The chief of the CIA, Helen Dexter, decides, on her own, to order the murder of political figures of other nations on the basis of their views on the USA. The book starts with the murder of a candidate for the Colombian presidency. During this time, Helen finds out that she would be fired if she is found out to be ordering assassinations on several nations. To cover up her work she plans to have her chief assassin, Connor Fitzgerald, eliminated. The CIA rejects Connor''s resignation and asks him to go on a final mission to assassinate a candidate for the Russian presidency. While attending a speech, Connor is arrested and placed in a Russian jail to be executed. A friend of his arrives in time and tries to rescue him by making a bargain with the Russian Mafia. In exchange for Fitzgerald to be replaced with his friend, Fitzgerald will have to assassinate the Russian president. Fitzgerald fails in the attempt and "dies." Later on he returns home with the name of a professor and he has lost his arm.

The Eleventh Commandment

Gay-Neck, or ‘’Chitra-Griva’’, is born to a young owner in India. Gay-Neck’s parents teach him how to fly, but he soon loses his father in a storm and his mother to a hawk. His master and Ghond the hunter take him out into the wilderness, but he becomes so scared by the hawks that he flees and ends up in a lamasery where the Buddhist monks are able to cure him of his fear. When his young master returns home he finds Gay-neck waiting for him. But Gay-Neck decides to go on other long journeys, much to the boy’s consternation. Then, during World War I, Gay-Neck and Ghond end up journeying to Europe where Gay-Neck serves as a messenger pigeon. He is chased by German machine-eagles (planes) and is severely traumatized when one of his fellow messenger pigeons is shot down. Gay-neck and Ghond barely survive, and Gay-Neck is unable to fly. Ghond, Gay-Neck, and his master return to the lamasery near Singalila, where Ghond and Gay-Neck need to be cleansed of the hate and fear of the war. After that, Ghond succeeds in hunting down a buffalo that killed a villager, but feels remorse for having to kill the buffalo. Gay-Neck disappears once more, but when the other two return home, they find, to their joy, that Gay-Neck had already flown there ahead of them.

Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon

According to The Oxford Companion to English Literature (1967), : "the plot is founded on a story told to George Eliot by her aunt Elizabeth Evans, a Methodist preacher, and the original of Dinah Morris of the novel, of a confession of child-murder, made to her by a girl in prison." The story''s plot follows four characters'' rural lives in the fictional community of Hayslope&mdash;a rural, pastoral and close-knit community in 1799. The novel revolves around a love "rectangle" between beautiful but self-absorbed Hetty Sorrel, Captain Arthur Donnithorne, the young squire who seduces her, Adam Bede, her unacknowledged suitor, and Dinah Morris, Hetty''s cousin, a fervent, virtuous and beautiful Methodist lay preacher. (The real village where Adam Bede was set is Ellastone on the Staffordshire / Derbyshire border, a few miles from Uttoxeter and Ashbourne, and near to Alton Towers. Eliot''s father lived in the village as a carpenter in a substantial house now known as Adam Bede''s Cottage). Adam is a local carpenter much admired for his integrity and intelligence, in love with Hetty. She is attracted to Arthur, the charming local squire''s grandson and heir, and falls in love with him. When Adam interrupts a tryst between them, Adam and Arthur fight. Arthur agrees to give up Hetty and leaves Hayslope to return to his militia. After he leaves, Hetty Sorrel agrees to marry Adam but shortly before their marriage, discovers she is pregnant.In desperation, she leaves in search of Arthur. She cannot find him; unwilling to return to the village on account of the shame and ostracism she would have to endure, she delivers her baby with the assistance of a friendly woman she encounters. Later, the child is killed when she abandons it in a field. Not being able to bear the child''s cries she tries to come back but she is too late when she finds out that it dies of exposure. Hetty is caught and tried for child murder. She is found guilty and sentenced to hang. Dinah enters the prison and pledges to stay with Hetty until the end. Her compassion brings about Hetty''s contrite confession. When Arthur Donnithorne, on leave from the militia for his grandfather''s funeral, hears of her impending execution, he races to the court and has the sentence commuted to transportation. Ultimately, Adam and Dinah, who gradually become aware of their mutual love, marry and live peacefully with his family.

