One of my earliest columns quoted a review that Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal wrote about eReading devices, like the Kindle, especially pointing out that while he liked reading on his Kindle at home, he most often resorted to using his iPhone to read eBooks; he simply did not wish to carry two devices while out and about. Some ebook news bloggers expect smartphones to overtake devices as the main eReading platform.

Smartphones with big screens–like iPhone & Droid–are becoming more popular worldwide; sales are up in the UK, garnering 73.5% of the UK contract market according to UnwiredView.com. In a PublishingPerspectives.com piece on July 23^rd, Edward Nawotka asked “Will Cell Phones Prevail Over Dedicated Devices for Mass Market E-Reading?” Nawotka then went on to state: “In emerging markets, cell phone are far more ubiquitous than dedicated e-reading devices, which are more expensive than phones and thus more exclusive and rare. In the US and Europe, dedicated devices have a foothold in the market, but as cell phones continue to grow in size and functionality, the relevance of dedicated e-readers looks to wane.”

More ebooks in Spanish and Portuguese will soon be poured into the mobile-reading cauldron. Spanish telecom giant Telefónica and the Spanish Association of Publishers’ Guilds shook hands on an eBook-purveying deal; their announcement coincides with the launch of Libranda, the e-book distribution platform backed by Spain’s largest publishing houses.

US consumers are not far behind in this trend; according to ComScore.com, 45.4 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones in an average month during the December 2009 to February 2010, up 21 percent from the three months ending November 2009. Also in the ComScore report: 18 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter from December 2009 through February 2010, up from 15.1 percent from the prior period.

On the blog NielsenWire, Nielsen analyst Roger Entner had this to say of the issue: “We are just at the beginning of a new wireless era where smartphones will become the standard device consumers will use to connect to friends, the Internet and the world at large…“

What does all this mean for eBook writers? Lately, a few column visitors have remarked on the rather chaotic feel of a market containing such a swirl of names, stats, formats and devices to contend with. It does indeed seem that selling books to the burgeoning eMarket is a bit more complicated than the good ol’ method of simply sending in your typed manuscript to a publisher. Writers considering branching out into eBooks may have to provide titles in multiple formats, probably in both EPUB and in Kindle’s proprietary software, along with convincing an editor to barter for services as well as doing most of their own promotion. It couldn’t hurt to have your eBook translated into other languages as well; in browsing freelance websites like Guru.com and oDesk.com I’ve seen a spike in manuscript translation jobs available as more and more eBook writers seek the attention of foreign customers.

As the evolving book industry and technology advancements align, the convergence appears to be equally favoring mobile customers, app writers and eBook writers.

–Meredith Greene

Meredith Greene has been a reviewer for SBR/SFBR since April of 2009; a wife of thirteen years, mother of four and self-published novelist.  She, nevertheless, finds time for poetry, blogs, home projects, and gardening. Come on over and read what Meredith has to say about home, gardening, and other general musings in her column Greene Ink. Visit Meredith’s website www.BelatorBooks.com.

A two-track story, Doctor Margaret’s Sea Chest tracks the life of Margaret Wallace and her quest to become a female doctor in the 1850s, and Dr. Wallidad Sharif, a male doctor in the 1960s, who is working in Delhi. At the end of his contract, Dr. Walli is asked to return an old sea chest to America that has been sitting abandoned in the hospital for one hundred years. Walli’s subsequent adventures in returning the chest provides a historical look at the Cold War era and the unraveling of Margaret’s story though her journals and family history provides an intriguing look at life in 1800s, particularly the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny and the place of women in that period.

Rabbani’s writing is evocative in many places and a pleasure to read. His details of India and the period bring it to life for modern readers, providing insights to the culture and events that shape modern India. The action-adventure part of the story, while entertaining, is more James Bond-ish than the rest of the book, and isn’t as compelling as Margaret’s tale of pursuing her medical dreams against opposition from her family and society. The theme of freedom resonates throughout, both at a national level – India and Canada’s pursuit of independence, the American slave trade, and Margaret’s personal search for freedom in her life. Well-crafted and first in a planned series.

For more information visit http://home.cogeco.ca/~wrabbani ?

Sponsored Review – Ross Rojek

This is an entertaining book written by a criminal defense attorney.  It exposes common misperceptions about our legal system.  The selected examples are those that touch our everyday lives. Can you be convicted of drunk driving if you are not driving the car? Do contracts have to be written to be enforceable? If you break up with your fiancé, can you keep the ring? Can the police search your car if you have an air freshener hanging on the mirror? The book is written in a lively appealing style, in self-contained chapters, each addressing a distinct legal myth or oddity.  The readings highlight the truth that the law is never black and white, and Cicchini, with the help of his co-author, English professor Amy Kushner, make these gray areas assessable and intriguing.  Their book is easy to pick up for a moment of entertainment, discussion, and surprise.  A great gift for prospective public safety or law students, and perfect for a college civics class!

