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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Free and Bargain Book Roundup

If you resisted the previous 3-in-1 Dark Swan bundle from Richelle Mead, perhaps due to already owning the first or second books included, you may want to pre-order the Richelle Mead Dark Swan Bundle: Storm Born, Thorn Queen, Iron Crowned & Shadow Heir, which at $9.99 works out to under $2.50/title and is even a reasonable price if you already own one or two in the series. If, like me, you already have the first three, then you can pick up #4, Shadow Heir, for $4.99, just squeaking under the bargain book threshhold (in fact, the entire series is on sale for under $5/each, if you just need to fill in a single title).
Book Description
Just typical. No love life to speak of for months, then all at once, every horny creature in the Otherworld wants to get in your pants. . .

Eugenie Markham is a powerful shaman who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world. Mercenary, yes, but a girl's got to eat. Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite. Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie comes face to face with a startling prophecy--one that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie's first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it.

Eugenie Markham is a shaman for hire, paid to bind and banish creatures from the Otherworld. But after her last battle, she's also become queen of the Thorn Land. It's hardly an envious life, not with her kingdom in tatters, her love life in chaos, and Eugenie eager to avoid the prophecy about her firstborn destroying mankind. And now young girls are disappearing from the Otherworld, and no one--except Eugenie--seems willing to find out why.

New York Times bestselling author Richelle Mead takes readers back to the Otherworld, an embattled realm mystically entwined with our world--and ruled by one woman's dangerous choice. . .

Shaman-for-hire Eugenie Markham is the best at banishing entities trespassing in the mortal realm. But as the Thorn Land's queen, she's fast running out of ways to end the brutal war devastating her kingdom. Her only hope: the Iron Crown, a legendary object even the most powerful gentry fear. . .

#1 New York Times bestselling author Richelle Mead returns to the Otherworld, a mystic land inextricably linked to our own--and balanced precariously on one woman's desperate courage . . .

Shaman-for-hire Eugenie Markham strives to keep the mortal realm safe from trespassing entities. But as the Thorn Land's prophecy-haunted queen, there's no refuge for her and her soon-to-be-born-children when a mysterious blight begins to devastate the Otherworld. . .

Denise's Daily Dozen: The Easy, Every Day Program to Lose Up to 12 Pounds in 2 Weeks ($2.99), by Denise Austin, looks to be the antidote for those who have oversampled the recipes from Southern Biscuits ($1.99). Looks like she'll still let me use my Sunday Soup ($2.99) recipes, though! LOL!
Book Description
eBook Bonus: Links to Exercises and Trivia Quiz

From Denise Austin comes the perfect health book for anyone who wants to live better but just can't seem to find the time. Much more than just another excercise book, Denise's Daily Dozen covers a whole range of health and diet related concepts yet manages it all in a no-stress, time-conscious program of 12's. At it's core, this book contains the minimum daily requirements to keep the reader flexible, strong and trim. Organized simply into seven chapters, which equal the seven days of the week, it covers a full week in daily allotments. Each day will have it's own focus from Monday being "fat burning day" to Sunday's "recharge and rejuvenate."

Denise has created a total body program, including a 7-day balanced meal plan that includes healthy recipes, and a workout that encompasses 12 exercises done in 12 minutes each day. Everyone can take just 12 minutes, at whatever time of the day works for them, and turn it over to these simple and fun exercises. Cardio, toning, yoga and breathing exercises...they're all here but in a way the maximizes effect while minimizing time.

Beyond a dozen exercises for each day of the week this book will include many other of Denises dozens for each day.

Life Is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally ($3.99), by Patti Digh
Book Description
In October 2003, Patti Digh’s stepfather was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died 37 days later. The timeframe made an impression on her. What emerged was a commitment to ask herself every morning: What would I be doing today if I had only 37 days left to live? The answers changed her life and led to this new kind of book. Part meditation, part how-to guide, part memoir, Life is a Verb is all heart.

Within these pages—enhanced by original artwork and wide, inviting margins ready to be written in—Digh identifies six core practices to jump-start a meaningful life: Say Yes, Trust Yourself, Slow Down, Be Generous, Speak Up, and Love More. Within this framework she supplies 37 edgy, funny, and literary life stories, each followed by a “do it now” 10-minute exercise as well as a practice to try for 37 days—and perhaps the rest of your life.

Goals!: How to Get Everything You Want -- Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible ($2.99), by Brian Tracy
Book Description
This new edition of a classic, quarter-million-copy-selling book on how to set and achieve goals — by bestselling author and motivational speaker Brian Tracy — is updated throughout and includes three new chapters applying the book’s methods to improving core areas of everyone’s life: money, relationships, and health. Well over 100,000 of the original edition sold.

Building Powerful Community Organizations: A Personal Guide to Creating Groups that Can Solve Problems and Change the World ($2.99), by Michael Jacoby Brown
Book Description
Intended for individuals who want to start, strengthen, or revitalize a group to address a community issue, this indispensable guide includes a series of practical steps that help build a successful community orgranization and offers sample cases that more clearly illustrate each step. In addition to addressing common problems that are often encountered, the book also discusses how to run engaging meetings, recruit and motivate community members, raise necessary funds, and turn a passion into a powerful tool for social change.

The Power of Your Past: The Art of Recalling, Recasting, and Reclaiming ($0.53 Kindle; $0.56 paperback), by John P. Schuster
Book Description
Most of us don’t use our yesterdays very well. With our cultural obsession with “living in the moment,” we neglect to engage in creative reflection on our personal histories. In The Power Of Your Past, John Schuster systematically demonstrates that our pasts are the biggest, most accessible, and most under-utilized of resources for anyone wanting to make positive changes. In contrast to other more technical, spiritual, or therapeutic guides that address working with one’s past, he offers a balanced, practical and accessible approach through an actionable three-phase model: Recalling, Reclaiming, and Recasting. He provides exercises that link past events to achieving sounder interpretations and illustrates the process with inspiring histories of those who have experienced transformative results through embracing their own professional and personal pasts.

Schuster provides insight, encouragement, and steps for essential professional and personal development. Readers who follow this model will make progress in careers short on heart and meaning, overcome obstacles that other methods can’t address, and make decisions based on their truth, not the “versions” of truth they have inherited and not fully examined. They will enjoy the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that all they need to grow—insight, courage and persistence are the ingredients—is already within.

