Amazon Book Editors Announce the Best Books of 2013 So Far ...

Just in time for the summer reading season, customers can browse and buy the best books of 2013 (so far) in more than a dozen popular categories on Amazon.com

SEATTLE?(BUSINESS WIRE)?Jun. 24, 2013? Amazon.com, Inc. today announced their annual Best Books of the Year So Far list, a midyear retrospective that highlights the best books released in 2013 between January and June. Life After Life, The Son and Frozen in Time took the top three spots. Along with an overall Top 20 list, customers looking for great books to read this summer will find Top 10 editors? picks lists in 20 categories, from Cookbooks, Food & Wine to Children?s & Teens to
Romance
. The Best Books of the Year So Far are available in print and Kindle editions at www.amazon.com/bestbookssofar.

?Customers looking for great summer reads will find an eclectic selection on the list this year, from the very best fiction to compelling memoirs to excellent young adult novels,? said Sara Nelson, Editorial Director for Books and Kindle, Amazon.com. ?Our #1 pick, Life after Life, is clever but never gimmicky?which is amazing when you consider that the story of the heroine?s life begins, ends and then begins again, multiple times. We think this book is an extraordinary feat of narrative ambition, an audacious genre-bender and a work of literary genius.?

The Best Books of the Year So Far are hand-picked by the Amazon Books editors, who rank their favorite titles in an overall Top 20 list, plus 10 picks each in 20 popular categories: Art & Photo, Audiobooks, Biographies & Memoir, Business & Leadership, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cookbooks, Food & Wine, Crafts, Hobbies & Home, History, Humor & Entertainment, Kindle Singles, Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Nonfiction, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy, and Teens, as well as Middle Grade, Picture Books, Board Books, and Chapter Books for Kids.

The Amazon Books editors? picks for the Top 10 Best Books of the Year So Far are:

1. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson: What if you could be born again and again? This brilliant, multi-layered novel answers that question as Atkinson?s protagonist moves through multiple lives, each one an iteration on the last, flirting with the balance between choice and fate.

2. The Son by Philipp Meyer: A multigenerational Western spanning the 1800s Comanche raids in Texas to the 20th century oil boom, The Son is a towering achievement.

3. Frozen in Time by Mitchell Zuckoff: Two adventures in one? recounting the 1942 crash (and subsequent struggle to survive) of a U.S. cargo plane crew in Greenland, and describing the author?s own participation in a modern day mission to uncover the mystery behind their disappearance.

4. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer: The characters in this novel pulse with life as Wolitzer follows a group of teenagers who meet at a summer camp for artsy teens in 1974 and work to maintain their friendship through the competitions and realities of growing up.

5. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini: Following The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini has written another masterwork, one that moves through war, separation, birth, death, deceit, and love?illustrating how people?s actions, even the seemingly selfless ones, are shrouded in ambiguity.

6. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: This Young Adult novel about two kids who fall in love on a bus is sweet without being saccharine. And it?s a story adults can love, too.

7. Gulp by Mary Roach: Roach is about as entertaining a science writer as you?ll find, and this book about how we ingest food will make you think, laugh, and wince as she covers all things alimentary.

8. After Visiting Friends by Michael Hainey: Unfolding like a novel, this nonfiction gem starts with journalist Hainey uncovering inconsistencies within his own journalist father?s obituary?and while the truth behind the death will eventually be uncovered, greater truths await for Hainey, ones that will change the way he views the past and the present.

9. Tenth of December by George Saunders: Saunders? first collection of short stories in six years introduces his ironic, absurd, profound, and funny style to an army of new readers.

10. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker: This enchanting debut, set mostly in turn-of-the-century Manhattan, is both a well-researched historical novel and a spectacular work of fantasy.

