Bargain Book Roundup - BaseBall Edition

Anybody else out there think the weather is just perfect for baseball? It definitely looks like someone at HarperCollins thinks it is (although I've included a couple of titles from other publishers). If the moms in your life wouldn't appreciate one of these for Mother's Day, remember that you can delay a gifted book now and they would also make good Father's Day gifts (assuming of course, you don't buy them for yourself, now, and have Dad on the same account).

Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy ($1.99), by Jane Leavy

Book Description
In an era when too many heroes have been toppled from too many pedestals, Sandy Koufax stands apart and alone, a legend who declined his own celebrity. As a pitcher, he was sublime, the ace of baseball lore. As a human being, he aspired to be the one thing his talent and his fame wouldn't allow: a regular guy. A Brooklyn kid, he was the product of the sedate and modest fifties who came to define and dominate baseball in the sixties. In Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, former award-winning Washington Post sportswriter Jane Leavy delivers an uncommon baseball book, vividly re-creating the Koufax era, when presidents were believed and pitchers aspired to go the distance.

He was only a teenager when Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley proclaimed him "the Great Jewish Hope" of the franchise. But it wasn't until long after the team had abandoned Brooklyn that the man became the myth. Old-fashioned in his willingness to play when he was injured and in his acute sense of responsibility to his team, Koutax answered to an authority higher than manager Walter Alston. When he refused to pitch the opening game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, he inadvertently made himself a religious icon and an irrevocably public figure. A year later, he was gone -- done with baseball at age thirty. No other sports hero had retired so young, so well, or so completely.

Despite Sandy Koufax's best efforts to protect his privacy, his legend has grown larger ever since. Part biography, part cultural history, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy gets as close to that legend as he will allow. Through meticulous reporting and interviews with five hundred of his friends, teammates, and opponents, Leavy penetrates the mythology to discover a man more than worthy of myth.

The Boys of Summer ($1.99), by Roger Kahn

Book Description
This is a book about young men who learned to play baseball during the 1930s and 1940s, and then went on to play for one of the most exciting major-league ball clubs ever fielded, the team that broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. It is a book by and about a sportswriter who grew up near Ebbets Field, and who had the good fortune in the 1950s to cover the Dodgers for the Herald Tribune. This is a book about what happened to Jackie, Carl Erskine, Pee Wee Reese, and the others when their glory days were behind them. In short, it is a book about America, about fathers and sons, prejudice and courage, triumph and disaster, and told with warmth, humor, wit, candor, and love.

Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball ($1.99), by George F. Will

Book Description
In his classic tribute to America's pastime—now with a new introduction—political commentator, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and lifelong sports enthusiast George F. Will travels from the baseball field to the dugout to the locker room to get to the root of the game we all love. He breaks down the sport to its four basic components, managing, pitching, hitting, and fielding, and analyzes the way four of its notables, manager Tony La Russa, pitcher Orel Hershiser, outfielder Tony Gwynn, and shortstop Cal Ripken Jr., approach the game. One of the most acclaimed sports books ever written, Men at Work is a revelatory, and often surprising, study of professional baseball.

The Machine ($1.99), by Joe Posnanski

Book Description
There are memorable teams in baseball—and then there are utterly unforgettable teams like the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. From 1972 to 1976, the franchise known as the Big Red Machine dominated the National League, winning four division crowns, three league pennants, and two World Series titles. But their 1975 season has become the stuff of sports legend.

In The Machine, award-winning sports columnist Joe Posnanski captures all of the passion and tension, drama and glory of this extraordinary team considered to be one of the greatest ever to take the field. Helmed by Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson, the lineup for the '75 Reds is a Who's Who of baseball stars: Pete Rose, Ken Griffey, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, George Foster, Cesar Geronimo, and Dave Concepcion. Like a well-oiled engine, the '75 Reds ended the regular season with 108 wins and finished a whopping 20 games ahead of their closest division competitor, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

But that remarkable year was not without controversy. Feuds, fights, insults, and run-ins with fans were as much a part of the season as hits, runs, steals, and strikeouts. Capturing this rollicking thrill-ride of a story, Posnanski brings to vivid life the excitement, hope, and high expectations that surrounded the players from the beginning of spring training through the long summer and into a nail-biting World Series, where, in the ninth inning of the seventh game, the Big Red Machine fulfilled its destiny, defeating the Boston Red Sox 4-3.

As enthralling and entertaining as the season and players it captures, The Machine is the story of a team unlike any other in the sport's glorious history.

The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood ($1.99), by Jane Leavy

Book Description
Jane Leavy, the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, returns with a biography of an American original—number 7, Mickey Mantle. Drawing on more than five hundred interviews with friends and family, teammates, and opponents, she delivers the definitive account of Mantle's life, mining the mythology of The Mick for the true story of a luminous and illustrious talent with an achingly damaged soul.

Meticulously reported and elegantly written, The Last Boy is a baseball tapestry that weaves together episodes from the author's weekend with The Mick in Atlantic City, where she interviewed her hero in 1983, after he was banned from baseball, with reminiscences from friends and family of the boy from Commerce, Oklahoma, who would lead the Yankees to seven world championships, be voted the American League's Most Valuable Player three times, win the Triple Crown in 1956, and duel teammate Roger Maris for Babe Ruth's home run crown in the summer of 1961—the same boy who would never grow up.

