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Tom Swift, that prolific youthful inventor, is engaged in trying to help the Allies win WWI. After reading newspaper accounts of the British tanks, Tom takes a sheet of paper and sets out to design a better one from scratch. And fortunately, he can throw the whole family business behind his venture. He has two problems: First, his friends and acquaintances are questioning his patriotism because he hasn't enlisted as a rifleman for the front lines. Even his girl is worried his blood isn't true-blue. But that's because he is developing his tank in secret, and they don't know he's concentrating on winning the war the American way, with machines. The second problem is that the German spies have penetrated the secret of what is being built in the high-security shop on the Swift property. And they will stop at nothing to steal its design - not kidnapping Tom, and not kidnapping the tank itself, complete with crew. Tom and his buddies had better work fast, or the American riflemen are going to find the Kaiser's soldiers using American-designed tanks against them! (Summary by Mark F. Smith)...

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Fiction, Teen/Young adult, Adventure

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The premise of the book is that everyone who has ever died (up until the time in which the book is set, which seems to be about the time of its publication) has gone to Styx. This does not appear to be the conventional Hell described by Dante in The Inferno, but rather the Hades described in Greek myth (both of which had Styxes): a universal collecting pot for dead souls, regardless of their deeds in life. The book begins with Charon, ferryman of the Styx (in The Inferno, he was the ferryman of the river Acheron) being startled—and annoyed—by the arrival of a house boat on the Styx. At first afraid that the boat will put him out of business, he later finds out that he is actually to be appointed the boat's janitor. What follows are eleven more stories (for a total of twelve) which are set on the house boat. There is no central theme, and the purpose of the book appears to be as a literary thought experiment to see what would happen if various famous dead people were put in the same room with each other. Each chapter is a short story featuring various souls from history and mythology. (Wikipedia)...

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Fantasy, Fiction

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With international book sales in the millions, Ralph Connor was the best-known Canadian novelist of the first two decades of the Twentieth Century. The Man from Glengarry was his most popular and accomplished work. Immediately after its publication in 1901, the novel spent several months in the top ranks of the New York Times Books in Demand list. We follow the story of Ranald Macdonald, who is shaped by family and community in rural eastern Ontario in the early decades after Canadian confederation. This is a book about the making of men, but also, ultimately, about the making of a nation, as the mature Ranald moves west to take a leadership role in the fledgling province of British Columbia. The Man from Glengarry features adventure and romance, and is, above all, a work of serious moral purpose. Ralph Connor was the pen-name of the Reverend Charles Gordon, a prominent Canadian minister, and his stories are woven through with his religious convictions. His is a two-fisted Christianity — or, as he said in his autobiography, a religion that can appeal to red-blooded people who aren't afraid to engage in physical conflict for causes t...

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Fiction, Adventure, Romance, Religion

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman opens a window of history through which we can see a small part of the determined efforts made by women to elevate the circumstances of women in the early 20th century.Diantha Bell is a normal young woman desiring marriage and a home, but also a challenging career in a new territory which raises many eyebrows and sets malicious tongues wagging. Her effort to elevate housework and cooking to a regulated and even scientific business, for the relief of homemakers, is a depiction of the late 19th century movement to promote Domestic Science, or Home Economics, as a means of providing more healthful home life, as well as career paths for women.Diantha's business prospers as she shows her excellent gifts of administration, organization and homemaking. She grows an empire, and brings happiness and wholesomeness to every area of endeavor which she carefully attempts.The improvements in women's opportunities have not been available very long, indeed.This is a good reminder....

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Literature, Fiction, Cookery

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Throughout three years of school, Rae Malgregor had been perfectly pliant, perfectly compliant to all the demands placed on her. But now, on the eve of graduation, she couldn’t go on with the mask of artificiality and the air of perfection. She had been chasing this nursing job three whole years, but there was just no wag to it! The Superintendent was stunned. Her best student! The Senior Surgeon was all grey granite business and livid that his time was being taken up with a hysterical nurse! And yet, though he wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone, especially himself, his interest was piqued. (Introduction by MaryAnn)...

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Fiction, Romance, Humor

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Next to de Alexis de Tocquville's almost contemporary Democracy in America, Frances Trollope's work may be the most famous (or at least notorious) dissection of manners and morals of the United States. The work was a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic, and particularly in America, where Trollope was reviled as representing the worst of old world prejudices the new republic (though the criticism did nothing to hurt sales). Accompanied by a son and two daughters, Trollope lived in the United States from 1827 to 1831, spending most of her time in Cincinnati, where she had hoped, when joined by her husband, to open a large department store, which was also to be a place of entertainment and culture. She was, unfortunately, almost entirely ignorant of business practices, and habitually short of money, which her husband was in no position to make up. After leaving Cincinnati she traveled briefly in the eastern states, before returning to England. There is something of a happy ending; Domestic Manners was her first book, and such a success that she turned to writing, producing in her lifetime over a hundred books, which, though they ne...

