Jase (Jason Mason) works as a lagger, one of a gang of labourers considered "too dumb to draft" into the army and thus conscripted into labour on public works. His group has the task of connecting a new nuclear-power station to the grid in the Highlands of Scotland, which have become colder and sparsely inhabited due to climate-change. This takes place against the backdrop of a long-running war between China and the West, which started due to an air-rage incident when a Chinese businessman, under stress due to a smoking-ban, got mistaken for a terrorist. Jase and his fellow laggers encounter a hitchhiker named Ailiss, whom Jase identifies as one of a group of New Age Settlers (also known as crusties or bandits), people who foresee the imminent end of modern society and who have retreated to a semi-hidden rural commune. However, their presence worries the authorities, who become concerned about the security of their nuclear-power station. Believing that they have inadvertently set the settlers up for arrest or worse, three laggers travel to the commune to warn them. Discovering the commune under attack, they accidentally defeat the government forces by allowing their truck to crash into and destroy a helicopter. Jase finds himself acclaimed a hero by the settlers, and decides to join them.

The Highway Men

Sledge''s second book opens in 1945 with the First Marine Division remaining in Okinawa after the 82-day battle to clean up and prepare for their anticipated invasion of "Yokosuka Naval Base at the mouth of Tokyo Bay". None of the Marines expected to survive such an invasion. After the atomic bombings and Japan''s precipitous surrender they did not celebrate, but rather were kept busy by a return to the intense manual labor of cleanup. In Sledge''s words, "I think we were actually afraid to believe it was true...The memory of so many dead friends was still fresh in our minds." Life in Okinawa suddenly became more bearable as the bewildered and unbelieving Marines grasped the reality of their enormous good luck. So they filled in their free time with entertainment including movies, books and their perennial pastime of "''smokestacking'' (fooling)" new replacement troops. Even otherwise dangerous events such as a typhoon (see 1945 Pacific typhoon season) which struck Okinawa were easily weathered. Sledge''s battalion was shipped to Beijing (then known as Peiping), China instead of being sent home. Initially this was an exciting experience as Sledge and the others were exposed to the complexities of Chinese culture, enjoying the rich experience as well as the pastimes of garrison duty. "Smokestacking" was expanded to include the Chinese with practices such as gazing at nonexistent objects in the sky until they were surrounded by huge crowds of onlookers all straining to see. Sledge met a number of people who influenced his direction in life, in particular a Flemish priest, Father Marcel von Hemelryjck, and the family of Dr. Y.K. Soong. All was not tourism and fun during the China occupation and conditions worsened through the months. Sledge had a number of tense encounters while on guard duty and was witness to political events such as an incident at Lang Fang; stress rose as strife between Chinese factions grew. As morale continued to deteriorate the Marines were rotated home under the military demobilization point system. Sledge was sent back to Alabama for his discharge in early 1946 to start a prolonged process of adjustment to civilian life. In his words, "My adjustment to civilian life was not easy," and he marveled at such simple amenities as dry socks and the absence of fleas. He had emotional support from his mother, his brother who had been an officer in the European war and his father, who had been an Army physician during World War I. He describes how he retained his wry sense of humor but he remained disturbed at the lack of understanding expressed by civilians. His incident at Auburn University was typical. A young staff member at the registrar''s office called on him to list his military training courses then asked him if the Marines had taught him anything important. She could not comprehend the relevance of his training until he explained the twin facts that the United States Marines had trained him specifically to kill enemy soldiers and that most of his own friends and associates had been killed or wounded by the enemy. Sledge''s opinion was, "(W)ar to this lady meant John Wayne or the sweet musical South Pacific... I felt like some sort of alien, and I realized that this sort of thing would confront me the rest of my days." Sledge went on to college, married and embarked on a long career as a biologist and teacher. He did find healing of a sort in his parents'' love, his marriage and his academic work but he never forgave the soldiers of the Empire of Japan. He denied regret for the men he had shot but regretted the ones he had missed. (This is in contrast to his earlier description of mixed emotions described when he killed a man face to face in the Battle of Peleliu, and to his description of empathy toward birds and animals to the point where he gave up his long term hobby of hunting.) He expressed concern over historical revisionism about the Pacific war and what he termed might have been a "Rape of Nanking" in American cities if the Japanese had not been defeated. This was his opinion as a man who tried to live with the Socratic ideal of self-knowledge: "There is no ''mellowing'' for me - that would be to forgive all the atrocities the Japanese committed against millions of Asians and thousands of Americans. To ''mellow'' is to forget."

