Reading Essentials: 322 books

A Child of the Revolution is the last book in the Scarlet Pimpernel series. During one return home, Sir Percy tells the story of André Vallon, a young Jacobin, to the Prince of Wales. André, wishing to revenge himself on a despotic seigneur, uses the Jacobins' rise to force the seigneur's daughter...

Sailing the frigate "Lydia" in South American waters, Captain Hornblower has orders to sink the "Natividad", a Spanish two-decker. But this proves the least of his worries, for he is also commanded to aid the revolutionary El Supremo, a madman whose bestialities stagger the Spanish authorities.

Cut off from his regiment by enemy forces pursuing his British comrades in retreat, Rifleman Matthew Dodd commits himself to fighting his way back to friendly lines. Dodd's simple, unyielding devotion to his duties as a soldier exemplifies core values - honor, courage and commitment - which all Marines...

The story of a vapid bank clerk who descended to murder for the sake of a bank roll and immediate security, and who spent the rest of his life guarding the secret burial spot in the dingy city backyard, while his family ran riot on the money he more or less accidentally made on a fluke. The interest...

It was published in 1942, before the war impacted book production. Forester came up with the premise for the book while he was at home in the Berkeley hills, minding his two boys while his wife Kathleen was away. The younger of the two, 8 year old George, went on a hunger strike; he refused to eat....

A witness who remembers nothing is in mortal danger.A young woman regains consciousness and finds herself on some cellar steps. At the bottom of the steps there is the corpse of a dead girl. She cannot remember who she is, what has happened or why she is there. Terrified and confused she manages to...

This story takes place three generations after Sir Percy, and is similar in many ways to "The Scarlet Pimpernel" with its intrigue, romance and twists and turns in the plot. However, it is different enough to surprise and delight the reader. A must-read for fans of Baroness Orczy and her beloved 'Pimpernel'.

Just think on it! Three aristocrats who were being sent to Paris for trial were kidnapped away from under the very nose of the highly efficient police. Spirited away! But who could have engineered so damnable a trick and then disappeared as if the earth had swallowed them up? This is also the story...

It was beginning to look as if no one could prevent the destruction of the Universe. For a strange intelligence was directing the destruction of all civilization from the icy depths of space. Kim Kinnison of the Patrol was one of the few men who knew how near the end was. And in the last desperate...

Kim Kinnison was Number One of his time. To him fell the incredible assignment of infiltrating the inner circle of Boskone. Kinnison's deadly job was to become a loyal Boskonion in every gesture, thought, and deed. He had to work himself up through the ranks of an enemy alien organization, into the...

Classic space opera adventure, Book #1 in the "Family D'Alembert" series. The Empire of Earth, spanning more than a thousand solar systems, is threatened by a conspiracy from within. Now, with more than three-quarters of the Galaxy ready to fall into enemy hands, the Empire is forced to...

John Rother drives away from Chalklands Farm in Sussex for a short vacation - and promptly disappears. His car turns up - with bloodstains - but there is no sign of John Rother - unless, of course, those stains are a sign of foul play. Enter Superintendent Meredith - and the sinister discovery of...

No one would have guessed that death lurked nearby, and that only a little distance from the glitter and glamour of a house party, two victims lay silent on the floor. On a fine autumn weekend, Lord Aveling hosts a party at his country house. Among the guests are an actress, a journalist, an artist,...

A Masque of Reason purports to be the chapter 43 of the book of Job, which only has 42 chapters. Thus, Frost has written a concluding chapter in the form of this piece. Robert Frost, like John Milton in Paradise Lost, wants to justify God's ways to man.