A young woman named Willamina "Willie" Connolly is the daughter of a prosperous New York couple, editor Matt Connolly and his wife Willamina, an Irish concert pianist. Willie is a child prodigy with an extremely high IQ. Her parents believe her to be a happy, contented child, but this is a carefully contrived mask. Her primary motivation is independence; she detests anyone making decisions for her, especially based on her age or appearance. Her very name, Willamina Junior, made her feel like a bad carbon copy, until she discovered Gertrude Stein''s The World Is Round and began to call herself Willie. She has made a thorough study of anthropology and is an accomplished practitioner of witchcraft and sympathetic magic. Her doll collection is actually an array of poppets which she uses to curse those who displease her. This backfires on her when one of her spells leads to her mother''s death. Willie''s remorse and her wish to see her father happy again develops over the years into incestuous desire, although Willie herself does not realize it.

Daughter of Darkness

A perfectly spherical white spaceship lands in Central Park to great global excitement, from which Leader Idow, an alien covered in blue fur, claims that his crew represent a Type III civilization that will test Earth''s worthiness to be a member planet of their federation. Unbeknownst to the United Nations, the aliens are criminals (the equivalent of juvenile delinquents) who seek out planets with levels of technology similar to Earth''s so that they can record the global violence and mayhem that will result from Earth''s certain failure for their own prurient interests. The aliens scan the Central Park crowd for potential test subjects where they happen upon a minor New York gang who they identify as the most likely to provide the most entertainment during their "test". Meanwhile, the United Nations has sent security into New York and identified two new aliens attempting to transport clandestinely to Earth. These aliens are representatives of the Gees, an extraterrestrial law-enforcement body whose mandates include preventing overt contact between space-travelling civilizations and non-space-travelling civilizations. Unfortunately for the crew of the All That Glitters (a Mikon #4 class ship), the human gang manages to escape the test and infiltrate the ship, where they happen upon the ship''s engineer Trell. Threatening Trell, the gang manages to release Omega Gas into the main bridge, killing Idow''s crew (except Trell). The gang then holds the ship hostage, asking for pardons and appeasements. The army tricks the gang into accepting a group of beautiful women on board, who are actually army personnel sent to arrest them and take back the ship. The United Nations'' Alien Contact Crew manages to trick the Gees into believing that Trell has been dissected and liquefied for experimentation just before the Gees leave and set up a massive quarantine around Earth. The human race, through Trell''s assistance, has duplicated many of the Mikon #4''s technologies, including molecular softening beams, advanced camouflage, horizontal/vertical elevators, and hyperdrive, with the intent to break the Gees'' quarantine. They have also learned that the Gees are not the bosses of the galactic federation, merely a police force whose presence is resented by many planets, including some that have been quarantined specifically to prevent their entry into the federation. Now loose in space, the illegal (human) alien crew of the Earth ship struggles to reach the Galactic League and argue a case for admittance - without getting blown out of existence by the Great Golden Ones (Galactic Police).

Illegal Aliens

Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television argues that the technology of television is not a neutral or benign instrument or tool. The author argues that in varied technologies and institutions such as militaries, automobiles, nuclear power plants, mass production, and advertising, the basic form of the institution and the technology determines its interaction with the world, the way it will be used, the kind of people who use it, and to what ends. The author argues that far from being "neutral," television predetermines who shall use it, how they will use it, what effects it will have on individual lives, and, if it continues to be widely used, what sorts of political forms will inevitably emerge. The four arguments are: # While television may seem useful, interesting, and worthwhile, at the same time it further boxes people into a physical and mental condition appropriate for the emergence of autocratic control. # It is inevitable that the present powers-that-be (or controllers) use and expand using television so that no other controllers are permitted. # Television affects individual human bodies and minds in a manner which fit the purposes of the people who control the medium. # Television has no democratic potential. The technology itself places absolute limits on what may pass through it. The medium, in effect, chooses its own content from a very narrow field of possibilities. The effect is to drastically confine all human understanding within a rigid channel. What binds the four arguments together is that they deal with aspects of television that are not reformable. It is perhaps then paradoxical that attempts to define the arguments of the book inevitably fall into Mander''s dilemma: even current forms of technology such as the internet and Wikipedia itself reduce complex information and its perception to slogans and inconsequential ''bits'' (in the computer or informatic sense).

Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television

The novel is set in the 1820s in the town of Palmyra, New York, near Rochester, located on the Erie Canal. The novel opens in 1820, when the construction of the Erie Canal had just begun, but has not reached Palmyra, and most of the town is looking forward to the economic boom the Canal is expected to bring. During the course of the book, Adams depicts the changes in the daily life brought about by the construction of the canal. By the close of the book, citizens in Palmyra are regularly and casually travelling to Rochester via packet boat on the canal, or to New York by canal packet to Albany and thence by steam packet down the Hudson. On publication, a New York Times review by Catharine Brody noted that the book recalls the Erie Canal novels of Walter D. Edmonds, whom Adams acknowledges in his introduction. In fact, Edmonds allowed Adams to use his notebooks as background for the novel. The book is constructed around a single plot device, a case that a Dr. David Little reported to the Albany County Medical Society in the early 19th century. Brody called the incident "a truthful old-wives'' tale." The chief protagonist is a young doctor, Horace Amlie. He is intelligent and dedicated, willing to treat both wealthy and indigent, and willing to accept barter in lieu of cash when necessary. He knows of the latest advances in medical science, such as vaccination against smallpox, and comes into conflict with an established doctor who prefers older treatments such as bleeding. Brody called him "an Arrowsmith in a high beaver hat." Amlie visits a settlement called Poverty''s Pinch, treats the sick, and pays respectful attention to an old woman named Quaila Crego who practices folk medicine. Work on the canal is constantly interrupted by sickness and fever among the workers. He asks Crego whether the fever has broken out in the Pinch and takes notice when she says "It will, when the black moskeeter stands on her head." Amlie''s dedication brings him into melodramatic conflict with landowners who resent his efforts to enforce public sanitation, and with a wealthy and powerful landowner named Genter Latham. Amlie becomes acquainted with a spunky adolescent girl named Araminta Jerrold and her best friend, Genter Latham''s daughter Wealthia. Araminta admires Amlie and it comes as no surprise to the reader when she and Horace are married later. A good portion of the plot turns on a romantic situation involving Genter Latham''s daughter, Wealthia. It seems obvious to the reader that Wealthia is having an affair with a dashing canal boat operator, Silverhorn Ramsey. She is also engaged to one Kinsey Hayne. Dr. Amlie perceives that Wealthia is pregnant, and assumes that the father is Hayne. Amlie is concerned about the possibility that Wealthia may seek "assistance" from folk healers in Poverty Pinch, or may travel to Rochester for an "illegal operation." Eventually he informs Wealthia''s father, who is furious at the aspersions cast on his daughter. Nine months elapse and there is no birth. Amlie is bewildered because he was certain of his diagnosis, and equally certain that Wealthia has not had an abortion. New York Times reviewer Brody says that the reader will "probably stay up the rest of the night" to discover "the resolving of a first-class medical mystery." Meanwhile, Latham resolves to ruin Amlie financially and run him out of town. He succeeds in having Amlie''s license to practice medicine revoked. Through a loophole in the law, the revocation is unenforceable on the water of the canal itself, and Amlie manages to eke out a precarious living travelling up and down the canal in a boat, seeing patients only on board his vessel. Without Amlie''s public-health efforts, sanitary conditions in Palmyra deteriorate, and there is an epidemic of typhus, to which Wealthia falls victim and dies. Unable to stand not knowing how he could have been mistaken in his diagnosis, Amlie and a collaborator exhume Wealthia, and discover that she has experienced a rare condition, called a lithopedion or "stone baby," in which a fetus dies in the womb but becomes calcified rather than being expelled. Amlie confronts Latham with this evidence, Latham acknowledges Amlie''s integrity, numerous complications are quickly resolved in the closing pages, and Amlie and his wife Araminta live happily ever after.

