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Monday, October 22, 2012

30% Off Select Kindle Styluses & Stands (KSO)

This offer is only for those with a Kindle Fire with Special Offers (KFSO).

From the home page of your KFSO, swipe the top menu to the left until you see Offers, then press/click in order to see the current offers. At the bottom, you should see the offer for 30% Off Select Kindle Styluses & Stands. Click on the offer, then on the orange button to add the credit directly to your account. It's nearly instant and the next screen offers to take you to Amazon so you can spend that credit away! If you miss that screen, though, don't worry - a document about the offer will appear on your home page. You must sign up by October 28 to get this promo discount.

Choose one or more Kindle Accessories that are both shipped and sold by Amazon and order away. From the wording on the offer, you can use one-click and have multiple orders, up to the $30 total discount allowed. This credit expires November 4. Limit one per customer and one per device.

The stands are already 25%-33% off list price, so your discount will be off the shown price (a net discount up to about 50%). The one from Belkin looks like it would be easy to pack and use when not at home and I am tempted to get a new stylus that matches my cover (with everyone's here being a boring black, it's easy to lose track of them).

Today's Deals

Similar to the Humble eBook Bundle, there is a Halloween Horror eBook Bundle over at StoryBundle. This one is a little simpler, as you get six books for any price you are willing to pay and two additional titles if you pay $9 or greater. These are indie/midlist authors, for the most part (several of which I've read), although Kevin J. Anderson is the author of one of the bonus books (and it sells for $6 at Amazon, on it's own).

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Fall ($1.99), by Ryan Quinn.
Book Description
The new school year at Florence University, nestled in the Pennsylvania countryside, dawns bright with the possibilities that only a fresh start can bring. For three students in particular, it will be a year unlike any other, one that will alter the courses of their lives forever. There is Ian, the film buff trying to figure out his life—and how to catch the eye of the football player he can’t stop fantasizing about; Casey, the local football star whose future off the field is frustratingly uncertain; and Haile, the classical-music prodigy seeking refuge from a past life so that she may start anew as a singer-songwriter. Together the trio will form a fateful friendship, recounted through alternating first-person narratives. Sexy, fast-paced, and layered with intimate insight about life’s most formative years, The Fall is a compelling and contemporary coming-of-age story about what happens when we are forced for the first time to really confront who we are and who we want to become.

Big Maria ($1.58 / £0.99 UK), by Johnny Shaw, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99, with companion audiobook for $5.49).
Book Description
There’s gold in them thar hills—or more precisely, in Arizona’s Chocolate Mountains, where one hundred years ago a miner stashed a king’s ransom of the stuff. But times have changed. The world has changed. And now the Chocolate Mountains are the home of the largest military artillery range in the world.

Harry’s living on disability and getting liquored up and beaten down. Frank’s a feisty old-timer battling cancer and a domineering daughter. And Ricky’s a good kid in a bad spot, doing everything for family. Together they’re staking what little they have left on a dangerous quest to the Big Maria Mine—and the gold that can offer them a new beginning.

Unfortunately a meth-dealing biker wants a piece, a trigger-happy AWOL soldier wants to play chicken in a live minefield, two stubborn burros want to go home, a starving mountain lion wants his dinner, and the US Army wants to rain on our heroes’ parade with real bombs.

When you’re all out of crazy ideas, you’ve got to try the stupid ones.

Imagine Chuck Palahniuk and Don Winslow’s love child – and that would be ribald author Johnny Shaw. His novel Big Maria is a unfiltered, wild romp in which three men get one chance to find a lost gold mine; the only problem is the Big Maria Mine is right in the middle of a US Army artillery range.

Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World ($9.43$4.99 Kindle, B&N), by Michael Hyatt, is the Nook Daily Find. Update: Now price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
Michael Hyatt, one of the top business bloggers in the world, provides down-to-earth guidance for building and expanding a powerful platform.

To be successful in the market today, you must possess two strategic assets: a compelling product and a meaningful platform. In this step-by-step guide, Michael Hyatt, former CEO and current Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, takes readers behind the scenes, into the new world of social media success. He shows you what best-selling authors, public speakers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and other creatives are doing differently to win customers in today’s crowded marketplace. Hyatt speaks from experience. He writes one of the top 800 blogs in the world and has more than 100,000 followers on Twitter. His large and growing platform serves as the foundation for his successful writing, speaking, and consulting practice.

