You've probably heard of Amazon's plans to introduce a new class of ebook, the Single. The description has sounded like it could mean short stories or novellas, but would also encompass non-fiction, which has meant mostly the business short, so far. The problem with all of these categories, though, has been that with ebooks, it's difficult to tell which one they belong to, as even the filesize isn't always a good indicator of a full length novel or a doorstopper, since any images are included. Today, Amazon has released the first entries in
their Singles series and we see that there is mostly short non-fiction plus collections of short stories with a single theme (and, so far, a single author) and a longer short story (that is perhaps even novella length). Here's Amazon's description of the category.
Each Kindle Single presents a compelling idea--well researched, well argued, and well illustrated--expressed at its natural length. From an elaborate bank heist in Lifted, to Congolese rebel camps in The Invisible Enemy, to Jodi Picoult’s moving portrayal of family in Leaving Home, they offer nuanced journeys of both fact and fiction. This first set of Singles was selected by our team of editors, and includes works by Rich Cohen, Pete Hamill, Darin Strauss, and Ian Ayres. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we have.
All current prices are under three dollars and the title always has
(Kindle Single) at the end, so that you know you are buying a shorter piece. Here are a few of the ones that I thought were interesting:
Darkstar (
$2.99), by Christopher R. Howard, whose first novel,
Tea of Ulaanbaatar (
$9.17 paperback pre-order), "a story about the Peace Corps, Mongol hordes, hallucinogenic tea, and American nightmares", is due to be released in May.
Haunted by a diabolical voice, Sailor is a homeless Irish teen who seeks to reunite with the soulmate he hasn't seen since boyhood, as a cosmic event threatens to extinguish life on Earth. "Darkstar" is a pre-apocalyptic tale of love in the most dire and desperate of realities.
Jodi Picoult's
Leaving Home: Short Pieces (
$2.99) is an example of the work that many authors have hiding in their office, unpublished due to the perception that there isn't a market for short story collections (and, truthfully, there probably isn't for even mainstream bookstores that specialize in bestsellers, let along discount stores that also carry books).
Leaving Home brings together three, previously published short pieces, each dealing with a variation on the theme of leaving home. The first, “Weights and Measures,” deals with the tragic loss of a child; the second is a non-fiction letter Picoult wrote to her eldest son as he left for college; and, “Ritz” tells the story of a mother who takes the vacation all mothers need sometime.
The $500 Diet: Weight Loss for People Who Are Committed to Change (
$2.99), by Ian Ayres, is definitely not your mom's diet book.
Most diet books obsess about what you should put in your mouth. But information is not the problem. You already know that to lose weight you need to eat a bit less or exercise a bit more.
The $500 Diet is a different kind of diet plan, because it doesn’t tell you how much to eat or exercise. You are smart enough—with the help of the Internet and dozens of dieting books—to figure that out. What’s unique about The $500 Diet is that it works on another dimension. It lets you change your own incentives to lose weight. New York Times best-selling author, Ian Ayres, tells you about his own struggles with weight loss, and lays out advice for how you can use commitment contracts to safely lose 10 percent of your body weight. You’ll learn about his seven-step plan to a happier and lighter you. Most important, Ayres tells you what you should do to keep it off. Most diet books are written by physicians and scientists, but Ayres is a contract lawyer and an economist who uses the tools of his crafts to help you change how much you want to eat. If you are serious about losing weight, The $500 Diet provides a simple tool that can help you commit to a healthier life. If you’d rather lose a pound next week instead of losing 500 bucks, then this is the diet for you. This booklet is a companion to the book Carrots and Sticks: Unlock the Power of Incentives to Get Things Done.
