A Week of Entertainment: Kindle Books Reviewed in Entertainment Weekly 29 May 09

Each week Entertainment Weekly reviews a small selection of popular new books. Titles available for the Kindle reviewed in the May 29th issue include:

A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophyby Charlotte Greig. Other Press. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...beneath its slick chick-lit veneer, Greig's novel is a ruminative coming-of-age tale devoid of the genre's usual tropes." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $9.59.
"Susannah’s official boyfriend, Jason, is the perfect foil for her student lifestyle. He is ten years older, an antiques dealer, and owns a stylish apartment that prevents her from having to live in the seedy digs on campus. This way, she can take her philosophy major very seriously and dabble in the social and sexual freedom of 1970s university life. But circumstances become more complicated than Susannah would like when she begins to have an affair with her tutorial partner, Rob. Soon she is dating two men, missing her lectures, exploring independence and feminism with her girlfriends, and finding herself in a particularly impossible dilemma: she becomes pregnant. Forced to look beyond her friends and lovers for support, she finds help and inspiration from the lessons of Kierkegaard and other European philosophers." - Amazon.

The Scarecrowby Michael Connelly. Little, Brown and Company. THRILLER. EW's slant: "headlong race to maintain narrative momentum...reads like a movie..." Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (13 reviews). Kindle edition $13.85.
"Forced out of the Los Angeles Times amid the latest budget cuts, newspaperman Jack McEvoy decides to go out with a bang, using his final days at the paperto write the definitive murder story of his career. He focuses on Alonzo Winslow, a 16-year-old drug dealer in jail after confessing to a brutal murder. But as he delves into the story, Jack realizes that Winslow's so-called confession is bogus. The kid might actually be innocent." - Amazon.
$9.99 or less alternative: The Harry Bosch Novels.Three Connellys for the price of one, this compilation includes The Black Echo, The Black Ice and The Concrete Blonde, all featuring Harry Bosch, a "wonderful, old-fashioned hero who isn't afraid to walk through the flames."


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Oprah's Book Club (Kindle Edition) Revisited

Oprah Winfrey has long been known as an avid reader with a keen eye for a good book. Authors whose books have been chosen for her book club have, over the years, enjoyed immense popularity.

When The Kindle Reader first visited Oprah's Book Club on October 25, 2008, thirty-five out of the sixty-seven books on the book club reading list were available for Kindle readers. With hundreds of titles being added to the Amazon Kindle bookstore each day, I thought it might be a good time to bring the list up-to-date.
The result is somewhat disappointing, with only seven more book list titles - books by Caron McCullers, Jonathan Franzen, Edwidge Danticat, Maya Angelou, Alice Hoffman, Sheri Reynolds, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez - newly available for our favorite reading device.

Twenty-three OBC books are still only obtainable in dead tree editions, including works by William Faulkner, Elie Wiesel, and Isabel Allende. Here's the updated list:

COMPLETE LIST OF BOOKS SELECTED FOR OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB:

2008
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski.
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.

2007
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. No Kindle edition.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier

2006
Night by Elie Wiesel. No Kindle edition.

2005
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey.
Light in August by William Faulkner. No Kindle edition.
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. No Kindle edition.
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. No Kindle edition.

2004
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. No Kindle edition.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Please note that this book is also available on many of the free e-books sites.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunterby Carson McCullers.
One Hundred Years Of Solitudeby Gabriel García Márquez. PLEASE NOTE: buyer beware of purchasing this Kindle edition before requesting a sample. Both the author's name and the title of the book are incorrect in the Amazon Kindle bookstore listing and the one customer review leads me to suspect that the publisher of this edition is not the copyright holder.

2003
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

2002
Sula by Toni Morrison.
Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald. No Kindle edition.

2001
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. No Kindle edition.
The Correctionsby Jonathan Franzen.
Cane River by Lalita Tademy
Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir. No Kindle edition.
Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio.
We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates.

2000
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III.
Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz.
Open House by Elizabeth Berg.
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
While I Was Gone by Sue Miller. No Kindle edition.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.
Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell.
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende. No Kindle edition.
Gap Creek by Robert Morgan. No Kindle edition.

1999
A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton.
Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay.
River, Cross My Heart by Breena Clarke. No Kindle edition.
Tara Road by Maeve Binchy.
Mother of Pearl by Melinda Haynes. No Kindle edition.
White Oleander by Janet Fitch.
The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve .
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink.
Jewel, by Bret Lott. No Kindle edition.

