Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Sony Meetup: New Reader Roundup

Yesterday was the Sony Reader Meet Up in New York City, and a very awesome crowd of people were in attendance, which was awesome. There were passed hors d’oeuvres and refreshing beverages, or grog, if you’re me, and there were giant TVs all over the place that didn’t fit in my purse or else I’d have one now.

What *did* fit in my purse but what I alas do not have with me now are the new Sony Readers. The new line was introduced to the crowd at the Meetup, after which we talked about what books we’re reading, which books we were loving, and which books were not rocking our worlds. During the book chat, the Readers were passed around so everyone could try them out. Plus, everyone who attended received a coupon via email for a free download from a selection of Carina Press books - which I recommended because they are DRM free. If you’re curious about digital books, DRM-free is a good place to start with your trial reading. (Thank you, Carina!!)

They were sleek and sexy and beautiful and since the event, many people have asked me what I think. Here’s… read more »

Everywhere you go, there’s a Kindle or an App

In other news of the digitally bookward today, Kindle has released a PC application that allows you to buy Kindle books without… actually owning a Kindle.

It’s currently available for that oh-so-smexxy Windows 7, and with the app installed you can read Kindle books, download anything you’ve already purchased from your Kindle leased-titles library, and add and synchonize notes to and from your Kindle app on iPhone and iTouch.

The new upgrade to Kindle for iPhone or Blackberry adds that notetaking and annotation functionality to the phone, so now whatever you’re reading is accessible with your notes and bookmarks on the Kindle, your iPhone or iTouch, or your Blackberry, and now on your PC.

When I asked the PR person who sent me the alert about the Kindle for PC application, I replied and asked, without whining, “What about Mac?”

And holy crap on a Kindle-shaped cracker, Amazon’s director of communication sent me the details: “Yup. Kindle app for Mac is on the way in the coming months.”

Ok, so here’s the TMI portion of our blog entry. It’s below the fold. (Snort).

An Ebook Price Rant from Test Driver Liz

Smart Bitch Test Driver Liz has a major beef with St. Martin’s Macmillan. Have a look.

How To Lose Sales And Really Enrage Readers, St. Martin’s / Macmillan Style

How do you take someone who loves Lisa Kleypas so much she read first person contemporary romance in hardcover and make her unable to discuss the shiny new release Tempt Me At Twilight without resorting to the type of language that requires the ingestion of a soap bar? (Because if this conversation included video, you would see the bubbles frothing out of my mouth right now. It’s entirely possible that steam is coming out of my ears, but I’m too blinded by anger to look.) As it turns out, it’s incredibly simple. All you need to do is show utter contempt for her most loyal readers through an astonishingly cynical cash grab.

Don’t believe me? Wonder if I also think we’re living in End Times? Oh, stay with me. You’ll need the soap too.

During the media blitz for Tempt Me At Twilight the price of $14.99 was floated. This led to the very natural assumption that the book was probably… read more »

Sony 505 Review: A Report from Karen

So I’ve been looking at ebook readers for a while, as I’m a voracious reader and I am rapidly running out of space for all my books.  Like with my iPod I wanted the freedom to have options with my reading on the go, not to mention not having to lug heavy hardcovers.

The main thing keeping me back at the time?  The variety of formats and the price.  There was no way I was going shelling out $350 Canadian for something when I couldn’t be sure I was going to be able to buy books wherever I want and read them on the device, and without trying it out first.

Enter the test drive (vroom vroom!).  So far I’ve had my Sony PRS-505 for a month and I’ve found it to be much like my iPod was when I first got it: it fits easily into my life as-is.

Let me explain.  I commute on the bus to work every day, and in the last month I’ve read more during that commute than I think I have in the 6 months before that.  It’s… read more »

Sony 700 Review: A Report from Laura

I've had a couple of weeks to spend with my borrowed toy, and here's my impressions, based on my unscientific but personally demanding testing methods.

Overall, I like it, but the technology still has some serious limitations that keep it from being a serious solution for my personal library growth issues. I knew there would be a learning curve, so I gave myself several days to just play with it. I tried a couple of freebie downloads, but really wasn't warming up to the e-paper format at all. Then I downloaded the new Jeaniene Frost release I'd been dying to read. For the first few pages, the flicker of the entire page at the 'page turn' drove me nuts. And then, I quit noticing. Somehow. I was reading along, completely sucked into the story, and I lost half an hour. Poof! Gone! I was well into the book by then and had ceased to even notice I was doing the page turn thing.

