Best of TOC is a collection of essential posts from the last 12 months, selected from the TOC blog and a number of external sources.One of the mantras at Tools of Change is "fail forward fast," which is an alliterative way of encouraging experimentation. That's why we felt it appropriate to use Best of TOC as a testing ground for a "Web-to-book" process. As we hoped, experimentation led to lessons we wouldn't have learned otherwise.The material in Best...

Classic Russian short stories, including A Reckless character, The Dream, Father Alexyei's Story, Old Portraits, The Song of Love Triumphant, Clara Militch, Poems in Prose and Endnotes. According to Wikipedia: "Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev 1818 - 1883) was a Russian novelist and playwright. His novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction."

Rain is responsible for a great deal more than the mere growth of vegetables—it is a controller, if a somewhat capricious controller, of man's destiny. It was mainly, if not entirely, owing to rain that the French lost the Battle of Agincourt; whilst, if I mistake not, Confucius alone knows how many victories have been snatched from the Chinese by the same factor. It was most certainly rain that drove Leon Hamar to take refuge in a second-hand bookshop; for so deep-rooted was his aversion ...

The American Tract Society is a nonprofit, nonsectarian but evangelical organization founded on May 11, 1825 in New York City for the purpose of publishing and disseminating Christian literature.

At various times during the latter half of the eighteenth century there crossed the Atlantic two Protestant Irishmen, a Lowland Scotsman, and an Englishman, and thereby they fixed the character of Mr Henry James' genius. For the essential thing about Mr James was that he was an American; and that meant, for his type and generation, that he could never feel at home until he was in exile. He came of a stock that was the product of culture and needed it as part of its environment. But at the ...

William Carleton's "The Dead Boxer" is a poignant novella that intricately weaves themes of class struggle, societal expectations, and personal redemption through the lens of rural Irish life. Set against the backdrop of the 19th-century Irish agrarian landscape, Carleton employs a narrative style that blends realism with a touch of romanticism, effectively capturing the dialect and culture of his characters. The novella explores the life of a once-celebrated boxing hero whose tragic downf...

In "Valentine M'Clutchy, The Irish Agent," William Carleton masterfully explores the socio-political landscape of 19th-century Ireland through the lens of its complex characters. The narrative unfolds in a vivid, realist style, characterized by Carleton's keen observations and rich dialect, illuminating the struggles of the Irish peasantry and the corrupting influence of land agents like Valentine M'Clutchy. This novel serves as both a keen social commentary and a detailed historical docum...

It will naturally be expected, upon a new issue of works which may be said to treat exclusively of a people who form such an important and interesting portion of the empire as the Irish peasantry do, that the author should endeavor to prepare the minds of his readers—especially those of the English and Scotch—for understanding more clearly their general character, habits of thought, and modes of feeling, as they exist and are depicted in the subsequent volume. This is a task which the auth...