Archive for New eBooks Releases
New Digital Comics – March 2013
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Welcome to another Good e-Reader New Feature! Every month we will give our readers a taste of the most essential new digital comics! We will pay close attention to what distribution methods they are available on and what the writing team brings to the table!
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #0.1 by Brian Michael Bendis
I was never a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy with the Dog and Raccoon as central characters. It was very hard to get past that. Since the movie is coming out this summer, the series is getting a reboot. This issue features Star-Lord, Peter Quill’s origin story. It is actually very good and full of drama, a worthy read.
Age of Ultron by Brian Michael Bendis
For years the heroes of the Marvel Universe have lived in fear that the artificial intelligence known as Ultron would one day evolve to fulfill its desire to wipe out all organic life and take over the Earth. That day has arrived. This massive 10-part Marvel Universe-spanning event is brought to you by Eisner award-winning writer Brian Michael Bendis and comics legend Bryan Hitch.
Helheim by Cullen Bunn and Joelle Jones
Helheim, a new comics series written by Cullen Bunn (The Sixth Gun), illustrated by Joelle Jones—this is a stellar team. It’s published by Oni Press and will be available on comiXology.
“Once the threshold of Helheim is crossed, not even gods can escape.” During the age of the Vikings, savage wild men and dark creatures beset a small settlement. A brave war party stands as guardians of the helpless villagers, but they are no match for the horrors rising up around them. One of the warriors, a young hero named Rikard, will pay the ultimate price in battle… but his fight is far from over. A gothic horror story of witchcraft, night creatures, and the undead.
Theremin by Curt Pires
Pires’ new collaboration with artist Dalton Rose is focused on the inventor of the instrument, Léon Theremin. The series is slated to launch digitally from Monkeybrain Comics in March. The story is less about the instrument and more about the man behind the instrument. Leon Theremin is a man whose history, besides being steeped in scientific innovation, is steeped in intrigue and an almost inexplicable series of events.
The Big Skinny by Carol Lay
Here’s the skinny: After a lifetime of yo-yo dieting with pills, hypnosis, and ill-informed half-measures, Carol Lay finally shed her excess pounds and kept them off. Now this California cartoonist shares her experiences in a funny, genuine, and eye-popping graphic memoir that tells Carol’s story and shows you how you can do it, too. This is available on Amazon for the Kindle.
The Adventures of Superhero Girl by Faith Erin Hicks
What if you can leap tall buildings and defeat alien monsters with your bare hands, but you buy your capes at secondhand stores and have a weakness for kittens? Cartoonist Faith Erin Hicks brings charming humor to the trials and tribulations of a young, female superhero, battling monsters both supernatural and mundane in an all-too-ordinary world. This comic is basically a lighthearted twist on the superhero genre! Available late March on the Kindle.
The Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezu
In the aftermath of a strange earthquake, an entire elementary school vanishes, leaving nothing but a hole in the ground. While parents mourn and authorities investigate, the students and teachers find themselves somewhere far away…somewhere cold and dark… a lifeless, nightmarish wasteland in which their school stands like a lone fortress. As panic turns to terror, as the rules start to fall apart, a sixth-grade boy named Sho and his friends must fight to survive in an alien world… This is only available for the Nook.
The Best New eBooks for March 2013
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The Good e-Reader Staff every month gives our recommendations of the most essential reads for your tablet or dedicated e-reader. March is an exciting month with lots of new titles being released.
Clockwork Princess by by Cassandra Clare
Danger intensifies for the Shadowhunters as the New York Times bestselling Infernal Devices trilogy comes to a close. If the only way to save the world was to destroy what you loved most, would you do it? The clock is ticking. Everyone must choose. Passion. Power. Secrets. Enchantment. Danger closes in around the Shadowhunters in the final installment of the bestselling Infernal Devices trilogy.
Lover At Last by J.R. Ward
Qhuinn, son of no one, is used to being on his own. Disavowed from his bloodline, shunned by the aristocracy, he has finally found an identity as one of the most brutal fighters in the war against the Lessening Society. But his life is not complete. Even as the prospect of having a family of his own seems to be within reach, he is empty on the inside, his heart given to another…. Blay, after years of unrequited love, has moved on from his feelings for Qhuinn. And it’s about time: The male has found his perfect match in a Chosen female, and they are going to have a young—just as Qhuinn has always wanted for himself. It’s hard to see the new couple together, but building your life around a pipe dream is just a heartbreak waiting to happen. As he’s learned firsthand.
Damascus Countdown by Joel C. Rosenberg
Israel successfully launches a first strike on Iran, taking out all of their nuclear sites and six of their nuclear warheads. American president William Jackson threatens to support a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Jewish State for unprovoked and unwarranted acts of aggression. And the Twelfth Imam prepares to order a genocidal retaliation. Meanwhile, CIA operative David Shirazi has infiltrated the Iranian regime and intercepted top secret intelligence indicating that two Iranian nuclear warheads survived the attack and have been moved to a secure and undisclosed location. In danger not only from the ongoing war between Israel and Iran but also from the increasingly hostile governments in multiple countries, Shirazi and his team are in a race against time to find the remaining nuclear warheads before the most cataclysmic event in the history of the Middle East comes to pass.
Breaking Point (A Joe Pickett Novel) by C. J. Box
Game Warden Joe Pickett had no idea that Lyle Pendergast was about to disappear. When they spoke the other day, Lyle said he was heading into the mountains to hunt, but instead he was running. Two EPA employees had just been murdered, and all signs pointed to him as the killer.
Six Years by by Harlan Coben
Six years have passed since Jake Sanders watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd.
But six years haven’t come close to extinguishing his feelings, and when Jake comes across Todd’s obituary, he can’t keep himself away from the funeral. There he gets the glimpse of Todd’s wife he’s hoping for . . . but she is not Natalie. Whoever the mourning widow is, she’s been married to Todd for more than a decade, and with that fact everything Jake thought he knew about the best time of his life—a time he has never gotten over—is turned completely inside out.
The Chance: A Novel by Karen Kingsbury
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury comes a heartwarming story about childhood friends, broken lives, and a long ago promise that just might offer the hope of love for today.Dubbed the “Queen of Christian Fiction” by Time magazine, #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Karen Kingsbury is arguably America’s favorite inspirational novelist with a dozen bestsellers to her credit. In The Chance, she delves deeply into a theme that resonates with us all: It’s never too late for those willing to take a chance.
As Jake searches for the truth, his picture-perfect memories of Natalie begin to unravel. Mutual friends of the couple either can’t be found or don’t remember Jake. No one has seen Natalie in years. Jake’s search for the woman who broke his heart—and who lied to him—soon puts his very life at risk as it dawns on him that the man he has become may be based on carefully constructed fiction.
Telling the Bees by Peggy Hesketh
Telling the Bees by Peggy Hesketh is a debut novel that seems as if it might appeal to book clubs. It is the story of of an eighty-something year old beekeeper, Albert, who has spent his life as a bachelor, but has a deep and complicated relationship with a friend, Claire. When Claire is killed in a burglary, Albert must work through his memories and their past.
