DAILY DEALS: A memoir, a recommended read, and a re-united love
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Gravity by Raven St. Pierre $ 0.99
From the Jacket Copy:
A chance meeting reshapes the lives of two strangers who soon learn that we don’t always choose who we fall in love with; sometimes life chooses for us.
Samantha Kelley thinks she’s got it all figured out until she literally collides with Anthony “AJ” Hahn one fateful day, forcing her to question whether she’s been missing something all along…
Him.
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson $ 2.99
From the Jacket Copy:
With this extraordinary first volume in what promises to be an epoch-making masterpiece, Neal Stephenson hacks into the secret histories of nations and the private obsessions of men, decrypting with dazzling virtuosity the forces that shaped this century. As an added bonus, the e-book edition of this New York Times bestseller includes an excerpt from Stephenson’s new novel, Seveneves.
In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse—mathematical genius and young Captain in the U.S. Navy—is assigned to detachment 2702. It is an outfit so secret that only a handful of people know it exists, and some of those people have names like Churchill and Roosevelt. The mission of Waterhouse and Detachment 2702—commanded by Marine Raider Bobby Shaftoe-is to keep the Nazis ignorant of the fact that Allied Intelligence has cracked the enemy’s fabled Enigma code. It is a game, a cryptographic chess match between Waterhouse and his German counterpart, translated into action by the gung-ho Shaftoe and his forces.
Fast-forward to the present, where Waterhouse’s crypto-hacker grandson, Randy, is attempting to create a “data haven” in Southeast Asia—a place where encrypted data can be stored and exchanged free of repression and scrutiny. As governments and multinationals attack the endeavor, Randy joins forces with Shaftoe’s tough-as-nails granddaughter, Amy, to secretly salvage a sunken Nazi submarine that holds the key to keeping the dream of a data haven afloat. But soon their scheme brings to light a massive conspiracy with its roots in Detachment 2702 linked to an unbreakable Nazi code called Arethusa. And it will represent the path to unimaginable riches and a future of personal and digital liberty…or to universal totalitarianism reborn.
A breathtaking tour de force, and Neal Stephenson’s most accomplished and affecting work to date, Cryptonomicon is profound and prophetic, hypnotic and hyper-driven, as it leaps forward and back between World War II and the World Wide Web, hinting all the while at a dark day-after-tomorrow. It is a work of great art, thought and creative daring; the product of a truly iconoclastic imagination working with white-hot intensity.
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher $ 1.99
From the Jacket Copy:
The Princess Diarist is Carrie Fisher’s New York Times bestselling intimate, hilarious and revealing recollection of what happened behind the scenes on one of the most famous film sets of all time, the first Star Wars movie.
When Carrie Fisher recently discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved—plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Today, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon is indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a teenager with an all-consuming crush on her costar, Harrison Ford.
With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, The Princess Diarist is Fisher’s intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time—and what developed behind the scenes. Fisher also ponders the joys and insanity of celebrity, and the absurdity of a life spawned by Hollywood royalty, only to be surpassed by her own outer-space royalty. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and endlessly quotable, The Princess Diarist brims with the candor and introspection of a diary while offering shrewd insight into the type of stardom that few will ever experience.
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson $ 1.99
From the Jacket Copy:
BONUS: This edition contains a Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand discussion guide.
You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson’s wondrous debut. Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, Major Pettigrew is one of the most indelible characters in contemporary fiction, and from the very first page of this remarkable novel he will steal your heart.
The Major leads a quiet life valuing the proper things that Englishmen have lived by for generations: honor, duty, decorum, and a properly brewed cup of tea. But then his brother’s death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as the permanent foreigner. Can their relationship survive the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of culture and tradition?
The beginning of the Cryptonomicon description is rather strange, since it’s, as far as I can tell, a standalone book. Not sure if the publisher is confused or knows something I don’t. (Haven’t read the book, but I’ve heard good things about it.)
Was just talking with a coworker about Princess Diarist. The description and cover say laugh out loud funny but I found it left me sad, even though I did laugh. She listened to the audiobook and came away more focused on Carrie as a BAMF.
One thing about Cryptonomicon: It’s long. Over a 1000 pages in mass market paperback. The length is probably related to Stephenson having a story for every friend of every character and his tendency to go off in tangents about everything under the sun.
Example: Randy’s company is having an investor meeting. There’s a detailed description of the video shown to the executives, while Randy remembers his partner’s explanation for each spot on the video. This involves explanations of the history of Manila, marketing techniques, and the partner’s own lifestory.
In a novel about hacking.
I am not complaining. I enjoy reading all the tangents, and how almost all secondary characters have lives of their own.
I am just saying that I’m a fast reader*, I am a complete geek, and it takes me a week to read 10 pages. It’s a very enjoyable, information filled 10 pages.
*fast reader: I read the Psy-Changeling series in 17 days. From Slave to Sensation to Shards of Hope.