Free copy of The Going Greener Guidebook

Stonyfield Organic has teamed up with Body + Soul Magazine in giving you a free copy of The Going Greener Guidebook. The only catch? You have to use the Zinio.com reader to read it on your PC.

Book Description
This green-living guide that includes not just tips for going green, but also visions of a green future—hopeful, inspiring flash-forwards from green leaders like Annie Leonard, Bill McKibben and Richard Heinberg.

Topics covered in Going Greener include: organics; eco food labels; buying better groceries; America’s farms and you; food safety; resources for green living; green companies; recycling; a healthy home makeover; the earth-friendly diet; and more.

Kindle Bargain Ebook Roundup - Literature

Gregorius ($0.88), by Bengt Ohlsson, Silvester Mazzarella (Translator)

Book Description
Bengt Ohlsson, one of Sweden’s most successful young writers, has responded to the classic Doctor Glas with Gregorius, which is the voice of Pastor Gregorius over the course of what could be his last and fateful summer. Gregorius is a rancorous, malodorous, and unattractive figure married to a girl young enough to be his granddaughter. But his sense of his own mortality, of his personal inadequacy, and his tenuous hold on happiness are uniquely absorbing and haunting. It is a compelling study of loneliness, longing, and the nature of love, the desires that bring people together and the fears that keep them apart.

The Handmaid's Tale ($3.95), by Margaret Atwood

Book Description
The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood first published in 1985. The novel explores themes of women in subjugation, and the various means by which they gain agency, against a backdrop of the establishment of a totalitarian theocratic state. Dress Codes play a key role in imposing social control within the new society.

The novel is often studied by high school and college students.The American Library Association lists it in "10 Most Challenged Books of 1999" and as number 37 on the "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000" due to many complaints from parents of pupils regarding the novel's anti-religious content and sexual references.

The Handmaid's Tale won the Governor General's Award for 1985 and the first Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987. It was also nominated for the 1986 Nebula Award, the 1986 Booker Prize, and the 1987 Prometheus Award. It has been adapted several times into performance works.

Angle of Repose ($3.95), by Wallace Stegner, was selected by the editorial board of the Modern Library as one of the hundred best novels of the twentieth century, winning the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published in 1971. Another of his novels, All the Little Live Things, is also $3.95.

Book Description
Wallace Stegner's uniquely American classic centers on Lyman Ward, a noted historian who relates a fictionalized biography of his pioneer grandparents at a time when he has become estranged from his own family. Through a combination of research, memory, and exaggeration, Ward voices ideas concerning the relationship between history and the present, art and life, parents and children, husbands and wives. Set in many parts of the West, Angle of Repose is a story of discovery--personal, historical, and geographical--that endures as Wallace Stegner's masterwork: an illumination of yesterday's reality that speaks to today's.

On the Road ($3.95), by JACK KEROUAC

Book Description
Kerouac's quintessential novel of America and the Beat GenerationOn the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned hero of the snowy West." As "Sal Paradise" and "Dean Moriarty," the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting importance.Kerouac's classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be "Beat" and has inspired every generation since its initial publication more than forty years ago.

Comfort Food ($4.45), by Kate Jacobs

Book Description
Shortly before turning the big 5-0, boisterous party planner and Cooking with Gusto! personality Augusta "Gus" Simpson finds herself planning a birthday party she'd rather not -- her own. She's getting tired of being the hostess, the mother hen, the woman who has to plan her own birthday party. What she needs is time on her own with enough distance to give her loved ones the ingredients to put together successful lives without her. Assisted by a handsome up-and-coming chef, Oliver, Gus invites a select group to take an on-air cooking class. But instead of just preaching to the foodie masses, she will teach regular people how to make rich, sensuous meals-real people making real food. Gus decides to bring a vibrant cast of friends and family on the program: Sabrina, her fickle daughter; Troy, Sabrina's ex-husband; Anna, Gus's timid neighbor; and Carmen, Gus's pompous and beautiful competitor at the Cooking Channel. And when she begins to have more than collegial feelings for her sous-chef, Gus realizes that she might be able to rejuvenate not just her professional life, but her personal life as well....

