Bargain Book Roundup

The Way of Shadows ($2.99), the first title in The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks, is on sale again, is you missed it when it was the Kindle Deal of the Day.

Book Description
For Durzo Blint, assassination is an art-and he is the city's most accomplished artist.

For Azoth, survival is precarious. Something you never take for granted. As a guild rat, he's grown up in the slums, and learned to judge people quickly - and to take risks. Risks like apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint.

But to be accepted, Azoth must turn his back on his old life and embrace a new identity and name. As Kylar Stern, he must learn to navigate the assassins' world of dangerous politics and strange magics - and cultivate a flair for death.

If you liked the free Prevention Healthy Favorites: Chicken Recipes: 48 Easy and Delicious Meals!, by The Editors of Prevention Magazine, then you may want to check out their Slow Cooker Recipes, Dessert Recipes and Snack & Appetizer Recipes mini-cookbooks. Each contains 48 recipes and have recently been lowered from $3.99 to 99 cents each. I can see using any one (or all) of them during the upcoming holiday season.

Book Description
Like good cooks everywhere, the editors of Prevention magazine love nothing more than sharing their favorite healthy and delicious dishes. That's the whole idea behind the Prevention Healthy Favorites series of essential cookbooks, each one gathering 48 of the best Prevention-tested recipes that make it easy to enjoy wonderful homemade food fast.

Slow cooking is one of the Prevention editors' favorite ways to prepare true comfort food - which for us means food that is as easy to make as it is to eat. It's all about effortless: Just put together simple ingredients in the morning, and come home to a wholesome meal and delicious-smelling house at night! What could be better?

With this Prevention-tested collection, you can't go wrong: We chose our recipes carefully, each is designed to nourish both body and spirit. Within these pages you'll find a great variety of flavors and ingredients, from Mexico's gentle heat (Pork Chile Verde) to the delightful Moroccan Chicken with Olives. You'll even find some lovely surprises, including Shrimp Arrabiata, which tastes so good you won't believe it's so healthy; and even rich and satisfying brownies that couldn't be any easier to make, yet fit into a healthy, enjoyable diet.

The Day the Falls Stood Still ($4.61), by Cathy Marie Buchanan

Book Description
Steeped in the intriguing history of Niagara Falls, this epic love story is as rich, spellbinding, and majestic as the falls themselves.

1915. The dawn of the hydroelectric power era in Niagara Falls. Seventeen-year-old Bess Heath has led a sheltered existence as the youngest daughter of the director of the Niagara Power Company. After graduation day at her boarding school, she is impatient to return to her picturesque family home near Niagara Falls. But when she arrives, nothing is as she had left it. Her father has lost his job at the power company, her mother is reduced to taking in sewing from the society ladies she once entertained, and Isabel, her vivacious older sister, is a shadow of her former self. She has shut herself in her bedroom, barely eating--and harboring a secret.

The night of her return, Bess meets Tom Cole by chance on a trolley platform. She finds herself inexplicably drawn to him--against her family's strong objections. He is not from their world. Rough-hewn and fearless, he lives off what the river provides and has an uncanny ability to predict the whims of the falls. His daring river rescues render him a local hero and cast him as a threat to the power companies that seek to harness the power of the falls for themselves. As their lives become more fully entwined, Bess is forced to make a painful choice between what she wants and what is best for her family and her future.

Set against the tumultuous backdrop of Niagara Falls, at a time when daredevils shot the river rapids in barrels and great industrial fortunes were made and lost as quickly as lives disappeared, The Day the Falls Stood Still is an intoxicating debut novel.

Who Goes There? ($0.99), by John W. Campbell

Book Description
A remote scientific research expedition at the North Pole is invaded by a monstrous alien, reawakened after lying frozen for centuries after a crash-landing. The alien is intelligent, cunning and a shape-changer who can assume the form and personality of anything it destroys and soon it is among the men of the expedition, killing and replacing them, using its shape-changing ability to lull the scientists one by one into inattention and destruction. The transformed alien can seemingly pass every effort at detection and the expedition seems doomed...

WHO GOES THERE?, according to the science fiction historian Sam Moskowitz (1920-1997), had an autobiographical impetus: Campbell's mother and aunt were identical twins and enjoyed the "game" of substituting for one another in his care as an infant and young child, confusing him again and again with false identity. It was this uncertainty, this susceptibility to masquerade and his terror at the game which, Moskowitz said, Campbell funneled into this last and greatest of his magazine pieces. (A short novel, THE MOON IS HELL, was published only in book form in the early 1950's.) Carefully and rigorously extrapolated in its portrait of the menaced expedition, the novelette is regarded as perhaps the greatest horror story to emerge form the field of science fiction. It was the basis for one of the great early science fiction films and its excellent remake decades later.

Campbell had become the editor of ASTOUNDING five months before the early 1938 publication of the story. As editor of that magazine, he insisted upon rigorous scientific background, humanized characters and values and a standard of writing comparable to that in the leading consumer magazines of the time. In pursuit, Campbell found a generation of new writers - Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp, A.E. Van Vogt, Henry Kuttner, Lester del Rey among them - who collectively (and individually!) produced an extraordinary body of work.

WHO GOES THERE? provided the basis of the 1951 cult horror film THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD and was remade into John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), also regarded as a classic science fiction film, who's prequel THE THING launched in 2011. The copyright of the novelette was, typically of the time, owned by Street & Smith Publications to whose magazine Campbell had sold all of the rights. Hawks paid Street & Smith $900 for all film rights, $500 of that was paid over "voluntarily" by Street & Smith to Campbell. "Don't you feel cheated?" Isaac Asimov said he asked Campbell at the time of the film's successful release. "No," Campbell said. "If it's a good film and it will get more people to read science fiction and take it seriously, then it's all a very good thing."

Demon: A Memoir ($2.99), by Tosca Lee, is marked down from the near $10 price of last year (as is Havah).

Book Description
“One day . . . I realized that being angelic and fallen was very similar to being human and fallen—except for one major difference: the provision of a messiah. I immediately wondered what it must feel like to be unquestionably damned—and worse, to watch humans luxuriate in and take for granted the grace made available to them from a doting God. And I thought: Why wouldn’t a fallen angelic creation resent a human recipient of God’s grace? And why wouldn’t a demon want to prove that creature unworthy again and again as a result? Now I knew what it must feel like to be an angelic outsider looking in with jealous eyes and . . . through this new lens Demon: A Memoir was born.” —Tosca Lee

The Midwich Cuckoos ($0.99), by John Wyndham, is another film tie-in from RosettaBooks.

Book Description
Aliens land in an isolated British village and impregnate all of the women. Nine months later strange children with glowing eyes and intense intelligence "Midwich Cuckoos," emerge to undertake the conquest of the world. Filmed in the 1950's and again in the 1990's as VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED.

Shadow Walker ($3.99), by L.A. Banks

Book Description
Sarah Rivera has a lot going on in her life right now. It’s bad enough that she’s being shipped off to Temt Tchaas Academy—also known as Neteru Academy, a high school for future Guardians of the Light who have special powers—but she has to go there with her cocky twin brother and the rest of her compound brothers and sisters. To make matters worse, everyone has ridiculous expectations of her all because her parents are like supernatural rock stars for saving the planet sixteen years ago. But what nobody, not even her best girlfriend Tami seems to be getting is the fact that, she’s not special, doesn’t want to be a demon-hunting hero, and is even afraid of the dark!

