Free Book - The Schumann Frequency

The Schumann Frequency, by Christopher Ride, is being given away (in DRM'd EPUB format only) by Random House Australia as part of a promotion of his new book The First Boxer. Neither book appears to be in print in the US, at least, not currently, so this is probably an author most of us have not read before and there is one review in the Amazon listing for The Schumann Frequency and the audio version is available at Audible.com

Book Description
It's the adventure of a lifetime...

The Dead Sea Scrolls have revealed a stunning secret - an Overseer must cross generations to save the world. Time itself is moving too quickly, with each day becoming shorter than the last. Society is unravelling, people are violently out of control, no one is safe.

Helena Capriarty fears she is losing her mind. She's having an unexplainable psychic connection with a man she has never met - no ordinary man. To prove her sanity, she must find the elusive stranger, chasing him across the globe on a whirlwind adventure to some of the most mysterious and ancient sites on earth: monuments that hold a secret power.

All the while, the forces of opposition lie in wait. They know everything that is about to happen. One wrong move and we are all condemned to disaster.

So begins the quest to rectify the Schumann Frequency.

Zero point is approaching...

To get the free book, click HERE. You'll then need to sign up for their newsletter (use a throw-away email address, but one you can check, if you don't want the newsletter), then click on a link in a confirmation email that they will send you. If you don't already have Adobe Digital Editions installed, you'll need to do that first

Free Book at Smashwords - The Ancient Order of Moridura

You can pick up a free copy of The Ancient Order of Moridura ($23.50 - $25.00 paperback) over at Smashwords, thru October the 11th, courtesy of the author, Peter Curran. It looks like his book is in it's 2nd edition on paper, but there doesn't seem to be any information on whether the ebook edition has been further revised. This one isn't in the Kindle store, but you can read it on your Kindle by downloading the Mobi formatted version.

Book Description
A Scottish electronics tycoon receives a demand from the mysterious Ancient Order of Moridura to deliver a young physicist, who claims to have discovered the source of gravitational waves, to a remote monastery in Spain, or face death. Alistair Mackinnon, accompanied by his friend Corr and the enigmatic Dr. Blade, set out for the forbidding monastery of Moridura on the rocky perimeter of a meteor crater in Extremadura. What is the terrible secret of the monks of Moridura, and their alter egos, the hermandad, a secret brotherhood? What truth lies behind the legend of an ancient entity in the depths of the monastery - La Bestia? Why is the American defence industry so interested in Doctor Blade's discovery? What will be impact of the presence of a beautiful young woman in the all-male environment of the monastery? The exploration of the complex motivations and emotions of its diverse and vital characters, including the strange young monk, Mateo, the innkeeper, Manuel Ortega, the American industrialist, Red Lonnen and the aristocratic Ferdinand of Moridanza, and the dynamic between secular and spiritual objectives, violence and negotiation, are combined in a riveting action thriller with a unique denouement.

Click HERE for the free download. Enter the coupon code JG32M after placing the book into your cart, then checkout and download your book in one of several DRM-free formats.

Kindle Bargain Ebook Roundup - Sports/People/TV

Don't Hassel the Hoff ($1.87), by David Hasselhoff

Book Description
The Los Angeles Times called him a "counterculture icon" and iTV Guide dubbed him one of TV's Ten Most Powerful Stars, but true aficionados simply call him "The Hoff." Don't Hassel the Hoff follows David Hasselhoff's phenomenal career, from his earliest childhood role in Peter Pan to his latest adventure, starring in Mel Brooks' Tony award-winning musical, The Producers. There is no better time to celebrate Hasselhoff's life and a career that continues to grow and thrive. As the star of the extremely popular classic television shows, Baywatch and Knight Rider, Hasselhoff is an international mega-star, with platinum album sales and starring roles on Broadway and London's West End. As this fascinating memoir reveals, there's more to this handsome superstar than great hair, and legs that look good while running down a beach. "The Hoff" is also a smart, caring man with a huge heart. "This book is my opportunity to print something from my heart, to tell the truth about what happened to me on the long and winding road from Baltimore to Baywatch to Broadway -- and beyond. And the truth is not to be found in tabloid stories but in my actions: I am a good father and tried to be a good husband. I love people and the emotional rollercoaster that goes with human relationships. I love all the bewildering, crazy and wonderful things that life has to offer. This book is about my successes and my failures, my strengths and my weaknesses. And, above all, it is about the hope contained in the Knight Rider slogan: 'One man can make a difference.'" --David Hasselhoff

Full of behind-the-scenes looks at Hasselhoff's television series, celebrations of his proudest moments, and the truths about his struggles with relationships and alcohol, Don't Hassel the Hoff is both highly entertaining and deeply personal, making this an engrossing page-turner from start to finish. Long live "The Hoff."

