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Monday, June 17, 2013

Books for a Buck

I'm only posting links for Amazon, but you may find these on sale at Barnes & Noble, Kobo or Sony. Sony, by-the-way, has another coupon code good for all non-Agency tiles: 40JUNE13 for 40% off coupon, thru June 19th.

These are all titles from HarperCollins, who is having a 99 cent sale with 700 titles included. Obviously, I can't list them all here, so I've just listed some that look especially interesting. Click thru to the sale page to explore by category, where you'll find 20 cookbooks on sale, for example.

Please, leave a comment if you see one that we shouldn't miss while it is on sale. Also, don't forget that you can use a gift certificate to reduce the number of small charges you see on your credit or debit cards.

Mariel's Kitchen by Mariel Hemingway
Book Description
How do you cook nutritious and delicious meals when life is busy and time is short? How can you make fresh, organic food a part of your and your family's way of life—simply and affordably? These are the questions that Mariel Hemingway answers by sharing tried-and-tested recipes, straight from her kitchen to yours.

Filled with exciting, beautiful photographs and easy-to-follow instructions, Mariel's Kitchen includes seventy-five sensational recipes that can be mastered by anyone, regardless of cooking experience. Arranged according to the seasons, these recipes show how simple it can be to put locally grown, seasonal produce on your table in place of packaged and processed foods. From sublime summer breakfasts to delectable desserts and heartwarming winter dinners, these tasty dishes, snacks, salad dressings, marinades, and drink recipes put homemade eating back into easy reach.

Mariel also shares her secrets that make it possible to eat well all week long, even with a full schedule. She reveals what staples are necessary for any pantry and how to prepare core recipes that become the foundation for multiple dishes. She offers shopping tips for navigating the world of organic and sustainable foods. And as she reveals what makes her kitchen “the heart of her home,” she peppers recipes with stories about her own lifelong love affair with food.

Combining Mariel's no-nonsense attitude with wholesome recipes for every occasion, Mariel's Kitchen is a new kind of American cookbook designed to help you—and all those you cook for—eat better, fresher, and more delicious foods, day in and day out.

Healthy Life Kitchen by Marilu Henner
Book Description
If you're like most people, 70 percent of what's in your kitchen right now is unhealthy and has to go. Now the good news ...

This book will show you that there are healthy and tasty alternatives to everything in your refrigerator and pantry, and the transition is easier than you think.

When it comes to food, most of us go through a constant tug-of-war between the foods we love and the foods we feel we should be eating. But what if we didn't have to give up our favourite foods? What if we could take recipes from our childhood or our favourite cookbooks and find healthier ways to enjoy them?

Marilu Henner's Healthy Life Kitchen shows you a new way, a better way, to create a "health factory" in your home. Out go the red meat, dairy, and refined sugar products, and in come the freshest fruits, vegetables, grains, soy, seafood, poultry, and seasonings imaginable-and, in a few easy steps, you've created a Healthy Life you!

After inspiring legions of readers with Marilu Henner's Total Health Makeover and The 30-Day Total Health Makeover, Marilu presents the first cookbook in her bestselling series.

The Dumpling by Wai Hon Chu and Connie Lovatt (>400 pages!)
Book Description
The Dumpling is the most comprehensive and wide-ranging anthology of traditional recipes available for those who love dumplings in every shape, size, and variety. Wai Hon Chu—who has worked in the in the kitchens of March, Clementine, and The Russian Tea Room, and is creator of El Eden Chocolates, named Best Gourmet Chocolate by New York Press—and Connie Lovett take dumpling aficionados on a culinary tour around the globe, offering more than 100 mouthwatering recipes that cover the full range of dumpling possibilities.