Adam Bede

The book describes an alternate history to the life of Jesus Christ as depicted in the Bible. It begins with Jesus''s conception, in the spiritual presence of God. Jesus'' birth is heralded by a mysterious character, who claims to be an angel. Later, at Bethlehem, Jesus is born in a cave, and three shepherds - including the "angel" - arrive to bring him presents. As described in the Gospel of Matthew, Herod the Great receives a premonition of the birth of the "King of the Jews" (in the biblical account of Matthew, he is informed by the Magi; in the book, however, he is visited in his dreams by the prophet Micah). He orders the Massacre of the Innocents. Jesus survives, but his father, Joseph, who has learned of the plan, neglects to warn the other families in the village, ensuring that his son is safe first, and is plagued by nightmares for the rest of his life. Later, when Jesus turns thirteen, Joseph is crucified by the Romans who mistakenly think him to be a Zealot fighter. From the night of his father''s death, Jesus inherits his nightmare. He learns about the massacre from his mother, and grows aloof from his family, amongst whom he can no longer live peacefully. He leaves the family and Nazareth and makes his way to Jerusalem, where he visits the Temple, thence to Bethlehem. He works as an apprentice to a shepherd (called The Shepherd who is understood to be the Devil and the mysterious "angel" mentioned earlier). The Shepherd instructs Jesus in the ways of hedonism, and at one point tries to convince Jesus to use the sheep for sexual release. Eventually, he meets God in the desert. God forces Jesus to sacrifice his favourite sheep, and says he has a design for him. Upon hearing of this, the Shepherd tells him to leave immediately. Jesus makes his way back home through the Sea of Galilee where he discovers an amazing talent to catch myriads of fish, and Magdala where he meets and falls in love with Mary Magdalene, then continues back home to Nazareth. Jesus is not believed by his family, and so he leaves them once again, meets Mary Magdalene (without marrying her) and goes to work helping the fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. One day out on the Sea by himself, he is visited by God and the Devil. God tells Jesus of his plan for Jesus to institute Christianity, because God is annoyed at being only the God of one race, and that other gods seem to get all the glory. Jesus is initially against what he sees as a selfish plan bound to lead to great suffering of many, but is made to see that he actually has no choice in the matter. Jesus becomes a prophet of God, continuing to work miracles but also preaching. He gets himself arrested, repeatedly calling himself King of the Jews. Having heard news of John the Baptist, who was put to death not for preaching the coming of the Messiah but allegedly for disapproving of King Herod''s incestuous marriage, Jesus decides that his own death could likewise obscure his divine nature and thus thwart God''s plan. The novel ends with Jesus'' realisation that God''s plan, and the ensuing centuries of torture, slaughter, and misery that Christianity will bring, will proceed despite his efforts. His last words from the cross, in referring to God, are "Men, forgive Him, for He knows not what He has done." <!--

