Free Book (Sony) - Executive Privilege

Executive Privilege ($9.99 Kindle), by Phillip Margolin, has a new, free edition available in the Sony ebookstore. Although I would expect the other stores to catch up soon (Sony is usually the last out with these editions), I also still haven't seen The Shop on Blossom Street drop in the Kindle store (and the limited time price at Sony is only until May 4, which is today).

Update: This book is now listed in the Amazon store, Executive Privilege Free with Bonus Material , but is marked as unavailable in the US. Hopefully that will change in a few days and it'll be free on Kindle as well as for Sony readers.

Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin is back, this time with a powerful tale of murder that snakes its way through Washington, D.C.'s halls of power, leading straight to the White House and the most powerful office on earth.

When private detective Dana Cutler is hired by an attorney with powerful political connections, the assignment seems simple enough: follow a pretty college student named Charlotte Walsh and report on where she goes and whom she sees. But then the unexpected happens. One night, Cutler follows Walsh to a secret meeting with Christopher Farrington, the president of the United States. The following morning, Walsh's dead body shows up and Cutler has to run for her life.

In Oregon, Brad Miller, a junior associate in a huge law firm is working on the appeal of a convicted serial killer. Clarence Little, now on death row, claims he was framed for the murder of a teenager who, at the time of her death, worked for the then governor, Christopher Farrington. Suddenly, a small-time private eye and a fledgling lawyer find themselves in possession of evidence that suggests that someone in the White House is a murderer. Their only problem? Staying alive long enough to prove it.

As always with Sony, open up the software and do a search on the title. Pay attention to which one you pick, as there are two editions, one full price and one is free.

Free Book (ADE-DRM) - No Dig, No Fly, No Go

No Dig, No Fly, No Go: How Maps Restrict and Control ($13.50 paperback), by Mark Monmonier, is free TODAY ONLY from the University of Chicago Press.

Book Description
Some maps help us find our way; others restrict where we go and what we do. These maps control behavior, regulating activities from flying to fishing, prohibiting students from one part of town from being schooled on the other, and banishing certain individuals and industries to the periphery. This restrictive cartography has boomed in recent decades as governments seek to regulate activities as diverse as hiking, building a residence, opening a store, locating a chemical plant, or painting a house anything but regulation colors. It is this aspect of mapping - its power to prohibit - that celebrated geographer Mark Monmonier tackles in "No Dig, No Fly, No Go".

Restrictive mapping has been indispensable in settling the American West, claiming slices of Antarctica, protecting fragile ocean fisheries, and keeping sex offenders away from playgrounds. But it has also been used for opprobrium: during one of the darkest moments in American history, cartographic exclusion orders helped send thousands of Japanese Americans to remote detention camps. Tracing the power of prohibitive mapping at multiple levels - from regional to international - and multiple dimensions - from property to cyberspace - Monmonier demonstrates how much boundaries influence our experience, from homeownership and voting to taxation and airline travel.

A worthy successor to his critically acclaimed How to Lie with Maps, the book is replete with all of the hallmarks of a Monmonier classic, including the wry observations and witty humor. Written for anyone who votes, owns a home, or aspires to be an informed citizen, "No Dig, No Fly, No Go" will change the way we look at maps forever.

Click HERE to sign up for the free book. You'll need to give them an email address and then check for their message to get the download link. I'd suggest you do both today, since it's a one-day offer. The book is a DRM'd PDF and will requires Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) to download and read.

Free Audiobook - The Hole in Our Gospel

The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, narrated by Tommy Creswell ($9.17 Kindle) is free to download at ChristianAudio.

It's 1998 and Richard Stearns' heart is breaking as he sits in a mud hut and listens to the story of an orphaned child in Rakai, Uganda. His journey to this place took more than a long flight from the United States to Africa. It took answering God's call on his life, a call that hurtled him out of his presidential corner office at Lenox-America's finest tableware company-to this humble corner of Uganda.

