Take Me Out to the Kindle: A Dozen Baseball Books

If you're like me, about this time of year you start thinking "spring training" and counting the weeks until major league baseball gets under way again in early April. While we're waiting, get up-to-speed with these recent baseball titles for the Kindle. Read fast and you may become an armchair baseball expert before the season starts. And for blog fans, there are now 66 MLB blogsavailable on Amazon.

INSIDE BASEBALL

Under the March Sun : The Story of Spring Trainingby Charles Fountain. Oxford University Press. Amazon customer rating: None yet. Kindle edition $9.99.
"Where has this book been? Why has no one written it before? The poetry has oozed out of Florida and Arizona every February and March forever, rhapsodies about rebirth and sunscreen and the virtues of watching major-league ballplayers up-close while wearing a good pair of Bermuda shorts, but no one has chronicled the nuts, bolts and civic intrigues associated with baseball's spring training. Not the way Chuck Fountain has. Terrific stuff." - Leigh Montville, author of Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Heroand The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth.

As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires by Bruce Weber. Scribner. Amazon customer rating: None yet. Kindle edition: $14.30.
"Millions of American baseball fans know, with absolute certainty, that umpires are simply overpaid galoots who are doing an easy job badly. Millions of American baseball fans are wrong. As They See 'Em is an insider's look at the largely unknown world of professional umpires, the small group of men (and the very occasional woman) who make sure America's favorite pastime is conducted in a manner that is clean, crisp, and true. Bruce Weber, a New York Times reporter, not only interviewed dozens of professional umpires but entered their world, trained to become an umpire, and then spent a season working games from Little League to big league spring training. As They See 'Em is Weber's entertaining account of this experience as well as a lively exploration of what amounts to an eccentric secret society, with its own customs, its own rituals, its own colorful vocabulary." - Amazon.

Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfitby Matt McCarthy. Viking. Amazon customer rating: 2 1/2 stars (3 reviews). Note that negative reviews slam the high price rather than the quality of the book. To which I say "Amen". Kindle edition: $14.27.
"So this is what it’s really like to live every boy’s dream of getting drafted by a big-league team! I don’t know a single baseball fan who will be able to resist Matt McCarthy’s portrait of his hilariously grim - and yet somehow enviable - tour in the minor leagues. Part Bull Durham, part Ball Four, Odd Man Out is simply the best baseball book I’ve read in years." - Jonathan Mahler, author of Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City.

Bases Loadedby Kirk Radomski. Hudson Street Press. Amazon customer rating: None yet. Kindle edition:$14.27.
"On a quiet street on Long Island early on a December morning in 2005, more than fifty federal agents stood outside a lovely new home waiting for the front door to be opened. When it did, there stood the central figure in one of the biggest scandals in sports history: Kirk Radomski. Radomski was a regular New York kid who, from the age of fifteen had the amazing fortune of working in the Mets clubhouse. The focus of his job was to give the players whatever they wanted or needed - he got their uniforms ready, packed up their homes at the end of the season, cashed their checks, and helped them beat the drug tests that would have led to suspension. And at the end of the 1986 season he even led the World Champions down Broadway during their victory parade. Eventually, he graduated to helping in other ways: providing them with steroids and human growth hormones. By the time the Feds knocked on his door, he was the main clubhouse supplier of performance-enhancing drugs to almost three hundred baseball players. Under threat of a long prison sentence - and after being identified by players he'd helped - he cooperated with Senator George Mitchell to produce the Mitchell Report, providing names and dates. Now he's ready to tell the whole story to the world." - Amazon.

IMPROVING YOUR BASEBALL WATCHING SKILLS

Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks by Zack Hample. Vintage. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (42 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"What is the difference between a slider and a curveball?
At which stadium did “The Wave” first make an appearance?
How do some hitters use iPods to improve their skills?
Which positions are never played by lefties?
Why do some players urinate on their hands?
Whether you’re a major league couch potato, life-long season ticket-holder, or teaching game to a beginner, Watching Baseball Smarter leaves no territory uncovered. In this smart and funny fan’s guide Hample explains the ins and outs of pitching, hitting, running, and fielding, while offering insider trivia and anecdotes that will surprise even the most informed viewers of our national pastime." - Amazon.