So what that her mother was a warrior angel and her Dad used to be a Council level Vampire? Opposites attract. Go figure. As far as Sarah is concerned, all she got from the combination was a pair of fangs that lengthen at inappropriate times to embarrass her in front of her secret crush; whereas her brother, Alejandro, got the good looks and cool wings. However, what her parents’ status has created is drama in her life, by ensuring that the mean girls at school will make her life a living nightmare. Sarah knows her family’s renowned slayer reputation will also ensure that everyone at school will assume she had it easy and should be able to do everything her famous rebel parents can do, when she can’t. Not by a long shot.

Once at the hidden boarding school, things go from bad to worse as Sarah tries to fit in. Her nightmares increase and it isn’t just anxiety—her second sight is suddenly developing at a record pace. Layers of secrets are held by the building, held by her parents, and nothing is as it seems. There is something really bad going on at the school, worse than bad—deadly. Only, faculty and administrators don’t know where to begin to look for the cause as students start to disappear. Sarah must then make a choice to stand on the sidelines or to help use her gifts to save someone dear. But to do that means facing all of her greatest fears, along with a demon or two.

The Gifted Bundle ($8.39), by Nancy Holder, contains four books in a single volume.

Book Description
The ancient race of powerful magic users called The Gifted have lived side-by-side with normal "Ungifted" humans for centuries. Led by a Guardian, each Gifted "House" governs a territory. But when the House of Blood crosses over to the dark side, evil supernatural beings who had been held in check are loosed upon the world. As the war between the forces of good and evil escalates, the other Houses must contend with internal dissention and treachery before they can vanquish a monstrous demon who can bring destruction upon all mankind. Journey through the astonishing world of The Gifted in this gripping series by award-winning author Nancy Holder. Bundle includes Daughter of the Flames, Daughter of the Blood, Son of the Shadows and Swept Away.

At the Edge of the Sun ($3.99), by Anne Stuart

Book Description
A perfect blend of provocative beauty and fighting skills kept her safe in the most dangerous situations. But Maggie Bennett had no protection against her feelings for the handsome, mysterious Randall Carter. Torn by memories of past hurts, hopes for new love tossed her back into his arms and onto the bloody trail of a notorious terrorist. Maggie and Randall would be swept on a wild roller coaster ride of violence and betrayal…targets for an assassin’s bullet and a passion striking without warning from the dark depths of the heart.

31 Free Books from Vook (Kindle)

There is a new batch of free ebooks from Vook today. All can be read on any Kindle device or app, but any Enhanced Audio/Video content requires an iThing.
Fitness/Health

• Body Sculpting: The How-To Guide, by Tony Donato
• A Beach Body in Six Weeks: The Video Guide, by Tony Donato [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]
• Belly Fat Blaster: The Video Guide, by Tony Donato [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]
• Break Up Your Gym Routine: The Video Guide, by Tony Donato [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]
• A Great Back in Six Weeks: The Video Guide, by Tony Donato [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]
• Massive Guns in Six Weeks: The Video Guide, by Tony Donato [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]
• Powerful Legs in Six Weeks: The Video Guide, by Tony Donato [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]
• Six-Pack Abs in Six Weeks: The Video Guide, by Tony Donato [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]
• Teach Your Kids to Behave: The Video Guide, by Gemma Quinn [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]

History

• Hubble Telescope
• Apollo Moon Landings
• International Space Station
• Space Shuttle
• Mars Exploration

Animated TextVooks [Kindle Editions with Audio/Video]

• Neurology 101
• Calculus Differentiation 101
• Family Law 101

Video Game Guides

• Peggle
• Killzone 3
• StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• Fruit Ninja
• Angry Birds
• Pokémon Black/White
• Total War: Shogun 2
• Dragon Age II

Repeats:

• Stay Organized and Get Things Done: The Sock Puppet School of Business [Kindle Edition with Audio/Video]
• Motivate Your Employees: The Sock Puppet School of Business
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Video Game Guide
• Shanghai: A Brief History
• Tokyo: A Brief History

Today's Deals and Free Book Updates

The companion mini-book, Brand Like A Rock Star (EPUB/nook/noDRM), is now free on Kindle. Blood Country (Kindle/EPUB/nook) is now free at B&N. Also, O'Reilly has added four more free computer publications:

• What's New in Java 7?, by Madhusudhan Konda
• HTML5 for Publishers, by Sanders Kleinfeld
• What Is EPUB 3?, by Matt Garrish
• Building eCommerce Applications, by Developers DevZone

For those using EPUB, there are a couple of new coupon codes at Kobo: save20oct29 (20% off) and save30oct90 (30% off). Both are one-use and expire October 26. Kobo has also introduced their own new tablet reader, the Kobo Vox, which will be released in about a week. I have one on order, so should be able to give you a comparison between it, the nookColor and the Fire (which should release a couple of weeks later). Every book you purchase at Kobo between now and Oct 31 gives you a chance to win one of their new ereaders.

The Human Stain ($9.99 Kindle; $3.60 B&N), by Philip Roth, is the Nook Daily Find.

Book Description
It is 1998, the year in which America is whipped into a frenzy of prurience by the impeachment of a president, and in a small New England town, an aging classics professor, Coleman Silk, is forced to retire when his colleagues decree that he is a racist. The charge is a lie, but the real truth about Silk would have astonished his most virulent accuser. Coleman Silk has a secret. But it's not the secret of his affair, at seventy-one, with Faunia Farley, a woman half his age with a savagely wrecked past - a part-time farmhand and a janitor at the college where, until recently, he was the powerful dean of faculty. And it's not the secret of Coleman's alleged racism, which provoked the college witch-hunt that cost him his job and, to his mind, killed his wife. Nor is it the secret of misogyny, despite the best efforts of his ambitious young colleague, Professor Delphine Roux, to expose him as a fiend. Coleman's secret has been kept for fifty years: from his wife, his four children, his colleagues, and his friends, including the writer Nathan Zuckerman, who sets out to understand how this eminent, upright man, esteemed as an educator for nearly all his life, had fabricated his identity and how that cannily controlled life came unraveled. Set in 1990s America, where conflicting moralities and ideological divisions are made manifest through public denunciation and rituals of purification, The Human Stain concludes Philip Roth's eloquent trilogy of postwar American lives that are as tragically determined by the nation's fate as by the "human stain" that so ineradicably marks human nature. This harrowing, deeply compassionate, and completely absorbing novel is a magnificent successor to his Vietnam-era novel, American Pastoral, and his McCarthy-era novel, I MARRIED A COMMUNIST.

The Intruders: A Jake Grafton Novel ($1.99), by Stephen Coonts, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day.

Book Description
A war-weary Navy pilot confronts the deadly skies of the South Pacific, training Marine pilots and battling Soviets MiGs in the wake of the Vietnam War

Fighter pilot Jake Grafton is adrift following combat in Vietnam. With no place in the States to call home, Grafton sticks to what he knows best: taking on the world’s most treacherous skies from the cockpit of a Grumman A-6 Intruder.

