I've moved!

I've moved!

Thanks for stopping by, but it appears you are using a (very) old address for my blog. I've moved to a Wordpress site and you'll need to update your bookmarks for Books on the Knob

I've moved!

Custom Search
Showing posts with label Non-Fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Non-Fiction. Show all posts

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Bargain Book Roundup

Night Fall ($2.99 Kindle, Kobo), the third thriller in the John Corey series by Nelson DeMille [Hachette]
Book Description
On a Long Island beach at dusk, Bob Mitchell and Janet Whitney conduct their illicit love affair in front of a video camera, set to record each steamy moment. Suddenly a terrible explosion lights up the sky. Grabbing the camera, the couple flees as approaching police cars speed toward the scene. Five years later, the crash of TWA Flight 800 has been attributed to a mechanical malfunction. But for John Corey and Kate Mayfield, both members of the elite Anti-terrorist Task Force, the case is not closed. Suspecting a cover-up at the highest levels and disobeying orders, they set out to find the one piece of evidence that will prove the truth about what really happened to Flight 800 - the videotape that shows a couple making love on the beach and the last moments of the doomed airliner.

He Died with His Eyes Open ($3.79 Kindle, $3.49 Kobo), the first novel in Derek Raymond's Factory series [Melville International Crime]
Book Description
As it turns out, a dead man can tell stories...

Murders are a dime a dozen in Margaret Thatcher's London, and when it comes to the brutal killing of a middle-aged alcoholic found dumped outside of town, Scotland Yard has more important cases to deal with.

Instead it's a job for the Department of Unexplained Deaths and its head Detective Sergeant. With only a box of cassette-tape diaries as evidence the rogue detective has no chouce but to listen to the haunting voice of the victim for clues to his gruesome end.

The first book in Derek Raymond's acclaimed Factory Series is an unflinching yet deeply compassionate portrait of a city plagued by poverty and perversion, and a policeman who may be the only one who cares about the "people who don't matter and who never did."

Tall, Dark, and Deadly ($2.99 Kindle), by Heather Graham [Open Road]
Book Description
When her best friend vanishes, a woman combs Florida for a killer

Few people in Florida worry when Marnie Newcastle disappears. A successful lawyer with a wild side, Marnie has been known to disappear during her passionate love affairs. But Samantha Miller, a college friend who is as sensible as Marnie is impulsive, knows better. When Marnie vanishes a few days after moving into her dream house, Samantha is the only one who doesn’t think her friend is off on another tryst. There are dark secrets in Marnie’s past, and Samantha thinks one of them may have gotten her killed.

Investigating Marnie’s menagerie of ex-lovers, Samantha finds a crooked contractor, a rock star, and a homicide cop—all with something to hide. A killer is stalking the Florida swamps, and Samantha must find him before he finds her—or else she may be the next to die.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Heather Graham including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

The Castaways ($2.99 Kindle), by Elin Hilderbrand [Little, Brown and Company]
Book Description
Greg and Tess MacAvoy are one of four prominent Nantucket couples who count each other as best friends. As pillars of their close-knit community, the MacAvoys, Kapenashes, Drakes, and Wheelers are important to their friends and neighbors, and especially to each other. But just before the beginning of another idyllic summer, Greg and Tess are killed when their boat capsizes during an anniversary sail. As the warm weather approaches and the island mourns their loss, nothing can prepare the MacAvoy's closest friends for what will be revealed.

Once again, Hilderbrand masterfully weaves an intense tale of love and loyalty set against the backdrop of endless summer island life.

The Mountain of Gold ($2.51 Kindle), the second novel in the Matthew Quinton Journals series by J. D. Davies
Book Description
Set sail for Africa in this thrilling sequel to Gentleman Captain.

When a captured Barbary pirate tells a tale of a mountain of gold deep in Africa, gentleman Captain Matthew Quinton has his doubts. But King Charles II can’t resist the chance to outstrip the Dutch with a limitless source of wealth. With the devious corsair aboard, Quinton embarks on a voyage past the edge of the map and into the African unknown. As he gets closer, and as sabotage attempts pile up, he begins to wonder if there is truth in the legend after all . . .

Back in England, the king has arranged a marriage between Quinton’s elder brother and a mysterious lady rumored to have murdered her previous husbands. Will Quinton be able to find the fabled mountain of gold and return home in time to protect his family?

Devil in a Blue Dress: Featuring an Original Easy Rawlins Short Story ($1.99 Kindle), by Walter Mosley [Simon and Schuster]; the companion audiobook is $3.99.
Book Description
Los Angeles, 1948: Ezekiel "Easy Rawlins" is a black war veteran just fired from his job. Now he's drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage.

That's when De Witt Albright , a quietly vicious white man in a white linen suit, walks in and offers Easy good money if he'll just do a little job for him: find Miss Daphne Monet, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs.

It seems simple enough, but Easy soon discovers that Albright isn't the only one looking for the lovely Miss Monet - isn't the only one who's ready to kill anyone, including Easy, who might get in the way.

Animal Dreams ($1.99 Kindle), by Barbara Kingsolver [HarperCollins]
Book Description
From Barbara Kingsolver, the acclaimed author of Flight Behavior, The Lacuna, The Bean Trees, and other modern classics, Animal Dreams is a passionate and complex novel about love, forgiveness, and one woman’s struggle to find her place in the world.

At the end of her rope, Codi Noline returns to her Arizona home to face her ailing father, with whom she has a difficult, distant relationship. There she meets handsome Apache trainman Loyd Peregrina, who tells her, “If you want sweet dreams, you’ve got to live a sweet life.”

Filled with lyrical writing, Native American legends, a tender love story, and Codi’s quest for identity, Animal Dreams is literary fiction at it’s very best.

This edition includes a P.S. section with additional insights from Barbara Kingsolver, background material, suggestions for further reading, and more.

Five titles in the Best American series from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are on sale for $0.99 apiece. This is a very good deal, for those who skipped getting them on the Deal of the Day earlier this year.


Cable/Deadpool Vol.1: If Looks Could Kill ($3.99 Kindle), the graphic novel/anthology by Fabian Nicieza, illustrated by Mark Brooks and Patrick Zircher (Illustrator) [Marvel]
Book Description
Collects Cable/Deadpool (2004) #1-6. Wade Wilson and Nathan Summers are back, and this time they're stuck with each other! Can two grown men armed to the teeth with deadly genetic weaponry live together without driving each other crazy?!

Walk in the Park ($1.99 Kindle), by Jill Mansell [Sourcebooks Landmark], for those that missed it when it was a Deal of the Day.
Book Description
No one could have planned for this...

