Told in first-person narrative, the book portrays Grogan and his family''s life during the thirteen years that they lived with their dog Marley, and the relationships and lessons from this period. Marley, a yellow Labrador Retriever, is described as a high-strung, boisterous, and somewhat uncontrolled dog. He is strong, powerful, endlessly hungry, eager to be active, and often destructive of their property (but completely without malice). Marley routinely fails to "get the idea" of what humans expect of him; at one point, mental illness is suggested as a plausible explanation for his behavior. His acts and behaviors are forgiven, however, since it is clear that he has a heart of gold and is merely living within his nature. During his escapades he makes a two-minute credited appearance in the movie The Last Home Run (filmed in 1996 and released in 1998). The strong contrast between the problems and tensions caused by his neuroses and behavior, and the undying devotion, love and trust shown towards the human family as they themselves have children and grow up to accept him for what he is, and their grief when he finally dies from gastric dilatation volvulus (a stomach torsion condition) in old age, form the backdrop for the biographical material of the story.

Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World''s Worst Dog

Michael Beard is an eminent, Nobel Prize winning physicist whose own life is chaotic and complicated. The novel takes the reader chronologically through three significant periods in Beard''s life: 2000, 2005 and 2009, interspersed with some recollections of his student days in Oxford. Beard heads a fictional research centre in the British town of Reading but has little faith in the project and sits primarily as a political mascot. He is unfaithful to his fifth wife, Patrice, just as he was to his previous four wives. Instead of recriminations and threats of leaving, Patrice embarks upon an affair with their builder. Beard decides he has found the perfect wife just as he is losing her, and falls into a deep depression. To counter this, he agrees on a trip to the Arctic, in order to research climate change. He turns out to be the only scientist on an expedition dominated by artists. On his return home Beard learns that his wife has also been having an affair with his junior colleague Tom Aldous. During a tense encounter with Beard, Aldous dies in a freak accident, and Beard inherits his secret research into techniques for artificial photosynthesis. Beard frames Patrice''s builder boyfriend Tarpin, who is jailed for Aldous''s death. Despite a history of humiliating media coverage, Beard manages to build a reputation as a champion of solar energy, in the process passing Aldous''s research off as his own. He has been fired from his job in Reading, but is working on plans for an artificial photosynthesis plant. Beard continues to put on weight and his gastronomic indulgence is described in regular detail. He has a doting girlfriend Melissa who is desperate for a child. Time is running out for her, and so, taking matters into her own hands, she becomes pregnant. Beard is now fatter, and sixty-two years old. He is not in the best of health, and is worried about a suspicious-looking lesion on his wrist. His solar power plant is in the final stages of construction in Lordsburg, New Mexico, where he has acquired another girlfriend, Darlene, a waitress. Darlene wants to marry him, but he has a very comfortable set-up with Melissa and his three year old daughter, Catriona. All his problems culminate on the eve of the opening ceremony for his solar power plant. Tarpin is out of jail and turns up looking for work, Melissa flies to New Mexico with his daughter to try and win him over from Darlene, a patent lawyer arrives with proof that he stole his ideas from the now-dead Aldous, his doctor confirms the lesion on his hand is cancerous, his business partner abandons him to multi-million dollar debts, and then he learns that somebody (presumably Tarpin) has sabotaged his power plant by smashing the solar panels. In the final scene Beard gets an "unfamiliar, swelling sensation" in his heart which he interprets as love for his daughter, but may well be the onset of a heart attack.