Now, stationed in the South Pacific on the U.S.S. Columbia, Grafton must teach the Marines aboard the art of flying from an aircraft carrier—a mission that, thanks to the unruly Marine Captain Le Beau, is as joyless as it is dangerous. But when an unexpected enemy appears from above, Grafton and Le Beau must put aside their differences and work together to save the lives of all onboard.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Stephen Coonts, including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

Save $20 on Automotive Winter Products (KSO)

This offer is only for those with a Kindle with Special Offers:

Save $20 on a $50 purchase of select automotive winter products

Click on offer, then click on the link on the offer page to receive an email with the promotion code. Sign-up for this offer expires on October 23.

You'll get an email (right away), a link to the Special Offer page and a promotion code to enter at checkout. Once you have the promotional code, you have until November 23 to complete your purchase. Like previous offers, this one requires you to use the full checkout process in order to enter your promotional code. Also, like all Amazon sales that use promotional codes, if you have a gift card balance, you must use it for the payment (if there is not a sufficient balance, then you can pick which credit card or other payment to use).

Limit one offer per customer and per device.

Don't be fooled by the title on this offer. There are a number of products that you can use any time of the year, such as battery chargers, socket extenders, windshield screens (I only use these in summer), emergency hammers/signals/kits, etc. There's a couple of plug-in inverter/USB chargers that would be handy for charging your electronics in older cars. There are even a few items for those that have no car at all, such as winter headgear that you can wear on a motorcycle or when snowmobiling/skiing.

Free Book (Kindle/EPUB/nook/iBooks) - Blood Country

Update: 10/26/11 Also free on iTunes.
Update: 10/23/11 Now free from Barnes & Noble.

Blood Country, by Mary Logue, is free in the Kindle store (US & UK) and from Sony.

Book Description
This first in a series launch introduces Claire Watkins, a deputy sheriff for the Pepin County Police Department. Claire, a former Minneapolis police detective, and her 10-year-old daughter Meg fled the Twin Cities after her husband, Steve, also a cop, was killed.

When Landers Anderson--an elderly neighbor who befriended Claire and Meg--dies of a heart attack after being sideswiped with a shovel, Claire determines to find the culprit. This involves delving into Landers's family history and investigating the machinations of a right-wing group, Homeowners of America, that is buying up property to build an environmentally unsound development.

At the same time, Meg fearfully admits to Claire that she saw the man who killed Steve. Claire contacts her former partner, Det. Bruce Jacobs, and prods him into accelerating the investigation into Steve's death.

Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from iTunes.
Get the free ebook from Sony.

Free Book (Kindle/EPUB/nook/iBooks) - Bruin Redemption

Update: 10/26/11 Also free on iTunes.

Bruin Redemption, by Alan Hahn, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble and Sony (US & Canada).

Book Description
Relive the Moment When the Bruins Won It All!

After thirty-nine torturous, winless years, the Bruins finally returned home with their prize--but bringing the Stanley Cup back to Boston was no easy feat.

The heated series, arguably the scrappiest in play off history, took a toll on the Black and Gold and their fans. Brutal hits and at-the-buzzer losses were enough to wane anyone's faith. Fans couldn't help but cringe as they watched their favorite team repeat their history of nightmarish defeats. 2011 was not going to be the year for them.

Yet, the Bruins somehow pulled through, winning four out of the last five playoff games including a thrilling shut-out in Game 7. Not only did the Bruins fulfill their incredible wish, but they also won recognition as the only NHL team to ever win three games en route to the Stanley Cup.

Bruin Redemption captures every moment of the Bruins' journey toward victory. With an in-depth background of the team's struggles and thrilling snapshots of the games leading up to the big win, readers will want to relive this unforgettable ride again and again.

Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from iTunes.
Get the free ebook from Sony.

Free Book (Kindle) - Before The White Rose

Before The White Rose, by Vicki Hinze, is free in the Kindle store.

Book Description
Three people learn that love is precious and life is short. Read Vicki Hinze’s never-before-published short story, Before the White Rose and, as a bonus, lengthy excerpts from three Hinze novels--the mystically romantic Seascape Trilogy: Beyond a Mystic Shore, Upon a Mystic Tide, and Beside a Dreamswept Sea. All three novels are being re-issued by Bell Bridge Books in multi-format ebook editions and new trade paperback editions, beginning with Beyond a Mystic Shore in late September 2011.

Free Book (Kindle) - Ghost in the Mirror

Ghost in the Mirror: Real Cases of Spirit Encounters, by Leslie Rule, is free in the Kindle store.

Book Description
Whether they are bumping about our attics, hitchhiking on a moonlight road, or fraternizing with our reflections, ghosts tantalize us with their secrets. --Leslie Rule

Meet Leslie Rule-America's real-life ghost hunter with a penchant for sharing authentic, spine-tingling stories of the paranormal.

The Gallup Organization reports that more than 32 percent of Americans have seen a ghost. More than half the population believes in the spiritual, cosmic, or supernatural. To Leslie Rule, such revelations come as no surprise. Rule has spent more than a decade researching specters and spirits and has chronicled her ghostly tales in three previous titles, Coast to Coast Ghosts, Ghosts Among Us, and When the Ghost Screams.

Inside Ghost in the Mirror, Rule documents more than dozens of stories of paranormal apparitions that reveal themselves on the other side of the looking glass. Rule's painstaking archival research presents factual clues to each haunting, along with her own dramatic black-and-white photographs that capture the eerie unrest of the scenes she explores.

Today's Deals

Update: Amazon has matched the price on Dark Tide: The Great Molasses Flood of 1919.

Deeply Devoted ($1.99), the first title in the (new) Blue Willow Brides series by Maggie Brendan, is the Kindle Deal of the Day. If you've had your Kindle for a while, you should have her No Place for a Lady (Heart of the West Series, Book 1), which was free in June of last year, courtesy of Christian publisher Revell.

Book Description
When Catharine Olsen leaves Holland for America as a mail-order bride, she brings along some extra baggage: two sisters, her mother's set of Blue Willow china, and a tragic past. When she arrives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, she promptly marries Peter Andersen and dreams of starting life over in this rugged land. Peter is kind and patient with Catharine and accommodating to her sisters. His mother, however, is not. When she begins a campaign to sabotage Peter's marriage, Catharine is distraught, worried that her secret past will be discovered. Will her life end up as nothing but broken pieces? Or will these trials make her stronger?

Readers will love negotiating the clash of cultures and class as a highborn European and a Western wheat farmer learn to love one another and trust God with both the past and the future.

Dark Tide: The Great Molasses Flood of 1919 ($8.80 Kindle; $3.20 B&N), by Stephen Puleo, is the Nook Daily Find.

Book Description
Shortly after noon on January 15, 1919, a fifty-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses collapsed on Boston’s waterfront, disgorging its contents in a fifteen-foot-high wave of molasses that traveled at thirty-five miles per hour. When the tide receded, a section of the city’s North End had been transformed into a war zone. The Great Boston Molasses Flood claimed the lives of twenty-one people and scores of animals, injured more than a hundred, and caused widespread destruction.

There had been warnings. Isaac Gonzales, the "general man" who worked at the tank, had heard its rumblings and saw the molasses that leaked through its seams and streamed down its sides. He had even seen children use pails to scoop up the molasses that pooled at its base. His nightmares about the tank collapsing were vivid enough to send him running through the streets of Boston in the middle of the night during the summer of 1918 to make sure that the tank was still standing. But this wasn’t what Arthur P. Jell, U.S. Industrial Alcohol’s assistant treasurer, who had overseen the entire project—from leasing a site for the tank in a crowded Italian-American residential neighborhood to seeing that the tank was built in record time—wanted or needed to hear. USIA was distilling most of the molasses stored in the tank into industrial alcohol used to produce munitions during World War I, and Jell needed to meet ever-growing production quotas without interference.

