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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Bargain Book Roundup

The Dark Streets ($1.43), by John Shannon, is the ninth in the Jack Liffey series.

Book Description
The latest mystery in the critically acclaimed Los Angeles Times best-selling series takes private investigator Jack Liffey to Los Angeles' exotic Koreatown, where a young film student, Soon-Lin Kim, has apparently gone missing. But Jack is not the only one looking for Soon-Lin. Her association with a sinister militant group of radical Asians has also set Homeland Security in her pursuit. Again, bizarre details and compounding mysteries envelop Jack, and ultimately he finds himself under torturously intense interrogation at a secret compound in the desert ... and ill-prepared for a climax as explosive as the violent lightning storm approaching on the horizon.

A Flaw in the Blood ($1.84), by Stephanie Barron, is a stand-alone novel from the author of the Jane Austen series.

Book Description
Windsor Castle, 1861. For the second time in over twenty years, Irish barrister Patrick Fitzgerald has been summoned by the Queen. The first time, he’d been a zealous young legal clerk, investigating what appeared to be a murderous conspiracy against her. Now he is a distinguished gentleman at the top of his profession. And the Queen is a woman in the grip of fear. For on this chilly night, her beloved husband, Prince Albert, lies dying.

With her future clouded by grief, Fitzgerald can’t help but notice the Queen is curiously preoccupied with the past. Yet why, and how he can help, is unclear. His bewilderment deepens when the royal coach is violently overturned, nearly killing him and his brilliant young ward, Dr. Georgiana Armistead, niece of the late Dr. Snow, a famed physician who’d attended none other than Her Majesty.

Fitzgerald is sure of one thing: the Queen’s carriage was not attacked at random—it was a carefully chosen target. But was it because he rode in it? Fitzgerald won’t risk dying in order to find out. He’ll leave London and take Georgiana with him—if they can get out alive. For soon the pair find themselves hunted. Little do they know they each carry within their past hidden clues to a devastating royal secret…one they must untangle if they are to survive.


Touch and Go ($2.07) is a memoir by Studs Terkel.

Book Description
At nearly ninety-five, Studs Terkel has written about everyone's life, it seems, but his own. In Touch and Go, he offers a memoir that---embodying the spirit of the man himself---is youthful, vivacious, and enormous fun.

Hearts of Horses ($2.47), by Molly Gloss

Book Description
In the winter of 1917, nineteen-year-old Martha Lessen saddles her horses and heads for a remote county in eastern Oregon, looking for work “gentling” wild horses. She chances on a rancher, George Bliss, who is willing to hire her on. Many of his regular hands are off fighting the war, and he glimpses, beneath her showy rodeo garb, a shy but strong-willed girl with a serious knowledge of horses.

So begins the irresistible tale of a young but determined woman trying to make a go of it in a man’s world. Over the course of several long, hard winter months, many of the townsfolk witness Martha talking in low, sweet tones to horses believed beyond repair -- and getting miraculous, almost immediate results. Ultimately, her gifts will earn her a place of respect in the community.With an elegant sweetness like that found in Plainsong, and a winning energy as in Water for Elephants, The Hearts of Horses delivers a heartwarming, greatly satisfying story about the unexpected and profound connections between people and animals.


Rainstone Fall ($1.35), by Peter Helton, is the third in the Chris Honeysett Murder Mystery series; this one is also $1.35 at Barnes & Noble.

Book Description
Chris Honeysett, an artist and private investigator, takes on a surveillance job to pay for repairs to his roof and finds himself faced with abduction, blackmail, and murder.

Peter Helton is an artist and lives in a cottage near Bath, where his mysteries are set. Previous titles in this series include Headcase and Slim Chance.


Andy Rooney: 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit ($1.67), by Andy Rooney

Book Description
Chairs. Neat people. Ugliness. War. Over six decades of intrepid reporting and elegant essays, Andy Rooney has proven a shrewd cultural analyst-unafraid to question the sometimes ridiculous, often surprising facts of our lives. Rooney's great gift is telling it straight, without a hint of sugar coating, but with more than a grain of truth and humor. His take on America? "It's just amazing how long this country has been going to hell without ever having got there." On food? "There's more dependable mediocrity than there used to be."

