Well, here are the 3 kindle free books in all their glory -
- Calling Home by Janna McMahan. Rated 4.5 stars on 10 reviews. A fantasy novel.
Nothing much ever happens in Falling Rock, Kentucky. So when Virginia Lemmons’ husband takes off in his Trans Am to take up with a beautician, there’s not much to do but what people in rural Kentucky have always done–get on with it. Now, overwhelmed and unsure, Virginia’s got her hands full trying to keep it together, body and soul, while raising her two teenage kids–eighteen-year-old son, Will, and her spirited fourteen-year-old daughter, Shannon.
But Shannon has her own ideas for breaking free of Falling Rock, and in her reckless, wild-child daughter, Virginia sees echoes of herself and her own painful past. She’ll do whatever it takes to keep her daughter from making the same tragic mistakes, and saving what’s left of her fragile family just may be the biggest fight of Virginia’s life.
- Revenge of Innocents by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg. A thriller and 4th book in a series though the review makes it seems like it stands on its own and the character is the only common thread. Also the second and third books featuring the protagonist are $4.28 and $4.47 and the first isn’t available.
When her friend apparently commits suicide, California probation officer Carolyn Sullivan refuses to believe the woman would have taken her own life.
But in trying to prove the victim was murdered, Sullivan has very little in the way of evidence until somebody sends her a note demanding that she drop the Campbell case. Of course, fans of the first three Sullivan novels (Sullivan’s Law, 2004; Sullivan’s Justice, 2005; and Sullivan’s Evidence, 2006) know that Carolyn doesn’t respond well to threats.
Digging deep into her late friend’s life, she discovers myriad secrets and pinpoints a murder suspect.
- Once Around the Track by Sharyn McCrumb. From the author who brought us St. Dale – a book about a dangerously handsome race-car driver working with an all-female NASCAR pit crew.
It’s almost a giant step for womankind–an all-female NASCAR pit crew sponsored by the female equivalent of Viagra. But they still need a driver.
Enter pretty boy Badger Jenkins, the poster child for passive aggression. With his polite, Southern, laid-back manner, Badger will agree to anything but never follow through.
Once he puts on his fire suit, however, he morphs into the dangerously handsome, daredevil race-car driver who has stolen the hearts of females everywhere. McCrumb, who canonized NASCAR great Dale Earnhardt in her novel St. Dale (2006), imagines yet another contemporary racing legend. This book is populated with strong female characters, from the tough, competent crew chief to the determined attorney to Badger’s ruthless manager.
Thanks to ‘Happy Reader’ Joyce for pointing these out at the official kindle forum.
What is it with Wall Street and Earnings?
It’s stunning to see Amazon’s stock get pummelled for focusing on a gigantic future opportunity rather than a few cents for the current quarter. However, what’s absolutely unbelievable is Microsoft delivering $16 billion in revenue (a full $1 billion over projections) and the stock going down.
There are the usual people (those who envy/detest any company not based in Silicon Valley) writing random nonsense about how this makes sense.
Here’s why it actually makes sense – Wall Street is a giant parasitic fungus feeding off of the country. Do they care that Amazon are creating eReaders that will take over the world and generate tens of billions of dollars of revenue down the line? No. Do they care that Microsoft is one of the few companies consistently delivering profits? No.
In a time when we should be supporting the companies that are still world beaters we are instead focusing on how flashy they look. How is $16 billion in revenue not enough to raise the stock price?
All Wall Street cares about is sucking us dry. They don’t care if Amazon and Microsoft are keeping the US at the forefront of technology - They just care about how much of that money they get to see in their pockets and in their annual bonuses. That’s why they care so much about flashy companies and overhyped IPOs. They basically want companies they can pump and dump and use to steal from investment funds and retirement savings.
Wall Street has fooled people and companies into thinking they actually have a fair shot in the stock market. At least with casinos and gambling people know that it’s rigged and the house always wins. What we really need are start-ups that take out Wall Street.
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I’ve recently heard Wall Street described as a “giant sucking machine.” It’s hard to disagree with that assessment. It’s designed more and more so the only winners are the investment banks and CEOs, while the average investor keeps wondering where this average 10% rate of return is.
It’s also designed to create bubbles, which allows companies to make huge short-term profits, which lets CEOs get obscene bonuses – and once you’ve made a few hundred million dollars in a year or two, do you care if the whole system crashes tomorrow? You’re still set for life. Meanwhile, the rest of the country pays for it.
Better stick to writing about things you understand. While I decry the Wall Street greed with sub prime mortgage derivatives, there is substantial complicity from congress and its campaign-contribution driven support of the misdeeds of Freddie and Fannnie, the Federal Reserve’s creating too much money with which Wall Street played fast and loose, and the Community Reinvestment Act passed in 1977 to force/encourage purchases of homes beyond the means of many, and the irresponsible and dishonest (falsified applications many times encouraged by unscrupulous financial institutions) purchases of homes by those unable to make the payments. You in Canada did much better by your citizens than did the above mentioned multiple parties in the US.
I’m not sure where people get this silly notion that Wall Street is supposed to care about us as people or care whether the US is on top of the technology heap. That’s not their job, nor their purpose. When someone is managing my money, their job is to make me money. I honestly don’t want some wheepy-hearted tree-hugger to manage my money with his emotions. I want him to use his brain.
And Wall Street is sucking us dry? If you don’t like the risk, don’t put your money into the stock market. There are plenty of low-risk alternatives. Remember, with risk comes reward. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that, so if Americans are getting fooled by Wall Street…it’s their own fault.
Kevin said it well.
As for why a revenue increase would result in a price drop, there’s a simple explanation. The price of a stock includes the market’s consensus opinion of the future earnings of a stock. And the market’s consensus opinion is all short term. If the actual earnings for a quarter comes in lower than the market expected (and based their price on), then the price goes down.
You can make a good argument about how the short term viewpoint that most traders (and thus the market consensus) share. But that’s not the same as attempting to take all your money.
Not all traders are short term. For information about investing for the long term, check out betterinvesting.org. (They’re a non-profit educational institution, not a broker/dealer.) There’s a reasonable argument that says that investors and traders are very different people, with very different viewpoints. The day to day (week to week and month to month) price swings are the result of trader’s actions, not investor’s.
Don’t focus on the short term too much; if you look at a highly polished piece of wood through an electron microscope, you’ll be amazed who rough it is.