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Monday, October 31, 2011

Bargain Book Roundup

For the nightowls, here are a few coupon codes:
  • Harlequin Halloween deal - Save 31% on all ebooks, with coupon code HALLOW3111. Should also works on regularly priced print books. Also, Use Code SAVE5DOLLARS for $5 off $15 (Expires 03/31/12. one coupon per order, so choose the best one for the order).
  • Samhain - 30% off your entire order with coupon code SPHW11
  • Kobo is late shipping the Vox, so get 25% off any one book on this list using coupon code vox25oct28. (exp Nov 4)
  • Books on Board is giving everyone 8% rewards + 26% discount on all non-Agency books. No coupon code and the prices you'll see this week reflect the discount. (exp Nov 4)
For those in the UK, Amazon has set up a Rainy Day Reads page, off the Kindle Bargains page. Looks like several good deals for you guys.
Happy Halloween!

Copia is giving away a specially annotated edition of Dracula, by Bram Stoker. You can side-load it into Adobe ADE (use the Settings and Purchase History menu), but if you want the annotations, you'll need to stick to the Copia app.
Book Description
More than 100 years after it was written, Bram Stoker's Dracula remains as powerful and potent as ever. This classic Gothic horror story has crossed into popular culture, inspiring an entire underworld, as it were, of vampire related movies, stories and costumes. The sweeping, cross-cutting plot, told in a series of diary entries and letters, finds two sets of lovers inadvertently caught up in a blood thirsty scheme by Transylvania's erudite, mysterious Count Dracula.

This Copia Editions volume features over 150 exclusive annotations by Dr. Anne DeLong and Dr. Curtis Herr, co-editors of The Journal of Dracula Studies. These notes, which appear in the margins of the eBook, can only be accessed using the free Copia eReader App

God's Eye ($2.51), by A.J. Scudiere
Book Description
A demon . . .
Every soul he claims is another chance to advance. Until he can walk among us, look like us, make us believe in him. The only thing holding him back is . . .

An angel. . .
The rules of the realm bind him from fighting on the demon’s terms. But this is his chance to steal something away from the demon, to steal the thing the demon wants most . . .

A woman who must choose . . .

A woman who has been chosen. Katharine is suddenly a pawn in a game where the rules and the stakes are beyond her comprehension. She must take a side even though she can’t tell angel from demon.

And in the end, they will all be judged.

It's a bit early for The Gift of Thanks: The Roots and Rituals of Gratitude ($3.46), by Margaret Visser, but it's likely to have gone back up price by it's holiday season.
Book Description
Known as an ‘anthropologist of everyday life,’ Margaret Visser has, in five award-winning books, uncovered and illuminated the intriguing and unexpected meanings of everyday objects and habits. Now she turns her keen eye to another custom so frequently encountered that it often escapes notice: saying ‘Thank you.’ What do we really mean by these two simple words?

This fascinating inquiry into all aspects of gratitude ranges from the unusual determination with which parents teach their children to thank, to the difference between speaking the words and feeling them, to the ways different cultures handle the complex matters of giving, receiving, and returning favors and presents. Visser illuminates the fundamental opposition in our own culture between gift-giving and commodity exchange, and the similarities between gratitude and its opposite, vengefulness. The Gift of Thanks considers cultural history, including the modern battle of social scientists to pin down the notion of thankfulness and account for it, and the newly awakened scientific interest in the biological and evolutionary roots of emotions.

With her engaging combination of curiosity and erudition, Visser once again reveals the extraordinary in the everyday.

Quick-Fix Vegetarian: Healthy Home-Cooked Meals in 30 Minutes or Less ($2.99), by Robin Robertson
Book Description
Featuring 150 delicious recipes, Quick-Fix Vegetarian provides both novice and longtime cooks with practical and robust vegetarian dishes that can be prepared in less time than it takes to have a pizza delivered. Written by best-selling vegetarian chef Robin Robertson, Quick-Fix Vegetarian is the answer for busy families who are looking for healthy food, fast.

Quick-Fix Vegetarian by Robin Robertson recently was named Best New Cookbook by PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The international organization's Proggy Award (short for progress) recognizes animal-friendly achievement in 21st century culture and commerce. No longer considered a hippie fad, the vegan lifestyle is becoming going mainstream. In her latest book vegetarian expert Robin Robertson creates recipes such as Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomato Quesadillas, Chipotle-Kissed Black Bean Soup, Mediterranean Orzo Salad, Beat-the-Clock Lasagna, Five-Minute Slow-Cooker Chili, and No-Bake Oatmeal Almond Cookies for this growing consumer base. In addition, Quick-Fix Vegetarian shows how to use many of the new commercial vegetarian products and includes recipe variations and tips for speedy, stress-free entertaining without sacrificing flavor or mainstream appeal.

