- Night Swim (K/N/E)
- Forgotten God (K/N/E)
- Erasing Hell (K/N/E)
- Crazy Love (K/N/E)
- A Woman Who Trusts God (K/N/E)
- The Castro Gene, by Todd Bucholz
- Fatal February, by Barbara Levenson
- Ladykiller, by Lawrence Light and Meredith Anthony
Flowers for Algernon ($1.99), by Daniel Keyes, is the Kindle Weekend Deal. Be sure to vote for next weekend's deals! Additional winners this weekend are instant video The Truman Show ($1.99), game download Hotel Giant 2 ($1.99) and MP3 download Loud ($5.00), by Rihanna.
Book Description
With more than five million copies sold, Flowers for Algernon is the beloved, classic story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse. In poignant diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation increases his IQ and changes his life. As the experimental procedure takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment seems to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance--until Algernon begins his sudden, unexpected deterioration. Will the same happen to Charlie?
An American classic that inspired the award-winning movie Charly.
Fat Is the New 30: The Sweet Potato Queens' Guide to Coping with (the crappy parts of) Life ($3.99), by Jill Conner BrowneBook Description
The Sweet Potato Queens® are back and bawdier than ever in Southern belle extraordinaire Jill Conner Browne’s ninth edition of the hysterical series.
Having experienced pretty much ALL of the crappy parts of life, Browne feels it is her duty to render whatever assistance she can to her fellow sufferers — and she does so in her own inimitable fashion. Her father taught her there are very few situations in life that we really and truly cannot change, and it is up to us to figure out how to either make fun OUT of them — or make fun OF them. And fortunately for the rest of us, Browne is well equipped for both.
Including the exploits of the Queen contingent and her family, she delivers applicable tidbits like:
More fun than a Cracker Barrel full of monkeys, Fat Is the New 30 will change your life — or at least give you ideas for making fun of yourownself.
- Thinking or talking about watermelon can save any negative situation.
- If you get drunk in Scotland, you can’t have your cow with you.
- When sanity and reason fail, you can always cheerfully resort to ridicule.
- Denial means that every situation is perfectly perfect.
Don't Try This at Home: Culinary Catastrophes from the World's Greatest Chefs ($1.99), by Kimberly Witherspoon and Andrew FriedmanBook Description
The hugely popular anthology in which forty of the world's greatest chefs, including Anthony Bourdain, Daniel Boulud, and Ferrán Adrià, reveal their worst kitchen disasters.
From Gabrielle Hamilton on hiring a blind line cook to Michel Richard on rescuing a wrecked cake to Eric Ripert on being the clumsiest waiter in the room, these behind-the-scenes accounts are as wildly entertaining as they are revealing. With a great, new piece by Jamie Oliver, Don't Try This at Home is a delicious reminder that even the chefs we most admire aren't always perfect-and a hilarious musthave for anyone who's ever burned dinner.
There are nine titles by Joseph Wambaugh that are on sale for $2.99 on Kindle (and some of them elsewhere, as well), as a promotion for the upcoming release of Harbor Noctourne. Here they are, in publication order (non-fiction at the end):- The Black Marble
A washed-up LAPD cop with a bad drinking problem gets a new partner
The Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood Station is like a strainer, dredging the heart of L.A. and coming up with the city’s worst scum. But few criminals in its holding cells are lower than Detective A. A. Valnikov, a broken cop consumed with love for vodka and self-hatred. He was a useful detective once, but that was twenty years ago, and any pride he takes in his work is now long gone.
His new partner is Natalie Zimmerman, an ambitious young detective eager to make good on her potential. The brass sticks her with Valnikov in hopes that she might help hold him together. She thinks it’s a sick joke, but it could be that the old lush has something to teach her. A dognapper is terrorizing Pasadena’s high society, and as the city’s grime floats to the surface, A. A. Valnikov should feel right at home. - The Glitter Dome
A grim look at the ugly underbelly of life as a Hollywood cop
The Glitter Dome is the ugliest bar in Chinatown. Its proprietor is a man named Wing, a third-generation immigrant who speaks with a thick accent for daytime tourists, but perfect English at night, when off-duty cops flood the seedy tiki bar, looking to blow off steam.
Bellowing in the middle of the dance floor is Buckmore Phipps, the burly bully of Hollywood Boulevard. At one end of the bar, Detective Cal Greenberg complains that today’s music has nothing on Glenn Miller, while at the other Detective Al Mackey mumbles into his glass of Tullamore Dew, not caring that Wing shortchanges him on every drink.
