Free Books (nook) from Hackett and MG

Several new free books in the B&N store and I don't expect them to stay at this price. The earlier ones from MG press increased from free to an average of $75.00 each after two days. From the titles I've seen offered so far, it appears that Hackett Publishing specializes in materials for college students, while MG has more Canadian and UK non-fiction. While some of the Hackett volumes are in the public domain, what you are generally getting are newer translations, commentaries and improved formatting. One note on pricing - although these say they are free and have a $0.00 price tag (at least when I am posting this, always double check before clicking), B&N will probably charge you a penny apiece for them.

The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, by Michael Harvey

Book Description
Engagingly written and illustrated with scores of telling examples, this plainspoken how-to book for college writers identifies those qualities that most typically distinguish good writing from bad and provides practical measures for avoiding pitfalls.

Included are do's and don'ts for achieving concision, clarity, and flow, as well as pointers on using punctuation, writing gracefully, citing sources, and structuring persuasive writing.

Championing "the plain style" with a keen appreciation for the uses to which language can be put-including abuses to which it is prone-The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing is a guide that never fails to remind readers why good writing matters so much in the first place, in college and beyond.

Walden Two, by B.F. Skinner

Book Description
This fictional outline of a modern utopia has been a center of controversy ever since its publication in 1948. Set in the United States, it pictures a society in which human problems are solved by a scientific technology of human conduct.

Analects: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries, by Confucius

Book Description
Rich distillation of the timeless precepts of extremely influential Chinese philosopher and social theorist. Includes "Concerning Fundamental Principles," "Concerning Government," "The Eight Dancers: Concerning Manners and Morals," and much more. Footnotes.

Four Plays and Three Jokes, by Anton Chekhov

Book Description
This volume offers lively and accurate translations of Chekhov's major plays and one-acts along with a superb Introduction focused on the plays' remarkably enduring power to elicit the most widely divergent of responses, the life of the playwright in its historical and aesthetic contexts, suggestions for reading the plays "under a microscope," and notes designed to bring Chekhov's world into immediate focus-everything needed to examine his drama with fresh eyes and on its own artistic terms.

Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert

Book Description
Madame Bovary is the story of a beautiful young woman who marries a luckless and loutish country doctor. She attempts to escape the narrow confines of her life through a series of passionate affairs, hoping to find in other men the romantic ideal she has always dreamed about. Her recklessness comes back to haunt her, however, and the strong-willed and independent Emma finds herself in a desperate fight for existence.

Innovation, Science, Environment: Canadian Policies and Performance, 2008-2009, by Glen Toner

Author Bio
Glen Toner is professor, public policy and director of Carleton University's Research Unit in Innovation, Science and Environment in the School of Public Policy and Administration.

Jerusalem on the Amur: Birobidzhan and the Canadian Jewish Communist Movement, 1924-1951, by Henry Felix Srebrnik

Book Description
The Canadian Jewish Communist movement, an influential ideological voice within the Canadian left, played a major role in the politics of Jewish communities in cities such as Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg, as well as many smaller centres, between the 1920s and the 1950s. Jerusalem on the Amur looks at the interlocking group of left-wing Jewish organizations that shared the political views of the Canadian Communist Party and were vocal proponents of policies perceived as beneficial to the Jewish working class. Focusing on the Association for Jewish Colonization in Russia, known by its transliterated acronym as the ICOR, and the Canadian Ambijan Committee, Henry Srebrnik uses Yiddish-language books, newspapers, pamphlets, and other materials to trace the ideological and material support provided by the Canadian Jewish Communist movement to Birobidzhan.

By providing the first account of the rise and fall of Communism in the Jewish community of Canada, Jerusalem on the Amur makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of twentieth-century Jewish life.

Finding Freedom: Hegelian Philosophy and the Emancipation of Women, by Sara MacDonald

Author Bio
Sara MacDonald is a professor in the Great Ideas Programme at St. Thomas University.


Seeing Ghosts: 9/11 and the Visual Imagination, by Karen Engle

Book Description
Starting from the tremendous fascination with images of 9/11, Karen Engle asks what, in the context of a national trauma, makes an image appropriate or scandalous, exploring how diverse visual media have been mobilized in political projects of identification and personal narratives of empathy. Focusing on themes of memory, mourning, and history, Engle examines sculptural, photographic, and new media responses to the 9/11 attacks in both contemporary and historical contexts, considers the public's reaction to these visual productions, and suggests that earlier presentations of America at war play a pivotal role in the representations of 9/11 in both official and popular media.

Seeing Ghosts is a groundbreaking theoretical study of how we remember, how we mourn, and how images of a particular event influence our imagination of the future.

The Boundaries of Meaning and the Formation of Law: Legal Concepts and Reasoning in the English, Arabic, and Chinese Traditions, by Sharron Gu

Book Description
Different legal systems share some basic developmental tendencies that are rooted in the historical evolution of language and culture. In this comparative history of English common law, Islamic law, and Chinese imperialist law Sharron Gu describes the formation of three diverse legal systems in terms of their unique linguistic environments. In this unique study of how language determines the structure of legal systems, Gu argues that the characteristics of each language define the nature of the common, statute, administrative, and religious laws associated with it and set the boundaries for its legal imagination.

Race Riots: Comedy and Ethnicity in Modern British Fiction, by Michael L. Ross

Book Description
In Race Riots, the first study of racial humour in the work of modern British authors, examines the complex ways in which laughter can either reinforce or subvert racial stereotyping. Filling a critical gap, Race Riots focuses on the rhetorical function of laughter within comic texts, a seldom studied dimension of the subject. It also explores the relationship between humour and power in society, concerns that are customarily treated separately.

