The book begins with a dive into the journey of an Aboriginal tribe which, in 70,000 BCE, crosses the straits of Sunda toward what will become Australia. It is a chaotic and cadaver-ridden course and a fight against climatic evolution. Through centuries, the odyssey reveals a challenging cohabitation with other species and soon a violent confrontation with white Caucasian newcomers. In an additional contemporary plot, Liz, a young Australian woman, moves to France in search of her lost origins. But behind its postcard appearance, the small Provence village where her mother had lived is not what it seems to be. Somebody tries to drown Liz into the pond near her new house, just before the young woman finds a dead body in this pond. Liz is still far from knowing what or who she will have to fight, what or who has followed her from Sydney, from a past that she did not even suspect. Besides the criminal aspects, the story is a novelistic presentation of the history of humankind, trying to make the reader look at the world differently and make them understand that differences are really relative.

Noir austral

Gavin Hutchinson, purveyor of non-threatening holidays to the British masses has organised a reunion for his old school classmates. The reunion will take place on his latest project - a unique "floating holiday experience" on a converted North Sea oil rig, a haven for tourists who want a vacation in the sun but without the hassle of actually interacting with any foreigners. And what better way to test out his venture than to host a fifteenth-year high school reunion, the biggest social event of his life... except no one remembers who Gavin is. Gavin may have been a non-entity while at school in Auchenlea but now he''s made his fortune, he''s looking forward to lording it over his old classmates, especially now he''s having an affair with Catherine O''Rourke, PR specialist and one-time pin-up for his male classmates at St Michael''s. Meanwhile Gavin''s wife, who as ''Simone Draper'' remains much more memorable to those from Auchenlea than her husband, is fed up with his philandering and aims to use the evening to publicly embarrass Gavin by announcing her plans to take the twins and leave him. Intent on ruining Gavin''s evening, she''s also added two extra names to the guest list - Hollywood star, famous comedian (and the recently suicidal) Matt Black, as well as class bampot, though now reformed artist, David "Dilithium Dave" Murdoch. As the ex-classmates gather on the almost finished holiday resort, currently moored off the coast of Scotland, little do they know that a troop of would be "soldiers of fortune" have been contracted to hit the rig for some blackmail action. The group of mercenaries (mostly recruited from the minimum wage end of the labour market, and already reduced in number due to some experiments with a rocket launcher) are made up of a variety of ex-terrorists from Ulster and Africa mixed in with a few professionals and to say they''re not getting on well is a bit of an understatement...

One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night

As its foreword, the book features a poem by Jimmie Durham. The preface is by Winona LaDuke and poems from John Trudell''s Living in Reality appear as preludes to each section. Russell Means'' 1982 platform for president of the Oglala people is included as an appendix. Maps of Indian land claims/treaty areas are included. The book is dedicated "for my mother." The mostly previously published essays collected provide a history of Native American struggle for decolonization provided through the examples of the Haudenosaunee in upstate New York, the Lakotas on the northern Plains, the Lubicon Cree in northern Alberta, and the Navajo and Newe (Western Shoshone) in the upper Sonoran. The case is made that uranium mining, coal stripping, hydropower generation, and water diversion are ecocidal as well as genocidal, and that the ecological damage poses a threat to all North Americans. Churchill also discusses the Native North American diaspora caused by their displacement. : "Not only the people of the land are being destroyed, but, more and more, the land itself. The nature of native resistance to the continued onslaught of the invading industrial culture is shaped accordingly. It is a resistance forged in the crucible of a struggle for survival." —from the introduction

