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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse-Five - $5.70
1969

Kurt Vonnegut was an american novelist, satirist and POW in World War 2. He wrote numerous novels, short story collections, essays and screenplays. He is best known for his novel Slaughterhouse-Five which is number 18 in the Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels.

So what is Slaughterhouse-Five? Is it a dark comedy, an anti war novel, a metafiction, or science fiction? Well, it is all these things, it is complex in structure yet simple to understand and a pleasure to read. You have to go along for the ride with Vonnegut. He has a way of finding humor in everything, even death; so much so that his writings are called Gallows Humor.

There is a recurring reference to death in the book, “So it goes.” Every time someone dies or there is any mention of death “So it goes” appears. This leads to some funny moments when he references inanimate objects and says “So it goes.”

“The Champagne was dead. So it goes.”
The novel begins with the narrator trying to write a war novel and quickly changes to science fiction. The narrator could be Vonnegut himself but that can also be a fiction. The story begins as a metafiction about writing a novel and ends with time travelling aliens. So it goes. For more on metafiction see my post here.
“All this happened, more or less. The war parts anyway, are pretty much true. One guy I knew really was shot in Dresden for taking a teapot that wasn't his. Another guy I knew really did threaten to have his personal enemies killed by hired gunmen after the war. And so on. I've changed all the names.”

Every person that I have recommended this novel to loves it. The story jumps around a lot but never to the point of being confusing. The humor comes at unexpected points that will keep you reading. This book has also been subject to numerous attempts at censorship, including a supreme court case specifically mentioning Slaughterhouse-Five.

Kurt Vonnegut was also quite popular appearing in many cameo roles in films, including a few of his novels adaptations. Slaughterhouse-Five was made into a film in 1972. Guillermo Del Toro has shown interest in remaking the 1972 movie adaptation. The novel is one of Vonnegut’s best work and an American masterpiece. This is modern literature at its best.

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Monday, July 30, 2012

Animal Farm

George Orwell
Animal Farm - $7.92
1945

Animal Farm is a novella first published in 1945. This story is included in many best novel list including Time Magazine's top 100, number 31 in the Modern Library’s list of 100 best fiction, and is included in the encyclopedia of Great Books of the Western World.

Novella n. A short novel or long short story.
Animal Farm has also been banned in many countries around the world for numerous reasons, including anthropomorphism and anti-government propaganda. The story gives many human traits to the animals that revolt to take over the farm and is a critique of communism.
Anthropomorphism n. Attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena.
Animal Farm is an allegory for the communist revolution in the Soviet Union. Orwell is using the story in Animal Farm to critique the communist socialist regime that had taken control of the Soviet Union.
Allegory n. A representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another.
It definitely helps to know some of the history of the Soviet Union and the rise and fall of communism to understand what Orwell is trying to say. The story is very entertaining but when you understand the satire being used you begin to understand the story and the moral in a more obvious way.
Satire n. The use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing,denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.
Because the story is teaching a moral or lesson that can be learned from the communism in the Soviet Union it can be considered a fable.
Fable n. A short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral.
Orwell used many literary devices to criticize the communism in the Soviet Union and had a hard time finding a publisher. Since the Soviet Union was allied with Britain during WWII, the British publishers did not want to print a book that was critical of the Soviet Union.

Animal Farm is an allegory that follows the rise and fall of communism in the Soviet Union. The story uses the farm animals to tell the story of how the communist revolution came about and how it was corrupted by the leaders. The story is presented as being far fetched by the use of animals to represent the uprising of the people. The use of animals was also considered very offensive. Orwell uses pigs to represent the leaders of the revolution.

Animal Farm is very entertaining even though it is based on true events. Orwell does a great job with the satire to make this a must read for anyone interested in reading the classics. This book is taught in many high schools and universities. Their are two different film versions of the book. Download a free sample and see why everyone that reads this book agrees that it is one of the best novels ever written.

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Monday, July 23, 2012

The Los Angeles Diaries

James Brown
The Los Angeles Diaries: A Memoir - $9.99
2003

James Brown is an American novelist and English professor living in California. The Los Angeles Diaries was first published in 2003 and received many awards. The book is taught in many universities across the US, including Harvard. I first read this book as a freshman in college and could not put it down. I spent the next three years trying to take a class by Professor Brown and finally managed to in my last quarter as an undergrad. He is a natural storyteller that can make you laugh and cry at the same time. The Los Angeles Diaries is a memoir about his life as an addict. The difference between a memoir and an autobiography is that a memoir covers only a certain time period or events where an autobiography covers most of the authors life. This book focuses on events surrounding addiction in his family.

