It’s July already and high time to think about summer vacation! Take a break with 10 relaxing gems from our catalog.

Carruthers of the British Foreign Office needs to get away from it all, and he does so on a yachting holiday with a friend. But something sinister is going on in the Frisian Islands they are visiting – will they be able to solve The Riddle of the Sands in the novel by Erskine Childers?

Alec McNamara has nothing good in mind when he bribes a judge to steal the goldmine of the Glenisters. However, they are ready to hit back with the help of other miners. The Spoilers by Rex Beach, set in Nome, Alaska, is based on a true story.

Another true story: Rose Wilder Lane and two other American women visited the Peaks of Shala in Northern Albania shortly after WWI. There, instead of borders, they encounter local customs and legends and prehistoric cities.

When the City of London was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, Sir Christopher Wren was charged with rebuilding it. He created 52 churches, among them St. Paul’s Cathedral. Lawrence Weaver’s biography also includes some of Wren’s own writings.

Grant Overton reviewed many “artistically fine” writings for his book The Women Who Make Our Novels. You’ll find some LibriVox favorites like Edith Wharton, Anna Katherine Green, Edna Ferber, and 29 other female novelists.

Not on the list, however, is Maria Firmina dos Reis, a black woman from Brazil. In her novel, Tancreda falls in love with Úrsula who has to escape her uncle’s schemes. The couple’s only help are their slaves – will there be a happy ending?

One is already on the horizon for Brighton and Amy. But for their wedding, Brighton’s old flame shows up, as well as his philandering friend Billy. Throw in a burglar who’s after the family jewels, and there’s quite a Hoodoo at hand. Thankfully, it’s a comedy by Walter Ben Hare.

Lots of fun is in store for the young cadets who stage The Riverpark Rebellion. After all, the main goal is to take an unauthorized holiday to go to the circus. But when they return to the academy in the book by Homer Greene, they must work hard to redeem themselves.

Redemption lies also at the heart – Kokoro in Japanese – of this novel by Soseki Natsume. Two men meet at Kamakura, but despite a mutual desire for friendship, Sensei keeps the younger man at arm’s length – too heavily weighs the memory of an old mistake…

What awaits all of us this holiday season – will it be a Summer of Love? This is a collection of 59 early, fairly sentimental poems by Joyce Kilmer, who later became famous for “The Trees”.

Enjoy – and have a relaxing holiday!

Summer is approaching, and what’s better than spending it outside in nature? Prepare for your holidays with 10 gems from our catalog.

The Turquoise Story Book is a treasure trove for all things summer and nature related. Find it in 101 stories, legends, and poems carefully selected by Ada and Eleanor Skinner.

Great preparation is also the handbook On the Trail: An Outdoor Book for Girls by Lina and Adelia Beard, co-founders of the first American girls scouting group. Learn about trailing, camping, encounters with animals…

Enos A. Mills had plenty of experience with all of this. He describes his trips in and up the Colorado mountains in The Adventures of a Nature Guide, and was instrumental in the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Jules Michelet may have had similar intentions when he penned his book La mer in the 19th century. It is one of the first treatises on ecology and promotes the protection of the oceans.

A Girl of the Limberlost, Elnora Comstock, never dreamed that her beloved Indiana swamp could disappear. The novel by Gene Stratton-Porter is about her yearning for education and love.

Walter Gregory, sick from his fast-paced Wall Street job, wasn’t looking for love when he returned to his home in the country. But there, he meets Annie Walton… Find out what happens next in the novel Opening a Chestnut Burr by Edward P. Roe.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream definitely has a happy ending – it wouldn’t be a Shakespeare comedy otherwise. It doesn’t start out well, though, when two lovers flee to a forest where they encounter a quarrelling fairy king and queen…

The opposite is true for the scientists sent to Veridis, The Green World, who aim to discover the secret of its accelerated evolution. But it is dangerous and lurks deep within the planet in the story by Hal Clement.

Oh yes, nature can be very dangerous. Robert W. Chambers‘ masterful use of nature imagery brings The Mystery of Choice – a collection of 8 horror stories – to life, or rather: death.

While the Great Lakes in Ontario certainly hold their own mysteries, William Campbell prefers to stay on their surface. His Lake Lyrics and Other Poems collects 67 pieces on the natural beauty of the area.

