The book''s point of divergence is the assumption that it is the Arab air forces which on June 5, 1967 launch a surprise attack and destroy the Israeli Air Force, rather than the other way around as it happened in actual history. Afterwards the Arab armies launch a lighting ground attack and - in an exact mirror image of the actual Six Day War - conquer the entire territory of Israel by June 10, 1967. The US, embroiled in the Vietnam War, takes no action to save Israel, nor does any other country (except for a valiant but futile sending of some planes from the Netherlands). The book is written in a semi-documentary way, with multiple and constantly shifting points of view characters, detailed maps and numerous fictional quotations from the international media. The three writers had the openly proclaimed aim of helping Israel''s case in international public opinion, and justifying its act in having been in actual history the one to attack first. This aim is evident in the book''s numerous depictions of atrocities committed by the victorious Arab armies, including detailed depictions of the mass rape of Israeli women, the public execution of Moshe Dayan by the Egyptian occupiers of Tel Aviv and the appointment of Nazi war criminals to run the Arab occupiers'' secret police. As depicted in the book, the Palestinians get no benefit from the Arab victory and are as a far away as ever from having a state of their own, with Israeli territory being partitioned between Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Nor are the Palestinian refugees allowed to return to their pre-1948 homes despite these being under Arab rule. The book ends in a relatively upbeat tone, with Yigal Alon - who had commanded the Palmach militia under British Mandate rule - holding a clandestine meeting in Syrian-occupied Tiberias, laying plans for an extensive guerrilla campaign. There is thus the implication that Israel might eventually regain independence, though it would be after a long and harsh struggle.

If Israel Lost the War

In a tense, hypothetical 1990s apartheid South Africa, the ruling National Party and its new state president prepare to end decades of racial injustice and conflict by entering into negotiations with African National Congress officials for sweeping democratic reforms. However, beneath the surface progress has been slow, with the Soviet Union and its rivals in the West attempting to play both sides and internal pressure mounting. The ANC refuses to properly disarm and cease planning terrorist operations, while for their part even white moderates refuse to permit a total system of "one man, one vote". To complicate matters, South African commandos conducting a clandestine raid into Zimbabwe uncover a conspiracy by ANC guerrilla fighters to assassinate the reformist government. After learning of the plot, Afrikaner Resistance Movement fanatic and Minister for Internal Security Karl Vorster seeks to manipulate the situation for his personal gain, allowing the plan to proceed despite advance knowledge of its details. Hardline elements of the regime, led by its staunchest supporters of apartheid, intend to let the ANC terrorists murder their political opponents, leaving the field clear for them to seize power. With most of South Africa''s moderate cabinet dead, Vorster becomes president and declares martial law. The security forces begin brutal crackdowns on anti-apartheid organizations, and those suspected of having ties to ANC affiliates are executed or moved to isolated internment camps. Suppression, torture, and state-sponsored killings became commonplace, while the South African Defence Force is ordered to invade newly independent South West Africa (Namibia) to re-establish apartheid in that territory. Cuban military personnel, however, push south from neighbouring Angola in support of their Namibian allies, halting Vorster’s invasion short of Windhoek. As the South African blitz stalls, conditions at home begin to worsen. Armed police indiscriminately massacre hundreds of white students protesting conscription at the University of the Witwatersrand, while a minority of Afrikaners, disgusted at Vorster’s abuses in power, launch secessionist movements in the Transvaal and Orange Free State. The regime is also confronted with full-fledged tribal revolts after a Zulu chieftain is denaturalised for condemning apartheid. Attempts to suppress dissension with brute force only leads to greater unrest, such as a violent uprising by Durban’s Indian population. Hoping to take direct advantage of South Africa’s internal chaos, the Cuban leadership, aided by direct military assistance from friendly African states such as Libya and Mozambique, launches an invasion of the country with logistical backing from Moscow. While Cuban tank divisions rapidly close on Pretoria, brushing aside the feeble resistance offered by reservists and local Afrikaner militias, Karl Vorster orders the deployment of nuclear weapons in a desperate attempt to save the city. His air force subsequently uses one such projectile to strafe an armoured column, eliminating three thousand Cuban and Libyan soldiers. The ensuing radiation storm goes on to contaminate much of the Transvaal, affecting combatant and civilian alike. Cuba retaliates by using chemical weapons against SADF positions, although the hundreds of innocents also killed in these indiscriminate barrages prompts the ANC to desert their communist allies. Havana goes on to authorize the use of live civilians as human shields, intending to reduce the threat posed by South Africa’s nuclear arsenal. Meanwhile, anti-Vorster factions seize Cape Town, dealing a mortal blow to their nation’s economic structure. When the skyrocketing price of precious metals begins to dampen the world economy, the U.S. and Great Britain authorize direct military intervention in South Africa. Despite suffering heavy casualties, a joint American and British task force, backed by both overwhelming air and naval support, make headway and overrun the apartheid government''s stockpile of nuclear weapons. With this threat removed, the race for Pretoria is narrowly concluded after rebel-backed Rangers capture the unhinged strongman and his supporters. American air strikes demoralize the battered Cuban Army and force their withdrawal; in exasperation a humiliated Soviet leadership vows never to waste another ruble on the continent. During the following months the fall of Vorster’s illegal government is completed, although ANC units and Afrikaner secessionists remain at large, hostile towards their homeland''s new masters. Apartheid is formally abolished and a conglomerate of various political parties brought to the table for establishing a new, multiracial, South Africa.

