Top Ten Ebooks from Yesterday and Today week ending November 4, 2011

Top 10 EBooks last 7 days from gutenberg.org:

1. The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana (5338) 2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (3623) 3. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (3442) 4. Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm (3195) 5. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3075) 6. How to Analyze People on Sight by Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict (2966) 7. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (2761) 8. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (2246) 9. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (2203) 10. Ulysses by James Joyce (2198)

Top Ten Ebooks from amazon.com:

1. 33 days in the top 100 Steve Jobs › Walter Isaacson Kindle Edition

2. 61 days in the top 100 The Litigators › John Grisham Kindle Edition

3. 2 days in the top 100 Pearl of China: A Novel › Anchee Min Kindle Edition

4. 31 days in the top 100 Last Breath › Michael Prescott Kindle Edition

5. 38 days in the top 100 The Next Always: Book One of the Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy › Nora Roberts Kindle Edition

6. 22 days in the top 100 Zero Day › David Baldacci Kindle Edition

7. 29 days in the top 100 Unfinished Business Nora Roberts Kindle Edition

8. 108 days in the top 100 The Mill River Recluse › Darcie Chan Kindle Edition

9. 43 days in the top 100 The Best of Me › Nicholas Sparks Kindle Edition

10. 539 days in the top 100 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins Kindle E

Book Review: “The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane” by Katherine Howe

From Publishers Weekly Set in Cambridge and Marblehead, Mass., Howe’s propulsive if derivative novel alternates between the 1991 story of college student Connie Goodwin and a group of 17th-century outcasts. After moving into her grandmother’s crumbling house to get it in shape for sale, Connie comes across a small key and piece of paper reading only Deliverance Dane. The Salem witch trials, contemporary Wicca and women’s roles in early American history figure prominently as Connie does her academic detective work. What follows is a breezy read in which Connie must uncover the mystery of a shadowy book written by the enigmatic Deliverance Dane. During Connie’s investigation, she relies on a handsome steeplejack for romance and her mother and an expert on American colonial history for clues and support. While the twisty plot and Howe’s habit of ending chapters with cliffhangers are straight out of the thriller playbook, the writing is solid overall, and Howe’s depiction of early American life and the witch trials should appeal to readers who enjoyed The Heretic’s Daughter. The witchcraft angle and frenetic pacing beg for a screen adaptation. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

My review: 

In short, I loved the book, being a lover of mystery fiction, paranormal and off the beaten path writers and their books.  Katherine Howe certainly delivers in this mini tome. The characters, setting and plot are believable and even likeable.  You empathize with Connie and the women from the past, Deliverance, Prudence and so forth. Each task Connie sets her in a path that is dangerous and unlikely foes are using her for their own good (or bad, as the case may be).  Katherine takes great care in crafting her settings, from Cambridge to the small town where she finds her family’s sturdy but down-trodden home. Mystical happenings abound and Connie’s academic brain must sort through the ages to find out where the truth lies, as well as clear an unbeknownst ancestor’s name.  

This is one book I would definately recommend for  a rainy or snowy weekend.

Top Ten EBooks from Yesterday and Today week ending October 28, 2011

Ok ,so using a new android format to post and it’s a work in progress.  But, here are the top ten nonetheless!

Top 10 EBooks last 7 days from www.Gutenberg.org:

1. The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana (5925) 2. Little Wars; a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more int (4509) 3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (4314) 4. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (3756) 5. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3738) 6. How to Analyze People on Sight by Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict (3380) 7. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (3327) 8. Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm (3044) 9. Ulysses by James Joyce (2776) 10. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (2700)

Top Ten Ebooks from www.Amazon.com:

1. 26 days in the top 100 Steve Jobs › Walter Isaacson Kindle Edition

2. 54 days in the top 100 The Litigators › John Grisham Kindle Edition

3. 7 days in the top 100 Robert Ludlum’s (TM) The Bourne Betrayal › Eric Van Lustbader Kindle Edition

4. 24 days in the top 100 Last Breath › Michael Prescott Kindle Edition

5. 23 days in the top 100 Crossing Oceans › Gina Holmes Kindle Edition

6. 101 days in the top 100 The Mill River Recluse › Darcie Chan Kindle Edition

7. 79 days in the top 100 The Abbey › Chris Culver Kindle Edition

8. 36 days in the top 100 The Best of Me › Nicholas Sparks Kindle Edition

9. 66 days in the top 100 Can You Keep a Secret? › Sophie Kinsella Kindle Edition