For the first time, the story of the molasses flood is told here in its full historical context. Tracing the era from the tank’s construction in 1915 through the multiyear lawsuit that followed the disaster, and drawing from long-lost court documents, fire department records, and newspaper accounts, Stephen Puleo uses the gripping drama of the molasses flood to examine the sweeping changes brought about by World War I, Prohibition, the anarchist movement, immigration, and the expanding role of big business in society. It’s also a chronicle of the courage of ordinary people, from the firemen caught in an unimaginable catastrophe to Judge Hugh Ogden, the soldier-lawyer who presided over the lawsuit against USIA with heroic impartiality.

Today's Deals

A History of the World in 6 Glasses ($1.99 Kindle; $2.99 B&N), by Tom Standage, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day. This book was the Nook Daily Find less than a week ago (and Amazon matched the price of $3.19), so if you resisted then, you should consider getting it now (alas, I got hooked reading about barley in the Middle East and bought it last week).

Book Description
From beer to Coca-Cola, the six drinks that have helped shape human history.
Throughout human history. certain drinks have done much more than just quench thirst. As Tom Standage relates with authority and charm, six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course of history, becoming the defining drink during a pivotal historical period.

A History of the World in 6 Glasses tells the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the 21st century through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. Beer was first made in the Fertile Crescent and by 3000 B.C.E. was so important to Mesopotamia and Egypt that it was used to pay wages. In ancient Greece wine became the main export of her vast seaborne trade, helping spread Greek culture abroad. Spirits such as brandy and rum fueled the Age of Exploration, fortifying seamen on long voyages and oiling the pernicious slave trade. Although coffee originated in the Arab world, it stoked revolutionary thought in Europe during the Age of Reason, when coffeehouses became centers of intellectual exchange. And hundreds of years after the Chinese began drinking tea, it became especially popular in Britain, with far-reaching effects on British foreign policy. Finally, though carbonated drinks were invented in 18th-century Europe they became a 20th-century phenomenon, and Coca-Cola in particular is the leading symbol of globalization.

For Tom Standage, each drink is a kind of technology, a catalyst for advancing culture by which he demonstrates the intricate interplay of different civilizations. You may never look at your favorite drink the same way again.

Autobiography of Mark Twain: The Complete and Authoritative Edition, Volume 1 ($6.99 Kindle, B&N), by Mark Twain, Harriet E. Smith, Benjamin Griffin and Victor Fischer, is the Nook Daily Find. If you've seen this one in the stores, you'll know why I bought the ebook edition instead (I would greatly want to avoid having to carry it anywhere, let alone have to try to hold it propped up and open to read). I grabbed this on last December, using a coupon at Kobo (for 14 cents under this sale price!), but their price is now back over $25. Be very careful if you are searching for this one from your device (especially the nook, that lumps them all together), as there are a number of other editions of his autobiography that have been released by other "publishers" (the actual text of the original is, probably, in the public domain at this point). The one on sale and that you see in stores is the one edited Harriet E. Smith. Some of the other editions may also be the edited (and greatly abbreviated) version released before the 100 year anniversary of his death.

Book Description
“I've struck it!” Mark Twain wrote in a 1904 letter to a friend. “And I will give it away--to you. You will never know how much enjoyment you have lost until you get to dictating your autobiography.” Thus, after dozens of false starts and hundreds of pages, Twain embarked on his “Final (and Right) Plan” for telling the story of his life. His innovative notion--to “talk only about the thing which interests you for the moment”—meant that his thoughts could range freely. The strict instruction that these texts remain unpublished for 100 years meant that when they came out, he would be “dead, and unaware, and indifferent,” and that he was therefore free to speak his “whole frank mind.” The year 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Twain's death. In celebration of this important milestone and in honor of the cherished tradition of publishing Mark Twain's works, UC Press is proud to offer for the first time Mark Twain's uncensored autobiography in its entirety and exactly as he left it. This major literary event brings to readers, admirers, and scholars the first of three essential volumes and presents Mark Twain's authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave as he intended

Free Book (Kindle/EPUB/nook/iBooks) - Blood Ties

Update: Also free from Sony.

Blood Ties, the first title in the PI Julie Collins series by Lori G. Armstrong, is free on Kindle and from Barnes & Noble (where it is featured as the Free Friday book) and on iTunes. Grab this one (think of it as a full-book sample), but be sure to also check out The Julie Collins Series, which gets you all four books in the series; currently it's on sale at Amazon for $9.99 (list price is $20). I don't see it at all, over at B&N or iTunes.

Book Description
Julie Collins is stuck in a dead-end secretarial job with the Bear Butte County Sheriff’s office, and still grieving over the unsolved murder of her Lakota half-brother. Lack of public interest in finding his murderer, or the killer of several other transient Native American men, has left Julie with a bone-deep cynicism she counters with tequila, cigarettes, and dangerous men. The one bright spot in her mundane life is the time she spends working part-time as a PI with her childhood friend, Kevin Wells. When the body of a sixteen-year old white girl is discovered in nearby Rapid Creek, Julie believes this victim will receive the attention others were denied. Then she learns Kevin has been hired, mysteriously, to find out where the murdered girl spent her last few days. Julie finds herself drawn into the case against her better judgment, and discovers not only the ugly reality of the young girl’s tragic life and brutal death, but ties to her and Kevin’s past that she is increasingly reluctant to revisit. On the surface the situation is eerily familiar. But the parallels end when Julie realizes some family secrets are best kept buried deep. Especially those serious enough to kill for.

Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from iTunes.
Get the free ebook from Sony.

New Kindle Games and Apps

Update: Edited to reflect the first games new, HIGHER price. There was no indication that the lower price was a limited time, but it just goes to show that prices can change at any time.

Five new Kindle Active Content games and apps, today. All five will works on the $79 Kindle, in addition to the older models.

SpongeBob Treasure Quest ($1.99 $2.99), by Mobigloo, is probably aimed more at your kids than the adults in your household.

Book Description
SpongeBob's Treasure Quest is an exciting game that combines the strategy of Sudoku with the tactics of Snakes in the rich undersea world of SpongeBob SquarePants.

SpongeBob has stumbled upon maps to hidden treasures that are buried throughout Bikini Bottom. It's up to you, with a little help from Patrick and Sandy, to guide SpongeBob through the deep to uncover the treasures for the Krusty Krab. Solve the first 50 levels, and you will enter unlimited mode and play for as long as you can survive!

There are clues to the number of treasures in each row and column, so you can deduce where the treasures are likely to be. Guess right, and you get the treasure. For each wrong guess, a plankton will start to follow you around the board. Lots of wrong guesses will mean a very long tail of plankton. Don't run into any of the plankton while looking for treasures!

SpongeBob's Treasure Quest has both Novice and Advanced modes, and your progress will be recorded in a High Score table. To keep the game fun and fresh, the levels will be different every time you replay them.

Plankton and his cousins are right on your heels! Will they grab the treasures for themselves and the Chum Bucket?

5 in a row ($0.99), by DQ Team, looks like one that the entire family can play.

Book Description
Five in a Row (also known as "Gomoku" or "Connect 5") is an abstract strategy board game, which is easy to learn but hard to master.

