Three kids by the name of Carlie, Harvey, and Thomas J.(For Jefferson) go to live at a foster home with Mr. and Mrs. Mason, an infertile couple. The Masons have been foster parents for 17 kids already. Carlie thinks it''s a stupid place and is quite skeptical. But she has to stay there until her mother and her stepfather work out their problems. Two other children arrive: Harvey, who has broken legs and Thomas J., who has grown up with two very old twin sisters who found him in front of the farmhouse when he was very young. The twins are now both in the hospital. Thomas J. isn''t unhappy, but has to learn how to express himself. He gets help from Mr Mason. Harvey is very unhappy and needs the others badly, although he has trouble admitting that. Eventually he confesses his father ran over his legs with his car (at first he told everyone he was a quarterback and got tackled too hard). He argues with his dad about his mother, who lives in a commune. His father denies that she ever wrote Harvey back. Harvey has a habit of making lists of the things that bother him. Carlie at first feels neglected. She thinks about running away, but slowly changes her mind. Carlie takes the decision to take her fate in her own hands, and stop being a defenseless pinball. When Harvey is in the hospital, Carlie and Thomas J. give him a puppy for his birthday, which gets him through the pain. Carlie comes up with a name for the puppy: Quarterback. Carlie sees they are not pin balls, because pin balls can''t control where they are going, the children can. All three children start to take control of their lives. Although Carlie still throws out a few insults, the children are now much better friends.

The Pinballs

As part of his irrational reaction to the end of his marriage, Thomas Chippering returns to his (fictitious) home town, Owago, Minnesota. Emotionally spent, he trespasses on the backyard of the house where he grew up. The current resident, Mrs. Robert (Donna) Kooshof, finds him but is surprisingly attracted to him. Donna rashly agrees to participate in Tom''s madcap scheme of revenge against his ex-wife (Lorna Sue), her brother (Herbie), and her new husband (known to the reader only as "the tycoon"). Tom, Lorna Sue and Herbie have been close friends &mdash; or at least companions &mdash; since childhood. The proximate cause of Lorna Sue leaving Tom was that Herbie revealed to her that Tom has been keeping a lifelong record of his infatuations and dalliances. While planning his revenge, Tom also maintains his position as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota. As in years past, Tom eagerly assists his female students with their writing projects, but at this point, one of these students decides to accuse Tom of sexual harassment. Tom loses his job and returns to Owago to live with Donna. Tom finds a job as an instructor at the Owago Community Day Care Center and starts teaching Shakespeare to four-year-olds. Tom''s revenge involves trying to break up Lorna Sue''s new marriage by innuendo. When this goes awry, Tom plans to burn down the Zylstra''s house in Owago. Tom gathers mason jars, gasoline and firecrackers to this end. But the resolution to the plot occurs when Lorna Sue steals Tom''s bombs and tries to set the local church on fire. Thus, Tom is able to get over his dependence on Lorna Sue. At the end, Tom and Donna move to a Caribbean island and live comfortably together. Tom''s flirtatious nature, while not reformed, is kept in check. There''s another mysterious layer in the book. Occasionally the narrator addresses the reader directly, referring to a broken relationship that supposedly unhinges "you" (the reader) because "your" husband ran off to Fiji with a redhead. No explanation about this subplot is forthcoming.

Tomcat in Love

Icefire is an action/science fiction novel about an unknown group using the Ross Ice Shelf to create a soliton wave&mdash;much more powerful and destructive than tsunamis caused by seismic displacement&mdash;directed into the Pacific Ocean. Roughly the size of France, the Ross Ice Shelf is first broken free of its shoreline anchor points by tactical nuclear weapons detonated around its periphery. A larger nuclear device is then airburst above the Shelf, slamming the entire mass of loose ice into the Ross Sea beneath it and generating the monster wave. The EMP from the airburst warhead disables most electronics within its line of sight, blinding the worlds'' satellites and silencing radio communication from the area. The main protagonists, Mitch Webber and Cory Rey, must escape the communication dead zone in time to tell the world what happened, warn everyone of the deadly wave racing towards it, discover who set it in motion, and find a way to catch the villains and stop the wave&mdash;if they can. The destruction caused by the bombs and peoples'' understandable skepticism are working against them as, with every passing second, the wave gets closer to major cities and their unsuspecting populations.

