A Week of Entertainment: Books Reviewed in Entertainment Weekly 20 Nov 09

Each week Entertainment Weekly reviews a small selection of popular new books. Titles available for the Kindle reviewed in the November 20th issue include:


Last Words, by George Carlin with Tony Hendra. Free Press. MEMOIR. EW's slant: "...at turns biting and touching and often both". Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (6 reviews). Kindle edition $12.95. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"As one of America's most pre-eminent comedians, with 50 years worth of material and appearances on the international comedy circuit, George Carlin saw it all and made fun of most of it. Blending his signature acerbic humor with never before told stories from his own life, Last Words is part comedy routine, part reflection, and all original. Carlin's journey to stardom began in the rough and tumble neighborhoods of New York in the 1940s and '50s, where class and culture wars planted the seeds for some of his earliest material. Carlin describes his major influences as an up and coming comic, talking about the origins of some of his most famous stand up routines including the notorious Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television. Sparing no detail, Carlin describes his life and career, discussing his own battle with substance abuse, his turbulent relationships with his family, and the unique worldview that informed so much of his stand up." - books.simonandschuster.com.
$9.99 or less alternative: Another revealing (and entertaining) celebrity autobiography, American on Purpose, by Craig Ferguson.

Too Much Happiness, by Alice Munro. Knopf. SHORT STORIES. EW's slant: "Too Much Happiness doesn't disappoint. It dazzles". Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $14.27. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Ten superb new stories by the winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize. In the first story a young wife and mother receives release from the unbearable pain of losing her three children from a most surprising source. In another, a young woman, in the aftermath of an unusual and humiliating seduction, reacts in a clever if less-than-admirable fashion. Other stories uncover the 'deep-holes' in a marriage, the unsuspected cruelty of children, and how a boy’s disfigured face provides both the good things in his life and the bad... With clarity and ease, Alice Munro once again renders complex, difficult events and emotions into stories that shed light on the unpredictable ways in which men and women accommodate and often transcend what happens in their lives." - from the hardcover edition.
$9.99 or less alternative: Runaway, Munro's earlier short story collection.

Changing My Mind, by Zadie Smith. Penguin. ESSAYS. EW's slant: "... essays on literature [that] reflect smart close readings and a refreshing willingness to grapple with subjectivity..." Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $12.94. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Zadie Smith brings to her essays all of the curiosity, intellectual rigor, and sharp humor that have attracted so many readers to her fiction... Split into four sections - Reading, Being, Seeing, and Feeling - Changing My Mind invites readers to witness the world from Zadie Smith's unique vantage. Smith casts her acute eye over material both personal and cultural, with wonderfully engaging essays - some published here for the first time - on diverse topics including literature, movies, going to the Oscars, British comedy, family, feminism, Obama, Katharine Hepburn, and Anna Magnani." - Amazon.
$9.99 or less alternative: Smith's debut novel White Teeth.

Top Secret Recipes Unlocked, by Todd Wilbur. Plume. NOVEL. EW's slant: "[Wilbur's] problem isn't that the recipes aren't good enough, it's that they're too good." Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.Optimized for larger screens.
"The kitchen clone recipe king is back... Wilbur takes readers behind the scenes, revealing the key ingredients in some of our favorite foods such as Starbucks' Peppermint Brownie, Krispy Kreme's original glazed donuts, Panera Bread's cranberry walnut bagel and Wendy's Garden Sensations Manadarin Chicken Salad. Forget takeout-with these fun recipes and blueprints, all using ingredients you can buy at your local supermarket, you can re-create your favorite restaurant signature dishes right in your own kitchen for a lot less!" - Amazon.


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Kindle Genre Watch (17 Nov 09)

Genre fiction - as opposed to nonfiction, graphic novels and picture books - lends itself to enjoyable Kindle reading because when you pick up a book of fiction you don't necessarily expect it to be illustrated. Authors of mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, romance novels and westerns paint word pictures and their readers use their own imagination to picture the scene of the crime or the stare of a vampire or the track of an alien space craft hurtling towards earth.

Now you can spend less time searching for new genre fiction and more time reading it as I watch for newly-released genre fiction in the Kindle Storeso you don't have to. Recent genre fiction releases include:

MYSTERIES

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson. Hachette. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Detective Alex Cross is pulled out of a family celebration and given the awful news that a beloved relative has been found brutally murdered. Alex vows to hunt down the killer, and soon learns that she was mixed up in one of Washington's wildest scenes. And she was not this killer's only victim. The hunt for her murderer leads Alex and his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, to a place where every fantasy is possible, if you have the credentials to get in. Alex and Bree are soon facing down some very important, very protected, very dangerous people in levels of society where only one thing is certain - they will do anything to keep their secrets safe..." - Amazon.

Kindred in Death by J. D. Robb. Putnam. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"When the newly promoted captain of the NYPSD and his wife return a day early from their vacation, they were looking forward to spending time with their bright and vivacious sixteen-year-old daughter who had stayed behind. Not even their worst nightmares could have prepared them for the crime scene that awaited them instead. Brutally murdered in her bedroom, Deena's body showed signs of trauma that horrified even the toughest of cops; including our own Lieutenant Eve Dallas, who was specifically requested by the captain to investigate.'When the evidence starts to pile up, Dallas and her team think they are about to arrest their perpetrator; little do they know yet that someone has gone to great lengths to tease and taunt them..." - Amazon.

