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- One of the godfathers of contemporary science fiction and dark fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon is best known for his contributions to Golden Age science fiction during the 1940s and 1950s.
- His award-winning novels include More Than Human,Some of Your Blood, and To Marry Medusa.
- Many of his novels explore ideas of gender, sexuality, love, and social commentary.
- A writer of essays, television shows, and criticism
- The writer of several episodes of Star Trek; he is also credited with having created the iconic Vulcan saying “Live long and prosper,” as well as the accompanying hand gesture.
- The creator of Sturgeon’s law, which states that ninety percent of everything is crap, including literature (and science fiction), consumer goods, and film.
- The award was established in 1987, two years after the iconic author’s death, by Sturgeon’s heirs and the Center for the Study of Science Fiction.
- The annual award honors exceptional short science fiction writing.
- This year’s awards will be announced June 14, 2013.
- We think he would be thrilled to celebrate the exceptional ten percent!
- Ursula K. Le Guin, Forgiveness Day (1995)
- Ian McDonald, Tendeléo’s Story (2001)
- James K. Morrow, Shambling Towards Hiroshima (2010)
- Michael Swanwick, The Edge of the World (1990)
- Octavia E. Butler is praised for her thought-provoking science fiction and fantasy that fearlessly question ideas of race, gender, and sexuality. One of the first female African-American science fiction authors, Butler’s story “The Evening and the Morning and the Night” was nominated for the 1988 Sturgeon Award, but failed to win. The story, now included in Butler’s collection Bloodchild, is about a society ravaged by the fictional Duryea-Gode disease, a side effect of consuming a cancer-preventing drug. Victims of the disease descend into madness and self-mutilation until their death.
- Give kids a choice of books with varied genres and difficulty levels and let them choose the books themselves.
- Create milestones and give prizes and treats for every milestone reached (number of minutes logged, books read, or days spent reading), with an ultimate prize at the end for completing the entire challenge.
- Encourage your children’s friends to participate and compete. Get everyone together to craft a board or a poster that tracks the whole group’s progress.
- Take your child out to the beach or a park for an hour so you can sit and read together.
- Schedule a weekly meeting to discuss the books with your child, play games and trivia, and ask your child to read aloud.
When two honest cops converge in Tapestry, the newest installmentin renowned mystery author J. Robert Janes’s highly acclaimed St-Cyr and Kohler series, there is no limit to what can be uncovered. The year is 1943, and the unlikely duo—French inspector Jean-Louis St-Cyr and German Gestapo agent Hermann Kohler—have come together once again to battle a rising tidal wave of blackout crime—and to expose the horrors and deception lurking in the underworld of Nazi-occupied France.
Amid the mounting chaos and cruelty of Paris, between the lack of moral fiber among citizens and the unusually harsh winter during the Second World War, detectives St-Cyr and Kohler have their hands full. While a stamp collector’s shop is burglarized, a woman is simultaneously attacked for engaging with Nazis and their partners. Immediately, investigators St-Cyr and Kohler are on the scene—albeit the wrong one. Rarely mistaken, when the duo realizes the attacker’s timing was all too convenient, they begin to speculate that they may have been intentionally sent to the wrong location. Soon afterward, the detectives pursue a tip about the vicious murder of a young man who was ruthlessly left to decay in a cellar. Conspiracy whispers regarding the lethal Résistance abound in the Parisian streets, and criminal leniency coupled with police ineptitude provide the detectives with even greater incentive to bring the theft, murder, and bloodshed to a halt.
As detectives St-Cyr and Kohler delve into the underworld of Paris to fight crime in the volatile and divided France, no stone is left unturned, and everyone is a suspect. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy, and despite total war, the exceptionally bright pair’s mission of justice is no exception. In J. Robert Janes’s latest thrilling suspense tale, above all else, order must prevail.
To learn more about J. Robert Janes, and for information on his novels Tapestry and The Alice Factor, visit his author page here.
Looking for a little romance? Check out an excerpt from Foreign Affairs, by Alison Lurie. The supremely entertaining masterwork follows two American scholars, both alone in London, as they find romance in the most unlikely of places.
