Partly autobiographical, the story is about Krish and Ananya who hail from two different states of India, are deeply in love and want to get married. The story begins in the IIM Ahmedabad mess, where Krish, a Punjabi boy from Delhi sights a beautiful girl, Ananya, a Tamilian from Chennai, quarreling with the mess staff about the food. Ananya was tagged as the "Best girl of the fresher batch". They become friends within a few days and decide to study together every night. In mean time, they become romantically involved. They both get jobs, and have serious plans for their wedding. At first Krish tries to convince his girlfriend Ananya''s parents and at last and convinces them by helping Ananya''s father to do his first PowerPoint Presentation, her brother, Manju, by giving him tuition and later convinces her mom by asking her sing in a concert organised by Krish''s office, i.e Citibank. She was convinced as she had her biggest dream of singing in a big concert comes to be true. She sang along with T.S Subramanium and Hariharan. Then they tried to convince Krish''s mom the problem was Krish''s mother''s relatives who doesn''t quite like this, they say that Krish should not marry a Madrasi but ends up agreeing with them when Ananya tries to help one of Krish''s cousin to get married and succeeds to do so. Now as they have convinced both their parents they now try to make their parents meet each other to know each. They go to GOA. But this dream of theirs ends as Ananya''s parents finds something fishy between Krish''s mom and him. Ananya''s family end up deciding that Krish and Ananya will not marry each other But at last Krish''s father who was like an enemy for Krish helps Krish and Ananya to get married as he convinces Ananya''s family well. They really do very hard to convince each other parents and finally make it. It is narrated in a first person point of view in a humorous tone, often taking digs at both Tamil and Punjabi cultures . The novel ends with Ananya giving birth to twin boys. They say that the babies belong to a state called ''India''; with a thought to end inequality. What is even more interesting is the continuation of character Hari of Five Point Someone in Krish.

2 States: The Story of My Marriage

The book is set in the fictional village of King''s Abbott in England. It is narrated by Dr. James Sheppard, who becomes Poirot''s assistant (a role filled by Captain Hastings in several other Poirot novels). The story begins with the death of Mrs. Ferrars, a wealthy widow who is rumoured to have murdered her husband. Her death is initially believed to be an accident until Roger Ackroyd, a widower who had been expected to marry Mrs. Ferrars, reveals that she admitted to killing her husband and then committed suicide. Shortly after this he is found murdered. The suspects include Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd, Roger''s neurotic hypochondriac sister-in-law who has accumulated personal debts through extravagant spending; her daughter Flora; Major Blunt, a big-game hunter; Geoffrey Raymond, Ackroyd''s personal secretary; Ralph Paton, Ackroyd''s stepson and another person with heavy debts; Parker, a snooping butler; and Ursula Bourne, a parlourmaid with an uncertain history who resigned her post the afternoon of the murder. Dr Sheppard''s spinster sister Caroline is a favourite character among many and some say she could have been in another book. The initial suspect is Ralph, who is engaged to Flora and stands to inherit his stepfather''s fortune. Several critical pieces of evidence seem to point to Ralph. Poirot, who has just moved to the town, begins to investigate at Flora''s behest. The book ends with a then-unprecedented plot twist. Poirot exonerates all of the original suspects. He then lays out a completely reasoned case that the murderer is in fact Dr. Sheppard, who has not only been Poirot''s assistant, but the story''s narrator. Dr. Sheppard was Mrs. Ferrars'' blackmailer, and he murdered Ackroyd to stop him learning the truth from Mrs. Ferrars. Poirot gives the doctor two choices: either he surrenders to the police or, for the sake of his clean reputation and his proud sister, he commits suicide. In the final chapter of Sheppard''s narrative (a sort of epilogue), Sheppard admits his guilt, noting certain literary techniques he used to write the narrative truthfully without revealing his role in the crime or doing anything to suggest that he knew the truth, and reveals that he had hoped to be the one to write the account of Poirot''s great failure: not solving the murder of Roger Ackroyd. Thus, the last chapter acts as both Sheppard''s confession and suicide note. The final revelation uses meta-fictional tropes. The ending also opens up the question whether narrators can be trusted or not. Christie uses unreliable narrator again in 1967 novel Endless Night. Reader response to the ending varies from admiration of the unexpected end to a feeling of being cheated. In the novel, Christie has laid side by side two modes of gathering of information and building of hypothesis. One is Poirot''s use of ratiocination, the other is the channel of gossiping, practised by almost all inhabitants of King''s Abbott, in particular, Caroline. While even Caroline is able to interpret certain situations correctly, Christie privileges scientific mode of investigation by unveiling the murderer through Poirot.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Syanthe is about 18 years old. She is a shapeshifter and has lived with other shapeshifters in the Carlbine forest all her life. Because of an incident that happened years ago, the King had confined all shapeshifters to the Carlbine forest. He marked all of the shapeshifters with a magical tattoo on their faces that would kill them if they crossed the boundaries of the forest. All of the shapeshifters were marked, except Syanthe, who had been hidden at birth from the King''s men. When the Carlbine forest and the shapeshifters (who are closely bonded to the forest) slowly grew sick with an illness, Syanthe''s mother included, she set out into the King''s capital to obtain the cure for the illness. A few days or so later after Syanthe left the forest, she was caught by a caravan of traders. She decided to join these travelers on their way to the capital. She soon found out that the leader of the caravan, Jerel, had powerful magical powers, and realized that there was something amiss with the whole caravan.