1998
Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts.
Midwives by Chris Bohjalian.
What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage.
I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb.
Breath, Eyes, Memoryby Edwidge Danticat.
Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen. No Kindle edition.
Here on Earthby Alice Hoffman.
Paradise by Toni Morrison.

1997
The Best Way To Play by Bill Cosby. No Kindle edition.
The Treasure Hunt by Bill Cosby. No Kindle edition.
The Meanest Thing To Say by Bill Cosby. No Kindle edition.
A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons. No Kindle edition.
Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons. No Kindle edition.
A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines.
Songs In Ordinary Time, by Mary McGarry Morris.
The Heart of a Womanby Maya Angelou.
Rapture of Canaanby Sheri Reynolds.
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi. No Kindle edition.
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. No Kindle edition.

1996
The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton. No Kindle edition.
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.
The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard.

Oprah.com is a good source for keeping up with what Oprah and her friends are reading.

Kindle E-Books on the Cheap: A Weekly Selection (27 May 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.

Budget e-book selections for this week include a spy-fi short story, two science fiction novels, a dictionary of English neologisms, a dark comedy that starts with a bad day at the office, a collection of presidential inaugural addresses from George Washington to Barack Obama, and a history of the Apollo space program.

The Time Axis by Henry Kuttner. SCIENCE FICTION. Download site: Manybooks. Format: AZW. Price: FREE.
"Called to the end of time by a being they knew only as The Face of Ea, four adventurers from the twentieth century faced a power that not even the super-science of that era could meet." - manybooks.net.

The Variantby John August. SHORT STORY. Download site: Amazon. Format: AZW. Price: $0.99.
"After 35 years working at the Central Library, Vincent Lewis has perfected the art of unremarkability. But when a terrified woman falls through his bathroom ceiling, he's forced back into a life of gunfights, double agents and paranormal research. The secret he's been keeping for nearly four decades might reunite him with his lost love, or kill millions. This new short story by John August falls into the genre of paranoid spy-fi popularized by writers like Jorge Luis Borges and shows like The Prisoner and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. John August is the screenwriter of eight feature films, including Go, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride." - Amazon

The Official Dictionary of Unofficial English by Grant Barrett. NONFICTION. Download site: Author's web site. Format: PDF. Price: FREE. Also available in a paperback edition at Amazon.com.
"...collects hundreds of undocumented and underdocumented words like the ones in his subtitle: A Crunk Omnibus for Thrillionaires and Bampots for the Ecozoic Age. Barrett's entries are not mere barroom fancies, but terms you can find in print and on the Internet, scrabbling for a foothold in the mainstream lexicon. Will Trashcanistan, any poor Middle Eastern country or Central Asian republic," hang around in the slang lexicon? Will ridonkulous follow humongous into general usage? Barrett, who also tracks such usage on his website..., will be among the first to know." - Boston Globe.

Uncubicledby Josh McMains. NOVEL. Download site: Amazon. Format: AZW. Price: $0.99.
"Joe Tompkins was having a bad day at the office: boring meetings, pointless assignments, and this feeling that he was being watched. When he could take no more, he did what anyone would do. He knocked out his co-worker with a keyboard and escaped. From cube-dwelling author Josh McMains comes a dark comedy that brings conspiracy back to corporate America. Uncubicled follows the drastic series of events that would take one man from his mid-level desk job to an elaborate getaway from the long arm of the law—and perhaps something even more sinister. Along the way, Joe crosses paths with former friends whose destinies have been intertwined from the start. Joe encounters mystery, adventure, and car trouble as he struggles to find out what he was always meant to do and who, exactly, wants him dead. And you thought YOUR job sucked." - Amazon.

Dragon Ringby Lettie Prell. SCIENCE FICTION. Download site: Amazon. Format: AZW. Price: $0.99.
"...a science fiction novel set in the near future. Nadine is a special young woman. She is the daughter of the man who transformed the small nation of Guatemala into the world’s largest and most powerful corporation. Nadine is an expert at virtual-reality applications, and when she goes undercover to find her father’s killers, she discovers a power within the Earth that can transform civilization — or destroy entire cities. She must face the juggernaut of corporate greed and secrecy to stop an experiment that could have cataclysmic consequences... - Amazon.

Complete Presidential Inaugural Addresses. REFERENCE. Download site: MobileRead. Format: Mobi/PRC. Price: FREE.
"A complete compilation of US Presidential inaugural addresses from George Washington to Barack Obama.
This comes from a Project Gutenberg compilation assembled by James Linden. It has been reformatted and given a linked TOC." - Donnageddon for MobileRead.

