At the end of Five Children and It the five children promised not to ask the Psammead for another wish as long as they lived, but expressed a half wish to see it again some time. They find 'it' again in a pet shop in Camden Town, and their magic adventures start over again. 'It' leads them to a magic amulet - half of it actually - which they use it to try and find the other half. It takes them back to ancient Egypt and Babylon. The Queen of Babylon visits them in London, bringing all her ancient customs with her - which is awkward. They visit the lost continent of Atlantis. They see Julius Caesar in the flesh, but none of these adventures run smoothly, and if they forget the 'word of power' or lose the amulet, what would happen to them? Views: 1 357
‘An American Classic’ - COMPLETE NEW EDITION - Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson - Ramona is an 1884 American novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. Set in Southern California after the Mexican-American War, it portrays the life of a mixed-race Scots–Native American orphan girl, who suffers racial discrimination and hardship. Originally serialized in the Christian Union on a weekly basis, the novel became immensely popular. It has had more than 300 printings, and been adapted four times as a film. A play adaptation has been performed annually outdoors since 1923. The novel's influence on the culture and image of Southern California was considerable. Its sentimental portrayal of Mexican colonial life contributed to establishing a unique cultural identity for the region. As its publication coincided with the arrival of railroad lines in the region, countless tourists visited who wanted to see the locations of the novel. In Southern California, shortly after the Mexican-American War, a Scots-Native American orphan girl, Ramona, is raised by Señora Gonzaga Moreno, the sister of Ramona's deceased foster mother. Ramona is referred to as illegitimate in some summaries of the novel, but chapter 3 of the novel says that Ramona's parents were married by a priest in the San Gabriel Mission. Señora Moreno has raised Ramona as part of the family, giving her every luxury, but only because Ramona's foster mother had requested it as her dying wish. Because of Ramona's mixed Native American heritage, Moreno does not love her. That love is reserved for her only child, Felipe Moreno, whom she adores. Señora Moreno considers herself a Mexican, although California has recently been taken over by the United States. She hates the Americans, who have cut up her huge rancho after disputing her claim to it. Views: 1 218
From the author of the twenty-five-million-copy bestseller The Shack comes a captivating new novel destined to be one of the most talked-about books of the decade.Eve is a bold, unprecedented exploration of the Creation narrative, true to the original texts and centuries of scholarship—yet with breathtaking discoveries that challenge traditional beliefs about who we are and how we're made. Eve opens a refreshing conversation about the equality of men and women within the context of our beginnings, helping us see each other as our Creator does—complete, unique, and not constrained by cultural rules or limitations. When a shipping container washes ashore on an island between our world and the next, John the Collector finds a young woman inside—broken, frozen, and barely alive. With the aid of Healers and Scholars, John oversees her recovery and soon discovers that her genetic code connects her to every known race. No one would guess... Views: 1 203
When Henry Roth published Call It Sleep, his first novel, in 1934, it was greeted with critical acclaim. But in that dark Depression year, books were hard to sell, and the novel quickly dropped out of sight, as did its twenty-eight-year-old author. Only with its paperback publication in 1964 did the novel receive the recognition it deserves. Call It Sleep was the first paperback ever to be reviewed on the front page of The New York Times Book Review, and it proceeded to sell millions of copies both in the United States and around the world.
Call It Sleep is the magnificent story of David Schearl, the “dangerously imaginative” child coming of age in the slums of New York. Views: 1 197
From the moment young Egan arrives in Instep, he senses the spell cast over the villagers by the Megrimum--the mysterious something that lurks on the mist-wreathed peak of Kneeknock Rise. Everyone shudders in horror--delicious horror--whenever the Megrimum's unearthly wail floats down to the village. Before long, Egan is climbing the Rise to find a practical explanation for those wails. Views: 1 194
A robust and bawdy battle of the sexes, this ever popular comedy captivates audiences with outrageous humor as Katharina, the shrew, engages in a contest of wills–and love–with her bridegroom, Petruchio. Their boisterous conflict is set off against a more conventional romantic plot involving the wooing of Katharina’s lovely and compliant sister, Bianca. Rich with the psychological themes of identity and transformation, the play is quintessentially lighthearted, filled with visual gags, witty repartee, and unmatched theatrical brilliance from Petruchio’s demand, “Kiss me, Kate!” to the final spectacle of the wedding feast.
