The book is divided into 16 sections *The Cosmos: Gods, Demons and Things - Discusses the known gods on the Discworld and their relationships with the gods of Earth. *Dwarfs - Explores the customs of the dwarfs and the similarities between dwarf culture and mining cultures on Earth; also certain Earthly religious cultures. *Elves - Considers the elven race and what is known about them both on Earth and the Disc. *The Nac Mac Feegle - Discusses the Feegle and their ''Pictsies'' equivalents on Earth. *Trolls - Documents the customs and thoughts of the silicon based lifeform and our beliefs regarding them on Earth. *Other Significant Races - Covers a variety of other races including Vampires and Igors and their equivalents on Earth. *Beasties - Dragons, chimeras, the sphinx, etc, including the Luggage. *The Witches of Lancre - Explores similarities and contrasts between the Lancre witches and the Wise Women and witches of Britain and Ireland. *The Land of Lancre - The landscape legends, customs and beliefs in lancre set alongside their counterparts on earth (mainly British). *The Witches of the Chalk - Compares material in the Tiffany trilogy with beliefs and customs of Earth. *The Chalk - Explores the similar customs and way of life between Tiffany''s home and the sheep-rearing areas of Southern England in past generations. *Heroes! - Deals with the parallels of Mazda/Prometheus, Carrot as the Lost Heir, and Cohen in relation to Alexander the Great, Tamurlaine, the aged Ulysses, and heroic defiance. *Lore, Legends and Truth - Concentrates on ''folklore'' as recalled by inhabitants of Ankh-Morpork; includes sections on rat-charming, sinking islands, and wizardry. *More Customs, Nautical Lore and Military Matters - More urban traditions, also ghost ships and female soldiers. *Kids Stuff... You know, about ''Orrid Murder and Blood - Children''s lore (e.g. Frighteners, and the Tooth Fairy); comparison of the Hogfather with father Christmas/Santa Claus. *Death - Well, death, obviously.

The Folklore of Discworld

Michael Marcus (the father of Ben Marcus, the character) opens Notable American Women with several warnings - most notably, that his own offspring, Ben, may very well be mentally handicapped - and ponders reflectively, "How can one word from Ben Marcus''s rotten, filthy heart be trusted?" With that, Ben Marcus (the author) launches into a lengthy first-person narration with Ben Marcus as guide, allowing the reader to decide if, and how, any of the words can be trusted. Playing with the English language in such a manner that his work has drawn comparison''s to Anthony Burgess''s A Clockwork Orange, among other novels, Marcus describes the cultish, recondite practises of his mother, her enigmatic mentor Jane Dark, and their legion of disciples as they attempt to create perfect stillness in the world by eliminating the "wind violence" of speech and, ultimately, physical movement. Dark, witty, and depressing in its ironic hilarity, Notable American Women allows the reader to delve into the mind of a well-meaning but obtuse young man, to glimpse into his turbulent upbringing full of radical experimentation and forced-breeding (among other things) and, possibly, to become attached. In the end, the feminist Silentist group, to which Ben''s mother Jane Marcus belongs, is facing issues of endangerment due to the largely unsuccessful breeding procedures involving Ben and the growing number of its member that are reaching a stillness level, which makes them obsolete. Jane Marcus, too, is nearing complete and utter emotional obliteration, using a complex system of body contortions, and takes the opportunity to address the reader. Like her estranged husband before her (whom she purportedly assisted in relegating to a hole in her backyard), Jane takes a turn at narration, providing for the novel''s conclusion; addressing her husband with ultimatums and effrontery, the reader sees life from the last member of the core Marcus-family trinity, at which point the reader is left to draw her or his own conclusions.