As she did so memorably in her biography of Sandy Koufax, Jane Leavy transcends the hyperbole of hero worship to reveal the man behind the coast-to-coast smile, who grappled with a wrenching childhood, crippling injuries, and a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. In The Last Boy she chronicles her search to find out more about the person he was and, given what she discovers, to explain his mystifying hold on a generation of baseball fans, who were seduced by that lopsided, gap-toothed grin. It is an uncommon biography, with literary overtones: not only a portrait of an icon, but an investigation of memory itself. How long was the Tape Measure Home Run? Did Mantle swing the same way right-handed and left-handed? What really happened to his knee in the 1951 World Series? What happened to the red-haired, freckle-faced boy known back home as Mickey Charles?

"I believe in memory, not memorabilia," Leavy writes in her preface. But in The Last Boy, she discovers that what we remember of our heroes—and even what they remember of themselves—is only where the story begins.

The Soul of Baseball ($1.99), by Joe Posnanski

Book Description
When legendary Negro League player Buck O'Neil asked Joe Posnanski how he fell in love with baseball, the renowned sports columnist was inspired by the question. He decided to spend the 2005 baseball season touring the country with the ninety-four-year-old O'Neil in hopes of rediscovering the love that first drew them to the game.

The Soul of Baseball is as much the story of Buck O'Neil as it is the story of baseball. Driven by a relentless optimism and his two great passions—for America's pastime and for jazz, America's music—O'Neil played solely for love. In an era when greedy, steroid-enhanced athletes have come to characterize professional ball, Posnanski offers a salve for the damaged spirit: the uplifting life lessons of a truly extraordinary man who never missed an opportunity to enjoy and love life.

The Bad Guys Won ($1.99), by Jeff Pearlman

Book Description
Once upon a time, twenty-four grown men would play baseball together, eat together, carouse together, and brawl together. Alas, those hard-partying warriors have been replaced by GameBoy-obsessed, laptop-carrying, corporate soldiers who would rather punch a clock than a drinking buddy. But it wasn't always this way ...

In The Bad Guys Won, award-winning former Sports Illustrated baseball writer Jeff Pearlman returns to an innocent time when a city worshipped a man named Mookie and the Yankess were the second-best team in New York. So it was in 1986, when the New York Mets -- the last of baseball's live-like-rock-star teams -- won the World Series and captured the hearts (and other select body parts) of fans everywhere.

But their greatness on the field was nearly eclipsed by how bad they were off it. Led by the indomitable Keith Hernandez and the young dynamic duo of Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, along with the gallant Scum Bunch, the Amazin's won 108 regular-season games, while leaving a wide trail of wreckage in their wake -- hotel rooms, charter planes, a bar in Houston, and most famously Bill Buckner and the eternally cursed Boston Red Sox. With an unforgettable cast of characters -- Doc, Straw, the Kid, Nails, Mex, and manager Davey Johnson (as well as innumerable groupies) -- The Bad Guys Won immortalizes baseball's last great wild bunch of explores what could have been, what should have been, and thanks to a tragic dismantling of the club, what never was.

The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty (New Edition) ($1.99), by Buster Olney

Book Description
For six extraordinary years around the turn of the millennium, the Yankees were baseball's unstoppable force, with players such as Paul O'Neill, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera. But for the players and the coaches, baseball Yankees-style was also an almost unbearable pressure cooker of anxiety, expectation, and infighting. With owner George Steinbrenner at the controls, the Yankees money machine spun out of control.

In this new edition of The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty, Buster Olney tracks the Yankees through these exciting and tumultuous seasons, updating his insightful portrait with a new introduction that walks readers through Steinbrenner's departure from power, Joe Torre's departure from the team, the continued failure of the Yankees to succeed in the postseason, and the rise of Hank Steinbrenner. With an insider's familiarity with the game, Olney reveals what may have been an inevitable fall that last night of the Yankee dynasty, and its powerful aftermath.

Red Sox Rule ($1.99), by Michael Holley

Book Description
The story of the changing face of baseball and the inner workings of its finest organization

After a hundred "cursed" years, the Boston Red Sox rose gloriously to baseball domination. Under the leadership of manager Terry Francona, an extraordinary team of wildly disparate personalities—from the inscrutable Manny Ramirez to the affable David "Big Papi" Ortiz—pulled off two improbable post-season comebacks to make it to the World Series twice in three years . . . and ultimately emerged victorious. In Red Sox Rule, Michael Holley, bestselling author of Patriot Reign, provides a fascinating, insightful, and surprising inside look at how it all happened.

With the exclusive cooperation of Terry Francona and stories from the clubhouse and the conference room, Holley reveals the private sessions and the dugout and front-office strategies that have made the Red Sox a budding dynasty, overtaking their archrivals, the powerful New York Yankees, as the American League's elite team.

You Know Me Al ($0.99), by Ring Lardner, is a short title from inspirational publisher MacMay.

Book Description
Ring Larder was one of Ernest Hemingway's favorite writers. As a beginning writer Hemingway sometimes wrote under the pen name Ring Lardner, Jr., a nod to his literary hero.

You Know Me Al was written by Ring Lardner in 1916 and was his first successful book. The book is Written in the form of letters, written by "Jack Keefe," a bush league baseball player, to a friend back home. The letters made heavy use of the fictional author's idiosyncratic vernacular. Like most of Lardner's stories, You Know Me Al employed satire, in this case to show the stupidity and avarice of a certain type of athlete. "Ring Lardner thought of himself as primarily a sports columnist whose stuff wasn't destined to last, and he held to that absurd belief even after his first masterpiece, You Know Me Al, was published in 1916 and earned the awed appreciation of Virginia Woolf, among other very serious, unfunny people", wrote Andrew Ferguson, who named it, in a Wall Street Journal article, one of the top five pieces of American humor writing.