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

Spinello is poisoned by Vanai. The southern front is in Yanina, which is in a bad position. The Unkerlanters use Yaninan forces as if they were penal battalions, while Algarvians start killing Yaninans for magical energy in retaliation for Yanina''s switch to Unkerlant. In Jelgava, close to the Bratanu Mountains on the border with Algarve, Leino and Xavega are killed by an Algarvian magical trap. Puppet King Beornwulf installed in Forthweg, and Ealstan is drafted. Kuusamans and Lagoans occupy Valmiera. Unkerlanters push into Algarve, first on the southern front then the northern. Algarvians develop the superstick, first using it on Unkerlanters on the southern front. Ealstan in Unkerlanter army is having to reduce his own hometown, Gromheort, in which Algarvians were holed up. Algarvians come out with other desperate magics, some demonic, others new and unreliable, but appear to have given up killing Kaunians for the most part. Pekka destroys Becsehely in first test of divergent blast. Krasta has a baby boy, which she at first names Valnu (later Gainibu), but which turns out to be Lurcanio''s; Merkela cuts all her hair off in punishment. Unkerlanters and Kuusamans meet at Torgavi on the Albi in the north of Algarve. Skarnu becomes marquis of Pavilosta. Lurcanio''s army surrenders, followed by Gromheort. Ealstan is wounded, discharged from army, and stays in Gromheort with his family. Mezentio''s palace falls, Algarve surrenders. Talsu released from prison (again) and expelled with his wife to Kuusamo. Lurcanio, who had been turned over to the Valmierans, is executed by firing squad. Ceorl is killed when he and Garivald escape from a mining camp. Garivald makes his way back to Obilot.

Out of the Darkness

Postman distinguishes the Orwellian vision of the future, in which totalitarian governments seize individual rights, from that offered by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, where people medicate themselves into bliss, thereby voluntarily sacrificing their rights. Drawing an analogy with the latter scenario, Postman sees television''s entertainment value as a present-day "soma", by means of which the consumers'' rights are exchanged for entertainment. (Note that there is no contradiction between an intentional "Orwellian" conspiracy using "Huxleyan" means) The essential premise of the book, which Postman extends to the rest of his argument(s), is that "form excludes the content," that is, a particular medium can only sustain a particular level of ideas. Thus Rational argument, integral to print typography, is militated against by the medium of television for the aforesaid reason. Owing to this shortcoming, politics and religion are diluted, and "news of the day" becomes a packaged commodity. Television de-emphasises the quality of information in favour of satisfying the far-reaching needs of entertainment, by which information is encumbered and to which it is subordinate. Postman asserts the presentation of television news is a form of entertainment programming; arguing inclusion of theme music, the interruption of commercials, and "talking hairdos" bear witness that televised news cannot readily be taken seriously. Postman further examines the differences between written speech, which he argues reached its prime in the early to mid-nineteenth century, and the forms of televisual communication, which rely mostly on visual images to "sell" lifestyles. He argues that, owing to this change in public discourse, politics has ceased to be about a candidate''s ideas and solutions, but whether he comes across favorably on television. Television, he notes, has introduced the phrase "now this", which implies a complete absence of connection between the separate topics the phrase ostensibly connects. Larry Gonick used this phrase to conclude his Cartoon Guide to (Non)Communication, instead of the traditional "the end". Postman refers to the inability to act upon much of the so-called information from televised sources as the Information-action ratio. Drawing on the ideas of media scholar Marshall McLuhan&nbsp;&mdash; altering McLuhan''s aphorism "the medium is the message", to "the medium is the metaphor"&nbsp;&mdash; he describes how oral, literate, and televisual cultures radically differ in the processing and prioritization of information; he argues that each medium is appropriate for a different kind of knowledge. The faculties requisite for rational inquiry are simply weakened by televised viewing. Accordingly, reading, a prime example cited by Postman, exacts intense intellectual involvement, at once interactive and dialectical; whereas television only requires passive involvement. Moreover, as television is programmed according to ratings, its content is determined by commercial feasibility, not critical acumen. Television in its present state, he says, does not satisfy the conditions for honest intellectual involvement and rational argument. He also repeatedly states that the eighteenth century, being the Age of Reason, was the pinnacle for rational argument. Only in the printed word, he states, could complicated truths be rationally conveyed. Postman gives a striking example: The first fifteen U.S. presidents could probably have walked down the street without being recognized by the average citizen, yet all these men would have been quickly known by their written words. However, the reverse is true today. The names of presidents or even famous preachers, lawyers, and scientists call up visual images, typically television images, but few, if any, of their words come to mind. The few that do almost exclusively consist of carefully chosen soundbites.

