The Circles (who are appointed as priests/leaders of Flatland due to their many sides, or an appearance thereof) do not take A Square''s revelation about a third dimension to be accurate, and A Square is ostracized by his community. Then after some time, society becomes more open to the ideas of Spaceland and, overall, to change and advancement. However, when a prominent surveyor finds a Triangle with more than 180 degrees, he is fired from his job and generally considered a crackpot, since such a construction is not possible in Euclidean geometry. He eventually makes friends with the grandson of A Square, A Hexagon, because he is a mathematician and scientist. Together, they come upon a theory to explain the unusual measurements: they actually live on a very large sphere, and the Triangles have more than 180 degrees due to being inscribed on a non-planar surface. With help from the sphere from the first novel, they are able to prove this theory. However, the established scientific community is not able to comprehend the idea proposed by the two, and thus they do not attempt to enlighten Flatland. Furthermore, as the residents of Flatland advance, they begin to travel in space; they see distant worlds like their own, and the surveyor tries to find the distance between their world and these distant worlds, using trigonometry and radar. From his calculations, he and the hexagon determine that the universe is expanding; again they try to reveal this theory to the outside world, but again it is not accepted. Therefore, like his grandfather in the previous novel, the hexagon writes a book that is not to be opened until the theory of the expanding universe is discovered and accepted by others. Then they live an inferior existence without any more contact with the sphere.

Sphereland

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse is a beautiful and inspiring book written by Charlie Mackesy. It tells the story of four unlikely friends that come together and explore life’s many questions. The book follows the four friends as they have conversations about life, love, friendship, and courage. Through the conversations, the four friends learn about themselves and each other, and ultimately, about the power of friendship and kindness. The book is full of vivid illustrations and wise words that will move readers of all ages. It is a book about hope, empathy, and the possibility of finding light in the darkest of times. Through their conversations, the four friends explore topics such as self-doubt, fear, courage, and belonging. They ask questions and share stories in an effort to better understand life’s complexities. The conversations are full of wit and wisdom, and readers will be inspired by the lessons that each of the four friends learn. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse is an uplifting story that will bring joy and hope to all who read it.

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse

The novel is set in the middle of the twentieth century, and opens in Chicago, where the protagonist Edgar Krug has designed an enormous colored-glass exhibition hall. An art exhibit is held there, accompanied by an organ concert. Krug, fiercely dedicated to his esthetic concepts, is unhappy that the bright colors of women''s fashions clash with his architectural scheme. When he meets Clara Weber, the organist, he is struck by her gray dress with white lace trim; he finds it the perfect compliment to the color effect of his hall. Krug impulsively asks Clara to marry him &mdash; providing she agrees to wear the same style of clothing. Clara accepts Krug''s terms, which are specified in their marriage contract. Once married, the couple leave for the Fiji Islands in Krug''s private dirigible (it has a glass-walled cupola, and air conditioning). Though Clara accepts Krug''s strange terms for their marriage, other women do not. Clara maintains a telegraphic correspondence with her American friend, Amanda Schmidt; and Amanda is highly critical of Clara''s subservience in the arrangement. Later in the book, other women also protest its terms. Scheerbart provides portrayals of a number of strong female characters through the book, supporting its subtitle, "a Ladies'' novel." Krug goes to Fiji because he has an ongoing project there, a retirement home for airship pilots. He clashes with the project''s sponsor over how much colored glass the building will accommodate. From Fiji, Krug and Clara travel to other sites throughout the world, to visit other projects. Their first stop is "Makartland" at the South Pole, an artists'' colony for twenty women artists. There, a seamstress makes outfits for Clara that arrange her gray-and-white wardrobe scheme in imaginative ways. Käte Bandel, one of the artists, joins the Krugs in their further travels; she debates artistic assumptions and values with Krug as they travel to Australia and then to Borneo. Bandel enrages Krug when she convinces Clara to wear a plaid scarf. Leaving Bandel behind, they fly to Japan; but Japanese women also react negatively to the gray and white. In the Himalayas and in Ceylon, Krug visits another projects; later the couple travel to an experimental station by the Aral Sea. They also visit Babylon and Egypt. Despite his enthusiasm for colored glass, Krug turns down an offer to build large glass obelisks atop the Pyramids of Giza. In the "Kurian Murian Islands" off the eastern coat of Arabia, Krug meets the tycoon Li-Tung, who commissions him to design houses suspended in mid-air (so that they don''t scratch the majolica tiles with which the islands are paved). Li-Tung is passionate about color, and has Clara change into more varied silk outfits. Krug allows this. Their journey is not a parade of triumphs, however; in most places, Krug''s ideas are resisted, criticized, and rejected to greater or lesser degrees. At Malta, though, a glass architecture museum in established. The Krugs end the novel at their glass house in Switzerland. At Babylon, Krug gives up on his determination about Clara''s wardrobe, and agrees to strike the binding clause out of their marriage contract. By this time, though, Clara has become a convert to her husband''s ideas about glass architecture, and maintains the gray fashion by her own choice.

