Philip Gilbert, the head of a group of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts, is found dead in a national park''s artillery battery. Because the autopsy report is slow-coming, inspector Kate Martinelli and her partner Al Hawkin treat the death as a murder case. She can discover little about the dead man aside from his unrelenting fascination with all things Holmes. One of his dinner group companions, Ian Nicholson, reveals that he had discovered a "lost" Holmes story, possibly by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, about the murder of a gay soldier in 1920s San Francisco. Kate''s interest is piqued when Ian mentions that Gilbert''s body was discovered under the same circumstance as the soldier''s in the story. Eventually, Kate traces Gilbert''s ex-wife and learns that it is likely Glibert was gay, given that he had been with an actor several years before. She connects him with Nicholson, who used to be an actor and whose own ex-wife admits he is gay. Kate questions Nicholson, who admits that he hit Gilbert with a heavy bottle of wine after Gilbert announced they would have to break up temporarily following the publishing of the lost manuscript. He did not realize at the time that Gilbert actually died of complications following the attack, thereby downgrading the legal status from homicide to manslaughter. Finding Gilbert dead, Nicholson panics and dumps the body then sets up an elaborate alibi. After confessing his actions to Kate, Nicholson commits suicide by cop.

The Art of Detection

Delia is an eighth grader in Cincinnati, Ohio. She competes on a team in the Double Dutch world championships with her friends Yolanda, Charlene, and her friend Randy is the waterboy. During school they are told they might have to pass a standardized test in order to be on the team, which is ghastly news for Delia because she can’t read. Randy is also having difficulties. His dad is a truck driver, so Randy is often left home alone to care for himself. Randy’s dad has been gone for weeks, and still hasn’t called. Soon Randy has to sell the VCR and other appliances to pay the rent and buy food. Later Randy tells the coach and goes to stay with his family for awhile. Everyone is trying to avoid the Tolliver twins, because of the rumors surrounding them. It is said in the book that they kill puppies for fun, and terrorize their mother. During the story two tornadoes hit the school while it''s in session. Yolanda goes to the bathroom shortly before they hit, and remains missing for a while after. Also right before the tornadoes hit the Tolliver twins run out of the classroom. They later rescue Yolanda and we find out they are not only scared of storms, but they both like Yolanda. After this they become friends. After an exciting competition, Delia sees a paper with a picture of Randy’s dad on it, but because she can’t read, she doesn’t tell Randy because she thinks he knows. Randy, however, sees it while cleaning up and finds out that Delia saw it too. They fight for a bit, and Randy tells Delia his secret. She feels guilty for not telling him, so she tells Randy that she can’t read and runs out of the gym. Later she goes to dinner with her mother, and reveals to her secret to her as well. Also, we find out that Randy''s dad was robbed while on his route and was just recently discovered.

Double Dutch

Dreaming of freedom from a life of brute servitude, hard labor, and debt to a tyrannical landlord, Papa Santuzzu and his wife, Adriana, push their beloved children to immigrate to La Merica, the Land of Opportunity. In his "wild and giddy imagination," Papa Santuzzu ardently believes in the ease of attaining the American Dream, the promise of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for all, and rests assured that his children will thrive in this great nation of abundance. Following the painful, yet exuberant, process of the Santuzzu children''s displacement from their homeland and relocation in Papa Santuzzu''s conceived lush "faraway garden," Ardizzone''s novel re-imagines the meaning of such a journey, where every obvious gain entails some unforeseen sacrifice. A loving tribute to Sicilian American culture, In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu resounds with the traditional folklore and songs of Sicily, implanting within our hearts a vibrant and compassionate perspective of the struggles, joys, and proliferation of diasporic communities in modern America. In their earnest exodus to America, the Santuzzu children arduously clear away the weeds and briars in what seems a vast and rugged wilderness, managing to cultivate their own unknown, yet nonetheless beautiful, version of their Papa''s paradisiacal vision—building, at last, a home-away-from home.

