The novel is the story of John Johnson and Susan Colgate. It begins with a meeting between Susan and John after their yearlong absences from the world, and then progresses to tell the stories of their disappearances through flashbacks. The flashbacks have no temporal order. Each chapter is a different flashback, intermixed with chapters of temporally present plot. ; Susan Colgate : A former child pageant star, an 1980s television family daughter, a closeted rock star''s wife, and a B movie actress. She was on a plane heading across the United States that crashed, but she survives without a scratch. She takes this opportunity to disappear into the night, leaving behind her identity. ; John Johnson : A decadent film producer. His life is composed of drugs and women. He dies from the flu, but his death is only temporary. While dead, he has a vision of Susan Colgate. Once revived, Johnson decides to give away his decadent lifestyle and to live on the road like Jack Kerouac. The novel tells their stories, the stories of the characters that they encounter, and the story of their lives after they meet. The novel is written in the third person.

Miss Wyoming

Someone has been getting away with a different spin on plagiarism. It''s the old scam – an unsuccessful author stealing ideas from an established source – but it''s being worked differently. Now, the plagiarists are claiming that the well-known authors are stealing from them (as Wolfe puts it, "plagiarism upside down."). And they are making their claims stick: three successful claims in four years, one awaiting trial, and one that''s just been made. These claims have damaged both the publishers and the authors. The Book Publishers of America (BPA) and the National Association of Authors and Dramatists (NAAD) form a joint committee to explore ways to stop the fraud, and the committee comes to Wolfe for help. The first four claims have shared certain characteristics: in the first, for example, the best selling author Ellen Sturdevant is accused by the virtually unknown Alice Porter of stealing a recent book''s plot from a story that Porter sent her, asking her suggestions for improvement. Sturdevant ignores the accusation until Porter''s manuscript is found in Sturdevant''s house. The writing and publishing industry is convinced that the manuscript was planted, but the case was settled out of court. That scenario, with minor variations, is repeated four times, with other authors and by other plagiarists. The latest complaint has been made only recently, and the target of the complaint wonders when a manuscript will show up somewhere that it wasn''t the day before. Wolfe''s first step is to acquire and read the manuscripts that form the basis for the complaints. Wolfe''s love of literature turns out to be useful in his investigation: from the internal evidence in the manuscripts, Wolfe concludes that they were all written by the same person. Aspects such as diction, punctuation and syntax – and, most convincingly, paragraphing – point Wolfe directly to the conclusion that one person wrote all the manuscripts. At first, this seems like progress, but then it becomes clear that it''s the opposite. The task initially seemed to be to show that the first fraud inspired a sequence of copycats, and the universe of suspects was limited to the complainants. But now that Wolfe has determined that one person wrote all the fraudulent manuscripts, that one person could be anyone. Wolfe meets with the joint committee to discuss the situation. A committee member suggests that one of the plagiarists be offered money, along with a guarantee of immunity, to identify the manuscripts'' actual author. The committee concurs, and asks Wolfe to arrange for the offer to be made to Simon Jacobs. The next day, Archie goes to make the offer to Jacobs, but finds Sergeant Purley Stebbins at the Jacobs apartment: Mr. Jacobs has been murdered, stabbed to death the night before. In short order, Archie discovers two more dead plagiarists. Wolfe blames himself for not taking steps to protect Jacobs and the others, who had been made targets by the plan to pay for information. The only one left is Alice Porter, who first worked the fraud successfully, and who is now repeating it with Amy Wynn and her publisher. Wolfe, concentrating on Porter, catches her in a contradiction that identifies the murderer for him.

Plot It Yourself

The Circles (who are appointed as priests/leaders of Flatland due to their many sides, or an appearance thereof) do not take A Square''s revelation about a third dimension to be accurate, and A Square is ostracized by his community. Then after some time, society becomes more open to the ideas of Spaceland and, overall, to change and advancement. However, when a prominent surveyor finds a Triangle with more than 180 degrees, he is fired from his job and generally considered a crackpot, since such a construction is not possible in Euclidean geometry. He eventually makes friends with the grandson of A Square, A Hexagon, because he is a mathematician and scientist. Together, they come upon a theory to explain the unusual measurements: they actually live on a very large sphere, and the Triangles have more than 180 degrees due to being inscribed on a non-planar surface. With help from the sphere from the first novel, they are able to prove this theory. However, the established scientific community is not able to comprehend the idea proposed by the two, and thus they do not attempt to enlighten Flatland. Furthermore, as the residents of Flatland advance, they begin to travel in space; they see distant worlds like their own, and the surveyor tries to find the distance between their world and these distant worlds, using trigonometry and radar. From his calculations, he and the hexagon determine that the universe is expanding; again they try to reveal this theory to the outside world, but again it is not accepted. Therefore, like his grandfather in the previous novel, the hexagon writes a book that is not to be opened until the theory of the expanding universe is discovered and accepted by others. Then they live an inferior existence without any more contact with the sphere.