Blood Revenge by David Thor. Cosacinco Press. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"James Bali was just beginning a twelve-hour shift when the call came in. The local coast guard base has radioed ahead that a cutter had rescued victims from an unknown tragedy. They reported that one survivor was recovered from an oil platform in the Gulf... Dr. Bali and a hospital nurse moved quickly to the helicopter. Bali briefly consulted with one of the coast guard pilots. With the help of the pilot, the doctor climbed into the aircraft to check on the patient. His first thought was that he was staring at some kind of rubber corpse and that this was all some kind of joke, or possibly a coast guard training scenario. But he quickly discarded that idea. Dr. Bali stood silently and shook off a confused stare..." - book jacket.

FANTASY

Born of Fire by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Minotaur Books. Kindle edition $6.39. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"In a universe where assassins make the law, everyone lives in fear - except for Syn. Born of an illicit scandal that once rocked a dynasty, he always knew how to survive on the bloodthirsty streets. But that was then, and the future is now - Syn was raised as a tech-thief until his livelihood uncovered a truth that could end his life. He tried to destroy the evidence, and has been on the run ever since. Now trained as an assassin, he allows no one to threaten him. Ever. Shahara Dagan is the best bounty hunter in the universe. When Syn comes back on the radar, she's the only one who can bring him to justice. There's only one problem: Syn is a close family friend who's helped out the Dagans countless times. But if she saves him, both of their lives will be on the line..." - Amazon.

The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan. Tor. Kindle edition $7.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. This is book two in Jordan's Wheel of Time series.
"Chosen by fate to become the Dragon Reborn - savior and destroyer of his world - young Rand al'Thor attempts to outrun his destiny by joining in a mad search for the lost Horn of Valere. Continuing the story begun in The Eye of the World, Jordan creates a lush, sprawling tapestry of a novel in the tradition of Tolkien and Eddings." - Library Journal.

ROMANCE

Big Bad Wolf by Christine Warren. St. Martin's. Kindle edition $6.39. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Missy Roper's fantasies have revolved around Graham Winters since the moment they met. But the imposing leader of the Silverback werewolf clan always seemed oblivious to Missy's existence. At least he was, until Missy collides with him at a party and then abruptly runs away - arousing Graham's interest - and wild desires. Lupine law decrees that every Alpha must have a mate, and all Graham's instincts tell him that the sensual, beguiling Missy is his. Trouble is, Missy is human..." - Amazon.

To Desire a Devil by Elizabeth Hoyt. Vision. Kindle edition $5.59. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Reynaud St. Aubyn has spent the last seven years in hellish captivity. Now half mad with fever he bursts into his ancestral home and demands his due. Can this wild-looking man truly be the last earl's heir, thought murdered by Indians years ago? Beatrice Corning, the niece of the present earl, is a proper English miss. But she has a secret: No real man has ever excited her more than the handsome youth in the portrait in her uncle's home. Suddenly, that very man is here, in the flesh-and luring her into his bed. Ebook bonus content: learn about the early travels-and trials-in hero Reynaud St. Aubyn's life in these new vignettes written by the author." - Amazon.

All Jacked Up by Lorelei James. (Rough Riders, 8). Samhain Publishing. Kindle edition $4.40. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Keely McKay knows Jack and Jack Donohue is a certified pain in her Wranglers. The lone girl in the prolific McKay family, Keely needs another man giving her orders like she needs a hole in her boot. What she does need is a restoration specialist so she can open her physical therapy clinic and prove she's left her wild-child days behind. That means dealing with buttoned-down, uptight Jack. Jack is this close to securing a career make-or-break project, until he learns his lack of marital status puts him out of contention. When the notoriously hot-tempered and hot-bodied Keely begs him for help, he proposes a crazy idea. He'll oversee her project if she acts the part of his loving fiancé." - Amazon.

A Creed Country Christmas by Linda Lael Miller. HQN. Kindle edition $9.15. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"In the unforgiving Montana wilderness of 1910, widowed rancher Lincoln Creed is up against more than rustlers, wolves and the coming winter storms. His young daughter has needs beyond the beans and bacon he can barely cook. Lincoln must find little Gracie a governess, a lady who can teach and cook - yet won't set her sights on him. Disowned for her refusal to marry, twenty-five-year-old Juliana Mitchell shares the love in her heart with her young students at the underfunded Indian school. When she meets Lincoln and Gracie, her response to the handsome rancher makes her realize she's not against marriage after all." - Amazon.

Me and My Shadow by Katie Macalister. Signet. Kindle edition $6.39. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"May Northcott is at the end of her tether. Her demon boss has moved in and is making life hell. Her scorching hot dragon lover seems to think everything can be solved with a fiery kiss. And worse still, she's being shadowed by her ditsy twin sister - a naiad who simply can't seem to stay out of trouble. The arrival of a nearly-dead man on May's doorstep could be the final spark that sets light to their tinder-box world. And with dragon war imminent, it's looking increasingly like it will be up to May (and her watery shadow) to stop it before the fire consumes them all, and their lives end up in smoke." - Amazon.

