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Delightful sketches of British wild birds - a bird for every month of the year from the pheasant in January to the robin in December. This collection of articles, reprinted in book form from the periodical The Outlook, is full of fascinating information about bird behaviour and habitat, as well as many interesting anecdotes. (Summary by Ruth Golding)...

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Nature

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A Collection of Australian Aboriginal Legendary Folk-Lore Tales, legends of the Narran tribe, known among themselves as Noongahburrahs.

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Myths/Legends

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This autobiographical work describes the author's harrowing experience caught on a small drifting piece of ice, while crossing a frozen bay by dog team on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. (Summary by Sean Michael Hogan)...

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Memoirs

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Written in 1910, this cyclopedia is full of information that was quite useful at the time. A hundred years later, its text is more humorous than practical -- although some advice never goes out of style. (Summary by Rachelellen)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction

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Mark Twain pulls no punches while exposing the real Percy Shelley in this scathing condemnation of Edward Dowden's Life of Shelley. Even though, as Twain writes, Shelley's life has the one indelible blot upon it, but is otherwise worshipfully noble and beautiful, Twain shows how Shelley's extra-marital conduct might easily be seen to have been the cause of his wife Harriet's suicide. (Introduction by John Greenman)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction

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Schweinfurth trat 1868 im Auftrag der Humboldt-Stiftung in Berlin eine große Reise nach Afrika an. 1869 reiste er von Khartum aus nilaufwärts nach Faschoda und nach dem Gebiet der Dschur. Mit Sklavenjägern immer weiter vordringend, durchzog er die Länder der Bongo, Schilluk, Nuer und der Dinka, unternahm eine Reise zu den menschenfressenden Niam-Niam, besuchte das Land der Mittu und Madi und entdeckte im Lande der bis dahin noch unbekannten, ebenfalls kannibalischen Monbuttu, den Uellefluß (Uelle-Makua (Ubangi)). Ebenso gewann er sichere Kunde von dem Zwergvolk der Akka. Nach Überwindung der größten Schwierigkeiten traf er im Juli 1871 wieder wohlbehalten in Khartum ein. Die von ihm erlangten Resultate in Ethnographie, Botanik und Geographie reihen sich daher dem Bedeutendsten an, was je auf afrikanischem Boden erreicht worden ist. (Friedrich Embacher über das Werk Im Herzen von Afrika). Das CD Booklet enthält einige Zeichungen von Georg Schweinfurth, auf welche im Laufe der Lesung verwiesen wird. Ein Ausdruck zur Veranschaulichung der Verweise wird empfohlen....

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Travel

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Collection of 32 essays by American authors ranging from Benjamin Frannklin to Emerson to Whitman to Henry James to Theodore Roosevelt. On subjects from the gout to insects with a 24 hour life span to old bachelors to leaves of grass to the odes of Horace. It seems to be an attempt to show off the Americans as writers. (Summary by JCarson)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction

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Garasudono uchi' is Natsume Sōseki's last essay, which was written between 'Kokoro' & 'Michikusa'. 『硝子戸の中』（がらすどのうち）は、『こゝろ』と『道草』の間に書かれた夏目漱石最後の随筆である。

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Essay/Short nonfiction

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Back in 1905 Jerome K. Jerome shared his thoughts on a variety of subjects, including Should Women Be Beautiful?, Should Soldiers Be Polite? and Is The American Husband Made Entirely Of Stained Glass?. Each subject is analysed and commented on in the witty and satirical style we've grown to expect from the author....

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Humor

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Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) was an American essayist, philosopher, and poet, best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid 19th century. His teachings directly influenced the growing New Thought movement of the mid 1800s. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction

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A collection of informal essays about books in his library. He combines commentary, translations, and humorous asides about authors and their subjects

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Essay/Short nonfiction

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Diese 35 kurzen Reiseberichte entstanden, als Theodor Fontane 1852 zum zweiten Mal nach London reiste. Die Stadt faszinierte ihn, und sowohl die guten als auch die abstoßenden Seiten des Großstadtlebens hielt er mit spitzer Feder fest. (Zusammenfassung von Julia Claussen)...

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Travel

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Watkin Tench was an officer of the British Marines in the First Fleet to settle NSW. This is an interesting and entertaining account of his experiences during that time (Introduction by Tabithat)...

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Travel

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The author, a British journalist and novelist, is interested in the feel of the places he visits. He describes at length a visit he has made to Egypt, with emphasis on the emotional response the places generate. (summary by Sibella)...

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Travel

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This is a non-fiction collection of Maugham's observations of life in Asia in the early 20th Century. (Summary by BellonaTimes)

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Travel

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1845, Louise Aston lebt als geschiedene Frau in Berlin und bewegt sich in intellektuellen Kreisen. Sie raucht in der Öffentlichkeit und trägt Männerkleider. Anonyme Beschwerden über sie führen zu polizeilicher Überwachung. Schließlich wird sie als staatsgefährliche Person aus Berlin ausgewiesen. In ihrem 1846 erschienen Buch Meine Emancipation, Verweisung und Rechtfertigung legt sie ihren Fall der deutschen Öffentlichkeit vor und plädiert leidenschaftlich für die Gleichheit der Geschlechter und das Recht der Frau auf freie Entfaltung ihrer Persönlichkeit. (Summary by Hokuspokus)...

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Biography

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Житія и похвалы святыхъ подобятся свѣтлостію звѣздамъ: якоже бо звѣзды положеніемъ на небеси утвержденны суть, всю же поднебесную просвѣщаютъ, тыяжде и отъ Індіанъ зрятся, ни сокрываются отъ скѵѳовъ, землю озаряютъ, и морю свѣтятъ, и плавающихъ корабли управляютъ: ихже именъ аще и не вѣмы множества ради, обаче свѣтлѣй добротѣ ихъ чудимся. Сице и свѣтлость святыхъ, аще и затворены суть мощи ихъ во гробѣхъ, но силы ихъ въ поднебеснѣй земными предѣлы не суть опредѣленны: чудимся тѣхъ житію, и удивляемся славѣ, еюже Богъ угодившыя Ему прославляетъ. [St. Symeon Metaphrastes on the Lives of the Saints, 10th century A. D. This succinct description is found as introduction to each of the 12 volumes of the Church Slavonic Lives.]...

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Religion

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The Plain Speaker: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things is a posthumous collection of essays by William Hazlitt, organized by his grandson, William Carew Hazlitt. The book contains some of Hazlitt's more famous essays that couldn't be found in book format. (Summary by Leni)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction

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A collection of sometimes biting, always clever commentaries on some of life's foibles -- as apt today as when Ms. Repplier wrote them in 1912. Though less know to modern readers, Repplier was in her prime ranked among the likes of Willa Cather. Note: Section 13 contains the word niggards. I put it in print here so that it will not be mistaken for a racial epithet when heard. (written by Mary Schneider)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction

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California, the land of sunshine and roses, with its genial climate, its skies as blue as the far-famed skies of Venice, and its pure, life-giving air, invites the lover of nature to take long tramps over hill and dale, mountain and valley, and to search out new trails in the rugged mountains.(Quote from section 2: Brook and Waterfall)....

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Nature