Ellen Foster ($3.96), by Kaye Gibbons, was the Oprah Book Club® Selection in October 1997.

Book Description
In Ellen Foster, the title character is an 11-year-old orphan who refers to herself as "old Ellen," an appellation that is disturbingly apt. Ellen is an old woman in a child's body; her frail, unhappy mother dies, her abusive father alternately neglects her and makes advances on her, and she is shuttled from one uncaring relative's home to another before she finally takes matters into her own hands and finds herself a place to belong. There is something almost Dickensian about Ellen's tribulations; like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield or a host of other literary child heroes, Ellen is at the mercy of predatory adults, with only her own wit and courage--and the occasional kindness of others--to help her through. That she does, in fact, survive her childhood and even rise above it is the book's bittersweet victory.

Black, Showdown, Heaven's Wager & Kiss ($9.99), by Ted Dekker, is a 4-title bundle that is at Barnes & Noble and not in the Kindle store at all. I already have Black, from the Black/Red/White (The Circle Trilogy 1-3) that was $9.99 at one time, but is now $14.49, but that's still three new to me novels at $3.33 each and four at $2.50 each for those who don't have it yet. You can't get all of these individually from B&N, but from Amazon they would be Black $8.87, Showdown $6.39, Heaven's Wager $9.99 and Kiss $9.99. The first three are series starts, while the last is a stand-alone novel co-authored with Erin Healy.

Black (History Chronicles: Circle #1)
A virulent evil has been unleashed upon the people of the earth, an unstoppable force bent on the destruction of all that is good. Only Thomas Hunter can stop it, and he has been killed. Twice.

Showdown (History Chronicles: Paradise #1)
Welcome to Paradise. Epic battles of good and evil are happening all around us.

Today that battle comes to town with the sound of lone footsteps clacking down the blacktop on a hot, lazy summer afternoon. The black-cloaked man arrives in the sleepy town of Paradise and manages to become the talk of the town within the hour. Bearing the power to grant any unfulfilled dream, he is irresistible.

Seems like bliss . . . but is it? Or is hell about to break loose in Paradise


Heaven's Wager (Martyr's Song #1)
Kent Anthony is a brilliant software engineer who is cashing in on a brilliant career. He's finally living the idyllic life, far from thoughts of theft and murder and other kinds of horrible criminal behavior.

He's left his past far behind . . . or so he thinks.

This story will bring you face to face with a hidden world more real than most people ever realize; a world where the unseen is more powerful than anything seen.


Kiss
Let me tell you all I know for sure. My name. Shauna.

I woke up in a hospital bed missing six months of my memory. In the room was my loving boyfriend-how could I have forgotten him?-my uncle and my abusive stepmother. Everyone blames me for the tragic car accident that left me near death and my dear brother brain damaged. But what they say can't be true-can it?

I believe the medicine is doing strange things to my memory. I'm unsure who I can trust and who I should run from. And I'm starting to remember things I've never known. Things not about me. I think I'm going crazy.

And even worse, I think they want to kill me.

But who? And for what? Is dying for the truth really better than living with a lie?


The Circle Series Visual 3 in 1 (Black, White, and Red Graphic Novel) ($9.99), by Ted Dekker, is 416 pages and 39 MB in size, so don't expect it to download in under a minute, especially not on 3G. I tried the single volume White ($1.37) on my Kindle, but it was simply too small for me to read. Perhaps on an iPad or the PC, though, it would work (but the sample is too small to see anything on this one; I haven't looked at the trilogy's sample yet).

Book Description
Three novels. Two worlds. One Story. Now in a stunning, four color visual edition.

Nothing is as it seems when dreams and reality collide.

Black - A virulent evil has been unleashed upon the people of the earth. The only man who can stop it is Thomas Hunter, an unlikely hero whose life is stretched between two worlds.

Red - In one world, Thomas Hunter is a battle-scarred general commanding an army of primitive warriors. In the other, he's racing to outwit sadistic terrorists intent on creating global chaos.

White - Thomas Hunter has only two days to survive two separate realms of danger, deceit, and destruction. The fate of both worlds now rests on his ability to shift realities through his dreams.