Struggle for the Land

The badly tattered James awakens on an airplane to Chicago, with no recollection of his injuries or of how he ended up on the plane. He is met by his parents at the airport, who take him to a rehabilitation clinic. We find out that James is 23 years old, and has been an alcoholic for ten years, and a crack addict for three. He is also wanted by the police in three different states on several charges. As he checks into the rehab clinic, he is forced to quit his substance abuse, a transition that we find out later probably saves his life, but is also an incredibly agonizing event. As part of this, he is forced to undergo a series of painful root canals, without any anesthesia because of possible negative reactions to the drugs. He copes with the pain by squeezing tennis balls until his nails crack (when challenged on this incident, specifically, during his second Oprah appearance, Frey said that it may have been "more than one" root canal procedure and may or may not have included Novocaine, as he remembers it). The book follows Frey through the painful experiences that lead up to his eventual release from the center, including his participation in the clinic''s family program with his parents, despite his strong desire not to. Throughout the novel, Frey speaks of the "Fury" he is fighting, which he sees as the cause of his desire to drink alcohol and use drugs. The "Fury" could be seen as the antagonist of the novel, because he believes that he will not be able to recover until he learns to ignore it or "kill it." Frey meets many interesting people in the clinic, with whom he forms relationships and who play an important role in his life both during and after his time in the clinic. These people include a mafia boss who plays a vital role in his recovery (subject of Frey''s subsequent book My Friend Leonard), and a woman drug addict with whom he falls in love, despite strict rules forbidding contact between men and women at the clinic. James finally recovers and never relapses. A notable feature of Pieces is its lack of quotation marks to indicate direct discourse. Instead, a new line is started each time. The fact that the author uses this same style to indicate his internal thoughts, often interspersed between direct discourse from himself and others, gives the book a unique and sometimes confusing writing style, purportedly reflecting the nature of his experience in the treatment center. Frey makes frequent use of this stream of consciousness writing technique, which allows the reader to better understand his version of the events. Frey''s unique writing style also involves his capitalizing nouns throughout the book for unclear reasons. Frey also uses heavy repetition of words throughout the text.

A Million Little Pieces

A new shop named "Needful Things" opens in the town of Castle Rock, Maine, sparking the curiosity of its citizens. The proprietor, Leland Gaunt, is a charming elderly gentleman who always seems to have an item in stock that is perfectly suited to any customer who comes through his door. The prices are surprisingly low, considering the merchandise - such as a rare Sandy Koufax baseball card, a carnival glass lampshade, and a fragment of wood believed to be from Noah''s Ark - but he expects each customer to also play a little prank on someone else in Castle Rock. Gaunt knows about the long-standing private grudges, arguments, and feuds between the various townspeople, and the pranks are his means of forcing them to escalate until the whole town is eventually caught up in madness and violence. The novel ends as it begins, with a first-person narrative indicating that a new and mysterious shop is about to open in a small Iowa town - an implication that Gaunt is ready to begin his business cycle all over again.

Needful Things

Martha goes away every summer from her home in Wisconsin to visit her grandma, Godbee, on the Atlantic Ocean. Right before she left for Godbee''s place, she received a journal page from Olive''s mother after Olive died. Before receiving the journal page, Martha didn''t know about Olive, who admired Martha for who she was even though they never talked to school or hung out. After Martha read the journal page from Olive, she felt regret not to be nice to her. She also find many common grounds with Olive, both of them love the ocean, both of them want to be a writer. Every day she and Godbee will tell about their secret to each other. While there, Martha develops a crush on one of Manning boys living nearby. Her older brother, Vince, is friends with them. She begins to spend more time with Jimmy Manning. She tells Godbee about him and all she has to say is to be careful. Jimmy is interested in film making and shoots a video. He asks Martha to join the love scene in his video taking and Jimmy kissed Martha. Martha is outraged when she learns he only did it for his video and to win a bet with the other boys. At the same time, though, she is heartbroken. Jimmy''s younger brother, Tate, who is Martha''s age and secretly likes Martha, wants to help her. Before Martha leaves she gets jar and fills it with the ocean water to give to Olive''s mom in order to fulfill Olive''s dream. It said in the letter that Martha received from Olive''s mother that Olive had always wanted to go to the ocean. This would be "Olives Ocean." Martha says good-bye to her aging grandmother Godbee. All Martha hopes for is that she will be able to see her next summer as well. As she is leaving for Wisconsin, Tate stops her and hands her a bag containing Jimmy''s tape of Martha and Jimmy kissing. In an accompanying note, he tells her that he likes her. At home in Wisconsin, Martha goes to Olive''s mother to give the ocean water to her, only to find that Olive''s mother had moved to Washington or Oregeon. Martha writes ''Olive'' with ocean water on the front step of Olive''s house until the water runs out. Martha stays until the sun dries up the word ''Olive''. And Olive who had been in her mind a long time finally gets forgotten. And then Martha returns home where her loving family is. The book will be made into a motion picture starring Elle Fanning.

