A spinster devotes herself to a shamefully selfish form of charity work, until the day a stranger enters her world...A tainted love…Iris is a seventeen year old experiencing her first signs of love. She was your average teenage girl who had a secret crush on the most popular guy in school and her best friend. Typical.Axel Rotterdam was sick. There was something lurking inside him and it wanted out. He was terrified of it and afraid of what it would do. It had set its sights on a new target. It wanted Iris McDerman…and it would take her kicking and screaming.Torn between her heart desires, Iris would make a decision that will alter the course of her life and change it forever.

In 1954, Jack Kerouac announced that he was writing the world's first Beat Science Fiction novel; what resulted the following year was actually a short story of around 10,000 words entitled cityCityCITY, a futurist dystopian tale of a mega-city plated in superconducting steel, whose inhabitants are housed in "Zone Blocks" which double, when necessary, as electrified mass-execution chambers. Kerouac apparently sent this blueprint to William S. Burroughs with a request to collaborate on a full-length version, but Burroughs declined. Thus the story languished in limbo, until a new version of it, entitled "The Electrocution Of Block 38383939383," was published in 1959 (in Nugget magazine). This special ebook edition of "The Electrocution Of Block 38383939383" as it was originally published, restores to prominence one of the most intriguing literary experiments of Kerouac's oeuvre, and of the Beat Generation as a whole.

John Fox Jr. published this great romantic novel of the Cumberland Mountains of Kentucky and Virginia in 1908, and the book quickly became one of America's favorites. It has all the elements of a good romance―a superior but natural heroine, a hero who is an agent of progress and enlightenment, a group of supposedly benighted mountaineers to be drawn into the flow of mainstream American culture, a generous dose of social and class struggle, and a setting among the misty coves and cliffs of the blue Cumberlands.Reprinted with a foreword by John Ed Pearce, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine has all the excitement and poignance that caught and held readers' interest when the book first appeared.

The Nobel Prize–winning author’s perceptive fable of cross-cultural passions in nineteenth-century China In 1850s China, a young girl, Peony, is sold to work as a bondmaid for a rich Jewish family in Kaifeng. Jews have lived for centuries in this region of the country, but by the mid-nineteenth century, assimilation has begun taking its toll on their small enclave. When Peony and the family’s son, David, grow up and fall in love with one another, they face strong opposition from every side. Tradition forbids the marriage, and the family already has a rabbi’s daughter in mind for David. Long celebrated for its subtle and even-handed treatment of colliding traditions, Peony is an engaging coming-of-age story about love, identity, and the tragedy and beauty found at the intersection of two disparate cultures.    This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author’s estate.

An original, creepy, ghost story for Christmas. When Joe buys an ornate box from a car-boot sale, a set of mysterious and creepy occurrences with the box and its contents ensues.When Joe buys an ornate box from a car-boot sale, a set of mysterious and creepy occurrences with the box and its contents ensues. An original, creepy, ghost story for Christmas.

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Barbara W. Tuchman, author of the World War I masterpiece The Guns of August, grapples with her boldest subject: the pervasive presence, through the ages, of failure, mismanagement, and delusion in government.   Drawing on a comprehensive array of examples, from Montezuma’s senseless surrender of his empire in 1520 to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Barbara W. Tuchman defines folly as the pursuit by government of policies contrary to their own interests, despite the availability of feasible alternatives. In brilliant detail, Tuchman illuminates four decisive turning points in history that illustrate the very heights of folly: the Trojan War, the breakup of the Holy See provoked by the Renaissance popes, the loss of the American colonies by Britain’s George III, and the United States’ own persistent mistakes in Vietnam. Throughout The March of Folly, Tuchman’s incomparable talent for animating the people, places, and events of history is on spectacular display. Praise for The March of Folly “A glittering narrative . . . a moral [book] on the crimes and follies of governments and the misfortunes the governed suffer in consequence.” —The New York Times Book Review*  * “An admirable survey . . . I haven’t read a more relevant book in years.”—John Kenneth Galbraith, The Boston Sunday Globe  * “A superb chronicle . . . a masterly examination.” —Chicago Sun-Times * From the Trade Paperback edition.

