The many young fans of Rick Riordan’s blockbuster Kane Chronicles and  Percy Jackson  series will absolutely love his new audio ebook short story—The Son of Sobek—in which both of Riordan’s  fictional worlds collide. Carter Kane and Percy Jackson finally cross paths, and their first encounter isn’t exactly friendly. To add to the excitement, this short story includes a sneak peek chapter from the upcoming House of Hades, Book Four in the Heroes of Olympus series.

In honor of his new short story, we asked Rick Riordan to let readers know why he loves mash-ups and what some of his favorites are:

So why did I write a mash-up where Carter Kane meets Percy Jackson? Because mash-ups are awesome! I love it when my favorite stuff gets mixed together in unexpected ways, whether it’s pistachio and ice cream (yum!), jazz music mixed with reggae (cool, mon), or Ironman and Thor wailing on each other in The Avengers. (Doth Mother knowing you wear’st her drapes?)

Looking for more great mash-ups? Here are some of my favorites:

1. Claudia from Warehouse 13 and Fargo from Eureka join forces.  My family loves both these TV shows on the Sy-Fy Channel. Sadly, Eureka is no longer producing new seasons, but Warehouse 13 is still going strong! My favorite episodes are “13.1” of Warehouse 13 and “Crossing Over” of Eureka, in which two wonderful super-geeks, Claudia and Fargo, work together to stop a sentient computer virus.

2. The Sandman graphic novels by Neil Gaiman. Possibly the ultimate mythology/comic book mash-up. The god Morpheus escapes from imprisonment and must reclaim his lost items of power, which will take him on a quest to meet Lucifer, Julius Caesar and (wait for it) the Justice League of America. Only an incredible, wonderful, twisted imagination like Gaiman’s could create such a story – throwing everyone from Superman to the Devil into a blender to see what happens.

3.  A Tale Dark and Grimm, by Adam Gidwitz. You’ll never look at Grimm’s Fairy Tales the same way after reading this. Gidwitz balanced the grisly violence of the original Grimms’ fairy tales with a wonderful sense of humor. He weaves the fairy tales together into a single narrative featuring Hansel and Gretel, and does it so well you’ll be wondering if this was the way the stories were meant to be told back in the old days.

Whatever your favorite mash-ups are, I hope you’ll check out the ones above, and I hope you like the Percy/Carter story The Son of Sobek!

Roller coaster season is upon us, and lots of thrill-seeking families will be headed to theme parks nationwide this summer.

Since I get motion sickness from riding in the back seat of a car, there won’t be any coaster riding for me. Instead, I’m having fun with the vicarious thrills of the new free Nutty Fluffies Rollercoaster app from Ubisoft. In this exciting physics-based game, you’re the conductor of a wide range of roller coasters—from old fashioned wooden rattlers to ultra modern steel speed demons.

Your passengers on these fateful trips are a bunch of carnival stuffed animals who escaped their Midway game booths to have a little fun of their own. Help them have the thrill of a lifetime as you take command your own roller coaster fleet.  

In The Last Boy, Leavy profiles one of the most beloved, and troubled, American sports stars of all time. Mantle was blessed with incredible talent and skill, but cursed with a hardscrabble childhood and a propensity for alcoholism. His affable demeanor and partying lifestyle made him the envy of a generation of baseball fans, but in the end, injuries and alcohol took their toll.

Leavy highlights the highs and lows of Mantle’s storied career, drawing on more than 500 interviews with friends, family, teammates, and Number 7 himself. This is a thoughtful and fair-minded biography that befits the mighty slugger.

Have a great Father’s Day weekend—and take some time to relax with NOOK!

Dad’s will be vying with their kids for a chance to play today’s Free Fridays app selection, Missile Defender by  Epic Pixel . Let’s just hope the young ones give dear old dad some time with NOOK this Sunday!

I loved those intergalactic 1980s arcade games, and certainly plugged enough quarters into them to fund a small army! So Missile Defender is my ideal NOOK app—a chance to relive the arcade fun from the comfort of my couch.

