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The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emma Orczy
The Scarlet Pimpernel narrates the story of a rich English baronet who rescues French aristocrats facing the guillotine. He also taunted his enemies after each rescue by leaving behind a card that has a small flower on it – the scarlet pimpernel. It is a brilliant adventure story set at the time of the French Revolution. The plot is fantastic and rarely lets the readers pause for breath as it oscillates between London society and the dark night in Coastal France. The story follows a beautiful Countess who escapes from Paris as a committee there was making arrangements to send her to the guillotine. She is smuggled out by the Scarlet Pimpernel and brought to England. There she encounters young people who are part of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel and all have sworn to live and die for their leader. There is also Lady Blakeney, the wife of one of the most fashionable gentlemen in England, who is threatened by the French Ambassador to find information about the Scarlet Pimpernel. She successfully gathers the required information that would identify the man. The final stages of the book take place in France where everyone is vying to discover the hero's true identity. The Scarlet Pimpernel depends much on illusion and is a master of disguise. There is little doubt that the author is a master storyteller and the tension is successfully sustained till the climax of the story is reached in the final pages of the book. The background is historical and very complex in nature but it has been successfully used to weave an enthralling adventure story. It is a fantastic story written along the styles of Alexandre Dumas and won't disappoint the adventure seeker in you.
Plague Ship by Andre Norton
A Free Trader rocket ship heads for the remote planet, Sargol, which is blessed with immense natural wealth and precious gemstones. The ship is manned by the heroic Dane Thorson and his crew of intrepid space traders. On Sargol, they enter into complicated negotiations with the inhabitants of this strange planet. These feline people, the Salariki, are reluctant to enter into a business partnership with the free traders till they discover that the ship carries a small amount of catnip on board which they'd obtained from another trading post. Completely overwhelmed, the Salariki agree to exchange the catnip for a valuable load of precious stones. Relieved and delighted, Dane Thorson and his crew begin their return journey. Suddenly, the crew begins to succumb to mysterious headaches and soon become semi-comatose. Just four young crew members and Dane himself seem to be immune. When the ship enters the vicinity of their own planet, Dane discovers to his horror that their spacecraft has been declared a “plague ship.” Can Dane and his young crew save the mission and their fellow crew members? Plague Ship by Andre Norton was first published in 1956. It is a sequel to the previous Dane Thorson story, Sargasso of Space and the second in the Solar Queen series, consisting of seven novels. Written in what is considered the Golden Age of Sci-Fi, the series presents the various adventures of Dane Thorson, a free trader and businessman who operates in the far reaches of outer space. Andre Norton is the pseudonym of Alice Mary Norton, who also wrote under the names Andrew Norton and Alice Weston. She was one of the first science fiction writers to be honored by being inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. After trying many careers, she began working as a reader at The Gnome Press, a tiny New York publishing house that specialized in sci-fi. This was where she discovered her interest and talent in both writing and sci-fi. She wrote hundreds of short stories and many sequential novels featuring certain main characters. Her books were extremely popular, well plotted and filled with great nuggets of scientific information. Her hero Dane Thorson is a likable, intelligent, fast thinking and well rounded character. Andre Norton's fame waned with the reduced interest in lesser known sci-fi authors. However, her talent is undeniable and aimed mainly at the young adult reader. Though Plague Ship is a sequel, it's still a fantastic stand alone read that could spur readers on to read the complete Solar Queen collection.
Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum
A sailing memoir written by seaman and adventurer Joshua Slocum, who was the first person to sail around the world alone, documents his epic solo circumnavigation. An international best-seller, the book became a great influence and inspiration to travelers from each corner of the globe. Additionally, Slocum is an example that through determination, courage and hard work any dream can easily become a reality. Written in a modern and conversational tone, the autobiographical account begins with Slocum’s description of his hometown of Nova Scotia and its maritime history. He illustrates the town as a maritime province of Canada, where many vessels have been carved and built from widespread spruce commonly found in the area. The author then goes on to tell of his dedication and hard work invested in rebuilding an old sloop which he subsequently named Spray. It was this tiny boat that accompanied Slocum on his monumental single-man voyage. The journey began in April 1895, when the adventurer set sail from Boston and traveled to various locations around the world, exploring the local nature, culture and meeting many interesting people along the way. The author recounts his experience through a sequence of adventures, most eminent being his encounter with pirates, an attack by indigenous locals and perilous occurrences at sea. Holding most appeal in the book is the fact that the voyage took place in a time without the comfort and security of modern technology, which only intensifies the excitement and emphasizes the true danger faced by Slocum in the many unpredictable situations he finds himself in. Apart from being an exceptional mariner, Slocum is an equally talented narrator, as he depicts events which are not only entertaining to read, but also hold great historical and cultural significance considering the time of his journey. Well written and engaging to the very last page, Sailing Alone Around the World is one of the finest examples of travel literature ever written.
The Lost City by Joseph E. Badger, Jr
Bruno and Waldo Gillespie are orphaned brothers living with the extremely eccentric Professor Phaeton Featherwit. One day they set off in one of the professor’s machines to investigate a tornado at close range and accidentally get sucked into it! They are then transported by the tornado and find themselves in a barren, uncharted wasteland wherein lies a city– a long lost Aztec city! Find out what happens next to the brothers and the professor in this harrowing and exhilarating adventure!
The Last Of The Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
The Last of the Mohicans is an epic novel by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in January 1826.It was one of the most popular English-language novels of its time, and helped establish Cooper as one of the first world-famous American writers.The story takes place in 1757 during the French and Indian War, when France and Great Britain battled for control of the American and Canadian colonies. During this war, the French often allied themselves with Native American tribes in order to gain an advantage over the British, with unpredictable and often tragic results.
