The ​Gun

C. S. Forester - Mr ​Midshipman Hornblower
1793, ​the eve of the Napoleonic Wars, and Midshipman Horatio Hornblower receives his first command...As a seventeen-year-old with a touch of sea sickness, young Horatio Hornblower hardly cuts a dash in His Majesty's navy. Yet, from the moment he is ordered to board a French merchant ship in the Bay of Biscay and take command of crew and cargo, he proves his seafaring mettle on the waves. With a character-forming duel, several chases and some strange tavern encounters, the young Hornblower is soon forged into a formidable man of the sea. This is the first of eleven books chronicling the nautical adventures of C. S. Forester's inimitable hero, Horatio Hornblower.

C. S. Forester - Hornblower ​and the Atropos
1805, ​and Hornblower is both humbled and honoured in quick succession . . . After near disaster on board a canal barge, Horatio Hornblower is given his first assignment as Captain, taking charge of the Atropos, a 22-gun sloop that will act as flagship for the funeral procession of Lord Nelson. Soon the Atropos is part of the Mediterranean fleet's assault upon Napoleon, and Captain Hornblower must execute a bold and daring salvage operation for buried treasure lying deep in Turk waters. Under the guns of a suspicious port captain and the threat of a Spanish frigate more than double Atropos's size, Hornblower must steer his ship unscathed and triumphant . . . This is the fourth of eleven books chronicling the adventures of C. S. Forester's inimitable nautical hero, Horatio Hornblower.

C. S. Forester - Hornblower ​and the Hotspur
April ​1803, and the Peace of Amiens is failing as Horatio Hornblower takes a three-master on a vital reconnaissance mission … On the day of his marriage to Maria, Hornblower is ordered to take the Hotspur and head for Brest – war is coming and Napoleon will not catch His Majesty’s navy with its britches round its ankles. With thoughts of his new life as a husband intruding on his duties, Hornblower must prove himself to be not only the most capable commander in the fleet, but also its most daring if he is to stop the French gaining the upper hand. This is the third of eleven books chronicling the adventures of C. S. Forester’s inimitable nautical hero, Horatio Hornblower.

C. S. Forester - Hornblower ​and the Crisis
The ​final Horatio Hornblower story tells of Napoleon's plans to invade England . . . Set in 1805, Hornblower and the Crisis finds Horatio Hornblower in possession of confidential dispatches from Bonaparte after a vicious hand-to-hand encounter with a French brig. The admiralty rewards Hornblower by sending him on a dangerous espionage mission that will light the powder trail leading to the battle of Trafalgar . . . Hornblower and the Crisis was unfinished at the time of Forester's death, but the author left notes - included here - telling us how the tale would end. Also included are two further stories - Hornblower and the Widow McCool and The Last Encounter - that tell of Hornblower as a very young and very old man, respectively. This is the final book chronicling the adventures of C. S. Forester's inimitable nautical hero, Horatio Hornblower.

C. S. Forester - A ​Ship of the Line
May, ​1810 - and thirty-nine-year-old Captain Horatio Hornblower has been handed his first ship of the line . . . Though the seventy-four-gun HMS Sutherland is 'the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy' and a crew shortage means he must recruit two hundred and fifty landlubbers, Hornblower knows that by the time Sutherland and her squadron reach the blockaded Catalonian coast every seaman will do his duty. But with daring raids against the French army and navy to be made, it will take all Hornblower's seamanship - and stewardship - to steer a steady course to victory and home . . . This is the sixth of eleven books chronicling the adventures of C. S. Forester's inimitable nautical hero, Horatio Hornblower.

Larry McMurtry - Lonesome ​Dove
A ​love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize— winning classic, Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America. Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written, always dramatic, Lonesome Dove is a book to make us laugh, weep, dream, and remember.

Jules Verne - In ​Search of the Castaways; or the Children of Captain Grant
In ​Search of the Castaways (French: Les Enfants du capitaine Grant, lit. The Children of Captain Grant) is a novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1867-1868. The original edition, by Hetzel, contains a number of illustrations by Edouard Riou. In 1876 it was republished by George Routledge & Sons as a three volume set titled "A Voyage Round The World". The three volumes were subtitled "South America", "Australia", and "New Zealand". The book tells the story of the quest for Captain Grant of the Britannia. After finding a bottle cast into the ocean by the captain himself after the Britannia is shipwrecked, Lord and Lady Glenarvan of Scotland contact Mary and Robert, the young daughter and son of Captain Grant, through an announcement in a newspaper. Moved by the children's condition, Lord and Lady Glenarvan decide to launch a rescue expedition. The main difficulty is that the coordinates of the wreckage are mostly erased, and only the latitude (37 degrees) is known; thus, the expedition would have to circum-navigate the 37th parallel. Remaining clues consist of a few words in three languages. They are re-interpreted several times throughout the novel to make various destinations seem likely.

