Idiotprogrammer Blog

Category: Ebooks

  • Robert’s Roundup #59 (July-Aug 2026)

    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.  https://booktoot.club/@nagletx. (Mastodon) and nagletx.bsky.social. (Blue Sky).

    My Personville Press sells literary titles (mainly short stories) at budget prices (and several freebies). Gradually I have been doing “elevator pitch” videos on YouTube summarizing several of these ebooks in three minutes or so.

    Abbreviations: KU means Kindle Unlimited and 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. Here is my article about methods and search queries I use to locate ebook deals. See also: Indie Author Spotlight, Interviews by RJN,

    Introduction

    Here’s a Gemini AI query I did about non-Kindle ebook platforms globally. Here’s another AI query about whether kids have a strong preference for more recent children’s books over classics (and things their parents recommend). The answer seems to be yes, especially because more recent books have more graphics and have more diverse themes (like handling emotional regulation, racial diversity and eco-awareness).

    I never explained why I list some of my ebook purchases as Under the Radar and others as Blink and It’s Gone. Basically Blink and It’s Gone are ebooks which are rarely discounted. 90% of the time, these are books by known authors publishing by well-known publishers. In contrast, the Under the Radar titles are often by indie authors or self-published titles which I obtained either for free or for less than $1. In fact, some of the Under the Radar authors are very distinguished; sometimes a major publisher is publishing them, but for one reason or another, the prices are low and generally stay that low.

    Frankly though, I pay a LOT MORE ATTENTION to the indie authors on Under the Radar than I do with the Blink and It’s Gone authors.

    I produced two more “literary elevator pitches” for Jack Matthews ebooks. I show up myself in both videos near the end, but primarily it features Jack Matthews audio.

    Articles/Essays

    Some random reddit guy has been posting longish reviews of novels from each decade: the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s.

    David Wallace-Wells has second thoughts about the recent Atlantic article about reading habits:

    You might assume, especially given social stereotypes and caricatures, that the reading decline would be concentrated among the young, with that turn away from books and toward phones therefore spelling doom for future literacy. You might think the problem would be exacerbated by schools and universities turning away from demanding reading curriculums and the arrival of artificial intelligence to do our reading for us. But in fact, young Americans are — according to this survey, at least — reading more than they did a couple of decades ago.

    In 2003, for instance, Americans ages 15 to 24 read 8.4 minutes a day; in 2016 they read 7.8 minutes a day; and in 2022 they read 11.7 minutes a day. Also in 2003, those between the ages of 25 and 34 were reading 9.6 minutes a day; in 2016 that group read nine minutes a day; in 2025 they read 10.2 minutes a day. If these numbers represent a crisis, it doesn’t appear to be a new one.

    Among Americans 65 and up, the base line is higher and the decline in time spent is larger, too: For decades, at least, the bulk of the country’s reading has been done by Americans in their golden years. In 2003, older Americans read on average just under an hour each day — 58.5 minutes. By last year, that had fallen nearly by half, to roughly 32.4 minutes each day, a drop that represents the lion’s share of overall reading declines. To the extent that we can talk about the decline of reading as a mass phenomenon, it seems concentrated not among the next generation but among the previous ones. The pattern may seem counterintuitive, but it echoes some other findings about social media use and disinformation: For all the hand-wringing about the effects of new technology on kids, the impacts may be just as corrosive, if not more so, on their grandparents. (Perhaps this is one reason The Wall Street Journal recently declared that “Dad Books Are a Dying Breed.”)

    Death of a bookseller/rebel. Lam Wing-Kee was a Hong Kong bookstore owner imprisoned and who later denounced mainland China for keeping him locked up for 8 months. Here is a link to a longer profile Alex W. Palmer did of him in 2018.

    Under the Radar

    Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand: A Novel of Adam and Eve By Gioconda Belli. Noted Nicaraguan journalist writes a meditation on the Adam-Eve story. Prolific author/poet rarely translated into English, but this FSG book was translated in many languages. PW wrote, ” The unfolding of knowledge and humanity is both primitive and breathtaking in Belli’s view. And without abandoning the timeless biblical story, Belli manages to introduce a modern Darwinian element that’s both stark and eloquent. Belli tackles Genesis with perception-rattling gravity. ” Alan Cheuse does a NPR review (with audio)

    Two books by W. Royce Adams (Home,) Scar Songs (short stories about males at various stages of life) and As Time Goes by (a reflection on aging). Amazingly, Adams is a 94 old retired English professor who started writing actively after retirement. He wrote several books for young readers including an adventure series based around a mythical place called Rairarubia. Here’s a reading of Adams talking about As Time Goes By (YT) Here’s a promotional vid about one of his Rairarubia books. (YT) Here’s a better organized list of his writing credits and awards.

    Blink and It’s Gone

    All We Know of Pleasure: Poetic Erotica by Women (Edited by Enid Shomer).

    Library Purchases/Printed Books

    Several collection of (public domain) folk tales by Cyrus MacMillan: Canadian Fairy Tales and Canadian Wonder Tales.

    Podcasts/Media

  • Robert’s Roundup #58 (April-June, 2026)

    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.  https://booktoot.club/@nagletx. (Mastodon) and nagletx.bsky.social. (Blue Sky).

    My Personville Press sells literary titles (mainly short stories) at budget prices (and several freebies). Gradually I have been doing “elevator pitch” videos on YouTube summarizing several of these ebooks in three minutes or so.

    Abbreviations: KU means Kindle Unlimited and 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. Here is my article about methods and search queries I use to locate ebook deals. See also: Indie Author Spotlight, Interviews by RJN,

    Alphabetized Book Lists! This may sound like an obvious thing to do, but for my last Robert’s Roundup, I decided to alphabetize all the ebooks by author’s last name. I don’t have anything against alphabetization per se, but at the same time, I think that it favors the Adams over the Zelenskis. Actually I didn’t think too much about it, but eventually found it to be really really annoying to constantly be double-checking that I didn’t already mention a title (I have made that mistake several times before).

    Rant: AI Authors

    I saw a video of a small ebook distributor complaining about the number of AI-produced ebooks being submitted, and I guess that KDP and other ebookstores are experiencing the same problem. Today, an ad for one of my press’s ebooks was going to run on an ebook newsletter, but as it turns out, it appears alongside an “author” of sexy ebooks who published 10 ebooks in one year. (Humorously, the author photo on Amazon is a photorealistic portrait of a nude man with dangling penis. How on earth can real authors compete with the torrent of polished but low-quality ebooks being published today?

    I am actually fairly tolerant about using AI tools to produce stories as long as you are upfront about what is being done. For example, I think it makes perfect sense for an interactive story to be AI-assisted for some of the story branches — as long as a human supervisors and monitors for quality.

    But it becomes more difficult to advertise or to browse through titles if low quality AI titles are competing for your attention.

    Update. Now it appears that Draft2Digital is charging authors and publishers $12 a year who list their books because of the added burden of having to vet and weed out AI titles. Major bummer.

    Indie Author Spotlight

    the

    Under the Radar

    New World: a novel by Chris Adrian

    Secret Miracle: The Novelist’s Handbook. by Daniel Alarcon.

    The View from Highway 1 by Michael J. Arlen. (W) 1976 essay collection by a noted TV critic.

    In Darkness and Light by Tudor Alexander. (Bio) Here’s a video (YT) of his being interviewed for an earlier novel. Alexander is a Romanian-American who writes novels about the immigrant experience, starting from the end of WW2 to Cold War.

    A Better Angel: Stories by Chris Adrian.

    The King’s Rifle: A Novel by Biyi Bandele.

    Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ All-Time Greatest Hits a Novel by Mark Binelli.

    Nubian Prince: Novel by Juan Bonilla.

    Phantoms on the Bookshelfs by Jacques Bonnet, James Salter.

    Harder They Come: Gripping Survivalist Thriller of Fathers and Sons, Mental Illness and Violence in California by T.C. Boyle.

    This Three Pound Universe: Half a Life in 14 Quirky Essays by David Boyne.

    Through Stranger Eyes: Reviews, Introductions, Tributes and Iconoclastic Essays by David Brin. I’ve been following the blog of this sci fi novelist for a while.

    Jade Cat a Novel by Suzanne Brogger

    Serpent Box a Novel by Vincent Louis Carella

    An Archaeology of Sympathy: The Sentimental Mode in Literature and Cinema by James Chandler.

    Me Cheeta: The Autobiography by Cheeta (aka James Lever). A talking monkey who used to appear in movies recounts his Hollywood experiences. (This was nominated for a Booker!).

    Acceptance: A Novel by Susan Coll. Satirical story about college admissions.

    Cat’s Pajamas and Witch’s Milk by Peter De Vries. Also the Vale of Laughter.

    Hibernaculum by Anthony Doyle.

    Martin Duberman Reader.

    Dating Your Mom by Ian Frazier.

    Animal Husbandry and other fictions by Jeff Fleischer. (Home). He’s a Chicago-based journalist who mostly writes books about politics for younger audiences, but this is in fact literary fiction.

    The Process by Brion Gysin (W) Author who pioneered the cut-up method of fictional creation (which influenced William Burroughs). One reviewer called it “a rambling, breezy, keef-laced, picaresque tale ostensibly centered on a black professor self-exiled in the Middle East where he seeks…well, exactly what he seeks isn’t exactly clear. Truth, power, wealth, immortality, the ancient mysteries, the meaning of life–a continuing source of the best dope…or perhaps all of the above.”

    Snake on a Red Velvet Throne and other Stories by Bess Hendrick.

