Review and should you preorder - Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things

The book: Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things
Grade: A-
Why i Picked it up: A fellow Goodreads member mentioned that the NetGalley catalog had an excerpt of a different book that I am eagerly anticipating. The first story featured in the catalog was Ms. Voigt's captivating excerpt of Mister Max.

Why i Finished it:
Each chapter's title's in the eGalley looked interesting and I began to wonder how Max, a 12-year old who has misplaced his parents, would live independently with only his 'Grammie' (grandma) supporting. Soon enough, he is rewarded for locating a missing kid and that begins a career in detecting and not-so-incidentally in fixing his client's lives.
There is also an underlying mystery - where are his parents? Does his father's farewell letter have a second hidden message? When will he be reunited? And when he is, will that be a good thing?

Blurb:

Newbery medalist Cynthia Voigt is back with a rollicking mystery in three acts!

     Max's parents are missing. They are actors, and thus unpredictable, but sailing away, leaving Max with only a cryptic note, is unusual even for them. Did they intend to leave him behind? Have they been kidnapped? 

     Until he can figure it out, Max feels it's safer to keep a low profile. Hiding out is no problem for a child of the theater. Max has played many roles, he can be whoever he needs to be to blend in. But finding a job is tricky, no matter what costume he dons.

     Ironically, it turns out Max has a talent for finding things. He finds a runaway child, a stray dog, a missing heirloom, a lost love. . . . So is he a finder? A detective? No, it's more. Max finds a way to solve people's problems--he engineers better outcomes for them. He becomes Mister Max, Solutioneer.

     Now if only he could find a solution to his own problems . . .

Quote:

"So. They had sailed without him. His heart hit bottom. He had well and truly missed the boat. But what boat headed for what destination? And why had he been lied to about the time?"

Source: NetGalley
If you want a second opinion, here is another reviewer's thoughts
Finally, to help you decide, you can find the excerpt in the Buzz Books 2013: Fall/Winter collection published by NetGalley.

Teaser Tuesday #46: the first since my son's arrival!

Aaryan, Week 5

The last months of my pregnancy and My son's arrival derailed my memes on E-volving books. This is him in a rare snoozing session!

Now, back to the teaser game - Here's a teaser from Eric Flint's The Tide of Victory:

"But that order—and its consequences—remain mine to bear. No one else. Nor can I trade it against other consequences, as if ruthlessness was a commodity which can be exchanged in a village market"

You can read most of Eric's books for free here or buy them from Baen.
How does the publisher give so many books away for FREE you ask? See This post on Baen and their free library.

Giveaway - Win Two Kindles!

The author Jeremy Robinson will be writing a guest post on this blog in two days, as part of his October blog tour.
If you sign up for the newsletter, you get a chance to win one of two brand new kindles!

Free short stories - Sharon Lee and others

The wonderful Baen Publishing house has a really strong collection of short stories (about 6 so far) which is available in multiple formats. You can either read these online, or download a Kindle-friendly, html, palm, microsoft reader or other device's version.
They are all available FREE!
http://www.webscription.net/p-1387-free-short-stories-2011.aspx
The stories I'm planning to start off with is Tanya: Princess of the Elves by Larry Correia.

Oh, and Sharon Lee's new Liaden short story, currently available here, will also go into this collection by Monday next.
More about Baen and their philosophy of free here. 
Click here for a recent review of one of Sharon Lee's magical books, Carousel Tides.

Inkmesh: The Ebook search engine and FREE Ebook by Ilona

The best website I've seen all week is http://inkmesh.com/
Crisp, clear search engine, dedicated to books - could this get any better?
Well, perhaps if you added features like these filters: Free, Below $1,  Below $5.
This is the easiest place I've found to find free ebooks.

Other filter choices: Amazon, B&N, and other retailers.
Even better, you can search by book type: Kindle, Sony, Kobo and more.  Screenshot below!

What you see at Inkmesh.com

Did you notice the "Free Baen Books" option up there? If you haven't heard of Baen before - here is why you should get free ebooks from Baen.com
I've already found one free book; with my recent Ilona Andrews mania, what else would have been my first search?
If you want to skip all these steps and download The Questing Beast by Ilona Andrews, here it is!
http://inkmesh.com/ebooks/questing-beast-ilona-andrews-ebook/?pc=0&qs=ilona+andrews

A Roald Dahl look at new e-devices

The mid-week (or early-week!) blues got you?
This adorable graphic from Unshelved is a great pick-me-up. It references Matilda, by Roald Dahl and her e-reader experience (hint: not good)!
While I'm an ebook fan, I totally understand and GET her experience.

