The Great Boer War by Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle made his reputation as a novelist, but far stranger than fiction is the creator of Sherlock Holmes' tale of the Boer War in South Africa. The then 40-year-old novelist wanted to see the war first hand as a soldier, but the Victorian army balked at having a popular author wielding a pen in its ranks. The army did accept him as a doctor and Doyle was knighted in 1902 for his work with a field hospital in Bloemfontein.

Doyle's vivid account of the battles is in part thanks to the eye-witness accounts he got from his patients. Doyle has thoroughly mastered the details of the campaign, and presents them in a form that can be easily understood. Furthermore, his descriptions of the various engagements are masterpieces of graphic writing.

"This sketch of the war is a masterly performance. It is hardly possible to over-praise it. . . . The experience, the artistic sense, and the creative powers of a great writer are seen in the achievement." - DAILY NEWS.

You can view more about this title at the CruGuru website. It is available from Amazon.com. ISBN: 978-1-920265-16-8

Commando by Deneys Reitz

A Boer Journal of the Boer War

Deneys Reitz was 17 when the Anglo-Boer War broke out in 1899. Reitz describes that he had no hatred of the British people, but "as a South African, one had to fight for one's country." Reitz had learned to ride, shoot and swim almost as soon as he could walk, and the skills and endurance he had acquired during those years were to be made full use of during the war. He fought with different Boer Commandos, where each Commando consisted mainly of farmers on horseback, using their own horses and guns. Commando describes the tumult through the eyes of a warrior in the saddle. Reitz was fortunate to be present at nearly every one of the major battles of the war. Commando is a straightforward narrative that describes an extraordinary adventure and brings us a vivid, unforgettable picture of mobile guerrilla warfare, especially later in the war as General Smuts and men like Reitz fought on, braving heat, cold, rain, lack of food, clothing and boots, and tiring horses.

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You can view more about this title at the CruGuru website. It is available from Amazon.com and Amazon.com and from Lulu.com. ISBN: 978-1-920265-15-1; 978-1-920265-68-7

At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burrough's classic science fiction novel. Adventurer David Innes and inventor Abner Perry drill to the core of the Earth with the machine built by Perry, called the "Iron Mole". They discover a weird and wonderful primitive world called Pellucidar with strange people and living beings. Here is no sense of time, and danger is on the lurk around every cranny and nook of this world. Innes falls in love with "Dian the Beautiful" and spends many adventures to find her after being separated from her. He also has to contend with "Jubal the Ugly One", a hideous giant of a savage man who wants Dian for himself. Will Innes and Perry be able to survive this terrifying and treacherous world?

You can view more about this title at the CruGuru website. It is available from Amazon.com and from Lulu.com. ISBN: 978-1-920265-01-4

Space Prison by Tom Godwin

AFTER TWO CENTURIES.... "The sound came swiftly nearer, rising in pitch and swelling in volume. Then it broke through the clouds, tall and black and beautifully deadly--the Gern battle cruiser, come to seek them out and destroy them. Humbolt dropped inside the stockade, exulting. For two hundred years his people had been waiting for the chance to fight the mighty Gern Empire ... with bows and arrows against blasters and bombs!"

"Space Prison" is an epic tale of survival. After war between Humans and Gerns erupted, a human interstellar ship with eight thousand colonists is captured. Half of the group is left to die on a hellish planet called Ragnarok -- a planet of high gravity, impossible temperature extremes, murderous wildlife, and no usable resources. "Space Prison" covers the two-century history of this stranded colony, and describes its survival and how it eventually adapts and thrives.

You can view more about this title at the CruGuru website. It is available from Amazon.com and from Lulu.com. ISBN: 978-1-920265-05-2

Murder at Bridge by Anne Austin

"Suddenly Dundee stooped and stared with eyes that were widened with excitement and a certain amount of horror. Then he rose, and, standing far to one side, picked up the fat volume which lay on the shelf. As he had expected, a bullet whizzed noiselessly across the room and buried itself in the plaster of the wall opposite--a bullet which would have ploughed through his own heart if he had obeyed his first impulse and gone directly to the shelf to obey the instructions in the note."

A whodunit from the 1930's. Special Investigator Bonnie Dundee has to investigate a case of murder on actress Nita Selim during a game of bridge. Not only does he have to work through a number of suspects, but he also needs to find the murder weapon, a gun equipped with a silencer. The lovely Penny Crain, who also works for the District Attorney, complicates matters even more. When all roads seem to lead nowhere, Bonnie Dundee also has to deal with an attempt on his own life...

You can view more about this title at the CruGuru website. It is available from Amazon.com and from Lulu.com. ISBN: 978-1-920265-14-4; 978-1-920265-00-7

With the Boer Forces by Howard C. Hillegas

This book portrays Howard C. Hillegas' account of the Anglo-Boer War (1899 - 1902). He was sent to South Africa as a correspondent by The New York World and wrote this book on his return to New York after spending time with the Boer forces in the field.

From the preface: "In the following pages I have endeavoured to present an accurate picture of the Boers in war-time. My duties as a newspaper correspondent carried me to the Boer side, and herein I depict all that I saw. Some parts of my narrative may not be pleasing to the British reader; others may offend the sensibilities of the Boer sympathisers. I have written truthfully, but with a kindly spirit and with the intention of presenting an unbiased account of the struggle as it was unfolded to the view from the Boer side."

You can view more about this title at the CruGuru website. It is available from Amazon.com and from Lulu.com. ISBN: 978-1-920265-12-0