Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Extended Family ($1.99), by Patrick Kendrick, one of the authors signed by Amazon's new Thomas & Mercer imprint.

Book Description
Dr. Harmon Gettys is the perfect man: tall, dark, handsome, and brilliant. He’d seemingly be a catch for any woman—especially those who desire an apparently charmed offspring. But Gettys uses his seed for murder, to create a legacy of violence.

For Fire Marshal Greymon Gift, gruesome burn-related murders are nothing new. But a sudden spike in his jurisdiction has Gift on high alert. When an FBI investigation links multiple arson scenes to the deceased Dr. Gettys, Gift is pulled even deeper into a case that’s hot enough to start a conflagration. He knows that even if Gettys were alive, such an assortment of violent crimes could never be committed by just one man. So who is spreading these horrors from coast to coast?

Gift and FBI Agent Rose Cleary partner up to stop the growing number of savagely murdered victims, but can they uncover the truth before they wind up on the list of the dead? Extended Family offers a thrilling look into the heart of darkness. Horrifying and suspenseful, the novel explores the idea that evil can be passed like a torch from one generation to the next. As Gettys proved—and Gift is about to find out—sometimes all it takes is a spark to set the family tree ablaze.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is Six books by Gerald Durrell for $1.53 / £0.99 each. Only the first one of the group has a US edition.

Marrying Off Mother (Main / UK; $3.43 US edition)

In this collection of stories by naturalist and animal lover Gerald Durrell, we are introduced to an eccentric cast of characters, including a perfume-wearing truffle pig and his jealous owner; an ageing set of alcoholic southern belles; a young, handsome sea captain who meets a tragic fate; a whisky-drinking hangman in Paraguay who is haunted by his victims, and a foul-mouthed talking parrot. Told with Durrell’s characteristic charm and wit, these stories – some of which may or may not be autobiographical – are humorous, touching, and always highly entertaining.

The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium (Main / UK)

If you loved My Family and Other Animals and can’t get enough of the Durrells after the Corfu series, this is the book for you. It constitutes a series of anecdotal snippets and short stories including ‘The Picnic’, a laugh-out-loud account of an ill-fated Durrell family excursion, which should have been a relaxing, jolly affair. But with the Durrells things are seldom straightforward and on this occasion all that could go wrong did go wrong - except Gerald Durrell's sense of humour in recounting the tale. Other hilarious and surreal Roald Dahlesque stories ensue, including the critically acclaimed Gothic horror story ‘The Entrance’.

The Drunken Forest (Main / UK)

Gerald Durrell is among the best-selling authors in English. His adventurous spirit and his spontaneous gift for narrative and anecdote stand out in his accounts of expeditions in Africa and South America in search of rare animals. He divines the characters of these creatures with the same clear, humorous and unsentimental eyes with which he regards those chance human acquaintances whose conversation in remote places he often reproduces in all its devastating and garbled originality. To have maintained, for over fifteen years, such unfailing standards of entertainment can only be described as a triumph. The Argentine pampas and the little-known Chaco territory of Paraguay provide the setting for The Drunken Forest. With Durrell for interpreter, an orange armadillo or a horned toad, or a crab-eating raccoon suddenly discovers the ability not merely to set you laughing but also to endear itself to you.

Beasts in my Belfry (Main / UK)

Gerald Durrell would one day become a much-loved conservationist. In Beasts in My Belfry he takes his first step towards fulfilling his ambition in this charming account of his job as a student keeper at Whipsnade Park in 1945. The eager young Durrell observes his co-workers and animal charges alike, including Albert, the ventriloquist lion, who amuses himself by jumping out at people. Whether getting dirty mucking out the buff alo enclosure or attempting to cajole a skittish gnu into a transportation crate, life in the zoo is certainly never boring.

Rosy is my Relative (Main / UK)

What does a young man bequeathed £500 and an elephant with a taste for liquor do? Adrian Whistle thinks he has the answer — he’ll give her to the circus. But it isn’t so easy. Together Adrian and Rosy cut a swathe of terror and destruction through the peaceful countryside of southern England. Drunk or sober, Rosy spreads chaos in her wake, till her hapless victims claim the full majesty of the law against her . . .

Menagerie Manor (Main / UK)

‘Most children at the tender age of six or so are generally full of the most impractical schemes for becoming policemen, firemen or engine drivers when they grow up... I knew exactly what I was going to do: I was going to have my own zoo.’ This is the hugely entertaining account of how the much-loved conservationist and author Gerald Durrell fulfilled his lifelong ambition by founding his own private sanctuary for endangered species in Jersey with the help of an enduring wife, a selfless staff and a reluctant bank manager. With a foreword by Lee Durrell, Honorary Director of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, this book about the trials and wonders of living in the middle of a zoo is a classic that will continue to bring pleasure to those who grew up reading Durrell, and deserves a whole new readership.

The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), by Denis Dutton, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
The Art Instinct combines two of the most fascinating and contentious disciplines, art and evolutionary science, in a provocative new work that will revolutionize the way art itself is perceived. Aesthetic taste, argues Denis Dutton, is an evolutionary trait, and is shaped by natural selection. It's not, as almost all contemporary art criticism and academic theory would have it, "socially constructed." The human appreciation for art is innate, and certain artistic values are universal across cultures, such as a preference for landscapes that, like the ancient savannah, feature water and distant trees. If people from Africa to Alaska prefer images that would have appealed to our hominid ancestors, what does that mean for the entire discipline of art history? Dutton argues, with forceful logic and hard evidence, that art criticism needs to be premised on an understanding of evolution, not on abstract "theory." Sure to provoke discussion in scientific circles and an uproar in the art world, The Art Instinct offers radical new insights into both the nature of art and the workings of the human mind.

Drowned Wednesday ($6.15 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the third in the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix, is the Nook Daily Find for Families.

