What People Magazine is Reading This Week (June 6th Issue)

For those Kindle readers who, like me, read for entertainment, scanning the book reviews in People magazine is good way to check out new people-related books - celebrity bios, popular novels, absorbing nonfiction - just hitting bookstore shelves. Featured in the June 6th issue of People:

Dreams of Joy, by Lisa See. Random House, 2011. Print Length: 336 p. NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (19 reviews). People's slant: "...sobering history lesson in the midst of this engrossing saga about two tiger mothers of an earlier day." Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $13.97. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"In her beloved New York Times bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, and, most recently, Shanghai Girls, Lisa See has brilliantly illuminated the potent bonds of mother love, romantic love, and love of country. Now, in her most powerful novel yet, she returns to these timeless themes, continuing the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls, and Pearl’s strong-willed nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy. Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets, and anger at her mother and aunt for keeping them from her, Joy runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father - the artist Z.G. Li, with whom both May and Pearl were once in love. Dazzled by him, and blinded by idealism and defiance, Joy throws herself into the New Society of Red China, heedless of the dangers in the communist regime. Devastated by Joy’s flight and terrified for her safety, Pearl is determined to save her daughter, no matter the personal cost..." - from the hardcover edition.

The A Circuit, by Georgina Bloomberg and Catherine Hapka. Bloomsbury, 2011. Print Length: 288 p. YOUNG ADULT NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $7.99; Paperback $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"The A Circuit is the top of the top when it comes to horse showing. It's a world with its own rules and super-privileged lifestyles. Teens employ private tutors so they can travel the circuit all year showing horses that cost as much as some people's homes. Tommi, Kate, and Zara are all elite competitors on the circuit, but they come from totally different backgrounds. Tommi is a billionaire heiress trying to prove she has real talent (not just deep bank accounts). Kate puts the working in working student - every win has been paid for with hours of cleaning stalls. She's used to the grueling schedule, but Fitz, the barn's resident hot guy, is about to become a major distraction. And then there's Zara. She's the wild child of a famous rockstar, but she's ready to take riding seriously..." - Amazon.

The Girl's Guide to Homelessness, by Brianna Karp. Harlequin Nonfiction, 2011. Print Length: 352 p. MEMOIR. Amazon customer rating: 3 stars (22 reviews). People's slant: "...brings the reality of homelessness right to our door." Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $11.53. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Brianna Karp entered the workforce at age ten, supporting her mother and sister throughout her teen years in Southern California. Although her young life was scarred by violence and abuse, Karp stayed focused on her dream of a steady job and a home of her own. By age twenty-two her dream became reality. Karp loved her job as an executive assistant and signed the lease on a tiny cottage near the beach. And then the Great Recession hit. Karp, like millions of others, lost her job. In the six months between the day she was laid off and the day she was forced out onto the street, Karp scrambled for temp work and filed hundreds of job applications, only to find all doors closed. When she inherited a thirty-foot travel trailer after her father's suicide, Karp parked it in a Walmart parking lot and began to blog about her search for work and a way back." - Amazon.

Vaclav & Lena, by Haley Tanner. The Dial Press, 2011. Print length: 304 p. NOVEL. People's slant: "...a debut to savor." Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (7 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $14.88. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Vaclav and Lena seem destined for each other. They meet as children in an ESL class in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Vaclav is precocious and verbal. Lena, struggling with English, takes comfort in the safety of his adoration, his noisy, loving home, and the care of Rasia, his big-hearted mother. Vaclav imagines their story unfolding like a fairy tale, or the perfect illusion from his treasured Magician’s Almanac, but among the many truths to be discovered in Haley Tanner’s wondrous debut is that happily ever after is never a foregone conclusion. One day, Lena does not show up for school. She has disappeared from Vaclav and his family’s lives as if by a cruel magic trick. For the next seven years, Vaclav says goodnight to Lena without fail, wondering if she is doing the same somewhere. On the eve of Lena’s seventeenth birthday he finds out..." - from the hardcover edition.

The Long Journey Home, by Margaret Robison. Spiegel & Grau, 2011. Print Length: 400 p. MEMOIR. Amazon customer rating: 3 1/2 stars (29 reviews). People's slant: "There are haunting memories on every page." Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $15.60. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Robison grew up in southern Georgia, where the façade of 1950s propriety masked all sorts of demons, including alcoholism, misogyny, repressed homosexuality, and suicide. She met her husband, John Robison, in college, and together they moved up north, where John embarked upon a successful academic career and Margaret brought up the children and worked on her art and poetry. Yet her husband’s alcoholism and her collapse into psychosis, and the eventual disintegration of their marriage, took a tremendous toll on their family: Her older son, John Elder, moved out of the house when he was a teenager, and her younger son, Chris (who later renamed himself Augusten), never completed high school. When Margaret met Dr. Rodolph Turcotte, the therapist who was treating her husband, she felt understood for the first time and quickly fell under his idiosyncratic and, eventually, harmful influence. Robison writes movingly and honestly about her mental illness, her shortcomings as a parent, her difficult marriage, her traumatic relationship with Dr. Turcotte, and her two now-famous children, Augusten Burroughs and John Elder Robison, who have each written bestselling memoirs about their family." - from the hardcover edition.

The Best Thing About My Ass Is That It's Behind Me, by Lisa Ann Walter. Harper Collins, 2011. Print Length: 256 p. HUMOR. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (7 reviews). People's slant: "...hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking and packed with feel-good advice." Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $15.95. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"From the best girlfriend you didn't know you had comes this I Can't Believe She Said That guide to life in the real world. Actress and comic Lisa Ann Walter dishes about parenthood and the dangers of girl-on-girl snarking, explains why skinny actresses act crazy, and gives riotous advice on everything from the dating mistakes we all make to ten things you should subtract when you weigh yourself...
So what do you get when you drop a longtime self-loather into the glitz and glamour of Hollywood? This hysterical, and brutally honest, look at the impossible standard of perfection for which so many of us strive. Walter boldly shares her lifelong struggle with low self-esteem - which, in her case, includes plenty of painful auditions, failed relationships, and awkward celebrity encounters, plus lots of impossible diets, questionable injectables, and dubious cosmetic procedures. Along the way, the 'celebrity adjacent' Walter also tells her sometimes warm, often cringeworthy, and always funny Hollywood stories..." - Amazon.

What I Learned When I Almost Died, by Chris Licht. Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print Length: 160 p. MEMOIR. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (8 reviews). People's slant: "If you're curious about life in a TV newsroom, how it feels to have your brain explode and what 'life-altering experience' really means, this book will satisfy." Kindle edition $10.99; Hardcover $14.10. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Chris Licht had always been ambitious. When he was only nine years old, he tracked down an NBC correspondent while on vacation to solicit advice for a career in television. At eleven, he began filming himself as he delivered the news. And by the time he was thirty-five, he landed his dream job: a fast-paced, demanding spot at the helm of MSNBC’s Morning Joe - one of the most popular shows on cable TV. He had become a real-life Jerry Maguire: hard-charging, obsessively competitive, and willing to sacrifice anything to get it done. He felt invincible. Then one day Chris heard a pop in his head, followed by a whoosh of blood and crippling pain. Doctors at the ER said he had suffered a near-deadly brain hemorrhage. Chris’s life had almost been cut short, and he had eight long days in a hospital bed to think about it. What I Learned When I Almost Died tells the story of what happened next." - Amazon.
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Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.

