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Saturday, March 24, 2012

Free Book - Fortuna (K)

Fortuna, by Michael Stevens, is free in the Kindle store. Be sure to check the price before one-clicking, as I'm posting this one pretty late in the evening.
Book Description
Longing for escape from his mundane existence as a Stanford computer science major, Jason Lind signs up to play Fortuna, an online role-playing game set in Renaissance Florence.

From the first, fateful mouse click, Jason tumbles into the vibrant, lush, and anonymous world of Fortuna. Swept up in this highly complex, highly addictive game of fame, fortune, and power, Jason quickly transitions from casual gamer to compulsive player.

Soon tangled up in a steamy virtual love triangle, Jason becomes obsessed with breaking Fortuna’s code of anonymity. But Fortuna is anything but fun and games, and when a sizeable debt incurred in the game spills over into reality, Jason is forced to leverage the legacy of his father, a high-tech legend killed in a car accident years before, to pay off the debt.

What started as a great escape may only leave Jason trapped, as the game that transported Jason deep into the past exposes a shocking, present-day reality.

In the world of Fortuna, it’s not how you play the game; it’s if you survive.

Free Book - Book of Nathan(K)

Book of Nathan, by Curt Weeden and Richard Marek, is free in the Kindle store. Be sure to check the price before one-clicking, as I'm posting this one pretty late in the evening.
Book Description
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and Rick Bullock is about to learn just how true that is....

Rick Bullock takes the road less traveled when he quits his job as an advertising executive to become director of a homeless shelter. Trading in a six-figure salary for paltry pay and even less respect? Costly. But helping one man get back on his feet? Priceless.

When Zeus, a mentally-challenged gentle giant and longtime shelter resident, is arrested for murdering evangelist Benjamin Kurios, Rick wants answers. Convinced Zeus is incapable of such a horrific act, Rick, along with a colorful cadre of characters, sets off on a journey to keep an innocent man off death row.

The trip takes a disturbing detour when the bizarre group stumbles upon a transcript of the Book of Nathan, a lost book of the Bible that finally ends the debate about when a human inherits a soul.

As this controversial discovery attracts the sinister attentions of a Jersey mobster, pro-life and pro-choice groups, and a devious billionaire used to getting his way, Rick scrambles to stay one step ahead on this dangerous road—and save Zeus before time runs out.

Rick Bullock knows how to save a life, but this time, his life may be the one at stake.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Free Book - On the Way Home (K)

On the Way Home, by Robert Bausch, is free in the Kindle store. This edition is self-published (despite the claim for the publisher on it; I wish Amazon would screen the publisher claims by those using their KDP system to self-publish), but was originally published in Hardcover by St. Martin's Press (1982).
Book Description
Imagine the elation of having your dead son brought back to life. That is what Michael Sumner's parents experience when, one year after he's reported killed in action in Vietnam, they are told their son is alive and has escaped from a cadre of Viet Cong. But reunited with his family in their new Florida home, Michael has become a stranger to them, and soon living with him becomes more difficult than having him dead. Attempting to break into his suffering and get him back, fearful he may turn to violence, his parents suspect the worst when a young woman who has befriended Michael abruptly disappears. This debut novel by award winning novelist Robert Bausch is, according to Maureen Ryan in "The Other Side of Grief" (University of Massachusetts Press, 2008), "perhaps the first to present the ruinous effects on his immediate family of the veteran's maladjustment," after the war. This novel deals with the emotional cost of post traumatic stress disorder in a time when that disorder had not yet been named. Michael Sumner has been held alone by a small band of Viet Cong, who torture him in ways that are psychologically devastating. He is lucky enough, and brave enough, to escape, but then he has to come home.

Free Book - Urbis Morpheos (K)

Urbis Morpheos, by Stephen Palmer, is free in the Kindle store, courtesy of small UK press PS Publishing.
Book Description
A million years in the future, two ecosystems stand opposed. The first, Nature, has faded, and exists only as isolated havens or, in the wider world, as biomes perverted by artifice into hideous forms. And against it stands the manufacturing ecosystem, which has evolved into a myriad lifelike shapes, yet offers only an antiseptic brutality. The land itself has changed. It is mutable. Maps remain accurate for little more than decades in Urbis Morpheos, the great manufactured environment that once was Earth . . .

In this bleak and hostile world live two women, Psolilai and psolilai, both of whom are on a mission. Psolilai (who dreams of psolilai) seeks wisdom following the funeral of her uncle and the discovery of a mysterious scriber. psolilai (who dreams of Psolilai) seeks 3Machines, the owl, the fount of wisdom of the great haven of Mahandriana, which is composed entirely of fungus. Both of these women have as their aide the peripatetic mycologist Gularvhen, who knows more than he says and who rides a three-eared horse
with six voices. For in Urbis Morpheos the artificial computing system is scarlet and deadly, while the natural knowledge system is soft and fungal, full of secrets.

What is the truth of the ancient artifacts The Constructor and The Transmuter? What is the connection between them, the shapeshifting malleads and the sentients of the manufacturing ecosystem, the agens? In a world so numinous with artificial mystery most people have forgotten their origins in nature, Psolilai and psolilai must follow their paths and find wisdom. But men and devices stand in their way. And the most powerful being in Urbis Morpheos perhaps has hidden plans

Free Book - Dead Politician Society (N/I)

Update: 3/24/12 Now free from iTunes.

Dead Politician Society: A Clare Vengel Undercover Novel ($5.98 paperback), by Robin Spano, is free from Barnes & Noble as their Free Friday book; no Kindle edition (due to the ongoing contract dispute).
Book Description
When the mayor keels over dead in the middle of a speech, a clandestine student society immediately takes credit for his demise. Their mission is to create a perfect political system by any means at their disposal. Clare Vengel, a rookie officer fresh from the police academy and beyond bored with her routine as a beat cop, volunteers to go undercover as a student to infiltrate the secretive organization. A streetwise amateur mechanic, Clare takes a dim view of book smarts—she is of the opinion that higher education is for people who can't handle the real world. In short order, she alienates a popular professor and begins to lose the respect of her police superiors. Soon, another politician is killed, and Clare steps up her clandestine involvement with the suspect students. When two more politicians die, the race begins to apprehend the culprits before her own duplicity can be revealed.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from iTunes.

