Free Book (EPUB) - 2:46: Aftershocks

If you purchase 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake ($9.99 Kindle), by The Quakebook Community, from Amazon, 100% of the price (after VAT) goes to disaster relief in Japan (where the aftershocks continue, seemingly daily). However, if you don't want to donate, or the price is out of reach, you can get it free from Sony (DRM'd EPUB only). Instead of a directed donation, Sony set up a page for the book and asks that you visit the Japanese Red Cross on your own to make a donation.

Book Description
In just over a week, a group of unpaid professional and citizen journalists who met on Twitter created a book to raise money for Japanese Red Cross earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. In addition to essays, artwork and photographs submitted by people around the world, including people who endured the disaster and journalists who covered it, 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake contains a piece by Yoko Ono, and work created specifically for the book by authors William Gibson, Barry Eisler and Jake Adelstein.

“The primary goal,” says the book's editor, a British resident of Japan, “is to record the moment, and in doing so raise money for the Japanese Red Cross Society to help the thousands of homeless, hungry and cold survivors of the earthquake and tsunami. The biggest frustration for many of us was being unable to help these victims. I don’t have any medical skills, and I’m not a helicopter pilot, but I can edit. A few tweets pulled together nearly everything – all the participants, all the expertise – and in just over a week we had created a book including stories from an 80-year-old grandfather in Sendai, a couple in Canada waiting to hear if their relatives were okay, and a Japanese family who left their home, telling their young son they might never be able to return."

ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of the price you pay (net of VAT, sales and other taxes) goes to the Japanese Red Cross Society to aid the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. If you'd like to donate more, please visit the Japanese Red Cross Society website, where you can donate either via Paypal or bank transfer (watch out for the fees, though!) or the American Red Cross Society, which accepts donations directed to its Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund (but only accepts donations made with U.S.-issued credit cards).

And of course, if you like the book, please tell your friends, and tell them to give generously as well! Thank you! Japan really does appreciate your help!

Click HERE for the free book from Sony.

$25 with Kindle 3G and Kindle DX for Mother's Day

The Perfect Deal For Mom--add a $25 Amazon.com Gift Card at no extra cost

when you purchase a Kindle 3G or Kindle DX. See details and terms

Those of you that ordered a Kindle Wi-Fi with Special Offers, for $25 off the regular Kindle Wi-Fi price, should start receiving them today (I'll try to have my impressions later, as mine is still in that big brown truck, circling closer and closer). So far, that's the only way to get that model for $25 off, but, for Mother's Day, Amazon is giving you a free $25 Amazon.com Gift Card when ordered at the same time as a Kindle 3G (black or white) or a Kindle DXG (black only). After all, it won't be much of a surprise, if you were to gift Mom a couple of books before the big day, would it?

You can either check off the box under the Add to Cart/Two-day 1-Click button that says "Add a $25 Amazon.com Gift Card at no extra cost" or you can add the gift card manually, HERE.

Here's the fine print:

To receive your bonus $25 Amazon.com Gift Card with purchase of Kindle 3G (Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6"):

1. Add the Kindle 3G (Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6") and $25 Amazon.com Gift Card described in the promotion to your Shopping Cart in one of two ways:
   • Via the 'Add to Cart' button on each respective product information page, OR
   • Select the $25 Amazon.com Gift Card in the Kindle 3G (Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 6") buy box before you click 'Add to Cart'
2. When you are finished shopping, click the "Proceed to Checkout" button.
3. The $25 Amazon.com Gift Card promotion value will be reflected at checkout.
4. Upon completion of the purchase, in accordance with the promotion, the $25 Amazon.com Gift Card will be mailed to the physical address designated by you at checkout through your Amazon account.

Interactive Language Training - Half Price

All eight of 24/7's language training apps for Kindle, are now half price, $1.99, thru May 11. All the apps are $3.99 each and are targeted at reading comprehension. Since the description is nearly identical for each title, I'm only going to include the first one, but there are links for all of the apps.

24-7 French - Vocabulary and 24-7 French - Basic Phrases
24-7 German - Vocabulary and 24-7 German - Basic Phrases
24-7 Italian - Vocabulary and 24-7 Italian - Basic Phrases
24-7 Spanish - Vocabulary and 24-7 Spanish - Basic Phrases

App Descriptions
Learn French/German/Italian/Spanish with your own personal language tutor.

