As the book begins and progresses, Tris hears voices on the wind telling her seemingly useless bits of information. In an effort to cool herself off in the summer''s cruel heat, she and her three "mates"- Sandry, Daja, and Briar- head up to the wall that encloses Winding Circle. On the wall, Tris hears more voices and then suddenly a lighthouse nearby blows up. As Tris and her teacher Niklaren Goldeye examine the ruins, they realize that the tower was blown up by a new substance they have never heard of. In the ruins, Tris finds a baby starling, which she decides to take care of. While repairing a magical net protecting Winding Circle with Dedicate Frostpine and his apprentice Kirel, Daja sees a magically hidden boat out of the corner of her eye. While eating a turnover from Dedicate Gorse''s kitchen''s, Briar smells the unmistakable scent of cinnamon and poppy, a sure sign of someone invisible. A forgetful novice realizes that there are a lack of bandages, so Dedicate Lark and Sandry are forced to make some more. The Temple is short on medicine, so Dedicate Rosethorn and Briar are forced to make more. All the signs lead to trouble. When Daja finally tells Frostpine about the ship, he immediately tells Dedicate Superior Moonstream, who sends word to Duke Vedris IV, Sandry''s uncle and the ruler of Emelan. Pirates are afoot. Tris''s cousin Aymery Glassfire comes to bring Niko a letter, and is recognized by her. He tries to get Tris to go home, saying her father is ill, but she refuses, saying that if he wanted her, he would send for her. While everyone is talking, a novice comes and tells Niko that every mirror, crystal, and vision bowl has been broken. That leaves Winding Circle blind to the future. Early the next morning, when jumping into a wind magically, Tris realizes that there is a huge invisible magic box coming slowly toward Winding Circle. Later in the morning, Frostpine takes Daja to repair two chains that protect Winding Circle. During the repairs, the pirates begin their attack. As the attack goes on, the four start to help. Tris takes one of the pirate''s "boomstones"-- a hard sphere containing gunpowder-- with her winds and sends it away. Briar and Rosethorn take seeds of thorny plants and grow them quickly and thickly along the cove to capture and kill the pirates. When all the adults leave to help defend Winding Circle, Tris practices zapping targets with her lightning and the help of Sandry, Daja, and Tris. Tris tests herself when a boomstone begins a descent on Discipline and blows it up. When looking through Aymery''s belongings, Briar finds that even though he claims he''s staying for several weeks, Aymery has only brought a very small wardrobe. In a locked trunk, Briar finds cinnamon oil and poppy, used for invisibility. He also finds a mirror, when all of the mirrors in Winding Circle had broken the night before. When following Aymery out of Discipline at midnight, Tris and Briar confront him, whereupon he reveals that he had been working for Enahar, the pirates'' chief mage, for some time. Then Aymery lets in the pirates through a side gate. Sandry, Daja, Lark, and Niko come and deal with the pirates, and Tris takes the dying Aymery''s earring that links him to Enahar. Maddened by helplessness, Tris goes up on the south wall to deal with the pirates herself and get them away from the one place she can call home and Sandry, Daja, and Briar join her and help. They bash through the pirates'' barrier by pulling their strength together. Daja finds all the metal in the pirates'' fleet like nails and weapons, pulls it out, and drops it in the water. Tris uses her lightning to blast ships. The four start destroying the fleet when they are all caught in mage traps on the ships. They appear to be lost when Niko returns their string of combined magic. With the extra power of the string and their arrived teachers, they destroy the rest of the fleet. Enahar attempts to capture Tris using his link with Aymery''s earring, but Sandry, Daja, and Briar realize this and use stray lightning on Tris''s hair to destroy the small piece of jewellery. Because she killed and injured many of the helpless slaves on the pirate ships, Tris decides to help with the wounded pirates and slaves. She gets little thanks. All she cares about is trying to make up for some of the harm she did to so many people with her lightning.