In Missile Defender, your city is under attack, and you’ll need a coordinated plan to intercept the incoming missiles that rain down each night. During the day, you’ll fortify your defenses and prepare a strategy for launching your own missiles to destroy enemy warheads. The combination of quick-thinking and long-term strategizing make this a great app for every gamer.

Once your city is safe and secure, make sure to explore some more great apps and puzzles from Epic Pixel.

Free Fridays app promotions refer specifically to the app in the NOOK Store.

Free Fridays Recommends

Each week, we ask our featured author to recommend a book or author that you may want to check out. Since authors are such passionate readers themselves, we thought you might like to find out what they love to read, too! Here’s what Jane recommends:

Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life by Richard Ben Cramer

Richard made it possible for me to write about Mickey Mantle.  His reportorial tour-de-force, the literary equivalent of a 56-game hitting streak, taught me how to write about those we deem heroes and the frailties that make them all too human if not always beloved.  Richard had chops.  He made me brave.

Before you set off on your summer travels this year, you’ll want to make sure your NOOK is loaded with some great poolside reads at a great price. Our 101 NOOK Books Under $2.99 collection is the best place to start, and the titles below are some of our current favorites:

Milk and Honey by Faye Kellerman

In the silent pre-dawn city hours -- alone with his thoughts about Rina Lazarus, the woman he loves, three thousand miles away in New York -- LAPD detective Peter Decker finds a small child, abandoned and covered in blood that is not hers. It is a sobering discovery, and a perplexing one, for nobody in the development where she was found steps forward to claim the little girl. Obsessed more deeply by this case than he imagined possible, Decker is determined to follow the scant clues to an answer.

Graveminder  by Melissa Marr

Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the attention her grandmother Maylene bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the small town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn't a funeral that Maylene didn't attend, and at each one Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: She took three sips from a silver flask and spoke the words "Sleep well, and stay where I put you."

Now Maylene is dead, and Bek must go back to the place she left a decade earlier. She soon discovers that Claysville is not just the sleepy town she remembers, and that Maylene had good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in Claysville the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected; beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D. If the dead are not properly cared for, they will come back to satiate themselves with food, drink, and stories from the land of the living. Only the Graveminder, by tradition a Barrow woman, and her Undertaker—in this case Byron Montgomery, with whom Bek shares a complicated past—can set things right once the dead begin to walk.

The Council of Dads by Bruce Feiler

Bestselling author Bruce Feiler was a young father when he was diagnosed with cancer. He instantly worried what his daughters' lives would be like without him. "Would they wonder who I was? Would they wonder what I thought? Would they yearn for my approval, my love, my voice?"

Three days later he came up with a stirring idea of how he might give them that voice. He would reach out to six men from all the passages in his life, and ask them to be present in the passages in his daughters' lives. And he would call this group "The Council of Dads."

"I believe my daughters will have plenty of opportunities in their lives," he wrote to these men. "They'll have loving families. They'll have each other. But they may not have me. They may not have their dad. Will you help be their dad?"

The Queen of Whale Cay  

A fascinating biography of the woman champion motorboat racer of the 1920s who in the ’30s bought and became ’ruler’ of an island in the British West Indies. ’Joe’ Carstairs was born in London in 1900, the daughter of a Scottish colonel and an American heiress. Educated in Connecticut, she returned to Europe in 1916 and drove ambulances for the Women’s Legion in France. She deserted her husband at the church door (marriage was a prerequisite of her coming into her $4 million inheritance) and settled in England where she took up racing, established a boat yard at Cowes and won nearly every trophy going.

While making time for reading is a top priority for me (it’s part of my job, after all), I’m also a young parent with limited time. And even though I’ve gotten used to breezing through blog posts, or slowly chipping away at novels, sometimes I really want to read something that falls between a blog post and a full-length book.

That’s why I’m really excited about the new titles that are part of our NOOK Snaps program. These original, NOOK-only books are smart, fresh and provocative perspectives from compelling contemporary voices selected by NOOK Editors. Each title is 5,000 words or longer, and is available for just $1.99. A great price for a satisfying reading ‘snack.’