10. 55 days in the top 100 WIRED › Douglas E. Richards Kindle Edition

Top Ten EBooks from Yesterday and Today, week ending October 21, 2011

Top Ten EBooks last 7 days from www.Gutenberg.org:

Top 100 EBooks last 7 days

1. The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana (6401)
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (4542)
3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3922)
4. How to Analyze People on Sight by Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict (3550)
5. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (3508)
6. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (3382)
7. Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm (2952)
8. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (2898)
9. Beowulf (2841)
10. Ulysses by James Joyce (2525)

Top Ten EBooks last 7 days from www.Amazon.com:

1. 94 days in the top 100 The Mill River Recluse › Darcie Chan Kindle Edition

2. 1 day in the top 100 A History of the World in 6 Glasses › Tom Standage Kindle Edition

3. 72 days in the top 100 The Abbey › Chris Culver Kindle Edition

4. 19 days in the top 100 Steve Jobs › Walter Isaacson Kindle Edition

5. 29 days in the top 100 The Best of Me › Nicholas Sparks Kindle Edition

6. 17 days in the top 100 Last Breath Michael Prescott Kindle Edition

7. 48 days in the top 100 WIRED › Douglas E. Richards Kindle Edition

8. 2 days in the top 100 Fun and Games › Duane Swierczynski Kindle Edition

9. 59 days in the top 100 Can You Keep a Secret? › Sophie Kinsella Kindle Edition

10. 8 days in the top 100 Zero Day › David Baldacci Kindle Edition

› See all Best Sellers in Kindle Books

Best Sellers Kindle Store : All Kindle Content Updated hourly

1. 94 days in the top 100 The Mill River Recluse › Darcie Chan Kindle Edition

2. 1 day in the top 100 A History of the World in 6 Glasses › Tom Standage Kindle Edition

3. 71 days in the top 100 The Abbey › Chris Culver Kindle Edition

4. 19 days in the top 100 Steve Jobs › Walter Isaacson Kindle Edition

5. 28 days in the top 100 The Best of Me › Nicholas Sparks Kindle Edition

6. 16 days in the top 100 Last Breath Michael Prescott Kindle Edition

7. 47 days in the top 100 WIRED › Douglas E. Richards Kindle Edition

8. 2 days in the top 100 Fun and Games › Duane Swierczynski Kindle Edition

9. 59 days in the top 100 Can You Keep a Secret? › Sophie Kinsella Kindle Edition

10. 4 days in the top 100 Zero Day › David Baldacci Kindle Edition

Book Review: “Heart of Evil” by Heather Graham

http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Evil-Krewe-Hunters-ebook/dp/B004Z2I3SK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1319132586&sr=8-3

Heart of Evil

Synopsis from Amazon.com:

Emerging from the bayou like an apparition, Donegal Plantation is known for its unsurpassed dining, captivating atmosphere, haunting legends…and now a corpse swinging from the marble angel that marks its cemetery’s most majestic vault. A corpse discovered in nearly the same situation as that of Marshall Donegal, the patriarch killed in a skirmish just before the Civil War.

Desperate for help traditional criminologists could never provide, plantation heiress Ashley Donegal turns to an elite team of paranormal investigators who blend hard forensics with rare—often inexplicable—intuition. Among the “Krewe of Hunters” is an old ï ¬ ‚ ame, Jake Mallory, a gifted musician with talent stretching far beyond the realm of the physical, and a few dark ghosts of his own.

The evil the team unveils has the power to shake the plantation to its very core. Jake and Ashley are forced to risk everything to unravel secrets that will not stay buried—even in death.…

My Review:

Heather Graham is fast becoming one of my favorite writers. If you love mystical mysteries, then “Heart of Evil” is for you.

Heather manages to take us to Donegal Plantation in both form and fiction. You feel as if you are there, walking the grounds with the characters, that it in and of itself becomes a live character. The people Heather creates are fully human, that is, they have foibles just as you and I do yet are capable of carrying out their duties. The theme that Heather uses is widely seen in this effort, a ghost controlling humans, taking advantage of a decades (century’s?) old vendetta from one family against another. Even though we’ve seen this in the trilogy before, it’s still refreshing to see.

Back at the Biz Blog

After a few weeks of changes, I’m back at the Lione Services biz blog.

 

I moved three whole blocks to a bigger, cheaper apartment in downtown Seattle. I’ve got a real bedroom now, rather than a one-room studio apartment. I’ve unpacked, arranged and admired the apartment, view and ambiance. I was ready to write!

