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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Bargain Book Roundup

Hope you guys are having a great Father's Day Weekend! I'm about to run out and enjoy the nice weather (before the rain starts again tomorrow), but wanted to point out that I have a few posts on Zondervan's Bible and Bible Texts sale this weekend over at Christian Books on The Knob.

Sony has a coupon code for 40% off one non-Agency book this weekend: 40JUNE13 (apply it to your account first, then shop; valid thru Monday).

Daddy's Little Girl ($1.99 Kindle), by Gregory E. Lang [HarperCollins]
Book Description
In this heartwarming celebration of father-daughter relationships, the New York Times bestselling author of Why a Daughter Needs a Dad captures the important roles fathers and daughters play in each other's lives. From the protectiveness and strength a dad provides to the unfettered adoration that can be found only in a daughter, the unique qualities of this special bond are illustrated through real-life stories of daughters and dads and accompanied by beautiful photographs. It's for every dad who longs to return to the days when his daughter anxiously awaited his coming home from work. And it's for every daughter who misses the days when her father carried her up to bed or taught her how to dance on the top of his shoes. This book reminds us all that no matter what, there is and always will be a place for daddy's little girl

Daddy Hugs ($1.99 Kindle), by Karen Katz [Simon and Schuster]
Book Description
How many daddy hugs does it take to say I love you?

Cuddle and count with this hug & read book!

Age Level: 1 and up

John Dies at the End ($2.99 Kindle), by David Wong [Thomas Dunne Books/Macmillan], is something of a cult classic. Since this is a movie tie-in edition, I look forward to seeing how this works on the big screen. The companion audiobook is $3.99.
Book Description
STOP. You should not have touched this flyer with your bare hands. NO, don't put it down. It's too late. They're watching you. My name is David Wong. My best friend is John. Those names are fake. You might want to change yours. You may not want to know about the things you'll read on these pages, about the sauce, about Korrok, about the invasion, and the future. But it's too late. You touched the book. You're in the game. You're under the eye. The only defense is knowledge. You need to read this book, to the end. Even the part with the bratwurst. Why? You just have to trust me.

The important thing is this: The drug is called Soy Sauce and it gives users a window into another dimension. John and I never had the chance to say no. You still do. I'm sorry to have involved you in this, I really am. But as you read about these terrible events and the very dark epoch the world is about to enter as a result, it is crucial you keep one thing in mind: None of this was my fault.

The Wurst Is Yet to Come ($1.99 Kindle; $2.99 companion audiobook), the 27th (and latest) Bed-And-Breakfast Mystery by Mary Daheim [HarperCollins]
Book Description
The Wurst is Yet to Come: The wacky title alone tells you that you are once again in the uproarious realm of “the reigning queen of the cozies” (Portland Oregonian), the inimitable Mary Daheim! In this, the twenty-seventh glorious installment of Daheim’s Bed-and-Breakfast mystery series, harried hostess Judith McMonigle Flynn and her irrepressible Cousin Renie find themselves in Little Bavaria, where the inconvenient discovery of a nonagenarian corpse threatens to put the kibosh on the local Oktoberfest. No one does cozy mystery better than the delightful Daheim—and if you’re a fan of Lillian Jackson Braun, Diane Mott Davidson, or Jill Churchill, you’ll definitely want to take a big bite out of this mouth-watering Wurst.

When Lightning Strikes ($1.99 Kindle; $3.49 companion audiobook), the first novel in the Whiskey Creek series by Brenda Novak [Harlequin MIRA]
Book Description
Simon O'Neal's causing trouble again. And it's up to Gail DeMarco to stop him.

Gail DeMarco left Whiskey Creek, California, to make a name for herself in Los Angeles. Her PR firm has accumulated a roster of A-list clients, including the biggest box office hit of all—sexy and unpredictable Simon O'Neal. But Simon, who's just been through a turbulent divorce, is so busy self-destructing he won't listen to anything she says. She drops him from her list—and he retaliates by taking the rest of her clients with him.