Yep, I was warming up to the Sony PRS-700. Still . . . my wish list for the perfect e-reader… read more »

Sony 505 Review: A Report from Anita

My background in ebook reading is online with my laptop which I don’t like because I can’t get comfy and also with my iPod Touch which is small but allows me to read in bed. I’m looking for something between the two so I jumped at the chance to test drive a Sony eReader.

I received the Sony eReader 505. The whole family stood around and oohed and awhed. The only rule I told them was not to touch it since it didn’t belong to us. Inside the box with the eReader was a folded poster-size pictorial manual, a USB cord, and a CD. When I put the eReader on for the first time, it worked. But the directions said it should be charged so I plugged it in. Now here’s where I have my first problem with the eReader – when you plug it in, you’re not able to use it as it goes into a hibernation mode and the directions say you can’t unplug it until the little red light goes off. Now this sounds straight forward however, it takes several… read more »

Sony 505 Review: A Report from Theresa

There are few things I like doing better than reading. Which means it’s surprising I haven’t picked up an e-reader of any kind until the SBTB Sony e-reader test drive challenge. Up until now paper books and I have had a die-hard lovefest. In fact there are times when my husband is jealous of my books taking up so much of my time and having to share space in the house with them. Enter the e-reader.

When I first opened the e-reader I didn’t bother reading the directions. I wanted to see how organically I responded to the device. I’m not a tech whiz by any means, but I know how to twitter and I can update my website now and then. If I couldn’t figure out how to turn it on, navigate between books and load new books on without a lot of directions, then it wasn’t going to be something I could really recommend to my completely non-tech friends/family. I was delighted that the 505 was almost like putting a key in the ignition and ready to drive with the content… read more »

Shameless by Tori Carrington: A Guest Review by Test Driver Tina

Once, long ago, I had a guy friend ask me out to dinner.  Now, we were pretty much “just friends”, but I thought he was sweet and cute and I enjoyed his company, so I happily agreed to what sounded rather date-like (especially since he told me to dress “nice”).  Off we went, with him telling me that where we were going was a “surprise”.  Then we pulled up in front of a church.  I asked him why we were stopping and he said he needed to run in really quick and asked if I would mind coming along.  Once inside, as he was guiding me down an aisle to a pew, I realized that he’d tricked me into attending his Wednesday night church service.  Surprise!  And it wasn’t just any kind of church service—it was the type of church service where the entire front row knelt on the floor, swaying back and forth, yelling “Amen!” at random intervals the whole time!  Towards the end of this two-hour long service, the pastor asked if there was anyone new to the church attending that evening.  My former friend all but pushed me up… read more »

Ms Match by Jo Leigh: A Guest Review by Test Driver Evangeline

Ms. Match was my first book by Jo Leigh, and cliche upon cliche, it won’t be my last. My experience with Harlequin’s Blaze line is largely hit-and-miss. I’ve followed it sporadically since the line’s inception (2004-ish?) and have cringed over the tepid sex-centered plots and characters who definitely were not “hip” (God I hate that word) or modern. Despite my so-so experience, I continue to give Blaze a chance because fun and sexy contemporary romances are difficult to come by. When Harlequin offered each Test Driver $25 to splurge on HQN titles, I went immediately to the Blaze’s, figuring that if I got burnt again, it was no skin off my nose—or my wallet.

Instead of buying Ms. Match from Sony’s bookstore I went to Harlequin’s ebook site to experiment with purchasing and downloading books directing from them. After fiddling around with other releases, the whole Adobe Digital Editions thing is a breeze, and five minutes later, I had Ms. Match on my Sony Reader. At its heart, Ms. Match is a “what’s on the inside counts” and Leigh skillfully manuevers through this theme without bludgeoning it to death.

Sony 505 Review: A Report from Randi

I don’t know where to start about my 505.  I am of two completely different minds about it.  One is about the experience of reading on it, the other is about the experience of trying to own it.  This will be about the former.

I read somewhere that the ancient Greeks had dozens of different words for types of love.  There was brotherly love, romantic love, the love one feels for a battlefield comrade, etc.  I’m not sure what the word is for the love one feels for an electronic reading device – but I’d bet it has ‘kos’ in it somewhere.

