Free Audiobook - The Phantom of the Opera

The MP3 download audiobook edition of The Phantom of the Opera (free+ Kindle, $19.59 Audible), by Gaston Leroux, narrated by Alexander Adams, is free over at Tantor Media for your Halloween listening pleasure, complete with a PDF edition of the book to read as you listen. It isn't quite the same as Whispersync for Voice, but it's a lot cheaper, since it appears that the combo cost at Amazon is $8+, depending on the ebook edition you choose (they are often linked to different audiobook performances; none appear to be linked to this one, sadly).

Book Description
Under the Paris Opera House lives a disfigured musical genius who uses music to win the love of a beautiful opera singer.

The actors, singers, and patrons of the Paris Opera House say that a ghost haunts the labyrinthine chambers beneath its stage. Those who laugh off such superstitions always do so nervously, in the bright light of day. Nearly everyone connected with the opera house in any way has felt the phantom's vague, troubling presence. But beautiful, talented young singer Christine Daae will soon experience a terror far more acute than any vague feeling of unease. For she is about to learn the secret of why the man who has made the tunnels beneath Paris his private domain must forever hide his face behind a mask.

Part horror story, part historical romance, and part detective thriller, the timeless tale of a masked, disfigured musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opera House is familiar to millions of readers, as well as to movie and theater-goers. At the heart of the story's long-standing popularity lies its questioning of a universal theme: the relationship between outward appearance and the beauty or darkness of the human soul.

Get the free audiobook/ebook combo from Tantor. While you are there, you may also want to check out their $6.99 Horror Sale; I see a lot of Zombie Apocalypse at the front of the sale, but there are some Urban Fantasy titles too (such as Kim Harrison's Hollows series).

Free Audiobook - The Next Always

The audiobook edition of The Next Always ($9.99 Kindle), the first novel in the Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy by Nora Roberts, narrated by MacLeod Andrews, is free on Audible. This is a Kindle with Special Offers deal but it looks like anyone (at least in the US) can grab it (which is nice, since it didn't show up on my Kindle Fire with Special Offers.

Book Description
... an all-new trilogy-inspired by the inn she owns and the town she loves.

The historic hotel in BoonsBoro, Maryland, has endured war and peace, changing hands, even rumored hauntings. Now it's getting a major facelift from the Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother. As the architect of the family, Beckett's social life consists mostly of talking shop over pizza and beer. But there's another project he's got his eye on: the girl he's been waiting to kiss since he was fifteen.

Get the free audiobook from Audible.

Today's Deals

Over at Kobo, if you've made sure your settings are for Regular checkout (see yesterday's post), then you might want to use this 90% off coupon to pick from a list of 72 books: 90BK

It's time for programmers to stock up at O'Reilly, where they have 50% off on select Javascript titles using coupon code SPJVS, which increases to 60% off the two Sitepoint titles if you buy both (exp Oct 25), and for budding scientists to get 50% off their Science Guides for DIY Enthusiasts selection using coupon code WKSCNCE (exp Oct 24).

Additional formats on free books:

• Vampire Justice (K/N/DF)
• Golden Seduction (K/N/DF)

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Miracle Boy Grows Up ($1.99), by Ben Mattlin.

Book Description
Ben Mattlin lives a normal, independent life. Why is that interesting? Because Mattlin was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a congenital weakness from which he was expected to die in childhood. Not only did Mattlin live through childhood, he became one of the first students in a wheelchair to attend Harvard, from which he graduated and became a professional writer. His advantage? Mattlin’s life happened to parallel the growth of the disability rights movement, so that in many ways he did not feel that he was disadvantaged at all, merely different. Miracle Boy Grows Up is a witty, unsentimental memoir that you won’t forget, told with engrossing intelligence and a unique perspective on living with a disability in the United States.

Tread Softly ($1.59 / £0.99 UK), by Wendy Perriam, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).

Book Description
Lorna, thirty-nine, is married to misanthropic Ralph, who in turn is wedded to his twenty-seven pipes and his artificial-grass business. In fact, it’s a ménage à trios, the third party being Lorna’s Monster, a gleefully sadistic personification of her panic attacks. The Monster has a field day when, after a botched foot operation, Lorna is sent to convalesce among the deaf and demented inmates of a nursing home from hell, where to staff have more problems than the patients. But, despite her surroundings, she begins to blossom, making new friends, discovering untapped talents and even a reawakened interest in sex, thanks to the attentions of an ardent young care-worker. She even gets offered a challenging new job. Meanwhile Ralph is being sued by a vindictive business client and fears he will lose his house and his livelihood. In another of her wickedly black comedies Wendy Perriam chronicles an unconventional marriage, showing the bond that can develop between two people who have experienced a ‘lost childhood’. She also takes a swipe at the medical profession and, by graphically illustrating the plight of residents in low-grade care homes, offers a devastating critique of the way society treats the old and infirm. Yet, throughout, the novel is leavened by the author’s exuberant wit.

The Bone House ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Stephen R. Lawhead, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. This title follows The Skin Map in Lawhead's Bright Empires series, which was a free Kobo Bookclub selection over the summer and a bargain selection on Kindle the year before. The third in the series, The Spirit Well, was released last month and is priced under $10, I suspect due to the demise of the Agency agreements, since I see a "list price" of $25 on it.

Book Description
Kit Livingstone met his great-grandfather Cosimo in a rainy alley in London where he discovered the truth about alternate realities.

Now he’s on the run—and on a quest—trying to understand the impossible mission he inherited from Cosimo: to restore a map that charts the hidden dimensions of the multiverse. Survival depends on staying one step ahead of the savage Burley Men.

The key is the Skin Map—but where it leads and what it means, Kit has no idea. The pieces have been scattered throughout this universe and beyond.

Mina, from her outpost in seventeenth-century Prague, is quickly gaining both the experience and the means to succeed in the quest. Yet so are those with evil intent who, from the shadows, are manipulating great minds of history for their own malign purposes.

Those who know how to use the ley lines have left their own world behind to travel across time and space—down avenues of Egyptian sphinxes, to an Etruscan tufa tomb, into a Bohemian coffee shop, and across a Stone Age landscape where universes collide—in this, the second quest to unlock the mystery of The Bone House.

The Bright Empires series—from acclaimed author Stephen R. Lawhead—is a unique blend of epic treasure hunt, ancient history, alternate realities, cutting-edge physics, philosophy, and mystery. The result is a page-turning, adventure like no other.

