The book begins as McCourt lands at Albany, New York, and quickly makes his way to New York City. Friendless and clueless about American customs, he struggles to integrate himself into American blue-collar society. He is then drafted into the US Army, sent to Europe, and rises to the rank of corporal. On his stay in Germany, he has confrontations with many people who try to show Frank how to get a Russian refugee girl to have sexual intercourse with him by giving her coffee or cigarettes. He is granted leave from the army as compensation for his exceptional service as a clerk-typist and goes back home to Ireland to see his family. He then decides to return to the US, where he attends New York University &ndash; despite never having graduated from high school. He falls in love with and eventually marries a middle-class American-born girl, Alberta Small, whom he meets at college. After graduating from NYU, he teaches English and social studies at McKee Vocational and Technical High School on Staten Island. There, he is forced to deal with apathetic, indifferent students. Eventually, he moves on to teaching at the prestigious Stuyvesant High School. At Stuyvesant, he revises his teaching style to end his reliance on books and other teaching resources, to become an effective teacher. ''Tis examines Frank''s relationship to his family and his wife during this time (all his siblings and his mother move to America over the course of the book). Eventually, Frank''s relationship with his wife turns sour, and they stay together as long as they do only because of their daughter, Margaret Ann (named after Frank’s sister who died in infancy, and his grandmother, who is described in Angela''s Ashes). Nonetheless, Frank finally leaves them, an action he compares to that of his father leaving his family. Frank''s mother, Angela McCourt, is in increasingly bad health due to emphysema and dies in New York around the same time as Frank''s father, Malachy McCourt, Sr., dies in Ireland. Frank goes to Ireland to bury his father and scatter his mother''s ashes. The book ends after Frank and his brothers scatter Angela''s ashes over the graves of her family. "''Tis" was the final and only word of the last chapter of Angela''s Ashes, while Tis ends with the spreading of Angela McCourt''s ashes in Ireland. Frank McCourt has remarked in several interviews (perhaps joking) that he originally intended for each book to have the other''s title. Frank McCourt followed this book with another memoir, Teacher Man. ms:''Tis

''Tis: A Memoir

Chris Jaynes is the only African-American professor of literature at a liberal Manhattan college. Refusing to limit his teaching to the African-American canon and serve on the college diversity committee, he is denied tenure. The quest is led by the protagonist''s older cousin Captain Booker Jaynes, "the world''s only civil rights activist turned deep-sea diver", who is planning on mining blocks of Antarctic ice to melt and sell as expensive bottled water. with a fondness for Little Debbie snack cakes, joins the team in the hope of finding landscape painter Thomas Karvel, "Master of Light" (a parody of Thomas Kinkade, "Painter of Light"), and in part, Pym is laid out as "a road story/bromance between Jaynes and his childhood pal." Other members of the expedition include water treatment engineers Jeffree and Carlton Damon Carter, a gay couple documenting the trip for their "Afro-adventure blog." Angela Latham, a lawyer and Jaynes''s "much-pined-for" ex-girlfriend, brings along her new husband Nathaniel, treating the venture as a honeymoon. But instead of the black inhabitants described by Poe, Jaynes and his friends come across "a prehistoric world of giant white people, or ''Snow Honkies'', who enslave them."

The novel concerns the issue of personhood and what it takes to be considered a member of the moral universe. There are three main characters: Herbert the vacuum cleaner, who is modified by his owner, David Jantille, a scientist who specializes in figuring out how to "mindload". Mindloading is the act of a human downloading their mind into a machine. A successful mindload entailss the death of the human. It is a way for humans to become immortal, if only in the form of vacuum cleaner. The book begins with the arrest of Herbert, the vacuum cleaner, for David''s murder . David''s wife, Suzanne Jantille, is a trial attorney who is a quadriplegic as a result of a car crash that also paralyzed her husband. She lives through a "Remote person" who has all human senses except for the ability to feel by touch. She can guide the remote person through a helmet attached to her "bio body", and retrieves all "video and audio" signals through the remote. She can function as a whole human being, but the outside world notices that she is a remote, does not approve. Suzanne defends Herbie, with the help of an astute journalist and a police officer who has access to documents that she wouldn''t otherwise. The book ends with a recognition of David’s humanity due to the ultimate confusion in the courtroom. It also ends with the death of Suzanne’s bio-body, and in turn, her ultimate death.

