Today's Deals 12/3

Amazon is having a different Android App or Game on sale thru Christmas and today's game is The Dark Knight Rises, now 99 cents (down from $6.99). It works on any of the Kindle Fires (including the original), but requires nearly 2GB of storage, so you may not be able to squeeze it onto the smaller memory size tablets with removing other content (on the original Kindle Fire, you can 'clear data' on the Kindle app, which removes the archive list, with thumbnails of the covers, without removing any books, to recover additional space).

Amazon is also having a 12 Days of Book Deals promotion, with a different (paper) best-selling book on sale each day from 9AM to 1PM (PT) with savings up to 75%. Even if you aren't interested in the daily book deal, be sure to bookmark the page so you can enter the $250 gift card giveaway each day.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is My First Airplane Ride ($1.99), by Patricia Hubbell and Nancy Speir (Illustrator) .

Book Description
A first airplane ride can be very exciting! Watching planes take off and land, going through security, walking the jet way, finding the right seat, watching out the window as the plane taxis down the runway, and flying up high in the sky and then, at the other end, Grandma waiting with a hug! Nancy Speir's acrylic illustrations deftly interpret the wonder and joy of a child's first plane-trip adventure.

Grade Level: Pre-K and up

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Blood Safari ($1.99), by Deon Meyer and K.L. Seegers.

Book Description
Blood Safari is a harrowing novel from internationally acclaimed thriller writer Deon Meyer, an expert storyteller whose wickedly fast narratives reveal the heart of his enthralling country. In Blood Safari, Emma Le Roux, a beautiful young woman in Cape Town, sees her brother named on the television news as the prime suspect in the killing of four poachers and a witch doctor. But it can’t be possible: Emma’s brother is supposed to be dead, having disappeared twenty years ago in Kruger National Park. 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 country 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 he and Emma search for answers from the rural police, they encounter racial and political tensions, greed, corruption, and violence unlike anything they have ever known.

Think Your Way To Success: How to Develop a Winning Mindset and Achieve Amazing Results ($2.39 / £1.49 UK), by Mark Rhodes, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.87).

Book Description
You can achieve anything when you know how to put your mind to it

We all know that a positive mental attitude can work wonders… but there's so much more to it than that. With the right coaching you can move from positive attitude to determined success magnet! Mark Rhodes trains people every day on just how to achieve that level of concentrated resolve. In this book he'll show you how to build the mindset you need to achieve your goals and dreams and start to notice more opportunities and have the confidence to act on them.

Whilst NLP based, no prior knowledge of NLP is needed! Mark keeps the science in the background. And don't worry, he doesn't ask us to trust the powers of the Universe and have 'faith' that it will work. Mark's steps are practical and actionable, using real examples. Think Your Way to Success will supercharge your performance.

The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next ($8.77 $2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Lee Smolin, is the Nook Daily Find. Update: Now price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
In this illuminating book, the renowned theoretical physicist Lee Smolin argues that fundamental physics -- the search for the laws of nature -- losing its way. Ambitious ideas about extra dimensions, exotic particles, multiple universes, and strings have captured the public’s imagination -- and the imagination of experts. But these ideas have not been tested experimentally, and some, like string theory, seem to offer no possibility of being tested. Yet these speculations dominate the field, attracting the best talent and much of the funding and creating a climate in which emerging physicists are often penalized for pursuing other avenues. As Smolin points out, the situation threatens to impede the very progress of science. With clarity, passion, and authority, Smolin offers an unblinking assessment of the troubles that face modern physics -- and an encouraging view of where the search for the next big idea may lead.

Today's Deals 12/2

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is On My Honor ($1.99), by Marion Dane Bauer.

Book Description
"On your honor?" Joel's father said. "You won't go anywhere except the park?"

"On my honor," Joel repeated.

During a bicycle trip to the state park, Joel dares his best fried Tony to a swimming race in the dangerous Vermillion River. The boys have been warned never to go near the river, but Tony can't let Joel think he's scared. Both boys jump in.

When Joel reaches the sandbar, he turns and looks for Tony and finds that he has vanished. Joel is stunned. How can he face their parents and the terrible truth?

Grade Level: 4 and up

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Bloodletter's Daughter ($1.99), by Linda Lafferty, with the companion audiobook on sale for $3.99.

