Ralph Cosham
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Written after his wife's tragic death as a way of surviving the "mad midnight moment," A Grief Observed is C.S. Lewis's honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the midst of loss. This work contains his concise, genuine reflections on that period: "Nothing will shake a man -- or at any rate a man like me -- out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes...
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How Green Was My Valley is Richard Llewellyn's bestselling -- and timeless -- classic and the basis of a beloved film. As Huw Morgan is about to leave home forever, he reminisces about the golden days of his youth when South Wales still prospered, when coal dust had not yet blackened the valley. Drawn simply and lovingly, with a crisp Welsh humor, Llewellyn's characters fight, love, laugh and cry, creating an indelible portrait of a people.
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A ne'er-do-well exploits his gentle daughter's beauty for social advancement in this masterpiece of tragic fiction. Hardy's 1891 novel defied convention to focus on the rural lower class for a frank treatment of sexuality and religion. Then and now, his sympathetic portrait of a victim of Victorian hypocrisy offers compelling reading.
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Hercule Poirot mysteries volume 1
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One morning at Styles Court, an Essex country manor, the elderly owner is found dead of strychnine poisoning. Arthur Hastings, a soldier staying there on sick leave from the Western Front, ventures out to the nearby village of Styles St. Mary to ask help from his friend Hercule Poirot, an eccentric Belgian inspector. Thus, in this classic whodunit, one of the most famous characters in detective fiction makes his debut on the world stage. With a half...
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An allegorical tale of survival about a band of wild rabbits who leave their ancestral home to build a more humane society chronicles their adventures as they search for a safe place to establish a new warren where they can live in peace.
England's Downs were once an idyllic rural landscape, but plans for development are afoot. Facing the certain destruction of their homes, a band of very special creatures must plan a flight from the intrusion of...
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"Strange things are going on at the Paris Opera House: a mysterious phantom--a skeleton in dinner dress--is wreaking havoc amongst the singers and the backstage staff. When new managers take over, and dismiss the rumours of the Opera Ghost, the terror really begins. Who is the mysterious figure stalking the stage at night? How can he be everywhere at once, and enter and leave locked rooms at will? And what is his connection to the beautiful and talented...
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Washington Irving's "Tales of the Alhambra" is really two books in one. The first section chronicles Irving’s 1829 visit to the crumbling Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain. Irving was permitted to reside within the palace grounds. His beautifully detailed descriptions of the deteriorating palace and its inhabitants fit well within the romantic vision that was beginning to sweep Europe. One can only imagine Irving's influence in shaping the popularity...
9) Pure
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Engineer Jean-Baptiste Baratte is tasked with emptying an overflowing cemetery in Paris in 1785, work he considers noble until he begins to suspect that the destruction of the cemetery parallels his own fate and the demise of social order.
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The Second Jungle Book is the sequel to Rudyard Kipling's acclaimed collection of stories about the Indian jungle. These new stories were published a year after the original, and mostly focus on the same characters including Mowgli, Baloo, and Bagheera. Similar to his first collection of fables, this sequel also contains a poem at the end of every story, showcasing Rudyard's knowledge of the politics of the time, as well as his passion for the Indian...
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A timeless classic on "Hell's latest novelties and Heaven's unanswerable answer"
A masterpiece of satire, this classic work has entertained and enlightened readers the world over with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the vantage point of Screwtape, a highly placed assistant to "Our Father Below."
At once wildly comic, deadly serious, and strikingly original, C. S. Lewis gives us the correspondence of the
...12) In the frame
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From a New York Times bestseller, "action, character, and color ride in perfect balance" in a thriller about a horse portraitist turned amateur sleuth (Kirkus Reviews).
Dick Francis, Edgar Award–winning master of mystery and suspense, takes you into the thrilling world of horse racing.
Charles Todd, a renowned painter of horses, is shocked when he turns up at his cousin Donald's house for a weekend visit to find his cousin's young wife...
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Drawing on Charles Dickens's own, often difficult childhood, to create a compelling story of personal success, David Copperfield is edited with an introduction and notes by Jeremy Tambling in Penguin Classics.
David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are...
14) The jungle book
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Presents the three adventures of Mowgli, a young boy raised by the animals in an Indian jungle, as well as other animal stories and songs. Includes discussion questions and explanatory notes.
15) Black Beauty
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"When Black Beauty was born one sweet spring day, he could not have imagined the life ahead of him. Following his mother's advice to do his work with a good will, he enjoys the adventures of country and city life, makes new friends, and suffers from the cruelty and greed of his human masters. Beauty faces each challenge with bravery and kindness -- and then a chance encounter with an old friend brings him the greatest joy of all. Anna Sewell's classic...
16) Adolf Hitler
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Extensive research and interviews with people directly involved in Hitler's public and private life form the basis for the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian's detailed portrait of Hitler.
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Americans call the Second World War “The Good War.” But before it even began, America’s wartime ally Josef Stalin had killed millions of his own citizens—and kept killing them during and after the war. Before Hitler was finally defeated, he had murdered six million Jews and nearly as many other Europeans. At war’s end, both the German and the Soviet killing sites fell behind the iron curtain, leaving the history of mass killing in darkness....
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The Fifth Queen: And How She Came to Court (1906) is a novel by Ford Madox Ford. The first installment of Ford's The Fifth Queen Trilogy is set during the reign of Henry VIII, a tumultuous time of political and religious oppression in a land at the mercy of a murderous King. Ford's trilogy recreates Tudor England in a masterful story of court intrigue, romance, and betrayal. Focusing on the tragic figure of Katharine Howard, the fifth wife of the...
19) Europe central
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WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
A daring literary masterpiece of historical fiction that weaves together the gripping stories of those caught in the web of authoritarian rule.
Through interwoven narratives that paint a portrait of 20th century Germany and the USSR and the monstrous age they defined, Europe Central captures a chorus of voices both real and fictional—a young German who joins the SS to fight its crimes, two...
A daring literary masterpiece of historical fiction that weaves together the gripping stories of those caught in the web of authoritarian rule.
Through interwoven narratives that paint a portrait of 20th century Germany and the USSR and the monstrous age they defined, Europe Central captures a chorus of voices both real and fictional—a young German who joins the SS to fight its crimes, two...
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Fethering's favorite sleuths are at it again as Jude and Carole Seddon find themselves in the midst of some horseplay, after stumbling upon the body of ex-equistrian Walter Fleet at Long Bamber Stables. The police's theory is that Walter had the bad fortune of catching a horse mutilator dubbed 'Horse Ripper' in the act. Jude and Carole find that there are plenty of other suspects however, including Walter's wife and more than a few jealous husbands...