Bargain Book Roundup, Part II

For those who enjoy a little classical while they read, be sure to check out these compilations:

• Big Mahler Box ($0.99)
• Big Summer Box ($0.99)
• The Beethoven Piano Sonatas ($1.99)
• 100 Rachmaninoff Piano Favorites ($1.99)
• Big Gustav Leonhardt Box The Bach Guild Recordings 1952-1955 ($2.79)

And now, the rest of the bargain book roundup:

Flowertown ($4.99), by S.G. Redling

Book Description
When Feno Chemical spilled an experimental pesticide in rural Iowa, scores of people died. Those who survived contamination were herded into a US Army medically maintained quarantine and cut off from the world. Dosed with powerful drugs to combat the poison, their bodies give off a sickly sweet smell and the containment zone becomes known simply as Flowertown.

Seven years later, the infrastructure is crumbling, supplies are dwindling, and nobody is getting clean. Ellie Cauley doesn’t care anymore. Despite her paranoid best friend's insistence that conspiracies abound, she focuses on three things: staying high, hooking up with the Army sergeant she's not supposed to be fraternizing with and, most importantly, trying to ignore her ever-simmering rage. But when a series of deadly events rocks the compound, Ellie suspects her friend is right—something dangerous is going down in Flowertown and all signs point to a twisted plan of greed and abuse. She and the other residents of Flowertown have been betrayed by someone with a deadly agenda and their plan is just getting started. Time is running out. With nobody to trust and nowhere to go, Ellie decides to fight with the last weapon she has—her rage.

Flowertown is a high-intensity conspiracy thriller that brings the worst-case scenario vividly to life and will keep readers riveted until the final haunting page.

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War ($4.99), by Karl Marlantes

Book Description
Intense, powerful, and compelling, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead and James Jones’s The Thin Red Line. It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them forever.

Written by a highly decorated Marine veteran over the course of thirty years, Matterhorn is a spellbinding and unforgettable novel that brings to life an entire world—both its horrors and its thrills—and seems destined to become a classic of combat literature.

The Immortalists ($4.99), by Kyle Mills

Book Description
Dr. Richard Draman is trying desperately to discover a cure for a disease that causes children to age at a wildly accelerated rate—a rare genetic condition that is killing his own daughter. When the husband of a colleague quietly gives him a copy of the classified work she was doing before her mysterious suicide, Draman finally sees a glimmer of hope. The conclusions are stunning, with the potential to not only turn the field of biology on its head, but reshape the world. Soon, though, he finds himself on the run, relentlessly pursued by a seemingly omnipotent group of men who will do whatever it takes to silence him.

Magic Tree House #1: Dinosaurs Before Dark ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Mary Pope Osborne and Sal Murdocca (Illustrator)

Book Description
Jack and Annie's very first fantasy adventure in the bestselling middle-grade series—the Magic Tree House!

Where did the tree house come from?

Before Jack and Annie can find out, the mysterious tree house whisks them to the prehistoric past. Now they have to figure out how to get home. Can they do it before dark . . . or will they become a dinosaur's dinner?

Grade Level: K and up

Blues Highway Blues ($4.99), by Eyre Price

Book Description
Music mogul Daniel Erickson’s life has come to a perilous crossroads. Literally. He has a ruthless pair of killers on his tail and is chasing a million dollars that he owes a Russian mobster.

Standing along the same Mississippi highway where legend claims that bluesman Robert Johnson traded his immortal soul for matchless command of the guitar, Daniel finds himself on a path that parallels the evolution of American music from the Mississippi Delta to New Orleans and on to Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia, the Jersey Shore, New York, and Seattle.

At every stop, Daniel’s tour gets more dangerous with the hit men closing in, an FBI agent obsessed with his capture, and a rogue motorcycle gang hunting him down. Blues Highway Blues, Eyre Price’s debut novel, is a compelling and unique combination: part edge-of-your-seat road trip across America and part examination of the music that comprises its soundtrack.

The Janus Affair ($0.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), the second title in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series by Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine. Hopefully you grabbed the first in the series, Phoenix Rising, back when it was on sale for the same price.

Book Description
Evildoers beware! Retribution is at hand, thanks to Britain's best-kept secret agents!!

Certainly no strangers to peculiar occurrences, agents Wellington Books and Eliza Braun are nonetheless stunned to observe a fellow passenger aboard Britain's latest hypersteam train suddenly vanish in a dazzling bolt of lightning. They soon discover this is not the only such disappearance . . . with each case going inexplicably unexamined by the Crown.

The fate of England is once again in the hands of an ingenious archivist paired with a beautiful, fearless lady of adventure. And though their foe be fiendishly clever, so then is Mr. Books . . . and Miss Braun still has a number of useful and unusual devices hidden beneath her petticoats.