The stories major themes are family, drugs and addiction. This may seem like a very depressing book but the story is about perseverance. When the professor found out I had read his book he asked me what I thought. The only word that came to mind was Powerful. The story telling is powerful, the themes are powerful and the lessons learned are powerful.

James Brown is an intimidating figure due to his growing up in a dysfunctional family where his siblings committed suicide to his years as a drug addict all while trying to be a writer and teacher in a university. Brown revisits the idea that he is a fraud as a professor in his memoir, because of his personal demons, again and again. He is very self deprecating in person but he is a great story teller. In class he would tell us stories that were not included in his books. His class was one of the most memorable that I have ever had. He writes about being self conscious as a professor but this makes him a great professor. He tries very hard to help each of his students to learn and improve in their writing.

James Brown is almost a contradiction. He is a very successful writer and has overcome personal addiction and tragedy in his family, yet he is one of the nicest people to talk to. He appreciates life and goes out of his way to form personal connections with his students. Even though he is no longer a drug user, addiction is still an overwhelming theme in his writings and in conversation. He says regularly that he is lucky to be alive.

The Los Angeles Diaries is a wonderful memoir about perseverance and coming to terms with life’s tragedies. The book has just been reissued to coincide with his new book, This River. This River is a continuation from where The Los Angeles Diaries leaves off. I am looking forward to reading This River soon and will post a review when I finish.

Authors! we are currently accepting submissions for review in the following categories: general fiction, non-fiction and literary fiction. Books must be available in Kindle or ePub format and priced between $0.00 and $9.99. Please email queries to kindleliterature@yahoo.com

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Friday, July 20, 2012

The Giver

Lois Lowry
The Giver - $5.59
1993

Do not read this book, it was banned for being too dark for children. There is no point in telling you that this book is great. That it won many awards including the 1994 Newbery Award and is the first in a trilogy.

The Giver by Lois Lowry deals with many themes that are relevant to American society. The one that I am going to focus on and that seemed the most prevalent to me was the theme of “sameness.” Sameness can only be examined with its binary “difference.” Sameness is the issue discussed extensively in The Giver that resonates with us because of the historical intolerance in America. Lois Lowry discusses the cost we would have to pay if we succumbed to our fears and eliminated everything that was different in our society.
       
What is left out of the society where everything is the same is “difference.” The acceptance of everyone being unique is what is missing. The society in The Giver had the choice made for them long ago and now they live in a seeming utopia unaware of all they are missing. A society that was once subject to wars and genocide due to the differences among them might look upon eliminating difference as a means to eliminate war. Tragically, this is not an absurd idea because it is a very sad chapter in world history where a “superior” race of people decided to eliminate the different “lesser” Jewish race. The holocaust was unparalleled in its brutality yet, if they were to have succeeded in removing not just the Jewish people, but all minorities; then we could possibly have had a dystopian society like the one in The Giver. It is not the desire for sameness that is the motivating factor but the fear of difference and the unknown. Fears are destructive and can be catastrophic when shared by a whole society.
       
The fear of difference is not only a thing of the past; it is alive and well right here in America, in our neighboring state of Arizona. Arizona passed a law last year that would allow the police to racially profile people in the hope that it would lead to a decrease in crime. The Mexican immigrants are being targeted by the ruling white politicians as the cause for crime in the state. All the negative attributes are being placed on to the immigrants and they are being dehumanized. The people are not being seen as human but as a problem that needs to be dealt with. The law has already been repealed due to its violations of the Bill of Rights, but the cause and fears of the ruling majority remain. Lois Lowry places her characters in a society where these types of issues are no longer relevant. The characters live in a world they think is perfect for them. They have allowed the elders to make all the decisions for them and they are not aware of everything that they are missing. If racism is allowed to succeed, as in The Giver, then we would all miss out. The US is made up of people from all over the world. This diversity has been the cause of some problems but it is also the reason behind all the innovation. Different people come up with different ideas to deal with problems and this has been one of the reasons why the US has been at the forefront of innovation in almost every field.
       