Where No Man Has Gone Before, by Author (Dates). GENRE. Download site: MobileRead. Format: PRC. Price: FREE.
A history of the Apollo Space Program by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, United States Government.

On Memorial Day The Kindle Remembers Fallen Heroes

On the last Monday in May Americans remember the sacrifices of those men and women who fought and died in service to our country. What better time to read stories of personal heroism and sacrifice? Here are a few.

Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10by Marcus Luttrell. Little, Brown and Company. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (911 reviews). Kindle edition $8.99.
"A six-foot-five-inch Texan, Leading Petty Officer Luttrell takes us, blow-by-blow, through the brutal training of America's warrior elite and the relentless rites of passage required by the Navy SEALs. He transports us to a monstrous battle fought in the desolate peaks of Afghanistan, where the beleaguered American team plummeted headlong a thousand feet down a mountain as they fought back through flying shale and rocks. In this rich , moving chronicle of courage, honor, and patriotism, Marcus Luttrell delivers one of the most powerful narratives ever written about modern warfare-and a tribute to his teammates, who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country." - Amazon.

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hourby James Hornfischer. Bantam. Text to Speech Disabled. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (140 reviews). KIndle edition $9.99.
"This piece of World War II naval history reads like a particularly good novel. It is an account of the October 1944 battle off Samar, in which a force of American destroyers and escort carriers drove off a Japanese fleet at least 10 times its strength. The struggle was a part of the epic Battle of Leyte Gulf, which was the beginning of the campaign to liberate the Philippines. Hornfischer focuses on the men of the escort carrier unit Taffy 3..., who fought, flew, and fired to nearly the last shell in a battle that at least one commander commenced by saying, 'Survival cannot be expected.' " - Booklist.

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grantby Ulysses S. Grant. LeClue. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (68 reviews). Kindle edition $0.99.
"Destitute and wracked by throat cancer, Ulysses S. Grant finished writing his personal memoirs shortly before his death in 1885. Today their clear prose stands as a model of autobiography. Civil War soldiers are often celebrated for the high literary quality of the letters they sent home from the front lines; Grant's own book is probably the best piece of writing produced by a participant in the War Between the States. Apart from Lincoln, no man deserves more credit for securing the Northern victory than Grant, and this chronicle of campaigns and battles tells how he did it..." --John J. Miller.

Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat by James R. Mcdonough. Ballantine. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (20 reviews). Kindle edition $6.39.
"Using a lean style and a sense of pacing drawn from the tautest of novels, McDonough has produced a gripping account of his first command, a U.S. platoon taking part in the 'strategic hamlet' program...Rather than present a potpourri of combat yarns...McDonough has focused a seasoned storyteller’s eye on the details, people, and incidents that best communicate a visceral feel of command under fire...For the author’s honesty and literary craftsmanship, Platoon Leader seems destined to be read for a long time by second lieutenants trying to prepare for the future, veterans trying to remember the past, and civilians trying to understand what the profession of arms is all about." - Army Times

Standing By: The Making of an American Military Family in a Time of Warby Alison Buckholtz. Penguin. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (13 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"Alison Buckholtz never dreamed she would marry a military man, but when she met her husband, an active-duty Navy pilot, nothing could stop her from building a life with him— not even his repeated attempts to talk her out of marriage. He didn’t want her to have to make the kinds of sacrifices long required of the spouses of military personnel. They wed shortly after September 11, 2001 and, since then, their life together has been marked by long separations and unforeseen challenges, but also unexpected rewards...A rare and intimate portrait of one of the tens of thousands of families who now wait patiently for their service member to return home safely..." Amazon.

Terror of the Autumn Skies: The True Story of Frank Luke, America's Rogue Ace of World War Iby Blaine Pardoe. Skyhorse Publishing. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (7 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"Frank Luke, Jr., was an unlikely pilot. In the Great War, when fliers were still 'knights of the air,' Luke was an ungallant loner, a kid from Arizona who collected tarantulas, shot buzzards, and boxed miners. But during two torrid weeks in September 1918, he was the deadliest man on the Western Front...Blaine Pardoe retraces and refreshes Frank Luke's story through recently discovered correspondence..." - Amazon.

