Other books that might interest you

• 

  Top 10 Short Stories The -...

  Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe,...

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart.  A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. 
   
  In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?  
   
  The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme.  Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. 
   
  Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made.  If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. 
   
  In this volume that most heinous of crimes is explored and dissected by the minds of our classic authors who show that the taking of another’s life in print is so real that the possibility arises that they have carried out this deed in reality.  Genius has many names. 
   
  01 - The Top 10 - Murder - An Introduction 
  02 - Lord Arthur Savile's Crime - Part 1 by Oscar Wilde 
  03 - Lord Arthur Savile's Crime - Part 2 by Oscar Wilde 
  04 - The Cask of Amontillardo by Edgar Allan Poe 
  05 - Claude Gueux by Victor Hugo 
  06 - In The Dark by Edith Nesbit 
  07 - Brothers by Sherwood Anderson 
  08 - The Kit Bag by Algernon Blackwood 
  09 - Mateo Falcone by Prosper Merimee 
  10 - A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell 
  11 - In A Grove by Ryunosuke Akutagawa 
  12 - The Repairer of Reputations - Part 1 by Robert W Chambers 
  13 - The Repairer of Reputations - Part 2 by Robert W Chambers

  Show book

• 

  Out of The Mud Came a Lotus -...

  Laura Bushnell

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Out of the Mud Came a Lotus is the remarkable memoir of Laura Bushnell—spiritual guide, teacher, and healer—whose life has been shaped by both profound tragedy and extraordinary mystical awakenings. From childhood premonitions and encounters with the unseen to retreats with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, sacred women’s circles in Hawaii, and decades of guiding others around the world, Laura’s story is one of resilience, trust, and transformation. She faced heartbreak, loss, and uncertainty, yet each challenge became fertile ground for wisdom, compassion, and service. Told with luminous honesty, her journey reveals how the darkest moments can blossom into light. This inspiring memoir invites readers to embrace their own path of healing, to trust the voice within, and to discover that love is the power that helps us rise—like the lotus—out of the mud, into full bloom.

  Show book

• 

  Fervent Freedom Fighters -...

  Daniel Cosculluela

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This anthology brings to light the richness of the pamphleteer tradition in France, between the 16th and 20th centuries. Though satirists and pamphleteers have emerged out of various political backgrounds down through the centuries, what they have in common is irreverence, courage and insubordination to all forms of power. Among them: Blanqui, Bloy, Desmoulins, Libertad, Proudhon, Rivarol, Séverine Vallès and Zo d'Axa.
  At a time when freedom of expression is increasingly questioned, Daniel Cosculluela wanted to resurrect the fighting spirit of those who acted and wrote, often at the risk of their lives. Many of these fighters for freedom of speech and thought had to flee their countries to avoid prison or assassination. 
  The author wanted to engage in a dialogue with those who live on through our thoughts, dreams and revolts. His choices are personal, but the writers selected have all played a major role in the movement of ideas which inspire, consciously or not, the commitment and the choises of millions of men and women today.

  Show book

• 

  A Lickpenny Lover - From their...

  O Henry

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  William Sydney Porter was born on 11th September 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. At age 3 his mother died from tuberculosis. From an early age it was clear Porter had a large appetite for reading as he absorbed the world around him. 
  He first attended at a school run by his aunt before enrolling at the Lindsey Street High School and then worked at his uncle’s drugstore and gained a pharmacists’ license in 1881.  
  A persistent cough took him to Texas in the hope that a change of climate would help his symptoms. He took on various types of work, initially from ranch hand and cook and then as varied as pharmacist, draftsman, bank teller and journalist. He also began to write, though for now, purely as a hobby. 
  He was a member of several singing and dramatic groups when he met 17 year old Athol Estes, daughter of a wealthy Austin family. Despite her mother’s objection owing to Athol’s tuberculosis, they began courting and in July 1887, they eloped and soon married. 
  Athol, impressed by his writing, encouraged him to get them published. A job as a draftsman at the Texas General Land Office paid a healthy $100 dollars per month and life was good. 
  But then life turned cruel. His son died a few hours after birth although a daughter, Margaret, came the following year.  His job had to be vacated but another was found at the First National Bank of Austin. The bank operated informally and Porter was careless in keeping the books. He lost that job but began writing for the humourous weekly The Rolling Stone and the Houston Post. Some time later the federal Bank auditors went through his former accounts and he was arrested on charges of embezzlement. 
  Porter fled the day before his trial to Honduras. Holed up for several months he began to write.  Athol had become too ill to travel to meet him and learning that her health was deteriorating he surrendered to the court in February 1897.  Bail was obtained so that he could stay with Athol during her final days.  
  Porter was sentenced to five years at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. His pharmacy qualifications got him the job of night druggist.  His sentence also gave him time to write and publish fourteen short stories. In December 1899 in McClure’s Magazine he published a short story as O Henry.  
  He was released two years early in July 1901, and reunited with Margaret, now 11, in Pittsburgh.  He now began his most prolific period of writing; a short story per week for the New York World, while also publishing works in other magazines.  Eventually over 600 of his short stories were published. 
  Porter was a heavy drinker and in 1908 his health, which had deteriorated for several years, took a dramatic turn for the worse, as did his writing.  
  O Henry died of cirrhosis of the liver complicated by diabetes and an enlarged heart on 5th June 1910.

  Show book

• 

  Rare Recording of Marcus Garvey...

  Marcus Garvey

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Marcus Garvey (August 17, 1887 - June 10, 1940) was a charismatic Jamaican-born political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) and acted as its President-General. In 1916 he moved to New York City where his prominence grew. By 1919 he was considered to be the “Black Moses,” and he claimed a following of over 2 million people. This recording is from a speech he gave in the 1920s.

  Show book

• 

  Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell?

  Horace Greasley

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Even in the most horrifying places on earth, hope still lingers in the darkness, waiting for the opportunity to take flight. 
   
   
   
  When war was declared Horace Greasley was just twenty-years old. After seven weeks' training with the 2/5th Battalion, the Royal Leicestershire Regiment, Horace found himself facing the might of the German Army in a muddy field south of Cherbourg, in northern France, with just thirty rounds in his ammunition pouch. 
   
   
   
  Horace's war didn't last long . . . On May 25, 1940 he was taken prisoner and so began the harrowing journey to a prisoner-of-war camp in Poland. Those who survived the grueling ten-week march to the camp were left broken and exhausted, all chance of escape seemingly extinguished. 
   
   
   
  But when Horace met Rosa, the daughter of one of his captors, his story changed; fate, it seemed, had thrown him a lifeline. Horace risked everything in order to steal out of the camp to see his love, bringing back supplies for his fellow prisoners. In doing so he offered hope to his comrades, and defiance to one of the most brutal regimes in history.

  Show book