Tris''s Book

After the wizard Rincewind has fallen from the edge of the Discworld, the Octavo magic book saves his life and he lands back onto the world. Meanwhile, the wizards of Ankh-Morpork discover from Death via a rite that the Discworld will soon be destroyed by a huge red star unless the eight spells of the Octavo are read: the most powerful spells in existence, one of which hides in Rincewind''s head. Consequently, several orders of wizards try to capture Rincewind, led by Trymon, a former classmate of Rincewind''s, who wishes to obtain the power of the spells for himself. After Rincewind, who has met again with Twoflower, escapes them, it becomes apparent that Great A''Tuin, the giant turtle that carries the Discworld, has set a new course that leads it directly into a red star with eight moons. Rincewind and Twoflower are accompanied by Cohen the Barbarian, a toothless, ageing hero, and Bethan, a sacrificial virgin saved by Cohen, with assistance from Rincewind and Twoflower. Rincewind becomes one of the very few people ever to enter Death''s Domain whilst still alive, where he finds Twoflower playing a card game with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. He is nearly killed when he meets Death''s adopted daughter Ysabell, but is saved by the quick-acting Luggage. The group also encounter people who, anticipating the apocalypse, are heading for the mountains (not for protection, but because they will have a better view). As well as this, they happen upon the kind of shop where strange and sinister goods are on sale and inexplicably vanish the next time a customer tries to find them. The existence of these shops is explained as being a curse by a sorcerer upon the shopkeeper for not having something in stock. As the star comes nearer and the magic on the Discworld becomes weaker, Trymon tries to put the seven spells still in the Octavo into his mind, in an attempt to save the world and gain ultimate power. However, the spells prove too strong for him and his mind becomes a door into the "Dungeon Dimensions", whence strange, horrible creatures try to escape into reality. The seven leading wizards are meanwhile turned to stone. After winning a fight against them, Rincewind is able to read all eight spells aloud; whereupon the eight moons of the red star crack open and reveal eight tiny world-turtles that follow their parent A''Tuin on a course away from the star. The Octavo then falls and is eaten by Twoflower''s Luggage. The book ends with Twoflower and Rincewind parting company, as Twoflower decides to return home, leaving The Luggage with Rincewind as a parting gift.

The Light Fantastic

The book begins with Ro Laren, former Enterprise crew member turned Maquis officer taking command of a ship in the hopes of heading to Federation lines to safety. But they soon run into trouble when they are attacked by Jem''Hadar attack craft. Another Starfleet ship, the Aurora comes to assist, but it is no use. Both ships send distress calls, and one ship comes to their aid: the Enterprise. As this is happening, in a distant galaxy, another former Enterprise crewman witnesses the destruction of a Cardassian mining craft as he is herded onto a Dominion space station. The space station not only houses prisoners of war, but also serves as a base of operations as the Dominion attempts to construct an artificial wormhole. Sam Lavelle finds Taurik, yet another former crewman also being herded into the station up to the male prisoners compound. Upon entering, Sam is berated for agreeing to be the Liaison Officer of their pod, but he is "rescued" by the call of the Vorta in command of the station, and upon entering a ball, is confronted by a Founder, with the message that he is to be given command of a ship. On his crew are Taurik, and the mastermind of the whole wormhole operation, Enrak Grof, a Trill who values his work over alliances. The Enterprise enters the battle, and rescues the Bajoran transport, but unfortunately the Aurora is destroyed in the battle. Captain Jean-Luc Picard learns of the wormhole''s construction, and prepares to take Laren, Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge, and a small crew in an attempt to destroy it. The crew disembarks, and after some run ins with Cardassians, Jem''Hadar, Ferengi and Romulans, they reach the wormhole, and using a tractor beam, they attempt to send thousands of small asteroids careening into it, but decide to instead destroy the mining craft and apparently halt any chance of completing the wormhole. They prepare to fire, but learn that the craft is actually full of Federation prisoners. They save the prisoners and destroy the craft. But returning home, they learn from Grof that their ship wasn''t the only one sent to mine the metal, meaning that the wormhole still could be completed.

