In the latest novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series, homicide detective Eve Dallas sifts through the wreckage of the past to find a killer.

The body was left in a dumpster like so much trash, the victim a woman of no fixed address, known for offering paper flowers in return for spare change—and for keeping the cops informed of any infractions she witnessed on the street. But the notebook where she scribbled her intel on litterers and other such offenders is nowhere to be found.

Then Eve is summoned away to a nearby building site to view more remains—in this case decades old, adorned with gold jewelry and fine clothing—unearthed by recent construction work. She isn’t happy when she realizes that the scene of the crime belongs to her husband, Roarke—not that it should surprise her, since the Irish billionaire owns a good chunk of New York. Now Eve must enter a complex world of real estate development, family history, shady deals, and shocking secrets to find justice for two women whose lives were thrown away...

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

• How to turn your ambition into action
• Tips for managing and investing your money
• Inside stories from his business and music ventures
• Why failure is central to success
• Secrets to handling stressful situations
• How to build the perfect team

Beautiful World, Where Are You is a new novel by Sally Rooney, the bestselling author of Normal People and Conversations with Friends.

Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.

Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following material:

Epigraph from ‘My Vocation,’ by Natalia Ginzburg, from The Little Virtues. Copyright © 1962, 1966, 1972, 1984, 1998, 2012 and 2015 Giulio Einaudi editore s.p.a., Torino. Originally published in Italian as Le Piccole Virtù. Translation copyright © 1985 Dick Davis. First published in Great Britain in 1985 by Carcanet, Manchester.

Excerpt from ‘How to Get There,’ by Frank O’Hara, from Lunch Poems. Copyright © 1964 by Frank O’Hara. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of City Lights Books, citylights.com. All rights reserved.

Excerpt from Within a Budding Grove, by Marcel Proust, translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff, The Modern Library, New York, copyright 1924

Excerpt from The Waste Land, first published in 1922; copyright the Estate of T. S. Eliot. Reproduced by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

"Robert Bathurst's narration is calm, collected, and earnest, reflecting the blend of emotion and professionalism that Gamache embodies as an investigator. It's perfect for listeners seeking both captivating intrigue and insightful reflection." -- BookPage

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns to Three Pines in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's latest spellbinding novel

You’re a coward.

Time and again, as the New Year approaches, that charge is leveled against Armand Gamache.

It starts innocently enough.

While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request.

He’s asked to provide security for what promises to be a non-event. A visiting Professor of Statistics will be giving a lecture at the nearby university.

While he is perplexed as to why the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec would be assigned this task, it sounds easy enough. That is until Gamache starts looking into Professor Abigail Robinson and discovers an agenda so repulsive he begs the university to cancel the lecture.

They refuse, citing academic freedom, and accuse Gamache of censorship and intellectual cowardice. Before long, Professor Robinson’s views start seeping into conversations. Spreading and infecting. So that truth and fact, reality and delusion are so confused it’s near impossible to tell them apart.

Discussions become debates, debates become arguments, which turn into fights. As sides are declared, a madness takes hold.

Abigail Robinson promises that, if they follow her, ça va bien aller. All will be well. But not, Gamache and his team know, for everyone.

When a murder is committed it falls to Armand Gamache, his second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and their team to investigate the crime as well as this extraordinary popular delusion.

And the madness of crowds.

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books

Intrigue, riches, and romance abound in this thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Inheritance Games

The Inheritance Games ended with a bombshell, and now heiress Avery Grambs has to pick up the pieces and find the man who might hold the answers to all of her questions—including why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire fortune to Avery, a virtual stranger, rather than to his own daughters or grandsons. 

Thanks to a DNA test, Avery knows that she’s not a Hawthorne by blood, but clues pile up hinting at a deeper connection to the family than she had ever imagined. As the mystery grows and the plot thickens, Grayson and Jameson, two of the enigmatic and magnetic Hawthorne grandsons, continue to pull Avery in different directions. And there are threats lurking around every corner, as adversaries emerge who will stop at nothing to see Avery out of the picture—by any means necessary. 

With nonstop action, aspirational jet-setting, Knives Out-like family intrigue, swoonworthy romance, and billions of dollars hanging in the balance, The Hawthorne Legacy will thrill Jennifer Lynn Barnes fans and new readers alike.