Using Collections on Kindle

Detailed info on using Collections, complete with screenshots, is already available on the Kindle Help pages (which means our Kindle Manuals should update as well, when we get the firmware update), HERE.

It looks like those with multiple Kindles will want to designate one of them as the master collection creator, at least at first, as the others can then import the collection definitions (and presumably then change them individually). You will be able to assign a book into multiple Collections (so, it does work like tags), as well as see the items you haven't yet assigned to a collection. The method used to create and assign the collections, however, is probably the most awkward possible - create a collection first, then use the five-way to move to the right while highlighting it's name, select the Add/Remove option, then find the book (hmm.... ok, I have hundreds of pages ....) by clicking with the controller (it looks like you can at least select more than one at a time). I looked at my Kindle management page (kindle.amazon.com), and there doesn't appear to be any support for collections there. There are a few other updates, though, such as the ability to mark a book as read, reading or unread (or "I gave up on it", which they call "stopped reading"), although I don't believe you can see that info on the Kindle itself, nor can you set these values for anyone other than the main Kindle account holder. You also can't set a collection value from inside a book (which would be relatively trivial to add, even using their awkward point and click system, rather than letting us type in tags either on the Kindle from inside a book or do mass assignments in the Kindle manage page).

It'll be a pain, but it will be possible to classify your books by genre and set up further collections of "read", "unread" and "reading" (for those with multiple Kindles, you'll want to set up one of each for each person and let that person maintain them - I'd name them differently, though, so you don't accidentally import someone else's Reading collection to your Kindle). Of course, for most of us, the "unread" category will be blank, as we've learned to delete books once they are read and these collection categories will have no relevance to the "read,reading,etc." tags set up on the Kindle Management page. I can see why they are leaving their Original Kindle owners out in the cold, however, due to the way they implemented tagscollections - rather than have the help pages explain how to do things both ways (using the keyboard for the K1) or having newer Kindle owners complain that it is easier that way or letting you manage the collections from the web, they simply added a single method using the five-way controller (thinking that customers who picked an ereader with a keyboard are too mouse centric to use it, perhaps?); which also leaves out (or makes so difficult it requires assistance), some of their readers with less motor control or lesser eyesight, as well, who already have more difficulty with the newer Kindle than the original, for some functions.

One unanswered question: if you have the same collection on two Kindles and both people make changes to it, will those changes sync across Kindles? Or will one of the Kindles have to import the changes from the other? What happens if the changes are contradictory?

The most relevant part of using Collections, from the Amazon Help pages:

Managing Content in Your Collections

After you create one or more collections you wish to use for organizing your Kindle's content, you're ready associate items on your Kindle with those collections. Here are a few handy collection features:

• Collections are stored on Amazon: When you create a collection on a device, we'll save your collection so it appears in Archived Items on other devices registered to your Amazon.com account. This allows you to transfer collections across registered Kindles.
  
  
• Books are associated with collections until removed: If you add a book to a collection on your Kindle and then delete the book from your device, it remains associated with that collection in Archive Items. If you download the book again, it will automatically appear in the appropriate collection on your Home screen.
  
  
• Books can appear in more than one collection: You can associate a single book or other item from your library with multiple collections if you wish.
  
  
• Collections don't change device or Archive Items content: If you delete a book from a collection or delete an entire collection from your Kindle, it does not change the actual items saved on your Kindle or in your Archive Items on Amazon. When you delete a collection from your Kindle, any downloaded items from that collection will appear the Home screen instead of in the collection.

To add or remove collection items:

1. Highlight the collection name on the Home screen.
2. Move the 5-way controller to the right to reveal the collection options.
3. Select "Add/Remove Items" with the 5-way controller.
4. Highlight and select a title you wish to add or remove. Items currently in the collection will display a check mark to the right of the title.
5. Select "Done" at the bottom of the screen when you've finished editing your collection.

To import a collection from another Kindle:

1. Select "Archived Items" from the Kindle Home screen.
2. Select "Add Other Device Collections" from the Archived Items page.
3. Select the desired collection to import and select "ok" to confirm.

Note: Importing a collection from another device does not import the books or other items to your Kindle if they aren't downloaded already. However, books already on your Kindle that are associated with a collection will automatically appear under that collection name on your Home screen.

Six Free Books from Sony

Six more free titles in the Sony ebookstore, courtesy of Xlibris Publishing.

The Urban Book of the Dead ($9.99 Kindle), by Jonathan Cottam

Book Description
Urban Book of the dead is my second book to be published, after ‘The Unrequited Zombie’. It is a rather less experimental work, though still unusual, vivid, and descriptive. I would describe the book as both psychedelic and surreal, being rather pedantic about the use of those two words. That is, if it were surreal I would be dealing with a psychological work, something that looked towards expanding knowledge of the Id, that primitive part of our nature that is repressed by social conventions and the need to plan to get what we want. It is, in that it is self gratifying without recourse to opinion, it is every animalistic urge that can only be released through art, because to do it any other way would have terrible repercussions. Having said that, next to my early work, it is not particularly arty or deep. It is psychedelic because it looks to reaching a higher consciousness by through creativity, to reach a state beyond the normal level of seeing things, it is also psychedelic and surreal in the commonly understood sense, it is ‘trippy’ and sometimes deals with drugs.

From Dawn to Deceit ($19.99 paperback), by Terry Joseph

Book Description
Are the Wall Street players Jasper Cunningham encounters along his quest for power merely a pawn in his murderous passion for wealth? From Dawn to Deceit reveals the saga of a self-made multimillionaire whose greed and malice succumb him to fight the justice system to regain his freedom and stature in the business world. Through flashbacks of the adulterous years preceding Jasper's arrest and trial, we encounter cold-blooded murders, corporate fraud and embezzlement, and justified rape. In his journey, Jasper affiliates with seemingly faithful lovers and underworld cohorts who become jointly entangled in their common goal-the pursuit of wealth, sex, and power. But who can Jasper trust? The layers of deception only accelerate after his verdict.