Hell on Earth: The Wildfire Pandemic ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by David L. Porter and Lee Reeder, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012, price matched on Kindle. The publisher is one that has removed DRM from their titles, so you can buy in either store and easily convert to use on any ereader now or in the future (just keep a backup).

Book Description
The world is burning, and it appears that we are to blame. Conditions that create large-scale fire disasters are occurring more frequently every year, spurred on by global warming. And the potential for damage, loss of life, and greater harm to the environment is staggering.

As devastating fires increase throughout the western and southern United States, the number of fires in the Brazilian rain forest continues to increase as well. Vast areas of the wilderness are dying throughout the West, setting the stage for a human and environmental tragedy.

David L. Porter has been covering wild fires in the west for more than twelve years. After losing his home to a wildfire in 2003, he set out to find how and why this was happening, not only in the western US, but around the world. Hell on Earth chronicles the origins of these catastrophes as well as the effects they are having on our planet.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep! ($1.99), by Maureen Wright and Will Hillenbrand (Illustrator). This book features Kindle Text Pop-Up for reading text over vivid, full-color images when using Kindle Fire or select Kindle Reading Apps (Kindle Cloud Reader, Kindle for iPad or Kindle for Android); unlike some other Text Popup books, this one won't work on any of the eInk Kindles.

Book Description
It's time for Big Bear to hibernate, so Old Man Winter keeps telling him: "Sleep, Big Bear, sleep." But Big Bear doesn't hear very well. He thinks Old Man Winter has told him to drive a jeep, to sweep, and to leap. Big Bear just can t seem to hear what Old Man Winter is saying. Finally, Old Man Winter finds a noisy way to get Big Bear's attention. Cozy illustrations rendered in pencil and mixed media by Will Hillenbrand bring this bedtime story to a fitting conclusion.

Grade Level: Pre K and up

Today's Deals

If you shop at Kobo and you use coupon codes or gift cards during checkout, you need to be sure and edit your account settings. Kobo has added a new "Quick Buy" checkout procedure, which streamlines your checkout and eliminates the ability to use coupon codes and have made this new checkout method the default for everyone. While I'm sure there are some people that prefer that, as it makes it more like the one-click buy at Amazon and B&N, it also means you don't have any way to enter a coupon code, even if you want to. To switch back to the old checkout procedure, first click on My Account at the upper right corner of the page, the find the option for Checkout for eBook purchases in the lower right corner, just above the Save Button and choose the second option listed, for "regular Checkout". Click Save and you should be good to go. Although, it also appears you can turn off the annoying little popup of the last book viewed that keeps showing on the side of each page (blocking what you are trying to see on the website and which has no close button): under Browsing History, pick "Do not track the items I view". BTW, if you don't want to enter your full name and a birthdate, just enter some initials and any date, so that the page will save.

If you have Kids and a Kindle Fire, check out today's free Android App: Kids Animal Piano Pro. It has good ratings and a cut video of it in action.

Today is the last day to take advantage of this KSO deal:

• $3 Instant Amazon Instant Video Credit (Fire) (rent now and you generally have 30 days to watch)

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Heart of Ice ($1.99), the third novel in the Triple Threat series by Lis Wiehl and April Henry, and the companion audiobook is currently only $4.95! Some of you will already have the first in the series, Face of Betrayal, as it was free a couple of summers ago and the fourth in the series, Eyes of Justice, was released this past Spring (and it's companion audiobook is also marked down to $4.99).

Book Description
Elizabeth Avery could easily be the girl next door. But what she has planned will make your blood run cold.

At first glance, the crimes appear random. Arson. Theft. Fraud. Murder. But these are more than random crimes. They’re moves in an increasingly deadly game. And the one element they have in common: a woman who is gorgeous, clever . . . and lethal.

Elizabeth Avery has a winsome smile and flawless figure, but underneath is a heart of ice. She’s a master manipulator, convincing strangers to do the unthinkable. And she orchestrates it all without getting too close. Until now.

When Elizabeth ruthlessly disposes of an inquisitive young reporter, her crime catches the attention of Federal Prosecutor Allison Pierce, FBI Special Agent Nicole Hedges, and crime reporter Cassidy Shaw. They know they’re dealing with a cold-blooded murderer who could strike at any time. What they don’t know is that they’re already on a first-name basis with the killer.

And one of them may be next on her list.

The Long Dry ($1.59 / £0.99 UK), winner of the Betty Trask Award (2007) and Cynan Jones' debut novel, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).

Book Description
Explodes the paradox of emotional isolation suffered by those living close together, the conflicting demands of family and farm, and this disruption of old ways by the new. Written in a blistering ten days, this is a novel about belonging and the land, and our ability to go through the things which try to break us.

Magyk ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), the first novel in the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle, where the companion audiobook is $6.49. This gets a definite recommendation for middle grade readers and their parents (and it's not a bad choice for adults, really). Check your libraries, as there was a bonus edition free in January of last year (although that edition is on linked to the audiobook).

Book Description
The Magyk Begins Here

Septimus Heap, the seventh son of the seventh son, disappears the night he is born, pronounced dead by the midwife. That same night, the baby's father, Silas Heap, comes across an abandoned child in the snow -- a newborn girl with violet eyes. The Heaps take her into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own. But who is this mysterious baby girl, and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus?

Grade Level: 4 and up

Lincoln ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by David Herbert Donald, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
David Herbert Donald's Lincoln is a stunningly original portrait of Lincoln's life and presidency. Donald brilliantly depicts Lincoln's gradual ascent from humble beginnings in rural Kentucky to the ever- expanding political circles in Illinois, and finally to the presidency of a country divided by civil war. Donald goes beyond biography, illuminating the gradual development of Lincoln's character, chronicling his tremendous capacity for evolution and growth, thus illustrating what made it possible for a man so inexperienced and so unprepared for the presidency to become a great moral leader. In the most troubled of times, here was a man who led the country out of slavery and preserved a shattered Union -- in short, one of the greatest presidents this country has ever seen.

Today's Kindle Young Adult Daily Deal is Shifting ($1.99), by Bethany Wiggins.

