Free Audiobooks - Funny Business & The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

There are two new free audiobook from Sync today. First, I've linked in the info from the ebook or audiobook version of each title (Amazon has the best reviews), followed by the link to get your copies free, with directions to ensure you get the complete download.

The first free audiobook is Guys Read: Funny Business ($5.99 Kindle; $16.95 Audible), by Jon Scieszka (editor), narrated by Michael Boatman, Kate DiCamillo, John Keating, Jon Scieszka, Bronson Pinchot.

Book Description
It’s here: Volume One of the official Guys Read Library. Jon Scieszka’s Guys Read initiative was founded on a simple premise: that young guys enjoy reading most when they have reading they can enjoy. And out of this comes a series that aims to give them just that. Ten books, arranged by theme, featuring the best of the best where writing for kids is concerned. Each book is a collection of original short stories, but these aren’t your typical anthologies—each book is edgy, inventive, visual, and one-of-a-kind, featuring a different theme for guys to get excited about.

Funny Business is based around the theme of—what else?—humor, and if you’re familiar with Jon and Guys Read, you already know what you’re in store for: ten hilarious stories from some of the funniest writers around. Before you’re through, you’ll meet a teenage mummy; a kid desperate to take a dip in the world’s largest pool of chocolate milk; a homicidal turkey; parents who hand over their son’s room to a biker; the only kid in his middle school who hasn’t turned into a vampire, wizard, or superhero; and more. And the contributor list includes bestselling author, award winners, and fresh new talent alike: Mac Barnett, Eoin Colfer, Christopher Paul Curtis, Kate DiCamillo (writing with Jon Scieszka), Paul Feig, Jack Gantos, Jeff Kinney, David Lubar, Adam Rex, and David Yoo.

Guys Read is all about turning young readers into lifelong ones—and with this book, and each subsequent installment in the series, we aim to leave no guy unturned.

The unabridged edition of The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County ($14.95 Audible), by Mark Twain, narrated by Norman Dietz, is the second selection for this week. There are several Kindle editions, ranging from 95 cents and up, which feature one or more of the included stories, for those that like to read along with the audio. I did find a free version of at least the main story over on Feedbooks (although I haven't checked the formatting).

Book Description
Originally published in 1865, "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" began Mark Twain's remarkable career, and immediately demonstrated his masterful storytelling and brilliant sense of humor. This delightful tale introduces Jim Smiley, a man who loved to gamble, whether on horse races, dogfights, catfights, or even how long it took bugs to cross the Mexican border. When a gullible stranger came to town, Smiley boasted that his pet frog, Dan'l Webster, could outjump any frog in the county. Smiley, figuring it would be easy money, eagerly made a bet with the stranger, who had a secret plan to stop Dan'l in his tracks. This wickedly funny collection also includes several of Twain's other great short stories, including "A True Story," "Extracts from Adam's Diary," and "The Private History of a Campaign that Failed."

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.

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!

Today's Deals

Kobo has brought back their Trivia Contest for coupons (and prizes). You have to pick a genre (from five) after signing up for the game (you need to do this once, even if you already have an account), which you will then keep for the duration. Each day, you can enter and answer a new question - correct answers win a prize, with most of them being a coupon for 10%-75% off one book. Once a day, they also give away a Kobo Vox ereader. Don't worry about writing down the coupon code displayed on screen - you'll also get a copy in your email, so they are easy to keep track of. Generally, these coupons are valid for the duration of the contest and they are individualized (and only good once).

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is National Book Critics Circle Award winning October Light ($1.99), by John Gardner, published by Open Road.

Book Description
...(A) metafictional novel centering on the tumultuous relationship of two elderly siblings

James is a cantankerous and conservative seventy-two-year-old who has spent his life caring for the animals on his farm. His widowed older sister, Sally, has strong liberal ideals and a propensity for debate. When Sally’s bankruptcy forces her to move in with her brother, their lifelong feud quickly escalates—and Sally becomes a prisoner in her own room with nothing to survive on but apples and a trashy novel about marijuana smugglers.

As Sally becomes immersed in the book, the story envelops the narrative of the siblings’ dysfunctional relationship, and Gardner explores a wide array of themes from human autonomy to self-definition to political extremism. The result is a tour de force of Gardner’s unique literary style at the height of his protean creative powers.