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.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips ($3.79), by James Hilton

Book Description
Hilton’s inspiring short novel about a beloved teacher’s remarkable role in his students’ lives, through decades of triumph and tragedy in Britain

For three generations, through war and peace, prosperity and misfortune, Arthur Chipping’s students at the Brookfield School have called him Mr. Chips. Beginning in his unpolished first years as a new teacher, through the end of the nineteenth century and well into radical changes of the twentieth, Mr. Chips has shaped the lives of the young men in his class. And when Britain is threatened by the outbreak of the First World War, it is Mr. Chips who must lead the school that has already counted on him for so much.

Made into two remarkable films and other retellings on stage and television, Goodbye, Mr. Chips has endured as a revelation of the difference one good teacher can make in countless lives.

Big Mouth & Ugly Girl ($1.99), by Joyce Carol Oates

Book Description
Big Mouth

No I did not. I did not, I did not. I did not say those things, and I did not plan those things. Won't It anyone believe me?

Ugly Girl

All right, Ugly Girl made a mistake. I'd told my mom what I'd heard in the cafeteria, and she'd told Dad. Evidently. I'd thought for sure they would want me to speak up for the truth.

Grade Level: 8 and up

Box Nine: Quinsigamond Series ($1.99), by Jack O'Connell

Book Description
A narcotics detective wages war against a deadly new stimulant

The drug is called Lingo, and it’s the most powerful narcotic Lenore has ever seen. This cheaply manufactured pill races straight for the brain’s language center, supercharging it so that even a dimwitted person can speak and read at 1,500 words per minute. It induces giddiness, confidence, and sexual euphoria—with a side effect of murderous rage. The drug has come to Quinsigamond, a fading industrial center in the heart of Massachusetts, and it’s going to tear this town apart.

Lenore believes she can stop that from happening. A narcotics detective with a few addictions of her own—amphetamines and heavy metal, to name a couple—she loves nothing more than her gun, until she meets Dr. Frederick Woo, the linguist assisting her on the case. Together they can stop the drug—if it doesn’t take hold of them first.

Anathem ($3.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Neal Stephenson

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

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

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

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

The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids ($0.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Madeline Levine, PhD

Book Description
Madeline Levine has been a practicing psychologist for twenty-five years, but it was only recently that she began to observe a new breed of unhappy teenager. When a bright, personable fifteen-year-old girl, from a loving and financially comfortable family, came into her office with the word empty carved into her left forearm, Levine was startled. This girl and her message seemed to embody a disturbing pattern Levine had been observing. Her teenage patients were bright, socially skilled, and loved by their affluent parents. But behind a veneer of achievement and charm, many of these teens suffered severe emotional problems. What was going on?

Conversations with educators and clinicians across the country as well as meticulous research confirmed Levine's suspicions that something was terribly amiss. Numerous studies show that privileged adolescents are experiencing epidemic rates of depression, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse -- rates that are higher than those of any other socioeconomic group of young people in this country. The various elements of a perfect storm -- materialism, pressure to achieve, perfectionism, disconnection -- are combining to create a crisis in America's culture of affluence. This culture is as unmanageable for parents -- mothers in particular -- as it is for their children. While many privileged kids project confidence and know how to make a good impression, alarming numbers lack the basic foundation of psychological development: an authentic sense of self. Even parents often miss the signs of significant emotional problems in their "star" children.

In this controversial look at privileged families, Levine offers thoughtful, practical advice as she explodes one child-rearing myth after another. With empathy and candor, she identifies parenting practices that are toxic to healthy self-development and that have contributed to epidemic levels of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse in the most unlikely place -- the affluent family.

Bargain Book Roundup, Part I

Amazon has a Grisly Reads for Summer sale going on, with "mysteries and thrillers from Amazon Publishing for $4.99 or less on Kindle and up to 60% off in print." I've included a few of them below, mixed in with a few lighter reads, romance, paranormal fantasy and even a kid's book or two. Most of the bargains are in the Kindle store, but a few are either matched at other stores or are for non-Kindlers, as noted below.

If you are a Christian Fiction fan, be sure to check out Abingdon Press' sale, with just over 100 titles under $4. I'm amazed at how many of them I've picked up free over the last few years; for those that missed one or two in a series, it's a great time to fill in your lists.

Open Road also has a number of titles on sale, including the omnibus All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, and All Things Wise and Wonderful: Three James Herriot Classics by James Herriot for $7.99; most of the others are under $4.

The Bad Beginning ($0.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), the first title in A Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Brett Helquist and Michael Kupperman, is the title those of us that lucked into most of the series free (back in April '10) have been waiting for (assuming you didn't grab this one already, since we got the next five books in the series from that major pricing snafu).

Book Description
Imagine tales so terrible that as many as fifty million innocents have been ruined by them – tales so indelibly horrid that the New York Times bestseller list has been unable to rid itself of them for seven years. Now imagine if this scourge suddenly became available in a shameful new edition so sensational, so irresistible, so riddled with lurid new pictures that even a common urchin would wish for it. Who among us would be safe?

Begin at the beginning – even if it is a bad one – with the first in A Series of Unfortunate Events, now even more disposable in paperback[sic]!

Grade Level: 5 and up

Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter ($0.99 Kindle, B&N), by A. E. Moorat, should appeal to those who enjoyed Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Also at Amazon (and only there), his Henry VIII: Wolfman, is marked down to $4.97.

