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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Today's Deals and Bargain Books

First, a couple of format updates on free books:
For today's bargain books, I've included a link to B&N or Kobo, if the price is closely matched. Don't forget to check the coupon code list at left for Kobo's titles, as some of them are eligible, which often makes them the best deal for readers that use EPUB.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy ($1.99), by Eric Metaxas, a biography published by Christian publisher Thomas Nelson, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day.
Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of Amazing Grace, a groundbreaking biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the greatest heroes of the twentieth century, the man who stood up to Hitler.

A definitive, deeply moving narrative, Bonhoeffer is a story of moral courage in the face of the monstrous evil that was Nazism.

After discovering the fire of true faith in a Harlem church, Bonhoeffer returned to Germany and became one of the first to speak out against Hitler. As a double-agent, he joined the plot to assassinate the Fuhrer, and was hanged in Flossenberg concentration camp at age 39. Since his death, Bonhoeffer has grown to be one of the most fascinating, complex figures of the 20th century.

Bonhoeffer presents a profoundly orthodox Christian theologian whose faith led him to boldly confront the greatest evil of the 20th century, and uncovers never-before-revealed facts, including the story of his passionate romance.

If the first title is one that grabbed you (or even if it doesn't), be sure to check out Auschwitz, by Miklos Nyiszli, Bruno Bettelheim (foreword), Tibere Kremer (Translator) and Richard Seaver (Translator), currently marked down to $1.99 on Kindle and at B&N and Kobo.
Book Description
Auschwitz was one of the first books to bring the full horror of the Nazi death camps to the American public; this is, as the New York Review of Books said, "the best brief account of the Auschwitz experience available."When the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944, they sent virtually the entire Jewish population to Auschwitz. A Jew and a medical doctor, the prisoner Dr. Miklos Nyiszli was spared death for a grimmer fate: to perform "scientific research" on his fellow inmates under the supervision of the man who became known as the infamous "Angel of Death"--Dr. Josef Mengele. Nyiszli was named Mengele's personal research pathologist. In that capacity he also served as physician to the Sonderkommando, the Jewish prisoners who worked exclusively in the crematoriums and were routinely executed after four months. Miraculously, Nyiszli survived to give this horrifying and sobering account.

Auschwitz was one of the first books to bring the full horror of the Nazi death camps to the American public. Although much has since been written about the Holocaust, this eyewitness account remains, as the New York Review of Bookssaid in 1987, "the best brief account of the Auschwitz experience available." Of Bruno Bettelheim’s famous foreword Neal Ascherson has written, "Its eloquence and outrage must guarantee it a permanent place in Jewish historiography."

The Craft of Research, Third Edition (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) ($3.23), by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams, belongs in every student's, researcher's and writer's library. If you already have a well-worn copy, you need to grab this replacement, which has been updated to deal with the internet age.
Book Description
With more than 400,000 copies now in print, The Craft of Research is the unrivaled resource for researchers at every level, from first-year undergraduates to research reporters at corporations and government offices.

Seasoned researchers and educators Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams present an updated third edition of their classic handbook, whose first and second editions were written in collaboration with the late Wayne C. Booth. The Craft of Research explains how to build an argument that motivates readers to accept a claim; how to anticipate the reservations of readers and to respond to them appropriately; and how to create introductions and conclusions that answer that most demanding question, “So what?”

The third edition includes an expanded discussion of the essential early stages of a research task: planning and drafting a paper. The authors have revised and fully updated their section on electronic research, emphasizing the need to distinguish between trustworthy sources (such as those found in libraries) and less reliable sources found with a quick Web search. A chapter on warrants has also been thoroughly reviewed to make this difficult subject easier for researchers

Throughout, the authors have preserved the amiable tone, the reliable voice, and the sense of directness that have made this book indispensable for anyone undertaking a research project.

If you picked up The Score, by Richard Stark (Donald E. Westlake), which is still free in most stores, you'll definitely want to look at the trio of books in the same series that are currently marked down to $2.66.

The Hunter is the first in the Parker series; you may recognize it better from the movie title, though: 1967's hit Point Blank or the remake/re-adaptation 30 years later, Payback.
You probably haven’t ever noticed them. But they’ve noticed you. They notice everything. That’s their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers’ work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack.

They’re thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They’re pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you’re planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister’s heister, the robber’s robber, the heavy’s heavy. You don’t want to cross him, and you don’t want to get in his way, because he’ll stop at nothing to get what he’s after.

Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark’s eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose-style—and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency—Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover—and become addicted to.

