The Luck of the Dudley Grahams is the story of the four Graham children and their recently widowed mother, trying to make ends meet by taking boarders into their somewhat eccentric home, as told by 17-year-old Elizabeth to her diary. She chronicles their struggles with the boarders, housekeeping on a very tight budget, and the adventures of her three younger siblings. If the category existed at the time, this would be more of young adult novel than a children's book, as Elizabeth has her moments of angst and worry about herself, her family, and their future. - Summary by Colleen McMahon

William Wolfe Capes was an Anglican cleric, a classicist, and a historian. This is his short chronicle of the early Roman Empire, from the aftermath of the murder of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.E. to the assassination of the tyrannical Domitian in 96 C.E.. Capes writes about the intervening emperors, including the notorious Caligula and Nero, and then devotes chapters to Roman citizenship, life in the provinces, trade, religion, the frontiers, and the army.

It is an ideal honeymoon of an ideal couple. But somehow, the wife cannot stop dreaming that her husband would be shot and killed. He dismisses her dreams until they come true. Who commited the murder? How would the wife take it? - Summary by Stav Nisser

Asa Gray was a highly-regarded botanist at Harvard University and a friend and collaborator of Charles Darwin. As a Christian, Gray was concerned with the disconnect developing through the nineteenth century between the growing understanding of the natural world and the traditional worldview assumed by orthodox Christianity. This book presents two lectures he gave to theology students at Yale College in which he argues that a disconnect is not inevitable, but that a Christian perspective can and should incorporate current understanding of the world provided by natural science. - Summary by BarryGanong

Like the Asphodel, a plant which grows far away from England, Daphne grows far away from home. In her first chance of freedom, at the age of almost 17, she finds an opportunity to forget for a while... Forget that her father, the renowned Sir Vernon Lawford, does not love her. To forget that, for some reason, nobody talks about her mother who traveled to the South of France and never returned. She can be a butcher's daughter from Oxford Street, she can control her friend's actions, she can fancy that she is in love with a man who does not even reveal his name...

The Funeral: or, Grief à-la-Mode, a Comedy, was written in the summer of 1701, and given to Christopher Rich, of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in October. Soon afterwards it was acted, and it was published by Jacob Tonson between December 18 and 20, with the date 1702 on the title-page. The music to the songs, by William Croft, appeared between December 16 and 18. [] The play was revived occasionally in most of the years between 1703 and 1734, and from time to time during the following half-century, the last date, apparently, being April 17, 1799...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. Her works include Poems of Passion and Solitude, which contains the lines "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone". This poem is taken for the collection 'Poems of Purpose'. - Summary by Wikipedia

The State of the Union address is a speech presented by the President of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress, typically delivered annually. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the President to outline his legislative agenda and national priorities. This album contains recordings of addresses from James Buchanan. - Summary by Wikipedia and Linette Geisel

Botanical Piracy! A French botanist plots to steal red dye cochineal insects from Spanish Mexico and transplant them and their cacti hosts to the French Caribbean. The year is 1776. Nicolas-Joseph Thiéry de Menonville is a fast talker and a quick thinker. Botanist and physician by training, he insinuates his way from Port-au-Prince, first to Havana and then to the Mexican mainland on the ruse that he is searching for a botanical cure for gout. In Vera Cruz, however, his passport is confiscated, and the Viceroy orders him to leave Mexico on the first available ship...

Verses, Popular and Humorous was the second collection of poems by Australian poet Henry Lawson. It features some of the poet's earlier major works, including "The Lights of Cobb and Co", "Saint Peter" and "The Grog-An'-Grumble-Steeplechase". Most of the poems in the volume had been written after the publication of In the Days When the World was Wide and Other Verses in 1896. The original collection includes 66 poems by the author that are reprinted from various sources. Later publications split the collection into two separate volumes: Popular Verses and Humorous Verses, though the contents differed from the original list...

In this, our last short story, we join a fishing expedition in Norway.

Eighteen men and two women in the closed world of a space ship for five months can only spell tension and trouble—but in this case, the atmosphere was literally poisoned. Who is trying to kill them and sabotage the mission? And why would they be doing this when they will die too? A deadly mystery unfolds inside the cramped space ship with fear growing daily as their air runs out.

Mark Twain pokes a little good natured fun at the usual concept of heaven. The story follows Captain Elias Stormfield on his extremely long cosmic journey to heaven; his accidental misplacement; his short-lived interest in singing and playing the harp ; and the obsession of souls with the "celebrities" of heaven, like Adam and Moses, who according to Twain become as distant to most people in heaven as living celebrities are on Earth. Twain uses this story to show his view that the common conception of heaven is ludicrous and points out the incongruities of such beliefs.Lots of his usual barbed humor here. - Summary by phil chenevert and wikipedia

Poems written by Kansas native Lottie Brown Allen expressing her love of her home state. - Summary by AnnaLisa Bodtker

The story of Billy Bunny and his friends and their adventures together.

In this second volume of the Twilight Animal series, we'll find out what happens to our friends Bumper, Fuzzy Wuzz, Goggle Eyes, and all the rest, after the events in the first book of the series, "Bumper the White Rabbit".

