Kindle Daily Deals 5/1

Today's Gold Box at Amazon is "up to 50% off on Select Digital Picture Frames". Although the 8" "Frame" is just that, the 10.4" frame is also a tablet for sending pictures via email (over WiFi), viewing web albums at some of the more popular photo sharing sites and lets you send pics to it from your phone as soon as you take them. It even knows when you are sleeping and turns itself off to save power at night.

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is Word Surge.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Kiss Me Deadly ($1.99), by Susan Kearney [Bell Bridge Books].

Book Description
Her luck may have just run out . . .

Dedicated family attorney Amanda "Mandy" Newman may have survived an attempted drowning and, along with co-workers, just won the biggest lottery in history, but before she can collect, the ticket is stolen. Now, her co-workers are being murdered one by one.

She needs help, and that puts her between a rock and a hard man—the brother of a co-worker.

DEA officer Zack Taylor was a one-night stand who'd turned into so much more. Now that his family and Mandy are in danger, he is back in the picture. The attraction between them still simmers; Zack can feel it. But can he resist his desire for her long enough to discover her secret?

With her life on the line, the attraction between them should be kept on ice. After all, under the circumstances, a kiss could be deadly.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Superhero ($0.99), an action thriller by Victor Methos [indie].

Book Description
THE BEAST IS OUT...

A wave of unprecedented violence rages across Los Angeles. Instigated by a new gang called the Myrs, they are known for their lust for murder and led by the most ferocious gang leader in the city's history: a giant known only as Agamemnon. Someone many believe is not human.

A HERO IS BORN...

Jack Kane retires from the DEA. He no longer believes the violence he has perpetrated in the name of justice is worth it. Coming home to Los Angeles, he discovers a city torn apart by gang warfare. When the violence nearly kills the ones he loves, Jack can no longer sit by and watch and vows to take down the deadly Myrs.

But Agamemnon displays superhuman abilities. Jack is left broken in mind and body after even a brief confrontation. Laying in the hospital near death, a woman enters his life and offers him a chance to defeat Agamemnon.

But to defeat him, he must become like him...

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Silly Tilly ($1.99), by Eileen Spinelli [Amazon Children's Publishing].

Book Description
"Tilly is not an ordinary goose. She takes her baths in apple juice. She wears a pancake as a hat. She tries to ride the farmer’s cat."

But the barnyard animals complain that she’s too silly. When she stops entertaining her friends with her antics, the farm becomes a quiet and unhappy place. David Slonim’s acrylic, pencil, and ballpoint pen illustrations add to the hilarity in this story about a one-of-a-kind silly goose.

Age Range: 6 - 8 years

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Vegas Knockout ($0.99), by Tom Schreck [Thomas & Mercer], with the companion audiobook $1.99.

Book Description
Duffy Dombrowski just accepted a dream job: chief sparring partner for Russian heavyweight contender Boris Rusakov in Vegas. His obstinate basset hound, Al, and a few friends join Duffy for the ride—but before Duffy knows it, his trip turns into a nightmare. Someone’s killing local Mexican workers, friends and relatives of Duffy’s gym buddies. And to make matters worse, Duffy’s got Boris’s Russian mobster pals chasing him with murder on their minds.

Quirky characters, rapid-fire dialogue, and nonstop action propel The Vegas Knockout into the sphere of gritty thrillers that hit with astonishing power.

Nook Daily Find 5/1

The Dark Winter ($9.99 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), the first Aector McAvoy novel by David Mark [Penguin], is the Nook Daily Find. It should be price matched later this morning on Kindle, where the companion audiobook is $4.49.

Book Description
A series of suspicious deaths have rocked Hull, a port city in England as old and mysterious as its bordering sea. They have captured the attention of Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy. He notices a pattern missed by his fellow officers, who would rather get a quick arrest than bother themselves with finding the true killer. Torn between his police duties and his aching desire to spend more time with his pregnant wife and young son, McAvoy is an unlikely hero: a physically imposing man far more comfortable exploring computer databases than throwing around his muscle. Compelled by his keen sense of justice, he decides to strike out alone—but in the depths of the dark winter, it’s difficult to forget what happened the last time he found himself on the wrong side of a killer’s blade…

UK Kindle Daily Deal 5/1

Ignorance (£0.99 UK), by Michèle Roberts, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $7.99).