Desperate to save her company, Gail has to humble herself by making a deal with Simon. The one thing he wants is custody of his son, but that's going to require a whole new image. He needs to marry some squeaky-clean girl who'll drag him off to some small, obscure place like Whiskey Creek….

Gail's the only one he can trust. She agrees to become his wife—reluctantly. But she isn't reluctant because he's too hard to like. It's because he's too hard not to love!

Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know ($4.99 Kindle), by Alexandra Horowitz [Scribner]
Book Description
The bestselling book that asks what dogs know and how they think. The answers will surprise and delight you as Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist, explains how dogs perceive their daily worlds, each other, and that other quirky animal, the human.

Horowitz introduces the reader to dogs’ perceptual and cognitive abilities and then draws a picture of what it might be like to be a dog. What’s it like to be able to smell not just every bit of open food in the house but also to smell sadness in humans, or even the passage of time? How does a tiny dog manage to play successfully with a Great Dane? What is it like to hear the bodily vibrations of insects or the hum of a fluorescent light? Why must a person on a bicycle be chased? What’s it like to use your mouth as a hand? In short, what is it like for a dog to experience life from two feet off the ground, amidst the smells of the sidewalk, gazing at our ankles or knees?

Inside of a Dog explains these things and much more. The answers can be surprising—once we set aside our natural inclination to anthropomorphize dogs. Inside of a Dog also contains up-to-the-minute research—on dogs’ detection of disease, the secrets of their tails, and their skill at reading our attention—that Horowitz puts into useful context. Although not a formal training guide, Inside of a Dog has practical application for dog lovers interested in understanding why their dogs do what they do. With a light touch and the weight of science behind her, Alexandra Horowitz examines the animal we think we know best but may actually understand the least. This book is as close as you can get to knowing about dogs without being a dog yourself.

Leave the Grave Green ($1.99 Kindle; $1.99 companion audiobook), by Deborah Crombie [Simon and Schuster]. If you missed the sale last year, now you get another chance, at half the price.
Book Description
When Connor Swann, the dissolute son-in-law of renowned and influential Sir Gerald and Dame Caroline Asherton, is found floating in a Thames River lock, the circumstances eerily recall a strangely similar tragedy. Twenty years ago, the Ashertons' young son, Matthew, a musical prodigy, drowned in a swollen stream while in the company of his sister Julia -- Connor Swann's wife.

Police Superintendant Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James quickly discover that Connor's death was no accident, and that nothing in the Asherton family is as it seems. Connor, though estranged from Julia for more than a year, still lives in her London apartment, where his exploits with women and gambling suggest plenty of motives. The Ashertons are far more attached to Connor than to their own daughter, and these are only the first of the secrets that haunt the suspects. New lies cover older lies, as Kincaid finds himself dangerously drawn to Julia Swann, and Gemma must confront her own troubling feelings for Kincaid.

56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports ($1.99 Kindle), by Kostya Kennedy [Sports Illustrated]
Book Description
Seventy baseball seasons ago, on a May afternoon at Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio lined a hard single to left field. It was the quiet beginning to the most resonant baseball achievement of all time. Starting that day, the vaunted Yankee center fielder kept on hitting-at least one hit in game after game after game.

In the summer of 1941, as Nazi forces moved relentlessly across Europe and young American men were drafted by the millions, it seemed only a matter of time before the U.S. went to war. The nation was apprehensive. Yet for two months in that tense summer, America was captivated by DiMaggio's astonishing hitting streak. In 56, Kostya Kennedy tells the remarkable story of how the streak found its way into countless lives, from the Italian kitchens of Newark to the playgrounds of Queens to the San Francisco streets of North Beach; from the Oval Office of FDR to the Upper West Side apartment where Joe's first wife, Dorothy, the movie starlet, was expecting a child. In this crisp, evocative narrative Joe DiMaggio emerges in a previously unseen light, a 26-year-old on the cusp of becoming an icon. He comes alive-a driven ballplayer, a mercurial star and a conflicted husband-as the tension and the scrutiny upon him build with each passing day.

