The Castle in the Forest tells the story of the young life of Adolf Hitler, his origins and his immediate family tree, through the eyes of what at first is portrayed as a young SS officer researching Hitler''s genealogy at the behest of Heinrich Himmler, who opens the novel speaking to SS officers about the importance of strong traits that result through incest. The SS Officer, who initially instructs the reader to remember him as Dieter, reminds the reader of the penalty he would suffer from the Nazi Party should his writings become public knowledge. He proceeds to describe his search for Hitler''s grandparents, to both detect any presence of Jewish ancestry and to ascertain whether Hitler was the product of incest. The story follows Hitler''s father, Alois Hitler, his upbringing in a rural area of Austria, and his early marriages and work for the customs department of the Austrian government. Following two marriages and a number of affairs, Alois marries a relative, either his niece or his daughter, Klara, and the couple have three children who survive past childhood, the third of these being Hitler, who is referred to by Mailer as Adi. At this point, Dieter reveals himself to be an employee of Satan, instructed by his superiors to oversee the development of Hitler for possible use by the devil in the future. Dieter states that he had occupied the body of an SS officer when he chose to write his story, maintaining that, should Satan trace the work back to Dieter himself, he would be punished. Dieter follows Hitler through Austria, charting his development and taking a more active role as Hitler discovers wargames around the age of five, and witnesses the beating of the family dog which has a profound effect on him. At this point, Alois retires and the family move to a rural farm.

The Castle in the Forest

At the beginning of the novel several characters formerly seen in Huntingtower and Castle Gay are about to go to Europe for the summer, for a number of different reasons: Mr McCunn going to a German Kurhaus for his health, Alison to join her parents in the Tirol, the Roylances to attend a dull conference in Geneva, Jaikie on a walking tour, Dougal on a mission for his newspaper. Jaikie meets Randal Glynde who encourages him to visit Evallonia, which is on the verge of a revolution, and arranges for him to meet Prince Odalchini at his castle, "The House of the Four Winds". On the way he meets Ashie, a friend from Cambridge who is now a leader of the third element in the Evallonian political scene, Juventus, a cross between a youth group and a national revival movement. The Juventus people, like the Monarchists, want to overthrow the corrupt and unpopular government, but see young Prince John as a puppet of the conservatives, "the old gang". Jaikie eventually agrees to act as a secret liaison between the two groups. Meanwhile Alison and the Roylances have rescued Prince John from Mastrovin. They bring him into Evallonia in disguise. Dickson McCunn, informed of the situation by Dougal and feeling obliged by his promise to Prince John to lend a hand, joins the Monarchists and proposes a shrewd scheme for inducing Juventus to back Prince John. Mishaps and the machinations of Mastrovin lead to dangerous complications before the prince attains the throne.

The House of the Four Winds

Set in the cramped, cluttered Midwestern house of Lola and Doc Delaney, the plot centers on how their life is disrupted by the presence of a boarder named Marie, a college art student with a strong lustful appetite. Overweight and slovenly, the housebound middle-aged Lola engages in mild flirtations with the milkman and mailman, like the ingratiating coquette she once was. She sees in Marie herself at that age, and encourages her pursuit of wealthy Bruce and muscular Turk. Doc, who ekes out a living as a chiropractor, was forced to abandon a promising career in medicine when he married a pregnant Lola. She subsequently lost the baby. As a recovering alcoholic, Doc maintains a precarious sobriety by avoiding the past. For him, Marie represents the youth and opportunity he sacrificed, and his eventual realization that she is not as pure and perfect as he imagined sends him back to the bottle and a slow descent into unbridled rage. The title refers to Lola''s missing dog, who remains lost at the play''s end.

