Reading Essentials: 322 books

Though it was penned nearly a century ago, current-day readers will find that Bertrand Russell's insightful critique of China is still surprisingly accurate. The important British philosopher based his arguments on his own extended stay in China, and the resulting analysis of the conflict between traditional culture and the rise of capitalism in the country is keen and multi-dimensional.

In this book Russell weighs the respective advantages and disadvantages of socialism, marxism, anarchism, and democracy. Roads to Freedom is a fascinating glimpse of progressive intellectual politics. Written at the end of the first world war in the midst of great and rapid world change, the book is an historical analysis and criticism of the dominating political systems.

10 brilliant essays by this Nobel Prize-winning philosopher challenge romantic mysticism and promote a scientific view of society and nature. Russell explains his theory in these witty, cogent writings, which include popular treatments of religious and educational issues as well as examinations of problems of logic.

Klee Wyck is Canadian artist Emily Carr's memoir. Through short sketches, the artist tells of her experiences among First Nations people and cultures on British Columbia's west coast. The book won the 1941 Governor General's Award and occupies an important place in Canadian literature.

A churning nuclear fireball, appearing out of nowhere, bringing utter destruction - and countless numbers of them were menacing planets throughout the Galaxy! "Storm" Cloud, nucleonic genius, set out in his spaceship Vortex Blaster to track and destroy the mysterious vortices - and embarked...

This is a charming, bittersweet tale of a defeated hero, a remote island exile, and a lovely young girl who enriches the great man's final years. It begins as Napoleon, defeated and a prisoner, arrives at the island of St. Helena to begin his exile where he meets lovely young Betsy Balcome - high-spirited,...

Into the rough plains of Utah roams the legendary Panquitch, a great wild stallion, that has eluded the countless wranglers who sought to capture him. Two daring brothers search for the wild stallion atop the high plateau where the animal leads his herd. One of the brothers, Chane, becomes obsessed with it and decides he has to have this wild horse...

Not an autobiography nor a book of recollections, but the brilliant and provocative summing-up of the great author W. Somerset Maugham's views on life and art.

For young and pretty Fleurette the revolution seems far away until an aristocratic neighbouring family is threatened. The dangers become all too real, and she is accused of being a traitor. Can her father save her? Fleurette's father is Armand Chauvelin. The villainous agent is forced to ask his arch-enemy, the heroic Scarlet Pimpernel, for help.

The thrilling classic account of the strange, eventful, and tragic voyage of His Majesty's Ship Bounty in 1788 - 1789. Fletcher Christian, master's mate on HMS Bounty prepares to seize control of a ship torn apart by the sadism of her captain, which culminates in his mutiny against Captain Bligh. One of the greatest sea adventures ever written!  

In 1787 prisoners are shipped from Newgate Jail to found a new penal colony in Botany Bay, New South Wales. Amongst them is Hugh Tallant, an American medical student who had been wrongly imprisoned. During the sea journey he begins to clash with the villainous Captain Gilbert and is soon plotting a full-scale mutiny against him. A great companion read with Mutiny on the Bounty!

The Far Lands is the story of an ancestor who successfully fulfills an ancient prophecy about reaching "the far lands" and what happens to him along the way. It is a re-telling of the settlement of Hawaii seen through the eyes of the legendary figures found in Hawaiian mythology. An exciting page-turner of an adventure...

A study of relationships, particularly between the individual and society and between thought and action, The Castle is one of Kafka's most profoundly imaginative works. As fear and worry develop in a series of strangely illogical events and man's quest for freedom heightens, this classic novel confirms...

About the gallant English hero, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and his League. Set in revolutionary France in 1793, these adventures will thrill the first time reader as much as those who are familiar with the Pimpernel and the League. Their arch enemy Chauvelin and the Committee of Public Safety are never far behind, whilst back in England the beautiful Marguerite maintains her devotion.