Kindle Genre Watch: Sci-Fi, Romance and Western Fiction (31 Jul 10)

Spend less time searching for new genre fiction and more time reading it as I watch for newly-released genre fiction in the Kindle Store so you don't have to. Recent genre fiction releases in sci-fi, romance and western fiction include:

SCIENCE FICTION

The Four Fingers of Death by Rick Moody. Little, Brown and Company. Print Length: 736 p. Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Montese Crandall is a downtrodden writer whose rare collection of baseball cards won't sustain him, financially or emotionally, through the grave illness of his wife. Luckily, he swindles himself a job churning out a novelization of the 2025 remake of a 1963 horror classic, 'The Crawling Hand.' Crandall tells therein of the United States, in a bid to regain global eminence, launching at last its doomed manned mission to the desolation of Mars. Three space pods with nine Americans on board travel three months, expecting to spend three years as the planet's first colonists. When a secret mission to retrieve a flesh-eating bacterium for use in bio-warfare is uncovered, mayhem ensues. Only a lonely human arm (missing its middle finger) returns to earth, crash-landing in the vast Sonoran Desert of Arizona. The arm may hold the secret to reanimation or it may simply be an infectious killing machine." - Amazon.

Gateways by Elizabeth A. Hull. Tor Books. Print Length: 416 p. Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
An anthology of new, original stories by bestselling science fiction authors, inspired by science fiction great Frederik Pohl,
with original, captivating tales by Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, David Brin, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Joe Haldeman, Harry Harrison, Larry Niven, Vernor Vinge, Gene Wolfe, and others. Each author has written a story that he or she feels reflects the effect Pohl has had on the field - in the style of writing, the narrative tone, or the subject matter. It says a lot about Pohl's career that the authors represented here themselves span many decades and styles, from the experimental SF of British SF author Brian W. Aldiss to the over-the-top humor of Harry Harrison and Mike Resnick, from the darkly powerful drama of Hollywood screenwriter Frank Robinson to the satiric pungency of multiple Hugo Award-winner Vernor Vinge." - Amazon.

Pathfinder by Laura E. Reeve. Roc. Print Length: 336 p. Kindle edition $6.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Reserve Major Ariane Kedros needs a shot at redemption-and the mysterious aliens known as the Minoans need an extraordinary human pilot with a rejuv-stimulated metabolism like Ariane for a dangerous expedition to a distant solar system. But there's a catch. The Minoans have to implant their technology in Ariane's body, and it might not be removable. Ariane is willing, but as she begins the perilous journey, there is an old enemy hiding within the exploration team who is determined to see them fail..." - Publisher.
This is book three in the Major Ariane Kedros series, following Peacekeeper and Vigilante.

The Dervish House by Ian McDonald. Pyr. Print Length: 410 p. Kindle edition $14.30. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"It begins with an explosion. Another day, another bus bomb. Everyone it seems is after a piece of Turkey. Welcome to the world of The Dervish House - the great, ancient, paradoxical city of Istanbul, divided like a human brain, in the great, ancient, equally paradoxical nation of Turkey. The year is 2027 and Turkey is about to celebrate the fifth anniversary of its accession to the European Union, a Europe that now runs from the Arran Islands to Ararat. Population pushing one hundred million, Istanbul swollen to fifteen million, Turkey is the largest, most populous, and most diverse nation in the EU, but also one of the poorest and most socially divided. It's a boom economy, the sweatshop of Europe, the bazaar of central Asia, the key to the immense gas wealth of Russia and central Asia. The Dervish House is seven days, six characters, three interconnected story strands, one central common core - the eponymous dervish house, a character in itself - that pins all these players together in a weave of intrigue, conflict, drama, and a ticking clock of a thriller." - www.pyrsf.com/

ROMANCE

All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins. HQN Books. Print Length: 384 p. Kindle edition $5.59. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"For Callie Grey, turning thirty means coming to grips with the fact that her boss (and five-week fling) is way overdue in his marriage proposal. And way off track because Mark has suddenly announced his engagement to the company's new Miss Perfect. If that isn't bad enough, her mom decides to throw her a three-oh birthday bash in the family funeral home. Bad goes to worse when she stirs up a crazy relationship with the town's not so warm and fuzzy veterinarian, Ian McFarland, in order to flag Mark's attention. So Ian is more comfortable with animals.... So he's formal, orderly and just a bit tense. The ever-friendly, fun-loving and spontaneous Callie decides it's time for Ian to get a personality makeover..." - Amazon.

Kiss Me If You Can by Carly Phillips. HQN Books. Print Length: 384 p. Kindle edition $5.59. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Sam Cooper has just become the most eligible bachelor in New York City. Now that he has foiled a jewelry-store robbery and has been rewarded with the ring of his choice, single women all over the city are fawning over the crime reporter. But Coop isn't interested in the admirers sending racy underwear his way. His attention is centered solely on Lexie Davis, the only woman in the city who claims not to be interested in his bachelor status. Instead, free-spirited Lexie is interested in Coop's antique ring, and its--potentially scandalous--history in her family.

A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James. Harper Collins. Print Length: 384 p. Kindle edition $7.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"...delectable Regency reimagining of the Cinderella story. Miss Katherine Daltry, on the shelf at 23, manages the household of her ungrateful stepmother and silly stepsister, who inherited all of her father's estate. Kate is thrust from the cinders to the spotlight when her stepsister needs a stand-in for a betrothal ball at Pomeroy Castle. Gabriel, youngest princeling of the duchy of Warl-Marburg-Baalsfeld, needs a rich wife to support his archeology habit; Kate is, of course, manifestly unsuitable. Eccentric turns from Professor Biggitstiff, a pickle-eating dog, and an irrepressible godmother spin a candy floss comic romp around a core of heartache. James's deft touch allows the characters to shine through genuinely witty dialogue and an uncluttered plot." - Publishers Weekly.

Three Nights with a Scoundrel by Tessa Dare. Ballantine Books. Print Length: 384 p. Kindle edition $6.29. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"The bastard son of a nobleman, Julian Bellamy is now polished to perfection, enthralling the ton with wit and charm while clandestinely plotting to ruin the lords, ravish the ladies, and have the last laugh on a society that once spurned him. But after meeting Leo Chatwick, a decent man and founder of an elite gentlemen’s club, and Lily, Leo’s enchanting sister, Julian reconsiders his wild ways. And when Leo’s tragic murder demands that Julian hunt for justice, he vows to see the woman he secretly loves married to a man of her own class. Lily, however, has a very different husband in mind." - from the paperback edition.

WESTERNS

Crack in the Sky: The Plainsmen by Terry C. Johnston. Bantam. Print Length: 672 p. Kindle edition $5.93. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Crack in the Sky continues the development of the young Titus Bass as he gradually learns the lore of the mountain man. From a raucous rendezvous of trappers to a searing fight with Comanche, from a frigid winter's chill to the angry heat of a chase with horse thieves, Titus Bass's West comes alive in the pages of this remarkable novel - and in its final scene, Titus Bass will meet young Josiah Paddock and form the deep friendship explored in the pages of Carry the Wind." - Publisher.

The Wandering Hill by Larry McMurtry. The Berrybender Narratives, Book 2. Simon & Schuster. Print Length: 432 p. Kindle edition $7.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"This is the second volume in McMurtry's four-book series the Berrybender Narratives, following last year's Sin Killer. Set in 1833 along the banks of the Yellowstone River, the comedic melodrama mixes unwashed mountain men with an arrogant, obnoxious and uncouth family of English aristocrats in a saga of high violence, low morals and lusty copulation. Lord Berrybender and his brood of selfish bumbling children, servants and mistress are touring the American West, shooting every animal in sight... The English group and a bunch of smelly, hairy mountain men winter over at a trading post through months of quarrels, meanness and downright coarse behavior, while marauding Sioux under the command of a white man-hating war chief called the Partezon gruesomely torture and slaughter any white they can catch. McMurtry tosses in famous hunters and mountain men like Hugh Glass, Kit Carson and Tom Fitzpatrick, plus a buffalo stampede, grizzly bears and an Indian ambush..." - Publishers Weekly.

A Week of Entertainment: Kindle Books Reviewed in Entertainment Weekly 30 Jul 10

Each week Entertainment Weekly reviews a small selection of popular new books. Titles available for the Kindle reviewed in the July 30th issue include:


The Glass Rainbow, by James Lee Burke. A Dave Robicheaux novel. Simon & Schuster. Print length: 384 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...the venerable author still writes with the same intensity, and moral avidity, that energizes his equally aged hero..." Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (6 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Detective Dave Robicheaux [is] back in New Iberia, Louisiana, and embroiled in the most harrowing and dangerous case of his career. Seven young women in neighboring Jefferson Davis Parish have been brutally murdered. While the crimes have all the telltale signs of a serial killer, the death of Bernadette Latiolais, a high school honor student, doesn’t fit: she is not the kind of hapless and marginalized victim psychopaths usually prey upon. Robicheaux and his best friend, Clete Purcel, confront Herman Stanga, a notorious pimp and crack dealer whom both men despise. When Stanga turns up dead shortly after a fierce beating by Purcel, in front of numerous witnesses, the case takes a nasty turn..." - www.jamesleeburke.com/
Less expensive alternative: Crusader's Cross, another peek into the violent and complex world of the New Iberia, Louisiana sheriff's deputy.

Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart. Random House. Print length: 352 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...funny, on-target, and ultimately sad..." Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (14 reviews). Kindle edition $14.30. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"In a very near future—oh, let’s say next Tuesday—a functionally illiterate America is about to collapse. But don’t that tell that to poor Lenny Abramov, the thirty-nine-year-old son of an angry Russian immigrant janitor, proud author of what may well be the world’s last diary, and less-proud owner of a bald spot shaped like the great state of Ohio. Despite his job at an outfit called Post-Human Services, which attempts to provide immortality for its super-rich clientele, death is clearly stalking this cholesterol-rich morsel of a man. And why shouldn’t it? Lenny’s from a different century—he totally loves books (or “printed, bound media artifacts,” as they’re now known), even though most of his peers find them smelly and annoying. But even more than books, Lenny loves Eunice Park, an impossibly cute and impossibly cruel twenty-four-year-old Korean American woman who just graduated from Elderbird College with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness." - www.randomhouse.com/
$9.99 or less alternative: Shteyngart's earlier comic novel Absurdistan.

03, by Jean-Christophe Valtat. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Print length: 96 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...inner monologue, which takes place entirely in a single moment at a bus stop [and] manages to ring true..." Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"A precocious teenager in a French suburb finds himself powerfully, troublingly drawn to the girl he sees every day on the way to school. As he watches and thinks about her, his daydreams - full of lyrics from Joy Division and the Smiths, fairy tales, Flowers for Algernon, sexual desire and fear, loneliness, rage for escape, impatience to grow up - reveal an entire adolescence. And this fleeting erotic obsession, remembered years later, blossoms into a meditation on what it means to be a smart kid, what it means to be dumb, and what it means to be in love with another person." - Amazon.

Everything Is Going to Be Great: An Underfunded and Overexposed European Grand Tour, by Rachel Shukert. Harper Collins. Print length: 336 p. MEMOIR. EW's slant: "...lurking beneath the jabs and one-liners is an affecting - and pretty unforgettable - coming-of-age tale." Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"When she lands a coveted nonpaying, nonspeaking role in a play going on a European tour, Rachel Shukert - with a brand-new degree in acting from NYU and no money - finally scores her big break. And, after a fluke at customs in Vienna, she gets her golden ticket: an unstamped passport, giving her free rein to 'find herself' on a grand tour of Europe. Traveling from Vienna to Zurich to Amsterdam, Rachel bounces through complicated relationships, drunken mishaps, miscommunication, and the reality-adjusting culture shock that every twentysomething faces when sent off to negotiate 'the real world' - whatever that may be." - Amazon.

THRILLERS FOR SUMMER READING MENTIONED IN THIS ISSUE

Crashers, by Dana Haynes. Minotaur Books. Print length: 352 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (21 reviews). Kindle edition $11.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"When a passenger plane, a Vermeer One Eleven, slams into the ground outside Portland, Oregon, a team is quickly assembled to investigate the cause. Usually the team has months to determine the cause of a crash. But this time it's different. This time, the plane was brought down deliberately, without leaving a trace, and this was only a trial run. In LA, Daria Gibron - a former Shin Bet agent, now under the protection of the FBI - spots a group of suspicious-looking men. Missing her former life of action, she attaches herself to them only to learn that, somehow, they were responsbie for the plane crash and are preparing for another action. While her FBI handler tries to find her and save her, Daria risks her life to try to get close enough to learn what's going on and thwart the coming terrorist action. But time is running out and her cover story is running thin." - Amazon.
$9.99 or less alternative: the two novel collection Whistleblower and Never Say Die. In Never Say Die, a woman travels to Asia to search for the truth about her father's mysterious death in a plane crash twenty years earlier.

Galveston, by Nic Pizzolatto. Scribner. Print length: 288 p. NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (8 reviews). Kindle edition $11.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"...a taut first novel suffused with a strong noir sensibility. Roy Cady is working as a strong-arm man for a low-level New Orleans gangster when two events change his life: he’s diagnosed with terminal cancer, and his boss puts out a hit on him. Soon enough, Roy and a young prostitute, Rocky - thrown together after a blood-spattered encounter with the would-be hit men - are on the run, traveling from New Orleans to Galveston. ....Pizzolatto builds tension by moving back and forth in time: we know it all goes bad, but we don’t know how. Add to that a writer with a real feel for the special poetry of noir, and you have a fine crime-fiction debut. - Bill Ott for Booklist.
$9.99 or less alternative: Pizzolatto's earlier collection of short stories, Between Here and the Yellow Sea.

House Justice, by Mike Lawson. Atlantic Monthly Press. Print length: 384 p. NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (6 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"An American spy in Iran is exposed by a female journalist, and the spy is tortured, then executed. Enraged, the director of Central Intelligence blames the leak on Congress. Speaker of the House John Fitzpatrick Mahoney isn’t sure who leaked the information, but he’s certain the journalist, jailed for refusing to name her source, will spill the beans about their one-night stand 20 years earlier. Mahoney summons Joe DeMarco, his personal gumshoe and fixer, to identify the leaker and keep the journalist from embarrassing him. Lawson’s tight, high-energy prose drives a plot with more turns than the Burma Road, as DeMarco finds himself surrounded by sleazy legislators, CIA spooks, Russian gangsters, FBI agents, assorted hit men, a misanthropic billionaire, a SoCal surfer/computer-gamer/millionaire, and a mysterious Iranian florist hell-bent on avenging the murdered spy..." - Thomas Gaughan for Booklist.
This is Lawson's fifth political thriller to feature Joe DeMarco. All are available in Kindle editions starting with The Inside Ring.

Rock Paper Tiger, by Lisa Brackmann. Soho Press. Print length: 368 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (16 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"American Iraq War veteran Ellie Cooper is down and out in Beijing when a chance encounter with a Uighur - a member of a Chinese Muslim minority - at the home of her sort-of boyfriend Lao Zhang turns her life upside down. Lao Zhang disappears, and suddenly multiple security organizations are hounding her for information. They say the Uighur is a terrorist. Ellie doesn’t know what’s going on, but she must decide whom to trust among the artists, dealers, collectors, and operatives claiming to be on her side - in particular, a mysterious organization operating within a popular online role-playing game." - Amazon.

The Taken, by Inger Ash Wolfe. Houghton Mifflin. Print length: 432 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (9 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef is having a bad year. After major back surgery, she has no real option but to move into her ex-husband's basement and suffer the humiliation of his new wife bringing her meals down on a tray. As if that weren't enough, Hazel's octogenarian mother secretly flushes Hazel's stash of painkillers down the toilet. It's almost a relief when Hazel gets a call about a body fished up by tourists in one of the lakes near Port Dundas. But what raises the hair on the back of Micallef 's neck is that the local paper has just published the first installment of a serialized story featuring such a scenario." - Amazon.

Kindle Genre Watch: New in Mystery & Fantasy Fiction (27 Jul 2010)

Spend less time searching for new genre fiction and more time reading it as I watch for newly-released genre fiction in the Kindle Store so you don't have to. Recent genre fiction releases in mystery and fantasy fiction include:

MYSTERY

The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva. Putnam. Print length: 496 p. Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
Determined to sever his ties with the Office, Gabriel Allon has retreated to the windswept cliffs of Cornwall with his beautiful Venetian-born wife Chiara. But once again his seclusion is interrupted by a visitor from his tangled past: the endearingly eccentric London art dealer, Julian Isherwood. As usual, Isherwood has a problem. And it is one only Gabriel can solve. In the ancient English city of Glastonbury, an art restorer has been brutally murdered and a long-lost portrait by Rembrandt mysteriously stolen. Despite his reluctance, Gabriel is persuaded to use his unique skills to search for the painting and those responsible for the crime. But as he painstakingly follows a trail of clues leading from Amsterdam to Buenos Aires and, finally, to a villa on the graceful shores of Lake Geneva, Gabriel discovers there are deadly secrets connected to the painting..." - Amazon.
Less expensive alternative: The Kill Artist, Silva's first thriller to feature art restorer Gabriel Allon.

