Luke and Leia are traveling to Circarpous IV to persuade the Circarpousians to join the Rebel Alliance. A strange energy storm forces them to crash land on the swampy planet Mimban. Luke, after finding Leia, begins looking for a station that would allow them to get off the planet but instead find a town near which agents of the Empire have a secret energy mine. Forced to keep their identities secret, Luke admonishes Leia to follow his lead, and in a nearby bar where they take refuge, claims she is his servant girl. An old woman named Halla approaches them; while revealing little of her own background, she identifies Luke as one who is strong with the Force and shows him a splinter of what she claims to be the Kaiburr crystal, a glowing crystal that magnifies and focuses the Force. Halla strikes a deal with Luke and Leia that if they help her find it, she will help them get off the planet. They leave together. Upon emerging, Leia retorts that Luke ought not to have struck her; the two squabble as some miners emerge from the bar. The miners claim that fighting in public is against Imperial law here, and they all get into a brawl. Imperial stormtroopers intervene and take Luke, Leia and the miners to the local jail. They are questioned by Captain-Supervisor Grammel. The miners are taken away while Grammel continues questioning Luke and Leia. Grammel discovers and confiscates the crystal shard, along with Luke''s weapons. Luke and Leia are placed in the maximum security cell with two drunken but friendly Yuzzem--hairy aboriginal creatures resembling squat Sasquatch--called Hin and Kee, while Grammel reports the incident and the crystal shard to Governor Bin Essada, in charge of the group of star systems including Circarpous. Halla, with Luke''s help, uses the Force to help rescue Luke, Leia and the two Yuzzem; the two Yuzzem rampage through the jail barracks, while Luke and Leia escape, and the four meet Halla to find the Temple of Pomojema, which Halla believes to be the location of the Kaiburr crystal. They travel through the swampy wilds of Mimban, during which travel they encounter a wandrella, a huge worm-like creature. The wandrella pursues them, forcing them to leave the transport and splitting Luke and Leia apart from Halla, the droids and the Yuzzem. Luke and Leia hide in a deep well, down which the wandrella falls, leaving the two trapped in the well as it destroys their escape path; Halla mentions from the lip of the well that there must be an escape route, and Luke and Leia go in search of it, though their travels involve floating across a lake on lily pads, and fending off creatures of the deep with Luke''s light saber. On the other side of the lake, they encounter the secretive residents of the caves, Coway guards/patrols. They kill all but one of the Coway; the survivor escapes and tells his Coway tribe about the visitors. Luke and Leia follow the single Coway to the tribe, where they find Halla''s group being held as prisoners. To save his friends, Luke defeats the Coway''s champion fighter. The Coway become his friends, but Luke senses Darth Vader. Coway patrols confirm Luke''s feeling: Imperials, led by Darth Vader and Captain-Supervisor Grammel, are attacking the underground cave. When the Imperials arrive, they are surprised by the Coway tribe''s powerful response and face a debacle. Vader and Grammel retreat with the handful of surviving stormtroopers, though Vader loses patience with Grammel for the defeat and kills him. Luke and company steal an Imperial transport left behind, and begin travelling to the Temple themselves. They beat Vader to the temple and find the Kaiburr crystal. They encounter a monster, and unsuccessfully try to fight it off with blasters. Luke tells Hin and Kee to get some rifles. Luke cuts down one of the pillars holding up the temple, crushing the monsters. Luke''s leg is pinned under a fallen boulder. Darth Vader then enters the Temple of Pomojema, announcing that he killed Hin and Kee. Leia takes up Luke''s lightsaber and begins fighting Darth Vader, but he toys with her, giving her multiple superficial burns with his own saber. Hin, mortally wounded, shows up and in his dying act, lifts the big rock off of Luke''s leg. Luke fights Vader, showing more skill than expected, deflecting some Force-based attacks and eventually slicing off Vader''s arm. Despite this, the Sith Lord seems about to win, but then falls into a pit. Luke senses that Vader is still alive. As the story ends, Leia and Luke, healed by the crystal, drive off with Halla into the mists of Mimban.

