Dinnie Doone has spent most of her life traveling around the United States because her father is transiently employed. Dinnie feels that she has settled into this routine of never having a permanent home until one night, her whole world changes. With her older brother in the Air Force after ending up in jail again, her older sister pregnant and married, and her dad still on the road for yet another home, Dinnie is taken away by her maternal aunt and her husband to Switzerland, where Uncle Max (her uncle) is the new headmaster of an international boarding school. Dinnie becomes a student at the school, where she makes friends, sees new, exciting things, and has many adventures of her own. She befriends a girl named Lila, who at first seems nice but then starts complaining a lot, but Dinnie still really likes her. Dinnie also has a friend named Guthrie, a spontaneous and fun-loving "fantastico!" person. She also gets to know Keisuke and Belen, a Japanese boy and a Spanish girl, who love each other but their parents are not supportive of their relationship. The group is later joined by an Italian girl named Mari. During a "going-away" party for Lila, Lila and Guthrie get trapped in an avalanche and are saved because Dinnie watched where they fell and is thus able to locate them. Both of them survive and make a full recovery. Intersperced in the novel are Dinnie''s diary entries, postcards from her two paternal aunts informing Dinnie of what is happening with her family, and Dinnie''s various attempts to communicate to the local community using signs at her window that she wants to return home. However, as the year progresses, Dinnie begins to thrive in the diverse environment and the stability of remaining in one place. At the end of the year, Dinnie''s aunt and uncle give her a choice: Go home to America for the summer and come back in the fall, or go back to America permanently. It is never said what her decision was, but Dinnie keeps her skis in the closet so that she will have to come back someday.

Bloomability

An unidentified corpse discovered at the edge of the Jicarilla Apache natural gas field in the San Juan Basin involves Navajo Tribal Police Sergeant Jim Chee in a mystery involving diverted oil and gas revenues, abandoned pipelines, Washington D.C. insiders, and illegal drugs. Assigned to patrol the basin and range topography of the rugged Animas Mountains of Hidalgo County in the extreme southwestern corner of New Mexico, U.S. Border Patrol Officer Bernadette Manuelito photographs a suspicious construction crew on the Tuttle exotic game ranch. After a complaint about her activities by ranch personnel, Manuelito''s supervisor advises her that the Border Patrol has a special arrangement with the ranch whereby ranch personnel monitor the border and provide tips to the Border Patrol. In return, the Border Patrol does not patrol the ranch. New to the Border Patrol service, Officer Manuelito accepts this explanation until she learns that a photograph of her, taken by her supervisor, has been distributed to the criminal element across the border in Mexico. Officer Manuelito shares her concerns with her former Navajo Tribal Police supervisor Jim Chee and retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn who are then able to make a connection between the unidentified corpse and the activities Manuelito has observed in Hidalgo County.

The Sinister Pig

In this first novel, Garrett is approached by the Tate family to investigate the untimely death of Denny Tate, an old army buddy of Garrett''s from their time spent in a war in the Cantard. Although Denny''s death was an accident, he had acquired a large fortune in silver through insider trading. In his will, Denny left the fortune to the woman he loved, Kayean Kronk. The Tates try to hire Garrett to locate and deliver the fortune to Kayean, who is assumed to be living somewhere deep in the Cantard, but having lived through the war, Garrett wants no part of the ordeal. Things start to get ugly as different parties try to steal Denny''s fortune. In part as a debt to his old army buddy, and in part to be reunited with Kayean Kronk (a teenage fling of Garrett''s), Garrett reluctantly heads off to the Cantard with his half-elf friend Morley Dotes and the Roze triplets. Denny''s cousins, Rose and Tinnie Tate, try to tag along on the trip, but are sent back when Garrett and Morley find out. When they arrive in Full Harbor, Garrett, Morley, and the Roze boys begin their search for Kayean Kronk, but as time goes by, one thing becomes more and more obvious: Kayean is involved with vampires. A centaur by the name of Zeck Zack claims to be able to help, but instead turns out to be working with the vampires. After forcing the truth out of Zack, Garrett and the gang head out into the heart of the Cantard to find Kayean, who has become a vampire bride. In a desperate battle, Garrett rescues her from the vampire lair and returns her to the Tates, upon which he receives a portion of the inheritance as his fee. With his new riches, Garrett purchases a house and moves in with the Dead Man, a dead, but not inactive Loghyr, starting a partnership that will last for the rest of the series. Meanwhile, Morley, with Garrett and Saucerhead Tharpe along for the ride, delivers a sleeping vampire to the head of the criminal underworld of TunFaire. The vampire kills him, opening the door for a new leader to take over. Garrett''s role in the rise of the new Kingpin, Chodo Contague, plays a major role in later novels in the series.