We’ll be featuring fresh titles every two months, and the debut collection includes some impressive short content from incredibly talented authors:

High-Status Characters by Brian Raftery

 

An expansion of the pop culture writer’s popular oral history of The Upright Citizens Brigade for New York magazine, featuring new interviews with Amy Poehler, Matt Besser and a variety of other famous comedians who got their start in the legendary improv comedy group. It’s a story with equal parts laughs and revelations.

How to Be a Playgirl by Jessanne Collins

A thought-provoking personal essay by the current managing editor of Mental Floss about her years finding her way as a feminist, while working as an editor at Playgirl magazine. It’s a coming-of-age tale that features lots of intellectual nakedness, and also some male nudity.

The lastest $0.99 Spotlight offer is Mary Daheim's irresistible cozy mystery, Just Desserts.

During a raucous dinner party at Judith McMonigle's Hillside Manor Inn a fortuneteller drops dead from poisoned tea leaves. Now it is up to Judith and her ex-boyfriend, detective Joe Flynn to find the killer.

This light-hearted whodunnit is a perfect summer read, unless of course you're planning a trip to a small town bed & breakfast! In that case, sleep with one eye open.

Tell Me: What was your favorite bed & breakfast experience?

Save Big on Must-Have Apps for Summer Travel.

Ectaco offers a range of language apps to meet travelers’ needs. Their talking dictionaries, like the discounted Talking English-Spanish Dictionary, are the easiest way to communicate in an unfamiliar language. All you need to do is identify the correct English phrase, and your NOOK will translate and repeat it in an authentic native speaker voice. An especially handy feature when you urgently need to find the nearest restroom!

Much like the Talking Dictionary series, the Talking Phrasebook apps are a great way to facilitate conversations with native speakers. But these apps, like the English-French Talking Phrasebook, work in both directions, offering verbal translations both to and from English.

The U-Learn series, including the sale-priced U-Learn: Learn Chinese On-The-Go app, let’s native English speakers master a new language using advanced language recognition software. As you navigate seven different themed lessons—from restaurants to shopping—the app corrects your pronunciation, and asks questions so you can practice conversations you’re likely to encounter on your trip.  The best part is that you don’t need to be connected to Wi-Fi to use the app, letting you hone your language skills wherever and whenever your NOOK is at hand.

Enjoy these great limited-time offers, and may I be the first to wish you a bon voyage!

"An amazing, action-packed series! I’m as hungry as a Vamp for the next book!"

-Bestselling author Kerrelyn Sparks

Today’s Free Fridays selection, A Blood Seduction by Pamela Palmer, is the gripping first book in her dark urban fantasy series.

Fans of Kim Harrison and Laurell K. Hamilton will add Pamela Palmer to their list of must-read authors as soon as they’ve finished A Blood Seduction. Palmer’s fearless heroine, Quinn, enters the treacherous Vamp City to track down a missing friend. Along the way, the handsome vampire Arturo Mazza sets his sights on the beautiful and brave woman from the outside world. Quinn is drawn to the mysterious Arturo, but fears the dangers that lurk in Vamp City.

Arturo knows that his city is dying, and the fate of his fellow vampires is at great risk. While his heart yearns for Quinn, he also sees her as a potential savior of his dying breed, and he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her into the fold.

More hot-blooded action awaits in Palmer’s next Vamp City novel A Kiss of Blood, available now for preorder.

Wow! Wow! Dinosaurs! Your kids will love today’s Free Fridays app selection: Wubbzy's Dinosaur Adventure by Cupcake Digital, Inc.

This app skillfully combines two of the things my kids love most: dinosaurs, and the Emmy® Award-winning Nick Jr. cartoon, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!  I was a dinosaur fanatic growing up, and I’m happy that my children have found the same sense of wonder from these prehistoric creatures.

In this interactive book, readers follow Wubbzy and friends as they travel to Dino Island—home to the giant Sillyasaurus. Best of all, the interactive activities—like sing-alongs and coloring—have been developed with an emphasis on learning, so your little ones will be refining critical skills as they enjoy the engaging gameplay.

I think your kids will say “WOW!” when you share today’s Free Fridays app with them. Plus there are many more Wubbzy adventures waiting for them on NOOK.

Free Fridays app promotions refer specifically to the app in the NOOK Store.

