Free Audiobook - The Sword

Christianaudio's free audiobook this month is The Sword ($8.99 Kindle; $11.95 Audible), by Bryan M. Litfin, narrated by Ray Porter. I actually have the ebook in my library, courtesy of Good News Publishers, who gave it away in March of last year.

Book Description
This novel of page-turning action and adventure poses the question, "If a society had no knowledge of Christianity, and then a Bible were discovered, what would happen?"

Four hundred years after a deadly virus and nuclear war destroyed the modern world, a new and noble civilization emerges. In this kingdom, called Chiveis, snowcapped mountains provide protection, and fields and livestock provide food. The people live medieval-style lives, with almost no knowledge of the "ancient" world. Safe in their natural stronghold, the Chiveisi have everything they need, even their own religion. Christianity has been forgotten—until a young army scout comes across a strange book.

With that discovery, this work of speculative fiction takes readers on a journey that encompasses adventure, romance, and the revelation of the one true God. Through compelling narrative and powerful character development, The Sword speaks to God's goodness, his refusal to tolerate sin, man's need to bow before him, and the eternality and power of his Word. Fantasy and adventure readers will be hooked by this first book in a forthcoming trilogy.

Get the free audio download from Christianaudio and scroll down the page for the rest of the trilogy discounted to $4.98 apiece, along with two other titles.

The checkout process is very streamlined (a coupon code is no longer required), as is the download process (no longer do you have to download each part of the book separately). You can also send a gift download of the free audiobook to someone else!

After finishing your order, download a zip file with the entire audiobook: select MP3 if you want to be able to play the book on your Kindle (M4B for the iOS, iTunes or QuickTime). Unzip the contents to the \audiobooks directory on your Kindle (not \music) in order to have audiobook controls and see it on your Kindle home page.

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is The Five People You Meet in Heaven ($2.99), by Mitch Albom.

Book Description
The phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller, that has sold more than eight million copies

Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in a meaningless life of fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. His days are a dull routine of work, loneliness, and regret.

Then, on his 83rd birthday, Eddie dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever.

One by one, Eddie's five people illuminate the unseen connections of his earthly life. As the story builds to its stunning conclusion, Eddie desperately seeks redemption in the still-unknown last act of his life: Was it a heroic success or a devastating failure The answer, which comes from the most unlikely of sources, is as inspirational as a glimpse of heaven itself.

In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom gives us an astoundingly original story that will change everything you've ever thought about the afterlife -- and the meaning of our lives here on earth. With a timeless tale, appealing to all, this is a book that readers of fine fiction, and those who loved Tuesdays with Morrie, will treasure.

The Saturday Supper Club ($1.55 / £0.99 UK), by Amy Bratley, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).

Book Description
Wanted: four amateur cooks to compete in a supper club contest Rules: four strangers, four weeks, four houses, four dinner parties You might win: a cash prize You might lose: your heart Eve had her world torn apart three years ago, when the love of her life Ethan disappeared, and she never found out why. But now, her life is rosy. With a lovely new boyfriend, Joe, and a café opening on the cards, things finally seem to be falling into place. … until she agrees to take part in a supper club competition for a local newspaper. Eve is cooking the first dinner and who should turn up on her doorstep expecting a three-course meal, but her long lost love Ethan?

Twenty Wishes ($5.99 Kindle/KLL Eligible, $1.99 B&N), by Debbie Macomber, is the Nook Daily Find.

Book Description

What do you want most in the world?

What Anne Marie Roche wants is to find happiness again. At thirty-eight, she's childless, a recent widow, alone. She owns a successful bookstore on Seattle's Blossom Street, but despite her accomplishments, there's a feeling of emptiness.

On Valentine's Day, Anne Marie and several other widows get together to celebrate…hope. They each begin a list of twenty wishes—things they always wanted to do but never did.

Anne Marie's list includes learning to knit, falling in love again, doing good for someone else. When she volunteers at a local school, an eight-year-old girl named Ellen enters her life. It's a relationship that becomes far more involving—and far more important—than Anne Marie had ever imagined.

As Ellen helps Anne Marie complete her list of twenty wishes, they both learn that wishes can come true…but not necessarily in the way you expect.

A Smart Girl's Guide to Friendship Troubles (PagePerfect NOOK Book) ($8.15 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Patti Kelley Criswell and Angela Martini (Illustrator), is the Nook Daily Find for Families. This is a "PagePerfect™ NOOK Books" so you'll need NOOK Study or a NOOK TABLET or NOOK Color with software version 1.4 to read it (the Kindle edition works on the Kindle Fire or Kindle for Android app).

Book Description
Friendship troubles have long been the subject of thousands of the "Help!" letters received by American Girl® magazine. Now there's a book on the important issue of girls and relational aggression. This guide helps girls deal with backstabbing, bullying, betrayal, and other tough friendship problems. It features sound advice, quizzes, tips, and inspiring real-life stories about girls who have overcome their differences and strengthened their friendships.

Free App - Evolution (I)

Evolution: Making Sense of Life, an app from Roberts & Company Publishers, is free in the iTunes store (requires iPad/iThing with iOS 5.1). This is a tie-in to their new textbook, Evolution: Making Sense of Life ($100 paperback pre-order or you can pre-order from the publisher for $80). I've been trying to get the app to let me buy it for two days and it is finally working -- I suspect it's a pricing mistake, though, so don't wait too long on it. Haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but it looks like it should be good, especially if it follows the textbook.

App Description
Science writer Carl Zimmer and evolutionary biologist Douglas Emlen have teamed up to write a textbook intended for biology majors that will inspire students while delivering a solid foundation in evolutionary biology.