Strange But Kindle: Offbeat Books That Make Entertaining Reading

Those ubiquitous free Kindle books are tempting, but with the exception of the classics, many of the free offerings make you realize that while the books are free, your time isn't. If free books have one too many vampires for your taste and the current New York Times Bestsellers don't strike your fancy, maybe you should consider some outside-of-the-box reading. Here are some offbeat but entertaining books published recently:

The Passionate Olive: 101 Things to Do with Olive Oil, by Carol Firenze. Ballantine Books, 2011. Print Length: 272 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (14 revews). Kindle edition $9.99; Hardcover $14.96. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"...charming book about the practical uses of olive oil. Firenze shares her passion for the staple ingredient by recounting warm memories from her Italian-American childhood, divulging tasty family recipes and detailing olive oil's fascinating history as a common Mediterranean health aid and an ingredient in food preparation. For those new to olive oil, Firenze explains the different classifications, the best ways to cook with it (marinating, frying, baking, etc.) and how to throw a great Olive Oil tasting party. The book covers a wide variety of topics, ranging from olive oil's historic role in religious rituals to its more sensual role as a rubbing oil for massages." - Publishers Weekly.

Sideways on a Scooter: Life and Love in India, by Miranda Kennedy. Random House, 2011. Print Length: 352 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (22 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $15.30. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"When twentysomething reporter Miranda Kennedy leaves her job in New York City and travels to India with no employment prospects, she longs to immerse herself in the turmoil and excitement of a rapidly developing country. What she quickly learns in Delhi about renting an apartment as a single woman - it’s next to impossible - and the proper way for women in India to ride scooters - perched sideways - are early signs that life here is less Westernized than she’d counted on. Living in Delhi for more than five years, and finding a city pulsing with possibility and hope, Kennedy experiences friendships, love affairs, and losses that open a window onto the opaque world of Indian politics and culture - and alter her own attitudes about everything from food and clothes to marriage and family." - from the hardcover edition.

How Not to Act Old, by Pamela Redmond Satran. Harper Collins, 2009. Print Length: 192 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (33 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $10.19. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Sure, you can try to stay younger by exercising, coloring your hair, and wearing stylish clothes - but how do you respond when someone asks, 'Do you Twitter?' How Not to Act Old gives you simple ways to come back from over the hill and to act as young as you look. Covering everything from old-people entertainment (cancel that dinner party!) to old-people communication (it's called a 'voice mail,' not a 'message,' and no one leaves or listens to them anyway), Pamela Redmond Satran decodes the behaviors, viewpoints, and cultural touchstones that separate you from the hip young person you wish you still were..." - Amazon.

No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting, by Anne Macdonald. Ballantine Books, 2010. Print Length: 512 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (11 reviews). Kindle edition $19.99; Hardcover $51.40; Paperback $20.00. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
Written by the former head of the History Department at the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C. and first published in 1988.
"Drawn from diaries, letters and personal reminiscences, No Idle Hands tells an intimate and sometimes hair-raising story of hand knitting in America from Colonial times onward. Women knit through the hardships of covered wagon travel across the West. They knit to save their husbands and sons from freezing to death on battlefields. Shell-shocked men knit to save their sanity in hospitals during both world wars. No Idle Hands documents the importance knitting has had in American life." - Amazon.

The Old Man and the Swamp: A True Story About My Weird Dad, a Bunch of Snakes, and One Ridiculous Road Trip, by John Sellers. Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print Length: 208 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (12 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $10.95. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.

"I have nothing against snakes, provided that they're hundreds of miles away from me. And I have nothing against my dad, given the same set of conditions. In a fit of questionable judgment, consummate indoorsman John Sellers tags along on a journey to search for snakes with his eccentric, aging father - an obsessive fan of Bob Dylan, a giver of terrible gifts, a drinker of boxed wine, a minister-turned-heretic, and, most importantly, the self-designated guardian of the threatened copperbelly water snake. The quest is their fumbling attempt to reconnect. Decades of bitterness, substance abuse, acrimonious divorce, and divergent opinions about personal hygiene have conspired to make the two estranged. Sellers has just begun to develop a new appreciation for the American wilderness, and all the slithering creatures that populate it, when his father's deteriorating health thwarts their mission and disturbs their tentative peace. With big-hearted humor and irreverence, The Old Man and the Swamp tells the story of a father who always lived on his own terms and the son who struggled to make sense of it all." - Amazon.com Review.

The Psychic Tourist: A Voyage into the Curious World of Predicting the Future, by William Little. Icon Books, 2011. Print Length: 320 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Can someone's life be predicted? Are physicists on the verge of discovering the first time machine? And why does a Nobel prize-winning scientist believe that humans are capable of sensing danger before it happens? Following a prediction of his sister's death, William Little sets out to find the truth about the power of fortune telling and prophecy. On a journey that takes him to a witches coven in a haunted wood, on the hunt for murderers with psychic detectives and to the doorsteps of the world s most powerful and revered psychics, William Little goes on a quest to find out whether people can see into the future - or if the many millions who consult horoscopes, listen to psychics on TV, or who read Nostradamus are simply being sold a lie." - Amazon.

Klingon for the Galactic Traveler, by Marc Okrand. Star Trek, 2011. Print Length: 272 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (6 reviews). Kindle edition $14.99; Paperback $15.04. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.

"Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam. "It is a good day to die." What is the proper response to this? What should I do? Now, with Klingon for the Galactic Traveler you will know. Organized into four easy-to-use sections, this book will guide your steps through the Klingon language and customs: The regional dialects of the Empire, common everyday usage of the language, the slang phrases and curses that color the Klingon vocabulary and most importantly, the proper verbal, physical, and cultural responses. A misspoken word to a Klingon, who is quick to take offense and even quicker to take action, could have dire consequences. This book is the indispensable guide for the galactic traveler." - from the publisher.
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Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.

A Week of Entertainment: Kindle Books Reviewed in Entertainment Weekly's May 27th Issue

Each week Entertainment Weekly reviews a small selection of popular new books. Titles available for the Kindle reviewed in the May 27th issue include:

Robert Redford, by Michael Feeney Callan. Random House, 2011. Print length: 496 p. BIOGRAPHY. EW's slant: "...occasionally dry but genuinely insightful biography..." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (25 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $19.11. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"...America has come to know him as the Sundance Kid, Bob Woodward, Johnny Hooker, Jay Gatsby, and Roy Hobbs. But only now, with this revelatory biography, do we see the surprising and complex man beneath the Hollywood façade. From Redford’s personal papers - journals, script notes, correspondence - and hundreds of hours of taped interviews, Michael Feeney Callan brings the legendary star into focus. Here is his scattered family background and restless childhood, his rocky start in acting, the death of his son, his star-making relationship with director Sydney Pollack, the creation of Sundance, his political activism, his artistic successes and failures, his friendships and romances." - from the hardcover edition.

Long Drive Home, by Will Allison. Free Press, 2011. Print length: 224 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "Allison focuses on the brutally quick unraveling of Glen's peaceful existence, filling the reader with not only dread but also the desire to discover what terrible - or hopeful - development awaits on the next page." Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (10 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Hardcover $13.96. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Life can change in an instant because of one small mistake. For Glen Bauer, all it takes is a quick jerk of the steering wheel, intended to scare a reckless driver. But the reckless driver is killed, and just like that, Glen’s placid suburban existence begins to unravel. Written in part as a confessional letter from Glen to his daughter, Sara, Long Drive Home evokes the sharp-eyed observation of Tom Perrotta and the pathos of Dan Chaon in its trenchant portrait of contemporary American life. When Glen realizes no one else saw the accident, he impulsively lies about what happened - to the police, to his wife, even to Sara, who was in the backseat at the time of the crash. But a tenacious detective thinks Sara might have seen more than she knows..." - Amazon.