In Platform, Hyatt will teach readers not only how to extend their influence, but also how to monetize it and build a sustainable career. The key? By building a platform. It has never been easier, less expensive, or more possible than right now. . .

The Good Soldiers ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), by David Finkel, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
It was the last-chance moment of the war. In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. He called it the surge. “Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences,” he told a skeptical nation. Among those listening were the young, optimistic army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them.

Fifteen months later, the soldiers returned home forever changed. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David Finkel was with them in Bagdad, and almost every grueling step of the way.

What was the true story of the surge? And was it really a success? Those are the questions he grapples with in his remarkable report from the front lines. Combining the action of Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down with the literary brio of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, The Good Soldiers is an unforgettable work of reportage. And in telling the story of these good soldiers, the heroes and the ruined, David Finkel has also produced an eternal tale—not just of the Iraq War, but of all wars, for all time.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Gooney Bird Greene ($1.99), by Lois Lowry.
Book Description
From the moment Gooney Bird Greene arrives at Watertower Elementary School, her fellow second-graders are intrigued by her unique sense of style and her unusual lunches. So when story time arrives, the choice is unanimous: they want to hear about Gooney Bird Greene. And that suits her just fine, because, as it turns out, Gooney Bird has quite a few interesting and “absolutely true” stories to tell.

Through Gooney Bird and her tales, acclaimed author Lois Lowry introduces young readers to the concepts and elements of storytelling. By demonstrating some of the simple techniques that reveal the extraordinary in everyday events, this book will encourage the storyteller in everyone.

Grade Level: 3 and up

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Humble EBook Bundle (DF)

I've highlighted the guys over at Humble Bundle a time or two in the past, for their game bundles. This month, they have a Science Fiction and Fantasy ebook bundle that is well worth buying. You can pay as little as you want (down to $1 - the minimum set to cover the charges for processing the charge) or as much as you want (two have paid $1,000 or more). Their bundles allow you to split your purchase between the authors, Humble (for organizing the bundle and processing the payments, running the servers, etc) and charity (this month, it's the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Child’s Play Charity, and/or the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America).

If you pay more than the average (currently right at $14), they are throwing in several more titles: a graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, Randall Munroe's xkcd: volume 0 (I started reading xkcd back when it was free on the internet and I'm looking forward to reading the collection; the comic pictured here is from xkcd), John Scalzi's Old Man's War ($8 on it's own at Amazon, although it does get you access to the $4 companion audiobook), two graphic novels by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik and two more from Zach Weiner. That's a baker's dozen of titles in all, for just over a buck apiece.

These are the base six novels that everyone gets (I'm linking to Amazon, so you can read the descriptions and reviews):
All are DRM-free, so you can view them on most ereaders (although I'd use a large color tablet for the graphic novels, unless you have very young eyes; plus, these are PDF's, with the HD quality versions quite large in size). I always add at least a few cents more than the average, just in case it goes up a bit before I click on buy, to ensure I get the entire bundle. You can checkout using Paypal, Google Payments or Amazon Payments (the payments get processed by Amazon, but the purchase is via Humble, so the books are not automatically in your Kindle Library -- but you can email them to yourself for easy access and backup). If you do use Paypal, you'll ensure more of the payment goes towards Humble (or the charity or authors; you pick the split) by not paying with a credit card. Once your payment has been processed, click the link in the center of the page to get your access key and the follow the link on the next page to download your books.

Today's Deals

Be sure to check out tonight's Amazon Lightning Deals at 9PM (6PM Pacific) for a "BUILT sleeve for you Kindle Fire or Kindle Keyboard" and at 10PM (7PM Pacific) for a bedside with an alarm clock dock from iHome for the Kindle Fire (not HD).

G5 Entertainment AB has four hidden object games for the Kindle Fire (and any other Android device) on sale for 99 cents (regularly $4.99). VeggieTales: The League of Incredible Vegetables (Kindle Tablet Edition) and SpongeBob Marbles & Slides (Kindle Tablet Edition) are also 99 cents (looks like greats choice for kids, regularly $2.99 - $3.99) and there are several Kindle Tablet Edition Kindle Tablet Edition games from Electronic Arts at the same price, such as SCRABBLE, THE GAME OF LIFE, SimCity Deluxe, MADDEN NFL 12 and NBA JAM.

This weekend's Fictionwise code is 101912 for 50% off non-Samhain books.

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

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is City of Women ($2.99), by David R. Gillham.
Book Description
Whom do you trust, whom do you love, and who can be saved?