Loyal to the Sky: Notes from an Activist ($1.22), by Marisa Handler
Book Description
Combining captivating personal memoir and astute political reportage, Marisa Handler offers a fascinating inside look at the burgeoning global justice movement through her own compelling coming-of-age story.

Born in apartheid South Africa, Handler emigrated to Southern California at the age of twelve. Her gradual realization that injustice existed even in this more open, democratic society spurred a lifelong commitment to activism that would take her around the world and back again.

Handler shares intimate details of her life as a global justice activist to offer a revealing perspective on what drives the movement. Tracing her own evolution as an activist, her story crisscrosses the globe, examining current sociopolitical issues from apartheid and racism to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, corporate globalization, and the wars of the Bush administration. Along the way, Handler paints compelling portraits of the people she's encountered, shares gritty details of the sometimes-harrowing events that have changed and shaped her, and describes how she came to advocate a spiritually based, nonviolent activism as the best means for building the kind of world we wish to see.

Dirty Little Secrets from Otherwise Perfect Moms ($3.03), by Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile
Book Description
Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile conducted interviews with hundreds of mothers while researching their best-selling book I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids. It didn't take long before these moms began to reveal their Dirty Little Secrets—surprising, thought-provoking, guilty confessions they hadn't told anyone else. Cringe-worthy moments ("I bit my daughter's finger trying to steal a bite of her cookie.") meet real insights ("I love my kids but I didn't always. It took time to fall in love with them."). These are the private thoughts that every mom has—and every mom can relate to.

Super-Charged Smoothies ($2.99), by Sara Corpening Whiteford and Mary Corpening Barber
Book Description
)Twin sisters) Barber and Sara Corpening Whiteford are back with Super-Charged Smoothies, the high-octane follow-up to Smoothies and Super Smoothies. Just as lively and colorful as their previous Smoothies titles, this latest installment stands out with all-new recipes for delicious elixirs rich with the nutrient-packed, disease-fighting, life-changing superfoods that promote energy and vitality. Learn to mix, blend, and sip your way to a healthier life with fruits, vegetables, and base ingredients (such as Greek yogurt and kombucha) containing the phytochemicals, omegas, and probiotic and antioxidant qualities that make one look and feel better every day. Super-Charged Smoothies = fast + yummy + good for you.

Dead Game: A John Marquez Crime Novel ($3.99), by Kirk Russell
Book Description
Third in the series of crime novels featuring what Booklist called 'far and away the most inventive new detective hero,' California Fish and Game warden John Marquez's new investigation begins with Marquez on the phone to a confidential informant as she's mysteriously abducted. Marquez and his understaffed team-which is slated for shutdown by top brass-search frantically for the informant in their remaining weeks, while also pursuing sturgeon poachers (who may have something to do with the kidnapping) and tangling with both the Russian mob and the FBI along the way. And you thought your job was tough.
Today's backlist/indie free books on Kindle (not likely to be free for long):

New Year, New You - Kindle Active Content for 99 cents

Amazon's New Year, New You promotion has a number of $0.99 Kindle Active Content titles to choose from. In addition to the expected calorie counters and exercise tracking apps, there are language tutorials, notepad, two calendar/dayplanner apps, a calculator and a finance managing app to choose from, amongst a few other non-exercise apps.
Promotion Description
Start the year off right with active content for your Kindle that will help you to reach your goals for health, wellness, learning, and more. These Kindle Active Content titles are $0.99 through the end January 31 and work with Kindle, Kindle Keyboard, and Kindle DX devices.

Today's Deals

The Copper Sign ($0.99), by Katia Fox and Lee Chadeayne (translator), is today's Kindle Deal of the Day. This translation was commissioned by AmazonCrossing, so it's an exclusive for Kindle customers.
Book Description
England 1161: Ellen, a blacksmith’s daughter, wants to become a swordsmith, but for a girl this profession is unimaginable. Forced to run away from home, she disguises herself as a boy and wins the opportunity to travel with a famous swordsmith to Normandy, where the sons of the greatest barons are trained to be knights. Under the assumed identity of Alan, Ellen is able to learn the trade and become familiar with court life. But when she falls in love with Guillaume, a brilliant knight, her secret is threatened and Ellen must run for her life. Across countries and time, Ellen struggles to achieve her dream of working as a swordsmith and eventually forging a sword for the king. It is a quest rich in intrigue, betrayal, and treachery.

As epic as it is intimate, The Copper Sign is a passionate tour de force that will leave you breathlessly awaiting book two, The Silver Falcon.

About the Authors
Katia Fox, born in 1964, grew up in Germany and southern France, and started her career as an interpreter and translator. After the birth of her third child, she turned her attention to the English Middle Ages and started to research blacksmithing. That research directly inspired the first installment in her captivating trilogy set in medieval England, The Copper Sign. Katia Fox lives with two of her three children splitting her time between a small town near Frankfurt and Provence. She also visits England as often as possible to continue her research.

Translator Lee Chadeayne is a former classical musician, college professor, and owner of a language translation company in Massachusetts. He was a charter member of the American Literary Translators Association and has been an active member of the American Translators Association since 1970. His translated works are primarily in the areas of music, art, language, history, and general literature. Most recently this includes the bestselling The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch and The Copper Sign by Katia Fox.

The Girl With Glass Feet ($1.53 / £0.99 UK), by Ali Shaw, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $5.65).
Book Description
Strange things are happening on the remote and snowbound archipelago of St Hauda's Land. Unusual winged creatures flit around icy bogland; albino animals hide themselves in the snow-glazed woods; jellyfish glow in the ocean's depths...

And Ida MacLaird is slowly turning into glass. A mysterious and frightening alchemical metamorphosis has befallen Ida Maclaird - she is slowly turning into glass, from the feet up. She returns to St Hauda's Land, where she believes the glass first took hold, in search of a cure. Midas Crook is a young loner, who has lived on the islands his entire life. When he meets Ida, something about her sad, defiant spirit pierces his emotional defenses. As Midas helps Ida come to terms with her affliction, she gradually unpicks the knots of his heart, and they begin to fall in love...