HISTORY OF THE GAME

Tim McCarver's Diamond Gemsby Tim McCarver. McGraw-Hill. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (2 reviews). Kindle edition $14.97.
"Baseball's premier national televisionanalyst Tim McCarver presents fascinating tales from the game's greatest players and personalities...A valuable mix of baseball history with a personal touch [including] tales from baseball greats Sandy Koufax, StanMusial, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Yogi Berra, Tom Seaver, Cal Ripken Jr., JohnnyBench, Don Mattingly, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Chipper Jones, David Wright, and many more...It's fun and engaging and instructive and even sweet now and then. Tim could always call the pitches, and he also seems to get everyone to deliver their best stuff here." - Frank Deford, author, Entitled.

Baseball: A History of America's Favorite Gameby George Vecsey. Modern Library. Amazon customer rating: None yet. $9.99.
"...one of the great bards of America’s Grand Old Game gives a rousing account of the sport, from its pre-Republic roots to the present day. George Vecsey casts a fresh eye on the game, illuminates its foibles and triumphs, and performs a marvelous feat: making a classic story seem refreshingly new.
Baseball is a narrative of America’s can-do spirit, in which stalwart immigrants such as Henry Chadwick could transplant cricket and rounders into the fertile American culture and in which die-hard unionist baseballers such as Charles Comiskey and Connie Mack could eventually become the tightfisted avatars of the game’s big-money establishment. It’s a celebration of such underdogs as a rag-armed catcher turned owner named Branch Rickey and a sure-handed fielder named Curt Flood, both of whom flourished as true great men of history. But most of all, Baseball is a testament to the unbreakable bond between our nation’s pastime and the fans..." - Amazon.

The Yankee Years by Tom Verducci and Joe Torre. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (61 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"Twelve straight playoff appearances. Six American League pennants. Four World Series titles... But it wasn’t easy. Here, for the first time, Joe Torre and Tom Verducci take us inside the dugout, the clubhouse, and the front office in a revelatory narrative that shows what it really took to keep the Yankees on top of the baseball world. The high-priced ace who broke down in tears and refused to go back to the mound in the middle of a game. Constant meddling from Yankee executives, many of whom were jealous of Torre’s popularity. The tension that developed between the old guard and the free agents brought in by management. The impact of revenue-sharing and new scouting techniques, which allowed other teams to challenge the Yankees’ dominance. The players who couldn’t resist the after-hours temptations of the Big Apple. The joys of managing Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, and the challenges of managing Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi. Torre’s last year, when constant ultimatums from the front office, devastating injuries, and a freak cloud of bugs on a warm September night in Cleveland forced him from a job he loved." - Amazon.

'78: The Boston Red Sox, A Historic Game, and a Divided Cityby Bill Reynolds. Penguin Group. Amazon customer rating: None yet. Kindle edition $9.99.
"George Steinbrenner called it the greatest game in the history of American sports. On a bright October day in 1978, the Boston Red Sox met the New York Yankees for an epic playoff game that would send one team to the World Series, and render the other cursed for almost a quarter of a century. In this book, award-winning sports columnist Bill Reynolds masterfully tells the story of the team and the players at this pivotal moment. This cultural history takes readers through the social issues that divided Boston that summer, and masterfully depicts their influence on one game beyond the realm of sports." - Amazon.

Forever Blue: The True Story of Walter O'Malley, Baseball's Most Controversial Owner, and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angelesby Michael D'Antonio. Riverhead. Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $14.27.
"First-rate cultural history from a writer who touches almost all bases. “To comprehend baseball's grip on America, you've got to understand the dramatic tale of Walter O'Malley and the Dodgers. With meticulous reporting and elegant prose, D'Antonio brushes away the dust and brings O'Malley's story to life like never before. This is the definitive book on one of baseball's most fascinating and controversial figures." - Jonathan Eig, author of Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Seasonand Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig

PLAYERS

Becoming Manny: Inside the Life of Baseball's Most Enigmatic Sluggerby Jean Rhodes and Shawn Boburg. Scribner. Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $9.99.
"...Manny Ramirez ranks seventeenth in career home runs and eighth in career slugging percentage -- the only players above him on both lists are Barry Bonds, Jimmie Foxx, and Babe Ruth. Becoming Manny brings an unusually thoughtful analysis to the territory of sports biography, examining Manny's life through the lens of larger issues such as mentoring and immigration, while also telling the story of a great career. Manny has perplexed the baseball world for years now with his amazing hitting and his unique approach to life and to the game. Incredibly focused at the plate yet carefree everywhere else, Manny has become a constant topic of discussion on national sports radio and television, on sports websites, and in print...This is an authorized inside look at the roots, development, and career of an individual and player on his way from the Dominican Republic and Washington Heights to the Hall of Fame." - Amazon.

