Set in 1972, Obasan centres on the memories and experiences of Naomi Nakane, a 36 year old schoolteacher living in the rural Canadian town of Cecil, Alberta, when the novel begins. The death of Naomi''s uncle, with whom she had lived as a child, leads Naomi to visit and care for her widowed aunt Aya, whom she refers to as Obasan (Obasan being the Japanese word for "Aunt" in this context). Her brief stay with Obasan in turn becomes an occasion for Naomi to revisit and reconstruct in memory her painful experiences as a child during and after World War II, with the aid of a box of correspondence and journals sent to her by her Aunt Emily, detailing the years of the measures taken by the Canadian government against the Japanese citizens of Canada and their aftereffects. With the aid of Aunt Emily''s box, Naomi learns that her mother, who had been in Japan before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, was severely injured by the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima; a finding which changes her perspective of the ''War in the Pacific'', and rekindles the heartbreak she experienced as a child. Naomi''s narration thus interweaves two stories, one of the past and another of the present, mixing experience and recollection, history and memory throughout. Naomi''s struggle to come to terms with both past and present confusion and suffering form the core of the novel''s plot. Although Obasan is fiction, the events, Parliamentary legal documents, and overall notion of racism mirror reality. Through the eyes of fictional characters, Kogawa tells the story of Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War.

Obasan

The novel begins with Stephanie being stalked by Carmen Manoso, a woman claiming to be the wife of Ranger, a fellow bounty hunter with whom Stephanie has occasionally been intimate. Ranger is out of town on ''bad business'' when Stephanie learns that his daughter has been kidnapped. Ranger is the prime suspect. As the story progresses, Stephanie learns that Carmen is actually married to a man named Edward Scrog who is attempting to steal Ranger''s identity, even going so far as to kidnap Ranger''s daughter Julie for his own. After Scrog kills Carmen he kidnaps Stephanie to complete his "family" and start a new life. However, he needs money, so Stephanie convinces him to try to find one of her FTA''s (wanted for armed robbery) and steal his money. To prevent Stephanie from escaping, Scrog constructs a bomb and tapes it to her. As they try to negotiate for the money, Stephanie''s old nemesis Joyce Barnhart turns up to capture the FTA herself. In the struggle that ensues, Scrog gets shot in the foot and Stephanie manages to rip the bomb off before Scrog stun-guns her. When Stephanie wakes up, her boyfriend Joe Morelli is there. Joyce caught the FTA, as he ran over the bomb after Stephanie tossed it in the road and it exploded. Together Stephanie and Morelli return to the trailer where she and Julie were being kept, but find it empty. Stephanie returns to her apartment, where she finds Scrog. He stun-guns her once more, then ties her to a chair. Julie is there too, drugged and on the couch. Scrog''s plan is to kill Ranger when he arrives. Ranger opens the door with his hands up and Scrog shoots him. Julie attacks Scrog, the drugs having worn off, and shoots him. The police, paramedics and Morelli come in. Ranger is rushed to the hospital. On the way there Stephanie finally tells Morelli that she loves him, but leaves out the fact that she loves Ranger, too.

Twelve Sharp

Spock travels back to the time and place of Here Come the Brides, a television program loosely based upon Asa Mercer''s efforts to bring civilization to 1860s Seattle by importing the marriageable Mercer Girls from the war-ravaged East Coast of the United States. The show''s premise was that eldest brother, Jason Bolt, bet his entire logging operation that he could persuade one hundred marriageable ladies to come to Seattle, and that all of them would be married or engaged within one year. Much of the dramatic and comic tension revolved around the efforts of their benefactor Aaron Stemple to thwart the deal and take control of the Bolts'' holdings. Spock discovers a Klingon plot to destroy the Federation by killing Aaron Stemple before Stemple could thwart an attempted 19th-century alien invasion of Earth. During most of the story, Spock has lost his memory and is cared for by Stemple, who passes him off as his nephew "Ishmael" and helps him hide his alien origins. Spock identifies one of the women in the story as likely to be an ancestress of his.

