Wondering if a particular book is available in your country? The following spoiler contains a list of bookstores outside the United States you can search. If you don't see a bookstore on this list for your country, find one that is, send me the link via PM, and I'll add it to the list. In addition, if members let me know that an ebook is unavailable in a particular geographic location, I'll note it in this post, right beside the Inkmesh search for that particular book.
Thank you John F for the
Library Availability List (Post # 8)
Nominations:
*** Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov [issybird, Synamon, sun surfer]
Amazon US /
Barnes & Noble
*** The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick [Nyssa, medard, Tattncat]
Amazon US /
Barnes & Noble /
Sony
*** Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan [fantasyfan, issybird, Synamon]
Amazon US
*** Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy [John F, Nyssa, fantasyfan]
Amazon US /
Barnes & Noble /
Sony
*** Outlander by Diana Gabaldon [John F, Nyssa, fantasyfan]
Amazon US /
Barnes & Noble /
Sony
*** Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold [JSWolf, medard, WT Sharpe]
Baen (All formats) /
Amazon US /
Barnes & Noble
*** Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen [caleb72, JSWolf, Bookatarian]
Amazon US /
Amazon UK /
Barnes & Noble /
Google /
Sony
Spoiler:
Though he may not speak of them, the memories still dwell inside Jacob Jankowski's ninety-something-year-old mind. Memories of himself as a young man, tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Memories of a world filled with freaks and clowns, with wonder and pain and anger and passion; a world with its own narrow, irrational rules, its own way of life, and its own way of death. The world of the circus: to Jacob it was both salvation and a living hell.
Jacob was there because his luck had run out—orphaned and penniless, he had no direction until he landed on this locomotive "ship of fools." It was the early part of the Great Depression, and everyone in this third-rate circus was lucky to have any job at all. Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, was there because she fell in love with the wrong man, a handsome circus boss with a wide mean streak. And Rosie the elephant was there because she was the great gray hope, the new act that was going to be the salvation of the circus; the only problem was, Rosie didn't have an act—in fact, she couldn't even follow instructions. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.
Surprising, poignant, and funny, Water for Elephants is that rare novel with a story so engrossing, one is reluctant to put it down; with characters so engaging, they continue to live long after the last page has been turned; with a world built of wonder, a world so real, one starts to breathe its air.
*** Stardust by Neil Gaiman [Bookatarian, John F, Grey Ram]
Amazon US /
Barnes & Noble /
Sony
* Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese [Hamlet53]
Amazon US /
Barnes & Noble /
Sony
* Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami [Hamlet53]
Amazon US /
Barnes & Noble /
Sony
* Maurice by E. M. Forster [sun surfer]
Amazon US /
Barnes & Noble {Paper Only - No ebook editions}
Spoiler:
Set in the elegant Edwardian world of Cambridge undergraduate life, this story by a master novelist introduces us to Maurice Hall when he is fourteen. We follow him through public school and Cambridge, and on into his father's firm, Hill and Hall, Stock Brokers. In a highly structured society, Maurice is a conventional young man in almost every way, "stepping into the niche that England had prepared for him": except that his is homosexual. Written during 1913 and 1914, immediately after Howards End, and not published until 1971, Maurice was ahead of its time in its theme and in its affirmation that love between men can be happy. "Happiness," Forster wrote, "is its keynote. In Maurice I tried to create a character who was completely unlike myself or what I supposed myself to be: someone handsome, healthy, bodily attractive, mentally torpid, not a bad businessman and rather a snob. Into this mixture I dropped an ingredient that puzzles him, wakes him up, torments him and finally saves him.
** Trilby by George du Maurier [issybird, Billi]
Amazon US /
Barnes & Noble /
Sony /
ManyBooks
*** A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute [Billi, Asawi, BelleZora]
Amazon US /
Barnes & Noble /
Sony
Spoiler:
Nevil Shute’s most beloved novel, a tale of love and war, follows its enterprising heroine from the Malayan jungle during World War II to the rugged Australian outback.
Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman living in Malaya, is captured by the invading Japanese and forced on a brutal seven-month death march with dozens of other women and children. A few years after the war, Jean is back in England, the nightmare behind her. However, an unexpected inheritance inspires her to return to Malaya to give something back to the villagers who saved her life. But it turns out that they have a gift for her as well: the news that the young Australian soldier, Joe Harmon, who had risked his life to help the women, had miraculously survived. Jean’s search for Joe leads her to a desolate Australian outpost called Willstown, where she finds a challenge that will draw on all the resourcefulness and spirit that carried her through her war-time ordeals.
* Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque [Billi]
Amazon US /
Barnes & Noble {Paper Only - No ebook editions}
*** Love Story by Erich Segal [sun surfer, medard, Grey Ram]
Amazon US /
Barnes & Noble /
Sony