“The Burnt House” by Faye Kellerman

Price: $1.99

Summary:

At 8:15 in the morning, a small commuter plane carrying forty-seven passengers crashes into an apartment building in Granada Hills, California. Shock waves ripple through Los Angeles, as L.A.P.D. Lieutenant Peter Decker works overtime to calm rampant fears of a 9/11-type terror attack. But a grisly mystery lives inside the plane’s charred and twisted wreckage: the unidentified bodies of four extra travelers. And there is no sign of an airline employee who was supposedly on the catastrophic flight.

Decker and his wife, Rina, have personal reasons for being profoundly shaken by the tragedy, since the “accident” occurred frighteningly close to their daughter Hannah’s school. Luckily, their child and her schoolmates escaped unscathed. But the fate of the unaccounted-for flight attendant — twenty-eight-year-old Roseanne Dresden — remains a question mark more than a month after the horrific event, when the young woman’s irate stepfather calls, insisting that she was never onboard the doomed plane. Instead, he claims, she was most likely murdered by her abusive, unfaithful husband. But why, then, was Roseanne’s name included on the passenger list?

Under intense pressure from the department to come up with answers, Decker launches an investigation that carries him down a path of tragic history, dangerous secrets, and deadly lies—and leads him to the corpse of a three-decades-missing murder victim. And as the jagged pieces slowly fall into place, a frightening picture begins to form: a mind-searing portrait of unimaginable evil that will challenge Decker’s and Rina’s own beliefs about guilt and innocence and justice.

Combining relentless suspense with intense, multilayered human drama, The Burnt House is Faye Kellerman at her mesmerizing best.

“Bake Sale Murder” by Leslie Meier

Price: $0.00

Summary:

Ever since local developer Fred Stanton and his wife, Mimi, built five modular homes next door to Lucy Stone’s farmhouse, life just hasn’t been the same. With Mimi complaining about everything from the state of Lucy’s lawn to another neighbor’s lovable dog, quaint Tinker’s Cove, Maine, is now entangled in cul-de-sac politics and backstabbing. And when Mimi doesn’t show up for her shift at The Hat and Mitten Fund bake sale, the scent of burnt sugar leads Lucy to a shocking discovery: Mimi, face down on her kitchen floor–with a knife in her back.

While the police start their investigation, Lucy gets busy writing up the murder for the local Pennysaver–and following a few leads of her own. Lucy knows the women in her neighborhood didn’t like Mimi, but they certainly didn’t want her dead…right?

“Black Widow” by Cliff Ryder

Price: $1.24

Summary:

Espionage takes to the 21st century playing fields, where rules are broken — and remade — outside the reach of governments and the law.

Agents recruited for the clandestine organization known as Room 59 play hard, play for keeps… or die trying. But now new Room 59 agent Ajza Manaev, a top MI6 operative, discovers just how high the stakes really are when she goes undercover inside Chechnya’s terrorist training camps, where bitter young widows harness their hate as suicide bombers.

Ajza doesn’t know she’s being manipulated by many sides of a deadly game. Her mysterious Room 59 handler has his own agenda, while the secret, silent mastermind behind a global destabilization plot hopes to push Ajza’s loyalties to the breaking point. And in a game where the ground is always shifting, Ajza is inducted by hellfire into Room 59′s harsh reality: she’s on her own.

“Billy Boyle” by James R. Benn

Price: $0.00

Summary:

What’s a twenty-two-year-old Irish American cop who’s never been out of Massa-chusetts before doing at Beardsley Hall, an English country house, having lunch with King Haakon of Norway? Billy Boyle himself wonders. Back home in Southie, he’d barely made detective when war was declared. Unwilling to fight—and perhaps die—for England, he was relieved when his mother wangled a job for him on the staff of a general married to her distant cousin. But the general turns out to be Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose headquarters are in London, which is undergoing the Blitz. And Uncle Ike wants Billy to be his personal investigator.

Billy is dispatched to the seat of the Norwegian government in exile. Operation Jupiter, the impending invasion of Norway, is being planned, but it is feared that there is a German spy amongst the Norwegians.

Billy doubts his own abilities, with good reason. A theft and two murders test his investigative powers, but Billy proves to be a better detective than he or anyone else expected.

“Kill the Story” by John Luciew

Price: $1.99

Summary:

A serial killer known as “The Reader” is murdering journalists in the manner of their most famous stories. Dubbed the “Media Murders” by the press, the killings baffle authorities, turn once-aggressive reporters into prey and shock the country in what soon becomes a national story. The cunning killer’s first strike is cleverly disguised as a political assassination, mirroring John Hinckley’s attempt on Ronald Reagan. As it turns out, the fallen reporter had covered Reagan’s shooting. It’s the first of several bizarre killings with eerie similarities to sensational stories the murdered journalists once covered.