Vortex

This novel begins in 1931, a few years after the conclusion of The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan,. At the close of that novel, an intoxicated Studs had been beaten up by old rival Weary Reilly, and left on a snow-covered sidewalk overnight. Studs contracted pneumonia that night and has been in ill-health ever since. Several of Studs'' old friends have already died, due to venereal diseases or excessive drinking, and Weary Reilly himself is in prison for rape. Studs is beginning to sense his own weakness and his own mortality, and continually makes vain promises to change his ways. Studs'' young brother Martin, now known as "Husk," is very much like Studs himself was a decade earlier. He''s a drinker and brawler who openly disrespects Studs, and even inflicts a severe beating on his older brother. Studs begins dating a sweet, innocent Catholic woman named Catherine Banahan. He seems to love her and even asks her to marry him, but remains obsessed by sexual thoughts, and looks constantly for chances to cheat on her. Studs is incapable of being true to her, but feels strong guilt about his lust and infidelity. The Great Depression is wreaking havoc on Chicago. Studs'' father''s painting business is failing and the family home may soon be repossessed by the bank. Studs'' father hopes that Studs can provide the family with some financial support, not knowing that Studs has foolishly lost most of his savings after investing in a worthless stock, in yet another vain attempt at getting rich and becoming a big shot. Studs gets Catherine pregnant, and must desperately seek a job. After job hunting all over the city on a rainy day, Studs contracts pneumonia again, and dies after falling into a feverish coma.