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

An undefined military intelligence organisation, based in Blackfriars Road, London and referred to throughout the book as "The Department," has been resting on its laurels since its successes running agents against the Nazis during the Second World War. Its tasks are gradually being taken over by the more experienced Circus, led by "Control" and his right hand man George Smiley. The Department expends most of its energies on administrative tasks and on a bureaucratic turf war with the more professional Circus. The Department comes across uncertain and weak evidence that Soviet missiles are being placed at Rostock, near the West German border. The Department''s chief, LeClerc, seizes the opportunity to re-live glory days and regain prestige for his organization. He decides to send an agent into enemy territory to discover the truth without involving the Circus, thereby enhancing The Department''s status. The Department reactivates one of its World War II agents, a naturalised Pole named Fred Leiser, and sends him into East Germany to investigate the missiles. The inexperienced Department''s operation is clumsy, and Leiser makes errors -- including his killing a young East German border guard and making overly-long transmissions. Consequently, the East Germans determine almost immediately that security has been breached, and they set out to find Leiser''s location. Smiley informs LeClerc and his colleagues about the debacle. He tactfully convinces LeClerc to abandon the operation, with Leiser still trapped in East Germany. The story comes to its inevitable end when Leiser, not knowing the fate of the operation, and receiving no response to his transmissions, continues with his mission. He follows the "War Rules" and plays out the losing game to the end. Leiser''s prolonged and slow transmissions give away his location and he is captured. Leiser''s fate is unknown at the conclusion of the story.

The Looking-Glass War

Young Darren Shan has been fascinated by spiders from an early age. His best friend, Steve "Leopard" Leonard has grown up reading horror comics and stories about werewolves and vampires. Steve, Darren, and their friends find out about a freak show called Cirque du Freak and plan on buying tickets. Their teacher finds out about the freak show and tries to shut it down by ripping up the address . Steve memorizes the address and is there, but when he finds no one he gets ready to leave when Mr. Tall, arrives from nowhere, the ring master, hands him two tickets. Darren gets the other ticket. After viewing the "Cirque du Freak" Darren and Steve are mesmerized by the fantastic and disturbing show, especially by the act of the mysterious Mr. Crepsley and his giant, deadly, poisonous spider, Madam Octa. When the show ends, Steve goes back to talk to Mr. Crepsley about turning him into a vampire. He takes a taste of his blood and says that Steve''s blood is bad. In horror, Steve flees the theater and tells Mr. Crepsley he will get him back for this. Darren, also horrified, turns away and decides to tell Steve that he got lost on his way back to the house, and decided to go home, which Steve half-believes. Darren steals Madam Octa, and plays with her. Steve comes over and lets her crawl around him. Annie, Darrens younger sister, walks in and screams. Darren gets distracted, and Madam Octa bites Steve paralyzing him. Darren convinces Annie to keep it secret that Darren caused Steve to get bitten. They send Steve to the hospital, the doctors have no idea what caused it and how to cure it. Darren decides the only person with a cure is most likely Mr. Crepsley. Darren goes home and observes Madam Octa. He becomes enraged and pitches her out the window. Darren then sees Mr. Crepsley taking her back. Darren goes to meet Mr. Crepsley at the theater and gives Darren a cure. But in exchange, Darren must become half vampire and give up his entire life as a human.

