Archive for March 2012

Most Wanted: Week Ending March 18

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2. Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

3. Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

4. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

5. Children of the Fog by Cheryl Kaye Tardif

6. The Maze Runner (Maze Runner Trilogy, Book 1) by James Dashner

7. Out of Sight, Out of Time (Volume 5) (Gallagher Girls) by Ally Carter

8. Growing Up Amish by Ira Wagler

9. Cera’s Place by Elizabeth McKenna

10. Shades of Gray by Kim Sanders

11. When I Found You by Catherine Ryan Hyde

12. Kiss Me Crazy (The Fitzgerald Family) by E. B. Walters

13. I Only Have Eyes For You: The Sullivans, Book 4 (Contemporary Romance)  by Bella Andre

14. The Marriage Bargain (Marriage to a Billionaire)  by Jennifer Probst

15. Highland Mist (Druid Glen, Book One) by Donna Grant

16. The Girl Nobody Wants: A Shocking True Story of Child Abuse in by Ireland Lily O’Brien

17. Vampire Dawn (Vampire for Hire #5) by J.R. Rain

18. The Tycoon’s Vacation (Baby for the Billionaire – Book Two) by Melody Anne

19. Hoping for Love (McCarthys of Gansett Island) by Marie Force

20. Why Me? by Sarah Burleton

21. Almost by Anne Eliot

22. Time Mends (Timber Wolves)  byTammy Blackwell

23. Love Letters: I Wrote to Say I Miss You by Samuel McDonald Jr

24.The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch and translated by Lee Chadeayne

25. The Vow: The True Events that Inspired the Movie by Krickitt Carpenter, Kim Carpenter

 

 

Free Classics: The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Henry Ketcham

Every Friday, Marilyn Knapp Litt, who blogs at ClassicKindle.com, brings us her recommendation of a free classic book to discover (or rediscover) on Kindle. Find more of Marilyn’s recommendations at her blog, ClassicKindle.com, a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the Kindle. You can also get Marilyn’s blog on Kindle and I recommend that you “Like” the Classic Kindle Facebook page as well so you don’t miss anything. Here’s Marilyn’s post:

The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Henry Ketcham, written in 1901 by a rather well-known Union General.

CHAPTER I. THE WILD WEST. At the beginning of the twentieth century there is, strictly speaking, no frontier to the United States. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the larger part of the country was frontier.

You had me at, “Hello!” A great beginning always draws you into a book. This is quite nicely done and of course for us there is the added layer of meaning that we are now at the beginning of the 21st century.

I do not review a lot of biographies because many are not written in a style we appreciate. We do not want hagiographies.

Imagine this boy. Begin at the top and look down him–a long look, for he was tall and gaunt. His cap in winter was of coon-skin, with the tail of the animal hanging down behind. In summer he wore a misshapen straw hat with no hat-band. His shirt was of linsey-woolsey, above described, and was of no color whatever, unless you call it “the color of dirt.” His breeches were of deer-skin with the hair outside. In dry weather these were what you please, but when wet they hugged the skin with a clammy embrace, and the victim might sigh in vain for sanitary underwear. These breeches were held up by one suspender. The hunting shirt was likewise of deer-skin. The stockings,–there weren’t any stockings. The shoes were cow-hide, though moccasins made by his mother were substituted in dry weather. There was usually a space of several inches between the breeches and the shoes, exposing a tanned and bluish skin. For about half the year he went barefoot.

This fits with the style we want today. The author writes with authority, although in this case the authority comes from being closer to a time that has passed from our collective memory.

J. G. Holland, who doubtless knew whereof he wrote, declares that it was a great misfortune that Lincoln was introduced to the country as a rail-splitter. Americans have no prejudice against humble beginnings, they are proud of self-made men, but there is nothing in the ability to split rails which necessarily qualifies one for the demands of statesmanship. Some of his ardent friends, far more zealous than judicious, had expressed so much glory over Abe the rail-splitter, that it left the impression that he was little more than a rail-splitter who could talk volubly and tell funny stories. This naturally alienated the finest culture east of the Alleghanies. “It took years for the country to learn that Mr. Lincoln was not a boor. It took years for them to unlearn what an unwise and boyish introduction of a great man to the public had taught them. It took years for them to comprehend the fact that in Mr. Lincoln the country had the wisest, truest, gentlest, noblest, most sagacious President who had occupied the chair of state since Washington retired from it.”

Let me reach out and quote one of those Amazon reader reviews that are so helpful:

“My only regret is that I did not read this book earlier in life; in my formative years, so to speak. A history lesson I shall long savior. I often took for granted the life of our 16th President from the little learned in school or in a Hollywood synopsis. A copper penny, a five-dollar bill, was my only present recollection of this ancient being. But now, what a great man, I have found! The Life of Abraham Lincoln, by Henry Ketcham, though a book of antiquity is a work presently easily read. For any American who reads the biographies of great men in the hopes of learning some nugget to inspire, I highly recommend this E-Book.”

It is never too late to read a good book. Enjoy!

Click here to get your free copy of The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Henry Ketcham >>>

Most Wanted: Week Ending March 11

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2. Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

3. Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

4. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

5. Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James

6. The Hidden Heiress – A Victorian Historical  by Romance Juliet Moore

7. The Vow: The True Events that Inspired the Movie by Krickitt Carpenter, Kim Carpenter

8. Fifty Shades Darker by E L James

9.  Fifty Shades Freed (Fifty Shades Trilogy) by E L James

10. Daddy’s Home (A Holly Jennings Thriller) by A.K. Alexander

11. The Maze Runner (Maze Runner Trilogy, Book 1) by James Dashner

12. Amaranth (The Resistance Trilogy) by Rachael Wade

13. The Vampire King (The Kings) by Heather Killough-Walden

14. The Sweetest Thing by Barbara Freethy

15. Run by Blake Crouch

16. Forbidden Love by Shirley Martin

17. Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

18. Always the Baker, Never the Bride by Sandra D. Bricker

19. The Girl Nobody Wants: A Shocking True Story of Child Abuse in Ireland by Lily O’Brien

20. Birthrights (The Awakening Trilogy) by Christine Butler, Jennifer Oliver

21. Cinnamon Roll Murder (Hannah Swensen) by Joanne Fluke

22. Sixty Acres and a Bride by Regina Jennings

23. Shiver (Wolves of Mercy Falls) by Maggie Stiefvater

24. The Suicide Effect (A Medical Thriller) by L.J. Sellers

25. Kara’s Wolves by Becca Jameson

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