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Sunday, July 11, 2010

Game Downloads under Four Bucks

Namco and Freeze Tag have several game downloads on sale, all under four bucks. Each also has a free trial available, so you can get in a couple of hours (2.5, to be exact, since you 30 minutes per game) of play trying them out before deciding which ones are for you.

The Otherside: Realm of Eons ($3.49)

Game Description
  • Solve The Riddles Of The Otherside.
  • 25 Fantastic Locations.
  • 10 Mini-Games.
  • Combine Hidden Objects To Solve Tricky Puzzles.
After receiving a strange book on her doorstep, Miranda finds herself drawn into the fantastic world of The Otherside. With the help of the mischievous Jovie, travel between worlds and unravel the mystery of a missing girl. Journey through over 25 detailed locations as you discover hidden objects and combine items to create new tools. As the story unfolds through animated in-game comics, solve over 10 puzzling mini-games and help Miranda locate the missing Louise to save her from a ghastly fate.

Nertz Solitaire ($3.99)

Game Description
  • Competitive Solitaire.
  • Challenge 8 Squirrelly Opponents.
  • 3 Exhilarating Game Modes.
  • Unlock New Music, Backgrounds And More.
Nertz Solitaire is competitive solitaire at its best! Just like traditional solitaire, build piles of cards in ascending and descending order. Win by scoring the most points and getting rid of your Nertz pile before your opponent. Enjoy three exhilarating game modes: Quick fun in Quick Play mode, the classic card game with Nutzy and his squirrelly family in Classic mode or go for the ultimate prize in Championship mode. But be careful 'cause Nertz can drive you nuts!

Xango Tango $3.99)

Game Description
  • Crate-Crashing 3D Action.
  • 48 Exotic Environments.
  • 3 Phenomenal Game Modes.
  • See The Surprise Ending.
Help the amazing toy robot Xango find his upgrade parts in this brain-stretching, 3D animated action puzzler adventure. Three game modes guarantee many hours of action, puzzling and relaxing fun. Match three colored crates and watch 'em explode in Classic mode. Solve brain-twisting puzzles in Puzzle mode. Play without time pressure in Relax mode. Exotic landscapes, lively tango music, wacky dances and a surprise ending make Xango Tango fun for the whole family!

Etch A Sketch $3.99)

Game Description
  • The World's Favorite Drawing Toy.
  • Play Knobby's Quest Or Knobby's Bounce.
  • Discover Classic Etch A Sketch.
  • Unlock Hidden Items And Drawing Templates.
Grizelda the witch has shaken things up inside the Etch A Sketch, and Knobby must restore "draw and order" to his world. Help Knobby save his kidnapped friend and stop Grizelda's evil plan to turn everything in the Land of Aha! to Dullsville! Full of creative art tools, four unique game modes, tons of unlockable hidden items and a cast of hilarious characters, Etch A Sketch is innovative fun for the whole family! Check out this digital upgrade to the World's Favorite Toy today!

Mystery Masterpiece: The Moonstone $3.99)

Game Description
  • Try And Catch A Jewel Thief.
  • Cryptic Clues To Unravel.
  • Music From Tchaikovsky Brings The Game Alive.
  • Is The Diamond Cursed? Find Out.
Who stole the Moonstone diamond? Is it cursed? It's up to you to investigate and unravel the mystery! Investigate every person who was in the Victorian mansion at the time of the crime to locate the thief and try and find the ancient jewel in this hidden object adventure! Play the role of Detective Cuff, exploring every room to find valuable clues and hopefully return the enormous diamond to its rightful owner.

Free Book (PDF) and Audiobook - The Painted Darkness

The Painted Darkness ($2.99 Kindle), a novella by Brian James Freeman, is being given away in PDF form by the publisher and is low-priced at Amazon prior to the hardcover release. In addition, the free version contains some extras not found in the hardcover (no idea if they are in the Kindle version):

The free eBook includes some great bonus features that won’t appear in the hardcover:

  • An exclusive new interview with Ray Bradbury: “We Have Too Many Inventions!”
  • Comments from bestselling authors such as Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, William Peter Blatty, Jodi Picoult, Carolyn Parkhurst, Anne Perry, Jane Green, M.J. Rose, Douglas Clegg, J.A. Konrath, Seth Godin, Michael Marshall Smith, Scott Adams, and many others about eBooks and the future of publishing.
  • Author’s Afterword: “Did I Really Commit ‘Career Suicide’ by Giving The Painted Darkness Away for Free?”
  • Norman Prentiss interviews Brian James Freeman
  • $5.00 discount coupon valid on an order for the trade hardcover edition of The Painted Darkness for a limited time only (presumably direct, not via Amazon).
Book Description
When Henry was a child, something terrible happened in the woods behind his home, something so shocking he could only express his grief by drawing pictures of what he had witnessed. Eventually Henry's mind blocked out the bad memories, but he continued to draw, often at night by the light of the moon.

