FREE/BARGAIN — Fiction (everything else)

[Dr. Drib]

^^^^

OK, it downloaded with the new cover, but with the words "20th Anniversary Edition" on the cover. (!!??) It has the Foreward by Tom Bissell. Eggers is gone. Following the Bissell Foreward, the novel begins.

Since I haven't read it in 30 years, perhaps this is the time to do a re-read.

ADDED: A number of words are joined together: Agealongside, novelis perisableonly, novelsurvives, aspraise, successfulmerely, predictiveor containsscenarios.

All this in THE FIRST PARAGRAPH!!! of the Foreward.

Too, there are occasions in that first paragraph where there is no space after the punctuation. I even changed the font and there was no difference.

Screw this nonsense. Thank god I downloaded my copy when I bought it all those years ago and preserved it in calibre.

DOUBLE ADDED: A quick glance through a few pages of the actual novel does not show what I documented in the Foreward.

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

OK, it downloaded with the new cover, but with the words "20th Anniversary Edition" on the cover. (!!??) It has the Foreward by Tom Bissell. Eggers is gone.

It looks like the 20th anniversary edition indeed does contain the foreword by Tom Bissell, so it seems your cover at least matches your content. Your guess is as good as mine as to why you got “upgraded” to the 20th anniversary edition and not the 30th though!

I filled a problem report with Amazon, hopefully they will fix the issue with the “supposed” 30th anniversary edition, but I’m not keeping my hopes up.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by BionicGecko

It looks like the 20th anniversary edition indeed does contain the foreword by Tom Bissell, so it seems your cover at least matches your content. Your guess is as good as mine as to why you got “upgraded” to the 20th anniversary edition and not the 30th though!

I filled a problem report with Amazon, hopefully they will fix the issue with the “supposed” 30th anniversary edition, but I’m not keeping my hopes up.

Yeah, but the Bissell Foreward, in its current form, is totally unreadable.

[Quoth]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016OVQZ5W/
Reduced to free

Old Glory (McGann saga Book 1) by Christopher Nicole

1769.

Young Harry McGann is forced to flee Ireland for the unknown shores of America. On that voyage he meets Elizabeth Bartlett, who seems as far beyond his reach as the stars which guide him across the Atlantic.

Through the years that follow, Harry finds himself involved in the formation of the American Navy. It is a world of intrigue, violence and untold dangers at sea.

But always the memory of Elizabeth is there … and their paths are destined to cross again and again.

[issybird]

The Collected Stories of Richard Yates is $2.99 at Amazon, probably NOT price-matchable at Kobo where it's $12.99.

[salty-horse]

Helm by Sarah Hall is £1 in the UK (Amazon only, but price-matchable on Kobo)
Historical fiction & magical realism. Review by Ian Mond.

Helm is a ferocious, mischievous wind - a subject of folklore and wonder - who has blasted the sublime landscape of the Eden Valley since the very dawn of time.

This is Helm's life story, formed from the chronicles of those the wind enchanted: the Neolithic tribe who tried to placate it, the Dark Age wizard priest who wanted to banish it, the Victorian steam engineer who attempted to capture it - and the farmer's daughter who fell in love. But now Dr Selima Sutar, surrounded by measuring instruments, alone in her observation hut, fears the end is nigh.

Vital and audacious, Helm is the elemental tale of a unique life force - and of a relationship: between nature and people, neither of whom can weather life without the other.

[WillAdams]

The Short Novels of John Steinbeck: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) Kindle Edition

is $5.99

https://www.amazon.com/Short-Novels-.../dp/B002L4EX9C

includes

- Tortilla Flats
- The Moon is Down
- Of Mice and Men
- Cannery Row
- The Pearl

[salty-horse]

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century

It's 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a dyke best friend, makes zines, and is a flaneur with a rich dating life. But Paul's also got a secret: he's a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Paul transforms his body and his gender at will as he crossed the country––a journey and adventure through the deep queer archives of struggle and pleasure.

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is a riotous, razor-sharp bildungsroman whose hero/ine wends his/her way through a world gutted by loss, pulsing with music, and opening into an array of intimacy and connections.

[salty-horse]

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

Hailed by The New York Times Book Review as “a painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature.”

New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century**

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life—until the unthinkable happens.

Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

[salty-horse]

A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

The story of three young provincials of no great heritage who together helped to destroy a way of life and, in the process, destroyed themselves: Camille Desmoulins, bisexual and beautiful, charming, erratic, untrustworthy; Georges Jacques Danton, hugely but erotically ugly, a brilliant pragmatist who knew how to seize power and use it; and Maximilien Robespierre, "the rabid lamb," who would send his dearest friend to the guillotine. Each, none older than thirty-four, would die by the hand of the very revolution he had helped to bring into being.

[nana77]

A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway is $1.08 in Kobo UK ($1,47 in US'): (Kobo) and $0.52 on Amazon.

[Hollow Man]

Originally Posted by nana77

A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway is $1.08 in Kobo UK ($1,47 in US'): (Kobo) and $0.52 on Amazon.

This is in the public domain in the US, so a lot of dodgy publishers are going to offer it cheap.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

This is in the public domain in the US, so a lot of dodgy publishers are going to offer it cheap.

Just buy the Delphi Edition and get ALL of his work.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Just buy the Delphi Edition and get ALL of his work.

Indeed. US version is $1.99; non-US version is $3.99.

[sufue]

Simon Scarrow's twenty-fourth and most recent (Nov 2025) Cato/Macro book, Tyrant of Rome, is £0.99 right now in the UK, for a few more hours. It's hard to believe I started reading these aloud to my military history loving son when he was maybe nine or ten years old - sliding over a few parts at first to be sure . And now he and his wife are about to become parents (and me and my husband grandparents !!!), and Cato/Macro are still going strong.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DP284P2X
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/tyr...-the-empire-24

Spoiler:

The city of Rome. The most dangerous place in the Empire. The fates of military heroes Macro and Cato lie in Emperor Nero's bloody hands . . .

AD 62. Under the reckless and tumultuous leadership of Emperor Nero, Rome is descending into near-anarchy and conspiracy. The brutal execution of 400 slaves has led to rioting and discontent. Only the strongest soldier could maintain control. And so Nero turns to Prefect Cato to help save his reign from collapse.

Cato has been lying low after a heroic campaign to quash the Boudica uprising. Now he is called upon to serve again. As the new Prefect of the Urban Cohorts in Rome, Cato needs a loyal and proven officer by his side. Centurion Macro is willing to step up.

War and rebellion hold few fears for these seasoned veterans. But the politics and intrigue of Rome make every day as perilous as the battlefield. And the fates of both men, and of the empire, lie in the hands of the most volatile emperor of the age. Death awaits anyone who dares to defy Nero.

Cato and Macro will need to call on all their experience, native cunning and bottomless courage to survive in this epic new adventure of Roman military heroism.