The Unforgiving Minuteby Craig M. Mullaney. Penguin. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (113 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"...the extraordinary story of one soldier's singular education. From a hilarious plebe's-eye view of the author's West Point experience to the demanding leadership crucible of Ranger School's swamps and mountains, to a two-year whirlwind of scintillating debate, pub crawls, and romance at Oxford, Mullaney's winding path to the battlegrounds of Afghanistan was unique and remarkable. Despite all his preparation, the hardest questions remained. When the call came to lead his platoon into battle and earn his soldiers' salutes, would he be ready?..." - Amazon.

Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy SEALby Chuck Pfarrer. Random House. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (56 reviews). Kindle edition $6.39.
"Warrior Soul is a book about the warrior spirit, and it takes the reader all over the world. Former Navy SEAL Chuck Pfarrer recounts some of his most dangerous assignments: On a clandestine reconnaissance mission on the Mosquito Coast, his recon team plays a deadly game of cat and mouse with a Nicaraguan patrol boat. Cut off on the streets of Beirut, the author’s SEAL detachment must battle snipers on the Green Line. In the mid-Atlantic, Pfarrer’s unit attempts to retrieve - or destroy - the booster section of a Trident ballistic missile before it can be recovered by a Russian spy trawler. On a runway in Sicily, his assault element surrounds an Egyptian airliner carrying the Achille Lauro hijackers. These are only a few of the riveting stories of combat patrol, reconnaissance missions, counter-terrorist operations, tragedies, and victories..." - Back cover.

We Who Are Alive and Remainby Marcus Brotherton. Berkley. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"I’ve always thought it was too bad that Ambrose’s book and the HBO series selected only a few people to profile...Easy Company was made up of a hell of a lot more guys than those of us who got all the notoriety... This book gives an opportunity for some of those men to share their stories. That’s a good thing. These are all top flight men. I was honored to be included in their ranks.” - Lt. Lynn 'Buck' Compton, Member of Easy Company and author of Call of Duty.

With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E. B. Sledge. Presidio Press. Text to Speech Disabled. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (217 reviews). Kindle edition $6.39.
"An Alabama boy steeped in American history and enamored of such heroes as George Washington and Daniel Boone, Eugene B. Sledge became part of the war’s famous 1st Marine Division–3d Battalion, 5th Marines. Even after intense training, he was shocked to be thrown into the battle of Peleliu, where 'the world was a nightmare of flashes, explosions, and snapping bullets.' ...Based on notes Sledge secretly kept in a copy of the New Testament, With the Old Breed captures with utter simplicity and searing honesty the experience of a soldier in the fierce Pacific Theater. Here is what saved, threatened, and changed his life. Here, too, is the story of how he learned to hate and kill – and came to love – his fellow man." - Amazon.

Kindle Genre Watch (23 May 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. New releases this week include:

MYSTERIES

Gone Tomorrow: A Reacher Novel by Lee Child. Delacorte Press. Kindle edition $14.58.
"Early one morning on a nearly empty Manhattan subway car, the former army MP notices a woman passenger he suspects is a suicide bomber. The deadly result of his confronting her puts him on a trail leading back to the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s and forward to the war on terrorism..." - Publishers Weekly.
$9.99 or less alternative: Gone Tomorrow is the 13th book in the Jack Reacher series. You can pick up Killing Floor- the first book in the series - for $6.39. Do not request a free sample of Gone Tomorrow unless you wish to buy it now. You've been warned.

One Second After by William R. Forstchen. Forge. Kindle edition $9.99.
"...a high-altitude nuclear bomb of uncertain origin explodes, unleashing a deadly electromagnetic pulse that instantly disables almost every electrical device in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. Airplanes, most cars, cellphones, refrigerators - all are fried as the country plunges into literal and metaphoric darkness. History professor John Matherson, who lives with his two daughters in a small North Carolina town, soon figures out what has happened. Aided by local officials, Matherson begins to deal with such long-term effects of the disaster as starvation, disease and roving gangs of barbarians." - Publishers Weekly.

Rogue Forcesby Dale Brown. HarperCollins. Kindle edition $9.99.
" ...The newly inaugurated president, Joseph Gardner, pledged to start pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq on his first day in office - no questions asked. Meanwhile, former president Kevin Martindale and retired Air Force lieutenant-general Patrick McLanahan have left government behind for the lucrative of military contracting. Their private firm, Scion Aviation International, has been hired by the Pentagon to take over aerial patrols in northern Iraq as the U.S. military begins to downsize its presence there. Yet Iraq quickly reemerges as a hot zone: Kurdish nationalist attacks have led the Republic of Turkey to invade northern Iraq. The new American president needs to regain control of the situation -immediately - but he's reluctant to send U.S. forces back into harm's way, leaving Scion the only credible force in the region capable of blunting the Turks' advances." - Amazon.