Book Description

The next spellbinding book in best-selling author Garth Nix's magical Keys to the Kingdom series.Everyone is after Arthur Penhaligon. Strange pirates. Shadowy creatures. And Drowned Wednesday, whose gluttony threatens both her world and Arthur's. With his unlimited imagination and thrilling storytelling, Garth Nix has created a character and a world that become even more compelling with each book. As Arthur gets closer to the heart of his quest, the suspense and mystery grow more and more intense. . . .

Grade Level: 4 and up

Today's Deals

The Weekly $2.99 Albums have changed and are now all Country, for those holding out to see what was replaced by Soundtracks, before using their credit. Those credits expire tomorrow, so be sure to use them before then.

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is The Coldest Winter ($1.99), by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam.

Book Description
David Halberstam's magisterial and thrilling The Best and the Brightest was the defining book about the Vietnam conflict. More than three decades later, Halberstam used his unrivaled research and formidable journalistic skills to shed light on another pivotal moment in our history: the Korean War. Halberstam considered The Coldest Winter his most accomplished work, the culmination of forty-five years of writing about America's postwar foreign policy.

Halberstam gives us a masterful narrative of the political decisions and miscalculations on both sides. He charts the disastrous path that led to the massive entry of Chinese forces near the Yalu River and that caught Douglas MacArthur and his soldiers by surprise. He provides astonishingly vivid and nuanced portraits of all the major figures-Eisenhower, Truman, Acheson, Kim, and Mao, and Generals MacArthur, Almond, and Ridgway. At the same time, Halberstam provides us with his trademark highly evocative narrative journalism, chronicling the crucial battles with reportage of the highest order. As ever, Halberstam was concerned with the extraordinary courage and resolve of people asked to bear an extraordinary burden.

The Coldest Winter is contemporary history in its most literary and luminescent form, providing crucial perspective on every war America has been involved in since. It is a book that Halberstam first decided to write more than thirty years ago and that took him nearly ten years to complete. It stands as a lasting testament to one of the greatest journalists and historians of our time, and to the fighting men whose heroism it chronicles.

Night Waking ($1.53 / £0.99 UK), by Sarah Moss, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).

Book Description
Historian Anna Bennett has a book to write. She also has an insomniac toddler, a precocious, death-obsessed seven-year-old, and a frequently absent ecologist husband who has brought them all to Colsay, a desolate island in the Hebrides, so he can count the puffins. Ferociously sleep-deprived, torn between mothering and her desire for the pleasures of work and solitude, Anna becomes haunted by the discovery of a baby’s skeleton in the garden of their house. Her narrative is punctuated by letters home, written 200 years before, by May, a young, middle-class midwife desperately trying to introduce modern medicine to the suspicious, insular islanders. The lives of these two characters intersect unexpectedly in this deeply moving but also at times blackly funny story about maternal ambivalence, the way we try to control children, and about women’s vexed and passionate relationship with work. Moss’s second novel displays an exciting expansion of her range – showing her to be both an excellent comic writer and a novelist of great emotional depth.

Guilty Pleasures ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), the first title in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. If you haven't read this one (or want to replace your worn out paper copy), now is the time to grab it. I can recommend the urban fantasy series (although some of the books in the center of the series is a lot more Fifty Shades Trilogy than the earlier or the latest volumes) and have just finished reading Kiss the Dead, which has taken Anita back to her roots, hunting bad vampires and the sex is very toned down; I don't think I noticed much of any until over half way thru the book and then it was back to hunting monsters (it's apparently been removed into a a e-only outtake, Beauty).

Book Description
Published over ten years ago by Ace, Guilty Pleasures marked the debut of a series that was destined to grow from cult favorite to a major New York Times bestseller. Now, for long-time Anita Blake junkies and newfound fans, Guilty Pleasures makes its trade paperback debut. Readers will learn how Anita Blake started raising the dead-and killing the undead. And how she met Jean Claude, the master vampire destined to become not only her biggest nemesis, but her greatest lover...

A Summer Secret ($7.69 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the first title in The Mysteries of Middlefield series by Kathleen Fuller, is the Nook Daily Find for Families.

Book Description
In the Mysteries of Middlefield series, readers will be immersed into exciting mysteries and authentic Amish culture.

With a twin brother and five younger brothers, Mary Beth Mullet's house is in constant chaos. Her parents don't seem to mind the noise,but she needs a break from all the pestering and babysitting.

It's the summer before eighth grade, and Mary Beth plans to escape to her secret place as much as possible. The old barn in the neighboring field is dangerous, and her parents have forbidden her to go there, but she escapes to it as often as she can.

Mary Beth soon discovers she is not alone in the barn.Someone is living there; someone who needs help. Can Mary Beth help the stranger without losing her secret place? And what if the barn is as dangerous as her parents say it is?

Readers will identify with Mary Beth's struggles for peace and independence and be engrossed in the excitement and danger of A Summer Secret.

Grade Level: 3 and up

Beach Bag Reads for Summer

Open Road has a number of books on sale thru Tuesday, so that you can stuff your beach bag full for the summer. The books are supposed to be discounted in all the major stores, but I didn't find all of them marked down at Google or Kobo, so the links below will all be for Kindle. I've picked out a few that look interesting (and maybe a few that aren't on their sale), but you usually can't go wrong with the editions that Open Road brings out.

All Creatures Great and Small ($3.99), by James Herriot, is a good price on the start of a classic series, but I'd recommend you splurge instead on All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, and All Things Wise and Wonderful: Three James Herriot Classics ($11.99), for less than the cost of the first two.

Book Description
The stories of a young veterinarian making his way in the rugged English countryside—and of the people and animals he met along the way

In the rolling dales of Yorkshire, a simple, rural region of northern England, a young veterinarian from Sunderland joins a new practice. A stranger in a strange land, he must quickly learn the odd dialect and humorous ways of the locals, master outdated equipment, and do his best to mend, treat, and heal pets and livestock alike.

This witty and heartwarming collection, based on the author’s own experiences, became an international success, spawning sequels and winning over animal lovers everywhere. Perhaps better than any other writer, James Herriot reveals the ties that bind us to the creatures in our lives.