This is the story of the three Cleveland siblings: Fanny, the innocent yet very sympathetic sister; Louisa, the strong willed sister whose miserable marriage to Sir William is the center of the novel; and Sir George who tries to get over the loss of his lover by touring the world. Louisa is not an amoral woman, she is beautiful and very lively, values which 18th century society promotes, yet she suffers only affliction from her "respectable" college educated husband. In the main plot, and all the sub plots , the book tests many prominent values of the time and brings to light their negative implications...

On the Parts of Animals by Aristotle . The first book asks whether animals were designed or came into existence by chance. The remaining three books focus on particular examples of various animals and the functions of their organs. The translator William Ogle, who was both a medical doctor and classicist, presented Charles Darwin with a copy of this translation.

Arthur Scott Bailey, a native of the state of Vermont, wrote over forty children's books using a variety of animals, birds and even insects to entertain. The Tale of Reddy Woodpecker is one of 16 stories of his Tuck-Me-In Tales series. - Summary by Larry Wilson

This is the fourth volume of the 15-volume series of The World’s Story: a history of the World in story, song and art, edited by Eva March Tappan. Each book is a compilation of selections from prose literature, poetry and pictures and offers a comprehensive presentation of the world's history, art and culture, from the early times till the beginning of the 20th century. Topics in Part IV include Greek mythology, the classical Greek period and the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. - Summary by Sonia Cast list for The sacrifice of Iphigenia: Iphigenia: Devorah Allen / Chorus: alanmapstone / Messenger: Foon / Clytemnestra: Monika M...

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.

Samuel Rogers was an English poet, during his lifetime one of the most celebrated, although his fame has long since been eclipsed by his Romantic colleagues and friends Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron. His recollections of these and other friends such as Charles James Fox are key sources for information about London artistic and literary life, with which he was intimate, and which he used his wealth to support. He made his money as a banker and was also a discriminating art collector. - Summary by Wikipedia

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime. Elizabeth Barrett wrote poetry from about the age of six. Her mother's collection of her poems forms one of the largest extant collections of juvenilia by any English writer. At 15 she became ill, suffering intense head and spinal pain for the rest of her life. Later in life she also developed lung problems, possibly tuberculosis. She took laudanum for the pain from an early age, which is likely to have contributed to her frail health.

It should be noted that this national park is now called the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. “The long, tragic history of Indian warfare in the American West reached its climax with the defeat of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry in Montana’s valley of the Little Bighorn River on June 25, 1876. Although the Indians won the battle, they subsequently lost the war against the white man’s efforts to end their independent way of life. The story of the battle and its consequences is told in the following pages by Robert M...

Join Rough and Ready for his adventure on the streets of New York City. Working as a newsboy, Rough and Ready tries to support himself and his sister on his meager earnings. Unfortunately, their stepfather is seeking to kidnap little Rose, getting an education is hard work, swindlers are trying to trick him out of his money, and thieves are planning nefarious deeds. Luckily for Rough and Ready, he makes some good friends along the way. Summary by Tori Faulder

Orphan Anne Fairaday faces a life of poverty upon the death of her father. The only thing that can prevent it is finding his latest experiment. She enlisted her new found friend, Madge Sterling, an outdoors girl who has a knack for finding missing things. But they must race against time as there are also several people who will stop at nothing to get it first.

This is a collection of 50 poems read in English by volunteers for March 2019.

This is a collection of 70 poems read in English by volunteers for August 2020.

From the Introduction: "Nature stories, legends, and poems appeal to the young reader’s interest in various ways. Some of them suggest or reveal certain facts which stimulate a spirit of investigation and attract the child’s attention to the beauty and mystery of the world. Others serve an excellent purpose by quickening his sense of humour." This is a charming collection of stories, legends, and poems about autumn harvest, Halloween, and Thanksgiving translated from the Danish, French, German, and others...

What struck me in reading Mr. Dunbar's poetry was what had already struck his friends in Ohio and Indiana, in Kentucky and Illinois. They had felt, as I felt, that however gifted his race had proven itself in music, in oratory, in several of the other arts, here was the first instance of an American negro who had evinced innate distinction in literature.

In this short book, the British Naval historian, Julian Stafford Corbett, chronicles the adventurous career of Sir Francis Drake , the farmer's son who became Queen Elizabeth's most feared privateer and her most daring and resourceful naval officer. In his quest for the gold and silver of Spanish Peru, he rounded Cape Horn, losing men and ships in that "enchanted void, where wind and water, ice and darkness, seemed to make incessant war." After capturing the treasure ship from the astonished Spaniards, he circumnavigated the globe...

Mysteries abound in this crime novel by Fergus Hume. Mr. Fanks, detective of Scotland Yard, is not all he seems, for when off-duty, he assumes his real identity of Octavius Rixton, well-to-do idler. When the scent of a murder reaches him, he is instantly Mr. Fanks and on the pursuit. A guilty looking innkeeper nicknamed Queen Beelzebub and a suspicious doctor named Renshaw further complicate his beginning investigation, and he finds the body is a man with a tattoo on his arm that has been partially obliterated by a knife. Where no one is as he seems the mystery can only deepen before its solution. - Summary by Don W. Jenkins