Sullivan's Island and Return to Sullivan's Island -- eBooks by Dorothea Benton Frank

Dorthea Benton Frank is a southern writer.  Her works have been compared to Pat Conroy and Anne Rivers Siddons.  Nine years ago, those comparisons lead me to pick up her first book Sullivan's Island.  I loved it. 

The publisher synopsis really doesn't capture the magic of her writing or the powerful back story about her family, South Carolina and desegregation. 

Set in the steamy, stormy landscape of South Carolina, Sullivan's Island tells the unforgettable story of one woman's courageous journey toward truth.

Born and raised on idyllic Sullivan's Island, Susan Hayes navigated through her turbulent childhood with humor, spunk, and characteristic Southern sass. But years later, she is a conflicted woman with an unfaithful husband, a sometimes resentful teenage daughter, and a heart that aches with painful, poignant memories. And as Susan faces her uncertain future, she realizes that she must go back to her past. To the beachfront house where her sister welcomes her with open arms. To the only place she can truly call home.

When I read last year that Frank was writing an sequel Return to Sullivan's Island, I immediately added it to my summer reading list. Then I started think about the original book, Sullivan's Island.  I realized that my memory was pretty hazy; so hazy that it would make sense to re-read the book.

Actually, it turned out to be a good/bad decision. 

The good part is that Sullivan's Island is well written, engrossing and I would have missed some of the subtleties of the Return if I had not reread it. It was as much fun to reread as it had been to read. 

The bad part is that in the Return to Sullivan's Island the plot and the writing were definitely not up to the same standard.  I actually found myself wishing that she had not returned.  Or at least not in this particular fashion.  I found the return was incredibly disappointing and stretching my credulity beyond it's normal limits. 

I'm not sure it would have been so disappointing if I had read the books separately or if I had never read Frank before.  Return to Sullivan's Island is an "OK" beach read; it is mindless reading that will keep you entertained for several hours.  Great literature it is not.  Sullivan's Island on the other hand is recommended reading for the beach or anywhere else you happen to be!

 

Dorothea Benton Frank returns to the enchanted landscape of South Carolina's Lowcountry made famous in her beloved New York Times bestseller Sullivans Island to tell the story of the next generation of Hamiltons and Hayes.

Newly graduated from college and an aspiring writer, Beth Hayes craves independence and has a world to conquer. But her notions of travel, graduate study, and writing the great American novel will have to be postponed. With her mother, Susan, leaving to fulfill her own dreams in Paris and her Aunt Maggie, Uncle Grant, and stepfather, Simon, moving to California, Beth is elected by her elders to house-sit the Island Gamble.

Surrounded by the shimmering blue waters of the Atlantic, the white clapboards, silver tin roof, and confessional porch have seen and heard the stories of generations of Hamiltons. But will the ghosts of the Island Gamble be watching over Beth? Buoyed by sentimental memories of growing up on this tiny sandbar that seems to be untouched by time, Beth vows to give herself over to the Lowcountry force and discover the wisdom it holds. She will rest, rejuvenate, and then reenter the outside world. Just as she vows she will never give into the delusional world of white picket fences, minivans, and eternal love, she meets Max Mitchell. And all her convictions and plans begin to unravel with lightning speed. There is so much about life and her family's past that she does not know. Her ignorance nearly costs her both her inheritance and her family's respect. But Beth finds unexpected friends to help her through the disaster she faces: her wise and charming Aunt Sophie; Cecily Singleton, the granddaughter of Livvie Singleton; and Woody Morrison, the solid young investment banker.

This wonderful ensemble of characters could be your own family, but watch what unfolds as they succumb to the island's spell. If everything happens for a reason, then Beth's return to Sullivans Island teaches her that betrayal and tragedy are most easily handled when you surround yourself with loyal family and friends in a magical place that loves you so much that it wants to claim you as its own.

del.icio.us Tags: ebooks,ebooks about fictions,Dorothea Benton Frank,Sullivan's Island,Return to Sullivan's Island

New Bookeen Reader Soon -- The Opus

Bookeen, the maker of the Cybook, are showing off thier new reader called the Opus. Shown below is a picture that compares the current Cybook with the New Opus. Was originally supposed to be available in June . . .

MobileRead lists the new specs below:

• 5" high definition e-ink screen (200dpi, 600x800 pixels)
• Ultra light-weight : 150 grammes.
• 1go internal memory (twice the capacity of the Cybook Gen3)
• Truly pocket-sized !
• Excellent ergonomy with convenient well-placed page-turning buttons on the side of the screen for one-handed use.
• An accelerometer allows you to use it in either hand.
• ePUB and PDF support (with or without DRM) via the Adobe Reader Mobile SDK. 12 different type sizes
• Folder support !
• User replaceable battery.
• Memory card expansion slot (Micro SD).

