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Friday, April 5, 2013

Bargain Book Roundup

Serving Up the Harvest: Celebrating the Goodness of Fresh Vegetables: 175 Simple Recipes ($2.51 Kindle, $2.99 B&N, Kobo), by Andrea Chesman
Book Description
When height-of-the-season farmers' market offerings are irresistible; when backyard gardens are exploding with what appear to be hundreds of perfect tomatoes; or when the same old methods for cooking green beans or corn don't offer enough flavor, Andrea Chesman is ready with a bounty of creative recipes that bring out the best in fresh produce.

Chesman knows what it's like to be facing pounds of perishable vegetables, and as she developed 175 recipes that place garden freshness center stage, she followed these guidelines: Simple. Delicious. Harmonized with the growing seasons.

The vegetables are organized by crop-readiness, with many recipes following the wisdom that vegetables that ripen together taste good together. Popular techniques such as roasting and grilling bring out the flavor in recipes such as Grilled Chicken and Asparagus Salad, Roasted Leek Tart, Soy-Sesame Grilled Eggplant, and Maple Roasted Carrots. Main-dish and side salads abound: Beet and New Potato Salad, Warm Mushroom Salad, Spinach Salad with Feta and Pecans, Everyday Tomato-Cucumber Salad. And the deep flavors of autumn are celebrated in Braised Belgian Endives, Holiday Brussels Sprouts with Pecans and Cranberries, and Chocolate Chip Carrot Cake.

Serving Up the Harvest is an inspirational collection for everyone who wants to enjoy fresh, local, seasonal vegetables with every meal.

S.C. Stephens' Thoughtless series [Simon and Schuster] is on sale at B&N and the first two have been price matched at Amazon (feel free to report the third and it may drop as well).

Thoughtless ($3.99 Kindle, B&N)
For almost two years now, Kiera’s boyfriend, Denny, has been everything she’s ever wanted: loving, tender, and endlessly devoted to her. When they head off to a new city to start their lives together—Denny at his dream job and Kiera at a top-notch university—everything seems perfect. Then an unforeseen obligation forces the happy couple apart. Feeling lonely, confused, and in need of comfort, Kiera turns to an unexpected source—a local rock star named Kellan Kyle. At first, he’s purely a friend she can lean on, but as her loneliness grows, so does their relationship. And then one night everything changes . . . and none of them will ever be the same.
Effortless ($3.99 Kindle, B&N)
After being caught in the middle of a love triangle which led to a devastating betrayal, Kiera pledged to learn from the mistakes she’d made. She was determined to never again inflict that kind of pain on anyone, especially the soulful, talented man who held her heart. But life offers new challenges for every relationship, and when Kiera’s love is put to the ultimate test, will it survive? Love is easy . . . trust is hard.
Reckless ($7.36 Kindle, $3.99 B&N)
Can love survive when life gets Reckless?

When the band hits it big, Kiera and Kellan must ask themselves: Can their love for each other withstand the constant pressures of superstardom? The friendships they’ve formed, the new family they’ve found, and the history they’ve forged will all play a part in helping them navigate the turbulent waters of the band’s exploding popularity. A greedy executive hell-bent on success, a declining pop star looking for an edge, and a media circus that twists lies into truths are just some of the obstacles the lovers will have to overcome if they are going to remain together. Fame comes with a price—but will it cost Kiera and Kellan everything?

On Par: The Everyday Golfer's Survival Guide ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Bill Pennington [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]; it's selling for $16-$23 elsewhere and looks like a good gift pickup for those who don't golf themselves (program delivery for Father's Day at Amazon).
Book Description
Bill Pennington, author of the beloved and widely read “On Par” golf column for the New York Times, knows how to interpret the experts and pros for the rest of us. For years, he has traveled the globe in search of golf’s essentials—those basic principles, those elusive truths (and who are we kidding, any trick or quick fix he can pick up along the way) that will improve anyone’s game. He has consulted the world’s leading golf instructors as well as countless caddies, groundskeepers, parking lot attendants, and bartenders. He has played rounds with Tiger Woods, Annika Sorenstam, and Justin Timberlake. He has sought the advice of psychiatrists, physicists, economists, zen masters. And on a particularly bad golf outing, he has even discussed the fickleness of golf with a quite helpful raccoon.

On Par captures it all: From equipment and instruction, to the rules and language of golf, to camaraderie and psychology, to the short game/long game debate, Pennington informs and entertains as he gets to the essence of this mercurial game, including golf’s holy grail, the hole in one.

Part instruction, part education, part therapy, and shot through with Pennington’s trademark wit, this is a book for everyone who has ever felt the game’s distinct pull—and slice.

