Great Literature

Blood and power bind three generations of women in the Ozark Mountains. So does an evil that’s followed them across the decades. 1931. Gracelynn Doherty lives peacefully on Tin Mountain, helping her adoptive granny work her cures. Despite whispers that the women are witches, the superstitious locals still seek them out, whether to remedy arthritis or a broken heart. But when evangelist Josiah Bellflower comes to town promising miracle healing, full bellies, and prosperity, his revivals soon hold Tin Mountain in thrall—and Granny in abject fear. Granny recognizes Josiah.

Daisy Finnegan is looking forward to the endless golden freedom of summer. No more college, no more pressure, no more worries. But when her cousin goes missing at an exclusive house party, Daisy is all too ready to confront the mysterious host…only to discover the wealthy recluse is Jay Gatsby, her childhood sweetheart—now sinfully hot and impossible to deny.

Often considered one of the greatest novels in American classic literature, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is the story about a young man named Nick Carraway, who moves to Long Island in pursuit of his dream of becoming a bond salesman, and his next door neighbor, a self-made millionaire named Jay Gatsby, a man who lives a lavish lifestyle, and likes to throw extravagant parties every weekend. As the two get better acquainted, Carraway is thrust into Gatsby’s world of over the top parties, and his love and desire for a married woman he once knew named Daisy Buchanan.

The end of the world had arrived just as many had predicted, in a global exchange of nuclear weapons. What no one predicted was the sudden message that appeared before every living soul moments before impact, a message from "The Administrators" revealing our entire world and everything in it to be a species simulation. According to the message, humanity had been reset over a million times and every single time we could not prevent our own extinction. No more resets for humanity. No more chances.

Drawing on myth, folklore and history, the stories of the Mabinogion passed from generations of story tellers before they were written down in the 13th century in the form we know. Set in dual realms of the forests and valleys of Wales and the shadowy otherworld, the tales are permeated by a dreamlike atmosphere. In 'Math Son of Mathonwy', two brothers plot to carry off the virginal Goewin, while in 'Manawydan Son of Llŷr', a chieftain roams throughout Britain after a spell is cast over his land.

Kenneth Rose was one of the most astute observers of the establishment for over 70 years. The wry and amusing journals of the royal biographer and historian made objective observation a sculpted craft. His impeccable social placement located him within the beating heart of the national elite for decades. He was capable of writing substantial history, such as his priceless material on the abdication crisis from conversations with both the Duke of Windsor and the Queen Mother.

Honora and Sexton are just settling into their new marriage, and have just bought their beloved New Hampshire house, when the economy crashes and everything in their world changes. Anita Shreve presents a "literary novel of the caliber and craft of Edith Wharton or Henry James," says the Baltimore Sun.

Raised in squalor in the marsh country of Kent, the orphan Pip is taken under the wing of the eccentric and reclusive Miss Havisham - only to blindly give his heart to the dowager’s beautiful but ice-cold adopted daughter, Estella. Even as a mysterious benefactor helps to shape Pip’s life into one of fortune, success, and self-discovery, the unspeakable secrets of his unrequited love continue to haunt him - and promise to change his life once again.

Thomas Keneally, the Booker Prize-winning author of Schindler’s List, is universally praised for crafting smooth narratives from authentic historical events. With The Great Shame, he turns his insightful eye toward the Irish struggle through the 19h century. In sharp contrast to much of Europe, Ireland was a terrible place to be during the 1800s. Many of the nation’s finest people set sail for America and Canada.

After surviving a brilliantly plotted murder attempt, the richest man in San Francisco is looking to hire the best protection money can buy. Enter Matt Jensen, who, for the princely sum of $5000, agrees to escort millionaire John Gillespie and his very fetching daughter on a railway journey from Frisco to Chicago. There’s just one catch: The world’s deadliest killers are coming along for the ride....

When the young orphan called Pip encounters the escaped convict Magwitch, the child's life is altered forever - in ways he cannot even imagine. In the course of his story, Pip encounters such memorable characters as the eccentric Miss Havisham and her beautiful ward Estella - and a mysterious benefactor. This recording includes both of the endings Dickens wrote for this classic novel.

Saint Weirdo returns to the Holy City, and surely a few months of peace and calm await the masochist healer back on his own turf. This time, for sure! Yeah, right. Luciel’s homecoming is less a vacation and more a pitstop on his never-ending list of responsibilities as an S-rank healer. The enigma that is Estia and her connection to the mysterious Lihzalea loom in the background, as all the while the Church continues to reel under the changes its newest S-rank brought so suddenly.

The three forces converge on Earth: de Finita, The AllSeer, and Prometheus. Behind them lay the wreckage of millions of lives and planets burned to ashes. In front of each? The greatest empire known to mankind. Destiny. In the final book of this epic saga, who will achieve victory? Can Prometheus deliver an empire to the AllMother? Or does fate have him marked for death?

At nearly 90, retired nature writer Hattie Bloom prefers the company of birds to people, but when a fall lands her in a nursing home, she struggles to cope with the loss of independence and privacy. From the confines of her 'room with a view' of the carpark, she dreams of escape. A fellow 'inmate', the gregarious would-be comedian Walter Clements, also plans on returning home as soon as he is fit and able to take charge of his mobility scooter.

This volume contains a variety of imaginative stories from both famous and not-so-famous science fiction writers.

What was once the Peradaini Empire is now a wasted landscape of burned, empty cities and abandoned farmlands. The Blessing, now more numerous than ever, continues to spread across the continent, driving refugees to the dubious safety of the city walls. Unharvested crops mean that few strongholds have enough provisions to last the winter, although most know the grunts will take them before starvation will. But hope survives.

An action-packed tale of betrayal and revenge set amid the war between Alexander the Great's generals and climaxing in the most spectacular battle of the ancient world. Satyrus and Melitta, twin heirs to a rich kingdom on the Black Sea, become desperate fugitives when their mother, the Scythian warrior-princess Srayanka, is cut down in a savage act of betrayal. Accompanied by their tutor, the Spartan Philokles, they must make a perilous journey west, pursued by ruthless assassins, to find sanctuary with the army of their father's closest friend, Diodorus.

July 4, 1918, Nashville, Tennessee. Even as the war in Germany drones on, patriotism swells at home. There are celebrations, music, and dancing. But for five men—one train engineer, one porter, one salesman, one farmer, and one thief—the world will soon take a terrible and tragic turn.

John Milton (1608-1674) has a unique claim on literary and intellectual history as the author of both Paradise Lost, the greatest narrative poem in English, and prose defenses of the execution of Charles I that influenced the French and American revolutions. Tracing Milton’s literary, intellectual, and political development with unprecedented depth and understanding, Poet of Revolution is an unmatched biographical account of the formation of the mind that would go on to create Paradise Lost - but would first justify the killing of a king.

Long before they were spirit animals, the four were still legends - Great Beasts, the most powerful beings to roam the wilds of Erdas. Aided by a brave resistance of humans and animals, they gave their lives to protect the world from a threat more dangerous than any it had seen before: their own kind. Wise and cunning, gentle and ruthless, these are tales of the true heroes and villains in the war that started it all.