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Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Free Book (Kindle) - The Queen's Christmas Speeches

Update: 12/25/11 To my surprise, this is now both available and free in the US Kindle store, along with a second title, The Queen's Christmas Speeches 2011 (US/UK).

The Queen's Christmas Speeches (1952 - 2010) (US/UK), by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II , is free for UK customers in the Kindle store and from Kobo, courtesy of The British Monarchy. I don't think any region outside the UK will be getting this one.
Book Description
Transcripts of The Queen's Christmas Speeches (1952 - 2010).

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Free Book (Kindle) - The Abolition of Man [AU]

The Abolition of Man ($9.99 US), the Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, is free for Australian customers in the Kindle store. I don't expect it to be free for those in the US.
Book Description
In this graceful work, C. S. Lewis reflects on society and nature and the challenges of how best to educate our children. He eloquently argues that we need as a society to underpin reading and writing with lessons on morality and in the process both educate and re-educate ourselves. In the words of Walter Hooper, "If someone were to come to me and say that, with the exception of the Bible, everyone on earth was going to be required to read one and the same book, and then ask what it should be, I would with no hesitation say The Abolition of Man. It is the most perfectly reasoned defense of Natural Law (Morality) I have ever seen, or believe to exist. If any book is able to save us from future excesses of folly and evil, it is this book." This beautiful paperback edition is sure to attract new readers to this classic book.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Free Book (Kindle) - Future Agenda

Future Agenda, by Tim Jones, is free in the Kindle store.
Book Description
Future Agenda is a unique multidisciplinary resource that brings together some of the best minds from around the globe to address the great challenges of the next decade. It maps out the major issues, identifies and debates potential solutions and suggests the best ways forward. Future Agenda provides a platform for collective innovation at a higher level than ever before. As the world responds to accelerating challenges, organizations need clearer and more informed views of the future so that they can place intelligent, strategic and innovative bets. They need to look beyond their traditional horizons and use new combinations of insight and foresight methodologies. Future Agenda challenges conventional wisdom and identifies practical strategies to deal with dramatic change in key areas of business environment.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Free Book (Kindle/nook) - Black Market Billions

Update:11/9/11 Now free from Barnes & Noble

Black Market Billions: How Organized Retail Crime Funds Global Terrorists, by Hitha Prabhakar, is free to pre-order in the Kindle store.
Book Description
Organized retail crime is now a $38 billion business. Synchronized global teams are pilfering immense volumes of high-value products, counterfeiting even more — and using the profits to support the world’s most vicious terrorists and criminal gangs.

In this eye-opening exposé, business journalist Hitha Prabhakar connects the dots and follows the money deep into the world’s fastest growing criminal industry. You’ll learn how the Internet, social media, and disposable cell phones have opened the floodgates for a new generation of criminals—and how their multimillion-dollar ripoffs are funding everyone from Al-Qaeda to Central America’s drug lords.

Black Market Billions draws on extensive first person interviews with law enforcement, industry personnel, and the criminals themselves. Prabhakar goes “inside” to reveal why the piracy economy has exploded ... why preventative measures have failed ... and what to expect next, as organized retail crime reaches a terrifying critical mass.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Free Book (Kindle/nook) - Death by China

Update:11/9/11 Now free from Barnes & Noble

Death by China: Confronting the Dragon - A Global Call to Action, by Peter W. Navarro and Greg Autry, is free in the Kindle store.
Book Description
Bestselling author Peter Navarro (The Coming China Wars) and Greg Autry challenges the dominant paradigm of a "Chinese Miracle" - the one featuring a modernizing, progressive Chinese state heading toward political reform and driving global economic growth with its new found embrace of capitalism and freedom.

Tearing this delusion away, Death by China documents the myriad ways that a powerful, wealthy, and corrupt Chinese Communist Party emboldened by a growing nationalistic frenzy is becoming the biggest threat to global peace, prosperity, and health since Nazi Germany.

From currency manipulation and abusive trade policies, to slave labor and deadly consumer products, China's ruthless rulers threaten the livelihood of the citizens of every developed nation. These thugs have created a frightening amoral society ruled by a constant fear hidden to outsiders and bought off with the ill gotten profits of a myopic quest for economic advantage at any cost - social, environmental, or civil rights concerns be damned. Worse, as with everything else, China is scaling and exporting the model around this world, threatening their neighbors and exploiting developing nations across the globe with a new imperialism.

While America worries that Al Qaeda or Iran may get their hands on a weapon of mass destruction, China is using our Wal-Mart dollars to build them by the score; filling brand new nuclear submarines with missiles aimed at our heartland and building stealth planes designed to obliterate our friends in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.

America's policy of appeasement and perpetual bending to Beijing's tacit threat to stop funding our unsustainable consumption based economy and deficit addicted government has left the Chinese people and the world in a frightening position while achieving absolutely nothing. With each new attempt at further "engagement" China simply rounds up more artists, writers, and political dissidents into its gulags and continues its policies of virtual genocide against the peoples of Tibet and the Uighars of East Turkestan. It tightens control over media and the Internet and expands its regional, territorial and resource claims. Laughing at our timidity, it becomes ever bolder in executing its plan to shutter every last manufacturing plant in the West.

Meanwhile, Western turncoat CEO's are content with pumping up one more quarterly report by driving every last high-value manufacturing jobs to Guangzhou or Chengdu. Congress is happy to be re-elected with contributions from those same corporations. Together they are happy to leave the rest of us with a future of low paying service and retail "careers" based on selling junk made in China to each other while accumulating a pile of Chinese debt and building a geopolitical time bomb of epic proportions.

For every American, European, Japanese or Korean reader who wonders where his job has gone and worries about the world his children will inherit, Death by China is a must read. The book features an inspiring Forward by Chinese Dissident, Baiqiao Tang and a brilliant Epilog by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

New Nook Daily Find: Parliament of Whores

I asked over in the B&N forums if today's Nook Daily Find was going to be fixed (since it isn't a deal, at all) and the only result was that I can't even find my question was in the forums (which are a pain to navigate) and they haven't updated the NDF page or the book's price. A reader commented, though, that she thought that Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government ($8.59 Kindle; $3.30 B&N), by P. J. O'Rourke, was supposed to be today's Daily Find -- there is, at least, a bargain price on it. Don't ask me, though, how she found this was "supposed" to be it, as the book I posted earlier is still featured on the B&N Nook page, the main home page (as an ad) and on the NDF official page.
Book Description
Called “an everyman’s guide to Washington” (The New York Times), P. J. O’Rourke’s savagely funny and national bestseller Parliament of Whores has become a classic in understanding the workings of the American political system. Originally written at the end of the Reagan era, this new edition includes an extensive foreword by the renowned political writer Andrew Ferguson—showing us that although the names and the players have changed, the game is still the same. Parliament of Whores is an exuberant, broken-field run through the ethical foibles, pork barrel flimflam, and bureaucratic bungling inside the Beltway that leaves no sacred cow unskewered and no politically correct sensitivities unscorched.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Free Book (Kindle) - Growing a better future

