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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Aaron's Storybooks - Four Books for Four Cents

Aaron Shepard of Shepard Publications thinks that children's ebooks are being priced too high and has decided to offer his books on Kindle at a penny apiece. He has started with four books in the Storybooks series and promises to add more if these do well. What you give up, though, are any illustrations from the paper versions of the book. For some stories, I suspect this won't make a difference, although it would not work for books for toddlers. Each of these books has a specific theme, are generally written for ages 4-9 and range in size from 900 to 1500 words. (I'm all for long novels, but not children's bedtime stories!)

Aaron's Storybook #1: The Legend of Lightning Larry
A cowboy with a huge smile, a gun that shoots bolts of light, and a hankering for lemonade takes on Evil-Eye McNeevil's outlaw gang. An original tall tale.

Aaron's Storybook #2: The Legend of Slappy Hooper
Slappy is the world's biggest, fastest, bestest sign painter, but he's too good -- his pictures keep coming to life. An American tall tale.

Aaron's Storybook #3: The Baker's Dozen
Van Amsterdam, the baker, is as honest as he can be -- but he may have something left to learn. A Saint Nicholas tale from Dutch colonial New York.

Aaron's Storybook #4: The Gifts of Wali Dad
Wali Dad, a humble grass-cutter, never asked for wealth-- so why can't he give it away? A tale of India and Pakistan.

When I did a search for Shepard Publications in the Kindle store, I discovered that I had already bought a couple of books from them. This is the same publisher that has Skeeter: A Cat Tale and Pacific Avenue, by Anne L. Watson and Timothy Tolliver and the Bully Basher, by Aaron Shepard, all for a penny apiece in the Kindle store and previously mentioned in my blog. I'm only part way thru Skeeter, but it is a laugh-out-loud read (at least, if you have ever been owned by a cat). In addition to these, I discovered four more titles they've released recently, all children's books, it appears, of around 50 pages:

The Monkey King: A Superhero Tale of China, Retold from The Journey to the West ($0.01)

The Songs of Power: A Finnish Tale of Magic, Retold from the Kalevala ($0.01)

The Mountain of Marvels: A Celtic Tale of Magic, Retold from The Mabinogion ($0.50)

The Magic Flyswatter: A Superhero Tale of Africa, Retold from the Mwindo Epic ($0.50)

End of Month Kindle Dollar Days

It seems that every month I find more bargains that will possibly fit into the blog. Today I'm going to group a large number of them into one post and the only thing they have in common is that they can be had for a dollar or less. I haven't purchased, let alone, read every one of these, so be sure to check out the samples first, but I try to remove any that have extremely badly edited/formatted samples from my lists. I seem to remember one or two saying that their price reductions were for a limited time, but with Amazon's delays in price changes that may mean a day or two, a week or the rest of next month. I'll keep my commentary to a minimum, so that the post doesn't go too long.

First up are The Horns of September and The White Lady Murders, by Wendy Potocki, each an even one dollar.

The Horns of September
All is not right in Shucktown. Just ask Chuck Beckett. He’s young, in love and readying his group to audition for Motown Records. He’s sure his will be the first interracial group signed by the emerging recording giant. He should be on top of the world, but he’s not. For despite living out his dreams, Chuck feels as if he’s headed for certain disaster. Repressed memories have begun to surface in the form of dark, paralyzing depressions. These debilitating episodes convince him of one thing – that he is soon about to die. Chuck tries his best to shake it off as so much teenage angst. He finds it increasingly difficult to do so after the good friend who warns him about “the devils in Shucktown,” winds up murdered. Her death is the catalyst that leads Chuck Beckett to step out of his comfort zone to confront cabals, demons, monsters knitted out of darkness and all the horrors that arise from the curse known as The Horns of September.

The White Lady Murders
In a Malibu beach house, David Lynx struggles with writing with his latest tour de force – a book on magic. It’s a subject he knows nothing about. In a desperate attempt to understand, he decides to perform an ancient ritual not realizing that he will unwittingly open a door for a forty-year-old unsolved murder spree to start all over again.

...At its core, The White Lady Murders offers an action-packed detective story replete with a hard-boiled, hard-nosed police officer named Robert Moran leading the charge. Moran is a veteran police officer who vividly remembers the original murders that occurred during The Summer of Blood. The string of vicious crimes terrorized the city and held its residents captive in the killer's steely grip. No one felt safe and now Moran desperately races to solve the mystery of who or what is behind the new wave of brutal killings to prevent The White Lady Murders from beginning again.


Next on the list is another pair of titles from Tommy Jonq, Gemini Tiger: A Novel for the Unhooked and Forty Days, each priced at 99 cents. The former is a humorous romance while the latter is a volume of poetry and short stories.

Gemini Tiger: A Novel for the Unhooked
When a sexy single mom with Babydaddy Personality Disorder and a taste for exotic, untamed pool boys receives a DNA ultimatum from the Indiana Department of Public Aid, she decides to drown her troubles in the frigid green waters of Lake Michigan. She who laughs last . . .

A ravenously funny portrait of the Unhooked Generation . . .


