The novel is about a 15-year-old girl named Darlene Joyce (D.J.) Schwenk, who lives on a farm in Red Bend, Wisconsin. During the summer, she is pressured into training a stubborn football player named Brian Nelson. Eventually, they become friends, and D.J. develops romantic feelings for Brian. Part of DJ''s struggle is that she had once been a star athlete in volleyball and basketball. When her father hurts his hip, she had to take over all the responsibilities of running their dairy farm. Her only hopes of college had been sports scholarships, and when she is forced to quit sports in order to run the farm, she starts slacking in school. DJ''s two older brothers Win and Bill are legends at her school and both play college football. DJ decides to try out for her high school football team. When pre-season is about to start, D.J.''s best friend Amber walks in on a waterfight between D.J. and Brian. Brian leaves, and D.J. and Amber argue. Later on, D.J.''s friend Kari invites her to a gravel-pit party, which Amber attends. D.J. tells the two of them about her decision and Amber expresses her disgust. After, D.J. encounters Amber away from the rest of the party. Then Amber reveals, "You''re with me. You''re not with him. It''s the two of us. Don''t you see that?" It then occurs to D.J. that Amber is in love with her (Which is how you know that Amber is a lesbian.) DJ withholds her decision to try out for the team from Brian, and when he finally finds out their friendship is ruined because Brian feels like DJ has betrayed him. Throughout the summer, D.J. learns a lot about the people in her life. She also discovers that there is a lot of meaning in speaking out. Brian once says to her "When you don''t talk, there''s a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said." DJ and her family don''t communicate effectively, her father rarely speaks to any of them except for her mother, her two older brothers are in the middle of a silent fight with her father, they have no contact with the family (until DJ finds out her mother has been communicating with them the whole time), and her younger brother speaks only when he is spoken to.

Dairy Queen

Paul argues that "in the post-meltdown world, it is irresponsible, ineffective, and ultimately useless to have a serious economic debate without considering and challenging the role of the Federal Reserve." In End the Fed, Paul draws on American history, economics, and anecdotes from his own political life to argue that the Fed is both corrupt and unconstitutional. He states that it is inflating currency today at nearly a Weimar or Zimbabwe level, which Paul asserts is a practice that threatens to put the United States into an inflationary depression where the US dollar, which is the reserve currency of the world, would suffer severe devaluation. A major theme throughout the work also revolves around the idea of inflation as a hidden tax making warfare much easier to wage. Because people will reject the notion of increasing direct taxes, inflation is then used to help service the overwhelming debts incurred through warfare. In turn the purchasing power of the masses is diminished, yet most are unaware. This has the biggest impact on low income individuals since it is a regressive tax. CPI presently does not include food and energy, yet this is where the majority of poor peoples'' income is spent. He further maintains that most people are not aware that the Fed — created by the Morgans and Rockefellers at a private club off the coast of Georgia — is actually working against their own personal interests. Instead of protecting the people, the Fed now serves as a cartel where the name of the game is bailout or otherwise known as privatized profits but socialized losses. Paul also draws on the historical links between the creation of central banks and war, explaining how inflation and devaluations have been used as war financing tools in the past by many governments from monarchies to democracies.

