Thursday, March 31st

“Comedy Writing Secrets” by Mel Helitzer
Price: $1.99 / Lending enabled
There are lots of simple things you can do to make your jokes funnier — wag your eyebrows, play a slide whistle, add your own spit take — but if you want a more academic approach to humor, who am I to stop you? Here you go. Read the first chapter online.

Tuesday, March 29th

“Skipped Parts” by Tim Sandlin
Price: $0.00
Thirteen-year-old Sam Callahan, a South Carolinan, finds himself trapped with his boozy mom in Wyoming. He meets a local girl, Maurey, who wants to lose her virginity. That works out too well and Maurey becomes pregnant, and the hypocrisies of the adults around them are comically exposed as they all deal with the consequences. Has a 4.8 out of 5 rating with 45 reviews so far. Read the first chapter online.

Monday, March 28th

“Dead or Alive” by William Harms
Price: $0.99 / Lending enabled
In 1889 Arizona, two brothers rob a stagecoach and hide out in an isolated desert town, only to find it quickly overrun with the undead. Basically, imagine Red Dead Redemption’s zombie expansion in pulp novel form. Read the first chapter online.

Tuesday, March 22nd

“The View from Here” by Rachel Howzell
Price: $0.99 / Lending enabled
“Nicole Baxter has always tried to control every element of her life, but that control is slipping away. She has issues. Abandonment issues. Marital issues. Conception issues. And she thinks her house in the hills is haunted. Her life changes on the afternoon she receives a phone call from the harbor. During a scuba dive, her husband Truman disappears. No one — not his diving instructor, not the Coast Guard — can find him. Is he still alive? Or is grief making her believe the impossible?” Read the first chapter online.

Monday, March 21st

“Greatest Knight” by Elizabeth Chadwick
Price: $0.99
After saving Queen Eleanor from an attack, real life hero William Marshal is taken prisoner, rescued, and sworn into Her Majesty’s service. This historical fiction dramatizes Marshal’s career with the royal family in 12th century England, as power struggles for the crown tests his allegiance to both Eleanor’s husband Henry III and Henry’s brother, Richard the Lionheart. Read the first chapter online.

Thursday, March 17th

“Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith” Parts 1 – 6 by John Jackson Miller
Price: $0.00
This ongoing series of short stories describe a secret Sith society that has lived in isolation from the Star Wars galaxy for five thousand years. There are now six installments, all free, with a seventh scheduled for July 2011. They’re also available as free PDFs.

Wednesday, March 16th

“Boob Tube” by Lesleyann and Mark Coker
Price: $0.00
“Actress Gina Martin lands a role on a top daytime television soap opera, and days later her predecessor is found dead in the Hollywood hills. Will Gina be next?” Co-written by former Soap Opera Weekly reporter Lesleyann Coker, and Smashwords founder Mark Coker. Read the first chapter online.

Tuesday, March 15th

“The Nimrod” by Mark Kelliher
Price: $0.99
“At 31 and with a college degree, Gary Sloane has decided to take the road less traveled — one that has ultimately left him living with his crazy Aunt Muriel in the backwater of Puzzleville, Cape Cod, where he operates a no-name landscaping business that last year barely cleared $1,000. Muriel suspects Gary’s best career option at this point is national infamy, and further suspects that he’s done the dirty deeds to get there already. Because this road-less-traveled that Gary’s been stumbling along? It’s murder!” Read the first chapter online.

Monday, March 14th

“Julius Katz Mysteries” by Dave Zeltserman
Price: $0.99
Julius Katz, Boston’s most brilliant, eccentric and possibly laziest detective, first appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in 2009 and won the Shamus and Derringer awards. This Kindle edition collects that novelette with a second adventure, in which Katz must prove his computer-whiz sidekick Archie is innocent of murder. Read the first chapter online.

Wednesday, March 9th

“Hard Landing: The First Spider Shepherd Thriller” by Stephen Leather
Price: $0.65
“Former SAS trooper Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd is used to putting his life on the line. Working for an elite undercover squad he has lied, cheated and conned in order to bring Britain’s most wanted criminals to justice. But when a powerful drug baron starts to kill off witnesses to his crimes, Shepherd is given his most dangerous assignment yet. He has to go undercover in a top security prison, a world where one wrong move will mean certain death.” Read the first chapter online.

Tuesday, March 8th

“Transparent Lovers” by Scott Nicholson
Price: $0.99 / Lending enabled
Private investigator Richard Steele’s last case is also his most personal: he must solve his own murder. To find peace, he’ll have to fix the mess he left behind with his lover Lee, confront his dead ex-wife Diana, and figure out who put four bullets in his chest. A 22,000 word novella with a bonus short story. Read the first chapter online.

