Reading on a Budget: I Heart My E-Reader

I am an Apple whore. Seriously, I'm not joking. My first laptop. Yep, it was a Mac. So was my second, and my third, and when I buy a desktop, that'll definitely be a Mac too. Nope, I'm still not joking. I bought myself my first iPod when I was 12 (a big purchase for someone earning $5 a week in allowance), and I have owned each edition since the Shuffle. The only thing that kept me from buying the iPhone was the monopolizing AT&T contract. But last February changed all that, and now me and my Apple products are inseparable. We are as alike as two peas in a very technologically friendly pod.

Naturally, when the iPad came out in April 2010, I was pretty sure that I would die if I didn't have it. I wrote email treatises that would put John Locke's work to shame, bombarding my mother with very logical arguments outlining exactly what a rational purchase this $500+ piece of beauty would be.

You guessed it. She didn't believe me, but I wasn't about to let that stop me. By August 2010, I had saved up enough money to buy my own (a big purchase for a broke college student).

And now I'll bet you're asking what any of this has to do with book or reading, so I'll give you the one word answer:

E-books.

My friends all think I'm insane (and maybe I am a little), but ever since I bought my iPad, I rarely purchase books in hard-copy anymore. The magazines I buy. Digital. My subscription to The New York Times. Digital. And while yes, I do still keep all of my favorite hard-copy books on my bookshelves, the majority of my obsessive book collection is all stored on my harddrive, and that weighs less than a pound.

For an addicted reader, E-books are the only solution. A twelve step program? I laugh at the idea. I only need one reason to justify my habit:

A lot of websites offer free books for their e-reader.

Free E-Books:

It's a secret that's not well advertised, but one that you'll definitely want to know. Websites like Barnes and Noble and Amazon post free content for each of their e-readers. And the list of books available is impossibly extensive. Barnes and Noble alone offers 61,142 pages of free content, and there are 30 books per page. You do the math.

Okay, so what can you expect when you download a fee e-book. One of two things, really: Classics, or promotional offers. Yes, it's true, you're not going to find New York Times Bestsellers on this page. But if all you need is a trashy romance novel, these free e-books sites have you covered. If you find a book you like, you have complete bragging rights. All of your friends will be jealous. And if you don't like the book, delete it without feeling guilty. It was free.

Looking for some great reviews on free e-books? Check out the blog KindleObsessed. They do a really great job of highlighting free e-books and giving quick synopses.

Free E-Book Links:
- Free NOOK Books by Barnes and Noble
- Limited-Time Promotional Offers by Amazon
- Kindle Popular Classics by Amazon
- Archive.org
- Open Library
- Project Gutenberg
- ManyBooks.net

Whatcha Reading Mr. President?

While on vacation this last summer at Martha's Vineyard, President Obama decided to make good use of his much deserved downtime and read a couple novels.

Craige Howie of Politico revealed in his article "Obama's Summer Reading List" that President Obama and his daughters made a stop at Bunch of Grapes, a local Martha's Vineyard bookstore. Here, he picked up two books and added them to his summer reading collection.

So, what was the President reading?

The Bayou Trilogy by Daniel Woodrell

 A hard-hitting, critically acclaimed trilogy of crime novels from an author about whom New York magazine has written, "What people say about Cormac McCarthy ... goes double for [Woodrell]. Possibly more." 

In the parish of St. Bruno, sex is easy, corruption festers, and double-dealing is a way of life. Rene Shade is an uncompromising detective swimming in a sea of filth. 

As Shade takes on hit men, porn kings, a gang of ex-cons, and the ghosts of his own checkered past, Woodrell's three seminal novels pit long-entrenched criminals against the hard line of the law, brother against brother, and two vastly different sons against a long-absent father. 

THE BAYOU TRILOGY highlights the origins of a one-of-a-kind author, a writer who for over two decades has created an indelible representation of the shadows of the rural American experience and has steadily built a devoted following among crime fiction aficionados and esteemed literary critics alike.

- Barnes and Noble 

For a great review of "The Bayou Trilogy," read Sarah L. Courteau's article "Review: 'The Bayou Trilogy' by Daniel Woodrell" in the Chicago Tribune.

Rodin's Debutante by Ward Just

Tommy Ogden, a Gatsbyesque character living in a mansion outside robber-baron-era Chicago, declines to give his wife the money to commission a bust of herself from the French master Rodin and announces instead his intention to endow a boys’ school. Ogden’s decision reverberates years later in the life of Lee Goodell, whose coming of age is at the heart of Ward Just’s emotionally potent new novel.  