Think of a Number by John Verdon. Crown. Print length: 432 p. Kindle edition $3.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Arriving in the mail over a period of weeks are taunting letters that end with a simple declaration, 'Think of any number...picture it...now see how well I know your secrets.' Amazingly, those who comply find that the letter writer has predicted their random choice exactly. For Dave Gurney, just retired as the NYPD’s top homicide investigator and forging a new life with his wife, Madeleine, in upstate New York, the letters are oddities that begin as a diverting puzzle but quickly ignite a massive serial murder investigation. What police are confronted with is a completely baffling killer, one who is fond of rhymes filled with threats and warnings, whose attention to detail is unprecedented, and who has an uncanny knack for disappearing into thin air. Brought in as an investigative consultant, Dave Gurney soon accomplishes deductive breakthroughs that leave local police in awe. Yet, even as he matches wits with his seemingly clairvoyant opponent, Gurney’s tragedy-marred past rises up to haunt him, his marriage approaches a dangerous precipice, and finally, a dark, cold fear builds that he’s met an adversary who can’t be stopped..." - Amazon.

Faithful Place by Tana French. Viking. Print length: 416 p. Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Back in 1985, Frank Mackey was nineteen, growing up poor in Dublin's inner city and living crammed into a small flat with his family on Faithful Place. But he had his sights set on a lot more. He and his girl Rosie Daly were all set to run away to London together, get married, get good jobs, break away from factory work and poverty and their old lives. But on the winter night when they were supposed to leave, Rosie didn't show. Frank took it for granted that she'd dumped him - probably because of his alcoholic father, nutcase mother, and generally dysfunctional family. He never went home again. Neither did Rosie. Everyone thought she had gone to England on her own and was over there living a shiny new life. Then, twenty-two years later, Rosie's suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place..." - www.tanafrench.com.
Less expensive alternative: All of the novels by Tana French are priced at $12.99 in Kindle editions. For an alternative mystery set in Dublin, consider Bartholomew Gill's Death in Dublin.

Hostage Zero by John Gilstrap. Pinnacle Books. Print length: 400 p. Kindle edition $4.47. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"The addictively readable second thriller featuring freelance hostage rescue operative Jonathan 'Digger' Grave (after 2009's No Mercy) marries a breakneck pace to a complex, multilayered plot. When two teenage boys are inexplicably kidnapped from a Virginia residential school for children of incarcerated parents, Grave and his crew set out to locate the victims and apprehend the abductors. Then one of the boys is drugged and left to die in a field, saved only by the fateful intervention of a passing homeless man, and Grave's investigation begins to turn up leads that point to government and organized crime connections..." - Publishers Weekly.

Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner. A Detective D. D. Warren novel. Bantam. Print length: 400 p. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Boston police detective D. D. Warren returns in another gripping thriller. A family is murdered, apparently by the father... But soon there are questions, the most pressing of which is, Why would this man, apparently out of the blue, slaughter his own family? Is it possible that someone else was the killer, perhaps another member of the family? In addition to telling a compelling story, Gardner also explores an issue that is rarely discussed in fiction: children who are psychotic. In first-person chapters narrated by other characters (Victoria, a mother at her wits’ end; Danielle, survivor of a family slaughter), she eases the reader into unfamiliar territory, telling us about children - like Evan, Victoria’s eight-year-old son - who are capable of astonishing violence, including plotting to murder their own parents... The notion of murderous children may be off-putting enough to make some readers avoid the book. That would be a mistake... - David Pitt for Booklist.

FANTASY

Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik. A novel of Temeraire. Del Rey. Print length: 272 p. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Convicted of treason despite their heroic defense against Napoleon’s invasion of England, Temeraire and Laurence - stripped of rank and standing - have been transported to the prison colony at New South Wales in distant Australia, where, it is hoped, they cannot further corrupt the British Aerial Corps with their dangerous notions of liberty for dragons. Instead of leaving behind all the political entanglements and corruptions of the war, Laurence and Temeraire have instead sailed into a hornet’s nest of fresh complications. For the colony at New South Wales has been thrown into turmoil after the overthrow of the military governor, one William Bligh - better known as Captain Bligh, late of HMS Bounty. Bligh wastes no time in attempting to enlist Temeraire and Laurence to restore him to office, while the upstart masters of the colony are equally determined that the new arrivals should not upset a balance of power precariously tipped in their favor..." - from the hardcover edition.
This is book six in Novik's Temeraire series which began with His Majesty's Dragon. The first three volumes of the series are available in a Kindle omnibus edition as In His Majesty's Service. For more detailed information on the author and the series, check out the official Temeraire website.

Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk. Pyr. Print length: 279 p. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Like many other assassin characters, Caim is an orphan. But he has a ghostlike companion, Kit, whom only he can hear and see, and an uncanny ability to manipulate shadows. Set in a kingdom where the religious are not so holy and the nobility are corrupt, Caim has no loyalties and few scruples. He reluctantly accepts a contract to assassinate a nobleman, only to find that someone else got there first. He and the nobleman's daughter, Josey, become an unlikely pair in the search for her father's killers and the people who set up Caim. The intrigue, action scenes, and ever-more-revealing character insights are masterfully woven together in a book the reader won't want to put down." - Rebecca Gerber for Booklist.

Dark and Stormy Knights edited by P. N. Elrod. St. Martin's Griffin. Print length: 368 p. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"They're the ultimate defenders of humanity - modern day knights who do dark deeds for all the right reasons. In this all-star collection, nine of today's hottest paranormal authors bring us thrilling, all-new stories of supernatural knights that are brimming with magic mystery and mayhem. John Marcone sets aside his plans to kill Harry Dresden to go head-to-head with a cantrev lord in Jim Butcher's Even Hand. Kate Daniels is called upon for bodyguard duty to protect Saimen, a shifter she trusts less than the enemy in Ilona Andrews' A Questionable Client. Cormac must stop a killer werewolf before it attacks again on the next full moon in Carrie Vaughn's God's Creatures. And in Vicki Pettersson's Shifting Star, Skamar gets more than she bargained for when she goes after a creature kidnapping young girls - and enlists the aid of her frustratingly sexy neighbor." - Amazon.

Imager's Intrigue by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.. Tor Books. Print length: 496 p. Kindle edition $14.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
This is book three of the Imager Portfolio series, following Imager and Imager's Challenge.
"In Imager, the first book of the Imager Portfolio, we met Rhennthyl, an apprentice portrait artist whose life was changed by a disastrous fire. But the blaze that took his master’s life and destroyed his livelihood revealed a secret power previously dormant in Rhenn; the power of imaging, the ability to shape matter using thought. With some trouble, he adapts to the controlled life of an imager. By Imager’s Challenge, Rhenn has become a liaison to the local law forces. He finds himself in direct conflict with both authorities and national politics as he tries to uphold the law and do his best by the people of his home city. Now, in Imager’s Intrigue, Rhenn has come into his own. He has a wife and a young child, and a solid career as an imager. But he has made more than one enemy during his journey from apprentice painter to master imager, and even his great powers won’t allow him to escape his past." - us.macmillan.com

Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan. Tor. Print length: 864 p. Kindle edition $7.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
This is book ten in Jordan's The Wheel of Time series. This volume was first published in hardcover in 2003.
"...the world and the characters stand at a crossroads, and the world approaches twilight, when the power of the Shadow grows stronger. Fleeing from Ebou Dar with the kidnapped Daughter of the Nine Moons, whom he is fated to marry, Mat Cauthon learns that he can neither keep her nor let her go, not in safety for either of them. Perrin Aybara seeks to free his wife, Faile, a captive of the Shaido, but his only hope may be an alliance with the enemy. At Tar Valon, Egwene al'Vere, the young Amyrlin of the rebel Aes Sedai, lays siege to the heart of Aes Sedai power. In Andor, Elayne Trakland fights for the Lion Throne that is hers by right, but enemies and Darkfriends surround her, plotting her destruction. Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn himself, has cleansed the Dark One's taint from the male half of the True Source, and everything has changed. Yet nothing has, for only men who can channel believe that saidin is clean again, and a man who can channel is still hated and feared - even one prophesied to save the world..." - http://us.macmillan.com/crossroadsoftwilight
If, like many of Jordan's readers, you have a tendency to get bogged down with the myriad of characters and plot lines of the series, you might take a break and read Simeon Shoul's entertaining review of Crossroads of Twilight at Infinity Plus.

