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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Free and Bargain Book Roundup

For those buying EPUB books, don't forget, to enter the Kobo daily contest.

The Boy at the End of the World ($1.99 Kindle; Kobo - coupon eligible), by Greg van Eekhout, has been nominated for this year's Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book. It's aimed a the tween to teen audience (and mostly boys, I suspect), but looks like it could a fun read.
Book Description
This is what he knew:

His name was Fisher.

The world was dangerous.

And he was alone.

Fisher is the last boy on Earth - and things are not looking good for the human race. The carefully crafted survival dome where Fisher and dozens of other humans have been sleeping for millenia has been destroyed. Through a lucky accident, only Fisher survived.

The world Fisher wakes up in is a lot like ours - but it's changed, too. After the human race wiped itself out, nature took over, and wild creatures evolved into barely familiar beasts. Fisher must face them all as they set off on a journey that seems hopeless - at first. Then Fisher uncovers evidence that there may be a second survival dome far to the west. What was once a struggle for one boy's survival becomes a journey of hope.

With a broken robot and a friendly mammoth as his only companions, Fisher heads West. But something is watching them... something that wants to find the second survival dome just as badly as they do.

I ran into Proust Was a Neuroscientist ($3.03), by Jonah Lehrer, when looking at today's Kindle Deal of the Day title.
Book Description
In this technology-driven age, it’s tempting to believe that science can solve every mystery. After all, science has cured countless diseases and even sent humans into space. But as Jonah Lehrer argues in this sparkling debut, science is not the only path to knowledge. In fact, when it comes to understanding the brain, art got there first.

Taking a group of artists — a painter, a poet, a chef, a composer, and a handful of novelists — Lehrer shows how each one discovered an essential truth about the mind that science is only now rediscovering. We learn, for example, how Proust first revealed the fallibility of memory; how George Eliot discovered the brain’s malleability; how the French chef Escoffier discovered umami (the fifth taste); how Cézanne worked out the subtleties of vision; and how Gertrude Stein exposed the deep structure of language — a full half-century before the work of Noam Chomsky and other linguists. It’s the ultimate tale of art trumping science.

More broadly, Lehrer shows that there’s a cost to reducing everything to atoms and acronyms and genes. Measurement is not the same as understanding, and art knows this better than science does. An ingenious blend of biography, criticism, and first-rate science writing, Proust Was a Neuroscientist urges science and art to listen more closely to each other, for willing minds can combine the best of both, to brilliant effect.

Dangerous Race ($1.99 Kindle or Carina Press - DRM-free), the first title in the Adrenaline Highs series by Dee J. Adams, is on sale as a promotion for the newly released second in the series, Danger Zone ($4.79 Kindle). Although you can't use Carina Press' 15% off coupon code (EX15CPB) for the one that is on sale, you can use it for nearly anything else you put into a cart and check out as a single order there (thru Feb 29).
Book Description
Four years ago, race car driver Tracey Bradshaw almost died in a horrific crash. Now scarred inside and out, she's making a comeback, but her team is plagued by a series of "accidents".

When the team leader dies under mysterious circumstances, former driver Mac Reynolds takes charge. The pair clash as Trace resents his high-handed attempts to control her, while Mac fears Trace's recklessness will get her killed. Neither can throttle back the desire that spins out of control whenever they touch. Trace lets herself be seduced when Mac convinces her he finds her beautiful despite her scars, and she begins to hope for more. But Mac knows he's not nearly good enough for Trace...

Don't miss the sequel, Danger Zone, coming out in February 2012.

Death, Taxes, and a French Manicure ($2.99) is the first in the Tara Holloway series by Diane Kelly; the pre-order for the second title, Death, Taxes, and a Skinny No-Whip Latte, is now up and it should be released at the end of the month.
Book Description
Tara Holloway has got your number. A special agent on the IRS’s payroll, she’s dead-set on making sure that money crimes don’t pay…

Tax cheats, beware: The Treasury Department’s Criminal Investigations Division has a new special agent on its payroll. A recovering tomboy with a head for numbers, Tara’s fast becoming the Annie Oakley of the IRS—kicking ass, taking social security numbers, and keeping the world safe for honest taxpayers. Or else.

Tara’s latest mission finds her in hot pursuit of ice-cream vendor Joseph “Joe Cool” Cullen. Along with frozen treats he’s selling narcotics—and failing to report his ill-gotten gains on his tax returns. Over Tara’s dead body. Then there’s Michael Gryder, who appears to be operating a Ponzi scheme…with banker Stan Shelton…whose lake house is being landscaped by Brett Ellington…who happens to be dating Tara. If following that money trail isn’t tough enough, now Tara must face a new conundrum: Should she invest her trust in Brett—or put him behind bars? New love always comes at a cost but justice? Priceless.

Tumblehome: Meditations and Lore from a Canoeist's Life ($2.99), by James Raffan
Book Description
Tumblehome: a term to describe the way the side of a canoe arcs inward toward the center, toward home.

James Raffan has always followed his own arc in life. Like his mentor and friend Bill Mason, Raffan has taken his love of the wilderness and integrated it into his life and his work, becoming not just a master canoeist and outdoorsman, but an accomplished and thoughtful writer. In Tumblehome, Raffan explores the notion that canoeing has the power to teach and transform us, even if the closest we’ ve come to the wilderness is in front of the Discovery Channel.