Book Description
After bouncing from foster home to foster home, Magdalene Mae is transferred to what should be her last foster home in the tiny town of Silver City, New Mexico. Now that she's eighteen and has only a year left in high school, she's determined to stay out of trouble and just be normal. Agreeing to go to the prom with Bridger O'Connell is a good first step. Fitting in has never been her strong suit, but it's not for the reasons most people would expect-it all has to do with the deep secret that she is a shape shifter. But even in her new home danger lurks, waiting in the shadows to pounce. They are the Skinwalkers of Navajo legend, who have traded their souls to become the animal whose skin they wear-and Maggie is their next target.

Full of romance, mysticism, and intrigue, this dark take on Navajo legend will haunt readers to the final page.

Age Level: 12 and up

Today's Deals

Audible's Shock-tober Sale continues with Werewolves this week. I've read Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Underworld, Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels and Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series in print and can recommend it and the start of Molly Harper's series (which I've also read and enjoyed) is only $3.95, while most of the others are $6.95. I also see David Wellington's series, which I haven't started, although I do have the first title in my TBR list. Like most sales, it's limited to subscribers, but you can always use a trial membership, then cancel and choose the $10/year membership to get access to sales after the trial is over.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Little Hoot ($1.99), by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Abby Sher.

Book Description
It's not fair! All Little Owl wants is to go to bed at a reasonable hour, like his friends do. But no . . . Mama and Papa say little owls have to stay up late and play. So Little Owl spends all night jumping on his bed, playing on the jungle gym, and doing tricks on his skateboard - but he's hooting mad about it ! Children who have a hard time going to bed will love this fun twist on the universal dilemma.

Grade Level: P and up

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Six Days of War ($1.99 Kindle; $7.95 companion audiobook), by Michael B. Oren.

Book Description
For six tense days between June 5 and 10, 1967, war raged between Israel and its neighbors, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. There are many contexts in which this story makes sense, but only Michael Oren, a widely published American-born Israel scholar and historian, has so far knitted the diverse strands into a cohesive fabric that remains vital and relevant today. With educated authority and authorial integrity, Oren manages to sketch out facts and motives with the same intrigue as battles and strategies.

Escalating territorial and populist tensions in the Middle East only serve to make this title more relevant. Anyone who wants to have a grasp of Middle Eastern politics or political tensions involving Israel must read this title. Six Days of War was a New York Times Bestseller and Washington Post Best Book Award Winner in 2002 and has gone on to be an internationally acclaimed bestseller. The book has been widely recognized as the definitive telling of the Six Day War.

The Museum of Abandoned Secrets ($1.59 / £0.99 UK), by Oksana Zabuzhko and Nina Shevchuk-Murray (Translator), is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99/KLL Eligible). This is an AmazonCrossing exclusive translation, so not available in other stores.

Book Description
Spanning sixty tumultuous years of Ukrainian history, this multigenerational saga weaves a dramatic and intricate web of love, sex, friendship, and death. At its center: three women linked by the abandoned secrets of the past—secrets that refuse to remain hidden.

While researching a story, journalist Daryna unearths a worn photograph of Olena Dovgan, a member of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army killed in 1947 by Stalin’s secret police. Intrigued, Daryna sets out to make a documentary about the extraordinary woman—and unwittingly opens a door to the past that will change the course of the future. For even as she delves into the secrets of Olena’s life, Daryna grapples with the suspicious death of a painter who just may be the latest victim of a corrupt political power play.

From the dim days of World War II to the eve of Orange Revolution, The Museum of Abandoned Secrets is an “epic of enlightening force” that explores the enduring power of the dead over the living.

A Time to Dance ($4.74 $2.99 Kindle, B&N), the first novel in bestselling author Karen Kingsbury's Timeless Love series, is the Nook Daily Find. This is an updated edition (both are available on Kindle, so be careful searching) and I've reported the lower price to Amazon in hopes it will drop there. Update: Now price matched on Kindle!

Book Description
They celebrated their love with a dance. But will it end in divorce?

John and Abby Reynolds were the perfect couple, sharing a love born of childhood friendship and deep family ties. They are envied by their friends, cherished by their children, admired by their peers. But John and Abbey are about to lose it all. On the verge of having an affair, John is no more the man Abby married than she is the long-ago girl of his dreams. They are strangers whose days of dancing seem gone forever.

They gather their three children to announce their plans, but before they can speak, their daughter makes an announcement of her own; she's getting married in the summer.

Abby and John determine not to ruin their daughter's season of happiness, but as the wedding nears they are haunted by questions. Is the decision they've made irreversible? Are there times when marriage--even the marriage between two people of faith--is truly beyond repair? And is it possible, alone in the moonlight on an old wooden pier, to once more find...a time to dance?

Discover the resiliency of boundless love, the power of commitment, and the amazing faithfulness of God in A Time to Dance.

It's the Middle Class, Stupid! ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by James Carville and Stan Greenberg, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
It’s the Middle Class, Stupid! confirms what we have all suspected: Washington and Wall Street have really screwed things up for the average American. Work has been devalued. Education costs are out of sight. Effort and ambition have never been so scantily rewarded. Political guru James Carville and pollster extraordinaire Stan Greenberg argue that our political parties must admit their failures and the electorate must reclaim its voice, because taking on the wealthy and the privileged is not class warfare—it is a matter of survival. Told in the alternating voices of these two top political strategists, It’s the Middle Class, Stupid! provides eye-opening and provocative arguments on where our government—including the White House—has gone wrong, and what voters can do about it.

Controversial and outspoken, authoritative and shrewd, It’s the Middle Class, Stupid! is destined to make waves during the 2012 presidential campaign, and will set the agenda for legislative battles and political dust-ups during the next administration.

Today's Deals

Additional formats on free books:

• The Ghost Exterminator (K/N/DF)

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is "13" Compelling Nonfiction Singles by TED Books for $0.99 each (67% off). I have 13 in quotes, as Amazon only lists twelve, yet claims "all" of the publisher's titles are on sale. So, I tracked down that missing title and have it listed first - check your invoice on it, though, as it keeps changing in price (I've refreshed the page about 6 times and saw 99 cents twice and $2.99 the other times).

