More miscellaneous bargains and a few free book updates/reminders, including at least one that is free from
Kobo
using coupon code
KoboSpring1. Since yesterday was the anniversary of the first battle in the Civil War, there are a number of books discounted that have a Civil War theme or are history texts; I've included a few more at the end of the post.
These are all either pre-orders that are now available to download (and still free) or books that are newly free from one or more of the linked stores.
- Shattered: A Daughter's Regret, by Melody Carlson ( ChristianBook)
- 13 Little Blue Envelopes Free with Bonus Material, by Maureen Johnson (B&N, Sony)
- Delivered with Love, by Sherry Kyle (B&N)
- The Abandoned, by Amanda Stevens ( Kobo
)
- Wings Free with Bonus Material (B&N, Borders, Kobo
, Sony)
- The Velocity Manifesto: Harnessing Technology, Vision, and Culture to Future-Proof your Organization, by Scott Klososky (Kobo
)
A few of the $1.99 special edition pre-orders have shown up, so are now available for sampling and in other stores:
The Crossroads Cafe (
$8.59 Kindle), by Deborah Smith, was recently free on Kindle and is now free
from Borders
, with an entirely different cover. This one actually let me order from the Border's page, too, instead of forcing me to use the desktop app.
Book Description
The world's most beautiful movie star is scarred in a firey car accident. Her career over and her self-esteem in shreds, she hides in the magnificent home her grandmother left her in the mountains of North Carolina.But her motherly cousin refuses to let her become a recluse, and a handsome neighbor with painful dilemmas of his own is lured into the mix. Romance, family life, drama, humor and secrets.
Prostate Cancer Survivors Speak Their Minds: Advice on Options, Treatments, and Aftereffect (
$0.99 Kindle), by Norman Morris and Arthur L. Burnett, has a digital and print list price of $16.95.
Book Description
Personal stories show men how to make the right decisions for themselves, with medical insights from a leading Johns Hopkins authority on prostate cancer
If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, you want to know the facts about treatment options as well as what to expect through the process of treatment and recovery.
Written by Dr. Arthur L. Burnett, II. one of the world's most distinguished authorities on prostate cancer and veteran CBS News journalist and prostate cancer survivor, Norman Morris, Prostate Cancer Survivors Speak Their Minds gives you the information you need through the experiences of men who have had prostate cancer. Dr. Burnett speaks openly and honestly about prostate cancer options, treatments, and aftereffects and shares stories of both well-known and ordinary prostate cancer survivors who offer their personal reflections on going through treatment and getting well.
- Includes personal stories from notable prostate cancer survivors such as Arnold Palmer, Ken Griffey Sr., Pat Robertson, and others
- Takes an authoritative look at prostate cancer treatments, current and promising scientific breakthroughs, and life-altering side effects
- Author Arthur Burnett, a leading prostate cancer expert, is the Patrick C. Walsh Professor of Urology, Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the Johns Hopkins's James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute and is renowned for his research studies that led to the formulation of Viagra
- Offers solutions to common side effects such as sexual problems and incontinence
Combining the essential medical facts about prostate cancer with personal, intimate stories told by courageous men who have survived it, this book is an invaluable guide for men diagnosed with prostate cancer and those who care about them.
The Bitch-Proof Suit (
$0.99 Kindle), by De-ann Black, is a romantic comedy from an Irish writer.
Book Description
When Blue (Bluebell) Byrne is up against the odds in the world of New York fashion marketing, she needs the ultimate in accessories - a bitch-proof suit. Her marketing experience has helped her create the perfect suit. She had it made by bespoke tailors, cut with twice the precision at half the price. No labels, no trends, just sheer cutting edge class.
The story starts in Manhattan. Blue is about to put her suit to the ultimate test when she vies against a boardroom full of conniving business rivals to win the top job assignment - to work in the company’s office in Dublin, Ireland, and settle a few scores at the same time.
The suit, her negotiating skills and gutsy determination helps Blue win the job. Within hours she sets off for Dublin. It’s the one place she swore she’d never go back to. Six years ago she’d left that city behind, along with Morgan Daire, the man who broke her heart, sure she’d never return. It had almost destroyed her once, but hell...she loves a challenge!
She’ll be working with the unspeakably glamorous and influential Verde Valmont, and Verde’s Irish assistant Emer. Blue will also be facing up to the formidable Dubliner, Morgan Daire, the man whose past is inexorably linked with hers. Then there’s her friend, Dublin designer, Murphy, an incorrigible rogue whose flirting causes jealousy and all sorts of trouble. She also encounters the sexy and handsome Sears Pearson, a New York coolhunter, who takes an interest in her. With Morgan and Sears vying for her attention, and Murphy causing misunderstandings, her love life is anything but smooth.
This is a sparkling new novel, brimming with romance, humor, friendship, rivalry, Irish cocktails and scandalous behavior.