Notable American Women

The action of the play is very simple. Bertha is jealous of Rowan''s relationship with Beatrice, and Hand is jealous of Rowan''s relationship with Bertha. Joyce himself described the structure of the play as "three cat and mouse acts", and the action mostly involves Robert Hand''s attempts to pounce on Bertha. In the first act, at Rowan''s house, Hand kisses Bertha "with passion" several times "and passes his hand many times over her hair". He asks her to come to his own house for a second meeting later that evening. Bertha tells Rowan about this invitation, and asks if she should accept it. Rowan tells her to decide for herself. In the second act, Hand is expecting Bertha at the appointed hour, but instead it is Rowan who appears. Rowan calmly explains that he knows all about Hand''s wooing of Bertha. After some minutes of what for Hand is clearly a very awkward conversation, Bertha herself knocks at the door. Hand goes tactfully into the garden, while Rowan explains to Bertha the conversation he has just had with Hand. Rowan then goes home, leaving his wife alone with Hand. Hand again begins to seduce Bertha. The act ends inconclusively, with Hand asking if Bertha loves him, and Bertha explaining: "I like you, Robert. I think you are good... Are you satisfied?" The third act begins in Rowan''s house at seven o''clock, the following morning. Bertha tells the maid that she hasn''t slept all night. The maid tells her that Rowan has left the house an hour earlier, to go walking on the strand. In the morning newspapers, Hand has published a favourable article about Rowan, written the previous evening. Exactly what has happened the previous night is not entirely clear. Hand and Bertha have shared "a sacred night of love", although the specifics of this are not explicitly stated, and both characters agree that it was "a dream". Hand supplies more detail in his account of the night to Rowan, although of his time with Bertha, he admits only that "she went away". He then claims to have gone to the Vice-Chancellor''s lodge where he drank claret, returned home to write the newspaper article, and then gone to a nightclub where he picked up a divorcée and had sex with her ("what the subtle Duns Scotus calls a death of the spirit took place") in the cab on the way home. Hand himself leaves "for foreign parts" (his cousin''s house in Surrey), while Rowan and Bertha are reconciled. Bertha admits that she longs to meet her lover, but asserts that the lover is Rowan himself. The resolution of the play lies precisely in the sense of doubt about what occurred between Hand and Bertha between Acts Two and Three. Rowan is wounded by the sense of doubt that he admits he longed for. Indeed, he sees this sense of doubt as what enables him "to be united with [Bertha] in body and soul in utter nakedness".

Exiles

Under threat of execution after his conviction by the Time Lords at the end of The War Games, the Doctor is granted a reprieve if he agrees to undertake missions for the Celestial Intervention Agency. Accompanied and supervised by the ambitious Lady Serena, their first mission is to halt attacks upon three key figures in Earth''s past: Napoleon Bonaparte, The Duke of Wellington, and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand. The Doctor re-encounters the Player known as the Countess and struggles to end her Grand Plan to allow Napoleon to win his various European campaigns. Her plan to set the City States of Europe against each other is stopped by the Doctor, despite her setting a Raston Warrior Robot and a vampire on him and Serena. In preventing the Countess''s assassination scheme on Wellington, Serena is killed. The Countess has many back up plans, and at the Battle of Waterloo, her plan to prevent the Prussians coming to the English army''s relief is thwarted when the Doctor imitates Napoleon himself to get through the French lines and deliver new orders to the Prussian commander. After returning to Gallifrey and discovering a traitor in the CIA who had been using the time scoop to assist the Countess, the Doctor is sent on a mission to investigate the time travel experiments of Kartz and Reimer.

World Game

In the previous novel, Georgia has landed the "Sex God", her longtime crush Robbie Jennings, for a boyfriend. Georgia''s dad has gone to New Zealand for a few months. While he is gone Libby is ill and Georgia''s mother takes her to the doctors. When they return, "Gee''s" mum has seen a new doctor and rather likes him; she begins finding any excuse she can to make an appointment with him. After a while, Georgia''s mother announces that the family are off to New Zealand for a month, but Georgia feels she cannot possibly leave as she has just got the boy of her dreams and cannot leave him. Georgia does not leave for New Zealand, but Robbie says she is too young for him and leaves her. Georgia decides to use Dave the Laugh as a red herring to make Robbie jealous and come back to/for her. Georgia feels guilty for using Dave the Laugh and she breaks up with him. Georgia feels extremely awful about it, until she learns that Dave has started dating her friend Ellen (one of her best mates out of her "Ace Gang"). In the end Robbie admits he can''t stop thinking about Georgia and really misses her. He asks her to be his girlfriend again. In a subplot, Georgia''s cat Angus becomes interested in a pedigree cat named Naomi belonging to new neighbors across the road.

