Dominickdaniel "Dom" Sabalos IV is the son of the inventor of probability math, a science able to predict anything apart from anything to do with the Jokers, and the first person to have had his life fully quantified using p-math. Before being mysteriously assassinated, his father predicted that Dom too would be killed, on the day of his investiture as Chairman of his wealthy home planet of Widdershins. However, not having been told of his father''s prediction, and against incalculably distant odds, Dom survives the assassination attempt. When the recording of his father''s prediction is played back, a time delay added specifically for this unlikely eventuality plays a little more of the recording, in which his father makes a further prediction - that Dom will discover the Jokers'' homeworld. Dom sets out, with Hrsh-Hgn (his tutor, a swamp-dwelling phnobe), Isaac (his robot, equipped with Man-Friday subcircuitry) and Ig (his pet swamp ig) in tow, on a picaresque adventure to find the Jokers'' world. He visits many corners of the "life-bubble", encountering Joker artefacts, his god-father, who is a sentient planet, and the sexless, octopoid Creapii, among many other weird and diverse aliens and planets. At the same time he finds himself surviving - at increasingly improbable odds - numerous assassination attempts by a mysterious conspiracy which has long worked to prevent anybody from locating the Jokers, assassinating anybody deemed by p-math having a chance of doing so.

The Dark Side of the Sun

The story is essentially timeless, placeless, and nameless. The protagonist is a middle-aged man who lusts after a certain type of adolescent girls. Infatuated with a specific girl, he marries the mother to gain access to her. The mother, already sick, soon passes away, and the orphan girl now is in his care. He takes her on a tour. On their first night, she is terrified when she is exposed to his “magic wand”. Shocked at his own monstrosity, he runs out on the street and is killed by a car. None of the key persons is named; it is just "the man", "the widow" (also "mother", even "person"), and "the girl". Only the viewpoint of the man is presented, - we learn close to nothing about the views of his victims. He is conflicted and tries to rationalize his behavior, but is also disgusted by it. “How can I come to terms with myself?” is the opening sentence. He makes his moves like a chess player. But once he seems to have reached his goal, he is startled by her reaction. The conflict is not resolved but by his destruction.

The Enchanter

Sam Peebles is asked to give a speech to the Rotary Club. An office assistant (Naomi) directs him to the public library to check out two books that might help with speech writing. In doing so he runs across Ardelia Lortz, the librarian. He checks out two books with the warning that they must be returned or he should beware of the Library Policeman. Naomi eventually informs us that Ardelia Lortz is not living and is not spoken of any more. Through a series of events we are introduced to Dave "Dirty Dave" Duncan, a former lover of Ardelia''s. He finds that Ardelia is not a person but a being which feeds on fear and that Duncan was a sometimes unwilling companion/conspirator in helping her feed from the fear of children. We find that Ardelia had "died" in 1960 after killing two children and a police officer. She is now back and Duncan believes she seeks revenge and a new host. The Library Policeman turns out to be a recreation by Ardelia of a man Peebles had run into as a child at his local library who had raped and threatened him. The Library Policeman however is not just a recreation but also an embodiment of Ardelia who sought access to Sam as her new host. Dave dies defending them from Ardelia. They appear to have beaten the Library Policeman/Ardelia, only to discover at the end that she has already attached to Naomi. Sam removes her from Naomi''s neck and destroys her under the wheels of a passing train.