End the Fed

Osfameron Tanamoril (Moril) Clennenson is a travelling musician, who travels with his father, Clennen, his mother, Lenina, and his elder siblings, Dagner and Brid, through Dalemark, a country torn by civil war between the South and the North. They travel around, playing music, taking passengers and messages, and spreading news throughout the country. When Clennen (the father and main performer) is murdered by the Earl of South Dales, who suspects him of being a spy for the North, Lenina (who is high-born and gave up the chance of being a Lady when she married Clennen) takes her three children and their passenger Kialan, the fugitive son of a Northern earl, back to her home town of Markind in South Dalemark. Within the same day as her husband''s death, Lenina is married to her former fiancé the Lord of Markind, guided by the belief that this is the only way to counter the bad luck caused by Clennen''s murder. Dagner, Brid, and Moril encounter their father''s murderer among the wedding guests in Markind and together with Kialan they flee the town and try to reach the North, while continuing to perform for a living. However, without Clennen and Lenina, they find this difficult to do. The oldest son, Dagner, tries to continue their father''s work as a Northern spy, but is arrested for treason against the Earl of South Dales. Brid, Moril, and Kialan are forced to flee, believing that Dagner will be hanged. Before he died, Clennen left his youngest son Moril a magical cwidder (a common musical instrument in Dalemark similar to a lute with some properties of an acoustic guitar). It is rumored to have been owned by Moril''s ancestor and namesake Osfameron, who was both a minstrel and a famous magician, featuring in many of the legends of Dalemark. Throughout their travels from the South to the North, Moril discovers that he has the power to use the magic of his newly inherited instrument. As they travel, they become embroiled in the civil war. As the Southerners are about to attack the North, Moril uses his magical cwidder to make the mountains ''walk'' and close Flennpass, the only mountain pass between the North and the South, just as his ancestor, the famed Osfameron, did in so many of the songs Moril''s father had sung nearly every day. The walking mountains crush the attacking Southern army, killing the evil Earl of South Dales, Clennen''s murderer, and saving the North. However, after the battle, Moril is wracked with guilt, as he caused the deaths of hundreds of men, and mainly because he was angry that his beloved horse, Olob, had been shot. In the end, when all safely reach Hannart, the earldom of Kialan''s father, they are joined by Dagner who has been released from jail after the death of the Earl of South Dales and traveled to North Dalemark with another traveling Singer, Hestefan. Moril decides that he should travel with Hestefan and learn how to be a proper Singer. Hestefan accepts, and they leave to continue travelling through Dalemark.

Cart and Cwidder

At Messina, a messenger brings news that Don Pedro, a Spanish prince from Aragon, and his officers, Claudio and Benedick, have returned from a successful battle. Leonato, the governor of Messina, welcomes the messenger and announces that Don Pedro and his men will stay for a month. Beatrice, Leonato''s niece, asks the messenger about Benedick, and makes sarcastic remarks about his ineptitude as a soldier. Leonato explains that "There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her." Beatrice and Benedick, longtime adversaries, carry on their arguments. Claudio’s feelings for Hero, Leonato''s only daughter, are rekindled upon seeing her, and Claudio soon announces to Benedick his intention to court her. Benedick tries to dissuade his friend but is unsuccessful in the face of Don Pedro’s encouragement. While Benedick teases Claudio, Benedick swears that he will never get married. Don Pedro laughs at him and tells him that when he has found the right person he shall get married. A masquerade ball is planned in celebration, giving a disguised Don Pedro the opportunity to woo Hero on Claudio’s behalf. Don John, "The Bastard" (Don Pedro''s illegitimate brother), is a malcontent who uses this situation to get revenge on his brother Don Pedro by telling young Claudio that Don Pedro is wooing Hero for himself. Claudio becomes furious at Don Pedro and confronts him. The misunderstanding is quickly resolved and Claudio wins Hero''s hand in marriage. Don Pedro and his men, bored at the prospect of waiting a week for the wedding, harbour a plan to matchmake between Beatrice and Benedick. The men led by Don Pedro proclaim Beatrice’s love for Benedick while knowing he is eavesdropping on their conversation. The women led by Hero do the same to Beatrice. Struck by the fact that they are apparently thought to be too proud to love each other, Beatrice and Benedick, neither willing to bear the reputation of pride, each decides to requite the love of the other. Meanwhile Don John plots to ruin Claudio and Hero’s wedding by casting aspersions upon Hero’s character. His follower Borachio courts Margaret, Hero''s chambermaid calling her "Hero", at Hero’s open bedroom window while Don John leads Don Pedro and Claudio to spy below. The latter mistaking Margaret for Hero are convinced of Hero''s infidelity. The next day during the wedding, Claudio refuses to marry Hero. He and Don Pedro humiliate Hero publicly before a stunned congregation and Margaret, who is attending the wedding, does not speak up in Hero''s defence. The two exit, leaving the rest in shock. Hero, who has fainted, revives after Don Pedro and Claudio leave, only to be reprimanded by her father. The presiding Friar interrupts, believing Hero to be innocent and convinces the family to fake Hero''s death in order to extract the truth and Claudio’s remorse. Prompted by the day''s harrowing events, Benedick and Beatrice confess their love for each other. Beatrice then asks Benedick to slay Claudio as proof of his devotion, since he has slandered her kinswoman. Benedick is horrified and denies her request. Leonato and Antonio, Hero''s uncle, subsequently blame Don Pedro and Claudio for Hero’s death and challenge Claudio to duels. Benedick, prompted by Beatrice, does the same. Luckily, on the night of Don John''s treachery the local Watch has apprehended Borachio and his ally Conrade. Despite the Watch''s comic ineptness (headed by constable Dogberry, a master of malapropisms), they have overheard the duo discussing their evil plans. The Watch arrest them and eventually obtain the villains'' confession, informing Leonato of Hero''s innocence. Though Don John has fled the city, a force is sent to capture him. Claudio, though maintaining he made an honest mistake, is repentant; he agrees to not only post a proper epitaph for Hero but to marry a substitute, Hero''s cousin (not Beatrice) in her place. During Claudio’s second wedding as the dancers enter, the "cousin" is unmasked as Hero to a most surprised and gratified Claudio. An impromptu dance is announced. Beatrice and Benedick, prompted by their friends’ interference finally confess their love for each other to the group at large. As the play draws to a close a messenger arrives with news of Don John’s capture – but his punishment is postponed another day so that the couples can enjoy their new-found happiness.

