Adam Thirlwell: Politics: A Novel (P.S.)
One would think this book is about sex, And while it is, since the characters have so much about it, some of it is kinky, and threesomes play a big role in the narrative. mostly POLITICS is about everything else: the mechanics, the logistics, the emotional minefields, the awkward questions, the moral dilemmas, and, well, the politics of what it is to be with someone you love or someone you don't, and how an act that should be simple is anything but. Thirlwell was disgustingly young when he wrote this but he absolutely understands that to make this book work, there must be an underlying sweetness and sincerity to the entire story. Now I want to see what he's up to more recently.
Amazon | Indiebound | B & N | Borders | Powell’s
Jennifer Mascia: Never Tell Our Business to Strangers: A Memoir
Years ago I was blown away by Mascia's Modern Love piece describing her parents' secret past: her father was a mobbed-up convicted murderer, and her mother not only knew all about it, but aided and abetted her husband when life required being a fugitive, selling drugs, and living at great highs and crushing lows. Mascia's book tells a more whole story about her peripatetic life, and even with every new shocking revelation what remained consistent was how much she loved her parents, no matter how deep those lows went, and how much she misses them now that they are gone. Unconditional love never goes away, no matter if those who receive it deserve it.
Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | B & N | Powell’s
Juli Zeh: In Free Fall
Give me a novel of ideas and if the story is good and the characters are believable and entertain me, I am there. Give me a crime novel of ideas, where two physics professors, friends and rivals, opposites but startlingly similar, do emotional battle on an intellectual canvas, raise the stakes through betrayal, the possible kidnapping of a child, and embroil a romantic-leaning police detective in the complicated machinations of quantum theory, and holy hell, I think I have myself one of my favorite books of the year.
Powell’s | Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | B & N
Simon Lelic: A Thousand Cuts
It appears to be a crime with an easy solution: a disgruntled schoolteacher shoots up his place of employment and kills several students in the process. But really, Lelic's novel is about the catastrophic consequences of bullying, and how this act is hardly limited to kids turning on other kids, but burrows deeply into adult relationships as well. He evokes empathy for the killer and sympathy for Lucia, the investigating officer who has to fight for every scrap of dignity as she pieces together the far more complex truth of what really happened at the school.
Powell’s | Amazon | Borders | Indiebound | B & N
William Lindsay Gresham: Nightmare Alley
I cannot stop raving about this book to people. The circular narrative structure, the demented feel of a traveling carny troupe, and the extraordinary rise and precipitous fall of Stan Carlisle give off the persistent, raging feeling that hell is always with us, and success is basically a sucker's game. No matter what the biographical evidence on Gresham's state of mind leading up to and after the book's bestseller (and movie basis) status in 1946, I don't think we can really know what demons plagued him to produce this marvelous noir gem.
B & N | Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | Powell’s
« Your Anthony Award Nominees, With Added Commentary | Main | James Church on North Korean Politics, Past and Present »
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451af9169e201156fa51ff0970c
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Why This Site is Not Available on the Kindle:
The comments to this entry are closed.
Booksellers complaining about Amazon putting them out of business are like buggywhip manufacturers whining about Henry Ford. Provide a service or a product that the consumer values and will pay for and you will succeed -- don't and you will fail. It's easier to blame a big, bad villain for one's failures, but it accomplishes nothing. That is the road to obsolesence. Innovate, be smarter, work harder; these are the tools to succeed. Nobody wants to admit it, but the resposibility for the failure of the independent bookseller belongs to the same. Amazon is not the culprit; merely a convenient scapegoat. (I wonder if any of these booksellers lament the failure of a former big, bad villain Borders. I think not. Business is not an enterprise for those who lack vision and balls of steel.)
Posted by: George | May 20, 2009 at 07:26 PM
Bullshit. Independent booksellers complaining about Amazon putting them out of business are like LA residents complaining that the auto industry conspired to destroy their public transit system.
You can order books online from independent booksellers. They often offer great discounts and free shipping. They aren't big. They are local. And they know their customers and their product.
The choices we make matter. I don't buy from Amazon because I get just as good a deal and better service from independent booksellers who are smarter, work harder, and innovate.
I also don't shop at Wal-Mart, and I hope like hell their vision isn't our global future.
Posted by: Barbara | May 20, 2009 at 08:05 PM
Come on George, independents work plenty hard.
Those who are left have innovated plenty and pay local and provincial taxes to boot.
Amazon merely goes to court.
Barbara is right, the choices we make matter. Near monopolies aren't good for anything, sure as hell not for books.
Posted by: David Worsley | May 21, 2009 at 08:00 AM
Ridiculous. I don't HAVE an independent store I can go to. Amazon provides a service accessible to me. They struggled for a long time (remember?) and found a way to be successful. Sounds like sour grapes. Limiting yourself is not a way to grow a business.
Posted by: PK the Bookeemonster | May 21, 2009 at 08:41 AM
I wish I could buy all my books at my local independent - I'm lucky to still have one. But I also have to pay my mortgage and eat. I try to buy used books from Powell's Bookstore online instead of Amazon, but that doesn't help Sandmeyers (my local store). And I often pick up books from a really great used bookstore in Wicker Park - Myopic Books. One issue with small, independent store: you can't often find all the books in a series. I read a lot of mysteries, and if I want to start at Book #1, they usually don't have it. They have Book #11 and only in hardcover. I know I could order it, but buying a paperback mystery is often an impulse decision. And having to wait for the book is frustrating. I'm not saying it's right - but that's the way people feel.
Posted by: Holly | May 21, 2009 at 02:55 PM
As an author and bookseller I recognized the value in making my books accessible to Kindle customers right off. One has to get with the times in order to sell books. That's why selling one's own books in whatever format is viable is the only way to go. I sell print books, too, but from my own site; and this allows me to control which books are available and which are not. Amazon is so big that it can't control everything.
Posted by: Theresa | May 21, 2009 at 03:16 PM
I think you all may be missing the point that bloggers who provide their content freely on the Web have lots to lose by selling their content through Kindle and little to gain.
My first comment was prompted by the first response, which also was not about Kindle's tos for bloggers.
Posted by: Barbara | May 22, 2009 at 06:52 PM