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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Bargain Book Roundup

Additional formats for free books:
For those who have a Kindle with Special Offers, here are a few of the more notable deals I found on the $1 Book page (requires promo code entered prior to purchase). Some of them are pretty good deals, even without the promo code, as most of the bundles are under $10 and include three or more titles.
Today's the last day for the Buy a Romance for $1 KSO deal; if you haven't made your selection, you better get cracking.

The Jasmine Trade ($1.99), by Denise Hamilton
Book Description
Everything was set. Seventeen-year-old Marina Lu had even ordered custom-made gowns for the ten bridesmaids who, in several months' time, would have preceded her down the aisle at her storybook wedding.

There isn't going to be a wedding. Marina lies dead, alone in her shiny status car in a suburban shopping center parking lot, her two-carat diamond engagement ring refracting another abruptly shattered Los Angeles dream. Was her death merely a carjacking gone bad? Or is there more to the story?

Marina's murder chillingly introduces Los Angeles Times reporter Eve Diamond to a subculture of "parachute kids," the rich Asian teens who are left to their own devices in California while their parents live and work in Hong Kong. Seeking American education and political stability for their children, the affluent parents often leave only an elderly housekeeper in charge of their vulnerable offspring.

What was Marina's story? Why was she, at such a young age, marrying twenty-four-year-old Michael Ho? Why is Marina's father, banker Reginald Lu, so reluctant to provide information? As Eve delves deeper into the mysteries surrounding Marina's life and death, she stumbles upon a troubled world of unmoored youth and parental neglect.

But Marina, in many ways, would seem to have been among the fortunate. She had money and her parents had power. Eve soon discovers a dramatically more tragic subculture, where destitute young Asian immigrants live in virtual sexual slavery. The story of May-li and her journey from a poor farming home in Fujian, China, to a brothel in Los Angeles is one that Eve will fight to tell and will never forget.

A moving, noir-accented crime novel that opens a rare window to an intriguing subject, The Jasmine Trade is a passionate and polished debut from an exciting new author.

Milkrun ($2.47), by Sarah Mlynowski
Book Description
Must think happy thoughts. Julie Andrews dancing. Cadbury's chocolate Easter eggs. But no amount of positive thinking changes the fact that Jeremy the man of my dreams, the man I would marry, the man who should spend his whole life worshipping me and lavishing me with kisses went to Thailand to find himself.

Obviously I'm not as cute and witty as I thought I was, since while I've been sitting around every weekend, he's been sleeping with half of Thailand. And then he found Someone Else. That someone not being me.

I have been pathetic.

But now I will date. I will become the queen of dating. I will forget all about him.

Single in Boston, that's me. But not for long...!

The Journals of Eleanor Druse ($3.96), by Eleanor Druse
Book Description
Eleanor Druse has always been interested in the paranormal, but her fascination intensifies after she has a Near-Death Experience at Kingdom Hospital while visiting a childhood friend who has just attempted suicide. Eleanor is treated for a mysterious condition at Boston General Hospital in Massachusetts, where she falls under the care of her nemesis, a surgeon named Stegman, who doesn’t believe in Eleanor's psychic gifts.

Eleanor escapes the clutches of Stegman and returns home to Lewiston, Maine, when she hears of more strange occurrences at nearby Kingdom Hospital. She feels compelled to investigate, and enlists her reluctant son Bobby, an orderly there, to aid her. Eleanor discovers that the hospital rests on the site of a textile mill that burned to the ground after the Civil War, killing many workers, including child laborers. She becomes convinced that the spirit of one girl, Mary Jensen, is trapped in the hospital, and that the apparition seeks resolution for her grisly death. She also senses other evil presences in the ancient hallways, including the spirit of a physician whose past may be intimately bound up with the child's spirit and with Eleanor’s childhood, as well.

These carefully kept journals trace Eleanor’s investigations into Kingdom Hospital, from the beginning of her covert work up until its stunning and terrifying conclusion. The journals are a fascinating work, providing insights into the very nature of the spirits that haunt the hereafter.

Super Chicken Nugget Boy and the Furious Fry ($3.99), by Josh Lewis and Douglas Holgate (Illustrator), is just one of four books in the Super Chicken Nugget Boy at this price.
Book Description
Captain Underpants meets Clementine in this hilarious new illustrated chapter book series.