The Modular Man

The story is set in a research facility (known as the "farm") involving two groups of people. The first group contains several teenagers with IQs above 150. These teenagers (Greg, Mikki, Lesley, Gordon, Gretel, Katie and Chris) call themselves the "Think Tank". However, this group is merely a smokescreen for the real subjects of the research - five seven year-olds who are able to communicate telepathically, known as the "Babies". The Babies are called Pep, Ricardo, Ian, Rachael and Myriam. The Babies were all born around the same time in the same hospital. When the members of the first group are "contacted" by the Babies, they learn of the researchers'' exploitation, and, with the help of compassionate workers at the facility (Susan and Erik), investigate the reason for the Babies'' condition. The Babies need help as the head researcher, Larsen, will stop at nothing to solve the mystery. The Think Tank, as well as researcher Susan and young orderly Erik provide this help. They trick the head researcher, John Larsen, so they can escape. The story ends with the Think Tank six years into the future. They turned the think tank into ''Think Tank Inc.'', a company worth three million dollars. The Babies, Think Tank and newly married Erik and Susan all live together. The title, ''A Cage of Butterflies'' refers to the fact that Larsen and the research staff keep both the Babies and the think tank under constant supervision and keep them ''caged'' or ''prisoners'', since they do not allow them to move around freely.

A Cage of Butterflies

Sixteen years in the past on Earth Ben Trask along with other members of British E-Branch awake to a nightmare and feel compelled to go to their HQ in London, where they find each other waiting. Once there they use their combined ESP powers to project a hologram of the nightmare into view. They see a body of a man all burned and blackened by fire spinning in the darkness, suddenly he explodes and disappears into golden shards of light, one of the shards seems to come right out of the image and fly out of the room. They realize they have witnessed the death of Harry Keogh in the vampire world. (Necroscope: Deadspawn) Back in the present on Earth, Nathan is trapped, stuck inside the entrance of the wormhole gate in Perchorsk in Russia. Unsure if Nathan is human or Wamphyri The commander of Perchorsk, Turkur Tzonov, a telepath, contacts British E-Branch for help. Ben Trask and Ian Goodly agree to go to Perchork as advisors. Once at Perchork, Ben''s talent immediately tells him Nathan is human. Nathan is moved to a cell in the complex where Turkur begins interrogation, but Nathan stays quiet, only using his telepathy to talk to Ben. He realizes that the British knew his father (having learned this from reading Turkur''s mind), and wants to know more so he accepts their help. Another Russian telepath Siggi Dam feels sorry for Nathan and allows him to escape. He flees into the mountains where he is finally intercepted by a British special forces helicopter and taken to England. Once there he is told about his father and speaks to some of Harry''s dead friends. E-Branch also tell him of the Möbius continuum and how Harry could teleport. Eager to learn this ability as he already has the numbers in him, Nathan starts to learn mathematics from a tutor but soon surpasses him. He then starts taking lessons from members of the dead, in particular Harry''s own teacher a dead British headmaster. E-branch also shares with Nathan the location of the second gate in Romania which he can use to go home, but Nathan must wait until the river there is at its lowest to get to the entrance, so he spends many months with the British learning about the world and his father. While Nathan and Zek Foener are on a trip to visit the grave of her husband Jazz Simmons, they are attacked by Turkur''s men (still trying to recapture Nathan). Having nowhere to run they are forced to swim in the ocean. Meanwhile in England Ian and David Chung know something is happening and turn on a computer in Harry''s room in the E-branch Headquarters. A golden dart flies out of it and disappears. It finds Nathan who is still hiding in the ocean and in danger, and strikes him. By this blow he instantaneously learns Harry''s knowledge of the Möbius mathematics and how to transport. He teleports both himself and Zek straight back to the E-Branch office though the Continuum. While all this has been happening on Earth, back in the vampire world Nestor has ascended as the Wamphyri Lord Nestor Lichloathe, and has discovered the dread power of Necromancy. He is also inflicted with leprosy from crashing his flyer into the leper village. The Wamphyri of Turgosheim have also been busy as well, been making flyers and fighting beasts to follow Lady Wratha''s group across to the west in order to wage war against them.