What they need most is time - and time is slipping away fast. Will they find a way to stave off the spread of the glass? "The Girl with Glass Feet" is a dazzlingly imaginative and gripping first novel, a love story to treasure.

The Bridge: The Building of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Gay Talese and Bruce Davidson, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
The Bridge is a riveting human drama of politics and courage, and a demonstration of the legendary Gay Talese's consummate skills as a reporter and storyteller.

Towards the end of 1964, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge-linking the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island with New Jersey-was completed. It remains an engineering marvel almost forty years later-at 13,700 feet (more than two and a half miles), it is still the longest suspension bridge in the United States and the sixth longest in the world. Gay Talese, then early in his career at the New York Times, closely followed the construction, and soon after the opening his book The Bridge appeared. Talese's memorable narrative is captivating in how it captures the human and mechanical drama that surrounded this remarkable achievement.

Free Audiobook - Her Royal Spyness

Audible has their audiobook edition of Her Royal Spyness ($7.99 Kindle), a cozy mystery by Rhys Bowen, free for US (and presumably Canadian) customers.
Book Description
INTRODUCING “A FEISTY NEW HEROINE” (JACQUELINE WINSPEAR) who’s thirty-fourth in line for the throne—and flat broke....

Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, 34th in line for the throne, is flat broke. She’s bolted Scotland, her greedy brother, and her fish-faced betrothed for London. The place where she’ll experience freedom, learn life lessons aplenty, do a bit of spying for HRH—oh, and find a dead Frenchman in her tub. Now her new job is to clear her long family name.

About the Author
Rhys Bowen is the Bestselling Author of the Royal Spyness Series, Molly Murphy Mysteries, and Constable Evans. Awarded the Agatha Best Novel Award and nominated for the Edgar Best Novel Rhys's titles have received rave reviews around the globe.

Rhys Bowen is a transplanted Brit who now divides her time between California and Arizona. She currently writes two mystery series, the Molly Murphy novels, about an Irish immigrant in 1900s New York City and the lighter Royal Spyness mysteries about a penniless minor royal in 1930s Britain. Her books made bestseller lists, garnered many awards, nominations, and starred reviews.
Get the free audiobook from Audible.

Free Book - A Game of Thrones Enhanced Edition (K-AU)

In what is, no doubt, another pricing error, you can pick up the Kindle Edition with Audio/Video of A Game of Thrones Enhanced Edition: Book 1 of A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin, if you are an Australian Kindle customer. Those in the US can't buy it, at all, while it is over $10 in most other countries that I checked.
Book Description
A stunning enhanced edition of the hugely popular and highly acclaimed epic fantasy, featuring an interactive map tracking main characters’ journeys, audio extracts of key scenes and a hyperlinked character glossary.In the game of thrones, you win or you die. Now a major HBO series.

Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.It will stretch from the south, where heat breeds plot, lusts and intrigues; to the vast and savage eastern lands; all the way to the frozen north, where an 800-foot wall of ice protects the kingdom from the dark forces that lie beyond. Kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars, lords and honest men… all will play the Game of Thrones.

Winter is coming…

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Free Book - Bleed for Me (K)

Bleed for Me, the fourth title in the Joseph O'Loughlin series by Michael Robotham, is free to pre-order in the Kindle store. This is likely another pricing error, so grab it fast.
Book Description
She's standing at the front door. Covered in blood. Is she the victim of a crime? Or the perpetrator?

A teenage girl--Sienna, a troubled friend of his daughter--comes to Joe O'Loughlin's door one night. She is terrorized, incoherent-and covered in blood.

The police find Sienna's father, a celebrated former cop, murdered in the home he shared with Sienna. Tests confirm that it's his blood on Sienna. She says she remembers nothing.

Joe O'Loughlin is a psychologist with troubles of his own. His marriage is coming to an end and his daughter will barely speak to him. He tries to help Sienna, hoping that if he succeeds it will win back his daughter's affection. But Sienna is unreachable, unable to mourn her father's death or to explain it.

Investigators take aim at Sienna. O'Loughlin senses something different is happening, something subterranean and terrifying to Sienna. It may be something in her mind. Or it may be something real. Someone real. Someone capable of the most grim and gruesome murder, and willing to kill again if anyone gets too close.

Free Book - Orcs: Inferno (K)

Orcs: Inferno, the third title in the Orcs: Bad Blood series by Stan Nicholls, is free to pre-order in the Kindle store. This is the latest book in this series and is most likely a pricing error - grab it quick before the publisher gets it corrected.
Book Description
Using the mysterious artifacts known as instrumentalities, the Wolverines embarked on a world-hopping mission to liberate fellow orcs and to take revenge on their old antagonist Jennesta. But it isn't working out too well for the warband. Saddled with novices and a pair of humans of doubtful loyalty, and pursued by a powerful group bent on retrieving the instrumentalities, life is proving far from simple.

And destiny has more complications in store. The instrumentalities can no longer be relied upon and have left the band trapped in a world where enemies mass on every side. While tensions in the band threaten to rip it apart, Thirzarr, mate of Wolverines captain Stryke, has been seized by Jennesta and faces a living death.

With the fate of worlds at stake, daunting obstacles, and fresh adversaries blocking their path, the Wolverines are about to be drawn into the greatest battle of their lives.

Free Book - Pay Me In Flesh (K/N)

Pay Me In Flesh (Mallory Caine, Zombie at Law), by K. Bennett, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble.
Book Description
Hungry For Justice-And Brains

Meet Mallory Caine. Attorney at law. Zombie at large. She's not like those "Living Dead” losers you see in the movies. She doesn't slobber, drool, or lurch-she's smart, stylish, and sexy. Sure, she's a zombie and a lawyer but, hey, a girl's got to eat. When Mallory's not in the courtroom, going head to head with her ex-boyfriend, killer-prosecutor Aaron Argula, she's in the seedy streets of Hollywood, hunting brain after brain. That is, until some psycho starts hunting zombie after zombie…

The Defense Never Rests-In Peace

The undead are decapitated, a letter "Z” carved in their flesh. Mallory doesn't want to lose her head, but she's worried. Like a lot of lawyers in L.A., she doesn't have a soul-a side effect of being a zombie, not a defense attorney. If Mallory dies before she gets her soul back, she goes straight to hell. No appeals. Objection overruled. If the killer isn't stopped, it's case closed for zombies everywhere. But Mallory is an undying champion of justice. And she won't go down-without a bite…
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Free Book - The Pleasures of Sin (K/N)

The Pleasures of Sin, by Jessica Trapp, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble.
Book Description
She'll Give Her Heart To No One. . .