Lara Carson left her family and boyfriend Flynn eighteen years ago without a word to anyone. Why has no one heard from her since? Does it mean anything that she's suddenly reappeared in Bath just in time for her ex–best friend Evie's wedding? And what about Flynn? Even the most eagle–eyed observer can't tell whether he's happy to see her, or just stunned.

While secrets pile up on secrets, and the gossip mill wings into high gear, the brand–new life Lara's searching for becomes ever more elusive. There's a lot of catching up for everyone to do, and Lara's return is going to be anything but a walk in the park.

The World Without You ($1.99 Kindle), by Joshua Henkin [Vintage/Random House], with the companion audiobook for $3.99.
Book Description
National Jewish Book Awards 2012, Finalist and JJ Greenberg Memorial Award for Fiction

From the author of the New York Times Notable Book Matrimony ["Beautiful . . . Brilliant."—Michael Cunningham], a moving, mesmerizing new novel about love, loss, and the aftermath of a family tragedy.

It’s July 4, 2005, and the Frankel family is descending upon their beloved summer home in the Berkshires. But this is no ordinary holiday. The family has gathered to memorialize Leo, the youngest of the four siblings, an intrepid journalist and adventurer who was killed on that day in 2004, while on assignment in Iraq.

The parents, Marilyn and David, are adrift in grief. Their forty-year marriage is falling apart. Clarissa, the eldest sibling and a former cello prodigy, has settled into an ambivalent domesticity and is struggling at age thirty-nine to become pregnant. Lily, a fiery-tempered lawyer and the family contrarian, is angry at everyone. And Noelle, whose teenage years were shadowed by promiscuity and school expulsions, has moved to Jerusalem and become a born-again Orthodox Jew. The last person to see Leo alive, Noelle has flown back for the memorial with her husband and four children, but she feels entirely out of place. And Thisbe —Leo’s widow and mother of their three-year-old son—has come from California bearing her own secret.

Set against the backdrop of Independence Day and the Iraq War, The World Without You is a novel about sibling rivalries and marital feuds, about volatile women and silent men, and, ultimately, about the true meaning of family.

Ella Enchanted ($2.49 Kindle), the Newbery Honor book by Gail Carson Levine [HarperCollins]
Book Description
How can a fairy's blessing be such a curse?

At her birth, Ella of Frell was the unfortunate recipient of a foolish fairy's gift -- the "gift' of obedience. Ella must obey any order given to her, whether it's hopping on one foot for a day and a half, or chopping off her own head! But strong-willed Ella does not tamely accept her fate. Against a bold backdrop of princes, ogres, giants, wicked stepsisters, and fairy godmothers, Ella goes on a quest to break the curse -- once and for all.

In this incredible debut novel comes the richly entertaining story of Ella of Frell, who at birth was given the gift of obedience by a fairy. Ella soon realizes that this gift is little better than a curse, for how can she truly be herself if at anytime anyone can order her to hop on one foot, or cut off her hand, or betray her kingdom'and she'll have to obey? Against a bold tapestry of princes, ogres, giants, wicked stepsisters, and fairy godmothers, Ella's quest to break the curse once and for all and discover who she really is is as sharply funny as Catherine, Called Birdy and as richly poignant as Beauty, and has all the marks of a classic in the making.

Chicken Soup for the Traveler's Soul: Stories of Adventure, Inspiration and Insight to Celebrate the Spirit of Travel ($1.99 Kindle), by Mark Victor Hansen, Steve Zikman and Jack Canfield
Book Description
Whether your idea of travel at its finest is trekking through Europe with a backpack, a map and a foreign-language dictionary; road-tripping across America in a fully loaded RV; or cruising the Caribbean aboard a luxury liner, Chicken Soup for the Traveler’s Soul celebrates the people you’ll meet, the lands you’ll discover and the lessons you’ll learn.

Like traveling itself, the stories in this book will take you on a journey of adventure, insight, and discovery. Through the real-life experiences of others, you’ll see that regardless of the destination, it is the journey that provides the fondest memories. You’ll be inspired by these treasured tales of fellow travelers who formed lasting friendships, fell in love, challenged themselves, and cherished the hospitality of others. These stories show that when traveling—as in life—sometimes it’s the unplanned adventures that provide us with the most opportunities for growth; that a twist in the road or a change in our itinerary teaches us not to fear the unknown, but to welcome and savor its surprises.

With chapters including Living Your Dream, Getting There, Our Common Bond, Making a Difference, On Healing, On Love, A Matter of Perspective, The Kindness of Strangers, and Wisdom Along the Way, this book will guide you to where you want to go and celebrate the places you’ve already been.

Chicken Soup for the Traveler’s Soul will rekindle the spirit of every traveler, offer a deeper connection to people across the globe and provide you with a richer appreciation of the journey.

A Spear of Summer Grass ($2.99 Kindle), by Deanna Raybourn [Harlequin MIRA], with the companion audiobook for $3.99.
Book Description
Paris, 1923

The daughter of a scandalous mother, Delilah Drummond is already notorious, even among Paris society. But her latest scandal is big enough to make even her oft-married mother blanch. Delilah is exiled to Kenya and her favorite stepfather's savanna manor house until gossip subsides.

Fairlight is the crumbling, sun-bleached skeleton of a faded African dream, a world where dissolute expats are bolstered by gin and jazz records, cigarettes and safaris. As mistress of this wasted estate, Delilah falls into the decadent pleasures of society.

Against the frivolity of her peers, Ryder White stands in sharp contrast. As foreign to Delilah as Africa, Ryder becomes her guide to the complex beauty of this unknown world. Giraffes, buffalo, lions and elephants roam the shores of Lake Wanyama amid swirls of red dust. Here, life is lush and teeming—yet fleeting and often cheap.

Amidst the wonders—and dangers—of Africa, Delilah awakes to a land out of all proportion: extremes of heat, darkness, beauty and joy that cut to her very heart. Only when this sacred place is profaned by bloodshed does Delilah discover what is truly worth fighting for—and what she can no longer live without.

Theirs Was the Kingdom ($2.99 Kindle), by R. F. Delderfield [Sourcebooks Landmark]
Book Description
The eagerly awaited reissue of the second novel in R. F. Delderfield's classic God Is an Englishman series

Theirs Was the Kingdom is a stirring saga of England in the late 19th century, as the Industrial Revolution takes hold, forever changing the landscape of England and her people.

The 1880s in England were a laissez-faire decade of national optimism and prosperity, of rampant colonialism, typhoid epidemics, and a Diamond Jubilee. This follow-up novel to God Is an Englishman continues the saga of the Victorian giant of commerce Adam Swann, his tough-minded wife Henrietta, and their five children. This prolific tale records the triumphs and tragedies of a memorable family and a nation at the height of its imperial power.

