twice more enhanced soldiers find her and try to “return her to the lab”. Then a man calling himself Kaden Montague appears and shows her a file of her life. The story told to her adoptive family is a lie; she is not the daughter of a man whose wife died in childbirth. She is one of several orphaned girls who have been psychically and physically enhanced by a man named Peter Whitney. She was given to her family because he wanted to see if she was tough enough to survive the constant bombardment of human emotion without an anchor (a psychic who can filter strong emotion). Not only was that, but the overwhelming attraction between Jack and Briony is no accident. Whitney designed pheromones that would insure strong physical compatibility. All he needed to do was get them both at the same place at the time and nature would take care of the rest. All of this was done so that Briony and Jack would be the parents of the second generation of Whitney’s supersoldiers. Briony knows that she can’t remain with her family; as her pregnancy advances, she’ll be less able to defend herself. So she turns to the one person who might be able to protect her and her unborn child, Jack Norton. When Briony and Jeb appear on Jack and his twin brother’s remote cabin, he is stunned by her revelation that she’s pregnant. He’s even more surprised by the information that not only is Whitney still alive, but he’s also plotting to kidnap Briony. Somewhat to even Briony’s surprise, he agrees to protect her and the baby. It’s not all good news however; the attraction manufactured by Whitney is as intense as ever, if anything, it’s even stronger than before. As they spend time together, Briony realizes that Jack is not the “badass” he purports to be, but a man shattered by an abusive and painful childhood. His own father killed his mother and tried to kill him and his brother because of his intense jealousy. Jack has always feared that he too would by like that if he were ever to fall in love. Just as Jack and Briony reach this new understanding, the house comes under attack. Whitney’s men have found her again. Briony realizes that the only way they could be tailing her is with a tracking devise. She finds and removes it. She also makes another revelation; she remembers that she has a sister, a twin sister. A fact that Luther, one of the men sent to reacquire her conforms. Luckily Jack and Ken are able to fight off the soldiers until they can be rescued by their comrades. Both Jack and Ken pledge to help find Briony find her sister, Mari.

Conspiracy Game

The story outlines contact between Earth and the title Visitors, a group of mysterious objects from deep space. The Visitors are simple black oblong boxes, as large as buildings, which approach from space and orbit the Earth before descending to the United States. The nature of the visitors is kept rather mysterious&nbsp;— it''s not clear if they are vehicles or living things in their own right. They are apparently unable to communicate with humans in any meaningful way; on one occasion a human is taken inside a Visitor, only to be released after experiencing a jumble of confusing colored lights and smells which he didn''t understand. The Visitors are composed largely of a dense form of cellulose, and they proceed to consume a quantity of trees and plant life in the US. Eventually they start producing vehicles, superficially resembling human cars but capable of flying using the same unknown principles as the Visitors themselves, and apparently incorporating some element of intelligence, or at least instinct, since they do not crash into things as they move. The humans assume that the Visitors have created these vehicles as a gift in return for the plant matter which the Visitors are consuming, and the novel touches on the disruption such well-meaning gifts might incur on the Earth''s economic systems. Toward the end of the book the Visitors also start producing housing units for humans, and it is even implied that something living may be inside them&nbsp;— perhaps even a Visitor-produced version of humans themselves.

The Visitors

The first few chapters following the brief introduction about Bundy''s birth and family describe Rule''s friendship with Bundy, her first impressions of him, and her reluctance to consider the evidence that he might be responsible for the crimes of which he was accused. The events of the Chi Omega murders at Florida State University in January 1978 are written in third person, but not omnisciently, as the perpetrator is not identified as being Bundy, thus keeping the documentation of these events in-sync with the knowledge available to officers at the time. It is not until Bundy''s capture and trials in Florida that Rule fully accepts that Bundy is a serial killer. She finds the idea shocking to the point that she "[runs] to the ladies room and throws up" An afterword, following Rule''s lament for Bundy and his victims, describes the Kimberly Leach trial. The 1989 update outlines Bundy''s execution, and the 2000 update touches on many things, including various women claiming to have encountered Bundy in the 70''s, Robert Keppel''s retirement from detective work and his employment at the University of Washington, and Bundy''s possible involvement in the unsolved disappearance of Ann Marie Burr, a girl who disappeared in 1961 when Bundy was 14. A 2008 update of the book includes more stories from women who have contacted Rule with stories of their "near-miss" contacts with a man they believe was Ted Bundy, and also a ''Ted Bundy FAQ'' section where Rule tries to answer the questions most frequently asked by readers, including the fact that he was not responsible for the 1973 murder of Kathy Merry Devine, for which he was long suspected. DNA testing linked that killing to an ex-con named William Cosden, who was subsequently tried and convicted of her murder.

