The Socialist

In the near future, America's public schools have been privatized and are now run by large corporations. The return of laissez-faire capitalism has created a world of cutthroat competition and cost-cutting, allowing for tremendous profits. But when the head principal of a corporate-run high school finds himself betrayed by the very titans of industry he once served, he decides to fight back.In the near future, America's public schools have been privatized and are now run by large corporations. The return of laissez-faire capitalism has created a world of cutthroat competition and cost-cutting, allowing for tremendous efficiency and profits...but at what price? When the head principal of a corporate-run high school finds himself betrayed by the very titans of industry he once served, he decides to fight back. Can one man make a difference against the system, or will he find himself ground under and re-incorporated?
Views: 262

The Peacock Emporium

In the Sixties, Athene Forster is the most glamorous girl of her generation. Nicknamed the Last Deb, she is also beautiful, spoilt and out of control. When she agrees to marry dashing young heir Douglas Fairley-Hulme her parents breathe a sigh of relief. But within two years rumours have begun to circulate about Athene's affair with a young salesman. Thirty five years on, Suzanna Peacock is struggling with her glamorous mother's legacy. At odds with her father and his second wife, struggling in a stalled marriage, she returns to the place of her birth to find that the ghost of her mother, in differing ways, still haunts them all. The only place she finds comfort is in her shop, The Peacock Emporium, a coffee shop-cum-curio store, decorated in her own image, which provides a haven for other misfits in the town. There she makes perhaps the first real friends of her life, including Alejandro, a male midwife, escaping his own ghosts in Argentina. But the spectre of Athene and the shop itself combine to set in place a chain of tragic events, forcing Suzanna to confront the feelings she has disguised for so long - and her family, in their varying ways, finally to deal with the events of the past. And Suzanna discovers the key to her history, and her happiness, may have been in front of her all along.
Views: 262

What Are You Going Through

The New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-winning author of The Friend brings her singular voice to a story about the meaning of life and death, and the value of companionship. A woman describes a series of encounters she has with various people in the ordinary course of her life: an ex she runs into by chance at a public forum, an Airbnb owner unsure how to interact with her guests, a stranger who seeks help comforting his elderly mother, the friend of her youth now hospitalized with terminal cancer. In each of them the woman finds a common need: the urge to talk about themselves and to have an audience to their experiences. The narrator orchestrates this chorus of voices mostly as a passive listener, until one of them makes an extraordinary request, and she is drawn into an intense and transformative experience of her own.With her widely acclaimed novel The Friend, Sigrid Nunez was hailed for her...
Views: 262

Roast Beef, Medium: The Business Adventures of Emma McChesney

Originally published in 1908. This volume from the Cornell University Library\'s print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
Views: 262

A Slow Ruin

From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Little Deadly Secrets comes a highly anticipated novel that weaves an ancient family mystery and tense drama into a page-turning psychological thriller. Perfect for fans of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere, Laura Dave's The Last Thing He Told Me, Lisa Jewell, and Ruth Ware.April 1910. Women's rights activist Alvera Fields mysteriously vanishes from her home one night, leaving her newborn baby and husband behind, the case never solved. April 2021. On the anniversary of her great-great-grandmother's disappearance, Alvera's namesake Vera Portman vanishes in an eerily similar manner. Six months later, the police recover a girl's body. While the family waits in the horror of finding out if it's Vera, Felicity Portman clings to hope that her missing teenage daughter is still alive. Despite all odds, Felicity senses a link between the decades-apart cases—a mother feels such things in her...
Views: 262

A Dear Little Girl's Summer Holidays

It was a very warm morning in June. Edna and her friend Dorothy Evans were sitting under the trees trying to keep cool. They both wore their thinnest morning frocks and had pinned their hair up in little pug knots on the tops of their heads. They had their boxes of pieces and were trying to make something suitable for their dolls to wear in the hot weather. "It\'s too sticky to sew," said Dorothy, throwing down her work. "Marguerite will have to go without a frock and sit around in her skin." "You mean in her kid," returned Edna. "Well, isn\'t kid skin?" asked Dorothy. Edna laughed. "Why, yes, I suppose it is, and Ben says we are kids, so our skin is kid skin. Oh, dear, it is hot. I wish I were a fish; it would be so nice to go slipping through the cool water." "Yes, but it wouldn\'t be so nice to be in a frying pan sizzling over a fire." "I feel almost as if I were doing that now. There comes the postman, I wonder if he has a letter from Jennie. We promised one another we would always write on blue paper because blue is true, you know, and that looks as if it might be a blue letter the postman has on top. I\'m going to see." "I\'ll wait here," returned Dorothy. "It\'s too hot to move." She sat fanning herself with the lid of her piece box, watching her friend the while. Once or twice Edna stopped on her way back, and finally she began to dance up and down, then ran toward Dorothy, calling out, "Oh, there\'s a lovely something to tell you. Oh, I do hope it can come true." "What is it?" cried Dorothy, roused out of her listlessness.
Views: 262

