After his father Michael Shelborne mysteriously disappears, Adrian "Shel" Shelborne receives a package from his father with instructions to follow if something were to happen to him. Inside the package there are four devices that the note instructs him to destroy. After toying with the device a little, Shel discovers that the devices have the ability to take you anywhere at any point in time. After figuring this concept out, Shel decides to go back in time to the last time he talked to his father on the phone and find out why he disappeared. After finding his father in the past, his father explains to him the dangers of time travel. Shel''s father explains that the devices can be used to go to events in time and become a part of them, but to interfere with the events could lead to fatal consequences. After taking this into consideration Shel''s father decides to go back in time and return to the present to avoid causing a paradox in time. When his father still doesn''t return, Shel enlists the help of his best friend Dave Dryden to help him find his father in time. They eventually find his father''s tomb stone stating that he died in 1637. Going back to the year 1604, Shel finds his father to be a very old man. Shel''s father explains to him that when he went back in time, the device got damaged when he was teleported on to a sheet of thin ice rather than dry land. He also explains that he can not leave because Shel and Dave have seen his grave site, and taking him out of that time line would cause a dangerous paradox. After finding Shel''s father, Dave and Shel return to their base time period. They spend the next few months time traveling to the many events of the time line. However, tragedy strikes when a lightning bolt strikes Shel''s apartment, burning the place to the ground. After a brief investigation and autopsy, it is determined that the burnt body found at the apartment is Shel. After the funeral, Shel appears before Dave to explain to him that the body in the grave is not his body, but the body of his future self. Feeling that his fate is sealed in the event of what happened that night, Shel runs away to live his life out in the timeline. Dave not wanting to let his friend live in fear of his own fate, enlists the help of Shel''s fiancee Helen. Together they are able to fake the death of Shel by stealing a body from the scene of an auto accident and placing it in the apartment on the night of the fire. After eliminating the possibility of a deadly paradox, Dave and Helen set off to find where Shel ran off to. When they find him, they discover that a few years have passed since they last saw him. Knowing that they can never return to his life that has already ended, Shel and Helen live out their married life as time travelers.

Time Travelers Never Die

Mam''zelle Guillotine follows Gabrielle Damiens, the daughter of Francois Damiens, a man arrested for attacking the King of France with a pocket knife. Although the wound was minor, Damiens'' punishment for drawing royal blood was to be hanged, drawn and quartered. At age 16, Gabrielle finds letters written by her father which prove that his crime had been instigated and aided by a body of noble gentlemen, who planned it as warning to the King to change his ways. Damiens bore the brunt of this conspiracy in silence while the aristocrats remained immune. With the evidence of their crime, Gabrielle sets out to confront the Marquis de Saint-Lucque, the only person named in the letters, and succeeds in extorting a large amount of money from him. She also starts an affair with his son, Vicomte Fernand, who is oblivious to the whole situation. Before long Gabrielle is living in luxury and has aspirations to marry the young Vicomte. Her plans are dashed when Fernand breaks off their affair as the King has decided that the Vicomte should marry his illegitimate daughter, Neve de Nesle. Furious, Gabrielle tries to blackmail Vicomte into marrying her using the letters which prove his father''s guilt. But she has not counted on Neve''s mother, Madame de Nesle, who on hearing of the situation, uses her position as the King''s favourite to have Gabrielle, now 19, thrown into prison without trial. She spends the next 16 years in prison, feeding her rage and lust for revenge on the Saint-Lucque family. On July 14, 1789, she is released from the Bastille after it is stormed by the mob, the French Revolution having begun. Mad for revenge, Gabrielle works her way into the favour of the men behind the new republic, and before long has become the public executioner of Artois. As France''s only female executioner she is feared by many and known throughout Artois as Mam''zelle Guillotine. When the Saint-Lucque family (Fernand, Neve and their three children) are captured as traitors, Gabrielle determines that finally she will have her revenge. English spies manage to rescue the Marquis and his young son, but his wife and two daughters are still in danger of being sent to the guillotine. Blind with rage and consumed with her plots for revenge, Gabrielle fails to notice that the new sleuth sent from Paris by Chauvelin to track down the English spies is really the Scarlet Pimpernel in disguise. de:The Scarlet Pimpernel fr:Le Mouron rouge