Icefire

Tom Llewyllyn and Somerset Lloyd-James (the latter by mistake) have been engaged to write the script of a movie version of The Odyssey, to be shot on Corfu. After some wrangling they ask Fielding Gray to help, since he is a man with knowledge of Greek and the classics in general. The shooting has many comic turns since the movie team wants to do a sexy story while the foundation supplying the money demands something more radical that will substantially alter the story. Left-wing actress Sasha Grimes, who is to be the foundation''s "watcher" during the shoot, suggests, for example, that Odysseus give away his land to the poor. Gray works hard to keep the original story and even starts a sexual relationship with Grimes to be able to control her better. Max de Freville and his friend Lyki are also engaged in the movie and make visits during the shooting. They also bring Angela Tuck, suffering from terrible obesity in later years. When Angela, in a deal with Fielding, watches him having sex with Sasha, she has a heart attack and dies. Fielding, thinking about old age, is trying to blackmail producer Foxy Galahead for £50,000 to continue to keep Sasha Grimes under control. Galahead, Max, Lyki and director Jules frame Fielding and he is arrested by Earle Restarick during a trip to Zurich. Restarick and his thugs keeps Fielding prisoner in Athens and since the film team told them another story Restarick believes that Gray once again is digging in the things told in The Judas Boy. Restarick threatens to turn Fielding into a junkie to make him confess. Galahead throws a Christmas party for a number of guests, among them Lord Canteloupe, Somerset Lloyd-James and Captain Detterling. When Galahead brags to actress Elena about how he framed Fielding, she tells the three Englishmen at the party, and they decide to rescue Fielding. Canteloupe, infuriated by the thought that an Englishman be kept prisoner in a country of no importance (like Greece), bursts into the villa where Fielding is (officially) being nursed after a "mental breakdown" and takes him home to England. When Fielding arrives home Harriet is not there. At peace, he begins on a number of new commissions given him by Gregory Stern. sv:Come Like Shadows

Come Like Shadows

Christopher Prescott, a mathematics graduate student at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John''s, has just been asked by his girlfriend to move out. In a deliberate attempt to "get on with his life", he goes bar hopping. There, he sees a beautiful red-headed woman drop what appears to be a credit-card or driver''s license (in fact, a powerful magical artifact known as a fios stone). He goes to fetch it, hoping to use it as a way to introduce himself, but the woman has walked out. Christopher follows, only to see her walk through a wall in the alley behind the bar. This is Christopher''s introduction to The Ways and the world of the Five Clans. The Ways allow those who can perceive them to travel through the memories of the City. His act of kindness plunges Christopher into this world, where arcane deeds and strange creatures are still to be found. He encounters Emma Rowlin, a woman who crossed over from his own world some time ago. Familiar with both frames of reference, she offers to help him find the mysterious red-headed woman. She takes him to the Wandering Parliament, a meeting of the people of the Five Clans: the People of the Cat, the People of the Caribou, the People of the Great Auk, the People of the Codfish, and the People of the Serpent. The Parliament is disrupted by the murder of the Cabinet of one of the Clans, and Christopher finds himself in the middle of apocalyptic changes that threaten to destroy both this world and his own. They also encounter Donovan Chase, a mysterious diminutive Englishman who is trying the find the red-headed woman for his own reasons, and who knows far more than he is willing to share. They soon discover that the murder at the Wandering Parliament is part of a campaign by a new Sixth Clan to take over the Ways. They must stop them, if they are to protect both of the worlds from this new threat. Chase leads Christopher and Emma to the Forgotten Cemetery, where they can ask one of the murdered Cabinet members about the attack. They discover that the purpose of the attack was to steal the Clan''s eochair. The eochair are the Keys that control the Ways, and each of the Five Clans controls one. On the way back, the three are separated. Christopher is found by talking cats; in fact, high-ranking members of the People of the Cat. Following prophecy, the Cat''s leader imbues him with their eochair. Christopher is destined to be the harbinger of a great change, but whether the change will be for good or for ill nobody knows. Later, reunited with Chase, Christopher finally finds the red-headed woman: Aislinn, a member of the People of the Serpent. The fios stone contains her Clan''s eochair. Aislinn was performing a dead drop that was disrupted by Christopher''s interference. She has also captured Emma and uses her as a hostage to ensure her escape. Aislinn delivers her Clan''s eochair to the Sixth Clan, a gestalt swarm of insects who have already obtained three other eochair. Aislinn receives a reward for her treachery to her own Clan and leaves Emma to the Sixth Clan. Chase and Christopher confront the swarm; to prevent the fifth and final eochair to fall into their hands, Christopher asks Emma to stab and kill him, which she does. This places the eochair beyond the reach of the swarm; thwarted, the enraged swarm loses their cohesion and release the energy of the other eochair, which in turn effectively destroys their ability to recreate the gestalt. Though Christopher dies, he is brought back from the brink by the dissipating energy of the eochair he carried. He is taken back to the cats, who succeed against all odds in healing him. The dissipation of the eochair preserved the Ways, and may even help restore the declining world of the Five Clans. Christopher and Emma are not yet in love, but they are certainly fond of each other and willing to explore the possibilities. And Donovan Chase still has his original task to complete: he finds Aislinn, hiding in the Russian Arctic.