Sphereland

Beautiful young Pauline Hannum, daughter of the late Major Hannum and a performer with his circus, enters The Magic Shop run by The Great Merlini and is suspiciously willing to pay much more than the going price for immediate delivery of a "Headless Lady" illusion. Merlini and his writer friend Ross Harte decide to investigate, drawn by Merlini''s love of circuses. They soon learn that Major Hannum''s death was probably a murder, and that the killer seems to have unfinished, and deadly, business that involves a real headless lady whose head has disappeared. Merlini, Harte and a new associate, detective writer Stuart Towne, soon learn a number of interesting background facts about goings-on at the circus—including why it''s bad luck for the circus orchestra to play Suppé''s Light Cavalry March, what the mummified body of John Wilkes Booth is composed of, and how to create fingerprints that have no loops or whorls. Merlini must use his magic skills to escape from an "escape-proof" jail, assemble the suspects, and identify the murderer in a surprising final scene.

The Headless Lady

The story is divided into three parts, called "epochs". The "Jonathan Wild" epoch comes first. The events of the story begins with the notorious criminal and thief-catcher Jonathan Wild encouraging Jack Sheppard''s father to a life of crime. Wild, who once pursues Sheppard''s mother, eventually turns Sheppard''s father into the authorities and he is soon after executed. Sheppard''s mother is left to raise Sheppard, a mere infant at the time, alone. Paralleling these events is the story of Thames Darrell. On 26 November 1703, the date of the first section, Darrell is removed separated from his immoral uncle, Sir Rowland Trenchard, and is given to Mr. Wood to be raised. The third epoch takes place in 1724 and spans six months. Sheppard is a thief that spends his time robbing various people. While he and Blueskin rob the Wood''s household, Blueskin murders Mrs. Woods. This upsets Sheppard and results in his separation from Wild''s group. Sheppard befriends Thames again and spends his time trying to correct Blueskin''s wrong. * Jack Sheppard * Jonathan Wild * Thames Darrell * Mr. Wood * Mrs. Wood * Winifred Wood * Blueskin – Joseph Blake * Thomas Sheppard

Jack Sheppard

The main character in the book is Louise Harris, a plain but content young woman who leads a life of prosy luxury. Louise gets up every morning and eats a copious breakfast, she walks the dogs, hunts in the autumn and skates in the winter, just like hundreds of other well-born, well-bred English girls of average means. Loo is an altogether nice person, and so it is that Luke de Mountford, who knows a good thing when he sees it, asks her to be his wife. Luke is heir to his uncle, Lord Radcliffe and therefore deemed a satisfactory match for Louis. However, just when everything seems to be going well, another nephew with a claim to his uncle’s fortune turns up unexpectedly. Luke is forced to reveal to Louise that their financial future may not be as guaranteed as he had hoped. Faced with this seemingly unavoidable situation, Luke is considering setting up an Ostrich farm in Africa as a way of making a living, but he can’t bring himself to inflict such an existence on his darling Loo, who is always so perfectly dressed, so absolutely modern and dainty. When the intruder, Philip de Mountford, is discovered stabbed in a cab, suspicion naturally falls on Luke who certainly has a motive for murder. The head of the Criminal Investigation Department, who happens to be Louisa’s uncle, reveals his evidence before the ensuing trial and allows Colonel Harris to conceal himself in his office while a witness for the prosecution details the points of the evidence he will give at the trial. He also reveals that he intends to allow Luke time to escape should the verdict at the inquest be against him. But Luke is, notwithstanding, tried for his life, and before his arrest he faces Louise once again. "It was a supreme farewell, and she knew it. She felt it in the quiver of agony which went through him as he pressed her so close that her breath nearly left her body, and her heart seemed to stand still. She felt it in the sweet sad pain of the burning kisses with which he covered her face, her eyes, her hair, her mouth. His face was just a mask, marble-like and impassive, jealously guarding the secrets of the soul within.Just a good-looking, well-bred young Englishman, in fact, who looked in his elegant attire ready to start off on some social function."