Olive''s Ocean

Father Quixote, a parish priest in the little town of El Toboso in Spain''s La Mancha region, regards himself as a descendant of Cervantes'' character of the same name, even if people point out to him that Don Quixote was a fictitious character. One day, he helps and gives food to a mysterious Italian bishop whose car has broken down. Shortly afterwards, he is given the title of monsignor by the Pope, much to the surprise of his bishop who looks upon Father Quixote''s activities rather with suspicion. He urges the priest to take a holiday, and so Quixote embarks upon a voyage through Spain with his old Seat 600 called "Rocinante" and in the company of the Communist ex-mayor of El Toboso (who, of course, is nicknamed "Sancho"). In the subsequent course of events, Quixote and his companion have all sorts of funny and moving adventures along the lines of his ancestor''s on their way through post-Franco Spain. They encounter the contemporary equivalents of the windmills, are confronted with holy and not-so-holy places and with sinners of all sorts. In their dialogues about Catholicism and Communism, the two men are brought closer, start to appreciate each other better but also to question their own beliefs. Quixote is briefly taken back to El Toboso, confronted by the bishop about his doings and suspended from service as a priest, but he escapes and sets out again with Sancho. In his last adventure, Father Quixote is struck down and wounded while attempting to save a statue of the Virgin Mary from hypocrites who are desecrating her by offering her up for money. Here may be a parallel between Dulcinea in Cervantes'' novel and Monsignor Quixote''s Lady whom he would lay down his life for. Quixote and Sancho are brought to a Trappist monastery where, sleepwalking and in delirium, Father Quixote rises from his bed at night, goes to the church, celebrates the old Tridentine Mass&mdash;all the time imagining he holds bread and wine in his hands&mdash;and then, in a last effort, administers communion to the Communist ex-mayor before sinking dead into his friend''s arms.

Monsignor Quixote

After the events of All the Weyrs of Pern, The Dolphins of Pern, and The Skies of Pern, Thread is less of a threat to the planet. Returning to an earlier time in Pernese history, the author brings the earlier conflict of Thread reappearing in the Second Pass. Following in the footsteps of the novels that established the background of the colony, the book exposes the incremental loss of technology due to the hardships of thread, and inevitable progress towards the more feudal society shown later in the series timeline. It answers such questions as: * What happened to the computers? * What happened to the technology? * Who created the Star Stones? It also shows more about the process of caring for a newborn dragon than is shown in any of the other Pern books, and explores the ramifications of male riders of green dragons. The main characters are Clisser (college head, Fort Hold), Chalkin (Lord Holder, Bitra), K''vin (weyrleader, Telgar), Zulaya (weyrwoman, Telgar), Iantine (journeyman artist) and Debera (green rider, Telgar)

Dragonseye

The play begins with three pages disputing over the black cloak usually worn by the actor who delivers the prologue. They draw lots for the cloak, and one of the losers, Anaides, starts telling the audience what happens in the play to come; the others try to suppress him, interrupting him and putting their hands over his mouth. Soon they are fighting over the cloak and criticizing the author and the spectators as well. In the play proper, the goddess Diana, or Cynthia, has ordained a "solemn revels" in the valley of Gargaphie in Greece. The gods Cupid and Mercury appear, and they too start to argue. Mercury has awakened Echo, who weeps for Narcissus, and states that a drink from Narcissus''s spring causes the drinkers to "Grow dotingly enamored of themselves." The courtiers and ladies assembled for the Cynthia''s revels all drink from the spring. Asotus, a foolish spendthrift who longs to become a courtier and a master of fashion and manners, also drinks from the spring; emboldened by vanity and self-love, he challenges all comers to a competition of "court compliment." The competition is held, in four phases, and the courtiers are beaten. Two symbolic masques are performed within the play for the assembled revelers. At their conclusion, Cynthia (representing Queen Elizabeth) has the dancers unmask and shows that vices have masqueraded as virtues. She sentences them to make reparation and to purify themselves by bathing in the spring at Mount Helicon. The figure of Actaeon in the play may represent Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, while Cynthia''s lady in waiting Arete may be Lucy, Countess of Bedford, one of Elizabeth''s ladies in waiting as well as Jonson''s patroness. The play is notably rich in music, as is typical for the theatre of the boys'' companies, which originated as church choirs.