The idea that what is different is inferior was passed on from the European settlers. They saw a civilization in Africa that was at a different level and assumed supremacy. The cost of slavery is impossible to determine on a global scale. When human life is seen as a money symbol, what follows can never be good. It took a few hundred years for the civil rights to come about in America. The ideas passed to us from the Europeans needed to be reexamined. In a society like the one represented in The Giver, it would take a much longer time to come about. Since sameness is prized and free thought is not available the old ways would remain. Even though Jonas escapes, we can only assume that the society will change. Memories of past atrocities are necessary in order for them to not happen again. Dehumanization of the people leads to “death” being changed to “release.” The ideas are passed down in the form of rules, in The Giver. People do not question the rules because they are not able to question anything. Even though they all felt that the release (death) of babies was sad (wrong), they did not have a way to change it. They all accepted the rules because they were the ones that they were meant to protect. The people in The Giver have no idea what they are missing. A ubiquitous emotion like love is not missed because they do not know it exist.
       
The cost that everyone in The Giver has to pay is incalculable. The killing of a baby and the emotion of Love are nonexistent, there is only “release” and a silly unspecific emotion that they do not understand. They have dehumanized themselves to the point where they only have value to a society and individuals to not matter. At first I thought that The Giver was a critique of socialist governments but now I think it so much more. It is a warning that what happened in the book is a real possibility. When we dehumanize people we are hurting not just them but ourselves. The people that make up the society in The Giver are the ones that pay the price now.
           
I should stop wasting my words analyzing a book with so many great teaching points for children. We need to shelter our children because these issues do not really exist. Children should not be taught to think critically. This book was banned by people who do not want to expose their children to real themes. This is a great children’s literature book that no one should read because then they might have to have a real discussion with their kid. Even though this book is taught in countless schools from elementary through college, you should still not read it. You should not buy, enjoy, or tell others about this book.

We have a new Facebook Page, check it out and Like us to keep up with the latest news about Kindle Literature. Please share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed or try a   free 2 week trial*  on your Kindle to have the posts delivered directly to you. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The Red Badge of Courage


Stephen Crane
The Red Badge of Courage -Free
1895

August 2004 Iraq, I'm second from the left.

The Red Badge of Courage is a war novel set in the American Civil War. Stephen Crane penned this masterpiece at the young age of twenty four. Even though Crane never fought in the Civil War he interviewed many veterans to gain an understanding and an insight into the psyche of soldiers in battle. The novel deals with the themes of heroism and cowardice through the eyes of a soldier.

Crane tells the story of Henry Fleming dealing with the ideals of heroism. Fleming is a young man called to service by his country. He enlist and is soon disenchanted with military life and the monotony of it. What he is experiencing and what he expected are very different things. As word begins to spread of their impending battle he begins to question his courage.

The youth was in a little trance of astonishment. So they were at last going to fight. On the morrow, perhaps, there would be a battle, and he would be in it. For a time he was obliged to labor to make himself believe. He could not accept with assurance an omen that he was about to mingle in one of those great affairs of the earth.

Henry Fleming’s courage holds at first and through subsequent battles the chaos of war wins out. The lines break and he does not know which way to go. In the disarray Fleming loses his regiment. The young soldier is left to deal the shame of cowardice. He soon begins to envy those that are killed and wounded.
At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage.

The dead and injured are lucky because they do not have to live with his shame. He manages to find himself and his courage and tries to prove his heroism once more. Fleming goes through great feats to prove to himself and his peers that he is not a coward.

Stephen Crane has a great style of writing. What makes is great is the realistic battle scenes juxtaposed with the psychological depth of a character dealing with the themes of heroism and cowardice. He shows us why soldiers fight, what drives a soldier to heroism. What really matters in the grand scheme of things.

The Red Badge of Courage is the best book I read last year. It is a war novel that deals with human emotions and the indifference of nature. The novel was first published in 1895 and has never been out of print. It is available for free in the Kindle Store. Download a sample or the entire book and add it to your reading list. This is a masterpiece of American literature.

There are many lists out there that tell you what you should read. With this blog, I hope to show why those books are important and why you should read them. Crane shows us that we do things not for our country but for the love and respect of the people that make up our country. By presenting the psychology of a soldier in battle, Crane makes us think about why we do things. Would you die for your family, friends or country? What is important to you?

