The book is largely based on Kiyosaki''s upbringing and education in Hawaii. The book highlights the different attitudes to money work and life of two men (His rich dad and his poor dad), and how they in turn influenced key decisions in Kiyosaki''s life. Among some of the book''s topics are: * Robert Kyosaki''s personal story * The difference between assets and liabilities * What the rich teach their kids about money that the poor and middle class do not * Your house is not an asset, unless you use it to produce revenue * The value of financial intelligence and financial literacy * That corporations spend first, then pay taxes, while individuals must pay taxes first * That corporations are artificial entities that anyone can use, but the poor usually do not know how * The importance of investing and entrepreneurship Kiyosaki advocated Dr. Buckminster Fuller''s views on wealth, that wealth is measured by the number of days the income from your assets can sustain you, and financial independence is achieved when your monthly income from assets exceeds your monthly expenses.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

Taking place during World War II, Fireshadow follows two seventeen-year-old boys. Erich Pieters joins the German Wehrmacht to fight for Chancellor Adolf Hitler in 1941, and winds up in an Australian Prisoner of War camp after fighting in North Africa. Half a century later, Vinnie Santiani flees into the remote Australian Bush in an effort to cope with the death of his sister. Despite the fact that they live in different times, the boys'' lives intertwine in the novel with haunting results. A reviewer for Magpies commented that the award-winning book''s "language is exceptional throughout ... while the author''s insights into the emotional lives of the young people are sensitively conveyed." The main character is Erich Pieters who is only 17 years of age. The novel doesn’t provide much of a physical description of him but is does provide a good description of his personality. Erich grew up in a small family of a mother, father and younger sister. His father wasn’t around much when he was younger as he was an army officer who worked for Hitler. When the war started (Erich was only 17 at the time) Erich signed up for the army to the disapproval of his mother and sister but not his father. His father was a very proud man and Erich took after him. Soon after Erich went to war, he was captured and sent to Australia to a prisoner of war camp. As he developed into a man, he became less proud and his personality developed as he tried to overcome his adversity of adapting to such different surroundings and treatment. As Erich aged he became wiser and more caring for those around him. As shown at the end of the novel, Erich is a gentle caring man who as he says “I may be sick, but my eyesight, hearing and memories are as strong as ever!”

Fireshadow

The novel''s setting is the border of Herefordshire, in England, and either Brecknockshire, or Radnorshire, in Wales (there are Black Hills near both). In the early pages we are told the border runs through the very farmhouse: One of the windows looked out over the green fields of England: the other looked back into Wales... Culturally the central characters are Welshmen, with the surname Jones. The story is told through the technique of flashback, and portrays the lives of twin brothers, Lewis and Benjamin Jones, on their isolated upland farm called The Vision. The twins develop a bond that is shown throughout the novel as very special. Lewis is portrayed as the stronger or dominant twin, whereas Benjamin is the more intuitive one, both in appearance and in the tasks which he does around the house. He seems to be constantly drawn to his mother&#39;s side while she is alive. Lewis is the one who wants to break free but Benjamin is forced into the army at the time of the Great War. His efforts are frustrated by his family ties and the indefinable, unbreakable tie to the land. Chatwin also tells the reader of the brutality involved in farming at the time in this area. Amos, the father of the two twins, shows how his day-to-day job has brutalised his once caring and loving attitude, and we see this later in the novel when he hits his wife Mary on the temple with the book she is reading - Wuthering Heights. A jealous man, Amos attacks his wife with the very material that shows her intelligence; he feels threatened by this, feeling that the man is supposed to be the head of the family in all things, and he feels anger because of his limited education. On the Black Hill is a novel which portrays themes such as unrequited love, sexual repression and confusion, social, religious and cultural repression, hate and the historic social values of that era, as is shown when Amos finds out that his daughter Rebecca has become pregnant by an Irishman. His religious fanaticism, social pressure, economic forces and an inability to express love results in him throwing her out of the household, and she is not mentioned in the novel again until the latter part.