Forty Days
A collection of short stories, poems, and microfiction by the author of the novel, "Gemini Tiger." Includes "Ivy," the 2005 winner of the James Jones Literary Society Award for Short Fiction, and several hilarious "coming of age" stories set in southern Illinois during Ronald Reagan's Morning in America. The book is rounded out by several poems and other pieces previously published in literary journals and magazines.


Eleganta: A novel of Fairykind, by Denny Swartzlander, is aimed a the young adult age group (12+), but can be read at any age.

Enter the 9th century, a time of magic and mystery. On a hidden isle in the seas near England, a young fairy named Ethywyne Eleganta secretly gives birth to the first youngling in fourteen years. She and her child become the hunted prize of the wicked troll general Sunderin. Ethywyne must make the perilous journey across the Fairy Realms, to get her child to the Fairy Queen, the only one who can protect her from the shadow that seeks to destroy all of Fairykind.

Her experience takes her from a humble life of gardening and craft-making to the center of an adventure that grows to involve fickle goblins, giant ogres, magic fairy dust, thieving pixies, an enchanted hedge maze, and even Vikings of the Norse lands who happen upon the isle in their plundering voyages.


Shameless Shorts, by "Eighteen well known authors", is one you might want just for the cover alone. This is a collection of short stories (presumably 18 of them) by a group of authors who met on the Amazon Kindle forums. I recognize at least a few of the names (Dennis Batchelder, for example), but for 99 cents it looks like a great way to sample a number whose books I have not read.

Fruitbasket from Hell, by Jason Krumbine, is the first in his Alex Cheradon Mysteries series. I didn't even get thru the sample before I went back and bought this one. The second in the series, A is for Amnesia, B is for Bullet , is $5.95 in the Kindle store (although it may go down a bit next month, it won't be to the dollar range, according to the author). However, you can get it for 99 cents on Smashwords. While you are there, you might want to add Heaven's Superhero: The Third Creation or Explorers of the Unknown to your order -- all of these are 99 cents, at least for now (they are supposed to come down to 99 cents in the Kindle store, but it may be next week before it gets approved).

Nevada Raines has gone missing. Her billionaire father thinks she's dead. Her mother hopes she's alive. Alex Cheradon, the private investigator hired to find her, isn’t sure what’s going on. But he suspects it’s going to at least involve people wanting to kill him. He doesn’t know it’s also going to involve a demon from Hell. Neither are good for his long term health prospects. And you're just going to have to read the book to find what’s named Pookie. (Hint: It’s not a good thing.)

The "End of Days" Cycle: A Modern Look at the Ancient Prophecy, by Chris J, isn't a novel, but purports to be an in-depth look at both the prophecies of the christian Bible's Old Testament and the Mayan 2012 predictions.

Do you know what the prophets told us about the end of the world, or why they told us about it? They actually didn’t tell us about the “end of the world,” or even the “end of the world as we know it.” The world will change, just like they said it would, and those who know what to expect are going to be the ones who inherit a new generation of humanity. The prophets didn’t mention anything about a miraculous being that would save everyone who believed in miraculous beings. What they told us includes a leader of humanity, anointed by God. But he’s not going to whisk anyone away to the safety of Heaven during the destructive events. Instead, he’s going to suffer at the hands of humanity for being who he is, and then lead the way for those who want to survive.

Of course you knew that the world would be destroyed by fire. Everyone who was raised in a religious home knows that. But do you know what will cause that fire? Did you know that the prophets told us that pollution would be the cause? Can you think of any kind of pollutant that could cause the earth to burn? Could “global warming” be what the prophets were warning us about?

This book is about prophecy of the Old Testament. It includes the primary prophecies and how they are relevant today, even though they were written thousands of years ago and most are thought to have been fulfilled previously. Also included is the reasoning behind the birth of the religions we have today, and how they were predicted by the prophets. This book is not a religious book, because no particular religious beliefs are followed as many misunderstandings that have been made by various religions of our world are untangled.


Broken Bulbs, by Eddie Wright, is a stream-of-conciousness narrative of novella length.

Frank Fisher is nothing. He wants to be something. When a mysterious young woman named Bonnie offers assistance by injecting seeds of inspiration directly into his brain, Frank finds himself involved in a twisting mystery full of addiction, desperation and self-discovery. Broken Bulbs, a novella by Eddie Wright, tells the story of the lengths one young man will go in the pursuit of "somethingness."

Toe Popper, by Jonny Tangerine.

A twisted beach novel.

A terrorist plants landmines on the beaches of Southern California.

Major Joel Lane, a Special Forces adviser and landmine expert, is called-in from the wilderness of Cambodia to hunt him down.

Teamed with the beautiful female FBI agent assigned to the case, Lane battles his past demons, opium addiction, and a diabolical opponent who is only getting started.

... a thrilling ride along the giddy edge of entertainment and suspense.


Joshua Hale Fialkov & Noel Tuazon's Tumor continues this month with Chapter 4. This should be the half-way point on this graphic novel.

Frank Armstrong has an inoperable brain tumor that's killing him. In his final days, with his body, senses, and mind failing him, he's going to do the one thing that he's never been able to do before -- save the girl.

