The almanack is presented as though it were written by Gervase Brightkin, a red squirrel. There are entries for all the days of the year, and every major event in the main novels is given a date. Also, much of the folk lore and elaborate traditions of the mice, bats, squirrels and rats is recorded in the almanack. Throughout the almanack, Gervase writes of his stay in Greenwich Park during the tenth year of Audrey Scuttle''s reign as Starwife. He also travels to Fennywolde and Holeborn to ask William ''Twit'' Scuttle and Arthur Brown to tell their stories. While in Fennywolde, Gervase encounters Alison Sedge, the field mouse who was jealous of Audrey in The Crystal Prison. Seemingly driven mad because of the death of her love, Jenkin Nettle, she solemnly warns that Audrey will not be the Starwife for much longer and will know great loss. At the end of the year, the Great Oak (in which the rat god Hobb was imprisoned by Ysabelle in The Oaken Throne) falls down because of heavy winds, and many of the grey squirrels in the park begin to whisper that it was Audrey''s fault because she is not a squirrel but merely a mouse. When the black squirrels Morella and her father Modequai arrive in Greenwich, they and the grey squirrels plot against Audrey, and finally storm into her chamber and oust her from office. Then they give the silver acorn to Morella and she takes the title of Starwife. Strangely enough, she bears a resemblance to Alison Sedge. The almanack ends on this ominous note, opening up the possibility of a new Deptford Mice novel.

The Deptford Mice Almanack

According to Lawrence Sutin''s book, Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick, (1989) the plot survives only as an index card synopsis from the publisher dated 24 October 1956, after the manuscript had already been rejected one time. The reader''s comments on the rewrite as follows: :"Didn''t like this before & still don''t. Long, rambling, glum novel about 65 yr old Greek immigrant who has a weakling son, a second son about whom he''s indifferent, a wife who doesn''t love him (She''s being unfaithful to him). Nothing much happens. Guy, selling garage & retiring, tries to buy another garage in new development, has a couple of falls, dies at end. Point is murky but seems to be that world is disintegrating, Stavros supposed to be symbol of vigorous individuality now a lost commodity." In a letter from 1960, the author himself commented on the titular character in an unexpectedly optimistic fashion: :"Contact with vile persons does not blight or contaminate or doom the really superior; a man can go on and be successful, if he just keeps struggling. There is no trick that the wicked can play on the good that will ultimately be successful; the good are protected by God, or at least by their virtue."