Ishmael

The story is set in 1874. Hans Bengler is an entomologist from Skåne, Sweden who is studying at Lund University and decides to go on an expedition on his own to the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa to find insects new to science and thereby to make a name for himself. After a long and arduous journey by sea to Cape Town and then in the desert he arrives at a trading post run by an expatiate Swede which Bengler decides to make the base for his explorations. Whilst at the trading post he comes across a small boy, called Molo, who was the sole survivor of his extended family all of whom had been brutally killed by men on horseback with spears and rifles, some who were white and some who were black. He is taken to the trading post where he was put in a cage to be bartered in exchange for provisions. Bengler decides to rescue the boy adopting him as his son. Not knowing his name Bengler decides to call him Daniel. Bengler sets himself the challenge, as he sees it, of civilising the young savage boy. The two of them journey back to Sweden. Daniel initially seeks to escape but over time grows to accept Bengler as his new father who begins to learn to speak Swedish and adopt some basic European customs, though still recalling the aspects of his African culture and beliefs he had been taught. On board ship and on arrival in Stockholm Daniel is treated with curiosity and disdain and experiences some racial abuse. Bengler decides to gain notoriety and earn a living by displaying and giving lectures on his exhibits, stored in glass jars. However, noticing the great interest the public had displayed in Daniel he decides to include him as a surprise exhibit in his lectures. After a serious incident father and son are forced to flee hiding their tracks to avoid being pursued. Bengler hands Daniel over to an elderly farmer and his wife in Småland to look after as he decides to disappear, promising to return in time. Daniel finds he is not welcomed into the deeply religious close-knit rural community. He becomes more and more homesick and has increasingly disturbing dreams about his mother and other family members. He befriends a young girl called Sanna whose unusual behaviour has resulted in her being ostracised by local people and is abused by her adopted father. After making one unsuccessfully attempt to make his way home, subsequently, Daniel and Sanna set off together to find a ship to take them both to Africa. Their adventure ends with the two friends arguing and returning home with events spiralling out of control with a sequence of disastrous consequences.

Daniel

1633 continues where 1632 left off. Most of the novel details various political machinations of the new "United States" and the attempts of Cardinal Richelieu to nullify the threat posed by the technological advantage the up-timers have given to Gustavus Adolphus and his "Confederated Principalities of Europe". Richelieu completely changes France''s foreign policy and forms an alliance aimed squarely at the NUS and Gustavus called the League of Ostend. Mike Stearns sends emissaries looking for allies, some of whom end up behind enemy lines as they already belong to the secret League of Ostend, which announces its presence in the Battle of Four Fleets. The Dutch Republic nearly falls and Stearns'' emissary voluntarily stays behind, becoming trapped in the Siege of Amsterdam. At this point, the newly created timeline start to diverge greatly from the actual history of the 17th Century, in no small part because the news of a town from the future brought spies and emissaries, and a fair number of encyclopedias and history textbooks found their way into European courts. One theme of the series is of down-timer leaders trying to change, hasten or head off their histories while the acts of ordinary citizens going about their day to day affairs and of the leaders of Grantville effect more fundamental societal and political changes.

1633

William Mandella, protagonist of The Forever War, lives with his wife Marygay on the icy world Middle Finger. Still dissatisfied with the state of society, they eventually decide to jump forward in time again, using the time dilation of interstellar travel. Their intention is to travel for 10 subjective years at relativistic speeds, during which 40,000 Earth years will pass on Middle Finger. They, along with other Forever War veterans and other disenchanted humans on Middle Finger, hope that whatever they will find upon their return will be more to their liking. This "experiment" requires the consent of the posthuman group mind now known as Man, and of the alien Tauran race. While it appears that they refuse permission, forcing the humans to take the ship by force, neither Man nor Tauran put up much of a fight indicating that those resident on Middle Finger did not share the views of the larger group mind. Taking their daughter and leaving their son who has decided to join Man, they head away from their planet. However before they have gotten very far many unexplained occurrences happen and the ship starts to lose antimatter mysteriously. They abandon the ship and return home on fighters that have been converted into escape pods (although some people who believe it all to be a test by some deity remain aboard the drifting ship and are not mentioned in the text again). Instead of the intended 40,000 years, they have only been away 24 Earth years. Upon arrival, they find the planet still intact, but seemingly vacant with everyone having literally disappeared at the same time as the incident on their ship. They then return to Earth and in the course of the investigation they discover a shape-shifting being (similar to the "Chameleon" in his later novel Camouflage) posing as an android cowboy at a western-themed amusement park. This being has been on Earth and the other inhabited planets for millennia and is not certain of its own origin. It also has no idea what happened to the denizens of Earth. The resolution involves an archetypal deus ex machina, a childish god who evidently created the universe on a whim but doesn''t really understand it. This god recognizes Mandella as a scientist and explains that his action of leaving the galaxy on a 40,000 year round-trip is similar to a laboratory mouse escaping its cage. The galaxy would appear to be one large experiment controlled by these gods, an experiment damaged by Mandella''s actions. Eventually "God" restores the inhabitants, who have been stored in stasis. The story also focuses on William''s and Marygay''s relationship to their children, who do not agree with their parents'' views, but still have to deal with their parents ''fleeing'' into the future. Forever Free is much shorter than the preceding book and also contained many printing errors in its first edition. The comic A New Beginning, the sequel to the comic version of The Forever War, was connected to Forever Free.