1. When I'm 164: The New Science of Radical Life Extension, and What Happens If It Succeeds, by David Ewing Duncan
2. Weekday Vegetarian: Finally, a Palatable Solution, by Alex Estes and Graham Hill
3. Mind Amplifier: Can Our Digital Tools Make Us Smarter? , by Howard Rheingold
4. Deep Water: As Polar Ice Melts, Scientists Debate How High Our Oceans Will Rise, by Daniel Grossman
5. Beware Dangerism!, by Gever Tulley
6. The Happiness Manifesto, by Nic Marks
7. Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere, by Will Richardson
8. Smile: The Astonishing Powers of a Simple Act, by Ron Gutman
9. Homo Evolutis, by Steve Gullans and Juan Enriquez
10. Controlling Cancer: A Powerful Plan for Taking On the World's Most Daunting Disease, by Paul Ewald and Holly Swain Ewald
11. Beyond the Hole in the Wall: Discover the Power of Self-Organized Learning, by Sugata Mitra
12. Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization, by Parag Khanna and Ayesha Khanna
13. Cheating The Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist, by Philippe Petit

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Larklight ($1.99), by bestselling British author/illustrator Philip Reeve and David Wyatt (Illustrator).

Book Description
Arthur (Art) Mumby and his irritating sister Myrtle live with their father in the huge and rambling house, Larklight, travelling through space on a remote orbit far beyond the Moon. One ordinary sort of morning they receive a correspondence informing them that a gentleman is on his way to visit, a Mr Webster. Visitors to Larklight are rare if not unique, and a frenzy of preparation ensues. But it is entirely the wrong sort of preparation, as they discover when their guest arrives, and a Dreadful and Terrifying (and Marvellous) adventure begins. It takes them to the furthest reaches of Known Space, where they must battle the evil First Ones in a desperate attempt to save each other - and the Universe.

Recounted through the eyes of Art himself, Larklight is sumptuously designed and illustrated throughout.

Grade Level: 5 and up

Truth ($1.59 / £0.99 UK), by Peter Temple, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).

Book Description
At the close of a long day, Inspector Stephen Villani stands in the bathroom of a luxury apartment high above the city. In the glass bath, a young woman lies dead. Villani's job as the head of the Victoria Police Homicide Squad is bathed in blood and sorrow. Incapable of constancy as a father and husband, damaged as a son, his life is his work. It is his identity, his calling, his touchstone. Now, over a few sweltering summer days, as fires burn across the state and his superiors and colleagues scheme and jostle, his soul is about to be laid bare. Truth is a novel about a man, a family, a city. It is about violence, murder, love, corruption, honour and deceit. And it is about truth.

Bite Me ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), the first novel of the Demon Underground series by Parker Blue, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. Some of you will already have this, from when it was free this past summer.

Book Description
Barely eighteen-year-old heroine Valentine Shapiro got a raw deal in the parent lottery. Her father was part incubus demon, and her mother's never forgiven her for that.Life after high school is tough enough without having to go 15 rounds with your inner demon. Thrown out of the house by her mother, Val puts one foot in front of the other and does the only thing that seems to make any sense--she takes aim at the town vampires. A stake a day, keeps the demon at bay. (But don't call her Buffy. That makes Lola, her demon, very cranky.) Her dark side makes everyday life a roller coaster, but means she's perfect for her night job as a bounty hunter. San Antonio's vampires are out of control, and it's up to Val, her faithful hellhound Fang, and her new partner, a handsome San Antonio police detective, to get the deadly fangbangers off the city streets. Soon enough she finds herself deep in the underbelly of the city, discovering the secrets of the Demon Underground and fighting to save those she loves. Whether they love her back or not.

The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Mike Lofgren, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012, price matched on Kindle, where the companion audiobook is $5.99.

Book Description
The New York Times bestselling exposé of what passes for business as usual in Washington today

There was a time, not so very long ago, when perfectly rational people ran the Republican Party. So how did the party of Lincoln become the party of lunatics? That is what this book aims to answer. Fear not, the Dems come in for their share of tough talk— they are zombies, a party of the living dead.

Mike Lofgren came to Washington in the early eighties—those halcyon, post–Nixonian glory days—for what he imagined would be a short stint on Capitol Hill. He has witnessed quite a few low points in his twenty-eight years on the Hill—but none quite so pitiful as the antics of the current crop of legislators whom we appear to have elected.

Based on the explosive article Lofgren wrote when he resigned in disgust after the debt ceiling crisis, The Party Is Over is a funny and impassioned exposé of everything that is wrong with Washington. Obama and his tired cohorts are no angels but they have nothing on the Republicans, whose wily strategists are bankrupting the country one craven vote at a time. Be prepared for some fireworks.

$30 Off Amazon Denim (KSO)

This offer is only for those with a Kindle with Special Offers (including any Kindle Touch or Kindle Keyboard that opts in to Special Offers, but not the Kindle Fire with Special Offers):

Get $30 Off a Purchase of $100 or More in the Amazon Denim Shop

Click on the offer, then click on the link on the offer page sign up and you'll get an email(right away) with the promotion code. This offer is good for one book and only one per account (if you have multiple KSO devices, they need to be registered to different accounts before you sign up to get the promotion code emails; every Kindle on an account gets flagged when you sign up for the special offer and they will all get the same code for that promotion from then on). Sign-up for this offer expires October 21, 2012, and the promo code must be used by October 28.

The email will contain a link to the promotion page. You'll need to add the items you select to your cart, then use the full check out process and enter the Promo code on the summary page (it's not automatic, like the Kindle Fire promo).

Other than the dates (and getting a code via email, rather than an automatic credit via AmazonLocal), this is the exact same offer that those with a Kindle Fire with Special Offers received a couple of days ago. There doesn't seem to be any reason you can't take advantage of both offers, if you have a lot of denim to purchase, but they can't be used on the same order, of course.

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Into the Darkest Corner ($1.99), by Elizabeth Haynes.

Book Description
Catherine Bailey has been enjoying the single life long enough to know a catch when she sees one. Gorgeous, charismatic and spontaneous, Lee seems almost too perfect to be true. And her friends clearly agree, as each in turn falls under his spell.

But what begins as flattering attentiveness and passionate sex turns into raging jealousy, and Catherine soon learns there is a darker side to Lee. His increasingly erratic, controlling behaviour becomes frightening, but no one believes her when she shares her fears. Increasingly isolated and driven into the darkest corner of her world, a desperate Catherine plans a meticulous escape.

Four years later, Lee is behind bars and Catherine—now Cathy—compulsively checks the locks and doors in her apartment, trusting no one. But when an attractive upstairs neighbour, Stuart, comes into her life, Cathy dares to hope that happiness and love may still be possible . . . until she receives a phone call informing her of Lee’s impending release. Soon after, Cathy thinks she catches a glimpse of the former best friend who testified against her in the trial; she begins to return home to find objects subtly rearranged in her apartment, one of Lee’s old tricks. Convinced she is back in her former lover’s sights, Cathy prepares to wrestle with the demons of her past for the last time.