Canal Town

Hank the Cowdog finds that there has been a murder on his ranch, so he sets off to investigate. After a few adventures, Hank thinks the Coyote Brotherhood is responsible for the killing. He travels to the Coyote Brotherhood, and demands to know who the murderer is. The coyotes just laugh and hold Hank hostage, and plan to eat him by dawn; it is later revealed that the coyotes were not responsible for the murder. Hank could have easily escaped had not Chief Guts ordered Rip and Snort, two stupid coyote brothers, to make sure Hank does not run away. They keep him in a cave, guarding the exit. Then Hank escapes (with the help of Missy Coyote) to his ranch. Once gets out he runs back to the ranch to find the real murderers. Apparently the real murderers were a dog named Buster and a gang of two dogs with a pug named Muggs as his assistant. Hank says mean things to the coyote (Scrunch,and Rip and Snort) and Buster and his gang but makes them think that it was each other that was saying mean things to them. The coyotes and the gang got into a fight and the coyotes won and chased the gang off the ranch. That''s where the story ends.

Murder in the Middle Pasture

The protagonist of this legal thriller is 33 year old, Nikki Hill. Nikki is a lead prosecutor at the District Attorney''s office, and he has trusted her to help find the killer of Madeleine Gray, Hollywood''s most popular TV host of a blackmail show. At first there is a hands down suspect, Jamal Deschamps, who was found at the scene of the crime. He possessed her ring and his skin was also under Maddie''s thumb. After a lie detector test, it was proven that Deschamps was not the killer. It turned out, he merely found the cadaver and whilst stealing its ring, cut himself on her thumb. Nikki, another smart aleck prosecutor, and two quirky homicide detectives have a few loose strings, and bewilderment of who the real killer is. At Maddie''s mansion, there was a missing rug, and a glass a ball that had Maddie''s blood on it. And upstairs, where her blackmail files are, there is a busted drawer with missing contents. Nikki and the team discover that R&B singer, Diana Cooper, had a fight with Maddie the day of the murder. She quickly becomes a major suspect when Maddie''s blood is also found in her trunk. The detectives come up with a scenario: Maddie threatened to give Diana''s blackmail information, so she stole it and killed Maddie. This was soon proven wrong when detective Goodman''s girlfriend confessed to stealing the black mail file for Diana''s husband. Diana''s charges were also dropped due to conflict with her alibi the time of the murder. Next, fingers were pointed towards John Willins, Diana''s huband. Maddie had told Palmer, her neighbor, that she had slept with a J man. There were also logs at a private getaway club that a J. W. and M. Gray went together several times. Nikki and the team try to trace John Willin''s past, and it turned up that he was from a small town. While putting together clues, they find out that John''s family was killed in a fire, and that he could be taking on the identity of his deceased cousin. This leads to another question: did he murder his family with the fire? The only way to really find out was to go to the town and see if there was a grave for "John Willins". When they report this phenomenal news to district attorney, Joe Walden, he decides he wants to come along. And when they finally get to the town''s only cemetery, they find out that Joe Walden, the district attorney, is the J.W....!

