Other books that might interest you

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  The Many Revenges of Kip Flynn

  Sean Dixon

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  It all started with a black rose and a rich young man. And a house with a creek running through it. And then there she was, Kip Flynn, standing beside her dead boyfriend and agreeing to take a large sum of money from the young man's father to keep quiet. As if she could have done anything else, she was so scared and grief-stricken and maybe pregnant.
    
     
  But that's not the end of it. You see, there's some kind of connection between Kip and this rich developer's son that keeps them tight in one another's orbit. So, when Kip awakens from her grief, intent on revenge, they find themselves pursuing one another with a ferocity they can barely understand, one that spirals outward, with subway accidents and arson and drainpipes and backhoe wars, to envelop roommates, two guilty fathers, a window-washer or two, landlords, family secrets, Vietnamese gangsters, a standup-bass player and an activist tour guide. And even the subterranean heart of Toronto itself, which, like Kip, is torn between vengefulness and growth.

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  Morphine - This story is perhaps...

  Mikhail Bulgakov

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  Mikhail Bulgakov was born on 15th May 1891 in Kiev, in the Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire, into a Russian family.  He was one of seven children. 
   
  In 1901, Bulgakov attended the First Kiev Gymnasium, and developed a keen interest in Russian and European literature, theatre and opera.  After the death of his father in 1907, his mother assumed responsibility for his education.  After graduating Bulgakov entered the Medical Faculty of Kiev University and then took up a post as physician at the Kiev Military Hospital. 
   
  At the outbreak of the First World War, he volunteered as a doctor and was sent directly to the front, where he was badly injured at least twice.  To suppress chronic pain, especially in the abdomen, he injected morphine.  It took years to wean himself off. 
   
  He now took up medical posts in various towns and in 1919, he was mobilised by the Ukrainian People's Army and assigned to the Northern Caucasus.  There, he became seriously ill with typhus and barely survived.  
   
  After this illness, Bulgakov abandoned his medicine to pursue writing.  He moved to Vladikavkaz and had two plays staged there with great success.  He wrote too for various newspapers and other outlets, but his critics were many.  And growing. 
   
  When a Moscow's theatre director severely criticised Bulgakov, Stalin personally protected him, saying that a writer of Bulgakov's quality was above ‘party words’ like ‘left’ and ‘right’.   Indeed, it is said that Stalin watched ‘The Days of the Turbins’ at least 15 times. 
   
  It was not to last and by March 1929, Bulgakov's career was ruined when Government censorship stopped publication of any of his work and plays. 
   
  In despair, Bulgakov wrote a personal letter to Stalin.  He requested permission to emigrate.  He received a phone call from the Soviet leader, who asked the writer whether he really desired to leave. He replied that a Russian writer cannot live outside of his homeland.  Stalin thus gave him permission to continue working. In May 1930, he re-joined the theater, as stage director's assistant.  
   
  During the last stressful decade of his life, and in poor health, Bulgakov continued to work on ‘The Master and Margarita’, wrote plays, critical works, stories, and continued translations and dramatisations of novels.  Many of them were not published, others were derided by critics.  
   
  On 10th March 1940, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov died from nephrosclerosis.  He was 48. 
   
  ‘The Master and Margarita’ was not published in any form until the mid-1960’s 
   
  In this story Bulgakov relates the terrifying and hellish descent into addiction that seems so avoidable and yet so chillingly not.

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  Secrets of Fifth Avenue: Women...

  Landon Marchand

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  Secrets of Fifth Avenue: Women Who Shaped Fashion's Golden Age 
  ⭐⭐ Simplified Audio Guide & Explanations Included ⭐⭐ 
  Are you fascinated by the women who revolutionized fashion during its golden age and eager to delve into their stories?  
  Seeking a comprehensive guide that sheds light on the influential figures who left an indelible mark on the fashion world? 
  Your search ends here! 
  This audiobook serves as your definitive companion for deepening your understanding, applying your knowledge, and engaging in hands-on exploration of these fashion icons. With this, you're set for a captivating journey into the past. 
  Updated to include the latest research and insights. 
  Key features of this enriched guide: 
  - Profound insights about the influential women who shaped fashion's golden era 
  - Detailed exploration of their contributions and legacies 
  - Effective strategies for understanding their impact and significance 
  Our guide distinguishes itself through comprehensive coverage, which is essential for appreciating these fashion trailblazers. Stories aren't merely skimmed; they are delved into with precision. 
  Please note that this guide is an independent resource for your benefit. 
  Designed with a clear structure and easy-to-understand language, our audiobook ensures smooth transitions between topics. Say goodbye to dense jargon and welcome clear, precise content that captures the essence of fashion's golden age. 
  So, why wait? Click the BUY NOW button, secure your guide, and begin your journey into the captivating stories of women who transformed fashion forever!

