Today's Deals

Today's free MP3 (menu at right) is a nice album, the Green Hill Jazz Sampler, by Beegie Adair & Friends.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Secrets of the Cold War: US Army Europe's Intelligence & Counterintelligence Activities Against the Soviets During the Cold War ($1.99), by Leland C. McCaslin.

Book Description
Secrets of the Cold War focuses on a dark period of a silent war and offers a new perspective on the struggle between the superpowers of the world told in the words of those who were there. The author, formerly an expert in counterintelligence in US Army Europe, weaves together exciting true accounts of allies collecting enemy information in the East and fighting spies and terrorists in the West.

Amassing Soviet military information by Allied agents in the East is at the forefront! Learn the bizarre method a British agent uses to obtain the muzzle size of a Russian tank as he risks his life jumping on a moving train in East Germany. A French officer drives into a Soviet tank column and escapes undiscovered by cunning methods. In West Germany, terrorist attacks and spies are rampant. Communists shoot a rocket propelled grenade into a General's occupied limo and terrorists kidnap another General. From the espionage files, an American soldier is nearly recruited in a downtown bar to be a spy and a First Sergeant is lured by sex to be an unknowing participant in spying.

Behind-the-lines images are historic and intriguing. See photographs of a French officer and a Soviet officer relaxing in the East German woods in a temporary unofficial peace; 'James Bond' type cars with their light tricks and their ability to leave their Stasi shadows 'wheel spinning' in the snow will amaze readers.

A Russian translator for the presidential hotline recounts a story about having to lock his doors in the Pentagon, separating himself and his sergeant from the Pentagon Generals when a message comes in from the Soviets. When he called the White House to relay the message to the President and stood by for a possible reply to the Soviet Chairman, he stopped working for the Generals and started working solely for the President.

In another riveting account, a US Berlin tank unit goes on red alert when the Soviets stop a US convoy on the autobahn between West Germany and Berlin. The Berlin Command orders the tanks to rescue them, "If anything gets in your way, either run over it or blow it away!" Young US Berlin train commanders recount their encounters with their Soviet counterparts aboard the Berlin Duty Train. In an unusual train incident, one male Soviet Officer places a love note in a young US female Train Commander's pocket, touching her leg. The note is in the book.

Containing a host of first-person accounts that lift the lid on previously untold clandestine activities, this is a major contribution to Cold War history, and exciting reading for all those who have an interest in the real-life world of military intelligence, counterintelligence and espionage.

Bruar's Rest ($1.61 / £0.99 UK), by Jess Smith, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.66).

Book Description
Bruar's Rest is an epic tale of love and loyalty set against the backdrop of World War One. The story opens in the Highlands at the beginning of the twentieth century. The gypsy wife of wild drunkard Rory Stewart dies giving birth to their second son. Many years pass, and Rory and his sons are rootless travelers on the roads of Scotland. One night, during a winter storm, they save another traveler family from freezing to death in a blizzard. Bruar Stewart and one of the girls he rescues, the hot-blooded and beautiful Megan, fall in love. But the First World War is declared, tearing their lives apart. Bruar is reported missing in action, and Megan sets off on a long and perilous journey to find him...An epic tale of love and loyalty by the author of the spellbinding autobiographical trilogy, Jessie's Journey.

Kiss That Frog!: 12 Great Ways to Turn Negatives into Positives in Your Life and Work ($11.99 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Brian Tracy and Christina Tracy Stein, is the Nook Daily Find (I've reported the lower price to Amazon; if enough do, it may drop by evening). You should have his audioboook, Eat That Frog!, which was free at the beginning of the month.

Book Description
Just like the lonely princess in the fairy tale who was reluctant to lock lips with a warty frog and transform him into a handsome prince, something stops many of us short of attaining our dreams. Our negative thoughts, emotions, and attitudes can threaten to keep us from achieving all that we’re capable of. Here bestselling author and speaker Brian Tracy and his daughter, therapist Christina Tracy Stein, provide a set of practical, proven strategies anyone can use to turn those negative frogs into positive princes.

Tracy and Stein present a step-by-step plan that addresses the root causes of negativity, helps you uncover blocks that have become mental obstacles, and shows how you can transform them into stepping-stones to achieve your fullest potential. The book distills, in an accessible and immediately useful form, what Tracy has presented in more than 5,000 talks and seminars with more than five million people in fifty-eight countries and what Stein has learned through thousands of hours of counseling people from all walks of life.

