The Kindle Books and Resources List
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Impenitent
- Throw me a rope.
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- Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2005 12:13 am
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That is a wonderful story, Prim!
*Thumbs up for Amazon - which is not something I ever expected to type!*
I've just read another Georgette Heyer, and gosh, I enjoyed it! I remember reading some of her books when I was in my mid-teens, but I did it surreptitiously because they were romance, you know...somehow a little shameful.
But her writing is delicious! She has a wonderful sense of the absurd that comes through, and her characters are wonderful - quirky, with their frailties as well as their strengths, never the cardboard cutout, "perfect" heroes that litter so much romantic fiction.
I think I've already posted about Frederica; since then I've read The Grand Sophy (both of which made me laugh out loud at times), and then I read "The Black Moth" - which she wrote aged 15 to entertain her brother while he was ill (which gives me pause: I doubt I know any teenagers - especially boys - who would take to the romantic subject matter, but anyway...).
The Black Moth really laid the template for historical romantic fiction and it's terrific, even more so considering the author was so young. She maintains the pace, an enticing plotline, and her handling of historical elements (dress, language, manners and mores) is quite astounding.
More recently I read These Old Shades. In this, she reinvents the villain of her first book, Justin Alistair, Duke of Avon, who restores his family's fortune through gambling. He is absolutely wicked (not evil), sinister, called Satan for his moral elasticity and an eerie prescience of others moods and intentions. He's a wonderfully dissolute character, who entangles himself in intrigues in Louis Xv's court and comes up victorious, of course.
Today, I finished ready Devil's Cub, again about the Alistairs, this time focusing on the Duke's son, the Marquis of Vidal, who accidentally elopes with the wrong sister. Again, Heyer's language and writing is masterful and witty and satisfying, and her characters just sparkle! I read along at a rush, enjoying the frothiness of every page.
I know many here don't read romance (even Austen), so I don't expect a gush of enthusiasm, but I wanted to share my enjoyment of this rediscovery of Heyer's books. And there are so many of them! She wrote 50 novels, not all historical stories, for she wrote some crime mysteries set in the 30's also, but I admit it's the historical romances I enjoy. Escapism, you know.
Speaking of Austen, I recently re-read a collection of her works and was struck anew by her incredible insight into the variety of the human psyche. Considering her life experience was quite narrow, her ability to dissect the lives and motivations of people outside her experience is awe-inspiring.
Lady Susan, which is not so much a novel but a loose collection of fictional letters between the characters, is quite chilling in its depiction of a sociopath, I think (the Lady Susan of the title). Austen could not have first-hand experience of this kind of phenomenon, I think, yet she skewered it. So impressive.
*Thumbs up for Amazon - which is not something I ever expected to type!*
I've just read another Georgette Heyer, and gosh, I enjoyed it! I remember reading some of her books when I was in my mid-teens, but I did it surreptitiously because they were romance, you know...somehow a little shameful.
But her writing is delicious! She has a wonderful sense of the absurd that comes through, and her characters are wonderful - quirky, with their frailties as well as their strengths, never the cardboard cutout, "perfect" heroes that litter so much romantic fiction.
I think I've already posted about Frederica; since then I've read The Grand Sophy (both of which made me laugh out loud at times), and then I read "The Black Moth" - which she wrote aged 15 to entertain her brother while he was ill (which gives me pause: I doubt I know any teenagers - especially boys - who would take to the romantic subject matter, but anyway...).
The Black Moth really laid the template for historical romantic fiction and it's terrific, even more so considering the author was so young. She maintains the pace, an enticing plotline, and her handling of historical elements (dress, language, manners and mores) is quite astounding.
More recently I read These Old Shades. In this, she reinvents the villain of her first book, Justin Alistair, Duke of Avon, who restores his family's fortune through gambling. He is absolutely wicked (not evil), sinister, called Satan for his moral elasticity and an eerie prescience of others moods and intentions. He's a wonderfully dissolute character, who entangles himself in intrigues in Louis Xv's court and comes up victorious, of course.