Shapeshifter''s Quest

The voyage to find the lost magic takes the companions to the continent of Parkasia. Here, they are split up, and Walker, despite all his plans and his enormous power, finds himself caught and trapped by an unseen force, a supercomputer built by the ancient humans. Antrax was created to store data and information from its time and it is given a duty, an order to protect the information that it holds. However, when the Great War broke out, the last of its creators returned, and gave Antrax its final task: protect the information at all costs, no matter what the price. Antrax then began to build its own arsenal of defence mechanisms: lasers and Creepers. Above Castledown, the crew of the Jerle Shannara find themselves besieged by evil forces, and the Ilse Witch confronts the Druid''s protégé, Bek Ohmsford, who claims that she is actually Grianne Ohmsford, and that he is the brother she last saw as an infant - now a young man who carries the Sword of Shannara and wields the magic of the wishsong. Meanwhile, Walker realises that the ''magic'' they have been searching for is actually the science of the Old World, stored on Antrax, which could be used to rebuild society with new technology. But there is no practical way to access this information, so Walker chooses to destroy the power-hungry computer, which is quickly becoming a danger to the whole world. However, he is mortally wounded in the process. He dies soon after. It is believed that Antrax was in fact initially known as Oronyx Experimental and appears in The Elves of Cintra.

Antrax

Luke and Leia are traveling to Circarpous IV to persuade the Circarpousians to join the Rebel Alliance. A strange energy storm forces them to crash land on the swampy planet Mimban. Luke, after finding Leia, begins looking for a station that would allow them to get off the planet but instead find a town near which agents of the Empire have a secret energy mine. Forced to keep their identities secret, Luke admonishes Leia to follow his lead, and in a nearby bar where they take refuge, claims she is his servant girl. An old woman named Halla approaches them; while revealing little of her own background, she identifies Luke as one who is strong with the Force and shows him a splinter of what she claims to be the Kaiburr crystal, a glowing crystal that magnifies and focuses the Force. Halla strikes a deal with Luke and Leia that if they help her find it, she will help them get off the planet. They leave together. Upon emerging, Leia retorts that Luke ought not to have struck her; the two squabble as some miners emerge from the bar. The miners claim that fighting in public is against Imperial law here, and they all get into a brawl. Imperial stormtroopers intervene and take Luke, Leia and the miners to the local jail. They are questioned by Captain-Supervisor Grammel. The miners are taken away while Grammel continues questioning Luke and Leia. Grammel discovers and confiscates the crystal shard, along with Luke''s weapons. Luke and Leia are placed in the maximum security cell with two drunken but friendly Yuzzem--hairy aboriginal creatures resembling squat Sasquatch--called Hin and Kee, while Grammel reports the incident and the crystal shard to Governor Bin Essada, in charge of the group of star systems including Circarpous. Halla, with Luke''s help, uses the Force to help rescue Luke, Leia and the two Yuzzem; the two Yuzzem rampage through the jail barracks, while Luke and Leia escape, and the four meet Halla to find the Temple of Pomojema, which Halla believes to be the location of the Kaiburr crystal. They travel through the swampy wilds of Mimban, during which travel they encounter a wandrella, a huge worm-like creature. The wandrella pursues them, forcing them to leave the transport and splitting Luke and Leia apart from Halla, the droids and the Yuzzem. Luke and Leia hide in a deep well, down which the wandrella falls, leaving the