It tells the tale of four searchers who find themselves in Hill House, a famously hostile place: Eleanor, a lonely, frail young woman highly versed in poltergeists; Dr. Montague, an esoteric scholar seeking strong proof of a “haunting”; Theodora, the vivacious assistant; and Luke, the upcoming heir to Hill House At first, it appears that their visit will only be a terrifying run-in with strange events. However, Hill House is amassing its might and will soon pick one of them to call its own.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality.”
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream.”
“Am I walking toward something I should be running away from?”
“Fear,” the doctor said, “is the relinquishment of logic, the willing relinquishing of reasonable patterns. We yield to it or we fight it, but we cannot meet it halfway.”
“I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, she thought, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.”
The Overlook Hotel’s new position for Jack Torrance is the ideal opportunity for a new beginning. He will have a lot of time to devote to getting back in touch with his family and honing his literary skills as the eerie old hotel’s off-season keeper. But as winter’s severe conditions take hold, the lovely setting seems progressively more remote… and frightening. And Danny Torrance, a five-year-old boy with exceptional talent, is the only one to see the odd and terrifying forces assembling around the Overlook.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters.”
“Monsters are real. Ghosts are too. They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win.”
“This inhuman place makes human monsters.”
“The tears that heal are also the tears that scald and scourge.”
“She had never dreamed there could be so much pain in a life when there was nothing physically wrong. She hurt all the time.”
Greetings from Derry, Maine… It’s a tiny city, one that feels eerily similar to your own hometown. The haunting is genuine only in Derry… When they first discovered the tragedy, they were seven teenagers. Now that they are adults, both sexes have ventured into the outside world in an effort to find success and pleasure. But none of them can resist the pull that has brought them back to Derry to confront the evil that goes unnamed and the horror that has no end.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“We lie best when we lie to ourselves.”
“Your hair is winter fire
January embers
My heart burns there, too.”
“We all float down here!”
“Eddie discovered one of his childhood’s great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.”
“Drive away and try to keep smiling. Get a little rock and roll on the radio and go toward all the life there is with all the courage you can find and all the belief you can muster. Be true, be brave, stand.”
A remarkable method has been developed for retrieving and cloning dinosaur DNA. The most exhilarating fantasies of mankind have now materialized. Extinct creatures that have been extinct for ages wander Jurassic Park, and anyone in the world can go there for a fee. Before things go wrong. Michael Crichton uses all of his captivating talent and scientific acumen in Jurassic Park to produce his most thrilling technothriller.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“God creates dinosaurs, God kills dinosaurs, God creates man, man kills God, the man brings back dinosaurs.”
“The planet has survived everything, in its time. It will certainly survive us.”
“Let’s be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven’t got the power to destroy the planet – or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.”
“In the information society, nobody thinks. We expected to banish paper, but we actually banished the thought.”
“All major changes are like death. You can’t see to the other side until you are there.”
Astronaut Mark Watney was one of the first persons to set foot on Mars six days ago. He’s now certain he’ll be the very first person to pass away there. Mark finds himself trapped and entirely alone after a massive storm nearly kills him and causes his crew to flee while believing he is dead. He has no way to even notify Earth that he is alive, and even if he did, his supplies would be depleted long before a rescue could reach.
He probably won’t have enough time, though, to starve himself to death. It’s much more likely that the broken equipment, the harsh environment, or a simple “human mistake” will kill him first. However, Mark isn’t quite prepared to give up. He persistently overcomes one apparently insurmountable obstacle after another by using his inventiveness, engineering expertise, and a relentless, determined refusal to give up. Will his ingenuity be sufficient to defeat the insurmountable obstacles against him?
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped.”
“I guess you could call it a “failure”, but I prefer the term “learning experience”.”
“I started the day with some nothin’ tea. Nothin’ tea is easy to make. First, get some hot water, then add nothin’.”
“Also, I have duct tape. Ordinary duct tape, like you buy at a hardware store. Turns out even NASA can’t improve on duct tape.”
“As with most of life’s problems, this one can be solved by a box of pure radiation.”
In reality, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin is involved in something much more desperate while he believes he is playing computer-simulated war games. Ender, a product of genetic experimentation, might possess the military might Earth so sorely needs in a conflict with an alien foe out to exterminate all human life. The one and only method for finding out are to subject Ender to increasingly rigorous training, to chip away at him until you locate the diamond inside, or to completely destroy him. When it starts, Ender Wiggin is six years old. He will mature quickly.
But the experiment did not simply produce Ender. The search for the ideal commander has been ongoing for almost as long as the battle with the Buggers, which has lasted for 100 years. In reality, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin is involved in something much more desperate while he believes he is playing computer-simulated war games. Ender, a product of genetic experimentation, might possess the military might Earth so sorely needs in a conflict with an alien foe out to exterminate all human life. The one and only method for finding out are to subject Ender to increasingly rigorous training, to chip away at him until you locate the diamond inside, or to completely destroy him. When it starts, Ender Wiggin is six years old. He will mature quickly.
But the experiment did not simply produce Ender. The search for the ideal commander has been ongoing for almost as long as the battle with the Buggers, which has lasted for 100 years.
The reality in 2044 is a dismal place. Wade Watts, a teenager, says that entering the virtual paradise termed as OASIS is the only time he truly feels alive. Wade has dedicated his life to understanding the riddles that lie buried within the digital walls of this realm; riddles that are founded on their creator’s love with the pop culture of bygone eras and that, if unlocked, hold the key to immense power and wealth.
Wade, however, finds himself surrounded by competitors prepared to kill to win this ultimate reward as he discovers the first clue. Wade will need to prevail in the race and face the reality that he has always been so anxious to escape if he is to survive.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“People who live in glass houses should shut the fuck up.”
“Going outside is highly overrated.”
