Today's Deals 1/3

Today's Gold Box will have a several Kindle Fire and Kindle accessories later today: 2PM Eastern - "Stand up your Kindle Fire HD 8.9" with a great case from Belkin"; 3PM Eastern - "Stand your Kindle Fire HD 7" in either portrait or landscape mode with a leather case from Marware"; 4PM Eastern - "Dress up your Kindle Fire HD 7" in a genuine leather case from Kate Spade" & 5PM Eastern - "Light up your Kindle or paperback with a battery powered LED light". If you still have an AmazonLocal 40% off voucher, it may works with one of these, as well.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Color Purple ($1.99), by Alice Walker.

Book Description
Alice Walker’s masterpiece, a powerful novel of courage in the face of oppression

Celie has grown up in rural Georgia, navigating a childhood of ceaseless abuse. Not only is she poor and despised by the society around her, she’s badly treated by her family. As a teenager she begins writing letters directly to God in an attempt to transcend a life that often seems too much to bear. Her letters span twenty years and record a journey of self-discovery and empowerment through the guiding light of a few strong women and her own implacable will to find harmony with herself and her home.
The Color Purple’s deeply inspirational narrative, coupled with Walker’s prodigious talent as a stylist and storyteller, have made the novel a contemporary classic of American letters.

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

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Yesterday's News ($1.99), by Kajsa Ingemarsson.

Book Description
Agnes has most things in life: a job at a fancy restaurant, a boyfriend who loves her, and a best friend whom she knows inside out. Or does she? All of a sudden things begin to crumble, one by one, and soon nothing is as it was. Her boyfriend leaves her for a big busted singer, and she is fired by the sexist and abusive owner of the restaurant where she works. She gambles everything she has on the success of a newly opened restaurant, but the road to the glowing review which will open the door to fame and fortune has, to say the least, unexpected twists and turns.

In Yesterday’s News Kajsa Ingemarsson’s comic talent comes into its own. The book is one of the greatest bestsellers of all time in Sweden with more than 800,000 copies sold. Juicy and satisfying, Yesterday’s News is a story about daring and winning and about faith in yourself, a feelgood novel sure to please anyone looking for the antithesis to Stieg Larsson.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Hawk of May ($1.99), the first novel in the award-winning Down the Long Way series by Gillian Bradshaw.

Book Description
On The Path Toward Greatness, Every Hero Makes a Choice

Legends sing of Sir Gawain, one of the most respected warriors of King Arthur's reign and one of the greatest champions of all time. But this is not that story. This is the story of Gwalchmai, middle son of the beautiful, infinitely evil sorceress Morgawse, and gifted student of her dark magical arts. A story of an uncertain man, doubting his ability to follow his elder brother's warrior prowess and seeking to find his own identity by bonding with his frightening and powerful mother. Disappointed in himself and despised by his father, Gwalchmai sets out on a journey that will lead him to the brink of darkness...

A tale of loss, redemption, and adventure, Hawk of May brings new depth and understanding to Sir Gawain, the legend of King Arthur, and the impact of choices made-and the consequences that follow.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is three titles for £0.99 each (~80% off).

A Whole New You: Six Steps to Ignite Change for Your Best Life (Main/UK), by Brett Blumenthal (US edition $5.99); his 52 Small Changes: One Year to a Happier, Healthier You is also £0.99 as part of the 12 Day of Kindle sale.

Tools and Forms to Help You

The worksheets from "The New You Journal" section of A Whole New You are available for download at no cost [link on Amazon product page] "The New You Journal" is a companion guide to A Whole New You and should not be redistributed or resold individually. For customer service and support questions, please contact newyoujournal@amazon.com.

From the author of the best-selling book 52 Small Changes comes a smart, practical approach to reinventing any aspect of your life that’s not working for you. Whether you want to start eating healthy, switch careers, or improve a relationship, Brett Blumenthal’s A Whole New You will inspire you to take control of your life and live your very best.