The Black Marble ($2.99 Kindle), by Joseph Wambaugh [Open Road], with the companion audiobook $3.99.
Book Description
He is a damned good cop -- a burned-out homicide detective wrapped around a Smith & Wesson .38 and a vodka bottle. She is his partner -- twice divorced, nursing a grudge against men, obsessed by the awful temptation of love.

About the author
Joseph Wambaugh - The tough ex-cop who writes the hard-hitting best sellers -- a master storyteller whose characters are as powerful and as passionate as his plots.

Once Upon a Winter's Eve ($0.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo; $0.90 BooksonBoard), a Spindle Cove novella by Tessa Dare
Book Description
Some wallflowers bloom at night...

Violet Winterbottom is a quiet girl. She speaks six languages, but seldom raises her voice. She endured bitter heartbreak in perfect silence. The gentlemen aren't beating down her door.

Until the night of the Spindle Cove Christmas ball, when a mysterious stranger crashes into the ballroom and collapses at Violet's feet. His coarse attire and near-criminal good looks would put any sensible young lady on her guard. He's wet, chilled, bleeding, and speaking in an unfamiliar tongue.

Only Violet understands him. And she knows he's not what he seems.

She has one night to draw forth the secrets of this dangerously handsome rogue. Is he a smuggler? A fugitive? An enemy spy? She needs answers by sunrise, but her captive would rather seduce than confess. To learn his secrets, Violet must reveal hers—and open herself to adventure, passion, and the unthinkable... Love.

Warning: The heroine packs a pistol, the hero curses in multiple languages, and together they steam up a cold winter’s night.

The Peculiar Pets of Miss Pleasance ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo; $1.65 BooksonBoard), by Delilah S. Dawson [Simon and Schuster]
Book Description
A lady with a penchant for pets meets a sexy fireman in this magical and saucy steampunk eNovella from the author of Wicked as They Come.

In a world ruled by blood, live pets are rare and kindness rarer still. London pet shop owner Frannie Pleasance has a mysterious way with animals and keeps her charges (and heart) locked in a veritable Eden. She thinks Casper Sterling is just another stray...until she takes in the troublesome lodger (and unwelcome suitor) and becomes the victim of a series of strange and dangerous occurrences.

When an unexplained fire threatens to destroy Frannie's carefully guarded world, firefighter Thom Maccallan is there to extinguish the blaze and help gather the lost creatures. The heat between Frannie and Thom begins to burn,but someone's still after the lady. Could it be Casper himself, or is Frannie’s new lodger just another victim of fate? Will they be able to figure out who's pursuing Frannie—and stop them—before she loses everything?

The Man in the High Castle ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Philip K. Dick [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt], winner of a Hugo Award, with the companion audiobook $2.99.
Book Description
“The single most resonant and carefully imagined book of Dick’s career.” – New York Times

It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some twenty years earlier the United States lost a war—and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan.

This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to wake.

Troublemaker ($3.99 Kindle), the graphical novel by Alex Evanovich & Janet Evanovich [Dark Horse Comics], is still in the $10 range elsewhere.
Book Description
Barney and Hooker are together again and fighting crime, leaving a trail of chaos, panic, and disorder in their wake. Some would say they're drawn toward trouble like a moth to a flame. Others would claim their friends, Rosa and Felicia, dump trouble in Barney’s and Hooker’s laps. Either way, they are in over their heads when Rosa is kidnapped, and her disappearance is linked to a dangerous voodoo priest and his search for a mystery-drenched stolen statue.

Written by Janet and Alex Evanovich, and illustrated by Joëlle Jones (Dr. Horrible, Token), Troublemaker brings ultimate adventure set in sun-filled Miami!

• Janet Evanovich, the New York Times number-one best-selling author, brings her hit Barnaby series to Dark Horse Comics!
• The entire Troublemaker story collected into one affordable volume!

The Space Between ($0.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Kristie Cook [indie]
Book Description
Bestselling author Kristie Cook, with over 200,000 books sold, brings you another New Adult paranormal series, The Book of Phoenix

******

After a month-long dance tour through Italy, 20-year-old Leni Drago returns to Georgia to care for her great-uncle, only to find him gone, the home they shared empty and any evidence he ever existed wiped out. All that’s left is a journal she can’t open.

Jeric Winters has been searching for a piece of his past for over a year, only to reach a dead-end in Georgia. When an urgent and magnetic pull draws him out of his hotel room, he comes face-to-face with the beautiful dancer who’s been haunting his dreams day and night.

Jeric’s one to stay away from—a bad-boy, hit-it-and-quit-it type—but Leni can’t escape the fervent feelings between them. As their own existences begin to crumble around them and shadowy forms that are more monsters than men attack, they realize there’s more to the connection between them than physical fascination.

To solve the riddle their lives have become, they must embark on a journey that requires them to face their pasts and release their true souls. And they must do it fast—dark ones from another world are closing in, intent on killing them. Permanently.