Chapter Four finds Frank and Evelyn on the run and seeking refuge from the storm they've both created. It's up to Frank to pull himself together and protect Evelyn from her father and the police who want her dead.


Along Came a Demon (Whisperings), by by Linda Welch, looks to be the start of a new series. Not in the series, she also has Mindbender ($2.50) and Galen's Gate (Novels of the Systems) ($2.00) in the Kindle store.

I'm told the dead are all around us. I wouldn't know about that, I see only the violently slain. They can be victims of hit-and-run, innocents caught in a cross-fire, the murdered. They whisper to me and they never, ever, forget the face of their killer. I've learned to live with my uncanny ability, in fact I've made a career out of it.

The departed aren't the only supernaturals I see. No, they're not vampires or werewolves or fae - those things don't exist. We live side by side with what some call the Otherworldy. That's too much of a mouthful for me, I call them demons. If you saw them as I do, you'd know why.

Right now I'm trying to track down a missing six year-old boy whose mother was murdered. Or maybe she wasn't. To further complicate the case, Clarion PD gave me a partner I'd rather shoot than work with.

I can't tell them he's a demon.

They'd think I'm crazy.

I'm Tiff Banks. Welcome to my world.


Peculiar, MO is from the author of Strange Times ($5.99), Robert Williams. This one isn't a short story collection, but more of a sci-fi horror novel. If you missed Strange Times while it's pricing was stuck at a buck on Kindle, you can still get it for 99 cents on Smashwords.

Welcome to Peculiar, MO. For most, life is good in this idyllic Midwestern town, until a falling star brings an unearthly menace. Soon animals are found dying of a mysterious disease. At night, beasts begin to cry out in voices that sound almost like words, as they are drawn to a burned clearing to serve an alien will.

Local widow Kelly Ross, who is struggling to make ends meet after the death of her husband, sends her young son into the forest on an errand, where he makes a frightening discovery.

Spencer Dale, the town's mechanic, whose past contains a painful secret, begins to experience strange dreams and visions, as he relives memories that are not his own.

Nine-year-old Rachel, a child of nature, becomes linked to an unspeakable crime that took place more than eighty years in the past, while a military operation moving inexorably towards the meteor's impact site makes its presence, and its plans, known.

All their lives are linked together as an alien life cycle reaches its terrifying climax.


Fresh Kills, by Bill Loehfelm, actually stretches the boundaries of today's titles, as it costs $1.29, not quite under a buck. I first heard about this book when it was a paper-only issue, then watched it on Amazon as it was priced in the $10 range. It hit $1.63 last week and fell to $1.29 just a couple of days ago.

In Fresh Kills, the murder of John Sanders, Sr. on a New York street corner reunites his estranged and abused children, John, Jr. and Julia. While Julia struggles to keep things together on the home front, Junior, unhinged by his father's death, searches for the killer across the bleak, haunted landscape of his Staten Island hometown. Complicating Junior's pursuit are two police detectives: one, a former childhood friend; the other, a veteran cop who might have his own reasons to wish John, Sr. dead. Junior's emotional state crumbles under the pressure coming at him from every side. Bedding his high school sweetheart doesn't exactly simplify the situation. When the opportunity for revenge presents itself, Junior must decide whether he will continue the chain of violence that has nearly destroyed his life, or give in to the possibility of a new beginning. With emotional intensity, crackling dialogue and a heartfelt sense of place and character, Fresh Kills delivers unexpected and profound insights that speak to the soul of its struggling hero, and heralds a breakthrough voice in fiction.

Free Book - The Ruins of Gorlan

The Ruins of Gorlan ($6.39 Kindle), by John Flanagan, is Book One of the Ranger's Apprentice series. The link and cover are for the US Kindle version of the book, but the one being given away has, in my opinion, a much nicer cover; it's the one the book has in Australia. This series is geared towards middle school to high school age kids, but isn't a bad read for adults who enjoy straight fantasy.

Book Description
description removed due to author's misunderstanding of affiliate use of content provided by Amazon

There are two small catches to the free book. First, you have to sign up for the Ranger's Apprentice newsletter; your download link will be sent to the email address used and be sure to pick "outside Australia" for your location. The second, though, impacts where you can read the book. It's a DRM'd ePub, which means it requires Adobe Digital Editions to both download and read (or you should be able to read it on a Sony Reader).

Click HERE to sign up for the free download. The offer ends September 30, so today is the last day.

Bargain Reads - Ken McConnell

Ken McConnell has a couple of bargain reads available right now. The first is Null_Pointer ($6.39), the first in his Joshua Jones Mystery series. Rather than get this one in the Kindle store, though, head over to the series web site and you can download the book for free. Several formats are available, all DRM free (use the Mobi format for the Kindle). You can also read the entire thing free online at Scribd.com, HERE.

Book Description
The man in the cubicle beside him was dead. The police say it was a heart attack, but programmer Joshua Jones knows better. A message he found in the dead man's code points to a psychotic hacker who can strike through the internet, leaving no trace. Relying on the advice from his tech savvy friends, Joshua must solve the mystery of who the killer is and how he attacks before Joshua becomes his next victim.