Solar

The main character of Pyramids is Teppic, prince of the tiny kingdom of Djelibeybi. Djelibeybi is the Discworld counterpart to Ancient Egypt. Young Teppic has been in training at the Assassins Guild in Ankh-Morpork for several years. The day after passing his final exam he somehow senses that his father has died and that he must return home. Being the first Djelibeybian king raised outside the kingdom leads to some interesting problems, based on the fact that Dios, the high priest, is a stickler for tradition, and does not, in fact, allow the pharaohs to rule the country. After numerous adventures and misunderstandings, Teppic is forced to escape from the palace, along with a handmaiden named Ptraci. Meanwhile, the massive pyramid being built for Teppic''s father warps space-time so much that it "rotates" Djelebeybi out of alignment with the space/time of the rest of the disc by 90 degrees. Teppic and Ptraci travel to Ephebe to consult with the philosophers there as to how to get back inside the Kingdom. Meanwhile, pandemonium takes hold in Djelibeybi, as the kingdom''s multifarious gods descend upon the populace, and all of Djelibeybi''s dead rulers come back to life. Eventually, Teppic re-enters the Kingdom and attempts to destroy the Great Pyramid, with the help of all of his newly resurrected ancestors. They are confronted by Dios, who, it turns out, is as old as the kingdom itself, and has advised every pharaoh in the history of the Kingdom. Dios hates change and thinks Djelibeybi should stay the same. Teppic succeeds in destroying the Pyramid, returning Djelibeybi to the real world and sending Dios back through time (where he meets the original founder of the Kingdom, thereby re-starting the cycle). Teppic then abdicates, allowing Ptraci (who turns out to be his half-sister) to rule. Ptraci immediately institutes much-needed changes.

Pyramids

The book tells us the story of peasant Demetrio Macías, who becomes the enemy of a local cacique (leader, or important person) in his town, and so has to abandon his family when the government soldiers (Federales) come looking for him. He escapes to the mountains, and forms a group of rebels who support the Mexican Revolution. Some of them are prototypes of the sort of people that would be attracted by a revolution, like Luis Cervantes, who is an educated man mistreated by the Federales and therefore turning on them, or Güero Margarito, a cruel man who finds justification for his deeds in the tumultuousness of the times. Also Camila, a young peasant who is in love with Cervantes, who cheats her into becoming Macías'' lover, and whose kind and stoic nature gives her a tragic uniqueness among the rest. With a concise, unsympathetic tone, Azuela takes us along with this band of outcasts as they move along the hills of the country, seemingly struggling for a cause whose leader changes from day to night. The rebels, not very certain of what or whom they are fighting for, practice themselves the abuse and injustice they used to suffer in the hands of the old leaders. So the Mexican people, as the title of the book hints, are always the “ones below”, no matter who runs the country. In the end, Macías has lost his lover and most of his men, and reunites with his family with no real desire or hope for redemption or peace. He has forebodings of his destiny, and the last scene of the book leaves him firing his rifle with deathly accuracy, alone and extremely outnumbered by his enemies.

The Underdogs

The narrator of the story, a somewhat naive American admirer of English novelist Mark Ambient, visits the writer at his home in Surrey. The narrator is very enthusiastic about Ambient''s work, especially his latest novel Beltraffio. He meets Ambient''s beautiful but chilly wife, his sickly seven-year-old son Dolcino, and his strange sister Gwendolyn. He also learns that Ambient''s wife strongly dislikes her husband''s novels and considers them corrupt and pagan. Dolcino eventually becomes much more ill. In order to "protect" him from what she sees as the baleful influence of his father, Ambient''s wife withholds the boy''s medicine. Dolcino dies, and the details of his mother''s conduct are told to the narrator by Gwendolyn. The mother, grief-stricken over her role in Dolcino''s final illness, dies herself after a few months. In a grimly ironic note to conclude the story, the narrator says Ambient later revealed that his wife had become partially reconciled to his novels and even read Beltraffio in the weeks before her death.