The Library Policeman

Kamryn Matika is a thirty-two year old National Marketing Manager for a department store, who lives in Leeds. On her birthday she receives a card- not a birthday card- from her former best friend, Adele Brannon, which says that she is in hospital and she is dying. Kamryn is reluctant to see her. Two years previously, she discovered that her partner and her best friend conceived a child together three years earlier. Kamryn had vowed never to speak to them again. However, she visits London anyway but when at the hospital she discovers that Adele has terminal cancer and is going to die soon. She is shocked when Adele says that she want Kamryn to adopt her daughter Tegan. Kamryn thinks about it and reflects when she met Adele in university for a couple of hours before she goes to collect Tegan from Adele''s Father and Step-mother, who we discover have abused and negected both Adele and Tegan. They let Tegan go as a) they would be glad to see the back of her b) Kamryn had threatened to phone the police. Tegan is somewhat quiet and is rather scared, but Kamryn reasures her everything will be ok. In the hotel room, Kamryn is shocked to see how much abuse Tegan had suffered at the hands of her grandparents. Kamryn decides to stick to a plan: bath, food, bed. This actually works in a bizarre way. A few days later Kamryn receives a knock on her door to say that Adele had died during the night. This shocks Kamryn and she trys to tell Teagn but she refuses to believe it. A few weeks later, Kamryn and Tegan move back up to Leeds. At first, there were issues such as they don''t know what shampoo to get for Tegan. Kamryn is under suspicion as she is a black woman with a white child. Kamryn once forgets Tegan and leaves her at a play group while she is having dinner with her new boss, Luke. The next day, Luke comes round and Tegan asks him to come to the zoo with her and Kamryn. Kamryn and Luke become closer and then they become lovers. Just as they are settling in, Kamryn''s former parther (and Tegan''s father), Nate, comes back on the scene. Kamryn tells Nate about his daughter to which he is now becoming used to even helping with her sixth birthday party, which goes badly wrong when Tegan has an alergic reaction. In the hospital, Kamryn and Nate share a kiss which is seen by Luke resulting in a massive break-up between him and Kamryn. About eighteen months later, Luke meets up with Kamryn and Tegan in a cafe and seems to have forgiven Kamryn. Tegan is now Kamryn''s adopted daughter and says that they are going to get a cat.

My Best Friend''s Girl

In Kitchen, a young Japanese woman named Mikage Sakurai struggles to overcome the death of her grandmother. She gradually grows close to one of her grandmother''s friends, Yuichi, from a flower shop and ends up staying with him and his transgender mother, Eriko. From Mikage''s love of kitchens to her job as a culinary teacher''s assistant to the multiple scenes in which food is merely present, Kitchen is a short window into the life of a young Japanese woman and her discoveries about food and love amongst a background of tragedy. In Moonlight Shadow, a woman named Satsuki loses her boyfriend Hitoshi in an accident and tells us: "The night he died my soul went away to some other place and I couldn''t bring it back". She becomes friendly with his brother Hiiragi, whose girlfriend died in the same crash. On one insomniac night out walking she meets a strange woman called Urara who has also lost someone. Urara introduces her to the mystical experience of The Weaver Festival Phenomenon, which she hopes will cauterise their collective grief.

Kitchen

During a shopping trip with Cassie, Rachel discovers Erek having problems: his hologram malfunctions. Barely managing to get him away in time, they discover all of the Chee are having problems with certain aspects of their technology, particularly their holograms, owing to interference with the Pemalite ship hidden in the ocean. Of all the Chee, two are currently still in danger, while the rest have successfully hidden themselves. One of the Chee in danger, Lourdes, is hidden in a flophouse where drug fencing occurs, but a SWAT team - with a Controller member - are about to raid the house. After rescuing Lourdes, they have to travel to the bottom of the ocean, to fix the problem of the malfunctioning holograms, but have problems thinking of the morph they could use to go in so deep into the ocean. Cassie found the solution: morphing into a giant squid. But the problem was that none of them had acquired that morph, and they had no idea where to get it, though they know for a fact that sperm whales captured giant squids. They were let down until they find out that a sperm whale has conveniently beached, so Rachel and Tobias acquire it and dive to find a squid. Upon finding and battling one, the group all acquire it and release it, and then dive to the ship. They notice several Yeerk bug fighters en route to the Pemalite ship as well, following the signal. Reaching it first, they use the single-digit access code to infiltrate it and fix the Chee programming, but then a self-destruct sequence is initiated too. The group is confronted by a being called the Drode, an aide of sorts to Crayak, who threatens and insults them all. He shows some bizarre fondness for Rachel and tells her that if she wanted favour with the Crayak, she should kill Jake, telling Rachel that her passport to Crayak''s side is Jake. The Yeerks also emerge into the ship, and the group must stand and fight them before allowing them to gain control. But as the battle reaches a climax, Erek appears - to the shock of the Drode - and activates a violence-dispeller. The Yeerks and Animorphs are forced to leave the ship, and the Chee have their holograms restored. *The Drode is introduced. *Tobias and Rachel''s relationship is further explored. Rachel is asked out by someone other than Tobias (T. T.), and she is tempted by the prospect of a normal romantic relationship, but rudely tells him no, concluding in the end that, no matter how tempting the prospect of a normal relationship is, no normal guy would go to the lengths that Tobias has gone to in order to keep her safe. *For the first time, Crayak''s interest in Rachel is hinted at and explored.