Deadlock by Iris Johansen. St. Martin's Press. Kindle edition $9.99.
Emily Hudson is an archeologist who travels the world in search of priceless artifacts from war-torn countries and other hot spots. Her best friend and partner, Joel Levy, is always at her side - until one day, her entire crew is massacred and Joel and Emily are held captive...For two weeks they try to survive, until Emily is the unwitting instrument in Joel's demise. John Garrett has worked for the CIA, MI6, and whoever else needed his services. Now, the CIA comes calling with a desperate mission for him: save Emily Hudson." - Amazon.

FANTASY

Dayhunter by Jocelynn Drake. HarperCollins. Kindle edition $7.99. This is the second book in Drake's Dark Days series. The first - also available in a Kindle edition - is Nightwalker.
"A master of fire, Mira is the last hope for the world. For centuries she has secretly enforced the history-altering edicts of the Triad. Now she and her unlikely ally - the human vampire hunter, Danaus - have come to Venice, home of the nightwalker rulers. But there is no safety in the ancient city, for the threat of conflict is in the wind...with unholy alliances and earth-shattering betrayals taking hideous form in the shadows... " - harpercollins.com.

Skin Tradeby Laurell K. Hamilton. Berkley. Kindle edition $14.82.
"When a vampire serial killer sends Anita Blake a grisly souvenir from Las Vegas, she has to warn Sin City's local authorities what they're dealing with. Only it's worse than she thought. Ten officers and one executioner have been slain - paranormal style. Anita heads to Vegas, where she's joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward. It's a good thing he always has her back, because when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses tiger - too strongly to ignore it. The weretigers are very powerful in Las Vegas, which means the odds of her rubbing someone important the wrong way just got a lot higher." - Amazon.
$9.99 or less alternative: If you are new to Hamilton's Anita Blake series, you can pick up the introductory volume - Guilty Pleasures- for $4.99. For a complete list (in order) of books in the series, see Arthur W. Jordin's Anita Blake Listmania list.

Magic In the Bloodby Devon Monk. Publisher. Kindle edition $5.59. Her first book featuring Allie Beckstrom was Magic to the Bone.
"Allison Beckstrom knows better than most that when magic's involved, nothing is free. She's had to pay its price of migraines and forgetfulness while working as a Hound, tracing illegal spells back to their casters. And even though magic has stolen her recent memory--including her history with the man she supposedly fell in love with--Allie isn't about to give up on Hounding or the city she cares about. Then the police's magic enforcement division asks her to consult on what seems to be a straightforward missing-persons case. What begins as a way to make rent leads Allie into grave danger when the trail she's following draws her into the dark underworld of criminals, ghosts, and blood magic. There, Allie discovers it will take more than just magic to survive..." - devonmonk.com.

ROMANCE

Whispered Lies by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Pocket Books. Kindle edition $9.99.
"Bureau of American Defense operative Carlos Delgado has spent the past sixteen years watching over his shoulder, waiting for death to catch up to him. His luck runs out when BAD intercepts an unexpected tip on the number one threat to United States security: the Fratelli de il Sovrano. Their best hope for uncovering a deadly plan that risks countless lives and threatens economic chaos just days before the presidential election is to capture a mysterious informant known as Mirage. But when Carlos takes her into custody, Mirage is not at all what he expected..." - Amazon.

Seducing an Angel by Mary Balogh. Dell. Kindle edition $9.99.
"Cassandra Belmont has reached a decision: she is going to become a courtesan. Now all she has to do is select the right (incredibly wealthy) patron, which may be a bit difficult since the rumor that Cassandra took an ax to her late husband is still busily circulating...Fortunately, dazzling and rich Stephen Huxtable, the Earl of Merton, is one of the few people in London who completely dismisses the idea that Cassandra could be a murderess. Getting Stephen to fall in love with her proves to be ridiculously easy, but the one thing Cassandra hasn’t counted on is that her new lover might demand more from her than a simple business arrangement." - Booklist.