Prim, divorced, and middle aged, Vinnie Miner gave up on love long ago. On her way to London to research a book about children’s folk rhymes—a scholarly pursuit that even her fellow academics sneer at—she finds herself sitting next to the man who will change the course of her life. Brash and naïve, he is a sanitary engineer from Oklahoma on a package vacation.
Also in London is Vinnie’s colleague, the young, handsome English professor Fred Turner. His marriage and self-esteem are both on the rocks, but he is about to find consolation in the arms of the most beautiful actress in England. Stylish and highborn, she introduces Fred to a glamorous yet eccentric London scene that he never expected—or prepared—to encounter.
Foreign Affairs is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, and a finalist for the National Book Award.
Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie {Excerpt} by Open Road
Scoop up the ebooks below on sale for $3.99 and less from participating retailers during June. Click on any cover to learn more about that title.
It was twenty years ago today, June 7, 1993, that ground was broken for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museumin Cleveland, Ohio. Designed by architect I.M. Pei, the Museum officially opened in September 1995.
Commemorate this ground-breaking occasion by amp-ing up your early summer reading with some SEX, DRUGS, AND ROCK-N-ROLL—our latest ebook round-up featuring more than forty rockin’good reads.
And stay tuned-in for more...including recommended playlists to read by, downloadable excerpts, and fun facts to know and tell.
Looking for a unique and fun gift for Father’s Day? (And no, a different brand of cologne does not count!) If Dad has been busy lately and needs a nudge to engage with the kids more, try gifting him children’s ebooks for effortlessly entertaining and productive time spent reading together. Bonus points if you sign the card with “Sorry for not getting you another colorful tie this year, but family time is the best gift anyway!”
Pssst—Here is a guide on how to gift great ebooks that Dad can enjoy with the children.
Bedtime Stories
Can’t Sleep by Chris Raschka: When a little puppy can’t fall asleep, a friend in the night sky appears.
David’s Father by Robert Munsch: Julie meets David’s father, who is a giant, and learns that families come in all shapes—and sizes.
Edward Almost Goes Swimmingby Rosemary Wells: Edwards is the only one wearing water wings at a pool party and he isn’t quite ready for that kind of party.
The Berenstain Bears’ Nursery Talesby Stan and Jan Berenstain: Three classic nursery stories from the creators of the Berenstain Bears.
Scaredy Squirrelby Mélanie Watt: The story of Scaredy Squirrel, who never leaves his nut tree.
Franklin Is Bossy, Franklin Plays the Game, and Franklin Is Messy by Brenda Clark and Paulette Bourgeois: Three classic adventures of a beloved children's character: Franklin the Turtle.
Classics
Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater: First published in 1938, Mr. Popper’s Penguins is the classic tale of Mr. Popper, who has penguins in his fridge, an ice rink in the basement, and a family for whom life will never be the same.
Oddkins by Dean Koontz: Blockbuster author Dean Koontz’s first novel for young readers, a beautifully illustrated and visually stunning story about a magical band of living toys who learn to overcome the fears we all face in the dark.
Dragon, Dragon by John Gardner: Four tales of fantasy by a twentieth-century literary master, Dragon, Dragon was selected as the 1975 New York Times Outstanding Book for Children.
Adventure Stories
Antarctica: Escape from Disaster by Peter Lerangis: Trapped in Antarctic ice, Jack Winslow and his sons fight to get home.
Tarzan: The Greystoke Legacy by Andy Briggs: A legend is born in this reboot of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s classic story.
The Trojan Warby Bernard Evslin: A cinematic tale of passion, war, loyalty, betrayal, and retribution.
Humor
Funny Boy Meets the Dumbbell Dentist from Deimos (with Dangerous Dental Decay)by Dan Gutman: Funny Boy’s super-powered sense of humor has saved the world from airsick aliens, bubble-brained barbers, and a chain of chitchatting cheeses, and now he faces the biggest threat yet—a plaque attack!
Funny Boy by Dan Gutman (Excerpt) by OpenRoadMedia
Sports Stories
Gold Dust by Chris Lynch: Baseball-loving seventh grader Richard has hopes of turning himself and the new kid, Napoleon, into the best baseball players Boston has seen since the Gold Dust Twins.