The Stranger Beside Me

The story concerns an elderly Englishman, John Sidney Howard, who goes on a fishing holiday in France after the Second World War breaks out, but before the fall of France. Entrusted with the care of two British children, and overtaken by events, he attempts to return to England and safety. His journey is hampered by the unexpected speed of the Nazi invasion of France, and by the fact that he continually finds himself entrusted with the custody of more and more young children. Eventually, he is stranded in Nazi occupied France and he is fully aware that, as an Englishman, he is an enemy to the occupying forces. While attempting to get passage on a fishing boat, he and his charges are discovered by the Germans. However, in a final plot twist, the German commandant allows them to escape on the condition that they take his niece with them and send her to relatives in the USA. His niece is apparently orphaned and had a Jewish mother. The tale is told by an acquaintance he meets in a London club.

Pied Piper

While structured with plot and subplots, and created with a cast of interesting characters, the novel draws its major appeal from O''Brian''s great story-telling ability. The product of this ability can be seen as a series of adventures in exotic locales, the type of material designed to resonate in the imagination of a typical teenaged boy. There are neither female characters nor romance in The Road to Samarcand. The story begins during a voyage on the South China Sea, where almost at once Derrick''s ship encounters a typhoon. Surviving this perilous experience, the ship under Captain Sullivan reaches shore and completes the rendezvous with Professor Ayrton. Subsequent adventures are set up by forming and equipping the party for the journey to the road to Samarcand, a route better known today as the Silk Road. Members of the party include his relatives, Cousin Ayrton and Uncle Sullivan; Derrick, himself; Sullivan''s intrepid companion, Ross; the ship''s Chinese cook, Li Han; and one of Captain Sullivan''s seamen, Olaf Svenssen. Horses and Mongolian guides are engaged: during the course of the story Derrick becomes a skilled horseman and learns to speak Mongolian. The party must follow a circuitous route to the road to Samarcand in order both to travel in safety and to satisfy Professor Ayrton''s archeological wishes. This circuitous route allows O''Brian to send the band to areas they would otherwise not have traveled and to reveal interesting aspects of the Chinese, Mongolian and Tibetan cultures. Some adventures are harmless, as when Derrick and his Mongolian companion ride out to hunt with a falcon and when the Professor acquires jade treasure; some involve danger. The latter includes imprisonment, escape, brushes with revolutionaries and bandits, and hand-to-hand fighting. The party becomes involved in deadly skirmishes at a time in history when the old skills of warfare are bowing to superior firepower. As this state-of-affairs turns dramatic, Professor Ayrton is forced to pass himself off as a Russian Army officer who specializes in armament. In reality he is anything but an expert and does not know how even to fire a gun when the expedition begins. Other adventures involve dangers crossing a glacier where the party must face both blizzard conditions and inimical monks masquerading as yeti, and the loss and eventual rediscovery of party-members, Ross, Li Han and Olaf. As the final adventure, in what can be described as a deus ex machina, the little group escapes disaster in a functioning helicopter, which has been abandoned near the monastery where the band has been virtually imprisoned. O''Brian skirted anachronism in creating this manner of escape. Although the technology was available in the late 1930''s, existing helicopters were limited to scarce prototypes, and actual aircraft were not produced in large numbers until the 1940''s. Be that as it may, there is spare gasoline in a can, and the party is flown away by Ross. He is completely inexperienced as a helicopter pilot; however, O''Brian has created him with qualities which stretch the improbable escape to the verge of credibility: mechanical prowess -- Ross is the only party member who succeeds in starting the engine -- bravery, and a history as the captain of a ship. Airborne and finally out of danger, the party sees below on the ground their goal, the road to Samarcand.