365 Easy One Dish Meals by Natalie Haughton
Book Description
For today's families, time is so short and so precious the lovingly prepared home-cooked meal is rapidly becoming just a nostalgic memory. But, with this reprint of the wildly popular best-seller 365 Easy One-Dish Meals, you can have your home cooking and eat it, too. Here, in one volume, is a year's worth of simple, sumptuous recipes that are also hassle-free. Hassle-free because in every case one dish equals one pot. That's one pot to cook in and only one pot to clean. Whether your pot of choice is a casserole, a kettle, a slow-cooker, or a wok, and whether your specific cooking need is a speedy weekday supper or a savory, slow-simmering weekend stew, you-ll find plenty of healthy, nutritious recipes to choose from. Enjoy the easy comfort of stews and soups, with one-dish recipes for Vegetable Chili, Quick Clam Chowder, and Hearty Beef Borscht. Toss together a plate of Spicy Thai Chicken Noodles or Curried Penne with Shrimp, or a big bowl of main-course salad, such as Chicken-Papaya Salsa Salad or Turkey and Black Bean Salad. Whatever your family's needs, whichever pot you reach for, here are 365 Easy One-Dish Meals designed to make suppertime a snap.

Fatally Flaky, a Culinary Mysteries novel by Diane Mott Davidson; also, although a dollar more, Dark Tort is also on sale.

Fatally Flaky
Colorado caterer Goldy Schulz encounters Bridezilla—and murder—in Fatally Flaky, another delectable mystery by Diane Mott Davidson. The USA Today and New York Times bestselling author of Double Shot, Dark Tort, and Sweet Revenge whom the Baltimore Sun describes as, “a cross between Mary Higgins Clark and Betty Crocker” is “today’s foremost practitioner of the culinary whodunit” according to Entertainment Weekly. Fatally Flaky is Diane Mott Davidson at her mysterious and mouth-watering best.
Dark Tort
Caterer Goldy Schulz's lucrative new gig, preparing breakfasts and conference room snacks for a local law firm, is time-consuming, but she's enjoying it . . . until the night she arrives to find Dusty, the firm's paralegal, dead. The deceased also happened to be Goldy's friend and neighbor, and now Dusty's grieving mother is begging Goldy to find out who murdered her daughter.

Just because the police are on the case doesn't mean Goldy can't do a little snooping herself. While catering a party at the home of one of the firm's lawyers, she just happens to overhear an incriminating conversation. She also discovers a few tasty clues in the kitchen. Before long, Goldy finds herself knee-deep in suspects. But one of them is incredibly dangerous . . . and very liable to cook Goldy's goose.

Dark Prince: Author's Cut Special Editionby by Christine Feehan
Book Description
An incomparable gift for Christine Feehan fans, Dark Prince returns in a new, author’s cut special edition. #1 New York Times bestseller Feehan revisits her classic tale of paranormal romance—the breathtaking story of a beautiful hunter with extraordinary telepathic abilities captivated by the powerful allure of a tormented prince of the mysterious Carpathians—expanding the beloved story by 100 never before seen pages! Here is your golden opportunity to experience the first book in Christine Feehan’s remarkable Dark saga as you never have before, whether it’s a glorious re-entrance into this writer’s mystical, unforgettable world…or your very first visit!

My Favorite Bride by Christina Dodd
Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd brings you "The Sound of Music meets Jane Eyre" in her refreshingly humorous addition to the Governess Brides series...

When Miss Samantha Prendregast arrives at Devil's Fell to take charge of six rebellious girls, the vibrant, outspoken governess finds she can manage the children with intelligence, guile...and a little bribery. Their widowed father, Colonel William Gregory, is not so easily charmed -- and far too easy to love.

William always cherished the orderliness of his life until this captivating troublemaker arrives. Despite the fact that they clash at every meeting, William finds himself drawn to Samantha's fire. And now he's even contemplating marriage, which would be sweet madness indeed. But before he can successfully woo her, William must discover what Samantha is hiding. But the secret the lady is preciously guarding is far too shocking and dangerous to ever reveal...

Fans of Stephanie Laurens and Julia Quinn will enjoy MY FAVORITE BRIDE!

A Medieval Family: The Pastons of Fifteenth-Century England and Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages by Frances Gies and Joseph Gies

A Medieval Family: The Pastons of Fifteenth-Century England
The Pastons family of Norfolk, England, has long been known to medieval scholars for its large collection of personal correspondence, which has survived five centuries. Revealing a wealth of information about manners, morals, lifestyle, and attitudes of the late Middle Ages, the letters also tell the story of three generations of the fifteenth-century Paston family that treads like a historical novel full of memorable characters: Margaret Paston, the indomitable wife and mother who fought the family's battles; her husband, John Paston I, tough, hardheaded, and thrice confined to Fleet Prison but never yielding to his enemies; daughter Margery, who scandalized family and friends by falling in love with the Paston bailiff, Richard Calle; lighthearted, chivalric Sir John; and cheerful, sensible John III, who against all odds succeeded in marrying for love.