The Striker by Clive Cussler, Justin Scott
It is 1902, and a bright, inexperienced young man named Isaac Bell, only two years out of his apprenticeship at the Van Dorn Detective Agency, has an urgent message for his boss. Hired to hunt for radical unionist saboteurs in the coal mines, he is witness to a terrible accident that makes him think that something else is going on, that provocateurs are at work and bigger stakes are in play.
Little does he know just how big they are. Given exactly one week to prove his case, Bell quickly finds himself pitted against two of the most ruthless opponents he has ever known, men of staggering ambition and cold-bloodedness . . . who are not about to let some wet-behind-the-ears detective stand in their way.
Always on My Mind by Bella Andre
Lori “Naughty” Sullivan finally falls in love in ALWAYS ON MY MIND, the new book in Bella Andre’s New York Times and USA Today bestselling series about the Sullivan family.
After a tragic loss three years ago, Grayson Tyler left his life in New York City behind and started over in the rolling hills of the California coast. He’s convinced himself that all he’ll ever need again is the blue sky, a thousand acres of pasture, and the crashing waves of the ocean. Until one day, Lori Sullivan barges into his life and promptly blows his emotionless and solitary world to shreds, driving him crazy as only a woman nicknamed “Naughty” can. But will Lori be able to convince him that it’s safe to love her…and that forever isn’t actually out of reach?
Atlantic Media Goes into the eBook Business
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Atlantic Media publishes, among other things, the 150-year-old magazine The Atlantic. It has just released its third ebook and is “…planning a lot more on this score, including original long-form content …” says the press release. The new ebook, The Best Writing From the Atlantic’s Technology Channel, is available on the Atlantic website for free until the end of the year, at which time it will go on sale at major ebook retailers for $1.99.
Previously the company has published The Obama Presidency, Explained, by James Fallows and The Civil War. Both books are available in normal ebook channels. The press release goes on to give a nice listing of those non-book-publishing companies that have jumped into the ebook fray:
“… USA Today published USA Tomorrow, a collection of expert predictions about the future of America. Harlequin and Cosmopolitan magazine inked a deal to publish several ebooks a month together. Newsweek/Daily Beast entered into a partnership with Vook to publish ebooks. Playboy launched a series of shorts for the Kindle, the Washington Post announced an ebook program, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, a trade publication focused on the higher education field, launched an ebook business. Other notable companies to jump into the space are magazine publishers Conde Nast and Hearst and NBC News, a division of NBC Universal. And the Wall Street Journal has recently rejuvenated its ebook program.”
Must Read eBooks for May 2012
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This May we are seeing lots of new YA books coming out by the likes of Rick Riordan and Charlaine Harris. This should be a good month for the kid in us all or to buy for your little one. Every month at Good e-Reader we do our essential reading list covering a wide array of genres to give you a look at some of the books that you might want to pick up!
Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 12) by Charlaine Harris – Release Date: May 1st 2012
Growing up with telepathic abilities, Sookie Stackhouse realized early on there were things she’d rather not know. And now that she’s an adult, she also realizes that some things she knows about, she’d rather not see—like Eric Northman feeding off another woman. A younger one. There’s a thing or two she’d like to say about that, but she has to keep quiet—Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), is in town. It’s the worst possible time for a human body to show up in Eric’s front yard—especially the body of the woman whose blood he just drank. Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who’s set out to make Sookie’s world come crashing down.
The Serpent’s Shadow (The Kane Chronicles, Book Three) by Rick Riordan – Release Date: May 1st 2012
He’s b-a-a-ack! Despite their best efforts, Carter and Sade Kane can’t seem to keep Apophis, the chaos snake, down. Now Apophis is threatening to plunge the world into eternal darkness, and the Kanes are faced with the impossible task of having to destroy him once and for all. Unfortunately, the magicians of the House of Life are on the brink of civil war, the gods are divided, and the young initiates of Brooklyn House stand almost alone against the forces of chaos. The Kanes’ only hope is an ancient spell that might turn the serpent’s own shadow into a weapon, but the magic has been lost for a millennia. To find the answer they need, the Kanes must rely on the murderous ghost of a powerful magician who might be able to lead them to the serpent’s shadow . . . or might lead them to their deaths in the depths of the underworld.
The Last Boyfriend: Book Two of the Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy (The Inn Trilogy) by Nora Roberts – Release Date – May 1st 2012
Owen is the organizer of the Montgomery clan, running the family’s construction business with an iron fist—and an even less flexible spreadsheet. And though his brothers bust on his compulsive list-making, the Inn BoonsBoro is about to open right on schedule. The only thing Owen didn’t plan for was Avery McTavish… Avery’s popular pizza place is right across the street from the inn, giving her a first-hand look at its amazing renovation—and a newfound appreciation for Owen. Since he was her first boyfriend when they were kids, Owen has never been far from Avery’s thoughts. But the attraction she’s feeling for him now is far from innocent. As Avery and Owen cautiously take their relationship to another level, the opening of the inn gives the whole town of Boonsboro a reason to celebrate. But Owen’s hard work has only begun. Getting Avery to let down her guard is going to take longer than he expected—and so will getting her to realize that her first boyfriend is going to be her last…
11th Hour (Women’s Murder Club) by James Patterson, Maxine Paetro – Release Date: May 7th 2012
Lindsay Boxer is pregnant at last! But her work doesn’t slow for a second. When millionaire Chaz Smith is mercilessly gunned down, she discovers that the murder weapon is linked to the deaths of four of San Francisco’s most untouchable criminals. And it was taken from her own department’s evidence locker. Anyone could be the killer–even her closest friends. Lindsay is called next to the most bizarre crime scene she’s ever seen: two bodiless heads elaborately displayed in the garden of a world-famous actor. Another head is unearthed in the garden, and Lindsay realizes that the ground could hide hundreds of victims. A reporter launches a series of vicious articles about the cases and Lindsay’s personal life is laid bare. But this time she has no one to turn to–especially not Joe. 11TH HOUR is the most shocking, most emotional, and most thrilling Women’s Murder Club novel ever
Can the lost be reclaimed? What price is too high to pay for love? Who can be trusted when sin and salvation collide? Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. Darkness threatens to claim the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series.
In One Person: A Novel by John Irving – Release Date: May 8th 2012
A compelling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love—tormented, funny, and affecting—and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a “sexual suspect,” a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 in his landmark novel of “terminal cases,” The World According to Garp.
His most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving’s In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy’s friends and lovers—a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself “worthwhile.”
Stolen Prey by John Sandford – Release Date: May 15th 2012
Lucas Davenport has seen many terrible murder scenes. This is one of the worst. In the small Minnesota town of Deephaven, an entire family has been killed—husband, wife, two daughters, dogs.
There’s something about the scene that pokes at Lucas’s cop instincts—it looks an awful lot like the kind of scorched-earth retribution he’s seen in drug killings sometimes. But this is a seriously upscale town, and the husband was an executive vice president at a big bank. It just doesn’t seem to fit.
