(Editor’s Note: Some people are born to entertain us, born to tell stories, born to write. Cate Rowan seems to have known from a very early age. Jurors of the Romance Writers of America Golden Hearts competition have known it for a while. Readers have been discovering it with such intense pleasure that I have barely been able to keep up with the 5-star reviews. But our mission today at Kindle Nation is to help let the rest of the world discover Cate Rowan, one Kindle at a time…. —S.W.)
Kismet’s Kiss (Alaia: The Women of Kismet, Book One)
By Cate Rowan
4.9 out of 5 stars – 9 Reviews – Kindle Price: $2.99 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
When a deadly epidemic strikes a sultan’s family, only a magical healer from an enemy land can save them. Soon the sultan wonders if he can save his heart from the feisty infidel, though his culture condemns her sorcery.
KISMET’S KISS is a two-time RWA Golden Heart® Finalist and a winner of the Duel on the Delta, Molly, and Put Your Heart in a Book contests.
: - “Magic, passion, and intrigue—KISMET’S KISS has it all! Cate Rowan’s uniquely compelling fantasy debut is set in a fascinating and fully realized world where danger lurks in every shadow. Rowan is definitely an author to watch!” – Alyssa Day, New York Times bestselling author
- “KISMET’S KISS is a compelling tale of love and duty set amid the clash of cultures. A thoroughly enjoyable adventure!” – Jana Oliver, author of the Time Rovers series and DEMON TRAPPER’S DAUGHTER
- “A wonderful Arabian Nights story laced with humor and scheming with intriguing twists.” – Robin D. Owens, RITA-winning author of HEART THIEF and GUARDIAN OF HONOR
- “KISMET’S KISS is a lush, inviting, immersive gem of a book. No one who loves being swept away by a great story should miss this!” – Kendra Leigh Castle, author of CALL OF THE HIGHLAND MOON and RENEGADE ANGEL
- “KISMET’S KISS has everything a reader of fantasy could ask for—suspense, action, incredible world-building and magic. What captured me most was a romance so exquisitely crafted that it kept me up all night, devouring every word until the very last page. This story is a one-sitting read to be savored again and again!” – Shelby Reed, author of THE FIFTH FAVOR and MIDNIGHT ROSE
More About Author Cate Rowan
Cate Rowan has washed laundry in a crocodile-infested African lake, parasailed over Cabo, and swum with dolphins, but her best adventures are her story worlds. Her lush fantasy romances about magic, danger and passion in faraway realms have won more than thirty awards. Her debut novel, Kismet’s Kiss, was a two-time Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® finalist.
› Visit Amazon’s Cate Rowan Page
to download Kismet’s Kiss (Alaia: The Women of Kismet, Book One)
(or the free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!
from the UK Kindle Store
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Each day’s list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them.
Authors, Publishers, Kindle Accessory Manufacturers:
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Outlander: with Bonus Content
by Diana Gabaldon
4.4 out of 5 stars – (1,672 customer reviews) – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Doubleday Book Club main selection, Literary Guild alternate.
In Outlander, a 600-page time-travel romance, strong-willed and sensual Claire Randall leads a double life with a husband in one century, and a lover in another. Torn between fidelity and desire, she struggles to understand the pure intent of her heart. But don’t let the number of pages and the Scottish dialect scare you. It’s one of the fastest reads you’ll have in your library. While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn’t all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she’s never known before. I was lame and sore in every muscle when I woke next morning. I shuffled to the privy closet, then to the wash basin. My innards felt like churned butter. It felt as though I had been beaten with a blunt object, I reflected, then thought that that was very near the truth. The blunt object in question was visible as I came back to bed, looking now relatively harmless. Its possessor [Jamie] woke as I sat next to him, and examined me with something that looked very much like male smugness.” Gabaldon creates characters that you’ll remember, laugh with, cry with, and cheer for long after you’ve finished the book. –Candy Paape From Publishers Weekly
Absorbing and heartwarming, this first novel lavishly evokes the land and lore of Scotland, quickening both with realistic characters and a feisty, likable heroine. English nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall and husband Frank take a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands in 1945. When Claire walks through a cleft stone in an ancient henge, she’s somehow transported to 1743. She encounters Frank’s evil ancestor, British captain Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall, and is adopted by another clan. Claire nurses young soldier James Fraser, a gallant, merry redhead, and the two begin a romance, seeing each other through many perilous, swashbuckling adventures involving Black Jack. Scenes of the Highlanders’ daily life blend poignant emotions with Scottish wit and humor. Eventually Sassenach (outlander) Claire finds a chance to return to 1945, and must choose between distant memories of Frank and her happy, uncomplicated existence with Jamie. Claire’s resourcefulness and intelligent sensitivity make the love-conquers-all, happily-ever-after ending seem a just reward.