Book Description
Within the glittering Hapsburg court in Prague lurks a darkness of which no one dares speak…

In 1606, the city of Prague shines as a golden mecca of art and culture carefully cultivated by Emperor Rudolf II. But the emperor hides an ugly secret: His bastard son, Don Julius, is afflicted with a madness that pushes the young prince to unspeakable depravity. Desperate to stem his son’s growing number of scandals, the emperor exiles Don Julius to a remote corner of Bohemia where the young man is placed in the care of a bloodletter named Pichler. The bloodletter’s task: cure Don Julius of his madness by purging the vicious humors coursing through his veins.

When Pichler brings his daughter Marketa to assist him, she becomes the object of Don Julius’s frenzied—and dangerous—obsession. To him, she is the embodiment of the women pictured in the Coded Book of Wonder, a priceless manuscript from the imperial library that was the mad prince’s only link to sanity. As the prince descends further into the darkness of his mind, his acts become ever more desperate, as Marketa, both frightened and fascinated, can’t stay away.

Inspired by a real-life murder that threatened to topple the powerful Hapsburg dynasty, The Bloodletter’s Daughter is a dark and richly detailed saga of passion and revenge.

The Redemption of Alexander Seaton ($1.59 / £0.99 UK), by Shona Maclean, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition).

Book Description
It is 1626. On a stormy night in the Scottish town of Banff, the apothecary's assistant collapses in the street. The next morning he is found dead in the house of Alexander Seaton, a fallen minister, and reluctant, embittered teacher. Murder is suspected and when one of Alexander's few friends in the town is arrested, Alexander sets out to prove his innocence. Forced to confront his own demons, Alexander also has to contend with inflamed bigotry, a witch-hunt, and accusations of treacherous Catholic plotting.

An Amish Christmas: December in Lancaster County ($9.00 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), by Beth Wiseman, is the Nook Daily Find.

Book Description
December in Paradise.

A time of hope, redemption, and new life.

A Choice To Forgive by Beth Wiseman.
After Daniel disappeared that long-ago Christmas Eve, Lydia built a life with his brother. But now she's a widow and Daniel has reappeared, asking for forgiveness. But can she go back to her normal life with her long-lost love as her neighbor?

A Miracle for Miriam by Kathleen Fuller.
Seth is no longer the arrogant young man who shattered Miriam's confidence and broke her heart. But can he convince "plain" Miriam that she is truly beautiful to him?

One Child by Barbara Cameron.
The birth of one child forever changed the world two thousand years ago. On a snowy Christmas night in Lancaster County, another child changes the world for two very different couples.

Free Coffee at Starbucks

Starbucks has started their 12 Days of Gifting promotion today and you can get a free Grande espresso drink of your choice with any mug or tumbler purchase (I have two of their double walled stainless tumblers and they keep my coffee hot longer than anything else I have). If you can't make it today, be sure to try to stop by tomorrow, as they are having Buy One Get One Free on their Via (instant) coffee and Tazo Tea.

Free Audiobook - Three Short Stories by Charles Dickens

It's my favorite time of year and Tantor Media is starting off the gifting season by giving all of us the Audio + Ebook edition of Three Short Stories ($19.95 Audible), by Charles Dickens, narratted by Donada Peters, free on their website.

Book Description
Three of Charles Dickens's much-loved Christmas novellas — The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, and The Haunted Man — are brought to life in this classic audiobook collection.

About the author
Charles Dickens is known not only for his novels but also for his shorter works. Particularly notable are his five Christmas novellas, especially A Christmas Carol. In this genre, Dickens's stories had a powerful commercial impulse, for it became an annual tradition for the author to publish one in time for the holiday season between 1843 and 1847. Three Short Stories brings together a trio of the celebrated author's Christmas stories: The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, and The Haunted Man. All three lay emphasis on family love and the delights of home, but there is more to these stories than surface sentimentality. Each year, a whole nation would eagerly anticipate these tales, telling us much about the age Dickens lived in. And these stories never would have survived without roots and power.

Get the free audiobook and ebook from Tantor Media. Be sure to download the ZIP file to get the ebook (PDF, DRM-free).

Today's Deals 12/1

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Pines ($1.99), by Blake Crouch, with the companion audiobook only $1.99.

Book Description
Secret service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a clear mission: locate and recover two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase. The medical staff seems friendly enough, but something feels…off. As the days pass, Ethan’s investigation into the disappearance of his colleagues turns up more questions than answers. Why can’t he get any phone calls through to his wife and son in the outside world? Why doesn’t anyone believe he is who he says he is? And what is the purpose of the electrified fences surrounding the town? Are they meant to keep the residents in? Or something else out? Each step closer to the truth takes Ethan further from the world he thought he knew, from the man he thought he was, until he must face a horrifying fact—he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive. Intense and gripping, Pines is another masterful thriller from the mind of bestselling novelist Blake Crouch.