Growing up with A Heart Defect and Faith ($9.99 Kindle), by Shelia Ratliff

Book Description
The Story you are about to read is based on my life. It’s a true story. I wanted to share it with others hoping it will make a difference in their life. After you read it you will see how I fit back with my faith, by helping others fight back as well. How I was called a poor girl to heart trouble kid. But with my faith I was the richest girl in the world. Not money wise, but being blessed wise. Stories about some of my friends who fit back with their lives and won. About special people in my life who made a difference. You will see how miracles happen. You will be amazed how little things can make a difference and never give up on faith or your dreams, … because this is one of mine.

God's Poetic Treasure's: A Poetic Journey Through The Scriptures ($9.99 Kindle), by Priscilla McGee

Book Description
God’s poetic treasure’s is a poetic Journey through the scriptures. This book has section headings and in each section there is a prayer and a related scripture. Within each section there are eight to ten poems with a related scripture. This book is designed in the style of a devotion book which allows the reader to look at the section heading, find the area that they may need encouragement. Then through accessibility they can turn to it and read the poems and scriptures that are related to the topic.

What Every Catholic Should Know about Mary: Dogmas, Doctrines, and Devotions ($9.99 Kindle), by Terrence J. McNally

Book Description
This book provides a concise summary of Traditional Catholic Mariology. It explains the following facts:
• Jesus worked his first miracle for Mary (Jn 2:1–11).
• Mary kept the faith of the Church alive on Calvary (Jn 19:25–27).
• By 200 CE, Catholic Mariology was virtually completed.
• Early Christians painted pictures of Mary in the catacombs.
• The earliest prayer to Mary dates from c. 270 CE.
• Between 100 and 200 CE, a church was dedicated to Mary at Nazareth.
• In the 350s, the feast of the Assumption of Mary was celebrated on August 15.
• In 431 CE, the Church proclaimed Mary Mother of God.
• Marian devotion is Christ-centered and presupposes conversion of heart.
• Catholic Marian teaching derives from the Bible and Tradition (the apostles as witnessed by the Fathers of the Church).
• The four Marian dogmas are the Divine Maternity, Perpetual Virginity, Immaculate Conception, and Assumption into heaven. The Church never defined dogmas of Mary as Co-Redemptrix and/or Mediatrix of all graces.
• In heaven, Mary shares subordinately in the mediation of Jesus Christ, the only Mediator.
• The rosary is 57 percent biblical.

Misery Doesn't Always Love Company ($9.99 Kindle), by Mark A. McDonald. This appears to be a poetry collection, but I can't find a book description anywhere.

Almost Free Book (Kindle) - Milrose Munce and the Den of Professional Help

Milrose Munce and the Den of Professional Help, by Douglas Anthony Cooper, is a single penny in the Amazon Kindle store. Aimed at young readers (age 9-12), this one has only five-star reviews (you can't see them on the Kindle book page, but HERE under the paperback version.

Book Description
No one except Milrose Munce knows that ghosts of former students live in his school. Not only is Milrose aware of these ghouls – he’s on a first-name basis with all of them. Of course, some are more likeable than others: the third floor is the home to nearly all of his good friends. Most of them – like Imploded Ig, Deeply Damaged Dave, and Toasted Theresa – were the victims of science experiments gone wrong though they do manage to maintain a sense of humour about their demise. Then there are the ghost athletes who lurk in the basement – a pretty disagreeable group, the majority of them having died after a particularly clumsy manoeuvre on the school’s sports field.

After Milrose is given yet another detention for offering his teacher an answer that was just a bit too clever, his life takes an unexpected turn. He is sent to a hidden den in the school’s basement to receive Professional Help. Here, he and the quick-witted Arabella, a fellow captive, are put under round-the-clock supervision of the maniacal Massimo Natica. Fortunately for Milrose and Arabella, once they join forces with their ghostly friends, Massimo Natica doesn’t stand a chance.

In the tradition of Edward Gorey and Roald Dahl, the dark comedy and imaginative brilliance of Milrose Munce and the Den of Professional Help will appeal to adults as much as it will to younger readers.

Collections coming (SOON!) to the Kindle

Amazon has announced version 2.5 of the Kindle software today, which will finally include a method of organizing your Kindle books, which they (copying Sony) are calling Collections (too bad, as tagging is already a mobipocket feature and more powerful than Sony's Collections). Unfortunately, it looks like all the original Kindle buyers will be left out in the cold, as there is only a footnote that they are at version 1.2 and there doesn't appear to be an update in the works. So, those of us with an original Kindle will have to keep using separate SD cards and software like Calibre to manage our books. Even the note-based tagging workaround that many have used on their Kindle 2's is useless on the original Kindle, due to the slowness of the search facilit, once you get a few hundred (or more) books on it.

Several of the updates seem to be geared towards younger readers (Really? Twitter sharing of passages from a book? As if that social network isn't filled with enough trivia). Nor am I much interested in what passages in a book others marked as interesting (although it looks to be a readily exploited feature if used by students to skip reading an entire book when preparing a report), while other features are those that original Kindle owners have been asking for all along (and which could have been developed for that hardware platform without much difficulty, especially tagging). Passwords have long been needed and locking your Kindle is something many business users have wanted (as have a few people who don't want others to see what they are reading), but parents have been asking for parental locks on their Kindles even louder and it doesn't appear those are included. I know I'd love to be able to mark books (using my Manage My Kindle page) as to which Kindle is allowed to access a book - that would make it easier for families with multiple Kindles, where the romance and sports readers don't want to see each others titles, for the most part. I'll definitely use the PDF enhancements on my DX, I suspect, and perhaps the Collections feature there will be useful (even though I only keep a small subset of my books there).

