Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Deadly Farce ($1.99), by Jennifer McAndrews [Thomas & Mercer].Book Description
When Hollywood heavyweight Shepard Brown fears someone is trying to kill him, he asks newly licensed private investigator Lorraine Keys to keep him safe. Friends with Shepard since elementary school, Lorraine knows he can be more than a little melodramatic. Though she agrees to meet him on location in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to review the situation, the last thing she expects is to find truth in his claims. After all, a poisoned pizza? But after getting caught in the center of yet another attempt on Shepard's life, Lorraine is forced to admit he's right about the danger - and determined to find a way to protect him while searching for the culprit. With her meddling friend Barb along for the ride and her boss anxiously tracking her every move, Lorraine must juggle the chaos of a film set, the lure of the casinos, the mutual attraction of a hunky co-star, and a minefield of Shepard's ex-girlfriends all while keeping Shepard safe and uncovering the identity of the killer … before she becomes the next target.
Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is The Lady Is a Vamp: An Argeneau Novel ($0.99), by Lynsay Sands [HarperCollins].Book Description
The Argeneau’s are hungry for love—and Lynsay Sands’s bestselling paranormal romance series starring the enormously popular vampire family is hotter than ever! In this New York Times and USA Today bestselling author’s spicy-sweet sixteenth Argeneau novel, the lady is a gorgeous vampire enchantress who finds herself kidnapped by one desperate—and devastatingly handsome—man. The Lady is a Vamp is Lynsay at her best—and fans of the hit HBO series True Blood, as well as the Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse novels it’s based on, will eagerly drink in every tasty drop of this sexy, suspenseful paranormal winner.
Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is The Marching Morons ($0.99), by C. M. Kornbluth [RosettaBooks]. This is a part of the Galaxy Project, which is bringing back into publication some of the best stories from Galaxy magazine; others titles in the series are only $2.99 apiece.Book Description
About the Story: Published more than 60 years ago, this dark and prescient story of a future devolved to idiocy remains one of the most frightening visions to have emerged from the science fiction of that decade. Envisioning a future United States overwhelmed by a citizenry of low IQ (a consequence of the overbreeding of the stupid) Kornbluth was in fact writing of an observed present. The steady, inexorable descent of human intelligence obsessed Kornbluth, was one of his major themes and reached its truest statement in this novelette. The secret masters of Kornbluth’s future are a small population of the intelligent who in subterranean fashion run the country but the “marching morons” overwhelm them and they summon a cynical entrepreneur from the past to help them deal with the dilemma. Weak on technology (a time machine is employed scoop the entrepreneur into their present) the novelette is deadly accurate in its portrait of a society sunk in stupid television, ornate, worthless automobiles and catchphrases which substitute for thought. The denouement is absolutely uncompromising and its utter bleakness is refractory not of a speculative future (which it may well be) but a present which Kornbluth found omnipresent and unbearable. In terms of social statement and extrapolation THE MARCHING MORONS stands with Orwell’s 1984 or Forster’s THE MACHINE STOPS as shattering anatomization of an inevitable future.
About the Author:
Cyril Kornbluth (1924-1958) was the youngest and perhaps the most brilliant of that great group of satirists (Frederik Pohl, Robert Sheckley, Damon Knight, William Tenn) whom Horace Gold drafted to become the characteristic voice of his magazine. Kornbluth was a child prodigy (writing at 16 stories which became classics of the field) and auto-didact, first-generation fan and newspaperman (a Chicago-based wire service) whose heart and health were wrecked by active combat duty at the Battle of the Bulge and other venues; after the war he became a fully committed science fiction writer who moved from journalism in Chicago to a career in the New York area. In collaboration with Frederik Pohl he wrote THE SPACE MERCHANTS (1952) for GALAXY which became the classic satirical novel of advertising and GLADIATOR-AT-LAW which brought the same satirical force to the housing industry. There were several other novels, science fiction and mainstream, written with Pohl, two with Judith Merril and several (TAKEOFF, NOT THIS AUGUST) written alone. He struggled for years with health, economic and familial obligations (he was married to a sculptress and had two young sons) and died suddenly on a train platform, sprinting for a New York bound train in March 1958. A recent (2009) biography by Mark Rich gives much detail about his painful life and brilliant career.
