So it’s nearly mid-March and I can only plead work and family stuff distracting me from the vital task of your Kindle 99p bargains. Hey, who knows this may well be old hat in a few months time as we rush from gig to theatre show to pub and back again with nary a thought of picking up the Kindle until we sink exhausted to our beds. But until then….
LITERATURE
Faces In The Water – Janet Frame. The author’s descent through psychiatric institutions
Don Quixote – very long and in a dependable Penguin Classics edition.
The Complete Sherlock Holmes – again in a dependable edition.
NOVELS
Offshore – Penelope Fitzgerald. Booker-prize winning chronicle of a houseboat community in London.
A Spell of Winter – Helen Dunmore
Postcards from the Edge – Carrie Fisher
Between the Assassinations – Aravind Adiga, author of The White Tiger
THRILLERS
Lupin by Maurice Le Blanc – a big Netflix hit, the ‘gentleman thief’ and French answer to Sherlock Holmes.
Robichaux by James Lee Burke – Burke’s style is not for me, but his bayou-heavy thrillers have lots of fans around here I know.
NONFICTION
Backstage Passes – Life on the wildside with David Bowie by Angie Bowie – another entry into the burgeoning dame canon, but she’s more entitled than most.
Eichmann in Jerusalem – Hannah Arendt. I can personally recommend this, not an easy read at all but a brilliant counter to the fog of exoticism that continues to surround the Nazis – hey Man In The High Castle – and the origin of the phrase ‘the banality of evil’
SF
Beneath the world, a sea: Chris Beckett. I have resisted reading him so far as he clearly likes a trilogy and that’s too much for a new writer.
Also Finch by Jeff Vandermeer. Big fan of his ‘Southern Reach’ trilogy which though it wasn’t perfect introduced a very distinct new voice into SF. For 99p this’ll be a yes.
Backstage Passes has been out for, like, forever. Is this a purported ‘new edition’ or summat?
No it’s just 99p this month. That’s the point of this list – bargains not new releases.
Beneath the world, a sea is a good read and reminiscent of early Ballard or Christopher Priest. I don’t think that there is any danger of this turning into a trilogy as the story is very self-contained.
Beckett’s one and only trilogy about Eden (can’t remember all the titles at the moment) is also an excellent read.
James Bloodworth’s Hired: Six months undercover in low wage Britain is also going For 99p all through March