    St. Ivo by Joanna Hershon. (Home,) From a NYT review: “The book does not grant us a neat, circular ending, and Hershon is not afraid of ambiguity. But for me, these aspects function as a part of the novel’s charm: fiction full of complexity, devoted to reality.” Other writings 7 Fascinating books about cults. Writing and Improv Classes, For COVID reading, she recommended Everything is Under Control: A Memoir with Recipes by Phyllis Grant.

    Alt Sagas: Stories by Jean Huets. Speculative stories by poet and editor who also has published several books about tarot cards (!?)

    King and Raven by Cary James. Authorian tales.

    Ridley Inn: A Seaside Story by Tsvi Jolles (Home) A serious-minded fairy tale for children about a girl at a seaside inn.

    Void by Nathan Kuzack. (Home) Sci fi/fantasy story about an insurance worker who finds his world is vanishing (literally!)

    Facades by Eric Lundgren. First novel about a missing opera singer and her husband’s attempt to find her. (interview)

    Rembrandt’s Hat by Bernard Malamud (Stories). Always one of my favorite authors, this is a later collection. I’ve read Magic Barrel, but the Collected Stories has never been discounted.

    Birthright: A Near Future Novel by Max Malterer.

    Capacity: Poems by James McMichael.

    The Animal Claim: Sensibility and the Creaturely Voice by Tobias Menely. Literary study of 18th century poetry and how it affected politics and philosophy.

    Astonishing Splashes of Color by Claire Morrall. (W) Booker finalist about a quirky middle-aged lady coming to terms with death, miscarriage, marital issues. Title is Peter Pan reference to a woman who has “never has grown up.”

    Conscious and Verbal: Poetry by Les Murray. Famed Australian poet.

    Fracture a Novel by Andres Neuman. (W) Acclaimed novel by Argentine novelist about an elderly survivor of the recent Fukashima nuclear earthquake disaster.

    Bedlam Burning by Geoff Nicholson.

    Waterloo by Karen Olsson. (Austin-based author).

    40 Sonnets by Don Paterson. (Home, ). Lots of video readings and lectures: Readings, Sonnet Structure, Saints Talk: Why Bad Metaphors Destroy Everything, 1 hour reading,

    Everything belongs to the future by Laurie Penny. (Bio, substack)

    Scruffy Little Devils by Andras Polgar

    Story of B (Ishmael series book 2). by Daniel Quinn. Sequel to Ishmael book (which won a major literary prize in the 1990s). A priest is assigned to investigate a darkly charismatic preacher.

    Two humorous books by Terry Ravenscroft.

    You Wanna Get Outta Here by Andrew W.G. Rees. Canadian poet.

    God is a Tequila Worm by Tim Rousseau.

    The Scalpel and the Butterfly: The War Between Animal Research and Animal Protection by Deborah Rudacille. (Home, W), Informative and thought-provoking nonfiction book by a science author who graduated from the same JHU writing program that I did. All her titles sound great.

    Life in Culture: Selected Letters of Lionel Trilling by Lionel Trilling, Adam Kirsch. (NYT review) Includes letters to A. Ginsberg, Barzun, Edmund Wilson, Sontag, Saul Bellow, etc.

    Lavender by Michael J. Vaughn.

    Thirty Day Question by Joshua A. Walker. A suicidal man encounters a strange old man who offers a different perspective.

    Bit Between my Teeth: Literary Chronicle of 1950-1965. by Edmund Wilson. Essays, interviews, etc. Wilson’s Axel’s Castle was published in 1931, entering the public domain soon. I was a big fan of Patriotic Gore, his study of Civil War literature.

    Quiet Invasion by Sarah Zettel. I bought this scifi novel by mistake. Scientists discover an alien artifact on Venus, causing political disruption on the colony established there. Aha, I see from her domain that Zettel started out writing sci fi, but branched out into several different genres (fantasy, suspense, historical).

    Musical Brain and Other Stories by Cesar Aira. (W) A very highly-acclaimed story collection by Argentine author. “Aira, with his fuga hacia adelante or “flight forward” into the unknown, gives us imponderables to ponder and bizarre and seemingly out-of-context plot lines, as well as thoughtful and passionate takes on everyday reality. ” Another review says disparagingly, “This frustrating group of fantastical short stories strikes me as having great imagination but weak execution.” RJN: I plan to read this. Sounds like Man who Fell from an Airplane or Monterroso?

    Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor.

    Tremble: Erotic Tales of the Mystical and Sinister by Tobsha Learner.

    Wind-Up Bird Chronicles: a novel by Haruki Murakami.

    Endling a Novel by Maria Reva. Prize-winning novel

    Mabinogion Tetralogy: Prince of Annwn, Children of Lyr, Song of Rhiannon by Evangeline Walton. This translation of the famous Welsh tetralogy (which inspired Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain series of children’s books) is supposed to be highly readable.

    Mike Royko: The Chicago Tribune Collection 1984-1997 by Mike Royko. This ebook has 9900 pages and is the single largest ebook I have ever heard of. I’m a big fan of the newspaper columnist Mike Royko and plan to read at least part of the ebook.

    Library Purchases/Printed books

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    Creative Commons/Freebies

    the

    Literary Articles and Essays

    The Baffler has a long series of articles about the lack of financial rewards for the writing profession. Depressing and sobering because the contributors were by most standards extremely successful for their books, yet barely made enough to survive.

    NYT has a long series about How to Be Cultured. These are just annotated recommendation lists which by virtue of it being the NYT, seems important. (Time Magazine used to devote special issues on similar themes). The value comes from the big names they are able to corral who will contribute their favorites, with occasional surprises here and there. Here are AIDS-era novels, Books that Encapsulate 5 Countries, American Characters and Unsung works by Famous Authors. Also pretty clever: a list of book recommendations for each decade of life. For me, a 60 year old, It suggests Kindred by Octavia Butler and two public domain works by Nella Larsen: Passing and Quicksand.

    Here’s a nice profile of Siri Hustvedt and Paul Auster, the ultimate literary couple.

    Andrew Porter (Home, W) is a short story writer who teaches creative writing at Trinity. Here’s the title story from his 2023 collection THE DISAPPEARED, which is about a man dealing with the unexplained disappearance of his college friend. It’s a great thoughtful story (BTW, avoid reading the longish introduction by Kristopher Jansma (Home, W) until after you read the story itself).

    In a recent Bomb interview, AP writes:

    “In almost every story, the main character is having to face the fact that some version of life as they once knew it has disappeared and that they are no longer the same person they were at that time, and there’s a strange mixture of emotions that comes with this acceptance—confusion, fear, disorientation, sadness. I wanted to focus on characters grappling with these types of moments in their lives and wanted to present various ways of coping or coming to terms with these new realities. So that was the preoccupation in this book, but more generally, I think I just enjoy stories that explore absences and mysteries and unanswered or unanswerable questions. I’m intrigued by the idea of things that were once there vanishing, and what one has to do to accept and move on in their absence.”

    Rant

    On a self-publish reddit, a film critic and new novelist wondered why book reviewers respond to unsolicited review requests with requests for payment. He mentioned that such a practice would be unheard of in the film world. I wrote a long response:

    *****************

    That is not a common practice — though it does happen. More common is that book review services will charge a sum (50-500$) to do a sponsored review.

    Reading and reviewing a book takes a lot more time and effort than writing a review of a movie. At the same time, there’s a shortage of bona fide book critics who will read and review books compared to the number of books being published.

    I’m sure you know already that paying gigs for film criticism are rare compared to what it was 20 years ago. It’s even more rare for book criticism. Also, a higher percent of book critics are authors themselves — who often have better things to do than write reviews. Imagine if the sizable percent of people who wrote movie reviews were other film directors and screenplay writers.

    There are certainly ethical challenges in asking for money for reviews. But I certainly do not begrudge the meager compensation that book critics (or movie critics) feel that they are entitled to for their efforts. In many ways doing publicity for movies is a lot easier than doing publicity for books. Movies have shiny actors willing to promote the projects and easier access to multimedia tools. Books usually have just the author himself to talk about a book project. In the podcast world, I guess that authors make excellent guests — and that might put them on the same level as movie people. Generally though, book reviews are more crucial to a book’s success than movie reviews are to a movie’s success.

    Another thing. Although some movies have esoteric audiences, sometimes book genres are difficult for readers and even sophisticated readers to talk intelligently about. Reading a book that uses techniques or themes alien to you can feel like torture. But with movies, all you have to do is turn on the video player for 2 hours and pay attention and watch people and landscapes and listen to the soundtrack. I can hate the movie itself and still find the experience of watching the movie to be pleasant enough or relatively painless. I love books, and I finish a much higher percent of movies than books.

    (By the way, I looked up the original poster, His name is Marty MacDaid (Home, Substack) and he has written Murder in Beltova, (KU) a murder mystery with a Baltic theme.

    Capsule Book Reviews

  • Robert’s Roundup #57 (Jan-March,2026)

    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.  https://booktoot.club/@nagletx. (Mastodon) and nagletx.bsky.social. (Blue Sky).

    Abbreviations: KU means Kindle Unlimited and 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. Here is my article about methods and search queries I use to locate ebook deals. See also: Indie Author Spotlight, Interviews by RJN,

    My 1965 Project articles have been coming slowly. But here’s a long essay about 1965 children’s books. Here’s an “Elevator Pitch” video I did for Alberto Balengo’s Minor Sketches and Reveries (YT). I think it’s my best so far.

    I plan to do a 1965 essay about Susan Sontag’s Against Interpretation. I bought and read and reread it from cover to the cover in college and am re-reading it again. Annoyingly, I must have given the book away and can’t find a cheap copy (or ebook). Astonishingly the county library only possesses a single copy. I have several digital editions of SS essays with some of the essays, but not all.