Free Fridays Recommends

Each week, we ask our featured author to recommend a book or author that you may want to check out. Since authors are such passionate readers themselves, we thought you might like to find out what they love to read, too! Here’s what Pamela recommends:

Nalini Singh’s Slave to Sensation is the most skillfully executed and emotionally satisfying paranormal romance I’ve read, and one of my favorite books of all time. The Psy-Changling world is fascinating, the plot and romance hit every note with masterful perfection, and the characters utterly leap off the page. For lovers of paranormal romance and urban fantasy, this is not a book to be missed.

If your dad has a NOOK, or is getting one for Father’s Day, why not send him some NOOK Books and NOOK Apps to enjoy on his big day? With NOOK Instant Gifting, you can buy the gift now, and schedule it for delivery via email on Father’s Day.

Every dad’s different, and there are unlimited books and apps that dads will enjoy. If your dad’s a history buff, he’ll love Jean Edward Smith’s impressive new biography,  Eisenhower: In War & Peace. If he’s more of a literary fiction fan, The Kite Runner author Khaled Hosseini’s majestic new novel, And the Mountains Echoed, will send him on a globe-trotting adventure. And if cuddling up with the little ones at storytime is at the top of dad’s list, send him I Love My Papi, starring every toddler’s favorite cartoon friend, Dora the Explore.

Even if dad doesn’t have time for a trip to the links, the addictive  Flick Golf app is the next best thing for duffers. Or if your pops gets his thrills from poker night, he’ll be able to hone his skills with the Vegas Video Poker app.

Dad works hard all year, so give him a chance to relax with some great NOOK Books and NOOK Apps this Father’s Day.

Superman - our country's most recognizable comic book hero - has been fighting for truth, justice, and the American way for 75 years. He's more than a super hero, he's a cultural icon. In his new book, Super Boys, author Brad Ricca tells the fascinating story of the young duo of Jerry Siegal and Joe Shuster who brought the Man of Steel to life. Michael Chabon fictionalized this singularly American tale in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and now Ricca reveals how it really went down.

Today, Ricca stops by the NOOK Blog to reveal 5 Things You Probably Don't Know About Superman:

1. We all know that Superman was rocketed here from the doomed planet of Krypton.  Most of us even know that he was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two best friends from Cleveland, Ohio during the Great Depression. But in an early version of Superman that Jerry did with artist Russell Keaton (after a fight with Joe), young Kal-L actually traveled through time to get here from an apocalyptic future. They only did a few weeks of this comics strip before Keaton abandoned it – partly because none of the newspapers wanted to buy it, but mostly because he realized Jerry Siegel was just a teenager.

2. The love of Superman’s life, Lois Lane, was based on a real woman who came over to Joe’s apartment in 1935 to pose for the character. Later, this same woman would be involved in a real-life love triangle that inspired the famous one between Clark, Lois, and Superman. To blur the line between fact and fiction even further, this love triangle involved her and the two creators of Superman – one of whom she ended up marrying. Her story, and the development of the Lois Lane character, one of comic’s all-time best characters, is almost completely autobiographical. Almost.

3. Superman made his first public appearance in 1940 (two years after he hit the comics) when a Broadway actor dressed up in tights at the World’s Fair in New York. It was called “Superman Day” and the kids went nuts over the elaborate parade and a physical fitness contest to crown a “Super-Boy” and ”Super-Girl” (Super-Boy actually cheated). The day after this landmark day for the character, tragedy struck the fairgrounds in the form of a mysterious terrorist bomb, which would change the course of Superman’s adventures forever.

4. When they were still in high school, Jerry and Joe wrote their first Superman story, a weird tale about a bald madman intent on taking over the world. Most people think this was their first attempt at Superman – it wasn’t. It turns out they basically took this whole story from somewhere (and someone) else.
 
5. Jerry and Joe got the idea for Superman having a secret identity from The Shadow, a popular radio show about a man who shrouded his face and fought crime. But that is kind of a misleading lie, too.  In fact, much of what we think we know about Superman and his creators has been, at times, a carefully orchestrated myth. Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent, was also based on someone real: a secret identity of a man who should not exist. A man who, like Clark Kent, has been standing in front of us the whole time.  Who is Superman?  We only think we know.