This ebook features a new illustrated biography of John Gardner, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Gardner family and the University of Rochester Archives.

Morgue Drawer Four ($1.53 / £0.99 UK), by Jutta Profijt and Erik J. Macki, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99/KLL Eligible). Those in the US actually get a better deal on the forthcoming Morgue Drawer Next Door ($4.99 US / £3.99 UK), which will be released next week.

Book Description
Coroner is the perfect job for Dr. Martin Gänsewein, who spends his days in peace and quiet autopsying dead bodies for the city of Cologne. Shy, but scrupulous, Martin appreciates his taciturn clients--until the day one of them starts talking to him. It seems the ghost of a recently deceased (and surprisingly chatty) small-time car thief named Pascha is lingering near his lifeless body in drawer number four of Martin's morgue. He remains for one reason: his "accidental" death was, in fact, murder. Pascha is furious his case will go unsolved--to say nothing of his body's dissection upon Martin's autopsy table. But since Martin is the only person Pascha can communicate with, the ghost settles in with the good pathologist, determined to bring the truth of his death to light. Now Martin's staid life is rudely upended as he finds himself navigating Cologne's red-light district and the dark world of German car smuggling. Unless Pascha can come up with a plan--and fast--Martin will soon be joining him in the spirit world. Witty and unexpected, Morgue Drawer Four introduces a memorable (and reluctant) detective unlike any other in fiction today.

Morgue Drawer Four was shortlisted for Germany's 2010 Friedrich Glauser Prize for best crime novel.

Her Restless Heart ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), by Barbara Cameron, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. Most of you probably already have this, as it has been free (on all platforms) twice this year.

Book Description
Mary Katherine is caught between the traditions of her faith and the pull of a different life. When Daniel, an Amish man living in Florida, arrives and shares her restlessness, Mary Katherine feels drawn to him and curious about the life he leads away from Lancaster County.

But her longtime friend Jacob has been in love with her for years. He’s discouraged that she’s never viewed him as anything but a friend and despairs that he is about to lose Mary Katherine to this outsider.

Will the conflicted Mary Katherine be lost to the Englisch world, or to Daniel, who might take her away to Florida? Or will she embrace her Amish faith and recognize Jacob as the man she should marry and build a life with?

Racing in the Rain ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Garth Stein (author of bestselling The Art of Racing in the Rain), is the Nook Daily Find for Families, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Have you ever wondered what your dog is thinking? Meet one funny dog—Enzo, the lovable mutt who tells this story. Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: most dogs love to chase cars, but Enzo longs to race them. He learns about racing and the world around him by watching TV and by listening to the words of his best friend, Denny, an up-and-coming race car driver, and his daughter, Zoë, his constant companion. Enzo finds that life is just like being on the racetrack—it isn't simply about going fast. And, applying the rules of racing to his world, Enzo takes on his family's challenges and emerges a hero. In the end, Enzo holds in his heart the dream that Denny will go on to be a racing champion with his daughter by his side. For theirs is an extraordinary friendship—one that reminds us all to celebrate the triumph of the human (and canine) spirit. This is a special adaptation for young people of the acclaimed New York Times bestselling adult novel The Art of Racing in the Rain.

Grade Level: 3 and up

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Extended Family ($1.99), by Patrick Kendrick, one of the authors signed by Amazon's new Thomas & Mercer imprint.

Book Description
Dr. Harmon Gettys is the perfect man: tall, dark, handsome, and brilliant. He’d seemingly be a catch for any woman—especially those who desire an apparently charmed offspring. But Gettys uses his seed for murder, to create a legacy of violence.

For Fire Marshal Greymon Gift, gruesome burn-related murders are nothing new. But a sudden spike in his jurisdiction has Gift on high alert. When an FBI investigation links multiple arson scenes to the deceased Dr. Gettys, Gift is pulled even deeper into a case that’s hot enough to start a conflagration. He knows that even if Gettys were alive, such an assortment of violent crimes could never be committed by just one man. So who is spreading these horrors from coast to coast?