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is The Merrily Watkins series by Phil Rickman, the first four volumes for $1.59 / £0.99 apiece (US editions run about $6). Although not a part of the deal, you can also pick up the eighth in the series, The Remains of an Altar (Main/UK), for £1.80.

The Wine of Angels (Main/UK)

Merrily Watkins: late thirties, single mum, parish priest. Cosy? I don't think so...

The new vicar had never wanted a picture-postcard parish - or a huge and haunted vicarage. Nor had she wanted to walk into a dispute over a controversial play about a seventeenth-century clergyman accused of witchcraft... a story that certain long-established families would rather remained obscure.

But this is Ledwardine, steeped in cider and secrets...

A paradise of cobbled streets and timber-framed houses. And also - as Merrily Watkins and her teenage daughter, Jane, discover - a village where horrific murder is a tradition that spans centuries.

Midwinter of the Spirit (Main/UK)

'They'll follow you home... breathe down your phone at night... a prime target for every psychotic grinder of the dark satanic mills that ever sacrificed a chicken...'

Diocesan Exorcist: a job viewed by the Church of England with such extreme suspicion that they changed the name.

It's Deliverance Consultant now. Still, it seems, no job for a woman. But when the Bishop offers it to Merrily Watkins, parish priest and single mum, she's in no position to refuse.

It starts badly for Merrily and gets no easier. As an early winter slices through the old city of Hereford, a body is found in the River Wye, an ancient church is desecrated and signs of evil appear in the cathedral itself, where the tomb of a medieval saint lies in pieces.

A Crown of Lights (Main/UK)

'This receptacle was found in the wall beside the fireplace. It has been suggested you may wish to restore it to its proper place.'

When a redundant church is bought by a young pagan couple, the local fundamentalist minister reacts with fury. In an isolated community on the Welsh border, a modern witch hunt begins. Diocesan exorcist Merrily Watkins is expected to keep the lid on the cauldron... but what she finds out will seriously test her beliefs.

Also, there's the problem of the country solicitor who won't be parted from his dead wife. The mystery of five ancient churches all dedicated to St Michael, slayer of dragons.

And a killer with an old tradition to guard...

The Cure of Souls (Main/UK)

'Black poles against the pale night... like a site laid out for a mass-crucifixion.'

In Herefordshire's hop-growing country, where the river flows as dark as beer, a converted kiln is the scene of a savage murder. When the local vicar refuses to help its new owners cope with the aftermath, diocesan exorcist Merrily Watkins is sent in by the Bishop. Already involved in the case of a schoolgirl whose mother thinks she's possessed by evil, the hesitant Merrily is drawn into a deadly tangle of deceit, corruption and sexual menace as she uncovers the secrets of a village with a past as twisted as the hop-bines which once enclosed it.

Ivy and Bean ($3.74 Kindle / $5.69 Audio/Video Edition, $0.99 B&N), the first title in the Ivy and Bean children's series by Annie Barrows, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
The moment they saw each other, Bean and Ivy knew they wouldn't be friends. But when Bean plays a joke on her sister, Nancy, and has to hide, quick! Ivy comes to the rescue, proving that sometimes the best of friends are people never meant to like each other. Vibrant characters and lots of humor make this a charming - and addictive - introduction to a new series.

Grade Level: 1 and up

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Gooney Bird and the Room Mother ($1.99), by Lois Lowry and Middy Thomas (Illustrator).

Book Description
Gooney Bird Greene knows exactly where she likes to be: “right smack in the middle of everything.” Sure enough, her colorful fashion sense, exuberant personality, and “absolutely true” stories land her at the center of attention most of the time, but as Mrs. Pidgeon’s second grade class prepares for their Thanksgiving pageant, the lead role of Squanto is still up for grabs. And so is the role of Room Mother, but with each of the children’s parents already overloaded, there are no volunteers to bring cupcakes to their play. So Gooney Bird promises to find one—in exchange for the lead. There’s just one catch: the person she convinces to be Room Mother insists on remaining incognito. As the class struggles to decorate the mural, make costumes, and learn their songs for the play, the suspense builds: will the pageant be a success? And who is their mysterious Room Mother?

Two-time Newbery Award–winning author Lois Lowry has once again captured the eager energy of an elementary school classroom and the hilarious antics and anecdotes of its students, especially those of the irrepressible Gooney Bird Greene herself. In her second literary appearance, Gooney Bird is back with more “absolutely true” stories to tell, more tips for her fellow aspiring storytellers, and a few challenging vocabulary words to share, too.

Grade Level: 3 and up