One day Danny went to the museum," is the first sentence of this book. In the museum, Danny sees other things, but is almost immediately drawn to the dinosaur section and is delighted to find a living dinosaur. Both agree to play with each other, and Danny rides out of the museum on the dinosaur''s neck. Danny and his dinosaur buddy embark on an adventure-filled day, including... *the dinosaur confusing a building for a rock *attending a baseball game *eating ice cream instead of grass *going to the zoo *playing hide and seek with other children The dinosaur is well-intentioned throughout the story, for he helps a lady cross the street, takes Danny across a river and lets the children use him as a slide. He''s also a celebrity, as the illustrations show hundreds of people leave the zoo to play with Danny. Danny and the Dinosaur ends late in the day as all the children return home. Danny waits until the dinosaur walks back to the museum. While walking home, Danny thinks about one of the things first stated in the story: he wants a dinosaur for a pet, but realizes a dinosaur would be too big to stay at his house. As he walks up the driveway, Danny has last line, "But we did have a wonderful day.

Danny and the Dinosaur

Part One: Green Valley In the beginning of the story, we are introduced to Martha Darrell of Green Valley, who is a single woman who is “past her prime” for dating. She is awoken one night by her doorbell and finds Terry Hurley and his sick child Leo. Martha lets the two stay until the child is better but the relationship blossoms and soon Robert is born. Later in his childhood, Martha starts to become more religious as her and Terry grow apart. Leo starts seeing a girl named Anna and Robert accidentally spills the details to a bully named Dogface. Dogface tells his father, Preacher Epperson, who gets Martha involved, and she comes down on Leo pretty hard. He leaves and Anna shortly follows. Part Two: The Green Dragon In anticipation of college Robert goes to visit Boone University that his grandfather was a professor at and his mother was a student. On a train to campus, he meets Alan Vass and Sol Abraham, two returning college students. When Robert goes to the University himself, he adopts many of the same attitudes Alan does. While at school, Robert meets Nell, his first and only love who is also a writer. She follows him after he leaves school and they start living together, he working on his novel and she encouraging him and working at an office responsible for busting up protests. It is at this point that Robert is called back to Green Valley because his mother is ill. After her death, Terry opens up to Robert more and asks that they stay in better touch. Leo comes back into Robert''s life and Leo gets Robert a job at his mill. Robert really does not like the work but he struggles through. Later, the workers of that mill go on strike and come after Leo because they know he is the one that told management about their union plans. After not being pummeled like expected, Leo promises not to go into the mill again. Part Three: Nothing to Lose Now out of a job, Leo finds out Anna is pregnant. They decide to go back to Green Valley where they are sure things will be better. Meanwhile, Robert''s manuscript is turned down and he leaves Nell because he is tired of living off her. Anna and the baby are killed in a car accident at which time Leo decides to make the world feel sorry for what they have been through. Instead, he becomes a wanted man and Robert comes to his rescue, freeing him from the law and renewing their relationship.

A World to Win

The novel centers on a high school in suburban New Jersey, where students are preparing to vote for their school president. The story takes place in 1992, amidst the U.S. Presidential Elections that year. Tracy Flick is an unpopular girl but very ambitious, intelligent and manipulative; however, she is not quite as perfect as her classmates assume. She had a heated sexual affair with her former teacher, and after Tracy told her mother of their relationship, his career and marriage were ruined. Mr. M, one of Tracy''s current teachers, learns that Tracy is taking part in the election, and feeling that Tracy needs to be taken down a notch, prompts Paul Warren (a student of whom he approves) to run against her. In turn, Paul''s outcast lesbian sister, Tammy, begins a reckless campaign to be school president in retaliation to her ex-girlfriend who is now dating Paul. The novel ends with Mr. M ultimately losing his job as a teacher when it is found that he has sabotaged the election by pocketing Tracy''s winning votes- making Paul the winner of the presidency. Mr. M then ends up working in a car dealership.