On The Black Hill

Malcolm Jaggard is, on the surface, a marketing research consultant. However, his real job is with an unnamed government department in industrial espionage counter-intelligence. After he becomes engaged to genetics researcher Penelope Ashton, on a whim he runs a computer search on her father, the wealthy and respectable entrepreneur George Ashton. Much to his amazement, he finds that any and all information regarding George Ashton is classified at an astronomically high level, and that he is not regarded as having a “need to know”. Furthermore, the very act of researching information on George Ashton sends alarm bells ringing in multiple departments in the Whitehall hierarchy. If this was not bad enough, a mysterious attacker throws acid in the face of his fiancée’s younger sister, causing the mysterious George Ashton to flee England. Without being allowed to know more about Ashton, Jaggard is sent on a desperate search to find him, racing the KGB to the forests of Sweden, and eventually to a remote island in the Scottish Highlands, where he finds that the true enemy is much closer to home.

The Enemy

The story is set in 1877, forty-nine years after the events in Arthur Gordon Pym, and thirty-nine years after the publication of that book. The narrator is an Englishman traveling in the United States to settle business interests in Southern Illinois. During his stay in Bellevue, Illinois (corresponding to the actual Belleville), he makes acquaintance with two local doctors, an older man, Dr. George F. Castleton, and the younger Dr. Bainbridge. Dr. Castleton is an eccentric local character given to extravagant opinions, and the narrator mentions that he was later the Prohibition Party candidate for Governor of Illinois. During a discussion of Poe''s works and Arthur Gordon Pym, Dr. Castleton reveals that Peters is a patient of his. Much of the first section is given to the narrator''s observations on American society and to discussions between him, Castleton, and Bainbridge on topics ranging from poetry and literature (and Poe in particular), to U.S. and European politics, to Christianity and agnosticism, to medical science. Bainbridge describes his earlier discovery, at the Astor Library in New York, of a book written in 1594 and published in 1728, of a narrative purporting to tell the story of a sailor on Sir Francis Drake''s voyage of circumnavigation. According to this book, Drake''s ship was driven by a storm for two weeks, until, deep in the Antarctic, he arrived at a city which the author describes as comparable to Venice, but more beautiful than any European city of that time. Dr. Bainbridge visits Peters each day and elicits the story of his adventures with Pym a half-century earlier. Each night he visits the narrator in his hotel and relates, in episodic form, what he has learned from Peters. The narrator, in turn, passes on the essential points to Dr. Castleton as well as to Arthur, the hotel factotum. After leaving the island of Tsalal, Peters and Pym voyage south through a curtain of fog into the area near the South Pole, which is warmed by volcanic activity. Passing a white marble figure at the entrance to a harbor, they arrive in the city of Hili-li at 89°S latitude. Hili-li Island is one of over 200 islands in a great inland sea, surrounded by a ring-shaped continent. The continent consists of volcanic mountains and ice, making it impassable except for a 300-mile-wide gap, through which had come Francis Drake, Pym and his shipmates on the Jane Guy, and the occasional other castaway from the outside world. The Hili-lites are a white race, descendants from a shipload of ancient Romans who left Rome and the Mediterranean fleeing from the barbarian invasions of the 4th century. Hili-li''s population of 100,000 to 200,000 inhabitants are ruled by a Duke. There is also a reclusive, mystic old sage, Masusaelili, who claims to be a survivor of the original voyage from Rome. Peters and Pym are treated hospitably, and Pym eventually falls in love with the Duke''s niece, Lilima. The romantic interlude is interrupted when Lilima is abducted by her ex-lover Ahpilus. Ahpilus is one of a group of exiles who have been banished to the volcanic island at the pole for various offenses, mainly for engaging in forbidden sports or other physically dangerous activities. Ahpilus has gone mad as a result of his exile and unrequited love. Peters, Pym, and the Duke''s son Diregus lead a rescue expedition and catch up with Ahpilus on the slopes of the 8-mile-high "Mount Olympus", below the crater lake near its summit. Ahpilus threatens to throw himself and Lilima to their deaths in a gorge, but Peters, in a feat of astounding physical prowess, leaps across the gorge and incapacitates Ahpilus by breaking his back. Returning to Hili-li, Pym and Lilima marry, but their happiness is short-lived. A rare meteorological event brings a period of intense cold and snow to Hili-li. Despite valiant efforts led by Pym, Peters, Diregus, and the returned Olympian exiles to fend off the cold, many of the Hili-lites succumb. Among these is Lilima. The grief-stricken Pym is allowed to depart, along with Peters. They leave in December 1829, are picked up by a large schooner, and are deposited in Montevideo, Uruguay in February 1830. There Pym and Peters part company.

