1984 (Penguin)

'Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past' Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal. George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four is perhaps the most pervasively influential book of the twentieth century. **
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Romola

One of George Eliot\'s most ambitious and imaginative novels, Romola is set in Renaissance Florence during the turbulent years following the expulsion of the powerful Medici family during which the zealous religious reformer Savonarola rose to control the city. At its heart is Romola, the devoted daughter of a blind scholar, married to the clever but ultimately treacherous Tito whose duplicity in both love and politics threatens to destroy everything she values, and she must break away to find her own path in life. Described by Eliot as \'written with my best blood\', the story of Romola\'s intellectual and spiritual awakening is a compelling portrayal of a Utopian heroine, played out against a turbulent historical backdrop.
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Hitch-22: A Memoir

Over the course of his 60 years, Christopher Hitchens has been a citizen of both the United States and the United Kingdom. He has been both a socialist opposed to the war in Vietnam and a supporter of the U.S. war against Islamic extremism in Iraq. He has been both a foreign correspondent in some of the world's most dangerous places and a legendary bon vivant with an unquenchable thirst for alcohol and literature. He is a fervent atheist, raised as a Christian, by a mother whose Jewish heritage was not revealed to him until her suicide. In other words, Christopher Hitchens contains multitudes. He sees all sides of an argument. And he believes the personal is political. This is the story of his life, lived large.
Views: 370

Ryan's World

Ryan regrets asking shy Mary to the school dance and now he can't seem to get out of going. Can the mysterious Jennifer help him gain the confidence he needs to take charge of his life?Maybe you’re lucky the quiet girl’s keeping quietThe ‘quiet girl’.The ‘serious girl’.The ‘Oh just ignore her’ girl.There’s always one girl in class like that, isn’t there?Maybe it’s you.Maybe it’s someone else.Maybe you’re glad it’s not you.But maybe, just maybe, the quiet girl’s quiet for a reason.See, she’s got a secret.She sees all your secrets.
Views: 360

Long Live Hitch

Three of the most provocative and thought-provoking works of the great Christopher Hitchens, now available in one volume. god Is Not Great This provocative international bestseller is the ultimate case against religion. In a series of acute readings of the major religious texts, Christopher Hitchens demonstrates the ways in which religion is man-made, dangerously sexually repressive and distorts the very origins of the cosmos. Above all, Hitchens argues that the concept of an omniscient God has profoundly damaged humanity, and proposes that the world might be a great deal better off without 'him'. Hitch-22 The hilarious and provocative bestselling memoirs of our greatest contrarian are by turns, moving and funny, charming and infuriating, enraging and inspiring. It is an indispensable companion to the life and thought of our pre-eminent political writer. Arguably For forty years, Christopher Hitchens was at the epicentre of the battle of letters in Britain & America. Throughout his life he shone the light of reason and truth into the eyes of charlatans and hucksters, exposing falsehood and decrying hypocrisy wherever he found it. Arguably collects Hitchens' writing on politics, literature and religion when he was at the zenith of his career.
Views: 354

A Brother's Duty

Lucinda Wilkinson had hit rock bottom. Alone and pregnant by a soldier who didn’t remember her, she needs help. John MacLeish hit rock bottom when his brother was killed in Afghanistan. Before Rob dies he makes John promise to keep the promise he made to the father of Lucy’s baby. But how can John take on his brother’s duty to Lucy when he pre-judges her by her tattoos and piercings?John has to reevaluate his life when his hopes for working with his older brother in a construction business is dashed when Rob is killed in action. Lucy has to reevaluate her life when her career is stolen from her and she finds herself unexpectedly pregnant by Rob's friend Nick, who is also killed in action.Before dying, Nick makes Rob promise to find and help Lucy. Rob extracts a promise from John to try to help Lucy if he doesn't make it back and John feels that it is his duty, a brother's duty, to honour his late brother's promise to his late friend.When John finally tracks her down, she isn't what he expected. Underneath her piercings and tattoos is a vulnerable woman who is dealing with some real hurt. Unfortunately for him, John is what she expects, at least at first. Stern, rigid, judgemental and far too conventional, she dismisses him as being like all the other 'good Christians' she'd ever encountered.Prodded by the Holy Spirit through a sermon on Corinthians and feeling duty bound to honour his brother's last request, John's heart is softened toward Lucy until he can see past the odd jewellery in her face.Lucy, also prompted by the Holy Spirit although not recognizing the source, finally accepts that her choice is between bitter loneliness and taking a risk that the friendships she is being offered are genuine.
Views: 344