Books They're Talking About: Kindle Books in the Media (25 Jul 10)

Media interviews are a popular way for writers to introduce new books they hope will catch the viewer's eye and generate interest in their work. 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 CSPAN'S BOOK TV (24 JUL 10):
Eating with the Enemy: How I Waged Peace with North Korea from My BBQ Shack in Hackensack, by Robert Egan and Kurt Pitzer. St. Martin's Press. Print Length: 400 p. Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Fast-paced and often astounding, Eating with the Enemy is the tale of a restless restaurant owner from a mobbed-up New Jersey town who for thirteen years inserted himself into the high-stakes diplomatic battles between the United States and North Korea. Egan dropped out of high school in working-class Fairfield, New Jersey, in the mid-seventies and might have followed his father’s path as a roofing contractor. But Bobby had bigger plans for himself, and after a few years wasted on drugs and petty crime, his life took an astonishing turn when his interest in the search for Vietnam-era POWs led to an introduction in the early nineties to North Korean officials desperate to improve relations with the United States. So Egan turned his restaurant, Cubby’s, into his own version of Camp David. Between ball games, fishing trips, and heaping plates of pork ribs, he advised deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Han Song Ryol, and other North Koreans during tumultuous years that saw the death of Kim Il-sung and the rise of Kim Jong-il...All the while, Egan informed for the FBI, vexed the White House with his meddling, chaperoned the communist nation’s athletes on hilarious adventures, and nearly rescued a captured U.S. Navy vessel - all in the interest of promoting peace." - Amazon.

ON CSPAN'S BOOK TV (24 JUL 10):
Such Men as These, by David Sears. Da Capo Press. Print Length: 432 p. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"In 1951, James Michener went to Korea to report on a little known aspect of America's stalemated war: navy aviators. His research-inspired novel (The Bridges at Toko-Ri) about these pilots became an overnight bestseller and, perhaps, the most widely read book ever written about aerial combat. Using Michener's notes, author David Sears tracked down the actual pilots to tell their riveting, true-life stories. From the icy, windswept decks of aircraft carriers, they penetrated treacherous mountain terrain to strike heavily defended dams, bridges, and tunnels, where well-entrenched Communist anti-aircraft gunners waited to shoot them down. Many of these men became air combat legends, and one, Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to walk on the moon. Such Men As These brims with action-packed accounts of combat and unforgettable portraits of the pilots whose skill and sacrifice made epic history." - Amazon.

ON NPR'S MORNING EDITION (24 JUL 10):
The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World, by David Kirkpatrick. Simon & Schuster. Print Length: 320 p. Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"There's never been a Web site like Facebook: more than 350 million people have accounts, and if the growth rate continues, by 2013 every Internet user worldwide will have his or her own page. And no one's had more access to the inner workings of the phenomenon than Kirkpatrick, a senior tech writer at Fortune magazine. Written with the full cooperation of founder Mark Zuckerberg, the book follows the company from its genesis in a Harvard dorm room through its successes over Friendster and MySpace, the expansion of the user base, and Zuckerberg's refusal to sell. The author is at his best discussing the social implications of the site, from the changing notions of privacy to why and how people use Facebook..." - Publishers Weekly.

ON ABC'S GOOD MORNING AMERICA (26 JUL 10):
Come to Win: Business Leaders, Artists, Doctors, and Other Visionaries on How Sports Can Help You Top Your Profession, by Venus Williams. Harper Collins. Print Length: 384 p. Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Combining talent, drive, and hard work, Venus Williams has mastered the game of tennis. How will that drive serve her off the court in her post-tennis career? For inspiration, Venus turned to nearly fifty business leaders, politicians, doctors, and artists, all of whom previously played competitive sports and who are now at the top of their professions, and asked them the essential questions: What principles that inspired you toward success as an athlete are helpful in life? In business? ... an A-list group of visionaries, including eBay's former CEO Meg Whitman, Nike's co-founder Philip Knight, stateswoman Condoleezza Rice, entrepreneur and former NBA player Earvin 'Magic' Johnson, and designer Vera Wang, respond with a useful array of tips woven through anecdotes from their athletic past that have been instrumental in their post–sports life success." - Amazon.

ON COMEDY CENTRAL'S THE DAILY SHOW (26 JUL 10):
The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic, by Robert L. O'Connell. Random House. Print Length: 336 p. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"The Second Punic War began over Roman and Carthaginian competing claims in Spain and quickly escalated into a life-and-death struggle for control of the western Mediterranean. At the center of the struggle was Hannibal's invasion and ravaging of Italy over a span of 15 years, during which he inflicted a series of devastating defeats upon successive Roman armies, climaxed by the slaughter of an estimated 50,000 Romans at Cannae in southern Italy in 216 B.C. This outstanding account of the background of the Italian campaign and of the battle itself is primarily a military history, but O'Connell avoids excessive use of military jargon and explains the tactics and strategies in terms nonspecialists can easily comprehend. He also pays ample attention to the political aspects of the war and shows how the ability of the Roman Senate to persevere and change strategy was critical to Rome's survival and eventual triumph." - Jay Freeman for Booklist.

ON NBC'S TODAY SHOW (27 JUL 10):
Star Island, by Carl Hiaasen. Knopf. Print Length: 352 p. Kindle edition $13.10. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"The career of singer Cheryl Bunterman (aka Cherry Pye), who debuted with Jailbait Records at age 15, is foundering due to her lack of talent and indiscriminate appetite for drugs, booze, and sex in this outrageous, offbeat novel from Hiaasen (Nature Girl). Among those struggling to keep Cherry's career afloat are her mother, Janet Bunterman; producer Maury Lykes; and 'undercover stunt double' Ann DeLusia, who will, say, mislead the press into thinking Cherry is out and about when she's really in rehab. Hiaasen has easy targets in misbehaving celebrity sightings, tabloid stalkings, and spin control experts, and he makes the most of them. Crooked real estate developer Jackie Sebago and paparazzo Bang Abbott, who plans to hitch his wagon to Cherry's star, add to the madcap fun. Mayhem follows after Bang kidnaps Ann instead of Cherry by mistake, and ex-Florida governor and eco-vigilante Clinton 'Skink' Tyree, who was smitten with Ann after a chance encounter, rushes to her rescue..." Publishers Weekly.

ON NPR'S THE DIANE REHM SHOW (28 JUL 10):
The Hundred-Foot Journey, by Richard Morais. Scribner. Print Length: 256 p. Kindle edition $10.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.

"With his debut novel, longtime Forbes magazine correspondent Morais delves into a rich, imagery-filled culinary world that begins in Bombay and ends in Paris, tracing the career of Hassan Haji as he becomes a famed Parisian chef. Narrated by Hassan, the story begins with his grandfather starting a lowly restaurant in Bombay on the eve of WWII, which his father later inherits. But when tragedy strikes and Hassan's mother is killed, the Hajis leave India, and, after a brief and discontented sojourn in England, destiny leads them to the quaint French alpine village of Lumière. There, the family settles, bringing Indian cuisine to the unsuspecting town, provoking the ire of Madame Mallory, an unpleasant but extremely talented local chef." - Publishers Weekly.

Kindle Book du Jour: A Dog's Purpose

A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron. Macmillan. Print length: 320 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (25 reviews). Kindle edition $10.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

How does it start?
"One day it occurred to me that the warm, squeaky, smelly things squirming around next to me were my brothers and sister. I was very disappointed. Though my vision had resolved itself only to the point where I could distinguish fuzzy forms in the light, I knew that the large and beautiful shape with the long wonderful tongue was my mother. I had figured out that when the chill air struck my skin it meant she had gone somewhere, but when the warmth returned it would be time to feed. Often finding a place to suckle meant pushing aside what I now knew was the snout of a sibling seeking to crowd me out of my share, which was really irritating..."

Why would I want to read it?
Have you ever looked at your dog and wondered what in the world he was thinking? Do you find the idea of a book written by a dog for a human audience intriguing? What if a dog had multiple lives and could touch the lives of many people in a variety of ways?

What does the publisher say about it?
"This is the remarkable story of one endearing dog’s search for his purpose over the course of several lives. More than just another charming dog story, A Dog’s Purpose touches on the universal quest for an answer to life's most basic question: Why are we here? Surprised to find himself reborn as a rambunctious golden-haired puppy after a tragically short life as a stray mutt, Bailey’s search for his new life’s meaning leads him into the loving arms of 8-year-old Ethan. During their countless adventures Bailey joyously discovers how to be a good dog. But this life as a beloved family pet is not the end of Bailey’s journey. Reborn as a puppy yet again, Bailey wonders - will he ever find his purpose? ...not only the emotional and hilarious story of a dog's many lives, but also a dog's-eye commentary on human relationships and the unbreakable bonds between man and man's best friend." - Macmillan.

What do the critics say?
"By turns funny, heartwarming, and touching without being overly sentimental, Cameron's novel successfully illuminates the breadth of the American dogscape." - Library Journal.

"Marley and Me combined with Tuesdays with Morrie." - Kirkus Reviews.

"Finally, a fictional dog who is a real dog! Anyone who has ever loved a dog needs to read this wise, touching, often hilarious book. Bailey, the narrator, tells the absolute dog truth about how intuitive your dog is, how profoundly your dog loves you (and how very much they love to roll in road kill, and how puzzled they are that you don't love it, too). Most importantly, this book allows the reader to intimately experience a genuine dog's eye view of the bond between dogs and humans, and how nothing, not even death, can ever end that bond."--Dr. Marty Becker, Resident Veterinarian on Good Morning America and the Dr. Oz Show.

