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Saturday, August 25, 2012

Bargain Book Roundup

Several of the selections below are from today's Deal of the Day, so the pricing may only last until midnight on the west coast (USA). The first two may be aimed at college kids, but look like they would work for anyone cooking for one and who wants to eat healthy or save a bit of cash (or maybe do both).

30 Days to a More Powerful Memory ($2.49), by Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D.
Book Description
With phones ringing off the hook, constantly changing to-do lists, and increasingly complicated schedules, having a good memory has become more important than ever. Drawing on the latest research from cognitive experts and psychologists, "30 Days to a More Powerful Memory" provides hands-on, practical strategies and exercises that anyone, young or old, can use to sharpen their memory - fast! The book introduces readers to memory-boosting techniques such as mnemonic devices, visualization, chunking and clustering, and mental triggers, and also shows how to: effectively decrease anxiety levels and combat the negative emotions that can affect recall; create powerful backup systems to help trigger associations; exercise both body and mind, and improve overall health to improve memory; get the kind of restful sleep that will increase one's ability to retain information.The book discusses common myths about memory, clarifying what's true and what isn't. Packed with tips and memory-boosting activities, this guide provides readers with the simple but powerful methods they need to increase their mental agility.

Authorbio: Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D.(Oakland, CA) is the founder and director of Changemakers and Creative Communications & Research. She is the author of over 40 books, including "A Survival Guide for Working with Bad Bosses" (0-8144-7298-2), and "A Survival Guide to Working with Humans" (0-8144-7205-2). Frequently sought out by the media, she has been interviewed for "Good Morning America", "Oprah", "Geraldo at Large", "Montel Williams", "The O'Reilly Factor", "The New York Times", "Glamour", and "Cosmopolitan".

The Clutter-Busting Handbook: Clean It Up, Clear It Out, and Keep Your Life Clutter-Free ($1.49), by Rita Emmett
Book Description
The Clutter Busting Handbook is a streamlined guide to uncluttering your life from the best-selling author of The Procrastinator's Handbook.We are the clutter generation, inundated by a seemingly daily or weekly influx of clothes, accessories, gadgets, catalogs, mail, and e-mail. Clutter crowds our lives, is a chief source of stress, contributes to sidetracked dreams and opportunities, and can cause guilt and anxiety. If clutter is a problem in your life, then Rita Emmett-herself a reformed clutterer-can help you tame it.

The Clutter-Busting Handbook is a concise, energizing guide giving readers insight and direction as well as proven tips, methods, and strategies that will change lives for the better.

As entertaining as she is helpful, Emmett offers practical advice on separating what you need or truly want from what you have been hanging onto for the wrong reasons. Her combination of experience and good humor-based on her hundreds of seminars and advice received from people all over the country-will win over the most reluctant convert.

The $5 a Meal College Cookbook: Good Cheap Food for When You Need to Eat ($1.99), by Rhonda Lauret Parkinson and B. E. Horton
Book Description
Say goodbye to the dining hall!

Need a break from the monotony of your meal plan? Can't afford to waste money on lukewarm takeout? Well, now you can ditch the dining hall's soggy excuse for the Monday-night special thanks to this appetite-saving book packed with cheap, easy, and delicious recipes.

Offering up more than 300 hassle-free dishes, this cookbook will not only satisfy your hunger but your meager bank account, too! Whether you need a morning-after greasy breakfast, a cram-session snack, or date-night entree, here you'll find ideas for everything you crave, including: Western Omelet, Asian Lettuce Wraps, Easy Eggplant Parmesan, Simple Pepper Steak and Decadent Apple Crisp.

Saving you from overcooked, overpriced, and dull dishes, if you have to buy a book for college, this is required reading.

The Everything Healthy College Cookbook ($2.49), by Nicole Cormier
Book Description
Forget fast food. Forget the dining hall. In this cookbook, you'll find 300 great-tasting, good-for-you recipes designed to help you eat well in and out of the dorm. Peanut Butter Banana Breakfast Wraps; Toasted Cheese and Turkey Sandwiches; Apricot Rice; Asian Chicken Salad; Fresh Tomato with Angel Hair Pasta; Mango Citrus Salsa; Triple Chocolate Cupcakes; and more. Chock full of money-saving tips, cooking techniques, and culinary shortcuts, this all-in-one cookbook is all you need to eat well on a budget. With full nutritional breakdowns as well as a wide range of low-fat, vegetarian, and vegan offerings, this college-proof collection of mouthwatering recipes gives you the tasty nutritional boost you need, even when you're stressed out and sleep deprived. So put down that take-out menu and prepare to eat well--on the cheap!

101 Things To Do With Popcorn ($1.49), by Christina Dymock (I bought this the last time it was on sale).
Book Description
The world’s favorite snack just got tastier! These sweet and savory treats will turn this old-fashioned staple into Snickerdoodle Popcorn, Pumpkin Balls, Caramel Nut Bars, Sleepover Mix, Taco Spice, and A Taste of Asia. And for a popper of a surprise, give CinnaPop Cake, Popcorn Brownies, Rooster Snacks, Chicken Nuggets, and Swedish Meatballs a try.

Christina Dymock has written several Chicken Soup stories; been published in Woman’s World magazine; and wrote the Christmas booklet The Widow’s Mite. She loves spending time creating in the kitchen with her four children.

I also already own Edible Wild Plants (The Wild Food Adventure) ($1.49), by John Kallas Ph.D., which I don't recommend as your only source of identifying wild edibles, but is a good resource on utilizing plants you do know how to identify (or even grow in your garden).
Book Description
Edible wild plants have one or more parts that can be used for food if gathered at the appropriate stage of growth and properly prepared. Edible Wild Plants includes extensive information and recipes on plants from the four categories:

Foundation greens: wild spinach, chickweed, mallow, purslane; tart greens: curly dock, sheep sorrel, wood sorrel; pungent greens: wild mustard, wintercress, garlic mustard, shepherd’s purse; and bitter greens: dandelion, cat’s ear, sow thistle, nipplewort.

The Hippie Handbook: How to Tie-Dye a T-Shirt, Flash a Peace Sign, and Other Essential Skills for the Carefree Life ($1.99), by Chelsea Cain and Lia Miternique
Book Description
Brothers and sisters! Here at last is a light-hearted, free-spirited, groovy guide to the timeless hippie skills and activities that make the world a better place, one macrame belt at a time. In illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions, author Chelsea Cain -- who grew up on an Iowa hippie commune -- provides practical and playful know-how for the hippie and hippie-at-heart. Learn how to milk a goat, build a compost pile, play "Kumbaya" on the guitar, teach a dog how to catch a Frisbee, and get your file from the FBI. Discover the finer points of caring for a fern, choosing a mantra, organizing a protest, naming your hippie baby, and making sand candles as holiday gifts. Including primers on cooking, dressing, driving, telling time, dancing, and celebrating your birthday in classic hippie style, and a righteous appendix of essential hippie books, movies, and slang, The Hippie Handbook knows the score. Right on.

98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive ($1.49), by Cody Lundin and Russ Miller (Illustrator)
Book Description
Cody Lundin, director of the Aboriginal Living Skills School in Prescott, Arizona, shares his own brand of wilderness wisdom in this highly anticipated new book on commonsense, modern survival skills for the backcountry, the backyard, or the highway. This is the ultimate book on how to stay alive-based on the principal of keeping the body's core temperature at a lively 98.6 degrees.

In his entertaining and informative style, Cody stresses that a human can live without food for weeks and without water for about three days or so. But if the body's core temperature dips much below or above the 98.6 degree mark, a person can literally die within hours. It is a concept that many don't take seriously or even consider, but knowing what to do to maintain a safe core temperature when lost in a blizzard or in the desert could save your life. Lundin delivers the message with wit, rebellious humor, and plenty of backcountry expertise.

Watch naturalist Cody Lundin on "Dual Survival" as he uses many of the same skills and techniques taught in his book: 98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive.

Cody Lundin and his Aboriginal Living Skills School have been featured in dozens of national and international media sources, including Dateline NBC, CBS News, USA Today, The Donny and Marie Show, and CBC Radio One in Canada, as well as on the cover of Backpacker magazine. When not teaching for his own school, he is an adjunct faculty member at Yavapai College and a faculty member at the Ecosa Institute. Cody is the only person in Arizona licensed to catch fish with his hands, and lives in a passive solar earth home sixty miles from Prescott, Arizona.

