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  Earth Angel - Stories

  Madeline Cash

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  In this expanded reissue of her electric debut collection, Madeline Cash, the author of the international bestseller Lost Lambs, synthesizes the godlessness of a digital age into a glimmering, life-affirming collage of stories.  Life is absurd; so is Earth Angel.Tales of rebellious schoolgirls and apocalypse-fearing marketing executives. A biblical plague that rains sapient frogs. A childless millennial throwing a slumber party. A young couple trying experimental drugs toreignite their relationship. Blending reverence and ridicule, the stories that make up Earth Angel are bizarre, playful, inextricably linked, hyper-modern yet timeless. What shines through is Madeline Cash’s undeniable affection for the denizens of this strange and surreal world—a place that is at times dark, but not without hope for the future.

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  Edna Ferber: One Hundred Percent

  Edna Ferber

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  Edna Ferber, known for her prize winning novels such as Show Boat, Cimarron and Giant, writes a delightful story here of Emma McChesney, no longer a successful traveling salesperson for a New York dress manufacturer, as she now enjoys her marriage to a wonderful man. Both successful in their areas they live in New York and have two children. But this is during the Great War and Emma goes from designing better uniforms for the doughboys to actually joining the military. Her keen intelligence and organizational ability find an outlet here worthy of her mettle.

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  Joseph Conrad - Six of the Best...

  Joseph Conrad

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  Joseph Conrad was born on 3rd December 1857 in Berdychiv in the Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire.  His birthplace had been part of Poland which its neighbours dismembered into their own Empires. 
  Conrad’s early years were spent in constant moveme

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  Medusa's Coil

  H. P. Lovecraft

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  Venture into the dark and mysterious world of H. P. Lovecraft’s Medusa's Coil, a tale that combines supernatural horror with a chilling sense of foreboding. When a man arrives at an isolated mansion, he uncovers the terrifying secrets hidden within, secrets that reveal an ancient evil lurking beneath the surface. As the story unfolds, he becomes entangled in a web of dread, deception, and doom, leading to an unforgettable climax that will haunt the listener long after the tale ends. 
  Narrated by Ken Kowalik, this audiobook captures Lovecraft’s unique blend of atmospheric suspense and cosmic horror. Kowalik’s performance brings a rich, ominous depth to the story, enhancing the eerie ambience and drawing listeners into the gripping tension of Lovecraft’s writing. 
  Perfect for fans of Lovecraftian horror, Medusa's Coil delivers a compelling journey into the uncanny and the unknown. Prepare for an audio experience filled with suspense, terror, and the dark allure of Lovecraft’s most haunting themes.

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  The Affair At Coulter's Creek -...

  Ambrose Bierce

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  Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on 24th June 1842 at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio. His parents were poor but they introduced him to literature at an early age, instilling in him a deep appreciation of books, the written word and the elegance of language.  
  Growing up in Koscuisko County, Indiana poverty and religion were defining features of his childhood, and he would later describe his parents as “unwashed savages” and fanatically religious, showing him little affection but always quick to punish. He came to resent religion, and his introduction to literature appears to be their only positive effect. 
  At age 15 Bierce left home to become a printer’s devil, mixing ink and fetching type at The Northern Indian, a small Ohio paper. Falsely accused of theft he returned to his farm and spent time sending out work in the hopes of being published. 
  His Uncle Lucius advised he be sent to the Kentucky Military Institute. A year later he was commissioned as an Officer.  As the Civil War started Bierce enlisted in the 9th Indiana Infantry Regiment.  
  In April 1862 Bierce fought at the Battle of Shiloh, an experience which, though terrifying, became the source of several short stories. Two years later he sustained a serious head wound and was off duty for several months. He was discharged in early 1865.  
  A later expedition to inspect military outposts across the Great Plains took him all the way to San Francisco. He remained there to become involved with publishing and editing and to marry, Mary Ellen on Christmas Day 1871.  They had a child, Day, the following year.  
  In 1872 the family moved to England for 3 years where he wrote for Fun magazine. His son, Leigh, was born, and first book, ‘The Fiend’s Delight’, was published.  
  They returned to San Francisco and to work for a number of papers where he gained admiration for his crime reporting. In 1887 he began a column at the William Randolph Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner.  
  Bierce’s marriage fell apart when he discovered compromising letters to his wife from a secret admirer. The following year, 1889 his son Day committed suicide, depressed by romantic rejection. 
  In 1891 Bierce wrote and published the collection of 26 short stories which included ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’.  Success and further works including poetry followed.  
  Bierce with Hearst’s resources helped uncover a financial plot by a railroad to turn 130 million dollars of loans into a handout. Confronted by the railroad and asked to name his price Bierce answered “my price is $130 million dollars. If, when you are ready to pay, I happen to be out of town, you may hand it over to my friend, the Treasurer of the United States”.  
  He now began his first foray as a fabulist, publishing ‘Fantastic Fables’ in 1899.  But tragedy again struck two years later when his second son Leigh died of pneumonia relating to his alcoholism.  
  He continued to write short stories and poetry and also published ‘The Devil’s Dictionary’.  
  At the age of 71, in 1913 Bierce departed from Washington, D.C., for a tour of the battlefields where he had fought during the civil war. At the city of Chihuahua he wrote his last known communication, a letter to a friend. It’s closing words were “as to me, I leave here tomorrow for an unknown destination,” Ambrose Bierce then vanished without trace.

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  Désirée's Baby - From their pens...

  Kate Chopin

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  Katherine O'Flaherty was born on the 8th February 1850 in St Louis, Missouri to parents of French and Irish descent. 
  At age 5, she was sent to the Sacred Heart Academy and, apart from a 2 year period at home when her father died, remained there until graduating in 1868.  Whilst there she began writing and became an avid reader of almost anything that crossed her path.   
  Kate married Oscar Chopin in 1870 and the couple moved to New Orleans, and later to the rural setting of Cloutierville, Louisiana to raise their 6 children.  
  In 1882 her husband died leaving her in a deep trench of debt.  Despite her best efforts to turn the businesses around they were sold, and she moved the family back to St Louis and the financial help of her mother.  Sadly, her mother died within the year.  Kate, now struggling with depression, pushed herself to write and gained a local reputation as a writer of short stories that captured the local color and vibrancy of her surroundings.  
  By the early 1890’s her short stories were published nationally.  With this widespread audience also came negative reviews, controversy, and cries of immorality as themes such as interracial relationships, the rights of women and other burning issues of the day were written about. 
  Despite the criticism, which unnerved her, she continued to write though in the main her works, around 100 short stories and two novels, were not attributed with any literary worth. 
  Kate Chopin died from a brain haemorrhage in St Louis Missouri on the 22nd of August 1904.  She was 54. 
  For much of the 20th Century her work was forgotten and out of print.  It was only in early 1970’s, with the rise of feminism and the call for a more just society that she was given the status her works had long described and shone a literary light at.  She is now safely revered as one of America’s great authors.

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