Kindle Subcriptions to the Blog

I've had one comment that the person would cancel their Kindle subscription because the Christian books are being separated. Please don't (at least, not for that reason), as I am now working on the feeds for the subscriptions.

I've already updated the existing Kindle subscription page, which is ,s>going thru re-approval now updated (unlike the Christian Books blog, which keeps resetting, for some reason), since I changed the description to make it clear that it included the Christian Books content. I have separate subscriptions set up now for the Erotica/Romance blog and the Christian Books blog (which is awaiting approval). I'll also set one up for "all", to pick up all three feeds. I don't see much point in erotica+Christian, so I think 5 total options should do it.

For now, there may be a bit of duplication, as I try out the RSS mixers out there (I found one that should let me drop duplicates, but I haven't managed to get it to work yet). Basically, all technical details you don't need to worry about, but it may take me a day or two to finish everything up.

I'll have all the subscription links up, once Amazon finishes the approval process. After that, I can iron out any problems behind the scenes, without affecting the Amazon subscriptions.

Christian Books on the Knob

The new site is up (more or less) and has a couple of post from today: Christian Books on the Knob. Twitter and Facebook are up, along with the RSS feeds and subscription options. If you are on Facebook, be sure to Like the page - I need 25 Likes to activate the username option for the page. Edit to add: Well, we made the 25 with many to spare. Hope to see all of you there!

Edit to add: I may have run into an issue with using "Christian" in the blog name, since none of my Kindle Subscription with that word in the title will publish over at Amazon. If I do need to change it, what do you suggest? Inspirational (accurate for some publishers, but not others)? Religious?

Leave me a note and I'll try to look thru them tomorrow, after Turkey dinner.

Win an XBox with Kinect & $100 Gift Card

The Amazon Studios and Amazon Instant Video are giving away Xbox 360 packages, each complete with Kinect and a $100 gift card Holiday Play Giveaway. Follow the link to both Like the Amazon Studios page on Facebook, then enter the giveaway (two steps).

Today's Deals

OK, for those who were hesitating to share the blog with others due to some of the content (and cover images), I have a favor to ask: Please let at least one new person know about the blog this week. I'm still working out the kinks on the new site (colors may change a bit, etc), but this site won't be tweaked much more. I have removed about 18 months of erotica posts and moved them to the new site, instead, so reading thru the back posts should be mostly safe at work (let me know if you run into something that is recent and that I missed).

Today's free Android App, Cooking Conversions, looks like it might come in handy for new cooks during the holidays.

For those shopping at Kobo, here are a few new coupon codes: Save40UK (40% off non-Agency, exp Dec 4), gettingtoknowyou (30% off non-Agency) and Bargainmoose40 (40% off non-Agency, MULTIPLE USES). I recommend you use Bargainmoose40 until it quits, then use Save40UK for another purchase before the expiration date.

For those with a B&N near you or who shop there online, they have their bonus gift card deal going again: Buy a $75 gift card and get a $10 gift card (good after Dec 26) for free. Online, you'll get the extra card emailed to your B&N email account on Dec 26, so you'll need to keep an eye out for it. Also, in store, you can repeat your buy, as desired, so long as you break the sale up to get $75 in gift cards for each purchase (if your store balks, as some may, just buy on a different day; mine lets you buy them all at once, but you must have a different transaction for each $10 bonus card). It's a little unclear if the online bonus card is limited to one per customer.

If you have Books-a-Million in your area instead, they'll be open Thanksgiving day (in case you need a hot cocoa after walking the picket lines at Walmart) and their 3-day sale starts Thanksgiving day (when they open, no timed events). All kidding aside, it's nice to know there are a few spots open for those aren't spending the day with family. If you are a BAM club member, check your email for 20% off and a free tall coffee coupon.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Promise the Night ($1.99), by Michaela MacColl.

Book Description
This fascinating story will capture any young reader with a thirst for adventure. Like MacColl s Prisoners in the Palace, Promise the Night propels the reader into an evocative story with an unforgettable protagonist, while bringing the setting and time period to life. Immediately compelling and action-packed, this work of historical fiction explores the life of Beryl Markham, the fist person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west from England to North America. From raising horses and hunting during her childhood in Africa to learning to fly as a young woman, Beryl s inspiring life and adventures will keep readers voraciously turning the pages.

Grade Level: 4 and up

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Charlestown Connection ($1.99), by Tom MacDonald. That's a good price for those who missed it's free day over the summer.

Book Description
Dermot Sparhawk, a former All American Boston College football hero, is stacking cans in a parish food pantry in Boston's Charlestown, when his godfather, Jeepster Hennessey, shows up with a knife in his back and dies at Dermot's feet. Once slated for a professional football career, now a recovering alcoholic, with a torn-up knee, Dermot sets out to solve the murder of his godfather with the help of his Micmac Indian cousin, his paraplegic tenant, and a former teammate. Dermot's investigation has him tangling with members of the IRA, FBI, and the Boston mob. He also is forced to contend with Charlestown's code of silence and the norms of the neighborhood where he grew up. Feeling like he did at the height of his game, Dermot uses his Native American intuition and Irish good looks to help him uncover clues. Dermot stumbles upon bits and pieces of information that he cobbles together into an unlikely theory which leads him on an unexpected trail and to a new mystery that could cost him his life.

Slammed ($1.60 / £0.99 UK), by Colleen Hoover, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $7.99).

Book Description
Layken's father died suddenly, leaving her to gather every ounce of strength to be a pillar for her family, in order to prevent their world from falling apart. Now her life is taking another unexpected turn…

Layken's mother gets a job which leads to an unwanted move across country. However, a new home means new neighbours… and Layken's new neighbour is the very attractive Will Cooper.
Will has an intriguing passion for slam poetry, and a matching passion for life. The two feel an irresistible attraction but are rocked to the core when a shocking revelation brings their romance to a screeching halt.

Layken and Will must find a way to fight the forces that threaten to tear them apart… or learn to live without each other.

An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917 - 1963 ($9.99 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Robert Dallek, is the Nook Daily Find. From my understanding of the Agency agreement status with Hatchette, this should be price matched on Kindle (I've reported the lower price and hope it drops by afternoon).

Book Description
Everywhere acclaimed for its compelling narrative, its fresh insights, and its dispassionate appraisal of John F. Kennedy's presidency, this #1 national bestseller is the first full-scale single-volume biography of JFK to be written by a historian in nearly four decades. Drawing on previously unavailable material and never-before-opened archives, An Unfinished Life is packed with revelations large and small - about JFK's health, his love affairs, RFK's appointment as Attorney General, what Joseph Kennedy did to help his son win the White House, and the path JFK would have taken in the Vietnam entanglement had he survived. Robert Dallek succeeds as no other biographer has done in striking a critical balance - never shying away from JFK's weaknesses, brilliantly exploring his strengths - as he offers up a vivid portrait of a bold, brave, complex, heroic, human Kennedy.