Book Description
There were many staff at Kensington Palace, fulfilling many roles; a man who was employed to catch rats, another whose job it was to sweep the chimneys. That there was someone expected to hunt demons did not shock the new Queen; that it was to be her was something of a surprise.

London, 1838. Queen Victoria is crowned; she receives the orb, the scepter, and an arsenal of bloodstained weaponry. If Britain is about to become the greatest power of the age, there’s the small matter of the undead to take care of first. Demons stalk the crown, and political ambitions have unleashed ravening hordes of zombies even within the nobility itself.

But rather than dreams of demon hunting, Queen Victoria’s thoughts are occupied by Prince Albert. Can she dedicate her life to saving her country when her heart belongs elsewhere?With lashings of glistening entrails, decapitations, zombies, and foul demons, this masterly new portrait will give a fresh understanding of a remarkable woman, a legendary monarch, and quite possibly the best demon hunter the world has ever seen.

In another incarnation as a more serious (though still satirical) author, A. E. MOORAT has won critical acclaim and been shortlisted for awards. Here, however, he was chained in the dungeon, fed tea and ghost stories, and kept busy writing the adventures of Queen Victoria, Demon Hunter.

A Sweethaven Summer ($0.99 Kindle, B&N), by Courtney Walsh

Book Description
Campbell Carter’s mother, Suzanne, has just lost her battle with cancer, and Campbell is surprised to learn that Suzanne recently reached out to her childhood friends from a place called Sweethaven, Michigan. Campbell journeys to the town to find answers to her questions about her mother’s history. Suzanne’s three friends—Lila, Jane, and Meghan—torn apart by long-buried secrets and heartbreak, haven't spoken in years, but each has pieces of a scrapbook they made during their summers at this idyllic lakeside town. Just after Suzanne’s death they all receive letters that lead them back to Sweethaven. There, they discover that Suzanne had made many plans before her death to restore their broken friendship. When they meet Suzanne’s daughter, they begin to remember what was so special about their long Sweethaven summers. The scrapbook helps them heal and restore the friendships that have been broken for far too long. As secrets are revealed one by one, old wounds are mended and lives are changed—just as Suzanne intended.

Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book ($2.24), by Ben Cohen, Jerry Greenfield and Nancy Stevens

Book Description
With little skill, surprisingly few ingredients, and even the most unsophisticated of ice-cream makers, you can make the scrumptious ice creams that have made Ben & Jerry's an American legend.

Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book tells fans the story behind the company and the two men who built it-from their first meeting in 7th-grade gym class (they were already the two widest kids on the field) to their "graduation" from a $5.00 ice-cream-making correspondence course to their first ice-cream shop in a renovated gas station.

But the best part comes next. Dastardly Mash, featuring nuts, raisins, and hunks of chocolate. The celebrated Heath Bar Crunch. New York Super Fudge Chunk. Oreo Mint. In addition to Ben & Jerry's 11 greatest hits, here are recipes for ice creams made with fresh fruit, with chocolate, with candies and cookies, and recipes for sorbets, sundaes, and baked goods.

Only Time Will Tell ($3.61 Main / £2.51 UK), the first title in The Clifton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer, is on sale for UK customers only in both the Kindle store and at KoboBooks, where you can combine that sale with coupon code TimeWillTell (exp Jul 18) for an additional 50% off! Limit one coupon code per customer, but it can be given as a gift. The US edition on this one is $9.99 and the second in the series, The Sins of the Father, is now available.

Book Description
From the internationally bestselling author of Kane and Abel and A Prisoner of Birth comes Only Time Will Tell, the first in an ambitious new series that tells the story of one family across generations, across oceans, from heartbreak to triumph.

The epic tale of Harry Clifton’s life begins in 1920, with the words “I was told that my father was killed in the war.” A dock worker in Bristol, Harry never knew his father, but he learns about life on the docks from his uncle, who expects Harry to join him at the shipyard once he’s left school. But then an unexpected gift wins him a scholarship to an exclusive boys’ school, and his life will never be the same again.

As he enters into adulthood, Harry finally learns how his father really died, but the awful truth only leads him to question, was he even his father? Is he the son of Arthur Clifton, a stevedore who spent his whole life on the docks, or the firstborn son of a scion of West Country society, whose family owns a shipping line?

This introductory novel in Archer’s ambitious series The Clifton Chronicles includes a cast of colorful characters and takes us from the ravages of the Great War to the outbreak of the Second World War, when Harry must decide whether to take up a place at Oxford or join the navy and go to war with Hitler’s Germany. From the docks of working-class England to the bustling streets of 1940 New York City, Only Time Will Tell takes readers on a journey through to future volumes, which will bring to life one hundred years of recent history to reveal a family story that neither the reader nor Harry Clifton himself could ever have imagined.