Splinter of the Mind''s Eye

Three years after the events of the first book, a funeral is finally carried out for Conrad''s missing father, Griffin Yeats, & there is an internal uproar over the symbols chosen for Griffin''s headstone (the choices made by Griffin himself) & while trying to figure out what the symbols mean, Conrad stumbles into a race to find a missing artifact that contains Atlantean information buried somewhere under Washington DC- but before he can get far, an ancient terrorist organization known as the Alignment, who have secretly infiltrated the ranks of every government, religious organization & secret society on the planet, send an assassin after him, sparking a murder investigation, which is twisted into an attempt to assassinate the president- Now Conrad must avoid his own government & discover the globe, with or without Serena''s help, before the Alignment can launch a global pandemic which will be set loose on the Fourth of July & wipe out almost all of humanity- allowing the Alignment to rise to power... and, he only has one week to accomplish all this!

The Atlantis Prophecy

Fight Club centers on an anonymous Narrator, who works as a product recall specialist for an unnamed car company. Because of the stress of his job and the jet lag brought upon by frequent business trips, he begins to suffer from recurring insomnia. When he seeks treatment, the Narrator's doctor advises him to visit a support group for testicular cancer victims to "see what real suffering is like". The Narrator finds that sharing the problems of others -- despite not actually having testicular cancer himself -- alleviates his insomnia. The narrator's unique treatment works until he meets Marla Singer, another "tourist" who visits the support group under false pretenses. The possibly disturbed Marla reminds the Narrator that he is a faker who does not belong there. He begins to hate Marla for keeping him from crying, and, therefore, from sleeping. After a confrontation, the two agree to attend separate support group meetings to avoid each other. The truce is uneasy, however, and the Narrator's insomnia returns. Whilst on a nude beach, the Narrator meets Tyler Durden, a charismatic extremist of mysterious means. After an explosion destroys the narrator's condominium, he asks to stay at Tyler's house. Tyler agrees, but asks for something in return: "I want you to hit me as hard as you can." Both men find that they enjoy the ensuing fistfight. They subsequently move in together and establish a "fight club", drawing countless men with similar temperaments into bare-knuckle fighting matches, set to the following rules: Later in the book, a mechanic tells the Narrator about two new rules of the fight club: that nobody is the center of the fight club except for the two men fighting, and that the fight club will always be free. Marla, noticing that the Narrator hasn't recently attended his support groups, calls him to claim that she has overdosed on Xanax in a half-hearted suicide attempt. Tyler returns from work, picks up the phone to Marla's drug-induced rambling, and rescues her. Tyler and Marla embark on an uneasy affair that confounds the Narrator and confuses Marla. Throughout this affair, Marla is unaware both of fight club's existence and the interaction between Tyler and the Narrator. Because Tyler and Marla are never seen at the same time, the Narrator wonders if Tyler and Marla are the same person. As fight club attains a nationwide presence, Tyler uses it to spread his anti-consumerist ideas, recruiting fight club's members to participate in increasingly elaborate pranks on corporate America. He eventually gathers the most devoted fight club members and forms "Project Mayhem," a cult-like organization that trains itself as an army to bring down modern civilization. This organization, like fight club, is controlled by a set of rules: While initially a loyal participant in Project Mayhem, the Narrator becomes uncomfortable with the increasing destructiveness of its activities. He resolves to stop Tyler and his followers when Bob, a friend of his from the testicular cancer support group, is killed during one of Project Mayhem's sabotage operations. However, the Narrator learns that he himself is Tyler; Tyler is not a separate person, but a separate personality. As the Narrator's mental state deteriorated, his mind formed a new personality that was able to escape from the problems of his life. Marla inadvertently reveals to the Narrator that he and Tyler are the same person. Tyler's affair with Marla was actually his own affair with Marla. The Narrator's bouts of insomnia had actually been Tyler's personality surfacing. Tyler would be active whenever the Narrator was "sleeping." The Tyler personality not only created fight club, but also blew up the Narrator's condo. Tyler plans to blow up a skyscraper using homemade bombs created by Project Mayhem; the actual target of the explosion, however, is the nearby national museum. Tyler plans to die as a martyr during this event, taking the Narrator's life as well. Realizing this, the Narrator sets out to stop Tyler, although Tyler is always thinking ahead of him. The Narrator makes his way to the roof of the building, where he is held at gunpoint by Tyler. However, when Marla comes to the roof with one of the support groups, Tyler vanishes, as he "was his hallucination, not hers." With Tyler gone, the Narrator waits for the bomb to explode and kill him. However, the bomb malfunctions because Tyler mixed paraffin into the explosives. Still alive and holding Tyler's gun, the narrator makes the first decision that is truly his own: he puts the gun in his mouth and shoots himself. Some time later, he awakens in a mental hospital, believing that he is in Heaven arguing with God over human nature. The book ends with the Narrator being approached by hospital employees who reveal themselves to be Project members. They tell him that their plans still continue, and that they are expecting Tyler to come back.