The Road to Samarcand

The novel is written in picaresque style, and opens with the middle aged, discontented Jess Oakroyd in the fictional Yorkshire town of Bruddersford. He opts to leave his family and seek adventure "on t''road" (throughout the novel Priestley uses dialect for all non-RP speakers of English). He heads south down the Great North Road. Intertwined with the story of Oakroyd''s travels are those of Elizabeth Trant and Inigo Jollifant, two similarly malcontented individuals. Miss Trant is an upper-middle class spinster and Jollifant is a teacher at a down-at-heel private school. All three ultimately encounter each other when a failing concert troupe (''The Dinky Doos'') are disbanding as a result of their manager running off with the takings. The independently wealthy Miss Trant, against the advice of her relatives, decides to refloat the troupe, now known as ''The Good Companions''. Inigo plays piano, Oakroyd is the odd-job man, and other assorted characters including members of the original troupe: including Jimmy Nunn, Jerry Jerningham and Susie Dean, along with Mr Morton Mitcham (a travelling banjo player whom Inigo met earlier on his own odyssey) have various adventures round the shires of middle England. After a sabotaged performance, the troupe disband: Jerry marries Lady Partlit, a fan; Susie and Inigo become successful and famous in London; Miss Trant gets married to a long lost sweetheart; Jess Oakroyd emigrates to Canada and the other performers carry on with their life on the road.

The Good Companions

The main protagonist of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a nine-year-old boy named Oskar Schell. Oskar Schell''s father Thomas Schell dies in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, before the narrative begins. While looking through his father''s closet, Oskar finds a key in a small envelope inside a vase, on the outside of the envelope the word "Black" is written in the top left corner. Curious, Oskar sets off on a mission to contact every person in New York City with the last name Black, in alphabetical order, in order to find the lock to the key his father left behind. The novel also tells a separate narrative that eventually converges with the main story through a series of letters written by Oskar''s grandfather to Oskar''s father and by Oskar''s grandmother to Oskar himself. Based on real life events. One of the first people Oskar meets in his search for the key''s origin is a forty-eight-year-old woman named Abby Black. Oskar makes friends instantly, but she has no information on the key. Oskar continues to search the city, meeting an old man he calls "the renter" – as he is the new tenant in Oskar''s grandmother''s apartment; "the renter" is actually Oskar''s grandfather. Eight months after he meets Abby he finds a message on the answering machine. He had not touched that phone since his father died since his father''s last words had been on an identical answering machine which Oskar had kept hidden from his mother. It is revealed that Abby had called Oskar directly after his visit, saying "[she] wasn''t completely honest with [Oskar], and [she] think[s] that [she] might be able to help". Oskar returns to Abby''s apartment, and Abby directs him to her ex-husband, William Black. When Oskar talks to William Black, he learns that the vase used to belong to William''s father. In his will, William''s father left William a key to a safe-deposit box, but William had already sold the vase at the estate sale to Thomas Schell. Oskar tells William something that he "never told anyone" – the story of the last answering machine message Oskar received from his father, during the attack of 9/11- a repetition of the words "Are you there? Are you there? Are you there?" Oskar then gives William Black the key. Disappointed that the key does not belong to him, Oskar goes home angry and sad, not interested in the contents of the box. After Oskar destroys everything that had to do with the search for the lost key, his mother reveals that she knew Oskar was contacting all the Blacks in New York City. After the first few visits she called every Black that he would meet and informed them that Oskar was going to visit and why. In response, the people Oskar met knew ahead of time why he was coming and usually treated him in a friendly manner.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