A beloved novel by a beloved author, Theirs Was the Kingdom is a luminous historical novel of a family's fortune and a nation's destiny.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Bargain Book Roundup

Sony has a new coupon code this week, 30JULY13, good for 30% off eligible titles through Monday.

Kobo's Independence Day Sale runs thru July 7th, with titles up to 70% off.

There are two new ebook bundles available this month. StoryBundle has a Kevin J. Anderson title in theirs and if you pay $10 or more, you get two extras (Frank Herbert and Gregory Benford); minimum price for the first 6 is $3. I'll probably get this bundle, as I have read every author included, but only have one of the novels in the bundle (although I do have David Farland's short story with the same name as the novel and the audiobook of Kristine Kathryn Rusch's novel). Humble Bundle has their second ebook bundle available and theirs works a bit differently: pay anything you want, but you have to beat the "average" at the time you buy in order to unlock the two bonus books. They are also known for adding more titles later in the month, but also the longer you wait, the higher that average tends to go (it's currently $9.43). I'll be skipping this one, since I already own all the books in the main bundle.

Only Forever ($0.21 Kindle), by Linda Lael Miller [Harlequin HQN]
Book Description
As far as Vanessa Lawrence is concerned, jocks are bad news. Once married to one of baseball's superstars, she's coped with betrayal, divorce and the tabloids. She's worked hard to establish her career, and now her exhusband's tell-all autobiography threatens to destroy everything she's achieved.

When ex-football hero Nick DeAngelo takes to the playing field that was once her heart, Vanessa's not about to let another sports-crazed womanizer ruin her life. But Nick's not prepared to let Vanessa get away. Instead, he tackles her stubborn pride, her obnoxious ex and the gossip columns head-on. Because the day he saw Vanessa, he knew he'd found his destiny….

Look for more captivating titles from #1 New York Times bestselling author Linda Lael Miller! Big Sky River is available now from Harlequin HQN. And don't miss The Man from Stone Creek!

Rum Punch Regrets ($0.99 Kindle), the second in the Abby George series by Anne Kemp [Premier Digital Publishing]
Book Description
In just a few short weeks, thirty something Abby George has endured the death of her mother, was dumped by her fiancé, and got laid off from her job.

Stunned and seeking a shoulder to cry on, she turns to her perfect older sister, Leigh. But instead of comfort, Abby receives a surprise: Leigh needs her in the Caribbean to help with some mysterious personal business.

While assisting in the sale and repair of a bed-and-breakfast, Abby uncovers a few huge family secrets as she juggles an unexpected roommate, quirky locals, and nasty centipedes.

Abby's world is further complicated when two potential suitors enter her life. Can Abby get beyond her own psycho drama long enough to open her heart to someone new? Or will she neurotically make her romantic life worse?

Packing nothing but her suitcases and a sense of humor, Abby George travels down an unfamiliar road, but it's all she can do to hang on for the ride...

Or will she wake up with "Rum Punch Regrets?"

Lowcountry Boil ($2.99 Kindle), by Susan M. Boyer [Henery Press]
Book Description
Private Investigator Liz Talbot is a modern Southern belle: she blesses hearts and takes names. She carries her Sig 9 in her Kate Spade handbag, and her golden retriever, Rhett, rides shotgun in her hybrid Escape. When her grandmother is murdered, Liz high-tails it back to her South Carolina island home to find the killer.

She’s fit to be tied when her police-chief brother shuts her out of the investigation, so she opens her own. Then her long-dead best friend pops in and things really get complicated. When more folks start turning up dead in this small seaside town, Liz must use more than just her wits and charm to keep her family safe, chase down clues from the hereafter, and catch a psychopath before he catches her.

Part of the Henery Press Mystery Series Collection, if you like one, you'll probably like them all! Lowcountry Boil is the first book in the Liz Talbot Southern mystery series. Bonus: Includes book club discussion questions.

Sweet Tea and Secrets ($1.99 Kindle), by Nancy Naigle [Montlake Romance], with the companion audiobook also $1.99.
Book Description
This edition of Sweet Tea and Secrets has been revised and includes new scenes.

When beloved town matriarch Pearl Clemmons dies on a warm June afternoon, the folks of Adams Grove, Virginia, can hardly believe it. Sure, Pearl was eighty-five years old, but everyone—particularly her granddaughter Jill—just assumed she would live forever. Now Jill must return home to settle Pearl’s estate, comfort a town in mourning…and face Garrett Malloy, the man who broke her heart years ago.

Making matters worse, a string of break-ins at the Clemmons place has Jill and the rest of the town on edge. She can’t imagine what Pearl possibly could have had that is worth stealing. But when Jill’s safety is threatened, she and Garrett must join forces to unearth Pearl’s secrets before someone else—someone dangerous—gets there first. Garrett may have been the last man Jill wanted to see, but now, she may not want to let him go.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions ($0.99 Kindle), by Edwin A. Abbott and Rosemary Jann [Oxford University Press]. I read this years ago and it was one of the first ebooks I tracked down when I got a Kindle. It's in the public domain, but this Oxford World's Classics edition contains bonus notes you won't find in the scanned editions. The companion audiobook is $2.99.
Book Description
Including hyperlinked explanatory notes within the ebook-optimized text, introductions by leading authorities, and a wealth of other valuable material, Oxford World's Classics ebooks continue the series’ century-long commitment to scholarship across a broad spectrum of literature from around the globe.

Flatland : A Romance of Many Dimensions: How would a creature limited to two dimensions be able to grasp the possibility of a third? In Flatland, A Square's linear world is invaded by a Sphere bringing the gospel of the third dimension. Part geometry lesson, part social satire, the novel enlarges readers' imaginations beyond the limits of our 'respective dimensional prejudices'.

The Wind in the Willows ($0.99 Kindle), by Kenneth Grahame and Peter Hunt (Editor) [Oxford University Press], another Oxford World's Classics edition with bonus materials and a companion audiobook for $2.99.
Book Description
Including hyperlinked explanatory notes within the ebook-optimized text, introductions by leading authorities, and a wealth of other valuable material, Oxford World's Classics ebooks continue the series’ century-long commitment to scholarship across a broad spectrum of literature from around the globe.

The Wind in the Willows: An international children's classic, The Wind in the Willows grew from the author's letters to his young son, yet it is concerned almost exclusively with adult themes. This new edition explores a profoundly English book with a world following; a book for adults adopted by children; a timeless masterpiece and a vital portrait of an age.

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

Echoes of Empire: The Garden of Stones ($2.99 Kindle), by Mark T. Barnes [47North], with the companion audiobook for $1.99.
Book Description
An uneasy peace has existed since the fall of the Awakened Empire centuries ago. Now the hybrid Avān share the land with the people they once conquered: the star-born humans; the spectral, undead Nomads; and what remains of the Elemental Masters.