Reviewed by Marcia Jo

An international insurance investigation leads to intrigue, fine dining, and murder. After paying out more than $300 million in stolen jewelry claims, the New York insurance underwriting firm of Larsen and McTabbit decides to make discrete inquires about the origins of the stolen property. They send their only female partner, 40-year-old Catherine York, to the Caribbean island of St. Barth to investigate the original seller. At the same time, French National Police detective Gerard de Rochenoir arrives in St. Barth to investigate the same business. After Detective de Rochenoir observes Ms. York on a beach with his prime suspect, Sofia Mostov, in a scene that involves sunscreen and a discarded bathing suit top, he finds himself at the firm of Larsen and McTabbit trying to inform them of a possible conspiracy.

“. . .this is our first trip together, and we are in a beautiful hotel in one of the most romantic islands in the world. If I told my friends only that, they would be green with envy. But if I went on to tell them the island is about to be hit by a hurricane, my outfit is a yellow police parka, we are about to arrest a dangerous international criminal, and instead of kissing me, my lover is checking out his gun–well they might not be so envious.”

Once the complications of the topless beach are resolved, Detective de Rochenoir and Ms. York find that they have more in common than just the case. Follow their love of dining from New York to Paris and their affinity for fine wines from Napa Pinots to French Bordeauxes. If fine wine is not your fave, then the exquisitely prepared French dishes that accompany them might be. Author Lawrence Perlman pulls his readers along the Champs-Élysées and other parts of Paris by their palates.

In their quest to connect murders to the robberies, the dapper Detective de Rochenoir and his flatfoot counterpart, Detective Pierre Abou, follow the case to Rome, Havana, and back to St. Barth.  The Sherlock Holmes quoting Abou balances the upper crust de Rochenoir in style and manner.

Perlman’s characters are intelligent, refined, and remarkably believable. His strong narrative drive will keep you up past your bedtime. The dialog is engrossing, and intimacy scenes are deftly handled. As an art buff and rock hound, I enjoyed the well-researched background information, but anyone who loves Paris retail will enjoy the vicarious shopping.

Sponsored Review – Sheli Ellsworth

Voices of Dragons is set in modern day but with one glaringly obvious difference; there is a dragon community just across the border! The town’s people don’t know if the dragons are friendly but shy, or if they are planning an attack on the humans. Dragons and humans have been mortal enemies for hundreds of years but no one has ever questioned why until Kay Wyatt falls into a raging river and is rescued by a dragon named Artegal. They become fast, secret friends and over many months teach each other their languages, history and Kay finally gets to fly on his back. Written by adult fiction author Carrie Vaughn, Voices of Dragons is her first novel for young readers and it does not disappoint. Current political and military issues plaguing this country aptly portrayed into this lighthearted fantasy teaching us that sometimes being inquisitive and honest is the only answer to life’s most difficult matters and ultimately is the simplest solution. Superbly written, engaging with just enough balance of dialogue and action to keep the story flowing and the pages turning!

Reviewed by M. Chris Johnson

“Cooking Light” magazine has long been the choice for creating delightful healthy recipes. Registered dieticians and culinary professionals have worked together in the Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2010 collection to compile a year’s worth, every recipe from the past year’s magazines into one wonderful volume.

More than 750 recipes are shared in one convenient book, covering every worldwide flavor and each with their own unique regional ingredients.  There’s something sure to please even the pickiest diner, and what’s even better is that these recipes are healthy and nutritious. Guaranteed to bring variety and good smart eating choices to your table every day.

Well written with excellent step by step directions and easy to follow pictures, each recipe gives the all important nutrition information as well as a complete listing of ingredients needed to help compose the grocery shopping list. Even the most novice of cooks will have satisfying results.

Listed with categories like “Make Ahead,” “Quick & Easy,” “Kid Friendly” and so on, this book will help you plan your menu from breakfast, lunch, and dinner, down to snacks for parties and special events, and healthy desserts for which your guests will beg for the recipe.

