Two Buck Books: Mystery and Romance

Two mysteries and two romance books from Hatchette are on sale for $1.99 this month. If you picked up the two by Elizabeth Peters last month, be sure to grab the ones this month, which include the start of the series. If you missed them, you can still get The Curse Of The Pharaohs and Seeing A Large Cat for $1.99 at Kobo (but in DRM'd EPUB format, which doesn't work on the Kindle), as they have not yet updated their database with the new books this month.

Crocodile on the Sandbank ($1.99 Kindle, B&N & Sony) by Elizabeth Peters, is the first in her Amelia Peabody series.

Book Description
Thirty-one-year-old Victorian gentlewoman Amelia Peabody has not only inherited her father's fortune, but she is also blessed with his strong will as well. Now she's headed for Cairo, accompanied by a girl with a tarnished past, to indulge her passion for Egyptology. Little did she know that murder and a homicidal mummy lay in wait for her.

The Hippopotamus Pool ($1.99 Kindle, B&N & Sony), by Elizabeth Peters, is the eighth in her Amelia Peabody series.

Book Description
A masked stranger offers to reveal an Egyptian queen's lost tomb...and Amelia Peabody and her irascible archeologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson, are intrigued, to say the least. When the guide mysteriously disappears before he tells his secret, the husband-and-wife team sail to Thebes to follow his trail, helped-and hampered-by their teenage son, Ramses, and beautiful ward, Nefret. But before the sands of time shift very far, all will be risking their lives foiling murderers, kidnappers, grave robbers, and ancient curses. And the Hippopotamus Pool? It's a legend of war and wits that Amelia is translating, one that alerts her to a hippo of a different type-a nefarious, overweight art dealer who may become her next archenemy!

A Highlander Never Surrenders ($1.99 Kindle, B&N & Sony), by Paula Quinn

Book Description
Defending Her Was His Duty

Skilled with a sword and quick with her wit, Scottish rebel Claire Stuart cannot be tamed. And nothing can deter her from rescuing her beloved sister and saving them both from arranged marriages--not even the handsome Highlander who vows to protect Claire. His scorching gaze and fiery kiss bring her to the brink of surrender, but she belongs to no man...

Seducing Her Would Be His Reward

Graham Grant has had his share of lasses. But he has never met one as headstrong or as bonnie as Claire--or one with such desperate, dnagerous plans. Helping her could betray his honor, his country, and more. Graham can't claim her. Yet everything in him says: Take her, make her yours, teach her pleasure, and never let her go.

Between the Sheets ($1.99 Kindle), by Robin Wells

Book Description
How do you have a life when everyone in America thinks you gave the president-elect a fatal heart attack during an illicit sex romp?

Emma Jamison never thought she'd have to answer that question, but here she is, smack dab in the middle of a political scandal that would make Monica Lewinsky blush. Trouble is, nobody believes that Emma wasn't the call-girl who killed the president-to-be with her, uh, carnal skills.

So Emma packs up and moves to small-town Chartreuse, LA, to escape her infamy and to start over. But when her grandmother starts dating the grandfather of district attorney Max Duval, the quiet life she was seeking blows up in smoke.

Free Game - Tradewinds Classic

The free game this week at Sandlot Games is Tradewinds Classic ($6.95 Amazon Game Downloads). The precursor to the Tradewinds 2 and Tradewinds Legends, both of which have been offered for free by Sandlot Games. Legends is one that I played for 10 hours straight and completed one character's story mode (I need to back sometime and try the other characters, to see if the story mode changes, plus I unlocked at least one new captain that I haven't tried).

Game Description

• Buy Low, Sell High And Build Your Fortune.
• Choose From 4 Unique Characters.
• Buy More Ships To Dominate The Seas.
• Collect Bounties By Defeating Villainous Pirates.

Travel back in time to a world of danger and mystery; a place where the open waters can mean anything but smooth sailing. Set in the 19th century Far East, go back to the very beginning where buying and selling exotic goods, or collecting bounties on previously thought-to-be-dead pirates, can lead to untold wealth...or ultimate doom. With enough wisdom, courage and luck you too can become a Tai-Pan!

Click HERE to sign up for the free download. For step by step purchase and installation instructions, see this post.

Free Book (Sony) - Executive Privilege

Executive Privilege ($9.99 Kindle), by Phillip Margolin, has a new, free edition available in the Sony ebookstore. Although I would expect the other stores to catch up soon (Sony is usually the last out with these editions), I also still haven't seen The Shop on Blossom Street drop in the Kindle store (and the limited time price at Sony is only until May 4, which is today).

