English Library

In the six volumes of the Library of the World’s Best Mystery and Detective Stories, Julian Hawthorne presents us thrilling and mysterious short stories from all corners of the world. Some of the stories appeared in this 1907 collection for the first time translated into English, and many of them come from unexpected sources, such as the letters of Pliny the Younger, or a Tibetan manuscript. In the first volume, we find stories written by American authors.

Ella's secret desire to be ravished by goblins became an obsession that drove her to the goblin inhabited island of Kurandan. As the young witch soon learned, there were many goblins on the island interested in a beautiful human. The time has come for Ella to leave her apprenticeship with the wizard Severinn. She tells him she's going off to learn more magic in the world, but she sets her sights instead on the goblin-inhabited island far to the north. She has long harbored a fantasy of being captured and taken by goblins. A fantasy that has grown to overshadow all her other desires and ...

Juni lives in a world without books. The Blight killed off all the trees, and since then, paper is worth more than just about anything else. Juni’s parents were killed in an archeological dig when she was young, so now it’s just her and her Grandpa Edgar, trying to survive. When she’s not in school, Juni and her friends Doler and Quaze turn to plifting—scavenging in abandoned buildings for any scrap of paper they can find—to earn a little money. If Juni can find enough paper, she can pay for the expensive health care Grandpa needs.

In this erudite and enjoyable Los Angeles Times best seller, Joel Kotkin explores the history of cities around the globe. He argues that urban areas must be places where there is a shared feeling of sacredness, civic identity, and moral order. These exciting concentrations of ideas and energy have long been and should continue to be meaningful in our daily lives.

A primer on how human connection forms the bedrock of our resilience, The Friendship Bench gives listeners the tools to facilitate transformative healing by reaching out to those who are struggling and isolated from the world around them.

Meg Murry, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their mother are having a midnight snack on a dark and stormy night when an unearthly stranger appears at their door. He claims to have been blown off course and goes on to tell them that there is such a thing as a "tesseract", which, if you didn't know, is a wrinkle in time. Meg's father had been experimenting with time travel when he suddenly disappeared. Will Meg, Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin outwit the forces of evil as they search through space for their father?

Sally Skellington is the official, newly-minted Pumpkin Queen after a whirlwind courtship with her true love, Jack, who Sally adores with every inch of her fabric seams—if only she could say the same for her new role as Queen of Halloween Town.

A mouse is taking a stroll through the deep, dark wood when along comes a hungry fox, then an owl, and then a snake. The mouse is good enough to eat but smart enough to know this, so he invents...the gruffalo! As Mouse explains, the gruffalo is a creature with terrible claws, and terrible tusks in its terrible jaws, and knobbly knees and turned-out toes, and a poisonous wart at the end of its nose. But Mouse has no worry to show. After all, there's no such thing as a gruffalo....

Book two left off with Gregor reading the Prophecy of Blood: a prophecy that calls for Gregor and Boots to return to the Underland to help ward off a plague. But this time, Gregor's mother refuses to let Gregor return to the Underland...until the rat Ripred assures the family that Gregor and Boots are needed only for a short meeting, which the crawlers will attend only if their "princess" Boots is present.

What if your best friend was a unicorn? This audio boxed set includes books 1-4 of this magical chapter book series, where everyone is paired with their very own unicorn.

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a tragic world in which two young people fall in love. It is not simply that their families disapprove; the Montagues and the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud. This play, set in an extraordinary world, has become the quintessential story of young love. This new full-cast recording - based on the most respected edition of Shakespeare's classic - expertly produced by the Folger Theatre, is perfect for students, teachers, and the everyday listener.

When Gregor falls through a grate in the laundry room of his apartment building, he hurtles into the dark Underland, where spiders, rats, and cockroaches coexist uneasily with humans. This world is on the brink of war, and Gregor's arrival is no accident. A prophecy foretells that Gregor has a role to play in the Underland's uncertain future. Gregor wants no part of it, until he realizes it's the only way to solve the mystery of his father's disappearance.

Nothing about being a librarian prepared Thuy Nguyen for such a wide variety of casseroles. Or life in a small town. Or becoming a farmer. But what can she do when her catastrophe-prone best friend begs her for help? After all, Maddy has always been there for Thuy. It’s time to return the favor. It’s simple really, all she has to do is: Learn everything about farming ASAP, save her BBF’s family business from disaster, and avoid being caught staring at Maddy’s biker brother, and his muscles, and his smile, and his soulful, sexy eyes.

It’s 1932: Scottish adventuress and plant-hunter (and surviving twin) Emily Blackwood, now living in Australia, accepts a commission from Heinrich Vogel, a former dealer of exotic animals in Manhattan. Vogel now lives with his macabre collection of taxidermy in a remote Scottish castle. Emily is tasked with finding a long-lost treasure that Heinrich believes has been hidden within the castle walls. But instead, she discovers the pages of a diary written by Hester Vogel, who died after falling from the Brooklyn Bridge on the eve of its opening in 1883.

Ahriman languishes on the threshold of space and time, adrift in a sub-realm of unknowable dimension and aspect. He has found it at long last: the ancient device known to the necrons as the Key of Infinity. This should be his moment of triumph – but he is not the Ahriman he used to be. Betrayed and lost, he is a solitary sorcerer, bereft of allies, standing amongst the smashed and ruined ephemera of his grand designs.

When paranormal librarian Reed Moore received a strange note hinting at a problem within the world’s supernatural library network, she’s concerned. And when a routine asset retrieval goes wrong, she’s not only frightened for her life, but convinced something nefarious is pervading every library in the world. Tracking down the thief will take all her wits and threatens to rob her of everything. With a ticking clock and threats from all sides, will Reed track down the culprit or will this be her last investigation?

Of the billions of greenskins who swarm the galaxy, the name of one strikes fear into the hearts of human and xenos alike—Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. The Warlord of Warlords. The Beast of Armageddon. The Prophet of the Waaagh! With his tusks, fists and power claw, he does the holy work of Gork and Mork—and soon all worlds will burn in his bootprints. Mystery shrouds the origins of such a beast. Rumours abound that the mighty warlord was once just like any other ork—but if that is the case, how did he rise from a lowly lad to the biggest of bosses?

In this priceless audio collection, you'll listen to classic Napoleon Hill audio segments from a variety of sources - from three of Nightingale-Conant's best-selling audio programs, Think and Grow Rich, The Science of Personal Achievement, and The Master Key to Riches; to original WGN radio broadcasts, public seminars, and one-of-a-kind private lectures.

Millions of readers of Hatchet, The River, Brian’s Winter, and Brian’s Return know that Brian Robeson is at home in the Canadian wilderness. He has stood up to the challenge of surviving alone in the woods. He prefers being on his own in the natural world to civilization. When Brian finds a dog one night, a dog that is wounded and whimpering, he senses danger. The dog is badly hurt, and as Brian cares for it, he worries about his Cree friends who live north of his camp. With his new companion at his side, and with a terrible, growing sense of unease, he sets out to learn what happened.

Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory is opening at last! But only five lucky children will be allowed inside. And the winners are: Augustus Gloop, an enormously fat boy whose hobby is eating; Veruca Salt, a spoiled-rotten brat whose parents are wrapped around her little finger; Violet Beauregarde, a dim-witted gum-chewer with the fastest jaws around; Mike Teavee, a toy pistol-toting gangster-in-training who is obsessed with television; and Charlie Bucket, our hero, a boy who is honest and kind, brave and true, and good and ready for the wildest time of his life!