Circus...Clowns...Carnival...Carny ebooks ONLY!

[Dr. Drib]

I love books that involve circuses and carnivals as backdrop and protagonist.

I'm currently reading "The Night Circus," (to mixed enjoyment).

Here are some other titles that are currently available from Amazon.

Please feel free to add titles to this thread, whether fiction or non-fiction. The more the merrier. Ebooks ONLY.



1) "By the Light of the Carnival" - (Free right now.) http://www.amazon.com/Light-Carnival...N%3DB0061GHSWK

2) "Attic Clowns: Volume One" - (No longer free.) Short story collection. Horror, I believe. Of marginal relationship to the title of this thread. http://www.amazon.com/Attic-Clowns-V...0521795&sr=1-2

3) "Attic Clowns: Volume Two" - See #2 above. (Free right now.) http://www.amazon.com/Attic-Clowns-V...0521795&sr=1-1

4) "Clowns at Midnight" - (No longer free.) Not yet read. A novel about the fear of clowns. http://www.amazon.com/Clowns-At-Midn...0522068&sr=1-1

5) "Dark Carnival Murders" - (Free right now.) Not yet read. http://www.amazon.com/Carnival-Murde...0522145&sr=1-1

6) "The Guild of Fallen Clowns" - (Not free.) This was freebie from Amazon. Not yet read. (Still free at this moment.) Looks like a wonderful horror novel concerning the haunted labyrinth of mirrors. http://www.amazon.com/Carnival-Murde...0522145&sr=1-1

7) "Carny: A Novel in Stories" - I downloaded a sample of this, but I haven't checked it out yet. (Not free.) Sounds wonderful. I look forward to buying this and reading it. http://www.amazon.com/Carny-Novel-St...0522268&sr=1-1

8) "Cirkus" - This was a freebie from Amazon. Not yet read. (No longer free.) Looks great. http://www.amazon.com/Cirkus-ebook/d...0522328&sr=1-1

9) "Sideshow" - I've downloaded a sample, but I haven't checked it out yet. (Not free.) Here's what one reviewer wrote: "Despite Ollie's rowdy, somewhat overheated prose, he manages to score some satisfying moments as the odd carnival hurtles to a wonderfully weird conclusion as nostalgic as an old EC comic." Sounds great to me! http://www.amazon.com/Sideshow-ebook...0522367&sr=1-1

10) "Geek Love" - (Not free.) This is a classic. I own a hardcover First Edition. A great literary novel. http://www.amazon.com/Geek-Love-A-No...0522453&sr=1-2

11) "Water for Elephants" - Not yet purchased. (Not free.) This novel achieved a great degree of critical success. Some reviewers who did not like "The Night Circus" cited "Water for Elephants" as the one to read. http://www.amazon.com/Water-for-Elep...0522506&sr=1-1

This is by no means exhaustive, so if you come across a title don't hesitate to add your post. Ebooks ONLY.



Don

[HomeInMyShoes]

I still have The Night Circus on my potential read list. Not sure if it's moving anywhere closer to actually being read.

[DiapDealer]

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine.

Very steampunky.

It began life as several short-stories in Fantasy Magazine and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. The short stories can all be read online for free. Links to them can be found here.

[ATDrake]

The Catch Trap by Marion Zimmer Bradley. A non-sf/non-fantasy not-quite-"straight" historical of hers. Available DRM-free worldwide @ Fictionwise and discountable with the weekend coupons posted in the Deals forum.

It's a thinly veiled history of aerialist performers combined with a 50s-era coming-of-age of young gay men in a repressive and punitive society (with tense family dynamics due to closeting fallout) story. Quite good, IMHO, and lots of stuff about the mechanics and dynamics and development of trapeze artistry and the circus ranging from tiny travelling carnival shows to "big-ring" televised acts, but somewhat depressing due to period-accurate portrayals of prejudice against gay men (and women in general) and some may find the depiction of underaged teen sexuality in one of the protagonists disturbing due to the situation with MZB's late second husband, who IIRC is thanked in the credits of the book for providing "insight" or whatnot.

Recommended with caveats due to the last, if you know what you're getting into and think you want to try it anyway. I did quite like much of this book and if you're really into how-it-works-and-has-changed-over-time circus/performance stuff, there's plenty woven throughout the story to keep you fascinated if you don't care for the main plotline.

[elemenoP]

I felt mixed about the Night Circus too. It didn't live up to the hype, for me.

I just finished Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. It isn't about a circus but rather a failing amusement park featuring alligator wrestling in Florida. You listed Geek Love (one of my favorite books!) above and I could see that Swamplandia! definitely owes a dept to Geek Love. Then I noticed that Russell thanks Katherine Dunn in the acknowledgements.

