Other books that might interest you

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  The Adventures of Dr Thorndyke

  R. Austin Freeman

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  Written by R.Austin Freeman, The Adventures of Dr Thorndyke (also sometimes known as The Singing Bone) present five tales of crime and forensic detection from the inventor of the inverted detective story:The Case of Oscar BrodskiA lost diamond merchant chances upon the house of a fence and burglar, with fatal consequences...A Case of PremeditationWhere a former prison guard tries his hand at blackmail, to his cost...The Echo of a MutinyOn a lonely lighthouse, a man, hiding from the world, has a chance encounter with the one person he least expected to ever see, and vice-versa...A Wastrel's RomanceDown on his luck, and living by his wits, a disgraced former officer attends a Spinsters ball under false pretences and looking for an easy score to put food on the table, but a chance encounter leaves him running for his life...The Old LagA reformed criminal comes to Dr Thorndyke, claiming he's been framed for murder. The fingerprint evidence seems conclusive... but is all as it appears?Narrated by Michael Ward.

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  Gutta Percha Willie

  George MacDonald

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  The story of an industrious young boy who seeks to bring goodness to the world—from the nineteenth-century Scottish author of Ranald Bannerman’s Boyhood. While still editing the magazine Good Words for the Young, MacDonald wrote this second “boy’s novel,” unconnected with but written for a similar audience as Ranald Bannerman’s story. Inventive young Willie Macmichael turns everything about him to creative uses, hungrily learning from the grown-ups around him, prompting MacDonald’s subtitle, “The Working Genius.” Though one of MacDonald’s lesser-known titles, editor Michael Phillips comments, “MacDonald’s strongest and most eternal contribution to the world lies in the realm of spiritual practicality. Willie epitomizes the practicality of growing into one’s place in God’s general business. This story therefore deserves to be considered one of MacDonald’s memorable portrayals of that eternal imperative. I love this book!” Gutta Percha Willie was MacDonald’s only book published in 1873, released while he was on a lecture tour in America.

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  The Ransom of Red Chief - An O...

  O. Henry

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  The Ransom of Red Chief may be the most widely read story in grammar, middle, and high school. Young people can relate to 10 year old Red Chief, his father who makes the kidnappers pay him back in order to take Red Chief off their hands plus come in darkness so others don’t jail them, and all the antics and excitement of it all. It is not read or heard widely after one leaves high school, which is a shame because it is such a magical story about expectations being crushed by realities, and the turn of events which O’Henry was so masterful at achieving, as in The Gift of the Magi, too, the other best known O’Henry story that Simply has also recorded. The humor is Southwestern style, with some of the violence of that frontier humor immortalized by Mark Twain. We think of O’Henry as a New Yorker due to his successful story collections focused on New York such as The Four Million and The Trimmed Lamp, but he spent time in Texas on various speculations and, in fact, wound up in a Texas jail for three years before coming to New York and prospering with his unique story telling ability. The Texas influence is strongly felt here, not just in Southwestern humor, but the sense of space and vistas, with few people populating them. A final thought for the reader: Is there anyone similar to O’Henry in style? We can’t think of one and that is another reason to listen to these stories. We believe most Southwestern humor in short stories even better heard than read. The Ransom of Red Chief, The Gift of the Magi, and Mark Twain’s short stories are no exceptions.  As with all Simply short stories, you should enjoy the ideas put forth in the introduction and afterword.O'Henry's other two best loved stories are also recorded: The Cop and the Anthem and A Retrieved Reformation. Keywords: Ransom, Southwestern humor, Mark Twain, Gift of the Magi, O’Henry, New York, the Four Million, The Trimmed Lamp.

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  No Fond Return of Love - A Novel

  Barbara Pym

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  Three lonely people come together in this poignant, witty novel of star-crossed romance from the New York Times bestselling author of Jane and Prudence. 
  After being jilted by her fiancé, Dulcie Mainwaring despairs of ever finding true love. For a distraction, she goes to a publishing conference, where she meets Viola Dace, a dramatic woman who refuses to live without romance, as well as Aylwin Forbes, an editor whom Viola adores. The fact that Aylwin is married doesn't stop Viola. When her amorous pursuit prompts Aylwin's wife to leave him, the academic heartthrob is wide open to Viola's romantic attentions. That is, until Dulcie's eighteen-year-old niece moves in with Viola, and the young girl soon catches Aylwin's roving eye.  
  Set in London in the early 1960s, No Fond Return of Love is a delightful comedy of manners that comes full circle as Dulcie discovers a love as unexpected as it is liberating.

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  The Watcher by the Threshold

  John Buchan

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  John Buchan (1875 - 1940) was a scottish writer, barrister, Member of Parliament and later become Baron Tweedsmuir and Govenor-General of Canada. While he was most famous for adventure stories, such as The Thirty-nine Steps, he was also popular for his supernatural horror stories, of which The Watcher by the Threshold is a prime example.When Harry Grey receives a mysterious summons from his cousin Sybil to visit her and her husband Robert Ladlaw at their remote scottish estate, he is taken aback by the urgency of the postscript. "For Heaven's sake come and see us!" she writes. "Bob is terribly ill, and I am crazy. Come at once." And then to finish: "Don't bother about bringing doctors. It is not their business."When Grey undertakes the dismal journey to the House of More where the Ladlaws live, he finds a situation far more mysterious and terrifying than he could ever have imagined.Ladlaw is in the grips of a terrible possession... and Sybil is at her wits end. Ladlaw's split personality is so bizarre that it is sometimes hard to grasp who has the upper hand.

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  The Yellow Wallpaper and Other...

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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  This collection brings together twelve of the finest short stories of prominent American feminist author Charlotte Perkins Gilman. "The Yellow Wallpaper," Gilman's best-known work, was first published in 1892 and represents an important examination of nineteenth-century attitudes toward women's physical and mental health. Written as a collection of journal entries by a woman whose physician husband has confined her to her bedroom, the story depicts the narrator's descent into psychosis as her confinement gradually erodes her sanity. This collection also includes the stories "The Giant Wistaria," "According to Solomon," "The Boys and the Butter," "Her Housekeeper," "Martha's Mother," "A Middle-Sized Artist," "An Offender," "When I Was a Witch," "The Cottagette," "Making a Living," and "Mr. Robert Grey Sr."

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