July 4th Specials at Amazon

Amazon has two July 4th specials running (good thru July 5th). Only one really qualifies as a bargain read, at $4.99, but I'm listing them both as the second one is normally quite a bit higher. Both of these are from Thomas Nelson Books; I've reviewed a few books for them in the past, but did not review either of these. I have to say, though - I love the author's name for the first one.

Boomtown: Chang's Famous Fireworks ($4.99) by Nowen N. Particular. Be aware that it is in the Topaz format. There is a picture plate just after the cover that is entirely unreadable on the K1 and the letters are both larger and fuzzier than the standard mobi formatted text. After switching to one font size smaller, though, it was quite readable and I didn't see any formatting problems in the sample. Switching to the DX, the picture plate turned out to be a list of sponsors from Boomtown (and was still quite hard to read, obviously it was scanned in and the resolution isn't that high). But the fuzziness of the fonts went away on the DX (so I suspect isn't a problem on the K2, either, as they have the same screen, just in different sizes). The two pictures in the first chapter that I could see in the sample were also considerably better (not to mention, so much bigger on the DX).

Book Description
Imagine a place where everyone's favorite thing to do is blow stuff up . . . that's Boomtown.

This is a humerous mystery and adventure story that kids (especially boys) will love to read! Boomtown is the home of Chang's Famous Fireworks factory, the Slush Olympics, the "Fighting Slugs" football team, rocket reindeer, and flying barber chairs. Boomtown is a humorous tall tale about a fictional town and its odd residents, written to capture the attention and inspire the imagination of intermediate readers. It's a fun read. However, underneath the humorous veneer, Boomtown asks and answers the question, "What does a healthy community look like?" The main characters struggle as they learn to trust their neighbors.

Visit the Web site www.visitboomtown.com for more information on the book, author, free teacher guides, and more! But stay away from the chickens!

The American Patriot's Almanac: Daily Readings on America ($9.99) by William J. Bennett (Author), John Cribb looks like an interesting read - a devotional/reader that has a different US history lesson for each day. The Hardcover is selling for $21.77 and the info there says it is 608 pages. Even at $9.99, the Kindle version is a bargain, whether you measure in cost per page, total discount. Makes me wish this one had been in their reviewers program, as I'd definitely have signed up for it.

Book Description
365 reasons to love America!

The fife and drum of history mark the time of each passing day. And within their cadence, personalities, conflicts, discoveries, ideas, and nations peal and fade. American history is no different. From the starving time of Jamestown during the Winter of 1609, through the bloody argument of the Civil War, and to today, the United States is a tale best told one day at a time.

Best-selling author and educator Dr. William J. Bennett is a master of the story that is the United States. And in The American Patriot's Almanac, Bennett distills the American drama into three hundred sixty-five entries-one for each day of the year. Fascinating in its detail and singular in its grasp of the big themes, Bennett's Almanac will make anyone a fan of history, assembling even some of the most obscure details. Even better, it will make of everyone a patriot.

July Orbit Dollar Book: Hidden Empire

Hidden Empire, by Kevin J. Anderson, is the July Dollar Book from Orbit Books. Hidden Empires is the first volume in the The Saga of Seven Suns, with all seven books available on Kindle: the first six have the series name in the title, while the seventh, The Ashes of Worlds, is bit trickier to find, hiding amidst his 33 books and short stories in the Kindle Store.

Book Description
In our galaxy's far future, humans are one of three known intelligent races. We are the new kids on the block, having had star travel for only a few centuries. The other races consist of the Ildirans, ruled by their Mage-Imperator, and the Klikiss, which seem to have vanished, but left behind worlds full of artifacts and fabulous technology that humans are now beginning to find and exploit.

One such piece of technology is a device that can turn a useless gas supergiant planet into a small sun, thereby creating new living space for humans. But when the device is tried for the first time, it awakens the ire of a hitherto unsuspected fourth race, the Hydrogues-and a galaxy-spanning war that threatens all life.

Set against this background are multiple subplots involving a large cast of fascinating characters: a married couple whose archaeological discoveries can save humanity; a young man kidnapped to take over the kingship of the vast Trade Federation; travelling communities of gypsy-like Roamers, one of whom becomes humanity's champion against the Hydrogues; and many more.

This book should be available in most ebookstores at $1 or less for the month of July. I've included links to a few of the more popular stores - but check to see if they have lowered the price before buying - Fictionwise, for example, is well known for not updating any new books or sale prices until the following Monday, while BooksOnBoard may only have one format at the sale price and charge full price for all other formats.