With the Empress-in-Shadows an estranged ghost, it is the ancient dynasties of the Great Houses and the Hundred Families that rule. But now civil war threatens to draw all of Shrīan into a vicious struggle sparked by one man’s lust for power, and his drive to cheat death.

Visions have foretold that Corajidin, dying ruler of House Erebus, will not only survive, but rise to rule his people. The wily nobleman seeks to make his destiny certain—by plundering the ruins of his civilization’s past for the arcane science needed to ensure his survival, and by mercilessly eliminating his rivals. But mercenary warrior-mage Indris, scion of the rival House Näsarat, stands most powerfully in the usurper’s bloody path. For it is Indris who reluctantly accepts the task of finding a missing man, the only one able to steer the teetering nation towards peace

Two Winters in a Tipi: My Search for the Soul of the Forest ($3.99 Kindle), by Mark Warren [Lyons Press]
Book Description
One stormy August night, a lightning bolt struck Mark Warren’s tin-roofed farmhouse and burned everything to the ground. Even his metal tools melted. Friends loaned him a tent, but after just a month it began to break down—which Warren vowed not to do. Instead, he decided to follow a childhood dream and live in a tipi. Excitement stirred in his chest, and so began a two-year adventure of struggle, contemplation, and achievement that brought him even closer to the land that he called home.

More than just the story of one man, Two Winters in a Tipi gives the history and use of the native structure, providing valuable advice, through Warren’s trial and error, about the confrontations that march toward a tipi dweller. It shows, without thumping the drum of environmental doom, how you can go back to the land for two days or two years. The wild plants that Natives harvested for food and medicine still grow nearby. The foods still nourish; the medicines still heal. As Warren beautifully reveals, the wild places of the past still exist in our everyday lives, and living that wilderness is still a possibility. It’s as close as the river running through your city, the woods in your neighborhood, or even the edges of your own backyard.

About the Author
Mark Warren was named Georgia’s Conservation Educator of the Year by the National Wildlife Federation. A national champion in whitewater canoeing and a winner of the World Championship Longbow Tournament, Warren founded and runs the Medicine Bow Wilderness School in the North Georgia mountains.

We, the Drowned ($2.51 Kindle), by Carsten Jensen, translated by Charlotte Barslund and Emma Ryder [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]
Book Description
Carsten Jensen’s debut novel has taken the world by storm. Already hailed in Europe as an instant classic, We, the Drowned is the story of the port town of Marstal, whose inhabitants have sailed the world’s oceans aboard freight ships for centuries. Spanning over a hundred years, from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War, and from the barren rocks of Newfoundland to the lush plantations of Samoa, from the roughest bars in Tasmania, to the frozen coasts of northern Russia, We, the Drowned spins a magnificent tale of love, war, and adventure, a tale of the men who go to sea and the women they leave behind.

Ships are wrecked at sea and blown up during wars, they are places of terror and violence, yet they continue to lure each generation of Marstal men—fathers and sons—away. Strong, resilient, women raise families alone and sometimes take history into their own hands. There are cannibals here, shrunken heads, prophetic dreams, forbidden passions, cowards, heroes, devastating tragedies, and miraculous survivals—everything that a town like Marstal has actually experienced, and that makes We, the Drowned an unforgettable novel, destined to take its place among the greatest seafaring literature.

The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific ($2.99 Kindle), by Paul Theroux [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]
Book Description
In one of his most exotic and breathtaking journeys, the intrepid traveler Paul Theroux ventures to the South Pacific, exploring fifty-one islands by collapsible kayak. Beginning in New Zealand's rain forests and ultimately coming to shore thousands of miles away in Hawaii, Theroux paddles alone over isolated atolls, through dirty harbors and shark-filled waters, and along treacherous coastlines. This exhilarating tropical epic is full of disarming observations and high adventure.

Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea ($2.51 Kindle), by Steven Callahan [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]
Book Description
Before The Perfect Storm, before In the Heart of the Sea, Steven Callahan’s dramatic tale of survival at sea was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than thirty-six weeks. In some ways the model for the new wave of adventure books, Adrift is an undeniable seafaring classic, a riveting firsthand account by the only man known to have survived more than a month alone at sea, fighting for his life in an inflatable raft after his small sloop capsized only six days out. “Utterly absorbing” (Newsweek), Adrift is a must-have for any adventure library.

Waiter Rant ($1.99 Kindle), by Steve Dublanica [HarperCollins], with the companion audiobook for $3.99.
Book Description
According to The Waiter, eighty percent of customers are nice people just looking for something to eat. The remaining twenty percent, however, are socially maladjusted psychopaths. Waiter Rant offers the server's unique point of view, replete with tales of customer stupidity, arrogant misbehavior, and unseen bits of human grace transpiring in the most unlikely places. Through outrageous stories, The Waiter reveals the secrets to getting good service, proper tipping etiquette, and how to keep him from spitting in your food. The Waiter also shares his ongoing struggle, at age thirty-eight, to figure out if he can finally leave the first job at which he's truly thrived.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Free Audiobook - The Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers ($32.19 Audible), by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, narrated by Arthur Morey, is free direct from Tantor Media. There are many editions to choose from on Kindle; you can spend anything from nothing to a few dollars and probably get an edition that will work for reading along while listening, if you don't like the free PDF that Tantor provides.

Book Description
The Federalist Papers—a collection of eighty-five essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in support of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution—serves as the primary source for interpreting the Constitution and outlines the philosophy and motivation behind this newly proposed government system.

Originally published anonymously, The Federalist Papers first appeared in 1787 as a series of letters to New York newspapers exhorting voters to ratify the proposed Constitution of the United States. Still hotly debated and open to often controversial interpretations, the arguments first presented here by three of America's greatest patriots and political theorists were created during a critical moment in our nation's history, providing readers with a running ideological commentary on the crucial issues facing a democracy. Today, The Federalist Papers are as important and vital a rallying cry for freedom as ever.
Get the free ebook from Tantor Media.

Friday, June 21, 2013

New 99 cent Bargain Books (part II)

More 99 cent books from William Morrow (HarperCollins)

Green Girls ($0.99 Kindle), by Michael Kimball
Book Description
A writer, a father, a husband, the owner of a strictly ordered life, Jacob Winter is not a man prone to violence—until the day he walks in unexpectedly on his wife's affair. Awakening in a small-town Maine jail with no memory of his alleged rampage, he is bailed out by Alix Callahan, a mysterious ethnobotanist who claims to own a small piece of his past. Drawn into her obsessive relationship with July, an exotic Indian beauty from the rainforests of South America, Jacob is simultaneously mesmerized and unnerved by the two women's strange erotic dance as his meticulously controlled world slips even farther out of its orbit—leading him to a clandestine meeting at the top of a bridge, where he helplessly watches Alix plunge 250 feet into the raging waters below. A suicide, a murder, neither, or both pull Jacob Winter into a twisted game of dark deceptions and psychological terror, one that could destroy his sanity and his soul.

