Great Literature

Everyone's favorite space boy is back! Hilo may look like an ordinary kid, but he’s definitely not! When we last saw Hilo, DJ, and Gina, Gina had been sucked into a mysterious portal! But friends don’t let friends disappear into nowhere! It’s up to D.J. and Hilo to follow her. Will there be danger? Yes! Will there be amazing surprises? Of course! Will Gina end up being the one to save them? Definitely! The trio will have to battle bad guys and face disgusting food, an angry mom, powerful magic, and more!

The Diary of Samuel Pepys is one of the most entertaining documents in English history. Written between 1660 and 1669, as Pepys was establishing himself as a key administrator in the Navy Office, it is an intimate portrait of life in 17th-century England, covering his professional and personal activities, including, famously, his love of music, theatre, food, and wine and his peccadilloes.

The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession with reuniting with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan. The novel was inspired by a romance Fitzgerald had with socialite Ginevra King, and the riotous parties he attended on Long Island's North Shore in 1922.

British amateur bakers must turn out the perfect scone in this week’s filming of The Great British Baking Contest. But fledgling witch Poppy is losing her concentration as she gets closer to discovering more of her own history at Broomewode Hall, a postcard-pretty manor house in Somerset, England. However, someone is warning her to leave as she’s in danger. Can she keep her cool while solving mysteries, working on her witch skills, and still turn out a decent scone?

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is a remarkable examination of 12 illuminated manuscripts from the medieval period. Noted authority Christopher de Hamel invites the listener into intimate conversations with these texts to explore what they tell us about nearly a thousand years of medieval history - and sometimes about the modern world too. In so doing, de Hamel introduces us to kings, queens, saints, scribes, artists, librarians, thieves, dealers, and collectors.

"The Great Wall of China" is a short story by Franz Kafka. While written in 1917, it was not published until 1930, seven years after his death. Its first publication occurred in Der Morgen, a German literary magazine. A year later, Max Brod included it in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer, the first posthumous collection of short stories by Franz Kafka. Contained within the story is a parable that was separately published as "A Message from the Emperor" ("Eine kaiserliche Botschaft") in 1919 in the collection Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor).

The short story is considered to be one of the most challenging genres because of the need for compact plotlines and the ability to conjure up atmosphere and character in a few sentences and to engage the reader instantly. This collection presents 66 of the greatest examples of the genre - many of them well known, some hidden literary treasures, all of them exquisite examples of the short story at its finest.

Warren is a work-obsessed journalist living in Central London. Quite happy to live out his monotone life, each day resembles the next until the fateful day he encounters an octogenarian zombie shambling down the middle of the road. Great Bitten: The First Clusterf*ck combines the first three books of the darkly humorous zombie series by UK author Dawn Peers.

Forty breathtaking short stories of gripping adventures, secrets and strange conspiracies. 'The Dust That Was Barren' by P. C. Wren. 'The Deserter' by Stacy Aumonier. 'The Lighthouse on Shivering Sand' by J. S. Fletcher. 'The Secret of the Smoked Spectacles' by William Le Queux. 'The 39 Steps' by John Buchan. 'Three Pennyworth of Luck' by Basil Murray. 'The Secret of Dr. Vaux’s Intrigue' by William Le Queux. 'A Thread of Scarlet' by J. J. Bell. 'How I Became a Secret Agent' by Dr. A. K. Graves.

Walter of Gurnie, bastard son of an English peer, is forced to flee from Oxford for his part in the university riots of 1273. Inspired by Friar Bacon, he determines to travel to China. With his friend Tristam, he fights his way to the heart of the fabulous Mongol Empire and returns famous, to find that he must choose between the first love he thought lost and the exotic flower that he found in the East.

In this special presentation, William J. Bennett presents a selection from his best-selling anthology of stories that has inspired and instructed audiences of all ages from coast to coast. From the Bible to fables to Greek myths, from ancient philosophy to American history to unforgettable words of our nation's leaders, here are the timeless works that will help children understand and develop character - and help adults teach them.

This bundle includes Basil and the Lost Colony, Basil and the Big Cheese Cook-Off, Basil and the Royal Dare, and Basil and the Library Ghost.

At nearly 90, retired nature writer Hattie Bloom prefers the company of birds to people, but when a fall lands her in a nursing home, she struggles to cope with the loss of independence and privacy. From the confines of her 'room with a view' of the carpark, she dreams of escape. A fellow 'inmate', the gregarious would-be comedian Walter Clements, also plans on returning home as soon as he is fit and able to take charge of his mobility scooter.

Set in the roaring 1920s, The Great Gatsby is a timeless tale of wealth, excess, love, and tragedy. Through the eyes of narrator Nick Carraway, F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the story of the enigmatic and wealthy Jay Gatsby, who throws lavish parties in a bid to rekindle his lost love, Daisy Buchanan. Beneath the glittering surface of opulence and glamour, The Great Gatsby explores deeper themes of identity, obsession, and the American Dream gone awry.

As the owner of Great Lakes Investigations, she's seen just about everything there is to see. Murder, embezzlement, infidelity; you name it, she's been there and got the investigative t-shirt.

Hadley Hunter thought she was getting a grip on the paranormal world she never knew existed until recently. She was wrong. In the shadow of a massive shifter retreat, she finds she knew absolutely nothing. Her live-in love Galen Blackwood has his hands full with the conference. Not only is his mother pressuring him to make his presence known but it’s also up to him to keep the not-so-friendly factions from going to war. Things only get stickier when a member of the Michigan wolf contingent ends up dead on the docks.

With the king of Garenland dead and the people eager for revenge, Otto and Wolfric turn their sights north to Garenland’s ancient enemy Straken. The Northern Army marches into enemy territory, while back in the capital, Otto rushes to train as many war wizards as he can. Outside forces refuse to leave them alone, and Otto is forced to deal with an ever-growing array of foes, unreliable allies, and an enemy that will do anything to see Garenland fall.

From ancient times to the present day, The World in Books offers a wide-ranging historical education through pleasure reading—and a fantastic introduction to some of the most thought-provoking, profound, and interesting nonfiction works of all time. From Sun Tzu’s The Art of War to bell hooks’s All About Love, as well as such recent classics as Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists, Davis’s guide suggests a world of nonfiction books and explains just why they’re so historically meaningful and culturally relevant today.

Samuel Pepys kept a diary in which he wrote with astonishing candour about the life he saw around him in London in the 1660s, and about his private desires and ambitions. The diary was kept for fewer than 10 years of his long life: Claire Tomalin tells the whole story of the Fleet Street tailor's son who made himself rich and powerful, an MP and adviser to royalty.

Tom Fitzgerald, better known as the Great Brain, is struggling to stay reformed now that his friends have threatened to shut him out if he pulls even one more swindle. But his younger brother, J. D., knows Tom's reformation makes for a dull life, and is not altogether unhappy - or blameless - when his brother's money-loving heart stealthily returns to business as usual.