Free Audiobook - The Good Book

David Plotz, a commentator on Slate.com, has the unabridged audiobook version of The Good Book: Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible as a free download at Audible until May 29th. Those new to Audible.com can just click on the download button, then create a new account. Existing users should log in first, then return to the original page to download the book (don't use the link on the front of Audible's homepage, as this same title is $17.47 there). The book will download as two parts, so you don't take as much space on your Kindle (or ipod) if you load them there for listening.

At a time when wars are fought over scriptural interpretation, when the influence of religion on American politics has never been greater, when many Americans still believe in the Bible's literal truth, it has never been more important to get to know the Bible. Good Book is what happens when a regular guy - an average Job - actually reads the book on which his religion, his culture, and his world are based.

Along the way, he grapples with the most profound theological questions: How many commandments do we actually need? Does God prefer obedience or good deeds? And the most unexpected ones: Why are so many women in the Bible prostitutes? Why does God love bald men so much? Is Samson really that stupid? Good Book is an irreverent, enthralling journey through the world's most important work of literature.

Kindle Dollar Days Continue

If you read Shadow of the Ghost (previously $0.89, now $2.80), then you'll want to get the second book of the Lord of Chaos Trilogy, Legacy of the Ghost, which the author, Tanner Artesz, has marked at an introductory price of $0.89 for the month of June.

The Nine and The Council of Darkness begin seeking replacements for the members they had lost during the conflict with Rachk'sha. Meanwhile, Ky prepares the Inheritance Ceremony he had to deny his triplets to protect them. Not wishing to see harm come to his children again, he, with The Lady's help, plans a uniquely special gift.

Unknown to Ky, the old goblin had been absorbing residual magic by tracing the runes Ky placed on the walls of the goblin caves many years ago. Now the goblin craves magical knowledge and finds Mistress, an albino necromancer. Together, they plan to become gods in their own right. To do this, they must steal the power of one of the current gods. In the process they carve a path of deception, betrayal, and blood.

The Grove by John Rector

The last time farmer Dexter McCray went off his medication, someone wound up dead. So, after waking from an alcoholic blackout to discover his tractor stuck in a ditch and the body of a teenage girl in the cottonwood grove bordering his cornfield, things look worryingly familiar.

With no alibi and a creeping suspicion that he might indeed be guilty, Dexter decides to investigate the crime himself. He can't tell anybody. Not his friend, the sheriff, who keeps offering to help him winch his tractor out of the ditch. Nor his estranged wife, whose love he's desperate to win back. And certainly not the Tollivers, his redneck neighbors.

Fortunately, Dexter's not entirely alone. He has some help.

In the shape of the dead girl herself.

Richard Russell is hoping to pick up a few readers and maybe a few reviews for his books (both those he's written and some he's published for others). He's reduced the price on a number of them from $3.19 to 99 cents each:

California Tumbles Into the Sea is the initial book in a series about Nick Carlson and his family and friends. The rest are: On a Morning from a Bogart Movie, Dont Forget to Say Grace, Secrets are the Things We Grew and Little GTO. Nick is a journalist/writer just returned from Southeast Asia in this first book. He finds that his old girlfriend's brother has been convicted of a murder in his old hometown and a major magazine wants him to investigate. Crime/Mystery.

Modern Problems is the first book of a series by "Dorian Taylor". This first book is short stories, some of which appeared in the Blue Review and a novella all of which is pretty experimental stuff. It's followed by Top 40, a nouveau roman, also pretty experimental. Literary fiction.

The Apocryphon (Book One Corinthus) is a modern Gnostic fable that concerns a man who found the secret to living the same life, time and again and the challenges he faces doing this. Paranormal Romance.

Finally The Friends of Fu Manchu is a collection of turn of the nineteenth century villains and is actually the second such collection he has published, the first The Colleagues of Professor Van Helsing. Following these two is Sinister Sisters, which covers the distaff side of Gothic/Victorian Vampires, Lady Geraldine, through Lady Ducayne, the female vampire in the 19th century. Vintage crime.

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If you missed The Legend of Witch Bane (The Witch Bane Saga) by Kevis Hendrickson when it was on sale a couple of months back, this weekend is your chance to grab it for 99 cents once again. His Rogue Hunter (Chronicles of the Rogue Hunter) is also a bargain priced $3.19, but is set in a different world than Witch Bane.

Not under a dollar, but close, there is now a ninth book in Brendan Carroll's The Red Cross of Gold series, IX: The Queen of the Abyss. Like the rest of the series, this one is priced at $1.59 (at least, for now).