2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America, by Albert Brooks. St. Martin's Press, 2011. Print length: 384 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...while Brooks' debut novel is, like much of his film work, wonderfully astringent, he spends too much time on the specifics of his future and not enough on the characters inhabiting it." Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (47 reviews).Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $14.29. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Comedian and filmmaker Brooks welcomes the reader to the year 2030 in his smart and surprisingly serious debut. Cancer has been cured, global warming is an acknowledged reality, people have robot companions, and the president is a Jew - and oy vey does he have his hands full with an earthquake-leveled Los Angeles and a growing movement by the young to exterminate the elderly. And when the Chinese offer to rebuild L.A. in exchange for a half-ownership stake in Southern California, President Bernstein is faced with a decision that will alter the future of America..." - Publishers Weekly.

Special Feature: The Next Twilight? Young Adult Series en Route to Movieland:

Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher. Firebird, 2011. Print length: 448 p. The movie: Taylor Lautner may star. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (145 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Finn is a 17-year old prisoner of Incarceron. His memories begin and end there. He knows nothing about his heritage except for vague memories that tease at his mind. The teen is determined to escape the prison fashioned centuries ago as a solution to the chaos created by man. Now Incarceron is self-sustaining and self-perpetuating - prisoners are born there and they die there. Legend claims only one man has ever escaped, Sapphique, and Finn is determined to follow in his steps. Claudia, the warden's daughter, lives sequestered in a castle surrounded by servants. But she, too, longs for escape - from a father who frightens her and from betrothal to an insipid prince..." - School Library Journal.

Earthseed, by Pamela Sargent. Tor Teen, 2007. Print length: 304 p. The movie: Melissa Rosenberg, the screenwriter for The Twilight saga, is producing and adapting the first volume of the series. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (9 reviews). Kindle edition $6.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Ship hurtles through space. Deep within its core, it carries the seed of humankind. Launched by the people of a dying Earth over a century ago, its mission is to find a habitable world for the children - fifteen-year-old Zoheret and her shipmates - whom it has created from its genetic banks. To Zoheret and her shipmates, Ship has been mother, father, and loving teacher, preparing them for their biggest challenge: to survive on their own, on an uninhabited planet, without Ship's protection. Now that day is almost upon them...but are they ready to leave Ship? Ship devises a test..." - Amazon.

Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater. Scholastic, 2009. Print length: 400 p. The movie: The screenplay by Nick Pustay is finished. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (610 reviews). Kindle edition $8.54. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf - her wolf - is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human...until the cold makes him shift back again. Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human - or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever." - Amazon.

Divergent, by Veronica Roth. Harper Collins, 2011. Print length: 384 p. The movie: Will be made by Summit Entertainment. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (130 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is - she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself." - Amazon.

Matched, by Ally Condie. Dutton, 2010. Print length: 384 p. The movie: Will be a Disney production with screenplay by Kieran and Michele Mulroney. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (284 reviews). Kindle edition $10.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"For Cassia, nothing is left to chance - not what she will eat, the job she will have, or the man she will marry. In Matched, the Society Officials have determined optimal outcomes for all aspects of daily life, thereby removing the 'burden' of choice. When Cassia's best friend is identified as her ideal marriage Match it confirms her belief that Society knows best, until she plugs in her Match microchip and a different boy’s face flashes on the screen. This improbable mistake sets Cassia on a dangerous path to the unthinkable - rebelling against the predetermined life Society has in store for her..." - Seira Wilson for Amazon.com Review.

Warm Bodies, by Isaac Marion. Atria, 2011. Print length: 224 p. The movie: Nicholas Hoult will star; Jonathan Levine to direct. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (30 reviews). Kindle edition $10.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"R is a young man with an existential crisis - he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he has dreams. After experiencing a teenage boy's memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and strangely sweet relationship with the victim's human girlfriend." - Amazon.

Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Little, Brown, 2009. Print length: 576 p. The movie: To be made by Warner Brothers. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (475 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Ethan Wate, a high school sophomore, plans to escape his small Southern town as soon as he can. Life has been difficult since his mother died; his father, a writer, has withdrawn into his study. Then Lena Duchannes arrives, and this strange new girl is the very one who has been occupying his dreams. She and her kin are Casters, beings who have supernatural powers. Getting to know her exposes Ethan to time travel, mortal danger, and love." - School Library Journal.

City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare. Magaret K. McElderry, 2009. Print length: 496 p. The Movie: Lily Collins will play Clary, the book's heroine. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (425 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder - much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing - not even a smear of blood - to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy? Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end." - Amazon.

Delirium, by Lauren Oliver. Harper Collins, 2011. Print length: 448 p. The movie: Optioned by Fox. Amazon customer rating: Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Lena Haloway is content in her safe, government-managed society. She feels (mostly) relaxed about the future in which her husband and career will be decided, and looks forward to turning 18, when she’ll be cured of deliria, a.k.a. love. She tries not to think about her mother’s suicide (her last words to Lena were a forbidden 'I love you') or the supposed 'Invalid' community made up of the uncured just beyond her Portland, Maine, border. There’s no real point - she believes her government knows how to best protect its people, and should do so at any cost. But 95 days before her cure, Lena meets Alex, a confident and mysterious young man who makes her heart flutter and her skin turn red-hot." - Jessica Schein for Amazon.com Review.

Pure, by Julianna Baggott. Grand Central Publishing 2012. Print length: 416 p. The movie: In development. The bidding war - which broke out before the novel was even published - was won by Fox. Amazon customer rating: none yet. Available for pre-order on Amazon. Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"An apocalyptic event has divided the world into two castes - the Pures, who live under a protective dome, and the scarred survivors, who exist in an ash-filled wilderness." - Entertainment Weekly.
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Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.


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New in Popular Science for the Kindle

"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.

Even Kindle readers who read for pleasure like to dip into the heady realm of science nonfiction now and then to keep up with what's happening in a world scientists are still uncovering. Recent additions to Kindle popular science shelves include:

Wicked Bugs, by Amy Stewart. Algonquin Books, 2011. Print length: 288 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (3 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Hardcover $12.15. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"In this darkly comical look at the sinister side of our relationship with the natural world, Stewart has tracked down over one hundred of our worst entomological foes - creatures that infest, infect, and generally wreak havoc on human affairs. From the world’s most painful hornet, to the flies that transmit deadly diseases, to millipedes that stop traffic, to the 'bookworms' that devour libraries, to the Japanese beetles munching on your roses, Wicked Bugs delves into the extraordinary powers of six- and eight-legged creatures. With wit, style, and exacting research, Stewart has uncovered the most terrifying and titillating stories of bugs gone wild." - Amazon.

Shrink Rap: Three Psychiatrists Explain Their Work, by Dinah Miller, Annette Hanson, and Steven Roy Daviss. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011. Print length: 272 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $13.57. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"...three psychiatrists from different specialties provide frank answers to questions such as: What is psychotherapy, how does it work, and why don't all psychiatrists do it? When are medications helpful? What happens on a psychiatric unit? Can Prozac make people suicidal? Why do many doctors not like Xanax? Why do we have an insanity defense? Why do people confess to crimes they didn't commit? Using compelling patient vignettes, Shrink Rap explains how psychiatrists think about and address the problems they encounter, from the mundane (how much to charge) to the controversial (involuntary hospitalization). Candid and humorous, Shrink Rap gives a closeup view of psychiatry, peering into technology, treatments, and the business of the field." - Amazon.