Gold Dust by Chris Lynch [Excerpt] by OpenRoadMedia
For more gifting ideas, check out our Father’s Day gift guide to find an ebook for every type of dad!
Looking for that perfect Father's Day gift? Searching for something personal, heartfelt, easy to buy and easy on your wallet?
We can help! Whether your favorite father loves movies, music, TV or sports, our eclectic round-up of Father's Day ebooks is certain to please.
Not sure what Dad likes to read? Take our quick and easy quiz to narrow down your choices.
1. Which of the following is closest to Dad’s favorite breakfast food:
a. Coffee and a donut or two
b. Fresh fruit and yogurt
c. Eggs and Bacon
d. Cereal
e. Power Bar
2. Dad’s favorite type of music is:
a. Rock n roll
b. Alternative
c. Country
d. Classical
e. Pop/Easy Listenin
3. Dad may have more than one e-reader, but which comes closest to his favorite:
a. Nook
b. iPad
c. Kindle
d. Sony Reader
e. Kobo Reader
4. Which of the following best describes Dad's favorite source of news:
a. USA Today
b. Boing Boing
c. The local paper
d.Wall street journal
e. New York Times
5. How does Dad prefer to spend his free time:
a. He's the world's best Power Napper
b. Playing games of any kind
c. Cooking
d. Reading. Reading. Reading.
e. Hiking/Running
6. Tell us Dad's favorite color:
a. Green
b. Purple
c. Red
d. Blue
e. Other
7. Dad's favorite PrimeTime TV show:
a. Family guy
b. Big Bang Theory
c. NCIS
d. 60 Minutes
e. Monday Night Football
8. In a perfect world, Dad's favorite form of transportation would be:
a. Zipping around town in a cute little sports car
b. Driving responsibly with an electric or hybrid vehicle
c. Ready for all terrain with an SUV
d. Public Transportation — no parking spot needed
e. The ever-practical family van
9. Dad's favorite outdoor activity
a. Firing up the BBQ
b. Outdoor activity? What's that?
c. Golf
d. Heading out to the beach
e. Hiking/Running
10. Tell us Dad's favorite fruit:
a. Banana
b. Apple
c. Berries
d. Pommegranate
e. Avocado
11. Dad's beverage of choice:
a. Wine
b. Soda
c. Beer
d. Wine
e. Water
Now it's time for the big reveal—ready to see our suggestions, based on your answers?
Click here if you chose mostly As
Click here if you chose mostly Bs
Click here if you chose mostly Cs
Click here if you chose mostly Ds
Click here if you chose mostly Es
And click here to learn how to easily give an ebook as a gift.
Remember all of those impromptu lessons your dad taught you? And the stories he made up to tell you before bed? Celebrate his mind and his imagination with this great collection of ebooks that explore the cosmos through fact and fiction.
More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
Lone is a seemingly simple young man living on the street and in the woods, dim and helpless, yet effortlessly able to read the thoughts of others. His true nature won’t be revealed until the arrival of eight-year-old Janie, a telekinetic; twins Bonnie and Beanie, who can teleport easily across great distances; and Baby, an infant with a super-computer brain. Together they are the Gestalt, a single extraordinary being comprised of remarkable parts (although an essential piece may be missing). But are they the next stage in human development or harbingers of the end of civilization? It’s a question that takes on a terrifying new relevance when Gerry joins their group—for though he’s powerfully telepathic, he lacks a moral compass . . . and his hatred of the world that has rejected him could prove catastrophic.
Winner of the International Fantasy Award and considered Theodore Sturgeon’s masterpiece, More Than Human is a genre-bending wonder that explores themes of responsibility and morality, individuality, and the need to belong. Moving and suspenseful, lyrical and provocative, the novel was one of the first to elevate science fiction into the realm of literature, and inspired musicians and artists such as the Grateful Dead and Crosby, Stills and Nash.
Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Apollo Moon Landings by Jay Barbree
A revised edition of the New York Times bestselling classic: the epic story of the golden years of American space exploration, told by the men who rode the rockets
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and the space race was born. Desperate to beat the Russians into space, NASA put together a crew of the nation’s most daring test pilots: the seven men who were to lead America to the moon. The first into space was Alan Shepard; the last was Deke Slayton, whose irregular heartbeat kept him grounded until 1975. They spent the 1960s at the forefront of NASA’s effort to conquer space, andMoon Shot is their inside account of what many call the twentieth century’s greatest feat—landing humans on another world.
Collaborating with NBC’s veteran space reporter Jay Barbree, Shepard and Slayton narrate in gripping detail the story of America’s space exploration from the time of Shepard’s first flight until he and eleven others had walked on the moon.
Discover more ebooks here
Open Road Media continues to expand its publishing partners program. The company announced today that it has formed a digital partnership with Dzanc Books. Open Road will distribute and market Dzanc’s entire catalog, including its frontlist titles and backlist series, rEprint.
Dzanc Books, a nonprofit organization that was formed in 2006, publishes award-winning literary fiction, supports several literary journals, champions literacy programs, funds a writers in residence program, and runs an International Literary Festival in Portugal. Dzanc’s list also includes the imprints Other Voices Books, Black Lawrence Press, Starcherone Books, and Disquiet.
The partnership will launch with:
• Eleven books by Stephen Dixon including National Book Award nominees Frog and Interstate
• Two collections from National Book Award–winner Ellen Gilchrist
• Fiction from highly acclaimed emerging writers including Matt Bell, Kyle Minor, Alissa Nutting, and Jen Michalski
• Four novels by J. Robert Lennon, including Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers Award (1997) winner The Light of Falling Stars, and the never-before-published Happyland
Dzanc’s rEprint series, which Open Road will publish digitally, brings both in-print and recently-out-of-print titles into electronic form. In under two years, Dzanc has reintroduced more than three hundred titles to the reading public. A successful Kickstarter campaign contributed to the digitization of the rEprint series.
We think every dad has a little bit of 007 in them. Let your dad be Bond with these mysteries and thrillers from Open Road Media. They’re fast, easy, and any thrill seeking dad will love them. Not sure how to give an ebook? Click here to find out how it’s done.
And if you really use your imagination, you can imagine the ereader was an invention by the brilliant Q.
Pandora's Temple by Jon LandRogue special-operations agent McCracken has never been shy about answering the call, and this time it comes in the aftermath of a deepwater oil rig disaster that claims the life of a onetime member of his commando unit. The remnants of the rig and its missing crew lead him to the inescapable conclusion that one of the most mysterious and deadly forces in the universe is to blame: dark matter, both a limitless source of potential energy and an unimaginably destructive weapon.
Joining forces again with his trusty sidekick Johnny Wareagle, McCracken races to stop two deadly enemies who want the dark matter at all costs. A powerful energy magnate and the leader of a Japanese doomsday cult both seek the ultimate prize for their own nefarious reasons, and McCracken and Wareagle’s mission to defeat them takes the duo on a nonstop journey across the world and thousands of years into the past where the truth lies in the ancient Pandora’s Temple, built to safeguard the world’s most powerful weapon.
McCracken’s only hope to save the world is to find the mythical temple. Along the way, he and Wareagle find themselves up against Mexican drug gangs, killer robots, an army of professional assassins, and a legendary sea monster. The hero of nine previous bestselling thrillers, McCracken is used to the odds being stacked against him, but this time the stakes have never been higher.
Marathon Man by William Goldman
Rosenbaum is stuck in traffic on the Upper East Side when the heat gets the better of him. A Volkswagen has stalled out in the middle of 87th Street, and even when its elderly German driver gets it going, Rosenbaum cannot contain his rage. With one shocking act, he initiates a chain of events that spell doom for Babe Levy. A PhD candidate and aspiring marathon runner, Babe is driven by shame over his father’s suicide. Smart, fit, but incredibly awkward, he can’t get a date and he’s got a nagging toothache. But his troubles are about to get a whole lot worse. Though he doesn’t know it, Levy is on a collision course with one of the most fearsome villains of the Second World War, running a race that only one of them will survive.
