Free Audiobooks - Chanda's Secrets and Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Audiobook Sync's summer of free audiobooks continues. First, I've linked in the info from Amazon for each title (Amazon has the best reviews), then a link below to get your audio copies free. You can't get any titles that have been missed, but once they are loaded into Overdrive (which you will need to install, if you are not already using it for library books), they are yours to keep (there is no expiration date).

Two new titles each Thursday, so be sure to check back next week.!

Chanda's Secrets ($4.78 paperback; $19.95/$13.96 Audible), by Allan Stratton, read by Suzy Jackson.

Book Description
A girl's struggle amid the African AIDS pandemic.

"As soon as I get back from the shabeen, I go next door to see Mrs. Tafa. I have to ask to use her phone to let our relatives know about Sara. I'm nervous. Mrs. Tafa would like to run the world. Since she can't run the world she's decided to run our neighborhood."

So speaks sixteen-year-old Chanda, an astonishingly perceptive girl living in the small city of Bonang, a fictional city in Southern Africa.

While Mrs. Tafa's hijinks are often amusing, the fact is that Chanda's world is profoundly difficult. When her youngest sister dies, the first hint of HIV/AIDS emerges.

In this sensitive, swiftly-paced story readers will find echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird as Chanda must confront undercurrents of shame and stigma. Not afraid to explore the horrific realities of AIDS, Chanda's Secrets also captures the enduring strength of loyalty, friendship and family ties. Above all, it is a story about the corrosive nature of secrets and the healing power of truth.

Through the artful style of acclaimed author Stratton, the determination and resilience Chanda embodies will live on in readers' minds.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles (free Kindle; $62.99/$44.09 Audible), by Thomas Hardy, read by Anna Bentinck. This is a highly regarded narration of this classic.

Book Description
Etched against the background of a dying rural society, Tess of the d'Urbervilles was Thomas Hardy's 'bestseller,' and Tess Durbeyfield remains his most striking and tragic heroine. Of all the characters he created, she meant the most to him. Hopelessly torn between two men—Alec d'Urberville, a wealthy, dissolute young man who seduces her in a lonely wood, and Angel Clare, her provincial, moralistic, and unforgiving husband—Tess escapes from her vise of passion through a horrible, desperate act.

'Like the greatest characters in literature, Tess lives beyond the final pages of the book as a permanent citizen of the imagination,' said Irving Howe. 'In Tess he stakes everything on his sensuous apprehension of a young woman's life, a girl who is at once a simple milkmaid and an archetype of feminine strength. . . . Tess is that rare creature in literature: goodness made interesting.'

Click HERE to sign up for an account and get the free downloads. Don't forget, you'll also need to install the Overdrive software (there is a link at Sync). In addition, you end up clicking about three pages, for each book, before the audiobook actually downloads. Don't stop so long as you still see a button that talks about your Sync download (or until you see the Overdrive software open up). Once in Overdrive, you'll need to tell it where to save the files (just click OK to use the default location, since Overdrive will keep track of them for you), then again to actually start the download (by default, all parts of the book are downloaded; I would suggest not changing this in the last dialog box, just click on OK to get the download started).

New Kindle Game - Mad About Sudoku #1

Mad About Sudoku #1 ($0.99), by Puzzazz, is a new game in the Kindle catalog (hey publishers - it is getting hard to find the new Active Content entries in the Kindle store, so be sure to send me a press release when you have a new one).

Book Description
Are you mad about Sudoku? Or mad at Sudoku? Either way, this collection of carefully constructed and calibrated Easy Sudoku puzzles is right for you.

Each of the 33 easy puzzles can be solved without heroic effort, and you can always get a hint when you need one. You'll appreciate features like in-cell notes that let you solve puzzles as easily as you do on paper. You can also move on to another puzzle when you get stuck, and return to that previous puzzle at any time.

If you've enjoyed solving the easier puzzles in paper books, then these puzzles are perfect for you. Enjoy!

Big Deal Sale on Kindle

Amazon has started another limited time sale on Kindle books, The Big Deal, ending July 27, which gives us only a week to wade thru more than 900 Kindle books are on sale for $0.99, $1.99, $2.99, and $3.99. Click on any of these links and you can search the lists by author name, title or publisher, while the full list can be selected by genre, as well.