For the Love of Physics, by Walter Lewin, with Warren Goldstein. Free Press, 2011. Print length: 288 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (3 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $14.94. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.

"...as Carl Sagan did for astronomy and Brian Green did for cosmology, Lewin takes readers on a marvelous journey in For the Love of Physics, opening our eyes as never before to the amazing beauty and power with which physics can reveal the hidden workings of the world all around us. I introduce people to their own world, writes Lewin, the world they live in and are familiar with but don’t approach like a physicist - yet. Could it be true that we are shorter standing up than lying down? Why can we snorkel no deeper than about one foot below the surface? Why are the colors of a rainbow always in the same order, and would it be possible to put our hand out and touch one? Whether introducing why the air smells so fresh after a lightning storm, why we briefly lose (and gain) weight when we ride in an elevator, or what the big bang would have sounded like had anyone existed to hear it, Lewin never ceases to surprise and delight with the extraordinary ability of physics to answer even the most elusive questions." - Amazon.

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, by David Eagleman. Pantheon, 2011. Print length: 304 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (26 reviews). Kindle edition $13.99; Hardcover $16.21. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"If the conscious mind - the part you consider to be you - is just the tip of the iceberg, what is the rest doing? In this sparkling and provocative new book, the renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman navigates the depths of the subconscious brain to illuminate surprising mysteries: Why can your foot move halfway to the brake pedal before you become consciously aware of danger ahead? Why do you hear your name being mentioned in a conversation that you didn’t think you were listening to? What do Ulysses and the credit crunch have in common? Why did Thomas Edison electrocute an elephant in 1916? Why are people whose names begin with J more likely to marry other people whose names begin with J? Why is it so difficult to keep a secret? And how is it possible to get angry at yourself - who, exactly, is mad at whom? ...a thrilling subsurface exploration of the mind and all its contradictions." - from the hardcover edition.

Bats Sing, Mice Giggle: The Surprising Science of Animals' Inner Lives, by Karen Shanor and Jagmeet Kanwal. Icon Books, 2011. Print length: 272 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Hardcover $12.21. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Did you know that bats compose their own songs and babble to each other? Or that mice giggle when they are tickled? That lizards do push-ups to seduce a mate, or that elephants mimic the sounds of passing trucks to stave off loneliness? Bats Sing, Mice Giggle is the culmination of many years of research that reveals how wild animals, as well as pets, have secret, inner lives of which until recently - although animals lovers will have instinctively believed it - we have had little proof. Drs. Shanor and Kanwal explain how animal friends keep in touch, and how they warn and help each other in times of danger; how some animals problem-solve even more effectively than humans - and how they build, create and entertain themselves and others..an eye-opening voyage of discovery - one which shows that many behavioral and mental traits considered uniquely human are in fact shared with other species." - Amazon.

The Web-Savvy Patient: An Insider's Guide to Navigating the Internet When Facing Medical Crisis, by Andrew Schorr, with Mary Adam Thomas. The Patient Empowerment Network, 2011. Print length: 314 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (7 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $18.51. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Gone are the days when patients take life-changing diagnoses lying down. The first place people go to learn more about their health, especially when it is at risk, is the Internet. But this unregulated channel can be as harmful as it is beneficial when it comes to medical content...a step-by-step guide... explores topics such as wading through search engine results, connecting with online communities, defining conditions, identifying the specialists, and organizing the outcome of your research so that doctors will listen. Delivering practical instruction and supplying real-life reassurances, author and recognized patient empowerment pioneer Andrew Schorr encourages individuals and family members to retain control rather than fall victim to fear and worry." - Amazon.
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Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.


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What People Magazine is Reading This Week (May 23rd Issue)

For those Kindle readers who, like me, read for entertainment, scanning the book reviews in People magazine is good way to check out new people-related books - celebrity bios, popular novels, absorbing nonfiction - just hitting bookstore shelves. Featured in the May 23rd issue of People:

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin, by Erik Larson. Crown, 2011. Print Length: 464 p. NONFICTION. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (74 reviews). People's slant: "...Larson - a master at writing true tales as riveting as fiction - creates a nuanced, eyewitness account of a father and daughter whose eyes thankfully opened as the horrors closed in." Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $13.78. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"...a vivid portrait of Berlin during the first years of Hitler’s reign, brought to life through the stories of two people: William E. Dodd, who in 1933 became America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s regime, and his scandalously carefree daughter, Martha. Ambassador Dodd, an unassuming and scholarly man, is an odd fit among the extravagance of the Nazi elite. His frugality annoys his fellow Americans in the State Department and Dodd’s growing misgivings about Hitler’s ambitions fall on deaf ears among his peers, who are content to 'give Hitler everything he wants.' Martha, on the other hand, is mesmerized by the glamorous parties and the high-minded conversation of Berlin’s salon society - and flings herself headlong into numerous affairs with the city’s elite, most notably the head of the Gestapo and a Soviet spy. Both become players in the exhilarating (and terrifying) story of Hitler’s obsession for absolute power, which culminates in the events of one murderous night, later known as the Night of Long Knives. - Amazon.com Review.

The Year We Left Home, by Jean Thompson. Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print length: 256 p. NOVEL. People's slant: "Wise and absorbing, this is one not to miss." Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (3 reviews). Kindle edition $11.99; Hardcover $15.67. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"...a sweeping and emotionally powerful story of a single American family during the tumultuous final decades of the twentieth century. It begins in 1973 when the Erickson family of Grenada, Iowa, gathers for the wedding of their eldest daughter, Anita. Even as they celebrate, the fault lines in the family emerge... Stretching from the early 1970s in the Iowa farmlands to suburban Chicago to the coast of contemporary Italy - and moving through the Vietnam War’s aftermath, the farm crisis, the numerous economic booms and busts - The Year We Left Home follows the Erickson siblings as they confront prosperity and heartbreak, setbacks and triumphs, and seek their place in a country whose only constant seems to be breathtaking change." - Amazon.

If You Ask Me: (And of Course You Won't) , by Betty White. Putnam, 2011. Print Length: 272 p. MEMOIR. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (14 reviews). People's slant: "What can't she do?" Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $17.13. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Drawing from a lifetime of lessons learned, seven-time Emmy winner Betty White's wit and wisdom take center stage as she tackles topics like friendship, romantic love, aging, television, fans, love for animals, and the brave new world of celebrity. Longtime fans and new fans alike will relish Betty's candid take on everything from her rumored crush on Robert Redford (true) to her beauty regimen (I have no idea what color my hair is and I never intend to find out) to the Facebook campaign that helped persuade her to host Saturday Night Live despite her having declined the hosting job three times already. Featuring all-new material, with a focus on the past fifteen years of her life, If You Ask Me is funny, sweet, and to the point - just like Betty White." - Amazon.

The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A True Story of Resilience and Recovery, by Andrew Westoll. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. Print Length: 288 p. NONFICTION. Amazon customer rating: none yet. People's slant: "His moving book shows that 'no matter what kind of trauma we've gone through, we all have the capacity to recover and to help others heal.'" Kindle edition $9.99; Hardcover $16.33. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"In 1997 Gloria Grow started a sanctuary for chimps retired from biomedical research on her farm outside Montreal. For the indomitable Gloria, caring for thirteen great apes is like presiding over a maximum security prison, a Zen sanctuary, an old folks’ home, and a New York deli during the lunchtime rush all rolled into one. But she is first and foremost creating a refuge for her troubled charges, a place where they can recover and begin to trust humans again. Hoping to win some of this trust, the journalist Andrew Westoll spent months at Fauna Farm as a volunteer and vividly recounts his time in the chimp house and the histories of its residents." - Amazon.
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Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.