His second bargain read is from his Galaxy Collision series and is science fiction, rather than a mystery. Starstrikers is currently makred down to 99 cents. This one is a full novel, rather than the short stories found in his other offerings. Two of those short stories, though, and a number of others are also free on Scribd, all of which appear to be downloadable, so you can put the PDF on your Kindle DX or convert them for the other Kindle models (a few are even available as Microsoft Word documents. One last story, Renoke, looks to be an online read only, although it is easily cut-and-pasted into an RTF file for conversion.

Book Description
Military SF novel about a special forces team and their efforts to counter a new enemy warship.

Game of the Day - Cake Mania 2 (98 cents)

Some of you may have picked up Cake Mania ($6.99) last week when Amazon had it as a free download. Today, Amazon has the next in the series, Cake Mania 2, as the Video Game of the Day. You get the full game download for 98 cents, provided you purchase by midnight tonight.

Game Description
You Choose Jill's Path And Future.
18 All-New Quirky Customers.
204 Sweet Levels.
50 Unique Kitchen Upgrades.
Jill is back in an all-new, out-of-this-world adventure! Explore six far-flung bakery locations, serving up deliciously original creations! What awaits Jill? Fame? Fortune? Love? In Cake Mania 2, you choose which path Jill pursues, with each decision leading to new baking challenges and dilemmas. With 204 levels of baking and frosting madness, 6 different possible endings and a branching, non-linear storyline, it's your decision to make in Cake Mania 2!


This game should also qualify as a purchase for the Buy One, Get One Free offer that Amazon is currently running.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Ayn Rand for free at Fictionwise

Amazon still doesn't have any Ayn Rand titles in the Kindle store other than the public domain Anthem, but other ebookstores are starting to carry her titles. Fictionwise now has 19 (two of which are versions of Anthem) titles by Ayn Rand and is running a 100% micropay rebate on the titles, thru October 4.

Unlike many of their other 100% rebates, this one lets you use your current micropay credit and still get the rebate, making the books 100% free, so long as you have enough credit for the most expensive book (about $17 if you are a member and have the 25% off coupon from their recent survey, or $26 otherwise). If you don't have any credit there, you can use PayPal or a credit card for the first book (get the most expensive one, Letters of Ayn Rand), then use the credit from that purchase to buy the others, one at a time until you have the entire set. You'll then have the same amount of credit that you started with (or $25.50 if you had to start an account from scratch), that you can use on other books later on.

The only caveat is that the books (other than one of the Anthem editions, which is in the DRM free Multiformat) won't work on your Kindle or Sony Reader. All of them can be had in Fictionwise's (and now Barnes & Noble's) DRM'd eReader format (so should work on the B&N reader to be released later this year, but also work on iphones/ipod touch). All but one also can be purchased in a DRM'd mobipocket format and that last one can be purchased in a Microsoft Reader format (also with DRM). All of the formats will work fine on your PC: the eReader format will be tied to a credit card number and exact name used for the purchase, so make sure you keep track of that; the Mobi versions are tied to specific machines, but you can update the list of machines anytime as your PC/notebook/netbook get upgraded; the Microsoft Reader (LIT) format only requires the software be installed and authorized on any machine (nothing to set up at Fictionwise or keep track of, however getting a new machine authorized can sometimes take several days, as there is only one server at Microsoft that can do the authorizations and it can be down for several days at a time, as I ran into the last time I installed it on my netbook).

Still, the entire Ayn Rand library for free isn't a bad deal, even if you have to read it on your PC or your phone. There doesn't seem to be any reason you can't buy all the available formats, either, if you want to cover your bases, in case you get a different reader later on.

Free Book at Smashwords - Boomerang

Boomerang ($1.00 Kindle), by Alan Hutcheson, can be purchased at no cost on Smashwords, thru October 1. Offer Updated and extended - use coupon code QQ46G DL66H and you can get the book free thru October November 15.

If you'd prefer to get it from Amazon, you'll want to wait a couple of days, so that you can get the corrected cover and updated formatting. Once the cover changes in the Kindle store to match the one at Smashwords, you should get the corrected version. With all the changes to copyright verification being done at Amazon, minor changes that don't change any text are taking an average of five working days to be processed and any text changes seem to trigger another copyright search, so it may be next week before Amazon catches up. Of course, the Smashwords version isn't limited to the Kindle, so can be read on most ereader devices out there.

Book Description
Ted Hogwood's beloved Sarah, a jazz guitar, is in the window of Topp Dollar Pawn. The only way he can get the money to rescue her is to accept an assignment from the AABC, a not nearly official branch of the United States intelligence community. He is partnered with Jerry Kwiatkowski, master of the Hammond B-3 organ and chronic flatulence sufferer, to steal a boomerang containing secrets that should have died with J. Edgar Hoover over thirty years ago. It would be a simple job if only they knew what they were doing. And if a crossbow wielding assassin, two unemployed Australian women, The Director of Central Intelligence and a clothing optional former onion festival queen were not also hot on the boomerang's trail.