Click here to see a dozen other Kindle editions by Diana Gabaldon, most in the $6 to $8 range.
The New World is a story-length Kindle Exclusive prequel that sets the stage for the world you will discover in The Knife of Never Letting Go
The New World
by Patrick Ness – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Kudos to indie publisher Candlewick Press in my neighboring town of Somerville for working with Amazon to nail the perfect Kindle-appropriate process of bringing out a new sci-fi/fantasy/YA series for Kindle readers!
by Peggy Webb
4.2 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews) – Kindle Price: $0.00 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
They say you can’t get to Heaven without passing through the Eternal Rest Funeral Home. And no one gets into Eternal Rest without passing muster with Elvis-the basset hound who’s convinced he’s the reincarnation of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Brewing up a big ol’ pitcher of Mississippi mystery, Peggy Webb’s delightful new series is as intoxicating as the Delta breeze.
by Charlie Carillo
4.5 out of 5 stars (79 customer reviews) – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
by Alan Jacobson – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Jacobson’s third novel (after False Accusations and The Hunted) has all the ingredients for a best-selling psychological thriller: strong female lead, multifaceted serial killer, compelling plot, and just enough secrets and surprises to keep the adrenaline racing. The hunt is on for the notorious Dead Eyes killer who is preying on young women. Karen Vail is a gritty yet vulnerable FBI profiler with a precarious personal life. As Vail and the task force pursue the serial killer, readers are drawn into the inner sanctum of a profiler while simultaneously privy to the killer’s crazed thoughts. The murders rapidly escalate, and Vail’s personal life is careening out of control, threatening to derail her investigation. When the killer strikes a seventh time, surprising revelations provide a shocking finale. The author’s seven years of study with the FBI’s profiling unit have helped him craft a riveting, authentically detailed thriller that will ensnare readers. Strongly recommended for all popular fiction collections.—Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
by Alan Jacobson – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Pre-order FREE now and this title will be auto-delivered to your Kindle on October 5, 2010
Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author: “From the first page Velocity is as relentless as a bullet. Karen Vail is my kind of hero and Alan Jacobson is my kind of writer!”
Supervisory Special Agent Michael Upchurch, Drug Enforcement Administration (ret): “Jacobson captures the complexity of the mission faced by DEA, the threat posed to our country, and the constant danger our agents face battling members of international drug trafficking organizations. As someone who devoted his career to carrying out that mission, I can say first-hand that Velocity hits the target. Jacobson’s acquired a new fan.”
Ridley Pearson, New York Times bestselling author: “Alan Jacobson writes with a firm hand, a strong voice, and fine eye for detail.”
That future is here, and here are 12 very useful and very free high school math and science textbooks to prove it. With innovative public high school administrators like Clearwater High School’s Keith Mastorides buying Kindles by the thousands for their students, it is just a matter of time before we’ll see textbook publishers jumping through hoops to provide Kindle editions of their texts. But these 12 free math and science ebooks with text-to-speech enabled are a great start, and they are well worth downloading and keeping in your Kindle archives for whenever you or someone younger in your family might need them. They’re pretty good on the Kindle 2 or 3, fine on a Kindle DX, and especially user-friendly on an iPad, Mac, or PC. 
