New Big Discounts on Kindle eBooks!

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut Hollywood by Charles BukowskiThe Return of Little Big Man A Most Wanted Man by John le Carre

Every month Amazon discounts dozens of Kindle ebooks — to just $3.99 or less! And June is almost over, making this the last week to buy the ebooks at their discounted price. It’s my favorite time to browse for ebooks, and not just because there’s usually a great selection. You can browse all these discounts over the weekend, and then visit the same page on Tuesday (July 1st) to see a whole new selection of more discounted Kindle ebooks!

For a shortcut to Amazon’s discounted Kindle ebooks, point your browser to:
tinyurl.com/399KindleEbooks

Here’s some of this month’s most interesting titles…


Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut ($1.99)

It’s one of Kurt Vonnegut’s last novel — and with one of his wildest plots. There’s a cluster of characters shipwrecked on an island who suddenly become the only survivors of a catastrophic epidemic — and the novel looks at the world which results…one million years later! One reviewer called it “the humorous, ironic and sometimes carping decline of the human race”, and at least one of Amazon’s customers described it as one of his favorite Vonnegut novels, applauding its grandiose plot and its sense of humor — concluding “in the end Galapagos is interesting, funny, unconventional, and just a great read.”


Hollywood by Charles Bukowski

Hollywood by Charles Bukowski ($1.99)

It’s the second-to-last novel ever written by Charles Bukowski. Just five years before his death at age 73, Bukowski created this 250-page portrait of one of the most extreme cultures of all — Hollywood! After living a life of drunkenness combined with some great and empathetic writing, Bukowski had been commissioned to write a screenplay about his own life in 1984. That resulted in the movie Barfly, but Bukowski wasn’t through with Hollywood yet. “In this hilarious roman a clef, Bukowski draws on his experiences while writing the script…” explains the book’s description at Amazon, adding that the book’s main character is also penning a screenplay about his early life, “as a barfly and brawler, before he became a famous author.” And you’ll recognize many real-life actors, directors, and other famous personalities — because the characters in this book are drawn straight from real life!


The Return of Little Big Man

The Return of Little Big Man by Thomas Berger ($1.99)

“Jack Crabb is now 112 years old,” begins the book’s description at Amazon, “and he isn’t done spinning yarns.” Thomas Berger’s original novel explored the life of an 111-year-old man who claimed (among other things) to be the only survivor of Custer’s Last Stand. His fantastic stories about real life in the American west inspired a 1970 movie. But nearly 30 years later, in 1999, 75-year-old Thomas Berger resurrected his own character to deliver even more tall tales. “Crabb claims to have witnessed most of the great historical events of the western frontier,” reads the book’s description at Amazon, “hiding behind a wagon after a drunken Doc Holliday provokes the shootout at the OK Corral; joining Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley on tour with their international Wild West show; even taking tea with Queen Victoria when she came out of seclusion after a quarter century!” Like the movie, the novel promises to be funny, but according to Amazon, there’s another layer to this historical fantasmagoria, which they ultimately describe as “a sidesplitting novel of surprising emotional depth.”

And the ebook edition includes a special new introduction by the now-89-year-old author!


A Most Wanted Man by John le Carre

A Most Wanted Man by John le Carre ($1.99)

John le Carre has been writing spy novels for more than 50 years. But in 2008, at the age of 76, he reached back to his own memories of working as a British spy in Germany. Or did he? The world’s changed a lot since the 1950s, and in le Carre’s novel (also set in Germany), the intrigue surrounds a mysterious young Russian smuggled into Germany, who may or may not be a terrorist. There’s also a strong female attorney defending him against deportation, and according to Amazon, le Carre’s novel quickly becomes “Thrilling, compassionate, peopled with characters the reader never wants to let go.” They called the novel “fiercely compelling”, but more than that, describe its overall effect as “a work of deep humanity and uncommon relevance to our times…”

Remember, for a shortcut to Amazon’s discounted Kindle ebooks,
point your browser to:

tinyurl.com/399KindleEbooks

The Six Biggest Surprises about Amazon’s Fire Phone

Amazon Fire Phone

Amazon surprised everyone by announcing a new smart phone last week. “Fire is the only smartphone to put everything you love about Amazon in the palm of your hand,” read the front page of Amazon, in a special letter written by the company’s founder, Jeff Bezos. Of course, he touted all the obvious advantages of the Fire phone — apps, music, movies and TV shows, plus “exclusive features” like a 3-D interface and some cool new software tricks.