A Medieval Family traces the Pastons history from 1420, through the stormy Wars of the Roses, to the early 1500s. The family's story, extracted from their letters and papers and told largely in their own words, shows a side of history rarely revealed: the lives and fortunes not of kings and queens but of ordinary middle-class people with problems, tragedies, and moments of happiness.
Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages
How did Western Europe, engulfed in political chaos after the fall of Rome, rise by the time of Columbus to world leadership in technology? This book tells how the "silent contribution of many hands and minds" wrought a technological revolution that was marked by such key inventions as the horse collar, the vertical waterwheel, the spinning wheel, the flying buttress, the blast furnace and the art of printing. By tracing these and other devlopments and the way they affected everyday life, the authors show how certain innovations created the Western civilization that spread around the world. Frances and Joseph Gies are the authors of "Life in a Medieval Village", "Life in a Medieval Castle" and "Women in the Middle Ages".

An Affair Before Christmas by Eloisa James
Book Description
Magic under the mistletoe . . .

One spectacular Christmas, Lady Perdita Selby, known to her friends and family as Poppy, met the man she thought she would love forever. The devilishly attractive Duke of Fletcher was the perfect match for the innocent, breathtakingly beautiful young Englishwoman, and theirs was the most romantic wedding she had ever seen. Four years later, Poppy and the duke have become the toast of the ton . . . but behind closed doors the spark of their love affair has burned out.

Unwilling to lose the woman he still lusts after, the duke is determined to win back his beguiling bride's delectable affections . . . and surpass the heady days of first love with a truly sinful seduction.

Reader News

If you buy books from B&N, but read on your PC, be sure to back up the programs you downloaded, as they are discontinuing Nook for PC. There will be "Nook for Web", but that sounds suspiciously like the Cloud Reader at Amazon (which is slow and clunky and only to be used for previews or emergencies, in my opinion). The iOs App remains (and, for now, so does Nook Study, but that is no doubt on borrowed time, if the Microsoft sale of the education unit at B&N goes thru). So far, the download button remains (and there are still many readers out there who download and transfer via USB, so I don't see it leaving soon), for thoae that back up their purchases offline.

In other Barnes & Noble news, you can pick up one of their NOOK HD Tablet or HD+ Tablets right now, at a substantial discount: $70 off the 6" HD ($129) and $120 off the 9" HD+ ($149)!. That's so low, that the only reason to stick with the 6" is that your purse won't fit the larger one inside. I have the larger of the two and it is a good screen and I use it to read in the B&N store. You are limited only to the Nook and Google Play stores for music, books and apps, but that covers most of what is out there (if you root the device, you can do more, but I suspect most people won't be doing that). It works well for web and email access, playing games, etc., although I mainly use it for reading and email access. The battery life seems to be better than the Kindle Fire (but nothing like the iPad, which has amazing battery life for a tablet).

If you've been hanging on to your Kindle DX for reading PDF's, then keep an eye out for the new 13.3" eInk slate device coming from Sony this year (hopefully to be released in the US and not just Japan). It's super thin, lightweight, has a 3 week battery life, comes with a stylus that not only is used for page controls, but lets you make notes on PDF's (and hopefully blank documents). The 4GB of storage on board can be expanded via the microSD slot and you can share your notes with others (miss a class, get another's notes and view them on your own copy of the textbook!).

Kindle Daily Deals 6/17

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is Fighting Fantasy: Blood of the Zombies, which is usually $6!

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is California Wine ($0.99), by Casey Dawes [Crimson Romance].
Book Description
Single mother Elizabeth Ladina is done with men. From her father on down, all they want to do is control her life.

Deciding to take her life into her own hands, she ends her five-year relationship and goes to Italy to visit Liguria, her family’s original home and rediscover the thrill of being on her own. A visit to an upscale skin care boutique in Italy inspires her. Dreaming she could create an upscale lotion line that is splashed across the pages of the best glossy fashion magazines, she’s eager to get home to California and make her vision into reality.