On Silver Wings ($0.99), the first novel in Evan Currie's Warrior's Wings military sci-fi/space opera series, is one of five fiction titles hiding out in today's Kindle Daily Deal.
Book Description
Behind enemy lines.

Cut off from reinforcement.

Her only assets; Her rifle, power armour, basic kit... oh, and several hundred civilians looking to take back their home.

Luckily this is just what she was trained for. De Oppresso Liber.

A novel of both ground and space warfare set in the far flung future, On Silver WIngs tells the tale of a colony cut off from Earth's support when an alien assault severs their orbital tether and effectively maroons the colonists on a lush world where neither the flora nor fauna are edible by humans. Faced with frightening ghost-like aliens using technology nearly unfathomable to their knowledge, the colonists are forced to rely on the sole survivor of a military scouting mission as their best and possibly only chance of survival.

The Solar Fleet isn't sitting this one out, however, and back home a massive effort is marshalled to send support and reinforcements to the stricken colony world... but will any of it be in time?

Gift ($1.49), by Andrea J. Buchanan, says it is an "Open Road E-riginal", looks to be of novel length and includes some extras such as a short graphic novel, a journal and lyrics and links to the music.
Book Description
Daisy has an electrifying secret that could save her life—or kill her

High school sophomore Daisy Jones is just trying to get by unnoticed. It doesn’t help that she’s the new girl at school, lives in a trailer park, and doesn’t even own a cell phone. But there’s a good reason for all that: Daisy has a secret, unpredictable power—one only her best friend, Danielle, knows about.

Despite her “gift” (or is it a curse?), Daisy’s doing a good job of fitting in, and a gorgeous senior named Kevin even seems interested in her! But when Daisy tries to help Vivi, a mysterious classmate in a crisis, she soon discovers that her new friend has a secret of her own. Now Daisy and her friends must deal with chilling dreams and messages from the beyond. Can Daisy channel the power she’s always tried to hide, before it’s too late?

Philip Hall Likes Me. I Reckon Maybe. ($1.49), the first in the The Philip Hall Trilogy by Bette Greene, is published by Open Road Young Readers.
Book Description
Beth Lambert has a crush on Philip Hall, who is better than she is at just about everything—or is he?

Philip Hall is the handsomest, smartest, fastest boy in Miss Johnson’s class. He beats Beth Lambert in math, spelling, reading, sports . . . and she adores him. Beth suspects Philip likes her too, only she can’t quite get him to admit it. In fact, he won’t even invite her to his birthday party because he’s afraid the other boys will call him a sissy.

But then Beth begins to wonder: Maybe Philip only wins because she’s letting him. Maybe she could beat him at everything. That would show Philip Hall! Because if being friends with a girl is bad . . . getting beaten by a girl is much, much worse.

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

The Kid from Tomkinsville ($1.49), by John R. Tunis, is also published by Open Road Young Readers.
Book Description
Rookie pitcher Roy Tucker is full of hope for his first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers—and hope might be what the team needs most

Roy Tucker—a small-town kid from Tomkinsville, Connecticut—has quit his job at the drugstore and packed up for Dodgers training camp in Clearwater, Florida, hoping to make the team as a rookie pitcher. He expects the field to be competitive and realizes he might not pass muster, but after just one practice, he discovers just how difficult a goal he has set.

But the Dodgers are an aging team, and owner Jack MacManus is getting tired of the smart remarks from sports reporters and the manager of the rival Giants, Bill Murphy. With a little coaching and encouragement from Dave Leonard, the oldest catcher in the big leagues, this kid from Tomkinsville might be just what the team needs.

Easy ($0.99), a self-published entry by Tammara Webber in today's Kindle Deal sale, has nearly 500 reviews and a near 5-star rating (and is a New York Times Bestseller).
Book Description
A girl who believes trust can be misplaced, promises are made to be broken, and loyalty is an illusion. A boy who believes truth is relative, lies can mask unbearable pain, and guilt is eternal. Will what they find in each other validate their conclusions, or disprove them all?

When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup two months into sophomore year. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she's single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, and failing a class for the first time in her life.

Leaving a party alone, Jacqueline is assaulted by her ex's frat brother. Rescued by a stranger who seems to be in the right place at the right time, she wants nothing more than to forget the attack and that night--but her savior, Lucas, sits on the back row of her econ class, sketching in a notebook and staring at her. Her friends nominate him to be the perfect rebound.

When her attacker turns stalker, Jacqueline has a choice: crumple in defeat or learn to fight back. Lucas remains protective, but he's hiding secrets of his own. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to trust is anything but easy.

Untouchables: Dirty cops, bent justice and racism in Scotland Yard ($1.99), by Michael Gillard and Laurie Flynn
Book Description
With Scotland Yard in the dock, now more than ever the public needs to know why the police cannot be trusted to investigate their own corruption.

Untouchables, a five year investigation which the Yard tried to stop, provides the essential context to the phone hacking and other scandals currently engulfing Britain’s most powerful police force.

Republished after seven years, it was the first book to question the cosy relationship between the Yard and sections of the media, to explain why cops are incapable of investigating themselves and to expose the lack of independence in the new police watchdog.

From the 1983 Brinks Matt robbery, through the murders of Daniel Morgan, David Norris, Stephen Lawrence, Jill Dando and Damilola Taylor to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, Untouchables reveals the cover ups, double standards and miscarriages of justice during the Yard’s phoney war on corruption.

Sunday Times journalist Michael Gillard and TV producer Laurie Flynn expose how the discredited use of supergrasses in the war on corruption has re-emerged in the new wars on terror and crime, with the same disastrous effects: prosecution misconduct, collapsed trials, huge bills for the taxpayer, victims left without justice and the guilty walking free.

Jeremy Lin: From the End of the Bench to Stardom ($1.49), by Bill Davis
Book Description
This true story is truly “Lin-sane!”

The world is exposed to an individual like Jeremy Lin only once in a generation. His journey has taken him from practicing lay-ups on the court at the local YMCA to hitting last minute game-winners on the grand stage at Madison Square Garden. This book charts Jeremy’s life story, from the streets of Palo Alto to the dormitories of Harvard to the major arenas throughout the country. Through exclusive interviews, play-by-plays, and colorful recollections, we get an intimate look at Jeremy’s story. It is one of unyielding determination, true faith, and unimaginable success.

What the Best College Students Do ($4.49), by Ken Bain (Harvard University Press), might be one you want to gift to any new or upcoming high school grads in your family.
Book Description
The author of the best-selling book What the Best College Teachers Do is back with more humane, doable, and inspiring help, this time for students who want to get the most out of college—and every other educational enterprise, too.

The first thing they should do? Think beyond the transcript. The creative, successful people profiled in this book—college graduates who went on to change the world we live in—aimed higher than straight A’s. They used their four years to cultivate habits of thought that would enable them to grow and adapt throughout their lives.

Combining academic research on learning and motivation with insights drawn from interviews with people who have won Nobel Prizes, Emmys, fame, or the admiration of people in their field, Ken Bain identifies the key attitudes that distinguished the best college students from their peers. These individuals started out with the belief that intelligence and ability are expandable, not fixed. This led them to make connections across disciplines, to develop a “meta-cognitive” understanding of their own ways of thinking, and to find ways to negotiate ill-structured problems rather than simply looking for right answers. Intrinsically motivated by their own sense of purpose, they were not demoralized by failure nor overly impressed with conventional notions of success. These movers and shakers didn’t achieve success by making success their goal. For them, it was a byproduct of following their intellectual curiosity, solving useful problems, and taking risks in order to learn and grow.

I Got My Dream Job and So Can You: 7 Steps to Creating Your Ideal Career After College ($1.99), by Pete Leibman
Book Description
Recent graduates looking to enter the workforce face a discouraging job market and stiff competition for even the most entry-level positions. Yet with the right attitude and strategies, they can break into any organization in any industry and start climbing the ladder to success. When he was only 21 years old, Pete Leibman landed his "dream job," working in the front office of the NBA's Washington Wizards. He went on to be their #1 salesperson for three straight seasons and was promoted to management in under two years. In "I Got My Dream Job and So Can You", Leibman shares his proven and simple system for career success. He shows readers how to: think big and identify what they want from their career; network their way past corporate gatekeepers; impress highly influential people in any field; land interviews for "hidden" jobs; and sell themselves on paper, online, and in person. Get hired faster and with less effort than they thought possible. Career hopefuls will also find inspiring stories of other young professionals, creative strategies for leveraging social media in the job-search process, and the 5 secrets that will skyrocket their earning potential once they are hired. In short, all the information they need to land the job of their dreams-in any economy.

