Kindle E-Books on the Cheap: A Weekly Selection (30 Mar 09)

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 a brace of contemporary techno-thrillers, a novel of love, escape and reconciliation in the turbulent seventies, W. Somerset Maugham exploring the tragic results of a one-night stand, Dale Carnegie on the art of public speaking, and a biography of G. K. Chesterton, author of the Father Brown mystery stories.

Trust Network by Rick Osborne. TECHNO-THRILLER. Download site: MobileRead. Format: Mobi/PRC. Price: FREE.
"Xochitl Green is a contemporary web programmer. She's faced with the issues of any techno-savvy person today, primary among them being the ethical implications of the arms race between content producing industries trying to protect their producers' rights and consumers who just want to get at that content and not be hassled with copy protection and other invasive technologies. Her friend Brian has an idea: take all of the online social interaction that we are building and turn it into a model of trust for our computers. Instead of thinking about firewalls and Internet privacy and protection at a software level, think of it at a social level. Xochitl takes the idea and writes the program, calling it 'Alfred'. Alfred turns out to be quite popular, and attracts both good and bad attention." - Rick Osborne.

Dark End of the Spectrum by Anthony S. Policastro. TECHNO-THRILLER. Download site: Smashwords. Format: Mobipocket/Kindle. Price: You set the price. Also available from the Amazon Kindle Bookstore.
"When digital terrorists take over the US power grid and the cell phone network, they give the government an ultimatum - bomb the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan with nuclear weapons to put an end to Al-Quada or they will start downing commercial airliners. Only security expert Dan Riker can stop them, but they have kidnapped Dan's family." - Smashwords.

Pacific Avenueby Anne L. Watson. NOVEL. Download site: Amazon. Format: AZW. Price: $0.01.
"Where do you go from the end of the line? This is the question facing Kathy Woodbridge as she steps off the bus in the port city of San Pedro, California. Nineteen years old, from Louisiana, she is running away from her past. There’s a lot to run away from. What do you do when there’s no one to do for? That’s what Lacey Greer wants to know, with her only child off at college. When Kathy gets a job at the office where Lacey works, she can tell that Kathy’s in trouble. Lacey’s husband advises her to stay out of it—but what’s she supposed to do, buy a rocking chair? Set in San Pedro, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans in the early seventies, Pacific Avenue explores themes of love, belonging, helpfulness, hope, forgiveness, reconciliation, interracial marriage, and healing from the trauma of war." - annelwatson.com.

Up at the Villa by W. Somerset Maugham. NOVEL . Download site: MobileRead. Format: Mobi/PRC. Price: FREE.
"...a 1941 novella by William Somerset Maugham about a young widow caught between three men: her suitor, her one-night stand, and her confidant. A fast-paced story, Up at the Villa incorporates elements of the crime and suspense novel." - Wikipedia.
In 2000 a film versionbased loosely on the book and starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Anne Bancroft, James Fox, Derek Jacobi, and Sean Penn was released.

The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie. NONFICTION. Download site: ManyBooks. Format: Kindle. Price: FREE. Also available for $.80 in the Amazon Kindle Bookstore.
"Dale Carnegie...was an American writer and lecturer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking and interpersonal skills. Born in poverty on a farm in Missouri, he was the author of books such as How to Win Friends and Influence People, and The Art of Public Speaking, which brought him fame and success and remain popular today." - Amazon.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton by Patrick Braybrooke. BIOGRAPHY. Download site: MobileRead. Format: Mobi/PRC. Price: FREE.
G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was a British essayist, novelist and poet who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922, an event which greatly influenced his subsequent writings. He is best known in the United States as the author of the Father Brown mysteries. He was also an artist who illustrated several books by Hilaire Belloc. This study of the man and his work was first published in 1922. If you haven't met Father Brown, the engaging priest-detective , you may enjoy Chesterton's Father Brown Omnibus, also a free download from MobileRead.