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!

March 8 is International Women’s Day to celebrate women and their strengths all over the world. We celebrate in our own way – with 10 gems from our catalog.

A.L.G. Bosboom-Toussaint explores how a woman is to behave. Leopold inherits a fortune – on the condition to marry a distant cousin. She, in turn, was raised like a boy and thus is called Majoor Frans. Is Leopold up to the challenge?

When in the early 19th century, Elizabeth Blackwell set her mind on becoming a doctor, she was advised to dress as a man to enter university. She did no such thing, and yet performed Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women.

The idea of same education is also explored in the Sarah Grand’s novel The Heavenly Twins. This set of boy and girl grow up in restrictive Victorian society, and their lives couldn’t turn out any more different.

Of course, rich women were always well-educated, even in 17th century France. This is how Das Fräulein von Scuderi becomes entangled in a murder case involving precious jewels. The novella by E.T.A. Hoffmann will tell you whether she can solve the crime.

Not necessarily criminal were the conditions of workers in cottons mills in the 19th century. Harriet H. Robinson was one of them, and she reached many people through her stories and essays. Loom and Spindle is a collection of her writings.

Many women put their thoughts to paper, but not all of them become well-known. From Queen’s Gardens – A Chorus of Many Voices is a collection of poetry by both famous authors, and those who remained undiscovered.

Some 100 years ago, much of the world’s remote parts were unexplored. Mina Benson Hubbard set out on A Woman’s Way Through Unknown Labrador and mapped the rivers on her journey. All that in a canoe, and only two years after her husband perished on a similar trip.

Giovanna on the other hand has two husbands in the novel by Grazia Deledda. When Costatino is convicted of murder, she has no way of supporting herself. After the Divorce, she marries Brontu who abuses her, but things get really complicated when Costatino is acquitted…

It takes Courage to create a new family. Aged only 12 years, the girl with this name is too young to marry, but as an orphan, she knows all about finding a new family. Our dramatic reading of Ruth Ogden’s novel tells you how her life turns out.

When their father doesn’t return to their log cabin, teenaged Nell takes her little brother and their dog and tries to lead them to safety. But in the middle of a Canadian winter, the Two on the Trail might not make it far in the book by Edith Elise Cowper.

Enjoy – and celebrate the women in your life!

Valentine’s Day should bring some fresh romance into your life, whether in an old relationship or a new one. Let’s celebrate all things love with 10 gems from our catalog.

All things love definitely include Homogenic Love. Edward Carpenter was an early LGBT pioneer who laid out his thoughts on homosexuality in this little book from the late 19th century.

In the early 20th century, Laurence Hope was a popular author. She spent her adult life in India and let the country and its people inspire her to original poetry. Some of it is collected in India’s Love Lyrics.

It’s said that love is eternal, it has certainly be around for long enough, as Langus‘ story from Ancient Greece shows. Two orphans grow up as neighbors and fall in love, but they must face many hardships before they can enjoy The Pastoral Loves of Daphnis and Chloe.

Gilliatt suffers self-imposed hardships when he tries to salvage the engine of a wrecked steamship. Just to win the hand of rich Deruchette, he becomes one of the Toilers of the Sea in the novel by Victor Hugo.

Charles Rex, on the other hand, is already a rich man when he discovers a female stowaway on his yacht. Although immediately drawn to her, he feels he must find her a more suitable match… Find out if he succeeds in the novel by Ethel M. Dell.

Fallen woman Kitty prefers to take matters in her own hands. When she meets widower Robert, all stars seem to align for the couple. May Sinclair writes about this Immortal Moment – but how long will it last?

The love of Cyrano de Bergerac and Roxane is meant to last a lifetime. Unfortunately, ugly Cyrano has to hide behind handsome Christian to woo Roxane in the famous love-triangle play by Edmond Rostand.

Elbert Hubbard did not include any love triangles in his Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Lovers. There is still enough tragedy to be found, however, in the stories of 12 famous couples including Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, Dante and Beatrice, Petrarch and Laura…

Laurence Housman decided to publish an anonymous Englishwoman’s Love Letters because of “a request, conveyed under circumstances which the writer herself would have regarded as all-commanding”.

Renold decides to temporarily send his sister to a convent when he sees her secretly meeting Hippolyt, the count’s son. But she disappears and the mystery can only be solved on Schloß Dürande… This short novella was written by Joseph von Eichendorff.

Enjoy – and Happy Valentine!