Free EBooks for Mother's Day

A few of these are limited time downloads that have gone up this week, while others are ongoing offers. Still, free reading on Mother's Day means you can pamper yourself without breaking the budget or even leaving the house.

Jeffrey A. Carver has just posted Eternity's End (Star Rigger) (no longer in print), a novel of the Star Rigger universe, as a free ebook. It looks like DRM free versions in multiple formats (including Kindle compatible) will eventually be available at Fictionwise, but right now you can get this and several other books at no charge, already formatted for the Kindle, no PDF conversion required. Eternity's End was a finalist for the 2000 Nebula, and concerns the search by a star rigger named Legroeder for the lost ship Impris, the Flying Dutchman of the stars.

The newest novel set in the Star Rigger Universe, ETERNITY'S END features the search for the legendary ghost rigger ship Impris and her crew, whose fate is entwined with interstellar piracy, quantum defects in spacetime, galactic coverup conspiracies, and deep-cyber romance.

You can also get, for a limited time, a free download of Sunborn (Chaos Chronicles) ($21.24 Hardcover) on his downloads page. The first three books in the Chaos Chronicles (Neptune Crossing, Strange Attractors and The Infinite Sea) are available there and in the Baen Free Library. All of his downloads are in multiple formats and DRM free.

The Pendragon (The Merchant of Death, Book 1) ($7.99 Kindle) by D.J. MacHale, earlier reported as a free PDF download from Barnes and Noble is now available as a free audiobook from Audible.com.

Apex Book Company is giving away the PDF version of Open Your Eyes ($10.94 Paperback) by Paul Jessup until the end of May. This is book #4 in a novella series, but can be read as a standalone story, which they describe as a surreal space opera.

Her lover was a supernova who took worlds with him when he died, and as a new world grows within Ekhi, savage lives rage and love on a small ship in the outer reaches of space. A ship with an agenda of its own. Critically acclaimed author of weird fiction Paul Jessup sends puppets to speak and fight for their masters while a linguistic virus eats through the minds of a group of scavengers in Open Your Eyes, a surrealist space opera of haunting beauty and infinite darkness.

Several short novels/short stories by J.A. Konrath, aka Jack Kilborn of Afraid ($1.99 Kindle) are available for free, with a little searching, or at bargain prices in the Kindle store. You can get Disturb, The List and Origin (all $1.19 Kindle) for free on Konrath's download page, but it looks like Shot of Tequila is only available in the Kindle store ($1.19) or as a 99 cent PDF.

Suckers ($1.59 Kindle) byJ.A. Konrath and Jeff Strand is free from the co-author: "For a free PDF, just send an e-mail to gleefullymacabre@gmail.com with "Suckers" in the subject line and I'll send it on over. I promise that you won't be subscribed to any mailing lists or anything sinister like that."

Planter's Punch ($1.59 Kindle) by JA Konrath and Tom Schreck is free via a link on Tom Schreck's website (although you have to cut and paste the link there and can just click it here). Serial by Jack Kilborn and and Blake Crouch is free in the Sony bookstore, as is Infinite Exposure (Promotional Version), by Roland Hughes (also here as a PDF), but the promotional version is missing the last chapter (you get 18 chapters, 314 pages for free) and you'll have to chase down a full version to find out how it ends.

Catherine Wilson is offering Book I of her trilogy, When Women Were Warriors ($0.99 Kindle) as a free download on her website. Previously a PDF, multiple formats are now available.

One Dollar Game Downloads

It's the weekend and I'll probably try to catch up on some reading, since it's been a busy week. But I'll also want to take a break now and then, not to rest my eyes, but to give them a bit of exercise (besides, just as we can now eat an ounce of dark chocolate a day in the name of anti-oxidants, we can spend a few minutes a day on a game in order to increase our eye's low-light and contrast function) and Amazon is tempting me with today's Video Game Deal of the Day: Five game downloads at 98 cents each. You can still do a trial run, but you have to buy before the end of the day (PST). Most of their game deals are limited in number, but I don't know if that applies to downloads (like Kindle books, they can't run out). At under a dollar apiece, you should be able to determine if a game is appealing in under ten minutes, well within the half hour you are allowed. I've picked up several games in their previous sales and have been having a blast landing planes, shooting down evil ants and defending the earth from mutant chickens. The games are more limited that the ones for some game consoles or the larger titles that you don't download, but are just as professionally done. The regular prices are the same or less as a game rental in this area and there is no pressure to finish the game and get it back. Another nice thing about their downloads is that you can use these on more than one computer (I think four), so long as you log in on the machine and register it (you may have to log in periodically or each time you get a new game), so one game can be shared by you and your kids pc's or added to a laptop or netbook to take to the office or on vacation or off to college.

Here's the list of the games included in the sale:

Virtual Villagers
Ricochet Lost Worlds: Recharged
Alice Greenfingers
Slingo Quest
Atlantis Quest

Monthly Kindle Book Budget: April

It's been a slow month for buying books here, what with the large to-be-read stack already on my Kindle. I did get all the free books for the month and a very few others, but overall stayed well under the Kindle budget for the month.

