Alvina Houghton is bored by her little town, and feels trapped after her plans to elope with her lover falls through. Though she had previously dreamed of training as a nurse, Alvina is unsure what to do with her life. Alvina comes of age as her father, James, faces the failure of his business. She has a difficult relationship with her father. He is a man who never fully indulged in his passions, but has made eccentric financial decisions. In attempt...

The Magic World (1909) is a collection of twelve children's fantasy stories by English writer Edith Nesbit. Using elements of magic and mystery familiar to readers of her beloved Bastable and Psammead Trilogies, Nesbit crafts tales of wonder and adventure for children and adults alike. In "The Cat-hood of Maurice," a young boy learns firsthand the consequences of mistreating the family cat. One day, Maurice attaches an empty sardine can to Lord...

Cousin Bette (1846) is a novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. Part of Balzac's La Comédie humaine sequence, the novel is recognized as being the author's last fully-realized work, and features several characters who appear elsewhere throughout his legendary series. It has inspired several film and television adaptations, as well as earned comparisons to Shakespeare's Othello and Tolstoy's War and Peace. The novel focuses on the life and exploits...

When Scheherazade marries a ruthless king known for taking a new bride each night only to have his wife killed the next morning, she comes up with a clever plan to survive. Each night, she tells the king a story. And each morning, the king postpones her execution so he can hear how it ends. Scheherazade's stories continued for one thousand and one nights. The text was first translated from Arabic into English in the early eighteenth century. In the...

What would happen to the precarious balance of power if scientists could extend life for centuries? If one power bloc had biological protection against radiation and the other did not? Whose thumb would press the button first?

When Lyle Taney took leave from her teaching job to live high in the mountains, researching the ways of eagles, she was just planning to write her next book. Lasater was an unscrupulous, skilled operative who thought he

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Setting out for the Saint Giles leper colony outside Shrewsbury, Brother Cadfael has more pressing matters on his mind than the grand wedding coming to his abbey. Yet as fate would have it, Cadfael arrives at Saint Giles just as the nuptial party passes the colony's gates. He sees the fragile bride, looking like a prisoner between her two stern guardians, and the bridegroom-an arrogant, fleshy aristocrat old enough to be her grandfather-and he quickly...

Renowned success coach Jennifer White's book, Work Less, Make More, is an easy-to-follow ten-step program for overcoming your fears, unblocking your passions, channeling your energies, and managing your time more efficiently.

Largely autobiographical, La Vagabonde recalls Colette's own years as a dance-hall performer in turn-of-the-century Paris, where she takes the listener backstage and into the demimonde of Renée Néré, an aging dancer, mime, and failed writer, a woman who struggles to choose between freedom and love.

When a Roman ship is wrecked on the coast of Britain, Beric, the infant son of a Roman soldier, is the only survivor. Beric grows up with a Briton tribe, but to his foster people he remains an alien-one of the Red Crests. So when bad times come, the tribe holds him responsible and casts him out. Rejected by the only life he knows, the boy turns to his own people, but Rome too rejects him. Lost, bewildered, and a captive in his father's land, he escapes...

In completing Jane Austen's last novel, Julia Barrett has emerged with a literary treasure, holding true to the characters and theme designed by Ms. Austen. Set in the developing seaside town of Sanditon, it portrays a young woman from the countryside who is exposed to the sophistication and cynicism of resort life. Her name is Charlotte. With disarming charm and wit, she observes for us the array of quirky characters who reside in the booming resort-to-be....