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Friday, September 14, 2012

Today's Deals

The new Kindle Fire (2nd Gen) is officially released today and mine has arrived. I'll have some more thoughts on it later. The 7" Kindle Fire HD was also released today, but those who, like me, held out for the 32MB edition are going to have to wait until October 25 to see one. This is the only model that has a delayed release for the increased memory size; all other models will release with the basic memory size and the doubled memory option on the same day.

You should be seeing discounts on HarperCollins titles at Amazon (in addition to BooksOnBoard, which is continuing their 25% off sale for those titles this week). For Canadians (but not those in the US), Penguin titles seem to now be getting a discount. Penguin is a big holdout (and the only one still fighting Agency pricing in the EU), so I don't expect many of the books on my wishlist to start dropping anytime soon, here.


Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich ($1.99), by William Shirer. I first read this in grade school (no, not assigned reading) and my copy is worn out.
Book Description
When the Third Reich fell, it fell swiftly. The Nazis had little time to cover up their memos, their letters, or their diaries. William L. Shirer’s definitive book on the Third Reich uses these unique sources. Combined with his personal experience with the Nazis, living through the war as an international correspondent, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich not only earned Shirer a National Book Award but is recognized as one of the most important and authoritative books about the Third Reich and Nazi Germany ever written. The diaries of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as well as evidence and other testimony gained at the Nuremberg Trials could not have found more artful hands.

Shirer gives a clear, detailed and well-documented account of how it was that Adolf Hitler almost succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich has become one of the most authoritative books on one of mankind’s darkest hours. Shirer focuses on 1933 to 1945 in clear detail. Here is a worldwide bestseller that also tells the true story of the Holocaust, often in the words of the men who helped plan and conduct it. It is a classic by any measure.

The book has been translated into twelve languages and was adapted as a television miniseries, broadcast by ABC in 1968. This first ever e-book edition is published on the 50th anniversary of this iconic work.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
William Shirer was originally a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and was the first journalist hired by Edward R. Murrow for what would become a team of journalists for CBS radio. Shirer distinguished himself and quickly became known for his broadcasts from Berlin, accounting the rise of the Nazi dictatorship through the first year of World War II. Shirer was the first of ""Edward R. Murrow's Boys""--broadcast journalists--who provided news coverage during World War II and afterward. It was Shirer who broadcast the first uncensored eyewitness account of the annexation of Austria. Shirer is best known for his books The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, which has seen millions of copies in print and is considered a seminal work on the Nazi party and the war, as well as his book Berlin Diary.

The Psychic Tourist: A Voyage into the Curious World of Predicting the Future ($1.58 / £0.99 UK), by William Little, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).
Book Description
Can people really see into the future? Can someone's life be predicted? Are physicists on the verge of discovering the first time machine? And why does a Nobel prize-winning scientist believe that humans are capable of sensing the future?

Following a prediction of his sister's death, William Little sets out to find the truth about the power of fortune telling and prophecy. On a journey that takes him to a witches' coven in a haunted wood, on the hunt for murderers with psychic detectives and to the doorsteps of the world s most powerful and revered psychics, William Little goes on a desperate quest to find out whether people can see into the future - or if the many millions who consult horoscopes, watch TV psychics, or who read Nostradamus are simply being sold a lie. Through a rollercoaster ride of mystics, mishaps and mayhem, he discovers uncomfortable facts that make him reassess his beliefs. In a book that answers the unanswerable about what science, psychics, and crystal balls can reveal about tomorrow, William Little lifts the lid on the most sought-after destination of them all - the future.

Includes interviews with US psychic Sylvia Browne, CIA psychic spy Joseph McMoneagale, Sally Morgan, Derren Brown, Richard Dawkins, Channel Five's Psychic Challenge winner Diane Lazarus, experts such as Professor Brian Josephson and Dr Richard Wiseman and Allison Dubois, whose life was the basis for the NBC and BBC programme Medium.

Winter's Tale ($8.80 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Mark Helprin, is the Nook Daily Find.
Book Description
New York City is subsumed in arctic winds, dark nights, and white lights, its life unfolds, for it is an extraordinary hive of the imagination, the greatest house ever built, and nothing exists that can check its vitality. One night in winter, Peter Lake--orphan and master-mechanic, attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side.

Though he thinks the house is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the love between Peter Lake, a middle-aged Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young girl, who is dying.

Peter Lake, a simple, uneducated man, because of a love that, at first he does not fully understand, is driven to stop time and bring back the dead. His great struggle, in a city ever alight with its own energy and beseiged by unprecedented winters, is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary stories of American literature.

The Debt Bomb: A Bold Plan to Stop Washington from Bankrupting America ($9.50 Kindle, $3.99 B&N), by Tom A. Coburn, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012.
Book Description
In a nation whose debt has outgrown the size of its entire economy, the greatest threat comes not from any foreign force but from Washington politicians who refuse to relinquish the intoxicating power to borrow and spend. Senator Tom Coburn reveals the fascinating, maddening story of how we got to this point of fiscal crisis-and how we can escape.

Long before America's recent economic downturn, beltway politicians knew the U.S. was going bankrupt. Yet even after several so-called "change" elections, the government has continued its wasteful ways in the face of imminent danger. With passion and clarity, Coburn explains why Washington resists change so fiercely and offers controversial yet commonsense solutions to secure the nation's future.

At a time when millions of Americans are speculating about what is broken in Washington, The Debt Bomb is a candid, thoughtful, non-partisan expose of the real problems inside our government. Coburn challenges the conventional wisdom that blames lobbyists, gridlock, and obstructionism, and places the responsibility squarely where it belongs: on members of Congress in both parties who won't let go of the perks of power to serve the true interests of the nation-unless enough citizens take bold steps to demand action.

"Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." -John Adams

Throughout a distinguished career as a business owner, physician, and U.S. senator, Tom Coburn has watched his beloved republic careen down a suicidal path. Today, the nation stands on the precipice of financial ruin, a disaster far more dangerous to our safety than any terrorist threats we face. Yet Coburn believes there is still hope-if enough Americans are willing to shake the corridors of Washington and demand action.

With an insider's keen eye and a caregiver's deft touch, Coburn diagnoses the mess that career politicians have made of things while misusing their sacred charge to govern.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Ingrid Law's Newbery Honor Book, Savvy ($2.99).
Book Description
Thirteen is when a Beaumont’s savvy hits—and with one brother who causes hurricanes and another who creates electricity, Mibs Beaumont is eager to see what she gets. But just before the big day, Poppa is in a terrible accident. And now all Mibs wants is a savvy that will save him. In fact, Mibs is so sure she’ll get a powerful savvy that she sneaks a ride to the hospital on a rickety bus with her sibling and the preacher’s kids in tow. After this extraordinary adventure—full of talking tattoos and a kidnapping—not a soul on board will ever be the same.

Grade Level: 4 and up