Jack Archer


G.A. Henty - 1883
    The story begins with Jack at school when he is urgently sent for at home. His father tells Jack that he has gotten him a position as a midshipman on a paddle-steamer and will be leaving Portsmouth the following day.

Sweet, Savage Death


Jane Haddam - 1984
    This Edgar-nominated whodunit is a behind-the-scenes look at the romance business - authors, agents, editors, publishers, and fans.

The Battle of Waterloo


J. Christopher Herold - 1967
    In the space of what is now known as the Hundred Days, the deposed French emperor was to demonstrate that nothing had changed. Only forty-six, he still possessed the ambition that made Europe quake at the news of his return to France, the magnetism that made men offering undying devotion swarm to his side, and the military genius that could plan, execute, and very nearly win a brilliant campaign against vastly superior odds. The battle that ended the career of the greatest conqueror of modern times was Waterloo. National Book Award winner J. Christopher Herold, a lifelong Napoleon scholar, tells the story of Waterloo with special emphasis on the emperor's role. But it is also the story of the Duke of Wellington, who led a mixed force of British, Belgian, Dutch, and Hanoverian troops in a masterly defensive operation. Like all military contests, Waterloo was a series of blunders and misunderstandings mixed with acts of heroism, timidity, and endurance. But because it permanently shattered Napoleon's dreams of conquest, Waterloo has a special place as one of the decisive battles in world history.

So Well Remembered


James Hilton - 1945
    A respected lawyer and civic leader, he possessed the skill and charisma to shine on the national stage. But ambition is not without a cost. When Boswell must choose between the promise of a bright future or staying behind for the people who have come to depend on him, his decision comes at a shocking price. "So Well Remembered" is a story of a people pulled reluctantly toward modernity amid the farms and factories of Lancashire, and a celebration of the steadfast character of the common English village.

A Once and Future Love: a time travel romance


Anne Kelleher - 1998
    When Richard Lambert’s beloved wife dies, he thinks he will never find love again. Until, while exploring a medieval tower, he falls from the steps—and into another time… England, 1214. When Richard wakes, he’s in the body of his ancestor, who is near death from battle. As his wife nurses him back to health, she finds he is not the cruel man she knew. And he discovers a second chance—with his one and only love.

The Confession


Mary Roberts Rinehart - 1917
    Agnes Blakiston did not want to rent the old parsonage and soon came to regret it. At night the phone would ring and there would be unseen visitors. Was the house haunted? And did Miss Emily have a secret to terrible she would rather die than reveal it?

The Court of Last Resort: The True Story of a Team of Crime Experts Who Fought to Save the Wrongfully Convicted


Erle Stanley Gardner - 1952
       In 1945, Erle Stanley Gardner, noted attorney and author of the popular Perry Mason mysteries, was contacted by an overwhelmed California public defender who believed his doomed client was innocent. William Marvin Lindley had been convicted of the rape and murder of a young girl along the banks of the Yuba River, and was awaiting execution at San Quentin. After reviewing the case, Gardner agreed to help—it seemed the fate of the “Red-Headed Killer” hinged on the testimony of a colorblind witness.   Gardner’s intervention sparked the Court of Last Resort. The Innocence Project of its day, this ambitious and ultimately successful undertaking was devoted to investigating, reviewing, and reversing wrongful convictions owing to poor legal representation, prosecutorial abuses, biased police activity, bench corruption, unreliable witnesses, and careless forensic-evidence testimony. The crimes: rape, murder, kidnapping, and manslaughter. The prisoners: underprivileged and vulnerable men wrongly convicted and condemned to life sentences or death row with only one hope—the devotion of Erle Stanley Gardner and the Court of Last Resort.   Featuring Gardner’s most damning cases of injustice from across the country, The Court of Last Resort won the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. Originating as a monthly column in Argosy magazine, it was produced as a dramatized court TV show for NBC.

The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings


Martin Luther King Jr. - 2013
    King, available for the first time as an ebook "The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr." is the ultimate collection of Dr. King's most inspirational and transformative speeches and sermons, accessibly available for the first time as an ebook. Here, in Dr. King's own words, are writings that reveal an intellectual struggle and growth as fierce and alive as any chronicle of his political life could possibly be. Included amongst the twenty selections are Dr. King's most influential and persuasive works such as "I Have a Dream" and "Letter from Birmingham Jail" but also the essay "Pilgrimage to Nonviolence," and his last sermon "I See the Promised Land," preached the day before he was assassinated. Published in honor of the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, "The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr." includes twenty selections that celebrate the life's work of our most visionary thinkers. Collectively, they bring us Dr. King in many roles--philosopher, theologian, orator, essayist, and author--and further cement the most powerful and enduring words of a man who touched the conscience of the nation and world.