A Time for George Stavros

The Autobiography of Malcolm&nbsp;X is an account of the life of human rights activist Malcolm&nbsp;X, born Malcolm Little (1925–1965). It begins during his mother''s pregnancy and describes his childhood in Michigan, the death of his father under questionable circumstances, and his mother''s deteriorating mental health that resulted in her commitment to a psychiatric hospital. Little''s young adulthood in Boston and New York City is covered, as is his involvement in organized crime that led to his arrest and subsequent eight- to ten-year prison sentence, of which he served six-and-a-half years (1946–1952). The book addresses his ministry with Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam (1952–1963) and his emergence as the organization''s national spokesman. It then documents his subsequent disillusionment with and departure from the Nation of Islam in March 1964, his conversion to orthodox Sunni Islam, his pilgrimage to Mecca, and his travels in Africa. After Malcolm&nbsp;X was assassinated in New York''s Audubon Ballroom in February 1965, the book''s coauthor, journalist Alex Haley, summarizes the last days of Malcolm&nbsp;X''s life, and describes in detail their working agreement, including Haley''s personal views on his subject, in the Autobiography''s epilogue.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Crank takes place the summer before and during the protagonist Kristina''s junior year of high school. She is a straight-A honor roll student and decides to visit her father for three weeks. Kristina meets the character Adam in Albuquerque, where she is staying with her father. Adam convinces Kristina to try Crank (Methamphetamine), or "the monster", but Kristina runs away the first time she tries it. She is attacked by three men, but before anything can happen to her she is saved by Adam. An antagonist, Lince, Adam’s girlfriend, sees him comforting Kristina and jumps off of a balcony in a suicide attempt. Kristina starts a relationship with Adam, but feels guilty about Lince. When the three weeks are over, Kristina goes back to Reno, Nevada, where her mother’s house is. Kristina is now addicted to Crank. In Reno, Kristina, now calling herself Bree, meets the characters Brendan and Chase at a water-park, and they exchange numbers. They both promise her Crank. Chase and Kristina begin to get closer to one another, and they begin dating, though not exclusively. Kristina goes to see the antagonist Brendan, asking for more Crank. Brendan drives them both out into the woods, where they get high together, and he starts to take off her clothes. When she says no, he becomes violent, claiming that he has “waited weeks,” so she should “put up and shut up”. He then starts ripping her clothes off and takes her virginity. Afterwards, Brendan takes her home and makes her pay for the drugs, even though he had just raped her. At home Kristina, still high and shaken up from the rape, writes a letter to the character Adam telling him she was raped. Soon though she abandons her letter and calls Chase to come over while her parents are out. Chase comes over and she tells him about Brendan before trying to persuade him to have sex with her. Chase says no, wanting to wait until she had healed from her rape. However, she does end up having sex with him later in the novel. Kristina gets caught hitchhiking by a cop and goes to Juvenile hall, where she gets a direct connection to a Meth lab in Mexico through an inmate. Once she is released from Juvenile hall, Kristina uses her mom’s Visa card to pay for the illegal narcotic, and she takes her new supply to her druggie friends on “The Avenue.” At this part of the novel, Kristina has become a drug dealer, which she describes as making her instantly more “popular.” Kristina now has a very large amount of Crank on her hands, so she is getting high even more often. This leads to her becoming more irritable, causing her relationship with her mom to become even more strained. Kristina is also not showing up to classes, because she is spending all of her time getting high and dealing drugs on “The Avenue”. The story continues with Kristina discovering she is pregnant, soon after Brendan had raped her. Kristina spends the following days going through the symptoms of drug withdrawal. During this time in the novel, she believes that Chase is the father, having had sex with Chase a couple of weeks after being raped. Although after going to Planned Parenthood, she realizes Brendan is actually the father. At this point in the novel, Kristina begins to struggle with deciding if she should go through with the pregnancy because she “Feared the uncertainty of choosing parenthood” and “Doubted [she] could give [her] baby away”. Kristina decides to have an abortion, but after feeling “A flutter in [her] belly,” the child moving, she decides to keep her baby. After making this decision, Kristina tells her mother and stepfather about her addiction to Crank and her pregnancy, although she does not reveal who the father is. The novel continues with Kristina giving birth to a baby boy described as healthy. The narrative ends with Kristina implying that she is still using drugs, but is trying to stop.

Crank

Bernice Summerfield is grieving since the death of Guy de Carnac (as seen in the previous novel, Sanctuary). The Doctor takes her to a market on a planet called Crex in the Augon system. He quickly sets off, telling her he''ll be back in an hour, and Benny finds a pub where she orders a beer and finds a group of female human drinking partners. After Benny''s had several drinks with them, the Doctor arrives and places a patch on her cheek — a pad that disperses the alcohol in her system. He tells her that they need to leave immediately, and leads her back to the TARDIS. He hands her a scroll, tells her he''ll see her in three months, and collapses. Meanwhile, the genesmith Laylock meets with his associates. They plan to follow the Doctor. In a long, dark room, a teenager named Tim awakens from a dream, having had a premonition that everyone will die. Unable to understand Benny''s grief on a human level, the Doctor has purchased a device which alters his biodata, transforming him into a human named Dr John Smith. Smith lives as a history teacher at a public school in 1914 England, and falls in love with a fellow teacher named Joan. However, when alien Aubertides, hoping to acquire Time Lord abilities, attack the school, Smith sacrifices himself and becomes the Doctor once more; as the Time Lord, he is unable to love Joan in the way the human John Smith did.