The trials of Nikki Hill

As critic John King notes, "it is impossible to summarize this extraordinary novel in a few lines. It incorporates the latest developments in linguistic theory and practice, talks of the arbitrariness and unreliability of language that purports to describe reality, rereads and comments upon the various histories and travelers’ accounts of Paraguay, ranges across the breadth of Latin American history, implicitly condemning Stroessner and debating with Fidel Castro, and exploring once again the gap between writer and reader." The book does, however, start by promising a linear narrative. It opens with the title words, set in a font designed to look like handwriting, heralding what appears to be an official order: I the Supreme Dictator of the Republic Order that on the occasion of my death my corpse be beheaded; my head placed on a pike for three days in the Plaza de la República, to which the people are to be summoned by the sounding of a full peal of bells... This pronouncement, it turns out, is not an official declaration. It is an imitation or forgery, found &#34;nailed to the door of the cathedral&#34; in Paraguay&#39;s capital, Asunción. Immediately following, then, is a discussion of this pasquinade: Dr Francia, the Supreme, and his secretary, Policarpo Patiño, discuss its meaning and possible provenance. Patiño is set the task of uncovering the perpetrator: &#34;You are to start tracking down the handwriting of the pasquinade in all the files.&#34; But this linear detection narrative soon starts to unravel. The Supreme casts doubt even on the presumption that the declaration is indeed a forgery, or rather suggests that the forgery could itself be forged: &#34;Suppose that I myself am an author of pasquinades.&#34; Moreover, the literary genre is undone by the introduction of footnotes (which blur the line between fiction and fact), and the narrative transparency subverted by the fact that the novel asserts its own materiality with interpolations such as &#34;(the rest of the sentence burned, illegible)&#34; and &#34;(edge of the folio burned)&#34;. The effect of these notes is to remind readers that they are reading a book, and that this book is incomplete, damaged, and fallible. As the novel continues, it becomes more and more caught up in digressions, such that the original narrative line is apparently forgotten. The Supreme and his secretary discuss an often bizarre series of topics: a meteor that is apparently chained to Francia&#39;s desk; a prison camp in Tevego whose inhabitants have been turned to stone; and increasingly the dictator also ruminates on the past, particularly the events of Paraguay&#39;s foundation when he had to fend off the attention of Spaniards, Argentines, and Brazilians, all of whom threatened the nascent country&#39;s independence. Chronology and logic are seemingly abandoned: at one point the dictator discusses the date of his own death; elsewhere he mentions events that will only happen long afterwards, such as the Chaco War of the 1930s (in which Roa Bastos himself fought). Moreover, readers are increasingly made aware of the marginal but insistent voice of the mysterious compiler. At the center of the book, it is revealed that the compiler is, in fact, in possession of the same pen used by the Supreme, a &#34;memory-pen&#34; that reproduces images as well as words, but that is now &#34;partially broken, so that today it writes only with very thick strokes that tear the paper, effacing words as it writes them&#34;. The novel ends at the end of Francia&#39;s life, with him condemning Patiño to death for supposedly plotting against him, followed by Francia&#39;s death in a fire in 1840. As the characters and plot disintegrate, so apparently does the novel. The final line is another interpolation: &#34;(the remainder stuck together, illegible, the rest unable to be found, the worm-eaten letters of the Book hopelessly scattered).&#34; And yet, this is not quite the last word, as it is followed by a &#34;Final Compiler&#39;s Note&#34; that reflects on the compilation and the book as a whole. Here the novel seems to pass responsibility on to &#34;the no less fictitious and autonomous reader.&#34;

I, the Supreme

Flight of the Nighthawks focuses primarily on the adventures of two young boys, Tad and Zane, and the organization they become involved with, the Conclave of Shadows. The story picks up shortly after the end of Exile''s Return (2004), the final book in the preceding Conclave of Shadows series by Feist. The book begins in the town of Stardock, where the two boys are still living at home. Marie, Tad''s biological mother and Zane''s surrogate mother (Zane''s parents having died years earlier during an attack by trolls on the town) is concerned about the boys'' tendency to get into trouble, and when her lover, Caleb (son of the magician Pug), comes back to Stardock, she begs him to take the boys to be apprenticed. Caleb consents and travels with the boys to The Empire of Great Kesh to find them an apprenticeship. Along the journey they are ambushed by bandits and Caleb is gravely wounded. The boys manage to bring Caleb to a friend, and unbeknownst to them, and agent of the Conclave. The Conclave is able to heal Caleb, and while they decide what to do with the boys, Caleb decides to formalize his long relationship with Marie and marries her, adopting the boys as well. The Conclave becomes aware of trouble in the capital of Kesh, where nobles are being murdered, ostensibly as part of political maneuvering between two factions to establish the next emperor. The Conclave sends three sets of agents to investigate: Talwin Hawkins and his assassin-turned-servant Petro Amafi, Kaspar and Pasko, and Caleb and the boys. During their time in the city, Tad and Zane are aided in a fight by a boy named Jommy who has been living in the streets, whom Caleb also takes into his care. The Conclave''s agents discover that the necromancer, Leso Varen, has entrenched himself and intends to use the secret guild of assassins, the Nighthawks, to cause utter chaos in Great Kesh. Kaspar realizes that Varen has taken over the body of the Emperor, while Caleb falls into a trap set for them by the Nighthawks, and barely manages to escape alive. The Conclave agents regroup, and make plans to root out the nest of Nighthawks and foil Varen''s plan. Pug and Magnus (his eldest son and Caleb''s older brother) venture into the sewers to locate the Nighthawks'' hideout, but both possible locations are empty. The Conclave realizes the Nighthawks have established themselves in the palace itself, and the entire royal family is in danger. On the eve of Banapis, the midsummer celebration and the biggest festival of the year, Varen reveals himself and attempts to kill the members of the royal court. He is stopped by the Conclave, with Caleb and the boys stumbling into a Nighthawk staging area and assisting in its destruction, Kaspar managing to aid in securing the safety of the emperor''s heirs, and Pug, Miranda, Nakor, and Magnus opposing Varen''s deadly magic. In the end, Varen''s body is destroyed, but his soul manages to escape again through a rift into the world of Kelewan.