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Over 2 million copies sold

In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F**k positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited—"not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault." Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.

There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.

New York Times Bestseller

Joining the ranks of The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, You Are a Badass, and F*ck Feelings comes this refreshing, BS-free, self-empowerment guide that offers an honest, no-nonsense, tough-love approach to help you move past self-imposed limitations.

Are you tired of feeling fu*ked up? If you are, Gary John Bishop has the answer. In this straightforward handbook, he gives you the tools and advice you need to demolish the slag weighing you down and become the truly unfu*ked version of yourself. "Wake up to the miracle you are," he directs. "Here's what you've forgotten: You're a fu*king miracle of being." It isn't other people that are standing in your way, it isn't even your circumstances that are blocking your ability to thrive, it's yourself and the negative self-talk you keep telling yourself.

In Unfu*k Yourself, Bishop leads you through a series of seven assertions:

• I am willing
• I am wired to win
• I got this
• I embrace the uncertainty
• I am not my thoughts; I am what I do
• I am relentless
• I expect nothing and accept everything

Lead the life you were meant to have—Unfu*k Yourself.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.

“Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.”—USA Today • “As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simply evaporates.”—Entertainment Weekly

A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?

In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days.

When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself. 

Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he’s beset by rivals who’ll kill to take this prize. The race is on—and the only way to survive is to win.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly • San Francisco Chronicle • Village Voice • Chicago Sun-Times • iO9 • The AV Club

“Delightful . . . the grown-up’s Harry Potter.”—HuffPost

“An addictive read . . . part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart.”—CNN

“A most excellent ride . . . Cline stuffs his novel with a cornucopia of pop culture, as if to wink to the reader.”—Boston Globe

“Ridiculously fun and large-hearted . . . Cline is that rare writer who can translate his own dorky enthusiasms into prose that’s both hilarious and compassionate.”—NPR

“[A] fantastic page-turner . . . starts out like a simple bit of fun and winds up feeling like a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own.”—iO9

Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter 'H'.

Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four, Privet Drive. Addressed in green ink on yellowish parchment with a purple seal, they are swiftly confiscated by his grisly aunt and uncle. Then, on Harry's eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An incredible adventure is about to begin!


Having now become classics of our time, the Harry Potter audiobooks never fail to bring comfort and escapism to listeners of all ages. With its message of hope, belonging and the enduring power of truth and love, the story of the Boy Who Lived continues to delight generations of new listeners.

• How to turn your ambition into action
• Tips for managing and investing your money
• Inside stories from his business and music ventures
• Why failure is central to success
• Secrets to handling stressful situations
• How to build the perfect team

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Over 2 million copies sold

In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F**k positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited—"not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault." Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.

There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.

The author of the international bestseller 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do turns her focus to parents, teaching them how to raise mentally strong and resilient children.

Do today’s children lack the flexibility and mental strength they need to cope with life’s challenges in an increasingly complicated and scary world? With safe spaces and trigger warnings designed to "protect" kids, many adults worry that children don’t have the resilience to reach their greatest potential. Amy Morin, the author who identified the characteristics that mentally strong people share, now gives adults—parents, teachers, and other mentors—the tools they need to become mental strength trainers. While other books tell parents what to do, Amy teaches parents what "not to do," which she says is equally important in raising mentally strong youngsters.

As a foster parent, psychotherapist, and expert in family and teen therapy, Amy has witnessed first-hand what works. When children have the skills they need to deal with challenges in their everyday lives, they can flourish socially, emotionally, behaviorally, and academically. With appropriate support, encouragement, and guidance from adults, kids grow stronger and become better. Drawing on her experiences and insight, 13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don’t Do combines case studies, practical tips, specific strategies, and concrete and proven exercises to help children of all ages—from preschoolers to teenagers—build mental muscle and develop into healthy, strong adults.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho continues to change the lives of its readers forever. With more than two million copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has established itself as a modern classic, universally admired.

Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece tells the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found.

The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories can, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, above all, following our dreams.

A no-nonsense and helpful guide on how to cope with a slew of mental-health issues that are hell-bent on ruining the lives of millions of people worldwide

Our brains do their best to help us out, but every so often they can be real assholes―having meltdowns, getting addicted to things, or shutting down completely at the worst possible moments. Your brain knows it’s not good to do these things, but it can’t help it sometimes―especially if it’s obsessing about trauma it can’t overcome. That’s where this life-changing book comes in.