New Release News: Jon Land

Jon Land's Blaine McCracken returns in Pandora's Temple ($9.99 Kindle), just released this week. This is the tenth novel in the series, so if you are reading in order, you may have a ways to go before you are ready for this one. The publisher, Open Road, has the first four in the series marked down to $2.99, though, so you can get a great start at a pretty low price.

• The Omega Command
• The Alpha Deception
• The Gamma Option
• The Omicron Legion

Prices vary after the first four, with #7 at $5.99 (MacMillan), three at $7.99 and the last two over $10.

Book Description
What if Pandora’s Box were real? Blaine McCracken finds himself facing this very question—and the greatest threat to mankind—in his long-awaited return to the page

Rogue special-operations agent McCracken has never been shy about answering the call, and this time it comes in the aftermath of a deepwater oil rig disaster that claims the life of a onetime member of his commando unit. The remnants of the rig and its missing crew lead him to the inescapable conclusion that one of the most mysterious and deadly forces in the universe is to blame: dark matter, both a limitless source of potential energy and an unimaginably destructive weapon.

Joining forces again with his trusty sidekick Johnny Wareagle, McCracken races to stop two deadly enemies who want the dark matter at all costs. A powerful energy magnate and the leader of a Japanese doomsday cult both seek the ultimate prize for their own nefarious reasons, and McCracken and Wareagle’s mission to defeat them takes the duo on a nonstop journey across the world and thousands of years into the past where the truth lies in the ancient Pandora’s Temple, built to safeguard the world’s most powerful weapon.

McCracken’s only hope to save the world is to find the mythical temple. Along the way, he and Wareagle find themselves up against Mexican drug gangs, killer robots, an army of professional assassins, and a legendary sea monster. The hero of nine previous bestselling thrillers, McCracken is used to the odds being stacked against him, but this time the stakes have never been higher.

You can also pick up two of his Caitlin Strong series on sale for $4.99 apiece, right now, from publisher Tor/MacMillan.

• Strong Enough to Die #1 (there are two editions of this one on sale; I've linked the one I picked up last year on sale; but you might want to check your library to see if you have the other edition)
• Strong Justice #2

Note: The publisher has furnished an electronic copy of Pandora's Temple for me to review. I might actually get around to doing that, someday.... In the meantime, I picked up the other titles on my own nickle.

Bargain Book: The 4-Hour Chef (K)

The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss was released on Kindle today and there is a special price of $4.99 currently. This is a dollar below the pre-order price many of us (including me) grabbed months ago, so if you missed that deal, don't dally in placing your order. I assume the price will go back up to the $10 or so range I have been seeing on it recently, possibly as early as midnight tonight.

If you did pre-order the book, you were charged the higher price ($5.99). However, you should see a promotional credit on your account in the next 48 hours to reflect the lower price on delivery date.

Book Description
WHAT IF YOU COULD BECOME WORLD-CLASS IN ANYTHING IN 6 MONTHS OR LESS?

The 4-Hour Chef isn’t just a cookbook. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure guide to the world of rapid learning.

#1 New York Times bestselling author (and lifelong non-cook) Tim Ferriss takes you from Manhattan to Okinawa, and from Silicon Valley to Calcutta, unearthing the secrets of the world’s fastest learners and greatest chefs. Ferriss uses cooking to explain “meta-learning,” a step-by-step process that can be used to master anything, whether searing steak or shooting 3-pointers in basketball. That is the real “recipe” of The 4-Hour Chef.

You'll train inside the kitchen for everything outside the kitchen. Featuring tips and tricks from chess prodigies, world-renowned chefs, pro athletes, master sommeliers, super models, and everyone in between, this “cookbook for people who don’t buy cookbooks” is a guide to mastering cooking and life.

The 4-Hour Chef is a five-stop journey through the art and science of learning:

1. META-LEARNING. Before you learn to cook, you must learn to learn. META charts the path to doubling your learning potential.

2. THE DOMESTIC. DOM is where you learn the building blocks of cooking. These are the ABCs (techniques) that can take you from Dr, Seuss to Shakespeare.

3. THE WILD. Becoming a master student requires self-sufficiency in all things. WILD teaches you to hunt, forage, and survive.

4. THE SCIENTIST. SCI is the mad scientist and modernist painter wrapped into one. This is where you rediscover whimsy and wonder.

5. THE PROFESSIONAL. Swaraj, a term usually associated with Mahatma Gandhi, can be translated as “self-rule.” In PRO, we’ll look at how the best in the world become the best in the world, and how you can chart your own path far beyond this book.

Black Friday Week Daily Deals

For those who read at night and catch this before the day changes in Seattle, you can get a great deal on Melissa & Doug Toys, as Amazon has many of them at 50% off as a Gold Box Deal

In the (paper) book world, Amazon has some decent discounts on their Best Books of Year: Top 100 Picks for 2012 and Editors' Gift Picks, but a really good discount on children's books with 50 Books, Just $5 Each, all of which are published by one of Amazon's publishing companies. The top two have list prices of over $15, so there are some real savings (I know kids picture books can be crazy expensive). Be sure to click the Adult Books tab - 34 of the titles are for the big kids in the household.

If you are wondering how everyone knows when some of the great deals in music, video games, movies & tv, computer software and MP3 players & player accessories, then be sure to bookmark these Black Friday Deals Calendar links. For other categories, you do have to check the Black Friday Week page each day, but you can plan a bit better with the calendars, where they exist.

Win a Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G LTE and a $250 Gift Card

The Amazon Android Appstore is giving away 5 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G LTE packages, each complete with a cover and a $250 gift card Ultimate HD Entertainment Giveaway. Follow the link to both Like the Amazon Appstore for Android page on Facebook, then enter the giveaway (two steps).

Blog News -- Comments Wanted

I've been working hard on some changes to the blog, in response to a few reader requests. I'm splitting the blog (and it's twitter/RSS feeds) into two (and eventually three) segments. The first split starts today - no more Erotica here on the main blog, so that the feeds and Kindle subscriptions are more family and work friendly. Instead, all Erotica and most LGBT fiction will appear in my new blog, Erotica Books on the Knob (I know! catchy title, right?). I'm currently thinking that I may duplicate the Romance books there (other than those from Christian publishers), but want your input: do you want zero duplication or the occasional duplicate in the Romance category?