Bums No More: The Championship Season of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers ($2.99), by Stewart Wolpin

Book Description
In all of sports history, there has rarely been a bond like the one that linked the Brooklyn Dodgers with their fans. True believers to the core, Brooklynites cheered their team through every season, but never more passionately than the summer of 1955. And for a brief and shining moment on the sunny afternoon of October 4, 1955, Brooklyn stood still. Finally, the Dodgers, the beloved Bums, laid to rest a hard century of World Series futility and brought to Flatbush what Brooklynites never had before and would never have again: a championship. Bums No More! is a brilliant account of the Dodgers' World Series victory – the year they finally beat the Yankees. BUMS NO MORE! is more than just a baseball book. Author Stewart Wolpin has captured the camaraderie and fervor of an entire borough. From front porch steps to crowded bars, the wide-ranging emotions and atmosphere of the streets of Brooklyn during this marvelous season come to life. BUMS NO MORE! is a wonderful, nostalgic tribute to Brooklynites and baseball fans everywhere. – STEWART WOLPIN, a former sports writer with The Newark Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey, was a major contributor to The Ballplayers (William Morrow, 1990) and lives in New York City.

The Book of Baseball Literacy: 3rd Edition ($2.99), by David Martinez

Book Description
Lose yourself in all the marvelous memories and hallowed history of America’s national pastime with "The Book of Baseball Literacy: 3rd Edition." From the gloveless pioneers of the 1840s to the strife-ridden headlines of the 2000s, this comprehensive reference offers nearly 700 important baseball yarns, stats, and stories in a style as lively as the game itself. Incredibly thorough, never dull, the book answers these and countless other questions:

• Who was Ray Chapman, and why is he important?
• Did Abner Doubleday really invent baseball?
• What is sabermetrics?
• Who set off the Pine Tar Incident?
• Where was the first organized baseball game?
• Were the Cubs cursed by a billy goat?
• What are waivers and options?

Written by SABR member and former college baseball broadcaster David H. Martinez and even selected as required reading for a college course on baseball history, "The Book of Baseball Literacy: 3rd Edition" puts over a century and a half of legends and lore, right in your mitt. It will settle arguments and provoke them, answer questions and ask them. It’s a must for veteran baseball fans—and a perfect way to get up to speed on baseball history for newcomers.

Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the making of an Antihero ($2.99), by Jeff Pearlman

Book Description
No player in the history of baseball has left such an indelible mark on the game as San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds. In his twenty-year career, Bonds has amassed an unprecedented seven MVP awards, eight Gold Gloves, and more than seven hundred home runs, an impressive assortment of feats that has earned him consideration as one of the greatest players the game has ever seen. Equally deserved, however, is his reputation as an insufferable braggart, whose mythical home runs are rivaled only by his legendary ego. From his staggering ability and fabled pedigree (father Bobby played outfield for the Giants; cousin Reggie Jackson and godfather Willie Mays are both Hall of Famers) to his well-documented run-ins with teammates and the persistent allegations of steroid use, Bonds inspires a like amount of passion from both sides of the fence. For many, Bonds belongs beside Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron in baseball's holy trinity; for others, he embodies all that is wrong with the modern athlete: aloof; arrogant; alienated.

In Love Me, Hate Me, author Jeff Pearlman offers a searing and insightful look into one of the most divisive athletes of our time. Drawing on more than five hundred interviews -- with former and current teammates, opponents, managers, trainers, friends, and outspoken critics and unapologetic supporters alike -- Pearlman reveals, for the first time, a wonderfully nuanced portrait of a prodigiously talented and immensely flawed American icon whose controversial run at baseball immortality forever changed the way we look at our sports heroes.

Trio of Bargains from Robinson (K)

These all look like publishing errors and are apt to change in price rapidly.

Complete History of Jack the Ripper ($1.31 pre-order), by Sudgen, has the widest availability, including in the US.

Book Description
A comprehensive account of London's celebrated East End killer, revised and updated. The murders in London between 1888-91 attributed to Jack the Ripper constitute one of the most mysterious unsolved criminal cases. This story is the result of many years meticulous research. The author reassesses all the evidence and challenges everything we thought we knew about the Victorian serial killer and the vanished East End he terrorized.

Amelia Peabody Omnibus ($1.31 AU/A&P/India/LA&C, $1.36 UK, $1.35 DE), by Elizabeth Peters, isn't available for the US, but if you are in any of the available regions, it's a terrific deal. This one is a pre-order in some areas, but available now in Australia. Note that for the UK and DE regions, it's only a big bargain if bought in the Main store, not the country specific stores.

Book Description
Amelia Peabody is Elizabeth Peters' most brilliant and best-loved creation, a thoroughly Victorian feminist who takes the stuffy world of archaeology by storm with her shocking men's pants and no-nonsense attitude!

***Join our plucky Victorian Egyptologist , together with her devastatingly handsome and brilliant husband Radcliffe, in another exciting escapadeWhen Lady Baskerville's husband Sir Henry dies after discovering what may have been an undisturbed royal tomb in Luxor, she appeals to eminent archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson and his wife Amelia to take over the excavation. Amid rumours of a curse haunting all those involved with the dig, the intrepid couple proceeds to Egypt, where they begin to suspect that Sir Henry did not die a natural death, and they are confident that the accidents that plague the dig are caused by a sinister human element, not a pharoah's curse

***Join our plucky Victorian Egyptologist , together with her devastatingly handsome and brilliant husband Radcliffe, in another exciting escapadeThe irascible husband of Victorian Egyptologist Amelia Peabody is living up to his reputation as 'The Father of Curses'. Denied permission to dig at the pyramids of Dahshoor, Emerson is awarded instead the 'pyramids' of Mazghunah - countless mounds of rubble in the middle of nowhere. Nothing in this barren spot seems of any interest but then a murder in Cairo changes all of that.The dead man was an antiques dealer, killed in his shop, so when a sinister-looking Egyptian spotted at the crime scene turns up in Mazghunah, Amelia can't resist following his trail. At the same time she has to keep an eagle eye on her wayward son Rameses and his elegant and calculating cat and look into the mysterious disappearance of a mummy case...