April

Holy Bible, GOD'S WORD Translation (GW) by Baker Publishing Group	$0.00
Holy Bible, Today's New International Version, TNIV by Zondervan	$0.00
Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick	$0.00
The Quran - A Pure and Literal Translation by The Monotheist Group	$0.95
Afraid by Jack Kilborn	$1.99
Miss Fix-It by L. C. Monroe and Nicolette Derens	$0.00
Put Your Dream to the Test: 10 Questions that Will Help You See It and Seize It by John C. Maxwell	$0.00
The Second Ship (The Rho Agenda : Book One) by Richard Phillips	$0.99
Kindle Shortcuts and Kindle-friendly Websites by MobileReference	$0.01
ReThink: Introduction by Ric Merrifield	$0.00
Rethink: Key Concepts by Ric Merrifield	$0.00
Rethink (Chapter 1): How the -How- Trap Is Trapping You by Ric Merrifield	$0.00
Rethink: Index by Ric Merrifield	$0.00
Outsmart (Intro & Chapter 1): It's a Smart, Smart, Smart, Smart World by Jim Champy	$0.00
Outsmart (Epilogue) by Jim Champy	$0.00
Inspire (Intro & Chapter 1): From Tired to Inspired by Jim Champy	$0.00
Stories I Never Told the Speaker: The Chaotic Adventures of a Capitol Hill Aide by Marshall L. Lynam	$0.80
Retirement Homes Are Murder by Mike Befeler	3.99
Matthew Henry's Concise Bible Commentary for Kindle (KJV) (cross linked with built in Bible) (1) by matthew henry	$2.39
Matthew Henry's Concise Bible Commentary for Kindle (ASV) (cross linked with built in Bible) (1) by matthew henry	$1.99
The Bounty: The Malloy Family Book 1 by Beth Williamson	$0.00
The Alchemyst by Michael Scott	$0.00

For the month, that's 22 books, $13.11 in total, for $0.60 per book. Sure, it includes several business chapters that are not real books, but I've left off several titles I got for free from other sources. Here's the break-down by month, for the year-to-date:

Month	No. Books	Total Cost	Per Book
January	59	$83.47	$1.41
February	43	$29.97	$0.70
March	32	$33.44	$1.05
April	22	$13.11	$0.60
Totals	156	$159.99	$1.03

If you add in the cost of the Kindle itself, that's about $3.33 per book. Of course, we have more than one Kindle, where with paperbacks we'd be able to pass them around, but at double or more the cost per book. We also have roughly 80 pounds less paper taking up room on the shelves (estimating 8 oz per book - a bit high for paperback, low for hardbacks). We might not have purchased the exact same books, of course, but these calculations also leave out all the classics and other free books we have to read on the Kindle (such as the two recent John Hart novels).

New Release Tuesday (a bit late...)

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris ( $14.2712.84; Hardcover $15.57), ninth in the Sookie Stackhouse series.

Except for Sookie Stackhouse, folks in Bon Temps, Louisiana, know little about vamps—and nothing about weres. Until now. The weres and shifters have finally decided to reveal their existence to the ordinary world. At first all goes well. Then the mutilated body of a were-panther is found near the bar where Sookie works—and she feels compelled to discover who, human or otherwise, did it. But there’s a far greater danger threatening Bon Temps. A race of unhuman beings—older, more powerful, and more secretive than vampires or werewolves—is preparing for war. And Sookie finds herself an all-too human pawn in their battle.

The Kindle DX Arrives!

Kindle DX: Amazon's New Addition To The Kindle Family

Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines

Carry Your Library: Holds up to 3,500 books, periodicals, and documents

Beautiful Large Display: 9.7" diagonal e-ink screen reads like real paper; boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and sharp images

Auto-Rotating Screen: Display auto-rotates from portrait to landscape as you turn the device so you can view full-width maps, graphs, tables, and Web pages

Built-In PDF Reader: Native PDF support allows you to carry and read all of your personal and professional documents on the go

Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle DX, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, no annual contracts, and no hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots

Books In Under 60 Seconds: You get free wireless delivery of books in less than 60 seconds; no PC required

Long Battery Life: Read for days without recharging

Read-to-Me: With the text-to-speech feature, Kindle DX can read newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud to you, unless the book's rights holder made the feature unavailable

Compare Kindle DX with Kindle

Kindle DX

Display	9.7" diagonal e-ink
Size	10.4" x 7.2" x 0.38"
Storage	3,500 books
PDF Support	native PDF reader
Rotating Display
3G Wireless
Books in Under 60 Seconds
Text-to-Speech
Whispersync
Price	$489.00
Availability	Pre-order now

Kindle

Display	6" diagonal e-ink
Size	8" x 5.3" x 0.36"
Storage	1,500 books
PDF Support	via conversion
Rotating Display	-
3G Wireless
Books in Under 60 Seconds
Text-to-Speech
Whispersync
Price	$359.00
Availability	Now

You'll also want to pre-order a leather cover for the Kindle DX (yes, this one ships naked as well and so far this is the only cover available) and may want to consider the 2-Year Extended Warranty for the Kindle DX (some early reports on the Kindle 2 are showing excessive stress on the hinges for the case and any new product can have problems that don't show up right away).