Some philosophies and phenomenons are considered sacrosanct. These elements of life are dealt with. Love, immortality, eternity, death and war inclusive. It also includes in it subjects relating to apocalyptic events and psychological matters. The poem takes you into the world of contemporary poetry. Read and be awaken!!!Reader, how far you have come.An epic clashing of fantastical worlds and dramatic prose files into a tale of such heart-wrenching disaster, that if you read, you will undoubtedly find yourself wishing you hadn't, and then reading on to the next scene, and the next, and to the last few, dribbling words. Only the first installment of this saga, we find ourselves thrust into a dying world where the darkness of a tainted heart has begun to creep into the realms. Here in Axis, where the Emperor's hefty arm crushes all beneath his reach, we are introduced to a select few souls that threaten to bend the rights of existence, not for them, but for you. Rorith's power wanes. Savill's spirit is to be overcome. And Aviin? What can be said of this poor, wretched man, for he is nothing, and yet everything to us. And into the past where we remember the long lost tales of an unfortunate boy that simply couldn't escape the Fate's grasp, squeezed between their grimy fingers for all he had.Perhaps some books were never meant to be read?Others, never to be written....You will not find disappointment, as it is sure to drag you on from bleeding page to bleeding page, but I cannot promise that you will be happy with your reward at the final remark, nor will you be glad that you must read on, for this story simply does not end. In all that is fantastical and mystic, though, there will be no equal. So read on, yes, read until your soul cries out and your lips pour out onto the paper alongside so many others.

This is a Guide to Book 1 of The Seculary of a Wandering Jew. It facilitates the reading by providing a general timeline of the epoch and provides in-depth information on the Characters, Geographies and Nomenclatures of the period.Billy and Susan loved to hear their father read stories to them every night at bedtime. Susan told her brother Billy that the stories were for little kids. Susan said, "Billy I love dad, but I wish he would read scary stories to us instead of stories like Peter Pan and Alice and Wonderland. They were ok when we were younger, but we are so much older now." "I feel the same way. I like it when mother and father go out to dinner at night so we can watch scary movies together, "replied Billy."Next time we spend the night with grandma, maybe we can sneak out of bed and see if she has any old creepy books in her attic. If she does we can give them to our father to read to us instead of those boring stories he's been reading over and over for the past several years!" exclaimed Susan. "Tonight we'll ask him if he'll let us spend the night at grandma's house this weekend. I'm sure he'll say yes," said Billy.Night finally arrived. Billy and Susan asked their father if they could spend the night with their grandma tomorrow. Their father said, "I don't see why that would be a problem because your mother and I were planning a weekend trip." Billy and Susan would find their scary book they had been hoping for, but this book should have been left in the attic where it belongs untouched in the trunk where they found it.

Before Jack Kerouac expressed the spirit of a generation in his 1957 classic, On the Road, he spent years figuring out how he wanted to live and, above all, learning how to write. Atop an Underwood brings together more than sixty previously unpublished works that Kerouac wrote before he was twenty-two, ranging from stories and poems to plays and parts of novels, including an excerpt from his 1943 merchant marine novel, The Sea Is My Brother. These writings reveal what Kerouac was thinking, doing, and dreaming during his formative years, and reflect his primary literary influences. Readers will also find in these works the source of Kerouac's spontaneous prose style. Uncovering a fascinating missing link in Kerouac's development as a writer, Atop an Underwood is essential reading for Kerouac fans, scholars, and critics.

Guy Crouchback, determined to get into the war, takes a commission in the Royal Corps of Halberdiers. His spirits high, he sees all the trimmings but none of the action. And his first campaign, an abortive affair on the West African coastline, ends with an escapade which seriously blots his Halberdier copybook. Men at Arms is the first book in Waugh’s brilliant trilogy, Sword of Honour, which chronicles the fortunes of Guy Crouchback. The second and third volumes, Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender, are also published in Penguin. Sword of Honour has recently been made into a television drama series, with screenplay by William Boyd.