Human Nature

The book begins with a frame story which recounts a train journey from Kanpur to Delhi. During the journey, the narrating author meets a beautiful girl. The girl offers to tell the author a story on the condition that he has to make it his second book. After a lot of hesitation, the author agrees. The story within the story, which comprises the bulk of the book, relates the events that happen one night at a call center. Told through the eyes of the protagonist, Shyam, it is a story of almost lost love, thwarted ambitions, absence of family affection, pressures of a patriarchal set up, and the work environment of a globalized office. Shyam loves but has lost Priyanka, who is now planning an arranged marriage with another; Vroom loves Esha. Esha wants to be a model, Radhika is in an unhappy marriage with a demanding mother-in-law, and military uncle wants to talk to his grandson; they all hate Bakshi, their cruel boss. Claimed to be based on a true story, the author chooses Shyam Mehra (alias Sam Marcy) as the narrator and protagonist, who is one among the six call center employees featured.

One Night @ the Call Center

It is a future history, set from 1994 to 2194. It tells the story, with chapters at 50-year intervals, of the exploration of the solar system, with space stations in Earth orbit, then moon bases, and landings on Mars in 2094, Venus in 2144, and the asteroids. This is told through the Troon family, several members of which play an important part in the exploration of space, since they all feel "the outward urge", the desire to travel further into space. They all "hear the thin gnat-voices cry, star to faint star across the sky", a quote from The Jolly Company by Rupert Brooke. In 1994 "Ticker" Troon is killed foiling a Soviet missile attack on a British space station, and is later awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. In 2044 a major nuclear war between the USSR and the West wipes out most of the Northern Hemisphere. Inhabitants of the Southern Hemisphere - virtually the only survivors of humanity - call it "The Great Northern War", the far earlier war of the same name seeming very minor in comparison. Only after hundreds of years, with radioactivity going down, do expeditions from the south start carefully exploring and preparing to re-colonise the ravaged northern hemisphere. Brazil is left as the main world power, which then claims that "Space is a province of Brazil". However Australia eventually emerges as a serious rival. Consequently, English and Portuguese become contenders for the position of the major world-wide (eventually, Solar System wide) language. Eventually, space explorers break away from the tutelage of both earthbound powers and establish themselves as a major third power, called simply "Space"; the Troon Family plays a major role in this as in many other events.

The Outward Urge

In Harstad''s novel, Albert is 42 years old and still lives with his father in the same apartment. When his father suddenly dies, Albert sees it as an opportunity to finally create the life for himself that he longed for all these years he was taking care of his father. A large part of the novel is made up of a flashback to 1985-86 when Albert traveled around Europe with his friend Viktor, and by coincidence ends up in Hong Kong and later Paris, where he meets a girl and almost decides to stay for good, before ending up returning to his father in Hässelby. The novel starts as a traditional novel exploring themes such as the relationship between father and son, growing up in suburbia, friendship and politics, but throughout the novel the tone gradually gets darker and darker as more surreal elements are introduced. The novel ends as a nightmarish tale where Albert discovers that someone have been following him for over twenty years, all over the world, and that the world is coming to an end.

Hässelby

A woman named Monica makes an appointment with Dresden to discuss a missing persons case later in the day. Dresden also gets a call from Lieutenant Karrin Murphy, director of Special Investigations (SI) Unit of the Chicago Police Department. Murphy''s partner shows him the bodies of two gruesomely murdered people with their hearts ripped out. Later that day, he is hired to find the husband of Monica Sells, Victor, a beginning magician who was acting oddly. Eventually, Dresden, despite encounters with vampires, the warlock, and Warden Morgan, learns that the affair centers around the drug "ThirdEye," which allows normal humans to temporarily use The Sight, which can drive them insane. Victor Sells manufactured ThirdEye to hedge out Johnny Marcone. Using the power of thunder storms and the orgies held at his home, he powered the spells to remove his enemies, namely Marcone''s men and people threatening his operation, in order to gradually bring down Marcone. Interrupting Victor''s last spell, Dresden attacks Victor, eventually burning down Victor''s house while Victor is still inside grappling with monster-sized scorpions and a demon he summoned to kill Dresden. Dresden wins, but finds himself trapped on the balcony of the burning house until Morgan steps in to rescue him. Morgan witnessed the fight with Victor and, knowing now that Dresden is innocent, reluctantly testifies on Dresden''s behalf to the White Council.