History Thru the Lens of Fiction: New Historical Novels for the Kindle

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

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

Doc by Mary Doria Russell. Random House, 2011. Print Length: 400 p. TIME FRAME: Late 19th century American West. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (30 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $15.60. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Beautifully educated, born to the life of a Southern gentleman, Dr. John Henry Holliday is given an awful choice at the age of twenty-two: die within months in Atlanta or leave everyone and everything he loves in the hope that the dry air and sunshine of the West will restore him to health. Young, scared, lonely, and sick, he arrives on the rawest edge of the Texas frontier just as an economic crash wrecks the dreams of a nation. Soon, with few alternatives open to him, Doc Holliday is gambling professionally; he is also living with Mária Katarina Harony, a high-strung Hungarian whore with dazzling turquoise eyes, who can quote Latin classics right back at him. Kate makes it her business to find Doc the high-stakes poker games that will support them both in high style. It is Kate who insists that the couple travel to Dodge City, because 'that’s where the money is.' And that is where the unlikely friendship of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp really begins..." - Amazon.

Finding Emilie by Laurel Corona. Gallery, 2011. Print Length: 416 p. TIME FRAME: 18th century France. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (8 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $10.20. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.

"Lili du Châtelet yearns to know more about her mother, the brilliant French mathematician Emilie. But the shrouded details of Emilie’s unconventional life - and her sudden death - are elusive. Caught between the confines of a convent upbringing and the intrigues of the Versailles court, Lili blossoms under the care of a Parisian salonnière as she absorbs the excitement of the Enlightenment, even as the scandalous shadow of her mother’s past haunts her and puts her on her own path of self-discovery." - Amazon.

Queen By Right by Anne Easter Smith. Touchstone/ Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print Length: 672 p. TIME FRAME: 15th century England. Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $11.55. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"Thanks in no small part to William Shakespeare, history recognizes Richard III, the last king in the Plantagenet dynasty and last ruler of the House of York. But less well remembered is his mother, Cecily of York. An intelligent, dynamic woman unafraid of speaking her mind, she and her husband, also Richard, were a rare love match in a time of marriage as social and political contract. With her signature attention to detail, Smith fully fleshes out the life of this English lady and, through her eyes, skillfully dramatizes the thick of the Wars of the Roses..." - Leigh Wright for Library Journal.

Outlaw by Angus Donald. St. Martin's Griffin, 2011. Print Length: 384 p. TIME FRAME: 12th century England. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (10 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $10.19. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"...a rousing historical novel that mixes legend with fact to bring to life the time, the lives and the struggles of late 12th century England. As the Henry II struggles with his rebellious children and the conflict between the Saxon nobility and the Norman conquerors continues on as bloody as ever, there is a figure that has remained firmly fixed in the imagination of generations - Robin Hood, an outlaw and a renegade nobility determined to bring down the men who took his land, his family, and his position. When he's caught stealing, young Alan Dale is forced to leave his family and go to live with a notorious band of outlaws in Sherwood Forest. Their leader is the infamous Robin Hood...From bloody battles to riotous feast days to marauding packs of wolves, Outlaw is a gripping, action-packed historical thriller that delves deep into the fascinating legend of Robin Hood." - Amazon.

Race to Splendor by Ciji Ware. Sourcebooks Landmark, 2011. Print Length: 544 p. TIME FRAME: San Francisco after the earthquake of 1906. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (12 reviews). Kindle edition $9.34; $11.55. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"...an unlikely romance framed around San Francisco's devastating earthquake of 1906. New architect Amelia Bradshaw returns to the city to claim what's left of the Bay View, her grandfather's hotel next to Chinatown, only to find that her drunkard father has lost it to J.D. Thayer in a poker game. After an unsuccessful court battle - at a time when women had no right of possession - Bradshaw takes a job as junior architect under Julia Morgan, the first licensed female architect in California history. When Morgan's firm is selected to rebuild the Bay View, along with its competitor, the Fairmont, Bradshaw is put in charge of the former, forcing her to work closely with Mr. Thayer, her adversary, who is determined to beat the anniversary of the quake and the opening of the Fairmont." - Publishers Weekly.

The Final Storm: A Novel of the War in the Pacific by Jeff Shaara. Ballantine Books, 2011. Print Length: 544 p. TIME FRAME: 1945 World War II, Pacific Theater. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (24 reviews). Kindle edition $13.99; Hardcover $15.05. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"With a narrative dexterity befitting his status as a master storyteller, Shaara relates the story of the struggle for Okinawa through the eyes of combatants on both sides: Private Clay Adams, a young marine whose brother Jesse has already earned his share of glory as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne in Europe; Admiral Chester Nimitz, who must unite rival army and marine commanders into a cooperative effort; General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., the American ground commander trying to live up to the legacy of his father, who led Confederate troops during the Civil War; and General Mitsura Ushijima, the Japanese general in charge of defending the island, who understands what Tokyo will not believe: that his own fight to the death will only delay the inevitable—as the Americans continue their advance toward the home islands and ultimate victory." - Amazon.
This is the fourth (and last) volume in Shaara's World War Two series, following The Rising Tide, The Steel Wave and No Less Than Victory.


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A Week of Entertainment: Kindle Books Reviewed in Entertainment Weekly's May 20th Issue

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

The Snowman, by Jo Nesbø. Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett. Knopf, 2011. Print length: 400 p. THRILLER. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (52 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $14.41. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"On the first day of snow, a child wakes up to find his mother has disappeared during the night. Outside, a snowman has appeared out of nowhere, the calling card of one of the most terrifying serial killers in recent fiction. A letter from the perpetrator draws Detective Hole further and further into the case, and together with his new partner, Katrine Bratt, he hunts the Snowman through twists and turns that become increasingly personal and may drive Hole to the brink of insanity. Brilliantly crafted, this credible and dark page-turner fully fleshes out the characters, especially Hole, a hardened detective with sharp instincts and real heart." - Miriam Landis for Amazon.com Review.

Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Music, by Ellen Willis. Edited by Nona Willis Aronowitz. University Press of Minnesota, 2011. Print length: 272 p. CRITICISM. EW's slant: "Willis writes with a directness and utter lack of fan gush, and her observations sound as fresh, as appropriate to the present music scene, as they did decades ago." Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $9.99; Paperback $15.61. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"In 1968, the New Yorker hired Ellen Willis as its first popular music critic. Her column, Rock, Etc., ran for seven years and established Willis as a leader in cultural commentary and a pioneer in the nascent and otherwise male-dominated field of rock criticism. As a writer for a magazine with a circulation of nearly half a million, Willis was also the country’s most widely read rock critic. With a voice at once sharp, thoughtful, and ecstatic, she covered a wide range of artists - Bob Dylan, The Who, Van Morrison, Elvis Presley, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joni Mitchell, the Velvet Underground, Sam and Dave, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Wonder - assessing their albums and performances not only on their originality, musicianship, and cultural impact but also in terms of how they made her feel. Out of the Vinyl Deeps collects for the first time Willis’s Rock, Etc. columns and her other writings about popular music from this period (including liner notes for works by Lou Reed and Janis Joplin) and reasserts her rightful place in rock music criticism." - University of Minnesota Press

Embassytown, by China Miéville. Del Rey, 2011. Print length: 352 p. SCIENCE FICTION. EW's slant: "...Miéville's swing-for-the-fences gusto thrills. This is Big Idea Sci-Fi at its most propulsively readable." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (16 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $14.30. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to the enigmatic Ariekei, sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak. Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure. She cannot speak the Ariekei tongue, but she is an indelible part of it, having long ago been made a figure of speech, a living simile in their language. When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. Catastrophe looms, and Avice is torn between competing loyalties - to a husband she no longer loves, to a system she no longer trusts, and to her place in a language she cannot speak yet speaks through her." - from the hardcover edition.