11 Free Books from New Word City (K)

New Word City has another batch of free books in the Kindle store (some new, some repeats), which are likely to only remain free for a day or so.
  1. George Washington: First In War And Peace, by Willard Sterne Randall and Nancy Nahra
  2. Yalta: Witness To History, by Robert Wernick
  3. The Trail to an Iranian Jail, by Joshua Hammer
  4. How to Hire Great People
  5. Jack London, A Life
  6. Ronald Reagan: A Life
  7. Humphrey Bogart: A Life In Film, by Richard Schickel
  8. Clint Eastwood, A Life
  9. Michelle Obama: A Life
  10. Unconditional Surrender: The Policy That Prolonged World War II, by Thomas Fleming
  11. Andrew Carnegie: From Rags To Richest, by Nancy Nahra and Willard Sterne Randall

Today's Deals

This deal isn't as good as the KSO offer was, as it is limited to a total $20 discount, but you can get 20% off Grocery and Gourmet using coupon code MAR20OFF (up to a $100 order). On the other hand, anyone can take advantage of the discount, provided you have (and use) the Amazon Rewards Visa Card (if you don't have one, they are offering a $50 bonus if you sign up and are approved, making this a super-bargain of $70 off $100). It's also limited to a single order, so you will want to add several items to your cart and use the check out process. You can't use one-click buying, in any case, as you must enter the promo code and the discount can't be combined with Subscribe & Save discounts. There are a lot of items to choose from, including many gluten free items I normally buy, anyway, and the category even includes a number of dog treats and Easter candy.

Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults is today's Kindle Deal of the Day, with five novels priced at $1.99 apiece. Apparently the fastest growing age segment for Young Adult titles is now adults (for a variety of reasons, including better writing and more selection, I suspect) and I'll be helping that trend along today, as I'm probably going to get four of the five selections.

The Eleventh Plague ($1.99), by Jeff Hirsch. This one was originally promoted with one of the Sneak Peek editions designed to boost sales figures without actually giving you anything; I've held off until now, but at this price I'm grabbing it.
In an America devastated by war and plague, the only way to survive is to keep moving.

In the aftermath of a war, America’s landscape has been ravaged and two-thirds of the population left dead from a vicious strain of influenza. Fifteen-year-old Stephen Quinn and his family were among the few that survived and became salvagers, roaming the country in search of material to trade. But when Stephen’s grandfather dies and his father falls into a coma after an accident, Stephen finds his way to Settler’s Landing, a community that seems too good to be true. Then Stephen meets strong, defiant, mischievous Jenny, who refuses to accept things as they are. And when they play a prank that goes horribly wrong, chaos erupts, and they find themselves in the midst of a battle that will change Settler’s Landing--and their lives--forever.
Ashes, Ashes ($1.99), by Jo Treggiari
A thrilling tale of adventure, romance, and one girl's unyielding courage through the darkest of nightmares.

Epidemics, floods, droughts--for sixteen-year-old Lucy, the end of the world came and went, taking 99% of the population with it. As the weather continues to rage out of control, and Sweepers clean the streets of plague victims, Lucy survives alone in the wilds of Central Park. But when she's rescued from a pack of hunting dogs by a mysterious boy named Aidan, she reluctantly realizes she can't continue on her own. She joins his band of survivors, yet, a new danger awaits her: the Sweepers are looking for her. There's something special about Lucy, and they will stop at nothing to have her.
The Scorpio Races ($1.99), by Maggie Stiefvater, is an Amazon Best of 2011 Editors' Pick.
Some race to win. Others race to survive.

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.

Some riders live.

Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn't given her much of a choice. So she enters the competition - the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

As she did in her bestselling Shiver trilogy, author Maggie Stiefvater takes us to the breaking point, where both love and life meet their greatest obstacles, and only the strong of heart can survive. The Scorpio Races is an unforgettable reading experience.
Empty ($1.99), by Suzanne Weyn
A dystopic look at what happens to one American town when all the fossil fuels run out...

It's the near future - the very near future - and the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have shut down. Life has just become more local than we ever knew it could be.

Nobody expected the end to come this fast. And in the small town of Spring Valley, decisions that once seemed easy are quickly becoming matters of life and death. There is hope - there has to be hope - just there are also sacrifices that need to be made, and a whole society that needs to be rethought.
Green Heart ($1.99), by Alice Hoffman, is an omnibus consisting of two previously published (short) novels: Green Angel and Green Witch. Purchased separately, these would cost over $14, which seems a bit outrageous for what are barely loner than novella length pieces (but, such is the children's/teen market). At the current discount of $1.99, though, it looks like it's worth a try, especially for teen/young women.
A two-fold tale of grief and hope loss and love told as only Alice Hoffman can.

When her family is lost in a terrible disaster 15-year-old Green is haunted by loss and the past. Struggling to survive in a place where nothing seems to grow and ashes are everywhere Green retreats into the ruined realm of her garden. But in destroying her feelings she also begins to destroy herself. It is only through a series of mysterious encounters that Green relearns the lessons of love and begins to heal as she tells her own story.

As she heals Green lives every day with feelings of loss. Her family is gone the boy she loves is missing and the world she once knew has been transformed by tragedy. In order to rediscover the truth about love hope and magic she must venture away from her home collecting the stories of a group of women who have been branded witches for their mysterious powers. Only through their stories will Green find her own heart's desire.

The 15 Minute Rule ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Caroline Buchanan, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $8.39).
Book Description
The Fifteen Minute Rule sets out to help us tackle those things that we are always putting off: starting an exercise regime, looking for a new job, doing our tax returns or learning a new skill. Or perhaps doing something to improve the quality of life, by learning to fight depression or confront an annoying habit. Perhaps it's simply clearing the huge pile of clutter from your desk. Whatever it is, all you need is fifteen minutes and before you know it, some weeks later, you have accomplished a task you couldn't bring yourself to start.

The hardest thing to overcome when you're trying to start something daunting and new is to actually start. That mountain of paperwork in front of you that looks like it will take hours to go through and hours of mind-numbing sorting is hard to contemplate for most - but fifteen minutes isn't. Fifteen minutes is manageable and can bring minor and major results, each one providing satisfaction and a boost in self-esteem.

This book is for those people who need instant gratification and also those long-term players who recognise the benefits of consistency and dedication.