The Author of Beltraffio

After acting as an aide-de-camp at the Battle of Waterloo, Jack Staple is finding civilian life tedious. Following a formal (and somewhat boring) dinner party in honour of his cousin''s engagement, Jack sets out by himself on horseback to visit a more congenial friend some 60 miles away. After getting lost in the dark and rain he reaches a toll-gate where a frightened 11-year old lad is acting as toll collector in the absence of his father. A combination of curiosity, compassion, tiredness, and dampness lead him to stay at the toll house overnight with a view to sorting out the situation in the morning. Over the next few days Jack''s circle of acquaintances rapidly expands to include a highwayman, a Bow Street runner, and the local gentry plus their devoted retainers. Other complications include a dead body, stolen treasure, and some masked villains. In the process of preventing a scandal, Jack also manages to identify the murderer, deal with the villains, retrieve the treasure, satisfy the law, provide for his friends, and resolve his own romance.

The Toll-Gate

This one-act play concerns two characters, Peter and Jerry. Peter is a middle-class publishing executive with a wife, two daughters, two cats and two parakeets. Jerry is an isolated and disheartened man. These men meet on a park bench in New York City''s Central Park. Jerry is desperate to have a meaningful conversation with another human being. He intrudes on Peter’s peaceful state by interrogating him and forcing him to listen to stories like "THE STORY OF JERRY AND THE DOG", and the reason behind his visit to the zoo. The action is linear, unfolding in front of the audience in “real time”. The elements of ironic humor and unrelenting dramatic suspense are brought to a climax when Jerry brings his victim down to his own savage level. The catalyst for the shocking ending transpires when Peter announces, "I really must be going home;..." At the same time Jerry begins pushing Peter off the bench. Peter decides to fight for his territory on the bench and becomes angry. Unexpectedly, Jerry pulls a knife on Peter, and then drops it as initiative for Peter to grab. When Peter holds the knife defensively, Jerry charges him and impales himself on the knife. Bleeding on the park bench, Jerry finishes his zoo story by bringing it into the immediate present, "Could I have planned all this. No... no, I couldn''t have. But I think I did." Horrified, Peter runs away from Jerry whose dying words, "Oh...my...God", are a combination of scornful mimicry and supplication.

The Zoo Story

She becomes obsessed with her uncle, Danny Farrell, who has always been a black sheep of sorts in the family. Danny is believed to have died in an airplane flying over China while working for the CIA. Roger''s mother, Brigid, is a powerful widow with a lot of dirty secrets. The family is an example of an Irish Catholic family''s ascent into the upper middle class, perhaps even the upper class, after a few generations, reflecting a common theme of sociologist Greeley. However, aside from Danny, there have been other mysterious deaths in this family, and Noelle courageously probes this dark side of her ancestry, leading to the truth about who she really is. Noelle is clearly the most significant character in the book. Greeley has said that she is meant to embody the Church. She is a spunky girl who once takes over a church service with her guitar-playing rendition of the hymn "Lord of the Dance", much to the dismay of her folk group leader, and gives a spontaneous, powerful homily about life being a dance where God chooses the partners. Sometimes, however, God wants to dance alone, with just us.