In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu

Zoe and Max Baxter cannot have a child because of Max''s family''s genetic unbalance. They turn to in vitro, and create three healthy embryos, freezing them cryogenically. One is implanted and Zoe successfully becomes pregnant, but loses the baby in late pregnancy, at her baby shower, no less, much to her great sorrow. Zoe and Max soon divorce because Max does not want Zoe to pressure him into trying again for a child. Some time later, Zoe, a musical therapist, still has not recovered from the shock of the divorce, and Max has moved in with his brother, Reid, and his sister-in-law, Liddy. Reid and Liddy are both Christians, and are also trying to have children, and have had several miscarriages because of the Baxter family unbalance. Max originally is hostile to Reid, Liddy, and their pastor''s efforts to convert him to their religion, but eventually warms up to the church and becomes a born-again Christian. Zoe meets Vanessa Shaw, who is openly lesbian, while floating at the bottom of a pool early in the morning. Vanessa thinks Zoe is drowning and tries to save her, but Zoe asserts that she was only floating at the bottom, looking at the lights from the bottom of the pool. Zoe and Vanessa become fast friends and eventually fall in love. Zoe, at first, is unwilling to admit to her relationship with Vanessa, but when Vanessa is angry that Zoe is ashamed of her, Zoe eventually admits to Max when she sees him at a grocery store that she and Vanessa are together. Max is shocked and disgusted, and confides in his pastor, Pastor Clive, his fears: that Zoe turned to lesbianism because he was not enough of a man to satisfy her. Zoe and Vanessa marry soon after the incident, and Zoe still wants to have a child. Vanessa suggests that she could carry one of Zoe''s frozen embryos, and Zoe readily agrees. They learn that since the embryos are Max''s children too, Max must agree for Zoe and Vanessa to try to use the children. Zoe asks Max if he will agree, and Max, confused and stricken, tells her he will think about it. Zoe and Vanessa, thinking that Max is surely going to agree, begin thinking of names and furnishing the baby''s room. Meanwhile, Zoe is working with a rebellious teenage girl named Lucy, who is hostile and angry. Max consults Pastor Clive, who tells him that no child should be subjected to being raised in a lesbian household. He suggests that Max sue Vanessa and Zoe for the rights to raise the embryos, which he calls ''pre-born children'', and that if Max wins, he should give the children to be raised by Reid and Liddy, who cannot have children of their own. Max agrees, and serves Vanessa and Zoe with papers, suing them for the right to raise the children. Vanessa and Zoe are angry and upset, Zoe being incredulous that Max would betray her like that. The two turn to a lawyer, Angela Moretti, who specializes in gay and lesbian cases, although she is not gay herself. In turn, Max and Pastor Clive enlist the help of Wade Preston, a Christian lawyer, and Ben Benjamin, another lawyer. Over the course of a month or two, the case shifts gears several times, with hostility present between Max, Zoe, Angela and Wade. Initially the judge seems to be in favor of Zoe''s case, but then evidence is supplied that Lucy--who is, in fact, Pastor Clive''s stepdaughter--was molested by Zoe, which is an untrue allegation. Nevertheless, Zoe cracks and agrees to give up and award the case to Max. Max eventually realizes that he is in love with Liddy, and that to sit by and watch the child be raised as Reid and Liddy''s, with him playing the lesser role of uncle, would be unbearable. He agrees to give up the embryos and give them to Zoe and Vanessa to raise as their own; Zoe and Vanessa allow him to play the role of father. The epilogue is seen seven or so years later, through Samantha ''Sammy'' Baxter''s eyes. Sammy is six years old, has a dog named Ollie, and calls her mothers ''Mama Ness'' and ''Mommy Zoe''. She knows that Vanessa is the tooth fairy, because she peeked, and often defends her two mothers against bullying remarks passed by her classmates. She reveals that Liddy and Max are together and are getting married shortly. She considers it normal, and even better, to have two mothers and a father, and knows that all three of her parents care about her equally. In the end she asserts that she is a very happy child, and is, really, the luckiest little girl in the world.