This summer, join us for a road trip across the USA. We’ve chosen the best mysteries, thrillers, and crime stories from every state in the union. Each novel encapsulates the unique flora and fauna of its home state and weaves in a tale of villainy and intrigue you won’t want to miss.
Handpicked by our mystery team, these tales of murder, revenge, and destructive ambition will take you on a wild ride from the Atlantic to the Pacific: From Carl Hiaasen’s sleazy South Florida heists to James Ellroy’s depictions of the dark and greedy streets of Los Angeles, you’ll never look at America in quite the same way again.
To start exploring, or to find an ebook that takes place in your home state, check out our Map of Mystery infographic below, then learn more about your next mysterious destination.
And here’s the best part: from June 11 to June 18, the sixty-four ebooks below are on sale for up to 75% off. In this case, it’s all about the destination, not the journey, so choose wisely . . .
Father's Day is right around the corner—have you been wondering what to give your favorite military Dad this year? Here's an idea: give him something that's easy to deliver, won't break the bank, and he's sure to enjoy: digital books!
Whether he's stateside, deployed, or retired, our round-up of inspirational and educational ebooks, promises something for every military enthusiast on your list. For instance:
The powerful story of an unlikely friendship and a doctor’s re-education on the battlefields of the Vietnam War
Fresh out of medical school and planning to enter academia, David pragmatically applies to serve in the U.S. Army, thinking he would rather work in a stateside military hospital than get drafted. But when he gets reassigned to Southeast Asia, he suddenly finds himself on a base in Vietnam. He joins a civilian aid mission on a supposedly secure plateau, and spends his days dispensing pills to villagers. As David comes to terms with the unexpected factors that brought him to Vietnam, he must adjust to many more twists and turns—among them his relationship with his driver, Tom, a young, rough-hewn Southerner whose reticence feels unnervingly like indifference.
Gradually, however, David sees that there’s far more to Tom than he initially thought. As their friendship grows, David also realizes that his fellow doctors and the troops on base hold widely diverging opinions about the war and its objectives. As it becomes clear that their base is located on a key strategic route—the notorious Ho Chi Minh Trail—and thus a vulnerable target, it’s only a matter of time before battles break out . . .
James Jones’s epic story of army life in the calm before Pearl Harbor—now with previously censored scenes and dialogue restored
At the Pearl Harbor army base in 1941, Robert E. Lee Prewitt is Uncle Sam’s finest bugler. A career soldier with no patience for army politics, Prewitt becomes incensed when a commander’s favorite wins the title of First Bugler. His indignation results in a transfer to an infantry unit whose commander is less interested in preparing for war than he is in boxing. But when Prewitt refuses to join the company team, the commander and his sergeant decide to make the bugler’s life hell.
An American classic now available with scenes and dialogue considered unfit for publication in the 1950s, From Here to Eternity is a stirring picture of army life in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In this gripping memoir, a former marine returns to Vietnam to try to make sense of the war. Previously published as Brothers in Arms—and the inspiration for the award-winning television series China Beach—this edition includes a new preface by the author.
When William Broyles Jr. was drafted, he was a twenty-four-year-old student at Oxford University in England, hoping to avoid military service. During his physical exam, however, he realized that he couldn’t let social class or education give him special privileges. He joined the marines, and soon commanded an infantry platoon in the foothills near Da Nang. More than a decade later, Broyles found himself flooded with emotion during the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. He decided to return to Vietnam and confront what he’d been through.
Broyles was one of the very first combat veterans to return to the battlefields. No American before or since has gone so deeply into the other side of the war: the enemy side. Broyles interviews dozens of Vietnamese, from the generals who ran the war to the men and women who fought it. He moves from the corridors of power in Hanoi—so low-tech that the plumbing didn’t work—to the jungles and rice paddies where he’d fought. He meets survivors of American B-52 strikes and My Lai, and grieves with a woman whose son was killed by his own platoon. Along the way, Broyles also explores the deep bonds he shared with his own comrades, and the mystery of why men love war even as they hate it. Amidst the landscape of death, his formerly faceless enemies come to life. They had once tried to kill each other, but they are all brothers now.
Explore more military-inspired titles. Learn how to easily gift an ebook.
