Sunday Soup ($2.99), by Betty Rosbottom and Charles Schiller (Photographer)Book Description
Sunday is the perfect day to slow down and enjoy a heartwarming meal. From spicy chilies to steaming chowders, Sunday Soup features 60 recipes: one for each Sunday of the year, and then some. Gulf Coast Shrimp Gumbo is best for staving off the winter cold, while Dreamy Creamy Artichoke Soup welcomes the bounty of spring's vegetables. When it's too hot to turn on the stove, chill out with Icy Cucumber Soup with Smoked Salmon and Dill. A great selection of 'Soup-er Sides' will turn any bowl of soup into a hearty meal. No matter the season, Sunday Soup offers all the inspiration one needs to pull out a stockpot and start simmering a new family tradition. Soup's on!
Southern Biscuits ($1.99), by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart Book Description
Southern Biscuits features recipes and baking secrets for every biscuit imaginable, including hassle-free easy biscuits to embellished biscuits laced with silky goat butter, crunchy pecans, or tangy pimento cheese. The traditional biscuits in this book encompass a number of types, from beaten biscuits of the Old South and England, to Angel Biscuits—a yeast biscuit sturdy enough to split and fill but light enough to melt in your mouth. Filled with beautiful photography, including dozens of how-to photos showing how to mix, stir, fold, roll, and knead, Southern Biscuits is the definitive biscuit baking book.
How to Unspoil Your Child Fast: A Speedy, Complete Guide to Contented Children and Happy Parents ($1.99 Kindle; Sourcebooks), by Richard BromfieldBook Description
You don't have to say yes to prove that you love them.
"Describes helpful, pertinent, and loving ways to correct spoiled behavior before it becomes a serious problem."
-ParentWorld
Nearly 95% of parents feel like they are overindulging their children, but feel powerless to stopping themselves.
How to Unspoil Your Child Fast offers a straightforward and practical solution to fixing and preventing the problems of spoiling your children and offers concrete tips, simple strategies, and easy action steps for reversing the effects almost immediately. Feel more confident, competent, and parent more consistently while instilling character and self-reliance in your children today.
Instant Self-Hypnosis: How to Hypnotize Yourself with Your Eyes Open ($1.79 Kindle), by Forbes Robbins BlairBook Description
Hypnosis is a proven technique that allows people to reprogram their subconscious to change unwanted behaviors. Most books on self-hypnosis require the reader to memorize or record scripts, then put the book aside while they do their hypnosis work. But Instant Self-Hypnosis is the only self-hypnosis book that allows you to hypnotize yourself as you read, with your eyes wide open, without putting down the book.
The author's fail-proof method allows you to put yourself into a hypnotic state and then use that state to improve your life in myriad ways. And because the hypnotic state is induced while you read, you remain aware of your surroundings and can bring yourself back to normal consciousness slowly and gently, using the instructions provided.
Cleopatra and Antony: Power, Love, and Politics in the Ancient World ($3.57), by Diana PrestonBook Description
On a stiflingly hot day in August, 30 B.C., the thirty-nine-year-old Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra, took her own life, rather than be paraded in chains through Rome by her conqueror, Octavian, the future emperor Augustus. A few days earlier, her lover of eleven years, Mark Antony, had died in her arms following his own botched suicide attempt. Oceans of mythology have grown up around them, all of which Diana Preston puts to rest in her stirring history of the lives and times of a couple whose names-more than two millennia later-still invoke passion, curiosity, and intrigue.
This book sets the romance and tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra's personal lives within the context of their political times. There are many contemporary resonances: the relationship between East and West and the nature of empire, the concealment of personal ambition beneath the watchword of liberty, documents forged, edited or disposed of, special relationships established, constitutional forms and legal niceties invoked when it suited. Indeed their lives and deaths had deep political ramifications, and they offer a revealing perspective on a tipping point in Roman politics and on the consolidation of the Roman Empire. Three hundred years would pass before the east would, with the rise of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, once again take a share of political power in the Mediterranean. In an intriguing postscript, Preston speculates on what might have happened had Antony and Cleopatra defeated Octavian at the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C.