Tumblehome is written in a series of vignettes that cover a breadth of wilderness experience and a wide-ranging timeline, from Raffan’ s early childhood to the present. Many of the essays are funny: in “ Wet Wellies and Frozen Drawers” Raffan discovers that compared to the lessons learned from riding floes of spring ice, school looks rather easy. Others are about connecting: in “ The Glow of Green Eyes” a chance encounter with an Arctic wolf engenders hope instead of fear. Some offer an epiphany: in “ River of Life” the migration of the magnificent caribou creates a sense of infinite wonder and comfort in the cyclical patterns underpinning both human and natural worlds.

In the tradition of Sharon Butala’ s Coyote’ s Morning Cry, Tumblehome is evocative and affirming, a testament to the power of nature and the author’ s gift of intelligent and lyrical interpretation. Packaged in a compact and artful hardcover format, this is a wonderful book for canoeists and outdoor enthusiasts, and an inspirational guide for all those who know that the world of natureis very much a part of their own spiritual landscape.

Flat-Out Sexy ($3.99) is the first title in the Fast Track series by Erin McCarthy.
Book Description
Independent single mother Tamara Briggs wanted to find a new, sexy, no-strings-attached man—just not one as young as NASCAR driver Elec Monroe. But he sure does get her heart racing. And after she’s tricked into a blind date with him, Tamara gives in to her passion. Things screech to a halt, though, when he asks to meet her children. Whatever happened to wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am? Suddenly Tamara has to decide how much risk she’s willing to take to experience the power of true love.

If you missed Crystal Rain ($2.99), by Tobias S. Buckell, when it was free in '08, then now is a good time to pick up the first title in his Xenowealth series.
Book Description
Long ago, so the stories say, the old-fathers came to Nanagada through a worm's hole in the sky. Looking for a new world to call their own, they brought with them a rich mélange of cultures, religions, and dialects from a far-off planet called Earth. Mighty were the old-fathers, with the power to shape the world to their liking---but that was many generations ago, and what was once known has long been lost. Steamboats and gas-filled blimps now traverse the planet, where people once looked up to see great silver cities in the sky.

Like his world, John deBrun has forgotten more than he remembers. Twenty-seven years ago, he washed up onto the shore of Nanagada with no memory of his past. Although he has made a new life for himself among the peaceful islanders, his soul remains haunted by unanswered questions about his own identity.

These mysteries take on new urgency when the fearsome Azteca storm over the Wicked High Mountains in search of fresh blood and hearts to feed their cruel, inhuman gods. Nanagada's only hope lies in a mythical artifact, the Ma Wi Jung, said to be hidden somewhere in the frozen north. And only John deBrun knows the device's secrets, even if he can't remember why or how!

Crystal Rain is the much-anticipated debut novel by one of science fiction's newest and most promising talents.

The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings: A Five-Generation History of the Ultimate Irish-Catholic Family ($2.08), by Thomas Maier
Book Description
For 150 years, the story of the Kennedy family has been inextricably linked to their heritage as Irish-Catholic immigrants—from Patrick Kennedy’s 1848 arrival in Brahmin Boston from Country Wexford Ireland, to Joseph Kennedy’s Vatican ties and Jackie’s thoughts on faith and sorrow, to Kennedy-confidante Father McSorley’s religious counsel following the assassination of JFK. Through groundbreaking interviews with Senator Edward Kennedy and other Kennedy family and friends, acclaimed journalist Thomas Maier casts the Kennedy saga in an entirely new light, showing how their Irish catholic heritage influenced their public and private decisions. Released to coincide with a documentary adapted from the book, this edition features a new preface, in which Maier explores the dynamics of the three brothers, Ted Kennedy’s legacy, and the 2008 presidential elections that have been touched in so many ways by the Kennedy family.

Dust to Dust ($4.99) is the second in the Kovac/Liska series by Tami Hoag
Book Description
Sorry. The single word was written on a mirror. In front of it hung the Minneapolis Internal Affairs cop. Was it suicide? Or a kinky act turned tragic?

Either way, it wasn’t murder. At least not according to the powers that be. But veteran homicide detective Sam Kovac and his wisecracking, ambitious partner Nikki Liska think differently. Together they begin to dig at the too-neat edges of the young cop’s death, uncovering one motive and one suspect after another. The shadows of suspicion fall not only on the city’s elite, but into the very heart of the police department.

Someone wants the case closed–quickly and forever. But neither Kovac nor Liska will give up. Now both their careers and their lives are on the line. From a murder case two months old to another case closed for twenty years, Kovac and Liska must unearth a connection the killer wants dead and buried. A killer who will stop at absolutely nothing to keep a dark and shattering secret . . .

Making Waves ($1.79) is by Tawna Fenske, the author of the interactive fiction title Getting Dumped, which currently also on sale (at $1.99).
Book Description
When Alex Bradshaw's unscrupulous boss kicks him to the curb after 20 faithful years as an executive with the world's largest shipping company, he sets out to reclaim his dignity and his pension. Assembling a team of fellow corporate castoffs, he sails to the Caribbean to intercept an illegal diamond shipment. None of them counted on quirky blonde stowaway Juli Flynn, who has a perplexing array of talents, a few big secrets, and an intoxicating romantic chemistry with Alex...

Today's backlist/small press/indie, totally free, books for everyone on Kindle. These are are not likely to be free for long, so double check prices before one-clicking (genres are my best guess), as most of them go back up after a day or two (sometimes less), at which point most of them become eligible for the Kindle Lending Library.
I may try to post a few more, later tonight. Also, I see several repeats in the Christian Fiction category from the major publishers. I'll try to get a post together later for these, but you can use the link here to see the entire list and see if there is one you've missed.
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