Rudyard Kipling, a major innovator in the art of the short story, is best known for The Jungle Book and Just So Stories.
“Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” is a short story that appears in The Jungle Book about the adventures of a valiant young mongoose, and it tops today’s Buffet.
The story, notable for its frightening and serious tone, was adapted into an animated TV special by American animator Chuck Jones in 1975. The story follows a 19th-century English family and their discovery of a young mongoose half-drowned from a flood. They revive it and decide to keep it as a pet. The young mongoose, named Rikki Tikki Tavi, finds himself confronted by two dangerous king cobras, Nag and his even more dangerous wife Nagaina, who had the run of the garden while the house was unoccupied.
Kipling was born in Bombay and was taken by his family to England when he was five years old. He became one of the most popular writers in England, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1907 he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the award, and to date he remains the youngest recipient.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
Literature & Fiction > Classics
Author: Rudyard Kipling
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This is the story of a boy and his weasel, a bird and a snake, India and the British Empire. Rudyard Kipling’s dramatic tale, here excerpted from the greater volume of The Jungle Book, is the story of the loyal mongoose, Rikk-Tikki-Tavi, and the lengths to which he must go to protect his adoptive human family from two deadly cobras.
This is one of the “Walker Treasures” series – a collection of classic works of literature for children.
Long Time Coming
Mystery > Romance > Contemporary
Author: Edie Claire
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Eighteen years have passed since Joy’s childhood best friend, Jenny, met her death in a tragic car accident just a few days after their senior prom. A broken Joy left their small Kentucky hometown shortly after–determined never to come back. But when her father’s illness forces her to return, she realizes that neither time nor distance have truly healed her troubled soul.
Plagued with nightmares of the accident and crippled by a vague fear whose source she can’t identify, Joy realizes that in order to move on she must face the truth behind several disturbing gaps in her memory of that fateful spring. But the only person who can help her is a man she despises–Jenny’s erstwhile boyfriend Jeff, now a respected doctor, whose carelessness as a teenager was the cause of Jenny’s horrendous death–and Joy’s own emotional destruction. Can she ever forgive? She may have no choice but to try. Because both the danger she sensed–and the childhood friendship she treasured–now suddenly seem very much alive…
Silent Joe (Revised March 2013)
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: T. Jefferson Parker
With the horrible scars of a childhood tragedy forever burned across his face, Joe Trona is scared in more ways than one. Rescued from an orphanage by powerful California politician Will Trona, Joe grows up to be Will’s right hand man — gopher, driver, confidante, bodyguard, fixer. When Will Trona is gunned down in a dark alley in a hail of bullets, quiet, obedient Joe vows revenge.
Looking through his father’s life Joe finds his girlfriends, his deals, his friends and enemies. And Joe realizes how many secrets his father possessed and how many people he had the power to harm. But two leads come to the surface of his private investigation — a kidnapped girl being held by her own psychotic brother, and two rival street gangs who have joined forces. The truths he learns about his father’s murder are shocking. And the final truth he hears about what happened to his own face when he was just a baby in a crib changes his life forever — and once again.
The Penal Colony
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Richard Herley
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The future. The British government now runs island prison colonies to take dangerous offenders from its overcrowded mainland jails.
Among all these colonies, Sert, 25 miles off the north Cornish coast, has the worst reputation. There are no warders. Satellite technology is used to keep the convicts under watch. New arrivals are dumped by helicopter and must learn to survive as best they can. To Sert, one afternoon in July, is brought Anthony John Routledge, sentenced for a sex-murder he did not commit. Routledge knows he is here for ever. And he knows he must quickly forget the rules of civilized life. But not all the islanders are savages. Under the charismatic leadership of one man a community has evolved. A community with harsh and unyielding rules, peopled by resourceful men for whom the hopeless dream of escape may not be so hopeless after all …
Someone To Believe In (Close To You, Taking The Heat)
Romance > Contemporary
Author: Kathryn Shay
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Bailey O’Neil, aka, the Street Angel, has been the arch enemy of Senator Clay Wainwright since he was a district attorney and she a young, idealistic social worker. He put her in jail for harboring a teen offender and never looked back. Eleven years later, she’s a thorn in his side as an anti-gang specialist trying to get kids out of gangs.
While Clay wants to put them in jail, Bailey is determined to help these troubled teenagers make good lives for themselves. But when Bailey and Clay are thrown together on the mayor’s task force, the impossible happens—they’re attracted to each other. Their passion erupts early on, and only grows stronger the further they get into a relationship. When they fall deeply in love, their conflicting views drive a wedge between them. Both the Street Angel and the Senator must find a way to deal with their differences in order to make a life together.
Across A Moonlit Sea (Pirate Wolf series)
Historical Romance
Author: Marsha Canham
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A rip-roaring high seas adventure set in Elizabethan England when dashing privateers known as sea hawks banded together to guard their country and their queen against the Invincible Armada being amassed by Spain.
Simon Dante, the Pirate Wolf, meets his match in battle and in love when he crosses swords with Isabeau Spence. Together they join forces with Sir Francis Drake on a daring attack on Cadiz.
The Wild One (The De Montforte Brothers)
Historical Romance
Author: Danelle Harmon
England, 1776: Lord Gareth de Montforte is known as an irresponsible rake with a heart of gold. When he takes a bullet for boldly thwarting a stagecoach robbery, he is stunned to discover that the beautiful young woman he has heroically rescued, Juliet Paige, is his deceased brother’s American fiancée, accompanied by her infant daughter.
