Bargain Book/Music Roundup

I'm going to start off with a music deal, that I found while looking for the Google Deals today: Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto (Amazon/Google) album is 25 cents! I haven't seen it announced at Google, so this might be today's album or it might not (and could change price at any time). I'll post later with the Google deals, as this one might expire in a couple of hours...

I also uncovered a number of 25 cent songs at Amazon, which seem to share some sort of strange Christmas theme. It's not the right time of year, to be sure, but there are a few gems hiding in there that you might want to add to your library.

Next up, there are a couple of free songs from the Hunger Games movie: Amazon has Offical Hunger Games Instrumental, while Google is giving away (today only; likely expires at 3 or 4 PM ET) Taylor Swift's Safe & Sound (it's a dollar at Amazon, so I'll just upload the version from Google to my cloud; you can download your Google music two times using the Play website or as many times as you like with the Google Play Music Manager). That track features The Civil Wars and you'll find several of their songs for free at Google, also (click on the "Free" button at the end of the individual songs).


Succubus Blues ($3.99 Kindle, Google) is the start of another series by Richelle Mead, featuring Georgina Kincaid. It looks like the second in the series, Succubus On Top, is also currently bargain priced.

Book Description
When it comes to jobs in hell, being a succubus seems pretty glamorous. A girl can be anything she wants, the wardrobe is killer, and mortal men will do anything just for a touch. Granted, they often pay with their souls, but why get technical?

But Seattle succubus Georgina Kincaid's life is far less exotic. At least there's her day job at a local bookstore--free books; all the white chocolate mochas she can drink; and easy access to bestselling, sexy writer, Seth Mortensen, aka He Whom She Would Give Anything to Touch but Can't.

But dreaming about Seth will have to wait. Something wicked is at work in Seattle's demon underground. And for once, all of her hot charms and drop-dead one-liners won't help because Georgina's about to discover there are some creatures out there that both heaven and hell want to deny. . .

I'm always happy to see more JRR Tolkien in ebook form and even happier when it priced like The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun ($2.74), edited by Christopher Tolkien.

Book Description
Many years ago, J.R.R. Tolkien composed his own version of the great legend of Northern antiquity, recounted here in The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún.

In the Lay of the Völsungs is told the ancestry of the great hero Sigurd, the slayer of Fáfnir, most celebrated of dragons; of his awakening of the Valkyrie Brynhild, who slept surrounded by a wall of fire, and of their betrothal; and of his coming to the court of the great princes who were named the Niflungs (or Nibelungs), with whom he entered into blood-brotherhood.

In scenes of dramatic intensity, of confusion of identity, thwarted passion, jealousy, and bitter strife, the tragedy of Sigurd and Brynhild, of Gunnar the Niflung and Gudrún his sister, mounts to its end in the murder of Sigurd, the suicide of Brynhild, and the despair of Gudrún.

The Lay of Gudrún recounts her fate after the death of Sigurd, her marriage against her will to the mighty Atli, ruler of the Huns (the Attila of history), his murder of her brothers, and her hideous revenge.

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by Timothy Egan, has dropped for everyone and can now be borrowed from the Kindle Lending Library.

Book Description
In a tour de force of historical reportage, Timothy Egan’s National Book Award–winning story rescues an iconic chapter of American history from the shadows.

The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Timothy Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, he does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, “the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect” (New York Times). In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, The Worst Hard Time is “arguably the best nonfiction book yet” (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful reminder about the dangers of trifling with nature.

Eating Animals ($4.99 Kindle, Google), by Jonathan Safran Foer

Book Description
Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian. But on the brink of fatherhood-facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child's behalf-his casual questioning took on an urgency His quest for answers ultimately required him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probe some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong. Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, memoir and his own detective work, Eating Animals explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits-from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth-and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting. Marked by Foer's profound moral ferocity and unvarying generosity, as well as the vibrant style and creativity that made his previous books, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, widely loved, Eating Animals is a celebration and a reckoning, a story about the stories we've told-and the stories we now need to tell.

Altar of Eden ($1.99 Kindle, Google), by James Rollins

Book Description
Following the fall of Baghdad, two Iraqi boys stumble upon armed men looting the city zoo. The floodgates have been opened for the smuggling of hundreds of exotic birds, mammals, and reptiles to Western nations, but this crime hides a deeper secret. Amid a hail of bullets, a concealed underground weapons lab is ransacked—and something even more horrific is set free.

Seven years later, Louisiana state veterinarian Lorna Polk stumbles upon a fishing trawler shipwrecked on a barrier island. The crew is missing or dead, but the boat holds a frightening cargo: a caged group of exotic animals, clearly part of a black market smuggling ring.

Yet, something is wrong with these beasts, disturbing deformities that make no sense: a parrot with no feathers, a pair of Capuchin monkeys conjoined at the hip, a jaguar cub with the dentition of a saber-toothed tiger. They also all share one uncanny trait—a disturbingly heightened intelligence.

To uncover the truth about the origin of this strange cargo and the terrorist threat it poses, Lorna must team up with a man who shares a dark and bloody past with her and is now an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol, Jack Menard.

Together, the two must hunt for a beast that escaped the shipwreck while uncovering a mystery tied to fractal science and genetic engineering, all to expose a horrifying secret that traces back to humankind's earliest roots.

But can Lorna stop what is about to be born upon the altar of Eden before it threatens not only the world but also the very foundation of what it means to be human?

Relative Danger ($0.99), by Charles Benoit, is another from Poisoned Pen Press that I may have to add to my TBR list. From the starred review at Booklist: "with a debut novel this good, it's hard to believe he hasn't published at least 10 previous books."

Book Description
Picture a Singapore hotel room in 1948. Picture a dispute between black marketer and thief Russell Pearce and an associate­—one who opens fire and murders Russell Pearce.

Fast forward to present-day Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Young Doug Pearce, just fired from his steady job in the brewery, has never strayed far from home. But he’s always found stories of his Uncle Russ, the family black sheep, fascinating. In comes a letter from an old friend of his dead uncle inviting him up to Toronto. Doug, at loose ends and bored with killing time, accepts. On arrival, he learns that wealthy and glamorous Edna wants Doug to solve the murder of Russell Pearce and exonerate the chief suspect. And what about the legendary red diamond he was thought to be smuggling?

Doug, nervous but game, agrees to play detective. How bad can it be to jet off to a glamour spot or two and have an adventure? Whoa! By the end of his first day in Casablanca, Doug knows he’s made a mistake. And while he meets people eager to help—a retired museum curator, a beautiful and self-absorbed heiress, and her elderly grandfather, a colleague of Russell Pearce—it becomes clear that someone else is interested in Doug and his quest.