Great Impressionist and Post/Impressionist Paintings: The Musée d'Orsay ($0.99 iTunes), by Charles Stuckey, is on sale at iTunes this week, as a Bastille Day promotion (exp July 23). Only available in the iBookstore, it features scalable reproductions of nearly 200 paintings by 26 artists including such favorites as Manet, Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh; over three hours of original audio information about the artists and their paintings; and more than 500 hyperlinks to some of the best sites on the Internet to learn more about the artists and their work.

Book Description
Welcome to this exciting enhanced ebook, Great Impressionist and Post/Impressionist Paintings: The Musée d'Orsay. We hope that this e/book will give you the pleasure not just of the art of the Impressionists, but also lead you to discover on your own more about the artists’ lives, their work, and their world.

Vanishing and Other Stories ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by Deborah Willis

Book Description
A French teacher who collects fiances; a fortune-teller who fails to predict the heartbreak of her own daughter; an aging cowboy seduced by a city girl . . . these are some of the unforgettable people who live in these pages.

In Vanishing and Other Stories, secrets are both kept and unearthed, and lives are shaped by missing lovers, parents, and children. With wisdom and dexterity, moments of dark humor, and a remark- able economy of words, Deborah Willis captures an incredible array of characters that linger in the imagination and prove that nothing is ever truly forgotten.

The Humbling ($1.42) is Philip Roth's thirtieth book.

Book Description
Everything is over for Simon Axler, the protagonist of Philip Roth’s startling new book. One of the leading American stage actors of his generation, now in his sixties, he has lost his magic, his talent, and his assurance. His Falstaff and Peer Gynt and Vanya, all his great roles, "are melted into air, into thin air." When he goes onstage he feels like a lunatic and looks like an idiot. His confidence in his powers has drained away; he imagines people laughing at him; he can no longer pretend to be someone else. "Something fundamental has vanished." His wife has gone, his audience has left him, his agent can’t persuade him to make a comeback.

Into this shattering account of inexplicable and terrifying self-evacuation bursts a counterplot of unusual erotic desire, a consolation for a bereft life so risky and aberrant that it points not toward comfort and gratification but to a yet darker and more shocking end. In this long day’s journey into night, told with Roth’s inimitable urgency, bravura, and gravity, all the ways that we convince ourselves of our solidity, all our life’s performances—talent, love, sex, hope, energy, reputation—are stripped off.

The Hangman's Daughter ($3.99), by Oliver Pötzsch and Lee Chadeayne (Translator)

Book Description
Germany, 1660: When a dying boy is pulled from the river with a mark crudely tattooed on his shoulder, hangman Jakob Kuisl is called upon to investigate whether witchcraft is at play. So begins The Hangman's Daughter--the chillingly detailed, fast-paced historical thriller from German television screenwriter, Oliver Pötzsch--a descendent of the Kuisls, a famous Bavarian executioner clan.

Vaccine Nation ($2.99), by David Lender

Book Description
Dani North is a filmmaker who just won at the Tribeca Film Festival for her documentary, The Drugging of Our Children, a film critical of the pharmaceutical industry. When she is handed "whistleblower" evidence about the U.S. vaccination program, she has to keep herself alive long enough to expose it before a megalomaniacal pharmaceutical company CEO can have her killed.

Excerpts from Trojan Horse, The Gravy Train and Bull Street, David Lender's other thrillers, follow the text of Vaccine Nation.

Today's Deals

Don't forget to play the Trivia Teaser game daily at Kobo for discount coupons and a chance at a Vox ereader/tablet (ends July 20).

For those in the UK, there is a new coupon code at Kobo today, good for 30% off Mills & Boon: MBSave30UK (exp 7/16; one per customer).

Additional formats available and now free in the US Kindle store:

• The Constantine Codex (K/N/E)

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Matched ($2.99, B&N), the first title in the teen/YA series by Ally Condie. This is also today's Nook Daily Find.

Book Description
Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

Grade Level: 7 and up

Names My Sisters Call Me ($1.53 / £0.99 UK), by Megan Crane, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).

Book Description
Courtney's boyfriend has just gone down on one knee and asked her to be his wife. She couldn't be happier. And with her super-organised sister, Norah, to help her plan the wedding, what could possibly go wrong?

Nothing, until Courtney decides their other sister, Raine, should be invited. No one has seen or heard from Raine for six years - since she ruined Norah's own wedding and ran off with the love of Courtney's life.

Convinced they should all be able to move on after so much time, Courtney gets the sisters back together again only to find that family ghosts aren't easily vanquished - and neither are first loves. Reuniting her family is going to make Courtney reconsider every decision she's made for the last six years - right down to the man she's about to marry. It's going to be one long summer...

The Clique ($2.99 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the first title in the series by Lisi Harrison, is the Nook Daily Find for Families. In addition to a different cover from the Kindle edition, the Nook edition appears to include a number of movie tie-in photos that are not indicated in the Kindle edition.

Book Description
Massie Block: With her glossy brunette bob and laser-whitened smile, Massie is the uncontested ruler of The Clique and the rest of the social scene at Octavian Country Day School, an exclusive private girls' school in Westchester County, New York. Massie knows you'd give anything to be just like her.

