The Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
From black cats to baseball, detectives to dance contests—all are found in this collection of short stories packed with Wodehouse's trademark hilarity and a dash of romance and heart.

Kathleen by Christopher Morley

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
In this delightfully funny novella, a group of high-spirited Oxford students collaborate on a serial story based off a stray letter found by one of them, signed "Kathleen." When they decide to track down the real Kathleen and her family—and make it a competition among themselves to do so—hilarity ensues!

Jimsy, the Christmas Kid by Leona Dalrymple

Amazon | Project Gutenberg

"Say," he said kindly, "don't you worry none about that there Christmas tree an' no holly. We'll have a thump-walloper of a day, anyhow!"

It is conceivable that Abner Sawyer's experience with thump-wallopers had been limited.

A stiffly-starched, elderly bank president agrees to host an orphan boy from the city for Christmas—and finds himself more and more bewildered at the boy's cheerfulness and liking for everyone and everything, and at the changes he effects on the household and on the banker himself.

Beasley's Christmas Party by Booth Tarkington

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
When a quiet, well-respected politician suddenly begins behaving very strangely, his political opponents believe they've found a perfect way to discredit him—but what they discover when they spy on his Christmas Eve party takes them by surprise!

My review of this book.

The Romance of a Christmas Card by Kate Douglas Wiggin

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
In this lovely holiday novella, Christmas cards illustrated by a minister's warm-hearted wife find their way into the right hands to restore the happiness of two troubled families.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Amazon | Project Gutenberg

"Bah!" said Scrooge. "Humbug!"

Perhaps the most beloved Christmas novel ever, Dickens' classic tale of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge and his visitation by the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future is a must-read for the holiday season.

Wild Card Wednesday: Two Sweet Shorts

Today, a special feature: two obscure but delightful short stories by American authors, discovered in the public-domain treasure trove of the Internet Archive. Ebooks from this site are converted from scans and are frequently filled with typos, but still readable if you make want to make the effort! However, the stories can also be read online, similarly to Google Books.



Twenty-Three and a Half Hours' Leave by Mary Roberts Rinehart
In this delightfully funny story set during World War I, a young sergeant makes a rash bet that he will have breakfast with the general, plunging himself and his outfit into a series of comic mishaps. (There is also a 99-cent edition on Amazon that looks to be well-formatted.)



The Spring Concert by Booth Tarkington
Springtime, a band concert, and a bit of matchmaking, all wrapped in Tarkington's lovely nostalgic descriptions of times gone by.

Christmas With O. Henry

O. Henry is perhaps most famous for his beloved Christmas story, "The Gift of the Magi," and deservedly so. But did you know he wrote several more Christmas stories? Here, to kick off the holiday season, is the complete list, available to read online at Project Gutenberg:

• "The Gift of the Magi" (can be downloaded as an individual ebook)


• "Christmas by Injunction"


• "A Chaparral Christmas Gift"


• "Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking"


• "Compliments of the Season"

Copper Streak Trail by Eugene Manlove Rhodes

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
In this sprightly, entertainingly-written Western, two men, a good-humored old-timer and a young Easterner, are seeking the capital to develop a copper mining claim—but must contend with enemies bent on thwarting their purpose and claiming the copper ore for themselves.

My review of this book.

The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
A sweeping, dramatic adventure novel—a fictionalized telling of the exploits of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce in their fight for Scotland's freedom in the 14th century.

Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart

Project Gutenberg
A delightful and fascinating account of a woman's experiences with homesteading in early 20th-century Wyoming, told through a series of letters to a friend and former employer in Denver.

A free edition is not currently available on Kindle.

Things Mother Used to Make by Lydia Maria Gurney

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
This cookbook, originally published around 1913, includes dozens of recipes and housekeeping tips going back a hundred years from that time—a great resource for anyone interested in old-fashioned cooking as well as history.

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
Told entirely through the lively letters of its heroine, Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, to her unknown benefactor whom she has dubbed "Daddy-Long-Legs," this entertaining and beloved story follows Judy's experiences adjusting to the world outside the orphanage where she grew up, her studies at college, and eventually her introduction to romance.

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Amazon | Project Gutenberg

Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?

Thackeray's most famous novel, a satire of early 19th-century British society, centering around the machinations of the ambitious and unscrupulous Becky Sharp, a young woman determine to make her way in society by whatever means possible.

Quality Street by J.M. Barrie

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
In this delightful stage play set in Regency England, a woman masquerades as her own (fictional) niece in order to teach a neglectful suitor a lesson—but finds her situation becoming more and more complicated as inquisitive neighbors grow insistently curious for a sight of the imaginary young lady!

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
A charming collection of Stevenson's poems for children, on subjects such as bedtime, play, imagination, and the outdoors. The "with images" version of the Project Gutenberg edition includes illustrations by Jessie Wilcox Smith.

The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
A lawyer traveling by train with important documents is forced by circumstances to sleep in the wrong berth—and wakes to find the documents gone, the man in the other berth murdered, and himself a suspect!

My review of this book.