In a Dry Season (Inspector Banks Novels) ($0.99), by Peter RobinsonBook Description
In the blistering, dry summer, the waters of Thornfield Reservior have been depleted, revealing the ruins of the small Yorkshire village that lay at its bottom, bringing with it the unidentified bones of a brutally murdered young woman. Detective Chief Inspector Banks faces a daunting challenge: he must unmask a killer who has escaped detection for half a century. Because the dark secret of Hobb's End continue to haunt the dedicated policeman even though the town that bred then has died—and long after its former residents have been scattered to far places . . . or themselves to the grave.
From an acknowledged master writing at the peak of his storytelling powers comes a powerful, insightful, evocative, and searingly suspenseful novel of past crimes and present evil.
Scorsese ($2.89), by Roger EbertBook Description
Roger Ebert wrote the first film review that director Martin Scorsese ever received—for 1967’s I Call First, later renamed Who’s That Knocking at My Door—creating a lasting bond that made him one of Scorsese’s most appreciative and perceptive commentators. Scorsese by Ebert offers the first record of America’s most respected film critic’s engagement with the works of America’s greatest living director, chronicling every single feature film in Scorsese’s considerable oeuvre, from his aforementioned debut to his 2008 release, the Rolling Stones documentary Shine a Light.
In the course of eleven interviews done over almost forty years, the book also includes Scorsese’s own insights on both his accomplishments and disappointments. Ebert has also written and included six new reconsiderations of the director’s less commented upon films, as well as a substantial introduction that provides a framework for understanding both Scorsese and his profound impact on American cinema.
Troubletwisters, by Garth / Williams, Sean Nix is $2.72 for Australian Kindlers (and apparently on sale at Kobo, but I'm not sure for which regions, other than "not in the US"). Although we can't get this one here (although there is a $9 edition), the publisher, Allen & Unwin, has six titles under $2 for those in the US (including the free Writing a Novel, Sydney March 2011-August 2011 and Catherine Jinks' Living Hell for $1.25), as well as 16 of under $4 for UK customers and thirty or so for those in Australia, such as The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ($2.72) and Prodigal Father, Pagan Son ($3.63); the latter looks like a must for Sons of Anarchy fans. Book Description
A spectacular new middle-grade fantasy series from NYT bestselling authors Garth Nix and Sean Williams.
Are you a troubletwister?
Jaide and Jack Shield's lives are changing in a very, very strange way. The weather is turning against them. Magical disasters occur when they're around. And a mysterious explosion has just destroyed their house...from the inside.
Without knowing why, the twins are stolen away to live with Grandma X--a relative they've never, ever met. At Grandma X's house, things are even stranger. Weather vanes point in the opposite direction of the wind. Doors appear and disappear. Cats talk.
Jaide and Jack Shield don't know the reason behind all this strangeness. They don't know that they're troubletwisters, and that they must defend the world against a dark, evil force. The time has come for them to discover the truth--and the powers that come with the truth.
Are they ready?
I first mentioned The Hedgewitch Queen ($2.99), by Lilith Saintcrow, when it was a pre-order; now, it's out (and still a bargain) and the next in the series, Hedgewitch #2, is available for pre-order.Book Description
Vianne di Rocancheil has been largely content to play the gawky provincial. As lady in waiting at the Court of Arquitaine, she studies her books, watches for intrigue, and shepherds her foolhardy Princesse safely through the glittering whirl. Court is a sometimes-unpleasant waltz, especially for the unwary, but Vianne treads its measured steps well.
Unfortunately, the dance has changed. Treachery is afoot in gilded and velvet halls. A sorcerous conspiracy is unleashed, with blood, death, and warfare close behind. Her Princesse murdered and her own life in jeopardy, Vianne must flee, carrying the fate of her land with her--the Great Seal of Arquitaine, awake after its long sleep. Invasion threatens, civil war looms, and the conspiracy hunts for Vianne di Rocancheil, to kill or to use her against all she holds dear.
A life of dances, intrigues, and fashion has not prepared her for this. Nor has it prepared her for Tristan d'Arcenne, Captain of the King's Guard and player in the most dangerous games conspiracy can devise. Yet to save her country and avenge her Princesse, Vianne will become what she must, say what she should, and do whatever is required.
A Queen can do no less.