But here’s six of the Fire Phone’s biggest hidden surprises…

32 Gigabytes of Storage
Wait, what? It starts at 32 gigabytes of storage — that’s the minimum. And there’s also 64-gigabyte version. My last Android phone boasted that it could be upgraded “up to 32 gigabytes” — followed by the dreaded disclaimer in parentheses: not included. (I’d have to purchase an additional memory card — sold separately….)

And besides the on-device storage, Amazon’s Fire Phone is offering another even better alternative…

Unlimited Photo Storage in the Cloud
My current smartphone keeps running out of memory — I think every smartphone eventually hits a limit. You can try storing your photos in the cloud, but besides Google’s free storage service, even the iPhone has a 5-gigabyte limit (unless you’re willing to pay extra). But not Amazon’s Fire Phone. “Free, unlimited photo storage definitely sets Amazon apart from Dropbox, Apple’s iCloud and Microsoft’s OneDrive,” reports the technology blog Engadget.

Of course, there’s a reason that Amazon’s upping their specs and giving away cool features for free…customers.

No Discount
“Users will pay for all the data they use through AT&T as well as being sucked into the two-year service contract through the carrier,” warned one technology blog. With their Kindle Fire tablets, Amazon offered a much cheaper alternative to the high-end tablets that were being produced by Apple. But Amazon’s smartphone costs the same as the other Android smartphones — not just for the intiail purchase, but also in its monthly servic chrages.
But Amazon did come up one more great interesting incentive…customers.

A Free Year of Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime normally costs you $100 — but it’s free for a year when you buy a Fire Phone. (And if you’re already a Prime member, Amazon will extend your current subscription by another 12 months.) And Prime doesn’t just mean you get free two-day shipping (plus a big discount on one-day shipping). Prime subscribers also get access to Amazon’s library of free digital movies and TV shows (which includes some great classic TV shows like the original Star Trek and The Twilight Zone). And there’s also over 500,000 books now in the “Kindle Owners’ Lending Library”, which lets you borrow one popular ebook each month for free. This month Amazon also announced a new streaming music service which is free to all Prime customers.

A 3-D Interface — and a 2-D Interface
Repeat after me: “Dynamic Perspective” is optional. A site called Digital Trends ran a fascinating article called “5 things we’ve learned from people who have fondled the Fire Phone,” And it found lots of enthusiasm for Amazon’s new three-dimensional interface. In fact, I thought it was a little misleading to summarize it with the headline “Dynamic Perspective might get annoying.” Although I’ll admit that that was my first thought, too.

I mean, while it’s cool to see screensavers with real depth, do you really want to see the time of day in a shifting, three-dimensional perspective? But all my concerns vanished when I also read that if you don’t like it, you can turn it off. So it’s a feature — not a permanent gimmick standing between you and your icons!

Magical Icons
Ah, and about those icons. On the Fire Phone, the e-mail icon doesn’t just sit there waiting for a tap before it checks up your inbox. It will actually gives you real-time information about what’s in your inbox, before you even tap. It’s similar to the “live tiles” innovation that Microsoft tried with Windows 8 (and their Windows Phone), and it’ll be available for lots of other icons that’ll appear on the home screen of the Fire Phone. For example, the web browser’s icon lets you go straight to recently-accessed web sites. And the app for USA Today shows you headlines — based on your own selections of the kind of headlines you’d prefer…


Check out Amazon’s new smartphone at this shortcut:
tinyurl.com/TryAFirePhone

Amazon Fire Phone

The Strangest Kindle Comics

Afterlife with Archie

Zombies attack… Archie and his pals in Riverdale? It’s a horror comic in the most unlikely of places, and it’s drawing rave reviews. And it’s also proof that there’s a vast variety of reading material available for the Kindle — including Kindle comic books. Right now, Amazon’s even discounting several of them to just 99 cents each.