Update: This book is now listed in the Amazon store, Executive Privilege Free with Bonus Material , but is marked as unavailable in the US. Hopefully that will change in a few days and it'll be free on Kindle as well as for Sony readers.

Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin is back, this time with a powerful tale of murder that snakes its way through Washington, D.C.'s halls of power, leading straight to the White House and the most powerful office on earth.

When private detective Dana Cutler is hired by an attorney with powerful political connections, the assignment seems simple enough: follow a pretty college student named Charlotte Walsh and report on where she goes and whom she sees. But then the unexpected happens. One night, Cutler follows Walsh to a secret meeting with Christopher Farrington, the president of the United States. The following morning, Walsh's dead body shows up and Cutler has to run for her life.

In Oregon, Brad Miller, a junior associate in a huge law firm is working on the appeal of a convicted serial killer. Clarence Little, now on death row, claims he was framed for the murder of a teenager who, at the time of her death, worked for the then governor, Christopher Farrington. Suddenly, a small-time private eye and a fledgling lawyer find themselves in possession of evidence that suggests that someone in the White House is a murderer. Their only problem? Staying alive long enough to prove it.

As always with Sony, open up the software and do a search on the title. Pay attention to which one you pick, as there are two editions, one full price and one is free.

Free Book (ADE-DRM) - No Dig, No Fly, No Go

No Dig, No Fly, No Go: How Maps Restrict and Control ($13.50 paperback), by Mark Monmonier, is free TODAY ONLY from the University of Chicago Press.

Book Description
Some maps help us find our way; others restrict where we go and what we do. These maps control behavior, regulating activities from flying to fishing, prohibiting students from one part of town from being schooled on the other, and banishing certain individuals and industries to the periphery. This restrictive cartography has boomed in recent decades as governments seek to regulate activities as diverse as hiking, building a residence, opening a store, locating a chemical plant, or painting a house anything but regulation colors. It is this aspect of mapping - its power to prohibit - that celebrated geographer Mark Monmonier tackles in "No Dig, No Fly, No Go".

Restrictive mapping has been indispensable in settling the American West, claiming slices of Antarctica, protecting fragile ocean fisheries, and keeping sex offenders away from playgrounds. But it has also been used for opprobrium: during one of the darkest moments in American history, cartographic exclusion orders helped send thousands of Japanese Americans to remote detention camps. Tracing the power of prohibitive mapping at multiple levels - from regional to international - and multiple dimensions - from property to cyberspace - Monmonier demonstrates how much boundaries influence our experience, from homeownership and voting to taxation and airline travel.

A worthy successor to his critically acclaimed How to Lie with Maps, the book is replete with all of the hallmarks of a Monmonier classic, including the wry observations and witty humor. Written for anyone who votes, owns a home, or aspires to be an informed citizen, "No Dig, No Fly, No Go" will change the way we look at maps forever.

Click HERE to sign up for the free book. You'll need to give them an email address and then check for their message to get the download link. I'd suggest you do both today, since it's a one-day offer. The book is a DRM'd PDF and will requires Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) to download and read.

Free Audiobook - The Hole in Our Gospel

The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, narrated by Tommy Creswell ($9.17 Kindle) is free to download at ChristianAudio.

It's 1998 and Richard Stearns' heart is breaking as he sits in a mud hut and listens to the story of an orphaned child in Rakai, Uganda. His journey to this place took more than a long flight from the United States to Africa. It took answering God's call on his life, a call that hurtled him out of his presidential corner office at Lenox-America's finest tableware company-to this humble corner of Uganda.

This is a story of how a corporate CEO faced his own struggle to obey God whatever the cost, and his passionate call for Christians to change the world by actively living out their faith. Using his own journey as an example, Stearns explores the hole that exists in our understanding of the Gospel.

Two thousand years ago, twelve people changed the world. Stearns believes it can happen again.

Don't overlook the link for the free Study guides, six sessions designed for individuals and small groups wishing to explore the question, “What does God expect of us?” The stories and quotations found in this study are excerpted from The Hole in Our Gospel written by Richard (Rich) Stearns, the president of World Vision.

Get your free audio download HERE; enter the coupon code MAY2010 during checkout. After you finishing your order, you will be asked which format you prefer to download - select MP3 if you want to be able to play the book on your Kindle.