The prologue is a letter from Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, "To my lawyer, Saxonberg", accompanied by a drawing of her writing at her office desk. It is the cover letter for the 158&#8209;page narrative, which provides background for changes to her last will and testament. Eleven-year-old Claudia Kincaid decides to run away from home comfortably, because she thinks her parents do not appreciate her and she doesn''t like discomfort. She chooses the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in New York City, with nine-year-old brother Jamie as companion partly because he has saved all his money. With one unused adult fare on the commuter train and one very long walk, they get there at no cost when admission is free. Early chapters show how Claudia and Jamie settle in at the Met: hiding in the bathroom at closing time from staff on circuit to see that all the patrons have departed; blending with school groups on tour, to learn more about the museum exhibits; bathing in the fountain, whose "wishing coins" provide income; sleeping in an antique bed. A new exhibit draws sensational crowds and fascinates the children: the marble statue of an angel, sculptor unknown but suspected to be Michelangelo. It was purchased at auction from Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, a collector who recently closed her showcase Manhattan residence. They research it on site and at the Donnell Library, and give their conclusion to the museum staff anonymously. After learning they have been naive, the children spend the last of their money on travel to Mrs.&nbsp;Frankweiler''s home in Connecticut. She recognizes them as runaways but sets them briefly to the task of researching the angel in her long bank of file cabinets. Despite the idiosyncratic organization of her files, they do discover the angel''s secret. In exchange for a full account of their adventure, she will leave the crucial file to them in her will, and send them home in her Rolls-Royce. It''s a deal. Claudia learns her deep motive for persisting in the crazy search: she wanted a secret of her own to treasure and keep. Mrs. Frankweiler may get "grandchildren" who delight her. Her lawyer gets a luncheon date at the Met, to revise her will, surely not for the first time.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Álex de la Iglesia signs only two pages of this novel. In this introduction he states he''s found a laptop computer lost by poet Juan Carlos Satrústegui. On it, he''s read a file called Payasos en la lavadora. Since Satrústegui has entered a mental sanatorium, De La Iglesia talks with the writer''s mother and decides to publish the text after correcting it. It''s a parody of the old literary technique of the false document found by chance, probably influenced by the fact that, in real life, Álex de la Iglesia writes his film scripts on a laptop computer, which he''s lost at least twice. According to this introduction, the restin fifteen chapters are Juan Carlos Satrústegui''s autobiographic tale. Satrústegui considers himself a genius, superior over all those he comes across. But we soon realise his psychic problems (obsessions, deliria, paranoia, lack of empathy...) which get worse due to the drugs he uses in fiestas, the want of slept and the beatings he earns when dealing with the lumpen.

Payasos en la lavadora

In northern part of the land lies the Moidart and the city of Eldacre; further north is the location of the Rigante clans. This is the place that the highlanders have been forced to settle in order to remain free. The Moidart''s son, Gaise Macon (known by the Rigante soul name of ''Stormrider'') is in the Royalist king''s army, and serves loyally. An old prophecy, however, is making him a hunted man by the treachourous Lord Winterbourne. Winterbourne is the leader of the Redeemer Knights, a cold-hearted group of killers. When he and the Redeemers were sacking the village of Shelsans, a monk showed him an ancient skull - the skull of Cernunnos. A priest prophesiesed before he was executed that Winterbourne would be killed by the man with the golden eye - who Winterbourne assumes is Gaise Macon. Winterbourne kills the king, then, taking control of the army, attempts several assassinations on Macon, and finally launches a wide-scale invasion on the town the Stormrider is deployed at. Macon holds out due to an early warning from a traitor of Winterbourne''s army, but the woman he loved was killed by the invaders. The Moidart''s castle at Eldacre is invaded by soldiers of the Pinance who are allied to Winterbourne, and is a longtime rival/ enemy of the Moidart. The Moidart hides in the castle with a few loyal men, kills the Pinancer leaders, and takes control of the Pinance''s army. Gaise Macon leads the Eldacre Company back to Eldacre, and the Moidart seeks the Rigante''s assistance in the coming invasion by Winterbourne and his Redeemers who still think Stormrider will bring their downfall. Cernunnos sprit forces Winterbourne to hand his skull to the Rigante witch-woman, the Dweller, who passes it on to Stormrider. As Winterbourne''s forces close in on Eldacre, a mage in the Moidart''s service - who is seeking only profit - communicates with Winterbourne, informing him that the skull of Cernunnos is in his possession. Winterbourne moves around the battlefield and comes to Eldacre himself with a detachment of elite troops. However the loss of the skull has reduced the fighting skills of the Redeemers from their previous levels down to a point where they are easily defeated by the injured Rigante. Winterbourne is stopped as he tries to escape with the skull and in that terrible moment discovers that the man with the golden eye was not Gaise Macon at all. Gaise Macon finally uses the skull, and Cernunnos takes control of him, temporarily giving him god-like powers. He heals and revives both his own wounded or dead troops as well as the enemy''s. Finally, as Cernunnos prepares to destroy mankind, he is stopped by Macon''s old friend, Mulgrave who shoots a golden bullet into his heart - to save the human race. The Moidart is made the new king.