Beyond Beliefby Tim Keown. FaithWords. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (33 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"Josh Hamilton was the first player chosen in the first round of the 1999 baseball draft. He was known not only for his gargantuan homeruns, his speed on the bases and his fielding talent but also for his caring and humble character. He was destined to be one of those rare high-character superstars. But in 2001, working his way from the minors to the majors, all of the plans for Josh went off the rails in a moment of weakness. What followed was a 4-year nightmare of drugs and alcohol, estrangement from friends and family, and his eventual suspension from baseball. Before Belief details the events that led up to the derailment...it is also the memoir of a spiritual journey that breaks through pain and heartbreak and leads to the rebirth of his major-league career..." - Amazon.


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Kindle E-Books on the Cheap: A Weekly Selection (27 Feb 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 an omnibus collection of twelve Philo Vance mysteries, an historical novel set in the western frontier just after the Civil War, a science fiction short story, the only mystery written by A. A. Milne, author of Winnie-the-Pooh, and a children's urban fantasy written for adults.

Philo Vance Omnibus (Volume One) and Philo Vance Omnibus (Volume Two), by S. S. van Dine. MYSTERY FICTION. Download site: MobileRead. Format: PRC. Price: Free.
I was first introduced to Philo Vance as a child during a lazy summer visiting my aunt and uncle in their cabin in northern Wisconsin. They had a couple of bookshelves of mysteries and other recreational reading, including The Benson Murder Case and The Canary Murder Case which are two of the novels featured in this Omnibus Philo Vance edition of six novels. I ate these babies up at that time and these traditional mysteries are still good reading although Philo Vance himself is rightly described by some critics as a know-it-all pompous snob. Each omnibus edition contains six mystery novels. For more background information on van Dine and the Philo Vance series check out Grobius Shortling's list of the 50 Best Mystery Novels where you'll find S.S. Van Dine at #48.

"...S.S. van Dine, was the pen-name of the American art critic and author Willard Huntington Wright (1888-1939). Although little known today, the Philo Vance books were extremely popular in the 1920s and 30s, and were later adapted for film and radio. These are "traditional" murder stories, with an erudite detective, lots of maps and diagrams, innumerable footnotes explaining details, and so on..." - HarryT for MobileRead.com.

The Great Sioux Trail, by Joseph A. Altsheler, 1862-1919. HISTORICAL FICTION. Download site: MobileRead. Format: PRC. Price: Free.
"...the first of a group of romances concerned with the opening of the Great West just after the Civil War, and having a solid historical basis...Beautifully illustrated and nice read!" - mtravellerh for MobileRead.

Shepherd of the Planets, by Alan Mattox. SCIENCE FICTION. Download site: Manybooks. Format: AZW. First published in Amazing Science Fiction Stories, November 1959, this short story is 20 pages long in paper format.
"Renner had a purpose in life. And the Purpose in Life had Renner."

The Red House Mysteryby A. A. Milne, 1882-1956. MYSTERY FICTION. Download site: Amazon. Format: AZW. Price: FREE.
Milne is best known as the author of the children's classic Winnie-the-Pooh, but he also wrote one mystery novel - quite a good one. It's a classic mystery complete with a murder victim found in a locked room. "The setting is batchelor Mark Ablett's English country house loaded with guests, including a British major, a wilful actress, and a young jock athlete. Mark's long-lost brother Robert, the black sheep of the family, arrives from Australia and is found murdered in a locked room. Mark Ablett has disappeared so Tony Gillingham and his friend Bill decide to investigate, progressing almost playfully through the novel while the clues mount up the theories abound." - Wikipedia.

Beasts of New York: a Children's Book for Grown-ups, by Jon Evans. URBAN FANTASY. Download site: Feedbooks. Format: Mobipocket/Kindle. Price: FREE.
"I usually write international thrillers, but Beasts of New York is very different: it's an urban fantasy about the wildlife of New York City, starring a squirrel protagonist who has to find his way from exile back to his home in Central Park, rescue his mother, and win a war. No easy task - but the unconventional friends he makes along the way just might be able to help him save his homeland..." - Jon Evans.