Drawing on her own experience with personal reinvention, her professional work as a change management consultant, and her studies in the fields of psychology and human behavior, Blumenthal breaks down how to successfully reinvent your life in six steps. Each stage is comprehensively explained, with action items, tools, and resources to enable you to follow through and effect change in your life. In A Whole New You, Blumenthal will lead you through:

• The three times in your life when you’re most ready for change, including during life transitions and after trauma
• The symptoms--rational, emotional and physical--that indicate you need change
• How to stay motivated by making an investment in your success
• Finding ways to capitalize on your strengths, making change easier

A Whole New You is for anyone who wants to make a change but is not sure where to begin, or for those who’ve tried to make a life improvement in the past but have failed. With the right tools and knowledge, you’ll be able to reach your goals and live not just a good life or a better life--but your best life.

The Reality Slap: Finding Peace and Fulfillment When Life Hurts (Main/UK), by Russ Harris (US edition $7.99)

Sometimes it can feel like there's a gap between what we plan or hope for in our lives and the reality we're faced with - a so-called 'reality gap'. Sometimes it's a startling reality gap caused by the death of a loved one, for example, or a serious illness, a freak accident, divorce or the loss of a job. Sometimes it's a little gentler: envy, loneliness, resentment, failure, disappointment or rejection. But whatever form your 'reality gap' may take, one thing's for sure: it can cause us great distress.

Based on the scientifically proven mindfulness-based approach called 'Acceptance and Commitment Therapy' (ACT), this self-help book will teach you how to cope effectively when life hurts and you will learn not only how to survive life's unexpected curve balls, but also how to thrive, despite them.

The First 20 Minutes: The Surprising Science That Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer (Main/UK), by Gretchen Reynolds (US edition $12.99)

A cutting-edge prescription for exercise by the New York Times “Phys Ed” columnist

At one point or another, nearly every person who works out wonders: Am I doing this right? Which class is best? Do I work out enough? Answering those questions and more, The First 20 Minutes helps both weekend warriors dedicated to their performance and readers who simply want to get and stay fit gain the most from any workout.

With the latest findings about the mental and physical benefits of exercise, personal stories from scientists and laypeople alike, as well as researched-based prescriptions for readers, Gretchen Reynolds shows what kind of exercise—and how much—is necessary to stay healthy, get fit, and attain a smaller jeans size. Inspired by Reynolds's wildly popular “Phys Ed” column for The New York Times, this book explains how exercise affects the body in distinct ways and provides the tools readers need to achieve their fitness goals, whether that's a faster 5K or staying trim.

Submerged ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), the first novel in the Alaskan Courage series by Dani Pettrey, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
A sabotaged plane. Two dead deep-water divers.

Yancey, Alaska was a quiet town...until the truth of what was hidden in the depths off the coast began to appear.

Bailey Craig vowed never to set foot in Yancey again. She has a past, and a reputation--and Yancey's a small town. She's returned to bury a loved one killed in the plane crash and is determined not to stay even an hour more than necessary. But then dark evidence emerges and Bailey's own expertise becomes invaluable for the case.

Cole McKenna can handle the deep-sea dives and helping the police recover evidence. He can even handle the fact that a murderer has settled in his town and doesn't appear to be moving on. But dealing with the reality of Bailey's reappearance is a tougher challenge. She broke his heart, but she is not the same girl who left Yancey. He let her down, but he's not the same guy she left behind. Can they move beyond the hurts of their pasts and find a future together?

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is Obsidian ($0.99), the first novel in Jennifer L. Armentrout's YA Lux series.

Book Description
When seventeen-year-old Katy Swartz moved to West Virginia right before her senior year, she’d pretty much resigned herself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring, but then she spotted her hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up…until he opened his mouth. Daemon Black is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. It’s hate at first sight, but when a stranger attacks her and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something…unexpected happens. The hot guy next door? Well, he’s an alien. Turns out that Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities and Katy is caught in the crosshairs. Daemon’s touch has lit her up like the Vegas Strip and the only way she’s getting out of this alive is by sticking close to him until her alien mojo fades. That is if she doesn’t kill him first.