Blaze of Memory by Nalini Singh. Book 7 in the Psy-Changeling series which began with Slave to Sensation. Berkley. Kindle edition $6.39. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Dev Santos discovers her unconscious and battered, with no memory of who she is. All she knows is that she’s dangerous. Charged with protecting his people’s most vulnerable secrets, Dev is duty-bound to eliminate all threats. It’s a task he’s never hesitated to complete...until he finds himself drawn to a woman who might yet prove the enemy’s most insidious weapon. Stripped of her memories by a shadowy oppressor, and programmed to carry out cold-blooded murder, Katya Haas is fighting desperately for her sanity itself. Her only hope is Dev. But how can she expect to gain the trust of a man who could very well be her next target?" -www.nalinisingh.com.


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SCIENCE FICTION

Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt. Ace. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"When physicist Michael Shelborne mysteriously vanishes, his son Shel discovers that he had constructed a time travel device. Fearing his father may be stranded in time - or worse - Shel enlists the aid of Dave MacElroy, a linguist, to accompany him on the rescue mission. Their journey through history takes them from the enlightenment of Renaissance Italy through the American Wild West to the civil-rights upheavals of the 20th century. Along the way, they encounter a diverse cast of historical greats, sometimes in unexpected situations. Yet the elder Shelborne remains elusive. And then Shel violates his agreement with Dave not to visit the future. There he makes a devastating discovery that sends him fleeing back through the ages, and changes his life forever." - Amazon.

Rocket Boy and the Geek Girls edited by Phyllis Irene Radford. Book View Press. Kindle edition $4.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
Thirteen authors got together one rainy Saturday afternoon with a big bowl of popcorn and reruns of Buck Rogers. They started comparing short stories and a new anthology took form. Rare reprints, hard-to-find favorites and new tales all combine in this one-of-a-kind story collection, available exclusively from Book View Press. With evocative stories of lost comrades, alien first contacts, and strange, often unexpected confrontations with evolving science, Rocket Boy And The Geek Girls embraces both our pulp-dream past and cutting-edge future. Stories by: Vonda N. McIntyre, Brenda W. Clough, Katharine Kerr, Judith Tarr, P.R. Frost, Pati Nagle, Madeleine Robins, Nancy Jane Moore, Sarah Zettel, Amy Sterling Casil, Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, Jennifer Stevenson, Sylvia Kelso, C.L. Anderson, and Irene Radford.

Uncategorized: The ABD and Other Tales by Sue Lange. Book View Cafe. Kindle edition $1.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
A collection of Sue Lange’s previously published short stories. Lang's writing has been described by various reviewers as different, irreverent, energetic, funny, thought-provoking, delightful, sobering, quirky and electric.

So It Begins edited by Mike McPhail. Dark Quest. Kindle edition $1.59. Price note: This edition is a bargain for Kindle owners. The paperback costs $12.78. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
Witness sixteen accounts of hardcore military science fiction, from planetside combat to fleet actions up among the stars. Featuring the works of David Sherman, Charles E. Gannon, John C. Wright, James Daniel Ross, Jonathan Maberry, James Chambers, Patrick Thomas, Andy Remic, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Jeffrey Lyman, Jack Campbell, Mike McPhail, Bud Sparhawk, Tony Ruggiero, and C.J. Henderson. For a more detailed review of the stories in this book, be sure to check out milscifi.com.

Ariel by Steven R. Boyett. E-Reads. Kindle edition $7.19. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"At four-thirty one Saturday afternoon the laws of physics as we know them underwent a change. Electronic devices, cars, industries stopped. The lights went out. Any technology more complicated than a lever or pulley simply wouldn't work. A new set of rules took its place-laws that could only be called magic. Ninety-nine percent of humanity has simply vanished. Cities lie abandoned. Supernatural creatures wander the silenced achievements of a halted civilization. Pete Garey has survived the Change and its ensuing chaos. He wanders the southeastern United States, scavenging, lying low. Learning. One day he makes an unexpected friend: a smartassed unicorn with serious attitude. Pete names her Ariel and teaches her how to talk, how to read, and how to survive in a world in which a unicorn horn has become a highly prized commodity. When they learn that there is a price quite literally on Ariel's head, the two unlikely companions set out from Atlanta to Manhattan to confront the sorcerer who wants her horn. And so begins a haunting, epic, and surprisingly funny journey through the remnants of a halted civilization in a desolated world." - Amazon.

And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer. Hyperion. Kindle edition $14.29. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
Somehow I missed the news that Eoin (pronounced "Owen") Colfer had agreed to enter the world of Douglas Adam's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to write this sixth book in the series. In this installment, "...Arthur has finally made it home to Earth, but that does not mean he has escaped his fate. Arthur's chances of getting his hands on a decent cuppa have evaporated rapidly, along with all the world's oceans. For no sooner has he touched down on the planet Earth than he finds out that it is about to be blown up ... again. And Another Thing features a pantheon of unemployed gods, everyone's favorite renegade Galactic President, a lovestruck green alien, an irritating computer, and at least one very large slab of cheese. If you blanch at the $14.29 price, while waiting for it to go down, you might want to check out Colfer's tale of clever 12-year-old criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl - a book the author has described as "Die Hard with Fairies."

