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.

Wallace D. Wattles was an American author and a pioneer in the New Thought Movement. His most famous book is The Science of Getting Rich, which continues to be immensely popular today. The Science of Being Well is a follow-up to that book. Wattles approach to health is basically the same is his approach to prosperity. He suggests that the reader think and act in a "Certain Way," which he explains, and that thinking and acting in that way, along with a positive approach will "make it so." Wallace explains his fairly simple keys to getting well and suggests that with faith and discipline one can stay well once health has been achieved. To quote the author, this book is, “For those who want health, and who want a practical guide and handbook, not a philosophical treatise. It is an instructor in the use of the universal Principle of Life, and my effort has been to explain the way in so plain and simple a fashion that the reader, though he may have given no previous study to New Thought or metaphysics, may readily follow it to perfect health.”

A main-stay of British children's literature through the 1920's, The Water Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby was written by Rev. Charles Kinglsey as a serial for Macmillan's Magazine in 1862-63.

Although some of the author's opinions seem dated now, the journey of a little chimney-sweep water-baby through rivers and storms, under sea and over icebergs, is still a wonderful adventure tale for children. The book was adapted into an animated film in 1978 and produced as a play at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2003.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote some amazing short stories - everything from romances to mind-boggling fantasies. This collection includes five of his most famous andmost imaginative stories. The are: "The Offshore Pirate""The Diamond as Big as the Ritz""The Curious Case of Benjamin Button""Bernice Bobs Her Hair""Head and Shoulders"

Oscar Wilde was one of the most versatile writers who ever lived. He wrote classic plays, including The Importance of Being Ernest; one wildly popular and influential novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray; and a number of inventive and moving stories in The Happy Prince and Other Tales.

Stories included in this volume are: "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Devoted Friend", "The Happy Prince", "The Remarkable Rocket", and "The Selfish Giant".

First published in 1936, The Shadow Out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft appeared in the June issue of Astounding Stories. It weaves a tale of an extraterrestrial species called the Great Race of Yith that can travel through space and time and take over the bodies of other species. Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, an American living in the first decade of the 20th century fears he may have been possessed by the Yith. He sees strange vistas of other worlds and fears he is going insane. While on an expedition to prove the existence of this race, he makes an astounding discovery.

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".

In its oppressive atmosphere of fog, mist, and mud, nothing conjures up the dreary days of November and its "implacable" weather like the celebrated opening of Bleak House. The plot concerns a long-running legal dispute (Jarndyce and Jarndyce) that has far-reaching consequences for all involved. Dickens' assault on the flaws of the British judiciary system is based in part on his own experiences as a law clerk.

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."

Dr. Curtis himself gives the best summary of this book when he says, "This book is your personal 'do it yourself' construction kit. You are to use it to build for yourself a richer, fuller life. This is the greatest construction job which you will ever have the opportunity to undertake - building your own life. Your life is what you make it: For most of us, the task of life construction involves considerable reconstruction.

At Christmas, Laura Fleming lived her fantasy adventure. Paid to house-sit for the fabulously wealthy financier, C.W. Banley, while he traveled, she eagerly headed for New York City. As mistress of his elegant townhouse, she baked cookies and dressed the old gent’s richly-furnished residence for the holidays. As December rolled around, the lonely, lovely writer eagerly anticipated soaking up the Christmas atmosphere in the grand city. With only the cat for company, she’d turn Banley’s elegant home into a wonderland of sparkling lights, fragrant garland, and shiny tinsel.

This mystery is part of the famous "Had-I-But-Known School" of mysteries founded by Mary Roberts Rinehart with the 1908 publication of her first work, The Circular Staircase. The story deals with civic corruption, a popular theme of early American mysteries. Stories like this anticipate the hard-boiled school to come. So does Rinehart's realistic style, which does not gloss over life's problems.

A collection of "bedtime stories" filled with whimsy and life lessons. This charming collection includes stories about talking animals, flowers, fairies, why things are the way they are ("pour qua" stories), and morality tales. Gentle stories for bedtime or anytime listening.

The Altar of the Dead was first published in the collection Terminations in 1895. It is a fable of life and death significance which explores what happens when a man tries to keep the remembrance of his dead friends, to save them from being forgotten entirely in the rush of everyday events.

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.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American philosopher, lecturer, essayist, and poet, who is best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was a a champion of individualism and wrote dozens of essays. Most criics consider "Self-Reliance" his best. It has the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's repeating themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency.

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.”

Fascinated by vampires? Then this book - the first of a series - is for you. Early writers of vampire stories did not see them quite as they are presented to us today. These "classic" vampires were looking for blood - not love. These shivery reads will capture your imagination and introduce you to the first fiends - male AND female - that spawned today's kinder gentler vampire.

When the name Abraham Lincoln is mentioned , we usually think of the highlights of his career.We think of Lincoln the politician, the statesman, the orator and the man who did away with slavery.What is not as well known, however, is that Lincoln did produce one piece of fiction, The Trailor Murder Mystery. When Lincoln was practicing law, it was common for lawyers to write summaries of their cases and present them as fiction.

In this story, a young man from the far future is bored, so he escapes in a time portal to find a more exciting life in the past. His goal is to take some weapons from the future and join up with "The Mafia" in New York City. One of the groups of people he meets is a street gang called "The Boomer Dukes." He asks them to "take me to your Mafia." Very interesting results follow