Books under a Buck

Happy Mother's Day!

Fixing Freddie is now free in the US Kindle store and from Sony, so grab it while you can. To go with it, below you'll find a number of books, all under a dollar. These appear to all by Amazon marked down titles, so the prices could change at any time. Already, one deal from this morning changed while I was writing this post. If you buy every single title in today's post, you'll have change left over from a two dollar bill!

Where is your "immediate grab" point if the price isn't quite free? A penny? A nickel? A dime? Maybe it's 25 cents? In any case, there should be several there you absolutely must have, a few that you want and perhaps some that are just "too much" (or they really, really don't appeal). I strongly recommend using gift certificates, so that your credit card company/bank doesn't get a false positive fraud alert due to a number of extremely small transactions; for those having to use currency exchange on their credit cards, this can drastically lower those fees, as well.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp ($0.01), by Rick Yancey, is aimed at the older teen/young adult market.

Book Description
Alfred Kropp is the last person you’d think could save the world. But when this oversized underachiever gets roped into a suspicious get-rich-quick scheme, his life takes a turn for the extraordinary. Little does Alfred know he has been tricked into stealing Excalibur–the legendary sword of King Arthur–and the most powerful weapon ever wielded by man.

With an ancient order of knights in hot cars, thugs on motorcycles, and a mysterious international organization following his every lumbering step, Alfred undertakes a modern-day quest to unravel a thousand-year-old mystery and return the sword to its rightful place.

An Oprah selection from 2000, I immediately replaced my paper copy of Gap Creek: The Story of a Marriage ($0.01), by Robert Morgan, with this bargain.

Book Description
There is a most unusual woman living in Gap Creek. Julie Harmon works hard, "hard as a man," they say, so hard that at times she's not sure she can stop. People depend on her to slaughter the hogs and nurse the dying. People are weak, and there is so much to do. She is just a teenager when her little brother dies in her arms. That same year she marries and moves down into the valley where floods and fire and visions visit themselves on her, and con men and drunks and lawyers come calling.

Julie and her husband discover that the modern world is complex and that it grinds ever on without pause or concern for their hard work. To survive, they must find out whether love can keep chaos and madness at bay.

Robert Morgan's latest novel, Gap Creek, returns his readers to the vivid world of the Appalachian high country. Julie and Hank's new life in the valley of Gap Creek in the last years of the nineteenth century is more complicated than the couple ever imagined. Sometimes it's hard to tell what to fear most-the fires and floods or the flesh-and-blood grifters, drunks, and busybodies who insinuate themselves into their new lives. Their struggles with nature, with work, with the changing century, and with their disappointments and triumphs make this a riveting follow-up to Morgan's acclaimed novel, The Truest Pleasure.

Master of the Delta ($0.01), by Thomas H. Cook

Book Description
In 1954 Mississippi, Jack Branch returns to his father’s Delta estate, Great Oaks, to perform an act of noblesse oblige: teaching at the local high school.While conducting a class on evil throughout history, Jack is shocked to discover that his unassuming student Eddie is the son of the Coed Killer, a notorious local murderer. Jack feels compelled to mentor the boy, encouraging Eddie to examine his father’s crime and using his own good name to open the doors that Eddie’s lineage can’t. But when the investigation turns in an unexpected direction, Jack finds himself questioning Eddie’s motives—and his own.

As the deadly consequences of Jack’s actions fall inescapably into place, Thomas H. Cook masterfully reveals the darker truths that lurk in the recesses of small-town lives and in the hearts of well-intentioned men.

Love Springs/Prelude: Two Inspector Monde Tales of Strange and Terrible Adventures ($0.01), by John Booth, is the 5th of 7 titles in the The Inspector Monde Tales series. Both are short stories, but they only cost you a half cent each (or half that, if you still have a penny from the $20 for $10 KSO deal).

Book Description
Love Springs
A woman, a man, each searching for the other, fear etched in their eyes as Inspector Monde seeks to understand. Only he knows if the bridge will reveal their secrets.

Prelude
An invitation, a warning, a clue. An old case that still haunts Inspector Monde resurfaces and he suspects revenge. Even Cervantes and his kind flee the evil that postures and taunts and lures Inspector Monde to a place of such corruption that the unthinkable becomes real.