How to Talk to Your Animals ($1.99), by Jean Craighead George

Book Description
Our pets speak to us in a language all their own, if only we stop to listen

Can animals really talk? In How to Talk to Your Animals, Jean Craighead George turns her attention away from animals in the wild to those in our homes in this practical look at the ways our pets speak to us. Based upon the work of contemporary naturalists, psychologists, and zoologists, George explains the sometimes eerie phenomenon of unspoken communication observed by many pet owners, as well as the signals that our animal companions use to decide whether humans are friend or foe. Filled with loving stories of real animals “talking” to humans, this book will warm the heart of anyone who has ever loved an animal.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Jean Craighead George, including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

Riso: Undiscovered Rice Dishes of Northern Italy ($3.79), by Gioietta Vitale and Lisa Lawley, and Verdure: Simple Recipes in the Italian Style ($3.79), by Gioietta Vitale and Robin Vitetta-Miller

Riso: Undiscovered Rice Dishes of Northern Italy
One hundred quick and simple rice recipes capturing the flavor and excitement of traditional Italian cooking

From soups and salads to risottos and desserts, Gioietta Vitale presents the best of northern Italy’s rice-based specialties. Illustrated with line drawings and filled with tips on ingredients, techniques, and even the perfect wine to go with each dish, Riso is a comprehensive guide to rice by a master of Italian cuisine.

Verdure: Simple Recipes in the Italian Style
One hundred healthful and delicious Italian recipes centered on the best fresh, seasonal produce

From artichoke frittata to zucchini soup, Vitale offers simple and nutritious recipes dedicated entirely to vegetables. Providing tips on selecting fresh ingredients and bringing out each dish’s unique flavor, Verdure represents the best of northern Italian cuisine, and is a must-have for anyone seeking no-frills meals using the best that any local produce market has to offer.

Canal House Cooking Volume N° 1: Summer ($5.69), by Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton, is the first of several in the series, several of them included in the sale. Ignore the "11 pages" in the description, as there are more than that in the sample and it claims 81 recipes in this volume.

Book Description
CANAL HOUSE COOKING, VOLUME N° 1, SUMMER is a collection of our favorite summer recipes, ones we cook for ourselves all through the long lazy months. We are home cooks writing about home cooking for other home cooks. We cook seasonally because that’s what makes sense. In midsummer, we buy boxes of tomatoes to dress as minimally as we do in the heat. And in the height of the season, we preserve all that we can, so as to save a taste of summer. We make jarfuls of teriyaki sauce for slathering on chicken. We love to cook big paellas outdoors over a fire for a crowd of friends. We are crazy for ripe melons in late summer. And we churn tubs of ice cream for our families.

If you cook your way through a few of our recipes, you’ll see that who we are comes right through in these pages. With a few exceptions, we use ingredients that are readily available and found in most markets in most towns throughout the United States. All the recipes are easy to prepare (some of them a bit more involved), all completely doable for the novice and experienced cook alike.

Cook all summer long with Canal House Cooking!

Something Warm from the Oven: Baking Memories, Making Memories ($3.79), by Eileen Goudge

Book Description
A trove of classic recipes from the New York Times bestselling novelist Eileen Goudge

One of six children, Eileen Goudge learned to bake at an early age, inspired by her mother, who made everything from scratch and baked all her own bread. She has fond memories of the banana cake, apple crisp, and baked Alaska she loved as a child, and many of her novels feature temptations in the form of sweets, from the fine chocolates of Such Devoted Sisters to the icebox cookies of One Last Dance.

In this volume, Goudge collects the best of her mother’s recipes, adds some of her own, and includes a few from friends and readers. She tells the story of each dish in mouthwatering detail, giving glimpses of her childhood and noting which treats are best for picnics, parties, and other special occasions. These are not difficult recipes, but they are brilliant, and each one is designed to soothe the soul as well as please the palate.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Eileen Goudge including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life ($3.99), by Natalie Goldberg

Book Description
An inspirational, practical, and often lighthearted guide on how to find time to write, how to discover your personal style, and how to make sentences come alive

Natalie Goldberg, author of the bestselling Writing Down the Bones, shares her invaluable insight into writing as a source of creative power, and the daily ins and outs of the writer’s task. Topics include balancing mundane responsibilities with a commitment to writing; knowing when to take risks as a writer and a human being; coming to terms with success, failure, and loss; and learning self-acceptance—both in life and art.

Thought-provoking and practical, Wild Mind provides an abundance of suggestions for keeping the writing life vital and active, and includes more than thirty provocative “try this” exercises as jump-starters to get your pen moving.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Natalie Goldberg, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

The Ethics of Ambiguity ($1.99), by Simone de Beauvoir

Book Description
In de Beauvoir’s second major essay, the renowned French philosopher illustrates the ethics of Existentialism by outlining a series of “ways of being”

In this classic introduction to Existentialist thought, French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir’s The Ethics of Ambiguity simultaneously pays homage to and grapples with her French contemporaries, philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, by arguing that the freedoms in Existentialism carry with them certain ethical responsibilities. While contemplating Nihilism, Surrealism, Existentialism, Objectivity, and human values, The Ethics of Ambiguity is a thorough examination of existence and what it means to human life.

To do this, de Beauvoir outlines a series of “ways of being” (the adventurer, the passionate person, the lover, the artist, and the intellectual), each of which overcomes the former’s deficiencies, and therefore can live up to the responsibilities of freedom. Ultimately, de Beauvoir argues that in order to achieve true freedom, one must battle against the choices and activities of those who suppress it.

When the Legends Die ($1.99), by Hal Borland

Book Description
A young Native American walks between the lonesome forest where he was raised and the complicated modern world he must navigate to survive

Thomas Black Bull’s parents forsook the life of a modern reservation and took to ancient paths in the woods, teaching their young son the stories and customs of his ancestors. But Tom’s life changes forever when he loses his father in a tragic accident and his mother dies shortly afterward. When Tom is discovered alone in the forest with only a bear cub as a companion, life becomes difficult. Soon, well-meaning teachers endeavor to reform him, a rodeo attempts to turn him into an act, and nearly everyone he meets tries to take control of his life.