The Exposed

Alice is a formerly mousy and high-strung London girl who marries Joe, a wealthy business executive whom she had a crush on as a girl. It is revealed that Joe is a serial philanderer who, in spite of his best efforts, is unable to avoid chasing women. He married Alice because he viewed her as a compliant "project" he could craft into the perfect trophy wife. In this, he succeeded. As Alice intermittently suspects Joe is having affairs she becomes unhappy with her marriage, which is blessed with enormous wealth and prestige but has no warmth or passion. Joe becomes increasingly involved with a new business executive named Josie, and their relationship is discovered. Joe is forced by the company to relocate to its New York office or lose his job. Desperate, Joe convinces his wife of the merits of moving to the United States and she agrees to the move on the condition that they have a house in the country as well as their original apartment in New York City. After the move Alice becomes increasingly invigorated and secure with herself as she takes on the project of restoring an old country home to immaculate condition. Joe, a fastidious urbanite, dislikes being in the country and the couple begins growing apart from one another: Joe spends more and more time in the city alone, but Alice no longer misses him as much because she feels increasingly fulfilled with small-town life and her new friends. Alice''s longtime best friend, Emily, visits her and brings along her boyfriend, Harry, whom Alice and Joe met back in England before the move. Emily reveals that she no longer thinks Harry is "the one" and is instead enamored with a man named Colin...who has a girlfriend. Alice is aghast that her friend would consider infidelity and advises her to give Harry a chance. As the lengthy visit continues and Emily and Harry share Alice and Joe''s country home with them, Alice and Harry grow close. Eventually, on the night Joe is finally rejected by his latest extramarital pursuit and all four are at a local party, Alice and Harry kiss under the stars while intoxicated. Emily sees Alice and Harry kissing and renounces her friendship with Alice. She and Harry return to England the next day as planned, where they promptly end their relationship. Days later, Josie has moved to New York as well and contacts Joe, who immediately falls for her once more. They continue their extramarital relationship, but Alice quickly discovers it by checking Joe''s e-mail accounts. Alice separates from Joe, who suffers a nervous breakdown in his New York apartment while Alice remains in their country home. In the end, Alice and Emily reconcile and Emily encourages Alice to start a relationship with Harry, whom she obviously fancies. She does so.

Spellbound

Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way begins with an excerpt from an email that Bruce Campbell received from Barry Neville from St. Martin''s Press in regard to a book, Walk this Way, that he was attempting to write. The email expresses the publisher''s disinterest in that book, but a desire for Campbell to work on a different project. Upon calling Barry Neville, Bruce is presented with the idea of writing a relationship book. Bruce feels he cannot approach the concept, since he does not see himself as an authority on the subject and feels his editor has a false impression of his mastery of relationships. He is contacted by his acting agent, Barry, about a potential role in a Richard Gere/Renée Zellweger romantic comedy entitled Let''s Make Love, written by Kevin Jarre, directed by Mike Nichols and produced by Robert Evans. Bruce jumps to the conclusion that the role is a small, insignificant part, but he finds out that his role is in fact a large part as the wise-cracking doorman. Bruce ends up going to New York and auditioning for the role. Bruce ends up getting the role despite the fact he was not the first, second or last choice; others considered included Johnny Depp, John Cusack, Billy Campbell, Gary Sinise, John Malkovich and Robert Patrick. From this point on, Bruce tries to do research for his role. He first tries being a doorman at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where he has an encounter with Colin Powell that does not end well. Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way continues to follow Bruce Campbell through his trials and tribulations with the movie. He goes to a gentleman''s club, supposedly to learn how to be a true Southern gentleman, but instead finds it to be no more than a strip club and ends up getting shot for portraying himself as someone else while there. Bruce also makes a trip out to see a friend about relationships, but finds his friend to be nothing more than a sleaze who takes advantage of his clients. By the end of the book, Bruce is fighting to keep his role and seeing Let''s Make Love sliding from an A-List movie to a B-List movie supposedly due to the B-Movie actor curse caused by Bruce Campbell.

Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way

The story begins as Mr. and Mrs. Mallard fly over various potential locations to start a family. Each time Mr. Mallard selects a location, Mrs. Mallard finds something wrong with it. Tired from their search, the mallards land at the Public Garden Lagoon to spend the night. In the morning, a swan boat passes by the mallards. The mallards mistake the swan boat for a real bird and have a second breakfast of peanuts thrown from the people on the boat. Mrs. Mallard suggests that they build their nest in the Public Garden. However, just as she says this, she is nearly run down by a passing bicyclist. The mallards continue their search, flying over Boston landmarks such as Beacon Hill, the Massachusetts State House, and Louisburg Square. The mallards finally decide on an island in the Charles River. From this island, the mallards visit a policeman named Michael on the shore, who feeds them peanuts every day. Shortly thereafter, the mallards molt, and would not be able to fly again, until their new wings grew again, and Mrs. Mallard hatches eight ducklings named Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack. After the ducklings are born, Mr. Mallard decides to take a trip up the river to see what the rest of it is like. Mr. and Mrs. Mallard agree to meet at the Public Garden in one week. In the meantime, Mrs. Mallard teaches the eight ducklings all they need to know about being ducks, such as swimming, diving, marching along, and to avoid dangers such as bicycles and other wheeled objects. One week later, Mrs. Mallard leads the ducklings ashore and straight to the highway in hopes of crossing to reach the Garden, but she has trouble crossing as the cars will not yield to her. Michael, the policeman who fed peanuts to the Mallards, stops traffic for the family to cross. Michael calls police headquarters and instructs them to send a police car to stop traffic along the route for the ducks. The ducks cross the highway, Embankment Road (the eastern extension of Storrow Drive), then proceed down Mount Vernon Street to Charles Street where they head south to the Garden. The people on the streets admire the family of ducks and compliment them for being a family that is sticking together. When the family must cross Beacon Street to enter the Garden, there are four policeman standing in the intersection stopping traffic to make way for the ducklings. Mr. Mallard is waiting in the Public Garden for the rest of the family. Finally, the family decides to stay in the Garden and lives happily ever after. They end each day searching for peanuts and food, and when night falls, they swim to their little island and go to sleep.

Make Way For Ducklings

The book is set a month after Dark Force Rising. Now emboldened by his recent capture of the Katana fleet and staffing them with clone personnel, Grand Admiral Thrawn launches his offensive against the New Republic with great success. Through certain deception techniques (such as faking a turbolaser barrage using cloaked ships to fire underneath planetary shields), several planets quickly capitulate to the Empire. He ups the ante when the Imperial fleet deploys 22 cloaked asteroids over Coruscant and fakes the presence of over 260 asteroids to immobilize the planet and the Republic leadership. By this time, Mon Mothma finally reconciles with Sen Garm bel Iblis, whom she lets lead Coruscant''s defenses. Elsewhere, Han Solo, Chewbacca and Talon Karrde work to form an alliance of smugglers to assist with the New Republic defense. Although the smugglers consider staying in the sidelines, an Imperial raid on their meeting place (set up by turncoat smuggler Niles Ferrier without Thrawn''s permission) finally unites them against the Empire. Mara Jade, who was knocked out in the climax of the previous novel, joins Princess Leia and Han in stopping an Imperial commando force sent to Coruscant to kidnap Leia''s newborn twins for Joruus C''baoth. The Jedi Master wants to turn Leia, Luke and the twins to the Dark Side. The raid''s sole survivor points to Mara as their mole and she is arrested, but she comes clean to Leia about the Wayland cloning facility. As they slip out of Coruscant, Republic security shuts down an Imperial eavesdropping system located in the former Imperial Palace. Mara, Luke, Han, Lando, Chewie, the droids, and Karrde travel to Wayland. They slip past Imperial forces in the area with help from the Noghri and two local alien races. Mara discovers that Luke Skywalker - the man the Emperor is ordering her to kill - is actually the man she spent time with in the Myrkr forest. Han, Lando, and Chewie rig the base to explode. Mara, Luke, Karrde and Leia face C''baoth, who produced his own Skywalker clone named Luuke (using Luke''s hand that was lost at Bespin during the events of Empire Strikes Back, intact with Anakin Skywalker''s own lightsaber) to attack them. After a fierce battle, Mara kills C''baoth and fulfills the Emperor''s orders - by killing Luuke. Having learned of Thrawn''s deception strategy, the Republic fleet organizes an assault on the Imperial shipyards at Bilbringi to capture a device that can find the cloaked asteroids over Coruscant. A feint operation at Tangrene will draw Imperial forces away from Bilbringi. However, Thrawn sees through the deception and marshals his forces at the shipyards. When the Republic fleet and the smugglers attack, the Imperial forces severely maul them. Things nearly go the Empire''s way - until Capt Gilad Pellaeon receives word of the attack on Wayland. When he reads that Noghri were among the attackers, Thrawn''s own Noghri bodyguard Rukh stuns him and kills the admiral himself before disappearing. With all hopes of victory now dashed by Thrawn''s death, Pellaeon orders all Imperial forces to retreat. Back in Coruscant, Luke gives Mara Jade his father''s lightsaber and invites her to train as a Jedi.

