An early example of the female private detective, Jennette Lee’s Millicent Newberry made her first appearance in The Green Jacket in 1917 and was also featured in two later books, The Mysterious Office in 1922 and Dead Right in 1925. Miss Newberry brings her own unique perspective to her cases, only accepting those where she has a say in what happens to the guilty party. She is rarely without her knitting, using it as a technique to put clients and suspects alike at ease, while also knitting...

A crack American flying troop has been sent to France, where they await further instructions. They are concerned that their extensive talents will not be put to good use in the war. Major Cowan introduces Lt. McGee as the British instructor for the crew. It turns out the Brit is actually an American, born in the U.S., even though his parents were British. McGee and Larkin are flying partners. Out on a mission, McGee spots a small enemy plane in a searchlight, probably intent on dropping flares to mark targets for bombers...

A Gothic novel famously mentioned by Jane Austen in "Northanger Abbey" as an inspiration for the romantic ideals and supernatural fears of Catherine. Ann Radcliffe has been called the "Great Enchantress" of her age and this is one of her finest novels. Supernatural eerie thrills, midnight explorations of draughty corridors and mysterious partly burned notes all play their parts. There are noblemen in disguise, a duel, a trial, a dangerous illness, a deathbed confession and, of course, a dark and handsome hero with a fatal secret! - Summary by Beth Thomas This project was proof-listened by Betty M. and Mary in Arkansas.

"The Glory Of The Conquered, The Story Of A Great Love" is Susan Glaspell's first novel. It tells the story of Karl, who was blinded after being injured by a lab experiment and his wife, Ernestine, who nursed him". - Summary by Stav Nisser.

This is the twelfth collection of our "coffee break" series, involving public domain works that are between 3 and 15 minutes in length. These are great for study breaks, commutes, workouts, or any time you'd like to hear a whole story and only have a few minutes to devote to listening. The theme for this collection is "The Performing Arts", with works about theatre, music, dance, and film! Summary by Rosie.

Stuart Duncan arrives home from college to find the workers in his father's mine on the brink of a strike. Leading the strike is Stuart's boyhood friend, Eric Vassal. Will they be estranged by the opposing forces? Or can they learn to work together as Stuart learns the true meaning of being His Brother's Keeper?

After a brief romance, the 17 year old Marya falls in love with the much older Sergyei Mikhailitch, an old family friend, and the two are married. They share an initially blissful life but after moving to St. Petersburg, Marya becomes enchanted with society and a rift opens between the two.

Science fiction is a genre encompassing imaginative works that take place in this world or that of the author’s creation where anything is possible. The only rules are those set forth by the author. The speculative nature of the genre inspires thought and plants seeds that have led to advances in science. The genre can spark an interest in the sciences and is cited as the impetus for the career choice of many scientists. It is a playing field to explore social perspectives, predictions of the future, and engage in adventures unbound into the richness of the human mind. - Summary by Amy Gramour

His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of previously published Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, including the titular short story, "His Last Bow. The War Service of Sherlock Holmes" . The collection's first US edition adjusts the anthology's subtitle to Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes. All editions contain a brief preface, by "John H. Watson, M.D.", that assures readers that as of the date of publication , Holmes is long retired from his profession of detective but is still alive and well, albeit suffering from a touch of rheumatism. - Summary by David Clarke

Art or politics, this is the question Nick Dormer dealls with in the course of this novel. Mirian Ruth, an aspiring actress, is the "tragic muse" of the title. Her concerns are a bit different: would proper society accept her as an actress, or would she have to choose between giving up acting and marrying well? A large and interesting cast of secondary characters accompany them along the way, for good or bad. This novel is for lovers of Trollope and Dickins, while James's sharp and keen observations and wit are there at all times. Enjoy a stroll in the park listening to this overlooked masterpiece. . - Summary by Stav Nisser

Maggie is an orphan who depends on the charity of the farmer she lives with. She tries to be cheerful and helpful to everyone where she is. However, Maggie dreams of being a queen. But how can a poor orphan ever become anything other than what she is?

Elizabeth de la Pasture, the author of this work, is the mother of the more well known E. M. Delafield- author of Diary Of A Provincial Lady. Jeanne Marney, a country girl, comes to London to care for her ailing aunt. She is lonely and unhappy, yet unable to rebel against the many limitations put upon an upper class woman in turn-of-the-century London. Then she becomes an heiress... Would this be a blessing or a curse? This book has been made into a silent film in 1922. This book would be of interest to fans of Jane Austen, Frances Hodgson Burnet, Henry James, and E. M. Delafield. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

When Ken Holt's father, the famous newspaper writer, comes home for a Christmas visit, one of the gifts he brings is an antique iron box. Soon after he arrives a serious of unexplained events occur, including an attempted burglary. A hunch that the iron box is at the center of these occurrences sends Ken Holt and his friend Sandy Allen on an exciting adventure to solve the mystery! Ken Holt was the central characters in a series of 18 mystery stories for boys written by Sam and Beryl Epstein under the pseudonym Bruce Campbell.

"Baseball Joe" Matson's great ambition is to become a professional baseball pitcher. The Baseball Joe series follows his career as he seeks to attain his goal. In this volume, Joe follows the wishes of his parents and attends college, and seeks to join the Yale University varsity baseball nine. Much to his disappointment, he finds that he cannot immediately do so, due to a Yale rule barring Freshmen from placement on the varsity. We follow his college adventures through his first and second years, with emphasis on his trials in making the team in year two, including the attempts of a rival pitcher to keep him off the team...