On the Bright Side, I''m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God

After being forcibly divorced from his wife for political reasons, Spencer tries to force his way on board the ship she’s on. After being ejected, he gets drunk and implanted with a "feelgood" device that stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain. Spencer is saved from this addictive and lethal fate by an unknown Kona Tatsu (secret police) agent. They clean and care for him, then send him on a mission to the Daltgeld system. Working with Agent Suss Nanahbuc, Spencer is given command of a task force and told that Kona Tatsu (KT) agents are disappearing from the planet. Upon arrival, the ``Duncan`` splashes down to dock for repairs, and Nanahbuc heads out to learn the fate of the other agents. While docked, Spencer gets a visit from McCain, a KT agent hiding from the enemy. However, the enemy is aboard and kills McCain before they can analyze the data she found. The enemy turns out to be a small mercury-like blob that seems to react to its environment, weighs 16 tons, and can control the devices it infects. Spencer leaves the ship and closes it down tight, but it’s already too late. In the end, it turns out an alien artifact was recently discovered in an asteroid, and the captain of the mining freighter was "convinced" to take the artifact to the head of a local conglomerate, Jameson. The device, a helmet made of a mercury-like substance, takes over Jameson and uses him as a control center for taking over the system, with plans to leave it and spread throughout the galaxy. After losing his flagship to prevent an alien from leaving the system, Spencer and Nanahbuc locate the main asteroid of the enemy and head in with the task force to put an end to it for good.

The War Machine

The narrator inexplicably finds himself in a grim and joyless city, the "grey town", which is either hell or purgatory depending on how long one stays there. He eventually finds a bus for those who desire an excursion to some other place (and which eventually turns out to be the foothills of heaven). He enters the bus and converses with his fellow passengers as they travel. When the bus reaches its destination, the passengers on the bus &mdash; including the narrator &mdash; are gradually revealed to be ghosts. Although the country is the most beautiful they have ever seen, every feature of the landscape (including streams of water and blades of grass) is unyieldingly solid compared to themselves: it causes them immense pain to walk on the grass, and even a single leaf is far too heavy for any to lift. Shining figures, men and women whom they have known on earth, come to meet them, and to urge them to repent and enter heaven proper. They promise that as the ghosts travel onward and upward, they will become more solid and thus feel less and less discomfort. These figures, called "spirits" to distinguish them from the ghosts, offer to assist them in the journey toward the mountains and the sunrise. Almost all of the ghosts choose to return instead to the grey town, giving various reasons and excuses. Much of the interest of the book lies in the recognition it awakens of the plausibility and familiarity, along with the thinness and self-deception, of the excuses that the ghosts refuse to abandon, even though to do so would bring them to "reality" and "joy forevermore." The narrator is met by the writer George MacDonald, whom he hails as his mentor, just as Dante did when encountering Virgil in the Divine Comedy; and MacDonald becomes the narrator''s guide in his journey, just as Virgil became Dante''s. MacDonald explains that it is possible for a soul to choose to remain in heaven despite having been in the grey town; for such souls, the goodness of heaven will work backwards into their lives, turning even their worst sorrows into joy, and changing their experience on earth to an extension of heaven. Conversely, the evil of hell works so that if a soul remains in, or returns to, the grey town, even its happiness on earth will lose its meaning, and its experience on earth would have been hell. None of the ghosts realize that the grey town is, in fact, hell. Indeed it is not that much different from the life they led on earth: joyless, friendless, and uncomfortable. It just goes on forever, and gets worse and worse, with some characters whispering their fear of the "night" that is eventually to come. According to MacDonald, while it is possible to leave hell and enter heaven, doing so implies turning away (repentance); or as depicted by Lewis, embracing ultimate and unceasing joy itself. In answer to the narrator''s question MacDonald confirms that what is going on is a dream. The use of chess imagery as well as the correspondence of dream elements to elements in the narrator''s waking life is reminiscent of Alice''s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The narrator discovers that the vast grey town and its ghostly inhabitants are minuscule to the point of being invisible compared with the immensity of heaven and reality. This is illustrated in the encounter of the blessed woman and her husband: she is surrounded by gleaming attendants while he shrinks down to invisibility as he uses a collared tragedian to speak for him. Toward the end, the narrator expresses the terror and agony of remaining a ghost in the advent of full daybreak in heaven, comparing the experience to having large blocks fall on one''s body (at this point falling books awaken him). This parallels that of the man with his dream of judgment day in the House of the Interpreter of The Pilgrim''s Progress. The book ends with the narrator awakening from his dream of heaven into the unpleasant reality of wartime Britain, in conscious imitation of The Pilgrim''s Progress, the last sentence of the "First Part" of which is: "So I awoke, and behold, it was a Dream."