Gift and FBI Agent Rose Cleary partner up to stop the growing number of savagely murdered victims, but can they uncover the truth before they wind up on the list of the dead? Extended Family offers a thrilling look into the heart of darkness. Horrifying and suspenseful, the novel explores the idea that evil can be passed like a torch from one generation to the next. As Gettys proved—and Gift is about to find out—sometimes all it takes is a spark to set the family tree ablaze.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is Six books by Gerald Durrell for $1.53 / £0.99 each. Only the first one of the group has a US edition.

Marrying Off Mother (Main / UK; $3.43 US edition)

In this collection of stories by naturalist and animal lover Gerald Durrell, we are introduced to an eccentric cast of characters, including a perfume-wearing truffle pig and his jealous owner; an ageing set of alcoholic southern belles; a young, handsome sea captain who meets a tragic fate; a whisky-drinking hangman in Paraguay who is haunted by his victims, and a foul-mouthed talking parrot. Told with Durrell’s characteristic charm and wit, these stories – some of which may or may not be autobiographical – are humorous, touching, and always highly entertaining.

The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium (Main / UK)

If you loved My Family and Other Animals and can’t get enough of the Durrells after the Corfu series, this is the book for you. It constitutes a series of anecdotal snippets and short stories including ‘The Picnic’, a laugh-out-loud account of an ill-fated Durrell family excursion, which should have been a relaxing, jolly affair. But with the Durrells things are seldom straightforward and on this occasion all that could go wrong did go wrong - except Gerald Durrell's sense of humour in recounting the tale. Other hilarious and surreal Roald Dahlesque stories ensue, including the critically acclaimed Gothic horror story ‘The Entrance’.

The Drunken Forest (Main / UK)

Gerald Durrell is among the best-selling authors in English. His adventurous spirit and his spontaneous gift for narrative and anecdote stand out in his accounts of expeditions in Africa and South America in search of rare animals. He divines the characters of these creatures with the same clear, humorous and unsentimental eyes with which he regards those chance human acquaintances whose conversation in remote places he often reproduces in all its devastating and garbled originality. To have maintained, for over fifteen years, such unfailing standards of entertainment can only be described as a triumph. The Argentine pampas and the little-known Chaco territory of Paraguay provide the setting for The Drunken Forest. With Durrell for interpreter, an orange armadillo or a horned toad, or a crab-eating raccoon suddenly discovers the ability not merely to set you laughing but also to endear itself to you.

Beasts in my Belfry (Main / UK)

Gerald Durrell would one day become a much-loved conservationist. In Beasts in My Belfry he takes his first step towards fulfilling his ambition in this charming account of his job as a student keeper at Whipsnade Park in 1945. The eager young Durrell observes his co-workers and animal charges alike, including Albert, the ventriloquist lion, who amuses himself by jumping out at people. Whether getting dirty mucking out the buff alo enclosure or attempting to cajole a skittish gnu into a transportation crate, life in the zoo is certainly never boring.

Rosy is my Relative (Main / UK)

What does a young man bequeathed £500 and an elephant with a taste for liquor do? Adrian Whistle thinks he has the answer — he’ll give her to the circus. But it isn’t so easy. Together Adrian and Rosy cut a swathe of terror and destruction through the peaceful countryside of southern England. Drunk or sober, Rosy spreads chaos in her wake, till her hapless victims claim the full majesty of the law against her . . .

Menagerie Manor (Main / UK)

‘Most children at the tender age of six or so are generally full of the most impractical schemes for becoming policemen, firemen or engine drivers when they grow up... I knew exactly what I was going to do: I was going to have my own zoo.’ This is the hugely entertaining account of how the much-loved conservationist and author Gerald Durrell fulfilled his lifelong ambition by founding his own private sanctuary for endangered species in Jersey with the help of an enduring wife, a selfless staff and a reluctant bank manager. With a foreword by Lee Durrell, Honorary Director of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, this book about the trials and wonders of living in the middle of a zoo is a classic that will continue to bring pleasure to those who grew up reading Durrell, and deserves a whole new readership.