Fight Club

Chapter I Hadleyburg enjoys the reputation of being an “incorruptible” town known for its responsible, honest people that are trained to avoid temptation. However, at some point the people of Hadleyburg manage to offend a passing stranger, and he vows to get his revenge by corrupting the town. The stranger''s plan centers around a sack of gold (worth around $41,000) he drops off in Hadleyburg at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Richards, to be given to a man in the town who purportedly gave him some life-changing advice (and 20 dollars in a time of need) long ago. To identify the man, a letter with the sack suggests that anyone who claims to know what the advice was should write the remark down and submit it to Reverend Burgess, who will open the sack at a public meeting and find the actual remark inside. News of the mysterious sack of gold spreads throughout the town and even gains attention across the country. Chapter II The residents beam with pride as stories of the sack and Hadleyburg''s honesty spread throughout the nation, but the mood soon changes. Initially reluctant to give into the temptation of the gold, soon even the most upstanding citizens are trying to guess the remark. Mr. and Mrs. Richards, one of the town''s 19 model couples, receive a letter from a stranger revealing the remark: “You are far from being a bad man: go, and reform.” Mrs. Richards is ecstatic that they will be able to claim the gold. Unbeknownst to one another, all 19 couples have received exactly the same letter. They submit their claims to Burgess and begin to recklessly purchase things on credit in anticipation of their future wealth. Chapter III The town hall meeting to decide the rightful owner of the sack arrives, and it is packed with residents, outsiders, and reporters. Burgess reads the first two claims, and a dispute quickly arises between two members of the town, "Shadbelly" Billson and Lawyer Wilson. Both of their letters contain nearly the same remark. To settle which is right, Burgess cuts open the sack and finds the note that reveals the full remark: “You are far from being a bad man—go, and reform—or, mark my words—some day, for your sins you will die and go to hell or Hadleyburg—try and make it the former.” Neither man''s claim includes the second half of remark. The next claim reads the same, and the town hall bursts into laughter at the obvious dishonesty behind the identical, incorrect claims. Burgess continues to read the rest of the claims, all with the same remark, and one by one the prominent couples of the town are publicly shamed. Mr. and Mrs. Richards await their name with anguish, but surprisingly it is never read. With all the claims presented, another note in the sack is opened. It reveals the stranger''s plot and his desire for revenge. He says that it was foolish for the citizens of Hadleyburg to always avoid temptation, because it is easy to corrupt those who have never had their resolve tested. It is discovered the sack contains not gold but lead pieces. A townsperson proposes to auction the lead off and give the money to the Richardses, the only prominent couple in town that did not have their name read off. Mr. and Mrs. Richards are in despair, unsure whether to come clean and stop the auction or to accept the money. The stranger who set up the whole scheme in the first place is revealed to have been in the town hall the whole time. He contrives to reward the Richards for their supposed honesty by buying the sack at auction for its price in gold. Chapter IV The following day the stranger delivers checks totaling $40,000 to the Richards. They fret about whether they should burn them. A message arrives from Burgess, explaining that he intentionally kept the Richards'' claim from being read as a way to return an old favor done to him by Mr. Richards. Mr. and Mrs. Richards become distraught over their situation. They grow paranoid and start to think Burgess has revealed their dishonesty to other people in the town. Their anxiety causes them both to fall ill and Mr. Richards confesses their guilt shortly before he and his wife die. Hadleyburg, with its reputation irreparably damaged, decides to rename itself. The story ends with the line “It is an honest town once more, and the man will have to rise early that catches it napping again.”