The Great Divorce

Chasm City is framed and largely written in the voice of Tanner Mirabel, a security expert who has come to Chasm City to avenge the death of his former client''s wife at the hands of a "postmortal" noble named Argent Reivich. Tanner arrives to find that Yellowstone, the most advanced civilization in human history, has descended into squalor; an alien nanotech virus known as the Melding Plague has wreaked havoc throughout the system. Chasm City, a dense forest of mile-high shapeshifting skyscrapers, has melted into a slum. The Glitter Band, a sparkling diorama of ten thousand orbital habitats, has been reduced to a "Rust Belt" of a few hundred survivors, mostly primitive and pre-nanotech antiques. In this chaos of plague and desolation, Tanner seeks his prey, only to discover that Reivich is more clever than he originally thought. In the midst of his hunt, he begins experiencing virus-induced flashbacks from the life of Sky Haussman, the founder of his home world, Sky''s Edge, who is both revered and reviled for the crimes he committed for his people. From the depths of the gas plume at the heart of Chasm City, to the aristocratic canopy spanning what remains of the skyscrapers, Mirabel begins to unravel the mystery of the Melding Plague.

Chasm City

In a cave under a glacier (the "River of Ice") in British Columbia, Brent and Lini Waller find a time capsule with treasure, artifacts, and manuscripts from an advanced, pre-Ice Age civilization. Lini seeks to sell the cave contents to the Wittwar Foundation. Benson declines to lead an expedition to the cave. Lini is kidnapped, and a steel needle is pounded into her brain, a pre-Ice Age mind control technique. She leads the Justice Inc. team into several death traps, including a room filled with dry ice and a building that falls on their car. Mac and Josh, sent to locate the cave, are captured by the criminals. Nellie, captured, apparently has a needle inserted in her brain. Flying to the cave, under Lini''s control, Nellie strands Benson, Smitty, and Rosabel in a remote location. Benson had planned for a second plane, delivered by a young Canadian pilot, but accidentally crashes it and is captured. The mastermind seeks the ancient cold light technology which lights the cave, removes all the ancient artifacts, and sets an explosion that buries the cave with the Justice Inc. team inside. Benson arranged for the explosion to destroy the criminals, and escapes the cave using ancient advanced technology.

River of Ice

Sriram is a high school graduate who lives with his grandmother in Malgudi, the fictional Southern Indian town in which much of Narayan''s fiction takes place. Sriram is attracted to Bharati, a girl his age who is active in Mahatma Gandhi''s Quit India movement, and he becomes an activist himself. He then gets involved with anti-British extremists, causing much grief to his grandmother. Sriram''s underground activity takes place in the countryside, an area alien to him, and the misunderstandings with the locals provide the book''s best comic moments. After spending some time in jail, Sriram is reunited with Bharati, and the story ends with their engagement amidst the tragedy of India''s partition in 1947. Waiting for the Mahatma is written in Narayan''s gentle comic style. An unusual feature of this novel is the participation of Gandhi as a character. His revolutionary ideas and practices are contrasted with the views of traditionalists such as the town''s notables and Sriram''s grandmother. The political struggle serves as a background to Sriram and Bharati''s unconventional romance which is concluded outside either''s family circle. This is one of Narayan''s most successful novels, where much happens behind the facade of the low key storytelling. hi:वेटिंग फ़ॉर महात्मा

