View Previous Roundup and Next Roundup (View All)
MAILING LIST: I just started a mailing list for my publishing company. Will mail out every 2 months and will include excerpts from my Robert’s Roundup columns and other random stuff. MASTADON: https://booktoot.club/@nagletx
Abbreviations: KU means Kindle Unlimited, and APUB means it was published under an Amazon imprint.NYP means “Name Your Price” (that’s an option on Smashwords and other booksellers). If you’d like to submit an ebook to me for review or mention in this column, see my instructions here.
I’ve been not buying much recently but have been discovering a lot of titles via review services. I’ll be posting about them soon.
How could I be more dense? I wrote a reader’s guide to the Novels of Texas author Clay Reynolds and forgot to link to it in my Roundup last year.
Indie Author Spotlight
the
Under the Radar
Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women by Rosalie Gilbert. (Author website). Here’s a 25 minute interview and a blog. The blog is very entertaining too. I’ve thumbed through the book’s sample and was pleasantly surprised to learn about historical facts and details of private life during that time period. My god, the book’s title will sell the book to most people, but it also happens to be a fascinating book. Also with nice illustrations.
The Hook: A Novel by Jake Seliger. Blog about a high school teacher caught in a sex scandal he didn’t actually do.
Blink and It’s Gone
T.C. Boyle Stories II: The Collected Stories of T. Coraghessan Boyle, Volume II
The Bow and the Lyre: The Poem, The Poetic Revelation, Poetry and History (Texas Pan American Series) by Octavio Paz, Ruth L. C. Simms
How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We’re Going by Vaclav Smil. Nice analysis of the world’s leading problems (climate change, etc) which is aimed at the general reader.
Confronting Climate Gridlock: How Diplomacy, Technology, and Policy Can Unlock a Clean Energy Future by Daniel Cohan. Cohan is a Rice U professor who frequently writes for the Houston Chronicle.
Asa Nisi Masa by Jaret Co. Sci fi novel about how “smart contact lenses” allow people where you can switch identities just by blinking. Philipino author who dabbles in lots of things.
Last Karankawas by Kimberly Garza. Novel taking place in Galveston during Hurricane Ike. Written by an author who teaches at UT San Antonio.
Library Purchases/Printed books
the
Creative Commons/Freebies
the
Literary Articles and Essays
the
Rant
the
Capsule Book Reviews
the
Multimedia/Podcasts, Etc
Personville Press Deals
I run Personville Press, a small literary book press where all the ebooks cost less than $4. Prices normally appear highest on Amazon, Apple, Kobo and BN, somewhat lower on Google Play Books and lower on the two DRM-free stores which are Smashwords and Payhip. Personville Press is committed to selling DRM-free ebooks and audio files directly from the Personville Press payhip store or from Smashwords. The prices listed here are the non-discounted price on Amazon. Check the links to see if they are discounted at the moment (it happens often).
- Existential Smut 1: Youthful Indiscretions by Hapax Legomenon. These artsy erotica stories are published on one of Personville Press’s imprints (Ripe Mango Take Two Press). You can buy it on Payhip | Eden Books | Kobo |Google
- My Heart For Hostage by Robert S. Hillyer. This tender love story between a young American lieutenant and a French girl in Paris after the first World War was published by poet (and Pulitzer Prize winner) Robert Hillyer in 1942. Out of print for several decades, this novel will be re-released for the first time as a low-cost ebook. A New York Times critic called it a “superbly written book, written perhaps as only a poet with and expert in the discipline of verse could write it.” Includes a critical essay by Robert Nagle. Free download from the publisher’s site, but also available at a nominal price from ebook stores: Payhip | Smashwords | Google Play | BN | Apple | Kobo | Amazon | Amazon UK. You can also read the whole thing online!
- Second Death of E.A. Poe and other Stories by Jack Matthews. $2.99. Did Edgar Allen Poe fake his death? That’s what a Baltimore doctor needs to figure out in the title tale for this 11th story collection. Payhip| Smashwords | Google Play |BN | Apple | Kobo | Amazon US | Amazon UK |
- Minor Sketches and Reveries by Alberto Balengo. ($2) Introspective tales involving animals, allegories and the melodrama of everyday life. Payhip | Amazon | Smashwords |Google | BN | Apple | Kobo.
- Interview with the Sphinx. By Jack Matthews. ($1.50). Hyperintellectual Tom Stoppard-like play which reads like a novel about a strange interview with the ancient Sphinx character. Freud and Florence Nightingale show up too. I loved this play and even produced an audio version of it which you can buy for $2 on payhip (mp3/m4a) but the script reads well too. The audio book is available from most audiobook streaming services like |Audible $6 | Apple $3 | Google Play $3 |
- A Worker’s Writebook by Jack Matthews . $2.25 Matthews distributed a photocopied version of this writing guide to his Ohio U. creative writing students over the decades.
- Soldier Boys: Tales of the Civil War by Jack Matthews. $1.50 Philosophical Stories Taking place during the US Civil War.
- Abruptions: 3 Minute Stories to Awaken the Mind by Jack Matthews. Flash Fiction. $2.25
- Hanger Stout, Awake (50th Anniversary Edition). by Jack Matthews. Coming of age novel. $3.00
- Three Times Time Story Sampler by Jack Matthews (Always Free!) US Amazon customers can sometimes get it for free, but to make things easier, you can down these files directly without having to register: Epub, Mobi.
Leave a Reply