"I loved the book and I could not put it down. It really made me think about the purpose of life. At the end, I cried."--Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation.

Who's the Author?
W. Bruce Cameron wrote 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter which was later turned into a hit ABC series. He has twice received the National Society of Newspaper Columinst's award for Best Humor Columnist and his nationally syndicated column is read by over three million readers every week.

Where can I find more information about the book?
Read the Paw Nation's interview with author W. Bruce Cameron.

Watch the book's trailer.

A Week of Entertainment: Books Reviewed in Entertainment Weekly 23 Jul 2010

Each week Entertainment Weekly reviews a small selection of popular new books. Titles available for the Kindle reviewed in the July 23rd issue include:

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements, by Sam Kean. Little, Brown and Company. Print length: 400 p. NONFICTION. EW's slant: "...makes even the most abstract concepts graspable for armchair scientists." Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $11.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"The Periodic Table is one of man's crowning scientific achievements. But it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. We learn that Marie Curie used to provoke jealousy in colleagues' wives when she'd invite them into closets to see her glow-in-the-dark experiments. And that Lewis and Clark swallowed mercury capsules across the country and their campsites are still detectable by the poison in the ground..." - Amazon.
Sam Kean is a reporter for Science magazine. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Mental Floss, Slate and The New Scientist.

The Island, by Elin Hilderbrand. Reagan Arthur Books. Print length: 416 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...as escapist beach reads go, her latest is consistently smarter and more compelling than it needs to be." Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (21 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Birdie Cousins has thrown herself into the details of her daughter Chess's lavish wedding, from the floating dance floor in her Connecticut back yard to the color of the cocktail napkins. But Birdie, a woman who prides herself on preparing for every possibility, could never have predicted the late-night phone call from Chess, abruptly announcing that she's cancelled her engagement. It's only the first hint of what will be a summer of upheavals and revelations. Before the dust has even begun to settle, far worse news arrives, sending Chess into a tailspin of despair. Reluctantly taking a break from the first new romance she's embarked on since the recent end of her 30-year marriage, Birdie circles the wagons and enlists the help of her younger daughter Tate and her own sister India. Soon all four are headed for beautiful, rustic Tuckernuck Island, off the coast of Nantucket, where their family has summered for generations. No phones, no television, no grocery store - a place without distractions where they can escape their troubles. But throw sisters, daughters, ex-lovers, and long-kept secrets onto a remote island, and what might sound like a peaceful getaway becomes much more..." - Amazon.
$9.99 or less alternative: another Hilderbrand beach read: The Blue Bistro.

Father of the Rain, by Lily King. Atlantic Monthly Press. Print length: 384 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...big, powerful punch of a novel...will linger in your mind long after you've finished it." Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (8 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"In her most ambitious novel to date, critically acclaimed author Lily King sets her sharply insightful family drama in an upper-middle-class East Coast suburb where she traces a complex and volatile father-daughter relationship from the 1970s to the present day. When eleven-year-old Daley Amory's mother leaves her father, Daley is thrust into a chaotic adult world of competition, indulgence, and manipulation. Unable to place her allegiance, she gently toes the thickening line between her parents' incompatible worlds: the increasingly liberal, socially committed realm of her mother, and the conservative, liquor-soaked life of her father. But without her mother there to keep him in line, Daley's father's basest impulses and quick rage are unleashed, and Daley finds herself having to choose her own survival over the father she still deeply loves. ...a spellbinding journey into the emotional complexities, mercurial contours, and magnetic pull of families." - Amazon.

Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, by Rob Sheffield. Dutton. Print length: 288 p. MEMOIR. EW's slant: "A funny, insightful look at the sublime torture of adolescence..." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.

"Music journalist Sheffield (Love Is a Mix Tape) chronicles his passage through the 1980s in a series of chapters in which period groups - from headliners like Roxy Music and Prince to one-hit wonders like Haysi Fantayzee of Shiny Shiny semifame - provides musical accompaniment to his adolescent angst. They are the soundtrack to his fumbling attempts to dance or make passes at girls, to weather a winless stint on the high school wrestling team, to survive a summer job as an ice-cream truck driver. The relationship insights he arrives at - chiefly, the imperative of unquestioning submission to female whims - are no more or less cogent than the song lyrics he gleans them from. The book really shines as a collection of free-form riffs on the glorious foolishness of Reagan-era entertainment - the movie E.T., he writes, was about a sad muppet who thought he was David Bowie - and its weirdly resonant emotional impact. The result is a funny, poignant browse from a wonderful pop-culture evocateur." - Publishers Weekly.
$9.99 or less alternative: Sheffield's earlier musical memoir, Love Is a Mix Tape: Life, Loss, and What I Listened To.

Books They're Talking About: Kindle Books in the Media (20 Jul 10)

Media interviews are a popular way for writers to introduce new books they hope will catch the viewer's eye and generate interest in their work. 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 NPR'S ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (18 JUL 2010):

A Full Cup: Sir Thomas Lipton's Extraordinary Life and His Quest for the America's Cup, by Michael D'Antonio. Riverhead. Print Length: 368 p Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Today Lipton means tea. However, in his time Sir Thomas Lipton was known for much more. Raised in desperate poverty, he became rich beyond his wildest dreams. He built a global empire of markets, factories, plantations, and stockyards. And his colorful pursuit of the America's Cup trophy made him a beloved figure on both sides of the Atlantic. In A Full Cup, Michael D'Antonio tells the tale of this larger-than-life figure. Beginning with a journey across the United States just after the Civil War, Thomas J. Lipton developed the ambition and learned the business techniques that helped him create the first chain of grocery stores. Wealthy before the age of thirty, he set his sights on the tea trade, and soon his name became synonymous with his product. Lipton's great business success makes for a compelling story of innovation and achievement. Moreover, though, Lipton's most intriguing creation was a public persona - one of the first formed with the help of a modern mass media - that appealed to millions of ordinary people, as well as the elites in America and Europe. Concocting simple stunts like elephant parades, Lipton mastered the new art of obtaining free publicity. With shameless self-promotion, he became one of the world's most eligible bachelors, a patron of the poor, and ultimately reached legendary heights when he revived the competition for the America's Cup." - Amazon.

ON NPR'S FRESH AIR (19 JUL 2010):

The Fever, by Sonia Shah. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Print Length: 320 p. Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"This fascinating, mordant pop-sci account tells us why malaria is one of the world's greatest scourges, killing a million people every year and debilitating another 300 million, and why we have remained complacent about it. Journalist Shah ... shows how the Plasmodium parasite, entering through a mosquito's bite and feasting on human red blood cells, has altered human history by destroying armies, undermining empires, and driving changes in our very genome. We've learned to fight back with antimalarial drugs and insecticides, but malaria's adaptability and its buzzing vector, Shah notes, give it the upper hand. Shah provides an intricate and lucid rundown of the biology and ecology of malaria, but her most original insights concern the ways in which human society accommodates and abets the parasite." - Publishers Weekly.

ON OPRAH (19 JUL 2010):

The Best Life Guide to Managing Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes, by Bob Greene, John J. Merendino Jr. and Janis Jibrin. Simon & Schuster. Print Length: 384 p. Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"This comprehensive yet readable volume offers the information you need to protect your health whether you are controlling your disease simply with diet and exercise, are taking drugs orally, or need injected insulin. Detailed but flexible meal plans take the guesswork out of eating without making you a slave to the food scale or measuring cups. With complete nutritional analyses, the recipes for budget- and family-friendly dishes such as Vanilla Peanut Butter Smoothie, Cheesy Cornbread, and Slow-Cooked Pork ensure that you never have to sacrifice tasty food. Extensive reference sections, including a complete guide to diabetes drugs and a chart of the carbohydrate value of foods, give you quick answers you can trust, while a log for tracking your blood sugar readings, exercise, and medication helps you stay organized without hassle or added expense." - Amazon.

ON NBC'S TODAY SHOW (21 JUL 2010):

My Fair Lazy, by Jen Lancaster. NAL. Print Length: 384 p. Kindle edition $11.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Readers have followed Jen Lancaster through job loss, sucky city living, weight loss attempts, and 1980s nostalgia. Now Jen chronicles her efforts to achieve cultural enlightenment, with some hilarious missteps and genuine moments of inspiration along the way. And she does so by any means necessary: reading canonical literature, viewing classic films, attending the opera, researching artisan cheeses, and even enrolling in etiquette classes to improve her social graces. In Jen's corner is a crack team of experts, including Page Six socialites, gourmet chefs, an opera aficionado, and a master sommelier. She may discover that well-regarded, high-priced stinky cheese tastes exactly as bad as it smells, and that her love for Kraft American Singles is forever. But one thing's for certain: Eliza Doolittle's got nothing on Jen Lancaster - and failure is an option." - Amazon.