In this collection of stories, former police detective Joseph Wambaugh dissects what it means to be a cop, a partner, and a man. - The Delta Star
A dead prostitute leads a gang of cops on a wild international chase
In death she looks thirty-five, but Missy Moonbeam, a.k.a. Thelma Bernbaum, is only twenty-two when the cops of Rampart Division find her flattened on the sidewalk. A Nebraska farm girl, Missy came to Los Angeles to act, and died not long after her dream did. The detectives assume that her pimp threw her off a roof—but they couldn’t be more wrong. Missy had a trick at Caltech whose name draws the Rampart detectives into a bizarre conspiracy. A beached Soviet sub has Europe on the brink of war, and only Rampart Division can pull the world back from disaster.
They are a motley gang. There’s the Bad Czech, a certifiable psychopath whose chief pleasure is yelling at the Los Angeles Times. There’s Mario Villalobos, whose midlife crisis has made him sentimental. And there’s Jane Wayne, a New Wave fan, sex addict, and proudly violent cop. This case will take them all the way to Stockholm, but they won’t win any Nobel Peace Prize. - The Golden Orange
An alcoholic ex-cop falls head over heels for an Orange County gold digger
Prenuptial agreements have not been kind to Tess Binder. Although briefly married to the 303rd richest man in the world, their marriage contract ensured that she got nothing when he left her for a manicurist he met playing singles at the John Wayne Tennis Club. A Westport lifestyle is expensive, and without a husband to subsidize it, Tess will be broke soon. In need of a sucker, she calls on Winnie Farlowe.
An ex-cop with a bad back and an even worse drinking habit, Winnie recently achieved notoriety by piloting a ferry while blackout drunk. He rammed three yachts but, killing no one, got off with probation. Though Tess is miles out of his league, he doesn’t ask questions when she throws herself at him. Drunk on love, Winnie Farlowe is heading for the worst hangover he’s ever had. - Fugitive Nights
A PI enlists a down-on-his-luck cop to help find a fugitive sperm donor
After twenty years in the Los Angeles Police Department, Breda Burroughs is happy to trade her badge for a private agency in sunny Palm Springs. But when a strange case requires her to go someplace only cops are allowed, she finds that for the first time ever she needs a partner. She should not have asked Lynn Cutter.
A woman has hired Breda to find her missing husband—an impotent rich man who, for some reason, has been donating to sperm banks. Breda needs Lynn because the banks don’t have to give up their records to anyone but the police, but Lynn is too nasty for a case this sensitive. A veteran cop with two busted knees, he helps Breda because he needs the money. What he gets instead is a wild chase across the Southwest, risking his life to find a man that no one really missed in the first place. - Finnegan's Week
A disillusioned cop hunts for toxic waste that’s killing children
Fin Finnegan is no name for an actor, but the name is not the reason Fin’s career is a terminal case. He’s middle-aged and balding, his agent is a fool, and worst of all, he lives in San Diego. Harbor Nights could change his luck. There’s a recurring part in the late-night melodrama for a sociopathic killer, and Fin thinks he fits the bill. After two decades in the San Diego police force, he knows sociopaths.
His latest murderer is not a person, but a fifty-five gallon drum of Guthion, a toxic chemical whose disposal requires extreme care. Unfortunately, the man shipping it is Jules Temple, a lifelong con artist who isn’t bothered when the Guthion goes missing. Its first victim is a child. If acting doesn’t kill him first, Fin Finnegan could be next. - Floaters
Two harbor cops work to foil a bizarre nautical scheme
For the first time in history, New Zealand threatens to win the America’s Cup regatta. Losing the yacht race would be a great blow to the United States sailing community, which has clung to the Cup for nearly all of its 150-year history—but it would be an even greater loss for Ambrose Lutterworth. As the Keeper of the Cup, he has been responsible for the trophy for the seven years since it was won by the San Diego Yacht Club, and his ceremonial position has allowed him to travel the world exhibiting it. If the Cup leaves San Diego, his lifestyle goes with it.
To rig the race he sets in motion a sinister plot involving prostitution, bribery, and a corrupt crane operator. When two harbor policemen get on his trail, they learn that gentility and murder are not mutually exclusive. - Lines and Shadows (non-fiction)
A true account of a daring attempt to make the US–Mexico border safe
Each night, thousands of immigrants stream north across the Mexican border towards San Diego, hoping to make a new life in the United States. Along the way, many find death instead. Bandit gangs roam the moonlit desert, robbing, raping, and killing these desperate, impoverished migrants. For decades Dick Snider has watched this happen. Now, in 1976, he’s decided to end the bloodshed.