The expanded edition of Growing a better future: Food Justice in a resource-constrained world, by Robert Bailey, Duncan Green, Naomi Hossain, Kate Kilpatrick, et al, is free in the Kindle store.
Book Description
The global food system works only for the few – for most of us it is broken. It leaves the billions who consume food lacking sufficient power and knowledge about what they buy and eat, and the majority of small food producers dis-empowered and unable to fulfil their productive potential. The failure of the system flows from failures of government – failures to regulate, to correct, to protect, to resist, to invest – which mean that companies, interest groups, and elites are able to plunder resources and to redirect flows of finance, knowledge, and food.
Growing a Better Future describes a new age of growing crisis: food price spikes and oil price hikes, devastating weather events, financial meltdowns, and global contagion. It shows how the food system is at once a driver of this fragility and highly vulnerable to it, and why in the twenty-first century it leaves 925 million people hungry.
Growing a Better Future supports a new campaign with a simple message: another future is possible and we can build it together. Over the coming years, decisive action around the world could enable hundreds of millions more people to feed their families and prevent catastrophic climate change from destroying their (and our) futures.
In this new enhanced edition, Oxfam adds papers and research which develop and update the main themes of the report: land, and the growing scandal surrounding the new wave of investments (‘land grabs’); how climate change is related to food security and the East African food crisis; and how people living in poverty around the world have coped with food price crises. There are also extended case studies from Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, India, Malawi, and Nepal, and an extended and updated bibliography and resources list.

Much more information is available at www.oxfam.org/grow – the website for Oxfam’s GROW campaign. For access to over 3,000 advocacy, research, and programme learning publications across all Oxfam’s areas of work visit www.oxfam.org.uk/policyandpractice.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Today's Deals and Bargain Books

Update: Price drop on Notorious Australian Women to $4.99 in the US.

The first two books that were previously only free for UK Kindle customers are now free in the US Kindle store, while four now have an EPUB format available and one is newly free on nook.

The Way of Shadows ($1.99), the first in The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day. I'd snap this one up in a second, but (for the second day in a row) I already have it in my eLibrary. The next two in the trilogy are $7.99 right now, which means the entire trilogy bought separately comes in for less than the $19.99 bundle price. I'm considering getting his latest, The Black Prism, as it is also $7.99 now that it is out in paperback; it is the start of his new Lightbringer trilogy. There is also a new novella I had not known about, Perfect Shadow, which appears to be a prequel for The Way of Shadows.
Book Description
For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city's most accomplished artist.

For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned to judge people quickly - and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.

But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins' world of dangerous politics and strange magics - and cultivate a flair for death.

Those outside the US usually get skipped on the Daily Deal and a lot of other bargains in the Kindle store. So, here are three just for those outside the US (those in the US, just skip down, as there are more for us further along).

Welcome to My World ($19.99 US; $0.80/£0.49 UK) and Fairytale of New York ($6.99 US; $1.60/£0.99 UK), both by Miranda Dickinson, are on sale for UK customers only (at least, so far), in both the Main and UK Kindle stores. The US pricing on the former looks to have been entered wrong by the publisher (it's double what it is for most markets), while the latter was free for US customers last year.
Welcome to My World
A travel agent who longs to travel. An intrepid explorer who just wants to find a place to call home.

And a Big Idea that changes everything….

Close your eyes and imagine the world is your oyster…And now imagine never seeing it. Welcome to Harriet Langton's world. All her life she's dreamt of travelling the globe - fate always got in the way.Working as a travel agent, the closest Harri comes to her dream destination of Venice is booking the trip for someone else. But everything changes when travel fanatic Alex drops in.

With her boyfriend Rob tied up with work, Harri is persuaded to help Alex in his quest for love. But in her attempts to help, Harri soon discovers that she's alienating those around her.

Desperate to leave her life behind, will her dreams finally come true? Or will Harri's leap of faith be her biggest mistake yet?

A gorgeous love story for fans of Sophie Kinsella and Jill Mansell.

Fairytale of New York
Are happy-every-afters made in Manhattan?Once upon a time an English girl went to New York to live out her very own fairytale…

Florist Rosie Duncan's life couldn't be better, she has a flourishing business on New York's Upper West Side and fantastic friends. Moving to Manhattan feels like the best decision she ever made. Even though at the time, it was her escape route from heartbreak . . .

For the past six years Rosie has kept her heart under lock and key, despite the protests of her closest friends - charming, commitment-phobic Ed, unlucky in love Marnie and the one-woman tornado that is Celia.

Then a blossoming friendship with publishing hot-shot Nate begins to shake Rosie's resolve at the same time as her brother arrives in the Big Apple, hiding a secret.

But a chance meeting brings Rosie face to face with her past, unravelling the mystery behind her arrival in New York. Rosie is forced to confront questions she has long been trying to ignore, including will she ever get her very own happy-ever-after?

A sparkling, romantic comedy about an English girl who finds herself in the city where dreams can come true - or so she thinks…

Notorious Australian Women ($18.99 $4.99 US), by Kay Saunders, is currently discounted for Canadian ($1.09) and Australian ($1.07) customers in the Kindle store.
Book Description
The sensational lives and exploits of some of Australia's most audacious women Notorious Australian Women celebrates the lives of some of Australia's most fearless, brash and scandalous women. There's Tilly Devine, who went from streetwalker in London to wealthy Sydney madam and standover merchant; Mary Bryant, the highway robber and First Fleeter who escaped by rowing from Port Jackson to Timor with her two children; Lola Montez, the Irish-born grande horizontale, who destroyed King Ludwig I of Bavaria; Ellen Tremaye and Marion Edwards, women who challenged the gender order and became men; and Helena Rubinstein, who rewrote her humble Polish background and became one of the most successful and astute businesswomen in the world. From bushrangers, courtesans and cross-dressers, to writers, designers and a radical or two, what these splendid rebels have in common is a determination to take their destinies into their own hands. Kay Saunders AM was Professor of History and Senator of the University of Queensland from 2002 to 2006. In 2001 she received the Medal of the National Museum of Australia, and in 2006 was the recipient of the John Kerr Medal from the Royal Historical Society of Queensland.