Stormrider

When a massive, artificially-created structure enters the galaxy, a society of technologically advanced humans (capable of interstellar flight and functionally immortal) are the first to intercept and investigate it. Finding it to be an indestructible ship, they decide to convert it into a cruise ship, inviting alien races to join them in its massive, uncharted interior as it makes a slow circumnavigation of the Milky Way. After thousands of years, with over 200 billion creatures living in its upper levels, a group of explorers discover a planet hidden in the core of the Great Ship. As they explore it, however, an ionic blast cuts them off from the rest of the ship and destroys much of their technology. Because this planet, Marrow, is slowly expanding, the explorers reason that a new bridge can be built in another 5,000 years. They thus begin a civilization on the surface of Marrow. The descendants of these original explorers come to believe that the large superstructure has been built to contain the Bleak, a race of nearly unstoppable insect-like creatures. Calling themselves the Wayward, they take over the ship when the bridge is completed and attempt to steer it towards a black hole to destroy the Bleak. One of the original explorers sees a vision of the Builders of the ship fighting the Bleak, containing them within the heart of Marrow and constructing the ship around it as a prison. The Bleak, it is concluded, have twisted the Wayward into destroying the ship so that they may escape. They stop the Wayward''s plan by undermining the ship''s control and command systems to divert the engines'' thrust just enough to skim past the black hole. The book ends with the suggestion that, with Marrow being a prison for the Bleak and the Great Ship an extension of that prison, the universe itself could be a further layer constructed by the Builders.

Marrow

Pangbourne Village is an estate for the upper middleclass, protected by security fences and discreet guards. Its ten families are wealthy, respectable, 40-something couples with adolescent children on whom they lavish everything money can buy. One morning it is discovered that all the adult residents have been killed and the children have disappeared without trace. Dr Richard Greville of Scotland Yard puzzles over the scanty evidence: it gives no leads to the identity of the murderers and kidnappers. No demands for ransom are received. No terrorist group claims responsibility. The reader soon realizes that the missing children are also the missing murderers. Their controlled and materialistic upbringing has left them no way to establish their own identities except by rebelling into criminal savagery. However, in a tradition of obtuse policemen going back to Inspector Lestrade in the Sherlock Holmes stories, Greville resists drawing this obvious conclusion - until the children strike again.

Running Wild

Kelley Winslow is a teenage actress who lives in New York. When the lead actress in their production of Shakespeare''s A Midsummer Night''s Dream gets injured, Kelley goes from understudy to star in an instant. In her first rehearsal, she forgets a few lines, ending in her going to the Central Park to practice. Meanwhile, Sonny Flannery, a Janus guard protecting the mortal realm, is hunting the Fae that passed through The Gate, the only way through the Otherworld and ours. He sees her as a Firework and is merely curious in what she really is. He starts to follow her and in the end she becomes furious that he won''t stop bugging her and she yells at him. During her ranting, however, Sonny is hurtled across the rad by her fist and sees her with light encircling her. He notices it is great power. When she is done she walks off, and another of the Janus guard appear. Sonny asks him if her saw the bright light and he replies uncomfortably "Might have...". Just when she thinks things couldn''t get any worse, they do. Having lived all her life hidden in the mortal realm, she is unknown to the fact that she is actually a Faerie princess, stolen from the Faerie realm as an infant. When Sonny discovers her true identity,an interlinking chain of events threaten to destroy both the realms, mortal as well as Faerie.

