Affiliate Links for "arcadata"- July 2012

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The Lost Constitution by William Martin from Macmillan/Forge Books is $2.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

Rare-book expert Peter Fallon and his girlfriend, Evangeline, the main characters from Back Bay and Harvard Yard, are back for another treasure hunt through time. They have learned of an early, annotated draft of the Constitution, stolen and smuggled out of Philadelphia. The draft's marginal notes spell out, in shocking detail, the Founders' unequivocal intentions---the unmistakable meaning of the Bill of Rights. Peddled and purloined, trafficked and concealed for over two centuries, the lost Constitution could forever change America's history---and its future.

Moreover, Congress is already at war, fighting tooth and claw over the eternally contentious Bill of Rights. When word gets out of the lost draft's existence, it launches a frenzied search, as both sides of the partisan machine believe it will reinforce their arguments. While battling politicians from both sides of the debate, Peter and Evangeline must get to the document first, because they know that if the wrong people find it, they will burn it, stripping the nation of its constitutional moorings.

The search takes Peter and Evangeline into the rich history of America and New England, from Shay's Rebellion to the birth of the American industrial revolution to the march of the legendary 20th Maine in the Civil War.

Past and present play off one another as the search for the draft heats up. It finally boils over on the first night of the World Series, at that Mecca of New England, Boston's fabled Fenway Park, and the truth is finally revealed.…

At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

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The Taken: Celestial Blues by Vicki Pettersson from Harper Voyager is $2.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

Griffin Shaw used to be a PI, but that was back when gumshoes hoofed the streets . . . and he was still alive. Fifty years later, he's an angel, but that doesn't make him a saint. One small mistake has altered fate, and now he's been dumped back onto the mortal mudflat to collect another soul—Katherine "Kit" Craig, a journalist whose latest investigation is about to get her clipped.

Bucking heavenly orders, Grif refuses to let the sable-haired siren come to harm. Besides, protecting her offers a chance to solve the mystery of his own unsolved murder—and dole out some overdue payback for the death of his beloved wife, Evie.

Joining forces, Kit and Grif's search for answers leads beyond the blinding lights of the Strip into the dark heart of an evil conspiracy. But a ruthless killer determined to destroy them isn't Grif's biggest threat. His growing attraction to Kit could cost them both their lives, along with the answer to the haunting question of his long afterlife . .

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The Six Sisters series by MC Beaton from Robinson (£0.99 Each) is the Amazon UK Kindle Deal of the Day (July 16) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

The Six Sisters is a witty Regency Romance series by MC Beaton, featuring the Armitage sisters--the daughters of an impecunious country vicar. The family are determined that the sisters should marry well, restoring the family fortunes. Each of the young women has their own idea of where love should lead them.

Moon Mater (Cars Toons) by Disney Book Group ($1.99) is the NOOK Daily Find for Families (July 16)

Product Description

Mater is the first tow truck on the moon! When an auto-naut gets stranded on his lunar mission, it's up to Mater to venture into space and tow him back to Earth (with a little help from his friend Lightning McQueen, of course).

Damage by Josephine Hart from Open Road ($1.99) is the Kindle Deal of the Day (July 16) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

The unnamed narrator of this gripping masterpiece is a man who appears to have everything: wealth, a beautiful wife and children, and a prestigious political career in Parliament. But his life lacks passion, and his aching emptiness drives him to an all-consuming, and ultimately catastrophic, relationship with his son’s fiancée.

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The Devil of Nanking: A Novel by Mo Hayder from Grove Press is $2.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

With the redolent atmosphere of Ian Rankin and the spine-chilling characters of Thomas Harris, Mo Hayder's The Devil of Nanking, takes the reader on an electrifying literary ride from the palatial apartments of yakuza kingpins to deep inside the secret history of one of the twentieth century's most brutal events: the Nanking Massacre.

A young Englishwoman obsessed with an indecipherable past, Grey comes to Tokyo seeking a lost piece of film footage of the notorious 1937 Nanking Massacre, footage some say never existed. Only one man can help Grey. A survivor of the massacre, he is now a visiting professor at a university in Tokyo. But he will have nothing to do with her.

So Grey accepts a job in an upmarket nightspot, where a certain gangster may be the key to gaining the professor's trust. An old man in a wheelchair surrounded by a terrifying entourage, the gangster is rumored to rely on a mysterious elixir for his continued health.

Taut, gritty, sexy, and harrowing, The Devil of Nanking is an incomparable literary thriller set in one of the world's most fascinating cities-Tokyo-from an internationally best-selling author.