I've flagged the new blog for Adult content, but all that means is that you have to click an extra box telling Google that you are aware of the content. I have the RSS feeds (including email subscriptions) and twitter feeds set up now and it looks like the Facebook page is now working, as well.

Speaking of Facebook, did you know that the more individual posts from a page that you "Like", the more likely the posts are to show up on your home page news feed? Facebook used to show you all the pages from Pages that you liked as a whole, but now limits who gets to see a page (when this hit, I saw my reach/audience drop from 1500+ per day to under 300, so I know a lot of you started missing posts on Facebook). So, if you miss seeing the posts on Facebook, be sure to head over to the Books on the Knob Facebook Page and "Like" a few posts.

For future plans, I am considering the same split for books from Christian publisher. These publishers have a lot of free books, with most of them repeats, and can be controversial for some readers. It is a bit of work to move, though, so I haven't started and would like your comments. Moving the posts would mean a leaner blog here (probably 8 or so posts every Monday would move, plus some others during the week) and those who specifically want Christian Fiction/Non-fiction and nothing else would have a new place to read. It would mean, though, that those who want both will need to subscribe to both sites (which is simple using Google Reader) and the same for those who get the Kindle subscription.

In the meantime, feel free to check out the new blog and let me know what you think. It's set up a lot like this one, but there may be a gadget or two on the right sidebar that isn't fully functional.

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-1941 ($1.99), by William Shirer.

Book Description
A radio broadcaster and journalist for Edward R. Murrow at CBS, William Shirer was new to the world of broadcast journalism when he began keeping a diary while in Europe during the 1930s. It was in 1940, still a virtual unknown, that Shirer wondered whether his reminiscences of the collapse of the world around Nazi Germany could be of any interest or value as a book.

Shirer’s Berlin Diary, which is considered the first full record of what was happening in Germany during the rise of the Third Reich, first appeared in 1941. The book was an instant success. But how did Shirer get such a valuable firsthand account? He had anonymous sources willing to speak with him, provided their identity remained protected and disguised so as to avoid retaliation from the Gestapo. Shirer recorded his and others’ eyewitness views to the horror that Hitler was inflicting on his people in his effort to conquer Europe. Shirer continued his job as a foreign correspondent and radio reporter for CBS until Nazi press censors made it virtually impossible for him to do his job with any real accuracy. He left Europe, taking with him the invaluable, unforgettable (and horrific) contents of his Berlin Diary.

Berlin Diary brings the reader as close as any reporter has ever been to Hitler and the rise of the Third Reich. Shirer’s honest, lucid and passionate reporting of the brutality with which Hitler came to power and the immediate reactions of those who witnessed these events is for all time.

Time's Echo ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Pamela Hartshorne, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).

Book Description
York , 1577: Hawise Aske smiles at a stranger in the market, and sets in train a story of obsession and sibling jealousy, of love and hate and warped desire. Drowned as a witch, Hawise pays a high price for that smile, but for a girl like her in Elizabethan York, there is nowhere to go and nowhere to hide. Four and a half centuries later, Grace Trewe, who has travelled the world, is trying to outrun the memories of being caught up in the Boxing Day tsunami. Her stay in York is meant to be a brief one. But in York Grace discovers that time can twist and turn in ways she never imagined. Drawn inexorably into Hawise’s life, Grace finds that this time she cannot move on. Will she too be engulfed in the power of the past?

The River ($9.99 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Michael Neale, is the Nook Daily Find.

Book Description
Gabriel Clarke is mysteriously drawn to The River, a ribbon of frothy white water carving its way through steep canyons high in the Colorado Rockies. The rushing waters beckon him to experience freedom and adventure.

But something holds him back—the memory of the terrible event he witnessed on The River when he was just five years old—something no child should ever see.

Chains of fear and resentment imprison Gabriel, keeping him from discovering the treasures of The River. He remains trapped, afraid to take hold of the life awaiting him.

When he returns to The River after years away, his heart knows he is finally home. His destiny is within reach. Claiming that destiny will be the hardest—and bravest—thing he has ever done.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Ginger Pye ($1.99), by Eleanor Estes.

Book Description
Eleanor Estes’s Ginger Pye, a 1952 Newbery Medal winner, is a warm, witty mystery set in a small-town American community. Ginger Pye, the star of the show, is the very smart dog that ten-year-old Jerry Pye buys for a hard-earned dollar. The most famous pup in Cranbury (a town between Boston and New York), Ginger knows many tricks, is as loyal as he is smart, and steals the hearts of everyone he meets . . . until someone steals him! Will Jerry and his sister Rachel ever be able to find their beloved terrier?

Don’t miss the sequel, Pinky Pye!

Grade Level: 3 and up

Free Book - Always the Baker, Never the Bride (K/N/E)

Always the Baker, Never the Bride (Main/UK), by Sandra D. Bricker, is a repeat freebie in the Kindle store and from Barnes & Noble and ChristianBook, courtesy of Christian publisher Abingdon Press.

Book Description
Thirty-six-year-old Emma Rae Travis has been baking specialty cakes and melt-in-your-mouth pastries at The Backstreet Bakery in historic Roswell, just outside of Atlanta, for the last six years. But here's the rub about her job as a baker Emma is diabetic. When she tastes her creations, it can only be in the most minute portions. Emma is considered an artisan for the stunning creme brulee wedding cake that won her the Passionate Palette Award last year, but she's never even had one full slice of it.

When Jackson Drake hears about this local baker who has won a prestigious award for her wedding cake artistry, he tells his assistant to be sure and include her in the pastry tastings scheduled at his new wedding destination hotel the following week. And for Jackson, that particular day has started out badly with two workmen trapped in a broken elevator and a delivery of several dozen 300-thread-count bed linens in the wrong size abandoned in the lobby. But when the arrogant baker he met a week prior in Roswell stumbles into the dining room with a platter of pastries and a bucketful of orders, he knows for certain: It's going to be a really rotten day.

Can these two ill-suited players master the high-wire act and make a go of their new business venture? Or will they take each other crashing downward, without a net? And will the surprise wedding at The Tanglewood be theirs?

Get the free ebook from Barnes & Noble.
Get the free ebook from ChristianBook.

Today's Deals

It's Black Friday Week at Amazon and there will be extra lightning deals all week, as well as daily deals in various departments, including Books, Music (including several Christmas Albums from $3.99 to $5.99) and Instant Video; Amazon even has a Black Friday Kindle Books page, but so far it is just the $3.99 or less books for the month.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Against the Law ($1.99), by Kat Martin.

Book Description
At thirty-two Dev is "mostly retired" from Raines Investigations, content to run operations from his sprawling Arizona home. But Dev has never been able to say no to a beautiful woman, so when Lark Delaney comes to him for help, the former U.S. Army Ranger from Wind Canyon gets back in the game.

