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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Today's Deals and Bargain Books

The following free books have additional formats available:
Amazon has refurbished Kindles back in stock, for those who have been waiting for the price to drop below $100 (or want 3G without ads at less than the KSO3G price).
Today's the last day of a sale from publisher Open Road, for the following titles (most of which sell in the $10 range, usually):

Soulless ($1.99), the first title in the The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger, is the Kindle Deal of the Day. This and the next two in the series are still available as a bundle, though, for $9.99, which is a better bargain if you haven't started on this series. The next two in the series are also only $7.99 each (Heartless and Timeless, available March 2012), rather than the all-too common $12.99+.
Book Description
Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

SOULLESS is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.

Strange Mercy ($3.99), by St. Vincent, is Amazon's MP3 album of the day. However, if you first enter the promo code INDIE150, you'll get another $1.50 of that price. The code works on a select number of new indie releases, but the others on that page are full price. The code expires Sept 18, but you can enter it now and wait on one of the other albums, if you want to see if something else drops in price.

WIRED ($0.79), by Douglas E. Richards, is my indie pick of the day. I'm a bit over half-way thru the book and, although it may not be quite "keep you up all night", it is definitely a page-turner (and the bad guys seem to change every chapter or so, as you learn more of what is going on).
Book Description
Kira Miller is a brilliant genetic engineer who discovers how to temporarily achieve savant-like capabilities in all areas of thought and creativity. But what if this transcendent level of intelligence brings with it a ruthless megalomania?

David Desh left the special forces after his team was brutally butchered in Iran. Now he has been reactivated for one last mission: find Kira Miller, the enigmatic genius behind a bioterror plot that threatens millions. But when Desh learns that the bioterror plot is just the tip of the iceberg, he is thrust into a byzantine maze of deception and intrigue, and he becomes a key player in a deadly game he can't begin to understand. A game that is certain to have a dramatic impact on the future course of human history. . .

WIRED is a smart thriller crammed with breakneck action, mind-expanding science, and intriguing concepts readers will be contemplating long after they've read the last page.

Darkness on Fire ($3.99), the ninth book in the Paladins of Darkness series by Alexis Morgan, is currently available for pre-order. This looks like it falls heavily on the romance side of urban fantasy and is listed as an omnibus/anthology volume on some sites, including the author's, but digging around shows it as a novella (per the author's site), rather than a full length novel (the publisher shows the list price as $4.99), but also is supposed to have 240 pages (publisher's site).
Book Description
When Kalith geologist Jora b'Larth notices strange seismic activity occurring around the underground energy barrier in Yellowstone National Park, she realizes someone otherworldly has been siphoning off energy. Keeping her identity under wraps, she reaches out to the enemy Paladins for help. When Paladin Penn Sebastian shows up, ready to investigate her allegations, Jora is unexpectedly attracted by his handsome face and intense blue eyes. And as they work together to solve the rift between their two worlds, something surprising happens: the two sworn enemies begin to fall in love.

Feeling For Bones ($0.89), by Bethany Pierce, published by Christian publisher Moody.
Book Description
ressurized family dynamics and a dysfunctional church experience force 16-year-old Olivia to seek her own reality. Hounded by the distorted reflections of mirrors, car doors, and shop windows, she sets things in order by papering her bedroom wall with glossy clippings from glamour magazines.

Olivia's baggy clothes and exhaustive calorie scrutiny can't cover up the fact that she is allowing her body to wither away. As she encounters small town prying and a tighter-than-comfortable rental house Olivia's escape becomes her art. And her goal becomes the impossible perfection of the airbrushed models on her wall.

Feeling for Bones is Olivia's story as her struggles become more than physical and she is finally led to the answers she was running from all along.

This novel opens a window to the thought processes and struggles of teen and college-aged women who struggle with eating disorders. Young women will find a friend who thinks like they do and mothers will find a compatriot in the battle to help their daughters deal with body image.

The Truth Seeker ($0.89), by Dee Henderson, is from Christian publisher Tyndale House.
Book Description
Women are turning up dead, and Lisa O'Malley has a habit of walking into crime scenes, curious. She's a forensic pathologist, and mysteries are her domain. U.S. marshall Quinn Diamond has found loving her is easier than keeping her safe. Lisa's found the killer, and now she's missing too.

Introducing the O'Malleys, an inspirational group of seven, all abandoned or orphaned as teens, who have made the choice to become a loyal and committed family. They have chosen their own surname, O'Malley, and have stood by each other through moments of joy and heartache. Their stories are told in CBA best-selling, inspirational romantic suspense novels that rock your heart and restore strength and hope to your spirit.