Italian Marcos Gamari has one goal in life - to create the world’s finest wine from the best vineyards in the world. His vineyards in Italy and France are producing prime wines that are already garnering awards and he has no time or desire for romance in his life. Emotional entanglements only lead to pain. His ex-wife had proved that.

Still, when he sees the pretty American eating alone in a hotel dining room in Liguria, he’s compelled to strike up a conversation, which leads to dinner and Elizabeth’s invitation to see the vineyards of the Santa Cruz Mountains near her home in California. She claims they are equal, and cheaper, than anything he’ll find in Napa, his original destination.

Sparks fly when they meet again in Costanoa. Elizabeth and Marcos are determined to maintain their single-track focus on their businesses. But can they keep romance out of their lives forever?

Sensuality Level: Sensual

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Yiddish Policemen's Union ($1.99), by Michael Chabon [HarperCollins].
Book Description
For sixty years Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a "temporary" safe haven created in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. The Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. But now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end.

Homicide detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. And in the cheap hotel where Landsman has washed up, someone has just committed a murder—right under his nose. When he begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy, word comes down from on high that the case is to be dropped immediately, and Landsman finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, evil, and salvation that are his heritage.

At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a novel only Michael Chabon could have written.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is "three children's books that transport the reader to a magical time in art history" by Joan MacPhail Knight and Melissa Sweet Chronicle Books], for $0.99 apiece. Age Range: 8 and up

Charlotte in Paris
It's 1892. Charlotte and her family have lived abroad in the famous artist colony in Giverny, France, for a year, when an exciting invitation arrives. The celebrated impressionist Mary Cassatt is having an exhibition in Paris. While in Paris, Charlotte dines at a cafe on the Champs-Elysees, watches a marionette show in the Tuileries gardens and celebrates her birthday at the Eiffel Tower. Illustrated with stunning museum reproductions of works by artists such as Monet, Degas, Cassatt, Renoir and Rodin as well as lovely watercolor collages, this sequel to Charlotte in Giverny also includes biographical sketches of the featured painters. Charlotte's charming scrapbook will leave fans of the first book, art lovers, Francophiles and readers of all ages shouting, "Vive Charlotte!"
Charlotte in London
It's 1894. Charlotte and her American family have been living in France for two years where her father has learned the new way of painting called Impressionism. Now her father's paintings are going to be featured in a show in New York and the whole family is going along. New York is a hustling, bustling city like no other in the world, and Charlotte records it all in her colorful journal.

Illustrated with striking museum reproductions, beautiful watercolor paintings, and collages, the book also includes biographical sketches of the featured painters. Charlotte's exciting journey to the city that never sleeps will make any reader shout, "I love New York!"
Charlotte in New York
It's 1895. Charlotte and her family came to France three years ago so that her father could learn to paint in the French style of Impressionism. Now they are traveling to London to see if the famous artist John Singer Sargent will paint Charlotte's mother's portrait. In London, Charlotte and her best friend, Lizzy, stay in their own room at the Savoy Hotel, attend a fancy dinner party with famous writers, watch boat races on the River Thames, learn about legendary London ghosts, and even visit a gypsy camp.

Illustrated with beautiful museum reproductions and exquisite watercolor paintings, the book also includes biographical sketches of the featured painters. This vibrant journal of Charlotte's exciting journey will make any reader long for lovely London.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Child of the Northern Spring ($1.99), by Persia Woolley [Sourcebooks Landmark]. This has a starred review from Publisher's Weekly and multiple 4&5 star reviews from readers at Amazon; I'd buy it in a heartbeat ... if I hadn't picked it up three years ago!
Book Description
The story of a queen who deserves to become a legend - a startlingly original tale of Arthur & Guinevere

Often portrayed as spoiled, in Persia Woolley's hands Guinevere comes alive as a high-spirited, passionate woman. When she is chosen by Arthur to be his wife, Guinevere's independence wars with her family loyalty. As the wedding approaches and hints of rebellion abound, she learns that the old gods are in revolt against the new Christian church, and that scattered kingdoms are stirring from their uneasy peace. This is Arthurian epic at its best, filled with romance, adventure, authentic historical detail, and a landscape alive with the mystery of Britain in the Dark Ages.

