Daily Deals: Old Town and Goodnight, Little Monster and SimplePhysics

Old Town

Today Amazon offers Old Town by Lin Zhe for $1.99

Lin Zhe, one of China’s most prolific writers, paints an unforgettable picture of an ordinary family caught up in the maelstrom that was China’s most recent century. Her narrative ranges across the entire length of China, to California and back again, to the battlefields of the Anti-

Japanese War of Resistance and the brutal “struggle” sessions of the Cultural Revolution. But it always returns to this family’s home in Old Town, that archetypical, old-fashioned, and vanishing place steeped in the traditions of South China. Ms. Lin examines the inner strength that sustains people’s lives in their darkest hours, when religious and political faith falter. And yet, a vein of irony and droll humor runs through this powerful story. Lin Zhe’s novel may be understood as a love story, memoir, history, or allegory. For the non-Chinese reader it provides a rare and moving insight into Chinese lives in a century of fearsome upheaval. This book was originally published under the title Riddles of Belief…and Love – A Story.

Some words about the Author

Lin Zhe (pen name of Zhang Yonghong) was born in 1956 of Han Chinese parents then serving in the People’s Liberation Army in Kashi (Kashgar), a small frontier city in what is now Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. After graduating from the Chinese Language and Literature Department of Fudan University in 1980, she worked as a reporter and editor for Women of China Magazine in Beijing. She has written fourteen novels that focus on women’s issues relating to marriage and personal and family life, as well as three TV drama series.

George A. Fowler lived and traveled widely in the Asia Pacific region for over 30 years, first as a Marine, then as a student of Chinese and Malay, and finally for 23 years as a commercial banker. He has most recently translated Marah Rusli’s classic Indonesian Malay novel Sitti Nurbaya, which will soon be published by Lontar in Jakarta.

Goodnight, Little MonsterGoodnight, Little Monster by Bonnie Leick and  Helen Ketteman is a second book offered by Amazon within Daily Deals. It costs $1.99.

Little Monster needs to get ready for bed. That means howling at the moon, scrubbing his scales, getting into his creepy PJs, and enjoying a nice snack before bed: worm juice and baked beetle bread. And, of course, Little Monster’s mother is nearby to tuck Little Monster into bed and turn on his night-light—because even little monsters can be afraid of the dark. Bonnie Leick’s soft, child-friendly illustrations rendered in watercolor bring a new and quiet twist to the evening’s bedtime ritual. Sweet dreams, Little Monster!

Some words about the Author.

Author Helen Ketteman is the author of more than nineteen books for children. Ms. Ketteman lives with her husband in Sanibel Island, Florida.

Illustrator Bonnie Leick received her BFA in Film/Character animation from the California Institute of Art and Design. She has worked on several books and animated projects for children.

SimplePhysicsSimplePhysics is a free game today only.

The sequel to BridgeBasher is finally here! SimplePhysics lets you design complex structures for everything from tree houses to ferris wheels and then simulates your design with a sophisticated physics engine.

A wise person once said: “An engineer is someone who can do for a dime what any fool can do for a dollar.” In SimplePhysics, your design must not only be strong enough, it must be cheap enough to win. With the built-in Leaderboards, you can also compete with people all around the world to see who can create the most cost effective designs.

Create your design in seconds with the blueprints editor. If you make a mistake, simply tap the Undo button. Zoom in and out by pinching the screen and pan the view using a two finger drag.

While testing, you can see how the strain is distributed across your design. Areas that are under immense strain are colored bright red, while other areas are colored green. This allows you to find and fix problem areas in your design.

The finger test lets you use your finger to push and pull on your design. You can use this with pinpoint accuracy, or you can just smash your design to smithereens. The finger test has an explosive new twist. You can now create explosions by tapping the screen for ultimate annihilation.

The newly added Bomb Shack level includes a dummy with full support for ragdoll physics. Throw him around, blow him up, and smash him against your design.

The slow motion feature lets you slow things down so you can see how your design is failing, and it is also incredibly fun to watch explosions destroying your design in slow motion.

Leave a Reply

Comment moderation is enabled. Your comment may take some time to appear.