Banished to her family's castle tower for refusing to marry, Lady Brenna spends her days indulging her secret passion for painting provocative works of art. If they are discovered, Brenna knows she will hang. But her life changes the day England's most notorious privateer James Vaughn, the Earl of Montgomery, arrives to claim Brenna's younger sister as his bride. Brenna knows her sister will be no match against such a man. To save her, Brenna dons the wedding veil and marries the brute herself. . .

Except The Man Who Completely Arouses Her. . .

Known as The Enforcer, James Montgomery has been charged with ridding the land of rebels disloyal to the king. He's not amused to learn he's been tricked into marrying the wrong sister. In retaliation, he decides to tempt his new wife until she begs to be taken to his bed. Yet, James soon finds that it is he who is enticed. But when a secret about Brenna is revealed, James discovers that all of his love may not be enough to save her. . .
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Free Book - The Vampire Defanged (K/N/E)

The Vampire Defanged, by Susannah Clements, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble, Sony and ChristianBook, courtesy of Christian publisher Brazos Press. This is a Baker imprint and is likely to only be free today.
Book Description
Vampires first entered the pop culture arena with Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula. Today, vampires are everywhere. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the Twilight Saga to HBO's True Blood series, pop culture can't get enough of the vampire phenomenon.

Bringing her literary expertise to this timely subject, Susannah Clements reveals the roots of the vampire myth and shows how it was originally immersed in Christian values and symbolism. Over time, however, vampires have been "defanged" as their spiritual significance has waned, and what was once the embodiment of evil has turned into a teen idol and the ultimate romantic hero. Clements offers a close reading of selected vampire texts, explaining how this transformation occurred and helping readers discern between the variety of vampire stories presented in movies, TV shows, and novels. Her probing engagement of the vampire metaphor enables readers to make Christian sense of this popular obsession.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.
Get the free ebook from Sony.

Today's Deals

If you are a big horror fan, you might want to check out the "all-you-can-read" subscription from publisher Cemetary Dance. Not only do you get a copy of all their current ebooks, but also one download of everything published this year and a signed, limited edition hardcover, all for $49 (plus S&H).

As I told you in a previous post, author LC Evans passed away recently after a brief battle with cancer and her daughter is handling her book sales to help pay the medical bills. If you want to help support the cause, but chick lit isn't your thing, then (today only), a number of other authors are pitching in a free copy of one of their books for each of Ms. Evans' books that you buy. Every name also goes into the hat for a drawing to win 40 ebooks for free.

Additional formats on these free books are now available:

A Heart for Freedom ($1.99), by Chai Ling, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day.
Book Description
MY NAME IS CHAI LING.
I was born at the beginning of China’s Cultural Revolution. Like all Chinese children, I was taught to love my country, sacrifice my own needs, and be ready to give up my life for a greater good. We were not allowed to know God.

In 1989, I became a leader of a student hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, a peaceful movement for a better, freer, and more loving China. There I discovered the truth about the government I had been taught to love. In the early-morning hours of June 4, I stood with my friends and watched in horror as the tanks rolled in. During the crackdown, thousands were wounded or killed.

I survived.

A lifetime later, after escaping to freedom and achieving success beyond the wildest American dream, I was still trapped between the past and the future. Haunted by memories of standing against the force of a powerful regime, I had lost my purpose, my homeland, and my strength . . . until God met me and healed me. When my eyes were then opened to another life-and-death battle, would I have the courage to join it and risk losing my most precious loved ones again? Do I dare hope that, with God’s help, we can finally see true freedom in China?

Chai Ling was a key student leader in the 1989 Tiananmen Square movement. Today, she serves as founder, president, and coo of Jenzabar, Inc., a leading higher education software services provider. She holds an mba from Harvard Business School, an mPa in public affairs and international relations from Princeton University, and a ba in psychology from Peking University. Nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize, Chai Ling is founder of All Girls Allowed , an organization dedicated to restoring life, value, and dignity to girls and mothers and revealing the injustice of China’s one-child policy.

In the Meantime ($1.54 / £0.99 UK), by Robin Lippincott, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99).
Book Description
From the intimacy of small town America to big city life, from World War II to 9/11, In the Meantime vividly encapsulates an unforgettable era.

On a hot summer's day in 1931, three five-year-olds meet on a dusty street in a small Midwestern town, beginning a friendship that will last all their lives. Kathryn, the oldest in an ever-expanding family, is bright and earnest, and thinks she wants to become a nurse. Starling is an only child with an absent father. He doesn't yet know that he is of mixed race-he doesn't even know what that means-all he knows is that when he grows up he will be a star. Luke doesn't know what he wants, except for his older brother not to be dead.

Together they experience the joys and pains of childhood, although the anxieties of puberty and awakening sexuality nearly destroy their three-way friendship forever. Reaching adulthood after World War II, they follow their dreams to New York City, where they discover that not even Manhattan is free of racism and prejudice.

Through the years of their ever-entwined adult lives some dreams are realized while others grow dim, but one constant remains: their bond of friendship. At the book's end, some seventy years after it began, only one of them remains to tell the story of their lives, and of what happened…in the meantime.

An Impossible Attraction ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Brenda Joyce, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
With her mother's passing, Alexandra Bolton gave up on love to take care of her family. Now, with the Bolton name in disgrace due to her father's profligate ways, marrying an elderly squire might be the only way to save her family from absolute ruin. But when she meets the infamous Duke of Clarewood, old dreams--and old passions--are awakened as never before. Yet she cannot accept his shocking proposition!

He is the wealthiest, most powerful peer in the realm, and having witnessed the cold horror of marriage as a child, he has vowed never to wed. But Alexandra Bolton inflames him as no woman has ever done, and she also serves him his first rejection! Now Clarewood--who always gets what he wants--will choose which rules to play by. But when passion finally brings them together, a terrible secret threatens to tear them apart....
Today's backlist/indie free books on Kindle (not likely to be free for long):

Monday, January 23, 2012

Free Book - Quick & Easy Family Dinners Cookbook (K/N/E)

Update: 1/30/12 Now free from Sony.