From Morocco to Egypt to Bahrain to Singapore, Doug stumbles on. And whether he’s escaping across Cairo rooftops, ducking bullets in a high-speed desert chase, or killing time in a crowded Egyptian jail cell, Doug is sure of one thing: He has no clue what he’s doing. But surely he’ll think of something as he’s propelled full circle back to Singapore and the famed Raffles Hotel. He’s definitely not 007...but will he prove to be a zero?

Past Imperfect ($0.99), by Kathleen Hills, kicks off her John McIntire mystery series.

Book Description
A grizzled Lake Superior fisherman with a massive allergy to bees dies very early one morning alone on his boat. Was he stung to death? John McIntire, retired from a career in military intelligence and striving to regain a place in his boyhood home after 30 years away, is serving as township constable. He questions the easy verdict. The town of St. Adele has little experience with violent death — or murder. Nor does McIntire, despite fighting in two world wars. Worse, all the suspects are friends and neighbors, men and women he grew up with “talking Swede.” The dead man, last of a Norwegian family who came to raise apples in the struggling rural township sandwiched between the Huron Mountains of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the southern shore of Lake Superior, had no real enemies despite his gruff temper. And he had little to leave aside from a heavily mortgaged boat. So, who wanted to kill him?

Saddened by violence striking Utopia, worried his British bride might cut and run, his task complicated by taciturn witnesses and six party telephone lines, the naturally humorous McIntire, while bringing a murderer to justice, struggles to evolve a new perspective on a rural community he has idealized for three decades. Rich in magnificent landscape, vivid characters stepping from a past both thoroughly Midwestern and multi-ethnic, and a secret-laden story, filled with laughter and warm insights

A Season of Angels ($4.99 Kindle, Google), by Debbie Macomber, has just been released in a "reprint edition" from HarperCollins.

Book Description
Wishes for love bring hope from above.

Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy—three willing but sometimes wayward angels—are each given someone's prayer to answer . . .

Shirley: She's sent to help nine-year-old Timmy Potter, who longs for a new father. And although his mother, Jody, has vowed never to trust any man, Shirley is determined to help her love again.

Goodness: She knows Monica Fischer longs for a husband and home of her own, but the young woman has practically given up on finding the right man to stand by her side . . . until Goodness steps in to help.

Mercy: Can Mercy bring hope back into Leah Lundberg's life? This maternity nurse desperately wants a child to fill up the home she's made with her husband, Andrew.

But there's just one catch: Each angel must teach her charge a memorable lesson before the prayer can be granted . . .

Eat This, Not That! 2012: The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by David Zinczenko

Book Description
With an angry food industry hot on their heels and a ravenous fan base clamoring for more, Zinczenko and Goulding once again redefine the American food landscape.

Featuring up-to-the-minute information on the ever-changing array of supermarket and restaurant offerings, Eat This, Not That! 2012 reveals the shocking calorie counts, mind-bending sugar and fat loads, and deceptive advertising and marketing techniques that are making America fat — and gives readers the information they need to fight back.

Packed with cool tips, industry secrets, and essential nutrition knowledge, Eat This, Not That! 2012 is a must-have for anyone who cares about what they eat — and how they look.

About the Authors
DAVID ZINCZENKO is the editor-in-chief of Men’s Health magazine and the author of New York Times bestsellers The Abs Diet, The Abs Diet for Women, and Cook This, Not That! He splits his time between New York City and Allentown, PA.
MATT GOULDING is a contributing food and nutrition editor of Men’s Health and former professional chef. He lives in North Carolina.

Lavinia ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by Ursula K. Le Guin, should appeal to adults and teens.

Book Description
In a richly imagined, beautiful new novel, an acclaimed writer gives an epic heroine her voice....

In The Aeneid, Vergil’s hero fights to claim the king’s daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Lavinia herself never speaks a word. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills.

Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come. Her mother wants her to marry handsome, ambitious Turnus. But omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner—that she will be the cause of a bitter war—and that her husband will not live long. When a fleet of Trojan ships sails up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to take her destiny into her own hands. And so she tells us what Vergil did not: the story of her life, and of the love of her life.

Lavinia is a book of passion and war, generous and austerely beautiful, from a writer working at the height of her powers.

About the Author
Ursula K. Le Guin was born in Berkeley, California, in 1929. Among her honors are a National Book Award, five Hugo and five Nebula Awards, the Kafka Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

The Crimson Petal and the White ($2.51), by Michel Faber, weighs in at 922 pages in print and has one amazing review after another from book critics.

Book Description
Meet Sugar, a nineteen-year-old prostitute in nineteenth-century London who yearns for escape to a better life. From the brothel of the terrifying Mrs. Castaway, she begins her ascent through society, meeting a host of lovable, maddening, unforgettable characters on the way. They begin with William Rackham, an egotistical perfume magnate whose empire is fueled by his lust for Sugar; his unhinged, child-like wife Agnes; his mysteriously hidden-away daughter, Sophie; and his pious brother Henry, foiled in his devotional calling by a persistently less-than-chaste love for the Widow Fox. All this is overseen by assorted preening socialites, drunken journalists, untrustworthy servants, vile guttersnipes, and whores of all stripes and persuasions.

Teeming with life, this is a big, juicy must-read of a novel that has enthralled hundreds of thousands of readers-and will continue to do so for years to come.

Today's Deals

Additional formats on free books:

• Business Strategies for the Bottom of the Pyramid (K/N)
• Curious Folks Ask 2 (K/N)
• Let's Get Real About Money! (K/N)
• The Personal Credibility Factor (K/N)
• When Core Values Are Strategic (K/N)

We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance ($0.99), by David Howarth with an intro by Stephen E. Ambrose, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day. This was a family member's choice for the recent $1 Biography book in the KSO deals - now everyone can grab it at a penny less than he paid.

Book Description
Here is one of the most exciting escape narratives to emerge from the challenges and miseries of World War Two. In March 1943, a team of expatriate Norwegian commandos sailed from northern England for Nazi-occupied arctic Norway to organize and supply the Norwegian resistance. But they were betrayed and the Nazis ambushed them. Only one man survived - Jan Baalsrud. This is the incredible and gripping story of his escape. Frostbitten and snowblind, pursued by the Nazis, he dragged himself on until he reached a small arctic village. He was near death, delirious, and a virtual cripple. But the villagers, at mortal risk to themselves, were determined to save him, and - through impossible feats - they did. We Die Alone is an astonishing true story of heroism and endurance. Like Salvomir Rawicz's The Long Walk, it is also an unforgettable portrait of the determination of the human spirit.

About the Author
During World War Two, David Howarth ran a spy ring from which both this volume and his previous bestseller - The Shetland Bus - derive. A renowned and respected historian, who wrote over two dozen books, Howarth died in 1991.