A Strange Discovery

The book begins two years after the Last Days. Ben lives with a callous man named Greg, who uses Ben''s powers, which he calls "the Call", to attract game for hunting. Ben feels guilty about leading the animals to their death but faces a beating from Greg if he does not comply. When he finally escapes, he promises not to use the Call again. He breaks this promise less than a day later when he is pursued by a man on horseback. Ben decides to return to Sydney, where he once lived with his parents. He travels first on foot, then by bike, using mountain roads to avoid local gang activity. He is joined by a stray dog. As he draws closer to his destination, he hears the Call of something wild and ferocious. When he reaches the city, he realizes that the Call is coming from Taronga Zoo. He then makes up his mind to travel to Taronga zoo to find out what creature could still be so wild and free. In Sydney, Ben is chased by a gang. The dog sacrifices itself to give Ben the opportunity to escape, but Ben is still captured. The gang takes Ben to Taronga Park Zoo, which houses another gang of survivors and is guarded by tigers and other predators. The gang wishes to break into the zoo and plans to use Ben as bait. Inside, Ben is almost attacked by two tigers, Raja and Ranee. He is saved by Ellie, an Aboriginal girl who is in charge of the big cats. She takes him to their leader, Molly, who allows Ben to stay after he proves that he can also round up and cage the cats. Ben quickly earns the trust of all of the animals except for Raja, the male tiger, who hates Ben for restricting his physical freedom. Although Ben originally sees Taronga as an ideal community, he soon discovers that Molly is a ruthless and selfish leader. When the Sydney gang tries to break into the zoo, Molly divulges her plan to burn Taronga to the ground before she lets another gang occupy it. Ben and Ellie decide to act. Ben convinces the rival gang that he wants to help them break in and they set a date for an ambush. During the next week, Ben and Ellie cut a hole in the outer fence and disguise it with ivy. On the day of the ambush, they set the animals free. The Sydney gang and the Taronga gang fight. Ben and Ellie are the only survivors. Ben once again swears that he will no longer use the Call. When he is cornered by Raja, he keeps that promise. But Raja does not attack him; instead, he gives Ben a playful swat. Raja and Ranee head towards the Blue Mountains and are followed by Ben and Ellie.

Taronga

The book begins with the land of Vindrassi suffering from a great drought that has left the land parched and game scarce. Skylan Ivorson, the son of Norgaard, the Chief of the Torgun Tribe is leading a small hunting party to try to find some food. The group includes Skylan''s best friend and confidant Garn, and the brothers Bjorn and Erdmun. Skylan is a young cocky man who takes his status very seriously, as well as his faith in the Gods of Vindrassi, especially the Chief of the Gods, Torval. Garn is almost the exact opposite of Skylan, thin, quick, thinks before he acts and is logical during struggles. As the two friends are preparing to return to their village empty handed, they run into a wild boar. After Garn distracts the boar, Skylan is able to kill it but not before suffering a huge gash in his thigh. With the help of the brothers, Bjorn and Edmund, the group of warriors are able to drag the dead boar back to their village, Luda. At Luda the hunting party is met by some other warriors and Skylan''s pregnant stepmother, Sonja, who upon hearing about Skylan''s injuries brought him some salve. The celebration of Skylan''s successful hunt is short-lived, however, as news that three Ogre ships have arrived at the village harbor. Skylan is alarmed by this news and believes he may be the reason the ships are there. Months before the book started, Skylan led a hunting party on the dragonship Venjekar to try to raid other villages for supplies and treasures. During these raids the Venjekar ran into a party of Ogre ships, forcing them to retreat without any plunder back to Luda. Now it appears that the Ogres have followed the Venjekar and Skylan back home. Skylan, always eager for a fight, is ready to charge into the village to fight off the ogres, but level-headed Garn points out that he does not hear or see any signs of fighting; the ogres must be here to talk. Garn convinces Skylan to calmly lead the rest of the warriors back into the village and see first what the situation is with the Ogres. Skylan and Garn walk into the village''s Chief''s Hall where they find Skylan''s father Norgaard, an Ogre Shaman, three Ogre Godlords, as well as Treia the Bone Priestess of the Torgun Clan and her sister, Aylaen. Skylan, still eager for a fight, demands to know why the Ogres have come to their village. The Ogre shaman calmly replies that the Gods of the Torgun Tribe are dead, killed by the Gods of Raj. Now the Ogres would like for the Torgun village to surrender their women and riches to them. Skylan of course did not believe the Ogres and demanded that Treia summon their gods to prove they were still alive. As a Bone Priestess Treia is the chosen female of the village who has the abilities to summon the dragon that protects the Torgun clan via the remains of the dragon''s bones as well as speak to the gods. Throughout the whole meeting Treia has been silent and when Skylar brought forth this challenge, she stood up and simply stated that she will go to the Shrine of Vindrash, the Dragon Goddess, for advice and confirmation she is still alive. The Ogre Godlords agree to this with confidence, giving Treia one night for her gods to appear.