The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), by Denis Dutton, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
The Art Instinct combines two of the most fascinating and contentious disciplines, art and evolutionary science, in a provocative new work that will revolutionize the way art itself is perceived. Aesthetic taste, argues Denis Dutton, is an evolutionary trait, and is shaped by natural selection. It's not, as almost all contemporary art criticism and academic theory would have it, "socially constructed." The human appreciation for art is innate, and certain artistic values are universal across cultures, such as a preference for landscapes that, like the ancient savannah, feature water and distant trees. If people from Africa to Alaska prefer images that would have appealed to our hominid ancestors, what does that mean for the entire discipline of art history? Dutton argues, with forceful logic and hard evidence, that art criticism needs to be premised on an understanding of evolution, not on abstract "theory." Sure to provoke discussion in scientific circles and an uproar in the art world, The Art Instinct offers radical new insights into both the nature of art and the workings of the human mind.

Drowned Wednesday ($6.15 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the third in the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix, is the Nook Daily Find for Families.

Book Description

The next spellbinding book in best-selling author Garth Nix's magical Keys to the Kingdom series.Everyone is after Arthur Penhaligon. Strange pirates. Shadowy creatures. And Drowned Wednesday, whose gluttony threatens both her world and Arthur's. With his unlimited imagination and thrilling storytelling, Garth Nix has created a character and a world that become even more compelling with each book. As Arthur gets closer to the heart of his quest, the suspense and mystery grow more and more intense. . . .

Grade Level: 4 and up

Today's Deals

The Weekly $2.99 Albums have changed and are now all Country, for those holding out to see what was replaced by Soundtracks, before using their credit. Those credits expire tomorrow, so be sure to use them before then.

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is The Coldest Winter ($1.99), by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam.

Book Description
David Halberstam's magisterial and thrilling The Best and the Brightest was the defining book about the Vietnam conflict. More than three decades later, Halberstam used his unrivaled research and formidable journalistic skills to shed light on another pivotal moment in our history: the Korean War. Halberstam considered The Coldest Winter his most accomplished work, the culmination of forty-five years of writing about America's postwar foreign policy.

Halberstam gives us a masterful narrative of the political decisions and miscalculations on both sides. He charts the disastrous path that led to the massive entry of Chinese forces near the Yalu River and that caught Douglas MacArthur and his soldiers by surprise. He provides astonishingly vivid and nuanced portraits of all the major figures-Eisenhower, Truman, Acheson, Kim, and Mao, and Generals MacArthur, Almond, and Ridgway. At the same time, Halberstam provides us with his trademark highly evocative narrative journalism, chronicling the crucial battles with reportage of the highest order. As ever, Halberstam was concerned with the extraordinary courage and resolve of people asked to bear an extraordinary burden.

The Coldest Winter is contemporary history in its most literary and luminescent form, providing crucial perspective on every war America has been involved in since. It is a book that Halberstam first decided to write more than thirty years ago and that took him nearly ten years to complete. It stands as a lasting testament to one of the greatest journalists and historians of our time, and to the fighting men whose heroism it chronicles.

Night Waking ($1.53 / £0.99 UK), by Sarah Moss, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).

Book Description
Historian Anna Bennett has a book to write. She also has an insomniac toddler, a precocious, death-obsessed seven-year-old, and a frequently absent ecologist husband who has brought them all to Colsay, a desolate island in the Hebrides, so he can count the puffins. Ferociously sleep-deprived, torn between mothering and her desire for the pleasures of work and solitude, Anna becomes haunted by the discovery of a baby’s skeleton in the garden of their house. Her narrative is punctuated by letters home, written 200 years before, by May, a young, middle-class midwife desperately trying to introduce modern medicine to the suspicious, insular islanders. The lives of these two characters intersect unexpectedly in this deeply moving but also at times blackly funny story about maternal ambivalence, the way we try to control children, and about women’s vexed and passionate relationship with work. Moss’s second novel displays an exciting expansion of her range – showing her to be both an excellent comic writer and a novelist of great emotional depth.

Guilty Pleasures ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), the first title in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. If you haven't read this one (or want to replace your worn out paper copy), now is the time to grab it. I can recommend the urban fantasy series (although some of the books in the center of the series is a lot more Fifty Shades Trilogy than the earlier or the latest volumes) and have just finished reading Kiss the Dead, which has taken Anita back to her roots, hunting bad vampires and the sex is very toned down; I don't think I noticed much of any until over half way thru the book and then it was back to hunting monsters (it's apparently been removed into a a e-only outtake, Beauty).