Teddy's Button by Amy Le Feuvre

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
Little Teddy Platt treasures a button from the uniform of his soldier father who died in battle, and longs to be a soldier himself one day—but with the help of the minister Mr. Upton, he also learns to enlist under the banner of the Lord and fight the battle of spiritual warfare against his own worst enemies within.

Her Prairie Knight by B.M. Bower

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
In this charming Western romance, Eastern society girl Beatrice Lansing finds herself caught between the English nobleman suitor her mother is anxious for her to marry and an aggravatingly attractive cowboy neighbor while on a visit to her brother's Montana ranch.

My review of this book.

A Room With a View by E.M. Forster

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
While vacationing in Italy, young English girl Lucy Honeychurch is introduced to the Emersons, father and son, whom her traveling companion Miss Bartlett views as beneath them. Once back in England, their paths cross again, and Lucy finds herself torn between an eligible suitor and unsettling feelings for young George Emerson.

The Sheriff's Son by William MacLeod Raine

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
Traumatized as a child by outlaws' murder of his sheriff father, young Roy Beaudry must finally face his worst fears when summoned back to help an old friend of his father's who has tangled with the same old enemies—a task complicated by Roy's feelings for a daughter of the outlaw family.

My review of this book.

Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
Fifteen-year-old Harvey Cheyne, the spoiled, obnoxious son of a millionaire, falls overboard from an ocean liner and is picked up by a fishing schooner—and for the first time in his life, stranded far from everything he knows, is forced to work for his living and learn to get along with his companions. A classic sea adventure tale, full of humor and vivid, memorable characters.

That Affair Next Door by Anna Katharine Green

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
In this Victorian-era mystery by an author known as the "Mother of Detective Fiction," inquisitive Miss Amelia Butterworth, a forerunner of other lady detectives of literature such as Miss Marple, takes it upon herself to investigate a murder after observing strange goings-on at the house next door.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
A classic and beloved girls' novel, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm follows the memorable character of Rebecca Rowena Randall, a spirited, curious young girl sent to live with two spinster aunts, through mishaps, adventures and friendships at school and at home as she grows to young womanhood.

Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes by Ella Cheever Thayer

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
In this light, charming little Edwardian-era romance, telegraph operator Natalie Rogers strikes up a conversation with another operator over the wire, and soon develops a long-distance friendship with the young man she knows only as "C." When they are finally brought together in real life, will the friendship lead to something more...?

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
Perhaps the first tale of a dual-identity hero, The Scarlet Pimpernel tells the story of Sir Percival Blakeney, whose frivolous, dandified persona masks his secret life rescuing French aristocrats from the guillotine under the name of the Scarlet Pimpernel; and the beautiful Lady Marguerite Blakeny, who is blackmailed by an enemy into uncovering the Pimpernel's identity—unaware that it is her husband.

Love Stories by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
A collection of short stories, each a "love story" in its own way, ranging from a bittersweet World War I romance to the delightfully funny "Jane," a tale of a temperamental and not-so-ill patient in a hospital with the staff on strike. Most of the stories feature the hospital setting familiar to Rinehart from her own training as a nurse.

Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
A wonderfully humorous book of interconnected short stories set in the small Canadian town of Mariposa—tales of its social life and politics, its romances and mishaps and everyday occurrences; charmingly nostalgic and often laugh-out-loud hilarious.

My review of this book.

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
A nobleman's nephew begins to entertain unsettling suspicions of his uncle's lovely young second wife after the mysterious disappearance of a man who was on his way to see her. Who is Lady Audley, really, and what is she hiding? An entertaining Victorian suspense novel with an engrossing trail of clues to follow.

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney

Project Gutenberg
Widowed Mrs. Pepper and her five lively children struggle to make ends meet, and eventually enter upon new adventures after making friends with a wealthy old man and his  young son.

A free edition is not currently available at Amazon.

Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss

Project Gutenberg
Written in the form of the protagonist's journal, Stepping Heavenward chronicles one woman's sometimes tempestuous, sometimes joyful journey from girlhood on through marriage and motherhood, and her struggles and successes with faith and family life.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

NOTICE: Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
In one of the most famous pieces of American literature, young Huckleberry Finn and a runaway slave named Jim escape their old lives and set out to raft down the Mississippi River, encountering a plethora of strange and often humorous adventures along the way.

A Confederate Girl's Diary by Sarah Morgan Dawson

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
A fascinating and emotional diary from a young Louisiana girl whose family was divided by the Civil War, and who lived through the hardships of war and occupation.

(This early version, published in the author's lifetime and now in the public domain, is apparently not her full diaries, which have since been published in their entirety.)

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, edited by John Bartlett

Project Gutenberg I | Project Gutenberg II
A collection of familiar phrases that have become woven into familiar English usage, traced to their sources in the Bible, Shakespeare, and the works of dozens more poets and writers. There are two different editions of this book available at Project Gutenberg: one that seems to be the original edition, and then the ninth edition, published in 1905. A free version is not currently available at Amazon, though there are several inexpensive ones.

