Disaster strikes in the Gaulish village when Getafix the druid breaks his golden sickle. Without one he cannot attend the annual conference of druids, or cut mistletoe for the magic potion which keeps the Roman armies at bay. Asterix and his friend Obelix set out for Lutetia (present-day Paris) to buy a new one from Obelix''s cousin, the skilled sicklesmith Metallurgix. On the way they encounter bandits, but easily defeat them. A man in an Inn they stay at says sickles are in short supply in Lutetia. They finally get to the city. However, Metallurgix has mysteriously gone missing, and before long our heroes are exploring the underworld of the big city. They go to an Inn opposite, but when they ask about Metallurgix the man close up, and after they are gone gives a description of them to another man. This man finds them, and introduces himself as Clovogarlix, claiming to be a friend of Metallurgix. Saying that Metallurgix has retired from sickle making, he takes them to a place where they meet a man called Navishtrix who tries to sell them a sickle for a vast price, though they refuse and wreck the place. They are arrested, but released by the bored Prefect Surplus Dairyprodus, and find out from a Centurion that Metallurgix may have been kidnapped. They uncover a sickle-trafficking gang with sponsors high up the Roman bureaucracy, whose shadowy business is run from below a portal dolmen in the Boulogne forest. The two enter the forest and get directions from a bandit they save from wolves. They get into the lair and find a hoard of Golden Sickles, but are attacked by a gang that includes Clovogarlix and Navishtrix, but they defeat them. Navishtrix gets away, but they find him with Surplus, revealed to be the leader. When all is revealed that Surplus did it all just for mere amusement, the Gauls rescue Metallurgix, and Surplus is arrested for sickle-trafficking, while the sickles beneath the Dolmen have been returned to Metallurgix, they can go home with a new sickle for the druid which Metallurgix gives them for free and the magic potions will continue to flow.

Asterix and the Golden Sickle

The events in Poon A Novel happened from 1880 to 1889, when an Ilocano family abandoned their beloved barrio in order to overcome the challenges to their survival in southern Pangasinan in the Philippines, and also to flee from the cruelty they received from the Spaniards. One of the principal characters of the novel is Istak, a Filipino from the Ilocano stock who was fluent in Spanish and Latin, a talent he inherited from the teachings of an old parish priest in Cabugao. He was an acolyte aspiring to become a priest. He was also knowledgeable in the arts of traditional medicine. The only hindrance to his goal of becoming a full-pledged priest was his racial origins. He lived in a period in Philippine history when it a possible Filipino uprising against the Spanish government was about to erupt, a time after the execution of three mestizos, namely Mariano Gómez, José Apolonio Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora (or the Gomburza, an acronym for the three) at Bagumbayan (now known as Rizal Park) in February, 1872. There were signs that a revolution will happen, despite of the lack of unity among the inhabitants of the Philippines islands at the time. Another approaching occurrence was the help the Filipinos would be receiving from the Americans in finally removing the governing Spaniards from the archipelago after three hundred yearsThe novel recreates the societal struggles in which the characters of Po-on were situated in, which includes the protagonist Istak ''s personal search for life''s meaning and for the true face of his beliefs at principles. Throughout this personal journey, he was accompanied by a dignity that is his aloneIstak was assigned the task of delivering a message to General Emilio Aguinaldo, the leader of the Philippine revolutionaries, but died at the hands of American soldiers, on his way to delivering the message.