The Konkans ($1.36), by Tony D'Souza

Book Description
Francisco D’Sai is a firstborn son of a firstborn son—all the way back to the beginning of a long line of proud Konkans. Known as the ÒJews of India,Ó the Konkans kneeled before the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama’s sword and before Saint Francis Xavier’s cross, abandoned their Hindu traditions, and became Catholics. In 1973 Francisco’s Konkan father, Lawrence, and American mother, Denise, move to Chicago, where Francisco is born. His father, who does his best to assimilate into American culture, drinks a lot and speaks little. But his mother, who served in the Peace Corps in India, and his uncle Sam (aka Samuel Erasmus D’Sai) are passionate raconteurs who do their best to preserve the family’s Konkan heritage. Friends, allies, and eventually lovers, Sam and Denise feed Francisco’s imagination with proud visions of India and Konkan history.

Filled with romance, comedy, and masterful storytelling, The Konkans leaves us surprised by what secrets history may hold for us if only we wonder enough to look.

The Unpossessed City ($2.54), by Jon Fasman

Book Description
In this taut, atmospheric novel by the author of The New York Times bestseller The Geographer's Library, a young American finds himself adrift in Russia amid murderous bureaucrats, Central Asian mobsters, and a conspiracy to sell Soviet bioweapons to the highest bidder.Jim Vilatzer was going nowhere-working in his parents' restaurant, sleeping in his childhood bedroom-until he ran up gambling debts that forced him to go somewhere far away-fast. He uses his Russian-language skills (learned from his emigre grandparents) to cadge a job in Moscow finding and interviewing survivors of the Gulag. At first, he only finds that they are well hidden and leery of sharing their horrific stories, but he also discovers that he's falling in love with their homeland. He is intoxicated by Moscow's brooding, ironic atmosphere, its vast reservoir of entrepreneurial energy, its otherworldly churches and majestic subways. On any given day, petty indignities are more than offset by random acts of kindness.Jim's taste for gambling is satisfied merely by living in a city that teems with risk and promise. So he blithely accepts a big win when a chance meeting with a lovely aspiring actress leads not only to romance but also to her grandfather, a concentration camp survivor who does actually want to share his story. Soon Jim is on a roll, scoring interviews with four other survivors in as many days, learning harrowing and fascinating things about bygone atrocities and feeling like he has finally found where he belongs.But his apparent success has earned him the attention of Russia's Interior Ministry and the CIA. Jim has become an unwitting cog in a scheme to spirit Soviet scientists and their deadly secrets out of Russia and into the hands of the highest bidder. Pursued ruthlessly by both sides, he must flee again, this time to the lawless border country, where an economist-cum- mobster is preparing to peddle the world's most dangerous technologies to whichever terrorists can muster the cash first.

Like Donna Leon's novels of Venice or John Burdett's Bangkok series, The Unpossessed City makes of its setting an intricate, irresistible character. With taut, ingenious plotting and incisive prose, Fasman engages our most visceral fears and throws brilliant light on our most primal drives-to feel that we belong, to find love, to become better than we are.

Loyal to the Sky: Notes from an Activist ($3.51), by Marisa Handler

Book Description
The most high-minded excuse for doing nothing is that the means with which to do it or the company you'd keep are flawed, the justification that you're keeping your hands clean (which is another way to say that you'll save only yourself). There are unambiguous realities in this book - the reality of poverty and of exploitation - but every situation still requires a tightrope-walker's balancing act: of pragmatism and idealism, of solidarity and independent-mindedness, of purposefulness and flexibility. And this is where the book becomes more than a conventional tale of an activist's evolution: spirituality, eventually in the clear form of Buddhism, enters in, and Buddhism itself offers the nonattachment, the recognition of ephemerality and the need to let go, the sense of life as an ever-moving river, that helps Marisa make sense out of all that she witnesses and does. At a very young age, she has gone very far. This book is an invitation to the rest of us to keep going.