The novel begins in the 1790s in the coastal town of Monkshaven (modeled on Whitby, England) against the background of the practice of impressment during the early phases of the Napoleonic Wars. Sylvia Robson lives happily with her parents on a farm, and is passionately loved by her rather dull Quaker cousin Philip. She, however, meets and falls in love with Charlie Kinraid, a dashing sailor on a whaling vessel, and they become secretly engaged. When Kinraid goes back to his ship, he is forcibly enlisted in the Royal Navy by a press gang, a scene witnessed by Philip. Philip does not tell Sylvia of the incident nor relay to her Charlie's parting message and, believing her lover is dead, Sylvia eventually marries her cousin. This act is primarily prompted out of gratefulness for Philip's assistance during a difficult time following her father's imprisonment and subsequent execution for leading a revengeful raid on press-gang collaborators. They have a daughter. Inevitably, Kinraid returns to claim Sylvia and she discovers that Philip knew all the time that he was still alive. Philip leaves her in despair at her subsequent rage and rejection, but she refuses to live with Kinraid because of her child.

Reconciliation • (1924) • shortstory by E. F. BensonThe Face • (1924) • shortstory by E. F. BensonSpinach • (1924) • shortstory by E. F. BensonBagnell Terrace • (1925) • shortstory by E. F. BensonA Tale of an Empty House • (1925) • shortstory by E. F. BensonNaboth's Vineyard • (1923) • shortstory by E. F. BensonExpiation • (1923) • shortstory by E. F. BensonHome, Sweet Home • (1927) • shortstory by E. F. BensonAnd No Bird Sings • (1926) • shortstory by E. F. Benson (variant of "And No Bird Sings")The Corner House • (1926) • shortstory by E. F. BensonCorstophine • (1924) • shortstory by E. F. BensonThe Temple • (1924) • shortstory by E. F. Benson

From the waters of Montauk to the mountains of the Caucasus and Paris in war times, these stories take you on a whirlwind tour that open unexpected vistas and insights. The book contains both memoir and fiction, told in the candid voice of a man who has lived through the 20th century’s major conflagrations, and seen much sadness, without losing his sense of humor .A great, enjoyable read for all.If every person’s life story can fill a book, Redjeb Jordania's can fill a bookshelf. The brilliant stories in this collection are just a small taste of the vast panorama of his experiences.From the waters of Montauk to the mountains of the Caucasus and Paris in war times, these stories take you on a whirlwind tour that open unexpected vistas and insights. The title story refers to Daghestan, a semi-autonomous region of the former Soviet Union, between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea, on the border of the republic of Georgia. Air distance between New York and Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, is 5,572 miles. Nearly 6,000 miles is far enough for an escape, but for Mr. Jordania the trip was actually a return to the land of his ancestors—a land he has never lived in due to its turbulent political history.Mr. Jordania is the son of the first president of pre-soviet Georgia, Noe Jordania, who had to flee the Red Army’s takeover in 1921, after only three years in office. Redjeb Jordania was born and educated in Paris, so that in the short story “A Hunting Trip to Daghestan,” he finds himself “a foreigner … barely able to speak the Georgian language” in the once-again independent republic.The book contains both memoir and fiction, all told in the candid voice of a man who has lived through the 20th century’s major conflagrations, and seen much sadness, without losing his sense of humor. The book is divided into two sections, Part I, subtitled “From far away in time and space,” and Part II, “closer to home.”The autobiographical stories in part one include the moving “Closing the Circle,” in which the author returns to the village where his father’s and grandfather’s house once stood. It is now “a grassy lot where a pair of long-haired black piglets were scurrying, hunting for chestnuts.” The villagers tell him that the family graves have been demolished—but a magnolia tree, planted by Jordania senior, remains, “regal now.”“The Music Lesson” is an account of Mr. Jordania’s early, and lasting, involvement with music, beginning with piano lessons from an eccentric, hard-drinking teacher and going on to a musical evening during World War II in Paris, when an Allied bombardment “offered an astonishing spectacle of son et lumiére.” “Is where they got the idea?” he wonders.In another wartime story, “A Surprise Party,” a group of Resistance fighters hide two British airmen who have managed to parachute into German-occupied France. The students in charge of helping them stay alive disguise the pilots as “Georgians”—because “nobody knows what a Georgian is supposed to look like.” It is a close call when the dreaded “milice” arrive to check everyone’s papers.More upbeat stories from “closer to home” recount adventures on the waters off Long Island—an encounter between the author’s small trimaran and the America Cup race—and a whimsical “Letter from the New World," in which Mr. Jordania recounts his epiphany that “there is no such country as the USA”—it is a joint invention of Madison Avenue and Hollywood!These stories by this multitalented, well-traveled author offer unique personal insights into recent political and social history on both sides of the Atlantic. A must read.