Mam''zelle Guillotine

The novel traces the life of Stanley Brack, captivated by model aircraft as a child. He enters MIT, and in a memorable scene, is interviewed by the head of the School of Aeronautical Engineering, a legendary German aerodynamicist. His main concern is unexpected. "From your hair and general coloring," he said slowly, "I thought you might perhaps be Jewish." Brack reassures him that he and both his parents are Baptists and of Scots-Irish descent. "We have to be careful," the professor confides; "The aircraft industry is one of the few they haven''t managed to take over yet," and congratulates Stanley on his acceptance into the course. The incident turns out to be one of many in which Brack swallows any thought of protest and goes along to get along. After graduation, he joins Amcraft, the Amalgamated Aircraft Corporation, in Los Angeles. It is a manufacturer of aircraft components that is just about to unveil its first complete airplane, a transport. The company is run personally by Dave Humbler, "president, founder of the company, chief engineer&mdash;big wheel number one. Real nice guy, Dave," a colleague explains. (Resemblances can be seen to the Douglas Aircraft Company.) Brack rises through the ranks and grows with the company. After the war Amcraft acquires the services of Gunther Rausch, "a spoil of war" and a rocket expert from Peenemünde. His presence gives the company an edge in picking up missile work. Rausch is brilliant but arrogant and Brack detests him. Nevertheless, as the book draws to a climax, he makes common cause with him in an effort to perfect a guided missile. Brack is the project manager, and the project is in trouble and behind schedule. He pressures a friend and colleague into conducting some dangerous rocket tests with Rausch. Rausch is tense and jittery and gives coworkers an impression that he is concealing personal inexperience in conducting such tests. There is an explosion, and Brack''s friend Sim suffers terrible injuries: physical and chemical burns and lung damage that leaves him close to death. Brack''s fiancée, a witness, tells Brack that Rausch was panicky during the test and "never stopped fiddling with the switches... he was like some hot-head whose car won''t start but who keeps on turning the ignition switch." She thinks Rausch could have caused the explosion (a concern which ultimately turns out to be unfounded). Brack furiously argues with Rausch, then debates with his superior about the project''s future and who should lead it. Brack convinces his superior to let him continue as leader. As the discussion closes, his superior says "Okay, it''s all settled." But he adds "One other thing&mdash;I''m firing the girl." Brack''s protest sticks in his throat; "ashamed, he looked at his feet, and then he nodded." The book closes with Brack and Rausch standing together literally arm in arm, watching the conclusion of a successful missile test. "Did you see it, Gunther?" Brack says. "Yah," breaths Rausch, "Just like a star. A shooting star." "And we made it," says Brack, proudly, as the tale ends. The New York Times reviewer says that "the question arises... whether Brack is to be regarded as an all-wool idealist pursuing heroically his destiny despite any and all distractions tossed in his way. Or is he a less desirable type, possessed of the ability to abandon all pretense to ethical conduct in his ambitious pursuit after self-advancement?" Although the Times calls it an "absorbing narrative," to a modern reader much of the interest lies, not in the broad story outline, but in the dozens of little details and circumstantial touches which bring times, places, and situations&mdash;not well documented elsewhere&mdash;to life.