Free Kindle Nation Shorts – October 2, 2010 – A Brand New “Scary Saturday” Free Kindle Nation Short: An Excerpt from The Red Church, A Novel By Scott Nicholson
Editor of Kindle Nation Daily ©Kindle Nation Daily
- “A damn scary story well told.”-Christopher Ransom, author of the international bestseller The Birthing House
- “Like Stephen King, he has an eye and ear for the rhythms of rural America, and like King he knows how to summon serious scares. My advice? Buy everything he writes. This guy’s the real deal.”-Bentley Little, author of The Disappearance
- “Keep both hands on your pants because Nicholson is about to scare them off.”-J.A. Konrath, Origin and Serial
- “Always surprises and always entertains.”-Jonathan Maberry, Patient Zero
- “Scott Nicholson knows the territory. Follow him at your own risk.”-Stewart O’Nan, Boston Noir
- “A wonderful storyteller.” Sharyn McCrumb, author of The Ballad novels
The Red Church
A Novel By Scott Nicholson
CHAPTER ONE
Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Saturday, October 2: A Dozen New Free Promotional Titles in the Kindle Store! plus Patricia Ryan’s award-winning Silken Threads (Today’s Sponsor), and Links to Over a Million Free Kindle Titles
(Editor’s Note: Kindle Nation Daily is honored today to be sponsored by a “medieval take on the classic Hitchcock tale Rear Window
– Text-to-Speech: Enabled “Silken Threads resonates with the sounds, smells, intrigues and passions of the Middle Ages. Add engaging characters, authentic historical details and a well-crafted mystery and you have a delectable tapestry whose threads glide like silk through the pages.” Romantic Times
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
to download Silken Threads (or the free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds! from the UK Kindle Store |
Each day’s list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them.
Authors, Publishers, Kindle Accessory Manufacturers:
|
Outlander: with Bonus Content
by Diana Gabaldon
4.4 out of 5 stars – (1,672 customer reviews) – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Doubleday Book Club main selection, Literary Guild alternate.
In Outlander, a 600-page time-travel romance, strong-willed and sensual Claire Randall leads a double life with a husband in one century, and a lover in another. Torn between fidelity and desire, she struggles to understand the pure intent of her heart. But don’t let the number of pages and the Scottish dialect scare you. It’s one of the fastest reads you’ll have in your library. While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn’t all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she’s never known before. I was lame and sore in every muscle when I woke next morning. I shuffled to the privy closet, then to the wash basin. My innards felt like churned butter. It felt as though I had been beaten with a blunt object, I reflected, then thought that that was very near the truth. The blunt object in question was visible as I came back to bed, looking now relatively harmless. Its possessor [Jamie] woke as I sat next to him, and examined me with something that looked very much like male smugness.” Gabaldon creates characters that you’ll remember, laugh with, cry with, and cheer for long after you’ve finished the book. –Candy Paape From Publishers Weekly
Absorbing and heartwarming, this first novel lavishly evokes the land and lore of Scotland, quickening both with realistic characters and a feisty, likable heroine. English nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall and husband Frank take a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands in 1945. When Claire walks through a cleft stone in an ancient henge, she’s somehow transported to 1743. She encounters Frank’s evil ancestor, British captain Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall, and is adopted by another clan. Claire nurses young soldier James Fraser, a gallant, merry redhead, and the two begin a romance, seeing each other through many perilous, swashbuckling adventures involving Black Jack. Scenes of the Highlanders’ daily life blend poignant emotions with Scottish wit and humor. Eventually Sassenach (outlander) Claire finds a chance to return to 1945, and must choose between distant memories of Frank and her happy, uncomplicated existence with Jamie. Claire’s resourcefulness and intelligent sensitivity make the love-conquers-all, happily-ever-after ending seem a just reward.
Click here to see a dozen other Kindle editions by Diana Gabaldon, most in the $6 to $8 range.
The New World is a story-length Kindle Exclusive prequel that sets the stage for the world you will discover in The Knife of Never Letting Go
The New World
by Patrick Ness – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Kudos to indie publisher Candlewick Press in my neighboring town of Somerville for working with Amazon to nail the perfect Kindle-appropriate process of bringing out a new sci-fi/fantasy/YA series for Kindle readers!
by Peggy Webb
4.2 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews) – Kindle Price: $0.00 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
They say you can’t get to Heaven without passing through the Eternal Rest Funeral Home. And no one gets into Eternal Rest without passing muster with Elvis-the basset hound who’s convinced he’s the reincarnation of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Brewing up a big ol’ pitcher of Mississippi mystery, Peggy Webb’s delightful new series is as intoxicating as the Delta breeze.
