Call me Gene (eBook edition)

The best thing about my job is that I now get paid for doing what I have always done – reading. All my life people have been handing me books saying “You have to read this.” And mostly I have ‘cause I love to read. Then I got into publishing and people started “handing me books” by mail and these days by email. How cool is that!

Last week a woman by the name of Celeste Bailey sent me an email telling me about her books on genetics: Call Me Gene. She even sent me a copy to read.

I have had special interest in genetics since the day I tried explaining hereditary traits to a very precocious seven year old.

She listened to my explanation very carefully. You could almost see the wheels turning in that little brain. After a moment she said. “Well, I think I have more of my Daddy’s genes than my Mommy's”. She was quiet for a moment and then added “But I’m not bald.”

Right then and there I decided that I should probably stick to reading and not try to be a teacher!

Fortunately, there are people in this world who are teachers. They seem to have a gift for making complex information simple and interesting! Celeste Bailey and her sister Lucy Eskeland are two of them.

Call Me Gene is quite literally fun! Yes, it is a kid’s book, aimed at 7th and 8th graders but I actually leaned a couple of things I didn’t know.

The graphics are great – simple, colorful and informative. By the time I was done, I had refreshed my knowledge about basic genetics, cell structure, cell reproduction, Mendel's heredity experiments, and dominant and recessive genes. The discussion on mutant genes and cloning was well written. You may or may not agree with their opinion about human cloning, but I do applaud them for at least addressing it.

This is a great book for anyone who is interested in genetics from the precocious seven year to her grandparents; and of course, her teachers.

Here’s the official stuff:

Call Me Gene-Third Edition is a science book describing the genetic code and the scientific advances in biotechnology. The book is appropriate for late elementary/middle-school students, either in the classroom or home school. The book is written in a narrative and easy-to-read approach. There are numerous colorful illustrations throughout the book.

Congratulations to British author Doris Lessing!

Yesterday, the Swedish Academy announced her award: The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2007 . She was sited as "that epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny."

I am not sure exaclty what all those words mean, but I do agree with the things about her skepticism and fire. This is a woman who has had an incredible life and career. It is worth a trip to the Doris Lessing site just to read her bio.

My first memory of her is from my college years; staying up half the night to finish The Golden Notebook . The Golden Notebook and Marilyn French's The Women's Room were practically required reading for young women of my generation. Unfortunately, neither of these books are currently in eBook format. But I digress. . .

The reason I am so delighted about ther winning the price is related to the story of the Jane Somers caper.

The short version is that in the eighties she wrote two books under the pseudonym, Jane Somers. Her long time publisher actually rejected them! She finally found a publisher (Knopf). The books were published and largely ignored by both the critics and the buying public. Bascially, they tanked.

She later exposed the hoax and said that she was trying to prove a point about the difficulty new authors have finding a publisher. She told the New York Times that ''I wanted to highlight that whole dreadful process in book publishing that 'nothing succeeds like success.' If the books had come out in my name, they would have sold a lot of copies and reviewers would have said, 'Oh, Doris Lessing, how wonderful.'"

That story makes her a star in book in spite of the fact that I sometimes find her writing to be a little hard to read. She will always have a special place in my library (and in my heart).

Check out her latest book – The Cleft.

Odd bits of publishing news this week

What about Oprah and her Book of the Month Pick? With Love in the Time of Cholera Oprah has picked (IMHO) a rather bad chick lit title. It is supposed to be literature when in fact it is a rather boring tale full of high drama and unrequited love.

OK, I confess -- I couldn’t make myself finish it. My analysis: a big bunch of romantic claptrap! And boring to boot. Really, any one of us could come up with at least a dozen more deserving books.

Author Jennifer Weiner, however, has the best has the best quote on the Oprah's pick:

An author who's won the Nobel Prize? Who's got a movie coming out next month? Who's already been an Oprah pick?. . . Seriously, what's the Girlfriend Of Us All going to choose next? The Bible?"

Speaking of Bibles Here is an interesting press release from the Green Press Initiative. They are announcing that Publisher Thomas Nelson will be shipping out a new Bible next week.

The hook? This is purportedly the first to be published entirely on on paper that has been recycled and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as coming from trees harvested according to environmentally sound practices.

Nice – but it makes me wonder if the Green Press Initiative has ever heard of eBooks.