It is 1943—the height of the Second World War—and Berlin has essentially become a city of women. Sigrid Schröder is, for all intents and purposes, the model German soldier’s wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime. But behind this façade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman who dreams of her former lover, now lost in the chaos of the war. Her lover is a Jew.

But Sigrid is not the only one with secrets.

A high ranking SS officer and his family move down the hall and Sigrid finds herself pulled into their orbit. A young woman doing her duty-year is out of excuses before Sigrid can even ask her any questions. And then there’s the blind man selling pencils on the corner, whose eyes Sigrid can feel following her from behind the darkness of his goggles.

Soon Sigrid is embroiled in a world she knew nothing about, and as her eyes open to the reality around her, the carefully constructed fortress of solitude she has built over the years begins to collapse. She must choose to act on what is right and what is wrong, and what falls somewhere in the shadows between the two.

In this page-turning novel, David Gillham explores what happens to ordinary people thrust into extraordinary times, and how the choices they make can be the difference between life and death.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is the first four volumes of the "Brain Quest" educational series by Chris Welles Feder and Susan Bishay for $1.99 each (83% off), all revised 4th editions. All run on the Kindle Fire or any of the Kindle apps.

Brain Quest Preschool: 300 Questions and Answers to Get a Smart Start
Brain Quest Kindergarten: 300 Questions and Answers to Get a Smart Start
Brain Quest Grade 1: 750 Questions and Answers to Challenge the Mind
Brain Quest Grade 2: 1,000 Questions and Answers to Challenge the Mind
Brain Quest is beloved by kids, trusted by parents, used and recommended by teachers. It’s the curriculum-based, fast-paced, question-and-answer game that challenges kids on the stuff they need to know, when they need to know it. It’s the brand that says “It’s fun to be smart!” And it delivers.

For the fourth edition every deck is thoroughly revised and includes 20 percent new material. The content aligns with national and state standards and is overseen by the Brain Quest Advisory Board, a panel of award-winning educators, each a recent state teacher-of-the-year award winner or a recipient of the prestigious Milken Educator Award. The covers and cards have a refreshed design, giving Brain Quest a cooler, updated look.

Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. It's been free in both stores several times, so you probably already have this one in your library.
Book Description
Critical Thinking is about becoming a better thinker in every aspect of your life: in your career, and as a consumer, citizen, friend, parent, and lover. Discover the core skills of effective thinking; then analyze your own thought processes, identify weaknesses, and overcome them. Learn how to translate more effective thinking into better decisions, less frustration, more wealth Ñ and above all, greater confidence to pursue and achieve your most important goals in life.

The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House ($9.99 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Nancy Gibbs, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012. This is an Agency title and should be the same in all stores, so it should drop (and I've reported the price to Amazon).
Book Description
No one man or woman has ever been in a position to see the presidents, and the presidency, so intimately, over so many years. They called him in for photo opportunities. They called for comfort. They asked about death and salvation; about sin and forgiveness.

At a time when the nation is increasingly split over the place of religion in public life, THE PREACHER AND THE PRESIDENTS reveals how the world's most powerful men and world's most famous evangelist, Billy Graham, knit faith and politics together.

An Officer and a Gentlewoman ($2.07 / £1.29 UK), by Heloise Goodley, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).
Book Description
When Heloise Goodley ditched her City job and decided to attend officer training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, she had no prior military experience. On her arrival she was a complete novice: she'd never fired a rifle, she couldn't march; she couldn't make her bed; she couldn't even shine her shoes.

An Officer and a Gentlewoman charts Goodley's absorbing journey through Sandhurst and on to Afghanistan and gives an insight into the array of bizarre military behaviours and customs at this esoteric and hidden institution. With wit and sensitivity Goodley details her experiences as a cadet and the painful transition from civilian to soldier. Moreover, she rejects lazy preconceptions and sheds new light on what has hitherto been a bastion of maleness - the British Army.

About the Author
Heloise Goodley was a City banker before she made an impulsive decision to join the Army in 2007 and undertake officer training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. She has since completed two operational tours of Afghanistan and currently holds the rank of Captain as Adjutant of an Apache helicopter regiment. She still can't march or shine shoes.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Today's Deals

If you had problems with either of Tantor Media's free audiobooks yesterday, it looks like they have fixed the server issues and you should be able to get them today.

