Other books that might interest you

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  Top 10 Short Stories The -...

  George Eliot, Jerome K, Arnold...

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  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 the heartlands of England, in its gritty and grimy industrial landscape, literary talent abounds.  Experiences learnt and observed here have found their way into many of the finest literary works this country has produced.  Genius has many names. 
   
  1 - The Top 10 - English Authors of the West Midlands - An Introduction 
  2 - The Lifted Veil - Part 1 by George Eliot 
  3 - The Lifted Veil - Part 2 by George Eliot 
  4 - The Absent Minded Man by Jerome K Jerome 
  5 - The Matador of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett 
  6 - The Last House in C Street by Mrs Craik 
  7 - Reality or Delusion by Mrs Ellen Wood 
  8 - The Ghost in the Clock Room by Hesba Stretton 
  9 - Blessed Are the Meek by Mary Webb 
  10 - The Dust of Death by Fred M White 
  11 - Alexander the Ratcatcher by Richard Garnett 
  12 - Her Murderer by Mary Cholmondeley

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  Comes a Horseman

  Paul Lederer

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  Armed to the teeth, Dancer comes to town with death on his mindThe rider carries three pistols and a couple of rifles to boot. John Dancer arrives in Matchstick with enough firepower to stop an army. No one knows his target, but this tiny Western town is rife with corruption, from the embezzling bank manager to the sheriff who is no longer up for the job. South of town, the owner of the sprawling SS Ranch has his own enemies, including small-time farmers and the stunning Esperanza del Rio, whose family has run the country since the days of King Philip IV. Any one of these people could be in Dancer’s sights.

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  Widow's Fire

  Elizabeth Chadwick

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  A gun-toting widow is more than a match for a mere cowboy in this unforgettable Western romance from the bestselling author of Virgin Fire. His mind preoccupied with the threat of cattle theft, Justin Harte was in no position to fall in love. But when his eye caught sight of the beautiful, forceful, and unbelievably skilled Anne McAuliffe, who could shoot a gun better than many men he knows, his heart began to beat so loudly that his mind could not talk any sense into him. Going beyond playing hard-to-get, Anne made it clear that she was not interested in the strapping and debonair Justin. But could Anne control her heart as easily as she thought or would she drop her gun and be swept into Justin's waiting arms? 

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  Passenger to Frankfurt

  Agatha Christie

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  Christie's superb stand-alone mystery, Passenger to Frankfurt, is a true masterwork of surprise and suspense, as a diplomat comes to the aid of a terrified woman in an airport, only to find that his identity has been stolen and his life is suddenly in serious jeopardy. 
  Sir Stafford Nye's flight home from Malaya takes an unprecedented twist when a young woman confides in him that someone is trying to kill her. In a moment of weakness, he agrees to lend her his passport. Unwittingly, the diplomat has put his own life on the line.  
  When he meets the mystery woman again, she is a different person, and he finds himself drawn into a battle against an invisible—and altogether more dangerous—enemy. . . .

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  The Only Harmless Great Thing

  Brooke Bolander

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  Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novelette 
   
  Finalist for the Hugo, Locus, Shirley Jackson, and Sturgeon Awards 
   
  The Only Harmless Great Thing is a heart-wrenching alternative history by Brooke Bolander that imagines an intersection between the Radium Girls and noble, sentient elephants. 
   
  In the early years of the 20th century, a group of female factory workers in Newark, New Jersey, slowly died of radiation poisoning. Around the same time, an Indian elephant was deliberately put to death by electricity in Coney Island. 
   
  These are the facts. 
   
  Now these two tragedies are intertwined in a dark alternate history of rage, radioactivity, and injustice crying out to be righted. Prepare yourself for a wrenching journey that crosses eras, chronicling histories of cruelty both grand and petty in search of meaning and justice.

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  David Copperfield

  Charles Dickens

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  In one of his most energetic and enjoyable novels, Dickens tells the life story of David Copperfield, from his birth in Suffolk, through the various struggles of his childhood, to his successful career as a novelist. The early scenes are particularly masterful, depicting the world as seen from the perspective of a fatherless small boy, whose idyllic life with his mother is ruined when his mother marries again, this time to a domineering and cruel man. The novel is partly modeled on Dickens’s own experiences, but that is not to say that it is in any way a direct autobiography. Indeed, one of the great joys of the book lies in its outlandish cast of characters, which includes the glamorous Steerforth, the cheerful, verbose Mr. Micawber, the villainous Uriah Heep, and David’s eccentric aunt, Betsey Trotwood. Dickens described it as his ‘ favorite child’ among his novels.

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