Today's Deals 1/2

If you have any instant video credit at Amazon (which they were giving away if you deferred shipping speed for Prime members, over the holidays), then check out today's Gold Box, which has 22 HD movies you can own (not rent) for $5! Choices range from action (The Dark Knight) to classics (the original Gone with the Wind!) to children's movies, such as Willy Wonka. Leading the pack in sales is the 1998 remaster of The Wizard of Oz. If you don't need HD, the SD versions are available for a dollar less.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Man's Search for Meaning ($1.99), by Viktor Frankl.

Book Description
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ("meaning")-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.

At the time of Frankl's death in 1997, Man's Search for Meaning had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey for the Library of Congress that asked readers to name a "book that made a difference in your life" found Man's Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America.

Beacon Press, the original English-language publisher of Man's Search for Meaning, is issuing this new paperback edition with a new Foreword, biographical Afterword, jacket, price, and classroom materials to reach new generations of readers.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Soul Seducer ($0.99), by Alicia Dean.

Book Description
She has spent her entire life fighting death. Now she’s falling in love with him. . . .

Audra Grayson became a nurse in order to help save lives. But one night after a brutal beating, she almost loses her own. The near-death experience opens a door between the world of the living and the world beyond. Two Grim Reapers invade her life. One is charming, with the angelic blonde looks of a saint and the black soul of a psychopath. The other is dark, dangerously attractive and, in spite of her distaste for his reaper duties, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him.

When Audra's patients begin to die unexpectedly and her loved ones are threatened, she will risk her life—even her soul—to save them. But can she risk her heart to an inhuman being whose very purpose is to take those she is trying to save?

Sensuality Level: Sensual

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Deviants ($1.99), the first title in Maureen McGowan's YA series, The Dust Chronicles, with the companion audiobook also only $1.99.

Book Description
In Glory's world, different means deviant--and dead.

In a post-apocalyptic world, where the earth is buried by asteroid dust that’s mutated the DNA of some humans, orphaned, sixteen-year-old Glory must hide and protect her younger brother. If their Deviant abilities are discovered, they’ll be expunged—kicked out of the dome to be tortured and killed by the Shredders. Glory would give anything to get rid of her unique ability to kill with her emotions, especially when Cal, the boy she’s always liked, becomes a spy for the authorities. But when her brother is discovered, and she learns their father, who was expunged for killing their mother, is still alive, she must escape the domed city that’s been her entire world.

Outside in the ruins, they’re pursued by the authorities and by sadistic, scab-covered Shredders who are addicted to the lethal-to-humans dust now covering the planet. Glory’s quests to transport herself and her brother to safety make up the thrilling and fascinating first volume of The Dust Chronicles.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is 10 Books by Kurt Vonnegut for £0.99 each (69% off): Deadeye Dick, Bluebeard, Jailbird, Slapstick, Palm Sunday, Timequake, Hocus Pocus, Bagombo Snuff Box, Galapagos and Welcome to the Monkey House. Too many to list them individually, but definitely recommended for those who are lucky enough to be able to pick them up at this price.


I Hate Everyone...Starting with Me ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Joan Rivers, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle (but be careful searching - the Kindle A/V edition is $15). I haven't read this volume, but everything else of hers that I've read, watched or listened to, has been great.

Book Description
Joan Rivers is a groundbreaking, award-winning, internationally renowned entertainment goddess. She’s also opinionated—especially when it comes to people she hates. Like people who think giving birth is a unique achievement. Or well-adjusted, a.k.a. boring, ex-child stars who don’t even have a decent addiction.

With all of her diverse experiences, it stands to reason that Joan has seen, done, said, and heard a lot of hateful things. Thank god, she took notes.

Here—uncensored and totally uninhibited—she give the best of her worst to First Ladies, closet cases, hypocrites, Hollywood, feminists, and overrated historical figures. And even when letting herself have it, Joan doesn’t hold back in this honest, unabashedly hilarious love letter to the hater in all of us.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is not their parent's fairy tale: There was an Odd Princess who Swallowed a Pea ($1.99), by Jennifer Ward and Lee Calderon (Illustrator).