Waiting for the Mahatma

On Vatnajökull, a glacier in Iceland, Artemis unveils the Ice Cube, his invention to stop global warming (by shooting reflective nano wafers into the clouds, and having them rain down with the snow, and when they land, they reflect the suns light and insulate the icebergs), to Captain Holly Short, Foaly, and Wing Commander Vinyáya. During the presentation, Artemis counts his words, and Holly and Foaly conclude that he has Atlantis Complex, a psychological fairy disease with symptoms including OCD, paranoia, and split personality disorder. In the middle of the meeting, Artemis'' scans pick up a UFO. Foaly confirms the scans, and Artemis suddenly mentally snaps, accusing Foaly of trying to steal his invention. Holly then tries mesmerising him, but they are attacked by a mysterious spacecraft that Foaly designed to search for life on Mars. The craft crash lands, hits a shuttle, and instantly kills Commander Vinyáya and all LEP backup, leaving Holly, Foaly and Artemis stranded on the glacier without communications, weapons, or Butler. Meanwhile, Artemis''s bodyguard Butler is in Mexico. A paranoid Artemis tricked him into travelling to Cancun by telling him his sister Juliet, now a famous wrestler nicknamed "Jade Princess", was in danger. Coincidentally, Juliet and Butler barely escape a horde of zombie-like wrestling fans remotely mesmerised by Turnball Root, former commander Julius Root''s reprobate brother. Despite losing his magic through committing crimes, Turnball restores his magic by eating a combination of mandrakes and rice wine. He escapes with several accomplices and reaches Leonor, his human wife. He kidnaps N°1 to reverse the ageing on his wife, but Orion, Artemis'' alter ego who is not affected by the mind control, saves N°1 and Holly. When Leonor hears that Turnball has rigged a shuttle to explode Leonor decides that she does not want to be young again and that she wishes only to fly for one last time. Turnball can''t bear the thought of life without her. She and Turnball ride deep into the ocean in the shuttle that then promptly explodes. In the epilogue, Artemis is his obsessive, compulsive self again and on a transport shuttle to the Argon clinic for therapy. Juliet is engaged in a wrestling match with a jumbo pixie guard, much to the entertainment of Mulch and the shuttle crew. Artemis and Foaly are teasing Holly about her recent date with Trouble Kelp. Butler calls Angeline Fowl, telling her that Artemis has a fairy disease similar to OCD. Angeline wants to visit him and is very worried and upset.

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex

Spartan is the enchanting story of two brothers born in the military city-state of Sparta. The elder brother, Brithos, was a Spartan paragon; the younger brother, Talos, was crippled and deformed at birth. Because of the cruel and strict laws in vigour at Sparta, babies that were deformed, crippled or had any health issues would not serve the city-state its purpose, which was to battle; therefore, these weaker children had to be sacrificed at Mount Taygetus. The young Talos however survives, rescued by a shepherd of the Helots, the people who served as slaves to the Spartans. This shepherd, who becomes Talos''s adoptive father, raises Talos with love and recounts him the intriguing tale of Aristodemus, the last King of the Helots. The legend goes that he who wears his armour, shall be the one to free the Helots from slavery. However, the blood that runs in his veins is Spartan after all; Talos the Cripple is drawn back to his hometown and in the midst of the legendary Battle of Thermopylae. Here he faces the inhuman brutality and savagery of the Spartan soldiers and meets his brother for the first time since their separation when he crosses his brother''s gaze whilst attempting to protect Antinea, the woman he loves. But destiny has got a better fate for them in store: as a war between the Persian Empire and the Greek city-states looms, the two brothers will find each other again and will fight shoulder to shoulder for the future of their country. Along the way, he discovers some thing of his [Spartan} life like his real name is Kleidemos. When his brother dies, he oversees the Helots, with the help of his friend Karas, helps the Helots have victory over his own race.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Folklore of Discworld

No Author Listed

Notable American Women

By Ben Marcus

Exiles

By James Joyce

World Game

By Terrance Dicks

On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God

By Louise Rennison

The War Machine

By David Drake

The Great Divorce

By C. S. Lewis

Chasm City

By Alastair Reynolds

River of Ice

No Author Listed

Waiting for the Mahatma

By R. K. Narayan

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex

By Eoin Colfer

Spartan

By Valerio Massimo Manfredi