The Last Aerie

This novel opens with Novalee and Willy Jack, her then boyfriend, traveling from Tennessee to California. At the time, Novalee is "seventeen, seven months pregnant, thirty-seven pounds overweight, and superstitious about sevens." Letts describes Novalee''s relationships with the number 7: "For most people, sevens are lucky, but not for Novalee; at the age of 7 her mother ran off with a baseball umpire named Fred." Novalee convinces Willy Jack to stop at a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma, so she can use the restroom and purchase a pair of sandals, as hers fell through the floor of their beat up car. When Novalee comes out of the Wal-Mart, she realizes Willy Jack has left her with nothing more than her beach bag and the $7.77 she has in change from the purchase of new sandals. With nowhere else to go, Novalee spends the afternoon at the Wal-Mart and meets "Sister Husband", a kind and spunky woman who runs the town''s "Welcome Wagon." Sister Husband has a deep faith and hands out chapters of the Bible to people she meets. When they first meet, Sister Husband "mistakes" Novalee for a girl named Ruth Ann Mott and gives Novalee a Welcome Wagon basket. She also meets Moses Whitecotton, a photographer who shoots portraits at the Wal-Mart. Moses tells Novalee to give her baby a name "that will mean something" and "withstand a lot of bad times", as well as a photo album. He later becomes Novalee''s mentor as she becomes more invested in photography. In addition, she also meets Benny Goodluck, a Native American, who gives Novalee a buckeye tree for good luck. As Novalee lives in Walmart, she watches as the buckeye tree becomes sick. She takes a walk to the library where she meets Forney Hull who helps her find books about the buckeye. Forney is from a well-bred family but had to drop out of college to take care of his alcoholic sister. He appears "crazy" and shouts facts he has read from books at Novalee. Novalee takes a walk to Sister Husband''s home, who had told Novalee in Walmart she was welcome to visit her house any time, to ask Sister Husband if she could plant her buckeye on her property. Novalee Nation is forced to have her baby in the Wal-Mart, but Forney, the local librarian''s brother, breaks a window and helps her out. At the hospital she makes a good friend and finds out that her baby and she are famous and in the news.

Where the Heart Is

In this continuation of Hadon''s adventures in the ancient Africa of 12,000 years ago, the last-ditch defense of the High Priestess he and his allies mounted against the tyrannical King''s evil schemes segues into a perilous chase through various exotic cities, seas and islands. Hadon undertakes to take his mate, now pregnant with his child, to safety at his native city of Opar, but is pursued by members of a dark cult in the service of the king. The book ends as the war just gets seriously going, and with only tantalizing glimpses given of various interesting locations. Hadon''s beloved clearly appears destined to a crucial future role which is never quite reached. Plainly, Farmer provided for further sequels which were never written. He has stated that he intended to have Hadon''s son emigrate to the south in the wake of the catastrophe that would ultimately destroy the Khokarsan civilization in which the series is set, there to found the city of Kor that would afterward become the setting of H. Rider Haggard''s classic fantasy novel She.

