“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)...

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)...

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)...

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

Der Charakter eines ganzen Volks ist der treueste Abdruck seiner Gesetze und also auch der sicherste Richter ihres Werths oder Unwerths. (aus dem Text)...

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]....

Der Korbmacher oder vollständige Anleitung alle Korbgattungen, sowohl grobe als feine, zu machen und die letzteren durch allerlei Verzierungen, durch Beizen und Lacke, zu verschönern. Der Korbmacher ist der erste Teil des Buches Die Korb- und Strohflechtkunst und die Siebmacherei erscheinen 1843 in Weimar im Verlag B. Fried. Voigt. Die zugehörigen Abbildungen (Figuren) befinden sich auf dem CD-Cover (im Format für eine transparente DVD-Hülle). (Zusammenfassung von Carl Schmied und Wassermann)...

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

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)...

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....

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)...

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)...

Au printemps 1336, François Pétrarque entreprend avec son frère l'ascension du mont Ventoux, qui, de ses 1912 mètres, domine le Comtat Venaissin et la Provence. C'est cette ascension et son pendant mystique que François Pétrarque relate, le jour même, dans une lettre datée du 26 avril, à son ami et confesseur Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro, lettre qui fut ensuite publiée sous le titre L'ascension du mont Ventoux. Le texte original est en latin. Il a été traduit en français en 1880 par Victor Develay. (de Aldor)...

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)...

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)...

Biography

Первая книга Пятикнижия (Торы), Ветхаго Завета и всея Библии. Повествует о периоде от Сотворения мiра и человека до смерти Иосифа во Египте. Состоит из пятидесяти глав. (from Wikipedia)...

Religion

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)...

Nature

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

Myths/Legends

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)...

Memoirs

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)...

Essay/Short nonfiction