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  The Confessions of Saint Augustine

  Saint Augustine

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  "The Confessions of Saint Augustine" is an autobiographical work by St. Augustine of Hippo, consisting of 13 books written between AD 397 and 400. This seminal work outlines his sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. It is widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever written, and it provides deep philosophical and theological insights into faith and morality. Augustine explores the nature of time, memory, and the inner self, and the narrative is as much a chronicle of his spiritual journey as it is a theological treatise.

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  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow -...

  Washington Irving

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  Washington Irving was born on 3rd April, 1783, the youngest of 11, in New York. 
    
  Irving found his real interests away from school in literature and the theatre.  An outbreak of yellow fever at 15 moved him away from Manhattan and into the surrounding countryside providing valuable settings for later works such as ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’. 
   
  By 19 Irving was writing regularly to the New York Morning Chronicle, commenting on the theatrical and social scenes.  When his health began to fail, he was sent on the Grand Tour of Europe.  Bizarrely he ignored most of the great sights on offer to concentrate on developing his social and conversational powers.  His health, though, did improve.  
   
  In 1806, back in New York to study law, he scraped a pass at the bar and then founded with several others the literary magazine Salmagundi. Irving nicknamed the city ‘Gotham City’, a name still in use today.  Moderately successful, the magazine spread Irving’s reputation beyond New York. 
   
  In 1809 while mourning the death of his teenage fiancée Irving finished his first significant book, ‘A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynsasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker’.  It satirised local history, local historians and politics.  It received great critical acclaim. 
   
  Unfortunately his family’s established trading company was now facing great upheavals and Irving was dispatched to England to try to sort it out.  After two years he could see no way out but bankruptcy.  This left him in England with no real employment prospects, and so he returned to writing.  
   
  He sent some short stories back to New York to be published as ‘The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent’.  The first part included ‘Rip Van Winkle’ and was extremely successful.  The sixth part contained ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’.  
   
  Beset by literary piracy, with no copyright law at the time, he set about publishing legitimate copies in England to outwit the bootleggers.  From now on Irving published concurrently in America and England in order to render piracy obsolete.  
   
  In August 1824, he published ‘Tales of a Traveller’, which included the famed ‘The Devil and Tom Walker’.  
   
  In 1826, the American Minister to Spain, invited him to Madrid where he could examine the many historical documents that he had access to.  Irving reveled in both the size of the libraries he was granted access to and their rich quality.  Historical works flowed from his pen further enhancing his reputation and fortune.   
   
  Following the completion of ‘Tales of the Alhambra’ in 1832, Irving returned to America after 17 years abroad. He was now a figurehead of American literature and dispensed advice to Edgar Allan Poe amongst others.  Irving also became an advocate for American copyright legislation.  
   
  A later appointment as Minister to Spain in 1842 left him disheartened at the antics of the various political factions he encountered.  It also afforded him no time to write as he had hoped.  
   
  On his return home he began an ‘Author’s Revised Edition’ of his works agreeing an unprecedented deal for 12 per cent of the retail profits.  
   
  Washington Irving died of a heart attack at his ‘Sunnyside’ home on the 28th November 1859 at the age of 76, a few months after completing his five volume George Washington biography, in whose honour he had been named.  
   
  ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ is a story almost everyone has encountered.  An enormous success at the time it is now an undeniable American Spooky classic.

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  Top 10 Short Stories The - The...

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edgar...

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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 this small corner of the United States there is to be found a part of America that is both recognizable and yet distinct and of itself.  Whilst others pushed Westward these authors found much amongst their experiences that detailed and charted the world around them.  These are their stories. 
   
  1 - The Top 10 - US Authors of New England - An Introduction 
  2 - The Yellow Wall Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 
  3 - The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe 
  4 - The Color Out of Space by H P Lovecraft 
  5 - Conversation on Conversation by Harriet Beecher Stowe 
  6 - Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne 
  7 - The Tachypomp by Edward Page Mitchell 
  8 - A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett 
  9 - The Man Without a Country by Edward Everett Hale 
  10 - A Responsibility by Henry Harland 
  11 - A New England Nun by Mary E Wilkins Freeman

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