Election

The novel is split between two points of view, a first-person narrative presenting the events as Chris recalls them in retrospect, interspersed with a series of letters from Helen to their unborn child (Nobody), telling her side of the story as she experiences it. The framing sequence is set in autumn as Chris is on the verge of leaving for Newcastle University. A parcel of letters is delivered for him, and he recognizes Helen''s handwriting. He begins to read the letters, all addressed to "Dear Nobody", and they remind him of the past nine months. The subsequent chapter headings are all the names of months, beginning with January. Helen and Chris make love for the first, and only, time. Chris is prompted to ask his father about his marriage breakdown, and decides to get in touch with his mother. Shortly afterwards Helen begins to fear she is pregnant. Chris is disturbed by her distant behaviour. In late February she finally tells him her suspicions, and writes her first letter to "Dear Nobody": "You''re only a shadow. You''re only a whisper... Leave me alone. Go away. Go away. Please, please, go away." Later when a pregnancy test proves positive, she tries to abort the pregnancy by going riding, risking her life in a wild gallop, to no avail. In April, Helen''s mother finds out, and arranges for her to go to an abortion clinic. However, Helen decides to keep the baby. Mrs Garton refuses to have Chris in the house, but he and Helen continue to see each other. They visit Chris''s mother in Carlisle. In June, Helen and Chris sit their A-levels. After they are over Helen tells Chris she has decided they should break up, believing it is best for both of them. Chris is bewildered, and feels bereft. To get away from all the memories in Sheffield, he goes to France with Tom. He meets a girl called Bryn, but cannot forget Helen. In September, Helen learns her mother''s greatest secret – that she is illegitimate, a great disgrace when she was growing up – and finally begins to understand her. When her contractions start, she has a sudden impulse to send her "Dear Nobody" letters to Chris. Chris finishes reading the letters, realizes the baby is coming and rushes to the hospital, where he meets his newborn daughter, Amy.

Dear Nobody

The novel begins with Jackie Duluoz, based on Kerouac himself, relating a dream in which he finds himself in Lowell, Massachusetts, his childhood home town. Prompted by this dream, he recollects the story of his childhood of warm browns and sepia tones, along with his shrouded childhood fantasies, which have become inextricable from the memories. The fantasies pertain to a castle in Lowell atop a muted green hill that Jackie calls Snake Hill. Underneath the misty grey castle, the Great World Snake sleeps. Various vampires, monsters, gnomes, werewolves, and dark magicians from all over the world gather to the mansion with the intention of awakening the Snake so that it will devour the entire world (although a small minority of them, derisively called "Dovists," believe that the Snake is merely "a husk of doves," and when it awakens it will burst open, releasing thousands of lace white doves. This myth is also present in a story told by Kerouac''s character, Sal Paradise, in On the Road). The eponymous Doctor Sax, also part of Jackie''s fantasy world, is a dark but ultimately friendly figure with a shrouded black cape, an inky black slouch hat, a haunting laugh, and a "disease of the night" called Visagus Nightsoil that causes his skin to turn mossy green at night. Sax, who also came to Lowell because of the Great World Snake, lives in the forest in the neighboring town of Dracut, where he conducts various alchemical experiments, attempting to concoct a potion to destroy the Snake when it awakens. When the Snake is finally awakened, Doctor Sax uses his potion on the Snake, but the potion fails to do any damage. Sax, defeated, discards his shadowy black costume and watches the events unfold as an ordinary man. As the Snake prepares to destroy the world, all seems lost until an enormous night colored bird, an ancient counterpart of the Snake, suddenly appears. Seizing the Snake in its beak, the bird flies upward into the heartbreakingly blue sky until it vanishes from view, leading the amazed Sax to muse, "I''ll be damned, the universe disposes of its own evil!"

Doctor Sax

The setting is at a lakeside summer vacation house in Dutchess County, two hours north of New York City where eight gay friends spend the three major holiday weekends of one summer together for Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day. The house belongs to Gregory, a successful Broadway choreographer now approaching middle age, who fears he is losing his creativity; and his twenty-something lover, Bobby, a legal assistant who''s blind. Each of the guests at their house is connected to Gregory’s work in one way or another - Arthur and longtime partner Perry are business consultants; John Jeckyll, a sour Englishman, is a dance accompanist; die-hard musical theater fanatic Buzz Hauser is a costume designer and the most stereotypically gay man in the group. Only John''s summer lover, Ramon, and John''s twin brother James are outside the circle of friends. But Ramon is outgoing and eventually makes a place for himself in the group, and James is such a gentle soul that he is quickly welcomed. Infidelity, flirtations, soul-searching, AIDS, truth-telling and skinny-dipping mix monumental questions about life and death with a wacky dress rehearsal for Swan Lake performed in drag.

Love! Valour! Compassion!

