LOS ANGELES (October 21, 2003) Amazon.com, the leading e-commerce retailer in the world, is offering a special package of the popular novels "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides and "My Fractured Life" by Rikki Lee Travolta. The sale capitalizes on the mutual popularity the books share with readers.

Eugenides is the author of "The Virgin Suicides" which was translated into independent breakthrough film directed by Sofia Coppola and starring James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, and Danny DeVitto. Port Magee Pictures is now developing a film project based on Travolta's "My Fractured Life."

Coppola is the director of the film "Lost in Translation" currently in theaters. The film stars Bill Murray as a former star actor aging badly. A.O. Scott of the New York Times reports Murray's performance is gaining an Oscar buzz.

Possessing strong similarities to Coppola's "Lost in Translation" and Eugenides' "Middlesex" and "The Virgin Suicides," Travolta's "My Fractured Life" is about the life of has-been actors in Hollywood and the search for self, sexual identity, and a sense of family by emotionally crippled people.

"Middlesex" is the odd but utterly believable story of Mr. Cal Stephanides, and how the 41-year-old hermaphrodite was raised as Calliope. Eugenides' awards include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Whiting Writers' Award, and the Harold D. Vursell Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He currently resides in Berlin.

Amazon.com editor Brad Thomas Parsons describes "The Virgin Suicides" as "a relatively brief, dreamlike narrative about five sisters in suburban Michigan in the early '70s, all of whom killed themselves." "My Fractured Life" addresses the issues of suicide with equal operatic power and tragedy.

Sales of "My Fractured Life" at Amazon.com have raced up the purchase-rankings over 800,000 positions between September and October alone. In response to the high sales, Amazon.com has completely replenished its inventory four times during the month of October to meet consumer demands.

In addition to the popularity "My Fractured Life" shares with "Middlesex," Amazon.com reports a mutual reading fan base with those purchasing the New York Times bestsellers "The True Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd, "The Life of Pi" by Yan Martel, and "The Kennedy Curse" by Edward Klein.

Sales figures at Barnes and Nobel.com show a shared popularity between Travolta's "My Fractured Life" and the work of John Grisham. Grisham is the author of "Runaway Jury" which has been adapted into a new-release film starring Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, John Cusack, and Jeremy Piven.

Cusack, Piven, and Travolta are a part of the community of Chicago-born actors who have impacted Hollywood in the past 10 years. Piven's late father, Byrne Piven, was the founder of Chicago's famed Piven Theatre Workshop.