China Marine

The book continues from where the previous book left off. In The Icebound Land, Evanlyn and Will have been captured and sold as slaves. As the time went on, Halt and Horace travelled across Gallica, defeating false knights, and ridding Gallica of the evil warlord Deparnieux. They are now in Gallica ready to board a ship and save Will. Meanwhile, Will has overcome his addiction to warmweed and finally regains his senses. Evanlyn, revealed to be Princess Cassandra, is out checking traps for food when she is taken hostage by the Temujai. Halt and Horace, still on their rescue mission, find a gate of which a dozen Skandians lay dead, shot. Halt manages to recognise an arrow, shot by the Temujai and becomes instantly worried. Two decades ago, the Temujai had nearly conquered the world, but with politics and a dish of bad clams, the invasion was stopped. Halt and Horace, after managing to track the Temujai down, came to Will''s aid and they try to get Evanlyn back. Halt and the group, after being reunited, were then captured by Erak, the Skandian Jarl who had set Evanlyn and Will free. Erak had been trying to track down the people who shot the Skandians at the other gate, and hastily came to a conclusion that Halt was the one who did it. Halt gave a list of reasons, which convinced the senior Jarl to listen to him. The Skandians have no chance, as they are greatly outnumbered and the Temujai have long-range archers, versus the Skandians one-on-one close combat. Halt, Evanlyn, Will, and Horace are now forced to stay in Skandia because the Temujai have blocked their only exit to their homeland. Erak came to a decision into trying to get Ragnak, the Oberjarl, to let Halt become their strategist as he had lived and fought with and against the Temujai before, thus knowing their battle plans and style of fighting. Halt and Erak also manage to find the main army of the Temujai, followed with a very narrow escape because of Erak''s clumsiness. Halt and Will also manage to convince the Oberjarl into getting the slaves to become archers with their reward being freedom, of which Ragnak had to very reluctanctly accept. 20 Skandians were also supposed to raid the army''s food supplies, wagons, and release their horses as the army, who had not expected the Skandians to be strategic. Further on in the story, the Temujai begins their first attack and, as Halt had said, made a fake retreat of which the Skandians purposelly followed their "ambush". Halt, however, had placed a group of Skandians to ambush the Temujai. This made them driven back and the General of the army, along with the Colonel, were very surprised because the Skandians were not behaving anything at all from what they''ve heard. In the battle, Will manages to keep his archers concealed for a while, but soon, they are spotted. Will kept his archers firing their arrows, but they were defeated. Meanwhile, the Skandians, made an impact on the opposing army, and the General had to retreat back to his homeland because he lost too many warriors. The Skandians had won. Erak takes the group back to their home. After a long happy union, Will and Evanlyn then find out that Halt has been banished; Erak saves the awkward moment by trying to include it in their treaty to pardon him, of which King Duncan agrees. In the end, Halt was rewarded with his reunion back with the Rangers, Horace with his knighthood and position as the Royal Guards, and Will was offered to become one of the Royal Scouts, a high position of the King''s army that trains archers and that only nobles could probably have; this would give him fame and reputation, but Will, in his heart, turns the offer down. Will wants to continue his training to became a full-fledged Ranger. Evanlyn, near the end as well, is sad because her friendship with Will is breaking up and Alyss is a little glad about that in later books.