Sing You Home

Dick and Nicole Diver are a glamorous couple who take a villa in the South of France and surround themselves with a circle of friends, mainly Americans. Also staying at the resort are Rosemary Hoyt, a young actress, and her mother. Rosemary gets sucked into the circle of the Divers; she falls in love with Dick and is also adopted as a close friend by Nicole. Dick first toys with the idea of an affair with Rosemary at this point, which he finally acts upon years later. However, Rosemary senses something is wrong with the couple, which is brought to light when one of the guests at a party reports having seen something strange in the bathroom. Tommy Barban, another guest, comes loyally to the defense of the Divers. The action involves various other friends, including the Norths, where a frequent occurrence is the drunken behavior of Abe North. The story becomes complicated when Jules Peterson, a black man, is murdered and ends up in Rosemary''s bed, in a situation which could destroy Rosemary''s career. Dick moves the blood-soaked body to cover up any implied relationship between Rosemary and Peterson. Once into the book, the history of the Divers emerges. Dick Diver was a doctor and psychoanalyst and had taken on a complicated case of neuroses. This was Nicole, whose complicated, incestuous relationship with her father is suggested as the cause of breakdown. As she becomes infatuated with Dick, Dick is almost driven to marry her as part of the cure. Strong objections are raised: Nicole is an heiress and her sister thinks Dick is marrying her for her money. They do marry, and Nicole’s money pays for Dick''s partnership in a Swiss clinic and for their extravagant lifestyle. However, Dick gradually develops a drinking problem. He gets into fights and trouble with the police in various incidents and is bought out of the clinic by his partner. The opening episode almost marks the crossover point whereby Dick becomes the weaker partner, progressively failing in what he attempts while Nicole becomes stronger. Dick''s behaviour becomes embarrassing as he mishandles situations with the children and friends. Eventually Nicole has an affair with Tommy Barban, and divorces Dick to marry Barban. Nicole survives, while Dick drifts into ever diminishing circumstances. The underlying theme is then how one person has become strong by destroying another—a point emphasized cynically by Nicole''s sister, who having seen Dick originally as the parasite, finally remarks that "That was what he was educated for."

Tender is the Night

The story picks up from the first book, shortly after it ends. It is set mainly in Bayern; a kingdom divided into forests and towns, with a Medieval technology. It is on the other side of the mountains from from Kildenree, where the first book began. Enna and Princess Isi (Ani) became fast friends in The Goose Girl. After the end of the first book, Enna returned to the forest to live with her older brother Leifer. Finding a vellum scroll, while in the forest, Leifer learns the secret of ''Fire Speaking''; but, he is unable to control his fire, or his temper, from ''flaring up''. Enna goes to the city, hoping to talk to Isi about Leifer''s new power with fire. But, Isi is unable to manage her own ability to communicate with some animals and wind, since the end of the first book. The neighboring country of Tira invades Bayern. Enna and her friends, Razo and Finn, travel to the front, where they meet Leifer. He is anxious to use his power with fire to fight; but, dies in the battle. When Enna finds Leifer''s body, she finds the vellum; and, learns its secrets. She makes a series of rules for herself, which she hopes will allow her to fight in the war, without meeting the same fate as her brother. Enna goes on a series of raids, with her old friends. But, finds she is unable to keep the promises she made to herself. When her friends try to stop her, from more sabotage raids, she runs away; and, is captured. Tiran Captain Sileph uses herbs to drug Enna; so, she can''t use her power with fire to escape. He tries to brainwash her into teaching him the secret of fire, and fighting for Tira. Razo and Finn try to rescue her, but are captured. Enna gradually gives in to Sileph''s persuasive skill with ''people speaking''. She believes he loves her; and, falls victim to Stockholm Syndrome. While Sileph is away, at a battle, the guards forget to drug her. She fights her way out of the camp and escapes, to fight for Bayern, and try to end the war, even if it means her own death, like her brother. Before she succumbs to her wounds, from using too much fire, her friends find her. The last part of the book follows Enna and Isi trying to find a cure, in a neighboring kingdom, to balance the fire and wind, that is killing them. The trip takes months. Along the way, Enna has to face Sileph, and a band of Tiran soldiers. His charisma has worn thin for her and his troops; and they fight. Enna and Isi finally return home, at peace, to their friends and families.