Po-on

Father Wolf and Mother Wolf (Raksha), a pair of Indian wolves raising a family of cubs, are furious to learn that Shere Khan the lame tiger is hunting in their part of the jungle because he might kill men and bring human retribution upon the jungle. But when Father Wolf hears something approaching their den it turns out not to be the tiger but a naked baby. Mother Wolf decides to adopt the hairless "man-cub". Her determination is only strengthened by the arrival of Shere Khan who demands the cub for his meal. The wolves drive off the tiger and Raksha names him Mowgli the Frog because of his hairlessness. At the wolf pack''s meeting at Council Rock Baloo the bear speaks for the man-cub and Bagheera the panther buys his life with a freshly killed bull. Baloo and Bagheera undertake the task of educating Mowgli as he grows. Meanwhile Shere Khan plans to take revenge on the wolf pack by persuading the younger wolves to depose their leader Akela. When Mowgli is about 11 or 12 Bagheera tells him of Shere Khan''s plan. Mowgli, being human, is the only creature in the jungle that does not fear fire, so he steals a pot of burning coals from a nearby village in order to use it against Shere Khan. The young wolves prevent Akela from catching his prey, and at that night''s meeting Shere Khan demands that Akela be killed and the man-cub given to him. Mowgli, despite being naked and unprotected, attacks Shere Khan with a burning branch and drives him and his allies away, but realises to his sorrow that he must now leave the pack and return to humanity. As he leaves he vows to return one day and lay Shere Khan''s hide upon the Council Rock. The story of Mowgli''s return to humanity is told in "Tiger! Tiger!" and continued in "Letting in the Jungle".

Mowgli''s Brothers

The main subject of the book is the relationship between the valet Jacques and his master (who is never named). The two are traveling to a destination the narrator leaves insistently vague, and to dispel the boredom of the trip Jacques is compelled by his master to recount the story of his loves. However, Jacques''s story is continuously interrupted by other characters and various comic mishaps. Other characters in the book tell stories as well, and they, too, are continuously interrupted. There is even a "reader" character who periodically interrupts the narrator with questions, objections, and demands for more information or detail. The tales told are usually humorous, with romance or sex as their subject matter, and feature complex characters indulging in deception. Jacques''s key philosophy is that everything that happens is "written up above" ("tout ce qui nous arrive de bien et de mal ici-bas était écrit là-haut"), a "great scroll" which is unrolled a little bit at a time, on which all events, past and future, are written. Yet Jacques still places value on his actions; he is not a passive character. Critics such as J. Robert Loy have characterized Jacques''s philosophy as not fatalism but determinism. The book is full of contradictory characters and other dualities. One story tells of two men in the army who were so much alike that, though they were the best of friends, they could not stop dueling and wounding each other. Another concerns Father Hudson, an intelligent and effective reformer of the church, who is privately the most debauched character in the book. Even Jacques and his master transcend their apparent roles, as Jacques proves, in his insolence, that his master cannot live without him, and therefore it is Jacques who is the master, and the master who is the servant. Jacques is in many ways a metafictional work. The story of Jacques''s loves is lifted directly from Tristram Shandy, a design choice which Diderot makes no secret of, as the narrator at the end announces the insertion of an entire passage from Tristram Shandy into the story. Throughout the work, the narrator refers derisively to sentimental novels and calls attention to the ways in which events develop more realistically in his book. At other times, the narrator tires of the tedium of narration altogether and obliges the reader to supply certain trivial details themselves.