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg

Vonnegut uses the premise of a timequake (or repetition of actions) in which there is no free will. The idea of determinism is explored—as it is in many of his previous works—to assert that people really have no free will. Kilgore Trout serves again as the main character, who the author declares as having died in 2001, at Xanadu retreat in Rhode Island. Vonnegut explains in the beginning of the book that he was not satisfied with the original version of Timequake he wrote (or Timequake One). Taking parts of Timequake One and combining it with personal thoughts and anecdotes produced the finished product, so-called Timequake Two. Many of the anecdotes deal with Vonnegut''s family, the death of loved ones, and people''s last words. The plot, while centered on Trout, is also a sort of ramble in which Vonnegut goes off on complete tangents to the plot and comes back dozens of pages later: the Timequake has thrust citizens of the year 2001 back in time to 1991 to repeat every action they undertook during that time. Most of the small stories in the book expound on the depression and sadness wrought by watching oneself make bad choices: people watch their parents die again, drive drunk or cause accidents that severely injure others. At the end of the timequake, when people resume control, they are depressed and gripped by ennui. Kilgore Trout is the only one not affected by the apathy, and thus helps revive others by telling them, "You were sick, but now you''re well, and there''s work to do." In the conclusion of this book, Vonnegut (who has inserted himself into the text, something he also did in Breakfast of Champions and, to a lesser degree, in Slaughterhouse-Five) meets other authors for a celebration of Trout. The celebration, described as a "clambake," is heavily foreshadowed throughout the novel''s previous chapters.

Timequake

The book includes contributions from twenty-two academics in the field of philosophy. Topics include issues of sexuality involved in depicting Saddam Hussein and Satan as gay lovers, existentialism as applied to the death of Kenny, and a debate about whether feminists can enjoy the show due to some of its misogynistic characters. The contributors to the work utilize philosophical concepts derived from Plato, Aristotle, Freud and Sartre and place them in a South Park context. The book''s contributors all attempted to analyze the philosophical and cultural aspects of South Park in the work. One of the authors, David Koepsell, wrote about the controversial episode dealing with Scientology, entitled: "Trapped in the Closet". Koepsell cited the fact that the series won a Peabody Award due to its willingness to criticize intolerance in April 2006 as a "special concern for criticizing and countering intolerance", and the notion that "the Church of Scientology suffers from the widely held perceptions that it seeks to silence former members and others who criticize its beliefs and practices" as the motivation behind the episode. Koepsell analyzed Comedy Central''s reaction to the episode itself, in a section of his book entitled "2005-2006: Comedy Central Caves". He mentions South Park''s usage of the onscreen caption "this is what Scientologists actually believe." in the episode, noting that the same device was used in the episode "All About the Mormons?." In referencing this similar use of the onscreen caption device, Koepsell seemed to point to an inconsistency in the behavior of Comedy Central relative to the episode. He explained "By a long shot, this show was more kind to Scientology than was "All About the Mormons" to Mormonism." He noted Comedy Central had suggested it would not rebroadcast the episode for the second time, though it later announced on July 12, 2006 that it would. The book can thus be summed up in the following sentence: "Perhaps the truth is in the middle."

South Park and Philosophy: You Know, I Learned Something Today

Temple of the Winds picks up shortly after where the last volume, Blood of the Fold, left off. A wizard named Marlin appears in Aydindril announcing his intent to kill Richard Rahl. He is immediately captured and questioned by the Mother Confessor, Kahlan Amnell, and one of Richard''s bodyguards, Cara. Cara uses her Mord''Sith ability to capture Marlin''s gift when he tries to escape, but the link between Cara and Marlin is used against her when Emperor Jagang takes possession of Marlin soon thereafter. A lady named Nadine, whom Richard had known as an herbalist from the Westland, arrives and attempts to heal Cara, but fails. Richard''s half-brother Drefan, a self-proclaimed high priest of a sect of healers, does however succeed in curing Cara. Meanwhile, Zedd and Prelate Annalina continue their search for the unleashed Nathan Rahl. Their search leads them to a run down inn in an unnamed city, where they discover that Nathan misled them into following another man. The man then gives them a message informing them not to follow Nathan but to protect a treasure instead. A Sister of the Dark, who was also following Nathan, ends up getting caught in a snare Zedd intended for the Prophet Rahl. Richard and Berdine continue to work on the translation of the journal of Kolo, a dead wizard found in the depths of the Wizard''s Keep. In the midst of all these activities, a Sister of the Dark travels through Aydindril spreading a magical plague. In a search for a cure, Richard travels to the First Wizard''s Enclave. To save the people of the Midlands from the plague, Kahlan must betray Richard to allow him to enter the Temple of the Winds. In doing so, Richard saves the people of the Midlands, but to return, he pays the price of knowledge, leaving the Temple with something that no vast library of knowledge can ever teach - understanding. Through this, Richard is saved from the life of the eternally condemned. Meanwhile, Nathan rescues a woman named Clarissa from a life of slavery in the Imperial Order. He then builds a relationship with the woman and uses her to obtain items from Jagang that were given under a tentative deal struck between Nathan (acting as Lord Rahl at the time) and the Emperor. When Richard returns, Kahlan learns that she must destroy a book in order to save Richard, so she travels to the Old World in the sliph. Upon her arrival she finds Nathan, Sister Verna, and Warren in a compromised situation, and she immediately spring into action to aid them. Clarissa is killed in the struggle by traitors. With the book, Kahlan returns to Aydindril, but a battle ensues with Drefan, and she is unable to defeat him. Luckily, Richard arrives and disables Drefan by ripping his spine out through his stomach. When Richard rushes to Kahlan''s side, the still-conscious Drefan gets up and prepares to attack him, but is killed by the sliph. Kahlan destroys the book, and Richard is cured of the plague. Now, three of Drefan''s sect come to see Richard. They tell him that Drefan was seriously disturbed, and that he may be a danger to others and himself. When Richard tells them that their high priest is dead, they tell him that Drefan was barely a novice in healing, let alone a high priest. Richard accepts this fact, and decides to remember Drefan in a different way. Richard and Kahlan travel to the land of the Mud People to be wed, where they meet up with Zedd and Ann. Richard and Kahlan are soon thereafter wed and are visited by the witch woman Shota, who once again warns them not to conceive a child.