The Stone Diaries ($3.74), by Carol Shields

Book Description
In celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of its original publication, Carol Shields's Pulitzer Prize?winning novel is now available in a Penguin Classics Deluxe EditionONE OF THE MOST successful and acclaimed novels of our time, this fictionalized autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett is a subtle but affecting portrait of an everywoman reflecting on an unconventional life. What transforms this seemingly ordinary tale is the richness of Daisy's vividly described inner life-from her earliest memories of her adoptive mother to her awareness of impending death.

A Family Daughter ($2.28), by Maile Meloy

Book Description
Maile Meloy's debut novel, Liars and Saints, captured the hearts of readers and critics alike. Now Meloy returns with a novel even more dazzling and unexpected than her first. Brilliantly entertaining, A Family Daughter might also be the most insightful novel about families and love that you will read this year.

It's 1979, and seven-year-old Abby, the youngest member of the close-knit Santerre family, is trapped indoors with the chicken pox during a heat wave. The events set in motion that summer will span decades and continents, change the Santerres forever, and surprise and amaze anyone who loved Meloy's Liars and Saints.

A rich, full novel about passion and desire, fear and betrayal, A Family Daughter illuminates both the joys and complications of contemporary life, and the relationship between truth and fiction. For everyone who has yet to meet the Santerres, an unmatched pleasure awaits.

Red Is for Remembrance ($2.30), by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Book Description
I know you're alone . . . Shattered by her boyfriend's tragic death, Stacey is struggling in her first year of college, hoping that somehow, somewhere, Jacob is still alive. Now her nightmares are back, haunted by ghosts and misery. Casting healing spells brings Stacey closer to Porsha-a troubled girl who's also dreaming of death-and to a strange boy whose life is in danger. To save him, it'll take all the strength and magic they've got. And maybe even cost them their lives.

Woman in Red ($1.70), by Eileen Goudge

Book Description
The stories of two generations intertwine in this tale, set on an island in the Pacific Northwest, that revolves around a mysterious portrait.

A powerful story of love and redemption and what one woman will do to overcome the buried secrets of her past. It’s a tale that weaves the past with the present, revealing a forbidden wartime romance and from which we come to know the story behind the “woman in red.”

Kindle Bargain Ebook Roundup - Excercise/Self-Help/Inspiration

Total Sports Conditioning for Athletes 50+: Workouts for Staying at the Top of Your Game ($3.38), by Dr. Karl Knopf

Book Description
Though younger weekend warriors often find that they can compete at a high level with little off-the-court conditioning, that simply isn't the case for atletes over 50. But getting older doesn't mean giving up one's favorite sport. Nor does it mean losing to younger competitors! Total Sports Conditioning for Athletes 50+ provides sport-specific workouts that allow aging athletes to maintain the flexibility, strength, and speed needed to win. By following the targeted, step-by-step workouts in this book, older athletes can see how a small amount of the right exercise will keep them at the top of their game. Athletes like Jerry Rice and Roger Clemens have proven that proper conditioning can allow professionals to extend their careers to ages previously believed impossible. Similarly, non-professional athletes can use the combination of aerobic, plyometric and functional training workouts in this book to keep themselves free of injury and still enjoying the game past 50 — and beyond.

Women's Health Perfect Body Diet: The Ultimate Weight Loss and Workout Plan to Drop Stubborn Pounds and Get Fit for Life ($4.00), by Cassandra Forsythe [Optimized for KindleDX]

Book Description
Let's face it-women simply do not shed pounds or build muscle as easily as men do. Drawing on fascinating recent research that has shed new light on the gender differences in food metabolism and the effect of exercise, the editors of Women's Health, the healthy lifestyle magazine for today's active woman on the go, have devised a weight-loss plan that works especially well for women who would like to lose 5-25 pounds.

