New Kindle Game - Match Genius

There's a new (and reasonably priced) memory puzzle game on Kindle today, Match Genius (A Memory Puzzle Game) ($2.99), by Sonic Boom. This is the kind of game I've see mentioned in several studies recently on improving memory and staving off aging of the brain.

Game Description
Play Match Genius, a puzzle game that exercises your concentration, memory and cognitive skills on Kindle - anytime, anywhere.

In Match Genius, you flip over a tile to reveal a symbol underneath. By flipping other tiles you match the pairs of symbols. Match tiles in as few moves as possible to get the highest scores. Pay careful attention to the different shades and orientation for each symbol. Certain shapes are almost identical, which can trick an unfocused player.

Match Genius is a fun game for all ages with 6 levels of difficulty, ranging from Easy to Genius. The game automatically saves your progress and keeps a tally of your stats, scores and rank. Become a Match Genius on Kindle today!

Kindle Student Deal - Worst-Case Survival Handbook: College

The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: College ($0.99, by David Borgenicht, is today's Kindle Student Deal of the Day. Just the thing to load up on your new or upcoming grad's shiny new Kindle they got for Christmas.

Book Description
The college years are a time of noble pursuit of knowledge, self-betterment -- and unending peril! Students are at risk from the moment they receive their acceptance letters. Fortunately, the authors of the phenomenally best-selling Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook series have come to the rescue, offering all-new, hands-on, step-by-step instructions for surviving the worst that higher education has to offer, on campus and off. Learn how to identify a party school, engineer a hookup, survive "the spins," and escape a stadium riot. Discover the best way to sleep in class, pass a test you haven't studied for, avoid the "freshman fifteen," and pull an all-nighter. With practical advice for avoiding laundry and identifying unsafe institutional food, along with an appendix of excuses for missed deadlines and a back-up diploma, this is truly required reading for all college students -- and a perfect high school graduation present.

Free Book - The Darkslayer

The Darkslayer ($0.99 Kindle), by Craig Halloran & Ernie Chan (Illustrator), is free from Smashwords and B&N. The synopsis looks pretty good (as did the video on the Smashwords page) and this 80K word adventure has pretty good reviews, so far.

Book Description
"Do as they say or die in the dungeons," the poor storekeepers would say. "Do as they say or disappear," the commoners would warn. But Venir and Melegal could not have cared less what anyone had to say. They had been this way since their childhood.

As the underlings rally all of the evil forces they can muster to destroy the mystical and legendary Darkslayer, something unexpected has upset the delicate balance between good and evil on the world called Bish, making the Darkslayer a pawn in other insidious disputes.

Strife and turmoil are constant features of life as humans struggle to survive among a wide array of creatures, including orcs, ogres, and the most evil of all--the underlings. When recklessness provokes a Royal household, Venir is forced to flee the city, along with his comrade, the skinny thief Melegal. The Royals and underlings soon unleash some unusual powers against him and start to close in. Facing the final showdown, nothing unfolds as it should.

Click HERE to get the books from B&N.
Click HERE to get the books from Smashwords (DRM-Free, multiple formats).

Free Book (nook) - Michael Tolliver Lives

Previously free in the Kindle store and elswhere (Nov '10), B&N has a new (and free) edition of Michael Tolliver Lives ($9.99 Kindle), by Armistead Maupin. Confusingly enough, they still have the $9.99 selection also, so be sure to follow the link below for the free download.

Book Description
Michael Tolliver, the sweet-spirited Southerner in Armistead Maupin's classic Tales of the City series, is arguably one of the most widely loved characters in contem-porary fiction. Now, almost twenty years after ending his ground-breaking saga of San Francisco life, Maupin revisits his all-too-human hero, letting the fifty-five-year-old gardener tell his story in his own voice.

Having survived the plague that took so many of his friends and lovers, Michael has learned to embrace the random pleasures of life, the tender alliances that sustain him in the hardest of times. Michael Tolliver Lives follows its protagonist as he finds love with a younger man, attends to his dying fundamentalist mother in Florida, and finally reaffirms his allegiance to a wise octogenarian who was once his landlady.

Though this is a stand-alone novel—accessible to fans of Tales of the City and new readers alike—a reassuring number of familiar faces appear along the way. As usual, the author's mordant wit and ear for pitch-perfect dialogue serve every aspect of the story—from the bawdy to the bittersweet. Michael Tolliver Lives is a novel about the act of growing older joyfully and the everyday miracles that somehow make that possible.

Click HERE for the free download from B&N.

Free Book (PDF) - The Elements of Investing

The Elements of Investing ($9.89 Kindle), by Charles D. Ellis and Burton G. Malkiel, both former Vanguard board members, is free courtesy of Vanguard (the investing company); it appears that this was supposed to be for their Vanguard Flagship Services members only, but the links are out in the open and no login is required.

Book Description
A timeless, easy-to-read guide on life-long investment principles that can help any investor succeed

The Elements of Investing has a single-minded goal: to teach the principles of investing in the same pared-to-bone manner that Professor William Strunk Jr. once taught composition to students at Harvard, using his classic little book, The Elements of Style. With great daring, Ellis and Malkiel imagined their own Little Red Schoolhouse course in investing for every investor around the world-and then penned this book.

The Elements of Investing hacks away at all the overtrading and over thinking so predominant in the hyperactive thought patterns of the average investor. Malkiel and Ellis offer investors a set of simple but powerful thoughts on how to challenge Mr. Market at his own game, and win by not losing. All the need-to-know rules and investment principles can be found here.

• Contains sound investment advice and simple principles of investing from two of the most respected individuals in the investment world
• Burton G. Malkiel is the bestselling author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street and Charles D. Ellis is the bestselling author of Winning the Loser's Game
• Shows how to deal with an investor's own worst enemies: fear and greed

A disciplined approach to investing, complemented by conviction, is all you need to succeed. This timely guide will help you develop these skills and make the most of your time in today's market.

Click HERE to open the download page (or get there from the Vanguard offer page), then click Download at the bottom of the page. A PDF file will open in the same window, which you can then save.