Bones of the Dragon

The novel''s main character, Rudy Waltz, nicknamed Deadeye Dick, commits accidental manslaughter as a child (he kills a pregnant woman who was vacuuming) and lives his whole life feeling guilty and seeking forgiveness for it. He was so traumatized by the events directly after the woman''s death that he lives life as an asexual "neuter," neither homosexual nor heterosexual. He tells the story of his life as a middle-aged man expatriate in Haiti, which symbolizes New York City, until the end, when the stream of time of the story catches up with him. At this point, he confronts an event that has been suggested and referred to throughout the novel. The generic Midwestern town of Midland City, Ohio (also the setting of Breakfast of Champions) in which Rudy was raised is virtually destroyed by a neutron bomb. At the ending of the book, it appears that Rudy, while he may not have fully come to terms with his actions, has at least come to live with them. In addition, the ending is where Vonnegut provides his most direct commentary on society, although there are hints here and there throughout the novel. Another key theme throughout the book is the relationship between Waltz and his parents. Vonnegut focuses on connecting the actions and attitudes of parents to the ensuing actions and attitudes of the offspring, in this case, Rudy Waltz. Rudy writes a play, based on events in the life of his father''s former best friend. In the latter half of the book some scenes are described as theater scripts.

Deadeye Dick

Based on characters created by Kix Brooks (as the alter egos of country superstars, Brooks and Dunn), The Adventures of Slim and Howdy is a comic crime novel that chronicles the exploits of a couple of gifted but undiscovered guitar pickin'', honky tonk entertainin'', country singers. It starts with a chance meeting on a used car lot in Beaumont, Texas. Slim and Howdy agree to partner up and ride together. But before they can even get out of town, they incur the undying wrath of Brushfire Boone Tate and a guy named Black Tony. A few days later they arrive in the Texas border town of Del Rio to play at the Lost and Found, a honky-tonk run by their old friend, the widow Jodie Lee. Along the way Slim and Howdy get caught up in a rigged poker game, encounter a snake handler with a do-it-yourself amputation kit, and have a run-in with Los Zetas, the deadly Mexican organized crime gang. Before it''s over, Jodie Lee gets kidnapped, suspects come crawling out of the cacti, and Slim and Howdy have to save the day.

The Adventures of Slim and Howdy

Borges''s narrator describes how his universe consists of an enormous expanse of interlocking hexagonal rooms, each of which contains the bare necessities for human survival&mdash;and four walls of bookshelves. Though the order and content of the books is random and apparently completely meaningless, the inhabitants believe that the books contain every possible ordering of just a few basic characters (23 letters, spaces and punctuation marks). Though the majority of the books in this universe are pure gibberish, the library also must contain, somewhere, every coherent book ever written, or that might ever be written, and every possible permutation or slightly erroneous version of every one of those books. The narrator notes that the library must contain all useful information, including predictions of the future, biographies of any person, and translations of every book in all languages. Conversely, for many of the texts some language could be devised that would make it readable with any of a vast number of different contents. Despite &mdash; indeed, because of &mdash; this glut of information, all books are totally useless to the reader, leaving the librarians in a state of suicidal despair. This leads some librarians to superstitions and cult-like behaviour, such as the "Purifiers", who arbitrarily destroy books they deem nonsense as they scour through the library seeking the "Crimson Hexagon" and its illustrated, magical books. Another is the belief that since all books exist in the library, somewhere one of the books must be a perfect index of the library''s contents; some even believe that a messianic figure known as the "Man of the Book" has read it, and they travel through the library seeking him.

