Happy New Year!In this thread, we point out free and bargain general fiction and literature titles to each other. Please don't post any self-published books (unless you have read them yourself, you think they are excellent, and you're not connected to the author in any way), and please do a search before posting to avoid duplicates.
Be aware that many freebies are only free for a day (sometimes not even a full day), so grab them fast!
In case no retailer is specifically mentioned in a post, it is safe to assume the post refers to Amazon.com (i.e., Amazon US).
FYI, here are links to previous years' threads:
Bargain if you can get it in the next few hours @ $1 USD or currency-converted local equivalent directly @ publisher Verso Books as part of their 90% off eBooks sale which lasts until midnight GMT on January 1st (DRM-free watermarked ePub/Mobi/PDF bundle; payment appears to be done directly via credit card, apparently automatically converted to your local currency if it's one of the popular ones).
The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise by French Oulipo luminary Georges Perec (
Wikipedia) translated by David Belloc. This was originally published in a magazine in the 1960s and later influenced his classic experimental literary novel
Life: A User's Manual (
Wikipedia).
This blogsite review indicates that the new e-book version may take advantage of several e-reader features to showcase some non-linear storytelling, and there's an
accompanying website where you can play with interactive flowcharts.
This is one of Perec's few books available as e-books and has been on my wishlist for a while, so is an auto-buy for me.
Darkly funny, never before published account of the office worker’s mindset by celebrated novelist.
A long-suffering employee in a big corporation has summoned up the courage to ask for a raise. But as he runs through the coming encounter in his mind, his neuroses come to the surface: What’s the best day to see the boss? What if he doesn’t offer you a seat when you go into his office? And should you ask that tricky question about his daughter’s illness?
You can try to navigate these difficult decisions for yourself at www.theartofaskingyourbossforaraise.com ...
The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise is a hilarious account of an employee losing his identity—and possibly his sanity—as he tries to put on the most acceptable face for the corporate world, with its rigid hierarchies and hostility to ideas and innovation. If he follows a certain course of action, so this logic goes, he will succeed—but, in accepting these conditions, are his attempts to challenge his world of work doomed from the outset?
Neurotic and pessimistic, yet endearing, comic and never less than entertaining, Perec’s Woody Allen-esque underling presents an acute and penetrating vision of the world of office work, as pertinent today as it was when it was written in 1968.
Captain Blood by
Rafael SabatiniCaptain Blood is one of the great pirate stories. First published in 1922, Rafael Sabatinis novel has never been out of print. It was the basis for the hit Warner Bros. movie Captain Blood (1935), starring Errol Flynn.
Although Blood is a fictional character, much of the historical background of the novel is based on fact. Blood is loosely based on Henry Pitman, a surgeon who tended the wounded Monmouth rebels and was sentenced to penal transportation to Barbados where he escaped and was captured by pirates. Unlike the fictional Blood, Pitman did not join them, and eventually made his way back to England where he wrote a popular account of his adventures. For Blood's life as a buccaneer, author Rafael Sabatini used several models, including Henry Morgan and the work of Alexandre Exquemelin, for historical details.
Rafael Sabatini was born in 1875 and died in 1950.
He produced thirty-one novels, eight short story collections, six non fiction books, and a play. He is best known for The Sea Hawk, Scaramouche, Captain Blood, and Bellarion the Fortunate.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MFHZ53J/https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MFHZ53J/https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MFHZ53J/Lost in the Cosmos - Walker Percy - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004TLVNHUJust got Confederates: A Novel by Thomas Keneally at Amazon.ca for $CDN 1.99
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B017JOQV02It is on sale in Canada, so it is probably on sale everywhere else in the known universe
Ze blurb: "A breathtaking work of historical fiction that captures the human face of war as few novels have done before, Confederates has been compared to Tolstoys epic War and Peace as an artful, honest, and profoundly moving depiction of the lot of the soldier. Shortlisted for Great Britains prestigious Man Booker Prize, this masterful tale of love, duty, and conflict from author of Schindlers List Thomas Keneally is an enduring and unforgettable classic of Civil War literature."
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut is on sale at Amazon.ca for $CDN 1.99
https://www.amazon.ca/Cats-Cradle-Novel-Kurt-Vonnegut-ebook/dp/B000SEH13CQuote bfisher
Just got Confederates: A Novel by Thomas Keneally at Amazon.ca for $CDN 1.99
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B017JOQV02It is on sale in Canada, so it is probably on sale everywhere else in the known universe
Ze blurb: "A breathtaking work of historical fiction that captures the human face of war as few novels have done before, Confederates has been compared to Tolstoys epic War and Peace as an artful, honest, and profoundly moving depiction of the lot of the soldier. Shortlisted for Great Britains prestigious Man Booker Prize, this masterful tale of love, duty, and conflict from author of Schindlers List Thomas Keneally is an enduring and unforgettable classic of Civil War literature."
Actually, NA only is still common.
In UK £3.99 (Sceptre rather than Open Road Media )
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Confederates-Thomas-Keneally-ebook/dp/B00AJ1ZLZ4/David Sedaris Kindle books are on sale today at Amazon.ca for $CDN 2.99
I've only experienced them as audio books - great for car trips, funny as hell.
Me Talk Pretty One Day
https://www.amazon.ca/Me-Talk-Pretty-One-Day-ebook/dp/B000SEJHRALet's Explore Diabetes with Owls
https://www.amazon.ca/Lets-Explore-Diabetes-David-Sedaris-ebook/dp/B00A6JI8J0When You Are Engulfed in Flames
https://www.amazon.ca/When-You-Are-Engulfed-Flames-ebook/dp/B0013TPV0QNaked
https://www.amazon.ca/Naked-David-Sedaris-ebook/dp/B0026IUOH8Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
https://www.amazon.ca/Dress-Your-Family-Corduroy-Denim-ebook/dp/B000FC1RG4Barrel Fever: Stories and Essays
https://www.amazon.ca/Barrel-Fever-Stories-David-Sedaris-ebook/dp/B0026IUOHIRobert Fabbri's Vespasian series is mostly available for £0.99 each in today's UK Kindle Daily Deal.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01BY4S836/It looks interesting, and has good reviews on Amazon. Has anyone read these? Are they good? Are they historically accurate?
[EDIT: Having just checked the Amazon 1* reviews, I suspect that this series isn't for me.]
Quote pdurrant
Robert Fabbri's Vespasian series is mostly available for £0.99 each in today's UK Kindle Daily Deal.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01BY4S836/It looks interesting, and has good reviews on Amazon. Has anyone read these? Are they good? Are they historically accurate?
[EDIT: Having just checked the Amazon 1* reviews, I suspect that this series isn't for me.]
The blurbs remind me of the Italian writer (Manfredo? Manfredi? Massimo? Something like that - did a series on Alexander...) so I've avoided them. I read a few of those and they read like he was pitching a script, although that may have been translation. This brings to mind the reader of Glen Cook's military fantasy books (Dread Empire, Black Company) who said the reason he liked them was that the sentences were short.