Lee’s life decisions—to become a sculptor, to sojourn in the mean streets of the South Side, to marry into the haute-intellectual culture of Hyde Park—play out against the crude glamour of midcentury Chicago. Just’s signature skill of conveying emotional heft with few words is put into play as Lee confronts the meaning of his four years at Ogden Hall School under the purview, in the school library, of a bust known as Rodin’s Debutante. And, especially, as he meets again a childhood friend, the victim of a brutal sexual assault of which she has no memory. It was a crime marking the end of Lee’s boyhood and the beginning of his understanding—so powerfully under the surface of Just’s masterly story—that how and what we remember add up to nothing less than our very lives.

- Barnes and Noble 

Want a second opinion? Read Steven Heighton's article "Ward Just's Portrait of an Artist" in The New York Times.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.  

Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles—and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.

- Barnes and Noble 

Once again, The New York Times has a great review. For more, read Erica Wagner's "Doctors and Sons."

To the End of the Land by David Grossman

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Christian Science Monitor, The Economist, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and The Pittsburgh Post Gazette 

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK 

Just before his release from service in the Israeli army, Ora’s son Ofer is sent back to the front for a major offensive. In a fit of preemptive grief and magical thinking, so that no bad news can reach her, Ora sets out on an epic hike in the Galilee. She is joined by an unlikely companion—Avram, a former friend and lover with a troubled past—and as they sleep out in the hills, Ora begins to conjure her son. Ofer’s story, as told by Ora, becomes a surprising balm both for her and for Avram—and a mother’s powerful meditation on war and family.

- Barnes and Noble

The article "Losing Battles" by Colm Toibin in The New York Times is a great review to check out.

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves. 

With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties. 

Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new lives in colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved them with discipline, drive, and hard work. Both a riveting microcosm and a major assessment, The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an “unrecognized immigration” within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is destined to become a classic.

- Barnes and Noble 

Looking for a review? Try David Orshinsky's article "Freedom Trains" in The New York Times.

Up Next: Tokyo Vice

"So there I sat, inner debate raging. Give up and go home, or stick with it? I got up out of my seat and tossed my backpack over my shoulder. As I looked across the room, it seemed for a moment as if time had stopped. All the chatter faded out, people froze in midmovement, and I heard a high-pitched buzzing in my ears. In that instant, I knew that leaving or staying would be the biggest decision in my adult life. "

 - "Tokyo Vice" by Jake Adelstein

Synopsis:

A riveting true-life tale of newspaper noir and Japanese organized crime from an American investigative journalist. Jake Adelstein is the only American journalist ever to have been admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police Press Club, where for twelve years he covered the dark side of Japan: extortion, murder, human trafficking, fiscal corruption, and of course, the yakuza. But when his final scoop exposed a scandal that reverberated all the way from the neon soaked streets of Tokyo to the polished Halls of the FBI and resulted in a death threat for him and his family, Adelstein decided to step down. Then, he fought back. In Tokyo Vice he delivers an unprecedented look at Japanese culture and searing memoir about his rise from cub reporter to seasoned journalist with a price on his head.

 - Barnes and Noble

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About the Author:

Jake Adelstein was a reporter for the Yomiuri Shinbun, Japan’s largest newspaper, from 1993 to 2005. From 2006 to 2007 he was the chief investigator for a U.S. State Department-sponsored study of human trafficking in Japan. Considered one of the foremost experts on organized crime in Japan, he works as a writer and consultant in Japan and the United States. He is also the public relations director for the Washington, D.C.-based Polaris Project Japan, which combats human trafficking and the exploitation of women and children in the sex trade.

 - Barnes and Noble

Author Gossip: Q & A with Melanie Benjamin

On her website, Melanie Benjamin answers some great questions about her book "Alice I Have Been." Here are some of my favorites.

Q: Were you a fan of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as a child?

Surprisingly, not really. I don't recall reading the book, although I know that at some point, I must have. I really only knew the Disney movie, and what I knew of that mainly came from riding the Mad Tea Party ride at Disney World.

Q: What drew you to writing a novel about Alice Liddell, then?

I saw an exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago several years ago, titled "Dreaming in Pictures: the Photography of Lewis Carroll." I did not know that Lewis Carroll was a pioneer in photography; I did not even know that Lewis Carroll was a pseudonym for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Certainly I had no inkling that there had ever been a "real" Alice! Once inside the exhibit, however, I was startled by the images Carroll—Dodgson—had taken; they were all prepubescent little girls. One photograph in particular captured my fancy; it was of a girl clad in rags, staring at the camera with a very frank—very adult—gaze. The caption informed me she was 7-year-old Alice Liddell, the daughter of Dean Liddell of Christ Church, Oxford, where Dodgson taught mathematics. The caption also said she was the inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Q: As a historical novelist, are you more concerned with sticking to the absolute historical truth, or telling a good story?