Wondrous Strange

One day in 1917 an aging philosophy tutor, nicknamed Cripure, feels unable to give advice to a student who is departing for the front in World War I. Amidst the horror of the war, he feels increasing disgust at life. He remembers how, years ago, he lost his wife. He is now living alone, supported only by Maia, his lazy housekeeper. His youthful promise as a writer and thinker has long since evaporated, and his body is becoming disturbingly abnormal as his feet become excessively large due to an illness. He hates himself, his colleagues and his students. He takes a class at which the students play up. In the afternoon he consoles himself with drink. As the evening wears on he learns about disasters and local tragedies, deaths, robberies and betrayals which convince him of the irredeemable corruption of humanity. French soldiers are becoming mutinous as the war continues without hope of an end. Cripure becomes involved in an altercation at the railway station as disaffected soldiers riot. He hits a jingoistic "patriot" and is challenged to a duel, which he accepts. Convinced that he will be killed, he writes a will. To his surprise local people rally round to support him, including his housekeeper and old friends. Cripure''s challenger is discovered to be a hypocrite and is forced to back off. Saved from death, Cripure is more disturbed by the new evidence of human solidarity than he was by the consolation of despair. Unable to imagine a new life, he shoots himself.

Le Sang noir

Burton defined his subject as follows: In attacking his stated subject, Burton drew from nearly every science of his day, including psychology and physiology, but also astronomy, meteorology, and theology, and even astrology and demonology. Much of the book consists of quotations from various ancient and mediæval medical authorities, beginning with Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen. Hence the Anatomy is filled with more or less pertinent references to the works of others. A competent Latinist, Burton also included a great deal of Latin poetry in the Anatomy, and many of his inclusions from ancient sources are left untranslated in the text. The Anatomy of Melancholy is an especially lengthy book, the first edition being a single quarto volume nearly 900 pages long; subsequent editions were even longer. The text is divided into three major sections plus an introduction, the whole written in Burton''s sprawling style. Characteristically, the introduction includes not only an author''s note (titled "Democritus Junior to the Reader"), but also a Latin poem ("Democritus Junior to His Book"), a warning to "The Reader Who Employs His Leisure Ill", an abstract of the following text, and another poem explaining the frontispiece. The following three sections proceed in a similarly exhaustive fashion: the first section focuses on the causes and symptoms of "common" melancholies, while the second section deals with cures for melancholy, and the third section explores more complex and esoteric melancholies, including the melancholy of lovers and all varieties of religious melancholies. The Anatomy concludes with an extensive index (which, many years later, The New York Times Book Review called "a readerly pleasure in itself"). Most modern editions include many explanatory notes, and translate most of the Latin.

The Anatomy of Melancholy

What begin in this novel as two separate tales eventually twist together into one, centered around the efforts of a LA Sheriff''s Deputy to capture a brutal sex murderer while serving, somewhat reluctantly, as a decoy for a set-up to expose communists in Hollywood. This young deputy, Danny Upshaw, finds himself on a ride that will force him to confront secrets he has kept his whole life, even from himself. Two other major characters, disgraced former cop, Turner "Buzz" Meeks, now working for both Howard Hughes and Mickey Cohen, and ambitious LAPD lieutenant Malcolm "Mal" Considine, involved in a child custody case, try with varying success to do the right things in an environment of deception, paranoia and brutality. The story begins on New Year''s Eve, as 1949 turns to 1950, and creates a vivid portrait of Los Angeles during that era, from the bebop emanating from the jazz clubs on Central Avenue to the labor union battles facing the Hollywood studios. The entire story takes place in the aftermath of the notorious Sleepy Lagoon murder case and the resultant Zoot Suit Riots, an event that roiled LA for years. While the novel mocks opportunistic Red-baiting as a scam to oust organized labor that benefited political careers and the fortunes of movie studio executives and mobsters, Ellroy is no easier on the film colony''s communists and fellow travelers, many of whom he depicts as decadent hypocrites, easily compromised into "naming names" in an effort to hide their own dirty secrets. As with most of Ellroy''s fiction, he liberally employs the brutal slang of the times. Gays are "fruits," "homos," "nances"; blacks are "boogies" and "jigs" and their neighborhoods are all Niggertown. The Big Nowhere is, in fact, a feast of vernacular, and Ellroy is brilliant at capturing the nuances of dialogue that denote class, race, and mindset.

The Big Nowhere

The primary argument of the book is that we have gone from a recession into a depression (the "D" word, as one author calls it) The text is divided into a preface, a conclusion, and 11 chapters: # The Depression and its Proximate Causes # The Crisis in Banking # The Underlying Causes # Why a Depression Was Not Anticipated # The Government Responds # A Silver Lining? # What We Are Learning About Capitalism and Government # The Economics Profession Asleep at the Switch # Apportioning Blame # The Way Forward # The Future of Conservativism Some of the causes of the depression that Posner cites are the lack of enforceable usury laws, which would discourage risky loans, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and central banks taking risks, securitization of mortgages, illiquidity and insolvency of the banking system, the housing bubble, blindness to warning signs of a crisis, and the preconceptions of ideology. Posner wraps up the book with a chapter containing several suggestions, including eventual re-regulation of the banking industry, but warns that "this is not the time" to do so — a long-term solution after the economy recovers — that can "wait calmer days." He also suggests putting off reorganization of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve until a later time. In the meanwhile, he writes, "piecemeal reforms may be feasible and helpful." These include a halt on government marketing of home ownership, backloading of compensation, increasing marginal income tax rates on the highest incomes, and usury laws to discourage risky loans.

