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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Today's Deals

There is a new coupon at Kobo, openroad30, which gets you 30% off select OpenRoad titles(exp 7/30).

Tantor Media has over 100 audiobook downloads marked down to $5.95 or $6.99 apiece and another 50 CD audiobooks also on sale for $6.99. You'll also find another 130 or so titles in their Mystery & Detective listings (which, oddly, includes some Urban Fantasy novels, including Rachel Caine and Kalayna Price and some Science Fiction from Isaac Asimov) that are marked down to $6.99, but these are bit trickier to find; the list show all their titles in the genre, but only the ones that show a Tantor Download link are included in the sale.

Colters' Woman ($4.24 Kindle), by Maya Banks, is 80% off at Kobo ($0.92) with coupon code romance80, today only. This is the first title in the series; you can still get the epilogue, Colters' Wife, free in the Kindle store.
Book Description
Holly Bardwell is running from her past mistakes. Straight into the arms of the Colter brothers.

Adam, Ethan and Ryan aren’t looking for women. They’re looking for a woman. One woman they know will share their lives and their beds. They’re losing hope they’ll find her, that is until Adam discovers Holly lying in the snow just yards from their cabin.

Adam knows she’s the one the minute he holds her in his arms, and as soon as his brothers see her, they know it too. The only problem is convincing Holly of that fact—and protecting her from the danger of her past.

Warning: This title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, ménage a quatre, violence.

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Oliver Pötzsch's Hangman's Daughter Thrillers for $0.99 apiece and the deluxe, hardcover version of The Hangman's Daughter, with illustrations by Ben Gibson, is 60% off.

The Hangman's Daughter
Magdalena, the clever and headstrong daughter of Bavarian hangman Jakob Kuisl, lives with her father outside the village walls and is destined to be married off to another hangman’s son—except that the town physician’s son is hopelessly in love with her. And her father’s wisdom and empathy are as unusual as his despised profession. It is 1659, the Thirty Years’ War has finally ended, and there hasn’t been a witchcraft mania in decades. But now, a drowning and gruesomely injured boy, tattooed with the mark of a witch, is pulled from a river and the villagers suspect the local midwife, Martha Stechlin.

Jakob Kuisl is charged with extracting a confession from her and torturing her until he gets one. Convinced she is innocent, he, Magdalena, and her would-be suitor to race against the clock to find the true killer. Approaching Walpurgisnacht, when witches are believed to dance in the forest and mate with the devil, another tattooed orphan is found dead and the town becomes frenzied. More than one person has spotted what looks like the devil—a man with a hand made only of bones. The hangman, his daughter, and the doctor’s son face a terrifying and very real enemy.

Taking us back in history to a place where autopsies were blasphemous, coffee was an exotic drink, dried toads were the recommended remedy for the plague, and the devil was as real as anything, The Hangman’s Daughter brings to cinematic life the sights, sounds, and smells of seventeenth-century Bavaria, telling the engrossing story of a compassionate hangman who will live on in readers’ imaginations long after they’ve put down the novel.
The Dark Monk
1660: Winter has settled thick over a sleepy village in the Bavarian Alps, ensuring every farmer and servant is indoors on the night a parish priest discovers he's been poisoned. As numbness creeps up his body, he summons the last of his strength to scratch a cryptic sign in the frost.

Following a trail of riddles, hangman Jakob Kuisl; his headstrong daughter, Magdalena; and the town physician’s son team up with the priest’s aristocratic sister to investigate. What they uncover will lead them back to the Crusades, unlocking a troubled history of internal church politics and sending them on a chase for a treasure of the Knights Templar.

But they’re not the only ones after the legendary fortune. A team of dangerous and mysterious monks is always close behind, tracking their every move, speaking Latin in the shadows, giving off a strange, intoxicating scent. And to throw the hangman off their trail, they have ensured he is tasked with capturing a band of thieves roving the countryside attacking solitary travelers and spreading panic.

Delivering on the promise of his international best seller The Hangman’s Daughter, Oliver Pötzsch takes us on a whirlwind tour--once again based on prodigious historical research into his own family tree--through the occult hiding places of Bavaria’s ancient monasteries, bringing to life an unforgettable hangman and his tenacious daughter, painting a robust tableau of 17th-century Bavaria as it navigates the lasting impacts of war, and quickening our pulses with a gripping, mesmerizing mystery.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is Six Military History books for £0.99 to £1.19 apiece.