Body Language and Emotion of Cats ($0.99 Kindle), by Myrna Milani
Book Description
What does your cat really want when it rubs up against your leg?
Is it showing affection or aggression when it sucks a hole in your favorite sweater?
Why does it turn up its nose at the cat food you bought on sale, settling only for the most expensive meal?

Making use of the latest scientific evidence on animal consciousness, Dr. Milani shows how a thorough understanding of feline anatomy, physiology, and behavior can lead to a warm and lasting bond between cats and the people who love them. She also lets us know what our responses to feline behavior tell the cat about us and our emotions.

The Body Language and Emotion of Cats is a fascinating guide to understanding this enigmatic pet and provides a way to enrich and expand the bond between owner and cat.

The Witch Doctor's Wife with Bonus Material ($0.99 Kindle), by Tamar Myers (besides the starred reviews, my mother loved this).
Book Description
For a limited time at a special price, enjoy beloved mystery writer Tamar Myers' novel The Witch Doctor's Wife—an enthralling tale of duty, greed, danger, and miracles in equatorial Africa. As a bonus, you get an excerpt from The Headhunter's Daughter and The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots, on sale May 8, 2012.

The Congo beckons to young Amanda Brown in 1958, as she follows her missionary calling to the mysterious "dark continent" far from her South Carolina home. But her enthusiasm cannot cushion her from the shock of a very foreign culture—where competing missionaries are as plentiful as flies, and oppressive European overlords are busy stripping the land of its most valuable resource: diamonds.

Little by little, Amanda is drawn into the lives of the villagers in tiny Belle Vue—and she is touched by the plight of the local witch doctor, a man known as Their Death, who has been forced to take a second job as a yardman to support his two wives. But when First Wife stumbles upon an impossibly enormous uncut gem, events are set in motion that threaten to devastate the lives of these people Amanda has come to admire and love—events that could lead to nothing less than murder.

The Gazebo: A Novel ($0.99 Kindle), by Emily Grayson
Book Description
The Gazebo is an elegantly written story of enduring love and loyalty, in the popular tradition of The Bridges of Madison County and The Notebook.

Once a year for half a century, a man and a woman have been meeting at the gazebo in the square of a small town in upstate New York. Martin Rayfiel and Claire Swift long ago married other people, yet they have remained faithful to their vow to love each other always. When Martin, now a handsome, elderly man, walks into the office of the town newspaper and tries to tell his tale to the young editor Abby Reston, she is too busy to listen. But the next day Abby finds herself drawn to the gazebo to watch for the annual arrival of Martin and Claire. She waits and waits, but they don't come. Puzzled and intrigued, Abby finds a briefcase that Martin left behind for her, and in it--in photographs, papers, tape recordings, and mementos--is the entire astonishing story of Martin and Claire, a love affair that spanned the globe and somehow survived for fifty years.

The only son of the town's wealthiest family, Martin dreamed of being a world-class chef, while Claire, born of poor parents, hoped to be a sculptor. Despite their disparate backgrounds, and in defiance of small-town morality, they left everything behind and traveled together through Europe, until family allegiances suddenly and unexpectedly called Claire home. Before they parted, they vowed that, no matter what, they would meet at the gazebo once a year. Now it's up to Abby to find out what drove these lovers apart, why they continued to meet over the decades, and where they are now.

From the picturesque square in the center of a small town to the hotels, restaurants, museums, and boulevards of Paris, Florence, and London, Martin and Claire's story offers a voyage of discovery that transforms Abby Reston's own life. The Gazebo is a haunting tale of love and faithfulness that no reader will ever forget.

Healthy Kids: Help Them Eat Smart and Stay Active--For Life ($0.99 Kindle), by Marilu Henner
Book Description
We all want our children to be fit and healthy, but the current invasion of fast food, sugary snacks, and oversize portions are creating an epidemic of overweight, inactive, and unhealthy kids. The powerful influences of the fast-food industry, omnipresent junk food advertising, and the vicious cycle of TV, computer games, and Internet addictions only make our children more susceptible to a sedentary lifestyle and a lifetime of bad habits and obesity. Now, health pioneer and dedicated mom Marilu Henner says it's time to say good-bye to sugarcoated cereals, artificially colored cheese puffs, oceans of sugary soft drinks, nutritionally deficient school lunches, and fastfood supermeals!

As Marilu explains, parents who want the best for their children need to feed them fresh, whole foods to grow by. In Healthy Kids she shows you how to create a healthy, balanced lifestyle for your kids and how to make the transition from dairy-, fat-, sugar-, and chemical-laden foods to the vibrant, natural, nourishing foods we were all meant to eat.

Healthy Kids offers a proven plan to help parents and kids alike learn to eat healthier and feel better.

Between Earth & Sky ($0.99 Kindle), by Karen Osborn; a quick check of the sample shows promise.
Book Description
Years ago, Abby Reynolds was given the letters written by her great-great-grandmother who traveled from Virginia to New Mexico in a covered wagon just after the Civil War. Now, at a crossroads in her life, Abby reads Abigail's letters and follows her ancestor's trail westward where she seeks to understand the other woman's life in a land that was so foreign to her family, they all but forgot her.

Between Earth and Sky records two journeys—Abby's search of New Mexico where she meets an old Hispanic woman whom she shares a strange kinship with, and Abigail's travels through Indian territory into a life filled with danger, forbidden love, children she could not have imagined, and always the wide arc of the sky and the strange but magical earth that lies beneath it. Part epistolary, part narrative, Between Earth and Sky forms a love letter to the land itself and to those who chose to people it.

The Heart of the Matter: The Three Key Breakthroughs to Preventing Heart Attacks ($0.99 Kindle), by Peter Salgo and Joe Layden
Book Description
By the head of the Open Heart ICU at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital––an incredibly persuasive and revolutionary approach for lowering the risks of heart disease –– this plan links high cholesterol and Chlamydia as risk factors and lays out a program to combat both.

We are on the cusp of an enormous breakthrough in preventing heart attacks – forever. We are in the same place we were just before penicillin revolutionized the treatment of infectious disease, before fluoride eradicated tooth decay, and just before the polio vaccine brought that disease under control in this country. In The Heart of the Matter, Dr. Peter Salgo, the associate director of the Open Heart ICU at New York Presbyterian Hospital, offers a simple formula to treat people before they get sick, which in turn will prevent heart attacks before they occur.