***The 1985-96 season promises to be an exceptional one for Egyptologist Amelia Peabody, her dashing husband Emerson and their precocious eight-year-old son Rameses. The much-coveted burial chamber in Dahshoor is theirs for the digging. Yet there is a great evil in the wind that caresses the hot sands sweeping through the bustling streets and marketplaces of Cairo. An expedition cursed by misfortune and the daring moonlit abduction of Rameses alerts Amelia to the presence of her arch-enemy, the Master Criminal. And his is now a personal quest for the most valuable and elusive prize of all: vengeance on the meddling lady archaeologist with the parasol who has sworn to deliver him to justice...Amelia Peabody herself!
In this first adventure, our headstrong heroine decides to use her substantial inheritance to see the world. On her travels, she rescues a gentlewoman in distress - Evelyn Barton-Forbes - and the two become friends. The two companions continue to Egypt where they face mysteries,mummies and the redoubtable Radcliffe Emerson, an outspoken archaeologist, who doesn't need women to help him solve mysteries -- at least that's what he thinks!

Last Seen in Massilia (Roma sub Rosa) ($1.31 AU/A&P/India/LA&C, $1.35 DE), by Steven Saylor, isn't available to the US and isn't a super bargain in the UK ($4.39), but in some regions (including Australia and Asia), it's a super deal on a very good author.

Book Description
As civil war between Caesar and Pompey engulfs the Roman world, Gordianus the Finder receives an anonymous message informing him of the death of his son Meto who has been acting as a double agent for Caesar. The search for Meto's fate brings Gordianus to the besieged seaport of Massilia, which is stubbornly holding out against Caesar's troops. As famine and slaughter threaten the blockaded city, Gordianus is drawn into the intrigues of exiled Romans and duplicitous Massilians. His only friend in the city, Hieronymous, has been made the doomed scapegoat elected by city officials to bear the sins of the populace and save them all from annihilation. Meanwhile, Gordianus is constantly frustrated in his efforts to find out what happened to his son - and when he witnesses the fall of a young woman from a precipice outside the city called the Sacrifice Rock, then the plot begins to thicken...

Free Short Stories: Bestselling authors & Real-life heroines (K/N/E)

Harlequin has released three new short titles in their More Than Words: Bestselling authors & Real-life heroines series of Harlequin Special Releases. This time around, you can get the stories on Kindle, in addition to the EPUB editions available last time around.

No One But You (Kindle, B&N, Kobo, Harlequin), by Jillian Hart, is free in the Kindle store.

Book Description
We all have the power to effect change--we just need to find the strength to harness it. With every good deed done, and helping hand offered, we are making the world a better place. The dedicated women selected as this year's recipients of Harlequin's More Than Words award have changed many lives for the better, through their compassionate hearts and unshakable commitment. To celebrate their accomplishments, bestselling authors have written stories inspired by these real-life heroines.

In this book, Jillian Hart honors the work of Mary Byberg, a committed volunteer for Nellie's Shelter for Women and Children in Toronto, Ontario.

Hooked (Kindle, B&N, Kobo, Harlequin), by Betina Krahn, is free in the Kindle store.

Book Description
We all have the power to effect change--we just need to find the strength to harness it. With every good deed done, and helping hand offered, we are making the world a better place. The dedicated women selected as this year's recipients of Harlequin's More Than Words award have changed many lives for the better, through their compassionate hearts and unshakable commitment. To celebrate their accomplishments, bestselling authors have written stories inspired by these real-life heroines.

In this book, Betina Krahn honors the work of Donna Fischer, the Arizona program coordinator for Casting for Recovery, a national non-profit organization that runs fly-fishing retreats for women who have or have had breast cancer.

Maxwell's Smile (Kindle, B&N, Kobo, Harlequin), by Michele Hauf, is free in the Kindle store.

Book Description
We all have the power to effect change--we just need to find the strength to harness it. With every good deed done, and helping hand offered, we are making the world a better place. The dedicated women selected as this year's recipients of Harlequin's More Than Words award have changed many lives for the better, through their compassionate hearts and unshakable commitment. To celebrate their accomplishments, bestselling authors have written stories inspired by these real-life heroines.

In this book, Michele Hauf honors the work of the Barta sisters--Berni, Romi, Lexi and Marni Barta--and the not-for-profit organization that they founded, Kid Flicks.

We hope More Than Words inspires you look inside your heart and to get in touch with the heroine inside of you.

Free Kindle App - My Checklist

My Checklist, a Kindle App from Amazon, is free in the Kindle store. This should work on all Kindle devices from the Kindle 2 forward (providing they are up to date with their firmware).

App Description
Do you ever arrive at the store only to find you've forgotten your shopping list? Now you can keep your list on the one thing you'd never forget - your Kindle!

My Checklist allows you to organize your life with up to 25 lists for your to do's, shopping, invitations, party planning, reading lists, whatever! You can easily enter custom lists on any Kindle, and make fresh copies of frequently used lists, like Groceries, every time you need them. You will get a great sense of accomplishment as you mark each item on the list complete. You can even see your progress on your most recent lists at a glance!