The reader does what it says on the box, and it does it (almost) perfectly.  It’s easy to use, mostly intuitive, and very sleek and very very pretty.  Actually, after the chorus of angels finished their refrain of ‘ah-ah-ah-ah-ah’ when the box was opened one alighted on my shoulder to mutter a cooing ‘aww…’.  I’ve found I can read about a thousand pages worth of text before I lose the first bar.  The final bar lasts right around that, maybe 850… read more »

The Sony 505: A Novella Review by Lee

Lee’s review is a novella, complete with cover illustration, in PDF form, titled “The Broke-Ass Housewife’s Expensive Plaything. It’s available here, and there’s a sprawling map of crazy inside. Really. HA.

The BrokeAss Housewife’s Expensive Plaything

Make Me Yours by Betina Krahn: A Guest Review by Test Driver Sandra

A house full of Jacks is not a winning hand for Mariah Eller.  She knows she is in trouble when she is called to her inn to help deal with a group of trouble-making noblemen using fictitious names like Jack Sprat and Jack B. Nimble.  She doesn’t know just how much trouble, even when she realizes that one of those trouble makers was her future king.  Soon, she finds herself pressured to be a mistress to a prince and a bride to one of his subjects.

I loved this book.  Betina Krahn picked an interesting time for the setting – 1887 – which is a refreshing change from the Regency period.  She created strong, remarkable complex characters.  Mariah Eller is a compelling heroine – a strong, capable young widow who runs her own inn and knows the Kama Sutra.  She has much in common with Jack St. Lawrence, the only true Jack that night in the inn, and the one entrusted by the prince to find Mariah a husband.  Both Mariah and Jack find they have little control over their lives.  Mariah is bound by her gender and poverty,… read more »

A Wicked Liaison by Christine Merrill: A Guest Review by Phyllis

Tony was Eustace and useless as well,

Until his whole family went to hell.

He became a thief to make a living,

Now that he’s older, he works for the king

Constance is a widowed duchess,

Since her duke died, she’s in a big mess.

Her skill set comprises curtsies and babies,

To keep up appearances and be a lady.

Now she’s in a lot of distress,

Because the foul villain wants a mistress.

He slaps and snarls and gets his hand on her deed,

In the midst of printing up the money he’ll need.

(You must pay the rent!

I can’t pay the rent!)

Sony 700 Review: by Test Driver Linsey

I was waiting for the bus, reading The Virgin Secretary’s Impossible Boss on my Sony 700—finally HPs and I could once again indulge in our secret love!—when the guy next to me leaned over. 

“Hey, is that a Kindle?”

Sadly this was not the first time I’ve been asked this question during the test drive, and it wouldn’t be the last. Oh, Sony marketing fail. 

“Nope,” I explained, “it’s a Sony PRS-700 ebook reader.” 

I showed him the touch screen with its iPod like icons, and I showed him the catalogue function. I even did a little demo to illustrate how the touch screen could be used to flip pages with a swipe of the finger. 

“Best of all,” I ended my little sales pitch, “it has the ability to operate outside of Amazon!”

“Nice,” he agreed. “Where do you get one?”

Ah, yes, about that. They’re extinct, and it’s pretty hard to convince someone to go Sony when your model is already obsolete. Even as I write this review the 700 is… read more »

Manhunter by Loreth Anne White: A Guest Review by Test Driver Karen

Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit I’m kind of biased to like this book to begin with as it TAKES PLACE IN CANADA, OMG.  Seriously, Harlequin, I’ve read two books set in Canada from you guys in the last couple years.  Can we get some more Can-Con up in here, already?  Are there no opportunities to have Canadian cops/ex-military/CEOs/playboys/cowboys/insert hero trope here?

Also, I’ll admit to a

complete addiction

slight bias for angsty law-enforcement types.  This may or may not have something to do with

Jack Bauer being my TV boyfriend

my being a fan of a few suspense/mystery series featuring that type.

So with that out in the open, let’s move on to what other people should like about the book, shall we?

RCMP Staff Sergeant Gabe Caruso hasn’t been the same since his fiancee was murdered by a serial killer he captured a year before.  Still dealing with the guilt and grief, he accepts a posting to the remote Yukon town of Black Arrow Falls, where he meets Silver Karvonen, expert tracker and owner of a hunting lodge.  Silver has her own emotional trauma… read more »