Here are a lot more pictures (and more info if you read french)

Looks like an interesting alternative. Stay tuned for actual release date and pricing.

World eBook Fair 2009

Once again eBooks About Everything is proud to be a sponser of the World eBook Fair.

The World eBook Fair is the brain child of Michael Hart, the founder of Project Gutenburg. Four years ago he enlisted our involvement and we have been great supporters since.

The Fair has thousands of free books and books for sale. eBooks About Everything and the World eBook Fair are offering a 15% discount on any book in the store. Remember that new books and the best sellers are already discounted 10% which means a 25% discount on those catagories.

Just use this coupon code at check out -- z9WebF4

You or Someone Like You by Chandler Burr

This is a fascinating book that explores the limits of culture and identity. It is a book that I wanted to like. In fact, tried very hard to like. But whether or not I liked it is almost beside the point. Because in the end this is a book that (if you persist to the end) will stick with you. It is one that you will find yourself thinking about for a long time to come.

Chandler Burr is an intelligent and skilled writer. His books on perfumes are informative, well-researched and interesting. When I heard that he had a new fiction title, I was curious to see if he could bring those qualities to fiction and still make the book work.

You or Someone Like You is a truly literary novel; informative, well-researched and interesting. Since I had an excellent British education I am familiar with most of the authors and many of the works written about. Many of them quite obscure and a lot of them poetry.

After a while it dawned on me that to really appreciated this book you need either a better memory than I have or a PhD in English literature. Yes, it is beautifully written, but it is hard work. Highly intellectual and quite enigmatic. Frankly I was almost stiff with boredom about half way through.

Fortunately I persisted -- the advantage of being stubborn, I guess. When Burr finally gets to the issues of religion, culture and identity the story once again engaged my interest and not just my intellect.

Read the synopsis below and if you interest is peaked, read a short excerpt and decide for yourself.

Anne Rosenbaum leads a life of quiet Los Angeles privilege, the wife of Hollywood executive Howard Rosenbaum and mother of their seventeen-year-old son, Sam. Years ago Anne and Howard met studying literature at Columbia-she, the daughter of a British diplomat from London, he a boy from an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. Now on sleek blue California evenings, Anne attends halogen-lit movie premieres on the arm of her powerful husband. But her private life is lived in the world of her garden, reading books.

When one of Howard's friends, the head of a studio, asks Anne to make a reading list, she casually agrees-though, as a director reminds her, "no one reads in Hollywood." To her surprise, they begin calling: screen-writers; producers, from their bungalows; and agents, from their plush offices on Wilshire and Beverly. Soon Anne finds herself leading an exclusive book club for the industry elite. Emerging gradually from her seclusion, she guides her readers into the ideas and beauties of Donne, Yeats, Auden, and Mamet, with her brilliant and increasingly bold opinions.

But when a crisis of identity unexpectedly turns an anguished Howard back toward the Orthodoxy he left behind as a young man, Anne must set out to save what she values above all else: her husband's love. At once fiercely intelligent and emotionally gripping, You or Someone Like You confronts the fault lines between inherited faith and personal creed, and, through the surprising transformation of one exceptional, unforgettable woman, illuminates literature's power to change our lives.

The Girls From Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow

I am a big sucker for books about women's friendships so it is no surprise that I picked up The Girls From Ames.

Forty years of close friendship is no mean feat!  Especially in this day and age when so many of us leave the scenes of our childhoods and build lives so far away. 

Zaslow who co-wrote The Last Lecture and is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal is a wonderful writer.  He spent a year getting to know these women.  He Interviewed them and their families, hung out at a reunion, read letters and emails and examined scrapbooks. 

This should be a fabulous book.  It is, actually, a fairly interesting book.  It isn't dreadful or even bad; it just isn't wonderful.  I do not want to diminish the fact that these ten women have remained friends through all of life experience for four decades. And yet, this book was a long slog!

It is impossible to cover forty years and eleven character and do them justice in 300 pages.  After all character and plot are not built by telling story after loosely related story and hoping that some how it will all jell. 

Most of my problem with this book stems from the fact that you never really get to know any one of these women well; never mind all of them.  And they are not individually flamboyant enough to clearly differentiate themselves.  I spent a lot of time going "OK, who exactly is Jenny (or Karen or Karla)."  I finally resorted to making a cheat sheet on an index card that I put next to my table.