Kindle Freebies & New Kindle Resource List

Just a note and a reminder for readers out there enjoying new Kindle twos and/or Kindle ones:

Be sure to check out Online Degree World's The Ultimate Guide to Kindle 2.0: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources, with 100 hacks, support resources, tips and news stories about Kindle 2. The Kindle Reader is resource #64. Thanks, ODW.

Also recommended: Andy Ihnatko's entertaining review in today's Chicago Sun Times.

Also in case you missed the announcements, two new books available for free from the Amazon Kindle book store are:

The Cook's Illustrated How-to-Cook Library: An illustrated step-by-step guide to Foolproof Cooking by the Editors of Cooks Illustrated. America's Test Kitchen.
"This very special Kindle collection covers all the culinary ground, from barbecue, grilling, garden vegetables, holiday roasts, potatoes, soups, stews, stir-fries, pasta sauces, pizza, appetizers, salads, shrimp and shellfish, to pies, layer cakes, cookies and brownies, holiday desserts, ice cream, simple fruit desserts, and lots more. It's all you really need in the kitchen and it all sits nice and handy on a Kindle as well. Now your own definitive recipe collection is portable and easy to access, the perfect helper in the kitchen. Please note: Due to the large amount of content in this file, wireless download time is likely to exceed 60 seconds." - Amazon.

The Holy Bible English Standard Version (ESV).Good News Publishers/Crossway Books. Available for free download until May 20, 2009.
"The English Standard Version (ESV) Bible is an essentially literal Bible translation that combines word-for-word precision and accuracy with literary excellence, beauty, and depth of meaning." - Amazon.

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

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


The Helpby Kathryn Stockett. Putnam. NOVEL. EW's slant: "When folks at your book club wonder what to read next month, go on and pitch this wholly satisfying novel with confidence." Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (5 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"Set in the rural South of the 1960's, The Help is a startling, resonant portrait of the intertwined lives of women on opposite sides of the racial divide. Stockett's many gifts – a keen eye for character, a wicked sense of humor, the perfect timing of a natural born storyteller – shine as she evokes a time and place when black women were expected to help raise white babies, and yet could not use the same bathroom as their employers. Her characters, both white and black, are so fully fleshed they practically breathe – no stock villains or pious heroines here. I'm becoming an evangelist for The Help. Don't miss this wise and astonishing debut.”
– Joshilyn Jackson, Bestselling author of Gods in Alabama.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Knopf. NOVEL. EW's slant: "Any doubts you might (reasonably) harbor about a 534-page first novel by a physician in his 50s will be allayed in the first few pages of this marvelous book." Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (16 reviews). Kindle edition $14.55.
"A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel — an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home. Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics — their passion for the same woman — that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him — nearly destroying him — Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him." - Amazon.

The Last Single Woman in Americaby Cindy Guidry. Dutton. ESSAYS. EW's slant: "...the literary equivalent of a proper first date, punctuated with witty banter, flirtatious exchanges, and personal admissions..." Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (22 reviews). Kindle edition $9.18.
"The funniest, freshest essayist since David Sedaris, Cindy Guidry examines American culture and present-day gender relations in all their confusing, heartbreaking, and hilarious glory. After losing both her job and a potential husband, Cindy sets off to figure out why on earth she's so happy and soon must combat an onslaught of unsolicited advice from her mother, her 'have it all' friends, and a Yoda-like waxing lady, and the guy next door. Making pit stops along the way to ponder everything from the satanic origins of the Internet to her disturbing discovery that men are the new women, Cindy ultimately finds inspiration in her CD collection and renewed hope via a love letter from an Indian gas station attendant. Cindy Guidry is a self-aware woman with a razor-sharp wit, and in The Last Single Woman in America she takes us on an outrageously funny romp through her own unique mind, uncovering universal truths along the way." - Amazon.

Kindle Gets a Face Lift: Comparing Kindle 1 and Kindle 2

The Kindle 2 ships tomorrow and many Kindle 1 owners are eager to get their hands on the new model. While waiting for delivery of your new reading buddy, you may find this summary of the differences between the Kindle 1 and the Kindle 2 useful. The following observations are based on a comparison of the manuals for both models.