Click Millionaires: Work Less, Live More with an Internet Business You Love ($1.99), by Scott Fox (I've only read the sample, but this looks pretty good; I definitely would not object to having my office in the same place as the cover image).
Book Description
The rules have changed. The American Dream is no longer the corner office.It's a successful business you can run from your home office, the beach, or wherever you desire. It's work you love that still allows you the freedom and income to live the life you truly want. Sound like a tall order? Well, thanks to the Internet, anyone can launch a business with little or no start-up capital or technical expertise. And in Click Millionaires, e-commerce expert Scott Fox teaches weary corporate warriors and aspiring entrepreneurs how to trade the 9û5 job they hate for an online business they love. The book explains how to combine outsourcing, software, and automated online marketing to build recurring revenues, all while working less and making fewer of the lifestyle compromises that corporate success requires.

Readers will learn how to: Find a lucrative niche on the Internet that matches their interests and skills; Choose an online businessmodel: fromblogs, noozles, and audience communities to digital delivery, online services, affiliate marketing - even physical products; Position themselves as a experts Build their audience; Design the lifestyle they want; Balance passion and profits to realize their personal definition of success.

Featuring stories of dozens of regular folks who have reinvented themselves as Click Millionaires, this inspiring and practical guide shows readers how to stop dreaming of a better life and start living it!

Just reading the synopsis on Leading at The Edge: Leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition ($2.99), by Dennis N. T Perkins, Margaret P. Holtman, Jillian B. Murphy and Margaret P. Holtman, puts a little perspective on the bad business trips I've been. Getting stuck on runways for 12+ hours, routed thru deserted & closed terminals (to get a replacement plane) in states we aren't even supposed to be flying over or dumped into the Detroit airport and left for a 24 hour delay (they did relent and bring out some free water and soft drinks after about 8 hours) all pale in comparison to a 2 year layover in the Antartic sea.
Book Description
Stranded in the frozen Antarctic sea for nearly two years, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his team of 27 polar explorers endured extreme temperatures, hazardous ice, dwindling food, and complete isolation. Despite these seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the group remained cohesive, congenial, and mercifully alive-a fact that speaks not just to luck but to an unparalleled feat of leadership. Drawing on this amazing story, "Leading at The Edge" demonstrates the importance of a strong leader in times of adversity, uncertainty, and change. The book reveals 10 timeless leadership lessons that show readers how to: instill optimism while staying grounded in reality; have the courage to step up to risks worth taking; consistently reinforce the team message; set a personal example; find something to celebrate and something to laugh about; and, never give up. Part adventure tale, part leadership guide, the second edition features additional lessons, new case studies of the strategies in action, tools to uncover and resolve conflicts, and expanded resources. An updated epilogue compares the leadership styles of the famous polar explorers Shackleton, Amundsen, and Scott. Today's leaders have much to learn from this gripping account of survival against all odds. "Leading at The Edge" will help them bring order to chaos-and achieve success in the face of adversity.

The Vow: The True Events that Inspired the Movie ($1.99), by Krickitt Carpenter and Kim Carpenter
Book Description
Life as Kim and Krickitt Carpenter knew it was shattered beyond recognition on November 24, 1993. Two months after their marriage, a devastating car wreck left Krickitt with a massive head injury and in a coma for weeks.

When she finally awoke, she had no idea who Kim was. With no recollection of their relationship and while Krickitt experienced personality changes common to those who suffer head injuries, Kim realized the woman he had married essentially died in the accident.

And yet, against all odds, but through the common faith in Christ that sustained them, Kim and Krickitt fell in love all over again. Even though Kim stood by Krickitt through the darkest times a husband can ever imagine, he insists, “I’m no hero. I made a vow.”

The Fate of Your Date: Divination for Dating, Mating, and Relating ($1.99), by Stefanie Iris Weiss, Sherene Schostak and IRMA
Book Description
Dating can be a bewildering business. Sometimes we all need a little help, a little divine intervention, if you will. Enter The Fate of Your Date. Using the time-tested arts of astrology, spell craft, tarot, and more, this handy guide shows you how to divine whether he's a loser or a keeper. It's easy. Before the date, work some numerology on his phone number; during the date, perform a little palmistry as you hold his hand; and after the date, cast a bit of white magic to get exactly what you want. Covering all the essential arts and organized into a date timeline (before the date, during, and after), The Fate of Your Date makes it a cinch to divine and conquer!

The Alps ($1.49), by Ronald Clark
Book Description
The unrivalled scenery of the Alps attracts increasing numbers of visitors every year, while for those who seek the more active and dangerous pursuits of climbing and skiing, the region offers unique opportunities. Ronald Clark, a distinguished historian of mountaineering, who knows the Alps fromend to end, describes the history of the mountains and their most famous peaks. The heroic story of their exploration, first by scientists, then by such early mountaineers as Whymper, Coolidge, Miss Brevoort and their guides, is related with extensive quotations from letters, diaries and contemporary records. With the mountaineers came the pioneer photographers whose cumbersome but fragile equipment had to be manhandled up ice-slopes and across glaciers to enable them to take their photographs, a procedure which necessitated hours of intricate manoeuvring, in freezing weather, to obtain one successful shot. Other chapters discuss the development of the Alps as a mountain health centre, the coming of roads and railways and the growth of the winter sports industry and Mr Clark warns that the mountains, like a Highland deer forest, can carry only a certain number of living creatures without facing disaster.

What's the Economy For, Anyway?: Why It's Time to Stop Chasing Growth and Start Pursuing Happiness ($2.49), by John de Graaf and David K Batker
Book Description
In this funny, readable, and thought-provoking book based on the popular film of the same name, activists John de Graaf (coauthor of the bestselling Affluenza) and David Batker tackle thirteen economic issues, challenging the reader to consider the point of our economy. Emphasizing powerful American ideals, including teamwork, pragmatism, and equality, de Graaf and Batker set forth a simple goal for any economic system: The greatest good for the greatest number over the longest run. Drawing from history and current enterprises, we see how the good life is achieved when people and markets work together with an active government to create a more perfect economy-one that works for everyone.

Beginning by shattering our fetish for GDP, What's the Economy For, Anyway? offers a fresh perspective on quality of life, health, security, work-life balance, leisure, social justice, and perhaps most important, sustainability. This sparkling, message-driven book is exactly what those lost in the doldrums of partisan sniping and a sluggish economy need: a guide to what really matters, and a map to using America's resources to make the world a better place.

ESV Student Study Bible ($3.49), by Crossway
Book Description
The ESV Student Study Bible is ideally suited for students who are serious about God’s Word—who want to learn more about what the Bible teaches and how the Bible applies to all of life.

With 12,000 clear, concise study notes, the ESV Student Study Bible provides numerous new features—including nearly 900 “Did You Know?” facts, 120 new Bible character profiles, and 15 new topical articles. It also features a new glossary of key terms, more than 80 full-color maps and illustrations, an extensive concordance, and 80,000 cross-references. These and many other features make it the most comprehensive, colorful, and content-rich student Bible available today. Suited to high school and college students, the ESV Student Study Bible is also a versatile resource for anyone engaged in serious study of God’s Word.

Created by an outstanding team of more than 100 evangelical Christian scholars, teachers, and pastors, the ESV Student Study Bible is adapted from the highly acclaimed and best-selling ESV Study Bible. With numerous new features, the ESV Student Study Bible is an invaluable resource. For high school and college students, but equally for all students of the Bible—for everyone who loves to read and learn more about God’s Word.

