Today's Deals 1/31

Today is the last day of Amazon's over 2,000 MP3 Albums for $5 sale.

It's also the last day for the current batch of $3.99 or less Kindle Books Sale and the last day of the month for Prime members to borrow a Prime Eligible book.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Poison Flower: A Jane Whitefield Novel ($1.99), by Thomas Perry. A Mysterious Press (Grove Atlantic) edition, it's well worth picking up for mystery fans that don't have it in their libraries.

Book Description
Poison Flower, the seventh novel in Thomas Perry’s celebrated Jane Whitefield series, opens as Jane spirits James Shelby, a man unjustly convicted of his wife’s murder, out of the heavily guarded criminal court building in downtown Los Angeles. But the price of Shelby’s freedom is high. Within minutes, men posing as police officers kidnap Jane and, when she tries to escape, shoot her.

Jane’s captors are employees of the man who really killed Shelby’s wife. He believes he won’t be safe until Shelby is dead, and his men will do anything to force Jane to reveal Shelby’s hiding place. But Jane endures their torment, and is willing to die rather than betray Shelby. Jane manages to escape but she is alone, wounded, thousands of miles from home with no money and no identification, hunted by the police as well as her captors. She must rejoin Shelby, reach his sister before the hunters do, and get them both to safety.

In this unrelenting, breathtaking cross-country battle, Jane survives by relying on the traditions of her Seneca ancestors. When at last Jane turns to fight, her enemies face a cunning and ferocious warrior who has one weapon that they don’t.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Unlocked: A Love Story ($1.99), by Karen Kingsbury [Zondervan], with the companion audiobook for $3.99.

Book Description
Before You Take a Stand ... You Got to Take a Chance. Holden Harris is an eighteen-year-old locked in a prison of autism. Despite his quiet ways and quirky behaviors, Holden is very happy and socially normal---on the inside, in a private world all his own. In reality, he is bullied at school by kids who only see that he is very different. Ella Reynolds is part of the 'in' crowd. A cheerleader and star of the high school drama production, her life seems perfect. When she catches Holden listening to her rehearse for the school play, she is drawn to him ... the way he is drawn to the music. Then, Ella makes a dramatic discovery---she and Holden were best friends as children. Frustrated by the way Holden is bullied, and horrified at the indifference of her peers, Ella decides to take a stand against the most privileged and popular kids at school. Including her boyfriend, Jake. Ella believes miracles can happen in the unlikeliest places, and that just maybe an entire community might celebrate from the sidelines. But will Holden's praying mother and the efforts of Ella and a cast of theater kids be enough to unlock the prison that contains Holden? This time, friendship, faith, and the power of a song must be strong enough to open the doors to the miracle Holden needs.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is The Girl of Fire and Thorns ($1.99), the first novel in Rae Carson's Fire and Thorns YA Fantasy series.

Book Description
Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.

Elisa is the chosen one. But she is also the younger of two princesses. The one who has never done anything remarkable, and can't see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king--a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs her to be the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies, seething with dark magic, are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's savior, and he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn't die young. Most of the chosen do.>

Deceived Wisdom: Why What You Thought Was Right Is Wrong ($1.56 / £0.99 UK), by David Bradley, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).

Book Description
Did your mother remind you to take off your coat when inside or you won’t ‘feel the benefit’ when you leave? Have you ever been informed that what you need to cool down is a nice cup of tea? And are you bored of being told that you have to let that red wine breathe first to improve its taste? If so then Deceived Wisdom is the book for you. Organised into easy-to-read standalone sections, it looks at the facts we all think we know and examines why we don’t know them at all. David Bradley’s clear and witty writing examines the science behind the statements to reveal the truth behind many popular myths.

Dixie Divas ($9.39 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Virginia Brown, is the Nook Daily Find. No price match (yet) on Kindle, but check your library on this one, as a different edition was free in Oct '10. I'm not sure what the difference in the two editions is, but both are Mobi format.