Roma ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), the first title in the Rome series by Steven Saylor, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99, but is periodically discounted, as well).

Book Description
Roma is the story of the ancient city of Rome, from its mythic beginnings as a campsite along a trade route to its emergence as the centre of the most extensive, powerful empire in the ancient world.

Beginning with the prehistory days when Roma was a way station among seven hills for traders and merchants and the founding of the city itself by Romulus and Remus, critically acclaimed historical novelist Steven Saylor tells the epic saga of a city and its people, its rise to prominence among the city-states of the area, and, ultimately, dominance over the entire ancient Western world.

From the tragedy of Coriolanus, to the Punic Wars and the invasion by Hannibal, the triumph and murder of Julius Caesar, and the rise and decline of the Roman Republic and the beginnings of Imperial Rome, Saylor's breathtaking novel brings to vivid life the most famous city of the ancient world.

Roma is Saylor's finest achievement, an epic in the truest sense of the word.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk High School: 101 Stories of Life, Love, and Learning for Older Teens ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Jack Canfield, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Teens talk high school, sharing their stories about sports and clubs, driving, curfews, self-image and self-acceptance, dating and sex, family, friends, divorce, illness, death, pregnancy, drinking, failure, and preparing for life after graduation. High school students will find comfort and inspiration in this book, referring to it through all four years of high school, like a portable support group.

Dinosaurs Love Underpants ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort, is the Nook Daily Find for Families, price matched on Kindle. Note that the Kindle version only works on the Kindle Fire and the nook edition is a "NOOK Kids Read to Me" edition, which has features that only work on the nook Color or nook Tablet, although I don't see the usual disclaimer that the book will only work on their color devices (which I suspect is an oversight).

Book Description
The mystery of dinosaur extinction is solved! Scientists have plenty of theories about why dinosaurs are extinct, but the UK’s bestselling authorillustrator team of Claire Freedman and Ben Cort knows the real answer: The dinos were wiped out in an Underpants War! This wacky celebration of underpants is perfect for reading aloud, and the hilarious antics of T. rex and the gang are endlessly entertaining. Featuring fun, vibrant art and short, rhyming text, Dinosaurs Love Underpants is a prehistoric pleasure parents and kids will want to read again and again.

Free Book - Tau Ceti (K)

Tau Ceti, by Kevin J. Anderson, is free in the Kindle store, courtesy of Phoenix Pick. This is the first book in the Stellar Guild Series, which will feature a different, big name SF author for each title. Also included with the named novel is a sequel sovelette by Steven Savile. It looks like the second in the series has also been released, Reboots, by Mercedes Lackey (plus a novelette by Cody Martin); it's only $4.99 and has a very interesting premise on who (or, perhaps, what) should be recruited for space exploration.

Book Description
Jorie Taylor has lived her whole life on the generation ship Beacon. Fleeing an Earth tearing itself apart from its exhaustive demand for resources, the Beacon is finally approaching Sarbras, the planet circling Tau Ceti they hope to make humanity’s new home.

But Earth has recovered from its near-death experience and is now under the control of a ruthless dictator whose sights are set on Tau Ceti as well. President Jurudu knows how to get what he wants—and he wants Sarbras.

Free Book - Summer Rose (K)

Summer Rose, the second title in the bestselling Hawks Mountain series by Elizabeth Sinclair, is free in the Kindle store, courtesy of Bell Bridge Books. It looks like the first title in the series, Hawks Mountain, was free last August, but if you missed it, it is currently in the Kindle Lending Library.

Book Description
Can their love survive a secret he never suspected?

A tragedy transformed Rose Hamilton from a surrogate mother for her beloved foster sister into a single mom expecting twins. But when she walks into Dr. Hunter Mackenzie's West Virginia wildlife rehab clinic - with her pregnancy still a secret - all he sees is a gorgeous, likable woman applying for a job. Rose doesn't want a romance with the handsome veterinarian who doesn't suspect that she's expecting, and who's already got plenty of trouble thanks to a mayor who wants to rid his town of Mac's lion cubs and injured wolves. Why would a man who obviously loves the wild life want to fall in love with a ready-made family?

Free Book - Temptation (N)

Temptation ($3.44 Kindle), by Brenda Jackson, is this week's Free Friday book from Barnes & Noble.

Book Description
Millionaire security expert and rancher Zeke Travers always separates emotion from work until a case leads him to Sheila Hopkins—and the immediate, scorching heat between them. Suddenly, Zeke is tempted to break the rules. And it's only a matter of time before he gives in….

Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Free Book Roundup

Looks like I missed a day at Read an EBook Week, this year. Here are the offerings for day 5:

• Over at AllRomance EBooks, there are a total of 537 free books this week. I really suspect most of them are free all the time, but if you see some you really want, be sure to grab them by the weekend ends.
• central avenue publisher has three books up: False Witness by Anita Rodgers; In The Eye of the Beholder by Beverly Cialone; The Fantabulous Fens by Gautam Sen
• Twilight Times Books has added No place for Gods by Gerald Mills and Striking Back from Down Under by Dr. Bob Rich
• The Untreed Reads Store is giving away Serere (Prelude to THE GARDEN) by Andy Frankham-Allen
• Dorrance Publishing is giving away The Oasis Project by Art Adkins
• RoseDog Books offering Jesus Priceless Treasure, More than Friend to Me by James F. Morin
• Red Lead Press is offering Wisdom From the Master Forces by Elwood Babbitt

E-Reads is participating in RaEBW this year and are giving away two books: Suspicion of Innocence ($5.79 Kindle), by Barbara Parker, and Fellowship of Fear (Gideon Oliver) ($3.49 Kindle), by Aaron Elkins. Download them in EPUB or MOBI format from their website, this week only.

Suspicion of Innocence
Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana make a combustible mix on many levels. Passionately attracted to each other on a personal level, they are equally passionate defenders of their clients even when their interests don’t always work in tandem. Set all this against the sultry background of a Miami that is riddled with crime and corruption, drowning in drugs, illegal immigrants and shady deals, simmering with a melting-pot clash of cultures and you have a recipe for highly entertaining, hotly explosive crime and justice. In the first title in the Suspicion series, SUSPICION OF INNOCENCE, Gail Conner is a fast-rising attorney in a major law firm, about to make partner—until her life is derailed by the discovery of her sister’s murdered body and the quick revelation that Gail is the prime suspect. Gail must fight for her life as she gets a first-hand look at the dark underside of the legal system.