Key features of Women's Health Perfect Body Plan include:

• Glucomannan, a soluble fiber that helps dieters feel full faster-and therefore eat less throughout the day
• Meal plans that contain at least 40 grams of fiber per day
• An adjustment for the impact of female hormones on weight loss (women need a higher protein diet than men to increase lean body tissue and decrease body fat)
• Dieting techniques that revolve around psychological needs and personal goals and lifestyle
• Two diet plans to choose from-one higher in fats and lower in carbs; the other higher in carbs and lower in fats (simple food tests help women choose the type they need)

In addition to the customized eating plan-complete with 75 easy-to-prepare recipes-there is a vigorous customized fitness program consisting of 50 exercises that brings results in just three weeks.

Wired that Way: The Comprehensive Personality Plan ($1.99), by Dr. Marita Littauer

Book Description
Do you want to understand yourself better, maximize your strengths and improve your relationships? Understanding how we are wired can enrich our lives and our relationships, helping to overcome differences that can seem irreconcilable. Instead of terminating jobs, friendships or marriage on grounds of incompatibility, it is possible to turn these relationships from dying to growing. For more than 25 years, Marita Littauer, with her mother, Florence Littauer, has helped thousands of men and women with their personal and professional relationships. In Wired That Way, Marita brings together in one book a comprehensive overview of the personality types that speaks to anyone who wants to understand and to be understood.

Life's Little Instruction Book: 511 Suggestions, Observations, and Reminders on How to Live a Happy and Rewarding Life ($3.26), by H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Book Description
Originally written as a gift for his college-bound son, this inspirational collection of wisdom offers Brown's 527 easy-to-follow suggestion on how to live a happy, successful, and fulfilling life.

Feng Shui For Dummies ($4.95), by David Daniel Kennedy

Book Description
Take a look around you. What do you see? Whether or not you're aware of it, your environment profoundly affects your health, wealth, family life, relationships, and yes, even your destiny. Feng Shui (pronounced fung shway), which means wind water, is the ancient Chinese study of harmony and energy flow between you and your physical surroundings. You can enrich every aspect of your life by applying Feng Shui principles to your home (inside and out) and workplace (from window office to cubicle).

Feng Shui For Dummies is for anyone who seeks a better life. This book shows you how to feel and access the energy of your environment (it's easier than you may think!). Find out how your environment influences your life right now. Use the solutions in this book to overcome obstacles and enhance the positive. You'll be sure to feel the before-and-after differences.

Within the past 10 years, Feng Shui has gained widespread popularity in the West. Today, more and more people from all walks of life are practicing Feng Shui and experiencing the positive benefits of auspicious placement. This book shows you everything you need to know to help improve the flow of harmony, creativity, and abundance in your life.

Phenomenon ($1.95), by Sylvia Browne

Book Description
There's no slowing down for Sylvia Browne. For nearly fifty years she has been giving countless readers and listeners spiritual advice and psychic predictions. Browne offers her fans a complete guide to all things unexplainable. In Phenomenon, an A-to-Z compendium of everything on The Other Side that influence our life here on Earth, Browne provides evocative stories and useful explanations to help make life on The Other Side real for readers. It also features approximately twenty illustrations that will accompany some of the entries, including: -Atlantis: Where did it go and when will it return? -Clairvoyance: How do you know if you have the gift? -Deja vu: Are past lives the answer to this strange phenomenon? -Ghosts: Who are they? -Miracles: Can they happen every day? -Numerology: How does this affect us? -Reincarnation: Have we lived : before? -Sorcery: Is this something we should fear? -Zombies: Are they only in horror movies? An easy-to-use reference full of hope and guidance, Phenomenon is sure to have wide appeal among Browne's loyal fans and anyone in search of signs of the afterlife.

Measure of the Heart: A Father's Alzheimer's, A Daughter's Return ($2.99), by Mary Ellen Geist

Book Description
Mary Ellen Geist decided to leave her job as a CBS Radio anchor to return home to Michigan when her father's Alzheimer's got to be too much for her mother to shoulder alone. She chose to live her life by a different set of priorities: to be guided by her heart, not by outside accomplishment and recognition.