Cirque Du Freak

Cassel Sharpe comes from a family of workers who are part of one of the major crime families. He is the youngest son with a mother in prison for making millionaires fall in love with her, a dead father, and two older brothers who work for the nephew and current heir of one the biggest crime families in the area. Cassel''s friend Lila was the daughter of the crime lord and other possible heir, but had been killed by Cassel when they were fourteen, though he can''t remember why he did it. Cassel is the only one in his family not to have an ability. Now seventeen, Cassel finds himself sleepwalking up on the roof at his prep school, dreaming of a white cat and nearly dies getting back down. This gets him kicked out of school and the dorms until he can get a doctor''s note saying it won''t happen again, which he plans to get using a con, getting stationary and the doctor''s signature from a nearby office. His simple plan to get back into school and turn life back to normal is complicated by his brothers, who keep acting strangely around him. Cassel overhears enough of their conversations to make him suspicious that he''s being manipulated, and he goes to a fortune teller to get stone amulets to protect himself from memory alteration, which he cuts into his skin. Further investigation leads Cassel to discover that his brothers have been keeping a white cat just like the one from his dreams, but that it''s free now and has been following him around. He rescues it from the pound, certain for some reason that it''s Lila, and that he hadn''t killed her like he thought, but been manipulated by a memory worker, though he doesn''t know who. Shortly after, he discovers that one of the rocks under his skin has broken, and his second oldest brother is the memory worker. He also figures out that he is a worker after all, but his brothers have been keeping it from him to ''protect'' him. Cassel is a transformation worker, and has been changing people into everyday objects as murder and body disposal for his brothers as contract killers, then forgetting about it afterward. With this discovery, Cassel changes the white cat back into Lila, and the two plan to reunite her with her father and allow her to take back her place as heir by revealing a plan Anton has of killing her father and running the family himself. It succeeds, and things go mostly back to normal for Cassel despite his new-found ability. Lila still originally hates him for what he did, but when he arrives home from school a week later, she is waiting for him, having forgiven him. They start to make out as Cassel has always dreamed, when they are interrupted by a phone call from his mother, who has gotten out of jail and wants to tell him of her surprise: that she met Lila in New York and used her ability to make her fall madly in love with Cassel. He demands she undo it, but his mother claims she cannot, and Cassel realizes that he was a mark himself, gullible enough to believe that Lila would forgive him and love him so easily.

White Cat

In June, 1943 patrol officer Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert, a former boxer and a member of the Los Angeles Police Department is caught up in the Zoot Suit Riots. Bleichert comes to the rescue of Officer Lee Blanchard, who is in the middle of the rampage between American servicemen and Mexican zoot suit gangs. Together they apprehend a wanted criminal, Don Santos, and take refuge in an abandoned home while waiting out the riot. They size each other up as boxers and cops and Blanchard tells Bleichert of his plans to eventually be promoted to Sergeant while Dwight continues his mundane job as a radio car patrolman in the Bunker Hill section of L.A. The story continues three years later, in November 1946, as Bucky is invited to fight in a boxing match against Lee in hopes it will help raise support for a political bond issue and a pay raise. After realizing that his fathers'' health is failing and to prove he can still fight he decides to take up the offer, have a friend make a bet against him with his money and lose on purpose to put his father in a retirement home. He also meets Kay Lake, a former artist who lives with Lee. After the fight he is transferred to Homicide-Warrants Division as a reward and partnered with Blanchard. Lee. Buckey and Kay begin to spend time together. On January 15, 1947 while Bucky and Lee are on a stakeout they see a commotion on the corner lot of 39th street and South Norton Avenue, where they discover the mutilated body of Elizabeth Short. Dubbed "The Black Dahlia" by the press, the case shocks the public, overwhelms the LAPD and hits Lee especially hard. During his investigation Bucky observes a mysterious young woman named Madeleine Sprague, a wealthy and promiscuous socialite who resembles Elizabeth Short, at a lesbian bar. Bucky follows her over the course of many nights, eventually questionning her and the two begin an affair. While the case continues on in circus fashion, Lee, becoming more emotionally detached begins taking bezadrine and acts erratically, collecting his own copies of the Dahlia case evidence and storing them in an El Nino hotel room. Lee eventually disappears after a confrontation with police superiors. Bucky, who is simultaneously juggling two relationships, also suffers a series of personal setbacks: breaking up with Madeline, romantic tension with Kay, and blowing an assignment for the D.A, resulting in demotion from the Warrants Bureau. He then sets out for Tijuana searching for Lee. During his trip he learns of Lee''s fate and returns to L.A. to marry Kay. Two years pass, and with Bucky''s detective career destroyed and his marriage quickly deteriorating, he transfers to the Science Investigation Division of the force and becomes a lab technician. While working with his old case supervisor Russ Millard during a suicide investigation of a wealthy businessman, he happens to notice a painting of a clown. He uncovers some clues and people associated with Elizabeth Short, piquing his curiosity about Madeline Sprague and her family. His obsession with Short and Madeline destroys his relationship with Kay, who leaves him when she finds out. As his life spirals out of control, his obsession taking its toll, he finally discovers the truth behind the murder of Short and its connection to the Sprague family, as well as Lee''s disappearance. The novel ends with Bucky on a plane to Boston, where he and a pregnant Kay will try to rebuild their relationship.