Until it does. And where it leads Lucas will take him into the darkest nightmare of his life.
Essential eBook Releases for April 2012
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April means Spring is in the air and people become a bit more footloose and fancy free. Now that the weather is getting a bit nicer it is time to take your e-Reader out of the house and take it out! Why not go on a date with a great new eBook! This month we are seeing lots of popular authors write new editions and here is our list of essential reads.
The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark – Release Date: April 3, 2012
In The Lost Years, Mary Higgins Clark, America’s Queen of Suspense, has written her most astonishing novel to date. At its center is a discovery that, if authenticated, may be the most revered document in human history—“the holiest of the holy”—and certainly the most coveted and valuable object in the world.
Biblical scholar Jonathan Lyons believes he has found the rarest of parchments—a letter that may have been written by Jesus Christ. Stolen from the Vatican Library in the 1500s, the letter was assumed to be lost forever.
Now, under the promise of secrecy, Jonathan is able to confirm his findings with several other experts. But he also confides in a family friend his suspicion that someone he once trusted wants to sell the parchment and cash in.
Within days Jonathan is found shot to death in his study. At the same time, his wife, Kathleen, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, is found hiding in the study closet, incoherent and clutching the murder weapon. Even in her dementia, Kathleen has known that her husband was carrying on a long-term affair. Did Kathleen kill her husband in a jealous rage, as the police contend? Or is his death tied to the larger question: Who has possession of the priceless parchment that has now gone missing?
It is up to their daughter, twenty-eight-year-old Mariah, to clear her mother of murder charges and unravel the real mystery behind her father’s death. Mary Higgins Clark’s The Lost Years is at once a breathless murder mystery and a hunt for what may be the most precious religious and archaeological treasure of all time.
Calico Joe by John Grisham – Release Date: April 10th 2012
Whatever happened to Calico Joe?
It began quietly enough with a pulled hamstring. The first baseman for the Cubs AAA affiliate in Wichita went down as he rounded third and headed for home. The next day, Jim Hickman, the first baseman for the Cubs, injured his back. The team suddenly needed someone to play first, so they reached down to their AA club in Midland, Texas, and called up a twenty-one-year-old named Joe Castle. He was the hottest player in AA and creating a buzz.
In the summer of 1973 Joe Castle was the boy wonder of baseball, the greatest rookie anyone had ever seen. The kid from Calico Rock, Arkansas dazzled Cub fans as he hit home run after home run, politely tipping his hat to the crowd as he shattered all rookie records.
Calico Joe quickly became the idol of every baseball fan in America, including Paul Tracey, the young son of a hard-partying and hard-throwing Mets pitcher. On the day that Warren Tracey finally faced Calico Joe, Paul was in the stands, rooting for his idol but also for his Dad. Then Warren threw a fastball that would change their lives forever…
In John Grisham’s new novel the baseball is thrilling, but it’s what happens off the field that makes CALICO JOE a classic.
The Innocent by David Baldacci – Release Date: April 17th
America has enemies–ruthless people that the police, the FBI, even the military can’t stop. That’s when the U.S. government calls on Will Robie, a stone cold hitman who never questions orders and always nails his target.
But Will Robie may have just made the first–and last–mistake of his career . . .
THE INNOCENT
It begins with a hit gone wrong. Robie is dispatched to eliminate a target unusually close to home in Washington, D.C. But something about this mission doesn’t seem right to Robie, and he does the unthinkable. He refuses to kill. Now, Robie becomes a target himself and must escape from his own people.
Fleeing the scene, Robie crosses paths with a wayward teenage girl, a fourteen-year-old runaway from a foster home. But she isn’t an ordinary runaway-her parents were murdered, and her own life is in danger. Against all of his professional habits, Robie rescues her and finds he can’t walk away. He needs to help her.
Even worse, the more Robie learns about the girl, the more he’s convinced she is at the center of a vast cover-up, one that may explain her parents’ deaths and stretch to unimaginable levels of power.
Now, Robie may have to step out of the shadows in order to save this girl’s life . . . and perhaps his own.
Unnatural Acts by Stuart Woods – Release Date: April 17, 2012
Stuart Woods is in top form…and so is his perennially popular hero, Stone Barrington!
When a hedge fund billionaire hires Stone Barrington to talk some sense into his wayward son, it seems like an easy enough job; no one knows the hidden sins and temptations of the ultra-wealthy better than Stone. But as Stone and his erstwhile protégé, Herbie Fisher, probe deeper into the case—and an old one comes back to haunt him—he realizes that even he may have underestimated just how far some people will go to cover up their crimes…and plan new ones.
From Manhattan’s mahogany-paneled law offices to its modern penthouse lofts and dimly lit nightclubs, the trail of entrapment and murder leads to a shocking act that no one could ever have anticipated.
The Witness by Nora Roberts – Release Date: April 17, 2012
Daughter of a controlling mother, Elizabeth finally let loose one night, drinking at a nightclub and allowing a strange man’s seductive Russian accent lure her to a house on Lake Shore Drive. The events that followed changed her life forever.
Twelve years later, the woman known as Abigail Lowery lives on the outskirts of a small town in the Ozarks. A freelance programmer, she designs sophisticated security systems—and supplements her own security with a fierce dog and an assortment of firearms. She keeps to herself, saying little, revealing nothing. But Abigail’s reserve only intrigues police chief Brooks Gleason. Her logical mind, her secretive nature, and her unromantic viewpoints leave him fascinated but frustrated. He suspects that Abigail needs protection from something—and that her elaborate defenses hide a story that must be revealed.
With a quirky, unforgettable heroine and a pulse-pounding plotline, Nora Roberts presents a riveting new read that cements her place as today’s most reliably entertaining thriller
author—and will leave people hungering for more.
The Wind Through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel, by Stephen King – Release Date: April 24, 2012
In The Wind Through the Keyhole, Stephen King returns to the rich landscape of Mid-World, the spectacular territory of the Dark Tower fantasy saga that stands as his most beguiling achievement.
Roland Deschain and his ka-tet—Jake, Susannah, Eddie, and Oy, the billy-bumbler—encounter a ferocious storm just after crossing the River Whye on their way to the Outer Baronies. As they shelter from the howling gale, Roland tells his friends not just one strange story but two . . . and in so doing, casts new light on his own troubled past.
In his early days as a gunslinger, in the guilt-ridden year following his mother’s death, Roland is sent by his father to investigate evidence of a murderous shape-shifter, a “skin-man” preying upon the population around Debaria. Roland takes charge of Bill Streeter, the brave but terrified boy who is the sole surviving witness to the beast’s most recent slaughter. Only a teenager himself, Roland calms the boy and prepares him for the following day’s trials by reciting a story from the Magic Tales of the Eld that his mother often read to him at bedtime. “A person’s never too old for stories,” Roland says to Bill. “Man and boy, girl and woman, never too old. We live for them.” And indeed, the tale that Roland unfolds, the legend of Tim Stoutheart, is a timeless treasure for all ages, a story that lives for us.