Today, I finished ready Devil's Cub, again about the Alistairs, this time focusing on the Duke's son, the Marquis of Vidal, who accidentally elopes with the wrong sister. Again, Heyer's language and writing is masterful and witty and satisfying, and her characters just sparkle! I read along at a rush, enjoying the frothiness of every page.
I know many here don't read romance (even Austen), so I don't expect a gush of enthusiasm, but I wanted to share my enjoyment of this rediscovery of Heyer's books. And there are so many of them! She wrote 50 novels, not all historical stories, for she wrote some crime mysteries set in the 30's also, but I admit it's the historical romances I enjoy. Escapism, you know.
Speaking of Austen, I recently re-read a collection of her works and was struck anew by her incredible insight into the variety of the human psyche. Considering her life experience was quite narrow, her ability to dissect the lives and motivations of people outside her experience is awe-inspiring.
Lady Susan, which is not so much a novel but a loose collection of fictional letters between the characters, is quite chilling in its depiction of a sociopath, I think (the Lady Susan of the title). Austen could not have first-hand experience of this kind of phenomenon, I think, yet she skewered it. So impressive.
Mornings wouldn't suck so badly if they came later in the day.
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Primula Baggins
- Living in hope
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I really enjoy much of Heyer, and that's all the romance I read, unless Austen counts. (I don't think she's emotional or descriptive enough to meet the usual standard in the modern genre, but the success of film and TV adaptations of her books shows that structurally she gives romance fans what they want.)
And, I've been reading The Grand Sophy interruptedly on my Kindle, and I think it's my favorite Heyer ever (marred only by a character who's a very distasteful stereotype but appears only briefly; those were different times). This book doesn't have the things that sometimes itch when I read Heyer—the heavy use of Regency slang is probably what bugs me the most in other books—and I like all the characters. Furthermore, the obvious romantic pairing is realistically unlikely for most of the book, held back not by contrived complications but by real obstacles.
And it is funny—not just the dialog, but many of the situations. And the main character is a lot of fun. I'm glad I grabbed it when I read about it here (wasn't that you, Impy?).
And, I've been reading The Grand Sophy interruptedly on my Kindle, and I think it's my favorite Heyer ever (marred only by a character who's a very distasteful stereotype but appears only briefly; those were different times). This book doesn't have the things that sometimes itch when I read Heyer—the heavy use of Regency slang is probably what bugs me the most in other books—and I like all the characters. Furthermore, the obvious romantic pairing is realistically unlikely for most of the book, held back not by contrived complications but by real obstacles.
And it is funny—not just the dialog, but many of the situations. And the main character is a lot of fun. I'm glad I grabbed it when I read about it here (wasn't that you, Impy?).
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
So I went to Amazon to look at Heyer and somehow ended up looking up Sholay, the Bollywood classic I loved in its Russian incarnation. And now I'm trying to remember how they translated the title in Russian.
I'm so going to watch it Sunday, when me boys go to the baseball game!
Sorry, nothing to do with Kindle, I'm just so excited!
I'm so going to watch it Sunday, when me boys go to the baseball game!
Sorry, nothing to do with Kindle, I'm just so excited!
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
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Impenitent
- Throw me a rope.
- Posts: 7260
- Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2005 12:13 am
- Location: Deep in Oz
Lali, there's no bodice-ripping whatsoever with Heyer! Her writing is very chaste indeed. The beauty of her writing is in the character depiction and the wit and delicious sense of humour with which it is laced.
Prim, yes, I recommended Grand Sophy; did you also download Frederica? That one made me laugh out loud!
Prim, yes, I recommended Grand Sophy; did you also download Frederica? That one made me laugh out loud!
Mornings wouldn't suck so badly if they came later in the day.
Good to know, Impy! I don't mind sex in a book if it (a) is pertinent to the plot or at least a natural part of the story, and (b) is not written out in every salacious detail. It's not that I want to be prudish; it's that I don't need the extra titillation.
(Hee-hee. The word "titillation" always makes me giggle like a 13-year old.)
Ahem. Anyway, Alison Weir's last attempt at fiction (The Captive Queen) was disappointing in this sense. Apparently she couldn't find enough to fill a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine (one of my favorite historical characters), so she just put in a lot of sex. A lot of it! It was boring by the end.