Enna Burning

Matilda Cook lives with her hardworking mother, grandfather, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, and Eliza, a freed slave who works as their cook, in the apartment on top of their family coffeehouse in Philadelphia. Matilda ("Mattie") Cook is 14 years old with big dreams for her family''s coffeehouse. When the yellow fever epidemic breaks out during the summer, people leave the city or die. Matilda realizes she has to fight for her own life and her loved ones. Her father died from a fall from a ladder. In 1793 yellow fever is spreading through Philadelphia. The people close to Matilda are dying. First, many of her neighbors are infected, then her childhood friends, including Polly, their serving girl, then Matilda''s mother. She and her grandfather try to flee to a family friend''s home in the country, but they are left behind because of guards patrolling the path. (They kept the sick out of other cities, and thought her grandfather ill because of his cough.) Matilda falls ill with the fever and is taken to a hospital by her grandfather. They return to their house, to discover it was robbed by thieves. The next night, men broke in while Matilda was sleeping. She had screamed, which woke her grandfather up. Grandfather tries to save Mattie, and ends up being killed when he flies back toward the stairs after shooting an old rifle at the thieves. After this, Matilda is desperate and searches for Eliza, finding Nell, another fever orphan along the way. Finding Eliza, Matilda recuperates with her family for a while. Eliza''s two nephews and Nell become infected with yellow fever. Matilda and Eliza take them to the Cook Coffeehouse, but available medicines have little effect. Finally, the first frost arrives, killing the mosquitoes and ending the epidemic. Near the end of the book, Lucille, Matilda''s mother, comes back with the President. She is well but needs to take naps and take care of her health. At the end of the book, Matilda decides to take up a new job, as owner of the coffeehouse with Eliza, and life returns to normal in Philadelphia.