Quick & Easy Family Dinners Cookbook, another mini-cookbook from Gooseberry Patch, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble.
Book Description
There's nothing like gathering around the table for a homecooked meal. Our favorite dinners are always those tried & true recipes that have been handed down, or ones shared by a good friend. Start with Homestyle Baked Spaghetti, Oven Beef & Noodles or Barbecued Honey Ham, and then add a tasty side dish like Confetti Coleslaw, Creamy Macaroni & Cheese or Mom's Potato Salad. And who can resist scrumptious desserts? Cherry Delight, Peach Crinkle, Crustless Apple Pie and Sunny Day Brownies are all yummy ways to end a family meal.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from Sony.

Free Book - Highland Mist (K/N/E/DF)

Update: 1/28/12 Now free from Sony.

Highland Mist, the first title in the Druid Glen series by Donna Grant, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble, AllRomance and direct from the publisher, Ellora's Cave.
Book Description
An honorable laird...
Conall MacInnes was born to a clan that for centuries has been charged with the guarding of the sacred Druids. It's a duty he has always met with a willing heart, until the day his sister, a Druid priestess, goes missing and the very Druids he has protected refuse to help him find the last remaining member of his family. Then a three-hundred-year-old prophecy places a Druid in his hands for safekeeping. It's the chance at revenge he's been waiting for, but is he willing to pay the cost his revenge will demand--the loss of his mate and the future of Scotland?

A willing lass...
Glenna MacNeil wants only to be free, to find the purpose of her life. When she is told to look for the dark laird who would free her, she eagerly goes with the powerful Highlander who fights her clan, not realizing she has set in motion events that will change the course of history. Publisher's Note: Previously published elsewhere under the same title.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from AllRomance.
Get the free ebook from Ellora's Cave.
Get the free ebook from Sony.

Free Book - What's Really Working in Business (K/N)

Jim Champy on What's Really Working in Business, a collection of three of his titles, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble.
Book Description
What it takes to win, big, now! In 3 new eBooks, Jim Champy brings together breakthrough approaches to strategy, marketing, and execution!

Jim Champy revolutionized business with Reengineering the Corporation. Now, in these three concise, fast-paced eBooks, he’s done it again – revealing today’s most innovative strategies for breakthrough business success. Deliver!: How to Be Fast, Flawless, and Frugal shows how to leverage the rich treasure of potential competitive advantage hidden in your operations. Through five case studies, he presents organizations performing at “impossible” levels – thanks not to strategy, but to goals, discipline, details, and gritty, everyday execution. Next, in Outsmart!: How to Do What Your Competitors Can't, Champy reveals the winning strategies of “high velocity” companies, identifying eight powerful ways to compete in even the most brutal marketplace. You’ll discover how to find distinctive market positions and sustainable advantages in products, services, delivery methods, and niches nobody else ever considered. Finally, in Inspire!: Why Customers Come Back, Champy shows how to define a consistent value proposition your customers will be passionate about—and will stay passionate about. You’ll learn how to engage a new generation of customers who value transparency and authenticity above all, and transcend mere “marketing” to lead crusades customers want to join.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Free Book - Ultimate Leadership (K/N)

Ultimate Leadership: Winning Execution Strategies for Your Situation, by Russell E. Palmer, is a repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble.
Book Description
Go Beyond Generic Leadership: Become an Outstanding Leader in Your Unique Environment

To succeed, leaders must understand and apply the core principles of leadership--but that’s not enough. You need to shape your approach for any unique situation. Too many leaders don’t know how to do that--and that’s why they fail. Ultimate Leadership shows how to adapt the principles of leadership to different challenges, contexts, and organizations.

Russell E. Palmer--who has had three very different, highly successful careers as head of one of the world’s largest accounting firms, Dean of the Wharton School, and an entrepreneur--helps you identify the leadership model most appropriate for your environment, and how to lead accordingly. You’ll learn better ways to lead your equals, help an organization weather crises, transform its culture, lead entrepreneurial organizations, lead global organizations...even lead non-profit and academic institutions.

Then, drawing on interviews with an extraordinary spectrum of outstanding leaders, Palmer helps you master the attribute every leader must have: the ability to inspire your unique organization, even in the face of the most daunting challenges.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Free Book - Leading at a Higher Level (K/N)

Leading at a Higher Level, Revised and Expanded Edition: Blanchard on Leadership and Creating High Performing Organizations , by Ken Blanchard, is a repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble (careful searching on your device, as there are both free and paid editions on this one).
Book Description
From The One Minute Manager to Raving Fans, Ken Blanchard's books have helped millions of people unleash their power and the potential of everyone around them. The Ken Blanchard Companies has helped thousands of organizations become more people-oriented, customer-centered, and performance-driven. Now, in Leading at a Higher Level, Updated Edition, Blanchard and his colleagues bring together everything they've learned about world-class leadership. You'll discover how to create targets and visions based on the "triple bottom line"...and make sure people know who you are, where you're going, and the values that will guide your journey. From start to finish, this book extends Blanchard's breakthrough work on delivering legendary customer service, creating "raving fans," and building "Partnerships for Performance" that empower everyone who works for and with you. Updated throughout, this new edition contains two powerful, important new chapters: one on coaching to create higher-level leaders, and another on creating a higher-level culture throughout your organization. It also offers the definitive, most up-to-date techniques for leading yourself, individuals, teams, and entire organizations. Most importantly, it will help you dig deep within, discover the personal "leadership point of view" all great leaders possess-and apply it throughout your entire life.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Free Book - Trading on Corporate Earnings News (K/N)

Trading on Corporate Earnings News: Profiting from Targeted, Short-Term Options Positions, by John Shon and Ping Zhou, is a repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble.
Book Description
Profit from earnings announcements, by taking targeted, short-term option positions explicitly timed to exploit them! Based on rigorous research and huge data sets, this book identifies the specific earnings-announcement trades most likely to yield profits, and teaches how to make these trades—in plain English, with real examples!