Diesel Daily Deal - Unconquered (E)

Unconquered ($6.99 $5.38 Kindle), a novel by Hannah Howell [Zebra/Kensington Books], is today's Deal of the "Day" at Diesel E-Books, where it's discounted to $1.00 (4 copies left).

Book Description
Left a bequest by a woman with rare psychic powers, Eada of Pevensey suddenly finds herself in possession of a box containing a mysterious document. . .and something even more extraordinary: the gift of second sight. Now she can actually "see" her chilling fate: a Norman invader with sea-dark eyes riding across the fields to claim her lands. . .and her love.
A reluctant soldier for William the Conquerer, Drogo de Toulon seizes the Pevensey lands as a right of conquest. . .and meets a woman who defies him at every turn--and arouses uncontrollable desire. Yet now, as war rages across a divided England, the two lovers must find the bond that joins body and soul. . .as they chart a course through battle and betrayal that could break their hearts--or seal their passion for all time. . .
Get the book from Diesel; be sure to check the sales price, as the Deal of the Day often sells out.

Free Nook App - Donuts

Donuts: Dunk n' Roll ($0.99 Amazon), by Beansprites, is this week's Free Friday App from Barnes & Noble.
App Description
Donuts: Dunk n' Roll is an exciting physics game where it's your job to tilt your device to collect all the candy!

Intricate mazes await, cute enemies inspired from a cartoonish candy-land, and puzzles that will blow your mind! Easy to play, tilt controls, gorgeous, cartoonish graphics, and oustanding characters, and gameplay make this a must have gem for your collection!

Easy for kids to get into, and Adults will get a kick out of this one too! Tilt, Swerve, Dunk, n' Roll your way through over 50 unique levels and puzzles! The fun never ends with Donuts: Dunk n' Roll!

Ages 4+
Get the free App from Barnes & Noble.

Today's Deals 4/5

Today's Gold Box at Amazon is with "Borderlands 2" game and Season Pass codes (alone or a bundle of the two at an extra $5 discount), for roughly 70% off list; one lightning deal coming up that looks interesting is the Cuisinart bread maker, scheduled for 11AM ET.

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is StatsPac (usually $10), a graphing calculator which looks like it does more than my first TI calculator (from back in the days when getting a calculator was very expensive).

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Deadly Recall ($1.99), by Donnell Ann Bell [Bell Bridge Books].
Book Description
A terrifying memory is locked deep inside her. A killer wants to keep it that way.

As a nine-year-old child, Eden Moran witnessed the murder of her beloved teacher, Sister Beatrice. Her mind blocked the horrifying memory, and now, seventeen years later, Eden still can't recall what she saw that fateful day at Albuquerque's St. Patrick's Church. The nun's remains have been unearthed at a local construction site, and Albuquerque police detective, Kevin Dancer, starts pressuring Eden to search the shadows of her terror for clues.

Eden insists she didn't see the killer that day. She can't even remember knowing Sister Beatrice. Regardless, Detective Dancer refuses to give up on her. He's not only hell-bent on solving the crime, he's falling in love with her. If her memories resurface, she'll be in danger, and he wants to protect her. The killer seems determined that she'll take the memory to an early grave.

Donnell Ann Bell is the recipient of numerous awards for her fiction writing and the co-owner of Crimescenewriters, a Yahoo group for mystery/suspense writers, which is 2,000 members strong. Donnell was raised in New Mexico's Land of Enchantment and today calls Colorado home.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Risky Shot ($0.99), the second book in the Bluegrass series, by Kathleen Brooks.
Book Description
Danielle De Luca, an ex-beauty queen who is not at all what she seems, leaves the streets of New York after tracking the criminals out to destroy her. She travels to Keeneston, Kentucky to make her final stand by the side of her best friend, McKenna Mason. While in Keeneston, Danielle meets the quiet and mysterious Mohtadi Ali Rahman, a modern day Prince. Can Mo protect Dani from the group of powerful men in New York? Or will Dani save the Prince from his rigid, loveless destiny?

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is The Shrinking Man ($1.99), a RosettaBooks into Film series title by Richard Matheson, with the companion audiobook for $3.49.
Book Description
In Matheson’s legendary tale, family man Scott Carey finds himself shrinking, slowly, day-by-day, inch-by-inch. While on vacation, he gets exposed to a radioactive cloud, the cause of this bizarre event. Scott once had an everyday existence as a husband and father, but now his shrinking shows no end in sight. He becomes a national spectacle, something worthy of newspaper headlines. As Carey shrinks smaller and smaller, his family become more and more unreachable giants, and the family cat becomes a predatory menace. In this world of disproportion, which grows more and more perilous with each passing day, Scott struggles to survive. He is pushed to the very limits of fear and existence.

As the story continues, Carey meets up with some circus performers and attempts to rebuild some semblance of a life. But since his shrinking never stops, all ideas of normal fade, and the threats never stop growing.

