Idiotprogrammer: Texas Literary Blog

Robert’s Roundup #50 (Jan-Feb 2025)

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 . Bluesky: nagletx.bsky.social .

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.

Indie Author Spotlight

I keep forgetting to pick authors for this section. This happens because I feel uneasy about recommending authors until I’ve actually read at least one of their books. That hardly seems necessary and besides, I can’t read even a tenth of the authors I’ve mentioned on this column. But I still find authors who seem incredibly interesting.

Susan Kaye Quinn is a sci fi author who writes “hopepunk” or environmentally aware fiction. (Website and substack). I’ve been following her on social media and just listened to my first Bright Green Futures Podcast. She has several series out, and I’ve noticed that Volume 1 of most of them are priced at free on Amazon. Wow, I see the interview with Sarena Ulibarra (website) (which covered lots of ground, especially with regard to small presses). Learned about the Russian anarchist Petr Kropotkin (W) whose Conquest of Bread is apparently (and a free download on PG). I already know about several solarpunk/cli fi anthologies (although I haven’t gotten around to reading any), but I will note the Metamorphosis anthology (Milkweed edition) and Grist’s Imagine 2200 story contest –which will be announcing their winners fairly soon. Aha, I see that Quinn has already covered anthologies and small presses who do climate fiction.

I just listened to Podcast Episode 5 about Structure in Climate Storytelling which has an amazing quote from the Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh:

“When future generations look back upon the Great Derangement they will certainly blame the leaders and politicians of this time for their failure to address the climate crisis. But they may well hold artists and writers to be equally culpable—for the imagining of possibilities is not, after all, the job of politicians and bureaucrats.”

(I immediately picked up the Great Derangement on KU and finding it to be a thoughtful and profound meditation on climate change and fiction and the indirect ways climate change affects fiction (did you know that Milton had lots of ability of how weather events reflected God’s wrath and how he wrote it during a particularly awful cold spell)? Looks like Katherine Cox describes this in her Climate Change and Original Sin: The Moral Ecology of John Milton’s Poetry (which is a pricey academic book but individual chapters are allegedly available from jstor).

Under the Radar

Man in the Woods Novel by Scott Spencer (W) . Also Willing (novel) Several of his other titles have been discounted. I plan on reading a Ship Made of Paper very soon.

Selling Out a Novel by Dan Wakefield. Comic novel. Reader reviews are mixed, but this ebook seems to have more praise.

I occasionally look at the academic presses and buy books with unusual topics — especially when the price is so low. U of Chicago has several cheap titles:

  • Tuhami: Portrait of a Moroccan by Vincent Crapanzano. (W) Famous ethnographic study about a storyteller’s supernatural beliefs. VC is both an anthropologist and comp lit specialist.
  • Darkness Visible: Study of Vergil’s Aeneid. by W.R. Johnson.
  • Infinite Nature by R. Bruce Hull. Philosophical piece about how to effectively advocate on behalf of the environment.
  • Arendt and America by Richard H. King. Well received intellectual history/biography.

Devil At Large: Erica Jong on Henry Miller by Erica Jong. In-depth review of Miller’s life and works, plus some of Jong’s thoughts. Looks great. I read Henry Miller in college — mainly for the sexual lyricism — and regarded him as a second tier writer, but am willing to revisit that judgment.

Doctor Cobb’s Game Novel by R.V. Cassill.

Dirty Blonde and Half-Cuban: A Novel by Lisa Wixon.

Drastic: Stories by Maud Casey.

Madame (Salacious Players’ Club) by Sara Cate. Lesbian BDSM smut? Last in a series? Hey, it was free.

Shorts by Alberto Fuguet. Chilean-born U.S. author who formed a literary movement called McOndo (anti-magical realism)

Little Bird of Heaven Novel by J.C. Oates. Also, Sourland (short stories).

Arkansas Testament by Derek Walcott. Published this at approximately the same time as Homeros.

Imaginative Sex by John Norman. Wacky and raunchy sexual scenarios dreamt up by a noted fantasy/sci fi author.

Tales from the Town of Widows & Chronicles from the Land of Men by James Canon. Political allegory.

