A guide to reading "Jane Eyre" with a critical and appreciative mind. Includes background on the author's life and times, sample tests, term paper suggestions, and a reading list.
In early nineteenth-century Yorkshire, the passionate attachment between a headstrong young girl and a foundling boy brought up by her father causes disaster for them and many others, even in the next generation. Includes explanatory notes throughout the text, an introduction discussing the author and the background of the story, and a study guide.
The tranquility of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger - "I'd like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger."
When nurse Amy Leatheran agrees to look after American archaeologist Dr Leidner’s wife Louise at a dig near Hassanieh she finds herself taking on more than just nursing duties – she also has to help solve murders. Fortunately for Amy, Hercule Poirot is visiting the excavation site but will the great detective be in time to prevent a multiple mu...more
Using a range of approaches from bitter realism to demented fantasy, Irvine Welsh is able to evoke the essential humanity, well hidden as it is, of his generally depraved, lazy, manipulative and vicious characters. He specializes especially in cosmic reversals--God turns a hapless footballer into a fly--always displaying a corrosive wit.
In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million--all the while shrewdly c...more
In a compelling book that evokes the writings of Thoreau, Muir, and Jack London, Krakauer recounts the haunting and tragic mystery of 22-year-old Chris McCandless who disappeared in April 1992 into the Alaskan wilderness in search of a raw, transcendent experience. His emaciated corpse was discovered four months later. Maps. NPR sponsorship.
Agatha Christie's most popular and best-selling whodunit in print and audio, And Then There Were None, was rated tenth by the Mystery Writers of America Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time. Ten people arrive on Indian Island off England’s southwest coast, lured to a mansion by invitations from a mysterious host. As one guest after another is murde...more