King began the Dark Tower series in 1974; it gained momentum in the 1980s; and he brought it to a thrilling conclusion when the last three novels were published in 2003 and 2004. The Wind Through the Keyhole is sure to fascinate avid fans of the Dark Tower epic. But this novel also stands on its own for all readers, an enchanting and haunting journey to Roland’s world and testimony to the power of Stephen King’s storytelling magic.
Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy by E L James
The first book came out on April 3rd with Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy. The next installment Fifty Shades Darker: Book Two of the Fifty Shades Trilogy is due out on April 17th. The 3rd book is due on the same day with Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three of the Fifty Shades Trilogy.
“Fifty Shades,” which drew inspiration from the insanely popular series by Stephenie Meyer. Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele are loosely based on “Twilight’s” Edward and Bella. James, a TV executive, wife and mother based in London, took a young adult novel and spiced it up, said Sarah Weir, a contributing editor at Yahoo! Shine. Weir said that since a lot of young adult novels have such broad fan bases now, the success of “Fifty Shades” will probably be replicated more and more.
Kindle Fire Reaching Out to the Family
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Barnes&Noble announced an eye-opening statistic this year that the largest customer demographic to purchase (or receive as a gift) the Nook Color was middle-aged women, and after further scrutiny, that news made perfect sense. The Nook Color is a light-weight Android-based tablet which was promoted through media campaigns for simple e-reading of books and full-color magazines, yet offered app capability for more tech-savvy consumers. It was the housewife’s answer to the iPad, sleek and up with the times, but without the cost and superfluous features of a larger scale tablet PC.
Amazon’s introduction into the tablet world, the soon-to-be-released entertainment and internet-heavy Kindle Fire, has been touted as an “iPad for the rest of us,” a fully functional complement to Apple’s expensive tablet at a much less restrictive price point. With many of the same capabilities, such as downloadable apps, email and internet browsing, and live-streaming of movies and music videos, the Kindle Fire looks to be an all-in-one device without the iPad price tag.
Now, Kindle Fire is breaking into that B&N demographic by targeting parents with full-color children’s book titles that were simply not possible on the e-ink Kindle readers. According to an article by Teleread.com, Amazon is already listing more than 1,000 children’s book titles on pre-order for its new device. Unfortunately, in the world of children’s publishing, both Amazon and Barnes&Noble are still selling those titles for as much as $15.00, higher than many bestseller-list adult titles.
Hopefully, as more companies like Oceanhouse Media and iStoryTime continue to develop interactive children’s content for tablets through downloadable apps, the prices of some of the more popular children’s book titles will come down. A typical interactive title—and by interactive meaning it offers astounding features like the option of a human voice read-aloud, which neither Amazon nor Barnes&Noble have enabled on many of their children’s titles, as well as a tap-and-read feature which calls out words and displays them on the screen as young readers utilize the touch-screen—in the iTunes store runs between $1.99 and $3.99, a much more attractive price for parents who are simply looking to fill their tablets with great engaging yet educational children’s content.
New eBooks Releases for the Last Two Weeks of September
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This week many highly anticipated books are being released! Sandra Brown and Stuart Woods fans are rewarded with new novels by both! It is well into back to school season and the weather, at least in Canada, is getting colder again. Time to curl up with a good book on a rainy night and get back into the swing of things since summer is officially over.
Reamde by Neal Stephenson – Release Date: Sept 20th, 2011
Neal Stephenson is quite rightly known as a writer of ideas, but don’t put it past him to pen a straightforward thriller. True, the plot of said thriller hinges on a massively multiplayer online game that’s a step beyond what’s actually available on the Internet circa 2011, but that’s as far as the sci-fi goes. Enter “REAMDE,” an online virus that brings together a super-rich CEO, a Chinese hacker, a rogue Russian mafioso, an assimilated East African beauty, an itinerant Hungarian software programmer, two insanely prolific fantasy writers, and guns, guns, guns. (The book features so much firepower that Stephenson enlisted what he calls a “ballistics copy editor.”) It takes a veritable master of pacing to make a thousand pages feel like barely a third of that, but Stephenson is that master; his breakneck narrative starts fast and never, ever lets up. As such, Reamde is as likely to turn off fans of his more cerebral fiction as it is to gain him scads of new devotees. Regardless, it marks an inimitable highlight of this year’s thriller roster
Son of Stone by Stuart Woods – Release Date: Sept 20th, 2011
A new addition to the New York Times-bestselling Stone Barrington series.
After an eventful trip to Bel-Air and a reunion with his sophisticated (and very wealthy) former love, Arrington Calder, Stone Barrington is back in New York, and he’s looking to stay closer to home and cash in on his partnership at Woodman & Weld.
But Arrington has other plans for Stone…including introducing him to the child he fathered many years ago.
Daniel X: Game Over by James Patterson and Ned Rust – Released Sept 20th 2011
When Daniel X discovers that a duo of evil extraterrestrials is plotting to control kids around the world through videogames, he’s determined to take them both out of commission. This pair of wicked game masters wants to destroy the human race by turning brainwashed videogamers into an unstoppable army of doom! They’re also running an endangered species hunting club on the side, and their next target is none other than Daniel. He’ll have no choice but to turn to the aliens’ rebellious son who needs help to stand up to his malicious parents. But can Daniel trust the progeny of this treacherous twosome? Or will it be “Game Over” for the alien hunter?
Lethal by Sandra Brown – Release Date: September 25th 2011
When her four year old daughter informs her a sick man is in their yard, Honor Gillette rushes out to help him. But that “sick” man turns out to be Lee Coburn, the man accused of murdering seven people the night before. Dangerous, desperate, and armed, he promises Honor that she and her daughter won’t be hurt as long as she does everything he asks. She has no choice but to accept him at his word.
But Honor soon discovers that even those close to her can’t be trusted. Coburn claims that her beloved late husband possessed something extremely valuable that places Honor and her daughter in grave danger. Coburn is there to retrieve it — at any cost. From FBI offices in Washington, D.C., to a rundown shrimp boat in coastal Louisiana, Coburn and Honor run for their lives from the very people sworn to protect them, and unravel a web of corruption and depravity that threatens not only them, but the fabric of our society
Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings
It comes as no surprise that, as a kid, Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings slept with a bulky Hammond world atlas by his pillow every night. Maphead recounts his lifelong love affair with geography and explores why maps have always been so fascinating to him and to fellow enthusiasts everywhere.Jennings takes readers on a world tour of geogeeks from the London Map Fair to the bowels of the Library of Congress, from the prepubescent geniuses at the National Geographic Bee to the computer programmers at Google Earth. Each chapter delves into a different aspect of map culture: highpointing, geocaching, road atlas rallying, even the “unreal estate” charted on the maps of fiction and fantasy. He also considers the ways in which cartography has shaped our history, suggesting that the impulse to make and read maps is as relevant today as it has ever been. From the “Here be dragons” parchment maps of the Age of Discovery to the spinning globes of grade school to the postmodern revolution of digital maps and GPS, Maphead is filled with intriguing details, engaging anecdotes, and enlightening analysis. If you’re an inveterate map lover yourself—or even if you’re among the cartographically clueless who can get lost in a supermarket—let Ken Jennings be your guide to the strange world of mapheads.