Never forget another thing with My Checklist!

Bargain Book/Game/Music/Movie Roundup

Amazon has started running a Weekend Deal on digital content, including Kindle Books, Game Downloads, MP3 Downloads and Instant Videos. You can vote on the upcoming deal thru the week and then use the same link to check on the results each Friday. I've added a link on the sidebar, directly under the free MP3 of the day, so you can easily find your way back to the page each week.

I'm going to list the deals for the weekend in this post, then add a few "with Bonus Materials" editions of books that are currently marked down in the Kindle store. Bonuses are usually simply previews of upcoming titles, which can be ignored and these volumes are usually bargain priced to entice you to try a new author.

Anathem ($1.99 Kindle, Google), by Neal Stephenson. Should be price matched elsewhere, as it's an Agency title. The only reason I'm not buying? I already have it in my library.

Book Description
Anathem, the latest invention by the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, is a magnificent creation: a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination that ushers readers into a recognizable -- yet strangely inverted -- world.

Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside "saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out of necessity even more austere and less dependent on technology and material things. And Erasmas has no fear of the outside -- the Extramuros -- for the last of the terrible times was long, long ago.

Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent's gates -- at the same time opening them wide to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected." But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change.

Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros -- a threat that only an unsteady alliance of saecular and avout can oppose -- as, one by one, Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world -- as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.

Beethoven: The Complete Symphony Collection ($5.00), performed by The London Symphony Orchestra. 5:40:00 of music and overwhelming 5 star reviews.


Unforgiven ($1.99 Rent, $9.99 Buy)

Movie Description
Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman play retired outlaws who pick up their guns one last time to collect a bounty.

The Great Tree ($1.99 PC or MAC download), by Amazon

Game Description
Fly into a magical world of mystery and adventure told through beautiful drawings and mesmerizing gameplay with Reflexive's enchanting game: The Great Tree! When the Pollen Collectors are bewitched, the faeries' survival rests upon the shoulders of their children. This quest will lead them directly into the dangers of the forest, where there are whispers of something sinister lurking in the shadows. The tree's life runs short. Set forth now to save the faeries in this grown-up tale of good and evil!

The Witch Doctor's Wife with Bonus Material ($0.99), by Tamar Myers, is a pre-order (credit card on file required, but not charged until shipped). Get a sample from the full price edition ($9.99).

Book Description
For a limited time at a special price, enjoy beloved mystery writer Tamar Myers' novel The Witch Doctor's Wife—an enthralling tale of duty, greed, danger, and miracles in equatorial Africa. As a bonus, you get an excerpt from The Headhunter's Daughter and The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots, on sale May 8, 2012.

The Congo beckons to young Amanda Brown in 1958, as she follows her missionary calling to the mysterious "dark continent" far from her South Carolina home. But her enthusiasm cannot cushion her from the shock of a very foreign culture—where competing missionaries are as plentiful as flies, and oppressive European overlords are busy stripping the land of its most valuable resource: diamonds.

Little by little, Amanda is drawn into the lives of the villagers in tiny Belle Vue—and she is touched by the plight of the local witch doctor, a man known as Their Death, who has been forced to take a second job as a yardman to support his two wives. But when First Wife stumbles upon an impossibly enormous uncut gem, events are set in motion that threaten to devastate the lives of these people Amanda has come to admire and love—events that could lead to nothing less than murder.

Spin with Bonus Material ($1.99), by Catherine McKenzie, is a also a pre-order. Get a sample from the full price edition ($9.99).

Book Description
For a limited time at a special price, enjoy Catherine McKenzie's charming and humorous novel Spin, along with excerpts to her upcoming new novels, Arranged, on sale May 15, 2012, and Forgotten, on sale September 4, 2012.

When Kate Sandford lands an interview at her favorite music magazine, The Line, it's the chance of a lifetime. So Kate goes out to celebrate—and shows up still drunk to the interview the next morning. It's no surprise that she doesn't get the job, but her performance has convinced the editors that she'd be perfect for an undercover assignment for their gossip rag. All Kate has to do is follow "It Girl" Amber Sheppard into rehab. If she can get the inside scoop—and complete the thirty-day program—they'll reconsider her for the position at The Line. Kate takes the assignment, but when real friendships start to develop, she has to decide if what she has to gain is worth the price she'll have to pay.

I've mentioned Reckless With a Bonus Excerpt ($0.99), by Andrew Gross, before. It's out now (and still worth getting).

Book Description
For a limited time and a special price, discover Reckless, the New York Times best-selling novel by Andrew Gross, plus the first three chapters from his next novel, 15 Seconds, a thrilling, fast-paced story of a man, on the run, desperate to prove his innocence and to save his family’s lives. 15 Seconds will be available wherever books are sold July 10th.
In Reckless, Ty Hauck hunts the murderer of a friend--and steps into the crosshairs of a sinister conspiracy.

Savannah Blues with Bonus Material ($3.99), by Mary Kay Andrews, is a another pre-order. Get a sample from the full price edition ($9.99). I think I'll order this one, just for the area in which it is set (where I used to roam, in a past life).

Book Description
This special e-book edition of Savannah Blues includes a free excerpt of Mary Kay Andrews's latest novel, Spring Fever!

Landing a catch like Talmadge Evans III got Eloise “Weezie” Foley a jewel of a town house in Savannah's historic district. Divorcing Tal got her exited to the backyard carriage house, where she has launched a spite-fest with Tal's new fiancÉe, the elegant Caroline DeSantos.