Despite his brother the duke’s refusal to acknowledge Juliet, Gareth is determined to do right by the courageous woman who crossed an ocean to give her baby her rightful name. But Juliet is wary of marrying this black sheep aristocrat, even while she is hopelessly charmed by the dashing devil. Never has she met anyone who embraces life so thoroughly, who makes her laugh, who loves her so well.
Season Of The Harvest (Harvest Trilogy, Book 1)
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Michael R. Hicks
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At a genetics lab where a revolutionary strain of corn is being developed, FBI Special Agent Jack Dawson’s best friend and fellow agent is brutally murdered, his body torn apart.
Jack is convinced that Naomi Perrault, a beautiful geneticist and suspected terrorist, is behind the murder. But when Jack is framed for setting off a bomb that devastates the FBI lab in Quantico, Naomi becomes Jack’s only hope of survival.
Confronted by the terrifying truth of what the genetically engineered seeds stolen by his friend are truly for and who is really behind them, Jack joins Naomi in a desperate fight across half the globe to save humanity from extermination…
Brightest Kind of Darkness, YA Paranormal Romance
Teens > Love & Romance
Author: P.T. Michelle, Patrice Michelle
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Nara Collins is an average sixteen-year-old, with one exception: every night she dreams the events of the following day. Due to an incident in her past, Nara avoids using her special gift to change fate…until she dreams a future she can’t ignore.
After Nara prevents a bombing at Blue Ridge High, her ability to see the future starts to fade, while people at school are suddenly being injured at an unusually high rate.
Grappling with her diminishing powers and the need to prevent another disaster, Nara meets Ethan Harris, a mysterious loner who seems to understand her better than anyone. Ethan and Nara forge an irresistible connection, but as their relationship heats up, so do her questions about his dark past.
Her Mad Hatter (Paranormal-Fantasy Romance)
Romance > Time Travel
Author: Marie Hall
Alice is all grown up. Running the Mad Hatter’s Cupcakery and Tea Shoppe is a delicious job, until fate–and a fairy godmother with a weakness for bad boys–throws her a curveball. Now, Alice is the newest resident of Wonderland, where the Mad Hatter fuels her fantasies and thrills her body with his dark touch.
The Mad Hatter may have a voice and a body made for sex, but he takes no lovers. Ever. But a determined fairy godmother has forced Alice into Wonderland–and his arms. Now, as desire and madness converge, the Hatter must decide if he will fight the fairy godmother’s mating–or fight for Alice.
Deadly Stillwater (McRyan Mystery Series)
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Police Procedurals
Author: Roger Stelljes
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An abduction is just the beginning in a case of betrayal and revenge that will ultimately strike at the soul of the St. Paul Police Department.The ruggedly handsome Mac McRyan, a fourth-generation cop, is faced with a complicated brazen daytime kidnapping, a media storm surrounding the case, and political scrutiny.
It is a case of betrayal and revenge that will ultimately strike at the soul of the St. Paul Police Department. From the searing streets of St. Paul to the murky waters of the St. Croix River, DEADLY STILLWATER is a book you won’t be able to put down until its last gripping minute.
Wander Dust (The Seraphina Parrish Trilogy – Book 1)
Romance > Futuristic & Science Fiction
Author: Michelle Warren
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Ever since her sixteenth birthday, strange things keep happening to Seraphina Parrish.
But when Sera moves to Chicago, and her aunt reveals their family connection to a centuries old, secret society, she is immediately thrust into an unbelievable fantasy world, leading her on a quest to unravel the mysteries that plague her. In the end, their meanings crash into an epic struggle of loyalty and betrayal, and she’ll be forced to choose between the boy who has stolen her heart and the thing she desires most.
Alone: The Girl in the Box, Book 1
Fantasy > Urban
Author: Robert J. Crane
Sienna Nealon was a 17 year-old girl who had been held prisoner in her own house by her mother for twelve years. Then one day her mother vanished, and Sienna woke up to find two strange men in her home.
On the run, unsure of who to turn to and discovering she possesses mysterious powers, Sienna finds herself pursued by a shadowy agency known as the Directorate and hunted by a vicious, bloodthirsty psychopath named Wolfe, each of which is determined to capture her for their own purposes…
Heller
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: JD Nixon
Book 1 in the Heller series. Despite having no experience or skills, Tilly Chalmers can’t believe her luck when she lands a dream job in a security and surveillance business owned by the dangerously attractive Heller.
But she soon discovers her new boss is a man of many secrets. And what is she to make of the strange group of people who live with him? After her first two assignments go disastrously wrong, and with a ruthless competitor on the scene, Tilly must decide if she has what it takes to survive the rough world of security work.
The Mystic Wolves
Romance > Paranormal
Author: Belinda Boring
Someone is trying to send a deadly message to Mason, arranging the deaths of those he loves and it puts the entire pack and Alpha on high alert. Darcy understands the primal instincts driving her beloved Mason’s commands.
With the help of those he sets as protectors, she learns about herself and the things she’ll need to help support her Alpha and pack. When events turn dire however, one truth offers her strength – once given, oaths are unbreakable … even if it means risking it all.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks and the Kindle Daily Deal here on page 2
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