Free Books (Kobo) - Two from Francesca Lia Block

Two free books at Kobo tonight from Francesca Lia Block. You need to click on the "Add to Library" button on each one, after logging in to your account (you don't go thru a checkout process on free books there), then refresh the page to see the download button. Both of these are fairly short - only 82 pages in epub and around double that in print, but appear complete from what I compared to the paper versions.

I Was A Teenage Fairy ($6.99 Kindle)

Book Description
Maybe Mab was real. Maybe not. Maybe Mab was the fury. Maybe she was the courage. Maybe later on she was the sex... A tiny fairy winging her way through the jasmine-scented L.A. night. A little girl caught in a grown-up glitz-and-glitter world of superstars and supermodels. A too beautiful boy with a secret he can never share...

From the author of Weetzie Bat comes a magical, mesmerizing tale of transformation. This is the story of Barbie Marks, who dreams of being the one behind the Cyclops eye of the camera, not the voiceless one in front of it; who longs to run away to New York City where she can be herself, not some barely flesh-and-blood version of the plastic doll she was named after. It is the story of Griffin Tyler, whose androgynous beauty hides the dark pain he holds inside. Andfinally it is the story of Mab, a pinkie-sized, magenta-haired, straight-talking fairy, who may or may not be real but who helps Barbie and Griffin uncover the strength beneath the pain, and who teaches that love--like a sparkling web of light spinning around our bodies and our souls--is what can heal even the deepest scars.

Echo ($7.99 paperback)

Book Description
Maybe I would become a mermaid....I would live in the swirling blue-green currents, doing exotic underwater dances for the fish, kissed by sea anemones, caressed by seaweed shawls. I would have a dolphin as a friend. He would have merry eyes and the thick sleeked flesh of a god. My fingernails would be tiny shells and my skin would be like jade with light shining through it. I would never have to come back up...

Echo is caught at the crossroads of a physical world full of hope and despair and the realm of the supernatural, where young men have wings and skeletons speak. On the way, she is graced by angels and fairies and haunted by ghosts, psychopomps, and vampires. But as Echo falls under the spell of demons who threaten to destroy her, she must ultimately look within to find the strength to survive.

Through shifting points of view, Francesca Lia Block weaves pure magic into this deftly constructed tale -- a novel told in the form of linked stories. One girl's life emerges from a tapestry of voices, lives, and loves -- lost and found -- that deliver her finally to herself, triumphant, ever-changing.

All Romance Earth Day Free Book - My Deepest Love: Zack

My Deepest Love: Zack ($6.00 list), by Marie Rochelle, is free today at All Romance Ebooks as part of their Earth Day celebration this month.

Book Description
Traci Wells has never thought about dating any of the men from Make You Sweat, her local gym, until he catches her eye - the sexy blue-eyed stranger with the most unbelievable body she has ever laid eyes on. However, Traci promises not to let herself fall for Zack, but that vow is put to the test as the two of them grow closer and closer.

Zack Drace isn't usually the one who approaches women for dates, but when he spots the alluring mocha skinned beauty Traci Wells, that policy goes out the door. He wants to make her his more than anything in the world. He isn't going to allow the opinions of his brothers or her sister to stand in his way.

To purchase: Click Add to Cart or Buy Now and you'll see an automatic discount for the full price of the book. Be sure to complete the entire check out process (which takes about three pages of clicking), all the way until you see a link for the download (I've missed a book or two in previous promotions at this site, as I thought I was done, but didn't get all they way thru to the end). Available in the following (usually drm-free) formats: Mobipocket, HTML, Microsoft Reader, Adobe Acrobat, Epub. If you want more than one format, you'll need to purchase the book more than once, but you get the discount each time.

There will be one of these a day, until April 21. I'll try to post the link each day, as I find out which one it is. If you find it first, feel free to leave note here in comments and I'll get a post up for everyone else.

Free Book (Kobo) - You Choice from Three

Kobo books is celebrating the release of the iPad with a free book and you can get it, even without an iPad (unlike books in the Apple iBooks store). Using the coupon code koboipad during checkout, you can pick any one (and only one) of the following books for free. Since you can only pick one book, I didn't test the coupon on all three, but I picked up the last one (by Lanier) with no problem. All are in DRM'd EPUB format, so will work on nook or Sony devices, PC's or Mac's, using Adobe ADE.

Rework ($9.99 Kindle), by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson

Book Description
Most business books give you the same old advice: Write a business plan, study the competition, seek investors, yadda yadda. If you're looking for a book like that, put this one back on the shelf.