For the first time in history, we know what really causes heart attack. And that knowledge has led Dr. Salgo to this amazingly simple and straightforward program that will save millions of lives. Dr. Salgo recommends using statins, antibiotics, and aspirin to prevent coronary heart disease. This groundbreaking book also offers a self–test that readers can take to assess their own personal risk for heart disease.

The Heart of the Matter is the beginning of a change in the treatment of heart disease. It introduces a preventative program that includes traditional diet and exercise guidelines as well as a blanket recommendation that adults, even many young adults, incorporate medicines into the on–going pursuit for health and longevity – something that, until now, seemed impossible to many. Now, without using a lot of indecipherable medical jargon, this invaluable new guide will show you exactly how to attain that longer, healthier life that so many people wish for.

How Much Does Your Soul Weigh?: Diet-Free Solutions to Your Food, Weight, and Body Worries ($0.99 Kindle), by Dorie McCubbrey
Book Description
You hold in your hands a life-changing weight control revelation -- a holistic approach to help you overcome all eating and weight problems from anorexia to obesity. This innovative book will shed light on your unsuccessful attempts at dieting and help you begin to heal from the inside out, once and for all!

How many "miracle diets" have you tried? How many minutes and hours have you spent worrying about the numbers on the bathroom scale? How many times have you lost weight only to gain it back along with renewed disappointment and frustration? You've worried about how much your body weighs, but have you asked:

How Much Does Your Soul Weigh?

Dr. Doric McCubbrey, a weight-issues specialist whose practice boasts a 95 percent success rate, reveals that the weight of your soul may be preventing you from effecting the changes you want to see in your appearance and self-esteem. By starting Dr. Dorie's plan for "Intuitive Self-Care," you can begin to unburden your soul of all the "weighty attitudes" of the diet mentality -- rigid rules, negative self-talk, and unrealistic goals -- that lead to very real feelings of disappointment and hopelessness.

With empathy and insight, Dr. Doric explores and explains the importance of a soulful attitude toward your eating, exercise, and weight.

Child No More: A Memoir ($0.99 Kindle), by Xaviera Hollander
Book Description
In the bestselling The Happy Hooker and subsequent books, Xaviera Hollander became famous for her unforgettably candid and racy stories of life as a New York madam catering to a sophisticated international clientele during the 1960s and 70s. Yet this remarkable woman's sexual escapades form only a part of her own remarkable life story—a story she reveals for the first time in the pages of this literary memoir, Child No More. It was a life begun in terror: Two months after her birth, young Xaviera de Vries and her mother were confined in a prison camp during the WWII Japanese occupation of Indonesia; her father, a doctor, was imprisoned in another camp. Two years later, summoned to treat a sick child, he operated on his own daughter without realizing her identity. But that story is just the start of an extraordinary memoir in which she traces her own life—and sexuality—as it was influenced by the example of her parents: her father, a dapper and witty Jewish psychologist and intellectual, her mother the gorgeous daughter of conventional German parents, and a target of Nazi enmity for her association with a Jew. With breathtaking but entirely characteristic—frankness, Xaviera revisits how her parents' own tempestuous relationship (and her father's licentious lifestyle) shaped her own life story. As she chronicles her eventual departure for New York, her entree into the world of prostitution, and her years of international celebrity, she reveals for the first time how her parents' lives continued to entwine with her own, as she endured years of separation from her father, and even stood by her mother as she entered a fulfilling lesbian relationship in the last years of her life. Told in the utterly frank and unquenchably inquisitive voice that marks all her work—yet from an entirely new and ultimately more honest perspective—Child No More recounts a surprising and ultimately uplifting "voyage of discovery through three lives."

King of the City ($0.99 Kindle), by Michael Moorcock
Book Description
More than a decade ago, Michael Moorcock's extraordinary Mother London gave stunning new breath and style to contemporary literature. With Bruce Chatwin's Utz and Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, the novel was short-listed for Britain's prestigious Whitbread Prize. Now, with scathing wit and enthralling vision, the author whom the Washington Post has praised as "one of the most exciting discoveries in the contemporary English novel [in] 40 or so years" returns to a city transformed and transforming, and in peril of its life.

These are the times and trials of Dennis Dover, former rock guitarist, photojournalist, and paparazzo. Denny inhabits a world of vibrant color, smell, and sound, where novel experience and unpredictability are anchored by steadfast tradition and history. Mother London's many vagaries give Denny Dover joy and succor, always seducing him home from the Earth's terrible places, where the face of death is as common as the blood that stains the local dirt. And London is where Rosie Beck is, when she isn't off elsewhere combating the planet's great ills.

Denny's brilliant, beautiful, socially conscious cousin has always been an indispensable part of his being -- his soul mate and his soul. Since childhood they have been inseparable, delighting in the daily discoveries of a life with no limits. But now the metropolis that nurtured them is threatened by a powerful, unstoppable force that consumes the past indiscriminately and leaves nothing of substance in its wake.

The terminator is named John Barbican Begg. A hanger-on from Denny and Rosie's youth, he has become the morally corrupt center of their London and the richest, most rapacious creature in the Western Hemisphere. Now, as their cherished landmarks tumble, conspiracy, secrets, lies, and betrayal become the centerpieces of Rosie and Dennis's days. For Barbican has but one goal: to devour the entire world. And the only choice left is to join in, drop out ... or plot to destroy.

A sprawling work of incomparable invention, King of the City is eccentric and remarkable, a unique urban love story with a pit-bull bite that confirms the unparalleled literary genius of the amazing Michael Moorcock.

Red, White & Liberal: How Left Is Right & Right Is Wrong ($0.99 Kindle), by Alan Colmes
Book Description
As one of the foremost liberal voices in television and radio today, Alan Colmes has long been braving the wilds of controversial issues and conservative slander. The host of the talk-radio show Fox News Live with Alan Colmes and cohost of Fox News Channel's hit debate show Hannity & Colmes, Colmes now offers this witty, passionate wake-up call to America.

Colmes takes on the fundamental question: How can we protect our nation without diminishing our liberties, and regain our place in the world as an example of democracy? Colmes urges Americans to see past the government's manipulation of the War on Terror to silence critics; the lies we've been force-fed about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan; and the conservative smear campaign that has turned "liberal" into a four-letter word. From debunking the myth of the liberal media to exposing conservative hypocrisy, Colmes presents the issues with thoughtful, provocative arguments, hard facts and logic, and searing humor.

Certain to spark debate and cause readers to reevaluate and reaffirm their beliefs, Red, White & Liberal powerfully argues that despite our differences, we must extend our hands across party lines to find solutions, protect our shores, and preserve our freedoms.