Vaclav & Lena, by Haley Tanner. The Dial Press, 2011. Print length: 304 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "Tanner is a gifted-enough storyteller to bring some real emotional heft." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (3 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Vaclav and Lena seem destined for each other. They meet as children in an ESL class in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Vaclav is precocious and verbal. Lena, struggling with English, takes comfort in the safety of his adoration, his noisy, loving home, and the care of Rasia, his big-hearted mother. Vaclav imagines their story unfolding like a fairy tale, or the perfect illusion from his treasured Magician’s Almanac, but among the many truths to be discovered in Haley Tanner’s wondrous debut is that happily ever after is never a foregone conclusion. One day, Lena does not show up for school. She has disappeared from Vaclav and his family’s lives as if by a cruel magic trick. For the next seven years, Vaclav says goodnight to Lena without fail, wondering if she is doing the same somewhere. On the eve of Lena’s seventeenth birthday he finds out..." - from the hardcover edition.

I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive, by Steve Earle. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. Print length: 256 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...a deft, big-spirited novel about sin, faith, redemption, and the family of man." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $15.29. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Doc Ebersole lives with the ghost of Hank Williams - not just in the figurative sense, not just because he was one of the last people to see him alive, and not just because he is rumored to have given Hank the final morphine dose that killed him. In 1963, ten years after Hank's death, Doc himself is wracked by addiction. Having lost his license to practice medicine, his morphine habit isn't as easy to support as it used to be. So he lives in a rented room in the red-light district on the south side of San Antonio, performing abortions and patching up the odd knife or gunshot wound. But when Graciela, a young Mexican immigrant, appears in the neighborhood in search of Doc's services, miraculous things begin to happen." - Amazon.

What There Is to Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell, edited by Suzanne Marrs. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. Print length: 512 p. LETTERS. EW's slant: "...epistolary feast for literary fans...a confidence booster for aspiring writers everywhere." Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (12 reviews). Kindle edition $19.25; Hardcover $23.10. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"While Welty and her New Yorker editor Maxwell were contemporaries, he 34, she 33 when they first met at a New York literary party in 1942, they seemed to be virtual opposites. He was a devoted family man; she was a loner. His nearly 200 letters to her divulged his entire personality; among the surviving letters, Welty omitted any reference to the love of her life, married crime novelist Ross Macdonald. But Welty and Maxwell recognized from the get-go that they were kindred spirits. The correspondence of this volume, gracefully edited and annotated by Welty's biographer Marrs, takes off in 1951, when the New Yorker began to publish Welty's fiction. Maxwell was an accomplished writer, too, and in these unfailingly cozy letters, which take us up to the 1990s into his old age, the pair discuss not only their work together and apart, but the orchids they loved, their day-to-day lives, and the writers they admired, from Virginia Woolf and Dylan Thomas to J.D. Salinger..." - Publishers Weekly.

The Chicken Chronicles, by Alice Walker. New Press, 2011. Print length: 208 p. NONFICTION. EW's slant: "Our first reaction to Alice Walker's The Chicken Chronicles was What the Cluck. But Walker's quasi-memoir about raising poultry is part of a growing trend." Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $9.99; Hardcover $13.87. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"For the past several years, on a farm north of San Francisco, the celebrated writer Alice Walker has diligently cared for a flock of chickens. Over time, her blossoming relationship with 'her girls' became a source of inspiration, strength, and spiritual discovery, and helped Walker connect more profoundly with her own past as a girl in rural Georgia. Walker has recorded this journey in The Chicken Chronicles, an extraordinary document of personal discovery, political commitment, and the joys of relating to animals." - Amazon.


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Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.

Books They're Talking About: Kindle Books in the Media

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 the CBS Late Show (9 May 2011):

2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America, by Albert Brooks. St. Martin's Press, 2011. Print Length: 384 p. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (30 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $14.95. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Comedian and filmmaker Brooks welcomes the reader to the year 2030 in his smart and surprisingly serious debut. Cancer has been cured, global warming is an acknowledged reality, people have robot companions, and the president is a Jew - and oy vey does he have his hands full with an earthquake-leveled Los Angeles and a growing movement by the young to exterminate the elderly. And when the Chinese offer to rebuild L.A. in exchange for a half-ownership stake in Southern California, President Bernstein is faced with a decision that will alter the future of America..." - Publishers Weekly.

On NPR's Morning Edition (9 May 2011):

Bottled Lightning Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy, by Seth Fletcher. Hill and Wang, 2011. Print Length: 304 p. Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $16.30. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Did you know that the tools that have become absolutely integral to your life - your laptop, iPod, and cell phone - are all powered by lithium batteries? Chances are you’ve got some lithium on your person right now. The third element on the periodic table may also hold the key to an environmentally sustainable, oil independent future. From electric cars to a 'smart' power grid that can actually store electricity, letting us harness the powers of the sun and wind and use them when we need them, lithium - a metal found only in some of the most uninhabitable places on Earth - is setting us on a path toward a carbon-free future. It’s also shifting the geopolitical chessboard in profound ways. In this illuminating, entertaining, and timely book, the science reporter Seth Fletcher takes us on a fascinating journey, from the salt flats of Bolivia to the labs of MIT and Stanford, from the turmoil at GM to cutting-edge lithium-ion battery start-ups, introducing us to the key players and ideas in an industry with the power to reshape the world..." - Amazon.

On Oprah (9 May 2011) and on ABC's Good Morning America (10 May 2011):

Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man, by Chaz Bono with Billie Fitzpatrick. Dutton, 2011. Print Length: 256 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (2 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $16.21. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"At first, America knew the only child of Sonny and Cher as Chastity, the cherubic little girl who appeared on her parents' TV show. In later years, she became famous for coming out on a national stage, working with two major organizations toward LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) rights and publishing two books. And just within the past eighteen months, Chaz Bono has entered the public consciousness as the most high-profile transgender person ever. All through the hoopla surrounding his change, Chaz has insisted on maintaining his privacy. Now, in Transition, Chaz finally tells his story...beginning in his childhood - when he played on the boys' teams and wore boys' clothing whenever possible - and going through his painful, but ultimately joyful, coming out in his twenties, up to 2008, when, after the death of his father, drug addiction, and five years of sobriety, Chaz was finally ready to begin the process of changing his gender." - Publisher.

