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Abbreviations: KU means Kindle Unlimited, LE means that lending of this Kindle title is allowed, 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’m cutting down drastically on my ebook purchases this month (and last), but I found some gems still. Also, I came to the local library sale and found some great things…
Indie Author Spotlight
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Under the Radar
Charon’s Quest: An Underworld Saga Novel (The Underworld Saga) Eva Pohler
Foreign Agent by Matthew Rapaport
Alexander’s Song by Paul F. Olson.
The Wind by Dorothy Scarborough, 1.99
House You Cannot Reach by Tom Daley.
Stay with Me, Wisconsin by JoAnneh Nagler. (Author website and online writing). 99 cents. 11 sensual and modern-day short stories about love, loss, sex, devotion and desire. Nagler is a multidisciplinary artist who has written practical ebooks about how to be an artist, how to be debt-free and how to have a happy marriage. (hey, if she can manage to do all 3 of these things, that’s impressive as it is). The practical ebooks are low-priced too.
Lives of the Egression by J.D. Crawford.
I bought two novellas by N. Ireland poet and storyteller Leilanie Stewart — The Blue Man: A haunted friendship across the decades (Belfast Ghosts) and The Buddha’s Bone: A dark psychological journey to find light. I wrote a review of her excellent poetry title Redundancy of Tautology (I wrote, “Here are some small quirky personal poems about mundane things and the natural world. Metaphysical in subject matter (and gosh, a lot of fleshy corpses!), most of the poems are casual, light-hearted and conversational.) Stewart runs an author blog about self-publishing and other topics.
Also, I went trolling for some free and low cost poetry.
- Blonde with Fingers: Poems of Love and Joy with Art Photography of Original Necklaces by Mike Smetzer
- 1989, The Number by Kevin Coval, Nate Marshall
- Humming the Blues by Cass Dalglish
- Iron Murmurs, Snow Does Sigh: The Second Chapbook by S. Seong, containing 30 poems. (Chapbooks 2) by Seth Seong
- Under the Sycamore by Dave Malone
- Simple Weight by Tania Runyan
- Storytelling in Cambodia by Willa Schneberg
Blink and It’s Gone
Poems 1962-2012 (Los Angeles Times Book Award: Poetry) by Nobel-winning Louise Glück. 650 pages for 2.99
Library Purchases/Printed books
I found some great stuff at library book sales recently:
Bitter Fruit Achmat Dangor 2007
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains Nicholas Carr 2020
Odysseus Abroad: A novel Amit Chaudhuri 2015
Oh William!: A Novel Elizabeth Strout 2021
Fludd Hilary Mantel 2005
Disgruntled: A Novel Asali Solomon 2016
Snow Orhan Pamuk 2005
The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World David Eagleman 2018
Sophie and the Rising Sun by Augusta Trobaugh
Creative Commons/Freebies
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Literary Articles and Essays
Brad Bigelow of Neglected Books produced a list of Best Neglected Western books.
J.C. Oates on the 5 motives for writing literature. This is a profound and important reflection on literature, but it ignores one motive — pleasure and play. Perhaps Oates thinks that this can be wrapped up in aesthetics, but it’s more complicated than that.
Rant
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Capsule Book Reviews
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Book Roar Review
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Multimedia/Podcasts, Etc
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Self-Aggrandizement
Having nothing better to do, I uploaded a selfie of myself in Personville, TX which I took in 2009. You may remember that I wrote previously about how to submit author photos to Wikimedia Commons.
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).
- 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.
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