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  The Self-Sacrificing Rabbit

  Nicolai Schedrin

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  Nicolai Schedrin was the nom de plume of Michail Saltickov (1826-1889), who was one of the greatest Russian storytellers who dealt with the theme of social ideals and struggles. He was a satirist of great force and remarkable invention. He uses allegories and great wit to lash out at complacency, self-indulgence and the cruelty of administrative powers. In "The Self-Sacrificing Rabbit" Schedrin creates a masterful tale full of barbed sarcasm for those who are too weak to oppose evil.

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  The Girl Who Married a Lion -...

  Alexander McCall Smith

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  From the author of "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency," this completely charming collection of 40 tales from the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe and the Setswana people of Botswana demonstrates the wealth and variety of traditional African folk tales.

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  The Final Problem

  Arthur Conan Doyle

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  Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 22nd May 1859.  His childhood was blighted by his father’s heavy drinking which for some years broke up the family. Fortunately, wealthy uncles were willing to support them by paying for education and clothing.  
   
  He was accepted at the University of Edinburgh to study medicine and also began to write short stories the first, ‘The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe’, was published in Blackwood’s Magazine.  Despite several other stories and some articles in the British Medical Journal his medical studies took priority. 
   
  When these finished he was appointed as Doctor on the Greenland whaler ‘Hope of Peterhead’ in 1880 and then, after graduation, as ship’s surgeon on the SS Mayumba on its voyage to West Africa. 
   
  1882 saw a move to Plymouth and his own independent practice. With few patients he resumed writing and completed his first novel, ‘The Mystery of Cloomber’, although most of his output was short stories based on his experiences at sea.  
   
  He married Louisa Hawkins in 1885. However, two years later he met and fell in love with Jean Elizabeth Leckie, though they remained platonic out of respect for, and loyalty to, his wife. 
   
  His literary career suddenly burst into life in November 1886 with ‘A Study In Scarlet’, the first of the fabulously successful Sherlock Holmes stories.  
   
  With two children to support he now revisited his haphazard commercial arrangements and curtailed everything save for commissions from the Strand Magazine.  
   
  As a sportsman he was remarkably proficient. He was goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club and played ten first-class cricket matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club as well as captain of the Crowborough Beacon Golf Club in East Sussex.  
   
  In 1891 tired of writing Holmes stories, he began a series of historical novels and even went so far as to apparently kill off Holmes in a lethal brawl with his arch-nemesis Moriarty. 
   
  Despite heavy and sustained criticism he continued to write in support of the Boer War, a fact he thought contributed to his knighthood in 1902.  The following year to great relief and acclaim he brought Sherlock Holmes back from the dead in his first outing for a decade. 
   
  Sadly, his wife Louisa died from TB in 1906 and, a year later, he at last married Jean.  
   
  During the War and for several years after family deaths had left him depressed. In a search for solace and answers he alighted upon spiritualism and, such was his interest, that he wrote several books on the subject. 
   
  On 7th July 1930 Conan Doyle was discovered in the hall of Windlesham Manor, his house in East Sussex, clutching his chest dying of a heart attack.  He was 71.

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  Tales From the Graveyard - The...

  Susan Shultz

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  In a pleasant little New England town, there is a house on a hill. Its garden is decorated with gravestones. The house has stood for ages now, and occupants have come and gone. But those who died there never leave. They just watch…and wait. Susan Shultz's haunting Tales From the Graveyard series is now available in one complete digital collection.The Blacksmith. Jessie. Dirt. Sam. Read Tales From the Graveyard: The Complete Collection today, and you'll see. Our ghosts never leave us.Contains content that may be graphic to some readers. Mature audiences only.

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  On Christmas Day in the Evening

  Grace S. Richmond

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  The Fernalds, who now always share the holidays together, decide to try to reunite their community as well by re-opening the village church after schisms have shut its doors. First published in 1910, this short tale continues the story of the Fernald family that began with the 1908 short novel On Christmas Day in the Morning.

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  Captains Courageous

  Rudyard Kipling

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  This dramatic nineteenth-century nautical adventure and classic coming-of-age story is one of Rudyard Kipling’s most enduringly popular works. Harvey Cheyne Jr., the teenage son of a millionaire American railroad tycoon, is sailing to Europe on a luxury liner when he falls overboard off the coast of Newfoundland. He’s saved from drowning by the We’re Here, a New England fishing schooner captained by Disko Troop. He’s alive, but his tough new companions find him to be spoiled and ignorant.   Desperate to get back to the world he knows, Harvey must prove his worth as one of the crew by mastering the challenging tasks and physical labor of life at sea. With help from the captain’s son, Dan, he braves a number of risky exploits and adventures as they travel along the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Shedding his expectations of a pampered life, Harvey begins to embrace the tough work of a fisherman.   Filled with thrilling action, this classic sea story will delight and excite readers of all ages.  

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