The Gray Cloth

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

Haruka Mizuhara, whose name was misspelled in the translation of the chapter title, is the player behind the wavemaster Hokuto. All the naiveness is a guise so she could find out more about the mysterious Divine Spear of Wotan. Hokuto is really a poor, 30 year-old translator who is interested in Celtic mythology. She lives in a two bedroom apartment, alone. She is depressed because Celtic mythology is first translated into English and then into Japanese. Haruka is haunted by her deadlines which scare her because of her procrastination. Her first avatar in The World, created when Haruka was one of the beta testers, is W.B. Yates, a Wavemaster of unknown level. Hokuto is Haruka''s second character that she uses to avoid work and escape from reality. Hokuto was only made to play freely in The World, so Haruka''s boss wouldn''t find out she was procrastinating. Haruka Muzuhara''s Situation is the first .hack//AI buster novel told from Haruka''s perspective. It also is used to explain the way that Haruka lives and her feelings for Albireo. This is the sequel to .hack//AI buster and takes place during the first four episodes of .hack//Sign. A few months after the Lycoris event, Albireo, Saki Shibiyama, and the Cobalt Knight Brigade are assigned a case to find and deal with Macha, a catlike NPC; and to monitor Tsukasa, a Wavemaster who is attacking players with a mysterious dumb-bell shaped monster. He meets up again with his partner from .hack//AI buster who he pumps for information: Hokuto, who he now knows is the mysterious web poet W.B. Yeats. During this case, Albireo has begun to suffer a mental breakdown since meeting Lycoris, questioning what he knows about the system and reality itself. He eventually tries to confront Tsukasa when his Guardian attacks four female players (episode 4 of .hack//Sign). The four PKK (Player Killer Killers) that were hunting Tsukasa are Long Arm, but were mistranslated as Heavy Axes in the novel. Their names are taken from the suits in a deck of playing cards and are Hearts, Spades, Diamonds, and Clubs. The names were given by Decipher in the .hack//Enemy trading card game. The subtitles shown while the language is set to Japanese from the English release of .hack//Sign has one of the girls'' name as Yossan. Macha stops and warns him to stay away from Tsukasa, but Albireo attacks Macha to get to Tsukasa. Macha calls on another creature and destroys Albireo''s Spear of Wotan before Data Draining him, causing his real self to get hospitalized. After the Twilight Incident, Watarai is forced to take blame for it, and retires from CC Corp much to the sorrow of Saki, who cannot understand why he left. At the end of the story, he meets with Hokuto''s real-life player after he recovers. He accepts the results of his breakdown as the road that led to Haruka and decides to begin a relationship with her; one that she is equally pleased to pursue. Four years after the Twilight Incident, Saki is the new head of the Cobalt Knights. She has to deal with a vagrant AI that one of her direct subordinates has interacted with. The AI, Lin, tries to defend himself using the philosophy that everything in The World has been granted a chance to live, AI and player character. In the end, Kamui deletes Lin and fires the knight that was playing with him. Rena is using her first avatar, Brigit, who has been fooled by a twin blade who failed to revive her, causing her friend to leave The World for good. Brigit then began to play solo until she is saved by a Wavemaster who talks about the rumors of the .hackers. The story then zooms to approximately the middle of Volume 1 of the .hack//Legend of the Twilight manga, when Rena is meeting with Ouka and Mirelle. Shugo logs on and they head for their new adventures. "Firefly" takes place prior to .hack//Legend of the Twilight and focuses on Hotaru''s character. It is the story of how she met the .hacker Sanjuro and how they became friends. With her parents out for the night, a young half-Irish, half-Japanese girl sets up a character on the Japanese server of The World. This character is Hotaru. She enters the game and becomes involved with a fairy NPC that won''t leave Hotaru alone until she gives a correct answer to her riddle. She cries for help and meets Sanjuro, who offers to help her on the event. This leads the pair to a new area where they encounter a group of Player Killers which Sanjuro dispatches easily. Hotaru, Sanjuro and two players they saved are treated to a magical firefly display where Hotaru solves her riddle and the fairy NPC flies off to join in the display. Sanjuro and Hotaru exchange member addresses before Sanjuro heads off, wishing that Hotaru''s future adventures will be "one of a kind". fr:.hack//AI buster 2

