Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
Rescuing Retirement is an interesting and important book. Millions of older Americans are living in poverty or close to it. Our retirement system is broken. And we should and can fix it. This book is about how we do that.
The full title is Rescuing Retirement: A Plan to Guarantee Retirement Security for All Americans by Tony James and Teresa Ghilarducci.
Continue reading “Rescuing Retirement: Guarantee Retirement Security”
I enjoy reading on my Kindle and occasionally use the Kindle app on my iPhone. I am currently using the Kindle Fire HDX but have used other Kindles in the past. So what I have to say is specifically about the Kindle HDX but also seems to apply to other Kindles.
I do like the feel of a real book but reading on the Kindle does have quite a few advantages and, as I see it, one big disadvantage. I like being able to quickly access the internet to look-up some thing i am not familiar with. I like being able to search the book I am reading when I run across something and want to refresh my memory on something related that I think I read but am a bit fuzzy on the details.
The big disadvantage Continue reading “Kindle vs Kindle App for iPad”
Open Road Integrated Media is a different type of book publisher. They specialize in ebooks and partner with many publishers to produce and market ebooks.
Perhaps in honor of St Patrick Day which is coming up in a few week (or perhaps this is just coincidence), they are having a sale on Irish crime novels.
I have read, enjoyed, and reviewed several mysteries published as ebooks by Open Road Media so I think this is worth a look. While there you might want to look around the website.
The Irish crime novels on sale are on the page http://www.openroadmedia.com/irishcrime?
I read Fighting for the Press: The Inside Story of the Pentagon Papers and Other Battles by James Goodale for several reasons. First there was a radio interview with the author on Radio Times and I listened to the podcast. It I found it very interesting and wanted to buy the book as soon as I could.
Second, I was in college at the time of the Pentagon Papers battles and it was interesting to re-visit this history and learn more about it. And third, this battle over the publication of the Pentagon Papers by the New York Times and other papers during the Vietnam War is very relevant to the freedom of the press disputes today.
James Goodale was the New York Times general counsel at a time when the Pentagon Papers were leaked to the NY Times. The Pentagon Papers was classified Top Secret, although that classification now seems excessive. After internal discussions at the Times, the paper battled Richard Nixon’s Department of Justice for the right to publish and won.
Why was this so important? The Pentagon Papers were a history of our involvement in Vietnam prepared for the government and classified ‘Top Secret’. Thousands of young men were being killed in the Vietnam War and the country was being torn apart with political protests, bombings, etc.
The Pentagon Papers showed that the case the government made for going to war was a pack of lies. These papers were leaked (stolen secrets) and the New York Times wanted to publish and, of course, the Nixon administration wanted to keep the secrets away from the public. It was a great story and is told well in this book.
So this is an insider’s story of what may have been the most important case on First Amendment and freedom of the press. I was expecting the book to be dry and legalistic in parts or even much of the story. I was surprised and pleased and it was not. Although this is a true story, it reads more like a legal thriller and kept me reading.
Most of the book discusses The Pentagon Papers case and other cases related to Richard Nixon’s war on the free press. The last few chapters move us into the present. And there is an extensive set of references. The G.W. Bush and Obama administrations have not been good for ‘freedom of the press‘ issues.
So who would I recommend read this? First, there are journalists and lawyers. Although I must repeat again the book is not at all bogged down by any technical aspects of the law or journalism that would detract from the experience of the general reader. Then anyone with an interest in the time period or freedom of the press issues. I find this last particularly important today since the balance of security, surveillance, privacy, and press freedom is so essential to our society,
Looking at the Amazon page, there are both Kindle and Paperback Editions and the Kindle version is much less than the paperback. I went with the Kindle edition since it was much cheaper and delivery was almost immediate.
Dick Eastman in his Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter has posted an article called How to Create EPUB Files for use in eBooks.
Since an EPUB has many advantages over the the PDF or even paper copies may be using now, you might want to consider it. The article goes into these advantages. But perhaps more importantly, it tells you how you can do this for free or with other paid options if you prefer that route.
Normally this article is available to customers of the paid version of the newsletter but this article is offered as free EPUB download to all who read the shorter version in the free newsletter online.
I read the article last night on my iPhone with the free Bluefire Reader app.
First, I requested this advanced reading copy for review since the write-up on Netgalley sounded like it might be interesting but I wasn’t sure about that.
So I was approved and downloaded the galley to my Kindle. I started reading Doors and was instantly hooked. I am pretty sure this is the only book from Netgalley that I read entirely the same day that I downloaded. It was that good.
The story is a mix of mystery, fantasy, and science fiction with a good bit of psychology and a police chase. But if it was described that way, I wouldn’t have read it. Somehow Daniel Brako puts it all together in a thrilling package that keeps you reading.
Since my first description did not seem very interesting let’s try this:
Imagine you are a psychologist trying to help a patient who sees Doors that no one else sees and these Doors lead to other worlds. While trying to cure this delusion, you begin to see the Doors and go through them. Soon you are a murder suspect. And you need to clear yourself and save those you love.