Fellowship of Fear (Gideon Oliver)
When anthropology professor Gideon Oliver is offered a teaching fellowship at U.S. military bases in Germany, Sicily, Spain, and Holland, he wastes no time accepting. Stimulating courses to teach, a decent stipend, all expenses paid, plenty of interesting European travel . . . what's not to like?

It doesn't take him long to find out. On his first night, he is forced to fend off two desperate, black-clad men who have invaded his Heidelberg hotel room with intent to kill. And then there's the little matter of a few trivial details that the recruiting agency forgot to mention—such as the fact that the two previous holders of the fellowship both met with mysterious ends.

Today's backlist/small press/indie, totally free, books for everyone on Kindle. These are are not likely to be free for long, so double check prices before one-clicking (genres are my best guess), as most of them go back up after a day or two (sometimes less), at which point most of them become eligible for the Kindle Lending Library.

• A Bad Spell in Yurt, by C. Dale Brittain (fantasy)
• The Reluctant Lady , by Alicia Rasley (romance)
• Three SF short stories, by Elisabeth Waters (pdf, her web site)
• Sky Pirates, by William King (SF)
• Loss Leader, by Simon Haynes (SF Short Story)
• Adversaries and Lovers, by Patricia Watters (romance)
• EARLY EIGHT (TERRY SALTZ MYSTERIES) [, by L.T. Fawkes
• To Seduce an Earl, by Lori Brighton (romance)
• SUSPENSE THRILLERS-A Boxed Set, by Billie Sue Mosiman
• Cora's Deception (Brides of Cedar Creek), by Mildred Colvin (Christian romance)
• Coming Home, by Graylin Fox (urban fantasy)
• Bad Radio (The Emergent Earth) and Walker, by Michael Langlois (fantasy/SF)
• Food To Die Smiling For, by Linda S. Prather (Short Stories)
• The Last Resident: The Love Story of a British Official and an Indian Princess, by Shahzad Rivzi
• Soul and Shadow (A Lily Evans Mystery), by Susan J. McLeod
• Time to Time: Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective, by Don Pendleton
• Secrets Exposed, by Lisa Renee Jones (romance)
• The Book of Man, by Barry Graham
• Mystery Short Stories, by Julie/N.C. Hyzy
• The Blood Upon the Rose, by Tim Vicary (Mystery & Thrillers)
• 25 Easy Cook Recipes For Meatloaf : Quick & Simple Recipes with Ground Meat (and a veggie one too!) (The Green Gourmet), by Lori Jane Stewart
• Four More Fantastic Bedtime Stories for Children 3-6! (A Pocketful of Dinosaurs, Happy Healthy Hearts, Ninja Robot Repairmen and My Little Pet Dragon: Special Mixed-Up Edition), by Scott Gordon
• Implicated, by Peter Michael Rosenberg
• When I Found You, by Catherine Ryan Hyde
• A New Dawn In Montana, by Isla Teague (romance)
• Frumpy to Fabulous: Flaunting It. Your Ultimate Guide to Effortless Style, by Natalie Jobity and Ann-Cathrine Loo (Illustrator)
• Storm Surge (A Jonie Waters Mystery), by Tamara Ward
• The Serpent in the Glass, by D.M. Andrews (fantasy)
• Airel (The Airel Saga, Book 1), by Aaron Patterson and Chris White (paranormal romance)
• The Governor's Sons, by Maria McKenzie (romance)
• Chicken Recipes To Die For, by Heather Richardson
• Blind Courage, by Bill Irwin (non-fiction/outdoor travel)
• Killing Hope (Gabe Quinn Thriller), by Keith Houghton
• Winter's Awakening: The Metahumans Emerge, by Karen Luellen (YA fantasy)
• Grandma's Best Cookie Recipes, by Marg Ruttan
• Amber Eyes (Entwined Souls Trilogy), by Jolyn Palliata (YA romance)
• A Twist of Fate, by Karen Michelle Nutt (historical romance)
• Ultimate Webinar Marketing Guide, by Lewis Howes (so, does he have 27 best friends and family or is he going a bit overboard with the fake 5-stay reviews?)
• Fated (The Bloodstone Saga), by Courtney Cole
• The Witch's Mirror (The Oracle War), by J.P. Hyzer
• Duncan Delaney and the Cadillac of Doom, by A. L. Haskett (humor)
• Prelude to a Wedding and A Stranger in the Family, by Patricia McLinn (romance/Smashwords)
• Chasing the Panda: How an Unlikely Pair of Adventurers Won the Race to Capture the Mythical "White Bear", by Michael Kiefer (non-fiction)
• The Moon Maiden (The Cnossos Trilogy), by S.V. Peddle (Historical Fiction)
• Galaxy Riff, by Stephen Beam (sf short)
• Lightless, by Edward W. Robertson (novella)
• Falling From Grace, by Stephen Melling (short)
• Fortune Smiles, by Amber Sistla (short)
• Lashed, by Ella Vines (erotica)
• Dutiful Daughter, by Christopher Kellen (sf short)
• Two romance novels, by Kate Rothwell (smashwords)
• Several books by Shanna Hatfield (romance/smashwords with coupon)
• Two books by Aaron Polson (Mystery & Thrillers)
• Two books by Matt R. Jones (vampires)

Audible Win-Win Sale: $4.95 Audiobooks

It's Back!

Audible's bi-annual Win-Win Sale is back, with over 200 audiobooks at $4.95 each. There are a few shown when you first click the link, but if you click on the Author links below (there are 4, for sections of the alphabet and the Editor's Picks), you'll open up a table below with dozens of books for each section. The selections are all mixed up, as far as genre, so you'll need to scan thru each table to locate those you are likely to listen to; I know I've seen SciFi, Fantasy, Non-Fiction, Contemporary Literature and many other genres, as I've skimmed thru the lists. The sale ends March 13, 2012 at 11 AM ET, so you have the weekend to make your choices.

One good looking choice: Ghost Story, the 13th in the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

Note that if you aren't logged in, don't have a subscription membership or are outside the geographic area (likely the US), then you may not see any of the sale items or the sale prices. Remember, though, if you haven't had a membership before, you can get a trial subscription, take advantage of the sale and then cancel the subscription; you should get offered a $10/year membership at that point, which will qualify you for future sales, as well.

Bargain Book/Game/Music/Movie Roundup

Today's Google Play video rental for 25 cents is Vicky Cristina Barcelona starring Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson (it's $3.99 at Amazon). I watched Puncture yesterday on my tablet and it was OK - it's a pain to have to hold it the entire movie (and watching on the phone results in a hot phone and dead battery), but I may try plugging it into the TV to see how that works (the one other time I tried this, the resolution simply wasn't as good as even using the Roku box). Until Google fixes up a channel on either the TV or Roku box, though, I don't know that I'd recommend them for most movie watching, unless you always watch on your laptop, which is what I'll probably try for the next one, it's just a lot more of a pain to hook it up to the TV so more than one person can see it). At least this movie has a 30 day period to start watching it (I think, from reading the page), instead of the ridiculous 24 period the last one had.