Free Ebook from Books on Board: Sherlock Holmes

As part of today's Daily Steal, Books on Board has The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Abbey House Classics) (epub, PDF and PRC) as a free download. Like the Bram Stoker's Dracula they had a couple of days ago (only for a few hours), the PRC version this one does have DRM, so won't won't open in Calibre (but may work on the Kindle, as Dracula did; BooksonBoard says there is no DRM in the download, but a flag for DRM is definitely set). However, if you get the ePub version (not the "Adobe Digital Editions" version of the second link, as that will be a PDF, which Calibre can also have problems with, if printing is limited), then Calibre will open it with no problems and from there you can convert it to any supported format, including Mobi/Kindle AZW, and publish it straight to any supported ereader (Kindle and Sony, so far)

Update: Price drop on The Red Cross of Gold series

All the books in The Red Cross of Gold series are now marked down to $1.59. The author mentioned that this is a Memorial Day sale, so I would not expect the prices to last much beyond the weekend. If you sample the first one and it catches your fancy, be sure to grab the entire series (which all together will be less $15). In order, they are: I: The Knight of Death, II: The King of Terrors, III: The Head of the Crow, IV: The Hesperian Dragon, V: the Quinta Essentia, VI: the Dragonslayer, VII: The Wisdom of Solomon, VIII: The Silver Caduceus and IX: The Queen of the Abyss.

Here's what the author has to say about the series:

The Red Cross of Gold series is a sort of new twist on some old, but very interesting subjects, including immortality, the Philosopher's Stone, Templar Knights, the Holy Grail, Rosslyn Chapel, the crusades and all those magickal, mystical things.

As fate would have it, I wrote mine long before anyone ever heard of Dan Brown. Let me just say that Dan's book was great, but the ending was a bit disappointing. My books end up as well as they start out.

The main character is one of twelve Council members for the internal circle of the secret Templar Order that has survived the crusades, the Inquisition and banishment over the centuries. They are the ones who know where everything is hidden. The Chevalier Ramsay is a hair-triggered Scotsman from the lowlands who ran away from home back in... oh, about 1180 AD (pardon the use of an old term. I prefer Anno Domine to Common Era because I believe that there is absolutely nothing common about our current era).

Anyway, Mark Ramsay, is called to serve in one of his mystical capacities as Assassin for the Order and sent off to America (known as Merica to those in the know) to fetch back the Grand Master's apprentice who has decided to leave the Order and take up with a rival order. Our fellows, being both ancient and arrogant have little regard for this silly modern order of pretenders and vastly underestimate their high priestess's motivations, means and madness.

He falls prey to her immediately and loses his memory temporarily after a close encounter with her body guard. While under the influence of a debilitating drug, he forgets who he is and what he's doing in America in the first place. One of his captor's, the leading lady as it turns out, has things on her mind other than the secrets of the philosopher's stone and immortality. After a while, he finds himself falling in love only to learn that he is actually 837 years old and supposed to be a celibate monk.

Eventually his Brothers of the Order come after him, thinking him to be a deserter as well. The action heats up as he has to fight his captors and his own Brothers for his life. There's lots of action, love and blood. The best combination for a good yarn. Happy reading.

Free Ebook Short Stories from Harlequin

In addition to the sixteen free ebooks Harlequin is offering five free short stories for you to read, in one of three formats (all with DRM, it appears). You might not be able to read them on your Kindle, but they are short enough to read on your netbook or iphone without any eyestrain. I believe the Adobe PDF versions can be read on the newer Sony Readers and some of the other planned ebook readers coming out. It remains to be seen if Amazon's New Kindle DX will support DRM'd PDF books, but they are licensing the reader technology directly from Adobe, so it is a possibility.

The first of these is by a single author, under their Harlequin Mini label, while the last four are collaborative efforts, where a single published author works with one or more unpublished authors to write a single story (the Harlequin Mini Round Robin label).

Cherokee Christmas by Sheri WhiteFeather. Traci Calhoun, the bright-spirited daughter of a pastor, believes in extending goodwill. But when her son, Parker, convinces her to visit the elusive Daniel Crow, she finds herself falling in love with a moody stranger—a man who needs to face his past and embrace the heritage he left behind.

Stolen by the Sheikh by Kate Walker, et al. Lucy Mannion has traveled with her uncle to the desert kingdom of Dahman to negotiate some vital oil leases. But she awakens to find herself in a different place than she was the evening before -- and the prisoner of the arrogant Sheikh Hakim Bin Taimur Al Fulani.

Bedfellows by Kristi Gold. Lainey Sims Kilgore has returned to her hometown to recover from a painful divorce. To take her mind off the past, she throws herself into opening her own lingerie and swimwear boutique, as well as managing her mother’s mayoral campaign. When she learns her high school crush, Dr. Grant Morgan, is managing the opposing campaign of her mother’s lifelong enemy, Cleatus Ringo, she convinces him to help her uncover the secret behind her mother’s bitter rivalry with Ringo.

Night Magic by Mia Zachary. Lauryn Meade is far too practical to believe in magic -- until a gorgeous genie offers to take her to the heights of sensual pleasure!

The Rancher and the Rose by Carolyn Zane. He wanted a stay-at-home wife; she wanted a high-powered career. What happens when these ex-lovers meet up again?