Oakleaf Bearers

Jenkins returns to his old university library during the vacation in the Winter of 1945/6 to undertake research for a book about Robert Burton. He goes to see Sillery, who has a new secretary, Ada Leintwardine. Quiggin is starting a literary magazine called Fission, which is to be funded by Erridge ... except that Erridge dies suddenly. Erridge''s funeral at Thrubworth is disturbed by the late arrival of the Widmerpools, Quiggin, Sir Howard & Lady Craggs (née Gypsy Jones). Pamela Widmerpool causes a disturbance by leaving during the service. Later at Thrubworth Park, Jenkins is invited by Quiggin to join the staff of Fission; Pamela causes further trouble, and on leaving is noisily sick into a large Chinese urn. At the party to launch Fission, Nick first meets the importunate novelist X Trapnel (based on the real-life Bohemian dandy, Julian MacLaren-Ross); Trapnel eventually takes a fancy to Pamela. Early the following year there are problems at Fission''s publishers, Quiggin & Craggs. Trapnel has become infatuated with Pamela. Jenkins, dining with MP Roddy Cutts (husband of Susan Tolland) at the House of Commons, meets Widmerpool (now also a Member of Parliament). All three go to Widmerpool''s flat where it becomes apparent that Pamela has absconded with Trapnel. Some time later Jenkins visits Trapnel and Pamela at their seedy flat, and while there Widmerpool arrives to confront the adulterers. Later in the year Pamela leaves Trapnel, and in doing so throws the precious manuscript of his novel into the nearby canal. On a visit to his old school, Jenkins meets Le Bas, and the reunited Widmerpools. *Adapted in part from material published by the Anthony Powell Society with consent

Books Do Furnish a Room

The novel begins with Yuri Terisov, the jaded former protégé of the infamous dead pirate, Captain Vincenzo Falcone, and the Captain of the pirate ship Kublai Khan in prison on earth, where his is approached by Black Ops agent Andreas Lukacs. Lukacs offers to free Yuri from prison in exchange for his help in infiltrating the pirate network, which Yuri agrees to in exchange for the protection of his cellmate Stefano Finch. Yuri fakes his own death and his is smuggled out of prison with Finch to Pax Terra, the station orbiting above the earth, where he is picked up by his ship. He finds, however, that his ship has been taken over by his Lieutenant Taja Roshan and is first forced to kill her taking back his ship. Once that is done, he contacts Falcone''s former Lieutenant, Caligtiera, about the Black Op''s offer, who proposes that together they destroy the Earthhub Military Carrier Archangel. Yuri finds that he cannot bring himself to do this and informs the Macedon of his plans. He destroys his ship and kills Lukacs, who had intended to use the pirate to gain power, then flees to the Macedon whose crew includes two of Falcone''s other protégés. This story alternates with the story Yuri''s childhood, which tells how his colony was destroyed by the striviiric-na when he was four. His family was split up and he was sent to live in the bleak refugee camp camp on the partially terraformed planet Grace. When he is nine, Falcone recruits him from the camp and takes him on as his protégé and eventually as a geisha. Yuri falls in love with his geisha mentor, Estienne, and is indoctrinated, but this indoctrination fails when Yuri is forced into geisha duties at fourteen, which is essentially prostitution, with the aid of Falcone''s cruelty. Despite this, Yuri is eventually given his own ship. When Falcone''s ship, the Genghis Khan is destroyed, Yuri is sent to seek revenge on the Macedon''s captain, Cairo Azarcon, by attempting to murder his son, Ryan Azarcon. He fails on his first try intentionally, but almost succeeds on his second, which is what lands him in prison. This portion of the story is told in more detail, through Ryan''s perspective in the Universe''s second book, Burndive.