With humor, patience, science, and lots of good-ole swearing, Dr. Faith explains what’s going on in your skull, and talks you through the process of retraining your brain to respond appropriately to the nonemergencies of everyday life, and to deal effectively with old, or newly acquired, traumas (particularly post-traumatic stress disorder).

In the latest novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series, homicide detective Eve Dallas sifts through the wreckage of the past to find a killer.

The body was left in a dumpster like so much trash, the victim a woman of no fixed address, known for offering paper flowers in return for spare change—and for keeping the cops informed of any infractions she witnessed on the street. But the notebook where she scribbled her intel on litterers and other such offenders is nowhere to be found.

Then Eve is summoned away to a nearby building site to view more remains—in this case decades old, adorned with gold jewelry and fine clothing—unearthed by recent construction work. She isn’t happy when she realizes that the scene of the crime belongs to her husband, Roarke—not that it should surprise her, since the Irish billionaire owns a good chunk of New York. Now Eve must enter a complex world of real estate development, family history, shady deals, and shocking secrets to find justice for two women whose lives were thrown away...

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skarsgård, and Charlotte Rampling.

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family—and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction. Frank Herbert's death in 1986 was a tragic loss, yet the astounding legacy of his visionary fiction will live forever.

• How to turn your ambition into action
• Tips for managing and investing your money
• Inside stories from his business and music ventures
• Why failure is central to success
• Secrets to handling stressful situations
• How to build the perfect team

Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter 'H'.

Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four, Privet Drive. Addressed in green ink on yellowish parchment with a purple seal, they are swiftly confiscated by his grisly aunt and uncle. Then, on Harry's eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An incredible adventure is about to begin!


Having now become classics of our time, the Harry Potter audiobooks never fail to bring comfort and escapism to listeners of all ages. With its message of hope, belonging and the enduring power of truth and love, the story of the Boy Who Lived continues to delight generations of new listeners.

'Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go.'

When the Knight Bus crashes through the darkness and screeches to a halt in front of him, it's the start of another far from ordinary year at Hogwarts for Harry Potter. Sirius Black, escaped mass-murderer and follower of Lord Voldemort, is on the run - and they say he is coming after Harry. In his first ever Divination class, Professor Trelawney sees an omen of death in Harry's tea leaves... But perhaps most terrifying of all are the Dementors patrolling the school grounds, with their soul-sucking kiss...


Having now become classics of our time, the Harry Potter audiobooks never fail to bring comfort and escapism to listeners of all ages. With its message of hope, belonging and the enduring power of truth and love, the story of the Boy Who Lived continues to delight generations of new listeners.

A seminal tale of science fiction, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is one of Jules Verne’s most famous novels. It’s more than just a stirring adventure tale—it’s also one of Verne’s most scientifically-accurate and prescient works, predicting amazing advances in electricity, undersea travel, and technology.

In it we follow Professor Aronnax, a French marine biologist, as he and his companions, Conseil and Ned Land, become prisoners (guests?) aboard the Nautilus, captained by the mysterious and tortured Captain Nemo. Their adventures, including encounters with island-locked natives, battles with giant sea squids, and undersea shark hunting, have become iconic parts of modern culture.

This translation was produced and dedicated to the public domain in 1991 by F. P. Walter, making it an extremely rare treasure: a high-quality modern translation free from any intellectual monopoly restrictions.

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

The Great Gatsby is a novel that needs no introduction for a certain generation of American readers. Long taught as required reading in American schools, critics have consistently held it up alongside Moby Dick, Huck Finn, and To Kill a Mockingbird as perhaps the quintessential Great American Novel.

Nick Carraway is a young Midwestern man freshly arrived in New York to make his fortune. He rents a shabby apartment in Long Island next door to a sumptuous mansion: the home of the mysterious and wealthy Jay Gatsby. Carraway spends time catching up with his distant cousin Daisy and her industry-baron husband Tom before being invited to one of Gatsby’s wildly lavish weekend parties. There he meets Jordan, a flapper and a golf star, and an intricate web of romances and betrayals begins to unfold.