Story first, always! Sometimes you have to condense known facts or dates, or maybe move them around a little, in order to put focus on the story you want to tell. Or you have to leave them out, if they don't really move that story along. That said, I would never introduce, knowingly, any anachronisms, nor would I have the audacity to plunk known historical characters down in situations or events where it is absolutely recorded they were not present. I tend to concentrate on what happens between these well-known events and situations. And I do think I strive for an emotional truth, at least as I see it, at all times. But yes—in the end, there's a reason why this is called fiction, not biography. Readers want to learn, that's true; they also want to be entertained or moved or transported. That's my first responsibility as an author—to tell a good story. Hopefully, then, it will inspire the reader to want to do more research about these people after they read the book.

Q: Do you think it's possible for children who have been immortalized in fiction to lead "normal" lives? Or are they always overshadowed by their fictionalized characters?

Well, the Llewelyn-Davies boys—whose lives were changed forever by J.M. Barrie and Peter Pan—certainly had their share of troubles growing up; at least one of them—Peter himself—later committed suicide (the circumstances surrounding the drowning death of Michael remain mysterious). Christopher Milne, the inspiration for Christopher Robin in the Winnie the Pooh stories, also had difficulties with his legacy; he grew to resent his father for what he saw as the exploitation of his childhood and was practically estranged from him in the end. So no, I'm not sure it is ever possible for them to live a normal life. I tried to show Alice Liddell making peace with her legacy, but she only did so at the very end of her long life. For much of it, it really appeared to me she was trying to do her best to escape Wonderland.




Q: Is there one thing you would like to say to authors? One piece of wisdom or insight?

Open your eyes—get out of the house! I think that authors, very often, get stuck in a rut; they spend their time alone, concentrating on one thing—one story, one novel, one idea—and fixate on it. Some spend years and years reworking the same idea. I was close to being in this place—and then I took the train into Chicago and wandered into a photography exhibit, which changed my life as an artist. Authors need to experience life, and art, and keep their minds—and eyes—open to every possibility. We can't remain chained to our computers all the time. 

For more of the Q & A, visit Melanie Benjamin's official website.


Photo courtesy of melaniebenjamin.com, taken by Todd Rennels.

Scandal in Wonderland: Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin

Everybody's heard rumors about Lewis Carroll and his book "Alice in Wonderland." But what about the little girl who inspired the tale? Who was the real Alice, and what really happened to her? Read Melanie Benjamin's "Alice I Have Been" and find out.

A heartfelt debut novel, "Alice I have Been" isn't the story of a child. Rather, it's a story about a girl-turned-woman and her understanding of life. Growing up, this story states, is never quick and rarely easy. Growing older, however, is something we all have to come to terms with. Inspired by the Carroll Myth, Melanie Benjamin dances gracefully around some very twisted subject matter. Young love, forbidden love, and the intentions of an older friend.

Understated but still thrillingly scandalous, "Alice I Have Been" is a really great read.

The Specifics:

"Alice I Have Been" by Melanie Benjamin
January 2010
315 Pages

My Review: This book delicately deals with some really dark rumors. It's an interesting look at the trials of growing up.


Who'd Love It: Costume Drama Enthusiasts, or anyone who likes a good bit of gossip.

What's It About: The real Alice in Wonderland.

When's It Set: Victorian England

What I Thought: 
My sister says that I am a gossip. And, for the most part, she's entirely right. Maybe that's why I've always loved a good conspiracy theory. But if that's all you're looking for in a novel, then Melanie Benjamin's "Alice I Have Been" probably isn't for you. Like all good coming of age tales, this story has depth.

We've all heard the rumors surrounding Lewis Carroll, that his famous children's story was really just an in depth account of a very serious LSD trip. But what about Charles Dodgson, the man behind the rabbit hole. Did you know that he took photos of various young Victorian children? Did you know that the real Alice posed for one of these shots?

Was Charles Dodgson in fact a pedophile?

And stop.

Now you've probably read and reread that last sentence. A book about a pedophile, you're thinking. No, not for me. But that's the beauty of Benjamin's story. She is not writing about a pedophile (although those rumors do play into the story). Instead, she focuses on Alice Liddell, the real Alice in Wonderland, and the effect Charles Dodgson and his story had on her life.

