Kindles for Me and My Youngest Two

For Christmas we added three identical Kindle Fires to our household. They're the inexpensive new model that Amazon has for sale here and I couldn't be any happier with them. Everything I loved about my first generation Kindle Fire applies to the new ones... plus these are a whole lot lighter, have cameras, have easy to use parental controls, and the memory can be expanded with a microSD card. (As far as I can tell, the memory isn't partitioned like the memory on my old Kindle was. I had tons and tons of memory left over for books, but no room for any more games --annoying, since I had thousands of books and only a few apps.)

I didn't want to get the Kids Edition for my boys because (in addition to being more expensive) I thought it might be too locked down for our needs. I'm hoping these will last at least a couple of years and the limits I need now aren't going to be the same limits I need later.  I want enough control over the boys's tablets that they aren't freely roaming the internet or accidentally making purchases, but I want to be able to fine tune those settings as we go.

With these new Fires, I could set a curfew for weekdays and weekends, limit screen time, and set daily goals so  that they can't play Minecraft until they spend a certain amount of time reading. I've got all of those limits turned off for the moment because I'd rather do the supervising myself than depend on devices to do it for me.

My own Kindle is set up to stream Netflix and Hulu while I'm at the sewing machine.  If I was just using it  for books, I'd probably be happy with the Kindle app for my iphone, but for what I want to do, this little tablet is going to be perfect.

The Death of my Kindle Fire

After a slow, lingering decline, my first generation Kindle Fire finally charged its last charge earlier this week. My best guess is that its loose charging port, which was an issue with the first Kindles, finally gave out. I hate that it died, but I really have no complaints. The device lasted four years, which is longer than I expected. Between me and the boys, it was in almost constant use for books and apps and streaming video. (And Minecraft. Lots and lots of Minecraft.)

Teenage Daughter, who is busy with other non-Kindley things, has been kind enough to let me use hers until I get a replacement. So I can still watch Netflix in my little sewing nook. These days, I do most of my ebook reading on my new-to-me iPhone 4s. I usually need to be close to the phone and using it instead of the Kindle means there's less thing to carry with me.

If you want to give ebooks a try but aren't sure you'll love them, install the Kindle app onto your smart phone. There are lots of free books available and many libraries have ebooks available as an option.

Everything I loved when we first got our Kindles still applies. Now the question is whether I want the new, inexpensive one or something with a few more bells and whistles. For what I do, I think I'd be just fine with, and less intimidated by, the fifty dollar one.

{Kindle Freebie} The Murder Pit

Last spring, I recommended this cozy mystery by Jeff Shelby. Today, I saw that it's being offered as a Kindle freebie, so I'm reposting my original review. I don't know how long that offer is good for, so remember to check the price before you order.

When I decided to read The Murder Pit by Jeff Shelby, it was because the heroine, Daisy Savage, finds a corpse in the coal chute of her hundred-year-old home. Old houses with bodies hidden in the walls, as long as they're the fictional kind, always intrigue me. I didn't realize until I got into the book that Daisy is a homeschooling mom of four. She's not a detective, even if she did do a unit study on forensics with her kids a while back, but she's being snubbed by the members of their local homeschooling co-op because no one wants their kids in her classes. Everyone in town knows that she dated the victim before marrying her husband and most of her neighbors seem to think there was a lot more to that one date and that she must've had something to do with his presence in her house.

{Kindle Freebie} Harry and the Hot Lava

If you've got a Kindle and someone to read picture books to, scoot over to Amazon and download Harry and the Hot Lava while it's still a freebie.


Remember playing hot lava on the monkey bars and the couch and anything else you could use for climbing a hopping? This book captures that feeling so perfectly, with wonderful vivid illustrations of lava bubbling and boiling through every room of the house.

Disclosure - I found this one all on my own. :-)

{Kindle Freebie} More Mysteries

These sound like fun --



From the book's page on Amazon:

When Val Valentyn suggests that someone should put her nasty boss out of his misery, she is only joking. But when Val stumbles into her bedroom and finds Mr. Potter, his blood soaking into her brand new 400-thread-count sheets, it seems she has been taken literally. 

Val knows that regardless of a couple minor, not even worth mentioning incidents, where she was a teensy bit violent after one too many drinks, there is no way she killed her cheap, petty, world-class halitosis suffering boss. May he rest in peace. The problem is, the police are convinced it was she who stabbed Mr. Potter. 