Free Book - Clash of the Geeks

Clash of the Geeks, by Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi, et al, is a collection of short stories that is being given away for free, in several DRM-free formats (including Mobi for your Kindle). Rather than payment for the collection, they are asking that you consider making a donation via the website to the Michigan/Indiana affiliate of the Lupus Alliance of America or via Gretchen Schafer's donation page.

Book Description
Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi and Subterranean Press are proud to announce the publication of Clash of the Geeks, a special and fantastical electronic chapbook featuring stories by Wheaton, Scalzi, New York Times bestseller Patrick Rothfuss, Norton Award winner and Hugo Best Novel nominee Catherynne M. Valente, Hugo and Nebula Award nominee Rachel Swirsky and others, for the benefit of the Michigan/Indiana affiliate of the Lupus Alliance of America. The chapbook is free to download, but voluntary payment is strongly encouraged, via Paypal or by tax-deductible donation forms, both linked to later in this entry. All proceeds from this chapbook will go to the Michigan/Indiana affiliate of the Lupus Alliance of America. Please enjoy the stories, link your friends to this page — and give!

Download links are located on both the menu to the right and at the bottom of the page.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

20 Free Books from Dorchester Publishing

Dorchester Publishing has a late night gift for those who read EPUB format books in the US and Canada: 20 free books in the Kobo store. Genres include romance (contemporary, historical, paranormal, humor) & mystery/suspense/thrillers. Two of these were free earlier this month on Kindle, but the rest are new freebies. I checked a couple and they are generally selling for $4.79 to $5.59 each in the Kindle store. I don't know how long they'll last, so grab them while you can. Don't forget, click on Add to Library under the cover on each book, so you can re-download them later, if you need to.

Hunt At The Well Of Eternity, by Gabriel Hunt

Book Description
A blood-stained Confederate flag and the beautiful woman carrying it put Gabriel Hunt on the trail of a secret hidden deep in the Central American jungle a secret that might just be the legendary Fountain of Youth…

What Burns Within, by Sandra Ruttan

Book Description
One year ago, a brutal case almost destroyed three cops. Since then they've lost touch with one another, avoiding painful memories, content to go their own ways. Now Nolan is after a serial rapist. Hart is working on a string of arsons. And Tain has been assigned a series of child abductions, a case all too similar to that one. But when the body of one of the abduction victims is found at the site of one of the arsons, it starts to look like maybe these cases are connected after all....

The Cellar, by Richard Laymon

Book Description
Visitors flock to see the Beast House with its blood-soaked corridors and creaky doors. Armed with video camcorders, these poor sould enter the forbidden house, never to return. The deeper they go into the house, the darker their nightmares become. Don't even think about going into the cellar.

Seven Brides: Rose, by Leigh Greenwood

Book Description
Hired to keep house for George Randolph and his three unruly brothers at their ramshackle ranch, penniless and friendless Rose Thornton soon finds herself the object of affection for George.

Squeeze Play, by Kate Angell

Book Description
The first in a steamy new series of romances featuring a hunky baseball team and the sirens who challenge the players in the game of love.

Pandora's Box, by Natale Stenzel

Book Description

Hope remains . . .

All Pandemina Dorothy Avery ever wanted was to be beautifully, blessedly normal, with a stable career and a love life leading to a white picket fence and a happily-ever-after. That seems impossible now. Penniless and parted from her unfaithful boyfriend, unfairly shunned by her coworkers, not even Mina's recent inheritance can help -- especially not when it amounts to a ten-pound rock box and guardianship of the horny, devious puca she released from inside. His name's Riordan, and he ain't no Harvey.

What's a puca, you ask? A tricky faery-type, whose magic not only includes shape-shifting into a magnificent black stallion and a snarky mutt, but the ability to manipulate human perceptions. And Riordan is hardly shy of manipulations: Wasn't that why he was imprisoned in the first place? He seems set upon making Mina's life harder than ever, whether it be with Jonathon Teague, the handsome contractor who wants to work on more than her house, or Mina's penitent ex-boyfriend. But as Riordan's very existence proves, things are not always what they seem, and what stepped out of that box might be the key to her dreams.


The Star King, by Susan Grant

Book Description
A beautiful fighter pilot is shot down over Saudi Arabia, and ends up in the arms of the king of a distant galaxy.