 

Then I had massive and major computer issues with my trusty old TC1100 and Nokia communicator. Sudden reboots, lagging issues and so on.  I knew it was time to replace and upgrade. After a fortunate series of events, i was able to buy a new tablet and phone! Now i’ve got an Asus Transformer and a Samsung Exhibit and have joined the 21st century, tech-wise.

I’ll be posting several book reviews this week to make up for the lack of posts.

In other news, i’ve started writing two new series!  Book one of “The Rose Petal Wine Murder Mysteries” is being professionall edited after I re-wrote parts of it.I’ll be uploading the new, revised book to Smashwords, hopefully before Christmas, complete with new book cover!  Book two is  in the ‘creative phase’ at the moment.

 

So, without further ado

Top Ten EBooks from Yesterday and Today Week Ending September 30, 2011

Top 10 EBooks last 7 days via www.Gutenberg.org:

1. The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana (6427)
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (4232)
3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (3835)
4. Eve’s Diary, Complete by Mark Twain (3514)
5. How to Analyze People on Sight by Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict (3418)
6. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (3285)
7. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (3118)
8. Beowulf (3032)
9. Ulysses by James Joyce (2518)
10. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (2440)

TOP 10 EBooks Last 7 days via www.Amazon.com:

	1. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 1 day in the top 100 Breakfast of Champions (Kurt Vonnegut series) ›Kurt Vonnegut Kindle Edition $0.99
	2. 65 days in the top 100 The Affair: A Reacher Novel (Jack Reacher) ›Lee Child Kindle Edition $13.99
	3. 73 days in the top 100 The Mill River Recluse ›Darcie Chan Kindle Edition $0.99
	4. Ranking has gone down in the past 24 hours 30 days in the top 100 The Saint (Kindle Single) ›Oliver Broudy Kindle Edition $1.99
	5. 51 days in the top 100 The Abbey ›Chris Culver Kindle Edition $0.99
	6. 668 days in the top 100 The Help ›Kathryn Stockett Kindle Edition $9.99
	7. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 79 days in the top 100 The Hunger Games Trilogy ›Suzanne Collins Kindle Edition $17.85
	8. Ranking has gone down in the past 24 hours 4 days in the top 100 Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed… ›Martin Dugard … Kindle Edition $12.99
	9. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 27 days in the top 100 Chasing Amanda ›Melissa Foster Kindle Edition $0.99
	10. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 504 days in the top 100 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins Kindle Edition $4.69

Monday Book Review: “Fire Sale” By Sara Paretsky

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/045121899X/ref=sib_dp_pop_bc?ie=UTF8&p=S0BW#reader-link

Amazon Synopsis:

From Publishers Weekly

Private eye V.I. Warshawski takes a break from tony Lakeview to fill in for her old high school basketball coach on Chicago’s South Side in her 12th adventure. Vic starts her volunteer stint looking for a team sponsor at megadiscount store By-Smart, whose founder, Buffalo Bill Bysen, is a fellow alum. Of all Bysen’s cutthroat, cost-cutting family, only idealist 19-year-old Billy shows any interest in helping the team. When he disappears, his frustrated father hires Vic to find him. The mother of a high school basketball player also hires Vic to investigate sabotage at the flag factory where she works—an investigation cut short when the factory blows up before Vic’s eyes. Things go no better at school or at home, and clues pile on but they don’t add up. Vic takes her lumps as she makes her way from a fundamentalist church, where the pastor goes to extremes for his flock, to the city dump, where villains try to bury their secrets.

My review:

While reading about V.I. Warshawski, I could not help comparing her with Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone.  While both are fully realized characters, with foibles alike, Warshawski comes across as a tad more than super-human.  She takes direct gunshots, shuns off beatings and escapes billowing flames and speared by falling debris, kidnapped in a conveyor belted freezing semi.  She just shakes it off with only minor complaints then continues on her investigation, doggedly all the way.  It’s a bit of a turnoff and completely unrealistic that this woman would still be able to function after just one of these ‘mishaps’, let alone four or five in a row.

The storyline itself is a bit over-crowded.  ”Fire Sale” really could have been broken into two separate Novels. The reader is left a bit confused with all the running around and two or three different parallel storylines.  Luckily Paretsky doesn’t have her protagonist jumping between plots every other page.  Then there is Warshawski’s love life, equally as unbelievable as her super-human feats. She has two..no, is it three?…men after her at the same time.  Where does she find the time to investigate? And where are these men with such virulent patience in the real world?

