More Kindle Bargain Books

Amazon has been wildly varying the prices on Kindle books over the last few days. Some bargain books have already been repriced to the 7.99 or 9.99 presale price. However, there are also new books going on unannounced sale every day. Here is a selection of some of the current books being sold at bargain rates.

$1 and under

The Hoods by Harry Grey. The basis of the movie Once Upon A Time In America, This can be found for free at Munseys, but it's probably worth 50 cents to get the wireless download, online backup, a cover and good formatting. The Guide by R. K. Narayan. Several Ed McBain 87th Precint books are now under $1: Killer's Payoff, The Pusher, Fuzz and The Heckler ($1.25). With over 50 books in the series, in can be difficult to remember the order; luckily this site keeps track for you.

$2 and under

A Stone for Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins. This one is an old classic and considered by some to be Harold Robbin's finest work. The Merchant of Death is the first in the young adult Pendragon series. Metzger's Dog by Thomas Perry.

$3 and under

Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell. This one is just being released in paperback, so the low pricing probably won't last. It's currently a steal at 2.85 vs. the hardback price. Paranoia by Joseph Finder. Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. The Winds of War by Herman Wouk.

$4 and under

The Heart of Christmas by Max Lucado, et al. This one is very much in season and from a very popular christian author. Several from James Patterson: 1st to Die, Jack & Jill, Along Came a Spider, The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1) and Maximum Ride: Saving the World (Maximum Ride Book #3) (the 2nd in the trilogy is still full price). Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child. The Woods by Harlan Coben. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.

$5 and under

Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? by New Scientist magazine. Another from James Patterson, Black Market depicts "a national state of economic disaster after terrorists bomb strategic Wall Street sites. It also alludes to the sale of billions of dollars' worth of stolen securities, a scheme intended to cripple the United States financially." The plot may sound similar to some of the consequences of 9/11, but predates the event by a decade (who says terrorists can't read?). The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara, Kingsolver.

And finally, there are many, many books by Piers Anthony that are currently on sale. For a very small investment, you can keep a new Kindle owner in stitches for months. These are just the ones under $5: Castle Roogna, Source of Magic, A Spell for Chameleon, Centaur Aisle, Night Mare, Dragon on a Pedestal, Ogre, Ogre, Crewel Lye, Orn, Omnivore, Cube Route, Key to Chroma, Macroscope, The Magic Fart, Pornucopia, Relationships, Key to Havoc and Key to Liberty.

Reading about Beekeepers

Unlike the references books of the past few posts, these are all books I'd love to see available on the Kindle. They are essentially memoirs of those who have raised honeybees for a living or as a hobby.

First, two from Sue Hubbell, the well known A Country Year: Living the Questions, which details her life on a 100 acre farm with 200 beehives, and her followup book A Book of Bees: And How to Keep Them that has more about beekeeping tasks and when to do them, interspersed with her prose. Both are an honest look at the real work involved in having so many bees. And there is some manual labor in even one hive -- honey is heavy and so are the boxes and frames used for your hive; even bees add to the weight when a hive is densely populated, with a deep hive body full of honey and bees topping 90 lbs (fear not, there are ways to avoid lifting anything this heavy). By the second book, her farm has expanded to 300 hives, with some scattered about on other properties. All in all, it's a good description of a typical sideliner beekeeper, which is the title for those who have grown beyond the hobbyist level, but are not yet considered commercial beekeepers (who migrate their bees around the nation on a constant basis).

For the story of a commercial beekeeper, check out Bad Beekeeping. A young man from Pennsylvania buys a honey ranch, then ends up herding his bees from Florida in the winter (where he raises 10,000 queens) to the badlands of southern Saskatchewan in summer. Covering a ten year span, this is a look at one of the few people who have kept bees across the US-Canadian border.

For those more interested in the backyard beekeeper, look to Fifty Years Among the Bees. Although many of the practices are now outdated, this is a classic in beekeeping.

And finally, this one isn't about beekeeping at all. It's an English horror film that predates (1967) the scares of Africanized bees in the US. Keep this one on hand for those relatives that are convinced your bees are dangerous: The Deadly Bees. No matter how yours misbehave, they'll be a lot tamer than the bees depicted here. Don't confuse this one with The Birds, although the group of that name does make a cameo appearance.