The Affair: A Reacher Novel – Lee Child – Release Date: Sept 27th, 2011
Everything starts somewhere. . . For elite military cop Jack Reacher, that somewhere was Carter Crossing, Mississippi, way back in 1997. A lonely railroad track. A crime scene. A coverup.
A young woman is dead, and solid evidence points to a soldier at a nearby military base. But that soldier has powerful friends in Washington.
Reacher is ordered undercover—to find out everything he can, to control the local police, and then to vanish. Reacher is a good soldier. But when he gets to Carter Crossing, he finds layers no one saw coming, and the investigation spins out of control.
Local sheriff Elizabeth Deveraux has a thirst for justice—and an appetite for secrets. Uncertain they can trust one another, Reacher and Deveraux reluctantly join forces. Reacher works to uncover the truth, while others try to bury it forever. The conspiracy threatens to shatter his faith in his mission, and turn him into a man to be feared.
A novel of unrelenting suspense that could only come from the pen of #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child, The Affair is the start of the Reacher saga, a thriller that takes Reacher—and his readers—right to the edge . . . and beyond.
Feast Day of Fools by James Lee Burke – Release Date: Sept 27th, 2011
ames Lee Burke’s impressive body of work spans five decades and includes two Edgar Award-winning mysteries–yet his 30th book, Feast Day for Fools, may arguably be his best effort to date. In this sequel to his 2009 novel, Rain Gods, Burke returns to the hard-scrabble Texas town on the Mexican border, and its contemplative sheriff Hackberry Holland. Holland is a quintessential Burke hero—deeply moral, tortured by past sins, appalled at the depravity of our fallen world, and firmly committed to justice. Feast Day for Fools opens with a horrific murder in the desert. One man is tortured and dismembered by a menacing psychopath named Krill. Another man, a government agent whom Krill kidnapped and planned to sell to Al Qaeda, escapes into the night. In its aftermath, Holland encounters a vibrant cast of characters—including Anton Ling, an enigmatic woman whose home is a place of refuge to desperate immigrants, and the riveting Preacher Jack Collins, a terrifying serial killer, who had seemingly died at the end of Rain Gods. Packed with lush imagery and allegorical heft, Feast Day for Fools is a tightly wound thriller that reconfirms James Lee Burke’s status as a master storyteller.
The Best New eBooks for September 2011
Posted by: | CommentsWelcome to another Good e-Reader eBook preview! Today at look at the slew of new books coming out from every major publisher! We know hundreds of books come out every month and we just focus on the ones we get the most feedback from. These are writers that span many notable genres, so there should be something for everyone!
The Queen: A Patrick Bowers Thriller by Steven James – Release Date Sept 1, 2011
While investigating a double homicide in an isolated northern Wisconsin town, FBI Special Agent Patrick Bowers uncovers a high-tech conspiracy that twists through long-buried Cold War secrets and targets present-day tensions in the Middle East.
In his most explosive thriller yet, bestselling author Steven James delivers a multi-layered storytelling tour de force that not only delivers pulse-pounding suspense but also deftly explores the rippling effects of the choices we make.
The Queen is a techno-thriller that will leave you breathless, offered by the author Publishers Weekly calls a “master storyteller at the peak of his game.”
Sookie Stackhouse Companion by Charlaine Harris – Release Date: Sept 3 2011
Charlaine Harris has topped the bestseller charts and has become a nationwide phenomenon, thanks to the unconventional—and otherworldly—life of Sookie Stackhouse. Now, in her own words, Sookie gives readers a look at her family, friends, enemies, adventures, and, of course, the lovers who set her world on fire…
Readers will:
Tour Bon Temps, the small Louisiana town that Sookie calls home, and visit the houses of her Gran and her sometime vampire lover, Bill
Prowl around the werewolf and were-panther communities
Browse through her best friend Tara’s dress shop
Belly up to the bar in Merlotte’s, where Sookie works
Get must-have Bon Temps recipes-including Caroline Bellfleur’s famous chocolate cheesecake
Test themselves with trivia questions from the series
Dark Predator by Christine Feehan – Release Date: Sept 6 2011
As brutal as the undead he hunted, Zacarias De La Cruz was a master executioner. Over the long, dark centuries, he plunged into so many battles they blurred into an endless lifetime of evil that hardened the soul of this merciless, ruthless, and implacable dark predator.
Now his stark and savage journey is over. After a thousand years in a grey world, he has accomplished everything he set out to do. His brothers are safeguarded. Each has found a woman who completes them. And they are at peace. For his brothers, Zacarias has walked the edge of madness, but with centuries as a killing machine now left to the past and without a hunt to define him, Zacarias wonders, for the first time in his life, who he really is.
The answer awaits him back home in Peru, in the betrayal of a woman who is readying her trap, in the vengeance of an old enemy, in the inevitable consequences of a bloody family legacy, and in the deliverance of a lifemate he never could have imagined.
Headhunters by Jo Nesbo – Release Date: Sept 6 2011
With Headhunters, Jo Nesbø has crafted a funny, dark, and twisted caper story worthy of Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers. FIRST TIME PUBLISHED IN THE U.S. NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM MAGNOLIA PICTURES.
Roger Brown is a corporate headhunter, and he’s a master of his profession. But one career simply can’t support his luxurious lifestyle and his wife’s fledgling art gallery. At an art opening one night he meets Clas Greve, who is not only the perfect candidate for a major CEO job, but also, perhaps, the answer to his financial woes: Greve just so happens to mention that he owns a priceless Peter Paul Rubens painting that’s been lost since World War II—and Roger Brown just so happens to dabble in art theft. But when he breaks into Greve’s apartment, he finds more than just the painting. And Clas Greve may turn out to be the worst thing that’s ever happened to Roger Brown.
Forbidden by Ted Dekker – Release Date: Sept 13 2011
A terrible truth has been revealed to one man: the entire human race has been drained of every emotion except one— fear. To bring life back to the world, Rom must embark on a journey that will end either in his own demise or a reawakening of humanity. But to bring love and passion back into existence will also threaten the powers of the world with the revolution and anarchy that had nearly destroyed them previously.
After happening upon a journal through strange circumstance, Rom’s world is shattered. He learns that humanity long ago ceased to “live,” that it exists today in a living death of emotions. In a terrible risk, Rom exposes himself to the vial of blood folded into the old leather of the journal. His change is fearful and fraught with mind-bending emotion. A once-pious observer of the Order’s passionless statues, he is filled with uncontrollable impulses. He is filled with love. He is undone, terrified, and alone in the desolate world.
Pearl Jam Twenty – Release Date: Sept 17 2011
In 1991, Pearl Jam’s debut album, Ten catapulted the little-known Seattle-based band into superstardom. Then, at the height of their popularity, the band shunned the spotlight, refusing to shoot videos or do interviews. Even as Pearl Jam’s studio albums continued to be critically acclaimed and commercially successful, selling over 60 million albums worldwide, the inner workings of the band—their day-to-day routines, influences, and motivations—remained unknown even to their diehard fans.