A True Woman

An ancestor of John Thomas Stuart XI brought the alien, long-lived Lummox home from an interstellar voyage. The articulate, sentient pet he inherited has gradually grown from the size of a collie pup to a ridable behemoth—especially after consuming a used car. The childlike Lummox is perceived to be a neighborhood nuisance and, upon leaving the Stuart property one day, causes substantial property damage across the city of Westville. John''s mother wants him to get rid of it, and a court orders it destroyed. Desperate to save his pet, John Thomas considers selling Lummox to a zoo. He rapidly changes his mind and runs away from home, riding into the nearby wilderness on Lummox''s back. His girlfriend Betty Sorenson joins him and suggests bringing the beast back into town and hiding it in a neighbor''s greenhouse. However, it isn''t easy to conceal such a large creature. Eventually, the court tries to have Lummox destroyed, but is unable to do so, much to Lummox''s amusement. Meanwhile, representatives of an advanced, powerful and previously unknown alien race appear and demand the return of their lost child...or else. A friendly alien diplomat of a third species intimates that the threat is not an empty one. Initially, no one associates Lummox with the newcomers, in part due to the size difference (Lummox was overfed). Lummox is identified as royalty, complicating the already-tense negotiations. It is discovered that, from her viewpoint, the young Lummox has been pursuing her only hobby and principal interest: the raising of John Thomases. She makes it clear that she intends to continue doing so. This gives the chief human negotiator the leverage he needs to avert the destruction of Earth. At the request of Lummox, the recently married John and Betty accompany her back to her people as members of the human diplomatic mission.

The Star Beast

The book takes place in 1850 partially in Mexico but the main setting is London. This story starts of with Jack Harkett, a street urchin living on the docks of London. One night Jack sees a merchant ship sailing into port. He finds this an opportunity to make some money. But Jack feels strange as the ship stops and a number of bats suddenly fly out of the back of the ship. Then Jack watches a man, with proper clothes, walk down from the ship. Jack gets an eerie feeling as the man brushes past him, Jack also got a slight glimpse of a young boy on the ship, who had started to walk down from the ship. He runs after the boy and finally catches him. The boy told Jack his name was Benedict Cole and that he just returned from an ill-fated trip from Mexico. Benedict or Ben tells Jack how he, his father (Harisson Cole), Ben''s godfather (Edwin Sherwood), Sir Donald (the man who brushed past Jack) had a very interesting voyage to Mexico and also tells Jack about Sir Donald becoming possessed by the Mayan bat-god Camazotz. During the voyage, Sir Donald killed, one by one, some tribe people helping them and got hold of some bats which are Vampires as well as Harisson Cole and Edwin Sherwood. Jack joins Ben in helping him to destroy Sir Donald, which they later realize is Camatotz, a fearsome vampire God banished over a thousand years ago during the Mayan Empire. There is a sequel to this book called Vampire Plagues Paris, Vampire Plagues Mexico, Vampire Plagues Outbreak, The Bitch Vampire, Vampire Plagues Epidemic, and Vampire Plagues Extermination.

