Umarao Jaan is born as Amiran () to a modest family in Faizabad. After the criminal Dilawar Khan is released from jail he decides to get revenge as her father witnessed against him in court. Khan kidnaps Amiran and decides to sell her in Lucknow. She is imprisoned with another girl, Ram Dai, but the two are separated when Dilawar Khan takes her to Lucknow. There she is sold for 150 rupees to Khanum Jaan, the head tawaif of a kotha. She is renamed Umrao and begins to study classical music and dance. Together with the other apprentice tawaif and Gauhar Mirza, the mischievous illegitimate son of a local Nawab, she is taught to read and write in both Urdu and Persian. As Umrao grows up, she is surrounded by a culture of luxury, music and poetry. She eventually gains her first client, (earning her the suffix of jaan) but prefers the impoverished Gauhar Mirza, her friend. Umrao Jaan attracts the handsome and wealthy Nawab Sultan. The couple fall in love, but after a jealous customer tries to start a fight with Nawab Sultan, he shoots him and the jealous customer Zabardast Khan dies. He no longer comes to the kotha and Umrao Jaan must meet him secretly, by the help of Gauhar Mirza. As Umrao Jaan continues to see Nawab Sultan and also serve other clients, she supports Gauhar Mirza with her earnings. A new client, the mysterious Faiz Ali, showers Umrao Jaan with jewels and gold, but warns her not to tell anyone about his gifts. When he invites her to travel to Farrukhabad, Khanum Jaan refuses so Umrao Jaan must run away. On the way to Farrukhabad, they are attacked by soldiers and Umrao Jaan discovers that Faiz is a dacoit and all of his gifts have been stolen goods. Faiz Ali escapes with his brother Fazl Ali and she is imprisoned, but luckily one of the tawaif from Khanum Jaan''s kotha is in the service of the Raja whose soldiers arrested her so Umrao Jaan is freed. As soon as she leaves the Raja''s court, Faiz Ali finds her and gets her to come with him. He is soon captured and Umrao Jaan, reluctant to return to Khanum Jaan, sets up as a tawaif in Kanpur. While she is performing in the house of a kindly Begum, armed bandits led by Fazl Ali try to rob the house, but leave when they see that Umrao Jaan is there. Then Gauhar Mirza comes to Kanpur and she decides to return to the kotha. Umrao Jaan performs at the court of Wajid Ali Shah until the Siege of Lucknow forces her to flee the city for Faizabad. There she finds her mother, but is threatened by her brother who considers her a disgrace and believes she would be better off dead. Devastated, Umrao Jaan returns to Lucknow now that the mutiny is over. She meets the Begum from Kanpur again in Lucknow and discovers that she is actually Ram Dai. By a strange twist of fate Ram Dai was sold to the mother of Nawab Sultan and the two are now married. Another ghost of Umrao Jaan''s past is put to rest when Dilawar Khan is arrested and hung for robbery. With her earnings and the gold that Faiz Ali gave her, she is able to live comfortably and eventually retires from her life as a tawaif.

Umrao Jaan Ada

A good portion of the book details the life of spaceship-captain Robert Singh (including his running a marathon race on the Lunar surface and uprooting his life and moving to Mars). When it is discovered that the asteroid Kali is likely to hit Earth, Singh''s ship Goliath makes an emergency voyage to Kali with a load of thrusters to set up on the asteroid, hopefully nudging the rock''s orbit just enough to push it clear of Earth. In the meantime, a religious sect called Chrislam, originally founded by a female veteran of the Persian Gulf War, believes that they can convert a human being into a few terabytes of computer information, and then transmit this data across space to Sirius (where they believe aliens reside); members of the sect also come to believe that the asteroid is meant to destroy the Earth. They thus sneak a bomb on board the Goliath and ruin the thrusters. While Singh uses the Goliath itself as a thruster to move the asteroid, the world government on Earth rushes to reconstruct one of the planet''s long-decommissioned nuclear weapons, hoping to break the peanut-shaped Kali in two.