A Taint in the Blood ($9.99 US), the first title in the Shadowspawn series by S. M. Stirling, is marked down to $3.24 in several non-US regions: Asia & Pacific, India, Lat. Am & Carribean and Middle East.
Book Description
Eons ago, the powerful Homo Nocturnis ruled the earth. While their numbers have been greatly reduced, they still exist-though not as purebreds. Adrian Breze is one such being. Wealthy and reclusive, he is more Shadowspawn than human. But he rebelled against his kind, choosing to live as an ordinary man. Now, to save humanity, he must battle the dark forces of the world-including those in his own blood...

The Spellman Files ($1.99), starts off the Spellman series by Lisa Lutz
Book Description
Meet Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, private investigator. This twenty-eight-year-old may have a checkered past littered with romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism; she may be addicted to Get Smart reruns and prefer entering homes through windows rather than doors -- but the upshot is she's good at her job as a licensed private investigator with her family's firm, Spellman Investigations. Invading people's privacy comes naturally to Izzy. In fact, it comes naturally to all the Spellmans. If only they could leave their work at the office. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman; tail a Spellman; dig up dirt on, blackmail, and wiretap a Spellman.

Part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry, Izzy walks an indistinguishable line between Spellman family member and Spellman employee. Duties include: completing assignments from the bosses, aka Mom and Dad (preferably without scrutiny); appeasing her chronically perfect lawyer brother (often under duress); setting an example for her fourteen-year-old sister, Rae (who's become addicted to "recreational surveillance"); and tracking down her uncle (who randomly disappears on benders dubbed "Lost Weekends"). But when Izzy's parents hire Rae to follow her (for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of Izzy's new boyfriend), Izzy snaps and decides that the only way she will ever be normal is if she gets out of the family business. But there's a hitch: she must take one last job before they'll let her go -- a fifteen-year-old, ice-cold missing person case. She accepts, only to experience a disappearance far closer to home, which becomes the most important case of her life.

Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear: A Novel ($1.99), by Katharine Weber
Book Description
Harriet Rose, 26, is an American photographer just winning recognition for her work. A travel fellowship brings her to visit her best friend and former roommate, Anne Gordon, in Switzerland. In an ongoing letter to her boyfriend, Harriet reports on strange developments in Anne's life, most notably her affair with a much older married man, which seems to be leading to a disastrous conclusion. Before she can rescue Anne, events take a series of unexpected turns, and Harriet must reexamine her own life and past, and come to terms with the difficulties and possibilities of human relationships.

Already excerpted in The New Yorker, Katherine Weber's witty first novel of attraction and deception, a tale with the sensibility of a Margaret Atwood, pulses with cultural references and word games that echo Nabokov.

Murder on the Eiffel Tower ($2.99) is the first in the Victor Legris Mystery series by Claude Izner. This dropped on a price match with Sony and the price there has already gone back to $9.99.
Book Description
The brand-new, shiny Eiffel Tower is the pride and glory of the 1889 World Exposition. But one sunny afternoon, as visitors are crowding the viewing platforms, a woman collapses and dies on this great Paris landmark. Can a bee sting really be the cause of death? Or is there a more sinister explanation? Enter young bookseller Victor Legris. Present on the tower at the time of the incident, and appalled by the media coverage of the occurrence, he is determined to find out what actually happened. In this dazzling evocation of late nineteenth-century Paris, we follow Victor as his investigation takes him all over the city and he suspects an ever-changing list of possible perpetrators. Could mysterious Kenji Mori, his surrogate father and business partner at the bookstore Legris operates, be involved in the crime? Why are beautiful Russian illustrator Tasha and her colleagues at the newly launched sensationalist newspaper Passepartout always up-to-date in their reporting? And what will Legris do when the deaths begin to multiply and he is caught in a race against time?

Murder on the Eiffel Tower is painstakingly researched, an effortless evocation of the glorious City of Light, and an exciting opening to a promising series of eight books featuring Victor Legris.

Community Organizing for Conservatives: A Manifesto for Localism in the Tea Party Movement, by Lorie Medina, and First, Do No Harm: The President's Cousin Explains Why His Hippocratic Oath Requires Him to Oppose ObamaCare, by Milton Wolf, are two of eight political treatises for the Tea Party, published by an imprint of HarperCollins, Broadside Books. ($1.99 each)
Community Organizing for Conservatives
Lorie Medina explains how she became involved with the Tea Party movement and how her background prepared her for her important role. She shares with the reader how to start a local grassroots organization and helps to prepare them for many of the challenges they will face. Lorie uses real people and real situations to explain best practices for local tea party groups. Throughout the book, Lorie focuses on the necessity of local groups to truly affect lasting change in America.

First, Do No Harm
The discussion what role—if any—the government should play in regulating and dictating the delivery of health care in the United States has become ground zero in the much larger age-old struggle between statism and individual liberty. Personifying this struggle is the conflict between the big government schemes of President Barack Obama and the free market principles of the President's own cousin, the private practice physician Milton R. Wolf, M.D. When Barack Obama and Dr. Milton Wolf met for the first time in May 2010, it marked the beginning of a new phase in this all-American family feud. In this work, Dr. Wolf takes the gloves off and describes the results of decades of government intervention in health care, the disastrous doubling down on failure of ObamaCare and finally the alternative free market reforms that will save our system and ultimately our nation.

The Zoo on the Road to Nablus: A Story of Survival from the West Bank ($4.32), by Amelia Thomas
Book Description
In a unique zoo in one of the world's most turbulent regions, one man wages a strange and heroic battle for its animals' survival.

The last Palestinian zoo stands on a dusty, deadend street in the once prosperous farming town of Qalqilya, on the very edge of the West Bank.

The zoo's bars are rusting; peacocks wander quiet avenues shaded by broad plane trees; a teenage baboon broods in solitary confinement; walls bear the pockmarks of gunfire. And yet the zoo is an extraordinary place, with a bizarre, troubling and inspiring story to tell. At the center of this story is Dr. Sami Khader, the only zoo veterinarian in the Palestinian territories. Family man, amateur inventor, and dedicated taxidermist, he is fiercely independent, apolitical, and resourceful in times of crisis. Dr. Sami dreams of transforming the zoo into one of an international caliber.

In The Zoo on the Road to Nablus, Amelia Thomas brings the reader into a world rarely glimpsed from the outside, weaving the stories of the zoo's animals, its staff, and its visitors into a rich, colorful chronicle of the indomitability of the human--and animal--spirit.