My other problem is that I didn't get any real sense of place and time.  In other words, nothing really evoked and emotional response or deep recognition of these women or their particular world either as children or as adults.  There early years took place in a world vastly different than mine.  In a well written story (fiction or non-fiction) the author paints a picture that evokes time, place and circumstances.  In this book; not so much.

Perhaps if you are from Ames, or if you are younger than I you will love this book.  I really wanted to!

As children, they formed a special bond, growing up in the small town of Ames, Iowa. As young women, they moved to eight different states, yet they managed to maintain an extraordinary friendship that would carry them through college and careers, marriage and motherhood, dating and divorce, the death of a child, and the mysterious death of the eleventh member of their group.

Capturing their remarkable story, The Girls from Ames is a testament to the enduring, deep bonds of women as they experience life's challenges, and the power of friendship to overcome even the most daunting odds.

Because they came of age in an era of unprecedented opportunity for women, their story also examines how feminism's major breakthroughs have been seized or wasted, and captures what it was like to be girls in the sixties, to come of age in the seventies and eighties, to be new mothers in the nineties, and enter middle age in the new millennium and how close female relationships can shape every aspect of women's lives. With both universal events and deeply personal moments, it's a book that every woman will relate to and be inspired by.

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-book,ebook reviews,ebooks about women,Ames,Zaslow

eBooks, Digital Publications and Publishers

If you wonder why bookstores keep going out of business and why publishers are losing money, here is a clue:

I don't think I've ever heard a reader say: "I want more fancy digital stuff in my eBooks! I want videos and audio and animations!" . . . The publishing business ought to concentrate first on their core value: getting books people love to readers who love them. --- Anonymous "Publishing Professional"

First let me give the guy (I assume it is a guy) credit for the statement that he hasn't heard a reader say they want more "digital stuff" in their books.  This is a depressingly accurate statement.  Readers, the dying breed that still exist probably don't say that.

 

The problem is that there are several generations (GenX,Gen Y, the Millennials and whatever comes next) that have been raised to EXPECT digital stuff (videos and audio and animations and links) as a part of any media they consume.  What would FaceBook, MySpace or even Twitter be without digital stuff?

Sure, they read.  Text will always be with us.  But it is mostly a big stretch to call them readers.  They are in fact consumers and creators of digital stuff. 

They are not patronizing Borders or Barnes and Nobles.  They are increasing relying on information they download from the Internet.  Much of it free.  Who needs bookstores?

When it comes to publishing the problem is slightly different.  The Internet has enabled almost anyone with something to show, say or sing to publish their work.  This is incredibly artistically liberating.  It is, however, rarely lucrative.  Most of the owners of the intellectual property do not make any money at all. 

As people come to expect more interactive publications there is an unfortunate downside.  Many works of genius may never be commercially viable because the author lacks the skills or the ability to assemble a team. 

This is where Publishers become incredibly important.  Their role in this new world is to find those geniuses, help assemble teams and promote the finished publications.  If  the current batch of publishers want to remain in business they will have to substantially change their outlook and attitude.  I'm rooting for them!

del.icio.us Tags: books,ebooks,e-books,publishing industry,digital media,digital reading

J.R.R.Tolkien's eBooks Discounted This Week

This week we are discounting all Tolkien's eBooks.  The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings (individually and collectively) and the Children of Hurin.

             

It took six year to convince the J.R.R. Tolkien's estate to put these great books into eBook format.  That is "more than half as long as the author needed to complete his Lord of the Rings trilogy" according to the Associated Press (via USA Today).

"The Tolkien estate wanted to be absolutely confident that e-books were not something ephemeral," said David Brawn, publishing operations director at HarperCollins UK. "We were finally able to convince the Tolkien estate that the e-book is a legitimate, widespread format."

It's simple:

• Click here to see all of these great titles
• Add them to your shopping cart
• Use coupon code jRrT59 at check out to get a 20% discount
• Start reading

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-book,tolkien,hobbit,lord of the rings,children of hurin,ebooks about fantasy,ebook discounts,discounted ebooks

eBook And Publishing News . . .And Spring Fever

Most days I sit down to write this blog and the biggest problem I have is narrowing it down to just one or two topics.  This week, for some unknown reason, I haven't been able to find anything interesting enough to write about.

I seem to be in some sort of spring fever state which makes it impossible to focus on any of the list of possible topics:

• The London Book Fair and the IBS questionnaire on eBooks
• The rumored $100 Android based netbook/eTablet
• The IDPF February eBook Sales report
• Random House's enhanced eBooks which might have been the one except that the link to any meaningful info is broken
• The Pulitzer Prizes
• The Wall Street Journal story on eTextBook rentals
• The Wall Street Journal story on eBooks

Not one of them really caught fire with me this week; but PLEASE check them out for yourself.  There is some really interesting stuff going on I'm just too fevered to fix on anything!