Reviewed by Laura Friedkin

With such a provocative title, the reader who is enticed into entering the mysterious contents of this book will not be disappointed.  It is filled with a potpourri of stories, advice, how-to selections, adventure incidents, and much more that will capture attention.  You can learn to recognize fake diamonds, try long distance walking for pain and pleasure, connive to crack a safe, survive a knife attack at San Quentin.  While new to me, it seems that Cairo resident Robert Twigger, has a penchant for chasing danger.  He has hunted for the longest python, worked with the Tokyo riot police, searched for a lost oasis in the Egyptian desert. 

“Bears can seem predictable, but really that’s just them being unpredictable in their unpredicability.”

This is the type of book that will attract the restless adolescent with dreams of magical powers.  It will also appeal to the general reader with its short essays that are perfect for filling the time while stuck in any waiting room.  Imagine how delightful it will be to discover how to tickle a trout,  or the best way to escape from a POW camp, or how best to face a charging bear and, better yet, have revealed to you Casanova’s thirty-three rules of rapid seduction.  Lots of fun reading in these quick and engaging stories.


Reviewed by Rita Hoots

In Wondrous Strange, Kelley Winslow found out that, rather than being an orphaned mortal, she really is a Faerie princess, daughter of the powerful winter king Auberon and the dangerous autumn queen Mabh. After saving New York City’s human population from the terrifying Wild Hunt by making a deal with Auberon, Kelley is now coming to terms with her heritage and missing Sonny, the handsome young Janus guard with whom she fell in love. But Sonny is stuck in the Faerie realm for now, and she is trying to figure out how to get him back.

In the meantime, Kelley is playing the lead in Romeo and Juliet, and her life keeps getting interrupted by dark forces: she is attacked in Central Park twice, and it becomes clear that whoever unleashed the Wild Hunt is still at large — and still very dangerous.

Darklight introduces new plot elements and mysteries as well as develops characters just introduced in the first book. Lesley Livingston brings new life to old faerie lore and weaves in, to great effect, classic bits of Shakespeare. The whole should be a satisfying read for anyone who enjoys fantasy adventure, but particularly those who love Shakespeare and tales of Faerie.

Reviewed by Cathy Carmode Lim

Don’t Spill the Beans is a clever little rhyming book written and illustrated by Ian Schoenherr. It has a secret … it’s actually the cutest birthday card I’ve ever seen. It shows lots of cleverly drawn animals to go with the rhyme. Any young child will enjoy this book, and will be pleasantly surprised at the end of the book to find that it’s not only a present, but a birthday card too. The book is well made, and should last a child a long time and they could treasure it to adulthood, possibly handing it down to their children. When your young child has a birthday coming up, get this little book. Not only will they be pleased, but you will be too.

The author and artist Ian Schoenherr grew up near Locktown, New Jersey. He has written and illustrated three books. Mr. Schoenherr has also illustrated numerous books by other authors.

Reviewed by Dave Broughton

Jack London is a pillar of American literature, but perhaps he is also one of the most misunderstood—or mischaracterized—American writers as well, which is not usually an easy thing to get away with. London led a complicated and all-too-short life (he died at age forty), but, as has often been said, he managed to pack a lifetime’s worth of living into those forty years. Our vision of this great man has been honed and created by his (many) biographers, and he is usually compartmentalized as either a “boy’s writer” or an adventurer who also wrote adventure stories. Neither is completely true, and neither is completely false, but neither tells the whole story.

“Nearly a decade before the death of Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain’s place as America’s favorite author was usurped by a California adventurer not yet thirty years old.”

Enter James L. Haley, the writer of an award-winning biography of Sam Houston, who promises to take, finally, a holistic view of this admittedly confusing and complicated man. For the most part he succeeds. Haley addresses all aspects of London’s life, from his hardscrabble childhood in poverty to his adventuring years in Alaska and beyond, to his farming days living as a successful writer through his ardent political life. Haley has no ax to grind, nothing to prove, and, most importantly, no one to please; and it is perhaps this combination of freedoms that helps him provide the most complete biography of London, the man, to date.

Reviewed by Margo Orlando Littell

Matthew Frederick started the 101 Things I Learned and he’s expanded his architectural drawings to each new subject. A drawing accompanies each lesson so that the reader can understand the text and reinforce it with an image. In an interesting way, this technique is like learning a second language. The lessons vary in magnitude, some compile basic vocabulary for a novice film enthusiast, others engage difficult concepts like the fourth wall, how to utilize different lenses, or what the angles of a camera shot tell the viewer. That said, much of this book is about the issues behind making a film, not necessarily about the wrestling with understanding film as a viewer. The majority of the text is spent discussing how to shoot utilizing the principles of thirds, how to create and stick to a filming budget, how to keep the crew making the same movie, and primarily how to write a story. The writing advice is simple and relatively basic, a gloss of any 101 creative writing class will give most people these concepts. Thus we suggest that individuals concerned with a detailed understanding of these subjects seek more nuanced texts, or at the very least use the 101 Things I Learned series as a starting point for further reading.