24-7 French/German/Italian/Spanish - Vocabulary is a fun way to learn a language. Going beyond a phrasebook or set of flashcards, this title provides a set of interactive study tools to help you learn the language, including traditional flashcards, a multiple choice quiz, an entertaining hangman-style game, and a write-in quiz to test language recall.

Content includes basic vocabulary organized in 22 categories including Family & Friends, Travel, Home, Office, School, Countryside, Around Town, Other Nouns, Food & Drink, Clothing, Weather, Time & Date, Pronouns, Adjectives, Opposites, Colors, Descriptives and Numbers. French - French/German/Italian/Spanish is different from 24-7's other language tutor title French/German/Italian/Spanish - Basic Phrases in that it provides basic vocabulary terms versus full phrases.

24-7 French/German/Italian/Spanish - Basic Phrases is a fun way to learn a language. Going beyond a phrasebook or set of flashcards, this title provides a set of interactive study tools to help you learn the language, including traditional flashcards, a multiple choice quiz, an entertaining hangman-style game, and a write-in quiz to test language recall.

Content includes conversational phrases organized in 12 categories including First Phrases, Greetings, Getting to Know, Communication, Questions, Wants, Needs, Feelings, Common Expressions, Interjections, To Go, and other common and miscellaneous phrases. French/German/Italian/Spanish - Basic Phrases is different from 24-7's other language tutor title French/German/Italian/Spanish - Vocabulary in that it provides full phrases versus basic vocabulary terms.

French/German/Italian/Spanish - Vocabulary is a useful tool for beginners who may wish to refresh basic [language] skills, and a great companion for a trip in a [non-English]-speaking country.

Bargain Book (nook) - A Pizza To Die For

A Pizza To Die For ($9.99 Kindle), by Chris Cavender, is currently available to pre-order on nook for 99 cents. I don't know if the price at Amazon or B&N is a pricing error (although my bets are on B&N), but it's a bit discrepancy. This is the third in his Eleanor Swift series, which starts with A Slice of Murder ($4.09 Kindle; $4.47 B&N; $3.09 Kobo w/ coupon code KoboSpring1) and continues with Pepperoni Pizza Can Be Murder ($6.45 Kindle; $5.43 B&N; $4.29 Kobo w/ coupon).

Book Description
Though it's an unseasonably chilly October in Timber Ridge, North Carolina, Eleanor Swift is warm and cozy in A Slice of Delight--her scrumptious pizzeria. But when snooty Judson Sizemore breezes into town to open an upper-crust pizza parlor nearby, Eleanor's biggest worry is that her beloved restaurant's days may be numbered. . .until she hears Judson's days have come to a most gruesome end. . .

Since half the town saw Judson causing a ruckus in A Slice of Delight before he expired, Eleanor and her saucy sister, Maddie, are the prime suspects. The only way out is to prove their innocence. Soon, a little surreptitious sleuthing reveals that the dough behind Judson's impending pizzeria came from Timber Ridge's resident recluse: crusty oddball millionaire Nathan Pane. It turns out he's Judson's long-lost uncle. . .and someone is after him, too.

As Eleanor digs deeper, her suspect list grows longer than the local soccer team's pizza order--and life in the once quiet town heats up like Maddie's five-alarm Volcano pie. Could it be Judson's gold-digging sister? Or her secret boyfriend? Between working on the case, keeping her customers happy, and even finding time for an old flame, Eleanor's plate is full. But with an unhinged murderer closing in, she'll have to move very quickly--and very carefully--because the killer is already much closer than she thinks. . .

Includes delicious pizza recipe!

Click HERE to order the book from B&N.

Free Book (EPUB) - Heaven is for Real

Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back ($6.13 Kindle), by Todd Burpo, Sonja Burpo, Colton Burpo and Lynn Vincent, is free from Borders (DRM'd EPUB). This is published by Christian publisher Thomas Nelson, who normally has their free books available in all the ebookstores, but I don't see this one free anywhere else.

Book Description
A young boy emerges from life-saving surgery with remarkable stories of his visit to heaven. Heaven Is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how "reaaally big" God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit "shoots down power" from heaven to help us.Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.

Click HERE to get the free book from Borders.