Kitchen Confidential ($0.25 Kindle, Google), by Anthony Bourdain, is today's Google Play Deal of the Day, and Amazon is price matching it (just double check the price before clicking, as I had to refresh a couple of times to see the price). I already have this in mobi format, but for a quarter I'm buying it again at Amazon, so it'll be back up in my library.

Book Description
Kitchen Confidential reveals what Bourdain calls "twenty-five years of sex, drugs, bad behavior and haute cuisine."

Last summer, The New Yorker published Chef Bourdain’s shocking, "Don’t Eat Before Reading This." Bourdain spared no one’s appetite when he told all about what happens behind the kitchen door. Bourdain uses the same "take-no-prisoners" attitude in his deliciously funny and shockingly delectable book, sure to delight gourmands and philistines alike. From Bourdain’s first oyster in the Gironde, to his lowly position as dishwasher in a honky tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown (where he witnesses for the first time the real delights of being a chef); from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, to drug dealers in the east village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain’s tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable. Kitchen Confidential will make your mouth water while your belly aches with laughter. You’ll beg the chef for more, please.

Lady Antebellum's Own The Night ($0.25 Amazon; Google) album is today's MP3 Deal of the Day from Google. The Amazon version includes the digital booklet (although you can get it at the same price, without the booklet).

Book Description
After you've conquered the world, what do you do for a follow-up? In the wake of Lady Antebellum's 2010 blockbuster, Need You Now, the trio's third album finds the group untroubled by that question. Lady A sagely stays the course, mixing post-Sugarland radio-ready anthems with dashes of R&B, roots rock and '70s singer-songwriter influences. Those who started calling them "the country Fleetwood Mac" when they first appeared will have little reason to alter that appellation, as Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood and Hillary Scott continue to blend their voices and songwriting skills seamlessly on slow-burning tear-jerkers ("Dancin' Away with My Heart") and up-tempo jukebox fodder ("Friday Night") alike, with expertly baited hooks to spare. Jim Allen, Google Play

Quell Reflect ($0.25 Amazon; Google), by Fallen Tree Games, is today's App Deal from Google Play, price matched at Amazon. I'm not sure how it works, but it does have almost all 5-star reviews at Amazon (and hey, with all three of these, I've still spent less than a buck today, so why not). It is compatible with most devices at Amazon (my phone, tablet and Kindle Fire), so that's where I'll go this time for this one

Book Description
Play a charming zen puzzler that is sure to test your brain and capture your heart. Quell Reflect has more than 80 levels of ingenious gameplay, a gorgeous art style, and a haunting soundtrack.

The objective is simple: Slide a droplet around a layout of obstacles, traps and pathways, until you have collected all the pearls. Underneath this simple gameplay lies a world of intricacy.

Quell Reflect's appeal lies in its gentle, soothing mood, which makes it a great way to unwind.

While browsing the 49 cent apps page at Google, I also ran into Jamie's 20 Minute Meals ($0.49 Amazon, Google), by Zolmo, which normally sells for $7.99 according to Amazon. This is essentially a 60-recipe cookbook featuring Jamie Oliver, complete with videos to show you how to cook. If you missed this when it was free last summer, then definitely grab it now, if you are able to do so (you have to have Android device registered at Amazon or Google or they won't let you purchase). It's also a shame you can't gift the apps, as this is a perfect one to give college kids or new grads and works on phones, tablets or the Kindle fire. There's some other deals on that 49 cent page you might want to check out, such as Business Calendar (usually $5), TuneIn Radio Pro and a number of games and even a kids book. Most of them are also at Amazon and appear to be price matching (at least, for now).

Book Description
Who can help but be charmed by England's Jamie Oliver, The Naked Chef? Jamie is well known as chef, restaurateur, and an advocate for improving unhealthy diets, especially championing healthy school lunches for children.

Watch an introductory video from Jamie and get right to the recipes. Search for a recipe or peruse 10 categories such as Delicious soups, Tasty stir-fries, and Simple risottos. Each recipe includes a summary with a picture of the dish, an ingredient and equipment list, detailed instructions, and relevant videos on tasks like garlic preparation or onion chopping. Double-touch the screen in landscape mode to see pictures of each step.

Add ingredients to your list and then use the general shopping list to view by recipe or by aisle. Use the menu to quickly access any video or learn about what Jamie feels are kitchen essentials -- both ingredients and equipment. Jamie promises that this app will "arm you with the confidence" to have tasty meals in 20 minutes!

Liar, Liar ($0.99), the first title in the Cat DeLuca Mysteries series by K.J. Larsen, is one of Poison Pen Press' sale books this month (still full price at Google, though).

Book Description
Burned by her run-around ex-husband Johnnie Ricco, Caterina DeLuca took the skills she mastered during marriage and opened her own private eye agency. Now she’s a second-story woman, armed with a camera, ready to print 8x10 glossies for use in divorce court.

The men in her big, whacko family, all Chicago cops—one a crook—aren’t sure what to make of Cat’s career choice. But hey, it’s serve and protect!

Then one Rita Polansky retains Cat. Rita’s liar-liar husband is the mysterious, but seriously hot, Chance Savino. Cat is hot on his heels when an exploding building hurls her out of her stilettos and into the hospital. The FBI claims Chance was killed in the fireworks, but concussed Cat remembers a different scenario.

She escapes the hospital to meet with her client. But when Rita doesn’t show, Cat breaks into her home to find Rita with a knife in her chest and two clues at the murder scene: a clutch of candy wrappers and Chance Savino, rummaging through Rita’s drawers.

One surprise after another piles up. As no one else sights Savino, everyone around Cat thinks she’s crazy. Everyone except a determined killer who has put her on his “kill” list.

I've been watching for The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by Anne Byrn, to go on sale and was starting to think that it never would.

Book Description
Thirty million Americans are gluten-intolerant or have a gluten sensitivity, eliminating it from their diets because gluten—a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley—has been implicated in health issues ranging from respiratory problems and abdominal discomfort to anemia, anxiety, and infertility. The food industry has bullishly taken notice. Gluten-free baking products, including cake mixes from Betty Crocker, King Arthur, Whole Foods, and others, have increased sevenfold on grocery shelves in recent years, and the number of other gluten-free products has grown as well—832 were introduced in 2008 alone. And gluten-free options are on the menu of national restaurants like Boston Market, Chili’s, Ruby Tuesday, Outback Steakhouse, and others.