Surprisingly, the actual story of "Alice in Wonderland" doesn't play a huge part in this tale. What Benjamin did focus on are the relationships surrounding Alice: The role of her mother, her sisters, her lover, and Mr. Dodgson. Love, the book clearly states, is curtail in the development of a child. But does it matter from whom this love is given? That's the real question Benjamin asks.

Again, this is not a tabloid novel, even though it covers incredibly scandalous subjects. Benjamin treats all of her characters with dignity, weaving a delicate mystery on each page. What I loved most about this novel was that Benjamin didn't reveal the real nature of Alice and Mr. Dodgson's relationship until the very end of the novel. Was the author of "Alice in Wonderland" in fact a pedophile? Sadly, no, I'm not going to spoil it for you.

"Alice I Have Been." I definitely recommend it.

Books You Should Read More Than Once: Gone with the Wind

My grandma gave some really great advice. Until the day she died, she believed that you were never too old to sing a song to the moon. She believed that there was no such thing as dinner in front of the TV. Pearls, she said, went with every outfit. And there wasn't a problem she believed a good glass of red wine couldn't solve. 

But there's one bit of advice that's stuck with me. One gem of wisdom that shines more than the rest. A good book is a book you can read over and over. That's how my grandma felt about Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind."

According to Grandma, every woman should read "Gone with the Wind" three times in her life: Once when she is young, once when she is married, and once when she is older and her children have grown. The idea is that every time you read "Gone with the Wind" you will understand the characters differently, and Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler's actions will take on new life.

Well, Grandma, I'm not married, and I don't have any children. But I am 20 years old, not quite over the hill yet. This is a pretty good age to start "Gone with the Wind." Wish me luck.

Up Next: Alice I Have Been

"I do get tired; tired of pretending to be Alice in Wonderland still, always. Although it has been no easier being Alice Pleasance Hargreaves. Truly, I wonder; I have always wondered-- Which is the real alice, and which the pretend?"

- "Alice I Have Been" by Melanie Benjamin

"Few works of literature are as universally beloved as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Now, in this spellbinding historical novel, we meet the young girl whose bright spirit sent her on an unforgettable trip down the rabbit hole-and the grown woman whose story is no less enthralling. 

"But oh my dear, I am tired of being Alice in Wonderland. Does it sound ungrateful?" 

Alice Liddell Hargreaves's life has been a richly woven tapestry: As a young woman, wife, mother, and widow, she's experienced intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. But as she nears her eighty-first birthday, she knows that, to the world around her, she is and will always be only "Alice." 

That story, a wild tale of rabbits, queens, and a precocious young child, becomes a sensation the world over. Its author, a shy, stuttering Oxford professor, does more than immortalize Alice—he changes her life forever. But even he cannot stop time, as much as he might like to. And as Alice's childhood slips away, a peacetime of glittering balls and royal romances gives way to the urgent tide of war. 

For Alice, the stakes could not be higher, for she is the mother of three grown sons, soldiers all. Yet even as she stands to lose everything she treasures, one part of her will always be the determined, undaunted Alice of the story, who discovered that life beyond the rabbit hole was an astonishing journey. 

A love story and a literary mystery, Alice I Have Been brilliantly blends fact and fiction to capture the passionate spirit of a woman who was truly worthy of her fictional alter ego, in a world as captivating as the Wonderland only she could inspire."

- The Official Website of Melanie Benjamin

Check out this interview with Melanie Benjamin on NCTV17's Authors Revealed with Becky Anderson:

About the Author:

"Melanie Benjamin was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. An avid reader all her life—as a child, she was the proud winner, several years running, of the summer reading program at her local library—she still firmly believes that a lifetime of reading is the best education a writer can have. 

While attending Indiana University—Purdue University at Indianapolis, Melanie performed in many community theater productions before meeting her husband, moving to the Chicago area and raising two sons. Writing was always beckoning, however, and soon she began writing for local magazines and newspapers before venturing into her first love, fiction. As Melanie Hauser, she published two contemporary novels. 

By incorporating her passion for history and biography, Melanie, now writing as Melanie Benjamin, has finally found her niche writing historical fiction, concentrating on the "stories behind the stories." Alice I Have Been is her first historical novel; The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb is her second, published in July 2011. Having recently signed a contract with Random House for two more historical novels, she is currently at work on her third. 

She and her family still live in the Chicago area; when she's not writing, she's gardening, taking long walks, rooting for the Cubs— 

And reading, of course."

- The Official Website of Melanie Benjamin

More Books by Melanie Benjamin:

Mrs. Tom Thumb