by Charlie Carillo
4.5 out of 5 stars (79 customer reviews) – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
by Alan Jacobson – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Jacobson’s third novel (after False Accusations and The Hunted) has all the ingredients for a best-selling psychological thriller: strong female lead, multifaceted serial killer, compelling plot, and just enough secrets and surprises to keep the adrenaline racing. The hunt is on for the notorious Dead Eyes killer who is preying on young women. Karen Vail is a gritty yet vulnerable FBI profiler with a precarious personal life. As Vail and the task force pursue the serial killer, readers are drawn into the inner sanctum of a profiler while simultaneously privy to the killer’s crazed thoughts. The murders rapidly escalate, and Vail’s personal life is careening out of control, threatening to derail her investigation. When the killer strikes a seventh time, surprising revelations provide a shocking finale. The author’s seven years of study with the FBI’s profiling unit have helped him craft a riveting, authentically detailed thriller that will ensnare readers. Strongly recommended for all popular fiction collections.—Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
by Alan Jacobson – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Pre-order FREE now and this title will be auto-delivered to your Kindle on October 5, 2010
Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author: “From the first page Velocity is as relentless as a bullet. Karen Vail is my kind of hero and Alan Jacobson is my kind of writer!”
Supervisory Special Agent Michael Upchurch, Drug Enforcement Administration (ret): “Jacobson captures the complexity of the mission faced by DEA, the threat posed to our country, and the constant danger our agents face battling members of international drug trafficking organizations. As someone who devoted his career to carrying out that mission, I can say first-hand that Velocity hits the target. Jacobson’s acquired a new fan.”
Ridley Pearson, New York Times bestselling author: “Alan Jacobson writes with a firm hand, a strong voice, and fine eye for detail.”
That future is here, and here are 12 very useful and very free high school math and science textbooks to prove it. With innovative public high school administrators like Clearwater High School’s Keith Mastorides buying Kindles by the thousands for their students, it is just a matter of time before we’ll see textbook publishers jumping through hoops to provide Kindle editions of their texts. But these 12 free math and science ebooks with text-to-speech enabled are a great start, and they are well worth downloading and keeping in your Kindle archives for whenever you or someone younger in your family might need them. They’re pretty good on the Kindle 2 or 3, fine on a Kindle DX, and especially user-friendly on an iPad, Mac, or PC. 
Start reading the books you love right on your browser with Kindle for Web: L.C. Glazebrook’s October Girls: Crystal and Bone + Beyond the Comfort Zone, by James M. Turner
Just a quick post here to recommend, if you are looking for a great but inexpensive read for the weekend: Today’s Kindle Nation sponsors couldn’t be more different, yet each, in its own way, appealed to me:
L.C. Glazebrook’s October Girls: Crystal and Bone
Beyond the Comfort Zone, by James M. Turner
UK Edition, Kindle Nation Free Book Alert:The New World, a Kindle Exclusive story-length prequel to the award-winning Chaos Walking trilogy, plus James M. Turner’s stunning memoir Beyond the Comfort Zone (Today’s Sponsor)
Today’s special addition to our Free Book Alert listings is the perfect introduction, a story-length prequel, to Patrick Ness’ award-winning Chaos Walking
(Ed. Note: We’ve had a spate of memoirs the past few years by performers with little story to tell and even less skill for storytelling, but James M. Turner is a glorious exception. He engaged me fully with the story of his ascent as a musician, but this book was transformed from a good read to a can’t-put-down with the compelling tale of the deeds and dangers involved in his struggles for human decency in the jungle of southeast Asia. Along the way he reveals a novelist’s touch for narrative and dialogue. It’s not only a wonderful story of one man’s times, but better yet, of his struggle to redeem those times. –S.W.)
- Born in the UK in the heart of rural Cheshire in 1961 where he completed his secondary education before re-locating to Manchester in the late 1970’s to begin studying the Saxophone.
- During the mid 80’s establishes himself as a popular choice for successful pop groups of the day and goes on to play with many international acts including UK pop phenomena ‘Bros’ and ‘Take That’ Moves to Thailand in 2002 which is largely the setting for his first auto-biographical memoir ‘Beyond The Comfort Zone’ based partly upon his experiences there.
