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Post by lugg on Oct 19, 2023 20:04:10 GMT
Thanks Bixa - will check those out.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 20, 2023 16:31:11 GMT
Today in bargains there are two history books. A note on the photos: I'm no longer able to lift the book pictures from Amazon, so must find them elsewhere, a tedious & unsatisfying process, but I suppose better than nothing. This book would seem to be of interest to anyone interested in US history, but particularly that of Florida. I recommend reading the first two (four and five star respectively) reviews, which seem quite balanced, and then some of the negative reviews. Some of those seem written out of defensiveness, but others seem true critiques. htmb ? At over a thousand pages, this is a deep look into how one family's influence spread from New York to the shaping of the US throughout decades.
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Post by htmb on Oct 20, 2023 18:08:39 GMT
Thanks for tagging me, Bixa. Both books look interesting. I’ll check them out when I get a few minutes.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 3, 2023 15:22:47 GMT
Come on ~ you know you've been dying to read this!
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 4, 2023 15:05:27 GMT
As far as I know, cheerypeabrain is the only person here who regularly reads fantasy. This looks good & is available in both the US ($3.99) and the UK (£3.28) -- possibly others countries as well, but I only checked those two.
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Post by lugg on Nov 7, 2023 19:36:15 GMT
I think I mentioned on this thread that I was now a convert to audible books / digital listening I remain so, but just lately I came across my first blip which made me want to read rather than listen. An absolutely awful narrator ...whilst some irritate of course , this particular narrator made me leave the book .I guess I must have been so lucky up to this point.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 7, 2023 22:15:46 GMT
Oh, that's awful! I don't know about the other vendors, but on Amazon you can listen to an audible sample. I just scrolled up the page to #361 and the book Morganthau includes an audible sample if you click on the link.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Nov 8, 2023 21:29:27 GMT
I still read 'proper' books but with shelf space running out I tend to stick to ebooks and audiobooks. For a long time I'm ashamed to admit that I would only listen to British narators..but nowadays I've warmed to several American ones too. There are some excellent American 'voice actors' especially for science fiction. An accomplished narator can add significantly to my enjoyment of a book.
R.C.Bray is superb, I will listen to quite 'boy's own' militaristic science fiction books if he reads them, despite the gun fights etc. Recently I've listened to some rather long fantasy books (The Wandering Inn) by an author called Pirateaba..the American narator Andrea Parsneau was getting on my wick a bit with her high pitched interpretation of the main character's voice...but now..several hours in, I've come to admire her skill as all the characters have very distinct voices..she's pretty amazing. The books are probably aimed at a much younger market..but if I enjoy a book I don't really care.
There are stand out narators or course like Michael Sheen (reading Philip Pullman), Steven Brand (reading Anthony Ryan), Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Ben Aaronovitch), Jefferson Mays (James S A Corey), Steven Pacey (Joe Abercrombie) and Tim Gerard Reynlds (Michael J Sullivan). I also quite enjoy listening to autobiographies read by their authors. Mark Steel's 'Who Do I Think I Am?' was excellent and I've just downloaded Patrick Stewart's new book.
At present I'm coming to the end of David Mitchell's 'Unruly' a history of England's Kings and Queens read by the author...the chapter about King Knut had me giggling in horrified delight...lots of bad language tho...not for the delicate.
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Post by lugg on Nov 9, 2023 20:22:42 GMT
At present I'm coming to the end of David Mitchell's 'Unruly' a history of England's Kings and Queens read by the author...the chapter about King Knut had me giggling in horrified delight...lots of bad language tho...not for the delicate.
