Other books that might interest you

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  Mosses from an Old Manse

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

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  Immerse yourself in the haunting world of Nathaniel Hawthorne's masterpiece, Mosses from an Old Manse. Crafted from the depth of human complexities, this collection shines a ghostly light on the darker facets of our nature through allegories that captivate and challenge. Set against the historical backdrop of The Old Manse in Concord, these tales emerge from a place deeply entwined with American history and personal significance to Hawthorne. 
  Heralded by literary giants like Herman Melville for its "shrouded in blackness, ten times black" narrative, Mosses from an Old Manse offers readers a journey through stories that intricately blend the bright and somber aspects of human existence. Each tale reveals the genius of Hawthorne's craft, making it an essential exploration for those fascinated by the enduring themes of history, morality, and the complexities that lie within us all. 
  Discover why Mosses from an Old Manse stands as an immortal testament to American romanticism and dark romanticism. Let Hawthorne's ethereal prose guide you through a reflective journey into the human soul. 
  This audiobook was narrated and produced by RAM Studios, where humans and artificial intelligence collaborate to create an excellent listening experience. (The reading is done primarily by AI)

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  Always & Forever

  Kimberly Thomas

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  Erin had a plan . . . Go to college, become an advertising exec, marry her boyfriend of five years, and start a family—all in that order. 
   
   
   
  But even the best laid plans are no match for life's curveballs. Plagued by deception, rejection, and an unfortunate diagnosis, she runs away from the only life she's ever known to forge a new one. But like they say, the past always finds a way to catch up, and after suffering from panic attacks she is forced to step back into her old life as she recuperates. 
   
   
   
  Back in Oak Harbor with her family, Erin is forced to deal with the reason she distanced herself from them in the first place and when the two people she has been trying to avoid the most show up in the beautiful coastal town, she cannot escape the decisions she has to make that will either heal her wounds or break her into a million pieces. 
   
   
   
  Marg has been happy and thriving in her relationship with Ben. The only problem is going after the one thing she's always desired may prove to be more than Ben can handle. When her mother comes to stay with her, Marg finds herself in unfamiliar territory as she tries to navigate their new relationship.

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  The Goth House Experiment - And...

  SJ Sindu

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  An uncanny and electric story collection from SJ Sindu, Lambda Literary finalist and Publishing Triangle Edmund White Debut Fiction Award–winning author of Blue-Skinned Gods 
   
  In “Dark Academia and the Lesbian Masterdoc,” a millennial English professor finds viral fame on TikTok, but her newfound notoriety could wreck her already unstable life. In “Patriots’ Day,” a man having an affair finds himself caught up in larger currents of anti-Asian violence.  
  Throughout the collection, an array of loners and artists—a young poet haunted by the ghost of Oscar Wilde, a home brewer and wife during lockdown, a boy with wings—struggle for connection and fulfillment in a world battered by the pandemic and reactionary politics. A daring  
  writer with limitless range, SJ Sindu can depict shocking cruelty as readily as small moments of queer joy. The Goth House Experiment isa startling and very funny collection by one of America’s most exciting young voices.

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  The Trouble with Happiness - And...

  Tove Ditlevsen

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  The Trouble with Happiness is a short-story collection from Tove Ditlevsen, the acclaimed author of the Copenhagen Trilogy, never before translated in EnglishA newly married woman longs, irrationally, for a silk umbrella; a husband chases away his wife’s beloved cat; a betrayed mother impulsively sacks her housekeeper. Underneath the surface of these precisely observed tales of marriage and family life in mid-century Copenhagen pulse currents of desire, violence, and despair, as women and men struggle to escape from the roles assigned to them and dream of becoming free and happy—without ever truly understanding what that might mean.Tove Ditlevsen is one of Denmark’s most famous and beloved writers, and her autobiographical Copenhagen Trilogy was hailed as a masterpiece on re-publication in English, lauded for its wry humor, limpid prose, and powerful honesty. The poignant and understated stories in The Trouble with Happiness, written in the 1950s and 1960s and never before translated into English, offer readers a new chance to encounter the quietly devastating work of this essential twentieth-century writer.

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  Casting the Runes - From their...

  M R James

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  Montague Rhodes James is cited as perhaps the greatest English writer of ghost stories, an opinion few would disagree with. 
  James was born on 1st August 1862 at Goodnestone Parsonage in Kent, where his father was Curate but at age 3 the family went to live at Livermere, near Bury St Edmunds in East Anglia.  
  From early childhood he had a passion for mediaeval books and antiques. He was educated initially as a boarder at Temple Grove School in East Sheen, west London, before gaining a scholarship to Eton and thence Cambridge where he gained a double first, becoming a distinguished linguist and mediaevalist.  
  Before the Great War vacations were usually spent touring Europe absorbing cultures and references for his later writing. 
  A man of enormous knowledge it was said he timed his breakfast egg whilst he completed the Times crossword.  
  Many of his elegant yet terrifying tales were created by discarding the prevailing gothic cliches and placing his characters and narrative in a realistic setting.  Thereby the stories gained atmosphere and menace on a grand scale and he was famed as the originator of the antiquarian ghost story. 
  Although story-telling and writing these 30 or so tales was a hobby, when published their effect transformed the genre and still chill the bones in our more modern times. 
  James was also a medievalist scholar and translator whose work remains highly respected. He was also Provost of Eton College between 1918 and 1936. 
  M R James died on 12th June 1936 at Eton in Buckinghamshire.  He was 73.

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  A Lickpenny Lover - From their...

  O Henry

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  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.

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