Powerful and timeless, When the Legends Die is a captivating story of one boy learning to live in harmony with both civilization and wilderness.

Chaos: Making a New Science ($3.79), by James Gleick

Book Description
The blockbuster modern science classic that introduced the butterfly effect to the world—even more relevant two decades after it became an international sensation

For centuries, scientific thought was focused on bringing order to the natural world. But even as relativity and quantum mechanics undermined that rigid certainty in the first half of the twentieth century, the scientific community clung to the idea that any system, no matter how complex, could be reduced to a simple pattern. In the 1960s, a small group of radical thinkers began to take that notion apart, placing new importance on the tiny experimental irregularities that scientists had long learned to ignore. Miniscule differences in data, they said, would eventually produce massive ones—and complex systems like the weather, economics, and human behavior suddenly became clearer and more beautiful than they had ever been before.

In this seminal work of scientific writing, James Gleick lays out a cutting edge field of science with enough grace and precision that any reader will be able to grasp the science behind the beautiful complexity of the world around us.

The Sea Around Us ($3.79), by Rachel Carson, Ann H. Zwinger and Jeffrey S. Levinton

Book Description
Rachel Carson’s National Book Award–winning classic effortlessly mingles detailed fieldwork and inspiring prose to reveal a deep understanding of the earth’s most precious, mysterious resource—the ocean

With more than one million copies sold, Rachel Carson’s The Sea Around Us became a cultural phenomenon when first published in 1951 and cemented Carson’s status as the preeminent natural history writer of her time. Her inspiring, intimate writing plumbs the depths of an enigmatic world—a place of hidden lands, islands newly risen from the earth’s crust, fish that pour through the water, and the unyielding, epic battle for survival.

Firmly based in the scientific discoveries of the time, The Sea Around Us masterfully presents Carson’s commitment to a healthy planet and a fully realized sense of wonder.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Rachel Carson including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.

The Cannibal Queen: A Flight Into the Heart of America ($3.79), by Stephen Coonts

Book Description
Bestselling author Stephen Coonts’s stirring ode to aviation: a revealing account of his three months spent exploring small-town America from the skies

Stephen Coonts spent the summer of 1991 cruising above rivers, farms, mountains, and swamps in the Cannibal Queen, his restored 1942 Boeing-Stearman open cockpit biplane. With his fourteen-year-old son, David, along for the ride, Coonts explored the diverse landscapes of the forty-eight contiguous states, touching down in each one to record the untold stories of America’s countryside. The result is The Cannibal Queen, a striking memoir that features all the technical aviation know-how of Coonts’s acclaimed thrillers, but with the spotlight focused squarely on the beauty of rural America and the spirit of those who live there.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Stephen Coonts, including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

That's it for the Open Road highlights. Be sure to check the sale page for more.

Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions ($2.99), by Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr

Book Description
A journey may take hundreds of miles, or it may cover the distance between duty and desire.

Sixteen of today’s hottest writers of paranormal tales weave stories on a common theme of journeying. Authors such as Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine, and Melissa Marr return to the beloved worlds of their bestselling series, while others, like Claudia Gray, Kami Garcia, and Margaret Stohl, create new land-scapes and characters. But whether they’re writing about vampires, faeries, angels, or other magical beings, each author explores the strength and resilience of the human heart.

Suspenseful, funny, or romantic, the stories in Enthralled will leave you moved.

Variant ($2.99), by Robison Wells. I picked this up at Audible during one of their sales and what I've listened to, sof far, is pretty good.

Book Description
Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life.

He was wrong.

Now he’s trapped in a school that’s surrounded by a razor-wire fence. A school where video cameras monitor his every move. Where there are no adults. Where the kids have split into groups in order to survive.

Where breaking the rules equals death.

But when Benson stumbles upon the school’s real secret, he realizes that playing by the rules could spell a fate worse than death, and that escape—his only real hope for survival—may be impossible.

The final selection for tonight is City of Bones ($0.99 Kindle, Kobo), the first title in Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series.

Book Description
When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing -- not even a smear of blood -- to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . .

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

Free Book - Strategies for Success in Retail (K/N)

Strategies for Success in Retail (US/UK), a collection of titles by Z. John Zhang, Herb Sorensen, Rick DeHerder and Dick Blatt, is a repeat freebie on Kindle and from Barnes & Noble, courtesy of publisher FT Press.

Book Description
A brand new collection of essential insights for your business and career from world-renowned experts…now in a convenient e-format, at a great price!

3 state-of-the-art guides to understanding consumer behavior -- and leveraging it for higher retail profits

Three books packed with up-to-the-minute insights into consumer behavior – and practical guidance on building more successful campaigns, products, formats, and experiences! Use innovative new pricing strategies to create value and attract customers... learn how today’s shoppers really think, behave, and buy… learn proven methodologies for transforming consumer knowledge into retail profits!

Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

$2 Instant Amazon MP3 Credit

Another free MP3 voucher from Amazon today, this time for $2 in free MP3's. Enter the code HEARTMP3 on the MP3 Redemption page. Just like a gift card, once you have entered the promotional code(s), you can shop on the web OR from your Kindle Fire or other device and it will be used automatically.

This credit can't be combined with the $3 AmazonLocal credit on the same purchase and I'm not sure which one will come off first, so if you still have that $3 credit, you might want to use it now, then apply this one and use it fairly quickly, as I'm not entirely sure of the expiration date. There are various guesses out there on the internet, but the July 11 date I've seen seems to be based on some wording on the AmazonLocal credit page (so, you don't have long on that credit, either). This credit (like Amazon MP3's) is limited to those with a US billing address.

