From maple ice cream to Z-shaped fire escapes, these poems carry a flashlight you'll want to follow: unexpected as night swimming, entertaining as a music video in sign language.

    Deeply melancholic and despairing at the inhumanity of the present-day world, yet brimming with vitality and invention, these timely, poignant poems clear away the dross of hollow optimism and call for an end to the nightmare of modern existence.

    This series features classic tales retold with color illustrations to introduce literature to struggling readers. Each 64-page eBook retains key phrases and quotations from the original classics. You'll be kept in suspense with these four Edgar Allan Poe short stories! The Pit and the Pendulum, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Cask of Amontillado, The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

    Fifteen years later, he adopts two others off a mercy train and tries to build a life for them. He marries a mail-order bride from Boston and buys a ranch in Taos Valley. But a larger rancher, Fred Sugg, attempts to kill Thatch, then has his wife, Martha, kidnapped. Thatch rescues Martha from two men who intend to molest and violate her. Thatch hangs the two men and eventually kills Sugg after a chase through the Taos Mountains. Thatch builds a life and finds that his family cures the loneliness and yearning for a home that he's felt since he was a child. Another classic western with just a touch of romance from R. O. Lane

    She’s thrilled when she’s asked to help with the Christmas program the Amish school is putting on—even more so when she finds Lucas Wickey has also volunteered to help. Despite being “slow,” Lucas can sing better than anyone in Swan Creek Settlement. As her feelings for him grow, she must decide what’s more important—what everyone else thinks, or what she’s hearing from her heart. Approximately 22,000 words

    It takes him from the Hasinai Caddo villages of eastern Spanish Tejas to the Rocky Mountains and parts in between. Along the way, he encounters colorful and unsavory frontiersmen, hostile and friendly Indians as well as struggles with wild nature. But he also finds loyal friends and unconditional love.

    . . a real page turner' Sheila Newberry 1860s London Orphaned at a young age, Rosa has always looked out for her younger sister, Grace, protecting her from the dangers and bullies of the workhouse.So when Grace is suddenly faced with a world without Rosa, she finds herself alone and forced to make difficult decisions about her future. Can she really walk away from everything she has built to protect the children Rosa has left behind?Returning to the gang-ruled streets of south-east London, Grace is determined to build a better future for herself and for the children of Bell Lane - no matter what the cost . . .

    Without hope, a horse, or even a pistol, Edgar gambles on a chance meeting with someone that will turn things around. Fortunately, luck smiles on him when he is assigned with the simple task of accompanying a cattle baron's livestock to another town. Little does he know that amongst the cattle there is a cargo much more valuable, that will get him into trouble and will put his life in grave peril. What will Edgar be willing to risk in order to accomplish a mission that isn't as innocent as it first seemed? Will he manage to protect the valuable shipment and defeat a murderous gang that disperses fear in its wake?While Edgar is running for his life, he crosses paths with his boss's daughter, who, determined to prove her worth, disguises herself and jumps on the same train with him. When Edgar discovers her true identity, he will do whatever it takes to protect her from the vicious outlaws who have invaded the train. The more time they spend together, the more he realizes that her braveness and wit have made him lose his mind. But as long as criminals are after them and his life is at stake, he has no time for love. Will Edgar help Rose survive the treacherous journey? Will he manage to get out of this train safe and sound, despite the endless challenges he encounters?Fierce crossfires and an unprecedented hide and seek, take Edgar and Rose on an adventure that will remain indelible in their minds. Will they endure the wild ride across the frontier west? Or will overpowering forces ruin their chance at happiness once and for all?A pulse-pounding drama, which will make you turn the pages with bated breath until the very last word. A must-read for fans of Western action and romance."Menace in the Mysterious Train" is a historical adventure novel of approximately 60,000 words. No cliffhangers, only pure unadulterated action.

    Multibillionaire Goddard Moss has a vision: a city rising tall on the South Dakota prairie dedicated to Art. Not art of the staid, traditional, edifying, entertaining variety, but the Modern—modern painting, modern theater, modern sculpture, modern dance, all as obscure, pretentious, and offensive as its creators can make it (and with luck, government-funded). As Culture City rises from the grassy fields, playwrights, performers, and artists prepare for the gala opening week. Gregory Lubin's expansive stage re-creation of the Tower of Babel story is awaited with particular anticipation. But revolution is brewing just yards beyond the city walls and as far away as rural Maine. Despite the money being lavished on it, it becomes doubtful that "the Artland in the Heartland" will survive past its premiere.

    It's nothing like the suburb you might live in . . . Unless, that is, an insane, Listerine-guzzling Realtor sold you your house? Or perhaps your postman happens to have a disturbing relationship with his claw hammer? A grieving Dan LaBarbara knows something is different in Helltown as soon as he comes back home. Yeah, sure, the town always been a little off. You can feel that about the place, like if you stepped into a house whose only occupants were freshly murdered corpses in an upstairs bedroom. But this is something else entirely. Standing in his little brother Barbie's basement workshop, holding one of those dioramas Barbie's been building since the accident, the ones that seem to move when you hold them, Dan can feel Barbie's terror. Barbie must know something is coming, something big, something evil. He's trying to warn Dan in the only way he knows. Why else would Barbie build a diorama depicting a man-sized version of a cartoon rabbit with bloody teeth about to devour a trembling teenager? Why else would he spend so much time crafting an intricate model of Death standing over a pimply teenager in the school library? And let's not even talk about that little model of the mob of undead surrounding the massive tower of vicious black spines behind the high school. Hilltown has a story to tell, and the lonely brain-damaged man who builds magical dioramas in his basement workshop has been telling it all along. As the evil closes in around them, Dan and his new love interest Jessica must do the impossible: save everyone one in Hilltown before it's too late.

    

    Her father has gone to bring home a son missing because of the war. Loyal servants give her support and comfort and are at her side when she learns of her father’s death. She promises to fulfill her father’s dream but someone doesn’t want her to, the one person she should be able to trust. He sets out to defeat her until another man, a Northern stranger, comes to her aid.

    The narrator recalls a girl he once knew. He and Evangeline, both shy, never find the courage to speak to each other in high school. Every evening, however, Evangeline meets him at the Osage orange tree on the edge of her property. He delivers a newspaper to her, and they talk—and as the year progresses a secret friendship blossoms. This magical coming-of-age tale is brought to life through linocut illustrations by Oregon artist Dennis Cunningham, with an afterword by poet Naomi Shihab Nye, a personal friend of Stafford’s.In the tradition of the work of great fiction writers like Steinbeck, O’Connor, and Welty, The Osage Orange Tree stands the test of time, not just as an ode to a place and a generation but as a testament to the resilience of a nation and the strength of the human heart.

    In poems including 'Fra Lippo Lippi' and 'Bishop Blugram's Apology', Browning enters the personality and language of his characters, revelling in their unwitting self-revelation. Elsewhere Browning contemplates the relationships between love and the lyric, the poet and the painter, poetry and music.

    "The Forerunner" and "The Madman" (1932).