The Most Creative Book Teaser Ever Author Kelly DiNardo has a new biography in the works: Gilded Lili, the story of striptease artist Lili St. Cyr. She invited her blog readers to create an ad for her. Here is the winning entry:

eBooks by Request for 10/10/07

Here are the eBooks you asked for last week -- we have a brand NEW way for you to tell us about the books you would like to see discounted. . . The new google eBooks About group -- visit the Discounts on Demand and tell us what you want to see discounted next week Use coupon code S2VJM9 at checkout for this weeks great discounts!

Anna's Story: A Journey of Hope eBook Edition by: Bush, Jenna Ana's life is a collection of bits and pieces of her past. Infected with HIV at birth, she's unaware of many details of her early childhood and barely remembers her mother. Living with her strict grandmother, she learns how to keep secrets. Jenna Bush tells of Ana's struggle to break free from the cycle of abuse, silence, and illness with passion and eloquence. But this is not just Ana's story. It is also the story of many children around the world who are marginalised, neglected and mistreated. More Info List Price : $14.95 Your price $11.51 (Using your 10% discount and $ .61 in eBook Reward points)

Men Made in America eBook Edition by: Wilson, Gayle The Men Made in America series features stories from all fifty states starring all-American cowboys, sailors, policemen, businessmen, ranchers and more! The first Men Made in America Mega-Bundle includes stories by popular Harlequin authors you know and love like Ferrarella, Greene, Herron, Stuart, Rosemoor and many others. More Info List Price : $39.60 Your price $30.27 (Using your 10% discount and $1.59 in eBook Reward points)

Fitness4x4: The Way of Dragan eBook Edition by: Radovic, Dragan This is a book that challenges conventional teachings on fitness and equips the reader with a totally new understanding of exercise. The book is not only a guide to reaching peak fitness; it also tackles the fundamental issues of lasting vitality and what it means to be healthy. Combining scientific principles with analogies, personal experience, and practical examples, 56-year-old Dragan takes the mystery out of his incredible fitness feats by explaining them in a straightforward manner. More Info List Price : $39.99 Your price $34.19 (Using your 10% discount and $1.80 in eBook Reward points)

Shoot Him If He Runs eBook Edition by: Woods, Stuart In the newest addition to the bestselling series, Stone Barrington and Holly Barker pursue a master spy and murderer in a tropical paradise where very little is as it seems. Teddy Fay, a rogue agent last seen escaping an imploding building in Iron Orchid, has been considered dead for some time now. But President Will Lee thinks Teddy may still be alive. More Info List Price : $25.95 Your price $19.97 (Using your 10% discount and $1.05 in eBook Reward points)

The Glass Castle: A Memoir eBook Edition by: Walls, Jeannette, The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. . . The Glass Castle is truly astonishing -- a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar, but loyal, family. Jeannette Walls has a story to tell, and tells it brilliantly, without an ounce of self-pity. More Info List Price : $9.99 Your price $7.69 (Using your 10% discount and $ .40 in eBook Reward points)

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eBook Readers - eBook hardware overview

Since the demise of my Illiad, I have been reading on my Palm TX and mulling over the idea of buying a new eBook Reader. Last week was a bonanza week for eBook news:

• Sony announced the PRS 505-SC; an upgraded version of the reader released earlier this year with more storage capacity and better speed.
• Rumors of the Amazon Kindle imminent release are everywhere with much speculation on when and how it will be released. Last week “Kindle Edition” started showing up on random books
• Bookeen delayed the release of their latest Cybook GEN3 offering until next month to add additional features.

Since I am an accountant at heart, I sat down and made a spreadsheet comparing these three eBooks. Decide to add my current Palm TX and a Treo (the Palm PDA smart phone) for kicks. After putting together a whole lot of info I realized that there are really only three things I truly care about (the rest are just fluff).

The Display – acuity and size

The Sony, Kindle and Cybook all have grey scale e-Ink screens which is notoriously fragile. The display is wonderful to read -- it really does look like paper and can be read even in the brightest sunlight. And yet, it is maddingly slow to refresh so that going from page to page requires a great deal of patience. And then there is the ongoing problem with ghosting (white shadow of the last page which lingers on). None of the e-Ink screens are backlit so you must always read in a relatively bright light.

The Palms use color TFT crystal displays and are backlit. Admittedly, they are a challenge to read in bright light, but you can take them to bed and read in the dark.

The e-Ink devices all have nice size screens more or less 5x7 which is the size of a regular book. The Palm TX screen is about 2 and by 3 which is adequate even if it is small. The Palm Smart Phone only has a 2x2 screen.