He's got genuine deep-fried breading!
And swift, nuggety hands!
He's the most powerful crime fighter in Gordonville--
He's Super Chicken Nugget Boy!

When Fern Goldberg arrived at his new school, he was just an average kid: near-sighted, a touch on the skinny side. Then he fell into the pool of radioactive green goo behind Bogie's Burger Barn. Now, whenever his skin comes into contact with condiments, he transforms into a bona fide, deep-fried superhero who's not afraid to take on villains great and small, from the class bully, to the giant, mutated French fry who threatens to crush the whole school beneath his massive, starchy feet...

Villainous vegetables beware! Here comes the most formidable food fighter in history!

Hurry Down Sunshine ($1.59), by Michael Greenberg
Book Description
HURRY DOWN SUNSHINE TELLS THE STORY OF THE extraordinary summer when, at the age of fifteen, Michael Greenberg’s daughter was struck mad. It begins with Sally’s visionary crack-up on the streets of Greenwich Village, and continues, among other places, in the out-of-time world of a Manhattan psychiatric ward during the city’s most sweltering months. “I feel like I’m traveling and traveling with nowhere to go back to,” Sally says in a burst of lucidity while hurtling away toward some place her father could not dream of or imagine. Hurry Down Sunshine is the chronicle of that journey, and its effect on Sally and those closest to her–her brother and grandmother, her mother and stepmother, and, not least of all, the author himself. Among Greenberg’s unforgettable gallery of characters are an unconventional psychiatrist, an Orthodox Jewish patient, a manic Classics professor, a movie producer, and a landlord with literary dreams. Unsentimental, nuanced, and deeply humane, Hurry Down Sunshine holds the reader in a mesmerizing state of suspension between the mundane and the transcendent.

Give Me Liberty ($3.99), by Naomi Wolf
Book Description
As the practice of democracy becomes a lost art, Americans are increasingly desperate for a restored nation. Many have a general sense that the "system" is in disorder -- if not on the road to functional collapse. But though it is easy to identify our political problems, the solutions are not always as clear. In Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries, bestselling author Naomi Wolf illustrates the breathtaking changes that can take place when ordinary citizens engage in the democratic system the way the founders intended and tells how to use that system, right now, to change your life, your community, and ultimately, the nation.

You can pre-order the new edition of Last Exit in New Jersey ($0.99), by C.E. Grundler, at the same price as the self-published edition (which you can use to get a sample). Amazon has picked up this author on their Thomas & Mercer label, which means it's been proofed and edited in this edition. I will say, the first line of the synopsis has me thinking of a female Dexter, but the reviews on this one are quite good.
Book Description
Nice young ladies really shouldn't be dumping bodies at sea.

Then again, that isn't stopping Hazel Moran, and she can't figure where anyone got the idea she was nice to begin with. Raised aboard her father's aging schooner and riding shotgun in their old 18-wheeler, there's little on the road or water that she can't handle; it's her people skills that need work. Normally that isn't an issue - behind the wheel of a Kenworth most people tend to leave her alone. But when Hazel and her father become the targets of some unsavory characters hunting for her blue-haired cousin, their stolen tractor-trailer truck and a delivery that never arrived, she knows it's time to heed a lesson learned from her favorite hard-boiled paperbacks: playing nice will only end in tears.

For ten sweltering days Hazel navigates the Garden State's highways and shorelines, contending with a suspiciously wealthy stranger, white trash, Born Agains, appliance salesmen, an unstable stalker and his curiously troublesome companion. It'll take all her ingenuity, not to mention some fishing tackle and high voltage, if Hazel hopes to protect her family and unravel this tangle of greed and betrayal. And anyone who gets too close, no matter their intent, will discover just how dangerous Hazel truly is as she sets in motion a twisted plan to uncover the truth, settle some scores, and if possible not wind up dead in the process.