To see the complete lists of the Best Books of the Year So Far, go to www.amazon.com/bestbookssofar.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth?s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth?s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon?s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon?s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle Paperwhite is the most-advanced e-reader ever constructed with 62% more pixels and 25% increased contrast, a patented built-in front light for reading in all lighting conditions, extra-long battery life, and a thin and light design. The new latest generation Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, now features new, improved fonts and faster page turns. Kindle Fire HD features a stunning custom high-definition display, exclusive Dolby audio with dual stereo speakers, high-end, laptop-grade Wi-Fi with dual-band support, dual-antennas and MIMO for faster streaming and downloads, enough storage for HD content, and the latest generation processor and graphics engine?and it is available in two display sizes?7? and 8.9?. The large-screen Kindle Fire HD is also available with 4G wireless, and comes with a groundbreaking $49.99 introductory 4G LTE data package. The all-new Kindle Fire features a 20% faster processor, 40% faster performance, twice the memory, and longer battery life.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, www.amazon.es, www.amazon.com.br and www.amazon.in. As used herein, ?Amazon.com,? ?we,? ?our? and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management?s expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment and data center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com?s financial results is included in Amazon.com?s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

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High court gay marriage decisions due Wednesday

Vin Testa of Washington waves a rainbow flag in support of gay rights outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, as key decisions are expected to be announced. The Supreme Court resolved five cases, including affirmative action, on Monday. That leaves disputes about gay marriage and voting rights among the six remaining cases. The justices are meeting again Tuesday to issue some opinions and will convene at least one more time. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Vin Testa of Washington waves a rainbow flag in support of gay rights outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, as key decisions are expected to be announced. The Supreme Court resolved five cases, including affirmative action, on Monday. That leaves disputes about gay marriage and voting rights among the six remaining cases. The justices are meeting again Tuesday to issue some opinions and will convene at least one more time. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - This Nov. 2, 2008 file photo shows supporters of Proposition 8, the state?s measure that banned same sex marriages, in front of city hall during a Yes on Prop. 8 rally in Los Angeles. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling that will determine the fate of California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages on Wednesday morning, June 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2008 file photo, Joni Boettcher, left, kisses her roommate Tika Shenghur during a protest march down Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood , Calif. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling that will determine the fate of California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages on Wednesday morning. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court is meeting to deliver opinions in two cases that could dramatically alter the rights of gay people across the United States.

The justices are expected to decide their first-ever cases about gay marriage Wednesday in their last session before the court's summer break.

The issues before the court are California's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denies legally married gay Americans a range of tax, health and pension benefits otherwise available to married couples.

The broadest possible ruling would give gay Americans the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals. But several narrower paths also are available, including technical legal outcomes in which the court could end up saying very little about same-sex marriage.

If the court overturns California's Proposition 8 or allows lower court rulings that struck down the ban to stand, it will take about a month for same-sex weddings to resume for the first time since 2008, San Francisco officials have said.

The high court rulings are arriving amid rapid change regarding gay marriage. The number of states permitting same-sex partners to wed has doubled from six to 12 in less than a year, with voter approval in three states in November, followed by legislative endorsement in three others in the spring.

At the same time, an effort to legalize gay marriage in Illinois stalled before the state's legislative session ended last month. And 30 states have same-sex marriage bans enshrined in their constitutions.

Massachusetts was the first state to allow same-sex couples to marry, in 2004. Same-sex marriage also is legal, or soon will be, in Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Roughly 18,000 same-sex couples got married in California in less than five months in 2008, after the California Supreme Court struck down a state code provision prohibiting gay unions.

California voters approved Proposition 8 in November of that year, writing the ban into the state constitution.

Two same-sex couples challenged the provision as unconstitutional and federal courts in California agreed.

The federal marriage law, known by its acronym DOMA, defines marriage as between a man and a woman for the purpose of deciding who can receive a range of federal benefits. Another provision not being challenged for the time being allows states to withhold recognition of same-sex marriages from other states.

DOMA easily passed Congress and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, the year of his re-election.

