Win an XBox with Kinect & $100 Gift Card

The Amazon Studios and Amazon Instant Video are giving away Xbox 360 packages, each complete with Kinect and a $100 gift card Holiday Play Giveaway. Follow the link to both Like the Amazon Studios page on Facebook, then enter the giveaway (two steps).

Today's Deals

OK, for those who were hesitating to share the blog with others due to some of the content (and cover images), I have a favor to ask: Please let at least one new person know about the blog this week. I'm still working out the kinks on the new site (colors may change a bit, etc), but this site won't be tweaked much more. I have removed about 18 months of erotica posts and moved them to the new site, instead, so reading thru the back posts should be mostly safe at work (let me know if you run into something that is recent and that I missed).

Today's free Android App, Cooking Conversions, looks like it might come in handy for new cooks during the holidays.

For those shopping at Kobo, here are a few new coupon codes: Save40UK (40% off non-Agency, exp Dec 4), gettingtoknowyou (30% off non-Agency) and Bargainmoose40 (40% off non-Agency, MULTIPLE USES). I recommend you use Bargainmoose40 until it quits, then use Save40UK for another purchase before the expiration date.

For those with a B&N near you or who shop there online, they have their bonus gift card deal going again: Buy a $75 gift card and get a $10 gift card (good after Dec 26) for free. Online, you'll get the extra card emailed to your B&N email account on Dec 26, so you'll need to keep an eye out for it. Also, in store, you can repeat your buy, as desired, so long as you break the sale up to get $75 in gift cards for each purchase (if your store balks, as some may, just buy on a different day; mine lets you buy them all at once, but you must have a different transaction for each $10 bonus card). It's a little unclear if the online bonus card is limited to one per customer.

If you have Books-a-Million in your area instead, they'll be open Thanksgiving day (in case you need a hot cocoa after walking the picket lines at Walmart) and their 3-day sale starts Thanksgiving day (when they open, no timed events). All kidding aside, it's nice to know there are a few spots open for those aren't spending the day with family. If you are a BAM club member, check your email for 20% off and a free tall coffee coupon.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Promise the Night ($1.99), by Michaela MacColl.

Book Description
This fascinating story will capture any young reader with a thirst for adventure. Like MacColl s Prisoners in the Palace, Promise the Night propels the reader into an evocative story with an unforgettable protagonist, while bringing the setting and time period to life. Immediately compelling and action-packed, this work of historical fiction explores the life of Beryl Markham, the fist person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west from England to North America. From raising horses and hunting during her childhood in Africa to learning to fly as a young woman, Beryl s inspiring life and adventures will keep readers voraciously turning the pages.

Grade Level: 4 and up

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Charlestown Connection ($1.99), by Tom MacDonald. That's a good price for those who missed it's free day over the summer.

Book Description
Dermot Sparhawk, a former All American Boston College football hero, is stacking cans in a parish food pantry in Boston's Charlestown, when his godfather, Jeepster Hennessey, shows up with a knife in his back and dies at Dermot's feet. Once slated for a professional football career, now a recovering alcoholic, with a torn-up knee, Dermot sets out to solve the murder of his godfather with the help of his Micmac Indian cousin, his paraplegic tenant, and a former teammate. Dermot's investigation has him tangling with members of the IRA, FBI, and the Boston mob. He also is forced to contend with Charlestown's code of silence and the norms of the neighborhood where he grew up. Feeling like he did at the height of his game, Dermot uses his Native American intuition and Irish good looks to help him uncover clues. Dermot stumbles upon bits and pieces of information that he cobbles together into an unlikely theory which leads him on an unexpected trail and to a new mystery that could cost him his life.

Slammed ($1.60 / £0.99 UK), by Colleen Hoover, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $7.99).

Book Description
Layken's father died suddenly, leaving her to gather every ounce of strength to be a pillar for her family, in order to prevent their world from falling apart. Now her life is taking another unexpected turn…

Layken's mother gets a job which leads to an unwanted move across country. However, a new home means new neighbours… and Layken's new neighbour is the very attractive Will Cooper.
Will has an intriguing passion for slam poetry, and a matching passion for life. The two feel an irresistible attraction but are rocked to the core when a shocking revelation brings their romance to a screeching halt.

Layken and Will must find a way to fight the forces that threaten to tear them apart… or learn to live without each other.

An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963 ($9.99 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Robert Dallek, is the Nook Daily Find. From my understanding of the Agency agreement status with Hatchette, this should be price matched on Kindle (I've reported the lower price and hope it drops by afternoon).

Book Description
Everywhere acclaimed for its compelling narrative, its fresh insights, and its dispassionate appraisal of John F. Kennedy's presidency, this #1 national bestseller is the first full-scale single-volume biography of JFK to be written by a historian in nearly four decades. Drawing on previously unavailable material and never-before-opened archives, An Unfinished Life is packed with revelations large and small - about JFK's health, his love affairs, RFK's appointment as Attorney General, what Joseph Kennedy did to help his son win the White House, and the path JFK would have taken in the Vietnam entanglement had he survived. Robert Dallek succeeds as no other biographer has done in striking a critical balance - never shying away from JFK's weaknesses, brilliantly exploring his strengths - as he offers up a vivid portrait of a bold, brave, complex, heroic, human Kennedy.