- Relocates again in 2005 to Los Angeles California and begins to work in the film business, working on films such as Crystal Sky Pictures ‘Tekken’, ‘Death Race 2’ (2010) as well as ‘Annihilation Earth’ and ‘Witchville’ for the Sci-Fi channel.
- His first Television series screenplay ‘The Taker’ is heading for production late 2010. Besides his other talents James is a keen swimmer and linguist. As well as English he speaks both Spanish and Thai, his Mandarin Chinese is still a work in progress. When he is not on film sets he divides his time between Los Angeles, Manchester and Asia.
Amazon review
Beyond The Comfort Zone is among the best, and certainly the most engrossing, non-fiction books I have read in a long time. One of the strongest compliments I can pay is that while being entirely believable and hyperbole-free, it reads like fiction, and tightly written, exciting fiction at that. [..] Sometimes incredibly funny at others desperately heartbreaking, I could not put it down. “
All4women.co.za
“His exceptional journey is the making of a Hollywood blockbuster and at times I had to remind myself that it’s a true story [..] Turner’s dialogue leaps off the page. A Shantaram for south east asia.”
Music.co.uk
“this is one book that will grip you from start to finish. If you’re looking for a unique read, full of interest, intrigue, danger, and high emotion, then this is the book for you.
(or a free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds
to download Beyond the Comfort Zone (or a free sample) from the U.S. Kindle Store|
Each day’s list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors!
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Authors, Publishers, Kindle Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information:
Click here to sponsor a Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert!* * *
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.The New World is a story-length Kindle Exclusive prequel that sets the stage for the world you will discover in The Knife of Never Letting Go
The New World
by Patrick Ness – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Ransom X (Legacy Series)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ransom-X-Legacy-Series/dp/B002Q0Y0OY/kinnatdai-21
by I. B. Holder – Kindle Price: £0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Martin Legace is a former special ops standout, once recognized as the top field interrogator in the American military complex. His study of the human mind was carried out in make-shift tents on the edge of the battlefield; he didn’t write or read the book on how to break a prisoner, he simply followed his instincts, dissecting human behavior in a way that verges on autism. He had a reputation for getting anything out of anyone – “had” being the operative word. Five years ago, a random crime shattered Legace’s world. Withdrawing inside himself, he built his life around the only family he had left, his teenage daughter. He withdrew from operations, and took the most isolated post he could, in the basement of the Alexandria FBI, working the archives. Legace brought consequence to the job. His tactics of getting inside the minds of criminals led to a controversial new form of investigation that came to be known as- shadow projection. It was a term coined by his insufferable regional director, Bailey, and Legace couldn’t begin to count the ways he hated the simplification of his process. Legace threw the deductive model out the window. He didn’t follow the trail of the criminal; he took on criminals who were smart enough to leave no trail. They were fixed objects like sundials casting a unique shadow for every incremental step in their journey. His methods involved knowing the inner workings of the criminal, and projecting forward to the next activity that such a person would engage in. His life was verging on stable when a young female agent from Washington walked into his office with an opportunity, an obligation and a threat. Now, normally Legace would have ignored all three, but there was something about the case and the victim that struck a very personal chord in him. All of his powers were going to be needed for a case that landed on his desk along the agent who now called herself his new partner. There was an abduction ring that was preying upon young women of marginal fame, using them in adult films and ransoming them for the price of pornography. The profit engine became a fad among perverts (the largest single unified economic bloc) and the income was staggering. This great influx of capital precipitated a bold move by the abductors. Their newest acquisition was the daughter of an old friend, the Director of the FBI. All hell was breaking loose over the Web and the world, and with a two-week window to find his quarry, Legace knew that his performance on this case would either cement his reputation as borderline charlatan with blood on his hands, or announce his reinstatement as borderline hero with all of the official responsibilities that entails, and he couldn’t actually say which outcome he feared more.
Other Martin Beck Titles – £2.99 Each
Around the Kindlesphere, October 1: Kids, Not for Kids, Kudos, and Keepers of Gates
Kindling Kids’ Reading Kicks. According to a Scholastic study reported by The New York Times on Wednesday, children enjoy digital reading and would “read for fun more frequently” if e-book technology was available to them. This is exciting—when students of any age declare their passion for reading. The study, as Scholastic’s chief academic officer indicates, is further proof of technology’s importance in education: as she put it, it’s “a call to action” for 
more quickly embracing e-reading devices and e-books.
