Other books that might interest you

• 

  Robinson Crusoe

  Daniel Defoe

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  "Robinson Crusoe" is one of the earliest novels in the English language, written by Daniel Defoe and first published in 1719. It tells the story of a young man named Robinson Crusoe who desires to go to sea, against the wishes of his family. After several voyages and misadventures, he finds himself shipwrecked on a deserted island. With only a few salvaged items from the ship, Crusoe learns to create a life for himself, building shelter, hunting, and planting crops. He remains on the island for 28 years, experiencing encounters with cannibals, mutineers, and even befriending a man whom he names Friday. The novel delves deep into themes of survival, civilization versus nature, and the human drive for mastery and control.

  Show book

• 

  Wilkie Collins - A Short Story...

  Wilkie Collins

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Wilkie Collins was born on 8th January 1824 in Marylebone, London.  
   
  The family moved several times in his early years before, at 12, they travelled to France and Italy for 2 years where the sights and atmosphere made a deep and lasting impression on him. 
   
  He resumed his education at Mr Cole’s private boarding school in Highbury, Islington.  Here, he began his literary career under unusual circumstances: the school bully would give him no peace until he had been told a bedtime story.  This ‘little brute’ helped create one of England’s greatest writers.  
   
  On leaving school, in 1841, he became a clerk at a tea merchant before, 2 years later, publishing his first short story.  However, his first novel was rejected and remained so during his lifetime.  
   
  A brief stint at Lincoln’s Inn to please his father and to acquire a steady income was halted by his father’s death.  Collins then wrote and published his fathers’ memoirs.  He then completed his legal education though he would never practice.  
   
  In March 1851, he was introduced to Charles Dickens and there now started a period of sustained literary output and a remarkable lifelong friendship.  His stories were published in Dicken’s magazines, and he toured with Dicken’s theatrical before the two of them travelled to the Continent. 
   
  By the early 1860’s worrying signs of ill-health appeared with rheumatic gout.  As it worsened, he sought respite and cures in German spa towns and gave up writing to help his recuperation. 
   
  His personal life had become very complicated.  He was living with the widowed Caroline Graves and conducting an affair with a much younger Martha Rudd.  With the serialised release of ‘The Moonstone’ and vicious attacks of gout Caroline left him and married another.  Collins was now prescribed opium and was soon its lifelong dependent.  Martha bore him two children and with the return of a now divorced Caroline Graves he now divided his time between the two women. 
   
  In 1874 he set aside writing to tour North America on a reading tour. 
   
  Throughout his later years he continued to write and publish.  In all 30 novels, 14 plays, 60 short stories and over a 100 non-fiction essays as well as many more collaborations with Dickens. 
   
  In 1884 the Society of Authors elected him as it’s Vice-President. 
   
  Wilkie Collins died from a paralytic stroke on September 23rd, 1889, in London. He was 65.

  Show book

• 

  The Sandstone City

  Elaine Canning

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Eighty-eight-year-old Michael Doherty lies in an open coffin, listening to those who have come to pay their respects. Despite his dead son Cormac's protests, he's not yet ready to pass over. His granddaughter is the reason. Twenty-something Sarah has inexplicably abandoned her plans to settle in Spain and returned home deeply scarred by the Sandstone City, and he needs to know why.
  He is granted a special grace period of forty days. Forty days to discover and heal his granddaughter's trauma. Forty days to face his own past. Forty days to find peace before he must make his final departure.
  But Michael and Sarah are not alone. Ghosts populate the streets of Salamanca and they have a message for Sarah.
  Set between modern-day Belfast and the Spanish Civil War, The Sandstone City is a story about the decisions we make, the choices denied us, and how we navigate what's left.

  Show book

• 

  Not Easily Broken

  Ruth Smith Meyer

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In the time when women often died in childbirth and men remarried to have someone to care for the house and children, new mothers sometimes cut off relationships with the maternal grandparents. Ellie is a strong young woman faced with circumstances that are not her choice. When Ellie's older sister Regina dies at the birth of her third child, her parents request that Ellie break off her engagement to the man she loves and marry their son-in-law, John, so the children will stay in the family. 
  Ellie reluctantly agrees but determines in her heart to give it her all to make it a good marriage. She and John begin life with a somewhat contrived feeling to their relationship, but love grows because they are both committed to it.

  Show book

• 

  The Problem Club

  Barry Pain

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Welcome to The Problem Club, where logic takes a holiday and wit is the law of the land. In this delightful collection of early 20th-century comic tales by Barry Pain, twelve eccentric gentlemen gather regularly in an upscale London club to tackle bizarre, imaginative challenges—each one a “problem” designed to confound, amuse, and showcase their cleverness. 
  From the unforgettable “Giraffe Problem”—in which each member must devise a scheme to make a woman say, “You ought to have been a giraffe”—to other equally ludicrous puzzles, Pain’s sharp humor and dry British charm shine through. 
  Narrated with elegance and flair by Mike Polischuk, this audiobook is a perfect escape for lovers of clever banter, satirical storytelling, and tales that celebrate the absurd.

  Show book

• 

  Forty-Ninth

  Boris Pronsky, Craig Britton

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A novel about one of the largest land deals in history, the Alaska purchase. 
  In 1866, the failed assassination of Alexander II unfolds a series of events that coerces him into selling Alaska to the United States a year later. Meanwhile, Native Alaskans are stuck between the changing order. Some try to fit in while others attempt to fight back. Further south, in a deeply polarized post-Civil War America, the plans of President Johnson conflict with his Secretary of State's ambition to acquire Alaska. An approaching impeachment pressures Johnson to attempt to sabotage the deal. Behind closed doors, however, a powerful banking family is awaiting a long overdue payment from the Russians, but there is only so much gold to go around.

  Show book