The Captives of Abb's Valley: A Legend of Frontier Life


James Moore Brown - 1854
     The Moore family were early settlers from Ireland, who eventually made their home in Virginia. A branch of the family discovered Abb’s Valley; a remote settlement, isolated but idyllic, and which had once belonged to Cherokee and Shawnee natives. After many years of happiness, forming a successful and religiously-devoted community, the Moore family was brutally attacked. The Shawnees ruthlessly killed the majority of the family, taking the survivors prisoner, including Mary Moore, James Moore Brown’s mother. Mary found herself sold into slavery, and thus began a long and arduous journey to gain back her freedom and return to the home of youth. With unwavering faith in God and a belief that following His path would set her free, Mary was eventually rescued. This remarkable book, long suppressed because of the politically incorrect facts it contains about early frontier life and the interactions between white settlers and Indians, provides a dramatic insight into the sufferings of the early European pioneers in America. Indians regularly captured whites for use as slaves — although those were the lucky ones. The less fortunate were tortured and killed, often for sport. Written with a strong focus on Presbyterianism, the book’s value lies in its dispassionate detailing of the everyday life and dangers for families on the frontier. Born in Rockbridge, Virginia, USA on 1799 to Samuel Brown and Mary Moore (one of the captives of Abb’s Valley), James Moore Brown married Mary Ann Bell and had 6 children. He passed away on 1866 in Virginia, USA. His only book, The Captives of Abb’s Valley was first published in 1854.

To Conquer Chaos


John Brunner - 1964
    It had been there so long that it was endured, as were the twisted monsters that wandered out of the barrenland and killed.Conrad, living on the dge, had visions of a time when the barrenland was a rich region full of powerful, magical people- people who travelled to other worlds. He was ruled by a burning need to know what none could tell him: the explanation of the mysterious visions that had plagued him all his life.Then he met Jervis Yanderman, a soldier who knew of these visions. Yanderman was convinced there was an island in the barrenland where people still clung to life...

Crazy in Berlin


Thomas Berger - 1958
    American literature has produced a number of flawed heroes, but none more memorable than Carlo. Reinhart is a young army medic, stationed in Germany during the early days of the Allied occupation. Large, generous, kind-hearted, he caretakes a shattered civilization. Wartime stereotypes dissolve in the wash of individuals. All this blood, toil and treasure...for what? Reinhart, who deals daily with psychos, drives himself to the brink with his own questions.

The Last Revelation Of Gla'aki


Ramsey Campbell - 2013
    It is possible that no copy of The Revelation of Gla’aki still exists anywhere in the world. The most evil book, or a lost contribution to the literature of occultism? Like the contents of the Library of Alexandria, it may have passed into legend…”So wrote Leonard Fairman, the Brichester University archivist, but he couldn’t have dreamed of the response. His essay has hardly appeared online before he’s offered a copy of the book. All he has to do is stay overnight in the Northern coastal town of Gulshaw – at least, that’s his plan. What else is there to keep him in the town, even if its slogan is So Much More to See? Why are there so many people on the beach at night, and in the sea? Why does he have to use such a circuitous route to find his prize, and why do the people he encounters seem to share a secret? What keeps giving him dreams of a stone cocoon voyaging through space and falling to earth? Each of the volumes he reads brings him closer to a revelation, but perhaps it will be on him before he sees it coming...Ramsey Campbell first saw print more than fifty years ago, with tales that reflected his love of H. P. Lovecraft’s work. His first book The Inhabitant of The Lake was rooted in Lovecraft, and the definitive edition is published by PS Publishing. Now Campbell returns to his own Lovecraftian territory and reshapes it in terms of Lovecraft’s vision in this new novella.

Gray Mountain: by John Grisham | Summary & Analysis


Book*Sense - 2014
    Grisham's twenty-second legal thriller takes readers from the sky-scrapers of high-powered New York law firms to the dusty offices of a free legal clinic in small-town Virginia. Gray Mountain is both an exciting story of murder and intrigue and a thoughtful examination of the effects of the coal industry on life in Appalachia. Grisham's tight plotting, wry humor and three-dimensional characters bring the legal profession to life. Gray Mountain begins in the tempestuous, nerve-wracking and paranoid atmosphere of Manhattan set in the confusing months after the economic blow-out in 2008. We see the offices with their ignored vistas, the busy, dirty sidewalks, the cramped apartments shared by young professionals. After a brief sojourn in her hometown of Washington, D.C., protagonist Samantha, along with the story, heads for rural Virginia. Most of the novel takes place in the small town of Brady, Virginia, which is poor and somewhat down-at-heel. You also get the following in this Summary & Analysis of Gray Mountain: • Detailed Book Review from Experts • Story Setting Analysis of Gray Mountain • Gray Mountain Plot Analysis that will make you see the book from another angle. • Pick up bits you might have missed as we decipher the novel. • Details of Characters & Key Character Analysis • Summary of the text, with some analytical comments interspersed • Discussion & Analysis of Themes, Symbols… • And Much More! This Analysis of Gray Mountain fills the gap, making you understand more while enhancing your reading experience.

Undead (Kindle Single)


Frank Delaney - 2011
    The ultimate back story of the original Dracula, and its creator, Bram Stoker.Best-selling author Frank Delaney deconstructs the Vampire myth through the ages, and shows us how Stoker’s 1897 novel, one of the most widely read books of all time, heightened the allure of sex, the glamour of blood, and the defeat of death in a way that continues to pulse - and faster than ever - on the page and on the screen.

The Road


Jack London - 1907
    Each story details an aspect of the hobo's life - from catching a train to cadging a meal. The wealth of experiences and the necessity of having to lie for a living brought depth London's subsequent stories.

Voracious


Wrath James White - 2013
    His ethics, however, leave a bit to be desired. When the Aphrodite Aesthetic Reconstruction Clinic hires him to create a genetic weight-loss treatment, Doctor Adams uses a synthetic retro virus to transport pygmy shrew DNA into clients willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to be able to eat whatever they want without gaining a pound. Pygmy Shrews have metabolisms so fast they don’t store fat cells and have to eat every two hours, twice their body-weight in food every day, or they will die. When they are hungry, they will attack and consume prey more than twice their size. They have fangs tipped with a red iron ore, saliva that contains a paralyzing neurotoxin, are the size of a quarter, and are considered to be some of the most vicious animals on earth. When Doctor Adams’s clients begin burning more calories than they can possibly consume, he is afraid he has made one terrible mistake.

Son of Rosemary/Rosemary's Baby


Ira Levin - 2013