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Friday, September 21, 2012

Free Audiobook - Hostage in Havana

The audiobook edition of Hostage in Havana ($9.99 Kindle; $10.49 Audible), by Noel Hynd, is free from GoBible, courtesy of Christian publisher Zondervan. The ebook edition was offered for free last summer, so you may find it in your library; this audiobook edition is in MP3 format, so will work on most Kindles and MP3 players (but is a large download at 700 MB).
Book Description
From bestselling ABA author Noel Hynd comes this new series set against the backdrop of Havana, an explosive capital city of faded charm locked in the past and torn by political intrigue. U.S. Treasury Agent Alexandra LaDuca leaves her Manhattan home on an illegal mission to Cuba that could cost her everything. Accompanying her is the attractive but dangerous Paul Guarneri, a Cuban-born exile who lives in the gray areas of the law. Together, they plunge into subterfuge and danger. Without the support of the United States, Alex must navigate Cuban police, saboteurs, pro-Castro security forces, and an assassin who follows her from New York. Bullets fly as allies become traitors and enemies become unexpected friends. Alex, recovering from the tragic loss of her fiance a year before, reexamines faith and new love while taking readers on a fast-paced adventure. Readers of general market thrillers, such as John le Carre, David Baldacci, and Joel Rosenberg, will eagerly anticipate this first installment.
Get the free ebook from GoBible. You will need to set up an account (complete with address and phone number) and don't forget to click on the No Payment Information Required button at the upper left of the checkout page (or you can't get past it). Once ordered, go to My Account (menu at top) and click on My Downloadable Products on the left sidebar menu to get to your audiobooks.

Today's Deals

A new Kobo coupon code for 30% off: win_g7om1n1 (Exp 9/27), plus all book purchases thru 9/27 qualify you to win a new Kobo Glo or Mini. I also got a "come back" code for 25% off - this one may only work for one person, but I'm not going to use it: 56b6c125 (exp 9/25). For those who are also bloggers, Kobo is having a sale on blogging guides thru Sept 26 - 25% off and no coupon necessary!

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Valeria's Last Stand ($1.99), by Marc Fitten, Amazon's Best of the Month, May 2009. His latest novel, Elza's Kitchen, was released this summer.
Book Description
When it comes to the sizes of fishes and ponds, Valeria is a whale in a thimble. She harrumphs her daily way through her backwater Hungarian village, finding equal fault with the new, the old, the foreign and the familiar. Her decades of universal contempt have turned her into a touchstone of her little community - whatever she scorns the least must be the best, after all. But, on a day like any other, her spinster's heart is struck by an unlikely arrow: the village potter, long-known and little-noticed, captures her fancy, and Valeria finds herself suddenly cast in a new role she never expected to play. This one deviation from character, this one loose thread, is all it takes for the delicately woven fabric of village life to unravel. And, for the first time in a long time, Valeria couldn't care less.

Valeria's Last Stand is a joyfully wise small-town satire that takes an hilariously honest look at later-in-life romance and the notion that it's never too late to start anew.

The Heat of the Sun ($1.61 / £0.99 UK), by David Rain, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $12.99).
Book Description
When recently orphaned Woodley Sharpless encounters Ben Pinkerton -- known to all as 'Trouble' -- for the first time at the exclusive Blaze Academy, he is instantly enraptured. They are polar opposites; Ben is exotic and daring; Woodley is bookish and frail, yet their lives quickly become inextricable intertwined. First at school, then in the staccato days of twenties New York, Woodley sees flashes of another person in his friend and slowly discovers a side of Ben's nature that belies a dark and hidden history.

As the curtain falls on the frivolity of the twenties and rises to reveal the cruelty of a new decade, Woodley and Ben's friendship begins to fragment. Over the coming years the two men meet intermittently; in Japan before the outbreak of the Second World War and then in the midst of the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. Change in both their lives, their relationship and their suffering, stand for a generation; one dispersed by depression and upheaval, brutality and confusion.

