• Home
  • Books older 1977

Count Bohemond

Count Bohemond was a Norman adventurer. History records his meteoric progress from junior member of a Norman warlord's household in Sicily to his conquests in the Middle East. Alfred Duggan's historical novel reveals how Count Bohemond challenged the Byzantine Empire, first defeating then allying himself with the wily Emperor Alexius. And how Bohemond outwits the high-born, wealthy Crusader leaders who would have led the Crusade to disaster. It is an unrivalled depiction of medieval warfare, from the tactics of cavalry charges to the religious and philosophical beliefs that brought forth the Crusaders.
Views: 249

The Small Assassin

Thirteen Capsules of Terror - Not to be Taken at Bedtime Here is a fantastic journey into a world of terror with thirteen of Bradbury's very best. A baby born with the irge to kill... the couple who leave for a honeymoon - in a cemetery... a husband and wife who have an unpleasant experience with some mummified Mexican corpses... the tombstone in the bedroom... a little boy who examines the macabre entrails of the man upstairs... A chilling collection that will linger long after you have finished reading it. The Small Assassin The Next in Line The Lake The Crowd Jack-in-the-Box The Man Upstairs The Cistern The Tombstone The Smiling People The Handler Let's Play 'Poison' The Night The Dead Man
Views: 249

Janice Day, the Young Homemaker

This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic, timeless works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.
Views: 249

Drum-Taps: The Complete 1865 Edition

Walt Whitman worked as a nurse in an army hospital during the Civil War and published Drum-Taps, his war poems, as the war was coming to an end. Later, the book came out in an expanded form, including “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,” Whitman's passionate elegy for Lincoln. The most moving and enduring poetry to emerge from America’s most tragic conflict, Drum-Taps also helped to create a new, modern poetry of war, a poetry not just of patriotic exhortation but of somber witness. Drum-Taps is thus a central work not only of the Civil War but of our war-torn times. But Drum-Taps as readers know it from Leaves of Grass is different from the work of 1865. Whitman cut and reorganized the book, reducing its breadth of feeling and raw immediacy. This edition, the first to present the book in its original form since its initial publication 150 years ago, is a revelation, allowing one of Whitman’s greatest achievements to appear again in all its troubling glory.
Views: 249

The Fourth Profession

An interstellar trading ship arrived in the moon's orbit two years ago, and the few aliens who have descended to Earth have stayed in their landing craft or at the United Nations building in New York City. When one of the aliens unexpectedly shows up in a Los Angeles tavern, bartender Ed Frazer awakes the next morning with the strangest hangover of his life. Ed barely remembers taking the pills offered by the alien; each pill flooding his brain with the knowledge of an alien profession ... spaceship captain ... teleporter .... translator ... but Ed can't remember how many pills he took, or if the confusing overload of information in his head shadows the terrible secret of their mission. Hugo Award Nominee
Views: 249

The Human Zero and Other Science-Fiction Masterpieces

A space capsule reels into space (in the 1920s!), complete with rocket and weightless passengers. Fans of Erle Stanley Gardner will be surprised and delighted to discover that he was one of our earliest science fiction writers. A story displays Gardner's grasp of a vast range of unlikely subject matter and the masterful gift for plot and action that made him the best-selling author of all time. The nature of molecules is the key to a locked-room murder in The Human Zero title story. The author's imagination and ingenuity seem limitless; the action and entertainment he could pack into a 10,000-word story are remarkable. And so are the other stories in this book.
Views: 249

Girls at War

Twelve stories by the internationally renowned novelist which recreate with energy and authenticity the major social and political issues that confront contemporary Africans on a daily basis. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Views: 248

Hotel for Dogs

A charming story for dog lovers everywhere--and now a major motion picture!
Views: 247

Another Roadside Attraction

What if the Second Coming didn't quite come off as advertised? What if the Corpse on display in that funky roadside zoo is really who they say it is--what does that portend for the future f western civilization? And what if a young clairvoyant named Amanda reestablishes the flea circus as popular entertainment and fertility worship as the principal religious form of our high-tech age? Another Roadside Attraction answers those questions and a lot more. It tell us, for example, what the sixties were truly all about, not by reporting on the psychedelic decade but by recreating it, from the inside out. In the process, this stunningly original seriocomic thriller is fully capable of simultaneously eating a literary hot dog and eroding the borders of the mind. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Views: 247

Christmas Books

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
Views: 247

The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse

Do you ever feel that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence? Well, so did Johnny Town-Mouse and Timmy Willie. One was a town mouse and one was a country mouse, and when they end up in each other's worlds they soon discover that they were much happier where they started! The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse is number 13 in Beatrix Potter's series of 23 little books, the titles of which are as follows: 1 The Tale of Peter Rabbit 2 The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin 3 The Tailor of Gloucester 4 The Tale of Benjamin Bunny 5 The Tale of Two Bad Mice 6 The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle 7 The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher 8 The Tale of Tom Kitten 9 The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck 10 The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies 11 The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse 12 The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes 13 The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse 14 The Tale of Mr. Tod 15 The Tale of Pigling Bland 16 The Tale of Samuel Whiskers 17 The Tale of The Pie and the Patty-Pan 18 The Tale of Ginger and Pickles 19 The Tale of Little Pig Robinson 20 The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit 21 The Story of Miss Moppet 22 Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes 23 Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes
Views: 247

Other Inquisitions, 1937-1952

This remarkable book by one of the great writers of our time includes essays on a proposed universal language, a justification of suicide, a refutation of time, the nature of dreams, and the intricacies of linguistic forms. Borges comments on such literary figures as Pascal, Coleridge, Cervantes, Hawthorne, Whitman, Valery, Wilde, Shaw, and Kafka. With extraordinary grace and erudition, he ranges in time, place, and subject from Omar Khayyam to Joseph Conrad, from ancient China to modern England, from world revolution to contemporary slang.
Views: 247

The Big Six: A Novel

In this (more or less) sequel to the adventures of Coot Club, Arthur Ransome returns once more to his beloved Norfolk Broads where trouble is again brewing for Joe, Bill, and Pete, the three boatbuilders' sons who (more or less) live full-time aboard the Death and Glory and the three Coots, Tom, Dorothea and Dick. The problem seems to be that boats are constantly being set adrift, and all the evidence points squarely at the three Death and Glories. In a clever bit of detective work, and with some help from a sophisticated photographic trap, the Big Six manage to exonerate themselves and catch the villains. Of course, this book, like all Ransome titles, is about a lot more than clever detective work; it has the smell of water and tarred rope, the sound of birds, and the plight of children left to their own devices and coping with everything from catching monster pike to trapping midnight eels. Ransome, who wrote these imperishable books, spent his childhood in England's Lake District, and after a career in journalism that took him to Russia (where he married Trostsky's secretary), China, and Egypt (interspersed with summers of cruising through the Baltic Sea and the canals of Europe), he retired to Coniston where he could practise his favorite pastimes of sailing and fishing and where he wrote Swallows and Amazons. What sets these books apart from other books of the period is both his attention to detail and his admirable ability to provide a wealth of practical information. If kids still exist who wish to know how to read a compass, handle a main sheet, reef a sail, bait a hook, or pitch a tent, these are the books they'll embrace.
Views: 246