PrairyErth

PrairyErth

William Least Heat-Moon

Travel

Robert Penn Warren pronounced Heat-Moon's Blue Highways "a masterpiece." Now Heat-Moon has pulled to the side of the road and set off on foot to take readers on an exploration of time and space, landscape and history in the Flint Hills of central Kansas.
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The Captain's Dol

The Captain's Dol

D. H. Lawrence

Literature & Fiction / Poetry / Travel

These three novellas display D. H. Lawrence's brilliant and insightful evocation of human relationships - both tender and cruel - and the devastating results of war. In The Fox, two young women living on a small farm during the First World War find their solitary life interrupted. As a fox preys on their poultry, a human predator has the women in his sights. The Captain's Doll explores the complex relationship between a German countess and a married Scottish soldier in occupied Germany, while in The Ladybird a wounded prisoner of war has a disturbing influence on the Englishwoman who visits him in hospital.
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Wild Card

Wild Card

Karina Halle

Romance / Travel / Chick Lit

What would you give up to have a second-chance at a once-in-a-lifetime love? Wild Card is a STANDALONE SECOND-CHANCE ROMANCE from the NYT bestselling author of The Pact and Before I Ever Met You. Rough, raw & rugged. As the man in charge at Ravenswood Ranch, Shane Nelson has never been afraid to get his hands dirty. His sculpted physique isn't the product of a gym, but of years of hard labor under a relentless sun. His straightforward, alpha tendencies come from a man who knows what he wants and goes after it. And what he wants is Rachel Waters. He's never stopped wanting her. They were childhood best friends, then teenage lovers who evolved into soulmates. But on one fateful night, Shane made a grave mistake, breaking both their hearts in the process. Now, after six years, Rachel is back in the small, wild mountain town of North Ridge, BC. Ready to face her past. Ready to face Shane. Ready to face his dark secret. But is a second-chance at a one true love in the cards? Or will their wild hearts be broken once again? WILD CARD is a complete standalone novel and the first book about the Nelson brothers of North Ridge.
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The Frozen Deep

The Frozen Deep

Wilkie Collins

Fiction / Mystery / Travel

Exchanging vows of love with sailor Frank Aldersley the night before his departure, Clara Burnham is haunted by the memory of Richard Wardour, and his mistaken belief that they will one day marry. With her gift of 'Second Sight', Clara foresees terrible tragedy ahead and is racked by guilt. Allied to two different ships, the two men at first have no cause to meet — until disaster strikes and they find themselves united in a battle for survival. It cannot be long before they discover the nature of their rivalry, and the hot-tempered Wardour must choose how to take his revenge. Based on the doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, and originally performed as a play starring both Collins and Dickens, 'The Frozen Deep' is a dramatic tale of vengeance and self-sacrifice which went on to inspire the character of Sydney Carton in Charles Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities'. NB: This is a separate work by Wilkie Collins It is a novel, published serially in 'Temple Bar' between August and October 1874 and then published as a book, and is not the play of the same name that Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins collaborated on in 1856 and that they both appeared in and that was subsequently published in 1857.
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The Spirit of the Wolf

The Spirit of the Wolf

Anne Spackman

Nonfiction / Travel

The story of a man named John, who finds a wolf pup on a trip to Alaska and helps rescue it. The story of his life, how he meets his wife, Jane, and of his son, J.D.Oriel is a planet with a roof, a crusted atmospheric ceiling that falls in chunks like oversized snow. The snow is alive, the Ologists joke. It mimics life, but only out of the corner of your eye...or behind your back.Oriel is a far-flung world whose raw potential is contested, although not understood. A deliberately crashed spaceship throws the planet's atmosphere into turmoil, kick-starting an evolutionary process that accelerates out of control. There is indigenous life on Oriel but in a form unrecognised by man. Soon though this, along with man himself, is transmuted into a pastiche of Earth-like forms, people and buildings grown from the land itself in a matter of days, briefly flourishing before falling into conflict and decay. It is difficult to tell what is human and what mutant. A few surviving humans struggle to make sense of this new world, whilst others are drawn to Oriel in a hopeless search for answers, redemption and even lost love.In the end even reality itself is twisted.
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The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers

The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers

Simon Winchester

Nonfiction / History / Travel

The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Atlantic delivers his first book about America: a fascinating look at the men whose efforts and achievements helped unify the States and create one cohesive nation "History is rarely as charming and entertaining as when it's told by Simon Winchester."-New York Times Book Review For more than two centuries, E pluribus unum-Out of many, one-has been featured on America's official government seals and stamped on its currency. But how did America become "one nation, indivisible"? What unified a growing number of disparate states into the modern country we recognize today? In this monumental history, Simon Winchester addresses these questions, bringing together the breathtaking achievements that helped forge and unify America and the pioneers who have toiled fearlessly to discover, connect, and bond the citizens and geography of the U.S.A. from its beginnings. Winchester follows in the footsteps of America's most essential explorers, thinkers, and innovators, including Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery Expedition to the Pacific Coast, the builders of the first transcontinental telegraph, and the powerful civil engineer behind the Interstate Highway System. He treks vast swaths of territory, from Pittsburgh to Portland; Rochester to San Francisco; Truckee to Laramie; Seattle to Anchorage, introducing these fascinating men and others-some familiar, some forgotten, some hardly known-who played a pivotal role in creating today's United States. Throughout, he ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree. Featuring 32 illustrations throughout the text, The Men Who United the States is a fresh, lively, and erudite look at the way in which the most powerful nation on earth came together, from one of our most entertaining, probing, and insightful observers.
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Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent

Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent

Mircea Eliade

Spirituality / Travel / Religion

The short-sighted adolescent is a passionate reader who takes various cultural figures as models, trying to emulate both their lives or their works. The pupil protagonist is a poor student, who likes science and reads a lot of books, sometimes staying up all night to do so. At the age of 17, he decides to write a novel to demonstrate to his teachers that he is not as mediocre as his other classmates, and that he is prepared to give up everything he holds dear in order to do so. The novel is written in a number of notebooks - the 'diary' of the title - but our myopic hero ultimately fails 3 subjects and has to repeat the school year. Set in the Romanian capital in the early 20th century, from the perspective of a schoolboy’s diary of his daily life, - his teachers, his classmates' academic and amorous rivalries, his first sexual experiences - we are introduced to the themes of religion, self-knowledge, erotic sensibility, artistic creation and otherness, ideas which would preoccupy him until the end of his life. Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent was written by the young Mircea Eliade - one of Romania's greatest writers and intellectuals. The book can be viewed as an early 20th century 'Catcher in the Rye', and allows us an intimate view of the developing genius, whose literary output has been neglected in the English language for too long.
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The Fixed Period

The Fixed Period

Anthony Trollope

Fiction / Travel / History

In mid-19th century England, an era full of celebrated novelists, Anthony Trollope was one of the most popular and critically acclaimed of them all. Even today, his Chronicles of Barsetshire series is widely read, as are his other novels, many of which deal with criticisms of English culture at the time, from its politics to its customs and norms. 
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The Poisoned Meal

The Poisoned Meal

Wilkie Collins

Fiction / Mystery / Travel

Wilkie Collins was an English novelist and playwright. Collins was also a lifelong friend of the legendary writer Charles Dickens with whom he worked with on some plays and other fictional works. In total Collins was the author of 30 novels, 14 plays and more than 60 short stories with his best known works being The Woman in White and The Moonstone. This edition of Collins’ The Poisoned Meal includes a Table of Contents.
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The Collected Stories of Heinrich Böll

The Collected Stories of Heinrich Böll

Heinrich Böll

Literature & Fiction / Travel / Short Stories

The definitive short story collection by the Nobel Laureate and master of the form These diverse, psychologically rich, and morally profound stories explore the consequences of war on individuals and on an entire culture. The Collected Stories of Heinrich Böll provides readers with the only comprehensive collection by this master of the short-story form. Includes all the stories from Böll’s The Mad Dog, Eighteen Short Stories, The Casualty, and The Stories of Heinrich Böll. A Nobel Laureate, Böll was considered a master 20th century literature, and The Collected Stories of Heinrich Böll contains some of his finest work. From the Trade Paperback edition.
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Death in the Australian Outback

Death in the Australian Outback

Anthony E Thorogood

Humor and Comedy / Thriller / Travel

A madcap romp where the humour flows non-stop. Elizabeth West, of the Territory Police, arrives at a job interview but the job has already been given to the nephew of a politician. That is not West's only problem, the detectives conducting the interview are as loony as any character in Monty Python's Flying Circus. This is not a serious work of detective fiction but a seriously funny parody.In Death in the Australian Outback the serious detective thriller is completely blown away. In this modern world of climate change, terrorism and ever increasing regulation on the way we think, we need to lighten up. So sit in a comfortable chair, let your hair down, relax, download the book and have a laugh with Elizabeth West at the very crazy, very zany characters of Detective Chief Superintendent Bigfoot and Detective Superintend Chief Littlefoot. For comedy, like sex, one has to be in the mood and as we get older we forget that one of the most enjoyable things in life is to let go and laugh. So liberate those joy releasing happy hormones, set your inner laughter free and have a read. You will be rewarded by entry into a brilliantly crazy and surreal world of madcap cops trying to solve the problems of a madcap world. Reviews: 'The Australian Outback is the backdrop to this first in the Bigfoot series which sees West angling for a job with TURDS. It's packed with misunderstandings, mishaps, bizarre exchanges and loads of laughs. Along with other books about these three stooges, yarns about this zany trio are rapidly becoming a cult series from an author with a seemingly endless fund of crazy ideas and themes. Strongly recommended if you enjoy a good laugh.''Thoroughly enjoyed the book. The character names and departmental names had me giggling away on the train to my dental appointment. I read a lot of crime and thriller books, so it was a nice change to read something that was quite satirical. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that has a wonderfully warped sense of humour like myself.'
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The Surgeon of Crowthorne

The Surgeon of Crowthorne

Simon Winchester

Nonfiction / History / Travel

Hidden within the rituals of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary is a fascinating mystery. Professor James Murray was the distinguished editor of the OED project. Dr. William Chester Minor, an American surgeon who had served in the Civil War, was one of the most prolific contributors to the dictionary, sending thousands of neat, hand-written quotations from his home. After numerous refusals from Minor to visit his home in Oxford, Murray set out to find him. It was then that Murray would finally learn the truth about Minor - that, in addition to being a masterly wordsmith, he was also an insane murderer locked up in Broadmoor, England's harshest asylum for criminal lunatics. The Professor and the Madman is the unforgettable story of the madness and genius that contributed to one of the greatest literary achievements in the history of English letters.
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