Today's Deals 12/10

Don't forget to register for the gift card giveaway on Amazon's 12 Days of Book Deals promotion page. Today's book is "a fiction best seller (paperback ...)".

Today's Audible Daily Deal is 20% Off Gift Memberships!

At Harlequin, get free "naughty" wallpaper for your computer or mobile device. Although, it's nice enough to even put on your computer at work.

Join the festivities with 12 Days and 12 FREE comics during comiXology’s 12 Days of Gifting! Today, (until 1PM) get Green Lantern #1 for FREE today from DC Comics! After 1PM, the free download will change.

The Starbucks Gift special today is 30% Off Starbucks® mugs and gift packs.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Story of Snow ($1.99), by Mark Cassino and Jon Nelson, PhD., which was awarded a Starred Review by Booklist.

Book Description
How do snow crystals form? What shapes can they take? Why do star-shaped snow crystals usually have six arms? Are no two snow crystals alike? These questions and more are answered inside this exploration of the science of snow, featuring photos of real snow crystals in all their beautiful diversity. Perfect for reading on winter days, this book by a nature photographer and a snow scientist will inspire wonder and curiosity about the marvels of snow. And for those inspired to collect and study their own snow crystals, there are snow-crystal-catching instructions in the back.

Grade Level: P and up

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Persona Non Grata ($0.99), the third novel in the Medicus Investigation/Roman Empire series by Ruth Downie, with the companion audiobook only $3.49. If you need the first in the series, be sure to grab Medicus while it's marked down to $1.99.

Book Description
At long last, Gaius Petreius Ruso and his companion, Tilla, are headed home-to Gaul. Having received a note consisting only of the words "COME HOME!" Ruso has (reluctantly, of course) pulled up stakes and brought Tilla to meet his family.

But the reception there is not what Ruso has hoped for: no one will admit to sending for him, and his brother Lucius is hoping he'll leave. With Tilla getting icy greetings from his relatives, Lucius' brother-in-law mysteriously drowned at sea, and the whole Ruso family being sued for bankruptcy, it's hard to imagine an unhappier reunion. That is, until Severus, the plaintiff in the bankruptcy suit, winds up dead, and the real trouble begins...

Engrossing, intricate, and-as always-wonderfully comic, Ruth Downie's latest is a brilliant new installment in this irresistible series. This is everything we've come to expect from our charming, luckless hero.

Stanley: Africa's Greatest Explorer ($1.91 / £1.19 UK), by Tim Jeal, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $10.99).

Book Description
Henry Morton Stanley was a cruel imperialist - a bad man of Africa. Or so we think: but as Tim Jeal brilliantly shows, the reality of Stanley's life is yet more extraordinary. Few people know of his dazzling trans-Africa journey, a heart-breaking epic of human endurance which solved virtually every one of the continent's remaining geographical puzzles. With new documentary evidence, Jeal explores the very nature of exploration and reappraises a reputation, in a way that is both moving and truly majestic.

Keeker and the Sneaky Pony ($0.99 Kindle, B&N), the first title in by Hadley Higginson's Sneaky Pony children's series, illustrated by Maja Andersen, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. If you have kids (or grandkids) in this age range, don't miss picking up Keeker and the Horse Show Show-Off (#2) and Keeker and the Not-So-Sleepy Hollow (#6) at the same price (only at Amazon); all of these will work on any Kindle, so you aren't limited to reading them on the new tablets.

Book Description
Meet Catherine Corey Keegan Dana (everyone calls her Keeker). What she wants most of all is a pony.

Meet Plum. Plum is a Shetland pony (who's known to be a teeny bit sneaky). She rarely, if ever, thinks about little girls. She certainly doesn't want one.

When Plum moves to Keeker's farm, Keeker faces the challenge of winning a pony's trust and friendship. And when Plum and Keeker find themselves lost in the woods, they learn that working together is the best way to get out of a fix. This fast-paced story of adventure and friendship will have new readers galloping back for more.

Grade Level: P and up

Kindle Fire HD 8.9" $249!

Today only, save $50 on Kindle Fire HD 8.9" (now $249) or Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G LTE Wireless (now $449), by entering promotional code FIREHD89 at checkout. They've been showing that this was the week that these would be back in stock and now they are ready to start shipping them out in time for Christmas

There are some restrictions, which work out to basically one per customer (account), only those sold by Amazon (no third party sellers or used), and only until the number they've set aside for the promotion sell out. Although only the base models are shown on the deals page, the wording says on any model, so the $50 discount should work on the ones with more than the base RAM configurations, as well.