Book Description
There was an odd princess who swallowed a pea, a slipper, a crown, a rose, a queen, and even more! Will this odd princess live happily ever after? Illustrations rendered digitally by Lee Calderon show Princess’s belly growing and growing as she eats a host of royal possessions in this zany adaptation of the popular children’s song.

Grade Level: Pre K and up

This book features Kindle Text Pop-Up for reading text over vivid, full-color images when using Kindle Fire/HD or select Kindle Reading Apps (Kindle Cloud Reader, Kindle for iPad or Kindle for Android); unlike some other Text Popup books, this one won't work on any of the eInk Kindles.

$2 MP3 Credit from Amazon Mom

If you've ever signed up for Amazon Mom, check your email to see if Amazon has sent you a $2 MP3 Code from Amazon Mom. If they have, just click thru the email and apply the credit (cut and paste from the email) and then you can go shopping. If you don't have any other ideas on what to spend it on, there are a few 99 cent albums that look interesting: 100 Must-Have Lullaby Baby Classics (for those with very small ones in the house), Classical Music for the Reader 8: Great Masterpieces for the Dedicated Reader and Big Beethoven Box (no small children required). If you aren't a classical fan, there are always the 2,000 $5 MP3 albums this month, which would be reduced to $3 with the credit.

Today's Deals 01/01

Today's Gold Box at Amazon is at least starting out with deals on exercise equipment for the new year, with a daily deal of Up to 50% Off select exercise upright, recumbent, and airdyne bikes from Schwinn and Nautilus.

Today's Kindle Teens Daily Deal is The Maze Runner ($1.99), the first novel in the Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner. I just finished reading this a couple of weeks ago and can recommend it, although it is a bit dark (a la Hunger Games) and probably not suited for younger teens. The companion audiobook is only $3.95.

Book Description
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every thirty days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Tom Standage's A History of the World in 6 Glasses for $2.99 each. I'd be a lot more excited about this deal, if I didn't already have all three in my library. It's not part of the daily deal, but you'll also find Bourdain's novel, Bone in the Throat, for $1.99 right now.

Kitchen Confidential

Kitchen Confidential reveals what Bourdain calls "twenty-five years of sex, drugs, bad behavior and haute cuisine." Last summer, The New Yorker published Chef Bourdains shocking, "Dont Eat Before Reading This." Bourdain spared no ones appetite when he told all about what happens behind the kitchen door. Bourdain uses the same "take-no-prisoners" attitude in his deliciously funny and shockingly delectable book, sure to delight gourmands and philistines alike. From Bourdains first oyster in the Gironde, to his lowly position as dishwasher in a honky tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown (where he witnesses for the first time the real delights of being a chef); from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, to drug dealers in the east village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdains tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable. Kitchen Confidential will make your mouth water while your belly aches with laughter. You'll beg the chef for more, please.

The Omnivore's Dilemma (companion audiobook $4.95); this is also the Nook Daily Find today.

One of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of the Year & Winner of the James Beard Award

Today, buffeted by one food fad after another, America is suffering from what can only be described as a national eating disorder. Will it be fast food tonight, or something organic? Or perhaps something we grew ourselves? The question of what to have for dinner has confronted us since man discovered fire. But as Michael Pollan explains in this revolutionary book, how we answer it now, as the dawn of the twenty-first century, may determine our survival as a species. Packed with profound surprises, The Omnivore's Dilemma is changing the way Americans thing about the politics, perils, and pleasures of eating.

A History of the World in 6 Glasses

From beer to Coca-Cola, the six drinks that have helped shape human history
Throughout human history, certain drinks have done much more than just quench thirst. As Tom Standage relates with authority and charm, six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course of history, becoming the defining drink during a pivotal historical period.

