Some of the existing stores have already moved to their new locations, including Barnes & Noble. For my part, the new format for the Barnes & Noble isn’t really for me. It’s beautiful, I guess, and there are a ton of books (and non-books, along with a café), but the space is definitely more of the Amazon style (books facing outward) and less of the classic library style that they had in their old footprint. So, since it’s pretty much Amazon, but with higher prices, I’ve been buying my books on Amazon since the new Barnes & Noble opened in November 2024. Kind of a bummer, although I’ve been to the Barnes & Noble in Freehold and Toms River and they’re both still in the old format, thankfully.

Just wanted to post this entry to share these pictures. As of this writing, the old Barnes & Noble is actually torn down except for the roof as is most of the interior mall, though the roof is gone from that part of the mall. It’s a little weird being able to look directly through where the mall used to be, but that’s how these big real estate developments work. I used to love going to the mall to walk around and see what the shops were selling – especially around the holidays. I don’t think I’ll be doing that in the new, outdoor format because, well, it gets cold out side!

The Final Reality is a captivating, fast-paced action/thriller that pits two geniuses against each other with the fate of the world in the balance. If you have not read the first two books in the Alex Pella trilogy, then you are missing out on one of the most powerful displays of what this world’s future may look like under unchecked authoritarian regimes. What is frightening is that the early footprints of these regimes are readily evident in today’s geopolitical landscape. National debts rising out of control, a desire to disrupt the spread of free thought and free speech, being instantly shut down when trying to keep massive corporate and/or governmental structures in check – all of these are the building blocks of the world that The Final Reality‘s two geniuses inhabit and fight to control. On the one hand, you have Julius Windsor – the would-be good guy if everyone only just listened to him and his brilliance. On the other hand, you have Alexander Pella – the three-steps-ahead foil to Windsor’s every move. If you have read the first two novels in the series, then you know who these two men really are (genetically, that is) and knowing that bit of information makes every interaction between these two that much more exhilarating.

What Martino does better than anyone else in this genre is integrate actual legend and folklore along with biblical narrative in a post-contemporary vision of the future. In The Final Reality, you can expect to read a high action thriller that includes Bible-based references on the location of the Creation story’s Garden of Eden in the same scene that you will read about fantastical flying airships from millennia ago – that’s right… millennia! And that was one of the fun parts of reading this book – being brought (again) into this world that Martino creates that has layers upon layers of fascinating stories yet to be told.

Even though The Final Reality is the final novel in the Alex Pella series, the world that is created through the end of this story is one that is ripe for new legends to be built on, new heroes to emerge, and new tales to tell. I would not be surprised to see Martino return to this world in the future to tell the story of the new/old continent Mu or to talk about the devastation wrought by the shifting tectonic plates (another utterly fascinating element of the story, for those of you keeping track). This is one of the most brilliant aspects of Martino’s writing; namely, that he writes a story wherein millions of people around the world are lost in major global catastrophes related to shifting tectonic plates and yet he is able to keep the focus of the story on Windsor and Pella and their epic struggle for dominance in this new world. Taking massive, global struggles for power and embodying them in a battle between two individuals makes for a great story.

Here’s an official trailer for the novel:

Once again, Martino brings his gripping style of storytelling to a world that includes romance, humor, intelligent banter, and glimpses of the science fiction-fueled future earth that may yet come to pass. If you are heading in to some vacation time and you want a fun, page-turning thrill ride to keep you busy (and maybe give you some insight into what the world may become), then The Final Reality is the book for you.

Fast-paced, action-packed storytelling aside, if you are looking for a novel that has compelling characters that you actually care about and can become emotionally-invested in as you read, then The Hidden Reality is your book. In fact, one of the primary reasons that I could not put this book down was because Martino writes characters that I could relate to and whose stories I wanted to read. His characters mean something to the plot and are not just throwaway placeholders or MacGuffins. Alex Pella, for example, is a hero that you want to cheer for; he’s someone that you want to see win in the end because he awakens the best parts of how we see ourselves. Putting aside the main character for a moment, the novel has additional characters who are absorbing – and for different reasons. Without giving away any of the major plot points, in the beginning of the novel a character named Jules laments to his fellow board members that their corporation is so large and so omnipresent in the lives of everyone on the planet that it has rendered humanity weak and somewhat mentally-stunted. He goes into a diatribe about people no longer having the fortitude or desire to rise up against these types of overwhelming power structures because they rarely think any more. As a reader, I found myself considering the many times that I have felt the same frustration as Jules. I thought about the times that I have passionately implored people to wake up to what is going on around them only to realize that I am stuck talking to people who are mostly wearing blank stares on their faces.