Judgment Day

Kaaterskill Falls spans two years (summer 1976- summer 1978) in the life of a small community in upstate New York. Most of the characters are summer residents, Orthodox Jews whose lives center around the local Orthodox synagogue. Others are year-round residents, both Christians and secular Jews, whose local roots run deep and who coexist in uneasy symbiosis with the summer people. Elizabeth Shulman, a thirtysomething wife and mother of five daughters, is growing restless with her prescribed role as a woman within the strict Kirshner sect. She conceives the dream of opening a kosher grocery to serve the summer residents of Kaaterskill. Her store is a smashing success, but Elizabeth''s perceived laxity in adhering to its rabbinic certification earns the distrust of the Isaiah and Rachel Kirshner. Meanwhile, Elizabeth learns that she is pregnant for the sixth time. Elizabeth experiences a closing in of boundaries as Rabbi Isaiah Kirshner withdraws his permission for her grocery store and a new baby binds her once again to home. Ultimately, she takes a job as an assistant at a grocery store in Washington Heights (where the Shulmans live for most of the year) in order to learn the business. Another plot line revolves around strife within the Melish family. Middle-aged Andras Melish struggles with a sense of distance from his young, lively, somewhat dictatorial wife, Nina. He forges an unlikely clandestine friendship with the reclusive Una Darmstadt-Cooper. Meanwhile, teenage Renee Melish rebels against her mother''s expectations for her and forms an unsuitable friendship with a gutsy Syrian girl, Stephanie Fawess. Renee also attracts the attention of a local boy, Ira Rubin. Still another plot line concerns the Kirshner rabbinic succession. The elderly, widowed Rav Kirshner is afflicted with Parkinson''s Disease but remains reluctant to hand the reins of power over to his faithful but plodding son Isaiah. Isaiah''s ambitious wife, Rachel, resents this, just as she resents her father-in-law''s deep affection for his brilliant elder son Jeremy, who left the Kirshner sect to become a college professor. Rav Kirshner dies mid-way through the novel and Rabbi Isaiah launches a vigorous crackdown on perceived laxities within the sect.

Kaaterskill Falls

The story is written in the form of a "diary" in broken English kept by an apparently misshapen child, eight years old, who is kept chained in the basement by its parents, and frequently beaten. It is, however, able to pull its chain out of the wall and observe the outside world through the basement window. On one occasion it sneaks upstairs, although it has difficulty because its body drips green fluid that causes its feet to stick to the stairs. It eavesdrops on a dinner party, but is discovered by the parents, returned to the basement, and beaten. On another occasion it climbs to a small window and observes its young "normal" sister, (who does not know of the child''s existence) playing with other girls and boys. One of the boys spots the child, and it is again beaten. In a final incident, its sister comes into the basement with her cat, investigating the boy''s sighting of the child. The child hides from them in the coal pile, but is forced to crush the cat to death when it smells the child and attacks. The story ends with the child hitting a stick out of its father''s hands and promising violence against its parents if they beat it further. It thinks about running along walls, and it is revealed it has more than one pair of legs, showing that it is extraordinarily different from a normal child. Born of Man and Woman was among the stories selected in 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the best science fiction short stories published before the creation of the Nebula Awards. As such, it was published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964.

Born of Man and Woman

In the prologue, Watarai leads his team of Cobalt Knights to an area inaccessible to normal players. They attempt to delete a vagrant AI in the form of a little girl in a red dress, but their attempt fails and she escapes. In the first chapter, we are introduced to Albireo. He cheats his way into the lowest level of the dungeon and meets the Vagrant AI. Through text chat, she reveals her name to be Lycoris. The end-of-dungeon treasure was an item named "eciov.cyl", which Albiero traded to Lycoris by her request. In the game, she gains her voice. Lycoris teleports them without warning to his home, where there was currently a massive monster attack. A newbie player, Hokuto, appeals to Albireo to help her. He is forced to help her and finish the event involuntarily, gaining an item "rae.cyl". This is also traded to Lycoris. Hokuto manages to blackmail him into letting her into his empty friend''s list, and then into forming a party of the two of them. Due to this, Hokuto was able to see Lycoris. Albireo was also approached by Orca and Balmung to ask for assistance in resolving the "One Sin", an event considered unbeatable. He declined however. He was unable to log out from The World, but was able to continue with his normal life (unlike infected characters later in the .hack series, who fell into comas). Upon returning, he headed to the "One Sin" location. Hokuto met him there, and they witnessed Orca and Balmung defeat the boss character there. Upon its defeat, an angel appeared, trailing feathers. Lycoris requested that Albireo find a red feather, which turned out to be "eye.cyl". This restored Lycoris'' sight. Lycoris brought them to another zone. She entered a phantom spring, and Albireo gained "yromem.cyl". Returning to the area in the prologue, Albireo gives Lycoris the item. She regains her memory and realizes that Albireo is none other than Watarai, the Cobalt Knight who had first tried to delete her. Watarai had attempted to complete the event in order to delete the previously fragmented Lycoris. She informs him of the existence of Morganna Mode Gone and the fact that she was a failed prototype of Aura, and reveals the last fragment of herself, hidden in Albireo''s spear: "etaf.cyl". She then chose to delete herself, impaling herself onto Albireo''s spear.