Lark is sexy, successful and dedicated to tracking down the baby girl her sister gave up for adoption. It should be a straightforward case, but it's not long before Dev uncovers a shady adoption ring and worse—the child's parents have been murdered and the little girl has been taken.

As the case grows dangerous and Lark needs him more than ever, Dev can't ignore his growing attraction for her. He also can't trust his judgment with women or the emotions he's long-since buried. But there's a chance, if he gets this right and saves Lark's niece, that he'll end up saving himself, too.

Ninepins ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Rosy Thorton, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.32).

Book Description
Deep in the Cambridgeshire fens, Laura is living alone with her 12-year-old daughter Beth, in the old tollhouse known as Ninepins. She’s in the habit of renting out the pumphouse, once a fen drainage station, to students, but this year she’s been persuaded to take in 17-year-old Willow, a care-leaver with a dubious past, on the recommendation of her social worker, Vince. Is Willow dangerous or just vulnerable? It’s possible she was once guilty of arson; her mother’s hippy life is gradually revealed as something more sinister; and Beth is in trouble at school and out of it. Laura’s carefully ordered world seems to be getting out of control. With the tension of a thriller, NINEPINS explores the idea of family, and the volatile and changing relationships between mothers and daughters, in a landscape that is beautiful but – as they all discover - perilous.

Young adult title Catching Jordan ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Miranda Kenneally, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
ONE OF THE BOYS

What girl doesn't want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn't just surrounded by hot guys, though- she leads them as the captain and quarterback of her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys and that's just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university.

But everything she's ever worked for is threatened when Ty Greeen moves to her school. Not only is he an amazing QB, but he's also amazingly hot. And for the first time, Jordan's feeling vulnerable. Can she keep her head in the game while her heart's on the line?

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Ralph Tells a Story ($1.99), by Abby Hanlon.

Book Description
Nothing ever happens to Ralph. So every day when it’s time to write stories, Ralph thinks really hard. He stares at his paper. He stares at the ceiling. But he has no stories! With the help of his classmates, Ralph realizes that a great story can be about something very little . . . and that maybe he really does have some stories to tell. Debut author/illustrator Abby Hanlon’s endearing text and charming watercolor and colored pencil illustrations prove that writing can be fun! This story works nicely with Lucy Calkins’ Writer’s Workshop model of teaching.

Grade Level: 1st and up

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage ($1.99), by Kay Bratt.

Book Description
Irrepressible memories. Vacant eyes. A child being dangled from a third story window. A boy tied to a chair. Children sleeping in layers of clothing to fight off the bitter cold. An infant dying from starvation. Some things your mind will never allow you to forget.

Silent Tears is the true story of the adversity and triumphs one woman faced as she fought against the Chinese bureaucracy to help that country’s orphaned children.

In 2003, Kay Bratt’s life changed dramatically. A wife and mother of two girls in South Carolina, Bratt relocated her family to rural China to support her husband as he took on a new management position for his American employer. Seeking a way to fill her days and overcome the isolation she experienced upon arriving in a foreign country, Bratt began volunteering at the local orphanage. Within months, her simple desire to make use of her time transformed into a heroic crusade to improve the living conditions and minimize the unnecessary deaths of Chinese orphans.

Silent Tears traces the emotional hurdles and daily frustrations faced by Ms. Bratt as she tried to change the social conditions for these marginalized children. The memoir vividly illustrates how she was able to pull from reservoirs of inner strength to pursue her mission day after day, leaving the reader with the resounding message that everyone really can make a difference.

Site Works ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Robert Davidson, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.04).

Book Description
In the corner of the door lintel a cobweb shone like silver. Like me the spider works through instinct. It just gets up and gets on with the job without thought. Every so often it turns out something perfect. On a wind lashed coast in the far north a group of men assemble on a construction site. The Ness and Struie Drainage Project will dominate their lives for the next few months as they toil through the daylight hours and into the night, endure hardship and conflict and – mostly -survive. Within the compound and fencelines a new, temporary world will form, bounded by sea, mountains and sky. Site Works is the story of the men and their work, transients creating something permanent and greater than they know.

A Pig in Provence: Good Food and Simple Pleasures in the South of France ($9.39 $1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Georgeanne Brennan, is the Nook Daily Find. I've thumbed thru this on in the bookstores and hope it is price matched on Kindle before the end of the day. Update: Now price matched on Kindle!

Book Description
From the publisher of Under the Tuscan Sun comes another extraordinary memoir of a woman embarking on a new life—this time in the South of France. Thirty years ago, James Beard Award-winning author Georgeanne Brennan set out to realize the dream of a peaceful, rural existence en Provence. She and her husband, with their young daughter in tow, bought a small farmhouse with a little land, and a few goats and pigs and so began a life-affirming journey. Filled with delicious recipes and local color, this evocative and passionate memoir describes her life cooking and living in the Provenal tradition.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Between ($1.99), a YA novel by Jessica Warman.

Book Description
Elizabeth Valchar-pretty, popular, and perfect-wakes up the morning after her eighteenth birthday party on her family's yacht, where she'd been celebrating with her six closest friends. A persistent thumping noise has roused her. When she goes to investigate, what she finds will change everything she thought she knew about her life, her friends, and everything in between. As Liz begins to unravel the circumstances surrounding her birthday night, she will find that no one around her, least of all Liz herself, was perfect-or innocent. Critically acclaimed author Jessica Warman brings readers along on a roller-coaster ride of a mystery, one that is also a heartbreaking character study, a touching romance, and ultimately a hopeful tale of redemption, love, and letting go.

Free App - Hidden Differences: Haunted Mansions

Just in case you aren't spending all your gaming time on the new Angry Birds Star Wars, be sure to pick up the second free Android App for today, Hidden Differences: Haunted Mansions (the first one, Tiny Monsters Deluxe, on the menu sidebar to the right, is still free, too).

App Description
Hidden Differences: Haunted Mansions is a fun, traditional game of Spot the Difference or Photo Hunting where your object is to find all the differences in the various haunted, creepy, and scary mansions!

Explore various venues from around the world, with creepy houses, haunted stairwells, and mysterious clocktowers!

Play 2 different modes of play, either Free Play, or Timed Mode depending on your skill level! Timed Mode lets you rack up the highest score, whereas free play allows infinite time to find all the hidden differences in each photo!

Over 24 Gorgeous Photographs of various Haunting places, mansions, houses, clocktowers, stairwells, and more!

Some differences are easy to find, whereas others may be more difficult - very well balanced play for players of all ages!