The New York Times wrote a front page story on Mary Ellen on Thanksgiving 2005. It was one of the most e-mailed stories for the month. Through her own story and through interviews with doctors and other women who've followed the "Daughter Track"--leaving a job to care for an aging parent--Geist offers emotional insights on how to encourage interaction with the loved one you're caring for; how to determine daily tasks that are achievable and rewarding; how the personality of the patient affects the caregiving and the progression of the diseases; as well as invaluable advice about how caregivers can take care of themselves while accomplishing the Herculean task of constantly caring for others.

Geist's years in journalism allow her to report on Boomers' caretaking dilemmas with professional objectivity, and her warm voice brings compassion and insight to one of the most difficult stituations a son or daughter may face during his or her life.

True Work: Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do ($2.84), by Michael Toms & Justine Toms; note that the cover shown in the Kindle store is for a different book.

Book Description
Here is wisdom for the workplace from the husband-and-wife team of the nationally syndicated public radio series New Dimensions, which airs each week on more than 300 stations and is often described as "Bill Moyers on radio."

Some people are consumed by their work, others simply endure it as they anticipate the weekend or retirement, and hardly anyone enjoys it anymore. If we could find a way to transform how we view what we do so that it becomes a source of enjoyment and refreshment, it would be a cause for celebration. And indeed, this is exactly what Michael and Justine Toms provide in their remarkable book--the fruit of their own twenty-five years of practical experience.

According to the Toms, the bottom line is: Has our compassion grown with our business? Has our wisdom expanded with our budget? And has our laughter increased with our staff? Their book looks at work as service and as a spiritually sustaining activity that promotes healing. It is brimful with stories and helpful techniques culled from their radio interviews with Joseph Campbell, Buckminster Fuller, the Dalai Lama, Alice Walker, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Marsha Sinetar, and many others.

21-Day Countdown to Success: Take Charge of Your Life in Less Than a Month ($2.60), by Chris J. Witting

Book Description
Nationally syndicated, award-winning broadcaster and entrepreneur Christian Witting has researched hundreds of highly successful people, such as Bill Gates and Lillian Vernon, and offers a simple program to help readers target their goals and achieve them.

Searching for Mary Poppins ($3.46), edited by Susan Davis

Book Description
With wit, sensitivity, and unflinching honesty, Searching for Mary Poppins brings together twenty-five of today's leading woman writers-including Marisa de los Santos, Susan Cheever, Joyce Maynard, and Jacquelyn Mitchard-to explore the emotional minefield of mother-nanny relationships. From Daphne Merkin on the challenges of hiring a nanny after having been raised by one to Lauren Slater on her regret at having -given her mothering away,- the collection-s stunningly original pieces offer rare insight into the complex issues that emerge when a mother turns the care of her child over to a stranger. Raising questions that reach beyond money, race, class, and gender into the darkest areas of love and fear that a mother feels, this book ultimately provides hope, solace, and welcome perspective on this unique relationship.

Good Date, Bad Date: The Matchmaker's Guide to Where the Boys Are and How to Get Them ($3.09), by Marla Martenson

Book Description
Good Date, Bad Date is every single woman's dating coach—steering readers clear of pitfalls, guiding them to successful and fun dates. With her signature breezy, unflappable style, Martenson helps single women think about critical issues before they dive into the dating pool. Included in the book are such issues, tips, and advice.

Filled with self-assessment tests, quizzes, and dating Q&A's, as well as anecdotes about successful dates and dating horror stories, Good Date, Bad Date is the single woman's personal matchmaker to finding and dating the perfect guy.