Utterly convincing in its portrayal of obsession, Into the Darkest corner is an ingeniously structured and plotted tour de force of suspense that marks the arrival of a major new talent.

The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More with Less ($1.59 / £0.99 UK), by Richard Koch, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).

Book Description
A new, updated 10th Annniversary edition of the business classic.

In the ten years since its original publication The 80/20 Principle has become one of the decade’s most original, provocative and powerful books and a business classic and was named as one of GQ’s Top 25 Business Books of the 20th Century. It has sold over 500,000 copies and been translated into 30 languages. This special 10th anniversary edition of the bestselling The 80/20 Principle contains an entirely new chapter, ‘The Yin and Yang of the Principle’, in which Koch responds to the thousands of reader responses to the book – including a rap song! – and uses this new material to reach a new level of awareness and understanding of the true power of the principle. And it is powerful: the 80/20 principle – the fact that 80% of results flow from 20% of causes – is the one true principle of highly effective people and organisations. The 80/20 Principle shows how you can achieve much more with much less effort, time and resources, simply by concentrating on that all-important 20%. The 80/20 principle is the key to controlling our lives. If we can latch on to the few powerful forces within and around us, we can leverage our efforts to multiply effectiveness. Most of what we do has trivial results. A little of what we do really matters. So if we focus on the latter, we can control events instead of being controlled by them, and achieve several times the results.

The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Timothy Keller, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Renowned pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church and author of the forthcoming Every Good Endeavor, Timothy Keller with his wife of 36 years, delivers The Meaning of Marriage, an extraordinarily insightful look at the keys to happiness in marriage that will inspire Christians, skeptics, singles, long-time married couples, and those about to be engaged.

Modern culture would make you believe that everyone has a soul-mate; that romance is the most important part of a successful marriage; that your spouse is there to help you realize your potential; that marriage does not mean forever, but merely for now; that starting over after a divorce is the best solution to seemingly intractable marriage issues. All those modern-day assumptions are, in a word, wrong.

Using the Bible as his guide, coupled with insightful commentary from his wife of thirty-six years, Kathy, Timothy Keller shows that God created marriage to bring us closer to him and to bring us more joy in our lives. It is a glorious relationship that is also the most misunderstood and mysterious. With a clear-eyed understanding of the Bible, and meaningful instruction on how to have a successful marriage, The Meaning of Marriage is essential reading for anyone who wants to know God and love more deeply in this life.

Just as this book is based on his popular sermon series, so will his Encounters with Jesus series, the first of which, The Skeptical Student comes out in December.

Oil: Money, Politics, and Power in the 21st Century ($9.99 Kindle, $3.99 B&N), by Tom Bower, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012. This title is still covered by an Agency agreement, so should be the same in all stores, but hasn't dropped at Amazon.

Book Description
With unparalleled insight into BP and its safety record leading up to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Tom Bower gives us a groundbreaking, in-depth, and authoritative twenty-year history of the hunt and speculation for our most vital natural resource.

OIL

Twenty years ago oil cost about $7 a barrel. In 2008 the price soared to $148 and then fell to below $40. In the midst of this extraordinary volatility, the major oil conglomerates still spent over a trillion dollars in an increasingly frantic search for more.

The story of oil is a story of high stakes and extreme risk. It is the story of the crushing rivalries between men and women exploring for oil five miles beneath the sea, battling for control of the world's biggest corporations, and gambling billions of dollars twenty-four hours every day on oil's prices. It is the story of corporate chieftains in Dallas and London, traders in New York, oil-oligarchs in Moscow, and globe-trotting politicians-all maneuvering for power.

With the world as his canvas, acclaimed investigative reporter Tom Bower gathers unprecedented firsthand information from hundreds of sources to give readers the definitive, untold modern history of oil . . . the ultimate story of arrogance, intrigue, and greed.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Yellow Star ($1.99), by Jennifer Roy.

Book Description
"In 1945 the war ended. The Germans surrendered, and the ghetto was liberated. Out of over a quarter of a million people, about 800 walked out of the ghetto. Of those who survived, only twelve were children. I was one of the twelve." For more than fifty years after the war, Syvia, like many Holocaust survivors, did not talk about her experiences in the Lodz ghetto in Poland. She buried her past in order to move forward. But finally she decided it was time to share her story, and so she told it to her niece, who has re-told it here using free verse inspired by her aunt.This is the true story of Syvia Perlmutter — a story of courage, heartbreak, and finally survival despite the terrible circumstances in which she grew up. A timeline, historical notes, and an author's note are included.

Grade Level: 4th and up

Today's Deals

Add coupon code OCTOBER35 to your Sony account this weekend and get 35% off your next book from this selection (of roughly 317 thousand books... looks like it's all non-Agency titles). Use the credit thru Monday, it appears, but don't wait too late, as they often cut off sales by early evening.

At Fictionwise, get 35% off all non-Samhain books through October 15, using coupon code 101312

Today is the last day to take advantage of this KSO deal:

• $5 Amazon MP3 Credit

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box ($1.99 Kindle; $7.99 companion audiobook), by The Arbinger Institute.

Book Description
International bestseller—over 750,000 copies sold and translated into 22 languages. Revised throughout, with a new section to help readers apply the lessons in the book.

Reveals how we unwittingly sabotage relationships, at work and at home, despite our best intentions—and how we can stop.

Since its original publication, Leadership and Self-Deception has become an international word-of-mouth phenomenon. Rather than tapering off, it has sold more copies each year since 2004 than it did in any of the first four years after publication. The book’s central insight—that the key to leadership lays not in what we do, but in who we are—has proved to have powerful resonances not only for organizational leadership, but in readers’ personal lives as well. This new edition has been revised throughout to make the story more readable and compelling. And drawing on the extensive correspondence the authors have received over the years they have added a section that outlines the many ways that readers have been using Leadership and Self-Deception, focusing on five specific areas: hiring, teambuilding, conflict resolution, accountability, and personal growth and development. Leadership and Self-Deception uses an entertaining story about an executive facing challenges at work and at home to expose the subtle psychological processes that conceal our true motivations and intentions from us and trap us in a “box” of endless self-justification—even when we’re convinced we’re doing the right thing. Most importantly, the book shows us the way out. Readers will discover what millions already have—how to consistently tap into and act on their innate sense of what’s right, dramatically improving all of their relationships.