Twenty years later, this is their story. Pearl Jam Twenty is a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes anecdotes, rare archival memorabilia, and the band’s personal photos, tour notes, and drawings. Told with wit and insight in the band members’ own words, and assembled by veteran music writer Jonathan Cohen with Mark Wilkerson—and including a foreword by Cameron Crowe along with original interviews with legends and contemporaries like Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, and Dave Grohl—this intimate work provides an in-depth look at a group of musicians who through defying convention established themselves as “the greatest American rock band ever.”
New York to Dallas by J.D. Robb – Release Date: Sept 17 2011
Twelve years ago, Eve Dallas was just a rookie NY cop when her instincts led her to the apartment of Isaac McQueen, a man she discovered to be a sick murderer and paedophile, who was keeping young girls in cages. Now a homicide Lieutenant, Eve is one of the most distinguished officers in the city—and then she learns that McQueen has escaped from jail. Bent on revenge against Eve and with a need to punish more “bad girls,” McQueen heads to Dallas, Texas—the place where Eve was found as a child, the place where she killed her own abusive monster when she was only eight years old. With Eve and Roarke in pursuit of McQueen, everything is on the line and secrets from Eve’s past are about to be shockingly revealed.
Reamde: A Novel by Neal Stephenson – Release Date: Sept 20 2011
Having fled to British Columbia decades ago to avoid the draft, Richard Forthrast then amassed a fortune transporting marijuana over the border to Idaho. Now he spends his time playing a power-wielding online fantasy game and his money buying viral gold and other necessaries from Chinese gold farmers and, finally, launching his own techie start-up. Alas, one of the gold farmers sets off a virtual war for dominance that could be the end of Richard.
The Affair: A Reacher Novel by Lee Child – Release Date: Sept 27 2011
For elite military cop Jack Reacher, that somewhere was Carter Crossing, Mississippi, way back in 1997. A lonely railroad track. A crime scene. A coverup.
A young woman is dead, and solid evidence points to a soldier at a nearby military base. But that soldier has powerful friends in Washington.
Reacher is ordered undercover—to find out everything he can, to control the local police, and then to vanish. Reacher is a good soldier. But when he gets to Carter Crossing, he finds layers no one saw coming, and the investigation spins out of control.
Local sheriff Elizabeth Deveraux has a thirst for justice—and an appetite for secrets. Uncertain they can trust one another, Reacher and Deveraux reluctantly join forces. Reacher works to uncover the truth, while others try to bury it forever. The conspiracy threatens to shatter his faith in his mission, and turn him into a man to be feared.
A novel of unrelenting suspense that could only come from the pen of #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child, The Affair is the start of the Reacher saga, a thriller that takes Reacher—and his readers—right to the edge . . . and beyond.
The Goodereader Ebook of the Week Official Launch: Indie Book Collective
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The staff members of GoodEReader.com have worked throughout the summer lining up authors who are willing to provide their digitally published works to the readers, often free of charge, for the Ebook of the Week feature. Announcements have been made over the course of the last two months detailing how readers can get ebooks for their favorite devices, as well as find out a little bit about some great authors at the same time.
While the goal is to provide a weekly free ebook, occasionally an ebook will be offered for a drastically reduced price, which ensures that the readers not only come away with a great variety of genres and authors, but that the authors who are excited about being featured on GoodEReader.com bring their best work. All of the authors whose featured ebooks will still retain a nominal cost have agreed to donate a portion of the proceeds from those sales to charities that will be specified on this site.
The first ebook that we are proud to feature is the Indie Book Collective’s Dollars and Sense: A Definitive Guide to Self-Publishing. This book has been mentioned a few times in our coverage of indie publishing, but now that the founding members of the IBC have become sought-after speakers at conferences and events pertaining to digital and self-publishing, we felt it might be very poignant to launch the Ebook of the Week feature with a great reference tool for anyone who is considering self-publishing his ebook.
Rachel Thompson, one-third of the Indie Book Collective along with co-founders Amber Scott and Carolyn McCray, spoke to GoodEReader.com in an interview about the book and the purpose of the IBC. A download of that interview is available here.
In order to receive a free digital edition of the IBC’s guide, enter the following code at the Dollars and Sense sale page on Smashwords.com: SF99T. The IBC was generous enough to extend the deadline on using this code due to the upcoming Labor Day weekend, so the code will not expire until September 7th.
For more on the Indie Book Collective and the work that they do with independent authors, check out their website at indiebookcollective.com. All three founders can be found on Twitter, and links to their respective websites and their own books can be found via their Twitter profiles.
NOTE: The founders of the Indie Book Collective just announced that they will be giving away copies of their own fiction ebooks/PDFs to five random commenters on this article!
Good e-Reader eBook of the Week starts Tuesday
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Good e-Reader is proud to offer the new eBook of the Week feature to our website! Every week we will be giving away an eBook for free or heavily discounted! We will be promoting authors from a myriad of genres and these books will be solid for readers of a wide audience!
Not only will you get a chance to get a free book but you will get a chance to listen to the author speak on our Good e-Reader Radio Show or an interview with the author on our blog.
We have some audio that explains the concept and we have an interview with Rachel Thompson of the Indie Book Collective. Mercy and Rachel talk about the first eBook that we will be offering and may help other Indie authors get on the right track with digital publishing.
Good e-Reader – New eBook Releases for August 2011
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It is the high point of summer for most people and an onslaught of new eBooks are being released! In the summer there is always a lull with big name authors releasing their books. We have September to November to really look forward to the A list titles. Suffice to say we have put together a great list that covers all the major genres for your e-reader.
Interviews with Algonquin on Ebook Bundling
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GoodEReader.com recently published two articles about publisher Algonquin, a division of the Workman Group, and its initiative to bring digital customers into their local bookstores. One promotion going on throughout the month of June offers a significantly discounted ebook with the purchase of one of twelve specific Algonquin trade paperbacks at any participating Barnes and Noble store. The other project, which has garnered a lot of attention from our readers, involves the bundling of a print edition with a code to receive the digital copy for free. GoodEReader.com followed up with Bob Miller, group publisher at Workman Group, Chris Parris-Lamb, literary agent at The Gernert Company, and author Hillary Jordan, whose book When She Woke will be the first book the publisher uses to experiment with this innovative model.
“I’ve thought about something like this for a couple of years,” says Miller of the logic behind the experiment. “Instead of having print compete with ebooks, instead of making the readers choose a format, a great idea would be to use the digital versions to help sell print versions. The ebook is not expensive to produce, but if we sell the ebook on its own we have to raise the price in order to make a profit. For now we’re going to try this out with When She Woke and see how this works out, then make a decision from there. If it’s popular, gets attention for the book, and helps out the booksellers, then it is something we can try again. It’s worth learning something from this attempt.”