Someone has to find the real killer and it looks like it will have to be Val. But she's not alone. Her best friend Julie and her seventy-two year old neighbour Rose, are along for the ride. 
While their sleuthing skills may be negligible, Val is convinced that determination and a positive attitude will lead them to the killer. And while she isn't personally blessed with either of these qualities, she is plenty desperate, and doesn't inspiration come from desperation? Or something like that. Inspiration comes from something. 

It's the first book in the series and I don't know anything else about it, but it sounds good to me and I've just added it to my own Kindle. Prices on Amazon change quickly, so make sure you look before you click. 

And just as I was getting ready to publish this post, I found another one --





From the Book's page on Amazon:

Melanie' Travis's life is going to the dogs. With school out for the summer, a stint as a camp counselor falling through, and her sometime boyfriend dumping her for a Las Vegas chorus girl, the thirty-something Connecticut teacher and single mother figures that things can't get any worse.

She figures wrong...

Everyone knew that Melanie's Uncle Max had a weak heart. When Aunt Peg finds him dead on the cold floor of their championship kennel, surrounded by eleven whining, prize-winning Standard poodles, she isn't shocked...and doesn't panic. But Melanie is surprised when, three days after the funeral, Peg shows up seeking her help. One of her prize pooches is missing -- and it's beginning to look like Max's sudden demise is more a matter of... murder.

With her four-year-old son Davey happily ensconced in day camp, Melanie manages to maneuver herself into Connecticut's elite canine circles. Posing as a poodle breeder in search of the perfect stud, she mingles with sophisticated exhibitors and professional handlers...and soon starts feeling a little out of her clas. Until she meets Sam Driver. Although the irresistibly attractive breeder is soon wooing her with seductive candle lit dinners, Melanie resolves to be wary.

Then the killer strikes again, and Melanie realizes that she has been barking up the wrong tree. As events -- mysterious and romantic -- culminate in the celebrated Westminster Dog Show, she suddenly finds herself on a long leash of intrigue and greed...hot on the scent of a chilling secret to die for. 

{Kindle Freebie} Soup...Er Myrtle!

Just a quick post to let you know that Soup...Er...Myrtle!, the fourth book in the Myrtle Crumb series of cozy mysteries by Gayle Trent, is available on Amazon as a free download right now. I haven't read this one in the two days since it came out, but  since I've already blogged about the other three books in the series, I wanted to let you know that there's a new one.

{Kindle Freebie} Make the Moments Count

I've only read through the first half, but I wanted to write a quick post about Make the Moments Count - 121 Adventurous, Unique and Affordable Family and Kids Activities while it's still available as a free Kindle download.  Based on what I've read so far, this is a great resource. I've read lots of lists of "things to do with the kids," but I've been a mom for long enough that most of the ideas are familiar ones. This book includes a lot of suggestions I hadn't seen before, along with a few really boring ones that are on all of the other lists, and a few that just boggle my mind. Why on Earth would anyone want to rent a chicken?   (And, at $250 for a few months, how does that qualify as affordable?)  There are a couple of minor editing issues and ads for the author's other books tucked in between the chapters, but the useful information makes those easy to overlook.

Kindle prices change quickly, so remember to check before you click the purchase button.

Free Mystery for Kindle -- Deadly Arrangements

I've had the first book in the Cozy Flower Shop mystery series on my Kindle for months, long enough that the second book, Deadly Arrangements, is now  available -- and it's free, at least for today!

From Amazon:

All florist Quincy McKay wants is success in business, a happy family and the perfect romance with Alex Cooper, the hottest cop in the state. Not necessarily in that order, of course. Is that so much to ask?

The trouble is, between Alex’s job and planning weddings, it’s getting harder and harder for Quincy and Alex to find any time to themselves. Every time the flames of passion ignite between them, someone or something shows up to fizzle the fire, including her meddling mother, her formerly absent father and even Elma, the handsiest waitress in the West.

Wedded bliss is contagious in small town Hillside. Should be great news for Quincy, except that one groom is missing and another is the prime suspect. Hard for a florist to make a living that way, and even harder for her to stay out of the investigation, especially when the suspect is her sidekick, K.C.’s fiancé.

Just when she thinks nothing else could go wrong, a ghost from Alex’s past comes back to haunt them both, which could keep them apart forever, if someone doesn’t kill Quincy first. She’s stumbled into the clues to solve the case of the missing groom and finds a corpse as well, proving that planning a wedding can literally be murder.

Remember that Amazon prices can change without warning, so check the price before you click that order button. There was some confusion with my Fifty Shades of Greyhound giveaway and a winner was announced early. The giveaway is still open until June 4, so click over to the post and leave a comment if you want to enter.

Free Mysteries for Kindle

It's a good day for free mysteries on the Kindle!  Check out what I found and downloaded...

