EPUB formats now available for these Christian published titles:
Two more free for Aussie Kindlers:
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family ($9.79 Kindle;
$3.45 B&N), by Annette Gordon-Reed, is today's Nook Daily Find.
Book Description
This epic work—named a best book of the year by the Washington Post, Time, the Los Angeles Times, Amazon, the San Francisco Chronicle, and a notable book by the New York Times—tells the story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president had been systematically expunged from American history until very recently. Now, historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed traces the Hemings family from its origins in Virginia in the 1700s to the family’s dispersal after Jefferson’s death in 1826.
In the mid-1700s the English captain of a trading ship that made runs between England and the Virginia colony fathered a child by an enslaved woman living near Williamsburg. The woman, whose name is unknown and who is believed to have been born in Africa, was owned by the Eppeses, a prominent Virginia family. The captain, whose surname was Hemings, and the woman had a daughter. They named her Elizabeth.
So begins The Hemingses of Monticello, Annette Gordon-Reed’s “riveting history” of the Hemings family, whose story comes to vivid life in this brilliantly researched and deeply moving work. Gordon-Reed, author of the highly acclaimed historiography Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, unearths startling new information about the Hemingses, Jefferson, and his white family. Although the book presents the most detailed and richly drawn portrait ever written of Sarah Hemings, better known by her nickname Sally, who bore seven children by Jefferson over the course of their thirty-eight-year liaison, The Hemingses of Monticello tells more than the story of her life with Jefferson and their children. The Hemingses as a whole take their rightful place in the narrative of the family’s extraordinary engagement with one of history’s most important figures.
Not only do we meet Elizabeth Hemings—the family matriarch and mother to twelve children, six by John Wayles, a poor English immigrant who rose to great wealth in the Virginia colony—but we follow the Hemings family as they become the property of Jefferson through his marriage to Martha Wayles. The Hemings-Wayles children, siblings to Martha, played pivotal roles in the life at Jefferson’s estate.
We follow the Hemingses to Paris, where James Hemings trained as a chef in one of the most prestigious kitchens in France and where Sally arrived as a fourteen-year-old chaperone for Jefferson’s daughter Polly; to Philadelphia, where James Hemings acted as the major domo to the newly appointed secretary of state; to Charlottesville, where Mary Hemings lived with her partner, a prosperous white merchant who left her and their children a home and property; to Richmond, where Robert Hemings engineered a plan for his freedom; and finally to Monticello, that iconic home on the mountain, from where most of Jefferson’s slaves, many of them Hemings family members, were sold at auction six months after his death in 1826.
As The Hemingses of Monticello makes vividly clear, Monticello can no longer be known only as the home of a remarkable American leader, the author of the Declaration of Independence; nor can the story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president have been expunged from history until very recently, be left out of the telling of America’s story. With its empathetic and insightful consideration of human beings acting in almost unimaginably difficult and complicated family circumstances, The Hemingses of Monticello is history as great literature. It is a remarkable achievement.
Celia and the Fairies (
$0.99), by Karen McQuestion, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day.
Book Description
When Celia Lovejoy's grandmother moves in with her family, she tells her granddaughter magical stories of fairies living in the woods behind the Lovejoy home. Ten-year-old Celia believes they are just that-stories-until the day she receives an unexpected visit from Mira, a real, live fairy. Mira needs a favor in a matter of the utmost importance. It seems that Celia's house and the adjoining woods are in danger of being demolished to make way for a new highway. The person behind this horrible plan? Vicky McClutchy, a spiteful woman who holds a childhood grudge against Celia's dad. Fairy magic can counteract this evil, but it will only work with Celia's help. Aided by neighborhood friend Paul, Celia begins a danger-filled quest that takes her out in the woods at night to face her greatest fears. This magical tale of a plucky girl combines an entertaining story with an underlying message about the power of ordinary kindness.