Storm Front

Jean Parlier, a beautiful but deadly teenager, is hired by a mysterious man to seduce and marry the supposedly terminally ill heir to Abercrombie Station for the fee of one million dollars. Abercrombie Station orbits the Earth and exists as a pleasure resort that caters to the whims of the obese. In space, freed from the demands of gravity, rich, corpulent people frolic in decadent excess. Within the mini-society of the station, obesity becomes the ultimate standard for beauty. The heir to Abercrombie Station, Earl, is sour and churlish, and Jean, working as a servant, makes a direct play for him, which only raises his ire. Forced to engage in subterfuge, Jean breaks into his private apartments and discovers that Earl has amassed a veritable zoo of malignant creatures from across the galaxy held in suspended animation. Earl engages in unwholesome activities with these aliens and Jean realizes she cannot follow through with her plan to marry him. Back on Earth, she renegotiates with the mysterious man who hired her and discovers he is actually Lionel, the missing heir to the station who is living in exile. He is normal sized, and has gone to Earth to find a fat woman willing to love him. Jean and Lionel return to the station, force Earl to expose his zoo where he has also entrapped his older brother Hugo, who was presumed dead. Earl is revealed to be a murderer who conspired to rob his family of their rightful heir. In his anger, he unleashes all his animals, killing himself and almost everyone except Jean, Lionel, and a witness. Jean had created a contract with Lionel, using Abercrombie Station as collateral, guaranteeing herself a two million dollar payoff. At the end of the story, she doesn''t know what to do with her sudden wealth.