.hack//AI buster

The novel explores the life and love story of the female protagonist named Ninay, a heartbroken young woman who died of cholera. Her heartbreak was due to her separation from her lover Carlos Mabagsic. Ninay''s misfortune became harder to bear because of the loss of her parents. A pasiam, the novena for the dead, was being said and offered for the lifeless Ninay. Framed with this melancholic atmosphere of nine-day prayer for the departed, the novel opens up a succession of narratives that present "variations of unrequited love". The first condemned relationship was between Ninay and her lover Carlos Mabagsic. When Ninay was still alive, Mabagsic was falsely accused of being the leader of a rebellion. Mabagsic''s accuser was Federico Silveyro, an entrepreneur from Portugal. Mabagsic went abroad. Upon his return, Mabagsic found out that Ninay confined herself in a convent. Mabagsic became a victim of cholera and died. Ninay also died of cholera. The other victims of the wickedness of the Portuguese Federico Silveyro were the couple named Loleng and Berto. Silveyro was the cause of Loleng''s death. Berto avenged Loleng''s death by killing Silveyro.

Nínay

In the winter of 1812 a group of deserters from all the armies of the Peninsular War - French, British, Spanish and Portuguese - descends on the isolated hamlet of Adrados, on the Spanish-Portuguese border, led by Obadiah Hakeswill, the antagonist of Sharpe''s Company, and Pot-au-Feu aka Sergeant Deron, who appears in Sharpe''s Havoc as Marshal Soult''s cook. The seize a number of women on pilgrimage to a convent in the village, including Josefina Lacosta who is travelling as "Lady Farthingdale", and an Madame Dubreton, the English-born wife of a French colonel of cavalry. Sharpe, recently promoted to the rank of Major is sent, with Patrick Harper, to deliver the ransom demanded for the release of Lady Farthingdale. Upon reaching Adrados they meet Colonel Dubreton and his Sergeant on a similar mission. They see both ladies are safe and deliver the ransom but Hakeswill then demands more by the New Year. Colonel and Madame Dubreton are careful not to let the fact that they know each other be picked up by the deserters. Sharpe and Harper note that Adrados is extremely defensible with a castle, a watchtower and a convent all defensible buildings against attack. Madame Dubreton gives Sharpe a clue that she is in the convent. Nairn believes that the deserters will not agree to a release at all regardless of ransom and thinks a rescue is the best option. It is proposed that Sharpe and the Light Company, with two companies of the 60th American Rifles, will attack the watchtower and the convent to free the ladies and then wait for Colonel Kinney to come with his 113th Fusilier Regiment and Sir Augustus to supervise the surrender of the deserters. They propose to capture the convent on Christmas Eve when the deserters will be almost certainly inebriated. They capture the convent and free the women. Unfortunately, Sharpe discovers that multiple French battalions are on their way to capture the village in order to occupy South Portugal. Sharpe decides to make a stand and blackmails Lord Farthingdale into leaving the village, thus making Sharpe the commanding officer. He ingeniously defends the village by setting a trap for the French, using the rockets to destroy a battalion, mining a building, and generally anticipating his enemies'' moves. His wife, a Spanish partisan commander Teresa Moreno, rides to fetch reinforcements who arrive just in time to assist the tiring men. Hakeswill, who was kept as a prisoner, escapes during the last hours of the fight and kills Teresa. Hakeswill tries to desert to the French, but falls in the hands of Dubreton who returns him to Sharpe as a thank you for rescuing the Colonel''s wife. Hakeswill is executed by a firing squad and the last shot at the man is taken by Sharpe himself.

