Showing results by author "Mentor New York" in All Categories

While "The Battle of Life" is one of Charles Dickens' Christmas Books - his annual release of a story just before Christmas - this one breaks the tradition by not being concerned with Christmas. Rather, its subtitle, "A Love Story", reveals more of the plot. The major events of this book take place on land that once was a battleground. That is just a backdrop for Dickens' idea of the real battle of life - finding and winning the right partner, so that life will go on to the next generation. The family that lives there is rather confused in its affections and intentions regarding who should end...

In 395 A.D. Theodosius, the last ruler of the undivided Roman Empire died. To his young and incompetent son, Honorius, he left the government of its western half. Honorius depended upon the great general, Stilicho, to withstand the Visigoths under Alaric. But when he fecklessly abandoned his general to execution by palace intriguers, Alaric conquered and sacked Rome (410). Thus opened the era of chaotic leadership, social disintegration, and barbarian conquest, which used to be called the Dark Ages. The Franks emerged and helped to found the temporal power of the Papacy. Charlemagne ...

This collection of lyric poems evokes the sea in every line, from birth (A Son of the Sea) to death (Outbound). The smells, sights and sounds of the Canada's East Coast feature prominently. (Summary by Sean Michael Hogan)

From Alice in Blunderland: "Certain of our members claim that they have a right to sell their votes for $500 apiece--" "Mercy!" cried Alice, "Why, that is--that is terrible." "It certainly is," said the March Hare ruefully, it's rotten. Here I've been holding out for $1,250 for mine, and these duffers want to go in for a cut rate that will absolutely ruin the business." John Kendrick Bangs takes Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and turns it into a political satire in many ways as fresh, keen and relevant today as it was a hundred years ago. (Summary by Ruth Golding)

The story of Allan Quatermain's wife and further adventures of Allan Quatermain. (Summary by Elaine Tweddle)

Ballads of a Bohemian is a collection of poems tied together by the narration of the "author" Stephen Poore. The poems speak of bohemian life in Paris before the war, his experiences during World War I and its aftermath. (Summary by Kristin Hughes)

"What nuclear war may do to the world we know is a closed book to mankind—but here’s what coming eras may bring!" After nuclear war, scientists in Biological Control Labs monitor the former bomb sites, fearing that a mutated animal will develop the intelligence and power to become a threat to humans. One day, men sent to investigate alarms activated in the nuclear wasteland in the New York area find more than they bargained for. - Summary by Elsie Selwyn

A baby squirrel is adopted by a farm cat after his mother is killed, but when he is half-grown the barn which is his home catches fire. He flees into the woods, where he learns to survive and make a new life. - Summary by Wikipedia

The writer is as earnest in recommending ladies who belong to the higher class of settlers to cultivate all the mental resources of a superior education, as she is to induce them to discard all irrational and artificial wants and mere useless pursuits. She would willingly direct their attention to the natural history and botany of this new country, in which they will find a never-failing source of amusement and instruction, at once enlightening and elevating the mind, and serving to fill up the void left by the absence of those lighter feminine accomplishments, the practice of which are ...

Volume 5 continues the commentary on world history begun in the first four volumes. This volume looks at some of the main religious figures of the Middle Ages, as well as social issues like the Crusades and the feudal system. - Summary by KHand

Admiral George Dewey, United States Navy, is best remembered for his victory over the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War (1898). Written when Dewey was seventy-five years old and had served fifty-nine years in the navy, this book offers not only an excellent account of the famous naval battle in the Philippines, but also stories of the author’s many adventures during his long sea-going career, including some hair-raising experiences during the Civil War. (Summary by Delmar H. Dolbier)

This is a fantasy story about a little girl, 5-years old, who is the given the ability to converse with animals. - Summary by april6090

A delightful version of Alice's Adventures following that scurrying Rabbit with the watch that is shortened for the enjoyment of younger children. She meets all of the strange talking animals (and they are just as rude or silly as usual) and eats and drinks from all of the bottles and grows and shrinks alarmingly just like in the longer version. Enjoy. (Summary by the reader, Phil Chenevert)

Ralph Chaplin and many other prominent members of the Industrial Workers of the World were imprisoned under the Espionage Act of 1917 as the United States entered World War I. As with Socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs, these activists were accused of undermining recruiting efforts and the draft - even of encouraging soldiers to desert. Though they never gained the universal popularity of his anthem "Solidarity Forever," the poems and songs in this volume - composed during his four years in prison - represent the defiant attitude of a true rebel in the face of persecution. - ...

Forced into marriage to a man who is older and wealthier, young Theodora Fitzgerald contemplates her fate in love, until she meets and falls in love with another. - Summary by Amy Deuchler

This autobiography of Andrew Carnegie is a very well written and interesting history of one of the most wealthy men in the United states. He was born in Scotland in 1835 and emigrated to America in 1848. Among his many accomplishments and philanthropic works, he was an author, having written, besides this autobiography, Triumphant Democracy (1886; rev. ed. 1893), The Gospel of Wealth, a collection of essays (1900), The Empire of Business (1902), and Problems of To-day (1908)]. Although this autobiography was written in 1919, it was published posthumously in 1920.

Ywain, a knight bored with his administrative duties, abandons his estate to his younger brother and goes on a pilgrimage to seek his heart's desire. Following a will-o'-the-wisp resembling a child, his quest takes him to the city of Paladore, where he meets the lady Aithne, half-fae enchantress. Sir Henry Newbolt's allegorical fantasy was published in hardback in Britain in 1914 and in the Uniited States a year later. It was revived in 1975 as the fifth volume in the celebrated Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library. - Summary by Phil Benson, adapted from Wikipedia

Elizabeth Banks was an American journalist and author. She grew up in Wisconsin, then lived in England the last forty years of her life. She became a regular contributor to English publications such as The Daily News, Punch, St James' Gazette, and London Illustrated. She created a sensation by recording her observations on the plight of the lower classes, which she researched posing as a housemaid, street sweeper, and Covent Garden flower girl. Her later journalistic writings promoted women's right to vote and denounced prison conditions for jailed suffragettes. This memoir was written about ...

"Baby's Own Aesop" presents the fables as one-stanza limericks, each "pictorially pointed" by Walter Crane, the noted painter and illustrator. He apprenticed to master wood-engraver, William James Linton, who furnished the draft of the book's poems for Crane to edit. "Baby's Own Aesop" is available in a beautiful facsimile edition of colored engravings from the International Children's Digital Library, with which your child can read along while listening to the recording. (Summary by Denny Sayers)

A collection of fiction, non-fiction and poetry on travels in Lancashire, England, with occasional sorties into adjacent counties. - Summary by Phil Benson