Publisher: Alien Ebooks
An austere young scientist is humanized by a brilliant lawyer and his beautiful wife. Terry is a riveting tale of personal growth, enveloped in a tapestry of complex emotions and relationships.
This novel of the Salem Witch Trials from the point of view of a judge is “leavened with wit [and] finely crafted” (Kirkus Reviews). In a colony struggling for survival, in a mysterious new world where infant mortality is high and sin is to blame, Samuel Sewall is committed to being a loving family man, a good citizen, and a fair-minded judge. Like any believing Puritan, he agonizes over what others think of him, while striving to act morally correct, keep the peace, and, when possible, enjoy a hefty slice of pie. His one regret is that months earlier, he didn’t sentence a group of pirates to death. What begins as a touching story of a bumbling man tasked with making judgments in a society where reason is often ephemeral quickly becomes the chilling narrative we know too well. And when public opinion wavers, Sewall learns that what has been done cannot be undone. Crane Pond explores the inner life of a well-meaning man who compromised with evil and went on to regret it. At once a searing view of the Trials, an empathetic portrait of one of the period’s most tragic figures, and an indictment of the malevolent power of idealism, it is a thrilling new telling of one of America’s founding stories. “[Crane Pond] goes straight on to my (small) list of historical novels that draw out the capacities of the form and allow readers to brush against the pleasures and terrors of the past.” —Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall “Deftly crafted . . . perfectly balances issues of religion, faith, and law.” —Library JournalShow book
While aimed at youths, this series of tales of the just-opening West makes a rollicking good story for adults, too. Three teen-age boys, trained as telegraphers, manage to get themselves in and out of a wide variety of harrowing circumstances. Using their knowledge of Morse code, the science of telegraphs, and the operation of railroads, the boys stir in native resourcefulness, quick-thinking, and when the occasion demands it, raw courage - to effect rescues, thwart thieves, and solve mysteries. If Tom Swift had lived in the nineteenth century, he could not have had more exciting escapades! (Summary by Mark F. Smith)Show book
A widowed homesteader is determined to make a life in the unforgiving mountains of late 19th century Oregon in this “powerful novel of struggle and loss” (Dallas morning News).Acclaimed author Molly Gloss drew on pioneer diaries and old family stories to write this modern Western classic of a solitary woman’s frontier life. In the 1890s, Lydia Sanderson leaves her old life behind and journey’s to Jump-Off Creek to make her way as a homesteader. Enduring the hardships and deprivations of Oregon’s high mountain country, Lydia finds both courage and community in her determination to survive. This “unsparing portrait of pioneer life, recounted simply and without romanticism” displays an “intimate understanding of the harsh physical conditions” of the Western frontier, as well as the methods and practices that made such conditions livable (Publishers Weekly).Show book
First-wave feminism takes front and center in this fearless novel, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, about women determined to succeed in a man’s world—only to be foiled by their own ambition “A Woman Needs a Man Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle.” It’s the 1970s, and the sexual revolution is just beginning. Four women have decided to open a feminist publishing house. Named in honor of the gorgon who turned men’s hearts to stone, MedusaPublishing gives the so-called Four Furies a platform for speaking out against female oppression. Layla is a wealthy, fundamental radical, intolerant of anyone whose ideals deviate, even slightly, from her own—that is, until she finds herself seduced by a married man; tiny Alice is “all mind and very little matter,” until she discovers the dangerous New Age practice of goddess worship; Stephanie leaves her unfaithful husband in pursuit of sexual fulfillment with other men—and women; and Nancy, tired of washing her fiancé’s socks, discovers she has a remarkable mind for business. Big Girls Don’t Cry is the story of four women who are determined to change the world, and who, over the course of two-and-a-half decades, ultimately transform themselves.Show book
A Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period. It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events. The 45-chapter novel was published in 31 weekly instalments in Dickens' new literary periodical titled All the Year Round. From April 1859 to November 1859, Dickens also republished the chapters as eight monthly sections in green covers. Dickens' previous novels had appeared only as monthly instalments. The first weekly instalment of A Tale of Two Cities ran in the first issue of All the Year Round on 30 April 1859. The last ran thirty weeks later, on 26 November. (Summary by Wikipedia)Show book
Sandrine Salome flees New York for her grandmother's Paris mansion to escape her dangerous husband. The house, famous for its lavish art collection and elegant salons, is mysteriously closed up. Although her grandmother insists it's dangerous for Sandrine to visit, she defies her and meets Julien Duplessi, a mesmerizing young architect. Together they explore the hidden night world of Paris, the forbidden occult underground and Sandrine's deepest desires. Sandrine discovers her erotic nature as a lover and painter. Then darker influences threaten - her cold and cruel husband is tracking her down and something sinister is taking hold, changing Sandrine, altering her. She's become possessed by La Lune: A witchand a sixteenth-century courtesan, who opens up her life to a darkness that may become a gift or a curse.Show book