For the free download, click HERE and use coupon code GY65W after adding the book to your cart. Offer Updated and extended - use coupon code QQ46G and you can get the book free thru October 15.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Crime Always Pays

Crime Always Pays, by Declan Burke, can now be had for $1.25. This is the sequel to The Big O ($5.15 Hardcover), which is not yet available on Kindle.

Book Description
“You never get away. You’re always getting away.”

Karen and Ray want out. Rossi wants his ear back. Doyle wants Ray. Melody wants a good story. Sleeps just wants to do some soft time. A trans-Europe road-trip screwball noir, CRIME ALWAYS PAYS features a cast of cops and robbers, losers and hopers, villains, saints and a homicidal Siberian wolf. You’ll never see the Greek islands in quite the same light again …

Double Exposure for Two Bucks

Double Exposure, by Michael Lister, has been marked down to $1.99. I suspect it is part of the monthly $1.99 unadvertised specials Amazon has been running, so the price may hold for another couple of days (then again, it may not). In any case, it's a stand-alone thriller with all five-star reviews (except from Publisher's Weekly and they seem to take the critical aspect of being a critic as a requirement for their reviews).

Book Description
Following his dad’s death, Remington James returns to the small North Florida town where he grew up to assume his father’s life—taking care of his dying mother and running the local gun and pawn shop.One fateful fall evening, as the sun sinks and the darkness expands, Remington ventures deep into the river swamp to try out some new equipment and check his camera traps. Encountering the kind of wildlife that made him want to be a photographer in the first place, Remington gets some of the best shots of his life, but he’s about to happen upon the most dangerous animal of all—a feral, patient, sociopath who wants Remington dead.

Free Audiobook - The Mark of the Christian

The Mark of the Christian, by Francis A. Schaeffer, is a relatively short selection, at 1.25 hours long. Normally $8.98, you can get it for free by taking a short survey at ChristianAudio.com (click on the survey banner on the home page). It's a short survey and you'll be given a coupon code at the end (write it down) and a link to the book. Put the book in your cart, select checkout, enter the coupon code and a few clicks later you can download the book (the MP3 version will work on your Kindle).

The offer expires on September 30.

Book Description
"It is possible to be a Christian without showing the mark, but if we expect non-Christians to know that we are Christians, we must show the mark."

Christians have not always presented an inviting picture to the world. Too often we have failed to show the beauty of authentic Christian love. And the world has disregarded Christianity as a result.

In our era of global violence and sectarian intolerance, the church needs to hear anew the challenge of this book. Decades ago Francis Schaeffer exhorted, "Love--and the unity it attests to--is the mark Christ gave Christians to wear before the world. Only with this mark may the world know that Christians are indeed Christians and that Jesus was sent by the Father."

More than ever, the church needs to respond compassionately to a needy world. More than ever, we need to show the Mark.

Price Reduction on Wii and Wii Fit, plus $25 bonus

Looks like the price of the Wii console has finally dropped below $200. As many as they've sold, you have to wonder if it's because nearly the entire planet now has at least one of them? To celebrate (and promote sales, I'm sure), Amazon has a couple of specials going on. First, if you buy a Wii Console, you get a $25 gift certificate in the mail, which you can use for anything sold by Amazon (excludes third-party sellers, but works perfectly fine on Kindle books).

On the same page, they have sale prices on a number of games, including one I play way too much, cutting into my reading time: Animal Crossing: City Folk ($24.99). For a little more active game, Punch-Out!! has one of the weirdest add-ons I've seen for a game. If you buy it now, they throw in the Amazon.com Exclusive Punch-Out!! Heavyweight Contender Kit, which contains (no joke) a candy bar, a crown, a desktop punching bag and a pair of boxer shorts (bright yellow, size large).

They are also running a one-day sale on Wii Fit, which includes the balance board, for $79.98. That price lets you add the Wii Fit Plus software at $19.49 and end up with both games and the board at about the price of the Wii Fit Plus with balance board alone ($98.99).

Game of the Day - Granny In Paradise (98 cents)

Amazon's Video Game of the Day deal today is once again a game download for 98 cents; this time it's Granny In Paradise. No reviews on the game download versions of the SuperGranny series so far, but there are a few on the boxed versions and they tend to be 4 to 5 stars (except one person that said her toddler didn't like it .... which makes me ask: "you bought this for a toddler????"). Anyway, it looks interesting enough for me to try the trial version. I have to wonder if they are going to keep doing under a dollar game downloads next week?

Game Description
  • Super Granny Is Back
  • Over 170 Levels
  • 5 Worlds To Explore
  • Create Your Own Adventures
Super Granny is back, and she's ready to rumble. While on a well-deserved vacation, Granny's kitties are abducted. Run, dig, climb, swing, float and tumble through 5 worlds and over 170 levels, as you rescue Granny's missing cats and outwit the minions of the nefarious Dr. Meow. With a built-in level editor you can create your own adventures for hours and hours of additional fun!

This game should also qualify as a purchase for the Buy One, Get One Free offer that Amazon is currently running, as yesterday's download did.

Monthly Kindle Book Budget: July

I'm still trying to get caught up on posting my book purchases, one more month to go (but only a few days until another month behind).