In The Hunter, the first volume in the series, Parker roars into New York City, seeking revenge on the woman who betrayed him and on the man who took his money, stealing and scamming his way to redemption.
The Man with the Getaway Face, the second in the series, was also released under the title The Steel Hit.
Parker goes under the knife in The Man with the Getaway Face, changing his face to escape the mob and a contract on his life. Along the way he scores his biggest heist yet: an armored car in New Jersey, stuffed with cash.
The Mourner, the fourth in the series, comes immediately before The Score.
The Mourner is a story of convergence—of cultures and of guys with guns. Hot on the trail of a statue stolen from a fifteenth-century French tomb, Parker enters a world of eccentric art collectors, greedy foreign officials, and shady KGB agents. Next, Parker works with a group of professional con men in The Score on his biggest job yet—robbing an entire town in North Dakota. In The Jugger, Parker travels to Nebraska to help out a geriatric safecracker who knows too many of his criminal secrets. By the time he arrives, the safecracker is dead and Parker’s skeletons are on the verge of escaping from their closet—unless Parker resorts to lethal measures.

Don't Believe Your Lying Eyes ($3.99) is the third title in the Darryl Billups Mystery series by Blair S. Walker. The first two were featured in a Kindle Deal of the Day last week, so you'll want to grab this companion volume before it goes back up in price.
Book Description
... appearances can be deceiving . . . and just as deadly.

Every two months for the last seventeen years, the payments for unit number nine at a storage facility in West Baltimore have arrived without fail. After the money orders mysteriously stop, a grisly surprise is found inside the abandoned space: the mummified remains of black socialite Adrienne Hudson. The victim's husband was none other than Charles Hudson, one of Baltimore's greatest business leaders, who has since remarried a much younger woman. Adrienne's disappearance during an apparent robbery in 1984 shocked and saddened the people of Baltimore. Now her murder has reopened old wounds, and cast a shadow of suspicion on a pillar of the community.

Into this lurid state of affairs steps Baltimore Herald reporter Darryl Billups, who is set to marry his long-time, live-in girlfriend, Yolanda, and become an instant father to her wonderful four-year old son. Nervous about the upcoming wedding after thirty-three years of bachelorhood, he welcomes any distraction and eagerly throws himself into the sordid case.

Yet after receiving sensitive inside information from a contact in the police department, Darryl discovers there's much more to the story than meets the eye. Maneuvering through a world of lies and deception, privilege and power, Darryl uncovers secrets and bombshells which will lead him to an unlikely suspect-one who will shake the foundations of a proud city . . . and one that just may cost Darryl his life.

Blood Safari ($4.62 Kindle; $4.99 B&N, Kobo) is a stand-alone title by Deon Meyer, whose Thirteen Hours was a recent Kindle Deal of the Day.
Book Description
Published to rave reviews around the world, Blood Safari is a harrowing new novel from acclaimed writer Deon Meyer. Like the best international mystery and thriller writers, Meyer is an expert storyteller whose wickedly fast narratives reveal the heart of his enthralling country. In Blood Safari, Emma Le Roux, a beautiful young woman, sees her brother named on the Cape Town news as the prime suspect in the killing of four poachers and a witch doctor. But it can’t be possible: he disappeared twenty years ago in Kruger National Park and is believed to be dead. Emma tries to find out more but is attacked and barely escapes. So she hires Lemmer, a personal security expert, and sets out into the Lowveld in search of the truth. A complicated man with a dishonorable past, Lemmer just wants to do his job and avoid getting personally involved. But as they search for answers from the rural police, they encounter racial and political tensions, greed, corruption, and violence unlike anything they have ever known. A chilling novel from a master of suspense, Blood Safari takes the reader beyond the headlines and into the complicated present and dangerous history of South Africa.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Free Audiobook - Prayers: A Personal Selection

Christianaudio's free audiobook this month is Prayers: A Personal Selection ($9.95 Audible), arrangements by Michael Hoppe, narrated by Michael York.
Book Description
Supplemental PDF download with the text of each prayer also included!

Prayers: A Personal Selection read by Michael York and composed by Michael Hoppe contains some of the most significant and most beloved prayers in Christianity. Our Lord's Prayer, the prayers of both Old Testament and New Testament saints, and some of the most famous Christian prayers are beautifully and warmly narrated by Michael York. These classic devotional prayers are sure to encourage and grow one to greater faith in Christ.
Get your free audio download HERE and scroll down the page for the $4.98 discounted titles for this month. The checkout process is very streamlined (a coupon code is no longer required), as is the download process (no longer do you have to download each part of the book separately). You can also send a gift download of the free audiobook to someone else!

After finishing your order, download a zip file with the entire audiobook: select MP3 if you want to be able to play the book on your Kindle (M4B for the iOS, iTunes or QuickTime). Unzip the contents to the \audiobooks directory on your Kindle (not \music) in order to have audiobook controls and see it on your Kindle home page.