COOL KINDLE 2 FEATURES NOT ON KINDLE 1:
With the new 5-way controller you can select just one word for a dictionary search instead of having to select an entire line and watching the dictionary look up every word in that line whether you want it to or not.

The new application menu makes it possible for you to search within a single book or issue of a magazine. No more do you have to search all your books to find information you know is in a specific book. This should greatly speed up searches, especially for folks like me who have a lot of content on their Kindles.

Using the 5-way controller, you can zoom images to see them better close up. One thing that frustrates me to no end on the Kindle 1 is trying to read a book with a tiny little map. The picture zoom may solve that problem. Also you can use the 5-way to scroll through a large table that won't fit on the Kindle screen.

Additional navigation technique: Move the 5-way controller left or right to advance to another article of a magazine or chapter of a book.

You can clip a copy of an entire article in a magazine. You can also designate a particular issue of a magazine that you wish to be stored on your Kindle until you remove it.

You can now highlight text more accurately and include text across multiple pages. The 5-way makes more precise selection of text possible. In general, the use of the "My Notes and Marks" feature is much improved although the Kindle is still not a word processor. Here's how notes, highlights and bookmarks might display in a sample from the Christopher Paolini novel Brisingr:



BATTERY
Kindle 1: Initial charging of the battery should take less than 2 hours. The battery light turns off when the battery is fully charged. The Whispernet and battery life status indicators are at the bottom of every screen.

Kindle 2: Initial charging of the battery should take less than 3 hours. The battery light turns from yellow to green when the battery is fully charged. The Whispernet and battery life status indicators are at the top of every screen.

GETTING AROUND
Kindle 1: Uses a select wheel to navigate and there is a home key to take you back to your book/magazine/blog list. Previous page, next page (one on each side), back page buttons are large - too large for lots of Kindle readers.

Kindle 2: A 5-way controller that looks like a joy stick has replaced the select wheel. Instead of a home key, there is a home button on the right side of the device. New features include volume control on the right above the home button, a menu button and a text key on the keyboard where the home key used to reside. Use the text key with the 5-way to adjust the size of the type, to turn the text-to-speech feature on and off, to adjust the speech rate and choose a female or a male speaking voice. The headphones now plug into the top instead of into the bottom of the device as on the Kindle 1.

On the Kindle 2 there is a navigation bar at the bottom of each issue of a newspaper or magazine or parts of a blog that should make it much easier to move between articles and sections of a document.



WIRELESS ACCESS
Kindle 1: Turned off and on with a switch on the back.

Kindle 2: Now a menu item. To turn Whispernet on or off, you press the Menu button, move the controller up to underline "Turn Wireless On/Off" and press the controller.

TYPE SIZE
Same six type sizes on both models.

TEXT-TO-SPEECH
This is a new experimental feature in Kindle 2. Listen through the Kindle 2's external stereo speakers or plug in your own earphones. Neat feature: while text-to-speech is on (with either a male or female voice - your choice), the screen turns the pages automatically. You can also slow down or increase the rate of speech. You use the volume control on the upper right side of the device to control the volume for audiobooks, background music (MP3s) and text-to-speech. Shortcut: Hold down the shift key and press the symbol key to toggle the text-to-speech feature.

DICTIONARY FEATURE
Kindle 1: You have to select an entire line and the dictionary looks up all words which then appear on a separate screen.

Kindle 2: You choose a single word and the definition appears at the bottom of the screen.

CAPACITY
Kindle 1: room for about 200 books, newspapers, blogs and magazines. A lot more with a SD memory card.

Kindle 2: room for over a thousand digital books, newspapers, blogs, and magazines. Amazon stores your purchases permanently on Amazon.com. You will want to back up other titles to a flash drive or to your computer.

REMOVING STUFF
Kindle 1: use the Content Manager.

Kindle 2: move the 5-way controller up or down and underline the item you want to delete. Move the 5-way to the left and press it to remove the item.

SYNCING
Kindle 2 has a new feature called Whispersync for folks with more than one Kindle. It permits you to sync the furthest page read in your book and your bookmarks among all your Kindles.