    Indie Author Spotlight

    the

    Under the Radar

    Mother of Red Mountains: A Novel of a Woman’s Journey Through Revolutionary China by Apple An.

    Glimmer by Sam Aleks. Young girl traumatized by a fire dives into painting to assuage her guilt about the death of her brother.

    Pink Tuxedo. by C.D. Acosta. Clever colorful futuristic tale of a college introverted student who shuns social interaction but attends a concert and is drawn into a crazy plot.

    Alfa Romeo 1300 and Other Miracles by Fabio Bartolomei.

    Notorious Dr. August: His Real Life and Crimes (Novel) by Christopher Bram.

    Imagining More and other Stories by Panayotis Cacoyannis. Prolific British-Cyprus author. I keep meaning to read his stuff; all sounds interesting.

    Karl Marx and the Lost California Manifesto: a novel by Scott D. Carlson (I). This new satirical work of pseudo-history imagines that Karl Marx travels to California during the Gold Rush in search of gold. Plaudits from both Kirkus and BookLife.

    Stone Fields: love and death in the Balkans by Courtney Angela Brkic. Anthropologist’s memoir of exhuming bodies in Bosnia during the Yugoslav war in the 1990s.

    By the Shore: A Novel by Galaxy Craze. Tickled by this name, but apparently this ex-actress and YA author uses that name. First novel was well-received.

    Creatures of the Air: Music, Atlantic Spirits, Breath, 1817–1913 by J.Q. Davies

    Damage Control: Stories by Amber Dermont. Rice U. creative writing teacher. Videos: Reading at ABR, Also a 1 hour reading on Vimeo.

    Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs Novel by Matthew Dicks.

    The Chastity Plot by Lisabeth During. Overlooked Sanskrit fiction.

    Irrational Numbers Stories by George Alec Effinger.

    Copenhagen Papers: An Intrigue by Michael Frayn.

    Ad Nauseam: A Survivor’s Guide to American Consumer Culture. By Carrie McLaren & Jason Torchinsky.

    Forty Days at Kamas Book 5 by Preston Fleming.

    Two Dreams and Two Hollows by Gary Gautier.

    Woman who is the Midnight Wind Stories by Terence M. Green. 10 stories of speculative fiction by Canadian author. Shucks, he died a few months ago. (Website).

    Hot Damn! Alligators in the Casino by James W. Hall. Humor columns.

    Yonder Stands Your Opinion by Barry Hannah.

    Night Garden by Polly Horvath. Newbery Prize author of children’s books.

    Accidents: A Novel  by Yael Hedaya. Israeli author who created (for Israel) a TV show which was adapted into the HBO series In Treatment.

    Adventurist: Novel by J. Bradford Hipps. Programmer/fiction writer who graduated from UH’s creative writing program. Protagonist is a software engineering dealing with love and family. “The Adventurist” activated most of my cranial pleasure centers. It’s a brisk and polished and somehow very American novel. It moves confidently, that is, until it can no longer pretend to do so. It delivers to the reader internal wounds that will fail to clot. (Dwight Garner, NYT). (YT)

    End of Alice by A.M. Homes. British tale of sexual dalliance/flirtation between an older man and a way-younger teenage girl.

    House of Lords and Commons: Poems by Ishion Hutchinson.

    Transition – Novel by Luke Kennard. (Interview).

    Crossways by Sheila Kohler.

    Manual Puig and the Spider Woman: His Life and Fiction by Suzanne Jill Levine

    Gone with the Mind by Mark Leyner. Inventive fictional autobiography by noted humorist. “Dazzling, hilarious, heartfelt, and entirely mind-blowingly original, Mark Leyner’s fictional memoir Gone with the Mind confirms the author’s status as one of the most singular, wild-ass, and brilliantly fearless voices in American literature…There isn’t a convention Mark Leyner does not shatter, nor an aspect of twenty-first century culture…he does not reexamine and render fresh. Quite possibly the first literary work of genius, comic and otherwise, of the new millennium.” (Jerry Stahl)

    Abundance: A Novel  by Amit Majmudar. Indian family saga.

    A Garden for Ignatius A Novel of Absurd Comedy and Redemption (The Mittelschmerz Cycle) by M.D. Markham. (Free for a short time!) Just started reading this comic novel written in the spirit of John Kennedy O’Toole. The novel “is a celebration of the difficult personality, a critique of societal impatience, and ultimately, a heartwarming tale of finding one’s proper ground.”

    Fellow Mortals Novel by Dennis Mahoney.

    Book of Love: Story of the Kamasutra by James McConnachie.

    Margo’s Cafe by Tom Milton.

    Wilderness Run a Novel by Maria Hummel. Stegner Fellow

    Well by Matthew McIntosh.

    True Grit by Charles Portis. Texas author Clay Reynolds raved about this novel.

    Another One Bites the Past by Vladimir Provorov. A famous rock singer has an odd concert experience in 1973 and meets a mysterious stranger. What is going on? Here’s a nice review.

    Knee-Deep in Wonder: A novel by April Reynolds. A dazzling first novel about four generations of fear and longing in the deep South. By a philosophy/creative writing prof. This novel won a first novel award.

    Playing in Time: Essays, Profiles, and Other True Stories by Carlo Rotella

    Needle in a Timestack and Other Stories (2019) by Robert Silverberg. Humorously, RS released different versions of this story collection over several decades.

    Private Lives of Garden Birds by Calvin Simonds.

    Freedoms We Lost: Consent and Resistance in Revolutionary America by Barbara Clark Smith.

    Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith. “Thorne Smith’s comic genius mixed weird science with mythology, bootlegged alcohol with a chilly eye for the hypocrisy of the very Americans he was entertaining. At worst, sentimental; at best, like a New Yorker cartoon wrapped round a knife.” (by M. John Harrison).

    Devil Take the Blues: a Southern Gothic Novel by Ariel Slick. Fort Worth novelist. A devil tells a woman that her sister will be murdered, and so she tries to intervene. (I, Interview, )

    Perv: A Love Story by Jerry Stahl. Bawdy and hippie coming of age tale of growing up in the 1970s. Stahl is a prolific author and screenwriter. I’m sure this volume will be wild and fun.

    Three Poems by Hannah Sullivan. Winner of 2018 TS Eliot Prize.

    Cleopatra’s Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire by Judith Thurman. Literary essays originally published in the New Yorker.

    The World has changed: Conversations with Alice Walker.

    Silence and Silences by Wallis Wilde-Menozzi

    Sexual Awakening (4 Novellas) by Lucy Xane.

    Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. Well-known comic novel.

    Magus by John Fowles. I started reading this 1965 novel but find it awkward to read with glasses. Totally glad I could find the title discounted, though I had to wait a long while.

     Memory of Fire Trilogy: Genesis, Faces and Masks, and Century of the Wind  by Eduardo Galeano.

    Tales of the Night by Peter Hoeg. Parallel stories taking place in the same day in 1929.

    Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Classic Texas novel discounted to 4.99.

    The Hunger Angel: A Novel by Herta Müller. Post WW 2 East European historical novel. Nobel winner.

    Best of Me (Compilation) by David Sedaris.

    Shucks, I dilly-dallied too long and didn’t grab The Mabinogion Tetralogy: by Evangeline Walton when it was still 2.99. There are other translations, but this one is supposed to be highly readable and fun.

    Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon Wood. Milestone history book.

    Library Purchases/Printed books

    Rabbit at Rest by John Updike. I have been eager to read this for over a decade. Now I found a large-print edition!

    Creative Commons/Freebies

    the

    Literary Articles and Essays

    Here’s a nice collection of college reading lists. Here’s another and another. Here’s another much longer list.

    Here’s an interview with author M. John Harrison. Here’s a list of his Top 10 favorite novels.

    Here’s a collection of reddit threads about obscure Sci Fi. Here’s a summary of book recommendation threads.

    Michael Silverblatt’s Rules for Reading

    1. Sit. If you’re lying down you’ll fall asleep.
    2. Read at least 100 pages in your first session with a new book. You must get well in.
    3. If you’re reading for pleasure, finish a book before starting a new one. Don’t keep three or four going.
    4. If your eyes get tired, try cotton compresses with witch hazel – they’re soothing and refreshing.
    5. Read a book about a country you’ve never visited.
    6. Ask close friends to name their favorite book, one that changed their life or one that accompanied a change in life. You will learn not just about the book, but about the person who recommended it. 
    7. Don’t be embarrassed to keep a vocabulary list. Reading without understanding is not a virtue.
    8. Don’t torture yourself to read out of duty. A great book has an obligation to enrich and alter your life. There are certain books you’ll find you’re not ready for. Please suspend your judgement of them. it took me seven years and six tries to read [William] Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying.
    9. If you can’t discard preconceptions that come from bad classroom experiences – for example, A Tale of Two Cities and Silas Marner are not [Charles] Dickens’ or [T.S.]Eliot’s best works – if you’ve X’d them out of your list, you’re missing something of pleasure. You’re ready now. Try them.

    Here are 11 Los Angeles authors recommended by Silverblatt:

    1. “Visitations” by Mitch Sisskind (Brightwater Press)
    2. “Blood Lake” by James Krusoe (Boaz Publishing)
    3. “Guide” by Dennis Cooper (Grove Press)
    4. “Maps to Anywhere” by Bernard Cooper (Penguin)
    5. “Crown of Weeds” by Amy Gerstler (Penguin)
    6. “Dear Dead Person” by Benjamin Weissman (High Risk)
    7. “I Been in Sorrow’s Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots” by Susan Straight (Hyperion)
    8. “Chinchilla Farm” by Judith Freeman (Norton)
    9. “Sea of Cortez” by John Steppling (Sun and Moon)
    10. “We Find Ourselves in Moontown” by Jay Gummerman (Vintage)
    11. “Round Rock” by Michelle Huneven (Knopf)

    Rant

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    Capsule Book Reviews

    the

    Multimedia/Podcasts, Etc

    This video (which is also available as a podcast and on YouTube) is hilarious. Dave Barry and Carl Hiaasen are two of the funniest people in USA.