For a shortcut to Amazon’s comic page, point your browser to

tinyurl.com/KindleComicBooks

By the way, Amazon’s really spruced up that comics page. Now you can display comics by a specific author, or from a specific publisher (like “D.C. Comics”). You can even narrow the display to comics from a specific release date — even “Coming Soon”, or “Last 90 days.” But there’s also links that let you view comics available for the Kindle from “the Golden Age (1938-55),” as well as the Silver Age (1959-1969), and the Bronze Age (1970-1983)…all the way up to the present-day. (Plus a link for recent comics which have won industry awards…)

Comic books are available for any touch-screen Kindle — as well as the Kindle reading apps for your smartphone or other tablet devices. Here’s a look at some of the most interesting titles…



Afterlife with Archie ($2.99 per issue)

It started as a joke — then turned horribly, horribly wrong. A comic book artist drew a special cover for the wholesome series “Life with Archie” — with zombies — as a tribute to the classic horror comics of the 1950s. Writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa wanted to expand the idea, and created a four-issue series where real zombies are terrorizing the neighborhood of Riverdale – and taking over the brains of all of Archie’s loveable pals. “The first four issues sold out,” reports Wikipedia, noting that Fangoria magazine called it one of the “best horror comics…in a very long time,” while a reviewer at NPR actually called it “terrific,” “a masterpiece,” and “actually scary. And this March, the wild success of the series convinced Archie Comics to choose the author as their chief creative officer!



Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Joker in Gotham City Sirens 20

Harley Quinn comics (99 cents per issue)

Amazon’s discounting over 100 comic books for the Kindle — each one with one of D.C. Comics’ most fascinating characters. “For a limited time, pick up single issue comics featuring The Joker’s favorite gal, Harley Quinn for only $0.99 each,” Amazon announced this week. The strange villain-ess in the harlequin costume appeared in numerous comic series, including Gotham City Sirens, Suicide Squad, Gotham Girls, and of course, her own Harley Quinn series. She was named one of the sexiest women in comic books, according to her page on Wikipedia — even if she is in love with The Joker!




The Essential Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson back cover

Calvin & Hobbes collections ($10.99 each)

It’s one of the greatest newspaper comic strips of all-time — and now it’s available on the Kindle! This November three collections of “Calvin & Hobbes” cartoons suddenly appeared in the graphic novels section of Amazon Kindle Store. These 250-page collections feature all the original strips by Bill Watterson — including his lavish, full-color Sunday strips. Watterson stunned the world this month by anonymously contributing artwork to the Pearls Before Swine comic strip after 20 years of retirement! But it just reminded me of how much I loved the original Calvin & Hobbes comic strip — and it’s nice to know that they’re now available on the Kindle.



Transformers Regeneration One cover 91

Transformers: Regeneration One (99 cents per issue)

It’s another store-wide sale, this one featuring nearly two dozen comics about the Transformer robots. With a summer blockbuster about to hit theatres, it’s a good way for fans to bring the excitement home to their Kindle.
You’ll find words like “epic” in Amazon’s description of the plots — as well as “Cybertron,” “Autobot,” and of course, “Optimus Prime.” “For a limited time, pick up Transformers” Regeneration One single issue comics for only $0.99 each,” Amazon teases on the pages of their other Kindle comic books — adding two more special words of their own.

“Shop now!”


Remember, for a shortcut to Amazon’s comic page, point your browser to

tinyurl.com/KindleComicBooks

Amazon Announces Free Music Streaming for Prime Customers

Amazon Prime Music

The founder of Amazon just posted a surprise announcement on the front page of the site. From now on, members of Amazon’s Prime shipping service can also enjoy free music! They’ll get unlimited access to over a million songs — with no commercials — and can even download songs to their phone or tablet for free!

For a shortcut to Amazon’s new service, point your browser to
tinyurl.com/AmazonPrimeMusic

There’s lots of familiar artists — from Bruce Springsteen and Madonna to Daft Punk, Bruno Mars, Blake Shelton, and The Lumineers — and Amazon promises there’s over 10,000 albums to choose from. Amazon promises their selection will grow — which is good, because right now it seems like some artists are represented more than others. Amazon’s “100 Popular Artists” page shows which albums will be available, and it definitely seems like some artists have more albums available than others.