Diana Wynne Jones - Conrad's ​Fate
Someone ​at Stallery Mansion is changing the world. At first, only small details, but the changes get bigger and bigger. It's up to Conrad, a twelve-year-old with terrible karma who's just joined the mansion's staff, to find out who is behind it. But he's not the only one snooping around. His fellow servant-in-training, Christopher Chant, is charming, confident, and from another world, with a mission of his own -- rescuing his friend, lost in an alternate Stallery Mansion. Can they save the day before Conrad's awful fate catches up with them?

Kate Mosse - Sepulchre
It ​is 1891, and Léonie Vernier is a 17-year-old Parisian girl who lives with her mother and her brother Anatole in the same apartment building as the composer Claude Debussy. She unwittingly becomes swept up in events as a former love rival of her brother starts a whispering campaign against him. The pair retreat to the Carcassonne countryside to the abode of their aunt Isolde. Léonie discovers her dead uncle's penchant for the paranormal via tarot cards and her brother re-discovers his aunt's feminine charms. That's right, Anatole has been romantically involved with his aunt (not a blood relative, so no nasty in-breeding!). The retreat to the countryside has been a careful plot to reunite the two lovers and to remove Anatole from the vicious whispering campaign. Unfortunately, Isolde's former lover bears a powerful grudge and has vowed to make the lovers pay for the hurt and humiliation they caused him. Meanwhile, in the present day, young author Meredith Martin is traveling France to research her novel on Claude Debussy. She's also trying to establish a mysterious link to her past in the form of a sepia tinged photo of a WWI soldier and a piece of music entitled Sepulchre 1871. Meredith's journey takes her to Carcassonne, to Isolde's former home, now a hotel. There she discovers the truth about her ancestry and the dreadful events that unfolded at the Domaine De La Cade.

Mark Twain - The ​Adventures of Tom Sawyer / The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
With ​an Introduction and Notes by Stuart Hutchinson, University of Kent at Canterbury. Tom Sawyer, a shrewd and adventurous boy, is as much at home in the respectable world of his Aunt Polly as in the self-reliant and parentless world of his friend Huck Finn. The two enjoy a series of adventures, accidentally witnessing a murder, establishing the innocence of the man wrongly accused, as well as being hunted by Injun Joe, the true murderer, eventually escaping and finding the treasure that Joe had buried. Huckleberry Finn recounts the further adventures of Huck, who runs away from a drunken and brutal father, and meets up with the escaped slave Jim. They float down the Mississippi on a raft, participating in the lives of the characters they meet, witnessing corruption, moral decay and intellectual impoverishment. Sharing so much in background and character, these two stories, the best of Twain, indisputably belong together in one volume. Though originally written as adventure stories for young people, the vivid writing provides a profound commentary on provincial American life in the mid-nineteenth century and the institution of slavery.

C. S. Forester - The ​Happy Return
It's ​June, 1808 - and off the Coast of Nicaragua Captain Horatio Hornblower has his hands full ...Now in command of HMS Lydia, a thirty-six-gun frigate, Hornblower has instructions to form an alliance against the Spanish colonies with a mad and messianic revolutionary, El Supremo; to find a water route across the Central American isthmus; and 'to take, sink, burn or destroy' the fifty-gun Spanish ship of the line Natividad - or face court-martial. And as if that wasn't hard enough, Hornblower must also contend with the charms of an unwanted passenger: Lady Barbara Wellesley ...This is the fifth of eleven books chronicling the adventures of C. S. Forester's inimitable nautical hero, Horatio Hornblower.

J. M. Barrie - Peter ​Pan
This ​is a timeless classic of children's literature in an exquisite full colour edition that will be cherished by all ages. It is fully illustrated with distinctive stained edging and decorative endpapers. It is suitable for children aged 10 to 13 years old. Neverland is home to Peter Pan, a young boy who has never grown up. On one of his visits to London, Peter makes the acquaintance of young Wendy Darling, whom he invites to travel with him to Neverland and become the mother of his gang of Lost Boys. Flying through the night sky to Neverland, Wendy and her brothers John and Michael are soon caught up in marvellous adventures with the Indian Princess Tiger Lily, the loyal fairy Tinker Bell and Peter's nemesis, a sinister hook-handed pirate known as Captain Hook. Spun by J.M. Barrie from his stage play of the same name, „Peter Pan” is a timeless classic of children's literature. Illustrated with plates by F.D. Bedford, this exquisite full-colour edition features an elegant bonded-leather binding, a satin-ribbon bookmark, distinctive stained edging and decorative endpapers. It's a book that will be cherished by readers of all ages.