Players take turns placing their marks on a 19x19 board. The objective of the game is to place five marks in a row. The first player to have five unbroken marks connected diagonally, horizontally or vertically wins the game. While similar to tic-tac-toe in some ways, the larger dimensions of the board and longer string requirements open up many strategic options. 5 in a Row also requires much more tactical awareness, as many more possible victory conditions are in constant play. You play against Kindle, and can adjust the difficulty level to easy, medium or hard.

If you like exercising your abstract logic and attentiveness skills - this is the game for you!

Snakes Basic ($0.99), by Applications Innovations

Book Description
Snakes Basic is a game where you control a constantly moving snake to capture pellets.

The object of the game is to collect as many pellets as possible before your snake runs into its tail, or into a wall or other stationary object. This wouldn't be so difficult, except that with each pellet collected, your snake will get longer and possibly faster! Good luck not running into your tail now!

The game comes with three difficulty modes (Easy, Medium, and Hard) that determine the speed and growth rate of your snake. The use of the 5-way controller to change the snake's direction gives the game the feel of a classic hand-held arcade game.

If you like challenging retro-style video games, Snakes Basic is for you.

Triviac ($0.99), by Alazar GmbH & Co. KG

Book Description
Trivia anyone? Become a contestant in your own quiz show!

In Triviac you will be challenged with 15 randomly selected questions, each one slightly more difficult than the previous one. Try to answer all 15 questions correctly and hit the Jackpot. More than 1,000 questions from the following ten categories test your knowledge in a race against the clock. The categories are: US general knowledge - Sports general - Mixed Music - Famous People - Geography - Entertainment - History - Classic Movies - Literature - Science and Nature.

In case you get stuck you only have three lifelines, so use them wisely. The lifelines are: "Ask The Host" The host will make her best guess and give you the right answer - "Fifty-Fifty" Two wrong answers will be deleted - "New Question" Skip the current question and get a new one.

Good luck with Triviac. No one knows everything, but maybe you can come close?

The Periodic Table of the Elements ($0.99), by Braintonik Games

Book Description
The Periodic Table of the Elements is the classic tabulation of the atomic elements organized by increasing atomic number.

The user interface of this Periodic Table provides fast and easy access to the following data for each atomic element: atomic number and weight, classification, group, electron configuration, oxidation state, density, state of aggregation, melting and boiling temperatures, electro-negativity, ionization energy, and atomic measures of interest.

In addition to being a handy reference to have at hand, the Periodic Table of the Elements is an invaluable resource for students of the natural sciences. Let this resource be your fast and accurate reference guide to the elements whenever you need it. Don't be caught without it!

Today's Deals and Bargain/Free Books

Fun and Games ($1.99), the first in the Charlie Hardie series by Duane Swierczynski, is the Kindle Deal of the day. If you start reading now, you'll be ready for the second in the series, Hell and Gone, when it arrives on Halloween Day and you only have to wait until May to get the third title, Point and Shoot.

Book Description
The first of three explosive pulp thrillers arriving back-to-back from cult crime fiction sensation and Marvel Comics scribe Duane Swierczynski.

Charlie Hardie, an ex-cop still reeling from the revenge killing of his former partner's entire family, fears one thing above all else: that he'll suffer the same fate.

Languishing in self-imposed exile, Hardie has become a glorified house sitter. His latest gig comes replete with an illegally squatting B-movie actress who rants about hit men who specialize in making deaths look like accidents. Unfortunately, it's the real deal. Hardie finds himself squared off against a small army of the most lethal men in the world: The Accident People.

It's nothing personal-the girl just happens to be the next name on their list. For Hardie, though, it's intensely personal. He's not about to let more innocent people die. Not on his watch.

Molding of a Champion ($9.99 Kindle; $3.30 B&N), by Dr. Gregory Jantz, is the Nook Daily Find.

Book Description
Today's culture puts a tremendous emphasis on being competitive-- being a winner in life, in a career, and in a perfect relationship. The pressure to succeed can be one of the toughest aspects of growing up for young people in this success-driven society.

From his base in the Pacific Northwest, Dr. Gregg Jantz, over the last two decades, has cemented his reputation as one of the country's finest psychologists. His particular passion is seeing young people become everything God intends them to be. In this remarkable new book, Dr. Jantz shares a wealth of wisdom for parents to help shape their child's future in a successful, and faith-strengthening way. Going beyond the standard strategies into a unique perspective drawn from his years of experience in professional practice, along with his own parenting journey, Dr. Jantz offers workable solutions for relationships, drug and alcohol addictions, body image struggles, and living life with purpose.

What It Was ($0.99 pre-order), by George Pelecanos, was available at this price on Aug 30, but quickly disappeared. It looks like the full book, so I'd grab it now, before it vanishes again or the price goes up (I suspect it will be $9.99 once the release date nears, if not by tomorrow).

Book Description
Washington, D.C., 1972. Derek Strange has left the police department and set up shop as a private investigator. His former partner, Frank "Hound Dog" Vaughn, is still on the force. When a young woman comes to Strange asking for his help recovering a cheap ring she claims has sentimental value, the case leads him onto Vaughn's turf, where a local drug addict's been murdered, shot point-blank in his apartment. Soon both men are on the trail of a ruthless killer: Red Fury, so called for his looks and the car his girlfriend drives, but a name that fits his personality all too well. Red Fury doesn't have a retirement plan, as Vaughn points out - he doesn't care who he has to cross, or kill, to get what he wants. As the violence escalates and the stakes get higher, Strange and Vaughn know the only way to catch their man is to do it their own way.

Rich with details of place and time - the cars, the music, the clothes - and fueled by non-stop action, this is Pelecanos writing in the hard-boiled noir style that won him his earliest fans and placed him firmly in the ranks of the top crime writers in America.

Alien Invasion and Other Inconveniences ($3.49), by Brian Yansky

Book Description
Jesse is in history class when a formidable, efficient race of aliens quietly takes over the earth in less time than it takes him to brush his teeth. Most humans simply fall asleep and never wake up. In moments, everyone Jesse knows and loves is gone, and he finds that he is now a slave to an inept alien leader. On the bright side, Jesse discovers he’s developing telepathic powers, and he’s not the only one. Soon he’s forging new friendships and feeling unexpectedly hopeful. When a mysterious girl appears in his dreams, talking about escaping, Jesse begins to think the aliens may not be invincible after all. But if Jesse and his friends succeed, is there anywhere left to go? Brian Yansky offers a funny, grim novel packed with everything boys and sci-fi fans love: aliens, humor, action, and a healthy dose of triumph.

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time ($2.99), by Dava Sobel

Book Description
Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that “the longitude problem” was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives, and the increasing fortunes of nations, hung on a resolution. The scientific establishment of Europe-from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton-had mapped the heavens in both hemispheres in its certain pursuit of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest, and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.

has self-published her backlist Bigtime superhero series, originally published by Berkley (an imprint of Penguin), and you can get the three books for $2.99 each and a short story in the same series for 99 cents (A Karma Girl Christmas).

Karma Girl
Investigative reporter Carmen Cole gets the surprise of her life on her wedding day when she discovers that her fiance and best friend are sleeping together – and that the two of them are her town's resident superhero and ubervillain. Shocked and hurt, Carmen reveals their secret identities and then decides to devote her life to unmasking every superhero and ubervillain who crosses her path.