      40 Johnny Cash albums
      16 Willie Nelson
      13 Dave Matthews Band
      12 Elvis Presley
      11 Kidz Bob Kids
      10 Billy Joel
      9 Van Morisson
      8 Ozzy Osbourne
      8 John Denver
      8 Talking Heads
      7 Journey

But it’s still an impressive service, and Amazon’s doing everything they can to make it easy to use. “We wanted to remove the barriers between you and the music you love,” writes Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, listing out the barriers that are being removed — “cost” and “interruptions”. He also points out that there’s also no limit on how many times you can listen to a song, which is different than other streaming music service I’ve seen. And Amazon is also trying to match their ability to recommend new songs, removing the barrier he describes as “deciding what to listen to.

“Just play any of the hundreds of Prime Playlists our music experts have created for you.”

It’s one more benefit for their already-attractive “Prime” shipping service — which also includes free two-day shipping and free videos from Amazon’s library, plus the ability to “borrow” a new book each month from “the Kindle Lending Library.” And Amazon also provided a clue about just how popular their Prime program is. I’ve never seen them actually reveal the number of subscribers to the service, but today they annouced it has “tens of millions of members”. So that means that, at minimum, there’s at least 20 million people using Amazon’s Prime Service.

Which means 20 million people just got free access to Amazon’s streaming music service!

Remember, for a shortcut to Amazon’s new service, point your browser to

tinyurl.com/AmazonPrimeMusic

Amazon Discounts For Father’s Day!

Father's Day Kindle Fire HD and tie as a gift

Holidays are always fun — because Amazon starts offering big discounts on gifts! Father’s Day means big discounts on tablets from Amazon, and also on their new Amazon Fire TV. And there’s even a “bundle” where you can purchase both products and get a 25% discount.

For a shortcut to Amazon’s Father’s Day specials, point your browser to
tinyurl.com/FathersDayAmazon

The best deal is a $40 savings on a high-definition Kindle Fire tablet. Amazon’s lowered the price to just $129, but there’s also discounts on their other tablets. You can also get the same high-definition Kindle Fire for just $119 — a $20 savings — if you’ll settle for an 8-gigabyte hard drive instead of one with 16 gigabytes. It’s Amazon’s cheapest tablet, and with these discounts it’s just $50 more than one of Amazon’s black-and-white readers!

But Amazon’s also offering discounts on their fancier tablet, the Kindle Fire HDX. Its screen has an even higher definition — 323 pixels per inch — plus a camera and a built-in microphone, and a whole lot more storage. The Kindle Fire HDX starts with 16 gigabytes of storage, but there’s also versions with 32 gigabytes and even 64 gigabytes. And for Father’s Day, Amazon’s lowering the price of all of them by $30 — to just $199, $239, and $279!

There’s also an intriguing discount on their newest product, the Amazon Fire TV. If you purchase the $99 device for Father’s Day, Amazon will instantly “kick back” a $15 credit for their Instant Video service. It’s an easy way to connect Netflix to your TV — along with Hulu Plus, and Amazon’s own video-rental service. I would like to be able to search for shows just using my voice — and it’s also part of one of Amazon’s most interesting new discounts.

They’re selling a bundle which includes both the Fire TV device and a high-definition Kindle tablet. You get both products for just $249, which comes out to a savings of $79 (or 25%). And it’s Amazon’s high-end tablet which they’re including in the bundle — the 323 ppi Kindle Fire HDX.

So if you’re looking for gifts for Father’s Day, Amazon’s got some ideas — and some discounts!

Remember, for a shortcut to Amazon’s Father’s Day specials, point your browser to
tinyurl.com/FathersDayAmazon

Amazon Reveals Their Most Popular Authors!

Amazon Author Rank

It took a while before I finally noticed that had Amazon started releasing some fun (and very useful) new information. It’s always been possible to check Amazon’s list of their best-selling Kindle ebooks (and print books). But now a new page Amazon also reveals their best-selling authors!