Trading on Corporate Earnings News is the first practical, hands-on guide to profiting from earnings announcements. Writing for investors and traders at all experience levels, the authors show how to take targeted, short-term option positions that are explicitly timed to exploit the information in companies’ quarterly earnings announcements. They first present powerful findings of cutting-edge studies that have examined market reactions to quarterly earnings announcements, regularities of earnings surprises, and option trading around corporate events. Drawing on enormous data sets, they identify the types of earnings-announcement trades most likely to yield profits, based on the predictable impacts of variables such as firm size, visibility, past performance, analyst coverage, forecast dispersion, volatility, and the impact of restructurings and acquisitions. Next, they provide real examples of individual stocks–and, in some cases, conduct large sample tests–to guide investors in taking advantage of these documented regularities. Finally, they discuss crucial nuances and pitfalls that can powerfully impact performance.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Free Book - Lies, Damned Lies, and Science (K/N)

Lies, Damned Lies, and Science: How to Sort through the Noise Around Global Warming, the Latest Health Claims, and Other Scientific Controversies, by Sherry Seethaler, is a repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble.
Book Description
Don’t Get Hoodwinked! Make Sense of Health and Science News...and Make Smarter Decisions!

Every day, there’s a new scientific or health controversy. And every day, it seems as if there’s a new study that contradicts what you heard yesterday. What’s really going on? Who’s telling the truth? Who’s faking it? What do scientists actually know–and what don’t they know? This book will help you cut through the confusion and make sense of it all–even if you’ve never taken a science class! Leading science educator and journalist Dr. Sherry Seethaler reveals how science and health research really work...how to put scientific claims in context and understand the real tradeoffs involved...tell quality research from junk science...discover when someone’s deliberately trying to fool you...and find more information you can trust! Nobody knows what new controversy will erupt tomorrow. But one thing’s for certain: With this book, you’ll know how to figure out the real deal–and make smarter decisions for yourself and your family!

Watch the news, and you’ll be overwhelmed by snippets of badly presented science: information that’s incomplete, confusing, contradictory, out-of-context, wrong, or flat-out dishonest. Defend yourself! Dr. Sherry Seethaler gives you a powerful arsenal of tools for making sense of science. You’ll learn how to think more sensibly about everything from mad cow disease to global warming—and how to make better science-related decisions in both your personal life and as a citizen.

You’ll begin by understanding how science really works and progresses, and why scientists sometimes disagree. Seethaler helps you assess the possible biases of those who make scientific claims in the media, and place scientific issues in appropriate context, so you can intelligently assess tradeoffs. You’ll learn how to determine whether a new study is really meaningful; uncover the difference between cause and coincidence; figure out which statistics mean something, and which don’t.

Seethaler reveals the tricks self-interested players use to mislead and confuse you, and points you to sources of information you can actually rely upon. Her many examples range from genetic engineering of crops to drug treatments for depression...but the techniques she teaches you will be invaluable in understanding any scientific controversy, in any area of science or health.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Free Book - The Narrow Path (K/N/E)

Update: 2/24/12 Repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble & ChristianBook.

The Narrow Path, by Gail Sattler, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble, courtesy of Christian publisher Abingdon Press.
Book Description
Miranda feels like she’s been transported back to Little House On The Prairie, and Ted’s head spins when Miranda reads the Bible on her cell phone. Yet Miranda Klassen and Ted Wiebe must find a way to make peace to meet their common goal to open the doors of Ted’s Old Order Mennonite church and community. Will they also find love in the process?
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Free Book - Wildflowers of Terezin (K/N/E)

Update: 2/24/12 Repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble & ChristianBook.

Wildflowers of Terezin, by Robert Elmer, is free in the Kindle store and is a a repeat freebie from Barnes & Noble and ChristianBook, courtesy of Christian publisher Abingdon Press.
Book Description
When nurse Hanne Abrahamsen impulsively shields Steffen Petersen from a nosy Gestapo agent, she’s convinced the Lutheran pastor is involved in the Danish Underground. Nothing could be further from the truth. But truth is hard to come by in the fall of 1943, when Copenhagen is placed under Martial Law and Denmark’s Jews—including Hanne—suddenly face deportation to the Nazi prison camp at Terezin, Czechoslovakia. Days darken and danger mounts. Steffen’s faith deepens as he takes greater risks to protect Hanne. But are either of them willing to pay the ultimate price for their love?
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Free Book - The Dead Saint (K/N/E)

Update: 2/24/12 Repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble & ChristianBook.

The Dead Saint, by Marilyn Brown Oden, is a repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble, 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.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Free Book - Diagnosis Death (K/N/E)

Update: 2/24/12 Repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble & ChristianBook.

Diagnosis Death, by Richard Mabry MD, is a repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble and ChristianBook, courtesy of Christian publisher Abingdon Press.
Book Description
The threatening midnight calls followed Dr. Elena Gardner from one city to another, prolonging her grief. Even worse, they are echoed by the whispers of her own colleagues. Whispers that started after her comatose husband died in the ICU . . . then another mysterious death during her training. When a third happens at her new hospital, the whispers turn into a shout: “Mercy killer!”

Why doesn’t she defend herself? What is the dark secret that keeps Elena’s lips sealed?

Two physicians, widowers themselves, offer support, telling Elena they know what she is going through after the death of her husband. But do they? And is it safe to trust either of them with her secret? Soon Elena will find that even when the world seems to be against her, God is for her, if she'll only trust him.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Free Book - Gone to Green (K/N/E)

Update: 2/24/12 Repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble & ChristianBook.

Gone to Green, by Judy Christie, is a repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble, courtesy of Christian publisher Abingdon Press.
Book Description
In Gone to Green, Lois goes from being a corporate journalist at a large paper in the Midwest to the owner of The Green News-Item, a small twice-weekly newspaper in rural North Louisiana. The paper was an unexpected inheritance from a close colleague, and Lois must keep it for at least a year, bringing a host of challenges, lessons, and blessings into her life.

When Lois pulls into Green on New Year’s Day, she expects a charming little town full of smiling people. She quickly realizes her mistake. After settling into a loaned house out on Route 2, she finds herself battling town prejudices and inner doubts and making friends with the most surprising people: troubled teenager Katy, good-looking catfish farmer Chris, wise and feisty Aunt Helen, and a female African-American physician named Kevin.