July
Free Chris Anderson $0.00
The Long Tail, (Revised and Updated) Chris Anderson $0.00
The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1) James Patterson $0.00
Tumor Chapter 1 Noel Tuazon $0.00
Killing Joe Marie Treanor $0.00
Thorn Queen Richelle Mead $0.00
Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith #2: Skyborn JOHN JACKSON MILLER $0.00
Haley's Cabin Anne Rainey $0.00
Hold The Dark: A Markhat story Frank Tuttle $3.60
The Mister Trophy Frank Tuttle $2.00
Wistril Compleat Frank Tuttle $0.99
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci Complete (1452-1519) Leonardo da Vinci $0.00
Trickster: A Novel of the Silent Empire Steven Harper $1.79
God is Closer Than You Think* Mike Darretta $0.01
Anybody But Justin Shelli Stevens $0.00
Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar: How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success James Marcus Bach $0.00
Fire-Heart (A Tale of Alterra, The World That Is) C S Marks $0.99
Hidden Empire: The Saga of Seven Suns - Book 1 Kevin J. Anderson $1.00
Zombie Joely Skye $0.00
Paranoia Joseph Finder $0.00
My Soul to Lose Rachel Vincent $0.00
Worst Enemies/Best Friends Annie Bryant $0.00
The Codex Douglas Preston $4.99
Nightmare (The Silent Empire) Steven Harper $1.79
Dreamer: A Novel Of the Silent Empire Steven Harper $1.79
The Enhancer Teresa McCullough, Meg Baxter $0.99
No Little People Francis A. Schaeffer $0.00
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci Volume 1 (1452-1519) Leonardo da Vinci $0.00
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci Volume 2 (1452-1519) Leonardo da Vinci $0.00
Green Cost Cutting: Five Ways to Get Lean Now Andrew Winston $0.00
Manifold: Time Stephen Baxter $0.00
Darkfever Karen Marie Moning $0.00

* This one was via Mobilereference and is now missing from the Kindle store, although the paperback is still available.

For the month, that's 32 books, $19.94 in total, for $0.62 per book. Under budget by a mile, but I'll make up for it later in the year, I'm sure.

Here's the break-down by month, for the year-to-date:

MonthNo. BooksTotal CostPer Book
January59$83.47$1.41
February43$29.97$0.70
March32$33.44$1.05
April22$13.11$0.60
May34$34.79$1.02
June37$40.39$1.09
July32$19.94$0.62
Totals259$255.11$0.98

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Bargain Romance

It's in His Kiss, by Julia Quinn has been marked down from $7.99 to $1.99.

Book Description
Meet Our Hero ...
Gareth St. Clair is in a bind. His father, who detests him, is determined to beggar the St. Clair estates and ruin his inheritance. Gareth's sole bequest is an old family diary, which may or may not contain the secrets of his past .. and the key to his future. The problem is -- it's written in Italian, of which Gareth speaks not a word.

Meet Our Heroine ...
All the ton agreed: there was no one quite like Hyacinth Bridgerton. She's fiendishly smart, devilishly outspoken, and according to Gareth, probably best in small doses. But there's something about her -- something charming and vexing -- that grabs him and won't quite let go...

Meet Poor Mr. Mozart ...
Or don't. But rest assured, he's spinning in his grave when Gareth and Hyacinth cross paths at the annual -- and annually discordant -- Smythe-Smith musicale. To Hyacinth, Gareth's every word seems a dare, and she offers to translate his diary, even though her Italian is slightly less than perfect. But as they delve into the mysterious text, they discover that the answers they seek lie not in the diary, but in each other ... and that there is nothing as simple -- or as complicated -- as a single, perfect kiss.


If you get this one, you'll also want to check out It's In His Kiss: The Epilogue II, which is $1.59. I'm not sure how long it really is (and the reviews are actually for the main book), but it looks to be relatively short, at 47K. It looks as though it tries to wrap up all the loose ends in the book (but that there wasn't enough there for another full novel).

Book Description

What happened to the diamonds????If you've read It's in His Kiss, you want to know. Don't miss this charming and passionate short story, in which Gareth proves that some things get better with age, Hyacinth gains new respect for her mother (with a daughter like Isabella she'd have to, wouldn't she?), and everyone learns that while diamonds are lovely, sometimes tenacity is a girl's best friend.


Ruth Ann Nordin has added two new novels to her free download page. The first one is His Redeeming Bride.

Book Description
Seven years after Eye of the Beholder ends, Neil Craftsman's story begins. (I recommend reading Eye of the Beholder first. Otherwise, this book spoils the "surprise" in Eye of the Beholder.)

When Sarah Donner learns she's pregnant, she hopes this blessing will be the thing to make her husband finally love her. But to her horror, he announces that she will go live with her overbearing mother-in-law. Weeks before she is due to give birth, they are traveling to her mother-in-law's when some thieves kill him.

Ready to give birth, she has to rely on the aid of the one man others had warned her about: Neil Craftsman. She knows of his tarnished past, and no respectable woman will go near him. But when she learns her husband left her with no home and no money, she has nowhere else to go but to the one man she's shunned.

As she gets to know Neil, she learns that there is more to him than meets the eye. But when his past comes back to haunt him, will her newfound love be enough to redeem him - or will he always be a shunned man?


