Free Audiobooks - The Eleventh Plague and The Grapes of Wrath

Audiobook Sync is once again giving away audiobooks aimed at young adults during the summer. There are two new ones each week, so you have to keep checking back. 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!

First, I've linked in the info from the ebook or audiobook version of each title (Amazon has the best reviews), then a link to get your copies free.

The Eleventh Plague ($9.28 Kindle; $20.95 Audible), a standalone novel by Jeff Hirsch, read by Dan Bittner. This one had been on my wishlist for quite a while and I managed to pick it up in March when it was on sale and read it straight thru in about two days! Recommended.

Book DescriptionIn an America devastated by war and plague, the only way to survive is to keep moving.

In the aftermath of a war, America’s landscape has been ravaged and two-thirds of the population left dead from a vicious strain of influenza. Fifteen-year-old Stephen Quinn and his family were among the few that survived and became salvagers, roaming the country in search of material to trade. But when Stephen’s grandfather dies and his father falls into a coma after an accident, Stephen finds his way to Settler’s Landing, a community that seems too good to be true. Then Stephen meets strong, defiant, mischievous Jenny, who refuses to accept things as they are. And when they play a prank that goes horribly wrong, chaos erupts, and they find themselves in the midst of a battle that will change Settler’s Landing--and their lives--forever.

The Grapes of Wrath ($12.99 Kindle, $5.95 Audible), by John Steinbeck, as adapted by Frank Galati, narrated by Shirley Knight, Jeffrey Donovanm, Emily Bergl and the L.A. Theatre Works cast.

Book Description
Based on the epic novel by Nobel Laureate John Steinbeck. Set during the Great Depression, The Grapes of Wrath tells the powerful story of the Joad family's trek from the dust bowl of Oklahoma to the promise of a new life in California. But what they find threatens to rip apart their lives, and sever the ties that bind them together. Starring Shirley Knight as Ma Joad, Frank Galati's heart-wrenching adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel finds its timeless heart in the generous spirit of the common man.

A full-cast production featuring: Shirley Knight, Jeffrey Donovan, Emily Bergl, Mike Buie, Daniel Chacon, Maurice Chasse, Shannon Cochran, Trista Delamere, Francis Guinan, Charlie Matthes, Rod McLachlan, Bob Pescovitz,Joel Rafael, Stephen Ramsey, Nick Sadler, Andy Taylor, Todd Waring, Fredd Wayne, Michael Weston, and Kate Williamson, with live music performed by the Joel Rafael Band.

Click HERE to get the free downloads (you'll need to enter your name and an email address. You'll 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; there is a link at Sync, if you don't already have Overdrive installed).

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). Make sure your audiobook is fully downloaded before the end of the week, as once the promo period is over, you won't be able to get them free.

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Twisted Justice ($0.99), by Patricia Gussin, whose And Then There Was One was free at the beginning of March.

Book Description
For better...Laura Nelson has it all - a successful career as a surgeon, five well-adjusted kids, and a gorgeous, prominent husband Steve, a nightly news anchor at the Tampa TV News.For worse...Laura's seemingly perfect world shatters when she discovers that Steve is sharing much more than a news desk and a billboard with Kim, his sexy co-anchor. But Steve's torrid fling with his coworker is about to come to an abrupt end..Till death do us part...When Kim is murdered, Laura is left holding the smoking gun. How far would Laura go to preserve her perfect life? That's about to become yesterday's news.Now, Laura must fight to protect her freedom as lies, deception and dark secrets threaten to close in on her, and change her perfect life into a perfect nightmare.But, looks can be deceiving. And deceit can be deadly. Sexy, alluring and provocative, Twisted Justice delivers fiery hot action, pulse-pounding suspense, and a razor-sharp plot full of dangerous curves.

Farewell: The Greatest Spy Story of the Twentieth Century ($1.53 / £0.99 UK), by Sergei Kostin, Eric Raynaud, Richard V. Allen and Catherine Cauvin-Higgins, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99/KLL Eligible).

Book Description
1981. Ronald Reagan and François Mitterrand are sworn in as presidents of the Unites States and France, respectively. The tension due to Mitterrand’s French Communist support, however, is immediately defused when he gives Reagan the Farewell Dossier, a file he would later call “one of the greatest spy cases of the twentieth century.”

Vladimir Ippolitovitch Vetrov, a promising technical student, joins the KGB to work as a spy. Following a couple of murky incidents, however, Vetrov is removed from the field and placed at a desk as an analyst. Soon, burdened by a troubled marriage and frustrated at a flailing career, Vetrov turns to alcohol. Desperate and needing redemption, he offers his services to the DST. Thus Agent Farewell is born. He uses his post within the KGB to steal and photocopy files of the USSR’s plans for the West—all under Brezhnev’s nose.

Probing further into Vetrov’s psychological profile than ever before, Kostin and Raynaud provide groundbreaking insight into the man whose life helped hasten the fall of the Soviet Regime.

Correcting Jesus: 2000 Years of Changing the Story ($9.99 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Brian Griffith, is the Nook Daily Find; you can check for price match on Kindle later this afternoon, as they often hit about then, but this one seems to stubbornly staying full price.

Book Description
In Correcting Jesus, Brian Griffith patiently and clearly untangles the many strands of the story of Christianity, and the many changes made over the centuries to the original story of Jesus and his message. For any reader who's wondered, "Where did that rule come from?" and "Was it always this way?" Brian's book is the one you've waited for. He's always passionate but direct in his thesis that the original words of Jesus were meant as a basis for a society based on partnership and equity, not the one of domination and hierarchy they're used so often to justify.