The Hammer of God

Restoree is the story of Sara, an introverted, beak-nosed, 24-year-old virgin librarian from New York who is abducted by the Mil, amorphous alien creatures that eat human flesh. She is kept alive, with her skin removed and in a catatonic state from the physical and mental shock, on a meat hook as a Mil meal until the alien ship she is on is captured by human inhabitants of the planet Lothar. Without her skin, some Lotharians mistake her for one of their own and perform controversial "restoration" procedures on her, including a nose job. Sara comes to her senses in a mental institution on Lothar with no memory of what happened, little knowledge of the local language, and a beautiful, golden-skinned body. At the institution, she is treated as if she were retarded and given menial tasks to do, as are other "restorees" who have been clandestinely salvaged from Mil ships; it is apparently some factor of Sara''s Terran origins that allows her to fully recover from the shock of the Mil ordeal, while Lotharian restorees are of limited intellect at best. One of her jobs is to care for Harlan, the deposed planetary regent, who is being drugged into a moronic state. Recognizing what is being done, Sara helps Harlan to regain his senses and escape the mental institution. Sara and Harlan then gain the advantage over Harlan''s political enemies, defeat the Mil, solve some of Lothar''s emerging domestic problems and, of course, fall in love.

Restoree

The novel begins with Saffron searching through the colour chart pinned up in her house, looking for her name. The characters are introduced. While Saffron searches, the health visitor is checking up on Rose, her new sister. The health visitor then discovers Rose has been sucking Caddy''s paint tubes. The health visitor threatens to take Rose to Casualty. Saffron finds out that she was adopted by Bill and Eve, after Saffron''s mother, who is Eve''s sister, is killed in a car crash and becomes deeply upset, despite being comforted by her family. The story fast forwards to when Rose is 6 years old. Rose starts school (a year late according to the health visitor) and draws her first picture, which her teacher pastes to the wall. Rose is very upset and persuades Indigo to steal her picture and Caddy to draw an identical one to go up on the wall instead. Rose, Indigo, Saffron and Caddy''s grandfather visits and Caddy has another disastrous driving lesson and tells her driving instructor, Michael about failing all her exams. Soon after their grandfather visits, he dies and leaves something to each of the children. For Cadmium, his property in Wales. For Indigo, his car. For Saffron, his angel in the garden. And for Rose, his money. After the will is read, Bill heads back down to London and while running after him, Saffron meets Sarah. Caddy has another lesson, meanwhile Saffron goes round to Sarah''s house and meets her mother, Mrs Warbeck, the headmistress of the private school. Sarah begins the idea of visiting Siena, where Saffron believes the stone angel is. Sarah persuades her mother and father to take her to Siena during the term, and Sarah''s mother begins to trust the two friends, and lets them go into town together. They meet up with some girls their age who all have their noses pierced. Sarah wants one too and persuades Saffron to get one done. When Sarah''s mother finds out Sarah is in lots of trouble, but Saffron''s nose ring is admired by her family. Soon after, Caddy scatters her revision books across the house, in order to revise everywhere and to beat her driving instructor''s talented (made-up) girlfriend. Sarah perfects her plan to smuggle Saffron into Siena in her car and Saffron is forced to agree by her sisters and brother. Caddy passes her written driving test and Saffron heads off to Siena with Sarah''s family. When they arrive at Siena, Sarah''s family having found out three-quarters of the way there, Mrs Warbeck, Sarah and Saffron set off to find the stone angel. They discover a locked door and go back very disappointed. Sarah''s father starts up a rude game marking Italians'' bottoms out of ten. Saffron makes a call home and talks to her mother. Caddy is still revising to beat Michael''s girlfriend, Rose is doing her art and Indigo is conquering more fears of his. Saffron and Sarah try again and again, until on the last day they find Saffron''s forgotten neighbour. The neighbour tells Saffron that her grandfather took the stone angel away long ago, when he took Saffron. Meanwhile, Caddy takes her driving test. Rose and Indigo decide to look in the Banana House for Saffy''s angel. Caddy is very disappointed to find she passed her driving test, because she can''t have driving lessons with Michael anymore. However, Indigo and Rose persuade Caddy to drive to Wales to find Saffy''s angel, Indigo''s car and Caddy''s house after Indigo has a brainwave. On the way there, Rose holds up lots of signs to make up for Caddy''s nervous driving. When they arrive in Wales, they find barbed wire around Caddy''s house with a large ''Keep Out'' sign plastered on. But, they climb over and find Indigo''s wrecked car with a chest in the back, nailed tightly shut. They return home to find Saffy and Sarah back from Siena. Bill also has arrived home, and has to have everything explained to him by Saffron and the rest of the family. Bill opens the box and finds Saffy''s stone angel in pieces. Saffron is delighted to have found the box. Caddy is going to university in London, after passing all of her exams. Before Caddy goes, however, Caddy finds the perfect resin and paint, to stick Saffy''s angel back together right before she leaves. Saffy finds out that she belongs in the casson family and there is no place like home.