DOCUMENT CONVERSION:
Nothing new here. Amazon will convert Microsoft Word, TXT, HTML, PDF, JPEGS and GIFs for you and send them back to your Kindle or to your computer. Complex PDFs are still problematical for the device, but I've had a lot of luck with novels and nonfiction without a lot of illustrations.

PUTTING THE KINDLE TO SLEEP
Kindle 1: press the ALT and the Text keys at the same time.

Kindle 2: Slide and release the power button located at the top of the Kindle. To turn off the Kindle completely, slid and hold the power switch for four seconds and then release.

HOME SCREEN FEATURES
Kindle 1: The most recent issue of a magazine subscription appears on the home screen. When you select the issue, all issues appear in a separate list.

Kindle 2: The home screen lists the most recent issue, with older issues appearing inside a grouping called Periodicals: Back Issues. When you select this grouping, it takes you to a screen displaying all the back issues of all the periodicals you have on your Kindle. The Kindle automatically deletes issue more than seven issues old unless you designate them to be stored on the device until you remove them. An exclamation point next to an issue indicates it will be deleted within 48 hours.

Although the Kindle 2 does not have folders that can be named and manipulated by the reader, there appears to be a folder of sorts called Archived Items. It contains items stored at Amazon.com that can be downloaded to your Kindle. The New Oxford American Dictionary appears as an item on the home screen so presumably it can be opened and searched as a separate book.

With the Kindle 2, you have an option to view only your personal documents, your subscriptions and blogs, your books and audiobooks, or all of your items.

THE SEARCH FUNCTION
Kindle 1: You can search locally on the Kindle or remotely at the Amazon Kindle Store, the Wikipedia or the Web.

Kindle 2: Locally you can search the dictionary and the items on the your Kindle or remotely at the Amazon Kindle store, Google, the Wikipedia or the Web. Tip: On both Kindle models you can limit a search in the Kindle store to a specific author by prefacing the search with the @ sign. For example: @Bernard Cornwell will find only books by Bernard Cornwell.

THE EXPERIMENTAL WEB BROWSER
The experimental web browser appears unchanged. I didn't realize until reading the Kindle 2 manual that the type size on web sites can be adjusted the same way you change the type size on Kindle books. Will web access be faster on the Kindle 2? We'll see.

Kindle Genre Watch (21 Feb 2009)

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. New releases this week include:

MYSTERIES/THRILLERS

A Darker Placeby Jack Higgins. Putnam. Kindle edition $9.99.
"A famous Russian writer and ex-paratrooper named Alexander Kurbsky is fed up with the Putin government and decides he wants to disappear into the West. He is under no illusions, however, about how the news will be greeted at home, having seen too many of his countrymen die mysteriously at the hands of the thuggish Russian security services, so he makes elaborate plans with Charles Ferguson, Sean Dillon, and the rest of the group known informally as the Prime Minister's private army, for his escape and concealment. It's a real coup for the West except for one thing: Kurbsky is still working for the Russians..." - Amazon.

Murder at the Academy Awardsby Joan Rivers, with Jerrilyn Farmer. Simon & Schuster. Kindle edition coming soon.
"The Academy Awards®. It's Hollywood's biggest night, and there's no star better equipped than the tart-tongued Max Taylor to hold court on the glamorous Red Carpet. Sharing the dish with her daughter, Drew, the calls-it-as-she-sees-it entertainer has parlayed this star-studded annual gig into television's most-watched pre-show event. And tonight, Max has landed a real coup -- an exclusive interview with Halsey Hamilton, a fabulous, young, paparazzi-trailed Oscar nominee. But not even Max, who's seen her share of celebrity train wrecks, is prepared for an incoherent Halsey, straight out of rehab, to stumble up to the mic, slur a few cryptic words, and drop dead at the hem of Max's stunning Michael Kors gown." - Simon & Schuster.

UR by Stephen King. Storyville. Kindle edition $2.99.
"As quickly as a spider spins its web, King reminds us why he's the master of the novella - a format which, up until now that is, one might have thought is fast disappearing. In his new novella, UR, King is at his unsettling best as he examines the future of the written word - for better or worse. Following a nasty break-up, lovelorn college English instructor Wesley Smith can't seem to get his ex-girlfriend's parting shot out of his head: 'Why can't you just read off the computer like the rest of us?' Egged on by her question and piqued by a student's suggestion, Wesley places an order for Amazon.com's Kindle eReader. The [pink?] device that arrives in a box stamped with the smile logo -via one-day delivery that he hadn't requested - unlocks a literary world that even the most avid of book lovers could never imagine. But once the door is open, there are those things that one hopes we'll never read or live through. Firm, gripping, and deftly written by a craftsman at the top of his game, this is King at his crisp, clear, page-turning best." - Amazon.