An antiques picker, Weezie combs Savannah's steamy back alleys and garage sales for treasures when she's not dealing with her loopy relatives or her hunky ex-boyfriend. But an unauthorized sneak preview at a sale lands Weezie smack in the middle of magnolia-scented murder, mayhem . . . and more. Dirty deals simmer all around her—just as her relationship with the hottest chef in town heats up and she finds out how delicious love can be the second time around.

My Weird School 4-Book Collection with Bonus Material ($9.99), by Dan Gutman, works out to just under $2.50/volume for a series that usually is about $3.99 apiece. If you have small kids and you want them to love reading, definitely get them some of the titles in this series (one reviewer mentioned that her child read this book 22 times!).

Book Description
Don’t miss out on an exciting new My Weird School ebook collection, complete with the first four books in Dan Gutman’s seriously hilarious and seriously zany series. The collection includes My Weird School #1: Miss Daisy Is Crazy!, My Weird School #2: Mr. Klutz Is Nuts!, My Weird School #3: Mrs. Roopy Is Loopy!, My Weird School #4: Ms. Hannah Is Bananas!, and a bunch of seriously strange activities. The activities include a checklist, a maze, and a word scramble.

Meet a teacher who eats bonbons, a principal who kisses pigs, a librarian who thinks she's George Washington, and an art teacher who dresses up in pot holders! They're all inside this collection! They must be getting pretty crowded in there!

Warriors 3-Book Collection with Bonus Material ($12.99), by Erin Hunter, works out to $4.33/title, plus you get some bonus maps.

Book Description
For generations, four Clans of wild cats have shared the forest according to the laws laid down by their warrior ancestors. But now the ThunderClan cats are in grave danger, and sinister ShadowClan grows stronger every day. Noble warriors are dying—and some deaths are more mysterious than others. Into the midst of this turmoil comes an ordinary house cat named Rusty . . . who may turn out to be the bravest warrior of them all.

Enter the world of Warriors with this great introduction to Erin Hunter’s best-selling series: Warriors #1: Into the Wild, Warriors #2: Fire and Ice, and Warriors #3: Forest of Secrets. In addition, this bundle includes bonus materials like trivia, territory maps, sneak peeks at other Warriors books, and a new short story from Erin Hunter.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Collection: Books 1-13 with Bonus Material ($79.99), by Lemony Snicket, is a bit steep for a "bargain" and only works out to about $6.15/title (which is a bit of a discount from the $6.99 individually). Nowhere near the bargain long-time readers got when almost the entire series was mistakenly listed as free for a few hours, but this is the only way (that I can see) that you get the included bonus materials. If you have kids and don't have any of the books, it's definitely one to consider.

Book Description
If you have not read anything about the Baudelaire orphans, then before you read even one more sentence, you should know this: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are kindhearted and quick-witted, but their lives are filled with bad luck and misery. All of the stories about these three children are unhappy and wretched and will most likely fill you with deep despair.

From The Bad Beginning to The End, this comprehensive collection with unfortunate bonus material that may or may not include trivia questions, character profiles, and several very sad sentences is the only choice for people who simply cannot get enough of a bad thing!

Today's Deals

The new batch of $3.99 or Less Kindle Books is up at Amazon. Looks like I need to top off my Gift Certificate balance and do a bit of shopping, as I've already spotted more than a couple of authors I read just on the first page and one from my wishlist near the top of the second page.

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is White Witch ($0.99), by Trish Milburn. This one looks good and I'm moving it near the top of my TBR list.

Book Description
All she wants is a normal life. A boyfriend. Friends. Some place to belong, but all too soon Jax's barely begun new life hangs in the balance when she discovers that the boy she's attracted to is sworn to kill her kind. He's a hunter with good reason to kill everything that goes bump in the night.

Even the most fleeting use of her power is tantamount to signing her death warrant and will bring both hunter and coven down on her. But can she walk away when her friends are threatened by an old evil? Something created by the magic of witches? Jax's only hope of survival is to convince the boy she loves to forget everything he's ever been taught and help her find a way to fight the covens. To believe there is some good in her.

Harry Hill's Whopping Great Joke Book ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Harry Hill, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $8.15).

Book Description
A treat for Harry Hill fans! Britain's favourite comedian, Harry Hill, loves jokes so much that he has put together a side-splitting joke book for all the family. Containing Harry's favourite jokes picked from the world's joke archive, it also features jokes written by Harry, including some brand-new ones written specially for this book.

Warning: now even funnier! Contains new section of hilarious readers' jokes'

Excuses Begone! How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Wayne W. Dyer, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Within the pages of this transformational book, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer reveals how to change the self-defeating thinking patterns that have prevented you from living at the highest levels of success, happiness, and health. Even though you may know what to think, actually changing those thinking habits that have been with you since childhood might be somewhat challenging.

If I changed, it would create family dramas . . . I’m too old or too young . . . I’m far too busy and tired . . . I can’t afford the things I truly want . . . It would be very difficult for me to do things differently . . . and I’ve always been this way . . . may all seem to be true, but they’re in fact just excuses. So the business of modifying habituated thinking patterns really comes down to tossing out the same tired old excuses and examining your beliefs in a new and truthful light.

In this groundbreaking work, Wayne presents a compendium of conscious and subconscious crutches employed by virtually everyone, along with ways to cast them aside once and for all. You’ll learn to apply specific questions to any excuse, and then proceed through the steps of a new paradigm. The old, habituated ways of thinking will melt away as you experience the absurdity of hanging on to them.