The Library of Babel

Bianca, Lucas and Raquel are now living in the New York Black Cross cell. Raquel and the rest of Lucas''s Black Cross cell are currently unaware Bianca is a vampire. Mrs. Bethany later stages a break in to the Black Cross cell wanting to take Bianca back to her parents. Several members of Black Cross are killed including Lucas''s stepfather Eduardo whose neck is broken by Mrs. Bethany. In the attack Balthazar is captured and tied up by Black Cross who begin to torture him to find out why Mrs. Bethany attacked Black Cross. Bianca and Lucas begin orchestrating Balthazar''s escape and succeed without getting caught. After the break in by Mrs. Bethany, Bianca needs to feed so they go to a hospital to get blood for Bianca from the blood bank. They are interrupted by Raquel and Dana who realise that Bianca is a vampire as she is feeding. They both promise not to tell anyone but Bianca is woken in the night after someone told the Black Cross cell about Bianca''s vampirism. She is tied up and burnt with holy water, and Lucas. who is also splashed, burns due to him feeding Bianca. Dana helps them escape and gives them some money but tells Black Cross they escaped. After Lucas realises there is a dangerous vampire in the city they are staying in he decides to hunt it. Lucas finds the rogue vampire but after following him to a hotel room realises that Charity, Balthazar''s sister, is staying close by with her clan who the rogue vampire belongs to. He escapes and later he and Bianca tell Balthazar that Charity is near by. Bianca and Lucas begin to run out of money and go to their friend Vic for help. He allows them to stay in the basement. On Bianca''s birthday Lucas takes her to the planetarium where they are attacked by wraiths. They both escape and later get jobs. While staying in Vic''s house Bianca becomes increasingly weak and ill. Bianca realises that she must kill a human and become a full vampire otherwise she will die. Lucas offers to allow Bianca to kill him but she refuses as he would not agree to rise with her. She later dies and becomes a wraith. She is met by a wraith named Maxine who tells her that she is powerful due to her born status as a wraith. She is told she can form a body by holding objects she has bonded to in her life including her broche and her coral bracelet which were both made of once living material. Bianca appears to Lucas telling him about her becoming a wraith. Lucas with Ranulf and Vic who have returned from holiday agree to assist Balthazar in killing Charity. Vic waits outside after they track her down to a rundown cinema where they fight and kill several members of her clan. While Bianca is solid she is injured by Charity who throws a shard of iron at her which is weakening to wraiths, causing her to loses her solidity. Charity, Bianca and Lucas are alone and as Bianca is powerless she pins down Lucas before draining his blood killing him. Charity leaves and Balthazar and Ranulf arrive who tell Bianca of Lucas''s fate. He will become a vampire.

Hourglass

The story begins on Theodosia''s seventeenth birthday in the year 1800, where her father Aaron Burr introduces Theodosia to her soon to be husband Joseph Alston. Theodosia is not keen on her father''s choice for a husband, for she does not realise that her father hopes the marriage will increase his political support in the southern states, as well as lead to financial gain. During Theodosia and Joseph''s official courtship, by chance Theodosia meets Meriwether Lewis, and the two are instantly attracted to each other. However Aaron Burr spots the two together, and stops any chance of a romance before it begins. Reluctantly but dutifully, Theodosia capitulates to her father''s wishes and marries Joseph Alston in February 1801. The couple then settle in Joseph''s home state of South Carolina, and Theodosia soon gives birth to her first and only child. However Theodosia is never happy in the South and constantly longs for the company of her father (and a reunification with Meriwether Lewis). The story moves on through Aaron Burr''s time as Vice President: his controversial actions dueling Alexander Hamilton; his working to take over Mexico, naming himself as king; and his subsequent trial. Theodosia is always behind her father, even if it is at the cost of her marriage to Joseph, and her romance with Meriwether.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

By Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter

Fireshadow

No Author Listed

On The Black Hill

By Bruce Chatwin

The Enemy

By Desmond Bagley

A Strange Discovery

By Charles Romyn Dake

Taronga

By Victor Kelleher

Bones of the Dragon

By Margaret Weis

Deadeye Dick

By Kurt Vonnegut

The Adventures of Slim and Howdy

No Author Listed

The Library of Babel

By Jorge Luis Borges

Hourglass

By Claudia Gray

My Theodosia

By Anya Seton