Available eBook formats and retailers

Sony is sticking to it’s proprietary format although it is still promising to add Adobe Digital Editions sometime “soon”. This means that you can only by new (as opposed to public domain) DRM protected books from the Sony Connect store. And no, publishers show no sign of letting go of DRM anytime soon. Which means that I wouldn’t even be able to read books from my own store.

The Kindle and Cybook both use the Mobipocket format. For the Kindle this makes sense, Amazon owns Mobipocket. Bookeen delayed the release of the Cybook specifically to add Adobe capability but no one knows if that is Digital Editions or the old fashion, basic PDF file. This gives me a wide range of retailer to pick from when I go to buy a book – I will of course be buying from eBooks About Everything.

The Palms read eReader and Mobipocket formats with ease, which also means I can buy books from a wide range of retailers including my own store.

Value for the Price

Value means the most bang for the buck, right? So if I spend money on a new reader, does the new device only read books or can I use it for something else? I want to be able to use any electronic device in a variety of ways – at the very least to read many types of documents.

All of these devices allow limited uses. You can read RTF and TXT documents on all of them. And they are all sorta useful in other ways. Being able to write is good; viewing pictures is highly desirable. Well, the e-Ink devices have a limited writing capacity but great screen clarity (and no color). The Palm has pretty good writing capabilities and let’s me see beautiful color photos. The Smart phone version even allows me to take them.

Finally, direct communication with the outside world is valuable. The Cybook, which only connects through a computer of some sort, gets and F in that regard. Purportedly the Kindle does allow you to connect to the internet in some fashion, but it is unclear if it is with the world at large or merely with the Amazon store. The Palms communicate freely; the cell phone model even lets you talk.

My conclusion – surprises even me!

Sony and Bookeen (Cybook) sure wants a lot of money for a pretty dumb machine. In the case of Sony the want $300 to read books that only they can provide. Bookeen wants the same or even more money but at least you get a choice about where to buy books.

The jury is out on the Kindle; much depends on the pricing. At a $100 price point it would be worth the investment just to be able to read anywhere, although I worry about the fragility of the screen.

The Palm Smart phones are probably the best value, but the small screen really does make them a “no go” for these old eyes.

Which leaves me with my Palm TX. I have already spent the $200, so I am not out another dime. And yes, the screen is a little small and hard to read in bright sunlight, but really, it works just fine. And I love reading in the dark! Better yet, I can use it to read and write email, browse the net and even create more spreadsheets. For the moment, I can’t come up with a compelling reason to change.

But what I find really fascinating is that I can’t come up with a compelling reason for anyone to buy one of new e-Ink readers. On every criterion except screen size a Palm wins hands down.

The Glass Castle -- eBooks edition

Reading this book was a bit like watching the proverbial train wreck. I am not sure how to convey the horror/fascination that I experienced while following Jeannette’s childhood journey.

In this brilliant memoir Walls tells the story of growing up with parent’s who are past-masters at the art of rationalization. One of the most poignant examples is when Rose Mary Walls, the mother, explains to her children that “being homeless is an adventure”.

There are many words to describe this memoir: sad, funny, wrenching, heartbreaking, quirky. None of these words, however, do justice to the emotional wallop the book delivers. The juxtaposition of dire poverty and huge dreams, of sheer chaos and near-comic situations make this a “can’t put it down” kind of tale.

Perhaps the most startling thing is that Walls obviously loves her parents, no matter how it worked out. She is seemingly free of bitterness and anger even though she has few (if any) illusions about her parents or her childhood.

The Glass Castle in this title refers to Jeanette’s father’s dream home; a transparent palace he promised to build for his family. It is also an apt metaphor for Jeannette’s view of her parent – distinctive, stunning and absolutely impractical.

In the end she managed to walk away with the best parts of both of her parents. And clearly sees that, yes, her childhood was horrific in some sort of way, but it was also filled with loyalty, great stories and much laughter. Her body was often hungry, but her imagination was nourished.

Out of her hardscrabble upbringing she emerged optimistic, creative and resilient. Not to mention that she is brilliant story teller. There is no mystery to why The Glass Castle has been on the New York Times best seller list for almost two years. I whole-heartedly recommended it!

Here is the publisher’s synopsis:

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly.

Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.

Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.

What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor.

Barnes & Noble, the Bible and the Law

First a Bible Story: the story of Richard Dorazio of White Plains, New York. Richard was sentenced to 30 days in jail Thursday after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor petty larceny charge. He admitted to City Court Judge JoAnnFriia that he had stolen a $14.01 Bible from the Barnes & Noble bookstore.