The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux

Project Gutenberg | Kindle
An ambitious young reporter and a famous police detective attempt to solve a mysterious murder attempt on a woman in what is regarded as one of the first "locked-room" mystery novels, from the author of The Phantom of the Opera.

(Also available in the original French.)

Wild Card Wednesday: Lords of the Housetops

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
For the first time, I'm breaking tradition here at Toll Free Books and sharing a book I haven't read myself. But knowing how cat-lovers abound, and seeing the names of some of the authors in this anthology, I ventured a guess it would be fun. Thirteen stories by a range of authors including Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Honoré de Balzac, Mary Wilkins Freeman and Booth Tarkington, all on the subject of cats!

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

Amazon (Translation I) | Project Gutenberg (Translation II)
Orphaned Heidi, sent to live with her reclusive grandfather in the Swiss Alps, quickly grows to love her mountain home—but then is whisked away to the city, where she finds new friends and adventures, but still longs to return to the mountains.

Note: the Project Gutenberg edition (and a second free edition on Amazon labeled 'Gift Edition') is an entirely different translation. The first Kindle edition appears to be the same or very similar to the version I read and loved as a child, and my own personal opinion, after comparing the opening page of both versions, is that it's the better one. Your choice!

The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
In this classic 18th-century satire, a comedy of mixed identities results when Captain Jack Absolute's father announces that he wants to arrange a marriage for him...with the very same girl Jack has been secretly courting under an assumed name. The most hilarious scene-stealing character is Mrs. Malaprop, whose constant misuse of words led to the coining of the term "malapropism" after her name!

Beechenbrook by Margaret Junkin Preston

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
Margaret Junkin Preston, the wife of Virginia Military Institute founder Colonel J.T.L. Preston and sister-in-law of Stonewall Jackson, was known as the "Poetess of the Confederacy" for her epic poem Beechenbrook and other war-related poems (some of which are included in this volume). Beechenbrook follows the fortunes of a Virginia soldier's wife and her family through the hardships and heartaches of the Civil War—a moving, poignant story in verse.

My review.

The Old Man in the Corner by Emmuska Orczy

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
In this collection of short mystery stories, an old man sits in the corner of a café, tying knots in a bit of string, and discusses baffling crimes with a lady journalist, offering his own suggestions about the true solutions.

Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Project Gutenberg
When timid Elizabeth Ann's aunt becomes ill, she is sent to live with cousins she has never met on their Vermont farm. Though she dreads it at first, Elizabeth Ann—now called Betsy—gradually comes to love her new home and discovers confidence and adventures she could never have dreamed of.

A free edition is not currently available on Kindle.

Harlequin and Columbine by Booth Tarkington

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
A charming short comedy of what ensues when a distracted young playwright and an egotistical actor both become infatuated with a young understudy actress in their play.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
When her family moves from their home in southern England to the bleak northern industrial town of Milton, Margaret Hale's first impressions of her new home—and of mill owner John Thornton—are not pleasant. Thornton is drawn to her despite her dislike of him, but there seems no end to the conflict between them...

The Ridin' Kid From Powder River by Henry Herbert Knibbs

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
A rollicking, pleasant Western following the adventures of young orphan Pete Annersley, who, after going on the run for a crime he did not commit, finds himself in even more complex troubles among new friends of doubtful character.

Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
A splendid novel of adventure in the Elizabethan era, following an unforgettable band of English explorers as they combat spies at home, trail an enemy to the uncharted new world of South America, and eventually face a final reckoning in the battle with the Spanish Armada.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
There, in the middle of the broad bright high-road—there, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven—stood the figure of a solitary Woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments...
A suspenseful, melodramatic Victorian page-turner, narrated in turn by a succession of different characters caught up in a sinister plot surrounding the mysterious, troubled woman in white. Once started, you won't be able to put it down!

The Little Duke by Charlotte M. Yonge

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
A lovely old-fashioned piece of children's historical fiction based on the life of Richard the Fearless, who becomes Duke of Normandy as a young boy and must face the challenges of growing up as well as political enemies.

Laddie: A True Blue Story by Gene Stratton-Porter

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
A warm, charming tale of life on a prosperous family farm, told through the eyes of the youngest child, with most of the plot revolving around her adored older brother's attempts to win the beautiful daughter of wealthy neighbors who have secrets of their own.

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
Stephen Crane's most famous novel, of a young Civil War soldier who worries that he may be a coward, and after fleeing in battle, is consumed with dread of others finding out—until he goes into battle a second time.

My review of this book.

Poor, Dear Margaret Kirby and Other Stories by Kathleen Norris

Amazon | Project Gutenberg
A lovely volume of short stories, chiefly of love and family life. A young man is given a new perspective on the stepmother he disapproves of in "The Measure of Margaret Coppered"; a careless prank gives a jolt to a romance in "Dr. Bates and Miss Sally"; a young girl who adores an actress learns a bittersweet lesson about fame in "The Rainbow's End." Some stories are humorous, many touching enough to bring tears to the eyes, all beautifully written.

My review of this book.