Katie Macalister has several of her backlist/self-published titles marked down to 99 cents. The first two are the first and third in her Noble romance series; the second isn't on Kindle (at least, not yet). The third is a novella in her Dark Ones series (the first title of which, A Girl's Guide to Vampires, is still free for Australians only, courtesy of HarperCollins). The last one is a stand-alone novel, just published this year.
Noble Intentions
Noble Britton suffered greatly at the hands of his first wife, and he refuses to fall into the same trap again. This time he intends to marry a quiet, biddable woman who will not draw attention to herself or cause scandal. Gillian Leigh’s honest manner and spontaneous laughter attract him immediately. It matters little that she is accident-prone; he can provide the structure necessary to guide her.

But unconventional to the tips of her half-American toes, his new bride turns the tables on him, wreaking havoc on his orderly life. Perpetually one step behind his beguiling spouse, Noble suffers a banged-up head, a black eye, and a broken nose before he realizes Gillian has healed his soul and proven that their union is no heedless tumble, but the swoon of true love.


The Trouble With Harry (aka Noble Pursuits)
Just What is the Trouble With Harry?

1. He is Plum’s new husband. Not normally a problem, but when you consider that Harry advertised for a wife, and Plum was set to marry his secretary, there was cause for a bit of confusion.

2. He has a title. Plum has spent the last twenty years hiding from the ton, and now Harry wants her to shine in society? Horrors!

3. He doesn’t know about her shocking secret. How is she going to explain about the dead husband who isn’t a husband…and who now seems to be alive again?

4. He’s fallen in love with her. And yet, the maddening man refuses to confide in her. For Plum knows the real trouble with Harry is that he’s stolen her heart.


Bring Out Your Dead
Battling a demon lord is all in a day’s work for the Dark One named Sebastian. But now he must take on a horde of unhappy zombies and an obnoxious teen vampire if he wants to win the hand of the one woman who can make him whole.

Ysabelle is a woman with a past, and not a whole lot of future if a certain demon lord has his way. With zombies, demons, and a little thing like death standing in her way, will she find happiness in the man who’s seen more darkness than she can imagine?

Note: this novella was published in 2006 and again in 2010 in the Just One Sip and My Zombie Valentine anthologies, respectively. Readers should be aware that this is a republishing of a previously published novella.


Suffragette in the City
Cassandra Whitney is a New Woman, from her forward-thinking attitudes toward women and society, right down to her determination to take a lover—just as soon as she can find one who doesn’t dribble soup, or yell at her for her involvement with the suffrage movement.

Unfortunately, the only candidate she’s found worthy is the annoying, but sinfully attractive, Griffin St. John. It’s just too bad he appears to be central in a plot to destroy everything she’s worked for…

Veneer: Living Deeply in a Surface Society ($0.99), by Timothy D. Willard and Jason Locy, is marked down courtesy of HarperCollins imprint Zondervan.
Book Description
The world has a love affair---with itself. Armed with Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, we think of ourselves as mini celebrities, and we use consumption and technology to convince our friends that this facade is who we are. Veneer illustrates that consumption is more than just acquiring more stuff; it is a potentially dangerous mindset---a mindset turning everything, even people, into products.According to authors Timothy Willard and R. Jason Locy, there is evidence of consumption in all channels of culture---even the church. Most Christian commentators suggest that the church should speak the language of the congregants. Willard and Locy suggest the opposite approach: if congregants are steeped in a culture of consumption, the church should not speak their language at all.Veneer encourages the church to become a refreshing voice amidst a veneered world, inviting you to lead an unveneered life of freedom, honesty, and beauty. Taking on an original concept that addresses the potential dangers of consumption and technology, Veneer speaks to many Christians who are unsure how to live with true meaning among the ever-changing trends and technology our culture offers.

Karin Slaughter's Kindle Single Thorn in My Side is currently half price, at $0.99. She is also featured in a short story collection that Macmillan has marked down and two of her novels at HarperCollins are also being discounted.
Thorn in My Side
It could have been just any night, and they could have just been any two brothers--but it wasn't, and they weren't. The scene is an Atlanta bar. The music is loud and the dance floor is packed. The good-looking brother picks up a girl. But when dark deeds ensue out in the parking lot, what happens next can only be described in two words: vintage Slaughter. From the opening scene to the last line, Thorn in My Side is as wicked as it is entertaining--an unforgettable piece of writing from one of the most beloved storytellers working today.

First Thrills: Volume 3 ($2.99)
New York Times bestselling author Lee Child and the International Thriller Writers, Inc. present a collection of remarkable stories in First Thrills. From small-town crime stories to sweeping global conspiracies, this is a cross section of today’s hottest thriller-writing talent. This original collection is now split into four e-book volumes, packed with murder, mystery, and mayhem!

First Thrills: Volume 3 contains stories five original stories by: Jeffery Deaver, Karin Slaughter, Rebecca Cantrell, Gregg Hurwitz and Theo Gangi


A Faint Cold Fear Grant County series #3 ($3.99)
An apparent student suicide has brought medical examiner Sara Linton to the local college campus, along with her ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver. But a horribly mutilated corpse yields up few answers. And a suspicious rash of subsequent "suicides" suggests that a different kind of terror is stalking the youth of Heartsdale, Georgia -- a nightmare that is coming to prey on Sara Linton's loved ones.

A small town is being transformed into a killing ground. And the key to a sadistic murderer's motive and identity may be held in the unsteady hands of a campus security guard -- a former police detective driven from the force by the hellish memories that will never leave her. Lena Adams survived the unthinkable and has paid a devastating price. Now the survival of future victims may depend upon her ... when she can barely protect herself.


Indelible Grant County series #4 ($1.99)
Two armed men enter the police station in tiny Heartsdale, Georgia, and open fire. When the shooting stops, an officer is dead, Police Chief Jeffrey Tolliver is seriously wounded, and the survivors -- including a class of grade-school children and medical examiner Sara Linton -- are held hostage. In a tense standoff that could erupt at any moment into more bloodletting -- with her ex-husband on the threshold of death -- Sara must search for answers and an escape in the memories of a time at the start of their relationship when another brutal, shocking crime shattered their small-town world. Because the sins of the past have caught up with Sara and Jeffrey ... with a vengeance.

Circle Series 4-in-1 ($14.41), by Ted Dekker, gives you all four books in the Books of History Chronicles at $3.60 each, at a lesser cost than just the first three in Black/Red/White (The Circle Trilogy 1-3) ($14.49), which is what I picked up a few years ago. I'll have to look for a good deal on Green, which is the only one I'm missing.
Book Description
Rare is the story that takes readers out of this world and into another.

Rarer still the story that captures heart, soul, and mind...leaving the reader forever transformed.