David Rain's novel, The Heat of the Sun, is an ambitious and assured debut that captures perfectly two friends, two loves: two lives.

Identity: Your Passport to Success ($9.43 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Stedman Graham, is the Nook Daily Find. At Amazon, there is a link for a bonus PDF from the author.
Book Description
Features a foreword by John Maxwell and afterword from Steven R. Covey.

Have you ever thought about the connection between knowing who you are and success? Identity can serve as your greatest asset. Enduringly successful people know who they are, are clear about what matters to them, have established powerful identities, and create value in the world.

In this book, the process for discovering and understanding your identity is brought to life through Stedman Graham's personal experiences and the stories of individuals who've resolved their questions of identity, building a life that matters to themselves and those around them.

Take control of who you are. Take control of your life. Achieve lasting success.

Now a Wall Street Journal bestseller!

Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change ($9.39 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Elizabeth Kolbert, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012. This one has a very good review from Scientific American on the Amazon page that is worth reading (and I've reported the lower price there, in hopes it will drop on Kindle).
Book Description
Long known for her insightful and thought-provoking political journalism, author Elizabeth Kolbert now tackles the controversial and increasingly urgent subject of global warming. In what began as groundbreaking three-part series in the New Yorker, for which she won a National Magazine Award in 2006, Kolbert cuts through the competing rhetoric and political agendas to elucidate for Americans what is really going on with the global environment and asks what, if anything, can be done to save our planet. Now updated and with a new afterword, Field Notes from a Catastrophe is the book to read on the defining issue and greatest challenge of our times.

About the author
Elizabeth Kolbert was a reporter for the New York Times for fourteen years before becoming a staff writer covering politics for the New Yorker. She and her husband, John Kleiner, have three sons. They live in Williamstown, MA.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog ($1.99), by Ysabeau S. Wilce, has one of the longer titles I've recently seen on a book. Lots of good review and you'll get your money's worth at 431 pages in print.
Book Description
Flora knows better than to take shortcuts in her family home, Crackpot Hall--the house has eleven thousand rooms, and ever since her mother banished the magickal butler, those rooms move around at random. But Flora is late for school, so she takes the unpredictable elevator anyway. Huge mistake. Lost in her own house, she stumbles upon the long-banished butler--and into a mind-blowing muddle of intrigue and betrayal that changes her world forever.

Full of wildly clever plot twists, this extraordinary first novel establishes Ysabeau Wilce as a compelling new voice in teen fantasy.

Grade Level: 7 and up

Thursday, September 20, 2012

$3.99+ MP3 Sale at Amazon

Today only (thru Midnight, PST), Amazon is running a sale on a 20 MP3 albums, with prices at $3.99 or $4.99 apiece. Which means a free album if you haven't used up that $5 KSO MP3 credit or if you have some of the $5 Coinstar MP3 credits!

Free Companion Book? Dick Francis's Gamble

The companion audiobook for Dick Francis's Gamble ($9.99 Kindle), by Felix Francis, is supposed to be free at Audible if you have first purchased the Kindle edition, at least, according to the Kindle edition page. The Audible page has a different price, tho, and I'm not sure which you'd end up paying; however, if you own the ebook and want the audiobook, it's worth giving it a shot (and contacting support if it tries to charge you, as they will often make good on the advertised price). If you do, you might want to make your own screenshot of the page to show support (include the date/time in your pic, if possible).
Book Description
One of the youngest winners of the Grand National, Nick “Foxy” Foxton suffered a near-fatal injury that cut short his career. Years later, he’s out for a day at the Grand National races when his colleague, Herb Kovack, is shot at point-blank range right in front of him. Like the police, Nick is baffled: Why would anyone kill such an apparently gentle soul?

Then Nick finds a threatening note in the dead man’s coat, and he begins to doubt how well he really knew his friend. And on discovering that Herb named him beneficiary in his will, Nick wonders why he’s been entrusted with the legacy. Is this a generous gift from a friend, or is it, in fact, a poisoned chalice?
Get the companion audiobook from Audible.