Rework shows you a better, faster, easier way to succeed in business. Read it and you'll know why plans are actually harmful, why you don't need outside investors, and why you're better off ignoring the competition. The truth is, you need less than you think. You don't need to be a workaholic. You don't need to staff up. You don't need to waste time on paperwork or meetings. You don't even need an office. Those are all just excuses.

What you really need to do is stop talking and start working. This book shows you the way. You'll learn how to be more productive, how to get exposure without breaking the bank, and tons more counterintuitive ideas that will inspire and provoke you.

With its straightforward language and easy-is-better approach, Rework is the perfect playbook for anyone who’s ever dreamed of doing it on their own. Hardcore entrepreneurs, small-business owners, people stuck in day jobs they hate, victims of "downsizing," and artists who don’t want to starve anymore will all find valuable guidance in these pages.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo ($5.50 Kindle), by Stieg Larsson

Book Description
An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel. Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption. From the Trade Paperback edition.

You Are Not A Gadget ($9.99 Kindle), by Jaron Lanier

Book Description
Jaron Lanier, a Silicon Valley visionary since the 1980s, was among the first to predict the revolutionary changes the World Wide Web would bring to commerce and culture. Now, in his first book, written more than two decades after the web was created, Lanier offers this provocative and cautionary look at the way it is transforming our lives for better and for worse. The current design and function of the web have become so familiar that it is easy to forget that they grew out of programming decisions made decades ago. The web’s first designers made crucial choices (such as making one’s presence anonymous) that have had enormous—and often unintended—consequences. What’s more, these designs quickly became “locked in,” a permanent part of the web’s very structure. Lanier discusses the technical and cultural problems that can grow out of poorly considered digital design and warns that our financial markets and sites like Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter are elevating the “wisdom” of mobs and computer algorithms over the intelligence and judgment of individuals. Lanier also shows: How 1960s antigovernment paranoia influenced the design of the online world and enabled trolling and trivialization in online discourse How file sharing is killing the artistic middle class; How a belief in a technological “rapture” motivates some of the most influential technologists Why a new humanistic technology is necessary. Controversial and fascinating, You Are Not a Gadget is a deeply felt defense of the individual from an author uniquely qualified to comment on the way technology interacts with our culture.

Free Book (nook) - Serial

The short story Serial, by Blake Crouch & Jack Kilborn (J.A. Konrath), is free in the Barnes & Noble store. The format is most likely their own ereader format (although sometimes you do get an EPUB format), with DRM and not Kindle compatible.

Book Description
Remember the twin golden rules of hitchhiking? #1-Don't go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy. #2-Don't pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be raving nutcase. So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Nutcase #2...

This title was previously free in the Kindle store, but is no longer available there. Instead, the authors have released an updated and expanded version, Serial Uncut, which now is approximately 36,000 words in length and is sale-priced at $1.99 "for a limited time."

Book Description
Remember the twin golden rules of hitchhiking?

#1: Don’t go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy.

#2: Don’t pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be certifiably crazy.

So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Crazy #2?

When Blake Crouch (DESERT PLACES, ABANDON) and Jack Kilborn (AFRAID, CHERRY BOMB), face-off, the result is SERIAL, a terrifying tale of hitchhiking gone terribly wrong. Like a deeply twisted version of an “After School Special,” SERIAL is the single most persuasive public service announcement on the hazards of free car rides.

Beyond a thrilling piece of horrifying suspense, SERIAL is also a groundbreaking experiment in literary collaboration. Kilborn wrote the first part. Crouch wrote the second. And they wrote the third together over email in 100-word exchanges, not aware of each other’s opening section. All bets were off, and may the best psychopath win.

Free Book (nook) - The Apothecary's Daughter

The Apothecary's Daughter ($9.99 Kindle, previously free in Feb), by Julie Klassen, is free in the Barnes & Noble store, courtesy of Bethany House Publishers. The format is most likely their own ereader format (although sometimes you do get an EPUB format), with DRM and not Kindle compatible.

Book Description
Lillian Haswell, brilliant daughter of the local apothecary, yearns for more adventure and experience than life in her father's shop and their small village provides. She also longs to know the truth behind her mother's disappearance, which villagers whisper about but her father refuses to discuss. Opportunity comes when a distant aunt offers to educate her as a lady in London. Exposed to fashionable society and romance--as well as clues about her mother--Lilly is torn when she is summoned back to her ailing father's bedside. Women are forbidden to work as apothecaries, so to save the family legacy, Lilly will have to make it appear as if her father is still making all the diagnoses and decisions. But the suspicious eyes of a scholarly physician and a competing apothecary are upon her. As they vie for village prominence, three men also vie for Lilly's heart.