My son is reading this and told me about it ... so now with your input I am definitely going to read it / listen to it
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Post by lugg on Nov 9, 2023 20:23:55 GMT
An accomplished narator can add significantly to my enjoyment of a book. So true Cheery but a crap one brings forth the opposite
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 10, 2023 21:50:23 GMT
Two choices for today. Each is $1.99, and if you want #4 in the Neopolitan cycle, it's available for $2.99 The Ferrante book has been trotted out before, but I guess some hardy souls are still reading her work.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 19, 2023 23:08:48 GMT
I just snapped up this book. Any of you who are interested might want to get it quickly, as it is from yesterday's bargain list. The original title is L'Art de perdre. This 2017 novel by Alice Zeniter was translated from French to English by Frank Wynne and won the International Dublin Literary Award in 2022.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 20, 2023 16:08:05 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 4, 2023 15:55:58 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 21, 2023 16:15:42 GMT
Buy this book! Trust me on this: you will be reading literature, you will be entertained, you will learn a great deal, and if you don't already know this author, you need to. Anyone reading this who is still on the fence about reading on a device should get this digital book to have for when you finally take the plunge. Anyone who has already read it should take advantage of the 24-hour $1.99 price to get copies to give to others. Anyone who still has doubt can hear the author read an excerpt here. Just buy it, okay.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 26, 2023 2:34:23 GMT
Okay, rabid readers -- here is a great deal on books which I wholeheartedly recommend. A while back I got a copy of The Castilians for myself and a copy for my mother. We both thoroughly enjoyed it, not least because it illuminated much of the religious/political turmoil of the mid-16th century. It starts with the political discord among Scottish nobles over Henry VIII's insistence on marrying his son to the infant Mary, Queen of Scots. There is also fury over Cardinal Beaton, his political machinations & his having the Protestant preacher George Wishart burnt at the stake. This unrest culminates in the Siege of St Andrews Castle -- thus the name "the Castilians", for those who held the castle. The characters who move the action forward are members of a family who reappear throughout the other three books, a device which allows the reader to move through the history of the tortuous persecutions and swings of fate of believers of different faiths in that time. At any rate, I eagerly read all four of the books. It turned out that my mother also liked The Castilians, but never said so at the time she read it. When I found out, I sent her the other three books, which she read in I think as many days! I subscribe to the author's newsletter and got this nice offer in the mail this evening, which of course I'm passing on to you all ~ "All four books in The Seton Chronicles are on offer at 99c/99p until December 29th in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Click here to buy in USA
Click here to buy in UK
This means a book bundle is $3.96/£3.96. It's the first time I've ever reduced all four ..."
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 29, 2023 2:52:51 GMT
Here I am again to tell you about another historical series. This one is essentially fiction in that there is he-thinks / he-said where we can't know the real truth of that, even though it is about a real person, Thomas Cromwell. No matter. Wolf Hall is also the book that showed me what a brilliant, comet-like, once in a lifetime writer Hilary Mantel was. The three books in the series are available right now in kindle editions for $9.99 (Wolf Hall) and $2.99 (Bring Up the Bodies) and $2.99 (The Mirror and the Light). ~ or ~ You can buy one volume with all three books for $12.98. Apologies, as I know of no special deals on audio versions of these books. But since I found this video, I'll share it. Narrated by Simon Slater ~
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 1, 2024 15:47:32 GMT
Here is a book sure to be treasured by map lovers. The bargain prices are for the US ($1.99) and the UK (£1.99). Alas, neither Canada nor the European vendors have it at the reduced price. It's an all-British day here in digital reading. This collection is available in the US ($0.99), Canada ($1.15), and the UK.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 4, 2024 16:36:24 GMT
Well, doo-doo! There is a book by Yiyun Li that I've had on my Kindle books wish list for months. On December 29 I bought the book at full price, partly to take advantage of a triple points offer and partly because I felt the price was never going to come down. Wouldn't you know it, today it's on sale for $1.99. Even though I'm sulking at the lost chance to save money, I am delighted to be able to urge you all to get to know this author if you don't already. My introduction to Yiyun Li was though a paperback edition of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, a collection of short stories which astounded me with its excellence. The price is $1.99 in the US and in Canada, and on sale in the UK for £4.49.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 13, 2024 23:38:29 GMT
Here are two books that were best sellers and which remain popular. If some of you have never read them or wish to re-read them, they are on sale today.