In 2008, CBS chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan candidly speculated about the human side of the war in Iraq: “Tell me the last time you saw the body of a dead American soldier. What does that look like? Who in America knows what that looks like? Because I know what that looks like, and I feel responsible for the fact that no one else does . . .” Logan’s query raised some important yet ignored questions: How did the remains of American service men and women get from the dusty roads of Fallujah to the flag-covered coffins at Dover Air Force Base? And what does the gathering of those remains tell us about the nature of modern warfare and about ourselves? These questions are the focus of Jessica Goodell’s story Shade It Black: Death and After in Iraq.
Goodell enlisted in the Marines immediately after graduating from high school in 2001, and in 2004 she volunteered to serve in the Marine Corps’ first officially declared Mortuary Affairs unit in Iraq. Her platoon was tasked with recovering and processing the remains of fallen soldiers.
With sensitivity and insight, Goodell describes her job retrieving and examining the remains of fellow soldiers lost in combat in Iraq, and the psychological intricacy of coping with their fates, as well as her own. Death assumed many forms during the war, and the challenge of maintaining one’s own humanity could be difficult. Responsible for diagramming the outlines of the fallen, if a part was missing she was instructed to “shade it black.”
This insightful memoir also describes the difficulties faced by these Marines when they transition from a life characterized by self-sacrifice to a civilian existence marked very often by self-absorption. In sharing the story of her own journey, Goodell helps us to better understand how post-traumatic stress disorder affects female veterans. With the assistance of John Hearn, she has written one of the most unique accounts of America’s current wars overseas yet seen.
Watch this exclusive video for more from Jessica Goodell.
Every year, the Horror Writers Association presents the Bram Stoker Awards for superior writing in dark fantasy and horror, named in honor of the famed Dracula author. First awarded in 1988, the current categories are Novel, First Novel, Short Fiction, Long Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction Collection, Poetry Collection, Anthology, Screenplay, Graphic Novel, and Non-Fiction.
This weekend, the Bram Stoker Awards will be held in conjunction with the World Horror Convention, an annual gathering of authors, filmmakers, dealers, actors, and most importantly, fans. Get ready for a weekend of frights . . .
The Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement is presented to individuals whose work has had a noteworthy influence on the horror genre throughout their careers. We’re thrilled to celebrate several such authors—Robert R. McCammon, Ellen Datlow, and Robert Bloch.
Robert R. McCammon is not only one of the founders of the Horror Writers Association, he is this year’s recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. His novels have won or been nominated for several Bram Stoker Awards, including Boy’s Life, Mine, Swan Song, Stinger, and The Wolf’s Hour. In Boy’s Life, a gruesome murder and dark magic turn a small town in Alabama upside down. Swan Song tells the story of a young psychic struggling to survive in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.
Robert Bloch was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989. His novel Psychowon a Bram Stoker Award and was the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film by the same name. The film, still considered one of the greatest of all time, has become synonymous with the Hitchcock name. Stephen Rebello chronicles the evolution of the film, from Hitchcock first learning of the novel to the first screening of the film, in Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. It would later be adapted into the film Hitchcock starring Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren.
Ellen Datlow is an editor of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Her anthologies and editing work have won her numerous awards in the field, including three Bram Stoker Awards. In 2011, she was awarded the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. Her thought-provoking and genre-bending anthologies include Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers, a seductive collection of tales featuring fairies, werewolves, and other nonhumans, as well as Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex, a provocative collection of otherworldly romance and erotica.
Best Fiction Collection
Jonathan Carroll’s incredible short story collection, The Woman Who Married a Cloud, has been nominated forthe Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection. Including thirty-eight stories from over thirty years of his writing, The Woman Who Married a Cloud is Carroll at his best.
To find out more about the Bram Stoker Awards, click here. Visit the author websites to learn more about them and their ebooks.
Does your father schedule his life around boxing matches? Is the back nine your husband’s idea of heaven? Is the Super Bowl more feverishly anticipated than Christmas in your family? If so, the man of the house just might be a sports addict.
Never fear! You can make him happy this Father’s Day without shelling out for new clubs or getting a sunburn at the ballpark. Instead, give him a thoughtful gift he’ll be sure to use and love—and give it instantly with just a few clicks.