Get this book at Amazon, BooksOnBoard (or HERE - the book is listed twice, with different formats), Fictionwise or Sony

As of this morning, Sony is the only one showing this book as available - but that should changer later today (and over the next week at places like Fictionwise).

Free Ebook from Sony - Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells, is available as a free download in the Sony bookstore thru July 14th. So far, this one isn't available on Kindle (the Paperback is $5.58 at Amazon). You can view the listing in the Sony bookstore, but you'll need to use their (free) software to find the book, add it to your cart and do the purchase. You can read the book either on your PC or one of the Sony Readers, only.

Book Description
When Vivi and Siddalee Walker, an unforgettable mother-daughter team, get into a savage fight over a New York Times article that refers to Vivi as a "tap-dancing child abuser," the fallout is felt from Louisiana to New York to Seattle. Siddalee, a successful theater director with a huge hit on her hands, panics and postpones her upcoming wedding to her lover and friend, Connor McGill. Vivi's intrepid gang of lifelong girlfriends, the Ya-Yas, sashay in and conspire to bring everyone back together.

In 1932, Vivi and the Ya-Yas were disqualified from a Shirley Temple Look-Alike Contest for unladylike behavior. Sixty years later, they're "bucking seventy" and still making waves. They persuade Vivi to send Sidda a scrapbook of girlhood mementos titled "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."

With the scrapbook in hand, Sidda retreats to a cabin on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, tormented by fear and uncertainty about the future, and intent on discovering the key to the tangle of anger and tenderness she feels toward her mother. But Vivi's album reveals more questions than answers and leads Sidda to encounter the legacy of imperfect love and the unknowable mystery of life.

With passion and a rare gift for language, Rebecca Wells moves from present to past, unraveling Vivi's life, her enduring friendships with the Ya-Yas and the reverberations of Siddalee. The collective power of the Ya-Yas, each of them totally individual and authentic, permeates this story of a tribe of Louisiana wild women who are impossible to tame.

The Economist now Available on Kindle

From reading the discussion boards over at Amazon, I think this must be one of the most desired magazines that has been missing from the Kindle. At least once a week (around Christmas, once a day), someone asks why The Economist isn't available for the Kindle and when it will be showing up. I'm not entirely certain how great a "bargain" this is - at $10.49/month, the price is more in line with a newspaper subscription, instead of a magazine; then again, you do get four issues a month. It's the same price as a print subscription - but you get it wherever you are and without worrying about it being lost in the mail. It's only been out a day and there are already some reviews at Amazon - all five star from those who have read the first issue (and some one and three star reviews from those who haven't but seem to think that's a valid way of protesting the price). Remember - you get a two week free trial with any subscription - that means two and possibly three issues before you have to decide whether you want to keep the subscription and your credit card is charged.

The Economist is the premier source for the analysis of world business and current affairs, providing authoritative insight and opinion on international news, world politics, business, finance, science and technology, as well as overviews of cultural trends and regular Special reports on industries and countries.

Established in 1843 to campaign against the protectionist corn laws, The Economist remains, in the second half of its second century, true to the liberal principles of its founder. James Wilson, a hat maker from the small Scottish town of Hawick, believed in free trade, internationalism and minimum interference by government, especially in the affairs of the market. The Economist also takes a fiercely independent stance on social issues, from gay marriage to the legalisation of drugs, but its main service to its readers is as a global newspaper: To uncover new ideas from all around the world.

Author Spotlight on Tim Pratt (aka T.A. Pratt)

Many of you were first introduced to Tim Pratt thru his novel Blood Engines, which is currently free in the Kindle Store, written under his pseudonym T.A. Pratt. Finding the rest of the series can be a bit tricky, as Amazon has them listed under Tim Pratt (despite the T.A. Pratt on the covers) and they are not linked in to his Author's Page. Most of his earlier novels, under the Tim Pratt name, are short story collections and he continues to write short stories and has put a large number of them on his website as free reads. He also used to edit a webzine, FlyTrap, and you can order back issues as well as find a few stories by his wife, Heather Shaw.

Now, Tim's wife has lost her job and he is trying to raise money with a serialized novel he is publishing on the web. Bone Shop is a Marla Mason novel, but a prequel to the existing series. There will be a new chapter each Monday and there is a Donate button on the website where you donate as much (or as little) as you wish. The first chapter is already up and you can read it HERE. For more information, you can also check out his blog and check out the Marla Mason website for a free short story, Pale Dog, a map of Felport and bios on all the major players in the series. No doubt, buying his books in the Kindle store will also help (as he is also trying to sell a new novel and more readers always helps), but direct sales/donations are more immediate.