Philip Reeve - Mortal ​Engines
London ​is hunting its prey. For too long, London has been hiding in the hills, safe from bigger, faster, HUNGRIER cities. Now London must feed. But as the chase begins, events within the walls take a sinister turn... The breathtaking first instalment of the award-winning MORTAL ENGINES quartet.

Marie Rutkoski - The ​Cabinet of Wonders
Petra ​Kronos has a simple, happy life. But it’s never been ordinary. She has a pet tin spider named Astrophil who likes to hide in her snarled hair and give her advice. Her best friend can trap lightning inside a glass sphere. Petra also has a father in faraway Prague who is able to move metal with his mind. He has been commissioned by the prince of Bohemia to build the world’s finest astronomical clock. Petra’s life is forever changed when, one day, her father returns home—blind. The prince has stolen his eyes, enchanted them, and now wears them. But why? Petra doesn’t know, but she knows this: she will go to Prague, sneak into Salamander Castle, and steal her father’s eyes back. Joining forces with Neel, whose fingers extend into invisible ghosts that pick locks and pockets, Petra finds that many people in the castle are not what they seem, and that her father’s clock has powers capable of destroying their world.

Nick Hornby - High ​Fidelity
When ​Laura dumps Rob (on the very first page) he is aggrieved and exhilarated, 35 and petrified. Trying to work out what went wrong, obsessed with music, and running an ailing record shop, he sets out on the road to self-discovery. Nick Hornby's first novel, an international bestseller and instantly recognized by critics and readers alike as a classic, helps to explain men to women, and men to men. Rob is good on music: he owns a small record shop and has strong views on what's decent and what isn't. But he's much less good on relationships. In fact, he's not at all sure that he wants to commit himself to anyone. So it's hardly surprising that his girlfriend decides that enough is enough.

J. K. Rowling - Harry ​Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Read ​by Jim Dale Running time: 20 hrs., 30 mins. 17 CDs. Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts for his fourth year of magical adventures in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This year Harry turns 14 and becomes interested in girls -- one in particular. And with Dark Magic comes danger, as someone close to Harry dies. You'll have to listen to learn more! The audio is available on July 8th.

Ken Follett - Fall ​of Giants
This ​is a huge novel that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women. It is 1911. The Coronation Day of King George V. The Williams, a Welsh coal-mining family, is linked by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocratic coal-mine owners. Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London. Their destiny is entangled with that of an ambitious young aide to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and to two orphaned Russian brothers, whose plans to emigrate to America fall foul of war, conscription and revolution. In a plot of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, "Fall of Giants" moves seamlessly from Washington to St Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty.

Neil Gaiman - Stardust
In ​the sleepy English countryside of decades past, there is a town that has stood on a jut of granite for six hundred years. And immediately to the east stands a high stone wall, for which the village is named. Here in the town of Wall, Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. One crisp October night, as they watch, a star falls from the sky, and Victoria promises to marry Tristran if he'll retrieve that star and bring it back for her. It is this promise that sends Tristran through the only gap in the wall, across the meadow, and into the most unforgettable adventure of his life.

Nick Hornby - About ​a Boy
Will ​is a thirty-six but acts like a teenager. He reads the right magazines, goes to the right clubs and knows which trainers to wear. He's also discovered a great way to score with women - at single parent's groups, full of available mothers, all waiting for Mr Nice. That's where he meets Marcus, the oldest twelve-year-old in the world. Marcus is a bit strange: he listens to Mozart, looks after his mum and he's never even owned a pair of trainers. Perhaps if Will can teach Marcus how to be a kid, Marcus can help Will grow up...

Henry Rider Haggard - Ayesha
"Minden ​további szó nélkül lerázta fátyolát és ragyogva bontakozott ki belőle, mint valamely fényes kígyó, mikor bőrét elveti... Elvetette magától fönségét, rémességét és hidegségét, elvetette magától, mint fátylát, és előttem a kísértés megtestesüléseképpen a legtökéletesebb asszony állt, aki valaha élt." Sir Rider Haggard (1856-1925) nemcsak kiváló angol gyarmati tisztviselő volt, hanem kora híres írója is, aki a gondjára bízott területeken nyitott szemmel és füllel járt. Hatott rá a dél-afrikai táj, a nép, a folklór és történelem. Nem idegen tőle az elsüllyedt világok vagy az igazi öröklét gondolata sem. Haggard kicsit misztikus írásai egy időben divatosak voltak szerte a világon, így Magyarországon is. Ma újra felfedezhetjük ezt az érdekes, izgalmas világot - az 1896-ban megjelent s azóta számtalan kiadást megért kötetnek éppúgy nem árthatott az idő, mint Ayeshának, a könyv csodálatos-félelmetes hősnőjének.