First among Equals ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Jeffrey Archer, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
Charles Seymour, second-born son, will never be the earl like his father, but he did inherit his mother's strength-and the will to realize his destiny...Simon Kerslake's father sacrificed everything to make sure his son's dreams come true. Now it is Simon's chance to rise as high as those dreams allow...Ray Gould was born to the back streets but raised with pride-a quality matched by a sharp intellect and the desire to attain the impossible...Andrew Fraser was raised by a soccer hero turned politician. Now it's his turn for heroics, whatever the cost.

From strangers to rivals, four men embark on a journey for the highest stakes of all-the keys to No. 10 Downing Street. Unfolding over three decades, their honor will be tested, their loyalties betrayed, and their love of family and country challenged. But in a game where there is a first among equals, only one can triumph.
BONUS MATERIAL INCLUDED: 1st chapter of Jeffrey Archer’s newest novel SINS OF THE FATHER, coming May 2012.

SINS OF THE FATHER: On the heels of the international bestseller Only Time Will Tell, Jeffrey Archer picks up the sweeping story of the Clifton Chronicles….

Only days before Britain declares war on Germany, Harry Clifton, hoping to escape the consequences of long-buried family secrets, and forced to accept that his desire to marry Emma Barrington will never be fulfilled, has joined the Merchant Navy. But his ship is sunk in the Atlantic by a German U-boat, drowning almost the entire crew. An American cruise liner, the SS Kansas Star, rescues a handful of sailors, among them Harry and the third officer, an American named Tom Bradshaw. When Bradshaw dies in the night, Harry seizes on the chance to escape his tangled past and assumes his identity.

On landing in America, however, Bradshaw quickly learns the mistake he has made, when he discovers what is awaiting him in New York. Without any way of proving his true identity, Harry Clifton is now chained to a past that could be far worse than the one he had hoped to escape.

Inkheart ($7.91 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the first title in the Inkheart Trilogy by Cornelia Funke, is the Nook Daily Find for Families. This was made into a movie (which reminds me, I never did get around to watching it) and should be a good book for teens and young adults (or adults, for that matter). I've reported the lower price to Amazon, but if it hasn't dropped by tonight, I'll probably grab it at B&N.
Book Description
From the author of the sensational New York Times bestseller The Thief Lord comes a thrilling new adventure about magic and self-discovery.

Meggie lives a quiet life alone with her father, a bookbinder. But her father has a deep secret--he possesses an extraordinary magical power....

One cruel night, Meggie's father reads aloud from a book called INKHEART-- and an evil ruler escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she has only read about in books. Meggie must learn to harness the magic that has conjured this nightmare. For only she can change the course of the story that has changed her life forever.

This is INKHEART--a timeless tale about books, about imagination, about life. Dare to read it aloud.

Free Book - Recession-busting Britain (K/N/E)

Recession-busting Britain: Best Free Experiences, by Lonely Planet, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Sony.
Book Description
The ultimate guide to the best free things to do throughout England, Scotland and Wales includes author-recommended reviews and practical information on a wide-range of free options from museums to markets, galleries to guided walks, cathedrals to conversation centres and much more – all the essentials you need to help you explore Britain without spending a penny.

This guide has been created by Lonely Planet’s dedicated authors and local experts who immersed themselves in England, Scotland and Wales, finding the best free experiences and sharing practical and honest advice.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from Kobo.
Get the free ebook from Sony.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Free Books from Severed Press (K)

Small publisher Severed Press specializes in horror (especially zombies, it seems) and has a number of their titles free at Amazon today.

Today's Deals

Additional formats on free books:
If you are looking for a refurbished ad-free Kindle Keyboard 3G w/ Wi-Fi ($189 new; $129.99 refurbished Amazon) in white or grey, you can pick one up for $99.99 plus $4.99 shipping, from Daily Steals today. They can be a bit slow to ship (and the warranty is 90 days instead of the year you get from Amazon), but everything has eventually arrived that I've ordered from them. Daily Steals deals end at midnight on the east coast (US). I suspect I'd order one direct from Amazon, though, as the price difference works out to about $20 in the end and with Prime you'll have it in two days (and get the longer warranty).

Angry Birds addicts have a new version to play with today, as Angry Birds Space has hit the Amazon Android Appstore. Unlike some of the previous versions, where the free ad-free and 99 cent versions run on the Kindle Fire, this time you'll have to spring for the HD version at $2.99 on the Fire (the less expensive versions should run fine on phones and even claim to work on my much larger Android tablet).

Fully Loaded: The Complete and Collected Stories ($0.99), by Blake Crouch, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day.
Book Description
From the author of RUN and DESERT PLACES comes this complete collection of short stories and novellas.

*69 - Tim and Laura West receive a bizarre voicemail on their answering machine that seems to have unintentionally recorded a brutal murder. But what happens when the killer realizes their mistake? This story develops over one terrifying evening, and this young couple will never be the same.

REMAKING – Tragic events unfold in a snowy, sleepy Colorado town. From the first scene, in which a man sits alone in the cold, watching a father and son in a diner, you know something is about to go horribly wrong. You may think you know what’s happening, but in this thrilling, heartbreaking story, nothing is as it seems.

ON THE GOOD, RED ROAD - A group of four hard men trying to reach a remote 19th Century mining town become stranded in an early blizzard and resort to drastic, terrifying measures, to stay alive.

SHINING ROCK – An older couple encounter a strange and menacing visitor during a camping trip in the North Carolina mountains. Friendly at first, this stranger seems to know them, seems to know their secrets, and as things escalate, they become convinced that they may never leave these mountains alive.

PERFECT LITTLE TOWN – Ron and Jessica Stahl are a power couple from California, on a Christmas holiday in Colorado. When they stop for the afternoon in sleepy Lone Cone, they’re charmed by the quaint tourist town. But the folksy hospitality will vanish as the sun drops behind the mountains. The Stahls couldn’t have picked a worse night of the year to get snowed into this perfect little town with a dark, dark secret.

SERIAL – The classic horror short I wrote with J.A. Konrath, in which we turn our attention to the twin golden rules of hitchhiking: # 1: Don’t go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy. # 2: Don’t pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be a raving nutcase. So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Nutcase #2?

THE NEWTON BOYS’ LAST PHOTOGRAPH – At 25 words, the shortest story I ever wrote. But it packs a wallop.

