| Once upon a time, in my console gaming days, I first laid eyes on Super Monkey Ball. Since that time, I’ve been hooked. Featuring game-play that is easy to learn but difficult to master, this franchise knows how to bring the spirit of arcade gaming to any platform it lands on. In that way, Super Monkey Ball Bounce on your Android device does not disappoint. Offering 119 levels across six unique worlds, Super Monkey Ball Bounce is all about puzzles (instead of the usual balancing, tilting, and rolling required to complete each level). It reminds me a little of what pinball on a touchscreen would look like… if you combined it with the physics-inspired ‘aim and shoot’ methodology. Led by AiAi the monkey, this title is as bright and colourful as you would expect. While the graphics are well animated, cutesy, and fun –they are also a little over the top and annoying. We have come toexpect that the skill required to complete levels should increase as you progress through the game, it feels exponential and a little random. To make it easier, there are lots of power-ups and multi-shots available –but be careful, using them often will cost you (real dollars via in-app purchases), not to mention the game is littered with tedious advertisements you are forced to watch as you navigate around. In the end, it’s still a fun game to play –as long as you don’t expect it to deliver much more than a cheerful (and addictive) distraction. If you find it hard to resist charming little primates, download Super Monkey Ball Bounce and give it a try.
Super Monkey Ball Bounce Arrives on Android is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Monday, September 8, 2014
Super Monkey Ball Bounce Arrives on Android
Reddit Allows Users to Ask Me Anything Using Official App
| Ask Me Anything (AMA) is one of the more entertaining things you can do online. The brainchild of Reddit (the self-described ‘front page of the Internet’), AMA is basically just a series of chats that allow you to engage in interactive Q&A sessions with all manner of people (usually celebrities or other current news-makers). If you’ve ever taken a spin by the AMA website, your first impression was likely that it’s a little overwhelming; it’s text-heavy and hard to skim. Thanks to their new dedicated app, it is much easier to access and follow particular threads. Loading the app, you can browse hot, recent, and favourited topics. You can also perform searches based on name or topic, or browse by category (including entertainment, music, sports, politics, games, or business). There is no question that AMA is pretty much just a time sink, but there are worse ways to entertain yourself. You never know exactly who will be online and eager to answer your questions, but a quick peek today turned up a large number of options. To give you a taste, allow me to share a few that might be of interest: The son of an Oscar winning actor (but he doesn’t reveal specifically which one) – A series of questions determined that this person has a brother, his name is ‘exciting’ but normal, he grew up in New York, and that he plays all sorts of instruments with mediocre skill. Somebody who had their upper jaw broken, moved, and plated to fix their underbite – This user shares their post op healing time, discusses what the process was like, and explains why they decided to go ahead with the procedure. Denzel Washington – The famous actor reveals many personal details, thoughts, and opinions; sharing with Reddit readers that he is “DEFINITELY an Eminem fan.” If you are curious enough to give it a try, download Ask Me Anything – reddit for your Android devices now!
Reddit Allows Users to Ask Me Anything Using Official App is a post from: Good e-Reader |
HomeTube Makes YouTube Safer for Children
| If your children are anything like mine, their favourite thing to do when they get their hands on a mobile device is to load up YouTube and watch videos. It doesn’t even really matter what the content of the video is –which is part of the problem. YouTube is filled with entertainment, from cartoon clips to cute cats to music videos to a few dozen categories that are less than appropriate for kids to watch. Even if you set them on the right course, being able to follow ‘recommended video’ paths can quickly move you from good content to bad. Thankfully, HomeTube can help! HomeTube is free to download for your Android device, giving you the ability to let your children navigate from video to video on their whim (while only being presented with kid-friendly options). If you would like to customize the app and create your own video playlists, a one-time $0.99 in-app purchase will unlock the full features of the app. If you choose, HomeTube can also take over the logged in account as a home screen replacement. This means you can create a profile for your child that lets them watch videos without having access to any other apps (like your email). Using HomePage doesn’t guarantee a fully locked-down system, tech-proficient older children may still be able to break out of the app –something those of us in the industry describe as ‘security through obscurity’.