Sweet Silver Blues

The Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Adric and Nyssa arrive on an unnamed ice planet (which goes unnamed throughout the novel), which has settlements at the equator and not anywhere else. The planet is run by the Scientifica, a technocratic society allied with the Earth Empire, but there is a more than usual presence of Adjudicators on the planet. Tegan and Nyssa get a hotel room where they run into a man who claims to be "Bruce Jovanka" with a bad Australian accent, while the Doctor and Adric enter the Scientifica''s complex and encounter three very diverse characters: Whitfield, the woman who runs the Scientifica; Tertullian Medford, the primary Adjudicator on the planet; and a badly decaying woman who the Doctor subsequently learns is Gallifreyan when she regenerates and nicknames "Patience" (she was previously known as only the Patient). While things turn sticky for the Doctor and Adric (they''re ambushed by a beautiful black woman on the skitrain tracks, then arrested for being alien spies), Tegan and Nyssa run into their own troubles with the husky blond "Bruce". And all the meanwhile, a little man is elsewhere on the planet, investigating a strange machine found buried in the subterranean soil...

Cold Fusion

Zak''s mother calls him to come into the kitchen to eat lunch. Zak skips down the stairs two at a time, and his dog, George skids on the linoleum, and they enter the kitchen. When Zak sat at the counter, his mother made him a ham and cheese sandwich, and he made a yucky face. He told his mother he doesn''t want to eat the ham and cheese sandwich. His mother told him that this is not a restaurant and that she wants to see that sandwich gone. Zak thought to himself that his mother was having a very ornery day, but he was the one that was having an ornery day, because he didn''t want to eat the sandwich. Whenever he stared at it, he mumbled, grumbled, and groaned at it. Then, he believed that it should be restaurant, plus it excludes the ham and cheese sandwich. In his imagination, he and George were in a restaurant called Zak''s Place, which also had the sign of its name in bright purple neon lights. There was a waitress named Lou that had frizzy red curls, teeny tiny frilly hat, and a pale blue uniform with a big pocket and her name written on it in red. Then, Zak began ordering some food. At first, Zak said that he would like a hamburger, but Lou asked him whether or not it''s a bit boring. Then, Zak changed his mind to get a triple-decker, super-duper, cheeseburger deluxe, plus a pound of pickles. There was a cook named Cookie that was cooking the hamburgers. Next, Zak ordered French Fries with skinnies and ziggies and that curlicue around, and he raised his hand to pile them that high. Then, Zak ordered a pizza that is the size of bicycle tires for George to eat but to make it two. Then, Zak and George were eating their foods. Next, Zak asked whether they have chicken. Lou called out to Cookie to fry the bird all pins. Then Zak ordered a tub of spaghetti with meatballs the size of baseballs, hot dogs with chili, and nachos with cheese. While Zak and George were eating the spaghetti, Zak asked Lou what they have to drink, and Lou said that they have every drink, and Zak ordered "Line ''em up." Then Zak and George were drinking every drink lined up on the counter. Then there was dessert. And finally, there was a mountain of vanilla and a hill of chocolate. Then, Lou got all covered up with vanilla. Zak was calling Lou if it was her. Then, Zak''s mother was calling him as Zak continued to say Lou''s name. Then, George barked to get Zak out of his imagination of being in a restaurant. When Zak looked around the room, there was nothing that was only in his imagination. There was only him, his mother, George, and his lunch. His mother told him again that she wants to see that sandwich gone. Zak mumbled, grumbled, groaned, and made a yucky face again. When his mother turned around, he made George eat his sandwich. The mother thought Zak ate the sandwich.