Come Back, Little Sheba

The book begins two years after the Last Days. Ben lives with a callous man named Greg, who uses Ben''s powers, which he calls "the Call", to attract game for hunting. Ben feels guilty about leading the animals to their death but faces a beating from Greg if he does not comply. When he finally escapes, he promises not to use the Call again. He breaks this promise less than a day later when he is pursued by a man on horseback. Ben decides to return to Sydney, where he once lived with his parents. He travels first on foot, then by bike, using mountain roads to avoid local gang activity. He is joined by a stray dog. As he draws closer to his destination, he hears the Call of something wild and ferocious. When he reaches the city, he realizes that the Call is coming from Taronga Zoo. He then makes up his mind to travel to Taronga zoo to find out what creature could still be so wild and free. In Sydney, Ben is chased by a gang. The dog sacrifices itself to give Ben the opportunity to escape, but Ben is still captured. The gang takes Ben to Taronga Park Zoo, which houses another gang of survivors and is guarded by tigers and other predators. The gang wishes to break into the zoo and plans to use Ben as bait. Inside, Ben is almost attacked by two tigers, Raja and Ranee. He is saved by Ellie, an Aboriginal girl who is in charge of the big cats. She takes him to their leader, Molly, who allows Ben to stay after he proves that he can also round up and cage the cats. Ben quickly earns the trust of all of the animals except for Raja, the male tiger, who hates Ben for restricting his physical freedom. Although Ben originally sees Taronga as an ideal community, he soon discovers that Molly is a ruthless and selfish leader. When the Sydney gang tries to break into the zoo, Molly divulges her plan to burn Taronga to the ground before she lets another gang occupy it. Ben and Ellie decide to act. Ben convinces the rival gang that he wants to help them break in and they set a date for an ambush. During the next week, Ben and Ellie cut a hole in the outer fence and disguise it with ivy. On the day of the ambush, they set the animals free. The Sydney gang and the Taronga gang fight. Ben and Ellie are the only survivors. Ben once again swears that he will no longer use the Call. When he is cornered by Raja, he keeps that promise. But Raja does not attack him; instead, he gives Ben a playful swat. Raja and Ranee head towards the Blue Mountains and are followed by Ben and Ellie.

Taronga

Mother Wolff is a rather resolute cleaning lady. She is married to a somewhat clumsy and timid ship carpenter by the name of Julius Wolff. The story begins as she comes home with an illegally poached roebuck, where her daughter Leontine is waiting for her. Leontine has fled her service to the pensioner Krüger because she was told in the late hours of the night to bring a pile of wood into the stable. Mother Wolff, constantly considerate of her own reputation, wants to send her daughter back. But as she learns that the work concerns a "beautiful dry club", she allows Leontine to stay the night with the intention of acquiring the wood herself. While she sells the roebuck that she claims she discovered dead to a sailor on the river Spree named Wulkow, her youngest daughter Adelheid exlains that Mr. Krüger was recently given a valuable beaver coat from his wife. Wulkow then exclaims that he would without question pay sixty Taler for such a fur coat. Mother Wolff quickly realises that with this sum of money she could pay off a large part of her debt. She thus decides to steal the coat in order to sell it to Wulkow. After the theft, Krüger reports to the police that his wood and his coat have been stolen. However, the head official of Wehrhahn feels only annoyed by this complaint. He is only interested in uncovering, "sinister people and elements that are politically outlawed or hostile to the crown or aristocracy." Given this, Krüger strives to have the private tutor Dr. Fleischer arrested for Lèse majesté. The doctor receives around twenty various newspaper and meets regularly with free thinking literary figures. Although the head official has on several occasions not given any attention to Krüger, he decides to come once again in order to carry out his plan. This time, however, Mother Wolff is also present. She cleverly wards off any suspicion towards her, however. The comedy ends, without the theft ever being solved. In his tragicomedy The Red Cock (), which was first performed in 1901, Hauptmann continues several themes prevalent in the Beaver Coat.

The Beaver Coat

The novel picks up a couple years later with Larten Crepsley and Wester who are part of a small group of cubs. But after a bad incident with a Vampaneze named Randel which resulted in the death of Zula in a duel, they leave the war pack and go in search of Seba Nile. Part two of the book starts out with Seba, Larten and Wester observing the American civil war. They meet up with Vancha March and soon realize that Seba wants them to meet up with Lady Evanna in hopes that one of them would be chosen by her as a mate, which could result in vampires becoming the dominant species. Evanna is amused with Larten and grants him permission to find her whenever he wants to. In part three of the book another council at Vampire Mountain is hosted and Larten does better in his duels than he did previously thus catching the eye of some generals and princes. He then begins his training to become a vampire general while Seba pursues his new job of Quartermaster and Wester becomes part of a Vampaneze hater group. Larten, a few month before finishing his training, falls out with the Vampires and seeks more of the world. At the beginning of part four in his travels he meets up with Vancha for a short while and soon goes to find Evanna again. He ends up disrespecting her while being drunk and ends up fleeing for his life with a large cut on his face. One of Evanna''s assistants Malora tags along with Larten on the night he leaves. She helps him with the vampire he contracted after a visiting with Evanna. Larten later insists on traveling to Greenland in a ship and Malora does her best to collect blood and make sure he doesn''t reveal his true self while on the ship. But inevitably he consumes blood from a woman with a baby on the boat and reveals himself as a vampire. Malora sacrifices herself to give him more time. Meanwhile he recovers and kills almost everyone on the boat once he see''s Malora''s corpse hanging by the neck. He keeps a single crew member and a couple of people to feed off of. But he is torn by his conscience since he could only find the baby and not the mother on the boat. He then discovers that one of the people he kept in the storeroom has killed and cannibalized the others claiming that Larten can''t kill him now since he is a vampire like him. Larten then proceeds to jump off the boat with the baby and rows to shore in a small boat.