Detailed and gorgeous photos along with addictive gameplay make this a must have game for kids and adults!

Curl up on the couch and play solo, or grab a friend and see if you can find all the differences!

Free Audiobook - The Interpretation of Dreams

The audiobook edition of The Interpretation of Dreams ($0.99 Kindle; $24.49 Audible or $7.95 as a companion edition), by Sigmund Freud and Michael Page, is free direct from Tantor Media.

While you are over at Tantor, be sure to also check out their 50% Off Holiday Listening sale.

Book Description
What are the most common dreams and why do we have them? What does a dream about death mean? What do dreams of swimming, failing, or flying symbolize?

First published by Sigmund Freud in 1899, The Interpretation of Dreams considers why we dream and what it means in the larger picture of our psychological lives. Delving into theories of manifest and latent dream content, the special language of dreams, dreams as wish fulfillments, the significance of childhood experiences, and much more, Freud, widely considered the "father of psychoanalysis," thoroughly and thoughtfully examines dream psychology.

Encompassing dozens of case histories and detailed analyses of actual dreams, this landmark text presents Freud's legendary work as a tool for comprehending our sleeping experiences.

Get the free ebook from Tantor Media.

Today's Deals

Can you believe it's less than a week until Thanksgiving (and Black Friday)? That means it's almost time to start playing holiday music here (but not until after the first of the month) and I've found a great deal for classical with Big Christmas Box, which has over 13 hours of traditional choir music at 99 cents.

The big news this weekend is that Barnes & Noble is shutting down Fictionwise (and all it's subsidiaries, such as eReader.com). I think we've all known it was coming, after they were intentionally crippled in their selection after the acquisition, but it's sad to see them go. My first purchases from them were in early 2000, back when they were Palm/Peanut Press, with that account rolling over thru several ownership changes until FW purchased them). They'll keep selling books and magazines until Dec 4, so if you had purchases you were holding off on, now is the time to make them. US customers will then have until December 21 to download any purchases. You can use bulk download to speed that up, but only 100 books at a time. You should also have an email from them with an offer to convert your library over to a B&N account (you can use your existing account or create a new account for just this purpose - which I think I'll do, to separate them from the free B&N books, especially since there is no search ability on the B&N website version of your library). International users should be able to access their FW libraries a bit longer, but won't have the option to convert to a B&N account if their country isn't served by B&N (I think Canada and the UK are the only ones included, other than the US). Not every book will be moved, as B&N doesn't have any distribution agreement for them (see this list for the ones that don't transfer). One positive effect of the transfer may be that we'll be able to get EPUB downloads of some of the books that have been only available in EREADER format over at FW. Otherwise, the DRM on these will eventually orphan our books. You might want to also download the latest ereader apps for your PC/Mac/etc, to keep around, just in case.

In more of the minor news category, Amazon has started shipping the 8.9" Kindle Fire HD early and a lucky few of you may already have yours (mine is stuck in a truck, somewhere between TN and TX, since it shipped out of AZ, rather than one of several warehouses much closer to here). The 4G versions don't appear to be shipping yet, just the WiFi versions, but they should ship in just a few days. New orders for both models are still showing a "week of Dec 3" estimated shipping date, while the Paperwhite is still listed at Dec 21.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Freeman ($1.99), by Leonard Pitts.

Book Description
Freeman, the new novel by Leonard Pitts, Jr., takes place in the first few months following the Confederate surrender and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Upon learning of Lee's surrender, Sam--a runaway slave who once worked for the Union Army--decides to leave his safe haven in Philadelphia and set out on foot to return to the war-torn South. What compels him on this almost-suicidal course is the desire to find his wife, the mother of his only child, whom he and their son left behind 15 years earlier on the Mississippi farm to which they all "belonged."

At the same time, Sam's wife, Tilda, is being forced to walk at gunpoint with her owner and two of his other slaves from the charred remains of his Mississippi farm into Arkansas, in search of an undefined place that would still respect his entitlements as slaveowner and Confederate officer.

The book's third main character, Prudence, is a fearless, headstrong white woman of means who leaves her Boston home for Buford, Mississippi, to start a school for the former bondsmen, and thus honor her father’s dying wish.

At bottom, Freeman is a love story--sweeping, generous, brutal, compassionate, patient--about the feelings people were determined to honor, despite the enormous constraints of the times. It is this aspect of the book that should ensure it a strong, vocal, core audience of African-American women, who will help propel its likely critical acclaim to a wider audience. At the same time, this book addresses several themes that are still hotly debated today, some 145 years after the official end of the Civil War. Like Cold Mountain, Freeman illuminates the times and places it describes from a fresh perspective, with stunning results. It has the potential to become a classic addition to the literature dealing with this period. Few other novels so powerfully capture the pathos and possibility of the era particularly as it reflects the ordeal of the black slaves grappling with the promise--and the terror--of their new status as free men and women.

The Poacher's Son ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), the first Mike Bowditch Mystery by Paul Doiron, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).

Book Description
Set in the wilds of Maine, this is an explosive tale of an estranged son thrust into the hunt for a murderous fugitive - his own father.

Game warden Mike Bowditch returns home one evening to find an alarming voice from the past on his answering machine: his father Jack, a hard-drinking womanizer who makes his living from poaching illegal game. An even more frightening call comes the next morning from the police: they are searching for a cop-killer - and Mike's father is their prime suspect.

Now, alienated from the woman he loves and shunned by colleagues who have no sympathy for the suspected cop killer, Mike must come to terms with his haunted past. He knows firsthand of his father's brutality, but is he capable of murder? Desperate and alone, the only way for Mike to save his father is to find the real killer - which could mean putting everyone he loves into the line of fire...

Promise the Night ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Michaela MacColl, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
This fascinating story will capture any young reader with a thirst for adventure. Like MacColl s Prisoners in the Palace, Promise the Night propels the reader into an evocative story with an unforgettable protagonist, while bringing the setting and time period to life. Immediately compelling and action-packed, this work of historical fiction explores the life of Beryl Markham, the fist person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west from England to North America. From raising horses and hunting during her childhood in Africa to learning to fly as a young woman, Beryl s inspiring life and adventures will keep readers voraciously turning the pages.

Grade Level: 4 and up

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Promises to the Dead ($1.99), by Mary Downing Hahn.

Book Description
When Jesse went down to the marsh on that fateful day, he expected to find a turtle for terrapin soup. Instead, he comes across a dying slave woman who makes Jesse promise he’ll take her young son, Perry, to a relative in Baltimore. Aiding and abetting a slave is against the law, and it also goes against everything Jesse has been taught to believe. But he can’t break a promise to the dead, and, more important, he has to follow what he knows in his heart to be right.

