Housekeeping and more on GoodReads Acquisition

First, for those who are getting updates by email, I've changed the publication time to every four hours. This may result in two-three emails a day, but I was seeing price changes by the afternoon and those on email were missing out on notices. Also, any late posts (like this one) were being held until the next day. If you don't like getting multiple emails a day, you'll find a (very tiny print) link at the bottom of the email that says "preferences". Click there and you can set how often you want to receive emails.

I've also been playing with Squidoo, to see if I could still post a notice of free Kindle books there. I don't know if it will last, but I have a "lens" (page) up there for you to try out (and a couple of books to get, of course).

Over on LibraryThing, read their take on the Amazon/Goodreads acquisition (quick take: it's a good thing ... for LibraryThing!).

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Bargain Baking Roundup

Chocolate Cakes: 50 Great Cakes for Every Occasion ($3.99 Kindle), by Elinor Klivans and Ann Stratton [Chronicle Books]

Book Description
There are enough people out there obsessed with chocolate cake to warrant an official holiday: National Chocolate Cake Day, January 27th. Beloved baker Elinor Klivans, author of the best-selling Cupcakes! and Cupcake Kit, has dedicated her new cookbook to the stuff of chocoholic fantasy: chocolate cake. There's something for bakers of every skill level in the 50 recipes included here, from fast chocolate fixes like the Hot Chocolate Pudding Cake to more elaborate recipes like the Mocha Whipped Cream Truffle Cake. This book is certain to be celebrated by chocolate lovers everywhere. And how will they do that? With cake, of course!

Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor ($2.51 Kindle), by Anne Byrn [Workman Publishing]

Book Description
The Cake Mix Doctor goes chocolate! Anne Byrn brings her proven prescription for doctoring cake mix to an ingredient that inspires love bordering on obsession.

It's a marriage made in baker's heaven-150 all-new, all-easy recipes for cakes, starring the ingredient that surpasses all other flavors, including vanilla, by a 3-to-1 margin, and that Americans consume to the tune of 2.8 billion pounds a year. Starting with versatile supermarket cake mixes and adding just the right extras-including melted semisweet chocolate bars, chocolate chips, or cocoa powder, plus fresh eggs or a bit of buttermilk, dried coconut, mashed bananas, or instant coffee powder-a baker at any level of experience can turn out dark, rich, moist, delicious chocolate layer cakes, time and again. Not to mention sheet cakes, pound cakes, cupcakes and muffins, cheesecakes, cookies, brownies, and bars. Rounding out the book are 38 all-new homemade frostings and fillings, and a full-color insert showing every cake in the book.

Southern Cakes: Sweet and Irresistible Recipes for Everyday Celebrations ($2.99 Kindle), by Nancie McDermott and Becky Luigart-Stayner (Photographer) [Chronicle Books]

Book Description
Taste the chocolatey goodness of Mississippi Mud or marvel at the extravagant elegance of the Lady Baltimore and there will be no doubt that Southerners know how to bake a cake. Here are 65 recipes for some of the most delicious ever. Jam cakes and jelly rolls; humble pear bread and peanut cake; whole chapters on both chocolate and coconut cakes, each moist and delicious forkful represents the spirit of the South. A Baking 101 section offers the cake basics, some finishing touches (that means frosting and lots of it!), and the how-to's of storing each lovely concoction so that the last slice tastes as fresh and delightful as the first.

Southern Biscuits ($1.99 Kindle, $2.99 Kobo - seems to be different edition, possibly for non-US market, but available in the US), by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart

Book Description
Southern Biscuits features recipes and baking secrets for every biscuit imaginable, including hassle-free easy biscuits to embellished biscuits laced with silky goat butter, crunchy pecans, or tangy pimento cheese. The traditional biscuits in this book encompass a number of types, from beaten biscuits of the Old South and England, to Angel Biscuits—a yeast biscuit sturdy enough to split and fill but light enough to melt in your mouth. Filled with beautiful photography, including dozens of how-to photos showing how to mix, stir, fold, roll, and knead, Southern Biscuits is the definitive biscuit baking book.