(Hee-hee. The word "titillation" always makes me giggle like a 13-year old.
)Ahem. Anyway, Alison Weir's last attempt at fiction (The Captive Queen) was disappointing in this sense. Apparently she couldn't find enough to fill a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine (one of my favorite historical characters), so she just put in a lot of sex. A lot of it! It was boring by the end.
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Primula Baggins
- Living in hope
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Heyer's very proper—maybe as racy as Jane Austen in terms of anything "shown" on the page. And really, Austen too acknowledged that there were such things as premarital sex, illegitimacy, and even adulterous affairs. Offstage, entirely, but they happened even in her books.
Impy, I already have Frederica in paperback, but must go back and re-read it.
I'm finding something with the Kindle that I didn't expect. It's given me back the chance to get completely absorbed in reading. I thought I'd lost it. But with a Kindle I never mislay the book I'm reading, the bookmark can't fall out, and it's easy to hold one-handed or read while or doing something else with both hands (you only have to touch a button to turn pages, and they don't flip shut). I could even read without reading glasses by bumping the type size up, if I wanted.
And, something else I didn't expect would make a difference: you never have to turn it off. In fact, you can't. So it's like a real book in that when you stop reading for a while, you simply set it aside. (A "screen saver" image comes on after a few minutes, though really it's just to cover what you're reading; this screen doesn't need "saving," because images can't "burn in.")
You do have to be careful it won't be sat on, but that's not difficult if you're not, um, a flibbertigibbet. And the charge does last for weeks, apparently, if you turn off WiFi when you're not using it.
So I like it a lot. In fact, I just bought LotR for it (searches!) and am considering getting the Sil.
(All of what I've said probably applies to any black-and-white ebook reader with the e-ink technology. It's not necessarily specific praise of the Kindle.)
Impy, I already have Frederica in paperback, but must go back and re-read it.
I'm finding something with the Kindle that I didn't expect. It's given me back the chance to get completely absorbed in reading. I thought I'd lost it. But with a Kindle I never mislay the book I'm reading, the bookmark can't fall out, and it's easy to hold one-handed or read while or doing something else with both hands (you only have to touch a button to turn pages, and they don't flip shut). I could even read without reading glasses by bumping the type size up, if I wanted.
And, something else I didn't expect would make a difference: you never have to turn it off. In fact, you can't. So it's like a real book in that when you stop reading for a while, you simply set it aside. (A "screen saver" image comes on after a few minutes, though really it's just to cover what you're reading; this screen doesn't need "saving," because images can't "burn in.")
You do have to be careful it won't be sat on, but that's not difficult if you're not, um, a flibbertigibbet. And the charge does last for weeks, apparently, if you turn off WiFi when you're not using it.
So I like it a lot. In fact, I just bought LotR for it (searches!) and am considering getting the Sil.
(All of what I've said probably applies to any black-and-white ebook reader with the e-ink technology. It's not necessarily specific praise of the Kindle.)
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
IAWP
And I said already, the physical experience of reading is much enhanced by not having to lug a hefty volume around or trying to hold it flat.
The one thing that it doesn't simulate very well is the ability to open a book at a random page or leaf quickly through. It's possible with Go To and search, but not as intuitive. Although it's a good thing in my case as it stops me from opening a book a third way in, and reading on without ever going to the beginning. Otoh, some books are improved by this approach.
And I said already, the physical experience of reading is much enhanced by not having to lug a hefty volume around or trying to hold it flat.
The one thing that it doesn't simulate very well is the ability to open a book at a random page or leaf quickly through. It's possible with Go To and search, but not as intuitive. Although it's a good thing in my case as it stops me from opening a book a third way in, and reading on without ever going to the beginning. Otoh, some books are improved by this approach.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
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Impenitent
- Throw me a rope.
- Posts: 7260
- Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2005 12:13 am
- Location: Deep in Oz
Resurrection of Liberty by Michael Wentz, now free on Amazon (and, I think, on nook)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003Y74EH6/?tag=afbm-20
I haven't read it yet, but I've downloaded it.
