Free (Kindle/Nook/Sony) Finding Christmas: Stories of Startling Joy and Perfect Peace

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Finding Christmas: Stories of Startling Joy and Perfect Peace by James Calvin Schaap

Product Description

A gift. The baby. The pageant. The parties. The worship. The afterglow. The story. These are the elements of almost every Christmas. In Finding Christmas, award-winning author James Calvin Schaap takes a look at each of these elements through seven stories that show how imperfect people can find joy and grace in an imperfect world.

His eyes turn on an outgoing bus driver, a passionate mother, a daughter reluctant to return to church, and even his own assumed-mediocre performance at a Christmas pageant. Along the way, readers see how the amazing message of Christmas can be found in the oddest of places. This heartwarming read is both moving and magical and will help readers usher in a joyful Christmas season even amidst the howling winds of winter.

[Dr. Drib]

Sorry. No thanks. Not interested. Tired. The doldrums. The weather. These are the elements of boredom during Christmastime.

Seriously: Thanks!



Don

[ATDrake]

Also free from B&N and Sony (available to Canadians).

[ATDrake]

Now a repeat freebie @ Amazon (new ASIN, not available to Canadians this time, but free in the UK) & B&N UK.

Newly free @ Kobo & iTunes & Google Play (all available to Canadians) & ChristianBook (ADE-DRM ePub available worldwide).

ETA 2: Now dropped to free again @ B&N US.

[koland]

Correct link for Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B85ADVM/

ETA: not free at B&N US.

[ATDrake]

Fixed the links, thanks. It's weird that B&N US wouldn't be free this time around, while they'd have it in the UK. But then, who knows what's up with them? (Sometimes I suspect that's where Sony's old price-changing bobble-birds have escaped to.)

[koland]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Fixed the links, thanks. It's weird that B&N US wouldn't be free this time around, while they'd have it in the UK. But then, who knows what's up with them? (Sometimes I suspect that's where Sony's old price-changing bobble-birds have escaped to.)

Could be... did you see that the Microsoft/Nook deal was said to have lost approx $118K/day, until the dissolution announcement this week?

Think how many real programmers they could have hired, for that...

[ATDrake]

Yeah, I read the thread in News, and it's like seeing A Series of Unfortunate Management Decisions. It's probably time to start betting on the deadpool.

IMHO, it's sad for the people who used to be employed by them/are in danger of losing their jobs now, but B&N really have only themselves to blame for making their stuff customer unfriendly* and increasingly less relevant.

It's a shame, because they started off rather promisingly, what with the B&N Classics giveaways in the early days and the regular Free Fridays promo, and the social DRM allowing you to household-share with close family/friends you trusted enough to input your credit card info onto their devices when unlocking the books (and the LendMe option for those you didn't) and their reader being able to take regular ADE-DRM books as well, allowing you to shop wherever you liked (minus Amazon).

* I may still be bitter about Fictionwise.

[ATDrake]

Now dropped to free @ B&N US again.

[koland]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

* I may still be bitter about Fictionwise.

You aren't the only one.

I lost mine (well, I had them backed up, but got zero transfer and no help from B&N on the problem, despite repeated emails to them) and the nook apps on the desktop won't sync my library, either. So, I try to do no new books there (other than freebies), as it is such a pain to try to extract them to back them up.

Kobo also makes it Russian Roulette to buy there, as you can't tell if you can download until you've finished the order (and then back out and find your library - would it kill them to give you a link to the library at the order confirmation page, even if they don't want to give you a download link?).

I hesitate to buy much from Google, either - their customer service is no doubt worse (many parts of their business have a policy of zero contact/response/no support), although they seem to be the big holdout, so far, in the EPUB world, as far as blocking downloads and forcing non-standard formats/apps down throats. Of course, they still see themselves as competing with iTunes and Amazon, I'm sure, rather than trying to block legit customers from backing up their files, just in case one customer somewhere wants to post the book on a torrent site (and why would those particular people not just borrow it from a library or buy it at google, where downloads are easier, or just get it cheaper and amazon and convert it to epub?).

They are offering a $30 bounty for those willing to turn in their older readers and get a (crippled) Samsung Tab - one might think it more of their conspiracy to block downloads, were one the paranoid type....

It's too bad that whoever is making decisions there can't see that the publishers have been leading them into a black hole of bankruptcy that they can't get out of, even after they killed off Borders in an effort to strengthen B&N and hurt Amazon (net effect here? we went from 4 bookstores, two very busy, to two, neither with many customers, and a thriving used bookstore that no doubt resells books bought at Amazon, Walmart and Sam's/Costco almost exclusively). There's no upside to the store to drive off those who want to back up their books - it's clearly a publisher driven ploy/policy and one that is killing their sales even more. Of course, when they spin off Nook to it's own business unit, it should be pretty low value and not hurt the main stock price, much (probably even help it).