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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Free and Bargain Book Roundup

Tonight's theme is going to be fitness and New Year's Resolutions. I've turned up a few bargains from major publishers (and one that's a bit higher priced than usual), but if you are already fit and on top of your diet, then keep reading for some bargains and free reads from indie authors.

In today's KindlePost, there is guest post by Kris Gethin, athlete and author Body By Design ($9.99 [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]). He has several good (and common sense) tips in the interview to help with sticking with a diet and exercise plan, but I thought it odd that he didn't mention the enhanced version of his book, which is cheaper than standard Kindle edition. Nothing on the product page talks about the added features (and there are no examples in the sample you can download), but there is one review that says there are embedded videos that demonstrate the exercises (and there are recipes in the back). I might have to buy this one, just to see how well it all works together (although, I have to admit, I am also tempted by Hello, Cupcake! and What's New Cupcake: Ingeniously Simple Designs for Every Occasion (both $7.45), which do have videos in their free samples).

Book Description
FROM KRIS GETHIN, editor in chief of the world’s leading online fitness site Bodybuilding.com, comes a revolutionary 12-week diet and exercise program—supported by two million members and thousands of real-life success stories. Body by Design is a plan that promotes health from the inside out, starting by breaking down the mental blocks that are holding you back, then by building up the muscles on your body, and finally by adding delicious, healthy food onto your plate.

Rather than subtracting things from your life— cutting out calories, losing weight, banishing your belly—here's how to add more of the right things: more muscle, more support, and more success. Motivation is the key factor that drives permanent change, and with Body by Design you can finally learn how to activate your inner motivation and with the proper balance of weight training, make fit happen forever. cardiovascular exercise, and nutrition—along with the motivational tools to stick with that program for the long term—even people who have struggled with fitness for their entire lives can achieve spectacular, lasting results. Join the “Transformation Nation” and create your own story that will inspire others—with Body by Design.

In Body by Design, you’ll learn the optimal balance of weight training, cardiovascular exercise, and nutrition—along with the motivational tools to stick with your goals and achieve dramatic results. Rather than subtracting things from your life (cutting calories, losing weight, banishing your belly), here's how to more muscle, more support, and more success.

Based on the best practices found at Bodybuilding.com (the world’s leading online fitness site), Body by Design shows that amazing things can happen when people get the tools they need to achieve their fitness goals.


Neris And India's Idiot-Proof Diet: A Weight-Loss Plan For Real Women ($1.99 Kindle, B&N and Kobo), by Neris Thomas India Knight, may be just what I need if I succumb to those cupcake books.

Book Description
Ever hankered for a diet book by and for real people--people who, you know, actually have a life? Congratulations: you've just picked it up.

Before we began our diet, Neris and I weighted 434 pounds between us. Our goal was to lose 140 pounds between us in under a year, to go from a size 22 to a size 14. And we did it. If two unusually greedy, cocktail-loving moms can lose this amount of weight without much effort, so can anyone.

This book tells you how two friends did it, and how you can do it too. It's not a diet devised by some bossy string bean who has never been more than 7 pounds overweight, nor by a fat middle-aged doctor, but a real, long-term, workable diet for real people. A modified and therefore bearable low-carb, high-protein way of eating, the diet really works and includes meal plans, recipes, advice on clothes, make-up and hair at every stage from fat to thin. It doesn't include impossible exercise routines or disgusting things to eat. Above all, it gets to the bottom of why we overeat--and shows you how to stop. There's never been a diet book like it--for women, by women, with jokes and useful tips, and advice that is truly simple to follow. What other diet book tells you to pour yourself a large drink at the end of the day, because you've earned it?


Calorie Queens: Living Thin in a Fat World ($1.99 Kindle, Kobo), by Jackie Scott, Diane Scott Kellum, and Brett A. Scott

Book Description
Jackie Scott and her daughter Diane had tried just about every diet under the sun, from low-carb to low-fat, sometimes losing weight but always gaining it back. Frustrated, they decided to figure out why popular diets failed them and came up with Eucalorics - a practical eating plan based on taking in the number of calories needed to maintain a healthy weight. This is not a starvation diet, nor is it a fad. In fact, it's not really a diet at all. It's about learning how to eat well for a lifetime from two real women who have been there and are making it work.

UltraLongevity: The Seven-Step Program for a Younger, Healthier You ($2.99 Kindle, B&N and Kobo), by Mark Liponis, was briefly free on Kindle in January of last year.

Book Description
Medical director of the world-famous Canyon Ranch Health Resorts, Dr. Mark Liponis presents his extraordinary new idea: that aging and aging-related diseases---including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes---are autoimmune problems, and that a well-managed immune system is the key to healthy aging.

Cutting-edge research makes UltraLongevity the first and only book to explore aging within the context of the immune system, and it will change the way we look at health forever. Starting with a quiz---"How Fast Are You Aging?"---Liponis explains the new science, lays out an accessible and proven 7-step program with an 8-day meal plan, and motivates readers to put the program into practice so that they can keep their minds sharp, become more physically fit, be more resistant to infections and disease, and feel and stay younger than they ever imagined. Through the UltraLongevity program, Liponis promises more than a long life; he promises a long, healthy life.