Several federal district and appeals courts struck down the provision. In 2011, the Obama administration abandoned its defense of the law but continued to enforce it. House Republicans are now defending DOMA in the courts. President Barack Obama subsequently endorsed gay marriage in 2012.

The justices chose for their review the case of 83-year-old Edith Windsor of New York, who sued to challenge a $363,000 federal estate tax bill after her partner of 44 years died in 2009.

Windsor, who goes by Edie, married Thea Spyer in 2007 after doctors told them Spyer would not live much longer. She suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years. Spyer left everything she had to Windsor.

Windsor would have paid nothing in inheritance taxes if she had been married to a man.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-26-Supreme%20Court-Gay%20Marriage/id-c232e03af8b7476785f7a61761794d25

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Gene mutation may have effect on benefit of aspirin use for colorectal cancer

June 25, 2013 ? In 2 large studies, the association between aspirin use and risk of colorectal cancer was affected by mutation of the gene BRAF, with regular aspirin use associated with a lower risk of BRAF-wild-type colorectal cancer but not with risk of BRAF-mutated cancer, findings that suggest that BRAF-mutant colon tumor cells may be less sensitive to the effect of aspirin, according to a study in the June 26 issue of JAMA.

Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that aspirin use reduces the risk of colorectal cancer, according to background information in the article. Experimental evidence has suggested that BRAF-mutant colonic cells might be less sensitive to the antitumor effects of aspirin than BRAF-wild-type (the typical form of a gene as it occurs in nature) neoplastic cells.

Reiko Nishihara, Ph.D., of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and colleagues examined the association of aspirin use with the risk of colorectal cancer according to BRAF mutation status. The researchers collected biennial questionnaire data on aspirin use and followed up participants in the Nurses' Health Study (from 1980) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (from 1986) until July 2006 for cancer incidence and until January 2012 for cancer mortality.

Among 127,865 individuals, 1,226 incident rectal and colon cancers were identified with available molecular data. The researchers found that regular aspirin use was associated with a significantly lower risk (27 percent) of BRAF-wild-type cancer. Regular aspirin use was not associated with a lower risk of BRAF-mutated cancer. "The association of aspirin use with colorectal cancer risk differed significantly according to BRAF mutation status."

The authors also observed a lower risk of BRAF-wild-type cancer with increasing aspirin tablets per week; however, there was not a significant trend in risk reduction for BRAF-mutated cancer. "The association of aspirin tablets per week with cancer risk differed significantly by BRAF mutation status. Compared with individuals who reported no aspirin use, a significantly lower risk of BRAF-wild-type cancer was observed among individuals who used 6 to 14 tablets of aspirin per week and among those who used more than 14 tablets of aspirin per week."

In addition, longer duration of aspirin use was associated with significant risk reduction for BRAF-wild-type cancer, whereas duration of aspirin use was not significantly associated with BRAF-mutated cancer risk.

"There was no statistically significant interaction between post-diagnosis aspirin use and BRAF mutation status in colorectal cancer-specific or overall survival analysis. This suggests that the potential protective effect of aspirin may differ by BRAF status in the early phase of tumor evolution before clinical detection but not during later phases of tumor progression," the authors write.

"The identification of specific cancer-subtypes that are prevented by aspirin is important for several reasons. First, it enhances our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of colorectal neoplasia and the mechanisms through which aspirin may exert its antineoplastic effects. Second, development of clinical, genetic, or molecular predictors of specific subtypes of colorectal cancer might lead to the development of more tailored screening or chemo-preventive strategies. Nevertheless, given the modest absolute risk difference, further investigations are necessary to evaluate clinical implications of our findings. Lastly, our data provide additional support for a causal association between aspirin use and risk reduction for a specific subtype of colorectal cancers. Accumulating evidence supports preventive effect of aspirin against colorectal cancer."

Editorial: Differential Effects of Aspirin Before and After Diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer

In an accompanying editorial, Boris Pasche, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, (and JAMA contributing editor), comments on the findings of this study.