Here's a list of the coming enhancements:

• Collections: Organize your books and documents into one or more collections.
• PDF Pan and Zoom: Zoom into PDFs and pan around to easily view small print and detailed tables or graphics.
• Password Protection: Password protect your Kindle when you're not using it.
• More Fonts & Improved Clarity: Enjoy two new larger font sizes and sharper fonts for an even more comfortable reading experience.
• Facebook & Twitter Posts: Share book passages with friends on Facebook and Twitter directly from your Kindle.
• Popular Highlights: See what the Kindle community thinks are the most interesting passages in the books you're reading.

Amazon is rolling out the new software update to a limited group of Kindle users (it sounds like theses have started) and plans a broad release in late May 2010. They are updating in batches, so don't be surprised if your Kindle doesn't get the update right away. This update also appears to take a while to download, install and reboot (the estimate is about 10 minutes), during which time you should not power off or reset your Kindle.

Click HERE for additional details and for updates on the release schedule.

Free two-day shipping on Kindle

Just in time for Mother's Day, Amazon has brought back their free 2-day shipping offer on the Kindle and Kindle DX. Order either one today and you'll get free shipping and delivery by Friday. According to the countdown clock I see on the order pages, you have until 11PM EST to place your order (one-day shipping is $3.99 for those with Amazon Prime, letting you procrastinate until tomorrow to place your order). I know my mother uses her Kindle daily and I'd get one for my M-I-L, if she were not in such a remote area that she has no Whispernet access (and no computer, either, for USB downloads). Of the two, the Kindle DX has larger fonts and better speakers, for those who use the Text-to-Speech feature, while the Kindle is quite a bit easier to hold, has buttons on both sides and is more transportable.

How to redeem:

• Add Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation) or Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device (9.7" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation) to your Shopping Cart.
• When you're done shopping, click "Proceed to checkout." Select Two-Day Shipping.
• On the final checkout page, the shipping discount will appear in the upper-right corner of your Order Summary.
  

Additional details on the offer can be found HERE.

If your mother already has a Kindle, don't forget to print off a Kindle Gift Certificate, which can double as a Mother's Day card.

Five Dollar Cookbooks

No matter how much I love my Kindle, so far I prefer traditional paper copies of cookbooks when I am cooking (best of both worlds: the ebook version to read or check at the store and the paper copy to use in the kitchen). Barnes & Noble is trying to tempt me to add to my collection with their $5 Cookbook Sale, with titles ranging from The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry to Incredibly Easy Gluten-Free Recipes. There are five pages of books included in the sale, a few of which caught my eye and I'm highlighting below. Where available at Amazon, I've included prices and links so you can find reviews.

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry ($9.99 Kindle), by Kathleen Flinn

This is the funny and inspiring account of Kathleen Flinn-s struggle in a stew of hot-tempered chefs, competitive classmates, her own -wretchedly inadequate- French, and the basics of French cuisine. Flinn was a thirty-six-year-old middle manager trapped on the corporate ladder-until her boss eliminated her job. So she cashed in her savings and moved to Paris to pursue her lifelong dream of attending the venerable Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. Fans of Julie & Julia and the late Julia Child will be richly rewarded by this vibrant tale of self-discovery, transformation, and ultimately love.

Incredibly Easy Gluten-Free Recipes ($9.98 Amazon, 4-for-3 promotion eligible), by the Staff of Publications International

Cutting gluten out of your diet? That s no reason to deprive yourself of flavor and variety. Going gluten-free may sound awfully limiting, but there are plenty of delicious options, many more than the forbidden foods. The wonderful recipes in this book will show you new ways to prepare old favorites like pizza, cookies, and casseroles without a speck of gluten.

With this cookbook, you are covered for a gluten-free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Nobody has to be on a special diet to love these delicious dishes:
Grilled Fish Tacos
Cajun Chicken and Rice
Cheese Grits with Chiles & Bacon
Ham and Potato Pancakes
Turkey Piccata
Almond Flour Pound Cake
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant($9.99 Kindle), by Jenni Ferrari-Adler

In this delightful and much buzzed-about collection of essays, 26 writers and foodies invite readers into their kitchens to reflect on the secret meals they relish when no one else is looking. Part solace, part celebration, part handbook, Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant offers a wealth of company, inspiration, and humor-and finally, recipes that require no division or subtraction.

Featuring essays by: Steve Almond, Jonathan Ames, Jami Attenberg, Laura Calder, Mary Cantwell, Dan Chaon, Laurie Colwin, Laura Dave, Courtney Eldridge, Nora Ephron, Erin Ergenbright, M. F. K. Fisher, Colin Harrison, Marcella Hazan, Amanda Hesser, Holly Hughes, Jeremy Jackson, Rosa Jurjevics, Ben Karlin, Rattawut Lapcharoensap, Beverly Lowry, Haruki Murakami, Phoebe Nobles, Ann Patchett, Anneli Rufus and Paula Wolfert.

Outstanding in the Field: A Farm to Table Cookbook, by Jim Denevan & Marah Stets

Instead of bringing food to guests in a traditional restaurant setting, Jim Denevan brings diners to their food, creating what Alice Waters has called “the restaurant I always imagined.” His innovative organization, Outstanding in the Field, sets up dinner tables in fields, ranches, dairies, vineyards, and community gardens across the country for alfresco meals that truly reconnect us with the land and people that produce our food.