Leave comments below. If you like the blog please leave us a review in the Kindle Store to help spread the word.

We have a new Facebook Page, check it out and Like us to keep up the latest news about Kindle Literature. Please share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed or try a   free 2 week trial*  on your Kindle to have the posts delivered directly to you. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Kindle Giveaways!

I keep coming across some kindle giveaways and I thought I would share them on here. If you don’t have a Kindle already this is the perfect way of getting one for free. Most just require your email for a chance to win. I entered these myself, you never know when you will need a backup kindle. They make great presents! Make sure you subscribe to the   free 2 week trial*  on the Kindle! 5G8RYQE7ENGS


eNotes.com

eNotes.com is giving away a Kindle Fire. Here is the info.

Kindle Fire time again! Who wants to enter our July Kindle contest? Simply visit eNotes' Facebook page, "like" us, and answer the following question on our wall: In the spirit of July 4th, what book embodies the “great American novel”, in your opinion? Why?
We will pick a random winner at the end of the month!

http://www.facebook.com/enotes

They are giving away the $199 Kindle Fire!

APCodes.com

www.apcodes.com is giving away a $79 Kindle wifi with special offers on August 8th!
Here is their info.

Simply enter using Rafflecopter below and remember, the more actions you complete, the better your chances!

Get More @ APCodes http://www.apcodes.com/amazon-kindle-giveaway-win-a-kindle/#ixzz20MHhrisI

Kindle Nation Daily

Kindle Nation Daily is a great resource for all things Kindle. They have an author sponsored giveaway. They have done this a few times before. You enter on their facebook page. Here is the info.

http://www.facebook.com/KindleNation

They are giving away a $199 Kindle Fire for liking their facebook page and subscribing to their email newsletter.

I did a search for “Kindle Giveaways” and most seemed very sketchy at best. Be careful who you give your information to. The three links above are trustworthy and have been around for some time. Good luck!

We have a new Facebook Page, http://www.facebook.com/KindleLiterature check it out and Like us. Please share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed or try a   free 2 week trial*  on your kindle to have the posts delivered directly to you. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Walden



Henry David Thoreau
Walden - Free
1854

Walden was just named by the Library of Congress’ Books that Shaped America list. Bufo Calvin of I Love My Kindle blog does a great job of linking the available titles on the list in the kindle store. I was already researching this title before the list came out. I really loved this book when I read it years ago.

Henry David Thoreau was an American philosopher, poet and author. Walden was a social experiment to see what life was like outside of mainstream society. Thoreau built a small cabin, about two miles outside of town, next to Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts. He lived a simple life of reading and writing; he analyzed his life and tried to learn what it had to teach him. Thoreau lived in solitude for two years and then spent about eight years writing and rewriting the book.

Walden’s central themes are solitude and introspection. Thoreau was a very influential philosopher and many of his ideas were penned while he was living in the cabin. He promoted solitude in order to understand what life is about. Introspection can only come through solitude in nature and was one of his goals. He said "To be awake is to be alive,” and you can only be awake when you understand who you are in relation to society.

Thoreau was a great writer and you come to almost envy his simple peaceful life. He paints a very vivid picture of his life in the cabin. You go through his daily routine from getting up early and baking his bread to tending his little garden. He inserts poems into the book that he wrote while he was out there and shows us what he learned from living this simple life. He examines his life and shows us how to examine ours. How to figure out what is important in life and what we can do to improve it.

The story is simple on the surface but as you read more you can see the social commentary that is hidden below the surface.


"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion."

Even though Walden was written over 150 years ago, the ideas and themes are still relevant today. Download the free book and enjoy being led to new levels of insight.

Is there anything in your life that could use some evaluation? What books have moved you to action? What books have influenced your ideas? Leave comments below.

Please share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed or try a   free 2 week trial*  on your Kindle to have the posts delivered directly to you. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

June 2012 Roundup

June was a big month for Kindle Literature. We were mentioned by Black Clock, a great literary journal, and we made a few connections to other literary blogs. Our readership increased quite a bit and we were tweeted and recommended by a few of our readers! It’s great to get a response back from readers, that is why we have a new Facebook page, so please like and share it.


Here are last month’s posts, in case you missed some.