Each Edition Includes:
• Comprehensive explanatory notes
• Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship
• Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English
• Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories
• An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography Views: 1 188
Three classic stories for young adults about the wonder and power of our connections with nature and each other.
Gene Stratton-Porter was a pioneer naturalist, wilderness advocate, and author. She wrote both fiction and nonfiction about the woods and swampland that she loved so much, and her tales of finding independence and courage through building a relationship with nature touched millions of readers both when she was writing and to this day. In The Best of Gene Stratton-Porter, three of her most timeless classics are collected in one volume. A Girl of the Limberlost, Freckles, and The Harvester demonstrate the power of Stratton-Porter’s writing for young people as she explores how the natural world can provide not just a means of sustenance, but also a source of strength in the face of the world’s difficulties and, ultimately, a place where you can be true to yourself.
In both A Girl of the Limberlost and Freckles, we see young Elnora Cornstock and an orphan boy known only as Freckles develop a love of Limberlost Swamp, using it to gain independence and find true connections with others. Taking place in the woodlands of the Midwest, The Harvester tells the story of a young man who lives on his own and who heals an ill girl. In each book, nature is a powerful force that helps the characters deal with the pain of their pasts and the uncertainty of the present. With an introduction by award-winning essayist Scott Russell Sanders, The Best of Gene Stratton-Porter brings together three classic novels that deserve a place on any young adult’s bookshelf. Views: 1 184
Published for the first time in a faithful English translation, Unknown Soldiers is the story of a platoon of ordinary Finnish soldiers fighting their Soviet Union counterparts during the Second World War. Drawing on Linna's own wartime experiences, this gritty and realistic account shatters the myth of the noble, obedient Finnish soldier. Views: 1 183
Mario Puzo won international acclaim for The Godfather and his other Mafia novels. But before creating those masterpieces, Puzo wrote his first acclaimed novel The Dark Arena*–an astounding story of a war-scarred young American in a battle against corruption and betrayal. . . .
*
After coming home at the end of World War II, Walter Mosca finds himself too restless for his civilian role in America. So he returns to Germany to find the woman he had once loved–and to start some kind of life in a vanquished country. But ahead of Walter stretches a dark landscape of defeat and intrigue, as he succumbs to the corrupting influences of a malevolent time. Now he enters a different kind of war, one in which he must make a fateful decision–between love and ambition, passion and greed, life and death. . . .
From the Paperback edition. Views: 1 178
Wired Love a Romance of Dots and Dashes by Ella Cheever Thayer, is an enchanting book about a love affair between two telegraphers in America, code names 'N' and 'C'. The couple fall victim to the dangers that internet chat-room users are faced with today: they begin to fall for the stranger on the other end of the line without knowing what they look like, who they are, or anything much about them. For the first few chapters, 'N', known as Nattie, has no idea if the grapher on the end of the line is a man or a woman. She leads a double life - her 'online' life and her humdrum normal life. She has her real, 'visible' friends, and this increasingly special 'invisible' friend. The humor in this novel is touching and farcical at times, and I found this to be one of the most charming aspects of the book. Charming is the perfect word for it as you fall in love with the characters and delight in the myriad of misunderstanding that makes this novel so highly cinematic. Views: 1 172
The water and the air in the Fisher Valley were pristine before the coal seam gas companies arrived with government-endorsed gas exploration and development licences. Then they marched roughshod over the owners of privately owned, highly productive farming and grazing land, paying them little in the way of compensation. After drilling, they pumped water, sand and toxic chemicals at high pressure hundreds of metres into the ground in a process known as 'fracking', which exploded the coal seams and released the methane, while giving scant attention to the ground, air and water pollution they were creating. When little Charlie Paxton, aged only six, dies from a mysterious form of cancer, his father, Charles Paxton, swears to have his revenge. Charles is determined to stop the gas companies even if it means blowing up their wells and blocking their access to agricultural properties. But big gas is powerful and backed by rapacious governments who won't hesitate to use their police and army to smash through blockades. Can a small group of farmers, greens and conservatives stand against the might of big gas and the governments complicit in helping it? -- "I moved to the country for peace and quiet and little did I know that I would become embroiled in the battle of my life. Peter Ralph brings to light the everyday struggle of people who find their lives suddenly caught up with one of the most insidious industries in the world - Coal Seam Gas." (-Dayne Pratzky, a.k.a. 'The Frackman') -- The author, Peter Ralph, was a CEO of a large private company that he took public in the early nineties before becoming a successful share and derivatives trader. He now spends much of his time writing, and the breadth of his business career has provided him with a background and insights well suited to writing suspenseful business and topical novels. He is the author of "Collins Street Whores" and "The CEO," and co-authored "Pass the Sugar" with Joe Hachem. Views: 1 168
About This Book
"Hate you!" Laevsky said quietly, breathing heavily. "I've hated you a long time!"