The novel is a colorful study of America’s Jazz Age—a term said to be coined by Fitzgerald himself—complete with wealthy socialites living in hedonistic abandon, libertine flappers, jazz bands, roaring roadsters, and greasy speakeasies populated with shady grifters. Contrasted against the glamorous lives of wealthy socialites is the entrenched lower class, who live in gray, dingy squalor among smoldering ash-heaps. Fitzgerald uses the setting to examine the American Dream: the idea that anyone in America can achieve success through hard work and dedication. Gatsby has spent his life reaching for his dream. Some say he’s already achieved it. But has he? Is the dream even real for the hard-working poor that Gatsby and Tom race past in their glittering cars on the way to the decadent city?

Fitzgerald wrote much of his real life into the novel. Like Carraway, he was a Midwesterner educated at an Ivy-league school who went to live on Long Island. Despite his meager finances he hobnobbed with socialites, and spent his career struggling for money to maintain the grand style his romantic interests were accustomed to.

The cover art, titled Celestial Eyes, was commissioned from Francis Cugat, who completed it before the novel was finished. The huge eyes gazing down on the blazing city so moved Fitzgerald that he wrote them into the story.

Fitzgerald saw the novel as a purely artistic work, free of the pulp pandering required by his shorter commissions—but despite that, contemporary reviews were mixed, and it sold poorly. Fitzgerald thought it a failure, and died believing the novel to be fatally obscure. Only during World War II did it come back to the public consciousness, buoyed by the support of a ring of writers and critics and printed as an Armed Service Edition to be sent to soldiers on the front. Now it is an American classic.

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Probably Virginia Woolf’s best-known novel, Mrs. Dalloway, originally published in 1925, is a glorious, ground-breaking text. On the surface, it follows Clarissa Dalloway, an Englishwoman in her fifties, minute by minute through the June day on which she is having a party. At a deeper level, however, the novel demonstrates, through an effortless stream of consciousness, the connections formed in human interaction—whether these interactions are fleeting, or persist through decades.

This is a novel to read and cherish, if only to marvel at Woolf’s linguistic acrobatics. Words and phrases swoop and soar like swallows. Woolf’s sentences are magnificent: sinuous, whirling, impeccably detailed. As narrative perspective shifts from character to character—sometimes within a single sentence—readers come to understand the oh-so-permeable barrier between self and other. Through Clarissa we meet Septimus Warren Smith, his wife Rezia, and a cast of dozens more, all connected by the “leaden circles” of Big Ben marking the passage of every hour, by the pavements of Bloomsbury that lead everywhere and nowhere. Modernist London has never been portrayed more sublimely: replete with birdsong and flowers, resplendent in sunshine, youthful yet eternal—and even in the aftermath of war and pandemic, resilient.

Mrs. Dalloway is Woolf’s attempt to express that which may be inexpressible. It offers a close examination of how difficult it is, even when our hearts are brimming, to say what we really feel; and it examines the damage we inflict through our reticence with words, our withholding of love. It is a novel of the soul, and a work of immense beauty.

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Crime and Punishment tells the story of Rodion Raskolnikov, an ex-student who plans to murder a pawnbroker to test his theory of personality. Having accomplished the deed, Raskolnikov struggles with mental anguish while trying to both avoid the consequences and hide his guilt from his friends and family.

Dostoevsky’s original idea for the novel centered on the Marmeladov family and the impact of alcoholism in Russia, but inspired by a double murder in France he decided to rework it around the new character of Raskolnikov. The novel was first serialized in The Russian Messenger over the course of 1866, where it was an instant success. It was published in a single volume in 1867. Presented here is Constance Garnett’s 1914 translation.

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

The Island of Doctor Moreau is the narration of Edward Prendick, a shipwrecked man who finds himself on a mysterious island full of humanoid animal creatures. He comes to find that these creatures are the work of Dr. Moreau, a man who experiments in vivisection, and his assistant Montgomery.

The story of Dr. Moreau’s island began as an article in the January, 1895 issue of Saturday Review. It was later adapted into a novel. Its themes reflect concerns growing in the society of the day, like the cruelty of vivisection, degenerationism, and the theory of evolution.

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Hermann Hesse wrote Siddhartha during a period in his life in which he suffered what he described as a “sickness with life.” He claimed to be unable to complete the book because he had not experienced the kind of nirvana that Siddhartha, the main character, wants to achieve—so Hesse surrounded himself with sacred Buddhist and Hindu teachings and lived as a recluse in order to complete this work.

