Ethics

Ethics
by Baruch Spinoza

Spinoza’s Ethica ordine geometrico demonstrata (Ethics demonstrated in geometrical order) is based on a deductive method derived from Euclidean geometry. Spinoza maintains that the validity of ethical ideas can be demonstrated by mathematical argument or proof. Spinoza asserts that ethics can be based on a geometric model in which axioms and propositions follow each other with logical necessity. This reflects the view that ethical truth has the same logical necessity as mathematical truth. Spinoza sees ethics as a rational system corresponding to the rational nature of the universe.

Brain Droppings

Brain Droppings
by George Carlin

The thinking person's comic who uses words as weapons, George Carlin shares all-new, cutting-edge opinion and observational humor in Brain Droppings. Filled with thoughts, musings, questions, lists, beliefs, curiosities, monologues, assertions, assumptions, and other verbal ordeals, Brain Droppings is infectiously funny. Carlin unleashes his opinions on 'People Who Should Be Phased Out' (guys with creases in their jeans, people who know a lot of prayers by heart) and 'Seven Things I'm Tired Of' (geeks with Walkmans, clothing with writing on it, having to read cloud descriptions in a book). He even offers the never-before-revealed 'Guide to Dining Out' (order unusual things: a chopped corn sandwich with diced peas and rye potato chips). From nonsense such as 'Eventually there will come a time when everyone is in a band' to the ultimately profound 'It is impossible to dry one hand,' you'll get a look inside Carlin's mind, and you won't be disappointed. Carlin demolishes everyday values and yet leaves you laughing out loud. You'll learn what he thinks of sports fans, how he would improve the TV networks, his suggestions for Legal Murder Once a Month, and his plan for World Peace Through Constant Dancing. Also included are two classic Carlin monologues -- 'A Place for My Stuff' and 'Baseball and Football.'

A Dog Named Kitty

A Dog Named Kitty
by Bill Wallace

The puppy was small and fuzzy, with a friendly, wagging tail — and Ricky was afraid of him!

No wonder, since he was attacked by a dog when he was just a baby. So when a stray puppy comes sniffling around the farm, Ricky tells it to get lost.

But the puppy keeps trying to play with Ricky. And every time Ricky's Mom feeds the cats, the little dog comes running. The cats aren't sharing their food, however, and the poor pup is slowly starving.

If Ricky doesn't overcome his fear, the little puppy may die — but if he lets himself get close enough to feed it, he may find the best friend he's ever had!

James and the Giant Peach

James and the Giant Peach
by Roald Dahl

When James Henry Trotter accidentally drops some magic crystals by the old peach tree, strange things start to happen. The peach at the top of the tree begins to grow, and before long it's as big as a house. Then James discovers a secret entranceway into the fruit, and when he crawls inside, he meets a bunch of marvelous oversized friends—Old-Green-Grasshopper, Centipede, Ladybug, Miss Spider, and more.

After years of feeling like an outsider in the house of his despicable Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, James has finally found a place where he belongs. With a snip of the stem, the peach starts rolling away, and the exciting adventure begins!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by Roald Dahl

Each of five children lucky enough to discover an entry ticket into Mr. Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory takes advantage of the situation in his own way.

The Hobbit

The Hobbit or There and Back Again
by J.R.R. Tolkien

Whisked away from his comfortable, unambitious life in his hobbit-hole by Gandalf the wizard and a company of dwarves, Bilbo Baggins finds himself caught up in a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon.

Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.

At the Mountains of Madness

At the Mountains of Madness
by H.P. Lovecraft

A complete short novel, AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS is a tale of terror unlike any other. The barren, windswept interior of the Antarctic plateau was lifeless—or so the expedition from Miskatonic University thought. Then they found the strange fossils of unheard-of creatures...and the carved stones tens of millions of years old...and, finally, the mind-blasting terror of the City of the Old Ones. Three additional strange tales, written as only H.P. Lovecraft can write, are also included in this macabre collection of the strange and the weird.

The Collected Tales of Edgar Allen Poe

The Collected Tales of Edgar Allen Poe
by Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most original writers in the history of American letters, a genius who was tragically misunderstood in his lifetime. He was a seminal figure in the development of science fiction and the detective story, and exerted a great influence on Dostoyevsky, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, and Charles Baudelaire, who championed him long before Poe was appreciated in his own country. Baudelaire's enthusiasm brought Poe a wide audience in Europe, and his writing came to have enormous importance for modern French literature. This edition includes his most well-known works--"The Raven," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "Annabel Lee," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"--as well as less-familiar stories, poems, and essays.

Monster

Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member
by Sanyika Shakur, aka Monster Kody Scott

Written in solitary confinement, Kody Scott's memoir of sixteen years as a gangbanger in Los Angeles was a searing bestseller and became a classic, published in ten languages, with more than 300,000 copies in print in the United States alone. After pumping eight blasts from a sawed-off shotgun at a group of rival gang members, twelve-year-old Kody Scott was initiated into the L.A. gang the Crips. He quickly matured into one of the most formidable Crip combat soldiers, earning the name "Monster" for committing acts of brutality and violence that repulsed even his fellow gang members. When the inevitable jail term confined him to a maximum-security cell, a complete political and personal transformation followed: from Monster to Sanyika Shakur, black nationalist, member of the New Afrikan Independence Movement, and crusader against the causes of gangsterism. In a document that has been compared to The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice, Shakur makes palpable the despair and decay of America's inner cities and gives eloquent voice to one aspect of the black ghetto experience today.