“With this idea, we just felt that there was nothing to lose and potentially a lot to be gained,” adds Chris Parris-Lamb, the agent who represents author Hillary Jordan. “Ideally, we will be able to reach out to e-reader fans and encourage them to go to the local bookseller because they can have both versions for one price. It’s a winning venture for everyone involved—the author, publisher, reader, and the bookseller.”
Parris-Lamb has a strong affinity for the booksellers, as he credits the success of Jordan’s first novel, Mudbound, with the welcome reception it received in book stores as digital had really not taken off at that time. “Initially, the ebook sales of Mudbound were obviously zero, because the ebook wasn’t released for several months after the hardback edition was published. But within three years, we saw that Mudbound went from zero ebook sales, to as high as 30% of its sales being digital. It was the bookstores, though, that first brought traffic and sales to this book.”
Having gone from no ebook sales at the publication of her first book to almost a third of her sales being digital must have been a period of curious transition for Hillary Jordan. Now, with her second book, When She Woke, a dystopian novel set in America in a near-future in which the country has been taken in a very right-wing direction, about to hit the bookstores’ shelves paired with its digital cousin, Jordan may be feeling that this progression has been very fast paced.
“I’ve been astonished by the whole digital phenomenon,” comments Jordan. “I was resistant to ebooks for my own reading, but I’m on the road all the time and lugging books everywhere just wasn’t practical. I love my iPad, it even feels like reading a book when you turn the pages. I was reading several of my friends’ manuscripts and I took several books for myself when I traveled to Egypt for six weeks, all in my iPad. I’ve worried a lot about how e-reading affects the indie booksellers because I love them and we need them, and the economy has been hard on them. But whatever gets books into people’s hands, I’m for it, and putting the two versions together can reach every kind of reader.”
But how does the author actually feel about trying something so unprecedented with her cherished manuscript?
“One of the great things has been my outstanding relationship with Algonquin,” offers Jordan, “so any new idea they bring I’m going to be inclined to embrace, because they’ve really gotten behind me and my books.”
Top 25 eBooks for Summertime Reading!
Posted by: | CommentsIt is summertime again and that means heading down to the beach or going on vacation and packing a vertiable treasure trove of books to expand your literary horizons.
We have selected the top 25 summer books from a wellspring of new releases to give you a taste of the best reads of 2011, so far.
Books for the Literary Types
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson – Possibly one of the most buzzed about books of the year, it has been selected as one of Amazon’s Best Books of June 2011, and as this summer’s hottest titles. In “Before I Go To Sleep,” S. J. Watson’s riveting psychological thriller, the heroine, Christine, has an unusual form of amnesia; her memories, all of them, are erased every night as she sleeps. As if that’s not unsettling enough, it now appears that the one person Christine relies on to keep her life in order – her husband – may be keeping dangerous secrets from her.
Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, by Gabrielle Hamilton – Blood, Bones & Butter” is a chef’s memoir with enough heart, soul, and grit to enchant even readers whose relationship with the kitchen is confined to frequent use of the microwave. Gabrielle Hamilton is the owner of New York’s Prunes restaurant, but she is also a born writer who movingly evokes her New Jersey childhood, her uneven path to adulthood, and her unusual marriage to an Italian with an irresistible mother.
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See – Beloved author Lisa See’s new novel, serves as a continuation of Shanghai Girls, and the story of sisters Pearl and May. Devastated over recent news of her father, Pearl’s daughter Joy runs away to China in search for the truth.
Faith by Jennifer Haigh -When Sheila McGann sets out to redeem her disgraced brother, a once-beloved Catholic priest in suburban Boston, her quest will force her to confront cataclysmic truths about her fractured Irish-American family, her beliefs, and, ultimately, herself. Award-winning author Jennifer Haigh follows her critically acclaimed novels Mrs. Kimble and The Condition with a captivating, vividly rendered portrait of fraying family ties, and the trials of belief and devotion, in Faith.
The Paris Wife by Paul McLain – McLain tells the story of Ernest Hemingway from the point of view of his first wife, Hadley Hemingway. The book takes the reader through the streets of Paris during the jazz age, and introduces us to colorful literary personalities like James Joyce and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Please Look After Mom, by Kyung-Sook Shin – In Kyung-Sook Shin’s novel “Please Look After Mom,” the mother of Shin’s protagonist disappears in a busy Seoul train station. But that’s only the beginning of the unravelling of her world. The family starts to question if they ever really knew their matriarch at as her inner mysteries come to light. This book is a haunting tribute to the secrets of motherhood.
The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht –Téa Obreht evokes a narrative mysticism worthy of Gabriel García Márquez in “The Tiger’s Wife,” her story of a young doctor in the working at an orphanage in an unnamed country in the Balkans. As the heroine works to unravel a web of secrets and lies, she begins to grasp the mysteries behind her family history and her grandfather’s recent death.
Mysterious and Spine Tingling Thrillers Books
The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler – Lars Kepler’s The Hypnotist starts 
The Informationist by Taylor Stevens – Stevens’s blazingly brilliant debut introduces a great new action heroine, Vanessa Michael Munroe, who doesn’t have to kick over a hornet’s nest to get attention, though her feral, take-no-prisoners attitude reflects the fire of Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander. Nine years have passed since Munroe, the daughter of American missionaries, escaped Cameroon at age 15 after a violent incident. She’s forged a new life in Texas as an “informationist,” a person who specializes in gathering information about developing countries for corporations. Munroe’s best friend, marketing consultant Kate Breeden, refers her to Miles Bradford, a high-stakes security pro, who believes she’s the perfect choice to help Houston oilman Richard Burbank find his adopted daughter, Emily, who vanished four years earlier at age 18 while vacationing in west central Africa. Munroe returns to Africa, where she reconnects with her ex-boyfriend, Francisco Beyard, a sexy drug- and gun-running businessman, who assists in the dangerous search for Emily.
A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley – In the third installment of this bestselling, award-winning, sister-poisoning, bicycle-riding, murder-investigating, and utterly captivating series, Flavia de Luce must draw upon Gypsy lore and her encyclopaedic knowledge of poisons to prevent a grave miscarriage of justice.
Save me by Lisa Scottoline – At the start of this gut-wrenching stand-alone from bestseller Scottoline (Think Twice), an explosion rips through the nearly empty cafeteria of Reesburgh (Pa.) Elementary School. Lunch mother Rose McKenna leads two girls to safety before racing to rescue her own daughter, Melly, but Rose soon learns that she may face both civil and criminal charges for her heroics because one of the girls she saved was seriously injured in the resulting fire that killed three school staff members. The tension rises as the united front presented by Rose and her lawyer husband, Leo Ingrassia, begins to disintegrate in the face of media demands, legal maneuverings, and social pressures. Rose must also deal with school bullying (Melly has a noticeable facial blemish), difficult legal problems, and her husband’s reaction when a secret from her past is revealed. Scottoline melds it all into a satisfying nail-biting thriller sure to please her growing audience. 400,000 first printing; author tour.