Here is the Amazon link to Swamplandia! but I got it from my library so it is available as an Overdrive ebook too:

http://www.amazon.com/Swamplandia-Vi...0530364&sr=1-1

eP

[Dr. Drib]

Thanks for the information on "Swamplandia!"

It looks interesting to me. I've put it on my Wish List.



Don

[Dr. Drib]

Thank you for the mention of "The Catch Trap." I was aware of this one when it first came out, but had actually forgotten about it. I think the book was published back in 1979.

Unfortunately, the Kindle edition sure has a crappy-looking cover. The cover of the mass-market edition looks so much better, in my opinion.



Don

[xg4bx]

The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliot-

"“You have two days to pass your audition. You better pass it, feller. You’re joining the circus. Ain’t that the best news you ever got?” Delivered by a trio of psychotic clowns, this ultimatum plunges Jamie into the horrific alternate universe that is the centuries-old Pilo Family Circus, a borderline world between Hell and Earth from which humankind’s greatest tragedies have been perpetrated. Yet in this place—peopled by the gruesome, grotesque, and monstrous—where violence and savagery are the norm, Jamie finds that his worst enemy is himself. When he applies the white face paint, he is transformed into JJ, the most vicious clown of all. And JJ wants Jamie dead! Echoes of Lovecraft, Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and early Stephen King resound through the pages of this magical, gleefully macabre work nominated as Best Novel by the International Horror Guild."

http://www.amazon.com/The-Pilo-Famil...0551493&sr=8-1

The Traveling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon-

"When the one-night-only Traveling Vampire Show arrives in town, promising the only living vampire in captivity, beautiful Valeria, three local teenages venture where they do not belong, and discover much more than they bargained for."

http://www.amazon.com/The-Traveling-...0551809&sr=1-1

[Dr. Drib]

Thanks.

I had forgotten about the Laymon title.

I read that when it first came out. I think it won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.

ADDED: I just checked and it won the award for Best Novel (2000 Bram Stoker Award Winner).

Don

[tilia]

I liked The Final Confession of Mabel Stark by Robert Hough.
It's a fictionalised account of her life.

"In the 1910s and '20s, during the golden age of the big top, Mabel Stark was the superstar of the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, and one of America's most eccentric celebrities. A tiny, curvaceous Kentucky blonde in a white leather bodysuit, Mabel was brazen, sexually adventurous, and suicidally courageous. The Final Confession of Mabel Stark is Robert Hough's brilliant, highly acclaimed novelization of her fantastic life. It is 1968 — Mabel is just turning eighty and is about to lose her job at Jungleland, a Southern California game park. Devastated by the loss of her cats, she looks back on her life and her five husbands: the fifth would one day be tragically mauled by her one true love, her ferocious yet amorous 550-pound Bengal tiger Rajah. Starting with her escape from a mental institution to begin her circus career as a burlesque dancer, Mabel's exquisitely voiced confession is a live wire of dark secrets, broken dreams, and comic escapades. It is a brilliant, exhilarating story of an America before television and movies, when the spectacle of the circus reigned and an unlikely woman captured the public imagination with her singular charm and audacity."

[flipreads]

I'll second the recommendation for Mechanique and Pilo Family Circus.

[caleb72]

Thanks for the freebies. I've picked up the ones I didn't already have. I too think Cirkus looks really interesting. I'm glad I picked it up when it was still free.

[Xanthe]

"Carousel Tides" by Sharon Lee (one of the authors of the Liaden Universe series)

Carousel Tides pulls you into the chill foggy reality of peeling-paint sand-grit coastal Maine outside of tourist season and then hands you something else — the hidden world lurking in shadows or under the land’s surface or just offshore, where Black Dogs hunt the night and selkies toss unpleasant truths over their shoulders before diving into the next wave. In the center of this, Kate Archer tends and guards one of the spookiest carousels this side of Ray Bradbury and wonders what has happened to her grandmother. The old woman sent her a letter, left papers deeding over the carousel and old house and the Land (meaning much more than property), and vanished, telling the spirits of the land and sea that she expected to be back before the turning of the year.

“Now March has come and gone and Kate must return from self-exile to take up powers and responsibilities she has renounced, or dying will be the least of her problems...

The story takes place in and around the Fun Country Amusement Park in Archers Beach, Maine, prior to the official opening of the "tourist season" in the area.

http://www.baenebooks.com/p-1253-carousel-tides.aspx

[speakingtohe]

A Son of the Circus - John Irving

Helen

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

A Son of the Circus - John Irving

Helen

Oooh. I'm about due for an Irving fix.