My Smart Puppy: Fun, Effective, and Easy Puppy Training (
$2.99), by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson, has an exceedingly brief description. The Hardcover includes a DVD, but for the vast price difference, the Kindle is probably worth checking out (I've sent a sample to my Kindle).
Book Description
America's most beloved dog trainers are back with brand-new training techniques in the definitive guide to raising a happy, obedient puppy.
Raising a happy, well-adjusted puppy is much like raising a child--owners have to listen to what their puppy's behavior is trying to tell them. And it's far simpler than people think. With the intuitive and step-by-step methods included in this invaluable book from experts Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson, including tips on how to deal with every kind of personality, puppies can be trained quickly and painlessly. With humor, time-tested advice, and an arsenal of tricks, MY SMART PUPPY teaches new dog owners everything they need to know to raise a healthy, happy, and well-adjusted dog.
In CHEAP We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue (
$1.99), by Lauren Weber. There is an
interview by the author on the KindlePost.
Book Description
Cheap.
Cheap suit. Cheap date. Cheap shot. It's a dirty word, an epithet laden with negative meanings. It is also the story of Lauren Weber's life. As a child, she resented her father for keeping the heat at 50 degrees through the frigid New England winters and rarely using his car's turn signals-to keep them from burning out. But as an adult, when she found herself walking 30 blocks to save $2 on subway fare, she realized she had turned into him.
In this lively treatise on the virtues of being cheap, Weber explores provocative questions about Americans' conflicted relationship with consumption and frugality. Why do we ridicule people who save money? Where's the boundary between thrift and miserliness? Is thrift a virtue or a vice during a recession? And was it common sense or obsessive-compulsive disorder that made her father ration the family's toilet paper?
In answering these questions, In Cheap We Trust offers a colorful ride through the history of frugality in the United States. Readers will learn the stories behind Ben Franklin and his famous maxims, Hetty Green (named "the world's greatest miser" by the Guinness Book of Records) and the stereotyping of Jewish and Chinese immigrants as cheap.
Weber also explores contemporary expressions and dilemmas of thrift. From Dumpster-diving to economist John Maynard Keynes's "Paradox of Thrift" to today's recession-driven enthusiasm for frugal living, In Cheap We Trust teases out the meanings of cheapness and examines the wisdom and pleasures of not spending every last penny.
I mentioned
Chicago Lightning: The Collected Nathan Heller Short Stories (
$2.99; £0.99
UK), by Max Allan Collins, last month, when one of his books was the Kindle Deal of the Day. Now the 400 page collection has been released and it's currently marked down to a bargain price.
Book Description
Tough, cynical, and clever, Nathan Heller has been called "the perfect private eye", the best investigator that Chicago (where 'lightning' means gunfire) has to offer. In this engaging collection of thirteen stories, Heller encounters gangsters and petty crooks, noble doctors and quacks, loving wives and wanton women, and even the occasional honest cop. All of the stories are based on real cases of the 1930s and '40s, meticulously researched by award-winning writer and Road to Perdition creator Max Allan Collins. Heller's adventures feature some of the biggest names in twentieth-century American crime history: Eliot Ness, Frank Nitti, Mickey Cohen, and Jack Ruby, just to name a few. Whether he is investigating a union shooting, going toe-to-toe with the female leader of a vicious hold-up crew, or playing a homeless man to pose as bait for an insurance racket, Heller's humorous, wryly cynical tone, and knack for keen social observation make for a cracking good read.
Daphne (
$2.99), by Justine Picardie
Book Description
Daphne is a marvelous story of literary fascination and possession; of stolen manuscripts and forged signatures; of love lost, and love found; of the way into imaginary worlds, and the way out again. The book is written in three entwined parts, which follow Daphne du Maurier herself, the beautiful, tomboyish, passionate author of the enormously popular Gothic novel Rebecca; John Alexander Symington, eminent editor and curator of the Brontës' manuscripts, who by 1957 had been dismissed from the Brontë Parsonage Museum in disgrace after being accused of stealing and forging Brontë manuscripts and who became Daphne's correspondent; and a nameless modern researcher on the trail of Daphne, Rebecca, Alexander Symington, and the Brontës.