I'll leave it to you to explore (I know I have to go add a gift certificate to my account!), but one I am grabbing that isn't officially a part of the sale is Child of Fire ($0.99), The start of the Twenty Palaces series by Harry Connolly. I've had the sample on my Kindle for a while and this price is too good to pass up (and now that I finished grabbing my $1 book, I don't have to worry about getting the wrong book at that price). Del Rey has this one marked down to get you hooked (of course) before the latest in the series, Circle of Enemies ($7.99), is released at the end of August. That leaves enough time to read this one and the next in the series, Game of Cages ($5.99), if the first one is as good as the sample started.

Book Description
Ray Lilly is living on borrowed time. He’s the driver for Annalise Powliss, a high-ranking member of the Twenty Palace Society, a group of sorcerers devoted to hunting down and executing rogue magicians. But because Ray betrayed her once, Annalise is looking for an excuse to kill him–or let someone else do the job.

Unfortunately for both of them, Annalise’s next mission goes wrong, leaving her critically injured. With the little magic he controls, Ray must complete her assignment alone. Not only does he have to stop a sorcerer who’s sacrificing dozens of innocent lives in exchange for supernatural power, he must find–and destroy–the source of that inhuman magic.

Save $20 on Beauty products (KSO)

Reminder: If you signed up for the $10 for $20 Amazon Gift Card or the $20 off Hand and Power Tools offer, you only have two days left to take advantage of the savings. We are also coming up on the deadline for the $1 for a Kindle book offer, as well as the $20 off Vehicle GPS offer. I managed to snag my $1 books (we now have another KSO on the family account), but if you haven't, you might want to check out the bundles, including the Alex Kava Bundle and the Lisa Jackson's Bentz & Montoya Bundle, both of which contain six full books (and qualify for the $1 purchase).

Today's second deal for those with a Kindle with Special Offers:

Save $20 on $40 of Beauty products from Amazon.com

Click on offer, then click on the link on the offer page to sign up and get an email with the promotion code. Sign-up for this offer expires on July 23.

You'll get an email (right away), a link to the Special Offer page and a promotion code to enter at checkout. Once you have the promotional code, you have until August 23 to complete your purchase. Like previous offers, this one requires you to use the full checkout process in order to enter your promotional code. Also, like all Amazon sales that use promotional codes, if you have a gift card balance, you must use it for the payment (if there is not a sufficient balance, then you can pick which credit card or other payment to use).

Once again, this offer can be used more than once per account, so long as you have more than one KSO registered. Just click on the ad on each device to receive the individual promotion codes via email.

Amazon is getting a bit smarter on this one, as the products that are eligible for the Save $10 on Sun Care Products are not eligible for this promotion (no double dipping by buying one product and taking both promotional discounts. This restriction wasn't on the Save $10 on Kindle Accessories offer, which means you can use it and the 50% off Kindle Lighted Cover on the same purchase, drastically reducing the cost of a cover, if you haven't already used that promotional code.

There are a lot of items on the list that are not what you might think of when you see "Beauty" in the offer: shampoos, Q-tips, haircut kits, and hairdryers, for example, are listed along with perfume, essential oils, makeup and skin care products (both tanning and sun protection), although Rogaine seems to be the bestselling item in the Beauty store. Also, when you jump to the list of products that qualify, you'll see an Amazon Gift card -- don't bother trying to add it, as the promotion code won't work on it, even if it is listed by Amazon on the qualifying products page. Also, all the links on the Special Offers page go to the same massive list of products - use the categories on the menu at the left to make it easier to browse.

Get $25 Gift Card with Android Phones (KSO)

This offer is for those with a Kindle with Special Offers only. Turn on your wireless, click Menu, Sync & Check for New Items, then on View Special Offers after the sync has completed. You should see this new offer:

Buy an Android smartphone from AmazonWireless & get a $25 Amazon.com Gift Card

Click on the offer, then click on the link on the offer page sign up and get an email with the promotion code. Sign-up for this offer expires on July 23.

You'll get an email (right away), a link to the Special offer page. You have until August 23 to complete your purchase and you'll receive your gift card by Sept 23. This offer is limited to one per customer (not per device).

The list of "phones" includes not only the HTC EVO 3D 4G Android Phone (which I'm tempted by only due to the 3D screen and camera -- otherwise, I really like the Epic 4G that I already have), but the Samsung Galaxy Tab, for those that want an Android tablet with a cell phone plan. Personally, though, I'm holding out to see what Amazon brings out this fall (rumors now are saying a 7" tablet in the next month or two and a 10" tablet by Christmas).