Saffy''s Angel

Miles and Ekaterin are enjoying a much-delayed honeymoon while their first two children are approaching birth in their uterine replicators back on Barrayar. They have just left Earth to begin the journey home when Miles is dispatched by Gregor to Graf Station in Quaddiespace to untangle a diplomatic incident in his capacity as the nearest Imperial Auditor. There, he is unexpectedly reunited with the Betan hermaphrodite Bel Thorne, a former Dendarii captain and his good friend. A convoy of merchant ships and their Navy escorts are prevented from leaving the station, and a Barrayaran officer is missing, either murdered or deserted. While investigating, Miles uncovers a plot by a high-ranked Cetagandan to steal a cargo of extreme importance to the Cetagandans and hide its tracks by putting the blame on Barrayar. By the time Miles figures out what is going on, he and Bel have been infected by a highly lethal Cetagandan bioweapon. Miles almost dies (again) and barely averts an interstellar war between Cetaganda and Barrayar.

Diplomatic Immunity

A New England Nun" is the story of Louisa Ellis, a woman who has lived alone for many years. Louisa is somewhat of an eccentric, as she likes to keep her house meticulously clean, wear multiple aprons, and eat from her nicest china every day. She has an old dog named Caesar who she feels must be kept chained up because he bit a neighbor 8 years ago as a puppy. Louisa promised Joe Dagget 14 years ago that she would marry him when he returned from his fortune-hunting adventures in Australia, and now that he has returned it is time for her to fulfill her promise. When Joe arrives, however, it becomes obvious that Louisa sees him as a disruption of the life that she has made for herself. When Joe arrives, Louisa attempts to have a conversation with him, but is distracted when he tracks dirt on the floor, re-arranges her books, and accidentally knocks things over. The two have a cool and slightly awkward conversation when Louisa inquires after Joe''s mother''s health and Joe blushes and tells Louisa that Lily Dyer has been taking care of her. Clearly, she is only planning on marrying Joe because she promised that she would, since it would mean that Louisa would have to give up the life that she has made for herself. Later that night, as Louisa is enjoying a moonlit stroll, she happens to overhear a conversation between Joe and Lily. Through this conversation, Louisa learns that Joe and Lily have been seeing each other in the short time that Joe has been back, and that Joe is in love with Lily but refuses to break his promise to Louisa. Lily supports Joe''s decision, and though Joe encourages her to find someone else, Lily says, "I''ll never marry any other man as long as I live." The next day, when Joe comes to visit, Louisa releases Joe from his promise without letting him know that she is aware of his relationship with Lily. Joe and Louisa then part tenderly, and Louisa is left alone to maintain her present lifestyle. The last line of the story is: "Louisa sat, prayerfully numbering her days, like an uncloistered nun.

A New England Nun

Carol Milford is a liberal, free-spirited young woman, reared in the metropolis of Saint Paul, Minnesota. She marries Will Kennicott, a doctor, who is a small-town boy at heart. When they marry, Will convinces her to live in his home-town of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota (a town modeled on Sauk Centre, Minnesota, the author''s birthplace). Carol is appalled at the backwardness of Gopher Prairie. But her disdain for the town''s physical ugliness and smug conservatism compels her to reform it. She speaks with its members about progressive changes, joins women''s clubs, distributes literature, and holds parties to liven up Gopher Prairie''s inhabitants. Despite her friendly, but ineffective efforts, she is constantly derided by the leading cliques. She finds comfort and companionship outside her social class. These companions are taken from her one by one. In her unhappiness, Carol leaves her husband and moves for a time to Washington, D.C., but she eventually returns. Nevertheless, Carol does not feel defeated: :: "I do not admit that Main Street is as beautiful as it should be! I do not admit that dish-washing is enough to satisfy all women!"