By the early 20th century, it was generally accepted that all creatures (and communities) were inescapably rivals in life's battle for supremacy. It was the law of life that only victors had a future. And by this logic, which led straight to World Wars I and II, Jesus was simply irrelevant to reality. . . . In this context, the old imperative of Christian jihad against infidels was confirmed by scientific realism. Somebody had to come out on top.

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy ($6.63 $2.49 Kindle, B&N), a Newbury Honor Book by Gary D. Schmidt, is the Nook Daily Find for Families, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
It only takes a few hours for Turner Buckminster to start hating Phippsburg, Maine. No one in town will let him forget that he's a minister's son, even if he doesn't act like one. But then he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, a smart and sassy girl from a poor nearby island community founded by former slaves. Despite his father's-and the town's-disapproval of their friendship, Turner spends time with Lizzie, and it opens up a whole new world to him, filled with the mystery and wonder of Maine's rocky coast. The two soon discover that the town elders, along with Turner's father, want to force the people to leave Lizzie's island so that Phippsburg can start a lucrative tourist trade there. Turner gets caught up in a spiral of disasters that alter his life-but also lead him to new levels of acceptance and maturity. This sensitively written historical novel, based on the true story of a community's destruction, highlights a unique friendship during a time of change.

Grade Level: 5 and up

Get a $4 MP3 Voucher (AmazonLocal)

This one's thru AmazonLocal (but wasn't reported on my Kindle with not-so-Special-or-actually-Local Offers): Free Voucher Worth $4 Off Any MP3 Album ($7.99 or Greater) from Amazon MP3. The link takes you to NE Atlanta, but you should be able to check other cities, if they sell out before midnight.

Grab the voucher now (you have about 6 hrs to do so) and you can use it anytime until thru June 20, 2012. First, you click HERE to redeem the voucher code (which you can see at AmazonLocal by clicking on Your Offers, then clicking on View Code to get the promo code.

Note: This credit cannot be combined with the "MP3S4ALL" promotional credit from yesterday.

Today's Deals

Additional formats on free books:

• Cocaine Blues (K/I/DF)
• Wine of Violence (K/I/DF)
• Dinner Party Cookbook (K/E)
• The War of the Worlds (K/N/E)
• The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (K/N/E)

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is More Sweet Tea ($1.99), a collection of short stories by Deborah Smith, Sandra Chastain, Virginia Ellis and Deborah Dixon. Their first volume, Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes, was free over Christmas (and is still free in Europe).

Book Description
Settle back into that comfortable chair and enjoy a second helping of poignant, humorous and nostalgic tales about how things used to be in the legendary South. From vindictive mules and small town marriage rituals that include a pig, to Grandma's story of how a quilt square got her a husband and a home remedy of the hemorrhoidal variety that goes awry, More Sweet Tea delivers what readers have been thirsting for since the first in the Sweet Tea series, Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes.

Megacatastrophies! ($1.84 / £1.19 UK), by David Darling & Dirk Schulze-Makuch, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $8.90).

Book Description
Celebrate the year of the Mayan Apocalypse in style with Megacatastrophes!, as Dr David Darling and Dr Dirk Schulze-Makuch delve into the amazing science of the end of the world. Could it be the asteroid hurtling towards us from outer space, or a super-volcano covering the Earth under a cloud of ash; black holes gobbling up the solar system, or a tiny army of nanobots in a deranged feeding frenzy? Oh, and don't forget there's always the risk of alien invasion. Rating the likelihood of each potential disaster, David and Dirk provide the best guide to the worst that could happen, and explore what we could do to save our souls. So sit down, face the inevitable, and prepare to discover the nine weirdest ways we could all go to meet our maker.

The Distant Land of My Father ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Bo Caldwell, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle (there are two editions; only one is sale priced).

Book Description
For Anna, the narrator of Bo Caldwell's richly lyrical and vivid first novel, growing up in the magical world of Shanghai in the 1930s and 1940s creates a special bond between her and her father. He is the son of missionaries, a smuggler, and a millionaire who leads a charmed but secretive life. When the family flees to Los Angeles in the face of the Japanese occupation, he chooses to remain, believing his connections and luck will keep him safe. He's wrong. He survives, only to again choose Shanghai over his family during the Second World War. Anna and her father reconnect late in his life, when she finally has a family of her own, but it is only when she discovers his extensive journals that she is able to fully understand him and the reasons for his absences. With the intensity and appeal of When We Were Orphans, also set in Shanghai at the same time, The Distant Land of My Father tells a moving and unforgettable story about a most unusual father-daughter relationship.

Yummy Yucky ($6.64 Kindle, $1.49 B&N), by Leslie Patricelli, is the Nook Daily Find for Families (requires NOOK Color, NOOK Tablet or NOOK Kids for iPad).

Book Description
Spaghetti is yummy, but worms - and blue crayons, and sand, and other things too gross to mention - are definitely yucky when tasted. Amiably illustrated in a bright, graphic style, Leslie Patricelli's spirited book, YUMMY YUCKY stars an obliging, bald, and very expressive toddler who acts out each pair of opposites with comically dramatic effect.

In this NOOK Kids book, children can tap to enlarge text and pinch & stretch to zoom in on pictures.

Get $2 in MP3's for Free

Click thru to any MP3 page at Amazon (including today's free song, Lucky That Way by Joe Walsh), click the link next to the blue $ sign, underneath the Buy buttons, that reads "Redeem a gift card or promotion code & view balance", enter promo code MP3S4ALL and you'll get a $2 MP3 credit (must be redeemed by 11:59 p.m. PST on June 15, 2012).

Wondering what to spend it on? There are a number of $2.99 albums (which is nice; I already had a $1 credit, so I could pick any of them up for free), this month's $5 albums (including a 2-hour long Bob Marley compilation) or you could use it to pick up two of the 99 cent singles on the bestseller lists.

Enjoy!