Siddhartha is a short, simple tale of a man’s quest to achieve enlightenment and happiness. Over twelve short chapters the reader follows Siddhartha through his time as a young adult, to his exploration of spirituality as a traveling ascetic, to his delvings in lust, business, and greed, to his time as an old man. At each stage of his life Siddhartha yearns for nirvana, finally achieving it only after realizing that it’s all of life’s experiences that form it, not the teachings of any one man.

Today Siddhartha remains an influential text in new Western spirituality.

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

My Brilliant Career is a classic Australian work published in 1901 by Stella Miles Franklin, with an introduction by Henry Lawson. A thinly-veiled autobiographical novel, it paints a vivid and sometimes grim picture of rural Australian life in the late 19th Century.

Sybylla Melvyn is the daughter of a man who falls into grinding poverty through inadvised speculation before becoming a hopeless drunk unable to make a living from a small dairy farm. Sybylla longs for the intellectual things in life such as books and music. She wants to become a writer and rebels against the constraints of her life. For a short period she is allowed to stay with her better-off relatives, and there she attracts the attentions of a handsome and rich neighbour, Harold Beecham. The course of true love, however, does not run smoothly for this very independent young woman.

The author, like many other women writers of the time, adopted a version of her name which suggested that she was male in order to get published. Today, the Miles Franklin Award is Australia’s premier literary award, with a companion award, the Stella, open only to women authors.

My Brilliant Career was made into a well-regarded movie in 1979. Directed by Gillian Armstrong, it features Judy Davis as Sybylla and Sam Neil as Harry Beecham.

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Robbery Under Arms, subtitled A Story of Life and Adventure in the Bush and in the Goldfields of Australia, was published in serial form in the Sydney Mail newspaper between July 1882 and August 1883. It was published under the name of Rolf Boldrewood, a pseudonym for Thomas Alexander Browne, a police magistrate and gold commissioner.

Robbery Under Arms is an entertaining adventure story told from the first person point of view of Richard “Dick” Marston. The story is in the form of a journal written from jail where he’s waiting to be hanged for his crimes. Marston and his brother Jim are led astray as young men by their father, who made money by cattle “duffing,” or stealing. They are introduced to their father’s associate, known only as Captain Starlight, a clever and charming fraudster. After a spell in jail, from which he escapes, Marston, his brother, and father are persuaded by Starlight to operate as bank robbers and bushrangers. They embark on a life continually on the run from the police. Despite this, Dick and Jim also manage to spend a considerable time prospecting for gold, and the gold rush and the fictitious gold town of Turon are described in detail.

The character of Captain Starlight is based largely on the real-life exploits of bushrangers Harry Redford and Thomas Smith, the latter known as “Captain Midnight.”

Regarded as a classic of Australian literature, Robbery Under Arms has never been out of print, and has been the basis of several adaptations in the form of films and television serials.

This Standard Ebooks edition is unabridged, and restores some 30,000 words from the original serialization which were cut out of the 1889 one-volume edition of the novel.

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Although many readers might associate the term “fairy tales” with the Germanic or Celtic folk tale tradition—like in the stories collected by the Brothers Grimm—countries like India have their own rich history of fairy tales. Many of these tales, infused with a local flavor, bear a striking structural and thematic similarity to those with which Western readers are accustomed: moral allegories, talking animals, gambling incidents, and the like. Joseph Jacobs has carefully selected 29 fairy tales from the Jatakas, the Fables of Bidpai, the Tales of the Sun, the Baluchi Folktales, the Folktales of Kashmir, and other Sanskrit sources. These stories are a humorous and imaginative showcase of India’s rich fairy tale tradition.

Joseph Jacobs was an Australian folklorist who devoted most of his career to collecting fairy tales from around the world. His collections on English fairy tales have immortalized stories such as “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” “The Three Little Pigs,” “Jack the Giant Killer” and “The History of Tom Thumb.”

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Published in 1897, this book introduces Count Dracula, a vampire living in Transylvania. Count Dracula attempts to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse. The story is told through a series of letters, diary entries, newspaper articles and ships' log entries.