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-book,ebook news,ebook sales,digital reading,ebook technology,enhanced ebooks,eTextbooks

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout eBook edition

Olive Kitteridge may be the most honored book of 2008.  People, USA Today, The Washington Post Book World and even The Wall Street Journal named it the best book of 2008.  And then, early this week Olive Kitteridge was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

I decided, what the hell, why not give it another try.  I say another try because this book has been on my eReader for quite a while.

In fact I have read the first chapter at least three times.  Each time I hope that this will be THE time that I become engrossed and read more. . .

It would seem that this is a book I should love.  Elizabeth Strout is an amazing writer.  Amy and Isabelle is one of my all time favorite books.  This is a collection of thirteen loosely related stories about people and their humanity.  The language is beautiful and the characters are full bodied and three dimensional, the insights profound. 

So I tried again. 

This time I skipped the first chapter.  I thought maybe the problem was reading about Henry and his low level depression.  Perhaps it was the weight of his isolation and loneliness that put me off.  This time I started with Chapter 2: "Incoming Tide."  In this cheery chapter the low level depression has ratcheted up to actual suicidal depression. 

Third time is the charm right?  So I skipped over to the chapter entitled "Tulips."  I figured a story about those beautiful spring flowers had to be a little more cheerful.  I was wrong.

The writing IS beautiful.  The descriptions are vivid and often stark.  The characters fully dimensional and perhaps even sympathetic is some sort of way.  All of that is true.  And yet, one more time, I put the books down with a big sigh.  I just couldn't do it.

Perhaps I am just perverse.  Maybe it is my mood.  Maybe I just have no class. Whatever the reason I could not get into this book and stay there. 

Make up you own mind by reading a sample.  And then let me know what you think. 

At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.

As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life–sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.

 

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-book,ebook review,Olive Kitteridge,Pulitzer

eBook Discounts for Earth Day

You might notice a theme here. . . All of us at eBooks About Everything are all about Green. . . not just today (Earth Day) but all year long. To celebrate we are giving a 10% discount this week on any eBook in the store. Use coupon code EARTH09 to get your discount at checkout. No more books on dead trees.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Careers eBook edition by Parks, Barbara The career opportunities of the future ? Green-collar jobs are on the rise according to Businessweek magazine. The Green Jobs Act of 2007 anticipates a growing labor need for thousands of green-collar workers with $125 million in annual funding for training and research. More Info List Price : $14.95 Your price $11.51 (Using your 10% discount and $ .61 points in eBook Reward points)

Shamus in the Green Room eBook Edition by Kandel, Susan Los Angeles writer Cece Caruso is thrilled that her biography of the legendary Dashiell Hammett is headed for the big screen. When the dead body shows up neither the ""facts"" nor the hunky star's alibi add up—Cece might end up pulling the plug on the movie—if someone doesn't pull the plug on Cece first. More Info List Price : $14.95 Your price $12.78 (Using your 10% discount and $ .67 iin eBook Reward points)

Haley's Hints Green Edition: 1000 Great Tips to Save Time, Money, and the Planet! eBook edition by Haley, Graham, Haley, Rosemary A budget-friendly, time-saving collection of green ideas. Because Mother Earth never wrote a guide for humans on caring for her, the authors of Haley¿s Hints now offer a collection of Earth-friendly tips for around the house More Info List Price : $14.00 Your price $10.77 (Using your 10% discount and $ .57 in eBook Reward points)

Before Green Gables eBook edition by Wilson, Budge A must-read for generations of book lovers. This remarkable, and heart-warming prequel to the classic Anne of Green Gables was specially authorized by L.M. Montgomery's heirs to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of the original novel. More Info List Price : $22.95 Your price $19.62 (Using your 10% discount and $1.03 in eBook Reward points)

The Gorgeously Green Diet (Mobipocket) eBook edition by Uliano, Sophie Sophie shows how to lovefood, live healthily, lose weight, and save money and the planet.Uliano offers three different lean and green eating plans: Light Green,Bright Green, and Deep Green. Each offers a cornucopia of the healthiestand most gorgeous food you've ever eaten. More Info List Price : $25.95 Your price $22.19 (Using your 10% discount and $1.17 in eBook Reward points)

Our guarantee: If you have bought one of these titles from eBooks About in the last 15 days -- we will gladly offer you a rebate on the book; just contact us