Dylan Marvil: Massie's second in command who divides her time between sucking up to Massie and sucking down Atkins Diet shakes.

Alicia Rivera: As sneaky as she is beautiful, Alicia floats easily under adult radar because she seems so "sweet." Would love to take Massie's throne one day. Just might.

Kristen Gregory: She's smart, hardworking, and will insult you to tears faster than you can say "my haircut isn't ugly!"

Enter Claire Lyons, the new girls from Florida in Keds and two-year-old Gap overalls, who is clearly not Clique material. Unfortunately for her, Claire's family is staying in the guesthouse on Massie's family's huge estate while they look for a new home. Claire's future looks worse than a bad Prada knockoff. But with a little luck and a lot of scheming, Claire might just come up smelling like Chanel No. 19. . . .
The Clique . . . the only thing harder than getting in is staying in.

Wealthy Massie is determined to exclude middle class Claire, the daughter of her father's old friend, from her seventh-grade clique at a very exclusive private school in Westchester, New York, but after Massie steals her only friend, Claire strikes back.

Grade Level: 7 and up

Fated ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), the first title in the Dark Protectors series by Rebecca Zanetti, is this weekend's bargain selection at Barnes & Noble, price matched on Kindle. You should already have a novella in the series, Tempted (Kindle, B&N), in your libraries, as it was free this past April.

Book Description
Marry Me

Cara Paulsen does not give up easily. A scientist and a single mother, she's used to fighting for what she wants, keeping a cool head, and doing whatever it takes to protect her daughter Janie. But "whatever it takes" has never before included a shotgun wedding to a dangerous-looking stranger with an attitude problem. . .

Or Else

Sure, the mysterious Talen says that he's there to protect Cara and Janie. He also says that he's a three-hundred-year-old vampire. Of course, the way he touches her, Cara might actually believe he's had that long to practice. . .

Today's Deals

There is a new coupon code at Kobo today, good for 30% off Bell Bridge books: bellbridge30 (exp 7/16; one per customer). Don't forget to play the Trivia Teaser game daily at Kobo for discount coupons and a chance at a Vox ereader/tablet.

Today's free app is a matching game, for those that are looking for a bit of brain exercise. If you are more interested in brain candy, the Angry Birds creators have a new one for us: Amazing Alex, which also comes in a Premium and Kindle Fire edition, which also let you create your own levels. For those who prefer to get them from Google, they also have a similar set of choices (but the Amazon editions work on most other tablets, while the Google apps are a bit harder to move to the Kindle Fire, sometimes), although their HD edition doesn't run on my Asus tablet (but will on my phone, where it is a complete waste).

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Rosemary's Baby ($1.99), by Ira Levin. This is one of the review copies that Open Road has been kind enough to let me have (although I'm pretty sure my purchases have surpassed the freebies, by far).

Book Description
The classic novel of spellbinding suspense, where evil wears the most innocent face of all

Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling actor husband Guy move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and mostly elderly residents. Neighbors Roman and Minnie Castevet soon come nosing around to welcome the Woodhouses to the building, and despite Rosemary’s reservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that she keeps hearing her husband takes a special shine to them.

Shortly after Guy lands a plum Broadway role, Rosemary becomes pregnant, and the Castavets start taking a special interest in her welfare. As the sickened Rosemary becomes increasingly isolated, she begins to suspect that the Castevets’ circle is not what it seems…

At the Sign of the Sugared Plum ($1.53 / £0.99 UK), the first title in the YA series by Mary Hooper, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK. It's $5.39 in the US edition, but some of you probably grabbed in in February, when it was the US Kindle Deal of the Day.. Those in the US can also get a good deal on the next in the series, Petals in the Ashes, currently marked down to $3.99, and on the standalone novel Fallen Grace, currently $1.24 (also on sale for Canada). And for those north of the border, you also get a deal on The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose, on sale for $3.67. Sure seems like Bloomsbury's prices are all over the place in various countries!

And everyone should be able to pick up a free one I turned up looking at the author's catalog: Nelson's Home Comforts Thirteenth Edition, written by an entirely different Mary Hooper in the late 1800's. For those who hate advertising in their books, skip this one, as it was sponsored by Nelson Specialties, purveyors of a number of "processed" foods, such as extracts (vanilla, meat), licorice lozenges, gelatin, etc, although I think one can make a number of the recipes without their particular wares. This was a huge bestseller of the times, with this particular edition having a print run of 500,000 copies.

Book Description
‘You be going to live in the city, Hannah?' Farmer Price asked, pushing his battered hat up over his forehead. ‘Wouldn''t think you'd want to go there . . . Times like this, I would have thought your sister would try and keep you away.' Hannah is oblivious to Farmer Price's dark words, excited as she is about her first ever trip to London to help her sister in her shop ‘The Sugared Plum', making sweetmeats for the gentry. Hannah does not however get the reception she expected from her sister Sarah. Instead of giving Hannah a hearty welcome, Sarah is horrified that Hannah did not get her message to stay away - the Plague is taking hold of London.