two trapped in the well as it destroys their escape path; Halla mentions from the lip of the well that there must be an escape route, and Luke and Leia go in search of it, though their travels involve floating across a lake on lily pads, and fending off creatures of the deep with Luke''s light saber. On the other side of the lake, they encounter the secretive residents of the caves, Coway guards/patrols. They kill all but one of the Coway; the survivor escapes and tells his Coway tribe about the visitors. Luke and Leia follow the single Coway to the tribe, where they find Halla''s group being held as prisoners. To save his friends, Luke defeats the Coway''s champion fighter. The Coway become his friends, but Luke senses Darth Vader. Coway patrols confirm Luke''s feeling: Imperials, led by Darth Vader and Captain-Supervisor Grammel, are attacking the underground cave. When the Imperials arrive, they are surprised by the Coway tribe''s powerful response and face a debacle. Vader and Grammel retreat with the handful of surviving stormtroopers, though Vader loses patience with Grammel for the defeat and kills him. Luke and company steal an Imperial transport left behind, and begin travelling to the Temple themselves. They beat Vader to the temple and find the Kaiburr crystal. They encounter a monster, and unsuccessfully try to fight it off with blasters. Luke tells Hin and Kee to get some rifles. Luke cuts down one of the pillars holding up the temple, crushing the monsters. Luke''s leg is pinned under a fallen boulder. Darth Vader then enters the Temple of Pomojema, announcing that he killed Hin and Kee. Leia takes up Luke''s lightsaber and begins fighting Darth Vader, but he toys with her, giving her multiple superficial burns with his own saber. Hin, mortally wounded, shows up and in his dying act, lifts the big rock off of Luke''s leg. Luke fights Vader, showing more skill than expected, deflecting some Force-based attacks and eventually slicing off Vader''s arm. Despite this, the Sith Lord seems about to win, but then falls into a pit. Luke senses that Vader is still alive. As the story ends, Leia and Luke, healed by the crystal, drive off with Halla into the mists of Mimban.

Splinter of the Mind''s Eye

The story begins with the forces of Prince Josua Lackhand rallied at the Stone of Farewell, where the icy hand of the Storm King Ineluki has yet to take a deathgrip on the land. The remaining members of the League of the Scroll have also gathered at the Stone in hopes of unraveling an ancient prophecy. If deciphered, it could reveal to Josua and his army the only means of striking down the unslayable Storm King. After Simon and Binabik have their reunion, they come to the realization that Memory - one of the three Great Swords recognized as being key to defeating the Storm King - is one and the same with Bright-Nail, old King John’s sword that was buried with him not three years previously. The trouble is, the grave of King John Presbyter lies in the shadow of the Hayholt, the stronghold of King Elias, and between the Stone of Farewell and Hayholt marches the army Elias has sent to besiege the defenders. Meanwhile, Miriamele, Elias’s daughter who has joined Josua’s cause, is an unhappy prisoner on the ship of a lascivious and ambitious lordling to whom which she has surrendered her virtue knowing only too late of his true nature. Another princess, Maegwin of Hernystir, falls deeper into madness, leading her people in a seemingly futile resistance against Elias’s allies who have conquered her kingdom, and deep in the ancient forest of Aldheorte, the immortal Sithi are mustering for a final conflict. While Josua and his army must make a final stand to try to delay the forces of King Elias, Simon embarks upon a quest to Hayholt to try to obtain the last of the three legendary swords and use their hidden magics to defeat The Storm King Ineluki and restore peace to Osten Ard once and for all.