Destroyer of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner. Tor. Kindle edition $14.29. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
This is the 3rd prequel to Niven's Ringworld saga, following 2008's Juggler of Worlds. "Destroyer of Worlds opens in 2670, ten years after Juggler of Worlds closes; with refugee species fleeing in an armada of ramscoops in the direction of the Fleet of Worlds. The onrushing aliens are recognized as a threat; they have left in their trail a host of desolated worlds: some raided for supplies, some attacked to eliminate competition, and some for pure xenophobia. Only the Puppeteers might have the resources to confront this threat, but the Puppeteers are philosophical cowards... they don't confront anyone. They need sepoys to investigate the situation and take action for them. The source of the sepoys? Their newly independent former slave world, New Terra." - Amazon.

WESTERNS

Lincoln's Revenge by J. R. Roberts. (Gunsmith Giant, 14). Jove. Kindle edition $5.59. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Years ago Boston Corbett shot Lincoln's assassin, John wilkes Booth. But some legends can't be lived up to, and Corbett ended up in Topeka insane asylum - until he escaped. Now Clint Adams must find the living legend before a killer's bullet makes him history." - Amazon.

Silver Showdown by Jon Sharpe. (The Trailsman, 337). Signet. Kindle edition $4.79. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"When Fargo hits the little town of Las Vegas, he knows that the nearby silver strikes are filling the town with opportunity. But when he signs on with an old frontier buddy to guard shipments from the mines to the town, he gets pulled into a fight not just against bandits, but against a vendetta-packing family out to end the Trailsman's lucky streak for good." - Amazon.

The Lawman: Hanging Judge by Lyle Brandt. Berkley. Kindle edition $4.79. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"As Deputy U.S. Marshal Jack Slade watches the day's condemned men march to the ropes, a shootout takes the life of the hanging judge. A note from the judge's pocket, along with a single matchbox, is all Slade has to track the gunman. As he follows these slim leads, Slade hears ominous tales about the Son of Dixie - and a group of hooded killers he thought long gone. To release their deadly grip on the area, Slade's going to need a sure hand - and a ready gun." - Amazon.

The Collected Western Novels of Andy Adams. Halcyon Press. Kindle edition $0.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
Six works of western fiction with an active table of contents. Includes The Log of a Cowboy, A Texas Matchmaker, The Outlet, Cattle Brands, Reed Anthony, Cowman and The Wells Brothers.

Weird & Esoteric Books for Your Kindle

Of the roughly 5 million books in print in the U.S., almost 377,000 are now available in Kindle editions. You might assume that these books are those that are most in demand by Kindle readers. Actually the Kindle library is just growing like topsy, based I assume on which titles publishers want to convert to Kindle format.

Here's my current top ten list of some of the weird and esoteric books you may never wish to purchase for your Kindle.

1. How To Trapping - Build Snares, Deadfalls, Homemade Traps & More by Lee Overton. If you're an avid trapper, you may want this one, but I'd venture a guess that illustrations of the snares, deadfalls and traps would be helpful and (hopefully) they're in the Kindle version. The author recommends this work, also, for folks who want to protect their personal property with booby traps and/or those who want to build a cabin and live "off the grid". I wonder if the Unabomber had this one. But wait, the description says it includes over 180 illustrations in 300 pages as maybe this is just what the trapper ordered.

2. A System of Instruction in the Practical Use of the Blowpipe. by Anonymous. At first I thought this might be about the use of the blowgun as a weapon in South America or Southeast Asia. But then I saw the subtitle: Being a Graduated Course of Analysis for the Use of Students and All Those Engaged in the Examination of Metallic Combinations. So it looks like we're talking chemistry. Although the Kindle edition on Amazon lists the author as "Anonymous", it appears that the book may have been written by one G. W. Plympton. If you are one of the - probably - minority of Kindle readers who DO want to read this book, check it out for free at Google Books.

3. Frictional Electricity by Charles Heber Clark. No, this is not a scientific treatise on electricity. Turns out it's a humorous short story (20 pages) reprinted from The Saturday Evening Post. If you're interested, don't buy from Amazon for $3.65 when you can get it free from Manybooks.

4. Bwe Karen Dictionary: With Texts and English-Karen Word List by Eugenie J. A. Henderson and Anna J. Allott. If you have been waiting breathlessly for this Bwe-Karen dictionary, you'd do better purchasing the paperback edition for $99.95. The Kindle edition will cost you $108.05. Why the 50 cents? Your guess is as good as mine. But wait! While I was preparing this article, the Kindle price was reduced to $91.96. Maybe it wasn't selling too well. The Karen languages and Bwe are spoken in Burma (Myanmar).

