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Thursday, June 14, 2012

Free Audiobooks - The Eleventh Plague and The Grapes of Wrath

Audiobook Sync is once again giving away audiobooks aimed at young adults during the summer. There are two new ones each week, so you have to keep checking back. You can't get any titles that have been missed, but once they are loaded into Overdrive (which you will need to install, if you are not already using it for library books), they are yours to keep (there is no expiration date). Two new titles each Thursday!

First, I've linked in the info from the ebook or audiobook version of each title (Amazon has the best reviews), then a link to get your copies free.

The Eleventh Plague ($9.28 Kindle; $20.95 Audible), a standalone novel by Jeff Hirsch, read by Dan Bittner. This one had been on my wishlist for quite a while and I managed to pick it up in March when it was on sale and read it straight thru in about two days! Recommended.
Book DescriptionIn 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.

The Grapes of Wrath ($12.99 Kindle, $5.95 Audible), by John Steinbeck, as adapted by Frank Galati, narrated by Shirley Knight, Jeffrey Donovanm, Emily Bergl and the L.A. Theatre Works cast.
Book Description
Based on the epic novel by Nobel Laureate John Steinbeck. Set during the Great Depression, The Grapes of Wrath tells the powerful story of the Joad family's trek from the dust bowl of Oklahoma to the promise of a new life in California. But what they find threatens to rip apart their lives, and sever the ties that bind them together. Starring Shirley Knight as Ma Joad, Frank Galati's heart-wrenching adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel finds its timeless heart in the generous spirit of the common man.

A full-cast production featuring: Shirley Knight, Jeffrey Donovan, Emily Bergl, Mike Buie, Daniel Chacon, Maurice Chasse, Shannon Cochran, Trista Delamere, Francis Guinan, Charlie Matthes, Rod McLachlan, Bob Pescovitz,Joel Rafael, Stephen Ramsey, Nick Sadler, Andy Taylor, Todd Waring, Fredd Wayne, Michael Weston, and Kate Williamson, with live music performed by the Joel Rafael Band.

Click HERE to get the free downloads (you'll need to enter your name and an email address. You'll end up clicking about three pages (for each book), before the audiobook actually downloads. Don't stop so long as you still see a button that talks about your Sync download (or until you see the Overdrive software open up; there is a link at Sync, if you don't already have Overdrive installed).

Once in Overdrive, you'll need to tell it where to save the files (just click OK to use the default location, since Overdrive will keep track of them for you), then again to actually start the download (by default, all parts of the book are downloaded; I would suggest not changing this in the last dialog box, just click on OK to get the download started). Make sure your audiobook is fully downloaded before the end of the week, as once the promo period is over, you won't be able to get them free.

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Twisted Justice ($0.99), by Patricia Gussin, whose And Then There Was One was free at the beginning of March.
Book Description
For better...Laura Nelson has it all - a successful career as a surgeon, five well-adjusted kids, and a gorgeous, prominent husband Steve, a nightly news anchor at the Tampa TV News.For worse...Laura's seemingly perfect world shatters when she discovers that Steve is sharing much more than a news desk and a billboard with Kim, his sexy co-anchor. But Steve's torrid fling with his coworker is about to come to an abrupt end..Till death do us part...When Kim is murdered, Laura is left holding the smoking gun. How far would Laura go to preserve her perfect life? That's about to become yesterday's news.Now, Laura must fight to protect her freedom as lies, deception and dark secrets threaten to close in on her, and change her perfect life into a perfect nightmare.But, looks can be deceiving. And deceit can be deadly. Sexy, alluring and provocative, Twisted Justice delivers fiery hot action, pulse-pounding suspense, and a razor-sharp plot full of dangerous curves.

Farewell: The Greatest Spy Story of the Twentieth Century ($1.53 / £0.99 UK), by Sergei Kostin, Eric Raynaud, Richard V. Allen and Catherine Cauvin-Higgins, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99/KLL Eligible).
Book Description
1981. Ronald Reagan and François Mitterrand are sworn in as presidents of the Unites States and France, respectively. The tension due to Mitterrand’s French Communist support, however, is immediately defused when he gives Reagan the Farewell Dossier, a file he would later call “one of the greatest spy cases of the twentieth century.”

Vladimir Ippolitovitch Vetrov, a promising technical student, joins the KGB to work as a spy. Following a couple of murky incidents, however, Vetrov is removed from the field and placed at a desk as an analyst. Soon, burdened by a troubled marriage and frustrated at a flailing career, Vetrov turns to alcohol. Desperate and needing redemption, he offers his services to the DST. Thus Agent Farewell is born. He uses his post within the KGB to steal and photocopy files of the USSR’s plans for the West—all under Brezhnev’s nose.

Probing further into Vetrov’s psychological profile than ever before, Kostin and Raynaud provide groundbreaking insight into the man whose life helped hasten the fall of the Soviet Regime.

Correcting Jesus: 2000 Years of Changing the Story ($9.99 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Brian Griffith, is the Nook Daily Find; you can check for price match on Kindle later this afternoon, as they often hit about then, but this one seems to stubbornly staying full price.
Book Description
In Correcting Jesus, Brian Griffith patiently and clearly untangles the many strands of the story of Christianity, and the many changes made over the centuries to the original story of Jesus and his message. For any reader who's wondered, "Where did that rule come from?" and "Was it always this way?" Brian's book is the one you've waited for. He's always passionate but direct in his thesis that the original words of Jesus were meant as a basis for a society based on partnership and equity, not the one of domination and hierarchy they're used so often to justify.

By the early 20th century, it was generally accepted that all creatures (and communities) were inescapably rivals in life's battle for supremacy. It was the law of life that only victors had a future. And by this logic, which led straight to World Wars I and II, Jesus was simply irrelevant to reality. . . . In this context, the old imperative of Christian jihad against infidels was confirmed by scientific realism. Somebody had to come out on top.

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy ($6.63 $2.49 Kindle, B&N), a Newbury Honor Book by Gary D. Schmidt, is the Nook Daily Find for Families, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
It only takes a few hours for Turner Buckminster to start hating Phippsburg, Maine. No one in town will let him forget that he's a minister's son, even if he doesn't act like one. But then he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, a smart and sassy girl from a poor nearby island community founded by former slaves. Despite his father's-and the town's-disapproval of their friendship, Turner spends time with Lizzie, and it opens up a whole new world to him, filled with the mystery and wonder of Maine's rocky coast. The two soon discover that the town elders, along with Turner's father, want to force the people to leave Lizzie's island so that Phippsburg can start a lucrative tourist trade there. Turner gets caught up in a spiral of disasters that alter his life-but also lead him to new levels of acceptance and maturity. This sensitively written historical novel, based on the true story of a community's destruction, highlights a unique friendship during a time of change.