The story is so big, The New York Times assigns its new national reporter, Cassandra “Cassie” Jordan, to cover its every development. The assignment returns Cassie to her familiar stomping grounds of Harrisburg, Pa., reuniting her with Frank “Telly” Tellis, chief political reporter for The Harrisburg Herald.

Only Telly can put together the murderous truth as the secret motive for the killings is buried deep in his journalistic past. But can he solve the puzzle before falling under The Reader’s deadly crosshairs?

Sadly, this contest has ended.

Original post:
With all the media coverage about the Kindle 3 right now, we Kindle 2 owners are feeling a little left out. Where’s the K2 love?

It’s right here! I’m giving away a free ReBindIt case hand-made for the Kindle 2.

I wrote about ReBindIt last month. Their cases are perfect if you’re looking for something that’s full of character and completely unique: each one is a repurposed hardcover book with a special die-cut well inside to hold your Kindle 2 firmly in place. As you can see from the photos, the books ReBindIt converts are graphically bold and well-worn from years of use.

The case up for grabs is called “The Great Divide,” which I think is a funny title for a print book that houses an ebook reader.

To enter, send an email to the address below by 11:59 pm EST on Wednesday, September 1st. I’ll randomly select a winner from all entries by September 3rd. Also, note that in this case ReBindIt will mail the case to the winner directly–I will not be handling fulfillment, and ReBindIt will need your mailing address to send you the case.

Rules:

1. You only have to enter once; I’ll remove duplicate entries.
2. Don’t send me any personal info; I’ll contact you and ask for a shipping address if I select you as the winner.

By the way, if you like one-of-a-kind accessories, be sure to take a look at some of the other options I’ve listed under the “Hand crafted and custom made cases” section of the site.
 

“Long Lost” by Daivd Morrell

Price: $1.99

Summary:

Brad Denning is a successful architect living a perfect life in Denver with his loving wife and son. Or so it would be, if not for the haunting memory of his brother Petey who disappeared while under Brad’s supervision when they were kids. Now, a man claiming to be his sibling has mysteriously appeared and Brad is eager to take him in, despite the man’s haggard appearance and reluctance to reveal anything about his past.

“Petey” is a welcome addition to the family, until a camping trip goes terribly wrong and Brad returns home to find that his devoted wife and son have been abducted. Certain that Petey — or whoever he may be — is responsible for the horrible crime, Brad sets out to recover his family.

Travelling alone through America’s heartland, it’s a race against time as Brad struggles to get to his family before the terrible secret of what really happened long ago destroys everything he cares about.

“Wasted” by Mark Johnson

Price: $1.30

Summary:

Mark Johnson’s father had LOVE tattooed across his left hand, but that didn’t stop the beatings. The Johnson children would turn up to school with broken fingers and chipped teeth, but no one ever thought of investigating their home life. Mark just slipped through the cracks, and kept on falling for years.

Constantly in trouble at school, Mark began stealing at the age of seven, was drinking by the age of eight, and took his first hit of heroin at eleven. A sensitive, intelligent boy, he could never stay on the right path, and though art college beckoned, he ended up in Portland prison instead.

With searing honesty, Wasted documents Mark’s descent into the depths of addiction and criminality. Homeless, hooked on heroin and crack, no one—least of all Mark—believed he would survive. And yet, astonishingly, he somehow pulled himself through, and now runs his own thriving tree surgery business, employing and helping other recovering addicts.

His story is at once shocking and inspiring a compelling account of one man’s struggle to save himself, and help save others in the process.

“The 1-2-3 Money Plan” by Gregory Karp

Price: $0.00

Summary:

Today, frugal is the name of the game. But you don’t have to take a vow of poverty: You just have to be smarter about how you spend, save, and invest. Sound hard? Not anymore. In The 1-2-3 Money Plan, top personal finance columnist Greg Karp offers 100% practical, 100% specific financial advice everyone can use…organized into simple three-step plans that tell you exactly what to do and how and where to do it! Discover how to save money by putting your bills on autopilot…which specific brand names to buy in everything from index funds to cellphones…how to improve your credit rating…how to get the right insurance, without wasting money on unnecessary coverage…easier ways to save for college and plan for retirement…and a whole lot more. Finally: simple, reliable financial advice you can act on, from an award-winning expert you can trust!

Want to know how to make your Kindle environmentally friendly? Read at least 23 books on it, says consulting firm Cleantech. At that point, you’ll have caught up with the carbon emissions from print books, and each ebook you read after that will add a smaller amount to your carbon footprint than if you’d stuck with print.

These numbers are based off of several rough estimates: analysts are guessing that the Kindle’s CO2 footprint is around 168 kg, compared to about 7.5 kg for one book. The Kindle estimate doesn’t include any extra energy used to keep your ebook stored on a server or to display it, but Slate’s Brian Palmer notes that any such energy costs are likely very small compared to the primary Kindle number.