Today's Deals

BooksOnBoard will be discounting all eligible books 35% plus 8% back in rewards, for a net 43% off, thru midnight (CST) tonight (9/20/2012). The sale includes audio books and non-Agency titles (some publishers still haven't dropped it, such as Penguin).

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944 ($1.99), by Joseph Balkoski.
Book Description
In this unforgettable narrative of D-Day, Joseph Balkoski describes the minute-by-minute combat as it unfolded on Omaha Beach, allowing soldiers to speak for themselves as they recall their attempts to maneuver bombers through heavy cloud cover, the claustrophobic terror aboard transports, and the relentless fire that greeted them on the beach. Equal parts oral history and meticulous reconstruction, Omaha Beach is the closest the modern reader can get to experiencing the Normandy landings firsthand.

The Joy of Sin: The Psychology of the Seven Deadly Sins ($1.61 / £0.99 UK), by Simon Laham, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99 and has been retitled The Science of Sin: The Psychology of the Seven Deadlies (and Why They Are So Good For You)).
Book Description
Using modern psychological science, a great deal of research, historical anecdotes and an eloquent turn of phrase, the author contends that the 'seven deadly sins' not only feel good, but are also good for you.

From gluttony to greed, to envy and lust, even the deadliest of sins can make you smart, successful and happy. For example, anger can breed perseverance, sloth: hopefulness, greed: happiness and envy can actually bolster one's self-esteem. Based on many studies, the author tells us why the greedy are happy, the slothful are smart, gluttons are social butterflies and how anger can make you a fearsome negotiator.

The simplistic labelling of the seven deadly sins as 'sins' or as uniformly wrong does nothing but breed contempt for 'sinners' and stifle sophisticated discussion. Sin rails against this simplicity. Each chapter will cover an array of fascinating psychological research that demonstrates just how interesting and complex the seven deadly sins are. So the basic message of Sin: relax, spend, eat, drink and generally covet - you'll be better off for it.

A Little Death In Dixie ($9.39 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Lisa Turner, is the Nook Daily Find. No price matched on Kindle, but you can borrow it in the Kindle Lending Library. Long-time readers will find this one in their Kindle Library already, as it was offered free in Aug '10.
Book Description
The Blues were born out of need, anger and pride. Murder comes from those same dark places. Memphis has both. One of Memphis' most seductive and notorious socialites has vanished. Either she's off on another drunken escapade or the disappearance is something much more frightening. What begins as an ordinary day's work for Detective Billy Able quickly grows into a complex spider's web of tragedy, mystery, suspicion, and sordid secrets including a few of Billy's own. With the help of Mercy Snow, the estranged sister of the missing socialite, Billy follows a twisted trail of human frailty and corruption to disturbing truths that undermine everything he thought he knew about himself and the people he loves.

The Big Con: Crackpot Economics and the Fleecing of America ($9.99 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Jonathan Chait, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012.
Book Description
American politics has been hijacked. Over the past three decades, a fringe group of economic hucksters has corrupted and perverted our nation’s policies. With dark, engaging wit, Jonathan Chait reveals how these canny zealots first took over the Republican Party and then gamed the political system and the media so that once unthinkable policies—without a shred of academic, expert, or even popular support—now drive the political agenda, regardless of which party is in power.

Why have these ideas succeeded in Washington? How did a clique of extremists gain control of American economic policy and sell short the country’s future? And why do their outlandish ideas still determine policy despite repeated electoral setbacks? Chait tells the outrageous and eye-opening story, expertly explaining just how politics and economics work in Washington. He has produced a riveting drama of greed and deceit that should be read by every concerned citizen, especially in an election year.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Gossie ($1.99), by Olivier Dunrea.
Book Description
Meet Gossie, a small yellow gosling who loves to wear bright red boots—every day. One morning Gossie can’t find her beloved boots. She looks everywhere for them: under the bed, over the wall, even in the barn. Preschoolers will enjoy helping Gossie find her red boots and delight in where Gossie finally finds them.

Grade Level: P and up