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  Hippolyte's Island - An...

  Barbara Hodgson

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  From an acclaimed author and artist, this “cleverly illustrated novel takes reads on a fabulous journey [and] a touching pilgrimage of faith” (Publishers Weekly). Adventurer and travel writer Hippolyte Web has set his sights on an expedition to the Auroras, a group of tiny islands in the South Atlantic that haven’t been spotted in centuries. Equipped with outdated charts, an inadequate sailboat, and an advance for a book about his quest, the trip soon leads to discoveries beyond anything he could have imagined. But the challenges that he meets are nothing compared to those that await him when he returns.  Marie Simplon, his no-nonsense book editor, is more than a little skeptical of Hippolyte’s strange tale. As he inundates her with centuries-old maps, sketches, and specimens, she is drawn into the mysterious details of his voyage. The two are soon joined in a race—Hippolyte to prove his islands exist, Marie to refute his claims. But Marie’s conflicting emotions about the journey and the man lead her on her own quest to discover for herself the limits of logic and the power of belief.

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  The Maltese Cat - Celebrated...

  Rudyard Kipling

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  Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in Mumbai, India on 30th December 1865.   
   
  As was the custom in those days, he and his sister were sent back to England when he was 5.  The ill-treatment and cruelty by the Portsmouth couple they boarded with Kipling said contributed to the onset of his literary life.  
   
  At 16 he returned to India to work on a local paper where he was soon contributing and writing.  It also exposed him to the issues of identity and national allegiance which pervade much of his work.  
   
  In 1886, his ‘Departmental Ditties’, collection of verse appeared in print followed by 39 short stories for his newspaper over only 8 months.  These were then published as ‘Plain Tales from the Hills’, shortly after his 22nd birthday.  
   
  He continued his prolific pace of writing before being dismissed in a dispute and, taking his pay-off and the profits from the sale of some publishing rights, decided to return to London, travelling via Rangoon, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States, all the while writing articles, and arriving at Liverpool in October 1889. 
   
  Over the next two years he saw further works published as books and in magazines, as well as a nervous breakdown for which he was prescribed a sea voyage, to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India.  
   
  Happier times came with marriage to Caroline Starr Balestier in January 1892.  The honeymoon began in Vermont and ended in Yokahama where they heard their bank had failed.  They returned to Vermont and settled.  Caroline was now pregnant and he was planning the ‘Jungle Books’.  
   
  A failed arbitration between the US and England resulted in an argument between Caroline’s brother and Kipling, and then his arrest.  At the hearing he was mortified by the exposure of his private life and after settling the matter they returned to England and life in Torquay.  ‘Kim’ was published in 1902, and ‘Just So Stories for Little Children’, a year later.  
   
  In 1907 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature with the citation “in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterise the creations of this world-famous author”.   
   
  When the Great War erupted, he scorned those who refused conscription.  His son enlisted and was killed at the Battle of Loos in September 1915, at 18, an exploding shell had ripped his face apart.  This death inspired Kipling’s writing thereafter, but the tragedy broke his life and by 1930 his prolific pen had almost ceased. 
   
  Rudyard Kipling died on 18th January 1936 from a perforated duodenal ulcer.  He was 70.  His ashes are buried at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. 
   
  In the Maltese Cat Kipling returns once more to India and the British Empire.  A polo match is being played.  The fierce competitive instincts of two social classes are fighting for dominance.  All told through the voice of the Maltese Cat, the most cunning of the horses.

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  Heart of Darkness

  Joseph Conrad

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  This classic tale of intrigue, mystery and adventure takes place on the ivory harvesting and trade route in the Congo, in the depths of Africa. In this audiobook, Marlow, a sea captain on a ship at anchor, retells a story of his assignment upon a steamer ship in the Congo to a group of his ship mates. During his mission he is asked to retrieve and return Kurtz, an ivory hunter with a resounding reputation where ever his name is mentioned, who delivers more ivory than all the other stations combined, and who has a reverenced effect on the natives. Passages and references from the book are sprinkled through other writings and "The Heart of Darkness" was the base content for the movie "Apocalypse Now" by Francis Ford Coppola.

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  Stemming the Tide

  Simon Strantzas

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  "Stemming the Tide" is a short horror story by Simon Strantzas, one of 35 entries in the audio anthology Come Join Us by the Fire.  
  The tide at Hopewell Rocks comes in every six hours and thirteen minutes. Sometimes, it brings the dead with it. 
  Come Join Us by the Fire, edited by Theresa DeLucci, is an audio-only horror anthology of 35 short stories from Nightfire Books, a horror imprint of Tor Books. The collection showcases the breadth of talent writing in the horror genre today, with contributions from a wide range of bestselling genre luminaries including China Miéville, Chuck Wendig, Richard Kadrey, and Victor LaValle; Shirley Jackson Award winners Paul Tremblay, Priya Sharma, and Sam J. Miller; Nebula Award winners Brooke Bolander, Alyssa Wong, Kij Johnson; and many, many more.

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  The Sailor Uncle

  Mary Lamb

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  Mary Ann Lamb (1764 – 1847) was an English writer who battled with mental illness all her life. In 1796 during a nervous breakdown, she stabbed her mother to death and was sent to an asylum. Six months afterward, her brother Charles took over her care, and she went to live with him, and the two of them collaborated on many works of literature together. In her own writing, which is often gothic in style, there is a recurrant theme of children who have lost one or both parents in tragic circumstances and who need support in finding their way in the world.In The Sailor Uncle, little Betsy has lost her mother and her father is overwhelmed with grief, though he hides this from his daughter. The surprise visit of her dead mother's brother is at first seen as a threat and annoyance, but gradually the kindly uncle wins Betsy over by teaching her to read books and telling her fascinating stories. A second tragedy looms though, as the Sailor Uncle has to go back to sea...

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  The Food of the Gods and How it...

  H. G. Wells

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  What happens when science tampers with nature? A riveting, cautionary tale with disastrous results reveals the chilling answer. 
  Hoping to create a new growth agent for food with beneficial uses to mankind, two scientists find that the spread of the material is uncontrollable. Giant chickens, rats, and insects run amok, and children given the food stuffs experience incredible growth—and serious illnesses. Over the years, people who have eaten these specially treated foods find themselves unable to fit into a society where ignorance and hypocrisy rule. These "giants," with their extraordinary mental powers, find themselves shut away from an older, more traditional society. Intolerance and hatred increase as the line of distinction between ordinary people and giants is drawn across communities and families. 
  One of H. G. Wells' lesser-known works, The Food of the Gods has been retold many times in many forms since it was first published in 1904. The gripping, newly relevant tale combines fast-paced entertainment with social commentary as it considers the ethics involved in genetic engineering.

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