Cagebird

A reclusive novelist named Bill Gray works endlessly on a novel he chooses not to finish. He has chosen a lifestyle completely secluded from life to try to keep writing pure. He, along with his assistant Scott, believe that something is lost once a mass audience reads the work. Scott would prefer Bill didn''t publish the book for fear that the mass-production of the work will destroy the "real" Bill. Bill has a dalliance with Scott''s partner Karen Janney, a former member of the Unification Church who is married to Kim Jo Pak in a Unification Church Blessing ceremony in the prologue of the book. Bill, who lives as a complete recluse, accedes to be photographed by a New York photographer named Brita who is documenting writers. In dialogue with Brita and others, Bill laments that novelists are quickly becoming obsolete in an age where terrorism has supplanted art as the "raids on consciousness" that jolt and transform culture at large. Gray disappears without a word and secretly decides to accept an opportunity from Charles to travel to London to publicly speak on the behalf of a Swiss writer held hostage in war-torn Beirut. Meanhile Karen ends up living in Brita''s NY apartment and spends most of her time in the homeless slums of Tompkins Square Park. In London, Bill is introduced to George Haddad, a representative of the Maoist group responsible for kidnapping the writer. Bill decides to go to Lebanon himself and negotiate the release of the writer. Cutting himself off from Charles, he flees to Cyprus where he awaits a ship that will take him to Lebanon. In Cyprus Bill is hit by a car and suffers a lacerated liver which, exacerbated by his heavy drinking, kills him in his sleep while en route to Beirut. In the epilogue, Brita goes to Beirut to photograph Abu Rashid, the terrorist responsible for the kidnapping. The fate of the hostage is never revealed, though the implication is grim. The plot unfolds with DeLillo''s customary shifts of time, setting, and character.

Mao II

The story begins with the explanation of Cormac mac Art''s formation of the Fianna as a defense force for Ireland, which was originally led by Finn''s father, Cumhal. Cumhal is killed by Goll mac Morna, who takes over leadership of the Fianna, and Cumhal''s wife Muirne flees to give birth to Finn. The boy grows up strong in the manner of his father, studies under the poet Finn Eces, accidentally tasting the Salmon of Knowledge and thereby gaining magical powers, and ultimately regaining leadership of the Fianna by defeating the Fairy that haunts the Court of Tara, Aillén mac Midgna. Goll swears loyalty to him, and Finn rules the Fianna successfully thereafter. Similar to Sutcliff''s Arthurian Novel The Sword and the Circle, most of the chapters in this novel are nearly stand-alone tales, covering many of the stories and characters associated with the Fenian Cycle. Some of these include: Finn''s courtship of Sadhbh and the birth of Oisín; the tales of Diarmuid and Grainne; Niamh of the Golden Hair; the Giolla Dacker; multiple encounters with the Fair Folk; and ultimately ending with Cath Gabhra and the downfall of the Fianna.

The High Deeds of Finn MacCool

In the beginning, Jayni''s mum, Nikki Fenton, wins £10,000 on a scratchcard. They decide to not tell Jayni''s father, Jay, who she fears will spend it on his friends on drinks at the pub or losing it by going to a betting shop. However, Nikki decides to tell Jay anyway because he reveals he has left his job and is joining a mini-cab firm but needs to provide the car. Jay, Nikki, Jayni and her brother, Kenny, go out to T.G.I Fridays spending around £50 on the meal. Jayni fears for herself because as Nikki and Jay ''drank lots'' it would almost always ''end in a fight''. Jay gets angry at Nikki for becoming drunk and when they return home, he starts shouting at her. As Jay goes to hit Nikki, she tells Jay to let her put the kids to bed first. However Jayni refuses to go to bed and as a result, Jay gets angry and hit both Jayni and Nikki, he then leaves the house. This was the last straw for Nikki. She had previously put up with the violent nature from her husband, but now he had turned to violence against Jayni, Nikki felt they had to leave. One night, Nikki goes to the pub to buy a packet of cigarettes from the machine, and does not return home until after midnight, but consolingly she has found a new job (bar work), which means working set afternoons, and evenings if she is needed. The next thing to do is to get the children into school. Once achieved,Nikki starts to fall in love with an art student named Jake. Lola Rose doesn''t like him. She is also jealous because Kendall prefers Jake to her.One day, Jake reveals "Mum''s got a lump," which had been growing in her breast for several months while she hoped it would clear up on its own. Meanwhile, Jake moves out because Nikki has run out of money. She has to go to hospital, but believing she will be back the next day, she leaves only a day''s food and a little money. The children soon run out of money and food. Jayni finds out where her mother''s obese sister Barbara lives, and telephones her. She comes to stay and provides the children with food. Meanwhile Nikki is becoming worse because of an infection following the surgery. Nikki has stupidly telephoned Jay, thinking he will be shocked to discover she has been so ill and never touch her again. Jay comes to their flat and is nice at first though he doesn''t want Lola Rose anymore because she is too old to be his little girl . He finds a pair of Jake''s boxer shorts, then, calling Nikki a slag, balls up a fist to punch her. Barbara raises her fists as if to punch him, then slyly kicks him in the crotch. He proceeds to attack her with a broken mug, so she smacks him on the shoulder taking out the tendon, so that he drops the mug. She then shoos him out, threatening to kill him if he comes back again (though she later admits she didn''t mean it). Jayni, Nikki and Kenny feel safe with the protection of Barbara and the book ends on a positive note. Barbara asks the children and finally Nikki whether they would like to come to her pub to live, while they redecorated it (as Barbara likes the job they have done on the house) and did a karaoke act by her and Nikki. Jayni remembers children''s stories in which the hero has to perform a terrifying but menial task. She envisions that to get her mother better she has to stand by the shark tank and count sixty seconds, sixty times. This she does. An aquarium worker sees this and says she must be a shark enthusiast. They chat about sharks for a few minutes and he gives her a shark''s tooth, which is meant to bring good luck. She goes to the hospital and presses it into her mother''s hand. Eventually she gets better and returns home. Jayni knows it has nothing to do with the tooth but it is comforting.