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,” the authors quote Shakespeare. The many powerful techniques and exercises in this book will help you change your mindset so that you discover something worthwhile in every person and experience, however difficult and challenging they might seem at first. You’ll learn how to develop unshakable self-confidence, become your best self, and begin living an extraordinary life.

What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), by Thomas Frank, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
One of “our most insightful social observers”* cracks the great political mystery of our time: how conservatism, once a marker of class privilege, became the creed of millions of ordinary Americans

With his acclaimed wit and acuity, Thomas Frank turns his eye on what he calls the “thirty-year backlash” — the populist revolt against a supposedly liberal establishment. The high point of that backlash is the Republican Party’s success in building the most unnatural of alliances: between blue-collar Midwesterners and Wall Street business interests, workers and bosses, populists and right-wingers.

In asking “what ’s the matter with Kansas?” — how a place famous for its radicalism became one of the most conservative states in the union—Frank, a native Kansan and onetime Republican, seeks to answer some broader American riddles: Why do so many of us vote against our economic interests? Where’s the outrage at corporate manipulators? And whatever happened to middle-American progressivism? The questions are urgent as well as provocative. Frank answers them by examining pop conservatism — the bestsellers, the radio talk shows, the vicious political combat—and showing how our long culture wars have left us with an electorate far more concerned with their leaders’ “values” and down-home qualities than with their stands on hard questions of policy.

A brilliant analysis—and funny to boot—What’s the Matter with Kansas? presents a critical assessment of who we are, while telling a remarkable story of how a group of frat boys, lawyers, and CEOs came to convince a nation that they spoke on behalf of the People.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Three Little Kittens ($1.99), by Paul Galdone, a full-Color Children's Books with Kindle Text Pop-Up. Although it can be views on any Kindle device or app, the popup will read the text when using Kindle Fire or select Kindle Reading Apps.

Book Description
Three little kittens, they lost their mittens, and they began to cry. The three little kittens may be a bit careless, but they always manage to correct their mistakes in this favorite Mother Goose rhyme.

Grade Level: K and up

Today's Deals

Fictionwise code for the weekend: 091412 40% off

New coupon code at Kobo, also for 40% off: Save40 valid thru Sep 24. May be limited to select bestsellers.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Rules of Civility ($2.99), Amor Towles' bestselling novel debut and one of Amazon's Best Books of the Month, August 2011. This is also today's Nook Daily Find at B&N.

Book Description
This sophisticated and entertaining first novel presents the story of a young woman whose life is on the brink of transformation. On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York society—where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve. With its sparkling depiction of New York’s social strata, its intricate imagery and themes, and its immensely appealing characters, Rules of Civility won the hearts of readers and critics alike.

Supersense ($1.61 / £0.99 UK), by Bruce Hood, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).

Book Description
Why is it that Tony Blair always wore the same pair of shoes when answering Prime Minister's Questions? That John McEnroe notoriously refused to step on the white lines of a tennis court between points? And that President-elect Barack Obama played a game of basketball the morning of his victory in the Iowa primary, and continued the tradition the day of every following primary? Superstitious habits are common. Do you ever cross your fingers, knock on wood, avoid walking under ladders, or step around black cats? Sentimental value often supersedes material worth. If someone offered to replace your childhood teddy bear or wedding ring with a brand new, exact replica, would you do it? How about £20 for trying on a jumper owned by Fred West? Where do such feelings come from and why do most of us have them? Humans are born with brains designed to make sense of the world and that need for an explanation can lead to beliefs that go beyond reason. To be true they would have to be supernatural. With scientific education we learn that such beliefs are irrational but at an intuitive level they can be resistant to reason or lie dormant in otherwise sensible adults.It now seems unlikely that any effort to get rid of supernatural beliefs or superstitious behaviours will be completely successful. This is not all bad news – such beliefs are a useful glue that binds us together as a society. Combining brilliant insight with witty example Hood weaves a page-turning account of our ‘supersense’ that navigates a path through brain science, child development, popular culture, mental illness and the paranormal. After reading SuperSense, you will realize why you are not as reasonable as you might like to think – and why that might be no bad thing.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Gossamer ($2.99), by two-time Newbery winner Lois Lowry.