A History of the World in 6 Glasses tells the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the 21st century through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. Beer was first made in the Fertile Crescent and by 3000 B.C.E. was so important to Mesopotamia and Egypt that it was used to pay wages. In ancient Greece wine became the main export of her vast seaborne trade, helping spread Greek culture abroad. Spirits such as brandy and rum fueled the Age of Exploration, fortifying seamen on long voyages and oiling the pernicious slave trade. Although coffee originated in the Arab world, it stoked revolutionary thought in Europe during the Age of Reason, when coffeehouses became centers of intellectual exchange. And hundreds of years after the Chinese began drinking tea, it became especially popular in Britain, with far-reaching effects on British foreign policy. Finally, though carbonated drinks were invented in 18th-century Europe they became a 20th-century phenomenon, and Coca-Cola in particular is the leading symbol of globalization.

For Tom Standage, each drink is a kind of technology, a catalyst for advancing culture by which he demonstrates the intricate interplay of different civilizations. You may never look at your favorite drink the same way again.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Starry Montana Sky ($0.99), by Debra Holland, with the companion audiobook only $1.99.

Book Description
Since her husband’s death, Samantha Sawyers Rodriguez and her son have been little more than prisoners on her father-in-law’s estate in 1890s Argentina. Now, thanks to her late uncle, she has an inheritance—a Montana ranch that she plans to transform into a sanctuary for orphaned boys while raising her family’s miniature horses.

Not everyone in Sweetwater Springs, however, is happy about her arrival. Samantha’s neighbor, Wyatt Thompson, insists she has no idea what she’s taking on—with the ranch or with the neglected boys she’s adopted. Though she can’t deny her attraction to Wyatt, Samantha intends to succeed on her own terms. But when a string of fires turns the locals against her boys, she and Wyatt see all they have to lose—and gain—in this wild and beautiful country.

Sweet, heartfelt, and filled with adventure, Starry Montana Sky is an unforgettable follow-up to Debra Holland’s acclaimed USA Today bestselling romance Wild Montana Sky, filled with characters as bold and free as the land they love.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Yesterday's Gone: Season One ($1.99), a novel by Sean Platt and David Wright, originally published in serial form.

Book Description
On October 15 at 2:15 a.m. everyone on Earth vanished.

Well, almost everyone.

• A scattered few woke alone in a world where there are no rules other than survival... at any cost.
• A journalist wanders the wretched reality of an empty New York, in search for his wife and son.
• A serial killer must hunt in a land where prey is now an endangered species.
• A mother shields her young daughter from danger, as every breath fills her with terror.
• A bullied teen is thrilled to find everyone gone. Until the knock on his door.
• A fugitive survives a fiery plane crash. Will he be redeemed, or return to what he's best at: the kill?
• An eight year old boy sets out on a journey to find his missing family. What he finds will change him forever.

And there's a few people who aren't surprised that this happened at all. In fact, they've been dreaming about this day for years.

These survivors aren't alone...
Someone or something is watching them.
And waiting...

Strangers unite.
Sides are chosen.
Will humanity survive what it never saw coming?

*NOTE: THIS IS THE FULL FIRST SEASON (Episodes 1-6), now available for one low price. This edition contains the first six episodes and authors' notes from the first season in their entirety.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is three titles for £2.99 each.

The Chronicles of Downton Abbey (Official Series 3 TV tie-in) (Main/UK), by Jessica Fellowes and Matthew Sturgis (US edition $13.49)

The official companion to all three seasons.

The Great War has ended, but Downton Abbey is far from peaceful…

A changing world has brought new challenges and new guests. Inside the walls of the Great House there is more intrigue, rivalry and romance than ever.

The Chronicles of Downton Abbey take you deep into the lives of the Crawleys, their servants, lovers, friends and guests. So wander the crowded servants' quarters and peek into luxurious bed chambers. Go beneath the surface, and experience every aspect of their lives – from daily routines, dressing tables and treasure chests to their most secret hopes and fears.

This definitive book explores the lives of every important member of the Downton estate. Focusing on each character individually, it examines their motivations, their actions and the inspirations behind them. An evocative source of story and background, it will take you even deeper into the secret, beating heart of the house.

Cheryl: My Story (Main/UK), by Cheryl Cole (no US edition)

For the first time Cheryl tells her full story, her way. Revealing the truth behind the headlines, this is the only official autobiography, giving the fans the true story they’ve been waiting for. Includes exclusive, personal photos.