Book Description
Published over ten years ago by Ace, Guilty Pleasures marked the debut of a series that was destined to grow from cult favorite to a major New York Times bestseller. Now, for long-time Anita Blake junkies and newfound fans, Guilty Pleasures makes its trade paperback debut. Readers will learn how Anita Blake started raising the dead-and killing the undead. And how she met Jean Claude, the master vampire destined to become not only her biggest nemesis, but her greatest lover...

A Summer Secret ($7.69 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the first title in The Mysteries of Middlefield series by Kathleen Fuller, is the Nook Daily Find for Families.

Book Description
In the Mysteries of Middlefield series, readers will be immersed into exciting mysteries and authentic Amish culture.

With a twin brother and five younger brothers, Mary Beth Mullet's house is in constant chaos. Her parents don't seem to mind the noise,but she needs a break from all the pestering and babysitting.

It's the summer before eighth grade, and Mary Beth plans to escape to her secret place as much as possible. The old barn in the neighboring field is dangerous, and her parents have forbidden her to go there, but she escapes to it as often as she can.

Mary Beth soon discovers she is not alone in the barn.Someone is living there; someone who needs help. Can Mary Beth help the stranger without losing her secret place? And what if the barn is as dangerous as her parents say it is?

Readers will identify with Mary Beth's struggles for peace and independence and be engrossed in the excitement and danger of A Summer Secret.

Grade Level: 3 and up

Beach Bag Reads for Summer

Open Road has a number of books on sale thru Tuesday, so that you can stuff your beach bag full for the summer. The books are supposed to be discounted in all the major stores, but I didn't find all of them marked down at Google or Kobo, so the links below will all be for Kindle. I've picked out a few that look interesting (and maybe a few that aren't on their sale), but you usually can't go wrong with the editions that Open Road brings out.

All Creatures Great and Small ($3.99), by James Herriot, is a good price on the start of a classic series, but I'd recommend you splurge instead on All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, and All Things Wise and Wonderful: Three James Herriot Classics ($11.99), for less than the cost of the first two.

Book Description
The stories of a young veterinarian making his way in the rugged English countryside—and of the people and animals he met along the way

In the rolling dales of Yorkshire, a simple, rural region of northern England, a young veterinarian from Sunderland joins a new practice. A stranger in a strange land, he must quickly learn the odd dialect and humorous ways of the locals, master outdated equipment, and do his best to mend, treat, and heal pets and livestock alike.

This witty and heartwarming collection, based on the author’s own experiences, became an international success, spawning sequels and winning over animal lovers everywhere. Perhaps better than any other writer, James Herriot reveals the ties that bind us to the creatures in our lives.

How to Talk to Your Animals ($1.99), by Jean Craighead George

Book Description
Our pets speak to us in a language all their own, if only we stop to listen

Can animals really talk? In How to Talk to Your Animals, Jean Craighead George turns her attention away from animals in the wild to those in our homes in this practical look at the ways our pets speak to us. Based upon the work of contemporary naturalists, psychologists, and zoologists, George explains the sometimes eerie phenomenon of unspoken communication observed by many pet owners, as well as the signals that our animal companions use to decide whether humans are friend or foe. Filled with loving stories of real animals “talking” to humans, this book will warm the heart of anyone who has ever loved an animal.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Jean Craighead George, including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

Riso: Undiscovered Rice Dishes of Northern Italy ($3.79), by Gioietta Vitale and Lisa Lawley, and Verdure: Simple Recipes in the Italian Style ($3.79), by Gioietta Vitale and Robin Vitetta-Miller

Riso: Undiscovered Rice Dishes of Northern Italy
One hundred quick and simple rice recipes capturing the flavor and excitement of traditional Italian cooking

From soups and salads to risottos and desserts, Gioietta Vitale presents the best of northern Italy’s rice-based specialties. Illustrated with line drawings and filled with tips on ingredients, techniques, and even the perfect wine to go with each dish, Riso is a comprehensive guide to rice by a master of Italian cuisine.

Verdure: Simple Recipes in the Italian Style
One hundred healthful and delicious Italian recipes centered on the best fresh, seasonal produce

From artichoke frittata to zucchini soup, Vitale offers simple and nutritious recipes dedicated entirely to vegetables. Providing tips on selecting fresh ingredients and bringing out each dish’s unique flavor, Verdure represents the best of northern Italian cuisine, and is a must-have for anyone seeking no-frills meals using the best that any local produce market has to offer.