The Gadget Maker

Will Monroe''s normal life is disrupted when his wife is kidnapped while he is reporting on a story of a militia man found dead in his isolated log cabin. Further investigation into the death brings Monroe to the conclusion that the dead militia man shared an attribute with a New York City pimp, also recently murdered. They were both described as being ''righteous''. As more murders of ''righteous men'' happen across the globe, time seems to be running out for Will and the old and current friends he has enlisted. With a series of clues from a mysterious source, absurd twists and religious factors Will soon finds himself in the middle of a plot to bring about nothing less than Judgement Day. The book focuses on the fact that several people have been murdered in what can only be described as a humane way. What these victims have in common is that they have been described by folk who knew them as "righteous" (hence the title) although they led some mundane or unethical existence (i.e. pimps, drug barons or even call centre employees). Nothing seems to fit to connect the murders together. A rookie NY Times reporter is sent on a murder case (the pimp) and is then sent of to do a story in Seattle where he finds another victim here whilst trying to report on freak weather conditions. While he''s away, his wife gets kidnapped by what turns out to be the Hassidic community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. What these "Righteous Men" turn out to be are based on Jewish folklore: that the world rests on 36 men who perform righteous acts to others. They themselves may not know that they are one of 36 and will always lead a life so far removed from what they are about. But without these men - the world will not be spared by God. So while the killing of the real 36 continues, the world (according to this story) is in grave danger. The killings seem to be done in the name of God; but as it is a Jewish story, why would they want this to happen? It turns out that the killings are being done by a faction of the Christian Church (The Church of the Reborn Jesus) who hold the notion that the Jews have forfeited their role as the chosen people (replacement theology) and by killing the 36 should bring about the Second Coming (something the Jews do not believe).

The Righteous Men

When Hendra was 14, he had an affair with a married woman. When her husband, a devout Catholic, discovered them in each other''s arms, he took Hendra on a trip to Quarr Abbey, a monastery on the Isle of Wight off the coast of England. Hendra, expecting to be disciplined, was surprised when a "cartoonish" monk, Father Joseph Warrilow, instead treated him kindly. Hendra fell in love with Quarr and decided to become a monk. When Hendra reached the age of eighteen and could legally begin his time at Quarr, Father Joe found out that Hendra had received a scholarship to Cambridge University, and he urged Hendra to first attend college and obtain a degree before he could be admitted to the monastery. While at Cambridge, Hendra attended a theatrical revue called Beyond the Fringe. The brilliant performance by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller had such an impact on him that his life set off on a totally different course. In his words, "I went into that theater a monk. I came out a satirist. Save the world through prayer? I don''t think so. I''m going to save it through laughter." In spite of his decision not to become a monk, he continued to visit Father Joe for more than 40 years, until Father Joe''s death on April 27, 1998.

Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul

The narrative follows Leon S. Kennedy fighting the mutated William Birkin for most of the story, while Claire Redfield fights the Tyrant. The book downplays most of the puzzle-solving elements from the game and focuses more on the interaction between the characters. There are also added scenes in the book involving the supporting characters such as Ada Wong, Annette Birkin, Sherry Birkin, and Police Chief Brian Irons. The ending is slightly altered, in which the survivors of S.T.A.R.S. Exeter, characters featured in Caliban Cove (including Rebecca Chambers, pick up Leon, Claire, and Sherry, as opposed to the "walk into the sunrise" ending featured in the game. Due to City of the Dead being written before the release of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis the book has some contradictions. For example, in the beginning of the book, Jill Valentine leaves Raccoon with Chris Redfield and Barry Burton to infiltrate Umbrella''s HQ in Europe. In the game series, however, Jill has to fight her way out of Raccoon, Chris has already skipped town, and Barry comes back to help Jill escape at the end. fa:رزیدنت ایول: شهر مرده pt:City of the Dead it:La città dei morti (Perry)