Book Description
The Divas are a martini-drinking crowd of aging belles in a historic Mississippi town filled with money and mansions. When the ex-husband of Diva Bitsy is found murdered, and Bitsy is accused, the Divas set out to solve the crime. Book one of acclaimed author Virginia Brown's cozy mystery series.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Bus Stops ($0.99), by Taro Gomi.

Book Description
Brilliantly rendered drawings show the everyday events that make cities come alive. A simple text details the bus's path and riders, while a subtext challenges children to find a variety of objects and people. Gomi's pictures are beautifully composed, and will appeal to children for their simplicity and to adults for their strong graphics.

Grade Level: P and up

Today's Deals 1/30

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions ($2.99), by Dan Ariely.

Book Description
In this revised and expanded edition of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Predictably Irrational, Duke University's behavioral economist Dan Ariely explores the hidden forces that shape our decisions, including some of the causes responsible for the current economic crisis. Bringing a much-needed dose of sophisticated psychological study to the realm of public policy, Ariely offers his own insights into the irrationalities of everyday life, the decisions that led us to the financial meltdown of 2008, and the general ways we get ourselves into trouble.

Blending common experiences and clever experiments with groundbreaking analysis, Ariely demonstrates how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities. As he explains, our reliance on standard economic theory to design personal, national, and global policies may, in fact, be dangerous. The mistakes that we make as individuals and institutions are not random, and they can aggregate in the market—with devastating results. In light of our current economic crisis, the consequences of these systematic and predictable mistakes have never been clearer.

Packed with new studies and thought-provoking responses to readers' questions and comments, this revised and expanded edition of Predictably Irrational will change the way we interact with the world—from the small decisions we make in our own lives to the individual and collective choices that shape our economy.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is The Bull Rider's Brother ($0.99), by Lynn Cahoon.

Book Description
On a girl's night out, Lizzie Hudson finds herself comparing her life as a single mom with her best friend's successful career when James Sullivan, the cowboy who got away, walks his Justin Ropers back into her life.

Seeing him shakes Lizzie's world but James is in for an even more eventful weekend: he learns he has a son. James has enough on his plate trying to manage his brother's bull riding career. Can he learn to redefine family and become part of Lizzie's life before she gives up on him and marries another?

Sensuality Level: Behind closed doors

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Waking the Moon ($1.99), by Elizabeth Hand [Open Road].

Book Description
The reign of men has ended in this gripping thriller from Elizabeth Hand, and the fate of the world is on the line

Sweeney Cassidy is the typical college freshman at the University of the Archangels and St. John the Divine in Washington, DC. She drinks. She parties. And she certainly doesn’t suspect that underneath its picturesque Gothic façade, the University is a haven for the Benandanti, a cult devoted to suppressing the powerful and destructive Moon Goddess. But everything is about to change as Sweeney learns that her two new best friends are the Goddess’s Chosen Ones.

Rich and engrossing, Waking the Moon is a seductive post-feminist thriller that delves into an ancient feud, where the real and magical collide, and one woman is forced to make a decision that will change the world.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Elizabeth Hand including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

Days Of Grace ($0.99 / £1.56 UK), by Catherine Hall, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $18.99).

Book Description
My memories of Grace never added up to how she really was. She was always impossible to pin down, dancing just out of my reach, exactly as she did when she was alive.

Nora was a girl of twelve when the war broke out and she was forced to join the train-loads of evacuees leaving London’s East End for rural Kent. Her surrogate family, the Rivers, are unlike anyone she has met before and she soon comes to love her new life with them, and in particular with twelve-year-old Grace. Over the next few years, as the dogfights rage ever more fiercely over head and it becomes clear that the Rivers marriage contains deep and irreparable cracks, Nora and Grace grow as close as sisters – though, to Nora’s confusion, even this is not quite as close as she would like …What happened next is a secret that will gnaw away at Nora for the rest of her life – a secret that she can only begin to tell when she is certain that she is approaching the end.

