FREE/BARGAIN — Fiction (everything else)

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I have a First Edition w/DJ.

If you're a John Irving fan - as I am! - then this is required reading. I enjoyed it.

If not a fan, then I would say skip this one. (I think [?] it was his first novel.)

Setting Free the Bears is his first novel, if my murky memory can be trusted (and it shouldn't be!).

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Setting Free the Bears is his first novel, if my murky memory can be trusted (and it shouldn't be!).

You are correct.

The Water-Method Man came out in 1972, the year I bought my copy.

The Setting Free title came out in 1968.

[sufue]

Simon Scarrow's Day of the Caesars, which is the sixteenth in his excellent IMO Cato/Macro/Eagles of the Empire series, is on sale at Kindle US for $0.99 as part of today's Daily Deal. Somewhat unusually, it's not matched at Kobo, at least as of now. Most of Scarrow's books don't go on sale in the US very often, so I'd grab it if you want it...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQI8DOC
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01MQI8DOC

Spoiler:

The Sunday Times bestseller

AD 54. Claudius is dead. Rome is in turmoil. And two brave heroes of the Roman army face the challenge of their lives.

Simon Scarrow's DAY OF THE CAESARS is not to be missed by readers of Conn Iggulden and Bernard Cornwell. 'A new book in Simon Scarrow's series about the Roman army is always a joy' The Times

The Emperor Claudius is dead. Nero rules. His half-brother Britannicus has also laid claim to the throne. A bloody power struggle is underway.

All Prefect Cato and Centurion Macro want is a simple army life, fighting with their brave and loyal men. But Cato has caught the eye of rival factions determined to get him on their side. To survive, Cato must play a cunning game, and enlist the help of the one man in the Empire he can trust: Macro.

As the rebel force grows, legionaries and Praetorian Guards are moved like chess pieces by powerful and shadowy figures. A political game has created the ultimate military challenge. Can civil war be averted? The future of the Empire is in Cato's hands...

IF YOU DON'T KNOW SIMON SCARROW, YOU DON'T KNOW ROME!

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by sufue

Simon Scarrow's Day of the Caesars, which is the sixteenth in his excellent IMO Cato/Macro/Eagles of the Empire series, is on sale at Kindle US for $0.99 as part of today's Daily Deal. Somewhat unusually, it's not matched at Kobo, at least as of now. Most of Scarrow's books don't go on sale in the US very often, so I'd grab it if you want it...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQI8DOC
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01MQI8DOC

Thanks picked it up

[Tarana]

If you are a fan of historical fiction, the Morland Dynasty (35 books) by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles is excellent! Follows a family from the 1200s through early 20th century. The first 3 books are $.99 and the next two are $1.99. If you like those, most of the rest are now $3.99 (a couple are $5.99). Available at both Amazon and Kobo.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09C8R1173...118527&sr=8-10
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?qu...e-d6f473e6c6ea

[ZodWallop]

The Cider House Rules by John Irving is $1.99 at Amazon US.

An American classic first published in 1985 by William Morrow and adapted into an Academy Award-winning film, The Cider House Rules is among John Irving's most beloved novels. Set in rural Maine in the first half of the twentieth century, it tells the story of Dr. Wilbur Larch—saint and obstetrician, founder and director of the orphanage in the town of St. Cloud's, ether addict and abortionist. It is also the story of Dr. Larch's favorite orphan, Homer Wells, who is never adopted.

[ZodWallop]

East of Eden by John Steinbeck is $2.99 at Amazon US.

In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden "the first book," and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.

The masterpiece of Steinbeck’s later years, East of Eden is a work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. Adapted for the 1955 film directed by Elia Kazan introducing James Dean, and read by thousands as the book that brought Oprah’s Book Club back, East of Eden has remained vitally present in American culture for over half a century.

[Quoth]

Not sure if it goes here. 90% reduction to 87p
The Penguin Book of Norse Myths: Gods of the Vikings https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002RI9O28

Not sure how it compares to Neil Gaiman's recent Norse, or Ms Chocolat's series.

[sufue]

The Wayward Bus is £0.99 at Kindle UK as part of today's Daily Deal.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002RI9IUG
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002RI9IUG

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

John Steinbeck's The Wayward Bus is $5.99 at Amazon. $5.99 ain't cheap. But I haven't seen Steinbeck marked down very often.

