from goodreads.com

Fairytales aren’t just for children anymore!

Welcome to Jackalopany!  Meet King Jack and Queen Felicia and their estimable children, Paisley and Jackson.  Paisley has reached the year of her majority and is about to endure her “Majority Ball.”  She’s unique, prank-loving, and not ready to change her life.  She’d rather continue her days herding sheep, playing her harp, and avoiding the responsibilities associated with the Jackalopian throne.

The shepherd Henry, Prince Rupert of Froggilandria, Kyle of Kaiandra, Marcus of Wellsbiundia, and the amusing Cletus of Rednecky all battle for the hand (and possibly the rest of) Princess Paisley.  Will Darius of Griffinlund foil the plans of so many?  Will tragedy leave the Jackalopian throne bereft of an heir?  And last but not least, will the narrator ever stop yammering about the rigors and rules of the fairytale genre?

A sweet little Kindle book. Like most Kindle books, it has a couple of typos and some errors, but I guess it was worthwhile if you get it for free. Just read the summary and decide if you want it... :)

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pic from amazon.com

When 9 year old Audrey and her best friend, Julianna, discover a tattered note in Audrey's mailbox, they embark on an adventure that will change their lives forever. A missing show dog worth a fortune, two dangerous villains and a series of mysterious clues come together in this first exciting adventure of the Jellybean Club.

It was cute. Really cute. Although I'm not a big fan of the mystery genre in general, I was kind of drawn to the cover. I liked the cover (okay, now I'm being redundant). It was on sale for free, so I got it onto my Kindle. However, it was a bit rushed, but it will appeal to younger readers closer to Audrey's age.

The intro was pretty good overall. The inciting incident, in which Audrey got thinking about her future as a detective, was kind of unrealistic, but then again, she was nine years old. I didn't really get the point of having a younger sister in there, though. Ashley didn't do much throughout the book, and neither did Dani, another character's younger sister. I was confused as to why the author would have bothered to write such useless characters.

At first, I was criticizing the way these kids thought of the money - a $10,000 reward - because I thought they would misuse it. A real, touching motive for getting the money only manifested itself much later in the book, and very suddenly. There was almost no foreshadowing whatsoever, except that Georgette, the girl in need, was always very sad. If there had been more foreshadowing, it would be more justified and believable.

The villains were also introduced far too late. If I'd gotten a sense of what these kids were up against, I might have cared more about the outcome of the story.

I honestly didn't like it all that much - it was too juvenile for me. However, it's cheap and I suppose younger kids will like it. Give it a shot.

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Think you can spot the fake?

Think again. It's going to be a lot harder than you think to pick out the BS. Each entry hides one well-crafted fib among a pair of unbelievable truths. And it's up to you to figure out what's fascinating and what's fabricated on everything from koala bears to Confucius to high-fructose corn syrup.

Was Cleopatra the last Egyptian pharaoh?

Can you really make diamonds out of tequila?

Is the platypus actually poisonous?

A flip of the page reveals whether you're right or wrong as well as more information on the true trivia--and why you might've fallen for the fake fact. You'll really need to know your sh*t if you plan on correctly calling bullsh*t.

Very amusing, and a well-done way to present trivia fun facts. (Buy here.) I like the cover too. This was loaded onto my Kindle when it was being free, so yay. Anyway, it was really cool. I just sort of went through looking at all of the crazy facts. I think I laughed my head off for like a minute straight once or twice. I'm pretty sure I got at least 90% of it wrong. Heh. Heh. 

However, when I checked its page again, it became like what, nine dollars? I'm not sure if it's worth it. 

There isn't much analysis to be had for a book of fun facts. It was funny, it was interesting, and it was cool, but it isn't worth nine dollars, especially since the complete Lord of the Rings is ten dollars. So yeah.

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Pic from ovrelia.blogspot.com

Pygmalion is a 1912 play by George Bernard Shaw.

Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a commentary on women's independence.

In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion was the creator of a statue which came to life and was a popular subject for Victorian era English playwrights, including one of Shaw's influences, W. S. Gilbert, who wrote a successful play based on the story in 1871, called Pygmalion and Galatea. Shaw also would have been familiar with the burlesque version, Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed. Shaw's play has been adapted numerous times, most notably as the musical My Fair Lady and the film of that name.

--From the Wikipedia article on Pygmalion

This was... well, interesting. I'd never heard of it before, and I'd never read a play other than Shakespeare. Needless to say, it was considerably quicker to read, and slightly confusing. The title is a reference to the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who created a statue of a woman and promptly fell in love with it. With the help of Aphrodite, she came to life. (You can read the myth here.) The themes of the book are sort of parallel; a phonetician with a Holmes-like talent for knowing where people were raised by their accents who taught a poor flower girl to speak like a duchess treated her as his "creation" and not as an individual. Although the two clashed too much to fall in love, the flower girl eventually did rise somewhat in social class and remained the phonetician's friend. 