This is that story.

Dive deep and enter the Circle.

The Circle is an epic story of evil and rescue, betrayal and love, and terrorist threat unlike anything the human race has ever known.

It beings when a man named Thomas hunter finds himself being chased down an alley after working the late shift at a coffee house. When a bullet grazes his head, he awakens in an entirely different reality. Now every time he falls asleep, he wakes up in the other reality--and every choice he makes impacts the fate of two worlds.

At long last, all four novels in this groundbreaking series have been brought together in one adrenaline-laced volume.

Four novels. Two Worlds. One Story.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Free Book (EPUB) - Climate of Corruption

Update: 4/5/11 Now free (at last!) at Amazon; still full price at B&N.

Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind The Global Warming Hoax ($9.99 Kindle & B&N), by Larry Bell, is free from Kobo and Sony today, courtesy of Greenleaf Book Group. Most of their free books have ended up free at Amazon and B&N, so you might want to keep checking those (and report the lower prices to Amazon), if you have a nook or Kindle.

Book Description
New revelations demonstrate how politics and powerful special-interest agendas have warped the most important scientific debate of the 21st century. Melting glaciers, suffering polar bears, rising oceans—these are just a few of the climate change crisis myths debunked by noted aerospace expert Larry Bell in this explosive new book. With meticulous research, Bell deflates these and other climate misconceptions with perceptive analysis, humor, and the most recent scientific data. Written for the laymen, yet in-depth enough for the specialist, this book digs deep into the natural and political aspects of the climate change debate, answering fundamental questions that reveal the all-too-human origins of “scientific” inquiry.
  • Why and how are some of the world’s most prestigious scientific institutions cashing in on the debate?
  • Who stand to benefit most by promoting public climate change alarmism?
  • What true political and financial purposes are served by the vilification of carbon dioxide?
  • How do climate deceptions promote grossly exaggerated claims for non-fossil alternative energy capacities and advance blatant global wealth redistribution goals?
With its devastating portrayal of scientific and government establishments run amok, this book is an invaluable addition to the tremendously popular literature attacking the scientific status quo. Climate of Corruption will bring welcome relief to all those who are fed up with climate crisis insanity.

Click HERE for the free book from Kobo.
Click HERE to get the free book from Sony.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Spotlight on SourceBooks

Rather than focusing on an author, today's bargain roundup focuses on a single publisher. This publisher has started featuring bargain prices on a number of books and changing up the offerings every week or so. Since this isn't one of the big-5 Agencies, Amazon is then discounting them even more. I'll start out with the officially discounted books and then throw in a few others I found while searching.

All three titles in Helen Hollick's Pendragon's Banner Trilogy are on sale for $2.39, starting with Kingmaking, followed (in order) by Pendragons Banner and Shadow of the King.

Who was THE MAN
Who became THE LEGEND
We know as KING ARTHUR?


Kingmaking
"You are the Pendragon, rightful Lord of Dumnonia and the Summer Land; Lord of less Britain. By all that is right, you ought be seated where Vortigern sits…You ought to be King."

Here lies the truth of the Lord of the Summer Land.

This is the tale of Arthur flesh and bone. Of the shaping of the man, both courageous and flawed, into the celebrated ruler who inspired armies, who captured Gwenhyfar's heart, and who emerged as the hero of the Dark Ages and the most enduring hero of all time.

This is the unexpected story of the making of a king — the legend who united all of Britain.

* Book One of the Pendragon's Banner Trilogy
* Includes bonus reading group guide


Pendragons Banner
... covering 459-465 A.D. This is not a fairy tale or fantasy. There is no Merlin, no sword in the stone, and no Lancelot. This is the most accurate Arthurian legend ever written, based on historical evidence and meticulous research.

At age twenty-four, King Arthur has the kingdom he fought so hard for and a new young family. But keeping the throne of Britain—and keeping his wife and three sons safe—proves far from easy. Two enemies in particular threaten everything that is dear to him: Winifred, Arthur's vindictive first wife, and Morgause, priestess of the Mother and malevolent Queen of the North. Both have royal ambitions of their own.

In this story of harsh battles, secret treasonous plots, and the life-threatening politics of early Britain's dark ages, author Helen Hollick boldly reintroduces King Arthur as you've never seen him before.


Shadow of the King
They knew what was coming.Man and beast knew what lay ahead.After the war cry.Bitter the grave.At long last, the peace King Arthur was born to usher in has settled over the realm. But Arthur was also born to be a warrior… and all true warriors are restless without a fight. Yearning for battle and ever-loyal, Arthur is easily deceived into setting sail for Gaul to defend its territories—leaving his country vulnerable and leaderless.A beacon of hope in a land of desolation, he was to be the Lord of the Summer Land for now and forever. But first, the Pendragon must face the ultimate test, one that will take all his courage, strength of will, and honor to survive.Because once destiny is fulfilled, can you ever truly win again?

Zombies for Zombies ($3.99), by David Murphy & Daniel Heard

Book Description
So, you've been bitten by a zombie?

Bummer.

But there's no need to panic! Yes, your life will be undergoing a major transformation, but this doesn't have to be the end-all it once was when the Disaster first hit. There have been significant breakthroughs in the last decade in helping you keep significant parts of your wit and dignity. Together we can limit the damage.

Zombies for Zombies is a motivational guide designed specifically to make a profound difference in your accidental, strange new life. You say you don't want to become another one of those ghastly creatures you see on the news out in the Tempe Containment Zone? You don't have to—if you follow the great advice inside, including:

  • How to dress for your new lifestyle Handy recipes for brains
  • Fitness ideas for keeping you somewhat energetic
  • New skin-care techniques to help ward off "rotting flesh syndrome"
  • How to overcome that darned zombie social stigma
  • Dance steps for the motor-impaired
Completely Revised and Updated Since the Containment Zone Disaster!

Kama Pootra ($3.99), by Daniel Cole Young

Book Description
52 Mind-Blowing Ways to Poop

The only known translation of an ancient manual instructing readers in the art of enlightened bathroom experience, the Kama Pootra offers a thrilling rediscovery of the tiled path to porcelain nirvana.

Willing seekers will find fifty-two progressive positions designed to maximize how you do number two.

Every time the bathroom door closes, a new experience awaits.


Do Ants Have Assholes? ($3.99), by Jon Butler & Bruno Vincent

Book Description
A venerable and historic newspaper, the Old Geezer is read and respected by the world's most conscientious, upright citizens. When these beacons of
respectability have serious questions, they turn to the Old Geezer's "Questionsand Answers" page.

