The start of the month means there’s a new set of Monthly Deals for the Kindle. If you still hanker for some reading matter in between your marathon bouts of pub and restaurant visits, these are on at 99p for July. As ever, personal recommendations rather than authoritative list and mainly fiction. The Panzer Drivers memoirs (see other recent posts) are no doubt there but someone else will have to rate them. Also lots of books for more than 99p, but I have my rules (ok the Wandering Stars is 1.69 but he’s a very hot writer).
CLASSICS
Uber-depressing and angry French working man classic Germinal by Zole. Read this a few years and really like it.
Metamorphosis by Ovid. Never read.
The Trial by Kafka. Nothing more to say – a book everyone should read at least once. Not long.
All Penguin Classics so the translations and print will be good.
LITERATURE
Cloud Street by Tim Winton – apparently the modern Australian classic novel. Our Antipodean correspondents please comment, looking forward to this.
The Golden Notebook – Doris Lessing. Forbidding.
The Colour Purple – Alice Walker. Very of the moment.
Disobedient by Naomi Alderman. Liked The Power, v zeitgeisty and an easy read.
Faces In The Water by Janet Frame – Belljar like journey through the mental health system
The Revenant – Michael Punke – book of the film
SF
The Man Who Fell To Earth – W Tevis – I think the film is better than the book, the law of 2nd rate literature makes first rate films applies here.
Pattern Recognition – William Gibson. First of the ‘Blue Ant’ trilogy – I love everything he writes but do not come here looking for plot.
The Wandering Earth – Cixin Liu – short stories by leading Chinese SF writer.
Pandora’s Star – Peter Hamilton – big space opera by a writer who has written one stellar trilogy (Commonwealth) and this and its sequel which are also first rate, then an awful lot of 2nd rate stuff.
Perdido Street Station – China Mieville – everyone should read. Amazing.
Flowers For Algernon – Daniel Keyes
Detective/Thriller
In A House Of Lies – Ian Rankin – new Rebus.
Faceless Killers – Henning Mankell – first Wallender.
There’s also a Madness biog by Mike Barson and for more daunting stuff Who Rules The World? By Noam Chomsky.
Strong selection overall, particularly SF and novels.
Zole! Should be Zola of course.
Thanks for that.
I also bought “And in the end – the last days of the Beatles” by Ken McNab for £2.59, about The Beatles in 1969. Very timely as it was recommended in a recent Nothing is Real podcast.