ON OPRAH (22 JUL 2010):

Staying True, by Jenny Sanford. Ballantine Books. Print Length: 240 p. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"In this candid and compelling memoir, the first lady of South Carolina reveals the private ordeal behind her very public betrayal - and offers inspiration for anyone struggling to keep faith during life’s most trying times. She’s been a successful investment banker, a mother of four, and the campaign manager for one of American politics’ rising stars - her husband, Mark Sanford of South Carolina, once widely hailed as a possible candidate for president in 2012. Yet to most Americans, Jenny Sanford is best known for the one role she refused to play - that of conventional political spouse standing silently by while her husband went before the media and confessed his infidelity. Writing with uncommon candor from a deep well of spiritual strength, Sanford shares personal stories and life lessons from before and after she stepped into the public realm..." - from the hardcover edition.


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New Kindle Books for the Armchair Scientist (18 Jul 2010)

"It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young." - Konrad Lorenz.

Scientists read PDFs, we're told, but those of us who read for pleasure like to dip into science nonfiction now and then to keep up with what's happening in a world scientists are still uncovering. New on the Kindle popular science shelves:

What Einstein Told His Cook, by Robert L. Wolke. W. W. Norton & Company. Print Length: 368 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (60 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Wolke, longtime professor of chemistry and author of the Washington Post column Food 101, turns his hand to a Cecil Adams style compendium of questions and answers on food chemistry. Is there really a difference between supermarket and sea salt? How is sugar made? Should cooks avoid aluminum pans? Interspersed throughout Wolke's accessible and humorous answers to these and other mysteries are recipes demonstrating scientific principles. There is gravy that avoids lumps and grease; Portuguese Poached Meringue that demonstrates cream of tartar at work; and juicy Salt-Seared Burgers. Wolke is good at demystifying advertisers' half-truths, showing, for example, that sea salt is not necessarily better than regular salt for those watching sodium intake. ...one chapter tackles Those Mysterious Microwaves; elsewhere readers learn about the burning of alcohol and are privy to a rant on the U.S. measuring system. ...With its zest for the truth, this book will help cooks learn how to make more intelligent choices." - Publishers Weekly.

The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years, by Sonia Shah. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Print length: 320 p. Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"This fascinating, mordant pop-sci account tells us why malaria is one of the world's greatest scourges, killing a million people every year and debilitating another 300 million, and why we have remained complacent about it. Journalist Shah ... shows how the Plasmodium parasite, entering through a mosquito's bite and feasting on human red blood cells, has altered human history by destroying armies, undermining empires, and driving changes in our very genome. We've learned to fight back with antimalarial drugs and insecticides, but malaria's adaptability and its buzzing vector, Shah notes, give it the upper hand. Shah provides an intricate and lucid rundown of the biology and ecology of malaria, but her most original insights concern the ways in which human society accommodates and abets the parasite." - Publishers Weekly.

How Pleasure Works, by Paul Bloom. W. W. Norton & Company. Print length: 304 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (9 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Some teenage girls enjoy cutting themselves with razors. The average American spends more than four hours a day watching television. The thought of sex with a virgin is intensely arousing to many men. Abstract art can sell for millions of dollars. Young children enjoy playing with imaginary friends and can be comforted by security blankets. People slow their cars to look at gory accidents, and go to movies that make them cry.In this fascinating and witty account, Paul Bloom examines the science behind these curious desires, attractions, and tastes, covering everything from the animal instincts of sex and food to the uniquely human taste for art, music, and stories. Drawing on insights from child development, philosophy, neuroscience, and behavioral economics, How Pleasure Works shows how certain universal habits of the human mind explain what we like and why we like it." - Amazon.
Paul Bloom is a professor of psychology at Yale University.

Here's Looking at Euclid: A Surprising Excursion Through the Astonishing World of Math , by Alex Bellos. Free Press. Print length: 240 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (5 reviews). Kindle edition $11.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.


"Unlike in a traditional classroom setting, Bellos's book aims to reintroduce readers into the world of math by wandering off the beaten algebraic path and investigating interesting topics. Bellos, a former international newspaper correspondent, jets off to exotic places to talk to people about mathematical concepts that catch his fancy. Readers learn the remarkable story of how Sudoku became an overnight international sensation only after its developer, a retired judge, worked for six years on a computer program to write the puzzles. In Japan he visits a club whose school-age members can almost instantaneously add up a string of three-digit numbers by visualizing an abacus in their heads. When in America, Bellos finds himself in Nevada, exploring Reno's casino scene with a discussion of why some gamblers win, but most don't." - Publishers Weekly.

Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age, by William Powers. Harper Collins. Print length: 288 p. Amazon customer rating: 3 1/2 stars (14 reviews). Kindle edition $11.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"At a time when we're all trying to make sense of our relentlessly connected lives, this revelatory book presents a bold new approach to the digital age. Part intellectual journey, part memoir, Hamlet's BlackBerry sets out to solve what William Powers calls the conundrum of connectedness. Our computers and mobile devices do wonderful things for us. But they also impose an enormous burden, making it harder for us to focus, do our best work, build strong relationships, and find the depth and fulfillment we crave. ... we need a new way of thinking, an everyday philosophy for life with screens. To find it, Powers reaches into the past, uncovering a rich trove of ideas that have helped people manage and enjoy their connected lives for thousands of years. New technologies have always brought the mix of excitement and stress that we feel today. Drawing on some of history's most brilliant thinkers, from Plato to Shakespeare to Thoreau, he shows that digital connectedness serves us best when it's balanced by its opposite, disconnectedness." - Amazon.

How It Ends: From You to the Universe, by Chris Impey. W. W. Norton & Company. Print length: 352 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (2 reviews). Kindle edition $9.64. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"A scientific view of the apocalypse unfolds in this tour of terminations. An astronomer by trade, the author eventually addresses how the universe will chill down, but first he explains how you will chill down. Completing his discussion of death with a biological description of the inevitable, Impey tarries with commiserative commentary about its awful finality and with the ideas of technofuturists (or fantasists) for delaying or stopping the aging process. Also in peril of extinction is the entire human species, and Impey ambles through the ways that could happen (the march of natural selection; a close-by supernova explosion) before he proceeds to demolish hope in the endurance of terra firma. Delivering bad news with a bemused touch, Impey entertains as he informs about the facts of life and death." - Gilbert Taylor for Booklist.
Impey is a professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona and the author of The Living Cosmos: Our Search for Life in the Universe.

Kindle E-Books on the Cheap: A Weekly Selection (16 Jul 2010)

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. This regular Kindle Reader feature points you to a few of the most interesting new free e-books available for download from the web.

Free e-book selections for this week include romance fiction evocative of a bygone era, a work of horror first published in 1908 and adapted to graphic novel form in 2003, an adventure tale by Herman Melville, a classic "locked room" mystery by A. A. Milne, and science fiction from Gordon Randall Garrett and Murray Leinster.

Come Out of the Kitchen, by Alice Duer Miller. ROMANCE. Download site: ManyBooks. Format: Kindle (.azw). Price: Free.

Alice Duer Miller came from a prominent family of considerable means. They lost their fortune in a banking failure and she was forced to work her way through Barnard College by selling poems, essays and stories to Scribner's and Harper's magazines. This romance was her first successful novel. Published in 1915, it was serialized in Harper's, published in book form and later adapted for the Broadway stage and as a Hollywood film.
"A Virginia family of the old aristocracy, finding themselves temporarily embarrassed, decide to rent their magnificent home to a rich Yankee. One of the conditions of the lease stipulates that a competent staff of white servants should be engaged for the duration - and so one of the daughters conceives the mad-cap idea that she, her sister and their two brothers shall act as the domestic staff for the wealthy New Englander. Amusing complications arise immediately in this ingenious and entertaining comedy." - ManyBooks.

The Prisoner of Zenda, by Anthony Hope. ROMANCE. Download site: MobileRead. Format: mobi for Kindle. Price: Free.
"Five times made into film versions since its original publication in 1894, The Prisoner of Zenda is a perennially popular adventure and romance story. Hope's swashbuckling romance transports his English gentleman hero, Rudolf Rassendyll, from a comfortable life in London to fast-paced adventures in Ruritania, a mythical land steeped in political intrigue. Rassendyll must impersonate the rightful king in order to rescue him from the castle Zenda, all the while facing tests of honor with the beautiful Princess Flavia, and enduring tests of strength in his encounters with the villainous Black Michael and his handsome, debonair bodyguard, Rupert of Hentzau." - crutledge on MobileRead.