DiMaggio's achievement lives on as the greatest of sports records. Alongside the story of DiMaggio's dramatic quest, Kennedy deftly examines the peculiar nature of hitting streaks and with an incisive, modern-day perspective gets inside the number itself, as its sheer improbability heightens both the math and the magic of 56 games in a row.

Troilus and Criseyde ($1.99 Kindle), by Geoffrey Chaucer and Nevill Coghill (Translator). This Penguin edition features the 1971 translation by Professor Nevill Coghill, of Oxford University; if you've tried to read the original (and are not a Middle-English scholar), you'll find this edition much easier to read.
Book Description
Set against the epic backdrop of the battle of Troy, Troilus and Criseyde is an evocative story of love and loss. When Troilus, the son of Priam, falls in love with the beautiful Criseyde, he is able to win her heart with the help of his cunning uncle Pandarus, and the lovers experience a brief period of bliss together. But the pair are soon forced apart by the inexorable tide of war and - despite their oath to remain faithful - Troilus is ultimately betrayed. Regarded by many as the greatest love poem of the Middle Ages, Troilus and Criseyde skilfully combines elements of comedy and tragedy to form an exquisite meditation on the fragility of romantic love, and the fallibility of humanity.

Witty Words from Wise Women: Quips, Quotes, and Comebacks ($2.51 Kindle), by B.J. Gallagher [Andrews McMeel Publishing]
Book Description
Where do women find inspiration? Often in the words of those who've been there. From creativity to careers, relationships to success, Witty Words from Wise Women provides a collection of quotes, one-liners, and colorful anecdotes that showcase the best and brightest female minds. Witty Words isn't just about inspiration, however. This book has attitude with a capital "A."

The gutsy, no-holds-barred tone creates a keepsake that's certain to make readers laugh, cry, and identify.

Kindle Daily Deals 6/15

This weekend, save up to 60% on select books at Kobo using promo code 48Hours (valid in the US, UK/EU, Canada and AU). They are also having a sale of $20 on the Glo (Code: EJB29) & up to $70 off the Arc (Code: RFN47), for those in Canada and the US.

If you are an Audible member and had four credits on June 11, check your email for a message about the $10 for Using 4 Credits in 4 Days promotion.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is White Cargo ($1.99), by Stuart Woods [Simon and Schuster], which is rumored to be under development as a feature film.
Book Description
From the glittering beaches of the Caribbean to a final harrowing showdown in the Amazonian rain forest comes a breakneck tale of danger, intrigue, and depravity.

Cat Catledge is a happy man. A self made multi millionaire at fifty, he has a loving wife and a beautiful teenaged daughter. And after years of hard work, he is taking his family on the ultimate dream sabbatical: a two year cruise to the South Pacific via the Panama Canal, aboard his custom built forty-three-foot yacht. He gets as far as Colombia.

Off that country's cocaine dusted shores, Cat's bliss—and his dearly loved family—are permanently shattered by an event so unexpected, so savage, and so tragically final that it leaves Cat completely devastated. Consumed by terrible guilt, he returns home alone, a broken man. Investigations by both the Colombian authorities and the U.S. State Department prove fruitless.

Then, late one night, Cat is awakened by the telephone and, from far away, over a static filled line, an achingly familiar voice utters a single, electrifying word.