Grade Level: 5 and up

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Get a $4 MP3 Voucher (AmazonLocal)

This one's thru AmazonLocal (but wasn't reported on my Kindle with not-so-Special-or-actually-Local Offers): Free Voucher Worth $4 Off Any MP3 Album ($7.99 or Greater) from Amazon MP3. The link takes you to NE Atlanta, but you should be able to check other cities, if they sell out before midnight.

Grab the voucher now (you have about 6 hrs to do so) and you can use it anytime until thru June 20, 2012. First, you click HERE to redeem the voucher code (which you can see at AmazonLocal by clicking on Your Offers, then clicking on View Code to get the promo code.

Note: This credit cannot be combined with the "MP3S4ALL" promotional credit from yesterday.

Today's Deals

Additional formats on free books:

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is More Sweet Tea ($1.99), a collection of short stories by Deborah Smith, Sandra Chastain, Virginia Ellis and Deborah Dixon. Their first volume, Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes, was free over Christmas (and is still free in Europe).
Book Description
Settle back into that comfortable chair and enjoy a second helping of poignant, humorous and nostalgic tales about how things used to be in the legendary South. From vindictive mules and small town marriage rituals that include a pig, to Grandma's story of how a quilt square got her a husband and a home remedy of the hemorrhoidal variety that goes awry, More Sweet Tea delivers what readers have been thirsting for since the first in the Sweet Tea series, Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes.

Megacatastrophies! ($1.84 / £1.19 UK), by David Darling & Dirk Schulze-Makuch, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $8.90).
Book Description
Celebrate the year of the Mayan Apocalypse in style with Megacatastrophes!, as Dr David Darling and Dr Dirk Schulze-Makuch delve into the amazing science of the end of the world. Could it be the asteroid hurtling towards us from outer space, or a super-volcano covering the Earth under a cloud of ash; black holes gobbling up the solar system, or a tiny army of nanobots in a deranged feeding frenzy? Oh, and don't forget there's always the risk of alien invasion. Rating the likelihood of each potential disaster, David and Dirk provide the best guide to the worst that could happen, and explore what we could do to save our souls. So sit down, face the inevitable, and prepare to discover the nine weirdest ways we could all go to meet our maker.

The Distant Land of My Father ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Bo Caldwell, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle (there are two editions; only one is sale priced).
Book Description
For Anna, the narrator of Bo Caldwell's richly lyrical and vivid first novel, growing up in the magical world of Shanghai in the 1930s and 1940s creates a special bond between her and her father. He is the son of missionaries, a smuggler, and a millionaire who leads a charmed but secretive life. When the family flees to Los Angeles in the face of the Japanese occupation, he chooses to remain, believing his connections and luck will keep him safe. He's wrong. He survives, only to again choose Shanghai over his family during the Second World War. Anna and her father reconnect late in his life, when she finally has a family of her own, but it is only when she discovers his extensive journals that she is able to fully understand him and the reasons for his absences. With the intensity and appeal of When We Were Orphans, also set in Shanghai at the same time, The Distant Land of My Father tells a moving and unforgettable story about a most unusual father-daughter relationship.

Yummy Yucky ($6.64 Kindle, $1.49 B&N), by Leslie Patricelli, is the Nook Daily Find for Families (requires NOOK Color, NOOK Tablet or NOOK Kids for iPad).
Book Description
Spaghetti is yummy, but worms - and blue crayons, and sand, and other things too gross to mention - are definitely yucky when tasted. Amiably illustrated in a bright, graphic style, Leslie Patricelli's spirited book, YUMMY YUCKY stars an obliging, bald, and very expressive toddler who acts out each pair of opposites with comically dramatic effect.

In this NOOK Kids book, children can tap to enlarge text and pinch & stretch to zoom in on pictures.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Get $2 in MP3's for Free

Click thru to any MP3 page at Amazon (including today's free song, Lucky That Way by Joe Walsh), click the link next to the blue $ sign, underneath the Buy buttons, that reads "Redeem a gift card or promotion code & view balance", enter promo code MP3S4ALL and you'll get a $2 MP3 credit (must be redeemed by 11:59 p.m. PST on June 15, 2012).

Wondering what to spend it on? There are a number of $2.99 albums (which is nice; I already had a $1 credit, so I could pick any of them up for free), this month's $5 albums (including a 2-hour long Bob Marley compilation) or you could use it to pick up two of the 99 cent singles on the bestseller lists.

Enjoy!

Today's Deals

Today's Free MP3 is Joe Walsh's Lucky That Way, which is well worth picking up.

Now free on Kindle:

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Carbs & Cadavers ($1.99), the first title in J.B. Stanley's fun looking Supper Club Mystery series. With any luck, you already have Chili Con Corpses, the third in the series, that was free last November.
Book Description
James "Professor Puff" Henry may as well have "loser" stamped on his forehead. Divorced, overweight, shy, and living at home, he relies on books and his favorite snack -- cheese puffs -- for sweet relief from his problems. A former English lit professor at William and Mary, he moves back to Quincy's Gap, a small Virginia town in the Shenandoah Valley, to take care of his recently-widowed father. To improve his social life and waistline, he joins a supper club for dieters who lovingly call themselves the "Flab Five." Avoiding carbs is nearly impossible in this deep-fried potato-loving land, so a mysterious death in their small burg provides an effective, if disturbing, distraction. While dodging delectable temptations, Professor Henry and his fellow dieters work together to shed pounds and find the killer who has struck fear in this tight-knit community.

Palo Alto ($1.53 / £0.99 UK), by Hollywood actor/director James Franco, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).
Book Description
Palo Alto is the debut of a powerful new literary voice. Written with an immediacy and sense of place Palo Alto traces the lives of an extended group of teenagers as they experiment with vices of all kinds, struggle with their families and one another, and succumb to self-destructive, often heartless nihilism. Franco presents his characters in all their raw humanity, while at the same time providing insight into the teenage mind.

In the classic American tradition of story-cycles such as Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, Palo Alto presents a stark, vivid, disturbing, but, above all, compassionate portrait of lives on the rough fringes of youth.

The Blue Zone ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Andrew Gross, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. Check your libraries on this one, as there was a Bonus Edition on sale last summer, in both stores (now missing from the stores, but should be in your library, if you bought it then). If you missed it then, I'd recommend grabbing it now, for mystery/thriller fans.
Book Description
From the number one New York Times bestselling coauthor of Judge & Jury and Lifeguard comes this electrifying solo debut, The Blue Zone.

Kate Raab's life seems almost perfect: her boyfriend, her job, her family . . . until her father runs into trouble with the law. His only recourse is to testify against his former accomplices in exchange for his family's placement in the Witness Protection Program. But one of them gets cold feet. In a flash, everything Kate can count on is gone.

