Borrow Kindle Library Books

I can't tell you how excited I am about Amazon.com's announcement that library books can now be checked out to a Kindle or Kindle app!

Borrow Kindle Books from Your Local Library

You can check out a Kindle book from your local library and read it on any generation Kindle device or free Kindle reading app.

When you borrow a Kindle public library book, you'll have access to all the unique features of Kindle books, including real page numbers and Whispersync technology that synchronizes your notes, highlights, and last page read. After a public library book expires, if you check it out again or choose to purchase it from the Kindle store, all of your annotations and bookmarks will be preserved.

Kindle books are available at more than 11,000 libraries in the U.S.

How It Works

You can borrow Kindle books from your local library's website and, with the click of a button, have them delivered to your Kindle device or free reading app.

• Visit the website of a U.S. library that offers digital services from OverDrive.

• Check out a Kindle book (using a valid library card).

• Click on "Get for Kindle" and then sign in to your Amazon.com account to have the book delivered to your Kindle device or reading app.

Note: Public library books can be sent wirelessly to Kindle devices via an active Wi-Fi connection or transferred via USB.

Help

For technical assistance and frequently asked questions, please visit the Help page.

For questions about availability of Kindle library books, loan duration, and terms of use, please contact your local library.

We welcome your feedback at kindle-publiclibraries-feedback@amazon.com.

I'm so excited that I've already put 5 Kindle books on hold with my local library:

• The 19th Wife: A Novel by David Ebershoff
• Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen
• The Paris Wife: A Novel by Paula McLain
• The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement by David Brooks

Yippee!

That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World and How We can Come Back

Just got to read a sneak preview of Thomas L Friedman's new book That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World and How We can Come Back:

Alexis de Tocqueville was a French aristocrat, born in 1805, who visited the United States in 1831 and 1832 with the intention of studying its prisons. In 1835 he published Democracy in America, based on his travels and investigations. Of all the thousands of books written about this country, Tocqueville's remains one of the best, with insights into American society, American values, American institutions, and the American national character that remain valid and relevant 175 years later.

Suppose that Tocqueville, with his intellectual gifts and powers of analysis, had been born in, say, 1970. His aristocratic background would have had no bearing on his career. He probably would have gone to one of France's elite schools but might not have taken part in French politics, as the original Tocqueville did. Nor would he necessarily have joined, and risen in, the country's national bureaucracy, as men of his caliber did for much of the twentieth century but did less frequently at that century's end. Instead, he might well have continued his education abroad. He might have studied history at an English university, spent a few years in Asia, earned a degree from Harvard or Stanford business school, and then done what many people with a cosmopolitan background and analytical gifts did at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first: join an international consulting firm.

Suppose, further, that that firm was commissioned by a large multinational corporation to prepare, under Tocqueville's direction, an assessment of the United States as a place in which to invest and to do business in the second decade of the twenty-first century and beyond. The report that emerged from that assessment would be the work of many hands, filled with charts, graphs, statistics, and PowerPoint presentations. Tocqueville himself would likely write the conclusion, based on his own travels, conversations, and ruminations. We think it might read something like this:

Click here to continue reading a PDF version of the chapter "Shock Therapy" from That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World and How We can Come Back.

Can't wait to get my hands on a copy!

Ellen Feldman's Next to Love

I'm excited to read Ellen Feldman's Next to Love:

Set in a small town in Massachusetts, Next to Love follows three childhood friends, Babe, Millie, and Grace, whose lives are unmoored when their men are called to duty. Beautifully crafted and unforgettable, Ellen Feldman skillfully depicts the enduring power of love and friendship, and illuminates a transformational moment in American history.

She's also the author of Scottsboro, The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank, and Lucy.

Books for the Buddhism Curious

Interested in Buddhism? Then check out this exhaustive list of books that brought people to Buddhism:

• Zen mind, Beginners Mind by Shunryu Suzuki
• The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts
• Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trunga
• The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche
• Awakening Compassion by Pema Chodron 
• Awakening to the Sacred by Lama Surya Das
• Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das
• The Tao of Sobriety by David Gregson
• Dharma Punx by Noah Levine
• One Breath at a Time by Kevin Edward Griffin 
• The Buddhist Path to Simplicity by Christina Feldman
• Peace in Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
• What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula
• Old Path White Clouds by Thich Nhat Hanh
• The Cow in the Parking Lot by Leonard Scheff and Susan Edmiston
• The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps
• In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon by Bhikkhu Bhodhi
• The Middle Discourses by Bhikku Nanamoli 
• The Long Discourses by Maurice Walshe 
• The Connected Discourses by Bhikkhu Bhodhi
• The Energy of Prayer: How to Deepen Your Spiritual Practice by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-en
• Life of Milerapa by Lobsang Jivaka
• The Way of Zen by Alan Watts
• Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Taking the Path of Zen by Robert Aitken Roshi
• The Three Pillars of Zen Philip Kapleau Roshi
• Buddhism: An Introduction and Guide by Christmas Humphreys
• Everyday Zen: Love & Work by Charlotte Joko Beck
• Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
• Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction, Fourth Edition by Richard H. Robinson
• Shobogenzo by Dogen
• The Sound of Silence by Ajahn Sumedho
• The Tibetan Book of the Dead as translated by Gyurme Dorje
• Indestructible Truth by Reginald A. Ray
• Secret of the Vajra World by Reginald A. Ray
• Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
• How to Meditate by Kathleen McDonald
• If the Buddha Got Stuck by Charlotte Sophia Kasl, Ph.D.
• No Time to Lose by Pema Chodron
• Buddhism Plain & Simple by Steve Hagen
• Blue Jean Buddha: Voices of Young Buddhists edited by Sumi Loundon
• Women's Buddhism, Buddhism's Women by Ellison Banks Findly
• Getting Unstuck by Pema Chodron
• Start Where You Are by Pema Chodron
• Spirit of Zen by Alan Watts
• Manual of Zen Buddhism by D.T. Suzuki
• On The Road by Jack Kerouac
• How to Solve Our Human Problems by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
• Turning the Mind Into an Ally by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
• Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach
• When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron
• Awareness by Anthony DeMello
• Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor
• Myth of Freedom by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
• A Still Forest Pool by Ajaan Chah
• Mindfulness In Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana 
• The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet by Matthieu Ricard and Trinh Xuan Thuan
• Buddhism at Work by George Bond
• The New Social Face of Buddhism by Ken Jones
• World as Lover World as Self by Joanna Macy
• Everyday Suchness by Gyomay M. Kubose
• Returning to Silence by Dainin Katagiri 
• The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri by Dosho Port
• The Wisdom Of No Escape by Pema Chodron 
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
• Eight Steps to Happiness by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
• The Way of the White Clouds by Lama Anagarika Govinda
• A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night: A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life: a commentary on Shantideva's Bodhicharyavatara by the Dalai Lama
• Buddhism for Beginners by Thubten Chodron
• A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
• Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
• Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
• Being Nobody, Going Nowhere by Ayya Khema
• Golden Wind Zen Talks by Eido Shimano Roshi
• Comfortable with Uncertainty by Pema Chodrom
• Not Always So by Suzuki Roshi
• The Art of Happiness by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

I've read many of these books, but I've never read Kerouac. Seeing two of his books on this list makes me think I should pick one up.