Driven by a mixture of hope and anguish, Cat slips back into South America on a desperate search for the daughter he cannot bring himself to believe is dead. Aided by an Australian ex-convict, a beautiful television journalist, and a man known to him only as "Jim", Cat follows a trail of blood and graft, white powder and white slavery, and discovers in himself an unsuspected capacity for ruthlessness and cunning, and—even more surprising—a rekindled capacity for love.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Small Town Sinners ($2.99), by Melissa Walker [Bloomsbury USA Childrens]. This is also the Nook Daily Find today and it's a dollar cheaper at B&N than it is for Kindle.
Book Description
Lacey Anne Byer is a perennial good girl and lifelong member of the House of Enlightenment, the Evangelical church in her small town. With her driver's license in hand and the chance to try out for a lead role in Hell House, her church's annual haunted house of sin, Lacey's junior year is looking promising. But when a cute new stranger comes to town, something begins to stir inside her. Ty Davis doesn't know the sweet, shy Lacey Anne Byer everyone else does. With Ty, Lacey could reinvent herself. As her feelings for Ty make Lacey test her boundaries, events surrounding Hell House make her question her religion.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Breakfast of Champions ($1.99), by Kurt Vonnegut [RosettaBooks]. If you missed the sale two years ago, you'll want to get it now.
Book Description
Breakfast of Champions (1973) provides frantic, scattershot satire and a collage of Vonnegut's obsessions. His recurring cast of characters and American landscape was perhaps the most controversial of his canon; it was felt by many at the time to be a disappointing successor to Slaughterhouse-Five, which had made Vonnegut's literary reputation.

The core of the novel is Kilgore Trout, a familiar character very deliberately modeled on the science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985), a fact which Vonnegut conceded frequently in interviews and which was based upon his own occasional relationship with Sturgeon. Here Kilgore Trout is an itinerant wandering from one science fiction convention to another; he intersects with the protagonist, Dwayne Hoover (one of Vonnegut's typically boosterish, lost and stupid mid-American characters) and their intersection is the excuse for the evocation of many others, familiar and unfamiliar, dredged from Vonnegut's gallery.

The central issue is concerned with intersecting and apposite views of reality, and much of the narrative is filtered through Trout who is neither certifiably insane nor a visionary writer but can pass for either depending upon Dwayne Hoover's (and Vonnegut's) view of the situation. America, when this novel was published, was in the throes of Nixon, Watergate and the unraveling of our intervention in Vietnam; the nation was beginning to fragment ideologically and geographically, and Vonnegut sought to cram all of this dysfunction (and a goofy, desperate kind of hope, the irrational comfort given through the genre of science fiction) into a sprawling narrative whose sense, if any, is situational, not conceptual.

Reviews were polarized; the novel was celebrated for its bizarre aspects, became the basis of a Bruce Willis movie adaptation whose reviews were not nearly so polarized. (Most critics hated it.) This novel in its freewheeling and deliberately fragmented sequentiality may be the quintessential Vonnegut novel, not necessarily his best, but the work which most truly embodies the range of his talent, cartooned alienation and despair.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is My Pup ($1.99), by Tammie Lyon [Two Lions]. note: This book requires Kindle Fire/HD or select Kindle Reading Apps (Kindle Cloud Reader, Kindle for iPad or Kindle for Android).
Book Description
It’s puppy love! Follow a new pup and his owner as they frolic throughout the neighborhood, playing ball, taking walks, doing tricks, and snuggling. Tammie Lyon’s illustrations rendered in gouache and colored pencil add lively appeal to this endearing story of a little girl and her new dog.

Age Level: 3 and up

Nook Daily Find 6/15

Small Town Sinners ($7.99 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Melissa Walker [Bloomsbury USA Childrens], is the Nook Daily Find.
Book Description
Lacey Anne Byer is a perennial good girl and lifelong member of the House of Enlightenment, the Evangelical church in her small town. With her driver's license in hand and the chance to try out for a lead role in Hell House, her church's annual haunted house of sin, Lacey's junior year is looking promising. But when a cute new stranger comes to town, something begins to stir inside her. Ty Davis doesn't know the sweet, shy Lacey Anne Byer everyone else does. With Ty, Lacey could reinvent herself. As her feelings for Ty make Lacey test her boundaries, events surrounding Hell House make her question her religion.

