This is the fourteenth 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 "New Beginnings", where some kind of change or new start is significant. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry... we have them all.

Richard Middleton is one of the many authors who, despite great merit, have been almost entirely forgotten today. This English author was an eminent literary figure in his day, admired by, among others, Edgar Jepson, Arthur Machen, and Raymond Chandler. This collection of short stories contains his best-known short story, The Ghost Ship, a skillfully written horror story. The other stories contained in this collection are not all horror stories, but cover a variety of genres and topics. - Summary by Carolin

The Mary Frances Story Book is different from the other Mary Frances Books. They are part lessons and part story; they teach something about cooking and sewing, knitting and crocheting, housekeeping and gardening, and first-aid—and tell a story, too; but The Mary Frances Story Book is all story. On a summer afternoon Mary Frances took a holiday and sailed away across the blue water to an island—an island formed by the top of a coral mountain resting in a sea of blue; oh, so blue—a brighter blue than the water in your mother’s bluing tub—not the blue that makes you feel sad and blue, but the blue that makes you laugh with happiness...

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. -A. Gramour

Action and adventure short stories of men and animals in the wild. - Summary by David Wales

Children's Short Works Collection 026: a collection of 15 short works for children in the public domain read by a variety of members.

This is the sixteenth collection of our "coffee break" series, involving public domain works that are between about 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 "Crime", where crime or criminals are significant. readers have chosen a combination of social commentaries, newspaper reports of true crimes and criminals, letters, fictional accounts of the life of the criminal and short 'whodunnit' mysteries. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

A diverse collection of short stories selected and read in English by readers. This time, we delve into the works of Virginia Woolf, Mark Twain, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Guy de Maupassant, Saki and others to bring you tales of mystery, the thought-provoking, the salutary and the heart-warming. So sit back and enjoy the 72nd Short Story Collection!

Published in 1908, this is a further collection of twelve humorous short stories about English school boys. The author wrote two other books in this series: The Human Boy and The Human Boy And The War . Eden Phillpotts was popular with the reading public and wrote prolifically novels, short stories, poetry, plays, and nonfiction. - Summary by David Wales

This is the seventeenth Coffee Break Collection, in which readers select English language public domain works of about 15 minutes or less in duration -- perfect to listen to during commutes, workouts or coffee breaks. The topic for this collection is health and fitness... views on these, including physical activity, nutrition and sport, have changed drastically over the years. Readers have chosen selections on subjects ranging from judo and walking to advice for the nutrition and education of children, Summary by Lynne Thompson

This is a collection of short stories by Barry Pain, first published in 1914. While generally best-known for his horror and supernatural fiction, Barry Pain turns to general fiction, mystery, and humour in this volume. Sorely needed in 1914, one might say, and perhaps also sorely needed today. - Summary by Carolin

A diverse collection of short stories selected and read in English by readers. This time, we delve into the works of Saki, Katherine Mansfield, Jack London, Lord Dunsany and others to bring you tales of mystery, the thought-provoking, the salutary and the heart-warming. So sit back and enjoy the 73rd Short Story Collection!

A diverse collection of short stories selected and read in English by readers. This time, we delve into the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Dunsany, Ambrose Bierce and Edgar Allen Poe and others to bring you tales of mystery, the thought-provoking, the mystical and the amusing. So sit back and enjoy the 74th Short Story Collection!

A ghost story and love story all at once, set in medieval Portugal. Don Ruy is in love with Dona Leonor, but her husband has guessed his feelings and hatches a plan. Don Ruy rides right into a trap, but on the way, a dead man joins him and saves his life. - Summary by Carolin

Children's Short Works Collection 027: a collection of 15 short works for children in the public domain read by a variety of members.