THE METEOROLOGIST – Peter, a disgraced meteorologist and chronic wanderer, has traveled the country for years in his Winnebago, in search of the only thing that gives his life meaning. He’s just arrived in the middle of nowhere—Hokie, Kansas—for the same purpose, but when he meets a waitress named Melanie, another sufferer, he’s faced not only with his first real human contact in years, but perhaps someone who can save him.

UNCONDITIONAL – A conversation between two people—devastating, tragic, and beautiful.

THE PAIN OF OTHERS – Letty Dobesh, a gorgeous, degenerate thief, is fresh out of the clink and back to her old tricks—in this case, burglarizing suites at a luxury hotel in Asheville, North Carolina. But when she’s surprised by returning guests on her last room of the day, she’s forced to hide in the closet to avoid getting caught, and inadvertently overhears a hitman being contracted to murder the wife of a wealthy lawyer.

This 60,000-word short story collection also contains introductions to each story by the author, an interview with Blake, and excerpts from all of his novels.

Note: FOUR LIVE ROUNDS + SIX IN THE CYLINDER = FULLY LOADED

The AmazonEncore edition of Tune In Tokyo: The Gaijin Diaries ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Tim Anderson, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $3.99).
Book Description
Tim Anderson was pushing thirty and working a string of dead-end jobs when he made the spontaneous decision to pack his bags and move to Japan, “where my status as a U.S. passport holder and card-carrying ‘American English’ speaker was an asset rather than a liability.” It was a gutsy move, especially for a tall, white, gay Southerner who didn’t speak a lick of Japanese. But his life desperately needed a shot of adrenaline, and what better way to get one than to leave behind everything he had ever known to move halfway around the world where he won’t understand anything anyone says? In Tokyo, Tim became a “gaijin,” an outsider whose stumbling progression through Japanese culture is minutely chronicled in these sixteen howlingly funny stories. Yet despite the steep learning curve and the seemingly constant humiliation, the gaijin from North Carolina gradually begins to find his way. Whether playing drums on the fly in an otherwise all-Japanese noise band or attempting to keep his English classroom clean when it’s invaded by an older female student with a dirty mind, Tim comes to realize that living a meaningful life is about expecting the unexpected…right when he least expects it.

Jackpot: High Times, High Seas, and the Sting That Launched the War on Drugs ($3.49 Kindle, B&N), by Jason Ryan, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
In a cat-and-mouse game played out in exotic locations across the globe, the smugglers sailed through hurricanes, broke out of jail and survived encounters with armed militants in Colombia, Grenada and Lebanon. Based on years of research and interviews with imprisoned and recently released smugglers and the law enforcement agents who tracked them down, Jackpot does for marijuana smuggling what "Blow" and "Snowblind" did for the cocaine trade.

The outrageous lives and crimes of the most colorful pot smugglers of the Reagan era, and the international manhunt that brought them down
Their nicknames—Flash, Rolex, Bob the Boss, Willie the Hog, and Disco Don—read like a roster of mobsters. Their destinations for acquiring drugs and depositing money—the Bahamas, Colombia, Jamaica, and Lebanon—were either exotic, white-sand resorts or rugged, war-torn coasts. To some, they were cult heroes and folk legends, intrepid enough to walk away from college degrees and safe careers for danger, sun, sex, and the high seas. The South’s “gentlemen smugglers” followed no rules but their own.

But to the government investigators and prosecutors emboldened by President Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs, the gentlemen smugglers were Public Enemy No. 1. Through indictments covering just a portion of their alleged misdeeds, the government accused a few dozen men of smuggling 347,000 pounds of marijuana and 130,000 pounds of hashish into the United States.

Speaking to reporters, U.S. Attorney Henry McMaster conceded that “most of it got through, a lot of it’s been smoked.” Still, he said, these outlaws’ days were numbered. No matter their cunning, the gentlemen smugglers would not escape the pioneering task force he had assembled with investigators from five federal agencies: Operation Jackpot.

The NOOK Kids Read and Play edition of Puff, the Magic Dragon ($9.95 paperback w/CD; $2.99 B&N), by Peter Yarrow, Lenny Lipton and Eric Puybaret (Illustrator), is the Nook Daily Find for Families. This edition requires either the NOOK Color or NOOK Tablet and no Kindle version seems to exist (although you can buy the sheet music).
Book Description
Puff, the Magic Dragon is simply one of the most beloved songs of all time-a classic that's become as much a part of the childhood experience as Mother Goose and fairy tales. Yet singer/songwriter Peter Yarrow and co-composer Lenny Lipton have never allowed a picture book adaptation of this magical tale . . . until now. With Yarrow's and Lipton's blessing, Puff, Jackie Paper, and the land of Honalee finally live on the page.

In richly-hued paintings of the deepest sea blues and greens, Puff and his friend Jackie Paper frolic in the land of Honalee-traveling in a fantastic boat with billowed sails, climbing red castle stairs onto a balcony to meet with noble kings and princes, and watching pirate ships lower their flags for the roaring dragon. Artist Eric Puybaret has brought an entire magical world into being with enthralling landscapes, color, and characters. And everyone will love the way the art cleverly turns the song's end, which at first seemed so sad, into a surprising and joyful moment.

Best of all-this is only the first of many more collaborations with Peter Yarrow to come!

This NOOK Kids Read and Play book features narration, animation and interactivity. Kids can choose to hear the story read aloud and play activities on select pages of the book. Animations replay with a simple tap. Plus, kids can tap to enlarge text and pinch & stretch to zoom in on pictures.

Free Book - Raising Kids with Love and Limits (K/N/E)

Raising Kids with Love and Limits (Main/UK), by Julie Barnhill, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble, courtesy of Christian publisher Revell.
Book Description
Moms get a lot of advice about the best way to raise their kids. But all of this well-meaning (and often conflicting) counsel can be paralyzing. Julie Barnhill says, "Enough already!"

Unapologetically raucous and refreshingly relevant, Raising Kids with Love and Limits offers you a dose of reality and a way to calm your fears about raising children. Julie Barnhill shows you how to
  • take joy in your child
  • say no like you mean it
  • stop overanalyzing every tiny detail
  • communicate truthfully and effectively with your child
  • and more
You can be confident, loving, and in charge. And your kids will thank you for it--someday.