Now, a year later, her worst fears have happened: Her father has disappeared—into what the WITSEC agency calls "the blue zone"—and someone close to him is found brutally murdered. With her family under surveillance, the FBI untrustworthy, and her father's menacing "friends" circling with increasing intensity, Kate sets off to find her father—and uncover the secrets someone will kill to keep buried.

The Dark Hills Divide ($4.61 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the first title in The Land of Elyon children's series by Patrick Carman, is the Nook Daily Find for Families, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
Inquisitive twelve-year-old Alexa Daley is spending another summer in the walled town of Bridewell. This year, she is set on solving the mystery of what lies beyond the walls. Legend says the walls were built to keep out an unnamed evil that lurks in the forests and The Dark Hills. But what exactly is it that the townspeople are so afraid of?

As Alexa begins to unravel the truth, pushing beyond the protective barrier she's lived behind all her life, she discovers a strange and ancient enchantment -- and exposes a danger that could destroy everything she holds dear.

Grade Level: 4 and up

Monday, June 11, 2012

Today's Deals

This free pre-order should be delivered tomorrow; they often disappear shortly thereafter, so grab it now or first thing tomorrow morning (if it's still free then):

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is The Search for Major Plagge:The Nazi Who Saved Jews, Expanded Edition ($1.99), by Michael Good.
Book Description
When The Search for Major Plagge was published last spring, the world finally learned about a unique hero-and about one American doctor's extraordinary journey to tell Karl Plagge's story.

Part detective story, part personal quest, Michael Good's book is the story of the German commander of a Lithuanian work camp who saved hundreds of Jewish lives in the Vilna ghetto -including the life of Good's mother, Pearl. Who was this enigmatic officer Pearl Good had spoken of so often? After five years of research-interviewing survivors, assembling a team that could work to open German files untouched for fifty years, following every lead he could, Good was able to uncover the amazing tale of one man's remarkable courage. And in April 2005 Karl Plagge joined Oskar Schindler and 380 other Germans as a Righteous among Nations, honored by the State of Israel for protecting and saving Jewish lives during the Holocaust.

This expanded edition features new photographs and a new epilogue on the impact of the discovery of Karl Plagge-especially the story of 83-year-old Alfons von Deschwanden, who, after fifty years of silence, came forward as a veteran of Plagge's unit. His testimony is now part of this growing witness to truth.

A Fair Maiden ($1.53 / £0.99 UK), by Joyce Carol Oates, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $2.24; note that in the US edition, Katya's age is 16, not 15!).
Book Description
Young and innocent, 15-year-old Katya Spivak strikes up a friendship with the silver haired, elegant, and much older Marcus Kidder. His life couldn't be more different from her own drab, working class existence – or more enticing. His beautiful home, classical music and lavish gifts all serve to hide something far more sinister . . .

By degrees, almost imperceptibly, something changes, and posing for Mr Kidder's new painting isn't the light-hearted endeavour it once was. What does he really want from her? And how far will he go to get it?

What Difference Do It Make?: Stories of Hope and Healing ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Denver Moore, Ron Hall and Lynn Vincent, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
New thoughts and reflections from the authors of the inspirational New York Times bestseller Same Kind of Different as Me.

The more than four hundred thousand readers stirred by the story of Ron Hall and Denver Moore will resonate with the all new, stand-alone true stories of hope and healing offered in this intimate, authentic follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Same Kind of Different as Me.

With new "Denverisms" and reflections from Denver on his personal dealings with homelessness and disrespect from others, additional insights from Ron on what we can learn from people not like us and from those dealing with a terminal illness, and the stories of readers who have been impacted by the book's central themes, this inspirational reader will generate a host of new fans.

The Golem's Eye ($6.29 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the second title in the Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud, is the Nook Daily Find for Families. I've reported the price difference, in hopes that it'll drop at Amazon.
Book Description
The second adventure in the Bartimaeus trilogy finds our young apprentice magician Nathaniel working his way up the ranks of the government, when crisis hits. A seemingly invulnerable clay golem is making random attacks on London. Nathaniel and the all-powerful, totally irreverent djinni, Bartimaeus, must travel to Prague to discover the source of the golem's power. In the ensuing chaos, readers will chase a dancing skeleton across London's skyline, encounter the horror of the dreaded Night Police, witness a daring kidnapping, and enter the Machiavellian world of the magician's government. Eventually, Nathaniel and Bartimaeus have to go head to head with the fearsome golem before the surprise identity of his master is finally revealed.

Grade Level: 5 and up

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Free Audiobook - Hearing God

Christianaudio's free audiobook this month is Hearing God: Developing A Conversational Relationship with God ($8.30 Kindle; $14.95 Audible), by Dallas Willard, narrated by Grover Gardner.
Book Description
"God spoke to me."

"The Spirit spoke to my heart."

"God revealed the idea to me."

Being close to God means communicating with him--telling him what is on our hearts in prayer and hearing and understanding what he is saying to us. It is this second half of our conversation with God that is so important but that can also be so difficult. How do we hear his voice? How can we be sure that what we think we hear is not our own subconscious? What role does the Bible play? What if what God says to us is not clear?

The key, says best-selling author Dallas Willard, is to focus not so much on individual actions and decisions as on building our personal relationship with our Creator. In this updated classic, originally published as In Search of Guidance, the author provides rich spiritual insight into how we can hear God's voice clearly and develop an intimate partnership with him in the work of his kingdom.
Get the free audio download from Christianaudio and scroll down the page for several $4.98 discounted titles by the same author.

The checkout process is very streamlined (a coupon code is no longer required), as is the download process (no longer do you have to download each part of the book separately). You can also send a gift download of the free audiobook to someone else!

After finishing your order, download a zip file with the entire audiobook: select MP3 if you want to be able to play the book on your Kindle (M4B for the iOS, iTunes or QuickTime). Unzip the contents to the \audiobooks directory on your Kindle (not \music) in order to have audiobook controls and see it on your Kindle home page.

Today's Deals

If you've bought any Android Apps lately, including some of the free apps, be sure to check your MP3 balance at Amazon, as they are giving out a $1 credit with select free apps and select paid apps. If you aren't sure which one to pick up in the paid apps, you probably won't go wrong with Audubon Mammals: A Field Guide to North American Mammals, currently on sale for 99 cents.

Additional formats on free books:

Messenger ($7.12 $1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Lois Lowry, is the Nook Daily Find for Families, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
Strange changes are taking place in Village. Once a utopian community that prided itself on its welcome to new strangers, Village will soon be closed to all outsiders. As one of the few people able to travel through the dangerous Forest, Matty must deliver the message of Village’s closing and try to convince Seer’s daughter to return with him before it’s too late. But Forest has become hostile to Matty as well, and he must risk everything to fight his way through it, armed only with an emerging power he cannot yet explain or understand.