In Outstanding in the Field, Denevan presents a cookbook full of seasonally inspired dishes from his farm-fresh dinners, sharing more than one hundred recipes with home cooks and food lovers everywhere. Celebrating local ingredients at their height of freshness, favorites include Haricot Vert and Early Girl Tomato Salad with Summer Savory; Burrata Cheese with Nectarines, Mâche, and Hazelnuts; Sea Scallops with Sugar Snap Peas and Chervil; Pure Maple Syrup–Braised Short Ribs; Green Tomato Marmalade; and Upside-Down Fresh Fig Cake. All of the recipes present opportunities to use the most flavorful produce, meats, and cheeses in the area where you live—and suggestions for substitutions when necessary.

America’s appetite for organic and local food has never been stronger and there is no better guide to this growing movement than Jim Denevan. With inspiring recipes, beautiful photographs throughout of farms and food across the country, and information on finding local ingredients and helping Community Supported Agriculture and community gardens, Outstanding in the Field is a cookbook that celebrates the pleasures of raising, preparing, and enjoying good food.

Keo's Thai Cuisine by Keo Sananikone($16.50 Amazon)

The books that ushered in the Thai revolution in kitchens across America is back in a revised edition featuring the classic recipes that earned Keo an international following, along with new recipes fresh from the kitchen of his world-famous restaurant in Hawaii. With over 80,000 books in print, KEO'S THAI CUISINE continues to be the definitive source for home cooks serious about Thai cuisine. Each chapter is structured to allow a beginner to understand the components and philosophy of Thai cuisine, as well as prepare such winning dishes as Keo's Thai Spring Rolls, Evil Jungle Prince with Mixed Vegetables, and Musamen Beef Curry. The fresh new look we've given the revised edition makes the full-color food photography look more enticing than ever.

With over 80,000 books in print, "Keo's Thai Cuisine" continues to be the definitive source for home cooks serious about Thai cooking. Full color.

The GL Diet Made Simple ($9.99, by Antony Worrall Thompson

This is the follow-up to Thompson’s best-selling GI Diet Cookbook and a must for those who have adapted their diet to the sound principles of the Glycemic Index.

The GI diet explained how to manage blood glucose levels to help weight loss and encourage long-term good health. The GL (glycemic load) is an exciting new extension of these principles and measures more accurately the carbohydrate load of food. This means that foods that had previously been considered high GI, e.g. melon, can now be introduced into your diet, as the amount of carbs you would eat in a portion, rather than in a whole melon, is calculated. This will give you a better understanding of how to combine foods to bring down the overall GL and allows an even greater choice of foods to be included in your diet.

Antony Worrall Thompson has created 100 delectable recipes based on the GL to help you lose weight sensibly. His GL Diet is a diet that you can follow for life without missing out on favorite foods – and it offers a tempting range of desserts and treats (allowed because the carb calculation is more precise).

Whether you are already a fan of the GI and looking to expand your recipe collection, or if you are new to the GI/GL, this book will help you to eat healthily, lose weight for good and still enjoy delicious food.

Free Game - Word Monaco

The free game this week at Sandlot Games is Word Monaco ($6.95 Amazon Game Downloads). This was also free back in mid-January, for those who have followed this blog for a while.

I have this installed on my XP notebook, but have been unable to get it to unlock on my Windows 7 computer. Update: I disabled my antivirus software in Windows 7 (since I've been running the same program with no issues on another computer and was using the same install file, there wasn't much risk in this), reinstalled and unlocked with no problem at all. Apparently this can be a problem with some of Sandlot's older games (it depends on the antivirus program, not necessarily the OS version).

Game Description

• A Unique Blend of Word Creation and Solitaire
• 50,000+ Entries In A Massive Word List
• 5 Decks From Easy To Champion
• 75 Progressively Challenging Levels

Welcome to Word Monaco! Relax under the warm sun of the Mediterranean and play a unique blend of word-creation and solitaire. Create words by moving letters from column to column and use power-ups for bonus points. When all of the letters are used, you'll move on to the next of 75 progressively difficult levels in 6 different locations! With a word list of over 50,000+ words and 5 decks of varying difficulty, there are endless possibilities.

Click HERE to sign up for the free download. For step by step purchase and installation instructions, see this post.

Dozens of free non-fiction books at B&N

There are dozens of free books from MG Press in the B&N bookstore today, but they can be tricky to find. Most appear to be history, legal or political subjects from a British or Canadian point of view, but I also found one about women pilots in England between WWI and WWII.

Click HERE to get a sorted list, just be careful to check the prices before buying (many are quite expensive, as you get near the end of the list). I found free titles on at least the first seven pages of results. Most (if not all) appear to only be in eReader format, so nook and PC compatible.

Update: I bought several of these and despite being marked as free, B&N apparently ran one-penny charges for each of those. No big deal to me (it's only 60 cents if you buy every one of them), but it triggered the fraud protection on my credit card (which declined the charges, but B&N put the books in my library, anyway), so it was a bit of a hassle to have to call the credit card company and get it unblocked.

Free Book (Sony) - The Beginning... the End... Anew!

The Beginning... the End... Anew! ($9.99 Kindle), by Zedart Hodges, is another selection from XLibris (which appears to specialize in self-pulished authors) that is free in the Sony ebookstore this evening. This one is marked as a religious, motivational memoir.

Book Description
For sometime I’ve been clean and at times it has been hard, but I think about my love for me and know that I can't and refuse to fall back into that self pity state of denial and that now I understand that it´s not about me also there's a saying that is so true which says in order to keep what you got you must give it away. I hope this will help someone or somebody out there that's beginning to realize that life is bigger than they are and more important to someone else other than you thank you for time.