From Merriam-Webster, be sure to check out Book of Word Histories ($2.49), Guide to Punctuation and Style ($2.49), Intermediate Dictionary ($2.99), Vocabulary Builder ($2.49), Collegiate Thesaurus, Second Edition ($2.99), Dictionary of Law ($2.99), Dictionary and Thesaurus ($2.49) and Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition ($4.99). The latter two can be used as your Kindle dictionary, instead of the default New Oxford American Dictionary.
Book Description
Since 1937. Merriam-Webster is America's foremost publisher of language-related reference works. The company publishes a diverse array of print and electronic products, including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Eleventh Edition – America's best-selling desk dictionary – and Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster can be considered the direct lexicographical heir of Noah Webster. In 1843, the company bought the rights to the 1841 edition of Webster's magnum opus, An American Dictionary of the English Language, Corrected and Enlarged. At the same time, they secured the rights to create revised editions of the work. Since that time, Merriam-Webster editors have carried forward Noah Webster's work, creating some of the most widely used and respected dictionaries and reference books in the world.

Water: Asia's New Battleground ($4.99), by Brahma Chellaney
Book Description
The battles of yesterday were fought over land. Those of today are over energy. But the battles of tomorrow may be over water. Nowhere is that danger greater than in water-distressed Asia.

Water stress is set to become Asia's defining crisis of the twenty-first century, creating obstacles to continued rapid economic growth, stoking interstate tensions over shared resources, exacerbating long-time territorial disputes, and imposing further hardships on the poor. Asia is home to many of the world's great rivers and lakes, but its huge population and exploding economic and agricultural demand for water make it the most water-scarce continent on a per capita basis. Many of Asia's water sources cross national boundaries, and as less and less water is available, international tensions will rise. The potential for conflict is further underscored by China's unrivaled global status as the source of transboundary river flows to the largest number of countries, ranging from India and Vietnam to Russia and Kazakhstan; yet a fast-rising China has declined to enter into water-sharing or cooperative treaties with these states, even as it taps the resources of international rivers.

Water: Asia's New Battleground is a pioneering study of Asia's murky water politics and the relationships between freshwater, peace, and security. In this unique and highly readable book, Brahma Chellaney expertly paints a larger picture of water across Asia, highlights the security implications of resource-linked territorial disputes, and proposes real strategies to avoid conflict and more equitably share Asia's water resources.

The Everything Guide to Study Skills: Strategies, tips, and tools you need to succeed in school! ($1.99), by Cynthia C. Muchnick
Book Description
Here's something worth learning: Studying doesn't have to be a chore! This fun and accessible resource provides the tools you need to develop better study habits, boost your grades, and position yourself for academic success.

Educational consultant Cynthia Clumeck Muchnick uses a wide range of ideas taken from hundreds of students to help you find a unique, effective method suited for your individual learning style. You'll improve transcripts for college applications, ace standardized tests, and become a better student at any level of education.

This indispensable guide shows you how to: Get the most out of class time; Use the best strategies for note-taking and memorizing; Improve writing skills; Prepare completely for tests; Safely and effectively conduct online research and Use Skype, iChat, or social media to form study groups.

With this guide in your backpack, you'll be able to balance school and activities, avoid pre-test panic, and achieve consistently better results.

Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference: The Definitive Source for Clear and Concise Writing ($2.49), by Gary Lutz
Book Description
The Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference is the comprehensive resource on grammar and usage, a necessity for every writer's desk. It presents balanced instruction and real-world examples that will ensure professional and flawless work on every occasion.

The 5-Minute Clinical Consult 2012 ($20.49), by Frank J Domino MD, may be a bit above my usual bargain cutoff, but it is priced at not much more than the co-pay for most doctor visits. Some of the images are a bit difficult to read on Kindle, but you should be able to get those on the website (or view on a larger screen). If you were lucky enough to snag a $10 off $20 textbook credit from AmazonLocal (no longer available), you get it for almost half off the current sale price (if you apply the promo code first). The intended audience is medical students, but might be worth picking up just for the health maintenance guidelines for kids and others.
Book Description
The 5-Minute Clinical Consult continues to provide our users with instant, up-to-date answers, at the point of need in print, online, or remotely on mobile. The 2012 edition has had every topic reviewed and updated, new topics have been added and updated with ICD-9 and Snomed codes, and more evidence-based medicine ratings have been added to references. Purchasers of the book will receive access to Clinical Consult topics on the website 5minuteconsult.com (both those in print and those only published online) where they can also view hundreds of new clinical and radiologic (x-rays, CTs, etc.) images. Also on the standard website: New procedure and physical therapy videos; patient education handouts from the AAFP in English and Spanish; new and revised diagnostic and treatment algorithms (also in the book); and updated drugs from the A – Z Drug Guide from Facts and Comparisons. Plus, all the content is accessible from your web-enabled mobile device and is updated regularly.

Today's Deals

Get $5 off your order when you spend $10 or more on any Carina Press titles with coupon code SP10SAV50812 at Checkout! Also, SP15SV50812 good for $5 off $15, if you are really stocking up.

Additional formats on free books:

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is 400+ Books for College Students at up to 70% off. I won't be listing them all, as I'm going to look thru them for a few finds for myself. Categories include Dictionaries & General Reference, Study Guides, Science, Medical, Legal, Computing, Business and Finance. Some of the pricier textbooks, such as Atlas of Anatomy, still end up being over $10 (then again, it's usually closer to $80), but many of the selections, such as The Everything College Survival Book, are in the $1-$2 range.


Triple Play: A Nathan Heller Casebook ($1.55 / £0.99 UK), by Max Allan Collins, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $7.99/KLL Eligible).
Book Description
Since his introduction in 1983’s True Detective, Chicago-based private eye Nathan Heller has handily earned his spot alongside American crime-fiction greats Phillip Marlowe, Archie Goodwin, and Mike Hammer. Now the classic gumshoe is back in this collection of three novellas, all based on real cases of the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s. In Dying in the Post-War World, Heller returns from combat to find his marriage a shambles and himself square in the middle of the notorious Lipstick Killer case of 1946. Kisses of Death follows the PI into the 1950s, when he is hired to guard Marilyn Monroe. The famous starlet’s intellectual pursuits eventually take Heller to Greenwich Village and a grisly murder. And in Strike Zone, Heller is hired by zany baseball manager Bill Veeck to investigate the 1961 murder of a famous pinch hitter, whose private life will suck Nate into a dangerous new world of little people and big sins. With Triple Play, New York Times-bestselling author Max Allan Collins has pried back the lid of history to reveal the ugly, entertaining truth behind three of the twentieth century’s most shocking crimes.

Torch ($8.51 $1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Cheryl Strayed, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
"Work hard. Do good. Be incredible!” That’s the advice Teresa Rae Wood gives the listeners of her popular local radio show, Modern Pioneers, and she has taken it to heart in her own life. She fled a bad marriage, escaping to Midden, Minnesota (pop. 408), where she fell in love with a carpenter who became a loving stepfather to her children, Claire and Joshua. Now Claire is away at college, Joshua is laboring through his senior year of high school, and Teresa and Bruce are working to make ends meet. Despite their struggles, their love for each other binds them as a family. Then they receive the devastating news that Teresa has cancer and at thirty-eight may have less than one year to live. Those she will leave behind face something previously unimaginable -- a future without her.

In Torch, the award-winning writer Cheryl Strayed creates from one family's shattering experience a novel infused with tenderness, compassion, and beauty.

The Kissing Hand ($7.99 Kindle, $3.99 B&N), by Audrey Penn, Ruth E. Harper and Nancy M. Leak is the Nook Daily Find for Families.
Book Description
Chester Raccoon doesn't want to go to school--he wants to stay home with his mother. She assures him that he'll love school--with its promise of new friends, new toys, and new books. Even better, she has a special secret that's been in the family for years--the Kissing Hand. This secret, she tells him, will make school seem as cozy as home. She takes her son's hand, spreads his tiny fingers into a fan and kisses his palm--smack dab in the middle: "Chester felt his mother's kiss rush from his hand, up his arm, and into his heart." Whenever he feels lonely at school, all he has to do is press his hand to his cheek to feel the warmth of his mother's kiss. Chester is so pleased with his Kissing Hand that he--in a genuinely touching moment--gives his mom a Kissing Hand, too, to comfort her when he is away. Audrey Penn's The Kissing Hand, published by the Child Welfare League of America, is just the right book for any child taking that fledgling plunge into preschool--or for any youngster who is temporarily separated from home or loved ones. The rough but endearing raccoon illustrations are as satisfying and soothing for anxious children as the simple story.

Grade Level: P and up

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is three "The Worst-Case Scenario" series, choose-your-own adventure novels for $1.99 apiece. Definitely the type of book I'd have liked to read when I was a kid.

The Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure Novel: Amazon: You Decide How to Survive!
A new thrill ride begins in the Amazon rainforest with the latest novel in the Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure series! Join an expedition of students exploring the Amazon jungle and face real dangers and decisions. Your choices will determine your fate. Will you survive your encounters with piranhas, tarantulas, mosquitoes, monkeys, and jaguars? Or will you be forced to return home early? Only you can decide how to survive. There are twenty-two possible endings to this adventure, but only ONE leads to ultimate success!

With eye-catching comic book style illustrations and real-life facts about the Amazon, young readers can choose how to survive and jump to the next section in this interactive ebook.
The Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure Novel: Everest: You Decide How to Survive!
On this epic climb up Mount Everest, readers are part of the youngest team ever to climb the world's tallest peak. Only YOU can make the right choice about your own survival and then experience the consequences of those choices. Will you summit Mount Everest and return to base camp safely? Will you be forced to turn back early—or worse? Only you can determine your own fate!

With eye-catching comic book style illustrations and real-life facts about mountain climbing, Mount Everest, and Himalayan culture, young readers can choose how to survive and jump to the next section in this interactive ebook.
The Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure Novel: Mars
Join the youngest crew of astronauts ever to make the trip to Mars! Faced with fearsome dangers and difficult decisions, your choices will determine your fate on the Red Planet. Will you achieve the mission and return home to Earth safely, successfully earning the title of the youngest astronaut ever to make it to Mars? Or will you be forced to turn back early? This thrilling adventure offers twenty-two possible endings, but only ONE leads to the ultimate success!

With eye-catching comic book style illustrations and real-life facts about Mars and space exploration, young readers can choose how to survive and jump to the next section in this interactive ebook.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Today's Deals

There's another 25% off select titlesicon coupon at Kobo: aug2425ab

Midnight on Julia Street ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Ciji Ware, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
Scandal transcends time in the Big Easy

Feisty reporter Corlis McCullough isn't afraid to push boundaries in the name of journalistic integrity. When passion for the truth lands her in New Orleans in need of a job, an assignment at a TV station pits her against her old college nemesis, King Duvallon.

The sultry streets of the French Quarter, the glamorous Garden District, derelict riverfront cotton warehouses, and gritty back alleys come alive as the reporter's story inexplicably slips between the nineteenth century and today. A long-forgotten drama of blackmail, swindles, and a love affair that is still changing lives leaves Corlis and King wondering if their burgeoning, unholy attraction will render them pawns in a matrix of mystery and deceit.

It's the first anniversary of the Kindle Daily Deal and today's deal is 25 most popular Daily Deals from the past year for $1.99 each. The list is overwhelmingly populated with mystery/thrillers and non-fiction titles, with only a few romances in the mix (no fantasy or SciFi, oddly enough). If you missed one of the better Daily Deals in the last year, now is your chance to grab it.
  1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey
  2. Elizabeth Street, by Laurie Fabiano
  3. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, by Eric Metaxas
  4. High Heels Mysteries Boxed Set (Books 1-5), by Gemma Halliday
  5. Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain
  6. Brain Rules, by John Medina
  7. Austenland: A Novel, by Shannon Hale
  8. All She Ever Wanted, by Barbara Freethy
  9. The Detachment (John Rain Thrillers), by Barry Eisler
  10. Breakfast of Champions (Kurt Vonnegut Series), by Kurt Vonnegut
  11. A History of the World in 6 Glasses, by Tom Standage
  12. The Misremembered Man, by Christina McKenna
  13. Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero, by Michael Hingson
  14. Dead and Berried (Gray Whale Inn Mysteries, No. 2) (Gray Whale Inn Mystery), by Karen MacInerney
  15. Slim to None, by Jenny Gardiner
  16. The Fifth Woman: A Kurt Wallander Mystery (Kurt Wallander Mysteries), by Henning Mankell
  17. Pearl of China: A Novel, by Anchee Min
  18. Death and the Lit Chick (A St. Just Mystery), by G.M. Malliet
  19. The Phoenix Apostles (A Seneca Hunt Mystery), by Lynn Sholes
  20. Alison Wonderland, by Helen Smith
  21. The Unquiet Bones, by Mel Starr
  22. Deeply Devoted: A Novel (The Blue Willow Brides), by Maggie Brendan
  23. When Parents Text: So Much Said...So Little Understood, by Sophia Fraioli
  24. The Grail Conspiracy (A Cotten Stone Mystery), by Lynn Sholes
  25. Ghost in the Polka Dot Bikini (A Ghost of Granny Apples Mystery), by Sue Ann Jaffarian

2008 Pulitzer Prize winner The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ($1.55 / £0.99 UK), by Junot Diaz, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $12.99).
Book Description
Things have never been easy for Oscar. A ghetto nerd living with his Dominican family in New Jersey, he's sweet but disastrously overweight. He dreams of becoming the next J.R.R. Tolkien and he keeps falling hopelessly in love. Poor Oscar may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fukú - the curse that has haunted his family for generations. With dazzling energy and insight Díaz immerses us in the tumultuous lives of Oscar; his runaway sister Lola; their beautiful mother Belicia; and in the family's uproarious journey from the Dominican Republic to the US and back. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humour, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a literary triumph, that confirms Junot Díaz as one of the most exciting writers of our time.

Absolutely Normal Chaos ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Sharon Creech, is the Nook Daily Find for Families, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
Mary Lou Finney is less than excited about her assignment to keep a journal over the summer. Boring! Then cousin Carl Ray comes to stay with her family, and what starts out as the dull dog days of summer quickly turns into the wildest roller coaster ride of all time.

How was Mary Lou suppose to know what would happen with Carl Ray and the ring? Or with her boy-crazy best friend Beth Ann? Or with (sigh) the permanently pink Alex Cheevey? Suddenly a boring school project becomes a record of the most exciting, incredible, unbelievable summer of Mary Lou's life.

But what if her teacher actually does read her journal?

Grade Level: 4 and up

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Stepping on the Cracks ($1.99), by Mary Downing Hahn.
Book Description
One of Mary Dowing Hahn’s most gripping and personal stories. Culled from her memories of growing up under the shadows of WWII, this story has touched young readers for more than fifteen years.

Margaret and Elizabeth support everything about the war: the troops, the reasons for going to war, even the food rations. After all, this is the good war and the Americans are the good guys.

But when the girls stumble upon a classmate’s secret, their feelings about the war begin to change. Is it really a good war? Is there ever such a thing?

Grade Level: 7 and up

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Two Free Audiobooks - The Whale Rider & The Call of the Wild

This is the final week of free audiobooks from Sync. They've had an issue getting one of the titles linked up and ready to go, but seem to have that under control now. 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.

Start off with The Whale Rider ($17.95 Audible), a stand-alone title by Witi Ihimaera, narrated by Jay Laga'aia.
Book Description
The classic book that inspired the award-winning, internationally released film Whale Rider, winner of Best Film at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and 2004 Academy Awards Best Actress nomination for Keisha Castle-Hughes. Eight-year-old Kahu craves her great-grandfather's love and attention. But he's focused in his duties as Chief, in a tribe that claims decent from the legendary "whale rider". A male has always inherited the title of Chief, but now there is no male heir. There's only Kahu, and her great-grandfather sees no use for a girl. Kahu will not be ignored. And in her struggle she has a unique ally: the whale rider himself.

The Call of the Wild ($9.95 Audible), by Jack London, narrated by William Roberts, is the second selection for this week. As with most classics, there are many editions to choose from on Kindle; you can spend anything from nothing to a few dollars and probably get an edition that will work for reading along while listening.
Book Description
Written in 1903, this classic brought Jack London to the world’s attention. It is the story of Buck, part St. Bernard and part Scotch shepherd dog, who shows the strengths of both breeds when he is stolen and sold off as a sled dog in the Yukon during the gold rush. A heartfelt story that appeals to both children and adults.
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).

Blog Tour Stop and Giveaway - Big Sky Mountain

This post is a stop on the Blog Tour for Big Sky Mountain, by Linda Lael Miller, the sequel to Big Sky Country, which I featured a couple of months ago and which is currently #7 on the Western Romance Bestseller list at Amazon. Big Sky Mountain is on the Hot New Releases list itself and climbing in the charts.
Book Description
With his rugged good looks, vast wealth and family name, hell-raiser Hutch Carmody is still the golden boy of Parable, Montana. But he's done some growing up—making peace with his illegitimate half brother and inheriting half of Whisper Creek Ranch, which should have been all his. These days, Hutch knows there are some things money can't buy: like the heart of loving, ladylike divorcée Kendra Shepherd.

