I stopped linking to the Amazon Kindle monthly sales because they haven't been that good for a while, but this month's batch is pretty solid. Offerings include Ann Patchett's THE MAGICIAN'S ASSISTANT, Jhumpa Lahiri's THE NAMESAKE, and the much-loved-by-Franzen THE MAN WHO LOVED CHILDREN. Over on the nonfiction side you've got THE LOST BANK about WaMu (too soon?) and THE HOLY OR THE BROKEN, about the pop culture takeover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."
8 hours ago
4 comments:
Yes, please alert us to good deals on good books. I usually forget to check these Kindle deals. I did happen to notice them this time around, and snagged Man Who Loved Children yesterday. Franzen is absolutely nuts about it (I still remember his essay in the NYTimes 3 years ago), and DFW liked it enough to put it on the syllabus of a class he was teaching. We'll see how it goes. (Aside: As much as I love DFW, it's been a little hit-or-miss with his reco's. I've read a couple of them like Curtis White and Susan Daitch that have left me somewhat cold. Putting aside the unimpeachables (Cormac, DeLillo, Gaddis), the only DFW recommendations that I would consider true blue masterpieces are Wittgenstein's Mistress and Lewis Hyde's Gift.)
I would add that, though I haven't read it, Jess Walter's book of short stories was very well reviewed and is also one of the Kindle deals this month.
Also, Mark Helprin's A Soldier of the Great War is an entertaining epic; I took it on vacation with me one year and the 750 pages or so flew by. I preferred it to Winter's Tale.
AND Lincoln at Gettysburg, by the amazing Gary Wills, and Long Gone, by my friend's ex, Alafair Burke. This is the best batch of cheap Kindle books in a long time.
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