All of the descriptions are from Amazon. Prices change quickly, so check before you click that purchase button.




Dying to Get Published by Judy Fitzwater

Jennifer Marsh is a mystery writer with a stack of eight unpublished manuscripts and rejection letters to match filling her closet. She's sure that if she can just get famous for something, someone will have to publish her books. Why not murder?

She'll find a target so mean that she'd actually be doing the world a favor by bumping him or her off. And she knows just the person:
Penney Richmond, a high-powered literary agent who's made it her job to ruin people's lives. All Jennifer has to do is frame herself, do the deed, and come out with an iron-clad alibi, and she'll be well on her way to getting a three book deal. So what if she chickens out at the last minute? A vegetarian good girl who rescued a greyhound could never actually kill someone. But when Penney is found murdered and the police think Jennifer did it, she’d better find the real murderer before she goes away... for life.

Along with her eccentric writer's group, spunky old ladies with a nose for sleuthing, her neurotic greyhound, and a sexy, sarcastic reporter named Sam, Jennifer embarks on a journey filled with danger, deception, and disguises that could leave her Dying to Get Published...



New Math Is Murder by Jo-Ann Lamon Reccoppa

Reporter Colleen Caruso was never good at math.

A stingy ex-husband, a teenage daughter, and a rusted-out Ford Escort have multiplied her troubles. Tripping over a dead body while on her morning jog seems like another incident for the minus column.

But then her new editor at the newspaper gives her a regular column detailing the investigation. He's handsome, single, and just a bit mysterious. Suddenly, Colleen's life is on the plus side.

Unfortunately, 1 dead algebra teacher + 2 secret affairs + 4 suspicious suspects quickly adds up to 3 perilous "accidents" for Colleen




Dolled Up For Murder by Deb Baker

"Caroline Birch. Put her away." The message was clutched in the fist of a destitute former doll collector found dead at the bottom of a cliff with a valuable French doll’s parasol in her pocket. And the person seen fleeing the crime scene fits Caroline’s description. But Gretchen Birch knows her mother is innocent. The problem is, Caroline has disappeared – and she’s left an urgent warning that Gretchen is in danger, too. 






Death Comes to Town by K. J. Emrick

Darcy Sweet would like to think that she is just an ordinary woman, happy in her life running the Sweet Read bookstore. But she isn't ordinary. She has a connection to the other side that seems to draw her into mysterious situations more often than not. Add to the mix the antics of a rather naughty, slightly psychic cat and the eccentric ghost of her great-aunt Millie, and you have a recipe for anything but the ordinary.

When Darcy's neighbor is murdered she is drawn into the mystery against her will when she finds the body. She tries to leave the investigation to the police, one of which is her sister, but an overheard conversation and a small nudge from the other side has her investigating the murder. The stakes are raised when the murderer strikes again. Who was killing the people in her life?

Things are complicated even more by her building attraction to her sister's new cop partner, who makes it clear he does not appreciate Darcy's interference in the investigation. Sparks fly between the two of them as they get further into the mystery surrounding the deaths.

With a town full of suspects how will Darcy work out who the murderer is? None of the pieces to the puzzle fit. Things become more complicated and dangerous as Darcy's own life is threatened. Will she survive to see justice served?

Free Cozy Mysteries for your Kindle!

It's a good day for free cozy mysteries over at Amazon... I found several that are new to me, and downloaded them all. I haven't read any of these myself yet, but if I wait until I've found time to read them, they may or may not be free anymore. They may not be free by the time you read these (Amazon prices change quickly, especially on ebooks) so make sure to check the prices before clicking that order button!

Murder by Syllabub--
A ghost in Colonial dress has been wreaking havoc at an old plantation house in Virginia. The house is owned by Elizabeth Smithwood, the best friend of Ellen’s Aunt Mary. Mary is determined to fly to the rescue, and Ellen McKenzie has no choice but to leave her real estate business and new husband to accompany her. Who else will keep the old girl out of trouble? When Ellen and Aunt Mary arrive, they find that Elizabeth’s “house” comprises three sprawling buildings containing all manner of secret entrances and passages, not to mention slave cabins. But who owns what and who owned whom? After Monty—the so-called ghost and stepson of Elizabeth’s dead husband—turns up dead in Elizabeth’s house, suspicion falls on her. Especially when the cause of death is a poisoned glass of syllabub taken from a batch of the sweet, creamy after-dinner drink sitting in Elizabeth’s refrigerator. Monty had enemies to spare. Why was he roaming the old house? What was he searching for? To find the truth, Ellen and her Aunt Mary will have to do much more than rummage through stacks of old crates; they will have to expose two hundred years of grudges and vendettas. The spirits they disturb are far deadlier than the one who brought them to Virginia. Murder by Syllabub is the fifth book of the Ellen McKenzie Mystery series.