"Nishihara el al derived their report from the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which include a large number of female and male health professionals. This population is predominantly white: 98 percent of the participants in the Nurses' Health Study and 95 percent of participants in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study are of a non-Hispanic white ethnic background. However, black individuals have the highest incidence of colorectal cancer in the United States and represent the ethnic group for whom colorectal cancer prevention may have the greatest benefit. Therefore, it will be important to determine whether the findings reported by Nishihara et al are confirmed in black individuals."

"In summary, these results identify biomarkers of response to aspirin administered either preventively or therapeutically and are likely to help tailor the use of aspirin in the prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/W6jQRekd7fU/130625161853.htm

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Ashton Kutcher Dons The Turtleneck And Jeans In First 'Jobs' Trailer

After a few months of questioning when we would all see the Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher that debuted at Sundance in January, "Jobs" now has a release date and a first trailer (via Yahoo! Movies) to boot. The trailer certainly evokes memories of the recent tech start-up story, "The Social Network," but the [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/06/24/ashton-kutcher-jobs-trailer/

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James says he's not thinking about 2014 yet

Miami Heat forward LeBron James reacts as he is introduced, Monday, June 24, 2013, during a celebration for season ticket holders at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. The Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs 95-88 in Game 7 to win their second straight NBA championship. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Miami Heat forward LeBron James reacts as he is introduced, Monday, June 24, 2013, during a celebration for season ticket holders at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. The Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs 95-88 in Game 7 to win their second straight NBA championship. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Miami Heat players laugh as they watch highlights of center Chris Bosh, right, Monday, June 24, 2013, during a celebration for season ticket holders at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. Other players from left are: Shane Battier, Juwan Howard, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Rashard Lewis. The Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs 95-88 in Game 7 to win their second straight NBA championship. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

NBA champion Miami Heat's LeBron James, left, motions to the fans during a parade honoring the team as Juwan Howard, right, looks on in Miami, Monday, June 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)

Miami Heat LeBron James, left and Dwyane Wade celebrate after defeating the San Antonio Spurs 95-88 to win their second straight NBA championship.(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

MIAMI (AP) ? LeBron James says he is not thinking about the possibility of becoming a free agent in 2014 yet, though he does think that the opportunity to compete for several more championships with the Miami Heat is "the ultimate."

James can opt out of his contract next summer, as can Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. There's still a second straight NBA title to defend this coming season, along with a chance at making the Heat just the fourth franchise to win three consecutive championships. He also has a wedding looming this summer to his longtime girlfriend Savannah Brinson.

Asked Tuesday about continuing to play with Wade and Bosh for years to come, James says "that's the goal. That's the ultimate finish. And we all hope that can happen."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-25-BKN-Heat-Wrapup/id-aff9467ff3cc448ca9ecfca585399897

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HP announces Slate 21 AIO, 21.5-inch Android tablet with Tegra 4

What do you do if your home turf of PC sales is being eroded by tablets? If your answer is "sell tablets as desktops," then you're on Meg Whitman's wavelength. At an event in Beijing, HP announced a 21.5-inch, Android-powered tablet that's expressly designed as a desktop unit. The HP Slate 21 AIO comes with a full-HD touchscreen and NVIDIA's Tegra 4 internals, running Android 4.2.2. Prospective owners won't need to purchase an artists' easel, however, as there's a handy rear kickstand that'll let you stand it upright or at a 30-ish degree angle (pictured after the break), making us hope that its digitizer is sensitive enough for pen-based drawing. There's no word on pricing or availability, but there's a press release, translated from Chinese, after the break, if you'd like to know more.

Filed under: Desktops, Tablets, Google, HP

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Five Reasons To See 'World War Z'

It seems like it's been forever since Brad Pitt was in a movie — well, one that everyone got a chance to see, anyway. Even though the movie star appeared in "Killing Them Softly" just last fall, "World War Z" marks his first big return to the screen since 2011's "Moneyball," and that return is [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/06/24/five-reasons-to-see-world-war-z/

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