The House on the Borderland, by William Hope Hodgson. SCIENCE FICTION/HORROR. Download site: MobileRead. Format: Kindle (.mobi). Price: Free.

"In 1877, two gentlemen, Messrs Tonnison and Berreggnog, head into Ireland to spend a week fishing in the village of Kraighten. Whilst there, they discover in the ruins of a very curious house a diary of the man who had once owned it. Its torn pages seem to hint at an evil beyond anything that existed on this side of the curtains of impossibility. This is a classic novel that worked to slowly bridge the gap between the British fantastic and supernatural authors of the later 19th century and modern horror fiction. Noted American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft lists this and other works by Hodgson among his greatest influences." - Wikipedia.

Redburn: His First Voyage, by Herman Melville. NOVEL. Download site: Feedbooks. Format: Kindle. Price: Free.
"Wellington Redburn is a fifteen-year-old from the state of New York, with only one dream - to run away to sea. However, when he does fulfil this long-held fantasy, he quickly finds that reality as a cabin boy is far harsher than he ever imagined. Mocked by the crew on board the Highlander for his weakness and bullied by the vicious and merciless sailor Jackson, Wellington must struggle to endure the long journey from New York to Liverpool. But when he does reach England, he is equally horrified by what he finds there: poverty, desperation and moral corruption. Inspired by Melville’s own youthful experiences on board a cargo boat, this is a compelling tale of innocence transformed, through bitter experience, into disillusionment. A fascinating sea journal and coming-of-age tale, Redburn provides a unique insight into the mind of one of America’s greatest novelists." - feedbooks.com

The Red House Mystery, by A. A. Milne. MYSTERY. Download site: Amazon. Format: Kindle. Price: Free.
"...a classic novel by Alan Milne, who is actually better known for writing Winnie the Pooh. Set in a country home known as the Red House, the novel opens on a party weekend, with most of the houseguests away from the house playing golf or tennis. A typical 'locked room mystery,' the novel features characters who may not be all they seem to be, acting for mysterious motives ranging from love to revenge. Servants overhear bits of conversation which offer clues. The discovery of a secret passage, the appearance of a ghost, and a convenient lake to hide evidence all become part of the plot. Written in 1922, before Winnie the Pooh was even born, The Red House Mystery was a gift for Milne's father, a retired headmaster who loved mysteries. The book was immediately popular; Alexander Woollcott called it 'one of the three best mystery stories of all time', and Raymond Chandler, in his 1944 essay The Simple Art of Murder called it "an agreeable book, light, amusing in the Punch style, written with a deceptive smoothness that is not as easy as it looks.'" - Amazon.

Brain Twister, by Gordon Randall Garrett. SCIENCE FICTION. Download site: ManyBooks. Format: Kindle. Price: Free.
"In nineteen-fourteen, it was enemy aliens. In nineteen-thirty, it was Wobblies. In nineteen-fifty-seven, it was fellow-travelers. And, in nineteen seventy-one, Kenneth J. Malone rolled wearily out of bed wondering what the hell it was going to be now. One thing, he told himself, was absolutely certain: it was going to be terrible. It always was. (1962 Hugo Award Nominee.)" - ManyBooks.

Operation Terror, by Murray Leinster. SCIENCE FICTION. Download site: MobileRead. Format: Mobi for Kindle. Price: Free.
"An unidentified space ship lands in a Colorado lake. Equipped with a paralyzing ray weapon, the creatures begin taking human prisoners. A loan land surveyor and a journalist are trapped inside the Army cordon, which is helpless against the mysterious enemy. Can they stop the aliens before it is too late?" - mtravellerh on MobileRead.

Kindle Genre Watch: Sci-Fi, Romance and Western Fiction (14 Jul 2010)

Spend less time searching for new genre fiction and more time reading it as I watch for newly-released genre fiction in the Kindle Store so you don't have to. Recent genre fiction releases in sci-fi, romance and western fiction include:

SCIENCE FICTION

The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross. Ace. Print Length: 320 p. Kindle edition $11.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
This is book three in the Laundry series after The Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue.

"Bob Howard is taking a much needed break from the field to catch up on his filing in The Laundry's archives when a top secret dossier known as The Fuller Memorandum vanishes-along with his boss, who the agency's executives believe stole the file. Determined to discover exactly what the memorandum contained, Bob runs afoul of Russian agents, ancient demons, and the apostles of a hideous faith, who have plans to raise a very unpleasant undead entity known as the Eater of Souls..." - us.penguingroup.com

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois. St. Martin's Griffin. Print Length: 688 p. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"...award-winning editor Dozois selects 32 of 2009's strongest short fiction pieces from print and online venues... The offerings run the gamut of science fiction: for example, Nicola Griffith's It Takes Two explores love through chemical attraction, John Barnes's Things Undone is a time-blurring exploration of alternate history, and John Kessel's Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance is a far-future adventure. This smorgasbord of thought-provoking fiction ensures that any reader will likely find something appealing. Rounding out the collection is Dozois's writeup of all things 2009 SF: fiction, nonfiction, media, awards, and obituaries." - Publishers Weekly.

ROMANCE

The Search by Nora Roberts. Putnam. Print Length: 756 p. Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"To most people, Fiona Bristow seems to have an idyllic life - a quaint house on an island off Seattle's coast, a thriving dog-training school, and a challenging volunteer job performing canine search and rescues. But Fiona got to this point by surviving a nightmare. Several years ago, Fiona was the only survivor of the Red Scarf serial killer, who shot and killed Fiona's cop fiancé and his K-9 partner. On Orcas Island, Fiona found the peace and solitude she needed to rebuild her life. But all that changes on the day Simon Doyle barrels up her drive, desperate for her help. He's the reluctant owner of an out-of-control puppy, foisted upon him by his mother. Jaws has eaten through Simon's house, and he's at his wit's end. To Fiona, Jaws is nothing she can't handle. Simon, however, is another matter. As Fiona embarks on training Jaws, and Simon begins to appreciate both dog and trainer, the past tears back into Fiona's life. A copycat killer has emerged out of the shadows..." - Amazon.

Thursdays at Eight by Debbie Macomber. Mira. Print Length: 352 p. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Thursday, 8:00 a.m. Breakfast Club! Every week, these words appear in the calendars of four women. Every week, they meet for breakfast - and to talk. Clare has just been through a devastating divorce. Elizabeth is a widow, in her fifties, a successful professional. A woman determined not to waste another second of her life. Karen is in her twenties and believes these should be the years for taking risks, reaching for dreams. Julia is turning forty. Her husband's career is established, her kids are finally teens and she's just started her own business. Everything's going according to schedule - until she discovers she's pregnant." - Amazon.

Bonds of Justice by Nalini Singh. Berkley. Print Length: 368 p. Kindle edition $5.49. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
This is book ten in Singh's Psy/Changeling series which began with Slave to Sensation. Find more on the author's paranormal romances at her website.
"Max Shannon is a good cop, one of the best in New York Enforcement. Born with a natural shield that protects him against Psy mental invasions, he knows he has little chance of advancement within the Psy- dominated power structure. The last case he expects to be assigned to is that of a murderer targeting a Psy Councilor's closest advisors. And the last woman he expects to compel him in the most sensual of ways is a Psy on the verge of catastrophic mental fracture." - Amazon.

WESTERNS

The Hunt for Clint Adams by J. R. Roberts. (The Gunsmith, 343). Jove. Print Length: 192 p. Kindle edition $4.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Five years ago, Clint Adams helped put lightning-quick gunfighter Jed Tarver behind bars without having to draw on the man. But now, the Gunsmith doesn't have a choice, because Tarver is out of jail and coming for him - ready or not." - Amazon.

Killing Trail by Charles Gramlich. Razored Zen Press. Kindle edition $2.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
A collection of western short stories including:
Killing Trail: When they dumped Angela Cody on Lane Holland’s ranch she was scant moments from death. She managed to speak only a few words, but those were enough to make Lane strap on his guns and ride out on a killing trail.
Showdown at Wild Briar: Accused of a murder he didn’t commit, Josh Allen Boone has ridden a long way from his Wild Briar Ranch. But now he’s coming home, and the real killers are waiting for him with a rope.
Powder Burn: They said Davy Bonner’s luck had run out and they ambushed him along a dark road. But luck or no, Davy wasn’t going down without a fight.
Once Upon a Time with the Dead: For the gray raiders, death was an old friend.
Also includes two nonfiction essays, one about Louis L’Amour and another about the real Wild West.

Longarm and the One-Armed Bandit by Tabor Evans. (Longarm, 380). Publisher. Print Length: 192 p. Kindle edition $4.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"While undercover trying to bust up a smuggling ring, Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long is befriended by a one-armed man who wants his help robbing a bank south of the border." - Amazon.

