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Thursday, February 18, 2010

The Spark for $6.78 and under $9 Pre-orders

The three pre-orders below will all revert to $9.99 upon release.

The Spark: The 28-Day Breakthrough Plan for Losing Weight, Getting Fit, and Transforming Your Life ($6.78), by Chris Downie, has joined the Kindle bestsellers list, partly I suspect due to it's current pricing, and has 53 5-star reviews out of 57 total (and none less than three stars).

Book Description
A revolution is taking place! Millions of people are discovering a new way of thinking about their weight, their health, and their lives. They are taking part in a visionary approach to weight loss that combines goal setting, nutrition, exercise, motivation, and community that has a proven track record of ten million pounds lost.

From the experts who created SparkPeople.com, one of the most successful online weight-loss programs to date, comes The Spark, a ground-breaking book that focuses on what you can do, instead of what you can’t do. The Spark is about transforming your life and your idea of what dieting means.

With dozens of photos—including stunning before-and-after shots and easy-to-follow exercise images—this book distills the best of SparkPeople’s medically accepted nutrition and fitness plan and infuses it with a program of personal empowerment. In this book, you’ll discover:
  • Secrets of Success—the best habits of SparkPeople’s most successful members
  • A 28-day program that brings together the most effective practices from SparkPeople into an innovative 4-stage plan, available only in this book
  • Dozens of success stories that show the power of this transformational program
  • The Spark delivers inspirational health and weight-loss advice that will surely spark countless lives.

A Mighty Fortress ($8.40 July 6, 2010), by David Weber, is book four of his Safehold series.

Book Description
Young Cayleb Ahrmahk has accomplished things few people could even dream of. Not yet even thirty years old, he’s won the most crushing naval victories in human history. He’s smashed a hostile alliance of no less than five princedoms and won the hand of the beautiful young Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm. Cayleb and Sharleyan have created the Charisian Empire, the greatest naval power in the history of Safehold, and they’ve turned Charis into a place of refuge for all who treasure freedom.

Their success may prove short-lived. The Church of God Awaiting, which controls most of Safehold, has decreed their destruction. Mother Church’s entire purpose is to prevent the very things to which Charis is committed. Since the first attempt to crush the heretics failed, the Church has no choice but to adopt some of the hated Charisian innovations for themselves. Soon a mighty fleet will sail against Cayleb, destroying everything in its path.

But there are still matters about which the Church knows nothing, including Cayleb and Sharleyan’s adviser, friend, and guardian— the mystic warrior-monk named Merlin Athrawes. Merlin knows all about battles against impossible odds, because he is in fact the cybernetic avatar of a young woman named Nimue Alban, who died a thousand years before. As Nimue, Merlin saw the entire Terran Federation go down in fire and slaughter at the hands of a foe it could not defeat. He knows that Safehold is the last human planet in existence, and that the stasis the Church was created to enforce will be the human race’s death sentence if it is allowed to stand.

The juggernaut is rumbling down on Charis, but Merlin Athrawes and a handful of extraordinary human beings stand in its path. The Church is about to discover just how potent the power of human freedom truly is.


Men of Danger ($8.84 July 20, 2010), by Lora Leigh, et al, is an anthology.

Book Description
“Hannah’s Luck”, LORA LEIGH

When burglars try to break into her home, kindergarten teacher Hannah Brookes is lucky to have Sheriff Rick Grayson on her side. Especially when their mutual attraction leads to distraction…

“Reckless”, RED GARNIER

Police detective Zach Rivers isn’t the only man in Phoenix who’s obsessed with the beautiful Paige Avery—but he’s definitely the sexiest and, quite possibly, the most dangerous…

“Tempt Me”, ALEXIS GRANT

R&B star Anita has beauty, talent, fame—and her very own stalker—which is why she needs a professional bodyguard. But can she resist mixing business with pleasure when the hired muscle is to die for?

“Love Me ’til Death”, LORIE O’CLARE

Homicide detective Ashley Jones hates working with the FBI. But Chase Reed is one special agent whose rule-breaking methods, razor-sharp mind, and rock-hard body make for one killer combination…


No Apology: The Case for American Greatness ($8.94 May 25, 2010), by Mitt Romney.

Book Description
On his first presidential visit to address the European nations, President Obama felt it necessary to apologize for America’s international power. He repeated that apology when visiting Latin America, and again to Muslims worldwide in an interview broadcast on Al-Arabiya television.

In No Apology, Mitt Romney asserts that American strength is essential—not just for our own well-being, but for the world’s. Governments such as China and a newly-robust Russia threaten to overtake us on many fronts, and radical Islam continues its dangerous rise. Drawing on history for lessons on how great powers collapse, Romney shows how and why our national advantages have eroded. From the long-term decline of our manufacturing base, our laggard educational system that has left us without enough engineers, scientists, and other skilled professionals, our corrupted financial practices that led to the current crisis, and the crushing impact of entitlements on our future obligations, America is in debt, overtaxed, and unprepared for the challenges it must face.