    Personville Press Deals

  • Robert’s Roundup #56 (Nov-Dec, 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. MASTODON: https://booktoot.club/@nagletx. Here’s a biographical profile of Texas author Robert Nagle.

    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. Here is my article about methods and search queries I use to locate ebook deals.

    This post is usually a work-in-progress. At the start it will be blank, and I add to it over the weeks. By the way for the month of November, I’ll be focused mainly on the 1965 Project, a look back at cultural gems from that year.

    Indie Author Spotlight

    hello

    Under the Radar

    To Name Those Lost Novel by Rohan Wilson.

    The One that Got Away Stories by Zoe Wicomb.

    Cutty, One Rock: Low Characters and Strange Places, Gently Explained by August Kleinzahler. (poetry).

    Hope Verdad Presents: Short Stories with a Twist by Francesca Flood

    In a perfect world by Laura Kasischke. (W)

    Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans subvert an unfair economy by Lisa Dodson.

    All Flesh is Grass by Clifford D Simak. (1965).

    This is your life novel by John O’Farrell. (W, ) Also The Best a Man Can get. He’s a British humor writer and actor. See his satirical news website Newsbiscuit.

    Meander, Spiral, Explod: by Jane Allison.

    Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck. German novel about a literature professor who attempts to help refugees.

    Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick.

    Haitian Trilogy: Plays by Derek Walcott.

    Fling: Commanding 21st Century Stories by Justin Taylor. Also, Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever: Stories

    One Fell Soup: Or I’m Just a Bug on the Windshield of Life by Roy Blount.

    Literary Seductions: Compulsive Writers and Diverted Readers by Frances Wilson.

    Beetlebum by Christian Basso.

    All at once: Prose Poems by C.K. Williams

    Scar Tissue: Poems by Charles Wright.

    Walking Backwards: Poems 1966-2016 by John Koethe.

    The Swimmer: Poems by John Koethe.

    Chickamauga: Poems by Charles Wright. (W) Pulitzer finalist.

    Triumph of the Sparrow: Zen Poems by Shinkichi Takahashi.

    Thunderstroke: a Poetry Memoir by Terence Ang.

    Another Life by Derek Walcott.

    Land End’s: New and Selected poems by Gail Mazur.

    Two books (which are first of two separate series) by Texas sci fi author E.M. Rensing: Source Code and Lighthouse of Kuiper.

    Deviation a Novel by Luce D’Eramo. WW2 memoir of an Italian girl who learns about Nazi atrocities.

    My Family and Other Hazards: A Memoir by June Melby.

    American Master: A Portrait of Gore Vidal: James Edmonds.

    Three Ways to Disappear by Katy Yocom.

    Wakefield Novel by Andrei Codrescu.

    Land of Steady Habits by Ted Thompson.

    Naked Girl by Janna Brooke Wallack. Ignore the misleading title. It’s about a motherless girl in the 1980s Miami beach and capricious father who strive to survive under harrowing circumstances. “Wallack cleverly walks a tightrope in her writing, balancing the horrors with a child’s unwavering imagination and naive sense of wonder…a distinctive and emotionally rich voice delivering succinct observations…An endearing and fascinating perspective on a uniquely volatile and dangerous childhood.”  Kirkus.

    Dog’s Breakfast by Tom Navratil.

    Points of Departure: Stories by Pat Murphy.

    Illusions of Time: Selena’s Tale by Sabina Dazdarevic.

    First Contact (In Her Name) by Michael R. Hicks.

    Gorgeous East: A Novel by Robert Girardi.

    American Master: a Portrait of Gore Vidal by James Edmonds.

    Devication: Novel by Luce D’Eramo.

    AI of the Beholder: Art by Dr. Joshua Cunningham.

    Friendly Fire Stories by Alaa Al Aswany.

    The Wrong Heaven by Amy Bonnaffons. (I)

    You Knew the Price (Vol 2) by Susan Kaye Quinn.

    Misadventure of Justin Hearnfield Novel by Dan Elish.

    Athenian Women Novel by Alessandro Barbero. Drama set in ancient times written by a classical history scholar.

    Book of Jonah by Joshua Max Feldman.

    Take me Home Novel by Brian Leung.

    Bobcat and other stories by Rebecca Lee.

    Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers by Astra Taylor. Book accompanies documentary with same name. (

    Blink and it’s Gone

    Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau. (1965). Won Pulitzer.

    Station Island by Seamus Heaney.

    April Fool’s Day Novel by Josif Novakovich.

    Insatiable: Porn, a Love Story by Asa Akira.

    French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles.

    The Fortunate Pilgrim by Mario Puzo.

    Julia by Sandra Newman. That’s the retelling of the 1984 novel from the perspective of Winston Smith’s lover Julia Worthing. A brilliant premise.

    Library Purchases/Printed Books

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    Creative Commons/Freebies

    hello

    Literary Articles and Essays

    Jessica Pressman talks about electronic literature.

    A reddit thread about nonnovelists who write novels. Curiously, even though I love Steve Martin as a comedian, I never have been tempted to read his fiction. I would consider reading novels by John Sayles or John Darnielle (of Mountain Goats). Also Ayoade on Top by Richard Ayoade.

    Rant

    hello

    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).

  • Robert’s Roundup #55 (Sept-Oct 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. MASTODON: https://booktoot.club/@nagletx. Here’s a biographical profile of Texas author Robert Nagle.

    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. Here is my article about methods and search queries I use to locate ebook deals.

    I have been banned from Facebook, so I have limited ability to research authors, etc. Also, here is my journal of mini-reviews of music albums. I am happy with how it turned out, though I had to query AI for a few pointers.

    Also, I have updated my publishing tips for 2025.

    Indie Author Spotlight

    Mike Royko. It turns out that all his columns were digitized into a 2 million word ebook (Mike Royko: The Chicago Tribune Collection 1984-1997)! The price is a little high $11, but no matter how you look at it, you still are going to get your money’s worth. Royko has always been one of my favorite newspaper columnists, and I wrote a passionate defense of Royko here.

    (By the way, you can always look up the word count for a book by finding it on Kobo’s ebook page (which shows it).

    Under the Radar

    Queen’s Caprice (Stories) by Jean Echenoz (W)

    Reeducation of Cherry Truong: A Novel by Aimee Phan.

    A Taste of Terry Ravenscroft by Terry Ravenscroft. Sampler of his works. TR is a comedy writer in his late 80s. He used to write for British TV and for various comedians. I blogged about him in my first Robert’s Roundup column and even corresponded with him briefly and read his book reimagining Laurel and Hardy called Call Me a Taxi. Since that time, I have noticed that he has written a lot of comic novels — an average of one a year. That genre has recently interested me, so I am definitely going to revisit books by this author soon. Here’s a silly rap song TR did about going old called Grandpapparapper.

    Noontide Toll by Romesh Gunesekera.

    Beyond Sleep by Willem Frederik Hermans. Highly regarded Dutch novel.

    Pride of Eden: A Novel by Taylor Brown

    Waltz in Swing Time by Jill Caughtery.

    The Skin Above My Knee by Marcia Butler

    October: A Novel by Zoë Wicomb

    Shelter in Place: A Novel by Alexander Maksik

    All the Good Things by Clare Fisher

    Lacuna: A Novel by Fiona Snyckers. South African retelling of a story from a character in J.M. Coetzee‘s Disgrace.

    Jake & Mimi: A Novel by Frank Baldwin. “A relentlessly plotted and powerfully written thriller and a breathtaking exploration of the pleasures and limits of sex.”

    The Meaning of Consuelo: A Novel by Judith Ortiz Cofer.

    Luminous Airplanes by Paul La Farge.

    Angels Make Their Hope Here by Breena Clarke

    The Living Infinite: A Novel by Chantel Acevedo

    The World Is Waiting for You: Graduation Speeches to Live By from Activists, Writers, and Visionaries by Tara Grove, Isabel. Ostrer

    Unmastered: A Book on Desire, Most Difficult to Tell by Katherine Angel. Author of Tomorrow Sex will be Good Again. This is more of a personal poetic investigation than anything

    Three to See the King by Magnus King.

    Upstate by James Wood. Novel by esteemed literary critic.

    Consequence: A Memoir by Eric Fair.

    Writings on an Ethical Life by Peter Singer. Compilation of Singer essays on ethics sold in this low cost edition.

    Perverts by Adam Cosco.

    Hotels of North America by Rick Moody.

    Footprints: In search of fossil fuels by David Farrier. A meditation about how climate change has affected our arts and culture.

    The Jade Twilight by Chris Castleman.

    The Freedoms We Lost: Consent and Resistance in Revolutionary America by Barbara Clark Smith. Political history of colonial times by a Smithsonian historian (written in 2010). (Oops, the price went to 10$ while I was waiting. Have to wait until next time).

    Moira’s Crossing by Christina Shea.

    King’s Indian: Stories and Tales by John Gardner. “Midnight tales for the literary intellectual” as Kirkus put it. Mixed review in NYT; basically the stories are embedded in classic works which are told in a self-aware style. More Barth and Borgesian, I guess.