The weekly $2.99 is still soundtracks today (I'm hoping it changes tomorrow), so you can still pick up Rock of Ages: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack at a super discount (or free). If your idea of classic rock is a bit older, mostly in the 50's and 60's, though, you'll want to grab 111 Rock 'n' Roll Superhits (The Ultimate Compilation), released by GM&F and also $2.99. For classical fans, Classical Music for the Reader 5 has been released (and is only 99 cents) and there are several 100 Supreme Classical Masterpieces: Rise of the Masters compilations at $1.99 that are worth picking up.

Today's Deals

B&N is going to have a discounted book each weekend this summer, chosen by the reader (a feature Amazon had, but discontinued). Voting ends early on Thursdays, so vote early, and the book will be discounted to $3.99 Fri-Sun only. From what I can tell, you will have to have a Facebook account and Like the page in order to vote, but anyone should be able to buy the discounted title.

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is How To Slay a Dragon ($1.99), the first title in Bill Allen's Journals of Myrth series. The second in the series, How To Save A Kingdom, is now available and a third title is in the works, although How To Stop A Witch isn't yet available for pre-order.

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

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

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

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

Gunshot Road ($1.53 / £0.99 UK), the second title in the Emily Tempest Investigation mystery series by Adrian Hyland, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.52). You can also get a good deal on the first of the series, Ned Kelly Award winning Diamond Dove ($3.36 / £2.14 UK), which is published under the title Moonlight Downs ($9.52) in the US.

Book Description
Emily Tempest: short, loud, sharp as a taipan's tooth. Last seen in the award-winning Diamond Dove, Emily has a new job: an Aboriginal Community Police Officer. A cop. Not quite what she had in mind when she returned to Central Australia. But for an Aboriginal woman in a pissant mining and meatworks town, the career options are limited. And there's a car attached. Her new boss, the dour Superintendent Cockburn, sees her role as making tea and rounding up the truants. But when one old friend is murdered out on the Gunshot Road and another one gets the blame, Emily leaps into the investigation feet first, mouth never far behind.

Flowers for Algernon ($8.55 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Daniel Keyes, is the Nook Daily Find. I picked this one up during one of Amazons $1 Kindle Special Offers, early in the year.

Book Description
With more than five million copies sold, Flowers for Algernon is the beloved, classic story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse. In poignant diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation increases his IQ and changes his life. As the experimental procedure takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment seems to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance--until Algernon begins his sudden, unexpected deterioration. Will the same happen to Charlie?

An American classic that inspired the award-winning movie Charly.

Virus on Orbis ($6.15 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the first title in The Softwire series by PJ Haarsma, is the Nook Daily Find for Families. I picked this up early last year, when it was free in several different stores/formats. For those that missed it then, this is a good price to start the YA series. With any luck, B&N will have the rest of the series discounted over the next few months.

Book Description
A human boy with an uncanny link to computers finds danger and discovery on the rings of Orbis in this riveting sci-fi adventure.

Thirteen-year-old Johnny Turnbull has always known there was something different about him, even before he and two hundred other kids landed on the first ring of Orbis. But once their spaceship lands, he is identified as the first-ever "softwire" — a human with the ability to enter and communicate with computers through his mind — and becomes the focus of intergalactic intrigue. Johnny and the rest of the refugee orphans are put to work in alien factories, and very quickly things go very wrong. When the all-knowing, all-controlling, and technologically "perfect" central computer starts malfunctioning, suspicious eyes turn to Johnny. Is he the one responsible? This action-packed, fast-paced sci-fi novel will keep kids on the edge of their seats.

Grade Level: 7 and up

Free App - Burn Notice Graphic Novel

If you are a Burn Notice fan, you'll want to pick up the Burn Notice Graphic Novel, now up to Volume 3, from iTunes or Google Play. I don't see it at all in the Amazon store, so those with Kindle Fires may be left out on this one, as far as special features (tilt, etc) go. However, everyone can read it free online and there is access to both of the previous volumes online, as well.

Book Description
The smash hit Burn Notice graphic novel saga is back for its third installment! “Burn Notice: First Contact” charts the origins of Michael and Fiona’s relationship, giving you an original storyline that you haven’t seen anywhere else…until now.

Beginning with the premiere of Burn Notice Season 6 (June 14, 9/8c) and continuing every week with each new on-air episode, download a new chapter that takes you deep into the backstory of your favorite spy couple. And look out for special double releases for the Burn Notice premiere and finale episodes!

For the first time ever, Volume 3 includes exclusive chapter covers that come alive with motion when you tilt and shift your device. Other popular features include:

• Artwork peelaways that allow you to see the creative process of the artists at powerhouse DC Comics: from sketches to inks to full-blown color.
• Panel-to-panel navigation: see each panel up close.
• Sharing features that let you spread the fantastic art you’ll find in the app.
• Video interviews of the Burn Notice cast and the latest Burn Notice news and tweets, all on the Burn Wire!
• Character Chatter: see what other fans are saying about the show and post your own thoughts.

Get the free ebook from Google Play. Exclusively on Google Play, you can also get the Burn Notice Tips app; keep it on your phone in case you need some quick spy tips to prevent blowing your cover!
Get the free ebook from iTunes.
Read all three volumes online!

Free Book - Red Baker (K/N)

Red Baker (Main/UK), by Robert Ward, is free in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble, courtesy of publisher Tyrus Books. This book was originally published by Dial Press/Doubleday, in the mid 1980's.

Book Description
When Red Baker, a Larmel steel worker in Baltimore, Maryland, gets laid off from his job he goes crazy: boozing, attempted philandering, running away from his future. Filled with unforgettable characters from Red’s angry but loyal wife, Wanda; his basketball-star son, Ace; his lifelong friend Dog, a casualty of the layoff; and Crystal, the go-go dancer at Lily’s bar who embodies Red’s fantasies of escape. Red Baker is a classic American novel about a man with no identity who tries to replace the one he’s lost.

Set in the world of the hard-working men of the steel mills, this acclaimed work tells the story of an unemployed steelworker who drinks, nearly loses his wife, and decides to come back fighting.

Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.

