Free Book (nook) - Mussolini's Rome

Mussolini's Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City ($14.97 Kindle), by Borden Painter, is free once again from Barnes and Noble. Be sure to let Amazon know of the lower price (even if non-fiction architectural history isn't your thing, there is sure to be another reader out there who would love this one).

Book Description
An eye-opening look at the architectural mark fascism left on one of the world's most beloved cities Rome was Mussolini's obsession. After coming to power as a result of his famed march on the city in 1922, he promised Italians that his fascist revolution would unite them as never before and make Italy a major power on the world stage. In the next two decades, he set about rebuilding Rome as the foremost site and symbol of the new fascist order. Through an ambitious program of demolition and construction, he sought to make Rome a capital that both embraced modernity while preserving and glorifying the city's ancient past. Building the new Rome put people to work; 'liberated' ancient monuments from cluttered surroundings; cleared slums; produced giant complexes for education, sports, and cinema; produced wide new boulevards and piazzas; and provided the regime with a showcase in which to assert the power and identity of fascism. This intriguing book reveals Mussolini's tremendous and lasting impact on the city to which millions flock each year.

Click HERE to get the free book from B&N.

R.I.P. Borders Bookstores

Only a few months after their Chapter 11 re-organization, Borders has announced that they will liquidate and close all stores. Liquidation sales should start as early as this Friday, so if you want to get in on any sales (and especially if you have any outstanding gift cards there), you'll want to visit soon. I haven't seen anything about gift cards, so they should still be honoring them, at least until the liquidation starts on Friday (if the judge approves their plan this Thursday). I know when we were in ours last weekend, the coffee shop had bags of beans for B1G1F and thought they were getting a new brand of coffee shop next month, but it looks like the big sale that was planned has fallen thru (and I suspect few stores have anything but flavored coffee left, for those who have missed this sale). The stores are, though, full of books, music and movies and there should be some good bargains, as it looks like they want to clear out the stores before the end of the summer (I've seen September mentioned by some blogs, but I would not be surprised if some stores closed sooner). Looks like those who signed up on the Borders+ memberships won't see the stores last long enough to get their promised bonus Borders Bucks (even though that would make them minority creditors of the company, I would not plan on seeing anything from it). If you have a free coffee or bonus bucks on your account, I'd spend those this week, too.

If you have ebooks from the Borders, I'd also be sure to download a backup of each one as an EPUB, using Adobe ADE (you download the .ACSM and open it with ADE), not just downloaded into the app on your computer or Kobo reader, as well as make sure you have moved your library to Kobo. Although Borders did invest in Kobo, that company should not be affected by the liquidation. Then again, with Borders creditor list looking like a Who's Who in publishing, the fallout from the liquidation may be far-reaching. Will publishers raise book prices even more to make up the losses (and, no doubt, guarantee their doom even faster)? In the short run, B&N should see more customers in their stores (and Books-A-Million may try to buy a few of the stores), but in our city, this closing means 2 out of 4 stores will close (and both have much better locations than the remaining two; of those B&N is the hardest to get to).

Braintonik Kindle Games Sale - 99 Cents

All three of Braintonik Games' Active Content Kindle games are 99 cents this week (thru July 25). Although the last on the list is 99 cents all the time (or, at least it has been, so far), that's a three dollar savings on the first two on the list. At these prices, I went ahead and picked up the one I didn't already have. These games are great fillers when you want to give your brain a bit to work on (or to play during commercials if watching TV). Great value, too, since we can load them on everybody's Kindle with one purchase.

Strimko (A Logic Game for Kindle)
Jump into Strimko and enjoy classic Sudoku gameplay with a twist!

The object of the game is to place a set of numbers in rows or columns without repeating them in any row or column. Strimko adds a concept of "streams" that crisscross throughout the puzzle. With streams, you must consider not only the rows and columns, but also the streams, and make sure that each contains different numbers.

You can choose from four different difficulty levels. Each difficulty level increases the size of the grid you play on: "Easy" has a 4x4 grid, while the "Master" level challenges you with a 7x7 grid. Each of the four difficulty levels has 30 different puzzles, allowing for a total of 120 different puzzles to play. A hint function can also let you keep playing if you get stuck.

Challenge yourself and tease your brain as you master the logic required to solve Strimko puzzles!

Blossom (A Puzzle for Kindle)
Solve clever puzzles with Blossom, the game that challenges you to create a network of pipes that water your flowers.

The goal of the game is to build an irrigation system that delivers water to flowers by manipulating the game tiles with water pipes on them. Just select the water pipe tiles and rotate them until the water flows through them and reaches the flowers to make them bloom.