Check out the great sports ebooks we’ve collected for the athletic dad in your life (and if you’re new to this whole digital gifting thing, click here for easy giving instructions).
North Dallas Forty by Peter Gent
On the field, the men who play football are gladiators, titans, and every other kind of cliché. But when they leave the locker room they are only men. Peter Gent’s classic novel looks at the seedy underbelly of the pro game, chronicling eight days in the life of Phil Elliott, an aging receiver for the Texas team. Running on a mixture of painkillers and cortisone as he tries to keep his fading legs strong, Elliott tries to get every ounce of pleasure out of his last days of glory, living the life of sex, drugs, and football.
Adapted for the screen in 1979, this novel, written by ex-Dallas Cowboy Peter Gent, is widely considered the best football novel of all time.
Million Dollar Baby: Stories from the Corner by F. X. Toole
F. X. Toole knew boxing. Between bouts, he wrote, and two years before his death he published this collection of stories, giving readers an unprecedented look at the gritty life around the ring.
He tells of a cutman with a sweet tooth, young fighters with dreams of celebrity, and a talented boxer who goes to Atlantic City for his biggest bout, only to be humiliated by the prejudices of a callous promoter. In “Million $$$ Baby,” the inspiration for the Oscar-winning Clint Eastwood film, an aged trainer takes on a female fighter, guiding her through disappointment, pain, and tragedy. And in “Rope Burns,” Toole realizes his epic vision, showing that even the purest fighter can succumb to the pressures of the world outside the sport. Throughout these stories, boxing’s violence is redeemed by the respect these men and women share, as they strap on gloves and prepare their bodies for the ultimate test.
Summer of '49 by David Halberstam
Halberstam’s classic #1 bestseller is about the magical summer when baseball’s fiercest rivalry captured the nation’s imagination and changed the sport forever. The summer of 1949: It was baseball’s Golden Age and the year Joe DiMaggio’s New York Yankees were locked in a soon-to-be classic battle with Ted Williams’s Boston Red Sox for the American League pennant. As postwar America looked for a unifying moment, the greatest players in baseball history brought their rivalry to the field, captivating the American public through the heart-pounding final moments of the season. This expansive story captures an era, incorporating profiles of the players and their families, fans, broadcasters, baseball executives, and sportswriters. Riveting in its blend of powerful detail and exhilarating narrative, The Summer of ’49 is Pulitzer Prize–winner David Halberstam’s engrossing look at not only a sports rivalry, but at a time when America’s very identity was wrapped up in its beloved national game.
What is the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award?
What would Theodore Sturgeon say about the award today?
Who are some of the famous winners?
Who were some of the biggest snubs?
Ian R. MacLeodcomes in second for the biggest Sturgeon snub, with six nominated stories and no wins, after James Patrick Kelly’s whopping seven nominations. Best known for his alternative histories, MacLeod’s novels and short fiction reimagine key historical events, seamlessly blending history and fantasy while offering a social or political critique. His novel The Summer Isles reimagines the world when the Allies were defeated in WWII, and his short story "The Chop Girl" was inspired by the Dresden fire-bombings, and is now part of the story collection, Snodgrass and Other Illusions.
Elizabeth Handwas nominated in 2011 for her story “The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon.” Hand’s novella Last Summer at Mars Hill is equally powerful, weaving a tale of magic, nature, and dark secrets. Her fiction often includes Gothic elements, ancient rites, nature, and spiritual growth.
Learn more about the great Theodore Sturgeon here. To check out this year’s Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award finalists, go here, and be sure to check out Octavia E. Butler, John Barnes, and Ian R. MacLeod on their author pages.
Summer vacation is fast approaching for your kids, which means adventure-filled days in the sun—but also the risk of the “summer slide,” a lapse in learning that occurs when kids are out of school. Participating in a reading challenge is a great way to keep your child’s reading skills on track and even improving.
Here are five ways to make summer reading challenges fun:
In an effort to help kids avoid the summer slide, we are offering 60% off children’s ebooks for a limited time. Shop now!
Ever been stabbed in the back by someone you trusted? Betrayed by a jealous friend? Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened to notorious outlaw Jesse James.