Julie Ann Barnhill is a popular speaker and the bestselling author of She's Gonna Blow! Real Help for Moms Dealing with Anger, as well as several other popular books that tap into the "everyday themes of everyday people." She has appeared on Oprah, NBC, CNN, and other television programs. She lives in Illinois with her family
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Free Short Story - A Death in Ueno (K)

A Death in Ueno, a short story by Mike Cooper, is free in the Kindle store, courtesy of New Word City.
Book Description
Japan’s lost decade has left thousands of people homeless, scraping by in parks and cardboard boxes throughout Tokyo. When one of these forgotten men is murdered, his brother hires a private investigator. To find the killer, he must confront police indifference, yakuza hostility, and the closed silence of the down-and-out themselves.

Today's Deals

I've added several new coupon codes for Kobo. No idea about the expiration dates on these, but several are 35% and one at 40% (see sidebar list).

If you bought the deal at AmazonLocal yesterday, you probably have the email by now. If not, and you bought it late, be patient. The company processing the orders is much slower than Amazon's gift card system, plus they sold one million of the deals, selling out long before midnight. Any purchases after 11AM were taking over 12 hours to clear and those near the end of the deal will definitely take closer to 24. You can also simply log in and check your Vouchers tab and see if the gift card is there, yet, just in case you think the spam filters ate the email notice.

In Her Sights ($0.99), by Robin Perini, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day. I bought this one last month as part of a KSO $1 deal - now everyone can grab it at the same price!
Book Description
Jasmine “Jazz” Parker, Jefferson County SWAT's only female sniper, can thread the eye of a needle with a bullet. But she carries a secret from her past that she thought she buried for good at the age of fifteen. Two years ago she even drove away the one man she believed she could love—ex-Army Ranger turned reporter Luke Montgomery—to keep her past hidden. Now, in a fleeting second, the time it takes for one clean shot, one perfect hit, to save the life of the governor's daughter, Jazz's world begins to crumble around her.

Luke splashes her face and name across the front page of the newspaper, reawakening her past with a vengeance. A vicious enemy is now bent on destroying her life, forcing Jazz to turn to the one man she can never have in order to stop a killer before she and everyone she cares about pays the ultimate price. Full of explosive action and almost unbearable suspense, In Her Sights is a relentless, steamy thriller surprisingly infused with soul and poignancy.

Mummydaddy ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Jeremy Howe, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).
Book Description
In the summer of 1992, Jeremy Howe and his wife, Lizzie, were tending to last-minute holiday preparations. Lizzie was leaving to teach at a summer school before she could join Jeremy and their two daughters, Jessica, six and Lucy, four, at the seaside. That night, arriving at his mother’s in Suffolk, Jeremy managed to get the excited girls to go to sleep, irritated that their mother hadn't called to say goodnight as she had promised. Just after midnight the household was woken by a policeman who had come to tell them that Lizzie was dead. She had been murdered. Twenty years after that terrible night, Jeremy and his girls are not the people they might have been had Lizzie not died. They’re certainly different, but not damaged. This is the candid, heartrending story of how they got there, of how, faced with the worst thing that could possibly happen, they put their lives back together, bit by bit and piece by piece. It's a story of how Daddy became Mummydaddy and of the pitfalls along the way, from how on earth you decide what to tell your children about their mother's violent death to the practicalities of knowing what they like in their packed lunch; from helping your children to grieve when your own grief is so sharp it threatens to overwhelm you to making sure that they brush their teeth and comb their hair. It's a story full of tears, but also of love and family and redemption.

Map of Bones ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), the second title in the Sigma Force series by James Rollins, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. This was a free audiobook selection last summer and a different (bonus) edition was free the summer before, so check your library to see if you already have it before ordering.
Book Description
During a crowded service at a cathedral in Germany, armed intruders in monks' robes unleash a nightmare of blood and destruction. But the killers have not come for gold; they seek a more valuable prize: the bones of the Magi who once paid homage to a newborn savior . . . a treasure that could reshape the world.

With the Vatican in turmoil, SIGMA Force leaps into action. An elite team of scientific and Special Forces operatives under the command of Grayson Pierce and accompanied by Lieutenant Rachel Verona of Rome's carabinieri, they are pursuing a deadly mystery that weaves through sites of the Seven Wonders of the World and ends at the doorstep of an ancient, mystical, and terrifying secret order. For there are those with dark plans for the stolen sacred remains that will alter the future of humankind . . . when science and religion unite to unleash a horror not seen since the beginning of time.

The Throne of Fire ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), the second title in the Kane Chronicles series by Rick Riordan, is the Nook Daily Find for Families, price matched on Kindle. If you're the type that gets ten fiction at the library, it's worth noting that although the first title in the series is in the libraries I checked, this one was only in one or two and only as an audiobook.
Book Description
In this exciting second installment of the three-book series, Carter and Sadie, offspring of the brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane, embark on a worldwide search for the Book of Ra, but the House of Life and the gods of chaos are determined to stop them.

Free Book - The Woman Who Loved Jesse James (K)

The Woman Who Loved Jesse James, by Cindi Myers, is free in the Kindle store.
Book Description
"I never meant to fall in love with Jesse James, but I might as well have tried to stop a tornado or a prairie fire. The summer that sealed our fate, when we saw each other with new eyes and our love began to grow, Jesse was all heat and light, and I was tinder waiting for a match."

Zee Mimms was just nineteen in 1864-the daughter of a stern Methodist minister in Missouri-when she fell in love with the handsome, dashing, and already notorious Jesse. He was barely more than a teenager himself, yet had ridden with William Quantrill's raiders during the Civil War. "You'll marry a handsome young man," a palm reader had told her. "A man who will make you the envy of many. But . . . there will be hard times." Zee and Jesse's marriage proved the palmist right.

Jesse was a dangerous puzzle: a loving husband and father who kept his "work" separate from his family, though Zee heard the lurid rumors of his career as a bank robber and worse. Still, she never gave up on him. And he earned her love, time and again.