5. Telling Fortunes By Tea Leaves by Cicely Kent. Hey, don't laugh, this one's free in two different Kindle editions. And believe it or not, this is only one of two different books on fortune-telling with tea leaves available on Amazon. The other one is Tea-Cup Reading and Fortune-Telling by Tea Leaves, by a "Highland Seer". Enjoy!

6. Rick & Bubba's Guide to the Almost Nearly Perfect Marriage by Rick Burgess and Bill Bussey. You might actually want to read this one - it's gotten a bunch of good reviews on Amazon. I put it on the list because the title struck me as funny. It includes the ten worst ways to say "I'm Sorry" and discussions of communication in marriage (Grunting Is Not a Language), finances (I Thought You Paid the Gas Bill) and playing sports together (I Did Too Let You Win).

7. Water Baby Outfit: Child's Knitted Swim/Bathing Suit (Vintage Pattern). Knit this vintage bathing suit for your young Shirley Temple look-alike. Knitters may not want to struggle with this vintage pattern when so many others are available on the web for free. Just saying.

8. Building Bat Houses by Dale Evva Gelfand. One of the volumes in the Storey Country Wisdom series, this one would actually be indispensable for those Kindle owners planning to build their own bat houses on (hopefully) land in the country. If this is one of the country skills you hope to master, looks like you've found the perfect reference. Other titles in this series cover such practical subjects as growing and using garlic, use and maintenance of axes and chainsaws and building a small barn for your horse. All kidding aside, this is really a great series of books about all aspects of country living. I purchased another book in the series (The Knitting Problem Solver) in paperback some years ago and still refer to it on occasion.

9. Aunt Prune's Sweet, Sweet Photo Captions by Cynthia Mollanen Rakes. Who is Aunt Prune and how is she captioning photos on the Kindle? No clue, but it costs $12.95 to find out. Yummy looking cover though.

10. Violin Making by Walter H. Mayson. (The Strad Library, 9). For aspiring violin makers, the Amazon Kindle bookstore features three editions of this classic work - one of which is free. I'd venture to say, however, that you would have a better chance of making a playable violin if you purchased a modern hardcover well-illustrated book on the subject.

Kindle E-Books on the Cheap: A Weekly Selection (14 Nov 2009)

Once you've purchased an Amazon Kindle e-book reader, the wonderful world of public domain, Creative Commons and free e-book promotions opens up to you. In this weekly Kindle Reader feature, I point you to a few of the most interesting new free (or very cheap) e-books available for download from the web.

Free e-book selections for this week include Joseph Altsheler's Young Trailers series in an inexpensive eight volume omnibus edition, satirical novels by Anthony Trollope and G. K. Chesterton, mysteries by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Dorothy Sayers and a Hugo nominee for best science fiction novelette.

Young Trailers Series, by Joseph Altsheler. HISTORICAL FICTION/ADVENTURE. Download site: Amazon. Format: Kindle (.AZW). Price: $0.99.
This is an omnibus edition of the classic adventure series by Joseph A. Altsheler. It includes: The Young Trailers, The Forest Runners, The Keepers of the Trail, The Eyes of the Woods, The Free Rangers, The Riflemen of Ohio, The Scouts of the Valley, and The Border Watch. According to the original publisher, in The Young Trailers Series, "Two boys, Henry Ware and Paul Cotter, and three scouts are the chief characters in these books dealing with frontier life and adventures with the Indians about the time of the Revolutionary War. Each story is complete in itself, full of excitement, and historically accurate."

The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope. NOVEL. Download site: Manybooks. Format: Kindle (.AZW). Price: FREE.
"a scathing satirical novel published in London in 1875 by Anthony Trollope, after a popular serialisation. It was regarded by many of Trollope's contemporaries as his finest work. One of his longest novels (it contains a hundred chapters), The Way We Live Now is particularly rich in sub-plot. It was inspired by the financial scandals of the early 1870s, and lashes out at the pervading dishonesty of the age, commercial, political, moral, and intellectual. It is one of the last significant Victorian novels to have been published in monthly parts." - Wikipedia.

The Flying Inn, by G. K. Chesterton. NOVEL. Download site: MobileRead. Format: .PRC for Kindle. Price: FREE.
"First published in 1914, this surreal comic novel is set in the near future. The themes that Chesterton satirizes are still likely to touch a nerve today. He envisages an England where the upper classes have converted to Islam, and are attempting to ban the consumption of alcohol. The lead characters set up a peripatetic public house and exploit various legal loopholes in order to get a drink. There is a particularly delightful excoriation of cocoa; discussions on the merits of cannabis, criticism of Islamic extremists, corrupt politicians, journalists, vegetarians and exponents of 'Higher Thought' (i.e. new-age weirdoes). This means that it is surprisingly topical in places." - MobileRead.

The Window at the White Cat, by Mary Roberts Rinehart. MYSTERY. Download site: Manybooks. Format: Kindle (.AZW). Price: FREE.
"Politics and Poker...that was the occupation and the preoccupation of the members of the White Cat Club. Once on the inside, a man's business was his own and nobody gave a damn if he was the mayor of the town or the champion poolplayer of the first ward. It was a noisy, crowded, masculine kind of retreat, which explained the sign that hung proudly over the door: 'The White Cat Never Sleeps.' But murder entered the wakeful chambers of the White Cat and its victims slept the deep, long sleep of the dead." - Manybooks.net.