Test Pattern: A Novel ($0.99 Kindle), by Marjorie Klein
Book Description
A dazzling and strikingly original fiction debut from an exciting new talent

From the moment a new TV set arrives at the Palmer household in 1954 in Newport News, Virginia, change is in the wind. Eleven-year-old Cassie glimpses snapshots of the future in the hypnotic test pattern. Mesmerized, Cassie sees snippets from Kennedy's assassination, the Beatles' debut, man's landing on the Moon, and the O. J. Simpson trial. Her starstruck mother, Lorena, delights in the magical images flickering on the screen too, and finds the strength to pursue her dreams of becoming a professional dancer. Lorena soon plunges into an affair with an old flame, whose cousin turns out to be a talent scout for Arthur Godfrey, and risks her marriage to Cassie's dad, an accident-prone, depressed construction worker. As Lorena learns that the path to fame and fortune is strewn with obstacles, Cassie's own eyes are being opened to the world outside of provincial Newport News-and to the even richer world within herself.

Brilliantly re-creating the innocence and energy of the '50s, Test Pattern is a tour de force of wit, spirit, and imagination. From the moment a new TV set arrives at the Palmer household in 1954 in Newport News, Virginia, change is in the wind. Eleven-year-old Cassie glimpses snapshots of the future in the hypnotic test pattern. Mesmerized, Cassie sees snippets from Kennedy's assassination, the Beatles' debut, man's landing on the Moon, and the O. J. Simpson trial. Her starstruck mother, Lorena, delights in the magical images flickering on the screen too, and finds the strength to pursue her dreams of becoming a professional dancer. Lorena soon plunges into an affair with an old flame, whose cousin turns out to be a talent scout for Arthur Godfrey, and risks her marriage to Cassie's dad, an accident-prone, depressed construction worker. As Lorena learns that the path to fame and fortune is strewn with obstacles, Cassie's own eyes are being opened to the world outside of provincial Newport News-and to the even richer world within herself.

Brilliantly re-creating the innocence and energy of the '50s, Test Pattern is a tour de force of wit, spirit, and imagination.

My Lucky Dog ($0.99 Kindle), by Mellon Tytell
Book Description
Hunter, my majestic eighty-six-pound mutt, was the love of my life for thirteen years. I was addicted to looking at him—every twitch of his ear was fascinating to me. I've taken thousands of photographs of him, dozens even in the same position. He was "my lucky dog."

I adopted Hunter when he was two. He came with that name, his former owner a fan of Hunter S. Thompson. I noticed Hunter's photo in the window of a pet store in Vermont and brought him home.

If I was the lucky break in his life, he was the transforming experience in mine. Before, I was a little wild. As a photographer, I traveled around the world, picking up and leaving on a dime. Life was exciting: photo shoots in Paris, Haiti, the Himalayas, the Andes, and even the Amazon.

Hunter tamed me. I couldn't be away from him for more than five hours at a time. I had no children of my own; Hunter taught me about responsibility, love, and devotion in a way that was inaccessible to me with "people."

—Mellon

Bargain Book Roundup

For Audible subscription members with credits, Audible has their bi-annual Buy One Get One Free Sale going on right now (valid thru June 26).

A few I missed earlier from the HarperCollins 99 cent sale.

Romance/Women's Fiction:
Plus, a couple of repeat bargains (prices noted):

The Meryl Streep Movie Club ($3.79 Kindle), by Mia March [Simon and Schuster]
Book Description
In the bestselling tradition of The Friday Night Knitting Club and The Jane Austen Book Club, three women find unexpected answers, happiness, and one another with Meryl Streep movies as their inspiration.

Two sisters and the cousin they grew up with after a tragedy are summoned home to their family matriarch's inn on the coast of Maine for a shocking announcement. Suddenly, Isabel, June, and Kat are sharing the attic bedroom--and barely speaking. But when innkeeper Lolly asks them to join her and the guests in the parlor for weekly Movie Night--it's Meryl Streep month--they find themselves sharing secrets, talking long into the night--and questioning everything they thought they knew about life, love, and one another.

Each woman sees her complicated life reflected through the magic of cinema: Isabel's husband is having an affair, and an old pact may keep her from what she wants most . . . June has promised her seven-year-old son that she'll somehow find his father, who he's never known . . . and Kat is ambivalent about accepting her lifelong best friend's marriage proposal. Through everything, Lolly has always been there for them, and now Isabel, June, Kat--and Meryl--must be there for her. Finding themselves. Finding each other. Finding a happy ending.

This Man ($0.99 Kindle) and Beneath This Man ($1.99 Kindle), the first two novels in the This Man Trilogy by Jodi Ellen Malpas [Hachette]

This Man
Young interior designer Ava O'Shea has no idea what awaits her at the Manor. A run-of-the-mill consultation with a stodgy country gent seems likely, but what Ava finds instead is Jesse Ward--a devastatingly handsome, utterly confident, pleasure-seeking playboy who knows no boundaries. Ava doesn't want to be attracted to this man, and yet she can't control the overwhelming desire that he stirs in her. She knows that her heart will never survive him and her instinct is telling her to run, but Jesse is not willing to let her go. He wants her and is determined to have her.
Beneath This Man
Jesse Ward drowned her with his intensity and blindsided her with his passion, but he kept her away from his dark secrets and broken soul. Leaving him was the only way Ava O'Shea could survive. She should have known that Jesse Ward is impossible to escape--and now he's back in her life, determined to remind her of the sensual pleasures they had shared. Ava is equally determined to get at the truth beneath this man's steely exterior. That means letting herself get close to the Lord of the Manor once more. And it's exactly where Jesse wants her--within touching distance...

Confessions of a Scary Mommy: An Honest and Irreverent Look at Motherhood: The Good, The Bad, and the Scary ($2.99 Kindle; $4.49 companion audiobook), by Jill Smokler [Simon and Schuster]
Book Description

Sometimes I just let my children fall asleep in front of the TV.

In a culture that idealizes motherhood, it’s scary to confess that, in your house, being a mother is beautiful and dirty and joyful and frustrating all at once. Admitting that it’s not easy doesn’t make you a bad mom; at least, it shouldn’t.

If I can’t survive my daughter as a toddler, how the hell am I going to get through the teenage years?

When Jill Smokler was first home with her small children, she thought her blog would be something to keep friends and family updated. To her surprise, she hit a chord in the hearts of mothers everywhere.

I end up doing my son’s homework. It’s wrong, but so much easier.

Total strangers were contributing their views on that strange reality called motherhood. As other women shared their stories, Jill realized she wasn’t alone in her feelings of exhaustion and imperfection.

My eighteen month old still can’t say “Mommy” but used the word “shit” in perfect context.

But she sensed her readers were still holding back, so decided to start an anonymous confessional, a place where real moms could leave their most honest thoughts without fearing condemnation.

I pretend to be happy but I cry every night in the shower.

The reactions were amazing: some sad, some pee-in-your-pants funny, some brutally honest. But they were real, not a commercial glamorization.