Free Book - The Heart's Haven (K)

The Heart's Haven, by Jill Barnett, is free in the Kindle store.
Book Description
The lawless, gold-hungry town of San Francisco was no place to raise a family, but Hallie Fredriksen had little choice after her mother’s sudden death. Her father’s call to sea took him away for months at a time, and there was no one but Hallie to raise her headstrong sisters and impish twin brothers. The young Fredriksen clan was a handful, but the last person Hallie needed involved was Kit Howland, the arrogant and handsome whaling agent who was her father’s good friend…and her own secret crush. But Kit had been burned by love and thought himself immune to feelings of the heart, until he was face to face with the most unlikely beauty, who captured his heart with her spirit and laughter. He refused to trust his feelings, refused to forget the past and step into the dangerous territory of love and desire. Then fate made them an instant family, bound them as husband and wife in wild town full of danger, where their battle of wills and love was as treacherous as the stormy sea and…as thrilling as the rush for gold.

Free Book - Return from Tomorrow (K/N/E)

Return from Tomorrow, by George G. Ritchie and Elizabeth Sherrill, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble and ChristianBook, courtesy of Christian publisher Chosen Books (Baker).
Book Description
At the age of twenty, George Ritchie died in an Army hospital. Nine minutes later, he returned to life. What happened to him during those minutes was so compelling that it changed his life forever. In Return from Tomorrow, Ritchie tells of his transforming encounter with the Son of God, who led him to encounters with other nonphysical beings at the very doorway of eternity.

Ritchie's extraordinary experience not only altered his view of eternity, but it has also altered the lives of hundreds of thousands of readers. One of the most startling and hopeful descriptions of the realm beyond, this classic will inspire readers from all walks of life. It includes a brand-new preface from Elizabeth Sherrill.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Free Book - NIV Once-A-Day 31 Days of Wisdom (K/N/E)

Update: 3/22/12 Now free from ChristianBook.

NIV Once-A-Day 31 Days of Wisdom, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble, courtesy of Christian publisher Zondervan.
Book Description
This 31-day reading from the book of Proverbs from the New International Version of the Bible will speak to your deepest needs as you engage with God's Word. Practical and insightful, these devotions---written by the staff at trusted ministry Walk Thru the Bible---will fill each day with wisdom and understanding about who God is and what he has intended for the lives of his people. NIV 2011. The New International Version (NIV) translation of the Bible is the world's most popular modern-English Bible---easy to understand, yet rich with the detail found in the original languages.
Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Kindle Big Deal is Back!

The Kindle Big Deal is back, with hundreds of books priced at $0.99, $1.99, $2.99, and $3.99 thru March 25, 2012.

I've picked out a few of the books to highlight that looked interesting or were especially good deals.

Sunday Roast ($3.99), by Betty Rosbottom and Susie Cushner, looks like a good companion to Rosbottom's Sunday Soup, which has been on a similar sale on the past.
Book Description
Sunday Roasts contains 80 tantalizing recipes for slow-roasted meats, fowl, fish, and vegetables that compel a Sunday cook to enjoy good food and good living. With an earthy sensibility that celebrates quality ingredients, beloved author Betty Rosbottom pairs the special an herb rub, a tapenade, a twist of citrus with the primal: a substantial cut of meat. Roasts of all types and price ranges are represented, so cooks have everything they need to prepare for any occasion, from weeknight suppers to fancy holiday feasts. This timeless collection will become a kitchen staple.

Whoopie Pies ($2.99), by Antonis Achilleos and Sarah Billingsley
Book Description
Is it a cake? Is it a cookie? With such deliciously soft and sweet cream-filled snacks, does it matter? The Internet is abuzz with recipes and stories of whoopie pie folklore, while customers everywhere are descending on bakeries in droves demanding these delectable treats. This adorable volume - the only cookbook devoted entirely to whoopie pies - features more than 40 mix-and-match recipes, including the classic chocolate with marshmallow cream and a range of bright flavor combinations such as red velvet, green tea, pumpkin with a tangy cream cheese filling, and oatmeal with, yes, maple-bacon buttercream. With a puffy cover as soft as cake, plenty of color photos and hand-drawn illustrations, dozens of DIY decorating instructions, fun facts and baking tips, Whoopie Pies will make a welcome addition to any baker's bookshelf.

Pink Princess Cupcakes ($0.99), by Barbara Beery
Book Description
Little girls will love the princess-themed recipes in Pink Princess Cupcakes by Barbara Beery. Each recipe comes with easy-to-follow instructions and a full-color photo. Creative decorations for the perfect dessert include magic wands made from white chocolate, crown-shaped cookies, rock candy jewels, and much more that make cupcakes perfect for birthday parties, sleepovers, or fun any day of the week.

The Iron Witch ($0.99) kicks off a YA fantasy series by Karen Mahoney.
Book Description
When she was seven, a horrific fey attack killed Donna Underwood’s father and drove her mother mad. Her own nearly fatal injuries were fixed by alchemy—the iron tattoos branding her hands and arms. Now seventeen, Donna feels like a freak, doomed by the magical heritage that destroyed her parents and any chance she had for a normal life. Only her relationship with her best friend, Navin, is keeping her sane.

But when vicious wood elves abduct Navin, Donna is forced to accept her role in the centuries-old war between human alchemists and these darkest outcasts of Faerie. Assisted by Xan, a gorgeous guy with faery blood running through his veins and secrets of his own, Donna races to save Navin—even if it means betraying everything her parents fought to the death to protect.

Heaven Preserve Us ($1.99) is the second title in the Home Crafting Mystery series by Cricket McRae. Many of you will have the first title, Lye in Wait, in your library already, as it was free last July.
Book Description
Wine jelly. Watermelon pickles. And a suicidal stalker? Great.

Thirty-something crafter extraordinaire Sophie Mae Reynolds makes preserves by day and answers a crisis center help referral line by night. What better way to help people while still keeping a low profile? But on her very first night, she gets a call from a man who is threatening suicide . . . and her. Angrily deeming the caller a crank, her boss, Philip Heaven, disconnects the line. Days later, Philip dies from a nasty case of botulism. Now, as a stalker singles out Sophie Mae, Philip's eerie last words keep coming back to haunt her: Threat. Meant it.

Stirring up the town with talk of murder by preserves, can Sophie Mae and her handsome boyfriend Detective Barr Ambrose spoil a mad murderer's poisonous plans?

This dangerously delicious novel also includes recipes for preserves and beauty products!

