Free Audiobook - The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie

The audiobook edition of The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie (free Kindle, $27.99 Audible or $9.95 if you get the ebook first), narrated by Antony Ferguson, is free direct from Tantor Media.

Book Description
Andrew Carnegie, the great steel-baron-turned-philanthropist, was an industrialist unlike any other. His famous dictum, that he who dies rich dies disgraced, has inspired a generation of twenty-first-century philanthropists to follow in his footsteps and put their money towards philanthropic causes. He had an unwavering belief in distributing wealth for good, and systematically and deliberately gave away the bulk of his riches throughout his lifetime.

Born in 1835, he emigrated with his family to the United States from Scotland at a young age. His first job was in a cotton factory, and he later worked as an errand boy. The industrial age brought great opportunities for Mr. Carnegie. With drive and hard work, he amassed a fortune as a steel tycoon, and by adulthood the errand boy was one of the richest and most generous men in the United States. A strong dedication to giving back guided him throughout his life and career. During his own lifetime, he put his ideas into action by creating a family of organizations that continue to work toward improving the human condition, advancing international peace, strengthening democracy, and creating social progress that benefits men, women and children both in the United States and around the globe.

Here is the rags-to-riches tale of the life and philosophies of one of the most celebrated industrialists and philanthropists in history. From his humble beginnings as a poor Scottish immigrant to his immense success in business, Andrew Carnegie outlines the principles that he lived by and that today serve as the pillars of modern philanthropy.

About the Author
Entrepreneur and philanthropist ANDREW CARNEGIE (1835-1919) was born in Scotland and emigrated to America as a teenager. His Carnegie Steel Company launched the steel industry in Pittsburgh, and after its sale to J.P. Morgan, he devoted his life to philanthropic causes. His charitable organizations built more than 2,500 public libraries around the world, and gave away more than $350 million during his lifetime.

Get the free audiobook from Tantor. Do note that they've been having a few issues with their server this weekend, so you may want to wait until Monday afternoon to try for this one or try another browser (I managed to get this morning's title, but not this one, so far); it will be free thru the end of the month.

Free Audiobook - The Phantom of the Opera

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

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

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

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

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

Free Audiobook - The Next Always

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

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

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

Get the free audiobook from Audible.

Today's Deals

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

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

Additional formats on free books:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grade Level: Pre K and up

Today's Deals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And one of them may be next on her list.

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

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

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

Book Description
The Magyk Begins Here

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

Grade Level: 4 and up

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

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

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

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

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

Age Level: 12 and up