Evenings at the Argentine Club ($2.99), by Julia Amante
Book Description
Victor and Jaqueline Torres imagined moving to the U.S. would bring happiness and prosperity-instead they found a world of frustration. While Victor put long hours into his restaurant business, Jaqui devoted her life to her daughters, until they grew up and moved on. Even their eldest, Victoria, is torn trying to reconcile being the perfect Argentine daughter and an independent American woman. Antonio and Lucia Orteli face the same realities, especially when their only son Eric leaves their close-knit Argentine community in pursuit of his own dreams. When Eric unexpectedly shows up at the Argentine Club-the heart of the Argentine community in southern California-he starts a series of events that will bring these two families closer than ever. New relationships are formed and old ones are put to the test, as everyone must learn how to balance different cultures-and different dreams-without hurting those they love.

Scandalous Lord Dere: From Secrets of a Perfect Night ($1.99), by Stephanie Laurens, was briefly (and no doubt, mistakenly) free for Australians to pre-order. This looks like the correct price now and it's available to those in the US. From the sample online, this is novella length (and includes excerpts from two other titles).
Book Description
Once upon a time, a young woman attended a New Year’s Eve ball...The moon shone brightly, music filled the air. Kisses were stolen and promises made. But what happens when morning comes? A new year brings new scandal when a rake awakens in the bed of the flame-haired temptress who had seduced him years before. All of society has them bedded, but can he convince her to become wedded?

The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp ($1.99), by Rick Yancey, is at a good price for those who missed this young adult title at a penny this past spring.
Book Description
Alfred Kropp was just trying to survive high school when his guardian uncle gets him roped into a suspicious get-rich-quick scheme that changes his life forever: stealing Excalibur — the legendary sword of King Arthur. But after Alfred unwittingly delivers the sword into the hands of a man with enormously evil intentions, he sets off on an unlikely quest to try to right his wrong and save the world from imminent destruction.

This gripping, fast-paced, hilarious novel is both a thrilling adventure story and an engaging account of one boy’s coming of age.

A Bottle in the Gaza Sea ($2.51), by Valerie Zenatti, is also aimed at the teen market.
Book Description
A seventeen-year-old from Jerusalem, Tal Levine comes from a family that always believed peace would come to the Middle East. She cried tears of joy when President Clinton and Yitzhak Rabin shook hands with Yasser Arafat in 1993-a moment of hope that would stay with her forever. But when a terrorist explosion kills a young woman at a café in Jerusalem, something changes for Tal. One day she writes a letter, puts it in a bottle, and sends it to Gaza-to the other side-beginning a correspondence with a young Palestinian man that will ultimately open their eyes to each other's lives and hearts.

Dirt ($1.99) and Dead in the Water ($3.99), by Stuart Woods, are the second and third titles in his Stone Barrington series. These would be a no-brainer if the first in the series, New York Dead, were also on sale, but even with it at $7.99, it works out to about $4.65 per title to pick up all three.
Dirt
Feared and loathed for her poison pen and ice queen persona, Amanda Dart has made her share of enemies. Then the tables are turned. An anonymous gossipmonger is faxing Amanda's personal and private peccadilloes to anyone who can read. Desperate to save her reputation, she enlists the help of New York lawyer and private investigator Stone Barrington to learn the identity of the faxer. And everyone in the world of tabloid journalism becomes a suspect.

But the faxes don't stop. In fact, they get worse. And Stone winds up with more leads than one man can handle, until Amanda takes matters dangerously into her own hands and turns the world of gossip on its head. As the circle of suspects shrinks, Stone discovers that even the most respected members of the social scene will stop at nothing—even homicide—to clear their sullied names.


Dead in the Water
Stone Barrington only wants a winter getaway from the chill of New York in the beautiful, tropical Caribbean paradise of St. Mark's. But what the lawyer and ex-cop gets instead is the chance to defend Allison Manning. The beautiful young woman stands accused of killing her rich husband on board their luxurious yacht and then burying him at sea.

Stone isn't exactly conversant with the island country's law, but this much is clear to him: Allison is being railroaded by the perverse sense of justice of a prosecutor who will do anything to stay in office. Donning the robe and wig of a British barrister, Stone does everything he can to save Allison—from publicizing the case all over the American press to conducting the kind of smart, tough investigation that money can't buy. Just when he has the jury in the palm of his hands, a shocking reversal of fortune changes everything. And what was once a sure thing begins to look a lot like a death sentence.