Book Description
Where do dreams come from? What stealthy nighttime messengers are the guardians of our most deeply hidden hopes and our half-forgotten fears? Drawing on her rich imagination, two-time Newbery winner Lois Lowry confronts these questions and explores the conflicts between the gentle bits and pieces of the past that come to life in dream, and the darker horrors that find their form in nightmare. In a haunting story that tiptoes between reality and imagination, two people—a lonely, sensitive woman and a damaged, angry boy—face their own histories and discover what they can be to one another, renewed by the strength that comes from a tiny, caring creature they will never see.

Gossamer is perfect for readers not quite ready for Lois Lowry's Newbery-Award winner The Giver and also for readers interested in dreams, nightmares, spirits and the dream world.

Grade Level: 5 and up

Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
For philanthropists of the past, charity was often a matter of simply giving money away. For the philanthrocapitalists-the new generation of billionaires who are reshaping the way they give-it's like business. Largely trained in the corporate world, these "social investors" are using big-business-style strategies and expecting results and accountability to match. Bill Gates, the world's richest man, is leading the way: he has promised his entire fortune to finding a cure for the diseases that kill millions of children in the poorest countries in the world.
In Philanthrocapitalism, Matthew Bishop and Michael Green examine this new movement and its implications. Proceeding from interviews with some of the most powerful people on the planet-including Gates, Bill Clinton, Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, and Bono, among others-they show how a web of wealthy, motivated donors has set out to change the world.

Bargain Books and Music Roundup

If you stopped using your Amazon Wish Lists when the 'Zon (rather stupidly) stopped displaying prices, then you need to check them out again. They've added prices back, including the ability to sort by price. With ebooks, you can see who is the seller (for Agency books and HarperCollins, who is still listed as the seller, but no longer as the one who sets the prices). With the compact view, you lose sight of your notes (which is where I always entered the price at the time I added it to a wish list), but you can see an mark a large number of items at once (to delete, move to a new list, etc). I'm glad Amazon woke up to the fact that not every wish list is a Wedding Registry, where price is no object; instead, you can now go back to using wish lists as they originally functioned, keeping track of things you might want to buy either as you get funds or when they go on sale. Several of the titles below are from my wish lists, as I trolled thru them today, looking for bargains.

Veronica Roth's Divergent ($9.99 $7.29) and Insurgent ($11.99 $7.29) haven't quite made it down to "bargain" pricing yet, but are amongst the early titles to get a good price drop after the end of Agency Pricing for Harper. If I didn't have both already, that would be enough of a drop to entice me to buy and seems reasonable for hot releases that are only a few months to a year old (and are over 500 pages in print).

Divergent

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

Grade Level: 9 and up

Insurgent

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth's much-anticipated second book of the dystopian Divergent series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature.

Grade Level: 8 and up

Partials ($2.99), by Dan Wells, has been on my wish list for a while; at this price, I've snapped it up. The next in the series, Fragments, is available to pre-order and it's at that magic $9.99 I remember from Kindle's early days.

Book Description
The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out.

Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic-in-training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws have pushed what's left of humanity to the brink of civil war, and she's not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will find that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them—connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there.

Dan Wells, acclaimed author of I Am Not a Serial Killer, takes readers on a pulse-pounding journey into a world where the very concept of what it means to be human is in question—one where our humanity is both our greatest liability and our only hope for survival.

Grade Level: 9 and up

I voted for Veronica Rossi's Under the Never Sky ($2.99) when B&N was having their summer weekend deals; it lost, but this price is a dollar less anyway; also nabbed. If you have auditory listeners on your account, the (companion audiobook is $8.99 (half price).

Book Description
Since she’d been on the outside, she’d survived an Aether storm, she’d had a knife held to her throat, and she’d seen men murdered. This was worse.

Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland—known as The Death Shop—are slim. If the cannibals don’t get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She’s been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He’s wild—a savage—and her only hope of staying alive.

A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile—everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria’s help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

In her enthralling debut, Veronica Rossi sends readers on an unforgettable adventure set in a world brimming with harshness and beauty.

Grade Level: 9 and up

The Old Man and the Wasteland ($0.99), by Nick Cole; great price drop on this one!