Whether fighting a greedy, deceitful politician or rescuing a dog she fears, Lois notices the headlines in her life have definitely improved. She learns how to provide small-town news in a big-hearted way and realizes that life is full of newsworthy moments. When she encounters racial prejudice and financial corruption, Lois also discovers more about the goodness of real people and the importance of being part of a community.

While secretly preparing the paper for a sale, Lois begins to realize that God might indeed have a plan for her life and that perhaps the allure of city life and career ambition are not what she wants after all.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Today's Deals

Additional formats on these free books are now available:

Rebels of Mindanao ($0.99), by Tom Anthony, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day.
Book Description
Al Qaeda terrorists are spreading silently throughout the globe wreaking violence on all who oppose them. Their newest target: the remote Philippine island of Mindanao. On the brink of civil war, success in Mindanao would trigger a chain reaction across the Pacific, threatening democracy and peace around the world.

Haunted by the failure of his last mission and the lost lives of his team, Thomas Thornton had hoped to escape his former life as a military operative, seeking the calm beauty of tropical Mindanao. When two West Point friends, now high ranking officials in the government and military, ask him to run one last op, he finds himself in the fray once more. Thornton recruits a hunter-killer team of Manobo tribesmen to begin covert actions against the insurgency. The mission: eliminate a Turkish warrior carrying millions in cash into Mindanao to finance an Islamic revolution. The deal: make the Turk and the cash disappear, no questions asked.

The Bones of Avalon ($1.54 / £0.99 UK), by Phil Rickman, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $12.99). For Phil Rickman fans, there are actually several of his titles in the Kindle store that are under $5 for UK customers and under $5 for those in the US, although UK customers get a bit bigger selection for this popular UK author.
Book Description
It is 1560, and Elizabeth Tudor has been on the throne for a year. Dr John Dee, at 32 already acclaimed throughout Europe, is her astrologer and consultant in the hidden arts... a controversial appointment in these days of superstition and religious strife. Now the mild, bookish Dee has been sent to Glastonbury to find the missing bones of King Arthur, whose legacy was always so important to the Tudor line. With him - hardly the safest companion - is his friend and former student, Robert Dudley, a risk-taker, a wild card... and possibly the Queen's secret lover. The famously mystical town is still mourning the gruesome execution of its Abbot, Richard Whiting. But why was the Abbot really killed? What is the secret held by the monks since the Abbey was founded by Joseph of Arimathea, uncle of Christ and guardian of the Holy Grail? The mission takes Dee to the tangled roots of English magic, into unexpected violence, necromantic darkness, the breathless stirring of first love... and the cold heart of a complex plot against Elizabeth.

Waking Hours ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), the starting title in the East Salem Trilogy by Lis Wiehl, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
All towns have secrets. Some have demons.

Welcome to East Salem. A sleepy town with a history older than America where things are just a bit off. Where the supernatural bleeds into the everyday.

And where a tragic murder mystery is underway. A high school girl is found dead in the town park. And where forensic psychiatrist Dani Harris wants answers. All the suspects are teenagers who were at the party with her the night before—but who woke up the next morning with no memory of what transpired. Even though evidence confirms they were all at the scene of the crime.

Former pro-football linebacker—and local celebrity—Tommy Gunderson finds himself drawn to the case. And to Dani—who he last spoke with on their one high school date forever ago. Yet his celebrity status opens doors barred to Dani—so they form an awkward alliance.

They soon realize that there’s more to the mystery than murder. And more to the evil they are facing than a mere human killer.

Free Books - Zombie Kong (K)

Zombie Kong, by James Roy Daley, and the Zombie Kong - Anthology, by David Niall Wilson, Tonia Brown, William Meikle and Simon McCaffery, are both free on Kindle.
Zombie Kong

While a 50-foot tall zombie gorilla smashes the hell out of a small town, Candice Wanglund drags her son Jake through the hazardous streets in an attempt to get away from the man that is determined to kill them. She wishes her husband Dale was by her side; he would know what to do. The good news––Dale’s alive. Problem is, he was eaten by Kong.

Zombie Kong - Anthology
Zombies are bad, but ZOMBIE KONG is worse. Way worse.

Big. Bad. Heavy. Hungry. From James Roy Daley, the man that brought you the highly successful BEST NEW ZOMBIE TALES series, comes the most original zombie anthology of all time. In the jungles, in the arctic, in the cities, in the towns -- Zombie Kong rules them all. All other zombies must bow to their god... ZOMBIE KONG!

A must have for any zombie enthusiast!

Includes:
Dr. Steven Rutgers - Understanding Zombie Kong
Shelley Ontis - Manny’s Candy
David Niall Wilson - In Today’s News (Somewhere In Suburbia - Part 1)
Simon McCaffery - The Boys In Company Z
Steve Ruthenbeck - Lyceum
Adrian Ludens -The Elephant In The Room
Amanda C. Davis - Last Chance In Ape City
Mark Onspaugh - Dear Fay Wray, We Need Your Help…
Gustavo Bondoni - Shadow Of The Gorilla
Rebecca Snow - Monkey See
Megan R. Engelhardt - The Gorilla That Would Not Die!
Tonia Brown - My Life Was Saved By Coffee (Somewhere In Suburbia - Part 2)
Michael O’Neal - Kooking With Kong
Max Vile - Bits & Pieces
Trever Palmer - Reach For The Sky
TW Brown - Iced
William Meikle - The Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of
T. A. Wardrope - The Upright Gorilla

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Today's Deals

If you didn't take advantage of it before, the $10 eTextBook promotion at Amazon is back, but expires today. You can go directly to the Promo page or read my earlier post for more instructions. There are a few titles under $10 (buy and/or rent) in both the US and Canada, although you'll have to do a bit of searching to find them. The books that qualify for the promotion have also changed up a bit, as I noticed that none of the specific ones I mentioned last time are on the list this time around (and their prices went up, also).

Additional formats on these free books are now available:

The Fall of the Roman Empire ($1.99), by Peter Heather, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day.
Book Description
The death of the Roman Empire is one of the perennial mysteries of world history. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Peter Heather proposes a stunning new solution: Rome generated its own nemesis. Centuries of imperialism turned the neighbors it called barbarians into an enemy capable of dismantling the Empire that had dominated their lives for so long.