Zimmer brings the same story-telling skills he displayed in The Tangled Bank, his 2009 non-majors textbook that the Quarterly Review of Biology called “spectacularly successful.”

Emlen, an award-winning evolutionary biologist at the University of Montana, has infused Evolution: Making Sense of Life with the technical rigor and conceptual depth that today’s biology majors require.

Students will learn the fundamental concepts of evolutionary theory, such as natural selection, genetic drift, phylogeny, and coevolution.

Get the free app from iTunes.

Free Audiobook - The Two

The Two ($8.99 Kindle), by Will Carver and narrated by Richard Aspel and Nicki Paull, is free from Audible (Random House Audiobooks). There may be some geographic restrictions, but you shouldn't need a monthly membership to grab it.

Book Description
They Kill Without Mercy.

Disappear Without Trace.

They are The Two.

And now the stakes are raised once more for Detective January David. 5 lie dead, brutally murdered - the first taken on the night of Halloween and as autumn bleeds into winter more ritualistic murders are discovered. January must battle his demons, for in his mind lies the clue to stopping a ruthless murderer. But his worst nightmares have literally come true when he discovers there's not one but two twisted killers on the loose ...

Get the free audiobook from Audible.

Today's Deals

BooksOnBoard is having a Big Bang! sale all week, with "40%-50% OFF ALL DISCOUNT ELIGIBLE eBooks this week, across the board, no limits." Note that the total discount often includes their reward bucks, which you can use for future purchases. Also, if you see a book cheaper elsewhere, you can email their support and they'll price match it (however, I don't know how long that process takes).

After finding the deal at Fandango that gives you a free $2 Amazon MP3 credit movie tickets purchases this month, I signed up with them as an affiliate (so, clicking my links will result in a small commission), so I could see what other deals I could find. Just in time, too, as it turns out that on Fridays, you can get 2 for 1 movie tickets when you use your Visa Signature card. I've added a link on the right sidebar, for those who want to take advantage of their deals; I'm going to use this deal today to go see the new Spiderman in 3D!

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Macbeth: A Novel ($1.99), by A.J. Hartley and David Hewson. Definitely not the edition you struggled with in high school, it received a starred review from Booklist.

Book Description
This is not your parents’ Macbeth or the one you read in high-school English class. A dark and bloody tale of a Scottish lord and his beloved wife, Macbeth: A Novel hurtles toward readers in gripping contemporary prose, thanks to novelists David Hewson and A. J. Hartley.

Set in eleventh-century Scotland, Macbeth: A Novel is rich with ancient clans battling fiercely against one another and against the foreign marauders raiding their borders. Macbeth, Lord of Moray, and his wife, Skena, are loyal patriots, willing to kill or be killed to protect the Scottish kingdom. Yet the greatest danger to their beloved homeland is proving to be the king himself, Duncan, whose corrupt, bloody reign threatens to destroy the country. After Macbeth meets a trio of witches, the frustrated hero begins to think that perhaps Scotland needs a new king—him. But what begins as a plan fueled by the best of intentions soon spirals into murder, treachery, and personal collapse. In the language of today’s fast-paced thrillers, Hewson and Hartley create an electrifying tapestry out of Shakespeare’s tale, relaunching two of the most powerful characters ever created.

The Taliban Cricket Club ($1.55 / £0.99 UK), by Timeri N Murari, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $11.99).

Book Description
Set in war-torn Kabul, a harrowing yet tender novel - Bend it Like Beckham in a burqua - about one woman's courage and guile in the face of tyranny.

Rukhsana, a spirited young journalist in Kabul, is summoned to the infamous Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice to face its terrifying minister, Zorak Wahidi. A cricket tournament is announced, with the winning team to travel to Pakistan for training and then represent Afghanistan at an international level.

In reality, the idea is surreal. The Taliban will never embrace a game rooted in civility, fairness and equality. And no one in Afghanistan even knows how to play cricket, except Rukhsana. The tournament offers hope - a means of escape for her brother and young cousins. And for Rukhsana, escape is essential - Wahidi wants to marry her, a frightening proposition which will enslave her in his home.

With the help of her cousins, Rukhsana devises an audacious plan that could ensure their freedom. All they have to do is learn to play cricket - and win.

A soaring novel of resilience, strength, hope and tenderness, The Taliban Cricket Club reveals how love can overcome, and outwit, the power of tyrants.

They're Watching ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Gregg Hurwitz, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. This standalone novel has starred reviews from both Publisher's Weekly and Booklist.

Book Description
Patrick Davis is a man with troubles. First his Hollywood dreams crumble and then his storybook marriage hits a snag. Now, DVDs start being delivered to his house—DVDs which show that someone is watching him and his wife, that the two of them are being stalked and recorded by cameras hidden in their house. Then the e-mails start, and someone offers to fix everything, to take the mess his life has become and make it all right. Patrick figures it’s the offer of a lifetime.

But Patrick couldn’t be more wrong. With every step he falls deeper into a web of intrigue that threatens everything he values in this world. Before he knows it, he’s in and in deep—and his only escape is to outwit and outplay his unseen opponents at their own game.

Adam Canfield of the Slash ($5.79 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Mike Winerip, is the Nook Daily Find for Families.

Book Description
Adam Canfield has to be the most over-programmed middle-school student in America. So when super-organized Jennifer coaxes him to be co-editor of their school newspaper, THE SLASH, he wonders if he’s made a big mistake. But when a third-grader’s article leads to a big scoop, Adam and his fellow junior journalists rise to the challenge of receiving their principal’s wrath to uncover some scandalous secrets. From a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and NEW YORK TIMES columnist comes a funny, inspiring debut that sneaks in some lessons on personal integrity — and captures the rush that’s connected to the breaking of a really great story.

Grade Level: 3 and up