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  Sunbeams

  George Wilbur Peck

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  George W. Peck was at times a writer, newspaper publisher and politician. Many of the Sunbeam essays had been published in Peck's paper, "The Sun", as amusing and often critical comments on social and political subjects, typically current in the beginning of the 1900's. Topics are often 'small town' United States, and Peck's gentle sarcasm or portrayals much resembles that of Twain.Listeners must be aware that the Spanish American War was a recent event, leading to the "Yankee" involvement in the Philippines. Admiral Dewey, who figures in several of the writings, had the Olympia as his flagship. The Dwight, mentioned in 'A Bear with a Jag', may have been Charles Dwight Sigsbee, Captain of the Maine in 1898. At this time the British Empire was in conflict with the Boers under Kruger, all topics of or mentioned in the early essays.In the slang of that time a "drummer" was a traveling salesman, while a trust was a financial combine with monopolistic powers. The essay title term "bimeatallic" likely is a take-off on the "bimetallic question", which referred to arguments over having gold and silver both as legal tender. Peck suggested, tongue in cheek, that there could be a 'standard' under which horsemeat should be disclosed as an ingredient of sausage. Indeed, many of the essays deal with questionable ingredients for foods, and were probably of high relevance to consumers who were without the regulatory protections and labelling requirements of today. In the same vein, the 'embalmed beef' served as rations to U.S. soldiers became notorious. (Summary by Arnold Banner)

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  Out For Blood

  Rachel Lawson

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  "The police have cleared her of the killing and she wanted to talk to the press to get her side of the story out," said a reporter on the news. 
  "I knew the victim as a member of my club only we were sort of friends," said the Innocent woman," I don't want to offend the victim's family they for their loss," the lady was in tears not acting real tears. 
  "Why did you kill him?" asked a reporter. 
  "I didn't I was cleared by the police," said the crying woman. 
  "The jury is still out on that," said another reporter 
  "I was cleared by the police," said Astra De Marney-Gray the Vampire queen starting to realize it was trial by media.

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  Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds - A...

  Agatha Christie

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  Hercule Poirot is about to tuck into a very traditional English supper with his old friend Bonnington when a lone diner sparks his interest. Like clockwork, the man has eaten at the restaurant on Thursdays and Tuesdays for the last ten years, but no one on the staff knows his name. When "Old Father Time," as they have fondly nicknamed him, suddenly stops coming, Poirot believes that he might have picked up the one essential clue that could shed light on this mysterious man. Could what Old Father Time ordered as his final meal provide the key?

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  Death in Venice - And Other Stories

  Thomas Mann

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  The Nobel Prize–winning author’s masterful novella of eros and obsession, presented alongside other short works of lyrical beauty and psychological depth.In Thomas Mann’s immortal novella A Death in Venice, renowned author Gustave Aschenbach faces both middle age and a severe case of writer’s block. He resolves to go on holiday in search of inspiration, only to find himself awestruck by the classical beauty of a fourteen-year-old boy. Submitting to his obsession with the youth, Gustave slowly loses himself, his dignity, and finally his life. This volume includes six short works by Mann, including “Little Herr Friedmann,” “Gladius Dei,” Tristan,” and “Tonio Kroger,” among others.

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  And Yet It Moves

  Erin Stalcup

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  In this debut fantasy collection “science, physics, and electricity . . . are the background for short stories of startling human disconnection and alienation” (ForeWord Reviews).   This “engaging collection . . . takes on the love and loneliness lurking in the bright lights and shadowed corners of the everyday” (Kirkus Reviews). In these pages, a taboo romance breaks the laws of gravity; Albert Einstein writes letters to the daughter he abandoned; and a female physicist meets Stephen Hawking in a bar. In the closing novella, All Those Stairs, an elevator operator with a genius IQ rides up and down all day enclosed in a metal box.   Author Erin Stalcup explores these lives with compassion, depth, and insight as she examines loss and longing and how our bodies and minds can be both weighted and freed. And Yet It Moves is a powerful combination of both absurdist and realist fiction. “Simply put: these stories defy gravity” (Zachary Tyler Vickers, author of Congratulations on Your Martyrdom!).  A 2016 ForeWord Indies Finalist.

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  Joseph Conrad: The Short Stories

  Joseph Conrad

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  Joseph Conrad – An Introduction. Born in 1857 in Poland, Joseph Conrad became a British citizen just before he turned 30.  In the intervening years he lost both parents; becoming an orphan at 11 being thereafter raised by an uncle, who at 16 let the boy go to Marseille where he began to work on merchant ships though at times it included stints gun running and the intrigue of political conspiracy.  At age 36 his life turned from one of ships to one of literary pursuit.  Conrad brought to English Literature both a further layer of style and a deeper examination of the human psyche in a wealth of work. He wrote many novels, rightly regarded today, as some of the finest in English literature.  Among their canon are Lord Jim, Nostromo, The Shadow Line and of course Heart Of Darkness.   For this volume we dwell among his numerous short stories and the heart of Joseph Conrad. These stories are read for you by Richard Mitchley.

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