The action takes place in the future. The main character - Richard Muller, a retired diplomat – finds himself forced to hide from the human race on the uninhabited planet Lemnos. He lives there in the center of an ancient city-maze, built by a vanished race. The outer zones of the maze are filled with lethal traps to discourage entrance into the central zone. The maze was considered insuperable until the successful attempt of Muller. In his earlier life he had honestly served humanity, has traveled hundreds of worlds, endured hardship and danger. The career diplomat Charles Boardman invited him to come into contact with the inhabitants of the planet Hydra - the only intelligent alien race yet discovered in the galaxy. In a neighboring galaxy another highly-developed race has been discovered and Mueller must try to enlist the help of the inhabitants of Hydra. Mueller spent five months on Hydra without seeming to establish any meaningful communication with the natives at all. When he returned he discovered that other human beings cannot bear to be close to him - he seems to emanate an intolerable mental field that overwhelms the others. Earth science cannot understand or trace the origin of these emanations from Muller''s brain and Mueller went into voluntary exile. After nine years, however, Boardman invades his self-imposed isolation. The lethal snares of the maze are penetrated, firstly with robot drones and later with human volunteers, many of whom perish. Ned Rawlins, son of a friend of Muller who is now dead, establishes contact with him and, under the instruction of Boardman, promises him a cure as a means of luring him out of the maze. Mueller agrees to go, but his conscience torments Rawlins and he tells Muller the whole truth as far as he knows it: that only Muller has the ability to make contact with the aliens from the other galaxy who are on their way to extinguishing human civilization. Already six human worlds have been overrun, the people turned into zombie slaves. The aliens do not seem to realize that the humans are rational beings. They are radically alien, huge in physical size, communicate with each other telepathically, are physically very limited but are able to enslave the inhabitants of entire planets. Only one person - Muller - who can radiate telepathically, might be able to enter in contact with them: yet his experiences have made him potentially furiously hostile to any further contact with aliens, indeed with the human race itself. After a dramatic meeting with Boardman Muller agrees. He flies to the edge of the galaxy, is taken inside an alien ship, and there seems to have his whole psyche read by the aliens. When he returns, Muller meets Rawlins and discovers that his repulsion field has now vanished. To Rawlins'' disappointment, however, instead of returning to Earth and its comforts and pleasures, Muller has decided to return to the maze. The worldly-wise Boardman is sure he will come back out in a few years, but Rawlins does not think so. At the end of the story we are left without knowing what resulted from this contact with the alien civilization, or what ultimately happened to Muller. Rawlins is meanwhile following in Muller''s footsteps, and those of the innumerable reckless adventurers before him, from the seamen of old to the space-farers of the remote future century of the novel. The last sentence reads: "He held the girl tightly. But he left before dawn".

The Man in the Maze

The story begins with Yoko Kawashima (and her mother, brother and sister) living in Nanam, a city in northern Korea. When Korea becomes dangerous, Yoko and her family must return to Japan, hiding from both the Japanese military and the Koreans. Her brother, Hideyo, also tries to flee but he is separated from his family because he tried out for the army and purposefully failed the written test because he decided last minute he didn''t want to go to war. As a punishment, he has to serve at an ammunition factory for six days a week, which is why he is separate from his family when the Kawashima''s have to leave. The family experiences a difficult journey as they make their way to Seoul and to Pusan to take a ferry to Japan. When Yoko, her sister Ko, and her mother reach Fukuoka, they travel to Kyoto, as the mother had family there. She then leaves for Aomori to seek help from their grandparents. She returns to Yoko and her sister bringing sad news that both of their grandparents are dead. The mother dies on the same day, leaving Yoko and Ko waiting for the eventual return of their brother, Hideyo. Yoko''s essay is later published in a newspaper, and their old friend Corporal Matsumura seeks out Yoko, asking if she is the same girl. Hideyo faints at the doorstep of a Korean family. Luckily for him, his life was spared and the family allow him to stay. The family sadly bids Hideyo farewell and he finally reaches Pusan where he finds the message that Yoko had left him. After sailing across to Japan, he sees scriptures of his name and Yoko and Ko''s address. While asking directions from a local, he is spotted by Yoko and they are reunited.