Henry Higgins was the "Pygmalion" in this play. He practiced the obscure profession of phonetics, and taught the wealthy to speak well for a living. Because of this, he was a bit of a snob. Higgins was also extremely moody and condescending. This was part of the reason why he treated Eliza (the flower girl) so unfairly, although in his eyes he "never gave her the slightest provocation". In my opinion, Pygmalion was basically the story of one very messed-up guy and his mistreatment and ultimate resolution with someone who at first appeared less powerful than he was. 

Various other important females in Higgins's life, like his housekeeper and his mother, entreated him to be more reasonable towards Eliza, but he seemed to be unwilling to accept any female advice. He only caved a little when spoken to by a man. Higgins had very strange ideals and outbursts throughout the play. Most modern people would roll their eyes and think, "Anger management problems~" very early on while reading. 

However, it's a pretty quick read and a creative premise. As a classic and free on the Kindle, I'd recommend it.

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Picture from barnesandnoble.com

When Nikki Murrow lost her first High School debating match she did what anyone would do – she hid in a closet. She found comfort hiding among the mops and cleaning supplies, but she also found two imps – tiny creatures from a magical kingdom who lead her on a strange journey into the Realm of Reason.

There is Fuzz, an imp with a fondness for breaking the rules. And Athena, a model of impish manners, decorum and spotlessly clean clothes. Together they convince Nikki to join them in the battle against the king's evil advisor, Maleficious.

In her debate class, Nikki learned the value of logic and reason, but who knew her ability to formulate a hypothesis would help a mud-splattered Knight redeem his tarnished reputation? Or that her knowledge of logical fallacies would rid the Realm's Haunted Hills of ghosts? 

Maleficious's hold on the king is strong, but Nikki and the imps are determined that the Realm will not fall into his clutches. Will their mastery of logic rid the kingdom of the ignorance Maleficious is spreading, or will the inhabitants of the Realm fall back under the sway of centuries-old superstition?

Huh. Pretty good for a free Kindle book. That's right. It's free (buy here). It's a Phantom Tollbooth-style sort of book that involves a whimsical other-world filled with strange creatures and a desire to spread reason. The thing that's sort of weird/endearing about this book is that it's "educational" (dun dun dun....). It introduces logical fallacies in a way that might be good for.. say... third graders. It was a bit over-simple for my taste, but I'll keep it on my Kindle for its useful information on logical fallacies--I knew about them already, but I'd never heard the formal terminology before. 

Generally, each chapter detailed a different logical fallacy as Nikki and her imp companions traveled throughout the Realm of Reason to eliminate superstition and spread knowledge. I also like that they weren't always successful. Repeated victories against ignorance every single chapter can get really monotonous. The one thing I didn't understand was why Nikki had to be a high schooler. It made her seem extremely stupid not to be applying her knowledge more, almost as if she was just bored and helping these immature imps for fun. If she was, say, a fifth grader, it would have made the story way more plausible and entertaining.

It was a bit more medieval than The Phantom Tollbooth, and the character foils of Fuzz and Athena were fun to read about. Nikki often spoke to the imps like they were first graders, very simply and patiently. However, it's an engaging format for teaching logical fallacies to younger readers. The next book, Castles and Chemistry is about--guess what? Chemistry! A preview chapter is included in Logic to the Rescue in which Nikki teaches Athena what an atom is.

So if you want an introduction to logical fallacies in a simple story, go ahead and download!

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Photo from wadingthrougheink.blogspot.com

Sophia “Soap” Lazarcheck is a girl genius with a knack for making robots—and for making robots explode. After her talents earn her admission into a secretive university institute, she is swiftly drawn into a conspiracy more than a century in the making. Meanwhile and without her knowledge, her cousin Dean wages a two-fisted war of vengeance against a villainous genius and his unwashed minions. Separately, the cousins must pit themselves against murderous thugs, experimental weaponry, lizard monsters, and a nefarious doomsday device. When their paths finally meet up, they will need to risk everything to prevent a mysterious technology from bringing civilization to a sudden and very messy end.

--From Sechin Tower's website

Pretty good for a Kindle book. The premise is... well, interesting, and the whole revolving-around-Tesla thing is cool, since I'd never heard of Tesla before I read Mad Science Institute.

Other than that, it was an okay adventure story with okay characters. I don't really feel like analyzing it further... but if you're really, really bored and are looking for something cheap on your Kindle to keep you occupied, then go for it.

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