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Horatio Alger, Jr. was well known for his best-selling series of books highlighting “the American Dream” of poor boys making good and becoming rich and successful through “luck and pluck”. Ragged Dick was the first in this niche, and follows the adventures of Dick Hunter, a ragged bootblack as he makes the decision to “grow up ’spectable”, and how he goes about achieving his goals through the help of his friends, his inherent honesty, and his belief in hard work and study. (Summary by Alice)...

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Adventure, Children

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The book is noted for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River, and its sober and often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism. The drifting journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi River on their raft may be one of the most enduring images of escape and freedom in all of American literature. The book has been popular with young readers since its publication, and taken as a sequel to the comparatively innocuous The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It has also been the continued object of study by serious literary critics. Although the Southern society it satirized was already a quarter-century in the past by the time of publication, the book immediately became controversial, and has remained so to this day.(Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Adventure, Children, Comedy

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In The Path to San Damiano four friends are drawn into a search for a mysterious stranger with a reputation for acts of kindness. An unanticipated visit by the FBI and Secret Service adds to their curiosity and strengthens their resolve to find him. Their search takes them to Italy, where the elusive stranger seems just beyond their reach. Then, near the ancient town of Assisi, home of Saint Francis, something extraordinary occurs....

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Mrs. Macy set down her teacup. Peter knew to remain silent. She began, “I want to make sure I understand this situation correctly. Peter observed a man in rags giving a dying man a sip of water. For whatever reason, he was curious about him. He told his friends and we, in an effort to be supportive, joined in a search to find the man. We have not been successful in our search, although we have encountered some interesting stories along the way. Then, suddenly, the FBI and Secret Service show up at our doorstep, looking for the same man, you think. I'm not quite sure why Peter wants to find him, and I am absolutely befuddled as to why you want to find him. You either cannot or may not, but quite assuredly will not, tell us why. Apparently, you want us to trust you. Have you bugged our phones?” Her last words caught the others off guard. The agents looked quickly at each other. Agent Hardy spoke, “Mrs. Macy, we are familiar with your background and past activities. This is a serious matter and we would prefer to go the cooperative route rather than pursuing court orders, search warrants and the like.” 50 “Agent Hardy, ...

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The Count of Monte Cristo (French: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo ) is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. It is often considered, along with The Three Musketeers , as Dumas's most popular work. The writing of the work was completed in 1844. Like many of his novels, it is expanded from the plot outlines suggested by his collaborating ghostwriter Auguste Maquet.The story takes place in France, Italy, islands in the Mediterranean and the Levant during the historical events of 1815–1838 (from just before the Hundred Days through the reign of Louis-Philippe of France). The historical setting is a fundamental element of the book. It is primarily concerned with themes of justice, vengeance, mercy, and forgiveness, and is told in the style of an adventure story. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Romance, Adventure

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This is a fictional account of events leading up to the violent overthrow of today’s liberal media institutions. The novel is not written from the perspective of the messengers, but the real reasons for the media’s behavior and one sidedness: the puppet masters, those at the top who are really calling the shots. The Brian Williams(s), the Diane Sawyer(s), the Walter Cronkite(s); those are, or were, simply the mouthpieces, the talking heads, the emissaries, the window dressing, the lipstick for the otherwise ugly pig those at the top had turned into roses for millions of Americans over the past century. The publishers, the CEOs, those lurking behind the scenes, hidden from view, not noticed by the public, but making damn sure their ideas, theories and beliefs become a permanent part of Americana. For what purpose? Power...power to influence elections, power to put like-minded minions into public office, the power to cover up the truth, or make certain the truth never saw the light of day. Power to safeguard those they consider friendly, those they consider allies, those who will do their bidding...all without being seen...a good...

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Review by: Frank Lee on July 22, 2014 : Great book! Even though the author classifies this is as fiction, make no mistake. There are facts in here. Also there are familiar players in here (renamed of course). Barack Obama, Hitlery Clinton, Bill Clinton, George Bush, and even John McCain... all present and accounted for. What is fiction is what happens... very enjoyable read! It should be a wake up call for dum dums who still think US News sources like CNN and MSNBC are "unbiased". ...

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Acknowledgements Prologue Day of Reckoning Four Years Earlier The Capitalists Coming Storm CPAC Rescue Operation Future President Another Mission First Logical Steps Getting Grilled Campaign Begins Plan is Discovered The Mole Election Approaches Publishers Threatened Martinez Wins! McKinley’s Last Order Last Mission as Americans D-Day Future Partners Meet Saving His Team Going Rogue Assassinations Unlikely Partners Breaking Scandal Fallout of Election It’s a Go Chatter Unthinkable Occurs The Hours Following The Days Following Epilogue About the Author Other books by Frank Thompson Connect with the Author Excerpt From: Frank B. Thompson, III. “RTF LIARS Violent Overthrow Smashwords June 23, 2014.” iBooks....