Grade Level: 7 and up

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is A Discovery of Witches ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), the first title in the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness. It's also the Nook Daily Find today (I think this is the second time they've picked the same book).

I highly recommend this novel; it's one of the ones I paid full price for last year and don't regret it a bit. I've tried to get the next title, Shadow of Night, as a review copy, but Penguin hasn't said yes, yet (perhaps they know it's already on my wishlist, although I'm going to wait a bit to see if it drops from the current pre-order price).
Book Description
In a sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches became the "it" book of early 2011, bringing Deborah Harkness into the spotlight and galvanizing fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and the descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont. Harkness has created a universe to rival those of Anne Rice, Diana Gabaldon, and Elizabeth Kostova, and she adds a scholar's depth to this riveting story of magic and suspense.

Below Zero ($1.52 / £0.99 UK), by C.J. Box, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $7.99).
Book Description
"Tell Sherry April called."

A simple phone message that shakes Joe Pickett's oldest daughter Sheridan and the rest of the family to the core. To Joe, it doesn't seem even remotely possible that April could have survived the massacre described in Winterkill six years before. He was there, and he was unable to save her. But Sheridan starts to believe there's a chance that April is still alive, and her suspicions are confirmed when the person sending texts to her cellphone is able to recall family incidents only April could know. Joe, however, remains wary of the messages. But when the texts start to refer to "bad things," and when Marybeth discovers they come from locations throughout the West where vicious murders have taken place, alarm bells go off. Desperate to discover if April is still alive and to save her from possible danger, Joe, Sheridan, and Nate Romanowski take to the road to connect the texts with the crimes. Meanwhile, a dying Chicago mobster named Stenko and a much younger girl cross the country. He's on a mission to reconcile with his extreme environmentalist son before he dies. His son is less interested in reconciliation than in getting his father to repent for the environmental crimes he's committed during his lifetime. He wants his father to become not just carbon neutral, but to reduce his carbon footprint to below zero - as if he'd never even existed. As the path of Stenko and his companions starts to cross with Joe, Sheridan, and Nate, the question is raised: Is this young girl April or are the Picketts the victims of a cruel hoax?

Amazon Digital Weekend Deals

The Kindle Weekend Deal is Deja Vu ($1.99), the nineteenth (and next-to-most recent) title in the Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels.
Book Description
Celebrate With The Sisterhood

Thanks to a presidential pardon, the Sisterhood can put their fugitive days behind them and resume their lives in peace. Still, all the women admit that lately things are a little too calm and peaceful. Meeting up for the first time in months to celebrate Kathryn's birthday--in the City of Sin, no less--seems like the perfect antidote.

But before they can kick up their heels something too big to pass up is dropped into their laps. The time has come to deal with Enemy #1, a/k/a Hank Jellicoe. Wanted by the FBI, the CIA, and Homeland Security for starters, President Connor herself has run out of patience with their lack of results. Only the Sisterhood, with their special blend of guts, imagination, and friends in all places are capable of pulling off the impossible--of hunting down this monster and taking him out once and for all...

Other vote winners on sale this weekend are Ferris Bueller's Day Off (video), The Complete Billie Holiday (mp3) and Nancy Drew: Danger on Deception Island (game). It looks like this is the last weekend of the promotion, as there was nothing to vote upon for next week.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

$30 Off a Kindle Fire + $5 Instant Video Credit

Just in time for Father's Day and while they last, Amazon has a $30 off Kindle Fire voucher that you can pick up over at AmazonLocal:
Free Voucher Worth $30 Off a Kindle Fire ($169 After Discount) Plus $5 Amazon Instant Video Credit
This isn't a credit on a refurbished unit (although I've always found these to be identical to new ones), but on a brand-spanking new Kindle Fire. First, you "buy" the voucher at AmazonLocal (at no cost), then access the Your Vouchers tab to find your deals. Click on the View Code button and use the promo code there on the checkout page, after placing a Kindle Fire into your cart (no one-clicking to use the voucher). As soon as you apply the code, you should see a $30 drop in the summary total (upper right) and can check out. That will then trigger an email for the $5 instant video credit to be added to your account (and once you have your Kindle Fire, you can sign up for a free month of Amazon Prime (with free Prime videos), if you haven't already taken advantage of a trial offer.

Some Deal Details
• Kindle Fire voucher must be redeemed by June 15, 2012
• Ships only to U.S. addresses
• Limit 1 voucher per customer. Limited quantities available
• $5 promotional code for Amazon Instant Video credit expires August 31, 2012
• Voucher is valid for $30 off the regular price of $199 for a Kindle Fire purchased only from Amazon.com...
• Within 72 hours after your purchased Kindle Fire is shipped, you will receive an email that includes a $5 promotional code for Amazon Instant Video ...
• The promotional code for $5 Amazon Instant Video may not be used for certain titles....
• The Kindle Fire voucher and the $5 promotional code for Amazon Instant Video may only be redeemed by customers who are located, and have billing addresses, in the 50 United States or the District of Columbia and who have a U.S. bank-issued credit card associated with their Amazon.com account
• Kindle Fire orders are eligible for Prime and Super Saver Shipping

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is 23 world-class mysteries for $1.99 apiece. These are all from publisher Open Road and are the starting titles in their series, from award-winning authors. I'll definitely be picking up any that aren't already in my library; there are way too many to list, so I'll just include Amazon's description of the deal:
Deal Description
These page-turning debuts and first books in popular series promise something for all lovers of great mysteries and thrillers. From Edward Bunker's critically-acclaimed classic, No Beast So Fierce, to book one of Loren D. Estleman's award-winning Amos Walker series, Motor City Blue, this selection features masterfully-crafted novels for all tastes.

The Curry Secret ($1.52 / £0.99 UK), by Kris Dhillon, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $7.08).
Book Description
There is truly no other curry book like this one. The recipes are not the traditional cuisine practised by Indians at home but the distinctive and well-loved variety served in Indian restaurants worldwide. Since its first publication nearly twenty years ago The Curry Secret has been a bestseller. It has grown, by word of mouth and reader recommendation, into a cult classic – it has even spawned internet forums where readers rave about the sauce. Following requests from those readers, Kris Dhillon has now updated the book to include a wider choice of dishes and brand new recipes for even more mouthwatering curries as well as all the established favourites. From Chicken Tikka Masala to Onion Bhajee, Aloo Gobi to Lamb Biryani, everyone’s favourite is here.Praise from readers:‘Truly an excellent book and one that any Indian restaurant fan who enjoys cooking should have’ ‘The Holy Grail of curry cook books’‘This book is so good it’s unbelievable’

The Castaways ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Elin Hilderbrand, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. This one looks like a good beach read.
Book Description
Greg and Tess MacAvoy are one of four prominent Nantucket couples who count each other as best friends. As pillars of their close-knit community, the MacAvoys, Kapenashes, Drakes, and Wheelers are important to their friends and neighbors, and especially to each other. But just before the beginning of another idyllic summer, Greg and Tess are killed when their boat capsizes during an anniversary sail. As the warm weather approaches and the island mourns their loss, nothing can prepare the MacAvoy's closest friends for what will be revealed.