Beyond All Measure ($8.79 Kindle, $2.40 B&N), by Dorothy Love, is the Nook Daily Find [Thomas Nelson].

Book Description
Ada has loved deeply and lost dearly. But protecting her heart could mean missing the love of a lifetime.

Ada Wentworth may be young, but she's seen enough of life to know she can only rely on herself. Everyone including God it seems, has let her down. Having lost her family, her fiance, and her fortune, Ada journeys from Boston to Hickory Ridge, Tennessee, to take a position as a lady's companion. Though initially charmed by the pretty little Southern town tucked into the foothills of the great Smokies, Ada plans to stay only until she can earn enough to establish a millinery shop.

Her employer, Wyatt Caldwell, the local lumber mill owner, is easily the kindest, most attractive man Ada has met in Hickory Ridge. He believes Providence has brought her to town and into his life. But how, after so many betrayals, can she ever trust again? Besides, Wyatt has a dream of his own. A dream that will one day take him far from Hickory Ridge.

As the South struggles to heal in the aftermath of the Civil War, one woman must let go of her painful past in order to embrace God's plans for her. Can she trust Him, and Wyatt, with her future and her heart?

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is In a Heartbeat ($1.99), by Loretta Ellsworth.

Book Description
When a small mistake costs sixteen-year-old Eagan her life during a figure-skating competition, she leaves many things unreconciled, including her troubled relationship with her mother. From her vantage point in the afterlife, Eagan reflects back on her memories, and what she could have done differently, through her still-beating heart.

When fourteen-year-old Amelia learns she will be getting a heart transplant, her fear and guilt battle with her joy at this new chance at life. And afterwards when she starts to feel different-dreaming about figure skating, craving grape candy-her need to learn about her donor leads her to discover and explore Eagan's life, meeting her grieving loved ones and trying to bring the closure they all need to move on.

Told in alternating viewpoints, In a Heartbeat tells the emotional and compelling story of two girls sharing one heart.

Today's Deals 1/29

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! ($1.99), by Bob Barner.

Book Description
Pretty ladybugs, fluttering butterflies, creepy daddy longlegs, and roly-poly bugs are some of the familiar creatures featured in this whimsically illustrated insect album. Complete with an actual size chart and bug-o-meter listing fun facts about each bug,-áBugs! Bugs! Bugs!-áwill inform and entertain curious little bug lovers everywhere.

Grade Level: P and up

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Gaudy Night: The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries ($1.99), by Dorothy L. Sayers [Open Road].

Book Description
Back at Oxford for her reunion, Harriet Vane, Lord Peter’s beloved, finds herself in mortal danger

Since she graduated from Oxford’s Shrewsbury College, Harriet Vane has found fame by writing novels about ingenious murders. She also won infamy when she was accused of committing a murder herself. It took a timely intervention from the debonair Lord Peter Wimsey to save her from the gallows, and since then she has devoted her spare time to resisting his attempts to marry her. Putting aside her lingering shame from the trial, Harriet returns to Oxford for her college reunion with her head held high—only to find that her life is in danger once again.

The first poison-pen letter calls her a “dirty murderess,” and the ones that follow are no kinder. As the threats become more frightening, she calls on Lord Peter for help. Among the dons of Oxford lurks a killer, but it will take more than a superior education to match Lord Peter and the daring Harriet.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Dorothy L. Sayers including rare images from the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Heart of Lies ($1.99), the second novel in the Irish Angel series by Jill Marie Landis.