Note: The Bitch-Proof Suit did actually exist. The author, De-ann Black, designed and wore it several years ago when living and working in Dublin, and it served its purpose brilliantly.
The Fate of Katherine Carr (
$3.85 Kindle), by Thomas H. Cook, is about $10 from other outlets
Book Description
George Gates used to be a travel writer who specialized in places where people disappeared—Judge Crater, the Lost Colony.Then his eight-year-old son was murdered, the killer never found, and Gates gave up disappearance. Now he writes stories of redemptive triviality about flower festivals and local celebrities for the town paper, and spends his evenings haunted by the image of his son’s last day.
Enter Arlo MacBride, a retired missing-persons detective still obsessed with the unsolved case of Katherine Carr. When he gives Gates the story she left behind—a story of a man stalking a woman named Katherine Carr—Gates too is drawn inexorably into a search for the missing author’s brief life and uncertain fate. And as he goes deeper, he begins to suspect that her tale holds the key not only to her fate, but to his own.
The Bookie's Runner (
$2.99 Kindle), by Brendan Gisby, is relatively short, so I'd pick it up at
Kobo
, where it is
99 cents and the coupon code makes it free. While you are there, pick up
The Island of Whispers 
for free (it's $5.99 at
Amazon)
Book Description
Bob Dylan wrote the classic song 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' and thereby unforgettably marked the passing of an otherwise insignificant character in the movie 'Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid'.
Brendan Gisby has written this utterly beautiful novella to honour the short life of his father, a man of seemingly as little significance.
The story is narrated with haunting subtlety, rhythm and depth of feeling by his teenage son as he takes a bus ride back to school for the first day of a new term where he will have to announce his father's sudden death and deal with the resultant reactions without bursting into tears.
He also has to come to terms with the fact that, on reflection, there is a huge amount he doesn't know about his father and that all he is really left with are snippets of personal memories.
Make no mistake, 'The Bookie's Runner' is a modern masterpiece and, in writing it, Brendan Gisby has not only honoured his father, he has ennobled him.
Jenny Pox (
$0.99 Kindle,
B&N), by JL Bryan, was recently lowered from $2.99; the next in the series,
Tommy Nightmare ($2.99) was released this month.
Book Description
Jenny has a secret: her touch spreads a supernatural plague.
She devotes her life to avoiding contact with people, until her senior year of high school, when she meets the one boy she can touch, and she falls in love. But there's a problem--he's under the spell of his devious girlfriend Ashleigh, who secretly wields the most dangerous power of all.
Now Jenny must learn to use the deadly "Jenny pox" she's fought her entire life to hide, or be destroyed by Ashleigh's ruthless plans.
The Viking in the Wheat Field: A Scientist's Struggle to Preserve the World's Harvest (
$2.73), by Susan Dworkin
Book Description
In 1999, a terrifying new form of stem rust--spotted in Uganda and dubbed "UG99"--quickly turned robust golden fields into dark, tangled ruins. For decades plant scientists had bred wheat varieties with rust-resistant genes, but these genes did not work against UG99. Since rust migrates high in the atmosphere, it could spread from country to country, continent to continent. Breeders worried that UG99 would soon reach India and Pakistan, where 50 million small farmers produced 20% of the global wheat supply. If that happened, China, the world's largest wheat producer, might be next, and it would be only a matter of time before it reached American wheat fields.
Breeders everywhere began searching wheat germplasm collections for sources of resistance. The largest collection was at the Center for Improvement of Maize and Wheat (CIMMYT) in Mexico, developed by the brilliant Danish scientist Bent Skovmand. For three decades, Skovmand amassed, multiplied, and documented thousands of wheat varieties. He served as an advisor on wheat genetic resources to dozens of countries, and hunted for seeds that would contain the genes to protect the harvest from plagues like UG99 and the stresses of global warming.From the mountains of Tibet to the jungles of Mexico, he trekked into fields to consult with farmers. In an era when corporations and governments often jealously guarded breeding information, Skovmand fought to keep his seed bank a center for free, open scientific exchange.
By telling the story of Skovmand's work and that of his colleagues, The Viking in the Wheat Field sheds a welcome light on an agricultural sector--plant genetic resources--on which we are all crucially dependent.
Doggy Divas: Roxy's Rules (
$2.27 Kindle), by Lauren Brown, is still over $5 elsewhere.
Book Description
HAS THE DOG WALKERS' STRIKE LANDED YOU IN THE DOGHOUSE? DOES YOUR POOCH NEED A CRASH COURSE IN MANNERS? IS YOUR FOUR-LEGGED FRIEND'S STYLE SO LAST YEAR? The Doggy Divas are here to save the day!
From head of the pack to lone, lone wolf!
Roxy Davis is in the dog house. Big time. After kissing her BFF's crush over summer break, Roxy finds herself banished to the company of Monroe Middle School misfits Georgia and Kim. And when things can't get any worse, the town dog walkers go on strike.
