Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye.
This week, all three are samples that have been on my Kindle for years.
Time Present and Time Past by Deirdre Madden
Summary: Fintan Buckley is a pleasant and conventional man with an ordinary job and family. Fintan begins to experience states of altered consciousness and auditory hallucinations, which seem to take him out of a linear experience of time.
I’m thinking: No – is there a hint of time travel…?
Careless People by Sarah Churchwell
Summary: A literary investigation – how a forensic search for clues to an unsolved crime influenced the creation of America’s best loved novel.
I’m thinking: Yes (it’s Gatsby!).
Reunion by Andrea Goldsmith
Summary: Four university friends return to their home city after a twenty year absence. Lovers, careers, new friends and illness have changed things.
I’m thinking: No – predictable.
Do you think TGG is America’s “best loved”, I would have guessed To Kill a Mockingbird. I wonder if Australia has a best loved. Maybe Cloudstreet. That would make a trifecta of novels I don’t particularly like.
I reckon Mockingbird would edge out Gatsby as best loved. Australian best loved…? That’s a very interesting question and one you should do a post on Bill. I wouldn’t have thought of Cloudstreet immediately – Jasper Jones came to mind first (which is a Mockingbird derivative…!). I’m also thinking about how I would answered at different stages of my life – Picnic at Hanging Rock and Snugglepot & Cuddlepie and The Magic Pudding may have featured.
Picnic might be my favourite movie of all time, much better than the book. The Magic Pudding has been no.1 in my family for generations. I didn’t have the gumnuts as a kid, but my children and grandchildren did/do so I have read it cover to cover too many times.
Harp in the South? My Brilliant Career?
I’m going to ask the Twittersphere and see what they reckon.
The Harp certainly would have been once. Love to know what the twitterati think, though not enough to get an account.
I’ve got Careless People in the TBR, so that gets my vote as your review will prompt me to dig it out!
Time Present and Time Past certainly sounds intriguing. I can’t tell if they’re alluding to time travel or not. haha
It didn’t seem like time travel (more hallucinations that moved through time, if that makes sense?) but I could be totally wrong! All I knew is that it wasn’t my cup of tea.
I enjoyed Careless People. Definitely give that a go.
There’s nothing predictable about Reunion, in my opinion. I loved it.
The good thing about my Sample Saturdays is that bloggers change my mind on books first rejected 🙂