.hack//AI buster 2

The story revolves around the trials and tribulations of a young Polish priest, Stephan Kovalski, the hardships endured by a rickshaw puller, Hasari Pal (the sufferer) in Calcutta (Kolkata), India and the experiences of a young, American doctor, Max Lowe. Father Stephan joins a religious order whose vows put them in the most hellish places on earth. He chooses not only to serve the poorest of the poor in Calcutta but also to live with them, starve with them, and if God wills it, die with them. In the journey of Kovalski''s acceptance as the Big Brother for the slum dwellers, he encounters moments of everyday miracles in the midst of appalling poverty and ignorance. The slum dwellers are ignored and exploited by society and authorities of power are not without their own prejudices. This becomes evident by their attitude towards the lepers and the continuation of the caste system. The story also explores how a peasant farmer Hasari Pal arrives in Calcutta with his family after a drought wipes out the farming village where his family has lived for generations. The third main character is that of a rich American doctor who has just finished med school and wants to do something with purpose before opening up his practice catering to the wealthy. The book chronicles not only the separation of the wealthy from the poor but the separation of the different levels of poverty, caste divisions, and the differences of the many religions living side by side in the slums. It touches on Mother Teresa and her Sisters of Mercy as well. While the book has its ups and downs, both beautiful and horrific, an overall feeling of peace and well being is achieved by the story''s end. Despite facing hunger, deplorable living conditions, illness, bone breaking work (or no work at all) and death, the people still hold on to the belief that life is precious and worth living, so much so that they named their slum "Anand Nagar", which translated into English means "The City of Joy". The author has stated that the stories of the characters in the book are true and he uses many of the real names in his book. However, the book is considered fictional since many conversations and actions are assumed or created. The author and his wife traveled to India many times, sometimes staying with friends in "The city of Joy". Half of the royalties from the sale of the book goes towards the City of Joy Foundation that looks after slum children in Calcutta.

