Modern Classics

We are not promised more than today. Thus we need to live our legacy now, with focus and integrity. Ryan Westcott is ready to step into the family business, armed with a fresh MBA degree from a prestigious business school. Yet his father has other ideas. He feels Ryan needs more education - but not the kind one gets from a school. Ryan is sent to his uncle’s Montana ranch to learn, in short, how to be a man. While Ryan helps his uncle build a barn, he learns life lessons about health, work, finances, education, selfessness, humility, and most important of all, love.

Jane Addams was an American activist, philosopher, sociologist, and Nobel Prize winner. Addams’ speech The Modern Lear was delivered in 1894 at the Chicago Women’s Club and the 20th Century Club of Boston before appearing in print in 1912. In the address, Addams discusses the Pullman Railroad Strike in the Summer of 1894 in addition to other labor, union, and ethics issues of the day, using the titular character from William Shakespeare’s King Lear, who was betrayed by his two daughters, as a potent analogy.

Ever miss a prime opportunity for a snappy comeback or a perfect putdown? We all have, kicking ourselves later when we think of what we could have said. The well-aimed insult was never in better shape than when Shakespeare mastered the art of defining dramatic conflict with rapier wit rather than swordplay.

As the English language evolves, this wonderfully instructive story is in danger of only being covered as a school requirement by grudging students. That would be a sad loss for all listeners. As an avid listener, teacher, and parent who simply loves this story, Jennifer George adapted this classic book for modern listeners using 21st-century English. The goal is to return this magical novella back into the entertaining story it was when it was written nearly 200 years ago.

Her changeling friends are imprisoned. To free them, she’ll have to break the laws of magic. Ember Wright managed to save her friends’ lives, only to see them locked up and tormented. With each passing day, the changelings weaken and submit to their interrogators. Secrets start to slip. Running out of options and allies, Ember turns to an ancient, forbidden form of advanced magic. Her reluctant teacher’s warning echoes in her head: Almost all mages who attempt the spell become corrupted by it.

Strindberg, Tschechow, Schnitzler - Revolutionäre des modernen Dramas: Sie schlugen ein wie eine Bombe in die angestaubte Theaterwelt ihrer Zeit. Sie waren frech, sie waren klug, sie wollten das wahre Leben auf die Bühne bringen und lösten Theater-Revolutionen aus. Noch heute bereichern ihre Stücke die Spielpläne unserer Schauspielhäuser. Mit dabei: "Fräulein Julie" (Strindberg), "Die Möwe" (Tschechow), "Reigen" (Schnitzler).

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales III: Modern Verse Translation collection.

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales III: Modern Verse Translation collection.

This anthology of 140 poems, published in 1921, features the work of 97 British and American poets who were active in the early 20th century. Among the more famous names are John Masefield, Rupert Brooke, Walter de la Mare, William Butler Yeats, Robert Graves, Amy Lowell, Carl Sandburg, Edna St Vincent Millay, Joyce Kilmer and Witter Bynner.

Mimei Ogawa, a prolific author of short stories nearly 100 years ago, is considered to be one of the founding figures of modern Japanese children’s literature. He has also been called the Hans Christian Andersen of Japan because of how his works were influenced by Andersen. This collection contains a fresh, modern translation of one of Mimei Ogawa’s most famous works, "The Mermaid and the Red Candles", as well as several other stories that have never been translated and published in English before.

Mary Shelley´s FRANKENSTEIN oder: Der moderne Prometheus, gelesen von Ingolf Kloss. Mary Shelleys Frankenstein ist eine erschreckende Vision des wissenschaftlichen Fortschritts ohne moralische Grenzen und führt den Zuhörer auf eine gefährliche Reise von der erhabenen Schönheit der Schweizer Alpen in die trostlose Einöde des Polarkreises. Besessen von der Idee, das Leben selbst zu erschaffen, plündert Victor Frankenstein Friedhöfe und Schlachtereien.

EZ Reads: Alice in Wonderland Adapted by Jen Park Journey down the rabbit hole with "EZ Reads: Alice in Wonderland," a delightful adaptation of Lewis Carroll's timeless classic, rewritten by Jen Park to be accessible for young readers. This charming retelling preserves the whimsy and wonder of the original story while using simplified language and vibrant illustrations to engage and enchant children. Follow Alice as she encounters a host of quirky characters, from the mischievous Cheshire Cat to the eccentric Mad Hatter and the imperious Queen of Hearts. Each page of this beautifully ...

The author, a prolific writer and a member of the Theosophical Society, describes his personal journey through the Masonic fraternity, as a co-mason. He explains his shock with the familiarity of the lodge room, as he recalled it exactly from a past life in ancient Egypt. He proceeds to compares the modern masonic ritual with ancient Egyptian mysteries, which he clearly remembers. He explains that the fraternity purposely pretended to be operative masons, to avoid persecution from the Church.

1960. The border between East and West Germany has closed. For Elisabeth - a young painter - the GDR is her generation's chance to build a glorious, egalitarian socialist future. For her brother Uli, it is a place of stricture and oppression. Separating them is the ever-wider chasm of the party line; over them loom the twin spectres of opportunity and fear, and the shadow of their defector brother Konrad. In prose as bold as a scarlet paint stroke, Brigitte Reimann battles with the clash of idealism and suppression, familial loyalty and desire.

A modern twist on a classic horror story of the Frankenstein creature. Today with the genetic research and mapping of human DNA our own immortality is possible, but remember be careful what you wish for. The quest for immortality is full of surprise pitfalls.

This rediscovered classic from the 1930s tells nine imaginative stories about trains, cars, and other machinery with human personalities. All nine stories are featured and children will delight in these tales of a lazy automobile, a runaway elevator, a hungry steam shovel, and other endearing machines.

Few creatures of horror have seized imaginations and held them for so long as the anguished monster of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The story of Victor Frankenstein's terrible creation and the havoc it caused has enthralled generations of readers and listeners and inspired countless writers of horror and suspense.

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales III: Modern Verse Translation collection.

Geoffrey Braithwaite is a retired doctor haunted by an obsession with the great French literary genius, Gustave Flaubert. As Geoffrey investigates the mystery of the stuffed parrot Flaubert borrowed from the Museum of Rouen to help research one of his novels, we learn an enormous amount about the writer’s work, family, lovers, thought processes, health and obsessions. But we also gradually come to learn some important and shocking details about Geoffrey and his own life.

"Fu in una lugubre notte di novembre che vidi la realizzazione delle mie fatiche. Preso da grande angoscia, raccolsi i miei speciali strumenti così da poter infondere una scintilla di vita nella cosa inanimata che giaceva ai miei piedi. Era già l'una di notte; la pioggia picchiettava ossessiva contro i vetri, e la mia candela era quasi consumata, quando, alla debole luce semi-estinta, scorsi l’occhio giallo, fermo, della creatura aprirsi; respirava a fatica e un moto convulso agitava le sue membra. [...]"