Fever 1793

The theme can be summarized by a quote from the book: "If you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless." (p.&nbsp;199) Edward Tulane is a china rabbit given to a ten-year-old girl named Abilene by her grandmother. He enjoys a pleasant but vain life with his young mistress, who treats him with the utmost love and respect, until an unfortunate incident finds him falling overboard while vacationing on an ocean liner. Edward spends 297 days in the ocean''s depths, until a passing fisherman and his buddy pulls him free. The man takes him home to his wife where he is renamed and forced to wear dresses. Edward is passed from hand to hand of a succession of life-altering characters, such as a hobo and his dog and a girl with pneumonia and her brother. Edward''s journeys not only take him far from home, but even farther from the selfish rabbit he once was. Edward is eventually cruelly broken against a counter top edge and then repaired and offered for sale in a doll store for several years, and is finally bought by the same mistress he once knew, but now older and more mature, with a daughter of her own.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Once a learned man from the northern regions of Europe went on a voyage south. One night, he sat on his terrace, while the fire behind him cast his shadow on the opposite balcony. As he was sitting there, resting, the man was amused to observe how the shadow followed his every movement, as if he really did sit upon the opposing balcony. When he finally grew tired and went to sleep, he imagined the shadow would likewise retire in the house across the street. The next morning however, the man found to his surprise that he in fact had lost his shadow overnight. As a new shadow slowly grew back from the tip of his toes, the man did not give the incident another thought, returned to northern Europe, and took up writing again. Several years passed by until one night there was a knock at his door. To his surprise, it was his shadow, the one he lost years before in Africa, and now stood upon his doorstep, almost completely human in appearance. Astonished by his sudden reappearance, the learned man invited him into his house, and soon the two sat by the fireplace, as the shadow related how he had come to be man. The learned man was calm and gentle by nature. His main object of interest lay with the good, the beautiful and the true, a subject of which he wrote often but was of no interest to anyone else. The shadow said his master did not understand the world, that he had seen it as truly was, and how evil some men really were. The shadow then grew richer and fatter over the years, while the writer grew poorer and paler. Finally he had become so ill that his former shadow proposed a trip to a health resort at his expense, but on condition that he could act as the master now, and the writer would pretend to be his shadow. As absurd as this suggestion sounded, the learned man eventually agreed and together they took the trip, the shadow now as his master. At the resort, the shadow met with a beautiful princess, and as they danced and talked with each other each night, the princess fell in love with him. When they were about to be married, the shadow offered his former master a luxurious position at the palace, on condition that he now became his own shadow permanently. The writer immediately refused and threatened to tell the princess everything, but the shadow had him arrested. Feigning his distraught, he met with the princess and told her: {| | :"I have gone through the most terrible affair that could possibly happen; only imagine, my shadow has gone mad; I suppose such a poor, shallow brain, could not bear much; he fancies that he has become a real man, and that I am his shadow." :"How very terrible,” cried the princess; "is he locked up?" :"Oh yes, certainly; for I fear he will never recover." :"Poor shadow!" said the princess; "it is very unfortunate for him; it would really be a good deed to free him from his frail existence; and, indeed, when I think how often people take the part of the lower class against the higher, in these days, it would be policy to put him out of the way quietly." | :"Jeg har oplevet det Grueligste, der kan opleves!" sagde Skyggen, "tænk Dig - ja, saadan en stakkels Skyggehjerne kan ikke holde meget ud! - Tænk Dig, min Skygge er blevet gal, han troer at han er Mennesket og at jeg - tænk dig bare, - at jeg er hans Skygge!" :"Det er frygteligt!" sagde Prinsessen, "han er dog spærret inde?" :"Det er han! Jeg er bange han kommer sig aldrig." :"Stakkels Skygge!" sagde Prinsessen, "han er meget ulykkelig; det er en sand Velgjerning at frie ham fra den Smule Liv han har, og naar jeg rigtig tænker over det, saa troer jeg det bliver nødvendigt at det bliver gjort af med ham i al Stilhed!" |} When the shadow wed the princess later that night, the learned man was already executed.

The Shadow

Little Willy and his dog Searchlight find Willy''s grandfather lying in bed. Doc Smith, the only doctor in town, tells Willy that his grandfather no longer wants to live. Clifford Snyder, a tax collector, sneaks into Little Willy''s house and, with a derringer in his hand, demands to know how much his grandfather owes the state. After seeing some papers he tells Willy that they owe the state of Wyoming 500 dollars. The next day Willy enters a dog sled race that has a reward of 500 dollars. Willy sees a sled being pulled by five Samoyeds (fast dogs used for sled racing). The man on the sled signs up for the race, and Willy learns it is Stone Fox, a Native American who doesn''t talk to white people and has never lost a race. During the race, Willy''s light one-dog sled shows unexpected advantages in managing tight curves and enabling a perilous short-cut over a frozen lake. However, Searchlight becomes so tired that her heart bursts and she dies instantly about 10 feet from the finish line. Stone Fox makes a line on the ground with his boot, takes out his rifle, and warns that if any other racers cross the line, he''ll shoot. He then concedes the match to Willy by letting Willy carry Searchlight across the finish line to everyone''s amazement.