NICK CARTER DETECTIVE STORY COLLECTION contains seven complete 'Nick Carter' mysteries featuring venerable private detective Nick Carter. Nick Carter first appeared as a pulp fiction private detective in dime novels during the 1880s, and has also appeared as an action hero, and since the 1960s, a super spy. Includes an active table of contents with back-linking for easy navigation. • Nick Carter Detective, No. 1• The Crime of the French Café• Nick Carter’s Ghost Story• The Mystery of St. Agnes’ Hospital• With Links of Steel• The Great Spy System• A Woman at Bay Nick Carter is a pseudonym used by various authors who have contributed to the 'Nick Carter' series, which are usually written in first person. Ostensibly written by Nick Carter himself, the books in this series were the work of John R. Coryell (1848–1924), Frederick Van Rensselaer Dey (1861–1922), Thomas C. Harbaugh (1849–1924), and Eugene T. Sawyer (1847–1924). The definitive description of Nicholas J. Huntington Carter is given in the first novel in the series Run, Spy, Run. Carter is tall (over 6 feet / 1.83 m), lean and handsome with a classic profile and magnificently muscled body. He has wide-set steel gray eyes that are icy, cruel and dangerous. He is hard-faced, with a firm straight mouth, laugh-lines around the eyes, and a firm cleft chin. His hair is thick and dark. He has a small tattoo of a blue axe on the inside right lower arm near the elbow - the ultimate ID for an AXE agent. At least one novel states that the tattoo glows in the dark. Carter also has a knife scar on the shoulder, a shrapnel scar on the right thigh. He has a sixth sense for danger.Carter practices yoga for at least 15 minutes a day. Carter has a prodigious ability for learning foreign languages. He is fluent in English (his native tongue), Cantonese,[2] French,[3] German,[3][4] Hungarian,[5] Italian,[3] Portuguese,[6] Putonghua (Mandarin),[7] Russian,[7][8] Spanish[9] and Vietnamese.[10][11] He has basic skills in Arabic,[12] Hindustani,[13] Romansch,[3] Swahili,[12] and Turkish.[14] In the early novels, Carter often assumes a number of elaborate disguises in order to execute his missions.The name Nick Carter was acknowledged by the series as having been inspired by the early 20th century pulp fiction detective of the same name in the 100th Killmaster volume (labelled Nick Carter 100) which included an essay on the earlier Nick Carter and included a Nick Carter detective short story alongside a Killmaster adventure.

What is the essence of a war museum?The Royal Road in the kingdom of Kesteva runs nearly 1,000 miles from the southeastern marchlands to the northwest coast. Skara Station, tucked into the marchlands of southeast Kesteva, is one of dozens of waystations along that highway of merchants, pilgrims, princes and commoners.What is the essence of a war museum?The Royal Road in the kingdom of Kesteva runs nearly 1,000 miles from the southeastern marchlands to the northwest coast. A tavern tale sometimes told by upperclass engineering students at the Royal University in Roxen starts with the proposition that the Road's meandering path was laid hundreds of years before Kesteva's founding by an off-course troll who was supposed to be delivering a wagonfull of spirits from the Parsian Mountains to a settlement on the Western Sea. The story is as funny, elaborate and off-color as the upperclassmen's imaginations allow, but the punchline is always that the rotue makes perfect sense from an engineering standpoint, which of course considers the wide variety of terrain the Road must cross as well as the locations of important towns and cities the engineers of old were charged to link.Skara Station, tucked into the marchlands of southeast Kesteva, is one of dozens of waystations along that highway of merchants, pilgrims, princes and commoners. It is fully equipped with a customs house, inn, milestone, gardens, warehouses, plaza and Royal Guard garrison tower. Its namesake town has only a few hundred residents but is a proud city, one of the original founded on Aelfric and Aelin's march to the sea.