Today's Deals

If you buy books on Fictionwise, they have a new coupon code this weekend, 090311, good for 55% off (not including Samhain).

Thirteen Hours ($1.99), by Deon Meyer, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day.
Book Description
Internationally acclaimed, prize-winning thriller writer Deon Meyer has been heralded as the “King of South African Crime.” In Thirteen Hours, morning dawns in Cape Town, and for homicide detective Benny Griessel it promises to be a very trying day. A teenage girl’s body has been found on the street, her throat cut. She was an American—a PR nightmare in the #1 tourist destination in South Africa. And she wasn’t alone. Somewhere in Cape Town her friend, Rachel Anderson, an innocent American, is hopefully still alive.

On the run from the first page of Thirteen Hours, Rachel is terrified, unsure where to turn in the unknown city. Detective Griessel races against the clock, trying to bring her home safe and solve the murder of her friend in a single day. Meanwhile, he gets pulled into a second case, the murder of a South African music executive. Griessel’s been sober for nearly six months—156 days. But day 157 is going to be tough. A #1 best seller in South Africa and a finalist for the CWA International Dagger, Thirteen Hours is an atmospheric, intensely gripping novel from a master storyteller.

Heart of a Knight ($0.99 Kindle), by Barbara Samuel, is marked down at Amazon and free on Smashwords. This backlist title was first published with HarperCollins in 1997, and won a RITA for Best Historical Romance.
Book Description
NO HEART EVER BEAT SO NOBLE—NOR SO STRONG
Britain, 1351. After an arduous exile to flee the darkness and danger sweeping her lands, Lady Elizabeth D’Auvers returns home to Woodell Castle, yearning only for her looms and her quiet life. To her astonishment, she finds the castle and farmlands thriving, thanks to Lord Thomas of Roxburgh, a knight errant whose size and strength offer protection to Elizabeth’s castle and its people.

Lord Thomas’s warm gaze makes Elizabeth’s flesh burn with unaccustomed fire, and her defenses crumble, leaving her heart as vulnerable as her trembling body. Yet chilling thoughts trouble her mind. For there is something dark and mysterious about this man—a secret that makes him as forbidden to desire as he is impossible to resist.

All but one of Anne Frasier's backlist (including those released as Theresa Weir) are free on Amazon. They were free on Smashwords for a while, but she's removed the books from there, so I'd grab these before they go back up in price. The only title that didn't drop is Before I Wake, which at $3.99 is still a good deal (especially on a title formerly published by Penguin, as they tend to start at about $8 for backlist titles). ETA: Over at B&N, you can also find these free (for now) - I just saw the prices go up on Smashwords, so I expect prices of $3.99 each within a few days.

Book Description
If you are a fan of Fringe, you might like Before I Wake.

Caught between dreams and reality... A madman murdered her family, leaving her a shadow of the woman she once was. So one-time criminal profiler Arden Davis did the only thing she could: She volunteered for an experiment to wipe out the horrific memories that haunted her every waking moment. But the experiment wasn’t quite the success they predicted—and now Arden is left sifting through random memories, trying to distinguish dreams from reality. Then one night, Special Agent Nathan Fury shows up on her doorstep with an urgent appeal for help. She awakes to a living nightmare... The murderer, it turns out, is still on the streets. This time, Arden will risk everything—even her own sanity—to lure the killer out of hiding. Even if it means the killer is closer than she thought. Even if she herself becomes the number-one suspect…

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Today's Deals

Two additional books from the bonanza on the first have turned up free on nook - I've updated the corrections list.

Alison Wonderland ($0.99), by Helen Smith, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day. It's been discounted to $3.99 quite a bit lately, but this is about the lowest price I've seen on this book (full disclosure, I have a review copy in hand, but haven't read it, yet).
Book Description
After her husband leaves her for another woman, twentysomething Londoner Alison Temple impulsively applies for a job at the very P.I. firm she hired to trap her philandering ex. She hopes it will be the change of scene she so desperately needs to move on with her shattered life. At the all-female Fitzgerald’s Bureau of Investigation, she spends her days tracking lost objects and her nights shadowing unfaithful husbands. But no matter what the case, none of her clients can compare to the fascinating characters in her personal life. There’s her boss, the estimable and tidy Mrs. Fitzgerald; Taron, Alison’s eccentric best friend, who claims her mother is a witch; Jeff, her love-struck, poetry-writing neighbor; and—last but not least—her psychic postman. Her relationships with them all become entangled when she joins Taron for a road trip to the seaside and stumbles into a misadventure of epic proportions! Clever, quirky, and infused with just a hint of magic, this humorous literary novel introduces a memorable heroine struggling with the everyday complexities of modern life.