Free Book (Sony) - The Whore of Babylon

The Whore of Babylon, A Memoir ($9.99 Kindle), by Katrina Prado, is free in the Sony ebookstore.

Author Bio
Katrina Prado is the author of several novels, including a mystery series as well as many literary short stories. She has had material published in Woman’s World, Potpourri, The Chrysalis Reader, The Santa Clara Review, Lite, and Woman. Ms. Prado’s comments have also appeared in Yoga Journal. She has been a freelance writer for Woman’s World magazine and her work has aired on Public Radio’s Valley Writers Read. She was a two-time panelist at the Sacramento Reads! book festival. Her short story Twig Doll won first place in the 2000 Lite Circle Literary Contest. Her novel BOXES OF YEARS (March 27, 2002, Rising Tide Press) is available at all bookstores, as well as from Amazon.com. She lives with her husband in northern California.

Free Book (Sony) - Where 45 Ends

Where 45 Ends ($9.99 Kindle), by E. Marie Aldrich-Creasy, is free in the Sony ebookstore.

Book Description
Penning down over two hundred fifty poems, the author opens the windows to her soul through lyrical verse that displays immense emotional power. Each piece in this collection is carved by the emotions of a young woman with whom many others can relate. She vividly captures different events and ideas that a person has to encounter in the journey of life.

The poem “Through It All” is a powerful reminiscence of past hardship and trials. Written in a whimsical yet edifying tone, “What to Say” tells of an unknown story of girls known as bartenders and waitresses. “Back of the Truck” relives the good old days of 1972 racing life, and “Country in Music” expresses how people should return to God and bring hope, faith, and belief back to the rhythm of everyday life. By reading her poem “I Want To Say”, you’ll know where her heart is.

An eloquent delivery of Aldrich-Creasy's philosophies, Where 45 Ends collects pieces of the heart. It is a highly entertaining and inspiring read for readers of any age and life situation.

Free Book (Sony) - The Adventures of Button

The Adventures of Button ($9.99 Kindle), by Richard W. Leech, is free in the Sony ebookstore.

Book Description
With Buttons, the adventures—and misadventures—never end…

Buttons has her way with everything around her. She is indeed an extraordinary Scottish terrier dearly loved and enjoyed by all—even the dangerous or maddest of creatures are enthralled and captivated by the young Buttons.

Free Book - The Shop on Blossom Street

The Shop on Blossom Street ($5.76 Kindle), by Debbie Macomber, is free in the Sony ebookstore (and more, see below) this morning. The first in the Blossom Street series, this looks like a promotion in conjunction with the release today of the seventh volume, Hannah's List ($9.99 Kindle), so I would not be surprised if this one ended up free in the Kindle store. In the meantime, I picked up the Sony version, which I can always read on my PC.

Book Description
There's a little yarn store in Seattle.

It's owned by Lydia Hoffman, and it represents her dream of a new life free from cancer. A life that offers a chance at love...

Lydia teaches knitting to beginners, and the first class is "How to Make a Baby Blanket." Three women join. Jacqueline Donovan wants to knit something for her grandchild as a gesture of reconciliation with her daughter-in-law. Carol Girard feels that the baby blanket is a message of hope as she makes a final attempt to conceive. And Alix Townsend is knitting her blanket for a court-ordered community service project.

These four very different women, brought together by an age-old craft, make unexpected discoveries--about themselves and each other. Discoveries that lead to friendship and more...

As always with Sony titles, you'll need to open the Reader Library software and search for it in the bookstore.

Update: This book is also free at Barnes & Noble and at All Romance Ebooks, where it is is in many formats: Adobe Acrobat, Palm DOC/iSolo, Microsoft Reader, HTML, Mobipocket, Epub. Which means it'll work on your Kindle and pretty much any other reader out there, with a bit of work. The EPUB and LIT (MS Reader) versions are both DRM free (the mobipocket version claims to have DRM, so I haven't opened it), so are easily converted using Calibre to any other format desired.

Free Book (Sony/nook) - Savior

Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith #4: Savior ($0.80 Kindle), by John Jackson Miller, is free in both the Sony and Barnes & Noble ebookstores today. Since the original intention was for the entire series to be published as free, I suspect the Kindle version will drop as well within a few days.

Book Description
Twenty-five years ago the survivors of the marooned Sith ship Omen bloodlessly conquered the native population of the remote planet Kesh, installing themselves as overlords and transforming the primitive Keshiri civilization into a new Sith society. Letting nothing stand in his way-including his own brother-s life-Omen commander-turned-Grand Lord Yaru Korsin has ruled unopposed ever since. But now his days, and those of the ruthless Sith order on Kesh, may be numbered.Revolt-and revenge-have been brewing in the hearts of the two women closest to Korsin. One is Adari Vaal, the once-outcast Keshiri who rescued the stranded Sith, aided their domination of Kesh, and now leads the secret resistance against them. The other is Seelah, wife of Korsin, widow of his murdered brother, and mastermind of the plot to assassinate the Grand Lord and seize power. But have the comforts of a king and his own arrogance blunted Korsin-s cunning Sith instincts? Or is he ready to deal swiftly and mercilessly with treachery from any quarter? Enemies themselves, Adari and Seelah are unaware of each other-s destiny-altering gambits. They only know that there can be no turning back-and no escaping the consequences if they fail.

Click HERE for the Barnes & Noble version. For the Sony version, just search on the title in the reader software's bookstore.

Game of the Day - Adventure Chronicles

Amazon's Game Download of the Day is a $2.99 download of Adventure Chronicles, which is a hidden object game.

Game Description

• Discover The 5 Amazing Treasures!
• Unique And Challenging Mind Puzzles!
• Many Useful Tools!
• 30 Bonus Geo Cache Missions!