Once again, Hilderbrand masterfully weaves an intense tale of love and loyalty set against the backdrop of endless summer island life.

Not Norman ($6.64 Kindle, $1.49 B&N), by Kelly Bennett and Noah Z. Jones (Author, Illustrator), is the Nook Daily Find for Families (requires NOOK Color, NOOK Tablet NOOK Kids for iPad).
Book Description
Norman the goldfish isn't what this little boy had in mind. He wanted a different kind of pet -- one that could run and catch, or chase string and climb trees, a soft furry pet to sleep on his bed at night. Definitely not Norman. But when he tries to trade Norman for a "good pet," things don't go as he planned. Could it be that Norman is a better pet than he thought? With wry humor and lighthearted affection, author Kelly Bennett and illustrator Noah Z. Jones tell an unexpected -- and positively fishy -- tale about finding the good in something you didn't know you wanted.

In this NOOK Kids book, children can tap to enlarge text and pinch & stretch to zoom in on pictures.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Today's Deals

Today's free Android App from Amazon is Madagascar 3 Movie Storybook. There's apparently no interactivity in the book, but for free, you should grab it for your kids and grandkids.

Two new Kobo codes: 20june8 for 20% off any non-Agency title and bloomsbury30 for 30% off any eBook from Bloomsbury US Publishing Group and its subsidiary imprints. Also, an update on yesterday's code, koboharlequin30 is for new Harlequin releases only. Both of the new codes are valid through June 11, 2012 at 11:59 PM EST (although I've seen them expire 12 hours early, so don't wait too long).

Get 25% off DecalGirl skins, ordered direct, using coupon code ILOVEDAD, valid June 7 - 18.

Additional formats on free books:

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Stealing Trinity ($0.99), by Ward Larsen.
Book Description
In the last days of WWII, the Third Reich makes a desperate grab to retrieve its most valuable asset, Die Wespe, a spy buried deep in the Manhattan Project. The man chosen for this mission is Alexander Braun---American born, Harvard educated, and a ruthless killer.

British Intelligence learns of the Nazi plan. Unable to convince their American counterparts of the magnitude of the threat, they dispatch Major Michael Thatcher to track down Braun.

The trail leads to Rhode Island, where Lydia Cole, a young heiress, has unwittingly taken Braun back into her life. Braun is forced to run, and there is one place where he must go--Los Alamos, home of the Manhattan Project. On July 16, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb is tested - code named Trinity. In the days that follow, four people - a tenacious British investigator, a determined young woman, a killer, and the spy who could compromise America's greatest scientific endeavor - will have a fateful rendezvous, all vying for control of the secret that will shape the world.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is seven Books by MC Beaton ($1.52/£0.99) ... you lucky dogs!
  • Death of a Glutton (Main/UK) Hamish MacBeth #8
    Her table manners were a crime. But she didn’t deserve to die!

    There’s not a cloud in Hamish Macbeth’s sky – just plenty of warm sunshine but not quite enough of the lovely Priscilla Halburton-Smythe. But as eight hopeful members of the Checkmate Singles Club converge on Tommel Castle Hotel for a week of serious matchmaking, the clouds roll in.

    The four couples, carefully matched by dating director Maria Worth, immediately dislike one another. And the arrival of Maria’s gross, greedy business partner, Peta, kills the last vestige of romance. And as love goes out the window, murder comes in the door.

    Peta soon slurps up her last meal and Hamish is left with the baffling puzzle: Who shared the fateful outing that left Peta dead with a large rosy red apple in her mouth…
  • Death of a Travelling Man (Main/UK) Hamish MacBeth #9
    It’s springtime in the Highlands but storms are brewing for Hamish Macbeth. His life is going to pot. He has – horrors! – been promoted, his new boss is a dunce, and a sinister self-proclaimed gypsy and his girlfriend have parked their rusty eyesore of a van in the middle of the village.

    Hamish smells trouble and as usual he’s right. The doctor’s drugs have gone missing. Money vanishes. And neighbours suddenly become unneighbourly. Nobody wants to talk either, so canny Hamish faces the delicate task of worming the facts out of the villagers.

    In the process he uncovers a story so bizarre that neither he nor the locals may ever be able to forget it…
  • Death of a Macho Man (Main/UK) Hamish MacBeth #12
    The unconventional Hamish Macbeth finds that his own impetuousness places him at the center of a murder investigation. Everyone in the Scottish Highlands village of Lochdubh called Randy Duggan 'the Macho Man'. Duggan went around the village and bragged about everything he had done and said he once was a wrestler in America and an explorer in the Middle East. At first his outrageous stories drew an admiring crowd at the local pub, but soon his bullying ways lead to anger and violence. When Hamish tries to break up a fight, Duggan challenges him to a public fistfight. But on the day of the scheduled fight, Duggan is found shot to death. Of course, Macbeth's superiors get wind of the fight and suspend him during the investigation. Macbeth has some suspicions about Duggan's real background - and the mysterious banker, John Glover, who shows up at the posh Tommel Castle Hotel shortly before Duggan's death. And what about Rosie Draley, the sex-crazed romance writer, who had been having an affair with the two-timing Duggan? Once again, Macbeth is in hot water and he must find a murderer to clear his name - and to get back his job and the cushy life (fishing and mooching around the village) he leads.
  • Death of a Dustman (Main/UK) Hamish MacBeth #16
    When Fergus Macleod, Lochdubh’s abusive, drunk dustman is put in charge of the local recycling centre and is dubbed the ‘Environment Officer’, Hamish Macbeth smells trouble. Sure enough, Fergus, imbued with his new powers, becomes a bullying tyrant and when his body is found stuffed in a recycling bin, no one is sorry – including his long-suffering family. But Macbeth is surprised to find that many of the despicable dustman’s victims refuse to talk – and when violence strikes again, the lanky lawman must quickly unearth the culprit among a litter of suspects… before the killer makes a clean getaway!
  • Death of a Celebrity (Main/UK) Hamish MacBeth #17
    Lochdubh, remotely nestling in the Highlands, is perfectly anonymous… until well-known TV reporter Crystal French races into town in her bright new BMW. And PC Hamish Macbeth, dourly wed to duty rather than the fiancée who dumped him, promptly gives her a ticket for reckless driving. Outraged, Crystal makes Macbeth’s life a misery with a TV report on policing in the Highlands… but when she also rakes up old local scandals for her new hit show, Macbeth notes that someone besides himself might be dead keen to stop her. And then someone does.Now, finding out who did away with the nosy reporter will lead the laconic Macbeth down roads he never envisioned… and perhaps a crisis of the heart all his own.
  • Death of a Gentle Lady (Main/UK) Hamish MacBeth #23
    Mrs Gentle has fooled everyone into thinking she is as sweet as she sounds – Gentle by name and gentle by nature. But local constable Hamish Macbeth isn’t fooled. He believes this little old lady is actually quite sly and vicious, but he’s in a minority of one. Or is he?