Lord of the Dance

In Parker''s second Jesse Stone novel we find Chief Stone settled into his new life after the events that marked his arrival in Night Passage. Jesse’s ex-wife, Jenn, has also relocated to Massachusetts in nearby Boston. There she finds work, and minor celebrity status, as the weather girl for the Channel 3 news. Although Jesse and Jenn are seeing each other again, Jenn refuses to commit solely to him, and they both continue see other people. Jenn is seeing the lead news anchor, while Jesse juggles relationships with her, local real estate agent Marcy Campbell, and Abby Taylor. Throughout the novel Jesse’s sexual prowess is the subject of office wisecracking, which he doesn’t mind at all. The main plot of the novel concerns ex-con Jimmy Macklin. After being released from prison, Macklin hatches a plot to rob the entire community of Stiles Island. Stiles Island is accessible from Paradise by a bridge, and one boat port. Entrance to the Island is guarded by private security ensuring safety for its wealthy residents and island bank. Macklin puts together a crew with his partner Wilson “Crow” Cromartie, an American Indian. The rest of the crew consists of a demolitions expert, a boatman to pilot their nautical escape, and one other to cut the telephone lines and provide muscle. To fund their criminal enterprise, Macklin and Crow commit several violent crimes. Macklin rips off a local poker game and murders the man running it in the process. Crow murders two Chinese drug dealers and steals a large amount of poor quality cocaine. He then sells the cocaine to other drug dealers. Macklin, and his girlfriend, Faye, using the aliases Mr. and Mrs. Harry Smith, use Marcy Campbell to gain access to the island by posing as prospective home buyers. They also set up a meeting with Chief Stone to inquire about local crime. Macklin uses the meeting as a time to size up Chief Stone. However the meeting ends up working against him as Jesse finds him suspicious and begins to investigate him. He discovers that Harry Smith is really ex-con Jimmy Macklin, and begins staking out his apartment. During the Stakeout he runs the plates of their van and discovers it belongs to Crow. A phone call to a friend and fellow police officer in Arizona where the van is registered confirms that Crow is a dangerous criminal, and Jesse is warned not to confront him alone. The final third of the novel details the Stiles Island heist. Macklin and his crew drive onto the island and storm Marcy Campbell’s office which they intend to use as headquarters during the operation. They then murder the security guards and place one of their own at the bridge which they previously wired with explosives. Macklin and Crow begin going door to door stealing safe deposit box keys for the island bank from island residents and then locking them in their bathrooms. When a police cruiser tries to cross onto the island on patrol, they blow the bridge before it reaches the other side. Chief Stone is immediately notified, and they attempt to take a boat to the island, but before they reach the dock the criminals blow that too. With no way to the island, the Paradise police are forced to wait for the state police to arrive with a helicopter and SWAT team. Not satisfied to wait around, Stone gets a local man to take him as close to the island as he can in his boat, and then swims the rest of the way. Meanwhile, Macklin and crew finish ripping off the bank safe deposit boxes and head to the island’s restaurant with six female hostages, including Marcy. There they wait for high tide when their boat can get closer to the island. While they are waiting Crow murders two of their accomplices to increase their share of the loot. After the tide comes in, they make the hostages wade out to the boat carrying the loot. Crow climbs aboard the boat first, but before Macklin can even get in the water Stone confronts him at gunpoint. Macklin yells for Crow, but Crow and the boatman leave him and the hostages behind with Crow declaring that he doesn’t hide behind women. Macklin draws his weapon and Stone shoots and kills him. Police later find the boat washed up on shore with the boatman murdered and no sign of Crow or the loot.

Trouble in Paradise

Horace is missing. Months have passed since he was sent on a military mission to the court of the Emperor of Nihon-Ja with his friend and former wardmate George but he has failed to return. Evanlyn is worried, and in company with Will, Selethen, Halt, and Alyss, she sets out to discover what has become of their old friend. They find that Horace has become embroiled in Nihon-Jan politics. The arrogant Senshi sect, a class which believes that they are a superior race, has rebelled against the rightful Emperor Shigeru and Horace has chosen to stay and lend support to the deposed ruler. Their only hope is to find to the fabled Ran-Koshi which they believe is a fortress with impossibly high wall. With only 50 Senshi and around 200 untrained Kikori, they must fight hundreds of trained Senshi warriors. Now he, Selethen, and Will must trainmen willing to face the highly trained Senshi warriors, while Alyss and Evanlyn must overcome their longstanding rivalry to seek aid from a mysterious group of mountain dwellers, called the Hasanu. In the end, Horace and Evanlyn become engaged, as do Will and Alyss.