Today's Deals

Fictionwise has a good coupon code this weekend (it usually works at least thru Wed of the week), 070712, which gets you 55% off lowest price (combines with member discount and 15% off new books discount). This is close to the best coupon code they have, so it's a good time to stock up on any missing magazine issues. In the new releases, I see a novel Dave Duncan, an anthology by Fritz Leiber and a short story from Elisabeth Waters that might be worth getting.

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is The Chaperone ($2.99), by Laura Moriarty.

Book Description

USA Today's #1 Hot Fiction Pick for the summer, The Chaperone is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922 and the summer that would change them both.

Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with blunt bangs, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will transform their lives forever.

For Cora, the city holds the promise of discovery that might answer the question at the core of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in this strange and bustling place she embarks on a mission of her own. And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, she is liberated in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of Cora’s relationship with Louise, her eyes are opened to the promise of the twentieth century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive.

Drawing on the rich history of the 1920s,’30s, and beyond—from the orphan trains to Prohibition, flappers, and the onset of the Great Depression to the burgeoning movement for equal rights and new opportunities for women—Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone illustrates how rapidly everything, from fashion and hemlines to values and attitudes, was changing at this time and what a vast difference it all made for Louise Brooks, Cora Carlisle, and others like them.

Macbeth: A Novel ($1.55 / £0.99 UK), by A.J. Hartley and David Hewson, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99/KLL Eligible and was recently the US Kindle Daily Deal pick).

Book Description
This is not your parents’ Macbeth or the one you read in high-school English class. A dark and bloody tale of a Scottish lord and his beloved wife, Macbeth: A Novel hurtles toward readers in gripping contemporary prose, thanks to novelists David Hewson and A. J. Hartley.

Set in eleventh-century Scotland, Macbeth: A Novel is rich with ancient clans battling fiercely against one another and against the foreign marauders raiding their borders. Macbeth, Lord of Moray, and his wife, Skena, are loyal patriots, willing to kill or be killed to protect the Scottish kingdom. Yet the greatest danger to their beloved homeland is proving to be the king himself, Duncan, whose corrupt, bloody reign threatens to destroy the country. After Macbeth meets a trio of witches, the frustrated hero begins to think that perhaps Scotland needs a new king—him. But what begins as a plan fueled by the best of intentions soon spirals into murder, treachery, and personal collapse. In the language of today’s fast-paced thrillers, Hewson and Hartley create an electrifying tapestry out of Shakespeare’s tale, relaunching two of the most powerful characters ever created.

The Unruly Passions of Eugénie R. ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Carole DeSanti, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Love and war converge in this lush, epic story of a young woman’s coming of age during and after France’s Second Empire (1860–1871), an era that was absinthe-soaked, fueled by railway money and prostitution, and transformed by cataclysmic social upheaval.

Eugénie R., born in foie gras country, follows the man she loves to Paris but soon finds herself marooned. An outcast, she charts the treacherous waters of sexual commerce on a journey through artists’ ateliers and pawnshops, zinc bars and luxurious bordellos. Giving birth to a daughter she is forced to abandon, Eugénie spends the next ten years fighting to get her back, falling in love along the way with an artist, a woman, and a revolutionary. Then, as the gates of the city close on the eve of the Siege of Paris, Eugénie comes face to face with her past. Drawn into a net of desire and need, promises and lies, she must make a choice and find her way to a life that she can call her own.

Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus Volume 3) ($6.29 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Jonathan Stroud, is the Nook Daily Find for Families. Guess I should have waited, as I bought this title and The Ring of Solomon (#4 in the series) from Kobo, using two of the 45% off coupons, immediately after reading the first in the series, The Amulet of Samarkand, which I received as a review copy from the publisher and grabbing The Golem's Eye when it was the Nook Daily Find last month. Based on the dates they've had the first two in the four-book trilogy on sale, the fourth title should be discounted at B&N (but not Amazon) sometime in the second week of next month. Of course, buying them at Kobo gets you truly device independent EPUBs, rather than locking you into the B&N format, for those that don't have nook devices (although their reader app isn't the worst one out there and I do use it some on my Kindle Fire).

Book Description
In Book 3 of the series, Bartimaeus, Nathaniel, and Kitty must test the limits of this world, question the deepest parts of themselves -- and trust one another if they hope to survive.

Free Audiobook - The Sword

Christianaudio's free audiobook this month is The Sword ($8.99 Kindle; $11.95 Audible), by Bryan M. Litfin, narrated by Ray Porter. I actually have the ebook in my library, courtesy of Good News Publishers, who gave it away in March of last year.

Book Description
This novel of page-turning action and adventure poses the question, "If a society had no knowledge of Christianity, and then a Bible were discovered, what would happen?"

Four hundred years after a deadly virus and nuclear war destroyed the modern world, a new and noble civilization emerges. In this kingdom, called Chiveis, snowcapped mountains provide protection, and fields and livestock provide food. The people live medieval-style lives, with almost no knowledge of the "ancient" world. Safe in their natural stronghold, the Chiveisi have everything they need, even their own religion. Christianity has been forgotten—until a young army scout comes across a strange book.

With that discovery, this work of speculative fiction takes readers on a journey that encompasses adventure, romance, and the revelation of the one true God. Through compelling narrative and powerful character development, The Sword speaks to God's goodness, his refusal to tolerate sin, man's need to bow before him, and the eternality and power of his Word. Fantasy and adventure readers will be hooked by this first book in a forthcoming trilogy.

Get the free audio download from Christianaudio and scroll down the page for the rest of the trilogy discounted to $4.98 apiece, along with two other titles.

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

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is The Five People You Meet in Heaven ($2.99), by Mitch Albom.

Book Description
The phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller, that has sold more than eight million copies

Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in a meaningless life of fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. His days are a dull routine of work, loneliness, and regret.

Then, on his 83rd birthday, Eddie dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever.