All the Colors of Darkness by Peter Robinson. HarperCollins. Kindle edition $14.29.
"Detectives Alan Banks and Annie Cabbot return in another electrifying novel from the acclaimed award-winning author of the New York Times bestseller Friend of the Devil. When the body of a man is discovered hanging from a tree in the woods near Eastvale, all signs point toward suicide. At least that's what it initially looks like to Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot. The man is soon identified as Mark Hardcastle, the set and costume designer for the local amateur theater company. Mark was successful and well liked in the community, but enough remains mysterious about his background that suicide isn't completely out of the question. But when Mark's older and wealthier lover is discovered bludgeoned to death in his home, Annie begins to think differently." - Amazon.

FANTASY

The Shadow Queenby Anne Bishop. Roc. Kindle edition announced, but not yet available.
"Dena Nehele is a land decimated by its past. Once it was ruled by corrupt Queens who were wiped out when the land was cleansed of tainted Blood. Now, only one hundred Warlord Princes stand - without a leader and without hope. Theran Grayhaven is the last of his line, desperate to find the key that reveals a treasure great enough to restore Dena Nehele. But first he needs to find a Queen who remembers the Blood's code of honor and lives by the Old Ways. The woman chosen to rule Dena Nehele, Lady Cassidy, is not beautiful and believes she is not strong. But she may be the only one able to convince bitter men to serve once again." - Amazon.

Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold. HarperCollins. Kindle edition $14.84. Horizon is volume four of the Sharing Knife series. The first three volumes are Beguilement(2006), Legacy(2007) and Passage (2008).
"In a world where malices - remnants of ancient magic - can erupt with life-destroying power, only soldier-sorcerer Lakewalkers have mastered the ability to kill them. But Lakewalkers keep their uncanny secrets - and themselves - from the farmers they protect, so when patroller Dag Redwing Hickory rescued farmer girl Fawn Bluefield, neither expected to fall in love, join their lives in marriage, or defy both their kin to seek new solutions to the perilous split between their peoples...Now the pair must answer in earnest the question they've grappled with since they killed their first malice together: When the old traditions fail disastrously, can their untried new ways stand against their world's deadliest foe?" - Amazon.

SCIENCE FICTION

The Caryatids by Bruce Sterling. Ballantine. Kindle edition $9.99.
"The world of 2060 is divided into three spheres of influence, each fighting with the others over the resources of fallen nations and an environment degraded almost to the point of no return. There is the Dispensation, centered in Los Angeles, where entertainment and capitalism have fused with the highest of high-tech. There is the Acquis, a Green-centered collective that uses invasive neurological technology to create a networked utopia. And there is China, the sole surviving nation-state, a dinosaur that has prospered only by pitilessly pruning its own population. Products of this monstrous world, the daughters of a monstrous mother, and – according to some – monsters themselves, are the Caryatids: the four surviving female clones of a mad Balkan genius and wanted war criminal now ensconced, safely beyond extradition, on an orbiting space station. Radmila is a Dispensation star determined to forget her past by building a glittering, impregnable future. Vera is an Acquis functionary dedicated to reclaiming their home, the Croatian island of Mljet, from catastrophic pollution. Sonja is a medical specialist in China renowned for selflessly risking herself to help others. And Biserka is a one-woman terrorist network. The four “sisters” are united only by their hatred for their 'mother'–and for one another. When evidence surfaces of a coming environmental cataclysm, the Dispensation sends its greatest statesman–or salesman–John Montgomery Montalban, husband of Radmila, and lover of Vera and Sonja, to gather the Caryatids together in an audacious plan to save the world." - Ballantine.

