Amazon Studios wins Golden Globes nomination with Transparent series ... Best Books of the Month ... 12 Days of Deals.

FIRST, Saw today that Amazon Studios received a Golden Globes nomination for its free-with-Prime Instant series "Transparent"

From VARIETY:

' SURPRISE: ' Transparent” makes history for Amazon.

It was a huge morning for Amazon Studios as the critically acclaimed “Transparent” landed noms for comedy series and lead actor Jeffrey Tambor.  That’s the first recognition for the upstart digital player from a major awards show, and well deserved for Jill Soloway’s semi-autobiographical dramedy. '

I've read nothing but raves, for months, for that apparently groundbreaking series, which is free watching for Prime members.


12 Days of You Know What
Today, Amazon starts its "12 Days of Deals" (general) - a page to bookmark if still in shopping mode.  There's also a related 12-days of Deals that's focused on deals for the home.


"Best Books of the Month" feature
I received an email last week about Amazon's "Must-reads" for December (see table below) as chosen by their editors.

These are selected from the larger selection of Best Books of the 2014 (which I Tweeted and Facebook'd but had not blogged.
  Here's the link for Kindle book versions.

The email described "December must-reads, carefully selected by Amazon Books' editorial team ... books from best-selling authors to historical nonfiction picks and even a Kindle Single (a type of e-book published through Amazon.com)..."

Title	Author	Release Date
Moriarty	Anthony Horowitz	12/9/2014
When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II	Molly Guptill Manning	12/2/2014
Here	Richard McGuire	12/9/2014
The Strange Library	Haruki Murakami	12/2/2014
Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream	Joshua Davis	12/2/2014
Becoming Richard Pryor	Scott Saul	12/9/2014
Skylight	José Saramago	12/2/2014
Empire of Cotton: A Global History	Sven Beckert	12/2/2014
Safety Tips for Living Alone  (Kindle Single)	Jim Shepard	12/1/14
The Boston Girl: A Novel	Anita Diamant	12/9/2014
Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys.: A Memoir	Viv Albertine	11/25/2014

Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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Amazon's NEW lineup of e-Readers and Kindle Fire Tablets - First Quick Look 9/17/14 - Updated 9/19 to include Tablet Comparison Table, Trade-in your Kindle page, and more basic information

NEW AMAZON LINEUP, with new Kindle eReaders and UltraFast Fire Tablets
The new lineup of tablets and an ereader was announced Sept. 17, so this was a very quick announcement that night -- details are still being explored for the blog entry I'm working on to expand on the differences.

  Here's a quick-chart of current Kindles, globally.
     Added links to new pages for UK Kindles 9/21/14.

  The new models are ultra-fast versions of Fire tablets + a unique, hardy model specifically for "kids," as well as a new higher-resolution and brighter e-Ink Paperwhite Voyage reader with more contrast and also a new basic low-cost Kindle eReader that's now touch-based for easier navigation.

Originally posted 8:57pm Sept. 17 - Updated Sept. 19

For those who want to just read
KINDLE E-Ink Readers 2014 - Kindle Voyage and new basic Kindle 2014
Amazon's press release blurb includes these descriptions:
"The new Kindle Voyage, our thinnest, most advanced Kindle ever, with our brightest, highest resolution, and highest contrast display, plus reimagined page turns - $199"

  [AB-Note: The 'reimagined' page turns can be activated by pressing on the bezel now without having to reach across the screen to do it, and getting a small vibration that lets you know you've made a page turn (in the way we used to get feedback from the side 'buttons' going down and back up.]

" - New $79 Kindle is small and light, with weeks of battery life, a
20% faster processor, twice the storage, and now with a touch interface" [Finally]


New Fire Tablets - an ultrafast, higher resolution 8.9" model (same pricing) + 6" and 7" basic HD models + a hardy one for "kids"
The new Fire HD 6" 2014 is available for pre-order starting today for $99 for 6” and the Fire HD 7" 2014 at $139 for the 7” model and will begin shipping in October.

ALSO, via BLURBS from Amazon.

" The new Fire HDX 8.9, now higher performance, exclusive new audio, the fastest Wi-Fi and still startlingly light with a stunning HDX display.
  New Fire HDX 8.9 is $379. It is available for pre-order starting today...and will start shipping in October.
  The 4G version is $479 -- you can pre-order today at" the HDX-2014 page "and it will begin shipping in October.

[The current] Fire HDX 7 will continue to be available and will receive the Fire OS 4 update with many of these features later this year.  [You can] order today at [current Kindle Fire HDX 7 page] for just $199. "

  And in more detail, from Amazon's press release:

" Fast and fluid—Fire HDX 8.9 is powered by the latest generation quad-core 2.5 GHz processor and a 70% faster graphics engine

Perfect color, 339 ppi HDX display features Dynamic Light Control which automatically adjusts the color of the display to make the pages of a book more closely resemble a piece of paper in any light

First tablet with Dolby Atmos, plus loud and immersive audio that is twice as loud as the iPad Air

Fire OS 4 “Sangria” adds hundreds of new features and platform enhancements, including Firefly, ASAP, Smart Suspend, and other Amazon-exclusive features

Family Library lets family members easily share apps, games, audiobooks, books, and Prime Instant Video content, even if they use different Amazon accounts [Blog note: a key new feature...]

Free, unlimited cloud storage for photos

New Fire Keyboard is the thinnest and lightest full-featured tablet keyboard, with a trackpad that makes productivity and navigation easier than ever."

They also have a seriously powerful "Kids Edition" of the Fire HD tablet (costing more than the $99 version)
Details are at Fire HD Kids Edition and looks to be made for more durability than the 6" $99 Fire HD version

FIRE Tablets COMPARISON TABLE
Click on this smaller image (here for convenience) to get the large version of the new Amazon Fire Tablet Comparison Table.
  Smaller version:


That's the skinny for now.  I'll be exploring the details more and will put them into a more organized blog article, with differences noted.  We have some current models that will stay current, for those who don't need the fastest and most-featured devices, and the new models look promising.


Did you know you can sell-back or trade-in used Kindles to Amazon?
Here's how it's done, with estimated $value for those in good condition.



Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!