The Dying Days

“Cat, 17, is driven to succeed, especially in her science research class where her goal is to beat her long-time nemesis, Matt McKinney, at the science fair. Her idea of using herself as a test subject for an in-depth study of early hominids and their lifestyle leads to some interesting shifts in perspective, not only in how others see her, but in how she sees herself. As her project continues, her weight drops, her confidence increases, and Cat becomes “hot,” garnering male attention and a boyfriend for the first time. But she still can’t stop thinking about Matt. Cat is a believable, flawed character. Her odyssey from fat to hot and the slowly unfolding tale about why she and Matt, best friends since childhood, haven’t spoken since the seventh grade science fair, speaks volumes about her values and her self-esteem. Kirsten Potter’s top-notch narration of Robin Brande’s novel (Knopf, 2009) has a distinctive flair, and she gives each character a unique voice. A conversation with the author and activist/cooking instructor Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, including a discussion about vegetarianism and teens, rounds out the recording. A great selection for both public and school libraries.â€”Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI, School Library Journal Can an American teen survive 207 days without junk food and modern conveniences? Budding scientist Catherine (Cat) Locke finds out the answer after embarking on her most ambitious experiment yet: living the lifestyle of a primitive Homo erectus. Cat is determined to win a prize at the science fair and outshine her rival and former friend, Matt, â€œMr. I’ve-Won-More Science-Fairs-Than-Any-of-You,â€ but that’s not her only motivation: she hopes that by following the diet of her ancestors, she’ll shed some unwanted pounds. Going without processed food, technology and motorized transportation isn’t easy (â€œA big fat Snickers and a slice of pizza would have made everything so much betterâ€), but Cat learns much about herself and other members of the human species as she observes changes in her body and attitude, while noting how others react to her metamorphosis (namely, she’s suddenly juggling the attention of several boys).

Fat Cat

Russell and Holmes return to their home in Sussex, England, in 1924 after seven months abroad in India, Japan and California. The novel features a domestic mystery as a hive on Holmes’s farm has been repeatedly swarming and a colony of bees is found to have disappeared. Action shifts, however, with the reappearance of Damian Adler, a talented young painter and emotionally disturbed veteran of World War I, first introduced in the second book in the series. Adler is Holmes'' estranged son, born to Irene Adler in about 1895. The distraught Adler seeks the couple''s help in locating his missing wife Yolanda and their daughter Estelle. Russell and Holmes separate during the investigation and Russell searches out Damian''s questionable past. The search involves the British practitioners of a religious cult called The Children of Lights with roots in Shanghai, China, and features locations ranging from Bohemian London to the wilds of Scotland. Russell experiences a harrowing trip by aeroplane. A series of bodies appears, some dead by suicide and others ritually sacrificed. While the climax of the novel, in an ancient circle of standing stones on Orkney Island, brings some plot resolution, the story continues in The God of the Hive (2010).