HomeTube Makes YouTube Safer for Children is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Amazon Fire Phone Available in the UK September 30th
| The Amazon Fire Phone will be released in the UK on September 30th 2014 via O2. New and existing customers for O2 can get the Fire Phone for free if they take out the £33 a month Refresh contract. For those who sign up to the Fire Phone contract before 31st December, Amazon will be giving away one year of Prime. The Seattle based e-commerce giant hopes that its Fire Phone can challenge Apple, Samsung, Sony and HTC in the smartphone market, but its US launch has been underwhelming with only 35,000 phones sold. "We think the Fire Phone will be a great phone for Amazon customers, amazing for Prime customers, but it's a very competitive phone and good for people who want a new phone in general," Cameron Janes, Amazon's director of the Fire phone. "It's amazing value with a bundled year of Amazon Prime giving access to 15,000 videos and 500,000 books, plus free unlimited photo cloud storage and customer support from the built-in MayDay feature." The Fire Phone trumpets Firefly as the main selling point, which allows people to scan barcodes & QR codes and automatically pull the product listing up on Amazon. "Firefly identifies printed text on signs, posters, magazines and business cards," the company said, which it does through combining "Amazon's deep catalog of physical and digital content with multiple image, text and audio recognition technologies to quickly identify a variety of items from the world around you." Amazon's biggest difference from the Samsung Galaxy S5, the upcoming Apple iPhone 6, or Sony Xperia Z3 is its "dynamic perspective", which uses four front-facing cameras to track the position of the user's head to create a simulated 3D experience that moves as the user moves their head. The United Kingdom is reaching a point of mobile phone saturation, with an estimated 70% of the population owning one. Can Amazon defy the odds and sell enough units to make entry into the UK viable? Amazon Fire Phone Available in the UK September 30th is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Collection Highlights: Publisher Postcards
| Join us on a scenic virtual visit to Spain, South Africa, Malaysia, and more in our September edition of collection highlights, Publisher Postcards, where we take a look at some of the excellent new content coming to OverDrive’s catalog from postcard-worthy countries all over the world. All of the publishers featured in this presentation either have content available for purchase now or will have content available soon in OverDrive Marketplace. Note: For the best audio experience, we recommend watching this presentation in Chrome. Carrie Smith is a Technical Writer at OverDrive.  |
HATs in the wild. And a unicorn.
| If you’re a regular reader, you’ll recall that a month or so ago, we announced a new way of making add-on hardware for the Raspberry Pi: namely, the Raspberry Pi HAT (Hardware Attached on Top). You can read James, our Director of Hardware, explaining what they’re all about in the original blog post: in short, the HAT is a solder-less way of attaching hardware which can be auto-detected by the Pi, so GPIOs and headers are automagically configured by the Pi, without you having to do anything.  The pink confection on top of Gordon is a hat, not a HAT. (A tangentially related question: how do you pronounce EEPROM? Fights are breaking out at Pi Towers: a small majority of us rhyme the first syllable with “meep”, while the rest of us rhyme with “meh”. This is like the scone/scone thing all over again. Angry opinions in the comments, please.) HATs are starting to appear in the wild. Adafruit are sending PCBs out for prototyping. HiFiBerry have HATs you can buy now: the Digi+, which enables you to connect an external digital-to-analogue converter; and the DAC+, a high-res all-in-one DAC. AB Electronics are carrying several HATs: an analogue-to-digital converter (ADC); a GPIO port expander; a real-time clock (RTC) and an RS232 serial interface. And the whimsical bearded pixies at Pimoroni have come up with my favourite so far (it’s my favourite because SPARKLES): the Unicorn HAT. I saw it in the flesh on Saturday at the Cambridge Raspberry Jam. It’s a thing of beauty. Here’s Paul, introducing the Unicorn HAT. Are you making a HAT? Let us know in the comments: I’ll add links to this post if I’ve missed yours out here. |
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Selfie Brush Proves Smartphone Accessories are Getting Ridiculous
| At the risk of dating myself a little bit here, I remember watching Saturday Night Live many years ago when they began airing their television commercial parodies. The commercials were always advertising a product that was overly ridiculous… but just realistic enough that you were left wondering for a few moments whether they were legitimate. When taking a look at the Selfie Brush iPhone case, feelings of skepticism (and sadness for the direction society seems to be taking) are perfectly natural. When the iPhone case is described by the designer as ‘the brush that has everyone talking’, it may seem like a clever pun (that probably goes over the heads of most people that would be shopping for this kind of thing). It may also raise a number of questions, not the least of which being: when is the last time you wished you had a smartphone lodged inside your huge rubber hairbrush? It may be easy to find. It may be the perfect social media tool. It may also be a brush that gives you professional results. It’s also ridiculous (and I dare you to use one in front of me). After reading about how the Selfie Brush promises to prep for perfect photographs by adding volume to my luscious locks while also giving me the perfect angle by using the brush handle to hold my smartphone above eye level, I’ve started to wonder how I have managed to live this long without one. Available for around $25 USD, it’s just cheap enough that I’m tempted to buy a few as gag gifts –but I refuse to contributed to any success this product sees.
