Sleepwalking in Daylight is a finely wrought heartbreaker of a novel. Flock writes in compulsively readable prose...shoot[ing] a quiver of arrows straight to the heart."
-- The Denver Post
Get it for 29 % off the list price here
http://www.pivotalbookclub.com/sleepwalking.htm
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More than ever in this time of economic troubles and societal change, entering upon an undergraduate education should be a voyage away from visual overstimulation into deep, sustained reading of what is most worth absorbing and understanding: the books that survive all ideological fashions.
It's true that we need to make time for reading offline, and that reading has changed via the quick-byte culture of our computing. Melissa Clouthier has put an interesting personal perspective on these changes
So while I do feel my attention span has changed, I will sit for a good book or a good picture or a well-thought out article that expands my thought-scope. My patience for shoddy writing has dwindled.
PhraseologyThousands of Bizarre Origins, Unexpected Connections, and Fascinating Facts about English's Best Expressions
by Barbara Kipfer
Phraseology is the ultimate collection of everything you never knew about the wonderful phrases found in the English language. It contains information about phrase history and etymology; unusual, lost, or uncommon phrases; how phrases are formed; and more than 7,000 facts about common English phrases.
Find out more or buy the book at The Book Depository or Amazon.
Suppose there are two rival companies — let’s call them A and B. Each wants to dominate the blossoming world of electronic books.
Company A (that’s A as in “Amazon”) began life selling physical books online. Its reading gadget, the Kindle, stores hundreds of books in a plastic slab that weighs only 10 ounces. To accompany the Kindle, Company A built an enormous electronic-book store, filled with 345,000 books that can be downloaded to the Kindle in 30 seconds (each).
Company B (that’s B as in “Barnes & Noble”) waited patiently. “Let’s let A get all the arrows in its back,” it said.
When the imagination of a writer and the passion of a theologian cross-fertilize the result is a novel on the order of "The Shack." This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" did for his. It's that good! Read more
$21.88
Buy at http://www.pivotalbookclub.com/shack.htm
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[From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2009. http://scout.wisc.edu/]
Over the years, Penguin Books has acquired quite a reputation for their distinctive book covers and graphic design. This rather unique site explores the history and cover art of science fiction published by Penguin Books from 1935 to 1977. The site was created by James Pardey, and it starts off with an introductory essay that answers the questions: "Why Penguin, and why science fiction?" After reading this short piece, visitors should make their way through the cover collection, which starts off with their iconic orange and white covers in the 1930s. Of course, over the decades the series begins to introduce a series of increasingly surrealistic artistic endeavors that reflect broader changes in the art world. Throughout the site, Pardey provides commentary on each cover, along with information about each edition and its original publication date. First-time visitors might want to start by looking at the covers of "The Death of Grass" by John Christopher and "The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick
Best Novel: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
Best Novella: "The Erdmann Nexus", Nancy Kress
Best Novelette: "Shoggoths in Bloom", Elizabeth Bear
Best Short Story: "Exhalation", Ted Chiang
Best Professional Artist: Donato Giancola
Best Graphic Novel: Girl Genius (Kaja and Phil Foglio)
Best Editor, Short Form: Ellen Datlow
Best Editor, Long Form: David Hartwell
Best Related Book: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded, John Scalzi
Best Semiprozine: Weird Tales (Ann VanderMeer and Stephen Segal)
Best Fan Writer: Cheryl Morgan
Best Fan Magazine: Electric Velocipede (John Klima, editor)
Best Fan Artist: Frank Wu
(John W. Campbell Award goes to: David Anthony Durham)
Books for Dudes: Dog Day Bildungsromans
It is late summer, and my dude’s mind naturally turned to that beloved (and just as often maligned) category of coming-of-age novels. Turns out there’s a special term for them: Bildungsroman, which I ran across in Saul Bellow’s The Adventures of Augie March. According to the Modern Oracle, Wikipedia, it’s when an author “presents the psychological, moral, and social shaping of the personality of a protagonist.” more » » »
Wild Mary: The Life of Mary Wesley
by Patrick Marnham
Mary Wesley famously began writing at the age of 70. Her ten best-selling novels won her thousands of fans, and described a world that she had known in her youth - the world of war-time London, with its fear and high-spirits and casual sex. They created an image of Mary that her fans took to their hearts, but it was an image that was carefully created and one that raised more questions than it answered. The real Mary Wesley had lived a life more fascinating, scandalous and passionate than any she created for her heroines.
Buy it here for just $12.24
Also available from:The Book Depository, and fishpond.com.au
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