The Biography of a Grizzly by Ernest Thompson Seton
Monday, October 6th, 2008My grade two teacher read this book for the class many ,many years ago and it truly touched me. A bear cub who is orphaned at the hands of the human learns to cope and survive to one day exact his revenge on the hated human. The book is written through the eyes of the bear it seems and you can’t help but feel his pain and rage as he struggles through life alone. Whab, the name of the bear, is taken advantage of as a cub and through life. As he grows and becomes more bitter and angry,he will at times meet up with his old enemies from the woodland and through his eyes they all seem so much smaller now. This book is not all anger and bitterness but has some very tender moments as well. As well as this book is written, I never imagined I could ever feel pity or sympathy for such a creature as a grizzly. Ernest Thompson seton is a gifted writer and I have passed this gift on to many friends and aquaintances over the years. If you are looking for a book that your children will pass on to thier children for generations ; get this book.
Zip file of the entire book 44 MB
The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Standard Edition by J. K. Rowling
Monday, October 6th, 2008In December 2007, J.K. Rowling unveiled The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a very special book of five fairy tales illustrated by the bard herself, embellished with silver ornaments and mounted moonstones. Amazon was fortunate to come into possession of one of the original copies, and it was our privilege to share images and reviews of this incredible artifact. Now J.K. Rowling is giving millions of Harry Potter fans worldwide cause for celebration with a new edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, available December 4, 2008.
Offering the trademark wit and imagination familiar to Rowling’s legions of readers–as well as Aesop’s wisdom and the occasional darkness of the Brothers Grimm–each of these five tales reveals a lesson befitting children and parents alike: the strength gained with a trusted friendship, the redemptive power of love, and the true magic that exists in the hearts of all of us. Rowling’s new introduction also comments on the personal lessons she has taken from the Tales, noting that the characters in Beedle’s collection “take their fates into their own hands, rather than taking a prolonged nap or waiting for someone to return a lost shoe,” and “that magic causes as much trouble as it cures.”
But the true jewel of this new edition is the enlightening and comprehensive commentary (including extensive footnotes!) by Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who brings his unique wizard’s-eye perspective to the collection. Discovered “among the many papers which Dumbledore left in his will to the Hogwarts Archives,” the venerable wizard’s ruminations on the Tales allow today’s readers to place them in the context of 16th century Muggle society, even allowing that “Beedle was somewhat out of step with his times in preaching a message of brotherly love for Muggles” during the era of witch hunts that would eventually drive the wizarding community into self-imposed exile. In fact, versions of the same stories told in wizarding households would shock many for their uncharitable treatment of their Muggle characters.
Professor Dumbledore also includes fascinating historical backstory, including tidbits such as the history and pursuit of magic wands, a brief comment on the Dark Arts and its practitioners, and the struggles with censorship that eventually led “a certain Beatrix Bloxam” to cleanse the Tales of “much of the darker themes that she found distasteful,” forever altering the meaning of the stories for their Muggle audience. Dumbledore also allows us a glimpse of his personal relationship to the Tales, remarking that it was through “Babbity Rabbity and Her Cackling Stump” that “many of us [wizards] first discovered that magic could not bring back the dead.”
Both a wise and delightful addition to the Harry Potter canon, this new translation of The Tales of Beedle the Bard is all that fans could hope for and more–and an essential volume for the libraries of Muggles, wizards, and witches, both young and old.
Sex – Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain English by Henry Stanton
Monday, October 6th, 2008at’s amazing to me is that Henry Brewster Stanton selected these recollections and forgot to mention anything but once about his wife Elizabeth Cady Stanton! What a supportive husband!
Zip file of the entire book (50 MB)
Kill Bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander’s Account of the Hunt for the World’s Most Wanted Man by Dalton Fury
Monday, October 6th, 2008“Mr. President if you had let these guys run this war it would have been over by now. Read this book now, all of you. [Kill Bin Laden is] the best book ever written by a special operations insider. This guy Fury’s men are the real-deal Delta Force operators. You need to know what happened at Tora Bora, and this great book will tell you.” –Colonel David Hunt, U.S. Army (Ret.), New York Times bestselling author of They Just Don’t Get It and On The Hunt, and FOX News Special Ops and Counterterrorism Analyst
Graustark by George Barr McCutcheon
Monday, October 6th, 2008Mr. Lorry is a wealthy American who lives off of his parents and has no desire to work. Although he lives in America where this is not acceptable behavior, he makes his excuses by comparing himself to a European gentlemen. Lorry meets a mysterious woman on a train ride in America and then finds a way to follow her to a country named Graustark. He and his friend Anguish go to this place to find that the mysterious woman, Miss Guggenslocker, is actually the princess of Graustark. By then Lorry has fallen in love with the princess. Unfortunately, her little country is indebted to a nearby country. She is to marry the prince of this other country and raise a large sum in order to repay the prince. If the money is not raised by a certain date, the country will have to give up more than half of its kingdom. Graustark does not have the money to repay the debt. In the meantime, Lorry is framed for killing the prince of the country that they owe. Lorry is arrested and then the princess sneaks him out of captivitiy. She hides him at the monastery. There is a large reward for his capture and he knows that if he is seen, he will be executed. The princess has a plan for Lorry’s escape out of the country. However, he is so in love with the princess that he refuses to leave her. In the middle of the night, Lorry sneaks back to the castle to be with her. He decides to turn himself in. On the day that the debt is to be paid and the country must give up its land, Lorry appears. During this time, Anguish has been secretly trying to find out who really killed the prince. He manages to expose the true killer. Because Lorry turned himself in, the princess’ attendent receives the reward money, which she uses to repay Graustark’s debt. Lorry and the princess announce their undying love for one another publically. It is decided that the princess can marry Lorry, but he is not allowed to claim a title. I thought this book was a lot like a fairy tale. Lorry’s love became more intense and reached the point where his actions were totally irrational. Also in the book, things that should have been obvious to the characters were not. This led me to believe that the characters were very simple-minded. I did not enjoy this book because it was not very realistic, but since it was written at the end of the 1800′s it is possible that people could be so blinded in their love for each other.
Zip file of the entire book (302 MB)