Now comes even sweeter news for people looking to cut gluten from their diets: Anne Byrn shows how to transform gluten-free cake mixes into 76 rich, decadent, easy-to-make, impossible-to-resist desserts. Performing the magic that’s made her a bestselling baking author with over 33 million copies of her books in print, she doctors mixes with additions like almond extract, fresh berries, cocoa powder, grated coconut, cinnamon, lime zest, and more—naturally, all gluten-free ingredients—and voilà: Tres Leches Cake with Whipped Cream and Summer Berries, Almond Cream Cheese Pound Cake, Chocolate Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Ganache, Caramel Melted Ice Cream Cake, Warm Tarte Tatin Apple Cake, plus brownies, bars, muffins, and cookies. Dessert is back on the menu.

I picked up Thunder Dog: The True Story Of A Blind Man, His Guide Dog, And The Triumph Of Trust At Ground Zero ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by Michael Hingson, during one of the earlier sales at Amazon and have finished about a third of it and can recommend it from what I've read so far.

Book Description
Faith. Trust. Triumph.

"I trust Roselle with my life, every day. She trusts me to direct her. And today is no different, except the stakes are higher." - Michael Hingson

First came the boom- the loud, deep, unapologetic bellow that seemed to erupt from the very core of the earth. Eerily, the majestic high-rise slowly leaned to the south. On the seventy-eighth floor of the World Trade Center's north tower, no alarms sounded, and no one had information about what had happened at 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001- what should have been a normal workday for thousands of people. All that was known to the people inside was what they could see out the windows: smoke and fire and millions of pieces of burning paper and other debris falling through the air.

Blind since birth, Michael couldn't see a thing, but he could hear the sounds of shattering glass, falling debris, and terrified people flooding around him and his guide dog, Roselle. However, Roselle sat calmly beside him. In that moment, Michael chose to trust Roselle's judgment and not to panic. They are a team.

Thunder Dog allows you entry into the isolated, fume-filled chamber of stairwell B to experience survival through the eyes of a blind man and his beloved guide dog. Live each moment from the second a Boeing 767 hits the north tower, to the harrowing stairwell escape, to dodging death a second time as both towers fold into the earth.

It's the 9/11 story that will forever change your spirit and your perspective. Thunder Dog illumiates Hingson's lifelong determination to achieve parity in a sighted world, and how the rare trust between a man and his guide dog can inspire an unshakable faith in each one of us.

Murder in Mykonos ($0.99), the first novel in the Inspector Kaldis series by Jeffrey Siger, is another Poisoned Pen Press published title.

Book Description
A young woman on holiday on Mykonos, the most famous of Greece’s Aegean Cycladic islands, simply disappears off the face of the earth. And no one notices.

When politically incorrect, hot-shot detective Andreas Kaldis is promoted out of Athens to serve as police chief for Greece’s island paradise of Mykonos, he’s certain his homicide days are over. Murders don’t happen in tourist heaven; at least that’s what he’s thinking as he stares at the remains of a young woman found ritually bound and buried on a pile of human bones inside a remote mountain church.

Teamed with the canny, nearly-retired local homicide chief, Andreas tries to find the killer before the media can destroy the island’s fabled reputation with a barrage of world-wide attention on a mystery that’s haunted Mykonos undetected for decades.

Just when it seems things can’t get any worse, another young woman disappears and political niceties no longer matter. With the investigation now a rescue operation, Andreas finds himself plunging into ancient myths and forgotten island places, racing against a killer intent on claiming a new victim who is herself determined to outstep him.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by Alison Bechdel

Book Description
A fresh and brilliantly told memoir from a cult favorite comic artist, marked by gothic twists, a family funeral home, sexual angst, and great books.

This breakout book by Alison Bechdel is a darkly funny family tale, pitch-perfectly illustrated with Bechdel's sweetly gothic drawings. Like Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, it's a story exhilaratingly suited to graphic memoir form.

Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter's complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned "fun home," as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescense, the denouement is swift, graphic -- and redemptive.

Skinny Bitch: A No-Nonsense, Tough-Love Guide for Savvy Girls Who Want to Stop Eating Crap and Start Looking Fabulous ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, is not the diet book for those who want their hands held!

Book Description
Not your typical boring diet book, this is a tart-tongued, no-holds-barred wakeup call to all women who want to be thin. With such blunt advice as, "Soda is liquid Satan" and "You are a total moron if you think the Atkins Diet will make you thin," it's a rallying cry for all savvy women to start eating healthy and looking radiant. Unlike standard diet books, it actually makes the reader laugh out loud with its truthful, smart-mouthed revelations. Behind all the attitude, however, there's solid guidance. Skinny Bitch espouses a healthful lifestyle that promotes whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, and encourages women to get excited about feeling "clean and pure and energized."

Highland Protector ($3.49 Kindle, Google), by Hannah Howell

Book Description
The Murrays are back! From New York Times bestselling author Hannah Howell comes an all-new story of the beloved Scottish family, and two lovers entangled in a plot against the king. . .

Someone would see Ilsabeth Murray Armstrong hang for murder.

When her dagger is found buried in the body of one of the king's men, there is little room for doubt--the perpetrator must pay with her life. But Ilsabeth is no killer, and only one person can help clear her name: Sir Simon Innes, a man so steely and cool that no danger can rattle him. . .and no woman in distress can sway his heart.

Until now. Simon has spent his life searching for truth in a world fraught with deception. But the hauntingly beautiful fugitive seeking his aid affects him so deeply, he wonders if he can trust the flawless judgment he has always relied on. For all signs point to Ilsabeth's guilt, except one--the unparalleled desire he feels at her slightest touch. . .

The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale Of True Love And High Adventure ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by William Goldman

Book Description
William Goldman's modern fantasy classic is a simple, exceptional story about quests—for riches, revenge, power, and, of course, true love—that's thrilling and timeless.

Anyone who lived through the 1980s may find it impossible—inconceivable, even—to equate The Princess Bride with anything other than the sweet, celluloid romance of Westley and Buttercup, but the film is only a fraction of the ingenious storytelling you'll find in these pages. Rich in character and satire, the novel is set in 1941 and framed cleverly as an “abridged” retelling of a centuries-old tale set in the fabled country of Florin that's home to “Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passions.”