Much Ado About Nothing

This series was to build on Campbell’s idea, first presented in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, that myth evolves over time through four stages: *The Way of the Animal Powers -- the myths of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers which focus on shamanism and animal totems. This volume was covered in two parts: Mythologies of the Primitive Hunter-Gathers and Mythologies of the Great Hunt. *The Way of the Seeded Earth -- the myths of Neolithic, agrarian cultures which focus upon a mother goddess and associated fertility rites. This volume was to be covered in five parts, of which three were completed: The Sacrifice, Mythologies of the Primitive Planters: The Northern Americas, and Mythologies of the Primitive Planters: The Middle and Southern Americas. Two additional parts were planned: Mythologies of the Primitive Planters: Africa and South-western Asia and Mythologies of the Primitive Planters: Southern Asia. *The Way of the Celestial Lights -- the myths of Bronze Age city-states with pantheons of gods ruling from the heavens, led by a masculine god-king. *The Way of Man -- religion and philosophy as it developed after the Axial Age (c. 6th century BC), in which the mythic imagery of previous eras was made consciously metaphorical, reinterpreted as referring to psycho-spiritual, not literal-historical, matters. This transition is evidenced in the East by Buddhism, Vedanta, and philosophical Taoism; and in the West by the Mystery Cults, Platonism, Christianity and Gnosticism.

Historical Atlas of World Mythology

"The world Berlin author Lutz Rathenow depicts is the colorless, flat, thuddingly dull DDR — the German Democratic Republic, as it called itself, or Communist East Germany, as we knew it: a sub-Soviet, sub-standard, bureaucratic parody of a society (1949-1990). And he depicts it very well, only not from the outside, with detailed descriptions, historical costumes and polemical plots, but rather from the inside, dropping in on the mind of one or another of its characters. Here is the little man starved of human contact and longing for romance (''The Girl in Finland''), the timid bureaucrat standing in front of an office door and wondering how to knock (''Mr. Breugel), the writer facing the blank page and fearing both to write and not to write (''The Blank Page''). Here, in other words, is Angst, paralysis, a funnel of doubt and indecision. Out of it comes murderous resentment (''Professor Dr. Mitzenleim''), mocking defiance (''Reasons for Refusing to Make a Statement''), ironic futility (''Meditations on Peace''). People who are emotionally starved, anxious and futile develop a perverse sense of humor (''The Phone Call''); they find grim little pleasures in their living death (''Obituary''). "Rathenow''s works crystallize not only a past, but also a present and recurring assault on the mind. The government, the political party, the church, the organization, the television program, the newspaper, the company, the office, the boss all want you to think the same way, their way, whatever the country and whatever the time. And if you do, this is what results: reduced capacity, distorted thought, fragmented language, inverted feelings, a sense of unreality, a drabness unto death. The Fantastic Ordinary World of Lutz Rathenow draws this lesson and thus the pleasure out of the painful republic. ~ From the Introduction by Karl Kvitko