Book Description
Raised in a tribe of street urchins, Maddie Grande was taught to be a thief and beggar on the streets of New Orleans. But Maddie doesn't know her real name or where she came from.Raised by Dexter Grande, Maddie and her twin 'brothers' have recently left New Orleans and moved to the bayou. The twins are rarely there, but Maddie has come to love the swamp. She has learned to fish and trap and sell pelts at the local mercantile.Maddie longs to change her life but knows that her brothers will never give up their lawless ways. When they kidnap the daughter of a wealthy carpetbagger, the twins force Maddie to hide the precocious eight-year-old while they return to New Orleans to wait for notice of a reward. Pinkerton agent Tom Abbott is assigned to the kidnapping case in which Maddie has become an accomplice. In a journey that takes them to Baton Rouge, a mutual attraction becomes evident, but Tom and Maddie cannot trust each other. Will Maddie ever discover who she is? Will her real family ever find her? Will Maddie and Tom listen to their hearts? Or will they choose honor over love?

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Pure ($1.99), the first novel of the Pure Trilogy by Julianna Baggott.

Book Description
We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .
Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

Depth of Despair ($1.56 / £0.99 UK), by Bill Kitson, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $14.39).

Book Description
When two skeletons are discovered from Lamentation Tarn, talented detective Mike Nash and his team have little evidence with which to work, until a surprising discovery prompts them to contact law enforcement agencies in Eastern Europe. A joint taskforce is formed to uncover a criminal network involved in prostitution, drugs and human trafficking, but Nash's preoccupation with internal politics, as well as with an attractive Russian detective, proves to be a distraction. Finally, a young victim escapes the gang's clutches, providing Nash with much needed evidence. A search of the neighbouring tarn yields further corpses and reveals an even more heinous crime. Two more bloody encounters must occur before the criminals are brought to bitter justice.

A Mutiny in Time ($9.39 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the first novel in the Infinity Ring series by James Dashner, is the Nook Daily Find; I've reported the lower price to Amazon, in hopes of a price match on Kindle.

Book Description
Scholastic's next multi-platform mega-event begins here!

History is broken, and three kids must travel back in time to set it right!

When best friends Dak Smyth and Sera Froste stumble upon the secret of time travel -- a hand-held device known as the Infinity Ring -- they're swept up in a centuries-long secret war for the fate of mankind. Recruited by the Hystorians, a secret society that dates back to Aristotle, the kids learn that history has gone disastrously off course.

Now it's up to Dak, Sera, and teenage Hystorian-in-training Riq to travel back in time to fix the Great Breaks . . . and to save Dak's missing parents while they're at it. First stop: Spain, 1492, where a sailor named Christopher Columbus is about to be thrown overboard in a deadly mutiny!

Grade Level: 3 and up

Today's Deals 1/28

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is The Little Squeegy Bug ($1.99), by Bill Martin and Patrick Corrigan (Illustrator).

Book Description
Once upon a time there was a little squeegy bug. No one knew where he came from. He wasn’t an ant. He wasn’t a cricket. And he certainly wasn’t a flea. What was he? Follow along with lovable bug that tries to discover his true identity.

Grade Level: Pre-K and up

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Island ($1.99), by Richard Laymon.

Book Description
When eight people go on a cruise in the Bahamas, they plan to swim, sunbathe and relax. Getting shipwrecked is definitely not in the script. But after the yacht blows up they're stranded on a deserted island, and there's a maniac on the loose.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is The Reluctant Debutante ($0.99), the first novel in the Cotillion Ball series by Becky Lower.

Book Description
In 1855 New York, Ginger Fitzpatrick has absolutely no interest in taking part in the newest rage in America—the Cotillion Ball. Instead, Ginger would rather be rallying for women’s rights—at least until she meets her brother’s best friend from St. Louis, a dark mysterious man named Joseph Lafontaine, who ignites her passion and makes her question if love and marriage is such a ridiculous notion after all.

What she and the rest of New York’s high society don’t realize is that Joseph is half Ojibwa Indian, and therefore, totally unsuitable for marriage to a fine, cultured young lady.

In this Edith Wharton-meets-Julia Quinn tale, a young woman rebels against high society and opts for a life in which she creates her own set of rules.