The journey is more treacherous than Jesse ever imagined. At the crossroads of a country about to plunge into civil war, danger lurks around every corner. Will these boys on the run ever find a safe haven?

Grade Level: 5 and up

Get 1 of 10 Romance for $1 (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 1 of 10 Kindle Romances for $1

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 November 28, 2012.

The email will contain a link to the promotion page. This one works like a gift card and you need to apply the credit to your account first, before going shopping. You can shop from your Kindle or desktop, after you have applied the promotion code and can gift the book to someone else, if there isn't one you want yourself (the full price shows all the way thru, but on the invoice summary, you will see the $1 promotional price). Once you have entered the promotional code, you have until November 28, 2012 to complete your purchases (the same day as the sign-up deadline).

So far, I don't see an equivalent offer on my Kindle Fire (which seems to be taking a week off from offers, at least here). Compared to some of last year's offers, this one has a disappointing selection range. Any suggestions out there from Romance fans?

The good news? If you don't have a KSO or want more than one of the books, they are all $2.99 normal price, currently.

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Past Came Hunting ($1.99), by Donnell Bell. Long time readers will have picked this up when it was free last year, but this is a good price on it, if you missed that sale.

Book Description
Fifteen years ago a young Colorado Springs police officer arrested a teen runaway accused of aiding a convenience store robbery and attempted murder. She was innocent, but still served prison time briefly. Her testimony sent the real thief to jail for much longer. Now she’s a young widow raising a son, and the man she put in prison is free and seeking revenge. She moves to a home in a new neighborhood—then learns that her next-door neighbor is the by-the-book officer who arrested her. Now he’s a Colorado Springs P.D. Lieutenant. Like it or not, he may be the only one who can protect her and her son from the past he helped create. Donnell Ann Bell is the recipient of numerous awards for her fiction writing and the co-owner of Crimescenewriters, a Yahoo group for mystery/suspense writers, which is 2,000 members strong. Donnell was raised in New Mexico’s Land of Enchantment and today calls Colorado home.

Findings ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Kathleen Jamie, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).

Book Description
Between the laundry and the fetching kids from school, that’s how birds enter my life. I listen. During a lull in the traffic: oyster-catchers; in the school-playground, sparrows.

It’s surprising what you can find by simply stepping out to look. Award-winning poet Kathleen Jamie has an eye and an ease with the nature and landscapes of Scotland as well as an incisive sense of our domestic realities. In Findings she draws together these themes to describe travels like no other contemporary writer.

Whether she is following the call of a peregrine in the hills above her home in Fife, sailing into a dark winter solstice on the Orkney islands, or pacing around the carcass of a whale on a rain-swept Hebridean beach, she creates a subtle and modern narrative, peculiarly alive to her connections and surroundings.

Blindness ($8.10 $2.99Kindle, B&N), by Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, is the Nook Daily Find. Update: Now price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers-among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears-through the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation and a vivid evocation of the horrors of the twentieth century, Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayal of man's worst appetites and weaknesses-and man's ultimately exhilarating spirit. The stunningly powerful novel of man's will to survive against all odds, by the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature

The e-book includes a sample chapter from the late author's final work, CAIN.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Winnie's War ($1.99), by Jenny Moss.

Book Description
Life in Winnie's sleepy town of Coward Creek, Texas, is just fine for her. Although her troubled mother's distant behavior has always worried Winnie, she's plenty busy caring for her younger sisters, going to school, playing chess with Mr. Levy, and avoiding her testy grandmother. Plus, her sweetheart Nolan is always there to make her smile when she's feeling low. But when the Spanish Influenza claims its first victim, lives are suddenly at stake, and Winnie has never felt so helpless. She must find a way to save the people she loves most, even if doing so means putting her own life at risk.

Winnie's take-charge attitude will empower and inspire readers, as Jenny Moss's lyrical writing beautifully captures the big-time worries of a small-town girl.

Grade Level: 5 and up

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is No Mark upon Her ($1.99), the fourteenth (and latest) novel in the Duncan Kincaid / Gemma James series by Deborah Crombie. I've slowly been collecting this author's ebooks, to replace the paper copies on my shelves, but I didn't have this one at all; there are five more in the series under the $5 mark (three of which I'm missing; there goes my gift balance!), in addition to the pre-order for her latest novel, The Sound of Broken Glass, which appears to be the start of a new series.

Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Deborah Crombie makes her mark with this absorbing, finely hued tale of suspense—a deeply atmospheric and twisting mystery full of deadly secrets, salacious lies, and unexpected betrayals involving the mysterious drowning of a Met detective—an accomplished rower—on the Thames.

When a K9 search-and-rescue team discovers a woman's body tangled up with debris in the river, Scotland Yard superintendent Duncan Kincaid finds himself heading an investigation fraught with complications. The victim, Rebecca Meredith, was a talented but difficult woman with many admirers—and just as many enemies. An Olympic contender on the verge of a controversial comeback, she was also a high-ranking detective with the Met—a fact that raises a host of political and ethical issues in an already sensitive case.

To further complicate the situation, a separate investigation, led by Detective Inspector Gemma James, Kincaid's wife, soon reveals a disturbing—and possibly related—series of crimes, widening the field of suspects. But when someone tries to kill the search-and-rescue team member who found Rebecca's body, the case becomes even more complex and dangerous, involving powerful interests with tentacles that reach deep into the heart of the Met itself.

Surrounded by enemies with friendly faces, pressured to find answers quickly while protecting the Yard at all costs, his career and reputation on the line, Kincaid must race to catch the killer before more innocent lives are lost—including his own.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Sue Townsend, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US Kindle edition, although there are two Audible editions).

Book Description
The 30th anniversary edition of the bestselling novel of the 1980s: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and 3/4 by comic genius Sue Townsend. Featuring a new introduction by comedian and actor David Walliams as well as over sixty pages of extra material about Adrian Mole, his friends and family.

Friday January 2nd.

I felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home.

Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents' marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', Adrian's painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared.

Death in Breslau ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), the first title in the Inspector Eberhard Mock series by Marek Krajewski and Danusia Stok (Translator), is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Introducing one of the most stylish and moody historic detective series ever: The Inspector Eberhard Mock Quartet

Occupied Breslau, 1933: Two young women are found murdered on a train, scorpions writhing on their bodies, an indecipherable note in an apparently oriental language nearby ...Police Inspector Eberhard Mock's weekly assignation with two ladies of the night is interrupted as he is called to investigate.