Melissa Walker has crafted the perfect balance of engrossing, thought-provoking topics and relatable, likable characters. Set against the backdrop of extreme religion, Small Town Sinners is foremost a universal story of first love and finding yourself, and it will stay with readers long after the last page.

UK Kindle Daily Deal 6/15

Multiple Wounds (£0.99 UK), by Alan Russell [Thomas & Mercer], is the Kindle Deal of the Day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99).
Book Description
Holly Troy's mind is a complex maze of myth and reality, multiple personalities vying for time in the spotlight. As an artist, she is creative and compelling. As a witness, she is painfully unreliable, unsure of even which person she was the night of the murder. Even Holly can’t be sure of her own innocence. Homicide detective Orson Cheever never thought he would find himself playing psychologist to a Greek goddess in a modern-day murder investigation, but many of Holly's personalities come straight from classical mythology, from Cronos and Pandora to the Fates. As Cheever attempts to unravel truth from myth, he learns that there is even more to Holly than meets the eye. One personality in particular—that of a five-year-old girl—hits a little too close to home, and Cheever is forced to finally pull back the dark curtains of his own past in order to uncover the truth in this psychological thriller.

The Mammoth Book of SF Wars (£0.99 UK), edited by Ian Watson and Ian Whates [Robinson], is the Kindle Deal of the Day for for Science Fiction & Fantasy Fans in the UK (the US edition is $8.39).
Book Description
War is becoming increasingly 'SF-ized' with remotely controlled attack drones and robot warriors already in development and being tested. Over the past 100 years the technology of war has advanced enormously in destructive power, yet also in sophistication so that we no longer seem to live under the constant threat of all-out global thermonuclear cataclysm. So what will future wars be like? And what will start them: religion, politics, resources, refugees, or advanced weaponry itself? Watson and Whates present a gripping anthology of SF stories which explores the gamut of possible future conflicts, including such themes as nuclear war, psychological and cyberwars, enhanced soldiery, mercenaries, terrorism, intelligent robotic war machines, and war with aliens.All the stories in this collection of remarkable quality and diversity reveals humankind pressed to the limits in every conceivable way.It includes 24 stories with highlights such as:The Pyre of the New Day' - Catherine Asaro.The Rhine's World Incident' - Neal Asher. Caught in the Crossfire' - David Drake. Politics' - Elizabeth Moon.The Traitor' - David Weber.And others from:Dan Abnett, Tony Ballantyne, Fredric Brown, Algis Budrys, Simon R. Green, Joe Haldeman, John Kessel, John Lambshead, Paul McAuley, Andy Remic, Laura Resnick, Mike Resnick & Brad R. Torgersen, Fred Saberhagen, Cordwainer Smith, Allen Steele, William Tenn, Walter Jon Williams, Michael Z. Williamson, Gene Wolfe.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Daily Deal - Murder in Steeple Martin

Murder in Steeple Martin ($4.99 $2.99 Kindle), the first novel in the Libby Sarjeant murder mystery series by Lesley Cookman [Accent Press], is today's Deal of the Day at at Diesel E-Books, where it's discounted to $1.40 (8 copies left). At Amazon, the entire series is on sale for $2.99 per title, although long time readers may find they already have this one in their libraries, as it was free last August.
Book Description
Artist and ex-actress Libby Sarjeant is busy directing a play for the opening of a new theatre in her village when one of her cast is found murdered. The play, written by her friend Peter, is based on real events in his family, disturbing and mysterious, which took place in the village during the last war. As the investigation into the murder begins to uncover a tangled web of relationships in the village, it seems that the events dramatised in the play still cast a long shadow, dark enough to inspire murder.

Libby's natural nosiness soon leads her into the thick of the investigation, but is she too close to Peter's family, and in particular his cousin Ben, to be able to recognise the murderer?
Get the book from Diesel; be sure to check the sales price, as the Deal of the Day often sells out. Deals change at 11AM Eastern Time, USA.