It Won't Hurt a Bit: Nursing Tales from the Swinging Sixties ($1.60 / £0.99 UK), by Jane Yeadon, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $6.99).

Book Description
When Jane Yeadon decided that she wanted to become a nurse, the Swinging Sixties had arrived in style. But before her training the nearest she got to anything swinging was the udder of the cow on their farm in the north-east of Scotland. It was time to leave for the bright lights and some modern life. It Won’t Hurt a Bit is the story of Jane’s journey from the farm she loved and the schoolwork she hated through to her nurse training and the many adventures along the way. It’s a warm, funny and affectionate memoir from a simpler time as Jane and her new friends tackle the ups and downs of a gruelling three-year training, some scary matrons and a variety of challenging patients and their relatives. All to the backdrop of the fabulous Swinging Sixties.

White Girl Problems ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Babe Walker, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle, where the companion audiobook is $9.95.

Book Description
Babe Walker, center of the universe, is a painstakingly manicured white girl with an expensive smoothie habit, a proclivity for Louboutins, a mysterious mother she's never met, and approximately 50 bajillion Twitter followers. But her "problems" have landed her in shopping rehab—that's what happens when you spend $246,893.50 in one afternoon at Barneys. Now she's decided to write her memoir, revealing the gut-wrenching hurdles she's had to overcome in order to be perfect in every way, every day. Hurdles such as:

• I hate my horse.
• Every job I've ever had is the worst job I've ever had.
• He's not a doctor, a lawyer, or a prince.
• I’ll eat anything, as long as it’s gluten-free, dairy-free, low-carb, low-fat, low-calorie, sugar-free, and organic.

In an Adderall-induced flash of inspiration, Babe Walker has managed to create one of the most enjoyable, unforgettable memoirs in years.

The Moral Center: How Progressives Can Unite America Around Our Shared Values ($8.77 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by David Callahan, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012.

Book Description
Nothing’s the matter with Kansas: Americans voting their values are responding to a real moral crisis. And in this forceful follow-up to The Cheating Culture, David Callahan argues that the problems for most Americans are not abortion and gay marriage but rather issues that neither party is addressing—the selfishness that is careening out of control, the effect of our violent and consumerist culture on children, and our lack of a greater purpose. As Republicans veer into zealotry, liberals can find common ground with the moderate majority. But to alleviate the moral anxieties that drove GOP electoral victories they need a powerful new vision. In The Moral Center, Callahan articulates that vision and offers an escape from the dead-end culture war. With insights garnered from in-depth research and interviews, he examines some of our most polarized conflicts and presents unexpected solutions that lay out a new road map to the American center.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Chicken Big ($1.99), by Keith Graves.

Book Description
On a teeny little farm, in an itty-bitty coop, a very small hen laid a big, giant egg. And out of this egg came one big, humongous . . . something. 'It's big!' clucked the little rooster. 'It's enormous!' clucked the small chicken. 'It's an elephant!' peeped the smallest chicken. 'Run for your lives!' they cried. No matter how they try, these clueless chickens can't make sense of the gigantic new member of their familyGÇöuntil he saves the day. With wacky, laugh-out- loud humor and silliness to spare, this BIG twist on the classic Chicken Little story lends a whole new perspective to what it means to be chicken.

Grade Level: P and up

Credits from Agency Settlement Coming (But Not Soon)

Just received my email from Amazon, so you should see this in your inboxes as well. I haven't seen anything from any of the other stores yet, but it looks like they have plenty of time, since Amazon says the courts have until Feb 2013 to approve the settlement! We do now have an estimate of the amount and it looks like it will be enough to buy an indie book or two (maybe even one from a former Agency publisher, for some), if you bought any books from the Agency publishers (even the lower priced ones that have been on sale).

Dear Kindle Customer,

We have good news. You are entitled to a credit for some of your past e-book purchases as a result of legal settlements between several major e-book publishers and the Attorneys General of most U.S. states and territories, including yours. You do not need to do anything to receive this credit. We will contact you when the credit is applied to your Amazon.com account if the Court approves the settlements in February 2013.

Hachette, Harper Collins, and Simon & Schuster have settled an antitrust lawsuit about e-book prices. Under the proposed settlements, the publishers will provide funds for a credit that will be applied directly to your Amazon.com account. If the Court approves the settlements, the account credit will appear automatically and can be used to purchase Kindle books or print books. While we will not know the amount of your credit until the Court approves the settlements, the Attorneys General estimate that it will range from $0.30 to $1.32 for every eligible Kindle book that you purchased between April 2010 and May 2012. Alternatively, you may request a check in the amount of your credit by following the instructions included in the formal notice of the settlements, set forth below. You can learn more about the settlements here:

www.amazon.com/help/agencyebooksettlements

In addition to the account credit, the settlements impose limitations on the publishers’ ability to set e-book prices. We think these settlements are a big win for customers and look forward to lowering prices on more Kindle books in the future.

Thank you for being a Kindle customer.

The Amazon Kindle Team

Today's Deals

Kobo has a couple of new coupon codes:

• save30oc15 30% off selected new releases
• silver33 off Liquid Silver publisher titles

Today's Kindle Young Adult Daily Deal is Sean Griswold's Head ($1.99), by Lindsey Leavitt.

Book Description
You can look at something every day and never really see it. Payton Gritas looks at the back of Sean Griswold’s head in most of her classes and has for as long as she can remember. They’ve been linked since third grade (Griswold-Gritas; it’s an alphabetical order thing), but aside form loaning Sean countless number-two pencils, she’s never really noticed him.

Then Payton’s guidance counselor tells her she needs a focus object--something to concentrate her emotions on while she deals with her dad’s multiple scleorsis. The object is supposed to be inanimate, but Payton chooses Sean Griswold’s head. It’s much cuter than the atom models or anything else she stares at! As Payton starts stalking--er, focusing on--Sean’s big blond head, her research quickly grows into something a little less scientific and a lot more crush-like. And once she really gets inside his head, Payton also lets Sean into her guarded heart. But obsessing over Sean won’t fix Payton’s fear of her dad’s illness. For that, she’ll have to focus on herself.

Grade Level: 7 and up

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Dawn ($1.99), the first book in Octavia E. Butler's acclaimed Xenogenesis Trilogy.