Limit one discount per customer. U.S. customers only. Discount valid on all versions of Kindle Fire HD 8.9” sold and shipped by Amazon. It does not apply to the same products sold by other sellers. Amazon reserves the right to cancel the promotion at any time. Promo codes may not be combined with other offers. If you return items purchased using a promo code, we will subtract the value of the discount from your return credit. Offer not valid with 1-Click ordering. Void where prohibited,

Free Audio Short Story - The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

The audiobook edition of The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, by Arthur Conan Doyle, narrated by Alan Cumming, is free for members (those with a subscription) at Audible. I checked the price while not logged in, however, and it looks like everyone with an account can get it free, as well.

Book Description
The season of gift-giving is here, and this year we've got something special for our members: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Yuletide whodunit "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle". In this holiday-themed short story, Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick, Dr. Watson, follow the trail of a lost hat and a Christmas goose through the streets of London and into a rapidly expanding mystery. And, since a great story calls for a great voice, we’ve brought in Emmy Award nominee Alan Cumming (TV's The Good Wife), a past Audie Award winner for Best Male Narrator and one of our very favorite narrators. We enjoyed it, and we hope you will too. Happy listening and happy holidays!

Get the free audiobook from Audible.

Today's Deals 12/9

Today is Musicals Day in the Gold Box at Amazon, with "Singin' in the Rain" and "Sound of Music" on Blu-ray starting at 53% Off and Lightning Deals all day long.

Amazon's Android Appstore spotlight today is on THE GAME OF LIFE (Kindle Tablet Edition) for 99 cents.

The Starbucks Gift special today is a sale on their red holiday mugs (these usually sell out quickly each year, so I'm headed over in just a bit to see if I can get one or two).

Don't forget to register for the gift card giveaway on Amazon's 12 Days of Book Deals promotion page. Today's book is the hardcover edition of Thinking, Fast and Slow for $2.99 (and they are going fast).

Today's Audible Daily Deal is Select Books by Preston & Child for $7.95 each. Don't forget, if you took advantage of the Listener Rewards program last month, you should have $10 or $20 in your account to use this month (if you don't, just email Audible support and they'll fix it).

At Harlequin, save 20% on any Carina Press Mystery books, today only! Use CPMYSTERY20 at checkout.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Winter Rose ($1.99), by Jennifer Donnelly.

Book Description
It has been twelve years since a dark, murderous figure stalked the alleys and courts of Whitechapel. And yet, in the summer of 1900, East London is still poor, still brutal, still a shadow city to its western twin. Among the reformers is an idealistic young woman named India Selwyn-Jones, recently graduated from medical school. With the help of her influential fiance--Freddie Lytton, an up-and-coming Liberal MP--she works to shut down the area's opium dens that destroy both body and soul. Her selfless activities better her patients' lives and bring her immense gratification, but unfortunately, they also bring her into direct conflict with East London's ruling crime lord--Sid Malone.

India is not good for business and at first, Malone wants her out. But against all odds, India and Sid fall in love. Different in nearly every way, they share one thing in common--they're both wounded souls. Their love is impossible and they know it, yet they cling to it desperately. Lytton, India's fiance, will stop at nothing to marry India and gain her family's fortune.

Fractious criminal underlings and rivals conspire against Sid. When Sid is finally betrayed by one of his own, he must flee London to save his life. Mistakenly thinking him dead, India, pregnant and desperate, marries Freddie to provide a father for hers and Sid's child. India and Sid must each make a terrible sacrifice--a sacrifice that will change them both forever. One that will lead them to other lives, and other places...and perhaps--one distant, bittersweet day--back to each other.

The Shoestring Club ($1.59 / £0.99 UK), by Sarah Webb, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition, but her Ask Amy Green is reasonably priced).

Book Description
Join The Shoestring Club

When the love of her life, Ed, announces his surprise engagement to her best friend, Julia Schuster is distraught but determined not to let them see how much she’s hurting. She spies a remarkable dress in Shoestring, her sister’s designer second-hand shop, and knows she’ll only be able to stagger through the wedding day, showing everyone how over Ed she is, if her body is wrapped in its soft silk chiffon. Unfortunately it costs mega bucks and she’s barely hanging on to her job as it is.

Arietty Pilgrim can’t and won’t attend her fiercely competitive school reunion unless she can arrive wearing exactly the same dress. But working as an elephant keeper in Dublin Zoo does not a millionaire make.