Linked here for the rest of the comic: http://www.unshelved.com/2011-3-4
The art is by Aaron Renier from www.aaronrenier.com

For Gentlemen Bastard fans

All you Gentlemen Bastards out there, I know it has been a long wait for the third installment in the Locke Lamora series by Scott Lynch! The publishing date has been pushed back form 2009 to Nov '11. However, we do have a 5000+ word uncorrected excerpt of The Republic of Thieves available at the Camorr site here exclusively.


If this series is new to you, my reviews are here:
Review of The Lies of Scott Lamora (#1)
Teaser from Red Seas under Red Skies (#2)
It's available for FREE - Go for it!

Giveaway: Free Book by S.P. Wish

I've been asked by the writing duo S.P. Wish to giveaway their latest book on my blog!

Mini Review:

This is a self-published novel, and the story revolves around a couple of young kids in school. I had minor issues with the lack of easy-flowing language and sentence structure in the story. I didn't finish the book as I kept getting jolted out of the decent storyline by the short sentences, lack of contractions and natural language.

I think this book would be better if it were edited by a natural-born English speaker, as it is now, it reads a little like someone's essay for a school magazine.

Grade: C

The Trailer:

Ebook Description:
When horror strikes, black roses are left behind........ A school camping trip leads quirky middle schooler Mizu, her smart brother Kaji, Akumu and Seiya to a strange mansion in the mysterious Greenfire forest. Mizu's best friend mysteriously disappears and reappears, Mizu finds old newspapers which are two hundred years old and many more strange things. Who is behind these mysterious happenings?

You can download it for free at the link below

 http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/30899

NetGalley and Scribd

I was recently introduced to NetGalley by a fellow Blogger on Twitter. She just happened to mention it, and I immediately turned to Google to get more info on it. Within minutes I created my personal account at NetGalley, and uploaded my review policy. It took me a couple of seconds to understand that perhaps I qualify as a "Professional Reviewer" - and it still makes me blush to say it!!

The other great site I will be linking to in a book giveaway next week, is Scribd. I was requested by an author to promote their currently free book on Scribd, and that giveaway is coming up on Monday.


I'm looking forward to getting a few ARCs and ebooks via NetGalley, and it is a party in my head right now - Free Books!! w00t!

Teaser Tuesday #22 - FREE BOOK - March Upcountry by David Weber

The David Weber and John Ringo series about Prince Roger and his army numbers highly amongst my favorite space / military fiction books. 
From Chapter 12 of the March Upcountry ebook:

"If, on the other hand, we do a steep reentry—which, by the way, is what we're planning—and run out of fuel, we'll just pancake."

"Oh."

I'm still reading Foucault's Pendulum, but March Upcountry is a welcome break while I struggle through the former! You can read this for FREE here at Baen Free Library or buy it at Amazon. Practically the entire series is available here, thanks to the generosity of its authors.To find out about Baen and its Free Book Philosophy, read this post.

Recent Popular Posts:

Oddest Title of the Year?

View some of the most beautiful libraries in the US

Mail me if you want to be featured as a Spotlight Blogger 

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Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading.

Book Blogger Hop #12 - Nov19-21

This is a weekly PARTY hosted by Jen at Crazy For Books. It's a chance to discover new blogs and to garner new readers for your blog as well. 

Thanks for visiting!

"Let's use this week's Hop to share what we are most thankful for and what our holiday traditions are!"

I'm Indian, and we have a HOST of holidays every year, depending on the flavor of your religion/credo. My family celebrates 'Ganesh Chaturthi' every year, honoring Ganesha, the fun-loving God of Wisdom, Luck and several other qualities. We have special food that we make on this day - rice cakes, sweet rice balls, sticky jaggery kadubus, coconut milk - it is Yum! Traditionally, Ganesha's idol is lowered into water at the end of the festival, but we choose to not pollute the water bodies. For us, it really is all about the food.

I am super thankful for a loving family, and for living in Bangalore, my favorite city!

With last week's Hop, I launched a new feature at e-Volving Books - featuring Bloggers with eReaders! I'll be posting a second interview later today too. Contact me if you would like to be featured - reading on a phone counts as e-reader! *wink*

Good posts:

Some of the most popular ebooks in the world (FREE!)
 Review of NYT Bestseller book - Towers of Midnight 

If you like it, do follow, and leave me a message about it. I will follow you back, and be a happy little commenter on your blog.

Book Blogger Hop #10: Nov 5-8th

This is a weekly PARTY hosted by Jen at Crazy For Books. It's a chance to discover new blogs and to garner new readers for your blog as well. 

This Week's Question:

"What are your feelings on losing followers? Have you ever stopped following a blog?"
I do get worried when I see the count of followers go down, and I'm still not sure what I could be doing wrong. I think the next contest I have, I probably shall not make it exclusively for followers - hopefully only folks that are interested in my blog follow.
There are several blogs I enjoy reading and commenting on. These bloggers are friends on Goodreads and on Twitter as well. With that level of interaction, I am never going to stop following! Remember, follow me, leave a note here, and I will follow back.
I have occasionally stopped following a blog, though just ones that stopped posting, usually.