For a shortcut to Amazon’s new list, point your browser to
tinyurl.com/TopAmazonAuthors

It’s called “Amazon Author Rank,” and it’s updated every hour. (I was really touched to see Maya Angelou rising to the #1 last month, as the news spread about her death…) And each author’s name is followed by a list of their most popular books. It’s a great way to find new books to read — and to discover books that other readers enjoy.

I was really surprised by the variety on the list. Amazon’s most popular authors seemed to be writing in entirely different genres. James Patterson was #6 on Saturday morning — the author of mystery thrillers like Unlucky 13 (in a series he’s named “Women’s Murder Club.”) But right below him was Nora Roberts, the romance novelist, whose most popular books are the three Ireland-themed books in “The Cousins O’Dwyer Trilogy”.

And the #1 most-popular author on Amazon was the author of some great literary fiction. John Green wrote The Fault in Our Stars, which Time magazine called the best fiction book of 2012, and last month it was chosen by The Today Show as the pick for their virtual book club. It tells the story of two teenagers who both have cancer, “kindred spirits, sharing an irreverent sense of humor and immense charm,” (according to the book’s description at Amazon). Amazon applauds the book for shwoing them bravely facing two enormous challenges at the same time. “Watching them fall in love even as they face universal questions of the human condition–How will I be remembered? Does my life, and will my death, have meaning?–has a raw honesty that is deeply moving.

Of course, Amazon’s list also features Stephen King, whose most popular book hasn’t even been released yet! (When I checked on Saturday, Amazon was touting his new mystery, Mr. Mercedes — even though its release date was Wednesday, June 3rd!) And it’s nice to see that George R. R. Martin is still popular. His most popular book is the Game of Thrones box set — the whole Song of Ice and Fire Series (available on the Kindle for just $19.99)

I’m always looking for new books to read. And it looks like Amazon’s Author Rank is going to be a fun new way to find them!

Remember, for a shortcut to Amazon’s new list, point your browser to
tinyurl.com/TopAmazonAuthors

Get a Free Kindle Edition of People Magazine!

People Magazine on the Kindle

There’s a fun new offer from Amazon — a free issue of People magazine for your Kindle Fire tablet! I always wanted to try magazines on my Kindle Fire, but was never sure how they’d look. This is a great way to read a whole issue — all the pictures, and all the text — and enjoy a taste of the famous magazine’s celebrity and human-interest stories.

For a shortcut to the offer, point your web browser to
tinyurl.com/FreePeopleMagazine

This offer expires on Friday, June 6th, so it’s a classic “limited time” promotion. The magazine is normally published every week, so the headlines are surprisingly fresh — and of course, a little dishy. (“Sofia Vergara is back on the market, and wedding planning heats up for George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin…”) There’s also a fun look at which celebrities received (honorary) degrees this spring while giving the commencement address at various colleges. And I have to admit that I really enjoyed their list of the top 10 TV shows of the summer. I’ve lost track of what’s on TV these days — because I spend so much time reading my Kindle!

If you’re on the fence, you can actually get four issues of the magazine for free. Amazon offers a 30-day free trial on the Kindle Fire edition of People magazine — and many other magazines, too. (Every magazine in the Kindle Store is always available for free for at least two weeks, to make it easier to try them out.) “You can cancel at any time during your free period, and you will not be charged,” explains a customer service page, which also points out that some magazines only publish on a monthly schedule (and some are bi-weekly). But you can always go back and read past issues, because Amazon stores them all “in the cloud” — archived on Amazon’s servers so you can always download them again.

I think magazines are an exciting but underused feature of the Kindle Fire tablets. Many have been discounted to less than $20 a year, including Men’s Health and Cosmopolitan. For some other family- and health-oriented magazines — including Family Circle and Eating Well — there’s an even cheaper price. If I’m reading this right, you can get a one-year subscription for just $5.

So if you’ve ever wanted to read magazines on your Kindle Fire tablet, now Amazon’s making it really cheap. And in some cases, it’s even free!

To get the free People magazine issue, point your web browser to
tinyurl.com/FreePeopleMagazine