Behind Enemy Lines

The novel begins with a deadly explosion in the office of a successful mathematics professor at a midwestern university. The neighbouring office houses Lee, a tenured but near-retirement professor who, until the bomb, is slowly drifting into career obscurity. Tired and solitary after two divorces, Lee suddenly finds himself in the public eye. This draws Lee to the attention of the bomber who reveals in a letter to Lee that he was once a colleague. Although not supplying his identity, events in Lee''s early career at graduate school furnish an obvious candidate, and one that reopens unhealed wounds in Lee''s life. His first marriage, to the now long-dead Aileen, was actually her second. An affair with Lee broke up Aileen''s first marriage to the evangelical Christian Gaither, with the repercussion that Aileen never saw her son again. Lee''s indifference to this lost son ultimately cost him his marriage to Aileen, the realisation of which gradually dawns on Lee as his thoughts return to Gaither after the bombing. However, embarrassed by these events in his life, Lee withholds the letter from the police and, now lost in reflections on his early life with Aileen, Lee becomes an increasingly isolated figure, suspiciously so to the authorities. Consequently, when Lee''s failure to disclose the letter comes to light, they identify him as a "person of interest", a label that attracts the unwelcome attention of both the press and his suspicious neighbours. Forced by twitchy administrators into a leave of absence from his university, Lee is increasingly viewed, de facto, as the bomber, just waiting for his status to switch to "suspect". Backed into a corner in large part by his own actions, Lee decides to track down Gaither by himself, determined to unmask him as the bomber and to lay to rest his ghosts from the past. Secretly journeying to a remote countryside cabin, Lee discovers that his hatred of Gaither has blinded him, and that a different colleague from the same period as Gaither is actually the bomber. Fortunately for Lee, his efforts to evade the authorities have been amateurish, and they too close in on the cabin and apprehend the bomber. The novel closes with Lee now more clearly aware and understanding of the mistakes he has made in his life.

A Person of Interest

With Dean out of town, the Dead Man asleep, and only the Goddamn Parrot for company, Garrett finds himself wishing for something new. When Winger drops by with a job investigating a woman known as Maggie Jenn, Garrett bites. Maggie, meanwhile, hires Garrett to find her missing daughter, Emerald. Everything seems to be going just fine until Garrett is attacked in the street, knocked out, and thrown in the Bledsoe''s mental ward. When Garrett escapes, he discovers that the man who put him there goes by the name of Grange Cleaver, also known as The Rainmaker. As Garrett tries to find out more, everyone urges Garrett to be careful, as The Rainmaker has quite a nasty reputation. As usual, Morley gets involved, but when he and Garrett try to capture The Rainmaker, he manages to get away. Meanwhile, Garrett continues his search for Maggie Jenn''s daughter, only to find that Maggie has disappeared. In fact, Morley and Garrett discover that she may not actually be a woman at all and could actually be The Rainmaker! When the Outfit gets involved in The Rainmaker''s business, the city Watch has no choice to get involved as well. Garrett gets off free of charges, but The Rainmaker is still nowhere to be found. As word of a long buried treasure gets out, even more parties climb into the fray, leaving Garrett bruised and battered again. In a typical novel-ending plot twist, Grange Cleaver dies, things settle down, and Garrett is left to mull over the possibilities.

