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  The Book Class

  Louis Auchincloss

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  The author of Exit Lady Masham explores the lives of twelve members of a high society ladies’ book club in New York over the course of sixty years. 
   
  “If I have a bias it is in my suspicion that women are intellectually and intuitively superior to men,” writes Christopher Gates, the narrator of this book. “But,” he adds, “I certainly never thought they were “nicer.” And I very much doubt that anyone could think so who was raised, as I was, in a society in which the female had so many more privileges than the male.” Thus, he describes the twelve women who—as debutantes— instituted his mother’s “book class” in 1908 and met every month for over sixty years to discuss a selected title, old or new. 
   
  During their lifetimes, these women did not have any real political or economic clout comparable to that of the men of their day. Only Adeline Bloodgood had ever held a regular job, and only Polly Travers, as a State Assemblywoman, ever played a formal role in politics. For Georgia Bristed, “the hostess had largely consumed the woman,” and Leila Lee was “a beauty in a day when simply being beautiful was considered an adequate occupation.” 
   
  Although most of them were surrounded by a staff of servants and had no discernible responsibilities, these women still lived with serious intent backed by a considerable and undeniable power that in no way derived from “the snares and lures of womanly wiles.” Within the protected discipline of their surroundings, their lives were filled with drama and challenge—moments of passion, of betrayal and loyalty, of sweet revenge and joyless conquest, of irony and illumination . . .

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  Guns of Liberty

  Kerry Newcomb

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  As a revolution nears, Daniel McQueen must choose to fight for his family or a new nationIt has been eleven years since Daniel McQueen fled his father’s blacksmith shop to find his way in the North American wilderness. A strapping young adventurer, as quick to duel as he is to sweep a barmaid off her feet, McQueen thrives in the untamed new continent. But on a trip through Montreal, he learns his father has been arrested, consigned to a Boston prison ship for selling guns to the American revolutionaries. A British major offers to spare McQueen’s father in exchange for a simple request: kill George Washington, leader of the rebel troops.For the sake of his father, this lone wolf is forced to choose sides. The love of a stunning patriot turns his heart toward rebellion. No matter what, Daniel McQueen will be a traitor. But to which side?

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  The Luck of Roaring Camp - And...

  Bret Harte

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  The defining stories from one of America’s great wits In the mid-nineteenth century, the Wild West grabbed ahold of American consciousness and never let go. With the discovery of gold, all eyes and wagons turned westward. This collection of stories brings readers back to the American frontier. In “The Luck of Roaring Camp,” when a Native American woman dies in childbirth, the miners take it upon themselves to raise the child. Naming the baby Luck, the miners learn more about responsibility and class through raising the boy than they have through anything else in their lives. Other stories in the collection include classic prospecting-set short stories such as “Tennessee’s Partner” and “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” and the short novels “Muck-a-Muck” and “Selina Sedilia.” In this timeless collection, Bret Harte has captured the California gold rush as no other writer could. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

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  The House on the Lagoon - A Novel

  Rosario Ferré

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  Finalist for the National Book Award: “A family saga in the manner of Gabriel García Márquez,” set in Puerto Rico, from an extraordinary storyteller (The New York Times Book Review). This riveting, multigenerational epic tells the story of two families and the history of Puerto Rico through the eyes of Isabel Monfort and her husband, Quintín Mendizabal. Isabel attempts to immortalize their now-united families—and, by extension, their homeland—in a book. The tale that unfolds in her writing has layers upon layers, exploring the nature of love, marriage, family, and Puerto Rico itself. Weaving the intimate with the expansive on a teeming stage, Ferré crafts a revealing self-portrait of a man and a woman, two fiercely independent people searching for meaning and identity. As Isabel declares: “Nothing is true, nothing is false, everything is the color of the glass you’re looking through.” A book about freeing oneself from societal and cultural constraints, The House on the Lagoon also grapples with bigger issues of life, death, poverty, and racism. Mythological in its breadth and scope, this is a masterwork from an extraordinary storyteller.

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  Hannibal

  Jacob Abbott

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  There are certain names which are familiar, as names, to all mankind; and every person who seeks for any degree of mental cultivation, feels desirous of informing himself of the leading outlines of their history, that he may know, in brief, what it was in their characters or their doings which has given them so widely-extended a fame. Consequently, great historical names alone are selected; and it has been the writer's aim to present the prominent and leading traits in their characters, and all the important events in their lives, in a bold and free manner, and yet in the plain and simple language which is so obviously required in works which aim at permanent and practical usefulness. This volume is dedicated to Hannibal. (Summary from the preface of the book)

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  The Bloody Legionnaires - An...

  Geoffrey Davison

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  Lieutenant Ducan has a political fugitive in his ranks . . .Ethiopia, 1976A rebel without a cause, Lieutenant Simon Ducan is bored with desk duty and longs for excitement and danger. When he is drafted into the brutal French Foreign Legion, the undistinguished lieutenant has a chance to prove himself.In the blistering terrain of Ethiopia, Ducan is tasked with finding "the Fox"—a valuable Russian defector seeking protection from the Legion. But when he receives word that three women are being held ransom by rival forces, his mission becomes a thrilling chase across the desert.With all his men operating under assumed identities, Ducan must work out who he can trust. And when the legionnaires' enemies begin to catch up with them, he is thrown into a desperate race against time to uncover "the Fox" before more lives are lost . . .

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