Selected Novels Vol 2: Lost Mother & A Dangerous Woman by Mary McGarry Morris.

Unknown Bridesmaid by Margaret Forster (W). Psychological novel about a child psychologist dealing with childhood memories about going to a wedding.

Science Fiction: 101: Exploring the Craft of Science Fiction by Robert Silverberg. A combination anthology + writing guide. I’m a big fan of anything Silverberg writes and curious about his fiction. Update: I just love this book!

2 Comic novels by Larry Doyle: I Love you Beth Cooper and Go, Mutants!

Alibi Breakfast Novel by Larry Duberstein.

Get Down: Stories by Asali Solomon

Infidelities: Stories of War and Lust by Josip Novakovich (W). Croatian now living in Canada. I read some of his stuff in the early 1990s and have been a fan. I see that Dzanc Books is publishing his ebooks now, so most of his titles hover in the 9 dollar range.

In the Night Cafe Novel by Joyce Johnson.

Miss Spellbinder’s Point of View: Biography of the Imagination by Edward Swift. Also the novel Daughter of the Doctor and the Saint.

Falling Water: Poems by John Koethe.

Bird Eating Bird Poems by Kristin Naca.

June-tree: New and Selected Poems, 1974-2000 By Peter Balakian (W). “built from intimate concern with the way that history and the past and present interconnect…” mixing meditations about historical events (the Armenian genocide) w/ lyrical approaches to middle class life.

Kapitoil Novel by Teddy Wayne.

Five Minutes in Heaven by Lisa Alther.

Zix Zexy Ztories by Curt Leviant.

Ship Sooner by Mary Sullivan

Last Waltz in Zurich and other short stories by Amir Tomer.

Whatever You want: We Write, You Decide by Rachel Timms and Laurence Hayes. A spicey adult-themed maze story. (Just started reading, it’s very funny!)

Between US: Erotic Short Stories by Ella B. Himmel .

Where Three Roads Meet: Novellas by John Barth. Former teacher of mine.

Casanova in Bohemia Novel by Andrei Codrescu

Let me Count the Ways Novel by Peter De Vries.

Greatest Hits (Stories) by Harlan Ellison.

Gospel of Anarchy Novel by Justin Taylor. (Website and bio page). Wow, on his books page, I notice that Taylor edited the clever Apocalypse Reader (which I’d thumbed through) and a tribute to Donald Barthelme.

JIMI HENDRIX LIVE IN LVIV ($1.99) by Andrey Kurkov. It can be difficult — no impossible –for me to resist any novel about one of my favorite cities — Lviv, Ukraine. In this one, a Ukrainian author answers the question about whether the Jimi Hendrix’s right hand was really buried in Lviv? Marcel Theroux calls it a “charming but slight addition to the author’s oeuvre.” (I still have Death and the Penguin on my bookshelf — which I still need to read. Lemme see, where is it? 2o Minutes later, I am sad to report that I cannot find it — it’s probably in storage. )

Cardinal Numbers Stories by Hob Broun.

Woman who Cut off her leg at the Maidstone Club and other stories by Julia Slavin.

Book Reviews

hello

Library Purchases/Printed Books

hello

Creative Commons/Public Domain/Freebies

hello

Literary Articles and Essays

A business executive on the gender bias of business productivity books.

From C. Wright Mills:

It is not characteristic of American executives to read books, except books on ‘management’ and mysteries; “The majority of top executives almost never read drama, great fiction, the philosophers, the poets. Those who do venture into this area. . . are definitely sports of the executive type, looked upon by their colleagues with mingled awe and incredulity.” Executive circles do not overlap very much with those of artistic or literary interest. Among them are those who resent reading a report or a letter longer than one page, such avoidance of words being rather general. They seem somehow suspicious of long-winded speeches, except when they are the speakers, and they do not, of course, have the time. They are very much of the age of the briefing, of the digest, of the two-paragraph memo. Such reading as they do, they often delegate to others, who clip and summarize for them. They are talkers and listeners rather than readers or writers. They pick up much of what they know at the conference table and from friends in other fields.

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).

Posted

in

by

Robert Nagle

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.