The Fantastic Ordinary World of Lutz Rathenow: Poems, Plays & Stories

The story begins after the arrival of the Spook, who will be taking Tom Ward, the narrator, as his apprentice. The Spook is a cloaked old man carrying a wooden staff in his left hand, who travels the county fighting troublesome creatures such as Boggarts, Ghosts/Ghasts, and Witches, for the people who need these things gone. However the religious world hates them, for they are thought to be meddling in the dark powers themselves, which is against the Christian church. Tom knows that his parents have agreed to make him the apprentice of the Spook. He will have to learn how the Spook fights "The Dark", as it''s referred to in the book. He can use practice, reading or listening to learn about all creatures that feature in the dark. The Spook is actually a person, and looks after Tom well. He explains that most of his other apprentices have failed, due to them being cowardly, disobedient, or deceased. It is revealed that one of the deceased was Billy Bradly, who whilst fighting a particularly dangerous boggart had his finger bitten off and died from loss of blood. The Spook''s staff is not what it appears. It has a retractable knife at the end of it and the wood is very uncomfortable to witches. Later on Tom Ward realizes it is very useful to defeat witches. The Spook lives in a house at Chipenden. This house is protected from unwanted visitors by a boggart, whom the Spook has made a servant of sorts. The Spook has promised the boggart that as long as the house is standing, the boggart must cook for them, do the dishes, and do their laundry. The boggart happily complies with these tasks, because this is what boggarts do best. After learning what the Spook does, Tom is sent out on an errand to pick up some food for the house. He is given a strict warning - do not talk to women wearing pointy shoes. On his way home, some boys about the same age as Tom come up and threaten to beat him unless he gives them some food. Tom refuses and the boys are about to beat him up, when suddenly a girl in pointy shoes shows up and scares them away by telling them a certain person is back. She has an ungodly amount of strength for a girl of her age. The mysterious girl''s name is Alice, and she is a relative of some of the most dangerous witches in the world: Mother Malkin and Bony Lizzie. Bony Lizzie uses bone magic, a type of necromancy involving the bones of dead enemies. Mother Malkin was one of the most sinister witches, who uses blood magic, a type of witchcraft that involved draining the blood of anyone she thought could have useful features. She was called Mother Malkin for her strategy of welcoming young runaway women into a care home, and then sucking the blood of every girl there to make her more youthful. Over time she had developed a taste for children. A long time ago the Spook had bound Mother Malkin to a pit in the ground with 13 iron bars on top, so she could never escape to terrorize anyone again. Soon Tom is tricked by Alice to give Mother Malkin three cakes, one every night at midnight for three days, which (Tom doesn''t know) is filled with blood. Mother Malkin becomes stronger and breaks out of her pit prison in two days. Tom then tries to find a way to deal with Mother Malkin, because the Spook is not at home. A horrible monster-like boy, who is Mother Malkin''s son, as well as Bony Lizzie, try to kill Tom. Alice first tricks Tom, but as Bony Lizzie sharpens her knife to kill him, she pulls him out of the pit he was thrown in. The Spook returns home, kills Mother Malkin''s son with his staff, then tests Alice to see whether she is good or evil. She passes the test, then they put Bony Lizzie into her pit. Tom returns home, to realize that Mother Malkin has followed him. She possesses the body of the pig killer of Tom''s farm, using terrible dark magic, but is thrust out of his body with the help of Alice, who runs and kicks the pig killer hard when his possessed body is about to murder Tom. The three then kill Mother Malkin by having her escape into the lair of the hungry pigs, who eat her alive, including her heart. This ensures that she cannot return to the world again after death. Tom, the Spook and Alice decide that Alice should go to Staumin to escape the dark influence of her witch relatives and Tom escorts her there. Tom then returns to Chipenden to resume his training as a Spook.