Zak''s Lunch

Dougie talks with his best (and only) friend, Andy Morrow. Athletic, popular Andy is very different from socially inept Dougie, yet the two find things to talk about. They discuss everything - except for what happened at the Tuttle Place three years ago. It is evident that Andy and Dougie''s friendship (which adults are afraid of) is not what it seems to be at first: not only is Andy absent when Dougie needs him most, he pressures Dougie into stalking a classmate, Melissa Haverman, and making a bomb threat via the telephone. When Dougie''s psychologist finds out that he''s been skipping sessions and hiding his medications, the teenager is forced to remember that fateful night at the Tuttle Place. The truth is that Andy is dead, a victim of the fire they accidentally set to the house. In the end, he sets fire to his beloved bridge while in the basement, becoming a burn victim at the hospital. Andy then visits him, promising to return. However, it is debatable as to whether Dougie died or not, since he was hospitalized at the "Madham Burn Unit," the name of his self-built town with his railroad of matchsticks. He also mentions that the hospital smells of burning plastic, referring to the plastic people in Madham, present when he set the town on fire, and that he wants to find his grandfather, to see if he is mad about the train. Whether it is his imagination that leads him to smelling burnt plastic and seeing "Madham Burn Unit" or he has died and Madham Hospital is his place of rest is not revealed.

Invisible

The story concerns the life of Johnnie Pascoe, a retired commercial and military pilot, who has engaged in a dangerous rescue in a mountainous region of Tasmania. He has crashed his plane and lies injured and unconscious in the house of the child he had been sent to help. Hearing of his plight, Ronnie Clarke, a younger pilot who was taught to fly by Pascoe, offers to try and land a doctor to assist. His efforts do not succeed. Whilst resting at Pascoe''s house that night, Clarke dreams of aspects of the life of his former mentor. Pascoe had been a fighter pilot during The Great War and had married an up and coming actress. At war''s end, they had become separated and his wife accepted a role in Hollywood—and filed for divorce from there with sole custody of their daughter. A few years later, Pascoe opens a small flying school and is embroiled in an adulterous affair with a local upper-class woman, Brenda Marshall, whose husband is in a mental asylum. Things go awry after the birth of a daughter between her and Pascoe and the woman commits suicide, by deliberately crashing her light aircraft, when she learns that her divorce request from her husband has been refused. In the final part of the story, we learn of Pascoe''s later life as a civil pilot—shortly before the story''s opening. It seems that he has become enamoured of one of the flight attendants. In a touching scene, Pascoe proposes marriage to this young woman only to learn that she is his daughter by Brenda Marshall. The framing story closes with Ronnie Clarke making a successful attempt at Pascoe''s rescue only to learn that Pascoe had died during the night. Like Conrad, Shute often uses a narrator to tell the story; in The Rainbow and the Rose, the narrator periodically shifts from Clarke to Pascoe.