Sharpe''s Enemy

This book is told from the point of view of a young boy named Melvin. Borgel shows up one day at the house where Melvin and his family live, claiming to be somehow related to the family, although no one (apparently not even Borgel himself) is entirely sure how. Borgel is eccentric, to say the least, but in time he befriends Melvin. Melvin often goes to a local cafe with Borgel where Borgel often talks in a strange language with other patrons. One night Borgel invites Melvin to go for a walk with him and the family dog, Fafner. Borgel ends up using a wire hanger to break into his car, a Dorbzeldge. As they are traveling along the highway Borgel tells Melvin about traveling though time-space and the other. He explains that he is a time tourist, that time is like a map of New Jersey, and that space is like an elliptical bagel with poppy seeds. Melvin thinks Borgel has gone crazy but soon they are traveling on an invisible highway in space. In space Fafner can speak, and he repeatedly criticizes Melvin and everything Melvin does. The trio end up meeting multiple interesting people such as a bloboform, a man who sleeps upside down in trees, and Hapless Toad (the weak son of the genius Evil Toad, who has met the Great Popsicle), among others. They eventually pick up a strange person called Freddie Nfbnm*. Freddie Nfbnm* persuades the group to search for the Great Popsicle, one of the 26 most powerful living beings in the universe. They go to an island in space with a Glugo, an ape they meet in the suburbs of Hell who agrees to help them find the Great Popsicle. Glubgo warns the group that Freddie is a Grivnizoid—a large and viscous species capable of disguising itself, in this case as a normal person. The popsicle is seen frolicking peacefully in the fields and he is surrounded by a feeling of love that rubs off on all others who see the popsicle. In an attempt to gain the power of the popsicle, Freddie eats it (confirming that he is, in fact, a Grivnizoid). Instead of gaining fearsome powers he becomes like the popsicle and begins skipping around the island. The original trio leaves and returns to Earth. They arrive at the same time they left as they had traveled through time.

Borgel

Mary begins with a description of the conventional and loveless marriage between the heroine''s mother and father. Eliza, Mary''s mother, is obsessed with novels, rarely considers anyone but herself, and favours Mary''s brother. She neglects her daughter, who educates herself using only books and the natural world. Ignored by her family, Mary devotes much of her time to charity. When her brother suddenly dies, leaving Mary heir to the family''s fortune, her mother finally takes an interest in her; she is taught "accomplishments", such as dancing, that will attract suitors. However, Mary''s mother soon sickens and requests on her deathbed that Mary wed Charles, a wealthy man she has never met. Stunned and unable to refuse, Mary agrees. Immediately after the ceremony, Charles departs for the Continent. To escape a family who does not share her values, Mary befriends Ann, a local girl who educates her still further. Mary becomes quite attached to Ann who is in the grip of an unrequited love and does not reciprocate Mary''s feelings. Ann''s family falls into poverty and is on the brink of losing their home, but Mary is able to pay off their debts after her marriage to Charles gives her limited control over her money. Ann becomes consumptive and Mary travels with her to Lisbon in hopes of nursing her back to health. There they are introduced to Henry, who is also trying to regain his health. Ann dies and Mary is grief-stricken. Henry and Mary subsequently fall in love but are forced to return to England separately. Mary, depressed by her marriage to Charles and bereft of both Ann and Henry, remains unsettled, until she hears that Henry''s consumption has worsened. She rushes to his side and cares for him until he dies. At the end of the novel, Charles returns from Europe; he and Mary establish something of a life together, but Mary is unhealthy and can barely stand to be in the same room with her husband; the last few lines of the novel imply that she will die young.