    County of Birches by Judith Kalman. (Bio, ). Kalman is a Hungarian-born Canadian author who wrote about the Jewish experience and the Holocaust. “The County of Birches is unique, devoid of the usual cliches of Holocaust or post-Holocaust literature, fresh, told with love, devotion and above all considerable literary expertise.” — Josef Skvorecky,

    The Will by Harvey Swados. Tale of three immigrant brothers who fight over their inheritance. National Book Award finalist. Author was a journalist who died at 52 (Obit)

    Lunatics a Novel by Bradley Denton. (W, ) 1996 Humorous fantasy novel about a widowed man who meets a moon goddess of desire (!?) His 2001 story collection One Day Closer to Death sells for 2.99, but is discounted often.

    Bad Connections: A Novel by Joyce Johnson.

    Why Dogs Chase Cars: Tales of a Beleagured Boyhood by George Singleton.

    A Plea for Eros: Essays by Siri Hustvedt. I pretty much buy anything from SH, but I already had a hardback copy; having a digital edition was very convenient.

    Cutty One Rock: Low Characters and Strange Places, Gently Explained by August Kleinzahler. Prose pieces by distinguished award-winning poet.

    Marriage Artist a Novel by Andrew Winer. (W)

    It’s All Right Now Novel by Charles Chadwick. Retired British fellow writes a roman-a-clef. (Got great writeups).

    Out of My Mind by John Brunner.

    Fever: HOw Rock n’ Roll Transformed Gender in America by Tim Riley.

    Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn. First in the Mindjack series.

    Gorgeous East Novel by Robert Girard.

    Game of X: A novel of Upmanship Espionage by Robert Sheckley. 1965 comic spy novel.

    Generations: A Science Fiction Mystery Thriller by Noam Josephides.

    Gatekeeper: Poems by Patrick Johnson. (Author’s Book Page) Here’s a review: “Gatekeeper is the first collection I have ever read that intimately explores the internet from an insider’s point-of-view. It makes one wonder what frontiers digital natives will break in regard to what is labeled as poetry. I’m not talking slick graphic design and multi-media downloads, but true and honest inner examinations that come bound on paper that you can hold in your hand and don’t have 30 000 songs, all your emails, contacts, and family albums—but something deeper, something underneath the user level.”

    Collected Novels Volume One: Desert of the Heart, The Young in One Another’s Arms, and This Is Not for You by Jane Rule. Early novels about lesbianism by a Canadian novelist.

    Starman After Midnight: A Novel-in-stories by Scott Semegran (Home, Book Page). This was a free Bookbub deal. Semegran is an Austin-based writer whom I’ve been meaning to read for a while. I hope to have time to read at least one novel of his in 2026. Can’t wait!

    Rest of Life: Three Novellas by Mary Gordon.

    An Uncommon Reader: A Life of Edward Garnett, Mentor and Editor of Literary Genius by Helen Smith.

    Berryman’s Shakespeare: Essays, Letters, and Other Writings by John Berryman.

    Beautiful by Massimo Cuomo.

    Only the Animals (Stories) by Ceridwen Dovey

    Collected Novels Volume One by Jane Rule. Noted gay Canadian novelist. Includes her first novel Desert of the Heart when gay activity was still outlawed.

    Here Come the Dogs Novel by Omar bin Musa. (W, Home) Musa is a multitalented Malaysian-Australian rapper, artist and storyteller.

    The Raising a Novel by Laura Kasischke. I’ve posted about her before. She’s a poet and novelist.

    Bright Air Black: A Novel by David Vann Bright. (bio, W) Here’s an extended video interview (YT)

    Deep Inside: Extreme Erotic Fantasies by Polly Frost. I’d reviewed Frost’s humor novel, With One Eye Open over a decade ago. She and I her husband wrote erotic stories which they had actors do staged readings for. So I’m sure this is fun as well.

    Fredy Neptune: A Novel in Verse by Les Murray (W) “Fredy Neptune is Murray’s best work yet, an almost completely successful round-the-world adventure novel in enticing, flexibly slangy (and very Australian-sounding) eight-line stanzas.” Ruth Padel writes, “”Fredy Neptune” is such a page turner, has such poetic authority and ambition, is so linguistically alive and rooted in such intimate humanity, that it should be on every reading list as this appalling century ends. It makes poetry, humor and intimacy out of the worst things, and finds riches, as Murray always does, in grittily difficult lives. This book is full of dignity, vigor, compassion and bite. It is what poetry ought to be, what the ”Iliad” was, or Euripides’ searingly antiwar play ”Trojan Women”: angry, visceral, necessary and — at the end of another millennium given over to war — a force for good.”

    A Dangerous Profession: A book about the writing life by Frederick Busch.

    Crawl Space Novel by Edie Meidav. Historical novel about an 84 year old standing trial in Paris for war crimes. Praised by Thomas Keneally.

    Blink and it’s Gone

    Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon. With a $3 credit to my account, I decided to buy this gargantuan ebook to my collection. This book came on my radar on a listicle ranking Pynchon novels (this came out first), and looking at the glowing reviews.

    Grifters by Jim Thompson. Famous hard-boiled crime novel which was later adapted into a major film.

    Collected stories by William Trevor.

    Library Purchases/Printed books

    Sincerely, Andy Rooney by Andy Rooney. I have been a fan of Rooney’s droll columns. This is minor Rooney; it consists entirely of his personal replies to letters sent to him over the decades.

    Andersonville by MacKinley Kantor (W) Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller about prisoners in a Confederate prison in Georgia. Two critics called it the greatest Civil War novel of all time. About two decades earlier, Kantor had written two other novels with a Civil War setting. Arouse and Beware (1936) is about how two Union soldiers escape a prison and form a love triangle with a woman who is also trying to return to the North. Long Remember (1934) is about a Westerner who returns home to Gettysburg only to have an affair with a woman whose husband is fighting in the war. Kantor is also known for a 1961 speculative essay, If the South Had Won the Civil War.

    Creative Commons/Freebies

    the

    Literary Articles and Essays

    (See Erika Krouse’s awesome ranking of 500 Literary Magazines for Short Fiction).

    Here’s an absolutely lovely annotated list of the 25 most important/meaningful magazine covers of the last century.

    Once again, I was caught offguard by the Nobel’s decision to award the literature prize to someone with an unpronounceable name. Here’s Krasznahorkai’s take on the Ukraine conflict:

    That the First World War is essentially repeating itself?! What do I think?!

    It fills me with horror. Hungary is a neighboring country of Ukraine, and the Orbán regime is taking an unprecedented stance—almost unparalleled in Hungarian history. This is partly because, until now, we were always the ones being attacked and losing, and partly because I could never have imagined that the Hungarian political leadership would talk about so-called neutrality in this matter!

    How can a country be neutral when the Russians invade a neighboring country? And haven’t they been killing Ukrainians for nearly three years? What do you mean “This is an internal Slavic affair”?!—as the Hungarian prime minister puts it?! How can it be an internal matter when people are being killed? And it is the leader of a country saying this—a country that has been constantly invaded throughout history. Among others, by the Russians. And these Russians are the same Russians.

    This Hungarian regime is a psychiatric case. There is the inhuman calculation behind it: Maybe they have already killed my daughter, but I would rather accept that so that they don’t harm my mother. But they will harm her. They will kill both. Is it so hard to understand?…

    A dirty, rotten war is unfolding before my eyes. The world is starting to get used to it. I cannot get used to it. I am incapable of accepting that people are killing people. Maybe I’m a psychiatric case. All of this is happening while, in the digital space, there is a vision of the future promising that the terrifyingly rapid advancement of technology will soon bring a beautiful new world. This is complete madness. While a fundamentally twentieth-century war is raging, someone is talking about how we’ll soon be going to Mars. I hope Putin and his sympathizers will be the first passengers….

    Rant

    I have been going to GoodReads more often. I have noticed that Amazon (which owns Goodreads) has been making it harder to exclude what ebooks you have been reading from your public profile. I am sick of it. Why should it be so hard to hide or exclude a sexy book you are reading from your public profile?

    Capsule Book Reviews

    the

    Multimedia/Podcasts, Etc.

    Perhaps I already read the speech itself, but this morning I listened to the wonderful Nobel Prize acceptance speech by Bob Dylan (YT). I was surprised at how thoughtful his thoughts about books and authors were. In addition to talking about poetry and musical influences, he gave very personal accounts of reading Moby Dick, All Quiet on the Western Front and Odyssey.

    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).

  • Robert’s Roundup #54 (July-August 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. MASTODON: 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. Here is my article about methods and search queries I use to locate ebook deals.

    Here is an interview I did with Texas novelist Clay Reynolds. I guess I should announce that I have put together a page listing all my interviews so far. Eventually I plan to put these things together into an ebook.

    Here’s an interview with Milan Kundera by Philip Roth. I mirrored the original NYT publishing of the interview because it had an important transcription error.

    The Smashwords Summer sale is taking place. Here are the discounted Personville titles. As I pointed out in late 2024, it is hard to browse through Smashwords to find cool cheap things. I put together a good list of SW publishers and another collection of SW titles.

    Cool, I just discovered that St. Martin’s Press (a subsidiary of MacMillian is discounting some of their books to the 50 cent range. Try this search query on for size.

    Wow, here’s a new term for me: Ergodic literature.  Genre of literature in which nontrivial effort is required for the reader to traverse the text. I have a background in this type of writing (sort of); will explore that some more.

    Wow, I just learned about a new prize: the $150,000 Windham-Campbell Prizes, . They have lots of videos with interviews, lectures and readings from the winners. It’s one of these “somebody has to nominate you” kind of prices (like the MacArthur, etc) which gives the awards more freedom in setting criteria and means that judges don’t need to read 100-200 unremarkable books), but ends up being too insular. (although no more insular than the other awards which seem to come only from a few publishers). It has the perverse effect of rewarding authors who have already received some acclaim and success and possibly regular work. It also raises the selling value of works by these authors. Anyway, it’s nice that the award is substantial and can meaningfully help authors.