Main Street

Anastasia Krupnik''s little brother, Sam, wants fangs more than anything in the world. But there is one big problem. Sam''s mother, Mrs. Krupnik, has fangphobia and forbids Sam even to touch his plastic vampire fangs in the house. How can she not see how cool fangs really are? Sure, they make it hard to eat hot dogs, but they make him look disgusting - and Sam loves to look disgusting. So Sam decides to run away to Alaska, where "fanged" walruses lie around in a pile and sharp teeth are generally accepted. He packs his mittens and bear in his father''s Harvard University gym bag and sets off, but just down the block, Lowell Watson, the mailman, reminds him he will need food for Alaska. Neighbor Gertrude Stein''s homemade chocolate chip cookies are just the thing. And how can he leave without saying goodbye to the Sheehans'' baby, Kelly? He needs a glass of water, and there really isn''t any reason to hurry to Alaska ... In See You Around, Sam!, Lois Lowry continues to give Anastasia''s brother a voice of his own. As the quirky characters on his block welcome him into their homes one by one, he discovers the true meaning of community.

See You Around, Sam!

Dr. Melmoth, the President of Harley College, takes into his care Ellen Langton, the daughter of his friend, Mr. Langton, who is at sea. Ellen is a young, beautiful girl and attracts the attentions of the college boys, especially Edward Walcott, a strapping though immature student, and Fanshawe, a reclusive, meek intellectual. While out walking, the three young people meet a nameless character called “the angler,” a name he gets for appearing an expert fisherman. The angler asks for a word with Ellen, tells her something in secret, and apparently flusters her. Walcott and Fanshawe become suspicious of his intentions. We learn that the angler is an old friend of the reformed Inn owner, Hugh Crombie. The two had been at sea together, where Mr. Langton had been the angler’s mentor and caretaker. Langton and the angler had a falling out, however, and, thinking that Langton has been killed at sea, the angler undertakes to marry Ellen in order to inherit her father’s considerable wealth. Thus in his secret meeting with Ellen, the angler instructs her to sneak out of Melmoth’s home and follow him, telling her he has information about her father’s whereabouts. His real aim, though, is to kidnap her, to tell her of her father’s death, and to manipulate her into marrying him. When the various men (Melmoth, Edward, Fanshawe) learn that she is not in her chamber, they go searching for her. The search reveals the nature of each: Melmoth, an aged scholar unused to physical labor, enlists the help of Walcott, who is the most skilled rider and the most likely to be able to contend with the angler in a fight. Fanshawe, who lags behind the search because of his weak constitution and his slow horse, is given information by an old woman in a cabin (where another old woman, Widow Butler, who turns out to be the angler’s mother, has just died) that allows him to reach the angler and Ellen first. The angler has taken Ellen to a craggy cliff and cave, where he intends to hold her captive. Ellen has finally realized the angler’s intentions. When Fanshawe arrives, he stands above them, looking over the edge of the cliff. The angler begins to climb up the cliff to fight Fanshawe but grabs a twig too weak to support him and tumbles to his death. Fanshawe awakens Ellen from a faint, and they travel back to town together. Fanshawe loves Ellen but knows that he will die young because of his shut-in lifestyle. When Langton offers Ellen’s hand in marriage to Fanshawe in exchange for rescuing her, he refuses, sacrificing his happiness so as not to subject her to a life of widowhood. He also knows that Ellen has affections for Walcott. Fanshawe dies at 20. Ellen and Walcott marry four years later. The narrator states that Walcott grows out of his childish ways (drunkenness, impulsiveness, the suggestion of teenage affairs) and becomes content with Ellen. They are, according to the narrator, happy, but the book ends on an ambivalent note, stating that the couple did not produce children.