Busman's Honeymoon, by Dorothy L. Sayers. MYSTERY. Download site: MobileRead. Format: .PRC for Kindle. Price: FREE.
In this sequel to Sayers' Gaudy Night, Lord Peter Wimsey and the famous mystery writer Harriet Van get married, but discover a corpse while on their honeymoon.

The Lost Kafoozalum, by Pauline Ashwell. SCIENCE FICTION. Download site: Manybooks. Format: Kindle (.AZW). Price: FREE.
Hugo nominee for best novelette, 1961. One of the beautiful things about a delusion is that no matter how mad someone gets at it, he can't do it any harm. Therefore a delusion can be a fine thing for prodding angry belligerents...

A Week of Entertainment: Books Reviewed in Entertainment Weekly 13 Nov 09

Each week Entertainment Weekly reviews a small selection of popular new books. Titles available for the Kindle reviewed in the January 16th issue include:


The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver. HarperCollins. NOVEL. EW's slant: "I so wanted to love this sprawling, old-fashioned historical novel... but the book - told through newspaper clippings, letters, bits of memoirs, and the like - never quite comes together." Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (16 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"...a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities. Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico - from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City - Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence. Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America's hopeful image and claim a voice of his own... Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach - the lacuna - between truth and public presumption. With deeply compelling characters, a vivid sense of place, and a clear grasp of how history and public opinion can shape a life, Barbara Kingsolver has created an unforgettable portrait of the artist - and of art itself." - Amazon.

Lit, by Mary Karr. HarperCollins. MEMOIR. EW's slant: "...radiant, rueful, rip-roaring..." Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (16 reviews). Kindle edition $11.98. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"The Liars' Club brought to vivid, indelible life Mary Karr's hardscrabble Texas childhood... Now Lit follows the self-professed blackbelt sinner's descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness - and to her astonishing resurrection. Karr's longing for a solid family seems secure when her marriage to a handsome, Shakespeare-quoting blueblood poet produces a son they adore. But she can't outrun her apocalyptic past. She drinks herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatic but troubled mother, reaching the brink of suicide. A hair-raising stint in 'The Mental Marriott,' with an oddball tribe of gurus and saviors, awakens her to the possibility of joy and leads her to an unlikely faith. Not since Saint Augustine cried, 'Give me chastity, Lord-but not yet!' has a conversion story rung with such dark hilarity. Lit is about getting drunk and getting sober; becoming a mother by letting go of a mother; learning to write by learning to live.." - Amazon.
$9.99 or less alternative: Drinking: A Love Story, by Caroline Knapp, a personal account of the late writer's 20-year battle with alcoholism.

NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK AND KINDLE EDITIONS

Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum, by Richard Fortey. Vintage. NONFICTION. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (11 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Fortey, senior paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London..., here turns his eye to the inner workings of a natural history museum. Though a paleontologist and an expert on trilobites, Fortey looks at all of the major departments of the museum, examining how they work, providing brief backgrounds on the sciences themselves, and telling stories of many of the museum’s scientists both past and present. Explaining how science works through his stories from the museum, Fortey tells of truffles and how they illustrate the science of taxonomy; the Piltdown Man fraud and how more modern techniques exposed the hoax; how one of the ichthyologists found a lost Mozart manuscript while searching for a sixteenth-century book’s illustration of a herring; and how the 'First Law of Museums' - never throw anything away - turned up a cast of the Koh-i-noor diamond made before it was recut... --Nancy Bent for Booklist.

Sea of Poppies, by Amitav Ghosh. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (83 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Ghosh's best and most ambitious work yet is an adventure story set in nineteenth-century Calcutta against the backdrop of the Opium Wars. On the Ibis, a ship engaged in transporting opium across the Bay of Bengal, varied life stories converge. A fallen raja, a half-Chinese convict, a plucky American sailor, a widowed opium farmer, a transgendered religious visionary are all united by the smoky paradise of the opium seed. Ghosh writes with impeccable control, and with a vivid and sometimes surprising imagination..." - The New Yorker.

The World is What It Is, by Patrick French. Vintage. BIOGRAPHY. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (16 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"...the first authoritative biography of the controversial Nobel laureate, whose only stated ambition was greatness as a writer, in pursuit of which goal nothing else was sacred. Beginning with a richly detailed portrait of Naipaul’s childhood in colonial Trinidad, French gives us the boy born to an Indian family, the displaced soul in a displaced community, who by dint of talent and ambition finds the only imaginable way out: a scholarship to Oxford. London in the 1950s offers hope and his first literary success, but homesickness and depression almost defeat Vidia, his narrow escape aided by Patricia Hale, an Englishwoman who will devote herself to his work and well-being. She will stand by him, sometimes tenuously, for more than four decades, even as Naipaul embarks on a twenty-four-year affair, which will awaken half-dead passions and feed perhaps his greatest wave of dizzying creativity. Amid this harrowing emotional life, French traces the course of the fierce visionary impulse underlying Naipaul’s singular power, a gift to produce masterpieces of fiction and nonfiction..." - from the hardcover edition.