Abercrombie Station

A young woman named Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three daughters living in the town of Market Chipping in the magical kingdom of Ingary, where many fairy-tale tropes are accepted ways of life. She is very deft with the needle and makes the most beautiful hats and dresses. She unknowingly talks life into objects. As the eldest, she is resigned to the "fact" that she will have no chance of finding her fortune, accepting that she will have a dull life running the family hat shop&mdash;until she is turned into an old crone by the Witch of the Waste, a powerful witch who was not satisfied by Sophie''s hats. Sophie leaves the shop and finds work as a cleaning lady for the notorious Wizard Howl, famed in her town for eating the hearts of beautiful young women. Sophie strikes a bargain with Howl''s resident fire demon, Calcifer: if Sophie can break the contract between Howl and Calcifer, then Calcifer will return Sophie to her original form. Part of the contract, however, stipulates that neither Howl nor Calcifer can disclose the main clause of the contract to any third party. Sophie tries to guess the specifics of the contract, while Calcifer supplies frequent hints which Sophie usually doesn''t pick up. Sophie soon learns that Howl, a rather self-absorbed, dishonest and cavalier but ultimately good-natured person (and an extraordinary wizard), spreads these malicious rumours about himself to ensure his privacy and smear his own reputation to avoid work and responsibility. The door to his castle is actually a portal that opens onto four different places: the moving castle Sophie first encounters in the hills above Market Chipping, the seaside city of Porthaven, the royal capital of Kingsbury and Howl''s boyhood home in Wales, where he was named Howell Jenkins. Howl realizes that Sophie is under a spell and secretly attempts to remove the curse; when met with failure, he comes to the conclusion that Sophie simply enjoys being in disguise. Howl''s apprentice Michael Fisher runs most of the day-to-day affairs of Howl''s business, while Howl chases his ever-changing paramours. Howl and Michael court Sophie''s two younger sisters Lettie and Martha, respectively. Martha, the youngest, was sent to study magic, while the middle sister, Lettie, was apprenticed at a local bakery. Disguising herself as Lettie, Martha arranged for the two of them to switch places, as Fanny (Martha''s mother and Sophie and Lettie''s stepmother) did not take their wishes into account when arranging their apprenticeships. When Prince Justin (the King''s younger brother) goes missing while searching for Wizard Suliman (Benjamin Sullivan, also from Wales), the King orders Howl to find Suliman and Justin and kill the Witch of the Waste. Howl, however, has his own reasons to avoid seeking a confrontation with the Witch of the Waste; the Witch, a jaded former lover, has laid a curse on him. Howl attempts to weasel out of it by having Sophie, pretending to be his mother, petition against the appointment— but to no avail. Instead of blackening Howl''s name like he asked Sophie to do, she gets him appointed the new Royal Wizard, the post he has been trying to avoid for years. Howl continues to avoid the Witch of the Waste until she lures Sophie into a trap; believing that the Witch has taken Howl''s current love interest, Lily Angorian, captive, Sophie goes to save her and is in turn captured by the Witch of the Waste. Howl comes to save Sophie and defeats the Witch of the Waste. He knew all along that Miss Angorian was actually the Witch''s fire demon in disguise. The Witch''s fire demon had, over the years, taken control of the Witch and, once the Witch is defeated, tries to take Howl''s heart to stay alive. Howl is able to stop the demon but fails because Miss Angorian took hold of Calcifer and tried to squeeze Howl''s heart out of him. Sophie uses her talent of talking things to life to break the contract between Howl and Calcifer without killing either of them. Sophie has been unconsciously retaining the spell on herself, but her concern for Howl weakens the spell, and with the death of the Witch of the Waste, who was a significant force behind the spell as well, Calcifer, as promised, breaks the spell the second she concludes the contract between him and Howl, and she returns to her proper age. When Howl awakens, he destroys the witch''s fire demon. This breaks the curse on Wizard Suliman and Prince Justin, whom the Witch had fused together in an effort to create a ''perfect human'' (Howl''s head was meant to complete the being) to use as a puppet to rule Ingary. Calcifer returns under the condition that he can come and go as he wishes. Sophie and Howl admit they love each other (without actually saying it) and Howl suggests they live happily ever after.

Howl''s Moving Castle

The 74 year-old Mr. Geiser is bored in his Ticinese house during torrential rains. He is so bored that he tries to make a pagoda out of crispbread and categorizes thunder types into a taxonomy (rolling thunders, banging thunders etc.). His sole companion is his cat as his wife had died not long ago. There is a report of a landslide caused by the deluge, cutting off the valley. Fearing a large slide that would bury the village and man’s knowledge, Geiser reads in his encyclopedia, the Bible, and history books. At first he makes notes and tacks them to the walls; later he cuts paragraphs from the books and tapes them instead, noting sadly that the front sides of the encyclopedia’s pages are visible, but the back sides unfortunately are dissected and destroyed. Despite the weather, he hikes outdoors along diverging paths. While wandering, he notes his physical limits, and the limits of man’s knowledge and importance. He notes man''s insignificance and meaninglessness (man''s appearance in the Holocene era is a very recent event in evolutionary terms). The old man is exposed to the cycle of life and his mortality. Geiser has to admit that „der Mensch bleibt ein Laie“ (his man stays a rookie). He slowly loses his memory. He wonders if memory was necessary – "the rocks do not need my memory or not". Towards the end, Geiser suffers cerebral apoplexy that attacks his memory.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Deptford Mice Almanack

By Robin Jarvis

A Time for George Stavros

By Philip K. Dick

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

By Malcolm X

Crank

By Ellen Hopkins

Human Nature

By Paul Cornell

One Night @ the Call Center

By Chetan Bhagat

The Outward Urge

By John Wyndham

Hässelby

No Author Listed

Storm Front

By Jim Butcher

Abercrombie Station

By Jack Vance

Howl's Moving Castle

By Diana Wynne Jones

Man in the Holocene

By Max Frisch