Rosy Is My Relative


Gerald Durrell - 1968
    To Adrian she represented the chance to get away froma City shop and a suburban lodging by exploiting her theatrical talent and experience. To Rosy their progress towards the gayer South Coast resorts offered undreamed-of opportunities for drink and destruction. So the Monkspepper Hunt is driven to delirium and Lady Fenneltree's stately home reduced to a shambles. In due course the always efficient local constabulary caught up with the pair, whose ensuing trial was a like a triumph of the law and of the author's comic genius. The verdict was--but the story has to be read to be believed, if then. Even though the author does maintain that it is entirely credible, indeed that this, his first novel, is 'an almost true story'.

The Scandal at Bletchley


Jack Treby - 2014
    Until now..."The year is 1929. As the world teeters on the brink of a global recession, Bletchley Park plays host to a rather special event. MI5 is celebrating its twentieth anniversary and a select band of former and current employees are gathering at the private estate for a weekend of music, dance and heavy drinking. Among them is Sir Hilary Manningham-Butler, a middle aged woman whose entire adult life has been spent masquerading as a man. She doesn’t know why she has been invited – it is many years since she left the secret service – but it is clear she is not the only one with things to hide. And when one of the other guests threatens to expose her secret, the consequences could prove disastrous for everyone.

Evangeline and Other Poems


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - 1912
    Certainly its poignant romance touched many hearts and stirred deepening interest in the Maine-born Harvard educator who, in his lifetime, would become America's most famous poet. This book contains the complete Evangeline and a number of other widely admired Longfellow poems.Included are the memorable "The Skeleton in Armor," "The Arsenal at Springfield," "Mezzo Cammin," and "Aftermath." Here, too, is Divina Commedia, the six sonnets on Dante that are among the poet's finest works. All have been reprinted from an authoritative edition of Longfellow's poems.

The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter: Scenes de la Vie de Boheme


Henri Murger - 1851
    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

The After House


Mary Roberts Rinehart - 1914
    Only one hand on board seemed strong enough to stop the killer . . . but to do that he had to stay alive!

Every Earl Has a Silver Lining


Anna Markland - 2021
    He faces a second hurdle—he is slowly being poisoned with arsenic. A double mystery unfolds when it comes to light Lady Emma’s deceased husband was also suffering from arsenic poisoning. Is there a curse on the Earls of Farnworth or are there other forces at work that will rob Gabe and Emma of their chance to find true love?

The Annotated African American Folktales


Henry Louis Gates Jr. - 2017
    Following in the tradition of such classics as Arthur Huff Fauset’s “Negro Folk Tales from the South” (1927), Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men (1935), and Virginia Hamilton’s The People Could Fly (1985), acclaimed scholars Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar assemble a groundbreaking collection of folktales, myths, and legends that revitalizes a vibrant African American past to produce the most comprehensive and ambitious collection of African American folktales ever published in American literary history. Arguing for the value of these deceptively simple stories as part of a sophisticated, complex, and heterogeneous cultural heritage, Gates and Tatar show how these remarkable stories deserve a place alongside the classic works of African American literature, and American literature more broadly.Opening with two introductory essays and twenty seminal African tales as historical background, Gates and Tatar present nearly 150 African American stories, among them familiar Brer Rabbit classics, but also stories like “The Talking Skull” and “Witches Who Ride,” as well as out-of-print tales from the 1890s’ Southern Workman. Beginning with the figure of Anansi, the African trickster, master of improvisation—a spider who plots and weaves in scandalous ways—The Annotated African American Folktales then goes on to draw Caribbean and Creole tales into the orbit of the folkloric canon. It retrieves stories not seen since the Harlem Renaissance and brings back archival tales of “Negro folklore” that Booker T. Washington proclaimed had emanated from a “grapevine” that existed even before the American Revolution, stories brought over by slaves who had survived the Middle Passage. Furthermore, Gates and Tatar’s volume not only defines a new canon but reveals how these folktales were hijacked and misappropriated in previous incarnations, egregiously by Joel Chandler Harris, a Southern newspaperman, as well as by Walt Disney, who cannibalized and capitalized on Harris’s volumes by creating cartoon characters drawn from this African American lore.Presenting these tales with illuminating annotations and hundreds of revelatory illustrations, The Annotated African American Folktales reminds us that stories not only move, entertain, and instruct but, more fundamentally, inspire and keep hope alive.The Annotated African American Folktales includes:Introductory essays, nearly 150 African American stories, and 20 seminal African tales as historical backgroundThe familiar Brer Rabbit classics, as well as news-making vernacular tales from the 1890s’ Southern WorkmanAn entire section of  Caribbean and Latin American folktales that finally become incorporated into the canonApproximately 200 full-color, museum-quality images

Tragedy at Piddleton Hotel


Emily Organ - 2019
    Together with her quirky sidekick, Doris Pemberley, she's determined to solve mysteries and chase down criminals in the sleepy English village of Compton Poppleford. *** A new cozy mystery series from the author of the Penny Green Series, Emily Organ. *** 1932. Growing bored in the autumn of her years, Londoner Annabel Churchill decides to buy a private detective agency in a Dorset village. The purchase brings with it the eccentric Doris Pemberley and it’s not long before the two old ladies have their first case. No one has made more enemies than the local busybody, Mrs Furzgate, but when she suffers a fatal fall at Piddleton Hotel everyone assumes it was an accident. The detective duo, Churchill and Pemberley, suspect murder and are soon on the case. But is it possible they’ll upset even more people than Mrs Furzgate managed to? With the subtlety of two bulls in a china shop, Churchill and Pemberley employ unconventional sleuthing techniques. What appears to be a shortcoming is actually a skill: being consistently underestimated enables them to spring a clever surprise. For fans of light-hearted mysteries and sharp-witted elderly sleuths. Tragedy at Piddleton Hotel is the first book in the Churchill & Pemberley cozy mystery series. Book 1: Tragedy at Piddleton Hotel Book 2: Murder in Cold Mud

Kate Hardy


D.E. Stevenson - 1947
    But Kate Hardy, a successful young writer, soon finds a world of rivalries beneath the surface calm.