Selfie Brush Proves Smartphone Accessories are Getting Ridiculous is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Ikea Lambasts eBooks with BookBook Campaign
| The quintessential Ikea catalog is every young adults decorating bible for their first few urban apartments. In a new marketing campaign, Ikea is hyping a nonvolatile data medium storage device, otherwise known as a book. Ikea is borrowing a page out of Apples playbook by constructing an online commercial for their new catalog. They make light of the fact that you are using a real book, and not an e-reader, tablet or eBook. This is a great satirical campaign that is likely to leave you in stitches. Ikea Lambasts eBooks with BookBook Campaign is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Kobo Aura H2O Outdoor Reading Test
| The Kobo Aura H20 is coming out this October, but Good e-Reader has an early release edition and have been extensively reviewing it. Today, we look at how this e-reader performs in direct sunlight. Most of the times with smartphones and tablets you will inevitably be reading outdoors in the sun. Direct sunlight does not play nice with LCD screens and you have to either find a good angle or find a spot of shade. E-Paper was designed to provide a glare free experience, but how well does it hold up in real world conditions? Kobo Aura H2O Outdoor Reading Test is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook – Outdoor Reading Test
| People often gravitate towards seven inch tablets because of how easy they are transported around. Quite often you will find yourself throwing it in your bag or backpack for a day out and inevitably you will use it while commuting or sitting outside in the sun. Today, we conduct an extensive daytime reading test to see how the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook performs in direct sunlight. Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook – Outdoor Reading Test is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 vs Samsung 4 Nook
| The Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook are two tablets that are exclusively geared towards reading. Today, we look at the core differences between the two devices to give you a sense on their overall capabilities. Amazon tends to use a heavily skinned version of Android called Mojito. You cannot really establish live wallpapers or setup widgets on your home screen. The HDX was designed to integrate completely with the entire Amazon ecosystem, such as movies, television shows, apps and books. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook on the other hand is running Kitkat, and new Android updates should occur very quickly. Unlike prior Nook tablets, this one has two cameras and better sound. It also has Google Play to access new content, so you can do business with other bookstores. The prime motivation behind this Good e-Reader comparison is to give you a sense on how the UI is all laid out, how eBooks look and what type of functionality you get with PDF files. We also demonstrate how the entire ecosystems perform, from a Canadian point of view.
Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 vs Samsung 4 Nook is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Friday, September 5, 2014
e-Readers of the Future to use Flexible Graphene Displays
| Graphene is one of the strongest materials ever made and is designed to be totally flexible. It is more conductive than copper and it only has a layer of carbon one-atom thick. Discovered just under a decade ago, researchers have fervently been developing practical applications. Cambridge researchers have just developed a flexible e-paper display screen using Graphene. The new prototype is an active matrix electrophoretic display, similar to the screens used in today's e-readers, except it is made of flexible plastic instead of glass. In contrast to conventional displays, the pixel electronics, or backplane, of this display includes a solution-processed graphene electrode, which replaces the sputtered metal electrode layer within Plastic Logic's conventional devices, bringing product and process benefits. The new 150 pixel per inch (150 ppi) backplane was made at low temperatures (less than 100°C) using Plastic Logic's Organic Thin Film Transistor (OTFT) technology. The graphene electrode was deposited from solution and subsequently patterned with micron-scale features to complete the backplane. "We are happy to see our collaboration with Plastic Logic resulting in the first graphene-based electrophoretic display exploiting graphene in its pixels' electronics," said Professor Andrea Ferrari, Director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre. "This is a significant step forward to enable fully wearable and flexible devices. This cements the Cambridge graphene-technology cluster and shows how an effective academic-industrial partnership is key to help move graphene from the lab to the factory floor." "The potential of graphene is well-known, but industrial process engineering is now required to transition graphene from laboratories to industry," said Indro Mukerjee, CEO of Plastic Logic. "This demonstration puts Plastic Logic at the forefront of this development, which will soon enable a new generation of ultra-flexible and even foldable electronics"
e-Readers of the Future to use Flexible Graphene Displays is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kobo Unveils New Mystery Contest for $5,000 in Cash and H20 e-Reader
| When you release a new e-reader, how do you generate enough buzz without an expensive marketing campaign and a slew of television commercials? You appeal to the base of voracious readers that are most likely to buy it. In anticipation of the release of the movie versions of Gillian Flynn's hit suspense novels Gone Girl and Dark Places, Kobo has launched a new mystery campaign called ‘Going, Going Gone.’ Kicking off today, readers have the opportunity to channel their inner sleuth to solve puzzles by gathering clues found in three original short stories authored by acclaimed mystery writer Melissa Yi, available free of charge at the Kobo bookstore. In the first story Cain and Abel, released today, readers are invited to go along for the ride when a camping weekend leads to much more drama – and distress – than desired. How exactly do you play this little mystery game? Well, you need to download the Kobo app for Android or iOS. There are three books you have to read, Cain and Abel, Trouble and Strife (released September 16) and Butcher's Hook (released September 29.) The six-week contest opens on September 29th and closes on October 10, one week after the release of Gone Girl on October 3. Here are the exact riddles you need to know to enter the contest Riddle #1 Leclaire to the west, Wabun to the east, Green to the north; in 1966, The Scottish Devil consumed their sister, a fish. Riddle #2 Check the frog and toad, his boom and missen was this fisherman’s daughter. Riddle #3 K.S. took an interest in the final resting place of Richard Watts. Kobo Unveils New Mystery Contest for $5,000 in Cash and H20 e-Reader is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New Margaret Atwood Book to be Locked in a Time Capsule
| Margaret Atwood is a Man Booker prize-winning novelist and her latest title will not be released for one hundred years. She is joining the Future Library, which will see 99 other authors lock their books away in a time capsule. The Future Library was the brainchild of Scottish artist Katie Paterson, the project is based in Norway, where the city of Oslo has gifted a patch of woodland near the city to the Future Library Trust. Paterson has planted 1,000 trees there, which will grow for 100 years before being cut down and turned into paper to print an anthology of all the books which have been submitted over the century. “It is the kind of thing you either immediately say yes or no to. You don’t think about it for very long,” said Atwood, speaking from Copenhagen. “I think it goes right back to that phase of our childhood when we used to bury little things in the backyard, hoping that someone would dig them up, long in the future, and say, ‘How interesting, this rusty old piece of tin, this little sack of marbles is. I wonder who put it there?'” Every year the brain trust will select another title to be included in the project. The physical titles will be stored at the Deichmanske Public Library, which is opening in 2018 in Bjørvika, Oslo. The organizers are even setting up a printing press, to insure that the anthology will actually be printed, when the world switches to digital. New Margaret Atwood Book to be Locked in a Time Capsule is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Google to Pay Back $19M for App Purchases by Kids
| Following in the footsteps of a 32.5M settlement reached with Apple in January, Google has agreed to pay back over $19M in charges racked up by kids playing games on smartphones and tablets. According to the details of the suit, the Federal Trade Commission noted that children were able to make these considerable payments using their parents’ credit cards for in-app currency and incentives. In addition to the monies being returned, Google also agreed to update their billing practices so this kind of thing cannot happen in the future. Beginning in March of this year, Google has ensured that users are more aware of when actual money is being spent. They also allow consumers to decide if they want to be prompted for each purchase that is made (something that makes good sense, even if you don’t share your devices with other people –a little bit of hassle is worth the protection of not transferring money on a whim). This wasn’t the case in 2011, when Google allowed purchases to be made inside apps without any password required. In 2012, a password was required, but entering it began a 30-minute window during which additional purchases could be made without further verification. At the time the suit was filed, Google’s response to parents had been to advise they take their complaints directly to the app developers responsible for the games being played.