Lola Rose

F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas was the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent, "The White Rabbit" of World War II. He was given responsibilities by the British government in Occupied and Vichy France because he had lived in France during the interwar years and was fluent in French. An assignment required Yeo-Thomas to be parachuted into France. Shortly after his arrival he was betrayed and captured by the Gestapo at the Passy metro station in Paris. The Gestapo took him to their headquarters in the Avenue Foch, and he was subjected to brutal torture, including beatings, electrical shocks to the genitals, psychological gameplaying, sleep deprivation, and repeated submersion in ice-cold water — to the point that artificial respiration was sometimes required After the interrogations and torture, he was moved to Fresnes prison. After he made two failed attempts to escape he was transferred first to Compiègne prison and then to Buchenwald concentration camp. Within these various detention camps he attempted to organize resistance. Late in the war, he briefly escaped from Buchenwald and, on his recapture, was able to pass himself off as a French national and sent to Marienburg, Stalag XX-B, a "better" camp, where the Nazis sent enlisted Frenchmen, instead of back to Buchenwald. It is reasonable to conclude that his chances of surviving the remainder of the war at Buchenwald were low. After the war he resumed his life in France.

The White Rabbit

In the sewers of Deptford there lurks a dark presence that fills the tunnels with fear: Jupiter, a dark god known only by his evil, no one really knows who he is except for his lieutenant Morgan his glowing eyes seen behind a dark "portal" in the tunnel wall. The rats worship him and do his dark bidding. The Deptford mice, who worship the Green Mouse who brings Spring, are aware of Jupiter''s evil presence in the tunnels. One of the mice, Albert Brown, is pulled through a grate into the sewers by the dark enchantments that Jupiter has woven there. He meets a cheeky mouse from the city, Piccadilly, also lost inside the lair of the rats. When Albert is captured by Morgan, a Cornish, piebald rat with a stump for a tail and rings through his ears (none other than Jupiter''s lieutenant) and brought to Jupiter, Piccadilly escapes into Albert''s home, known as the Skirtings, where he meets a large number of friends. Firstly, there is Audrey Brown, Albert''s day-dreaming daughter who hates Piccadilly for surviving where her father did not. Then there is Arthur Brown, Audrey''s plump and funny brother. There is also simple fieldmouse William Scuttle or ''Twit'' and his cousin, the sickly albino runt, Oswald Chitter. Along with the old Midship-mouse, Thomas Triton and Gwen Brown, the mother of Audrey and Arthur, they venture into the sewers to banish Jupiter from the world. The Rat God, however, has an evil plan to unleash the Black Death on the world once more, ridding it of humans and enabling him to conquer it. After a tense-confrontation with Jupiter in this throne-room during which the malevolent deity is revealed to be a monstrous cat, Audrey defeats the Dark Lord by flinging her mousebrass at him. The talisman explodes and Jupiter falls into the water that is rapidly flooding his chamber. The spirits of the many mice and rats he has tortured and devoured then rise up and drag the dark god down to a watery grave. Audrey glimpses her father among the legion of spirits as they depart and despairs, realising that he is truly dead. The sewer floods and the Black Death is destroyed. Thankful that they are alive and resolving to celebrate Jupiter''s downfall once they return home, the mice begin the journey back to the surface but as they leave, Orfeo the bat foretells doom.