    When Mrs Gentle dies under unusual circumstances the villagers of Lochdubh are shocked and outraged. Chief Detective Inspector Blair suspects that members of her family may be involved but Hamish thinks there’s much more to the story – and is willing to get rough to solve the riddle of Mrs Gentle’s mysterious demise.
  • Death of a Witch (Main/UK) Hamish MacBeth #24
    Returning from holiday Hamish becomes unaccountably worried – it’s as if he senses a dark cloud of evil hanging over Lochdubh. He soon learns that there is a newcomer to the village, a woman called Catriona Beldame, and that the villagers have decided she is a witch.

    At first Hamish is charmed by her, but is dismayed when he finds out she’s been supplying dangerous potions to certain local people. No one seems willing to listen to his warnings and when she is found murdered, poor Hamish is the prime suspect. Obviously, he must solve the murder to clear his own name and bring contentment back to his beloved Lochdubh.

Life of Pi ($8.54 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Yann Martel, is the Nook Daily Find. It isn't price matched on Kindle (yet) and if I was buying it there, I'd consider the Illustrated 2nd Edition ($7.39), which has pictures you can see best on the page for the first Illustrated Edition's page. Check your Kindle libraries, first, though - this one was free in late 2010 under a different ASIN (at least for UK customers), and you may have already purchased that edition (which no longer appears at Amazon); the Illustrated Edition was also a 99 cent Deal of the Day last December, so you might already have that one, as well.
Book Description
Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.
The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional-but is it more true?

Life of Pi is at once a realistic, rousing adventure and a meta-tale of survival that explores the redemptive power of storytelling and the transformative nature of fiction. It's a story, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God.

The Captain's Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe ($4.99 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Roland Smith, is the Nook Daily Find for Families. Your kids learn some history along with what looks like a cute story (hopefully it turns out better than the idea of hiding veggies in the meatloaf!).
Book Description
Born the runt of his litter and gambled away to a rusty old riverman, the Newfoundland pup Seaman doesn’t imagine his life will be marked by any kind of glory--beyond chasing down rats. But when he meets Captain Meriwether Lewis, Seaman finds himself on a path that will make history. Lewis is just setting off on his landmark search for the Northwest Passage, and he takes Seaman along. Sharing the curiosity and strength of spirit of his new master, Seaman proves himself a valuable companion at every turn. Part history, part science--and adventure through and through--The Captain’s Dog is the carefully researched, thrilling tale of America’s greatest journey of discovery, as seen through the keen, compassionate eyes of a remarkable dog.

Grade Level: 4 and up

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Today's Deals

There are several new coupon codes for Kobo on the list today (see sidebar at right), including one good for any new Harlequin release at 30% off and two more 50% off coupons. As always, these only work on non-Agency published books, so you may have to browse a bit to find one on your wishlist.

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is The Child in Time ($1.99), by Ian McEwan.
Book Description
The Child in Time shows us just how quickly life can change in an instant. Stephen Lewis is a successful author of children's books. It is a routine Saturday morning and while on a trip to the supermarket, Stephen gets distracted. Within moments, his daughter is kidnapped and his life is forever changed.

From that moment, Lewis spirals into bereavement that has effects on his relationship with his wife, his psyche, and with time itself: "It was a wonder there could be so much movement, so much purpose, all the time. He himself had none."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
First Love, Last Rites was McEwan's first published book and is a collection of short stories that in 1976 won the Somerset Maugham Award. A second volume of his work appeared in 1978. These stories--claustrophobic tales of childhood, deviant sexuality and disjointed family life--were remarkable for their formal experimentation and controlled narrative voice. McEwan's first novel, The Cement Garden (1978), is the story of four orphaned children living alone after the death of both parents. To avoid being taken into custody, they bury their mother in the cement of the basement and attempt to carry on life as normally as possible. Soon, an incestuous relationship develops between the two oldest children as they seek to emulate their parents roles. The Cement Garden was followed by The Comfort of Strangers (1981), set in Venice, a tale of fantasy, violence, and obsession. The Child in Time (1987) won the Whitbread Novel Award and marked a new confidence in McEwan's writing. The story revolves around the devastating effects of the loss of a child through child abduction. Readers may know McEwan's work through these and other books, or more recently through his novel, Atonement, which was made into a major motion picture.

The Playdate ($1.52 / £0.99 UK), by Louise Millar, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99 pre-order).
Book Description
Single mother Callie has come to rely heavily on her best friend Suzy. But Callie suspects Suzy's life isn't as simple as it seems. It's time she pulled away - going back to work is just the first step towards rediscovering her old confidence. So why does she keep putting off telling Suzy about her new job? Suzy and Callie live close to each other on a typical cramped, anonymous London street. Neighbours seem to move in, and move on, before you have even learned their names. Callie's increased sense of alienation leads her to try to befriend a new resident on her street, Debs. But Debs is anxious, odd. You wouldn't trust her with your child - especially not if you knew anything about her past. A brilliant and chilling evocation of modern life, The Playdate is a real talking-point book for mothers everywhere. I started reading and couldn't stop . . . a must-read that will tap into every mother's primal fears' Sophie Hannah

Psych Yourself Rich: Get the Mindset and Discipline You Need to Build Your Financial Life ($10.35 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Farnoosh Torabi, is the Nook Daily Find; this title has previously been free on Kindle, where there is also a Video Enhanced Edition available.
Book Description
In Psych Yourself Rich, TV’s newest personal finance star shows how to develop the mindset, discipline, and spirit you need to build a strong financial foundation so you can grow wealth on your own terms, without fear, anxiety, misery, boredom, or even advanced math!? Farnoosh Torabi (as seen on NBC’s Today Show, Yahoo! Finance, and SoapNet’s Bank of Mom & Dad) combines the latest behavioral psychology with real attitude, without lectures! Psych Yourself Rich shows young professionals how to build a healthy view of money, investing, wealth, and aspirations. Torabi discusses how to get beyond "lend-and-spend" to a deeper, more holistic view of money, how to map out a plan of action that matches your needs and goals, and how to put that plan into action! You’ll learn how to stop agonizing and start organizing; become your own biggest "money advocate;" assert yourself to stop getting ripped off by financial institutions; make your money count; build momentum; embrace an entrepreneurial spirit; and get where you want to go, while others spend decades running in place.