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Coming up soon, my review of Towers of Midnight (this is why my posts this week are so few).
Recent Post - Get Free Books (Jane Austen, Sherlock Holmes and more)

Free Books - Jane Austen, Sherlock Holmes and Amazon

This is Free Book Friday for you!

Today, I found out that I won Four Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) from I Swim for Oceans. Exciting, but I wanted to pass on that feeling of a new, free, unexpected book on to my readers. (Aren't Unexpected FREE Surprises the best?!)

So I did some searching online, to find free books of authors you might be interested in reading:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Pride and Prejudice on the Sony Ebook Store  is $4.99. Not sure why, when everywhere else it is available for Free (copyright expired).

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

All day the wind had screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like untamed beasts in a cage.

Cool Beans: A Maya Davis Novel 

(Dee says: Sounded interesting)

 Everything seems to be going perfectly for Maya Davis: She has a great job at a coffee shop, gets along with her parents, and is happily single. That is until her best friend starts dating Maya’s high school sweetheart.

Kindle books can change price at any moment, so be sure to double check the price before one-clicking on the product page at Amazon. Books that are free in the US are generally at least $2 for international customers. In this case, try Project Gutenberg.

Even if you don't have a Kindle, download the ebook for Free and then read it using Calibre or Kindle for your Device. 
 

100+ Follower Giveaway - Ends Oct 15

Yay! It is that time again - A Contest and Giveaway!

This is INTERNATIONAL, open anywhere the great Book Depository Folks will ship.
If you live in India, I will ship a book of choice to you (as this is one of the rare countries that doesn't get Book Depo books).

The prize money/certificate is donated by BookQuoter from A Thousand Books with Quotes
www.bookquotes-bookquotes.blogspot.com
This is an award that she was going to gift me (being a super nice person) and I decided to gift it to my fellow bloggers (also being rather nice) - so enter to WIN! There is a decent chance that I will add an ebook prize if the entries get fairly large.

Contest Guidelines:
Must be a follower of this blog

How to Enter:

1. FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW 
2. Winner will ANY $15 Book Depository BOOK OF CHOICE
3. Contest is open to EVERYONE (international, shipping by Book Depository)
4. Contest ends October 15th

Extra Entries:

• +1 Tweet
• +1 Facebook link
• +1 Goodreads Update
  
• +2 Sidebar
• +2 Post
• +2 Add my blog to your Blog Roll

Free Story from Neil Gaiman

www.Tor.com is celebrating Zombie Week, and they have a host of stories available:

Tor.com is plus maggots and minus limbs this week as we turn our single, desiccated eye to the zombie phenomenon. You can keep track of all our zombie context here at the index , and be sure to check out Jason Heller's zombie playlist, Dave Palumbo onzombie art, John Joseph's Adams' round table, Paula R. Stiles on historical and literary zombies, and our caption contest , with a prize pack worth over $500. We're also serving up plenty of fiction and comics!

The story I'm talking about is the one by Neil Gaiman, originally published in Mojo: Conjure Stories_Warner Books, 2003. Its super creepy, and I was left with that feeling typical of Gaiman novels - the disorienting feeling that the world just twisted on its axis.
Bitter Grounds
You can read the entire 4-page story online for free!

Free Ebooks Download - Do you want some?

My last post on Ebooks for Beginners covered the reasons to read an ebook. My next post highlighted Baen publishing, one great resource to discover ebooks.
Today, I'd like to give you three free ebooks to read. Click any one of the below books for a free download.

1) Scott Adams
Click Below to Download the PDF:
God's Debris or from another source here
The Creator of Dilbert, Scott Adams, has this to say about his book -  "It's a religion/science book written by a cartoonist, using hypnosis techniques in the writing. It's a thought experiment. It's unlike anything you've ever read."

2) Paul Carr
Click Below to Download the PDF:
Bringing Nothing To The Party - True Confessions Of A New Media Whore
A TechCrunch writer, (http://www.paulcarr.com/columns/techcrunch) his ebook is free for download by the CCL. His website is http://www.paulcarr.com/
Quick Review - Paul has a quirky, self-deprecating style of humour that permeates this book. I hesitate to call this an autobiography as the book also gives you a timeline of how publishing and journalism has evolved. A good read.

3) Seth Godin
Click Below to download the PDF:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/files/what-matters-now-2.pdf
The EBook has over 70 ideas from 70 important thinkers - Tim O' Reilly, Ariana Huffington to name two. Seth's blog post on the free ebook, including the new updated Part 2 is here

All these PDFs are DRM free, and available for free download.
Finally, a shoutout to Cory Doctorow, the pioneer of Free.
Do follow me if you liked this post, I have several more planned along these lines!