Ocean of Blood

The heroine, Sybylla Melvyn, is an imaginative, headstrong girl growing up in rural Australia in the 1890s. Drought and a series of poor business decisions reduce her family to subsistence level, her father begins to drink excessively, and Sybylla struggles to deal with the monotony of her life. To her relief, she is sent to live on her grandmother''s property, where life is more comfortable. There she meets wealthy young Harry Beecham, who loves her and proposes marriage; convinced of her ugliness and aware of her tomboyish ways, Sybylla is unable to believe that he could really love her. By this time, her father''s drinking has got the family into debt, and she is sent to work as governess/housekeeper for the family of an almost illiterate neighbour to whom her father owes money. She finds life there unbearable and eventually suffers a physical breakdown which leads to her return to the family home. When Harry Beecham returns to ask Sybylla to marry him, she concludes that she would only make him unhappy and sends him away, determined never to marry. The novel ends with no suggestion that she will ever have the "brilliant career" as a writer that she desires.

My Brilliant Career

Ben Hartman is vacationing in Switzerland when he meets his old school buddy Jimmy Cavanaugh - who tries to kill him. As he dodges assassins, mysterious tails, and police while searching for a safe place to hide, he finds his twin brother, Peter, who was thought to have died in an airplane crash several years earlier. Peter describes an international corporation which was formed in the last days of World War II, composed of financiers, influential members of large corporations, and Nazi brass. He gives Ben a photo of some of the leaders, only to find out that their father was a member. Soon, Peter is killed by a sniper, and Ben escapes with his life again. He later meets up with Liesel (Peter''s girlfriend). Meanwhile, United States Department of Justice Agent Anna Navarro is recruited by a secretive group within the DoJ to investigate the deaths of a list of influential men around the world who have been dying mysteriously. Her probes turn up false leads, possible coverups, and dead ends, until she finds out that the men have been poisoned, using the same obscure toxin. Following the leads, she finds that the men she had been assigned to investigate are part of an international group of financiers and business moguls. She soon finds out that she has been reported "off the reservation", and the attempts begin on her life as well. Through their own distinct investigative means, the two protagonists discover more about the shadowy group, which is called Sigma. It is learned that Sigma has grown from a simple attempt to plunder the Nazi treasury and stabilize the industrial and financial state of the world in the wake of the war, to a political and financial machine which controls as many as 75% of the world''s leading companies, and has enough covert political clout to directly influence the outcome of the likes of Presidential elections. Sigma also helped some of the Nazi war criminals, including Nazi doctor Gerhard Lenz, evade capture. Protagonists Hartman and Navarro eventually meet and form an alliance, since both are being hunted by Sigma assassins. Through their concerted efforts, they discover that Sigma is experiencing an internal struggle. The founders, who are dead or dying, believe that Sigma should disband, as it had played its role in the world; they''re called the angeli rebelli, and are being hunted by the new Sigma leadership. That new leadership, an apparently philanthropic doctor named Jürgen Lenz, son of Sigma founding member Gerhard Lenz, has decided on a new direction for the group, and is determined to eliminate any internal opposition. Navarro is kidnapped by Lenz, and Hartman tracks them to an old castle in the Austrian Alps. Successfully infiltrating the castle, he discovers Sigma''s new direction: age reversal. Lenz had found a way to reverse human aging based largely WW2 era experimentation on children with premature aging also known as Progeria, and he had been treating some of the world''s elite to reverse their aging as well. Lenz was his own first successful experiment, for his real name is Gerhard - he is the Nazi doctor and a founding member of Sigma. After killing Lenz, Hartman and Navarro escape in a helicopter, while the castle is destroyed by an avalanche. The book is based on the Bilderberg Group and the myths and mysteries surrounding it.