Twenty years later, Henry makes his living by painting his disturbing works of art. He loves his wife and his son and life couldn't be better... except there's something not quite right about the old stone farmhouse his family now calls home. There's something strange living in the cramped cellar, in the maze of pipes that feed the ancient steam boiler.

A winter storm is brewing and soon Henry will learn the true nature of the monster waiting for him down in the darkness. He will battle this demon and, in the process, he may discover what really happened when he was a child and why, in times of trouble, he thinks: I paint against the darkness.

But will Henry learn the truth in time to avoid the terrible fate awaiting him... or will the thing in the cellar get him and his family first?

Written as both a meditation on the art of creation and as an examination of the secret fears we all share, The Painted Darkness is a terrifying look at the true cost we pay when we run from our grief—and what happens when we're finally forced to confront the monsters we know all too well.


Click HERE for the free downloads.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Free Book (nook) - Weddings Can Be Murder

Weddings Can Be Murder ($5.39 Kindle), by Christie Craig, is free today at Barnes and Noble. This looks like a light romantic suspense title with a little comedy thrown in for good measure. If you like it, I'd suggest your grab up Divorced, Desperate and Deceived ($2.56 Kindle, B&N), Gotcha! ($2.56 B&N) and Shut Up and Kiss Me ($2.99 Kindle, B&N) while they are on sale, as well. Only Divorced, Desperate and Deceived is part of a series, while the others are stand-alone novels.

Book Description
When her wedding planner is murdered, Katie Ray is forced into close proximity with bad boy PI Carl Hades - and into reconsidering the man with whom she wants to spend the rest of her days.

Click HERE to get the free download.

Borders Ebook Store Opens with Free Books

Borders Bookstore has finally opened their ebookstore (although they still have a few issues on their free books list) and thru July 14th they are giving away 5 free ebooks on their Borders Free Books Offer page. You'll have to create and account and either get their app (free online or preloaded on the Kobo; it's essentially a branded version of Kobo's reader app) or use Adobe Digital Editions (the offer page says you must download the app, but it appears you can stick with ADE for at least some books). After adding a book to your library (which doesn't always give you a confirmation it has completed, unfortunately, nor is there a clue that you've purchased a book or added it to your library, when you revisit a book's product page, other than trying to add it to your library twice results in an error message), then go to your Ebook Library (it's on the left menu of the Your Account page). From there, you can use Open eBook to read using the Borders/Kobo app or Download Epub to open with ADE.

These are the books included in the Borders Free Books Offer. The page is a bit confusing, in that it refers to you being able to click on "one title" below, but I added all five to my library and loaded them into ADE without any problem.

One Shot ($6.39 Kindle), by Lee Child, the ninth in the Jack Reacher series.

Book Description
Six shots. Five dead. One heartland city thrown into a state of terror. But within hours the cops have it solved: a slam-dunk case. Except for one thing. The accused man says: You got the wrong guy. Then he says: Get Reacher for me. And sure enough, from the world he lives in—no phone, no address, no commitments–ex–military investigator Jack Reacher is coming. In Lee Child’s astonishing new thriller, Reacher’s arrival will change everything—about a case that isn’t what it seems, about lives tangled in baffling ways, about a killer who missed one shot–and by doing so give Jack Reacher one shot at the truth.…

The gunman worked from a parking structure just thirty yards away–point-blank range for a trained military sniper like James Barr. His victims were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But why does Barr want Reacher at his side? There are good reasons why Reacher is the last person Barr would want to see. But when Reacher hears Barr’s own words, he understands. And a slam-dunk case explodes. Soon Reacher is teamed with a young defense lawyer who is working against her D.A. father and dueling with a prosecution team that has an explosive secret of its own. Like most things Reacher has known in life, this case is a complex battlefield. But, as always, in battle, Reacher is at his best.

Moving in the shadows, picking his spots, Reacher gets closer and closer to the unseen enemy who is pulling the strings. And for Reacher, the only way to take him down is to know his ruthlessness and respect his cunning–and then match him shot for shot….


Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom ($9.46 Kindle), by Julia Child

Book Description
  • How many minutes should you cook green beans? Is it better to steam them or to boil them?
  • What are the right proportions for a vinaigrette?
  • How do you skim off fat?
  • What is the perfect way to roast a chicken?
Julia Child gave us extensive answers to all these questions–and so many more–in the masterly books she published over the course of her career. But which one do you turn to for which solutions? Over the years Julia also developed some new approaches to old problems, using time-saving equipment and more readily available products. So where do you locate the latest findings?

All the answers are close to hand in this indispensable little volume: the delicious, comforting, essential compendium of Julia’s kitchen wisdom–a book you can’t do without.


Frankenstein: Prodigal Son ($6.49 Kindle), by Kevin J. Anderson and Dean Koontz

Book Description
From the celebrated imagination of Dean Koontz comes a powerful reworking of one of the classic stories of all time. If you think you know the story, you know only half the truth. Get ready for the mystery, the myth, the terror, and the magic of…

Dean Koontz's Prodigal Son

Every city has secrets. But none as terrible as this. His name is Deucalion, a tattooed man of mysterious origin, a sleight-of-reality artist who’s traveled the centuries with a secret worse than death. He arrives as a serial killer stalks the streets, a killer who carefully selects his victims for the humanity that is missing in himself. Detective Carson O’Connor is cool, cynical, and every bit as tough as she looks. Her partner Michael Maddison would back her up all the way to Hell itself–and that just may be where this case ends up. For the no-nonsense O’Connor is suddenly talking about an ages-old conspiracy, a near immortal race of beings, and killers that are more—and less—than human. Soon it will be clear that as crazy as she sounds, the truth is even more ominous. For their quarry isn’t merely a homicidal maniac—but his deranged maker.


The Alchemyst ($7.09 Kindle), by Michael Scott, was previously free in the Kindle store (April '09).

Book Description
He holds the secret that can end the world.

The truth: Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on September 28, 1330. Nearly 700 years later, he is acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life.

The records show that he died in 1418.

But his tomb is empty.

The legend: Nicholas Flamel lives. But only because he has been making the elixir of life for centuries. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects—the Book of Abraham the Mage. It's the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. That's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what's happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it.

Sometimes legends are true.

And Sophie and Josh Newman are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time.


Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets To Naturally Balancing Your Hormones For A Hot And Healthy Body! ($9.99 Kindle), by Jillian Michaels

Book Description
Does it feel as if you’re fighting your body to lose even one pound—or just to maintain your current weight? Respected health and wellness expert and bestselling author Jillian Michaels has been there, too. So she consulted top experts in the field of metabolism and discovered that she’d inadvertently been abusing her endocrine system for years. After “fixing” her own metabolism, she decided to share what she learned by devising this simple, 3-phase plan that engages all the weight-loss hormones (including the friendly HGH, testosterone, DHEA; and the not-so-friendly: insulin, cortisol, and excess estrogen).

In Master Your Metabolism, discover how to:

  • REMOVE “anti-nutrients” from your diet
  • RESTORE foods that speak directly to fat-burning genes
  • REBALANCE energy and your hormones for effortless weight loss
Michaels offers a wealth of information throughout, including: shopping lists and online shopping resources, hormone-trigger food charts, how to eat “power nutrient” foods on a budget, smart strategies for eating out, quick and easy recipes, as well as mini-programs for addressing PMS, andropause, metabolic syndrome, PCOS, and menopause.

Music to Read By

Amazon and X5 Music Group have added another free classical sampler in the MP3 download store. This one, The Classical Period, has five selections and runs just under 40 minutes in length. As part of their I Love Music promotion, they also have five of their longer 99 Essentials samplers at only $1.99 each. The shortest of these (Handel) is nearly five hours in length, while the longest (Schubert) runs well over 13 hours.


Another classical sampler is free from Musical Concepts . Also 40 minutes in length, this one has only five star reviews, so far.

If Jazz is more your style, grab a copy of the Trippin N' Rhythm Sampler, which features 40+ minutes of traditional instrumental jazz or try out Grover Washington, Jr.'s East River Drive, both of which are currently free to download.

Songs From Hotel Carolina 2010 is a free download that Amazon has classified as Folk, but it really doesn't fall into just one genre and is one I'd group more with "singer/songwriter" (and the first cut more as pop). One of the organizers behind the event promoted by the sampler is Ernie Halter and you can download his 4U album for free as well.