This is a story of how a corporate CEO faced his own struggle to obey God whatever the cost, and his passionate call for Christians to change the world by actively living out their faith. Using his own journey as an example, Stearns explores the hole that exists in our understanding of the Gospel.

Two thousand years ago, twelve people changed the world. Stearns believes it can happen again.

Don't overlook the link for the free Study guides, six sessions designed for individuals and small groups wishing to explore the question, “What does God expect of us?” The stories and quotations found in this study are excerpted from The Hole in Our Gospel written by Richard (Rich) Stearns, the president of World Vision.

Get your free audio download HERE; enter the coupon code MAY2010 during checkout. After you finishing your order, you will be asked which format you prefer to download - select MP3 if you want to be able to play the book on your Kindle.

Create/Edit/Manage Your Notes & Highlights on Kindle for PC

Just shy of seven months after Amazon originally released Kindle for PC, they have released a major update that adds the ability to "create new highlights, notes, and bookmarks and manage those created on your Kindle." This ability was originally released on the Kindle for iPad App, for which search and instant dictionary lookup are also promised to be "coming soon," but no announcement yet if Kindle for PC will get this essential feature. I know that some of the cookbooks I've downloaded are missing linked indexes or a comprehensive table of contents, so without this ability it can be difficult to find a specific recipe (it's often easier to search on the DX, then use the location to find the same place in Kindle for PC).

Other improvements announced: Full screen reading view, color modes, and brightness controls. Again, all features originally introduced with the Kindle for iPad App. I'll admit, the full screen view won't be one I'd be tempted to use on most wide-screen monitors and notebooks these days, but it might work well on a netbook that has the ability to rotate it's display ninety degrees (since Kindle for PC doesn't have this ability, although the iPad does, I suspect due to possible lack of support from the graphics card in most PC's), as that screen would be small enough to comfortably hold and read that way (a 17" widescreen is just to long a line of text for me to be comfortable reading). Still, for some books, I can see that it might allow viewing tables and pictures in a much better size.

Now, all we need is the ability to use the dictionary and perform cross-book searches. Although, I no longer use either function on my original Kindle, as they both became too slow once I had more than a few dozen books; with well over a thousand, either can take 10-15 minutes (or more) to return any answer at all. Adding the ability to print would also be welcome, with, at the least, a 'current view' or 'highlighted text' option, even if it were limited to a small percentage of the book (so you can work off a recipe in the kitchen without worrying about splattering grease or flour on your computer or Kindle). There are, of course, workarounds using screenshots that allow you to get around this restriction, but they are not ones that every computer user might be aware of or feel confident in performing.

If you need help in using the new features, be sure to check the Using Highlights and Notes section of the Kindle for PC's help page, where you'll also find info on the keyboard shortcuts that work inside the application. These can come in handy when reading on a netbook or notebook - turn off the mousepad to save battery power and avoid accidental movements and you can then use the keyboard to completely run the application.

Free Book (Sony) - Sheltering Hearts

Sheltering Hearts ($0.99 Kindle), by Robyn Carr, is free in the Sony bookstore. This novella is a Harlequin release and not quite free in the Kindle store (and not present at all in the B&N or Kobo stores).

Book Description
In this touching story, single mother Dory Finn has focused her life on raising her two children and the volunteer work she does with single parents. After a bad experience in the romance department, Dory is not looking for love. But her feelings begin to change when Clay Kennedy moves in next door and makes his way into both her heart and her children's hearts. Dory must overcome the past in order to learn to love again.

Originally published in the sixth annual More Than Words anthology ($9.99 Kindle):

Little by little, one person at a time, we can make our world a better place. The five dedicated women selected as this year’s recipients of Harlequin’s More Than Words award have done just that, by discovering a seed of compassion, and nurturing it to effect real change in their communities. To celebrate their accomplishments, five bestselling authors have honored the winners by writing short stories inspired by these real-life heroines.