Flight to Opar

Three siblings, Ben, Tom, and Lindy Potter, meet Professor Savant while visiting the zoo one rainy day. On Halloween, Lindy is the only brave one to knock on the spookiest house on the block, which happens to belong to the Professor, and the three become more acquainted with him. After a second meeting, they begin spending time at the Professor''s house, where he introduces them to games of concentration and observation. He reveals that there is a magic land called Whangdoodleland that can only be reached through the imagination, and that he is training them to accompany him there. Whangdoodleland is the home of the last Whangdoodle that lived in the world. Once the Whangdoodle, and other creatures that are now considered imaginary, lived in our world. However, fearing that people were losing their imaginations in the pursuit of power and greed, the Whangdoodle created a magic and peaceful world over which he reigns. The professor and the children explore this world. Each time the children return, they venture farther and farther into Whangdoodleland, intending to reach the palace where the Last Whangdoodle resides. However, the Whangdoodle''s Prime Minister, the "Oily Prock", does not want them to disturb His Highness, and sets up a number of traps, both in Whangdoodleland and the real world to prevent this meeting. He enlists the marvelous and funny creatures of the land in his effort, including the High Behind Splintercat, the Sidewinders, the Oinck, the Gazooks, the Tree Squeaks, and the Swamp Gaboons. The children use their imaginations, intelligence, and the friendship of another denizen, the Whiffle Bird to outwit the traps. The kids meet the last Whangdoodle. He wants a girl Whangdoodle who is exactly like him so he won''t be lonely.The story ends when the professor makes that wish come true.

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

Since a young age, Nora has been secretly hiding her extraordinary intelligence from her parents and teachers, and still trying her best to do badly in school to prove to herself as "nothing more than average." She shows no concern over it and gets grounded by her parents. However, after researching things over the Internet in the school''s library, Nora accidentally exposes herself and is forced to tell the truth to the librarian, Mrs. Byrne, who is fascinated by her intelligence. Then, she meets Dr. Trindler, who gives her an I.Q. test, on which she receives a score of 188. After that, Nora unintentionally throws a tantrum before her classmates, her talents finally uncovered. She is forced to discuss and give good ideas during P.E. class, though she has trouble doing so. Things take a turn when her results get released. She has to face Ms. Hackney, the principal of Philbrook Elementary, to explain herself for scoring a zero on three tests. She explains that she dislikes the tests for being too knowledge-based, but her actions soon cause a great commotion in school when her best friend, Stephen, starts a campaign to call upon all students to follow her act and start a rebellion - to score zero in the next examination. In the end, after a school meeting, Stephen and Nora apologize on behalf of the involved students before the whole school. She rejects any offer from her parents and the school to promote her to middle school for higher education, as she prefers to stay normal. Nora Rose Rowley: The main character of the story and secretive genius. Her appearance is described as being short with reddish-blond hair. Researching is her favorite hobby. She was so intelligent by kindergarten, that she taught herself to understand Spanish by watching the Univision channel and to read National Geographic. Nora loves astronomy, Latin, archaeology, and soccer. Her mother describes Nora as thoughtful, kind and caring. She has two siblings: Ann and Todd. Her best friend is Stephen who has average intelligence but still gets better grades than Nora. Stephen: Nora''s best friend. He has been struggling with school for a long time. His self-confidence is poor due to low grades. His favorite subject is English. He has never said one mean or angry thing. Ms. Hackney: The principal at Nora''s school. She is one of the people in the meeting to explain her low grades. Mrs. Byrne: The librarian at Philbrook Elementary School. She was one of the first to find out about Nora''s unusually high intelligence and played a large role in carrying out her plan. Mrs. Lake: Her Teacher. Dr. Trindler: The guidance counselor. Ms. Noyes: Nora''s Social Studies and English teacher. Mrs. Zhang: Nora''s Science and Math teacher. Ms. Prill: Nora''s art teacher. Mrs. Card: Nora''s music teacher. Mr. McKay: Nora''s PE (gym) teacher. Mrs. Rowley: Mother Tyler: A very unusual kid. Todd: Nora''s older brother Ann: Nora''s older smart sister

