Showing posts with label kindle books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kindle books. Show all posts

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Top Selling Amazon Books You Must Read This Autumn





The autumn brings with it cold, dark evenings; perfect for snuggling up in bed (or on the couch) with a good book. Many people read books in the summer holidays, but I find reading a bit of a drag when the sun is up and I frankly, have much better things to do. I keep most of my reading time for the colder months, and they're now approaching fast.  Here is a short list of books you can get stuck into, whether you prefer hard copy or the kindle (or iPod) download variety. These all have splendid reviews on Amazon from satisfied readers. Have a look and see which one best suits your mood. I've included part of Amazon's review for each. Click on the links if you need more information.





Hide In Plain Sight







Andrea Hampton is used to the safety and security of her big city job. However, nothing will keep her from running back to her sister's side after Rachel is involved in a horrific accident. But helping Rachel and her grandmother open up a bed and breakfast? Ridiculous...and yet that is the position she finds herself in. Carpenter Cal Burke seems willing to help. Just what is going on with this rash of accidents plaguing the inn and its owners?



110 reviews 

31 gave it a 5-stars rating







Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games)











Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12.

493 customer reviews

218 gave it a 5-stars rating













Somewhere To Belong (Daughters of Amana, Book 1)











Johanna Ilg has lived her entire life in Main Amana, one of the seven villages inhabited by devout Christians who believe in cooperative living, a simple lifestyle, and faithful service to God. Although she's always longed to see the outside world, Johanna believes her future is rooted in the community. But when she learns a troubling secret, the world she thought she knew is shattered and she is forced to make difficult choices about a new life and the man she left behind.

57 customer reviews

22 gave it a 5-stars rating









Beneath the Clouds and Coconut Leaves







Extremism, now more widely termed, terrorism, is on the lips of every human being and on the front pages of the world s newspapers every day. But we still long for love and love still thrives. This poetic novel by Moncy Pothen plunges us directly into the forests and paddy fields of Kerala, India from the 1960s to the 1980s, describes the delicate and heartfelt awakening of love in two lives, and has roots in ancient Indian tradition. Can you forgive a terrorist, if he has participated in the murder of your own father? Like the heroine, Ahalya, we live in complicated times, where black and white give way to shades of gray, and in Beneath the Clouds and Coconut Leaves, we hold our breath to witness which will win the battle, love or hate?



5 customer reviews

5 gave it a 5-stars rating





The Shopkeeper











In 1879, Steve Dancy sells his New York shop and ventures west to explore and write a journal about his adventures. Though he's not looking for trouble, Dancy's infatuation with another man's wife soon embroils him in a deadly feud with Sean Washburn, a Nevada silver baron.

Infuriated by the outrages of two hired thugs, the shopkeeper kills both men in an impulsive street fight. Dancy believes this barbarian act has closed the episode. He is wrong. He has interfered with Washburn's ambitions, and this is something the mining tycoon will not allow.

39 customer reviews

27 gave it a 5 star rating






Share |

Monday, March 22, 2010

Top Books on Amazon This Week

Share |





I've been keeping an eye on the hot books on Amazon, just to see what the readers are buying at the moment. I noticed that the following four books are set aside as 'Best Selling Products' (books) of the week. Naturally, I wanted to find out why. 

(Each one is linked to their individual page on Amazon).













1.  A Passion Most Pure (Daughters of Boston, Book 1)   by Julie Lessman.





A Passion Most Pure (Daughters of Boston, Book 1)


This is part of the product description on Amazon:


Refusing to settle for anything less than a romantic relationship that pleases God, Faith O'Connor steels her heart against her desire for the roguish Collin McGuire. But when Collin tries to win her sister Charity's hand, Faith isn't sure she can handle the jealousy she feels. To further complicate matters, Faith finds herself the object of Collin's affections, even as he is courting her sister. The Great War is raging overseas, and a smaller war is brewing in the O'Connor household.
  • 70 percent of the reviewers have given this book a 5 star rating. 

  • 93 customer reviews

  • An average of 4.5 star rating

  • Number 86 in Romance, Religious books

Romance is obviously not dead. The reader reviews make it absolutely clear that many people, including men, still tuck themselves up in the evenings with a great romance book. Even though historical books haven't been wildly waved about in the shelves of Waterstones, we see that the real customers are finding their niche on the Internet. 




The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Vintage)


This is part of Publisher's Weekly's review:


At once a strikingly original thriller and a vivisection of Sweden's dirty not-so-little secrets (as suggested by its original title, Men Who Hate Women), this first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multipierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable superhacker. Hired by octogenarian industrialist Henrik Vanger, who wants to find out what happened to his beloved great-niece before he dies, the duo gradually uncover a festering morass of familial corruption—at the same time, Larsson skillfully bares some of the similar horrors that have left Salander such a marked woman.
  • A staggering 904 customer reviews

  • 442 readers gave it a 5 star rating

  • 4 star overall average

  • Number 3 best-seller in books (general)

  • Number 3 in Mystery and Thrillers

  • Number 6 in Literature and Fiction

Mystery and Thriller have always done well in the literary world. However, reading the description doesn't immediately call to mind a book that will favour well with picky agents and publishers. I think that the readers have demonstrated their literary preferences with the way they've trampled over each other to access this book. Not only have they read and digested this remarkable story, they've encouraged others to take a sip of what they deem a satisfying drink.




Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows, Book 1)
Part of the product description:



The underground population of witches, vampires, werewolves—creatures of dreams and nightmares—have lived beside humans for centuries, hiding their powers. But after a genetically engineered virus wipes out a large part of humanity, many of the "Inderlanders" reveal themselves, changing everything.
  • 301 customer reviews

  • 143 gave it a 5 star rating

  • An overall average of 4 stars

  • Number 73 in Dark Fantasy, Horror

I think that fiction writers can take heart from the recent success of vampire movies and themes. In the 60s when Dracula was prancing around on the big screens, horror books sold in hefty numbers. We seem to have come full circle in the noughties, as vampire/horror merchandise in general are widely accepted by mainstream public. The success of this book is only one factor that proves this point. Vampire books are no longer just for niche audiences. Get writing your vampire tales!




The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine


Michiko Kakutani - The New York Times said: 
No one writes with more narrative panache about money and finance than Mr. Lewis....[he] does a nimble job of using his subjects’ stories to explicate the greed, idiocies and hypocrisies of a system notably lacking in grown-up supervision....Writing in faintly Tom Wolfe-ian prose, Mr. Lewis does a colorful job of introducing the lay reader to the Darwinian world of the bond market. 
  • 122 customer reviews

  • 42 readers gave it a 5 star rating

  • 3 star average

  • Number 1 in non-fiction.

  • number 1 in Business and Investing

As a writer of mainly non-fiction books, (not business) this gives me hope in the future for my own work. The business theme is not one that is thought to be widely embraced where the public taste in literature is concerned. This just goes to show how much we really know when we blabber about what will or will not sell. The readers' remarkable reviews of this wonderful book is generally favourable and filled with praise. 


Hope you can check out some of these books. If you're a reader or writer, there's something in each one for all of us.