Canal House Cooking Volume N° 1: Summer ($5.69), by Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton, is the first of several in the series, several of them included in the sale. Ignore the "11 pages" in the description, as there are more than that in the sample and it claims 81 recipes in this volume.

Book Description
CANAL HOUSE COOKING, VOLUME N° 1, SUMMER is a collection of our favorite summer recipes, ones we cook for ourselves all through the long lazy months. We are home cooks writing about home cooking for other home cooks. We cook seasonally because that’s what makes sense. In midsummer, we buy boxes of tomatoes to dress as minimally as we do in the heat. And in the height of the season, we preserve all that we can, so as to save a taste of summer. We make jarfuls of teriyaki sauce for slathering on chicken. We love to cook big paellas outdoors over a fire for a crowd of friends. We are crazy for ripe melons in late summer. And we churn tubs of ice cream for our families.

If you cook your way through a few of our recipes, you’ll see that who we are comes right through in these pages. With a few exceptions, we use ingredients that are readily available and found in most markets in most towns throughout the United States. All the recipes are easy to prepare (some of them a bit more involved), all completely doable for the novice and experienced cook alike.

Cook all summer long with Canal House Cooking!

Something Warm from the Oven: Baking Memories, Making Memories ($3.79), by Eileen Goudge

Book Description
A trove of classic recipes from the New York Times bestselling novelist Eileen Goudge

One of six children, Eileen Goudge learned to bake at an early age, inspired by her mother, who made everything from scratch and baked all her own bread. She has fond memories of the banana cake, apple crisp, and baked Alaska she loved as a child, and many of her novels feature temptations in the form of sweets, from the fine chocolates of Such Devoted Sisters to the icebox cookies of One Last Dance.

In this volume, Goudge collects the best of her mother’s recipes, adds some of her own, and includes a few from friends and readers. She tells the story of each dish in mouthwatering detail, giving glimpses of her childhood and noting which treats are best for picnics, parties, and other special occasions. These are not difficult recipes, but they are brilliant, and each one is designed to soothe the soul as well as please the palate.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Eileen Goudge including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life ($3.99), by Natalie Goldberg

Book Description
An inspirational, practical, and often lighthearted guide on how to find time to write, how to discover your personal style, and how to make sentences come alive

Natalie Goldberg, author of the bestselling Writing Down the Bones, shares her invaluable insight into writing as a source of creative power, and the daily ins and outs of the writer’s task. Topics include balancing mundane responsibilities with a commitment to writing; knowing when to take risks as a writer and a human being; coming to terms with success, failure, and loss; and learning self-acceptance—both in life and art.

Thought-provoking and practical, Wild Mind provides an abundance of suggestions for keeping the writing life vital and active, and includes more than thirty provocative “try this” exercises as jump-starters to get your pen moving.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Natalie Goldberg, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

The Ethics of Ambiguity ($1.99), by Simone de Beauvoir

Book Description
In de Beauvoir’s second major essay, the renowned French philosopher illustrates the ethics of Existentialism by outlining a series of “ways of being”

In this classic introduction to Existentialist thought, French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir’s The Ethics of Ambiguity simultaneously pays homage to and grapples with her French contemporaries, philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, by arguing that the freedoms in Existentialism carry with them certain ethical responsibilities. While contemplating Nihilism, Surrealism, Existentialism, Objectivity, and human values, The Ethics of Ambiguity is a thorough examination of existence and what it means to human life.

To do this, de Beauvoir outlines a series of “ways of being” (the adventurer, the passionate person, the lover, the artist, and the intellectual), each of which overcomes the former’s deficiencies, and therefore can live up to the responsibilities of freedom. Ultimately, de Beauvoir argues that in order to achieve true freedom, one must battle against the choices and activities of those who suppress it.

When the Legends Die ($1.99), by Hal Borland

Book Description
A young Native American walks between the lonesome forest where he was raised and the complicated modern world he must navigate to survive

Thomas Black Bull’s parents forsook the life of a modern reservation and took to ancient paths in the woods, teaching their young son the stories and customs of his ancestors. But Tom’s life changes forever when he loses his father in a tragic accident and his mother dies shortly afterward. When Tom is discovered alone in the forest with only a bear cub as a companion, life becomes difficult. Soon, well-meaning teachers endeavor to reform him, a rodeo attempts to turn him into an act, and nearly everyone he meets tries to take control of his life.