Meat ($2.60), by Susan Bourette

Book Description
After spending a week working undercover at a slaughterhouse and being tormented by blood, the stink, and the squeals of animals being herded to their death, author Susan Bourette decided to go vegetarian. She lasted five weeks and thirty-seven hours. Dissatisfied with tofu and lentils, Bourette wondered, Isn't there a way to have my meat and a clear conscience too? It's a question that will resonate with millions of happily carnivorous Americans we eat more meat per capita than any other nation who are unwilling to give up steak for soy but are alarmed about mad cow disease, E.coli poisoning, and the filthy, inhumane conditions on chicken and cattle farms. On a quest for superior meat, Susan Bourette takes readers behind the bucolic facade of the famous Blue Hill farm, north of New York City; on a long, hot cattle drive at a Texas ranch; a whale hunt with the Inuit in Canada; a Canadian moose hunt; and behind the counter in a Greenwich Village butcher shop. Humorous yet authoritative, Meat: A Love Story celebrates the deliciousness of meat and the lives of the passionate professionals who hunt, raise, or cook it. With a deft touch, Bourette explores what it means to be a compassionate carnivore.

Hope for a Hopeless Day: Encouragement and Inspiration When You Need It Most ($3.99), by Jack W. Hayford

Book Description
When no hope is left, to whom should we turn? Through the words of Jesus as He was dying on the Cross, Jack Hayford unfolds the secret of triumphing over the ultimate season of suffering. Establishing a framework for dealing with hardship, Hope for a Hopeless Day challenges readers to examine the way they handle trials and encourages them to focus on the power that frees the cross. Here are real-life stories of individuals who triumphed over their hopeless days. Readers will be heartened by their stories of bravery and integrity even while facing the anguish of marital infidelity or financial collapse. Although facing what seems like insurmountable odds, we are called to hope just as surely as we are called to the Cross, for the Savior who speaks there is teaching us the way to live as surely as He is dying to give us life. Hope for a Hopeless Day does more than encourage you to endure; it inspires you to overcome.

I'll Hold You In Heaven: (Recover/Revision) ($3.19), by Jack W. Hayford

Book Description
For those who have lost a child to death, Jack Hayford provides compassionate answers to troubling questions such as, What happened to my baby after it died? Will I ever see my baby again-and will I recognize him? what happens if I've had an abortion? Does God have a reason for letting my child die? God's Word shines with hope in the dark night of human pain. God showed his tenderness when David lost the child he had with Bathsheba shortly after its birth. In his pain and grief, David spoke the word of revelation-reassuring word of God's truth-saying, "I will go to (my child) but he will not return to me" (2 Samuel 12:19-23). The freeing truth of the Word of God promises that, like David, you will hold your child again in heaven.

Free Reads at Smashwords

There are a number of interesting free books available on Smashwords, where all the books are DRM-free and usually have a version that will work on a Kindle or a Sony Reader, as well as PDF and other formats. Most of these are only available at Smashwords, although I've included links to the Kindle store version for a couple (where they are not free), for those that prefer to stick with Amazon or want to look up reviews. Several of these have a non-zero purchase price and require a coupon code to be entered after adding the book to your cart; I've highlighted these in the text to make them easier to find. The ones that are entirely free can be downloaded immediately; however, the author can add a price to these at any time and there is no way to save a "Free" book (where you don't use a coupon code) in your library and have it remain there after the price increases, so download any that seem interesting right away - it's easy enough to delete them later, if they don't hold your interest.

Xenolith, by A. Sparrow. Requires a coupon code on checkout, TZ24M, good for approx. 30 days. I saw this one in the new release list at Smashwords and had made a note to check out the sample. Before I got a chance to do so, the author published the coupon code for a free purchase, so it's in my TBR stack.

Book Description
With Earth a conduit for a parallel world at war, Frank Bowen, exiled for witnessing a portal, wanders in search of a long vanished wife. Meanwhile, off-world scouts, stranded in a small New England town discover a plot to open Earth to their enemies. Frank inadvertently aids their cause during his quest for the long-lost Liz, whose trail gets warmer the farther he travels the backroads of Gi.

My kitten picked out Black Silk, by Jan Gordon, as I was browsing at Smashwords - not only did she like the cover, but she said any book that featured cats and books as the most important things in life was worth sampling. The book is free, but be sure to download if you want it - the author can always increase the price, which will make the free download unavailable.