Advanced Beekeeping References

In yesterday's recommendations, I seem to have skipped over the excellent The Beekeeper's Handbook, Third Edition from Cornell University, one of the nation's top research sites for honeybees and developing new varieties of fruit trees (among other things). A book seldom makes a third edition without a lot of sales and in this case, each edition has been updated with the latest research and status of honeybee diseases and pests.

If you are wanting to get more detailed information about honeybees (or their disease and/or parasites), there are some weighty tomes out there to guide you (as well as excellent conferences each year geared towards both beginning and more advanced beekeepers). Two of the best are The ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture: An Encyclopedia Pertaining to the Scientific and Practical Culture of Honey Bees and 21st Century Complete Guide to Bees and Honeybees, Beekeeping, Apiaries, Africanized Honey Bees - USDA Government Research, Parasites, Mites, Pathogens, Threats to Pollination, Food Supply (CD-ROM). The first covers practically every topic you can thing of that pertains to honeybees, while the second specifically deals with the threats your hives.

One that is a little less helpful is A Spring without Bees: How Colony Collapse Disorder Has Endangered Our Food Supply. While giving a good overview of what is going on with CCD, which is still being investigated by top researchers around the world, and it's possible consequences, this particular book has a definite political slant. Right now, CCD is a collection of symptoms (a disorder, not a disease); only when the true source has identified will we be able to name the culprit (and find a cure). The prospects of growing food without the european honeybees, an insect that has been cultivated by man for nearly as long as he has farmed, are definitely not all rosy (although roses won't be affected). While rice, wheat and corn (and other grass grains) do not need honeybees to be grown as crops, many other staple foods do: beans (including soybeans), squash, peppers and many more. Alfalfa doesn't need pollination before being feed to cattle, but does use honeybees on fields where seed will be grown for the alfalfa farmers. Canola is another heavily pollinated crop, as are some crops that may not technically need honeybees (the alternate pollinator is in parentheses next to each), but have much higher yields when they are used: tomatoes (wind pollinated, bumblebees in greenhouses), apples (orchard mason bees) and blueberries (some native bees are better suited, but not easily raised in the numbers needed). However, the costs of raising enough of the alternate pollinators (which often have no honey crop to offset costs to the beekeeper) and/or the lower yields of wind pollinated crops will probably mean much higher prices in stores, if the european honeybee were to disappear. It's true that the european honeybee is not native to the US (or many other parts of the world) and that native pollinators do exist (or did) in most areas. The difference is the increased yield that commercial honeybees bring to intensive monocrops and the decline of native pollinators in nearly any area that is commercially farmed (or subject to typical surbuban grass monoculture practices). I'd skip this one for now and instead keep up with the topic in the bee journals (see below) and wait until a treatment is found before worrying too much about laying blame.

An hour long, in depth view of the inner workings of the hive, NOVA: Bees - Tales From the Hive doesn't get into beekeeping, but will provide you and any school age children a fascinating look at what goes on inside the hive.

Last, the second US magazine for beekeepers is the more technical American Bee Journal. Many starting beekeepers skip this one for a while, instead opting for Bee Culture magazine that I mentioned yesterday, but you really can't go wrong with either one (or both - they seldom overlap in their coverage).

Getting Started in Beekeeping through Books

When you search on Beekeeping at Amazon, you will get a wide variety, some very old, several very new and many in between. Some cover only a specific aspect of beekeeping, some are concerned only with "organic" practices and others that use "industry standard" practices. There are self-published books, compilations of articles and books by leading researchers in the field. In other words, the choices can be overwhelming. Although I recommend that every new beekeeper find a local club (they are in practically every state and here every county has one, with annual dues anywhere from free to $12, depending on whether they have a newsletter), a good reference book or two is also essential. Books are no substitute for hands-on-learning, but the better ones will give you a broad overview of the steps you need to take at different times of year in order to get that large honey crop (or just have enough bees to pollinate your orchard and garden). Often, also, local beekeepers are a good source of what they do, but the books will explain why it is done (and perhaps why you should not follow every local practice).