Dogs are running wild, giving Roxy the bright idea to recruit her fellow outcasts to start their very own dog walking business. Roxy soon learns that pampering pooches will not only earn her points for cleaning up the neighborhood, but will also teach her a thing or two about friendship.
Milkrun (
$3.55 Kindle,
B&N), by Sarah Mlynowski
Book Description
Must think happy thoughts. Julie Andrews dancing. Cadbury's chocolate Easter eggs. But no amount of positive thinking changes the fact that Jeremy the man of my dreams, the man I would marry, the man who should spend his whole life worshipping me and lavishing me with kisses went to Thailand to find himself.
Obviously I'm not as cute and witty as I thought I was, since while I've been sitting around every weekend, he's been sleeping with half of Thailand. And then he found Someone Else. That someone not being me.
I have been pathetic.
But now I will date. I will become the queen of dating. I will forget all about him.
Single in Boston, that's me. But not for long...!
Six Tor.com Science Fiction & Fantasy Stories from the 2010 Locus Recommended Reading List (
$2.99) contains short stories originally published on the Tor.Com website, combined here in one convenient volume. If you'd rather read them on the web, you can find links to all of them,
here.
Book Description
Published continuously since 1968, Locus is the monthly trade magazine of the science fiction and fantasy publishing industry. Every February it runs an extensive survey of the original SF and fantasy published in the previous year, and compiles a list of books and stories that its editors and reviewers particularly recommend.
Tor.com is proud that six of our original offerings from 2010 were included among this year's Locus recommendations, and in commemoration of that, here are all six of those stories.
Redcoat, by David Crookes is free in the B&N store (and from
Sony), nearly $7 from Kobo and nowhere to be found at Amazon. At Kobo, you can pick up a different title,
Someday Soon
for free (that's full price in the other stores).
Book Description
1873...A landslide at a diamond mine in Africa leaves a British army major crippled. He holds a young lieutenant responsible and wants him court-martialed. A soldier is killed when the army try to arrest the lieutenant on his wedding day in England. But he escapes and so begins a ruthless worldwide manhunt, throughout the U.S. Canada and Australia until eventually the hunted becomes the hunter.
The Last Confederate Battle (
$2.99), by John Cline, appears to normally sell for $8.99 (this is a specially priced edition).
Book Description
The Last Confederate Battle is a fictional tale of how the Civil War affected the lives of three brothers who were raised and who fought for the South in an unconventional war.
Meanwhile, President Lincoln, vexed by war-profiteering and mysterious murders turns to Allan Pinkerton and New York City Chief of Detectives, Frank Stone for answers.
What follows is a path of murder, mayhem, and dirty politics,that brings the main characters together in search of peace and justice that leads up to the last battle of the Civil War which was fought on the red clay soil of the Rio Grande River at Palmito Ranch, near Brownsville, Texas. The battle took place in mid-May 1865, more than a month following General Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Virginia.
This fictional story details the lives and occurrences that led up to the Last Confederate Battle; a fight that took place several years after the battle at Palmito Ranch.
History of the Civil War, 1861 - 1865 (
$0.99), by James Ford Rhodes, is an older book, but is a reasonably short and definitive treatise on the subject (sure, it's 544 pages, but he also wrote a 3 volume set on the subject), that looks at both sides of the conflict.
Book Description
Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1918, Rhodess chronicle of the War Between the States both provides the general reader with a clearly written description of the events of four bloody years as well as reveals the self-educated authors belief in the wars cause as the evil of slavery.
Fixin' Things, a novel of women at Gettysburg (
$2.99), by Peggy Ullman Bell
Book Description
FIXIN' THINGS is the story of Megan Loren's struggle with past incest between herself and her "trusted" brother-in-law, and her desire to keep it secret from the sister whom she believes loves the perpetrator. The turning point of America's Civil War erupts outside her bedroom window, adding its horrors and triumphs to Megan's already complicated life. Family issues get set aside as two armies clash on her doorstep, only to return in the person of the sister's lascivious husband as soon as the battle winds down.
"In her riveting second novel, Author Peggy Ullman Bell shows us aspects of the Battle of Gettysburg never before seen in fiction." D. Jenkins, PhD.
Lovers and fighters alike will find ample fare to delight their reading palate in this no holds barred tale of womanly passions discoveredand let loose amid the American Civil War at its awesome, gruesome best.
Why They Fought: The Real Reason for the Civil War (Kindle Single) (
$2.99), by David Von Drehle
Book Description
History textbooks say that the Civil War began with the shelling of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. What followed is the American epic, written in blue and gray and gore. So how is it that 150 years later, we are still fighting over why the war was fought? Few historical questions stir up as much passionate confusion as that one--even though scholars consider it a settled question. In this ebook, veteran TIME writer, David Von Drehle explores the process of forgetting, denying, and rediscovering the meaning of the Civil War.
Assam & Darjeeling ($9.99 Kindle), by T.M. Camp, is available free direct from the author in either PDF format or as an audiobook.