This new translation of the literary masterpiece— which combines a beautiful romance with high suspense— is here presented for the first time as a stand-alone volume.
One of Chekhov’s most important lengthy works, this remarkable story gives a startling twist to his classic, ongoing study of bourgeois romance when he sets it on a collision course with a decaying, Czarist concept of honor. It ends in the ultimate Chekhovian observation: that fate is often ludicrous.
This Is An Enhanced eBook
This eBook contains Illuminations—additional illustrated material that expand the world of Kleist’s novella through text and illustrations—at no additional charge.
"Illuminations" contains writings by Mikhail Lermontov - Ivan Goncharov - Alexander Pushkin - Herbert Spencer - Friedrich Nietzsche - Jack London - Thomas Paine - Francis Bacon - Charles McKay – And a guide to the game of vint.
Full-color illustrations include: William Hogarth - James Joseph Tissot - Jan Steen - The Shahnameh and more.
Also Included: “Against The Duel: Writing In Protest of Dueling” Views: 1 164
The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector's consummate final novel, may well be her masterpiece. Narrated by the cosmopolitan Rodrigo S.M., this brief, strange, and haunting tale is the story of Macabéa, one of life's unfortunates. Living in the slums of Rio and eking out a poor living as a typist, Macabéa loves movies, Coca-Cola, and her rat of a boyfriend; she would like to be like Marylin Monroe, but she is ugly, underfed, sickly, and unloved. Rodrigo recoils from her wretchedness, and yet he cannot avoid realization that for all her outward misery, Macabéa is inwardly free. She doesn't seem to know how unhappy she should be. Lispector employs her pathetic heroine against her urbane, empty narrator--edge of despair to edge of despair--and, working them like a pair of scissors, she cuts away the reader's preconceived notions about poverty, identity, love, and the art of fiction. In her last novel she takes readers close to the true mystery of life, and leaves us deep in Lispector territory indeed. Views: 1 158
The novel The Valley of the Moon is a story of a working-class couple, Billy and Saxon Roberts, struggling laborers in Oakland at the Turn-of-the-Century, who left city life behind and searched Central and Northern California for suitable farmland to own. The book is notable for its scenes in which the proletarian hero enjoys fellowship with the artists' colony in Carmel, and he settles in the Valley of the Moon. Views: 1 155
With this dizzyingly rich novel of ideas, Thomas Mann rose to the front ranks of the great modern novelists, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. The Magic Mountain takes place in an exclusive tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps–a community devoted to sickness that serves as a fictional microcosm for Europe in the days before the First World War. To this hermetic and otherworldly realm comes Hans Castorp, an “ordinary young man” who arrives for a short visit and ends up staying for seven years, during which he succumbs both to the lure of eros and to the intoxication of ideas.
Acclaimed translator John E. Woods has given us the definitive English version of Mann’s masterpiece. A monumental work of erudition and irony, sexual tension and intellectual ferment, The Magic Mountain is an enduring classic.
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Views: 1 147