Murder Half Baked--
A dead man in the cemetery, another in the bakery. Ellen McKenzie has to find the killer soon ... before another death puts a stop to her wedding. The groom is Dan Dunham, Santa Louisa’s Chief of Police. The guest list is growing and Ellen’s dreams of a small, intimate candlelight ceremony are rapidly disappearing. A major distraction is Ellen’s quest to find a new building for Grace House, a halfway house for needy women. Then she finds old Dr Sadler dead in the cemetery, his head bashed in by the arm of a marble angel. Every suspect is connected to Grace House. After it goes up in flames, all the residents, including one new-born, move in with Ellen and Dan. Will Ellen and Dan ever solve the murders and get their lives back?

Deadly Magic--
A night of magic turns into a night of murder.
It's Halloween night and the normally unhappy co-workers of the Straker Toy Company are eagerly looking forward to the celebration of their tyrannical boss' fiftieth birthday. None more so than Grace Holliday. After all, it's not every day she gets invited to the annual costumed bash at the Dragon's Lair, the premier magic theater in Manhattan.
What promises as a night of magic and mystery, quickly turns into a night of mayhem and murder when the boss' equally tyrannical wife dies on stage.
According to the police, it was an obvious suicide. Now it's up to Grace to discover which one of her co-workers pulled off the trick of the year before she becomes the killer's next victim.

Killer Cupcakes--
Things are going great for Lexy Baker. She's finally opened her dream bakery, gotten rid of her cheating boyfriend and settled into her grandmothers house with her perky dog Sprinkles at her side.
But her blissful life doesn't last long. When her ex boyfriend is found poisoned with cupcakes from her bakery, Lexy finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation headed up by her hunky neighbor detective Jack Perillo.
With the help of a gang of iPad toting, would-be detective grandmothers, Lexy decides to take it upon herself to find the real murderer in order to clear her name and get her bakery back in business.
As things heat up on the murder trail, in the kitchen and between Lexy and the hunky detective, it's a race against time to put the real murderer behind bars and get back to baking.
Will Lexy get her man?

Quick and Easy (and temporary!) Light Box Substitute

I don't do enough tracing to justify purchasing a light box, not when I've got perfectly good windows and a perfectly good table with a glass top. And now I've got this --

The table I usually use has a shallow drawer, so I turn my Kindle fire to the highest brightness setting and set the browser to a site with a white background and little text, put it in the drawer, and lay  what I'm tracing onto the glass.  If I'm tracing something detailed, I also set the screen timeout to longer than a couple of minutes. (At least I should. Usually I forget and wind up tapping the screen every time it dims.)

When it was time to chart the letter for Teenage Daughter's sweater, I wondered if the same trick would work with one of my clear storage boxes. It does -- with the added bonus that I don't have to keep the kids away  from the table until I'm done tracing, or sit on the floor next to the table!

This post is linked to Craft-O-Maniac, WFMW, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Think Tank Thursday.

Free Mystery for Your Kindle!

A Charming Crime by Tonya Kappes is free on Amazon right now. I haven't read this one myself yet, but it sounds fun! Remember that Amazon prices change quickly, so check to see what you're spending before clicking that order button...



Here's the description from Amazon:

Bubble... Bubble...

June Heal has nothing to lose when she relocates her homeopathic cure shop, A Dose of Darla, from the flea market booth in her home town, to a quaint shop in the cozy but unusual little town of Whispering Falls, Kentucky. Or so it seems.

Cures and trouble...

Whispering Falls has a lot of secrets. From talking snow globes to whispering animals not to mention a few sprinkles of fairy dust, June realizes Whispering Falls is more magical than she thought. . .literally.

Magic stirs...

June discovers she was born into a family of psychics, and her homeopathic cures truly are magical. Unfortunately, they are not magical enough to save her from being the number one murder suspect when a member of the community that she had just had a disagreement with shows up face down in the lake with June’s lucky charm in the victim’s grasp.

And troubles double...

Add to that an attraction to her high school best friend, Sheriff Oscar Park and Mr. Prince Charming, her cat, is stealing charms from Belle’s Baubles, June is forced to clear her name in more ways than murder. After all, they don’t have cauldrons in jail.

A Charming Crime is book one of the bestselling Magical Cures Mystery series. Come walk around Whispering Falls for a fun, fantasy mystery with magic and romance. You won't want to leave.