You’ll ultimately realize that there are no excuses worth defending, ever, even if they’ve always been part of your life—and the joy of releasing them will resonate throughout your very being. When you eliminate the need to explain your shortcomings or failures, you’ll awaken to the life of your dreams.

Excuses . . . Begone!

Good Clean Knock Knock Jokes for Kids ($3.82 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Bob Phillips, is the Nook Daily Find for Families.

Book Description
What can steer a parent toward insanity faster than the phrase “Are we there yet?”...the words “Knock, Knock,” of course.

Bob Phillips, comic genius, has mastered a gathering of knock, knock jokes that will have kids laughing hysterically—and parents just plain hysterical—but a family that knock, knocks together, grows together.

Knock, Knock

Who’s There?

Olive.

Olive who?

Olive to tell knock-knock jokes.

Hours of entertainment in one simple resource is the best deal in town.

Today's Deals

It's the last day to take advantage of the current $3.99 or less Kindle Book Sale at Amazon and it's also the last day of the month for those with Amazon Prime to pick out a book to borrow from the Kindle Lending Library (which limits you to one per physical month, although you can keep it as long as you want).

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Sipping from the Nile: My Exodus from Egypt ($1.99), by Jean Naggar.

Book Description
Born into a prominent, sophisticated Jewish family who spend time in Europe and live in the Middle East, author Jean Naggar’s coming of age memoir tells the story of her protected youth in an exotic multicultural milieu. To Naggar her childhood seemed a magical time that would never come to an end. But in 1956, Egyptian President Nasser’s nationalizing of the Suez Canal set in motion events that would change her life forever.

An enchanted way of life suddenly ended by multinational hostilities, her close-knit extended family is soon scattered far and wide. Naggar’s own family moves to London where she finishes her schooling and is swept into adulthood and the challenge of new horizons in America. Speaking for a different wave of immigrants whose Sephardic origins highlight the American Jewish story through an unfamiliar lens, Naggar traces her personal journey through lost worlds and difficult transitions, exotic locales and strong family values. The story resonates for all in this poignant exploration of the innocence of childhood in a world breaking apart.

Entangled ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Cat Clarke, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).

Book Description
What does he want from me? How could I have let this happen? Am I going to die?

17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got there. As Grace pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she's tried to forget. There's falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend Sal.

But there's something missing. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see? Then, in a story full of dangerous revelations, Grace must face the most important question of all: why is she here?

A Life in Stitches: Knitting My Way Through Love, Loss, and Laughter ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Rachael Herron, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
In these 20 heartfelt essays, Rachael Herron celebrated romance novelist by day, 911 dispatcher by night, and founder of the hugely popular blog Yarnagogo.com shows how when life unravels there s always a way to knit it back together again, many times into something even better. Honest, funny, and full of warmth, Herron s tales, each inspired by something she knit or something knit for her, will speak to anyone who has ever picked up a pair of needles. From her very first sweater (a hilarious disaster, to say the least) to the yellow afghan that caused a breakup (and, ultimately, a breakthrough), every piece has a moving story behind it. This beautifully crafted and candid collection is perfect for the knitter who loves to read and the reader who loves to knit.

Mater and the Easter Buggy (Cars) ($10.39 Hardcover, no Kindle edition, $3.99 B&N), by Kiki Thorpe, is the Nook Daily Find for Families (requires NOOK Color or NOOK Tablet).

Book Description
It's Easter in Radiator Springs and no one is more excited than Mater. He can't wait for the Easter Buggy to fill his tire with goodies such as lugnuts and coolant. But his best friend Lightning McQueen is worried that Mater's holiday will be ruined when Mater wakes up to find that his Easter tire is empty. So Lightning comes up with a plan to make sure his pal's dreams aren't dashed. After all, Lightning knows the Easter Buggy isn't real. Right? This adorable picture book featuring everyone's favorite Cars characters has foil on the cover and is perfect for Easter baskets...or tires!

Tantor Media Now Publishing eBooks

Tantor Media, whom you probably know from the free audiobooks I post here about once a month, has entered the eBook publishing area. As an introduction special, they have many of them discounted to the $1.99 or $2.99 price point. These range from true Classics (like John Carter in A Princess of Mars $1.99) to “modern classics” (like Games People Play $6.99 and Pathways to the Gods $1.99) to the new (like Warriors Don’t Cry $6.64 and Southern Light $2.99).

You can find their entire line of ebook at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. As always, I recommend sampling first, but I know that the PDF editions of ebooks I've downloaded from Tantor have been well formatted in the past and the samples I checked on Kindle appear to be the same (and not just scanned in, OCR'd text or converted PDF's).

If you are in the mood for an audiobook instead, their March Madness sale is still going on and there are 81 titles still at $6.99. I haven't really looked thru it, but see a Peter Robinson title near the top of the list that looks interesting.

Get $2 in MP3's for Free

Amazon is giving everyone (with a US billing address) a $2 MP3 Credit that can be used between now and midnight (PST) April 1, with no strings attached. Click here, then click the yellow Enter Your Code button, enter the code HITUMBLR, and click the "Apply" button. You'll get a green confirmation message if all goes well and can then go shopping in the MP3 store.

In any case, that's two free singles (they are generally 99 cents) or half-price album of the day (they are almost always $3.99; today's is A Different Kind Of Fix by Bombay Bicycle Club).

If you have any other credit already in your account (such as the $2 Student credit, which requires a code that you received in email -- if you are a part of Amazon Student, you definitely should search your email for this one, which expires April 2), then you can combine them for higher priced items. If you were considering purchasing one of the Hunger Games physical books (maybe as a gift?), you can get another $2 credit to use on one of the Hunger Games Movie Soundtracks, which would drop them to the fairly reasonable range.