But uncovering the truth is no straightforward matter in Breslau. The city is in the grip of the Gestapo, and has become a place where spies are everywhere, corrupt ministers torture confessions from Jewish merchants, and Freemasons guard their secrets with blackmail and violence.

And as Mock and his young assistant Herbert Anwaldt plunge into the city's squalid underbelly the case takes on a dark twist of the occult when the mysterious note seems to indicate a ritual killing with roots in the Crusades ...

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Chalk ($1.99), by Bill Thomson.

Book Description
A rainy day. Three kids in a park. A dinosaur spring rider. A bag of chalk. The kids begin to draw. . . and then . . . magic! The children draw the sun, butterflies, and a dinosaur that amazingly come to life. Children will never feel the same about the playground after they experience this astounding wordless picture book and the power of the imagination. Bill Thomson embraced traditional painting techniques and meticulously painted each illustration by hand, using acrylic paint and colored pencils.

Grade Level: 1st and up

Today's Deals

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 ($2.99), by David M. Kennedy (Oxford University Press, USA).

Book Description
Between 1929 and 1945, two great travails were visited upon the American people: the Great Depression and World War II. This book tells the story of how Americans endured, and eventually prevailed, in the face of those unprecedented calamities.

The Depression was both a disaster and an opportunity. As David Kennedy vividly demonstrates, the economic crisis of the 1930s was far more than a simple reaction to the alleged excesses of the 1920s. For more than a century before 1929, America's unbridled industrial revolution had gyrated through repeated boom and bust cycles, wastefully consuming capital and inflicting untold misery on city and countryside alike. Freedom From Fear explores how the nation agonized over its role in World War II, how it fought the war, why the United States won, and why the consequences of victory were sometimes sweet, sometimes ironic. In a compelling narrative, Kennedy analyzes the determinants of American strategy, the painful choices faced by commanders and statesmen, and the agonies inflicted on the millions of ordinary Americans who were compelled to swallow their fears and face battle as best they could.

Both comprehensive and colorful, this account of the most convulsive period in American history, excepting only the Civil War, reveals a period that formed the crucible in which modern America was formed.

The Oxford History of the United States
The Atlantic Monthly has praised The Oxford History of the United States as "the most distinguished series in American historical scholarship," a series that "synthesizes a generation's worth of historical inquiry and knowledge into one literally state-of-the-art book. Who touches these books touches a profession."

Conceived under the general editorship of one of the leading American historians of our time, C. Vann Woodward, The Oxford History of the United States blends social, political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, and military history into coherent and vividly written narrative.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is The Best Daily Deals of the Last Year; six of the year's deals are repeating at £0.99 each (75% off).

To celebrate one year of Kindle Daily Deals, we're repeating six of the most popular deals from the last year, just in case you missed them first time round. Crime, Thrillers and MysteryA Dark Redemption: A Dark Redemption by Stav Sherez, Historical Fiction: The Misremembered Man by Christina McKenna, Literary Fiction: The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life by William Nicholson Non-fiction: The 15 Minute Rule by Caroline Buchanan, Best Customer Review Score: Paw Tracks in the Moonlight by Denis O'Connor and Richard Morris, Literary Award Winner: The Secret River by Kate Grenville.

A Dark Redemption (Main/UK), by Stav Sherez

A Dark Redemption introduces DI Jack Carrigan and DS Geneva Miller as they investigate the brutal rape and murder of a young Ugandan student. Plunged into an underworld of illegal immigrant communities, they discover that the murdered girl's studies at a London College may have threatened to reveal things that some people will go to any lengths to keep secret... Unflinching, inventive and intelligent, A Dark Redemption explores a sinister case that will force DI Carrigan to face up to his past and DS Miller to confront what path she wants her future to follow.

The Misremembered Man (Main/UK), by Christina McKenna ($3.00 US Edition)

The Misremembered Man is a beautifully rendered portrait of life in rural Ireland which charms and delights with its authentic characters and gentle humor. This vivid portrayal of the universal search for love brings with it a darker tale, heartbreaking in its poignancy.

The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life (Main/UK), by William Nicholson

Laura is content enough with her marriage, her two children and her part-time job - until an ex-lover whom she had thought was ‘the one' gets in touch out of the blue. Suddenly passion and excitement are rekindled, and she realises how stagnant her life has become. But how much happiness has she a right to expect, and what of the pain she might cause to achieve it? Unknown to Laura, many others in her Sussex village are living with their own unresolved inner dramas. None of them guesses at her crisis. Yet every decision they take has an impact on those around them. The hidden longings of a large cast of characters interweave in a gripping plot that reveals ordinary life at its richest: comic and tragic, poignant and cruel, surprising and moving.

The 15 Minute Rule (Main/UK), by Caroline Buchanan

The Fifteen Minute Rule sets out to help us tackle those things that we are always putting off: starting an exercise regime, looking for a new job, doing our tax returns or learning a new skill. Or perhaps doing something to improve the quality of life, by learning to fight depression or confront an annoying habit. Perhaps it's simply clearing the huge pile of clutter from your desk. Whatever it is, all you need is fifteen minutes and before you know it, some weeks later, you have accomplished a task you couldn't bring yourself to start.

The hardest thing to overcome when you're trying to start something daunting and new is to actually start. That mountain of paperwork in front of you that looks like it will take hours to go through and hours of mind-numbing sorting is hard to contemplate for most - but fifteen minutes isn't. Fifteen minutes is manageable and can bring minor and major results, each one providing satisfaction and a boost in self-esteem.

This book is for those people who need instant gratification and also those long-term players who recognise the benefits of consistency and dedication.

Paw Tracks in the Moonlight (Main/UK), by Denis O'Connor and Richard Morris

When Denis O'Connor rescues a three-week-old kitten from certain death during a snowstorm, little does he know how this tiny creature will change his life forever. Against all odds the kitten - who he names Toby Jug - survives and forms an unusually strong bond with his rescuer. Set against the rural splendour of Northumberland, Paw Tracks in the Moonlight charmingly chronicles the adventures of one man and his Maine Coone cat.

From an invasion of bees at Owl Cottage to the case of the disappearing tomatoes, life with Toby Jug - who believes himself to be human - is never dull. Nevertheless, it is only when Denis and Toby Jug embark on a summer camping trip on horseback in the Cheviot Hills that a new world opens up for them both.

The Secret River (Main/UK), by Kate Grenville ($1.99 US Edition)

London, 1807. William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhood sweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is tough but bearable until William makes a mistake, a bad mistake for which he and his family are made to pay dearly. His sentence: to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. The Thornhills arrive in this harsh and alien land that they cannot understand and which feels like a death sentence. But among the convicts there is a rumour that freedom can be bought, that 'unclaimed' land up the Hawkesbury offers an opportunity to start afresh, far away from the township of Sydney. When William takes a hundred acres for himself he is shocked to find Aboriginal people already living on the river. And other recent arrivals - Thomas Blackwood, Smasher Sullivan and Mrs Herring - are finding their own ways to respond to them. Soon Thornhill, a man neither better nor worse than most, has to make the most difficult decision of his life.