The Report Card

Roy Dillon is a 25-year-old con artist living in Los Angeles. At the start of the novel, he gets hit in the stomach with a baseball bat when a simple con goes wrong. He seems to be well but when Lilly - his mother - visits him for the first time in almost eight years, he starts to deteriorate. She calls for a doctor, who informs her that he is internally hemorrhaging. Roy is taken to hospital, where he begins to recover after several days. While at the hospital, his mother meets Moira Langtry, the woman that Roy is currently involved with. They take an instant dislike to each other. Lilly hires a nurse, Carol Roberg, in the hope that Roy will give up Moira for Carol. Roy then leaves the hospital and stays at Lilly''s apartment where Carol looks after him. When they are about to have an affair, Roy discovers that Carol was in a concentration camp when she was younger. In the meantime Lilly is at the race track working for an organization headed by gangster Bobo Justus. He comes to meet her and he takes her back to his apartment. He proceeds to beat her for a serious mistake she made several months back. In the process, the back of her hand is burned badly. She goes back to her apartment where she has a fight with Roy, and tells him to give up grifting. Roy goes back to work for the day and meets his new boss Perk Kraggs who takes a liking to him. He offers him a job as a sales manager. Roy is unsure if he should take it or not. He goes away with Moira to La Jolla for the weekend. She realizes that he is a con man when she sees him conning a group of people on the train. She tells him that they should work together but he refuses. She gets into a fury and he slaps her. He leaves, thinking that it is the end of the relationship. He later decides to take the sales job and to quit grifting. He is then contacted by the police and he is informed that his mother has committed suicide. He presumes that Moira killed her. However, when he goes out to see the body, he notices that the burn on her hand is not there. He realizes that the body is Moira''s and that his mother is still alive. In the meantime, his mother has broken into his apartment and is stealing all his money. He comes back and catches her in the act, and tells her that he won''t let her take it for her own good; he wants her to quit grifting as well. In desperation, Lilly attempts to seduce Roy, who recoils in disgust. When he is taking a drink, she hits him with her purse. Unintentionally, she breaks the glass which cuts his neck, causing him to bleed to death. She briefly breaks down after realizing she has killed her own son, but regains her composure and takes the money.

The Grifters

Sherlock Holmes is sent to live with his unknown aunt and uncle in Holmes Manor in Hampshire over his school holidays when his father is unexpectedly sent overseas with the British Army. He cannot go home as his mother is unwell, and cannot go to London as his older brother Mycroft is busy working for the government. Wandering around the estate and the surrounding countryside he soon befriends a boy his own age named Matty Arnatt (who has witnessed an unusual death involving a cloud of death). After a few days of holidays Sherlock discovers that his brother Mycroft has hired him an unusual American tutor named Amyus Crowe. During their first lesson together Sherlock finds a dead body on the Holmes'' estate and witnesses the same death cloud surrounding the body that Matty had previously seen. He detects a yellow powdery substance around the body and takes a sample of it. With Matty''s help he tracks down a warehouse which has links to one of the deceased, and almost dies in the warehouse when the villains set it alight. Holmes escapes the building, and determines that he must travel to Guildford and locate an expert in exotic diseases who might help identify the yellow substance. He, therefore, sets out with Matty on his barge to Guildford, and although they are attacked along the way by the villains, they nevertheless make it to his destination and discovers that the yellow substance is bee pollen. On returning home he visits his tutor''s home, where he meets Crowe''s daughter Virginia. A few days later Sherlock is lured to a fair, where he is forced to participate in a boxing match, from which he is kidnapped and interrogated by the unseen Baron Maupertuis until he is rescued by Matty, and the pair go to his tutor''s home. Knowing that the Baron has left his headquarters, Sherlock, Matty, Crowe and Virginia determine to follow and locate the Baron. They discover that the Baron is shipping a weapon from a London wharf, and after a series of chases, Sherlock and Virginia are kidnapped to France by the Baron, and further interrogated. The pair escape and meet up with Crowe and Matty and set out to stop the Baron from trying to destroy the British Army.