Book Description
After every war there are stories that are locked away like bluebottles in drawers and kept silent. But sometimes the past can return: in the smell of carbolic soap, in whispers darting through a village after mass, in the colour of an undelivered letter. Jeanne Nerin and Marie-Angèle Baudry grow up, side by side yet apart, in the village of Ste Madeleine. Marie-Angèle is the daughter of the grocer, inflated with ideas of her own piety and rightful place in society. Jeanne's mother washes clothes for a living. She used to be a Jew until this became too dangerous. Jeanne does not think twice about grasping the slender chances life throws at her. Marie-Angèle does not grasp; she aspires to a future of comfort and influence. When war falls out of the sky, along with it tumbles a new, grown-up world. The village must think on its feet, play its part in a game for which no one knows the rules. Not even the dubious hero with 'business contacts' who sweeps Marie-Angèle off her feet. Not even the reclusive artist living alone with his sensual, red canvases. In these uncertain times, the enemy may be hiding in your garden shed and the truth is all too easily buried under a pyramid of recriminations. Michèle Roberts's new novel is a mesmerising exploration of guilt, faith, desire and judgment, bringing to life a people at war in a way that is at once lyrical and shocking.

$20 Off Kindle Paperwhite - Today Only

Note: This deal is over and the page at Amazon has been removed.

I initially wasn't going to write about this deal, since it didn't work for me when I tried it a couple of days ago and seemed to be targeted only to people who received an email. Some people who didn't get an email, though, were able to use the code (this appeared to be people who don't already have a device connected to their accounts) and others have reported that using the CHAT feature to contact Kindle support was working to be able to get the discount applied manually.

Get $20 Off the Kindle Paperwhite (with special offers) - thru April 30 (midnight, PST).

Try first, of course, to enter the promo code KINDLEPW after placing a single Kindle Paperwhite, with Special Offers (the code does not work on the more expensive model, although you can simply pay to get rid of them later). Go thru the full checkout process and apply the promo code KINDLEPW. If it works (check the summary box on the right side of the page), then finish checking out.

If it doesn't take $20 off, then leave that page up and open a new tab. Go back to the Kindle Paperwhite page, click on Kindle Support, then the Contact Us button on the right side of the page (about half way down). Ignore the part at the top about picking a Kindle device and skip down to section 2. Choose "Placing an Order" and then "Payments and Promotions", then click on Chat. You should quickly be connected to a Kindle support rep, who can assist in trying to get the promo code to work. They may require you to place the order and then apply the discount after the order is created -- I have done this a time or two in the past, without problems, but I always suggest both keeping a copy of the chat transcript and checking the order itself after a few minutes, to see if the promo credit was applied (it will be in the bottom section of the invoice).

So, for those wanting a Paperwhite for themselves (or as a last-minute gift for Mother's Day), give it a try.

Terms & Conditions

1. Promotion is valid for a limited time only. Amazon reserves the right to cancel it at any time.
2. Promotion applies only to new Kindle Paperwhite devices sold and shipped by Amazon Digital Services. It does not apply to the same products sold by other sellers or to Certified Refurbished Kindle products.
3. If you do not purchase Kindle Paperwhite prior to April 30, 2013 11:59 PM (PST), the promotion will not apply.
4. Customer will be responsible for payment to Amazon.com of final order total after discount, plus applicable taxes, gift-wrap charges and shipping charges.
5. Each promotion code can be used only once
6. If you return any item purchased using the discount, your refund will equal to the amount you paid for the product, subject to applicable refund policies.
7. The promotion code is not transferrable and may not be resold.
8. Limit one promotion code per customer.
9. Does not apply to orders placed with 1-Click.