Vlad has traveled through Dragaera for over two years. He now wears normal clothing, has discarded most of his assassin arsenal, and has lost a finger. While entering the village of Smallcliff, he meets Savn, a Teckla boy apprenticed to the local physicker. The two strike up a brief conversation, and Savn is often confused by Vlad''s behavior, as he has never seen an Easterner before. Vlad''s arrival in town is concurrent with the mysterious death of Reins, a former servant of the Baron of Smallcliff. Vlad shows up again at the local inn, causing a stir. He talks to Savn and becomes interested in Reins''s death. While most of the village assumes that Vlad killed Reins, Vlad begins to believe that the death did have something to do with him. After some questioning, Vlad determines that the Baron of Smallcliff is still Loraan, an Athyra wizard he killed during the events of Taltos. The time Savn spends with Vlad in public alienates him from his friends in the village. Savn takes Vlad to some nearby caves at his request and begins learning about witchcraft, sorcery, and thinking for himself. Vlad tells him that Loraan is an undead necromancer who killed Reins to draw Vlad out for a Jhereg assassin. Savn also becomes acquainted with Vlad''s two jhereg, who are on constant lookout for assassins. Recurring sections from the point-of-view of Rocza reveal that she obeys the "Provider" only out of obligation to her mate, Loiosh. Vlad describes his plan to tunnel into Loraan''s manor and use the caves'' "dark water" to kill him. Before he can put his plan in action, however, he is attacked at the inn by Loraan''s men. Vlad fights them off but becomes seriously wounded before teleporting away. Using Vlad''s comments about sorcery as a guide, Savn locates Vlad and treats his injuries, which include a pneumothorax. While the rest of the village searches for Vlad, Savn recruits the master physicker and they fight off Vlad''s infection. While recuperating, Vlad confirms Savn''s growing suspicion that Vlad has been manipulating him in order to get his help. Savn goes to Loraan''s manor and discovers that Vlad''s allegations about him are true. Savn is thrown into a cell with his master, who has already been tortured into revealing Vlad''s location. Savn treats his master and kills the guard to escape and warn Vlad. He contacts Rocza and summons Vlad into Loraan''s cellar, where Loraan and the Jhereg assassin Ishtvan suddenly appear. Savn realizes that Vlad is still too wounded to fight off his attackers. Remembering Vlad''s lesson about thinking for himself, Savn dispels his irrational fear of his Baron and uses the caves'' "dark water" to menace the undead Loraan. Vlad uses the distraction to kill Ishtvan, but collapses immediately afterward. Robbed of his power, Loraan simply begins throttling Savn until Rocza slips Ishtvan''s Morganti dagger into Savn''s hand. Savn kills Loraan with the dreaded dagger, but the horror of the ordeal, and a subsequent head injury, snaps his mind. After reaching safety and healing completely, Vlad resolves to take responsibility for Savn''s near catatonic state and seek out treatment for the boy he used.

Athyra

The beautiful young Laurel Hill asks Ellery Queen to investigate a series of unusual anonymous gifts that have been received by her father, Leander Hill, half of Hill and Priam, Wholesale Jewelers. Roger Priam is Leander''s partner, who uses a wheelchair. The latest gift, a dead dog with a mysterious note in a silver casket around its neck, has caused Leander to have a heart attack and die. Now Roger Priam (and his sultry wife Delia, who attracts Ellery like a carnivorous plant) has started to receive unusual anonymous gifts as well. Delia''s nudist son Crowe, who is Laurel''s boyfriend, and a cast of servants, are also on the scene. The mysterious gifts include some poisoned tuna fish salad, a green alligator wallet, a burned book and a bundle of worthless stocks and bonds, all accompanied by cryptic and ominous notes, and it seems as though they date back to a mysterious and possibly violent incident in the past of both Hill and Priam that gets them started in the wholesale jewelry business. Ellery Queen works out the significance of the series of gifts and the link that connects the notes and arranges a dramatic surprise that traps the criminal—although the true criminal is not known until the final moments of the book.

The Origin of Evil

Gordon awakens in 1983 floating in the north Atlantic when all of a sudden a U.S. submarine emerges from the depths and plucks Gilbert from certain death. (The book''s cover shows Gilbert on the deck of a modern submarine.) Together with some hundred other "Temporally Displaced Persons," or DTIs, the government term for those it’s kidnapped from other times, Gilbert is illegally incarcerated in a secret installation in Horsefield, New Jersey where authorities conduct experiments designed to extract historical and linguistic secrets from the past. Gilbert is forced to live a pathetic existence of living in a prison and must wear a protective suit just to prevent from being infected with deadly modern day viruses and bacteria. Just when hope seems to have run dry Gilbert discovers that he and the other DTIs have developed a telepathic ring, coordinated by the Ancient Egyptian priestess Tari, a follower of the cult of Isis. In this ring they are able to share their dreams, fears and plans for escape. Together with Tari, a Norse giant, a dancer from ancient North America and many others, Gilbert escapes from his illegal confines. This is a deadly plan as the US government is eager, even willing to kill, to keep the scandalous DTIs a secret from the public. Once on the outside Gilbert, Tari and a handful of others find themselves on-the-run and overwhelmed by culture shock. Dodging murderous government agents and curious laymen Gilbert wanders across the American continent, meeting up with crazed Irish nationalists, an anti-government rock group and even working for a time in a San Francisco S&M parlor, indulging his homosexual desires. One by one Gilbert’s companions are killed off by accident or murder until he alone finally makes an escape back to merry-ole England, where again finds himself an outsider and fugitive. The book, written in the first person, is Gilbert''s diary and is intended as proof of the government misdeeds committed against DTI’s. Gilbert makes many sardonic remarks on the life and institutions of the modern world in general and present-day Britain in particular, but also enjoys disabusing moderns who tend to romanticize the Elizabethan Age. Gordon is especially harsh in his mocking of the political paranoia that infected the United States during the Cold War. Gordon, a Scotsman, does manage to have Gilbert, an Englishman, visit the author’s home town of Buckie on the northeastern coast of Scotland.