Flight of the Nighthawks

The book begins with a prologue about how Apoletta met Zebulah, her previous husband. Zebulah, a red-robed human mage, was exploring the sunken ruins of Istar, while Apoletta was the Steward of Istar at that time, guarding it from humans. While she secretly watches him, it is mentioned that she was taken by his respectfulness, curiosity, and honesty towards the ruins. After conversing with him to discover his intent, she also becomes impressed by his truthfulness as a "would-be invader". Returning to the present, Chapter One begins with Apoletta finding herself hosting a Conclave concerning the World Gash, a quickly spreading volcanic field, with representatives from many different species, including shoal elves (Dimernesti), merfolk, ocean striders, sea giants, and brathnoc. However, she is annoyed at the petty bickering going on over fishing grounds, even including the Dimernesti, who were supposed to help host the Conclave but hadn''t even selected a representative. Apoletta attempts to quench her anger by seeking advice from Slyphanous, an old Dargonesti elf. During their conversation, Apoletta reveals the depth of the rift between the Dargonesti and Dimernesti, of which the Dimernesti do not trust the Dargonesti anymore. Returning to the task at hand, she attempts to wait for everyone''s attention, but finds out that the bickering has taken precedence over civility and decorum. Forced to resort to magical means, she casts a spell, causing a large sphere of water to vanish from the area, causing the heavy ocean to rush in and fill the void, resulting in a large crack, nudging the delegates and even swaying a large circular slab of coral suspended from the ceiling. Apparently gaining the Conclave''s attention, she attempts to continue, however the merfolk chime in, exclaiming that they haven''t finished "negotiating" with the ocean striders over access to fishing grounds. Redirecting the delegates back to the issue at hand, she again attempts to continue, but this time is interrupted by a male Dimernesti, who sneeringly proclaims "Your so-called World Gash, is it again?" Her temper rising, she attempts to refute him, however is told "You''re wasting my time." The delegates return to their own issues, with the merfolk arguing over hunting domains, the oceans striders concerned about the influx of undead, and the Dimernesti harboring grievances against Dargonesti.