The Black Dahlia

In the opening scene, Sparrow cannot recall what took place in the preceding 36 hours. Awakening yet again in a novel place with new hurts, the urge to fix the problem is intense. On the way to enlightenment comes a cryptic Tarot reading from friend Sherrea, abduction by a dead man animated by what might as well be a Loa, and introduction to a Vodun-based community that is dedicated to replacement, and if necessary to overthrow, of the status quo in the city. The latter has the individual most responsible for the inter-continental war near its power apex, a character who is also the revenge target of another survivor from his kind. Those are the "Horsemen," modified people who can move their consciousness from body to body, much like the central figure in Mind of my Mind by Octavia Butler. The second half of the story shows Sparrow''s awkward progress toward a fully human condition and becoming a valued member of a community, and is capped by a closing conceit: that the whole telling has been an autobiography.

Bone Dance

13-year-old Margaret Anne Brady is an orphan whose parents died when she was only 8 years old. Subsequently sent to live in an orphanage, she lives a life of penury and dreams that her older brother, William, who lives in America, will someday earn enough money to send for her. One day, however, her fortunes take an unexpected turn for the better when a wealthy, privileged woman named Mrs. Carstairs expresses the desire for a companion for her upcoming trip to the States. The job, which involves simple tasks such as dressing her and walking her dog, is easy, and Margaret Anne accepts readily. Within merely a few days, Margaret Anne and Mrs. Carstairs board the Titanic, the newly-built and highly glamourous liner deemed to be "unsinkable," as first-class passengers. There, Margaret Anne, who has lived most of her life in destitute conditions, is enthralled by her luxurious premises. She quickly befriends a handsome, young steward, Robert, and their relationship gradually turns romantic. All is going well when one night, April 15th, 1912 (2:20), and Margaret Ann are awoken by a frantic Robert who informs that the ship has just struck an iceberg and advises them to put on their lifejackets. The two women obey and hurridly make their way up to the deck where they discover with horror that the ship is sinking rapidly. Though her life is hanging in precariously on the line, Margaret Ann is adverse to leaving Robert, who is part of the crew and must remain on the cruiser, and runs back to him. Finding him sitting dejectedly alone in an vacuous hallway, she attempts to persude him to follow her. Robert, though, replies her that he can''t, and the two share a long, passionate kiss before parting. Back on deck, Margaret Anne is rapidly put in a lifeboat and whisked away. Floating for several hours, the small group is finally rescued when a passing ship picks them up. There, everyone, including Margaret Ann, is treated for pneumonia and put to rest. Though she expresses hope for Robert''s survival, it is later revealed in the book that he, in fact, did go down with the ship.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Eleventh Commandment

By Lester del Rey

Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon

By Dhan Gopal Mukerji

Adam Bede

By George Eliot

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

By José Saramago

Out of the Darkness

By Harry Turtledove

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

By Neil Postman

The Looking-Glass War

By John le Carré

Cirque Du Freak

By Darren Shan

White Cat

By Holly Black

The Black Dahlia

By James Ellroy

Bone Dance

By Emma Bull

Voyage on the Great Titanic

By Ellen Emerson White