The Rainbow and the Rose

The story begins with Mark Harrison, a 13-year old survival enthusiast, hiking through the mountainous Magruder Missile Range when he is struck by a mysterious blue beam of light. He wakes up in a strange world that he believes is an alien world with many similarities to Earth. He uses his survival skills to live off the land and, while exploring the forest, he discovers a camp of some short human-like creatures with webbed feet and dark, olive-colored skin, though he finds them too warlike to interact with. He also hears a creature called the howling thing. Soon after, he is enslaved by the Tsook, a metal-weapon wielding race. Over the next three months, he learns their language and develops feelings for Megaan, the chief''s daughter. When, after escaping, he returns to warn the tribe about an impending attack, he is granted freedom and official entry into their tribe. Mark then discovers that, despite his misconceptions earlier, this world is actually just Earth in the future. Megaan''s brother gives Mark a shard of a Coca-Cola bottle and the Merkon (leader of The Transall) reveals the events between Mark''s time and this future, also revealing that he too was sent there by the beam of light. Apparently, a strange highly contagious form of the Ebola virus wiped out most of the human race. Those remaining used nuclear weapons on each other, forcing civilization to start over. After severely wounding the Merkon in a swordfight, Mark asks Megaan to marry him. However, the Merkon''s son has sworn revenge and Mark flees the village to protect them. He leads the Merkon''s army to the jungle, away from his new home. Once in the jungle, Mark systematically kills the army but forgets about a scouting party that attacks him. Mark hides behind a boulder for protection and suddenly the boulder is struck by lightning and sends off a charge which brings Mark into his normal time. Twenty years later, Mark has become a scientist working tirelessly to find a cure for the Ebola virus.

The Transall Saga

At the beginning of the book, Marcus Luttrell describes his childhood and his training to prepare for the Navy SEALs with Billy Shelton. After joining the U.S. Navy and completing SEAL training, Luttrell describes his posting in Afghanistan, in the Hindu Kush mountains of the Kunar province. With him are the rest of SEAL Team 10, except Shane E. Patton, for whom Danny Dietz was substituted. Their mission, Operation Red Wings, was to stake outside a village and capture or kill a leading Taliban member thought to be allied with Osama Bin Laden. One night in June 2005, while hiding out, the team encountered three Afghanistan shepherds, including a boy. The team debated sparing or killing the three shepherds but after a vote, Luttrell had to make the decision. To uphold the Rules of engagement, Luttrell let the shepherds go. About an hour later, the four SEALs were surrounded by more than a hundred Taliban warriors. The two parties engaged, the odds drastically against the SEALs, all of which died saving Luttrell. The New York Times sums up the story: "Mr. Luttrell was the only one of four men on the mission to survive after a violent clash with dozens of Taliban fighters. Eight members of the SEALs and eight Army special operations soldiers who came by helicopter to rescue the original four were shot down, and all aboard were killed. Mr. Luttrell was then rescued by a group of Afghan Pashtun villagers who harbored him in their homes for several days, protecting him from the Taliban and ultimately helping him to safety." The theme of hospitality as understood by the Pashtun culture is a central theme to the plot and attempts to validate the release of the shepherds.

Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10

Doyle''s pureblood Brachen demon father Axtius is the General for the Coalition of Purity which believes that all half-blood demons should be banished, leaving only the purebloods on Earth. Both Angel and Buffy are dealing with this threat in their respective cities when Buffy''s team learns that General Axtius plans to attack a half-blood demon safe haven island near Los Angeles. Uprooting the Scooby Gang, Buffy and the rest of them travel quickly to Los Angeles to help Angel deal with the increasing problem. Unfortunately, the demons on the island who are in need of saving seem to be sceptical about having vampires as well as the Slayer on their island and they must be convinced that it''s for their benefit before General Axtius and his troops launch a full-fledged attack on the island. In their final confrontation on the island, Angel defeats Axtius when unarmed despite Axtius wielding a powerful mystical weapon, taunting the Brachen by saying that he would have been ashamed of Doyle''s very human act of sacrifice and redemption. Having been defeated by Angel, Axtius is subsequently incinerated by his former second-in-command for his failure to destroy the island.