Philippa Fisher's Fairy Godsister ($5.59 Kindle, $1.49 B&N), the first title in the series by Liz Kessler, is the Nook Daily Find for Families. Although not (yet) price matched on Kindle, there is a good deal on another of Kessler's titles, The Tail of Emily Windsnap at $2.99 (and three others in the series are $4.99, currently).
Book Description
Philippa Fisher would like nothing more than to summon a fairy. Still, she is taken aback when Daisy, the new girl at school, announces that she is Philippa's fairy godmother — or godsister, since they're both the same age. Though the fairy is none too pleased with her mission, she is obliged to see it through and grant her human charge the customary three wishes. Now, if only Philippa would wish for something that makes her life better, not worse! With warmth and whimsy, the creator of Emily Windsnap whisks a traditional theme into a contemporary setting to tell a story of friendship, luck, and how we decide what we really want.

Grade Level: 3 and up

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Today's Deals

Today is the last day to take advantage of this KSO deal, which is also the only KSO deal that is active. Are KSO deals a thing of the past?

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is A Kiss Before Dying ($1.99), by Ira Levin, winner of the 1954 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.
Book Description
A modern classic, this novel set a new standard in the art of mystery and suspense in its exploration of the criminal mind

A Kiss Before Dying not only debuted the talent of best-selling novelist Ira Levin to rave reviews and an Edgar Award, it also set a new standard in the art of psychological suspense. It tells the shocking tale of a young man who will stop at nothing—not even murder—to get where he wants to go. For he has dreams, plans. He also has charm, good looks, intelligence. And he has a problem. Her name is Dorothy; she loves him, and she’s pregnant. The solution may demand desperate measures. But, then, he looks like the kind of guy who could get away with murder.

About the Author
Ira Levin is the author of The Boys from Brazil, Rosemary’s Baby, Son of Rosemary, The Stepford Wives, This Perfect Day, Sliver, and A Kiss Before Dying (for which he won the Edgar Award). Levin was also the recipient of three Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Awards.

The Graduate Student ($1.52 / £0.99 UK), by James Polster, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99/KLL eligible).
Book Description
When anthropology graduate student Blackwell James returns from a research expedition in the Amazon, he brings home a trunk full of rare hallucinogenic vines…but no research notes. Frustrated by the young man’s lack of progress on his dissertation, Blackwell’s professor finds him a job working on a primate experiment in Los Angeles to spur him along. Trouble is, Blackwell has never set foot in L.A., and he doesn’t know a whit about primates. In fact, for a guy like Blackwell James, venturing into the City of Angels soon proves to be more dangerous than the Amazon ever was. From the moment he is thrust into the bizarre culture of Hollywood, his life becomes a wild, high-octane tale of adventure, suspense, and intrigue. Caught up in the secret ambitions of his new employers, Blackwell begins a strange trip through the surreal world of movie stars, murder, and money. A secret society, a ghost town, two large chimpanzees, and several shamanistic drug-induced journeys round out this outrageous novel, which features “cameos” by Sylvester Stallone, Johnny Depp, and Steven Spielberg. Gleefully continuing the great literary tradition of comic Hollywood novels, The Graduate Student is an exuberant and riveting ride.

A Single Thread ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), the first title in Marie Bostwick's Cobbled Quilt series, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. Check your libraries on this one - it was 99 cents on Kindle a while back and free from Kobo as part of their ebook club in April.
Book Description
Marie Bostwick weaves the unforgettable story of four very different women whose paths cross, changing their lives forever. . .

It's a long way from Fort Worth, Texas, to New Bern, Connecticut, yet it only takes a day in the charming Yankee town to make Evelyn Dixon realize she's found her new home. The abrupt end of her marriage was Evelyn's wake-up call to get busy chasing her dream of opening a quilt shop. Finding a storefront is easy enough; starting a new life isn't. Little does Evelyn imagine it will bring a trio like Abigail Burgess, her niece Liza, and Margot Matthews through her door. . .

Troubled and angry after her mother's death, Liza threatens to embarrass her Aunt Abigail all over town unless she joins her for quilting classes. A victim of downsizing at the peak of her career, Margot hopes an event hosted by the quilt shop could be a great chance to network--and keep from dying of boredom. . .

As they stitch their unique creations, Evelyn, Abigail, Liza, and Margot form a sisterhood they never sought--but one that they'll be grateful for when the unexpected provides a poignant reminder of the single thread that binds us all. . .

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread ($6.57 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Kate DiCamillo and Timothy Basil Ering (Illustrator), is the Nook Daily Find for Families.
Book Description
Welcome to the story of Despereaux Tilling, a mouse who is in love with music, stories, and a princess named Pea. It is also the story of a rat called Roscuro, who lives in the darkness and covets a world filled with light. And it is the story of Miggery Sow, a slow-witted serving girl who harbors a simple, impossible wish. These three characters are about to embark on a journey that will lead them down into a horrible dungeon,up into a glittering castle, and, ultimately, into each other's lives. What happens then? As Kate DiCamillo would say: Reader, it is your destiny to find out.

Grades: 2 and up

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Today's Deals

Tantor Media is celebrating Audiobook Month by marking down their entire catalog, in all formats (MP3 and CD) by 50%. It's a good deal for those who have a few on their wishlist, but don't have a subscription to Audible. There are also a few interesting looking choices in the $6.99 Bargain Bin and from the few I checked, it appears that if the CD is marked down to $6.99, you can opt to get the download, instead, for the same price. If you prefer the CD's, they are also running a free shipping deal for orders over $25.

Book View Cafe has a half-price sale going on for some of their anthologies, which works out to $2.49 apiece. The books are DRM-free, but you have to pick one format for purchase (use MOBI for Kindle, although EPUB can be converted, the font choices are often off).

Books on Board is having another sale, with a net 40%-50% off all eligible titles (non-Agency, over $2.99, classified as Fiction or Non-Fiction, which ends up skipping some titles that are "non-classifiable").

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is The File on H. ($0.99), by Ismail Kadare.
Book Description
In the mid 1930s, two young Irish-American scholars voyage to the Albanian highlands with an early model of a marvelous invention, the tape recorder, in hand. Their mission? To discover how Homer could have composed works as brilliant and as long as the Iliad and the Odyssey without ever writing them down. The answer, they think, can be found only in Albania, the last remaining natural habitat of the oral epic. But immediately on their arrival the scholars' seemingly arcane research puts them at the center of ethnic strife in the Balkans. Mistaken for foreign spies, they are placed under the surveillance of a nearsighted informer with a prodigious gift for reproducing conversations he has overheard. He is soon generating a stream of floridly written reports about the visitors' puzzling activities. News of their presence in the provincial town of N------- sets gossip to flying, and while the town's governor speculates on their imminent capture, his pretty wife, from her bath, plots her delivery from a marital ennui worthy of Madame Bovary. Research and intrigue proceed apace, but it isn't until a fierce-eyed monk from the Serbian side of the mountains makes his appearance that the scholars glimpse the full political import of their search for the key to the Homeric question. Part spy novel, part comedy of errors, The File on H.is a work of inventive genius and piercing irony that may be Ismail Kadare's funniest and most accessible to date. From an author who has been called "one of the most compelling novelists now writing in any language" (Wall Street Journal),it is also a profound and eloquent comment on one of the most intractable conflicts of our time.