Cynthia''s Revels

Following on from the events of The Banquo Legacy, the Timelords have cracked the base code the Eighth Doctor programmed into Compassion''s randomiser and intercept her at her next destination. Threatened with enslavement, Compassion activates her built in weapons system and destroys the approaching WarTARDISes, while the Doctor fights for control of her navigation systems. The resulting "hiccup" expels Fitz and the Doctor into the vortex. The Doctor is captured while escaping from the Edifice, a massive bone structure that has appeared in the skies above Gallifrey, and taken to Gallifrey where he is accused of being an agent of Faction Paradox. The Doctor is forced to aid the Time Lords in the capture of Compassion to aid in the forthcoming War. Meanwhile, Fitz appears before a group of disenchanted, young Time Lords who are holding rituals based on the occult texts of Faction Paradox and finds himself unable to escape. Getting further embroiled in the group''s activities, Fitz witnesses the creation of a copy of former President Greyjan the Sane and is then the unwitting donor of material used to pull the original Fitz Kreiner, now in the guise of Faction Agent Father Kreiner, from a Klein bottle universe into the modern day Gallifrey. During her Reaffirmation Ceremony, Lady President Romana is challenged by Greyjan and placed under house arrest, with only Fitz as company. With the aid of Compassion, they are able to escape and witness Faction Paradox corrupting Time Lord history, followed by the Doctor''s fall to the Faction. Travelling to the Edifice with Father Kreiner and a Faction Agent known as Tarra, Kreiner reveals he is not truly working for the Faction and pleads with the Doctor to undo the past so he never becomes Father Kreiner, an act the Doctor cannot agree to. The Doctor reveals that not only has he not fallen to the Faction but the Edifice is, in fact, his old TARDIS, which was not actually destroyed at Avalon. Together he and Kreiner are able to dispose of Tarra before Grandfather Paradox appears on the Edifice to confront the Doctor. The Doctor battles the Grandfather, and decides that the only way to prevent Faction Paradox from destroying Gallifrey''s past is a drastic move: he chooses to use the energy that is holding the TARDIS together to destroy Faction Paradox and Grandfather Paradox, but also destroy Gallifrey in the process. With the whole of Time Lord history seemingly being erased from existence, Compassion is able to rescue the Doctor, Fitz and the remains of the Doctor''s old TARDIS, placing them on Earth for safekeeping, until the TARDIS can regenerate itself over the course of the next century and the Doctor, now suffering from amnesia, can recover. At the end of the novel, the Doctor is stranded on Earth for a hundred years; Fitz is left to his own devices in the late 20th century, with only a time and place to meet the Doctor once the TARDIS is once again active; and Compassion is released from her bonds to both the Time Lords and the Faction, free to roam time and space as she sees fit.

The Ancestor Cell

The book opens with an objective narration about a group of five travellers traveling through Exmoor in rural England. They arrive at an inn in a small village, and soon it becomes clear that they are not who they seem to be. The "maid" Louise casually rebuffs the sexual advances of the servant, Dick Thurlow, but then goes to his master''s room and undresses before them both. Bartholomew calls his supposed uncle "Lacy" and they discuss Bartholomew''s refusal to disclose his journey''s secret purpose, as well as fate versus free will. Eventually the narration stops and is followed by letters, interview transcripts, and snatches of more third-person narration, interspersed by facsimile pages from contemporary issues of The Gentleman''s Magazine. We learn from a fictional news story that a man has been found hanged near the place where the travellers were staying. The subsequent interviews are conducted by Henry Ayscough, a lawyer employed by Bartholomew''s father, who is a Duke. The interviews reveal that Bartholomew had hired the party to travel with him but deceived them about the purpose of his journey. Variations of his story are (1) he was on his way to elope against the wishes of family; (2) he was visiting a wealthy, aged aunt to secure an inheritance from her; (3) he was seeking a cure for impotence; (4) he was pursuing some scientific or occult knowledge, possibly concerning knowledge of the future. He takes Rebecca and Dick to a cave in a remote area. Rebecca''s initial tale, retold by Jones, is that he there performed a satanic ritual, and Rebecca herself was raped by Satan and forced to view a panorama of human suffering and cruelty. Rebecca''s own testimony admits this was a deception to quiet Jones. She says that she actually saw Bartholomew meet a noble lady who took them all inside a strange floating craft (which she calls "the maggot"). In this craft she sees what she describes as a divine revelation of heaven ("June Eternal") and the Shaker Trinity (Father, Son, and female Holy Spirit or "Mother Wisdom"). She also sees a vision of human suffering and cruelty in this version of her story. Modern readers may interpret her visions as films and her overall experience as a contact with time travellers or extraterrestrials. Rebecca then loses consciousness; she wakes, finds Jones outside the cave, and they leave together. She then tells Jones the satanic version of her experience. Meanwhile, Jones has seen Dick leave the cave in terror, presumably to go hang himself. Rebecca later finds herself pregnant. She returns to her Quaker parents but then converts to Shakerism, marries a blacksmith named John Lee, and gives birth to Ann Lee, the future leader of the American Shakers. The mystery of Bartholomew''s disappearance is never solved, and Ayscough surmises that he committed suicide out of guilt from his disobedience to his father in the matter of an arranged marriage.