It is not a very long book – 162 pages in paperback according to Amazon – but it is a good book. Read and enjoy Doors by Daniel Brako.
The Penguin Pool Murder by Stuart Palmer is an oldie but goodie. This book was made into a movie in 1932 so it has obviously been around for a few years. And I would guess that there have been many reprints.
This incarnation is digital. I have placed a link to and picture of the Kindle edition to the left but if you look around you can probably find other formats. Maybe even an older edition in physical book form. Or if you follow my Amazon link to the Kindle edition, you can find a DVD of the movie.
The story itself was entertaining and an easy read. I’ve not seen the movie.
It opens in a New York aquarium (near the penguin pool , of course) with a small mystery of a purse snatcher and a teacher taking her class of third graders on an outing. And there is a hunt for the teacher’s missing hat pin. The first few pages did not seem very promising to me.
But a murder is quickly discovered. The teacher, Miss Hildegarde Withers, gets involved in the murder investigation. And the story gets interesting. So don’t give up too quickly.
Enjoy the story. It moves quickly. The case quickly becomes more complicated as the third grade teacher and the detective find many people with motive to kill the victim and many suspicious actions.
I was surprised at least twice near the end. You may be too but in any case you’ll have an enjoyable read along the way.
We have so much information available but we need to learn how to use it wisely. Herbert E. Meyer takes you through the steps that are needed to turn the raw information into useful knowledge in his e-book – How to Analyze Information: A Step-by-Step Guide to Life’s Most Vital Skill.
This is more of an extended essay than a book. Amazon estimates it as 21 pages on the Kindle. My e-reader estimates it as 19 pages. For sure, it is not very long but it covers an import issue and does it well.
My picture of the book is a link for the Kindle edition. The book is also available as an e-book in iBook, Nook format and presumably other formats as well. As far as I can tell it is an e-book only. The ones I have seen are fairly inexpensive. ($1.99 seems to be the usual price.)
Herbert E. Meyer has an impressive resume as a thinker, analyzer of data, writer, and speaker. You may wish to look at the page of his publisher Storm King Press to see a summary of his accomplishments.
I found it an easy to read guide to this intellectual process – concise and well-written with wonderful examples to illustrate each step in the process to going from information to knowledge to using that knowledge.
I had previously written about the Bluefire Reader e-reader on my iPhone so I thought I should also tell you about the Kindle App on the iPhone 5.
I have a Kindle which is several years old and really like it. I often use it to read the books I review on this website. More about that in my Bluefire link above.
The iPhone 5 screen is bigger that the old iPhones so that might make a difference in the experience but I suspect it would not make all that much difference. Any iPhone screen would be much smaller than a Kindle.
So if you are reading with similar size fonts the main difference is that there is less on each page. On the Kindle you have buttons to advance the page, but the app changes the page when you touch with screen at the side. Or you can also use the swiping action if you like that.
With the Kindle you have a bunch of buttons available to do various things but with the app those functions are hidden most of the time but reveal themselves when you touch the top or bottom of the screen. I haven’t checked to see if all functions on the Kindle are also on the app but those I use are there.
My Kindle is Wi-Fi only (no 3G) so if I am in the presence of Wi-Fi, the app and Kindle can synch so I can go back and forth between reading a book on one and then the other and my place carries over.
I usually read on the Kindle when at home. But the app is great if I am waiting somewhere and want to read my book for a while. I usually carry my phone when we go anywhere and carrying the Kindle around is not hard but now it is unnecessary.
I also use the app at home if my wife wants to use the Kindle so we don’t have to be a two Kindle family. Also sometimes I just use the app on my phone because I feel like it.
Note added:
I forgot to mention that the app is free from the Apple store. So if you have an iPhone and a Kindle account, you have nothing to lose by trying this. You’ll probably like it!
Why did I decide to read The White Cottage Mystery by Margery Allingham ?
I’ve been searching for information on the Allinghams and the name Margery Allingham frequently pops up. I had read she was a good mystery writer and I was a bit curious. Lately, I’ve been gravitating toward mysteries.
Why search for Allinghams? I do some genealogy and my great great grandmother was an Allingham.
So I thought that one of these days when I was at the library, I’d look up one of her books. I usually have a bunch of books waiting for me so that day was probably pretty far off. I often review current books and many of these are Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs). I get them as e-books from Netgalley.
Then about a month ago, I was browsing Netgalley to see if anything of interest was available. And to my surprise I ran across The White Cottage Mystery by Margery Allingham. It had been republished as an e-book by Bloomsbury about a year ago. The publicist at Bloomsbury was kind enough to approve me anyway. So my thanks to both Netgalley and that publicist.
So since this is supposed to be a book review and you’ve put up with my ramblings for so long, I should tell you right off that I liked the book. From what I’ve read, it seems this was her first mystery and at the time (1920s) it was published as a newspaper serial and much later edited into a short book.
But my thought was that if I was going to read Margery Allingham, I might as well begin at the beginning. It is a good mystery. It very quickly gets down to a murder and a suspect. But then there are too many suspects, each with a good reason to kill the victim, but none apparently did. I completely enjoyed this one and plan read more of her work.