New Release News: Jon Land

Jon Land's Blaine McCracken returns in Pandora's Temple ($9.99 Kindle), just released this week. This is the tenth novel in the series, so if you are reading in order, you may have a ways to go before you are ready for this one. The publisher, Open Road, has the first four in the series marked down to $2.99, though, so you can get a great start at a pretty low price.

• The Omega Command
• The Alpha Deception
• The Gamma Option
• The Omicron Legion

Prices vary after the first four, with #7 at $5.99 (MacMillan), three at $7.99 and the last two over $10.

Book Description
What if Pandora’s Box were real? Blaine McCracken finds himself facing this very question—and the greatest threat to mankind—in his long-awaited return to the page

Rogue special-operations agent McCracken has never been shy about answering the call, and this time it comes in the aftermath of a deepwater oil rig disaster that claims the life of a onetime member of his commando unit. The remnants of the rig and its missing crew lead him to the inescapable conclusion that one of the most mysterious and deadly forces in the universe is to blame: dark matter, both a limitless source of potential energy and an unimaginably destructive weapon.

Joining forces again with his trusty sidekick Johnny Wareagle, McCracken races to stop two deadly enemies who want the dark matter at all costs. A powerful energy magnate and the leader of a Japanese doomsday cult both seek the ultimate prize for their own nefarious reasons, and McCracken and Wareagle’s mission to defeat them takes the duo on a nonstop journey across the world and thousands of years into the past where the truth lies in the ancient Pandora’s Temple, built to safeguard the world’s most powerful weapon.

McCracken’s only hope to save the world is to find the mythical temple. Along the way, he and Wareagle find themselves up against Mexican drug gangs, killer robots, an army of professional assassins, and a legendary sea monster. The hero of nine previous bestselling thrillers, McCracken is used to the odds being stacked against him, but this time the stakes have never been higher.

You can also pick up two of his Caitlin Strong series on sale for $4.99 apiece, right now, from publisher Tor/MacMillan.

• Strong Enough to Die #1 (there are two editions of this one on sale; I've linked the one I picked up last year on sale; but you might want to check your library to see if you have the other edition)
• Strong Justice #2

Note: The publisher has furnished an electronic copy of Pandora's Temple for me to review. I might actually get around to doing that, someday.... In the meantime, I picked up the other titles on my own nickle.

Bargain Book: The 4-Hour Chef (K)

The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss was released on Kindle today and there is a special price of $4.99 currently. This is a dollar below the pre-order price many of us (including me) grabbed months ago, so if you missed that deal, don't dally in placing your order. I assume the price will go back up to the $10 or so range I have been seeing on it recently, possibly as early as midnight tonight.

If you did pre-order the book, you were charged the higher price ($5.99). However, you should see a promotional credit on your account in the next 48 hours to reflect the lower price on delivery date.

Book Description
WHAT IF YOU COULD BECOME WORLD-CLASS IN ANYTHING IN 6 MONTHS OR LESS?

The 4-Hour Chef isn’t just a cookbook. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure guide to the world of rapid learning.

#1 New York Times bestselling author (and lifelong non-cook) Tim Ferriss takes you from Manhattan to Okinawa, and from Silicon Valley to Calcutta, unearthing the secrets of the world’s fastest learners and greatest chefs. Ferriss uses cooking to explain “meta-learning,” a step-by-step process that can be used to master anything, whether searing steak or shooting 3-pointers in basketball. That is the real “recipe” of The 4-Hour Chef.

You'll train inside the kitchen for everything outside the kitchen. Featuring tips and tricks from chess prodigies, world-renowned chefs, pro athletes, master sommeliers, super models, and everyone in between, this “cookbook for people who don’t buy cookbooks” is a guide to mastering cooking and life.

The 4-Hour Chef is a five-stop journey through the art and science of learning:

1. META-LEARNING. Before you learn to cook, you must learn to learn. META charts the path to doubling your learning potential.

2. THE DOMESTIC. DOM is where you learn the building blocks of cooking. These are the ABCs (techniques) that can take you from Dr, Seuss to Shakespeare.

3. THE WILD. Becoming a master student requires self-sufficiency in all things. WILD teaches you to hunt, forage, and survive.

4. THE SCIENTIST. SCI is the mad scientist and modernist painter wrapped into one. This is where you rediscover whimsy and wonder.

5. THE PROFESSIONAL. Swaraj, a term usually associated with Mahatma Gandhi, can be translated as “self-rule.” In PRO, we’ll look at how the best in the world become the best in the world, and how you can chart your own path far beyond this book.

Black Friday Week Daily Deals

For those who read at night and catch this before the day changes in Seattle, you can get a great deal on Melissa & Doug Toys, as Amazon has many of them at 50% off as a Gold Box Deal

In the (paper) book world, Amazon has some decent discounts on their Best Books of Year: Top 100 Picks for 2012 and Editors' Gift Picks, but a really good discount on children's books with 50 Books, Just $5 Each, all of which are published by one of Amazon's publishing companies. The top two have list prices of over $15, so there are some real savings (I know kids picture books can be crazy expensive). Be sure to click the Adult Books tab - 34 of the titles are for the big kids in the household.

If you are wondering how everyone knows when some of the great deals in music, video games, movies & tv, computer software and MP3 players & player accessories, then be sure to bookmark these Black Friday Deals Calendar links. For other categories, you do have to check the Black Friday Week page each day, but you can plan a bit better with the calendars, where they exist.