Google to Pay Back $19M for App Purchases by Kids is a post from: Good e-Reader |
14 million images from 2 million eBooks being Uploaded to Flickr
| The Internet Archive and Open Library offers over 6,000,000 fully accessible public domain eBooks for free. This massive content pool has inspired Kalev Leetaru, a Yahoo researcher at Georgetown to extract over 14 million images from 2 million public domain books and upload them to Flickr. In a statement on the Flickr blog “Perhaps what is most remarkable about this collection is that these images come not from some newly-unearthed archive being seen for the first time, but rather from the books that we have been digitizing for years that have been resting in our digital libraries. Through the power of big data we are suddenly able to view the world's books not as merely piles of text, but as individualized galleries of one of the richest and most diverse museums of imagery in the world. The Internet Archive's team hopes that this project inspires us all to reconnect with our cultural past and that you will join this exciting journey to unlock the visual tapestry of the world's books. Check back regularly as more of the 14 million images will be uploaded to Flickr over the coming months!” The purpose of this image uploading project is to allow the internet at large, to remix existing photos from public domain books. This allows anyone to be able to use them without having to pay a copyright or licensing fee. If you feel like walking down memory lane, check out the official project on Flickr. 14 million images from 2 million eBooks being Uploaded to Flickr is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Digg Solidifies Relationship to Twitter with RSS Reader and iOS App
| Trying desperately to remain relevant, Digg recently launched a new service that pulls together trending stories for you based on the people you follow on Twitter. Cleverly called Digg Deeper, this service is now available on more platforms –including an upgrade to their Digg iOS app. Speaking on the new service, Digg describes their release by stating, “It's a great way to turn your often-overwhelming social streams into low-volume, high-value feed from the people and channels you trust.” With these updates you can scan the most-shared stories, videos, and links –but only rated across your personal Twitter connections (meaning you will get the stories that are relevant to you and not be forced to see some of the ridiculous trending topics that you want to avoid). Prefer to see these things once a day without monitoring the app? These latest updates also offer an opt-in Daily Digest email option. Portal style services like Digg Deeper make a lot of sense. Many of us want to keep up with the latest news, but following a timeline with hundreds (if not thousands) of entries is overwhelming and time consuming. Using Digg Deeper, you get to see the stories that are most popular (and therefore most shared)… without duplication. If you don’t have an iOS device, have no fear, Digg for Android will be updated soon as well –download it now for free and be prepared.
Digg Solidifies Relationship to Twitter with RSS Reader and iOS App is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Samsung Launches New Galaxy Notes, Gear
| Samsung kicked off the September of product launches with an event that brought us a new Galacy Note 4, Note Edge, Gear S Watch, and Gear VR Headset. When you are the company usually accused of copying Apple and their designs… it takes guts to hold your event first, and it takes talent to release products that get people talking. Samsung accomplished both of these things. Galaxy Note Edge We saw hints of this curved display (from a distance) over a year ago, but it looks even more amazing when up close. The Galaxy Note Edge is an innovative looking smartphone with a display that rounds off over the right hand side of the screen. It’s sleek. It’s sexy. It’s DIFFERENT. While it may make putting this phone inside a case a bit more of a challenge, that isn’t something consumers have to worry about. It appears practical (allowing you to slide menu items off to the side while still keeping them touchable and accessible. It’s extra screen real-estate (to the tune of 160 rows of extra pixels) without making a larger device –and it’s exciting! While this is a bit of a monster as far as smartphones are concerned, the Edge offers a lot of function that may be attractive to power users (unless you happen to be left handed, initial reports are telling us that the screen feels sharp and uncomfortable on the tapered side). The specs of the phone are the same as the Note 4, so keep reading to learn more. Galaxy Note 4 Coming in at 3.8mm narrower than the Not Edge, but 2.2mm longer, the Galaxy Note 4 is apparently a little more comfortable to hold. It doesn’t have the beautiful tapered side, but it’s still an updated version of the over-sized 5.7″ Note that many smartphone users have come to love. It now has an aluminum frame, making it look classier and higher-end –which is good, when you are trying to market a device as a premium smartphone. The glass appears flat, but it is 2.5D, meaning there is a subtle bend along the edges of the screen. Other improvements are standard fare: an improved front-facing camera (with a 3.7MP sensor and an aperture of f/1.9 giving better low-light photographs), improved battery (going from 3,200mAh to 3,220mAh), Super AMOLED screen that improves on the previous 1080p resolution (now 2,560×1,440), upgraded rear-facing camera (16MP over the previous 13MP), and a faster 2.