Reviewed by Joe Atkins

Everyone fancies themselves a tasteful decorator. Our homes are a reflection of ourselves. We each seek to create a welcoming space where we can rest, entertain friends, work, and nurture ourselves and those who visit. 1000 Ideas for Home Design & Decoration is a vast and valuable guide to help anyone put that personal touch on their home décor.

“Top Tips:
1. Nature is the best reference for choosing the color we want for a room, such as the colors of the sea, the earth and plants.
2. Warm colors tend to give a comfortable cozy atmosphere, cool colors suggest spaciousness and elegance.
3. To decorate large rooms, you can choose more vivid, darker colors and stronger patterns.
4. In small space, cooler, lighter colors are preferable – even mostly white, so that the rooms seem larger.”

Broken into chapters, focusing on topics such as materials, color, lighting, and furniture, this book is packed full of beautiful vibrant, full color photos and helpful tips. This is a “picture book” you’ll find yourself paging through regularly, with design ideas that range from the classic to the outlandish. This book is not heavy on text, but the eye-delighting pictures are sure to provide endless ideas to springboard from and create dynamic personal spaces for every discerning taste. Another wonderful inclusion in this book is the directory at the end, complete with websites to visit for even more helpful ideas and resources for great decorating

Reviewed by Laura Friedkin

The Bear is the last of the four Saga of the First King books set in the early days of Salvatore’s Corona world. Bransen Garibond, the Highwayman, is deeply depressed and disillusioned with the ongoing Honce war. He has rejected the objectives of both sides and wants only to return to his family. Inevitably, it is impossible for him to avoid the warring factions and he finds himself strangely drawn to the side of an old enemy, the Bear of Honce.

Salvatore’s signature style of detailed action and expansive battle scenes is on full display in this book. Unfortunately this habit of minute description is a drawback outside of the action. The information-filled dialogue rendered the conversations awkward and the relentless explanations of motives and emotions made the characters more difficult to sympathize with rather than less. This was especially problematic for Bransen’s character as it turned his legitimate disgust with the war into tedious and self-indulgent moodiness. Fans of the series or the Corona world may enjoy The Bear but new readers might do better to skip this one.

Reviewed by Rachel Wallace

In between these covers lie embezzlement, cheating, questionable paternity, murder, and supernatural healing. The original queen of suspense is back with The Shadow of Your Smile, and she brings a cascade of characters with the pulse of her pen.  Mary Higgins Clark has shaped a tale of controlled chaos in her story of lost and found. Dr. Monica Farrell, a pediatrician, comes to realize that her four-year-old patient, terminally ill with brain cancer, has been healed, not by science but, rather, through the healing power of God. With nothing else to rely on, but faith, she feels compelled to testify in the beatification of Sister Catherine, the nun responsible. Little does she know this is the long-lost birth mother of her deceased father. She also qualifies as the heir to a large fortune, should she put all the pieces together. But what would a mystery be without all of the corruption and greed surrounding her path? With a clutter of characters, Higgins Clark borders on confusing the reader, almost. It is an interesting read and one filled with thought and precision; however, it can be a challenge to keep each character accounted for. Happy sleuthing, otherwise.

Reviewed by Sky Sanchez

Custer’s Last Stand. Everyone who attended high school in the United States has probably heard the story of Custer’s vainglorious defeat at the hands of Sitting Bull at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Wandering down such a well-trod path is a difficult task for a writer, to be sure, but none seem more up to the challenge that Nathaniel Philbrick, author of Mayflower and In the Heart of the Sea. He’s tackled such subjects before and knows the territory—at least, he should. But even by his own admission, Philbrick sometimes has trouble seeing the forest for the trees.

The countless number of differing opinions, agendas, and outlooks on a single event is simply staggering. Coupled with these differing views is the problem that the story is about a U.S. military defeat—and a big one, at that—and no one likes to read about a defeat, at least not in America. And so perceptions of this battle have been turned on their heads for the past 135 years. Try as Philbrick might, even he seems daunted by the complexities. The book reads wonderfully, given Philbrick’s enormous talents as a writer and storyteller, but by the end the reader is slightly more frustrated than satisfied. But perhaps that’s how it should be with a story like this.

Reviewed by Margo Orlando Littell