The Chronicles of Narnia series by CS Lewis for £0.99 each (75% off). In the US, only the first title, The Magician's Nephew, is currently on sale ($1.99), but the The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection with Bonus Book: Boxen for $12 gets you the series at a bargain price (pre-order for Nov 5).- The Magician's Nephew (Main/UK)
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Main/UK)
- The Horse and His Boy (Main/UK)
- Prince Caspian (Main/UK)
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Main/UK)
- The Silver Chair (Main/UK)
- The Last Battle (Main/UK)
Falling to Pieces: A Quilt Shop Murder ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), the first novel in Vannetta Chapman's Shipshewana Amish series [HarperCollins], is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.Book Description
In this first book of a three-book series, author Vannetta Chapman brings a fresh twist to the popular Amish fiction genre. She blends the familiar components consumers love in Amish books---faith, community, simplicity, family---with an innovative who-done-it plot that keeps readers guessing right up to the last stitch in the quilt. When two women---one Amish, one English---each with different motives, join forces to organize a successful on-line quilt auction, neither expects nor wants a friendship. As different as night and day, Deborah and Callie are uneasy partners who simply want to make the best of a temporary situation. But a murder, a surprising prime suspect, a stubborn detective, and the town's reaction throw the two women together, and they form an unlikely alliance to solve a mystery and catch a killer. Set in the well-known Amish community of Shipshewana, Falling to Pieces will attract both devoted fans of the rapidly-growing Amish fiction genre, as well as those who are captivated by the Amish way of life.
Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is three Chitty Chitty Bang Bang books for $1.99 each [Candlewick]. The first is, of course, the classic written by Ian Fleming that many of us grew up reading, along with two new additions to the series, recently commissioned by Fleming's heirs (who hold the copyright). Age Range: 9 and up Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, by Ian Fleming and Joe Berger (illustrator)
Ian Fleming’s beloved original text — newly illustrated by Joe Berger! "Crackpot" is what everybody calls the Pott family. So when they go to buy a new car and come back with a wreck, nobody is surprised. Except for the Potts themselves. First, the car has a name. And she tells them what it is. Then they find out that she can fly. And swim. . . . Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a car on a mission to stop a criminal gang in its tracks — and she is taking the Potts with her! Jump into the world’s most loved magical car for her first adventure.Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Joe Berger (illustrator)
Buckle your seatbelt for the first-ever follow up to Ian Fleming's only children's story. When the Tooting family finds an old engine and fits it to their camper van, they have no idea what kind of adventure lies ahead. The engine used to belong to an extraordinary car . . . and it wants its bodywork back! But as the Tootings hurtle across the world rebuilding the original Chitty, a sinister baddie is on their trail - one who will stop at nothing to get the magnificent car for himself. Fueled by wry humor , this much-anticipated sequel to the children's classic by Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond - featuring a contemporary family and a camper van with a mind of its own - is driven by best-selling, award-winning author Frank Cottrell Boyce and revved up by Joe Berger's black-and-white illustrations.Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Joe Berger (illustrator)
Everyone’s favorite flying car shifts into another dimension as the intrepid Tooting family zooms back and forth through time. When the Tootings return to Zobrowski Terrace at the end of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, they find that "home" is looking a lot like Jurassic Park. But this is no theme park — a very real and very hungry T. rex is charging them! Thanks to Dad’s inadvertent yanking of Chitty’s "Chronojuster" lever, the spirited car has ushered them back to prehistoric times, where the family (and especially Baby Harry) make a narrow escape. But Chitty has a mind of her own, and the Tootings will get an unexpected tour of exciting times and places from Prohibition-era New York (where Chitty wants to compete in the famous Prix d’Esmerelda’s Birthday Cake race) to the lost city of El Dorado and back again, with misadventures and surprise stowaways along the way. Get ready for a hilarious high-flying adventure, with celebrated author Frank Cottrell Boyce behind the wheel.