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This story depicts an evil turn to good. Actually, in real life that never happens. However, this story is more of me than anything else. A person propel by others into situations that looked ominous, suffering depressions from PTSD... yes, I was over there too, as many others. This story is more about the search for good inside of me and how to look for it. People change, I changed... but not really. This is the story of a character that although is the same person it has change but yet, it did not. Only when a sincere person(s) point the way to follow out of those dark spaces in your mind....

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It was the summer that everything changed for Johnny. The first thing he did was change his name from Shankadeep to Johnny Fingers (or just fingers for short.) He was not happy. His new name was not sticking. His friends continued to call him Shank and the only one he could get to call him fingers was that weird dude at the comic book shop. He would call out “Word Up Fingers Ogilvy “ whenever he came in to buy the latest issue of HATE comics or Bone. Here is a breakdown of all the other things that happened to Mr. Fingers during the summer. 1) Someone whom he became very close to during the summer (hint- its a new really cute girl neighbor) She dies of multiple bee stings while eating a poisonous mushroom. 2) He learns to travel between multiple alternate realities by a secret organization with the weird acronym (BNWP.) 3) The World is saved. However, everyone gets turned into a monkey. 4) He meets a really cool girl who on top of likening all the same types of stuff that boys like (video games, farting, making jokes about people’s mothers.) is also gorgeous, an excellent shot with a bow and arrow and owns...

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The real title of this book should be Highland Park Borough of Vampires, Werewolves, Midgets and Hobo Riots (see page 24 pictures of the Hobo Riots of 1918) Highland Park notably contains some other of the following interesting facts which for some reason have been left out of these two previous books regarding the Borough. At the end of Cleveland Ave. there is municipal water drain which is contains a portal which is a break in the time space continuum (it actually leads to Midget-Ville, Luxembourg.) For more information refer to chapter 17 of the Newberry Award winning book “It was the summer that everything changed.” Highland Park is the birthplace of Bubblegum Rock. “Love Goes where my Rosemarie Goes was written here.” By Gene “Rocky” Steinmetz. He latter went on to murder his family and bury them in their local municipal garden plot. It is Home of one of the Secret Uranium Processing Plants used to make the Oirst Atomic Bomb (Cleveland Ave. once again!) There is much more, but as you know there is only so much you can Oit on the cover of a book....

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We meet Miss Lucretia Lane as she is dressing for her marriage to Captain Francis Reynolds of the British Merchant Service. Though he loves her truly, she has severe misgivings. She goes through with the wedding in spite of this, but refuses to live with her new husband, and cannot be enticed or cajoled to do so. Then on the day the Captain is scheduled to ship out, she receives word that he has been gravely injured and his dying request is to see his wife. She flies to his side... and thus begins an adventure spanning eight years - love, loathing, shipwreck, love lost, and redemption. (Summary by P. Cunningham and Nadine Eckert-Boulet)...

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Adventure, Sea stories, Fiction

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An American Robinson Crusoe is a short version of the original story. An indolent, rebellious teen goes on a marine voyage against his parents' wishes. The ship (and all of its crew) is lost in a storm, but Robinson makes it to a deserted island. He has no tools, no weapons, but he lives for over 28 years on the island. He befriends many animals on the island and after over 20 years living solo, he is joined by a young savage who becomes his constant companion. The transformation from the young, lazy teen to a self-sustaining, incredibly knowledgeable adult is one of the major themes in the story. (Summary by: Allyson Hester)...

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Fiction, Adventure

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A 6-page digest of Defoe's famous work for young readers (Summary by Dennis Sayers)

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Children, Adventure

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Journey to the Interior of the Earth is an 1864 science fiction novel by Jules Verne (published in the original French as Voyage au centre de la Terre). The story involves a professor who leads his nephew and hired guide down a volcano in Iceland to the “center of the Earth”. They encounter many adventures, including prehistoric animals and natural hazards, eventually coming to the surface again in southern Italy. (Summary from wikipedia.org)...

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Adventure, Fantasy

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The timeless story of the Wizard Of Oz. Follow Dorothy as she leaves Kansas for Oz on a cyclone. She meets many strange, and wonderful people and creatures along the way. Enjoy it again with your children and family. (Summary by J. Hall) Characters:

• Aunt Em: /newcatalog/people_public.php?peopleid=2895 jenny
• Dorothy: /newcatalog/people_public.php?peopleid=1401 Sibella
• The Scarecrow: /newcatalog/people_public.php?peopleid=204 Kaffen
• The Tin Woodman: /newcatalog/people_public.php?peopleid=26 DSayers
• The Cowardly Lion: /newcatalog/people_public.php?peopleid=2588 padraigo
• The Witch of the North: /newcatalog/people_public.php?peopleid=2895 jenny
• Munchkin 1: /newcatalog/people_public.php?peopleid=2748 Annoying Twit
• Munchkin 2: /newcatalog/people_public.php?peopleid=2911 aradlaw
• Munchkin 3: /newcatalog/people_public.php?peopleid=2301 Iowajones
• The Wizard of Oz: /newcatalog/people_public.php?peopleid=94 earthcalling
• Guardian of the Gates: /newcatalog/people_public.php?peopleid=2825 Ernst Pattynama
• Soldier: /newcatalog/people...

