Showing results by narrator "Jim Killavey" in All Categories

Carlo Collodi, whose real name was Carlo Lorenzini,was a Florentine children's writer most famous for this world-renowned fairytale novel. The name "Pinocchio" is a Tuscan word meaning "pine nut." The story concerns a puppet who dreams of becoming a real boy. The book has appeared in many adaptations including the famous 1940 Disney movie.

John Carter, an American Civil War veteran, goes prospecting in Arizona and, when set upon by Indians, is mysteriously transported to Mars, called "Barsoom" by its inhabitants. Carter finds that he has demigod-like strength on this planet, due to its lesser gravity. He is soon captured by "Tharks", the planet's warlike, four-armed, green inhabitants, and his incredible adventures begin.

Stephen wrote astonishingly realistic stories of men under the stress of battle, the most famous being The Read Badge of Courage. He also wrote a number of very insightful stories with the same theme. This is considered one of his best.

Lawrence Blakely, attorney-at-law, sets off by train to deliver valuable documents in a criminal case. Along the way he encounters romance, treachery, a murder in which he is implicated and, finally, a train wreck.

During a trip to Europe, Christopher Newman, a wealthy American businessman, asks the charming Claire de Cintre to be his wife. To his dismay, he receives an icy reception from the heads of her family, who find Newman to be a vulgar example of the American privileged class. Brilliantly combining elements of comedy, tragedy, romance and melodrama, this tale of thwarted desire vividly contrasts nineteenth-century American and European manners.

James Allen wrote this little book eight years after the phenomenal success of As a Man Thinketh. His forward gives an apt description of the book "We cannot alter external things, nor shape other people to our liking, nor mould the world to our wishes but we can alter internal things - our desires, passions, thoughts,- we can shape our liking to other people, and we can mould the inner world of our own mind in accordance with wisdom, and so reconcile it to the outer world of men and things.

A Christmas Carol is undoubtedly the most famous supernatural story in English. However, it was not the only supernatural story of the season that Charles Dickens wrote. In Victorian England, Christmas was the time to explore the supernatural in stories, and Charles Dickens was one of the best at it. Included in this volume are a full-cast dramatization of A Christmas Carol, plus three more of Dickens' best stories of the season.

The author describes his intent in writing this book in these words, "It is generally agreed that there are certain 'tricks' which make for mental efficiency, consisting of methods of apperceiving facts, methods of review, devices for arranging work. Some are the fruits of psychological experimentation; others are derived from experience. Many of them can be imparted by instruction, and it is for the purpose of systematizing these and making them available for students that this book is prepared.”

Robert Louis Stevenson, know mostly for his tales of adventure and horror, also had a humorous side. This black comedy of errors deals with a coffin that keeps disappearing, and then showing up again in very strange places.

Arnold Bennett was an English writer who wrote both novels and practical self-help books. One of his most famous works is How to Live on 24 Hours a Day. This book contains nine practical and often humorous essays. The titles are "Mental Efficiency", "Expressing One's Individuality", "Breaking with the Past", "Settling Down in Life", "Marriage", "Books", "Success", "The Petty Artificialities", and "The Secret of Content".

The story traces the intellectual and religio-philosophical awakening of young Stephen Dedalus as he begins to question and rebel against the Catholic and Irish conventions he has been brought up in. He finally leaves for Paris to pursue his calling as an artist. The work pioneers some of Joyce's modernist techniques that would later come to fruition in Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884 science fiction novel. As a satire, Flatland offered pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. However, the book's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions. In a foreword to one of the many publications of the book, noted science fiction author Isaac Asimov described Flatland as “The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions.”

James Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers of the early 20th century. Although best known for Ulysses and The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, he also wrote a number of shorter works. Chief among them is "The Dead," which was published as part of a collection in 1914.

After a 10 year absence, John Carter returns to Mars and seeks to be reunited with his wife, the princess Dejah Thoris. Along the way, he both befriends, and often combats, a fantastic array of alien creatures and humanoids, while discovering the true nature of the Martian religions.

Fresh out of the hospital and low on funds, a young doctor decides to take a long sea voyage to restore his health. He signs on as a steward on board a millionaire's yacht. Then, one hot and humid summer night, the voyage starts to become a nightmare.

"Araby" is one of the stories from Joyce's masterpiece, The Dubliners. As is the case with all the stories in the book, it culminates in an "epiphany".

Walden or, "Life in the Woods", is, primarily, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. Henry David Thoreau kept a journal during his stay in a cabin beside Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, for two years, two months, and two days, from July 1845 to Sept 1847. The book is based on that journal.

Three centuries of bloodsucking, evil vampires are presented to a modern audience in Favorite Vampire Stories: Tales with Bite - Volume 2, a second collection of "classic" vampire short stories. Let your blood run cold as you listen to stories of Victorian vampires, 20th-century vampires, and 21st-century vampires presented by a variety of authors, including noted vampirologist Leslie Ormandy. Ormandy's modern vampires attend college, party in Time Square on New Year's Eve, and haunt the "Gloaming."

The Beautiful Lady, is a short novel from Booth Tarkington's early career. The story was originally published in two parts, December of 1904 and January of 1905, in Harper's Magazine, and then as Tarkington's fifth book in May of 1905. Mrs. Landry is The Beautiful Lady, a woman with a soul as beautiful as she it. Who will win her heart? Ansolini, an Italian from Naples now living in Paris? Rufus Poor, a young man who needs to be kept out of trouble or another mysterious man? This breezy read, is a fine introduction to one of Booth Tarkington's early works.

Included are a dozen classic sweet stories about Santa Claus and Christmas to delight young and old alike. You might just learn something about "The Jolly Old Elf" that you didn't know before.