Do Ants Have Assholes? collects the enlightening answers to thought-provoking questions such as:

  • If you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant, what do you do?
  • How many men would it take to kill an elephant with their bare hands?
  • If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do they all have to drown?
  • Are "crabs" related to crabs?
  • What if there were no hypothetical questions?

Coloring Outside Autism's Lines ($2.39), by Susan Walton

Book Description
Your Road Map to Rediscovering Joy, Fun, and Togetherness

Having a child with an autism spectrum disorder may mean that you have to change your life. It can seem as though there are so many things you just can’t do. But there are adventures—large and small—that kids with autism love, and they are waiting for your whole family! Just think outside of the ordinary, look for reachable sensory experiences, come prepared, and keep an open mind, and everyone in your family can go along for a great ride. This book is packed with exciting ideas for families living with autism, with everything you need to know to make them a reality. Including:

  • Unconventional backyard fun: zip lines, trampolines, tree stumps, and even exercise bikes!
  • Easy ways to adapt public places such as bowling alleys, ice skating rinks, and swimming pools into stress-free outings
  • Surprising activities that can lead to lifelong interests
  • Dreaming big: there’s a world of amusement parks, water slides, camping, and other family getaways that are truly within reach
  • Special activities for grandparents and extended family members
  • How to team up with other parents to maximize the fun
With tips and advice from dozens of creative families who have found fun with autism and want you to do the same!

25,001 Best Baby Names ($3.99), by Lesley Bolton

Book Description
In a time when brand new names appear every day and classic names keep making comebacks, 25,001 Best Baby Names comes to the aid of frazzled parents-to-be with the easiest to use, most convenient and most up-to-date book available.

The perfect reference to make naming girls and boys quick and painless, 25,001 Best Baby Names is thoroughly researched and updated to reflect recent trends in baby names. In a compact format and with incredible variety, 25,001 Best Baby Names includes names with origins from around the world.

Including 30 fun lists to help you choose the perfect name - or just to make you laugh while browsing - 25,001 Best Baby Names makes naming your baby easier than ever!


It may be the wrong season for Best Summer Drinks ($3.99), by Ray Foley, but that just means you get a head start for next year (or for your beach themed "let's pretend it isn't winter" party this winter).

Book Description
Perfect summer promo or cash-wrap title, from the ultimate authority on bartending, Bartender Magazine.

From Bartender Magazine, the number one publication for the bartending trade and the most respected name in bartending, comes The Best Summer Drinks, the perfect recipe guide for the hottest drink time of year.

Written by the ultimate authority on bartending, this book contains 500 summer cocktail and appetizer recipes submitted by the world's best bartenders, including:

  • Summer Breeze
  • Fourth of July
  • Blue Lemonade
  • South Wind
  • Sun Stroked
Perfect for impulse purchase at cash-wrap areas, The Best Summer Drinks is sure to find its way into the pocket of anyone who loves libations.

If you picked up Rebecca Ann Collins's Pemberley Chronicles when it was free earlier this month, you may want to grab up two more in the same series, Ladies of Longbourn ($2.99) and Recollections of Rosings ($2.84). Both are Amazon discounts, so could change at any moment. These are the fourth and eighth in the series, respectively.

Ladies of Longbourn
Anne-Marie Bradshaw is the granddaughter of Charles and Jane Bingley. Her father now owns Longbourn, the Bennet's estate in Hertfordshire. A young widow after a loveless marriage, Anne-Marie and her stepmother Anna, together with Charlotte Collins, widow of the unctuous Mr. Collins, are the Ladies of Longbourn. These smart, independent women challenge the conventional roles of women in the Victorian era, while they search for ways to build their own lasting legacies in an ever-changing world.

The ladies find strength, companionship, and friendship together as they work to build a children's hospital, deal with a deadly outbreak of influenza, and help a gentle lady flee a violent and destructive marriage.

Jane Austen's original characters - Darcy, Elizabeth, Bingley, and Jane - provide a framework of solid values and commentary to anchor a dramatic story full of wit and compassion.


Recollections of Rosings
Sisters Catherine Harrison and Becky Tate, daughters of Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins, have very different personalities and temperaments. Both grew up in the shadow of Rosings Park, domain of the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, but as adults their paths diverged dramatically.

When a catastrophe at Rosings Park brings Becky back to visit her sister, the two clash about their aspirations for the marriage of Catherine’s young daughter, and both women are forced to confront the ghosts of the past—in particular, Lady Catherine’s cruelty and deception.

As the shocking truth emerges, the Darcy and Bingley families rally. But it may be too late for the sisters to find the love and happiness they were denied so long ago.


Rogues Handbook ($2.99), by Jeff Metzger

Book Description
The Rogue’s Handbook contains everything you need to know to be the most desired man in your city or nation. If you wish to reinvent yourself as someone who leaves clenched fists and flushed, heaving bosoms in your wake, read on carefully.

About the Author
Jeff Metzger was born in Portland, Oregon. His fondest memories include masterminding a jailbreak in Cuba, rendezvousing with history's most infamous ex-CIA agent, and being chased through the streets of Madrid. At home in Austin, Mr. Metzger enjoys quiet mornings of writing and reading.


Horrid Henry's Christmas ($3.99), by Tony Ross & Francesca Simon, is just one of nine titles in the Horrid Henry series that are selling for $3.99. This is a bestselling series from the UK, for kids in grades 1-4.

Book Description
In this installment in a best-selling chapter-book series from the U.K., self-centered Horrid Henry wreaks total havoc at the Nativity play, destroys the Christmas tree, and almost ruins the holiday lunch. His irreverent actions are made tolerable through the ridiculousness of the incidents and the appeal to the naughty side in readers' personalities. Ross's mischievous black-and-white cartoon drawings are the perfect choice to carry them off. Large print and simple vocabulary make this title an easy read and a fun read-aloud.

Invasion of the Party Snatchers ($2.86), by Victor Gold, is definitely not a title for children (and doesn't have anything to do with throwing a party)..

Book Description
Victor Gold wants his party back.

Gold is the former press aide to Barry Goldwater and the former speechwriter and senior advisor for George H. W. Bush. He is incensed that the Neo-Cons and the Evangelical Right have betrayed the ideals of the conservative cause. Now he's fighting back.

A Republican insider for 40 years, Gold is ready to tell all about the war being waged for the GOP's soul, the elder Bush's opinion of his son's presidency, the significance of the Democratic resurgence, and how Goldwater would have reacted to it all.

Among Gold's explosive disclosures is the truth about Cheney's manipulation of George W., and the chilling, puppet-like role of the President amongst Neo- and Theo-Conservatives.