Book Description
Forty years after the destruction of civilization . . . Man is reduced to salvaging the ruins of a broken world. One man's most prized possession is Hemingway's classic The Old Man and the Sea. With the words of the novel echoing across the wasteland, a survivor of the Nuclear Holocaust journeys into the unknown to break a curse. What follows is an incredible tale of survival and endurance. One man must survive the desert wilderness and mankind gone savage to discover the truth of Hemingway's classic tale of man versus nature.

Abandon the Night ($4.49), the third title in Envy Chronicles by Joss Ware (Colleen Gleason), was the only one I was missing from this series. Other titles in the series are $3.99 to $4.49 now and you have until February to get caught up, when the sixth title, Night Resurrected, will be released.

Book Description
A brilliantly dark, unique paranormal world.... From the raging fires, five men emerge with extraordinary new powers. They are humankind's last hope . . . but they cannot survive this dark, ravaged world alone . . .

Quentin Fielding had everything. Money. Power. Women. But now that civilization is all but annihilated, Quent wants only one thing: revenge. Harnessing a strange new "gift," he embarks on a deadly mission to find the man responsible for the chaos and destruction, the man he should have killed years ago: his father. Only one thing stands in his way--a mysterious, arrow-wielding beauty . . .

ZoË Kapoor is on her own quest for vengeance, searching for the monstrous fiends who murdered her family. Soon she and Quent join together, journeying through the ruins of the world they once knew as a desperate desire builds between them. Drawing closer to an enemy they never imagined, ZoË and Quent must abandon all fear, abandon all regret, abandon the night . . .

One Grave at a Time ($4.99), is the sixth and latest novel in Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series; I would have grabbed this one for the cover alone, if browing in the bookstore. Luckily, I have the first five in the series, but if you don't they are now priced in the $4.99-$5.49 range. You also get a great deal on the companion audiobook for this one, at $4.99.

Book Description
Having narrowly averted an (under)world war, Cat Crawfield wants nothing more than a little downtime with her vampire husband, Bones. Unfortunately, her gift from New Orleans' voodoo queen just keeps on giving-leading to a personal favor that sends them into battle once again, this time against a villainous spirit.

The Dog Walker ($1.99), by Corwyn Alvarez, I picked up last May from Bell Bridge Books.

Book Description
Life is not as simple as he seems.

If there are guardian angels among us, surely Benny is one of them. Gently challenged and benignly observant, he lives with his long-suffering mother in the quirky and charming town of Mayfield. Benny is qualified for only one job: walking dogs. At that task, he is without peer. But Benny is more than a simple friend to the town's canines; he brings the same guileless compassion to the people around him. Sweet and honest, offering poignant loyalty, he changes their lives.

Hidden and Chilled ($2.99 each), by Kendra Elliot, are the first two titles in the Bone Secrets saga from Montlake Romance. both have companion audiobooks that are currently $4.99

Hidden (companion audiobook)

Eleven years ago, the Co-ed Slayer murdered nine female students on the Oregon State University campus. Lacey Campbell barely escaped his attack, but lost her best friend whose remains were never found. As the sole surviving victim, Lacey helped send the sadistic serial killer to prison for life.

Now a forensic odontologist examining teeth and bones for the state Medical Examiner, Lacey is devastated when she arrives at a crime scene and identifies the skeletal remains as her college friend’s.

The remains are discovered on the land of ex-cop Jack Harper. Sparks fly between him and Lacey, even as they realize that the prosecution’s witnesses from a decade ago are now being murdered one by one. All the evidence points to the Co-ed Slayer as the culprit—only, he’s long since dead. So who’s the new killer? And is Lacey next in line to die?

Golden Heart finalist Kendra Elliot combines chilling suspense and steamy romance in a gripping tale, uniting in-depth forensic knowledge with a passion for thrillers. Set in the snowy winter of Oregon, Hidden creates spine-tingling chills.

Chilled (companion audiobook)

As a forensic nurse on a search and rescue team, Brynn Nealey braves a dangerous blizzard to find the survivors of a plane crash in the Cascade Mountains. Joining her is Alex Kinton, a former US marshal with self-destructive tendencies. Alex lies his way onto Brynn’s team to find the man who killed his brother—and then administer his own brand of vigilante justice. But once the team members reach the plane’s wreckage, they discover everyone aboard has perished…except for the man Alex is hunting. Alex will do whatever it takes to track his target through the vast, snowy wilderness.