    COMIC-CEREBRAL AUDIO PLAY ON SPOTIFY (64 minutes) A decade ago I produced “Interview with the Sphinx,” a great audio play by Ohio author Jack Matthews. So cerebral that your mind will explode midway through. Premium Spotify users can listen for free — FYI I did the intro and the narration. The actors were great too. (Spotify Link)

    Indie Author Spotlight

    the

    Under the Radar

    Prophet of Zongo Street (Stories) by Mohammed Naseehu Ali (W, ). Writer from Ghana who studied in USA and teaches at universities. Here’s a 41 minute audio of Ali reading and a 23 minute Youtube 2024 interview and a 2004 article about the inconveniences of having a Muslim name after 9/11. A NYT review said that it “deftly blends African folklore, dreams, the wisdom of elders, the pranks of children and pitch-perfect, often wry dialogue.” Kirkus “Ali shows an almost anthropological interest in his characters, and a keen eye for the humanistic detail: a richly rewarding cultural study.”

    Heartbreaker: Stories by Maryse Meijer. Kirkus writes, “The edgy stories in Meijer’s debut collection cut like so many wild teeth: sharp, deep, and unforgiving . . . Meijer breaks open taboos about sex, disability, melancholy, and violence with the careful precision of a teenager egging the house of her mortal enemy. ” Here’s a nice panel discussion with Chicago’s Transgressive Authors. This looks like a fun watch. (Also, see this Chicago Public Library’s playlist Authors at CPL). Also, here’s a text interview. Here’s another interview. Here’s a list of 5 books by women Meijer recommends.

    Turtleface and Beyond: Stories by Arthur Bradford.

    Marriage of the Sea by Jane Allison .. (W, bio). Here’s a reading she gave . She has written Love Artist (inspired by the life of Ovid) and translated some Ovid poetry. I have been reading and really enjoying Love Artist.

    Testament of Yves Gundron by Emily Barton. (bio, blog and an interview) A sort of magical fairy tale about a land of farmers devoid of technology and contact with the outside world. Probably hard to explain. Reviewed somewhat confusingly in the NYTBR, but apparently Thomas Pychon of all people reviewed it (““I found it blessedly post-ironic, engaging and heartfelt, a story that moves with ease and certainty, deeply respecting the given world even as it shines with the integrity of dream.”). Here are essays and short pieces online and an interview.

    Kangaroo by Yuz Aleshkovsky.

    No Saints or Angels by Ivan Klima.

    Time Present and Time Past by Deirdre Madden. “Meditation of time and memory and a moving portrait of domestic and family life in Ireland.” Here’s a 52 minute YouTube interview with her where she talks about Henry James, etc.

    PU0239 and other Russian Fantasies by Ken Kalfus.

    Destroy all Monsters: Last Rock Novel by Jeff Jackson.

    Two novels by Felicia Luna Lemus. Like Son: A Novel and Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties: A novel.

    High Cotton Novel by Darryl Pinckney. Upper middle class black in Indiana grows up with awareness of how racism has shaped his society (but not him personally). “What Christopher Isherwood did for Weimar Berlin, Darryl Pinckney has done, more profoundly, for Berlin behind the wall. This haunted, rebuilt city is the perfect setting for an exploration of the artist as a young, black, gay man, unable to shake off his own troubled past. A beautiful book, witty, sophisticated, and intensely moving.” (Ian Buruma) Also wrote the essay collection Busted in New York and other essays.

    Yawn: Adventures in Boredom by Mary Mann. (website) Long essay about the phenomenon of boredom, with a historical and sociological perspective. Mann is a librarian who has written about nerdy topics for national publications.

    Don’t Kiss Me: Stories by Lindsay Hunter. PW wrote, “these stories land with a wet slap–messy and confrontational. They demand your horrified attention, and they reward it with exaggerated and irresistible humanity.” She hosts a long running lithub podcast called I’m a Writer But. (Here’s a long interview she did with Eva Dunsky about her later novel Hot Springs Drive) .

    Blue Stars Novel by Emily Gray Tedrowe (Website and blog).

    Lust: Or No Harm Done by Geoff Ryman. (W, Bio) Gay brain scientist stumbles upon an astonishing phenomenon that transforms his sex life (among other things). Ryman is a prolific Canadian sci fi author.

    Wonderblood by Julia Whicker. This intriguing novel imagines a future where most humans have died from plague & remaining ones have strange views of the past. (NASA vehicles are described with reverence, etc.) One review described it as “if Blood Meridan, The Road, & Candide had a baby with a tarot deck.”

    Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai by Ruiyan Xu. A businessman gets hit with a shard of glass and suddenly becomes unable to speak his native tongue Cantonese. Instead he reverts to English from his childhood, and becomes unable to communicate with his wife and family.

    Wonderkid Novel by Wesley Stace. Satirical look at

    Love Minus 80 by Will McIntosh.

    Flanders Point a Novel by Jacquie Gordon. Writes Merle Rubin in 1997 CSM: “Gordon weaves together the interconnecting strands of her novel with understated finesse. Operating in a literary realm often marred by romantic stereotypes, she manages to endow her characters with a real sense of individuality and to handle the time-honored theme of schoolgirl infatuation with a winning blend of freshness and sophistication.” Gordon died in 2021, and she also wrote a heart-breaking memoir about her daughter who passed away from cystic fibrosis as a young adult.

    Arkansas: Three Novellas by David Leavitt.

    Messiah of Morris Avenue: A Novel by Tony Hendra. Satirical novel asking what would happen if Jesus Christ appeared in the US today?

    Clarinet Polka by Keith Maillard (W, I) Maillard is a distinguished Canadian author. Here’s an audio interview.

    Boomer 1: A novel by Daniel Torday (W, Home)

    Inheritance Novel by Natalie Danford.

    Galapagos Regained by James Morrow.

    The New Valley: Novellas by Josh Weil

    War Against the Animals by Paul Russell.

    Devil Never Sleeps (Essay Collection) by Andrei Codrescu. I love anything that this Romanian-American author has written.

    Tale of the 1002nd Night Novel by Joseph Roth.

    Swift Thoughts by George Zebrowski. (W) Collection of cerebral sci fi stories by a man who also wrote Star Trek novels among things. Wow, he died at the end of last year. Here’s a nice tribute on SFWA. Wow, I see that Robert Sawyer wrote an Amazon review of this book: “George Zebrowski is one of the most philosophically astute writers in science fiction, and this collection of his insightful, mind-bending tales is long overdue. It’s no surprise that one of his stories is a Nebula Award nominee as I write this. If there’s a successor to Olaf Stapledon, it’s Zebrowski. Highly recommended.” Whoa! I see that I already purchased Macrolife: A Mobile Utopia in 2020.

    Two works by Pamela Sargent: Behind the Eyes of Dreamers: And Other Short Novels and The Shore of Women: The Classic Work of Feminist Science Fiction.

    Black Deutschland by Darryl Pinckney. “What Christopher Isherwood did for Weimar Berlin, Darryl Pinckney has done, more profoundly, for Berlin behind the wall. This haunted, rebuilt city is the perfect setting for an exploration of the artist as a young, black, gay man, unable to shake off his own troubled past. A beautiful book, witty, sophisticated, and intensely moving.” (Ian Buruma)

    You Must Remember This: Poems by Michael Bazzett

    The Devil’s Larder: A Feast by Jim Crace

    Married Sex: A love Story by Jesse Kornbluth. Story about a couple who have a threesome and deal with the aftereffects. Kornbluth has been a journalist and taught a screenplay writing class. (Obituary, W,) Here’s a Soundcloud interview about the book and a written interview on his headbutler.com site. . NYT review: “Kornbluth’s debut novel, about a happy marriage interrupted by a ménage à trois, could easily have coasted on its promise of titillation. Instead it is a skillfully written, lighthearted and clever story that manages to be steamy but never salacious. Video interviews here and here. Here’s a famous NYT article he wrote, The Woman Who Beat the Klan.

    Seven Pleasures: Essays on Ordinary Happiness by Willard Spiegelman. Prolific Texas English professor and poetry expert. Essays here and here.

    Language and the Rise of the Algorithm by Jeffrey M. Binder

    Bleak Liberalism by Amanda Anderson

    The Wild Colonial Boy: A Novel by James Hynes

    The Black Prince: And Other Stories by Shirley Ann Grau

    The Recipe for Revolution by Carolyn Chute

    Wonderblood: A Novel by Julia Whicker. (Author website)

    Lying in Bed by Mark Edward Harris

    A Girl Walks Into a Bar: Your Fantasy, Your Rules by Helena S. Paige.

    The House on Prague Street by Hanna Demetz

    Her Body Knows: Two Novellas by David Grossman

    Gravity’s End: Hard Sci-fi Novel in Space by T.Y. Schweid.

    What have you done to our ears to make us hear echoes?: Poems by Arlene Kim.

    The Cracks in Our Armor by Anna Gavalda

    Artist’s Wife Novel by Max Phillips. “An elegant reimagining of the life of Alma Mahler, the lovely, aristocratic fin-de-siècle composer who abandoned her own art to become the inspiration and collector of geniuses.” Writes book reviewer friend Mary Whipple, “this is a fascinating study of the way one woman managed to liberate herself from some of the social restrictions of her day. The intellectual and artistic worlds Phillips recreates pulse with life; the political changes from empire to post-war socialism and the rise of Hitler are smoothly integrated into the story; and the book, overall, is a remarkable portrait of a place and time rarely chronicled in American fiction.”