Nook Daily Find 6/17

Smart and Sexy ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), the first novel in the Sky High Air series by Jill Shalvis, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
FLYING SOLO IS WAY OVERRATED

Noah Fisher has worked for months to make Sky High the most prestigious charter airline in California. He’s long overdue for a break—something involving ski slopes, cold beers, and hot ski bunny babes. The itinerary doesn’t include being hijacked by Bailey Sinclair, gorgeous widow of one of Sky High’s wealthiest (ex-) clients. But here they are, and being crammed in a cockpit with the scared, stubborn, unbelievably sexy former model could get Noah in serious trouble…

UK Kindle Daily Deal 6/17

Made of Stone (£0.99 UK), the fifth Mangel novel by Charlie Williams [Thomas & Mercer], is the Kindle Deal of the Day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99; companion audiobook $1.99).
Book Description
There’s bad stuff out there. Folks reckon things like vampires don't exist, but they does—Jock from the burger van told me. Plus I found an actual one of ’em, sleeping at the time in the back of a hearse I nicked that first morning. That's how me and Jock got to setting out freeing the world of ’em, using his bag o’ wooden stakes and special bottles of whisky. Course, I knowed that vampires didn’t exist, not when I stopped and done some thinking. And I knowed Jock had mental wossnames, what with his son falling off that roof and him reckoning them immigrants pushed him. It’s just that I didn't get much time for thinking, not with the coppers on our arse. Jock were off... and me with him.

The Kindle Romance Deal of the day for those in the UK is four Summer Romance Reads from Mills & Boon for £0.99 each (~80% off).

Champagne Summer (Main/UK), by India Grey
Tamsin and the Argentinean Tamsin’s ready to spend her summer relaxing and topping up her tan. Until Alejandro – the man who nearly destroyed her reputation – comes back into her life. Now his world of champagne and scandal awaits her once again…and Tamsin’s determined to make up for lost time. Sarah and the Italian Sarah’s summers are about spending time with her little girl. She never has a chance to think about herself. Then film director Lorenzo turns her life upside down. Thrust into a world of glitz, glamour and gossip pages, Sarah’s about to have the most exciting summer of her life. Enter the glittering celebrity world with two unforgettable summer stories
Summer Nights (Main/UK), by Susan Mallery (US edition $6.15)
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Susan Mallery returns to Fool’s Gold with a new story that proves that wild hearts cannot be tamed...and shouldn't need to! Shane Stryker is done with passion. He’s back in Fool's Gold to settle down with the quiet ranching life he's always wanted. The rugged rancher has been burned too many times by the kind of women who dance on bars. This time, he's searching for a sensible candidate to become Mrs. Stryker. The town librarian should fit the bill, but Shane has only seen her on the one night that Annabelle Weiss let her fiery hair down and have fun. Shane may be certain she’s too dangerous to be in the running for his life partner, but Annabelle knows that theirs could be a love that ends happily-ever-after, with a wild ride into the sunset.....
Summer With Love (Main/UK), by Sarah Morgan
Summer changes everything...… Love has never been easy to navigate for the Westerling triplets. Practical Katy’s on the verge of marrying a man she knows isn’t The One, free-spirited Libby refuses to be tied down and paparazzi-magnet Alex might just be in over his head. But could this summer, with sun-soaked escapes to Seville, Greece and Cornwall help them finally find the map to romance?
Summer Kisses (Main/UK), by Sarah Morgan
This summer the sun has gone to everyone’s heads… Flora and Jenna should be working busy shifts but something more fun has come up! Two new arrivals have blown into Glenmore and life at the hospital could get tricky. So it's time to set some rules. Flora’s summer is simple: Avoid kissing Connor MacNeil. (He may be gorgeous, back in town and single…but he snogged everyone except you at school, remember!) Jenna’s summer ‘Why I shouldn’t fall in love with Dr Ryan McKinley’ list is a little more complex… ? I’ve been divorced less than a year ? I’m ordinary and he is a sex god ? I have my daughter to think of ? He might break my heart… It’­s so difficult to be good with temptation on the doorstep. But rules are rules. Summer is sunshine. And, just maybe, a wish is a kiss that might just come true!