The second new book on her site is Falling In Love With Her Husband

Book Description
When Ann Statesman marries Todd Brothers, it's not because she loves him. She marries him because she knows that he will make a good husband. She hopes that given time, her feelings for him will blossom into romantic love. But when her old beau comes back for her, will she still want to stay with Todd...or will she want to go back her past love?

She has also added a new download from Melanie Nilles, Starfire Angels, which looks like a fantasy novel for the young adults (yes, it says Science Fiction, but if you wake up with wings, that puts you outside the realm of science and into fantasy). The book description is very brief, but there is a video trailer that promises to elaborate on the premis.

Book Description
A senior in high school wakes up one morning and discovers that she has wings. Nothing in her life will ever be the same again.

To download either of these three books or any of the others on her site, click HERE. They are all in PDF, but should convert well with MobiCreator Professional or Calibre, as well as be readable on the Kindle DX without conversion.

Game of the Day - Westward (98 cents)

Amazon's Video Game of the Day deal today is once again a game download for 98 cents; this time it's Westward. I read through the reviews and I'm definitely going to get the free trial - I may buy it just so that I can get to the level where you blow up outhouses.

Game Description
  • Buy, Sell & Trade To Build Your Fortune.
  • Engaging Storyline.
  • More Than 10 Playable Main Characters.
  • Ever-Changing Scenarios.
Enter the rough and tumble world of Westward, where gold is there for the taking and bandits lurk around every turn. Control the fortunes of three vastly different towns as they rise from the dust of the frontier and grow into thriving boomtowns. Brave the dangers of the West and explore uncharted plains, dense forests and rocky canyons as you guide your settlers to safety and success. Stake your claim with a cast of hundreds, stunningly original graphics, hilarious dialogue and endless possibilities!

This game should also qualify as a purchase for the Buy One, Get One Free offer that Amazon is currently running, as yesterday's download did.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Game of the Day - 98 Cents (plus one free)

Amazon's Video Game of the Day deal today is a game download, Tradewinds 2, for 98 cents. It's a cute game, so far, where you travel between ports, buying and selling trade goods (with prices changing at ports depending on the season) and fighting off pirates. I quickly played thru the 30 minute trial period and promptly went back to Amazon and purchased the full version.

This game also qualifies as a purchase for the Buy One, Get One Free offer that Amazon is currently running and I've already received the email from Amazon telling me to choose one of the games from that offer to download for free (but I'll try each of them first, to make sure they work on my computer; I've run into some that won't and others that were just unplayable for me, so the 30 minute trial period is something I always take advantage of).

Game Description
  • Trade Goods And Fight Pirates.
  • Over 100 Swashbuckling Adventures
  • Customize Your Ship And Characters
  • Over 60 Hours Of Gameplay
Amass a fortune by buying and selling goods in this fantastic seafaring game of chance, skill and adventure! Earn enough gold to upgrade your ship and engage in land and sea battles. Trade magic weaponry and mysterious artifacts as you encounter a fascinating new world and discover uncharted ports. Two game modes and over sixty hours of gameplay await you in your quest to dominate the high seas!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon, is currently marked down to $2.39, the lowest I've seen it since last December, when it went down to $1.75 (I think it was even lower a day or two before I got a copy then). I know that
by year end it was back up to $6.39, although several others in the series were still marked down then.

Book Description
Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century, and a lover in another...

In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon—when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an "outlander"—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire's destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.


The entire Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon is available for the Kindle. In order, they are:Outlander ($2.39), Dragonfly in Amber ($7.19), Voyager ($6.39), Drums of Autumn ($6.39), The Fiery Cross ($6.39) and A Breath of Snow and Ashes ($6.39) and, of course, the newest in the series, An Echo in the Bone ($13.20 - it appears the publisher intentionally set the list price at $30 in order to prevent it from being sold at $9.99 in the Kindle store, as that is above the cutoff for the automatic pricing system's discount; maybe it will go down as sales for the book increase, otherwise I'm waiting on the paperback).

Free Reads - H.G. Wells

To celebrate the birthday of H.G. Wells (21 Sept 1866) BooksOnBoard is offering The Time Machine for free - in ePub, ADE and Mobi formats. You'll need to set up an account, but should not need a credit card for these formats. There doesn't appear to be any DRM on the files, so the Mobi version should work on the Kindle.

Book Description
The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells, is a novella, written in 1895, that sparked the idea of a usable vehicle that allows its operator to travel through time. Wells’ protagonist, the Time Traveler, sees time as the fourth dimension, meaning it could be as travelable as any of the other dimensions. He ends up in the year 802,701 A.D. and discovers a human-esque race called Eloi. Wells’ The Time Machine explores the utopian existence that the Time Traveler discovers the Eloi living in.

If you don't want to use BooksOnBoard, need another format or just want to check out what a hand-converted public domain book can look like (almost always much better than those poorly formatted gutenberg copies in the Kindle store often are), you might want to check out the free version of both The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds over at mobileread.com. These three are currently at the top of the list of recent uploads, which you can find by clicking HERE.