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Adventure, Children, Fantasy, Fiction, Literature

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In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain creates an entertaining adventure of Middle America in the 1800's - afloat on a raft on the Mississippi River. Huck escapes his civilized life when he arranges his own murder and turns back into the backwoods, downriver yokel he started as, and in the process springing a slave, Jim, from bondage.Huck and Jim experience life as a series of tableaus as the river sweeps them through small towns on their way South. At each stop, Huck engages his talent for mixing fact with bald-faced lies to endlessly get himself out of situations... and of course, putting him into others!Much has been written about the statement Twain is making about slavery in this book, but it's really secondary to the story. The facts of how black people were treated in this period give Huck and Jim their license for life on the run. Modern listeners will be intrigued by the unencumbered life of the pair; they make do with coffee, fish from the river, and little else (but of course, when they do need something extra, they don't mind helping themselves to it without recourse to money!)Huck and Jim have run-ins with de...

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Literature, Adventure, Humor, Travel, Teen/Young adult, Children

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This is a collection of stories collected over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. The are an amalgam of mythology and folk tales from the Indian sub-continent, Persia, and Arabia. No original manuscript has ever been found for the collection, but several versions date the collection's genesis to somewhere between AD 800-900. The stories are wound together under the device of a long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. This collection comes from the first of sixteen volumes translated by Burton. (Based on Wikipedia article)...

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Adventure, Fairy tales, Short stories, Myths/Legends

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The Three Musketeers (Les Trois Mousquetaires) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. It recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to become a musketeer. D'Artagnan is not one of the musketeers of the title; those are his friends Athos, Porthos, and Aramis -- inseparable friends who live by the motto, One for all, and all for one. The Three Musketeers was first published in serial form in the magazine Le Siècle between March and July 1844. Dumas claimed it was based on manuscripts he had discovered in the Bibliothèque Nationale. It was later proven that Dumas had based his work on the book Mémoires de Monsieur D'Artagnan, capitaine lieutenant de la première compagnie des Mousquetaires du Roi (Memoirs of Mister D'Artagnan, Lieutenant Captain of the first company of the King's Musketeers) by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras (Cologne, 1700). Dumas' version of the story covers the adventures of D'Artagnan and his friends from 1625 to 1628, as they are involved in intrigues involving the weak King Louis XIII of France, his powerful and cunning advisor Cardinal Richelieu, the beautiful Queen Anne of Austria, ...

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Adventure, Romance

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“THE FARTHER ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE; Being the Second and Last Part OF HIS LIFE, And of the Strange Surprizing Accounts of his Travels Round three Parts of the Globe.” After the death of his wife, Robinson Crusoe is overcome by the old wanderlust, and sets out with his faithful companion Friday to see his island once again. Thus begins a journey which will last ten years and nine months, in which Crusoe travels over the world, along the way facing dangers and discoveries in Madagascar, China, and Siberia. (Summary by D. Leeson)...

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Children, Adventure, Travel

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The Land That Time Forgot is a science fiction novel, the first of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Caspak trilogy. His working title for the story was The Lost U-Boat. Starting out as a harrowing wartime sea adventure, the story ultimately develops into that of a fantastical lost world. (Adapted from Wikipedia.)...

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Adventure, Science fiction, Sea stories

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Do today's children still learn what a marionette is? The beloved story of Pinocchio may represent a last lingering picture of a world not dominated by plastic or electronic toys. Pinocchio is a puppet made from a piece of wood that curiously could talk even before being carved. A wooden-head he starts and a wooden-head he stays - until after years of misadventures caused by his laziness and failure to keep promises he finally learns to care about his family - and then he becomes a real boy. For those who have seen the Disney movie the cast of characters will be familiar, from the Talking Cricket (who acts as his conscience) to Lamp-Wick, his partner in truancy and having heedless fun. Though the toys of today are far from the puppet shows in Carlo Collodi's book, his themes of being truthful, thoughtful, and dependable will always be timely. (Summary by Mark)...