The Last Command

The protagonists of The Magic Dishpan of Oz are two sisters, seven-year-old Rebecca and three-year-old Shoshanna. Natives of Oregon, the two girls are playing by a stream near their home one day, when they find an unusual frog. The animal seems to want to communicate with them, and Shoshanna thinks she can understand it. The frog (they come to call it "Froggie") also appears to want them to follow it; and when the girls do, Froggie leads them to a semi-submerged object, a gem-studded gold dishpan. The girls take their new treasure home. At one point, Rebecca says, "Oh, I just wish I knew where this dishpan came from!" The magic talisman obligingly transports the girls (and frog) to Oz. Familiar as they are with Oz from books, Rebecca and Shoshanna are unpleasantly surprised by the welcome they receive. Landing in the Winkie Country, they find that the locals are hostile and suspicious, so much so that the girls are locked in a barn overnight, so that they can be turned over to "our illustrious Magician" the next day. With the aid of some friendly talking sheep, girls escape with the dishpan. (And frog. They concluded that Froggie is under an enchantment, since he does not gain the ability to speak when he comes to Oz. At one point, Shoshanna impulsively tries to kiss the frog, but he evades her lips.) The children make their way toward the Emerald City along the yellow brick road. In an abandoned house, the girls find Scraps the Patchwork Girl, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman, disassembled. The three Oz inhabitants are quickly restored to normal. The children learn that Oz has been infiltrated by malignant magicians who have disrupted the normal order. The party (girls and Ozites) sets out for the palace of Glinda, but is quickly waylaid by a Magician and a hundred of his followers. The enchanter calls himself the Magician of Suspicion; he specializes in spreading distrust and ill-feeling. By sowing discord among their guards, the party manage to escape from their captors (with dishpan, and frog). They now turn toward the Gillikin Country to look for Planetty, the Silver Princess. After further adventures and conflicts, the girls and their Ozite friends unite with Planetty and her followers, and together they move toward Glinda''s palace in the Quadling Country. Froggie pays court to Planetty with gifts of flowers; the Princess kisses him, and he turns into the Frogman from Lost Princess. The Frogman had been enchanted and sent out of Oz with the dishpan, by the Magician who has taken over the Emerald City. Glinda is not at her palace. The party consult her Great Book of Records to learn how to restore Oz. They discover that the main figures of Oz, Glinda, Princess Ozma, and the Wizard, have been turned into the emeralds and rubies that decorate the dishpan. As is fitting in a fairy tale, it is Shoshanna, the smallest and youngest member of the group, who restores the missing principals, just in time for Glinda to overcome the Magician of Ignorance and return Oz to its former state.