As the temperatures drop, however, so do Alex’s defenses. His contact with the sharp, kindhearted Brynn makes his lust for vengeance difficult to reconcile with his growing feelings for a woman who risks her life to help others. What will happen to Alex’s savage instincts when he finally has the opportunity to confront his brother’s killer?

Thicker Than Water ($1.99), G.M. Ford's latest Leo Waterman mystery is published by Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint; companion audiobook $4.99 (if you only wanted the audiobook, buy the ebook first and the combined cost is less than the one alone).

Book Description
Hard living collects its fair share of casualties, but somehow Leo Waterman avoided becoming one of them. Destined for a trust fund that was taking too damn long to kick in, he spent years eking out a living in Seattle as a private investigator. Along the way he managed to survive countless run-ins with murderers, drug dealers, and jealous wives. But when Rebecca, the love of his life, dumped him to marry someone else…that was a different story. Still, he took it like a man, eventually collecting his family money and slipping into semi-retirement—until the day an unwelcome visitor brings him the worst possible news. Rebecca has vanished and no one, not even her manipulative, overprotective mother, can find a trace of her. Together with his band of informers and sidekicks (in truth a rather motley crew of homeless drunks and reprobates), Leo wades back into the game, determined to save Rebecca once and for all. But her trail is a twisted one, thick with deception and depravity that winds from the rain-swept streets of Seattle to the murky depths of the great North Woods. The stink of it all seems to emanate from none other than Rebecca’s new husband, Brett Ward, whose tangle of lies will cast Leo into the path of a ruthless gang that will stop at nothing—not even murder—to protect what’s theirs.

Angelfall ($2.99), Penryn & the End of Days series by Susan Ee, is published by Amazon Children's Publishing, another new imprint; companion audiobook $4.99.

Book Description
It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back. Anything, including making a deal with Raffe, an injured enemy angel. Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco, where Penryn will risk everything to rescue her sister and Raffe will put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

Grade Level: 8th and up

Ricky Sides has released Despair ($2.99), the 11th novel in his The Peacekeepers series. I've been reading this series for a while and the later books in the series are much more polished than the earlier titles. Still, even the early efforts stand head and shoulders above many of the bestsellers I've read in this genre (Apocalyptic SciFi). You won't find long lists of survival items or a recitation of every model number of every weapon ever used by some military or militia group and you don't get bashed over the head with religious beliefs, (the lack of which) all of which contribute towards a more enjoyable read. I bought the first few books in the series, then started conversing with Ricky in some of the forums and now he sends me a review copy when the new ones come out (yay, me!). I just looked thru the Amazon listings and the individual titles are $2.99 (except the first, which is 99 cents) but the best savings come from getting some of the omnibus editions (1-3, 4 - 6 and 7 - 9), which take you thru all but the latest two novels.

Book Description
Two peacekeeper ships are dispatched to New York City to organize the evacuation and resettlement of the survivors. The peacekeepers soon find themselves facing a myriad of problems. Wild animals roam the streets of the city, and the tunnels beneath it are home to millions of starving rodents. The underground is also home to cannibals who prey on other humans as a means of survival. Compounding matters is the hatred and mistrust the above-grounders have for the people who live beneath the city streets. The peacekeepers must somehow prevent the different factions from fighting long enough to arrange their mass departure from the city. Complicating matters even further is a group of men who have been sent to target the two crews. Their mission is simple. Prevent the peacekeepers from succeeding in their mission by harassing them at every opportunity, and kill a peacekeeper captain, if they can.

The captains of the Athens and the Bleakman expected to find despair in the hearts of the residents of New York City, but they didn’t expect their crews to find themselves face to face with that emotion on a personal level.

To close out today's post, I found a few good bargains in the MP3 store, since that $5 MP3 credit from the Kindle Fire SO and a $3 credit from buying a Kindle accessory were burning a hole in my pocket.