The Naked Godby Peter F. Hamilton. Orbit. Kindle edition $9.99.
Hamilton is the biggest-selling science fiction author in Great Britain. This is volume three in his The Night's Dawn Trilogy. The first two volumes - also available for the Kindle - are The Reality Dysfunctionand The Neutronium Alchemist. You will probably want to read the earlier volumes before starting this one.
"The Confederation is starting to collapse politically and economically, allowing the `possessed' to infiltrate more worlds. Quinn Dexter is loose on Earth, destroying the giant arcologies one at a time. As Louise Kavanagh tries to track him down, she manages to acquire some strange and powerful allies whose goal doesn't quite match her own. The campaign to liberate Mortonridge from the possessed degenerates into a horrendous land battle, the kind which hasn't been seen by humankind for six hundred years; then some of the protagonists escape in a very unexpected direction. Joshua Calvert and Syrinx fly their starships on a mission to find the Sleeping God -- which an alien race believes holds the key to overthrowing the possessed."

WESTERNS

The Cowboy Comes Home [Double B Series]by Roni Adams. The Wild Rose Press. Kindle edition $4.80.
"They say you can never go home again. Tyler Weston is hoping that's not true. Two years ago he thought he wanted freedom and to be as far away from Sweet Meadow, Texas as he could get. He left behind his family's ranch, his brothers and his childhood sweetheart, Beth Sampson. Now he's home for the holidays, but he's hoping to make it a permanent move. Will he be able to mend the hurts he's caused especially with Beth or has she grown up and gotten completely over him?" - Amazon.

Rebel Spursby Andre Norton. Kindle edition $0.80. Also available at free e-book download sites Freebooks and ManyBooks.
"In 1866, only men uprooted by war had reason to ride into Tubacca, Arizona. So when Drew Rennie, newly discharged from Forrest's Confederate scouts, arrived leading everything he owned behind him - his thoroughbred stud Shiloh, a mare about to foal, and a mule - he knew his business would not be questioned. To anyone in Tubacca there could be only one extraordinary thing about Drew, and that he could not reveal: his name, Rennie." - Amazon.

Cattle Brands - A Collection of Western Camp-Fire Storiesby Andy Adams. MacMay. Kindle edition $0.99. Also available at free e-book download sites ManyBooks and Feedbooks.
"Andy Adams (May 3, 1859 – September 26, 1935) was an American writer of western fiction...was born in Indiana. His parents, Andrew and Elizabeth (Elliott) Adams, were pioneers. As a boy he helped with the cattle and horses on the family farm. In the early 1880s he went to Texas, where he stayed for 10 years, spending much of that time driving cattle on the western trail. In 1890 he left the trail to try his hand at business, but the venture failed, so he turned his hand to gold-mining in Colorado and Nevada. In 1894, he settled in Colorado Springs, where he lived until his death." - Amazon.

ROMANCE

First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh. Dell. Kindle edition $5.59.
"Against the scandal and seduction of Regency England, New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh introduces an extraordinary family—the fiery, sensual Huxtables. Vanessa is the second daughter, proud and daring, a young widow who has her own reason for pursuing the most eligible bachelor in London. One that has nothing to do with love. Or does it?
The arrival of Elliott Wallace, the irresistibly eligible Viscount Lyngate, has thrown the country village of Throckbridge into a tizzy. Desperate to rescue her eldest sister from a loveless union, Vanessa Huxtable Dew offers herself instead. In need of a wife, Elliott takes the audacious widow up on her unconventional proposal while he pursues an urgent mission of his own. But a strange thing happens on the way to the wedding night." - Amazon.

Tempted All Night by Liz Carlyle. Pocket Books. Kindle edition $7.99.
"After a reckless village maid's disappearance pulls prim and proper Lady Phaedra Northampton into London's seedy underworld, her path collides with former mercenary and jaded spy-for-hire Tristan Talbot, Lord Avoncliffe. Together they delve into the secrets behind a brothel - a perfect task for his talents! - rumored to be a front for a notorious Russian spy ring, and a simple assignment becomes deliciously complicated when deception and desire lead to an explosive passion - and deadly foes!" - Amazon.

This week Amazon offers a number of free Romance titles for the Kindle reader, including:

A Very Special Deliveryby Linda Goodnight.

Kiss Me Deadlyby Michele Hauf.

Dancing in the Moonlightby RaeAnne Thayne.

Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranchby B. J. Daniels.

Snowboundby Janice Kay Johnson.

Price of Passionby Susan Napier.

His Lady Mistressby Elizabeth Rolls.

The Bride's Babyby Liz Fielding.

Hide in Plain Sightby Marta Perry.


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