    Something frivolous: Comet Cruise by Niska Morrow. Labeled a “spicy polyamorous novel,” it’s about a woman who joins a sinful space cruise for the sex orgies. (website and an interview with her).

    Limbo Novel by Melania Mazzucco. (W,) A moving but unsentimental examination of one woman’s life as she navigates life after war It’s Christmas Eve and twenty-seven-year-old Manuela Paris is returning home to a seaside town outside Rome. Apparently her prize-winning Vita novel is the best known.

    Four Fingers of Death Novel by Rick Moody.

    Walking West Novel by Noelle Sickels. (Author & Book site). Historical novel about a band of farm families from Indiana who go to California in 1852.

    Two wonderful books on music history by Andrew Grant Jackson. 1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music and 1973: Rock at the Crossroads. See also the book’s website.

    How to Listen to Great Music by Robert Greenberg. 1.99 Delightful intro to classical music by famed musicologist. I loved his classes for the Great Courses.

    Essays One by Lydia Davis. Surprised that I haven’t bought it already. Here’s a lovely essay by Lydia Davis about poetic inspiration and John Ashbery. (not in this collection). Here’s an interview with Lydia Davis . I enjoy reading Lydia Davis, but somehow I haven’t read as much by her as I would have wanted. Update: I bought Essays Two which on sale the following week.

    Encounter: Essays by Milan Kundera. Stupidly, I bought an ebook version of a book I already own. No matter. It was 1.99, and I prefer ebooks anyway. These look more essay fragments than full-fledged essays, but this is Kundera after all.

    Language of Climate Politics by Genevieve Guenther. This ebook (on sale for $3.64) dissects climate change disinfo & summarizes the latest research in climate change policy & economics. Unusually in-depth for a nonscientist. This was my favorite book I read last year!

    Library Purchases/Printed books

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    Creative Commons/Freebies

    When Robert Sawyer invoked Olaf Stapledon, I couldn’t help thinking, who the hell is that? Here’s his wiki page and fadedpage download. I’ve downloaded Star Maker, Sirius and Last and First Man. Arthur C. Clarke considered Star Maker to be “probably the most powerful work of imagination ever written.”

    Literary Articles and Essays

    Robert Walrod on Ray Bradbury’s short fiction (substack)

    A ranking of all Thomas Pynchon novels by John Keenan. Mason & Dixon was ranked as the best.

    Rant

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    Capsule Book Reviews

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    AI Research

    Okay, I added a section for bookmarked AI queries. (I do it so often that it’s now a habit).

    AI: Children’s books published in 1965

    Authors who died in 1965

    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).

  • Robert’s Roundup #53 (May-June 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. MASTODON: 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 have been working hard on a long interview with Clay Reynolds.

    Indie Author Spotlight

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    Under the Radar

    And then there were none by Agatha Christie. Apparently the authorized edition costs 1.99 (better formatting), but there’s a crappy 99 cent version available which you should avoid. I was surprised to see that the work won’t be going into the public domain anytime soon. I could have sworn I read it already a long ago, but I have no memory of it.

    Parallax: And Selected Poems by Sinead Morrisey. (W) Well-regarded poet from N. Ireland (Here’s a YT Reading and a nice early interview). Here’s a longer Zoom Interview + Reading from 2021.

    Wonderland by Stacy D’Erasmo.

    Clairvoyants: A Novel by Karen Brown.

    Time won’t Let me Novel by Bill Scheft.

    Anger Meridian by Kaylie Jones

    Eternal Enemies (Poems) by Adam Zagajewski. Here’s an homage to him by fellow poet (and former UH professor) Edward Hirsch.

    Best People in the World a Novel by Justin Tussig.

    Talking Animals a Novel by Joni Murphy.

    Good Boys and Dead Girls and Other Essays by Mary Gordon. I’m currently reading her Sleeping novel (which has never been digitized apparently).

    Making Nice by Matt Sumell (website)

    Pineville Trace by Wes Blake. (Author website) Introspective, haunting tale about a former revival preacher who tries to run away from his past. This first novel by a Kentucky author won a novella prize and was a finalist for a debut author award. On his personal website, here’s an homage/recollection about the author Dennis Johnson.

    The Heap Novel by Sean Adams. (website)

    Suspension by Robert Westfield (W) and website.

    Best People in the World a Novel by Justin Tussing. (W)

    Lacuna a Novel by Fiona Snyckers. (Website and bio) Reimagining the traumatized character in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, a sexual assault victim tries to track down Mr. Coetzee himself. (Fun Fact: I studied with J.M. Coetzee in grad school. He would totally dig this shit! See his earlier novel Foe) . She works on a Hidden Life of Writers podcast. My podcast app wasn’t able to locate it, so I had to use the RSS feed here. Here’s a 50 minute video interview about another book by Snyckers. Update: I forgot to hit the BUY button! Hopefully the discounted price will return soon.

    You Must Go and Win by Alina Simone. (W) (Personal website) Humorous memoir by Ukrainian-American musical journalist/director.

    Truth’s Ragged Edge: The Rise of the American Novel by Philip F. Gura. Literary history of 19th century United States. In his review, Michael Dirda writes, “While Gura’s book discusses some familiar names, such as Hawthorne and Melville, it is most valuable in creating excitement for the work of, say, Stoddard, whose novels are pioneering works of both psychological fiction and social realism. “

    Kissing Strangers by Judy Savinar. 10 stories about women confronting life’s challenges.

    Flying Leap Stories by Judy Budnitz. Also: If I told you Once a Novel (4 generations of women from an Eastern European village to US). Glowing review of her story collection in NYTBR who describes her as a 26 year old cartoonist for Village Voice who “reveals a bionic ear for clever dialogue and a picturesque writing style with a fearless tone that rarely wavers, no matter how quirky the conceit.”

    Parallax and Selected Poems by Sinead Morrissey.

    Hot Flashes by Barbara Rankin. Entertaining stories of women entering menopause.

    Good Boys and Bad Girls by Mary Gordon. Essay collection, some on literary themes. By the way, I am reading the excellent Spending novel.

    More of this World or Maybe Another: Stories by Barb Johnson. (Website)

    No Going Back: Thought-Provoking Psychological Suspense Novel by D.T. Adams

    Decameron (Wayne Reborn translation). 2.99 I have always wanted a digital copy of this.

    Death of the Artist: How Creators are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech by William Deresiewicz. Of course, one way to make money is to get an Ivy League teaching job and write books targeted to starving artists, but this seems like an earnest attempt to understand the problem.

    Novels of Ferrara by Giorgio Bassani. Translated by Andre Aciman. Supersize edition. His novels document life as a Jew under fascist Italy. Might be relevant to Americans today?!

    Library Purchases/Printed books

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    Creative Commons/Freebies

    From Gutenberg there’s Goethe’s Literary Essays — which includes several things from a variety of sources, including Conversations with Eckermann.

    Speaking of which, I have been searching for a long lost Texas satirical classic about football. Won’t mention title here, but if Interlibrary Loan turns up a scannable copy, I will probably release it as a Personville Press title. Update: It did!

    Literary Articles and Essays

    Top 10 Troublemakers by Matt Sumell.

    I’ve been doing a lot of literary research. Here’s a lovely poetry page about R.S. Gwynne (W) and a commentary by Dana Gioia.

    Up until very recently, I have not used the Oxford comma.

    Rant

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    Capsule Book Reviews

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    Multimedia/Podcasts, Etc

    Here’s an absolutely amazing discovery. Some Irish bloke online said that this staged reading of Joyce’s Ulysses from 1982 is considered the best audio version of the novel (it’s like 22 hours and unavailable as an audiobook — but a free download). You can stream individual chapters online, but unfortunately the audio files have no metadata. So in addition to downloading these tracks, you need to put metadata on it. I am about to finish Chapter 1/Episode 1 and found it lovely and brilliant and very funny. I had read about half of Ulysses once upon a time and admit to only half-understanding it. I still don’t really understand it, but a lot of the jokes and wordplay make a lot more sense when you hear it.

    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).

  • Robert’s Roundup #51 (March-April 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

    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.

    Hey, guess what? I made a 12 minute video about my obsession with ebooks (See below).

    Update: I made some book trailers for Youtube and gave them a catchy name: “Literary Elevator Pitches”. The Elevator Pitch for Soldier Boys includes 3 minutes of talk with the author and 1 minute talk with the publisher (Me!) The elevator pitch for Second Death of E.A. Poe has a 2 1/2 minute talk with me, the Publisher.

    These elevator pitches are fairly easy to make, and maybe they will help to market the ebook. The question remains though: how will potential readers learn about these videos and will they actually watch them? I personally love them especially if they feature the author; I almost always click on a video if one is available. On the other hand Amazon and other distributors don’t allow video links (except for customer reviews). In these cases, the person talking is not the author; I don’t know if the potential reader would find this useful. I mean, couldn’t they just read the book descriptions?

    Maybe their promotional value is limited, but I hope that the elevator pitches could also raise a literary or aesthetic issue about a book. Also, I’d like to do elevator pitches about books I have no connection with.

    Random Musing: Someone mentioned online that it’s interesting that nobody ever talks about Updike’s fiction anymore. I’m a big fan of Updike, but Updike reached a level of fame that ensured that all of his books would be reviewed and talked about. It’s inevitable that the interest after his death wouldn’t keep this same level of visibility. I really should read Rabbit is Rich though. On my short list for a while.

    Using AI

    Perhaps this merits a separate blog post, but using AI engines has been invaluable in doing research for stories I am writing. Often I just need to do background research or research into a certain technology. Sure, search engines have allowed you to find useful information, but in the last decade or so, search results have become cluttered with irrelevant information. I don’t need the information to be 100% accurate. More often, I simply need to know about terminology in a field which my characters can use. Also, this terminology allows me to ask more sophisticated questions of AI.