One easy to read book, unavailable when I started, is Beekeeping for Dummies and at $13.59, it's an inexpensive way to get your feet wet. It's fairly detailed and has lots of pictures, but if the cartoons and "for dummies" style isn't for you, there are several other good choices (which I'd recommend in any event). Kim Flottum has worked for the USDA Honey Bee Research Lab, written for and edited Bee Culture magazine, published books on honeybee pests and diseases, marketing, queen production, beekeeping history, beginning beekeeping, and the classic industry reference, The ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture: An Encyclopedia Pertaining to the Scientific and Practical Culture of Honey Bees. In 2005, he published The Backyard Beekeeper: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden, also at that same $13.59 price.

Two that I started with and highly recommend are Hive Management: A Seasonal Guide for Beekeepers and Beekeeping: A Practical Guide, both by Richard E. Bonney. The approaches of the two books are different, with the former oriented around when to perform tasks, while the second is organized in a more traditional manner. There is some overlap, but both are excellent references.

Keeping Bees not only covers the basics of beekeeping, but also goes into detail on how to make the hive boxes and frames yourself. Even if you don't want to start from scratch, a basic understanding can make assembling the precut pieces a lot easier, as well as convincing you that you really should both glue and cross nail every single frame. For the more visually oriented and those who cannot find a local club or beekeeper to be a mentor, you may want to pick up Bee Keeper's Educational Series - Hive Splitting/Honey Extracting and Bottling on DVD.

If you want to stay away from using chemicals and insecticides on your bees, that doesn't mean any of the above books are less useful, just that some of the advice on what to use may not work for you, while the when and why remain pertinent. Be warned: not only is there no recognized definition of what it takes to have an organic apiary or create organic honey, many who simply discard traditional chemicals have had large losses even before the current Colony Collapse Disorder crisis amongst commercial beekeepers. There are exceptions: bees kept in areas that are considered fully africanized (Arizona and some surrounding areas) often are doing fine (but can be very temperamental, to say the least), due to the natural resistances of the smaller and fiercer africanized honeybees. Some other areas are also doing well, due to their isolation: most "wild" colonies of european honeybees have disappeared and if all their neighbors have fully treated bees, their organic bees may not be exposed to the various mites that are the reason for most chemical treatments. There is one book out there on organically caring for honeybees: Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture. Just don't be surprised if you don't find any local beekeepers following all it's methods and that you local bee inspector advises you not to follow it's advice.

And if you are not in the USA, you may find the calendar portion of many of these books simply doesn't work for you, laws are not the same or that you have country specific crops that are not included. One book geared towards those in the UK is Teach Yourself Beekeeping (Teach Yourself) and for a magazine, look to Bee Craft. The links are for those in the US; as far as I can tell, Amazon doesn't sell magazine subscriptions in the UK, nor do they have a direct link to get this book (although several third party sellers do have it). Either, however, should get you started and cover that uniquely English crop, heather, which can be quite difficult to extract.

Tomorrow: Advanced Beekeeping references.

The Secret Life of Bees

This time of year, our bees are hiding out in the hive, having sealed most of the entrance up to deter skunks and other predators that like to eat them in the winter, and are most likely clustered together keeping warm (especially with the recent snow and cold nights). But, that doesn't mean you can't read about bees. There are plenty of books on both beekeeping and beekeepers out there and some of those are making their way to the Kindle. One that is now available at a bargain price ($4.60) is The Secret Life of Bees, which is now in theaters and will soon be out on DVD. Set on a honeybee "farm", the book is really more about family and relationships, but is a very good read.

For those looking for a winter's read about bees (honeybees or otherwise), there are kid's books with bee themes (The Missing Honey Bees, The Adventures of Maya the Bee and The Bee-Man of Orn and Other Fanciful Tales), books by and about people who keep bees (Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey--The Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World, Letters from the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey, and Humankind, A Keeper of Bees: Notes on Hive and Home), books dedicated to just the products of the hive (The Honey Book: The Many Uses of Honey), philosophical books about bees (The Life of the Bee), a few classics (Langstroth On The Hive And The Honey Bee and A Manual: Or an Easy Method of Managing Bees) and even books that are of a more scientific bent (The Little Book of bees, CHEATING MONKEYS AND CITIZEN BEES and a couple that are definitely not bargain books: Bee Pollination in Agricultural Ecosystems and Honey Bees: Estimating the Environmental Impact of Chemicals).