Sensuality Level: Sensual

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is The Knife of Never Letting Go ($1.99), the first title in the Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness.

Book Description
Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him -- something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.

Mr Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade ($1.56 / £0.99 UK), by Edward Bunker, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).

Book Description
Edward Bunker's life is beyond the imaginings of most fiction writers. He was born in Hollywood, California, the son of a stagehand and Busby Berkeley chorus girl, whose early divorce propelled him into a series of boarding homes and military schools. From the age of five he repeatedly ran away, roaming the city streets at night. A proud character, combined with an IQ of 152, resulted in a series of altercations with the authorities. He became the youngest ever inmate of San Quentin at the age of seventeen, and there he learned survival skills and faced down the toughest prisoners in the system.

He was befriended by Mrs Louise Wallis, a former star of the silent screen and wife of movie mogul, Hal Wallis, who produced films starring Bogart, Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and George Raft. She introduced Bunker to her circle of friends, including Jack Dempsey, Tennessee Williams, Aldous Huxley and William Randolph Hearst, whose guest he was at San Simeon. A parole violation resulted in a spell crossing America as a fugitive on the FBI's most wanted list. His eventual capture led to Folsom prison. Encouraged by the example of Dostoevsky, Cervantes and Caryl Chessman, and by the kindness of Mrs Wallis, he determined to write his way out of prison.

Bunker's first published novel, No Beast So Fierce, viewed by many including Quentin Tarantino as the finest crime novel ever written, changed his fortunes. It was filmed as Straight Time, starring Dustin Hoffman. He has written three other novels, The Animal Factory, Little Boy Blue and Dog Eat Dog, (all published by No Exit) admired by writers as diverse as William Styron and James Ellroy. He received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of Runaway Train, and has appeared in a score of films, most notably his legendary role as Mr Blue in Reservoir Dogs. This blistering narrative is a memoir like no other.

Taking Flight!: Master the DISC Styles to Transform Your Career, Your Relationships...Your Life ($12.09 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Merrick Rosenberg and Daniel Silvert, is the Nook Daily Find.

Book Description
Use DISC to discover profound hidden patterns of human behavioral style, gain deeper self-awareness, maximize your personal strengths, and influence others more powerfully than ever before! Taking Flight illuminates the proven DISC four-style model of human behavior, and shows how to use it to become a far more effective leader, salesperson, or teacher; revitalize your career; build deeper personal relationships; fully leverage your natural gifts, and empower everyone around you. Drawing on their immense experience coaching executives and training world-class organizations, Merrick Rosenberg and Daniel Silvert introduce DISC through a fable that's quick, fun, and easy-to-understand. You'll discover why you "click" with some people and "clank" with others, and what really drives your decisions and actions. You'll learn exactly how to identify others' behavioral styles and choose the best ways to interact with them. You'll walk through creating a personal action plan for improvement -- and then systematically making the most of your strengths, working around your weaknesses, and supercharging your personal performance! If you're already familiar with DISC, this book will help you use it more effectively than ever before. If you're new to DISC, it will change your life -- just as it has for thousands before you!

Late Night Free iTunes Games

Gesundheit!, by Revolutionary Concepts, is free tonight in the iTunes store.

Book Description
★ Runner-Up iPad Game of The Year - Apple Europe Best of 2011
★ GOTY Nominee & Winner Best Mobile Puzzle Game of the Year by IGN!
★ Time Magazine Top 25 iPad Games of All Time

You can also pick up 40 or so free games from EnsenaSoft, as part of a celebration of the release of their newest Mahjong game. Besides some kid's learning games, there is Mahjong, Backgammon, Sudoku for those wanting adult learning games and pure games such as Raging Pigs and Red Baron's Revenge. Click to see their entire catalog for the iPad or iPod, then click the "free" button next to the names of the games you want (skip the ones with 'free' in the title and grab the full versions instead - right this minute, they are also free, but that is likely to change after midnight).