So Far from the Bamboo Grove

Daine receives a summons from some old friends - the wolf pack from her old village, led by Brokefang and his mate Frostfur, who are unhappy with the nobles ruining the Long Lake, their territory. They send messengers to ask Daine for help and then disappear back into the night to hunt while Daine discusses this over with her teacher, Numair Salmalin. Numair agrees to help the wolves, but he decides that he first must visit the nobles in Fief Dunlath at a party to further investigate after they find the burnt remains of the Ninth Rider Group. Numair recognizes a battle mage at Fief Dunlath, who appears to be wooing Lady Yolane. After Daine boldly approaches them about the threat to the wolves and to the area with a warning that if they don''t change, things will happen, the nobles all laugh at her. She retires with Numair back to their quarters and stealthily leave in the night from Fief Dunlath. Tristan Staghorn, the mage in Dunlath is a war mage from the Carthaki university where Numair studied to become one of the 7 most powerful mages in the world. Upon discovering Tristan was there, Numair realized that the situation in Dunlath was worse than they had thought. He creates a magical simulacra (clone) of himself and plays on Tristan''s knowledge of him back in Carthak, where he was a "book-bound idiot." He explains to Daine that people who are Black robe mages study books and learn nothing practical. Daine seems to think he relies too much on the enemy mage''s stupidity. Shortly after this, Numair decides to go back to the city where King Jonathan is and warns him of something afoot in Dunlath. Daine stays to sort out the mess with her friend Brokefang and Numair tells her not to do anything extreme or he will lock her in the deepest dankest dungeon he can find when he gets his hands on her again. Throughout the book, Daine reaches the next level in the development of her wild magic as she starts to share minds with animals, a useful ability as she uses the eyes of squirrels and other creatures to spy. This ability soon translates to gaining certain characteristics of animals once she returns to her natural body. Daine discovers she has the power to morph into animals after Maura, Lady Yolane''s somewhat plain and much younger sister, runs away from Fief Dunlath. Shortly afterwards, Rikash Moonsword the Stormwing appears to be fond of Maura and he makes Daine rethink her theory about all Stormwings being naturally evil. Maura tells Daine about Yolane''s plans to become Queen - a deal with Emperor Ozorne of Carthak, who is also hinted at causing the siege at Pirate''s Swoop in the first book. In the meantime, Daine meets a basilisk named Tkaa, who comes to be an important ally and a partial tutor to Kitten, her dragonet; Tristan creates a magical barrier to isolate fief Dunlath from help. In the Tortallan universe, basilisks resemble elegantly featured lizards that have the ability to stand on their hindlegs. They eat rocks and have a curious screech that turns anything in their direct path into stone. Daine learns that Tristan and his mage friends Alamid and Gissa are going to dump a poison called bloodrain into the river at the north of Dunlath to kill everything living within ten miles of the river. Tristan tries to hurt Daine with his magic, and Numair turns him(Tristan)into an apple tree with a word of power, also causing a tree somewhere in the world to turn into a human. With the help of Maura, Tkaa, Kitten (Skysong the Dragonet), the Stormwing Lord Rikash,Huntsman Tait, Alanna the Lioness, Raoul of Goldenlake, and the animals of the Long lake of Dunlath Numair and Daine manage to rip the entire plot to pieces in the biggest siege Daine has foiled yet.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Real Majority

By Ben J. Wattenberg

Corduroy

By Don Freeman

Conspiracy Game

No Author Listed

The Visitors

No Author Listed

The Stranger Beside Me

By Ann Rule

Pied Piper

By Nevil Shute

The Road to Samarcand

By Patrick O''Brian

The Good Companions

By John Boynton Priestley

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

By Jonathan Safran Foer

The Man in the Maze

By Robert Silverberg

So Far from the Bamboo Grove

By Yoko Kawashima Watkins

Wolf-Speaker

By Tamora Pierce