Dracula is considered a horror story and established many conventions of vampire fantasy which have subsequently been showcased in movies, theatrical productions and TV.

Booker Taliaferro Washington began life as a slave in Virginia shortly before emancipation, but rose to become one of the most celebrated leaders the African American community has ever had. His principal occupation was as president of the Tuskegee Institute, which he founded in 1881, but he earned national renown as an orator, writer and political advisor. His address at the Atlanta Exposition was a pivotal moment in race relations in America.

Washington believed deeply in the dignity of physical labor, and that merit and talent are eventually rewarded regardless of race or class. The Tuskegee Institution was primarily a technical college, and aimed to teach industrial skills in addition to academic training. Students built many of the buildings on the campus, grew the food that was eaten there, and even made the furniture, tools and vehicles used by the school.

Up from Slavery was originally published as a serialized work in The Outlook, a Christian magazine based in New York, before being collected in a single volume in 1901. This edition includes an introduction by Walter H. Page, a future U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom.

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Harriet Jacobs was born a slave in North Carolina, but, in her words, didn’t realize it until her father died when she was six years old. Six years later, when her mistress died, she was bequeathed to the mistress’ granddaughter, thereby coming into the household of the mistress’ lecherous son. Several years later she escaped, only to have to hide for seven years in a cramped garret that did not allow her to stand or sit up. She was finally able to make her way north, where she was reunited with her children. Many years later, after narrowly avoiding capture multiple times due to the Fugitive Slave Law, her employer purchased her freedom.

Jacobs, writing as Linda Brent, tells the riveting story of her life in the South as a slave. She brings an unflinching eye to “good” masters and mistresses who nevertheless lie to, steal from, and continually break promises to their slaves, and to bad masters who beat and kill their slaves for no particular reason. Even in the North, after her escape, she is disappointed to find prejudice and degrading treatment for blacks. After having been convinced to write down her story, it took years to find a publisher who would print it. It was finally made available to the public just a few months before the shots at Fort Sumter that began the Civil War.

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

When Robert Peary’s team was the first to reach the North Pole, he was the only white man in the picture. Accompanying him were four Eskimos and Matthew Henson, a black man who had been with Peary on all his expeditions for the previous twenty years. Henson tells the story of that last expedition with candor and warmth, making neither too much nor too little of the conditions the team endured, including travelling on foot and sled in temperatures reaching 50° and more below zero. Henson’s story is a testament to fortitude in the face of debilitating conditions.

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, most famous for her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” wrote Women and Economics in 1898, at a time when the roles of women in society were already undergoing radical change: women were entering the work force in large numbers, the suffrage movement was agitating for the vote, and young women were looking for a new definition of their place other than as a wife or mother.

The book takes the position that humans are the only species in which the female depends on the male for her survival, and that this arrangement must change for the human race to continue to be successful. Gilman argues for the evolution of marriage, family, home life, and what she calls the sexuo-economic relationship between men and women.

Although she was in demand as a lecturer and writer, Women and Economics was the first book-length work to consolidate her views. As a feminist text, it’s significant not necessarily for its profundity or for its appeal for women’s rights, but rather for its application of social Darwinism, espousing the theory that the roles played by women inevitably evolve and that the gendered division of labor produces warped human beings of both sexes. Its popularity was also helped by its accessibility—as one of her critics stated, “it stirs no deep reverberations of the soul … but you can quote it, and remember its points.”

As suffragism progressed and first wave feminism began to fade, Gilman’s ideas were somewhat forgotten. But as feminism resurged in the 1960s, her work was rediscovered and interest rebounded in this groundbreaking feminist who played an important role in shaping public opinion, disseminating radical ideas, and encouraging women (and men) to change their thinking about gender roles.

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus was the model of what we call a philosopher-king. Though his rule was troubled by war and conflict, he remained a thoughtful and even-handed ruler.

Meditations isn’t a complete book, but rather a collection of his personal diary entries written over a ten-year campaign in Greece. The entries were never meant to be published; instead, they were a reminder to himself of how to remain calm, tranquil, and kind, even in the worst of situations. In them we see the emperor working out how to deal with the everyday problems all of us face: annoying coworkers, difficult family members, the expectations of others, unrealized goals and achievements, and, ultimately, happiness.