Fire in the Abyss

A man who identifies himself as Thomas Yeager, head of Continental Plastics, asks Archie to ascertain whether he is being followed when he visits a certain address in one of New York''s worst neighborhoods. When the real Yeager''s body is found at an excavation site in the vicinity of that address, Archie crosses the threshold and finds a fantastically appointed love nest where Yeager secretly entertained many women. The case becomes more complicated when the daughter of the building superintendent is later killed; her novice attempts at blackmail provide Wolfe with critical evidence needed to solve both murders and earn a large fee, shoring up his low bank account balance. In short order, Wolfe and Archie find themselves beset by prospective clients: * the building superintendent and his wife, who want Archie to keep the police from harassing them (and, later, to catch their daughter''s killer) * an actress, who offers to pay Archie to get her cigarette case out of the love nest * the directors of Continental Plastics, who want to keep the existence of that room from becoming public knowledge and causing a scandal * Yeager''s widow, who expects Wolfe to solve her husband''s murder even if it embarrasses the company

Too Many Clients

The story takes place in Cutter High School, which prides itself heavily on the physical achievements of its students, and thrives on the winnings of the football and basketball teams. Many teachers there display favoritism toward star athletes, such as Mike Barbour, and turn a blind eye to the bullying that occurs, such as Barbour tormenting Chris Coughlin. Mr. Simet, a teacher, wants to start a swim team to avoid having to be an assistant coach for Wrestling. He encourages T.J., who formerly swam and was very talented, to join and recruit others. T.J. gets together six others to form a seven-man team: the mentally challenged Chris Coughlin; the obnoxious and extremely intelligent Dan Hole; the kind and talented bodybuilder/musician Tay-Roy Kibble; the rude and antagonistic Andy Mott; the quiet and generic Jackie Craig; and the obese Simon DeLong. All of them have predicaments, which they slowly reveal to each other as they grow to become friends. During the year, T.J. meets a little half-black girl named Heidi. Her step-dad is the drunkard Rich Marshall, who frequently abuses her and her mother, Alicia. T.J. helps his therapist, Georgia Brown, with Heidi, and they form a close bond.

Whale Talk

Inspector Ghote''s wife Protima has inherited a fortune and a mansion in Calcutta. Ghote is not pleased because it means he must leave his native Mumbai and give up being a policeman. No sooner have they landed in Calcutta than they discover the house is crumbling and inhabited by hostile squatters. Also a housing development is planned in the wetlands behind the house, which has the only access to the proposed construction project. The solicitor in charge of the administering the will, A. K. Dutt-Daster, advises them to sell promptly and return home, but Ghote suspects corruption. As Ghote investigates he uncovers a web of corruption that leads inexorably higher and higher in Calcutta''s social and political hierarchy. On the way he encounters the easily bribed solicitor''s clerk, who is soon murdered for obtaining incriminating documents from Dutt-Daster''s files, he is assaulted under The Great Banyan tree in the Indian Botanical Gardens, meets a crusading newspaper editor who chooses his crusades very carefully, a cynical and corrupt Police Inspector and a powerful businessman who doesn''t believe corruption is a bad thing. Powerful forces are aligned against the elderly couple and ultimately they cannot be overcome. Finally Ghote finds himself obliged to pay a handsome bribe simply so the couple can escape from Calcutta with their freedom and lives. Corruption and bribery will always be a part of life no matter how much people fight against it, Ghote reflects on the way home, but that is not a valid reason to give in to such things.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Danny and the Dinosaur

By Syd Hoff

A World to Win

No Author Listed

Election

By Tom Perrotta

Dear Nobody

By Doherty

Doctor Sax

By Jack Kerouac

Love! Valour! Compassion!

By Terrence McNally

Athyra

By Steven Brust

The Origin of Evil

By Frederic Dannay

Fire in the Abyss

No Author Listed

Too Many Clients

By Rex Stout

Whale Talk

By Chris Crutcher

Bribery, Corruption Also

By H. R. F. Keating