Celtic Fire, by Joy Nash

Book Description
When a Roman commander travels through Britannia to investigate a haunting vision, an ambush by hostile Celts leaves him with an unexpected prize--a beautifully enchanting witch.

Savage Autumn, by Constance O'Banyon

Book Description
Joanna escapes the lustful clutches of her lecherous uncle only to be taken captive by a powerful Blackfoot warrior. But Joanna will soon learn that beneath Windhawk's proud exterior beats a heart that belongs only to her.

Noble Intentions, by Katie MacAlister

Book Description
Unconventional to the tips of her half-American toes, Gillian sparks scandal among the townspeople and a burning desire in Noble's heart.

Sweet Release, by Pamela Clare

Book Description
When a woman buys a dying convict to save his life, she little suspects he is truly an English aristocrat who will soon steal her heart.

Immortals: The Calling, by Jennifer Ashley

Book Description
While investigating her sister's murder, Amber Silverthorne accidentally summons an Immortal warrior whose wicked charm and sinful touch could prove just as dangerous as the demon they're chasing.

Divine Fire, by Melanie Jackson

Book Description
When a biographer proves to know more about his life than the now-immortal Lord Byron expects, he draws her into a dangerous game and his passionate arms.

A Taste Of Magic, by Tracy Madison

Book Description
A young, divorced bakery owner discovers she's inherited her gypsy ancestress's fabulous magical powers, but learns that when seeking true love with her hunky new neighbor, a person has to be careful what she cooks up.

Crimson & Steam, by Liz Maverick

Book Description
A new plot is developing in Crimson City one meant to destroy all vampires and werewolves and only it can bring together those ill-fated lovers from different species, Jill and Marius.

Stolen Fury, by Elisabeth Naughton

Book Description
The heroine is an archaeologist looking for three ancient Greek artifacts called the Furies, and the hero is a thief who tried to seduce her to get the Furies for himself.

Trouble In Mudbug, by Jana DeLeon

Book Description
With the wise-cracking ghost of her mother-in-law hounding her, a sexy half-Creole investigator ready to seduce her, and a killer on the loose, Maryse Robicheaux is feeling the heat on the Louisiana bayou.

Spying In High Heels, by Gemma Halliday

Book Description
L.A. shoe designer, Maddie Springer, lives her life by three rules: Fashion. Fashion. Fashion. But when she stumbles upon the work of a brutal killer, her life takes an unexpected turn from Manolos to murder. And things only get worse when her boyfriend disappears—along with $20 million in embezzled funds—and her every move is suddenly under scrutiny by LAPD's sexiest cop. With the help of her post-menopausal bridezilla of a mother, a 300-pound psychic and one seriously oversexed best friend, Maddie finds herself stepping out of her stilettos and onto the trail of a murderer. But can she catch a killer before the killer catches up to her?

The Accidental Demon Slayer, by Angie Fox; this title has previously been free in the Kindle store.

Book Description
It's never a good day when an ancient demon shows up on your toilet bowl. For Lizzie Brown, that's just the beginning. Soon her hyperactive terrier starts talking, and her long-lost biker witch Grandma is hurling Smuckers jars filled with magic. Just when she thinks she's seen it all, Lizzie learns she's a demon slayer-and all hell is after her.

Of course, that's not the only thing after her. Dimitri Kallinikos, a devastatingly handsome shape-shifting griffin needs Lizzie to slay a demon of his own. But how do you talk a girl you've never met into going straight to the underworld? Lie. And if that doesn't work, how dangerous could a little seduction be...?


Divorced, Desperate And Dating, by Christie Craig; this title has previously been free in the Kindle store.

Book Description
A mystery writer is forced to reconsider her policy against dating when she is protected from death threats by the sexiest cop she's ever seen.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Arrrrgh! It's Talk Like a Pirate Day!

In honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, all of this posts bargain books will deal with pirates in one way or another. I'm even tossing in a few public domain titles you might want to try -- I wonder how the pirates sound using TTS?

Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC ($4.79), by Henry Cole & June Sobel, looks like a cute title for the youngest pirates in your house. Like most books aimed at the kindergarten crowd, it's only a few dozen pages in length, but is meant to be read over and over again.