Smokin’ Seventeen: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich – Short on time to find evidence proving the killer’s identity, Stephanie faces further complications when her family and friends decide that it’s time for her to choose between her longtime off-again-on-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger. Stephanie’s mom is encouraging Stephanie to dump them both and choose a former high school football star who’s just returned to town. Stephanie’s sidekick, Lula, is encouraging Stephanie to have a red-hot boudoir “bake-off.” And Grandma Bella, Morelli’s old-world grandmother, is encouraging Stephanie to move to a new state when she puts “the eye” on Stephanie.
SCI-FI and Dragon Busting Fantasy
The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock – Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrificial blood he pours on his “prayer log.” There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial killers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness – Current reading trends prove that many can’t resist a story about witches or vampires – this book contains both. The heroine, an ashamed witch, finds an old manuscript that unleashed demons of all kinds; much to her dismay, she is the only one who can stop them.
Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson – Wilson does a fabulous job at creating a world where technology completely takes over, but with the intent to destroy mankind. It serves as a clear warning that technology is not always a good thing.
Books for the Younglings
The Kane Chronicles, Book Two: The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan- In this exciting second installment of the three-book series, Carter and Sadie, offspring of the brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane, embark on a worldwide search for the Book of Ra, but the House of Life and the gods of chaos are determined to stop them.
The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens – A former screen writer, Stephens debut book is expected to enchant kids for years to come. The visually stunning book trailer provides a background for the story of three unwanted children.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs – When I first saw this book in the catalog, it creeped me out, but also made me want to know more. The book trailer gives a better explanation with even creepier visuals…
Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt – Young Adult author Schmidt has the ability to write books (The Wednesday Wars) that resonate with teens everywhere. In Okay For Now, he tells the coming-0f-age story of 14-year-old Doug who moves to a new town where tragedy and comedy both ensue.
Sisterhood Everlasting: A Novel (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) by Ann Brashares – From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ann Brashares comes the welcome return of the characters whose friendship became a touchstone for a generation. Now Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget have grown up, starting their lives on their own. And though the jeans they shared are long gone, the sisterhood is everlasting.
Nonfiction
Through My Eyes by Tim Tebow – This book brings readers everywhere an inspirational memoir about life as he chose to live it, revealing how his faith and family values, combined with his relentless will to succeed, have molded him into the person that he is today. As the son of Christian missionaries, Tebow has a unique story to tell—from the circumstances of his birth, to his home-schooled roots, to his record-setting collegiate football career with the Florida Gators and everything else that took place in between.
Bossypants by Tina Fey – Funny lady Fey made me literally laugh out loud… at work; she narrates the hysterical audiobook that examines her childhood, career, family, and take on society.
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson – A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.
The Social Animal by David Brooks – New York Times Columnist Brooks explores the idea of success, and how it happens through the unconscious mind. Done with his usual wit and humor, Brooks’ follows the lives of two individuals, how will they turn out? Get a sneak peek in this video.
The Best eBooks for June 2011
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June is here and this means summer or at least the fledgling vestiges of it. It is time to dust of your e-readers and tablets and get out in the sun and read some new books. This month a plethora of new literature is being released and Good e-Reader has the latest books you need to know about.
Hit List (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 20) by Laurell K. Hamilton – June 7 2011
The #1 New York Times bestselling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series continues! Word has leaked to Anita Blake that hit men are headed for St. Louis- and that she, Jean-Claude, and Richard are the targets.
The Kingdom by Clive Cussler – June 7 2011
The husband-and-wife team of Sam and Remi Fargo are used to hunting for treasure, but they aren’t used to hunting for people-until an investigator friend of their goes missing, and they promise to search for him. What they discover, however, will be beyond anything they could have imagined.
On a journey that will take them to Tibet, Nepal, China, Italy, and Siberia, the Fargos find themselves embroiled with black-market fossils, an ancient Tibetan kingdom, a lost landmass in the North Sea, Stone Age ostrich egg shards inscribed in a cryptic language, a pair of battles separated by thousands of miles and hundreds of years . . . and a skeleton that could just turn the history of human evolution on its head.
Theodore Boone: The Abduction by John Grisham – June 7 2011
When we last saw Theo Boone, he uncovered key evidence in a landmark murder trial, ensuring that justice was served. Just when it seems like life is back to the status quo, a new legal mystery comes to town—and Theo is the only one who can crack the case.
With all of the action, intrigue, and heart that we have come to expect form the undisputed master of the legal thriller, the continuing adventures of Theodore Boone will captivate readers of all ages.
Chicks Kick Butt by Rachel Caine – June 7 2011
Chicks Kick Butt is an anthology that features one of the best things about the urban fantasy genre: strong, independent, and intelligent heroines who are quite capable of solving their own problems and slaying their own dragons (or demons, as the case may be). This anthology features works by L.A. Banks, Rachel Vincent and 11 others.
The Leopard Unleashed by Elizabeth Chadwick – June 7 2011
Renard, heir to Ravenstow, is a crusader in Antioch, a place far removed from the cold Welsh Marches of his birth. Summoned home to his ailing father, Renard brings Olwen with him, an exotic dancing girl whose sensuous beauty and wild ways have ensnared him. Yet, in a political match made by their families, Renard is already betrothed to the innocent Elene and he knows he is also returning to the duty of marriage. Torn between Olwen and Elene, Renard’s personal dilemma is set against a background of increasing civil strife as Ranulf of Chester, his greedy neighbour, strives to snatch his lands. When Renard is taken prisoner at the Battle of Lincoln, his fate is placed in the hands of the two women ? his former mistress, now in the bed of his deadliest enemy, and his determined yet inexperienced wife, protecting his lands against terrible odds …
Carte Blanche: The New James Bond Novel by Jeffery Deaver – June 14 2011
“Deaver, as fans of his Lincoln Rhyme and Kathryn Dance thrillers would expect, has clearly done his homework. . . . the most impressive feature of Carte Blanche is the ingenuity of the breathless, blood-thirsty plot. A master of misdirection, Deaver manufactures more surprises than anyone flogging an old warhorse can be expected to produce. . . . Kingsley Amis, John Gardner and Sebastian Faulks are among those who have tried to bring Bond back to life. Deaver, though, is in a class of his own: nobody’s done it better.”
Smokin’ Seventeen: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich – June 21 2011
Dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. No one is sure who the killer is, or why the victims have been offed, but what is clear is that Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list.
Short on time to find evidence proving the killer’s identity, Stephanie faces further complications when her family and friends decide that it’s time for her to choose between her longtime off-again-on-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger. Stephanie’s mom is encouraging Stephanie to dump them both and choose a former high school football star who’s just returned to town. Stephanie’s sidekick, Lula, is encouraging Stephanie to have a red-hot boudoir “bake-off.” And Grandma Bella, Morelli’s old-world grandmother, is encouraging Stephanie to move to a new state when she puts “the eye” on Stephanie.
With a cold-blooded killer after her, a handful of hot men, and a capture list that includes a dancing bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life looks like it’s about to go up in smoke.
That about wraps it up for our recommended reads for June 2011! If you want a full list of Mystery Books out this month click HERE and Romance Click HERE.