After her narrow escape from an earthquake struck museum, Susan Anderson is presented with an unbelievably rare opportunity to travel the world and explore never before seen treasures. Guide Susan on her quest to find some of the greatest treasures in history! Solve challenging mind puzzles and use special tools to achieve your goals! Also, there are 30 bonus geo cache missions to keep you on your toes! It's the chance of a lifetime with Adventure Chronicles!

Free Book and a Contest at Kobo

As a reader pointed out, you can pick up The Scent of Shadows, by Vicki Pettersson, free at KoboBooks in (DRM'd) EPUB format. It isn't the "Free" edition from Amazon, though, so no bonus material, however, you can download it today and start reading.

Book Description
When she was sixteen, Joanna Archer was brutally assaulted and left to die in the Nevada desert.

By rights, she should be dead.

Now a photographer by day, she prowls a different Las Vegas after sunset—a grim, secret Sin City where Light battles Shadow—seeking answers to whom or what she really is . . . and revenge for the horrors she was forced to endure.

But the nightmare is just beginning—for the demons are hunting Joanna, and the powerful shadows want her for their own . . .

Kobo is also running a contest to win one of 10 Kobo eReaders. Every book purchased during the contest period gets you an entry (remember, they are a Canadian company, so the rules may be a bit different than found at US companies).

CONTEST DETAILS

Duration: Next 2 weeks only (April 22nd - May 6th)

Two weekly draws to be held on the following dates:

* First draw with 5 eReaders available to be won(one per winner): April 29th
* Second draw with 5 eReaders available to be won (one per winner): May 6th

1 eBook Purchase = 1 contest entry

Every eBook you buy is one entry to WIN!

All the official rules can be found HERE, but essentially all you do is buy the books you would have anyway (remember, Kobo's books are not Kindle compatible), up to six entries per person. Since the rules specify clicking on the "Buy Now" button, this and other free books won't count (unless they bring back coupon, which it does not appear they will do, due to the agency model forced upon them by publishers).

Free Book (Sony) - In the Beginning: Hijacking of the Religion of God

Two free books in the Sony ebookstore this morning. As always, you'll need to use their reader software and search by title or author to find the book, as direct links won't work. These are the first two of a three-volume set, although I don't see the third book in the series in the Sony store yet, although you can get it as a Barnes & Noble ebook. None are available for the Kindle (yet), although the first volume is in the Amazon store in hardcover and paperback.

In the Beginning: Hijacking of the Religion of God, Volume 1: Judaism ($19.99 Paperback; $7.99 B&N ebook), by Sami M. El-Soudani & Nabawia J. El-Soudani (Illustrator)

Book Description
Our analysis of three millennia of religious history shows that “the Religion of God” has been hijacked right from the beginning until this day. Men who practiced hijacking long before they had wings have been engaging in the lucrative business of hijacking the religion of God, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, whose members miserably failed to heed the words of our Merciful God.

No irony intended in calling it “a business” and indeed “a lucrative one,” because it brings the hijackers power, enormous wealth, and often glory, which, in the sight of God, translate respectively into arrogance, greed, and infamy.

The author hopes that this presentation of a uniquely critical and candid outlook on religion will be widely disseminated to such people in search of God. This book may also appeal to readers engaged in studies of systems of government, and history of political science.

In the Beginning: Hijacking of the Religion of God, Volume 2: Christianity ($7.99 B&N ebook), by Sami M. El-Soudani & Nabawia J. El-Soudani (Illustrator)

Book Description
This volume illustrates how Jesus of Nazareth was morphed into the Son of God shortly upon his death. Sami M. El-Soudani presents the hijacking of Christianity in a diagram that summarizes how the Christian community was led to believe in a myth created over time.

Pavarotti for $1.99

A great deal for opera fans, Amazon has the MP3 download version of 75th Birthday Limited Edition - Luciano Pavarotti currently marked at $1.99. I'm not going to list the cuts included, as there are 100 of them, a total of just over 7 hours of music.

More Earth Day Specials

Barnes and Noble is running a number Earth Day specials and it looks like their prices on the Planet Earth DVD's are even lower than Amazon's, as they are giving everyone Member prices, right now (then again, they'll charge sales tax in most states, but there is free shipping over $25).

FaveCrafts is giving away a copy of their Recycling Crafts eBook, which contains 42 ways to reuse and recycle common household items thru crafts. I'll probably never make a toilet paper tube napkin ring (but they might be cute for kids), but maybe I'll find a use for all those AOL CD's I've accumulated over the years.

Book Description
This green craft eBook includes:

* Section 1: Paper- Learn how to use junk mail to make paper beads.
* Section 2: Paper Making- Use paper, magazines and greeting cards to create different kinds of crafts
* Section 3: Metal- Use tins and cans to create little critters and luminaries
* Section 4: Plastic- Use those old bottles, cans and containers to create household items and decor
* Section 5: Glass- Don’t break those old wine bottles, create coasters out of them
* Section 6: Clothing- Sweaters and belts don’t have to be clothing items, they can be made into bracelets
* Section 7: Miscellaneous- Take those old CD’s and turn them into ornaments.

Audible for Blackberry and Free Audiobook

For those who have a Blackberry, if you download the new Audible for Blackberry App, you'll automatically receive Divine Justice ($14.99 Kindle), by David Baldacci, for free. This offer only applies to those who have a Blackberry and download the app; however it appears that an Audible App for Android and the iPhone are both coming soon (but not the iPad?).

The complete Audible experience for your BlackBerry is here.

Shop, sample, download, and play audio from over 75,000 titles from every genre, including titles from top new authors and timeless classics.