Temple of the Winds

James is joined on a new mission by Dave Moss and his sister Lauren Adams. The mission focuses on Jane Oxford, an international arms dealer who has been untraceable for as long as she has been on the CIA''s most wanted list. But then they come across a breakthrough: Jane''s 14-year-old son Curtis Oxford has been jailed for murdering three innocent people. He is being held at Arizona Maximum Security Prison. The Americans ask a favour from CHERUB, an organisation with one essential advantage: even experienced criminals do not expect kids to be spying on them. The plan is for James and Dave to be sent into the prison undercover, then to bust Curtis out, hoping that Curtis will lead them to his mother. However, after a prison fight Dave is injured and taken to hospital, leaving James alone behind bars. Soon James and Curtis escape with the help of Lauren. Later, they meet up with Jane Oxford. Jane wants James dead, so she sends her men to execute him but he beats them. Soon, the FBI arrive to arrest Jane. Lauren gets her navy shirt for her performance.

CHERUB: Maximum Security

After the Old Dog mission, one of the crew members - Dr. David Luger sacrificed himself to allow his comrades escape from the airbase at Anadyr. Although everyone thought he was dead, he is not. Years later, he is now a completely brainwashed Soviet aircraft designer working for an aircraft design bureau called Fisikous is Lithuania. His whereabouts are found about by the Americans while they are extracting a Lithuanian defector. Now, known to the Old Dog crew and the high-ranking officials in Whitehouse as Dr. Ozerov, Luger must be saved from the grips of the old KGB. Luger has been forced to work on a stealth bomber called Fisikous Fi-170 which rivals the EB-52 Megafortress he had developed in the States. Parallelly the former Soviet state of Belarus is planning to invade Lithuania. Its Military commander Gen. Voschanka plans a decisive attack and use their nuclear arsenal if necessary, to force Lithuania to surrender. The Americans learn of this move by intelligence gathering and mount a covert mission to stop Belarus from invading Lithuania. An air squadron with CH-53E Superstallions and AH-1 Cobra choppers is first sent to evacuate the citizens at the American Embassy in Lithuania, followed by an air assault to destroy Belarusian ground targets. Meanwhile, a special Marines team in V-22 Ospreys, along with Patrick McLanahan, Jon Ormack and Hal briggs arrive at the Fisikous institute which is now run over with Lithuanian soldiers, to save Dave Luger. After a V-22 crash, followed by fierce gun battles, Patrick, Luger, Ormack escape in the Fi-170. On their way, they destroy several Belarusian ground units and take out a MiG-29 fighter, after which they make their way to Scotland. The EB-52 Megafortresses are sent to aid the Lithuanian ground troops led by Maj. Dominikas Palcikas in defending their soil. They take out nuclear missiles bound for Lithuania, detonating one of them with an AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile, causing a small blast. Voschanka''s entire command centre is taken out by the Russian Commonwealth forces, during which he is shot dead. The Belarusian troops finally withdraw after suffering heavy casualties. Luger finally reunites with the Old Dog crew at HAWC, amidst potential military investigations into his recent past.