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Fiction, Travel

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The Flying Inn is a novel first published in 1914 by G.K. Chesterton. It is set in a future England where a bizarre form of Progressive Islam has triumphed and largely dominates the political and social life of the country. Because of this, alcohol sales are effectively prohibited. The plot centers around the adventures of Humphrey Pump and Captain Patrick Dalroy, who roam the country in their cart with a barrel of rum in an attempt to evade Prohibition, exploiting loopholes in the law to temporarily prevent the police taking action against them. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Fantasy

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A young idealistic civil servant, Arvid Falk, leaves the drudgery of bureaucracy to become a journalist and author. As he explores various social activities — politics, publishing, theatre, philanthropy, and business — he finds more hypocrisy and corruption than he thought possible. He takes refuge with a group of bohemians, who meet in a red dining room in Berns Salonger to discuss these matters. (Introduction adopted from Wikipedia)...

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Fiction, Satire

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Edgar Braine was consistently successful at all he set out to accomplish. He went through life with goals and worked diligently and with ethical purity in reaching those goals, from becoming editor of the local newspaper on up to his political aspirations. That was how his mother, in her waning years, had advised him to reach his goals, and Edgar was determined to honor her advice. There was one caveat in his mothers advice however, and it is for Edgar to determine exactly what she meant by it. Is success measured by the interactions between business, politics, and marriage? (Summary by Roger)...

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Fiction, Psychology, Romance

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A wealthy London business man takes a room in a poor part of the city. He is depressed and has decided to take his life by going the next day to purchase a hand gun he had seen in a pawnshop window. The morning comes with one of those 'memorable fogs' and the adventure he has in it alters his decisions and ultimately his life. (Summary by Linda Andrus)...

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Fiction, Religion, Philosophy

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Trent's Last Case (US title The Woman in Black ) is actually the first novel in which gentleman sleuth Philip Trent appears. The novel is a whodunit whose unique place in the history of detective fiction is because it is at the same time the first major send-up of that very genre: Not only does Trent fall in love with one of the primary suspects — usually considered a no-no — he also, after painstakingly collecting all the evidence, draws all the wrong conclusions. Convinced that he has tracked down the murderer of a business tycoon who was shot in his mansion, he is told by the real perpetrator over dinner what mistakes in the logical deduction of the solution of the crime he has made. On hearing what really happened, Trent vows that he will never again attempt to dabble in crime detection. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Mystery, Fiction

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May Agnes Fleming is renowned as Canada's first best-selling novelist. She wrote 42 novels, many of which have only been published posthumely. The Midnight Queen is set in London, in the year of the plague 1665. Sir Norman Kingsley visits the soothsayer La Masque who shows him the vision of a beautiful young lady. Falling madly in love with her, he is astonished to find her only a short time later and saves her from being buried alive. He takes her home to care for her, but while he fetches a doctor, she disappears. Sir Kingsley and his friend Ormistan embark on an adventure to solve the mystery of the young lady - will they ever find her again? (Summary by Availle)...

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Fantasy, Mystery

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Complete version of two plays on French Renaissance French chronicles of the 1590s, based on Pierre de L'Estoile's Journal in the reign of King Henry IV of France Francis de Sales, based on biographies by Etienne-Marie Lajeunie and Michael de la Bedoyere ...

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French chronicles of the 1590s, acts 1 to 5 Francis de Sales, acts 1 to 5

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Horatio Alger, Jr. was well known for his best-selling series of books highlighting “the American Dream” of poor boys making good and becoming rich and successful through “luck and pluck”. Ragged Dick was the first in this niche, and follows the adventures of Dick Hunter, a ragged bootblack as he makes the decision to “grow up ’spectable”, and how he goes about achieving his goals through the help of his friends, his inherent honesty, and his belief in hard work and study. (Summary by Alice)...

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Adventure, Children

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It is the end of the 19th century. Like thousands of others, the Rudkus family has emigrated from Lithuania to America in search of a better life. As they settle into the Packingtown neighborhood of Chicago, they find their dreams are unlikely to be realized. In fact, just the opposite is quite likely to occur. Jurgis, the main character of the novel, has brought his father Antanas, his fiancée Ona, her stepmother Teta Elzbieta, Teta Elzbieta's brother Jonas and her six children, and Ona's cousin Marija Berczynskas along. The family, naïve to the ways of Chicago, quickly falls prey to con men and makes a series of bad decisions that lead them into wretched poverty and terrible living conditions. All are forced to find jobs in dismal working conditions for their very survival. Jurgis, broken and discouraged, eventually finds solace in the American Socialist movement. This novel was written during a period in American history when “Trusts” were formed by multiple corporations to establish monopolies that stifled competition and fixed prices. Unthinkable working conditions and unfair business practices were the norm. The Jungle’s autho...

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Fiction, Literature

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If for nothing else, the (random) sentences listed here at least can stimulate further thoughts and ideas – for instance, young writers and artists may find plenty of interesting ideas for their next literary work (or best-selling novels) in ‘Experimental Literature’ section. In a sense, this book itself is an experimental one. Needless to say, the readers may find that some of these ideas are quite absurd or seemingly outlandish ...

