Today's Deals

B&N is going to have a discounted book each weekend this summer, chosen by the reader (a feature Amazon had, but discontinued). Voting ends early on Thursdays, so vote early, and the book will be discounted to $3.99 Fri-Sun only. From what I can tell, you will have to have a Facebook account and Like the page in order to vote, but anyone should be able to buy the discounted title.

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is How To Slay a Dragon ($1.99), the first title in Bill Allen's Journals of Myrth series. The second in the series, How To Save A Kingdom, is now available and a third title is in the works, although How To Stop A Witch isn't yet available for pre-order.

Book Description
Greg Hart can't slay a dragon. He'd be lucky to win a fight against one of the smaller girls at school.

His only real skill is that he can run faster than any other twelve-year-old boy in his class, a necessity, since that's who he's usually running from. Oh, it's not like he's never been the hero at the center of an adventure. It's just the kind of adventures he's been involved with have always been the made-up kind he's written about in his journal.

Now the magicians of Myrth have yanked Greg into a strange new world, where the monsters he must run from are far scarier--and hungrier--than anything he's ever run from before. He tries to tell everyone there's been a mistake. Ruuan is a very large dragon, while Greg, on the other hand, is neither large nor a dragon. He's barely much of a boy. Unfortunately, such trivialities could never stop the people of Myrth from believing Greg will rescue King Peter's daughter from Ruuan. After all, Greg has been named in a prophecy, and no prophecy has ever been wrong before.

Why, Greg wonders, does he have to be at the heart of the first one that is?

Gunshot Road ($1.53 / £0.99 UK), the second title in the Emily Tempest Investigation mystery series by Adrian Hyland, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.52). You can also get a good deal on the first of the series, Ned Kelly Award winning Diamond Dove ($3.36 / £2.14 UK), which is published under the title Moonlight Downs ($9.52) in the US.

Book Description
Emily Tempest: short, loud, sharp as a taipan's tooth. Last seen in the award-winning Diamond Dove, Emily has a new job: an Aboriginal Community Police Officer. A cop. Not quite what she had in mind when she returned to Central Australia. But for an Aboriginal woman in a pissant mining and meatworks town, the career options are limited. And there's a car attached. Her new boss, the dour Superintendent Cockburn, sees her role as making tea and rounding up the truants. But when one old friend is murdered out on the Gunshot Road and another one gets the blame, Emily leaps into the investigation feet first, mouth never far behind.

Flowers for Algernon ($8.55 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Daniel Keyes, is the Nook Daily Find. I picked this one up during one of Amazons $1 Kindle Special Offers, early in the year.

Book Description
With more than five million copies sold, Flowers for Algernon is the beloved, classic story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse. In poignant diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation increases his IQ and changes his life. As the experimental procedure takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment seems to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance--until Algernon begins his sudden, unexpected deterioration. Will the same happen to Charlie?

An American classic that inspired the award-winning movie Charly.

Virus on Orbis ($6.15 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the first title in The Softwire series by PJ Haarsma, is the Nook Daily Find for Families. I picked this up early last year, when it was free in several different stores/formats. For those that missed it then, this is a good price to start the YA series. With any luck, B&N will have the rest of the series discounted over the next few months.

Book Description
A human boy with an uncanny link to computers finds danger and discovery on the rings of Orbis in this riveting sci-fi adventure.

Thirteen-year-old Johnny Turnbull has always known there was something different about him, even before he and two hundred other kids landed on the first ring of Orbis. But once their spaceship lands, he is identified as the first-ever "softwire" — a human with the ability to enter and communicate with computers through his mind — and becomes the focus of intergalactic intrigue. Johnny and the rest of the refugee orphans are put to work in alien factories, and very quickly things go very wrong. When the all-knowing, all-controlling, and technologically "perfect" central computer starts malfunctioning, suspicious eyes turn to Johnny. Is he the one responsible? This action-packed, fast-paced sci-fi novel will keep kids on the edge of their seats.

Grade Level: 7 and up

Free App - Burn Notice Graphic Novel

If you are a Burn Notice fan, you'll want to pick up the Burn Notice Graphic Novel, now up to Volume 3, from iTunes or Google Play. I don't see it at all in the Amazon store, so those with Kindle Fires may be left out on this one, as far as special features (tilt, etc) go. However, everyone can read it free online and there is access to both of the previous volumes online, as well.

Book Description
The smash hit Burn Notice graphic novel saga is back for its third installment! “Burn Notice: First Contact” charts the origins of Michael and Fiona’s relationship, giving you an original storyline that you haven’t seen anywhere else…until now.

Beginning with the premiere of Burn Notice Season 6 (June 14, 9/8c) and continuing every week with each new on-air episode, download a new chapter that takes you deep into the backstory of your favorite spy couple. And look out for special double releases for the Burn Notice premiere and finale episodes!