Forever Free

Growing up among the Ilyassai, a fierce tribe of warrior-herdsmen who despise his origin, the young Imaro struggles for acceptance after the breaking of a taboo forces his mother to leave him behind. The boy becomes a man, unlike any other the Ilyassai has ever seen. His quest acceptance and identity continues. Yet he learns he has powerful enemies, human and inhuman. Prevailing over foes who desire nothing more than to see him dead, Imaro finds that in victory, there can be loss. Departing from the Ilyassai, Imaro roams afar, wandering across the vast continent of Nyumbani, pitting his prodigious strength and courage against men, beasts and demons. Hunted by relentless foes, Imaro becomes the hunter. Eventually, he finds friendship and love among people who are like him, exiles and outlaws. Yet forces beyond Imaro’s comprehension are aligned against him. As he rises to prominence, events preordained before Imaro’s birth begin to unfold. Powers are stirring in Nyumbani, the Africa of a world that is beyond the one we know. And Imaro learns that some of the powers are aligned against him. As he struggles to hold on to his hard won acceptance, the warrior seeks the answer to the question that has haunted him all his life:

Imaro

Dave Klein is a Lieutenant in the LAPD''s Administrative Vice unit and an attorney. Unlike The Big Nowhere and L.A. Confidential, the book is told with one "protagonist" instead of three, reminiscent of the first novel, The Black Dahlia. It is told from Klein''s stream of consciousness. After the reader is updated on LA''s status, (Johnny Stompanato''s death, Mickey Cohen, a probe set up on organized crime''s influence in boxing, the political Battle of Chavez Ravine which was the relocation of Chavez Ravine''s residents in order to build the Los Angeles Dodgers Stadium, etc.) through the newspaper clippings, Dave Klein is introduced. He and his partner George "Junior" Stemmons are setting up a raid on a house with a bookmaking operation running inside. Klein and Stemmons are later ordered to protect the witness in the boxing probe. However, Mickey Cohen called Klein earlier and told him ''Sam G'' ("G for Giancana") wanted the witness dead. Klein kills the witness, who has a mental disability, by throwing him out of a high window, making it look like an accident. The press headlines the story, "Federal Witness Plummets to Death," with a sidebar: "Suicide Pronouncement: ''Hallelujah, I Can Fly!''" When Klein finally returns to his house, he reminisces on his life so far. Born David Douglas Klein, he is of German descent. His father Franz, arrived at Ellis Island. He was raised by both parents, and has a sister named Meg. However, the father was abusive towards his sister, and Klein, while still at a young age, threatened to kill his father if he hurt her again. After the children become adults, their parents die in a car accident. Klein and his sister shared an "attraction" to one another, and after their parent''s death, they almost slept together. Klein joins the LAPD in 1938. In 1942, he enlists in the U.S. Marines and serves in the Pacific. and returns to the Department in 1945. Klein also studies law at University of Southern California. However the GI Bill won''t cover the costs for school. Klein must run other jobs, from collecting on loans, (earning him the name, "the Enforcer"), to mob work. Klein rises through the police rank to Lieutenant, passes the bar, and secures his police pension. However, Klein isn''t released from mob work, which included several murders. Two personal murders were of the "Two Tonys", Tony Brancato and Tony Trombino, who hurt Meg. He hides in the backseat of one of their cars and shoots them both in the back of the heads. In an attempt to get out of mob work, he begs the dying Jack Dragna to let him go. Dragna doesn''t, and Klein suffocates him. Wilhite, of the corrupt Narcotics Squad, calls Klein later that night and ask him to investigate a burglary. The burglary is at the house of J.C. Kafesjian, sanctioned drug dealer of the LAPD. The crime scene consists of dead dogs, missing their eyes and poisoned with stelfactiznide chloride (a chemical solution used in dry cleaning), smashed records, and torn pedal pushers covered with semen. Klein investigates as a favor to Wilhite. In order to get liberal Democratic candidate Morton Diskant to drop out of the election for city councilman, Klein is ordered to blackmail Diskant. Klein receives assistance from Fred Turentine, and Pete Bondurant (who later appears in American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand). While the operation doesn''t go smoothly, they successfully blackmail the married Diskant with another woman, and Diskant later drops out of the race. Klein investigates the Kafesjian case with police work, forensic information, and other leads. Klein later gets a side job from Howard Hughes, to obtain information on an actress named Glenda Bledsoe that would violate her full-service contract. Since there is a morality clause in her contract, Klein merely needs to find proof that Bledsoe is an alcoholic, criminal, narcotics addict, communist, lesbian, or nymphomaniac. Hughes'' reasons were she moved out of one of Hughes''s guest houses, and left script sessions without permission. Klein sees through to the real motive for Hughes wanting her out. As Klein puts it: "''Guest home'' meant ''fuck pad'' meant Howard Hughes left to choke his own chicken." During surveillance of Glenda, he finds out she, Touch Vecchio, Rock Rockwell, and George Ainge are planning a fake kidnapping.