With either of these two sources, you'll need to make your own backups, since when you delete them from your reader, they will be truly removed. On the other hand, that also means that these books won't be cluttering up your archive forever, either, something that becomes more and more of an issue, as my archive grows and there is no method of organizing two years after the first Kindle shipped.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Free Book from Sony - The Monstrumologist

The Monstrumologist ($9.99 Kindle), by Rick Yancey, is a young adult horror story. To get it free, search for the title in the Sony Ebook Store using the desktop Sony Reader software (it's a free download; with it, you can read books on your PC even if you don't have a Sony Reader).

Book Description
These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed.

But he is dead now and has been for more than forty years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets.

The one who saved me...and the one who cursed me.

So begins the journal of Will Henry, orphaned assistant to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, a man with a most unusual specialty: monstrumology, the study of monsters. In his time with the doctor, Will has met many a mysterious late-night visitor, and seen things he never imagined were real. But when a grave robber comes calling in the middle of the night with a gruesome find, he brings with him their most deadly case yet.

Critically acclaimed author Rick Yancey has written a gothic tour de force that explores the darkest heart of man and monster and asks the question: When does a man become the very thing he hunts?

Saturday, September 19, 2009

B1G1F Game Downloads

Amazon once again has a Buy One, Get One Free Sale going on their game downloads. This one lasts thru the end of the month and you are allowed to choose the first game from anything in the Game Downloads Store other than the free downloads of Big Kahuna Reef or Cake Mania. You can try any (or all) of the games on a 30 minute game-time trial basis and if you buy one of them, you'll get a credit via email for the free game (not a coupon, just a credit). Once you have the credit email, you can buy any other game at the same or lesser price on the sale page, at no charge.

I've picked up a few of the games and they can provide a nice break. Since I usually play them on my netbook, I always use the free trial period, as I've found some of them won't work on it's smaller (shorter than standard) screen. Some of them really need an xternal mouse to work well, also. If only I could get the sprinkler system from Alice Greenfingers to work in Animal Crossing: City Folk (on the WII).

Free game download - Tales of Monkey Island

Today's Video Game Deal of the Day at Amazon is another free game download: Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal - Chapter 1. In addition, by buying this game (at $0.00), you will receive a discount of $2.45 off each of the four other episodes. Limit one per customer. Also presumably not stacked with the Buy One, Get One Free offer running on game downloads this month. This was a favorite game in our family, back in the Atari days and is one I've had on my list to check out or maybe get on the WII (it was $8.95 as a PC download yesterday or $10 as a WII download), so getting it free is a treat. Make sure you don't just get the free trial - the price will only be free today and only until they have given away some preset number of downloads, so you need to complete the purchase before the deal goes away.

Game Description
A new game in the much-loved Monkey Island game series, Tales of Monkey Island is a download-only, single player adventure game for PC. Serialized into five monthly releases beginning in the middle of 2009, the first of these is Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, which follows the continuing adventures of the wannabe pirate, Guybrush Threepwood, his love interest Elaine Marley and their nemesis, LeChuck.

Free Book (PDF) - Investing Made Simple

Investing Made Simple: Investing in Index Funds Explained in 100 Pages or Less, by Mike Piper, is available as a free download this month. The book hasn't yet been released at Amazon, so you get it early; most of his other books are in paper only and in the $11-$13 range.

As the title says, the book explains how to use index funds to simplify your investing (and why you should). It's probably a bit too basic if you have already switched to index funds, but a good intro if you have not (or want a book for your kids to read).

Who This Book is For:

Anyone who has questions about investing, but who doesn’t want to trudge through a 300-page textbook.

What You Will Learn:
  • Asset Allocation: What does it mean, why is it so important, and how should you determine your own?
  • How to Pick Mutual Funds: Learn how to choose funds that are mathematically certain to outperform the majority of other mutual funds.
  • Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA vs. 401(k): What’s the difference, and how should you choose between them? Financial Advisors: Learn what to look for as well as pitfalls to avoid.
  • Frequent Investor Mistakes: Learn the most common mistakes investors make and what you can do to avoid them.
  • Calculate Your Retirement Needs: Learn how to calculate how much you’ll need saved in order to retire.

What the Book is Not:

  • This book is not a great work of literary art.
  • This book is not going to make you an absolute expert on the topic, and
  • This book is not going to provide you with a way to get rich overnight.

What it will do (hopefully) is provide an easy-to-understand, concise introduction to the topic of prudent investing.


Click HERE for the free download.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Free game download - Cake Mania

Amazon has added another free game, Cake Mania, to the new Game Downloads site.
  • 48 Levels Of Baking Fun.
  • Customize And Upgrade Your Kitchen
  • 4 Unique Bakeries To Run
  • Hilarious Seasonal Characters
Help a young baker show big bad business who's boss in this fast-paced treat! When the retail behemoth "Mega-Mart" moves in, Jill's beloved family bakery is forced to close. But she's determined to get the business back on its feet with delicious sweets. Help Jill open her own bakery, bring in customers, and earn enough money to re-open her grandparents' bakery! With 48 levels and four different bakeries, Cake Mania is full of mouth-watering fun. Let's get cookin'!