Woman's Day Living Fiscally Fit ($2.99 Kindle, B&N and Kobo), from the Editors Of Woman's Day

Book Description
Read by over 21 million readers, Woman's Day is one of the top woman's magazines. They are consistently delivering style, substance and service to their readers. Now the editors of Woman's Day have compiled the most cost-effective financial tips from their popular WD Solutions column. Covering all kinds of issues from getting rid of debt and reducing the mortgage to managing children & money and growing your nest egg, this useful guide offers quick and simple advice on how to make the smartest money moves.

Sin And Vengeance ($2.99) is from the author of The End of Marking Time (which you can still get free), CJ West and is the first in his Randy Black series. Like the one he's giving away, this one has good reviews and is worth getting a sample.

Book Description
When his knee shatters on the playing field, Charlie Marston is plunged into turmoil. The fallen college superstar joins the family winemaking business, but working alongside his parents is not the future he had planned. He escapes work whenever he can and soon finds a new friend named Randy Black. Randy is part stunt-pilot, part Casanova, and part drunken Pied Piper. Randy introduces Charlie to Deirdre Deudon, the provocative wife of a French farmer. They come together in an ill-conceived stunt that explodes into consequences that chase Charlie and Randy back home to Massachusetts and change Deirdre's life forever. The after-effects of this tragic mistake bind the three of them together and threaten everything they hold dear.

Thanks to NetGalley, I received a review copy of The Naperville White House: How One Mans Fantasy Changed Governments Reality ($6.99 Kindle), by Jerome Bartels. If you enjoy reading thrillers, investigative reporting, about politics or fantasy gaming (or wonder how all of those could tie together), definitely get a sample of this humorous (but serious) novel. I'll admit I was a bit lost at the beginning of the book, until I could figure out all the players (and which White House was being discussed), but the mystery kept drawing me along. I can't comment on the formatting, since NetGalley only supplies a print-ready PDF or a pdf converted to the Kindle and (as usual), the formatting is pretty off in the result.

Book Description
FANTASY GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE

Not just the United States, but the entire world, remembers that fateful November day back in 2018 when Al Qaeda terrorists held the entire nation hostage in exchange for the public disclosure of an anti-terrorist bioweapon that may not have even existed.

In that darkest hour, salvation came not from the United States government, but from fantasy government. This cabinet of independent thinkers from Naperville, Illinois—a librarian, a customer service representative, a gas station owner, and an obsessive gamer—was led by insurance adjustor and President Jay Weise.

Now, thanks to the tireless efforts of crusading vagabond journalist, former White House press secretary, and part-time Radio Shack employee Jerome Bartels, here for the first time is the true story of the Stockdale Hostage Crisis from the people who lived it.


The publisher, Bancroft Press, tried to get the book released either free or at 99 cents at Amazon, but as a very small publisher, just wasn't able to work anything out. So, instead, they have set a price of $1.24 for today (and today only) over on lulu.com. The only negative is that the format is EPUB and requires Adobe ADE (not Kindle compatible).

Kevin Domenic has just released Eye of the Tornado ($2.99 Kindle), the third in his The Fourth Dimension series and to celebrate, he is giving away copies of it, the first two in the series, and a non-fiction title he has on Smashwords.

Book Description
A fourteen year old boy.

Kindel Thorus hailed from the remote planet of Zo'rhan, a planet populated by a space-faring warrior race of the same name. Unmatched in combat and skilled in even the most advanced sorcery, Kindel led an armada of battle-hardened soldiers against those who sought to impose their might upon the weak and defenseless. Many feared him. Others revered him.

And now his biggest threat was a fourteen year old boy.


Use these links and coupon codes for the free book:
Volume I, Key to the Stars: Coupon Code - BF98D
Volume II, Alliance of Serpents: Coupon Code - RV44M
Volume III, Eye of the Tornado: Coupon Code - KR27C
Retail Ramblings: Coupon Code - KU75X

Alain Gomez is also giving away copies of his short story Payroll ($0.99 Kindle) and two others on Smashwords.

Book Description
Jimmy Cochran thought that he had left his rough past behind him. But Ralph McCormick, the brother of the man he killed, didn't forget... or forgive... so easily. Jimmy knows he should just hightail it out of town to avoid getting into trouble. That is until Ralph puts the woman he loves into danger...

Use these links and coupon codes for the free downloads:
Payroll: Coupon Code - BB45J
Celebrity Space: Coupon Code - XG22Z
The Sacrifice: Coupon Code - RX43U

If you picked up Carol Berg's The Soul Mirror: when it was accidentally free for a few hours, you'll want to grab The Spirit Lens, the first novel in her Collegia Magica series, now that it's been marked down to $6.99. You'll also want to head over to Carol's website, as she has posted copies of Lianelle's letter and note in Chapter 3 and Bernard's letter that appear in the former volume, as they are pretty much unreadable in the Kindle edition.

Book Description
Reduced to tending the library at Sabria's last collegia magica, Portier de Savin-Duplais, failed student of magic, fights off despair with scholarship. But when the King of Sabria charges him to investigate an attempted murder that has disturbing magical resonances, Portier believes his dreams of a greater destiny might at last be fulfilled.