Ironically, he will have plenty of Bible reading time in the Westchester County Jail because “… the jail's clergy provides free bibles to any inmate who requests one”. B&N is hoping to give him the time to find Exodus and the Eighth Commandment that says “Thou shalt not steal.”

Barnes and Nobles doesn’t stop at protecting it’s physical property . . .

At Harvard, of all places, B&N is actively creating their own unique interpretation of intellectual property law. You see, the Harvard Co-op that they run along with the University has concluded that prices are their "intellectual property."

This is the culmination of an ongoing battle between the store and the students. Of course, the students are sick of paying inflated prices. So to get around that many of them started to do a little comparison shopping. They went into the Co-op and started copying down the book information -- including ISBN numbers and prices. Presumably they were planning to go online to find the cheapest possible copy of the required texts.

First the Co-op began kicking students out of the store for “for taking too many notes on pricing”. Outraged students and parents confronted the store asking for an explanation.

That’s when B&N upped the ante. They came up with the ridiculous notion that their pricing, when associated with the specific ISBN number of a given book, was protected under intellectual property laws. The argument is that since the ISBN number identifies the specific edition of a required text; and the pricing formula for the specific edition was devised by the B&N owned Co-op, it was de facto their intellectual property.

I suspect that this argument is the only real intellectual property to emerge in this dispute. But maybe I should check with my attorney.

In the telling of these stories I have come across a real dilemma -- is it worse to steal or to lie?

eBooks by Request 10-03-2007 - Save an extra 10%

Long life, society, prosperity, imagination and autism are the topics you picked this week. The mix is as interesting and as eclectic as you are! Remember you earn points for everytime you review a book. If there is a title you specifically want to see discounted go to our NEW google group and post to the Discounts on Demand section. Tell us about the book you would like to see discounted: it's as easy as giving us the Title and Author. Use this weeks coupon code S1GXQ1 at check out to get your 10% discount.

Ultralongevity: The Seven-Step Program for a Younger, Healthier You eBook Edition by: Liponis, Mark Dr Liponis shows that aging and aging-related diseases---including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes---are autoimmune problems, and that a well-managed immune system is the key to healthy aging.Cutting-edge research makes this the first and only book to explore aging within the context of the immune system --it will change the way we look at health forever. More Info List Price : 17.99 Your price $15.38 (Using your 10% discount and $ .81 in eBook Reward points)

The Vixen Diaries eBook edition by Steffans, Karrine This titillating expose chronicles the personal and professional adventures of this tabloid-laden socialite, dispelling some rumors, while confirming others. Diaries unveils the heavily shrouded Hollywood backrooms and its coveted secrets. Offering her ardent fans answers to burning questions and presenting lessons learned, this book will surely not disappoint. More Info List Price : $16.99 Your price $13.07 (Using your 10% discount and $ .69 in eBook Reward points)

Money for Nothing eBook Edition by: Ugel, Ed Ed Ugel takes the readers inside the captivating world of lottery winners and shows us how lotteries and gambling have become deeply inscribed in every aspect of American life shaping our image of success and good fortune. Money for Nothing is a witty, wise, and often outrageously funny account of high expectations and easy money. More Info List Price : $19.95 Your price $17.06 (Using your 10% discount and $.97 in eBook Reward points)

Curious Accounts of the Imaginary Friend eBook Edition by Gifford, P., S. Who am I? Well, I am the imaginary friend. You know - the one you conjure up to talk with when you're consumed with loneliness, greed or visions of eminent doom. And that's how this manuscript came into being. More Info List Price : $6.45 Your price $5.81 (Using your 10% discount and $ .29 in eBook Reward points)

Louder than Words eBook Edition by: McCarthy, Jenny Jenny McCarthy creates a roadmap for parents who are concerned about their own autistic child. Jenny does more than just reveal the winning formula that worked for Evan. Her story shares the frustrations and joys of raising an autistic child and shows how with love and determination a parent can shape their child's life and happiness More Info List Price : $23.95 Your price $18.43 (Using your 10% discount and $ .97 in eBook Reward points)

Writing eBooks on a cell phone

Last week I bemoaned the idea that cell phones have become such a popular eBook reading device. That was last week – in the meantime the whole cell phone and book thing has been raised a notch!

Admittedly I have trouble reading my cell phone, but trust me, it is minor trouble compared to what happens when I try to text message. My thumb is way too big (and clumsy) to make this a pleasant experience. And I lack patience – all that pressing just to get an “S” seems wildly inefficient! My kids assure me, however, that there are all kinds of ways to solve that problem.

Whatever!