The Name of this Book Is Secret ($0.99), by Pseudonymous Bosch, is the spotlight book this month at Barnes & Noble (and price matched on Kindle). As you might guess from the description, this is a children's book, but from the reviews at Amazon, the audience ranges from age 6 to adults.
Book Description
Warning: this description has not been authorized by Pseudonymous Bosch. As much as he'd love to sing the praises of his book (he is very vain), he wouldn't want you to hear about his brave 11-year old heroes, Cass and Max-Ernest. Or about how a mysterious box of vials, the Symphony of Smells, sends them on the trail of a magician who has vanished under strange (and stinky) circumstances. And he certainly wouldn't want you to know about the hair-raising adventures that follow and the nefarious villains they face. You see, not only is the name of this book secret, the story inside is, too. For it concerns a secret. A Big Secret.

The Getaway is a free novella by Sonya Bateman, that ties in to her urban fantasy djinn series, published by Simon and Schuster.
Book Description
Getaway driver Jazz wasn't exactly thrilled when the thief Gavyn Donatti, her ex-partner -- and the unwitting father of her son -- waltzed back into her life, and then dragged her into the middle of a magical war between a bunch of ancient genies, who'd been hiding among humans for centuries. And as if that wasn't enough, it turned out these djinn didn't choose Donatti for his charm... he's related to them, and has a little magic of his own.

Now that they've vanquished their enemies and Jazz has more or less accepted Donatti into her life, he's talked her into taking a weekend trip for her birthday. A "romantic" getaway in a rustic cabin. Unfortunately, Donatti's map-reading skills aren't up to par, and neither is his car -- because first they get lost, and then they wreck on some unnamed mountain road.

When Jazz comes to, Donatti is MIA and she's been abducted by a smooth-talking stranger who is more than he appears. There's something magical, and dangerous, going on -- and for once, it's not Donatti's fault.

The Donzerly Light, by Ryne Douglas Pearson, is another free indie book on Kindle. The author is the one that caught my eye, this time, and he also has an omnibus, The Art Jefferson Collection, that's currently $6.95 and includes Simple Simon, which was the basis of the movie Mercury Rising.
Book Description
If evil shook your hand, would you know it?

With a destitute childhood and the tragic loss of his parents a distant but constant memory, Jay Grady has come to Wall Street to make a name, and a fortune, for himself. But the success he'd imagined is frustratingly elusive.

Until he meets the bum. An enigmatic transient who occupies a Manhattan corner, offering puzzling morsels of wisdom on a sign he changes daily. Drawn to the bum one day by a familiar snippet on his sign, Jay gives the man some spare change.

What he gets in return shakes him to his core.

Suddenly gifted with some power of prescience, Jay becomes the darling of Wall Street, picking winning stocks as if he can glimpse the future.

Or shape it.

But the dark side of this gift reveals itself as a curse when Jay tries to turn away from what he's been given, leading the bum to reach into his life with murderous results. Running from the horrific reality that his power now unleashes, Jay finds his flight coming full circle as he must face the man, the thing, that set him on this path.

A number of indie authors have banded together to market an Indie Book Blowout weekend - all of the following books are marked down to 99 cents over the weekend. I've arranged them by genre and will just show the covers, as there are so many. I've actually stumbled upon a few additional titles that are marked down for the weekend, but are not mentioned on the official page, so I've included them here on the first tab.


Free Book (noDRM) - Radix

Radix ($7.99 Kindle), the first in the Radix Tetrad by A. A. Attanasio, is this month's free book from Phoenix Pick. This makes three from this author that I've picked up free (thanks, Phoenix!), but for those new to his work, there's a decent deal on buying the rest of the series or all of his titles as a bundle, also on the download page.
Book Description
A young man's odyssey of self discovery in a world eerily alien, yet hauntingly familiar.

Set thirteen centuries in the future, A. A. Attanasio meticulously creates a brilliantly realized Earth, rich in detail and filled with beings brought to life with intense energy.

In this strange and beautiful world, Sumner Kagan will change from an adolescent outcast to a warrior with god-like powers and in the process take us on an epic and transcendent journey.

Click HERE for the free book from Phoenix Pick. You'll need to scroll down to find the book's listing, then click on "FREE EBOOK of the Month", then enter coupon code 9991421. Click thru the next page and then scroll down and get the format of your choice. They are DRM-free, so you can convert to other formats, if desired.

NOTE: As of right now, the link that says "FREE EBOOK" is still under The Multiplex Man, but click and use the current coupon code and you will end up on the download page for Radix.