• Big Baroque Box, by Vanguard Classics ($1.29); 14+ hours of classical music and $292.74 less than buying the individual selections
• Tempest, by Bob Dylan ($5); this is his recent release, which is $9.99 over at Google Play
• Chimes Of Freedom: The Songs Of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years Of Amnesty International, by Amnesty International artists ($18.06); it's a bit pricey, but spans 4 discs on CD ($15.99), with 5-1/2 hours of great music
• Rattle Them Bones, by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy ($5); jazz
• Born and Raised, by John Mayer ($5)
• Deluxe: Greatest Hits, by Patsy Cline ($3.99); 25 selections and just over an hours of music, since radio play forced short cuts when these were written
• California 37, by Train ($5)
• 50 Best Relaxing Classical, by The Greatest Classical Music Ever! ($0.99); this is just one of 14 "Best" classical albums you can pick up for 99 cents, each of which contains several hours of music

Remember, thru Sept 23, Coinstar is giving a $5 Mp3 bonus with every $20+ Amazon.com Gift Card; the only limit is "per transaction", so can more than one bonus to a single account. You must use the credit by October 31, 2012, but that will be easy with the monthly $5 MP3 Album Deals Amazon has.

Today's Deals

If you have little ones running around underfoot and a qualifying Android device or tablet (which oddly excludes the newly released Kindle Fire, currently), you might want to check out the sale on the Little Critter series of interactive storybooks by Oceanhouse Media, currently on sale for 99 cents apiece (excluding the bundled of 10 at the end of the search results).

Some B&N stores are offering a $10 gift card bonus with any $75 gift card purchase (I don't see details online, so I'd call first to see if your store offers these). You should be able to use them for ebooks, in the cafe, or on their new online only offer of a Nook Tablet and a huge bundle of Reader's Digest Subscriptions and eBooks for $229 (you can't get the bundle except with the tablet purchase and the subscriptions are non-refundable, but end after a year). The bundle includes a "12 month NOOK subscription to Reader's Digest, Taste of Home, Birds and Blooms, Healthy Cooking, and Simple and Delicious as well as the following eBooks and other digital content: Comfort Food Diet: Family Classic, Taste of Home Everyday Slow Cooker, Taste of Home Most Requested Recipes, Taste of Home Holiday Celebrations, Taste of Home Desserts, Humor in Uniform, Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things, Laughter, The Best Medicine: Those Lovable Pets, Laughter Really is The Best Medicine, and The Most Scenic Drives in America (Enhanced)."

You can get five of Barbara Cartland's backlist romances free over at AllRomance. Their books are DRM-free, so grab the format of your choice and convert as needed in the future or, go thru the purchase twice and download a couple of formats, as downloading does lock in the format. Do be sure to download, though, as they don't guarantee access in the future (authors and publishers can pull books and they'll be in your library, but without any download links; I have one from this author with this exact problem).

There's a good deal for Gamers at Amazon: The 13-game Over-the-Top Topware Bundle for $14.99. That's about the price of just two of the games standalone.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Two Best-Selling Romantic Suspense Series; all four books encompassing best-selling author Barbara Freethy's Sanders Brothers and Deception series are $1.99 each. That's less than I generally see the (worn) paperbacks selling for at our local used book store. These have been published in print by Onyx and Signet, but these ebooks editions are self-published (so, the author is getting a decent percentage of the sale, unlike print or used copies, and Penguin, the owner of both of those imprints, didn't get to set the price).

Silent Run (Sanders Brothers #1)

An emotionally compelling, romantic and suspenseful story ...

A woman wakes in a hospital bed with no idea of who she is. Her memory is gone, her baby missing. All she has is the gripping certainty that she is in mortal danger. Then a handsome, angry stranger barges in and makes a terrible accusation. He was her lover--and her child's father--until she disappeared seven months ago.

Jake Sanders swore he'd never forgive Sarah Tucker, but he isn't about to let her get away again--especially not with his daughter still missing. If he has any chance of recovering his baby, he must help the woman who betrayed him retrieve the pieces of her shattered memory--without letting his feelings get in the way.

Haunted by troubling flashes of memory, Sarah begins to realize she's lived a life of lies. But what is the truth? And where is her baby?

Silent Fall (Sanders Brothers #2)

Dylan Sanders is attending a wedding in the mountains when his trip takes a terrible turn. A former lover appears out of nowhere, demands a private conversation, and lures him into the woods, then leaves him there, drugged and disoriented. The next morning, the woman has disappeared, and Dylan is accused of her murder.

Catherine Hilliard, a beautiful psychic haunted by her own dark past, is reluctant to offer up her cryptic visions to help skeptical Dylan figure out what's going on, but she can't leave her best friend's brother-in-law on his own ... or deny the powerful, inexplicable connection between them.