Deadly Quicksilver Lies

The greater part of the story is told by a boy named Octavian, who grew up with his mother Cassiopeia, an African princess, in a house full of philosophers and scientists in colonial Boston. Under the watchful eyes of Mr. Gitney, also known as 03-01, Octavian has received a classical education as well as a musical education which has made him into an extremely skilled violinist. Octavian eventually comes to understand the price of his powdered wigs and education: he is not only the "property" of Mr. Gitney, but he is also being used as an experiment to test whether the African race is inferior to the European race. In time, Cassiopeia angers the scientists'' benefactor and the Society loses its monetary support. The two are forced to go under the new watchful eye of Richard Sharpe, who cuts Octavian off from his books. It is later revealed that Richard Sharpe works for a group of colonial businessmen, who now fund the house where Octavian is held. These businessmen own slaves, and it is strongly implied that Sharpe is attempting to bias the experiment with Octavian in order to prove that Africans are inferior. He does this by stopping most of Octavian''s education and making him work in the house. When the political unrest that would later spur the American Revolution begins to seep into the Gitney household, Gitney decides to move into the countryside outside of Boston, and then hold a Pox Party. Each attendee is infected with the pox, with the hope that under this controlled circumstance they will have only benign cases. Gitney also wants to both weaken and quarantine his slaves when he begins to hear talk of a slave revolt. Cassiopeia, however, is killed by the pox, and after her death is dissected by the scientists in the house. Octavian discovers what the scientists are doing and in his anger flees the house, and ends up in the Colonial Army. Octavian''s military adventures are narrated mostly in epistolary form by Private Evidence Goring in letters to his sister Fruition. Octavian is eventually recaptured, and back at the Gitney house he is kept chained and completely alone. When Sharpe and Gitney, as well as his former classics teacher Dr. Trefusis, eventually decide to speak with him, Octavian is furious to discover that, with many of their funds coming from plantation owners in Virginia, they are counting on Octavian to fail, and to prove the "inferiority" of the African race.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Volume 1: The Pox Party

Arundhatī is the eighth daughter of Ṛṣi Kardama and Devahūti, and is married to Vasiṣṭha, the eighth son of Brahmā. Brahmā assures the couple that they will have the Darśana (sight) of Rāma. The couple spends many years waiting for Rāma. Viśvaratha, the son of the king Gādhi, tries snatch celestial cow Kāmadhenu from Vasiṣṭha, but is unable to stand against the Brahmadaṇḍa of Vasiṣṭha. Viśvaratha undergoes penance and becomes the Ṛṣi Viśvāmitra. The revengeful Viśvāmitra curses all hundred sons of Arundhatī and Vasiṣṭha to die. The forgiveness of the couple gives rise to a son Śakti, whom Viśvāmitra gets killed by a demon. Arundhatī and Vasiṣṭha then head for Vānaprastha Āśrama, leaving their grandson Parāśara to look after their hermitage. Brahmā ordains them to re-enter Gārhasthya Āśrama, reassuring that they will have the Darśana of Rāma as a householder couple only. The couple starts living in an Āśrama near Ayodhyā. With the birth of Lord Rāma, a son named Suyajña is born to them. Lord Rāma and Suyajña study together in the Āśrama of Arundhatī and Vasiṣṭha. After the marriage of Sītā and Rāma in Mithilā, Arundhatī meets Sītā for the first time when the newly-wed couple arrives in Ayodhyā. Sītā and Rāma spend fourteen years in exile. When they return home, they have their first meal after the exile which is prepared by Arundhatī, and the epic ends thereafter.

Arundhati

Abdulrahman Zeitoun is a Muslim who grew up in Syria. After a few years of apprenticeship in the Syrian port city of Jableh, Zeitoun spent twenty years working at sea as a muscleman, engineer and fisherman. During this time he traveled the world and eventually settled in the United States in 1988. There he met his wife, Kathy — a native of Baton Rouge who had converted to Islam — with whom he founded their business, Zeitoun Painting Contractors, LLC. In late August, 2005, as Hurricane Katrina approached the city, Kathy and their four children left New Orleans for Baton Rouge. Zeitoun stayed behind to watch over their home, ongoing job sites and rental properties. Once the storm made landfall, their neighborhood (although miles from the nearest levees) was flooded up to the second floor of most houses. Zeitoun began to explore the city in a secondhand canoe, distributing what supplies he had, ferrying neighbors to higher ground, checking on his tenants, and caring for abandoned dogs. On September 14, Zeitoun and three companions were arrested at one of Zeitoun''s rental houses by a mixed group of National Guardsmen, local police and police from out-of-state. Although the men were not immediately charged with any crimes, they were detained in a makeshift jail in a Greyhound bus station for three days time before being transferred to Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in nearby St. Gabriel, Louisiana. Zeitoun was held at Hunt for 20 more days without having stood trial. During that time he was refused medical attention and the use of a phone to alert his family of his predicament. People often say hurricanes are one of the most destructive forces on the planet. They destroy poverty and devastate lives. However, there is another powerful and destructive force that can be equally frightening—intolerance. “Zeitoun”, written by Dave Eggers, tells the story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-American business owner who chose to ride out Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in order to watch over his home and business. What happened to Zeitoun in prison is a shameful experience that occurred when two destructive forces, Katrina and racism, collided with catastrophic results. The book says that when Zeitoun asked the guards to call Kathy, he was rejected. And when Kathy knew Zeitoun was in prison and the guards didn’t allow her to visit him. This worried Zeitoun’s brother “A Syrian in an American prison in 2005—this was not be trifled with. Abdulrahman had to be seen. He had to be freed immediately. The justice system should have allowed Zeitoun his phone call from the start, but he wrongly was never given one. Post 9/11 was an unfair time for people from the middle east. They were discriminated against and suspected for almost anything anywhere. The justice system would treat them unfairly like Zeitoun. Kathy was outraged she couldn''t be told the location of the jail, but once she got the press involved they told her right away. However, they didn''t allow her or anyone else testifying in the defense of Zeitoun in the court hearing. Innocent people can be thrown in jail. Moreover, the book also says that when Zeitoun was released, he and Kathy pursued information on the reasoning behind his arrest and the jail he stayed at. The government worried that "terrorists might target evacuation routes, creating ''mass panic'' and ''loss of public confidence in the government''" That is to say, after 9/11, it seemed like the government, or at least George Bush''s top priority, was terrorism. There are terrorists out there, but that doesn''t mean government should put all of their resources toward finding them.

Zeitoun

Gracie knows when bad things are about to happen. Or sometimes when they have already happened. She begged her mother not to leave for a trip that ended with her dying when her car was hit by a truck delivering oranges, and now, living in Washington with her aunt Shay, Gracie has visions that involve her best friend Emily. Gracie would prefer that her psychic powers did not exist, but when Emily disappears, she has to use every vision she gets as a clue to solving the mystery. The problem with Gracie''s visions is that she does not know exactly what she is seeing. Sometimes she sees the past, sometimes the present, and sometimes she misinterprets her visions completely. Assisted by her cousin Diego, Gracie follows her visions in hopes of finding Emily. After a few false starts and a little research, she finds Emily''s trail and is taken captive by Emily''s kidnapper. Trapped in a guarded and gloomy house, Gracie begins to see the dark childhood of her kidnapper and his kins in unstoppable visions, the kidnapper is a madman who regrets not saving his ill sister Nell. This leads to the house being set ablaze by his enraged father and most of his brothers and sisters are killed in the fire including his dear sister Lizbet. This disillusioned madman wants to end this properly this time and so plans to die with his foster ''family''.