Based on much research, Mary Hooper tellingly conveys how the atmosphere in London changes from a disbelief that the Plague is anything serious, to the full-blown horror of the death carts and being locked up - in effect to die - if your house is suspected of infection.

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), by Sam Kean, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
The Periodic Table is one of man's crowning scientific achievements. But it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in THE DISAPPEARING SPOON follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them.

We learn that Marie Curie used to provoke jealousy in colleagues' wives when she'd invite them into closets to see her glow-in-the-dark experiments. And that Lewis and Clark swallowed mercury capsules across the country and their campsites are still detectable by the poison in the ground. Why did Gandhi hate iodine? Why did the Japanese kill Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium? And why did tellurium lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history?

From the Big Bang to the end of time, it's all in THE DISAPPEARING SPOON.

The Problem Child ($5.21 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the third in the Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley, is the Nook Daily Find for Families, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
In book three of the series, Sabrina and Daphne Grimm tackle their most important mystery: Who kidnapped their parents more than a year ago? Sabrina enters the hideout of the Scarlet Hand, the sinister group of Everafters who are keeping her parents prisoner. She has a chance to rescue her mom and dad but is foiled by the most famous fairy-tale character in the world. With the help of her little sister (who might be tougher than Sabrina realizes) and a long-lost relative, Sabrina finds a powerful weapon for fighting her enemies, and discovers that magic has a high price.

Free Book - The Paris Lawyer (DF)

The Paris Lawyer ($7.99 Kindle), by Sylvie Granotier and Anne Trager (Translator), is free from the publisher (via Smashwords) as a Bastille Day celebration, in return for signing up for their newsletter.

Book Description
Winner of the Grand Prix Sang d’Encre crime fiction award in 2011, for the first time in English.

As a child, Catherine Monsigny was the only witness to a heinous crime. Now, she is an ambitious rookie attorney in sophisticated modern-day Paris. On the side, she does pro bono work and hits the jackpot: a major felony case that could boost her career. A black woman is accused of poisoning her rich farmer husband in a peaceful village in central France, where the beautiful, rolling hills hold dark secrets. While preparing the case, Catherine’s own past comes back with a vengeance. This fast- paced story follows Catherine’s determined search for the truth in both her case and her own life. Who can she believe? And can you ever escape from your past? The story twists and turns, combining subtle psychological insight with a detailed sense of place.

Get the free book from Le French Book by clicking the flag icon on the upper right section of the page, signing up for the and confirming the subscription - that will then get you a Smashwords coupon and a link to the book.

Free Drinks at Starbucks Today!

I just stopped by Starbucks and they are giving away Tall Refreshers in Very Berry Hibiscus and Cool Lime from noon to 3PM here (and probably near you). I also found free codes for an iBooks cookbook there - the Tasting Table Cookbook (mine is downloading as I type). So, stop by and tell me what you think of them - they have "green coffee extract" but taste nothing like coffee!

For those that can't get a free code or stop by, you can leave a comment too - I'll draw a few names for the extra codes I picked up for it and a TV episode of Cat in the Hat. Let me know which you'd prefer (or music - I think I have a couple of those left from last week.

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is Welcome to the Monkey House ($1.99), by Kurt Vonnegut. I grabbed this last year when it was on sale (and at twice this price).

Book Description
This short-story collection Welcome to the Monkey House (1968) incorporates almost completely Vonnegut's 1961 "Canary in a Cathouse," which appeared within a few months of Slaughterhouse-Five and capitalized upon that breakthrough novel and the enormous attention it suddenly brought.

Drawn from both specialized science fiction magazines and the big-circulation general magazines (Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, etc.) which Vonnegut had been one of the few science writers to sell, the collection includes some of his most accomplished work. The title story may be his most famous--a diabolical government asserts control through compulsory technology removing orgasm from sex--but Vonnegut's bitterness and wit, not in his earlier work as poisonous or unshielded as it later became, is well demonstrated.

Two early stories from Galaxy science fiction magazine and one from Fantasy & Science Fiction (the famous "Harrison Bergeron") show Vonnegut's careful command of a genre about which he was always ambivalent, stories like "More Stately Mansions" or "The Foster Portfolio" the confines and formula of a popular fiction of which he was always suspicious. Vonnegut's affection for humanity and bewilderment as its corruption are manifest in these early works.

Several of these stories (those which appeared in Collier's) were commissioned by Vonnegut’s Cornell classmate and great supporter Knox Burger, also born in 1922.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is Robert Macfarlane's The Wild Places ($1.53 / £0.99 UK) and Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination ($1.53 / £0.99 UK). US editions are $12.99 and $13.99; really out of sight, though, is his treatise Original Copy: Plagiarism and Originality in Nineteenth-Century Literature, which is $60 and published by Oxford University Press, USA (it isn't much less less for those in the UK, at just under $53).