Stone fox

The plot occurs in Damascus, 1840. Aslan is a 15 years old religious, Jewish teen, one of the outwardly pampered sons of the Farhi family. Additionally, he is gay. Behind closed doors, he is abused and beaten by his siblings, mother and father; at school the other kids make fun of him, especially when he and Moussa, another delicate lad, are caught holding hands. The outcome of this tender incident speaks volumes about the power of Aslan''s father in the community: when this news gets out, Moussa simply vanishes. But there''s even more going on behind the Farhi household doors. When his father is away, Aslan''s mother dresses her son in her clothes, shoes and make-up - and these are their most (and maybe the only) intimate moments together. At any other time, she sides against him with the rest of the family. Miserable, Aslan grasps at anything he can to put himself out of his misery, including trying to become fatally infected when there''s an outbreak of the plague. When his father marries him off at the age of 15 to a rabbi''s daughter, things go from bad to worse as Aslan is unable to consummate the marriage. His solution involved succumbing to passions of his own, a tremulous step that takes him down a secretive road of pleasure mixed with fear. As he becomes bolder in his forays to explore and enjoy the forbidden nightlife of the city, Aslan becomes enamoured with a young woman singer, Umm-Jihan, and catches the eye of Father Tommaso, an Italian monk. Aslan''s meeting and further interaction with the monk spur on the plot, when the monk has a heart attack and dies, while Aslan''s secret makes him hide the body. That leads to a blood libel against the Jews, blaming them, with no evidence, for the murder of the monk, in a vicious trial with grim results. Aslan observes his family''s long-standing feud with a rival merchant family, and the blaming of all the community because of his secret and of his being in the closet. One of the memorable things he says is: "why is it that men cannot love one another more, instead of beating and striking, oppressing and debasing, despoiling and destroying?" Ultimately, his attempts to assert himself to his father prove terrible and tragic.

Death of a Monk

This novel opens on New Year''s Eve, three weeks after the events of Club Dead. Sookie Stackhouse finds Eric running down the road close to her home, but he seems to have lost his memory. Sookie, initially reluctant to get involved in vampire matters once again, takes Eric in. Eric''s second in command, Pam, is relieved at Sookie finding Eric, and explains a coven of villainous witches, some of them also werewolves, has arrived in Shreveport, set on extorting money from Eric and taking over the local power he has. Hence, Pam believes the witches to be responsible for Eric''s erased memory. After Sookie''s brother Jason bargains on a financial settlement, Sookie agrees to keep Eric in her house and care for him, as the witches are on the lookout for Eric and might harm him. The next day, Jason is missing. Sookie oversees the slowly progressing police investigation of her brother''s disappereance, but personally fears the witch coven might''ve gotten hold of him. Later on, Sookie informs werewolf Alcide Herveaux of the witch coven being in town. Alcide and his pack master fear that one of their pack members might have defected to the witches'' side, but Sookie and Alcide then discover this particular woman''s murdered body. Back in Bon Temps, Sookie''s workplace is paid a visit to by the leaders of the witch coven, Marnie "Hallow" and Mark Stonebrook. Meanwhile, Sookie and Eric give in to their sexual interest in each other, while Sookie realizes she wouldn''t have done so if Eric still had his memory. Pam suggests Alcide''s werewolf pack, her area vampires and some local Wiccans unite to fight off the witch coven. They do so and with Sookie''s assistance, brutally attack the witches'' main gathering place, wiping out everyone present but Hallow, whom Pam captures and forces to lift Eric''s amnesia. Sookie returns home dismayed at the loss of her "relationship" with the memory-free Eric, and finally retrieves Jason with Sam''s help in Hotshot, a local were-panther community. In Hotshot, Felton Norris, romantically interested in Jason''s one-time fling Crystal, also a werepanther, had contained Jason and purposefully bit him to change him into a werepanther, so that Crystal would lose her interest in Jason. This novel marked the death of three previously introduced characters; Fangtasia''s human waitress Ginger was killed by a witch curse, Fangtasia''s replacement bartender Chow was staked in the climactic battle, and Alcide Herveaux''s jealous, shapeshifter ex-girlfriend Debbie Pelt was shot to death by Sookie after invading Sookie''s house intending to kill her.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Art of Detection

By Laurie R. King

Double Dutch

No Author Listed

In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu

No Author Listed

Sing You Home

By Jodi Picoult

Tender is the Night

By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Enna Burning

By Shannon Hale

Fever 1793

By Laurie Halse Anderson

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

By Kate DiCamillo

The Shadow

By Hans Christian Andersen

Stone fox

By John Reynolds Gardiner

Death of a Monk

By Alon Hilu

Dead to the World

By Charlaine Harris