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor with a 600MHz Adreno 420 GPU. The RAM remains the same as the Note 3, at 3GB. 32GB and 64GB models will be available, which means you can bump it up to 128GB with a 64GB microSD card (unfortunately the device doesn’t support using a 128GB card). Those of you who were watching the S5 with great interest, will be happy to know that the fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor are now included in the Note. For anybody who didn’t like the unsightly USB 3.0 connector found on the Note 3, Samsung has moved back to USB 2.0 on this new phone –it seems hardly anybody took advantage of the higher speeds, so the manufacturer went with form over function in this area. Gear S Smartwatch Samsung has been playing in the wearables market for a while now, with the latest entry being the Gear S. It is larger than most other smartwatches, with a curved 2-inch AMOLED screen that features a 480×360 pixel resolution. Powered by a 1GHz processor and backed by 512MB of RAM, the Gear S runs Tizen capably. There are a few gadgets and gizmos of course, with a GPS sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, UV detector, barometer, and heart rate monitor. Meant to be a compliment to a smartphone, the Gear S can function on its own as well –running many of its own apps and even featuring a QWERTY touch keyboard (which can only be described as awkward). Gear VR Headset Capitalizing on the virtual reality excitement in the tech marketplace these days, Samsung has announced the Gear VR headset. It isn’t a standalone product, with no CPU of its own –but it does feature the Galaxy Note 4’s quad HD display to deliver impressive and immersive graphics. It looks a little old-school, basically looking like a large plastic rectangle when placed over your eyes –making me wonder why they wouldn’t just release a cradle style holster so any of the Note smartphones could function as this device. There isn’t much in the way of content available for this headset just yet –but stay tuned, the more this technology is implemented, the more developers will create titles for it. The one way Samsung failed at this event is that they didn’t tell us exactly what these new toys will cost us, or when exactly we can get our hands on them (other than saying ‘in October’). This is an area where Apple tends to excel, letting all of their announcements finish with answers to the who/what/when/where/why/how much questions we are dying to ask.
Samsung Launches New Galaxy Notes, Gear is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Big Library Read is back!
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What is Big Library Read? Title: Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes Subjects: Young Adult Fiction, Romance Publisher: HarperCollins
Lending model: The title will be available for simultaneous use, meaning no holds for users. Formats available: Both eBook and audiobook formats of this title will be available for the program. Users will be able to read the title in their browser immediately through OverDrive Read, or download the EPUB, Kindle (U.S. only), or MP3 format to enjoy on nearly every device. How does the program work? At the end of the program, the title will be removed from your collection (unless previously purchased) and available for purchase in OverDrive’s Marketplace should your library wish to offer continued access (eBook – $15.99 USD in the Metered Access lending model, audiobook – $43.99 USD). If your library purchases the title before the start of the program, it will remain in your collection and be converted to the simultaneous use model for the duration of the program. When is the next Big Library Read? Who can participate? The Big Library Read program is open to all OverDrive partners worldwide, and participation is on an opt-in basis. Sign up below by October 1, 2014. The title will then be automatically added to your digital collection on October 13. Sign up here. What resources are available to promote the Big Library Read? A free MARC record for the title will be provided via OverDrive MARC Express at no cost and sent via email to the email address provided at sign-up (a separate record will be sent for each format). This will allow the title to be discoverable through your library’s catalog and existing integration for adopters of OverDrive APIs. Connect with the author during the Big Library Read http://andreaportes.wordpress.com/about https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/278993.Andrea_Portes https://twitter.com/andrea_portes https://www.facebook.com/andreaportes If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact your library’s Account Specialist at OverDrive. We hope you’ll participate in the next Big Library Read!  |
After thousands of readers across the globe cast their vote, OverDrive excitedly announces the title that topped them all for this fall’s Big Library Read: 
Weekly eHighlights: Adult edition
Click here to view the Marketplace cart of these titles and many more. The Usual Suspects: Guaranteed Bestsellers
Fiction Chelsea Cain – One Kick Kick Lannigan was kidnapped at age six, and rescued at eleven, but her abductor trained her in all kinds of interesting skills, including bomb making, lock picking, and marksmanship. Now she's an adult and in order to feel safe, has augmented these skills with many others, and will use them to help free two kidnapped children. This one is much loved on Edelweiss, and is a Library Reads pick.