Month End Bargain Books

Since it's the end of the month and it takes me quite a bit of time to look up books on B&N, Kobo, etc, to check for matching prices, I'm going to skip that for today's posts. I've linked both stores here, for those that prefer those formats; I suspect some of the larger publishers will have matching prices in all the stores (definitely Random House, which is still under Agency Pricing).

She's Come Undone ($2.99), by Wally Lamb [Atria/Simon and Schuster], an Oprah's Book Club selection.

Book Description
In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years.

"Mine is a story of craving: an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered. . ."

Meet Dolores Price. She’s thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood good-bye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she’s determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly-up.

At once a fragile girl and a hard-edged cynic, so tough to love yet so inimitably lovable, Dolores is as poignantly real as our own imperfections. She’s Come Undone includes a promise: you will never forget Dolores Price.

Portuguese Irregular Verbs ($3.99), the first Professor Dr von Igelfeld Entertainment novel by Alexander Mccall Smith and Iain Mcintosh (Illustrator) [Anchor/Random House]

Book Description
The Professor Dr. von Igelfeld Entertainment series slyly skewers academia, chronicling the comic misadventures of the endearingly awkward Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, and his long-suffering colleagues at the Institute of Romantic Philology in Germany.

Readers who fell in love with Precious Ramotswe, proprietor of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, now have new cause for celebration in the protagonist of these three light-footed comic novels by Alexander McCall Smith. Welcome to the insane and rarified world of Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld of the Institute of Romance Philology. Von Igelfeld is engaged in a never-ending quest to win the respect he feels certain he is due–a quest which has the tendency to go hilariously astray.

In Portuguese Irregular Verbs, Professor Dr von Igelfeld learns to play tennis, and forces a college chum to enter into a duel that results in a nipped nose. He also takes a field trip to Ireland where he becomes acquainted with the rich world of archaic Irishisms, and he develops an aching infatuation with a Dentist fatale. Along the way, he takes two ill-fated Italian sojourns, the first merely uncomfortable, the second definitely dangerous.

Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season ($2.99), by Jonathan Eig [Simon and Schuster], looks like a must read for those who saw the movie (42).

Book Description
April 15, 1947, marked the most important opening day in baseball history. When Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond that afternoon at Ebbets Field, he became the first black man to break into major-league baseball in the twentieth century. World War II had just ended. Democracy had triumphed. Now Americans were beginning to press for justice on the home front -- and Robinson had a chance to lead the way.
He was an unlikely hero. He had little experience in organized baseball. His swing was far from graceful. And he was assigned to play first base, a position he had never tried before that season. But the biggest concern was his temper. Robinson was an angry man who played an aggressive style of ball. In order to succeed he would have to control himself in the face of what promised to be a brutal assault by opponents of integration.

In Opening Day, Jonathan Eig tells the true story behind the national pastime's most sacred myth. Along the way he offers new insights into events of sixty years ago and punctures some familiar legends. Was it true that the St. Louis Cardinals plotted to boycott their first home game against the Brooklyn Dodgers? Was Pee Wee Reese really Robinson's closest ally on the team? Was Dixie Walker his greatest foe? How did Robinson handle the extraordinary stress of being the only black man in baseball and still manage to perform so well on the field? Opening Day is also the story of a team of underdogs that came together against tremendous odds to capture the pennant. Facing the powerful New York Yankees, Robinson and the Dodgers battled to the seventh game in one of the most thrilling World Series competitions of all time.

Drawing on interviews with surviving players, sportswriters, and eyewitnesses, as well as newly discovered material from archives around the country, Jonathan Eig presents a fresh portrait of a ferocious competitor who embodied integration's promise and helped launch the modern civil-rights era. Full of new details and thrilling action, Opening Day brings to life baseball's ultimate story.