White Jazz

The principal protagonist of the novel is Mick Looney, an Irish construction worker from Kilburn, London, who comes to the conclusion that he is the rightful King of Ireland. The first portion of the novel is set in Kilburn as Looney''s fantasy of royal descent takes hold. He purchases a second hand chair to be his royal throne while arranging his return to Ireland. There are a number of subplots featuring various eccentric people he has dealings with, the main one concerning two illegal immigrants from India who become Looney''s tenants. The second, larger, portion of the novel is set in and around the fictional Irish village of Drool, where Looney goes to research his royal claim. While doing this he takes a job as a handyman at the local castle, from which a valuable racehorse is stolen. After a number of subplots concerning the eccentric residents of Drool and its castle, Looney recovers the racehorse and receives a large cash reward, much of which he accidentally burns and the remainder of which he spends in pub buying drinks for the villagers. Having reconnected with his Irish roots, but realising that his quest for wealth and status is futile, he returns to Kilburn and sells his "throne".

The Looney: An Irish Fantasy

Based in part on McDougall''s experience as an officer with Princess Patricia''s Canadian Light Infantry, Execution follows the fictional Canadian 2nd Rifles during the Italian campaign of 1943. Led by the flamboyant Brigadier Ian Kildare (a modern miles gloriosus, or braggart soldier), the Canadians land on Sicily where they meet with little resistance from the Italian Army, composed mostly of hapless conscripts who want no part in the war. Despite Kildare''s strict orders for his men to shoot Italian deserters on sight, the Canadians take kindly to a pair of buffoonish? Italian deserters, more notable for their culinary skills than military prowess. Impetuously, Kildare orders the Canadians to execute the Italians. The Canadians are caught between the obligation to follow orders and the sense that executing the two Italians in cold blood is ethically unjustifiable&mdash;not to mention it being a violation of the Geneva Convention. The brutal execution of the two Italians forces the Canadians to confront the ethics of warfare, now that "the enemy" is no longer a distant and faceless target. Major Bunny Bazin, the most battle-hardened and philosophical of the Canadians, voices the novel''s central theme when he states that "execution is... the ultimate degradation of man." Here the term "execution" works both literally (the killing of the Italians as a brutal act) and as a metaphor (war as a form of mass execution). The novel''s main protagonist, Lieutenant (later Major) John Adam (a semi-autobiographical foil for McDougall), is an efficient soldier and leader, who nevertheless finds "the vulture fear" inhabiting his soul after the execution of the Italians. Bound to protect and lead his men as they march through Italy, from Ortona to the Hitler Line near Monte Cassino, Adam finds himself struggling to maintain the composure fitting a commander, as an inner "horror" gnaws at his conscience (Adam''s reflections occasionally resemble those of Marlow in Joseph Conrad''s Heart of Darkness). Eventually, Adam and his men stumble on a chance to redeem themselves when one of their own comrades, Rifleman Jones, a mildly retarded but efficient infantryman, is sentenced to be executed for treason by his own army, after he falls in with a ring of corrupt soldiers who murder an American. Although everyone, including a newly promoted General Kildare, knows that "Jonesy" is a scapegoat for the real murderers, the execution must go ahead out of political expediency. Led by Adam, the men wage a tenacious campaign to have Jonesy freed, but all efforts eventually fail. When Jonesy is led out to be executed, the officer in charge of the execution faints, and Adam is forced to command the firing squad himself. Execution ends with Adam and the other men regaining a measure of their lost confidence, although Major Bazin dies on the battlefield.