The episodic nature of Meditations makes it hard to follow at times, but in exchange we get a deeply personal window into the life of one of Rome’s most unique emperors, and more importantly, a handbook of thoughtful advice on how to live a tranquil, satisfied, and productive life.

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Rabindranath Tagore, sometimes referred to as the Bard of Bengal, was a poet, composer, and artist active in the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. His poetry had a profound impact on Bengali literature—so much so that in 1913 he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Today Tagore is recognized for transforming Bengali art, moving it away from its classical forms by embracing the Bengal Renaissance. Though his artistic output spanned many disciplines, his most famous is perhaps Gitanjali, his collection of poems that he himself later translated to English. His impact on Indian and Bengali letters can be exemplified by the fact that two of his compositions were chosen as national anthems—“Jana Gana Mana” for India, and “Amar Shonar Bangla” for Bangladesh—and that the Sri Lankan national anthem was inspired by his work.

In these autobiographical sketches Tagore gives us windows into his childhood, his youth, and his blossoming as a writer and as a lyricist. He stresses that this is not an autobiography, but more like a palimpsest of memories: glimmers and shadows that illustrate his artistic development, not a strict record of his life.

This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

As though to make up for his absence in life, your father’s ghost follows you everywhere. He is hungry.

"Some Brekable Things" by Cassandra Khaw is one of 18 short horror stories in Nightfire's audio anthology. Come Join Us by the Fire Season 2 is the second installment of Nightfire's audio horror anthology, featuring a wide collection of short stories from emerging voices in the horror genre as well as longtime fan favorites. The collection showcases the breadth of talent writing in the horror genre today, with contributions from a wide range of genre luminaries like Seanan McGuire, T. Kingfisher, and Caitlín R. Kiernan; it includes stories from Nightfire’s own Cassandra Khaw (Nothing But Blackened Teeth) and Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Certain Dark Things); and from rising stars like Nibedita Sen, Matthew Lyons, and Jessica Guess. Plus, it has Nick Antosca’s “The Quiet Boy,” soon to be a major motion picture, Antlers, starring Keri Russell.

She can no longer remember her name. She only remembers the faces of the children she stole.

"The Changeling" by Sarah Langan is one of 18 short horror stories in Nightfire's audio anthology. Come Join Us by the Fire Season 2 is the second installment of Nightfire's audio horror anthology, featuring a wide collection of short stories from emerging voices in the horror genre as well as longtime fan favorites. The collection showcases the breadth of talent writing in the horror genre today, with contributions from a wide range of genre luminaries like Seanan McGuire, T. Kingfisher, and Caitlín R. Kiernan; it includes stories from Nightfire’s own Cassandra Khaw (Nothing But Blackened Teeth) and Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Certain Dark Things); and from rising stars like Nibedita Sen, Matthew Lyons, and Jessica Guess. Plus, it has Nick Antosca’s “The Quiet Boy,” soon to be a major motion picture, Antlers, starring Keri Russell.

The bells have always been a clear sign to the rest of the strange coastal town: stay indoors tonight.

"Music of the Abyss" by Shaun Hamill is one of 9 short horror stories in Nightfire's audio anthology.

Come Join Us by the Fire S2: Originals is the second installment of Nightfire's audio-first horror anthology, featuring a wide collection of short stories from emerging voices in the horror genre as well as longtime fan favorites. "Season 2: Originals" features nine all-new stories from authors Laird Barron, Indrapramit Das, Brian Evenson, Craig Laurance Gidney, Camilla Grudova, Shaun Hamill, Gabino Iglesias, Daniel M. Lavery, and Sunny Moraine.

An impossible puddle holds unfathomable secrets.

"Standing Water" by Caitlín R. Kiernan is one of 18 short horror stories in Nightfire's audio anthology. Come Join Us by the Fire Season 2 is the second installment of Nightfire's audio horror anthology, featuring a wide collection of short stories from emerging voices in the horror genre as well as longtime fan favorites. The collection showcases the breadth of talent writing in the horror genre today, with contributions from a wide range of genre luminaries like Seanan McGuire, T. Kingfisher, and Caitlín R. Kiernan; it includes stories from Nightfire’s own Cassandra Khaw (Nothing But Blackened Teeth) and Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Certain Dark Things); and from rising stars like Nibedita Sen, Matthew Lyons, and Jessica Guess. Plus, it has Nick Antosca’s “The Quiet Boy,” soon to be a major motion picture, Antlers, starring Keri Russell.