  • Ray Bradbury - We lost a great American writer last month. Best known for Fahrenheit 451. I personally love his short stories, he wrote hundreds and hundreds of them, there is something for everyone.
  • The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography has been a staple of american literature for over two hundred years. This is a very candid look at his successes and failures. He was a very successful person and gives many of his keys to success.
  • Soliloquy - First in the Shakespeare Series. Post explains Soliloquies in relation to Shakespeare, specifically Hamlet.
  • Dramatic Irony - Second post of the Shakespeare Series. Explains Dramatic Irony in Shakespeare and discusses King Lear.
  • Lit Challenge: 1 book in 1 month - A new literary challenge for June. This one is how to use a Kindle progress bar to read any book in a month.
  • Poe’s Poetry - Intro to Edgar Allan Poe and links to his biographies and poems available on your Kindle. Includes the full poem Alone and first stanza of Annabel Lee.
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde’s cleaver novel about a Faustian wish come true.
  • The Things They Carried - Tim O’Brien’s novel about the Vietnam War. Written as multiple stories with a connected theme.
Check out any missed posts and please like our Facebook page to keep up with the happenings. Please leave us a review on Amazon, Kindle Literature. This would really help with spreading the word about Kindle Literature. Let’s have another great month!

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,064,600 Paid in Kindle Store -Let’s see if we can break one million!
You can leave comments, questions or suggestion below. 

Please share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed or try a   free 2 week trial*  on your kindle to have the posts delivered directly to you. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien
The Things They Carried - $7.14
1990



The Things They Carried is a metafiction, a story that breaks with the conventions of a story to discuss the writing of the story. Tim O’Brien originally wrote a short story called The Things They Carried that was published in Esquire. He later revised and expanded the theme of the story into a novel consisting of twenty two stories about a platoon in Vietnam. The book is a fictionalized account of the men he knew in Alpha company.

Metafiction - n. fiction that discusses, describes, or analyzes a work of fiction or the conventions of fiction. 
 O’Brien is writing about Vietnam not because he wants to but because he has to. He is trying to show us what Vietnam was like, the people that fought the war and the price they have to pay. Fifty eight thousand is a number that we all understand but it is just a fact, it has no face. Fifty eight thousand is the number of Americans that died in Vietnam. O’Brien is showing us the faces and consequences of what war really is. He uses metafiction to break into the story, to highlight and expand what war is really like. How he sees the face of the man he killed as the face of a child that once had a life and hopes.
“And then it becomes 1990. I’m forty-three years old, and a writer now,still dreaming...”
The things they carried were many. The things they carried defined them. The things that they carried on them while patrolling; their weapons and ammunition, the pictures of loved ones, the letters from home and the more personal possessions. The things they carried were also intangible, the memories, the hopes and the horrors.
“They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.”
Tim O’Brien does a great job of placing us in his shoes. He is not a hero, he is just another kid that is trying to survive surrounded by death. O’Brien manages to show us a vietnam he experienced not just the one that was reported to us. He shows us the faces of the men and women in Vietnam and their humanizing stories.

Download a sample of the book and share with O’Brien a sense of what it was like to live through Vietnam, to experience it first hand.

.When I first read this book I was surprised at how different Vietnam was from what was shown in movies and books. I was surprised at how different his war was from my own. I am a veteran of the Iraq war. I try not to think about that time too much but this book made me think of the things that I carried to war with me. It reminded me of how actual war was so different from what I had seen in the movies. The anxieties that come with war.

I distinctly remember planning what I should pack for a year away from civilization. Besides the necessities of a toothbrush and shaving cream there were only a couple of things I took with me, books and Tapatio. I am not making light of war, I am being honest. Military food leaves a lot to be desired and Tapatio hot sauce can give it that kick. The books were the most important thing to me. We had a few weeks to plan and prepare to leave and I spent that time buying books to take with me. I spent a few hundred dollars buying books that I wanted to read for awhile. Of course I finished the books early in deployment and I had my family send me more. They also sent me some more Tapatio.




The Things They Carried defined the men O’Brien knew and the things I carried defined me as well, my latino heritage and my love of literature.

If you had to go to war what would you carry? If you are a veteran, what did you carry?

We have a new Facebook Page, http://www.facebook.com/KindleLiterature check it out and Like us. Please share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future post. You can also grab the RSS feed or try a   free 2 week trial*  on your kindle to have the posts delivered directly to you. Follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.