Jacques le fataliste et son maître

Kai Lung adventures usually serve as mere excuses to bring up side stories along the way, which typically take up the better part of a Kai Lung book. However, this is one of the few books that has a purposeful main narrative as well as intriguing side stories. Kai Lung comes home one day to meet his wife, but finds everything in a state of disarray. An elderly neighbour tells him that the village has been devastated by Ming Shu. Kai Lung goes in the direction of Ming Shu. Along the way, he meets barbarians, a poor farmer named Thang, a bandless captain in the city of Chi-U, and finally (disguised as Mang-hi, a foreigner from the land of Kham) Ming Shu himself. =====Wan and the Remarkable Shrub===== A sage, finding sleep to be an unwelcome obstruction to his pursuit of enlightenment, cuts off his eyelids and throws them away. At the spot where his eyelids land grows a shrub whose leaves look like his eyelids. Later, during a famine, the shrub is rediscovered and used to make a potion that soon becomes famous enough to catch the attention of the emperor, who subsequently bestows great honors on Wan. =====Wong Tsoi and the Merchant Teen King''s Thumb===== A case of two people with the same fingerprints creates difficulties which are resolved by the mandarin Wong Tsoi. =====Tong So, the Averter of Calamities===== A ring of thieves realizes that its members don''t need to take the trouble to steal to make a living, if they exact a tribute from everyone in the town in return for a promise not to give them any trouble. =====Lin Ho and the Treasure of Fang-tso===== Lin Ho, an ugly boy, is orphaned and sent to live with his rich uncle, who employs him as a slave. Lin Ho has been taught to do the best he can and not worry about the reaction to his actions, so he accepts this lot stoically. Then, one day, his uncle decides to get rid of him by sending him to make an offering at a shrine, giving him a lunch that contains a poisoned onion. At the foot of the hill containing the shrine, Lin Ho meets a proud warrior named Lam-Kwong, who, on the pretense that one cannot speak to the gods with onion breath, takes his onion, devours it greedily, and then dies—but not before killing Lin Ho with a stone directed at his head. Lin Ho goes to heaven, but the beings there are not quite ready to receive him, and so, as a reward for the virtuous life he has led so far, he is allowed to reënter his body. However, once he comes back to earth, he sees his own body lying beside that of Lam-Kwong, and decides that it would be much nicer to inhabit the forbidding body of a warrior than to resume his original post. This, however, poses a problem, for now he needs to work out what is expected of him… =====Kin Weng and the Miraculous Tusk===== The apprentice to an ivory-carver, who works diligently but without much reward, wanders into the woods one day, and sees a tree, a pagoda, and a young woman, all of perfect proportion… Some years later, Kai Lung tells a story to an unwilling listener, a suitor of one of his daughters. At an early mythical period of imagined history, a young man redeems his word to cut a crescent off the moon, in order to win a young lady''s hand. Kai Lung is informed by his neighbors that he has received official honorable recognition, though he is displeased when he discovers it is for rumored skills he does not possess, rather than for his real accomplishments. The last scion of a deposed dynasty overthrows a corrupt monarch and finds happiness, and a prophecy comes true, though not in the expected way.

Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat

The Seven Storey Mountain is an autobiography which reflects on the life of Thomas Merton and his quest for his faith in God leading to his conversion to Roman Catholicism at age 23. Subsequently he left behind a promising literary career and resigned as a teacher of English literature at St. Bonaventure College in Olean, New York, and entered The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in rural Kentucky on December 10, 1941, a moment which he described in the book: "...So Brother Matthew locked the gate behind me, and I was enclosed in the four walls of my new freedom." Later, Dom Frederic Dunne, the abbot at the abbey, who had received him as novice, suggested that Merton write out his life story, which he reluctantly began, but once he did, it started "pouring out". Soon he was filling up his journals with the work which led to the book which TIME later ascribed for having, "...redefined the image of monasticism and made the concept of saintliness accessible to moderns." In Merton''s journals, the first entry mentioning the project is dated March 1, 1946, but many scholars suspect he started writing it earlier than that because the draft (more than 600 pages) reached Naomi Burton Stone by October 21, 1946. In late 1946, the partly approved text of The Seven Storey Mountain was sent to Naomi Burton, his agent at Curtis Brown literary agency, who then forwarded it to the noted book editor, Robert Giroux at Harcourt Brace publishers. Giroux read it overnight, and the next day phoned Naomi with an offer, who accepted it on the monastery''s behalf. With Merton having taken a vow of poverty, all the royalties were to go to the abbey community. Though soon a trouble arose, when an elderly censor from another abbey objected to Merton''s colloquial prose style, which he found inappropriate for a monk. Merton appealed (in French) to the Abbot General in France, who concluded that an author''s style was a personal matter, and subsequently the local censor also reversed his opinion, paving way for book''s publication. Edward Rice, a close friend of Merton''s since their college days together at Columbia, suggests a different story behind the censorship issues. Rice believes the censor''s comments did have an effect on the book. The censors were not primary concerned with Merton''s prose style, but rather the content of his thoughts in the autobiography. It was "too frank" for the public to handle. What was published was a "castrated" version of the original manuscript. At the time Rice published his opinion, he was unable to provide any proof, however, since then early drafts of the autobiography have surfaced and prove that parts of the manuscript were either deleted or changed. In the introduction to the 50th anniversary copy of the autobiography, Giroux acknowledges these changes and provides the original first paragraph of Merton''s autobiography. Originally, it began "When a man is conceived, when a human nature comes into being as an individual, concrete, subsisting thing, a life, a person, then God''s image is minted into the world. A free, vital, self-moving entity, a spirit informing flesh, a complex of energies ready to be set into fruitful motion begins to flame with love, without which no spirit can exist..." The published autobiography begins with "On the last day of January 1915, under the sign of the Water Bearer, in a year of a great war, and down in the shadow of some French Mountains on the borders of Spain, I came into the world." In the summer of 1948, advance proofs were sent to Evelyn Waugh, Clare Boothe Luce, Graham Greene and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. All responded with compliments and quotations which were used on the book jacket and in some advertisements and the first printing run was increased from 5,000 to 12,500. Thus the book was out in October 1948 and by December it had sold 31,028 copies was declared a bestseller by TIME. The New York Times, however, initially refused to put it on the weekly Best Sellers list, on the grounds that it was "a religious book". In response, Harcourt Brace placed a large advertisement in the New York Times calling attention to the newspaper''s decision. The following week, The Seven Storey Mountain appeared in the bestseller''s list, where it remained for almost a year.