One by one, Eddie's five people illuminate the unseen connections of his earthly life. As the story builds to its stunning conclusion, Eddie desperately seeks redemption in the still-unknown last act of his life: Was it a heroic success or a devastating failure The answer, which comes from the most unlikely of sources, is as inspirational as a glimpse of heaven itself.

In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom gives us an astoundingly original story that will change everything you've ever thought about the afterlife -- and the meaning of our lives here on earth. With a timeless tale, appealing to all, this is a book that readers of fine fiction, and those who loved Tuesdays with Morrie, will treasure.

The Saturday Supper Club ($1.55 / £0.99 UK), by Amy Bratley, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).

Book Description
Wanted: four amateur cooks to compete in a supper club contest Rules: four strangers, four weeks, four houses, four dinner parties You might win: a cash prize You might lose: your heart Eve had her world torn apart three years ago, when the love of her life Ethan disappeared, and she never found out why. But now, her life is rosy. With a lovely new boyfriend, Joe, and a café opening on the cards, things finally seem to be falling into place. … until she agrees to take part in a supper club competition for a local newspaper. Eve is cooking the first dinner and who should turn up on her doorstep expecting a three-course meal, but her long lost love Ethan?

Twenty Wishes ($5.99 Kindle/KLL Eligible, $1.99 B&N), by Debbie Macomber, is the Nook Daily Find.

Book Description

What do you want most in the world?

What Anne Marie Roche wants is to find happiness again. At thirty-eight, she's childless, a recent widow, alone. She owns a successful bookstore on Seattle's Blossom Street, but despite her accomplishments, there's a feeling of emptiness.

On Valentine's Day, Anne Marie and several other widows get together to celebrate…hope. They each begin a list of twenty wishes—things they always wanted to do but never did.

Anne Marie's list includes learning to knit, falling in love again, doing good for someone else. When she volunteers at a local school, an eight-year-old girl named Ellen enters her life. It's a relationship that becomes far more involving—and far more important—than Anne Marie had ever imagined.

As Ellen helps Anne Marie complete her list of twenty wishes, they both learn that wishes can come true…but not necessarily in the way you expect.

A Smart Girl's Guide to Friendship Troubles (PagePerfect NOOK Book) ($8.15 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Patti Kelley Criswell and Angela Martini (Illustrator), is the Nook Daily Find for Families. This is a "PagePerfect™ NOOK Books" so you'll need NOOK Study or a NOOK TABLET or NOOK Color with software version 1.4 to read it (the Kindle edition works on the Kindle Fire or Kindle for Android app).

Book Description
Friendship troubles have long been the subject of thousands of the "Help!" letters received by American Girl® magazine. Now there's a book on the important issue of girls and relational aggression. This guide helps girls deal with backstabbing, bullying, betrayal, and other tough friendship problems. It features sound advice, quizzes, tips, and inspiring real-life stories about girls who have overcome their differences and strengthened their friendships.

Free App - Evolution (I)

Evolution: Making Sense of Life, an app from Roberts & Company Publishers, is free in the iTunes store (requires iPad/iThing with iOS 5.1). This is a tie-in to their new textbook, Evolution: Making Sense of Life ($100 paperback pre-order or you can pre-order from the publisher for $80). I've been trying to get the app to let me buy it for two days and it is finally working -- I suspect it's a pricing mistake, though, so don't wait too long on it. Haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but it looks like it should be good, especially if it follows the textbook.

App Description
Science writer Carl Zimmer and evolutionary biologist Douglas Emlen have teamed up to write a textbook intended for biology majors that will inspire students while delivering a solid foundation in evolutionary biology.

Zimmer brings the same story-telling skills he displayed in The Tangled Bank, his 2009 non-majors textbook that the Quarterly Review of Biology called “spectacularly successful.”

Emlen, an award-winning evolutionary biologist at the University of Montana, has infused Evolution: Making Sense of Life with the technical rigor and conceptual depth that today’s biology majors require.

Students will learn the fundamental concepts of evolutionary theory, such as natural selection, genetic drift, phylogeny, and coevolution.

Get the free app from iTunes.

Free Audiobook - The Two

The Two ($8.99 Kindle), by Will Carver and narrated by Richard Aspel and Nicki Paull, is free from Audible (Random House Audiobooks). There may be some geographic restrictions, but you shouldn't need a monthly membership to grab it.

Book Description
They Kill Without Mercy.

Disappear Without Trace.

They are The Two.

And now the stakes are raised once more for Detective January David. 5 lie dead, brutally murdered - the first taken on the night of Halloween and as autumn bleeds into winter more ritualistic murders are discovered. January must battle his demons, for in his mind lies the clue to stopping a ruthless murderer. But his worst nightmares have literally come true when he discovers there's not one but two twisted killers on the loose ...

Get the free audiobook from Audible.

Today's Deals

BooksOnBoard is having a Big Bang! sale all week, with "40%-50% OFF ALL DISCOUNT ELIGIBLE eBooks this week, across the board, no limits." Note that the total discount often includes their reward bucks, which you can use for future purchases. Also, if you see a book cheaper elsewhere, you can email their support and they'll price match it (however, I don't know how long that process takes).

After finding the deal at Fandango that gives you a free $2 Amazon MP3 credit movie tickets purchases this month, I signed up with them as an affiliate (so, clicking my links will result in a small commission), so I could see what other deals I could find. Just in time, too, as it turns out that on Fridays, you can get 2 for 1 movie tickets when you use your Visa Signature card. I've added a link on the right sidebar, for those who want to take advantage of their deals; I'm going to use this deal today to go see the new Spiderman in 3D!

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Macbeth: A Novel ($1.99), by A.J. Hartley and David Hewson. Definitely not the edition you struggled with in high school, it received a starred review from Booklist.

Book Description
This is not your parents’ Macbeth or the one you read in high-school English class. A dark and bloody tale of a Scottish lord and his beloved wife, Macbeth: A Novel hurtles toward readers in gripping contemporary prose, thanks to novelists David Hewson and A. J. Hartley.