Sci-fi, and winner of the 2006 USA Book News Best Books Award - Fantasy & Science Fiction as well as being nominated for the 2006 Prometheus Award, so it sounds promising -- although I suspect its target market is young adult. Still, I've enjoyed a lot of young adult fiction...
The product description: Daniel Foster discovers a family secret that is so shocking, it will affect the future of the entire galaxy. While on an innocent road trip with his two best friends, his grandfather’s old car, almost having a mind of its own, whisks the trio out of the confines of their home planet to a cloaked starship that has remained hidden behind the moon for over fifty years. In trying to return home the three friends plunge deeper into space ultimately meeting the race that had sent his grandfather to Earth on a critical mission a generation before. Yet, to their dismay, they learn that by awakening the old ship they have hastened the peril of their own home. Now, far away from his family, Daniel must accept his destiny and dig deep inside himself to muster the confidence needed to rally his new alien friends to help save Earth—and ultimately the galaxy.
Edited for a typo I simply could not live with...
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003Y74EH6/?tag=afbm-20
I haven't read it yet, but I've downloaded it.
Sci-fi, and winner of the 2006 USA Book News Best Books Award - Fantasy & Science Fiction as well as being nominated for the 2006 Prometheus Award, so it sounds promising -- although I suspect its target market is young adult. Still, I've enjoyed a lot of young adult fiction...
The product description: Daniel Foster discovers a family secret that is so shocking, it will affect the future of the entire galaxy. While on an innocent road trip with his two best friends, his grandfather’s old car, almost having a mind of its own, whisks the trio out of the confines of their home planet to a cloaked starship that has remained hidden behind the moon for over fifty years. In trying to return home the three friends plunge deeper into space ultimately meeting the race that had sent his grandfather to Earth on a critical mission a generation before. Yet, to their dismay, they learn that by awakening the old ship they have hastened the peril of their own home. Now, far away from his family, Daniel must accept his destiny and dig deep inside himself to muster the confidence needed to rally his new alien friends to help save Earth—and ultimately the galaxy.
Edited for a typo I simply could not live with...
Last edited by Impenitent on Fri Aug 19, 2011 3:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
Mornings wouldn't suck so badly if they came later in the day.
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Primula Baggins
- Living in hope
- Posts: 40005
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 1:43 am
- Location: Sailing the luminiferous aether
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Downloaded. Whyever not?
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Primula Baggins
- Living in hope
- Posts: 40005
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 1:43 am
- Location: Sailing the luminiferous aether
- Contact:
That's also how they get you.
Seriously, you build an interesting and almost free Kindle library, and suddenly you're thinking, "If only I could carry it around with me! In some kind of book-sized device. . . ." And it's all over.
Seriously, you build an interesting and almost free Kindle library, and suddenly you're thinking, "If only I could carry it around with me! In some kind of book-sized device. . . ." And it's all over.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
True, very true...Nah, they won't catch me that way. I've already got a handy dandy smart phone with several audio books loaded onto it from our audible account. I can literally walk around outside with it in my pocket reading out loud to me while I do things outside. (As long as it isn't a noisy activity.) And inside, I just plug it into my stereo system and listen to it while doing household chores. If I'm moving from room to room a lot though, it just goes back in the pocket. I can hear it just fine from the speaker phone speaker.
And best of all, when it breaks someday, I'll be able to get a replacement because we always pay for insurance on our cell phones. Or whatever it's called. If it's broken, they'll fix it or replace it- no cost. I'll never have to *buy* an mp3 player again.
I tried listening to it at work, but am a bit self conscious and only do that when other people aren't in the building.
But anyway, the kindle for PC is just right for stealth reading at work.
And best of all, when it breaks someday, I'll be able to get a replacement because we always pay for insurance on our cell phones. Or whatever it's called. If it's broken, they'll fix it or replace it- no cost. I'll never have to *buy* an mp3 player again.
I tried listening to it at work, but am a bit self conscious and only do that when other people aren't in the building.
But anyway, the kindle for PC is just right for stealth reading at work.
Google books is pretty good, too. 
But for portable reading, the smartphone doesn't really cut it. The eye strain is just too much, for me.
But for portable reading, the smartphone doesn't really cut it. The eye strain is just too much, for me.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