It soon becomes clear that a wily and ruthless mastermind has targeted both of them, with a motive that's very personal. Soon their race to expose the truth is no longer about staying out of jail but about staying alive ...

Taken (Deception Series #1)

Kayla Sheridan had longed for love, marriage and a family. Now, after a miraculous whirlwind courtship with the man of her dreams, she is his wife. But on their wedding night, he vanishes, leaving Kayla with the bitter realization that her desire has made her an easy mark for deception.

Nick Granville has an ingrained sense of honor and an intense desire to succeed in building the world's most challenging high-tech bridges. But when he crosses paths with a ruthless con man, he's robbed of everything he values, including his identity. With nothing left to lose, he'll risk any danger to clear his name and reclaim his life.

Thrown together by fate, Kayla and Nick embark on a desperate journey toward the truth -- to uncover the mysterious motives of an ingenious and seductive stranger who boasts he can't be caught ... and to reveal the shocking secrets of their own shattered pasts.

Played (Deception Series, #2)

Christina Alberti, an expert art historian, has run from the shadows of her past, hiding the truth and building her name as a reputable jewelry specialist at the Barclay Auction House. Everything is perfect until a legendary and priceless diamond makes her a target for a diabolically charming con man determined to pull off the heist of the century at her expense.

FBI Agent J.T. McIntyre is determined to catch the thief who conned his father and destroyed his family. He wants revenge as much as he wants justice, and he won't let anyone stand in his way, not even Christina, whose secrets make him wonder just which side she is on.

When the diamond goes missing, the game turns deadly. Christina and J.T. take a dangerous journey deep into a world of greed and desire, secrets and seduction -- until there's no betrayal left hidden and nowhere the shocking truth can hide.

The Pilo Family Circus ($1.58 / £0.99 UK), by Will Elliot, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).

Book Description
“You have two days to pass your audition. You better pass it, feller. You’re joining the circus. Ain’t that the best news you ever got?” Delivered by a trio of psychotic clowns, this ultimatum plunges Jamie into the horrific alternate universe that is the centuries-old Pilo Family Circus, a borderline world between Hell and Earth from which humankind’s greatest tragedies have been perpetrated. Yet in this place—peopled by the gruesome, grotesque, and monstrous—where violence and savagery are the norm, Jamie finds that his worst enemy is himself. When he applies the white face paint, he is transformed into JJ, the most vicious clown of all. And JJ wants Jamie dead! Echoes of Lovecraft, Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and early Stephen King resound through the pages of this magical, gleefully macabre work nominated as Best Novel by the International Horror Guild.

To The Moon and Back ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Jill Mansell, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
The hardest part of love is moving on...

It's been a year since Ellie Kendall's husband, Jamie, was killed in an accident, but she's still haunted by his memory. In fact, she finds herself talking to him regularly. At the urging of Jamie's successful actor father Tony, Ellie moves to London's glamorous Primrose Hill, where nobody knows her past...

But even in her new home-and with her hardworking new boss, Zack McLaren; and Jamie's best friend Todd to distract her-Ellie can't seem to leave Jamie behind. Will Ellie stay stuck in the past? Or will she realize the man of her dreams is flesh and blood-and right in front of her eyes...

Discover why readers across the globe can't get enough of Jill Mansell's poignant, funny love stories. You'll laugh and cry-at the same time!

Republic, Lostt: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), by Lawrence Lessig, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
In an era when special interests funnel huge amounts of money into our government-driven by shifts in campaign-finance rules and brought to new levels by the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission-trust in our government has reached an all-time low. More than ever before, Americans believe that money buys results in Congress, and that business interests wield control over our legislature.

With heartfelt urgency and a keen desire for righting wrongs, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig takes a clear-eyed look at how we arrived at this crisis: how fundamentally good people, with good intentions, have allowed our democracy to be co-opted by outside interests, and how this exploitation has become entrenched in the system. Rejecting simple labels and reductive logic-and instead using examples that resonate as powerfully on the Right as on the Left-Lessig seeks out the root causes of our situation. He plumbs the issues of campaign financing and corporate lobbying, revealing the human faces and follies that have allowed corruption to take such a foothold in our system. He puts the issues in terms that nonwonks can understand, using real-world analogies and real human stories. And ultimately he calls for widespread mobilization and a new Constitutional Convention, presenting achievable solutions for regaining control of our corrupted-but redeemable-representational system. In this way, Lessig plots a roadmap for returning our republic to its intended greatness.