The White Mary, by Kira Salak. Henry Holt. NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (89 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"A young reporter embarks on a dangerous adventure in Salak's gripping debut novel, a blend of Heart of Darkness and Tomb Raider. Like her protagonist, Marika Vecera, award-winning journalist Salak has traveled solo - and narrowly escaped death - in the world's most remote and terrifying places, including war-torn Congo and the interior of Papua New Guinea. Marika, an ambitious journalist, travels to discover the truth about war correspondent Robert Lewis, who has observed some of the modern world's greatest atrocities. He is believed to have committed suicide, but a letter from a missionary leaves Marika thinking he may still be alive in the wilds of Papua New Guinea. She sets off on her quest, and eventually malaria, ritual murder and arduous trekking through the wilderness lead Marika to some startling discoveries and a pathway out of her own past trauma..." - Publishers Weekly.

Books They're Talking About: Kindle Books in the Media (10 Nov 09)

Media interviews are a popular way for writers to introduce new books they hope will catch the viewer's eye and open their pocketbooks. Here's a selection of forthcoming Kindle books by authors scheduled for interviews on TV and radio programs. Books are arranged in chronological order by the date of the scheduled interview.

ON COMEDY CENTRAL'S THE DAILY SHOW (12 NOV 09):


Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink, by Jane Goodall with Thane Maynard and Gail Hudson. Grand Central Publishing. Kindle edition $13.16. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"At a time when animal species are becoming extinct on every continent and we are confronted with bad news about the environment nearly every day, Jane Goodall, one of the world's most renowned scientists, brings us inspiring news about the future of the animal kingdom. With the insatiable curiosity and conversational prose that have made her a bestselling author, Goodall - along with Cincinnati Zoo Director Thane Maynard - shares fascinating survival stories about the American Crocodile, the California Condor, the Black-Footed Ferret, and more; all formerly endangered species and species once on the verge of extinction whose populations are now being regenerated..." - Amazon.

ON NBC'S TODAY SHOW (16 NOV 09):


How to Be Famous: Our Guide to Looking the Part, Playing the Press, and Becoming a Tabloid Fixture, by Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt. Grand Central Publishing. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. Optimized for Kindle DX.
"From braving the wilds of Los Angeles to the Costa Rican jungle, Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt have learned a thing or two about reality ... television, that is. But while dominating the airwaves and tabloid covers every week may look like all fun and mind games, Speidi is here to tell you: becoming wildly famous requires hard work and a no-fail blueprint for success. Now, for the first time ever, Heidi and Spencer invite you behind the scenes as they reveal the ten-step plan that took them from nobodies to notorious!" - Amazon.

ON OPRAH (16 NOV 09) and on ON ABC'S GOOD MORNING AMERICA (17 NOV 09):


Going Rogue, by Sarah Palin. HarperCollins. Kindle edition $9.00. Please note that the Kindle edition is slated for release on December 26. The hardcover edition will be released on November 16th, also for $9.00.
"One year ago, Sarah Palin burst onto the national political stage like a comet. Yet even now, few Americans know who this remarkable woman really is. On September 3, 2008 Alaska Governor and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention that electrified the nation and instantly made her one of the most recognizable women in the world. As chief executive of America's largest state, she had built a record as a reformer who cast aside politics-as-usual and pushed through changes other politicians only talked about: Energy independence. Ethics reform. And the biggest private sector infrastructure project in U.S. history. And while revitalizing public school funding and ensuring the state met its responsibilities to seniors and Alaska Native populations, Palin also beat the political "good ol' boys club" at their own game and brought Big Oil to heel. Like her GOP running mate, John McCain, Palin wasn't a packaged and over-produced candidate. She was a Main Street American woman: a working mom, wife of a blue collar union man, and mother of five children, the eldest of whom was serving his country in a yearlong deployment in Iraq and the youngest, an infant with special needs. Palin's hometown story touched a populist nerve, rallying hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans to the GOP ticket. But as the campaign unfolded, Palin became a lightning rod for both praise and criticism. Supporters called her 'refreshing' and 'honest,' a kitchen-table public servant they felt would fight for their interests. Opponents derided her as a wide-eyed Pollyanna unprepared for national leadership. But none of them knew the real Sarah Palin. In this eagerly anticipated memoir, Palin paints an intimate portrait of growing up in the wilds of Alaska; meeting her lifelong love; her decision to enter politics; the importance of faith and family; and the unique joys and trials of life as a high-profile working mother. She also opens up for the first time about the 2008 presidential race..." - Amazon.

see more Political Pictures

History Thru the Lens of Fiction: New Historical Novels for the KIndle (08 Nov 09)

Blending historical fact with fiction, a novel set in other times and places can transport you into the past more convincingly than a dry historical treatise - and entertain you in the bargain. What I look for in historical fiction are books by authors who, after reading the histories and doing the research, create stories based in the past that include characters I want to know better and a plot that keeps me turning pages - books like Peter Ackroyd's The Clerkenwell Tales, Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom, and Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth.