The Spook''s Apprentice

Torments of the Traitor is also the story of a new character Maelys, whose once great family have hatched a plan for her to rescue Nish from the prison his father has set him in and to seduce him into marrying her. Maely''s family hope to be raised up to their former glory if Nish rebels against his Father, and become God-Emperor, or if he joins his father and becomes his lieutenant. Either way Maely''s family benefits. Nish has been imprisoned for the last ten years. His time for release has finally come. However the condition is that he must swear loyalty to his evil father, the man who had his beloved Irisis beheaded. Through Nish swore in front of thousands when he was first imprisoned, that he would never join his Father Jal-Nish after ten years, his will to fight has left him, and is unsure whether he can resists Jal-Nish Hlar''s temptations. At the conclusion of the novel, the characters, who have grouped together, make the decision to seek down Irvine''s mysterious boogeyman, the Numinator.

The Torments of the Traitor

The novel focuses on Molly Bolt, the adopted daughter of a poor family, who possesses remarkable beauty and who is aware of her lesbianism from early childhood. Her relationship with her mother is rocky, and at a young age her mother, referred to as "Carrie," informs Molly that she is not her own biological child but a "bastard." Molly has her first same-sex sexual relationship in the sixth grade with her friend Leota B. Bisland, and then again in a Florida high school, where she has another sexual relationship with another friend, Carolyn Simpson, the school lead cheerleader, who willingly has sex with Molly but rejects the "lesbian" label. Molly also engages in sex with males, including her cousin Leroy when the two were younger. Her father, Carl, dies when she is in her junior year of high school. In a combination of her strong-willed nature and disdain for Carrie, Molly pushes herself to excel in high school, winning a full scholarship to the University of Florida. Unlike Carrie, Carl has always supported Molly''s goals and education. However, when Molly''s homosexual relationship with her alcoholic roommate is discovered, she is denied a renewal of her scholarship. Possessing little money, she moves to New York to pursue an education in filmmaking. Upon reaching New York, she realizes that the rubyfruit is maybe not as delicious and varied as she had dreamed within the concrete jungle.

Rubyfruit Jungle

This work is one of the greatest and most famous contributions to physiology, for it introduces into biology the doctrine of the complete circulation of the blood. Partial anticipations of Harvey''s great discovery go back to the thirteenth century, when the pulmonary or lesser circulation was proposed by Al-Nafis. In 1553, Michael Servetus said that blood flows from the heart to the lungs, and that it there mixes with air to form the arterial blood which flows back to the heart. Between 1570 and 1590, Cesalpino suggested, in a controversy with Galenists, that the movement of blood was more like a circulation than an oscillation; but this view lacks clarity. In 1603, Hieronymus Fabricius ab Acquapendente published a work clearly describing the valves in the veins and showing that they hinder the flow of blood away from the heart. From 1597 to 1602, Harvey studied arts and medicine at Padua, and made a careful study of the heart and the movement of blood. By 1616, he was presenting in lectures his case for the circulation of the blood, but it was not until 1628 that he published it in his classic work, De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis. This book is important both for the discovery of the complete circulation and for the experimental, quantitive and mechanistic methodology which Harvey introduced. He looked upon the heart, not as a mystical seat of the spirit and faculties, but as a pump analyzable along mechanical lines. He also measured the amount of blood which it sent out to the body. He observed that with each beat two ounces of blood leave the heart; so that with 72 heart beats per minute, the heart throws into the system 540 pounds of blood every hour. Where could all this blood come from? The answer seems to be that it is the same blood that is always returning. Moreover, the one-way valves in the heart, like those in the veins, indicate that, following the pulmonary circulation, the blood goes out to all parts of the body through the arteries and returns by way of the veins. The blood thus makes a complete closed circuit. As Harvey expressed it, "There must be a motion, as it were, in a circle." There was, however, one stage in the circulation which Harvey was not able to see - that in which the veins and arteries lose themselves by subdivision into the tiny capillary vessels. It was in 1660, three years after Harvey''s death, that Marcello Malpighi saw the blood moving in the capilaries of the frog''s lung, and thus supplied the missing link in Harvey''s proof of the circulation of the blood.

Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus

The novel begins seven months after Forever Odd. During that time, Odd Thomas has been a guest at St. Bartholomew''s Abbey, where he hopes to seek peace and understanding. During his time there, he befriends a white-furred dog who assists him in his further adventures. Odd sees a shade-like bodach. This portends great disaster for the abbey. One of the monks goes missing, and Odd is attacked by a mysterious assailant. As he searches for the missing monk, Odd hears an odd noise in a great snowstorm, and later sees an intricate, shifting pattern of bones against a window. While looking for the body among the disabled children at the school, Odd hears from a man with Down''s syndrome named Jacob, about the "Neverwas." Odd, on entering the bell tower to silence a poltergeist who rings bells, sees an apparition that resembles the traditional image of Death. By now the bodachs have multiplied forecasting even greater disaster. Odd plans to bring the monks to the school to protect the children as the storm is limiting their options for saving the children. He is suddenly drawn by a psychic premonition, and discovers the missing monk dead in a cooling tower, acting as a cocoon for another creature made of shifting bones. Rodion Romanovich, the abbey''s other guest, meets Odd in the garage to pick up the monks. Odd, suspicious of Romanovich, intends to leave him in the abbey, although he takes one sport utility vehicle (SUV) full of monks before Odd can stop him. On the way there, Romanovich''s SUV is turned over by a bone-creature. Brother Knuckles, Odd''s confidant, damages the creature with the other plow, saving everyone. Back at the school, Odd and Romanovich are able to determine that Jacob''s father, the Neverwas, is John Heineman, a monk at the abbey known as Brother John and a former physicist who experimented with reality. Odd and Romanovich, actually a National Security Agency agent sent to spy on Brother John, venture back into the storm to find John''s research lab. When they find him, Brother John reveals that he has created a computer model of the innermost fabric of reality. He believes that reality is created by thought, and has proved it by tuning the room to his thoughts. If he thinks something, it will be, and in that way, he created the bone-monsters and the Death apparition. Odd and Romanovich attempt to convince Brother John otherwise, but instead, he sets his Death spirit on them. As the monks defend the school from the bone-monsters, Romanovich is able to shoot John, killing him and all his creations. Later, Odd decides to leave the abbey, but as he rides down the highway back to his hometown, psychic magnetism pulls him out of the car, where the book ends as he walks down the highway toward the unknown. After three adventures, Elvis Presley, who sometimes assists Odd, finally crosses over. Odd and the dog continue along together, only to be united moments later with the ghost of Frank Sinatra.

Brother Odd

In Man of Earth, Allen Sibley is a businessman who is about to be indicted for bribery of a public official. Desperate to escape prison, he pays a fortune to the mysterious Doncaster Corporation for a new identity (and a new body and personality to go with it). However, Doncaster tricks him, sending him as an unwilling emigrant to the extraterrestrial colony on planet Pluto. Although it has been terraformed into a pleasant enough abode, Pluto is thoroughly neglected by a narcissistic Earth, and only ne''er-do-wells and misfits settle it. Sibley, with no marketable skills, is drafted into the Plutonian army, which is building an anomalously large war machine. His new commanding persona makes him swiftly rise in rank, and he soon concludes that Pluto intends to invade and plunder its neglectful mother planet. Instead, Doncaster suddenly reveals that the Pluto colony was created by them as a stepping-stone to the stars, and that Earth will be left to go rancid, while "new men", like the rebuilt Sibley, conquer the universe.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Dairy Queen

No Author Listed

End the Fed

By Ron Paul

Cart and Cwidder

By Diana Wynne Jones

Much Ado About Nothing

By William Shakespeare

Historical Atlas of World Mythology

By Joseph Campbell

The Fantastic Ordinary World of Lutz Rathenow: Poems, Plays & Stories

No Author Listed

The Spook's Apprentice

By Joseph Delaney

The Torments of the Traitor

By Ian Irvine

Rubyfruit Jungle

By Rita Mae Brown

Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus

By William Harvey

Brother Odd

By Dean Koontz

Man of Earth

By Algis Budrys