The specific data, as reported by the Times: “About 25 percent of the children surveyed said they had already read a book on a digital device, including computers and e-readers. Fifty-seven percent between ages 9 and 17 said they were interested in doing so. Only 6 percent of parents surveyed owned an e-reader, but 16 percent said they planned to buy one in the next year. Eighty-three percent of those parents said they would allow or encourage their children to use the e-readers.”
The article quotes skeptical parents who are concerned with technology’s negative impact on their children. “My daughter can’t stop texting long enough to concentrate on a book,” said one parent surveyed, the mother of a 15-year-old in Texas.
In a future where the feel and smell of hardcover books may prove less relevant, the most helpful technology for encouraging reading may be the one that is the least distracting.
But Not All Kindle Content is for Kids. James Ledbetter’s Slate column Wednesday focused on what he called most downloaded item for Amazon’s Kindle — Jenna Bayley-Burke’s Compromising Positions
. This genre of “Kindlerotica,” as he defines it, is very much en vogue (although the particular title mentioned may owe its temporarily lofty perch as much to the fact that it had been offered free up until early this week as to marketing copy that compared it with the Kama Sutra
). This emergence of the Kindle as the brown paper bag of the 21st century is nothing new. Our editor Steve Windwalker has noted this diversity of literature in the Kindle universe in past, and we have even gone so far as to create a separate page for free and bargain erotica listings on the Kindle Nation website, currently sponsored by Rena Diane Walmsley’s steamy coming-of-age novel Girl on Fire
(not to be confused with The Girl Who Played with Fire
.)But Ledbetter may be confusing smoke with fire when he wonders “how comfortable Amazon is with being identified with this material” and if conservative Christian groups will lash back against Amazon’s tolerance for racy stories. Neither Amazon, most Kindle readers, nor anyone else with a healthy respect for the Bill of Rights is likely to suggest that bookstores and censorship should go together.
or Molly’s soliloquy from Ulysses
, or, for that matter, which is hotter!Kudos to a Kindle Kolleague. Kudos to Andrys over at A Kindle World for picking up this story about Amazon’s recent response to an illegal book upload.
from customers’ Kindles when it determined that an uploaded edition was in copyright violation in some geographies, CEO Jeff Bezos issued a strong apology and the company assured customers would not take the same action again. Indeed, when Amazon discovered in July that Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef 2 Recipes had been uploaded and was being sold by a party without the rights to sell it, Amazon emailed customers who had downloaded the book: “We are writing to inform you that we need to refund your purchase,” Amazon said. “This book was added to our catalogue by a third party who we now believe did not have the rights to make the book available for sale. We will be removing the book from our servers, making it unavailable for re-downloading from your archived items. Any copies you already have on your Kindle devices will not be removed, but you may choose to remove any such copies yourself.”
Are Bloggers the New Gatekeepers in Publishing? is the title of Writer’s Digest’s recent Q&A; article by Jane Friedman for which we issue a sincere thank you to all concerned, because our name came up in a very nice way.
After digitizing and formatting her highly successful Eden Murdoch novel An Uncommon Enemy, author Michelle Black (photo at right) reports that she decided quickly on the free Kindle model because she “loves reading books on [her] Kindle, but also because of the attractive 70% royalty Amazon is currently offering.” In sum, Black concluded that the Kindle format would let her charge “a modest price “ and still make “a royalty comparable to the hardcover royalty” at a New York-based publisher.
Black cites the excerpting of her book here as a Free Kindle Nation Short as sparking an influx of e-readers and causing her book to jump from #124,000 to #127 in the Kindle Store. The book rose to #7 for historical novels and #1 for Western books in genre-specific sales rankings.
We don’t know if we and other bloggers are the new gatekeepers, but anything that brings authors of distinction closer to smart, discriminating readers like the citizens of Kindle Nation can’t be all bad.
Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Friday, October 1: Outlander, Diane Gabaldon’s first great time travel novel plus free bonus material!, plus it’s time to get your pumpkin on with L.C.. Glazebrook’s October Girls: Crystal & Bone (Today’s Sponsor), and Links to Over a Million Free Kindle Titles
(Editor’s Note: It’s October already! Is there a pumpkin on your front porch or stoop yet? It may seem like a small thing, but its absence could be an indication that you might be lax in your preparations for All Hallows’ Eve. We can’t have that, but happily there are two relatively easy remedies. One involves a trip to your local farmstand or other purveyor of the festive orange gourd-like member of the genus Cucurbita. The other is quicker and costs less — you’ll just need to download and read the first volume in the October Girls series by L.C. Glazebrook, and we’ve provided a link
Five days until Halloween and all hell is about to break loose. And it’s all Crystal’s fault. Because she’s been consorting with her dead best friend Bone and opening the portal to the afterlife.
The movie is rolling, the creatures are stirring, and the zombie teens are ready to welcome a new star from beyond the grave.
Crystal and Bone must overcome drama queens, coffin cuties, and mangled magic if they want to remain best friends forever—but at this rate, forever may not last much longer.
Look for the next book in the October Girls series, Dead & Unfriended, in early 2011.
to download October Girls: Crystal & Bone (or the free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!
UK Customers: Click on the title to download October Girls: Crystal & Bone
|
Each day’s list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them.
Authors, Publishers, Kindle Accessory Manufacturers:
|
Outlander: with Bonus Content
by Diana Gabaldon
4.4 out of 5 stars – (1,672 customer reviews) – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
Doubleday Book Club main selection, Literary Guild alternate.
In Outlander, a 600-page time-travel romance, strong-willed and sensual Claire Randall leads a double life with a husband in one century, and a lover in another. Torn between fidelity and desire, she struggles to understand the pure intent of her heart. But don’t let the number of pages and the Scottish dialect scare you. It’s one of the fastest reads you’ll have in your library. While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn’t all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she’s never known before. I was lame and sore in every muscle when I woke next morning. I shuffled to the privy closet, then to the wash basin. My innards felt like churned butter. It felt as though I had been beaten with a blunt object, I reflected, then thought that that was very near the truth. The blunt object in question was visible as I came back to bed, looking now relatively harmless. Its possessor [Jamie] woke as I sat next to him, and examined me with something that looked very much like male smugness.” Gabaldon creates characters that you’ll remember, laugh with, cry with, and cheer for long after you’ve finished the book. –Candy Paape From Publishers Weekly
Absorbing and heartwarming, this first novel lavishly evokes the land and lore of Scotland, quickening both with realistic characters and a feisty, likable heroine. English nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall and husband Frank take a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands in 1945. When Claire walks through a cleft stone in an ancient henge, she’s somehow transported to 1743. She encounters Frank’s evil ancestor, British captain Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall, and is adopted by another clan. Claire nurses young soldier James Fraser, a gallant, merry redhead, and the two begin a romance, seeing each other through many perilous, swashbuckling adventures involving Black Jack. Scenes of the Highlanders’ daily life blend poignant emotions with Scottish wit and humor. Eventually Sassenach (outlander) Claire finds a chance to return to 1945, and must choose between distant memories of Frank and her happy, uncomplicated existence with Jamie. Claire’s resourcefulness and intelligent sensitivity make the love-conquers-all, happily-ever-after ending seem a just reward.
Click here to see a dozen other Kindle editions by Diana Gabaldon, most in the $6 to $8 range.
The New World is a story-length Kindle Exclusive prequel that sets the stage for the world you will discover in The Knife of Never Letting Go
The New World
by Patrick Ness – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Kudos to indie publisher Candlewick Press in my neighboring town of Somerville for working with Amazon to nail the perfect Kindle-appropriate process of bringing out a new sci-fi/fantasy/YA series for Kindle readers!
by Peggy Webb
4.2 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews) – Kindle Price: $0.00 Text-to-Speech: Enabled
They say you can’t get to Heaven without passing through the Eternal Rest Funeral Home. And no one gets into Eternal Rest without passing muster with Elvis-the basset hound who’s convinced he’s the reincarnation of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Brewing up a big ol’ pitcher of Mississippi mystery, Peggy Webb’s delightful new series is as intoxicating as the Delta breeze.
