Kindle Free Pick of the Week: Unwrapping Christmas

By Lori Copeland.  It's that time of year again, and with excitement and high expectations, Rose has planned the perfect Christmas for her family and friends. But when she feels them drifting away during a time that should celebrate togetherness, Rose is forced to slow down in the most unexpected way. In this whimsical, uplifting story, she discovers the true meaning of giving.

A nice, quick read to get you in the spirit of Christmas.

Google to Launch an "Open" E-book Store

Many were wondering when this was going to happen, and now it looks like it is coming in a matter of days.

Google will debut it's version on an online bookstore in December to rival the digital reading leaders Amazon, Apple and others.

Google Product Manager Scott Dougall told the Wall Street Journal the e-book service will launch in the United States by the end of the year and internationally in the first quarter of next year.

The Journal said Google has signed deals with many major book publishers and will offer hundreds of thousands of titles for purchase and millions of books for free.

It appears Google will offer most of the titles that currently are available in other e-bookstores at launch or shortly after with costs similar to those at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, Google told the publication.

Google will allow consumers to access books from retail partners on devices with full Web browsers, including computers, tablets and smartphones.

Google users will buy books online using Google's Checkout system and add them to an online library matched to a Google account.  It has not been revealed what percentage Google will pay its partners.

I'm looking forward to see what new features Google will offer and how they will manage their store compared to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple.  Let's just say this competition is good for readers everywhere.

Amazon Finally Lets You Gift Kindle Books

I've been calling for this for almost two years.

Beginning today, just in time for the holiday season, customers can give Kindle Books as gifts to anyone with an e-mail address--no Kindle required. Kindle Books can be read on Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps for iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry and Android-based devices. For more information or to give a Kindle Book as a gift, go to www.amazon.com/givekindlebooks.

"We are thrilled to make it easier than ever for our customers to give their favorite Kindle book to a friend or family member as a gift," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. "We're making this functionality available in time for the holidays to offer an easy, stress free holiday shopping option for anyone - not just Kindle owners."

To give a Kindle Book as a gift, customers simply choose a book in the Kindle Store, select "Give as a Gift" and send their gift to anyone with an email address. Notifications of Kindle Books gifts are delivered instantly via e-mail and the recipient redeems the gift in the Kindle Store to read on any Kindle or free Kindle app.

Amazon and Wal-Mart to Offer Free Shipping for the Holidays

Amazon.com says it's going to get in the "holiday spirit" for the holiday retail war.

After Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, said in a surprise announcement Thursday that it would offer free shipping with no minimum purchase or subscription fee for the holidays on about 60,000 items, Amazon said it would match the promotion with pleasure.

"We aim to meet or beat any deal out there," Amazon spokeswoman Sally Fouts said.

The Seattle-based online shopping giant already offers free "Super Saver Shipping" year-round on orders of more than $25. Through its Amazon Prime program, members pay an annual fee of $79 to get free unlimited two-day shipping with no minimum purchase.  This program has been a huge success.

"They're really matching our free Super Saver Shipping program but on a limited selection of items," Fouts said of Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart said its free shipping offer, which runs through Dec. 20, would include electronics and thousands of video games, toys, home appliances, furniture, jewelry and baby items.

Free shipping has been a hot topic among retailers who sell goods on the Internet, as research has shown that many customers avoid buying online because they don't want to pay for delivery costs. This Christmas season, many retailers including JCPenney and Williams-Sonoma have aimed to lower the cost of shipping for online customers.

One this is for sure, retailers this year want you to shop early and often.

Kindle Free Pick of the Week: Frankenstein

A perfect time to reread this classic just in time for Halloween. 

Frankenstein, loved by many decades of readers and praised by such eminent literary critics as Harold Bloom, seems hardly to need a recommendation. If you haven't read it recently, though, you may not remember the sweeping force of the prose, the grotesque, surreal imagery, and the multilayered doppelgänger themes of Mary Shelley's masterpiece. As fantasy writer Jane Yolen writes of this (the reviewer's favorite) edition, "The strong black and whites of the main text [illustrations] are dark and brooding, with unremitting shadows and stark contrasts. But the central conversation with the monster--who owes nothing to the overused movie image … but is rather the novel's charnel-house composite--is where [Barry] Moser's illustrations show their greatest power ... The viewer can all but smell the powerful stench of the monster's breath as its words spill out across the page. Strong book-making for one of the world's strongest and most remarkable books." Includes an illuminating afterword by Joyce Carol Oates.

It's free so add Frankenstein to your Kindle collection.