The nation’s sweetheart, Cheryl has achieved unrivalled success with Girls Aloud, as a solo artist, a judge on the X Factor, a fashion icon and as the face of L’Oreal. However, the path to fame is rarely easy and for Cheryl it has been a colourful journey.

From happy but humble beginnings growing up on a tough Newcastle estate, Cheryl saw firsthand the damage that drugs and alcohol can do. But this feisty Geordie never gave up on her dreams of being on stage.

With success came a level of fame no one could prepare for. As Cheryl’s career went from strength to strength her personal heartache was played out in the national media. From her divorce to her battles with malaria, Cheryl's every move was captured by paparazzi. There was nowhere for Cheryl to hide. However, a true fighter, Cheryl emerged from every challenge stronger.

Now it’s Cheryl’s turn to set the record straight. In this heartfelt account, she opens up about all of the incredible ups and downs of her life. Told with searing honesty this is Cheryl as you’ve never seen her before.

Back Story (Main/UK), by David Mitchell (US edition $13.49)

David Mitchell, who you may know for his inappropriate anger on every TV panel show except Never Mind the Buzzcocks, his look of permanent discomfort on C4 sex comedy Peep Show, his online commenter-baiting in The Observer or just for wearing a stick-on moustache in That Mitchell and Webb Look, has written a book about his life.

As well as giving a specific account of every single time he's scored some smack, this disgusting memoir also details:

• the singular, pitbull-infested charm of the FRP (‘Flat Roofed Pub’)
• the curious French habit of injecting everyone in the arse rather than the arm
• why, by the time he got to Cambridge, he really, really needed a drink
• the pain of being denied a childhood birthday party at McDonalds
• the satisfaction of writing jokes about suicide
• how doing quite a lot of walking around London helps with his sciatica
• trying to pretend he isn’t a total **** at Robert Webb’s wedding
• that he has fallen in love at LOT, but rarely done anything about it
• why it would be worse to bump into Michael Palin than Hitler on holiday
• that he’s not David Mitchell the novelist. Despite what David Miliband might think

Today's Deals 12/31

Have a safe New Year's Eve, everyone!

Today's Kindle Teens Daily Deal is Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children ($1.99), by Ransom Riggs, an Amazon Best of the Month Book from June, 2011.

Book Description
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here—one of whom was his own grandfather—were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Art of Fielding ($1.99), by Chad Harbach, which was Amazon's Best Book of 2011.

Book Description
At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended.

Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners' team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.

As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment--to oneself and to others.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is On the Island ($1.99), by Tracey Garvis Graves.

Book Description
Two people stranded on an island struggle to survive—and slowly fall in love—in the runaway New York Times bestseller from the author of the forthcoming novel COVET.

Anna Emerson is a thirty-year-old English teacher desperately in need of adventure. Worn down by the cold Chicago winters and a relationship that’s going nowhere, she jumps at the chance to spend the summer on a tropical island tutoring sixteen-year-old T.J.

T.J. Callahan has no desire to go anywhere. His cancer is in remission and he wants to get back to his normal life. But his parents are insisting he spend the summer in the Maldives catching up on all the school he missed last year.

Anna and T.J. board a private plane headed to the Callahan’s summer home, and as they fly over the Maldives’ twelve hundred islands, the unthinkable happens. Their plane crashes in shark-infested waters. They make it to shore, but soon discover that they’re stranded on an uninhabited island.

At first, their only thought is survival. But as the days turn to weeks, and then months, the castaways encounter plenty of other obstacles, including violent tropical storms, the many dangers lurking in the sea, and the possibility that T.J.’s cancer could return. As T.J. celebrates yet another birthday on the island, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge of all might be living with a boy who is gradually becoming a man.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is The Eyre Affair ($1.99), the first Thursday Next novel by Jasper Fforde.