To Green Angel Tower

In the aftermath of the Second Battle of Helska, the New Republic believes that the Yuuzhan Vong threat is vanished. But the Skywalkers, Solos and their friends and allies find that this is not so; the Vong have yet to bring a dent of their forces into the galaxy. And in order to wage war against the invaders, the Jedi and their allies decide it''d be best to understand them. Leia Organa Solo, with her daughter Jaina and Danni Quee, work to bring various forces throughout the Outer Rim territories to unite against the threat of the Yuuzhan Vong, backed up by pockets of the New Republic military. Luke Skywalker takes his nephew Jacen Solo with him to Belkaden to find out what the Yuuzhan Vong have done there after the late Yomin Carr poisoned it for terraforming in the previous novel. Meanwhile, Jacen''s brother, Anakin, is to take Luke''s wife, Mara, to the planet Dantooine where she can find time to combat the Vong disease, brought upon secretly by Nom Anor, ravaging her insides. During that time, Mara will also train Anakin to look and use the Force in ways he never imagined as an apprentice. Elsewhere, Jedi Knights Corran Horn and Ganner Rhysode are assigned to the planet Bimmiel to find missing university students. On Belkaden, during Luke and Jacen''s observation of Vong behaviors and routines, Jacen, in his sleep, sees a vision of himself saving various people by defeating several Vong warriors. He takes this vision as an omen that he must free the slaves that the Yuuzhan Vong are holding, and so he goes and confronts a few. He is easily beaten, however, and is strapped to the Embrace of Pain, a Vong torture device. He is soon implanted with a slave coral seed, but it isn''t long before Luke saves him after fighting through and killing various Yuuzhan Vong warriors and snapping the coral seed out of his face. Luke then tells Jacen that they now must go to Dantooine, where Anakin and Mara are now on the run from Vong scouts. They get there and help them out in defeating the Yuuzhan Vong who intended to kill Mara and Anakin. On Bimmiel, Corran and Ganner find out that the missing university students are being held by two Yuuzhan Vong warriors, who are treating their slaves as much as those Vong on Belkaden do. The two Jedi go and save the students, but are then confronted by the Vong warriors. Corran orders Ganner to get the students out of there while he will take care of the Vong. He is able to dispatch both warriors, but at extensive injury. Fortunately, those injuries would not reach their full lethal potential, as Ganner would return to retrieve Corran so that they can leave the planet with the students. On Dantooine, refugees from the recently Yuuzhan Vong-conquered Dubrillion are settled down. But it isn''t long before the Vong then arrive, launching the Battle of Dantooine, resulting in the loss of fifty percent of the New Republic''s forces, but the losses are extensive for the Vong, too. Nevertheless, the Vong still win, and the New Republic evacuate what they can. The novel ends back on Bimmiel, where investigating Yuuzhan Vong, led by Commander Shedao Shai, discover the remains of the two dead Vong warriors, defeated by Corran. Shai takes a ndgin (a Vong creature made to sop up blood) and tastes it for Corran''s spilled blood that was the result of his injuries. Shai vows that he will kill the Jedi responsible for his the deaths of his kinsmen (the Vong warriors who were killed thanks to Corran).

Dark Tide: Onslaught

The Blue Equinox opens with Crowley''s poem "Hymn to Pan", a devotional work devoted to the ancient Greek deity Pan. This is followed by an editorial, in which Crowley discusses Thelema, the A∴A∴ and the O.T.O., and the important role which he believed that they had to play in the Aeon of Horus. #Editorial #Præmonstrance of A∴A∴ #Curriculum of A∴A∴ #Liber II [The Message of the Master Therion] #The Tent #Liber DCCCXXXVII [The Law of Liberty] #Liber LXI [vel Causae A∴A∴] #A Psalm #Liber LXV [Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente] #Liber CL [De Lege Libellum] #A Psalm #Liber CLXV [A Master of the Temple] #Liber CCC [Khabs am Pekht] #Stepping Out of the Old Aeon into the New #The Seven Fold Sacrament #Liber LII [Manifesto of the O.T.O.] #Liber CI [An Open Letter to Those Who May Wish to Join the Order] #Liber CLXI [Concerning the Law of Thelema] #Liber CXCIV [An Intimation with Reference to the Constitution of the Order] #Liber XV (The Gnostic Mass) #Nekam Adonai! #A La Loge #The Tank *Special Supplement: Liber LXXI [The Voice of the Silence: The Two Paths, The Seven Portals]

The Blue Equinox

* The central premise of the book is that gods are created by humans'' necessity and desire for them, and, once worshipped by man, don''t disappear but remain on earth forever. Because nobody worships them, many become destitute, like the tramps whom Dirk witnesses entering Valhalla. * Odin makes Thor accidentally transmogrify objects when he gets angry, in a bid to delay him getting to Norway and finding the Draycotts'' contract. * The eagle that pursues Dirk and Thor is the transformed jet fighter that tries to stop him from getting to Norway. Thor''s inability to fly to Norway using his hammer is why he needs to visit the airport at the opening of the novel. * Odin makes contact with the Draycotts after seeing one of Cynthia Draycott''s adverts for a soft drink, which seemingly involve various gods promoting the drink; one of these adverts is seen when Dirk confronts Anstey''s son early in the book. * Odin, like all the gods, is naive and quite literally unworldly; this is how the Draycotts are able to take advantage of him. * One of Dirk''s chief characteristics in the novel is guilt—about the fridge and about the death of Anstey, whom he should have protected. At the end of the novel, Dirk''s fridge generates a new god of Guilt; it is implied this stops Toe Rag and the green monster from preventing Thor from finally retrieving the contract in Norway. * The gods'' world exists in parallel with our own – where St Pancras railway station is Valhalla.