Kendra's quiet mansion reminds her of what she wants most—a devoted husband and the pitter-patter of little feet. She can't get Hutch Carmody out of her mind. But a rough-and-tumble cowboy like Hutch, coming home for family dinner? Seems crazy! Then again, crazier dreams have become reality under the vast Montana sky.
I've been reading the review copy provided by BookTrib and it's a refreshing change from some of the titles I received for review: well written, edited and proofed (then again, this is published as part of Harlequin's main line, so I didn't expect anything less from them or this author). From the synopsis, you know what will happen in the end (it is a romance, after all), so the journey from the surprising opening to that final stop is what makes it worth reading.

As with the first book, the action takes place in a small Montanan town; the characters you came to know in the first book continue in this one (although you can read Big Sky Mountain standalone, if you are going to read the series, I do suggest you start with Big Sky Country). There will be a third title about the first of the year and I am fairly certain I've already spotted the couple that will be involved in it.

Excerpt:
She’d been on the road for three days, and even after a good night’s sleep in Joslyn’s guest room and two showers, she felt rumpled and grungy.

She stood up. She’d get Madison and head for town, she decided, hurry to her own place, where she should have gone in the beginning.

Not that she planned to live there very long.

The mega-mansion was too big for her and Madison, too full of memories.

“Kendra,” Joslyn ordered kindly, “sit down.”

Opal could be heard poking around in the pantry, still talking to herself.

Slade came down the back stairway, looking like himself in worn jeans, a faded flannel shirt and boots.

Passing Joslyn, he paused and leaned down to plant a kiss on top of her head. Kendra sank slowly back into her own chair.

“Don’t start without me,” Slade said, spreading one big hand on Joslyn’s baby-bulge and grinning down into her upturned face.
Be sure to check out the Blog Tour webpage for a chance to win a Cowboy necklace. We can't let them have all the fun, though, so if you leave your name below, I'll draw tomorrow and a lucky winner will receive a paperback copy of the book (limited to US and Canadian addresses). All I need is the email address and Booktrib will get into contact with you to arrange delivery.

Note: A review copy of the book was provided by BookTrib as a part of the Tour promotion.

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is seven books from legendary mystery writer Lawrence Block for $1.99 apiece. Published by Open Road, these ebooks feature an illustrated biography of Lawrence Block, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from his personal collection, and new afterwords written by the author. Although not technically part of the Daily Deal, you'll also find another 18 of his books marked under $5 from the same publisher.

The Girl with the Long Green Heart
One long con could be John Hayden’s ticket to financial freedom—or to the slammer

John Hayden’s a confidence man gone square. He’s done some hard time and he’s not looking back. That is until an old acquaintance presents a long con he can’t resist. The beautiful broad who’s working the inside of this job is just a perk as John and his fellow cons work a deal that could mean the greatest long con of all: financial freedom. Will the perfect setup set John up for life, or will he end up behind bars?
A Diet of Treacle
A vintage tale of lust and drugs in old Greenwich Village—roaring back after fifty years out of print

Sick of living respectably with her grandmother, Anita Carbone hops a downtown train. She finds Greenwich Village—the Village of Kerouac and Dylan, but also of Joe and Shank, two small-time dope peddlers more than happy to welcome a square into their midst. But after a few weeks in Joe’s bed, she finds that with sex, drugs, and grime come danger, and that it’s harder to get back uptown than it was to come down.

Lawrence Block is the master of the thriller, and this early novel is a wild tour of a vanished scene: an authentic trip that burns with the slow intensity of a roach’s last drag.
Killing Castro
When you’ve already got blood on your hands, what’s a little more?

Turner needs to start a new life and that means he needs cash . . . fast. So the twenty thousand he’s offered for a job sounds pretty good, even if it means killing Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. And he’s not alone. There are four other men—killers, idealists, mercenaries—all with the same target. Can they band together to overthrow Castro and get Turner his chance at a new life?
Lucky at Cards
A good card mechanic is hard to find and even harder to change

His dentist’s poker game is the last place that card shark Bill Maynard expects to find another hustler. But that’s just what Mrs. Murray Rogers, the scheming wife with her eye on her husband’s fortune, is. The only problem is her husband’s still alive, and she’ll have to enlist the help of Bill in order to get what she wants. They’ve got a plan, but will Bill stick with it, or will the square life lull him into breaking his lucky streak?
Ronald Rabbit Is a Dirty Old Man
One man’s letter-writing addiction will have some very funny consequences

Laurence Clarke is having a bad day. His boss realized that his editorial position was made redundant months ago, his wife’s discovered that she’s got more in common with his best friend Steve, and his ex-wife and her father are on his case for the alimony he owes. What’s a guy to do? How about write them all letters telling them just what he thinks and letting them know that life hasn’t got Laurence down—it’s got him running away on a lurid and highly erotic adventure with a bevy of naughty young things.
Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print
Writing lessons from the crown prince of suspense

For more than five decades, Lawrence Block has written novels. He has produced hard-boiled detective stories, taut suspense thrillers, literature, and erotica, and has succeeded in all these genres because he knows how to grab a reader with an opening line, and how to tighten that grip until the final sentence.

In Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print, Block offers neither tricks nor formulas, but straight-forward advice based on the experience that comes with producing more than one hundred books. He explains how to refine an idea, how to study one’s chosen genre, and how to use the novel’s expansive form to find one’s particular voice. And he tells it all in the easy, immediate style that has made his own work so successful.
The Liar's Bible: A Handbook for Fiction Writers
Four-time Edgar Award–winning author Lawrence Block’s definitive essay collection on the art of writing fiction

For ten years, crime novelist Lawrence Block funneled his wealth of writing expertise into a monthly column for Writer’s Digest. Collected here for the first time are those pieces illuminating the tricks of the authorial trade, from creating vibrant characters and generating seamless plots, to conquering writer’s block and experimenting with self-publishing.

Filled with wit and insight, The Liar’s Bible is a must-read for experts, amateurs, and anyone interested in learning to craft great fiction from one of the field’s modern masters.

Reservation Road ($1.55 / £0.99 UK), by John Burnham Schwartz , is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $11.99).
Book Description
Reservation Road tells the story of two ordinary families facing an extraordinary crisis - a book that reads like a thriller but opens up a world rich with psychological nuance and emotional wisdom

At the close of a beautiful summer day near the quiet Connecticut town where they live, the Learner family - Ethan and Grace, their children, Josh and Emma - stop at a gas station on their way home from a concert. Josh Learner, lost in a ten-year-old's private world, is standing at the edge of the road when a car comes racing around the bend. He is hit and instantly killed. The car speeds away. From this moment forward, Reservation Road becomes a harrowing countdown to the confrontation between two very different men. The hit-and-run driver is a small-town lawyer named Dwight Arno, a man in desperate need of a second chance. Dwight is also the father of a ten-year-old boy, who was asleep in the car the night Josh Learner was killed. In a gripping narrative woven from the voices of Ethan, Dwight, and Grace, Reservation Road tells the story of two ordinary families facing an extraordinary crisis--a book that reads like a thriller but opens up a world rich with psychological nuance and emotional wisdom. Reservation Road explores the terrain of grief even as it astonishes with unexpected redemption: powerful and wrenching and impossible to put down.

Yesterday's News ($5.09 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Kajsa Ingemarsson, is the Nook Daily Find.
Book Description
Agnes has most things in life: a family who is always there for her, a good job at a fancy restaurant, a boyfriend who loves her, and a best friend whom she knows inside out. Or does she? All of a sudden things begin to crumble, one by one, and soon nothing is as it was. Her boyfriend Tobias leaves her for a big busted singer, and she is fired by Gérard, the sexist and abusive owner of the restaurant where she works. She gambles everything she has on the success of a newly opened restaurant, but the road to the glowing review which will open the door to fame and fortune has, to say the least, unexpected twists and turns.

In Yesterday’s News Kajsa Ingemarsson’s comic talent comes into its own. Juicy and satisfying, Yesterday’s News is a story about daring and winning and about faith in yourself, a feelgood novel sure to please any romance lover looking for the perfect summer read.