Bases Loaded ($4.10), by KIRK RADOMSKI

Book Description
On a quiet street on Long Island early on a December morning in 2005, more than fifty federal agents stood outside a lovely new home waiting for the front door to be opened. When it did, there stood the central figure in one of the biggest scandals in sports history: Kirk Radomski. Radomski was a regular New York kid who, from the age of fifteen had the amazing fortune of working in the Mets clubhouse. The focus of his job was to give the players whatever they wanted or needed -- he got their uniforms ready, packed up their homes at the end of the season, cashed their checks, and helped them beat the drug tests that would have led to suspension. And at the end of the 1986 season he even led the World Champions down Broadway during their victory parade. Eventually, he graduated to helping in other ways: providing them with steroids and human growth hormones. By the time the Feds knocked on his door, he was the main clubhouse supplier of performance-enhancing drugs to almost three hundred baseball players. Under threat of a long prison sentence - and after being identified by players he'd helped - he cooperated with Senator George Mitchell to produce the Mitchell Report, providing names and dates. Now he's ready to tell the whole story to the world. Radomski made little money from these transactions, and in this stunning book he will recount what baseball knew about the problem, his life since the report came out, and who took what. This is the tale of a young man seeing his heroes turn into clay, and the degradation of a once great sport into the drug-addicted spectacle it has become. About the Author Kirk Radomski worked in the New York Mets clubhouse for a decade. In 2007, the Mitchell Report on steroids in baseball drew heavily from his testimony in revealing the names of players who took performance-enhancing drugs.

The Lost Men ($3.29), by KELLY TYLER-LEWIS

Book Description
The untold story of the last odyssey of the heroic age of Antarctic explorationSir Ernest Shackleton's 1914 Antarctic endeavor is legend, but for sheer heroism and tragic nobility, nothing compares to the saga of the Ross Sea party. This crew of explorers landed on the opposite side of Antarctica from the Endurance with a mission to build supply depots for Shackleton's planned crossing of the continent. But their ship disappeared in a gale, leaving ten inexperienced, ill-equipped men to trek 1,356 miles in the harshest environment on earth. Drawing on the men's own journals and photographs, The Lost Men is a masterpiece of historical adventure, a book destined to be a classic in the vein of Into Thin Air.

Labor of Love ($2.89), by Thomas Beatie

Book Description
Thomas Beatie electrified the world in April 2008 with his announcement that he was seven months pregnant. He recounted his amazing story on The Oprah Winfrey Show, drawing her single largest TV audience of the year. While the news reached headlines across the globe, it is only one chapter in a fascinating saga. Labor of Love chronicles Thomas Beatie's unique life experiences: his less-than-idyllic childhood in Hawaii; his transition from female to male; his marriage to his wife, Nancy; his legal battles to live as a man; his fight to conceive a child; and the birth of their daughter, Susan, in late June. Labor of Love is a groundbreaking book because it tackles social, political, and legal questions about gender, marriage, and family. Thomas and Nancy's uphill battle to have a baby is both fascinating and touching. They are a normal couple who wanted a family, and yet the circumstances surrounding their desire to get pregnant and their journey to get there are truly extraordinary. Labor of Love is much more than the story of a unique pregnancy and birth-it's a beautiful and controversial love story, a story of going against the tide, and a powerful and important statement about the evolution of family in the new millennium.

Michael Phelps: The Untold Story of a Champion ($2.54), by Bob Schaller

Book Description
Michael Phelps is an American sports hero, perhaps the greatest Olympic athlete the world has ever known. His unprecedented eight gold medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics have made him a superstar. But his journey to Olympic immortality is every bit as compelling as his achievements in the pool. From learning to cope with ADHD to the story of how Phelps became the greatest swimmer ever, Phelps' tale is told in full detail here for the first time.

The author, Bob Schaller, has known Phelps and his coach for more than eight years, and has extensively interviewed him, along with his mother, sisters, coach, and teammates. Filled with revelations, career statistics, photographs, and insightful analysis of how Phelps achieved the seemingly impossible, this is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn the complete story behind the legend.

Far Afield: A Sportswriting Odyssey ($3.30), by S. L. Price

Book Description
A Year in Provence . . . in sweats

Some people would consider writing for Sports Illustrated a dream job. Others fantasize about living idyllically in the South of France. S. L. Price got to do both. Assigned by Sports Illustrated to cover sports in Europe, Price relocated his family to a small hamlet in Provence, and then set out to uncover the soul of world athletic competition.

In an attempt to comprehend the planet's most intense and bloody sports, he immersed himself in the cricket rivalry between India and Pakistan. He spent time with Lance Armstrong as the cyclist fended off rumors of performance-enhancing drugs. He argued politics with Olympic athletes in Athens, covered Austria's beer-drenched version of the Super Bowl, and caught basketball fever in Belgrade—as he, his wife, and children tried to adjust to life in a Europe convulsed by terrorism, anti-Americanism, and George Bush's war in Iraq.

Far Afield is an extraordinary memoir of growth, family, and games people play worldwide.

The Science of Heroes ($2.84), by Yvonne Carts-Powell

Book Description
A fun, fact-filled examination of the science (or lack thereof) behind the hit television series Heroes.Ordinary people with extraordinary powers populate the world of the hit television show Heroes, where characters exhibit such abilities as flight, telepathy, tissue regeneration, prognostication, invisibility, and teleportation through space and time.The Science of Heroes explores these superpowers and many more through real-world research into the potential of human physical and mental capabilities. Citing the work of renowned scientists and engineers, Yvonne Carts-Powell reveals that even the least likely of powers has been studied-and in some cases, even developed. From the wonders found in nature and cutting-edge technological achievements to the latest discoveries in genetics and mutations, humanity might just possess the knowledge to achieve the extraordinary.