The Seven Storey Mountain

Set in a near-future earth, the West and the East have been at war for more than a decade, and resources are running thin. The West is stealing oil from the East with specialized nuclear submarines ("subtugs") that sneak into the underwater oil fields of the East to secretly pump out the oil and bring it back. Each manned by a crew of four, these submarines undertake the most hazardous, stressful mission conceivable, and of late, the missions have been failing, with the last twenty submarines simply disappearing. The East has been very successful in planting sleepers in the West''s military and command structures, and the suspicion is that sleepers are sabotaging the subs or revealing their positions once at sea. John Ramsey, a young psychologist from the Bureau of Psychology (BuPsych), is trained as an electronics operator and sent on the next mission, replacing the previous officer who went insane. His secret mission is to find the sleeper, or figure out why the crews are going insane.

The Dragon in the Sea

After a fatal car accident on Earth, Herb Asher is placed into cryonic suspension as he waits for a spleen replacement. Clinically dead, Herb experiences lucid dreams while in suspended animation and relives the last six years of his life. In the past, Herb lived as a recluse in an isolated dome on a remote planet in the binary star system, CY30-CY30B. Yah, a local divinity of the planet in exile from Earth, appears to Herb in a vision as a burning flame, and forces him to contact his sick female neighbor, Rybys Rommey, who happens to be terminally ill with multiple sclerosis and pregnant with Yah''s child. With the help of the immortal soul of Elijah, who takes the form of a wild beggar named Elias Tate, Herb agrees to become Rybys''s legal husband and father of the unborn "savior". Together they plan to smuggle the six-month pregnant Rybys back to Earth, under the pretext of seeking help for Rybys'' medical condition at a medical research facility. After being born in human form, Yah plans to confront the fallen angel Belial, who has ruled the Earth for 2000 years since the fall of Masada in the first century CE. Yah''s powers, however, are limited by Belial''s dominion on Earth, and the four of them must take extra precautions to avoid being detected by the forces of darkness. Things do not go as planned. "Big Noodle", Earth''s A.I. system, warns the ecclesiastical authorities in the Christian-Islamic church and Scientific Legate about the divine "invasion" and countermeasures are prepared. A number of failed attempts are made to destroy the unborn child, all of them thwarted by Elijah and Yah. After successfully making the interstellar journey back to Earth and narrowly avoiding a forced abortion, Rybys and Herb escape in the nick of time, only to be involved in a fatal taxi crash, probably due to the machinations of Belial. Rybys dies from her injuries sustained in the crash, and her unborn son Emmanuel (Yah in human form) suffers brain damage from the trauma but survives. Herb is critically injured and put into cryonic suspension until a spleen replacement can be found. Baby Emmanuel is placed into a synthetic womb, but Elias Tate manages to sneak Emmanuel out of the hospital before the church is able to kill him. Six years pass. In a school for special children, Emmanuel meets Zina, a girl who also seems to have similar skills and talents, but acts as a surrogate teacher to Emmanuel. For four years, Zina helps Emmanuel regain his memory (the brain damage caused amnesia) and discover his true identity as Yah, creator of the universe. When he''s ready, Zina shows Emmanuel her own parallel universe. In this peaceful world, organized religion has little influence, Rybys Rommey is still alive and married to Herb Asher, and Belial is only a kid goat living in a petting zoo. In an act of kindness, Zina and Emmanuel liberate the goat-creature from his cage, momentarily forgetting that the animal is Belial. The goat-creature finds Herb Asher and attempts to retain control of the world by possessing him and convincing him that Yahweh''s creation is an ugly thing that should be shown for what it really is. Eventually Herb is saved by Linda Fox, a young singer whom he loves and who is his own personal Savior; she and the goat-creature meet and she kills it, defeating Belial. He finally discovers that this meeting happens over again for everyone in the world, and whether they choose Belial or their Savior decides if they find salvation.