On NPR's Diane Rehm Show (12 May 2011):

Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground, by Jonathan Kay. Harper Collins, 2011. Print Length: 400 p. Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $14.99; Hardcover $15.55. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"From left-wing 9/11 conspiracy theorists to right-wing Obama-hating 'birthers' - a sobering, eyewitness look at how America's marketplace of ideas is fracturing into a multitude of tiny, radicalized boutiques - each peddling its own brand of paranoia...anti-Obama extremists who believe their president is actually a foreign-born Manchurian Candidate seeking to destroy the United States from within; radical alternative-medicine advocates who claim that vaccine makers and mainstream doctors are conspiring to kill large swathes of humanity; financial neo-populists who have adapted the angry message of their nineteenth-century forebears to the age of Twitter; Holocaust deniers; fluoride phobics; obsessive Islamophobes; and more. For two years journalist Jonathan Kay immersed himself in this dark subculture, attending conventions of conspiracy theorists, surfing their discussion boards, reading their websites, joining their Facebook groups, and interviewing them in their homes and offices. He discovered that while many of their theories may seem harmlessly bizarre, their proliferation has done real damage to the sense of shared reality that we rely on as a society. Kay also offers concrete steps that intelligent, culturally engaged Americans can take to reject conspiracism and help regain control of the intellectual landscape." - Amazon.

On C-SPAN2's BookTV (14 May 2011):

The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture, by Joshua Kendall. Putnam, 2011. Print Length: 368 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $16.84. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. Related website: http://theforgottenfoundingfather.com/.
"Noah Webster's name is now synonymous with the dictionary he created, but his story is not nearly so ubiquitous. Webster hobnobbed with various Founding Fathers and was a young confidant of George Washington and Ben Franklin. He started America's first daily newspaper, predating Alexander Hamilton's New York Post. His 'blue-backed speller' for schoolchildren sold millions of copies and influenced early copyright law. But perhaps most important, Webster was an ardent supporter of a unified, definitively American culture, distinct from the British, at a time when the United States of America were anything but unified - and his dictionary of American English is a testament to that." - Publisher.
"Kendall provides an intriguing look at one of America’s earliest men of letters that is sure to appeal to lovers of both words and history." - Kirkus Reviews.

On NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday (15 May 2011):

The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics, by John Pollack. Gotham Books, 2011. Print Length: 240 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (9 reviews). Kindle edition $10.99; Hardcover $14.20. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"The pun is commonly dismissed as the lowest form of wit, and punsters are often unpopular for their obsessive wordplay. But such attitudes are relatively recent developments. In The Pun Also Rises, John Pollack - a former World Pun Champion and presidential speechwriter for Bill Clinton - explains why such wordplay is significant: It both revolutionized language and played a pivotal role in making the modern world possible. Skillfully weaving together stories and evidence from history, brain science, pop culture, literature, anthropology, and humor, The Pun Also Rises is an authoritative yet playful exploration of a practice that is common, in one form or another, to virtually every language on earth." - Amazon.

On ABC's Nightline (16 May 2011) and on NPR's Fresh Air (18 May 2011):

Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base, by Annie Jacobsen. Little, Brown and Company, 2011. Print Length: 544 p. Amazon customer rating: none yet. Kindle edition $14.99; Hardcover $17.73. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"It is the most famous military installation in the world. And it doesn't exist. Located a mere seventy-five miles outside of Las Vegas in Nevada's desert, the base has never been acknowledged by the U.S. government - but Area 51 has captivated imaginations for decades. Annie Jacobsen had exclusive access to nineteen men who served the base proudly and secretly for decades and are now aged 75-92, and unprecedented access to fifty-five additional military and intelligence personnel, scientists, pilots, and engineers linked to the secret base, thirty-two of whom lived and worked there for extended periods. This is the first book based on interviews with eye witnesses to Area 51 history, which makes it the seminal work on the subject. Filled with formerly classified information that has never been accurately decoded for the public, Area 51 weaves the mysterious activities of the top-secret base into a gripping narrative..." - Amazon.

On NPR's Diane Rehm Show (17 May 2011):

The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding From You, by Eli Pariser. Penguin Press, 2011. Print Length: 304 p. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (6 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $16.26. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"In December 2009, Google began customizing its search results for each user. Instead of giving you the most broadly popular result, Google now tries to predict what you are most likely to click on. According to MoveOn.org board president Eli Pariser, Google's change in policy is symptomatic of the most significant shift to take place on the Web in recent years - the rise of personalization. Though the phenomenon has gone largely undetected until now, personalized filters are sweeping the Web, creating individual universes of information for each of us. Facebook - the primary news source for an increasing number of Americans - prioritizes the links it believes will appeal to you so that if you are a liberal, you can expect to see only progressive links. In this groundbreaking investigation of the new hidden Web, Pariser uncovers how this growing trend threatens to control how we consume and share information as a society - and reveals what we can do about it." - Publisher.


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Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.

What People Magazine is Reading This Week (May 16th Issue)

For those Kindle readers who, like me, read for entertainment, scanning the book reviews in People magazine is good way to check out new people-related books - celebrity bios, popular novels, absorbing nonfiction - just hitting bookstore shelves. Featured in the May 16th issue of People:

Dead Reckoning: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel by Charlaine Harris. Ace, 2011. Print Length: 336 p. URBAN FANTASY. Amazon customer rating: 3 stars (289 reviews). People's slant: "Charlaine Harris's hit novels are the life force behind HBO's undead drama True Blood. Sookie is a thinking woman's heroine. Through the series she evolves from a naive mind reader to an other-world-weary traveler... Is she losing her humanity by spending so much time with non-humans. Curl up with her and decide for yourself." Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $15.37. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. Sookie suspects otherwise, but her attention is divided when she realizes that her lover Eric Northman and his 'child' Pam are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, Sookie is drawn into the plot - which is much more complicated than she knows..." - Publisher.
Dead Reckoning is book eleven in The Southern Vampire series that began with the 2001 publication of Dead Until Dark.

Faith, by Jennifer Haigh. Harper Collins, 2011. Print Length: 304 p. NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars. People's slant: "...haunting tale...ripped from the headlines..." Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $14.06. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Estranged for years from her difficult and demanding relatives, Sheila McGann has remained close to her older brother Art, the popular, dynamic pastor of a large suburban parish. When Art finds himself at the center of the maelstrom, Sheila returns to Boston, ready to fight for him and his reputation. What she discovers is more complicated than she imagined. Her strict, lace-curtain-Irish mother is living in a state of angry denial. Sheila's younger brother Mike, to her horror, has already convicted his brother in his heart. But most disturbing of all is Art himself, who persistently dodges Sheila's questions and refuses to defend himself. As the scandal forces long-buried secrets to surface, Faith explores the corrosive consequences of one family's history of silence... a haunting meditation on loyalty and family, doubt and belief." - Amazon.com Review.

If You Were Here, by Jen Lancaster. NAL, 2011. Print Length: 320 p. NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 3 stars (23 reviews). People's slant: "Witty and hilarious even for non Hughes fanatics." Kindle edition $11.99; Hardcover $13.27. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Told in the uproariously entertaining voice readers have come to expect from Jen Lancaster, If You Were Here follows Amish-zombie-teen-romance author Mia and her husband Mac (and their pets) through the alternately frustrating, exciting, terrifying - but always funny - process of buying and renovating their first home in the Chicago suburbs that John Hughes's movies made famous. Along their harrowing renovation journey, Mia and Mac get caught up in various wars with the homeowners' association, meet some less-than-friendly neighbors, and are joined by a hilarious cast of supporting characters, including a celebutard ex- landlady. As they struggle to adapt to their new surroundings - with Mac taking on the renovations himself - Mia and Mac will discover if their marriage is strong enough to survive months of DIY..." - Amazon.