Yesterday’s News is one of the greatest bestsellers of all time in Sweden with more than 800,000 copies sold – 1 in every 4 Swedish woman has already read it!

Misty to the Rescue ($3.03 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the first title in the Mermaid S.O.S. series by Gillian Shields, is the Nook Daily Find for Families.
Book Description
Meet Misty and the Mermaid Sisters of the Sea!

Misty and her friends are on a very important mission: they must find the six Magic Crystals that give life and strength the Merfolk, and bring them back to Coral Kingdom. But a wicked mermaid named Mantora would like nothing better than to keep the Sisters of the Sea from completing their task. This time she's sent a powerful storm that's blown the mermaids off-course. Can Misty help her friends get back on track?

Age Level: 5 and up

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Shoes For Me! ($1.99), by Sue Fliess and Mike Laughead (Illustrator), the second book in the Kindle store that the two have collaborated on.
Book Description
Feet got bigger, heel to toe. Time for new shoes. Off we go! Hippo needs new shoes. Maybe she’ll choose shoes with glitter and jewels or shoes that roll on wheels or shoes with bows. There are so many choices! Will Hippo find the perfect pair? Endearing graphite-and-ink illustrations by Mike Laughead show that choosing a new pair of shoes has never been more fun!

Grade Level: Pre K and up

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Today's Deals

Audible is having what they call a Beachcomber Sale: 5 new audiobooks for $6.95 apiece each day, but with clues to their identity only, forcing you to track them down. For those that don't have the patience (or time) for that, each day they'll post the previous day's books, complete with the links to listen and buy. Like many of their sales, it is limited to those with a "membership" - the cheapest of which is $10/year; you can't sign up for this directly, but will be offered this membership when you cancel a trial (or regular) subscription.

New coupons at Kobo: 56b6c435, good for 35% off, 56b6c230, for 30% off; both expire Aug 23.

On B&N's Facebook page, you can now vote for this weekend's $3.99 deal: Cemetery Dance by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child vs The Inner Circle by Brad Meltzer (the winner should be price matched at Amazon). Since I already have the former, I'm voting for the latter and, so far, it's winning by a decent margin.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Mafia Summer ($1.99), by E. Duke Vincent.
Book Description
One a Sicilian Hell's Kitchen gang leader, the other a sickly but brilliant Orthodox Jewish boy who lives next door, Vinny Vesta and Sidney Butcher meet on a fire escape during the blistering New York City summer of 1950. Their friendship develops over the course of a summer that will change Vinny's fortunes forever, at a cost he could never have imagined. Based on a true story, Mafia Summer brilliantly captures a pivotal moment in Mafia history and in the lives of the teenagers caught up by the Mob.

Heaven's Shadow ($1.55 / £0.99 UK), by Michael Cassutt and David S Goyer, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).
Book Description
Heaven's Shadow begins with the discovery of an object of unknown origin headed toward Earth. Speculation as to what it might be runs high, and leads to an international competition to be the first to land on it, to claim both the prestige and whatever other benefits there might be. Thus, two rival teams of astronauts begin a thrilling and dangerous race – but what they find when they reach their goal will turn out to be unlike anything they could have imagined . . .

What they have landed on is no asteroid but a spacecraft from a civilization that has travelled tens of thousands of years to reach earth. While the team try to work out what it is they are needed for, more sinister occurrences cause them to wonder if their involvement with this alien race will ead to anything but harm for humanity.

The Innocents ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Francesca Segal, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
Newly engaged and unthinkingly self-satisfied, twenty-eight-year-old Adam Newman is the prize catch of Temple Fortune, a small, tight-knit Jewish suburb of London. He has been dating Rachel Gilbert since they were both sixteen and now, to the relief and happiness of the entire Gilbert family, they are finally to marry. To Adam, Rachel embodies the highest values of Temple Fortune; she is innocent, conventional, and entirely secure in her community—a place in which everyone still knows the whereabouts of their nursery school classmates. Marrying Rachel will cement Adam’s role in a warm, inclusive family he loves.

But as the vast machinery of the wedding gathers momentum, Adam feels the first faint touches of claustrophobia, and when Rachel’s younger cousin Ellie Schneider moves home from New York, she unsettles Adam more than he’d care to admit. Ellie—beautiful, vulnerable, and fiercely independent—offers a liberation that he hadn’t known existed: a freedom from the loving interference and frustrating parochialism of North West London. Adam finds himself questioning everything, suddenly torn between security and exhilaration, tradition and independence. What might he be missing by staying close to home?

Francesca Segal was born in London and studied at Oxford and Harvard University before becoming a journalist and critic. Her work has appeared in Granta, The Guardian, and The Observer, among other publications. For three years she wrote the Debut Fiction column in The Observer and was, until recently, a features writer at Tatler. She lives in London.

A Smart Girl's Guide to Starting Middle School ($8.15 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Julie Williams Montalbano and Sara Hunt, is the Nook Daily Find for Families (requires NOOK Color, NOOK Tablet or NOOK Study).
Book Description
Middle school is all about change. This book, filled with tips and quizzes, will help girls feel more confident as they anticipate and adjust to the changes of middle school. Includes insights and information on what to expect, plus advice from other smart girls who’ve already made the grade in middle school.

Grade Level: 4 and up

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Boo: The Life of the World's Cutest Dog ($1.99), by J.H. Lee and Gretchen LeMaistre (Photographer).
Book Description
Everyone loves Boo! His signature fluffy head and teddy bear like persona are irresistibly adorable. With nearly a million Facebook fans, and adding more each day, Boo is poised to become an international superstar. This charming book features exclusive new photographs of Boo doing all his favorite things: lounging around, playing with friends, exploring the whole wide world, and making those famous puppy-dog eyes. To know Boo is to love him, and this book is for anyone who loves the cutest dog ever.

Free Audiobook + eBook - The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Get a free MP3 download of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes ($19.95 Audible), by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Simon Prebble (Narrator), along with a DRM-free PDF ebook over at Tantor Media.
Book Description
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes are overshadowed by the event with which they close - the meeting of the great detective and Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime. When "The Final Problem" was first published, the struggle between Holmes and his arch nemesis, seemingly to the death, left many readers desolate at the loss of Holmes, but it also led to his immortality as a literary figure. The stories that precede it included two narratives from Holmes himself - on a mutiny at sea and a treasure hunt in a Sussex country house - as well as a meeting with his brilliant brother, Mycroft.

Included in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes are "Silver Blaze", "The Yellow Face", "The Stock-Broker's Clerk", "The Gloria Scott", "The Musgrave Ritual", "The Reigate Puzzle", "The Crooked Man", "The Resident Patient", "The Greek Interpreter", "The Naval Treaty", and "The Final Problem".
Get the free audiobook/ebook combo from Tantor Media. Once you've completed your purchase and have it in your library, you can download individual segments of the audiobook or grab the complete ZIP download, which also contains the PDF ebook, at any time.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Today's Deals

If you weren't able to get a Kindle w/ Special Offers for $47 from Amazon due to having the wrong credit card, check your local Walmart. They are advertising a $49 effective price, in-store only. You pay $79 and get a $30 gift card, which can be used for any other purchases (valid immediately). This does work out to be a bit more, since you'll also have taxes to pay and must shop at Walmart to get any use out of the gift card (hopefully it also works on gas purchases, for those that otherwise avoid the megastores). The sale ends Aug 25, 2012, or when they run out.

Tantor Media is having a $6.99 sale, with 137 MP3 downloads available at that price.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive ($1.99), by Steve Earle, one of Amazon's Best Books of the Month, May 2011. If you listen to any country music, you know who he is and will be familiar with the ghost in the story; combined with the rave reviews, this will be a must read.
Book Description
Doc Ebersole lives with the ghost of Hank Williams—not just in the figurative sense, not just because he was one of the last people to see him alive, and not just because he is rumored to have given Hank the final morphine dose that killed him.

In 1963, ten years after Hank's death, Doc himself is wracked by addiction. Having lost his license to practice medicine, his morphine habit isn't as easy to support as it used to be. So he lives in a rented room in the red-light district on the south side of San Antonio, performing abortions and patching up the odd knife or gunshot wound. But when Graciela, a young Mexican immigrant, appears in the neighborhood in search of Doc's services, miraculous things begin to happen. Graciela sustains a wound on her wrist that never heals, yet she heals others with the touch of her hand. Everyone she meets is transformed for the better, except, maybe, for Hank's angry ghost—who isn't at all pleased to see Doc doing well.