Vampire Plagues:London 1850

In the post-war galaxy, ruined civilizations regain bygone greatness. Earth''s cleaning ship reaches the planet, whose inhabitants rejected technology long ago, living in small forest settlements and practicing handicrafts and hunting. Not noticing them, the crew drops 50 autom-cleaners, self-conscious mechanisms consisting of active mass, which are supposed to carry out cleaning on their own or by emerging simpler mechanisms — plain cleaners. But this cleaning, being a full destruction of the biosphere and covering the continent with an envelope of active mass,means death for all residents. However, only one of them, called the Smartest, understands this. The main character, also known as Zach Denton, is said to be a renowned scholar. Based on analysis of his dialogue in the novel, it is estimated that his IQ is 154, which places him among the most intelligent people in the world, hence the name Smartest. The post-war setting complements the protagonist''s presence in the novel, and increases the intensity as he masters the void and all dark matter. Actually, he is a former commando who dramatically arrived on this planet fifty years ago. In this critical situation he sees the only way out in rapid technological progress, but local authorities, female Keepers of knowledge, disagree with him. "You want to save people. To do it you''ll have to change them. Answer me, what are people without customs worth? They are worse than savages, worse than you..." To get the attention of Earth''s ship crew, one of the autonom-cleaners has to be destroyed... Smartest understands this as well as he knows it would require a strong leader, whom people will follow. He chooses a shooter, Leon, who has managed to bring down a plain cleaner which fired his village. Drunkard and poet Kirreyn begins to propagandize Leon as the Hero and the Great Shooter. Soon several boys become Leon''s "personal guards". Using violence, a group headed by Smartest captures technology data sheets and Leon calls all people to join him to manufacture weapons. At first, they don''t believe in technology, but the first tank convinces all to the contrary, after its crew, headed by Leon, shoots down two plain cleaners... All adore Leon; he overworks and goes to battle first... A lot of "plants" are built; and people who joined Leon defend only some necessary area where they live and work... Food becomes scarce and it''s the reason to establish war police... Now it exhibits many features of a state. But Leon''s plane is shot down beyond the border, where the former rule of the Keepers still holds and he is captured by them. Keepers have deified the autonom-cleaners (Iron Beasts) and try to counteract Leon''s "state". He meets J-Fron, the lest valuable member of crew of Earth ship, who has deserted. When he luckily returns home with J-Fron''s aid (plain cleaners fired the prison, but left J-Fron alive due to a telepathic password implanted in his brain), he finds that his former position is hold by another man. Leon can''t find an occupation that would suit him; he remembers too well all the shouting crowds... And he doesn''t want to be Lord of the void, an alive memorial of himself. Leon sends his "guards" to kill the new Leader, after he conducted the operation of destroying one autonom-cleaner (with the aid of J-Fron''s password; however this operation involved more than a thousand people killed). This becomes a sort of point of no return for Leon, both his failure to be a normal person and his affirmation as the great Leader. He doesn''t realize this; The Smartest does, "Please, don''t call me a Teacher any longer; now you can teach by yourself." But as the autonom-cleaner is destroyed, the crew of the Earth ship realizes the situation and leaves the planet alone... with 49 working autonom-cleaners. According to their notion of fairness, the society must have a chance to survive... but it is worth nothing if it doesn''t manage to do so. Leon moves his nation (now less than one tenth of the original population) under the shelter of mountains, into the ancient Capital, a system of caves... The Smartest and J-Fron decided to cover the retreat... In their last talk before probable death, Smartest tells J-Fron, that when he got to this planet 50 years ago, he met a "happy and somewhat sleepy society. Such it was, you were too late to see it. Society not changing for a thousand years, fine people who I, a cretin, couldn''t stand... By the way, the best society, without experiencing shocks now and then is threatened with banal degeneration. It was my point, and it holds. It''s fun — I wanted one time to be that man, who would wake this world up..." "I have never thought that in the end I will become an adversary of progress." The old man struck the crag with his yellow venous fist, struck once more and more. "But why?!" shouted he, "Why are people constructed in a so way, that for them the only way to survive in a critical situation is THIS? Why?!"

Master of the Void

The novel begins detailing the travels of the main characters as they move through the Old World in order to accomplish temporary goals. Their travels are interrupted by the entrances of Nicholas, who is a Slide (a wizard that is capable of soul stealing and using souls to project himself into animals). This situation is further complicated by Owen, a man from the Bandakar Empire. He poisons Richard in order to force him to help the Bandakar Empire shed the yoke of the Imperial Order. Much of the novel focuses on Richard''s interactions with the Bandakar people. The people of Bandakar are all pristinely ungifted like Richard''s half-sister Jennsen. They are descendants of the house of Rahl who were banished into the Old World thousands of years before. These people were then again banished by the people of the Old World. A wizard,Kaja-Rang, placed them behind a boundary that would force any that tried to leave to walk straight to the Pillars of Creation. The Bandakar shunned all forms of violence and they laid their lives down before any aggressor. It was believed that,because they "could not see evil" or, rather because they strongly embraced a philosophy which required them to disbelieve reality that they were a threat to the existence of the Old World. Richard convinces several of the Bandakar to shed their ideals and embrace the individualist ideas espoused by Richard and his D''Haran Empire. This allowed the Bandakar to take up arms and fight for their own freedom. However, throughout the entire ordeal Richard is reeling not only from the poison the Bandakar gave him, but also because his gift is out of balance. Nathan and Ann go to the Bandakar Empire in order to realign Richard with prophecy. They save Richard and his companions from certain death, but are ultimately unable to aid him in restoring his gift to balance. Eventually Richard realizes that his belief that not eating meat would be the necessary balance to his need to kill was mistaken. By not putting his faith in himself and in his abilities he was creating improper balancing ultimately causing not only the gift within himself to twist and fail, but also the magic of the Sword of Truth to fail. He realizes that his actions are justified in themselves and require no additional balancing. After Richard has once again set himself in order, he and the Bandakar people destroy the remaining Imperial Order encampment in Bandakar resulting in the death of Nicholas, who destroys the antidote, and the rescue of Kahlan. Richard uses his gift to piece together the what and how of creating the antidote himself. During the course of these actions, Zedd and Adie are captured as the Keep is taken by men captured from Bandakar and forced to do the work of the Imperial Order. They were forced to identify random objects from within the keep for a Sister of the Dark. If they refused to do so, they were forced to listen to the screams of children being tortured while their parents begged them to give up the information. As a result of this identification process, Zedd is able to unleash a constructed spell within an object that kills several men in the camp along with all the other artifacts. Zedd and Adie are saved from destruction by three independently orchestrated rescue attempts: Captain Zimmer and some of his men, Chase and Rachel, and Rikka. Adie goes with Zimmer and his men to free the families being used for torture, while Zedd and Chase go back to reclaim the Keep. While in the keep, Zedd remembers a time when it was full of the laughter of children and families; as a result, he invites Chase to move in with his family to guard the keep.

