Norman Dietz
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English
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Mark Twain's darkly comic short classic set in the antebellum South stands as a literary condemnation of slavery and racial inequality. Each enriched classic edition includes: A concise introduction that gives readers important background information. A chronology of the author's life and work. A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context. An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations....
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Milo, a young boy with little interest in anything, takes a trip through the Phantom Tollbooth to the Lands Beyond where he meets an enchanting cast of characters that teaches him the importance of words, numbers, ideas, creativity, and enthusiasm for life. Includes an introduction by Maurice Sendak and "Celebrations of The Phantom Tollbooth" by various authors.
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The title story of this collection of short gems by America's greatest humorist, published in 1900, tells of a man's attempt to gain revenge on the hypocritcal citizens of a supposedly "incorruptible" town. Other stories include "The Man Who Put Up at Gadsby's" and "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."
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In a landmark work of deep scholarship and insight, Foner gives us a life of Lincoln as it intertwined with slavery, the defining issue of the time and the tragic hallmark of American history. The author demonstrates how Lincoln navigated a dynamic political landscape deftly, moving in measured steps, often on a path forged by abolitionists and radicals in his party, and that Lincoln's greatness lay in his capacity for moral and political growth....
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When FDR took office in March 1933, thousands of banks had gone under, a quarter of American workers were unemployed, farmers were in open rebellion, and hungry people had descended on garbage dumps. After the Hundred Days, the federal government had assumed active responsibility for the welfare of all its citizens. Cohen offers a riveting group portrait of the five members of FDR's inner circle who accomplished this unprecedented transformation....
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An account of Twain's experiences as an apprentice riverboat pilot in the days of the great Mississippi steamboats.
Both a memoir and a travel book, Mark Twain recalls his days as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River before the American Civil War, and then many years after, recounts a trip as passenger along the Mississippi River from St. Louis to New Orleans. The book begins with a brief history of the river as reported by Europeans and Americans,...
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A bitter, misanthropic man living alone in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the 1860s retires from the Russian civil service after inheriting some money and writes a confused and often contradictory set of memoirs or confessions describing and explaining his alienation from modern society and its nineteenth century utilitarianism as well as his own remorse and self-loathing.
11) White Fang
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Five wolf pups are born, but only one survives. The lone pup and its mother must fend for themselves when the pup's father is killed by a lynx. Later, the pair is discovered by Native Americans. Grey Beaver, who recognizes the she-wolf as his late brother's wolfdog, adopts the pup and names him 'White Fang.' Targeted by the other pups in the Native American camp before being sold to a dog fighter, White Fang grows to be fierce, distrustful, and morose....
12) The hit-away kid
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Barry McGee, hit-away batter for the Peach Street Mudders, enjoys winning so much that he has a tendency to bend the rules--until the dirty tactics of the pitcher on a rival team give him a new perspective on sports ethics.
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One of the most popular and mysterious figures in American literary history, J. D. Salinger eluded fans and journalists for most of his life. Now comes a new biography. Filled with new information and revelations, garnered from countless interviews, letters, and public records, this work presents his extraordinary life that spanned nearly the entire twentieth century. The author explores Salingers privileged youth, long obscured by misrepresentation...
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At nearly 95, Studs Terkel has written about everyone's life, it seems, but his own. Here he offers a memoir which--embodying the spirit of the man himself--is youthful and vivacious. Terkel begins by taking us back to his childhood, describing the hectic life of a family trying to earn a living in Chicago. He then goes on to his experiences--as a poll watcher charged with stealing votes for the Democratic machine, as a young theatergoer, and eventually...
16) Baseball pals
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Jimmie learns an important lesson about the misuse of power when he is elected captain of his baseball team and makes decisions that are not in the team's best interests.
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Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling historian James MacGregor Burns explores the most daring and transformational intellectual movement in history, the European and American Enlightenment In this engaging, provocative history, James MacGregor Burns brilliantly illuminates the two-hundred-year conflagration of the Enlightenment, when audacious questions and astonishing ideas tore across Europe and the New World, transforming thought, overturning...
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"In one of Verne's supreme adventures, Professor Lidenbrock discovers a centuries-old document which, when decoded by his brilliant nephew Axel, offers instructions to the Earth's core. Accompanied by an Icelandic guide, they set off on a dangerous and exciting trek that begins with a descent into an extinct volcano. As the explorers travel through geologic time, they encounter a living past that holds the secrets to the origins of humanity"--
19) Roughing it
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Mark Twain's ramblings took him all over the American West during the 1860s. He prospected for gold and silver, speculated on timber and mining stocks, sailed to Hawaii, and worked for a succession of small newspapers. This is his fictionalized account of these years, tall tales abound, as do sketches of the unforgettable characters he encountered.
20) Telling the bees
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Albert Honig's most constant companions have always been his bees. A never-married octogenarian, still residing in the house in which he was born, Albert makes a modest living as a beekeeper, just has his father and his father's father had done before him. Deeply acquainted with the ways and workings of the hives, he knows that bees dislike wool clothing and foul language; that the sweetest honey is made from the blooms of the eucalyptus; and that...