The Divine Invasion

The story outlines contact between Earth and the title Visitors, a group of mysterious objects from deep space. The Visitors are simple black oblong boxes, as large as buildings, which approach from space and orbit the Earth before descending to the United States. The nature of the visitors is kept rather mysterious&nbsp;— it''s not clear if they are vehicles or living things in their own right. They are apparently unable to communicate with humans in any meaningful way; on one occasion a human is taken inside a Visitor, only to be released after experiencing a jumble of confusing colored lights and smells which he didn''t understand. The Visitors are composed largely of a dense form of cellulose, and they proceed to consume a quantity of trees and plant life in the US. Eventually they start producing vehicles, superficially resembling human cars but capable of flying using the same unknown principles as the Visitors themselves, and apparently incorporating some element of intelligence, or at least instinct, since they do not crash into things as they move. The humans assume that the Visitors have created these vehicles as a gift in return for the plant matter which the Visitors are consuming, and the novel touches on the disruption such well-meaning gifts might incur on the Earth''s economic systems. Toward the end of the book the Visitors also start producing housing units for humans, and it is even implied that something living may be inside them&nbsp;— perhaps even a Visitor-produced version of humans themselves.

The Visitors

Sixteen year old Max arrives in a new household inhabited by several families and individuals. Among them there are a six year old boy named Mango; and a fifteen year old girl, Emma. Emma and her father Ted — an old friend of Max''s parents — had arrived in the household some months earlier. Max brings the tree seedlings which he has grown from seeds with him when he moves in. Whilst he develops friendships with the other children, Emma remains distant from him. She does not appear to like Max; struggling to find her place in the household. For all of Emma''s life, she and Ted had constantly been moving from city to city. Since arriving in Sydney, Emma had secretly located and found her mother, whom she had never previously met. Max''s classmate Olivia finds a photograph of Max at the age of four, building a sandcastle with another child. Olivia asks about this other child, and remarks that she looks like Emma. Max feels sure it couldn''t be Emma, whom he has only recently met. Max and Emma begin planting Max''s tree seedlings at railway stations and in public parks. Max begins to have a strange feeling that has known Emma for a long time. Meanwhile, a friendship develops between Olivia and Emma. It is through this friendship that Emma starts to find a real sense of belonging in the household. The children offer the remaining trees to local residents, offering to plant them in their gardens. Mango asks what the trees will say to each other when they grow up and see each other over the roofs of the houses. Emma replies, "They’ll say, I’ve been waiting for ages to grow up and meet you. Where have you been all my life?” , this comment making Max sense a spiritual connection between themselves and the trees. Max looks through his photos again, and realises that the other child in the photo is in fact Emma, as one photo also shows Ted. Max''s mother explains that Emma had lived with their family for some time when she was young. Eventually, Ted and Emma leave the household to move to Brisbane. Emma leaves something for Max in her room: an old photo of the two of them playing in the sand. It is identical to Max''s.

