John Muir's adventure guide for the Yosemite Valley.

Nature

In 1879 John Muir went to Alaska for the first time. Its stupendous living glaciers aroused his unbounded interest, for they enabled him to verify his theories of glacial action. Again and again he returned to this continental laboratory of landscapes. The greatest of the tide-water glaciers appropriately commemorates his name. Upon this book of Alaska travels, all but finished before his unforeseen departure, John Muir expended the last months of his life. (Summary by William Frederic Bade)...

Adventure, Memoirs, Nature, Travel

A wickedly funny book of advice on women's dress. However old, fat or plain you are, Dorothy Quigley will tell you what not to wear. (Summary by Ruth Golding)...

Advice, Humor

Albert Bigelow Paine was Samuel Langhorne Clemens' (Mark Twain's) biographer. He lived with Twain, collecting ideas and material for a biography, for a few years before Twain's death in 1910. Six years later Paine published this story of a man who made the world laugh and love him. For those who have read or listened to Mark Twain's works, Paine's work is an invaluable resource to better understand Twain, the stories behind his stories and his life with those he loved and with whom he worked. (Summary by John Greenman)...

Biography, Humor

In seiner 1880 erschienenen Anleitung zur Zimmer-Gärtnerei gibt Max Alfred Jubisch leicht verständliche Ratschläge zur richtigen Aufstellung, Pflege und Vermehrung von Zimmerpflanzen. Dabei geht er auch auf die zu dieser Zeit erst in Mode gekommenen Terrarien und Aquarien ein. Wer nicht sofort zur Bekämpfung von Pflanzenkrankheiten die Chemiekeule schwingen will, wird hier sicherlich einige gute Tipps finden. Und wer einfach nur wissen will, wie es anno 1880 in Deutschen (Blumen)-Zimmern ausgesehen haben mag, wird hier sicherlich auch einen kleinen Einblick bekommen. Auf den fünften Abschnitt der Druckausgabe wurde in diesem Hörbuch verzichtet, da es sich im Wesentlichen nur um eine Aufzählung lateinischer Blumennamen handelt. (Wassermann)...

Instruction, Nature, Advice

In The Feast of St. Friend, a Christmas book , Arnold Bennett shares his views on Christmas as the season of goodwill. As always, Bennett's writing includes some thought-provoking ideas liberally spiced with his wry sense of humour, and as always too, you can barely believe it was written so long ago. This was published exactly 100 years ago, in 1911. (Introduction by Ruth Golding)...

Advice, Holiday, Humor

Thomas Stevens was the first person to circle the globe by bicycle, a large-wheeled Ordinary. His journey started in April 1884 in San Francisco from where he cycled to Boston to take a steamer to England. Crossing England, France, Central Europe and Asia Minor before he was turned back at the borders of Afghanistan. He returned part of the way to take a ship to Karachi, from where he crossed India. Another steam ship brought him from Calcutta to Hong Kong, and from Shanghai he set over to Japan, finally ending his journey after actually cycling 13.500 miles in Yokohama, December 1886. This is the second volume (of two) relating his travel experiences, detailing the part of the journey from Teheran to Yokohama. (Summary by Availle)...

Adventure, Memoirs, Travel

Wood and Garden reads like a walk through the garden with reknowned garden designer Gertrude Jekyll as she discusses her plant choices and placement, how she integrates nature into her design, and how she maintains and enjoys the garden. (Summary by A. Gramour)...

Nature, Instruction

Serialized in Shadowland from November 1921 to February 1922, Hollywood: Its Morals and Manners is Theodore Dreiser's shocking four part expose on the motion picture industry. In it, he shares his observations from his extended stay in Los Angeles, and gives us an intimate look at the seedier underside of Hollywood. (Summary by ChuckW)...

Essay/Short nonfiction, Memoirs

Fridtjof Nansen erzählt hier in Ich Form von einer Expedition mit Scheeschuhen in den Norwegischen Bergen. Die Reise führte ihn von Bergen nach Kristiania und nach Voss....

Adventure, Travel

Six poignant short stories reminiscent of life as a transport rider in the Transvaal veld in the days of the gold rush in South Africa at the end of the 19th century. From an early age Fitzpatrick believed that life should be enjoyed to the full and his honest and often moving style of writing leaves one richer for having known him. (Summary by SallyMc)...