Naked Empire

This is from the book jacket. "Georgina Kincaid’s job sucks. Literally. Love hurts, and no one knows it better than Georgina Kincaid. If she so much as kisses her new boyfriend, she’ll drain his life force. Georgina is a succubus—a demon who draws her power from other men’s pleasure. Admittedly, the shapeshifting and immortality perks are terrific, and yes, Georgina did choose to join the ranks of hell centuries ago. But it seems completely unfair that a she-demon whose purpose is seduction can’t get hot and heavy with the one mortal who knows and accepts her for who she is. It’s not just her personal life that’s in chaos. Doug, Georgina’s co-worker at a local bookstore, has been exhibiting bizarre behaviour, and Georgina suspects that something far more demonic than double espressos is at work. She could use help finding out, but Bastien, an irresistibly charming incubus and her best immortal friend, is preoccupied in the suburbs with corrupting an ultra-conservative talk radio star—and giving Georgina some highly distracting come-hither vibes. Georgina is going to have to work solo on this one—and fast because soon, Doug’s life won’t be the only one on the line…"

Succubus on Top

After receiving a large inheritance, James Bond 007 is accused of improprieties and drummed out of the British Secret Service. Disgusted with his former employers, Bond places his services on the open market, where he later attracts the attention of representatives of SPECTRE who are quite willing to put their one-time enemy on their payroll. But the whole thing was a hoax, just a plan to get Bond inside the enemy''s organization. Prior to joining up, Bond spends a month in Monte Carlo with Miss ''Percy'' Proud, a CIA agent who teaches him everything she knows about programming languages and computers in general. This background allows Bond to attract Jay Autem Holy, an agent of SPECTRE who left the Pentagon, faked his death, and later started a computer game company that creates simulations based on real-life battles and wars. Bond''s allegiance to SPECTRE is periodically questioned throughout the novel, even at one point going so far as to send Bond to a terrorist training camp (known as "Erewhon") to see if he has ''the right stuff''. Proving his worth, Bond becomes involved in a plot to destabilise the Soviet Union and the United States, by forcing them to rid the world of their nuclear weapons. What SPECTRE leaders Tamil Rahani and Dr. Jay Autem Holy suspect, but never fully realise is that Bond''s resignation is false. Along with Bond, the Secret Service plays a vital role in foiling SPECTRE; however, Rahani, the current leader of SPECTRE is able to escape Bond''s clutches by parachuting out of an airship over Switzerland.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Miss Wyoming

By Douglas Coupland

Plot It Yourself

By Rex Stout

Sphereland

By Dionys Burger

The Headless Lady

By Clayton Rawson

Jack Sheppard

No Author Listed

A True Woman

By Baroness Emma Orczy

The Star Beast

By Robert A. Heinlein

Vampire Plagues:London 1850

By Ben Jeapes

Master of the Void

No Author Listed

Naked Empire

By Terry Goodkind

Succubus on Top

By Richelle Mead

Role of Honour

By John Gardner