Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness ($1.49), by William Styron, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day. Book Description
Styron’s stirring account of his plunge into a crippling depression, and his inspiring road to recovery
In the summer of 1985, William Styron became numbed by disaffection, apathy, and despair, unable to speak or walk while caught in the grip of advanced depression. His struggle with the disease culminated in a wave of obsession that nearly drove him to suicide, leading him to seek hospitalization before the dark tide engulfed him.
Darkness Visible tells the story of Styron’s recovery, laying bare the harrowing realities of clinical depression and chronicling his triumph over the disease that had claimed so many great writers before him. His final words are a call for hope to all who suffer from mental illness that it is possible to emerge from even the deepest abyss of despair and “once again behold the stars.”
This ebook features a new illustrated biography of William Styron, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Styron family and the Duke University Archives.
If you are into memoirs (or are a fan), you may also want to check out Ann Patchett's The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life, a new Kindle Single. If you are more about the novel and not the novelist, be sure to check out Patron Saint of Liars and Truth & Beauty, both currently steeply discounted.Book Description
“The journey from the head to the hand is perilous and lined with bodies. It is the road on which nearly everyone who wants to write—and many of the people who do write—get lost.”
So writes Ann Patchett in "The Getaway Car", a wry, wisdom-packed memoir of her life as a writer. Here, for the first time, one of America’s most celebrated authors ("State of Wonder", "Bel Canto", "Truth and Beauty"), talks at length about her literary career—the highs and the lows—and shares advice on the craft and art of writing. In this fascinating look at the development of a novelist, we meet Patchett’s mentors (Allan Gurganas, Grace Paley, Russell Banks), see where she made wrong turns (poetry), and learn how she gets the pages written (an unromantic process of pure hard work). Woven through engaging anecdotes from Patchett’s life are lessons about writing that offer an inside peek into the storytelling process and provide a blueprint for anyone wanting to give writing a serious try. The bestselling author gives pointers on everything from finding ideas to constructing a plot to combating writer’s block. More than that, she conveys the joys and rewards of a life spent reading and writing.
“What I like about the job of being a novelist, and at the same time what I find so exhausting about it, is that it’s the closest thing to being God that you’re ever going to get,” she writes. “All of the decisions are yours. You decide when the sun comes up. You decide who gets to fall in love...”
In this Byliner Original by the new digital publisher Byliner, "The Getaway Car" is a delightful autobiography-cum-user’s guide that appeals to both inspiring writers and anyone who loves a great story.
What It Was, by George Pelecanos, can be pre-ordered by Canadian Kindle customers for only 99 cents (doesn't look available at all, for other areas, yet). This is may be a pricing error, so those of you north of the border should add it to your queue before it is corrected, but, if so, it is repeated at Barnes & Noble, where those in the US can pre-order this at the same price.Book Description
Washington, D.C., 1972. Derek Strange has left the police department and set up shop as a private investigator. His former partner, Frank "Hound Dog" Vaughn, is still on the force. When a young woman comes to Strange asking for his help recovering a cheap ring she claims has sentimental value, the case leads him onto Vaughn's turf, where a local drug addict's been murdered, shot point-blank in his apartment. Soon both men are on the trail of a ruthless killer: Red Fury, so called for his looks and the car his girlfriend drives, but a name that fits his personality all too well. Red Fury doesn't have a retirement plan, as Vaughn points out - he doesn't care who he has to cross, or kill, to get what he wants. As the violence escalates and the stakes get higher, Strange and Vaughn know the only way to catch their man is to do it their own way.
Rich with details of place and time - the cars, the music, the clothes - and fueled by non-stop action, this is Pelecanos writing in the hard-boiled noir style that won him his earliest fans and placed him firmly in the ranks of the top crime writers in America.
Bad Blood: A Virgil Flowers Novel, by John Sandford, narrated by Eric Conger, is today's $7.95 audiobook from Audible (good deal, the Kindle edition is still $14.99). All the previous titles are still on sale, but the sale ends tomorrow, so only one more selection to go.Book Description
The brilliant new Virgil Flowers thriller from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author.
One late fall Sunday in southern Minnesota, a farmer brings a load of soybeans to a local grain elevator- and a young man hits him on the head with a steel bar, drops him into the grain bin, waits until he's sure he's dead, and then calls the sheriff to report the "accident." Suspicious, the sheriff calls in Virgil Flowers, who quickly breaks the kid down...and the next day the boy's found hanging in his cell. Remorse? Virgil isn't so sure, and as he investigates he begins to uncover a multigeneration, multifamily conspiracy-a series of crimes of such monstrosity that, though he's seen an awful lot in his life, even he has difficulty in comprehending it...and in figuring out what to do next.
Yesterday's free comedy audiobook is still free at AudioGo. I don't know what time their selection changes, but it seems to be sometime in the afternoon here on the east coast. They should have one or two more and that will be it for the series.
Some updates on free books (additional formats):
- Soon (Kindle/EPUB/nook)
- The Oak Leaves (Kindle/EPUB/nook)