Pretty Little Secrets (Pretty Little Liars Series) ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Sara Shepard, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. Be careful searching on your Kindle, though, as you may only find a $10.99 priced edition, which has the buy button disabled (many of HarperCollins titles are duplicated, with one edition disabled, right now, apparently due to Amazon's getting ready to remove or disable the Agency priced titles.

Book Description
Rewind to junior year in Rosewood, Pennsylvania, to a winter break no one has ever heard about. . . .

Fat snowflakes fall onto manicured lawns, quilted stockings hang over marble fireplaces, and everyone is at peace, especially Hanna, Emily, Aria, and Spencer. Now that Alison’s murderer is in jail and A is dead, they can finally relax. Little do they know there’s a new A in town. . . .

Rule number one of being an effective stalker: Get to know your prey. So I watch these liars day and night, keeping an eye on the trouble they get into, the messes they make, and the secrets they keep. Hanna’s desperate for a very personal session with her gym trainer. Emily is number one on Santa’s naughty list. Aria’s old flame from Iceland is about to land her in hot water. And Spencer’s resorting to some backhanded tactics to get what she wants.

What happens on holiday break stays on holiday break—right? But guess what. I saw. And now I’m telling.

Taking place between Unbelievable and Wicked, Pretty Little Secrets is a very special Pretty Little Liars tale revealing the liars’ never-before-seen misadventures over their junior-year winter break.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Potty ($1.99), by Leslie Patricelli.

Book Description
There comes a point in a toddler’s life when going in one’s diaper is only one possible option, and the question must be raised: Should I go in my potty? With pitch-perfect humor and pacing, Leslie Patricelli follows the inner dialogue (sure to have little ones shouting responses) and hilarious actions of everyone’s favorite Baby, winding up with an over-the-top look of surprise and delight that will have both parents and offspring laughing out loud. "I did it!"

Age Level: 1 and up

Kindle Fire Lightning Deal - $129

While they last, the current Lightning Deal at Amazon is for a Kindle Fire - 7" LCD Display, Wi-Fi, 8GB for only $129 - that's $30 off.

Note that this is NOT the new HD Kindle Fire, but the older generation hardware (essentially) with an updated interface.

Today's Deals

I'm usually all about ebooks and reducing the paper on the shelves, but today's Amazon Gold Box Deal has a number of collectible booksets, at up to 60% off, that would be nice gifts, for collectors or those who haven't joined the digital reading revolution. Several of these were just released today, so if you already had one of them on pre-order, you'll automatically get the GoldBox price. Limit two per customer and while supplies last.

This past weekend's Fictionwise coupon, 110912, good for 45% off, is still working (probably thru Wed). The discount combines with the new release discount, so it might be a good time to pick up the new issues from Dell Magazines (Fantasy/ SciFi/ Ellory Queen Mysteries; DRM-free, multiple formats).

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Lit ($1.99), by Mary Karr.

Book Description
The Liars' Club brought to vivid, indelible life Mary Karr's hardscrabble Texas childhood. Cherry, her account of her adolescence, "continued to set the literary standard for making the personal universal" (Entertainment Weekly). Now Lit follows the self-professed blackbelt sinner's descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness—and to her astonishing resurrection.

Karr's longing for a solid family seems secure when her marriage to a handsome, Shakespeare-quoting blueblood poet produces a son they adore. But she can't outrun her apocalyptic past. She drinks herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatic but troubled mother, reaching the brink of suicide. A hair-raising stint in "The Mental Marriott," with an oddball tribe of gurus and saviors, awakens her to the possibility of joy and leads her to an unlikely faith. Not since Saint Augustine cried, "Give me chastity, Lord—but not yet!" has a conversion story rung with such dark hilarity.

Lit is about getting drunk and getting sober; becoming a mother by letting go of a mother; learning to write by learning to live. Written with Karr's relentless honesty, unflinching self-scrutiny, and irreverent, lacerating humor, it is a truly electrifying story of how to grow up—as only Mary Karr can tell it.

Sipping from the Nile: My Exodus from Egypt ($1.57 / £0.99 UK), by Jean Naggar, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $5.99/KLL Eligible). The companion audiobook is $1.99 for those in the US (and appears to be $2.29 for those in the UK).

Book Description
Born into a prominent, sophisticated Jewish family who spend time in Europe and live in the Middle East, author Jean Naggar’s coming of age memoir tells the story of her protected youth in an exotic multicultural milieu. To Naggar her childhood seemed a magical time that would never come to an end. But in 1956, Egyptian President Nasser’s nationalizing of the Suez Canal set in motion events that would change her life forever.

An enchanted way of life suddenly ended by multinational hostilities, her close-knit extended family is soon scattered far and wide. Naggar’s own family moves to London where she finishes her schooling and is swept into adulthood and the challenge of new horizons in America. Speaking for a different wave of immigrants whose Sephardic origins highlight the American Jewish story through an unfamiliar lens, Naggar traces her personal journey through lost worlds and difficult transitions, exotic locales and strong family values. The story resonates for all in this poignant exploration of the innocence of childhood in a world breaking apart.

Angel of Darkness ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), by Cynthia Eden, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. Not a bad price and I don't see it in the libraries I belong to.

Book Description
He Fell For Her

Nicole St. James was a nice woman. An innocent, pretty, twentysomething schoolteacher with her life ahead of her. But as the angel of death, it's Keenan's job to take that life away. So when a vampire attacks Nicole, Keenan is not supposed to snap and take out the vampire instead. It cost him his wings--but she's worth it.

Except when Keenan catches up to his pretty schoolteacher, she's not so innocent anymore. Hot red lipstick, tight black shorts and long white fangs--she's ready to kick the asses of anyone who helped turn her into a damn bloodsucker. Unless that ass is unusually shapely and attached to a certain fallen angel. Even with all of heaven and half of hell after them, someone will have to teach Keenan about the fun kinds of sin. . .

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Elephant's Child ($0.99), by Rudyard Kipling and Tim Raglin (Illustrator).

Book Description

Rudyard Kipling’s story of how the elephant got its trunk has always delighted children with its playful use of language and sense of high adventure. Never has there been a more satisfying rendering of Kipling’s most beloved “Just So” story, which explains what the world was like “in the beginning of years when the world was new and all…”

Age Level: 3 and up