Monster Island

The book starts with an elderly man named Eddie who works as the head of maintenance at an amusement park called Ruby Pier. Eddie is able to perform this job despite leg injuries he received as a soldier during World War II. On Eddie''s birthday, one of the amusement park rides malfunctions because of a damaged cable and stops halfway through the ride. Two of the staff at Ruby Pier are able to rescue the passengers on the ride and then release the ride''s cart not knowing that there is a little girl under it. Eddie attempts to save the girl who was sitting under a roller coaster ride that one of the carts was about to fall on. Eddie then finds himself awake and uninjured and realizes that he feels young and much more energetic. He meets a man dubbed as "The Blue Man" who had worked at Ruby Pier''s freak show and whose real name is Joseph Corvelzchik. Through their conversation, Eddie finds out that he is dead, has gone to heaven and has to meet five people who significantly impacted his life. He also finds out that he feels so much younger because he will feel the way he felt when these people came into his life. Eddie asks why Joseph, whom he does not know, is his first person and Joseph informs Eddie that he died when Eddie ran across the street as a child and caused Joseph to wreck his own car. From this, Eddie learns his first lesson which is that there are no random events in life and all people are connected in some way. The second person that Eddie meets is his former captain from the army who Eddie finds sitting in a tree in a Philippine rainforest. The captain reminds Eddie of their time together as prisoners of war in a forced labor camp. Their group escaped after a lengthy period of time and burned the camp. Eddie remembers that he had seen a shadow running from the hut that he was setting on fire although he had never found out who the person was. The captain confesses that he was the one who shot Eddie in the leg to prevent Eddie from chasing the shadow in the fire. This saved Eddie''s life while leaving him with the lifelong injury. The captain later died by a landmine while scouting ahead during the escape, saving the lives of the group. Eddie learns his second lesson about the importance of people''s willingness to make sacrifices for others. The scene changes and Eddie finds himself outside a diner where he meets a well dressed woman named Ruby. Ruby tells Eddie that she had once worked as a waitress at the diner and explains that Ruby Pier was named after her by her husband Emile who built it in tribute to her. Emile was wounded while fighting a fire that burned much of Ruby Pier and later died from failing health. Ruby confesses that she picked the diner because that was where she had met Emile and wanted the diner to be a refuge for anyone who had ever been hurt in any way by Ruby Pier. Eddie''s father, who had been a very harsh and abusive man, is also at the diner. Ruby teaches Eddie to release his anger and forgive his father for all the trouble and hurt he had caused. Eddie now awakens in a room with several doors. Behind each of the doors there is wedding from a different culture and Eddie meets his late wife, Marguerite, in one of the weddings. They spend an extended period together, moving from one wedding to the next and catching up on all the things they had not been able to share since Marguerite''s death. They remember their own wedding and in the end, Marguerite teaches Eddie that love is never lost in death. When Eddie awakens to a new scene, he sees children playing along a riverbed and a young Asian girl named Tala comes up to him. Tala reveals that she was the little girl from the hut that Eddie set on fire. The girl shows Eddie the burns that she suffered from the fire. She hands Eddie a stone and tells him to rub the burns off. Eddie starts to scrape off the injuries he had inflicted on her and soon Tala is free of the scars. Eddie believes that he failed to save the little girl from the amusement park and remembers feeling the girl''s hands in his just before his death but Tala says that it was her hands that Eddie had felt as she pulled him safely up to heaven. In reality, Eddie did manage to save the girl at Ruby Pier. Tala teaches Eddie that his life was not for nothing and that its purpose was to protect children at Ruby Pier through his care for the safety of the rides. In this way, he also atoned for causing Tala''s death. In the end, it shows that Eddie''s heaven was the Stardust Band Shell, where he met Marguerite. He is also one of the five people to be met by the girl whose life he saved when she dies.