I clock out of motherhood at 8 P.M. and hide in the basement with my laptop and a beer.

If you’re already a fan, lock the bathroom door on your whining kids, run a bubble bath, and settle in. If you’ve not encountered Scary Mommy before, break out a glass of champagne as well, because you’ll be toasting your initiation into a select club.

I know why some animals eat their young.

In chapters that cover husbands (The Biggest Baby of Them All) to homework (Didn’t I Already Graduate?), Confessions of a Scary Mommy combines all-new essays from Jill with the best of the anonymous confessions.

Sometimes I wish my son was still little—then I hear kids screaming at the store.

As Jill says, “We like to paint motherhood as picture perfect. A newborn peacefully resting on his mother’s chest. A toddler taking tentative first steps into his mother’s loving arms. A mother fluffing her daughter’s prom dress. These moments are indeed miraculous and joyful; they can also be few and far between.” Of course you adore your kids. Of course you would lay down your life for them. But be honest now: Have you ever wondered what possessed you to sign up for the job of motherhood?

STOP! DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOK UNTIL YOU RECITE THESE VOWS!

I shall remember that no mother is perfect and my children will thrive because, and sometimes even in spite, of me.

I shall not preach to a fellow mother who has not asked my opinion. It’s none of my damn business.

I shall maintain a sense of humor about all things motherhood.

Irish Portraits ($2.99 Kindle), by Liam O'Flaherty [Bloomsbury Reader]
Book Description
From vicious rival brothers to desperate single mothers, frisky newlyweds to frigid life partners, Patrick McGinley covers all kinds of Irish (or simply human) relationship in this collection of short stories. In fourteen stories, some brief glimpses of an hour in the life, some longer explorations of years of growing animosity, McGinley explores the ties that bind us: the bond of family, unbreakable even when we wish it severed; the financial and emotional connections we make with our neighbours and colleagues; even the brief and tenuous link between a con artist and his prey. In turns hilarious and heart-wrenching, sweet and savage, Irish Portraits gives the reader a first-hand look at the lives of its characters, a handful of countrymen with one thing in common: their humanity.

Great Meadow ($2.51 Kindle), by Dirk Bogarde [Bloomsbury Reader]
Book Description
From 1927 to 1934 the young Dirk Bogarde lived in a remote cottage in the Sussex Downs with his sister Elizabeth and their strict nanny, Lally.For the children it was an idyllic time of joy and adventure: of gleaning at the end of summer, of oil lamps and wells, of harvests and harvest mice in the Great Meadow.This lost world, visited fleetingly in A Postillion Struck by Lightning, the first volume of Dirk Bogarde's autobiography, is seen here through the eyes of an innocent but shrewd eleven-year-old. With great sensitivity and poignancy it captures the sounds and scents, the love and gentleness that surrounded the young boy as the world outside prepared to go to war.

There are a number of titles in the Gideon Oliver and Chris Norgren series by Aaron Elkins [E-Reads] on sale for $3.03 right now:


Big in China: My Unlikely Adventure Raising a Family, Playing the Blues, and Reinventing Myself in Beijing ($1.99 Kindle), by Alan Paul [HarperCollins]
Book Description
Alan Paul, award–winning author of the Wall Street Journal’s online column “The Expat Life,” gives his engaging, inspiring, and unforgettable memoir of blues and new beginnings in Beijing. Paul’s three-and-a-half-year journey reinventing himself as an American expat—while raising a family and starting the revolutionary blues band Woodie Alan, voted Beijing Band of the Year in the 2008—is a must-read adventure for anyone who has lived abroad, and for everyone who dreams of rewriting the story of their own future.

Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage ($3.00 Kindle), by Kay Bratt [AmazonEncore]
Book Description
Irrepressible memories. Vacant eyes. A child being dangled from a third story window. A boy tied to a chair. Children sleeping in layers of clothing to fight off the bitter cold. An infant dying from starvation. Some things your mind will never allow you to forget.

Silent Tears is the true story of the adversity and triumphs one woman faced as she fought against the Chinese bureaucracy to help that country’s orphaned children.

In 2003, Kay Bratt’s life changed dramatically. A wife and mother of two girls in South Carolina, Bratt relocated her family to rural China to support her husband as he took on a new management position for his American employer. Seeking a way to fill her days and overcome the isolation she experienced upon arriving in a foreign country, Bratt began volunteering at the local orphanage. Within months, her simple desire to make use of her time transformed into a heroic crusade to improve the living conditions and minimize the unnecessary deaths of Chinese orphans.

Silent Tears traces the emotional hurdles and daily frustrations faced by Ms. Bratt as she tried to change the social conditions for these marginalized children. The memoir vividly illustrates how she was able to pull from reservoirs of inner strength to pursue her mission day after day, leaving the reader with the resounding message that everyone really can make a difference.

Ghost Wave ($3.03 Kindle), by Chris Dixon [Chronicle Books]
Book Description
Rising from the depths of the North Pacific lies a fabled island, now submerged just 15 feet below the surface of the ocean. Rumors and warnings about Cortes Bank abound, but among big wave surfers, this legendary rock is famous for one simple (and massive) reason: this is the home of the biggest rideable wave on the face of the earth. In this dramatic work of narrative non-fiction, journalist Chris Dixon unlocks the secrets of Cortes Bank and pulls readers into the harrowing world of big wave surfing and high seas adventure above the most enigmatic and dangerous rock in the sea. The true story of this Everest of the sea will thrill anyone with an abiding curiosity of and respect for mother ocean.

The Bleiberg Project ($0.99 Kindle), by David Khara (Author), Simon John (Translator), winner of the Blue Moon Award for Best Thriller [Le French Book].
Book Description
An adrenaline-packed ride to save the world from a horrific conspiracy straight out of the darkest hours of history.

Are Hitler’s atrocities really over? For depressive Wall Street trader Jeremy Corbin, absolute truths become undeniable lies overnight. He finds out his long-lost father is dead, he discovers his boss's real identity, and he ends up boarding a plane to Zurich. He has a Nazi medallion in his pocket, a hot CIA bodyguard next to him, and a clearly dangerous Mossad agent on his tail. What was his father investigating? Why was his mother assassinated? Why are unknown sides fighting over him with automatic weapons? Can the conspiracy be stopped? This fast-paced thriller full of humor and humanity was an instant sensation in France. Think a dash of Robin Cook, a splash of John Grisham, and pinch of Clive Cussler with a very distinctive voice all it's own.

1984 ($2.99 Kindle; $3.99 companion audiobook), by George Orwell [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]; definitely recommended if you haven't read it (or read it in a while), it's one of the books I picked up the first time I saw it marked down (back at Fictionwise).
Book Description
In 1984, London is a grim city where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.