Once upon a time came a story so full of high adventure and true love that it became an instant classic and won the hearts of millions. Now in hardcover in America for the first time since 1973, this special edition of The Princess Bride is a true keepsake for devoted fans as well as those lucky enough to discover it for the first time. What reader can forget or resist such colorful characters as

Westley . . . handsome farm boy who risks death and much, much worse for the woman he loves; Inigo . . . the Spanish swordsman who lives only to avenge his father's death; Fezzik . . . the Turk, the gentlest giant ever to have uprooted a tree with his bare hands; Vizzini . . . the evil Sicilian, with a mind so keen he's foiled by his own perfect logic; Prince Humperdinck . . . the eviler ruler of Guilder, who has an equally insatiable thirst for war and the beauteous Buttercup; Count Rugen . . . the evilest man of all, who thrives on the excruciating pain of others; Miracle Max. . . the King's ex-Miracle Man, who can raise the dead (kind of); The Dread Pirate Roberts . . . supreme looter and plunderer of the high seas; and, of course, Buttercup . . . the princess bride, the most perfect, beautiful woman in the history of the world.

S. Morgenstern's timeless tale--discovered and wonderfully abridged by William Goldman--pits country against country, good against evil, love against hate. From the Cliffs of Insanity through the Fire Swamp and down into the Zoo of Death, this incredible journey and brilliant tale is peppered with strange beasties monstrous and gentle, and memorable surprises both terrible and sublime.

The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by William J. Bennett

Book Description
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A MAN

Raising up men has never been easy, but today is seems particularly tough. The young and old need heroes to embody the eternal qualities of manhood: honor, duty, valor, and integrity. In The Book of Man, William J. Bennett points the way, offering a positive, encouraging, uplifting, realizable idea of manhood, redolent of history and human nature, and practical for contemporary life.

Using profiles, stories, letters, poems, essays, historical vignettes, and myths to bring his subject to life, The Book of Man defines what a man should be, how he should live, and to what he should aspire in several key areas of life: war, work, leisure, and more. "Whether we take up the sword, the plow, the ball, the gavel, our children, or our Bibles," says Bennett, "we must always do it like the men we are called to be." The Book of Man shows how.

Dry Bones ($0.99), the first title in The Enzo Files by Scottish author Peter May, was originally published under the title Extraordinary People.

Book Description
What has happened to Jacques Gaillard? The brilliant teacher who trained some of France’s best and brightest as future Prime Ministers and Presidents at the École Nationale d’Administration vanished ten years ago, presumably from Paris. Talk about your cold case.

The mystery inspires a bet, one that Enzo Macleod, a biologist teaching in Toulouse instead of pursuing a brilliant career in forensics back home in Scotland, can ill afford to lose. The wager is that Enzo can find out what happened to Jacques Gaillard by applying new science to an old case.

Enzo comes to Paris to meet journalist Roger Raffin, the author of a book on seven celebrated unsolved murders. The assumption is that Gaillard is dead. Armed with Raffin’s notes, Enzo begins his quest. It quickly has him touring landmarks like the Paris catacombs. Then Enzo finds Jacques Gaillard’s head.

The artifacts buried with the skull set him to interpreting the clues they provide and to following in someone’s footsteps after the rest of Gaillard. He must also review some ancient and recent history. As with any quest, it’s as much discovery as detection. Enzo proves to be an ace investigator, scientific and intuitive, and, for all his missteps, one who hits his goals, including a painful journey toward greater self-awareness.

Mew is for Murder ($0.99) is the first in the Theda Krakow Mysteries series by Clea Simon

Book Description
Theda Krakow is in a funk. Her sometime boyfriend’s gone for good. The death of her beloved cat opened a bigger void. And the career leap she’s made from copy editor to freelance writer has left her finances—and her spirit—flat. She desperately needs a headline to get her life back on track.

One day, out for a stroll in her Cambridge neighborhood, Theda spies an adorable stray kitten. This charmer leads Theda to an old woman holed up in a decrepit house full of cats. Is this one of those “crazy cat ladies,” a classic hoarder, or is the old woman a neighborhood do-gooder? More important: is this the story to catapult Theda out of the dumps? But when she returns to interview Lillian Helmhold, Theda finds her fascinating subject dead of an apparent accident. The neighbors are celebrating, the police aren’t interested, and the cats are removed to a shelter. End of story? Not for Theda—one or two things don’t compute. So Theda marshals her investigative journalism skills to turn gumshoe.

Why is the purple-haired punk Violet, a barista at Theda’s favorite coffee house, hanging around Lillian’s home? Then there’s Lillian’s neighbor who’s only too anxious to clean up an eyesore. What’s the story on Lillian’s disturbed son? Theda’s inquiries lead her from a halfway house in the hills of Western Massachusetts back to Boston’s happening rock scene. Enter a music-loving artist, the one who jumpstarts Theda’s pulse. He’s handsome, he’s interested—but is he a bit too mysterious? Theda’s quiet life, her heart, and her bank account are about to be shaken to the core.

Free Book - Quest to Learn (K)

Quest to Learn: Developing the School for Digital Kids, by Katie Salen, Rebecca Rufo-Tepper, Arana Shapiro and Robert Torres, is free in the Kindle store. This is another in the series of free education related texts from MIT Press.

Book Description
The design for Quest to Learn, an innovative school in New York City that offers a "game-like" approach to learning.

Quest to Learn, an innovative school for grades 6 to 12 in New York City, grew out of the idea that gaming and game design offer a promising new paradigm for curriculum and learning. The designers of Quest to Learn developed an approach to learning that draws from what games do best: drop kids into inquiry-based, complex problem spaces that are built to help players understand how they are doing, what they need to work on, and where to go next. Content is not treated as dry information but as a living resource; students are encouraged to interact with the larger world in ways that feel relevant, exciting, and empowering. Quest to Learn opened in the fall of 2009 with 76 sixth graders. In their first semester, these students learned -- among other things -- to convert fractions into decimals in order to break a piece of code found in a library book; to use atlases and read maps to create a location guide for a reality television series; and to create video tutorials for a hapless group of fictional inventors. This research and development document outlines the learning framework for the school, making the original design available to others in the field. Elements in development include a detailed curriculum map, a budget, and samples of student and teacher handbooks.

Free Book - Coach Wooden (K/N/E)

Coach Wooden, by Pat Williams and James Denney, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble, courtesy of Christian publisher Revell.

Book Description
When Coach John Wooden graduated from eighth grade his father gave him a handwritten card and said, "Son, try to live up to this." On the card, his father had written seven simple yet profound life principles:

• Be true to yourself
• Help others
• Make friendship a fine art
• Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible
• Make each day your masterpiece
• Build a shelter against a rainy day by the life you live
• Give thanks for your blessings and pray for guidance every day

These principles were the key to Coach Wooden's greatness--and his goodness. Through powerful stories and pithy advice, this book shares the wisdom that made Wooden happy and successful. This inspirational and conversational book will encourage, challenge, and motivate readers to build these principles into their own lives.

Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Free Book - You Can Do It--Even if Others Say You Can't (K)

You Can Do It--Even if Others Say You Can't, by John Mason, is free in the Kindle store, courtesy of Christian publisher Revell.