Set in eleventh-century Scotland, Macbeth: A Novel is rich with ancient clans battling fiercely against one another and against the foreign marauders raiding their borders. Macbeth, Lord of Moray, and his wife, Skena, are loyal patriots, willing to kill or be killed to protect the Scottish kingdom. Yet the greatest danger to their beloved homeland is proving to be the king himself, Duncan, whose corrupt, bloody reign threatens to destroy the country. After Macbeth meets a trio of witches, the frustrated hero begins to think that perhaps Scotland needs a new king—him. But what begins as a plan fueled by the best of intentions soon spirals into murder, treachery, and personal collapse. In the language of today’s fast-paced thrillers, Hewson and Hartley create an electrifying tapestry out of Shakespeare’s tale, relaunching two of the most powerful characters ever created.

The Taliban Cricket Club ($1.55 / £0.99 UK), by Timeri N Murari, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $11.99).

Book Description
Set in war-torn Kabul, a harrowing yet tender novel - Bend it Like Beckham in a burqua - about one woman's courage and guile in the face of tyranny.

Rukhsana, a spirited young journalist in Kabul, is summoned to the infamous Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice to face its terrifying minister, Zorak Wahidi. A cricket tournament is announced, with the winning team to travel to Pakistan for training and then represent Afghanistan at an international level.

In reality, the idea is surreal. The Taliban will never embrace a game rooted in civility, fairness and equality. And no one in Afghanistan even knows how to play cricket, except Rukhsana. The tournament offers hope - a means of escape for her brother and young cousins. And for Rukhsana, escape is essential - Wahidi wants to marry her, a frightening proposition which will enslave her in his home.

With the help of her cousins, Rukhsana devises an audacious plan that could ensure their freedom. All they have to do is learn to play cricket - and win.

A soaring novel of resilience, strength, hope and tenderness, The Taliban Cricket Club reveals how love can overcome, and outwit, the power of tyrants.

They're Watching ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Gregg Hurwitz, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. This standalone novel has starred reviews from both Publisher's Weekly and Booklist.

Book Description
Patrick Davis is a man with troubles. First his Hollywood dreams crumble and then his storybook marriage hits a snag. Now, DVDs start being delivered to his house—DVDs which show that someone is watching him and his wife, that the two of them are being stalked and recorded by cameras hidden in their house. Then the e-mails start, and someone offers to fix everything, to take the mess his life has become and make it all right. Patrick figures it’s the offer of a lifetime.

But Patrick couldn’t be more wrong. With every step he falls deeper into a web of intrigue that threatens everything he values in this world. Before he knows it, he’s in and in deep—and his only escape is to outwit and outplay his unseen opponents at their own game.

Adam Canfield of the Slash ($5.79 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Mike Winerip, is the Nook Daily Find for Families.

Book Description
Adam Canfield has to be the most over-programmed middle-school student in America. So when super-organized Jennifer coaxes him to be co-editor of their school newspaper, THE SLASH, he wonders if he’s made a big mistake. But when a third-grader’s article leads to a big scoop, Adam and his fellow junior journalists rise to the challenge of receiving their principal’s wrath to uncover some scandalous secrets. From a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and NEW YORK TIMES columnist comes a funny, inspiring debut that sneaks in some lessons on personal integrity — and captures the rush that’s connected to the breaking of a really great story.

Grade Level: 3 and up

Free Audiobooks - Anna Dressed in Blood & The Woman in White

There are two new free audiobook from Sync today. First, I've linked in the info from the ebook or audiobook version of each title (Amazon has the best reviews), followed by the link to get your copies free, with directions to ensure you get the complete download.

The first free audiobook is Anna Dressed in Blood ($2.99 Kindle), by Kendare Blake, narrated by August Ross. This is a 2011 Kirkus Best Teen Books of the Year title and one of NPR's Top 5 Young Adult Novels of 2011. As you can see, it's also on sale at Amazon, in preparation for the upcoming release of Girl of Nightmares, the next book in the same series, so if you think you'd prefer to read rather than listen (or do both), be sure to grab it now.

Book Description
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life.

The unabridged edition of The Woman in White ($26.95 Audible), by Wilkie Collins, narrated by Ian Holm, is the second selection for this week. There are several Kindle editions, ranging from free to a few dollars, for those that like to read along with the audio.

Book Description
One night on the road to London, a young drawing master, Walter Hartright, meets a mysterious woman dressed all in white and answers her pleas for help. But who is she and why is she being followed by two men? And what is her connection with his pupil Laura Fairlie, the woman he secretly loves? Wilkie Collins’ masterpiece of terrible secrets, concealed identities, abductions, fraud, cruel aristocrats and sinister foreigners is a mesmerising read.

This gripping tale of murder, intrigue, madness and mistaken identity has never been out of print since its publication.

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.

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!

$3 Instant Amazon MP3 Credit

This offer is displayed on my Kindle with Special Offers (which is just an Kindle with Ads, lately), but is not limited to those with a KSO or any Kindle device. Instead, you can either order this one direct from your KSO or just go online to AmazonLocal and grab it there:

Free Voucher for $3 to Spend at Amazon MP3

You will need one-click turned on for your Amazon account AND you must have a credit card registered for one-click (even though you won't be charged). You can turn this off and remove the card (do this by choosing to supply a new payment type, then just clicking on your address without entering any other info), once you've signed up. Sign-up for this offer expires at midnight (PT) or when supplies are exhausted (check other cities if yours is out).

You'll receive the promo code on your KSO home page and can retrieve it from the Vouchers link at AmazonLocal (you should also get an email telling you when it is ready) and will need to load the credit onto your account (which you can redeem HERE), just like a gift card, before going shopping. Once you have entered the promotional code(s), you have until midnight, July 11, 2012 to complete your purchases. I'd recommend that you apply the credit right away, since it works on any MP3 purchase - then you can shop on the web OR from your Kindle Fire and it will be used automatically.

If you were holding off on any of yesterday's bargain albums, now's the time to grab one (the credit will buy an entire Soundtrack!).