Love stories make perfect short stories. This collection contains 16 different short stories on the different ways a love affair can play out. - Summary by Carolin

A collection of Elizabeth Gaskell's early short stories. Following the publication of Mary Barton in 1848, Gaskell published many of her short works for Charles Dickens's Household Words magazine between 1850 and 1858. Her earlier works were published in a variety of venues including Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine , William Howitt's Visits to Remarkable Places , Howitt’s Journal of Literature and Popular Progress , the Sunday School Penny Magazine , Sartain’s Union Magazine and the Ladies Companion and Monthly Magazine . Summary by Phil Benson

A diverse collection of short stories selected and read in English by readers. This time, we delve into the works of Carolyn Wells, Egerton Castle, Lucy Maud Montgomery and Stephen Leacock and others to bring you tales of mystery, poignant romance, the quirky and the amusing. So sit back and enjoy the 75th Short Story Collection!

This is the eighteenth Coffee Break Collection, in which readers select English language public domain works of about 15 minutes or less in duration -- perfect to listen to during commutes, workouts or coffee breaks. The topic for this collection is pirates... a rich source of material. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, prose, essays... the romance of a life on the ocean waves and the danger posed by the 'bad boys '; but sometimes the law catches up with them.

A diverse collection of short stories selected and read in English by readers. This time, we delve into the annals of Arthur Conan Doyle's detective stories, Robert Louis Stevenson's cynical observations on life, a classic tale from The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night, adventures on the high seas by Bessie Chandler and more to bring you excitement, mystery and maybe a smile. So sit back and enjoy the 76th Short Story Collection!

Children's Short Works Collection 037: a collection of 15 short works for children in the public domain read by a variety of members.

A diverse collection of short stories selected and read in English by readers. The ever-popular detective stories of Arthur Conan Doyle are joined by humor from Charles Dickens and Nathaniel Hawthorne as well as some weird and creepy selections to satisfy every taste. So sit back and enjoy the 77th Short Story Collection!

Children's Short Works Collection 030: a collection of 15 short works for children in the public domain read by a variety of members.

Children's Short Works Collection 034: a collection of 15 short works for children in the public domain read by a variety of members.

Children's Short Works Collection 041: a collection of 15 short works for children in the public domain read by a variety of members.

A diverse collection of short stories selected and read in English by readers. The ever-popular detective stories of Arthur Conan Doyle, including the demise of Sherlock Holmes, the quirky Ambrose Bierce and Bill Nye and the wistful Soul of the Violin will keep you entertained and amused in this, the 78th Short Story Collection!

This is a volume of short stories by Herman Cyril McNeile, better known by his pseudonym "Sapper", who is well-known until today for his haunting short stories and novels, set at the front in World War I, and based on his first-hand experiences. This collection is early, it was published in 1916, the bloodiest and most gruesome year of what would later be known as the Great War. - Summary by Carolin

A diverse collection of short stories selected and read in English by readers. The ever-popular detective stories of Arthur Conan Doyle, dark stories from Algernon Blackwood and the quirky from Bill Nye, Ambrose Bierce and O. Henry will keep you entertained and amused in this, the 79th Short Story Collection brought to you by some of your favorite readers.

The complete collection of works using this title. Other versions, including the Project Gutenberg version, have been radically shortened. Mark Twain published several collections of his short stories and essays. This collection, like the others, dramatically demonstrates the eclectic nature of his work and the depth of his humanistic thinking. Each essay stands alone. Listeners will find many instances where modern times come to mind.

A diverse collection of short stories selected and read in English by readers. This time, we delve into the works of H.G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, Lord Dunsany, Poe and others to bring you tales of mystery, horror, puzzling and the amusing. So sit back and enjoy the 80th Short Story Collection!

The Coffee Break Collections are themed anthologies, selected and read by readers. Each short piece is fifteen minutes long, or less -- perfect for coffee breaks, commutes and work outs. Essays, prose, fiction, non-fiction, poetry -- who knows what gems will be uncovered? Spring is the time we see plants and flowers, dormant over the cold winter months, burst into life; and they make their appearance here. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

This is Stowe's second book, another one depicting the horrors of southern slavery, published 4 years after Uncle Tom's Cabin and 5 years before the commencement of the Civil War, when new territories wanting admittance into the US , were vying to become slave states, threatening to spread the heinous system. While a work of fiction, the book successfully documents the horrors of the slave system, and depicts how some slaves escaped into the Dismal Swamp , where they often lived for years hiding from their pursuers, often in community...