The Clutter-Busting Handbook: Clean It Up, Clear It Out, and Keep Your Life Clutter-Free ($1.99), by Rita Emmett
Book Description
The Clutter Busting Handbook is a streamlined guide to uncluttering your life from the best-selling author of The Procrastinator's Handbook.We are the clutter generation, inundated by a seemingly daily or weekly influx of clothes, accessories, gadgets, catalogs, mail, and e-mail. Clutter crowds our lives, is a chief source of stress, contributes to sidetracked dreams and opportunities, and can cause guilt and anxiety. If clutter is a problem in your life, then Rita Emmett-herself a reformed clutterer-can help you tame it.

The Clutter-Busting Handbook is a concise, energizing guide giving readers insight and direction as well as proven tips, methods, and strategies that will change lives for the better. Emmett reveals:
  • the four primary causes of clutter
  • that cluttering is a habit that can be broken
  • the powerful connection between clutter and procrastination
  • how to help a pack rat part with unneeded objects
  • how to prevent clutter from returning, forever.
As entertaining as she is helpful, Emmett offers practical advice on separating what you need or truly want from what you have been hanging onto for the wrong reasons. Her combination of experience and good humor-based on her hundreds of seminars and advice received from people all over the country-will win over the most reluctant convert.

Witches of East End ($3.19), the first title in The Beauchamp Family series by Melissa de la Cruz.
Book Description
From the author of the highly addictive and bestselling Blue Bloods series, with almost 3 million copies sold, comes a new novel, Melissa de la Cruz's first for adults, featuring a family of formidable and beguiling witches.

The three Beauchamp women--Joanna and her daughters Freya and Ingrid--live in North Hampton, out on the tip of Long Island. Their beautiful, mist-shrouded town seems almost stuck in time, and all three women lead seemingly quiet, uneventful existences. But they are harboring a mighty secret--they are powerful witches banned from using their magic. Joanna can resurrect people from the dead and heal the most serious of injuries. Ingrid, her bookish daughter, has the ability to predict the future and weave knots that can solve anything from infertility to infidelity. And finally, there's Freya, the wild child, who has a charm or a potion that can cure most any heartache.

For centuries, all three women have been forced to suppress their abilities. But then Freya, who is about to get married to the wealthy and mysterious Bran Gardiner, finds that her increasingly complicated romantic life makes it more difficult than ever to hide her secret. Soon Ingrid and Joanna confront similar dilemmas, and the Beauchamp women realize they can no longer conceal their true selves. They unearth their wands from the attic, dust off their broomsticks, and begin casting spells on the townspeople. It all seems like a bit of good-natured, innocent magic, but then mysterious, violent attacks begin to plague the town. When a young girl disappears over the Fourth of July weekend, they realize it's time to uncover who and what dark forces are working against them.

With a brand-new cast of characters, a fascinating and fresh world to discover, and a few surprise appearances from some of the Blue Blood fan favorites, this is a page-turning, deliciously fun, magical summer read fraught with love affairs, witchcraft, and an unforgettable battle between good and evil.

Halley's Bible Handbook with the New International Version ($3.99), by Henry H. Halley, is one of those books that I picked up at full price. If you are interested in it at all, grab it at this price.
Book Description
Clear . . . Simple . . . Easy to read -- This world-renowned Bible handbook is updated and revised to provide even greater clarity, insight, and usefulness. Now with NIV text! Do you need help understanding the Bible? Halley's Bible Handbook with the New International Version makes the Bible's wisdom and message accessible to you. Whether you've never read the Bible before or have read it many times, you'll find insights here that can give you a firm grasp of God's Word. You'll develop an appreciation for the cultural, religious, and geographic settings in which the story of the Bible unfolds. You'll see how its different themes fit together in a remarkable way. And you'll see the heart of God and the person of Jesus Christ revealed from Genesis to Revelation. Written for both mind and heart, this completely revised, updated, and expanded 25th edition of Halley's Bible Handbook retains Dr. Halley's highly personal style. It features:
  • All-new maps, photographs, and illustrations
  • Contemporary design
  • Bible references in easy-to-read, best-selling New International Version (NIV) Practical Bible reading programs
  • Helpful tips for Bible study
  • Fascinating archaeological information
  • Easy-to-understand sections on how we got the Bible and on church history
  • Improved indexes

Get the first four of J.R. Rain's Vampire for Hire mystery series novels in one volume with the Samantha Moons omnibus edition($0.99). Although you might have picked up the first title free (or borrowed it from the Kindle Lending Library), I don't think the other three have been offered free at Amazon. for less than a buck, you'll have all but Vampire Dawn, which was published this month.
Book Description
Featuring private investigator turned creature of the night, Samantha Moon...

MOON DANCE
Mother, wife, private investigator...vampire. Six years ago federal agent Samantha Moon was the perfect wife and mother, your typical soccer mom with the minivan and suburban home. Then the unthinkable happens, an attack that changes her life forever. And forever is a very long time for a vampire. Now the world at large thinks Samantha has developed a rare skin disease, a disease which forces her to quit her day job and stay out of the light of the sun. Now working the night shift as a private investigator, Samantha is hired by Kingsley Fulcrum to investigate the murder attempt on his life, a horrific scene captured on TV and seen around the country. But as the case unfolds, Samantha discovers Kingsley isn't exactly what he appears to be; after all, there is a reason why he survived five shots to the head.

VAMPIRE MOON
Private investigator Samantha Moon finds herself hunting down a powerful crime lord and protecting an innocent woman from her ruthless ex-husband—all while two very different men vie for her heart. And as the stakes grow higher and her cases turn personal, Samantha Moon will do whatever it takes to protect the innocent and bring two cold-blooded killers to justice—her own brand of justice.

AMERICAN VAMPIRE
Private investigator Samantha Moon receives a heartbreaking phone call from a very unlikely source: a five-year-old girl who's been missing for three months. Now on the hunt, Samantha will use her considerable resources—including her growing supernatural abilities—to locate the missing girl before it's too late. And as she gets closer and closer to the horrible truth, she receives devastating news on the home front. Now with her world turned upside down, Samantha Moon is forced to make the ultimate choice of life and death.

MOON CHILD
Private investigator Samantha Moon is faced with an impossible decision—a decision that no mother should ever have to make. A decision that will change her life, and those she loves, forever. And through it all, Sam finds herself in a lethal game of vampire vs. vampire as a powerful—and desperate—enemy will stop at nothing to claim what he most desires.

The first three titles in Brandilyn Collins's Kanner Lake series are all on sale, between this promotion and the $3.99 or Less Kindle Deals sale:
Violet Dawn ($2.99)
Something sinuous in the water brushed against Paige's knee. She jerked her leg away.