Resident Evil: City of the Dead

Whos Your City? is divided into four parts with a total of 16 chapters. The first part presents data that suggests the world''s population and economy are becoming increasingly geographically concentrated into few mega-regions, such as BosWash and the San Francisco Bay Area. Thomas Friedman''s Flat World Theory, or his assertion that distance and place is becoming irrelevant, is countered by Florida with maps of population growth, economic activity, innovation (as demonstrated by patent registration), and scientific discovery (as demonstrated by residence of the most heavily cited scientists). Florida''s maps show "spiky" concentrations in these mega-regions, although each region does not necessarily rank high in each category. For example, the Taiheiyō Belt ranks high in innovation but low in scientific discovery, and Indian and Pakistani cities show high population concentrations but low economic activity. Florida explains the existence of these geographical spikes by insisting that talented individuals tend to cluster to one another, creating a (non-linear) multiplier effect that attracts additional talented individuals to that geographical area. The second part of the book presents evidence that globalization is creating a new class divide: those who are able to move to a different community to take advantage of opportunity and those who are rooted. This mobile class of people are differentiating urban areas in terms of values, culture, economic specialization, and other factors, and businesses are following the most talented people to these cities despite high land prices and labor costs. Florida also insists that a disproportionate amount of wealth is being generated in those cities which have been successful in attracting the creative class. Finally, globalization has reduced the importance of resource extraction and manufacturing in the economy and increased the importance of fields in which the creative class participate. The third part of Who''s Your City? examines the role of "where someone lives" as a factor of happiness. Florida''s "Place and Happiness Survey", which he conducted with The Gallup Organization, shows that higher incomes and levels of education produces more community satisfaction, married people tend to be more satisfied with their community than singles, as older people as compared to younger people. In addition, renters are slightly more satisfied with their living arrangements than home owners, and people are generally satisfied with where they live. Adding psychological profiles to his previous work, Florida was able to find strong connections between the Big Five personality traits and regions in the United States. For example, neuroticism is concentrated in the New York metropolitan area and the ChiPitts area, agreeableness and conscientiousness in the eastern Sunbelt area, extraversion in the Chicago metropolitan area, the St. Louis/Nashville/Atlanta area, and the South Florida area. Openness seems to be concentrated in the BosWash and the San Francisco Bay Area. Florida explains the results by linking the dominant forms of employment in the areas with the personality traits: manufacturing regions require people who are agreeable (i.e., they follow rules) and conscientious (they work with dangerous machinery), areas with high immigrant populations require that their residents exhibit openness, and management and sales-related jobs need workers with extroversion. Florida was also able to find that his "Gay and Bohemian Index", which connects gay and artistic communities to high growth and wealth generation areas, is a proxy for regions with large concentrations of the openness personality trait. The final part of the book suggests that most people have three significant moves: when leaving their parents'' home, when starting a family, and when retiring (or when their own adult children move out). When young people leave their home (or when they complete college), they tend to locate to areas that offer attractive job markets, cultural or recreational amenities, and rank high in quality of life factors. When they get married or have children, people choose areas that are perceived as safe and family-friendly. Florida suggests using a "Trick-or-Treater Index" to gauge if parents feel safe allowing their children to go door-to-door on Halloween. He also cites Catherine Austin Fitts'' "Popsicle Index", which gauges how far are parents willing to allow their children to walk to buy a treat. Once retired, or when their adult children move away, people tend to gravitate towards similar areas as young people, if it is close to their grandchildren, but in quieter neighborhoods that provide opportunities for hobbies or for a second career.

Who''s Your City?