The Language of Bees

In the opening scene, Sparrow cannot recall what took place in the preceding 36 hours. Awakening yet again in a novel place with new hurts, the urge to fix the problem is intense. On the way to enlightenment comes a cryptic Tarot reading from friend Sherrea, abduction by a dead man animated by what might as well be a Loa, and introduction to a Vodun-based community that is dedicated to replacement, and if necessary to overthrow, of the status quo in the city. The latter has the individual most responsible for the inter-continental war near its power apex, a character who is also the revenge target of another survivor from his kind. Those are the "Horsemen," modified people who can move their consciousness from body to body, much like the central figure in Mind of my Mind by Octavia Butler. The second half of the story shows Sparrow''s awkward progress toward a fully human condition and becoming a valued member of a community, and is capped by a closing conceit: that the whole telling has been an autobiography.

Bone Dance

The story is told from the point of view of an anonymous young Irish Catholic boy. This novel-in-stories is about both the boy''s coming of age and the "Troubles" of Northern Ireland from the partition of the island in the early 1920s through the post "Bloody Sunday" violence of the early-mid 1970s. Reading in the Dark was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize. The setting mirrors mid-twentieth century Derry leading into the Troubles. Although the setting surrounds the narrator with violence, chaos, and sectarian division, Derry serves as a place for the narrator to grow, both physically and mentally. Despite the external surroundings, the narrator''s tone never slips into complete despair, but maintains a sense of hope and humour throughout. The main focus of the novel is the narrator’s discovery of his family’s "secret" past and the effect that this discovery has on himself and his family. The book is constructed of dated short stories that are assembled into larger chapters, these chapters are then further divided into smaller "episodes" with titles such as: "Feet"; “Father”; “Mother”; and “Crazy Joe”. This structure provides the reader with brief glimpses of different aspects of the narrator’s life. These short stories share a common theme by involving the narrator''s family’s past guilt and shame.A strong emphasis is put on how the division of Catholics and Protestants affected family life in Derry. Family secrets, community, the environment, faery stories, and economic despair are all central themes of the novel and are all contributing factors to how the narrator views the world around. Seamus Deane has often been asked why "Reading in the Dark" was not called a "memoir" instead of a "novel" because of Deane''s almost identical upbringing to the main protagonist. He usually does not give a straight answer which raises questions about how much of the book might be Deane''s life and how much is fiction.

Reading in the Dark

Thirty-seven-year-old Hispanic woman Consuelo (Connie) Ramos, recently released from forced detention in a mental institution, begins to communicate with a figure that may or may not be imaginary: an androgynous young woman named Luciente. She realizes that Luciente is from a future, utopian world in which a number of goals of the political and social agenda of the late sixties and early seventies radical movements have been fulfilled. Environmental pollution, homophobia, racism, phallogocentrism, class-subordination, consumerism, imperialism, and totalitarianism no longer exist in the agrarian, communal community of Mattapoisett. The death penalty, however, continues to exist ("We don''t think it''s right to kill (...). Only convenient."), as does war. She is once more placed in a mental hospital after hitting her niece''s pimp and her time with Luciente is one of the few solaces from her powerlessness. Connie learns that she is living at an important time in history, and she herself is in a pivotal position; her actions and decisions will determine the course of history. Luciente''s utopia is only one possible future; a dystopian alternate future is a possibility&mdash; one in which a wealthy elite live on space platforms and subdue the majority of the population with psychotropic drugs and surgical control of moods, also harvesting these earth-bound humans'' organs. Women are valued solely for their appearance and sexuality, and plastic surgery that gives women grotesquely exaggerated sexual features is commonplace. The novel gives little indication as to whether or not Connie''s visions are by-products of a mental disease or are meant to be taken literally, but ultimately, Connie''s confrontation with the future inspires her to a violent action that will presumably prevent the dissemination of the mind-control technology that makes the future dystopia possible, since it puts an end to the mind-control experiments and prevents the lobotomy-like operation that had been planned for her. Though her actions do not ensure the existence of the Mattapoisett future, Connie nevertheless sees her act as a victory: "I''m a dead woman now too. (...) But I did fight them. (...) I tried."

