Free Book (nook) - Siren of the Waters

Siren of the Waters ($9.99 Kindle), by Michael Genelin, is free to download today at Barnes & Noble.

Book Description
Jana Matinova entered the Czechoslovak police force as a young woman, married an actor, and became a mother. The regime destroyed her husband, their love for one another, and her daughter’s respect for her. But she has never stopped being a seeker of justice.

Now, as a commander in the Slovak police force, she liaises with colleagues across Europe as they track the mastermind of an international criminal operation involved in, among other crimes, human trafficking. Her investigation takes her from Ukraine to Strasbourg, from Vienna to Nice, in a hunt for a ruthless killer and the beautiful young Russian woman he is determined either to capture or destroy.

Michael Genelin, a graduate of UCLA and the UCLA Law School, has served in the LA District Attorney’s Office and the US Department of Justice in Central Europe. He has written for film and has been an adviser to television series. He now lives with his wife and daughter in Paris.

Click HERE for the free download from B&N.

Kindle 2.5 Update has been Updated

Amazon has released an updated version of the 2.5 update, according to the Kindle Software Updates page this morning, although there is still no link for a manual download:

We know Kindle customers are anxious to receive the 2.5 software update, so we wanted to provide you with some details about its status. We've rolled out the 2.5 software release to a set of Kindle customers and have received great feedback from these early customers. Based on this feedback, we are making some small adjustments to improve the experience further. We will be rolling out the 2.5 software update to more users over the coming weeks.

Hmmmm... Does that mean that those of us who received 2.5 earlier have a less than desirable update and need to install this one also? Or is this really a 2.5.1 update? Is more "testing" and tweaking is in store for this update, since there is no download link for those not on Whispernet (releasing that would greatly decrease bandwidth usage, so you would think that Amazon would post it as soon as feasible).

My DX updated itself a couple of weeks ago and I did play with collections quite a bit, sorting a number of books and personal docs into categories to reduce the clutter on my home page. Besides being slow and tedious, one big problem is that I don't have a copy of every one of my books on that Kindle and don't want to download them all there, as it would use up another license (since I read mostly on my original Kindle). What I really want is the ability to update my collections on the My Kindle web page.

Here's a list of the enhancements in this update:

• 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.

Of these, I've only played with collections. I'll probably add a password, though (but not one with numbers, as they are too hard to input on the DX: are you listening Amazon? Give us back a dedicated row of number keys!). I also look forward to using the PDF enhancements, but suspect they'll be fairly slow, due to the nature of eInk. It's a nice option, though, for those PDF's with tables or graphics that are too small to read, even in landscape mode on the DX.

The bigger fonts don't interest me much (and I wonder if you get more than a couple of words on a page if you use them on a K2) and neither does the Facebook or Twitter integration (I can see it being slightly useful for bookclubs, though, if you set up a separate account for those). Popular Highlights, are just annoying and I had to turn them off first thing -- too bad they can't be turned off on the web page where you manage your own notes, as I now can't find my own notes for all the noise, rendering the info there practically useless; even worse is the ever-annoying "Daily Refresh" that is now the default landing site when I log in. (Want to make this useful, Amazon? Add the ability to flag a book for inclusion in the Daily Refresh View, so it will remind me of the books I want to be reminded of, not just those that have a note added.)

Free Book (nook) - Shakespeare In an Hour

Shakespeare In an Hour, by Christopher Baker, is free in the Barnes & Noble ebookstore.

Book Description
In 1587, when William Shakespeare was twenty-three, the acting troupe Queen's Men played in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon with one player short. Shakespeare's childhood fascination with theater suddenly found a perfect outlet — he joined the Queen's Men and replaced the missing actor. Shortly thereafter young William traveled to London in pursuit of an acting career. But acting soon gave way to an even more glorious adventure when Shakespeare realized that he might have a talent for writing plays.

Setting the playwright in context to his personal life, social, historical and political events, other writers of influence, and more, you will quickly gain a deep understanding of Shakespeare and the plays he wrote. Read Shakespeare in an Hour and experience his plays like never before. Know the playwright, love the play!

The book features:

• Shakespeare in an Hour, the main essay of the book
• Shakespeare In a Minute, a snapshot chronology
• A complete listing of Shakespeare's work
• A list of Shakespeare's contemporaries in all fields
• Excerpts from Shakespeare's significant works
• An extensive bibliography grouped according to type of reader
• An index of the main essay.

Playwrights in an Hour is a series devoted to the most produced and studied playwrights in the English language, from the Greek masters to contemporary writers, and written by leading authorities in the field. Each short book places the playwright and his or her work in historical, social, and literary context.

HERE for the free download.

Buy a nook, Get $50 in Free Books

Barnes and Noble has issued a preemptive strike against Amazon in the eReader wars this month. Both the nook and the Kindle are priced at $259 and on June 6, Target will be selling the Kindle in all of it's physical stores, following their successful test last month in selected markets. Both stores have a number of free books available to download, with most of the titles overlapping, but a few unique ones in each. B&N is going one step farther, though, and will give every new nook purchaser a free $50 gift card to use in the bookstore (and there does not appear to be any requirement to use it only on ebooks). This offer is valid both for store purchases and those direct from B&N and expires either at the end of the month or when they meet some (super-secret) number of units sold. If you've bought a nook within the last two weeks, you should be able to get a gift certificate, as well, according to reports from those who have contacted B&N (although there is nothing in the written details to confirm, so your mileage may vary).

Free Book (ADE-DRM) - Freaks Talk Back

Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity ($30.00 paperback), by Joshua Gamson, is free this month from the University of Chicago Press.

Book Description
Using extensive interviews, hundreds of transcripts, focus-group discussions with viewers, and his own experiences as an audience member, Joshua Gamson argues that talk shows give much-needed, high-impact public visibility to sexual nonconformists while also exacerbating all sorts of political tensions among those becoming visible. With wit and passion, Freaks Talk Back illuminates the joys, dilemmas, and practicalities of media visibility.

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. The book is a DRM'd PDF and will requires Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) to download and read.