Imagine my surprise when I saw the Wall Street Jounal . Right there, big as life, was a story about Satomi Nakamura who writes eBooks on her cell phone. And I had spent the day before bitching about reading on a cell.

Evidently her books are not exactly eloquent but they sell -- millions of copies. In fact her stories are so popular that a movie is coming out in November based on one of them.. It may not be eloquent, well plotted, or literary, but it is readable. Come on – its about love. How can you loose!

I’ve been thinking about this all week. The more I think about it, the more I am intrigued with the possibilities. Maybe this is the magic device that will rocket eBooks into the public consciousness. And maybe this is the medium and the device that will finally promote teenage literacy.

Educators ought to sit up an take note!

No money for text books? Beam a copy of the required reading to your student’s cell phone. Kill two birds with one stone: get the students to read and turn a noxious nuisance into an educational opportunity.

Having trouble getting the students to write? Hold a contest for the best “paper” written on a cell phone. More opportunities – students write and this might do a great deal to upgrade the quality of the typical text message.

The opportunities are enormous both for educators and the medical profession. Think of all of those Doctors waiting anxiously for the emerging repetitive stress thumb injury surgery field to really heat up. "Blackberry thumb" was only the tip of the iceburg!

Seduced by Madness eBook edition

Sometimes I just have to do it. The voyeur in me gets an overwhelming compulsion to see how the other half lives. The nice thing about reading true crime is that I end up reveling in how "normal" my family really is.

Seduced by Madness is the story of Susan Polk, an Orinda housewife who murdered her psychiatrist husband. This is the tale of an apparently perfect marriage in the apparently perfect town and a most unlikely murderess.

Pogash does a masterful job on dissecting the dynamics of the marriage and the family bonds . She tells a compelling story of two brilliant (and deeply disturbed) partners. Neither one of these people are particularly sympathetic or likable. Pogash carefully dissects both partners and their marriage and somehow manages to this in a most unjudgmental way. The author never stoops to demonizing either one of them.

Her analysis of Susan, Felix and their children is put into the context of the times and the psychological movements of the day. And creates an detailed on complex backdrop for the actual murder and trail.

The real tragedy is not that Felix was murdered; or that Susan did it. The real tragedy lies in the children’s stories. The circus they created around their son Adam and his preschool experiences, the alternative therapies they pursued and the ultimate destruction of the entire family; leaving each of the children fighting (in their own ways) to make sense of any of it. In the end the children lost not only thier parents but each other as well.

This story goes beyond the standard true crime genre and is a fascinating social, psychological and legal analysis that will keep you reading way past lights out time.

Here is the publisher's synopsis:

She was fifteen when she visited the therapist; still a teen when they had sex. She was twenty-five when she married him and forty-four when she killed him. In October 2002, the quiet northern California town of Orinda was rocked by murder when Susan Polk, the mother of three teenage boys, was arrested for stabbing her husband and former therapist, Dr. Felix Polk, to death. The arrest and subsequent trial quickly became one of the most talked about murder cases in the country, as spectators and reporters learned the strange history behind this shocking killing.

Now in Seduced by Madness, Carol Pogash—the leading journalist working the case—has written the definitive account of the Polk family saga, offering a rich and textured re-creation of this disturbing and tragic American tale. Examining the decadent culture of California in the 1970s, Pogash looks at how, in this period of drugs and sexual exploration, a fifteen-year-old Susan found herself caught in the grasp of Felix, her therapist—who, like others in the mental health profession, fell for every passing trend in mental health therapy.

Culled from years of careful research, Pogash reconstructs the vague beginnings of the couple's sexual relationship in the therapist's office, exploring how Felix's relaxed attitude toward therapy blinded him to the complex nature of Susan's mental state, and how their mutual obsession with each other sealed their fate.

With lyrical prose, Pogash skillfully traces the Polks' story—from their early yearnings for one another through their flawed marriage, which produced three highly intelligent but emotionally divided sons. Weaving a complex narrative of a family who lived in multimillion dollar homes but lingered in the shadow of dysfunction, Pogash reassembles their life in the years and months before Felix's death, intimately describing what led this soft-spoken wife to murder.

Three years after Felix's death, Susan Polk was tried for first degree murder, and here Pogash provides a first-hand account of the wild, media-circus trial in which Susan defended herself and cross-examined two of her sons. Illustrating how the prosecution and the court responded to Susan's volatile behavior, Pogash takes you inside the deliberation room and uncovers how jurors reached their surprising verdict.

Filled with the most complete case facts and interviews available, Seduced by Madness offers an unparalleled look at one of the most captivating murder cases in recent years.