Undead and Unwelcomeby Mary Janice Davidson. Berkley. Kindle edition $9.99.
"Betsy Taylor has problems that only a vampire queen/suburban wife could possibly understand. Such as taking the body of her werewolf friend Antonia - who died in her service - to Cape Cod, where she's not sure if the Wyndham werewolves will welcome her with fangs or friendship. Meanwhile, her posse back in St. Paul is sending frantic e-mails alerting Betsy to her half-sister's increasingly erratic behavior. Looks like the devil's daughter is coming into her own - and raising hell." - Amazon.

Fatal Secrets by Allison Brennan. Ballantine Books. Kindle edition $6.39.
"When a top lieutenant in a notorious ring of human traffickers agrees to turn state’s evidence, Immigration and Customs Enforcement senior agent Sonia Knight believes she’ll finally take down the illegal operation’s devilish mastermind, Xavier Jones... FBI agent Dean Hooper has been chasing Jones for years on money-laundering and tax-evasion charges and doesn’t need or want a hot-headed ICE agent second-guessing his every move. When the Bureau is ordered to join forces with ICE, Sonia is just as livid: Her job is to save lives, not money. But their team effort pays off as fierce mutual resentment fades and passion flares–along with risk..." - Amazon.

SCIENCE FICTION

The Essential Andre Norton Anthologyby Andre Norton. Publisher. Kindle edition $4.79.
Includes The Defiant Agents, The Gifts of Asti, Key Out of Time, Plague Ship, Ralestone Luck, Rebel Spurs, Ride Proud, Rebel!, Star Born, Star Hunter, Storm Over Warlock, The Time Traders, and Voodoo Planet - all in one collection with an active table of contents.

Star Wars: Millennium Falcon by James Luceno. LucasBooks. TEXT-TO-SPEECH DISABLED. Kindle edition $14.30.
Two years have passed since Jacen Solo, seduced by the dark side and reanointed as the brutal Sith Lord Darth Caedus, died at the hands of his twin sister, Jaina, Sword of the Jedi. For a grieving Han and Leia, the shadow of their son's tragic downfall still looms large. But Jacen's own bright and loving daughter, Allana, offers a ray of hope for the future as she thrives in her grandparents' care. And when the eager, inquisitive girl, in whom the Force grows ever stronger, makes a curious discovery aboard her grandfather's beloved spacecraft - the much-overhauled but ever-dependable Millennium Falcon - the Solo family finds itself at a new turning point, about to set out on an odyssey into uncertain territory, untold adventure, and unexpected rewards..." - Amazon.

FederationsPrime Books. Kindle edition $7.99.
"... science fiction has a rich history of exploring the idea of vast intergalactic societies, and the challenges facing those living in or trying to manage such societies. The stories in Federations will continue that tradition...a mix of all-new, original fiction, alongside selected reprints from authors whose work exemplifies what interstellar SF is capable of, including Lois McMaster Bujold, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, George R.R. Martin, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Alastair Reynolds, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Silverberg and Harry Turtledove." - Amazon.

Flinx Transcendent: A Pip & Flinx Adventure by Alan Dean Foster. Ballantine. Kindle edition $14.30.
"...thrilling conclusion to the series that began over thirty-five years ago–the epic adventures of Flinx and his flying minidrag companion, Pip. Flinx is the only one with even the tiniest chance of stopping the evil colossus barreling in to destroy the Humanx Commonwealth (and everything else in the Milky Way). With time running out, Flinx is a man in search of a solution and in search of himself. His efforts take him to the land of his mortal enemies, the bloodthirsty AAnn, where chances are excellent that Flinx’s discovery - and summary execution - will eliminate all his demons and doubts in one masterstroke." - Amazon.
$9.99 or less alternative: For Love of Mother Not - the first novel, chronologically, in the Pip & Flinx series. See the complete Piip & Flinx bibliography in the Wikipedia.

WESTERNS

The Dead Townby J. R. Roberts. The Gunsmith, 330. Jove. Kindle edition $4.79.
"The Gunsmith stumbles upon a ghost town. Population: 1. A dust storm drives Clint Adams into the deserted town of Jasper, Kansas, where its only resident, a spitfire of a woman, tells him the story of Jasper's violent past...a story he'll write his own ending to - in a hail of bullets." - Amazon.

The Return of the Mountain Manby William W. Johnstone. Kensington. Kindle edition $8.20.
"Smoke Jensen is a young man raised on loss and bitterness, nurtured by a mountain man named Preacher. Now, Smoke Jensen, with a new black horse and an old grudge, slips over the unmarked border into the turbulent Idaho Territory. Ahead is a town called Bury, built on stolen gold, and run by a band of ruthless men who had a hand in the murder of Smoke's brother in the Civil War. Smoke's father died in pursuit of those killers, but urged his son not to waste his life in vengeance." - Amazon.