The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success (
$4.79), by Andy Andrews
Book Description
Much like the best-selling books by Og Mandino, this unique narrative is a blend of entertaining fiction, allegory, and inspiration. Storyteller Andy Andrews gives a front-row seat for one man's journey of a lifetime. David Ponder has lost his job and the will to live. When he is supernaturally selected to travel through time, he visits historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, King Solomon, and Anne Frank. Each visit yields a Decision for Success that will one day impact the entire world.
Richie Tankersley Cusick has been released and Open Road has (temporarily) dropped the price on each title to $2.99 (the one exception in the list is a different publisher).
Trick or Treat
A young girl is tormented by her new house’s terrible past
Martha wants to be happy for her father. She likes his new wife—even if she’s a terrible cook—but she doesn’t understand why they had to leave Chicago and move to this horrible house in the country. It’s big, broken-down, and miles from anywhere, alone in the woods with nothing on the property but an overgrown cemetery. But at night it doesn’t feel empty.
Conor—her new, weird stepbrother—chose Martha’s new room for her. It’s dark and drafty, and no matter how she tries to fix it up, she can’t sleep easily there. At night, whispers come from the closet, filling Martha with a sense that something terrible happened here. She’s right. Not long ago, the house was the site of a gruesome murder. When Conor and Martha’s parents leave town on their honeymoon, the two teens will find out why the dead don’t rest easy at the old Bedford house.
Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back (
$2.99), by Josh Hamilton and Tim Keown
Book Description
Josh Hamilton was the first player chosen in the first round of the 1999 baseball draft. He was destined to be one of those rare "high-character " superstars. But in 2001, working his way from the minors to the majors, all of the plans for Josh went off the rails in a moment of weakness. What followed was a 4-year nightmare of drugs and alcohol, estrangement from friends and family, and his eventual suspension from baseball.
BEYOND BELIEF details the events that led up to the derailment. Josh explains how a young man destined for fame and wealth could allow his life to be taken over by drugs and alcohol. But it is also the memoir of a spiritual journey that breaks through pain and heartbreak and leads to the rebirth of his major-league career.
Josh Hamilton makes no excuses and places no blame on anyone other than himself. He takes responsibility for his poor decisions and believes his story can help millions who battle the same demons. "I have been given a platform to tell my story" he says. "I pray every night I am a good messenger."
Conquering Diabetes: A Complete Program for Prevention and Treatment (
$3.99), by Anne Peters M.D.
Book Description
A cutting-edge, comprehensive guide to diabetes and prediabetes treatment by a world- renowned physician
The numbers are epidemic—more than 60 million Americans have prediabetes or diabetes—and the complications (heart disease, blindness, kidney failure) can be devastating. But they are not inevitable, says Anne Peters, M.D., who, in Conquering Diabetes, explains how prediabetes can be reversed and diabetes can be conquered.
Millions of afflicted Americans are confused, frightened, and often receiving sub-par treatment from inexperienced primary care physicians. As a university-based researcher and clinician, Dr. Peters is at the forefront of the latest developments in the prevention and treatment of the disease. Conquering Diabetes offers readers a complete program, including what foods to eat/avoid, which medications help/hurt, and how to get the best treatment from your doctor.
Saving Juliet (
$1.99), by Suzanne Selfors
Book Description
Mimi Wallingford, Great Granddaughter of Adelaide Wallingford, has the life that most girls dream about, playing Juliet opposite teen heartthrob Troy Summer on Broadway in Shakespeare’s famous play. Unfortunately, she has no desire to be an actress, a fact her mother can’t seem to grasp. But when she and Troy are magically thrust into Shakespeare’s Verona, they experience the feud between the Capulets and Montagues first hand. Mimi realizes that she and Juliet have more in common than Shakespeare’s script—they are both fighting for futures of their own choosing. Mimi feels compelled to help her and with Troy’s unexpected help, hopes to give Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy a happily-ever-after-ending.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (
$2.99), the first title in
The Inheritance Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin, is on sale again. Not only is #3,
The Kingdom of Gods, coming out soon, she has two more novels slated to be released next year, both already available to pre-order, which start of her new
Dreamblood series.
Book Description
Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with cousins she never knew she had. As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother's death and her family's bloody history.
With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Yeine will learn how perilous it can be when love and hate - and gods and mortals - are bound inseparably together.
Gavin Lyall's
The Conduct of Major Maxim and
four other titles are currently marked down to $4.65. Three are in the
Harry Maxim series, while the other two are standalone novels.
Book Description
Major Harry Maxim is drawn into the shadowy - and deadly - world of East-West intrigue.
A deserting English corporal, a cabinet convulsion in East Germany, a double murder in a small West German town, a widowed piano teacher in Yorkshire: they're all somehow related by a deep, dark secret from the past. And it's up to Harry Maxim to uncover the secret-before it's too late.
Diagnosis Death (
$2.99), by Richard Mabry MD
Book Description
The threatening midnight calls followed Dr. Elena Gardner from one city to another, prolonging her grief. Even worse, they are echoed by the whispers of her own colleagues. Whispers that started after her comatose husband died in the ICU . . . then another mysterious death during her training. When a third happens at her new hospital, the whispers turn into a shout: “Mercy killer!”Why doesn’t she defend herself? What is the dark secret that keeps Elena’s lips sealed?Two physicians, widowers themselves, offer support, telling Elena they know what she is going through after the death of her husband. But do they? And is it safe to trust either of them with her secret? Soon Elena will find that even when the world seems to be against her, God is for her, if she'll only trust him.
Commuters (
$2.99), by Emily Gray Tedrowe
Book Description
At seventy-eight, Winnie Easton has finally found love again with Jerry Trevis, a wealthy Chicago businessman who has moved to the small, upstate town of Hartfield, New York, to begin his life anew. But their decision to buy one of the town's biggest houses ignites anger and skepticism—as children and grandchildren take drastic actions to secure their own futures and endangered inheritances. With so much riding on Jerry's wealth, a decline in his physical health forces hard decisions on the family, renewing old loyalties while creating surprising alliances.
A powerfully moving novel told from alternating perspectives, Commuters is an intensely human story of lives profoundly changed by the repercussions of one marriage, and by the complex intertwining of love, money, and family.
HOOKED (
$0.99), by Ruth Harris and Michael Harris, is a self-published (possibly) backlist title (Ruth is apparently the bestselling author referred to by the cover, but I didn't find her books on Kindle listed on any of the fan sites; Michael isn't listed at all).
Book Description
HOOKED is a story of sex, greed, ambition, murder, revenge and assassination — and of a gifted doctor from a small town in Kentucky.
With a contemporary feel, the novel takes place in the mid-20th century when America was at the pinnacle of its power and prestige. Set in New York and Washington, a remote fishing village on the Turkish Riviera, Sweden, Vienna, Cairo and aboard Lydia, the world’s most beautiful yacht, the story centers on Gavin Jenkins, the brilliant, charismatic Dr. FeelGood.
Dr. Jenkins' miracle treatments give patients everything they want: youth, beauty, radiant vitality and sexual potency. No wonder he is worshiped by the celebrities who become his patients. No wonder his influence runs from the private island of an enigmatic Turkish billionaire with a bloody secret to the crimson-draped bedroom of a depraved, Mid-eastern Prince; from the private dressing rooms of world-famous artists to the heights of international society and the inner sanctums of the White House itself.
The touch of his hands and the plunge of his needle made every fantasy come true. No wonder so many were HOOKED.
The Utterly, Completely, and Totally Useless Fact-O-Pedia (
$2.99), by Gary Bennett and Charlotte Lowe
Book Description
Improve your small talk and sharpen your conversational skills with this giant collection of ridiculously useless but endlessly fascinating facts.
Did you know that cats were once used to deliver mail in Belgium? That the “huddle” in football became popular after a deaf player began using it to prevent other teams from reading his sign language? That the average American eats 30 pounds of cheese in a year? Organized from A to Z, there are over 1,000 trivia tidbits for you to peruse.
Start off with little-known facts about Aristotle and Barbie, and continue until you’ve discovered hidden gems about zombies, zippers, and more! Did you know that Levi Strauss originally intended to sell canvas tents to miners in California but ended up using the fabric to make what the prospectors really needed—pants? Or that a chicken in Colorado had its head cut off and managed to live for another two years? Did you know that if Americans were to switch just 10 percent of their total mileage to scooters, we would consume 14 million gallons less fuel and reduce CO2 emissions by 324 million pounds in just one day? Or that on May 15th, 1950, Coca-Cola became the first product ever to appear on the cover of Time magazine?
Blowing Smoke: Why the Right Keeps Serving Up Whack-Job Fantasies about the Plot to Euthanize Grandma, Outlaw Christmas... (
$3.13), by Michael Wolraich
Book Description
HAS AMERICA LOST ITS MARBLES?
- Television sensation Glenn Beck warns of White House plots to institute fascism, communism, and other terrifying “isms.”
- Radio titan Rush Limbaugh charges that a racist Obama regime encourages black schoolchildren to beat up white kids.
- Evangelical luminary James Dobson frets that Christians will be arrested for thought crimes and people will be allowed to marry donkeys.
- Protesters in knickers and colonial-style hats march on Washington with signs that order Hitler-like caricatures of President Obama to return to Kenya.
As madness reigns, pundits, politicians, and cab drivers debate the source of the hysteria. Some blame ignorance; some blame racism; some blame the economy.
After poring over mountains of political screeds and heedlessly subjecting himself to countless hours of Fox News, author Michael Wolraich discovered the secret formula that turns ordinary men and women into fire-breathing, smoke-blowing, right wing maniacs. It’s “persecution politics” . . again.
In Blowing Smoke, Wolraich documents, dissects, and deconstructs the myths that underlie the right’s growing reliance on the politics of persecution, from Joe McCarthy to the Tea Party movement. In the process, he delivers an original and compelling hypothesis with penetrating insight and blistering wit.
At turns hilarious, disturbing, and edifying, Blowing Smoke is a must-read account of modern American politics.
Rugged and Relentless (
$1.99), the first in the new
Husbands for Hire series by Kelly Eileen Hake, is marked down in anticipation of the next volume in the series being released (no Kindle link yet).
Book Description
Roll into Hope Falls, Colorado, where three women are seeking mates to help them establish a sawmill. Evelyn Thompson never dreamed their husbands-for-hire ad would bring so many bachelors to their tiny town. How will she ever figure out which feller to choose? Jacob Granger, a logger-turned-bounty hunter, is hot on the trail of his brother’s killer. When a clue leads him to Hope Falls, he has no choice but to pretend to court Miss Thompson while waiting for the killer to show his hand. Will Jacob’s unexpected adoration of this sweet cook prompt him to speak vows before getting vengeance?
The Lace Reader (
$2.99), by Brunonia Barry, was named Amazon's Best of the Month, August 2008.
Book Description
Every gift has a price . . . every piece of lace has a secret.
Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator, hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarded a history of secrets going back generations. Now the disappearance of two women is bringing Towner back home to Salem—and is bringing to light the shocking truth about the death of her twin sister.
Haunted Destiny: A Midnight Dragonfly Bonus Short Story, by Ellie James, whose Shattered Dreams is coming out December 6.
A Very Holly Christmas: An Exclusive Short Story, by Sheila Roberts, whose The Nine Lives of Christmas will be released October 25.