The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
One dark and stormy night, a stranger arrives in West Sussex at a village inn. He is heavily clad in an overcoat and his face is wrapped in bandages. He takes a room at the inn, but refuses to socialize with anyone. He stays cooped up in his room all day and night, working with strange chemicals and apparatus. Suddenly, strange events begin to happen in the village. Mysterious burglaries and fires break out, culminating in a destructive rampage across the peaceful countryside. The stranger is the keeper of a terrible secret... The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance (to give the book its full title) by HG Wells was published in 1897. Written in novella form, this bizarre science fiction tale was first published in Pearson's Weekly as a serial and later compiled into a single book. Based on scientific theories of optics and physics, this story instantly caught the imagination of readers and has been regularly adapted to film, television and radio since it first made its appearance more than a hundred years ago. Herbert George Wells' writing career owes itself to an accident suffered in childhood. As an eight year old boy, he was once confined to bed with a broken leg. His father, a professional cricketer and failed businessman, regularly brought him books from the local library so that he could pass the time. His father's financial troubles compelled his mother to go to work as a lady's maid in a local mansion, while the children were put to work as apprentices with various local tradesmen. For Wells, this was one of the most unhappy, yet also the most profitable times in his life. The mansion where his mother worked had an enormous library where the child continued to read and educate himself. At eighteen, he went to work as a teacher in a residential school. His career flourished after that, and he won a scholarship to work under the great biologist, Thomas Huxley in London. He began writing science fiction stories in 1895 with the publication of The Time Machine, where he proposed the concept of selective time travel. Several other extremely popular Sci-Fi novels and short stories followed, interspersed with romantic stories, novels, ghost stories, film scripts, articles, satirical novels, historical and political treatises and non-fiction papers. Wells was an extremely prolific writer and continues to inspire generations of writers even today. The Invisible Man is a book that evokes great interest among readers of all ages and is an important landmark in the history of Sci-Fi writing.
The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
The Critique of Pure Reason, first published in 1781 with a second edition in 1787, has been called the most influential and important philosophical text of the modern age. Kant saw the Critique of Pure Reason as an attempt to bridge the gap between rationalism (there are significant ways in which our concepts and knowledge are gained independently of sense experience) and empiricism (sense experience is the ultimate source of all our concepts and knowledge) and, in particular, to counter the radical empiricism of David Hume (our beliefs are purely the result of accumulated habits, developed in response to accumulated sense experiences). Using the methods of science, Kant demonstrates that though each mind may, indeed, create its own universe, those universes are guided by certain common laws, which are rationally discernable.
Poems Every Child Should Know by Unknown
A treasure trove of more than two hundred poems, this gem of an anthology compiled by Mary E Burt is indeed a most valuable set of poems to read or listen to. Published in 1904, Poems Every Child Should Know contains some well-loved verses like Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Lewis Carroll's delightful parody Father William, Felicia Hemans' deeply-moving Casablanca and other favorites. It also has lesser-known but equally beautiful pieces like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Arrow and The Song, Robert Browning's The Incident of the French Camp, Eugene Field's nonsense lyrics Wynken, Blynken and Nod and a host of other wonderful verses. For modern day children, unaccustomed to reading and memorizing poetry, the book is a throwback to the days when this was the norm in most classrooms and homes. Fragments from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, in which Mark Antony pays tribute to the dead Brutus, Polonius' advice to his son Laertes from Hamlet with the stirring lines, “This above all: to thine own self be true...” are some of the masterpieces contained here. Poems Every Child Should Know also contained some of the most famous poems in English by poets like Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Browning and Milton. American poets like Walt Whitman are featured here with their immortal lines in poems like Song of Myself. Another famous American poet found here is Edgar Allan Poe with his iconic The Raven. The book is divided into six parts, with a very interesting and self explanatory preface by the author. She begins with something that readers would say when they first encounter a poetry anthology: “Is this another collection of stupid poems that children cannot use?” and goes on to explain how she selected the ones included here. Most of them were picked because they were short enough for a child to memorize. This is a now forgotten activity that can give hours of pleasure as you recall the lines long after you've put away the book. Others were chosen for the heroic and patriotic sentiments, like The Star Spangled Banner, Lord Ullin's Daughter, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Horatius at the Bridge and a host of other inspiring poems. Mary Elizabeth Burt was a gifted teacher who believed that poetry had the power to inspire, educate and mold young minds so that they could mature into valuable and useful citizens of the country. For modern day readers, this is indeed a delightful collection, which offers endless hours of pleasure as you thumb through rediscovering old favorites, and enjoying new ones.
The Amateur Cracksman by Ernest William Hornung
“I’d tasted blood, and it was all over with me. Why should I work when I could steal? Why settle down to some humdrum uncongenial billet, when excitement, romance, danger and a decent living were all going begging together” – A. J. Raffles, The Ides of March.
Legendary Life | Transform Your Body, Upgrade Your Health & Live Your Best Life
If you’ve ever wondered whether Keto can really help you lose weight or if Intermittent Fasting is actually effective, or even if HIIT help you become a fat-burning machine, then the Legendary Life Podcast is for you. Every Monday, celebrity trainer and longevity evangelist Ted Ryce interviews the world's brightest and most thought-provoking leaders about fitness, nutrition, biohacking, fat loss, sleep, hormones, chronic disease, anti-aging, mindfulness, and countless other health topics. He breaks it down providing science-based information so you can clear up the confusion and finally lose weight, fight disease, and live a longer, healthier life. More at: http://www.legendarylifepodcast.com