My Favorite Midlife Crisis (Yet) ($2.51), by Toby Devens

Book Description
Dr. Gwyneth Berke has a perfect life…until one day she walks into her pantry, lets out a little scream of disbelief and begins the following list: What to do when you find out that your husband is in love with your interior decorator, Brad (or, A Midlife Crisis Checklist)
  • Get divorced (this is a must!)
  • Quickly discover a lifetime supply of humor (this will also help with your children and your mentally deteriorating father)
  • Stop sulking, show a little spirit and start a new life plan (also a must)
  • Recruit your two very dear, newly single friends to help you with it
  • Don’t look back and enjoy the ride!

Embedded ($2.64), by Ross Dale, is also a title for adults (the subtitle is "Confessions of a Sex Journalist").

Book Description
ROSS DALE is a Wesleyan graduate serenely sailing through post-college life when he gets the offer he can't refuse. For double his pay, Playboy TV wants him to produce their show Sexcetera, an explicit experience in journalism billed as "true stories from the sexual frontier." A prep student from a sheltered home, Dale finds himself everywhere he never imagined he'd go: shooting gang bangs with the West Coast Gang Bangers, attending the annual Nudes-A-Popping Festival at an Indiana nudist resort, brothels in Amsterdam, swinger parties and more.

Behind Dale's initial shock, a fascination grows for the characters in front of the camera: some funny, some gross, all facing the pressure of trying to balance humdrum, day-to-day existence with outrageous sex lives. Plus one of his leading ladies, a gorgeous and naked soft-core movie queen, just might have a thing for him. Dale's odd job becomes a life-changing adventure, and he's enjoying the ride.

By turns hilarious, wry, and deliciously erotic, Dale evokes the bizarre world of pornography and the people who inhabit it, and gives readers a story about finding love in the least likely of places.


Best St. Louis Sports Arguments ($1.68), by Bryan Burwell

Book Description
Who’s the best? Who’s the worst?

Every St. Louis fan knows that the only thing better than watching sports is arguing about them-picking the best, the worst and who will come out on top. And no city tears its sports teams apart like we do in the Gateway City.

St. Louis Post–Dispatch sports columnist Bryan Burwell takes you inside the 100 best debates in St. Louis sports. Covering the Rams, Cardinals (football and baseball), Blues and beyond, every question you want to debate is here-as well as a few surprises.

Cardinals–Cubs:

  • Is it really a “great” rivalry?
  • Does Mark McGwire belong in the Hall of Fame?
  • Whitey, Red or Tony: Who’s the best all-time Cardinal manager?
  • Who was more responsible for the Rams’ Super Bowl victory: Dick Vermeil or Mike Martz?
  • Did the Blues make the right move in trading Brendan Shanahan?
  • Should St. Louis have an NBA franchise?

SEALed with a Ring ($3.99), by Mary Daughtridge, is the third book in her SEALed series. I already have SEALed with a Kiss ($4.69) and may pick this one up out of sequence. Like the first book in the series, this one is over 400 pages, in print.

Book Description
She’s got it all…except the one thing she needs most

Smart, successful businesswoman JJ Caruthers has a year to land a husband or lose the empire she’s worked so hard to build. With time running out, romance is not an option, and a military husband who is always on the road begins to look like the perfect solution…

He’s a wounded hero with an agenda of his own Even with the scars of battle, Navy SEAL medic Davy Graziano is gorgeous enough to land any woman he wants, and he’s never wanted to be tied down. Now Davy has ulterior motives for accepting JJ’s outrageous proposal of marriage, but he only has so long to figure out what JJ doesn’t want him to know…

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb

Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb, by Brian Lamb, is $2.43 on Kindle today.

Book Description
C-SPAN's unique guide to the final resting places of the nation's presidents.

Some presidents have been larger than life but none of them have been larger than death. Brian Lamb has visited the gravesites of every American president, living and dead, in order to put together this book, with assistance from the staff of C-SPAN. Heavily illustrated and with contributions from historians Richard Norton Smith and Douglas Brinkley, Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb? is about the presidents' lives as much as it is about their final resting places. The book's collection of the presidents' last words, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "I have a terrific headache" to John Adams's "Thomas Jefferson still survives" offers a poignant and sometimes humorous look at the last moments of the great men. This is a great way to encounter the presidents, from the great ones to the near-forgottens. Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb? belongs in the glove box of every traveler and the bedside table of every fan of the American presidency and American history.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Free Book (ADE-DRM) - Making Patriots

Making Patriots ($14.00 paperback), by Walter Berns, is free this month from the University of Chicago Press.

Book Description
The founding principles of the United States—freedom of speech and conscience, individual rights, and democratic dissent—often sit in opposition to the patriotic ideals of public spirit and self-sacrifice. But American history reveals scores of citizens who have put the good of the nation above their own self-interest, whether at home or abroad. It is this paradox that Walter Berns tackles with this magnificently argued book: What makes patriots? And is it still possible to make them?

Amazon.com Review
Walter Berns, an eminent constitutional scholar, plumbs the mysteries and paradoxes of American patriotism in this slim volume. How is it, he asks, that Americans can pursue their individual liberties and at the same time demonstrate public spirit? "Patriotism means love of country and implies a readiness to sacrifice for it, to fight for it, perhaps even to give one's life for it," writes Berns. "Why, especially, should Americans be willing to do this? In theory, this nation began with self-interested men, by nature private men, men naturally endowed not with duties or obligations but with certain unalienable rights, the private rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that each defines for himself."

The short answer is that Americans dedicate themselves to universal principles enumerated in the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents. This is, at bottom, a book on why Americans love their country. But it does not drip with star-spangled sentiment. Rather, it is almost wholly intellectual. Berns might have included more storytelling and less analysis on these pages. His narrative is occasionally character-driven--Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass make significant appearances--but Berns is primarily interested in their ideas. Making Patriots has the virtue of being both succinct and direct, and it addresses a set of thorny problems in clear language. Berns offers smart chapters on how patriotism interacts with religious devotion and racial identity, plus commentary on how patriotism is learned ("No one is born loving his country; such love is not natural, but has to be somehow taught or acquired"). Making Patriots may be read quickly, even as its insights are deep. Readers will find themselves returning to the book again and again, long after they thought they were done with it. --John J. Miller
Click HERE to sign up for the free book. You'll need to give them an email address and then check for their message to get the download link. The book is a DRM'd PDF and will requires Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) to download and read.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Free Book (EPUB/PDF) - X Marks the Box

Waterstone, a UK bookseller, is giving away a free download of X Marks the Box, by Daniel Blythe, in advance of the printed edition. You can choose from DRM-Free EPUB or PDF versions (optimized for larger screens) after giving them your name and email address -- I'd recommend the EPUB, which is quickly converted to any format via Calibre.