Book Description
Jasper Fforde’s New York Times bestselling series of Thursday Next novels introduces literary detective Thursday Next and her alternate reality of literature-obsessed England

Fans of Douglas Adams and P. G. Wodehouse will love visiting Jasper Fforde's Great Britain, circa 1985, when time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously: it’s a bibliophile’s dream. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career. Fforde's ingenious fantasy—enhanced by a Web site that re-creates the world of the novel—unites intrigue with English literature in a delightfully witty mix. Thursday’s zany investigations continue with six more bestselling Thursday Next novels, including One of Our Thursdays is Missing and the upcoming The Woman Who Died A Lot. Visit jasperfforde.com.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is three titles for £0.99 each (~80% off).

Burning Man (Main/UK), by Alan Russell (US edition $4.99)

LAPD cop Michael Gideon and his police dog partner Sirius became reluctant celebrities after capturing a notorious serial killer in the midst of an inferno. For their heroism, they were chosen to head up the newly formed Special Cases Unit. Now the duo tackles out-of-the-ordinary cases, anything deemed unusual or bizarre even by Hollyweird standards.

When a teenager is found crucified in a city park, Gideon and Sirius are handed the bizarre case. Confronting the gruesome tableau and having to work the case worsens Detective Gideon’s PTSD, a condition he has tried to hide from others. Gideon’s burns may have healed, but the fire haunts him still...in more ways than one.

Eerily prescient since that terrible night of the fire, Gideon has unusual insights into the crimes he investigates, a skill he and Sirius must learn to trust as much as they do each other if they are to solve—and survive—this case.

House of Evidence (Main/UK), by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson, translated by Andrew Cauthery and Björg Árnadóttir (US edition $4.99)

On a cold January morning in 1973, inside a stately old house in Reykjavik, blood pools around Jacob Kieler Junior from a fatal gunshot wound to his chest. Detective Jóhann Pálsson, an expert in the emerging field of forensics, is called to the scene and soon discovers something more unsettling than the murder itself: the deceased’s father, Jacob Kieler Senior, a railroad engineer, was shot to death in the same living room nearly thirty years earlier. The case was officially closed as a botched robbery.

Pálsson soon uncovers diaries that portray Kieler Senior as an ambitious man dedicated to bringing the railroad to Iceland no matter the cost. Sensing a deeper and darker mystery afoot, the detective and his colleagues piece together through the elder Kieler’s diaries a family history rich with deceit…

Shame (Main/UK), by Alan Russell (US edition $4.99)

Although it’s been many years since the death of his father—an infamous serial killer known as Shame—Caleb Parker still struggles to free himself from his father’s dark shadow. Caleb wishes only for a normal life without being branded a “killer’s son,” but his dreams are shattered when a new string of murders surfaces that are all too reminiscent of Shame’s terrible killings.

When the police label him the prime suspect, Caleb forges an unlikely partnership with true-crime author Elizabeth Line, a writer whose career began when she survived an encounter with Shame and who then went on to document his life—and death. As the body count begins to pile up, Elizabeth and Caleb come to the conclusion that one of them has been targeted by the killer, and a game of cat and mouse begins as they try to uncover the murderer’s identity before becoming his next victims.

Brutal and unapologetic, Shame draws you into the mind of a serial killer with no chance of escape until the last page is turned.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir ($12.99 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Jenny Lawson, is the Nook Daily Find; it should be price matched on Kindle, as it is from one of the Agency publisher holdouts, Penguin.

Book Description
For fans of Tina Fey and David Sedaris—Internet star Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, makes her literary debut.

Jenny Lawson realized that the most mortifying moments of our lives—the ones we’d like to pretend never happened—are in fact the ones that define us. In the #1 New York Times bestseller, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson takes readers on a hilarious journey recalling her bizarre upbringing in rural Texas, her devastatingly awkward high school years, and her relationship with her long-suffering husband, Victor. Chapters include: “Stanley the Magical, Talking Squirrel”; “A Series of Angry Post-It Notes to My Husband”; “My Vagina Is Fine. Thanks for Asking”; “And Then I Snuck a Dead Cuban Alligator on an Airplane.” Pictures with captions (no one would believe these things without proof) accompany the text.