If you saw the Burns/Novick documentary Vietnam [kenburns.com], you might remember interviews with Tim O’Brien.
One of O’Brien’s books, The Things They Carried [Amazon.com], is on sale at Amazon right now. If you get it, the audiobook narrated by Bryan Cranston will be available for $7.49.
Had to do that with Peter Watts. It really adds to enjoyment.
My high school English teacher was friends with Tim O’Brien and he came to school and did a reading of The Things They Carried. That was 20+ years ago, and I still remember how fluidly he shifted from his opening remarks and into the reading, the whole time it was like he just was talking, rather than ever starting to read, telling a story off the top of his head that he knew so well there weren’t pauses to think or anything. If there ever was an author who should do his own audiobook narrations, that’s who I’d have picked.
Maybe he didn’t want to, or his voice has aged poorly, I dunno.
Thank you for sharing that memory. That’s certainly an interesting topic, about the author doing the reading for his/her own audiobook. I think you’re right that voice has a lot to do with it.
Regarding Schreier’s Blood, Sweat and Pixels, I’m about to finish it and found it a fast and enjoyable read even though I didn’t play all those games.
Can totally agree with this. There’s a sameness about each chapter where everybody has to grind through crunch time. The best parts to me are where the teams have to negotiate through personal disagreements like in the Halo Wars chapter. The are probably some interesting potential management lessons in there. I get though that this isn’t meant to necessarily be that kind of book. Thanks again for the recommendation.
Storybundle has a bundle about video game books from Boss Fight Books.
Tempting as a game critique fan. Especially for some of these games that I know nothing about, like Soft & Cuddly and World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy V and Super Mario Bros 3 and Mega Man 3.
Amazon currently has all of the Black Company books by Glen Cook on sale for $3 each. All except the first book, that is. Not sure why the exception.
I looked him up just now:
I liked the reviews on Amazon. I got the first 3 novels as an anthology, for $9.99. Then the next 3 as an anthology for $9.99 (oops, could have a saved a dollar by buying those three individually! D’oh). Then the rest for $3 each, for $12 more. So $32 all told. I’m committed to his series now, that I’ve never heard of before today!
Snagged the Storybundle - never heard of them before.
Also grabbed the Glen Cook books. A few are missing Whispersync for Voice despite having Audible editions, but most do support it.
Some of you may be interested in the latest Humble Book bundle: Brain Wave. It features a lot of good books about sciencey stuff. There’s one the about the X-15 and a title called Moon Shot, which should be of interest to the aviation nuts here. Also included in one of the tiers is Genius, a biography of Richard Feynman. There’s also an SF book called The Genome that I already got and haven’t read yet but heard is good.
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie is on sale today for $3.99. I have not read the book (I did buy it!) but it’s won a number of awards and I recall it got glowing recommendations in here the last time it was on sale.
Edit to add: Truth be told, I’m not 100% sure that’s a sale price. But it’s cheap and it came in a promotional email from Amazon so take that for what it’s worth.
That sounded familiar, so I had a look through my Kindle digital library, and sure enough, I own it. I think it was part of a bundle once. Maybe. I haven’t read it yet.
Amazing book and series. Definitely worth it.
Completely disagree on Ancillary Justice. Almost nothing happens in the book. There’s just pages of awkward language and forced gender neutrality setting up a world that was totally uninteresting.
Almost nothing happens in your book!
The book didn’t grab me, but the “forced” gender neutrality wasn’t noticeable to me, probably because I don’t give a crap one way or another. It is consistent with the context of the characters and story, IMHO
The book did have its moments, but not enough to get me to jump into the next book.
This month’s free ebook from TOR: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab.
I read this a couple of years ago and really, really liked it. There are a couple of follow ups to make it a trilogy, but it also stands quite well on its own. Definitely recommend it as a fantasy novel that follows some of the typical structure, but is also quite original in terms of the world and systems (and most importantly, the ride itself is enjoyable).
The Lies of Locke Lamora is only $1.99 today. This is the first in a fantasy series and is excellent. Its more of a grounded thieves/conman based fantasy. There are currently three books in the series and Ive enjoyed all three although I found book 2 to be a bit of a disappointment. The first novel is fine as a stand alone read if you do not want to dive in to another series.