The Wild Places

The Wild Places is both an intellectual and a physical journey, and Macfarlane travels in time as well as space. Guided by monks, questers, scientists, philosophers, poets and artists, both living and dead, he explores our changing ideas of the wild. From the cliffs of Cape Wrath, to the holloways of Dorset, the storm-beaches of Norfolk, the saltmarshes and estuaries of Essex, and the moors of Rannoch and the Pennines, his journeys become the conductors of people and cultures, past and present, who have had intense relationships with these places.Certain birds, animals, trees and objects - snow-hares, falcons, beeches, crows, suns, white stones - recur, and as it progresses this densely patterned book begins to bind tighter and tighter. At once a wonder voyage, an adventure story, an exercise in visionary cartography, and a work of natural history, it is written in a style and a form as unusual as the places with which it is concerned. It also tells the story of a friendship, and of a loss. It mixes history, memory and landscape in a strange and beautiful evocation of wildness and its vital importance.

Mountains of the Mind

Why do so many feel compelled to risk their lives climbing mountains? During the climbing season, one person a day dies in the Alps, and more people die climbing in this season in Scotland than they do on the roads. "Mountains of the Mind" pursues a fascinating investigation into our emotional and imaginative responses to mountains, and how these have changed over the last few centuries. It is rich with literary and historical references, and punctuated by beautifully written descriptions of the author's own climbing experiences. There are chapters on glaciers, geology, the pursuit of fear, the desire to explore the unknown, and the desire to get to the summit, and the book ends with a gripping account of Mallory's attempt on Everest. "Mountains of the Mind" is a beautifully written synthesis of climbing memoir and cultural history.

Charred & Scruffed ($14.71 paperback, $3.99 B&N), by Adam Perry Lang, is the Nook Daily Find, no Kindle edition. This PagePerfect NOOK Book requires a NOOK Color or NOOK Tablet with software version 1.4. or the NOOK Study app (I have it on my desktop in addition to the nook app).

Book Description
New ways to grill from the master

With Charred & Scruffed, bestselling cookbook author and acclaimed chef Adam Perry Lang employs his extensive culinary background to refine and concentrate the flavors and textures of barbecue and reimagine its possibilities.

Adam's new techniques, from roughing up meat and vegetables ("scruffing") to cooking directly on hot coals ("clinching") to constantly turning and moving the meat while cooking ("hot potato"), produce crust formation and layers of flavor, while his board dressings and finishing salts build upon delicious meat juices, and his "fork finishers" - like cranberry, hatch chile, and mango "spackles" - provide an intensely flavorful, concentrated end note.

Meanwhile, side dishes such as Creamed Spinach with Steeped and Smoked Garlic Confit, Scruffed Carbonara Potatoes, and Charred Radicchio with Sweet-and-Sticky Balsamic and Bacon, far from afterthoughts, provide exciting contrast and synergy with the "mains."

A Monster Calls ($9.34 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Patrick Ness and Jim Kay (Illustrator), is the Nook Daily Find for Families.

Book Description
At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting— he’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It’s ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd— whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself— Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.

Grade Level: 7 and up

Free Audiobooks - Funny Business & The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

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 Guys Read: Funny Business ($5.99 Kindle; $16.95 Audible), by Jon Scieszka (editor), narrated by Michael Boatman, Kate DiCamillo, John Keating, Jon Scieszka, Bronson Pinchot.

Book Description
It’s here: Volume One of the official Guys Read Library. Jon Scieszka’s Guys Read initiative was founded on a simple premise: that young guys enjoy reading most when they have reading they can enjoy. And out of this comes a series that aims to give them just that. Ten books, arranged by theme, featuring the best of the best where writing for kids is concerned. Each book is a collection of original short stories, but these aren’t your typical anthologies—each book is edgy, inventive, visual, and one-of-a-kind, featuring a different theme for guys to get excited about.

Funny Business is based around the theme of—what else?—humor, and if you’re familiar with Jon and Guys Read, you already know what you’re in store for: ten hilarious stories from some of the funniest writers around. Before you’re through, you’ll meet a teenage mummy; a kid desperate to take a dip in the world’s largest pool of chocolate milk; a homicidal turkey; parents who hand over their son’s room to a biker; the only kid in his middle school who hasn’t turned into a vampire, wizard, or superhero; and more. And the contributor list includes bestselling author, award winners, and fresh new talent alike: Mac Barnett, Eoin Colfer, Christopher Paul Curtis, Kate DiCamillo (writing with Jon Scieszka), Paul Feig, Jack Gantos, Jeff Kinney, David Lubar, Adam Rex, and David Yoo.

Guys Read is all about turning young readers into lifelong ones—and with this book, and each subsequent installment in the series, we aim to leave no guy unturned.

The unabridged edition of The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County ($14.95 Audible), by Mark Twain, narrated by Norman Dietz, is the second selection for this week. There are several Kindle editions, ranging from 95 cents and up, which feature one or more of the included stories, for those that like to read along with the audio. I did find a free version of at least the main story over on Feedbooks (although I haven't checked the formatting).