Bargain Book Roundup

Today only, Mills & Boon is having a 75 for 75 Pence Sale. From what I can see, you can add as many of the ebooks in the sale into your cart as you want, before checking out (a credit card is required and you may be charged a currency conversion fee, which should not be a lot, but you'll want to verify with your card before committing).

Beautiful Disaster ($3.79 Kindle, $3.95 companion audiobook), the New York Times bestseller by Jamie McGuire [Simon and Schuster], is on sale at Amazon only, in anticipation of the release of the next in the series, Walking Disaster (April 2).

Book Description
The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants—and needs—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

Betsy-Tacy Treasury ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Maud Hart Lovelace [HarperCollins], would be a good sale if it were one book, but this is a 4-novel volume, running over 700 pages in print.

Book Description
The first four books in the beloved Betsy-Tacy series are ready to delight a new generation ofreaders—and to bring a grownup generation of readers back to the engrossingstories of their youth. Following the childhoods of Betsy Ray and her friendsin the late 1800s and early 1900s, this handsome anthology collects theoriginal Betsy-Tacy as well as Betsy, Tacy and Tib, Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, and Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown. Forewords by Judy Blume,Esther Hautzig, and Johanna Hurwitz, andillustrations by Lois Lenski, will make readers ofall ages feel at home in the imaginative life of young Betsy Ray as she awakensto the challenges and triumphs of her home in quaint Mankato, Minnesota.

Instant Attraction ($2.99 Kindle, $3.50 B&N), the first novel in The Wilders series by Jill Shalvis [Kensington]

Book Description
The first in a sensational new series, Jill Shalvis introduces Cameron, Stone, and T.J. Wilder--three bad-boy heroes who effortlessly mix breathtaking adventure and scorching sex appeal. . .

Get Wild. . .And Then Get Wilder. . .

Accountant Katie Kramer is a quintessential good girl--working hard, recycling diligently, all the while trying to ignore the feeling that she doesn't fit in anywhere. That's all she wants. Well, that--and amazing sex, and the kind of daredevil escapade she can look back on when she's crunching numbers in a dusty cubicle. Which explains why she just took a job in Wishful, California, working for Wilder Adventures and Expeditions. Waking up to find a magnificently built stranger towering over her bed--that part defies explanation. . .

The Treasure of Montsegur ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Sophy Burnham [HarperCollins]

Book Description
The year is 1209: A baby girl, dressed in a white silk dress strewn with pearls, is found in a meadow outside the smoking city of Béziers, where 20,000 people have just been massacred. Adopted by Lady Esclarmonde, the fiery Jeanne is educated in the ways of the Cathars -- the "pure ones," pacifist, vegetarian, chaste followers of Christ. But war is raging, and the Inquisition is charged with exterminating the Church of Love. It is a time of terror, with neighbor pitted against neighbor, and religious passions running high; a time of suspicion, burnings, and systematic genocide. Against this turbulent background, Jeanne of Béziers finds herself embroiled in the resistance, fighting for freedom alongside William, the man whom she loves -- and who is married to her best friend.

Trapped with William and more than 200 Cathars at the fortress of Montségur, Jeanne is asked to sacrifice her convictions for the security of the Cathar legacy. As the only person who can save the legendary Cathar treasure, Jeanne is propelled on a journey through the dark days of the Inquisition, eventually to a place where she discovers the true treasure of Montségur and her own destiny in keeping it alive.

This stunning novel of the Cathars, populated with real historical figures and accurate in its historical details, tells Jeanne's story of sexual passion, intrigue, mystery, and the search for love and God. This extraordinary woman will linger with you long after the novel's haunting conclusion.