Inspector Monde walks the dark side of Paris where the supernatural can be found. Every police force has an Inspector Monde though they try to deny it. When the blood chills and the hairs on the back of the neck rise they send for him and don't look too closely at what he does. For the Inspector does not particularly believe in the Law but will fight for Justice to his last breath.

Many Ways to Say I Love You: Wisdom for Parents and Children from Mister Rogers ($0.01), by Fred Rogers. Many of you probably grew up watching Mister Rogers (I was a bit too old to watch him when he was first popular ... personally, I found his show a bit creepy).

Book Description
Words of wisdom and inspiration on parenting from the beloved Fred Rogers. These excerpts from previously published as well as never-before-published works show appreciation for parents whose children are fully-grown as well as give advice to those parents raising young ones.

The book is a collection of segments from never-before published speeches and observations from his years of working with parents and children, as well as other materials from books, songs, TV commentary, and more. Using stories from his own life, Rogers discusses the importance of children and the role of parents.

The 25 Sales Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople ($0.01), by Stephan Schiffman

Book Description
Now you can join the hundreds of thousands of salespeople who have followed Stephen Schiffman's advice and watch your performance soar. Schiffman lets you in on the industry's best-kept secrets. If you're a salesperson looking to succeed, this is the book for you! This new edition includes:

• New examples using the latest advances in sales presentation technology
• Up-to-date cases of these successful habits in action
• Five bonus habits showing readers how to overcome mistakes, set sales timetables, and reexamine processes to shore up weaknesses

Cinderella: The Love of a Daddy and His Princess ($0.05), by Steven Curtis Chapman, is short (64 pages), so likely has several illustrations or photos to add up to it's 773KB size.

Book Description
As the clock strikes midnight, remember . . .

Each moment we have to spend with our children is a blessing from above. But as we cherish this chapter of life, we realize the pages of time will keep turning. Alternating between the voices of a father and his daughter, Cinderella celebrates the blessings of childhood, family, love and life. You will be enchanted by this modern fairytale that teaches us how to hand our own Cinderella her glass slippers and let her go.

I had to grab The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2: Love Bites ($0.05), edited by Trisha Telep, since I already had Volume 1! (and, I paid considerably more for it, although less than two bucks).

Book Description
A wonderful variety of compellingly original vampire stories, many of them wholly unexpected, from award-winning, New York Times bestselling authors. There are typical vampires who would be right at home in a horror story or a gothic romance; historical vampires; contemporary, gritty, urban vampires; fang-in-cheek comedy; boy-meets-girl sweetheart stories (if a little bloodier!); and erotic tales of inhuman passions and midnight pleasures. Look out, too, for stand-alone stories relating to existing series and characters of contributing authors, or stories which develop more fully characters who have only walk-on parts in those authors' longer fiction. Includes writing by big-name authors such as Jennifer Ashley, Kim Harrison writing as Dawn Cook, Caitlin Kittredge, Diane Whiteside and Eileen Wilks.

Defining Twilight: Vocabulary Workbook for Unlocking the SAT, ACT, GED, and SSAT ($0.05), by Brian Leaf, looks to be a rather unique method of studying for college prep exams.

Book Description
Can you resist the allure of Edward’s myriad charms—his ocher eyes and tousled hair, the cadence of his speech, his chiseled alabaster skin, and his gratuitous charm? Will you hunt surreptitiously and tolerate the ceaseless deluge in Forks to evade the sun and uphold the facade? Join Edward and Bella as you learn more than 600 vocabulary words to improve your score on the *SAT, ACT®, GED®, and SSAT® exams!

Use this workbook side-by-side with your own copy of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight!

• Each chapter of the workbook gives you eight words taken from Twilight, with page references for you to read the words in the context of your favorite novel
• Define the words on your own before turning back to the workbook for their actual definitions
• At the end of each section you’ll take SAT, ACT, GED, and SSAT drills and quizzes to review and integrate what you’ve learned
• Plus, you’ll learn synonyms, Latin word parts, and memorization tools throughout the workbook

Sexy in 6 ($0.06), by Tracey Mallett. Six minute workouts, six week program, six tiny cents!

