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“When a man weighs anchor in a little ship or a large one he does a jolly thing! He cuts himself off and he starts for freedom and for the chance of things. He pulls the jib a-weather, he leans to her slowly pulling round, he sees the wind getting into the mainsail, and he feels that she feels the helm. He has her on a slant of the wind, and he makes out between the harbour piers.” (quotation from Hilaire Belloc)...

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In 1898, during the construction of river-crossing bridge for the Uganda Railway at the Tsavo River, as many as 135 railway workers were attacked at night, dragged into the wilderness, and devoured by two male lions. The Man-Eaters of Tsavo is the autobiographical account of Royal Engineer Lt. Col. J.H. Patterson's African adventures. Among them, his hunt for the two man-eaters. This book was the basis for the 1996 film The Ghost and the Darkness. (Summary by James Christopher)...

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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)...

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Harry Houdini, master illusionist and contortionist, unmasks the various ways that criminals take advantage of their victims. (summary by Lee Ann Howlett)...

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A complete exposé of the modus operandi of fire eaters, heat resisters, poison eaters, venomous reptile defiers, sword swallowers, human ostriches, strong men, etc., [by Harry Houdini, from the subtitle]....

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Landmark United States Supreme Court decisions focusing on civil rights and equal protection between 1950 and 1960. (summary by Kelli Robinson)

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William Bernard Ullathorne was a Benedictine monk and Roman Catholic priest who ministered in Australia from 1833 until 1840 and then returned to his native England, where he was ordained a bishop in 1847 and served as Bishop of Birmingham from 1850 until 1888. He is best known for his catechetical trilogy: The Endowments of Man, The Groundwork of the Christian Virtues, and Christian Patience, published in the 1880s. Christian Patience is presented in twelve lectures. Bishop Ullathorne teaches that Christian patience is both a special virtue and a universal virtue. As a special virtue, it is opposed to two opposite vices: a vice of excess, and a vice of defect. Patience is the virtuous mean between the excess vice of obstinacy and the defect vice of impatience. As a universal virtue, patience in found in all the Christian virtues, as it strengthens and perfects them. (Introduction by dave7)...

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The First Epistle of John, often referred to as First John and written 1 John, is a book of the New Testament. This fourth catholic or general epistle is attributed to John the Evangelist, traditionally thought to be the author of the Gospel of John and the other two Epistles of John. This Epistle was written in Ephesus between the years 95–110. The work was written to counter docetism, the heresy that Jesus did not come in the flesh, but only as a spirit. It also defined how Christians are to discern true teachers: by their ethics, their proclamation of Jesus in the flesh, and by their love....

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In this anthology of true crime tales, editor Walter Wood interviews those who were touched by the crimes recounted, sometimes as an acquaintance of the deceased or criminal or in the course of their professional duties. This work provides a personal look at some of the most sensational crimes and scandals of late 19th and early 20th century Britain. (Summary by Nullifidian)...

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Nothing spooky or supernatural, but a very personal gathering of gossip, letters, and fragments of biography of famous people who have lived in Piccadilly (in London, England) ... and of some of the buildings, now long gone. If any part of any city deserves a book to itself, it is Piccadilly. We shall stand before some house in the hours when the traffic is stilled, and I shall tell of its history, of the men and women who dwelt there, and talked and loved and gambled and lived and died. I shall follow the lines of my temperament and tastes rather than those of completeness and impartiality: it is likely that I shall be voluble about Byron and reticent about Macaulay. (From the preface)...

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The Family Kitchen Gardener contains plain and accurate descriptions (ca 1847) of all the different species and varieties of specifically American culinary vegetables, fruit, and herbs in alphabetical order. It includes the best mode of cultivating, propagating, and managing them in the garden or under glass, and a description of the best implements used in maintaining such gardens.(Summary by BellonaTimes)...

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”Why do you choose such a title as The Valley of Vision for your book” said my friend; “do you mean that one can see farther from the valley than from the mountain-top?” This question set me thinking, as every honest question ought to do. Here is the result of my thoughts, which you will take for what it is worth, if you care to read the book. The mountain-top is the place of outlook over the earth and the sea. But it is in the valley of suffering, endurance, and self-sacrifice that the deepest visions of the meaning of life come to us. I take the outcome of this Twentieth Century War as a victory over the mad illusion of world-domination which the Germans saw from the peak of their military power in 1914. The united force of the Allies has grown, through valley-visions of right and justice and human kindness, into an irresistible might before which the German “will to power” has gone down in ruin. (From the Preface)...

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Formed during World War II, the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS), was organized for special operations and intelligence gathering and analysis. Included in its mission was the implementation of, and training of foreign forces in, propaganda, espionage, subversion, and sabotage. After the war, OSS functions were transferred to the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This Simple Sabotage Field Manual was used by OSS agents in training citizen-saboteurs in methods for inciting and executing simple sabotage to thwart industry and other vital functions in Axis-occupied areas. (Summary by James Christopher)...

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Originally published by the Norwegian-American economist Thorstein Veblen while he was a professor at the University of Chicago in 1898, the Theory of the Leisure Class is considered one of the great works of economics as well as the first detailed critique of consumerism. In the book, Veblen argues that economic life is driven not by notions of utility, but by social vestiges from pre-historic times. [Summary modified from Wikipedia.]...

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III. SEXUAL SELECTION IN RELATION TO MAN, AND CONCLUSION. Part 3 of 3 of a book on evolutionary theory by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871. It was Darwin's second great book on evolutionary theory, following his 1859 work, On The Origin of Species. In The Descent of Man, Darwin applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection. The book discusses many related issues, including evolutionary psychology, evolutionary ethics, differences between human races, differences between sexes, the superiority of men to women, and the relevance of the evolutionary theory to society.(Summary by Wikipedia)...

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This is a true account by American woman journalist who, in 1889, set out to see whether she could beat the fictional journey in Jules Verne’s 1873 novel, Around the World in Eighty Days. Wearing one dress and carrying one handbag, Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman (pen name “Nellie Bly”), reported her travels back to avid readers in America. (Summary by Mary Reagan)...

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Biography

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Delightful sketches of British wild birds - a bird for every month of the year from the pheasant in January to the robin in December. This collection of articles, reprinted in book form from the periodical The Outlook, is full of fascinating information about bird behaviour and habitat, as well as many interesting anecdotes. (Summary by Ruth Golding)...

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Nature

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A Collection of Australian Aboriginal Legendary Folk-Lore Tales, legends of the Narran tribe, known among themselves as Noongahburrahs.

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Myths/Legends

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This autobiographical work describes the author's harrowing experience caught on a small drifting piece of ice, while crossing a frozen bay by dog team on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. (Summary by Sean Michael Hogan)...

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Memoirs

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Written in 1910, this cyclopedia is full of information that was quite useful at the time. A hundred years later, its text is more humorous than practical -- although some advice never goes out of style. (Summary by Rachelellen)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction