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Monday, January 16, 2012

Free Book - High Performance Operations (K/N)

High Performance Operations: Leverage Compliance to Lower Costs, Increase Profits, and Gain Competitive Advantage (US/UK), by Hillel Glazer, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble.
Book Description
Companies in highly regulated industries face unique challenges in optimizing business performance and profitability while maintaining strong governance and regulatory adherence. In this start-to-finish guidebook, leading business performance consultant Hillel Glazer shows how to achieve these goals through the successful integration of lean and systems thinking. Written for operations managers, process professionals, and lean systems managers, Glazer shows how to systematically incorporate compliance into planning for overall performance, value, and profitability, rather than viewing compliance as an end in itself. High Performance Operations will help operations professionals and managers:

  • Clarify the competing interests that challenge them, and implement pre-conditions for success.
  • Learn how a systems-thinking approach can promote achieve operational excellence.
  • Uncover the "secret sauce" that enables great organizations to scale their successes, eliminate single points of failure, and get more of "what went right".
  • Define what value and operational excellence look like in their organizations, and all the costs of achieving them.
  • Create solutions, establish proof-of-performance, justify investments, measure performance, and implement continuous improvement.
  • Translate solutions into working policies, patterns, processes, and procedures.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Free Book - Technical Analysis Trading Methods and Techniques (K/N)

Technical Analysis Trading Methods and Techniques (US/UK), a collection of titles by Quint Tatro, Richard A. Dickson and Tracy L. Knudsen, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble.
Book Description
Three indispensable eBooks reveal little-known technical and psychological techniques for outperforming the market – and beating the traders you’re up against!

Three remarkable eBooks help you leverage powerful, little-known insights from technical analysis and behavioral economics to consistently outperform the market! In George Lindsay and the Art of Technical Analysis, Ed Carlson resurrects the nearly-forgotten technical analysis techniques created by the eccentric genius who called the beginning and end of history’s greatest bull market, within days! Carlson reveals why George Lindsay’s techniques are especially valuable right now, demonstrates their power visually, simply, and intuitively — and shows how to make the most of them without strong mathematical expertise. Next, Mastering Market Timing combines the powerful, long-proven technical analysis methods of Richard D. Wyckoff with the world-renowned analysis of Lowry Research -- sharing deep new price/volume insights you can use to uncover emerging trends faster, even if you’re entirely new to technical analysis. Finally, in Trade the Trader, Quint Tatro focuses on the real zero-sum nature of trading, helping you understand the traders you’re up against, anticipate their moves, outwit them — and beat them!
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Free Book - More Glimpses of Heaven (K/N/E)

More Glimpses of Heaven: Inspiring True Stories of Hope and Peace at the End of Life's Journey (US/UK), by Trudy Harris, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble and ChristianBook, courtesy of Christian publisher Revell.
Book Description
Following her successful Glimpses of Heaven, Trudy Harris has collected even more true stories of the tender beauty and pain of life's end. Through her own stories and those of medical professionals and hospice workers, Harris brings readers with her on the search for God, forgiveness, faith, repentance, and ultimate acceptance and peace. The perfect gift for someone who has experienced the death of a loved one, More Glimpses of Heaven will bring peace and comfort to all who read it.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Free Book - Commentary on James (K/N/E)

Commentary on James (US/UK), by Robert H. Gundry, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble and ChristianBook, courtesy of Christian publisher Baker. This one is likely to be free for today only.
Book Description
Verse-by-verse explanations with a literal translation

Shouldn't a Bible commentary clarify what God's Word actually says? Going beyond questions of authorship, date, sources, and historicity, respected linguist and teacher Gundry offers a one-volume exposition of the New Testament that focuses on what is most useful for preaching, teaching, and individual study--what the biblical text really means. Providing interpretive observations in a "breezy" style that's easy to read and adaptable for oral use in pulpit or classroom presentations, Gundry directs his book to an evangelical audience. His crisp translation of the New Testament inserts various phrasings of passages in brackets, allowing for smooth transition from original text to alternative and contemporary readings.

SAMPLE TEXT OF TRANSLATION
JOHN'S PREDICTING A MORE POWERFUL BAPTIZER THAN HE (Mark 1:1-8) 1:1-3: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, God's Son, according as it's written in Isaiah the prophet, "Behold, I'm sending my messenger before your face [= ahead of you], who'll pave your way [= the road you'll travel], [the messenger who is] the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.'"

Pastors, Sunday school teachers, small-group leaders, and laypeople will welcome Gundry's non-technical explanations and clarifications. And Bible students at all levels will appreciate his sparkling interpretations of the NT Scriptures. A trustworthy guide for anybody wanting to delve deeper into God's Word.

SAMPLE TEXT OF COMMENTS
"Gospel" means "good news." Jews would associate this good news with Isaiah 52:7. Non-Jews would think of the good news of an emperor's accession to power, birthday, visit to a city, military victory, or bringing of prosperity to the empire. But Mark's good news has to do with the salvation and victory brought by Jesus over evil in all its demonic and physical forms. "The gospel of Jesus Christ" therefore means "the gospel about Jesus Christ" and refers to a proclaimed message ("the voice of one crying out"), not a book (though because books like Mark's contain that proclaimed message, the term came to refer to those books in the capitalized form of "Gospels" to distinguish them from the message, kept uncapitalized as "gospel").
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Free and Bargain Book Roundup

Additional formats on these free books are now available:

Becoming a Man Alive: God's Answer for Your Deepest Need ($1.99), by Patrick Morley
Book Description
Discover how it feels to know you’re God’s much-loved son.

“I’ve spent most of my life struggling to believe, really believe, that God loves and cares about me personally. Not as one among many. But me. By God’s grace, not only do I believe today that God loves me, but I actually feel like His much-loved son. Special. Fully alive. You can too. Let me show you how you can satisfy this primal need. No man should have to settle for being half alive.”

A Radical Idea: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God and The Radical Question: What Is Jesus Worth to You? ($1.99 each), by David Platt
A Radical Idea: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God
What if building the right church depends on using all the wrong people?

Imagine. Churches not built on the greatest talent, the finest facilities, or the most exceptional programs. Instead, churches that come together to unleash every single person to impact the world with the Spirit of God for the glory of God.

It’s a radical idea.


The Radical Question: What Is Jesus Worth to You?
What is Jesus worth to you?

It’s easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, Jesus said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily…

But who do you know who lives like that? Do you?

The Brother's Keeper ($1.99), by Tracy Groot
Book Description
His name is James. He was the brother of Jesus Christ. The Brother's Keeper is a story imagined from the few known facts of the life of a real man. The book tells the story of the latter part of Jesus' ministry, up through his death and resurrection, as seen through the eyes of His own family. Tracy Groot takes readers, with James, on a journey from unbelief to belief as James grapples with the question of who Jesus is.

Moody (a Christian publisher) has a number of 99 cent books from right now, most of which are aimed at kids:


Wind Dancer ($2.99), by Jamie Carie
Book Description
Raised in a British-held frontier town during the American Revolution, Isabelle Renoir is not like other women around her. A free spirit, she dances in the moonlight as a praise offering to God and is more at home fearlessly taking her long rifle and knife into the woods for adventure and inspiration.

But Isabelle’s latest journey may be more than even her strength can handle when a huge storm throws the raven-haired beauty off course and into the path of rugged American spy Samuel Holt. After matching wits and denying their passion for each other, they are attacked by Indians, held prisoner, and forced to watch the horrific killing of Isabelle’s brother. Now together but in captivity, they must fight spiritual forces that no knife or rifle could ever conquer in order to be free.

Sex and the Supremacy of Christ ($1.99), by Justin Taylor
Book Description
The Bible has a way of shocking us. If Americans could still blush, we might blush at the words, “Rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love” (Proverbs 5:18-19).

But, of course, sin always tries to trash God’s gifts. So we can’t just celebrate sex for what God made it to be; we have to fight what sin turned it into. The contributors to this unique volume encourage you to do both: celebrate and struggle.

This book has something for all—men and women, married and single—from contributors like John Piper, C. J. and Carolyn Mahaney, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, Carolyn McCulley, and others.

Your Money Map ($2.99), by Howard Dayton
Book Description
Millions of people are lost in debt and teetering on the brink of financial insecurity-and all they really need is a good map. By revealing key biblical principles of finance, Your Money Map steers readers toward wise money management through seven financial destinations anyone can reach. It describes each destination, from saving $1,000 and creating a spending plan, to reducing debt and making wise, long-term investments. No matter how distant the final destination may seem, Your Money Map provides realistic steps and all the necessary tools to achieve them. The end result? True freedom to invest your time and resources in furthering the Great Commission.

The path to financial freedom may seem too steep to climb, but this book will help you achieve the summit, one destination at a time. Set your sights on the biblical principles that will help you reach your destination!

B&H, another Christian publisher, has a number of their novels at 89/99 cents apiece (the audience here is primarily adults):


Miss Fortune ($1.99), by Sara Mills
Book Description
They call her the "P.I. Princess". It's 1947 and Allie Fortune is the only female (and probably the best) private investigator in New York City. Her work is a welcome distraction from her own past and she's just been hired on by a client who isn't telling the whole truth. Mary Gordon's claims of innocence don't fit with her ransacked apartment, being shot at, and the two Soviet agents hot on her trail. Meanwhile, the FBI is working the case because a legendary and mysterious treasure has gone missing... again. The only catch for Allie is her new "partner" Jack, an attractive, single agent who knows how to make her smile. As Allie and Jack chase after the gold they must contend with the Soviets, who also want the priceless treasure back- after all, they stole it fair and square.

You can download back issues of Theaker's Quarterly Fiction for free, most in PDF format (although a few are in Mobi and EPUB, also), including issue 39, here.
Book Description
Merry Christmas and a happy new year! In this issue we have six more stories of Thornton Excelsior from the magnificent Rhys Hughes, mutant ultraviolence from Mike Sauve, and a science fiction tale from our dear friend Douglas Thompson. Ben Ludlam illustrates a Thornton adventure, and there are lots of reviews, from Jacob Edwards, Douglas Ogurek and me. Also, a mention for two people without whom I would have struggled to keep the magazine going these last two years: Howard Watts, who with his wonderful cover art has saved me from the quarterly hell of trying to create covers myself (TQF21’s awful, awful artwork still makes me shudder), and my co-editor John Greenwood, who has read virtually all the submissions this year.

In this issue we also have our very first interview! I found the interviews I did for the BFS’s Dark Horizons (with Brian Stableford, Lev Grossman and Allen Ashley) to be a fascinating challenge, and had wanted to initiate something similar here. I was in the middle of reading three brilliant books by Matthew Hughes (see Majestrum, Hespira and The Spiral Labyrinth in this issue’s review section) and so he seemed like the perfect choice. I hope such interviews will become a regular part of the magazine, but I will try to restrict myself to people for whom I can formulate at least semi-intelligent questions.

A Town Called Ruby Prarie ($1.99), by Annette Smith
Book Description
Mitford meets Mayberry in the first book of the Coming Home to Ruby Prairie series. In the small town of Ruby Prairie, Texas, even the most blessed of plans can go amazingly awry. A Town Called Ruby Prairie tells the story of newly widowed Charlotte Carter, who moves to town with plans to open a foster home for troubled girls. Fiercely independent and determined to succeed on her own, Charlotte soon learns that caring for six teens is much more challenging than she expected. One crisis follows another until the quirky, good-hearted people of Ruby Prairie rally their support to keep the home open. This humorous and inspirational story celebrates the joys found in the simple things of life - faith, friends, family, and community.

Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning ($2.69), by Nancy Pearcey
Book Description
Is secularism a positive force in the modern world? Or does it lead to fragmentation and disintegration? In Saving Leonardo, best-selling award-winning author Nancy Pearcey (Total Truth, coauthor How Now Shall We Live?) makes a compelling case that secularism is destructive and dehumanizing.

Pearcey depicts the revolutionary thinkers and artists, the ideas and events, leading step by step to the unleashing of secular worldviews that undermine human dignity and liberty. She crafts a fresh approach that exposes the real-world impact of ideas in philosophy, science, art, literature, and film--voices that surround us in the classroom, in the movie theater, and in our living rooms.

A former agnostic, Pearcey offers a persuasive case for historic Christianity as a holistic and humane alternative. She equips readers to counter the life-denying worldviews that are radically restructuring society and pervading our daily lives. Whether you are a devoted Christian, determined secularist, or don't know quite where you stand, reading Saving Leonardo will unsettle established views and topple ideological idols. Includes more than 100 art reproductions and illustrations that bring the book's themes to life.

Today's backlist/indie free books on Kindle, which are not likely to be free for long. Be sure to double check before one-clicking, to make sure the price hasn't gone up.