In 1958, The Shrinking Man won the Hugo award for that year’s best science fiction or fantasy dramatic presentation. It was also adapted into the film The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Home Fires (£1.29 UK), by Elizabeth Day, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).
Book Description
Max Weston, twenty-one and a newly commissioned lance corporal, leaves home for his first posting in central Africa. Fiercely patriotic and completely at home in the army, he is eager to make a difference. He never comes back. His parents Caroline and Andrew are devastated by the death of their only child. The overwhelming love Caroline has always felt for her son is now matched by the intensity of her loss, and as she is borne away on a private ocean of grief the moorings of their marriage begin to come loose. The silence is broken by the arrival of Andrew's mother, Elsa, who at the age of ninety-eight can no longer look after herself. Caroline has never felt good enough for this elegant, cuttingly courteous lady and has lived for years in fear of putting a foot wrong. Now, suddenly, Caroline has the upper hand. As Elsa lies, marooned and disorientated, in the spare room, the past unspools in her mind, throwing up fragments of her anxious childhood in 1920s Richmond - under the shadow of her father, a soldier who came back from the Great War a different man. A stunning, delicate portrait of a family bookended by war, Home Fires explores the legacy of loss, the strictures of class and the long road to redemption.

The Assassin ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), the third thriller in the Grafton and Carmellini series by Stephen Coonts, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
The headlines only reveal half the truth. Here’s the real story. . . .

Abu Qasim, the ruthless and cunning Al Qaeda leader who nearly succeeded in blowing up a meeting of the G-8 in Paris, has escaped from the grasp of the Americans and is plotting his next move. A small band of powerful men, highly placed leaders of industry and politics in the West, have decided they need to target and destroy the terrorist and his inner circle before he can strike again. When a prominent Russian dissident is poisoned in London, however, it’s clear that there’s a very dangerous leak within the ranks of the Westerners, and that Abu Qasim has turned the tables on his rivals---it is now he who is pursuing, and his aim is to kill.

Admiral Jake Grafton dispatches special agent Tommy Carmellini to infiltrate the plot. He tracks the gorgeous and seductive Marisa Petrou, a Frenchwoman who may be Qasim’s daughter and who has her own reasons for wanting him alive---or wishing him dead. Qasim, meanwhile, has a trick up his sleeve---one that he’s been planning for years.

Who is behind the methodical assassinations of the wealthy and powerful Western vigilante team? Will Abu Qasim slip the noose once again? In this pulse-pounding thriller, Tommy Carmellini must put a stop to a master of terror before he unleashes even more death.

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 ($1.99), by New York Times best-selling author Richard Paul Evans [Simon Pulse/Mercury Ink].
Book Description

The start of an action-packed teen series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Richard Paul Evans.

To everyone at Meridian High School, fourteen-year-old Michael Vey is nothing special, just the kid who has Tourette’s syndrome. But in truth, Michael is extremely special—he has electric powers. Michael thinks he is unique until he discovers that a cheerleader named Taylor has the same mysterious powers. With the help of Michael’s friend, Ostin, the three of them set out to discover how Michael and Taylor ended up with their abilities, and their investigation soon brings them to the attention of a powerful group who wants to control the electric teens—and through them, the world.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Richard Paul Evans introduces a character whose risk-filled exploration marks the beginning of a riveting new series. With only his powers, his wits, and his friends to protect him, Michael will need all his strength to survive….

Michael Vey is the first title in Glenn Beck’s Mercury Ink publishing program.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Diesel Daily Deal - Imperial Scandal (E)

Imperial Scandal ($12.99 $9.39 Kindle), a historical romance novel by Teresa Grant [Kensington Books], is today's Deal of the "Day" at Diesel E-Books, where it's discounted to $2.60 (4 copies left).

Book Description
Amid the treachery of war and the whirl of revelry, no one is what they seem. . .
Nights filled with lavish balls. . .lush, bucolic afternoons. . .. Removed to glamorous Brussels in the wake of Napoleon's escape from Elba, Intelligence Agent Malcolm Rannoch and his wife, Suzanne, warily partake in the country's pleasures. But with the Congress of Vienna in chaos and the Duke of Wellington preparing for battle, the festivities are cut short when Malcolm is sent on a perilous mission that unravels a murderous world of espionage. . .

No one knows what the demure and respectable Lady Julia Ashton was doing at the château where Malcolm and a fellow British spy were ambushed. But now her enigmatic life has been ended by an equally mysterious death. And as the conflict with Napoleon marches toward Waterloo, and Brussels surrenders to bedlam, Suzanne and Malcolm will be plunged into the search for the truth--revealing an intricate labyrinth of sinister secrets and betrayal within which no one can be trusted. . .
Get the book from Diesel; be sure to check the sales price, as the Deal of the Day often sells out.