High Lonesomeby Stacey Coverstone. The Wild Rose Press. Kindle edition $4.80.
"Scott Landry, steadfast owner of the High Lonesome Guest Ranch in Ghost Rock, New Mexico, happens across a dark-haired beauty assaulted and left for dead in the high desert. She’s suffering from amnesia—remembering nothing about the attack, where she’s from, or even her name. From the moment Scott lays eyes on 'Beth,' he knows everything in his life is about to change." - Amazon.

Slocum and the Dynamite Kidby Jake Logan. Slocum, 364. Publisher. Kindle edition $4.79.
"Slocum heads into a gold mine - and it's going to be a blast. Framed for murdering a bar owner, Slocum finds himself on the run. Broke and desperate, he's hired at the Shady Line Mine, where most men never make it out alive. Good thing Slocum isn't most men." - Amazon.

Black Hills Badmanby Jon Sharpe. The Trailsman, 333. Signet. Kindle edition $4.79.
"Some paths you don't want to take...Fargo is in Sioux country, guiding a blustery U.S. Senator from back east, his beautiful new wife, and their bratty daughter on a hunting party through the territory at the senator's insistence. But the Sioux are being led by Little Face - a medicine man of great power, dangerous magic, and a blood-curdling hatred of the Trailsman. - Amazon.


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A Week of Entertainment: Books Reviewed in Entertainment Weekly 22 May 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 Increment by David Ignatius. Norton. THRILLER. EW's slant: "...fitfully exciting spy novel." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (28 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"From a hidden enclave in the maze of Tehran, an Iranian scientist who calls himself Dr. Ali sends an encrypted message to the CIA. It falls to Harry Pappas to decide if it's for real. Dr. Ali sends more secrets of the Iranian bomb program to the agency, then panics. He's being followed, but he doesn't know who's onto him, and neither does Pappas... To get his agent out, Pappas turns to a secret British spy team known as The Increment, whose operatives carry the modern version of the double-O license to kill. But the real story here is infinitely more complicated than he understands, and to get to the bottom of it he must betray his own country." - Amazon.

Stone's Fall by Iain Pears. Spiegel & Grau. THRILLER. EW's slant: "...labyrinthine historical thriller..." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (8 reviews). Kindle edition $15.37.
"...the story of John Stone, financier and arms dealer, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War One he was able to manipulate markets, industries, and indeed entire countries and continents. A panoramic novel with a riveting mystery at its heart, Stone’s Fall is a quest to discover how and why John Stone dies, falling out of a window at his London home..." - Amazon.

Rinnavation: Getting Your Best Life Everby Lisa Rinna and Maureen O'Neal. Pocket. NONFICTION. EW's slant: "The wife of Harry Hamlin spills on everything..." Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $14.30.
"Whether she's interviewing celebrities on the red carpet, or 'movin' what she's got' on Dancing with the Stars, Lisa Rinna always looks absolutely sensational. Now for the first time, the award-winning actress who captured our hearts in Days of Our Lives and Melrose Place reveals her best-kept secrets for staying fit, managing weight, looking beautiful, feeling sexy, and living the best life possible." - Amazon.
$9.99 or less alternative: You: Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warrantyby Mehmet C. Oz.

Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversitiesby Elizabeth Edwards. Broadway. MEMOIR. EW's slant: "...lovely, unfettered prose..." Amazon customer rating: 3 1/2 stars (29 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"She’s one of the most beloved political figures in the country, and on the surface, seems to have led a charmed life. In many ways, she has. Beautiful family. Thriving career. Supportive friendship. Loving marriage. But she’s no stranger to adversity...While on the campaign trail, Elizabeth met many others who have had to contend with serious adversity in their lives, and in Resilience, she draws on their experiences as well as her own, crafting an unsentimental and ultimately inspirational meditation on the gifts we can find among life’s biggest challenges. This short, powerful, pocket-sized inspirational book makes an ideal gift for anyone dealing with difficulties in their life, who can find peace in knowing they are not alone, and promise that things can get better." - Amazon.

Capturing the Lives of Others: New Biographies for the Kindle

One lives in the hope of becoming a memory - Antonio Porchia.

Given the burgeoning popularity of social media on the Internet, it is not surprising that biographies and memoirs are among the most popular reading choices of Kindle readers. Whether you enjoy reading of exemplary lives or living vicariously through celebrity memoirs, now you can spend less time searching and more time reading, as I watch for new biographies and memoirs in the Kindle Store so you don't have to.