Night of the Hawk

Joe Stoshack goes back in time to find out whether Babe Ruth called his shot in the 1932 world series. His dad tags along to keep him safe, per his mom''s request, and to try to make some money, because he has just gotten laid off. Joe Stoshack ends up meeting Babe Ruth right after almost getting killed by a guy with a knife. Babe Ruth assumes that Joe has just saved him from an assassination attempt, so he invites Joe and his dad to come along with him. Joe''s dad gets Babe Ruth to sign a bunch of baseballs, fulfilling what he wanted to do, and then they go to the baseball game, fulfilling what Joe wanted to do. However, Joe''s dad sees presidentential hopeful Franklin Roosevelt (Who was elected president a month later) in the stands, and tries to warn him about the Holocaust. But security guards see him as a potential assassin, and take him away. Joe ends up watching the game and discovers that Babe Ruth really did call his shot and then gets re-united with his dad. His dad''s sack of baseballs that got signed by Babe Ruth were confiscated, but he doesn''t care because he got to spend some quality time with his son, something that almost never happens. Then they return to the present and Joe Stoshack hits a Walk-Off home run in his next Little League game, somewhat mirroring Babe Ruth''s home run.

Babe & Me

* The Heading (1:1): As is typical of prophetic books, an anonymous editor has supplied the name of the prophet, an indication of his time of activity, and an identification of his speech as the “word of Yahweh”, a generic term carrying a claim to prophetic legitimacy and authority. Samaria and Jerusalem are given prominence as the foci of the prophet’s attention. * Judgement against Samaria (1:2&ndash;7): Drawing upon ancient traditions for depicting a theophany, the prophet depicts the coming of Yahweh to punish the city, whose sins are idolatry and the abuse of the poor. * Warnings to the cities of Judah (1:8&ndash;16): Samaria has fallen, Judah is next. Micah describes the destruction of the lesser towns of Judah (referring to the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib, 701&nbsp;BC). For these passages of doom on the various cities, the device paronomasia is used. Paronomasia is a literary device which ''plays'' on the sound of each word for literary effect. For example, the inhabitants of Beth-le-aphrah (“house of dust”) are told to “roll yourselves in the dust.” 1:14. Though most of the Paronomasia is lost in translation, it is the equivalent of ‘Ashdod shall be but ashes,’ where the fate of the city matches its name. * Misuse of power denounced (2:1&ndash;5): Denounces those who appropriate the land and houses of others. The context may be simply the amassing wealth for its own sake, or could be connected with the militarisation of the region for the expected Assyrian attack. * Threats against the prophet (2:6&ndash;11): The prophet is warned not to prophesy. He answers that the rulers are harming God''s people, and want to listen only to those who advocate the virtues of wine. * A later promise (2:12&ndash;13): These verses assume that judgement has already fallen and Israel is already scattered abroad. * Judgement on wicked Zion (3:1&ndash;4): Israel''s rulers are accused of gaining more wealth at the expense of the poor, by any means. The metaphor of flesh being torn illustrates the length to which the ruling classes and socialites would go to further increase their wealth. Prophets are corrupt, seeking personal gain. Jerusalem''s rulers believe that God will always be with them, but God will be with his people, and Jerusalem will be destroyed. * Zion''s future hope (4:1&ndash;5) This is a later passage, almost identical with Isaiah 2:2&ndash;4. Zion (meaning the Temple) will be rebuilt, but by God, and based not on violence and corruption but on the desire to learn God''s laws and live in peace. * Further promises to Zion (4:6&ndash;7) This is another later passage, promising Zion that she will once more enjoy her former independence and power. * Deliverance from Distress in Babylon (4:9&ndash;5:1) The similarities to Isaiah 41:15&ndash;16 and the references to Babylon suggest the period of this material, although it is unclear whether a period during or after the siege of 586 is meant. Despite their trials, God will not desert his people. * The promised ruler from Bethlehem (5:1&ndash;14): This passage is usually dated to the exile. Although chapters 4:9-10 have said that there is "no king in Zion", these chapters predict a new military ruler will emerge from Bethlehem, the traditional home of the Davidic monarchy, to restore the security of Israel. Assyria will be stricken, and Israel''s punishment will lead to the punishment of the nations. * A Covenant lawsuit (6:1&ndash;5): Yahweh accuses Israel (the people of Judah) of breaking the covenant through their lack of justice and honesty, after the pattern of the kings of Israel (northern kingdom) * Torah Liturgy (6:6&ndash;8): Micah speaks on behalf of the community asking what they should do in order to get back on God''s good side. Micah then responds in V. 8 by showing what God requires: "to Do Justice, and to Love Kindness, and to Walk Humbly with your God." Thus declaring that the burnt offering of both animals and humans (which may have been practiced in Judah under Kings Ahaz and Manasseh) is not necessary for God. * The City as a Cheat (6:9&ndash;16): The city is reprimanded for its dishonest trade practices. * Lament (7:1&ndash;7): The first passage in the book in the first person: whether it comes from Micah himself is disputed. Honesty and decency have vanished, families are filled with strife. * A song of fallen Jerusalem (7:8&ndash;10): The first person voice continues, but now it is the city who speaks. She recognises that her destruction is deserved punishment from God. The recognition gives grounds for hope that God is still with her. * A prophecy of restoration (7:11&ndash;13): Fallen Jerusalem is promised that she will be rebuilt and that her power will be greater than ever (a contrast with the vision of peace in 4:1-5). * A prayer for future prosperity (7:14&ndash;17): The mood switches from a request for power to grateful astonishment at God''s mercy.