City of Joy

The narrator of the story is a British journalist in India–Kipling himself, in all but name. While on a tour of some Indian native states he meets two scruffy adventurers, Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carnehan. He rather likes them, but then stops them from blackmailing a minor rajah. A few months later they appear at his office in Lahore. They tell him their plan. They have been "Soldier, sailor, compositor [typesetter], photographer... [railroad] engine-drivers, petty contractors," and more, and have decided India is not big enough for them. The next day they will go off to Kafiristan to set themselves up as kings. Dravot can pass as a native, and they have twenty Martini-Henry rifles (then perhaps the best in the world). They plan to find a king or chief, help him defeat his enemies then take over for themselves. They ask the narrator for the use of any books or maps of the area–as a favor, because they are fellow Freemasons, and because he spoiled their blackmail scheme. Two years later, on a scorching hot summer night, Carnehan creeps into the narrator''s office. He is a broken man, a crippled beggar clad in rags and he tells an amazing story. Dravot and Carnehan succeeded in becoming kings: finding the Kafirs, who turn out to be white ("so hairy and white and fair it was just shaking hands with old friends"), mustering an army, taking over villages, and dreaming of building a unified nation. The Kafirs, who were pagans, not Muslims, acclaimed Dravot as a god (the son of Alexander the Great). The Kafirs practiced a form of Masonic ritual and the adventurers knew Masonic secrets that only the oldest priest remembered. Their schemes were dashed when Dravot decided to marry a Kafir girl. Terrified at marrying a god, the girl bit Dravot when he tried to kiss her. Seeing him bleed, the priests cried that he was "Neither God nor Devil but a man!" Most of the Kafirs turned against Dravot and Carnehan. One chief (whom they have nicknamed "Billy Fish") and a few of his men remained loyal, but the army defected and the two kings were captured. Dravot, wearing his crown, stood on a rope bridge over a gorge while the Kafirs cut the ropes and fell to his death. Carnehan was crucified between two pine trees. When he survived for a day, the Kafirs considered it a miracle and let him go. He begged his way back to India. As proof of his tale, Carnehan shows the narrator Dravot''s head, still wearing the golden crown. Carnehan leaves. The next day the narrator sees him crawling along the road in the noon sun, with his hat off and gone mad. The narrator sends him to the local asylum. When he inquires two days later, he learns that Carnehan has died of sunstroke ("half an hour bare-headed in the sun at mid-day..."). No belongings were found with him.

The Man Who Would Be King

In the twentieth century, from his castle in the northern part of Tuscany, Vittorio writes the tragic tale of his life. In 1450, Vittorio di Raniari is a sixteen-year old Italian nobleman, when his family is murdered by a powerful and ancient coven of vampires. The image of his siblings'' severed heads with eyes staring fixedly at him strikes him permanently. Vittorio, however, escapes such a dreadful ending because of a vampire''s intervention. After taking care of his family''s burial, Vittorio gathers what riches he can and prepares himself for adventure as he flees towards Florence, away from the perilous crowd of vampires, under the sun''s protecting wing. By nightfall, Vittorio arrives at the most strange of villages, for there are no beggars at the street, no elderly, no sick or dying. Yet his mournful spirit prevents him from taking notice of it. He soon realizes that someone is stalking him, and, worried enough, he seeks shelter at an inn. Ursula, the vampire who prevented the other members of her coven from killing Vittorio, lurks behind his room''s window. She continues to seduce him, all while draining blood from him, and giving him some of her own. Vittorio is led by Ursula to the coven''s lair, as she attempts to make him part of their gatherings. It is an ancient castle, where he discovers its many gardens filled with old people and sick children; he suddenly realizes that some of these people he had met at the village. Vittorio then witnesses an important feast that is carried on as a ritual by the leader of the vampires'' group. In it, some people who were selected from the gardens are sacrificed to satisfy their thirst for blood. After refusing the dark gift, the vampires do not kill him (thanks to Ursula), but rather leave him in a village. As he is walking, he sees two Angels arguing in a doorway, Ramiel and Setheus. The angels are just as surprised as he that Vittorio can see them (he later learns that they are the guiding angels of his idol, Fra Filippo Lippi). With their help, the help of his own angels, and a very powerful armor wearing angel, Mastema, Vittorio plots his revenge against the vampires, who are invading the lands and killing innocents (incidentally, Vittorio''s own guiding angels do not play much of a part; whilst they are often present, they are insubstantial and shadowy, and we do not know their names). The attack takes place in the day and involves decapitating the vampires as they sleep. The heads are then thrown into the sunlight where they wither and die. When it comes time to behead Ursula, Vittorio finds that he cannot do this even as the angels urge him on. Instead, he frees Ursula in the hopes of saving her soul. Within minutes, Vittorio is tricked into becoming a vampire and a yearning for blood conquers everything he knows. In the closing pages we find Ursula and Vittorio performing as an age old Bonnie and Clyde, killing and drinking until they had their fill. These two lovers stay with each other for many years to come. Vittorio is unique in two ways: he can see angels and departing human souls. At the end of the book, he is left with the "gift" to see human souls, which appear from every person as an intense shining light. Mastema tells him that he will never be able to rid himself of this, and that every time he takes a human life he will bear witness to the extinguishing of the soul. es:Vittorio el vampiro fr:Vittorio le vampire pl:Wampir Vittorio ro:Vampirul Vittorio