It is the coming of the End Times: the Apocalypse is near, and Final Judgment will soon descend upon the human race. This comes as a bit of bad news to the angel Aziraphale (who was the angel of the Garden of Eden) and the demon Crowley (who, when he was originally named Crawly, was the serpent who tempted Eve to eat the apple), respectively the representatives of God and Satan on Earth, as they have become used to living their cozy, comfortable lives and have, in a perverse way, taken a liking to humanity. As such, since they are good friends (despite ostensibly representing the polar opposites of Good and Evil), they decide to work together and keep an eye on the Antichrist, destined to be the son of a prominent American diplomat stationed in Britain, and thus ensure he grows up in a way that means he can never decide between Good and Evil, thereby postponing the end of the world. Unfortunately, Warlock, the child everyone thinks is the Anti-Christ is, in fact, a perfectly normal eleven-year-old boy. Due to mishandling of several infants in the hospital, the real Anti-Christ is Adam Young, a charismatic and slightly otherworldly eleven-year-old who, despite being the harbinger of the Apocalypse, has lived a perfectly normal life as the son of typical English parents and as a result has no idea of his true powers. As Adam blissfully and naively uses his powers, creating around him the world of Just William (because he thinks that is what an English child''s life should be like), the race is on to find him&mdash;the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse assemble and the incredibly accurate (yet so highly specific as to be useless) prophecies of Agnes Nutter, seventeenth-century prophetess, are rapidly coming true. Agnes Nutter was a witch in the 17th century and the only truly accurate prophet to have ever lived. She wrote a book called The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, a collection of prophecies that did not sell very well because they were unspectacular, cryptic and, ironically enough, all true. She, in fact, decided to publish it only so that she could receive a free author''s copy. There is only one copy of the book left, which belongs to her descendant Anathema Device. Agnes was burned at the stake by a mob (because that is what mobs did at that time); however, because she had foreseen her fiery end ("Ye''re tardy; I should have been aflame ten minutes since") and had packed 80 pounds of gunpowder and 40 pounds of roofing nails into her petticoats, everyone who participated in the burning was killed instantly. Anathema teams up with Newton Pulsifer, the descendant of the man who initiated the burning of Agnes, to use the prophesies and find the Antichrist. Unfortunately, that is exactly what everyone else is trying to do, and time is running out.

Good Omens

Little Willy and his dog Searchlight find Willy''s grandfather lying in bed. Doc Smith, the only doctor in town, tells Willy that his grandfather no longer wants to live. Clifford Snyder, a tax collector, sneaks into Little Willy''s house and, with a derringer in his hand, demands to know how much his grandfather owes the state. After seeing some papers he tells Willy that they owe the state of Wyoming 500 dollars. The next day Willy enters a dog sled race that has a reward of 500 dollars. Willy sees a sled being pulled by five Samoyeds (fast dogs used for sled racing). The man on the sled signs up for the race, and Willy learns it is Stone Fox, a Native American who doesn''t talk to white people and has never lost a race. During the race, Willy''s light one-dog sled shows unexpected advantages in managing tight curves and enabling a perilous short-cut over a frozen lake. However, Searchlight becomes so tired that her heart bursts and she dies instantly about 10 feet from the finish line. Stone Fox makes a line on the ground with his boot, takes out his rifle, and warns that if any other racers cross the line, he''ll shoot. He then concedes the match to Willy by letting Willy carry Searchlight across the finish line to everyone''s amazement.

Stone fox

Violet is a dreamy girl who is often away in her own world, filled with fairies designed by her favourite author, Caspar Dream. She lives with her mother, father and her brother Will, who she loves very much despite the fact he can be controlling and sometimes frightens her. At Christmas, Violet finds out that Will was adopted. One night, Will forces Violet to play a game of ''Blind Man''s Buff''. Violet hates the game, but plays anyway because since Will discovered he was adopted he had become reclusive and rarely played with her. Consequently, she has a scary experience with bats in the attic of an empty house. Violet later makes a resolution that she will not let Will order her around. Soon, a new girl, Jasmine, comes to Violet''s school and chooses her as a friend. Violet is thrilled because Jasmine is pretty and rich, although she is not sure if Jasmine truly wants to be her friend or just wants to get closer to Will. Will and Violet play ''Truth and Dare'' and Will asks Violet that, if she could have a love affair with anyone, who would it be? Violet says Caspar Dream. Violet asks the same question to Will but before he can answer, Jasmine calls and asks for help with her homework. Much to Violet''s surprise, Will invites Jasmine over. They work for a while and then play Truth and Dare again, where Will asks Violet who she likes better, him or Jasmine. When Violet fails to come up with a reply, Will dares her to spend 10 minutes in the attic. Violet reluctantly agrees. In the attic, Violet finds out that she used to have another brother named Will but he died when he was less than one year old, so her parents tried to replace him with her adopted brother. She leaves the attic and finds Will and Jasmine kissing. Not realising she is within earshot, Jasmine and Will make fun of Violet and the fairies she has hanging from the ceiling. When they see her, Violet runs away and goes to see Caspar Dream''s old house. There she finds Caspar Dream himself and they become friends. When she returns home, Jasmine is apologetic and regretful. She forgives both Jasmine and Will. Afterwards, she confronts her parents about the first Will. They eventually tell her and Will the truth and soon things begin to become better for Violet.