In 1918, Anthony Trent, a well-educated young man in his late twenties, lives an unsatisfactory life in a New York boarding house. He writes successful crime fiction stories, but this doesn't pay enough for him to do the things he wants. Things change when he starts to put his knowledge of crime to a practical use... It gets him into serious trouble before long. (This work was first published in the USA in 1918, and falls under the Rule of the Shorter Term). The sequel to this book, The Secret of the Silver Car, is also available on Librivox.

Titus: A Comrade of the cross is a book full of suspense and drama, but more importantly truth. It is about Titus, a young man living in the time of Christ. He is a part of the lowest class of society, his father is a thief, and Titus' brother, whom He is very attached to, is a cripple. Titus and his brother, Stephen, abhor the life of their father, yet Titus has no choice but to join him and the rest of the group of law breakers and thieves occasionally. He yearns for somthing better. One day he hears of Jesus...

Student Lucile Tucker works part-time at the library of the large university she attends in Chicago to help pay her tuition. One night, while closing the library for the evening, she glimpses a small child – a girl – in the stacks. Carefully following her, Lucile can’t believe her eyes when the child, unaware that she has been seen, manages to steal a valuable book from the collection and practically disappear from the library right before Lucile’s eyes. This is only the beginning of her search for why this child took this book (and others)...

Originally entitled A frutefull pleasaunt, and wittie worke of the beste state of publique weale, & of the newe yle, called Utopia: written in Latine, by ... Syr Thomas More knyght, and translated into Englishe by Raphe Robynson ...The first book tells of the traveller Raphael Hythloday, to whom More is introduced in Antwerp. The second book consists of Hythloday's description of the island and people of Utopia, their customs, laws, religions, economy, language and relations with other nations. Hythloday...

What has Manton gotten himself into? His impersonation has broader implications -- and more dangerous ones -- than he had imagined.

Humans have expanded to myriads of worlds throughout the galaxies but they have found that the only way for colonies to be self sustaining, was to reproduce the total ecology of their home world; the original Earth. This meant bringing the entire ecosystem, the good, the bad and the ugly. Viruses as well as grass, goats as well as stink bugs and allowing the whole mixture to ultimately produce an inhabitable world for humans. But what happens when this system is not properly supervised? Moran and the others in the space yacht Nadine find a world where strange things have been brewing for over a hundred years and may or may not survive an environment gone mad.

Science fiction is a genre encompassing imaginative works that take place in this world or that of the author’s creation where anything is possible. The only rules are those set forth by the author. The speculative nature of the genre inspires thought, and plants seeds that have led to advances in science. Many people chose to become scientists because science fiction sparked their interest. It is a playing field to explore social perspectives, predictions of the future, and engage in adventures unbound into the richness of the human mind.-

A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, and the occasional touch of wonder.

A dark tale of adventure, piracy, murder, and revenge set on a rugged Cornish island in the mid-1700s. Told with the literary excellence to be expected from the author of The Four Feathers, the tale begins with a dangerous youth who sat in the stocks, and a girl named Helen, and a gang of men watching a granite house at the edge of the sea. NOTE: Contains some language that would be considered offensive to the modern ear. (Christine Dufour)

Taken from Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes, Switzerland and Austria: Vol. XVI, edited by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Eleven stories of war by the author of The Red Badge of Courage. Stephen Crane was an American author. He is recognized by modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation. Crane's writing is characterized by vivid intensity, distinctive dialects, and irony. Common themes involve fear, spiritual crises and social isolation. His writing made a deep impression on 20th-century writers, most prominent among them Ernest Hemingway, and is thought to have inspired the Modernists and the Imagists.

William – an Englishman is a 1919 novel by Cicely Hamilton. The novel explores the effect of the First World War on a married couple during the rise of Socialism and the Suffragette movement. It was originally published by Skeffington & Son before being reprinted by Persephone Books in 1999. Described as 'a passionate assertion of the futility of war' by The Spectator, William - an Englishman won the first Prix Femina-Vie Heureuse Anglais prize in 1920.

A collection of twenty stories featuring ghoulies, ghosties, long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night. Expect shivers up your spine, the stench of human flesh, and the occasional touch of wonder.

This is a collection of P.G. Wodehouse's short stories published in The Strand from 1918 to 1922. (kirk202) Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE (15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years, and his many writings continue to be widely read.

Idomen (1843) is the creative-nonfiction memoir of the beautiful and brilliant American poetess Maria Gowen Brooks, who was compared in the 19th century to Byron and Swinburne. In it she tells the story of an ill-fated love affair she had twenty years earlier while traveling with her young son in Canada following the death of her much older husband. The traumatic breakup led to suicide attempts on her part, which romantic masochist Brooks byronically relates in full, albeit changing everybody's name...

A young man of good family with a long distinguished military tradition indicates that he will not follow his ancestors' path into the army. Dire results ensue. Benjamin Britten in 1970 wrote an opera based on this story. (

The House of the Dead is a novel published in 1861 by Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky, which portrays the life of convicts in a Siberian prison camp. Dostoyevsky himself spent four years in exile in such a camp following his conviction for involvement in the Petrashevsky Circle. This experience allowed him to describe with great authenticity the conditions of prison life and the characters of the convicts. The narrator, Aleksandr Petrovich Goryanchikov, has been sentenced to penalty deportation to Siberia and ten years of hard labour...

It is Paris sometime after the Franco-Prussian War (1870--Germany won--the French Second Republic collapsed--France embittered). A French poet and a German composer come to admire one another's work and decide to collaborate on an opera. There are costs to pay. ( david wales)