A series of successful unmaskings lands Carmen a job at The Expose, one of the biggest newspapers in Bigtime, New York, a city that's full of superheroes and ubervillains. Carmen is in her element – until she gets kidnapped by the Terrible Triad, Bigtime’s most dangerous ubervillain team.

The Triad orders Carmen to uncover the secret identity of Striker, the leader of the Fearless Five, Bigtime's most popular superhero team – or else they’ll drop her in a vat of radioactive goo. With that threat hanging over her, Carmen sets out to unmask Striker, but what she doesn’t count on is falling for the sexy superhero. But with the Terrible Triad lurking around, this is one story that just might be the death of her ...

Hot Mama
Fiona Fine is the hottest fashion designer in Bigtime, N.Y. – literally. That's because she moonlights as Fiera, a superhero with superstrength and volatile, fire-based powers. As Fiera, she's also a member of the Fearless Five, the city's most powerful and popular superhero team.

However, Fiona's been through a lot lately, including the death of her fiance, who was murdered by an ubervillain. But Fiona is ready to move on with her life, so it seems like good karma when she meets sexy businessman Johnny Bulluci at a friend's wedding.

But Fiona has little time to think of love thanks to Siren and Intelligal – the city's newest ubervillains who crash the wedding and then go on a citywide crime spree. Fiona doesn’t know exactly what the ubervillains are up to, but if she doesn't figure it out, she's the one who just might go up in flames this time ...

Jinx
Thanks to her unwanted superpower, fashion designer Bella Bulluci may be the luckiest woman in Bigtime, N.Y. But luck can be good or bad, and it seems like just as many embarrassing things happens to Bella as do positive ones.

Like when a charity event that Bella plans get crashed by Hangman, a deadly ubervillain who's after a prize sapphire that's on display. Hangman almost succeeds in stealing the jewel for his evil ubervillain boss, Prism, but Bella's luck helps her escape with the sapphire – along with some help from the suave and charming Debonair.

Debonair's not an ubervillain, but he's not really a superhero either. Still, Bella can't help but fall for him, despite her personal vow to have as little to do with heroes and villains as possible. But with Hangman and Prism still after the sapphire, Bella's going to need every bit of her luck power just to survive ...

The Journey: Living by Faith in an Uncertain World ($4.75), by Billy Graham

Book Description
Billy Graham is respected and loved around the world. And this work is his magnum opus, the culmination of a lifetime of experience and ministry!

Chapter by chapter, Graham leads us on a journey in faith. We learn about God and his purpose for our lives; who Jesus is and what he has done for us. We are reminded of the things God has given us to live successfully: the Bible, the privilege of prayer, fellowship and the church, and the Holy Spirit. We learn to deal with challenges along the way: temptation, wrong thoughts and motives, emotions that can defeat us, habits that destroy our spirit, and what to do when life turns against us. And we are given practical advice on knowing God's will, making right decision, strengthening our marriages, being wise parents, and using our gifts to share Christ with others.

With insight that only comes from a life spent with God, The Journey is filled with wisdom, encouragement, hope, and inspiration for anyone who wants to live a happier, more fulfilling life.

Against All Odds ($2.99), by Thomas DePrima, is the seventh in his Galaxy Unknown series and the book you would pick up and check the backplate on, due to the cover, if you were browsing in the local bookstore.

Book Description
War has kept Admiral Jenetta Carver far from home for twelve years. With the advent of peace, she takes a well-deserved vacation and returns to Earth for a visit before her duties as Military Governor and Supreme Military Commandeer of Region Two prevent such a trip for more years. She picks up her two sisters on the way home and the three women surprise their mom with the unannounced visit.

Just a week after arriving home, Jenetta receives word that Region Two has been invaded. No war has been declared, and details are sketchy, but Tsgardi Warriors have landed on at least one planet a hundred light years inside the border and begun rounding up, harassing, and in some cases killing the citizenry. Determined not to let the news interfere with her mother's joy of having her three daughters with her, she doesn't mention the invasion at home, but she's summoned to appear at Space Command Supreme HQ to discuss the situation.

As Jenetta begins the trip back to her base, she begins formulating plans and sending orders so that all will be in readiness when she arrives. She's determined to deal with the Tsgardi situation once and for all, and in a manner consistent with the way she dealt with the Milori situation. When an enemy refuses to let you live in peace, the only action you can take is remove their ability to ever wage war against you again. Jenetta doesn't yet know that the Tsgardi thrust into Region Two is just the tip of the lance. Three other interstellar powers have joined the effort to arrogate the new territory before Space Command can move security forces into place. Jenetta's tiny fleet will face an armada a thousand warships strong. It's not just another day at the office.

The Lost Princess in Winter's Grip (free), by Josh Kilen, looks like a cute story for kids and has some halloween season characters.

Book Description
Annabeth lives a normal life as a happy girl in a small town. Then one day her life is turned upside down by a Royal pronouncement that she is in fact a Princess! With evil nipping at her heals, Annabeth and Prince Ryan must battle Stone Monsters, Bandits, and the dreaded Ice Witches in order to reclaim her title and dispense True Justice throughout the land.

Witch (free), by German Alcala, is a free volume of Halloween poetry. I don't know if it is any good, but the sample was decently formatted (it only started the first poem, but included a live table of contents).

Book Description
A collection of 41 Halloween Poems which detail a night of All Hallow's Eve. Recounting the anticipation felt by all for Halloween, the unspeakable acts of monsters, and war. In exciting tales of murder and magic. Witch is the poetic story of Halloween.

Thirteen Shadows: Ghost Stories (free), by Aaron Polson, is a collection horror short stories for the season.

Book Description
A collection of thirteen ghost stories from Horror Writers Association member Aaron Polson. Some spirits are vengeful, others mere memories which destroy the lives of the living. Includes "The Ox-Cart Man", winner of the 2008 Whispering Spirits Flash Fiction contest, "The Sub-Basement", "Empty Vessels", and more. The stories range in length from flash fiction to 5,000 words.

"The imagery is dark, but unique, and [the main character's] past is revealed carefully without stunting the pace of the story..." - a review of "Empty Vessels" from Tangent Online

About the author: Aaron’s stories have been reprinted in The Best of Every Day Fiction 2009 and 2010, listed as a recommended read by Tangent Online, received honorable mention in the storySouth Million Writers Award and Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year. He currently lives in Lawrence, KS with his wife, two children, and a tattooed rabbit.

Free Book Roundup

This post is a little different from my usual free book postings. There are a number of books that have been free in the past, went back up in price and have dropped once again, some of them that have been free very recently, others quite some time ago. In addition, there are a number of mini-books that I've been ignoring, which I'm going to group together by type. I know a lot of people avoid the mini-books or the subject matter doesn't interest everyone, so I won't include full descriptions on each of these. If you are new to the blog, you might find one or two good ones to pick up, especially at the top of the post.

An Unwanted Hunger, the first novel in the Soul of V’Kar series by Ciana Stone, is a repeat from last year, courtesy of Ellora's Cave.

Book Description
Passion this strong is dangerous. They both know it. Mortal enemies, their respective factions have been at war since the dawn of man. Resa is a Dhampir, bred and trained to hunt Vampyres. Constantine is a prince among the Vampyre, the oldest and most lethal.Nothing good can come of this hunger, this need that drives them relentlessly toward one another. Neither reason nor devotion to duty can stay their need. There is but one way to quench the thirst that drives them. Once sated, they can return to the battle and see which one, if either, is left standing.But one drink from the cup of desire serves only to magnify the hunger. One act of lust that could alter them forever, changing the course of destiny.