You may have noticed that in some of the posts on this site I review books I have read recently. Quite a few of these are e-books from Netgalley, service that allows book publishers to make their Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) available electronically for book reviewers, book sellers, librarians, and so forth.
I usually request copies compatible with my Kindle. However a few weeks ago I had requested book and was approved but sadly there was not a Kindle option. The available option was the Adobe Digital Editions which does a fine job but my only experience with it was reading a book on a laptop computer. It works but it is a bit inconvenient to fire up the old laptop and actually keep it in your lap as you read. A bit big and clunky for me.
I had read Kindle books on my iPhone with the Kindle App on the iPhone and liked it so I looked for something that could read Adobe Digital Editions files on the iPhone. I found Bluefire Reader, which was highly rated e-reader in the Apple store. So I installed it and gave it a try.
Since I already had Adobe Digital Editions on my main computer and laptop, I already had an account and just had to authorize another device (Bluefire Reader), download the book, and I was set.
Bluefire Reader was easy to use and did a great job in allowing me to read on my phone. Bluefire Reader is a wonderful e-reader for the iPhone.
Sine I have found myself posting about computer, software, and technology in general as I go about writing about genealogy, books, or other issues, I am adding a tech category to cross reference those posts. I’ll go back and add that category as appropriate. I guess, it is appropriate too that I have written this first post in the tech category with my Chromebook.
This is from a series of low cost ebooks put out by mysteriouspress.com. This series called Bibliomystery are short mysteries that have to do with books or bookstores.
This is the second of this series that I’ve tried and I liked this. They are low cost and short so they are a good way to sample a writer and see if you like him or her without committing much of your time or money to the trial read. For example, Amazon estimates this story is the equivalent of about 25 pages and the cost is about two dollars.
I reviewed my first exposure to this series about 2 months back . I liked the book and decided to try another sometime soon.
So when a chance came up to try “The Book Thing” by Laura Lippman, I signed up via NetGalley. Pretty soon the book was on my Kindle and I was reading. The story involves Tess Monaghan, a PI from Baltimore who features in a series of mystery novels by Laura Lippman.
Tess volunteers to solve some mysterious thefts in a neighborhood bookstore. The mystery is certainly not one of the life-and-death variety but it is interesting. I enjoyed the story and the author’s way of telling it.
Along the way you get to hear a bit about Baltimore and its neighborhoods, bookstores and their importance, the important role books play in our lives, how parents can give their children a love of books and reading, and more. Not the least of these is The Book Thing of Baltimore.
If you do like this story, you may also be interested in many of the other novels by this author which reasonably priced in the Kindle store. By the way, if you are not a Kindle reader, other formats are available through the mysteriouspress.com link in the first sentence of this review.
Brooklyn Bones begins with an incident any parent can relate to. A teenage daughter calls about something terrible and, of course, it is all your fault. The terrible thing gets your attention and then the story slows down a little but definitely keeps your attention as the main characters are fleshed-out.
Then the action speeds up and never stops until the end. The book is Brooklyn Bones and the author is Triss Stein. This book is the first in a series featuring Erica Donato. Continue reading “Brooklyn Bones by Triss Stein”
I am looking for a short diversion and I read about this short story that seems to fit. I always enjoyed the television shows and movies featuring Lieutenant Columbo and along comes a short story with Lieutenant Columbo.
This could be good, I think. But then again maybe not. I also enjoy Conan-Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and some of the newer stories featuring this fictional detective are quite good. Some are disappointing.
So I take a chance. A short story is not much of a gamble anyway – either in terms of wasting time or cost.
And I’m glad I did take that chance. Turned out to be a great story. Plans for that perfect crime. And the case is assigned to the bumbling Lieutenant Columbo. And of course the perfect crime becomes the imperfect crime as Columbo solves it.
I totally enjoyed it. I suspect those who are not familiar with the character would also like it but perhaps not quite as much. In either case it is well worth the small investment to find out if this is your type of story.
This story is one a series of mysteries offered as low cost ebooks. You might want to check several of them out.
Today I found a comment on my review of Harmattan by Gavin Weston with a notation that the commenter had reviewed this book on her blog and liked it as well. So since it had been a while since I reviewed the book and there were few other reviews then, I thought I would give an update with a list of reviews. By the way, I liked the book very much and thought the message very important.
First, for the latest information on the book, you might want to visit the author’s website, http://www.gavinwestonbooks.com/. On another site is also a guest blog by Gavin Weston about why he wrote this book.
I looked at Amazon and saw the Kindle edition is out (and only $5.99 when I looked) but the paperback won’t be released in the US until June, 2013. It is already out in the UK. So your options in the US appear to be buy the Kindle version or pre-order the paperback (or just wait). Or I guess you could buy from a non-US store and have it shipped.
That link is to the Kindle edition but you can easy move to the print edition if that is your preference.
So here are a few reviews I found:
All the reviews I’ve seen are favorable. I would say almost all reviewers think this is a very good book and/or highly recommend it. So at least now I know it is just not me. I hope Mr. Weston continues to write.