Book Description
Originally published in 1865, "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" began Mark Twain's remarkable career, and immediately demonstrated his masterful storytelling and brilliant sense of humor. This delightful tale introduces Jim Smiley, a man who loved to gamble, whether on horse races, dogfights, catfights, or even how long it took bugs to cross the Mexican border. When a gullible stranger came to town, Smiley boasted that his pet frog, Dan'l Webster, could outjump any frog in the county. Smiley, figuring it would be easy money, eagerly made a bet with the stranger, who had a secret plan to stop Dan'l in his tracks. This wickedly funny collection also includes several of Twain's other great short stories, including "A True Story," "Extracts from Adam's Diary," and "The Private History of a Campaign that Failed."

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!

Today's Deals

Kobo has brought back their Trivia Contest for coupons (and prizes). You have to pick a genre (from five) after signing up for the game (you need to do this once, even if you already have an account), which you will then keep for the duration. Each day, you can enter and answer a new question - correct answers win a prize, with most of them being a coupon for 10%-75% off one book. Once a day, they also give away a Kobo Vox ereader. Don't worry about writing down the coupon code displayed on screen - you'll also get a copy in your email, so they are easy to keep track of. Generally, these coupons are valid for the duration of the contest and they are individualized (and only good once).

Today's Kindle Deal of the Day is National Book Critics Circle Award winning October Light ($1.99), by John Gardner, published by Open Road.

Book Description
...(A) metafictional novel centering on the tumultuous relationship of two elderly siblings

James is a cantankerous and conservative seventy-two-year-old who has spent his life caring for the animals on his farm. His widowed older sister, Sally, has strong liberal ideals and a propensity for debate. When Sally’s bankruptcy forces her to move in with her brother, their lifelong feud quickly escalates—and Sally becomes a prisoner in her own room with nothing to survive on but apples and a trashy novel about marijuana smugglers.

As Sally becomes immersed in the book, the story envelops the narrative of the siblings’ dysfunctional relationship, and Gardner explores a wide array of themes from human autonomy to self-definition to political extremism. The result is a tour de force of Gardner’s unique literary style at the height of his protean creative powers.

This ebook features a new illustrated biography of John Gardner, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Gardner family and the University of Rochester Archives.

Morgue Drawer Four ($1.53 / £0.99 UK), by Jutta Profijt and Erik J. Macki, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99/KLL Eligible). Those in the US actually get a better deal on the forthcoming Morgue Drawer Next Door ($4.99 US / £3.99 UK), which will be released next week.

Book Description
Coroner is the perfect job for Dr. Martin Gänsewein, who spends his days in peace and quiet autopsying dead bodies for the city of Cologne. Shy, but scrupulous, Martin appreciates his taciturn clients--until the day one of them starts talking to him. It seems the ghost of a recently deceased (and surprisingly chatty) small-time car thief named Pascha is lingering near his lifeless body in drawer number four of Martin's morgue. He remains for one reason: his "accidental" death was, in fact, murder. Pascha is furious his case will go unsolved--to say nothing of his body's dissection upon Martin's autopsy table. But since Martin is the only person Pascha can communicate with, the ghost settles in with the good pathologist, determined to bring the truth of his death to light. Now Martin's staid life is rudely upended as he finds himself navigating Cologne's red-light district and the dark world of German car smuggling. Unless Pascha can come up with a plan--and fast--Martin will soon be joining him in the spirit world. Witty and unexpected, Morgue Drawer Four introduces a memorable (and reluctant) detective unlike any other in fiction today.

Morgue Drawer Four was shortlisted for Germany's 2010 Friedrich Glauser Prize for best crime novel.

Her Restless Heart ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), by Barbara Cameron, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. Most of you probably already have this, as it has been free (on all platforms) twice this year.

Book Description
Mary Katherine is caught between the traditions of her faith and the pull of a different life. When Daniel, an Amish man living in Florida, arrives and shares her restlessness, Mary Katherine feels drawn to him and curious about the life he leads away from Lancaster County.

But her longtime friend Jacob has been in love with her for years. He’s discouraged that she’s never viewed him as anything but a friend and despairs that he is about to lose Mary Katherine to this outsider.

Will the conflicted Mary Katherine be lost to the Englisch world, or to Daniel, who might take her away to Florida? Or will she embrace her Amish faith and recognize Jacob as the man she should marry and build a life with?

Racing in the Rain ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Garth Stein (author of bestselling The Art of Racing in the Rain), is the Nook Daily Find for Families, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Have you ever wondered what your dog is thinking? Meet one funny dog—Enzo, the lovable mutt who tells this story. Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: most dogs love to chase cars, but Enzo longs to race them. He learns about racing and the world around him by watching TV and by listening to the words of his best friend, Denny, an up-and-coming race car driver, and his daughter, Zoë, his constant companion. Enzo finds that life is just like being on the racetrack—it isn't simply about going fast. And, applying the rules of racing to his world, Enzo takes on his family's challenges and emerges a hero. In the end, Enzo holds in his heart the dream that Denny will go on to be a racing champion with his daughter by his side. For theirs is an extraordinary friendship—one that reminds us all to celebrate the triumph of the human (and canine) spirit. This is a special adaptation for young people of the acclaimed New York Times bestselling adult novel The Art of Racing in the Rain.

Grade Level: 3 and up