Books They're Talking About: Kindle Books in the Media (12 Jul 10)

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 (01 JUL 10):
Captive: My Time as a Prisoner of the Taliban, by Jere Van Dyk. Times Books. Print Length: 288p. Kindle edition $11.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Jere Van Dyk was on the wrong side of the border. He and three Afghan guides had crossed into the tribal areas of Pakistan, where no Westerner had ventured for years, hoping to reach the home of a local chieftain by nightfall. But then a dozen armed men in black turbans appeared over the crest of a hill. Captive is Van Dyk's searing account of his forty-five days in a Taliban prison, and it is gripping and terrifying in the tradition of the best prison literature. The main action takes place in a single room, cut off from the outside world, where Van Dyk feels he can trust nobody - not his jailers, not his guides (who he fears may have betrayed him), and certainly not the charismatic Taliban leader whose fleeting appearances carry the hope of redemption as well as the prospect of immediate, violent death. Van Dyk went to the tribal areas to investigate the challenges facing America there. His story is of a deeper, more personal challenge..." - Amazon.

ON NPR'S ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (10 JUL 10):
Faithful Place, by Tana French. Viking. Print Length: 416 p. Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Back in 1985, Frank Mackey was nineteen, growing up poor in Dublin's inner city and living crammed into a small flat with his family on Faithful Place. But he had his sights set on a lot more. He and his girl Rosie Daly were all set to run away to London together, get married, get good jobs, break away from factory work and poverty and their old lives. But on the winter night when they were supposed to leave, Rosie didn't show. Frank took it for granted that she'd dumped him - probably because of his alcoholic father, nutcase mother, and generally dysfunctional family. He never went home again. Neither did Rosie. Everyone thought she had gone to England on her own and was over there living a shiny new life. Then, twenty-two years later, Rosie's suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place, and Frank is going home whether he likes it or not..." - www.tanafrench.com.

ON NPR'S FRESH AIR (12 JUL 10):
Forbidden Creatures: Inside the World of Animal Smuggling and Exotic Pets, by Peter Laufer. Lyons Press. Print Length: 272 p. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.


"...investigative journalist Peter Laufer is back to chronicle his worldwide quest to penetrate the underworld of international animal smuggling. In Forbidden Creatures, Laufer exposes the network of hunters, traders, breeders, and customers who constitute this nefarious business - which, estimated at $10 to $20 billion annually, competes with illegal drug and weapons trafficking in the money it earns criminals... Taking readers to exotic and often lawless locales, Laufer introduces brazen and dangerous traders and wealthy customers whose greed and mindless self-interest perpetuate what is now a crisis of survival for a growing number of wild species... a compelling, first-person narrative written in Laufer’s hallmark conversational, entertaining style." - Amazon.

ON NPR'S DIANE REHM SHOW (13 JUL 10):
Red Hook Road, by Ayelet Waldman. Doubleday. Print Length: 352 p. Kindle edition $14.27. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"...a dense story of irreparable loss that tracks two families across four summers. After John Tetherly and Becca Copaken die in a freak car accident an hour after their wedding, their families are left to bridge stark class and cultural divides, and eventually forge deep-rooted bonds thanks to the twin deities of love and music. Becca's family is well off, from New York, and summers in Red Hook, Maine, a small coastal town where John's blue-collar single mother, Jane, cleans houses for a living. They interact, awkwardly, over how to bury the couple, the staging of an anniversary party, and over Jane's adopted niece, whose amazing musical talent makes a connection to Becca's ailing grandfather, a virtuoso violinist, who agrees to give her lessons. Becca's younger sister, Ruthie, a Fulbright scholar, meanwhile, falls in love with John's younger brother, Matt..." - Publishers Weekly.

A Week of Entertainment: Books Reviewed in Entertainment Weekly (Jul 9/16 Double Issue)

Each week Entertainment Weekly reviews a small selection of popular new books. Titles available for the Kindle and reviewed in the "Best of Summer" special double issue for July 9/16, 2010 include:

Corduroy Mansions, by Alexander McCall Smith. Pantheon. Print length: 368 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...fans will be grateful that the series has just begun." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Readers of McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street novels will savor this new series set among a collection of flats in London's lively Pimlico neighborhood. Residents here run the gamut from the very likable to the much loathed. There's William, a well-meaning, widowed wine merchant determined to oust his lazy twentysomething son from his house... Then there's the thoroughly despicable Oedipus Snark, a Parliament member devoid of scruples, conscience, and class. Even his own mother despises him; she's writing his biography, with the aim of exposing every one of his faults. Four young women share a flat as well. Among them is Dee, a health-food devotee who can't understand a male coworker's resistance to her offer of a high-colonic, and art history student Caroline, who has designs on a friend unsure whether he wants to date women or men. Also afoot throughout the book is the astonishingly astute Freddie de la Hay, a canine inclined to paws and reflect..." - Allison Block for Booklist.

Lucy, by Laurence Gonzales. Knopf. Print length: 320 p. NOVEL EW's slant: "He's got Crichton's gift for page-turning storytelling, but also a vivid literary-grade prose style, and a knack for getting inside his characters' heads..." Amazon customer rating: 3 1/2 stars (26 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"When anthropologist Jenny Lowe brings Lucy, the teenage daughter of a murdered colleague, back home with her to Chicago from the Congo in Gonzales's glib biological thriller, Jenny puts the girl's behavioral quirks down to unfamiliarity with the world outside the jungle. But when Lucy shows uncommon strength, agility, and sensitivities typical of animals, Jenny is shocked to realize that Lucy is a 'humanzee': half human, half bonobo. Lucy soon becomes a magnet for the controversy that has colored debates between creationists and evolutionists for decades, as well as an object of interest to a clandestine military think tank." - Publishers Weekly.

The Cookbook Collector, by Allegra Goodman. Dial Press. Print length: 416 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...a novel of impressive élan and real emotional resonance." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (14 reviews). Kindle edition $14.30. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"If any contemporary author deserves to wear the mantel of Jane Austen, it's Goodman, whose subtle, astute social comedies perfectly capture the quirks of human nature. This dazzling novel is Austen updated for the dot-com era, played out between 1999 and 2001 among a group of brilliant risk takers and truth seekers. Still in her 20s, Emily Bach is the CEO of Veritech, a Web-based data-storage startup in trendy Berkeley. Her boyfriend, charismatic Jonathan Tilghman, is in a race to catch up at his data-security company, ISIS, in Cambridge, Mass. Emily is low-key, pragmatic, kind, serene - the polar opposite of her beloved younger sister, Jess, a crazed postgrad who works at an antiquarian bookstore owned by a retired Microsoft millionaire. When Emily confides her company's new secret project to Jonathan as a proof of her love, the stage is set for issues of loyalty and trust, greed, and the allure of power. What is actually valuable, Goodman's characters ponder: a company's stock, a person's promise, a forest of redwoods, a collection of rare cookbooks?" - Publishers Weekly.
$9.99 or less alternative: Goodman's earlier Kaaterskill Falls.

Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light, by Jane Brox. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Print length: 368 p. HISTORY. EW's slant: "In a word: dazzling." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"... a sweeping view of a surprisingly revealing aspect of human history - from the stone lamps of the Pleistocene to the LEDs embedded in fabrics of the future. Brox plumbs the class implications of light - who had it, who didn't - through the many centuries when crude lamps and tallow candles constricted waking hours. She convincingly portrays the hell-bent pursuit of whale oil as the first time the human desire for light thrust us toward an environmental tipping point. Only decades later, gas street lights opened up the evening hours to leisure, which changed the ways we live and sleep and the world's ecosystems. Edison's 'tiny strip of paper that a breath would blow away' produced a light that seemed to its users all but divorced from human effort or cost. And yet, as Brox's informative and hair-raising portrait of our current grid system shows, the cost is ever with us. Brilliant is infused with human voices, startling insights, and - only a few years before it becomes illegal to sell most incandescent light bulbs in the United States - timely questions about how our future lives will be shaped by light." - Amazon.

What is Left the Daughter, by Howard Norman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Print length: 256 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...honest and even lyrical, but that's not enough to give form to the amorphous narrative." Amazon customer rating: 3 1/2 stars (7 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Set on the Atlantic coast of Canada during WWII, Norman's latest is an expertly crafted tale of love during wartime. Wyatt Hillyer loses both his parents on the same day when they jump from different bridges in Halifax, Nova Scotia, after they discover they are both having affairs with the woman next door. Wyatt's aunt and uncle take him in, and Wyatt becomes his uncle's apprentice in his sled and toboggan business and, despite the circumstances, soon falls in love with his adopted cousin, Tilda. Yet he must resign himself to loving from a distance when Tilda brings home Hans Moehring, a German university student. The two begin a courtship harshly complicated by reports of U-boat attacks on Canadian ships, and Tilda's father becoming increasingly uneasy about this potential enemy in their midst." - Publishers Weekly.


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