Midnight

As a short story cycle, the book presents forty mutually exclusive stories staged in a wide variety of possible afterlives. The author has stated that none of the stories is meant to be taken as serious theological proposals but, instead, that the message of the book is the importance of exploring new ideas beyond the ones that have been traditionally passed down. The title word "Sum" refers to the Latin for "I am," as in Cogito ergo sum. Like Italo Calvino''s Invisible Cities, Sum does not fall cleanly under the traditional category of a novel. It has been called "philosofiction", an "experimental novel", and "a collection of thought experiments".NPR''s Books We Like, by Oscar Villalon, The Afterlife? Not Quite What We Were Expecting Most of the stories are understood to "posit the afterlife as mirroring life on Earth" The New York Times Book Review called Sum a "delightful, thought-provoking little collection [which] belongs to that category of strange, unclassifiable books that will haunt the reader long after the last page has been turned". Sum was chosen by Time Magazine for their 2009 Summer Reading list, with the acclaim "Eagleman is a true original. Read Sum and be amazed. Reread Sum and be reamazed.". Sum was selected as Book of the Week by both The Guardian and The Week, and was the featured subject on the cover of two magazines in 2009, The Big Issue and Humanitie. On September 10, 2009, Sum was ranked by Amazon as the #2 bestselling book in the United Kingdom. The book received accolades from non-religious reviewers as well as from the religious community. The recommendations of Stephen Fry, Philip Pullman, Brian Greene, Brian Eno, and others appear on the cover, and Sum was named as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2009.

The main protagonist of the novel is Dane Thorson, Cargo-master-apprentice on the Free Trader rocket ship the Solar Queen. Free Traders take on trading contracts on remote and recently discovered planets, which can be dangerous and unpredictable. The Solar Queen has recently obtained a valuable trading contract on the planet Sargol and are building a relationship with one of the races on the planet, the cat-like Salariki. The process goes slowly till the Slariki discover that the Solar Queen is carrying catnip and other plants from Terra that are unknown on Sargol. The traders exchange what little of the plants they have for the rare and valuable Koros stones and collect a native red-colored wood to exchange at home. At the last minute the storm priests of the Slarariki demand that the Solar Queen take a pre-paid contract to return within 6 months with more plants. A few days after leaving the planet, several members of the crew suffer from attacks, which start with severe headaches and end in a semi-coma state. Only 4 of the younger members of the crew are unaffected, including Dane Thorson. Upon exiting hyperspace on return to the vicinity of Terra, the crew discovers that they are pariah and have been declared a plague ship. On the short hop to earth, the crew discovers that pests have invaded the ship and are the cause of the illness. In a final bid to prove their case they kidnap a medic and present his evidence by video to a solar-system-wide audience, which is successful. In the meantime the rest of the crew have recovered, and after a final effort of negotiation the Solar Queen preserves its reputation by selling the contract with the Salariki to a large intergalactic trading company in exchange for credits and a quiet inter-solar mail route, which should lead to no more trouble.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Time Travelers Never Die

No Author Listed

Mam'zelle Guillotine

By Baroness Emma Orczy

The Gadget Maker

No Author Listed

The Righteous Men

By Jonathan Freedland

Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul

By Tony Hendra

Resident Evil: City of the Dead

By S. D. Perry

Who's Your City?

By Richard Florida

Good Omens

By Neil Gaiman

Stone fox

By John Reynolds Gardiner

Midnight

By Jacqueline Wilson

Sum

By David Eagleman

Plague Ship

By Andre Norton