The Dark Portal

Denise Holton, the 29-year-old heroine, is destitute and forced to live in her mother''s old house in Edenton, N.C. She''s also the single mother of a handicapped child, Kyle, a four-year-old with "auditory processing problems" that render him unable to express himself or to fully understand others. Though she doesn''t suspect it, Denise is on a literal collision course with true love. After she smashes her car into a tree and wakes up to discover Kyle missing, she finds deliverance in the form of Taylor McAden, dashing firefighter and compulsive risk taker, who rescues Kyle, too. Since Taylor enjoys an instant, unprecedented rapport with Kyle, there is little standing in the way of burgeoning romance. Trouble comes, however, when Denise learns of Taylor''s checkered romantic past. Taylor''s inability to commit, it seems, is somehow tied to his compulsive heroism, of which numerous histrionic examples are described. Denise''s quest to find the source of Taylor''s emotional distance takes up the final third of the book. * Denise Holton has no family, both of her parents have died.She is alone and a single mother of a child with severe learning disabilities by a former one-night stand. She was a school teacher for many years but now she doesn’t teach anymore; she spends all her time trying to teach her son how to speak. She has a part-time job as a waitress and makes just enough money to get by. * Kyle Holton is the 4-year-old son of Denise Holton. Kyle has severe learning disabilities. * Brett Cosgrove is Denise’s former one-night stand, leading up to Kyle’s existence. He was engaged at the time and wants nothing to do with Kyle. * Taylor McAden—is a volunteer firefighter for the Edenton Fire Department, owns his own carpenter and contractor job. He was the person who found Denise’s son the night of her car wreck. Taylor has had problems in the past with commitment, but that all will change throughout the book. * Judy McAden is the mother of Taylor McAden; she came to the hospital to spend time with Denise while her son was out looking for Kyle. * Mitch Johnson is Taylor’s best friend and a volunteer firefighter for the Edenton Fire Department also. Mitch and his wife Melissa often provide Taylor with advice about his romantic life. Mitch and Melissa are the closest thing Taylor has to siblings, and Taylor is the godfather of the Johnson''s oldest son.

The Rescue

For 13 years, Jody Gibson owned and operated an exclusive global escort service under the name "Super Madam Sasha", while also leading a double life on radio and television as a recording artist known as "Babydol". The book describes Gibson''s life as a "Super Madam" in Hollywood, as well as the challenges of simultaneously pursuing a career as a madam and a recording artist. Gibson evades law enforcement, but then is tried and convicted in a high profile trial and sent to prison. Gibson claims that celebrities such as Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Tommy Lasorda, CEOs and politicians used her service. She includes actual court data from her "Black Book", which was introduced as evidence at trial by law enforcement and used to convict her, and to date has never been sued over her use of that data. Gibson has appeared on television shows many times, including on The Howard Stern Show, Larry King Live, John Gibson''s "The Big Story", Geraldo Rivera, Access Hollywood, Showbiz Tonight, The Tyra Banks Show, Court TV''s "Hollywood Heat", and Glenn Beck. The book is now in development as a feature film about her life.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Highway Men

No Author Listed

China Marine

By Eugene Sledge

Oakleaf Bearers

By John Flanagan

Books Do Furnish a Room

By Anthony Powell

Cagebird

By Karin Lowachee

Mao II

By Don DeLillo

The High Deeds of Finn MacCool

By Rosemary Sutcliff

Lola Rose

By Jacqueline Wilson

The White Rabbit

By Bruce Marshall

The Dark Portal

By Robin Jarvis

The Rescue

No Author Listed

Secrets of a Hollywood Super Madam

No Author Listed