Free Audiobook - The Book of the Shepherd

The Book of the Shepherd, by Joann Davis & narrated by Kirby Heyborne & Joann Davis is free (for a limited time) from Audible.com

Book Description
The Story of One Simple Prayer, and How It Changed the World

Stone the builder who erects a house that falls on its occupants. Sever the hands of the criminal who pilfers livestock or grain or another's garment. Whip the child who defies an elder. For such is the law and the law must be obeyed.

For generations, these ironclad rules had governed the people. Nobody questioned whether it was right to humiliate a child or execute a murderer. An eye for an eye was the way of the world. But was there another way?

When an antiquarian book is discovered in the disheveled study of an old Vermont farm-house, the house's new owner has the volume translated. The result is The Book of the Shepherd, a timeless story full of life lessons for us all.

Set in a mythical time, in an unnamed land, The Book of the Shepherd tells the tale of a shepherd, Joshua, who is troubled by the harsh code of "an eye for an eye" that governs his world. Called by a dream, the shepherd sets off on a journey to find "the new way".

Accompanied by Elizabeth, a former slave who is kind and generous, and David, a boy who must learn to walk in new shoes, the shepherd knows that "an age of miracles" will come when the new way is found. But the journey is not without incident. En route to a cave near the Great Inland Sea, the travelers meet a cast of extraordinary characters, including the Storyteller, the Apothecary, the Blind Man, and the Stranger. Each imparts an important lesson that pushes the travelers toward their destiny.

At the cave, Joshua must see if he can bring forth secrets long buried. But he, Elizabeth, and David will also discover that sometimes what we have been searching for has been inside us all along.

12 Days of Free Romance - Day 2

All Romance is having a different free book every day for the twelve days leading up to Christmas. Today is the second day and the free book is:

Her Hungers, by Mary Winter. The price shows as $5.70, but when you click on Buy Now, you should see the discount for the 12 Days of Christmas sale. Available as many formats: Mobipocket, Microsoft Reader, HTML, Adobe Acrobat, Epub; you can purchase more than one and get the discount each time.

As with all of All Romance's books, I'd guess it is fairly explicit, given the "heat index" of 5 for this one, and the content warning below.

Book Description

Lilah knew werewolves. Growing up as a human in the Northwoods Pack territory, Lilah also knew Roarke Connelly. But a human would never be good enough to love a werewolf, and broken-hearted, Lilah left the Northwoods vowing never to come back.

And she kept her promise, until a vampire turned her and she needed, one more time, to see her home. A brutal attack there left her wounded and infected with lycanthropy. She became a werepyre, both vampire and werewolf and hated by both species.

Under the protection of Adrian Fitzreal, brother to the vampire who turned her, Lilah knows he’ll never be the Alpha, her wolf, and she, craves. But she accepts, because with Adrian’s help, she’s staying alive, which is all a werepyre can ask for.

Until Roarke shows up. He’s got trouble at home. A rogue group of werewolves known as the Dark Moon Dogs wants to take over his pack. But when he finds out Lilah was attacked in his territory, he goes to find out why.

And discovers that she’s no longer the teenage girl who hero-worshipped him. She’s a grown woman, with a woman’s needs and two beasts raging inside her. And right now, they hunger for her Alpha, and for her vampire.

Warning: This book contains scenes of M/F/M sex and sex while in shifted form.

If you sign up for the Wildfire newsletter when you create your account, you'll get an email each day to remind you about the free book of the day.

Auto/Biographies and Memoirs Under Two Bucks

You can pick up Here's Johnny!: My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship, by Ed McMahon, for a mere $0.91 in the Kindle store (or the Paperback for $1.01). If you want to read Ed's story, it's a bit more: For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times ($5.59), by David Fisher & Ed McMahon, but that would still be two books for seven bucks.

Book Description
For 30 years, Johnny Carson entertained millions of The Tonight Show viewers, creating a landmark of television. Now, Carson's irreplaceable partner and straight man Ed McMahon tells the touching, turbulent, and laugh-out-loud funny story of his personal, professional, and public relationship with one of the most beloved icons in entertainment history.

Coretta: The Story of Coretta Scott King ($0.79; Paperback $0.79), by Octavia Vivian

Book Description
In this first biography of Coretta Scott King, written by her friend Octavia Vivian, the reader meets a determined young girl who grew up in Alabama and worked her way through Antioch College only to discover that she was not allowed to teach in the white schools in Ohio. She pursued a musical career in Boston, where she met Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 brought Dr. King and his wife into national prominence. Since then the nation has seen the beauty and composure of Coretta Scott King as she has continued to speak and act on behalf of civil rights.