Save Me ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Lisa Scottoline (going onto my TBR list)

Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of Think Twice and Look Again comes an emotionally powerful novel about a split-second choice, agonizing consequences, and the need for justice

Rose McKenna volunteers as a lunch mom in her daughter Melly’s school in order to keep an eye on Amanda, a mean girl who’s been bullying her daughter. Her fears come true when the bullying begins, sending Melly to the bathroom in tears. Just as Rose is about to follow after her daughter, a massive explosion goes off in the kitchen, sending the room into chaos. Rose finds herself faced with the horrifying decision of whether or not to run to the bathroom to rescue her daughter or usher Amanda to safety. She believes she has accomplished both, only to discover that Amanda, for an unknown reason, ran back into the school once out of Rose's sight. In an instance, Rose goes from hero to villain as the small community blames Amanda’s injuries on her. In the days that follow, Rose's life starts to fall to pieces, Amanda’s mother decides to sue, her marriage is put to the test, and worse, when her daughter returns to school, the bullying only intensifies. Rose must take matters into her own hands and get down to the truth of what really happened that fateful day in order to save herself, her marriage and her family.

In the way that Look Again had readers questioning everything they thought they knew about family, Save Me will have readers wondering just how far they would go to save the ones they love. Lisa Scottoline is writing about real issues that resonate with real women, and the results are emotional, heartbreaking and honest.

Something Wicked This Way Comes ($4.36 Kindle, $6.99 B&N), by Ray Bradbury, is available to pre-order. Not enough of his novels are available as ebooks and the ones that are tend to be priced a lot closer to $10.

Book Description
The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. The shrill siren song of a calliope beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes. . .and the stuff of nightmare.

Few American novels written this century have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury's unparalleled literary classic SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin.The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. The shrill siren song of a calliope beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes. . .and the stuff of nightmare.

Few American novels written this century have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury's unparalleled literary classic SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin.

Law and Order ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Dorothy Uhnak [Open Road], which was adapted for the TV-movie starring Darren McGavin. None of her ebooks are in my local library and Open Road generally does a great job on editing/formatting, so I'm going to give this one a try.

Book Description
A tough Irish cop. A prostitute. A massive cover-up that stretches to the highest levels of law enforcement . . . and its fatal impact on three generations of a New York police family.

Harlem, just before midnight. A New York Police Department cop and his partner pull up in front of a tenement. A short while later, Sergeant Brian O’Malley is dead from a stab wound to the jugular, and a prostitute has fallen down an airshaft to oblivion.

A few years after his father is given a hero’s funeral, Brian Thomas O’Malley Jr. graduates from the police academy. As he rises quickly through the ranks of the NYPD, O’Malley discovers that some secrets are better left buried. Through the ensuing decades, as he raises a family of his own, O’Malley must cope with the fallout of a cover-up, until a fresh crime brings the plot full circle. Will the son have to pay for the sins of the father?

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Dorothy Uhnak including rare images from the author’s estate.

Wild Heat ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Bella Andre [Random House], a bestselling indie-author-gone-traditional (but only in print, in her latest contracts). The next two in the series, Hot as Sin and Never Too Hot, are on sale for $4.99 each ($3 under the paperback price).

Book Description
He's a hotshot firefighter addicted to risk.
She's the sultry beauty he never saw coming.

Maya Jackson doesn’t sleep with strangers. Until the night grief sent her to the nearest bar and into the arms of the most explosive lover she’s ever had. Six months later, the dedicated arson investigator is coming face-to-face with him again. Gorgeous, grinning Logan Cain. Her biggest mistake. Now her number one suspect in a string of deadly wildfires.

Risking his life on a daily basis is what gets Logan up in the morning. As the leader of the elite Tahoe Pines Hotshot Crew, he won’t back down from a blaze—or from beautiful, lethal Maya Jackson. She may have seduced him with her tears and her passion, but it’ll be a cold day in hell before Logan lets down his guard again. But when Maya’s life is threatened, his natural-born-hero instincts kick in, and Logan vows to protect the woman sworn to bring him down. And as desire reignites, nothing—not the killer fire nor the killer hot on their trail—can douse the flames.…

Free Nook App - Monkey Word School Adventure

Monkey Word School Adventure ($1.99 Amazon), by THUP Games, LLC, is this week's Free Friday App from Barnes & Noble.