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Don't Look Back (Inspector Sejer) by Karin Fossum from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is $2.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

Don't Look Back heralds the arrival of an exotic new crime series featuring Inspector Sejer, a smart and enigmatic hero, tough but fair. The setting is a small, idyllic village at the foot of Norway's Kollen Mountain, where neighbors know neighbors and children play happily in the streets. But when the body of a teenage girl is found by the lake at the mountaintop, the town's tranquillity is shattered forever. Annie was strong, intelligent, and loved by everyone. What went so terribly wrong? Doggedly, yet subtly, Inspector Sejer uncovers layer upon layer of distrust and lies beneath the town's seemingly perfect facade.

Critically acclaimed across Europe, Karin Fossum's Inspector Sejer novels are masterfully constructed, psychologically convincing, and compulsively readable, and are now available in the United States for the first time.

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Warped Passages by Lisa Randall from HarperCollins is $1.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

The universe has many secrets. It may hide additional dimensions of space other than the familier three we recognize. There might even be another universe adjacent to ours, invisible and unattainable . . . for now.

Warped Passages is a brilliantly readable and altogether exhilarating journey that tracks the arc of discovery from early twentieth-century physics to the razor's edge of modern scientific theory. One of the world's leading theoretical physicists, Lisa Randall provides astonishing scientific possibilities that, until recently, were restricted to the realm of science fiction. Unraveling the twisted threads of the most current debates on relativity, quantum mechanics, and gravity, she explores some of the most fundamental questions posed by Nature&#8212taking us into the warped, hidden dimensions underpinning the universe we live in, demystifying the science of the myriad worlds that may exist just beyond our own.

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The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (P.S.) by Matt Ridley from HarperCollins is $1.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

Life is getting better—and at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down — all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people’s lives as never before. The pessimists who dominate public discourse insist that we will soon reach a turning point and things will start to get worse. But they have been saying this for two hundred years.

Yet Matt Ridley does more than describe how things are getting better. He explains why. Prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else. The habit of exchange and specialization—which started more than 100,000 years ago—has created a collective brain that sets human living standards on a rising trend. The mutual dependence, trust, and sharing that result are causes for hope, not despair.

This bold book covers the entire sweep of human history, from the Stone Age to the Internet, from the stagnation of the Ming empire to the invention of the steam engine, from the population explosion to the likely consequences of climate change. It ends with a confident assertion that thanks to the ceaseless capacity of the human race for innovative change, and despite inevitable disasters along the way, the twenty-first century will see both human prosperity and natural biodiversity enhanced. Acute, refreshing, and revelatory, The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.

Monkey Girl by Edward Humes from HarperCollins is $1.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

What should we teach our children about where we come from?
Is evolution a lie or good science?
Is it incompatible with faith?
Have scientists really detected evidence of a creator in nature?

From bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward Humes comes a dramatic story of faith, science, and courage unlike any since the famous Scopes Monkey Trial. Monkey Girl takes you behind the scenes of the recent war on evolution in Dover, Pennsylvania, when the town's school board decision to confront the controversy head-on thrust its students, then the entire community, onto the front lines of America's culture wars. Told from the perspectives of all sides of the battle, it is a riveting true story about an epic court case on the teaching of "intelligent design," and what happens when science and religion collide.

The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century by Peter Watson from HarperCollins is $1.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

From Freud to Babbitt, from Animal Farm to Sartre to the Great Society, from the Theory of Relativity to counterculture to Kosovo, The Modern Mind is encyclopedic, covering the major writers, artists, scientists, and philosophers who produced the ideas by which we live. Peter Watson has produced a fluent and engaging narrative of the intellectual tradition of the twentieth century, and the men and women who created it.

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The Science of Superstition: How the Developing Brain Creates Supernatural Beliefs by Bruce M. Hood from HarperCollins is $1.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

The majority of the world's population is religious or believes in supernatural phenomena. In the United States, nine out of every ten adults believe in God, and a recent Gallup poll found that about three out of four Americans believe in some form of telepathy, déjà vu, ghosts, or past lives. Where does such supernatural thinking come from? Are we indoctrinated by our parents, churches, and media, or do such beliefs originate somewhere else? In SuperSense, award-winning cognitive scientist Bruce M. Hood reveals the science behind our beliefs in the supernatural.