Mary Lee the Red Cross Girl

Leopold Classic Library is delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive collection. As part of our on-going commitment to delivering value to the reader, we have also provided you with a link to a website, where you may download a digital version of this work for free. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. Whilst the books in this collection have not been hand curated, an aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature. As a result of this book being first published many decades ago, it may have occasional imperfections. These imperfections may include poor picture quality, blurred or missing text. While some of these imperfections may have appeared in the original work, others may have resulted from the scanning process that has been applied. However, our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. While some publishers have applied optical character recognition (OCR), this approach has its own drawbacks, which include formatting errors, misspelt words, or the presence of inappropriate characters. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with an experience that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic book, and that the occasional imperfection that it might contain will not detract from the experience.
Views: 262

The Unwelcome Guest

Coming soon: the new gripping domestic thriller from the #1 bestselling author of Obsession SHE HAD THE PERFECT MARRIAGE. UNTIL HER MOTHER-IN-LAW MOVED IN... 'Amanda Robson at her best – intriguing, shocking and twisty. An absolute must-read' JA CORRIGAN Saffron vowed to love Miles no matter what life threw at them both. But when her mother-in-law moves into their happy family home, Saffron's shiny life begins to tarnish. Even as Caprice's barbed comments turn to something more sinister, Saffron hopes the new nanny's arrival will shield her from the worst of it. She's starting to feel paranoid in her own home. Little does she realise that Caprice longs for a new daughter-in-law – and she'll do anything to make that happen... Readers LOVE The Unwelcome Guest: 'A pacy page-turner full of taut toxicity, envy, jealousy and self-interest that I couldn't put down' ADRIENNE CHINN'Well written and engaging' 5* Review'I love a twisty book' 5* Review'A real heart pounder!' 5* Review'The...
Views: 262

Act of Creation & Other Stories

Food, obsession, heartbreak. Three stories. (These stories first appeared in the literary magazines Quarterly West, Tatlin's Tower and VerbSap.)To overcome your fear, you must first face it. Someone is out to destroy Greg Robertson and everyone he has ever loved. After an accident leaves his teenage daughter depressed and distraught, Greg will do anything to make her happy again, including hiring a bodyguard to protect her. Olivia Cummings lost both her fiance and her cousin in a deadly avalanche. She has vowed never to set foot on a ski hill again. But now, working as a bodyguard with Marshall Security, Olivia must face her greatest fears to save Greg and his daughter. Something about Olivia's determination strikes a chord in Greg, but will she be the salvation he needs, or will he be her destruction?
Views: 262

Chance: A Tale in Two Parts

Chance was Conrad's first commercial success after nearly twenty years as a writer, & his first novel to have a happy ending. It tells the story of Flora de Barral, the abandoned daughter of a bankrupt tycoon, & her long struggle to find happiness & dignity.
Views: 262

The Importance of Being Earnest: And Other Plays

Oscar Wilde created his final and most lasting play, comic masterpieces of all time, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, in 1895. Considered one of the greatest THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST is a farce, playing with love, religion, and truth as it tells the tale of two men. Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, who bend the truth in order to add excitement to their lives. Jack invents an imaginary brother, Ernest, whom he uses as an excuse to escape from his dull country home and gallavant in town. Meanwhile, Algernon follows Jack's scam, but his imaginary friend, Bumbury, provides a convenient method of adventuring in the country. However, their deceptions eventually cross paths, resulting in a series of crises that threaten to spoil their romantic pursuits. Hailed as the first modern comedy in England, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST is Wilde's most famous work. This collection also features two other plays that Wilde penned earlier in his career, LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN and AN IDEAL HUSBAND, that also display his ability to convey warmth and wit through his hilarious characters and their outlandish situations.
Views: 262

Rising

The stakes have never been higher, and she's full of the devil. Edward Fasbender is my husband. Together, we brought down powerful men. Now we have a chance to start over. To be the family neither of us ever had, to leave the past in the past where it belongs. Edward has a choice to make. It will decide if we fall into the flames—or rise together. Rising is the fourth and final book in the Slay Quartet.
Views: 262