Revenge is a dish best served with clean, sharp knives.

"Bone" by Tade Thompson is one of 18 short horror stories in Nightfire's audio anthology. Come Join Us by the Fire Season 2 is the second installment of Nightfire's audio horror anthology, featuring a wide collection of short stories from emerging voices in the horror genre as well as longtime fan favorites. The collection showcases the breadth of talent writing in the horror genre today, with contributions from a wide range of genre luminaries like Seanan McGuire, T. Kingfisher, and Caitlín R. Kiernan; it includes stories from Nightfire’s own Cassandra Khaw (Nothing But Blackened Teeth) and Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Certain Dark Things); and from rising stars like Nibedita Sen, Matthew Lyons, and Jessica Guess. Plus, it has Nick Antosca’s “The Quiet Boy,” soon to be a major motion picture, Antlers, starring Keri Russell.

When abominations begin roaming the village streets at night, the slaughterhouse workers grow suspicious of the fairy who works there.

"Origin Story" by T. Kingfisher is one of 18 short horror stories in Nightfire's audio anthology. Come Join Us by the Fire Season 2 is the second installment of Nightfire's audio horror anthology, featuring a wide collection of short stories from emerging voices in the horror genre as well as longtime fan favorites. The collection showcases the breadth of talent writing in the horror genre today, with contributions from a wide range of genre luminaries like Seanan McGuire, T. Kingfisher, and Caitlín R. Kiernan; it includes stories from Nightfire’s own Cassandra Khaw (Nothing But Blackened Teeth) and Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Certain Dark Things); and from rising stars like Nibedita Sen, Matthew Lyons, and Jessica Guess. Plus, it has Nick Antosca’s “The Quiet Boy,” soon to be a major motion picture, Antlers, starring Keri Russell.

An abandoned record store, a Ouija board, and an unexpected reunion.

"The Sound of Footsteps" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of 18 short horror stories in Nightfire's audio anthology. Come Join Us by the Fire Season 2 is the second installment of Nightfire's audio horror anthology, featuring a wide collection of short stories from emerging voices in the horror genre as well as longtime fan favorites. The collection showcases the breadth of talent writing in the horror genre today, with contributions from a wide range of genre luminaries like Seanan McGuire, T. Kingfisher, and Caitlín R. Kiernan; it includes stories from Nightfire’s own Cassandra Khaw (Nothing But Blackened Teeth) and Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Certain Dark Things); and from rising stars like Nibedita Sen, Matthew Lyons, and Jessica Guess. Plus, it has Nick Antosca’s “The Quiet Boy,” soon to be a major motion picture, Antlers, starring Keri Russell.

For one retiree, the past can never be packed away.

"Joren Falls" by Laird Barron is one of 9 short horror stories in Nightfire's audio anthology. Come Join Us by the Fire S2:

Originals is the second installment of Nightfire's audio-first horror anthology, featuring a wide collection of short stories from emerging voices in the horror genre as well as longtime fan favorites. "Season 2: Originals" features nine all-new stories from authors Laird Barron, Indrapramit Das, Brian Evenson, Craig Laurance Gidney, Camilla Grudova, Shaun Hamill, Gabino Iglesias, Daniel M. Lavery, and Sunny Moraine.

"Once upon a time there was a monster." This is how they tell you the story of Beauty and the Beast starts. This is a lie.

"Tooth, Tongue, and Claw" by Damien Angelica Walter is one of 18 short horror stories in Nightfire's audio anthology. Come Join Us by the Fire Season 2 is the second installment of Nightfire's audio horror anthology, featuring a wide collection of short stories from emerging voices in the horror genre as well as longtime fan favorites. The collection showcases the breadth of talent writing in the horror genre today, with contributions from a wide range of genre luminaries like Seanan McGuire, T. Kingfisher, and Caitlín R. Kiernan; it includes stories from Nightfire’s own Cassandra Khaw (Nothing But Blackened Teeth) and Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Certain Dark Things); and from rising stars like Nibedita Sen, Matthew Lyons, and Jessica Guess. Plus, it has Nick Antosca’s “The Quiet Boy,” soon to be a major motion picture, Antlers, starring Keri Russell.