Preparing for Turkey Day…

By Vick Mickunas | Friday, November 20, 2009, 09:08 PM

Many of us are getting ready for the holiday next week. Cleaning. Planning meals. Dreaming of all that food.

Here are a couple of links to help you prepare that special meal

click HERE:

and

click HERE:

This Sunday I’ll be covering some cookbooks and books about food in my column. Be sure to check it out.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Vick Mickunas

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Who wants free books?

By Vick Mickunas | Friday, November 20, 2009, 11:12 AM

Amazon.com continues to push the envelope for their Amazon Kindle eBook readers. This electronic book reader is for sale only through Amazon and Amazon is the only company that can sell you downloads for the Kindle.

Downloading books is where Amazon is betting the money starts to pour in. This week Amazon announced free downloads of Kindle software for PCs. Meanwhile you can read books downloaded via your Kindle software on your personal computer for free. That’s right. Smart shoppers can read books for free this way.

Here’s how that works. I just checked Amazon’s bestsellers for Kindle downloads. Some guy named Don Brown has the number one book downloaded for Kindles at the moment. He also has the number two book. And number three. Also number four. How did he do that?

Who the heck is Don Brown? Have you ever heard of him? You could easily confuse him with the best selling author Dan Brown but he is a totally different guy.

So how did this guy get the top four slots for Kindle downloads on Amazon? It is simple really. He is giving his stuff away. Every one of those books is being downloaded for free. Nothing. Nada. Squat. No charge.

So if you have a PC you can download the Kindle software for free then you can download four of Don Brown’s books for free. And his stuff isn’t the only free stuff being offered for Kindle downloads. A real cheapskate could read all kinds of free stuff and I’m sure that there are lots of people doing exactly that.

What is the benefit to Don Brown? Publicity. Getting people to read his stuff. Getting his name out there. Establishing a traffic pattern. That’s straight out of Marketing 101. Make a name for yourself. Establish familiarity with a product. They call those “loss leaders.” Later, they will try to start charging for product.

Ditto for Amazon.com. They want lots of people to download the Kindle software to their PC for free. The tightwads will look for free stuff to download. Once people get into reading this way perhaps they will decide that it is worth it to pay for it.

Another smart bit of marketing from Amazon.com. Get your free eBooks (while they last).

Vick Mickunas

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Robert Crais is coming to Dayton!

By Vick Mickunas | Thursday, November 19, 2009, 09:38 PM

Crais will amaze

Robert Crais is one of my all time favorite crime writers. I have been reading his books practically from the beginning of his career and his stuff just keeps getting better. And darker. Very dark.

Crais sets his novels in Los Angeles. The next book, The First Rule (Putnam), is his second stand alone thriller featuring Joe Pike as the lead character. Pike is Elvis Cole’s partner in a detective agency. Cole has been the main character in most of Bob’s books. Where Elvis can be a jokester and almost light hearted, Joe Pike is dark. Very dark.

Pike is a former LA cop. He is also a former mercenary. You don’t want him to be angry with you. Joe Pike is a killing machine.

I just finished the next book last night. Wow! I could not go to bed until I had turned the last page. Incredible.

The book comes out in January and Robert Crais is coming through Dayton on book tour. Joe Pike is a force. If you love crime fiction check this one out.

Vick Mickunas

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Coming Friday: Sarah Palin

By Vick Mickunas | Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 11:31 AM

Governor Sarah Palin signed copies of her memoir “Going Rogue” today during two Ohio appearances.

She was in Cincinnati at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Norwood at noon and she was in Columbus at Borders bookstore on Sawmill Road from 6 to 9 p.m this evening.

Did anybody take part in Palinmania today in Ohio?

Vick Mickunas

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Flashing back to 1966…

By Vick Mickunas | Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 02:14 AM

I just finished reading “Hard Rain Falling” (New York Review Books Classics) by Don Carpenter.

Wow! What an amazing novel. Written in 1966 and long out of print it was recently reissued. I probably would not have noticed this book if not for George Pelecanos, one of my favorite crime writers. George wrote the intro to this new edition and that got my attention.

Who the heck is Don Carpenter? That was my first question. He died a number of years ago and he has been mostly forgotten. Apparently, this was one of the best things he wrote.

This is the story of a hard luck loser. Poor kid never knew his parents. Grew up in an orphanage. Ends up as a petty criminal haunting pool halls in Portland, Oregon back in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.

The kid is lost and he gets into trouble. His rebellion leads him to a prison term. Carpenter’s depiction of life in prison is masterful. His writing style was way ahead of his time. I won’t reveal any more about this fine novel so that you can discover it for yourself.

Suffice it to say, it will probably shock you. A masterpiece of writing.

And here is a bonus link, a recent interview with Michael Chabon.

Vick Mickunas

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‘Going Rouge’ published today…

By Vick Mickunas | Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 02:01 PM

not a typo

Sarah Palin’s book isn’t the only one out this week. Look at this play on words from Palin’s book title.

click HERE:

Vick Mickunas

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McCain campaign manager calls Palin memoir “total fiction…”

By Vick Mickunas | Monday, November 16, 2009, 12:55 PM

They don’t like it. Sarah Palin’s memoir is coming out tomorrow and some former McCain campaign staffers are not too pleased about how she has portrayed them. Or is that because she has somehow betrayed them?

For more click HERE:

Vick Mickunas

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