    Here’s a prompt I have been using for book advice:

    What are some of the themes in the novel “Vathek” by author William Beckford? Who might want to read this novel? Have any readers criticized this novel? Why do some people not like this novel? Can you list 2 or 3 book titles by contemporary authors which have similar tone & themes? (Replace the prompt with a book of your choice and repeat!)

    I have been using Copilot AI in the Windows Edge browser and found it very useful — especially for the book recommendations. Unfortunately I have not found chatgpt that useful or Google’s AI engine.

    Indie Author Spotlight

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    Under the Radar

    Good To a Fault: A Novel by Marina Endicott (W). Endicott is a Canadian/British Columbian novelist . In this interview with her, Will Johnson writes, “Endicott’s work has emotional and moral complexity, and often explores matters of faith, whether she’s evoking a struggling contemporary family or writing about the vaudeville era.”

    Green Grows the Rushes and Other Stories by William Meikle. Fantasy/ghost/monster series by a prolific Scottish author.

    Disgruntled a Novel by Asali Solomon. African-American coming of age story. “A coming-of-age tale, a portrait of Philadelphia in the late eighties and early nineties, an examination of the impossible double-binds of race, Disgruntled is a novel about the desire to rise above the limitations of the narratives we’re given and the painful struggle to craft fresh ones we can call our own.”

    Love without Gun Control & Other Fantasy, Horror and Sci Fi Stories by M. Christian.

    Planet of the Creeps by Walker Long.

    2 racy novels by Lisabet Sarai: Raw Silk and Hot Brides in Vegas. Her long running NSFW Beyond Romance blog features and reviews a lot of erotica/romantica titles. Her fiction appears in several erotica anthologies (and some free kinky stories are available on her Medium blog).

    Haymaker in Heaven A Novel: by Edvard Hoem. (W) Small town Norwegians move to USA. “Unhurried passages delineating the fickle nature of late-nineteenth-century Norwegian courtship or the finer intricacies of saddle fabrication are in abundance…”

    Celeste Ascending a Novel by Kaylie Jones (Author Website) (Video reading from her novel A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries).

    Picador Book of 40: 40 Writers inspired by a Number (anthology). To celebrate Picador’s 40 year anniversary, it asked a dozen authors to write stories that involve a 40 element somewhere. Cool concept, more of a promotional anthology than anything one would ordinarily read.

    Norman the Insurance Salesman and Other Stories by Michael Raven. 50 surreal, satirical and absurd stories in the Douglas Adams vein. (Author’s website and Youtube channel Illustrated edition).

    Harry Gold a Novel by Millicent Dillon. Metafictional story about a biographer character following a Cold War spy. Dillon herself actually wrote biographies of Paul and Jane Bowles.

    First Rule of Swimming a Novel by Courtney Angela Brkic. Well-received first novel.

    Incredible Stories at the Bus Stop: A Flash Fiction Collection on Human Experience by Delenda Carthago.

    Some of my Lives: A Scrapbook Memoir by Rosmond Bernier. Essays and lectures about living in France, famous artists, etc. Sounds gossipy and fun.

    Finger: A Handbook by Angus Trumble. Odd and unclassifiable look at fingers and the role they play in the arts, commerce, language.

    Everything Happens Today by Jesse Browner. (W) Single day in the life of a privileged 17 year old Manhattanite. Wow, lots of glowing blurbs for this author who translates a lot of European authors.

    Lake Overturn a Novel by Vestal McIntyre (W) Youtube vid,

    Cardboard Universe: Guide to the World of Phoebus K. Dank by Christopher Miller. Satirical novel about a Philip K. Dick like author.

    Never Mind the Pollacks: Rock and Roll Novel by Neal Pollack. (W) An epic novelistic satire of rock history, told from the points of view of sleazy dueling music critics. (Author Website + Substack). Austin writer, funny guy; used to freelance for a lot of national mags and write humor pieces for McSweeney’s. I met him once or twice. He has quite a book catalog. He asserts his persona into a lot of his books — both in memoir and fiction. He writes for and edits the online zine Book and Film Globe.

    by Joshua Max Feldman

    Parking Lot Attendant by Nikki Moustaki. First novel by Ethiopian-American novelist. “Immigrant narrative, coming-of-age story, a dystopian fantasy and a political thriller.”

    Wait, Blink a novel by Gunnhild Oyehaug (W)

    But Come Ye Back: Novel in stories by Beth Lordan.

    The Debt Collector: Lirium by Susan Kaye Quinn.

    A Piece of Good News: Poems by Katie Peterson. (website, reading on Youtube),

    Blood Orange by Troy Blackhawks. South African coming of age during apartheid.

    Stich a Novel by Two novels by Richard Stern (W). Stich and a Father’s Words.

    Translations from the Natural World poems by Les Murray. (W) Australian poet.

    Concerning E.M. Forster by Frank Kermode. (W) Later book of criticism.

    Doctor Criminale: A Novel by Malcolm Bradbury. (W)

    Robin and the Rednecks by Todd Davis.

    Super Sad True Love Story Novel by Gary Shteyngart. Someone called this dystopian novel an appropriate read for the new Trump age. (Say no more!)

    Alien Sex: 19 Tales by the Masters of Sci Fi and Dark Fantasy (anthology).

    How to Do It: Guides to Good Living for Renaissance Italians by Rudolph Bell.

    Desert Rites (Desert Trilogy) by Xue Mo. 1st volume of award-winning Chinese sci fi trilogy.

    L.A. Success by Lonnie Raines. California comedy about a flabby Forest Gumpy LA anti-hero who gets sucked into a real estate mystery and a gig as a private detective.

    Stork Mountain a Novel by Miroslav Penkov. A young Bulgarian living in USA returns to Bulgaria to find his estranged grandfather who had cut off all contact with his family. Fun fact: Penkov teaches at University of North Texas where my nephew goes to school.

    None to Accompany Me by Nadine Gordimer. 1994 novel about a lawyer who struggles between her marriage and her political commitments.

    Library Purchases/Printed books

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    Creative Commons/Freebies

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    Literary Articles and Essays

    Becky Tuch on Can We Talk about Narrative Magazine (about exorbitant submission fees). I have lots of opinions about this (and I think Narrative is doing a lot of things right), but the amount of fees they charge is certainly excessive. Tuch runs the influential Lit Mag News. I love the idea of lit mags and for a while I subscribed to a dozen of them at once. But here are the problems with litmags:

    • Submission fees make it very hard to regularly submit.
    • Most of them are subsidized by universities or grants from arts organizations (and not sustainable).
    • Print copies of these mags are very expensive. They were always pricey, but now they’re ridiculously so.
    • Their primary purpose is to help adjuncts and writers fill up their CV so they can get better jobs.
    • Their value in raising an author’s visibility is very small (except to academic hiring committees perhaps).
    • They are staffed mainly by unpaid grad students and low paid staff.
    • They pay next to nothing.
    • Their tastes tend towards the academic/literary type of writings, so that excludes multiple kinds of writing

    I used to follow the litmag world fairly closely (and I used to edit my own litmag and had plans to start a new online one). But there were always problems. First, it is really hard to make an online zine work — especially if it featured more creative things like poetry and fiction. Second, monetization means having to make some really terrible tradeoffs. If you lock everything behind a paywall, then you have to spend a lot more time and money on marketing. Or if you put everything online, you have to chase advertising — and for that to work, you have to constantly be chasing eyeballs). Developing a monetizable website is not easy; it requires a lot of planning and technological prowess. I probably am better suited to do this than other people, but ideally you’d want a technical staff to be able to run it semi-professionally.

    The only zine I’ve seen do it well is Conjunctions. But there are lots of caveats here. Conjunctions has a long-running history and archive and stable of subscribers and authors. They have received grant money for quite some time. A lot of people already know about them. It probably helps that they are close to New York City. Also, Conjunctions doesn’t put out issues on a regular schedule. They just do it whenever. Frankly, although their issues are very adventurous and thematically interesting, they have the organization, history and funding to solicit lots of high profile authors. And a NY publisher will likely be happy to offer you free content for the publicity alone.

    (Fun fact: Older issues of Conjunctions are often discounted on Amazon. If you set a price alert for the editor Bradford Morrow, you can grab lots of old issues for a dollar each or so).

    Rant

    (In response to a forum question about why books and authors don’t seem to be as important as they used to be).

    First, fiction writing has a much different role and cultural impact in the world today than it did, say 50 or 100 years ago. Nowadays a lot of writers go ignored and unread. Contrast with the 19th century where there was no TV or recordings, novels had proportionately more influence. Storytelling still exists, and it thrives in different mediums and genres. Also, fiction and writing is very language-dependent, but TV and movies and music don’t depend as much on those things.

    What many people think of as book culture or the publishing world today hinges on the books being highlighted by cultural institutions and mass media. But I wouldn’t call the books that win a lot of attention (the prize winners, the best sellers) that interesting or special. Some look at books as having important political or social messages. The ideas and the conflicts reflected by an age’s fiction are important, but it is rare that society at large recognizes their importance quickly enough to make a difference.

    That said, today’s books are cheaper than ever; you can get access to a rich supply of literature for practically nothing. This is good because it’s becoming harder for libraries to keep up with the torrent of books coming out. Budgets are being cut, and conservatives are trying to defund books with interesting messages.

    Like the stars above, books and authors are still out there — too numerous to count — and yet their voices are growing dimmer and harder to perceive unless you are actively looking. Meanwhile the world offers all kinds of distractions that keeps us isolated and estranged from our past and blind to today’s most pressing problems.

    Capsule Book Reviews

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    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).