It is not a fun experience and I uniquely understood how Jules felt in that moment.

The brilliance of The Hidden Reality and of the entire Alex Pella series, though, is the deep connections that Martino’s dystopian future has with the often scary revelations that are becoming far too common in our own world. When our Internal Revenue Service was used as an attack dog for political purposes and the most prolific website on the internet (Facebook) is rolling out updates to its face-recognition software and strongly encouraging its more than one billion users to play along, one has to wonder how close we are to achieving Martino’s hidden reality today. The Hidden Reality features a global organization that can track anyone’s location based on their subatomic wavelengths, individuals who place implants in their eardrums to communicate, and the fusion and evolution of corporate behemoths into a global government. Are we really that far away from any of these headlines being published in our own media and in our own time?

The Hidden Reality combines a dystopian future with the mental rigor of a medically-augmented and futuristic plot to create an action-packed story that is fun to read and hard to put down. If I were publishing this review during the summer months, then I would strongly recommend you pick up a copy of this book to read while you are relaxing on the beach. As we are in the doldrums of winter, though, I cannot think of a better book to read while snuggled up by the fire on a cold winter day. When the temperature drops outside, I highly recommend you kick it up a notch inside by jumping into the Alex Pella series!

Incidentally, this was the first e-book that I read on Amazon’s Kindle app. I do not really have any complaints about the Kindle platform. In fact, I think it worked out pretty well considering that I had the Kindle app install on my Samsung Nook tablet (weird, right?).

Arthur Klebanoff, chief executive of RosettaBooks, said that Mr. Covey would receive more than half of the net proceeds that RosettaBooks took in from Amazon on these e-book sales. In contrast, the standard digital royalty from mainstream publishers is 25 percent of net proceeds.

“There are superstars, and superstars are entitled to more,” Mr. Klebanoff said.

Sean Covey, a son of Mr. Covey and chief innovation officer for Franklin Covey, a training and consulting firm that also publishes business books, said that the higher royalty rate was “a factor” in the decision to switch to RosettaBooks.

The elder Mr. Covey was also particularly attracted by Amazon’s plans to heavily promote the e-book editions of both “7 Habits” and “Principle-Centered Leadership.”

There are a lot of interesting tidbits in that piece from the article. First, name me any successful author that isn’t going to jump at the opportunity to make more money off of their hard work. If the path that Covey is walking down proves to be more profitable for him, personally, then I have to imagine that other contemporary authors will be enticed to grant exclusive e-book rights to certain publishers in the future.

Second, apparently the publishing industry should seriously consider this as the Coveys are stating outright that the higher royalties were a factor in their decision. Memo to the bosses at the publishing companies – time to give more revenue to the authors!

Of course there are other publishing companies that are taking a more proactive stance towards protecting rights which they believe belong to them – including e-book rights.

Other publishers have moved to stake their claim on e-book rights for older titles. On Friday, Random House sent a letter to dozens of literary agents stating that on all backlist books, it retained “the exclusive right to publish in electronic book publishing formats.”

You know, I’m not sure how these contracts are structured, but I wonder if Random House has a case here. It doesn’t seem to be the most outlandish claim that publishers would retain the rights to publishing their authors’ content in all its forms, does it? I don’t know.

What this article makes apparent to me is that authors are taking an active role in ensuring their content gets delivered to their audiences at affordable rates. On top of that, authors want to make sure that they are paid a fair compensation for content that is distributed electronically. And finally, the big publishing houses need to seriously consider a different royalty structure when it comes to the sale of a paper book versus an electronic book.