Christine Feehan – Dark Blood Christine Feehan, the "queen of paranormal romance," is back with a new Carpathian novel.
Terry Goodkind – Severed Souls Goodkind's fantasy novels have hordes of Legend of the Seeker fans. In this one, an army of the dead threatens the world of the living, and a magical sickness threatens Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell.
Kay Hooper – Haunted NY Times bestselling author Hooper returns with the new novel in the Bishop/SCU series. A small town is on edge when two local men are killed under mysterious circumstances and the prime suspect insists it was a paranormal murder.
Jan Karon – Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good The newest Mitford novel will please Karon's millions of fans, who have been waiting since 2005 for a new book in the series. Father Tim Kavanagh, who has been retired for five years, returns to Mitford with his wife. When he's offered a pulpit, he decides he doesn't want it, and wonders if he's lost his passion.
Margaret Maron – Designated Daughters Here's the latest from the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. Judge Deborah Knott is summoned to her Aunt Rachel's bedside. The dying woman is awake and surrounded by what seems like the whole town, and is telling random stories. But less than an hour later, she's found dead—smothered by a pillow. Who would kill a woman on her deathbed?
Colleen McCullough – Bittersweet Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds was a blockbuster bestseller decades ago. This is billed as her first epic romantic novel since that time, and is set in Australia like the earlier novel.
David Mitchell – The Bone Clocks By the author of the bestselling Cloud Atlas.
Lauren Oliver – Rooms A chilling ghost story by the bestselling author of Before I Fall and the Delirium trilogy. When a wealthy man dies, leaving behind his country house packed with his belongings, his estranged family arrive to claim their inheritance. But they are not alone. Long dead former residents of the house linger within its claustrophobic walls.
Emily St. John Mandel – Station Eleven This Library Reads honoree is receiving rave reviews, and may be even more popular due to the current Ebola epidemic. A terrible flu has spread and killed most of the people on the earth. This novel spans decades, moving back and forth in time to depict the world before and after the epidemic.
Thrity Umrigar – The Story Hour Another Library Reads pick, Umrigar, with each new novel, picks up more and more fans. An experienced psychologist manages to maintain emotional distance from her patients until she meets a young Indian woman who tried to kill herself.
Nonfiction Andrew Cuomo – All Things Possible New book by possible Presidential candidate and governor of New York.
Steve Harvey – Act Like a Success, Think Like a Success HarperCollins eBook & audiobook The author of Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man is back with his plan for succeeding in life. 750,000 print run.
Nicky Hilton – 365 Style Hilton has created her own style, and in this guide, she shares her best-kept style secrets and explains how to discover your own style.
Euny Hong – The Birth of Korean Cool Hong grew up in Gangnam—yes, the Seoul, South Korea neighborhood Psy mocked in his viral video "Gangnam Style." In her book, she explains how a really uncool country became cool, and how a nation that once banned miniskirts, long hair on men, and rock and roll, could become known for its pop music and a smartphone in every pocket.
Paul Johnson – Eisenhower: A Life Acclaimed and bestselling historian Johnson is back with a biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower, focusing mainly on his years as a general and his two terms as president.
Ronald Kessler – The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents From the bestselling author of In the President's Secret Service. The book covers the entire sweep of the Secret Service Agency's relationship with the president and his family, and tells the story of what it is like to be a secret service agent.
Jeffrey Kluger – The Narcissist Next Door An award-winning senior writer at Time explores narcissism with insight and wit. He includes new research on narcissism and explains how to recognize and understand them so that you aren't overtaken by them. Narcissists are everywhere. They are entertainers, politicians, business people, your neighbors, and odds are they're intelligent, confident, articulate, and the center of attention.
Eric Schmidt & Jonathan Rosenberg – How Google Works Two of Google's most senior executives offer their sometimes contrarian techniques for how to hire, manage, motivate, strategize, and grow a business.
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