No One Left to Lie To

"Just as the necessary qualification for a good liar is a good memory, so the essential equipment of a would-be lie detector is a good timeline, and a decent archive." In NO ONE LEFT TO LIE TO, a New York Times bestseller, Christopher Hitchens casts an unflinching eye on the Clinton political machine and offers a searing indictment of a president who sought to hold power at any cost. With blistering wit and meticulous documentation, Hitchens masterfully deconstructs Clinton's abject propensity for pandering to the Left while delivering to the Right, and he argues that the president's personal transgressions were ultimately inseparable from his political corruption. Hitchens questions the president's refusals to deny accusations of rape by reputable women and lambasts, among numerous impostures, his insistence on playing the race card, the shortsightedness of his welfare bill, his ludicrous war on drugs, and his abandonment of homosexuals in the form of the Defense of Marriage Act. Opportunistic statecraft, crony capitalism, "divide and rule" identity politics, and populist manipulations-these are perhaps Clinton's greatest and most enduring legacies.
Views: 319

Good Old Days

Tyler Bailey is bored and weary of his workaday life, so naturally he jumps at the chance to relive just one day of his wonderful, carefree life as a teenager. Will it be as wonderful as he imagines?Shakespeare called his play ‘Richard III’ a tragedy. Its centre is the disappearance of 12 year-old Prince Edward and 10 year-old Prince Richard, the sons of King Edward IV, from the care of their uncle, King Richard III. Shakespeare and history accuse Richard of murdering the Princes, within months of their father’s death, in April 1483, but in each century since, starting in the 1490s, there have been dissenting voices.By 2012 many millions of words have been written about what happened to the Princes, yet no-one has ever offered a satisfactory or complete explanation, at least not until now. The problem with the explanation is it has magic at its heart, the magic of the necromancer, and historians won’t allow themselves to believe in magic.Amongst all the fantasy of Horror and Sci-Fi on our bookshelves there is room for a little medieval High Magic; the more so since it may be true.The author and narrator does undertake psychic investigations, as mentioned in the book. The Arthur Findlay College at Stansted Hall, where the story opens, is a World centre for psychic studies and mediumship. Does it matter whether The Necromancer is a true story or fiction? If you accept there is no such thing as ‘single-pointed reality,’ there are many different realities, that miracles and other impossibilities are a good deal more common than people think, and that what people believe is what really matters; you may conclude simply The Necromancer is a good story.Because this is an interactive eBook you have free access to the full text of three important books of history, not to mention the Odyssey, two major books on magic and many other materials. In all there are 54 hyperlinks to relevant pages on the Internet.Leave historical authority and extended backgrounds to the hyperlinks. They allow you and the author to get on with the story in all its twists and turns. The strengths and weaknesses of historical figures are shown; the character of the little known Thomas Nandyke, the necromancer, is brought to light and brought to life.If you’re hooked, and you will be, Parts II & III go on to put right the world we live in, they deal with King Louis XI and bishop Morton; Part III restores Hastings and Rivers, not to mention the Princes, of whom there are three, including Richard III’s own son.As is usual with Mike Voyce, this story stands on the boundary between Truth and Fiction; it’s as true as you want it to be. If you take the insights into the nature of realities, the ‘After Word on Truth,’ right at the very end of the whole book, will clear the mists which still seem to cloud our own world.
Views: 315

Scenes of Clerical Life

My only merit must lie in the faithfulness with which I represent to you the humble experience of an ordinary fellow-mortal. When Scenes of Clerical Life, George Eliot's first novel, was published anonymously in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in 1857, it was immediately recognized, in the words of Saturday Review, as ‘the production of a peculiar and remarkable writer'. The first readers, including Dickens and Thackeray, were struck by its humorous irony, the truthfulness of its presentation of the lives of ordinary men and women, and its compassionate acceptance of human weakness. The three stories that make up the Scenes, ‘The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton', ‘Mr Gilfil's Love Story', and ‘Janet's Repentance', foreshadow George Eliot's major work, and their success gave her the confidence to become one of the greatest English novelists.
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A Collection of Essays