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

Sebold was finishing her freshman year at Syracuse University when she was raped while walking home through a park off campus. She reported the crime to the police, who remarked that a young woman had once been murdered in the same location. Thus, they told her, she was "lucky." Sebold returned home to Pennsylvania to live with her family for the summer before beginning her sophomore year at Syracuse. After months of no leads by the police, Sebold spotted her rapist while walking down the sidewalk. He smirked at her and remarked that he knew her "from somewhere" before continuing on. She called the police, who apprehended him. Among her professors at the time was Tess Gallagher, who became one of Sebold''s confidantes. Gallagher accompanied Sebold to several legal proceedings. Also among her professors were Ray Carver, Tobias Wolff and Hayden Carruth. During a lineup, Sebold failed to correctly identify her assailant, as he had brought a friend with him who looked very similar in order to confuse and presumably intimidate Sebold. Finally, he was arrested again and tried for her rape. After he was convicted, Sebold''s off-campus apartment was broken into and her roommate was raped. Though no connection to Sebold''s rape case was ever proven, she felt that it was retaliation for her rapist being locked up. Her roommate looked at a photo lineup but ultimately decided not to pursue any further legal action.

Lucky

Martin Springfield and Rachel Mansour return to Earth to recuperate following the events of Singularity Sky, however Rachel is quickly called upon to explain the administrative expenses she incurred during her previous assignment. Shortly thereafter she finds herself negotiating with a lunatic believing himself to be a reincarnation of Idi Amin and in possession of an armed nuclear device which, in the black humor typical of the series, he has threatened to detonate after receiving an eviction notice from his apartment. Meanwhile, a young and hopeful planetary civilization is murdered by the apparent use of a causality violation device which causes their sun to explode without warning (the "iron sunrise" of the title), and their defense systems to deploy automatically against the homeworld of the suspected perpetrators of the atrocity. Rachel and Martin set off to investigate these events and prevent the assassination of the remaining members of the murdered civilization''s leaders, who can abort the retaliation strike. In the background the Eschaton continues to play its own game.

Iron Sunrise

The Snow Goose is a simple, short written parable on the regenerative power of friendship and love, set against a backdrop of the horror of war. It documents the growth of a friendship between Philip Rhayader, an artist living a solitary life in an abandoned lighthouse in the marshlands of wartime Essex because of his disabilities, and a young local girl, Fritha. The Snow Goose, symbolic of both Rhayader (Gallico) and the world itself, wounded by gunshot and many miles from home, is found by Fritha and, as the human friendship blossoms, the bird is nursed back to flight, and revisits the lighthouse in its migration for several years, as Fritha grows up. Rhayader and his small sailboat eventually are lost in the British retreat from Dunkirk, having saved several hundred men. The bird, which was with Rhayader, returns briefly to the grown Fritha on the marshes. She interprets this as Rhayader''s soul taking farewell of her (and realizes she had come to love him). Afterwards, a German pilot destroys Rhayader''s lighthouse and all of his work, except for one portrait Fritha saves after his death: a painting of her as Rhayader first saw her—a child, with the wounded snow goose in her arms. The book was a huge success in England where it remains popular with, and recommended for, readers of all ages.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

2 States: The Story of My Marriage

By Chetan Bhagat

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

By Agatha Christie

Shapeshifter's Quest

By Dena Landon

Antrax

By Terry Brooks

Splinter of the Mind's Eye

By Alan Dean Foster

To Green Angel Tower

By Tad Williams

Dark Tide: Onslaught

By Michael A. Stackpole

The Blue Equinox

By Aleister Crowley

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

By Douglas Adams

Lucky

By Alice Sebold

Iron Sunrise

By Charles Stross

The Snow Goose: A Story of Dunkirk

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