A San Diego cop with an intimate awareness of the trials of border crossing, Snider has uncommon sympathy for the illegal immigrants who risk their lives to enter his country. Along with nine other policemen, he forms the Border Crime Task Force, a crack squad of heavily armed foot soldiers dedicated to wiping out the bandit thugs. With each midnight raid, the police raiders step closer to the border between sanity and madness. - The Blooding (non-fiction)
When a child’s killer eludes the police, fear grips an English village
In the early 1980s, Narborough was a quintessential English village with two pubs, two churches, and one terrible secret. Lynda Mann, a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl, had walked along the footpath called the Black Pad dozens of times before the night she disappeared. She was returning home from a friend’s house on November twenty-first, 1983, when her killer attacked, stripped, and strangled her.
This is a meticulous account of one of the most exhaustive manhunts in English history. Even after a second girl’s similar murder, Scotland Yard had no answers. As the Midlands seethed with fear that the killer would strike again, the police experimented with a new technology: DNA identification. Their attempt to avenge Lynda would change the course of police work forever.
In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite: 150 Recipes and Stories About the Food You Love ($3.03), by Melissa ClarkBook Description
“A Good Appetite,” Melissa Clark’s weekly feature in the New York Times Dining Section, is about dishes that are easy to cook and that speak to everyone, either stirring a memory or creating one. Now, Clark takes the same freewheeling yet well-informed approach that has won her countless fans and applies it to one hundred and fifty delicious, simply sophisticated recipes.
Clark prefaces each recipe with the story of its creation—the missteps as well as the strokes of genius—to inspire improvisation in her readers. So when discussing her recipe for Crisp Chicken Schnitzel, she offers plenty of tried-and-true tips learned from an Austrian chef; and in My Mother’s Lemon Pot Roast, she gives the same high-quality advice, but culled from her own family’s kitchen.
Memorable chapters reflect the way so many of us like to eat: Things with Cheese (think Baked Camembert with Walnut Crumble and Ginger Marmalade), The Farmers’ Market and Me (Roasted Spiced Cauliflower and Almonds), It Tastes Like Chicken (Garlic and Thyme–Roasted Chicken with Crispy Drippings Croutons), and many more delectable but not overly complicated dishes.
In addition, Clark writes with Laurie Colwin–esque warmth and humor about the relationship that we have with our favorite foods, about the satisfaction of cooking a meal where everyone wants seconds, and about the pleasures of eating. From stories of trips to France with her parents, growing up (where she and her sister were required to sit on unwieldy tuna Nicoise sandwiches to make them more manageable), to bribing a fellow customer for the last piece of dessert at the farmers’ market, Melissa’s stories will delight any reader who starts thinking about what’s for dinner as soon as breakfast is cleared away. This is a cookbook to read, to savor, and most important, to cook delicious, rewarding meals from.
The Borgia Betrayal ($2.99), by Sara Poole Book Description
Before the Tudors, there were the Borgias. More passionate. More dangerous. More deadly.
From the author of Poison, called “stunning”* and “a fascinating page-turner,” comes a new historical thriller, featuring the same intriguing and beautiful heroine: Borgia court poisoner, Francesca Giordano.
In the summer of 1493, Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander VI, has been pope for almost a year. Having played a crucial role in helping him ascend the chair of Saint Peter, Francesca, haunted by the shadows of her own past, is now charged with keeping him there. As court poisoner to the most notorious and dangerous family in Italy, this mistress of death faces a web of peril, intrigue, and deceit that threatens to extinguish the light of the Renaissance.
As dangers close in from every direction, Francesca conceives a desperate plan that puts her own life at risk and hurls her into a nightmare confrontation with a madman intent on destroying all she is pledged to protect. From the hidden crypts of fifteenth-century Rome to its teeming streets alive with sensuality, obsession, and treachery, Francesca must battle the demons of her own dark nature to unravel a plot to destroy the Borgias, seize control of Christendom, and plunge the world into eternal darkness.
The Warrior Sheep Go West ($0.99), by Christopher Russell Book Description
A wildly western adventure about five sheep, one mad professor and a quest to save all of sheepdom. A strange monster called Red Tongue has threatened all Rams, Ewes and Lambs. The Warrior Sheep know it’s up to them to stop him. Last time they saved the Sheep God. This time they have to save all of sheepdom. ‘We did it once, we can do it again,’ Wills the lamb says. And so the Warrior Sheep go West!To America, to the desert and the hot air of Las Vegas. But they have a crazy scientist following them, and Tod and Gran have been slung in jail by a over-zealous Sheriff. Can the Warriors give Professor Boomberg the slip and stop the sheep-killing monster? They’ll need to hoof it, before Red Tongue tramples all over America . . . Read it: it’s absolutely baaarmy!