First published in 1970 by Fortress Press, this commemorative edition has been thoroughly updated, includes a black and white photo gallery, and is full of warmth and human interest, telling the story of Coretta Scott King from her childhood to her death in February 2006.

What a Party!: My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and Other Wild Animals ($0.82; Paperback $0.82), by Terry McAuliffe

Book Description
For more than twenty-five years, Terry McAuliffe has been at the epicenter of American politics. Just out of Catholic University in Washington, Terry took a position with the Carter-Mondale campaign and quickly became one of the campaign's chief fund-raisers - and hasn't looked back since. The list of Terry's former mentors, friends, and close associates in the nation's capital reads like a who's who of legendary Democrats: Tip O'Neill. Jimmy Carter. Dick Gephardt. Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton. Al Gore. The list goes on and on. Terry has fought hard for the Democratic Party his entire life and, as Bill Clinton reveals here for the first time, he was the first one in the party to see opportunity in the Republican gains in the 1994 Congressional elections.

Without question the most successful fund-raiser in political history, Terry established himself as a heavyweight Democratic strategist and leader who was George W. Bush's most vocal and persistent critic during the first four years of the Bush 43 presidency. He earned rave reviews even from former critics for his groundbreaking work as chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005, pulling the DNC out of debt for the first time in its history. Terry has served as a confidant and adviser to President Clinton and countless presidential candidates, a mediator among party leaders, the chairman of a national convention and presidential inaugural, and a forceful spokesman for the party - all without losing his reputation as a colorful, fun-loving character liked and respected even by his Republican adversaries.

What a Party! is a fascinating, hilarious, and provocative look at the life of one of Washington's legendary figures. From wrestling an alligator to running the Democratic National Committee to his friendship with President Clinton, Terry McAuliffe's wonderful memoir covers it all and is, without doubt, the political book of the year.

Comrade Rockstar ($1.63; Paperback $1.63), by Reggie Nadelson

Book Description
Dean Reed had one of the strangest careers in the history of popular culture. Failing to gain recognition for his music in his native United States, he achieved celebrity in South America in the early 1960s and then, unbelievably, became the biggest rock star in the Soviet Union, where he was awarded the Lenin Prize and his icons were sold alongside those of Josef Stalin. His albums went gold from Bulgaria to Berlin. He made highly successful movies and, naively earnest, was an unwitting acolyte for socialism; everywhere he went, he was mobbed by his fans. And then, in 1986, at the height of his fame, right after 60 Minutes had devoted a segment to him, finally giving him the recognition he had never attained at home, he drowned in mysterious circumstances in East Berlin. Drawn magnetically to his story, Reggie Nadelson pursued the mystery of Dean Reed's life and death across America and Eastern rope, her own journey mirroring his. As she traveled, the Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Union crumbled, and Reed became an increasingly alluring figure, his life an unrepeatable tale of the Cold War world. Encountering the characters - musicians and DJs, politicians and public figures, lovers and wives - who peopled Reed's life, Nadelson was drawn further and further into a seedy, often hilarious subculture of sex, politics, and rock-n-roll. Part biography, part memoir and personal journey, Comrade Rockstar is an unforgettable chronicle of an utterly improbable life.

Embedded: Confessions of a TV Sex Journalist ($1.90; Paperback $1.90), by Ross Dale

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.

From Power to Purpose ($1.92; Hardcover $1.92), by Sen. Sam Brownback

Book Description
The book Sam Brownback will write will not be a memoir; it will not be a policy manual; it will not be a book of self-promotion designed merely to propel the Senator into the White House in the forthcoming election season. It will be the record of a remarkable journey of faith and compassion, and the story of what can happen when one man is utterly sold out to his Lord and conspicuously placed to make a difference in the world.

Senator Brownback's story is the personal narrative of a man with a sense of mission for America and a heart for God. It will also be the story of a spiritual awakening that came through adversity, and what one aide has called his "cancer epiphany." How that change came about, and how the Senator is today going about implementing that vision in his life and work is the subject of this book.

Heroes, Hacks, and Fools: Memories from the Political Inside ($1.42; Hardcover $1.42), by Ted Van Dyke

Book Description
Ted Van Dyk, a shrewd veteran of countless national political and policy fights, casts fresh light on many of the leading personalities and watershed events of American politics since JFK. He was a Pentagon intelligence analyst during the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and an aide to Jean Monnet and other leaders of the European movement before serving at the Johnson White House as Vice President Humphrey's senior advisor and alter ego. He was involved in that administration's Great Society triumphs and its Vietnam tragedy.

