Author Ernest J. Gaines died in his sleep of cardiac arrest at his home in Oscar, Louisiana today. He was 86 years old… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

A native of Pointe Coupee Parish, Mr. Gaines’ critically acclaimed novel, “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” was adapted into a 1974 made-for-TV movie that received nine Emmy awards. His 1993 book, “A Lesson Before Dying,” won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction and is a part of high school curricula across the nation. He was Writer-in-Residence Emeritus at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

In addition, Mr. Gaines was active in the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, established 13 years ago to honor outstanding literary work from rising African-American authors while also recognizing Gaines’ extraordinary contribution to the literary world.

He was born on River Lake Plantation near False River and became one of the greatest writers of his generation, earning a nomination for the Nobel Prize in Literature and winning numerous other awards for his literary achievement, including the National Book Critics Circle Award and the MacArthur Prize, also known as “the genius grant” for creativity.

In 2007, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation established the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. Mr. Gaines and his wife Dianne have met with each of the winners in Oscar and he has publicly shared words of insight and encouragement at each Gaines Award ceremony. The Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence will continue as his legacy. It will be presented to a new awardee January 30, 2020.

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Sweating your reading goals as 2019 comes to a close? We’ve got you covered! Here are some quick reads under 100 pages… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Will You Still Want Me?

by B. Love

4.7 stars – 140 reviews

Kindle price: 99 cents

“The entire time I talked he ate. Seemingly unfazed while I was on the verge of shattering from shame, a broken spirit and crushed pride. I thought it hurt so much because I loved Rodney, but the past six months have shown me that it wasn’t my heart that took the biggest beating. It was my pride.” – Parker Graham

It took six months for the ice around Parker’s heart to freeze. Can Kane warm her up to his love in one week? Or will he be yet another source of pain that causes the ice and disappointment that can only be felt because of love to remain?

* * *

Always My Baby: A Christmas Short Story

by Alexandria House

4.7 stars – 118 reviews

Kindle price: 99 cents

What Melanie sees as an inconvenience, Luke sees as a long-desired opportunity. Hopefully, this converging of divergent paths on Christmas Eve will lead to pleasant surprises for both of them.

This story is very short and contains profanity and sexual content. If none of this is your cup of tea, this is likely not the story for you.

* * *

Extinction Lost: A Team Ghost Short Story

by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

4.7 stars – 165 reviews

Kindle price: 99 cents

Two days after the events of Extinction Aftermath, European Unified Command calls on Team Ghost for a top secret mission. The residents of a small Inuit fishing village in Greenland have gone missing and reports of Variants unaffected by Kryptonite have surfaced.

Fatigued, injured, and unaware of the events back in the United States, Master Sergeant Joe Fitzpatrick leads Team Ghost into the remote and alien winter landscape to determine the fate of the missing villagers. But as the operation unfolds they discover a harrowing revelation that could impact the world war against the Variants, and the future of the human race.

* * *

Whisper of Bones

by Melinda Leigh

4.3 stars – 107 reviews

Kindle price: $3.99

When a body washes up on the state park beach, Deputy Tessa Black’s experience as a former Seattle detective tells her that the death was not an accident. All evidence points to another murder on the remote island.

The victim is a local contractor with a shockingly long list of enemies. The more locals Tessa interviews, the more people she suspects—from the bitter ex-wife and estranged current wife to disgruntled former clients and employees. They all have different reasons to want him dead.

As Tessa’s investigation heats up, arson and a vicious assault convince her the killer is desperate to hide his crime—and that she’d better solve the case before he claims another victim.

* * *

Summer Frost

by Blake Crouch

4.3 stars – 148 reviews

Kindle price: $1.99

A video game developer becomes obsessed with a willful character in her new project, in a mind-bending exploration of what it means to be human by the New York Times bestselling author of Recursion.

Maxine was made to do one thing: die. Except the minor non-player character in the world Riley is building makes her own impossible decision—veering wildly off course and exploring the boundaries of the map. When the curious Riley extracts her code for closer examination, an emotional relationship develops between them. Soon Riley has all new plans for her spontaneous AI, including bringing Max into the real world. But what if Max has real-world plans of her own?

* * *

A military dad couldn’t find a good resource to explain his PTSD to his kids. So he created one, according to Cameron LeBlanc of Fatherly… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

After sixteen years spent deployed to Qatar, Afghanistan, and Iraq, Army Reserve First Sgt. Seth Kastle retired and returned home to Wakeeney, Kansas. And while he was happy to be back with his wife Julia and daughters Raegan and Kennedy, Kastle struggled with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“When I returned home and began the reintegration process, it was difficult, but I didn’t understand why,” Kastle told Babble. To deal with his feelings and hopefully help his kids understand his PTSD, Kastle sat down at the kitchen table and started writing a story he’d been mulling over for a long time. Half an hour later, the first draft of Why Is Dad So Mad? was complete.

Kastle’s effort is a children’s book is about a family of lions, modeled after Kastle’s own, in which the father is struggling with PTSD. The disorder is represented in the book’s illustrations by a fire raging inside his chest.

Kastle hopes that his book, which met its initial Kickstarter goal in a matter of hours, helps other veterans and their families, not just his own.