Monday, March 7th

“Laughs, Luck…and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time” by Jess and Gregg Oppenheimer
Price: $2.99 / Lending enabled
Jess Oppenheimer’s first job in Hollywood was as a gag writer for Fred Astaire; by the time he retired he had also worked with practically every other star of Hollywood’s Golden Age, invented the teleprompter, and created one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time, “I Love Lucy.” This memoir recounts his career, but focuses especially on the behind-the-scenes stories of “Lucy” and its stars. Read the first chapter online.

Thursday, March 3rd

“Then Came the Evening” by Brian Hart
Price: $1.80 / Lending enabled
After nearly two decades, Vietnam vet Bandy Dorner is released from prison and comes back home to a wife who’d once left him and an 18-year-old son he doesn’t know. This gritty family drama, a first novel, has been praised by pretty much every mainstream publication for its gripping bare bones style, with comparisons made to Cormac McCarthy, Sam Shephard, and modern day Westerns. Amazon reviewers are more mixed, with some saying it’s too dark. Read the first chapter online.

Wednesday, March 2nd

“You Can’t Stop Me” by Max Allan Collins
Price: $0.00 / Lending enabled
John Harrow, former field agent and now the host of a reality show similar to “America’s Most Wanted,” has helped to bring dozens of criminals to justice — but not the man who killed his wife and son six years ago. Now someone with the same M.O. is killing women and children across the country, in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to get Harrow’s attention. For fans of TV shows like “Criminal Minds” and “NCIS.” Read the first chapter online.

Tuesday, March 1st

“October Girls: Crystal & Bone” by L.C. Glazebrook (Scott Nicholson)
Price: $0.99 / Lending enabled
Teenage witch Crystal and her best friend Bone, who happens to be dead, are worried about Halloween this year in their tiny Appalachian town. There’s a cute movie director visiting who might be trying to turn his audience into zombies, someone is messing with the potions Crystal’s mom brews, and Bone is feeling the pull of the afterlife. One reader calls this young adult novel a “trailer-trash Harry Potter,” ha ha. Read the first chapter online.

Monday, February 28th

“Shot of Tequila” by J.A. Konrath
Price: $0.99
Tequila Abernathy is framed for the theft of millions of dollars from his boss, a ruthless Chicago bookie. To clear his name, he’ll have to survive run-ins with the local Mafia, a hitman, and Detective Jacqueline Daniels. Readers say it’s action-packed, shocking and funny, “like a Tarantino movie.” Read the first chapter online.

Friday, February 25th

“Knitting For Dummies” by Pam Allen
Price: $0.99
This beginner’s guide covers the four basic moves every knitter uses, common mistakes to avoid, sample patterns that illustrate various techniques, and guided practice projects to get you started. Read the first chapter online.

Thursday, February 24th

“The Remains” by Vincent Zandri
Price: $0.99
As teenagers, twins Rebecca and Molly Underhill were abducted and held for three hours by a man who lived in the woods behind their house. They never told anyone of their ordeal. Thirty years later, Rebecca is mourning her sister’s death from cancer when she starts receiving disturbing text messages. The man from the woods is back, she realizes, and this time he wants her dead. Read the first chapter online.

Wednesday, February 23rd

“The Last Ring-bearer” by Kirill Yeskov
Price: $0.00
Special non-Amazon title. This English translation of an unauthorized retelling of “The Lord of the Rings” presents Gandalf as a war-mongerer, Elves as expansionist invaders, and Mordor as a symbol of technological progress in a world of the supernatural.

Tuesday, February 22nd

“Murder Passes the Buck : A Gertie Johnson Murder Mystery” by Deb Baker
Price: $0.99
When her neighbor is shot and killed in his hunting blind, sixty-six-year-old widow Gertie Johnson seizes the opportunity to move on with her life by investigating his death. Whether it’s interrogating neighbors, spying, or impersonating the FBI — not to mention staying one step ahead of her son the sherriff, who has ruled the death an accident — Gertie will do whatever it takes to solve the case, even when the killer takes aim at her. Read the first chapter online.

Monday, February 21st

“Admit One: My Life in Film” by Emmett James
Price: $0.00 expired
As a child in South London in the 1980s, Emmett James escapes his home life at the cinema, and soon decides the actor’s life is for him. In this memoir, James recounts his struggles to make it in Hollywood — he eventually lands a role in Cameron’s “Titanic” — and looks at how movies impact our own experiences. Read the first chapter online.

Friday, February 18th

“The Righteous” by Michael Wallace
Price: $0.99 / Lending enabled
Mormon and med student Jacob Christianson is sent by church elders to quietly investigate a murder in a polygamist enclave in Utah. He and his sister, who must choose a husband from among the group’s leaders, soon uncover a web of secret blood oaths, more murders, and a plan to overthrow church leadership. Read the first chapter online.

Thursday, February 17th

“The Master And Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov
Price: $0.99 expired
The devil shows up in 1930s Moscow and causes havoc, and one woman decides to strike a deal with him in order to find missing lover. This darkly satirical classic is one of the most beloved works of 20th century Russian literature. Read the first chapter online.

