Book picks similar to
The Blossom and the Fruit: A True Story of a Black Magician by Mabel Collins


19th-century-fiction
aa-reading-list
classic-fiction
fiction-general

Hungarian Dances


Jessica Duchen - 2008
    Instead, she's a teacher, a mum and wife to Julian, a very English husband. When disaster befalls her best friend, Karina feels forced to question the very foundations of her existence.

Where The Rainbow Ends


Anurag Anand - 2013
    In the words of Ken Ghosh, acclaimed Bollywood Director, “A refreshingly poignant plot that keeps its readers engrossed till the very end.”Back cover blurb:Even the most artistic of imaginings can sometimes seem callow in the face of truth. That which appears may not be and that which lies hidden might just be the stark, naked face of reality.Rahul had everything going his way – a soaring career, a happy family and all else a man his age could yearn for. And then suddenly his life began to crumble all around him, disintegrating element after precious element, leaving him to watch in helpless horror.Where had he gone wrong? Was there still hope for redemption, even a solitary ray that he could cling on to?Avantika, a pretty, vivacious girl who had come into Rahul’s life by pure accident, literally, has suddenly gone missing. Just like that, without as much as a trace.Where is Avantika? Will Rahul be able to find her? Is it her own past that has come back to consume her or is it something even more vicious and sinister?Shalini, Rahul’s first love and a girl accustomed to leading life on her own terms. Hailing from a family that exerts considerable influence in the galleries of politics and power, she certainly has the wherewithal to impact a lot of things. Even lives.Is Shalini fostering a grudge that could displace not one but many lives? Could she be the one behind Avantika’s mysterious disappearance?

Other Times


Leslie Thomas - 1999
    It is a rude awakening when they are called upon for the real war. Hugely absorbing, rich and rewarding, Other Times brims with history and experience, love, sorrow and humour.

Her Turn to Cry


Chris Curran - 2016
    But what if she never really left? London, 1965. Top model Joycie Todd lives a glittering life with photographer Marcus Blake. But her childhood tells a different story…When she was eleven, Joycie’s mother disappeared. Run away with another man, so everyone says. But Joycie can’t forget the thumps she heard in the night, or the bloodstained rug hidden under the bed. A rug that was gone the next day.Twelve years later, Joycie has left her past behind. But when an old friend dies, Joycie is left a letter beseeching her to find out the truth. Unable to keep the door locked any longer, Joycie sets out to discover why her mother left her – if she ever really did.As she travels to the shabby seaside towns of her childhood, Joycie soon finds that it’s not just her mother who vanished all those years ago. Joycie knows the disappearances are connected, she just doesn’t know how. But there’s someone out there who does – and they will do anything to keep it buried.

The Bottled Leopard


Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike
    

Travels with My Aunt


Graham Greene - 1969
    Soon after, she persuades Henry to abandon Southwood, his dahlias and the Major next door to travel her way, Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, Paraguay. Through Aunt Augusta, a veteran of Europe's hotel bedrooms, Henry joins a shiftless, twilight society: mixing with hippies, war criminals, CIA men; smoking pot, breaking all the currency regulations and eventually coming alive after a dull suburban life. In Travels with my Aunt Graham Greene not only gives us intoxicating entertainment but also confronts us with some of the most perplexing of human dilemmas.

No Name


Wilkie Collins - 1862
    Disinherited by law and brutally ousted from Combe-Raven, the idyllic country estate which has been their peaceful home since childhood, the two young women are left to fend for themselves. While the submissive Norah follows a path of duty and hardship as a governess, her high-spirited and rebellious younger sister has made other decisions. Determined to regain her rightful inheritance at any cost, Magdalen uses her unconventional beauty and dramatic talent in recklessly pursuing her revenge. Aided by the audacious swindler Captain Wragge, she braves a series of trials leading up to the climactic test: can she trade herself in marriage to the man she loathes?Written in the early 1860s, between The Woman in White and The Moonstone, No Name was rejected as immoral by critics of its time, but is today regarded as a novel of outstanding social insight, showing Collins at the height of his powers.

The Little Book of Curses and Maledictions for Everyday Use


Dawn Rae Downton - 2009
    “Fresh” produce, “wholesome” food. Your boss. Your former boss. Your coworkers. Your crush. Doctors. Customer service. Who can you call to get that monkey off your back? You can’t call anyone because they won’t return your calls. Isn’t it time to have a little ammo of your own? Here you go: fifty custom maledictions for situations you run into every day, and for people you know and wish you didn’t. In step-by-step, user-friendly detail, The Little Book of Curses puts the power back in your hands. Learn how to place spells, incantations, hexes, and more. Authentic, ancient curses from around the world are tweaked for easy, contemporary use. The book covers the four essentials to practicing any kind of magic: what to do and say, what materials to use, what frame of mind to be in, and what limits to set. In some cases it even matters where you are when you set your curse, what time of day it is, and who’s around. All that is here, too. It’s foolproof!

Norwood


Charles Portis - 1966
    Sent on a mission to New York by Grady Fring, the Kredit King, Norwood has visions of "speeding across the country in a late model car, seeing all the sights." Instead, he gets involved in a wild journey that takes him in and out of stolen cars, freight trains, and buses. By the time he returns home to Ralph, Texas, Norwood has met his true love, Rita Lee, on a Trailways bus; befriended Edmund B. Ratner, the second shortest midget in show business and "the world's smallest perfect fat man"; and helped Joann, "the chicken with a college education, " realize her true potential in life.

Ernest Hemingway: Four Novels


Ernest Hemingway - 2011
    A memorable gift at any time of the year.

The Buccaneers


Edith Wharton - 1938
    In the New York society of the 1870s, however, only those with old money can achieve the status of the elite, and it is here that the sisters seem doomed to failure.Nan's new governess, Laura Testvalley, herself an outsider, takes pity on their plight and launches them instead on the unsuspecting British aristocracy. Lords, dukes, marquesses and MPs, it seems, not only appreciate beauty, but also the money that New York's nouveaux riches can supply.A love story of love and marriage among the old and new moneyed classes, The Buccaneers is a delicately perceptive portrayal of a world on the brink of change.

The Member of the Wedding


Carson McCullers - 1946
    Here is the story of the inimitable twelve-year-old Frankie, who is utterly, hopelessly bored with life until she hears about her older brother's wedding. Bolstered by lively conversations with her house servant, Berenice, and her six-year-old male cousin—not to mention her own unbridled imagination—Frankie takes on an overly active role in the wedding, hoping even to go, uninvited, on the honeymoon, so deep is her desire to be the member of something larger, more accepting than herself. "A marvelous study of the agony of adolescence" (Detroit Free Press), The Member of the Wedding showcases Carson McCullers at her most sensitive, astute, and lasting best.

Babbitt


Sinclair Lewis - 1922
    The controversy provoked by Babbitt was influential in the decision to award the Nobel Prize in Literature to Lewis in 1930.

Tales of the North


Jack London - 1968
    This wonderful compilation includes, in facsimile of the original turn of the century magazines, the complete novels of White Fang, The Sea-Wolf, The Call of the Wild and Cruise of the Dazzler, plus 15 short stories -- all with original illustrations This is an adventure you won't want to miss

Eddie and the Cruisers


P.F. Kluge - 1980
    More information to be announced soon on this forthcoming title from Penguin USA