The Alien Sea

In trying to save his father Cloud Wolf from the vortex he was trapped in during the Mother Storm, Twig learns that Sanctaphrax is about to be destroyed by the Mother Storm which will replenish the waters of the Edge by returning to Riverise, a legendary garden and waterfall from which all life came. He and the crew of the Edgedancer are then scattered across the Edge by the collapse of the vortex, with no memory of the voyage into open sky. Pieces of the destroyed Edgedancer rain down upon Undertown, killing and injuring many. Among the dead are three important Leaguesmen. A dazed Twig is rescued from the Stone Gardens by the Professor of Darkness and taken to Sanctaphrax where he is made the new Sub-Professor of Light and kept safely away from the other academics. Meanwhile, Cowlquape, a young boy studying in Sanctaphrax and the son of a wealthy, yet cruel, Leaguesman, hears rumours about the new apprentice and realizes it is the same Captain Twig who had left the city a month before. Cowlquape is at the lowest of the hierarchy in Sanctaphrax, and as such is bullied often by richer upper-class students such as Vox Verlix, an evil, scheming student. Upon learning that his father, the Leaguesman, was among those killed by the sky ship''s debris, Cowlquape is confronted by Vox, who says that unless Cowlquape''s father can pay his fees he will be kicked out of Sanctaphrax. Miserably, Cowlquape wanders the battlements and saves Twig from jumping off the balcony and killing himself. Twig regains his memory and, in gratitude to Cowlquape, appoints him as his new apprentice. Together they embark across Undertown to find Twig''s missing crew. They travel across Undertown, the Mire (in a ship), the Deepwoods and Riverrise. They find three of the crew in Undertown, one in the Deepwoods, and finally the Stone Pilot, who is the only one who retained her memory of what happened in the Weather Vortex (due to her Stone Pilot''s Hood). She tells Twig that his father became a piece of the Great Storm and that Sanctaphrax needs to be released before the Mother Storm itself reaches it so the storm can reach Riverrise so life in the Edge goes on. Twig and Cowlquape fly to the Stone Gardens, and then run to Undertown, where all the academics were evacuated from Sanctaphrax, including the Professor of Darkness, who won''t let Twig and Cowlquape release Sanctaphrax. He pushes Twig from the platform and tries everything to stop Cowlquape. He even makes Cowlquape the Supreme Rector, but Cowlquape releases Sanctaphrax, that flies away with the Professor of Darkness. The two explain everything to the academics and the Undertowners. The Mother Storm reaches Riverrise. In the meanwhile, a giant stone is growing in the Stone Gardens, the academics take the stone and it becomes the new Sanctaphrax, ruled by Cowlquape. Twig gets a new sky ship and the book ends with him leaving to venture towards Riverrise to recover his crew, saying goodbye to Cowlquape, who wishes Twig luck. This is the last book of the Twig Saga.

Midnight Over Santaphrax

It is a time of turmoil. A time when the horrors of war engulf and extinguish the Germany that is. Harald Winter had two sons at this time: Peter and Pauli Winter, two very different brothers, whose lives—whose destinies—are forever bound to the madness that lies ahead. From their sheltered childhood through their violent coming of age in the Great War... from the chaos of 1920''s Berlin to the spreading power of Hitler... they are wrenched apart by conflicting ideals and ambitions. Blood brothers, now mortal enemies, they are trapped in a holocaust that threatens to tear them - and the world - to pieces. Since the entire story unfolds as a flashback from the time of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials after the Nazis'' defeat, the readers know that both would make a career as lawyers, but in widely divergent directions: one would enter the Nazi Party and think up various "legal" ways to legitimise their crimes, while the other brother would be a staunch anti-Nazi, go into exile and come back to Germany after the war as a member of the American war crimes prosecution. But the reader cannot be sure, until deep in the book''s plot, which is which.

Winter

In the previous novel, Georgia has landed the "Sex God", her longtime crush Robbie Jennings, for a boyfriend. Georgia''s dad has gone to New Zealand for a few months. While he is gone Libby is ill and Georgia''s mother takes her to the doctors. When they return, "Gee''s" mum has seen a new doctor and rather likes him; she begins finding any excuse she can to make an appointment with him. After a while, Georgia''s mother announces that the family are off to New Zealand for a month, but Georgia feels she cannot possibly leave as she has just got the boy of her dreams and cannot leave him. Georgia does not leave for New Zealand, but Robbie says she is too young for him and leaves her. Georgia decides to use Dave the Laugh as a red herring to make Robbie jealous and come back to/for her. Georgia feels guilty for using Dave the Laugh and she breaks up with him. Georgia feels extremely awful about it, until she learns that Dave has started dating her friend Ellen (one of her best mates out of her "Ace Gang"). In the end Robbie admits he can''t stop thinking about Georgia and really misses her. He asks her to be his girlfriend again. In a subplot, Georgia''s cat Angus becomes interested in a pedigree cat named Naomi belonging to new neighbors across the road.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Daughter of Darkness

No Author Listed

Illegal Aliens

By Nick Pollotta

Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television

No Author Listed

Canal Town

No Author Listed

Murder in the Middle Pasture

By John R. Erickson

The trials of Nikki Hill

By Dick Lochte

I, the Supreme

By Augusto Roa Bastos

Flight of the Nighthawks

By Raymond E. Feist

The Alien Sea

By Lucien Soulban

Midnight Over Santaphrax

By Chris Riddell

Winter

By Len Deighton

On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God

By Louise Rennison