But when it comes to books you'll reference while actually working your bees or use in the honey room, I recommend old fashioned paper books (even if any of these come out as ebooks - there are not currently any real beekeeping texts out for the Kindle, although there are a couple of very short self-published pamphlets masquerading as such). Not only are the color pictures more useful, you don't want to get any honey or propolis on your Kindle. The honey will come off with water (but you don't want that much water on any electronic device), but propolis will be there to stay, making a sticky mess (much more so than honey) until the bulk is removed and leaving a stain anywhere it has been (keep this in mind when selecting clothes and shoes to wear both in the apiary and in your honey room or when working your empty boxes; they will get stained and the stains will not come out). Tomorrow I'll look at a few recommendations for those just starting out.

Book Review: The Devil Can Wait

The Devil Can Wait (A Sam Harper Crime Mystery) is the latest in what looks to be a winning crime mystery series from Marta Stephens. The book hits the stands November 2 and I've just finished reading the review copy. Well written and definitely recommended this complex, yet fast paced thriller mostly follows Detective Sam Harper, first introduced in Silenced Cry, as he attempts to stop what appears to be a serial killer on the loose.

The book opens with the latest in a series of murders of teenage gang leaders in Chandler, Massachusetts, then jumps to Columbia, South America, where a drug smuggler is dumped into the jungle after he steals from his employers. Luckily for him, he ends up not far from where his mother hides in the jungle, suspected of being a witch by local villagers, with a ring that holds her power and which her son longs to possess. The ring, however, is known to others and a series of murders follows it's possession, while the drug smuggler follows it's path to Chandler. As he kills those who stand in his way, we discover that the ring is an essential element in the biblical prophecy of the End of Days and he intends to be the one to fulfill it.

As the story progresses and the bodies pile up, all the threads of the story weave together, linking the ring and the serial killer cases together. As the End of the World prophecy is fulfilled, the true face of evil isn't unveiled until it’s nearly too late.

Contest: Flat Out Sexy

Buy a Contemporary Romance, Save the World!

Or at least help save a small piece of the genre: the contemporary that doesn't feature the paranormal. Dear Author, Smart Bitches, Berkeley and Erin McCarthy are co-sponsoring a contest that is giving away 20 copies of the book Flat-Out Sexy, by Erin McCarthy.

Read the review and leave a comment on each site's blog about the contest for a chance to win (each site is giving away 10 books) and mention it on your own blog to increase your chances even more. And if you don't win, check out the book on Amazon.

Dark Rain

Dark Rain by Tony Richards

No, this post isn't about the rain or lack thereof, as our drought continues. Instead, I bring you a free peak at a new dark fantasy from Harper-Collins' Eos Books, set in a New England town where the descendants of the Salem witches have lived in secrecy for centuries. Fans of Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison and Simon Green won't want to miss this one. Available in print and for the Kindle, you can read the first seven and half chapters here!

Full review to follow.

Book Review: Any Given Doomsday

Any Given Doomsday (The Phoenix Chronicles)
by Lori Handeland

Having read Lori Handeland's Crescent Moon (book 4 in the Nightcreature series), I was looking forward to reading the Advance Reader copy of Any Given Doomsday. The start of a new series , this one gets off to a slow start. The first half of the book is bogged down in background and setup and at times leaves the reader as confused about what is going on as the lead character, Liz Phoenix, a psychic ex-cop who has quit the force rather than try to explain where her knowledge of crimes comes from.

Her foster mother is brutally murdered and first she, then a former boyfriend, Jimmy, are suspected. The boyfriend tells her she is in danger, then locks her in an abandoned house, where she is attacked by a supernatural body-snatching creature. Once he has been dealt with (due to a lucky choice of jewelry and bad footing), she and the boyfriend plant evidence to make it appear the unlucky snatchee killed her foster mother, then the take off cross country to visit her psychic teacher from her teen years (who she has a crush on and is equally afraid of). More supernatural events occur on the trip (including period visits with the dead foster mother thru dreams).

Halfway through the book, she (and we) find she gains powers by sleeping with others (who have powers due to partial demonic genetics, but who fight on the side of good, killing off demons who are on the other side). First sleeping with the former teacher, she gains the ability to shapeshift, but only when touching his magical tattoos. This apparently also unlocks her ability to gain powers through sex, as she later has an encounter with Jimmy and gains his powers as well (despite having slept with him long before, she received no powers previously).