Book Description
Vic has two loves in her life, her cat, Mister, and reading books from her bookstore. Her future looked set, until one night when she's saved from probable danger by a mysterious stranger. Cole has moved around a lot during his life, never finding a true home, until he buys an old house, and fate steps in to change his future. A light romance with a paranormal twist.

Flying Burger, by Jared Martin, is another new release. Requires a coupon code on checkout, NY78A, good thru November 11.

Book Description
A group of youngsters go on a space exploratory trip led by Mrs. Andersen. There they encounter aliens and monsters beyond their wildest imaginations. They even go as far as inside a black hole!

Distant Cousin, by Al Past, the first book in a 4-book series is free this month. Requires a coupon code on checkout, TT93U. You can get this one at Amazon, but the price change down to one dollar hasn't taken effect (Al submitted it the first of the month), so it's still $5 there. If you want to read the rest of the series, the order is DC: Repatriation, DC: Reincarnation, and DC: Regeneration.

Book Description
What if our first contact from another planet was a human? What if the first real alien to visit Earth from another solar system was a woman on a mission to find the distantly related cousins of her own people? What if she brought with her a warning of an impending disaster of apocalyptic proportions? And what if nobody believed her?

Al Past’s novel Distant Cousin is a most unusual science fiction story with a most unusual heroine. Ana Darcy has jeopardized her mission and cut herself off from her own people to bring a desperate warning to Earth authorities. Astronomers at a Texas observatory don’t believe her, but the US military is willing to interrogate her—under custody of course. Her astonishing escape from Army detainment is our first hint that she may be more than she first appears and capable of more than we imagine. While the military scrambles to locate and recapture the woman they call “Gidget from Outer Space,” Darcy realizes that her journey to Earth has placed her in the path of the oncoming destruction and she will suffer Earth’s fate if the calamity is not avoided.

Befriended by ordinary people as varied as the family of a Texas dude ranch foreman, a mild-mannered reporter, and an Olympic contender from Barbados, Darcy conceives a daring plan to evade government capture while hiding in plain sight, and to deliver her warning in a manner which cannot possibly be ignored. Afterward, she might just fall in love … if she can trust her own feelings … and if she can trust her boyfriend with the truth about her origins. This is a science fiction novel which might better be described as a love story with scientific speculation. The premise of humans on another world is startling, and the author reels out details about Darcy’s homeworld so sparingly that our curiosity is cleverly aroused. It is only when unexpected arrivals provoke a sudden crisis of diplomacy that we learn exactly what Darcy gave up in accepting her mission to Earth—and what she might be running from.

I've had this one on before, but there is a new coupon code at Smashwords for Boomerang, by Alan Hutcheson, plus he now has the correct cover and reformatted version live at Amazon for $1.00. Requires a coupon code on checkout, QQ46G DL66H, good thru October November 15.

Book Description
Ted Hogwood's beloved Sarah, a jazz guitar, is in the window of Topp Dollar Pawn. The only way he can get the money to rescue her is to accept an assignment from the AABC, a not nearly official branch of the United States intelligence community. He is partnered with Jerry Kwiatkowski, master of the Hammond B-3 organ and chronic flatulence sufferer, to steal a boomerang containing secrets that should have died with J. Edgar Hoover over thirty years ago. It would be a simple job if only they knew what they were doing. And if a crossbow wielding assassin, two unemployed Australian women, The Director of Central Intelligence and a clothing optional former onion festival queen were not also hot on the boomerang's trail.

Final Passage, by Timothy Frost, is another of those free downloads that you need to grab when you see them, as the author can always increase the price and they won't remain in your library.

Book Description
When Martin Lancaster was eighteen, his father was mysteriously lost at sea during a yacht race. Years later Martin discovers long-lost logbooks in his mother’s attic and vows to find out the truth. But he meets implacable resistance from family, business colleagues and officials, who seem prepared to stop at nothing to prevent him discovering what really happened all those years ago.

Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven Princess, by Wesley Allison. Some of you may have picked up one of his other books that have been free downloads recently (Princess of Amathar or His Robot Girlfriend). He also has two short stories that I thought were going to be graphic novels, but are not, which I downloaded to check out later: Women of Power Issue 1 and Issue 2. Requires a coupon code on checkout, XQ32D, good thru December 1.

Book Description
Eaglethorpe Buxton, famed adventurer and story-teller, friend to those in need of a friend and guardian to those in need of a guardian. He is a liar and braggart, not to be trusted, especially around pies. Who are we to believe? Buxton himself leads us through his world as he comes to the aid of… a poor orphan? An elven princess? Who can guess with Eaglethorpe himself telling the tale?

The Defector, by Mark Chisnell, is also one of those free downloads that you need to grab when you see them.

Book Description
Self-interest or selflessness? This is the dilemma at the heart of The Defector - can Martin Cormac turn his back on his ruthless past as a currency trader, a player, and do the right thing? Looking for answers in a succession of sleazy bars, Cormac meets Janac, the man who will convince him to play the ultimate game, where the stakes are not just his own life – but that of the woman he loves.

The Wrecking Crew, by Mark Chisnell, is the sequel to The Defector. It is also one of those free downloads that can disappear.

Book Description
Phillip Hamnet left port at the helm of the MV Shawould, apparently master of his vessel and his destiny. But others had a different agenda on that evil night in the South China Sea. Drug warlord Janac has turned to piracy to fund his battle for control of the Australian narcotics trade, and Hamnet is faced with one brutal choice after another....

Last up is Crazy White Devil, by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, is a short volume of modern or slam poetry.

Book Description
Newish and old poems by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, member of the 1998 National Poetry Slam Champions from the Nuyorican Poets Café, and notorious malcontent. Includes Breathless, Crazy White Devil, Old New York Love Story, and others.

Kindle Bargain Ebook Roundup - Holiday Books for Kids

Junie B., First Grader: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! (P.S. So Does May.) ($3.99), by Barbara Park [Optimized for KindleDX]

Book Description
It’s holiday time, and Room One is doing lots of fun things to celebrate.

Like making elf costumes! And singing joyful songs! Only, how can Junie B. enjoy the festivities when Tattletale May keeps ruining her holiday glee? And here is the worst part of all! When everyone picks names for Secret Santa, Junie B. gets stuck with Tattletale you-know-who! It’s enough to fizzle your holiday spirit! Hmm . . . or is it? Maybe, just maybe, a Secret Santa gift is the perfect opportunity to give May exactly what she deserves.

Christmas Around the World (On My Own Holidays, 2) ($4.14), by Emily Kelley [Optimized for KindleDX], looks to be a teaching book, aimed at kids in the 2-3 grade, but can probably be used for kids of a much wider age range, with parental help.

Book Description
Describes Christmas traditions in Mexico, China, Sweden, Ethiopia, Germany, Lebanon, Australia, and Russia

My Weird School #14: Miss Holly Is Too Jolly! ($3.19), by Dan Gutman [Optimized for KindleDX]

Book Description
Something weird is going on!

Miss Holly, the Spanish teacher, is hanging mistletoe everywhere! That means boys will have to kiss girls. And girls will have to kiss boys. Ugh! Miss Holly is taking the holidays way too far!

The Candy Corn Contest ($3.99), by Patricia Reilly Giff

Book Description
It's almost Thanksgiving, and Richard Best can't stop thinking about Ms. Rooney's Candy Corn contest. Whoever can guess the exact number of yellow-and-orange candies in the jar on Ms. Roney's desk gets to keep them all. The only problem is Richard has to read a page in a library book for each guess.

Smelly Matthew, who sits in front of him, knows they'll never win. "We're the worst readers in the class, " he says. But Richard won't give up. He can already taste those Candy Corns. And before he knows it, he has. Three fat juicy ones.

What will Ms. Rooney do when she finds out?