Piano Demon: The globetrotting, gin-soaked, too-short life of Teddy Weatherford, the Chicago jazzman who conquered Asia (
$1.99), by Brendan I. Koerner
Piano Demon: The globetrotting, gin-soaked, too-short life of Teddy Weatherford, the Chicago jazzman who conquered Asia
At age six, Teddy Weatherford was working in the coal mines of Virginia. By his early twenties he was the toast of Chicago’s jazz scene, rivaling Louis Armstrong and wowing Jelly Roll Morton with his piano talent. But when Weatherford left segregated America for the allures of Shanghai and Bombay, he set out on a adventure he hadn't imagined. The man they called “The Seagull” would become the globetrotting jazz king of Asia in the shadow of World War II, and provide the soundtrack for the last gasp of an empire. The Atavist, a new home for original nonfiction storytelling, presents Brendan I. Koerner's true tale of how a forgotten legend lived the American Dream by leaving it behind—and helped globalize music with a piano and a sharkskin suit.
Brendan I. Koerner is an award-winning journalist and the author of Now the Hell Will Start: One Soldier’s Flight From the Greatest Manhunt of World War II (Penguin, 2008), which was optioned for film by Spike Lee. He is also a contributing editor at Wired, and contributor to Slate.com, The New York Times, and many other publications.
Chinese Dreams (
$2.99), by Anand Giridharadas
What does the next generation of Chinese want -- besides economic growth? A report from China on the country's search for meaning, by Anand Giridharadas, columnist for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times online, and author of "India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking."
Amazon.com Review
When Westerners think about China, they see unbridled authoritarianism, censorship, and propaganda used to control a diverse, dissatisfied population. They see the grow-at-any-cost mentality: corruption, factory sweatshops, pollution, lead-tainted toys, and massive infrastructure projects. But how do Chinese view themselves? Author Anand Giridharadas, who writes on global culture for The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, ventures to four of the country's largest cities, spending time with people across a range of professions. He discovers that many Chinese feel that the country has grown too quickly--centuries of progress in decades--and lost its roots in a massive money chase. Part narrative, part reporting, Chinese Dreams is contextually intelligent, exploring a country and people adrift between borrowed and inherited cultures. Voyeuristic and deeply nuanced, this well-written piece tells the stories of people trying both to hold on and to let go of their culture. --Paul Diamond
Long Island Shaolin (
$1.99), by Darin Strauss
Amazon.com Review
Now he's a New-York-based author of three acclaimed novels, but as a teenager, Darin Strauss was more interested in martial arts than literary arts. In elementary school Strauss was beaten up in a big brawl. At the start of junior high school he began watching Shaolin kung fu movies. When Strauss became a teenager, a kung fu master opens a school in his neighborhood, and so begins this puerile coming-of-age story featuring retributive justice, adrenaline, lots of bruises, and a kung fu master who takes a kick in the groin without wincing or flinching. Strauss brings people to life with captivating physical and psychological descriptions that go straight to the core of the awkward teenage years. His brief, informative history of Shaolin serves to balance the shenanigans of the teenagers, who are always scheming to get each other beaten up by their unremittingly abusive instructor. --Paul Diamond
More Kindle Singles (or visit the
Kindle Singles Page)
Sudoku Unbound #1 ($2.99), is a new Kindle Active Content App from Puzzazz, the makers of Wordoku Unbound #1 ($2.99), which I have (and like) and has all 5-star reviews. Since this should be essentially the same interface, but with traditional numbers instead of words, I think I'd ignore the lone 1-star review posted (complete with a nonsense title and misspellings in the body and which was not posted by a verified purchaser).
Brain Bump Literature ($0.99), by Fanmillion, is an active content App for Kindle and says it is a "Trivia Game for Book Lovers", but there is an integration with the Kindle store, allowing you to link to a book or author from the game screen, without having to navigate out and type in a search.
Easy Calculator ($0.99), by Mobigloo, is an active content App for your Kindle. Active content means that no internet or Wi-Fi access is required to run the App and it will run relatively quickly (within the limitations of e-Ink), but it is limited to the Kindle 2/DX (firmware 2.5+), Kindle DXG, Kindle 3, just as with the games that have been previously released.