The Flight of the Century : Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of American Aviation (Pivotal Moments in American History) ($1.99), by Thomas Kessner, is from Oxford University Press (and 336 pages in print).
Book Description
In late May 1927 an inexperienced and unassuming 25-year-old Air Mail pilot from rural Minnesota stunned the world by making the first non-stop transatlantic flight. A spectacular feat of individual daring and collective technological accomplishment, Charles Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris ushered in America's age of commercial aviation. In The Flight of the Century, Thomas Kessner takes a fresh look at one of America's greatest moments, explaining how what was essentially a publicity stunt became a turning point in history. He vividly recreates the flight itself and the euphoric reaction to it on both sides of the Atlantic, and argues that Lindbergh's amazing feat occurred just when the world--still struggling with the disillusionment of WWI--desperately needed a hero to restore a sense of optimism and innocence. Kessner also shows how new forms of mass media made Lindbergh into the most famous international celebrity of his time, casting him in the role of a humble yet dashing American hero of rural origins and traditional values. Much has been made of Lindbergh's personal integrity and his refusal to cash in on his fame. But Kessner reveals that Lindbergh was closely allied with, and managed by, a group of powerful businessmen--Harry Guggenheim, Dwight Morrow, and Henry Breckenridge chief among them--who sought to exploit aviation for mass transport and massive profits. Their efforts paid off as commercial air traffic soared from 6,000 passengers in 1926 to 173,000 passengers in 1929. Kessner's book is the first to fully explore Lindbergh's central role in promoting the airline industry--the rise of which has influenced everything from where we live to how we wage war and do business. The Flight of the Century sheds new light on one of America's fascinatingly enigmatic heroes and most transformative moments.

The Folding Star and The Line of Beauty, by Alan Hollinghurst, are both marked down to $2.51. Both novels were Man Booker Prize finalists (one one a winner).
The Folding Star
The 1995 Booker Prize finalist finally back in print.

Alan Hollinghurst's hypnotic and exquisitely written novel tells the story of Edward Manners, a disaffected 33-year-old who leaves England to earn his living as a language tutor in a Flemish city. Almost immediately he falls in love with one of his pupils, but can only console himself with other, illicit affairs. With this novel, Hollinghurst exposes us fearlessly to the consequences of unfulfillable, annihilating desire.

The Line of Beauty
Winner of 2004’s Man Booker Prize for fiction and one of the most talked about books of the year, The Line of Beauty is a sweeping novel about class, sex, and money that brings Thatcher’s London alive. Nick Guest has moved in with the Feddens, a family whose patriarch is a conservative member of parliament. An innocent in matters of politics and money, Nick becomes caught up in the Feddens’ world of parties and excess, as well as in his own private pursuit of beauty. Framed by the two general elections that returned Margaret Thatcher to power, The Line of Beauty unfurls through four extraordinary years of change and tragedy.

Newbery Medal winner Island of the Blue Dolphins ($4.49), by Scott O'Dell, has been called one of the best 10 American children's books in the last 200 years.
Book Description
In the Pacific there is an island that looks like a big fish sunning itself in the sea. Around it, blue dolphins swim, otters play, and sea elephants and sea birds abound. Once, Indians also lived on the island. And when they left and sailed to the east, one young girl was left behind.

This is the story of Karana, the Indian girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Year after year, she watched one season pass into another and waited for a ship to take her away. But while she waited, she kept herself alive by building a shelter, making weapons, finding food, and fighting her enemies, the wild dogs. It is not only an unusual adventure of survival, but also a tale of natural beauty and personal discovery.

The Funny Man ($2.69), by John Warner, is available to pre-order; I expect the price to go up, when the hardcover comes out at the end of the month.
Book Description
The funny man is a middling comic in an unnamed city. By day he takes care of his infant son, by night he performs in small clubs, sandwiched between other aspiring comics. His wife waits tables to support the family. It doesn’t sound like much, but they’re happy, more or less. Until the day he comes up with it. His thing. His gimmick. And everything changes. He’s a headliner, and the venues get bigger fast. Pretty soon it’s Hollywood and a starring role in a blockbuster, all thanks to the gimmick.

Which is: He performs with his fist in his mouth to the wrist. Jokes, impressions, commercials—all with his fist in his mouth to the wrist. The people want him—are crazy for him—but only with his fist in his mouth.

And the funny man, he is tired of having his fist in his mouth.

Thus, as the novel begins, his career’s in tatters, his family’s left him, and he’s on trial for shooting an unarmed man six times. But for the second time in his life, against all odds, he’s found love. This time with another celebrity, who may or may not be sending him coded messages, and may or may not be equally in love—or even know he exists. A coruscating satire of our culture of celebrity, this debut novel documents one individual’s slide from everyman to monster, even as it reveals the potential for grace—and mercy—in his life.
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