Superstitions are common. Many of us cross our fingers, knock on wood, step around black cats, and avoid walking under ladders. John McEnroe refused to step on the white lines of a tennis court between points. Wade Boggs insisted on eating a chicken dinner before every Boston Red Sox game. President Barack Obama played a game of basketball the morning of his victory in the Iowa primary and continued the tradition on every subsequent election day.

Supernatural thinking includes loftier beliefs as well, such as the sentimental value we place on photos of loved ones, wedding rings, and teddy bears. It also includes spiritual beliefs and the hope for an afterlife. But in this modern, scientific age, why do we hold on to these behaviors and beliefs?

It turns out that belief in things beyond what is rational or natural is common to humans and appears very early in childhood. In fact, according to Hood, this "super sense" is something we're born with to develop and is essential to the way we learn to understand the world. We couldn't live without it!

Our minds are designed from the very start to think there are unseen patterns, forces, and essences inhabiting the world, and it is unlikely that any effort to get rid of supernatural beliefs, or the superstitious behaviors that accompany them, will be successful. These common beliefs and sacred values are essential in binding us together as a society because they help us to see ourselves connected to each other at a deeper level.

The Field by Lynne McTaggart from HarperCollins is $1.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

In this groundbreaking classic, investigative journalist Lynne McTaggart reveals a radical new paradigm—that the human mind and body are not separate from their environment but a packet of pulsating power constantly interacting with this vast energy sea, and that consciousness may be central in shaping our world. The Field is a highly readable scientific detective story presenting a stunning picture of an interconnected universe and a new scientific theory that makes sense of supernatural phenomena. Documented by distinguished sources, The Field is a book of hope and inspiration for today's world.

Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Kathryn Schulz from HarperCollins is $1.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

To err is human. Yet most of us go through life assuming (and sometimes insisting) that we are right about nearly everything, from the origins of the universe to how to load the dishwasher. If being wrong is so natural, why are we all so bad at imagining that our beliefs could be mistaken, and why do we react to our errors with surprise, denial, defensiveness, and shame?

In Being Wrong, journalist Kathryn Schulz explores why we find it so gratifying to be right and so maddening to be mistaken, and how this attitude toward error corrodes relationships—whether between family members, colleagues, neighbors, or nations. Along the way, she takes us on a fascinating tour of human fallibility, from wrongful convictions to no-fault divorce; medical mistakes to misadventures at sea; failed prophecies to false memories; "I told you so!" to "Mistakes were made." Drawing on thinkers as varied as Augustine, Darwin, Freud, Gertrude Stein, Alan Greenspan, and Groucho Marx, she proposes a new way of looking at wrongness. In this view, error is both a given and a gift—one that can transform our worldviews, our relationships, and, most profoundly, ourselves.

In the end, Being Wrong is not just an account of human error but a tribute to human creativity—the way we generate and revise our beliefs about ourselves and the world. At a moment when economic, political, and religious dogmatism increasingly divide us, Schulz explores with uncommon humor and eloquence the seduction of certainty and the crises occasioned by error. A brilliant debut from a new voice in nonfiction, this book calls on us to ask one of life's most challenging questions: what if I'm wrong?

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by arcadata

The Six Sisters series by MC Beaton from Robinson (£0.99 Each) is the Amazon UK Kindle Deal of the Day (July 16) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

This series was originally written under the name "Marion Chesney" and was quite good if you like lighthearted traditional regencies

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Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory (P.S.) by Stacy Horn from HarperCollins is $1.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

From The Sixth Sense to Medium, Ghost Whisperer to Ghost Hunters, the paranormal stirs heated debate, spawning millions of believers and skeptics alike. Nearly half of us say we believe in ghosts, and two-thirds of us believe in life after death.

What would you make of rain barrels that refill themselves? Psychic horses? Mind-reading Cold War spies? For a group of scientists at the Duke Parapsychology Lab under the leadership of Dr. J. B. Rhine—considered the Einstein of the paranormal—such mysteries demanded further investigation. From 1930 to 1980, these dedicated men and women attempted to test the bizarre, the frightening, and the unexplainable against the rigors of science, ultimately finding proof that the human mind possesses telepathic powers.

Seeing Further: The Story of Science and the Royal Society by Bill Bryson from HarperCollins is $1.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

This revised e-book features all photographs, designed in beautiful full-color.

Edited and introduced by Bill Bryson, with original contributions from "a glittering array of scientific writing talent" (Sunday Observer) including Richard Dawkins, Margaret Atwood, Richard Holmes, Martin Rees, Richard Fortey, Steve Jones, James Gleick, and Neal Stephenson, among others, this incomparable book tells the spectacular story of science and the international Royal Society, from 1660 to the present. Seeing Further is also gorgeously illustrated with photographs, documents, and treasures from the Society's exclusive archives.