Powerful and timeless, When the Legends Die is a captivating story of one boy learning to live in harmony with both civilization and wilderness.

Chaos: Making a New Science ($3.79), by James Gleick

Book Description
The blockbuster modern science classic that introduced the butterfly effect to the world—even more relevant two decades after it became an international sensation

For centuries, scientific thought was focused on bringing order to the natural world. But even as relativity and quantum mechanics undermined that rigid certainty in the first half of the twentieth century, the scientific community clung to the idea that any system, no matter how complex, could be reduced to a simple pattern. In the 1960s, a small group of radical thinkers began to take that notion apart, placing new importance on the tiny experimental irregularities that scientists had long learned to ignore. Miniscule differences in data, they said, would eventually produce massive ones—and complex systems like the weather, economics, and human behavior suddenly became clearer and more beautiful than they had ever been before.

In this seminal work of scientific writing, James Gleick lays out a cutting edge field of science with enough grace and precision that any reader will be able to grasp the science behind the beautiful complexity of the world around us.

The Sea Around Us ($3.79), by Rachel Carson, Ann H. Zwinger and Jeffrey S. Levinton

Book Description
Rachel Carson’s National Book Award–winning classic effortlessly mingles detailed fieldwork and inspiring prose to reveal a deep understanding of the earth’s most precious, mysterious resource—the ocean

With more than one million copies sold, Rachel Carson’s The Sea Around Us became a cultural phenomenon when first published in 1951 and cemented Carson’s status as the preeminent natural history writer of her time. Her inspiring, intimate writing plumbs the depths of an enigmatic world—a place of hidden lands, islands newly risen from the earth’s crust, fish that pour through the water, and the unyielding, epic battle for survival.

Firmly based in the scientific discoveries of the time, The Sea Around Us masterfully presents Carson’s commitment to a healthy planet and a fully realized sense of wonder.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Rachel Carson including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.

The Cannibal Queen: A Flight Into the Heart of America ($3.79), by Stephen Coonts

Book Description
Bestselling author Stephen Coonts’s stirring ode to aviation: a revealing account of his three months spent exploring small-town America from the skies

Stephen Coonts spent the summer of 1991 cruising above rivers, farms, mountains, and swamps in the Cannibal Queen, his restored 1942 Boeing-Stearman open cockpit biplane. With his fourteen-year-old son, David, along for the ride, Coonts explored the diverse landscapes of the forty-eight contiguous states, touching down in each one to record the untold stories of America’s countryside. The result is The Cannibal Queen, a striking memoir that features all the technical aviation know-how of Coonts’s acclaimed thrillers, but with the spotlight focused squarely on the beauty of rural America and the spirit of those who live there.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Stephen Coonts, including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

That's it for the Open Road highlights. Be sure to check the sale page for more.

Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions ($2.99), by Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr

Book Description
A journey may take hundreds of miles, or it may cover the distance between duty and desire.

Sixteen of today’s hottest writers of paranormal tales weave stories on a common theme of journeying. Authors such as Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine, and Melissa Marr return to the beloved worlds of their bestselling series, while others, like Claudia Gray, Kami Garcia, and Margaret Stohl, create new land-scapes and characters. But whether they’re writing about vampires, faeries, angels, or other magical beings, each author explores the strength and resilience of the human heart.

Suspenseful, funny, or romantic, the stories in Enthralled will leave you moved.

Variant ($2.99), by Robison Wells. I picked this up at Audible during one of their sales and what I've listened to, sof far, is pretty good.

Book Description
Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life.

He was wrong.

Now he’s trapped in a school that’s surrounded by a razor-wire fence. A school where video cameras monitor his every move. Where there are no adults. Where the kids have split into groups in order to survive.

Where breaking the rules equals death.

But when Benson stumbles upon the school’s real secret, he realizes that playing by the rules could spell a fate worse than death, and that escape—his only real hope for survival—may be impossible.

The final selection for tonight is City of Bones ($0.99 Kindle, Kobo), the first title in Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series.

Book Description
When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing -- not even a smear of blood -- to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . .

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.