Vittorio the Vampire

The authors argue that human beings evolved in egalitarian hunter-gatherer bands in which sexual interaction was a shared resource, much like food, child care, group defense, and so on. In this, they agree to a degree with the work of Lewis H. Morgan who proposed in the 19th century that pre-agricultural humans lived in "primal hordes" in which property and paternity was communal. They think that much of evolutionary psychology has been conducted with a bias regarding human sexuality. The authors believe that the public and many researchers are guilty of the "Flintstonization" of hunter-gatherer society; that is to say projecting modern assumptions and beliefs onto earlier societies. Thus they think that there has been a bias to assuming that our species is primarily monogamous despite what they believe to be evidence to the contrary. They argue for example, that our sexual dimorphism, testicle size, female copulatory vocalization, appetite for sexual novelty, various cultural practices, and hidden female ovulation, among other factors strongly suggest a non-monogamous, non-polygynous history. The authors argue that mate selection was not the subject of much intragroup competition among pre-agricultural humans, as sex was neither scarce nor commodified; rather sperm competition was a more important paternity factor than sexual selection. This behaviour survives among certain existent hunter-forager groups that believe in partible paternity. The authors do not take an explicit position in the book regarding the morality of monogamy or alternative sexual behaviour in modern society, but argue that people should be made aware of our behavioral history.

Sex at Dawn

Before the play begins, two 11-year-old children, Ferdinand Reille and Bruno Vallon (Benjamin and Henry in the Broadway production), get involved in argument because Bruno refuses to let Ferdinand join his ''gang''. Ferdinand knocks out two of Bruno''s teeth with a stick. That night, the parents of both children meet to discuss the matter. Ferdinand''s father, Alain (Alan in the Broadway production), is a lawyer who is never off his mobile phone. Ferdinand''s mother, Annette is in "wealth management" (her husband''s wealth, to be precise), and consistently wears good shoes. Bruno''s father, Michel (Michael in the Broadway production), is a self-made wholesaler with an unwell mother. Michel''s wife, Véronique (Veronica in the Broadway production), is writing a book about Darfur. As the evening goes on, the meeting degenerates into the four getting into irrational arguments, and their discussion falls into the loaded topics of misogyny, racial prejudice and homophobia. One of the central dramatic moments of the play occurs when Annette vomits onstage, all over the coffee table and books.

God of Carnage

The novel recounts the story of a young British boy, Jaime Graham, who lives with his parents in Shanghai. After the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese occupy the Shanghai International Settlement, and in the following chaos Jim becomes separated from his parents. He spends some time in abandoned mansions, living on remnants of packaged food. Having exhausted the food supplies, he decides to try to surrender to the Japanese Army. After many attempts, he finally succeeds and is interned in the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center. Although the Japanese are "officially" the enemies, Jim identifies partly with them, both because he adores the pilots with their splendid machines and because he feels that Lunghua is still a comparatively safer place for him. Towards the end of the war, with the Japanese army collapsing, the food supply runs short. Jim barely survives, with people around him starving to death. The camp prisoners are forced upon a march to Nantao, with many dying along the route. Jim then leaves the march and is saved from starvation by air drops from American Bombers. Jim returns to Lunghua camp and finds Dr. Ransome there, soon returning to his pre-war residence with his parents.