Reporting at Wit's End ($2.99), by St. Clair McKelway [Bloomsbury]

Book Description
"Why does A. J. Liebling remain a vibrant role model for writers while the superb, prolific St. Clair McKelway has been sorely forgotten?" James Wolcott asked this question in a recent review of the Complete New Yorker on DVD. Anyone who has read a single paragraph of McKelway's work would struggle to provide an answer.

His articles for the New Yorker were defined by their clean language and incomporable wit, by his love of New York's rough edges and his affection for the working man (whether that work was come by honestly or not). Like Joseph Mitchell and A. J. Liebling, McKelway combined the unflagging curiosity of a great reporter with the narrative flair of a master storyteller. William Shawn, the magazine's long-time editor, described him as a writer with the "lightest of light touches." His style is so striking, Shawn went on to say, that "it was too odd to be imitated."

The pieces collected here are drawn from two of McKelway's books--True Tales from the Annals of Crime and Rascality (1951) and The Big Little Man from Brooklyn (1969). His subjects are the small players who in their particulars defined life in New York during the 36 years McKelway wrote: the junkmen, boxing cornermen, counterfeiters, con artists, fire marshals, priests, and beat cops and detectives. The "rascals."

An amazing portrait of a long forgotten New York by the reporter who helped establish and utterly defined New Yorker "fact writing," Untitled Collection is long overdue celebration of a truly gifted writer.

Cook Yourself Thin: Skinny Meals You Can Make in Minutes ($1.99), by Lifetime Television [Hyperion]

Book Description
Lose weight without losing your mind!

Cook Yourself Thin, a #1 New York Times bestseller, is a healthy, delicious way to drop a dress size without all the gimmicks. Eighty easy, accessible recipes teach readers how to cut calories without compromising taste.

For some of us, losing weight has always been a struggle. The challenge: figuring out how to cook healthy, low-fat foods that won't leave you hungry, bored, or running for a gallon of ice cream! Cook Yourself Thin shows how to cut calories, change diets, and improve health without sacrificing the foods we love.

Cook Yourself Thin is not a fad diet. It gives skinny alternatives to your cravings. You can't live without your chocolate cake or mac 'n' cheese You don't have to! There's never enough time to cook Cook Yourself Thin keeps it simple&dbquo;Ÿwith easy instructions and fun recipes you'll want to make again and again.

What are you waiting for? Cook Yourself Thin!

Forgotten Sacrifice: The Arctic Convoys of World War II ($2.99), by Michael Walling [Osprey Publishing]

Book Description
Hitler called Norway the “Zone of Destiny” for Nazi Germany because convoys from Churchill's Britain and Roosevelt's United States supplied Stalin’s Soviet Russia with critical equipment and foodstuffs during the darkest days of the German invasion.

The words "Murmansk Run" conjure visions of ice-laden ships and thoughts of freezing to death in seconds. For five long years, thousands of men and women fought ferociously in the coldest corner of hell on earth. Some fought for survival, some struggled to help others survive, and some sought to crush their enemies. If man-made death didn't get you, the Arctic's weapons of ice and cold would. These natural weapons killed regardless of whose side you were on or how just was your cause. No one escaped unscathed. Author Mike Walling captures the Arctic convoys’ bitter essence in Forgotten Sacrifice.

The story launches in October 1939, when Germany and the Soviet Union began diplomatic maneuvering. The action accelerates with Winston Churchill's decision in 1941 to provide supplies to Soviet forces battling the German invasion. From this point until the closing days of WWII in spring 1945, an unremitting sea battle raged within the confines of the always-lethal, ever-shifting Arctic ice pack and the savage Scandinavian coastline. Nearly 4.5 million tons of supplies were moved in 77 convoys over the course of 5 years in order to help the Soviet war effort. The Allies fought to keep the sea lanes open to Murmansk while the Germans were determined to slaughter every ship which dared to make the attempt. By the end of the convoys, 98 ships had been lost. Forgotten Sacrifice reveals a timeless tale of determination, heroism, sacrifice, and the strength of the human spirit.

All three novels in the End/Jonshua Jordan series by Tim LaHaye and Craig Parshall [Zondervan] are on sale for $1.99 apiece.

