Planet iPad Daily Free Book Alert, Wednesday, February 23, Three brand new freebies including: A free excerpt from The Bond by Humane Society CEO Wayne Pacelli on 50 Ways To Help Animals and also Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith #6! plus ... a Civil War era novel imbued with class distinctions, stations in life and gender orientation in Unmentionables by David Greene (Today's Sponsor)

Pre-order an excerpt from The Bond by Humane Society chief Pacelli.  Excerpt delivers March 15 while the full book delivers April 5. The excerpt includes 50 Ways To Help Animals.  And, John Jackson Miller has been bringing out new installments in his Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith series -- as Kindle freebies! -- every few months for the past couple of years, and today we are happy to announce the appearance of the 6th book in the series, Sentinel, at the top of today's latest additions to our 200+ Free Book Alert listings....

But first, a word from ... Today's Sponsor 

Publisher's Note by Stephen Windwalker

I don't go out on a limb like this for one of our sponsors more than two or three times a year, but I hope you will read David Greene's novel Unmentionables, because it is a terrific, life-affirming read.

David Greene

I could care less about the little controversies that some will associate with it, because this book is so much better than you might expect if you focus on them. It should have a place in every reader's library, and the sooner you make time to read it the sooner you will share the great experience I've had the past few days. 

I'm not going to pigeon-hole Unmentionables by saying "think Gone with the Wind meets Brokeback Mountain," because that wouldn't do justice to the novelist's achievement in recreating a historical world that seems to suggest the impossibilty that he might actually have been present for everything that happened just outside Margaret Mitchell's earshot.

This book spent time as the the #1 bestseller among over 1,700 Kindle books in its leading genre list and challenging authors from Ken Follett to Jean Auel on the historical fiction bestseller list.  (Editor's note:  at the moment, no genre rankings show on the book's page on Amazon.  It takes time for those lists to re-emerge if the author revises the book or changes the cover.)  But the surprise for some in the publishing industry will come when it emerges as one of the top indie crossover hits of 2011. I hope you will join me in discovering a remarkable new voice in fiction.

One reviewer wrote about recognizing, in David Greene's prose, a style similar to that of Anthony Trollope or other 19th century novelists. Although that frankly did not strike me, I will say that one important element of Greene's triumph here is strikingly reminiscent of the great tradition of English novelists from Eliot and Hardy to D.H. Lawrence. Part of what made the English novel of the 19th and early 20th century so compelling was the existence of class and social barriers that locked characters out from opportunities to live their dreams.

American culture has often tended to homogenize our experience and deny the existence of such barriers to focus on less compelling personal idiosyncracies, but the barriers are there, they have always been there, and in Unmentionables Greene gives resonance to those barriers, to their human cost, and to the passion and nobility that such barriers can inspire in "ordinary people."

-Steve Windwalker

Unmentionables - A Novel 
by David Greene
4.8 out of 5 stars   10 Reviews

Kindle Price:     $2.99

Text-to-Speech: Enabled 

Lending:  Enabled

Great and thought-provoking book
Took my Breath Away!!!
Fantastic Epic
A Must Read !

Here's the set-up:

Unmentionables is about two pairs of lovers in the Civil War south. One couple is straight, white, and wealthy. The other couple is gay, black, and enslaved.

Field hand Jimmy meets Cato, a house servant from a nearby plantation. Jimmy, who despises whites, mistakes Cato for a white man. But soon he learns that Cato is only half white. Cato is the illegitimate son of plantation owner Augustus Askew. With time, Jimmy's fascination with Cato grows into a love for which they know no antecedents.

Unmentionables is also the story of Dorothy Holland, whose parents own Jimmy. Dorothy does not want any man to control her life. When she falls in love with Cato's half-brother, William Askew, she must persuade him to agree to her terms, and to betray his role as a Confederate army officer. 
 

What the Reviewers Say

"...surpasses the majority of Civil War novels by bringing together two enthralling love stories. Superb historical fiction with a contemporary angle; an enlightening look at the hidden elements of our past."

--ForeWord Clarion Review

This book was fascinating from beginning to end. It is one of those rare books one never wants to end. The story is one never told before, in a situation everyone can learn from. Part of what makes the book so enjoyable is that the style is very reminiscent of 19th century English novels -- Trollope, for example. Highly recommended. 

--Constant Reader

Unmentionables by David Greene is set in the American Civil War south and recounts the intertwining stories of two couples, Jimmy and Cato, who are gay, black, and enslaved, and Dorothy and William, who are straight, white, and wealthy. If this time period and subject matter seem a tad too distant to relate to your present 21st century lives, fret not. History in this work is used masterfully to transform the specific into the universal. Unmentionables is about love - romantic and otherwise...


Mr. Greene's great appreciation of all that is sensual is equaled by his intellectual understanding of relationships that cross established racial, social, sexual, and political boundaries. In a style that is straightforward without being encyclopedic, poetic without being over-embellished, and informative without being didactic, he achieves that balance of form and content required for a successful, and, in this case, beautiful work of art. When Erastus explains to Dorothy why he has chosen his itinerant lifestyle, he states:

"As I said before, so much that is beautiful in life happens in an instant. But one must contrive to be in the right place at the right time and have one's eyes open."

For me, one of those instants began when I received my copy of Unmentionables. 

--James Viloria

Visit Amazon's David Greene Page

Click here to download Unmentionables - A Novel (or a free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!

UK Customers:  Click here for Unmentionables - A Novel

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