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Post by htmb on Jan 14, 2024 1:04:15 GMT
Enjoyed them both, but especially the second.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 14, 2024 2:53:07 GMT
Thanks, Htmb! It's nice knowing that people use this thread. I was given Love in the Time of Cholera years ago & kept throwing myself at it without being able to get into it. Finally, I gave it one last try & it clicked. Back in April I bought a digital copy so I can eventually re-read it.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 16, 2024 19:39:24 GMT
Here is a lovely book which would be nice as an evening read and invaluable when stuck in a waiting room somewhere.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 19, 2024 16:00:03 GMT
Who is up for some mildly depressing humor? This looks entertaining and not too fluffy, plus the price is right: $1.99 in the US and Canada, £2.99 in the UK.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 10, 2024 16:41:21 GMT
How do you all keep track of your digital books? I'm asking because one of today's featured books turned out to be one I bought back in December of 2013 and apparently have never read. The Kindle app on a pc or laptop offers all kinds of ways to organize your books, as in Collections so you can sort by novels, history, already read, etc. You can choose how to view the books, too -- lists, thumbnails, and so on. A good case could be made for the app's methods being better than anything for physical books except for one thing: inside of me is the need to walk slowly past a shelf with my head tilted, the better to read the spines of books neatly lined up on that shelf. This impulse is so strong that I feel a sort of huffy impatience when I have to delve into my digital library for something to read. It's as though picking up a book off a shelf and flipping through it is somehow better than clicking through a couple of online pages to learn about it. This is despite the fact that I now prefer reading on my phone to reading a "real" book. At any rate, here are today's bargain price offers. The Kingsolver is the one I've had for ten years and will now probably be my next read. The other is by the always alarming Ottessa Moshfegh. Having read My Year of Rest and Relaxation and many glowing reviews of her work, I bought Homesick for Another World. Yikes! Not very far into it I became so repelled that I set it aside and have not gone back to read more. This apparently is a not uncommon reaction to her writing, so know that before you blithely commit to the book featured today.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 11, 2024 21:18:50 GMT
I keep saying I don't want any more digital cookbooks, but ....... Really, a good cookbook can be interesting & inspiring to browse through. This one also has wonderful photographs and, according to reviews, is quite accessible for non-Turkish cooks. It occurred to me that it would be nice to have the physical book as well, which is satisfying large. Then I looked at the price for it and blanched. Today's short-term bargain price for the digital version might sway you all as well. Alas, this great price of $2.99 is only available in the US.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 13, 2024 22:10:44 GMT
Today's choice is the book that introduced me to Ann Patchett. I'd come across a battered paperback of this book, read it, then pressed it on all my reader friends, who all liked it as much as I did. I now have a complicated relationship with Ms. Patchett as, along with some quite good books, she's written some that to me are stinkers. Regardless, this one is a jewel.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 26, 2024 17:22:11 GMT
Here is a trilogy that I have probably included once before in this thread, as I see that I have owned it since 2021. I'm glad to know that, because I do want to read it. Be sure to read the sample on the Amazon page, if only for the "a note on the translation", which convinced me that this edition will give us the closest possible reading experience to the original Norwegian. The other part off the (quite long) preface consists of part one, in which we're told by the translator about the book we're about to read. I always skip that kind of preface before reading, although I may return to it after finishing the book. Part two of the preface introduces us to the author & seems quite interesting, although to me at least, something that could be saved until after enjoying her book.
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Post by lugg on Feb 29, 2024 20:32:05 GMT
I think I may be pretty much alone here in my like for police / crime books but anyway I am nearly at the end of "Death On Cromer Beach" - (audio book) It had me hooked within 2 pages and I have continued to enjoy it ever since. I certainly want to read / listen to more of Ross Greenwood, a new author to me .
and bonus ... it was free from Audible ( in their Plus Catelogue - which of course is not really free )
Off to that part of the world soon, so especially interesting
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Post by lugg on Mar 15, 2024 20:14:58 GMT
So I have just finished listening to another "free" book on Audible. I had no idea it was the first in the Series of 5 when I downloaded it. I just went with the reviews which were generally positive. I really enjoyed it This is a link to all, 4 currently available. Book 5 is delayed as the author has been writing a screenplay for a potential film. www.goodreads.com/series/307079-joseph-bridgemanAnyway to my delight all of them are free in the Audible Plus catalogue - so I have just started No 2 but downloaded the next two.
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