We need renewal: fresh ideas to cut through complicated problems and restore our strength. Creative and bold, Romney proposes simple solutions to rebuild industry, create good jobs, reduce out of control spending on entitlements and healthcare, dramatically improve education, and restore a military battered by eight years of war. Most important, he calls for a new commitment to citizenship, a common cause we all share, rather than a laundry list of individual demands. Many of his solutions oppose President Obama’s policies, many also run counter to Republican thinking, but all have one strategic aim: to move America back to political and economic strength.

Personal and dynamically-argued, No Apology is a call to action by a man who cares deeply about America’s history, its promise, and its future.

Kindle for Blackberry now Available!

Read Kindle Books on Your BlackBerry

Amazon now has Kindle for Blackberry available. All you have to do is enter your Blackberry's email address and the download link will be sent to it.
  • Get the best reading experience available on your BlackBerry. No Kindle required
  • Access your Kindle books even if you don't have your Kindle with you
  • Automatically synchronizes your last page read and annotations between devices with Whispersync
  • Create bookmarks and view the annotations you created on your Kindle, computer, or other Kindle-compatible mobile device

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Free Book - Bobby's Trace

Bobby's Trace ($0.99 Kindle), by Edward C. Patterson, is free over on Smashwords, through the end of this month. As he explains below, this is a newly revised and updated edition of the book:
"I am happy to announce the release and relaunch of Bobby's Trace effective this evening 2/14/10. The new edition, besides maintenance includes 2 new chapters and the work is expanded. To accommodate the many readers who have previously purchased the work and would like to replace the older version, for a two week period, expiring on 2/28/10, Bobby's Trace will be available at Smashwords for free in several eBook formats and in pdf. New readers, of course, are welcomed during this period."
Use Coupon Code HG65U upon check out and be sure to select the version dated 2010-2-13 for your download.

Book Description
Do ghosts mourn the living?

Perry Chaplin is in mourning for his life partner, Bobby - a time of stress, notwithstanding. The more he drifts, the more he becomes unhinged until he's one room short of a rubber one. "Get a grip, Perry." So he takes his chances on a blind date, which further plunges him along the nightmare highway. He gets an unsought lesson in life-after-death that turns his bereavement into a horrific adventure. Come peek through Perry Chaplin's mysterious window. See what there is to see. Enter Our Lady of Perpetual Grace, where the holy water boils and the confessionals whisper. What lurks in the rectory's attic? What lies beneath the surface of life and death? What comes in Bobby's - in Bobby's trace? Do ghosts mourn the living? Perry Chaplin knows. Will you?

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Free Book (nook) - Flawless

Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History ($16.47 paperback), by Scott Andrew Selby, Greg Campbell, is free in the B&N store, in either eReader or EPUB format, depending on how you download it (or so I am told - all I get are eReader formatted books from B&N). Not Kindle compatible.

Book Description
On February 15, 2003, a group of thieves broke into an allegedly airtight vault in the international diamond capital of Antwerp, Belgium and made off with over $108 million dollars worth of diamonds and other valuables. They did so without tripping an alarm or injuring a single guard in the process.

Although the crime was perfect, the getaway was not. The police zeroed in on a band of professional thieves fronted by Leonardo Notarbartolo, a dapper Italian who had rented an office in the Diamond Center and clandestinely cased its vault for over two years. The “who” of the crime had been answered, but the “how” remained largely a mystery.

Enter Scott Andrew Selby, a Harvard Law grad and diamond expert, and Greg Campbell, author of Blood Diamonds, who undertook a global goose chase to uncover the true story behind the daring heist. Tracking the threads of the story throughout Europe—from Belgium to Italy, in seedy cafés and sleek diamond offices—the authors sorted through an array of conflicting details, divergent opinions and incongruous theories to put together the puzzle of what actually happened that Valentine’s Day weekend.

This real-life Ocean’s Eleven—a combination of diamond history, journalistic reportage, and riveting true-crime story—provides a thrilling in-depth study detailing the better-than-fiction heist of the century.


Click HERE for the free book.

2/17 Update: This one day offer was extended another day. So grab this now, as after today it will go back up to regular price.

Free Game - Boonka

The free game this week at Sandlot Games is Boonka ($6.99 Amazon Game Downloads).

Game Description
  • Over 60 Fast-Paced Levels.
  • 3 Game Modes.
  • 15 Power-Ups And Bonuses.
  • 41 Unique Level Challenges.
Restore peace and harmony to a once idyllic land in Boonka™, an original Match 3 title from Sandlot Games!

When a beautiful and distant land is overrun, the peace that had prevailed for ages is shattered. Now, to restore this once idyllic land to its former glory, you’ll need to subdivide into various little nature spirits called Boonkas and work to heal the flora and trees destroyed by the dark and powerful Skours.

With over 60 fast-paced levels, 15 powerful, level-changing power-ups and bonuses, 3 unique game modes, and truly addictive gameplay, Boonka has something for everyone!


Click HERE to sign up for the free download. For step by step purchase and installation instructions, see this post.