As a part of this simplification process, I’ve also begun reviewing the advertising programs that I use on my suite of websites (this one included). The truth is that the only advertising program that I currently use that has ever generated sustained income over a number of years is Google Adsense. However, like any good webmaster I’ve tried to increase earnings by utilizing other program such as Amazon.com Associates, LinkShare, and Text-Link-Ads. Which brings me to this entry on the blog…

I’ve decided to cancel my LinkShare account. The truth is that this program doesn’t really generate any income for those websites that aren’t bringing in a massive amount of hits. I don’t want to talk inside baseball, but if JerseySmarts.com brings in 250 – 500 hits, then that’s a good day. LinkShare really isn’t made for a website like this one. Heck, even combining a bunch of different websites into my account didn’t help. My suite of websites brings in a few thousand hits per day – tens of thousands of hits per month – and the program still didn’t generate a dime.

So, instead of clogging up my websites with advertisements that don’t really generate any income for me, I’ve decided to cancel my LinkShare account and do some de-cluttering for your viewing pleasure! Actually, the LinkShare advertisements came off of this particular account about a month ago; they came off of my other websites a few weeks ago.

The next on my list to take a look at is this Amazon.com Associates program. Yes, I’ve had some people purchase items by using the Amazon.com Associates links that I embed in my entries and that I advertise around these and my other sites. However, I still haven’t seen a check from this program so I’m not sure if I want to continue using it. Anyway, I’d say that Amazon.com Associates has at least another 6 to 12 months for me to make any decision.

In the mean time, check out New Jersey Carpet Cleaning for the best carpet cleaning in the Garden State!

Such was the way that I wound up downloading MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular album. If you don’t know, MGMT is the band that sings one of the songs that always seems to be on Alt Nation – Kids. It’s a catchy song that mixes a bunch of different styles and sounds like a lot of fun. I’m sure that if you haven’t heard it on Alt Nation or whatever your local radio station is, that you’ll enjoy it. In fact, I’ve got a YouTube video for the song embedded below. Maybe you want to scroll down there and listen to it while you read the rest of this post (I take no responsibility for the weirdo video associated with the song).

After downloading the rest of the album, though, I don’t think that most of MGMT’s music is for me. While I’ve had some recent success with listening to (and liking) all of Cartel’s Cycle and Owl City’s Ocean Eyes, my luck ran out with MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular.

To MGMT’s credit, though, the album doesn’t have a lot of bad songs on it. In fact, most of the songs are pretty good. However, the general sound – which is a type of electronica and psychedelic blend (some even call it synthpop, but I don’t know what that means) – it just wasn’t for me. However, if you like that sort of stuff, then you’ll absolutely love MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular.

Pretty weird video, huh? So if this stuff is for you, then by all means – go and get yourself a copy of this album. But if this isn’t really your thing, then you might want to just download a copy of Kids from iTunes or Amazon.com or some other music service. If anything, that’s a pretty good song. Enjoy!

FINAL WEEK TO WIN A NINTENDO Wii IN HONOR OF JUVENILE ARTHRITIS AWARENESS MONTH

AUTHOR KELLY ROUBA OFFERING FITNESS PRIZE PACK

(New Jersey): Kelly Rouba, author of Juvenile Arthritis: The Ultimate Teen Guide, is giving away a Nintendo Wii and a copy of the new EA Sports Active in honor of July as Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month.

Rouba, who has suffered from the disease since the age of 2, found that the Wii gave her the only opportunity to play the sports she never could because of her arthritis. With the generous donation of the Wii from Ag Apparel, an adaptive clothing company, and the game from EA Sports, Rouba wants to give one lucky winner a chance to be fit and active regardless of his or her limitation.

Participants can visit Kelly’s blog, kellyrouba.blogspot.com, and share their stories of overcoming obstacles. A winner will be chose at random on August 8, 2009.

To learn more about Kelly Rouba and her book, visit kellyrouba.blogspot.com. Her book Juvenile Arthritis: The Ultimate Teen Guide is available at Amazon.com in hardcover and for the Kindle.

Hey – it’s a chance to win a free Wii. You might as well head over to Kelly’s website, check out her story, and sign-up for the promotion.