While America may be divided, Lessig vividly champions the idea that we can succeed if we accept that corruption is our common enemy and that we must find a way to fight against it. In REPUBLIC, LOST, he not only makes this need palpable and clear-he gives us the practical and intellectual tools to do something about it.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Captain's Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe ($1.99), by Roland Smith. Looks like a cute book and kids should enjoy it (so long as you don't tell them they are learning a history lesson at the same time).

Book Description
Born the runt of his litter and gambled away to a rusty old riverman, the Newfoundland pup Seaman doesn’t imagine his life will be marked by any kind of glory--beyond chasing down rats. But when he meets Captain Meriwether Lewis, Seaman finds himself on a path that will make history. Lewis is just setting off on his landmark search for the Northwest Passage, and he takes Seaman along. Sharing the curiosity and strength of spirit of his new master, Seaman proves himself a valuable companion at every turn. Part history, part science--and adventure through and through--The Captain’s Dog is the carefully researched, thrilling tale of America’s greatest journey of discovery, as seen through the keen, compassionate eyes of a remarkable dog.

Grade Level: 4 and up

James Herbert Sale for Kindle UK

Another flash sale on James Herbert's books (Main/UK) in the Kindle store, only for UK customers (one of which is also marked down for UK customers at Kobo). Besides the bargains below, many are priced at $4.79 Main / £2.99 UK.

Ash ($0.32 Main / £0.20 UK)

David Ash – detective of the paranormal – is sent to the mysterious Comraich Castle, secluded deep in the Scottish countryside, to investigate a strange, high-profile case: a man has been found crucified – in a room that was locked. The reports suggest that the cliff-top castle is being haunted . . .

Who – or what – is the reclusive hooded figure that Ash has seen from the window walking across the courtyard in the dead of night?
What are the strange, animal-like sounds that come from the surrounding woods?
And why are the castle’s inhabitants so reluctant to talk about what they have seen?

. . . what Ash eventually discovers is truly shocking.

Featuring one of Herbert’s best-loved characters, first encountered in The Ghosts of Sleath and Haunted, Ash is a ghost story like no other, that will chill you to the marrow . . .

Domain ($1.52 Main / £0.95 UK)

The long-dreaded nuclear conflict. The city torn apart, shattered, its people destroyed or mutilated beyond hope. For just a few, survival is possible only beneath the wrecked streets - if there is time to avoid the slow-descending poisonous ashes. But below, the rats, demonic offspring of their irradiated forebears, are waiting. They know that Man is weakened, become frail. Has become their prey.... Remember with fear

The Rats ($1.58 Main / £0.99 UK)

It was only when the bones of the first devoured victims were discovered that the true nature and power of these swarming black creatures with their razor sharp teeth and the taste for human blood began to be realised by a panic-stricken city. For millions of years man and rats had been natural enemies. But now for the first time – suddenly, shockingly, horribly – the balance of power had shifted…

Creed ($1.52 Main / £0.95 UK)

Sometimes horror is in the mind. And sometimes it's real. Telling the difference isn't always easy. It wasn't for Joe Creed. He'd just photographed the unreal. Now he had to pay the price. Because he always thought that demons were just a joke.

But the joke was on him.

And it wasn't very funny. It was deadly . . .

Lair ($1.10 Main / £0.69 UK; £1.00 Kobo)

REMEMBER WITH FEAR . . . The mutant white rat had grown and mated, creating offspring in its own image. They dominated the others, the dark-furred ones, who foraged for food and brought it back to The Lair. Now the dark rats were restless, tormented by a craving they could not satisfy. But the white slug-like thing that ruled them knew. Its two heads weaved to and fro and a stickiness drooled from its mouth as it remembered the taste of human flesh . .

Shrine ($1.58 Main / £0.99 UK)

A little girl called Alice. A deaf-mute. A vision. A lady in shimmering white who says she is the immaculate conception. And Alice can suddenly hear and speak, and she can perform miracles. Soon the site of the visitation, beneath an ancient oak tree, has become a shrine, a holy place for thousands of pilgrims. But Alice is no longer the guileless child overwhelmed by her new saintliness. She has become the agent of something corrupt, a vile force that is centuries old. Innocence and evil have become one. Remember with fear...