Book of Micah

Chapter One, "The Ethics of Sexual Shame", criticizes the idea that there is some morally compelling aspect to "normality", arguing that the normal range is simply a statistical category to which there is no ethical obligation to correspond: "If normal just means within a common statistical range, there is no reason to be normal or not" (see also Hume''s Guillotine). Warner uses the example of former US president Bill Clinton''s impeachment after a sexual scandal to argue that public and political discourse uses shame disingenuously, to portray certain kinds of sexual behaviour as intolerable, when private morality generally recognises the compatibility of sex with dignity. The second chapter, titled "What''s Wrong with Normal?", argues that as well as being a limited goal, less urgent than the elimination of violence and discrimination against queer people, same-sex marriage actively causes negative consequences both for queer and straight people, because in validating a single, prescribed type of relationship it devalues and makes more difficult other kinds of interpersonal relationship. Warner argues that the campaign for gay marriage threatens to turn the gay rights movement, previously a powerful force against the stigmatization of sex, into a tool for the normalization of queer life. In Chapter Three, "Beyond Gay Marriage", Warner proposes that by restricting its campaigning to demands for same-sex marriage, the gay rights movement has marginalized and ignored queer counterpublics that it would have served better by presenting a broad range of sexual lives as moral. In the fourth chapter, "Zoning Out Sex", Warner examines the history of zoning regulation changes in 1990s New York City. He argues that stricter regulation of the city''s sex-related businesses represents a trend toward the repression of sex and the "erosion of queer publics." By removing problematic, visible, queer sex from public spaces, Warner argues, these policies relegated sexuality to a private sphere of presumed heterosexuality. The net effect was to heighten hypocrisy over the conduct of sexual relationships, supporting the impression that the best any sexuality campaigner can aspire to is admission to a limited sphere of normality that is politically sanctioned, but also deliberately placed outside the sphere of the politically debatable. In the final chapter, "The Politics of Shame and HIV Prevention", Warner challenges the assertion, made by gay authors like Larry Kramer, that sexual recklessness is to blame for continuing cases of HIV infection. Warner argues that, on the contrary, the political use of shame to stigmatize certain kinds of sexual activity actually puts more people at risk of contracting HIV and developing AIDS, by marginalizing those in at-risk communities and restricting access to condoms and safer sex advice. He also criticizes abstinence-only sex education as "an appalling insult to gay men and lesbians among others" and an inadequate response to the problems of public sexual health, asserting that "shame and stigma are often among the most intractable dimensions of risk."

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Splinter of the Mind's Eye

By Alan Dean Foster

The Atlantis Prophecy

No Author Listed

Fight Club

By Chuck Palahniuk

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg

By Mark Twain

Timequake

By Kurt Vonnegut

South Park and Philosophy: You Know, I Learned Something Today

No Author Listed

Temple of the Winds

By Terry Goodkind

CHERUB: Maximum Security

By Robert Muchamore

Night of the Hawk

No Author Listed

Babe & Me

By Dan Gutman

Book of Micah

No Author Listed

The Trouble With Normal

By Michael Warner