Other books that might interest you

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  Ghost House

  Sarah Connell

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  In this first collection by bestselling author Sara Connell the "madwomen" are out of the attic and roaming the streets in a phantasmagoric world of psychedelic frogs, maniacal therapists, talking neon signs and suffocating mothers. A newlywed couple purchase a much desired haunted house with disastrous results, a young woman may lose her job, and her mind on the way to Alaska, and a group of high school girls attempt immortality in a last resort to save a friend. 
  
  Connell takes on patriarchy and culture with a singular voice that will make you think, laugh and shiver long after you finish reading.

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  Folks from Dixie

  Paul Laurence Dunbar

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  Discover a vivid portrait of life, community, and human experience in Folks from Dixie, a memorable collection of stories by Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of America's most celebrated literary voices of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
  
  Through a rich variety of characters and situations, Dunbar captures the joys, struggles, humor, and resilience of everyday people living in the American South during a period of profound social and cultural change. His keen observations and authentic storytelling bring communities and individuals to life with warmth, compassion, and remarkable insight.
  
  Blending humor, drama, and thoughtful social commentary, the stories explore themes of family, friendship, ambition, dignity, and perseverance. Dunbar's masterful characterizations and lyrical prose create narratives that are both deeply personal and universally relatable.
  
  Beyond their literary appeal, these stories provide an important window into American history and culture, reflecting the complexities of regional identity and the experiences of people navigating a changing society. The collection stands as a testament to Dunbar's enduring influence on American literature and his extraordinary ability to capture the richness of human nature.
  
  Perfect for readers who enjoy classic short fiction, historical literature, and character-driven storytelling, Folks from Dixie remains an engaging and significant contribution to the American literary tradition.

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  The Straw Coal and the Bean

  Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm

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  A simple kitchen mishap sends three unlikely companions into the world together: a straw spared from the fire, a coal that leapt from the hearth, and a lone bean that escaped the pot. Each has survived by chance, and each believes fortune has finally turned in their favor. 
  Determined to remain together, the three set off as travelers—until a small country brook forces a decision that will test courage, patience, and pride. What follows is not a tale of heroism, but of human weakness rendered through the humblest of objects, where haste, fear, and laughter carry irreversible consequences. 
  The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean, by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, is a sharply observed moral fable told with restraint and dry irony. Brief yet unforgettable, it reveals how survival can hinge on moments of judgment—and how even rescue leaves a permanent mark. 
  Narrated with measured clarity by Richard Stibbard, this classic Grimm tale is presented in its original, unsentimental spirit: simple in form, dark in humor, and quietly exacting in its moral truth.

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  Aleister Crowley - The Shorter...

  Aleister Crowley

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  Edward Alexander Crowley was born on 12th October 1875 to wealthy parents in Royal Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. 
  He was educated at Malvern College, Tonbridge School, Eastbourne College and finally Trinity College, Cambridge where he focused on his passions of mountaineering and poetry and published several volumes. 
  Life for Crowley was to abandon his parents’ Christian faith and instead to inject himself into Western esotericism.  In 1898, he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and was trained in ceremonial magic before studying both Hindu and Buddhist practices in India. 
  On his Egyptian honeymoon in 1904 he claimed contact with an entity―Aiwass―who gave him the sacred Book of the Law which served as the basis for the Thelema religion where he identified as its prophet.  During the Great War, which he spent in the United States, he claimed to be working for British Intelligence but by the 1920s he had decamped to pursue a libertine lifestyle in Sicily, and in the ensuing scandals was evicted by the Italian Government. 
  He divided the following two decades between France, Germany, and England, and the continuing promotion of Thelema. 
  During his life he gained widespread notoriety for his drug use, his bisexuality, and his alarming views on society.  In short, polite society frowned on his ways, his thoughts and his influence but to many others his stance had much of value.  Even after death he was a darling for the 60’s counterculture but his influence has since waned.   
  His literary works were both prolific and covered many topics.  In the early part of his career he published many poetry books, even plays, before his darker and more forceful works came to dominate his output. 
  Aleister Crowley died on 1st December 1947 at Hastings in England. He was 72.

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  Araby - From their pens to your...

  James Joyce

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  James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born on the 2nd February 1882 in Dublin into a middle-class family, and the eldest of ten surviving siblings 
  Admired as a brilliant student he briefly attended the Christian Brothers-run O'Connell School before excelling at the Jesuit schools of Clongowes and Belvedere.  From there he went on to attend University College Dublin from 1898, studying English, French and Italian 
  In 1902, Joyce was now in his early twenties, and went to Paris to study Medicine but soon abandoned his teachings.  Back in Dublin to attend to his dying Mother he met Nora Barnacle. They bonded immediately into a life-long match. Together they decided to emigrate to Europe.  The couple lived in Trieste, Rome, Paris, and finally Zürich where Joyce pursued a variety of jobs and ventures to supplement his literary pursuits but none of these paid off.  
  After publishing a poetry volume, ‘Chamber Music’, in 1907, his short story collection ‘The Dubliners’, in 1914, helped establish his talent in the rapidly changing world.  
  Although far from home Joyce’s literary heart and works were set in his recollections of Dublin.  Characters are close resemblances of family and friends and indeed enemies.  His landmark work ‘Ulysses’, published in 1922, is set in the streets and alleyways of the city as it parallels Homer’s Odyssey in a variety of styles including its famed stream of consciousness. 
  His pen continued to produce classics of the order of ‘A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man’ and ‘Finnegan’s Wake’ together with several volumes of poetry and a play ‘The Exiles, in 1918.   
  On the 11th January 1941, Joyce underwent surgery in Zürich for a perforated duodenal ulcer. The next day he fell into a coma. On the 13th after a brief period of lucidity in which he called for his wife and son he passed.  He was 58.

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  Twisted Tales from Hamburg and...

  Peter Franklin

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  ‘The room was spinning. Thoughts were pulsing from one vein to the next’. 
  Twisted Tales takes us through scenes of familiar human conditions. 
  From complete inebriation through a marriage without love via a gambling addiction ruining lives past the sometimes mean streets of Hamburg then onto to the sunshine of Thailand. 
  Characters in each story must battle with their own minds and outside influences in order for them to make the right decision which is all too seldom in what we call modern life and in some cases Part 1 is only the beginning of their journey….

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