Letters Literature

From sickly child to pioneering Victorian explorer, Isabella Bird defied convention. After back surgery in 1850 and the recommendation of life in the open air, she finally looked her malaise and her pain in the eye and set off across the world completely alone. In Colorado she covered 800 miles on horseback, climbing mountains, wrangling cattle, sleeping in snow and finding herself drawn to a violent, one-eyed outlaw with a soft spot for poetry, known as ‘Mountain Jim’.

Former correspondents E. and Henerey, accustomed to loving each other from afar, did not anticipate continuing their courtship in an enigmatic underwater city. When their journey through the Structure in E.'s garden strands them in a peculiar society preoccupied with the pleasures and perils of knowledge, E. and Henerey come to accept—and, more surprisingly still, embrace—the fact that they may never return home.

In the hopes of receiving some mail of her own, Paula writes a letter to her grandparents.

Although Paul Auster and J. M. Coetzee had been reading each other’s books for years, the two writers did not meet until February 2008. Not long after, Auster received a letter from Coetzee, suggesting they begin exchanging letters on a regular basis and, “God willing, strike sparks off each other.” Here and Now is the result of that proposal: the epistolary dialogue between two great writers who became great friends. Over three years their letters touched on nearly every subject, from sports to fatherhood, film festivals to incest, philosophy to politics....

Step back into the Falcon Falls Security world and experience it like never before. Revisit some of your favorite characters as Jesse and Ella relive their love story surrounded by A.J., Marcus, Rory, and Savanna.

Burned-out software engineer Jake Martin and his golden retriever, Fred, live in a mountain cabin far enough from Denver to escape the rat race but not far enough to escape its crime. While remodeling an old house, he uncovers a stack of love letters that will turn his world inside out. When word of the letters gets out, people start dying, including the owner of the house Jake was remodeling. With his main source of income gone, he lets his friend and neighbor, Bonnie Jones, talk him into searching for the killer after they are offered a large retainer.

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.

These have been called the most famous and beloved letters of the past century. Rainer Maria Rilke himself said that much of his creative expression went into his correspondence, and here he touches upon a wide range of subjects that will interest writers, artists, and thinkers. This luminous translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's classic offers brilliant inspiration to all people who seek to know and express their inner truth.

Welcome to the Graveyard of Dead Letters, where evil silent letters, like the W of swords and the K of knives, are buried. Here they can do no harm. But the wicked Spellbinder has plans to revive the letters . . . and use them to create a fierce weapon that will challenge even the powerful Librarian!

Each working day from January 29 to November 1, 1951, John Steinbeck warmed up to the work of writing East of Eden with a letter to the late Pascal Covici, his friend and editor at The Viking Press. It was his way, he said, of "getting my mental arm in shape to pitch a good game". Part autobiography, part writer's workshop, these letters offer an illuminating perspective on Steinbeck's creative process, and a fascinating glimpse of Steinbeck, the private man.

These extensive and revealing letters span the life of Ralph Ellison and provide a remarkable window into the great writer’s life and work, his friendships, rivalries, anxieties, and all the questions about identity, art, and the American soul that bedeviled and inspired him until his death. They include early notes to his mother, written as an impoverished college student; lively exchanges with the most distinguished American writers and thinkers of his time, from Romare Bearden to Saul Bellow; and letters to friends and family from his hometown of Oklahoma City.

Jonas McAnn is a weary pastor without a congregation, trapped in a dead-end insurance job. Granby Presbyterian is a weary congregation without a pastor, overwhelmed by the prospect of finding someone who actually wants to be a pastor - not a manager, coach, or CEO. When Granby's pastoral search committee and Jonas connect through handwritten letters passed back and forth, something sparks between them.

So when mum of two Beth moves out of her beloved marital home and into an unloved and unkempt cottage, she can’t help but feel demoralised. Faced with months of DIY and dust, her children Jacob and Olivia aren’t impressed either. But when Beth finds a box of letters while she’s clearing out the children’s room, things start to look up.

A disgraced former detective walks into a bar and . . . gets funding for a private investigation agency? If it didn't happen to Jazz Callender, she wouldn't believe it either. All she has to do is partner up with a national security risk known as Lucia Garza, accept one-hundred thousand dollars, and take on assignments that seem to have no purpose. Easy-peasy.

Margaret Lovell tries her best to love everyone. But when it comes to Lord Blackwell, she doesn't care to succeed. After the young Earl of Blackwell accused her father of cheating and tricked him out of his fortune, she has despised him for causing their disgrace and lack of security. So when she learns that Lord Blackwell is on his deathbed, she cannot help but feel a lack of sympathy. With her family's financial situation worsening, she doesn't have time to think of anything else, especially the man who caused it.

As the Second World War rages on, nurse Kitty Pattison’s life takes a nomadic turn as her work with the Red Cross sees her traversing the country, moving from post to post. With her best friends Jo and Trixie also scattered across the UK, and her soldier sweetheart Michael off on the continent undertaking medical missions he can’t discuss, the war takes its toll and long days are followed by sleepless nights interrupted only by nightmares of what she’s seen on the wards.

I’ve wanted to meet my wolf my entire life. But when I finally do, something else tags along. Something dangerous, hiding in the shadows, hungering for blood. It was sheer luck that I didn’t murder thousands. I don’t know how to control it, and if I can’t defeat it, I can never go home again. To make matters worse, my vampire protector, Aaron, is missing, and there’s a powerful mage trying to capture Fenrir, the only person capable of teaching me how to control my hunger. If he’s caught, I don’t know what I’ll do.

The Complete Jane Austen Collection includes Austen's 7 novels, selected short fiction, and a selection of her letters. Read by an incredible cast including Joanne Froggatt and Fenella Woolgar, this collection is the perfect opportunity to listen beyond your favourite novel and discover Jane Austen's complete writings.

After being forced out of his childhood home, Jack Warwick lets Mrs. Irwin's house, happy to be away from his family and their many squabbles. Haunted by his past, he drowns his loneliness in drink, and with it, his better judgment. When a letter arrives at his new house, addressed to the previous occupant, Mrs. Irwin, from her niece, Jack writes an incoherent reply, inviting the young lady to come stay . . . an event which his drinking causes him to forget.

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