On a damp weeknight in November three hundred and fifty years ago, a dozen men gathered in London. After hearing an obscure twenty-eight-year-old named Christopher Wren lecture on the wonders of astronomy, his rapt audience was moved to create a society to promote the accumulation of useful—and fascinating—knowledge. At that, the Royal Society was born, and with it, modern science.

Since then, the Royal Society has pioneered global scientific exploration and discovery. Its members have split the atom, discovered the double helix and the electron, and given us the computer and the World Wide Web. Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, Joseph Banks, Humphry Davy, John Locke, Alexander Fleming, Stephen Hawking—all have been fellows. Bill Bryson's favorite fellow is the Reverend Thomas Bayes, a brilliant mathematician who devised Bayes' theorem. Its complexity meant that it had little practical use in Bayes' own lifetime, but today his theorem is used for weather forecasting, astrophysics, and even stock-market analysis. A milestone in mathematical history, it exists only because the Royal Society decided to preserve it—just in case.

Truly global in its outlook, the Royal Society now is credited with creating modern science. Seeing Further is an unprecedented celebration of its history and the power of ideas, bringing together the very best of science writing.

You Are Here: A Portable History of the Universe by Christopher Potter from HarperCollins is $1.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

You Are Here is a dazzling exploration of the universe and our relationship to it, as seen through the lens of today's most cutting-edge scientific thinking. Here, for the first time in a single span, is the life of the universe, from quarks to galaxy superclusters and from slime to Homo sapiens. Christopher Potter brilliantly tells the story of how something evolved from nothing and how something became everything; how the universe was once a moment of perfect symmetry and is now 13.7 billion years of history. With wisdom and wonder, Potter traverses the cosmos from its conception to its eventual end—while exploring everything in between.

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The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today by Rob Dunn from HarperCollins is $1.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

A biologist shows the influence of wild species on our well-being and the world and how nature still clings to us—and always will.

We evolved in a wilderness of parasites, mutualists, and pathogens, but we no longer see ourselves as being part of nature and the broader community of life. In the name of progress and clean living, we scrub much of nature off our bodies and try to remove whole kinds of life—parasites, bacteria, mutualists, and predators—to allow ourselves to live free of wild danger. Nature, in this new world, is the landscape outside, a kind of living painting that is pleasant to contemplate but nice to have escaped.

The truth, though, according to biologist Rob Dunn, is that while "clean living" has benefited us in some ways, it has also made us sicker in others. We are trapped in bodies that evolved to deal with the dependable presence of hundreds of other species. As Dunn reveals, our modern disconnect from the web of life has resulted in unprecedented effects that immunologists, evolutionary biologists, psychologists, and other scientists are only beginning to understand. Diabetes, autism, allergies, many anxiety disorders, autoimmune diseases, and even tooth, jaw, and vision problems are increasingly plaguing bodies that have been removed from the ecological context in which they existed for millennia.

In this eye-opening, thoroughly researched, and well-reasoned book, Dunn considers the crossroads at which we find ourselves. Through the stories of visionaries, Dunn argues that we can create a richer nature, one in which we choose to surround ourselves with species that benefit us, not just those that, despite us, survive.

What Is Your Dangerous Idea? by John Brockman from HarperCollins is $1.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

From Copernicus to Darwin, to current-day thinkers, scientists have always promoted theories and unveiled discoveries that challenge everything society holds dear; ideas with both positive and dire consequences. Many thoughts that resonate today are dangerous not because they are assumed to be false, but because they might turn out to be true.

What do the world's leading scientists and thinkers consider to be their most dangerous idea? Through the leading online forum Edge (www.edge.org), the call went out, and this compelling and easily digestible volume collects the answers. From using medication to permanently alter our personalities to contemplating a universe in which we are utterly alone, to the idea that the universe might be fundamentally inexplicable, What Is Your Dangerous Idea? takes an unflinching look at the daring, breathtaking, sometimes terrifying thoughts that could forever alter our world and the way we live in it.

Love and Sex with Robots by David Levy from HarperCollins is $1.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

Love, marriage, and sex with robots? Not in a million years? Maybe a whole lot sooner!