A Maggot

The book starts in 2021 off East Timor, as a US-led Multinational Taskforce, commanded by Admiral Phillip Kolhammer, prepares to liberate the Indonesian islands from an Islamic government calling itself the Caliphate, which is slaughtering Chinese citizens. In the book''s backstory, the Chinese government was planning to send a task force but was warned by the American government not to do so. The flagship of the taskforce is the aircraft carrier USS Hillary Clinton, named after "the most uncompromising wartime president in the history of the United States". The task force is made up mainly of American and British units alongside French, Australian, Japanese and Free Indonesians, along with a few other units like Spetsnaz from Russia and Kommando Spezialkräfte from Germany. Alongside the navy taskforce is the JRV Nagoya, a scientific ship which is experimenting with wormholes; the navy ship protecting it is ordered to join the taskforce. A new ship from the Royal New Zealand Navy is sent as escort, but prior to its arrival, the Nagoya''s project director, Manning Pope, decides to make a trial run. The taskforce is constantly watched by a Caliphate spy on the mainland. Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance and Lt. Commander Daniel Black are on the bridge of the , on their way to face the Japanese sent to invade Midway. A growing commotion outside the bridge prompts them to investigate, only to find a large group of what are, to them, unknown and strangely designed ships. They spot a ship with the Japanese ensign and assume it is the Japanese fleet sent against Midway and they order their own ships to open fire. The multinational taskforce Combat Intelligence, referred to as CI, takes defensive action; the 21st century fleet nearly wipes out the American fleet, including the and . During the battle, Kolhammer and the rest of the Multinational Taskforce commanders learn that not all ships of the taskforce came through and those that did, did not all end up in the same place. The HJIMS Ryūjō encounters the Free Indonesian ship KRI Sutanto and boards it. The Indonesians are taken captive, the Japanese learn of the force sent against them at Midway and the rest of the Japanese navy is warned and ordered back home. After the battle between the 1942 American naval force and the 21st century Multinational Taskforce, an unsteady peace starts after they both reach Pearl Harbor. However, murders, rapes and riots happen as the 21st people try to mix with the locals. Kolhammer is flown to California to meet President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Albert Einstein. As time goes by with no sight of the JRV Nagoya, more and more 21st century personnel start to realise they are stuck in 1942. Captain Karen Halabi and the HMS Trident, a Trident-class trimaran stealth destroyer, is ordered back to the Home Island for evaluation and possible transfer of the Trident. However, prior to her and the ship''s departure, they take part in a POW rescue in Singapore and Luzon. The rescue is carried out by both 21st century and 1942 personnel. Through the Japanese, Hitler learns about the results of the invasion of the Soviet Union and sends Ribbentrop to negotiate peace with the Soviet Union.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Noir austral

No Author Listed

One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night

By Christopher Brookmyre

Struggle for the Land

No Author Listed

A Million Little Pieces

By James Frey

Needful Things

By Stephen King

Olive's Ocean

By Kevin Henkes

Monsignor Quixote

By Graham Greene

Dragonseye

By Anne McCaffrey

Cynthia's Revels

By Ben Johnson

The Ancestor Cell

By Stephen Cole

A Maggot

By John Fowles

Weapons of Choice

By John Birmingham