The Sigma Protocol

Prey reveals that Alan Grant has become part of a UN project to protect the dinosaurs of Isla Sorna. He is (somewhat unwillingly) forced to stay in the island coordinating a crew of scientists and other experts, and is decided to return balance to the dinosaur ecosystem by relocating some predators to other parts of the island. In this story, Eric Kirby blackmails Alan Grant so that he will let him go to the island. Alan agrees, but tricks Eric taking him during Christmas time where there are no operations going on in the island. Meanwhile, a group of teenagers led by 18 year old Simon Tunney lands in the island and try to film a movie about the island, so that they will become celebrities (just as Eric has, seemingly, after writing "Survivor"). Simon is obsessed with becoming a rich celebrity, even if that means to endanger his peers. Upon realizing this, Grant and his team go to the jungle and try to find them, while Eric escapes the headquarters and finds them himself. The teenagers then provoke a herd of Triceratops, and they attack them, but Eric saves them by imitating a Velociraptor''s call. Eric tries to convince them to go to Grant''s headquarters but Simon refuses fearing that Grant will confiscate his footage, and continues his trip. Angered, Eric follows, knowing that they are getting in the territory of large predators. Later, both Grant''s and Simon''s teams are attacked by three Carnotaurus. Grant realizes that the leader of the pack has a personal vendetta against him and runs away from the group to save the others. But the carnotaurs keep chasing the teenagers and almost kill one of them (Simon''s little brother, who he sacrifices instead of his valuable footage). Eric saves the boy in the nick of time and the carnotaurs are dominated by Grant''s full team. With recorded video evidence of his behavior, Simon is now trapped and is taken to prison while Grant praises Eric''s braveness and allows him to become a temporal member of his team.

Jurassic Park Adventures: Prey

The novel revolves around the legend of Atlantis, mentioned as an ancient city or continent which was drowned by the sea due to divine intervention. The novel is narrated by Headley who first writes a letter to his friend Sir John Talbot. On his subsequent rescue, he completes his story giving details on his escape and how they fought off possibly the greatest danger to humanity, the Devil himself. The novel begins with preparations for the dive, off the coast of Africa. Prof. Maracot claims to have located the deepest trench in the Atlantic and is vehement that he shall go down in the specially prepared submersible actually a bathysphere along with Headley and Scanlan. On reaching the edge of the trench, a description of the undersea world is presented. The team comes face to face with a giant crustacean who cuts off their line and hurls them down into the trench. Down in the trench, the team is rescued by the Atlanteans who are the last survivors of the land that was Atlantis. Although the description of Atlantis may not sound quite futuristic and may seem fantastic, the fact that the novel was written in 1929 should be taken into account. One device in particular is often made use of. This is a thought projector which visualizes the thoughts of a person for others to see. This helps the team and the Atlanteans to communicate. Descriptions of work habits, culture and various sea creatures are provided. The Atlanteans forage for their food from the sea bed and their slaves, Greeks who are the descendants of the original slaves of the kingdom of Atlantis work in undersea mines. This is made possible thanks to an exceptionally strong and light transparent material which is fashioned into helmets to enable people to work underwater. The team eventually uses the levity of these spheres to escape to the surface. Headley elopes with the daughter of Manda, leader of the Atlanteans. In the later part of the novel, Headley describes the encounter with the Lord of the Dark Face, a supernatural being who led the Atlanteans to their doom and was the cause of untold miseries to humanity ever since. This being is likened to the Phoenician god Baal who was demonized by later religions and cultures. The being is defeated by Prof. Maracot who becomes possessed by the spirit of Warda, the man who managed to convince a handful of Atlanteans to prepare for the worst and thus built an Ark which saved them from the cataclysm which destroyed their land.