Fiction, Short stories

Jack London died at the age of forty. In this autobiographical work, London describes his life as seen through the eyes of John Barleycorn (alcohol). There is much controversy about the cause of his death just as there is about alcoholism and addiction. London's brutally frank and honest analysis of his own struggles and bouts with alcohol was way before its time and more modern theories of addiction. With remarkable candor and insight, London describes the demons and gods he encountered through both friend and enemy, John Barleycorn. (Summary by Peter Kelleher)...

Memoirs, Biography

The Science of Being Great is the second book of Wattles' triology. In this volume he argues that the power of thought and positive self-esteem is the only true measure of a person's greatness. (Summary by Diana Majlinger) /the-science-of-getting-rich-by-wallace-d-wattles/ The Science of Getting Rich...

Advice, Instruction

In July 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson left Scotland to meet his future wife in her native California. Leaving by ship from Glasgow, Scotland, he determined to travel in steerage class to see how the working classes fared. At the last minute he was convinced by friends to purchase a ticket one grade above the lowest price, for which he was later thankful after seeing the conditions in steerage, but he still lived among the 'lower' classes. His comments on the experience make interesting reading. His father however was so shocked at the thought of his son associating with people 'beneath him' that the work was not published for a number of years, (Summary by annise)...

Memoirs, Travel

A series of occasionally witty one-liners, poems and considerations on the subject of Men, Women and their Conjunction. By turns tender, bland, sexist (in both directions!) and funny. Summary by Cori Samuel. From the text: A man is like a park squirrel; if you fling your favors or your charms at his head he will never come up and eat out of your hand. Even Satan could find a woman to call him Dearie, if he would simply tell her that all he needed was a beautiful woman's uplifting influence. Every bride fancies that she married the original cave-man until she tries to persuade him to go out and argue with the furniture-movers....

Humor, Romance

Thomas Stevens was the first person to circle the globe by bicycle, a large-wheeled Ordinary. His journey started in April 1884 in San Francisco from where he cycled to Boston to take a steamer to England. Crossing England, France, Central Europe and Asia Minor before he was turned back at the borders of Afghanistan. He returned part of the way to take a ship to Karachi, from where he crossed India. Another steam ship brought him from Calcutta to Hong Kong, and from Shanghai he set over to Japan, finally ending his journey after actually cycling 13.500 miles in Yokohama, December 1886. This is the first volume of his travel experiences, detailing the part of the journey from San Francisco to Teheran, where he spent the winter. (Summary by Availle)...

Adventure, Memoirs, Travel

Warner's thoughtful and often humorous memoir of his life as a young farm-boy in Charlemont, Massachusetts. (Introduction by Mark Penfold)

Biography, Memoirs

Eine Reise in das Innere der Insel Formosa und die erste Besteigung des Niitakayama (Mount Morrison) Weihnachten 1898, so der vollständige Titel des 1905 in Buenos Aires erschienen Reisetagebuchs von Karl Theodor Stöpel. Nach einer umfassenden Einleitung zur Geschichte, Geographie und Topographie schildert uns K. TH. Stöpel seine Reisererlebnisse zur Zeit der japanischen Besetzung von Formosa. Seine Bericht wird geprägt durch die Eindrücke der Hinterlassenschaften eines Taifuns, durch den Aufstand gegen die japanischen Besatzer und letztlich der Besteigung des Niitakayama. Karl Theodor Stöpel (1862-1940) machte sich vor allem einen Namen als Volkswissenschaftler und Forschungsreisender. Aus seiner Feder stammt auch das Werk Die deutsche Kaliindustrie und das Kalisyndikat. (1904) . Die Bezeichnung Iha Formosa stammt aus dem Portugiesischen und heißt soviel wie „schöne Insel“. Heute ist diese Inseln unter dem Namen Taiwan bekannt. (Zusammenfassung von Wassermann)...

Adventure, Memoirs, Nature, Travel

Sketches by Boz is a collection of short pieces published by Charles Dickens in 1836 accompanied by illustrations by George Cruikshank. It consists of 56 passages divided into four sections: Our Parish, Scenes, Characters, and Tales. Of these, only the last contains fiction....

Fiction, Essay/Short nonfiction

A collection of lessons (primarily in grammar) for New Testament Greek (also known as Koine) collected by a professor at Meadville Theological School of Pennsylvania. There are over 80 short lessons, each covering an aspect of verbs, nouns, etc. (Summary by IWYLLPA)...

Instruction, Languages