The Golden Acorn (The Adventures of Jack Brenin), by Catherine Cooper, was free for some time and many of us picked up the second in the series for 99 cents. If you are in that group, you may want to get Silver Hill, which was released this week

Book Description
When Jack Brenin finds a golden acorn lying in the grass, little does he know that it is the beginning of a thrilling and magical adventure. Just an ordinary boy, Jack has been chosen for a hugely important task, and enters a world he believed only existed in legend. Full of twists and turns, talking ravens and mischievous Spriggans, 'The Golden Acorn' is a hugely entertaining and exciting tale from a very talented new author. Your kids will love it, and so will you! This brilliant story deservedly won the Brit Writers' Awards 2010 for unpublished writers. Jack’s adventures continue in 'Glasruhen Gate' and 'Silver Hill'.

Sasha: A Trial of Blood and Steel Book One, by Joel Shepherd, was first free in the summer and only had a brief absence from the lists.

Book Description
SASHA IS A FIGHTER, THE LIKE OF WHICH THE HIGHLAND COUNTRY OF LENAYIN HAS NEVER SEEN.Spurning her royal heritage to be raised by the great warrior, Kessligh, her exquisite swordplay astonishes all who witness it. But Sasha is still young, untested in battle and often led by her rash temper. In the complex world of Lenayin loyalties, her defiant wilfulness is attracting the wrong kind of attention. sxLenayin is a land almost divided by its two faiths: the Verenthane of the ruling classes and the pagan Goeren-yai, amongst whom Sasha now lives. The Goeren-yai worship swordplay and honour and begin to see Sasha as the great spirit—the Synnich—who will unite them. But Sasha is still searching for what she believes and must choose her side carefully. When the Udalyn people—the symbol of Goeren-yai pride and courage—are attacked, Sasha will face her moment of testing. How will she act? Is she ready to lead? Can she be the saviour they need her to be?

If at First . . . (Short Story), by Peter F. Hamilton, was also first free the summer.

Book Description
Peter F. Hamilton has proven himself a modern master of epic space opera, carrying the tradition of far-future empire building begun by Heinlein and Asimov into the new millennium. But Hamilton is also a master of the short story, and when he tackles one of science fiction’s most enduring themes—time travel—the result is as provocative as it is entertaining. It starts in 2007 with a break-in. The victim: Marcus Orthew, the financial and technological genius behind Orthanics, the computer company whose radical products have delivered a one-two punch to the industry, all but knocking PCs and Macs out of the ring. The perpetrator: a man obsessed with Orthew. Just another simple case of celebrity stalking—or so everyone assumes at first, including Metropolitan Police Chief Detective David Lanson. But when Lanson interviews the suspect, he makes a startling claim: Orthew is from the future. Or, rather, a future—a parallel timeline. Thus begins the ride of a lifetime for Lanson, as his pursuit of the facts tumbles him headlong down a rabbit hole—and the hunter finds himself hunted.

The Last Drop, by L. Sprague de Camp and L. Ron Hubbard, was first free in the summer of 2010.

Book Description
A humorous tale about a New York bartender who receives mysteriously special potions from Borneo which can make people grow or shrink depending on which one they drink. When our hero uses the potion to deal with some unfriendly mobsters, the results are comic and riotously unpredictable—including an unexpected run-in with a dogfish.

Fatal Destiny, a Fatal novella by Marie Force, was free last month.

Book Description
With the week of their wedding finally upon them, Washington, D.C., Police Lieutenant Sam Holland and her fiancé, Senator Nick Cappuano, are at odds. In the aftermath of a tragic loss, they struggle to reconnect as the big day draws near, but their work keeps pulling them apart. When a new clue into a cold case surfaces, Nick asks Sam not to take any foolish chances before the wedding and to leave it alone for the time being.

Sam agrees, but she can't let it go entirely and winds up trapped in an explosive situation. Then an unwelcome visitor from her past threatens her future happiness… With trouble at every turn, will Sam survive long enough to walk down the aisle?

Hidden by Blood (A Sweetblood Novella), by Laurie London, repeats from the summer.

Book Description
Deep within the forests of the Pacific Northwest, two vampire coalitions battle for supremacy--Guardians who safeguard humanity and Darkbloods, rogues who will stop at nothing to satisfy their craving for the sweetest of human blood.

Now, former Army Ranger Finn McKentry finds himself imprisoned as a blood slave, forced to submit to an enemy more powerful than any he's encountered before. Only Brenna Stewart, the woman he'd loved and lost, can set him free--but the secret she harbors might lead them down the most dangerous path of all...

Code Blue, by Richard Mabry, repeats from last year, courtesy of Christian publisher Abingdon Press.

Book Description
In the first book of the Prescription for Trouble series, “Code Blue” means more to Dr. Cathy Sewell than the cardiac emergency she has to face. It describes her mental state as she finds that coming back to her hometown hasn’t brought her the peace she so desperately needs. Instead, it’s clear that someone there wants her gone…or dead.Cathy returns to her hometown seeking healing after a broken relationship, but discovers that among her friends and acquaintances is someone who wants her out of town…or dead. Lawyer Will Kennedy, her high school sweetheart, offers help, but does it carry a price tag? Is hospital chief of staff Dr. Marcus Bell really on her side in her fight to get hospital privileges? Is Will’s father, Pastor Matthew Kennedy, interested in advising her or just trying to get her back to the church she left years ago? When one of Cathy’s prescriptions almost kills the town banker, it sets the stage for a malpractice suit that could end her time in town, if not her career. It’s soon clear that this return home was a prescription for trouble.

The Dead Saint (Bishop Lynn Peterson), by Marilyn Brown Oden, repeats from this spring, courtesy of Christian publisher Abingdon Press.

Book Description
It begins with a single gunshot, and Bishop Lynn Peterson watches in horror as a good friend, who is a member of the New Orleans Saints, collapses on the street.When a medal the player wore—a medal Lynn had promised to return to the man's family—disappears, Lynn is thrust into a suspenseful and fast-moving journey through four assassinations, an attempt on her life, conflicts with a mysterious and ancient society, and a behind-the-scenes conspiracy that reaches all the way to the White House.The turbulent, unstoppable intrigue challenges Lynn mentally, physically, and spiritually as she engages in a desperate battle with an opponent who is just as determined to kill as Lynn is to stop him even though she has no idea where—or who—he will strike next.

Shrouded in Silence, by Robert L. Wise, also repeats from this spring, courtesy of Christian publisher Abingdon Press.

Book Description
Determined to find an answer, Jack and Michelle Townsend set out on a quest to find the original ending to the Gospel of Mark.Following ancient clues, they head for Rome, but what starts out as a scholarly search turns violent as two separate groups strive to stop the Townsends, plunging their quiet research into chaos.After a bomb destroys their office, the Townsends are pushed to the limits of their determination and commitment to God’s will. Can faith in God’s purposes endure in a swirl of conspiracy and espionage that brings the couple to the brink of death?

Sweet Baklava, by Debby Mayne, repeats from late winter, courtesy of Christian publisher Abingdon Press.