It was a hot day, and James arrived home feeling carefree. His daughter was waiting for him and when he reached her, he picked her up and twirled her in the air. The Ford brothers, longtime friends of his, accompanied him into the house. The three eased comfortably into a casual conversation in the sitting room. Little did James know, the two were conspiring against him. As soon as James unstrapped his guns and turned his head, the brothers knew it was time. “Then Robert Ford’s .44 ignited and a red stamp seemed to paste against the outlaw’s chestnut brown hair one inch to the rear of his right ear.”
In a matter of seconds, James was dead, shot in the back of the head by his trusted confidant. Talk about betrayal.
It is no wonder that The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Fordis Ron Hansen’s most highly acclaimed novel. You almost want to scream at James, “Turn around!” Hansen’s novel exposes the inner workings of gang superiority and ambition. Ford knew that he was in James’s shadow, and he was sick of it. He wanted to be James, and Hansen paints the picture perfectly.
Written with similar enthusiasm is the compelling Desperadoes, in which Hansen takes on the voice of infamous outlaw Emmett Dalton, the last surviving member of the Dalton gang from the late nineteenth andearly twentieth centuries. When he was released after fourteen years in prison, Dalton was forced to sell the rights to his story to Hollywood bigwig William Selig in order to make a living. Hansen’s retelling of Dalton’s story is so convincing that Desperadoes almost seems autobiographical.
Ron Hansen’s novels are utterly believable and captivating. His writing is so persuasive that you might forget that he isn’t actually an outlaw from the Old West.
Ron Hansen has written eight novels, two collections of stories, and a book of essays. He has been nominated for numerous literary awards including the PEN/Faulkner Award, for which two of his books have been finalists. His novel The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was adapted into a movie. He currently lives with his wife in Northern California, and is a professor at Santa Clara University.
Sex? Check.
Drugs? Yup.
Rock 'N' Roll? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Get your weekend on a little early with our Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'N' Roll Infographic: Ebook Edition
Or, to paraphrase Timothy Leary:
Turn on. Tune in. Download.
Doug Bradley, author of DEROS Vietnam: Dispatches from the Air-Conditioned Jungle, looks at the unspoken connections of fathers, sons, and soldiers.
The fact that my father, Jack Bradley, who passed away in 2009 at the age of 89, and I were former soldiers linked us in ways that only other combatants could know. But, not too surprisingly, we two proud, private men never talked about this connection. He never told me about the horrors he witnessed in New Guinea in 1944 and 1945, and I never spoke of the ugly brutality of guerilla war in Vietnam in 1970 and 1971.
But our eyes told the honest stories, the truth that neither of us had the courage to enlist but, rather, had to be drafted to fight for our country. The truth about the male friendships we formed that to this day remain unlike any others we’ve ever had. The truth about all-consuming fear and the aroma of death. The truth about coming home, but never, even though we both came back whole, never quite making it back home completely.
So, every year on Father’s Day I make a point of searching for the thread that runs between the two soldiers, the son and the father. I usually end up asking more questions than I can answer. And reaching out for a man who, while still in my life, is more separated from me by hundreds of silent conversations than by his death.
I’m especially mindful of this when I observe my final Father’s Day ritual – re-reading the one letter I received from my dad when I was in Vietnam. My mom did all of the letter writing, and she’d usually write at least twice a week – but my dad took the pen in hand this one time when he felt that I was losing hope and was worried that Chris, my girlfriend back home, was going to break up with me.
In his lone letter to me, my dad told me how his love for my mother had kept him alive during World War II. He told me that if Chris and I were meant for each other then everything would turn out okay. He told me how sorry he was that I had to be in Vietnam at all.
“I won't tell you to keep your head down,” he tried to joke at the end of his letter to me, “but I think you should hold it high because I’m proud of you. Not for being a soldier,” I could almost feel him pausing, “but for being my son.”
Author John Del Vecchio's daughter was just six years old, when she wrote this letter to her father—its sentiment so clear and simple, we wanted to share it with our readers.
Wishing armed forces fathers everywhere a heartfelt Happy Father's Day.
