Recommendations based on "The Erma Bombeck Collection"

One of the best loved books of all time. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadLovely Meg, talented Jo, frail Beth, spoiled Amy: these are hard lessons of poverty and of growing up in New England during the Civil War. Through their dreams, plays, pranks, letters, illnesses, and courtships, women of all ages have become a part of this remarkable family and have felt the deep sadness when Meg leaves the circle of sisters to be married at the end of Part I. Part II, chronicles Meg's joys and mishaps as a young wife and mother, Jo's struggle to become a writer, Beth's tragedy, and Amy's artistic pursuits and unexpected romance. Based on Louisa May Alcott's childhood, this lively portrait of nineteenth- century family life possesses a lasting vitality that has endeared it to generations of readers.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Collecting two book-length essays, A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas is Virginia Woolf's most powerful feminist writing, justifying the need for women to possess intellectual freedom and financial independence. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is edited with an introduction and notes by Michele Barrett. A Room of One's Own, based on a lecture given at Girton College, Cambridge, is one of the great feminist polemics, ranging in its themes from Jane Austen and Carlotte Brontë to the silent fate of Shakespeare's gifted (imaginary) sister and the effects of poverty and sexual constraint on female creativity. Three Guineas was published almost a decade later and breaks new ground in its discussion of men, militarism and women's attitudes towards war. These two pieces reveal Virginia Woolf's fiery spirit and sophisticated wit, and confirm her status as a highly inspirational essayist. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is regarded as a major 20th century author and essayist, a key figure in literary history as a feminist and modernist, and the centre of 'The Bloomsbury Group'. This informal collective of artists and writers which included Lytton Strachey and Roger Fry, exerted a powerful influence over early twentieth-century British culture. Between 1925 and 1931 Virginia Woolf produced what are now regarded as her finest masterpieces, from Mrs Dalloway (1925) to the poetic and highly experimental novel The Waves (1931). She also maintained an astonishing output of literary criticism, short fiction, journalism and biography, including the playfully subversive Orlando (1928) and A Room of One's Own (1929) a passionate feminist essay. If you enjoyed A Room of One's Own, you might like Woolf's Orlando, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'Probably the most influential piece of non-fictional writing by a woman in this century' Hermione Lee, Financial Times

A bridge between the early life of Nin and the first volume of her Diary. In pages more candid than in the preceding diaries, Nin tells how she exorcised the obsession that threatened her marriage and nearly drove her to suicide. Editor's Note by Rupert Pole; Preface by Joaquin Nin-Culmell; Index; photographs.

Fifteen-year-old Laura lives apart from her family for the first time, teaching school in a claim shanty twelve miles from home. She is very homesick, but keeps at it so that she can help pay for her sister Mary's tuition at the college for the blind. During school vacations Laura has fun with her singing lessons, going on sleigh rides, and best of all, helping Almanzo Wilder drive his new buggy. Friendship soon turns to love for Laura and Almanzo in the romantic conclusion of this Little House book.

A moving volume that reveals how the Lindberghs increasingly found themselves in the spotlight-a bittersweet record of achievements and hardships. Introduction by the Author; Index; photographs. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

A collection of Virginia Woolf's correspondence from age six to the eve of her marriage twenty-four years later. "Engagingly fresh and spontaneous as young Virginia's letters are...the excitement in this collection arises from [her] growing awareness of herself as a writer" (Chicago Sun-Times). Introduction by Nigel Nicolson; Index; photographs.

Kids everywhere feel connected to Ramona's unique way of looking at the world as she tries to adjust to new teachers, feels jealous about Susan's curls, and is secretly pleased by Yard Ape's teasing. The scrapes she gets herself into—like wearing pajamas to school or accidentally making egg yolk shampoo—are funny and heartwarming, and sometimes embarrassing. No matter what—Ramona's lively, curious spirit shines through. The appeal of the Beverly Cleary's stories about Ramona Quimby have never faded. For the first time, all eight of Beverly Cleary's Ramona titles are now included in one box set: Beezus and Ramona Ramona the Pest Ramona the Brave Ramona and Her Father Ramona and Her Mother Ramona Quimby, Age 8 Ramona Forever Ramona's World

A Room of One's Own grew out of a lecture that Virginia Woolf had been invited to give at Girton College, Cambridge in 1928. Ranging over Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte and why neither of them could have written War and Peace, over the silent fate of Shakespeare's gifted (and imaginary) sister, over the effects of poverty and chastity on female creativity, she gives us one of the greatest feminist polemics of the century.

Boston's Little House Girl Meet Charlotte Tucker, the little girl who would grow up to be Laura Ingalls Wilder's grandmother. Eleven-year-old Charlotte can't imagine living anywhere but Tide Mill Lane. She is delighted when a school for young ladies opens nearby. The prospect of a new baby brother and the reappearance of a long-lost relative combine to complete Charlotte's world. But a new dam connecting Roxbury and Boston turns Tide Mill Lane into a noisy, messy construction site, and Charlotte's parents worry about what this will mean for their family. Across the Puddingstone Dam is the fourth book in The Charlotte Years, an ongoing series about another spirited girl from America's most beloved pioneer family.

Just after Caroline Quiner starts teaching at the Concord School, she runs into her fiddle-playing neighbor Charles Ingalls, who's full of plans to head out west. As their friendship turns to courtship, Caroline realizes that she has a difficult decision ahead of her -- and a choice that may mean leaving behind her family and everything she's ever known. A Little House of Their Own is the seventh and final book in the Caroline Years series, and brings the story right up to where Little House began -- to Laura.