Book Description
Change the way you think . . .
and you can change your life.

In You Can Do It--Even If Others Say You Can't, bestselling author John Mason powerfully shows that your past does not equal your future. He offers you inspirational truths in bite-size pieces, making them easy to remember and apply to life's issues, big and small. You'll learn how to change your way of thinking and focus on the fact that there's much more good in store for you than you may think.

You don't have to feel trapped by your circumstances. You can live a fruitful and fulfilling life, believing that God will provide the means to accomplish the impossible. And the best part is, you can start right now.

About the Author
John Mason is a bestselling author, minister, and speaker, and the founder and president of Insight International and Insight Publishing Group. His many books, including An Enemy Called Average, have sold more than one million copies.

Today's Deals

Additional formats on free books:

• 2012 and Beyond free Spanish editions added (K/N)
• Short Stories - Girls to the Rescue (K/N)

Repeat Freebies from Christian publishers:

• One Imperfect Christmas (K/N/E)
• Lie Down in Green Pastures (K/N/E)
• eye of the god (K/N/E)
• Easter Services Sermons and Prayers (K/N/E)

Storm Born ($0.99), the first in the Dark Swan series by Richelle Mead, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day. This is one of my favorite series and you can get the following titles at bargain prices, as well: Thorn Queen, Iron Crowned and Shadow Heir (or grab all four at once with the Dark Swan Bundle: Storm Born, Thorn Queen, Iron Crowned & Shadow Heir for $9.99 and save even more ... just be sure not to get the similarly priced bundle with only three titles, if searching on your Kindle).

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.

Now Eugenie is a hot target for every ambitious demon and Otherworldy ne'er-do-well, and the ones who don't want to knock her up want her dead. Eugenie handles a Glock as smoothly as she wields a wand, but she needs some formidable allies for a job like this. She finds them in Dorian, a seductive fairy king with a taste for bondage, and Kiyo, a gorgeous shape-shifter who redefines animal attraction. But with enemies growing bolder and time running out, Eugenie realizes that the greatest danger is yet to come, and it lies in the dark powers that are stirring to life within her. . .

Daring the Highlander ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Laurin Wittig, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $2.99).

Book Description
The sweeping Scottish saga that began in Laurin Wittig’s novel Charming the Shrew continues in the romantic sequel.

After his eldest brother pays the ultimate price for plotting against the king, Ailig MacLeod returns to Castle Assynt with a heavy heart. On the king’s orders, Ailig’s father must forfeit the title of clan chief in favor of his youngest son or the entire clan will be set to fire and sword.

But before Ailig can deliver his message, he encounters the beautiful Morainn MacRailt, a young widow whose solitary life in her cottage down the glen, away from the boisterous castle, garners unwanted attention from men looking for a wife. Ailig is taken by her quiet confidence and the powerful connection he feels between them, but his duty lies at Castle Assynt where a series of crises have arisen in the wake of his brother’s death and his sister's abrupt departure.

Determined to bring his clan to order, but wary of whom to trust, Ailig makes a fateful decision: he calls on Morainn to serve as chatelaine, offering her the protection of life inside the castle in return for overseeing the stronghold. Clever Morainn quickly becomes one of his most important advisors, and as the trust between them grows, so does an undeniable passion. Together they seek to restore the MacLeod clan’s legacy, rebuild Castle Assynt—and discover a love unlike any they ever imagined.

The NOOK Book: An Unofficial Guide ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Patrick Kanouse, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Make the Most of Any B&N NOOK--Including NOOK Tablet, NOOK Color, or NOOK Simple Touch!

Read books, play media, get free content, uncover powerful, little-known features you’ll love!

Catherine, Called Birdy ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Karen Cushman, is the Nook Daily Find for Families, price matched on Kindle (about time they noticed this deal of the day). It looks very interesting, from the sample; I must say, though, I vastly prefer the cover from the paperback edition to the one chosen for the ebook edition.

Book Description
Catherine, a spirited and inquisitive young woman of good family, narrates in diary form the story of her fourteenth year--the year 1290.
Catherine one day hopes to become a painter, a Crusader, a peddler, a minstrel, a
monk, a wart charmer . . . anything besides being sold like a cheese to the highest
bidder. Winner of the Newbery Honor, this richly entertaining story with an utterly
unforgettable heroine now features a new introduction by Linda Sue Park.

Free Book - The Mermaids

The Mermaids, a novelette by Robert Edric with Nicholas Royle (Introduction), is free in the Kindle store, courtesy of UK based PS Publishing. So far, all their freebies have been Kindle only.

Book Description
An isolated, struggling fishing village, inward-looking and increasingly dependent on the outside world for its survival.

And then at dawn, one early-summer morning, the fifteen-year-old Sarah Carr witnesses a group of mermaids, and immediately that small, suspicious world is divided between those of its inhabitants desperate to regard this sighting as their salvation, as something to be advertised and exploited; and those who understand only too well the ridicule, pity and contempt this might equally swiftly bring down upon them.

All now depends on somehow verifying what Sarah Carr says she saw, and over the course of those few overheated days, the whole world appears in turmoil – a place of scarcely-believable wonders and possibilities; a place of squandered opportunities, and of tawdry and regrettable compromises.

And for those few tumultuous, alarming days a natural balance is irretrievably lost, and the whole village, with the girl immovable and unflinching at its centre, struggles to regain that balance and to ensure that that which might secure and safeguard its future – the sighting of the mythical creatures themselves – does not now, ultimately lead to its destruction from within.

Free Book - How To Slay a Dragon (K)

How To Slay a Dragon, by Bill Allen, is free in the Kindle store. I don't see it free at Kobo (where it was free last year) or B&N, so far this morning.

Book Description
Greg Hart can't slay a dragon. He'd be lucky to win a fight against one of the smaller girls at school.

His only real skill is that he can run faster than any other twelve-year-old boy in his class, a necessity, since that's who he's usually running from. Oh, it's not like he's never been the hero at the center of an adventure. It's just the kind of adventures he's been involved with have always been the made-up kind he's written about in his journal.

Now the magicians of Myrth have yanked Greg into a strange new world, where the monsters he must run from are far scarier--and hungrier--than anything he's ever run from before. He tries to tell everyone there's been a mistake. Ruuan is a very large dragon, while Greg, on the other hand, is neither large nor a dragon. He's barely much of a boy. Unfortunately, such trivialities could never stop the people of Myrth from believing Greg will rescue King Peter's daughter from Ruuan. After all, Greg has been named in a prophecy, and no prophecy has ever been wrong before.

Why, Greg wonders, does he have to be at the heart of the first one that is?