A few other ideas:

• Classical Music for the Reader 3: Great Masterpieces for the Dedicated Reader ($0.99)
• Classical Music for the Reader: Great Masterpieces for the Dedicated Reader ($1.99)
• Classical Music for the Reader 2: Great Masterpieces for the Dedicated Reader ($1.99)
• Rise of the Masters: 100 Supreme Classical Masterpieces ($1.99)
• 66 Must-Have Spanish Guitar Masterpieces ($2.99)
• 2 Hours With, by Thelonious Monk ($3.39)
• 10 Greatest Hits, by Miles Davis ($2.79)
• Scott Free, by Max Roach Quartet ($1.78)
• Friday Night In San Francisco, by John McLaughlin;Paco De Lucia;Al Di Meola ($4.99)

Today's Deals

Yesterday's Nook Daily Find for Families, Little White Rabbit, by Kevin Henkes, is price matched at Amazon - $3.99, while it lasts!

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is USA Today Bestseller Borrowed Time ($0.99), by CJ Lyons.

Book Description
New York Times Bestseller CJ Lyons has been praised as a "master of the genre" (Pittsburgh Magazine) for her "breathtakingly fast-paced" (Publishers Weekly) romantic medical thrillers.

Pittsburgh Police Officer Kate O'Hern is on the trail of a killer targeting cops. Only problem, he's already killed her once...

Trauma surgeon Joshua Lightner saved Kate's life, only to have her awaken suffering from an unexpected side effect: visions of other people's deaths. As a doctor, he refuses to believe in "psychic mumbo-jumbo" but as a man, he can't deny his feelings for Kate.

When the killer targets them both, are they living on BORROWED TIME?

On Stranger Tides ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Tim Powers, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).

Book Description
1718: Puppeteer John Chandagnac has set sail for Jamaica to recover his stolen inheritance, when his ship is seized by pirates. Offered the choice to join the crew, or be killed where he stands, he decides that a pirate's life is better than none at all. Now known as Jack Shandy, this apprentice buccaneer soon learns to handle a mainsail and wield a cutlass - only to discover he is now a subject of a Caribbean pirate empire ruled by one Edward Thatch, better known as Blackbeard. A practitioner of voodoo, Blackbeard is building an army of the living and the dead, to voyage together to search for the ultimate prize: the legendary Fountain of Youth.

The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby (Captain Underpants Series) ($5.69 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Dav Pilkey, is the Nook Daily Find for Families.

Book Description (B&N)
In this new and outrageous comic novel, Dav Pilkey creates a hilarious l28-page book "by George Beard and Harold Hutchins," the fourth-grade stars of Pilkey's bestselling Captain Underpants series.

Oh, no! It's not enough that George and Harold have invented Captain Underpants, the greatest superhero of all time, and that they've also saved the world FIVE times! They defeated Dr. Diaper! They punished Professor Poopypants! And they whacked the wicked Wedgie Woman! What task could be worse?!!?
This one: As punishment, the boys have to write a 100-page report on "good citizenship," and they have been specifically ordered NOT to write another comic about Captain Underpants. So what do they do?
Aha! Meet Super Diaper Baby--the most powerful peewee to pack a punch. With Pilkey's typical over-the-edge humor, Super Diaper Baby will have kids laughing until soda comes out their noses.

Irrepressible friends George and Harold create a new comic book superhero, Super Diaper Baby.

The Last Thing I Remember ($8.54 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), the first title in the YA Homelanders series by Andrew Klavan, is the Nook Daily Find. No price match on either Nook Find, yet, so I've reported the lower prices.

Book Description
Charlie West just woke up in someone else's nightmare.

He's strapped to a chair. He's covered in blood and bruises. He hurts all over. And a strange voice outside the door just ordered his death.

The last thing he can remember, he was a normal high-school kid doing normal things--working on his homework, practicing karate, daydreaming of becoming an air force pilot, writing a pretty girl's number on his hand. How long ago was that? Where is he now? Who is he really?

And more to the point . . . how is he going to get out of this room alive?

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

Diagnosis Death, by Richard Mabry MD, is a repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble and ChristianBook, courtesy of Christian publisher Abingdon Press.

Book Description
The threatening midnight calls followed Dr. Elena Gardner from one city to another, prolonging her grief. Even worse, they are echoed by the whispers of her own colleagues. Whispers that started after her comatose husband died in the ICU . . . then another mysterious death during her training. When a third happens at her new hospital, the whispers turn into a shout: “Mercy killer!”

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

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

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

13 Free Books from Charles River Editors (K)

The Charles River Editors have added to their batch of free books in the Kindle store

1. Everything You Need to Know About Good to Great
2. The History of Syria: 1900-2012
3. Decisive Moments in History: The Manhattan Project
4. American Legends: The Life of Alexander Hamilton
5. American Legends: The Life of Theodore Roosevelt
6. American Legends: The Life of Ronald Reagan
7. American Legends: The Life of Benjamin Franklin (Illustrated)
8. The World's Greatest Generals: The Life and Career of Robert E. Lee
9. The World's Greatest Generals: The Life and Career of Stonewall Jackson
10. The Legends of Mount Rushmore: The Lives of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt
11. American Legends: The Life of Thomas Jefferson (Illustrated) *repeat
12. American Legends: The Life of John F. Kennedy *repeat
13. American Legends: The Life of Martin Luther King Jr. *repeat