**George Orwell's collected nonfiction, written in the clear-eyed and uncompromising style that earned him a critical following ** One of the most thought-provoking and vivid essayists of the twentieth century, George Orwell fought the injustices of his time with singular vigor through pen and paper. In this selection of essays, he ranges from reflections on his boyhood schooling and the profession of writing to his views on the Spanish Civil War and British imperialism. The pieces collected here include the relatively unfamiliar and the more celebrated, making it an ideal compilation for both new and dedicated readers of Orwell's work.
Views: 309

Flash Fiction 40 Anthology - July 2009

In May 2009, Editor Unleashed and Smashwords co-sponsored The Flash Fiction 40 Contest. Writers submitted stories of 1,000 words or fewer on the Editor Unleashed forum. Maria Schneider, with the community's input, selected the winners. than 280 writers took up the challenge and posted a story. Here, for your reading pleasure, are the top 40 stories.A simple woodcutter learns there is a ten million carat price on his head. Every bounty hunter in the Eleven Kingdoms is on his trail. The Dark Magic Society want him dead. The Gods want him to save the world. Jason Cosmo just wants to get through this alive.HERO WANTED is Book 1 of the comical Jason Cosmo fantasy adventure series.Jason Cosmo is perfectly happy living in the humble village of Lower Hicksnittle—until a foppish stranger tries to kill him, claiming there is a huge price on Jason's head. A price big enough to put the world of Arden’s best—and worst—bounty hunters on his trail. Overnight, Jason has become the most feared man in the Eleven Kingdoms—which is news to him!On the run from mercenaries, Demon Lords, and the full might of the sinister Dark Magic Society, Jason teams up with cynical wizard Mercury Boltblaster and winsome twins Sapphrina and Rubis to learn the truth.Driven inexorably onward by the Laws of Narrative, Jason's quest takes him from the bright realm of The Gods to the deadly depths of the Incredibly Dark Forest—and into a final confrontation with the forces of evil!Followed by an even more final confrontation. And then an obligatory wrapping-up-loose-ends scene.If he lives that long...Praise for HERO WANTED:"Energetic fantasy adventure ... McGirt seems prepared to stoop to the lowest literary levels to set up a joke...gleefully employs coincidence, improbability, and a downright flouting of the laws of narrative.”— Publishers Weekly“Read this book! ... If the point of a book is to entertain, then McGirt’s rollicking fantasy is flawless. It is a witty, humorous, reluctant-hero-saves-world-gets-girl romp with a dash of jaded crabby wizard thrown in...” —P.A. Seasholtz, author of the Fayersae Histories“If you enjoyed Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you will love this comical fantasy story of Jason Cosmo...A very entertaining tale with all the classic fantasy elements.” —Jasmyn’s Stuff
Views: 305

Daniel Deronda

George Eliot’s final novel and her most ambitious work, Daniel Deronda contrasts the moral laxity of the British aristocracy with the dedicated fervor of Jewish nationalists. Crushed by a loveless marriage to the cruel and arrogant Grandcourt, Gwendolen Harleth seeks salvation in the deeply spiritual and altruistic Daniel Deronda. But Deronda, profoundly affected by the discovery of his Jewish ancestry, is ultimately too committed to his own cultural awakening to save Gwendolen from despair. This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the 1878 Cabinet Edition.
Views: 293

Vanity Plate Shorts

A hard-hitting, surprising set of short stories based on Vanity Plates from around the US.The authors are:Matt from SmallBizBee, Steven Male, Matt Hayward, George AngusHe’s desperate to keep his secret. She has questions only he can answer. Can they overcome the past to live their future?Sarah Alexander is ready to start her post-divorce life in Salem, Massachusetts. When she starts having vivid dreams about the town’s famous witch trials, she seeks out a widower who seems to know more than he lets on. James Wentworth has spent his lifetime hiding a secret. When a new woman in town reminds him of the wife he still grieves, he wonders if the connection runs deeper. When a modern-day witch hunt threatens to unravel James’ hidden knowledge, he’s faced with a choice: sacrifice himself for the woman he loves or lose everything all over again. Her Dear and Loving Husband is the first book in a series of literary paranormal romance novels. If you like rich, historical fiction, chilling suspense, and tales of enduring love, then you’ll love the first book in Meredith Allard’s Loving Husband Trilogy.Buy Her Dear and Loving Husband to be swept up in the timeless paranormal tale today!
Views: 288

Daughters of the Revolution and Their Times

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: 245