“You’d be amazed how much research you can get done when you have no life whatsoever.”
“Being human totally sucks most of the time. Videogames are the only thing that makes life bearable.”
“One person can keep a secret, but not two.”
Arthur Dent is snatched off the planet by his companion Ford Prefect, a researcher for the updated version of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who has been passing himself off as an unemployed actor for the past fifteen years. This happens just seconds before the Earth is destroyed to make room for a galactic freeway.
With the help of passages from The Hitch Hiker’s Guide, this dynamic duo sets off on their intergalactic voyage together. And a galaxy’s worth of other travelers: “A towel is perhaps the most hugely useful thing an intergalactic hitchhiker can have.” Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed, former hippie, and out-of-it president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod’s girlfriend (previously Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur once attempted to woo at a cocktail party; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; and Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is preoccupied with the disappearance of every ballpoint pen he has purchased in recent years.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.”
“Would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?”
“Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”
“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.”
“I’d far rather be happy than right any day.”
A hobbit dwelt in a hole in the ground. It was a hobbit-hole, and that signifies comfort. It wasn’t a terrible, filthy, wet hole full of worm ends with an oozy smell, nor was it a dry, empty, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit on or eat.
The Hobbit, which J.R.R. Tolkien wrote for his own children, received immediate praise from critics upon its 1937 release. This intro to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the magnificent world of Middle-earth is now regarded as a timeless masterpiece. It details the exploits of a reluctant hero, a potent and dangerous ring, and the vicious dragon Smaug the Magnificent.
A comment on the text by Douglas A. Anderson is included in this 372-page paperback edition, which is based on the version first published in Great Britain by Collins Modern Classics (1998). (2001).
Best Quotes from this Book:
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”
“Where there’s life there’s hope.”
“You have nice manners for a thief and a liar,” said the dragon.”
“May the hair on your toes never fall out!”
Unimaginably near to wiping humanity was the Zombie War. Max Brooks traveled across the United States of America and around the world, from completely destroyed cities that once mingled with upwards of thirty million souls to the most distant and uninhabitable parts of the planet, pushed by the urgency of conserving the acid-etched first-hand life experience of the survivors from those apocalyptic years. He preserved the testimonies of men, women, and occasionally children who had direct encounters with the living hell of that terrible era, or at the very least, the undead. World War Z is what happens. We have never before had access to a text that so effectively captures the magnitude of terror and fear, as well as the unbreakable spirit of resistance, that engulfed human society during the plague years.
Most importantly, the book vividly conveys the human aspect of this historic event. The reader must have some bravery to confront the frequently shocking and vibrant nature of these personal accounts, but the effort is priceless because, as Mr. Brooks states in his introduction, “We run the risk of developing a personal separation from history that, God forbid, could cause us to repeat it in the future if we ignore the human element. And ultimately, isn’t the only real distinction between ourselves and the foe we now refer to as “the living dead” the human element?”
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Most people don’t believe something can happen until it already has. That’s not stupidity or weakness, that’s just human nature.”
“Lies are neither bad nor good. Like a fire they can either keep you warm or burn you to death, depending on how they’re used.”
“The monsters that rose from the dead, they are nothing compared to the ones we carry in our hearts”
“There’s a word for that kind of lie. Hope.”
“I don’t know if great times make great men, but I know they can kill them.”
The novel Dune, which is set on the desolate planet Arrakis, tells the tale of the young Paul Atreides, who is the heir of a noble family and is burdened with controlling a hostile world where the only valuable item is the “spice” melange, a stimulant that can lengthen life and elevate awareness. Melange is a reward that’s sought after throughout the known world and is worth dying for.
The murder of Paul’s family when House Atreides is betrayed will send the young man on a journey toward a destiny that is far greater than anything he could have ever dreamed. And he will realize humanity’s oldest and most remote dream as he develops into the enigmatic figure known as Muad’Dib.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.”
“What do you despise? By this are you truly known.”
“There is no escape—we pay for the violence of our ancestors.”
“Hope clouds observation.”
“It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future.”
Both the book adaptations of the Bourne series as well as the film in the series have become extremely popular around the world. The Jack Reacher series has a lot in common with the Bourne franchise because they both focus on rogue operatives. Because of his focus on heroic individuals, Robert Ludlum, who is known for creating the character of Jason Bourne, is considered an influence on the majority of contemporary thriller novelists.
Returning to the source material may surprise viewers who are familiar with the Jack Reacher book series or the Bourne movie franchise. After an explosion on a yacht, Jason Bourne is left with amnesia, which prompts him to set out on a journey to find out who he is and where he came from. Ludlum takes us on a chase through Europe, where the real-life terrorist Carlos the Jackal is in close pursuit of the fictional character Jason Bourne.
Buffalo Bill, a serial killer who goes only by that grotesquely appropriate nickname, is hunting women. Since the bodies are found in various conditions, no one can figure out his motive. Young FBI Academy student Clarice Starling is shocked when she receives a call from Jack Crawford, head of the division’s behavioral science division. Interviewing Dr. Hannibal Lecter, also known as Hannibal the Cannibal, who is kept under strict observation in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, is her task.
Dr. Lecter is a famous psychiatrist with a gruesome past, peculiar preferences, and a burning interest in the shadowy recesses of the mind. The core of “The Silence of the Lambs”—a brilliant, skillfully written work and an enduring classic of suspense fiction—is his deep understanding of the murderer and of Clarice herself.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“When the Fox hears the Rabbit scream he comes a-runnin’, but not to help.”
“Nothing made me happen. I happened.”
“I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti”
“Being smart spoils a lot of things, doesn’t it?”
“She didn’t give a damn about some of them, but she had grown to learn that inattention can be a stratagem to avoid pain, and that it is often misread as shallowness and indifference.”