Book Description
The captain of this brave and bumbling pirate crew has ordered them to capture the entire alphabet--and they'll walk the plank if they're missing a single letter! Now these swashbuckling mateys are embarking on an alphabet adventure unlike any other, and they won't (ahem, can't) rest until they've found an A, a Z, and everything in between.

June Sobel's hilarious text and Henry Cole's adventurous animal pirates harmonize in an irresistible book for alphabet-learning, pirate-loving kids everywhere.


For the slightly older pirates underfoot, consider Prince of Pirates ($6.39), by Philip Caveney, the second in his Sebastian Darke series. It may be a bit over the usual $5 limit at Amazon, but combined with the twodollar coupon at Kobo, it's only $4.29 today, HERE. If you want to start with the first in the series, Prince Of Fools is $3.49 with that same coupon.

Book Description
Sebastian Darke, his opinionated buffalope, Max, and the fierce fighter Cornelius are heading to the bustling port of Ramalat to embark on a perilous sea journey. They are ready to risk their lives in search of the fabled lost treasure of the pirate King, Captain Callinestra. But first, they must make it through the dark and mysterious forest of Geltane and
survive an encounter with the beautiful and bewitching Leonora, a powerful enchantress with a magical hold over Sebastian’s senses. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, little do they know that, when they finally reach Ramalat, a feisty female sea captain, an infamous young pirate, ravenous sea creatures, and furious sea battles await them.

But there’s no turning back. Will they discover the lost treasure? Will Sebastian live to tell the tale? Will Max ever stop moaning?


No list of pirate books is complete without Treasure Island (free), by Robert Louis Stevenson

Book Description
Masterfully crafted, Treasure Island is a stunning yarn of piracy on the fiery tropic seas -- an unforgettable tale of treachery that embroils a host of legendary swashbucklers, from honest young Jim Hawkins to sinister, two-timing Israel Hands, to evil incarnate, blind Pew. But above all, Treasure Island is a complex study of good and evil, as embodied by that hero-villain, Long John Silver: the merry unscrupulous buccaneer-rogue whose greedy quest for gold cannot help but win the heart of every soul who ever longed for romance, treasure, and adventure. Since its publication in 1883, Treasure Island has provided an enduring literary model for such eminent writers as Anthony Hope, Graham Greene, and Jorge Luis Borges. As David Daiches wrote: "Robert Louis Stevenson transformed the Victorian boys' adventure into a classic of its kind."

I'm really not sure where Booty: Girl Pirates on the High Seas ($0.99), by Sara Lorimer (Author) & Susan Synarski (Illustrator), fits in age-wise, as one review mentions it being for adults and children, while another objected to the mature concepts and didn't give it to her grandchildren and a third review mentions a movie of the same name, where unbuckling, rather than swashbuckling seems to be the theme. It's also fairly small (85KB and just over a hundred pages, which doesn't seem to leave much space for the illustrations), but then again, it's only a buck. I'd sample first, though, before one-clicking.

Book Description
A treasure trove of high adventure and bad behavior, Booty tells the all-true tales of real women pirates who prowled the seas from the 9th to early-20th centuries in search of easy prey and easy profit.

Raiding ships, boozing, brawling, and looting, they struck terror in the hearts of men from the Mediterranean to the South China Sea to the rivers of New York. Meet Rachel Wall, who traded her devout religious upbringing for “lewd and wicked company”; Cheng I Sao, who led a fleet of 2,000 ships and made her men drink cocktails of wine and gunpowder; Mary Read, who killed one pirate for the love of another; and Sadie the Goat, who headbutted her victims before fleecing them of cash.

Their exploits and those of many more swashbuckling women fill these pages, along with an informative look at the finer points of pirate life (grog, flogging, fashion, and more). Arrrrr.


Moving up to the adults in your ship, there are a number of pirate themed romances out there. This one's cover caught my eye: Pleasuring the Pirate ($4.79), by Emily Bryan.

Book Description
When a notorious pirate comes home to England to claim his inheritance, he finds a courtesan's daughter and a group of orphans have taken over the estate...and soon capture his heart as well.