Now you can spend less time searching and more time reading as I watch for new historical fiction in the Kindle Store so you don't have to. New on the historical fiction shelves:

Rainwater by Sandra Brown. Simon & Schuster. TIME FRAME: Depression Era Texas. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (5 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"The year is 1934. With the country in the stranglehold of drought and economic depression, Ella Barron runs her Texas boardinghouse with an efficiency that ensures her life will be kept in balance. She also cares for her ten-year-old son, Solly, a sweet but challenging child whose misunderstood behavior finds Ella on the receiving end of pity, derision, and suspicion. David Rainwater arrives at the house looking for lodging but Ella senses that admitting him will bring about unsettling changes. However, times are hard, so Mr. Rainwater moves in - and impacts her life in ways Ella could never have foreseen. The changes are echoed by the turbulence beyond the house walls. Friends and neighbors now face financial ruin and in an effort to save their families from homelessness and hunger, are forced to make heart rending choices. The climate of desperation creates a fertile atmosphere for racial tensions and social unrest. Conrad Ellis - privileged and spoiled - and his gang of hoodlums come to embody the rule of law, and no one in Gilead, Texas, is safe. Particularly Ella and Solly. In this hotbed of uncertainty, Ella finds Mr. Rainwater a calming presence. Slowly, she begins to rely on his soft-spokenness, his restraint, and the steely resolve of his convictions. And on the hottest, most violent night of the summer, those principles will be put to the ultimate test." - books.simonandschuster.com.

No Less Than Victory by Jeff Shaara. This is the third volume of Shaara's WW II trilogy following The Rising Tide and The Steel Wave. Ballantine Books. TIME FRAME: Europe 1944-1945. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $12.38. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"After the success of the Normandy invasion, the Allied commanders are buoyantly confident that the war in Europe will be over in a matter of weeks, that Hitler and his battered army have no other option than surrender. But despite the advice of his best military minds, Hitler will hear no talk of defeat. In mid-December 1944, the Germans launch a desperate and ruthless counteroffensive in the Ardennes forest, utterly surprising the unprepared Americans who stand in their way... Thus begins the Battle of the Bulge, the last gasp by Hitler’s forces that becomes a horrific slugging match, some of the most brutal fighting of the war... Though some in the Nazi inner circle continue the fight to secure Germany’s postwar future, the Führer makes it clear that he is fighting to the end. He will spare nothing - not even German lives - to preserve his twisted vision of a 'Thousand Year Reich.' But in May 1945, the German army collapses, and with Russian troops closing in, Hitler commits suicide. As the Americans sweep through the German countryside, they unexpectedly encounter the worst of Hitler’s crimes...Presenting his riveting account through the eyes of Eisenhower and Patton and the young GIs who struggle face-to-face with their enemy, and through the eyes of Germany’s old soldier, Gerd von Rundstedt, and Hitler’s golden boy, Albert Speer, Jeff Shaara carries the reader on a journey that defines the spirit of the soldier and the horror of a madman’s dreams..." - from the hardcover edition.
Less expensive alternative: Shaara's The Rising Tide.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Macmillan. TIME FRAME: 16th century England. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (30 reviews). Kindle edition $14.85. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. The quest for the king's freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell is a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy: he is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph? In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage. With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, the novel re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death." - Amazon.
Less expensive alternative: Dark Fire by C. J. Sansom.

The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland. Delacorte Press. TIME FRAME: 14th century England. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $13.73. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"England 1321: Deep in the heart of the countryside lies an isolated village governed by a sinister regime of Owl Masters.
Theirs is a pagan world of terror and blackmail, where neighbour denounces neighbour, and sin is punishable by murder. This dark status quo is disturbed by the arrival of a house of religious women, who establish a community outside the village. Why do their crops succeed when village crops fail, their cattle survive despite the plague? But petty jealousy turns deadly when the women give refuge to a young martyr; for she dies a gruesome death after spitting the sacramental host into flames that can't burn it. What magic is this? Or is the martyr now a saint, and the host a holy relic? Accusations of witchcraft and heresy run rife, while the Owl Masters rain down hellfire and torment on the women, who must look to their faith to save them from the lengthening shadow of evil...a shadow with predatory, terrifying talons." - www.karenmaitland.com.
Less expensive alternative: Set in the same period, Maitland's earlier novel, Company of Liars has been called "a sinister version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales..."

The Concubine by Pai Kit Fai. St. Martin's Griffin. TIME FRAME: Early 20th century China. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (23 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. See also the reading group guide for this novel here (PDF file).
"When the young concubine of an old farmer in rural China gives birth to a daughter called Li-Xia, or 'Beautiful One,' the child seems destined to become a concubine herself. Li refuses to submit to her fate, outwitting her father’s orders to bind her feet and escaping the silk farm with an English sea captain. Li takes her first steps toward fulfilling her mother’s dreams of becoming a scholar - but her final triumph must be left to her daughter, Su Sing, 'Little Star,' in a journey that will take her from remote mountain refuges to the perils of Hong Kong on the eve of World War II." - us.macmillan.com.