Book Description
Don’t have hours to hit the gym? You can get a bikini body in just six weeks...in your spare time! From Tracey Mallett, BabyCenter.com’s prenatal expert and Hot Moms Club fitness authority, Sexy in 6 offers a fun, motivating method of super-fast workouts and a diet plan with nutrition-packed recipes, easy to squeeze into a busy day. Split into 6-minute intervals, the plan uses a unique blend of Pilates, yoga, cardio, and strength training for head-to-toe toning-even exercises to make sex better. Countless women have used Tracey’s plan to drop up to 25 pounds and sculpt their problem zones. Sexy in 6 helps readers find the time, lose the weight, and regain confidence-in a program that’s simple and maintainable for life.

Ten Years Thinner ($0.06), by Christine Lydon, is another six week program at a penny a week.

Book Description
What if you could have slimmer hips, firmer thighs, flatter abs, more defined arms, and clearer, younger-looking skin in just six weeks? Based on years of her groundbreaking research and four clinical trials, Dr. Christine Lydon has developed an innovative diet and exercise regimen to burn fat and alter one’s body chemistry, resulting in rapid, dramatic results that you will begin to see and feel within the first week. Governed by ten simple dietary guidelines and ten easy, at-home exercises, Ten Years Thinner emphasizes healthy eating from protein, carbohydrate, and fat sources and demands only twenty to twenty-five minutes of hand-weight exercises a day. There is no calorie counting, messy measuring, or complicated points to calculate; the program requires very little initial physical fitness and promises no more boring and time-consuming cardio workouts. With more than thirty-five delicious recipes and sixty-five easy-to-follow exercise photos, Ten Years Thinner is a simple, sustainable road map to the physique you’ve always dreamed of having!

The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia ($0.07), by Andrew Lih, costs you a penny for each day of the week that you (or your kids) looks something up there.

Book Description
With more than 2,000,000 individual articles on everything from Aa! (a Japanese pop group) to Zzyzx, California, written by an army of volunteer contributors, Wikipedia is the #8 site on the World Wide Web. Created (and corrected) by anyone with access to a computer, this impressive assemblage of knowledge is growing at an astonishing rate of more than 30,000,000 words a month. Now for the first time, a Wikipedia insider tells the story of how it all happened--from the first glimmer of an idea to the global phenomenon it's become.

Andrew Lih has been an administrator (a trusted user who is granted access to technical features) at Wikipedia for more than four years, as well as a regular host of the weekly Wikipedia podcast. In The Wikipedia Revolution, he details the site's inception in 2001, its evolution, and its remarkable growth, while also explaining its larger cultural repercussions. Wikipedia is not just a website; it's a global community of contributors who have banded together out of a shared passion for making knowledge free.

Featuring a Foreword by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and an Afterword that is itself a Wikipedia creation.

Comes a Horseman ($0.10), by Robert Liparulo

Book Description
The ancients saw Death as a blazing figure on horseback, swift and merciless. Those facing the black chasm often mistook their pounding hearts for the beating of hooves.

Now, two FBI agents pursuing a killer from a centuries-old cult realize they have become his prey.

The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea ($0.13), by Sebastian Junger, is another where I replaced my paperback copy (it'll go off the used book store or a veteran's home).

Book Description
It was the storm of the century -- a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologist deemed it "the perfect storm." When it struck in October, 1991, there was virtually no warning. "She's comin' on, boys, and she's comin' on strong," radioed Captain Billy Tyne of the Andrea Gail from off the coast of Nova Scotia. Soon afterward, the boat and its crew of six disappeared without a trace.

Sebastian Junger takes us on a real-life thriller, deep into the heart of the storm. He recreates the last moments of the Andrea Gail crew and the heroic acts of the National Guard rescue team; he weaves together the history of the New England fishing industry, the science of storms, and candid accounts of the people whose lives the storm touched.

The Perfect Storm is a stark and compelling journey into the dark core of nature that leaves listeners with a breathless sense of what if feels like to be caught, helpless, in the grip of a force beyond understanding or control.