Read full post on Fatherly

Buy Why Is Dad So Mad? here

As part of a Veterans Day special to honor those who have served in the U.S. Military, Amazon is proud to offer $40 off one year of Prime membership to all Veterans and active military from Nov. 6-11… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

The Veterans Day promotion discounts the Amazon Prime membership fee from $119/year to $79 for one year. This is a one-time discount and the membership fee will return to standard pricing upon next annual renewal. New and existing Amazon Prime members are eligible. If you are a Prime member, this purchase will extend your membership by one year. Visit the link above to learn more about the terms and conditions.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON VETERANS AND ACTIVE MILITARY PRIME SPECIAL

When you think Agatha Christie and trains, you naturally think of perhaps her most famous work, Murder on the Orient-Express. But Christie also wrote another rail-themed novel starring her famous fictional Detective Poirot, Mystery of the Blue Train.
Larry Olmsted with Forbes looks at the word’s most luxurious train… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Here’s where things get confusing.

At the time, the Blue Train was a luxury French rail trip running the entire breadth of France, North to South, from Calais on the English Channel to the Riviera. However, it no longer exists, and the name is better known today for another luxury overnight rail trip, this one from Cape Town to Pretoria in South Africa. To further confuse matters, this new luxury murder mystery based on the original French Blue Train trip will be on the recently – and painstakingly – restored Orient-Express, but not the better known Venice Simplon Orient-Express that has been run for years by Belmond Luxury Hotel, Trains, River Cruises and Safaris. I’ve ridden that version of the Orient-Express, which typically travels between London and Paris, and it is great, as are Belmond’s other vintage luxury trains worldwide, especially the over the top Royal Scotsman. This Orient-Express consists of a set of original carriages now owned by French Railway company SNCF, which also owns the rights to the name Orient-Express. Got it?

For rail buffs this is an important distinction as SNCF spent more than $15 million (according to the Daily Mail) restoring the cars to the glamour and elegance of the 1920s, with polished wood, sumptuous upholstery, and original antique fixtures. Yet since then, the gorgeously historic train has rarely used – it ran only once last year. For the most part it is a historic and impressive showpiece that sits on display in the station in Paris and has no scheduled service. That makes this one-off special event an even more special experience for both murder mystery fans and rail buffs, who can follow in the footsteps of previous Blue Train passengers such as Charlie Chaplin, Coco Chanel, Winston Churchill and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Read full post on Forbes

If you’re wondering what the heck you’re going to get for the reader in your life, maybe try donating to one of these book charities instead… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Whichever of these book charities you choose, know that you’re making a positive impact on someone’s life.

1. World Literacy Foundation

Their mission is to eradicate world poverty through literacy. They believe that young people deserve the opportunity to acquire literacy and reading skills to reach their full potential. WLF provides access to quality education and targets innovative solutions to provide wide scale literacy around the globe.

2. Book Aid International

Book Aid International is a global UK-based literacy charity and they’re one of the largest book charities out there. They believe in the power of reading, that no one should have old or outdated (throw away) books no matter how poor you are. They work with local municipalities, NGOs, and library systems to ensure their work is effective to ensure that reading for pleasure and life long love of study can flourish.

3. National Center for Families Learning

NCFL believes that the family is the start of a lifelong commitment to literacy. Engaging multiple generations in literacy building creates a stronger familial bond and helps keep kids in school, while giving parents the tools they need for higher employment.

4. Room To Read

Room to Read seeks to transform lives of school age children in low income communities around the world by focusing on literacy and gender equality. They work in collaboration with local communities to develop literacy skills and to support girls to complete secondary school to acquire relevant life skills to be independent adults.

5. United Through Reading

United Through Reading connects military families, separated by deployments, through reading. Deployments can be especially hard for kids who don’t know why mom or dad can’t come home. So, UTF found a way bridge the large gap through the love of reading out loud to each other why they’re away.

The author, known as the “Lord of Misrule,” had the audacity to erect a maypole in Massachusetts, according to Matthew Taub of Atlas Obscura… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

Apparently, Thomas Morton didn’t get the memo. The English businessman arrived in Massachusetts in 1624 with the Puritans, but he wasn’t exactly on board with the strict, insular, and pious society they had hoped to build for themselves. “He was very much a dandy and a playboy,” says William Heath, a retired professor from Mount Saint Mary’s University who has published extensively on the Puritans. Looking back, Morton and his neighbors were bound to butt heads sooner or later.

Within just a few short years, Morton established his own unrecognized offshoot of the Plymouth Colony, in what is now the town of Quincy, Massachusetts (the birthplace of presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams). He revived forbidden old-world customs, faced off with a Puritian militia determined to quash his pagan festivals, and wound up in exile. He eventually sued and, like any savvy rabble-rouser should, got a book deal out of the whole affair. Published in 1637, his New English Canaan mounted a harsh and heretical critique of Puritan customs and power structures that went far beyond what most New English settlers could accept. So they banned it—making it likely the first book explicitly banned in what is now the United States. A first edition of Morton’s tell-all—which, among other things, compares the Puritan leadership to crustaceans—recently sold at auction at Christie’s for $60,000.

The Puritans’ move across the pond was motivated by both religion and commerce, but Morton was there only for the latter reason, as one of the owners of the Wollaston Company. He loved what he saw of his new surroundings, later writing that Massachusetts was the “masterpiece of nature.” His business partner—slave-owning Richard Wollaston—moved south to Virginia to expand the company’s business, but Morton was already deeply attached to the land, in a way his more religious neighbors likely couldn’t understand. “He was extremely responsive to the natural world and had very friendly relations with the Indians,” says Heath, while “the Puritans took the opposite stance: that the natural world was a howling wilderness, and the Indians were wild men that needed to be suppressed.”

Read full post on Atlas Obscura