For the first time ever, Volume 3 includes exclusive chapter covers that come alive with motion when you tilt and shift your device. Other popular features include:

• Artwork peelaways that allow you to see the creative process of the artists at powerhouse DC Comics: from sketches to inks to full-blown color.
• Panel-to-panel navigation: see each panel up close.
• Sharing features that let you spread the fantastic art you’ll find in the app.
• Video interviews of the Burn Notice cast and the latest Burn Notice news and tweets, all on the Burn Wire!
• Character Chatter: see what other fans are saying about the show and post your own thoughts.

Get the free ebook from Google Play. Exclusively on Google Play, you can also get the Burn Notice Tips app; keep it on your phone in case you need some quick spy tips to prevent blowing your cover!
Get the free ebook from iTunes.
Read all three volumes online!

Free Book - Red Baker (K/N)

Red Baker (Main/UK), by Robert Ward, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble, courtesy of publisher Tyrus Books. This book was originally published by Dial Press/Doubleday, in the mid 1980's.

Book Description
When Red Baker, a Larmel steel worker in Baltimore, Maryland, gets laid off from his job he goes crazy: boozing, attempted philandering, running away from his future. Filled with unforgettable characters from Red’s angry but loyal wife, Wanda; his basketball-star son, Ace; his lifelong friend Dog, a casualty of the layoff; and Crystal, the go-go dancer at Lily’s bar who embodies Red’s fantasies of escape. Red Baker is a classic American novel about a man with no identity who tries to replace the one he’s lost.

Set in the world of the hard-working men of the steel mills, this acclaimed work tells the story of an unemployed steelworker who drinks, nearly loses his wife, and decides to come back fighting.

Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Today's Deals

Fictionwise has a good coupon code this weekend (it usually works at least thru Wed of the week), 070712, which gets you 55% off lowest price (combines with member discount and 15% off new books discount). This is close to the best coupon code they have, so it's a good time to stock up on any missing magazine issues. In the new releases, I see a novel Dave Duncan, an anthology by Fritz Leiber and a short story from Elisabeth Waters that might be worth getting.

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is The Chaperone ($2.99), by Laura Moriarty.

Book Description

USA Today's #1 Hot Fiction Pick for the summer, The Chaperone is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922 and the summer that would change them both.

Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with blunt bangs, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will transform their lives forever.

For Cora, the city holds the promise of discovery that might answer the question at the core of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in this strange and bustling place she embarks on a mission of her own. And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, she is liberated in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of Cora’s relationship with Louise, her eyes are opened to the promise of the twentieth century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive.

Drawing on the rich history of the 1920s,’30s, and beyond—from the orphan trains to Prohibition, flappers, and the onset of the Great Depression to the burgeoning movement for equal rights and new opportunities for women—Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone illustrates how rapidly everything, from fashion and hemlines to values and attitudes, was changing at this time and what a vast difference it all made for Louise Brooks, Cora Carlisle, and others like them.

Macbeth: A Novel ($1.55 / £0.99 UK), by A.J. Hartley and David Hewson, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99/KLL Eligible and was recently the US Kindle Daily Deal pick).

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 Unruly Passions of Eugénie R. ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Carole DeSanti, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Love and war converge in this lush, epic story of a young woman’s coming of age during and after France’s Second Empire (1860–1871), an era that was absinthe-soaked, fueled by railway money and prostitution, and transformed by cataclysmic social upheaval.

Eugénie R., born in foie gras country, follows the man she loves to Paris but soon finds herself marooned. An outcast, she charts the treacherous waters of sexual commerce on a journey through artists’ ateliers and pawnshops, zinc bars and luxurious bordellos. Giving birth to a daughter she is forced to abandon, Eugénie spends the next ten years fighting to get her back, falling in love along the way with an artist, a woman, and a revolutionary. Then, as the gates of the city close on the eve of the Siege of Paris, Eugénie comes face to face with her past. Drawn into a net of desire and need, promises and lies, she must make a choice and find her way to a life that she can call her own.

Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus Volume 3) ($6.29 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Jonathan Stroud, is the Nook Daily Find for Families. Guess I should have waited, as I bought this title and The Ring of Solomon (#4 in the series) from Kobo, using two of the 45% off coupons, immediately after reading the first in the series, The Amulet of Samarkand, which I received as a review copy from the publisher and grabbing The Golem's Eye when it was the Nook Daily Find last month. Based on the dates they've had the first two in the four-book trilogy on sale, the fourth title should be discounted at B&N (but not Amazon) sometime in the second week of next month. Of course, buying them at Kobo gets you truly device independent EPUBs, rather than locking you into the B&N format, for those that don't have nook devices (although their reader app isn't the worst one out there and I do use it some on my Kindle Fire).

Book Description
In Book 3 of the series, Bartimaeus, Nathaniel, and Kitty must test the limits of this world, question the deepest parts of themselves -- and trust one another if they hope to survive.

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.