Now you too can get the Nancy Drew book on sale too!

  Current US price: $2.99  (because I'm sure it'll be annoyingly different by country), Amazon page link.

I should add here that I'm only on chapter 8 - but I'm really enjoying it, especially the story of how one of the Drew authors (Mildred Wirt) and one of the publisher's daughters (Harriet Otis) both grew up and were educated - since women going to college was still a relatively new thing, as was women having a career in writing or publishing. Here, I'll toss out one of the quotes I had saved up for the eventual review, to give you an idea of what it was like for a student at Wellesley College, at the first dance where men were allowed (this is in 1920ish), 17% in:

"...In preparation for the big occasion, the faculty passed a rule that all dancers must maintain a three-inch distance from one another, so as to be "preventative of the 'turkey trot,' the 'bunny hug' and other recent substitutes for the staid old waltz and two step... Some of the girls are considering the availability of crinoline gowns as a precautionary measure."

And I helpfully linked both of those dances to wikipedia so you too could ask "wait, what?!" and then have an answer. I think there was actually a "turkey trot" at a wedding dance I once went to. And I had no idea what they were doing.

Anyway the book is full of the story of how the Drew books came into being, how the publishing industry of the time worked, and lots of interesting details of social history. So far it's great, and it'd be a quick read if I didn't stop getting sidetracked by the equally interesting books I have lying around waiting to be read.

I actually bought this book on the last sale - today's sale info is via Dear Author's Daily Deals column, which has tempted me into buying all sorts things. The column points out predominantly romance, but they regularly toss in other genres as well and I've bought scifi, romance, and nonfiction via their links in the past few months.

A price that EreaderIQ alerted me on since I have it set to email me whenever anything by Carl Sagan goes on sale...

  Ah, Cosmos. (Insert nostalgia moment here.) Probably on sale due to the current revamp of the series with host Neil deGrasse Tyson (who I think rocks), called Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Which I plan to watch eventually, probably on my computer.

But here's the weird thing. When I bought this yesterday it was $4.59. It's just 7 hrs since the last time EreaderIQ checked the online price (and it was 4.59 then) but now that I check the Amazon page the price is $7.99. That is how insanely fast Amazon sales come and go. Dang. Amazon page link, if you want to check its price now. (And again, only the US store.)

Not that I'm shilling for you to join up to EreaderIQ (even though I have a page babbling about it), in fact I'd warn you that it's caused me to buy oodles more books that I probably should have, because when you get an email that something's on sale and you know it may be gone in a series of hours - well, I am soooo weak to that particular argument! (It's a self argument - one of those fun interior monologues. Now a ritual before I click the buy button.)

Here's my last dithering over Cosmos from this past November. I was debating whether to donate the worn hardback or to a library sale or not. Short version, I didn't - but that book went into storage (still no idea how long yet, sigh). I always meant to buy the ebook - and this decided me.

Also I just got an Amazon refund for various price fixed ebooks from the lawsuit - a huge $7, which means technically Cosmos was free. Thanks, publishers!

Eventually I need to post more reviews, since there are several books I've finished. But I'm going through an "I am a potato" state of motivation at the moment. I think it's mostly an end of winter thing.