So Disdained


Nevil Shute - 1928
    When he stops to give a lift to a bedraggled pedestrian he is amazed to discover an old wartime comrade from the Royal Flying Corps. Moran's loyalty is tested as he agrees to help his friend, even though he has acted treasonably.

Cornelli


Johanna Spyri - 1892
    Such has been the fate of Johanna Spyri, the Swiss authoress, whose reputation is mistakenly supposed to rest on her story of Heidi. To be sure, Heidi is a book that in its field can hardly be overpraised. But the present story is possessed of a deeper treatment of character, combined with equal spirit and humor of a different kind. Cornelli, the heroine, suffers temporarily from the unjust suspicion of her elders, a misfortune which, it is to be feared, still occurs frequently in the case of sensitive children. . . .

The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage


Walter Dean Myers - 2005
    . . . It is the story of men who acted as men, and who gave a good account of themselves when so many people thought, even hoped, that they would fail.What defines a true hero?The "Harlem Hellfighters," the African American soldiers of the 369th Infantry Regiment of World War I, redefined heroism -- for America, and for the world. At a time of widespread bigotry and racism, these soldiers put their lives on the line in the name of democracy.The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage is a portrait of bravery and honor. With compelling narrative and never-before-published photographs, Michael L. Printz Award winner Walter Dean Myers and renowned filmmaker Bill Miles deftly portray the true story of these unsung American heroes.

Something Fishy


P.G. Wodehouse - 1957
    When Keggs was a butler he eavesdropped on a meeting between his employer, J.J. Bunyan, and a covey of tycoons--J.J. and his associates each agreed to put up fifty-thousand dollars, the total to go to whichever of their sons was the last to marry. Thirty years later, Keggs wants to cash in on what he knows.

The Wind Off the Small Isles and The Lost One


Mary Stewart - 2016
    Lanzarote. A wealthy young woman elopes with an impoverished fisherman, leaving her family distraught.1968. Perdita West, secretary to a famous author, visits Lanzarote on a research trip and begins to fall in love with the unusual, beautiful little island. When, while snorkelling, a landslide traps Perdita in an underwater cave, her efforts to save herself will reveal what happened to the ill-fated couple who fell in love at this very spot almost a century ago . . .

Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans in England


Charles Harding Firth - 1900
     Frith describes the years which led to Cromwell seizing power. These years included the rise and fall of megalomaniac King Charles I, meetings of the Long Parliaments of the 1640s and the discussions concerning the newer ideas in English Christianity (Presbyterianism, Calvinism and so forth). Then came the Puritan rebellion against Charles following their Nineteen Propositions of 1642. Throughout the 1640s and 1650s the Royalists, fighting on behalf of the King, were engaged in fighting with the Puritans, and Firth gives excellent and vivid descriptions of battle based on first-hand accounts. Assisted by the Scottish Army, the Battle of Marston Moor was a key point in the conflict, where Cromwell gained the nickname ‘Ironsides’ from his followers and ‘Lord of the Fens’ from his opponents due to his support of the rights of peasants. In 1648 he joined the army to quell any outbreak of civil war and anarchy, persuading the soldiers to side with him and Parliament. He also formulated ‘The Agreement of the People’. Then Ireland rose up against its Parliament, leading to Cromwell’s attempt to convert the nation to Protestantism, and England went to war with Scotland and the Netherlands. After the execution of Charles I in 1649, Cromwell was placed at the head of the English Republic, ‘a perpetual Parliament always sitting’, which became the Little Parliament within a few years. Opposed to him were the Levellers and Presbyterians, which shows that the events had both a political and religious dimension. He also gave kindness to the Quakers and formed an alliance with France against Spain in a move that was much criticised in the years that followed. Cromwell initially wanted to incorporate the army into how England was governed, but by 1653 civilian rule had been restored. Cromwell was given the title of Protector and set about promoting the separation of powers within government and the reform of law and the English courts system. He also encouraged education and scholarship, which were linked with his own religious ideals to unite the branches of the English church, and hoped to secure England’s commercial and religious interests within Europe and the colonies. Right up to his death in 1660, argues Firth in a wide-ranging and brilliant study of Puritanism and the man who stood at its head, no man exerted more influence on the religious development of England. Charles Firth (1857-1936) was Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford University and president of the Royal Historical Society. His works concerned seventeenth-century England and included Scotland and the Commonwealth.

When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew: A Memoir


Hendrika de Vries - 2019
    In the aftermath of her father’s departure, Hendrika watches as freedoms formerly taken for granted are eroded with escalating brutality by men with swastika armbands who aim to exterminate those they deem “inferior” and those who do not obey. As time goes on, Hendrika absorbs her mother’s strength and faith, and learns about moral choice and forced silence. She sees her hidden Jewish “stepsister” betrayed, and her mother interrogated at gunpoint. She and her mother suffer near starvation, and they narrowly escape death on the day of liberation. But they survive it all—and through these harrowing experiences, Hendrika discovers the woman she wants to become.