The Coffins of Little Hope, by Timothy Schaffert. Unbridled Books, 2011. Print Length: 272 p. NOVEL. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (11 reviews). People's slant: "...a witty, sometimes profound story about media, mortality and rash acts undertaken in the name of love." Kindle edition $7.99: Hardcover $16.47. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"...Essie Myles, an 83-year-old widowed obituary writer for a small Nebraska newspaper stumbles onto the story of her life. The paper's printing press has been working double-time since a New York publisher contracted it to print part of the print run for the final installment of a wildly popular YA novel series - part of a plan to keep the book's contents under wraps - and Essie kicks into high gear as well when she gets a tip from a local that her daughter, Lenore, has been abducted by her photographer boyfriend. But the more Essie digs, it becomes less evident whether the tale is true or the concoction of a lonely woman desperate for attention. Meanwhile, parts of the YA novel are leaked, the missing person story blows up, and the once quiet town suddenly finds itself on the national stage. Schaffert spins out the story and its offbeat characters with compassion, spoofing the nation's voracious appetite for 'news' and suggesting that perhaps not all stories are created equal." - Publishers Weekly.

What to Expect the Second Year, by Heidi Murkoff. Workman Publishing Company, 2011. Print Length: 540 p. NONFICTION. Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $9.17; Paperback $10.19. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"...takes parents through what can only be called 'the wonder year' - 12 jam-packed (and jam-smeared) months of memorable milestones (from first steps to first words, first scribbles to first friends), lightning-speed learning, endless explorations driven by insatiable curiosity. Not to mention a year of challenges, both for toddlers and the parents who love them, but don’t always love their behaviors (picky eating, negativity, separation anxiety, bedtime battles, biting, and tantrums). Comprehensive, reassuring, empathetic, realistic, and practical, What to Expect the Second Year is filled with solutions, strategies, and plenty of parental pep talks." - Amazon.

A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother, by Janny Scott. Riverhead, 2011. Print Length: 384 p. BIOGRAPHY. Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (11 reviews). People's slant: "...packs 2 1/2 years of research into her bio of Stanley Ann Dunham, the quixotic anthropologist who raised a president." Kindle edition $12.99; Hardcover $16.04. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.

"Barack Obama has written extensively about his father, but little is known about Stanley Ann Dunham, the fiercely independent woman who raised him, the person he credits for, as he says, what is best in me. Here is the missing piece of the story. Award-winning reporter Janny Scott interviewed nearly two hundred of Dunham's friends, colleagues, and relatives (including both her children), and combed through boxes of personal and professional papers, letters to friends, and photo albums, to uncover the full breadth of this woman's inspiring and untraditional life, and to show the remarkable extent to which she shaped the man Obama is today. Dunham's story moves from Kansas and Washington state to Hawaii and Indonesia. It begins in a time when interracial marriage was still a felony in much of the United States, and culminates in the present, with her son as our president - something she never got to see..." - Amazon.
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Note to readers: The book prices quoted here are the Amazon.com prices in effect at the time of the blog posting. Please follow the links to the individual book to check the current price.

Kindle E-Books on the Cheap: An Eclectic Selection

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 (or very cheap) e-books available for download from the web.

Free and inexpensive e-book selections for this week include vintage pulp fiction, two young adult fantasy novels, science fiction from Philip K. Dick, a classic novel from the first American novelist to be awarded the Nobel Prize, a guide to e-book publishing and a novel set in the Swiss alps in the post WWI period.

The Ghost Strikes Back, by G. T. Fleming-Roberts. PULP FICTION. Download site: MobileRead. Format: .mobi for Kindle. Price: $0.00.
"The man in the rain was the most unprepossessing individual I had ever seen. He wasn’t just thin, he was gaunt - almost starved looking. He was all but chinless. His eyes were protruding and glittering. He was rigged out in a seedy looking cutaway coat and baggy striped trousers. An almost colorless fuzz adorned one-third of his peaked cranium, noticeable only when he removed his black fedora hat. He stepped out of the shadows of the dark area way at the stage door entrance as Merry White and I approached. In the drizzle of that rainy spring evening..."

The Witness for the Defense, by A.E.W. Mason. MYSTERY. Download site: ManyBooks. Format: .azw for Kindle. Price: $0.00.
"The 'witness for the defense' perjures himself and saves a woman (whose love he had won seven years before and sacrificed for personal ambition) from conviction of the shooting of her husband, a secret and cruel dipsomaniac. He loses track of her for some time but then finds that he must renounce her again, unwillingly this time, as her love has been given to the man who has married her secretly in spit of his realization of the truth long before she confesses it." - ManyBooks.

Death (and Further Adventures) of Silas Winterbottom: The Body Thief, by Stephen Giles. YOUNG ADULT. Download site: Amazon. Format: Kindle. Price: $1.94.

"And you thought your family was strange. I am dying... I might get the chance to know you before death takes me... I would like you to be my guest at Sommerset... I have enclosed a check for $ 10,000... Should you accept my offer... Uncle Silas has always been greedy, evil, insulting, and extremely rich! But a dying uncle with a vast fortune is definitely one worth getting to know. Even if it means spending 2 months on his secluded island home with a houseful of suspicious servants and a hungry pet crocodile. But what is Uncle Silas really up to? Will Adele, Milo, and Isabella outlive Uncle Silas to inherit his money? And just who is that mysterious 'guest' in his basement?" - Amazon.

Second Variety, by Philip K. Dick. SCIENCE FICTION/SHORT STORY. Download site: ManyBooks. Format: .azw for Kindle. Price: $0.00
"The claws were bad enough in the first place - nasty, crawling little death-robots. But when they began to imitate their creators, it was time for the human race to make peace—if it could!" - ManyBooks.

Dodsworth, by Sinclair Lewis. NOVEL. Download site: MobileRead. Format: .mobi for Kindle. Price: $0.00.
"Touring Europe with his beautiful but spoiled wife Fran, millionaire Sam Dodsworth, known as the American Captain of Industry, witnesses the clash of American and English cultures at the same time his marriage falls apart.
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature..."

In the Mountains, by Elizabeth von Arnim. GENRE. Download site: GirleBooks. Format: Kindle/Mobipocket PRC. Price: $0.00.

"First published in 1920, the story is written in first person as a journal. Our narrator is a tired English woman who, after WWI, escapes ambiguous personal troubles in London and seeks refuge at her chalet among the Swiss Alps. As she starts to gain strength, two English women, also of ambiguous personal circumstances, show up literally on her doorstep. The hostess takes them in, and they embark on a strange and endearing path to helping each other." - GirleBooks.

The (almost) Complete DIY Guide to eBook Publishing, by Coral Russell. NONFICTION. Download site: Feedbooks. Format: Kindle. Price: $0.00.
"I emptied my brain and computer into this eBook of all the current information on Independent eBook Publishing. The eBook is 6969 words long (I couldn't have planned that better if I wanted to o.~) and has literally 1000 links. Sections are on my blog at alchemyofscrawl.blogspot.com and I would love comments, questions, ideas, debate. I have been reviewing Indie Authors and enjoyed so many great stories!" - Author.

Cassidy Jones and the Secret Formula, by Elise Stokes. YOUNG ADULT. Download site: Amazon. Format: Kindle. Price: $2.99.

"Fourteen-year-old Cassidy Jones wakes up the morning after a minor accident in the laboratory of a world-renowned geneticist to discover that her body has undergone some bizarre physical changes. Her senses, strength, and speed have been radically enhanced. After exploring her newfound abilities, Cassidy learns that the geneticist, Professor Serena Phillips, is missing and that foul play is suspected. Terrified that her physical changes and Professor Phillips' disappearance are somehow connected, Cassidy decides to keep her strange transformation a secret. That is, until she meets the professor's brilliant and mysterious fifteen-year-old son, Emery..." - Amazon.