Book Description
Rescued from Earth’s destruction, one woman is called upon to revive mankind

Lilith Iyapo has just lost her husband and son when atomic fire consumes Earth—the last stage of the planet’s final war. Hundreds of years later Lilith awakes, deep in the hold of a massive alien spacecraft piloted by the Oankali—who arrived just in time to save humanity from extinction. They have kept Lilith and other survivors asleep for centuries, as they learned whatever they could about Earth. Now it is time for Lilith to lead them back to her home world, but life among the Oankali on the newly resettled planet will be nothing like it was before.

The Oankali survive by genetically merging with primitive civilizations—whether their new hosts like it or not. For the first time since the nuclear holocaust, Earth will be inhabited. Grass will grow, animals will run, and people will learn to survive the planet’s untamed wilderness. But their children will not be human. Not exactly.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.

Three Seconds ($1.60 / £0.99 UK), by Roslund, Hellstrom and Kari Dickson (Translator), is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.59). This is a great title that received for review a couple of years ago, so definitely pick it up if you are able.

Book Description
Piet Hoffmann is the best undercover operative in the Swedish police force, but only one other man is even aware of his existence. After a drug deal he is involved in goes badly wrong, he must face the hardest mission of his life - infiltrating Sweden's most infamous maximum-security prison. Detective Inspector Ewert Grens is charged with investigating the drug-related killing. Unaware of Hoffmann's real identity, he believes himself to be on the trail of a dangerous psychopath. But he cannot escape the feeling that vital information pertaining to the case has been withheld or manipulated. Hoffmann has his insurance: wiretap recordings that implicate some of Sweden's most prominent politicians in a corrupt conspiracy. But in Ewert Grens they might just have found the perfect weapon to eliminate him.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), the first in the YA series by Laini Taylor, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. The latest in the series, Days of Blood & Starlight, can now be pre-ordered and will be released Nov 1.

Book Description
Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Grade Level: 10 and up

Meltdown Iceland: Lessons on the World Financial Crisis from a Small Bankrupt Island ($9.59 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Roger Boyes, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012.

Book Description
The economic crisis that emerged in America in 2008 unleashed a veritable epidemic of ill health around the world. However it was Iceland, whose population of three hundred thousand had the world’s highest GDP per capita and counted itself the happiest of countries, that caught the worst cold. It has nearly killed them.
No story from the economic crisis of 2008 is more evocative than I celand’s. The names may be unfamiliar-Johanesson, Bjoergolfsson, Oddsson-but their exuberance, greed, and miscalculation have many counterparts on our shores. And however traumatic the collapse of individual companies may be in the United States, in Iceland’s case an entire country melted down. All the wealth accumulated in the previous decade-during which a new breed of Icelanders had dared to believe they could compete economically on an international level, during which Reykjavik became the Capital of Cool-disappeared practically overnight. Iceland’s story shows how closely the world economy is interconnected: The default on subprime mortgages in the U .S. led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which led directly to the run on Iceland’s banks, which forced local authorities in Britain to switch off the heating in their classrooms.
With panache and color, Roger Boyes tells the inside story of the bankrupting of I celand: how it happened, the human dramas-from politicians to financiers to fishermen-that continue to swirl around it, and the lessons we can not ignore. Published on the first anniversary of its collapse, Meltdown Iceland is a cautionary tale for our times, an authoritative and compelling account of the financial destruction of a tiny country whose saga should resonate for us all.

$30 Off Amazon Denim (KSO)

This offer is only for those with a Kindle Fire with Special Offers (KFSO).

From the home page of your KFSO, swipe the top menu to the left until you see Offers, then press/click in order to see the current offers. At the bottom, you should see the offer for $30 Off a Purchase of $100 or More in the Amazon Denim Shop. Click on the offer, then on the orange button to add the credit directly to your account. It's nearly instant and the next screen offers to take you to Amazon so you can spend that credit away! If you miss that screen, though, don't worry - a document about the offer will appear on your home page. You must sign up by October 16.

Choose one or more items in the Amazon Denim Shop, place them into your cart and checkout (using the full checkout process, not one-click). You only get a single credit and the purchase must be over $100, but you can add a few pairs of jeans together to get to that total.

This credit expires October 23. Limit one per customer and one per device.

Today's Deals

Sorry for the late post today, but we've been having some internet issues here.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal for the US and UK is The Spy Lover ($1.99 US / £0.99 UK), by Kiana Davenport.

Book Description
Thrust into the savagery of the Civil War, a Chinese immigrant serving in the Union Army, a nurse doubling as a spy for the North, and a one-armed Confederate cavalryman find their lives inextricably entwined.

Fleeing drought and famine in China, Johnny Tom arrives in America with dreams of becoming a citizen. Having survived vigilantes hunting “yellow dogs” and slave auction-blocks, Johnny is kidnapped from his Mississippi village by Confederate soldiers, taken from his wife and daughter, and forced to fight for the South. Eventually defecting to the Union side, he is promised American citizenship in exchange for his loyal services. But first Johnny must survive the butchery of battles and the cruelties inflicted on non-white soldiers.

Desperate to find Johnny, his daughter, Era, is enlisted as a spy. She agrees to work as a nurse at Confederate camps while scouting for the North. Amidst the unspeakable carnage of wounded soldiers, she finds solace in Warren Petticomb, a cavalryman who lost an arm at Shiloh. As devastation mounts in both armies, Era must choose where her loyalties lie—with her beloved father in the North, or with the man who passionately sustains her in the South.

A novel of extraordinary scope that will stand as a defining work on the Chinese immigrant experience, The Spy Lover is a paean to the transcendence of love and the resilience of the human spirit.

Home by Novogratz ($23.10 Hardcover, $4.99 B&N), a PagePerfect NOOK Book by Cortney, Robert and Elizabeth Novogratz, is the Nook Daily Find (no Kindle edition).

Book Description
In this book, design duo Robert and Cortney Novogratz (stars of HGTV's Home by Novogratz) give us an inside look at twenty of their favorite projects to show us how to achieve their signature "vintage modern" style. See how they effortlessly mix contemporary furniture with thrift-store finds, and learn all sorts of tricks for creating a stylish home no matter what the obstacles: seven children, small spaces, or a tiny budget. From toddler-friendly bedroom for triplets to a beach retreat for two twenty-somethings, from a New Jersey basement to a Palm Beach cabana, Home by Novogratz proves that good design is just a book away.

Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry ($1.58 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Steven Rattner, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012, better than price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
A uniquely informed investigative account of one of the biggest financial crises of President Obama’s early administration

During his first year in office, President Obama faced the possibility of more than a million lost jobs as GM and Chrysler headed for financial ruin. He joined forces with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and economic advisor Larry Summers in a historic government intervention to keep these two auto-industry giants afloat, working against a ticking clock and fielding vocal opposition from free market champions along the way. It's from this vantage point that former New York Times financial journalist Steven Rattner witnesses a new administration's grace under pressure in the face of gross corporate mismanagement—a scenario rich in hard-earned lessons for managers and executives in any industry.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The One and Only Ivan ($1.99), by Katherine Applegate and Patricia Castelao (Illustrator). This is a discussion guide that can be downloaded on the Amazon product page (DRM-free PDF).

Book Description
Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.

Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.

Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.

Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.

Grade Level: 3 and up

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Hell on Wheels ($1.99), the first title in the Black Knights Inc. series by Julie Ann Walker.

Book Description
Black Knights Inc.—Behind the facade of their tricked–out motorcycle shop is an elite special ops team assigned the jobs too hot for anyone else to handle.

Hold On Tight...

Ex–Marine Nate "Ghost" Weller is an expert at keeping his cool—and his distance—which makes him one hell of a sniper. It's also how he keeps his feelings for Ali Morgan in check. Sweet, sexy Ali has always revved his engine, but she's his best friend's baby sister...and totally off limits.

Rough Road Ahead

Ali's never seen anything sexier than Nate Weller straddling his custom Harley—or the flash of danger in his eyes when she tells him she's in trouble. First something happened to her brother, and now she's become the target of a nasty international organization. With Nate, her life is in the most capable hands possible—but her heart is another story altogether.

Twelve Minutes of Love: A Tango Story ($1.60 / £0.99 UK), by Kapka Kassabova, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).

Book Description
To the uninitiated, tango is just a dance, albeit a dance with an exotic and sensuous allure. To the true tanguero, it is something akin to a religion, attracting the lost, the lonely, and the fanatical with its formal rituals, its sense of belonging, and its intense emotions. Kapka Kassabova first set foot in a tango studio ten years ago and, from that moment, she was hooked. With the pulse of tango thruming through her body and the music filling her head, she’s danced through the night, from Auckland to Edinburgh, from Berlin to Buenos Aires, suffering blisters and heart-break, as well as forging lasting friendships and experiencing all-too-brief moments of dance-floor ecstasy. Here Kapka takes us inside the esoteric night-time world of tango, to tell the story of the dance from its afro roots to its sequined apotheosis in 'show tango', exploring its cultural and emotional pull and enticing us to join her at the milonga.

Curious Folks Ask: 162 Real Answers on Amazing Inventions, Fascinating Products, and Medical Mysteries ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Sherry Seethaler, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. This title has been free several times in both stores over the last few years, but my biggest question is this: who would buy a $32 bundle of this title and the sequel, when the titles stand-alone are usually about $9?

Book Description
[Answers to] fascinating science and health questions real people have asked top science writer and San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Sherry Seethaler. Curious Folks Ask brings together 162 of her best answers–all crystal-clear, accurate, quick, and a pleasure to read. Seethaler is one of this generation’s best science explainers, and it shows: Every answer is accurate, fun to read, and distilled to a single page or less! Want to know how canned air works…or nuclear bombs? What causes goose bumps, earwax, dandruff, headaches? Whether it’s healthy to crack your knuckles, drink decaf, eat chocolate? What it costs to run all those LED lights around your house? It’s all here–and a whole lot more!

Winner-Take-All Politics ($11.99 $2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
A groundbreaking work that identifies the real culprit behind one of the great economic crimes of our time— the growing inequality of incomes between the vast majority of Americans and the richest of the rich.

We all know that the very rich have gotten a lot richer these past few decades while most Americans haven’t. In fact, the exorbitantly paid have continued to thrive during the current economic crisis, even as the rest of Americans have continued to fall behind. Why do the “haveit- alls” have so much more? And how have they managed to restructure the economy to reap the lion’s share of the gains and shift the costs of their new economic playground downward, tearing new holes in the safety net and saddling all of us with increased debt and risk? Lots of so-called experts claim to have solved this great mystery, but no one has really gotten to the bottom of it—until now.

In their lively and provocative Winner-Take-All Politics, renowned political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson demonstrate convincingly that the usual suspects—foreign trade and financial globalization, technological changes in the workplace, increased education at the top—are largely innocent of the charges against them. Instead, they indict an unlikely suspect and take us on an entertaining tour of the mountain of evidence against the culprit. The guilty party is American politics. Runaway inequality and the present economic crisis reflect what government has done to aid the rich and what it has not done to safeguard the interests of the middle class. The winner-take-all economy is primarily a result of winner-take-all politics.

In an innovative historical departure, Hacker and Pierson trace the rise of the winner-take-all economy back to the late 1970s when, under a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress, a major transformation of American politics occurred. With big business and conservative ideologues organizing themselves to undo the regulations and progressive tax policies that had helped ensure a fair distribution of economic rewards, deregulation got under way, taxes were cut for the wealthiest, and business decisively defeated labor in Washington. And this transformation continued under Reagan and the Bushes as well as under Clinton, with both parties catering to the interests of those at the very top. Hacker and Pierson’s gripping narration of the epic battles waged during President Obama’s first two years in office reveals an unpleasant but catalyzing truth: winner-take-all politics, while under challenge, is still very much with us.

Winner-Take-All Politics—part revelatory history, part political analysis, part intellectual journey— shows how a political system that traditionally has been responsive to the interests of the middle class has been hijacked by the superrich. In doing so, it not only changes how we think about American politics, but also points the way to rebuilding a democracy that serves the interests of the many rather than just those of the wealthy few.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Hooray for Fish! ($1.99), by Lucy Cousins.

Book Description

Lucy Cousins makes a big splash in this colorful read-aloud!Paddle along with Little Fish on a mesmerizing underwater tour of friends spotty and stripy, happy and gripy, hairy and scary, even curly whirly and twisty twirly. From the creator of Maisy comes an eyepopping picture book that is sure to have little ones joining the chorus: Hooray for fish!

Age Level: 2 and up

This book features Kindle Text Pop-Up for reading text over vivid, full-color images when using Kindle Fire or select Kindle Reading Apps (Kindle Cloud Reader, Kindle for iPad or Kindle for Android).