You might also take a look at these mainstream and indie titles

The Ghost Pirates (free), by William Hope Hodgson, fits not only today's theme, but is an early entry for Halloween, just in case you don't finish it quickly.

Book Description
'The Ghost Pirates . . . is a powerful account of a doomed and haunted ship on its last voyage, and of the terrible sea-devils (of quasi-human aspect, and perhaps the spirits of bygone buccaneers) that besiege it and finally drag it down to an unknown fate. With its command of maritime knowledge, and its clever selection of hints and incidents suggestive of latent horrors in nature, this book at times reaches enviable peaks of power.' -- H.P. Lovecraft

Wolves of the Sea (free), by Randall Parrish, is one I bought a while back, on a forum recommendation and it's 5-star reader review. Guess I need to move it to the top of my TBR stack.

Book Description
Full title: Wolves of the Sea Being a Tale of the Colonies From the Manuscript of One Geoffry Carlyle, Seaman, Narrating Certain Strange Adventures Which Befell Him Aboard the Pirate Craft "Namur"

The Frozen Pirate (free), by W. Clark (William Clark) Russell, is another public domain title that has a 5-star reader rating.

Book Description
William Clark Russell was a writer of nautical novels, born in New York. He spent eight years at sea as a sailor, gaining the experience he would use in his fiction. After his years at sea, he turned to journalism, and was on the staff of New York's Daily Chronicle before he took to writing novels.

The Frozen Pirate is the story of Paul Rodney, a sailor who narrowly escapes death by shipwreck and exposure in the Straits of Magellan. Surmounting that peril, he faces another: Embedded in the Antarctic ice is an ancient vessel, filled with what seem to be frozen, contorted corpses. But the ship is a pirate ship, and the corpses aren't dead. When one of them revives, Rodney must fend off (and cooperate with, if he hopes to survive) one of the most bloodthirsty and black-hearted scoundrels ever to sail the seven seas!


There are a number of other good books with a pirate theme, if you are willing to look beyond the $5 bargain limit, as well. I've picked out my book for the day; what about you? Which one are you reading?

$2.00 Coupon Plus Sale Prices at Kobo

It's another $2 off sale at Kobo this weekend, with two coupons, one valid on a single book and pretty much from a single list of titles, while the other is good for any non-Agency book and can be used multiple times. Kobo's books are in EPUB format and generally don't work on the Kindle, but this is a great sale for those who have another ebook reader or use one of the phone, pad or desktop apps.

First, to promote their new Desktop reading app, you can use coupon code kobodesktop to get $2 off any of the titles on the list of 202 books. This one can only be used once, but I'm not sure when it expires. If you don't get to it today, it's worth trying anytime in the next few days.

The second code is twodollars and it can be used on ANY non-agency book; one good place to start searching is the Can't get these in iBooks list. Even better, it can be used multiple times and on books that sell for less than two bucks, you get the book for free. A number of the titles on the Cheap Reads list will qualify, but many of those are Agency publishers. Also, I've found that their indie-writers don't end up on that list at all. I searched for The Invasion, by William Meikle, after reading a recommendation for it one one of the ebook forums I frequent and found it for $1.79 (it's the same on Kindle), which means it was free after the coupon was applied.

If you've never used Kobo, you'll have to set up an account. Once you click on the Buy Now button on any book page, you'll see a confirmation page with your payment info. In the middle of the lower portion of the page, there is a link that reads
Have a promo code?
Click here >
Click, enter the coupon code and then click on Apply >. Check the Total: shown at the right before clicking on $ Buy Now, as what is shown is what you'll be charged. It is possible to get a refund from Kobo, but like most ebookstores, the process isn't as automatic as it is with Amazon. Also, as far as I can tell, you cannot buy a gift card and use it for purchases (although you could get a prepaid visa/master card and use that, I suspect, if it has an address registered). So, if you buy some of the lower priced books, your credit card company may hold the payments until you OK them, as under $1 charges are sometimes flagged for possible fraud. Also, even though the site caters towards those in the US, it is a Canadian registered company. If your credit card bars out of country purchases, you'll have to either try another card or call them and get Kobobooks.com placed on an exemption list (which most card companies can do) to allow the charges to go thru.