But fate has a funny way of bringing people together. Just as Julia starts to flounder amidst family troubles, problem drinking and a broken heart, she meets Arietty and the two of them set up The Shoestring Club – time-sharing one extraordinary dress and beginning a life-altering friendship.

Christmas at Eagle Pond ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Donald Hall and Mary Azarian (Illustrator), is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Donald Hall draws on his own childhood memories and gives himself the thing he most wanted but didn't get as a boy: a Christmas at Eagle Pond.

It’s the Christmas season of 1940, and twelve-year-old Donnie takes the train to visit his grandparents' place in rural New Hampshire. Once there, he quickly settles into the farm’s routines. In the barn, Gramp milks the cows and entertains his grandson by speaking rhymed pieces, while Donnie’s eyes are drawn to an empty stall that houses a graceful, cobwebby sleigh. Now Model A's speed over the wintry roads, which must be plowed, and the beautiful sleigh has become obsolete. When the church pageant is over, the gifts are exchanged, and the remains of the Christmas feast put away, the air becomes heavy with fine snowflakes—the kind that fall at the start of a big storm—and everyone wonders, how will Donnie get back to his parents on time?

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Sign of the Beaver ($1.99), by Elizabeth George Speare.

Book Description
Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in eighteenth-century Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.

Grade Level: 5 and up

Today's Deals 12/8

Don't forget to register for the gift card giveaway on Amazon's 12 Days of Book Deals promotion page. Today's book is "a best-selling nonfiction book".

Today's Audible Daily Deal is Nora Roberts Romance for $5.95. Members with credits get a bonus sale today: Heat Up Your Holidays BOGO boutique. For those with a UK account, the £0.99 audiobook is The Christmas Angel by Marcia Willett.

At Harlequin, get FREE recipes from Debbie Macomber! It's a DRM-free PDF download that everyone can grab.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Restless ($1.99), by William Boyd.

Book Description

In December, 2012 The Sundance Channel will air the BBC-produced film RESTLESS starring Charlotte Rampling, Michael Gambon, Hayley Atwell, and Rufus Sewell, based on this novel by William Boyd.

Someone is trying to kill Sally Gilmartin. It is the summer of 1976, and the only person she can trust is her daughter, Ruth, a young single mother struggling with her own demons. Now Sally must tell her daughter the truth: She is actually Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian émigré recruited for the British Secret Service in 1939. Soon Ruth is drawn deeper into the astonishing events of her mother’s past, including her work in New York City manipulating the press in order to shift public sentiment toward U.S. involvement in Second World War and her dangerous love affair with another spy. Ruth also discovers that her mother has one final assignment. This time, though, Eva can’t do it alone—she needs Ruth’s help. Full of tension and drama, emotion and history, this is storytelling at its finest.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is The Donavan Creed series by John Locke for $1.59 / £0.99 each. For those in the US, the series is going for $2.99 per volume.

Lethal People, Lethal Experiment, Saving Rachel, Now and Then, Wish List, A Girl Like You, Vegas Moon and The Love You Crave. Donovan Creed is a man of many identities--a ruthless assassin with access to all the technology that the military can offer. Featuring more twists than a road through the Pyrenees, these books are pacy, outrageous and dangerously addictive.

Eight Winter Nights: A Family Hanukkah Book ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Laura Krauss Melmed, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Moishe s Miracle author Laura Krauss Melmed and illustrator Elizabeth Schlossberg celebrate Hanukkah in joyful action rhymes, lyrical poems, and exuberant scenes of family life. From dancing candles to delicious traditional foods to the story of the Macabbees, they capture the warm sights, sounds, and tastes of this wintertime family festival.

Grade Level: P and up

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Only One Club ($1.99), by Jane Naliboff and Jeff Hopkins (Illustrator).

Book Description
This heartwarming story explores the many ways in which children feel unique and special. Mrs. Matthews's first grade class begins making Christmas decorations, but because Jennifer is Jewish, Mrs. Matthews allows her to make Hanukkah decorations instead. Jennifer enjoys the attention and creates "The Only One Club," of which she is the sole member. When her classmates want to join, she is resistant until she realizes that each of her friends is also "the only one" at something. As she inducts them into her club she reveals the unique qualities that make each of her classmates extraordinary. Through this touching story, young children are encouraged to discover and treasure their own uniqueness and to actively look for special qualities in others beyond race or culture. A medley of pencil, watercolor, acrylic paint, and pastel illustrations bring this inspiring and humorous tale to life.

Grade Level: K and up