by Charlie Carillo
4.5 out of 5 stars (79 customer reviews) – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
The best kind of journey, one you don’t want to end…funny, moving.-Mike Lupica, New York Times bestselling author of Heat In Charlie Carillo’s funny, insightful novel, a divorced man gets to know his seventeen-year-old son in a tale that rewrites the book on quality time together. . . Sammy Sullivan is working his way down the ladder of success. Divorced and pushing fifty, his relationships have the longevity of a fruit fly. But how many men can get themselves fired and have their only son expelled from prep school all in one day? Now, after almost eighteen years, he and Jake may finally get to know each other. (That’s if his ex-wife–the super-achiever Sammy can only dream of being–doesn’t find out.) Jake knows virtually nothing about his roots. So, Sammy shows him the old neighborhood in the far reaches of Queens. But it’s been thirty years. The older woman Sammy lost his virginity to now uses a walker to get around. Most of his hangouts are long gone. It’s dreary, born-to-lose stuff. But Jake is on a mission. Wise beyond his (and his dad’s) years, he doesn’t want his father to miss out the second time around on the good things he blew the first time. And they’ve got a whole weekend together–a journey where Sammy will confront his, dysfunctional childhood and Jake will face a past he never knew he had. This isn’t your typical father-son story–one is still growing up. The other is his son. “In the tradition of Tom Perotta, Carillo explores the strength of the family bond, the power of forgiveness, and the hope that comes from embracing second chances. . .truthful, and hilarious.”–Alison Grambs, author of The Smart Girls Guide to Getting Even “I don’t like funny, touching novels because they make me wish I’d written them myself. I enjoyed Charlie Carillo’s book from beginning to end and now I’m miserable.”–Sherwood Kiraly, author of Diminished Capacity “A literary romp through the minefields of a totally normal, and totally abnormal, family. . . I actually laughed out loud and kept turning the pages to make absolutely sure that all worked out at the end.”–Cathy Lamb, author of Henry’s Sisters “Scathingly hilarious and truthful.”–Sally Jenkins
by Alan Jacobson – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Jacobson’s third novel (after False Accusations and The Hunted) has all the ingredients for a best-selling psychological thriller: strong female lead, multifaceted serial killer, compelling plot, and just enough secrets and surprises to keep the adrenaline racing. The hunt is on for the notorious Dead Eyes killer who is preying on young women. Karen Vail is a gritty yet vulnerable FBI profiler with a precarious personal life. As Vail and the task force pursue the serial killer, readers are drawn into the inner sanctum of a profiler while simultaneously privy to the killer’s crazed thoughts. The murders rapidly escalate, and Vail’s personal life is careening out of control, threatening to derail her investigation. When the killer strikes a seventh time, surprising revelations provide a shocking finale. The author’s seven years of study with the FBI’s profiling unit have helped him craft a riveting, authentically detailed thriller that will ensnare readers. Strongly recommended for all popular fiction collections.—Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
by Alan Jacobson – Kindle Price: $0.00 – Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Pre-order FREE now and this title will be auto-delivered to your Kindle on October 5, 2010
Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author: “From the first page Velocity is as relentless as a bullet. Karen Vail is my kind of hero and Alan Jacobson is my kind of writer!”
Supervisory Special Agent Michael Upchurch, Drug Enforcement Administration (ret): “Jacobson captures the complexity of the mission faced by DEA, the threat posed to our country, and the constant danger our agents face battling members of international drug trafficking organizations. As someone who devoted his career to carrying out that mission, I can say first-hand that Velocity hits the target. Jacobson’s acquired a new fan.”
Ridley Pearson, New York Times bestselling author: “Alan Jacobson writes with a firm hand, a strong voice, and fine eye for detail.”
That future is here, and here are 12 very useful and very free high school math and science textbooks to prove it. With innovative public high school administrators like Clearwater High School’s Keith Mastorides buying Kindles by the thousands for their students, it is just a matter of time before we’ll see textbook publishers jumping through hoops to provide Kindle editions of their texts. But these 12 free math and science ebooks with text-to-speech enabled are a great start, and they are well worth downloading and keeping in your Kindle archives for whenever you or someone younger in your family might need them. They’re pretty good on the Kindle 2 or 3, fine on a Kindle DX, and especially user-friendly on an iPad, Mac, or PC. 