Paul Newman: A Lifeby Shawn Levy. Harmony. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (2 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"...film critic and pop culture historian Shawn Levy gives readers the ultimate behind-the-scenes examination of the actor’s life, from his merry pranks on the set to his lasting romance with Joanne Woodward to the devastating impact of his son’s death from a drug overdose. This definitive biography is a fascinating portrait of an extraordinarily gifted man who gave back as much as he got out of life and just happened to be one of the most celebrated movie stars of the twentieth century." - Amazon.

Masters and Commanders by Andrew Roberts. HarperCollins. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $19.24.
"An epic joint biography, Masters and Commanders explores the degree to which the course of the Second World War turned on the relationships and temperaments of four of the strongest personalities of the twentieth century: political masters Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt and the commanders of their armed forces, General Sir Alan Brooke and General George C. Marshall...Drawing on newly discovered verbatim accounts of Churchill's war-cabinet meetings and on the private papers of nearly seventy contemporaries, Roberts reconstructs the lively debates of the four principals and other leading figures, and attempts to answer some of the key questions of Allied strategy." - Amazon.
$9.99 or less alternative: Winston Churchillby John Keegan.

Red and Meby Bill Russell. HarperCollins. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"Red Auerbach, one of the greatest coaches in sports history, died on October 28, 2006. Bill Russell, the five-time MVP and star center on the Auerbach teams that won eleven championships in thirteen years, said little in public at the time. His relationship with his coach had been so deeply personal that he could not express it with a brief comment...Red and Me is an extraordinary book: an homage to a peerless coach, showing how he produced results unlike any other; an inspiring story of mutual success, in which each man gave his all, and gained back even more; above all, it may be the best depiction of male friendship ever put on the page." - Amazon.

Home Gameby Michael Lewis. Norton. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $9.99.
"When he became a father, Michael Lewis found himself expected to feel things that he didn't feel, and to do things that he couldn't see the point of doing. At first this made him feel guilty, until he realized that all around him fathers were pretending to do one thing, to feel one way, when in fact they felt and did all sorts of things, then engaged in what amounted to an extended cover-up. Lewis decided to keep a written record of what actually happened immediately after the birth of each of his three children. This book is that record. But it is also something else: maybe the funniest, most unsparing account of ordinary daily household life ever recorded from the point of view of the man inside." - Amazon.

Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life's Adversitiesby Elizabeth Edwards. Broadway. Amazon customer rating: 3 1/2 stars (28 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"She’s one of the most beloved political figures in the country, and on the surface, seems to have led a charmed life. In many ways, she has. Beautiful family. Thriving career. Supportive friendship. Loving marriage. But she’s no stranger to adversity...While on the campaign trail, Elizabeth met many others who have had to contend with serious adversity in their lives, and in Resilience, she draws on their experiences as well as her own, crafting an unsentimental and ultimately inspirational meditation on the gifts we can find among life’s biggest challenges. This short, powerful, pocket-sized inspirational book makes an ideal gift for anyone dealing with difficulties in their life, who can find peace in knowing they are not alone, and promise that things can get better." - Amazon.

An American Gospel: On Family, History, and the Kingdom of Godby Erik Reece. Penguin. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $9.99.
"Erik Reece’s grandfather was a Bible-thumping, fire-and-brimstone Baptist preacher... for him, existence on this earth was about denying the pleasures of this life in preparation for the next. Erik’s father was a Baptist minister, too. But at the age of thirty-three...Erik’s father violently took his own life, and Erik ended up spending much of his childhood in the care of his grandparents. So, while Erik grew up with a conflicted relationship with Christianity, he also grew up with an acute awareness of a part of the country suffering ongoing economic, environmental, and even spiritual collapse. When he himself neared age thirty-three, he found unexpected comfort and guidance in his intellectual hero Thomas Jefferson’s famous Jefferson Bible, especially when he began to track similarities between it and the Zen-like message of the Gospel of Thomas. Inspired, he undertook what would become a spiritual and literary quest - to identify an 'American gospel' coursing through the work of both great and forgotten American geniuses, from William Byrd to Walt Whitman to William James to Lynn Margulis...The result of Reece’s journey is a deeply personal but also deeply thought out, inspiring, and stirring book, delivered almost like a secular sermon, about personal, political, and historical demons - and the geniuses we can and must call on to combat them." - Amazon.


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