The Max Porter Box Set: Volume 1 (Max Porter Paranormal Mysteries Box Set)


Stuart Jaffe - 2016
    With over 100,000 readers, the Max Porter Paranormal Mysteries is a highly addictive series that’ll keep you turning pages late into the night. Fun, funny, suspenseful, and scary, this omnibus edition includes the first THREE books in the bestselling series with hundreds of excitement-filled pages! "Southern Bound gets it right! A great blend of ghosts and gumshoes. If you like haunting mysteries you'll love Southern Bound!" - Edgar-nominated author, Joel Goldman SOUTHERN BOUND (Book 1) When Max and Sandra Porter moved down to North Carolina, they thought they were getting a new beginning - good job, good pay, and a lovely little place in Winston-Salem. But the family that hired him to research land deals in North Carolina is not all that they seem. And when Max discovers that his office is haunted by Marshall Drummond, PI - a ghost from the 1940s - what started as a simple research job sinks him neck-deep in a world of old mysteries and dangerous enemies. One in which ghosts, witches, curses, and spells exist. One in which something as innocent as a book can turn deadly. SOUTHERN CHARM (Book 2) When Max and the gang are hired by an art forging ghost to find a lost painting, Max thinks it'll be easy money. But villains old and new come out, and the race is on for the painting and the secrets it contains. A race that will lead Max into a mess of magic spells, haunted houses, ancient curses, and even Blackbeard the Pirate. SOUTHERN BELLE (Book 3) Max thought he had enough trouble dealing with one witch in Winston-Salem. But a new case brings to light an entire coven of witches. Angry, cursed, dead witches. Lucky for Max he has the aid of his partner, the ghost of 1940s detective Marshall Drummond, and his sharp-witted wife, Sandra. Together, they'll face enemies at every turn, and things only get worse when the mysterious Hull family and the FBI start poking into Max's life. He'll need all his team can give with a case that involves the theft of a cursed bell, dark magic, spirit possession, and ghastly murders. All in all, just another day at the office for Max Porter. Grab your copy now and save over 40% against buying the individual books!

Go Down, Moses


William Faulkner - 1942
    He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.” —William Faulkner, on receiving the Nobel Prize Go Down, Moses is composed of seven interrelated stories, all of them set in Faulkner’s mythic Yoknapatawpha County. From a variety of perspectives, Faulkner examines the complex, changing relationships between blacks and whites, between man and nature, weaving a cohesive novel rich in implication and insight.

Tortilla Flat


John Steinbeck - 1935
    At the center of the tale is Danny, whose house, like Arthur's castle, becomes a gathering place for men looking for adventure, camaraderie, and a sense of belonging. These "knights" are paisanos, men of mixed heritage, whose ancestors settled California hundreds of years before. Free of ties to jobs and other complications of the American way of life, they fiercely resist the corrupting tide of honest toil in the surrounding ocean of civil rectitude.As Steinbeck chronicles their deeds--their multiple loves, their wonderful brawls, their Rabelaisian wine-drinking--he spins a tale as compelling and ultimately as touched by sorrow as the famous legends of the Round Table, which inspired him.

Deep Shadow


Nick Sullivan - 2018
     Scuba divers travel from all over the world to visit the little island of Bonaire, with its crystal-clear waters and a host of beautiful marine life. After three years in the “Divers Paradise”, divemaster Boone Fischer thought he’d seen it all; but on a routine afternoon dive, he spots something that will turn his tranquil life upside down.From the arid shores of the ABC Islands to the tropical jungles of Venezuela—from the ocean depths of the Southern Caribbean, to the lush islands of the Northern Leewards, Deep Shadow takes Boone and the reader on an action-packed adventure filled with danger and suspense."The age-old adage of ‘write what you know’ becomes very important when you write about a technical subject like scuba diving. When you get all the details right, and throw in just the right amounts of action, humor, romance, and suspense, you have a novel like this." - Wayne Stinnett, bestselling author of Fallen Out.

Out of the Dawn Light


Alys Clare - 2009
    On her sister's wedding day, Lassair meets an attractive and enigmatic stranger who brings a breath of the fascinating outside world to her backwater Fenland village. When he asks Lassair to use her unique talents to help locate a mysterious treasure she accepts, despite the dangers. But this is no ordinary treasure hunt; the object of the perilous search is five hundred years old and has a terrifying power of its own . . .

How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems


Randall Munroe - 2019
    How To is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole. Bestselling author and cartoonist Randall Munroe explains how to predict the weather by analyzing the pixels of your Facebook photos. He teaches you how to tell if you're a baby boomer or a 90's kid by measuring the radioactivity of your teeth. He offers tips for taking a selfie with a telescope, crossing a river by boiling it, and getting to your appointments on time by destroying the Moon. And if you want to get rid of the book once you're done with it, he walks you through your options for proper disposal, including dissolving it in the ocean, converting it to a vapor, using tectonic plates to subduct it into the Earth's mantle, or launching it into the Sun.By exploring the most complicated ways to do simple tasks, Munroe doesn't just make things difficult for himself and his readers. As he did so brilliantly in What If?, Munroe invites us to explore the most absurd reaches of the possible. Full of clever infographics and amusing illustrations, How To is a delightfully mind-bending way to better understand the science and technology underlying the things we do every day.