The Terror ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Dan Simmons Book Description
The men on board HMS Terror have every expectation of triumph. As part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage, they are as scientifically supported an enterprise as has ever set forth. As they enter a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, though, they are stranded in a nightmarish landscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, with diminishing rations, 126 men fight to survive with poisonous food, a dwindling supply of coal, and ships buckling in the grip of crushing ice. But their real enemy is far more terrifying. There is something out there in the frigid darkness: an unseen predator stalking their ship, a monstrous terror constantly clawing to get in.When the expedition's leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a terrible death, Captain Francis Crozier takes command and leads his surviving crewmen on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. With them travels an Inuit woman who cannot speak and who may be the key to survival, or the harbinger of their deaths. But as another winter approaches, as scurvy and starvation grow more terrible, and as the terror on the ice stalks them southward, Crozier and his men begin to fear that there is no escape. The Terror swells with the heart-stopping suspense and heroic adventure that have won Dan Simmons praise as "a writer who not only makes big promises but keeps them" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). With a haunting and constantly surprising story based on actual historical events, The Terror is a novel that will chill you to your core.
I thought the pre-order for Leviathan Wakes, by James S.A. Corey, was a good deal at $9.99, since it also includes the full text of Daniel Abraham's The Dragon's Path ($9.99); it's an even better deal now that it's only $2.99.Leviathan Wakes
Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.
Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.
Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.
Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations - and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.
The Dragon's Path
All paths lead to war...
Marcus' hero days are behind him. He knows too well that even the smallest war still means somebody's death. When his men are impressed into a doomed army, staying out of a battle he wants no part of requires some unorthodox steps.
Cithrin is an orphan, ward of a banking house. Her job is to smuggle a nation's wealth across a war zone, hiding the gold from both sides. She knows the secret life of commerce like a second language, but the strategies of trade will not defend her from swords.
Geder, sole scion of a noble house, has more interest in philosophy than in swordplay. A poor excuse for a soldier, he is a pawn in these games. No one can predict what he will become.
Falling pebbles can start a landslide. A spat between the Free Cities and the Severed Throne is spiraling out of control. A new player rises from the depths of history, fanning the flames that will sweep the entire region onto The Dragon's Path-the path to war.
The Heroes ($1.99), by Joe AbercrombieBook Description
War: where the blood and dirt of the battlefield hide the dark deeds committed in the name of glory. THE HEROES is about violence and ambition, gruesome deaths and betrayals; and the brutal truth that no plan survives contact with the enemy. The characters are the stars, as ever, and the message is dark: when it comes to war, there are no heroes...
Meet THE HEROES.
Curnden Craw: a ruthless fighter who wants nothing more than to see his crew survive.
Prince Calder: a liar and a coward, he will regain his crown by any means necessary.
Bremer dan Gorst: a master swordsman, a failed bodyguard, his honor will be restored - in the blood of his enemies.
Over three days, their fates will be sealed.
The Alchemist ($2.99), by Paolo Bacigalupi, and The Executioness ($2.99), by Tobias S. Buckell, are novellas set in the same world, both illustrated by J.K. Drummond.The Alchemist
Magic has a price. But someone else will pay. Every time a spell is cast, a bit of bramble sprouts, sending up tangling vines, bloody thorns, and threatening a poisonous sleep. It sprouts in tilled fields and in neighbors' roof beams, thrusts up from between street cobbles, and bursts forth from sacks of powdered spice. A bit of magic, and bramble follows. A little at first, and then more--until whole cities are dragged down under tangling vines and empires lie dead, ruins choked by bramble forest. Monuments to people who loved magic too much.
In the paired novellas, The Alchemist & The Executioness, award-winning authors Tobias Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi explore a shared world where magic is forbidden and its use is rewarded with the axe. A world of glittering memories and a desperate present, where everyone uses a little magic, and someone else always pays the price.
In the beleaguered city of Khaim, a lone alchemist seeks a solution to a deadly threat. The bramble, a plant that feeds upon magic, now presses upon Khaim, nourished by the furtive spellcasting of its inhabitants and threatening to strangle the city under poisonous vines. Driven by desperation and genius, the alchemist constructs a device that transcends magic, unlocking the mysteries of bramble's essential nature. But the power of his newly-built balanthast is even greater than he dreamed. Where he sought to save a city and its people, the balanthast has the potential to save the world entire--if it doesn't destroy him and his family first.
The Executioness
Magic has a price.