A Failure of Capitalism

With Fawn''s prompting, Dag seeks out a teacher. A powerful groundsetter at local New Moon Cutoff Camp could be the answer to his prayers, but conflicts arise between the insular Lakewalker traditions and Dag''s determination to be a healer for farmers. Dag, Fawn, Arkady the groundsetter and others embark on a long journey by wagon. They are joined by several other characters, some Lakewalker, some farmer, including Fawn''s brother, Whit, and his wife, Berry. On their way up the Trace, a long wagon road, they encounter a malice, an evil being with great power. A Lakewalker kills the malice with a sharing knife. Fawn guesses that this malice was fleeing something even more powerful. That turns out to be a second malice. That malice is killed by Whit, aided by Fawn and Berry, which is unprecedented—no farmer has ever killed a malice without Lakewalker aid before. At the end of the book, Dag and Fawn''s vision of closer cooperation and understanding between Lakewalkers and farmers, as partners, is beginning to be achieved.

Horizon

Setting: a Chinese restaurant Scene 1: Shelly Levene tries to convince office Manager John Williamson to give him some of "the Glengarry leads" (names and phone numbers of promising potential clients for expensive properties). Williamson is willing to sell some of the prime leads, but demands cash in advance. Levene cannot come up with the cash and must leave without any good leads to work with. Scene 2: Dave Moss and George Aaronow hate the pressure management has put on them to succeed. Moss tells Aaronow that they need to strike back by stealing all the Glengarry leads and selling them to another real estate agency. Moss''s plan would require Aaronow to break into the office, stage a burglary, and steal all the prime leads. Aaronow wants no part of the plan, but Moss intimidates him, claiming that he is already an accomplice simply by listening to Moss''s pitch. Scene 3: Ricky Roma delivers a monologue to James Lingk. Roma does not bring up the real estate he wants to sell to Lingk until the very end. Instead, Roma preys upon Lingk''s insecurities, and his sense that he has never done anything adventurous with his life. Setting: a real estate sales office The burglary is discovered. Williamson has called in a police detective. Shelley Levene is happy, because he has finally sold a large plot of land to a couple named Nyborg. James Lingk enters the office, looking for Ricky Roma. Lingk''s wife has ordered him to cancel the sales contract he signed with Roma. Roma attempts to trick Lingk into not cancelling the contract; Levene supports the ruse, but Williamson accidentally ruins Roma''s ploy. Roma is furious at Williamson, who has blown a big sale. Levene picks up where Roma left off, and begins insulting Williamson. Mid-rant, Levene slips and incriminates himself. Williamson pursues and accuses Levene of robbing the office. Levene quickly folds, and admits that he and Dave Moss were the thieves. Levene tries to bribe Williamson, offering half of his future sales. Williamson reveals that the Nyborg sale is worthless--the couple is crazy and just like talking to salesmen. Roma comes back from his interrogation and Williamson goes in the back room to speak with the detective. Alone with a devastated Levene, Roma proposes the two men work together. The door opens and the detective demands to speak with Levene, shoving him into the back room. Roma, unaware of Levene''s fate, reveals his true intentions behind the partnership. Roma orders Williamson to not only continue to hand him the best leads, but to add half of Levene''s commissions. Williamson tells Roma not to worry about it but Roma won''t listen. Aaronow enters the office, desperate to know if they found the perpetrators. Roma says no and heads out to the restaurant.

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Read - Listen - Learn

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

By E. L. Konigsburg

Payasos en la lavadora

By Álex de la Iglesia

Stormrider

By David Gemmell

Marrow

By Robert Reed

Running Wild

By J. G. Ballard

Wondrous Strange

No Author Listed

Le Sang noir

By Louis Guilloux

The Anatomy of Melancholy

By Robert Burton

The Big Nowhere

By James Ellroy

A Failure of Capitalism

No Author Listed

Horizon

By Lois McMaster Bujold

Glengarry Glen Ross

By David Mamet