Five Days that Shocked the World (Main/UK) by Nicholas Best
April 1945. The mutilated bodies of Mussolini and his mistress hang by their heels in Milan while a hostile crowd whistles and jeers. Desperate to avoid the same fate, Adolf Hitler leaves orders for his own body to be burned after his death. With the Russian Army closing in on Berlin and his world crashing in to flames, Germany’s doomed leader would never allow his enemies the satisfaction of desecrating his corpse. This is the story of an immensely exciting few days, but it is also a snapshot of the whole world at the end of an extraordinary week. Nicholas Best tells a compelling tale of the men and women from all around the world who experienced the final chaotic days of World War II. Fast-paced, at times brutal and at others poignant, this page-turner of a book recreates the dying days of the Axis powers as the Allied armies closed in on Berlin.
El Alamein (Main/UK) by Bryn Hammond
Before the Battle of El Alamein in 1942, the British had never won a major battle on land against the Germans; nor indeed had anyone else. Drawing on a remarkable array of first-hand accounts, this book reveals the personal experiences of those on the frontline and provides fascinating details of how the war was actually fought. It also includes analysis of the strategic decisions made by the generals. El Alamein 1942 is the story of exactly how a seemingly beaten and demoralized army turned near-defeat into victory in a little over four months of protracted and bloody fighting in the harsh North African desert.
World War 2: The Last War Heroes (Main/UK) by Stephen Bull
The companion volume to the groundbreaking TV series, this book tells the story of the physical, emotional and psychological journey of Allied soldiers from the beaches of Normandy to the ruins of Berlin. In their own words these brave men from Britain, the United States, Canada and Russia tell us what it was like to face the bullets, bombs, mortars, mines and artillery shells of Nazi Germany. Interviews with over 80 soldiers who fought in the conflict, totalling 150 hours, provide a new perspective on the experiences of 1944–45. Building on the high-speed, multi-camera filming of World War II weapons and munitions shown in the TV series, this book brings the terrifying reality of the war to life. Technical descriptions and the experiences of the men in the field explain the dramatic power and effect that this weaponry had on the battlefield, from the sinister simplicity of the deadly AP mine through to the immense firepower of the 88mm gun, giving the modern historian a unique insight into the last days of the war for the troops on the frontline. This is not a history of generals, of armies manoeuvring and strategic objectives. It is a book about the ordinary men put into incredible situations, deprived of sleep and food, and in constant fear of death on the long road to victory.
Allies at Dieppe: 4 Commando and the US Rangers (Main/UK) by Will Fowler
In August 1942, the Allies launched a raid against the German-held port of Dieppe on the French channel coast. It was largely a disaster, with the Canadian forces bearing the brunt of the catastrophe. However, it wasn't all a failure, and history has tended to overlook the role of 4 Commando, who, along with their US Ranger counter-parts, landed and successfully disabled the German guns threatening the rest of the landings. Their actions proved an excellent demonstration of the military adage “train hard, fight easy” and showed the advantage of proper operational planning and brilliant leadership.

This controversial raid also included members of the Free French and it was the first time US land forces engaged the Germans on mainland Europe.

Set in the context of the Dieppe raid as a whole, Will Fowler studies the contribution of No. 4 Commando and Operation Cauldron, and evaluates how and why they achieved their objectives in this daring Commando raid of World War II.
I am Soldier (Main/UK) by Richard Holmes and Robert O'Neill
I am Soldier brings together the profiles of sixty soldiers who have fought over the past 2,500. These vivid accounts graphically depict the role of the soldier in battle often using the soldiers’ own words to reveal what they felt during the chaos of war and its aftermath. From the Spartans at Thermopylae to the war in the Persian Gulf, this book shows the lives of the individual men and woman who made up the great armies that changed the world.
Gothic Serpent - Black Hawk Down Mogadishu 1993 (Main/UK) by Clayton Chun
This book tells the story of Task Force Ranger – a unit of US Rangers and Special Forces – and their attempt to capture the lieutenants of the Somali warlord Muhamed Farrah Aideed, during the 1993 United Nations’ humanitarian relief mission. What started as a simple snatch-and-grab mission quickly degenerated into a desperate battle for survival when US Black Hawk helicopters were struck by rocket-propelled grenades and crashed into the streets of Mogadishu. Racing to save the crew, Task Force Ranger was surrounded by mobs of hostile Somali gunmen. The battle in the city raged all night as the better-equipped and better-trained US forces kept the nearly overwhelming numbers of Somalis at bay. Finally, battered, bloodied, and low on ammunition, the Task Force was rescued by a combined UN and US relief force and extracted to safety. Containing detailed maps and declassified information, this is a dramatic retelling of a brutal battle that had a far-reaching impact on US military policy.

Sanibel Scribbles ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Christine Lemmon, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. If you like it, she has two more novels, also on sale for $1.99.
Book Description
"Spend a semester in Spain." "Acquire the world's largest shoe collection." "Lose five pounds." These are some of the life dreams young Vicki Brightman and her best friend Rebecca giddily scribble on a paper tablecloth one night at the Till Midnight Cafe. A charmed childhood and a semester of college behind her, Vicki thought she had all the time in the world to pursue her own sweet pleasures. But a single event later that night shocks Vicki into putting aside her "to-do" list and confronting her mortality.

The ensuing six-month journey -- at times harrowing, uplifting, and enlightening -- send Vicki to a remote island, Spain, and deep into her soul. Her experiences and the colorful strangers she meets -- a happy-go-lucky Spaniard named Nacho, the ever-charming but mysterious Rafael, a courageous matador, a saucy senora -- challenge her views and alter the dreams she once held dear on her list.

This novel has all the elements that readers have come to love from Christine Lemmon, namely life-changing moments that demand women re-examine their priorities and live life with gusto.

The Rescue ($4.61 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), the third in Kathryn Lasky's Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, is the Nook Daily Find for Families.
Book Description
(A)g classic hero mythology, chronicles Soren's quest for his missing mentor, Ezylryb, and battle against his evil brother, Kludd.

Now that Soren has been reunited with his sister, Eglantine, he must face his next challenge: making sense of the mysterious disappearance of his mentor, Ezylryb. When Soren discovers that Ezylryb is in danger, he and his friends Gylfie, Twilight, and Digger devise a plan to save the beloved teacher.

In this process, Soren must fight a ferocious foe who wears a terrifying metal beak, sharpened for battle. It's not until the confrontation is over that Soren discovers the true identity of his opponent. The metal beaked warrior is Soren's evil brother, Kludd.