Limited-Time Offer:

Receive David Baldacci's Divine Justice FREE when you download the app now.

Book Description
Known by his alias, "Oliver Stone," John Carr is the most wanted man in America. With two pulls of the trigger, the men who destroyed Stone's life and kept him in the shadows were finally silenced.

But his freedom comes at a steep price: The assassinations he carried out prompt the highest levels of the U.S. government to unleash a massive manhunt. Behind the scenes, master spy Macklin Hayes is playing a very personal game of cat and mouse. He, more than anyone, wants Stone dead.

With their friend and unofficial leader in hiding, the members of the Camel Club risk everything to save him. Now, as the hunters close in, Stone's flight from the demons of his past will take him from the power corridors of Washington, D.C., to the small, isolated coal-mining town of Divine, Virginia-and into a world every bit as lethal as the one he left behind.

Earth Day at Amazon - Free Video and More

For Earth Day, Amazon has set up an entire Earth Day Store and has a number of special deals running on their web site, a few of which I'll highlight below. All are just a small part of the large selection of green and sustainable goods year-round at Amazon Green.

First, Amazon is giving away the first episode of Planet Earth, From Pole to Pole in [HD], as part of their Earth Day Celebration.

The lives of animals and plants are dominated by the sun and fresh water which trigger seasonal journeys. The latest technology and aerial photography enable the Planet Earth team to track some of the greatest mass migrations.

Today's Gold Box deal lets you save up to 62% on Planet Earth: The Complete Series on Blu-ray or DVD. I've got the Blu-Ray version (it was one of the first ones I bought after getting an HDTV).

With an unprecedented production budget of $25 million, and from the makers of Blue Planet: Seas of Life, comes the epic story of life on Earth. Five years in production, over 2,000 days in the field, using 40 cameramen filming across 200 locations, shot entirely in high definition, this is the ultimate portrait of our planet. A stunning television experience that captures rare action, impossible locations and intimate moments with our planet's best-loved, wildest and most elusive creatures. From the highest mountains to the deepest rivers, this blockbuster series takes you on an unforgettable journey through the daily struggle for survival in Earth's most extreme habitats. Planet Earth takes you to places you have never seen before, to experience sights and sounds you may never experience anywhere else.

The 11-part series shot entirely in high-definition: From Pole to Pole, Mountains, Fresh Water, Caves, Deserts, Ice Worlds, Great Plains, Jungles, Shallow Seas, Seasonal Forests, Ocean Deep. Original U.K. broadcast version narrated by David Attenborough, including 90 minutes not shown on the Discovery Channel.

The first Lightning Deal of today is a Black & Decker EM100B Energy Saver Series Power Monitor, normally $86.70 for $74.99 (ends at 11AM EST). Checking the teaser descriptions, it appears that more energy saving and green products will be featured all day.

Go green and save money on energy costs with the Black & Decker EM100B Energy Saver Series Power Monitor. This compact, easy-to-install device lets you track the amount of electricity that your household uses--and the costs of that usage--in real time. This monitor can help you reduce your energy consumption and decrease your monthly bills while helping the environment.
Displays electricity use in your home, minute by minute, in dollars or kW
Shows month-to-date bill and predicted monthly bill
Also shows day, time, and outside temperature
Helps households stick to their energy budgets and save money
Getting started is as easy as mounting the sensor to your outdoor electric meter, aligning it, and synchronizing the sensor with the cordless monitor. Once this is done, you can track real-time usage from a convenient, indoor location. The results are immediately available and can help you to make smart energy-consumption choices. You'll quickly discover that doing the little things really does add up to big savings.

Many of you already own one of their big green products, the Amazon Kindle. I know it saves a ton of fuel (ok, maybe not literally), as I've reduced my drives to the bookstore (20+ miles each way) and the big brown trucks are delivering fewer smiling boxes to my house since I got mine. Another way to make a small difference, by reducing the number of pages on my credit card statement (not to mention making it a lot easier to check each month), is to use gift certificates to manage my Kindle (and Amazon) budget.

Banks, Maya - Colters' Wife

Colters' Wife ($0.99 Kindle), by Maya Banks, the epilogue to Colters' Woman ($4.40 Kindle), is free at Books on Board in four drm-free formats (you can buy more than one at the zero price).

Book Description
In Colters' Woman, Holly Bardwell is running from her past mistakes. Straight into the arms of the Colter brothers. Adam, Ethan and Ryan aren’t looking for women. They’re looking for a woman. One woman they know will share their lives and their beds. They’re losing hope they’ll find her, until Adam discovers Holly lying in the snow just yards from their cabin. Adam knows she’s the one the minute he holds her in his arms, as soon as his brothers see her, they know it too. Only problem is convincing Holly of that fact – and protecting her from the danger of her past.

Click HERE to get the free book.

Free Game - Snail Mail

The free game this week at Sandlot Games is Snail Mail ($6.99 Amazon Game Downloads). I've already played thru the tutorial on my netbook and look forward to installing it to run on a larger screen (it's a bit tricky to manuever using a trackpad).

Game Description

• Fast-Paced Snail Racing
• Watch Out For Evil Slugs
• Go Postal In Postal Mode
• Deliver Intergalactic Mail

Guide Turbo the Snail as he rushes to deliver Intergalactic Mail throughout the furthest reaches of the universe in Snail Mail®, a fast-paced racing adventure! But watch out for the evil slugs and other obstacles!

Navigate 50 adrenaline-packed levels of top-speed action in Postal mode, put your reflexes to the test in Challenge Mode, or go for the fastest delivery time in the universe in the Time Trials.

Click HERE to sign up for the free download. For step by step purchase and installation instructions, see this post.