Execution

When the operations manager of an oil company operating in Prudhoe Bay in Alaska receives a mysterious anonymous threat of sabotage, his superiors call in Jim Brady Enterprises, a firm of oilfield specialists. Dermott and Mackenzie, tough ex-field managers and now anti-sabotage specialists, arrive, but initial investigations get them nowhere. Then the operations manager is murdered and one of the pump stations in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline is damaged, with further loss of life. Jim Brady himself arrives to direct operations but to no avail. Then the company''s operations at the Athabasca Oil Sands in Canada are disrupted and Dermott is nearly killed. Despite assistance by the Canadian police and FBI, suspicions fall on many employees, but nothing can be proved. As bodies and equipment damage mount up, Brady and his two investigators play a hunch and finally expose the men they believe to be responsible. But even they are not the main instigators of the events, as the final chapter of the novel reveals. de:Die Hölle von Athabasca nl:Athabasca (boek)

Athabasca

The story is primarily about the life and exploits of Sir Walter Raleigh, albeit with the bulk of the narration revolving around the impact of his life on Elizabeth Throckmorton, who is referred to as ''Bess.'' It begins with Raleigh''s (this is the spelling used in the novel) childhood in Budleigh, and quickly shows his close relationship with half-brother Humphrey Gilbert. Glibert is attributed as sharing and inspiring Raleigh''s lifelong passion of wanting explore the New World, beginning with a plan to seek the fabled Northwest Passage. Much of the rest of Raleigh''s life is explained as being primarily motivated by this passion. Bess is brought into the novel when Raleigh is seeking favor at Queen Elizabeth''s court at the Palace of Westminster. She is 12 years of age, and Raleigh makes a strong impression on her during a chance meeting in a garden. He is whistling the tune of Greensleeves, which is used throughout the novel, and shares his frustration of being stymied in his goals of exploration. Bess grows up at court in proximity to Mary Sidney, eventually becoming a Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen. She is immersed in court culture, early on being connected with Philip Sidney, Robert Devereux, and Robin Cecil. They are all shown as children growing up in the shadows of their elders, Lord Essex and Lord Burghley, respectively; and the court intrigues of the times. The two ''Robins'' are connected with Raleigh in what is described as a Triumvirate, around which both her life and the fate of England are shown as revolving. The first half of the novel takes place during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, charting the ups and downs of Raleigh''s career from the 1590s onward; including his position as Captain of the Queen''s Guard, his fall from favor after a clandestine marriage to Bess, their life at Durham House and Sherborne, his return to favor and involvement with the capture of Cadiz, the rise of Robin Cecil to become Secretary of State, the fall and execution of Robin Devereux, Raleigh''s exploration of what is now Guyana, and attempt to promote the legend of El Dorado as motivation to gain further favor for future explorations. The second half of the novel takes place during the reign of King James, showing his decline under the machinations of Robin Cecil, 13 year imprisonment in the Tower of London after being impugned of involvement in the Main Plot by way of Lord Cobham, eventual restoration and resumption of exploration of the Orinoco, the death of his son Walter while on the exploration, Raleigh''s downfall after the failure of the exploration, and eventual execution. Bess''s life is shown as revolving around ''waiting'' for Raleigh to ''remember her,'' and being faithful to support him despite his overarching drive for exploration. Her anxieties are explored in depth, and their relationship is portrayed as being very strong, even in the face of extremity. Raleigh''s life is shown as a complex tapestry of events that only make sense in the light of his lifelong dream of exploration. His execution is shown as the passing of the ''last of Elizabeth''s Round Table,'' with a sense of nostalgia for the adventurers in service to Queen Elizabeth and the Golden Age which she created.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Obasan

By Joy Kogawa

Twelve Sharp

By Janet Evanovich

Ishmael

By Barbara Hambly

Daniel

By Henning Mankell

1633

By Eric Flint

Forever Free

By Joe Haldeman

Imaro

By Charles R. Saunders

White Jazz

By James Ellroy

The Looney: An Irish Fantasy

By Spike Milligan

Execution

No Author Listed

Athabasca

By Alistair MacLean

Lady in Waiting

By Rosemary Sutcliff