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  Hand and Heart - From their pens...

  Elizabeth Gaskell

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  Elizabeth Stevenson was born in Chelsea in London on 29th September 1810.  
  Both parents embedded their strong Unitarian beliefs into Elizabeth who rebelliously was often reluctant to display these religious convictions.  
  The early death of Elizabeth’s mother saw her sent away to be brought up by her maternal aunt in Knutsford, Cheshire.  
  Her father now remarried but Elizabeth spent most of her childhood in Cheshire away from her father and his new family but was supportive towards her half-siblings.  
  Elizabeth’s aunt encouraged her education and particularly to read and express herself through writing.   
  In 1828, her brother John, who worked in the merchant navy, disappeared on a journey to India. This disastrous loss depressed her father, and she went to his household to nurse him for the next year before he died.  
  In 1832, she fell in love with William Gaskell, a Unitarian minister like her father, and married him.  They settled in Manchester. This booming industrial city had a great impact on Elizabeth who felt the need to speak up for poor workers and their exploitation by large industrial companies. A collection of poems and short stories, ‘Sketches among the Poor’ appeared in 1837, co-authored by her husband.  Her first major work, under a pseudonym, was ‘Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life’ published in 1848. 
  During her career she worked continually with Charles Dickens and published much in his various magazines. With him she published ‘Lizzie Leigh’ in 1850 which dealt with the taboo subject of prostitution.  She was an excellent writer and impressed her many Victorian literary peers. Much of her writing reflects her work as a social critic highlighting the exploitation of the working class and the situation of women in society.  
  On 12th November 1865, Elizabeth Gaskell died in Holybourne, Hampshire, after suffering from a heart attack a month earlier.

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  Arck Industries: Origins

  Alex Arck

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  What if the key to creative freedom was letting go of control? 
  Under the weight of an impossible deadline, an independent musician turns to spiritual practices and mystic rituals, desperate to balance the relentless pressures of surviving as an artist. But when one of his psychic experiments unlocks access to future technology, he discovers a shocking solution: biomechanical clones capable of sharing his creative burden. 
  At first, the clones appear to be the perfect answer, amplifying his productivity and talent. But after transferring his consciousness into these beings, he uncovers a dark truth about the price of splitting himself across multiple lives—and the dangers lurking within his newfound power. 
  Written by musician and songwriter Alex Arck, this gripping sci-fi novella serves as a thrilling prequel to the events of his concept album, Arck Industries. Dive deeper into the story with the immersive audio adaptation, narrated by Garan Patrick. 
  Discover a world where creativity meets cutting-edge technology—and automation comes at a cost.

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  Fidelity - Five Stories

  Wendell Berry

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  "Berry richly evokes Port William's farmlands and hamlets, and his characters are fiercely individual, yet mutually protective in everything they do. . . . His sentences are exquisitely constructed, suggesting the cyclic rhythms of his agrarian world." —New York Times Book Review 
   
   
   
  A celebration of beloved American author Wendell Berry, the five stories in Fidelity return listeners to Berry's fictional town of Port William, Kentucky, and the familiar characters who form a tight-knit community within.

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  20000 Leagues under the Sea

  Jules Verne

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  This classic adventure story chronicles a fantastic voyage from the lost continent of Atlantis to the South Pole. Professor Aronnax begins his incredible underwater journey with his faithful servant Conseil and a Canadian harpooner, Ned Land. They set out on a hazardous voyage to rid the seas of a little-known and terrifying sea monster. After discovering that the " monster" is actually a giant submarine, they are captured by the vessel' s mysterious commander, Captain Nemo.

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  Nerves

  Anton Chekhov

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  Nerves is a story by Anton Chekhovs, first published: 1895. Three friends, Mayer (a medical student), Rybnikov (a student of the arts), and Vassilyev (a law student), decide to go out one night to get some girls. Mayer and Rybnikov had to spend some time convincing Vassilyev to come along, as he was far more fastidious and cautious than his friends. Vassilyev himself is envious of his friends, who live their lives in a much more carefree fashion. The three friends visit several different houses containing the girls, but Vassilyev finds himself more eager to talk to the girls and treat them to fancy drinks than to pay his money to get something more. He tries to understand the lives the fallen women are living, but he grows more and more disgusted with them...

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  Coconut Dreams

  Derek Mascarenhas

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  Coconut Dreams explores the lives of the Pinto family through seventeen linked short stories. Starting with a ghost story set in Goa, India, in the 1950s, the collection weaves through various timelines and perspectives to focus on siblings Aiden and Ally Pinto and their experience of growing up in a predominantly white suburb with innocence, intelligence, and a timid foot in two distinct cultures.
  Here, Derek Mascarenhas takes a fresh look at the world of the new immigrant and the South Asian experience in Canada. A daughter questions her father's love at an IKEA grand opening; an aunt remembers a safari-gone-wrong in Kenya; an uncle's unrequited love is confronted at a Goan Association picnic; a boy tests his faith amidst a school-yard brawl; and a childhood love letter is exchanged during the building of a backyard deck. Singularly and collectively, these stories will move the reader with their engaging narratives and authentic voices.

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