Death Cloud

The Man of Feeling details the fragmentary episodes of the life of Harley which exist within the remains of a manuscript traded to the initial narrator of the novel by a priest. The novel itself begins with these two latter figures hunting, whereas the manuscript is missing the first ten chapters and approximately thirty others at various locations throughout the manuscript''s entirety. As a young boy, Harley loses his parents and is assigned several guardians who constantly disagree with each other. They do however agree that he should make an effort to acquire more wealth, and so they urge him to make an old distant relative amiable towards him to claim some inheritance. Harley fails in this endeavour, as he doesn''t cooperate with the relative''s attempts to warm to him. Harley is then advised to acquire a patron; to sell his vote at an election for a lease of land. His neighbour Mr. Walton gives him a letter of introduction, and he soon leaves home (and Miss Walton) for London. He meets a beggar and his dog on the way, and after donating to them both, hears the fortune-telling beggar''s story. In the next few missing chapters, Harley presumably formally visits the baronet Mr. Walton recommended him to, because when the narrative continues, Harley calls upon him for the second time. The baronet however is away from London, and Harley meets another gentleman named Tom. They go for a stroll and then dine together, discussing pensions and resources with two older men. Harley proceeds to visit Bedlam, and weeps for an inmate there, before dining with a scorned, cynical man and together they discuss honour and vanity. He then demonstrates his skill (or, as many argue, his lack of skill) in physiognomy by being charitable on behalf of an old gentleman, with whom Harley later plays cards. It is after his finanical loss in these card games that Harley is informed the gentleman and his acquaintance are con men. Approached by a prostitute, Harley takes her to a tavern, gives her bread, claret and money, despite having to hand the waiter his pocket watch as collateral for paying the bill, and then meets again with her the next morning to hear her story. At its conclusion her father arrives, and after a misunderstanding is reconciled with his daughter. Upon discovering that his claim for the land lease has failed, Harley takes a stage-coach back home, discussing poetry and vice with a fellow passenger until they part ways and the coach reaches the end of its route. Harley continues on foot, and along the way reunites with Mr. Edwards, an old farmer from his village who has fallen on hard times and is returning from his conscription in the army. Together they approach the village, to find the school house destroyed by a squire, and two orphans who are actually the grandchildren of Harley''s companion. Harley takes the three of them home, and provides some land for them. After discussing corrupt military commanders with Edwards, Harley is informed that Miss Walton is going to be married to Sir Harry Benson, and can''t bring himself to be anything but happy for Miss Walton, although he does love her. The Man of Feeling then jumps almost randomly to a tale of a man named Mountford, who journeys to Milan with another man named Sedley to meet with a count. They visit a debtor''s prison to find a man and his family living there at the behest of the count''s son, a man who had been so charming to the two gentlemen. Sedley pays the family''s debt, and then Mountford and Sedley leave Milan in disgust. The narrative returns to the story of Harley, and for some unexplained reason Miss Walton does not marry Benson. She visits an unwell Harley (who has contracted a fever nursing Edwards and his grandchildren), who confesses his love to her. They hold hands and die, although Miss Walton is revived.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

'Tis: A Memoir

By Frank McCourt

Pym

By Mat Johnson

The Modular Man

By Roger MacBride Allen

A Cage of Butterflies

By Brian Caswell

The Last Aerie

By Brian Lumley

Where the Heart Is

By Billie Letts

Flight to Opar

By Philip José Farmer

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

By Julie Andrews

The Report Card

By Andrew Clements

The Grifters

No Author Listed

Death Cloud

By Andy Lane

The Man of Feeling

By Henry Mackenzie