The Magic Dishpan of Oz

As the book begins, the orphans Sunny, Klaus and Violet meet their new guardian, Aunt Josephine. Although she is a kind old woman, she is frightened by many things. Ever since her husband, Ike, died in Lake Lachrymose after being eaten by the Lachrymose Leeches, she has developed many irrational fears about the lake and her own possessions. She won''t touch the phone, the radiator, the refrigerator, the oven, or even the doorknobs. She also has a terrible fear of realtors. Aunt Josephine loves grammar and possesses an enormous library on the subject in her home. The room containing her library has an enormous window (after which The Wide Window is named), which overlooks the lake. After the Baudelaires tell Aunt Josephine that Hurricane Herman is coming, the children and their new guardian head down to town to obtain food and other household supplies. There they come across "Captain Sham," Count Olaf in disguise. He tells them that he is the owner of a boat rental company and lost his leg after it was eaten by the Lachrymose Leeches. The children warn Aunt Josephine, but they cannot prove "Sham" is Olaf in disguise, since he has a wooden leg where the ankle bearing his tattoo of an eye should be. Furthermore, Aunt Josephine finds Captain Sham charming, and won''t listen to the Baudelaires, insisting that his (fake) business card is proof enough of his identity. Later that night, the children are awakened by a loud crash, and they rush to the library to find the window broken and their aunt''s suicide note. The three siblings are shocked because the note says that the children''s new guardian will be Captain Sham. Klaus becomes suspicious because it is filled with spelling and grammatical errors, not something Aunt Josephine would have done. They decide that Captain Sham is behind it and call Mr. Poe using the telephone. Mr. Poe arrives, but they cannot prove their suspicions, as the note is written in Josephine''s hand writing. While Mr. Poe and Sham are discussing matters at The Anxious Clown, the children purposefully start an allergic reaction with the peppermints Mr. Poe had given them, and escape back to the house. By this time, Hurricane Herman is already arriving on Lake Lachrymose. At the house, Klaus discovers that all the spelling and grammar mistakes in the note form an encoded message, the words "Curdled Cave", presumably a cave somewhere on the shore of Lake Lachrymose. As the children search frantically for a map of the lake, one of the stilts that supports Aunt Josephine''s house is struck by lightning, and the house begins to slide down the cliff. After narrowly escaping with their lives, the Baudelaires watch as Aunt Josephine''s house crumbles and falls to the depths of Lake Lachrymose. The Baudelaires hurry down to the docks to steal a boat from Captain Sham''s rental company, but the rental company is being guarded by one of Count Olaf''s henchmen, the one who looks like neither a man nor a woman. Sunny outsmarts it, and the children manage to sail across Lake Lachrymose to Curdled Cave, where they find Aunt Josephine hiding. Aunt Josephine claims that Sham forced her to write the note, but rather than actually committing suicide, she threw a chair through the window and went into hiding, leaving only the coded suicide note behind. The Baudelaires convince her to join them, but as they''re sailing back across the lake, Lachrymose Leeches attack. The children are puzzled, since they haven''t consumed any food within the last hour (The leeches are blind and attack only if they smell food) but Aunt Josephine admits to having eaten a banana shortly before the Baudelaires arrived. The leeches ram their boat and devour it as it fills up with water. Violet successfully invents a signal for help, and Captain Sham rescues them in another boat just when the boat sinks in the water. Josephine pleads with Sham to spare her life, offering to give him the Baudelaires and promising to go far away and never tell anyone. Josephine almost convinces Sham to let her do so, but Sham is angered when she fusses over a trivial grammatical error in his speech. Instead, Sham pushes her in the water, where it is implied that she is devoured by the leeches, and takes the children with him back to Damocles Dock. Back at the docks, Mr. Poe is about to give the children to Sham when Sunny bites into Sham''s fake wooden leg, breaking it off. Sham claims that his leg has miraculously regenerated, but Mr. Poe has already seen the tattoo of an eye on Olaf''s ankle. Having been once more unmasked, Olaf flees with his associate before the children and Mr. Poe can chase after them.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Dark Side of the Sun

By Terry Pratchett

The Enchanter

By Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov

The Library Policeman

By Stephen King

My Best Friend's Girl

No Author Listed

Kitchen

By Banana Yoshimoto

The Exposed

By K. A. Applegate

Spellbound

By Jane Green

Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way

By Bruce Campbell

Make Way For Ducklings

By Robert McCloskey

The Last Command

By Timothy Zahn

The Magic Dishpan of Oz

No Author Listed

The Wide Window

By Daniel Handler