When a pipe is connected to the water network it will fill up with water. Make sure the water flows in all the pipes to keep your flowers beautiful. You'll have to rotate the tiles with pipes, flowers, and that all-important watering can to make each part of the grid connect together and fill up every tile. All the flowers need to be connected to the watering can and every pipe must be used to finish the puzzle. Are you facing a drought? The Hint system is there to help you figure out the next best move.

With Blossom's 120 puzzles, spring is always just around the corner. Soon you'll be a fantastic florist, watering your way to a brighter future.

Futoshiki (A Logic Puzzle for Kindle)
Futoshiki is a Japanese number logic puzzle.

The rules of Futoshiki are deceptively simple but the game is challenging and addictive. Each row and column must be filled with unique numbers. However, Futoshiki has a twist. It adds greater-than or less-than signs between some cells. You must honor these signs in order to solve and complete the puzzles.

This collection of 120 puzzles is grouped into four different sets ranging from easy to expert. The grids are 5x5 in easy, medium, and hard modes. Expert mode holds thirty 7x7 puzzles. The game features annotations to help you keep track of possible solutions, and a hint function to help you keep playing if you get stuck.

Textbook Rentals and Streaming Discount for Students

In January, Amazon started giving students (those with a .edu email address) a free Prime membership, which included free shipping and discounted overnight shipping (but didn't allow sharing with other family members). Then, in February, Amazon started giving free, unlimited streaming instant videos with Prime Membership. But, students were left out in the cold (as were Amazon Moms, who also have free Prime shipping, if they meet certain monthly qualifications).

Now, though, students get a new choice: upgrade to full Prime membership at 50% off the regular rate and get streaming Instant Videos. It's the perfect solution for the cash-strapped student that could not talk Mom and Dad out of letting their dorm room be the primary location on the account (with Full Prime, you can have up to 5 members on an account, but only one of them gets streaming videos for free). For $39/year, students can watch all the videos they have time for, get munchies (or clean clothes) delivered quickly and get release date delivery on video games, DVD's, books and more. If you aren't a student, you can get the same for the regular $79/year (which is still cheaper than a streaming only Netflix membership).

There are a couple of gotcha's:

• If you are already a free Student Prime member, your free period ends immediately (even if you have several months left on it) and your annual membership will begin (with a new expiration date).
• You can only be a paid Student Prime member for four years and at the end of four years, your membership cost will automatically increase. That's also true of the free membership, btw -- you can only be a student for four years with Amazon, no matter how long you actually take to graduate.
• You still don't get to share your membership with someone else. Amazon Moms can share their membership with one other person and full paid accounts can share with up to 4 household members or coworkers.

For students who are already enjoying a year of free Prime, you can sign up for this at any time until your current year ends, if you would rather extend your benefits than watch past episodes of The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dr. Who.

But, wait, you say... what was that you said about Textbook Rentals?

Yes, it's true. Amazon has finally added the ability to rent the Kindle edition of textbooks, a feature that Barnes & Noble added last year (but which is kind of a mess to use, what with the special student version of the reader for your desktop). Amazon, of course, makes it all easy - any book that can be rented now has the option to rent (it's even the default, so be careful with this one), with rental periods lasting from 30 days to nearly a year (depending on the book). The amount you pay depends on both the cost of the book and the length of the rental period. Once rented and for the duration of the rental period, you can then read that book on any of your registered Kindle devices, including on your desktop (or iPad ... or phone, if you need to, ahem, "check your notes" in class). Even after the rental period is over, you can still access your notes (all your notes, not just for textbooks) online, at kindle.amazon.com.

Need that book just a little bit longer? You can extend your rental period as needed, for as little as a single day (as many times as you want), or convert the rental to a purchase. Essentially, you get many of the benefits of selling back your textbooks at the end of the term, without the hassle of having to lug them around and then deal with shipping them off. And you keep your notes and highlights (unlike when you sell back that Chemistry book you find you now need).

I still have a few questions on how it works and the help pages at Amazon are not updated yet (not even for paid Student Prime), so I've sent off an email to Amazon and will let you know what I hear.

Free Book (noDRM) - Bridges

Bridges, a LGBT novella by M.J. O'Shea, is free over on AllRomance today.

Book Description
With names like Dallas and Brooklyn they could've either been best friends...or worst enemies. The war started in third grade, with a surprise punch to the face and lasted until the summer after high school when Brooklyn and Dallas are stuck working at the same store. At night. Together. It should've been a recipe for disaster. But instead of outright war, they slowly start to notice that not only do they not hate each other, but perhaps they have more in common than either of them knew. Soon, amidst unexpected laughter and camaraderie, Dallas realizes that maybe the guy who used to be his number one enemy could actually be his perfect match.

Click HERE for the free book.