In the late 1960s, Van Dyk moved to Columbia University as vice president to help quell campus disorders which threatened the university. Over a period of 35 years he was a senior advisor to presidential candidates Humphrey, McGovern, Carter, Ted Kennedy, Mondale, Hart, and Tsongas; contributed regular essays to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Fortune, and other national publications; and led two national think tanks. In 2001 the Bellingham, Washington, native returned to the Northwest to write a regular editorial-page column for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Van Dyk's memoirs contain many previously untold stories from an historic period of national politics, portray brilliant and not-so-brilliant leaders and ideas, and also illuminate politics' darker side. They bring to life the flawed realities and enduring opportunities of public policymaking in our time.

McCain: The Myth of a Maverick ($1.58; Hardcover $1.76), by Matt Welch. This is one of the many political memoirs written for the 2008 Presidential campaign.

Book Description
John McCain is one of the most familiar, sympathetic, and overexposed figures in American politics, yet his concrete governing philosophy and actual track record have been left curiously unexamined, mostly because of the massive distractions in his official biography, but also because of his ingenious strategy of talking ad infinitum to each and every access-craving media person who happens by. The more he has spouted, the less journalists have bothered trying to see through the fog.

McCain gives the voting public what it wants but can't find -- a flesh-and-bones political portrait of a man onto whom people are forever projecting their own ideological fantasies. It is a psychological key for decoding his allegedly "maverick" actions, and the first realistic assessment of what a John McCain presidency may look like. McCain will quickly lay out in overlapping detail the root cause of the senator's worldview: his personal transformation from underachieving punk to war hawk uber-patriot, in which he used the "higher power" of American nationalism to save his life and soul.

As McCain wrenches himself inside-out in pursuit of the prize that eluded him in 2000, McCain will look behind the war hero, behind the maverick reformer. Journalist and pundit Matt Welch brings to this project an investigative eye and a coolly analytical mindset to provide Republicans, Democrats and Independents a picture of the man in full before they enter the voting booth in 2008.

Free Audiobook - A Christmas Carol

Tim Curry fans won't want to miss A Christmas Carol: An Original Performance by Tim Curry, by Charles Dickens, especially since it is currently a free download at Audible. This is an unabridged version and runs 3-1/2 hours.

Book Description
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens' timeless tale, has never been out of print since its original publication in 1849 and has been adapted for stage, television, film, and opera. It has often been credited with returning the jovial and festive atmosphere to the holiday season in Britain and North America, following a period of sobriety and somberness that emerged during the Industrial Revolution.

The story opens on a bleak and cold Christmas Eve as Ebenezer Scrooge is closing up his office for the day. That evening, he is visited by the ghost of his old business partner, Jacob Marley, who warns of a terrible fate for the miserly Scrooge if he does not change his ways.

As the story progresses and Christmas morning approaches, Scrooge encounters the unforgettable characters that make this story a classic: Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, and of course the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.

12 Days of Free Romance - Day 1

All Romance is having a different free book every day for the twelve days leading up to Christmas. Today is the first day and the free book is:

Holiday Affair, by Yvette Hines. As with all of All Romance's books, I'd guess it is fairly explicit, given the "heat index" of 4.

Available as a PDF or in EPUB format (convert the EPUB using Calibre or the PDF via Amazon); if you want both, just purchase it twice.

Book Description
Chanel Davidson is about to embark on a holiday vacation that will change her life. The man of her dreams has spent a year teasing her with love notes, trinkets and thoughtful gifts, doing everything but ask her out. Well, she is prepared to grab the reindeer by the antlers this season. A week off from work, a lone man in a cabin is going to give her just the opportunity she needs to set things in a sensual motion. Only one problem, it’s the right cabin, but the wrong man.

Aidan Carmichael is expecting a quite week in a friends cabin. The season has never meant much to him over the years and he is ready to relax in his time away from work. What he is not expecting is a caramel skinned goddess to come shimmying down his chimney. Aidan has had his eyes and heart set on Chanel since he first joined the accounting firm. Now, to both of their surprise she comes dancing into his holiday haven. Chanel is trapped for a week with a grey eyed temptation. With freezing temperatures outside and things heating up on the inside, Aidan tries to prove to Chanel that they can be more than just a holiday affair. Ho, ho…oh, what a Christmas.

If you sign up for the Wildfire newsletter when you create your account, you'll get an email each day to remind you about the free book of the day.