Sometimes there is a battle that goes on in my head: "should I post this, or should I not; should I not, or should I?" That was the case with this Whispersync deal.
I was a little concerned about the ratings at Amazon, which are a little lower than I like to see--4.4 stars. However, I checked GoodReads, and after noticing that their raters give the book a 4.09 (1,675) (that's great for GoodReads, as their crowd tends to be less generous with their ratings than the reviewers at Amazon), my concerns about that were allayed.
It came down to the price of the Whispersync deal. Being as frugal as I am, I really hate to pay
$7.98 for one (and it's mainly the audio that I'm interested in) and I'm genuinely embarassed to be posting one that expensive! But the audio alone at Audible is $32.95, so the Whispersync deal with audio + ebook + syncing is still 76% cheaper than the audio alone at Audible!
It's getting posted.
Title: A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain.
Genre: Non-Fiction (History/England).
Author(s): Marc Morris.
Price: $7.98 ($2.99 ebook (marked down) + $4.99 Whispersync audio).
Regular Price of Audio, by Itself, at Audible: $32.95 (1 credit).
Ebook Rating/Number of Reviews: 4.4 stars/145 reviews (Amazon).
Audio Rating/Number of Ratings: 4.3/292 ratings.
Pages/Audio Length: 481/18 hours and 28 minutes.
Narrator(s): Ralph Lister.
Audible URL: http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_...ywords&x=0&y=0.
Amazon URL (you can get the whole Whispersync deal here): https://www.amazon.com/Great-Terribl.../dp/B00LADUO9I.
Comments: Best Seller in three categories in the Kindle Store.
Book Description (Amazon):
The first major biography of a truly formidable king, whose reign was one of the most dramatic and important of the entire Middle Ages, leading to war and conquest on an unprecedented scale.
Edward I is familiar to millions as "Longshanks," conqueror of Scotland and nemesis of Sir William Wallace (in "Braveheart"). Yet this story forms only the final chapter of the king's action-packed life. Earlier, Edward had defeated and killed the famous Simon de Montfort in battle; travelled to the Holy Land; conquered Wales, extinguishing forever its native rulers and constructing a magnificent chain of castles. He raised the greatest armies of the Middle Ages and summoned the largest parliaments; notoriously, he expelled all the Jews from his kingdom.The longest-lived of England's medieval kings, he fathered fifteen children with his first wife, Eleanor of Castile, and, after her death, he erected the Eleanor Crosses—the grandest funeral monuments ever fashioned for an English monarch.
In this book, Marc Morris examines afresh the forces that drove Edward throughout his relentless career: his character, his Christian faith, and his sense of England's destiny—a sense shaped in particular by the tales of the legendary King Arthur. He also explores the competing reasons that led Edward's opponents (including Robert Bruce) to resist him.
The result is a sweeping story, immaculately researched yet compellingly told, and a vivid picture of medieval Britain at the moment when its future was decided.