A brilliant excavation of an obscure piece of music history, Steve Earle's I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive is also a marvelous novel in its own right, a ballad of regret and redemption, and of the ways in which we remake ourselves and our world through the smallest of miracles.

Apples ($1.55 / £0.99 UK), by Richard Milward, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.62).
Book Description
Out of the bleakness of their Middlesbrough housing estate, fueled by cheap plonk, porn and dysfunctional families, Adam and Eve narrate this dazzling, tragicomic love story of adolescence in all its f[****]d-up glory.

As a distraction from sleazy male admirers, spiteful classmates and her mother's cancer, Eve's eyes are opened to a multicolour life of one-night stands, drug-fueled discos and cheap plonk. She barely has time to notice Adam. Adam, however, notices Eve. While contending with sexual frustration, a violent father and increasingly compulsive behaviour, is he too busy reading Razzle in the attic to make his move?

Narrated alternately by Adam and Eve, alongside a cast of delinquents, perverts and butterflies, "Apples" is an exploration of the difficulties of growing up and of getting 'f[****]d as quick as you can'.

A Short History of the World ($7.99 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Christopher Lascelles, is the Nook Daily Find.
Book Description
There is an increasing realisation that our knowledge of world history–and how it all fits together–is far from perfect. A Short History of the World aims to fill the big gaps in our historical knowledge with a book that is easy to read and assumes little prior knowledge of past events.

The book does not aim to come up with groundbreaking new theories on why things occurred, but rather gives a broad overview of the generally accepted version of events so that non-historians will feel less ignorant when discussing the past.

To help readers put events, places and empires into context, the book includes 32 maps specially commissioned to accompany the text. The result is a book that is reassuringly epic in scope but refreshingly short in length. An excellent place to start to bring your historical knowledge up to scratch!

The Paper Bag Princess ($1.89 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko (Illustrator), is the Nook Daily Find for Families, slightly better than price matched on Kindle. Note that the Nook edition requires a NOOK Color, NOOK Tablet or NOOK Kids for iPad, while the Kindle edition requires a Kindle Fire, Kindle Cloud Reader, Kindle for iPad or Kindle for Android.
Book Description
In this bestselling modern classic, Princess Elizabeth is slated to marry Prince Ronald when a dragon attacks the castle and kidnaps Ronald. In resourceful and humorous fashion, Elizabeth finds the dragon, outsmarts him, and rescues Ronald—who is less than pleased at her un-princess-like appearance.

Grade Level: P and up. Kindle edition features Kindle Text Pop-Up on Kindle Fire and select Kindle Apps.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Amulet of Samarkand ($1.99), the first title in the Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud. I've been reading this series and definitely recommend it, regardless of your age.
Book Description
Nathaniel is a magician's apprentice, taking his first lessons in the arts of magic. But when a devious hot-shot wizard named Simon Lovelace ruthlessly humiliates Nathaniel in front of his elders, Nathaniel decides to kick up his education a few notches and show Lovelace who's boss. With revenge on his mind, he summons the powerful djinni, Bartimaeus. But summoning Bartimaeus and controlling him are two different things entirely, and when Nathaniel sends the djinni out to steal Lovelace's greatest treasure, the Amulet of Samarkand, he finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of magical espionage, murder, and rebellion.

Grade Level: 5 and up

The Hunger Games ($1.99 Kindle, Google), by Suzanne Collins, is today's Flash Sale eBook on Google Play, price matched on Kindle, as is the rest of the Hunger Game series ($5.99) and the Underland Chronicles ($5.24). If you missed it when it was on sale earlier in the year, grab it now, as it has gone back up to $9+ in other stores.
Book Description
The astonishing bestseller...

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Today's Deals

Additional formats on free books:

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Midnight in Austenland ($1.99), by Shannon Hale.
Book Description
When Charlotte Kinder treats herself to a two-week vacation at Austenland, she happily leaves behind her ex-husband and his delightful new wife, her ever-grateful children, and all the rest of her real life in America. She dons a bonnet and stays at a country manor house that provides an immersive Austen experience, complete with gentleman actors who cater to the guests' Austen fantasies.

Everyone at Pembrook Park is playing a role, but increasingly, Charlotte isn't sure where roles end and reality begins. And as the parlor games turn a little bit menacing, she finds she needs more than a good corset to keep herself safe. Is the brooding Mr. Mallery as sinister as he seems? What is Miss Gardenside's mysterious ailment? Was that an actual dead body in the secret attic room? And-perhaps of the most lasting importance-could the stirrings in Charlotte's heart be a sign of real-life love?

The follow-up to reader favorite Austenland provides the same perfectly plotted pleasures, with a feisty new heroine, plenty of fresh and frightening twists, and the possibility of a romance that might just go beyond the proper bounds of Austen's world. How could it not turn out right in the end?

The Moth Diaries ($1.55 / £0.99 UK), by Rachel Klein, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US Kindle edition).
Book Description
At an exclusive girls' boarding school, a sixteen-year-old girl records her most intimate thoughts in a diary. The object of her obsession is her room-mate, Lucy Blake, and Lucy's friendship with their new and disturbing classmate. Ernessa is a mysterious presence with pale skin and hypnotic eyes. Around her swirl dark secrets and a series of ominous disasters. As fear spreads through the school, fantasy and reality mingle into a waking nightmare of gothic menace, fuelled by the lusts and fears of adolescence. And at the centre of the diary is the question that haunts all who read it: Is Ernessa really a vampire? Or is the narrator trapped in her own fevered imagination?

A Small Furry Prayer: Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), by Steven Kotler, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
Steven Kotler was forty years old and facing an existential crisis—which made him not too different from just about every other middle-aged guy in Los Angeles. Then he met Joy, a woman devoted to the cause of canine rescue. "Love me, love my dogs," was her rule, and not having any better ideas, Steven took it to heart. Together with their pack of eight dogs—then fifteen dogs, then twenty-five dogs, then, well, they lost count—Steven and Joy bought a tiny farm in a tiny town in rural New Mexico and started the Rancho de Chihuahua, a sanctuary for dogs with special needs.

While dog rescue is one of the largest underground movements in America, it is also one of the least understood. This insider look at the cult and culture of dog rescue begins with Kotler's personal experience working with an ever-peculiar pack of dogs and becomes a much deeper investigation into exactly what it means to devote one's life to the furry and the four-legged.

Along the way, Kotler combs through every aspect of canine-human relations, from human's long history with dogs through brand new research into the neuroscience of canine companionship, in the end discovering why living in a world of dogs may be the best way to uncover the truth about what it really means to be human.

Number the Stars ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Lois Lowry, is the Nook Daily Find for Families, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
This Newbery Medal Book describes how a ten-year-old Danish girl's bravery is tested when her best friend is threatened by Nazis in 1943.

As the German troops begin their campaign to “relocate” all the Jews of Denmark, Annemarie Johansen’s family takes in Annemarie’s best friend, Ellen Rosen, and conceals her as part of the family.

Through the eyes of ten-year-old Annemarie, we watch as the Danish Resistance smuggles almost the entire Jewish population of Denmark, nearly seven thousand people, across the sea to Sweden. The heroism of an entire nation reminds us that there was pride and human decency in the world even during a time of terror and war.

Grade Level: 4 and up

Finally, there is a new feature in the Today's Deals posts: the Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site ($1.99), by Sherri Duskey Rinker and Tom Lichtenheld, which steadily climbed up the New York Times' Bestseller list throughout 2011, reaching #1 in January of this year. On the Amazon product page, you can also read an exclusive interview with Ms. Rinker, complete with several illustrations from the creative process.
Book Description
As the sun sets behind the big construction site, all the hardworking trucks get ready to say goodnight. One by one, Crane Truck, Cement Mixer, Dump Truck, Bulldozer, and Excavator finish their work and lie down to rest - so they'll be ready for another day of rough and tough construction play! With irresistible artwork by best-selling illustrator Tom Lichtenheld and sweet, rhyming text, this book will have truck lovers of all ages begging for more.

Grade Level: P and up. Features Kindle Text Pop-Up for reading text over images on the Kindle Fire and Kindle for Android App.