That’s for CO2. If you want to look at water consumption, Palmer points out that the printing of a book uses about 7 gallons of water, versus about 79 gallons for an ereader as well as 2 cups per ebook. (I like to imagine that the water is compressed into book/ebook form, because it makes this whole conversation even sillier.) Based on those numbers, you need to read about 12 ebooks on your Kindle before you can start outpacing the environmental impact of print.

Of course, if you don’t care about or are skeptical of environmental issues, you can still take comfort in the longterm cost savings. If you’re a heavy reader who doesn’t go to the library very much, an ebook device can save you quite a bit of money over the years, especially if you take advantage of freebies and promotional pricing. (I can’t believe how many free books I’ve acquired through the Kindle.)

“iPads and Kindles are better for the environment than books” [Slate/Washington Post]

(Photo: oskay)

Anyway, that’s all mostly been called off. The agency and the publisher, both of which made some pretty strong public statements about the other back when the Amazon deal was announced, have made up. The two companies are now saying that Andrew Wylie’s agency will pull 13 of the 20 books from the Amazon store and Random House will take over as the ebook publisher for those titles.

Enough industry prattle; what does this mean for you? As of right now, nothing. The books are still available at the $9.99 price point (full list here), which while expensive for a classic is still better than what some publishers are doing with their backlists (cough Penguin and Ayn Rand cough). Will Random House hike the prices when it takes over? My guess is yes, but we’ll have to wait and see.

I also think this explains the minimalistic–I would argue design-free–covers that Wylie used for the ebook editions. This was likely never more than a gambit to improve his agency’s negotiating position with Random House, so a real cover design would have been a waste of money (and an expensive waste considering there were 20 titles to work with). The next time an agent releases a book with a non-cover, I’ll be more skeptical.

[Updated 25 Aug 2010 to correct info in 2nd paragraph.]

“Exclusive e-book deal with Amazon is called off” [Crain's New York Business]

(Photo: ganesha.isis)

“The Truth About Confident Presenting” by James O’Rourke

Price: $0.00

Summary:

All you need to know to make winning presentations–fearlessly and painlessly.

• The truth about preparing quickly, efficiently, and well
• The truth about managing anxiety and handling hostile audiences
• The truth about nonverbal signals, PowerPoint, microphones, and more

This book reveals 51 proven and bite-size, easy-to-use presenting techniques that work.

This book brings together everything you need to know to prepare well, manage anxiety, deliver effectively, connect with your audience, and succeed! Authored by top business consultant James O’Rourke, this book offers real solutions for the obstacles and fears faced by every presenter. You’ll discover what makes people listen, and what instantly turns them off. You’ll learn how to prepare effectively, not obsessively; how to scope out your audience and muster evidence that’ll convince them; when and how to listen; how to manage anxiety and establish a great first impression; how to make nonverbal cues work for you; how to use PowerPoint well; how to handle hostile questions confidently; and much more.

This isn’t someone’s opinion: it’s a definitive guide to effective presenting—a set of bedrock principles you can rely on to help you win with any audience.

I use this feature a lot on my phone and I’ve been fighting with the app over this the past couple of weeks, so personally I’m thrilled. I performed a couple of quick tests with the update and it seems to be working great.

Here’s the full list of improvements:

• Improved highlight sensitivity to reduce inadvertent highlights when turning pages
• Fixed a crash some customers experience when highlighting a word
• Corrected a problem where the most recent page is not saved when returning to the app
• Other bug fixes based on customer feedback

Kindle for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad [iTunes App Store]

“Still Life” by Louise Penny

Price: $2.99

Summary:

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.

Still Life introduces not only an engaging series hero in Inspector Gamache, who commands his forces—and this series—with integrity and quiet courage, but also a winning and talented new writer of traditional mysteries in the person of Louise Penny.

“If you transfer personal documents to your Kindle via Wi-Fi there is no delivery fee. If you transfer personal documents to your Kindle via 3G while inside the United States, the fee is $ .15 per megabyte. When traveling outside the United States, a fee of $.99 per megabyte will apply.”

[Amazon.com Help]

This means you can use Calibre’s automated news-fetching feature to grab content on a regular basis, convert it to a Kindle-friendly format, and email it to your Kindle 3 every day/week/month. For free. Yes, that is awesome.

By default, the Kindle 3 will try to connect via Wi-Fi before switching over to 3G, so if you have the more expensive model you can still take advantage of this feature as long as your Kindle 3 is able to access a working Wi-Fi network when it downloads new content. Unfortunately, there’s no way I know of to turn off 3G entirely other than buying the model that doesn’t have it–but if you’re that hardcore about saving money then you’ve likely already made that decision.