In his first novel to follow the publication of his enormous success, The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck’s vision comes wonderfully to life in this imaginative and unsentimental chronicle of a bus traveling California’s back roads, transporting the lost and the lonely, the good and the greedy, the stupid and the scheming, the beautiful and the vicious away from their shattered dreams and, possibly, toward the promise of the future.

[sufue]

And now for something completely different ^^^

The book that spawned the TV series (but is better IMO, as books often are)...

M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, by Richard Hooker, is $1.99 at Kindle US as part of today's Daily Deal, and matched at Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0014H326C
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0014H326C
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/mas...e-army-doctors

Spoiler:

Before the movie, this is the novel that gave life to Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John, Hot Lips Houlihan, Frank Burns, Radar O'Reilly, and the rest of the gang that made the 4077th MASH like no other place in Korea or on earth.
The doctors who worked in the Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH) during the Korean War were well trained but, like most soldiers sent to fight a war, too young for the job. In the words of the author, "a few flipped their lids, but most of them just raised hell, in a variety of ways and degrees."

For fans of the movie and the series alike, here is the original version of that perfectly corrupt football game, those martini-laced mornings and sexual escapades, and that unforgettable foray into assisted if incompleted suicide--all as funny and poignant now as they were before they became a part of America's culture and heart.

Oh yeah, and almost forgot to mention how much I like the theme song from the show...

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by sufue

And now for something completely different ^^^

The book that spawned the TV series (but is better IMO, as books often are)...

M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, by Richard Hooker, is $1.99 at Kindle US as part of today's Daily Deal, and matched at Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0014H326C
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0014H326C
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/mas...e-army-doctors

Missed it!

By the way, the original Robert Altman movie is well worth a watch if you've never seen it.

Oh yeah, and almost forgot to mention how much I like the theme song from the show...

Suicide Is Painless. I always wondered what sort of royalties the songwriters got off of that one.

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Suicide Is Painless. I always wondered what sort of royalties the songwriters got off of that one.

There's an amazing history about that.

Robert Altman wanted the lyrics to the song to be the "stupidest song ever written." But he was apparently too "smart" to write the lyrics. So he told composer Johnny Mandel "All is not lost. I’ve got a 15-year-old kid who’s a total idiot." Yes, he spoke about his own son that way.

So he asked his teenage son Michael Altman to write the lyrics. His son must not have been that stupid because he wrote the lyrics in 5 minutes. (Also, some sources say his son was 14, so maybe Robert Altman was not good at math.)

All Michael Altman wanted in return was a new guitar. (OK, maybe he wasn't that smart.) But instead, the producer gave him a standard songwriter’s contract. This meant royalties. (The rules about royalties are why many TV shows themes have lyrics written for them even if they are never used.)

And then his father liked the song and made it the theme song, and of course, it became the theme song of the TV show.

Robert Altman later griped that he got $70,000 for directing the movie, but the theme song earned his "stupid" son a million dollars. And according to one source, that was even before the TV show and the reruns.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Critteranne

Robert Altman later griped that he got $70,000 for directing the movie, but the theme song earned his "stupid" son a million dollars. And according to one source, that was even before the TV show and the reruns.

I knew Altman's kid wrote the lyrics, but wasn't sure he got royalties for the instrumental version used in the TV show.

I do remember hearing about how Roddenberry wrote lyrics to the Star Trek theme. So I guess I should have known about the lyrics thing.

Robert Altman is a terrific director. I believe I've enjoyed every movie of his that I've seen. Yes, even Popeye.

[sufue]

I haven't seen the movie, but have heard similar comments from other friends. I watch like two or three movies a year, but will have to give it a try...thanks for the recommendation.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Missed it!

By the way, the original Robert Altman movie is well worth a watch if you've never seen it.

Suicide Is Painless. I always wondered what sort of royalties the songwriters got off of that one.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by sufue

I haven't seen the movie, but have heard similar comments from other friends. I watch like two or three movies a year, but will have to give it a try...thanks for the recommendation.

The essential misogyny of M*A*S*H, both film and tv show, doesn’t play well now.