Empire of the Sun

In 13th century England, Walter, the bastard of Gurnie, attends a lecture by Roger Bacon at medieval Oxford and is inspired to journey to the far-away semi-mythical land of Cathay. After participating in a student riot and a raid on a castle&nbsp;– both led by his friend Tristram&nbsp;– Walter decides to leave England in order to escape Norman justice, taking Tristram with him. Walter''s inheritance, obtained from his lord father''s death, gets them as far as Antioch, where they are compelled to enter the services of a powerful Greek merchant named Anthemius. Impressed by Walter''s cleverness and Tristram''s physicality, he finds a place for them on a gift-bearing caravan heading east to the court of Kublai Khan. On the way, one of the beautiful women&nbsp;– the sister of Anthemius, Maryam (the Black Rose) - being sent as a gift to the great Khan escapes custody. She finds her way to the two Englishmen, who decide to shelter her on condition she pretend to be a servant boy and quietly leave when near the next large city. The caravan soon meets up with its chief escort: Bayan of the Hundred Eyes and his Mongol horde. Having fallen in love with Walter, Maryam stays with the duo; all three risking the deadly consequences that would follow their being caught by the Mongol general. The journey east sees Walter curry the favor of Bayan through being a competent chess-player and Tristram demonstrate the power of the English longbow in front of an astonished horde. Unfortunately, a spiteful Mongolian learns of their secret, and Walter decides they all need to leave the army. While the rest flee south into China, Walter attempts a desperate measure to lead the army off course. Although initially successful, he is caught in the act. He is honest to Bayan&nbsp;– who considers him a friend - but punished. He spends weeks recovering from the ordeal, and comes out with little hope of ever seeing his friend and lover again. He returns to Bayan only to be given the task of convincing the Chinese to surrender, for the Mongol horde has reached their borders. Once in the Chinese capital, he desperately searches for his companions while encouraging Chinese nobility to pursue peace. Although he succeeds in the first&nbsp;– marrying Maryam in the process&nbsp;– the Empress refuses to surrender due to an old proverb, and thereby holding them indefinitely. Caged in the most luxurious of palaces, the young couple live in happiness while the threat of war approaches. Eventually, they are able to procure escape, but Maryam is mistakenly left behind. Fearing her dead, the two friends find their way back to England. Two years of ship-hopping see them arrive home, rich with presents from the Empress and knowledge of the wondrous inventions they encountered: paper-manufacturing, gunpowder, the telescope, and the compass. Walter returns to Gurnie to find his lord grandfather prosperous in his business pursuits. Proud of his grandson, the old man names him heir to Gurnie. Now a nobleman, Walter finds his fame gaining him audience with the young King Edward I and his Queen, Eleanor of Castile. He tells them of the truths of Roger Bacon and the adventures to Cathay. Meanwhile, the determined Maryam&nbsp;– now with a baby Walter&nbsp;– finds it incredibly difficult to travel with the knowledge of only two English words. Around India to Aden, Alexandria, Venice, and Marseilles, she finally reaches London to be reunited with her husband&nbsp;– the very joyous and surprised Walter.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Sphereland

By Dionys Burger

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse

By Charlie Mackesy

The Gray Cloth

No Author Listed

Po-on

By F. Sionil José

.hack//AI buster 2

No Author Listed

City of Joy

By Dominique Lapierre

The Man Who Would Be King

By Rudyard Kipling

Vittorio the Vampire

By Anne Rice

Sex at Dawn

No Author Listed

God of Carnage

By Yasmina Reza

Empire of the Sun

By J. G. Ballard

The Black Rose

By Thomas B. Costain