Going Organic Can Kill You ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Staci McLaughlin, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. This looks to be a fun cozy mystery and I'm going to buy it just for the title!
Book Description
Welcome to Blossom Valley, CA, home of the O'Connell Organic Farm and Spa, complete with its new marketing maven, Dana Lewis, former Blossom Valley resident and unapologetic junk food connoisseur--and soon to be sleuth. . .

As Dana readjusts to life back home with her recently widowed mother, her latest career move isn't exactly a piece of cake. In fact, it's all tofu fish sticks, stuffed squash blossoms, and enough wheat grass shots to scream bloody murder--especially when Dana discovers the body of Maxwell Mendelsohn, Hollywood producer and opening weekend guest, deader than a yoga corpse pose. While Dana pens the Spa's blog and balances the attentions of the local police and reporter Jason Forrester, her escalating job duties now include finding clues, motives and suspects. One thing's for certain, she better act fast before all this healthy living kills her.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Eight Inspiring Books for $1.99 each.

The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow (companion audiobook $4.99)
A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned, by Michael J. Fox (companion audiobook $4.99)
Michael J. Fox abandoned high school to pursue an acting career, but went on to receive honorary degrees from several universities and garner the highest accolades for his acting, as well as for his writing. In his new book, he inspires and motivates graduates to recognize opportunities, maximize their abilities, and roll with the punches--all with his trademark optimism, warmth, and humor.

In A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future, Michael draws on his own life experiences to make a case that real learning happens when "life goes skidding sideways." He writes of coming to Los Angeles from Canada at age eighteen and attempting to make his way as an actor. Fox offers up a comically skewed take on how, in his own way, he fulfilled the requirements of a college syllabus. He learned Economics as a starving artist; an unexpected turn as a neophyte activist schooled him in Political Science; and his approach to Comparative Literature involved stacking books up against their movie versions.

Replete with personal stories and hilarious anecdotes, Michael J. Fox's new book is the perfect gift for graduates.
From The Heart: Seven Eight Rules To Live By, by Robin Roberts
The first-ever book from popular and respected Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts, filled with her own hard-won insights into what makes success

While most people will say that the key to success is a willingness to break the rules, to think outside the box, to ignore boundaries, Robin Roberts -- whose own spectacular success as a college basketball star, ESPN commentator, and co-anchor on Good Morning America is undisputed -- is here to tell readers differently. In her considerable experience, there are seven rules whose importance cannot be ignored, and which must never be broken if true, meaningful success is the goal. In the tradition of bestsellers like Maria Shriver's And One More Thing Before You Go, Anna Quindlen's A Short Guide to a Happy Life, and Marlo Thomas The Right Words at the Right Time, From the Heart is the perfect gift for new grads, and an inspiring read for anyone searching for the path to success.
Just Who Will You Be?: Big Question. Little Book. Answer Within., by Maria Shriver
Just Who Will You Be is a candid, heartfelt, and inspirational book for seekers of all ages. Inspired by a speech she gave, Maria Shriver's message is that what you do in your life isn't what matters. It's who you are. It's an important lesson that will appeal to anyone of any age looking for a life of meaning.

In her own life, Shriver always walked straight down her own distinctive path, achieving her childhood goal of becoming "award-winning network newswoman Maria Shriver". But when her husband was elected California's Governor and she suddenly had to leave her job at NBC News, Maria was thrown for a loop. Right about then, her nephew asked her to speak at his high school graduation. She resisted, wondering how she could possibly give advice to kids, when she was feeling so lost herself. But in the end she relented and decided to dig down and dig deep, and the result is this little jewel.

Just Who Will You Be reminds us that the answer to many of life's question lie within -- and that we're all works in progress. That means it's never too late to become the person you want to be.

Now the question for you is this: Just who will you be
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and It's All Small Stuff: Simple Ways To Keep The Little Things From Taking Over Your Life, by Richard Carlson (companion audiobook $7.95)
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...and It's All Small Stuff is an audiobook that tells you how to keep from letting the little things in life drive you crazy. In thoughtful and insightful language, author Richard Carlson reveals ways to calm down in the midst of your incredibly hurried, stress-filled life.

You can learn to put things into perspective by making the small daily changes Dr. Carlson suggests, including advice such as "Choose your battles wisely"; "Remind yourself that when you die, your 'in' box won't be empty"; and "Make peace with imperfection".