Book Description
After years of looking for a place to belong, Paula Andrews finally finds her niche in Tarpon Springs, Florida. Her soap and candle shop flourishes, and her friendship with the Papadopoulos family gives her the love and support she never got from her own family.The only thing missing is a romance—or in the grand hopes of the Papadopoulos family, a proper marriage. Preferably with Nick, their favorite son, currently serving in the Air Force. Paula, however, has doubts. After all, he’s been gone a long time and loves flying. Their lives have grown apart. Would he still feel anything for her?When Nick comes home on leave, sparks fly, and not just with Paula. Nick's father wants him home, helping with the family sponge-diving business. His mother wants him back in the family, back in church. Nick just wants Paula . . . and the Air Force.So who’s going to give in first? And what will it mean for their love and future?

Finding the Top Stocks: Strategies for Success Top Stocks 2012, by Martin Roth, is a mini-book companion to Top Stocks 2012: A Sharebuyer's Guide to Leading Australian Companies.

Book Description
For the first time, Top Stocks 2012, the 18th edition of the bestselling Australian share market bible, comes with a free e-book companion, Finding the Top Stocks—Strategies for Success. A short guide, also written by respected financial journalist Martin Roth, Finding the Top Stocks—Strategies for Success examines eight strategies and market theories and indicates how you can use Top Stocks 2012 to take advantage of these strategies.

The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook Presents - 10 Summertime Treats, by Dinah Bucholz, is a repeat from summer.

Book Description
It's summertime and the weather is just right to sit back and relax with a nice, cool . . . pumpkin juice! With July comes backyard barbecues, long afternoons by the pool, and Harry's birthday of course! Celebrate this magical time with The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook Presents: 10 Summertime Treats. This free eBook includes 10 decadent treats guaranteed to provide sweet relief from the sultry summertime heat. From icy juices to cool, melt-in-your-mouth sundaes, this summer you can conjure a dessert fit for Hogwarts Hall!

Superheroes: The Best of Philosophy and Pop Culture, by William Irwin, repeats from the summer.

Book Description
Explore the philosophical depths of Batman, Superman, Captain America, and your other favorite superheroes—FOR FREE!

Behind the cool costumes, special powers, and unflagging determination to fight evil you’ll find fascinating philosophical questions and concerns deep in the hearts and minds of your favorite comic book heroes.

Why doesn't Batman just kill the Joker and end everyone's misery? Does Peter Parker have a good life? What can Iron Man teach us about the role of technology in society? Bringing together key chapters from books in the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series, this free superhero sampler engages the intellectual might of big thinkers like Aristotle and Kant to answer these questions and many others, giving you new insights on everything from whether Superman is truly an American icon to whether Wolverine is the same person when he loses his memory.

Secrets Uncovered - Blogs, hints and the inside scoop, by Mills & Boon editors and authors, is mostly samples, but also includes some original material. This is a UK Romance version of what Macmillan is doing with their (free) Tor/Forge Author Voices series, which is now up to three volumes.

Book Description
Blogs, hints and the inside scoop from Mills & Boon editors and authors. Our fabulous authors and editors have joined forces to compile some of the highlights from this years New Voices competition advice, last years help and some handy Mills & Boon Community posts from the last year! You can refer to the words of wisdom from those in the know at your leisure whilst also enjoying some of our editors brilliant blog posts on making the most of your romance writing!

On the education front, there are two titles from Andrew S Rosen that are sections of a larger title, Change.edu: Rebooting for the New Talent Economy: Club College: Why So Many Universities Look Like Resorts and Harvard Envy: Why Too Many Colleges Overshoot. You might want to take a look if you (or a child) is starting college sometime soon. To help get ready for admissions to graduate school, also look at Kaplan New GRE: An Introduction to the GRE Revised General Test, which highlights the changes this test has recently undergone.


From publisher O'Reilly, there are a number of free titles, with three general themes: computer science topics, new computer languages and computer book bibliographies. Don't dismiss this latter as just catalogs of their books - putting together such lists is something many serious scholars do, before getting to writing their own titles and with so many books out in some areas, having a bibliography can help new students when studying a new language. Some of these are new to the blog, as I've been letting them accumulate for a post; others are repeats, which I'm including for completeness. Also, if you prefer EPUB format, you should be able to find all of them free on O'Reilly's website.

• Building Data Science Teams, by DJ Patil
• The Evolution of Data Products, by Mike Loukides
• Big Data Now: Current Perspectives, by O'Reilly Radar Team
• What Is HTML5?, by Brett McLaughlin
• What Is Node?, by Brett McLaughlin
• Big Data Bibliography
• Android Development Bibliography
• JavaScript Bibliography
• Python Bibliography
• iOS Development Bibliography

Free Book (Kindle) - Growing a better future

The expanded edition of Growing a better future: Food Justice in a resource-constrained world, by Robert Bailey, Duncan Green, Naomi Hossain, Kate Kilpatrick, et al, is free in the Kindle store.

Book Description
The global food system works only for the few – for most of us it is broken. It leaves the billions who consume food lacking sufficient power and knowledge about what they buy and eat, and the majority of small food producers dis-empowered and unable to fulfil their productive potential. The failure of the system flows from failures of government – failures to regulate, to correct, to protect, to resist, to invest – which mean that companies, interest groups, and elites are able to plunder resources and to redirect flows of finance, knowledge, and food.
Growing a Better Future describes a new age of growing crisis: food price spikes and oil price hikes, devastating weather events, financial meltdowns, and global contagion. It shows how the food system is at once a driver of this fragility and highly vulnerable to it, and why in the twenty-first century it leaves 925 million people hungry.
Growing a Better Future supports a new campaign with a simple message: another future is possible and we can build it together. Over the coming years, decisive action around the world could enable hundreds of millions more people to feed their families and prevent catastrophic climate change from destroying their (and our) futures.
In this new enhanced edition, Oxfam adds papers and research which develop and update the main themes of the report: land, and the growing scandal surrounding the new wave of investments (‘land grabs’); how climate change is related to food security and the East African food crisis; and how people living in poverty around the world have coped with food price crises. There are also extended case studies from Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, India, Malawi, and Nepal, and an extended and updated bibliography and resources list.

Much more information is available at www.oxfam.org/grow – the website for Oxfam’s GROW campaign. For access to over 3,000 advocacy, research, and programme learning publications across all Oxfam’s areas of work visit www.oxfam.org.uk/policyandpractice.

Free Book (Kindle) - Overcoming Redundancy

Overcoming Redundancy, by Gordon Adams, is free in the Kindle store.

Book Description
So you’ve been made redundant? Join the crowd. Redundancy is now a common life experience, especially in a global recession! Almost a quarter of adults will be affected by redundancy during their lifetime. But you are not a victim. What matters now is how you react to the challenge. Overcoming redundancy will help you make the right decisions at this crucial time and it will help you choose the right future direction. Overcoming redundancy contains advice from survivors - from those who have been made redundant and have not only survived but turned it to their advantage. Many now look back on redundancy, with the benefit of hindsight, as the best thing that ever happened to them. Use this book to learn from their experience and advice. Redundancy is an intensely emotional experience. It can affect your self-esteem and motivation. You are only human if you feel a sense of anger, betrayal or loss when you are made redundant. Overcoming redundancy will help you cope with the social and emotional impacts of redundancy. It will also provide valuable tips on managing the financial effects of redundancy. And most importantly it will help you look forwards, not backwards. If you’ve been made redundant, reading this book is the first step towards bouncing back. Good luck!