Diamond Jubilee Edition of God Save the Queen: The Spiritual Heart of the Monarchy ($1.98 / £1.29 UK), by Ian Bradley, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $13.09).
Book Description
At a time of renewed interest in the monarchy (stimulated by the marriage of Prince William of Wales and the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II), the institution is analyzed and dissected from almost every point of view apart from the sacred -- which arguably stands at its heart and is its ultimate raison d'etre. Commentators assess the constitutional and philanthropic aspects of monarchy and its tourist potential; gossip magazines report on the Royal Family as a soap opera. This lack of attention is in marked contrast to the sacred origins of monarchy and the manifest importance of religious belief in the life of the present monarch.

Ian Bradley traces the religious dimension of monarchy and argues for its importance as a spiritual force in British life, as well as exploring what this might mean in a society that is both multi-faith and increasingly secular.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), a novel by Ben Fountain, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. This was named one of the Amazon Best Books of the Month, May 2012.
Book Description
A ferocious firefight with Iraqi insurgents at "the battle of Al-Ansakar Canal"—three minutes and forty-three seconds of intense warfare caught on tape by an embedded Fox News crew—has transformed the eight surviving men of Bravo Squad into America's most sought-after heroes. For the past two weeks, the Bush administration has sent them on a media-intensive nationwide Victory Tour to reinvigorate public support for the war. Now, on this chilly and rainy Thanksgiving, the Bravos are guests of America's Team, the Dallas Cowboys, slated to be part of the halftime show alongside the superstar pop group Destiny's Child.

Among the Bravos is the Silver Star–winning hero of Al-Ansakar Canal, Specialist William Lynn, a nineteen-year-old Texas native. Amid clamoring patriots sporting flag pins on their lapels and Support Our Troops bumper stickers on their cars, the Bravos are thrust into the company of the Cowboys' hard-nosed businessman/owner and his coterie of wealthy colleagues; a luscious born-again Cowboys cheerleader; a veteran Hollywood producer; and supersized pro players eager for a vicarious taste of war. Among these faces Billy sees those of his family—his worried sisters and broken father—and Shroom, the philosophical sergeant who opened Billy's mind and died in his arms at Al-Ansakar.

Over the course of this day, Billy will begin to understand difficult truths about himself, his country, his struggling family, and his brothers-in-arms—soldiers both dead and alive. In the final few hours before returning to Iraq, Billy will drink and brawl, yearn for home and mourn those missing, face a heart-wrenching decision, and discover pure love and a bitter wisdom far beyond his years.

Poignant, riotously funny, and exquisitely heartbreaking, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk is a devastating portrait of our time, a searing and powerful novel that cements Ben Fountain's reputation as one of the finest writers of his generation.

Hailey Twitch Is Not a Snitch ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Lauren Barnholdt, is the Nook Daily Find for Families, price matched on Kindle. If you've been a reader for a while, you should have this one in your library, as it was free in May, 2011.
Book Description
Meet Hailey Twitch…

She’s just like you. Well, sort of.

She loves pink sparkly pencils and ice cream. But Hailey also has a secret: she’s friends with Maybelle, a sprite that only she can see.

Hailey and Maybelle are having fun, fun, fun. But they’re also getting into lots of trouble!

Can Hailey keep her friend a secret or will she have to tell?

Grade Level: 2 and up

Monday, June 4, 2012

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands ($1.99), by Michael Chabon.
Book Description
In these lively critical and personal essays, Chabon asserts his literary manifesto: “I read for entertainment, and I write to entertain. Period.”

This collection of sixteen essays champions the cause of sci-fi and westerns, superheroes and horror shows, gumshoes and goblins—all the genre novels, comics, and pulp fiction that get pushed aside when literary discussion turns serious. For Chabon, the stories that give us great pleasure are in many ways our truest, best art—the building blocks of our shared imagination. Whether he’s taking up Superman or Sherlock Holmes, Poe or Proust, Chabon’s emphatic mission is to explore the reasons we tell each other tales, and to offer a glimpse of his own history as reader and writer.

This ebook features a biography of the author. Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Model World, Wonder Boys, Werewolves In Their Youth, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Final Solution, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Maps & Legends, Gentlemen of the Road, and the middle-grade book Summerland.

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother ($1.52 / £0.99 UK), by William Shawcross, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $17.99). Happy 60th, you guys!
Book Description
The official and definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II, grandmother of Prince Charles, and the most beloved British monarch of the twentieth century.

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon—the ninth of the Earl of Strathmore’s ten children—was born on August 4, 1900, and, certainly, no one could have imagined that her long life (she died in 2002) would come to reflect a changing nation over the course of an entire century. Vividly detailed, written with unrestricted access to her personal papers, letters, and diaries, this candid royal biography by William Shawcross is also a singular history of Britain in the twentieth century.

Waiting for Daisy: A Tale of Two Continents, Three Religions, Five Infertility Doctors, an Oscar, an Atomic Bomb, a Romantic Night ($2.99 Kindle, $3.99 B&N), by Peggy Orenstein, is the Nook Daily Find, better than price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
Peggy Orenstein's widely hailed and bestselling memoir of her quest for parenthood begins when she tells her new husband that she's not sure she ever wants to be a mother; it ends six years later after she's done almost everything humanly possible to achieve that goal. Buffeted by one obstacle after another, Orenstein seeks answers both medical and spiritual in America and Asia, all the while trying to hold on to a marriage threatened by cycles, appointments, procedures, and disappointments. Waiting for Daisy is both an intimate page-turner and a wrly funny report from the front.

The Magic Half ($3.35 Kindle, $1.49 B&N), by Annie Barrows, is the Nook Daily Find for Families.
Book Description
Miri is the non-twin child in a family with two sets of them--older brothers and younger sisters. The family has just moved to an old farmhouse in a new town, where the only good thing seems to be Miri's ten-sided attic bedroom. But when Miri gets sent to her room after accidentally bashing her big brother on the head with a shovel, she finds herself in the same room . . . only not quite.

Without meaning to, she has found a way to travel back in time to 1935 where she discovers Molly, a girl her own age very much in need of a loving family. A highly satisfying classic-in-the-making full of spine-tingling moments, this is a delightful time-travel novel for the whole family.