As the first in a series, the book seemed to have just taken off in plot and character development, when it suddenly ended. And, of course, many threads were left unexplored (often in a rather obvious manner), setting up the stage for further episodes: where did Jimmy go, will Sawyer find (and kill) his mother, will Liz decide sleeping with women is worth the increase in power ("magic make-me dust" might not be enough temptation to sleep with her ex's next lover, but who knows what the next temptation will be?).

The second half of the book was definitely a more engaging read and the book as a whole is not for those who don't tolerate explicit sexual content. This book joins the current torrent in the dark fantasy/erotic genre popularized by Laurell K. Hamilton. Hopefully now that all that pesky background and development work has been taken care of, the following books in the series will maintain the pace set near the end.

It's a Trifecta! Books On Board joins the eBook Bailout weekend!

From the Books on Board home page:

Save up to 61%! Now Thru Sunday Only

• 51% Rewards Dollars - Spend $100 Get $51 Credited to your account towards future purchases
• Rewards Dollars SPEND EXACTLY LIKE CASH ON AUDIO BOOKS AND eBOOKS WITH NO RESTRICTIONS
• Rewards Dollars can be used in addition to other savings on any purchase - no weird rules or constraints
• Rewards Dollars do not expire once you claim them
• BooksOnBoard was the first eBook Shop to offer "Rewards Dollars," dollars you can use for eBooks and audio books without restrictions and complicated rules - Just Earn 'em and Spend 'em!

Build a book "nest egg" at BooksOnBoard

...Rewards Dollars work exactly like cash in our bookshop

Note that last bit -- at Books on Board, unlike Fictionwise and eReader, reward dollars act just like cash. This means you can use them to purchase books that offer 100% rewards without spending any more money (just use your current rewards balance) and you get the entire amount credited back to your account. This lets you buy hundreds of dollars in books with the same $20 to $50 in rewards (it's easier with a larger rewards balance, as you can buy more than one book at a time). New rewards books go up on the site every Monday evening (same as at Fictionwise - but there you must pay by credit card or paypal for 100% rewards books). Like Fictionwise, Books on Board supports several e-reading formats, including mobi formats that work on the Kindle. Often books are priced similarly on the two sites, but available in different formats, so be sure to check both sites on this sale weekend.

eBook Bailout expands!

The eBook Bailout has expanded to eReader.com, where all books are now yielding 50% Rewards (which go into a store credit account). No word on their site as to how long this will last, but suspect it is the same Nov. 12 deadline that is over at Fictionwise.

This site is now owned by Fictionwise, but offers books in only the eReader format, which can be read on your computer, iphone and several other mobile devices, but not on the Amazon Kindle (at least, not without some manipulation of the format and removal of the copy protection on the file). They also have a store credit program, although it is both separate from your Fictionwise MicroPay account and works in a different manner (their rebates are only on the portion of a book not paid by store credit, for example, but can be used on any book, not just those with lower rebate percentages).

If you've been wanting some books to read, but holding off due to the cost or have a lot less to spend due to the stock market slump, both of these sites will let you get more reading time for your dollar.

eBook Bailout at Fictionwise

Wondering whether you'll be able to keep supporting your reading habit, now that your retirement plan has tanked and you've been saddled with several thousand in debt due to the financial bailout (your share of the bailout, to be paid via taxes)? Over at Fictionwise, they feel your pain and want to help. For a limited time, they have effectively slashed the price of all their books in half, provided you pay via credit card or paypal. You get a rebate of 50 cents for every dollar spent, credited to a store credit account, called Micropay. The money in your Micropay account may then be used later to purchase other books (which can also have rebates, up to 30%) or be refunded if you decide you no longer wish to shop at fictionwise (see their micropay FAQ for details).

Just be sure to act fast - this offer is only valid for the first $700 billion in sales (or until this Sunday, which ever comes first)!

eRook Bailout Plan: 50% Rebates on Every Title! (Limit: $700 Billion) The Feds bailed out Wall Street last week to the tune of $700 Billion, and here at Fictionwise we say: why let the fat cat CEO's have all the fun? So starting now, every single title in our store sports a massive 50% Micropay Rebate when paying by credit or PayPal! But hurry: we will run this insane eBook Bailout Package either through Sunday October 12, or until we give away $700 Billion worth of Rebates, whichever comes first!