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• Literary disorder; • Self abandonment; • Be an action man; • Abstract theatre (Felix Aderca); • The auto-destruction and the death of literature (Adrian Marino); antipoetic, antiauthor, anti-talent, anti-vocation; the surpassing of the literature; anti-literature; ultraliterature; par-literature; a-literature; “On one side, nothing is literature, on the other side everything is or could be literature. The notion of literary genus disappears.” The literature condition = the total elimination of the idea of intention, value, and hierarchy; • How is good to be? The rule of RQC: Read, quoted, commented; • A music score in poetry; • Travel a lot for inspiration...

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PREFACE …………………………………………3 CONTENTS.....................................................................4 LIFE STRATEGIES 1. Life Strategies in Literature ...................................5 2. Life Strategies in Internet literature......................17 3. Life Strategies in Experimental Literature ........20 3.1. Junk Book .............................................................32 3.2. A-Poems, A-Literature ......................................47 3.3. Encyclopoetry ......................................................56 3.4. Semagraphy .........................................................91 3.5. The Literary Paradoxist Movement ................95 3.6. Tri-Dimensional Poetry .....................................96 3.7. The Assault on Culture ....................................100 3.8. Underground Writing .......................................108 3.9. The Japan Tanka Poet's Club .........................126 4. Life Strategies for Experimental Book .............128...

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A novella describing a single evening in a bar and two people who are surprised to find they like each other even though it's obvious to everyone else....

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“I know it’s none of my business, but is she serious?” Kitty shrugged, “Just a phase. And too young anyway.” The Professor wore a downtrodden face when he said that if that was the case, every woman in the joint was too young for him. “Not true,” Kitty compared him to fine wine, or better yet whiskey. He had gained subtleties from the barrel and had been gentled by experience. “Ah,” the Professor said. “And Skates?” “Boone's Farm.” They laughed and agreed that wasn’t a bad nickname either...

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Laura Kate O'Connell left her life of excitement as an overseas news correspondent to return to her Georgia hometown to raise her two young cousins. When Royce Lee, Laura Kate's attorney, supposedly commits suicide, too many pieces of evidence tell a different story. Her instincts as an investigative reporting are tingling, and she just can't leave it alone. She meets Jack Rhodes, Royce's business partner. Sparks fly, but can she really trust a man she knows nothing about? And why is it that every time something new develops in the case, he seems to be there? Warnings to back off escalate to an attempt on her life. Now, for Laura Kate, it's more than just a mystery. Depending on Jack might be a mistake, but if Laura Kate can get past his southern charms and the nervous way Jack makes her feel, she may get the facts, solve the case, and even save her own life. www.DesertBreezePublishing.com...

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A private collection of sale of illuminated manuscripts, incunabula and early printed books, establishing an endowment fund for the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica....

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16 Important Notices to Buyers 17 Session One, Lots 1-122 Fifteenth century, Lots 1-105 Sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Lots 106-122 250 Indexes 275 Authenticity Guarantee 277 Catalogue Subscriptions Order Form 278 Guide for Prospective Buyers 281 Sotheby's Kings House 282 VAT Information for Buyers 284 Conditions of Business 287 Client Services 288 Specialist Departments 290 International Offices 294 Guide for Absentee Bidders 295 Absentee Bid Form 296 Board of Directors...

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This moderately sized novel opens before the reader, with an episode that took place when, after having driven over a hundred kilometers relating to the pleasure trip from Delhi to Kosani,a tourist resort situated in the Kumayun Hills a range of the Himalayas in the North of India, being undertaken by a group of very intimate three unwed oldies, all retired college teachers, when one of them is accosted by the owner of the roadside `Dhaba` (an indigenous restaurant) where they had halted for refreshment. It triggers one of them to recall his boyhood days. Again, at their destination, the other one is accosted by an ex-girlfriend of his, in the distant past. The `trio` who are given to such type of tours, happen to meet two other ladies, while staying in a very beautiful zone of Goa. Here, each of these women have had been connected with either of the two other Professors, who hasn’t yet met any such female pupil of his, during the various other tours, undertaken by them the `trio` till then. These chance meetings brings forth during the next few years, a bond of a purpose for a meaningful solidarity, eventually turning int...

Excerpt Details
Three chronic bachelors, on their way to Kosani (Kumayun Hills), have just completed their breakfast at a roadside modern `Dhaba` and the cashier for this solid group of three looks towards his companions, as if to seek their consent to signal the `boy` to bring the bill. So, in a broader sense, we used to be treating each other as `neighbour`, during those days. He is younger to me by a couple of years, but his physique and mannerism suggested his equaling me in age. Of course, he always remained conscious of my superiority, because at that point of time, I already had schooling for seven years, whereas he was thoroughly illiterate. …………………. Kundan happened to be the only `writer` available, had a brisk business almost for a fortnight. "I think that it was here that I actually began to earn for months at a run. One day, my earnings went to as high as Five Rupees and 14 Annas, I decided to place it before my mother, instead of handing it over to my father, as usual. …………. "Well, Khanna Ji, how long you had to work with this medico, before resuming your interrupted schooling?" This question was asked by Mr Nepali. "Of...