Premonitions

Lief, Barda, and Jasmine had retrieved the emerald from Dread Mountain. They travel along the River Tor to get to the Maze of the Beast, where they will get the amethyst. The gems they are taking are part of a Belt of Deltora, which will defeat the Shadow Lord that has invaded Deltora. During their travel, they encounter a pair of children nearly drowning in a stream. They save the children, but they reveal themselves to be Ols, creatures created by the Shadow Lord that can transform themselves to become another living creature. These creatures overrun the west side of Deltora to keep the gems hidden. Just before Barda is about to die, a boy Dain attacks the Ols and saves them. In the process, Dain injures his arm and several ribs. This causes Lief to sympathize for the boy, and take him to the Resistance, a group of people who rebel against the Shadow Lord. Arriving at the entrance to the Resistance''s hideout, Dain faints from the pressure and forces the three to guess the password before they are marked as Ols and killed. Lief finds a note and realizes that the password is the first letter of every word on the note. They enter the Resistance and Doom, a man they have encountered before, tests them by putting them in a prison for three days. The test is supposed to find out if they are Ols because Ols can only hold their shape for three days. As three days pass, Doom does not let up and keeps them imprisoned. Dain frees them from the cave in exchange for their agreeing to take him to Tora. When Lief, Barda, and Jasmine reveal that they are not going to Tora, they split apart to make them less recognizable. Lief, Dain, and Barda take a boat that takes them down the river to the Maze of the Beast. They realize that Jasmine was also on the boat. The boat is raided by pirates, and Dain is taken prisoner. After reaching the Maze, Barda is revealed to be an Ol by the real Barda. Unfortunately, they are captured by pirates and are dumped into the Maze. After finding the location of the gem, Barda and Jasmine separate from Lief to lead the Beast away and Lief stays to carve the gem out of a column. They regroup when Lief was done, and escape the cave through a blowhole. The blowhole blows just after they escape, which takes the life of two pirates. The three then start off their journey to the Valley of the Lost.

Maze of the Beast

Aran a young mute boy is about to give up hope of ever escaping his cruel and impoverished childhood with his guardians. He is sold as common trash and his life seems to fall into an ever growing misery. But then the charismatic scholar named Abelard hires him after rescuing him from captivity. Abelard is in need of a servant who will not speak of his affair with his student Eloise. Because he cannot speak his name, Aran had been nicknamed Spider. Spider accompanies the couple around France as they flee problems brought on by their forbidden passion. During one period in Brittany, Eloise teaches Spider to read, and he is able to use this skill and his talent for spinning wool to become the thread linking the two people he worships most. Abelard and Eloise are forced to temporarily separate while Eloise is pregnant with his child. Spider returns to his old home for a while where he finally learns how to speak. When he returns he sees how Abelard''s child has grown. When he goes to visit Abelard, Abelard is so caught up in his own concerns he does not even notice Spider can now speak. Spider is devastated that his idol has been drained of the kind and giving should he once had and he slowly begins to hold Eloise as a new idol.

Spider''s Voice

The novel is a meditation on the effects of modernity upon the individual''s perception of the world. It is told through a number of plot lines that slowly weave together until they are all united at the end of the book. * Kundera, as narrator, visits a chateau on vacation and tells a story that seems to be a combination of fiction and fact. * A Chevalier from eighteenth-century France visits the chateau and experiences a night of carefully orchestrated sensual pleasure with its owner, Madame de T. * Vincent, Kundera''s friend, visits the hotel and pursues a romance with a girl met in a bar. * Berck, a "dancer", meets a woman who once scorned him at the same conference and shows his emptiness to her. * Immaculata, the woman who scorned Berck, must deal with her disappointment at learning Berck''s apparent perfection is actually a facade. Each plot shows a different point-of-view into Kundera''s concept of the dancer and provides a perspective on modernity, memory and sensuality. By the end of the book, all of these plots have been brought together in a single location and the characters interact, showing how the ideals they represent interact in the world. Kundera even manages to tie the modern to the past by having Vincent meet the Chevalier as they both depart. By having these characters meet, Kundera again illustrates how the idea of sensuality and pleasure have changed as technology provides humanity with tools that speed us to our destination and demand our attention.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Tris's Book

By Tamora Pierce

The Light Fantastic

By Terry Pratchett

Behind Enemy Lines

By John Vornholt

A Person of Interest

By Susan Choi

Deadly Quicksilver Lies

By Glen Cook

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Volume 1: The Pox Party

By Matthew Tobin Anderson

Arundhati

No Author Listed

Zeitoun

By Dave Eggers

Premonitions

By Judy Blundell

Maze of the Beast

By Jennifer Rowe

Spider's Voice

By Gloria Skurzynski

Slowness

By Milan Kundera