App Description
Get ready for adventure...Monkey Word School Adventure! Join Monkey and his jungle friends as they explore a fun-filled world of letters, sight words, phonics and spelling. Seamless game flow and behind-the-scenes performance adjustment allow your child to jump right in and begin playing and learning.
For ages 3 to 7.

Monkey Word School Adventure is an entertaining and captivating way to introduce your child to the fundamental concepts behind reading and writing. The lessons range from letter recognition and writing to spelling and phonics introducing word components such as consonant blends, digraphs, irregular vowels and more! There is also a special focus on sight words, the vital building blocks of reading and writing.

Get the free App from Barnes & Noble.

Today's Deals 3/29

Today only, get The Very Best Of Aretha Franklin - The 60's on MP3 for $1.99.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is the international bestseller Birdman ($1.99), by Mo Hayder [Grove Press], with the companion audiobook $3.99.

Book Description
Birdman showcases Hayder at her spine-tingling best as beloved series character Jack Caffery tracks down a terrifying serial killer.

In his first case as lead investigator with London’s crack murder squad, Detective Inspector Jack Caffery is called on to investigate the murder of a young woman whose body has been discovered near the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, south-east London. Brutalized, mutilated beyond recognition, the victim is soon joined by four others discovered in the same area—all female and all ritualistically murdered. And when the post-mortem examination reveals a gruesome signature connecting the victims, Caffery realizes exactly what he’s dealing with—a dangerous serial killer.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is A Stroke of Magic ($0.99), by Tracy Madison [Montlake Romance].

Book Description
You know how freaky it is, to expect one taste and get another? Imagine picking up a can of tepid ginger ale and taking a swig of delicious, icy cold peppermint tea. Alice Raymond did just that. And though the tea is exactly what she wants, she bought herself a soda.

No, Alice's life isn't exactly paint-by-numbers. After breaking things off with her lying, stealing, bum of an ex, she discovered she's pregnant. Motherhood was definitely on her "someday" wish list, but a baby means less time for her art and no time for recent hallucinations that include this switcharoo with the tea. She has to impress her new boss, the ridiculously long-lashed, smoky-eyed Ethan Gallagher, and she has to deal with her family, who have started rambling about gypsy curses. Only a soul-deep bond with the right man can save her and her child? As if being single wasn't pressure enough!

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Spinneret ($1.99), by Timothy Zahn [Open Road] - an automatic buy for me at this price, for this author.

Book Description
A newly colonized planet holds many secrets in its seemingly barren depths. But will it lead to humanity’s salvation, or its destruction?

Chasing a new frontier, humankind sends a manned starship into the universe and away from the overpopulated Earth in hopes of finding a new planet to colonize. But every Earthlike world they discover is already inhabited. As it turns out, the universe is a very crowded place. An alien council offers to lease the one remaining uninhabited world: Astra, a bleak and barren but serviceable planet. The new settlement, though, quickly experiences serious problems, from dying crops to the mysterious disappearance of anything and everything that is made of metal. And then Astra reveals a secret neither the aliens nor the human governments could ever have imagined.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is three gripping crime novels for £0.99 each (>70% off).

The Crowded Grave: A Bruno Courrèges Investigation (Main/UK), by Martin Walker (US edition $12.99)

Bruno's day has not started well.

The Saint Denis Chief of Police is busy. A French–Spanish summit to be held in a local chateau is being threatened by Basque separatists, and animal rights campaigners are causing havoc at the foie gras farms. Up to his ears with ETA and PETA, he's not even had time for lunch. And it's about to get worse.