In Khaim, that price is your head if you're found using it. For the use of magic comes with a side effect: it creates bramble. The bramble is a creeping, choking menace that has covered majestic ancient cities, and felled civilizations. In order to prevent the spread of the bramble, many lose their heads to the cloaked executioners of Khaim.
Tana is one of these executioners, taking the job over from her ailing father in secret, desperate to keep her family from starvation. But now her family has been captured by raiders, and taken to a foreign city.
So Khaim's only female executioner begins a quest to bring her family back together. A bloody quest that will change lives, cities, and even an entire land, forever. A quest that will create the legend of The Executioness.
The Innocent Mage ($2.99), by Karen MillerBook Description
"The Innocent Mage is come, and we stand at the beginning of the end of everything."
Being a fisherman like his father isn't a bad life, but it's not the one that Asher wants. Despite his humble roots, Asher has grand dreams. And they call him to Dorana, home of princes, beggars?and the warrior mages who have protected the kingdom for generations.
Little does Asher know, however, that his arrival in the city is being closely watched by members of the Circle, people dedicated to preserving an ancient magic.
Asher might have come to the city to make his fortune, but he will find his destiny.
The Orchard: A Memoir ($1.99), by Theresa WeirBook Description
THE ORCHARD is the story of a street-smart city girl who must adapt to a new life on an apple farm after she falls in love with Adrian Curtis, the golden boy of a prominent local family whose lives and orchards seem to be cursed. Married after only three months, young Theresa finds life with Adrian on the farm far more difficult and dangerous than she expected. Rejected by her husband's family as an outsider, she slowly learns for herself about the isolated world of farming, pesticides, environmental destruction, and death, even as she falls more deeply in love with her husband, a man she at first hardly knew and the land that has been in his family for generations. She becomes a reluctant player in their attempt to keep the codling moth from destroying the orchard, but she and Adrian eventually come to know that their efforts will not only fail but will ultimately take an irreparable toll.
Boone: A Biography ($1.99), by Robert MorganBook Description
The story of Daniel Boone is the story of America—its ideals, its promise, its romance, and its destiny. Bestselling, critically acclaimed author Robert Morgan reveals the complex character of a frontiersman whose heroic life was far stranger and more fascinating than the myths that surround him.
This rich, authoritative biography offers a wholly new perspective on a man who has been an American icon for more than two hundred years—a hero as important to American history as his more political contemporaries George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Extensive endnotes, cultural and historical background material, and maps and illustrations underscore the scope of this distinguished and immensely entertaining work.
I was considering getting Black Prism, by Brent Weeks, last fall when it dropped to $7.99, but put it off; I'm grabbing it now that it is marked down to $2.99.Book Description
THE BLACK PRISM begins a brand new action-packed tale of magic and adventure ...
Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. Yet Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live.
When Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.
Red-Headed Stepchild ($2.99) the first title in the Sabina Kane series by Jaye Wells; the fourth in the series, Silver-Tongued Devil, has just been released and you can now pre-order the next title, Blue-Blooded Vamp.Book Description
In a world where being of mixed-blood is a major liability, Sabina Kane has the only profession fit for an outcast: assassin. But, her latest mission threatens the fragile peace between the vampire and mage races and Sabina must scramble to figure out which side she's on. She's never brought her work home with her---until now.
This time, it's personal.
Today's backlist/indie free books on Kindle (not likely to be free for long):
- My Gun Has Bullets (Charlie Willis), by Lee Goldberg
- Best Enemies (Willa Crown Mystery), by Lynn Emery
- Nicholson's Ghost Stories: Four Novels, by Scott Nicholson
- Chasin' the Wind - A Mad Mick Murphy Key West Mystery, by Michael Haskins
- Four Summers Waiting, by Mary Fremont Schoenecker
- Hetaera--Suspense in Ancient Athens (Agathon's Daughter) , by Suzanne Tyrpak and Tess Gerritsen (Foreword)
- The Shadow File (A Bryson Wilde Thriller), by R.J. Jagger
- The Wolf and the Crown (The Perilous Order of Camelot), by A. A. Attanasio and Jeff Bigman (Illustrator)
- Betting on Love, by Patricia Kay
- The Unofficial Harry Potter Party Book: From Monster Books to Potions Class! Crafts, Games, and Treats, by Jessica Fox