Mary: A Fiction

While on holiday, the protagonist (Scott Carey) is exposed to a cloud of radioactive spray shortly after he accidentally ingests insecticide. The radioactivity acts as a catalyst for the bug spray, causing his body to shrink at a rate of approximately 1/7 of an inch per day. A few weeks later, Carey can no longer deny the truth: not only is he losing weight, he is also shorter than he was and deduces, to his dismay, that his body will continue to shrink. The abnormal size decrease of his body initially brings teases and taunting from local youths, then causes friction in his marriage and family life, because he loses the respect his family has for him because of his diminishing physical stature. Ultimately, as the shrinking continues, it begins to threaten Carey''s life as well; at seven inches tall, he has a battle with the family cat that drives him outdoors, where he is attacked by a swallow in his garden; the conflict drives him through a window into the cellar of his house. Although he survives on the cheese left over in a mousetrap for a while, his size is eventually reduced to less than half an inch, at which point he is forced to engage in a victorious battle with a black widow spider that towers over him. As Carey continues shrinking, he realizes that his original fear that he would shrink into non-existence is incorrect; that he will continue to shrink, but will not disappear as he originally feared, and utters his famous closing line: "If nature existed on endless levels, so also might intelligence."

The Shrinking Man

Macdonald Hall is losing all of their swim meets to rival school York Academy, which Bruno and Boots attribute to the school not having their own pool. After one meet, where the York Academy spitefully ignores the traditional handshake at the end, the two friends, after retaliating by dumping 20&nbsp;lbs of effervescent solution into the pool, take this fact into account and ask Headmaster Sturgeon (aka The Fish) if there would be a chance at all of the Hall would be able to utilize its own pool, but he tells them the institution''s fifty thousand dollars short of the cost of such a facility. Thus, Bruno and Boots take things into their own hands. They start off with a flea market (without Mr. Sturgeon first knowing about it) and make $1426. After talking through the idea of fund-raising, Mr. Sturgeon allows them to pursue other means of making money and creates a bank account for them. This includes running a talent show, a photo-contest, and an Individual Effort Day. This is all in close cooperation with Ms. Scrimmage''s Finishing School for Young Ladies, the girls-only school across the road. Their efforts in raising money are even more important when Boots reveals he might be transferred to York Academy because his parents think they have a better athletic program. After many fund-raisers, Mr. Sturgeon then tells them that they cannot gain any more money from the students and staff of the school because that is not a reliable source of revenue anymore and if they want to raise money, they have to gain it from outside resources. Dejected, Bruno gets the desperate idea to set up a toll booth on a public road. Before anyone pays them, though, Mr. Sturgeon catches them, and after an awful encounter with Ms. Scrimmage and her students, punishes them severely and notifies them that they cannot raise any more money. He also comes to believe that the pool they desire is borne out of jealousy of York Academy. Eventually Mr. Sturgeon learns from a mocking phone call by the headmaster of York that many parents of his students, including Boots'', are considering transferring students out of the school and into York Academy due to their better athletic program (mainly their pool). Realizing that the boys'' attempts at raising money are not a result of pure jealousy, but a fierce loyalty to the school and each other, he takes them off their severe punishment. While complaining about never getting enough money, Bruno and Boots encounter George Wexford-Smyth III, Boot''s wealthy old roommate. He tells them the solution, the stock market, and offers to invest their earnings under his direction. Although leery of this idea, the boys agree and George makes astute investments in a silver mining operation which then makes a spectacular discovery of a major supply of the element. As a result, the boys eventually sell the stock for $64,469.64, which is more than enough for the pool.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

If Israel Lost the War

By Edward Klein

Vortex

By Patrick Larkin

Judgment Day

By James T. Farrell

Kaaterskill Falls

By Allegra Goodman

Born of Man and Woman

By Richard Matheson

.hack//AI buster

By Tatsuya Hamazaki

Nínay

No Author Listed

Sharpe's Enemy

By Bernard Cornwell

Borgel

By Daniel Pinkwater

Mary: A Fiction

By Mary Wollstonecraft

The Shrinking Man

By Richard Matheson

Go Jump in the Pool

By Gordon Korman