Wednesday, February 16th

“Hardly Knew Her” by Laura Lippman
Price: $0.99
Short crime stories about women, from the author of the Tess Monaghan mystery series. Booklist calls the collection top-rate with touches of Poe and Dorothy Parker: “Here scams and murders are not the desperate acts of Baltimore’s downtrodden but, rather, the calculated moves of soccer moms, real-estate-savvy suburbanites, and nihilistic teens and college students.” Read the first chapter online.

Tuesday, February 15th

“Instant MBA” by Nicholas Bate and “The Lazy Project Manager” by Peter Taylor
Price: Both $0.00
A double bill of business books. “Instant MBA” covers both classic business models and newer concepts like emotional intelligence and inspirational leadership. “The Lazy Project Manager” shows how to delegate and prioritize more efficiently.

Monday, February 14th

“Milrose Munce and the Plague of Toxic Fungus” by Douglas Anthony Cooper
Price: $0.99 / Lending enabled
In this second Milrose Munce volume, “nefarious and loathsome plants separate happy couples, either by devouring one party, or by turning the other party into something mossy and indigestible.” Read the first chapter online.

Friday, February 11th

“Milrose Munce and the Den of Professional Help (Extended Edition)” by Douglas Anthony Cooper
Price: $0.99 / Lending enabled
“Milrose Munce is still alive. Which is more than you can say for most of his friends. No, his friends died, some time ago, mostly in gruesome accidents in the school science lab.” This morbidly funny adventure series is praised by kids and adults, the expanded edition adds material cut by the publisher in the original U.S. release. Read the first chapter online.

Thursday, February 10th

“Afterlife” by Douglas Clegg
Price: $2.99 / Lending enabled
“In this tense gothic thriller, Julie Hutchinson is driven to the edge of sanity when a brutal murder ignites a series of dark, erotic psychic invasions at her home.” Publishers Weekly says the book is “guaranteed to unnerve readers” and that Clegg “manages to weave into his plot such grand ideas as reincarnation and psychic phenomena in a mere 272 pages.” Read the first chapter online.

Wednesday, February 9th

“The Force is Middling in this One” by Robert Kroese
Price: $2.99 expired
“What happens to a kid who isn’t quite good enough with the force to be a Jedi? What is it like to live in the worst city in the United States? If we aren’t allowed to test shampoo on monkeys, how will we ever know if our monkeys are clean?” These and other pressing questions are answered in this collection of essays from the author of Mercury Falls. Read the first chapter online.

Tuesday, February 8th

“Tales of the Dim Knight” by Adam & Andrea Graham
Price: $2.99 / Lending enabled
“What happens when the World’s biggest superhero fan gets superpowers? When Mild Mannered Janitor Dave Johnson discovers an alien symbiote that gives him untold powers, there’s only one thing to do. Put on a pair of tights and save the world. Follow Dave as he fights mobsters, aliens, and terrorists in a series of hilarious adventures.” Read the first chapter online.

Monday, February 7th

“Curious Folks Ask 2″ by Sherry Seethaler
Price: $0.00 expired
188 jargon-free answers to questions about the natural world — like how much does the earth weigh, and why do some people float while others sink? — sent in by readers of science writer Sherry Seethaler. Read the first chapter online.

Friday, February 4th

“The Lieutenant” by Kate Grenville
Price: $2.70 expired
In 1788, an introverted lieutenant and astronomer with Britain’s First Fleet sets out to Australia with a load of convicts. He builds an isolated observatory so that he can study the stars, then forges a deep connection with an Aboriginal girl that ultimately forces him to choose between duty and what’s right. Has a 4.5 star rating from 50 readers.

Thursday, February 3rd

“On The Gathering Storm” by Jason McIntyre
Price: $0.99 expired
At 29, Hannah Garretty is pursuing her lifelong dream of being a paid photographer. But in a curl of circumstance, she’s snatched from her bohemian life on the island and vanishes into a forest lair where unspeakable things have happened… and will continue to happen. Read the first chapter online.

Wednesday, February 2nd

“Old Town” by Lin Zhe
Price: $0.99 expired
Lin Zhe, one of China’s most prolific writers, paints an unforgettable picture of an ordinary family caught up in the maelstrom that was China’s most recent century. Her narrative ranges across the entire length of China, to California and back again, to the brutal “struggle” sessions of the Cultural Revolution. Read the first chapter online.

Tuesday, February 1st

“Least Wanted” by Debbi Mack
Price: $0.99 / Lending enabled
“Maryland lawyer Stephanie Ann ‘Sam’ McRae has two tough cases that quickly turn worse, when both clients are accused of murder. Her inquiries lead her to Washington, D.C.’s suburban ghettos, where she discovers an odd link between the two cases: the seamy world of girl gangs and computer pornography.” Read the first chapter online.

January 2011 >