Ten Moments That Shook the Sports World: One Sportswriter's Eyewitness Accounts of the Most Incredible Sporting Events of the Past Fifty Years ($1.50), by Stan Isaacs

Book Description
Want to know what really happened? Stan Isaacs knows. He was there!

"The Shot Heard Round the World," in 1951. "The Fight of the Century," in 1971. The horror of the 1972 Munich Olympics. Secretariat's legendary win at the 1973 Belmont Stakes. Stan Isaacs saw them all live. Isaacs covered thousands of sports stories in his more than fifty years as a journalist. But ten moments stand out in his memory. Ten Moments That Shook the Sports World offers Isaacs' eyewitness accounts of the events that changed sports history. This collection offers those old enough to remember these events a chance to relive them, and younger sports lovers will get to hear this history from someone who was there. Isaacs makes sports history live again.

Almost Free Book - On the Heels of Evil

On the Heels of Evil, by D.E. Daum, is currently on sale for one penny. Only one review, but looks like an honest one -- for a penny, I'll take a chance on it, as the story line shows promise.

Book Description
Does Kelly Rogers have a relationship with The Almighty? Perhaps. One could interpret the fact that he lives as corroboration of a Godly connection. On the other hand, his survival may be an aberration-an uncanny twist of fate, that has propelled him in the position to be the greatest single fighter of world terrorism. That is the question that author, D.E. Daum, makes his readers wonder, repeatedly, while reading this fast-paced action thriller.

Our protagonist, covert agent, Kelly Rogers, begins to believe it and why shouldn-t he? He was dead, practically cut in half by an assassin-s bomb, but awoke in the hospital as Saleem Rhamsy. Yes, through some inexplicable reason, he now occupies the body of Rhamsy-his double-crossing Arab interpreter.

Kelly, who is by all appearances Saleem Rhamsy, is now in the pre-eminent position to monitor the upcoming plans for terrorist events planned by the most active world wide terrorist organizations and as a bonus inherits Rhamsy-s former beauty queen wife, Mariam.

Working for a secret unit of the CIA, Kelly and his superior, the indomitable Jane DeJong and later his wife, go on to fight not only radical Muslim terrorists, but a troublesome group of Neo-Nazis, who have sponsored many of the terrorist activities, including a nuclear bomb planted in a major American city.

Kindle goes International!

It looks like the temporary issues some international customers had with ordering their Kindle books over the weekend were a test of some new location detection system that Amazon needed before introducing their International Kindle, which you can pre-order as of this morning for $279.

It looks like they'll start shipping on October 19th and if history is any indication, they'll be sold out from the minute they are available. Those that order right away reserve a place in line (and if you don't pay for 2nd day or overnight delivery, even that place will probably be a week after launch). Here's the big difference for those looking at the US versus the International units. Both have:

3G Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle; no annual contracts, no monthly fees, and no hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots

but the International adds:

International Coverage: Enjoy 3G wireless coverage at home or abroad in over 100 countries

Internally, they've added/changed the cell chip, most likely using the empty slot previously discovered by some of those who have disassembled their Kindles (which I don't recommend); for those technically inclined, it's a HSDPA modem (3G) with a fallback to EDGE/GPRS. The international coverage, however, isn't free (understandable, given the vast difference in how cell plans work in other countries, compared to the US), so you'll want to make extra certain that you have the cell connection turned off when you aren't planning on spending more money than usual:

When traveling abroad, you can download books wirelessly from the Kindle Store or your Archived Items for a fee of $1.99

Cell coverage for this Kindle is via AT&T, not Sprint, so that may mean a much lower coverage area inside the US (especially if you believe those Verizon ads running these days). So those outside the US will still want to mainly use their USB cable, but now have a cellular option. There is still no wi-fi, which will no doubt lower their technical support costs, since connecting to a hotspot can be tricky. Adding this option might be their next evolution and it's one that international customers (and US with poor cell coverage) would welcome, at least for those savvy enough to be able to hook up to their home networks and the free hotspots that are starting to blanket the world (and every bookstore, now that Borders has joined Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million in giving away wi-fi to promote ebook sales on the new Sony units they'll be selling this year).

The only other change that I could see was that the 2-year extended warranty sold by Amazon is for US customers only (but works on either Kindle, just only inside the US), while those outside the US (and yes, you can order one and have it shipped anywhere) get the same one-year warranty as any other Kindle customer.

The price on the US version of the Kindle, in the meantime, is $259, with refurbished units at $219 (those $199 units went fast). It looks as though they still have to be shipped to a US address, but if you don't want to risk that $2/book wireless fee, they are still a good option even for international customers or those that travel. On the other hand, if you are out of the country often and must download those books while trapped in yet another airport, the international version will provide more entertainment, almost instantly, for as little as two bucks - a deal which can't be beat, in that situation.