For many many years, I’ve been a sales associate at Amazon. I’ve started just as they’ve started, when selling books over the Internet was a novel and cool thing. I haven’t written back then (but soon after). And for as many years, Amazon has been trying to get me to promote things. But that’s just not what I do — I’m not interested in selling home products or pushing beauty items. In decades of being an associate, I’ve never made a dime, but I hope that some of my readers got discounts of books I’ve recommended over the years.
This month, Amazon tried to reach out again by giving me a list of 200,000 products to choose from. And less than 0.5% of those were books. And of those, a smidgen of a percentage were books that I actually own and love, have bought over and over again (I have multiple copies of many of these; but I’m not a hoarder), my kids and friends have read, I’ve recommended and for which I wrote reviews. So, Amazon finally figured me out — it gave me an opportunity to share books with my readers that I endorse at a discount. So here’s my list. It took me solid day to go through everything that Amazon sent me. This sale is only from February 25th to March 10th. Please check it out and remember that February 28th is a national “protest all big stores” day, so please avoid buying anything on that day. Thank you and happy reading!
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Brandon Sanderson made an appearance several times on my list. I think he is a wonderful author and probably own every book he has ever written. I’ve read most and the rest are on my reading pile. Same is true for Patrick Rothfuss, may he write more books! And if you haven’t discovered Octavia Butler yet, don’t walk, run! She is amazing! Here’s what Amazon gave me to share:
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I’ve reviewed The Wheel of Time in its own blog post some years back. I do recommend it (but not so much the TV adaptation):
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Andy Weir and Hugh Howey were my inspirations — they are the indie writers that made it big. So it is possible… And their stories are pretty good too!
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Of course Jane Austen should be in your library! I read all of her novels, some multiple times. They are better than movie versions — there is something about her prose that make you do a time trip back to that era. The same goes for some other classics…
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In the same vein, I think it’s worth reading at least one of the current Japanese novelist. I’ve read this book recently. It is strange and worth the time, although not one of my favorites.
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I read Dune back during college, grabbing each books as it was published and breathlessly awaiting for more. My son didn’t have to wait. He was just able to read them at will, and he did! And of course if you are a fan of fiction and didn’t/own J.R.R. Tolkien books, then you are missing out. Movies are good, but books are worth reading too. And to round things off, there are some other fantastic gems included here (Amazon did get my number).
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Martha Wells is worth checking out — she is great and women in science fiction should be supported. Women provide a more nuanced points of view, in my opinion, in the stories in this genre.
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I’m pulling out books by Rick Riordan because there are so many of them — he is VERY prolific and my son loved his books.
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I started reading the Harry Potter books to my boys when y youngest was just five. “Who is Dumbledore?” drove us crazy for months! But then he was all in and reading ahead of me! Here are some options on sale:
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I found several books from my kids’ childhood days and mine (although mine were in Russian mostly). Apparently, I own multiple copies of some of them. But that just gives me a chance to let people borrow them. And I can’t wait to read these to my granddaughter (she is three, so a bit young for most of these, but see another collection below for toddlers):
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And here’s my toddler and “big girl” recommendations. Again, I own endless versions of these books. They are like mushrooms, multiplying freely on my bookshelves.
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This is one of my recent discovering and they are wonderful! May all children get a chance to read these books!