The Maracot Deep

A Suitable Boy is set in post-independence, post-partition India. The novel follows the story of four families over a period of 18 months as a mother searches for a suitable boy to marry her daughter. The 1349-page novel alternatively offers satirical and earnest examinations of national political issues in the period leading up to the first post-Independence national election of 1952, including inter-sectarian animosity, the status of lower caste peoples such as the jatav, land reform and the eclipse of the feudal princes and landlords, academic affairs, inter- and intra-family relations and a range of further issues of importance to the characters. A suitable boy centres on Mrs. Rupa Mehra''s efforts to arrange the marriage of her younger daughter, Lata, with a "suitable boy". At the heart of the novel it is a love story, set in a young, newly independent India. It begins in the fictional town of Brahmpur, located on the Ganges between Banares and Patna. Brahmpur, along with Calcutta, Delhi, Kanpur and other Indian cities, forms a colourful backdrop for the emerging stories. Lata is a 19-year-old college girl, vulnerable, yet determined to have her own way and not be influenced by her strong mother and opinionated brother, Arun. Her story revolves around the choice she is forced to make between her suitors, Kabir, Haresh, and Amit. The novel is not simply based on one story. This epic novel covers the various issues faced by post-independence India, including Hindu-Muslim strife, abolition of the Zamindari system, land reforms and empowerment of Muslim women. The novel is divided into 19 parts, with each part focussing on a different story (and eventually coming back round again). For example part 1 is about Lata''s story; part 2 is about a courtesan (the beginning of a major subplot featuring Maan Kapoor); part 3 is about Lata again; part 4 is about Haresh; part 5 is about the Brahmpur political scene etc. Each part is described by a rhyming couplet on the contents page.

A Suitable Boy

Mark Franklin arrives on the Mauretania at Liverpool in 1909 with a copy of Shakespeare''s works, an old Mexican charro saddle and two Remington pistols in his battered luggage. A tall and softly-spoken American prospector, who made his fortune in a silver strike in Nevada, he is visiting the ''old country'' to see his roots. He goes to London where he meets and has a one-night stand with ''Pip'' Delys, a music hall performer. She gives him the name which forms the title of the book. He then buys a house in Castle Lancing, the Norfolk village his ancestors came from in the 17th century. A chance event during a fox hunt, when the fox hides in Franklin''s picnic basket, leads to an acquaintance with King Edward VII, and the beginning of an enmity with a neighbour (Frank, Lord Lacy) which lasts throughout the book. Through playing bridge with Edward and his mistress Alice Keppel, Franklin elevates himself greatly in the king''s estimation through his easy manners. When the king invites him to Sandringham, Franklin meets Winston Churchill, Jackie Fisher, and Ernest Cassel. This allows Fraser to depict some of the historical background of the build-up to the First World War. He also meets General Flashman, from Fraser''s well-known historical fiction series. Flashman is in his late 80s at the start of the book (as he says, "I''m eighty-eight next May, and I attribute my longevity to an almost total abstinence from tea"), and an important sub-plot involves his grand-niece, Lady Helen Cessford, a suffragette. An old partner in crime, Kid Curry, tracks him down and demands half of all his wealth. Franklin refuses, and the stage is set for a midnight gunfight, which Franklin wins with the assistance of his manservant Samson. They bury the body in a field. He falls in love with, and marries, another neighbour, Peggy Clayton. Her brother is an officer in the British Army and is involved in running guns to Ireland during the Curragh Mutiny, using Franklin''s money obtained by Peggy from him by deception. Over the years Franklin gradually grows apart from his young wife, at first due to the breach of trust over the money, and then when he discovers her sexual infidelity. The novel ends with the outbreak of war in 1914, and Franklin deciding to return to the U.S., leaving the bulk of his fortune in England for his wife and her family. At the last moment he changes his mind, and the reader is left unsure whether he intends to return to his unfaithful wife, to possibly accompany Samson who plans to serve in the Legion of Frontiersmen under Frederick Selous, or something else entirely.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Castle in the Forest

By Norman Mailer

The House of the Four Winds

By John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir

Come Back, Little Sheba

By William Inge

Taronga

By Victor Kelleher

The Beaver Coat

By Gerhart Hauptmann

Ocean of Blood

By Darren Shan

My Brilliant Career

By Miles Franklin

The Sigma Protocol

By Robert Ludlum

Jurassic Park Adventures: Prey

By Scott Ciencin

The Maracot Deep

By Arthur Conan Doyle

A Suitable Boy

By Vikram Seth

Mr American

By George MacDonald Fraser