Fanshawe

A Night in the Lonesome October is narrated from the present-tense point-of-view of Snuff, the dog who is Jack the Ripper''s companion. The bulk of the story takes place in London and its environs, though at one point the story detours through the dream-world described by Lovecraft in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. Though never explicitly stated, various contextual clues within the story (the most obvious of which being the appearance of Sherlock Holmes (or "The Great Detective") imply that it takes place during the late Victorian period (in actuality, the year 1887 based upon Halloween full moon appearance dates for the London area as confirmed by the Royal Observatory). It is revealed as the story progresses that once every few decades, when the moon is full on the night of Halloween, the fabric of reality thins, and doors may be opened between this world and the realm of the Great Old Ones. When these conditions are right, men and women with occult knowledge may gather at a specific ritual site, to either hold the doors closed, or to help fling them open. Should the Closers win, then the world will remain as it is until the next turning... but should the Openers succeed, then the Great Old Ones will come to Earth, to remake the world in their own image (enslaving or slaughtering the human race in the process). The Openers have never yet won. These meetings are often referred to as "The Game" or "The Great Game" by the participants, who try to keep the goings-on secret from the mundane population. The various "Players" during the Game depicted in the book are archetypal characters from Victorian Era gothic fiction – Jack the Ripper (only ever referred to as "Jack"), Dracula ("The Count"), Victor Frankenstein ("The Good Doctor"), and the Wolf Man (known as "Larry Talbot", the film character''s name) all make appearances. In addition, there is a Witch ("Crazy Jill"), a Clergyman (Vicar Roberts), a Druid ("Owen"), a "Mad Monk" ("Rastov" – clearly modelled after Rasputin), and Hermetic occultists ("Morris and McCab" – often mentioned as a reference to real-life Hermetic of the time MacGregor Mathers). The most unusual aspect of the story is that each Player has a familiar – an animal companion with near-human intelligence which helps complete the numerous preparations required to be ready for the ritual on the final night. The vast majority of the story describes the interactions and discussions of these animals, all from Snuff''s point of view. Throughout the book, the Players slowly take sides (Opener or Closer), form alliances, make deals, oppose one another, and even kill off those who are part of the enemy camp. Events, slow-moving at first, accelerate until the night of October 31st, when the ritual takes place and the fate of the world is decided. A similar theme of the conflict around the opening of a Gate to an older world (also with references to Lovecraft''s work) can be seen in Zelazny''s novel Madwand.

A Night in the Lonesome October

Clay Carter is a poorly-paid lawyer at the Office of the Public Defender. He dreams of one day joining a big law firm. Reluctantly, he takes on the case of Tequila Watson, a man accused of a random street killing. Clay assumes that it is just another D.C. murder. But Clay soon learns of a pharmaceutical conspiracy, with the help of the mysterious Max Pace. The pharmaceutical company was illegally using recovering drug addicts for medical trials without their consent. The drug, ''Tarvan'', works for 90% of their patients, but in some cases (including Tequila Watson), it leads to random violent killings. The drug company employs Pace and his shadowy associates to solicit Clay''s help in paying off the victims with large settlements. Clay has reservations, but soon profits from the legal retainer offered by Pace. He leaves the OPD and raids some of their staff to establish his own law firm. Pace offers Clay insider information on the dangers of another drug (Dyloft and Maxatil). Clay uses this information to launch a new career in Tort Law. Soon he finds himself being one of the legal profession''s biggest tort lawyers and conniving with other high-powered tort lawyers. But this sudden fame isn''t without a price and soon he''s under investigation for various misdemeanors, including insider trading. In the end, Clay is beaten up by some men from Reedsburgh, sending him to the hospital. Then he loses a huge case against Goffman and slides downhill as previous, disgruntled clients sue him. In the end he runs away with Rebecca to London.

The King of Torts

In a cave under a glacier (the "River of Ice") in British Columbia, Brent and Lini Waller find a time capsule with treasure, artifacts, and manuscripts from an advanced, pre-Ice Age civilization. Lini seeks to sell the cave contents to the Wittwar Foundation. Benson declines to lead an expedition to the cave. Lini is kidnapped, and a steel needle is pounded into her brain, a pre-Ice Age mind control technique. She leads the Justice Inc. team into several death traps, including a room filled with dry ice and a building that falls on their car. Mac and Josh, sent to locate the cave, are captured by the criminals. Nellie, captured, apparently has a needle inserted in her brain. Flying to the cave, under Lini''s control, Nellie strands Benson, Smitty, and Rosabel in a remote location. Benson had planned for a second plane, delivered by a young Canadian pilot, but accidentally crashes it and is captured. The mastermind seeks the ancient cold light technology which lights the cave, removes all the ancient artifacts, and sets an explosion that buries the cave with the Justice Inc. team inside. Benson arranged for the explosion to destroy the criminals, and escapes the cave using ancient advanced technology.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Umrao Jaan Ada

By Mirza Hadi Ruswa

The Hammer of God

By Arthur C. Clarke

Restoree

By Anne McCaffrey

Saffy's Angel

By Hilary McKay

Diplomatic Immunity

By Lois McMaster Bujold

A New England Nun

By Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

Main Street

By Sinclair Lewis

See You Around, Sam!

No Author Listed

Fanshawe

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

A Night in the Lonesome October

By Roger Zelazny

The King of Torts

By John Grisham

River of Ice

No Author Listed