Enjoy – and don’t let Mother Nature waiting!

Are you ready for Towel Day on May 25? If not, don’t panic, but prepare yourself with 10 sci-fi gems from our catalog.

There’s no better book to get started than A Popular History of Astronomy During the 19th Century. Learn about solar theories and eclipses, comets, planetary evolution and many more things astronomy from Agnes Mary Clerke.

Imagine what you could learn – or even see for yourself – if you could become 1,000,000 years old, like Daryesh. Once The Lord of a Thousand Suns, he has been condemned to roam the galaxy in search of things long lost. Find out if he’s successful in the story by Poul W. Anderson.

American scientist successfully built a mechanical Brain to help with military functions. But in Edmond Hamilton’s novella, it takes over more and more mundane tasks – until it suddenly becomes conscious…

Space cadet Tom Corbett and his friends take a well-earned vacation. Instead of hunting dinosaurs, however, they find themselves in the middle of The Revolt on Venus, in our dramatic reading of Carey Rockwell’s fun book.

Mary Proctor knows how to tell fun stories for kids. Her Stories of Starland combine scientific facts about our solar system with the myths ancient people told each other about the heavens.

H. P. Lovecraft dives deep into the ancient lore of a mysterious, long forgotten god. But behold, when The Call of Cthulhu can be heard again on Earth, all unbelievers will be punished…

Is there any worse punishment than disappearing Beyond the Vanishing Point? George Randolph doesn’t think so, and he’s desperate to find his friends, who are trapped in the microscopic universe of Orena. Will he make it in time in the story by Ray Cummings?

Isaac Asimov tells of Worlds Within Worlds, but this is not one of his famous stories. Instead, he explains the origins of nuclear energy to laypeople and traces scientific discoveries from quantum mechanics all the way back to alchemy.

Not of alchemy, but of astronomy is Urania the muse, and thus she takes the narrator of Camille Flammarion’s book through our solar system. This is just the start of an interesting journey beyond human knowledge of the time.

We don’t need to leave Earth to make new experiences. In fact, we don’t even have to leave our homes. Follow Alfred Lord Tennyson into fantastic imaginary worlds with his Sea-Fairies and Other Poems.

So long – and thanks for … listening!

April 4th is International Children’s Day. Sadly, all of us have to grow up at some point, but why not try and recapture a child-like spirit with 10 gems from our catalog.

Nothing helps better with this than the classic stories by the Brothers Grimm, Aesop, H. C. Andersen… Augusta Stevenson took 17 of them and turned these Children’s Classics into Dramatic Form.

Other cultures have their own classics, of course. An anonymous author travelled to Persia, India, China, Indonesia, and Japan and collected local folklore for The Jade Story Book: Stories from the Orient.

Let’s move on to the interior of Brazil and the farm where Lucie lives. José Monteira Lobato tells of her adventures with her family and their farm animals in A menina do narizinho arrebitado.

Thornton W. Burgess wrote 150 books for children, and almost all involve animals. One of these books features Little Joe Otter and Peter Rabbit as they are going on adventures along the river and in the woods of the countryside.

In the Italian city of Siena, a dangerous horse race called the Palio is taking place each year. When Giorgio Terni meets a cart horse with Arabian blood, he is determined to take part. Find out how they fare in Gaudenzia, Pride of the Palio by Marguerite Henry.

If the two did win the race, maybe they received some Sugar Plums? Ella Farman Pratt wrote 25 poems for children in this collection. They run the gamut of life’s experiences, from beauty to sorrow and everything in between.

For real sweets, look no further than The Mary Frances Cook Book. Jane Eayre Fryer presents easy recipes for kids and intersperses them with charming little stories featuring kitchen utensils.

Just as important as cooking is mathematics. Jean Macé teaches basic arithmetic as well as fractions and how to read the time in the lovely little book L’ Arithmétique de Mademoiselle Lili.

Famous historical figures surely knew their math, especially greats like David Livingstone, Joan of Arc, and Elizabeth & Raleigh. Hear all about them and their True Stories of Wonderful Deeds.

Writing a novella at age nine definitely counts as such, and the girl who did that was Daisy Ashford. Her parody of Victorian society The Young Visiters features social climbers, innocent love and the perfect behaviour for gentlemen.

Enjoy – and have fun with your (inner) child!