Edge of Apocalypse (was free Fall '10)

Joshua Jordan, former U.S. spy-plane hero now turned weapons designer has come up with a devastatingly effective new missile defense system -- the Return to Sender laser weapon. But global forces are mounting against America, and corrupt White House and Capitol Hill leaders are willing to do anything to stop the nation's impending economic catastrophe -- including selling-out Joshua and his weapon. As world events begin setting the stage for the 'end of days,' Joshua is forced to consider not only the truth of the biblical prophecies preached by the pastor of his brilliant attorney- wife, but also what gut-wrenching price he is willing to pay to save the nation he loves.

Thunder of Heaven

The End Series by New York Times bestselling author Tim LaHaye and Craig Parshall is an epic thrill ride ripped from today's headlines and filtered through Scriptural prophecy. As world events begin setting the stage for the 'end of days' foretold in Revelation, Joshua Jordan must weigh the personal price he must pay to save the nation he loves. This eBook will appeal to the tens of millions of fans who have already made Tim LaHaye a household name and one of the best selling authors of all time. Thunder of Heaven is a return to form for Tim LaHaye, whose previous prophetic fiction series, Left Behind, has sold roughly 70 million copies. Those who have read Left Behind and who are eager for more highly charged fiction based on biblical prophesies will embrace Thunder of Heaven for the same reasons that turned Left Behind into the world's most celebrated publishing phenomenons of the last two decades

Brink of Chaos

Joshua Jordan remains in Israel during his self-imposed 'exile' out of the reach of U.S. authorities who have trumped-up false criminal treason charges against him. His wife, Abigail, continues to lead the Roundtable to prove the innocence of her husband.

Following the nuclear attack by Russia, Israel is cleaning up the bodies of dead enemy soldiers for 7 months and setting out on its 7 year plan---both per the prophecies in Ezekiel. As corruption in high government offices threaten to block the election of a worthy presidential candidate by all means necessary---including the unthinkable---Israel's leadership is tempted to sign a 'peace' proposal initiated by the UN under the authority of Coliquin. After he discusses this plan with Pastor Peter Campbell, Joshua is convinced Coliquin may well be the prophesied Anti-Christ and that his peace plan is a trap to destroy Israel.

Are the recurring dreams Joshua has had about the coming rapture from God. And is the end sooner than anyone expects?

The Professor and the Madman ($1.99), by Simon Winchester [HarperCollins]

Book Description
The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

The Keeper of Dawn ($2.99/KLL Eligible), by J.B. Hickman [indie]

Book Description
Groomed for greatness, 15-year-old Jacob Hawthorne is sent to boarding school against his will. Jacob’s resentment toward his family reaches an all-time high when his father doesn’t bother to see him off for the 1980 school year. With a self-absorbed mother, an estranged father, and an older brother on the other side of the world, only the unlikely friendship with his grandfather can lure Jacob back home. But home feels like a distant memory from the shore of Raker Island, the isolated campus of one of the Northeast’s elite boarding schools.

As the surrogate bonds of a cloistered all-boys school fall into place, Jacob finds himself among other sons of privilege who suffer the same affliction—growing up in their fathers’ shadow. In fact, Jacob and his friends get dubbed “the Headliners” when their fathers make the headlines on the same day. Among them is Chris Forsythe, the rebellious son of a high-profile politician whose helicopter arrival sparks jealousy among the school’s upperclassmen.

Wellington Academy has been selected to host that fall’s senatorial debate, and Chris’ father is one of the candidates. Chris convinces Jacob—who is among the students selected to question the candidates on live television—to expose his father for embezzling money to finance his reelection campaign. Only Mr. O’Leary, Wellington’s inquisitive history teacher, stands in the way of Chris’ influence over Jacob. He alone can stop the inevitable head-on father-son collision that Chris is guiding Jacob toward. But when tragedy strikes, Jacob is forced to journey into the past to reclaim a well-guarded family secret.