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Adventure, Children, Fairy tales

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Imagine a strange, tropical place that is almost inaccessible. Time appears to have stood still there. Species of animal and plant life not seen elsewhere on Earth, except in the fossil record, inhabit the place. The lakes heave with the shapes of huge grey bulks moving under the surface. The woods are places where chittering cries move about above your head, as powerful apes move swiftly in the canopy of leaves. Then, a tree splinters nearby, and a dinosaur steps out from his hiding place... and he's eyeing YOU. Jurassic Park? Not quite. The Lost World was an inspiration for Jurassic Park; in fact, a character in J.P. has the same name as one of the chief characters in The Lost World. It also inspired King Kong. But this is the original! Four adventurers go off to find the place shown in a dead man's sketch book - they find a war between apes and Indians, prowling dinosaurs, a sparkly treasure hidden in the blue clay - they find the Lost World. And because of the treachery of a native guide, their means of escape is destroyed!...

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Fiction, Adventure

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Adaptation of the story of Robinson Crusoe for grammar school children. Tells how the shipwrecked sailor makes a new life for himself on the island, providing shelter, food, and clothing for himself from the few tools he rescued from the ship and what he is able to find on the island. He lives on the island over twenty years before he is finally rescued and during that time must re-invent almost everything necessary for daily sustenance. (Summary from The Baldwin Project.)...

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Children, Adventure, Sea stories

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The Lost World is a 1912 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle concerning an expedition to a plateau (native name is Tepuyes) in South America (Venezuela) where prehistoric animals (dinosaurs and other extinct creatures) still survive. The character of Professor Challenger was introduced in this book. Interestingly, for a seminal work of dinosaur-related fiction, the reptiles only occupy a small portion of the narrative. Much more time is devoted to a war between early human hominids and a vicious tribe of ape-like creatures....

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Adventure, Mystery, Short stories

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The Broken Vase and Other Stories; for Children and Youth, Compiled by a Teacher FITCHBURG: PUBLISHED BY S. & C. SHEPLEY. 1847. WM. J. MERRIAM, PRINTER, FITCHBURG. (Summary from the Frontspiece)...

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Adventure, Advice, Children, Fiction, Instruction, War stories

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The Pope receives a vision that includes the names of four men: a U.S. Senator, a covert military intelligence agent, a priest from a small parish, and the head of the Italian mafia. These men form an alliance to eliminate the drug cartels of the world to save the children of the future against the backdrop of political power struggle. ...

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Pope Francis lithely entered into the small chapel next to his private quarters. The dark chapel was dimly lit by a row of flickering votive candles that cast a soothing splay of shadows across the ancient altar. The Pope knelt his thin, angular body before it; his white cassock cascaded across the red, soft cushion. He gently entwined the ebony rosary beads between his fingers, crossed himself in the supplicant tradition, and kissed the crucifix as he closed his eyes and began to recite out-loud the Five Holy Mysteries of the Rosary. His nightly reverie, before bed, calmed him and connected his soul to the sublime obedience of God. During these moments of prayer, he put the chaos of his Office into perspective: the business of running the Vatican, the spiritual responsibility of guiding over one-billion Catholics in the area of faith and morals. This was his time to commune with his own spirituality, to harmonize his soul with the peace of his Father in Heaven. He rolled the rosary beads, one by one, through his fingers as he chanted the Ave Maria. His voice rose into a cadence of a Gregorian chant, the beauty of the allit...

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Genre: Paranormal romance and fantasy adventure *** BOOK TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_w-eZwPJbA *** Never marry a stranger...even if he is a drop-dead gorgeous immortal king. Never pretend to be a princess. And most importantly...never slip on an ancient wedding ring you know nothing about. Sarah Larker returns to a cave where her sister disappeared ten years earlier. She walks through a portal and is mistaken for a runaway princess on the run by a dangerous immortal king in medieval times. Her plan is bold as well as daring—become this princess, wed the king, and slip on an ancient wedding ring that will unlock the portal back home. Then find her sister and run as fast as she can out of Dodge. But taking on the identity of Princess Gloria comes along with dangerous consequences; and slipping on the ruby ring comes with an even higher price....

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Chapter 1 A soft growl echoed in the darkness. Sarah snatched the thermal imaging camera from the row of equipment by the fire. Turning in a slow circle, she scanned the dark trees beyond. Nothing moved. Just as she was taking a few tentative steps through the ferns and thick brush, a branch snapped, making her jump. Another growl pierced the silence. She clutched her chest, as if that might calm her racing heart. Five years as a Bigfoot researcher, and she was still not used to the occasional howl. Then again, no animal she had ever encountered before had made such an ominous and menacing sound. She stopped for a moment and listened, her heart thumping hard in her eardrums. “Show yourself!” Her voice echoed from the trees with a courage she couldn’t feel. A shiver slid down her spine as she pulled her radio off her belt. “Base camp to Adam. Computer screen’s flashing like crazy. Something broke the perimeter line.” The radio crackled and a voice answered. “Adam to base camp. What zone?” “Zone 3. All cameras up and running, but I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. I’m getting sounds over here—some movement too. I’m gonna...