Sand Monkeys

At the start of the book, a mother and her son escape from their evil stepfather. The stepfather, named Chris, hears them and chases them to the local tube station, though he is unsuccessful in his efforts to catch them. Unknown to Chris, the mother, Cathy, and the son, Danny, are going to live with Cathy''s mother and father, Joan and Harry, in an area of the country known as "the Edge". Chris believes that he owns Cathy, and tries to get her back. At first, Harry refuses to accept Danny because he is both Mixed Race, and the result of an unplanned teenage pregnancy. As the book progresses, Harry accepts Danny as his grandson. Danny has a lot of trouble at school with a racist bully named Steve Parker and his friends. Danny befriends, and later dates a girl called Nikki, who Steve fancies. Nikki warns him not to get on the wrong side of Steve; it is implied in the novel that Steve and his gang were responsible for an arson attack on a black-owned store. Also during this time Danny encounters his real father, a man named Des, who saves him from Steve''s gang. Chris, meanwhile, is attempting in vain to find out where Cathy fled to. She covered her tracks well leaving virtually no clues. Eventually, he finds a newspaper article, and is able to deduce where she and Danny have gone. Chris shows up at Danny''s new school, and chases him back to the house. Attempting to retake Cathy by force, he overpowers Harry, before being restrained by police officers. At the end of the novel, Chris is in prison, and Danny now has a happy family and a good life.

The Edge

In the final days of the Tribulation, Nicolae Carpathia prepares to launch the greatest military conflict the world has ever seen, against none other than Jesus Christ Himself, raising the largest army in the history of mankind, the Unity Army. Believers all around the world are in hiding to avoid the Mark of the Beast and execution. Rayford Steele leads a rescue mission to New Babylon to extract GC mole Chang Wong from New Babylon, now eclipsed in a supernatural nightfall that blinds all unbelievers. In Al Basrah, Albie is murdered by a former associate for the bounty posted on those who have not taken the Mark. In San Diego, Chloe Steele Williams falls into the hands of the GC, and the underground safe house is found out, causing everyone to relocate, this time to Petra. Chloe is taken to an execution site to be put to death. Before the mass execution, Chloe''s testimony leads several convicts to salvation. Accepting her fate as a martyr, Chloe is executed with a loyalty enforcement facilitator. There is a brief interlude as friends and loved ones gather at Petra for the funerals of Chloe and Albie. Their time of mourning is short-lived, however, as believers must prepare for the coming battle, set to come at the final day of the Tribulation. The Sixth Bowl Judgment hits and the Euphrates river dries up to open the way for the East''s mighty armies to come and join the forces of the Beast. God destroys the city of New Babylon with fire that rains from the heavens, and spares all believers inside through the acts of Mac McCullum, who leads a rescue mission into the heart of the city before it is annihilated. On what is expected to be the final day of the Tribulation, the GC Unity Army attacks the city of Jerusalem, breaking the peace treaty Antichrist made with Israel. Tsion, along with Buck, decides to go to Jerusalem and join the fight. Rayford and the others find themselves in the middle of this greatest conflict in history as the bulk of the Unity Army surrounds Petra and stands poised to annihilate all remaining believers. In Jerusalem, Tsion is killed by Unity Army Forces as the GC overrun the Holy City. Buck Williams, in Jerusalem, and Rayford, outside Petra, are both gravely wounded. One of them dies, and the other is on the brink of death. (The mystery of who died is revealed in the next book.) It has been over seven years since the Rapture, and almost exactly seven years since the unholy treaty between Antichrist and Israel. The world is on the brink of total destruction as the tribulation nears its end and believers look to the heavens for the Glorious Appearing of Christ.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Asterix and the Golden Sickle

By René Goscinny

Po-on

By F. Sionil José

Mowgli's Brothers

By Rudyard Kipling

Jacques le fataliste et son maître

By Denis Diderot

Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat

By Ernest Bramah

The Seven Storey Mountain

By Thomas Merton

The Dragon in the Sea

By Frank Herbert

The Divine Invasion

By Philip K. Dick

The Visitors

No Author Listed

Sand Monkeys

By Joanne Horniman

The Edge

By Alan Gibbons

Armageddon

By Jerry B. Jenkins