Still, the plot is exciting with non-stop action and the characters entertaining to read.  There are the minor characters, such as the foreign war correspondent who is super-human herself, all the while being a superslut after Warshawski’s man. She gets almost skinned alive in the said conveyor belt freezer semi. She lives, of course.

Would that we all could be super-humans.

Top Ten EBooks from Yesterday and Today Week Ending September 23, 2011

Top 10 EBooks last 7 days from www.Gutenberg.org:

1. The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana (6760)
2. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (4379)
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (3906)
4. How to Analyze People on Sight by Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict (3588)
5. Beowulf (3145)
6. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (3134)
7. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (3058)
8. The Best American Humorous Short Stories (2617)
9. Ulysses by James Joyce (2549)
10. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (2516)

TOP TEN EBOOKS LAST 7 DAYS FROM WWW. AMAZON.COM:

	1. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 2 days in the top 100 Pig Island Mo Hayder (Author) Kindle Edition $4.80
	2. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 63 days in the top 100 The Mill River Recluse Darcie Chan (Author) Kindle Edition $0.99
	3. Ranking has gone down in the past 24 hours 658 days in the top 100 The Help Kathryn Stockett (Author) Kindle Edition $9.99
	4. 41 days in the top 100 The Abbey Chris Culver (Author) Kindle Edition $0.99
	5. Ranking has gone down in the past 24 hours 3 days in the top 100 House Rules: A Joe DeMarco Thriller Mike Lawson (Author) Kindle Edition $4.62
	6. Ranking has gone down in the past 24 hours 41 days in the top 100 BLIND FAITH CJ Lyons (Author) Kindle Edition $0.99
	7. Ranking has gone down in the past 24 hours 20 days in the top 100 The Black Ice (Harry Bosch) Michael Connelly (Author) Kindle Edition $1.99
	8. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 494 days in the top 100 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins (Author) Kindle Edition $4.69
	9. Ranking has gone down in the past 24 hours 37 days in the top 100 Kill Me If You Can James Patterson (Author) … Kindle Edition $12.99
	10. Ranking has gone up in the past 24 hours 2 days in the top 100 Lying (Kindle Single) Sam Harris (Author) … Kindle Edition $1.99

Bonus Book Review: Forbidden Mind by Kimberly Kinrade

http://www.amazon.com/Forbidden-Mind-1-ebook/dp/B005LSDIYG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1316529364&sr=1-1

Amazon Synopsis: Sam thinks she’s months away from freedom. After spending her life in a secret school, rented out to the rich and powerful as a paranormal spy, she is ready to head to college like any normal eighteen-year-old.

Only Sam isn’t normal. She reads minds. And just before her big going-away party, she links to the mind of a young man who changes everything.

Drake wasn’t raised as a ‘Rent-A-Kid.’ He was kidnapped and taken there by force. But his exceptional physical strength and powers of mind control make him very dangerous, especially to Sam.

When they meet, Sam is forced to face the truth of her situation, and to acknowledge that not all is as it seems in her picture-perfect world. For what awaits her on her eighteenth birthday isn’t a trip to college, but an unexpected nightmare from which she may not be able to escape.

To survive, they must work together.

But will their powers be enough to save them before it’s too late?

My Review:

AN ARTFUL AND SUSPENSE-RIDDEN TALE!

Usually YA (Young Adult) fiction isn’t on my list of must-go-to books to read but this week I’ve read and reviewed two (See Next Monday’s Book Review). Kimberly’s book, “Forbidden Mind”, is the other. Once I started reading, I had to finish to find out what happens to Sam, an otherwise wholesome teenager, coming of age, in an “X-Men” type of institution.  How do young teens come of age with special, extraordinary powers?  Kimberly manages to create a world and characters where both exist simultaneously and marvelously, at that.

If teenagers feel different and out of the loop with their peers, they are surely to identify with Sam, the twins and the rest. They will see themselves as the smacktalking but for a good cause that Sam finds herself in at the beginning of the Novel. They’ll see the house/estate rules that forbid contact with the outside world in their parents’ home (because I said so, you’ll do as I say, etc) that teens, as angst-ridden as they are, will be nodding in accordance.

“Forbidden Mind” is somewhere between “Romeo and Juliet” and “Paradise Lost”, where a heart-breaking ending is but a new beginning.