With gentle, supportive suggestions, Dr. Carlson reveals ways to make your actions more peaceful and caring, with the added benefit of making your life more calm and stress-free.
Burnt Toast: And Other Philosophies Of Life, by Teri Hatcher
Few women in America are as adored -- and accessible -- as Teri Hatcher. As the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award-winner for her portrayal of ditzy divorcee Susan Mayer on ABC's hit series Desperate Housewives, she's attained a level of success late in her career (in Hollywood terms, anyway) that most women would kill for. But in real life, Teri deals with the same issues as so many women: divorce, single motherhood, bad dates, turning forty . . . So it's no surprise that when Burnt Toast was published in hardcover, it received tremendous attention and went on to become a major national bestseller.

Full of Teri's foibles and successes, unexpected vulnerability, and frank openness (from looking in the refrigerator for Mr. Right to being told by her daughter's pediatrician that she should date more), Burnt Toast is a funny, intimate, uplifting portrait of one woman's daily struggles and successes on the road to living an inspired life.
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation In Everyday Life, by Jon Kabat-Zinn
The author of Full Catastrophe Living explains how anyone can use mindfulness--the art of living each moment fully as it happens--to reduce anxiety, achieve inner peace, and enrich life.

When Wherever You Go, There You Are was first published in 1994, no one could have predicted that the book would launch itself onto bestseller lists nationwide and sell over 750,000 copies to date. Ten years later, the book continues to change lives.
Hope's Boy, by Andrew Bridge (companion audiobook $9.95)
From the moment he was born, Andrew Bridge and his mother Hope shared a love so deep that it felt like nothing else mattered. Trapped in desperate poverty and confronted with unthinkable tragedies, all Andrew ever wanted was to be with his mom. But as her mental health steadily declined, and with no one else left to care for him, authorities arrived and tore Andrew from his screaming mother's arms. In that moment, the life he knew came crashing down around him. He was only seven years old.

Hope was institutionalized, and Andrew was placed in what would be his devastating reality for the next eleven years--foster care. After surviving one of our country's most notorious children's facilities, Andrew was thrust into a savagely loveless foster family that refused to accept him as one of their own. Deprived of the nurturing he needed, Andrew clung to academics and the kindness of teachers. All the while, he refused to surrender the love he held for his mother in his heart. Ultimately, Andrew earned a scholarship to Wesleyan, went on to Harvard Law School, and became a Fulbright Scholar.

Andrew has dedicated his life's work to helping children living in poverty and in the foster care system. He defied the staggering odds set against him, and here in this heartwrenching, brutally honest, and inspirational memoir, he reveals who Hope's boy really is.

To the Island ($1.59 / £0.99 UK), by Meaghan Delahunt , is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).
Book Description
He disappeared. That’s all she really knew.

In search of her father Andreas, whom she has never met, Lena travels with her small son from Australia to Greece. On the island of Naxos she finds him, a wary, tormented man living in self-imposed exile. Slowly Lena unlocks the secrets of her father’s past, and in getting to know him begins to understand the grim realities of contemporary Greek history. Like many politically active Greeks, Andreas was arrested and tortured during the rule of the Colonels in the sixties, disappearing for several years without trace. To the Island is a book about the impact of larger political events on the lives of ordinary people, and how political and personal betrayals reverberate across generations. It beautifully evokes the currents and cross-currents between individuals, within families and in broader society. And in Lena and Andreas’s stories, it shows how difficult it is to confront our personal and collective pasts – and the terrible consequences of being unable to do so.

Break Through: Why We Can't Leave Saving the Planet to Environmentalists ($9.99 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Michael Shellenberger, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012.
Book Description
Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger triggered a firestorm with the publication of Break Through, contending that the politics that dealt with acid rain and smog can’t deal with global warming.The nations that ratified the Kyoto protocol have seen their greenhouse gas emissions go up, not down. And the destruction of tropical rain forests, a key driver of global warming, has accelerated.What today’s ecological crises demand, say the authors, is not that we constrain human power but rather unleash it.We must go beyond interest group environmentalism and liberalism to create a politics focused as much on uncommon greatness as on the common good.

Break Through is the first step in a new progressive movement that will influence the political debate for years to come.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul: Stories of Life, Love and Learning ($1.99), by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Kimberly Kirberger.
Book Description
This first batch of Chicken Soup for Teens consists of 101 stories every teenager can relate to and learn from—without feeling criticized or judged. This edition contains important lessons on the nature of friendship and love, the importance of belief in the future, and the value of respect for oneself and others, and much more.

Grade Level: 7 and up