Travel is one thing, but really going somewhere is something else. Here are first-hand tales of exciting places to see in the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and the United Kingdom.The manuscript beginning is a truism:“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”****—Saint AugustineBased on that long-ago quote, these stories originate from personal visits to a wide variety of destinations. The primary purpose is to entertain you ...

The sublime beauty of Hawaii nearly a century ago is captured in this first book featuring the fictional Honolulu police detective, Charlie Chan. Author Biggers was staying at a hotel on Waikiki Beach in the 1920s when he was inspired to write the book. The Chan role at first was relatively minor, and he didn’t say anything until several chapters had gone by. However, the concept caught on when the literary public wanted more of him. That prompted five subsequent books as the character bec...

The idea that the extraordinary narrative which has been called the Joyce-Armstrong Fragment is an elaborate practical joke evolved by some unknown person, cursed by a perverted and sinister sense of humor, has now been abandoned by all who have examined the matter. The most macabre and imaginative of plotters would hesitate before linking his morbid fancies with the unquestioned and tragic facts which reinforce the statement. Though the assertions contained in it are amazing and even mons...

Published in 1920, this was the first book in a fantastic literary career for Agatha Christie. She went on to become the top-selling fiction author of all time with sales reaching an incredible one billion in English and another billion in a multitude of foreign language translations. Altogether, the Christie output has been excelled only by the Bible and Shakespeare. As a result, she was sometimes called the “Duchess of Death,” “Mistress of Mystery,” and “Queen of Crime,” all apt descript...

This is the first story written about a man who became interested in criminal investigation as just a hobby. It came as somewhat of a surprise to him when it became an occupation. This was Peter Wimsey, referred to as Lord Peter because he was the younger son of a Duke, justifying the courtesy title. He didn’t have a right to sit in the House of the Lords, but that didn’t seem to matter among his friends and associates.This initial disclosure of his activities began when a man’s de...

If it had not rained on a certain May morning, Valancy Stirling’s whole life would have been entirely different. She would have gone, with the rest of her clan, to Aunt Wellington’s engagement picnic and Dr. Trent would have gone to Montreal. But it did rain and you shall hear what happened to her because of it.Valancy wakened early, in the lifeless, hopeless hour just preceding dawn. She had not slept very well. One does not sleep well, sometimes, when one is twenty-nine on the mo...

Here is a land where a man, to live, must be a man. It is a land of granite and marble, strong stone and gold—and a man’s strength must be as the strength of the primeval hills. It is a land of oaks and cedars and pines—and a man’s mental grace must be as the grace of the untamed trees. It is a land of far-arched and unstained skies, where the wind sweeps free and untainted, and the atmosphere is the atmosphere of those places that remain as God made them—and a man’s soul must be as the un...

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.The fiction world of today needs a “Saint” more than it ever did. For years now that scene has been dominated by the “anti-heroes"— those grim gray operators in a sunless sub-culture where global issues are worked out with totally unemotional pragmatism, those hapless uninspired puppets manipulated and expended by ruthlessly dedicated little brothers of B...

In spite of becoming known as the most successful author of stories of the old West, Zane Grey did get criticized. One New York literary critic said, “Grey possesses no merit whatsoever either in style or in substance.” Another scathingly wrote, “The substance of any two Zane Grey books could be put on the back of a postage stamp.” Such remarks resulted from envy of his success. This book has all the ingredients of cowboys, horses, boots, and spurs, in a period of lawlessness that often br...

A late-night murder of a diamond merchant’s veteran employee in London’s Hatton Gardens has Scotland Yard calling on Inspector French to investigate. When French gets there he finds not only the victim but missing diamonds and money from an open safe. There are meager clues as the Inspector follows a trail to mainland Europe and back. There are many false clues and several suspects with much of the searching leading to nothing but dead ends. We can listen as French sorts it all out, findin...

There were signs that H. G. Wells wasn’t quite sure how to end his famous story The War of the Worlds, which featured an invasion from the planet Mars. He certainly knew how to do the story itself and pointed out Martians were highly advanced over humans in their technology. Wells used an unnamed narrator telling the tale in first person with input from his brother. The book was published in 1898, and even with the passing of years, there are no present day traces of life on Mars,...

This is a very unusual book, wherein the majority of the story is contents of an ancient diary found by two friends on a fishing holiday while on the grounds of an old dilapidated house. The moldy manuscript has inscribed tales of strange things seen and heard. There are horrible creatures and huge monsters described as though they were old gods of mythology.They find stories saying the devil may have built the house. While reading the tattered and torn manuscript the two vacatione...