Book Description
X Marks the Box helps the ordinary citizen to negotiate the political maze. In this political primer - designed to allay fears, explode myths and shake up apathy - self-confessed born-again voter Blythe argues that politics often has very little to do with Westminster. In his role as irreverent but informed guide to the workings of politics, he offers practical ways in which everyone can politicise themselves to fight for the things that they believe in.

As the most tightly-contested general election for 30 years approaches - and one which will be fought more than ever on local issues - Daniel Blythe gives an enjoyable, useful and penetrating insight into how to make your vote count.


Click HERE for the free download, valid thru March 3, 2010.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Politician pre-order $8.55

Add another another delayed ebook release to the discount bin. This time, it's Andrew Young's Politician ($8.55), which will be released on Kindle on April 27, 2010. The hardcover ($12.00) was released on January 30, so this is another one with a three month delay.

The price of this book will revert to $9.99 after the pre-order period ends on 4/26.

Book Description
The underside of modern American politics -- raw ambition, manipulation, and deception -- are revealed in detail by Andrew Young’s riveting account of a presidential hopeful’s meteoric rise and scandalous fall. Like a non-fiction version of All the King’s Men, The Politician offers a truly disturbing, even shocking perspective on the risks taken and tactics employed by a man determined to rule the most powerful nation on earth.

Idealistic and ambitious, Andrew Young volunteered for the John Edwards campaign for Senate in 1998 and quickly became the candidate’s right hand man. As the senator became a national star, Young’s responsibilities grew. For a decade he was this politician’s confidant and he was assured he was ‘like family.” In time, however, Young was drawn into a series of questionable assignments that culminated with Edwards asking him to help conceal the Senator’s ongoing adultery. Days before the 2008 presidential primaries began, Young gained international notoriety when he told the world that he was the father of a child being carried by a woman named Rielle Hunter, who was actually the senator’s mistress. While Young began a life on the run, hiding from the press with his family and alleged mistress, John Edwards continued to pursue the presidency and then the Vice Presidency in the future Obama administration.

Young had been the senator’s closest aide and most trusted friend. He believed that John Edwards could be a great president, and was assured throughout the cover-up that his boss and friend would ultimately step forward to both tell the truth and protect his aide’s career. Neither promise was kept. Not only a moving personal account of Andrew Young’s political education, THE POLITICIAN offers a look at the trajectory which made John Edwards the ideal Democratic candidate for president, and the hubris which brought him down, leaving his career, his marriage and his dreams in ashes.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Free Audiobooks at Audible

Besides the free course in Haitian Creole and FREE: The Future of a Radical Price, by Chris Anderson, there are a few other interesting audiobooks amongst the current free offerings at Audible.

The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer, by Dean Baker, narrated by Sandra Swafford.

Book Description
In his new book, economist Dean Baker debunks the myth that conservatives favor the market over government intervention. In fact, conservatives rely on a range of "nanny state" policies that ensure the rich get richer while leaving most Americans worse off. It's time for the rules to change. Sound economic policy should harness the market in ways that produce desirable social outcomes: decent wages, good jobs, and affordable health care.

A Study in Emerald, by Neil Gaiman, narrated by Neil Gaiman is a short story.

Book Description
Alluding to both the Sherlock Holmes canon and the Old Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos, this Hugo Award-winning short story will delight fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H. P. Lovecraft, and of course, Neil Gaiman.

A Study in Emerald draws listeners in through carefully revealed details as a consulting detective and his narrator friend solve the mystery of a murdered German noble. But with its subtle allusions and surprise ending, this mystery hints that the real fun in solving this case lies in imagining all the details that Gaiman doesn't reveal, and challenges listeners to be detectives themselves.


Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, by Seth Godin, narrated by Seth Godin

Book Description
A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. For millions of years, humans have been seeking out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). It's our nature.

Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. All those blogs and social networking sites are helping existing tribes get bigger. But more important, they're enabling countless new tribes to be born - groups of ten or ten thousand or ten million who care about their iPhones, or a political campaign, or a new way to fight global warming.

And so the key question: Who is going to lead us?

The Web can do amazing things, but it can't provide leadership. That still has to come from individuals - people just like you who have a passion about something. The explosion in tribes means that anyone who wants to make a difference now has the tools at her fingertips.

If you think leadership is for other people, think again - leaders come in surprising packages. Consider Joel Spolsky and his international tribe of scary-smart software engineers. Or Gary Vaynerhuck, a wine expert with a devoted following of enthusiasts. Chris Sharma leads a tribe of rock climbers up impossible cliff faces, while Mich Mathews, a VP at Microsoft, runs her internal tribe of marketers from her cube in Seattle. All they have in common is the desire to change things, the ability to connect a tribe, and the willingness to lead.

If you ignore this opportunity, you risk turning into a "sheepwalker" - someone who fights to protect the status quo at all costs, never asking if obedience is doing you (or your organization) any good. Sheepwalkers don't do very well these days.

Tribes will make you think (really think) about the opportunities in leading your fellow employees, customers, investors, believers, hobbyists, or readers....It's not easy, but it's easier than you think.


Millionaire Upgrade , by Richard Parkes Cordock, narrated by Nigel Acheson.

Book Description
Do you ever wonder if you have what it takes to become a millionaire?

Imagine finding yourself sitting next to a self-made millionaire for eight hours on a long-haul international flight. Imagine that person was prepared to share with you the secrets of their success. For one lucky person this actually happened. Inspired by a true story, Millionaire Upgrade is the tale of one very experienced entrepreneur and one very lucky passenger.

The story unfolds mid-air at 35,000 feet as Michael, the savvy self-made millionaire, shares his wisdom, eight-step approach, and magic ingredients for success with Tom, the aspiring entrepreneur. Their mid-air conversation contains all the secrets and practical insight you need to help you make your first million. It shows how you can turn your strengths and passions into an exciting, rewarding, and challenging enterprise.

Better than any in-flight movie, Millionaire Upgrade gets you inside the minds of successful entrepreneurs and self-made millionaires giving you the inside track on how they think and act.


Extraordinary Leadership, by Robin Sharma is a speech, rather than a book, but looked interesting.

Book Description
In a constantly changing, hyper-competitive world, leadership is more important than ever. Yet few people have what it takes to inspire, develop, and guide others. In this presentation, Robin Sharma shares the leadership lessons that he gives to clients such as Nike, Microsoft, and NASA.