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Lord Voldemort has returned and his wrath has been felt in both the Muggle (non-magical) and Wizarding worlds. Severus Snape, a member of Dumbledore''s anti-Voldemort Order of the Phoenix but formerly one of Voldemort''s Death Eaters, meets with Narcissa Malfoy, mother of Harry Potter''s school rival Draco. Snape makes an Unbreakable Vow to Narcissa, promising to assist and protect Draco. Meanwhile, Dumbledore collects Harry from his aunt and uncle''s house and takes him to the home of Horace Slughorn, former Potions teacher at Hogwarts. Dumbledore tries to persuade a reluctant Slughorn to return to teaching and finally succeeds. Later, when shopping for schoolbooks, Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger follow Draco Malfoy to Dark Arts supplier Borgin and Burkes, where they overhear Draco insisting that the store-owner fix an unknown object. Harry is instantly suspicious of Draco, whom he believes to be a Death Eater like his father. The students return to school, where Dumbledore announces that Snape, the previous Potions teacher, will be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts, while Slughorn will resume his post as Potions teacher. This allows Harry to continue with a Potions course, in which he now excels, thanks mainly due to having received a used Potions textbook that once belonged to someone named "The Half-Blood Prince", which is heavily annotated. Harry falls in love with Ron''s sister Ginny, and Ron and his girlfriend Lavender Brown break up, to Hermione''s delight. Harry spends much of his time following Draco Malfoy for any proof of suspicious actions, though he often cannot find him on his magical map of Hogwarts. Harry realises that when Draco is not on the map, he is using the Room of Requirement on the seventh floor of Hogwarts, which transforms into whatever its user needs. Harry is unable to gain access to the room unless he knows for what exact purpose Draco is using the room. Believing that Harry needs to learn Voldemort''s past to gain advantage in a foretold fight, Dumbledore schedules regular meetings with Harry in which they use Dumbledore''s Pensieve to look at memories of those who have had direct contact with Voldemort. Harry learns about Voldemort''s family and the influences that corrupted Voldemort. Harry eventually succeeds in retrieving one of Slughorn''s memories about how he revealed the secrets about splitting one''s soul and hiding it in several objects called Horcruxes. Dumbledore explains that two of these have already been destroyed but that others remain. He suspects three of those to be objects belonging to three of the Hogwarts founders (one for each except Gryffindor), and the last one to reside in Voldemort''s snake. Harry and Dumbledore leave Hogwarts to fetch and destroy one of the Horcruxes. They journey into a cave important to Voldemort''s youth that Dumbledore senses is protected with magic. They reach the basin where the purported Horcrux is hidden underneath a potion. Dumbledore drinks the potion and Harry fights off Voldemort''s Inferi, an army of re-animated corpses. They take the Horcrux, Slytherin''s locket, and return to Hogwarts as quickly as possible. Dumbledore is very weak, and when they reach Hogsmeade they can see the Dark Mark, Voldemort''s symbol, visible above the astronomy tower. When they arrive at the tower, Dumbledore uses his magic to freeze Harry in place while Harry remains hidden by his cloak of invisibility. When Draco Malfoy arrives, he disarms and threatens to kill Dumbledore, acting on his mission from Voldemort. Dumbledore tries to stall Draco by telling him he is not a killer, but Snape bursts into the tower and kills Dumbledore. Because of Dumbledore''s death, his spell on Harry is broken and Harry rushes after Snape to avenge Dumbledore''s death. Snape reveals that he is the Half-Blood Prince and manages to escape. Later, Harry finds out that the locket that he and Dumbledore retrieved is not the real Horcrux; containing only a note from someone named "R. A. B". After Dumbledore''s funeral, Hermione explains to Harry that Snape was called the Half-Blood Prince because he had a Muggle father and a magical mother (whose maiden name was Prince). Harry is devastated to think that he trusted and took help from the man who would turn out to be Dumbledore''s murderer. He tells his friends that he will not be returning to Hogwarts next year and will instead search out and kill Voldemort by destroying all of the Horcruxes. Ron and Hermione vow to join him.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Bloomability

By Sharon Creech

The Sinister Pig

No Author Listed

Sweet Silver Blues

By Glen Cook

Cold Fusion

By Lance Parkin

Zak's Lunch

By Margie Palatini

Invisible

By Pete Hautman

The Rainbow and the Rose

By Nevil Shute

The Transall Saga

By Gary Paulsen

Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10

By Patrick Robinson

Monster Island

By Thomas E. Sniegoski

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

By Mitch Albom

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

By J. K. Rowling