Great Authors

This short book is a collection of quotes that span 14 topics that I have accumulated over the years. These include Fear, Truth, Time, Folly, Pain, Desire, Deceit, Work, Education, Happiness, Evil, Wisdom, Freedom, Humor. While not an exhaustive list, these topics seem to cover a large part of the human experience. I have found these quotes interesting and thought-provoking at various points in time. But I have never thought that any of them has aged badly. This gives them an added perennial quality that is rare to find.

William Shakespeare, long hailed as the history's greatest dramatic writer, has been lauded for his mastery of poetic expression, his insight into the human condition and his deep exploration into the psyche and motivations of his characters. These skills are perhaps best encapsulated in the monologues he gives his various protagonists, villains, and bit players.

Marriage is one of the most important commitments into which you will ever enter. If you and your fiancé are Christ-followers, it makes sense to know what God's design for marriage looks like and to create a relationship that honors him. Beyond the Celebration will lead every couple through the essential steps of planning a life-long marriage. From questions to ask prior to the ceremony to life-tested techniques guiding you through the years to come, this book is the essential pre-marital guidebook.

Intimate and richly detailed, The Beauty of Living begins with E. E. Cummings's Cambridge upbringing and his relationship with his socially progressive but domestically domineering father. It follows Cummings through his undergraduate experience at Harvard, where he fell into a circle of aspiring writers including John Dos Passos, who became a lifelong friend. Steeped in classical paganism and literary Decadence, Cummings and his friends rode the explosion of Cubism, Futurism, Imagism, and other "modern" movements in the arts.

If you have ever spoken these words, ever felt the internal battle of wanting more or different, or ever wrestled with yourself to make choices that would maximize your faith, relationships, mindset, finances, or time, The Way to Greatness is for you! You have an enemy ready to steal your peace, kill your dreams, and destroy your life. But there is hope! You have a loving god who has planned a full, rich, satisfying, abundant life for you! Close your eyes. Imagine your very best life. Let The Way to Greatness train you to recapture the life God has shown you.

"1100 Quotations from the Great French Writers of the 19th Century" is a wonderful collection of wit and wisdom from some of the greatest French writers ever. From Guy de Maupassant and Honoré de Balzac to Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, this carefully crafted collection is guaranteed to inspire and entertain. Ideal for those needing a dose of encouragement. These French literary giants are responsible for some of the worlds most famous works, including "The Three Musketeers", "Les Misérables", "Madame Bovary" and "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame".

Behind every acclaimed work of literature is a trove of heartfelt decisions. The best authors put painstaking - sometimes obsessive - effort into each element of their stories, from plot and character development to dialogue and point of view. Veteran editor and teacher Richard Cohen draws on his vast reservoir of a lifetime's reading and his insight into what makes good prose soar.

Walter Besant was a novelist and historian, and his topographical and historical writings were probably best known through the detailed 10-volume Survey of London published after his death. This earlier single volume covers, in less depth, the whole period from prehistory until the 19th century. The book appears originally to have been written for boys, and, indeed, the chapters are called "Lessons". However, it is a very listenable history and provides a fascinating insight into both London's past and the government of the city at the time the book was written in 1894.

There is a point in everybody's life at which a tough decision will have to be made - a hard call. For inspiration and direction, we can look to the remarkable individuals in John McCain and Mark Salter's book, which dramatically describes the anatomy of a great decision.

600 Quotations from the Great Writers of the 20th Century features the wit and wisdom of some of the 20th Century’s greatest writers and minds. A cherry-picked selection, the collection includes quotes from the likes of famous Irish poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde, American-Lebanese writer and poet Khalil Gibran, Winston Churchill, Britain’s celebrated prime minister, and many more.

A compilation of popular short stories from American literature narrated by professional voice actor Jake Phillips.

James Jones brings powerful emotion and expression to his reading of the famous passage from his celebrated World War II novel in which Private Prewitt plays a version of Taps that expresses "the requiem of the common soldier".

Playing three roles with verve, Philip Roth gives a hilariously comic performance of two old men living in a cheap rooming house who pay a visit to a diffident graduate student to ask a convoluted and unusual favor.

Recounts the story of America’s last great newspaper war between the New York Daily News and the New York Post, as both papers’ long rivalry turned existential amid the rise of digital news. The story is told through the eyes of the reporters, or “runners”, and photographers who fought the war on the ground in cities across America.

Aside from being one of the greatest political essayists in the English language and author of two of the most famous books in 20th century literature, George Orwell was a man of many fascinating contradictions, someone who liked to go against the grain because he believed that was where the truth usually lay. George Orwell: English Rebel takes us on a journey through the many twists and turns of Orwell's life and thought.

In this engaging and deeply informed audiobook, Stephen Knight looks at the different manifestations of Robin Hood at different times and places in a mythic biography with a thematic structure. The best way to get at the essence of the Robin Hood myth, Knight believes, is in terms not of chronological and generic progression but of the purposes served by heroes.

Samuel Pepys kept a diary in which he wrote with astonishing candour about the life he saw around him in London in the 1660s, and about his private desires and ambitions. The diary was kept for fewer than 10 years of his long life: Claire Tomalin tells the whole story of the Fleet Street tailor's son who made himself rich and powerful, an MP and adviser to royalty.

James McCleland, fast jet pilot and Colin Haltwhistle, military investigator: an unlikely pairing put together to undertake a deadly and surprisingly personal mission. Spurred into action by a funeral turned deadly, the Royal Air Force forms a special squad to investigate airborne threats to Britain. The mission: to track down and recover an officer with vital secrets who has gone missing. The problem: No one knows where exactly he has gone or who has him. Following the trail through the middle east, McCleland and Haltwhistle must face a deadly opponent and get their man out, regardless of ...

Do you want to learn more about William Shakespeare, but don’t have time to read/listen to huge, long biographies? Then let The History Journals take you on an hourly history tour of his life. Mention the name of William Shakespeare to students of English the whole world over, and you’ll run an entire gauntlet of reactions ranging from a glazed expression of complete indifference to abject misery and unmitigated terror.

William Wordsworth wrote the first great poetic autobiography. We owe to him the idea that places of outstanding natural beauty should become what he called ‘a sort of national property’. He changed forever the way we think about childhood, about the sense of the self, about our connection to the natural environment and about the purpose of poetry. He was born among the mountains of the English Lake District. He walked into the French Revolution and had a love affair and an illegitimate child before witnessing horrific violence in Paris.