Heather is a leading authority on the late Roman Empire and on the barbarians. In The Fall of the Roman Empire, he explores the extraordinary success story that was the Roman Empire and uses a new understanding of its continued strength and enduring limitations to show how Europe's barbarians, transformed by centuries of contact with Rome on every possible level, eventually pulled it apart. He shows first how the Huns overturned the existing strategic balance of power on Rome's European frontiers, to force the Goths and others to seek refuge inside the Empire. This prompted two generations of struggle, during which new barbarian coalitions, formed in response to Roman hostility, brought the Roman west to its knees. The Goths first destroyed a Roman army at the battle of Hadrianople in 378, and went on to sack Rome in 410. The Vandals spread devastation in Gaul and Spain, before conquering North Africa, the breadbasket of the Western Empire, in 439. We then meet Attila the Hun, whose reign of terror swept from Constantinople to Paris, but whose death in 453 ironically precipitated a final desperate phase of Roman collapse culminating in the Vandals' defeat of the massive Byzantine Armada: the west's last chance for survival.

Peter Heather convincingly argues that the Roman Empire was not on the brink of social or moral collapse. What brought it to an end were the barbarians.

Small Steps ($1.52 / £0.99 UK), by Louis Sachar, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99). This sequel to Holes is again aimed at middle grade readers.
Book Description
Armpit and X-Ray are living in Austin, Texas. It is three years since they left the confines of Camp Green Lake Detention Centre and Armpit is taking small steps to turn his life around. He is working for a landscape gardener because he is good at digging holes, he is going to school and he is enjoying his first proper romance, but is he going to be able to stay out of trouble when there is so much building up against him?

In this exciting novel, Armpit is joined by many vibrant new characters, and is learning what it takes to stay on course, and that doing the right thing is never the wrong choice.

Prayfit: Your Guide to A Healthy Body and A Stronger Faith in 28 Days ($5.40 Kindle, B&N), by Jimmy Pena and Jimmy Page, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
From the exercise physiologist of Tyler Perry and Mario Lopez comes PrayFit, a whole person fitness system designed to strengthen body and deepen faith. At its core, PrayFit is about effort: giving your best in two areas that are vital to well-being—faith and fitness. The underlying approach is simple: Make a daily appointment to spend quality time with the Lord and to exercise.

This 28-day plan guides readers of any fitness level to begin a workout routine that can be done at home with little to no equipment, to make small but effective changes in their diet and to grow in biblical knowledge and spiritual strength. As they follow the specially designed meal plans and workouts, readers will see the physical results of their efforts almost immediately—and as they reflect on the daily devotional reading (contributions from Pastor Jimmy Page, VP of Field Ministry and National Director of Wellness for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes) and Scripture verses, they will begin to understand the eternal dimension of giving their best. Living God’s promised abundant life isn’t only about faith . . . though that’s where it starts. PrayFit is the best way to claim that promise both inside and out.

iTunes has a preview edition of E.O. Wilson's Life on Earth(National Edition), by Gael McGill, Edward O. Wilson & Morgan Ryan, currently free to download. It's only 51 pages, but there should be enough there to be worth the look.
Book Description
E. O. Wilson’s Life on Earth is a new digital biology textbook for high school students now under development by the E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. This download includes a preview of the book and a sample chapter—“Introduction to Ecology" —that introduces students to how biologists think about the variety and patterns of life on Earth.

In the preview, you can see examples of how we teach biology....

In the Amazon Appstore, Oceanhouse Media, Inc is having a half-price sale on their Little Critter animated book series, bringing down each one to 99 cents. If you have a Kindle Fire or Android Tablet and small children, you'll want to at least take a look, if not collect the entire series.
Book Description
  • Choose from 1 of the 3 ways to read this omBook: Read to Me, Read it Myself, or Auto Play
  • Listen to the professional narration and background audio adding music and sound effects
  • View original illustrations from Dr. Seuss
  • Read or follow along as the words are highlighted; touch words for a repeat
  • Touch any image on the screen and the word will zoom up and be spoken aloud

Today's backlist/indie free books on Kindle (not likely to be free for long):

Free Book - Nicolas Slonimsky: Writings on Music (K-CA)

Nicolas Slonimsky: Writings on Music: Early Writings: 1, a textbook by Nicolas Slonimsky and Electra Yourke, is free for Canadian customers only in the Kindle store. This is no doubt a pricing glitch, as the US edition is $92, so grab it if you can.
Book Description
Nicolas Slonimsky (1894-1995) was an influential and celebrated writer on music. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1894, in his 101 years he taught and coached music; conducted the premieres of several 20th century masterpieces; composed works for piano and voice; and oversaw the 5th-8th editions of the classic "Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians." Beginning in 1926, Slonimsky resided in the United States. From his arrival, he wrote provocative articles on contemporary music and musicians, many of whom were his personal friends. Working as a freelance author, he built a large file of reviews, articles, and even manuscripts for books that were never published. This is the first volume of a 4 volume collection on the best of this material.

Free Book - Instant Self-Hypnosis (K/N/E/P/I)

Update: 1/28/12 Now free from Sourcebooks.
Update: 1/24/12 Now free from iTunes.
Update: 1/22/12 Now free in the US Kindle store.

Instant Self-Hypnosis: How to Hypnotize Yourself with Your Eyes Open (US/UK), by Forbes Blair, is free for UK customers in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble. It should be free for US Kindle customers by morning.
Book 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.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from iTunes.
Get the free ebook from Sourcebooks.

Free Book - Finders Keepers (K/N/E)

Update: 1/28/12 Now free from Sony.
Update: 1/22/12 Now free in the US Kindle store and from ChristianBook.

Finders Keepers (US/UK), by Catherine Palmer, is free for UK customers in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble, courtesy of Christian publisher Tyndale House. It should be free for US Kindle customers by morning and likely at ChristianBook, as well.
Book Description
Award-winning author Catherine Palmer presents the first novel in another HeartQuest series. Fiery Elizabeth Hayes is determined to preserve Chalmers House, the Victorian mansion next to her growing antiques business. But Zachary Chalmers, heir to the mansion, has very different plans. Together they learn that God has the best plans of all-if we will only surrender to him.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.
Get the free ebook from Sony.