Somewhere in Heaven: The Remarkable Love Story of Dana and Christopher Reeve ($0.14), by Christopher Andersen

Book Description
He was a hero in every sense of the word--the chiseled-from-granite star of four blockbuster Superman films and the romantic classic Somewhere in Time who, after being paralyzed in a freak horseback riding accident, became a symbol of hope for millions. Dana Reeve was no less heroic, standing steadfastly by her husband's side until his surprisingly sudden and unexpected death at age fifty-two. When Dana, a non-smoker, passed away from lung cancer just seventeen months after Chris's death, she left behind their thirteen-year-old son, Will, to be raised by friends and family. Dana was only forty-four years old.

That fate could have dealt such a cruel hand to this golden couple seemed unfathomable. That they could endure it all with grace, courage, and humor defied belief.

Yet for all the millions of words that have been written about their public causes and private struggles following Chris's accident, little is known about the lives they led as passionate young lovers. Now, in the manner of his poignant-yet-stirring bestsellers Jack and Jackie, Jackie After Jack, An Affair to Remember, The Day Diana Died, After Diana, and The Day John Died, No. l New York Times bestselling author Christopher Andersen draws on those who knew them best to examine in touching detail the Reeves' unique partnership and the romance, faith, and fortitude that defined it.

Sometimes heartbreaking, often uplifting, always compelling, Somewhere in Heaven is more than just a portrait of a marriage. It is the profoundly human story of two souls whose brief lives made a difference, a bittersweet saga of tragedy, triumph, and loss, and--above all else--a love story for the ages.

Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security--From World War II to the War on Terrorism ($0.15), by Julian E. Zelizer

Book Description
It has long been a truism that prior to George W. Bush, politics stopped at the water’s edge—that is, that partisanship had no place in national security. In Arsenal of Democracy, historian Julian E. Zelizer shows this to be demonstrably false: partisan fighting has always shaped American foreign policy and the issue of national security has always been part of our domestic conflicts. Based on original archival findings, Arsenal of Democracy offers new insights into nearly every major national security issue since the beginning of the cold war: from FDR’s masterful management of World War II to the partisanship that scarred John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, from Ronald Reagan’s fight against Communism to George W. Bush’s controversial War on Terror. A definitive account of the complex interaction between domestic politics and foreign affairs over the last six decades, Arsenal of Democracy is essential reading for anyone interested in the politics of national security.

Ending the Food Fight: Guide Your Child to a Healthy Weight in a Fast Food/ Fake Food World ($0.40), by David Ludwig and Suzanne Rostler, should appeal to anyone with kids or who has been watching Jamie Oliver's series on school lunches.

Book Description
In a world dominated by fast food and fake food, establishing healthy eating habits in children is one of the greatest concerns for parents -- and potentially one of the greatest challenges. Fortunately, the renowned physician Dr. David Ludwig developed a proven lifestyle plan that has benefited thousands of families. Here he shares his nine-week program, offering the tools -- including tasty recipes, motivational tips, and activities -- that can help families prevent the kitchen table from becoming a battleground.

The Superfoods Rx Diet: Lose Weight with the Power of SuperNutrients ($0.46), by Wendy Bazilian, Steven Prat and Kathy Matthews, finishes off today's bargain posts.

Book Description
Rather than concentrating on the balance of protein, fat, and carbohydrates, The SuperFoodsRx Diet utilizes the incredible benefits of micronutrients - vitamins, minerals, bioflavonoids, fiber, antioxidants, and other phytochemicals - to burn calories. These powerhouse nutrients found in the 14 SuperFoods actually boost your body's metabolism, and the specific combinations in this plan will give you the best results possible.

Based on extensive research and studies with real people, The SuperFoodsRx Diet will help you reach your optimum weight by showing you:

• how to lose up to one inch off your waist and up to 5 pounds during your very first week;
• which SuperFoods may reduce cravings;
• why SuperFoods dieters get to eat more food while losing weight;
• how the built-in flexibility of this plan and the delicious, simple recipes will make The SuperFoodsRx Diet your lifelong guide to good, healthy eating.