A local archaeological team, digging for evidence of prehistoric man, unearths a well-preserved skeleton. Yet it's a lot more recent than they'd hoped – boasting a Swatch on its wrist and a bullet-hole in its skull. With an influx of visitors making Saint Denis almost as crowded as the excavation's grave, the key appears to lie with one of these outsiders. Bruno must think fast, and keep his wits about him. Especially as the answer may lie a little closer to home.

Pilgrim Soul: Douglas Brodie #3 (Main/UK), by Gordon Ferris (US edition $5.99)

From the author of The Hanging Shed comes the third instalment in the Douglas Brodie series.

It's 1947 and the worst winter in memory: Glasgow is buried in snow, killers stalk the streets - and Douglas Brodie's past is engulfing him.

It starts small. The Jewish community in Glasgow asks Douglas Brodie, ex-policeman turned journalist, to solve a series of burglaries. The police don't care and Brodie needs the cash. Brodie solves the crime but the thief is found dead, butchered by the owner of the house he was robbing. When the householder in turn is murdered, the whole community is in uproar - and Brodie's simple case of theft disintegrates into chaos.

Into the mayhem strides Danny McRae - Brodie's old sparring partner from when they policed Glasgow's mean streets. Does Danny bring with him the seeds of redemption or retribution? As the murder tally mounts, Brodie discovers tainted gold and a blood-stained trail back to the concentration camps. Back to the horrors that haunt his dreams. Glasgow is overflowing with Jewish refugees. But have their persecutors pursued them? And who will be next to die?

Gone Again (Main/UK), by Doug Johnstone (US edition $9.09)

'It's just to say that no-one has come to pick Nathan up from school, and we were wondering if there was a problem of some kind?'

As Mark Douglas photographs a pod of whales stranded in the waters off Edinburgh's Portobello Beach, he is called by his son's school: his wife, Lauren, hasn't turned up to collect their son. Calm at first, Mark collects Nathan and takes him home but as the hours slowly crawl by he increasingly starts to worry.

With brilliantly controlled reveals, we learn some of the painful secrets of the couple's shared past, not least that it isn't the first time Lauren has disappeared. And as Mark struggles to care for his son and shield him from the truth of what's going on, the police seem dangerously short of leads. That is, until a shocking discovery...

Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys ($2.51 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Lucinda Scala Quinn, is the Nook Daily Find, better than price matched on Kindle (it was on my Bargain Book Roundup earlier this month).

Book Description
Recipes and strategies for bringing back the family meal

When first published in 2009, Lucinda Scala Quinn's Mad Hungry met with critical acclaim, but it wasn't just the media that fell hard for this book--it was mothers everywhere, who embraced her message to bring back the family meal and loved the ease, simplicity, and robust goodness of her recipes. The book went on to launch a TV series (Mad Hungry with Lucinda Scala Quinn) and now, with over 65,000 copies sold, it is available in a paperback edition that will reach a yet wider audience.

In Mad Hungry, Scala Quinn shares winning strategies for how to sate the seemingly insatiable, trade food for talk, and get men to manage in the kitchen. She provides recipes for single-skillet meals, dinners that yield fabulous leftovers, and dishes that are a cinch to stretch fore extra guests. Her grab-and-run breakfasts will help kids start the day right, and her healthful drinks make it easier for guys to say no to soda. Along with her techniques that help make homemade meals second nature, nourishing both diner and cook, Scala Quinn offers empowering advice on how to feed one's family's spirits as well as fill their bellies.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Trucks: Whizz! Zoom! Rumble! ($1.99), by Patricia Hubbell and Megan Halsey (Illustrator) .

Book Description
Fast trucks, slow trucks, old trucks and new. For children who are fascinated by machines of transport, any sort of truck will do! Illustrated with mixed media collages, this simple rhyming story pays homage to every shape, size, and color of truck, while delighting in the jobs they perform and the ease with which they work.

Grades: Preschool-3

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.