What was that? She rose to a sitting position, groped around with her left hand. Fine wisps wound themselves around her fingers. Hair?

She yanked backward, but the tendrils clung. Something solid bumped her wrist. Paige gasped. With one frantic motion she shook her arm free, grabbed the side of the hot tub, and heaved herself out.

Paige Williams slips into her hot tub in the blackness of night---and finds herself face to face with death.

Alone, terrified, fleeing a dark past, Paige must make an unthinkable choice. In Violet Dawn, hurtling events and richly drawn characters collide in a breathless story of murder, the need to belong, and faith's first glimmer. One woman's secrets unleash an entire town's pursuit, and the truth proves as elusive as the killer in their midst.


Coral Moon ($3.99)
The figure remained still as stone. Leslie couldn't even detect a breath.Spider fingers teased the back of her neck.

Leslie's feet rooted to the pavement. She dropped her gaze to the driveway, seeking ... what? Spatters of blood? Footprints? She saw nothing. Honed through her recent coverage of crime scene evidence, the testimony at last month's trial, the reporter in Leslie spewed warnings: Notice everything, touch nothing.

Leslie Williams hurries out to her car on a typical workday morning---and discovers a dead body inside. Why was the corpse left for her to find? And what is the meaning of the message pinned to its chest?

In Coral Moon, the senseless murder of a beloved Kanner Lake citizen spirals the small Idaho town into a terrifying glimpse of spiritual forces beyond our world. What appears true seems impossible.Or is it?


Crimson Eve ($3.99)
Carla stared at the gun and David Thornby---or whatever his name was. Her mind fissured, one side pleading this was some sick joke, the other knowing it was not. Her throat ran dry, air backing up in her lungs. She swallowed.

'Please. You must have the wrong person. There's no reason for someone to want me dead. I don't have any enemies.'

'Then you'd best rethink your friends.'

Realtor Carla Radling shows an 'English gentleman' a lakeside estate---and finds herself facing a gun. Who has hired this assassin to kill her, and why?

Forced on the run, Carla must uncover the scathing secrets of her past. Secrets that could destroy some very powerful people. Perhaps even change the face of a nation ...

Set in a small lakeshore town in pristine northern Idaho, this series combines suspense and fast-paced action with intriguing, well-crafted characters and many an unexpected twist.

The Knife of Never Letting Go ($0.99), the first title Patrick Ness' Chaos Walking series, isn't technically a part of the sale, so the price might not last (or might be good for a long time...). I bought this YA SF adventure novel at three times the price last year.
Book Description
Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him -- something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.

Get a $10 GC for $5 at Amazon

Although this offer is on my Kindle with Special Offers this morning, it isn't limited to those who have one. Everyone can visit AmazonLocal and buy the $10 Gift Certificate for $5 offer. You have to use a credit/debit card to make the purchase (not any gift balance), but everything is already linked up to your Amazon account. Once purchased, you'll get an emailed receipt after the deal is processed (which won't be right away, as it is when purchasing via Amazon; mine has been over an hour and I actually don't expect it until tomorrow). Once you have the receipt, go back to the AmazonLocal page and get the voucher with the certificate number, which you can then apply at Amazon.

Today's Deals

The Change Maker: Preserving the Promise of America ($1.99), by Al Checchi, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day. This one looks like a great gift book for anyone considering or currently enrolled in business school or any recent grads, amongst others.
Book Description
Entertaining, fast-paced, instructional, The Change Maker is not only a memoir, but a blueprint for how we can change our own lives, as well as the world around us, by providing personal lessons in the values of strategic thinking and responsible leadership. Through compelling true stories, both humorous and serious, Al Checchi demonstrates that through experience, vision, and courage, one person can make a difference and lead others to move beyond their comfort zones and transform our institutions.

Al Checchi, a remarkable change maker, chronicles how his creativity, strategic thinking, and negotiating skills helped transform three major American institutions—Marriott Corporation, Walt Disney, and Northwest Airlines—and led him to challenge the California political establishment as a candidate for governor.

Peppered with excerpts from speeches and articles, The Change Maker offers thoughtful perspective on institutional change in America since the 1960s, and scalding commentary on the current state of our public and private institutions, political parties, the emergent political class, and the economic policies and leadership of today’s administration.

The Change Maker challenges us to confront the status quo and demand accountability and a restoration of the fiduciary standards that are so vital to reclaiming and maintaining America's position of economic and political leadership. Readers will finish the book feeling revitalized, hopeful, and armed with new ideas on how change can, and always will, occur.

Godless Morality: Keeping Religion Out Of Ethics ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Richard Holloway, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).
Book Description
The use of God in moral debate is so problematic as to be almost worthless. We can argue with one another as to whether this or that alleged claim genuinely emanated from God, but surely it is better to leave God out of the argument and find strong human reasons for supporting the systems we advocate. We need a sensible and practical approach that will help us pick our way through the moral maze that confronts us in the pluralistic society we live in. Godless Morality offers exactly this - a human-centred justification for contemporary morality.

Blood Country ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), the first title in the Worldwide Library Mysteries series by Mary Logue, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. This is a good price, if you missed it when it was free last October.
Book Description
This first in a series launch introduces Claire Watkins, a deputy sheriff for the Pepin County Police Department. Claire, a former Minneapolis police detective, and her 10-year-old daughter Meg fled the Twin Cities after her husband, Steve, also a cop, was killed.

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

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

The Worst-Case Scenario Jr. Ultimate Adventure ($7.19 Kindle, $0.99 B&N), by David Borgenicht, is the Nook Daily Find for Families. This choose-your-own adventure looks like it would be very popular with kids and I've reported the lower price on the Kindle page, in hopes it drops before tonight.
Book Description
Join the youngest crew of astronauts ever to make the trip to Mars! Faced with fearsome dangers and difficult decisions, your choices will determine your fate on the Red Planet. Will you achieve the mission and return home to Earth safely, successfully earning the title of the youngest astronaut ever to make it to Mars? Or will you be forced to turn back early? This thrilling adventure offers twenty-two possible endings, but only ONE leads to the ultimate success! With eye-catching comic book style illustrations and information based on scientific facts related to Mars and space exploration, young readers will be over the moon with this entertaining addition to the Worst-Case Scenario series!