Marla Mason Series
1. Blood Engines (free)
2. Poison Sleep ($5.59)
3. Dead Reign ($5.59)
4. Spell Games ($5.59)

Novels
The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl ($9.60)
Little Gods ($14.95 Paperback)
If There Were Wolves ($10.00 Paperback)
Hart & Boot & Other Stories ($14.95 Paperback)
The Urban Bizarre ($13.50 Paperback)

Here is a quick synopsis of his novels that are available in the Kindle Store (see this blog post for Blood Engines).

Poison Sleep ($5.59)

The bad girl of the magical underworld is back and badder than ever

Someone wants Marla Mason dead. Usually that’s not news. As chief sorcerer of Felport, someone always wants her dead. But this time she’s the target of a renegade assassin who specializes in killing his victims over days, months, or even years. Not to mention a mysterious knife-wielding killer in black who pops up in the most unexpected places. To make matters worse, an inmate has broken out of the Blackwing Institute for criminally insane sorcerers—a troubled psychic who can literally reweave the fabric of reality to match her own traumatic past.

With her wisecracking partner Rondeau reluctantly in tow, Marla teams up with a “love-talker” whose dangerous erotic spells not even she can resist. Together they’re searching the rapidly transforming streets of Felport for a woman who’s become the Typhoid Mary of nightmares, infecting everything—and everyone—she touches with a chaos worse than death itself.

Dead Reign ($5.59)

Death has come calling, and one woman has what he wants most of all...

As chief sorcerer of Felport, Marla Mason thought she’d faced every kind of evil the magical world had to offer. But she’s never faced a killer like this. He’s dark, glib, handsome as the devil—and exactly who he says he is. Death—in the flesh. He’s arrived in Felport with a posse composed of a half-insane necromancer and the reanimated corpse of John Wilkes Booth, and he isn’t leaving until he gets what he came for. Only Marla is crazy enough to tell Death to go back to Hell.

With the Founders’ Ball just around the bend, drawing together the brightest, meanest, and most dangerous of Felport’s magical elite, the last thing Marla needs is all-out war with the King of the Underworld, but that’s exactly what she’s got. As the battle lines are drawn, she can count on her hedonistic, body-hopping partner Rondeau…but how many of her old allies will stand by her side when facing the ultimate adversary? To save her city, Marla will have to find a way to cheat Death…literally.

Spell Games ($5.59)

Brain-eating fungi, wannabe sorcerers, long-lost relations–does even a hard-core witch stand a chance?

Mad sorcerers, psychic vampires, an army of vengeful demons, Marla Mason would rather face them all than a flesh-and-blood ghost from her dysfunctional family past: her con artist brother, Jason. As Felport’s chief sorcerer, Marla would ordinarily consider it her duty to protect her town from such an unscrupulous ne’er-do-well. As his sister, things are a lot…trickier. Now, as Marla attempts to train an apprentice oracle whose magical wires have gotten crossed, Jason is setting up an elaborate sting and drawing her ever-so-corruptible partner Rondeau into the ruse.

Their patsy is a filthy-rich wannabe mage and their bait is something so valuable, so dangerous, so sought after, it probably doesn’t exist. But now word’s gotten out that the Borrichius spores do exist and instead of a sucker Jason and Rondeau have a much bigger–and much deadlier–fish on their line: a reclusive sorcerer whose devotion to the mushroom god and command of vegetal magic could bring a fungal apocalypse to Felport. It’ll be the mother of all bad trips unless Marla can pull off the ultimate magical switcheroo…and somehow live to tell about it.


The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl ($9.60)

As night manager of Santa Cruz’s quirkiest coffeehouse, Marzi McCarty makes a mean espresso, but her first love is making comics. Her claim to fame: The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, a cowpunk neo-western yarn. Striding through an urban frontier peopled by Marzi’s wild imagination, Rangergirl doles out her own brand of justice. But lately Marzi’s imagination seems to be altering her reality. She’s seeing the world through Rangergirl’s eyes–literally--complete with her deadly nemesis, the Outlaw.

It all started when Marzi opened a hidden door in the coffeehouse storage room. There, imprisoned among
the supplies, she saw the face of something unknown…and dangerous. And she unwittingly became its guard. But some primal darkness must’ve escaped, because Marzi hasn’t been the same since. And neither have her customers, who are acting downright apocalyptic.

Now it’s up to Marzi to stop this supervillainous superforce that’s swaggered its way into her world. For Marzi, it’s the
showdown of her life. For Rangergirl, it’s just another day....