Daily Deals: Alien domes, opposites attracting, and baseball diamonds
Under the Dome by Stephen King. $ 2.99
From the Jacket Copy:
NYT writes “But then, King has always produced at pulp speed. “Nov. 22, 2007 – March 14, 2009” proclaims the final page of “Under the Dome”: that’s 1,100 pages in 480 days. We shouldn’t be too squeamish about the odd half-baked simile or lapse into B-movie dialogue, is my point. Writing flat-out keeps him close to his story, close to his source. It seems to magnetize his imagination: by the final third of this novel King is effortlessly drawing in T. S. Eliot and the Book of Revelation, the patient etherized upon a table and the Star Wormwood. Pollution thickens against the inner wall of the dome, and the sunset outside becomes alien and terrifying, a “vast, dusty glare.” The dome grows metaphysical — one character, contemplating the suffering of another, feels “a clinical sorrow, safely stored inside its own dome: you could see it, could appreciate its existence, but you couldn’t exactly get in there with it.””
Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens — town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing — even murder — to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.
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Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. $ 2.99
From the Jacket Copy:
A New York Times bestseller—with more than three million copies sold—by the author of One Plus One and The Girl You Left Behind
They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .
Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex?Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.
Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.
A Love Story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?
Liz gives a detailed (and spoiler filled) review here. “I support people’s right to make that choice. I think Moyes established Will as someone who would make that choice. And I appreciated the message that love is not enough (it’s kind of an anti-genre Romance message, in some ways, but it’s true). “
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The Playing With Fire by Tara Sivec. $ .99
From the Jacket Copy:
The USA Today best selling Playing With Fire Series by T.E. Sivec is now available in one, big book bundle including brand new bonus material!
Four Navy SEALS risk their lives to save the women who have gotten under their skin and worked their way into their hearts. Each book can be read as a stand-alone, but now you don’t have to!
The suspenseful, sexy Playing With Fire Complete Series include:
A BEAUTIFUL LIE
BECAUSE OF YOU
WORN ME DOWN
CLOSER TO THE EDGE
BONUS MATERIAL
**Never seen before bonus material included in this bundle: Four deleted scenes plus an extended short story!
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The Lucky Charm by Beth Bolden. $ .99.
From the Jacket Copy:
IT’S THE BOTTOM OF THE NINTH . . .
Izzy Dalton’s about to strike out. Her new job as the sideline reporter for the Portland Pioneers major league baseball team is problematic on several levels:
1. Baseball is her least-favorite sport. Falling behind golf, tennis, and maybe even curling.
2. What Izzy knows about baseball could fill about three minutes of airtime.
3. Her last experience in front of a camera was in college. Six years ago.
4. The Pioneers’ second baseman has a wicked sense of humor and even wickeder blue eyes.
AND A FULL COUNT. . .
Jack Bennett couldn’t be more uninterested in a little sideline action. He just wants to show up at the park and win baseball games. Izzy is the one woman he should steer clear of, but she’s also the key to his success–and his heart, too.
All Izzy has to do is convince her misogynistic boss she’s competent, learn what the heck an RBI is, and stay away from Jack Bennett. Izzy tells herself it’ll be a snap, but 162 games is longer than she ever imagined and Jack more irresistible than she counted on.
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Ugh, Under the Dome. I picked it up after enjoying the first season of the television series.
I found the book to be poorly written, needing editing and incredibly misogynistic. I couldn’t get more than 1/3 the way through before flipping through to the end and quitting.
I have mixed feelings about UtD. It’s far from one of his best, but the idea was so interesting. Then I laughed my way through the ending (even though everyone is dying) because of the explanation behind the dome. That idea was interesting, too, but the way it all came together just felt so absurd. (And I was totally okay with squirting an asthma inhaler at a big scary IT spider and calling it battery acid — and that kind of working — so absurd isn’t always a dealbreaker with me.)
I watched the TV series hoping that they would do something different with it (and to see if they were going to change the explanation behind the dome.) I never did find out if they actually explained it on TV? The series started out okay and then it turned into a steaming hot mess — probably because they tried to extend it to more seasons and then had to start throwing in random plot points. So I bailed.
I loved Me Before You, although I agree with the linked review that there are potentially troubling elements. The One Plus One, I think Moyes’s latest, is much more of a romance but it also tackles serious issues.
@Meljean: I agree the Under the Dome concept is great (I haven’t read the book). This is a bit OT: I didn’t love the big scary It spider but had a huge problem with the kids’ group sex scene in It.
I’m torn on UtD. On the one hand, I started reading the book and didn’t get into it, on the other hand, that’s partly because I picked up the hc at a library book sale. (Books like that are what finally prompted me to go e.)
@Janine: The sex scene didn’t bother me but I wonder if it’s because the first time I read the book I was about the same age as the kids, and it was just really a big deal? (And I knew what was going on in that scene; sex wasn’t a mystery to me at all.)
It might seem gross to me now but IT as a whole is so wrapped up in reading nostalgia for me, I’m not sure that I’d react to it the same way that I would if I was reading it for the first time now.
@Meljean: NOT a big deal. NOT.
Gah. I should have proofread. That changes my entire comment. Reading it as a 12-year-old, the sex wasn’t a big deal to me and didn’t gross me out. I had a more difficult time even then with the casual racism (and the werewolf that terrified me so badly that I put the book away for a month.)
(On the other hand, the scene with Beverly’s father seriously, SERIOUSLY bothered me. Even then.)
And maybe one day, I’ll just write one comment instead of a string of replies that could have been written all at once if I didn’t hit “post comment” so quickly.
I tried to read Under The Dome twice and just couldn’t do it. I ended up looking up the ending on wikipedia. I have been hate-watching the TV series. I think it might be the worst thing I’ve ever seen on television.
@Meljean: I got it even without the correction actually. I was in my late twenties or early thirties when I got around to that book, so my perspective was that of an adult.