Showing results by author "Beauty_23" in All Categories

This exciting historical adventure depicts the last stand of the Gordons - God's "outlaws" - fighting for their Catholic Faith in the early days of the Protestant Revolution in seventeenth-century Scotland.Written for the children but enjoyed by young and old alike, this intriguing novel is filled with courageous heroes, cowardly villains, secrets and even secret passages! (Summary by Maria Therese)Reader's Note: A new (and hopefully improved) recording of this book was uploaded in June, 2013.

The year is 1896. The United States is rocked by the election of an unlikely president. On election night, riots broke out in the streets of New York. The city was paralyzed with dread. Mobs organized under the lead of Anarchists and Socialists. Farther South, people celebrated. This was a President elected by the working class and he was a President who followed through with his commitment to fight for the rights of the people. This president would fight to end the enslavement of the people by money lenders, big bankers, corporations and government overtax. But can he be successful in a ...

A collection of three translated diaries written during the latter part of the Heian Period (11th century A.D.). The original authors, Sugawara no Takasue no musume, Murasaki Shikibu, and Izumi Shikibu, were all women of the Japanese court; the latter two known also for their novels and poetry, respectively. - Summary by Wikisource

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other Homeric epic. The Odyssey is fundamental to the modern Western canon; it is the second-oldest extant work of Western literature, while the Iliad is the oldest. Scholars believe the Odyssey was composed near the end of the 8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek coastal region of Anatolia. The poem mainly focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus (known as Ulysses in Roman myths), king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to...

Michel de Montaigne was a contemporary of Shakespeare who, after having played his part in France's terrible wars of religion, retired to his estates and decided to write about what he knew best--himself. And so in his likes and dislikes, his reflections on history, his loves and his travels, he brought to life, not just one man, but all human experience. "What do I know?" he asked. If not himself and his own soul, then nothing else. (Summary by Pamela Nagami, M.D.)

"Leave it to Jeeves" was Bertie's motto, be the question one of a colour of a tie, the style of a hat, the cut of a coat. Jeeves was always right. There was no one like him to placate rich uncles or indignant mammas. He said just the right thing at just the right moment.What did it matter that Jeeves was somewhat of a tyrant, and that without his approval Bertie could not grow so much as a moustache? Was he not always there to lean on in moments of stress? And moments such as these were frequent in the life of Bertie and his friends. Jeeves service was extended to them all."Carry On, Jeeves" ...

284 fables on a wide range of subjects, written by the famous author Aesop.

Florence Scovel Shinn, an illustrator living in New York City, became a teacher of New Thought after a divorce. New Thought was a movement which holds the belief that individuals can create their own reality through intentional thoughts and prayer, much like the current Law of Attraction movement. The Game of Life and How to Play It is her first book, and is remarkable for being written by a woman and meant for a genteel female audience. (Summary from Wikipedia)

“These papers were originally published as prefaces to the separate books of Dickens in one of the most extensive of those cheap libraries of the classics which are one of the real improvements of recent times. Thus they were harmless, being diluted by, or rather drowned in Dickens. My scrap of theory was a mere dry biscuit to be taken with the grand tawny port of great English comedy; and by most people it was not taken at all--like the biscuit.Nevertheless the essays were not in intention so aimless as they appear in fact. I had a general notion of what needed saying about Dickens to the ...

This work is a selection of Christmas stories (or sometimes chapters) of Lucy Maud Montgomery from different sources and different times. The focus is widened a bit to include a few works about Thanksgiving Day and New Year’s Day. LMM was a prolific Canadian author in the early 20th century whose works were very popular in her own country as well as the United States, and indeed around the world. Perhaps her most read novel was her first, Anne Of Green Gables. - Summary by david wales

This is a detailed biography of the life and adventures of Daniel Boone. His accomplishments are brushed over in history classes these days and not given the recognition they deserve. This biography clearly paints a picture of the benevolent person of Daniel Boone as well as the achievements he made in furthering European settlement in America. (Summary by Allyson Hester)

The Adventures of Maya the Bee is an exciting tale for children of all ages. Themes of growth and development of courage and wisdom are found, as well as the extreme joy and satisfaction that Maya experiences in the beauty of creation and all creatures. Her ultimate and innate loyalty to her Nation of Bees is acted out in the final heroic scenes. This story gives us the delightful sense of having seen a small segment of the world through a Bee's eyes. (Summary by Brenda Price)

This is the handwritten book that Carroll wrote for private use before being urged to develop it later into Alice in Wonderland. It was generously illustrated by Carrol and meant to entertain his family and friends. When a sick child in a hospital enjoyed it so much, the mother wrote him saying it had distracted her for a bit from her pain and led eventually to Carroll expanding the story. The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed in a boat, on 4 July 1862, up the Isis with the three young daughters of Henry Liddell, (the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford ...

This is Charles Johnston's translation of and commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Johnston's interpretation of this seminal yogic text focuses on "the birth of the spiritual from the psychical man." - Summary by Maggie Russell

By turns illuminating, infuriating, bewildering, and amusing, Nietzsche's masterwork covers a lot of ground. He rejects most strands of Western thought, especially on the subject of morality, and develops his own theme demanding that individuals embrace their own 'will to power' to give life intention and direction. First published in German in 1887, this translation was produced in 1907 by Helen Zimmern, a long-standing acquaintance of Nietzsche.There is an accessible text at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4363 but it leaves out all words in Greek, and is not in alignment with any printed ...

When Lucy Honeychurch travels to Italy with her cousin, she meets George Emerson, a bohemian and an atheist who falls in love with her. Upon her return to England, she is forced to choose between free-spirited George and her more conventional fiancé, Cecil Vyse. The story is both a romance and a critique of English society at the beginning of the 20th century. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Edward I (1239 – 1307), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The eldest son of Henry III, Edward was involved from an early age in the political intrigues of his father's reign. Edward spent much of his reign reforming royal administration and common law. After suppressing a minor conflict in Wales in 1276–77, Edward responded to a second one in 1282–83 by conquering Wales. Edward's temperamental nature and height (6'2") made him an intimidating figure. He often instilled fear in his contemporaries, although he held the respect of his subjects for the way he embodied the medieval ideal...

"I seen my opportunities and I took 'em.", George Washington Plunkitt of Tamminy Hall. There's good graft and bad graft according to Plunkitt. Listen to this candid discourse from a 19th century politician, and decide for yourself if things have changed.(Summary by Mike Vendetti)

In the Jungle Books, Kipling tells 9 wonderful and exciting tales about Mowgli, the human baby raised by a pack of wolves in the jungles of India. His exploits and adventures are many and varied especially his dealing with the other animals such as his wolf mother and father and brother wolves, Baloo the wise bear who teaches him the Law of the Jungle, and in his life long battle with Shere-Kahn, the lame human killing tiger. I have enjoyed these stories so much that I decided to take all 9 of them that are scattered throughout the first and second Jungle Books, as well as a few of his songs, ...

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. Traditionally, the authorship of the Mahabharata is attributed to Vyasa. With more than 74,000 verses, Mahabharata is said to be the longest poem. Mahabharata tells the story of the epic Kurukshetra War and the fates of the cousin brothers Kauravas and the Pandavas. But more than that the Mahabharata contains much philosophical and devotional material, such as a discussion of the four "goals of life" or 'purusharthas'. The latter are enumerated as dharma (right action), artha (purpose), kama (pleasure), and moksha (...