The Line of Beauty ($2.51), by Alan Hollinghurst, won the 2004 Man Booker Prize for fiction.
Book Description
In the summer of 1983, twenty-year-old Nick Guest moves into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the Feddens: conservative Member of Parliament Gerald, his wealthy wife Rachel, and their two children, Toby-whom Nick had idolized at Oxford-and Catherine, highly critical of her family's assumptions and ambitions.

As the boom years of the eighties unfold, Nick, an innocent in the world of politics and money, finds his life altered by the rising fortunes of this glamorous family. His two vividly contrasting love affairs, one with a young black clerk and one with a Lebanese millionaire, dramatize the dangers and rewards of his own private pursuit of beauty, a pursuit as compelling to Nick as the desire for power and riches among his friends. Richly textured, emotionally charged, disarmingly comic, this U.K. bestseller is a major work by one of our finest writers.

Murder in the Latin Quarter ($2.70), by Cara Black, is the ninth in her Aimee Leduc series.
Book Description
A Haitian woman arrives at the office of Leduc Detective and announces that she is Aimée’s sister, her father’s illegitimate daughter. Aimée is thrilled. A virtual orphan since her mother’s disappearance and her father’s death, she has always wanted a sister. Her partner, René, is wary of this stranger, but Aimée embraces her and soon finds herself involved in murky Haitian politics leading to murder. The setting is the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank of the Seine, in the old university district of Paris.

If you are a Deborah Smith fan, then you need to run over and grab Silver Fox and Red-Hot Dove and the rest of her backlist books available for $2.99 pre-order from Bantam (Random House).
Silver Fox and Red-Hot Dove
When Elena Petrovic, a member of a visiting Soviet delegation and possessor of a secret healing power, runs away, T.S. Audubon is determined to find her before the American and Soviet agents do.

Jed's Sweet Revenge
When Wyoming cowboy Jed Powers came to claim Sancia Island, he was prepared to evict a squatter -- but instead found himself bewitched by a woman.

Hot Touch
Rugged vet Paul Belue was part Clark Gable, part Cajun Gypsy, and all male, but when Caroline Fitzsimmons arrived to train his pet wolf for a movie, he vowed to drive her from his bayou mansion!

Honey and Smoke
Tackling an intruder in the old moonshiner's cave, ex-Marine Max Templeton is astonished to find the beautiful and wiry Betty Quint, and he vows to win her over, even as she swears she will wait for a more marriage- and family-minded man.

Hold on Tight
Rucker McClure had drowned beer and chased women everywhere south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but he couldn’t resist heading straight for Mount Pleasant, Alabama, when the town’s mayor, ex-Miss Georgia Dinah Sheridan, sent him a baby possum in retaliation for a column that savaged their annual Possum Days celebration! Not a bit subtle where seduction was concerned, Rucker did his best to rough up Dinah’s smooth edges, mesmerizing her with burning caresses and a voice that drawled steamy promises. “Keep your heart open and lips puckered,” he warned her when he left town, but when he returned and began unraveling her mystery, Dinah knew her fate was sealed. If Rucker discovered the scandal that had once cost her everything, she’d lose him–and the life she loved. But if she wouldn’t trust him with her secrets, how could he prove he cherished her?

Sara's Surprise
Dr. Sara Scarborough is tormented by memories when Kyle Surprise, a man from her painful past, shows up at her Kentucky mountain refuge.

Stranger in Camelot
Cautious Agnes Hamilton, owner of a horse breeding farm, tries in vain to resist the advances of the wickedly handsome John Bartholomew, a mystery man who rides into her life and tries to sweep her off her feet.

Caught by Surprise
Brig McKay was a hell-raiser, a rebel without a cause -- and he was Deputy Sheriff Millie Surprise's duty for the next sixty days!

California Royale
Shea Somerton was elegant and glamorous, just like Estate Mendocino, the resort she managed -- but behind her classy facade there was a hint of recklessness in her violet eyes.

Heart of the Dragon
While searching all over Bangkok for her half-sister, Rebecca Brown captures the attention of Kash Santelli, a man who suspects her of being a spy.

Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius ($3.03), by Collin Dickey, is one of two Kindle editions (the other is $7.99). This one is likely in Topaz format.
Book Description
Beginning dramatically with the opening of Haydn s grave two days after his death in October 1820, Cranioklepty takes us on an extraordinary history of a peculiar kind of obsession. The desire to own the skulls of the famous, for study, for sale, for public (and private) display, seems to be instinctual and irresistible in some people. The rise of Phrenology at the beginning of the 19th century only fed that fascination with the belief that genius leaves its mark on the very shape of the head. The after-death stories of Franz Joseph Haydn, Ludwig Beethoven, Swedenborg, Sir Thomas Browne and many others have never before been told in such detail and vividness. Fully illustrated with some surprising images, this is a fascinating and authoritative history of ideas carried along on the guilty pleasures of an anthology of real-after-life gothic tales.

Inside Joss' Dollhouse: From Alpha to Rossum ($0.89), by Jane Espenson
Book Description
Though Joss Whedon’s television show Dollhouse ended in January 2010 after its second season, its small but devoted cult following is still reeling from not only from its mind-blowing plot twists but also its challenging, dystopic look at the ethics of new technology.

INSIDE JOSS' DOLLHOUSE is a fitting tribute to this complex, engaging show. The anthology’s 18 sometimes funny, always insightful pieces cover Dollhouse from anticipated start to explosive finish. Drawn from an international contest judged by fan favorite Whedon screenwriter Jane Espenson, its essays get right to heart of what Dollhouse viewers loved most about the show.

Espenson also acts as the book’s editor, offering context and extra insight on its topics and the show—a role she played in previous anthologies Finding Serenity and Serenity Found, also on Joss Whedon creations.

From programmer Topher’s amorality to the accuracy of the show’s neurobiology, INSIDE JOSS' DOLLHOUSE brings Dollhouse back to life with a depth sure to satisfy its many still-mourning fans.

HOME: A MEMOIR OF MY EARLY YEARS ($2.51), by Julie Andrews
Book Description
Since her first appearance on screen in Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews has played a series of memorable roles that have endeared her to generations. But she has never told the story of her life before fame. Until now.

In Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, Julie takes her readers on a warm, moving, and often humorous journey from a difficult upbringing in war-torn Britain to the brink of international stardom in America. Her memoir begins in 1935, when Julie was born to an aspiring vaudevillian mother and a teacher father, and takes readers to 1962, when Walt Disney himself saw her on Broadway and cast her as the world's most famous nanny.

Along the way, she weathered the London Blitz of World War II; her parents' painful divorce; her mother's turbulent second marriage to Canadian tenor Ted Andrews, and a childhood spent on radio, in music halls, and giving concert performances all over England. Julie's professional career began at the age of twelve, and in 1948 she became the youngest solo performer ever to participate in a Royal Command Performance before the Queen. When only eighteen, she left home for the United States to make her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend, and thus began her meteoric rise to stardom.

Home is filled with numerous anecdotes, including stories of performing in My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison on Broadway and in the West End, and in Camelot with Richard Burton on Broadway; her first marriage to famed set and costume designer Tony Walton, culminating with the birth of their daughter, Emma; and the call from Hollywood and what lay beyond.

Julie Andrews' career has flourished over seven decades. From her legendary Broadway performances, to her roles in such iconic films as The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hawaii, 10, and The Princess Diaries, to her award-winning television appearances, multiple album releases, concert tours, international humanitarian work, best-selling children's books, and championship of literacy, Julie's influence spans generations. Today, she lives with her husband of thirty-eight years, the acclaimed writer/director Blake Edwards; they have five children and seven grandchildren.

Featuring over fifty personal photos, many never before seen, this is the personal memoir Julie Andrews' audiences have been waiting for.

Forever Liesl: A Memoir of The Sound of Music ($4.99), by Charmian Carr
Book Description
The magic of The Sound of Music lives on in the minds and hearts of everyone it has touched. Now, Charmian Carr, who in 1965 captivated moviegoers as Liesl "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" von Trapp, tells what it was like to be a part of the film that has become a cultural phenomenon. It's all here: from how she got the role (and why she almost didn't) to romances on the set and wild nights in Salzburg; from the near-disaster during the gazebo dance to her relationships--then and now--with her six celluloid siblings. Charmian offers stories from fans and friends and a treasury of photographs. And she reveals why she left acting, what she learned when she met the real von Trapp children; and how The Sound of Music has helped her get through stormy times in her own life.Forever Liesl celebrates the spirit of the movie and what it stands for: family love, romance, inspiration, nostalgia, and the joy and power of music.