The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

Hitchens condemns Mother Teresa for having used contributions to open convents in 150 countries rather than establishing the teaching hospital toward which her donors expected that she would apply their gifts. He claims that Mother Teresa was no "friend to the poor," and that she opposed structural measures to end poverty, particularly those that would raise the status of women. He argues she was a tool by which the Catholic Church furthered its political and theological aims, and the cult of personality that she developed was used by politicians, dictators and bankers to gain credibility and assuage guilt, citing Hillary Rodham Clinton, Charles Keating and Michèle Bennett as examples. Hitchens portrays Mother Teresa''s organization, the Missionaries of Charity, as a cult which has promoted suffering to further its own financial ends and does not help those in need. He argues that Teresa''s own words on poverty proved that her intention was not to help people, citing a 1981 press conference in which she was asked: "Do you teach the poor to endure their lot?" She replied: "I think it is very beautiful for the poor to accept their lot, to share it with the passion of Christ. I think the world is being much helped by the suffering of the poor people." Hitchens details Mother Teresa''s relationships with wealthy and corrupt individuals including Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier and his wife Michèle Duvalier, enigmatic quasi-religious figure John-Roger, and disgraced former financial executive Charles Keating. The book includes the reproduction of a letter written by Mother Teresa on behalf of Charles Keating to Judge Lance Ito who was presiding over Keating''s trial for defrauding his investors of billions of dollars. The letter urged the judge to consider the fact that Keating had donated generously ($1.25 million) to the Missionaries of Charity and suggested that Judge Ito "look into [his] heart" and "do what Jesus would do." Hitchens also includes the contents of a letter written to Mother Teresa by the man prosecuting the case against Keating, Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles Paul Turley. In the letter, Mr. Turley pointed out to Mother Teresa that Keating was on trial for stealing more than $250 million from over 17,000 investors in his business. In addition, Turley expresses his opinion that "[n]o church, no charity, no organization should allow itself to be used as a salve for the conscience of the criminal" and suggests: "Ask yourself what Jesus would do if he were given the fruits of a crime; what Jesus would do if he were in possession of money that had been stolen; what Jesus would do if he were being exploited by a thief to ease his conscience? I submit that Jesus would promptly and unhesitatingly return the stolen property to its rightful owners. You should do the same. You have been given money by Mr. Keating that he has been convicted of stealing by fraud. Do not permit him the ''indulgence'' he desires. Do not keep the money. Return it to those who worked for it and earned it! If you contact me I will put you in direct contact with the rightful owners of the property now in your possession." After the conclusion of the letter, Hitchens notes: &#34;Mr. Turley has received no reply to his letter. Nor can anyone account for the missing money: saints, it seems, are immune to audit.&#34;

The Missionary Position

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Brookenham host an effete, rather corrupt social circle. They are the parents of worthless Harold and sweet but knowledgeable Nanda (age eighteen). Mr. Longdon attends one of their social functions and is amazed at how much Nanda resembles her grandmother, his long-ago love who married another man. Vanderbank, a young civil servant with little money, admires both Mrs. Brookenham (nicknamed "Mrs. Brook") and Nanda. Mrs. Brook seems to want an affair with "Van" but he appears more interested in Nanda. Mr. Longdon promises him a dowry if he marries Nanda. Mrs. Brook is instead trying to get her daughter married to Mitchy, a very rich but rather naive member of her social circle. But Nanda urges Mitchy to marry Aggie, the supposedly sheltered step-niece of one of Mrs. Brook''s friends (the Duchess). Mitchy follows the advice, then watches helplessly as Aggie kicks over the traces and starts playing around on him. Van constantly hesitates about proposing to Nanda. She finally tells him and Mitchy to be kind to her mother, then prepares to stay at Mr. Longdon''s country home as a kind of surrogate daughter.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

By John Grogan

Solar

By Ian McEwan

Pyramids

By Terry Pratchett

The Underdogs

No Author Listed

The Author of Beltraffio

By Henry James

The Toll-Gate

By Georgette Heyer

The Zoo Story

By Edward Albee

Lord of the Dance

No Author Listed

Trouble in Paradise

By Robert B. Parker

The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

No Author Listed

The Missionary Position

By Christopher Hitchens

The Awkward Age

By Henry James