A leading expert in artificial intelligence, David Levy argues that the entities we once deemed cold and mechanical will soon become the objects of real companionship and human desire. He shows how automata have evolved and how human interactions with technology have changed over the years. Levy explores many aspects of human relationships—the reasons we fall in love, why we form emotional attachments to animals and virtual pets, and why these same attachments could extend to love for robots. Levy also examines how society's ideas about what constitutes normal sex have changed—and will continue to change—as sexual technology becomes increasingly sophisticated.

Shocking, eye-opening, provocative, and utterly convincing, Love and Sex with Robots is compelling reading for anyone with an open mind.

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Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure by Richard E. Byrd from Island Press is $3.99 (US Kindle)

Book Description

When Admiral Richard E. Byrd set out on his second Antarctic expedition in 1934, he was already an international hero for having piloted the first flights over the North and South Poles. His plan for this latest adventure was to spend six months alone near the bottom of the world, gathering weather data and indulging his desire “to taste peace and quiet long enough to know how good they really are.” But early on things went terribly wrong. Isolated in the pervasive polar night with no hope of release until spring, Byrd began suffering inexplicable symptoms of mental and physical illness. By the time he discovered that carbon monoxide from a defective stovepipe was poisoning him, Byrd was already engaged in a monumental struggle to save his life and preserve his sanity.

When Alone was first published in 1938, it became an enormous bestseller. This edition keeps alive Byrd’s unforgettable narrative for new generations of readers.

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Fatal Tango by Wolfram Fleischhauer from AmazonCrossing (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Deal of the Day (July 17) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Giulietta Battin is a ballet dancer with the Staatsoper Berlin, but when she decides to explore a new style of music--the tango--life as she knows it changes forever. Her journey takes her to South America where the secrets of a dark past are uncovered.

Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes from HarperCollins ($1.99) is the NOOK Daily Find (July 17)

Product Description

Discover a new voice in suspense with this thrilling tale of obsession. Four years ago, Catherine Bailey lived the big city single life, searching for love alongside her best girlfriends. Today, she's changed her name, moved to a new city, and trusts no one. What happened to drive her to this dark place? Who is it she fears so much? And is he really back after all this time?

* FYI, Amazon has matched this Nook deal: Into the Darkest Corner also $3.99

A Topps League Story: Book One: Jinxed! by Kurtis Scaletta from Harry N Abrams ($1.99) is the NOOK Daily Find for Families (July 17)

Product Description
With the success of Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain, comes an adaptation for children. Meet Enzo, a loveable mutt who knows he is quite like other dogs. Enzo loves to run, and narrates this tale employing racing as a metaphor for life.

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ($1.99) is the Kindle Deal of the Day (July 17) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Chad finally lands his summer dream job as a batboy for the Pine City Porcupines, but it turns out the job comes with a few obstacles. First off, there is another batboy, who doesn't like baseball, the new porcupine mascot is terrorizing the field, and to top it all off Chad's favorite player thinks he's jinxed. It's gonna be an interesting season.

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The World's Greatest Idea by John Farndon from Icon Books (£0.99) is the Amazon UK Kindle Deal of the Day (July 18) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

John Farndon explores 50 of mankind's most important ideas, ranging from science and technology to romance and revolution. Each chapter is a fascinating discovery of an individual idea, as Farndon attempts to uncover the most important of all.

Solomon's Oak by Jo-Ann Mapson from Bloomsbury USA ($2.99) is the NOOK Daily Find (July 18)

Product Description

Solomon's Oak is a mighty white oak growing in California where no oak should grow. Under its branches, three broken souls -- a widow, still reeling from her husband's death; an angry teenager fleeing foster care; a former police offiicer haunted by old wounds -- will meet and form unlikely bonds in this tender novel from Jo-Ann Mapson.

Just Big Enough (Little Critter Series) by Mercer Mayer from HarperCollins ($1.99) is the NOOK Daily Find for Families (July 18)

Product Description
Little Critter wants to grow up -- and quickly. So he builds a growing machine and eats (almost) all of his vegetables, but doesn't grow an inch. What's a critter to do? Just when things seem hopeless, Little Critter's Grandpa shows him that being big doesn't always mean being the best.

The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan from Hyperion ($1.99) is the Kindle Deal of the Day (July 18) *Wait for price to reflect discount before 1-clicking

Product Description

Kelly Corrigan was happily living within what she calls the Middle Place--“that sliver of time when parenthood and childhood overlap”--when she, and her beloved father, received a cancer diagnosis. Corrigan's engaging, honest exploration of this challenging time chronicles a woman who finally takes the leap and grows up.

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FYI, Amazon has matched the Nook deal:

Solomon's Oak by Jo-Ann Mapson also $2.99