Woman on the Edge of Time

William Legrand becomes obsessed with searching for treasure after being bitten by a scarab-like bug thought to be made of pure gold. He notifies his closest friend, the narrator, telling him to immediately come visit him at his home on Sullivan''s Island in South Carolina. Upon the narrator''s arrival, Legrand informs him that they are embarking upon a search for lost treasure along with his African-American servant Jupiter. The narrator has intense doubt and questions whether Legrand, who has recently lost his fortune, has gone insane. Legrand captured the bug but let someone else borrow it; he draws a picture of the bug instead. The narrator says that the image looks like a skull. Legrand is insulted and inspects his own drawing before stuffing it into a drawer which he locks, to the narrator''s confusion. Uncomfortable, the narrator leaves Legrand and returns home to Charleston. A month later, Jupiter visits the narrator and asks him to return to Sullivan''s Island on behalf of his master. Legrand, he says, has been acting strangely. When he arrives, Legrand tells the narrator they must go on an expedition along with the gold-bug tied to a string. Deep in the island''s wilderness, they find a tree, which Legrand orders Jupiter to climb with the gold-bug in tow. There, he finds a skull and Legrand tells him to drop the bug through one of the eye sockets. From where it falls, he determines the spot where they dig. They find treasure buried by the infamous pirate "Captain Kidd", estimated by the narrator to be worth a million and a half dollars. Once the treasure is safely secured, the man goes into an elaborate explanation of how he knew about the treasure''s location, based on a set of occurrences that happened after the gold bug''s discovery. The story involves cryptography with a detailed description of a method for solving a simple substitution cipher using letter frequencies. The cryptogram is: 53‡‡†305))6*;4826)4‡.)4‡);806*;48†8 ¶60))85;1‡(;:‡*8†83(88)5*†;46(;88*96 *?;8)*‡(;485);5*†2:*‡(;4956*2(5*—4)8 ¶8*;4069285);)6†8)4‡‡;1(‡9;48081;8:8‡ 1;48†85;4)485†528806*81(‡9;48;(88;4 (‡?34;48)4‡;161;:188;‡?; The decoded message is: (The actual decoded message omits spaces and capitalization)

The Gold-Bug

The beginning of the book establishes the framework in which a 17th century gentleman, mourning the death of his beloved, Lady Mirdath, is given a vision of a far-distant future where their souls will be re-united, and sees the world of that time through the eyes of a future incarnation. The language and style used are intended to resemble that of the 17th century, though the prose has features characteristic of no period whatsoever: the almost-complete lack of dialogue and proper names, for example. Once into the book, the 17th century framing is mostly inconsequential. Instead, the story focuses on the future. The Sun has gone out and the Earth is lit only by the glow of residual vulcanism. The last few millions of the human race are gathered together in a gigantic metal pyramid, the Last Redoubt, under siege from unknown forces and Powers outside in the dark. These are held back by a Circle of energy, known as the "air clog," powered from a subterranean energy source called the "Earth Current". For millennia, vast living shapes—the Watchers—have waited in the darkness near the pyramid. It is thought they are waiting for the inevitable time when the Circle''s power finally weakens and dies. Other living things have been seen in the darkness beyond, some of unknown origins, and others that may once have been human. To leave the protection of the Circle means almost certain death, or worse an ultimate destruction of the soul. As the story commences, the narrator establishes mind contact with an inhabitant of another, forgotten Lesser Redoubt. First one expedition sets off to succour the inhabitants of the Lesser Redoubt, whose own Earth Current has been exhausted, only to meet with disaster. After that the narrator sets off alone into the darkness to find the girl he has made contact with, knowing now that she is the reincarnation of his past love. At the conclusion of the adventure, the narrative does not return to the framework story, instead ending with the happy homecoming of the couple and his inauguration into the ranks of their most honored heroes. The term "Abhuman" was used by Hodgson in The Night Land to name (apparently) several different species of intelligent beings evolved from humans who interbred with alien species or adapted to changed environmental conditions and were seen as decayed or malign by those living inside the Last Redoubt, who preserved artificially (to an unspecified extent) their human characteristics, though they were not fit for the new environmental conditions.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Pinballs

No Author Listed

Tomcat in Love

By Tim O''Brien

Icefire

No Author Listed

Come Like Shadows

No Author Listed

The Dying Days

No Author Listed

Fat Cat

No Author Listed

The Language of Bees

By Laurie R. King

Bone Dance

By Emma Bull

Reading in the Dark

By Seamus Deane

Woman on the Edge of Time

By Marge Piercy

The Gold-Bug

By Edgar Allan Poe

The Night Land

By William Hope Hodgson